Professor Layton and The Diabolical Box - Gameplay

Gameplay

Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box is an adventure/puzzle game. The player controls the movements of the eponymous Professor Layton and his young assistant Luke through several locations, unlike in the previous game which is confined to just one town. Along with completing many different types of puzzles, players must explore different areas, solve mysteries, and aid the Professor on his quest.

The puzzle menus for this game are very similar to those in Curious Village. Puzzles include brain teasers, sliding puzzles, logic puzzles and others. The player is presented with each puzzle and its value in "picarats", and is given unlimited time to solve it. Each puzzle has three hints available for it, but the player must spend one "hint coin" to see each hint. Hint coins are limited; the player starts with ten, and more can be found by searching the game's locales. Once the player feels he has the answer, he enters it, either by selecting an answer, drawing a circle around a specific part, or entering the answer through character recognition on the Nintendo DS's touchscreen. If the player is correct, the picarats are added to his total score, and he is sometimes rewarded with an item. If the player is incorrect, they can retry the puzzle indefinitely, though the first two times they are wrong, the value of the puzzle will decrease by approximately ten percent each time. Optionally, a player can quit a puzzle at no cost and try another, though certain puzzles are mandatory to progress. Once a puzzle is completed, the player may retry it at any time via the game's menus.

As a reward for completing a puzzle, the player may earn one of three rewards. Hamster toys are collected to help Luke give a morbidly obese hamster a workout. Pieces of a shattered camera that Sammy accidentally dropped can be assembled to repair it. Also, players can earn tea ingredients to brew new recipes and serve cups of tea to Luke, Layton and people they meet. By completing all 138 puzzles in the main game and each of these additional puzzles, the player can access 15 bonus puzzles for a grand total of 153 puzzles (excluding the downloadable puzzles). The game is compatible with Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, allowing players to connect to the internet and download new weekly puzzles. The first unlockable puzzle was made available on the day of the game's Japanese release, and one new key has been released every week thereafter. New keys are released on Sunday. There are also two bonuses in "The Hidden Door" that are only available after the player finds one unique code each in the game's predecessor and sequel. Other bonuses include a soundtrack, cut-scenes, soundbites, character profiles, and scenes from the game.