Game Reviews
View Comments (0)
Professor Layton and the Diabolical BoxBy Marlon Esmeralda - 08-26-09 Print  EmailAfter waiting for a year and a half, Professor Layton is back once again with yet another mystery for DS owners to solve. Once again, you are traveling along with Layton and his apprentice, Luke, as you encounter many dangers and unique characters. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box brings much of the same charm it had in the Curious Village, but with new puzzles and a new story. If you enjoyed playing through Layton's first adventure, then be prepared to have fun all over again. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box starts us off with Layton and Luke as they set off on another adventure. This time the mystery surrounds the Elysian Box, a box that is said to kill all those who open it. After receiving a letter from his mentor, Dr. Schrader, about his recent acquisition of the Elysian Box, Layton sets off to his mentor's house with much worry. Unfortunately, when Layton and Luke arrive, they find Dr. Schrader lifeless on the floor. The duo then embarks on a new journey to multiple locations in order to reveal the truth of this deadly Elysian Box. Though a couple characters make a return, new players to the series won't be too loss on the story. However, I highly recommend playing through Professor Layton and the Curious Village before jumping into this one, but there's aren't too much references with the first to really require it. Whether you know the previous story or not, you will still find enjoyment playing through the game. As was with the first, this new story will keep you engaged in it from start to end. The game really does a good job at remaining mysterious until the end, but players may not be too surprised by a couple of the events, as some things can be a bit predictable. The gameplay is exactly the same, as players move about in a point-and-click style with the DS's touch screen. In order to progress in the game, players must solve various kinds of puzzles. Puzzles will either appear through specific events, talking with the game's many unique characters, or by clicking on objects found in the environment. The puzzles come in the form of brainteasers, logic, math, moving objects around, and more others. With around 150 in all, you'll be busy with the title for quite a while, clocking in at around 15 hours. Of course this time will certainly vary on how long it takes you to solve these puzzles, and to find your way through the bigger mystery that is the story itself. While most of the puzzles will occur in the story, some extra puzzles do become available after you complete the game, and through a weekly puzzle download via Nintendo Wi-fi. Since each puzzle primarily has one solution to it, replaying them seems pretty weird. Though you are given the ability to replay all the puzzles, chances are you might not feel the need to, with the answer being the same and all. It is a good way to share puzzles with family and friends, if they don't want to engage in the story. In most cases, however, you're done with a puzzle once you've solved it. This is probably the only major drawback to the Layton games, but it doesn't ruin the initial experience in any way. Though, with enough time, you may forget the puzzle solutions. I know for sure that if I played the Curious Village again, I won't know the answers to a majority of the puzzles unless I go though the process of solving them again. Picarats also make a return, and act as a kind of point system for the game. Each puzzle is labeled with a specific amount of picarats, and will decrease each time you answer wrong. The picarats won't decrease to zero though, and just like the last game, will stop after failing twice. It's a neat little system there that is mainly present so that you can compare overall picarat scores with others, so you can have a brief idea of how intellect you are. Of course, players are still able to cheat by resetting the game and replaying the puzzle with the answer fresh in their mind. An alternative to cheating is by use of hint coins which will provide up to three hints to finding the answer to a puzzle. Hint coins are fairly easy to find, so you'll mostly have a good amount at hand should you ever need a hint. The hints are helpful at most times, but will sometimes confuse you more than help as well. Failing a puzzle can be a bit depressing, but starting over just ruins the satisfaction you'll receive for when you finally get the answer. So my only tip is to just play and enjoy the game. There are some new things in the Diabolical Box though, like new side quests to play through as you move on in the story. In the first Layton you had to build a robot dog, organize furniture, and piece together a painting. For the Diabolical Box, you get a pet hamster who needs to lose weight, a tea set, and a broken camera. You acquire your pet hamster not too far in the game, and your goal with him is to help him lose weight. To do this, you obtain items throughout the game and use them make him walk around this rectangular field. By walking a certain amount of distance, the hamster will then lose weight. The tea set and broken camera also require items found throughout the game, but are puzzling in their own ways as well. The puzzles are pretty varied, but you will get some recycled ones in the mix. They won't exactly be the same puzzle, but will follow the same rules. However, the puzzles will be more difficult the second time around than with the first, so you'll still feel challenged. For some players, this may be a bit annoying at times, especially if there's a particular type of puzzle you just don't enjoy solving again. I didn't mind this thing at all, as I'm a huge puzzle lover and will gladly accept any challenge thrown at me. The same charm of the Curious Village is also back in Diabolical Box, as the game sports the same European-esque artstyle and sound. More animated cutscenes are present in the game, but text and talking heads will still be shown a majority of the time. It doesn't hurt at all though, as I'm a huge fan of this game's look. The cutscenes are well-animated, the sprites look great, the background environments look great, just everything falls right into place making for a great atmosphere overall. Much of that is thanks to the game's wonderful voice acting, which this time around also occurs more often. It's too bad the whole game couldn't be presented this way, but for what is there, is done very well. The game's soundtrack also deserves much praise as it just sets the right mood and atmosphere. Sure, the puzzle theme song is still the same, but I loved it then and still love it now. Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box looks and plays exactly like the previous Layton game. That's not a bad thing though, as I enjoyed the first one quite a bit, and enjoyed this second one just as much, if not more. The presentation of the game is just wonderful, and the story is engaging from beginning to end. The puzzles are all clever, and bring much satisfaction with each solution. If you're a puzzle junkie, like I am, then you definitely need to get this game. The wait has been well worth it, but let's hope Nintendo doesn't wait too long to bring us the Professor's next adventure. Ratings |
 Select Choice Award |
|
||||||||||||||||||
