we need to appreciate the curious village more !!!
The Curious Village is not definitely the best game of the series. It was the first, the oldest, and the one with more flaws. Also, I read that this game has the most difficult puzzles, with a lot of math problems (I didn’t even know what 2+2 was when I played it for the first time omg). The graphics weren’t that good if you compared it with the rest of the games (but again, it was the first one so it’s understandable) and the game itself is just a simple, small mystery in a simple, small town. There’s not much complexity in it.
Despite all this, The Curious Village has always been my favourite game of the Professor Layton series since I played it, and not because it reminds me of the good old days.
The atmosophere around The Curious Village is what makes this game memorable for me. It’s dark, it’s creepy and if you play for a really long time, it could become even depressing.
St. Mystère design amazes me until this day. A parade of the same color palette (warm colors that are absolutely not warm in essence), a procession of small buildings (some of them in a really bad state) that gives us a boring, calm feeling because we are, after all, in a simple village far from the city. But the fact is, it’s so calm that, ironically, it’s not. And you especially feel this when everytime you look over the roofs, the mysterious big tower sticks out, as quiet as the rest of the village. The town itself is telling you that there’s something wrong. Something bad is about to happen, maybe is something that is already happening without you being aware of it.
The inhabitants’ behaviour also gives hints of this. They are very eccentric, and all of them tells you, at some point, the same thing: don’t go to the tower where a lot of shit is going on. Ok, why is everyone telling me that about the disturbing tower at the background? I just wanted to find the golden apple without being terrified, dammit.
And if the atmosphere of the town wasn’t creepy enough, you will find murders, disappearances and an old crazy kidnapper that shows up at nights, of course kidnapping people. All of this without context, which makes the situation even worse. (you have to reach the tower to know what the fxxk is going on haHA)
Then, we have the music. Oh my god, the music. I will never get tired of saying that The Curious Village soundtrack is underrated. It is what makes this game the creepiest, darkest Professor Layton game when it comes to ambience. There is this track that always is played on loop when you are exploring the town; a track that sounds kinda peaceful and at the same time, so depressing. It’s trying to tell you the exact thing as the visuals of the game: something is WRONG, but you don’t know what is it yet. You have to discover it before it’s too late. Because even if everything looks calm, time keeps running.
All of this could change when you know the actual truth behind St. Mystère. In my case, I felt amazed and so lonely, especially lonely because how is this possible? what a nice plot twist, if I’m being honest. My 9-year-old me was like OMG and 10 years later I still find it quite impressive because once you’ve discovered the truth, everything makes sense: the depressing soundtrack, the dark tone of the town… but guess what? without being less creepy. In fact, it scared me a little bit more.
I just want people to appreciate this game because it’s amazing in its own way. People tends to underappreciate it and that makes me sad.
As I said before, it is just a simple, small mystery in a simple, small town.
But with a simple, small charm that none of the other Professor Layton games have. The Curious Village has its own distinguished color inside the series and that’s why I find it so interesting.
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