It starts with a train ticket. Not just any ticket, but the "Molentary Express," a luxury locomotive that feels like it was ripped straight out of an Agatha Christie novel. If you played the original DS trilogy back in the late 2000s, you probably remember the cozy, slightly eerie vibe of Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. It was the game that proved Level-5 wasn’t just a one-hit wonder after Curious Village. It took the formula of "gentleman solves puzzles" and turned it into a sprawling, tragic road trip across the countryside.
Honestly, the stakes felt way higher this time.
In the first game, you were just poking around a weird town. Here? People are literally dropping dead—or at least, that’s what the rumors say about the Elysian Box. The legend goes that anyone who opens it dies. When Layton’s mentor, Dr. Schrader, is found slumped over in his apartment after supposedly opening the chest, the game stops being a lighthearted brain-teaser and becomes a genuine murder mystery.
The Molentary Express and the Art of the Slow Burn
Most games want to rush you to the "fun part." Diabolical Box makes you wait. You spend a massive chunk of the early game just wandering the halls of a train. Some critics at the time, including reviewers from sites like IGN and GameSpot, felt the pacing was a bit sluggish compared to the punchy start of the first game. I disagree. The train is where the atmosphere builds. You’re meeting suspicious cooks, wealthy socialites, and a guy who looks suspiciously like a hamster.
It creates this sense of claustrophobia. You’re trapped in a moving metal tube with a potential killer and a cursed box.
The puzzles in this section are legendary, too. Remember the one where you had to figure out the layout of the train cars based on vague descriptions from the passengers? Or the sliding tile puzzles that made you want to throw your DS across the room? Unlike modern "casual" games that hold your hand, Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box was perfectly happy to let you sit there for forty minutes staring at a screen of matchsticks until your brain leaked out of your ears.
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Folsense: A Masterclass in Environmental Storytelling
Once the train finally pulls into Folsense, the game shifts gears entirely. Folsense is a ghost town. It’s gold-tinted, dusty, and feels like it’s stuck in a time loop. This is where the narrative heavy lifting happens. We meet Anton Herzen, the "vampire" of the castle, who is easily one of the most misunderstood antagonists in handheld gaming history.
Here is the thing about the Layton series: the endings are always insane.
Usually, there’s some wild "scientific" explanation for the supernatural events. Without spoiling the entire finale for the three people who haven't played a 15-year-old game, the twist in Folsense involves a massive hallucinogenic gas leak from a mine. It sounds ridiculous when you type it out. It’s basically the "it was all a dream" trope but with chemistry. Yet, in the context of the game's Victorian-steampunk aesthetic, it works. It explains why the city looks beautiful to some and decrepit to others. It’s a metaphor for grief and the way we cling to the past.
Why the Puzzles Felt Different This Time
The puzzle count hit 153 in the main story, not counting the weekly downloads that Level-5 used to push out via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. Akira Tago, the "Puzzle Master" who designed these challenges, really leaned into lateral thinking for this sequel.
There’s a specific type of logic required for Diabolical Box. It’s not just math. It’s about questioning the premise of the question itself. Take Puzzle 007, "The Strange Ticket." It asks you to find a specific detail on a train ticket that isn't immediately obvious. It teaches you to stop looking at the "big picture" and start scrutinizing the margins.
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- Puzzles are categorized by Picarats. The harder the puzzle, the more points you get.
- Hint coins are finite. If you waste them on easy puzzles, you're doomed when you hit the sliding block challenges in the castle.
- The Tea Set Minigame. This was a new addition where you brew specific blends to calm people down. It was surprisingly deep and required you to actually pay attention to NPC dialogue.
The tea brewing wasn't just fluff. It was a mechanical representation of Layton’s character—the idea that a true gentleman solves problems through empathy and a hot beverage, not just raw deduction.
The Emotional Weight of the Ending
We have to talk about the letter.
The ending of Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box is notoriously a tear-jerker. When Anton finally realizes how much time has passed—when the illusion of the "young" Folsense fades and he sees his true reflection—it’s devastating. It’s a story about a man who waited fifty years for a woman who never came back, only to realize she left because she was trying to save him.
The voice acting by Christopher Miller (Layton) and Lani Minella (Luke) sells the tragedy. When the credits roll and that melancholic accordion music kicks in, you realize this wasn't just a puzzle game. It was a gothic romance wrapped in a DS cartridge.
Common Misconceptions and Technical Quirks
Some people remember this game as Professor Layton and the Pandora's Box. That’s because in Europe and Australia, that was the actual title. Why the change? Likely because "Diabolical Box" sounded more evocative for the North American market, though "Pandora" fits the Greek myth themes a bit better.
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Another weird quirk: the "Hidden Door" feature.
If you had a copy of Curious Village, you could find a code in the first game to unlock a secret door in the second. This was a proto-version of cross-save data that felt like magic back in 2009. If you’re playing the HD mobile ports today, this feature is streamlined, but on the original hardware, it required actually writing things down with a physical pen.
How to Play It Today
If you’re looking to dive back in, you have two real options.
- The DS Original: Still the best way to experience it if you want the tactile feel of the stylus. The pixel art holds up remarkably well, though the screen resolution is obviously low by 2026 standards.
- The HD Remaster (iOS/Android): This version is gorgeous. The hand-drawn backgrounds have been upscaled to 4K, and the animated cutscenes look like a high-end Ghibli film. It also includes all the previously "missable" DLC puzzles.
Avoid the "bootleg" versions floating around on flashcarts; they often crash during the tea-making segments, which can soft-lock your progress.
Maximize Your Playthrough
To get the most out of Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, don't rush to the castle. Talk to every NPC twice. The dialogue changes after almost every major puzzle solve, and some of the best world-building is hidden in the flavor text of a random passenger on the train.
Also, save your hint coins. Seriously. You’ll think you’re a genius in Chapter 2, but by Chapter 6, the puzzles start requiring genuine genius-level spatial awareness. If you run out of coins in the final area, you’re basically stuck guessing.
The game is a reminder of a specific era of Nintendo history—a time when "brain training" and deep narrative could coexist. It doesn’t need a battle pass or an open world. It just needs a good mystery, a sharp stylus, and a very large hat.
Actionable Steps for New and Returning Players
- Download the HD Remaster first: Unless you are a purist, the mobile version’s "Journal" and "Photo" features are much easier to navigate than the dual-screen layout of the DS.
- Focus on the Camera Minigame early: You find camera parts throughout the world. Completing the camera allows you to find "Hidden Puzzles" in the environment that you can't see otherwise.
- Don't skip the Tea: Brewing the "Root Sensation" or "Bitter Fruit" blends early will unlock extra dialogue that clarifies the backstory of the Molentary family.
- Check the "Layton’s Challenges" section: After you beat the game, the "House of the Duchess" and "House of the Inventor" offer the hardest puzzles in the game. Don't touch these until you've cleared the main story, or you'll burn out.