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Curious Village is curiously boring

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 13
Date: May 31, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I love role playing games and thought this one would be fun. When I first got it, I liked the puzzles but then they got repetitive and boring. I have completed over half the game and put it away. It got so if I didnt know the answer right away, I would guess until I got it right. The game is frustrating in that puzzles keep popping up slowly your progress. I do not recommend this game.

Good Game But Nothing Special In the Long Run

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 23
Date: February 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

It's a great game the first time you play. The puzzles are hard and interesting. But the magic disappears when you're doing the same things over and over again. You have to just solve puzzles and the story develops very slowly. It's got nice art direction and is pretty original but the fun doesn't last. I was so bored with the second and third time I played it... by the forth time I was so frustrated with the repetition that I sold it.

Puzzles to give you a headache

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 27
Date: February 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

While I find the story and characters amusing and cute, the puzzles can be incredibly difficult. I'm not very good with math, especially in my head, and more than half of these puzzles deal with math of some kind. I didn't think I'd have to use a calculator to play! I wouldn't suggest this game for a child unless they're good with math and don't get frustrated easily.

Fun, but short

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: March 25, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This game is fun, the puzzles range from easy to near impossible, but I solved the mystery in less than a week.

Alas, Unbalanced

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: April 29, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I love most of this game -- the story, the translation, the music and voice acting, the artwork, the fact that if you can read and hold the stylus, you can play it. If I love it, why do I only give it an overall 3 stars? Because the puzzles themselves are deeply unbalanced.

The game has a difficulty-rating system (called picarats) which purports to tell you how hard the various puzzles are, ranging from 10/90 to 90/90. There's also a hint-coin system, where you collect coins with which you can purchase hints. Unfortunately, both systems are broken.

The puzzles gives you instructions, then when you break down and buy the first hint, it either A) restates the instructions or B) gives you a suggestion that is either singularly unhelpful or something that you've already tried. (Example: Puzzle Sez: Three people have placed identical umbrellas in an umbrella-stand. What's the probability that one of them will grab an umbrella that isn't theirs? First Hint: You don't have to do any complicated math to figure this out! Er, excuse me? How is that a hint!?) The second and third hints are not usually much better, though they have a higher rate of helpfulness to lack thereof.

The other problem with the game is that the puzzles do not start out easy and increase in difficulty as you get closer to the end. They're randomly sprinkled throughout the town of St. Mystere, and if you get stuck on one you may not be able to advance the story. (Fortunately, there's at least one excellent walkthrough at GameFAQs.com -- it's the only reason I beat the game.)

To be fair, the rating of the difficulty of puzzles is probably one of the harder things to do -- being a very visual person with an emphasis on kinesthetics, I have a better time with puzzles that can be solved by drawing pictures or moving pieces. Logic puzzles, on the other hand, I hate hate hate with a burning passion.

So if you like, or are not bothered by, randomly-difficult puzzle and not-so-helpful hints, then this game is for you. If you'd rather play something that's less-frustrating, you may wish to look elsewhere.

Highly Addictive, but short lived and not worth the price.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: April 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I found this game very addictive, so much so that I completed with in 24 hours of me receiving it. My total play time was less than 11 hours. Knowing what I know now, I would not have paid the price I paid. But I would love to see another game like this come out, but hopefully a little more challenging and less costly.

Story unfolds by itself.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: July 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Rather than a game, this is a collection of 135 basic puzzles and trivial puzzles that only sound hard. The puzzles are unlocked sequentially by clicking through the linear story. It is marketed as some kind of detective/mystery/adventure game, but it's not. The story actually just plays by itself, and you answer the puzzles.

The trivial variety puzzle uses arbitrary wordplay or ambiguous definitions. This becomes annoying when you can't ask the game to clarify the ambiguous question; hence, you sometimes get penalized for doing things the "right" way. These make up about 10% of the questions.

If you find yourself taking more than a minute, remember that nothing here can't be solved by a 3rd grader, so you are probably doing a trivial question.

Overall, the game was worth the time for the story and art design. Puzzles were amusingly written at times, though few actually make you use dedicated thought. Since 3 players can independently save progress, this is an ideal family game, particularly for kids.

Disappointing. Mostly boring, repetitive, and slow paced.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: June 16, 2008
Author: Amazon User

At first this game seemed cool because I enjoy puzzles, however, there were too many boring puzzles that seemed repetitive. I found myself searching for action and adventure. It seems like the creators of this game made a template and filled in the blanks with hundreds of boring, slow, and repetitive puzzles. I wanted more.

Professor Layton and the Occasionally Frustrating Village

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 12
Date: February 18, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I won't summarize the plot here as it's been presented in both the publisher's review. This review recounts my personal experience with the game although your mileage may vary.

As others have mentioned, Professor Layton is beautifully done. The graphics, voice acting, and cut scenes are all pretty top notch. The controls are also easy to use and not clumsy at all. The story captivates - lots of weird happenings that border on the uncanny (Hoffmann would eat his heart out) - and the puzzles are challenging.

Well, problem is, some of the puzzles are way too bloody obnoxious, and I feel like that that's saying a lot given how I eat and breathe puzzle games. I seriously felt that I was teleported to my middle school and high school years where I'm forced to solve those damned train problems (train A goes 45 mph at 10am from the west, and train B goes 30 mph at 12:00pm; what time do they meet?).

I really enjoyed the puzzles that required you to play around -- like moving around pieces of your puzzle (both literally and figuratively), using your stylus to map out different paths, or turning your DS around to figure out some of the puzzles. The algebra/trig -- no thanks; to me, it ceased being a puzzle game when it recounted memories of the SAT and other standardized tests. Penny Arcade did a strip that perfectly illustrated my feelings on this.

I like the integration of puzzles with the games, but it seems like the storyline and the puzzle factor constantly compete with each other. Yes, I know that this is a puzzle game, but the flow between story and puzzle is far from fluent; at times, it's down right awkward. I wonder how conducive the puzzles are to the storyline because on more than one occasion, they seem like an incessant filler. When you talk to someone, he/she always always proffers, "HO HO HO, I gots a puzzle fer ya! Are ya as fancy and smart as you look??" I mean, I'm asking if you saw someone or if you will get out of my way; WHY are you giving me another puzzle to solve?

Scattered throughout the village are hint coins. If you're stumped on a puzzle, you can pay a coin per hint, up to three per puzzle. Contrary to what the villager told you and his warning, hint coins aren't located in just suspicious looking areas and aren't as limited as he'd like you to believe. Click around on your screen (somewhat along the lines of button mashing), they're located EVERYWHERE, and you'll find a plethora of them.

I do like the game. It's extremely enjoyable for puzzle lovers or for those who want to play something new and innovative!

Tough, but Addicting!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: February 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

A wonderful game! I agree with those who say this would be too hard for younger kids. The puzzles are quite tough. (But then I'm an old fart of 40 who wasn't all that great with logic puzzles as a kid) Hint coins? I need them desperately. Scrap paper? I use a lot. But the story is told with such charm that I keep going. It's a true "just one more before I turn it off" game. The art direction, with its old-timey look is wonderful. (It reminds me of the Tintin books, and I suspect Luke's blue sweater is a direct homage.)

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