New Software To Be Reviewed Review

Another one in the coal heap.

The Enchanted Kingdom is an overarching storyline with a series of puzzle games you need to play to advance the plot.

The story is that the King is getting old and has no heirs. Somehow, his treasurer and his advisor get involved. They read his diary and realise there is one person who just might be eligible for his royal seat: a girl, deep in the country, named Elisa.

So the king's advisor goes out to the country, talks to Elisa, and convinces her to go on a series of quests in... golly, I dunno, an attempt to bring her back to the King and simulataneously prove she's able to rule a kingdom?

Unfortunately, as I said before, this is a puzzle game, not a city sim or real time strat. game like Age of Empires or Rise of Nations.

You, as the player, get to watch flat figures have speech balloon conversations of the events that take place. The only times you interact in the "game" at all are:

1. Clicking the mouse to advance the storyboards. (Are we still in the 1990s? COS IT FEELS LIKE IT.)
2. clicking on buildings on the minimap, which directs Elisa (a little pixelly female character... o the nostalgia) to them, where you engage in...
3. Playing one of four mini-games, about which I shall now go into detail.
1. At foresters' camps, you play a game where you choose chains of at least three of the same kind of piece. The more you choose, the more resources you could recieve... I think.
2. At quarries, you have to swap pieces to achieve chains of 3 or more (which disappear once you succesfully swap pieces). I honestly and not sure how to win this game or the preceding game. I spent 11 bloody minutes playing one session of this puzzle, and I'm not sure what the hell I was doing.
3. A "hiding in plain sight" puzzle, where you have a list of items you have to find in a room. You "find" them by clicking on them. They then disappear for the scene and the list. Even though this is the simplest of the 3 puzzles, it is the one I enjoyed the most. It makes you think. Some objects are harder to find than others, but practise makes perfect.
4. A literal puzzle that you have to assemble. It was OK.

The cutscene graphics are pretty good. The backgrounds are quite good though nothing amazing. With the exception of the sprite of Elisa on the main map, nothing is pixelly. Every picture, building, object, character, and scene is illustrated in vibrant, detailed (seemingly hand-drawn) excellence.

'Tis a pity they can't animate their cutscenes worth a darn. You never actually see the players use their mouths, walk, or even turn around. It literally seems like they just turned the picture of one farmer around to make him walk back to the edge of the screen.

No speech in this game; all dialogue and narration come via text bubbles and subtitles (respectively).

There is some music, and it adds to the experience... but not terribly much. It's somewhat light and enjoyable.

The sounds are usually simple, nothing terribly special. A few tinkles, and clinks of glass when you pick them up.

The story and the gameplay are somewhat confusing, especially at first, but it has merit... promise.

So, while I can't really recommend this game, I can say that, if the makers learn how to properly animate their characters, and make their how-tos more helpful, maybe I could next time.