Echoes of the Past: The Castle of Shadows Walkthrough
Well, I really have a LOT of free time with Max in school. I am trying not to be so sad that he took to it like a fish to water. I was all ready for my first day of school speech and he was all, “see ya Mom"!” Umm, a little show of separation anxiety would have been nice, at least fake it. I decided to escape my sorrow in a game or two. Here is one that I played in an effort to erase my own separation anxiety. Turns out it was such a great game I actually had to keep track of the time so I did not miss the bus pulling up.
Well, I really have a LOT of free time with Max in school. I am trying not to be so sad that he took to it like a fish to water. I was all ready for my first day of school speech and he was all, “see ya Mom"!” Umm, a little show of separation anxiety would have been nice, at least fake it. I decided to escape my sorrow in a game or two. Here is one that I played in an effort to erase my own separation anxiety. Turns out it was such a great game I actually had to keep track of the time so I did not miss the bus pulling up.
Not having played the first of the series (Royal House of Stone), I am certainly intrigued enough now to actually go backwards and see how that games plays out, and also for the beautiful artwork. It has a compelling storyline and intriguing puzzles and quests.
The game starts out in a historical facts museum, where a picture of a princess has been coming to life and scaring visitors. The ghost speaks to you and begs you to help her, at which point you don’t get to make a serious decision about which direction you want your life to go (hmmm, scary deserted kingdom, or.. I don’t know, NOT scary deserted kingdom..) she just poofs you to her kingdom to start your quest for defeating evil. Which is in the form of a witch who has tried to take the amulet for her own nefarious plans, but has managed to scatter it all over the kingdom . Along the way you meet up with the enchanted subjects who have been turned into shadows. They will give you pieces of the amulet as you rescue them from their fate.
The game does not play straight through, but has you double back a lot to former scenes. Like needing a potion, but you have to find the ingredients in several different places. The hidden object puzzles were interesting in the fact that you ended up replacing many of the items you found earlier into a later puzzle, thus gaining another needed inventory item.
Most of the puzzles are pretty straightforward, with only a few requiring a more intense thought process. A lot of the clues are right there in the puzzle. Many times after staring at the game for several minutes willing it to “speak to me”, I would suddenly have one of those “ohhh, I see” moments, and then I would complete the puzzle in a flash. All in all a great game I highly recommend (can’t wait to play the third one coming out).