I bought this on sale to help keep my stock of hidden object games to play. I wish I were kidding, but I have played quite a lot on here. This wasn't a developer or publisher I had bought a hidden object game from before, so I bought this as part of a bundle of a few other games which I plan to play and review all of. But this was actually a nice surprise. I thought it was a great game that does things a bit differently than some of the others I played. It was a good challenge as well, the puzzles were very well designed.
The stories in hidden object games can be very hit or miss, sometimes it's translated and there is some story beats that just don't quite make it through the translation, or sometimes the developer is assuming you are just wanting to get to the puzzles and so there is just the barest minimum of a plot and all it does is drive you to the puzzles. But this game felt like more attention was paid to making a full story with different characters and an overall goal. There are a lot of named characters, and you do meet and travel with some of the characters who have their own personalities. I think if I had one complaint, it's that there is a kind of "main" story that is most of the game, and then once that is complete I thought the game was going to end but there is kind of an automatic bonus adventure on the end. I didn't mind, it didn't add too much time after the "ending" (quite the opposite, I thought the length was nice), it just isn't foreshadowed at all. The voice acting is very good, and the game is styled in this kind of fantasy illustration styled that doesn't show it's age. Just a lot of the creative elements are of the game are really, really good.
The game itself is interesting-- On what I would consider to be a traditional hidden object game, there are hidden object puzzles and there are normal puzzles. The hidden object puzzles are close-up scenes of one of the areas in each of the locations, and you find hidden objects there. In this game, there aren't the close-up detail scenes, each location is basically treated like one big hidden object scene. It works, I think it helps with the pace of things, and it makes the location continually interesting to visit because your eyes are always peeled. Sometimes an action at a location will reveal more of the scene and allow you to find more things, so it was a nice touch.
As for the normal puzzles, I will say I think this game has the most challenging puzzles in any hidden object game I've played. It seems like the efforts to make the close-up detail scene hidden object puzzles was poured into enhancing the normal puzzles, and I have to say that I love it. The puzzles are challenging and satisfying, although I will say that I am not ashamed to admit I did skip quite a few on my second playthrough when I was trying to speed through for an achievement. That is unfortunately also the downside of the puzzles; sometimes they were so hard I had to stop progressing for the rest of the night trying to beat it. A few of them were challenging enough that it kind of messed with the pacing for a little bit and I could see some players getting stuck at some of these harder puzzles for a long time. But if you're looking for a challenge, than it might be just what you were looking for.
I also want to make special mention of the quality of life and attention to detail the game has on a more technical level. On most other hidden object games, if you have an item you need to collect pieces for--like say you need to collect 4 puzzles pieces--the game would insist you collect all of them before you can place any of them. This game allows you to put in the items you currently have. So if you have 2 out of 4 puzzle pieces, you can put the 2 you have in at any time. And when you place the objects, each on is slightly different and makes the differences the items have when in your inventory. I really was surprised you could do this and I found it to be a great addition. When you play on the easy mode, the game even has a banner with a sound effect that will appear when you've completed every task at that location. Not only is the creative attention to detail very good, but mechanically it feels like this was made by someone know really knows and likes these games, it just feels incredibly modern.
The game does not have any Steam achievements, but it does have it's own in-game ones you can earn on the same profile, so I did those. It was fun, you'll need to play through the game at least 2 times to collect them all, but if you plan carefully, you can make sure you get every other achievement on those 2 required playthroughs.
I did have a little bit of a technical issue, I play this on a Surface tablet, and I usually use the touchscreen for these games. On this game, you could play it technically, but everything required 2 touches. For example, the first touch seemed to 'select' the menu button on the start screen, and I would have to touch again to have it actually start. Some of the puzzles I think would be impossible to play in this manner, so anyone who is using a touchscreen should be aware you might not be able to complete it without having to eventually switch to a touchpad or mouse. But that was really all I ran into as far as technical stuff.
When I played through on hard, I think my first time took about 6.5 hours. The second where I already knew everything and rushed through was about 3.5. And I though that was a good fit in both cases, not too short, not too long.
Overall, I have to say I think this is a hidden gem of a hidden object game, and if you like this genre of game, you owe it to yourself to check this out.
