Fuck!

I just did something really stupid that I can't fix. You probably haven't noticed this, but I accidentally deleted my review for Professor Layton and the Curious Village. I might be able to recover it, but I might just have to rewrite it. I do have parts of it saved so, all hope is not lost. But it's worth noting that me deleting this review was part of me trying to save the review for Mario & Luigi, so that will be up soon tonight. But damn, I'm really pissed I deleted that other review. I'm gonna have to see what I can do about that.

The Diabolical Box: Day 13

So it's kind of sad this game is taking me so long, but what can I say. School is a total bitch. As of now I have 76 puzzles completed and if I had to guess 1800ish picarats. I cannot wait to do a proper review of this game. Hopefully I'll be done in a week at the most, though, I'm definitely going to have to pick up the slack if I want that to happen.

The Diabolical Box: Day 7

Ahh, not much to say this time, though good progress has been made. So far 59 puzzles solved and 1350 picarats. That and the story is starting to pick up! Next Layton update might not be for awhile, but some real posts will be coming this week(two almost ready for publishing!)

EDIT: Originally I said this was day 6 but it was actually day 7.

The Diabolical Box: Day 4

Yep. It's been four days since I got Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box - and four good ones to say the least. Honestly, I haven't made as much progress in the game as I'd expected to, but I blame the fact that I'm making the guide for it. As of writing this I have 47 puzzles completed, which is about one third of the total puzzles in the game, and I've still got a lot more to go. Instead of posting these daily(as you can see there was no day 3 update) I'm just gonna post these whenever good progress is made in the game or the guide. Tomorrow's looking like it's gonna be busy, and school starts Tuesday. I also have a Game Theory I've been working on planned to go up tomorrow. This time it's about level design, so stay tuned.

The Diabolical Box: Day 2

Another day of Layton has passed and a lot more progress has been made this time around. Now that I'm up to 34 puzzles completed and have at least had a chance to try all three of the minigames I feel I can have more of an opinion on the game. And thus far, my opinion is nothing less than great. Seriously, I feel like improvements have been made in every aspect of this game. Not only are you exploring more areas, the story seems to pick up much earlier and the puzzles feel harder. Although I have encountered a few puzzles that have been poorly presented(involving intricate details in small pictures on the already small DS screen), overall the game seems to be an improvement on the series.

The Diabolical Box: Day 1

Well, who would have thought that writing a guide for a game takes more time than playing the game itself? Because of this, I've only been able to complete 12 of the puzzles in the game so far. But to be honest, I haven't have very much time to play today and the time I had I spent setting up my guide and trying to figure out an exact solution to a slide puzzle(grrrr...).

In other news, Level - 5 announced that the fourth(yes fourth, not third) Professor Layton game will come with the additional game, Professor Layton and London Life, an RPG with supposedly 100 hours of gameplay that was developed by the company that made Mother 3(Earthbound 3). I don't know what to say, because I'm just in awe. Layton has just become the best modern gaming franchise.

The Diabolical Box: Initial Thoughts

So far, I have just barely scraped the surface on the new Professor Layton game, having completed the prologue and just begun chapter 1. With only 7 puzzles down, I feel like for the most part I have no idea what's in store, but there are some things I can say for sure:

First off, this time around, Professor Layton puts you far more into the story far earlier on. I've noticed that there seem to be more cutscenes also, meaning more of their grade A voice acting.

Second off, pretty much all of the features from the old game were kept in this one. This includes the play style, the interface, the music, the graphical style and the menus. While this sounds like a complaint, I'm glad they stuck to something that works. The only things I wanted to be different going into this game were the story and the puzzles.

And my last and final of the initial thoughts is that the puzzles feel much, much harder this time around. As early as the fourth and fifth puzzles I found myself using hint coins and still making mistakes.

Be sure to check back every night where I'll be posting my daily progress as well as progress I've made in the walkthrough I'm writing that goes with this game(and wow who would have thought writing a walkthrough makes playing the game take infinitely longer.)

Just Got the New Professor Layton!

I'm pretty excited to play this. Not only am I going to review this when I get done with it, but I'm considering writing the answers to each puzzle down and submitting a solution FAQ to gamefaqs, seeing as no one else has done so yet. We'll see how that goes, though. Check back tomorrow for my initial thoughts on the game.