Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box

Product showed up on time. Product condition was exactly as the seller described. Will definitely do business again.

I've already reviewed  Professor Layton and the Curious Village  and soon to review  Professor Layton and the Unwound Future , so I won't bore you with too many repeat details, or at least I will try not to. I'm banking on the fact that you're playing this game AFTER having played Curious Village. If you have not played Curious Village and are considering this, I URGE you to play Curious Village first. While not necessary from a storyline perspective, it helps. Plus there are unlockables that can be used in this game.Speaking strictly about the differences with Diabolical Box, after the adventures in Curious Village, Layton receives a letter from an old friend who has made a startling discovery, but leaves an ominous message at the end. Worried for his friend, Layton and his apprentice arrive to find his apartment in shambles, and him on the floor unresponsive. The only evidence left behind are tickets on a train, but no clear information as to destination or why the tickets are there in the first place. They decide to take a trip to find more information about what happened.I give Diabolical Box credit for one thing: the puzzles were often directly related to the basic story. You'll still encounter patrons of the city you arrive at who need help with a puzzle in exchange for information or clues to solve the mystery. However, the puzzles focused less on tripping you up with word trickery as seen in Curious Village. There were a lot more actual puzzles time around, still some brain teasers.Where Diabolical Box broke down was with what I can only assume to be translation problems. Some puzzles were worded so poorly as to almost guarantee a wrong answer. There's one in particular - Google it - where it asks about the proper ratio of clouds to open sky. Well, I assume they meant proportion, not ratio, because the correct answer (which I won't give) is a proportion...meaning a certain number vs. a certain number. Mathematically, the ratio is the lowest possible, not the highest proportion.So for example, if I had an 8 slice pizza and I asked you how many slices 4 people can eat at the most, the answer is 8, obviously, because that's all you have. In other words, 8:4...8 slices for four people. Notice I didn't ask "how many slices can EACH person eat", nor did I ask "how many slices are there for EACH person". I simply said, you have 8 slices and 4 people, so how much will those 4 people eat, which is 8.Now, calculate base ratio by breaking it down by halves.8:4 = 4:2 (four slices for every two people)4:2 = 2:1 (2 slices for every person)In that question - for an 8 slice pizza, how many slices 4 people can eat at the most - as asked, all three answers are essentially correct. 8:4, 4:2, or 2:1.In the sky/cloud puzzle in Diabolical Box, it wants the highest propotion only but asks for a ratio. The way the question is asked, does not specify WHICH ratio. In fact, based on the true answer, ratio is not the proper term that should have been used...because when calculating ratio, you always use the lowest possible. In my pizza example, that's 2:1. In the sky/cloud puzzle, the lowest ratio is counted wrong.I know I went on for a while with that example, but I wanted to adequately warn you about some of the wording of the puzzles this time around, and give you a specific example of the kinds of things to look out for. Such is the problem with puzzle-heavy games. The puzzle changes depending on how the writer words the question, and in some cases, you might give what is a right answer but be counted wrong if the game considers each puzzle to only have one right answer (which is another issue, but not nearly severe).You might mistake my review for disliking Diabolical Box. In truth I didn't find it as compelling as Curious Village. But it was a fun game in its own right. I just felt that they got a little lazy on the puzzles and making sure that players could effectively answer them without having what are clearly iffy wording discrepancies. You still should play this if you enjoyed Curious Village, and again, if you didn't play Curious Village, you really should before diving into this.

If you liked the first installment of Professor Layton like I did, you'll probably enjoy this as well. I'm not done playing the game but so far it's got an equally nuanced story with puzzles within puzzles - and in the past where they had Layton's room to deal with and the painting pieces, now you have multiple mini puzzles within the game to play!Like the first installment (Professor Layton and the Curious Village), this game is filled with puzzles that deal with logic and so is addictive if you like solving these problems however I personally feel that some are easier than before while there are others that have stumped me (and my friends).But I love the minigames - there's one similar to the painting minigame where you now have to put together a camera; and one with a cute hamster; and another tea game. They encourage you to pick up more items within the game itself and keep you playing.I'm looking forward to the ending of this game - the previous one had a pretty good storyline so I'm hoping that this will be the same. It's addictive fun and you ca convince yourself that you're doing brain-training at the same time.^_^"

This is my first time to play a game in this series. While I love puzzles, the concept is sometimes ridiculous as they try to put a story line to it all. For example , in one part of the game you are looking for a missing boy who may have fallen from a moving train. Instead of all hands on deck in this apparent emergency, we stop every now and then to do a random puzzle just because. It’s just out of place. There’s way too much dialogue. I made it about half way through the game and just stopped caring about whatever was in the box I was to be looking for. I just want a game with puzzles and forget the storyline. As a pro, the puzzles are good, varied, clever, and provide the right amount of challenge.

My first Professor Layton game was Unwound Future, so I am backtracking with Diabolical Box. Not that it makes much difference as all the Prof Layton games can be played on their own and out of order. I enjoyed this game even more than Unwound Future. I found the puzzles to be more entertaining and I liked the puzzle progressions with the peg games and chess games. The characters were more distinct and finely drawn, making for memorable characters such as Sammy Thunder, Babette, and Anton. I'm however still searching for a reason for the Flora character, and found it disturbing that the gentleman that Professor Layton claims to be did not rush back to Dropstone to rescue her when she was kidnapped, but rather left her locked up in a barn for the duration of the adventure. Doesn't send the best message to our female gamers.I liked the extras, the tea game, the camera, and the hamster game, although I found the hamster game too easy. But once complete he sniffed out hint coins for me, so completing the hamster game early was tactically advantageous.I'm still working through all the bonus material but fully intend to buy the remaining Professor Layton games once I've completed this one. An enjoyable and challenging game, well worth the price.

Great game...and series. It's a stylus based game solving a whole range of different puzzles of varying complexity presented by way of a story. There's quite a good bit of dialogue in the game, but once you are past this, the puzzles are fun. I find myself just sitting staring at the screen for most of the time. The countdown moment where you see if you are correct is entertaining too. Great to have the DS in hand at night sitting in front of the fire with this game. I intended to play them all!..

I played Professor Layton and the Curious village last year and enjoyed it but I didn't think it was as good as all its hype. It sort of put me off buying its sequel... now I'm wondering why I delayed for so long.Gamplay- The same as Curious village with a mixture of heavy dialogue to build up the story, short bits of footage and plenty of puzzles to entertain and fustrate. The only thing I would tweak with this is to put more footage in because reading all the dialogue does get slightly tiresome and repetitive but its not a huge problem.The main gameplay is the puzzle, most of the first puzzles are fairly easy to build your confidence with them gradually getting harder (Don't even mention the knight's puzzle I was at that for hours and still haven't completed it) I found some of the puzzles too difficult to do on my own and unfortunatly had to cheat a little which made me feel awful. However the majority of puzzles are just challenging enough to keep you entertained without causing too much of a headache. = 7/10Visuals- Looks a lot brighter and crisp than Curious village and all the different characters and wonderful settings are varied and beautiful. The only problem with visuals is the cut scenes are on the bottom screen so isn't as visually good if it was on the top screen. = 7/10Plot- I personally thought the start was a little slow and was worried that it was going to be boring but it picked up a lot during the second chapter. The story is of Layton's mentor finding the Elysian box (similar to the Greek myth of Pandora's box of whoever opens it dies) Layton worried for his mentor goes to see him to find he is dead and the box is missing. Layton along with Luke and the stand-offish Officer Chelmy are on the case which leads them to the glamorous Molentary Express which is full of intriguing and odd passangers (Sammy is my favourite :D). As their journey progresses they arrive in the creepy town of Folsense which has a strange connection with the Elysian box and is inhabited by a vampire lord. The plot keeps you on your toes always asking questions, is there really a vampire, does the box really kill people, why doesn't anything age in Folsense and more? Nothing will prepare you for the end, lets just say get the tissues ready! = 9/10Characters- Right I'm just going to throw it out there- I hate, hate, hate Luke. He is the most annoying child in the world and his voice- grr. I also found Layton rather annoying always talking about what a gentlemen should do, god Layton let your hair down a little! Other than the two main characters the others are hilarious and bizzare especially the try hard rockstar Sammy. The quirky characters really make the game. = 8/10Additions- The extras on the game are weekly puzzles which I haven't done yet and set of unlockable extra hard puzzles unlocked with special requirments. During the game there is a Hamster mini-game where you had to get a very chubby hamster fit, another is to build up a camara which took me ages fiddling with the little pieces! Once it is built you can take pictures of certain areas and do a spot the difference. = 7/10Overal= 38/50 A fantastic game that is much better than the previous game, I couldn't put it down for the two weeks it took me to complete it.

In the second installment of the Professor Layton series, the eponymous scholar and his self-proclaimed apprentice receive a troubling letter from Dr. Andrew Schrader, the mentor to our gentlemanly hero. The letter tells of a box which is thought to kill anyone who opens it. Believing he has the answer as to why, the doctor plans to open the box. The worried duo rush to his aid, only to find him dead at the scene. The only clues to the doctor's line of thinking before he opened the box is a strange unmarked train ticket, and the mysterious box itself.A beautiful story with lots of twists and turns, packed with puzzles that will have you scratching your head and wishing you hadn't wasted your last hint coin, Professor Layton and Pandora's Box is an interesting sequel to the Curious Village tale. However, if you're not satisfied by throwaway explanations for bizarre phenomena and have difficulty suspending your disbelief, you might not enjoy this one so much. If you like action and swordfights, take a trip on the Molentary Express!As before, there are extras once the game is completed, as well as little mini-games for play during the game itself.

Came a few days after first day that Amazon said it would arriveBrand New ConditionNo scratchesGame Card had accounts but after examining the card itself there was no damage and it plays perfectly well as if it was brand newCame with all the inserts and the promotional codes were untouchedCame in typical Amazon packaging and was well protectedAll in all I am a happy customerAbout the Game itselfI love all the puzzlesThe artwork is lovelyMusical sound tracks are gorgeousWonderful game and would recommend to everyone

This game is 90% of what I'd hoped for, however I chose it above other games on my list mainly because it's reasonably wordy and the PAL-region has a French option which would let me improve my French in a relatively lazy way. There is actually a separate listing on Amazon for the US-import (Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box) that it should have been listed under. I've given 3 stars because while I can't use it for what I intended, it's still a good game.