Professor Layton and the Curious Village

Translation:
I played the Chinese version: I can see the effort the translator puts into this game. It's quite a difficult game to do because some puzzles are so ingrained into the Japanese language, and there are cut scenes with subtitles that can't be translated (cuz the text were probably done as a part of the images), so it takes quite an effort to make gamers understand what was going on. Some words are still not translated, but those are easy to guess, esp if you're a seasonal gamer.

Playability, linguistics wise:
Most of the puzzles are playable even if you're not Japanese; however there are a few that are purely based on the language itself. For non-Japanese players it's be handy to have a walkthrough around just in case when you come across those puzzles. Luckily, with the expressive images no one should be lost in the story line.

Story:
I like the story, if not having a sense of melancholy at the end of it. Great game twist giving the game some very special quality; very likely that you'll still be thinking about the game after you've finished it. It also shows the extraordinary imagination Japanese have.

Graphics:
One of the bigger reasons for me to try out this game. Basically, everything is hand-drawn, which is top-notch, and the artist surely added a great sense of eeriness and mystery to his creation. I esp love the colour tone he used to draw the town, giving it a peaceful, antique feel. After I watched the intro and a bit of the characters, one word screams out: TRIPLETTES!! Triplettes de Belleville is a French amine that impressed me a lot with the outstanding storyline, music tracks and animation; the artworks are very similar. I'd call it "character painting": how the characters look, build, and dress already tell you a lot about the characters. It's worth playing the game just to enjoy the wonderful drawings.

Controls:
I played everything with the stylus, and commends are very easy to master within 5 minutes. There isn't much action you need to do anyway.

Puzzles:
Now, the puzzles. Expect a lot of brain twister kind of questions. Yes, those you would be asked when you were still in school. As Nintendo Power V. 221 stated: "There are plenty of geometrical puzzles that will have you thinking you shouldn't have slept through trig." Also, IQ questions, "Crossing river with 3 wolves and 3 sheep" questions, "Who's lying" questions. The presentation of the question is very simple and clear-cut, no fancy graphics there at all. Some questions are mandatory but a lot are not, though in a few cases you do have to have answered a certain number of questions before you can advance. There are also some hidden puzzles you have to look for in town. My tip to tackling these puzzles: simplify!

Pixel- hunting:
Yes it exists; luckily, it's not mandatory. It enables you to find two things: hidden puzzles and hint coins. It helps to revisit places to find hidden puzzles thought, because sometimes they only appear after you unlock certain game sequences. Hint coins can be found anywhere, but usually in baskets, barrels, pictures-- I usually just click everything once to see if I can find anything. Each puzzle has 3 hints you can use, and each of them will cost you 1 hint coin. There is a limited number of hint coins, so use them wisely.


Overall:
I find this to be a very interesting way to fuse math puzzles and adventure gaming. However, at times it just feels like there's too much puzzles to solve, you might want to give yourself a bit of time to rest in between sessions. The game feels a bit short, it would be great if there were more non-puzzle related tasks to do. The biggest problem I found is that the game is too well integrated into the Japanese language; if the development studio Level-5 wants it to break into other markets, it has to go through a lot of localization. That being said, this is quite a successful game, everything works well with each other and at the end it all comes together. I just hope that I get to see the village and its dwellers some time again soon.

Rating: 8/10

I wrote this post on another forum regarding the above topic. I wasn't talking mainly about how PC game's gonna survive, but more so, my opinion on why PC gaming is hard to keep up with. By tackling problems, hopefully PC gamers can find a way to overcome some of the consumers' concerns and make PC gaming a lead again.

My few cents...

1. Now when ppl mention PC gaming, it's mostly about Warcraft, and mmorpg, which I don't even understand the meaning of. I, for one, am not fan for shooting/ killing games (pardon my stereotyping I don't know much about these games), I'm more of an adventure gamer. So where are the right PC games for me out there? Yes there are some, but very few. These days PC games are dominated by genres that are catered to certain types of gamers, and closing the doors to people who would like to play good games but don't want to, or simply can't spend money on upgrading their system. Which brings me to the other point...

2. Upgrades. This is probably the main reason I move from away from PC gaming to console. I've always been playing games on PC, and I have no problems with it whatsoever; however I'm not rich enough to allocate a big part of my money just to keep upgrading my system so that I can play games that are out these few years. I do have a stash of games that I can enjoy when I finally find it reasonable to upgrade my computer; but before that happens, I have already decided to buy my first console (wii), which seems to be a much easier thing to do than to decide what I will need in my computer so that I can play all those different games I own. Wii offers much more choices to gamers in terms of genres and difficulties; this is exactly what I was trying to say in point 1, what current PC games are lacking.

3. Vista upgrades. I'm not a computer person, but I do realize that the switch between operating systems most of the time cause grief when it comes to gaming. I'm not sure how, for example, my 5 yr old games are going to be compatible on Vista; I don't even want to imagine what trouble I have to go through to play games from the 90s on a Vista. (Yes I don't have much faith in Microsoft) So my reasoning is that-- If I don't need Vista, I can simply stay with Windows XP. Which is not possible because basically everything I find out there are Vista based, so if I have to upgrade my computer in anyway to play new games, it has to boosted up to Vista. So, do I go Vista, or say bye to my old games, or just forget PC gaming altogether?

In the future I want to see PC games with more genres, and those that don't need gore, gruesome blood scenes, seemingly "sexy" girls walking around, etc etc, to make sure they sell. I think game developers should start to reconsider ways to attract new niche of gamers but not pitching games to same group of gamers over and over again; to make use of the versatility of the computer as a gaming system so PC games can offer a kind of experience that other consoles can't give. To me, PC game developers seem to be staying in a comfort zone and are not that willing to experiment. Overtime, this can be boring, and console games, which strive on creativity to survive, will take over. PC games certainly will not die out, but they might be surpassed by console games big time.

Great game with some bone picking from egg shell problems.

The story is quite Hollywood: you're a student getting into Berkley(sp) but you run into a hot and attractive (in his opinion anyway) girl chased by the US Mafia, and you want to help her and thus embark on an road adventure.

Sounds dull and boring?? Wait till you see the graphics, wait till you hear the voice acting, wait till you actually play the game.

IT IS FUN.

The whole game has a sense of humour to it, esp when you compare it to the games out there on a market today; just how many ppl do you get to talk to in Mist? How warm are the scenes in both Longest Journey or Syberia? Although it's probably not half as funny as Leisure Suite Larry or the Monkey Island series, but then how can you compare Runaway with two classics???

Interesting (and sometimes crazy) characters, cool conversations, VERY nice art work (not sierra style though), logical puzzles.

I said logical. Truth is, sometimes you need common sense and some imagination to solve them. Unlike games like Longest Journey or Syberia, you need to actually use your brain to work your way thru. You need to be keen on observations, and have sharp thinking.

Pixal hunting is one major problem. Again, unlike TLJ, things are so well intergrated into the background that you have to move your mouse all over screen to find things you need. I almost gave up the game cuz of that.

Another problem is hints. I think the game can give more clues to lower the difficulty (i think it's a hard game). EG in descriptions they can tell more so that you as the player will tell yourself "ok this sounds like a clue, maybe i can use this item later"

Conversation wise... if they can distinguish new topics from old ones, that should help boosting player's moral. visual aides like not listing out the old topics or a change in colour on new topics discussed would help the game play tremendously.

I also had problems with the animations, maybe cuz of my old comp. I have to switch to lower resolutions for them to play just somewhat faster.

But all in all, these small problems didn't stop me from finishing the game; i spent a few hours last night and finished it. Once you're playing it you just don't want to stop i guess.

It'll worth at least a 4.5 if not for the problems i mentioned above; plus, i need to reserve 5s for Gabriel Knights, Quest for Glory and Monkey Island, don't I??