I had played this quite awhile ago and placed it in my "good games" list. Then recently, I was looking through said list, came across this game, and couldn't remember much about it. So I replayed it. And, YES, it's a good game! One of the better Hidden Object games, in my opinion. The story is creepy and interesting. There are small cut-scenes throughout the game that add flavor to the plot. The HO scenes are wonderful - items are clear to see and when you have to perform more than one action, you will get prompts when you come across something you can interact with. (I don't like HO games that force you to go through a clickfest to complete a scene). To top it off, this is a collector's edition so you get a bonus chapter after finishing the game. The game begins with you and your boyfriend going for a cruise and, of course, all Hell breaks loose. You both get washed up on an island and your boyfriend gets dragged off - you don't see by who as you're still trying to clear your head. Well, the bonus chapter lets you play as the boyfriend after he gets dragged off. It's really nice to be able to play both sides. This particular HO doesn't have a map telling you where you need to go. Even so, I never got stuck for long. If you're a fan of the hidden object genre, I definitely recommend Sea Legends: Phantasmal Light.

...is a hidden object game. After you ship got caught in a strange storm with glowing symbols in the sky, you wake up on the shore of an island and find that your spouse was captured and dragged to a mysterious old lighthouse.

For those unfamiliar with the genre, you play and static scenes or panels, from which paths branch, sometimes in several directions. On each panel, there are things you can observe (if the mouse cursor is a magnifying glass), interact with or pick up for later use.

The genre namesake hidden object puzzles consists of a screenful of clutter objects: a shoe, an apple, a frog, a sword, a bottle, etc., from which you must find a specific list of 12 objects. Some objects, marked in blue in the list, require an interaction, such as moving another unrelated object or opening a container to be revealed.

Almost every door, box or chest require some form of puzzle to open. These can be observation puzzles such as images needing to be reconstructed by moving tiles around, or logic-based puzzles with a mechanism needing to be manipulated. Other simply need the use of a key or items (a screwdriver or a crowbar, for instance). And yet others a combination of both, such as a mechanical lock which is missing parts before you can try to crack it.

I found the game to have a very decent quantity of hidden object puzzles. Each of the hand-drawn scenes seamlessly blended the items to be found with the static background, so you couldn't just guess which items were removable. When a puzzle had to be redone a second time (with a different list of objects to be found), the previously removed items were returned to keep the clutter sufficiently dense.

While the story isn't anything to write home about, the game captured the expected otherworldliness I expected, with strange and spooky areas, unsettling animations, and an OK voice acting. You even get a short bonus mission upon completing the game where you experience the same events from a different person's point of view.

Sea Legends: Phantasmal Light is very badly optimized for modern PCs. I've had it sitting in my Steam inventory for a while, and upon recently hearing it was rereleased by its publisher, I expected a decent resolution or at the very least widescreen compatibility. What I found was a blurry, ugly game, stretched horizontally. I had to move it down to window mode to even attempt at enjoying the visuals, uncovering its 1024x768 resolution the likes of which I had on my computer 20 years ago.

Puzzles of other varieties are few and unimaginative, unchallengeing at best, tedious at worst. There is terrible backtracking at times, the game ending on the sour note of picking up an object from the very end of the panel branch, going all the way back to the very first panel to place the object, then having to once again go all the way to the last panel to redo the same puzzle a second time to get a second object, and travel back once more. Oh, and there are two endings defined by the very last puzzle, they don't tell you which choice does what, and the game expects you to redo it enterly to find out that the second ending is a mere 3-second difference in the last cutscene.


What we have here is a terribly average hidden object game, with absolutely nothing unique, nothing that differentiates it from other, much better or modern-looking games out there. If you got it from a bundle, give it a go, but it isn't worth actually spending money to acquire this title.

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This was just my opinion.

If you found this review helpful, please consider giving it a thumbs up, and feel free to check out more of my (purely opinionated) reviews.

Hidden object game, adventure, pastime.

PLOT

Mike and Jane decide to spend a summer afternoon aboard Sea Bliss: their beautiful yacht.
But what should have been a pleasant outing turns into a nightmare when they suddenly find themselves in the throes of a violent storm that slams the yacht out of control into the waves.
But the strange thing is not only seeing the darkened sky, Mike and Jane wonder what the strange symbol that has appeared in the sky is, but they don't have time to understand why a tidal wave overwhelms them.

They both end up stranded on a desert island, while unconscious Mike is dragged away by a mysterious person, Jane wakes up alone and dazed vaguely remembers what happened and doesn't know where she is.
Not knowing what to do, he sets out to explore the island in search of Mike, but finds only desolation: an abandoned and time-worn lighthouse, and a large dump of shipwrecks, what happened in this strange place?
Soon, however, his diary is filled with notes left by the guardian before he was the victim of a tragic story, Jane realizes that Mike has been kidnapped for an obscure reason and that his life is in danger, she must be able to save him.
But Jane's task is not easy because the island hides several secrets, will she be able to stop this mysterious kidnapper, free Mike and go home together?

PLAYABILITY

The story is interesting, as graphics it is a good product because it well depicts in detail the feeling of loneliness that the island transmits, left to fall into ruin like a large ship cemetery.
There are 12 object search scenes because sometimes they are used 2 times with different objects.
There are 15 mini-games, they don't all have the same difficulty because some are easily overcome while others require great effort.
The music fits the theme of the game.
This "Collection" edition gives us an extra chapter only at the end, this bonus doesn't add an epilogue to the story, but allows us to play the adventure as Mike; an idea that I found original.


In conclusion I can say that it is quite pleasant as an experience, even if the lack of a map that indicates the active areas where there are things to do is felt a lot, sometimes I found myself wandering around without knowing where to go ..... Even why the help button doesn't show you the direction to follow with the arrow; while it would have been very useful to have the possibility of moving quickly from one location to another.
Don't worry, however, you won't be stuck in the game because you can consult "The strategic guide" by simply pressing the button and know what you have to do in case you get lost on the island.

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Another enjoyable Hidden Object Game that doesn't stand out from the crowd, but is still definitely a decent play.

The first thing i noticed was that the voice acting/animations are a little cheesy. There was a few times i just wanted to laugh at the combination of the two together, even when the scene was supposed to be serious.

Looking back on the game it doesn't feel like there was many puzzles, but the ones that it did have, i remember thinking a few times that they were slightly more interesting then the standard ones you find in these games. Not all of them were unique, but it was still something noteworthy in my opinion.

The story is quite decent, it's definitely something you can follow. It isn't anything life changing but it's interesting enough.
You and your partner are stranded on an island, your partner is dragged off whilst you are half conscious and your aim is to find them, find out where you are and discover the truths behind the mysterious island you have ended up on.

After you finish the game, there is an optional bonus chapter you can play through in the perspective of your partner. Which in honesty, i was quite impressed with.

The object scenes themselves are pretty straight forward. I would say the items blend very well, they're in proportion and easy (but not too easy) to find.

It felt like this game had quite a bit of back and forth, but not really in a bad way. You'll just notice early on that there are things you will need to come back to. Returning to earlier locations happens quite a bit.

All in all i think this is a decent one for the collection.

TL;DR : A decent HOG in pretty much all aspects (as far as HOGs go anyway).

Jane and Mike are separated after their yacht shipwrecked in a storm. However, a mysterious person dragged Mike away, letting Jane alone the island to solve the mystery. However, it seems that this separation was intended so that the young woman can break a curse...

While the plot isn't really bad, I must say that I was quite getting bored in the end of the game. I mean that I was probably expecting more revelations or more mysterious happenings. However, as it's a collector's edition, you get a bonus chapter, a very much interesting one, as the main game was cut abrupty. There, you can play Mike while he's hanging on a cord and discover how he escaped and how he managed to help Jane in the end. However, it does not stop there: the bonus chapter is the epilogue of the game, on what happened after the reunion. And I was kinda asking myself if it was going towars a certain direction and it did but I was wrong on one point.

Anyway, the gameplay is pretty standard: minigames to solve, hidden objects scenes to clear and items to find in each location. However, I regret the lack of map so that I could fast travel. And while some minigames were refreshing, as not common in the genre, others were kinda boring and hard. As for the objects scenes, some of them were well hidden, or near the HUD, too much for my taste (though it happened only in the bonus chapter). I wished that there were more to do in some locations, like in the old cemetery for example.

The story happening during a storm on a island, I loved the creepy ambiance and the animations. I also loved the mysteries around all the ships that wrecked on the island and how everything is related to the mysterious signs shown in the sky. However, I perhaps wished a little more locations related to the Ancients, so that I didn't feel that it was rushed in the end.

The soundtrack is also quite adapted for the game too.

In the end, while Sea Legends: Phantasmal Light isn't the best game in casual adventures, it's not a total failure thanks to refreshing minigames and the interesting plots. However, be also warned that the game may crash: it did twice: the first time when I arrived near the boat in front of the lighthouse and a second time when browsing through the extras (screensavers). You can find better games but for the price, it's still a good purchase.

Good Game for the price. It reminded me of late 90's early 2000's games. Lots of puzzle related content, many seek-and-find puzzle that brings you back to "Highlights" magazines where you have to find the hidden this-or-that in the picture. Interesting story as well, not really scary for adults or even kids nowadays. Has a pirate/sea captain theme, with an increase on word knowedge. The learning curve for younger players on this would be the word challenge, for example in the seek-and-find puzzle they ask for you to find a 'plane'. A young person would assume an airplane, but in fact it's a plane to level a surface of wood.
Great short game for adults, and a decent learning for kids concerning critical thinking and problem solving.

The first impression of this game was very positive. The graphics in this game are well drawn and with animated water splashing around the cliffs it all looked quite nice and polished. The story of being stranded on a deserted island sounded intersting enough for a HOG.

However this game gets quite tedious after a while, the hint system doesn't tell you where you have to go next and there is no map for fast travel, that combined with the need to go forward and backwards across the whole island all the time really pulls the fun out of it. There is also very little sense of progression as you go through the same rooms over and over again. HOG scenes, that contain important items for progression, also frequently respawn a few rooms behind you, which feels really arbitary and just stretches out the game needlessly.

Nice production values aside, I really didn't found this one enjoyable.

Nah- not worth it, stuck in a very small rectangle in the center of the screen in fullscreen mode- launch options to change resolution to try to get actual full screen had no effect, other than creating a very pixelated screen. Might show better on a smaller screen, but not great on an ultra-wide.
Hints- don't actually tell you where to go or what to look at next, other than in hidden-object scenes. (They work fine there.)
I enjoy good HOG/HOPA games for casual relaxation- this one just wasn't fun from the start. It shows its age- and doesn't show it well.

Just save your money- there are better HOG/HOPAs out there- this one doesn't even have the "benefit" of achievements or trading cards.

I recommend this game for those people who like fairly easy HOGs. I had a good time playing, but even on Expert mode it was not a difficult game. I got it cheap with my Steam Money from selling the cards which made it even better. I wouldn't pay full price, but if you can get a discount definately buy it.

The hidden objects scenes are very good, with lots of objects crammed into the scene instead of a simple scene that is too easy. This makes is difficult to find the objects, instead of quick and easy, but that wasn't a bad thing. I had to use the hint a couple of times to find the object since it was so well hidden.

The puzzles were not too hard, but different from other puzzles on the HOGs I have played. You have to use your brain, but some of them are just trial and error.

The story line was semi-interesting, but the characters had no depth or background information. The game gave almost no information as to why the evil was on the island and why the possessed man was there. The grapics were good and it seems like a well made game.

There were a few times that you had to walk back and forth to find the hidden obejct scenes, but the objects found were not always easy to figure out how to use. That made the game more interesting because the objects intended use was not immediately figured out. That really made the game better to play.

Very easy, quick casual adventure and Hidden Object game.

This game focuses more on collecting objects to reach new areas and has very few Hidden Object scenes and puzzles. The HO scenes require little effort as there are few items in scene besides the one your looking for. The story element is also easy as you have a limited inventory and so only few logical choices. Only a few logic puzzles which aren't taxing. The hand drawn stylised graphics are nice and sound is okay. The story is again okay.

There is an in game strategy guide/cheat sheet, but if you are going to use it you may as use the free hint/skips; and might want to consider checking the toxicity of your crayons.
No transport map, but the game is very small and areas are close together.
No game breaking bugs and only a couple buggy clicks on items.
Overall I would give this an okay. Good for crayon eaters.