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The reason I never bought a Professor Layton game when I was younger was because I just thought puzzles in video games were lame. Maybe because I played a lot of games with slide puzzles in them or something. I absolutely despise some of the puzzles in Twilight Princess. I did not enjoy those sliding box puzzles from Snowpeak Ruins or that Sacred Grove puzzle before getting the Master Sword.

The core gameplay of this series is, of course, solving puzzles. The townsfolk will give you information in exchange for solving their puzzles. There are also hidden puzzles you can find by tapping on environmental objects.

You don't have to solve every puzzle, but if you're worried about missing out on some if you progress through the story, don't worry. Any puzzles you miss will go to Granny Riddleton's Shack. You can solve any lost puzzles from there, which I thought was nice.

Aside from the slide puzzles, you'll find a lot of real brain teasers, and some of them can be really silly.

There was a puzzle I did where you had to connect the five largest objects in space to form the largest-pointed star possible. I thought I only had to connect the stars until I reread what it says. Okay, what are the largest objects in space? Stars, right? But what else? If you figured it out, then you know where to connect the fifth object.

Many of these puzzles try to make you think outside the box. Even though I'm not great at puzzles, I get a sense of satisfaction once you finally solve them. Watching a little animation of Layton or Luke judging your final answer either stresses me out or gives me pure relief.

Now that I have played enough of this game, I can say there is no way my younger self would be able to solve most of these puzzles. So... maybe it's a good thing I waited out on this game?

Overall, I enjoyed my first playthrough of Professor Layton and the Curious Village. If you read all the way through my ramblings, thank you. I was kind of not expecting this to be a bit long, haha. This game has a ton of charm, and it inspired me to start a game diary.

Before I head out, did you know there are two hidden drawings in my diary? If you already found them, good job!