OrpheusGear's Review of Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

Here is a Nintendo DS game for players who love mysteries and solving puzzles! Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box is a mystery game containing very interesting puzzles that you need to solve in order to advance further. The Professor Layton series, developed by LEVEL 5 Inc., takes place in England, with its fancy settings and elegant characters. It is an especially interesting atmosphere and everyone speaks with accents that I unfortunately cannot mimic. The story starts off with someone talking of a strange box, called the Elysian box, which brings death to whoever opens it. This little information scared me a bit, although I thought it was cool how the game opened with the rumors of the box. Anyway, the first cut scene shows Professor Hershel Layton, an architect who loves tea, and Luke Triton, Layton’s apprentice, boarding on a train along with the other characters that the player would have to encounter in the future. These cut scenes are just fabulous! It was exciting to see animation like that on a DS and they were quite fun to watch too. Eventually as the story progresses, the player learns more about the mysterious Elysian box and encounter many other stories that link other characters to this box as well.

Solving puzzles might not sound all that great, but hear me out. These puzzles kept me in constant focus, and for the first time in gaming, I had to use my brain. The positive side to all of this is that the puzzles did drain my brain power, unlike my boring school classes, and it kept me alive and curious of the events to come. After every time I solved a puzzle, I felt smart, as if I can solve any puzzle thrown at me!

Generally, the player walks around different towns and solves over 100 puzzles that reveal new information of the box, new cut scenes or twists in the storyline. Let me say it again: this is not some type of action pack game with guns blazing and swords swinging, except for one scene. This is a game that someone can play when taking a break from those other crazy games that force the player to scream, shout, and cry like a little baby. My brain was put to test to see if I was an actual idiot, and this game proved that I still can use my brain. I did not find many negative sides to this game except with puzzles that give you small hints. It is frustrating when I am trying many options and I still cannot get the right answer, but that is only half the fun! Overall, I give this game a “Must buy” rating, in other words a 5/5 rating.

Orpheus Gear