The HOPA  ....  Dark Parables: The Swan Princess and the Dire Tree CE  ....  by Eipix  ....  OMG, what a game!  Definitely in my top 5 fav games ever!  Oscar, I played with NO BBTs, NO contextual pointers and NO Plus Item Indicators - nothing!  And this is a really challenging game with only a few HOPs and MGs - mainly very challenging adventure play and inventory puzzles, with a huge and very convoluted and confusing world - eg. you go through cracks etc to get to new areas!  And it's loooooooooooooong, at least playing with no help as I did.  Main game took me over 9 hours, with some Hint help when I got stumped and wasn't sure what to do next, and the bonus game took me 1:40.  The the extras take maybe an hour.  So long ... and fun!

Here are some of my notes as I played ...

HOPs ...
    -    not very many
    -    all FRAGS, all challenging, but not all the same, eg. one is a mosaic (I loved that one!)
    -    the colours of the fragments you have to look for aren't always the same colour as in the scenes as, for example, if one's in shadow it's blue rather than whatever colour it actually is
    -    and all the fragments look the same size but they can be all different sizes in the scene - either huge or tiny - and they were all very well hidden - eg. one piece that looked like a piece of flint (which it was) was the shadow of a fold in a piece of cloth!  That one took me ages to find!
    -    I LOVED one HOS when you're looking down into a secret cache under the floor - it was a really weird perspective!
    -    there were also lots of little mini zoom HOSs with 8 to find - and they were just as hard!
    -    both types seemed to get easier as they game progressed but that might just be because I got used to them and knew the sort of places fragments were hidden

MGs ...
    -    only 17 in the MG and only 3 in the BG
    -    I think there are 2 where there's more than 1 possible solution but only theirs is the correct one - boo hiss
    -    they range from easy to Woah, are they serious? hard
    -    one has a glitch if you reset it (I had to as I couldn't move the last piece) and the only way to continue the game is to skip the MG - fortunately, there's no achievement for playing all the MGs
    -    I really liked them and lots got great big smiley faces from me!

Inventory ...
    -    some inventory items stay in your inventory for AGES until you find whatever else you need, some for most of the game!
    -    one Plus Item is in inventory for ages as it needs 3 interactions and you wait ages until you find the 2nd and then 3rd items needed - I didn't find the 3rd object needed until after I'd played more than 5 hours!

Sorry, but I'll have to finish this tomorrow as I'm not feeling so squeezy and need to ...


 

I'm sorry you been feeling so bad stusue.  Hope you get a good patch of health soon.

I hope you feel better soon too, Stusue.

I've now finished:

Fantasy Mosaics 4: Art of Color
Fearful Tales: Hansel and Gretel PE
Nevertales: The Beauty Within PE
Fantasy Mosaics 5

I was so pleased that GH got the Nevertales game as it was one that I'd bought from BFG but it wouldn't work when I upgraded my OS to El Capitan. I'd only bought the SE and the CE is really worth it. So much to do after the main game. Loved it. Only thing was that I couldn't make sense of the 3 stars on the HOS either, think someone else here mentioned that, maybe you, Sun.


 

Hi stusue, sorry to hear that you've been unwell.

I finally finished Mystery P.I.: Lost in Los Angeles.  Just need to play The London Caper and I'll be done with all the MPI games I own.  I've also been able to keep up with MC's Castle Challenge.

A lot of my time is being spent playing "Get Dad Eligible for Medicaid".  A lawyer gives you a list of items you need find.  They might be hidden anywhere within 10 junk-filled rooms, or if you get tired of searching junk piles, you can opt to play Scavenger Hunt and and contact outside agencies to see if they can supply copies, but it will cost you $$$. 

There's also a lot of exciting mini-games you can play to break up the monotony of all those HO's, such as Return the Leased Auto, Cancel the Credit Cards, Pay the Bills, etc.  If you're REALLY ambitious, you can attempt to sell some of Dad's 'treasures' on e-Bay or hold a garage sale.

 

Tirama.  No not fun at all, but at least you haven't lost your sense of humor.  {{{Tirama, DH & FiL }}}