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I was gonna post these last night, but I had a terrible headache. Since I’m not gaming today, due to a test tomorrow, I thought I might as well post the answers now, to fill in the day at least partially.

Puzzle 1

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.

 Solution

  1. Move sheep to the other side
  2. Move back alone
  3. Move cabbage to the other side
  4. Take sheep back with you
  5. Move wolf to the other side
  6. Go back alone
  7. Move sheep to the other side

This is a simple puzzle to which I’m sure many know the answer, so I feel really silly even posting it. Still, that was the only one I could remember from that day that didn’t require pictures.

Puzzle 2

Two corporations have put out “Help Wanted” ads. Aside from the information that follows, the two companies’ offers are exactly the same. From a purely financial standpoint, which one should you work for? Company A will pay you $100,000 a year and give you a $20,000 raise yearly.Company B will pay you $50,000 every six months and give you $5,000 raise every six months.

 Answer

While it does seem like the first job pay better, if you really do the math, it turns out that every year, the second job pays 5000 more.

  1. year: A – 100 000, B – 50 000 + 55 000
  2. year: A – 120 000, B – 60 000 + 65 000
  3. year: A – 140 000, B – 70 000 + 75 000, etc.

Obviously, the second job is a slightly better choice.

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I went on and solved the remaining 8 puzzles in the game, as well as the 15 bonus puzzles I could now access from the main menu. This, of course, means that i decorated the inn rooms, and assembled the painting.

It took me 12 hours and 50 minutes to do all of this and finish the game. My final score is 5181 and i have 53 coins left. There are some weekly puzzles you can get by WiFi, but those do not count towards anything, so I will leave them for when I have nothing else to do. In any case, I think I can safely mark this one as 100% completed. There would of course be the ultimate option of starting a new game and getting the maximum score, but since the puzzles do not change, I see no point in doing this. I might try the sequel now, or maybe some other DS game.

As for the reader puzzles, I will put up answers tomorrow if no one solves them by then.

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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.

Professor Layton Artwork

Even the empty streets look nice.

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.

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Our story so far:

After witnessing Ramon’s abduction before their very eyes, Luke and Professor Layton are shocked to see him return to Reinhold Manor on his own. Busy with the murder investigation, Inspector Chelmey warns Layton against meddling any further. However, Layton is confident that the Golden Apple and the morning’s murder are linked to one another. Finally free to move about, Layton and Luke begin their search for the Golden Apple in earnest.

Professor Layton, Eerie artwork

Some eerie artwork this time.

I went to speak to Ingrid at the town square and she turned out to be the source of some useful information. Ingrid told us the story of how Flora’s mother passed from this world. The baron must have truly loved his former wife, for her grave lies within his garden, presumably so that, even in death, she could stay close to him. We went to her grave with Matthew and it was a truly beautiful place. The baron’s devotion and love for lady Violet reflected in every detail of it. Matthew mentioned the baron kept a journal detailing his thoughts. If we can find it, there could be some clues we could learn from it.

The journal was kept in the same room where I spoke to lady Dahlia earlier. I was free to take and read it so I did, for the sake of the investigation, of course. The pages were filled with passages reflecting upon the baron’s deep love for his late five and their daughter. He also mentioned something he referred to simply as “it”, how his daughter couldn’t grow accustomed to “it” and how he was forced to change “it’s” memory. In the end, the journal said that the baron left a note disclosing the location of the Golden Apple in the possession of his good friend. Who this is, I have no idea, but I should probably ask Ingrid about it.

I spoke to Ingrid again and she wasn’t sure who the aforementioned friend was, but she did say that he noticed Zappone visiting the mansion quite often. It was late so instead of finding him, I solved a bunch of puzzles around town, saved my game and went to bed.

For the readers:

Two corporations have put out “Help Wanted” ads. Aside from the information that follows, the two companies’ offers are exactly the same. From a purely financial standpoint, which one should you work for? Company A will pay you $100,000 a year and give you a $20,000 raise yearly.Company B will pay you $50,000 every six months and give you $5,000 raise every six months.

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Our story so far:

In the course of their afternoon-long investigation through St. Mystere, Luke and Layton stumble on a rumor about some mysterious kidnappings, The professor has a hunch that Ramon’s disappearance and these kidnappings must be connected. In a quest for further details, the intrepid pair continue their search of St. Mystere into the night.

Professor Layton Artwork

Even more artwork!

I went to the park to find the thing Gerard lost, but a man there told me that the Innkeeper, Beatrice found it and decided to hold onto it until the morning since it was late. It turns out it was a wristwatch. I went to get it and then gave it to Gerard. After solving some various puzzles, I went to the cafe past the clock tower. I asked the owner about Ramon and the old man. He said that a fellow by the name of Prosciutto might know something and he lives in a road to the north. I went to see him and he described the old man in detail. As I was leaving, we stopped the old man outside, carrying Ramon in a huge sack. We tried to chase him, but he was to fast. While running, he dropped another cog like the one from the manor so I guess that’s a clue at least. This concluded Chapter 4.

We reported our findings to lady Dahlia. As I was trying to convince the inspector to organize a search, Matthew, the butler ran in to let us know that Ramon is back. How this is possible, I had no idea. He claims he was just at the market to do some shopping and was never abducted at all. There was no point in arguing as no one would believe us anyway, so we left it at that. We went to the inn and retired for the night.

In the morning, we got a call from the inspector to meet him at the manor at once. On my way there, I solved a bunch of puzzles. The inspector basically told me to stay out of the way and that’s about it. I spoke to everyone, solved some more puzzles and then went to the river to talk to Ramon. Again, he told us nothing. We decided to leave the murder cause to the police and focus on the Golden Apple. Chapter 5 has started. I went to speak to the butler and he mentioned that a woman named Ingrid used to work at the mansion, but she lives in the town now. Before he could say anything else, lady Dahlia interrupted him. I guess i should speak to Ingrid next. This is where I saved my game and took a break.

For the readers, if five cats can catch five mice in five minutes, how many cats is required to catch 100 mice in 100 minutes?

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Congratulations M. Paynesdown, for solving yesterday’s puzzle. The answer was, of course, the match. You can’t light any other thing without lighting the match first. As a reward, you get +Internets, whatever that is.

As for the puzzle from two days ago, I didn’t get an answer yet.

The puzzle was:

Ten candles are burning on a candlestick. The wind blows through the window and extinguishes 2 of them. A few minutes later, you notice one more is extinguished and close the window so it doesn’t happen again. Assuming the rest of the candles will be fine, how many will be left in the end?

The answer is, three candles. The ones that stayed lit will burn out and completely melt. Only the ones that went off will remain. Shame on you for not giving me the answer.

OK, time to go play the game again.

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Our story so far:

Having finally returned to Reinhold Manor with Claudia in tow, Layton and Luke are horrified to discover that a murder has taken place there during their absence. Waiting for Luke and Layton at the manor is police detective Inspector Chelmey. Upon receiving a report on the murder, he has raced to St. Mystere to conduct an investigation. He has his suspicions about Luke and Layton.

Professor Layton Artwork

Here’s some more beautiful artwork.

As I got out of the manor, I’ve found Claudia with Simon’s glasses. I gave them to the inspector, but he said they weren’t important. I’ve been going around town and asking people about Ramon and everything seems to point to the big tower in the center. Everyone is also saying i should avoid the tower. Passing underneath the clock tower, I encountered a little girl who told me that Ramon has a friend named Jarvis who he hangs out with frequently.

I’ve found Jarvis at the end of a long street up the hill, but he said he hasn’t seen Ramon since the day before. He also said I should talk to Zappone about all this. Some other people told me I should speak to Crouton, the bar owner, as he is usually on top of any potential town rumors.I went to the bar, but Crouton didn’t see Ramon either. He has, however, told me that there is a rumor going around about a strange old man kidnapping people so I should probably look into that. This ended Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 was about to begin.

The night has fallen in St. Mystere and the professor’s investigations were leading nowhere. He needed to observe the night life in the village to try and find more clues. Before I did anything, I used all the gizmos I gathered to assemble a fully functional robotic dog. I decided to name him Garo, as this is the name of my real dog. I went to the puzzle tower to solve the two puzzles i missed in the last chapter and on the way back spoke to Gerard. He said he dropped something somewhere in front of the park and asked me to find it. He isn’t sure where exactly he dropped it or what it is that he actually dropped but I need to find it anyway. Anyway, I decided to save my game and take a break here.

For the commenters, here’s a fun one: You have only one match left. You want to light the room with the oil lamp, start a fire to heat the room and heat your bath water. Which one do you light first? Also, I still didn’t get an answer from the one I wrote yesterday.

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The professor and Luke make their way successfully to Reinhold Manor, where they meet Lady Dahlia. But before they start talking, a loud noise startles Lady Dahlia’s cat, Claudia, who runs off. The professor and Luke are now forced to find the missing feline.

Professor Layton Art

I can’t stress enough how much I love the art of Professor Layton.

I’ve solved Simon’s Puzzle, which was pretty easy and involved just some basic geometry. He said I really should find the cat, as Lady Dahlia gets unreasonable when the cat runs off. I went outside the manor and the cat was there, but she instantly ran away again. At the river, Ramon said he saw the cat pass through on the way to town. At the boat, Luke asked the professor to solve another puzzle. A ship with 15 people is sinking and will be down in 20 minutes. There’s only one raft and it can hold 5 people. A round trip to the nearest island and back takes 9 minutes. How mans people will be saved. My first answer was 9. 5 people go on the first trip, one comes back with the boat and get 4 more. It was wrong. What I forgot is that the raft will be back a second time before the ship sinks, so another four people can be saved. The correct answer was 13. In a house in the city, Luke solved another fun puzzle involving candles. Ten candles are burning on a candlestick. The wind blows through the window and extinguishes 2 of them. A few minutes later, you notice one more is extinguished and close the window so it doesn’t happen again. Assuming the rest of the candles will be fine, how many will be left in the end? This is an easy one so I want answers in the comments. There was another puzzle in the store so I went out after solving that one.

At the town square, the man who lowered the bridge for me before told me that the crank used for it was stolen and asked me to find the thief. He also gave me some strange gizmo. Rodney gave me another puzzle at the town hall and this got me another gizmo. Claudio was waiting at the town square so I tried to catch her. She didn’t like that and scratched Luke’s face before running away again. She ran to the west, but I went south first to try and find more puzzles. I solved one in the streets and then I went to the inn where I booked us rooms and found a secret puzzle involving a painting. I went out and to the bridge, where another puzzle was easily solved.

It was time to go after the cat again to the west. In the local bar, a few more puzzles were waiting. I continued chasing the cat towards the park, solving a bunch of puzzles along the way. I caught up with it at the park entrance and used some fish bones and old lady gave me to lure her and finally caught her. Chapter 2 was complete and Chapter 3 started. I went back to the manor and saw that everyone was in a state of panic. Inspector Chemley was there, investigating a crime. While I was chasing a cat, Simon was murdered! I talked to Matthew, the butler and he said he found something in Simon’s room – a strange cog with a hammer and a wrench embedded into it. The inspector said I’m a suspect to, so I can’t leave the city before the investigation is concluded.

Lady Dahlia retreated to her room so I went there to talk to her. She asked me to help solved the case and left. I’ve found a photography in her room with her holding a child, presumably the lord’s former daughter, Flora. I asked the lady about it and she said she never had a child. This was strange so I asked the butler and he said that the women in the photo was the lord’s former wife and her similarity to lady Dahlia is pure coincidence. I’m guessing this will be important later, but for now, I need to go back to town and find Ramon who is missing. I saved my game and decided to take a break.

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Based on a recommendation I got on one of my previous posts and all around good reviews of this game, I decided to try it in spite of the fact that it did not seem that appealing to me.

The result? I like it! It has some fun puzzles and I actually like the style of the graphics and story telling. There’s voice acting and the presentation is that of a cartoon. It also has it’s flaws, though. Some of the puzzles are strange and misleading. For instance, the puzzle with the two farmers. It clearly says that the plot is split in half, but, since the game put some much details into how fast they work, I assumed that this couldn’t be the correct answer, even though it was the first thing that crossed my mind. The one with the dog that got run over was weird to. I assumed i need to move two of the legs from the bottom to the top, but the game wanted them in a cross formation when I pointed them all backwards. Both formations seem perfectly plausible to me, so I really think the game should accept both answers.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village Cover Art

It has that old cartoon style. It reminds me of Doctor Dolittle.

Still, all of this might simply be because I’m not used to the game yet so I will give it some time. For now, I’ve solved eleven puzzles, including a bonus one and also got to chapter 2. I have two mysteries to solve. I need to find the golden apple and find out what was the source of the noise that scared the ladies cat.