Professor Layton and the Curious Village

[Brian Moy]

I recently completed the story portion of Professor Layton and the Curious Village and its a nice little game.  I say "little" because the main portion of the game was completed in 16 hours. 

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is one of those games that really fits well with the DS.  I don't think the gameplay would work as well on any other platform, besides maybe a computer with mouse.  Using the tap tap stick, the puzzles work really well with drawing when necessary and pointing at things.

The fully voiced animation FMV's are really very charming.  I honestly would really like it if Professor Layton and the Curious Village was a full cartoon feature rather than a game.  I like the puzzles gameplay, but it doesn't seem totally essential to the story.  The puzzles are made to fit into the progression of the story later on - like to open a door, or figure out which path to take for example.  Otherwise, I just solved some puzzles and the story progresses. 

Luckily, there is some nice bonus features on completing the story portion of the game - including an archive of all the movies.  Very nice, as mentioned I prefer to watch than to play.  The music is lovely and fits the mood very well too!  Very full of accordians, so feels like you're in a curious village.

Besides the main story portion, there are some minigames which are mildly entertaining - although I was expecting them to be more in depth, so I felt sort of disappointed in that.

If Professor Layton and the Curious Village is released as an animated feature, I'd gladly trade this game for the film instead.  I will still be interested to get the sequel to Professor Layton and the Curious Village - the game ends "to be continued", so in a way it sort of doesn't end.  If the gameplay to the sequel is as short as this one though, I'll wait until I can trade for it or buy at $19.99 or less. 

[dante]

Professor Layton... I almost forgot about this game. I really need to play it soon. It looks exactly like the kind of game I'd enjoy.

[Brian Moy]

Professor Layton... I almost forgot about this game. I really need to play it soon. It looks exactly like the kind of game I'd enjoy.

From what I know about you, you'd like it.  The tale is very warm hearted.

The one thing is that I enjoyed the animated story portions of the game more than the problem solving puzzles gameplay.  If Professor Layton was an animated feature, I'd rather just watch it than play it.  The charming style looks like the French animated movie, The Triplets of Belleville.  I think maybe it was the same animator, possibly.

[dante]

Your prayers have been answered, Brian: http://kotaku.com/5099532/professor-layton-the-animated-feature-film

[Brian Moy]

Your prayers have been answered, Brian: http://kotaku.com/5099532/professor-layton-the-animated-feature-film

That's cool... but 2010 is a year away, and that's just for the Japanish version.  Doesn't mention any confirmation for anything outside of Japan.  With the cutscenes, I thought maybe they were taken from an existing full feature.  The production quality of the cutscenes are good enough, it seems like they were from a movie.

[dante]

I wouldn't be surprised if it was never released here, but there will of course be a translation team who will sub it and post it online, just like what happened with the Animal Crossing movie. Very charming movie, by the way.

[Brian Moy]

Animal Crossing movie.

That's news to me.  It totally makes sense that would be released somewhere.  I'd thought the series is popular enough with English speakers that it would make it here.  I guess subs are better than nothing, but I of course would want to hear the voices with the English versions I'm familiar with.  In the Animal Crossing game, the characters all spoke some kind of a robotic gibberish tone - so if the voices sounded electronic like that, would be pretty cool.   

[dante]

What a game! Insanely difficult, too.