The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

While I was sick up in bed, I decided, hey, I should beat things. So I did. I beat Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box.

Honestly, I don’t know what there is to say about the game, though. If you liked the first one, or you like the idea of a whole bunch of brainteasers and puzzles being tied together by a very nicely animated plot, then this game is probably for you, and you should buy it so they bring over The Last Time Travel and The Specter’s Flute in a much more timely fashion than the last two games. Buy buy buy, by my whims to get the games I want to come out. Go.

But yeah, the plot seemed more intense and involved this time. They really tried to give a much more interesting plot to the thing. I don’t know if it worked as well. To avoid spoilers, I won’t say much, but I will say I rather found the conceit that caused there to be a whole town full of puzzle-lovers in the first game much easier to buy than the reason in the second game, much less the fact that Layton travels to multiple places, all with puzzle-fanatics. But eh, it’s a world concept, and I’m generally fine with that. At the same time, the games go out of their way to try to explain it, so I feel like they should have to explain it in a satisfactory way. If they’d never explain it, it wouldn’t be a problem.

The game does tie more puzzles directly into the action. Sometimes they aren’t a direct one-to-one puzzle connection, but often you have to solve a puzzle to do something that Layton needs to do. To navigate a dark forest, you have to complete a puzzle about placing lights in a dark forest. To prove a murder wasn’t suicide, you have to look at a room and find out what’s wrong in it in order to prove there was a murderer who escaped from it. These really do tie you into the story very well. There’s even a puzzle that involves a physical object in your instruction booklet, which is pretty bold of them.

But yes, the game is really more of the same, but that is not at all a bad thing. If you like puzzles, and I do, it’ll keep you entertained for quite awhile. I’m kind of glad my sickness gave me a reason to get back to it and finish it up. Now I can wait for The Last Time Travel (which is actually teased at the end of the game, so it better be coming!) eagerly, without a guilty conscience.