Blueflower's Gaming Blog and Reviews

[blueflower999]

I'm bored. Let's get this over with!

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box of Doom and Sadness:

Gameplay: 9/10 Similar to Curious Village, but so much more polished. I really don't know how to describe this feeling, actually. You just sort of have to experience both games (in order) by yourself, you know? The vast majority of puzzles in Curious Village were just thrown in there randomly. "Oh look! It's a cat eating a mouse! That reminds me of a 3rd puzzle from this same situation!" None of that crap is in Diabolical Box, and it makes it so much more enjoyable and worthwhile to play. With Curious Village as practice, I only struggled on a handful of puzzles in this game, so unlike the predecessor, it didn't cause weeping and gnashing of teeth. Great job, Level-5. You improved an already great formula! These games are challenging to review for me because there's so much I can talk about, but 80% of it would be considered a spoiler! You really just have to take my word for this if you haven't played the game. If you have, you should know what I'm talking about, but if you haven't, you must! Anyway, back to the gameplay. Curious Village literally takes place in a, *shocker*, village. Literally the entire game is spent in St. Mystere. It's fun, and more areas open up as the game goes along, but Diabolical Box is so much broader. I can think of at least 4 major areas in the game, maybe 5 or 6 if you can break them down farther, but AT LEAST 4 areas that a good portion of the game is spent in. Yeah, it means you need to look for Hint Coins while you can, but the change in characters and scenery really helps keep the game flowing and the plot progressing.

Addictiveness: 9/10 This game, if you can believe it, does an even BETTER job of keeping you on your toes than the predecessor. My word, this is a difficult game to put down once you start! Just the fact that it's rated E10 rather than E like Curious Village should be a sign that some crazy crap happens in this sucker! I'm even starting to like the puzzle gameplay a little... wait, did I just say that?!

Story: 10/10 No 9/10 crap like before, this story is pure genius. GENIUS. Literally! I have never actually had an experience with a game like this before! When all the pieces were finally put together, I literally said outloud "brilliant!". My mouth was on the floor at this game's moments. And I was actually... I'll admit it.... close to tears at the end. I DIDN'T CRY, but I was sort of crying on the inside. You'll understand when you play the game. Bravo. This may be my favorite DS series here, folks.

Music: 8/10 Once again, the music isn't exactly the series' strong point in my opinion, but there definitely are some good tunes! Layton's theme is probably still my favorite, but there are some fairly good new ones here. I'll share a couple, but remember that the titles to these songs could give away some spoilers, so don't look if you haven't played the game!

A beautiful song from later in the game *SPOILERS*

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An area in the beginning of the game.

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Again, I haven't listened to all of this game's soundtrack, so I would appreciate some more recommendations! Oh, and the accordion is still there, but that's fine! I'm starting to adjust to it. One question though; why are songs so long in these games?! The first song I posted above is so long  that if you actually hear all of it while trying to figure out what to do, you SUCK at the game! It's great that they made the song so awesome, but it really doesn't need to be this long!

Character Design: 10/10 If there's anything this game didn't improve, it was the character design. I'm being honest here, so don't kill me! And don't get me wrong either, the characters are great! Well, the main characters that is. I just didn't find the townsfolk to be that wacky like before. So, why 10/10 then? Because the game introduced some GREAT new characters! I wish I could talk about them here, but I really can't, so I'll put it this way; any new major character in Diabolical Box is outstanding. Maybe the townsfolks aren't as funny anymore because I'm used to the art design now. Wait, now that I think about it, there was ONE NPC that made me laugh out loud. I think Slow knows who I'm talking about.

Humor: 8/10 Another improvement, but this is what I want  from the Layton series in the future. This may be a bit difficult to explain, but I want Level-5 to try and have more fun while making these games! Yes, the series parts of the game probably are the best, but I want more humor! I want to be able to connect with the characters more on comedic level! With Nintendo, I expect a lot of humor! One of the things that makes me such a huge Nintendo fanboy is that they put so much style and lol-worthy moments into so many of their games! Maybe I'm being too critical. Maybe Layton is meant to be a series franchise. But I just can see such possibility here! Both of my favorite gaming franchises are packed full of comic relief that it shapes the game series as a whole, and that's not what I'm expecting. I just want a few legitimately humorous moments in the game. Some comic relief, if you will. And not from just looking at the NPCs. The closest thing I've gotten to that so far is this:

Spoiler

"A true gentlemen never takes off his hat. And that's all I have to say on the matter."

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Oh, and I guess Pavel is pretty funny too. But that's like a "Heh! That's interesting!" kind of humor. I want a "HAHA WOWWWWW" kind of pun or something. IDK, maybe I'm just used to it and  don't know what makes a serious series good. Anyway, moving on.

Difficulty: 8/10 A few puzzles did drive me a little bonkers, and I haven't nearly completed all of them, but I found it much easier to get through this game than Curious Village. However, this time I failed to meet at least 2 of the puzzle cut offs, so either they were more strict or I didn't talk to enough people in the areas before that! The final puzzles are freaking difficult, but to get through the story mode wasn't too bad. Either I'm getting better, or this game was slightly easier.

Other Memorable Features: The minigames are improved TREMENDOUSLY. I'm really not sure how to do one of them yet, but the other two are pretty stinkin' enjoyable! If you thought Curious Village's "games" were good, you have another thing coming! Oh, the cutscenes are GORGEOUS. I don't know if I've seen cutscenes on the DS this good before! Maybe I need to play more cinematic games, but wow! They're used a lot more in this game too. And there's a lot more voice acting during the text conversations as well. All fantastic stuff.

Overall: 9.8/10. It's SO close, but there are a handful of things that I want to see from the series before I give a Layton game a 10/10. Sorry! I'm being overly critical on purpose, by the way.

Next up: I'm planning a few surprises. Like, legitimate surprises this time. Some of you guys are going to be really happy.

[SlowPokemon]

Excellent review! Oh my gosh I cannot wait to see your reaction to Unwound Future if you liked Diabolical Box that much XD Most of it I agree with so I'll just comment on the music section:

Music: 8/10 Once again, the music isn't exactly the series' strong point in my opinion, but there definitely are some good tunes! Layton's theme is probably still my favorite, but there are some fairly good new ones here. I'll share a couple, but remember that the titles to these songs could give away some spoilers, so don't look if you haven't played the game!

Again, I haven't listened to all of this game's soundtrack, so I would appreciate some more recommendations! Oh, and the accordion is still there, but that's fine! I'm starting to adjust to it. One question though; why are songs so long in these games?! The first song I posted above is so long  that if you actually hear all of it while trying to figure out what to do, you SUCK at the game! It's great that they made the song so awesome, but it really doesn't need to be this long!

Yeahh there isn't much that's as good as Professor Layton's Theme from the first game. They sort of did a "new version" of his theme with "The Elysian Box Theme" but it wasn't quite as good, it was too ominous in my opinion. It was still really good and better for the game though.

And I don't think that the pieces are too long. The first one you posted

Spoiler

Folsense

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is only 2 minutes and 40 seconds before it repeats, and you definitely spend more than 2 minutes and 40 seconds wandering around that place, particularly at the quest with the

Spoiler

stolen photograph.

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And the second one

Spoiler

The Molentary Express

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is only 1 minute and 30 seconds before it repeats, and you definitely have at least a few times where you do nothing but talk to people or wander around that area  for longer than 1 minute and 30 seconds.

I mean, I suppose 2:40 could be seen as long for a video game piece, but I don't think that one in particular could be any shorter--the progression is very cool and it couldn't do without any part, in my opinion.

Also I was a little surprised you didn't list the ending theme ("Iris")--that one is one of my favorite Layton pieces of all time, though it wasn't actually composed by Nishiura.

Thanks for the review, even if I'm the only one who appreciated it! XD Looking forward to "surprises" and your playthrough of Unwound Future.

[blueflower999]

Dang, my reviews are getting longer. I don't know if that's good or bad. 

Thanks for the feedback! I'll get Unwound Future as soon as I see it.

[SlowPokemon]

I saw it last time I was at Target of all places they didn't have any of the other ones for the DS, just Miracle Mask and Unwound Future.

[Bubbles]

Last time I went to target I saw all of them there too. They were really overpriced for being as old and underplayed as they are though

[SlowPokemon]

....I was at Target last week and saw Unwound Future for $14.99. Not a bad price at all

[Bubbles]

It was $30 at mine :/ I cant remember if it was Target or Walmart though

[blueflower999]

I'm going to raise the "Humor" score up a point because I forgot of all the hilarious tea moments. "Professor! This tea is... foaming!" XDDD

I'll admit, I got a lot of enjoyment out of those!

[blueflower999]

Proof that EarthBound has the best fanbase of any game ever.

[blueflower999]

I've been making a Pokemon PowerPoint guide for myself so that I'll have access to statistics when I don't have internet and/or when I need to look up something quickly and don't have time to scroll through endless walls of text on Serebii or Bulbapedia. I'm currently just finished Machoke, and I'm trying to get all the way through to Genesect before Generation 6 is released. Each slide contains the National Pokedex #, the type, generation, species, height, weight, abilities, base stats (HP, Offense, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed), Evolutions, Weaknesses, and Resistances. Do you think I can make it?

[Bubbles]

you should probably add in EV points and exp. values too

and lolnope do you know how many times ive tried this? I never got farther than Krabby

[blueflower999]

What happens? Do you delete it?

I'm kinda experienced at this because I've made PowerPoint guides to several games before (Including EarthBound, Pikmin 1, Pikmin 2, and DragonCave), although this is by far the biggest one I've ever done.

And I'm pretty sure that EVs and Experience Values would make things way too complicated.

[Bubbles]

Experience values mainly because Ill be training a Pokemon then get frustrated when its not leveling up fast enough

And I would write them in little notebooks. After I'd give up, Id find a cuter notebook and start that one XD

[Zunawe]

I'm actually currently in the process of writing a program to keep track of my pokemon. It'll ask for the name, level, and pokemon number, then ask for base stats, nature, EVs, and IV's, and then calculate the stats. Finally it'll list it in a file by number. Eventually I hope to add a database for it to take from and all you have to do is enter the number and it'll bring up the name and base stats.

I suppose it's not the same thing, but it's something along the same lines.

[blueflower999]

What I'm about to play right now is what I presume to be as close to a horror game as I have ever come. And I'm scared crazy.

I don't like horror games, but there's no turning back now...