4/5 ★ – Perrythe8's review of Professor Layton and the Curious Village.

Welcome to the Layton Marathon,where I play the 6 main games+ a rip off to the 100%! Off with the first trilogy! The first Layton game has this very special feeling about it that gives it even more charm than it normally has. Apart from that magic, you can *really* feel this one is the first game. The sound effects, the sprites, the dialogues, heck even on the personalities, as in one moment you see Layton like "yes I'm a gentleman" and in the other you see him screaming at a young woman that she's a nobody for showing him a puzzle. Luke is really annoying in this game,too. It may be my normal hatred for him (I would shoot him in the foot if I could) but in this one he's just aggressive as hell. The English voice acting is kinda bad too, it's laughable. The Spanish dubs from the following games is peak voice acting in a videogame for me, although that may be the nostalgia and language preference talking. Next,the story,which is linked to the ambient of the game: is all very, very creepy and unnerving. All in the town feels weird, and not without reason. Specially that ominous tower, just there in the middle of the town. I love it,and the story too, since the twists are actually unexpected (Ashalanti Legacy I'm looking at ya) and really clever, although that's a given in Layton. The music really helps to the feeling too: the town theme is like a music box melody, the manor theme is unnerving,and the Tower one? Just marvelous. Every single song in this game has an effect to make you say "damn that sounds nice" The puzzles are more based around logic and maths this time, which I can't say I dislike, but I don't really enjoy it either. The puzzles were a great challenge don't get me wrong: it's just that I'm not that good at math :) The only bad thing I can say is: Don Paolo is a fucking joke. His only reason for existance is a reason for giving drama to the finale. This game didn't need an antagonist. It was perfect without him, and he appeared he did absolutely nothing. The only good thing about him is his theme, although Descole's one is still the best villain theme in Layton. And that covers the first game! I love that it made well enough at the time to give us the amazing franchise that it is today. And all cause a man wanted to give his daughter to some random person.