Zappone didn’t know anything so i was back at the start. I continued to explore the streets and soon found a strange note mentioning someone building “models for every situation” for his boss. After solving some more puzzles, I went to the market where one of the merchants, Giuseppe, gave me a flower vase which was given to him by a strange man. I also found a few more notes, one of them by the same man who wrote the last one, this time saying that he will “make one in honor of lady Violet”. I stumbled into Archibald at the market, and he finally told me that he was a good friend with the baron. The baron did not leave him a note, but he did give him an old desk. Archibald agreed to let me search the desk, and this is where I found another note, this time with a red “X” on it. After all of this, Chapter 5 ended and I got a message that the innkeeper, Beatrice, needs to talk to me. I went there and she said that a guest ran off without paying the bills. She described him as a sinister looking guy in a trench coat and a sharp mustache. Sounds like the guy that we saw in front of the manor much earlier. We left the in and, since the investigation was going nowhere, decided it was time to visit that sinister tower at the back of the village. Chapter 6 started and we were on our way.

We solved a few more puzzles and then continued north, past the market, to try and find a way to the tower. Sadly, we reached a dead end. This is where we met a young girl. She wouldn’t tell us her name and soon ran off, startled by something. She dropped a ticked to the ferris wheel at the park so we decided to go there next. As we left, the same mustached man from the inn appeared saying how Layton was a thorn at his side for a while now and how he will get what’s coming for him. Chapter 6 ended.

We got to the park, but the entrance was closed again so we decided to ask around in town about it and Chapter 7 began. I went to the town hall and was told that managing the park was the caretakers job. He also manages the sewers, but no one could tell me where to find him. There was a sewer entrance on the way to the park, so I went there and entered it. A man named Pavel was right at the entrance, so I asked him if he was the caretaker. As it turns out, he was just a tourist who got lost, but he did say he saw a man in working clothes pass by recently. After doing some exploring and puzzle solving, I’ve finally found Sylvain, the caretaker, trying to fix something. I helped him by solving a puzzle and he opened the park doors for us.

There was a poster at the park entrance with Flora on it. It seems the baron built the park specifically for her. Everything in the park was old and run down. It seems it hasn’t been used in years. Another note, found on the ground in the park was saying that “the little miss was catching on on the village secret” and that the boss asked the author to built the park for her. The “little miss” must be Flora. We explored the rest of the park and, other than a locked shed on a lake, we found nothing. We were about to leave, when the ferris wheel broke out of the frame and almost ran us over. We managed to avoid it, but it crashed into the shed. All that was left was a passage leading underground, so we decided to follow it.

There was a room at the end of the passage with a key hidden in the wall behind a picture. The key was decorated with a miniature model of the castle, so we decided to take it to the dead end we were at before to see if we can use it somewhere. This ended Chapter 7. As we were leaving the park, the professor decided to visit the inn before going to the dead end. He thinks someone is after us and that the inn would be the place to find a clue who it is. Chapter 8 started. We asked Beatrice to show us the newspapers from the last few days, but she couldn’t find any. Then Ramon showed up and asked us to go to the manor. On the way there, we’ve encountered the mysterious girl again. She said we shouldn’t interfere with the tower and left.

We came to the manor, and the inspector accused the professor. It seems that the vase I was offered at the market was the same vase that was in the room where the murder happened. Since I held it at the market, my fingerprints are all over it. I confronted him with the claim that he is the only one who seems to be hiding something. According to a newspaper article we’ve found earlier, the inspector’s favorite food are sweet-potato fritters, yet when he was offered candy earlier, he got mad and claimed he doesn’t like it. He said that he just happens to like his wife’s, Amy’s fritters and nothing else. However, the name of his wife is Amelie, not Amy. To add to this, he said he received a report to come to St. Mystere right after the murder happened, but the crank to lower the drawbridge was stolen, so there was no way for him to enter the village. Finally, he somehow knew about the key we found before we told it to anyone and said he would take it. After being cornered like this, the inspector had no choice but to confess. He was wearing a disguise all along. He wasn’t the inspector, he was Don Paolo, the same man that skipped paying at the inn, an evil genius and professor Layton’s arch nemesis. Before we could catch him, he jumped through the window and ran off. Chapter 8 ended and the mystery of inspector Chelmey was solved.

With the murder accusations out of the way, it was time to focus on finding the Golden Apple again. We went to the dead and and, as expected, there was a small keyhole on the wall. right at the spot where the “X” on baron’s note was. The wall moved and uncovered a door. Chapter 9 started and the mystery of the key was solved. We went through the door and instantly fell into a trap. The floor bellow us opened up and we fell into the hole. We fell into a room filled with strange machines. One of the walls was covered in pictures of everyone from the village with a key next to each of them. We found the stairs and went up, but soon encountered an old man. He said something about us trying to interfere with his work and asked us to return number 38 to him. We explained to him that we are here by accident and that we are just looking for the Golden Apple. He said that the Apple was on top of the tower, but it’s filled with extremely difficult puzzles.

In the end, he told us the whole story. His name was Bruno and he works for the Reinhold family. His job is to manage St. Mystere from the top of the tower. To be precise, he manages the “life” of each villager. All the villagers are actually robots created by Bruno. The baron believed that an heir worthy of his legacy would one day arrive and had Bruno build the city and everyone within it to prepare for that day. Then he stored his greatest treasure, the Golden Apple, on top of the tower. Bruno was ordered to protect it with his life and, until the person arrives who can solve the puzzle of the Golden Apple, he will continue to protect it. It seems that there was no murder or abductions to begin with. Bruno was simply taking the villagers to repair them, and a cog or two got left behind every now and then. This means the mysteries of the cogs and the abductions are solved.

I started to explore the tower and solve the puzzles along the way. Luke and the professor started talking and concluded that the crank was also stolen by Bruno so he could give himself some time to evaluate us and Don Paulo before deciding if any of us is worthy. Moving on, we also realized that it really was Don Paolo who skipped paying the bill at the inn. As for Simon’s murder, it wasn’t really a murder. He simply malfunctioned and Bruno didn’t get the chance to take him for repairs before it was noticed. Now, since repairs needed machinery operating, people started to associate abductions with the sounds from the tower, where the machinery was. Anyway, Don Paolo probably stumbled into Simon on the floor and decided to disguise himself as an officer of the law to make use of the situation. The mysteries of Ramon and the rumbling tower are thus solved. The mystery of lady Dahlia and lady Violet is also easily explainable. Lady Dahlia is also a robot, built to resemble the late lady Violet. Flora couldn’t accept a robot replacing her real mother.

After much walking and puzzle solving, we have finally arrived to the top of the tower, where, obscured from the ground, a pretty little cottage was built. We stepped through the door and found Flora. This is where she was living. She is the Golden Apple. The whole purpose of finding her wasn’t to gain access to the baron’s wealth but to find a worthy guardian for his daughter. A few moments later, Don Paolo attacked with his flying machine. We ran down the tower as fast as possible before it collapses from the attacks, but soon, Luke was cut off from Flora and the professor due to damage on the stairs. The professor used some items from the cottage to build a kite which he then used to escape with Flora. As they landed, the tower finally collapsed. It would seem that the noise that scared Claudia, the cat, was Don Paulo’s flying machine, so this also solved that mystery.

Everything fell into place now, and the treasure was easy to find. Flora’s portrait at the mansion held a hidden switch, which moved the bookcase and revealed a secret passage leading to a room filled with gold. The room also held a recording for Flora from her father. It also said that if we remove the treasure, the inhabitants of St. Mystere would all go into a deep sleep. Flora decided, and we agreed, that the treasure should stay where it is, as the villagers mean far more to her than wealth. Flora left the village with us, and we decided to keep the secret of St. Mystere to us and keep it safe from the rest of the world.

THE END!

Final Score: 3752 Picarats, 112/120 Puzzles Solved, 62 Hint Coins Left

So, what to say about the game? Play it! It’s fun, you can play it in long sessions or in small chunks and allot of the puzzles are really interesting. The game has charm, the story is fun to follow and the character design and atmosphere are great to, reminding me of old cartoons like Dr. Dolittle and others. You get a recommendation from me!

For the readers:

Help Stachenscarfen move the wolf, sheep, and cabbage from one side of the river to the other while obeying the following rules.

• In addition to its captain, the raft can only one animal or item at once.
• When Stachenscarfen isn’t near, the wolf will eat the sheep, and you’ll have to start over.
• The sheep will eat the cabbage when Stachenscarfen isn’t around. If you let the sheep have its way, you’ll have to start over.
• You can shuttle the raft back and forth as many times as you like, but the shortest solution takes seven moves.