I've been wanting to try this series for a long time, and I saw the first game (Curious Village) for $15 in Target earlier this week so I picked it up. Haven't played too much, but I can tell it's going to totally break my brain by the time it's over. It's a series I'd like to get into though - a lot of my friends have played all the games and have highly recommended them.
I've only played Curious Village and I really enjoyed it. The puzzles were pretty neat and different than what you usually see in puzzle games imo, plus the story was entertaining. Replay value is pretty high too, I think. /too lazy to play the others
I've played all three and it never felt repetitive. Yes, some were better than others (Diabolical Box) but all three games were very entertaining.
Each of the Professor Layton games are unique and amazing in their own way, Diabolical Box being the best of the three, in my opinion.
I've kinda been holding off on playing it because it seems like it'll be perfect for on-the-go gaming, and I've got an hour and a half ride tomorrow. I was going to play it coming back from my audition Tuesday but I wound up driving most of the way home myself.
I've played all three that are out in NA now and... I'm so tempted to go play the fourth--and I would--except my Japanese is definitely not good enough to get the little tricks and discrepancies in the puzzles. ;_; Honestly it's probably one of the BEST game series out there today. Puzzles never get old (unless you really hate them) and the plots are (fairly) lighthearted and fun... and really ridiculous. XD; And it doesn't punish you for not exploring. If you wanna go all over the place and find every single puzzle and talk to every person between plot cutscenes, you can! And if you just wanna get to the end of the game and only do what's required, it sends any puzzles you missed to a locale you can check out on your own. So it's definitely a game anyone can pick up. I actually want to try to make my mom play it because it's a game that anyone--hardcore gamer or not--can enjoy but she's pretty against video games so. :( (Third game made me cry.)
I like the series and loved the original game. The plots are just getting more ridiculous as the series goes on though, and I'm not sure that's a good thing. Enjoy all the characters those zany plots bring up though.
Apparently there's still one more Layton game coming to DS - the Last Specter is coming later this year. It's been out in Japan for two years...I don't know why Nintendo takes so long to localize these games. I guess we won't see the 3DS game until 2013.
Yeah, there's two trilogies. The first is the three that we have out now, then Last Spectre is the start of a new prequel trilogy. I think the 3DS game is the second in that series. Supposedly the 3DS one comes out December 31st in EU, which would make two games in one year, but that really seems like a placeholder date, especially since NA has no announcement yet. :s The games are localized excellently so I really don't mind the wait. I guess I do wish we weren't two years behind though. XD;
