The Let's Play Archive

Professor Layton and the Curious Village

by Dragonatrix

Part 2: Puzzle Time I



[Music: About Town]



Whenever you load a save, you get a little vignette recapping the most important plot parts seen thus far. Helps for if you've taken a long break and don't really remember what's going on right now. I imagine that most people probably miss this one because it's not immediately obvious that you can save before talking to Franco.

[Music: Puzzles]



By unanimous decision, slot #1 is the one we're going to try first. And it is...




Correct, of course! Why would it be anything else? #2's crank is shaped more like a trapezoid than a regular pentagon (the triangle at the top is the triangular peg so it's not a septagon). Similarly, #3's is clearly a hexagon and if that isn't enough to discount them both immediately, the pegs in both options are in wrong locations.



Not that the game lets you know this afterwards, but it's something you can easily notice if you were to look at it for even a few seconds.


[Music: About Town]



: I'm gonna say it again, I just don't feel right about letting outsiders into St Mystere. But if you're Lady Dahlia's guests, I guess I'd beter. At least give her my regards, you hear?





: Ha ha ha ha! Well, Luke, we'll find out soon enough. Just be careful not to let your excitement cloud your ability to analyse your surroundings.

Remember: totally not a detective, honest!



Well, anyway, before we can advance further or do anything else at all, we have to talk to that fine gentleman over there laughing at... something.

So, instead, let's just turn around and leave. That's kinda weird how he's just standing there eternally laughing.




: Indeed it does. But enough talk of trees. We should head over to meet Lady Dahlia now.

..And then we're booted back to the previous screen. Let's talk to that man after all, then.



: The name's Stachenscarfen, and I've got some advice for you. Tap that barrel back there with your stylus. Don't ask questions! Just do it!

At the start of, uh, every game in the series there's a person who's job (at that point) is to break the fourth wall to teach you about one important thing:



These little guys are, usually, incredibly useful but I'll let Stachen explain why.


: Keh heh heh! Felt good, didn't it! 'Round these parts, that's what we call a hint coin.



: And it's just those times when you'll want to use a hint coin to purchase a hint. I bet you think puzzles will be a breeze now, eh? Think again! There are a limited number of hint coins in this village! So don't go wasting coins on any old riddles. Because if you do, when you come across a real stumper, you'll be sorry! REEEALLY sorry! Mind you, hint coins won't always be hidden inside barrels. Check any object that seems suspicious. Got all that? Good. Be seeing you 'round.

In total, there's 200 Hint Coins available in this game and you start with 10. There's even 3 on this screen, in total, but you can't get any of them until you talk to Stachen. Now, since there's only a finite number of them and that number is far, far less than triple the number of puzzles that really drives home Stachen's warning about there being a limited number of them.



As an aside, during Stachen's mini-tutorial you can actually select any of the coins on this screen and have it count, rather than the one at the back. It's a little touch, but it's still pretty nice all the same.

Ah well, let's see what the lady wants before continuing further.




: Oh, before I forget, you should know that every time you solve a puzzle, you earn a set number of picarats. They say lovely things happen when you gather enough picarats. Imagine that, a reward for solving puzzles! For practice, try this little riddle that your hat reminded me of. Think good and hard before you answer.



Umm, that's okay I'll pass for now. More important places to be and all that.



With a few exceptions, you can back out of a puzzle for the time being and come back to it later. This option is even available, in some cases, when completing the puzzle is mandatory to advance the plot.

Now, something Ingrid didn't mention is that the number of picarats you get for solving a puzzle decreases if you get the solution wrong. As a result, you could potentially solve every puzzle in the game and still not have enough for what the rewards are when all is said and done. Probably. I haven't tested that myself, though, and I don't exactly want to either.

Oh, and for convenience all puzzles for you to cogitate over will be posted at the end of the update. Helps streamline things and prevents the actual update part from getting too cluttered.

Anyway, let's advance to the next screen at last, skip over a useless tutorial about how to save and finally begin...


[Music: Silence]



Generally, chapters starting/ending isn't a good place to bookend updates because their locations for doing so is pretty awkward, like this one.

[Music: About Town]



Ah well, let's not worry about that for now and instead talk to the guy here checking his watch. We can't continue further until we do so either.

This is starting to sound a bit familiar, huh.




: Reinhold Manor, you ask? Head up that road to the right. It's immense, so you'll know it when you see it. But before you go, why not try your hand at this puzzle I thought up? See if you can work out which house is mine from the instructions I give you. I'll even sweeten the deal for you! If you manage to solve this puzzle, I'll tell you about this village. So, how about it? You will try, won't you? After all, a writer is nothing without an audience!



...Um, no, that's fine. I'll come back later if need be. Thanks anyway, though!



: Still, I can tell by your capable-looking hat that you have what it takes to solve it.



While we can, in fact, examine that blue door on the right we get nothing out of it but reminded about what to do for the plot.

So, instead, let's go look at the clock!



...Okay, maybe not. We'll come back to look at it later.



Ah well, let's continue onwards to the mansion then. Nothing much else to do right now.




: He's blocking the path up to Reinhold Manor. How terribly rude!
: Perhaps he'll move for us, but I have a feeling he has no intention of doing anything of the sort.



Much like before, examining the blue door does absolutely nothing for us right now but tells us to pay attention to the current plot railroad. Let's just talk to the man then and see what he wants.



: We're here by invitation of the Reinholds. Now if you'll excuse us, we have business through the gate.
: Business with the Reinholds, izzat so? Something's strange here. Yeah, you're a fishy pair, mmm. I don't trust you, that's for sure, but I'll let you pass if you can solve this riddle, see? Just to warn you, it's a tough one. Isn't gonna be easy, is it? No way, definitely not gonna be easy...



...40 picarats?! That's nearly double our current total! This might not be easy after all.

[Music: Puzzles]



1. You're not weighing two sets of four weights on your first use of thescale, are you? If you do that, you'll only have one more chance to determine which of the four weights is the light one. But you probably already knew that, right?
2. Maybe thinking about another example will help you out here. Imagine you have three weights, one of which is lighter than the rest. To find the light weight, all you have to do is weight any two of the three. If one of the weights on the scale is lighter, there's your answer. If the two weights on the scale are equal, the remaining weight is the light one.
3. Think about the previous hint. You can work out the light weight in a group of three with one use of the scale. If you cannarrow the number of weights in question to three in one use of the scale, you've got your answer.

Now this is a fun little puzzle. The downside is the answer is completely random and can be any of the 8 weights at all so you can't cheese it by remembering the answer. Rather, you can memorise a method to guarantee that you'll get the right answer easily with a mere two uses of the scales.



Rather than weighing two sets of four, which would leave us with a 50-50 shot at the right answer, if we weigh two sets of three we can narrow down our possibilities to either 2 or 3 remaining weights. If these two were to come out balanced that would mean the answer was either weight #7 or weight #8. As it stands, it's either #1, #2 or #3 though so let's just weigh any two of them now.



As a result, we can get our answer with no problem. If they were to come out equal then the answer would be #3. Of course, this also holds true for if the lighter one was #4, #5 or #6. In this case, the lighter weight appears to be #2 though so let's submit that as our answer and see if we're right.






Just in case you hadn't figured out any easy way to solve it by the time you get it right, the game outright tells you what to do in the future. As it stands now, though, it just corroborates what I said.


[Music: About Town]



: So, have we satisfied you? May we pass now?
: 'Course you can pass! Move along! And you better make sure to give my regards to Lady Dahlia.



As is par for the course right now, we have to talk to the one guy here before we can advance further.



: My name is Layton, and this is my assistant, Luke. We received an invitation to visit Reinhold Manor.
: Ah, yes, yes. Ahoo hoo hoo! We've all been expecting you, Professor Layton. But, ahoo hoo, you'll have to excuse my scepticism. Can't trust anyone these days, you know. For all I know, you could be just another hoo-hoo-hooligan in a top hat. A hoo hoo hoo! So, how do I know you're the real Layton?



: Surely you aren't going to go through with this after an insult like that!
: Now, now, Luke, settle down. Sir, are you saying that you'd like to test me to see if I am the real Professor Layton?
: Precisely, Professor "Layton." Now, if you don't mind, would you please solve this puzzle for me?



Eh, I'm sure it can wait until later right?



Oh? Oh really? Okay, fine, let's do this thing. Bring it, Ramon! Do your worst!



...Um, er, I think asking for "your worst" was a mistake now.


[Music: Puzzles]



1. Do you find yourself moving the raft back and forth only to end up with the animals back in their starting position? Somewhere within your movements, you are doing something that restores the animals to their original positions. When you've found that point, try to do something different than you have thus far. It might bring you closer to the answer.
2. You don't necessarily have to take tw animals over on every trip and then bring one back. Sometimes you may want to bring two animals back. For starters, try getting al three of the wolves to the right side. Then you can slowly start swapping wolves for chicks.
3. Let's recap the previous hint. First, get all the wolves to the right side of the river. Then, start swapping the wolves for chicks. When you start to have too few chicks on the left bank of the river, you can bring a chick back over with a wolf to keep your remaining chick from getting eaten.

Oh, it's just one of these? That's not so bad after all. I remember back when I was a kid and I was trying to figure out a variant of this exact same puzzle and I couldn't get the answer for about an hour, if not more (...I was a pretty dumb kid, to be fair). Not really happened since then though and this one's no exception.

Also the puzzle doesn't really lend itself well to a few screenshots unlike the scales above so have a video:



Incidentally, this puzzle is one that you cannot ever get "wrong." Even if you screw up and get a chick eaten, you just retry as if you never made a mistake which is remarkably nice and lenient of it.





[Music: About Town]



I do believe I got that in 11, making my solution as streamlined as is possible. I'm sure you could reorder somethings to get 11 in a different way, if you were so inclined, but I can't think of anything that would work.



: Everyone? I was under the impression that Lady Dahlia was the only person expecting me.
: Right this way, please.

Sorry Ramon, but don't really feel like it right now. It'll have to wait until next time I'm afriad. Got some unfinished business to take care off...



[Music: Professor Layton's Theme]



First up is the one we received from Ingrid. Something about hats, and it's meant to be really easy which is nice of it too.



...Or, er, not. I dunno about you but I'm awful at these types of puzzles and almost always get this wrong at least once. I imagine it's only worth 10 because you can brute force it with trial and error if you really wanted to.


1. Don't just pick an answer based on what you see on the screen. If this puzzle could be solved with a quick glance at the screen, it wouldn't be much of a puzzle, now would it? The human eye perceives vertical and horizontal length differently.

For some puzzles, there may be times when the hints pretty much give the game away very quickly and practically stop it from being fun. In those cases, I'll leave those hints out for the time being and post them if it is really necessary. If it turns out not to be, I'll post them along with the solution instead.



Either way, next up we have Percy's little test that we were railroaded into seeing. We could skip if we so desired but that's not really very fun, so let's take a look at it.



It's much easier than Ingrid's, though, in spite of being worth twice as much. Not that I'm complaining, but they really show that worth and difficulty are not always directly correlated.


1. To face the morning sun, one must, of course, look eastward. The map shows north pointing towards the top of the screen, so which direction indicates east?
2. The rising sun comes from the east. On this map, that means it comes from the right. Therefore, if you follow the directions, you should be facing to the right after you take your last turn.



Now, when Layton said he had "a" puzzle for us... he lied. He has two! The first one we ran into, in fact, that changes depending on region. Whenever this is the case, there'll be a flag in the top left corner indicating which version it's from.



There's not much fancy about this one, though. Even the bottom screen is essentially filler.


1. The hands pass over each other once an hour. So in 12 hours they will pass 12 times... or will they?
2. The hands start off on top of each other at 12 noon, so that doesn't count as a pass.
3. One pass every hour. But the hands don't pass over each other on the hour. They will pass at around 5 minutes past 1, or 33 minutes past 6. So what time will it be the last time they pass?



Personally, I think that despite being worth the exact same amount the US version of this puzzle is a bit harder. Technically.

Also when playing through the opening again to get to this bit, I found out the hard way that Luke's voice acting is so much worse in the US version and really doesn't fit at all. Or at least I think so anyway.



This is the first puzzle of its type wherein what it's testing is "do you have a pen and paper handy?" If so, you're gonna be here a while but you'll get an answer eventually. If not, go find one. You basically need it! The memo section on the bottom screen isn't always enough, especially for something like this.


1. As mentioned earlier, this digital clock works on a 12-hour display system. This means you'll cycle through the numbers twice a day. Therefore, before you submit your answer, you need to double the number of times you found to account for a.m. and p.m.
2. You probably already picked up on combinations like 1:11 and 2:22, but finding the less obvious combinations is what makes up the real meat of this problem. Did you, for example, remember to include the time 10:00?

When posting what you believe to be the solution, try and use the puzzle's number to indicate which one it is. In some cases I'll be able to tell just from context but I'd prefer if you were clear about it, thanks!