Professor Layton and the Curious Village

 DS
User Score
8.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 231 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 192 out of 231
  2. Mixed: 32 out of 231
  3. Negative: 7 out of 231
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  1. Albeirito
    Aug 10, 2023
    9
    Professor Layton is one of the best video game franchises in history and this game proves it.
    I love every single one of the clever and fun puzzles in this game.
    Some of them are not too complicated but others you will have to use all your brains to solve. Like all Leve 5 games, it has a noticeable focus on humour and the mystery that awaits you throughout the game is structured in a    Professor Layton is one of the best video game franchises in history and this game proves it.
    I love every single one of the clever and fun puzzles in this game.
    Some of them are not too complicated but others you will have to use all your brains to solve.
    Like all Leve 5 games, it has a noticeable focus on humour and the mystery that awaits you throughout the game is structured in a very good and clever way.
    This game can be enjoyed by everyone; old or young? it doesn't matter, even a person who initially didn't like puzzle games too much (like me) can enjoy it and even fall in love with the genre just by trying this title (like me again XD).
    A highly recommended game in my opinion.

    9.4/10    … Expand
  2. Yojimbo2015
    Jun 2, 2023
    5
    Cartoon mystery punctuated by puzzles of the type you find in quiz books sold at the train station. The Professor Layton games are all virtually identical so if you like one of them, you'll like them all...and vice versa.
  3. Triblue
    May 25, 2023
    7
    Les énigmes sont très variés. L'histoire est sympathique malgré son non sens à certains moments. Le gameplay est un peu simple mais c'est aussi ce qui fait sa force.
  4. ZangBang
    Feb 17, 2023
    5
    Charming the player with a whimsical art-style and an elegant, immersive soundtrack, Professor Layton blends puzzle and adventure elements to craft something distinctively original. Even if exploration boils down to shallow point-and-click gameplay framed by an endearing but forgettable plot, puzzles are stimulating and wonderfully diverse, challenging the player's observation, deductionCharming the player with a whimsical art-style and an elegant, immersive soundtrack, Professor Layton blends puzzle and adventure elements to craft something distinctively original. Even if exploration boils down to shallow point-and-click gameplay framed by an endearing but forgettable plot, puzzles are stimulating and wonderfully diverse, challenging the player's observation, deduction and logical skills in rewarding ways, besides a few tedious, uncreative math problems.… Expand
  5. hector_bcn98
    Nov 7, 2022
    9
    El inicio de la saga más única de la plataforma. Pocas veces un juego de puzzles enganchó tanto con una trama tan interesante. Puede parecer para niños... hasta que juegues a algunos puzzles. De lo intrincados que son, estoy convencido de que un niño pequeño no lo completa. Y un adulto... tampoco, a salvo que le eche muchas horas.
  6. Doom_ak
    Jun 21, 2022
    8
    Some puzzles weren't logical enough for me but for a game with more than 100 puzzles that's acceptable. Plot is stupid but I assume this game was created more for kids than for adults so also fine
  7. Reniachii
    Mar 4, 2022
    8
    Despite having a deep place in my heart for being my first Layton game, it dated quite a lot in the gameplay. Puzzles are mostly math and the game is very "green" compared to the other entries. One of the weakest, yet still in my top 3 Layton games in terms of story, despite its weakness compared to later titles.
  8. curzon_dax
    Jan 14, 2021
    8
    The game is fine with many good puzzles so it can not disappoint if you're looking for a puzzle game though it has 2 flaws that should be mentioned. First: some of the bonus puzzles can not be solved by a human without brute forcing or backtracking (e.g. the eight-queens puzzle which according to chess literature itself is in need of a computer program or heavy backtracking) which canThe game is fine with many good puzzles so it can not disappoint if you're looking for a puzzle game though it has 2 flaws that should be mentioned. First: some of the bonus puzzles can not be solved by a human without brute forcing or backtracking (e.g. the eight-queens puzzle which according to chess literature itself is in need of a computer program or heavy backtracking) which can become obnoxious though luckily the issue was minimal on the main questline so it doesn't take away much from the game. Second: the developer that wrote the text commenting on the puzzles after their correct solutions and sometimes even when giving hints was obviously not the one that created the puzzles and didn't understand many of the puzzles themselves because in several cases the text wasn't on-point at all (which is pretty obvious to players that have already solved the puzzles and understood them).… Expand
  9. DadoBaro
    Oct 4, 2020
    9
    A beautiful game... nothing more, nothing less. The sound, the storyline and the character take you into the game, you live the game.
  10. Mutty99
    Feb 9, 2020
    9
    The beginning of a legacy which will never be forgotten. There are some limitations, like not being able to go back to the file selection screen without turning off the console, but the story is awesome and the characters too. Disappointment rate: 0% :D
  11. MarkDream35
    Feb 8, 2020
    9
    This game influenced who I am today, and holds a very special place in my heart. I own both the original DS version and the HD mobile re-release.
  12. skads7
    Nov 8, 2019
    4
    De acuerdo que es el primer juego pero es malísimo y los puzles no son ni los mejores.

    Ah y bueno, este juego marca tendencia de la sida de guion que tienen estos juegos.
  13. brendo214
    Jul 31, 2019
    9
    For a game that essentially just boils down to a bunch of puzzles with a good mystery plot, Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a ton of fun.
  14. Maarten95
    May 3, 2019
    8
    This is the first layton game I played and I can say its still a great game in 2019. The cutscenes and story are really good and beautiful for its time. The only bad thing I can say is that it lacks a good soundtrack. It was a great experience overal.
  15. AKthaBeast
    Jun 4, 2018
    8
    I felt like this game had really great puzzles and some of them were challenging however the story was one dimensional and too obvious.
  16. TheJoseph
    Dec 22, 2017
    6
    Curious Village is great if you just want some challenging puzzles, but if your looking for anything else your likely not to find it here. It's hard to be critical of a game when it's key gameplay aspect is done well, but CV really suffers from being bland. To see what I mean, let's look at the story and characters.
    The story line is that our two heroes are brought to a strange town to    Curious Village is great if you just want some challenging puzzles, but if your looking for anything else your likely not to find it here. It's hard to be critical of a game when it's key gameplay aspect is done well, but CV really suffers from being bland. To see what I mean, let's look at the story and characters.
    The story line is that our two heroes are brought to a strange town to work out some property rights or something on the surface, but are really interested in finding out the secret of the golden apple, a super cool treasure, or something. When they get to the town someone dies and now the plot is a murder mystery, or at least it is once you solve the pressing issue of some important persons cat running off. If you can't tell, I find the story to be pretty forgettable and overall uninteresting. While this may be fine for most games, CV spends a good amount of time focusing on the story considering it has a visual novel-esque format. This causes a good chunk of the game besides a very small amount of the end to be superbly forgettable. There are some twists at the end that I can't say I saw coming, but were just... stupid. This is something that's in almost all the Layton games, unfortunately, but when the overall plot is so boring it just makes it stand out more as bland and dumb.
    Next we have the characters. First off, I'll say Layton and Luke are cool. I like them as protags, their fun characters, they're good. Everyone else... about as bland as the story. CV really suffers from going for quantity over quality with it's cast. There's a whole bunch of people with personalities that can be boiled down to "this person does X". This wouldn't be too bad if the game had some characters other than the protags who were more than this but there just aren't. Design wise, again Layton and Luke are good but I just don't find anyone else's design memorable at all. They're just that look cartoony and that's it. So yeah, this isn't really a strong suit for CV as well.
    The graphics overall do have some nice aspects to them, the hand-drawn style works very well and the art on the top screen looks very nice. My biggest problem graphically is the sprites in this game just look ugly. Very inexpressive and really basic. I think this is also a problem that boils down to quantity over quality. So yeah, good style, but not utilized that well. The town you're in also gets kinda old. You're there the entire game and it loses it's charm pretty quickly and just becomes really boring.
    The music in this game is great. The instruments used work well, all the songs fit when they play, and it just sounds lovely. Another highlight are the sound effects, from the text bleeps to walking down an echoing hallway, these are some of the best sound effects on the DS I've heard. The audio design of CV is plain and simply great.
    Gameplay-wise, it's almost all good. To start with the negatives, moving around on the map is pretty time consuming and finding your next location can feel like wondering around until you find the thing. My only other problems is that the puzzles go from 0 to 100 WAY too quick. You'll be going from baby's first puzzle to rage-inducing puzzles really quickly and it can be pretty jarring. Other than that, all the puzzles are good. They are a fun time, and almost always have a clever concept and solvable answer. While I wish I had more of a reason to be doing said puzzles, that's really just a personal preference and they are very good.
    So yeah, if you want to play this game for some really good puzzles and some nice music to go with it, this is the game for you. If you're looking for anything more than this, CV might be better to skip.    … Expand
  17. jjjj2367904
    Nov 25, 2017
    9
    Not my favorite out of the Layton series but it sure is one awesome game the dialogue,story,and etc are just very well made and my score for it is a 9.4
  18. Dreonas
    Nov 10, 2017
    8
    You'll need a notebook to play this game.

    Pros: - The music is amazing. - Lovely characters. - The puzzles are difficult and tricky, which is good. - There's a lot to do in the game: find puzzles, build the gizmo, order the painting, etc. - That feeling of solving a complicated puzzle is so satisfying. Cons - The main story is bland - The cutscenes did not aged so well - The    You'll need a notebook to play this game.

    Pros:
    - The music is amazing.
    - Lovely characters.
    - The puzzles are difficult and tricky, which is good.
    - There's a lot to do in the game: find puzzles, build the gizmo, order the painting, etc.
    - That feeling of solving a complicated puzzle is so satisfying.

    Cons
    - The main story is bland
    - The cutscenes did not aged so well
    - The color palette is not my cup of tea, but it leaves an ominous sense of mystery to the game.
    - The clicking mechanic to travel through the village is tiresome sometimes, but you'll get used to it.
    - The hints of some puzzles are useless.
    - That feeling of how your IQ goes down after realizing that the answer of a puzzle was obvious and easy is disgusting.    … Expand
  19. Anxo
    Jul 18, 2017
    9
    El primer juego de una saga increible, con sus puntos flacos pero de los mejores para su época. No me cabe ninguna duda de que es un juego excelente que dio el pistoletazo de salida a una saga que es insuperable.
  20. D484
    May 28, 2017
    8
    Una de las sagas más infravalorada de la historia. Es muy divertida para cualquiera que le guste los puzles. Además me gusta el estilo artísitco aunque sea muy sencillo. Le pongo un 84/100
  21. LeeFoo
    Apr 14, 2017
    9
    Adventure, puzzles. What more could you ask for? it's like being in a small movie as a detective searching for mysteries and unsolved clues to connect the plot together. Big surprises at the end. Fun, addictive and a brilliant story made. Don't miss out.
  22. ZaikoDrox
    May 4, 2016
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Un juego fresco, ademas de ser el debut de una de mis sagas favoritas, a pesar de algunos fallos que pueda tener, es un muy buen inicio, que la verdad tan solo jugarlo 5 minutos me hizo sentir que este juego tiene mucho por ofrecer, dandole mas importancia a los puzzles, los cuales la mayoria son muy ingeniosos, a pesar de estar basados en los libros de Akira Tago creador de los Head Gymnastics, una serie de puzzles japoneses exitosos que en El Profesor Layton son muy bien aprovechados. Dejando de lado todo lo anterior, LEVEL-5, nos ofrece una muy buena historia que para mi es un enorme puzzle que se ira resolviendo con el avance del juego. En resumen, El Profesor Layton nos presenta un concepto poco explorado, teniendo como enfoque principal una serie de muy buenos puzzles que parten desde lo sencillo hasta lo complejo, con una historia inteligente que llamara la atencion del jugador estableciendo el tipo de atmosfera que se presentara, es muy ingenioso y "Laytonesco" los que hallan jugado "La llamada del espectro" reconoceran la refeencia.… Expand
  23. Kozz
    Jul 23, 2015
    10
    一番おもしろくしたDSゲーム。子供も大人もみんな楽しめる良いゲームだと思います。後続作が続い出たらと思います。
  24. pdxl
    Mar 15, 2015
    9
    An exciting and original story, interesting mysteries and a cute animation. A good game for those who enjoyed of RPG or strategy games.

    unfortunately once you finish the game there are no reasons to play it again, poor replay value.
  25. WheelzFourReelz
    Dec 30, 2014
    8
    The game gets repetitive and there's not much of a consequence for getting a puzzle wrong, but Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a very charming and fun puzzle game with a great story, beautiful art direction, and some really creative puzzles.
  26. MrSonicFan
    Aug 15, 2014
    4
    I really don't understand the love that this game gets whatsoever. The story is not interesting in the slightest. Which is one of the most important parts about the game. First off, it takes forever to start the quest that the main characters came to the village for. As the game drags it out with things such as finding cats. It's bothersome. I don't find the characters in the villageI really don't understand the love that this game gets whatsoever. The story is not interesting in the slightest. Which is one of the most important parts about the game. First off, it takes forever to start the quest that the main characters came to the village for. As the game drags it out with things such as finding cats. It's bothersome. I don't find the characters in the village memorable in the slightest, I find them very boring.

    To be honest the only reason I sat through was becuase I enjoyed the Phoenix Wright Vs. Layton game that released earlier this year. I enjoyed the puzzles in that game. But in this game I cannot stand the puzzles. Some of them are really tedious and bothersome.

    Graphicly the game is alright. The characters are decently animated and drawn and the backgrounds look nice. The animated cutscenes by japanese animation studio P.A Works, look decent enough. Though they have some very obvious and distracting looking 3D CGI in them.

    The games soundtrack is for the most part, in my opinion. Quite forgetable. With the only track I personally liked being the games main theme. The voice acting, on the other hand is pretty well done. Though I will say I can't stand Luke's actress in the american release of the game. Thankfully, I have the british release. in which Luke has pretty well done voice work.

    Overall, I don't understand how people like this game. With a uninteresting story with forgetable characters, some very tedious puzzles and for the most part a forgetable sountrack. I did not enjoy this game.

    OVERALL - 4/10    … Expand
  27. BucksMacFan
    Jul 2, 2014
    8
    Really liked this game, not my normal choice (it was a gift) but quickly got hooked by the story and the puzzles. Often my girlfriend and I would sit up nights working through the puzzle together. It also highlighted that we are both better at different puzzles - very useful teamwork for this one.
  28. carlosgtardon
    Jun 10, 2014
    8
    Consiguió mantener jugando a las personas mayores que fueron atraídas por la DS con el Brain Training, lo cual supone todo un mérito y es merecedor de estar dentro de la historia del videojuego, además hace de las tareas de rehabilitación cognitiva algo entretenido y motivante. Sin duda debería estar en todos los centros de mejora del aprendizaje.
  29. sJagstang
    May 6, 2013
    8
    Professor Layton & the Curious Village is a great little puzzle game with a interesting story and great characters, the story follows Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke as they go to the village of St. Mystere to solve the mystery of the Golden Apple. I'm not going to say much more than that since I don't want to spoil the characters or story.

    Obviously the meat of the game is in    Professor Layton & the Curious Village is a great little puzzle game with a interesting story and great characters, the story follows Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke as they go to the village of St. Mystere to solve the mystery of the Golden Apple. I'm not going to say much more than that since I don't want to spoil the characters or story.

    Obviously the meat of the game is in it's Puzzles, There is about 130 puzzles in the game, Most of the them are good but some can be a bit so-so in there logic and sometimes they don't give you any indication of how to solve a particular puzzle since they sometimes leave out key information but this happens rarely and may be a localization issue.

    The game has a nice art style with characters that really stand out, It's fun to explore St. Mystere to find some of it's hidden puzzles. The town is fairly small so there isn't really an issue of getting lost in the town or anything like that.

    Sometimes the puzzles can feel like they are not really relating to what's happening in the story and can be somewhat random but they do a fairly good job of trying to make them cohesive, Not that it really matters since the puzzles are still good for the most part.

    In the end if you like puzzle games or at least want to try one then Professor Layton is a great game to play on Nintendo DS or 3DS, If you generally turn away from puzzle games because you want an interesting story to keep you going then you won't have the problem here since the characters are a big standout, especially Layton and Luke. Go pick this one up.    … Expand
  30. MrHayden4495
    Mar 11, 2013
    9
    This game is arguably the best puzzle video game on the DS. Complete with challenging puzzles and a well written story, the game forces the player to think in new ways, and as a matter of fact, the game greatly increases cognitive ability. All puzzles are done with the stylus, and this seems logical because when you see people completing puzzles like a crossword or a cryptogram, thereThis game is arguably the best puzzle video game on the DS. Complete with challenging puzzles and a well written story, the game forces the player to think in new ways, and as a matter of fact, the game greatly increases cognitive ability. All puzzles are done with the stylus, and this seems logical because when you see people completing puzzles like a crossword or a cryptogram, there are no buttons. But enough about gameplay, how is the story? The game has a marvelous cast, including my new favorite video game character Professor Layton, who was actually based off of Phoenix Wright with the "bad qualities" removed. The lush anglomaniac environment and lovely cutscenes and charming side characters emanate the game's most prominent quality: character. This game is its own, isolated from other puzzle games like Momento Mori or Brain Age.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

4
#4 Best DS Game of 2008
3
#3 Most Discussed DS Game of 2008
22
#22 Most Shared DS Game of 2008

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
85

Generally favorable reviews - based on 72 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 68 out of 72
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 72
  3. Negative: 0 out of 72
  1. games(TM)
    70
    Taken as a purely forward-looking puzzle game (with a well-told story, to boot), Layton provides DS entertainment in a unique fashion. [JPN Import; May 2007, p.112]
  2. Nintendo Gamer
    86
    Lots of variety, good use of the touch screen. [May 2008, p.73]
    Read full review
  3. Play Magazine
    80
    As good as the puzzles are, the presentation is almost better. [JPN Import; May 2007, p.77]
See all critic reviews »