dusk
I really love Professor Layton. I'm really glad that they've released so many games since this one (Curious Village). This is the first game I've beat. I remember trying to play this game as a pre-teen because I saw my uncle and his ex girlfriend playing it and I thought the puzzles were too hard for me.
Now that I'm an adult, I have a new found appreciation for this game. It is not mechanically demanding, has 0 skill gap, and is made to play at leisure with a fun, little challenge. I found myself playing this game for an hour or two before bed whenever I got the chance.
I do not recommend this game for people that give up easily as some of the puzzles can be quite challenging, and some near impossible without the use of hint tokens. Eventually if you keep at it you can solve any puzzle this game has to give, but for the sake of efficiency I found myself looking up the answers on YouTube when a puzzle would take me over 40+ minutes to solve hahahaha.. I know. I'm weak. I do recommend this game for people that like to challenge their brain muscles but not at the expense of an important grade in school hahaha. There are logic puzzles, brute force puzzles, visual puzzles, and lots of trick wording puzzles. Once you are aware of the types of tricks, some puzzles become extremely easy, while others put your thinking in a box and past solutions dissolve the current ones.
Puzzles aside, let's appreciate the art and the world building. I thought the graphics were superb. The art style is charming and mixed with the different music, I found myself anxious, scared, excited, annoyed, and delighted whenever I would discover something new in this world.
All of the overarching mysteries get solved relatively quickly near the end of the game, but leading up to this point you're found confused and wondering if your hypotheses are correct. Kind of like watching a tv show and predicting what happens next whenever you see some slight foreshadow.
Overall, I adored this game. I would probably introduce it to a friend that loves riddles and a good brain teaser. I'm tempted to buy a physical copy just to have it in my collection.
Pros: great game to play after a long day, challenging puzzles/riddles, catchy music, beautiful art & cutscenes, eerie/charming settings
Cons: Some riddles become are repetitive.
P.S: You find yourself listening to the same song on repeat when you consistently fail to get the solution, was kind of frustrating. PATIENCE!
Now that I'm an adult, I have a new found appreciation for this game. It is not mechanically demanding, has 0 skill gap, and is made to play at leisure with a fun, little challenge. I found myself playing this game for an hour or two before bed whenever I got the chance.
I do not recommend this game for people that give up easily as some of the puzzles can be quite challenging, and some near impossible without the use of hint tokens. Eventually if you keep at it you can solve any puzzle this game has to give, but for the sake of efficiency I found myself looking up the answers on YouTube when a puzzle would take me over 40+ minutes to solve hahahaha.. I know. I'm weak. I do recommend this game for people that like to challenge their brain muscles but not at the expense of an important grade in school hahaha. There are logic puzzles, brute force puzzles, visual puzzles, and lots of trick wording puzzles. Once you are aware of the types of tricks, some puzzles become extremely easy, while others put your thinking in a box and past solutions dissolve the current ones.
Puzzles aside, let's appreciate the art and the world building. I thought the graphics were superb. The art style is charming and mixed with the different music, I found myself anxious, scared, excited, annoyed, and delighted whenever I would discover something new in this world.
All of the overarching mysteries get solved relatively quickly near the end of the game, but leading up to this point you're found confused and wondering if your hypotheses are correct. Kind of like watching a tv show and predicting what happens next whenever you see some slight foreshadow.
Overall, I adored this game. I would probably introduce it to a friend that loves riddles and a good brain teaser. I'm tempted to buy a physical copy just to have it in my collection.
Pros: great game to play after a long day, challenging puzzles/riddles, catchy music, beautiful art & cutscenes, eerie/charming settings
Cons: Some riddles become are repetitive.
P.S: You find yourself listening to the same song on repeat when you consistently fail to get the solution, was kind of frustrating. PATIENCE!
Finally got to play this game for the first time. I don't know why but I skipped this generation of Pokemon. I think it's because when it got released I was playing on the PS3 at that point. For some context, my first Pokemon games were the GBA ones and I've replayed them countless of times throughout my life. I rate those games a 5/5. Going into new Pokemon games I don't do any research and play them blind. I think I rate Pokemon White a 4/5 because I don't have any attachment to the Pokemon in this game. It was my first time playing this region so I was unfamiliar with any of the Pokemon! I also remember like 25% of the names LOL. I was a little upset because I couldn't get Zorua/Zoruark on my team before the Elite Four legitimately!! Gamestop event sadge. I love dark type pokemon, but I settled for the ghost/fire candle pokemon on the final team instead.
I must say, I LOVED the art style and the dynamic animations this game had. The long bridges over the water, the moving camera following your sprite as you run towards a destination.. SO GOOD. All the Pokemon games I played before this did not have that (the camera moving and following your sprite). The gym battles had their own charming environment and for the most part made you do a quest in order to "unlock" the gym access. I thought this was fun, made it so I couldn't just speedrun through all the gyms like the old games. THE MUSIC. The music was soo so so good. If I played this game as a kid I bet the music would've transported me back in time.
As for why I give this a 4/5 instead of a full 5/5, I think it's mostly due to the plot. I think since I'm older now, the concept of Team Plasma was quite corny. N definitely has potential as a deep character, but the ending to this game didn't quite scratch that satisfying itch I needed. I played Pokemon X last year and for some reason I think they had very similar plots... I might be mistaken though I don't quite remember hahaha. Another negative for me was the lack of diversity in the Pokemon I encountered. I'm pretty sure for the majority of this game I didn't encounter a Pokemon that made me go WOW I want that on my team until after the 6/7th gym badge. It's a big negative for me because a huge part of my joy comes from building my "dream team" by the end of the game. During the Elite Four I saw a bunch of really cool looking Pokemon I might want to obtain down the line if I ever revisit this game. I do know about the Post Game, so my thoughts about this game might bump to a 4.5 after it.
TLDR: Amazing graphics, beautiful music, I didn't feel like I was exploring an unknown world, felt familiar and somewhat underwhelming. Give it a 4/5 bc cool Pokemon I wanted doesn't appear until later in the game, corny plot, redundant Plasma grunt battles, and lack of diversity in Pokemon you encounter for a majority of the game.
I must say, I LOVED the art style and the dynamic animations this game had. The long bridges over the water, the moving camera following your sprite as you run towards a destination.. SO GOOD. All the Pokemon games I played before this did not have that (the camera moving and following your sprite). The gym battles had their own charming environment and for the most part made you do a quest in order to "unlock" the gym access. I thought this was fun, made it so I couldn't just speedrun through all the gyms like the old games. THE MUSIC. The music was soo so so good. If I played this game as a kid I bet the music would've transported me back in time.
As for why I give this a 4/5 instead of a full 5/5, I think it's mostly due to the plot. I think since I'm older now, the concept of Team Plasma was quite corny. N definitely has potential as a deep character, but the ending to this game didn't quite scratch that satisfying itch I needed. I played Pokemon X last year and for some reason I think they had very similar plots... I might be mistaken though I don't quite remember hahaha. Another negative for me was the lack of diversity in the Pokemon I encountered. I'm pretty sure for the majority of this game I didn't encounter a Pokemon that made me go WOW I want that on my team until after the 6/7th gym badge. It's a big negative for me because a huge part of my joy comes from building my "dream team" by the end of the game. During the Elite Four I saw a bunch of really cool looking Pokemon I might want to obtain down the line if I ever revisit this game. I do know about the Post Game, so my thoughts about this game might bump to a 4.5 after it.
TLDR: Amazing graphics, beautiful music, I didn't feel like I was exploring an unknown world, felt familiar and somewhat underwhelming. Give it a 4/5 bc cool Pokemon I wanted doesn't appear until later in the game, corny plot, redundant Plasma grunt battles, and lack of diversity in Pokemon you encounter for a majority of the game.