Fairy Tale Mysteries 2: The Beanstalk (IHOG/FROG)

Fairy Tale Mysteries: The Beanstalk
by Gogii Games - October, 2013

Series links: Fairy Tale Mysteries 1: The Puppet Thief, Fairy Tale Mysteries 2: The Beanstalk

Available at:
Big Fish as Collector's Edition / Standard Edition



These are no ordinary beans! As a recently graduated investigator from the Grimm Brothers Institute, you must use all your wits - and your magic - to survive. Ascend the beanstalk to battle the mighty rampaging giant and protect the world from destruction. Find your way through the flower world, moon world, and more with the help from the elemental guardians, protectors of their realms. Revel in both full-scene hidden object quests as well as gorgeous conventional hidden object scenes. Defeat the giant in his castle to claim your reward and save the planet!

The Collector’s Edition includes:

• 12 additional scenes where you get to challenge the Giant!
  
• Two Groups of Hidden Collectable items in every scene
  
• Enjoy the game's music through the Music Gallery
  
• The Video Gallery allows you to re-watch cutscenes and movies
  

For the Standard Edition

• Strategy Guide
  
• Walkthrough (Big Fish)
  

Click images to enlarge
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Interesting And Unusual Gameplay!    
   

BASED ON DEMO


FIRST IMPRESSIONS
This game’s strong point is its different gameplay. The intro is not so impressive, but pleasant enough, and most aspects of the game are the same.

WHAT’S HAPPENING
There’s nothing really to say about the story, because it’s mostly the very familiar one. Jack is tricked into buying magical beans, which create a massive vine that reaches up into the clouds.

You are a fairy tale investigator and it is your job to get the beans back before they are used to set a very nasty giant free. Then, of course, Jack is kidnapped. Not overly childish or cartoonish, but I think that it will appeal to a younger audience as well as an adult one.

SIGHTS & SOUNDS
This game is a little low key, but well drawn and it has excellent voiceovers. The drawing is with a light hand. Very detailed, not heavy on the colour saturation, but bright and airy. It is nicely done and the ‘fairy tale’ atmosphere is achieved well, without any ‘cute’ factor per se. The voices are very good. The soundtrack is fairly quiet and can be adjusted for music, voice and effects. The music is different.

MAKING PROGRESS
This is the intriguing part of the game. It is a HOG (Hidden Object Game), with a few puzzles and some well-supported adventure. By which I mean, there is plenty of help if you want it. If you don’t you can use a slider to adjust the timing of hint, skip and glints. Too much help for a lot of players, I suspect.

Throughout the game there are objects of a kind you can bet you are going to need, e.g. shovel, which may be lying around, but until you have ‘collected’ the task it’s needed for, you will not be able to pick it up. I know many people find that irritating, but I didn’t find it to be too big a problem.

To proceed you must first talk to characters and find out your tasks. These are recorded in a bar under the inventory bar, each task with its own tab. Tasks will require the collection of certain objects or pieces of objects to found in that location, listed by a simple pic of each. There are usually only 3-4 items.

Some of the items will be locked until you complete a puzzle within the scene. These are indicated by a padlock over the image. Some pieces may not be found in the current location, in which case, the object will be faded. As well as this form of HOP, there are also standard interactive word lists. You can have several objectives happening at once across several locations. There is an interactive jump map and directional hint to help you to find your way.

Some of the puzzles involve riddles, which is a major plus for me.

CE BLING!
The usual bonus chapter comes after 7 standard chapters. The Strategy Guide is very good, giving precise instructions and clear screenshots. The gallery items are the usual, but there’s a lot more of them than most. There are also 40 Collectible Eggs (of the Faberge sort), which are well hidden. I didn’t see the other collectible item, or any achievement room , but perhaps the advertised extra scenes and challenging the giant are related to these.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS
I am intrigued by the different gameplay. I’ve not seen any quite like this. With that, plus the riddles, and the collectible eggs being so well camouflaged, I might find enough to interest me in the CE. But either way, it's a pretty good, not great, but good, game.

I Recommend This Game

PS. You will find very different attitudes to this game at Big Pond, which most are saying it is too childish and too easy, and/or too cute.

Great write-up, JTF.  Looking forward to playing the demo soon.

I agree  with your review.    It is a good,  not great, game.  I do like the way you collect things only when needed.
I wish, though,  that the graphics were crisper.   For Example:  Brink of Conscience: The Lonely Hearts Murders.   I think that those kind of graphics would make this game stand out more.

I might by it at a later date,  but holding off for now.   Unless the bonus is worth it,  I would get it as a SE.

I'm with you, I will probably get the se but even that will have to wait its turn, because I'm so busy reviewing, I end up never finishing the games I buy!