Professor Layton is a compelling experience for puzzle lovers.
What surprised me the most about Professor Layton was how it managed to successfully combine two seemingly unrelated subjects: an interesting mystery story, and a collection of brainteaser puzzles. But it manages to work and not feel forced at all.
Professor Layton's storyline kept me hooked from start to finish, due to its undeniable charm, easy to love characters, and a genuinely intriguing mystery. The main story took me about 10 hours to complete, but take into account that I made it a priority to find and solve every puzzle the game had to offer (135 total). There are some surprising twists in the story, and overall I found this game to have a more compelling plot than most games since it doesn't try to be so over the top.
The puzzles in the game are the basic brainteasers you may have seen in elementary school, and its very easy to get addicted to solving these puzzles. They range in complexity, and oftentimes the most obvious solutions aren't so obvious since it is easy to overthink a problem. The way you find a puzzle is pretty amusing. All you do is tap on a character or an interesting object in the game, and the character or the professor himself will say some things before telling you to solve this dumb puzzle. It's a bit strange, but it works, and it will make more sense when you finally finish the storyline.
I must praise the art direction in the game, its fantastic. The characters have a unique and charming style to them, its like a mix of Japanese and French character designs. I love it.
Overall, this was a great puzzle gaming experience, probably the only detriment is its lack of replayability. I mean once you solved a puzzle, you've solved it and there's no going back. Even so, this game is easily recommendable to anyone looking for a compelling and addictive puzzler.
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