the second entry in the far kingdom series of puzzle games (hidden object, match-3 and solitaire), the first solitaire and the second game I played, the first being sacred grove solitaire, which is very similar to this, so I'll link my review for easier comparison.

the usual fare, +1/-1 gameplay, fantasy setting (princess saves the world from the evil ice queen), decent graphics and music, separate volume sliders, and much to my surprise, a brightness slider! aside from undo and volume sliders (and saving anywhere and many others), this is my biggest pet peeve about video games, though not particularly in solitaire, and interestingly a later entry in the series doesn't have it (nor does it need it).

the challenge lies in that there are 5 hands for every level and you have to collect 10 rubies to succeed and move on, perfects don't matter much. it gets even trickier when frozen cards are on the screen, as you need to sacrifice a ruby to defrost all of them.

unfortunately (or fortunately), when you replay a hand, you can get further rubies, unlike in sacred grove solitaire, where once you exhausted the crystals, replays would only get you more money, though there you kept getting levels until a goal was reached, while here, as I said, you have 5 hands and that's it.

if you're looking for a casual card game, feel free to buy some cheap wildcards and replay levels until you get enough rubies before moving on, though the other extreme is getting all 10 early on, then just flicking through the other hands to get them over with (because you still have to finish all 5 hands no matter what), but to each their own.

if you do want a challenge, don't abuse the system, but wildcards and power-ups can still come in handy. while the former was plentiful and free in sacred grove you have to buy them here, and power-ups are unlocked with gold as well and they're all the same as in sacred grove, which I found weird, and they're just as useless for the most part. I wouldn't even worry about buying them at all because as you go through the game, you'll get companions that do the same things for free (they need some time to recharge and they don't reset for each hand, so be careful), and once you have a helper on your team, you can't use them and the power-up with the same effect, they must use the same power-up slot or something.

not sure why the store page says 50 levels when there are 20 with 5 hands each, maybe they meant 50 different layouts. there's quite a bit of story for a solitaire, or more like dialog after and between most levels, there's even a journal to keep up with goings-on, but you're not missing crucial info by not playing the first far kingdoms game, you can put most of the pieces together, though I found some weird things story-wise (feel free to skip the next paragraph, I just found it amusing).

in sacred grove, which is the 5th game and 3rd solitaire in the series, they said only elves know the ancient art of solitaire, here's a magic deck, princess, do your thing. and here in solitaire #1, game #2 of the far kingdoms, playing as the same princess I get a deck from a fortune teller from game #1 (based on the dialog anyway). the assistant elf is the same in both games, and while I think they live long lives, a human princess doesn't, so too much time couldn't have passed between games.

it's probably just me thinking too much into it, though I gotta admit, the concept of an ongoing story, as inconsistent as it seems to be in this case, playing out over several games in various genres is a good one, but not so much when the other genres are not my favorite. and while sacred grove had skippable jigsaw puzzles to break up monotony, this has unskippable hidden object screens, though there's a hint button.

stripping it down to its core, it's the same as every other solitaire game, only not as good, but I'm glad they improved on a few things as the series went on. so pick it up on sale if you're in a frosty mood, especially on a hot summer night.

the second entry in the far kingdom series of puzzle games (hidden object, match-3 and solitaire), the first solitaire and the second game I played, the first being [b]sacred grove solitaire[/b], which is very similar to this, so I'll link [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/dohi64/recommended/1034260/]my review[/url] for easier comparison. the usual fare, +1/-1 gameplay, fantasy setting (princess saves the world from the evil ice queen), decent graphics and music, separate volume sliders, and much to my surprise, a brightness slider! aside from undo and volume sliders (and saving anywhere and many others), this is my biggest pet peeve about video games, though not particularly in solitaire, and interestingly a later entry in the series doesn't have it (nor does it need it). the challenge lies in that there are 5 hands for every level and you have to collect 10 rubies to succeed and move on, perfects don't matter much. it gets even trickier when frozen cards are on the screen, as you need to sacrifice a ruby to defrost all of them. unfortunately (or fortunately), when you replay a hand, you can get further rubies, unlike in sacred grove solitaire, where once you exhausted the crystals, replays would only get you more money, though there you kept getting levels until a goal was reached, while here, as I said, you have 5 hands and that's it. if you're looking for a casual card game, feel free to buy some cheap wildcards and replay levels until you get enough rubies before moving on, though the other extreme is getting all 10 early on, then just flicking through the other hands to get them over with (because you still have to finish all 5 hands no matter what), but to each their own. if you do want a challenge, don't abuse the system, but wildcards and power-ups can still come in handy. while the former was plentiful and free in sacred grove you have to buy them here, and power-ups are unlocked with gold as well and they're all the same as in sacred grove, which I found weird, and they're just as useless for the most part. I wouldn't even worry about buying them at all because as you go through the game, you'll get companions that do the same things for free (they need some time to recharge and they don't reset for each hand, so be careful), and once you have a helper on your team, you can't use them and the power-up with the same effect, they must use the same power-up slot or something. not sure why the store page says 50 levels when there are 20 with 5 hands each, maybe they meant 50 different layouts. there's quite a bit of story for a solitaire, or more like dialog after and between most levels, there's even a journal to keep up with goings-on, but you're not missing crucial info by not playing the first far kingdoms game, you can put most of the pieces together, though I found some weird things story-wise (feel free to skip the next paragraph, I just found it amusing). in sacred grove, which is the 5th game and 3rd solitaire in the series, they said only elves know the ancient art of solitaire, here's a magic deck, princess, do your thing. and here in solitaire #1, game #2 of the far kingdoms, playing as the same princess I get a deck from a fortune teller from game #1 (based on the dialog anyway). the assistant elf is the same in both games, and while I think they live long lives, a human princess doesn't, so too much time couldn't have passed between games. it's probably just me thinking too much into it, though I gotta admit, the concept of an ongoing story, as inconsistent as it seems to be in this case, playing out over several games in various genres is a good one, but not so much when the other genres are not my favorite. and while sacred grove had skippable jigsaw puzzles to break up monotony, this has unskippable hidden object screens, though there's a hint button. stripping it down to its core, it's the same as every other solitaire game, only not as good, but I'm glad they improved on a few things as the series went on. so pick it up on sale if you're in a frosty mood, especially on a hot summer night.