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Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village (SPOILER FREE)

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    Professor Layton and the Mysterious Village (SPOILER FREE)

    It is very very hard to explain what this game is about without causing spoilers to the puzzles and the story but i will do my best.

    First of all the presentation is fantastic, video sequences link the chapters and all characters talk their parts which is rare for a DS title. This adds to the feel of the game, it is clear that the developer had put a lot of thought and time, in the the way the characters talk and how the game looks. While not pushing the DS graphicly it does look very crisp and clean and is very well presented.

    For those of you that do not know the game is a sort of Brain Training Discworld cross.

    You walk round a town and point and click on people and objects to interact. The main aim is to find the golden apple, as you can imagine you need information and you get sub stories going on that you usually need to complete, in order to advance your quest. However to gain information from people, you need to solve their puzzle. These puzzles range from easy to very hard and take many forms. Most of the ones i have come across have been familiar brain teasers with modifications. There is logic puzzles, matchstick puzzles, numerical puzzles, observation puzzles and a couple of other types.

    Before you play a puzzle you are told what the puzzle is worth so maybe 40. Each time you answer, the value of that puzzle drops should you answer incorrectly. If you are having trouble with a puzzle, you can buy some hints useing one of the many hint coins you will pick up about town. Hints come in the forms of 3 levels and do not impact on the value of the puzzle, unless you have an incorrect guess. The first hint will usually tell you where to focus your effort. The second will give maybe a bit of extra information and the third usually ends up almost spelling out the answer. Each level costs 1 coin but you only get hint 2 after hint 1 and so on.

    The puzzles are very well designed most have you thinking it is a simple answer, but this usually means your overlooking a small bit of information. The best way to explain the puzzles, would be to put one up but i don't think anybody would want that.

    The game flows very well, so far i have not been stuck on what to do or where to go, the only thing that slows me up is the puzzles.

    I can't stress how good this game is, it seams like the game has 150 puzzles with hidden extras for when your finished.

    I guess i have not done a good job of explaining the game and what i think but i don't want to spoil the experience for anybody getting the game.

    #2
    Been enjoying this too, the voice acting is extremely good especially layton's voice. The presentation & graphics are simply wonderful. The puzzles are logical but certain ones really bend that brain, some of them took me ages to crack. Upto puzzle 45 but i have stopped for a while as too many in one sitting & i find my brain hurts.

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      #3
      I've been loving this game and I have no idea what this is based on. It's got a compelling story with some of the best logic puzzles i've ever set my brain upon. Just reached the Puzzle 40 mark and I love it.

      I bought this purely on recommendation on websites over the last week and I encourage anyone else to do so!

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        #4
        It's Brain Training with extremely loose RPG connotations, IMO. Really good fun, even the mockney accents aren't completely groansome either.

        "Ere's my answar!"

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          #5
          I was doing the clock puzzle for like 10 mins with a bit of paper and a pen - still can't get it right. Livid

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            #6
            That stumped me as well, it's one of those games that even when you take a break from it, the puzzle is still working it's way around the ol' grey matter.

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              #7
              So the game offers enough challenge then? That's great to know.
              I've been interested in this but wanted to know more about the difficulty level first before purchasing it. Sounds like it's worth getting.

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                #8
                Completed with 111 puzzled solved/3740 Picarats and 105 Hint coins (used about 6.. 3 on just one particularly puzzle I couldn't get my head around!).. the majority were very simple to get on the first go, or could be done on the second attempt by deduction or simply paying more attention to the wording of the question.

                I'd compare it to Phoenix Wright, in that it is very much linear/set story to follow with searching and solving puzzles along the way, although most of the puzzles don't have anything to do with the story in this, so you don't necessarily have to solve them in order to progress. I thought the story wasn't particularly deep, and you don't really get to know the characters very well (compared to Phoenix Wright) but there's an interesting conclusion.

                In total there seem to be 135 puzzles..

                120 puzzles in the main game, plus 15 in the bonus section which become available as you solve mysteries (collect all gizmos, complete the picture/inn, etc) and you can access them before completing the main game. btw, you can go back and solve puzzles/look for hidden ones in the main game after completion so you don't need to worry about missing anything there.



                There's also some very nice extras for when you complete it..

                read character profiles, view artwork, listen to all of the music and hear all of the Professor and Luke's phrases again! Best of all, you can also rewatch all the animated scenes. You apparently unlock more of these as you accumulate Picarats, but it seems I had enough for them already. There's also another option called "The Hidden Door" which requires a password to be found in the sequel when it comes out.. possibly more bonus puzzles?

                Last edited by r3z; 13-02-2008, 10:51.

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                  #9
                  Enjoying it and I'd recommend it, though the phrasing on some of the puzzles is pretty poor - either that or my brain's just flat out not working properly because there've been several so far where I've ended up using two or even three hint coins only to think "well, if that was a little less bloody obtuse I might have actually understood it first thing". Plus it's a pretty game, but nowhere near as lush as, say, the Mana games, or as coherent as It's A Wonderful World - the backgrounds are fairly sparse and all the character designs so far other than Layton and his assistant have been awful.

                  Other than that, great stuff. Really kept me from going mad during a sixteen-hour shift at work the other day, too.

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                    #10
                    For quite a few of the puzzles the vagueness/ambiguity of the wording is the puzzle itself. I thought there was something lost in translation on a couple of them, and particularly the phrase "on the lam" I thought was weird although it didn't affect the puzzle, until I looked it up and found out it is an American saying (I thought Layton was s'posed to be British, what with the dodgy accents and English references!).

                    I've now completed the 120 puzzles of the main game, but must have missed something as I haven't unlocked all of the bonus puzzles

                    missing about 6 pieces to complete the room items.. ?

                    . Was really stumped on a couple of the last ones so used up a few more coins, however hint coins are really not in short supply and after completing the gizmos section I found that..

                    you get some help in "sniffing" out hint coins.. possibly hidden puzzles also

                    .

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                      #11
                      No, I got that it was the point - at least on some of them - it just seemed a tad contrived, even stupid in some instances. "If I twist this insultingly simple statement into a form no living human being would ever use in normal conversation, can you guess what it is I'm actually saying?" Didn't seem particularly witty or clever. But I'm still enjoying the game; there are plenty of other puzzles where I do feel all "Ah, I see now!" after solving one.

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                        #12
                        Until I read this thread i thought the game implemented some kind of amazing technology due to the fact that when it asks for your name at the beggining (my name is Luke) it seemd to perfectly pronounce my name. man, do i feel stupid now!

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                          #13
                          I've done 20 puzzles and it's really everything I hoped it'd be, apart from one thing...


                          The matchstick puzzle of the dog was ridiculous. It was a bit morbid, and I fail to see how you'd come to the solution without hints, it's really quite obscure. There's a lot of these matchstick puzzles too, it feels like.



                          I love the riddles though

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                            #14
                            I spend ages on the simplest of puzzles, like

                            the roped off pig-sty one

                            and less time on the ones that require a bit more thought.

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by toythatkills View Post
                              I've done 20 puzzles and it's really everything I hoped it'd be, apart from one thing...


                              The matchstick puzzle of the dog was ridiculous. It was a bit morbid, and I fail to see how you'd come to the solution without hints, it's really quite obscure. There's a lot of these matchstick puzzles too, it feels like.



                              I love the riddles though
                              Yep - Ended up having to use 3 hints on that one as it just made no sense to me at all.

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