Now to the meat of this article, the reviewing part. I suppose we could list the good parts first, but as part of my review policy, I will save the best for last. So to start this off, in this game, you will spend a lot of time running around the village, which is fun at first, but gets very old relatively quickly. New areas are uncovered at points very far and few between, so the continuity of the environment needs work (the next installment will get a better rating in this area, so says my inside sources). A lot of the puzzles you need to find at the end (in order to finish the painting and inn room sidequests) are hard to find, and so you will spend a lot of time walking around town tapping a bunch of random objects with your stylus and making yourself feel stupid to try and solve the insane, mind-busting puzzles in store for you. The music is mainly accordion (not really a con for me, but if accordion music doesn't turn you on, I suggest muting your DS) and extremely repetitive, but at least the town theme, the one you'll be hearing the entire time you're walking around town, changes halfway through the story. That's pretty much all I have to say about it in terms of things that are not particularly pleasing.
If you're standing up, pull up a seat, because this part will be rather long. There are so many good things about Professor Layton's first case. For starters, the story is a wonderful one, containing a strong main plot and several sub-plots that are all revealed and tie together in the end (In fact, theres an entire section in the "pause menu" or Professor's Trunk devoted to the subplots of the story: The Mysteries section) Also, the art is amazing. Rather than being 3D, and wasting a bunch of DS card memory on some really ugly looking render, the cinematic cutscenes are 2 dimensional and very reminiscent of Hayao Miyazaki's work. Here is a video that I would like to share. It shows off the voice talents and art talent of the PLatMV team.http://avatarded.ning.com/video/video/show?id=627545%3AVideo%3A24451
The environments are beautifully drawn and the hotspots (the areas in which you tap, if you looked at an area with a hotspots only view, you would see a bunch of rectangles against a solid colored background) are nicely placed. Another pro is the music. While repetitive, the music is emotional, beautiful, and TOTALLY fits the mood of the game. The puzzles are fun to play and help you develop simple logic skills. The difficulty is annoying at points, but they are fun and colorful and, in some cases, amazingly obvious or obscure. Everything is controlled with the stylus (So for you lazy-butt, weak armed button pressers, get ready to break out a DS stand or something). The game, in whole is compelling and the bonus content that is revealed at the end is more of a reward to play more puzzles. I found myself wanting to finish one more puzzle, then another, and then to solve the mystery of the run down park, then another puzzle, etc. The revelations are amazingly clever and the whole game is shrouded in mystery. Your fun doesn't end when the game ends either, because there are weekly puzzle downloads available over the Nintendo WFC Connection and there are many puzzles unlocked from completing certain tasks or sidequests (ie: The inn, painting, and gizmo sidequests, in which you solve puzzles and get a piece of furniture, painting, or machinery.) All of the characters have unique personalities, and the village has a very creepy air about it. It is like a dream game for puzzle and Miyazaki lovers!
Presentation: 7Graphics: 10
Sound: 10
Gameplay: 6
Lasting Appeal: 7Total: 40