Love Chronicles: The Spell
Game Review

A young prince has been having a lot of nightmares recently, always dreaming about an unknown kingdom (with a beautiful princess no less) and an evil witch. As the days pass, the dreams become more vivid, and the prince begins to dream about an old man pleading for his help. He then makes the decision to leave his own country behind and search for the kingdom in his dreams.

The prince finally finds the kingdom after many days of exploration. And it looks like his dreams were correct, as the kingdom looks like it has been cursed by a witch's spell. The buildings are dull and gray, covered with cobwebs and years of dust. And the people appear to have fallen into a magical slumber. The prince finds a hut at the edge of the kingdom and finds the old man in his dreams. After talking to the old man, the young prince sets out to save the kingdom and defeat the evil witch.

Love Chronicles: The Spell is an adventure game where you work your way from building to building trying to revive the cursed inhabitants and obtain their help in your quest. You will encounter a blacksmith, a fisherman and many more characters who will lend you their expertise as you rescue their countrymen and prepare to face the evil witch.

The gameplay in Love Chronicles: The Spell is in the hidden object game style, or more accurately the fragmented object game (FROG) style, where instead of searching for a whole bunch of random items in each hidden object scene, you are required to find fragmented parts of items that will be used in order to complete a task or reveal/activate another items. This makes the hidden object portion of the game seem more logical and fits in very nicely with the story.

In each stage or chapter of the game (for example the blacksmith chapter), there is a set of interconnected hidden object scenes. The primary goal in the chapter is to get the inhabitants awake and productive again, which is done via completing certain tasks (such as finishing the blacksmith's work). To do this, you have to find items that are required to perform the tasks. Unfortunately, these items are fragmented and you have to find the various item parts hidden across the various hidden object scenes. Some of these parts will also require unlocking or activating, again requiring certain tasks to be done, which in turn requires the search for more items.

There are also quite a few mini-puzzles scattered throughout the game. These are primarily the type of puzzles you would expect in a hidden object game, including logic puzzles such as using the correct combination of various files to cut the right key. These puzzles aren't difficult, but are probably there to break the monotony of the hidden object gameplay and to add a bit of variety into the game.

What really sells the game though is its gorgeous atmosphere. You can tell that a lot of effort has been put into developing the game. The artwork is simply fantastic. It is vibrant and crisp, perfectly bringing the medieval fantasy feel of the game to life. And in contrast to a lot of other hidden object games, the hidden objects in Love Chronicles look like they actually belong where they are hidden. They are worked so expertly into the background that they don't look out of place at all. And to support the great artwork, the soundtrack is also just as good and really gets you into the game.

The only downside I can see in the game is the lack of voice acting. Though that is probably due to my unreasonable expectations since most other recent hidden object games have included some of voice acting. Other than that little quibble, Love Chronicles: The Spell is a really strong game that won't disappoint. You can download the Basic Edition of the PC game, or you can get the Collector's Edition which includes a full bonus quest, wallpapers, strategy guides and more! Or get the basic version or Collector's Edition of the Mac game.

Check out the other games in this series!

Related PC Games at Big Fish Games:

Love Chronicles: The Spell Collector's Edition

Princess Isabella: A Witch's Curse

The Tarot's Misfortune

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