Dark Parables: Return of the Salt Princess Collector's Edition

[h1]Short version: 70%[/h1] Return of the Salt Princess temporarily brings us back to the old Dark Parables developer and their old methods. It is an improvement compared to the previous games, but one with its own share of problems. Still, the great fragmented object scenes alone make up most of those. [h1]Long version:[/h1] Return of the Salt Princess also means the return of Blue Tea Games, the original creators of the Dark Parables series. It feels nice to have them back—even if it was just for one game—but that doesn't mean we can forgive them for neglecting years of advancement in casual game design. Many old design elements return from past games. There is no custom difficulty, nor distinct cursor while playing. The map lost its quick travel feature, despite forcing the player on long backtracking trips. Worst of all, we are back to searching for a plethora of medals that fit into dull wall sockets. On the plus side, the puzzles are acceptable, and there are tons of high-quality fragmented object scenes. They are easily among the best within the series. Although the early games had a complex world, Blue Tea tries to start with a fresh slate here. It is one damn good slate; the story about the salt princess and her guardians is a tale about love and destiny, shocking twists and betrayals, and the strength of a family. It is a shame it has weak voice acting and some pacing issues (except for the bonus chapter; that is great).

Like all the other ones from the series, it`s wonderful. Nice artwork, love the music. Some riddles are very hard, some quite easy. Good mixture and interesting story. Took me about 4h for full game and bonuschapters.

If your a fan looking to a return to the the older titles, that is exactly what this is. That and some of the best writing I've ever seen in *any* hidden object game and that is not a small pool. The character art and animation is also stunning. The backgrounds are as good as they've always been. There is a genuine mystery here as everyone in the story genuinely believes they are right and good to the very end, making it impossible to tell who the true antagonist is until the late game. It's a good story the puzzles are as always great and it's something that would be great for a kid or an adult, either would get a lot out of it. P.S. Fans of the Nancy Drew Game series, Lani Minella is in this and she was given a lot to work with some really top notch acting. Her character even looks a bit like Nancy, but perhaps the voice acting swayed me. :)

Did you guys take a look at all the players enjoying the Map Teleporting and decided that they should suffer for a bit? XD There are no Map Teleports. But... You don't really need it. I think they did it because the items are closer... So you wont be going three miles somewhere right, to get inside a place 15 miles up North. And damn, Dark Parables are known for their "dark" parts... However this one was downright tragic. Maybe something had an effect on me and that's why it felt like that. Ah well. Map Teleports are back in the next one. Stay tuned! (Talking to myself... Always a fun conversation). Thanks you. ^^ :D

This is an awesome game - a return to excellence for the Parables series! Highly recommended. Can't believe it took me so long to get to it. [NOTE: Just finished the bonus content, and wow, this is such an amazing story. I can't emphasise enough how wonderful the art and feeling is throughout.] Pros: Gorgeous art Interesting characters (even when you think you've guessed at motivations, you may be surprised!) Strong continuity (within series) Excellent use of fairy tales Length - *lots* of play time! [though my recorded play time is always too long, since tend to let my games sit idle] Cons: HO scenes are all image-only (no word lists) HO scenes are about constructing pretty artifacts (no distinct items like "a shoe", although some of the pieces you have to find are quite distinct, and shape matters a lot; as you would expect, some pieces are easier to find, others blend more closely) Puzzles/games are reasonably varied, but do get repeated (same puzzle, new look; in some cases the difficulty increases a little) The Dark Parables series is more about "find the item to fit the place" rather than problem solving (but it's so well done!! you get pretty excited about finding that missing piece) Final thoughts: The DP games focus on interactive art and story content. I enjoy them because they are (mostly) very well crafted, and I'm a fan of looking at the dark side of fairy tales. I still remember being blown away by the detail and the mysteries when I first played. Despite my preference for "word list" puzzles, the HO scenes are fine - better in this game than in some of the recent titles. At the same time, this is a very long series, and at some point the concept loses its freshness. ...Still looking forward to the next one, though!

I really loved this game. They put a lot of heart and soul into it. The music and artwork are so lovely. You actually feel like you are in a fairy tale. The story was written really good too. I rreplay this over, and over just to absorb it all.

If you were a fan of the Dark Parables games up to the Ballad of Rapunzel, but found the ones that came after a bit disapointing, fear not! Blue Tea has taken back the franchise in this game and it really shows! I did not dislike the games when Eipix Entertainment took over the franchise, but they were not nearly as well plotted or well thought out. They felt a bit more like well done fan fiction rather then having the same cleaver story mixing quaility of the previous games. To be quite honest, I was about to give up on the franchise after my disapointment with Requiem of a Forgotten Shadow, but this game renewed my faith in the series. This poor detective will never be free of the Frog Prince, or the fact that everyone seems to inexplicibly know that she is a detective... Is she wearing a Film Noir private eye outfit or something? At any rate, I really enjoyed this game and hope that Blue Tea will continue to make the Dark Parable series.

普普通通

最新作：Return of the Salt Princess 改由 Bluetea主導，Eplix輔助，非常好玩，無論劇情、音樂、色彩都有Bluetea的水準，甚至更高，也不再有假假的3d特效，而是一幅幅用心繪製的圖畫。 劇情也出人意料，回歸到巫婆、青蛙王子的前期角色劇情脈絡，很建議一玩，我是剛好玩完Requiem for the Forgotten Shadow 緊接著玩他的，前做根本劇情空洞，為什麼魔王誕生為什麼選祭品兄弟會來幹啥的通通不知道，接下來玩最新作終於有種：這才是DP啊！ 對DP失望的建議玩Return of the Salt Princess，不會失望的。只是結局阿......真的是扣人心弦的悲劇，但各有各的立場，沒有真正的壞人，只有立場碰撞的傷痕，不是圓滿結局，但劇情很棒。 也有溶入Eplix的優點。算相輔相成，去蕪存菁

I have to say i really liked the soundtrack in this part. I liked the game it self very much but the best where the soundtrack. The story was typical DP but i still like it. There where very few minigames wich i really liked even though i wasnt that keen on that one type that appeared three or four times, this really annoyed me. Overall a very good game with a good and long playtime. Totally worth the money. I can really recommend this DP part