SIMILARITIES: Professor Layton & Leon Kennedy
By Shaun Hatton - February 16th, 2008
“We’re not so different, you and I,” Leon said to Professor Layton.
This week, Nintendo released Professor Layton and the Curious Village for Nintendo DS. I’ve been playing the game for the last few days and could not help but notice that despite its seemingly innocent exterior, the game shares many parallels with another awesome game: Resident Evil 4.
It’s something you may have not considered. But hear me out. Both games involve the main character being sent to a mysterious and strange village to investigate an out-of-the-ordinary case. In Resident Evil 4, Leon Kennedy is sent to a small, unnamed European village to look into the disappearance of the President’s daughter, who was taken by a cult led by a man who controlled the whole village. In Curious Village, Professor Layton is called to a strange, remote village (we learn early on that there are no roads connecting it to other towns) to solve a mystery dealing with the estate of a man who seemingly owned the whole town.
In both games, things are not as they first appear. Soon into his adventure, Leon discovers that the villagers aren’t quite human, and that they’re all out to get him. Similarly, Layton finds out that everyone he comes across is really strange in that they try to get in his way by making him solve somewhat trivial puzzles. Also in both games, it sometimes takes a lot more than skill to get by these villagers. Sometimes, you see, it takes a tonne of luck.
Another common thread in both games is the inability to travel to certain areas without first completing small challenges. In the case of Professor Layton, he has his puzzles to solve. Leon’s puzzles are a little different, granted, but he still has to do certain things to access further parts of the game’s map (such as retrieving a glass eye and using it in a retinal scanner). With Resident Evil 4 and Curious Village, there are times where you, as the player, will wonder why you just can’t hop over a fence or door to get where you need to go. Also, both titles make you backtrack through certain areas multiple times to discover new, hidden things.
Professor Layton has a somewhat annoying sidekick: Luke. Leon Kennedy has an insanely annoying sidekick in Ashley. Luke’s a little more helpful than Ashley, but I’m willing to bet Luke couldn’t navigate through a room of Los Illuminados monks to help Layton out in a jam.
These similarities got me thinking: Wouldn’t it be great to have a mash-up game that combined the greatness of both these titles? Okay, the game would probably suck. But wouldn’t it be great if you could shoot some of the annoying villagers in Professor Layton and the Curious Village?
I knew you’d see it my way. Here’s a fancy-shmancy wallpaper, which is arguably the next best thing to having these two games made into one. Click on it to get the full-sized version. Oh, and we’d better not see anyone putting this on a shirt and trying to sell it for $80.
You can check out our review of Professor Layton and the Curious Village here.
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2 responses so far:I think you may have overlooked the whole thing with the gold coins and hint coins, but I’ll let it slide this time, Hatton.
Incidentally, it took way too long for me to figure out the digital clock puzzle.
You’re right. That’s yet another similarity, albeit a bit of a stretch. Still funny though. For what it’s worth, the voice acting in Layton is a million times better than any Resident Evil acting. And that includes the movies.