If you enjoy playing casual games, such as Diner Dash, Farmville, Bejeweled, Mystery Case Files or Plants versus Zombies, then I think you are going to like Dream Chronicals, especially if you are looking to step up to something with a little more adventure.
A cross between hidden object and adventure game, Dream Chronicles attempts to bridge the gap between the casual game and the traditional game. It does a decent job with this goal, and the pros outweigh the cons.
In Dream Chronicles, you are Faye, a woman who wakes up one day to find her husband missing and everyone else in the town of Wish under a deep sleeping spell. A rather perturbed someone has created a mystery that Faye must unravel. As she moves further along in her quest, she not only is faced with harder challenges, but learns some interesting facts about her own family.
Graphically, you can’t ask more from this game. The images are stunning, offering a dream-like fantasy setting that I almost wanted to crawl into at times. The brilliant blue sky of the garden, for example, made me nostalgic for a summer’s day with nothing to do but sit and read. I also wanted to bring my kids over to play at Lyra’s treehouse.
There are a decent number of puzzles to solve, but none of them will keep you stumped for long. This can be a good thing for the casual gamer, who doesn’t necessarily have the time or effort to spare on harder challenges.
The challenges are self contained and easy to figure out. Most everything you collect in your inventory will be used in some way. If you really get stumped, there is nothing that will penalize you from doing a monotonous pixel hunt just to get ahead.
While you are busy solving the puzzles, you can also take the time to collect various gems for no reason other than to try to complete various jewelry. It is pretty, though, but I’m not sure even the visuals make up for the annoying explanations of what each gem is whenever you pick one up. At first, it was cute. After the tenth or so gem, it would have been nice to turn it off.
I was a little disappointed in the ending. Without giving too much away, you don’t meet any other characters except for one, and I was hoping to be rewarded with a big party at the end and lots of accolades. Instead, the end here is just a stopping point toward two more spun off games.
Still, I really enjoyed playing Dream Chronicals, so my biggest complaint is that it was over too quickly. A few hours of play time with no real replay value.
The version I purchased was for the Ninendo DS. You can also download this game from PlayFirst or BigFish Games and play it on your PC or Mac.