I'll admit to being a bit of a fiend for puzzles. When a gamer hears the word "puzzle", the first thing that usually comes to mind is the by-now cliche and played-out "hit the switches" standby that's made its appearance in countless games ranging from platformers to RPGs to, in some cases, kart racers. But I'm thinking of the real kind of puzzle: brain-teasers, logic conundrums, stuff that makes the Da Vinci Code look like the back pages of Highlights for Children. So, it was with a certain amount of delight that I looked forward to Professor Layton's American debut... but, it seems, the gentleman hasn't exactly brought us his best.
Professor Hershel Layton and his young apprentice Luke are called to the tiny, isolated village of St. Mystere by Lady Dahlia Reinhold. Recently widowed, Dahlia has sought the Professor's help in locating the fortune of her husband, the late Baron Reinhold. Baron Reinhold's treasure of treasures is the legendary Golden Apple, an artifact nobody has ever seen, yet has been acclaimed to be the Baron's most valuable item in the inheritance. Layton and Luke must search the small city for clues to the location of the Apple - but sinister stirrings are afoot in the curious village, and the two puzzle-solvers might be lucky to escape with merely their lives.
The player takes control of Layton and Luke as the two interact with the denizens of St. Mystere. The interface takes the by now familiar form of a standard point-and-click adventure game, along the lines of Sam & Max or Touch Detective; however, whereas in those games, dialogue is king, the majority of the player's progress will be dictated by the ability to solve the incessant puzzles that are presented by the game's colorful cast of characters. Almost every character, once clicked on, will either present some simple text dialogue or a puzzle. Additionally, clicking on certain non-obvious portions of the very wonderfully-drawn watercolor scenery can produce either a hidden puzzle or a Hint Coin.
That brings up one of the game's most striking features - its aesthetics. The sound and music is somewhat forgettable to a certain degree, but the unmistakeable art style in the characters and the town of St. Mystere is a major draw to the game. The game's plot progresses through text-based cut scenes and the occasional voiced animation clip, and while most of the voices are well done, Luke's voice is slightly grating. Truly, the game's art style - compared to a Studio Ghibli or Tintin-like atmosphere - lends a sense of familiarity to the game and should comfort players from becoming too frustrated at some of the more irritating tasks. A couple of the characters are, however, intentionally ugly, for lack of a better phrasing. Still, there's little chance you'll mistake anyone for anyone else. The game sets up a wonderful world and two protagonists who you'll genuinely want to see succeed.
The puzzles themselves take many different forms, and the touchscreen lends itself almost perfectly to this sort of game in that the player isn't limited in how he or she is expected to react or manipulate the puzzles. Old favorites such as the "wolves and sheep crossing the river", and the "Die Hard water buckets" puzzle join newer tests such as "the sound of silence". Players can enter text, draw circles, slide objects, or press buttons in order to clear the 135 puzzles on the game card. Each puzzle is rated from 5 to 99 in terms of Picarats, which are basically a completion counter. Incorrect answers reduce the number of Picarats awarded on completion, but the amount will never drop below about three-quarters of the full value. Finally, for the game's more diabolical puzzles, the player has the option of purchasing up to three hints for each puzzle. Purchasing a hint costs exactly one Hint Coin, and the number of these in the game are tightly limited-- you will not have enough to purchase every hint in the game, which encourages players to think for themselves and to leave the hints as an absolute last resort. To the game's credit, it doesn't stoop to obvious pandering to fads; there's no Sudoku puzzles in sight, and while many of the puzzles are similar to ones you'd find in the checkout-lane mags, none seem obviously ripped from them.
Overall, the game is very entertaining; the puzzles are varied enough so that players of all mental proficiencies will have no trouble accumulating the required number of puzzle clears to open up the story's ending. The primary problem, however, is the same one that has always plagued adventure games and will always plague them: once you've solved the puzzle, there's no point in doing it again. Professor Layton suffers from this problem to an almost unprecedented degree; since many of the puzzles rely on vital paradigm shifts and twists of thought, repeating the same puzzle invalidates the challenge because you literally already know the answer. The game manages to alleviate this to a certain degree by providing weekly downloadable puzzles, but unfortunately those are really only adding another five to ten minutes of gameplay a week to a game that's over in just under ten hours.
As a $30 puzzle magazine, Professor Layton leaves quite a bit to be desired. With only under a gross puzzles, it's possible to be through the whole set in about a week's worth of off-and-on playing, and less than a day if you try to marathon through it. It's certainly not meant to be played in a single rush, as many traditional video games are; in this regard, it's pretty much the definition of a "casual" game. However, though this installment might be over far too soon, the second game is already being localized and is pretty much guaranteed a US release. Nintendo could step up the DLC release pace, and possibly boost the number of puzzles in the next volume; until then, give this one a solid rental, enjoy the story, and save your cash for a couple of actual puzzle magazines.
