Every bit as delightfully charming and challenging as the original
The game starts with Professor Layton and his apprentice, Luke, travelling on a fancy train to an unknown destination and after a wonderful cutscene players are taken a few days into the past as the reason behind this trip is revealed. Layton had been receiving letters from his old mentor about a mysterious box that is said to kill anyone who dares opening it. On one of the letters Professor Schrader reveals that he managed to acquire such box and his curiosity was starting to get the best of him. On his final letter Schrader tells Layton that he plans on opening the box, he adds that if the worse happens Layton should continue what he had started.
After a lull on which Layton didn't hear from his mentor he decides to pay a visit to his apartment only to find an apparent crime scene once he manages to skillfully unlock Schrader's apartment door after solving yet another puzzle. By quickly examining the room Layton finds no sign of the box but encounters a ticket to the Molentary Express, a very exclusive train. Noticing a possible connection between the box, the crime involving his tutor and the ticket Layton sets with Luke on an adventure to get to the bottom of yet another compelling mystery.
Professor Layton therefore is a story-driven point-and-click adventure. Layton travels from one scenario to another while players have to interact with the environment and the characters that populate Layton's amazing world by touching the scene with the stylus. With each passing scene and each passing dialogue the game's story is slowly pieced together, but while character interaction and investigation of the villages, trains, houses and other locations Layton will pass through are very important, the solving of puzzles is the cherry on the cake that transforms Professor Layton from a textbook kind of game into a challenging immersive adventure.
As you talk to characters, touch certain parts of the scenario puzzles will soon be revealed. Some of the puzzles are mandatory for the completion of the journey as certain characters are only willing to disclose information after you help them, while other brain teasers are optional. However, as Layton himself says, true gentlemen leave no puzzle unsolved so if you want to be awesome enough to use Layton's top hat you shall crack every single one of the game's 153 puzzles. And believe me when I say you will want to solve them all.
As experienced Professor Layton players know puzzle description will be shown at the top screen while either a picture illustrating the puzzle, or objects with which you can interact are displayed at the bottom screen. Chances are players have already come across a few of the game's puzzles, but most of them are extremely original. Puzzle variety, not only in difficulty but in type, is outstanding since they may require logical thinking, picture visualization, outside the box reasoning or simple math skills. Initially most puzzles will be solved quickly, but as the game progresses these challenges can become hard enough to make you spend an hour or so trying to crack them.
The game will be kind enough to provide players' with extra hints towards solving the puzzle, but players must have hint coins at their possession. Those coins can be found by exploring, and touching, objects on the scenario that may be hiding such valuable treasure. Each puzzle is also worth a certain number of points, called Picarats, by the end of the journey those points will be summed to unlock nice extras. However, with each wrong answer players give the number of Picarats the puzzle is worth will decrease therefore punishing anyone that simply tries to guess the proper answer.
If amazing puzzles and a very immersive tale weren't enough Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box also has extremely high production values. Point-and-click games may not allow developers to push hardware into new boundaries, but the game makes up for that with a high quantity of outstanding cartoon-like cutscenes. For a few minutes, when the most exciting parts of the story are developed, players will feel like they are watching a cartoon right on their Nintendo DS screen.
Not only are the animations top-notch, so is the voice acting behind each one of the game's main characters. The sound quality and the acting are marvelous, but some players may be disappointed by the irregularity of this presentation. While the game does feature more cutscenes than its predecessor it also has a number of voiced dialogues where the characters appear statically on-screen with a textbox showing their lines. Sadly, not all of these kinds of dialogues are voiced probably due to a capacity problem. Still you can't blame the developers from trying.
The game's fantastic songs match perfectly with the European art work. Some of the songs are known to those who played the original, but others – and probably the best of the bunch – have been composed exclusively to the Diabolical Box and chances are you will be looking for the game's soundtrack after you finish this lovely story.
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box welcomes newcomers with open arms because even though some of the original game's characters reappear and a very tiny, almost insignificant, part of the plot is connected to the Curious Village nothing really affects the overall experience as new players will certainly enjoy the new mystery as much as old fans of the series. The game even makes an effort to present returning characters to those who have no idea who they are.
For players who like to go an extra mile with the games they own the Diabolical Box offers a very high amount of extras such as some mini-games Layton and Luke will encounter during their journey. One of them deals with finding parts of a broken camera and fixing it, another one deals with preparing the right kind of tea for the thirsty inhabitants of one of the villages of the journey and the last one has Layton and Luke making a fat hamster get in shape with the use of a few collected objects. Each one of those extras is a lot of fun and demands both time and skill from players, and rewards them with even more awesome puzzles.
Overall Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box easily fits into the Nintendo DS' hall of greatest games. It is very similar to its predecessor so experienced players already know what to expect, but similar hardly means bad. On the contrary, this one is every bit as delightfully charming and challenging as The Curious Village while also improving on a vast number of aspects. A thirty-hour package - that will certainly last much longer due to weekly downloadable puzzles - which is recommended for the whole family.
Actual Score: 9.2