Puzzles, puzzles, and then some more puzzles...
posted by Taladryel (NEW YORK, NY) Nov 9, 2009
Member since Feb 2009
In most respects, "Diabolical Box" is pretty much identical to its predecessor, "Curious Village". In fact, the enjoyment of this game can vary based on whether one had played its predecessor (there is such a thing as puzzle overload). The gameplay is simple - the player moves from one static screen to another, tapping objects with the stylus to find hint coins and puzzles, which can be math, logic, basic "trick questions", maze-tracing, geometry and visualization, block-shifting, moving sheep across moats, chess, and an especially vicious type of "peg solitaire" (at least, once one makes it to the third and fourth levels of that one). Difficulty ranges from very easy to fairly difficult, and it doesn't help that in a few puzzles, the DS screen (or the question's wording) are not very helpful in getting the thing solved - more so than in the "Curious Village", in fact.
The fun part is - solving puzzles nets you Picarats, the game's currency - with each failed try reducing the number of Picarats you get per puzzle. Getting enough Picarats unlocks additional puzzle challenges (at least one of which requires a copy of the "Curious Village" as well) and the player can make puzzle-solving a bit easier by spending any hint coins found on up to three hints per puzzle.
All of this is tied together with a garden-variety "mystery", some anime-ish cut-scenes, and the obligatory swerve that, unlike in "Curious Village", is a bit on the "trippy" side (you'll see what I mean...). [Thankfully, any puzzles missed in a given chapter can be accessed later on in the story.] Frankly, I enjoyed the first game somewhat more, but again, this might be the effect of "Layton Fatigue" (playing through more than one of these in a six-month period is bound to be tiring).
On the whole, new players should find the barrage of brain teasers - tied together with a bare-bones mystery - an entertaining diversion. As for those who'd already played "Curious Village" - this is more of the same.
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