Princess Isabella: A Witch’s Curse is a fresh face in the realm of hidden object games, featuring concepts rarely seen in similar games, and more likely to be seen in more expensive games with much bigger budgets.
In this game, you play the role of princess Isabella in a medieval/renaissance kingdom. Isabella was about to marry her prince charming, when tragedy suddenly struck her kingdom. While he was in the field, a mysterious witch came to the castle and managed to imprison the rest of the royal family and her attendants, and put a curse on the castle. Prisoners are now trapped in broken mirrors, and every room in the castle is now cursed.
It’s your job as Isabella to figure out how to free your people and remove the witch’s curse from the castle. In your search for her, you will be joined by a friendly fairy who will guide you along your journey and help you with magic. As you progress through the adventure, the people you rescue will also help you on your quest to free the castle and defeat the witch.
The first thing that comes to mind with this game is how developed it is. The production values of the game are really good, with all dialogue in the game accompanied by full voice acting! Although after a while, you might feel the need to shut your fairy friend up by touching her mouth…
The game also has a healthy touch of adventure, with elements commonly found in RPGs. As you progress through the story, you learn new abilities. Your fairy friend also learns new elemental skills along the way that will help you combat the witch and her ghostly minions. The scenes/rooms in the game are also connected like in an RPG. You move from the courtyard through the great hall through a corridor to the piano parlor, choosing your own path through the rooms with the help of a castle map.
So how is the gameplay? As mentioned above, your mission is to rescue your people and remove the witch’s curse from every single room in the castle. Your family and friends were imprisoned in mirrors that later shattered. You will need to find all the shards of each mirror to rescue each person, who will then help you on your quest.
Removing curses from castle rooms is also a unique and interesting part of this game. Each castle room comes in 2 flavors, “cursed” and “free”. At the beginning, each room is cursed and looks dull, dark and evil. You will need to investigate what is causing this room to be cursed and solve the puzzles to remove it.
Each room also has puzzles that you must solve to progress through the story. From finding planets to fit on the map in the astronomy room, to searching for piano keys to play a haunting tune. The game is not your typical simple hidden object game where you move linearly from one scene to another. All the rooms of the castle contain puzzles and objects that interact with each other, creating a great story in which you explore the different floors of the castle.
As stated before, Princess Isabella: A Witch’s Curse is very well done for a hidden object game. Its immersive feel and intricate storytelling and puzzles take you on a medieval adventure that you are sure to enjoy.
Rating: 4.0/5.0