Fairy Tale Mysteries: The Puppet Thief

Simple and fun hidden objects game!

Not really a bad game... But not one of the ones you would tell your parents about.

I agree with others that say this isn't like other Artifex Games and well... It's just that everything feels sub-par.

The story is... Super simple and it's like they wrote you a reason to chase a bad guy. Nothing overly crazy or even twist-like happens and you can even easily figure out the ending.

Although story-telling isn't the greatest in H.O.G.s (NOT ALL!)... At least H.O. scenes or item finding/placing is, right? Right...?

I felt like Hidden Object scenes were far too simple. There were maybe like three items I had problems with and I finished each one of these scenes in practically under a minute (and no... I am not expert. AT ALL. Like it's that simple).

Finding items in the environment isn't hard either... But sometimes you can easily overlook something because it's either blended in or you didn't even think there would be anything worthwhile there. Mini games are also on the simpler side... The only reason one might skip one or two... Is due to a patience factor.

There is a map to tell you where an "Action" is... However... IT POINTS TO THE ENTIRE AREA. So you gotta go through 1-5 rooms and find where to use the object on. You also gotta remember some parts to solve puzzles and I know how hard that can be for short attention spanned people... XD

There were also no cute animals and that is usually a bonus with these games. But okay. *shrugs*

Thanks... Although I know you guys did far better in your other games. :>

Mostly easy to follow the clues. It's the overlapping balls in circles that gave me difficulty! I remembered screen shots this time, so the sequence is easy to follow.

I feel like I should not have enjoyed this game as much as I did. I remembered playing a cool hidden object game involving some sort of puppet thing about five years ago. A month ago though, I felt the strange urge to play it again but I could not remember the game. So, I combed through many hidden object games until I found this one, the one I had been looking for. Sure, the face animation could be horrifying at time, and the story was disconnected, and the game is short, and some of the puzzles are very easy. But, I genuinely enjoyed playing this game. It's also nice that there is a bonus chapter (which takes about 30 min) and achievements which are fun to collect. The one thing I will say though, is DO NOT BUY THIS GAME AT FULL PRICE. It was 90% off when I bought it so it was only $1 which I feel is a good price for this game and the content you get. $10 is way to much especially since the while game can be completed in about 2.5 hours. But, overall I recommend this game and give it a 6.9/10!

The game is certainly an older style of hidden object puzzle game. It reminds me a lot of Demon Hunter: Chronicles from Beyond, in terms of the style of art, the gameplay, etc. It even shares that darker tone that a lot of the other more fantasy-oriented hidden object puzzle games don't have.

There are some good things and some bad things. The music seems mostly to be just 1 or 2 tracks, but I like the ambient music of this game, there are some environmental sounds mixed in like the wind blowing and I feel like the music fit the aesthetics of the game perfectly, unlike Demon Hunters music which grated on me.

I don't remember if there are collectibles in Demon Hunter, but there are none in this game, the map is the old style of map where not everyplace is listed on the map, just certain hubs. The hidden object puzzles have no complex items, like things where the item is in a locked chest, so you find a key in the scene and use it on the chest to open it. And I didn't mind this, but in spite of this, the puzzles were still very challenging, took me a while to finish one under 1 minute for the achievement.

There was a bonus adventure though, which was nice.

Only big gripe I have is the achievement to finish the game on expert. It's fine, but I'm not using a mouse, I'm using a touchscreen on a tablet, and this makes the game unnecessarily hard on a mode like expert.

But overall I enjoyed it and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

Well, yeah... hard to recommend this one. And not even because it is that horrible. It's just too archaic. Very poor set of puzzles and mini games. Even visuals are clearly dated and unrepresentable. Each time when I was about to start another hidden object scene, I was like "ah, damn, once again I have to spoil my eyes, by searching for dim junk, in dim locations with dim lighting".

On the other hand, the story seemed quite good. Music? - nothing prominent. Can't say anything concrete. The game even has a bonus chapter - same pros, same cons. It was released in 2016? - Ridiculous. Hard to imagine that something like this could appear after Grim Legends 1 and 2.

I'd say that probably it belongs to 2005-2008th. Seems like they thad some old and unused scetches, so they just decided to combine it somehow... Somehow indeed... In the end - I can recommend it solely for the collection. Get it as a part of a bundle and only on sale.

Really like this game. It's a true HOP with few other puzzles thrown in. The voice acting is superb. If you like HOP's I recommend this game.

made my head hurt :( which is kinda sad because i've been loving the AM hidden object games, but this one was just Not It. i even initially thought that it was just the age of the game, but there were a lot of HOGs made in 2016 that are a lot better art and plot-wise. i didn't even play the bonus game.

Fairy Tale Mysteries: The Puppet Thief hints at the next in the series, The Beanstalk. It is a point & click adventure HOG. Everyone likes puppets, right? There is something therapeutic about going after an evil guy who is pulling all the strings. There is something satisfying about cutting the strings & freeing people. Sometimes you go after a bad guy & learn he was just a puppet, too. You get to talk to the famous Grimm brothers as well as other characters, travel to several locations, solve HOS, solve puzzles, & play mini-games which are all blended into the story. Lovely artwork. A lot of imagination and creativity to make this game.

You have:
Journal - very nice. Holds some, but not all clues.
map - transports you, shows available actions and your location
Bonus game - you are helping someone trapped in a mirror
Bonuses: the bonus game, concept art, achievements
mini games
puzzles - problem solving, logic (like how do I get behind the water fall, how do I free someone from a cage)
HOS - some items were grainy or blurred, most were fine
travel - you get to explore homes, buildings, outdoors, a bar, sewers, and much more.

Having played several other Artifex Mundi hidden object games, what is different in this one is that it relies pretty heavily on the hidden object side.
You still have some puzzles and some point 'n click adventuring to do, but like other early Artifex Mundi games, this one also has a lot of hidden object parts, and they are very straightforward without separate areas and whatnot.
It also has some hillarious incompatible objects for the apparent time of the narrative of the story... say like a Swiss Army Knife in a medieval setting, stuff like that.
The story itself is a mix of folklore, magic, witchcraft, and a journalist/detective story - the genre most Artifex Mundi games also delve into.

People who are not particularly interested in the hidden object part of these types of games probably won't like this one a whole lot... but you know, I think it's an early game from them, and if you don't mind them, it's a pretty enjoyable entry. I personally liked it. :D

pros

+ cool story about a evil puppeteer who has magical powers and disappeared children
+ easy to solve fun puzzles and mini games
+ decent voice acting
+ fun to watch cutscenes
+ the hidden object scenes easy and enjoyable
+ hint system helpful
+ there is auto save
+ there is a map
+ nice background musics which fit the atmosphere
+ three difficulty options
+ there are steam achievements
+ there is bonus chapter

cons

- some slider and trial/error puzzles
- dated and muddy background graphics
- game short
- more than necessary ho scenes

Overall, this is an average but enjoyable HO game.

A decent game that has nice music even if it's a bit lacking in ambiance. The voice actors are solid and the speaking animation is the stuff of nightmares, but the story is pretty neat and leads you along nicely. It sets up a pretty cool world, for all that it doesn't go into that world. Worth getting if it's on sale.

Good story, heavy on the HO scenes and medium on the mini-games. Not many achievements, but they are easy. The HO scene resolution could be much better and they are semi-difficult without insufficient resolution. Still enjoyable.

1% story - but unexpected story
99% Gameplay
the voice actors were funny that I couldn't hear what they were saying from laughing
but that's what I really wanted and was seeking these kinds of games
I wanted something funny from a serious story
It's sad that the new hidden object games has lost this touch...

As somebody who has played many puzzle games, I cannot recommend this game.

Pros

Cons

Summary

Cannot recommend, I purchased this game on super sale and went into it with low expectations but even those things couldn't save the experience.

Pros
.Striking artwork/graphics/scenes
.Three difficulty modes (no custom)
.Mini-map with fast travel
.Stationary toolbar
.Object glows when in place for possible use
.Intricate adventure play
.Abundance of challenging hidden object scenes (word only)
.Easy to challenging mini-puzzles
.Bonus chapter

Cons
.Mini-map only denoted area not specific scenes
.Several instances of incongruous adventure play
.Repetition of hidden object scenes
.Repetition of objects to find in hidden object scenes
.Repetitive 'ting, ting, ting, ting' sound during hidden object scenes
.Small number of mini-puzzles
.Very short

Final words (3.5/10):
The story was an awful mess. I could see elements of an entertaining adventure but information necessary to create a coherent narrative was skimmed over and the use of the Brothers Grimm to move the player along broke the narrative up even further. The best part was probably the hidden object scenes despite the repetition of scenes and objects to find but I could only do them on mute due to the repetitive music which detracted from the experience, Will be deleting it.

Long story short: I can't recommend this game. If you got this because of your interest in Eventide, by the same devs and publisher, be forewarned, this game is not similar to Eventide in terms of quality.

The good:

- Dark storyline, if you like that thing
- Easy achievements

The bad:

- This is a very short game. My first play through only took two hours. HOPA games usually take me 3-4 hours, and I consider 6 hours to be a great value. This was low value, and if there weren't these other issues, I might've given this game a better review, regardless of brevity (I liked The Last Door, for example, and that was pretty short, but exceedingly well done). Given the game's other weaknesses, this serves only as a further negative point.
- I think the setting was weak. It's supposed to be set in 1818 according to the in-game magic telegrams, and there's random anachronistic junk strewn around that doesn't make sense, even in a steampunk setting, and made the game look messy. There were staggeringly different aesthetic for the sewer (real world), the pottery shop (classical world), clock area (steampunk/dieselpunk), starting areas (medeivaly?), and the final area (horror/fantasy?) that didn't mesh together. I would've prefered to have seen one of those settings done well.
- The hidden object puzzle scenes use photographs of real objects rather than paintings, for the most part, and are grainy and muddy.
- The hidden object puzzles feature various types of hidden objects that are frustrating for players, rather than clever. Clever: having a player look for a "hand" and it's a clock hand. Not clever: having hard to find objects that are obscured by other objects, that blend into other objects, that are basically made transparent and overlaid on other objects (there's a butterfly on a lamp, and they're both the exact same color), and lots of objects that are just shadowy silhouettes in random places.
- Non-HOP puzzles were mostly easy and boring and stuff I'd seen before (electricity redirecting puzzles, 15 tile slider puzzle, the marble puzzle, etc.)
- The item-based puzzles involving the inventory were rather boring, and in some cases, finding the thing you needed to use (a crow to scare away, a jar to break, etc.) was hard to do given the poor location art.
- There was a section of the game in which the controls weren't reacting properly to mouse movement. This is a HOPA, not Halo, so it made no sense that that would be a problem. The issue eventually went away.

If you want a fairy tale themed HOPA that won't disappoint, check out the Eventide series by Artifex Mundi.

If you want a dark fantasy themed HOPA, check out Mind Snares.

Additional features:
- I think the protagonist is implied to be male, so if that matters to you, there's that.
- There are no collectibles
- There isn't a side game a la the dominos option available in Abyss: Wraiths of Eden
- There is a bonus adventure with two achievements you'd get through normal play. Bonus adventure has the same issues as the base game, except for the controls issue.

Game Information

"Fairy Tale Mysteries: The Puppet Thief" Collector's Edition is a Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game. The game was developed by The House of Fables & Gogii Games and published by Artifex Mundi.

"The Puppet Thief" is the first episode of "Fairy Tale Mysteries."

Since this is a collector's edition game, it comes with extra features that are not available in its counterpart; the standard edition.

The Game Review

Game Visuals

I want to mention that the visuals in the game are well done. The visuals can be adjusted in the game's option menu.

Game Audio

I want to mention that audio for the game is well done. Even though the audio is somewhat simplistic and repetitive. The audio can be adjusted in the game's option menu as well.

Gameplay

There are three different difficulty game modes to choose from: Casual; Hard and Expert.

The notebook keeps track of progression in the game. Such as story events and clues.

There is an interactive map in the game. It allows the player to fast travel between each location quickly without having the need to constantly backtrack. It also indicates that there are a variety of tasks that can be completed at various locations within the game. The interactive map is not automatically given at the start of the game.

There is no padlock feature that is available to lock the inventory panel in place. The inventory panel comes automatically stationary.

There are some interactive items in the game. Some of the interactive items may require extra components before they can be interacted with. All interactive items are marked with a symbol in one of the corners.

The hidden object scenes consist of the following: Traditional word lists. Some of these hidden object scenes may require little or no interaction.

The puzzles are fairly easy to solve without having the need to skip any of them.

There are seventeen different achievements that can be unlocked from playing the game. Each of these achievements does come with some requirements that need to be completed before they can be unlocked.

Since this is a collector's edition, there is a bonus chapter, but it can be accessed only after the main story is completed.

Miscellaneous

There are extra features in the game: Bonus Chapter and Concept Art.

There are five different trading cards to collect. Only three of those trading cards are given out by the game. There are several ways to get the rest of the trading card: Purchased from Steam's Community Market; Trade with friends; Booster Packs and its' Booster Pack Creator.

Final thoughts: I have found the game enjoyable to a certain extent. The replay value for the game is low. I would recommend this game, but not at the game's full price value.

Nice HO game! There’s HO scenes after another, but that didn’t bothered me, I actually enjoyed! The story was interesting and the art quality was good. The puzzles were a bit too easy to solve, so expect to beat this game in a few hours. Get it on a good sale and enjoy!

5/10.

I haven't written many reviews lately on HOGs because the majority of them seem to be...well...rehashes on every other one. This one is rather good however. It still keeps all the same commonalities of HOGs (hidden object puzzles, casual pick and choose puzzles, color matching, tile puzzles), but it actually has fairly good voice acting, better than average animation for a HOG, and a music loop that suits the mood (although you will likely get tired of it). Not very challenging, but decent. Get it on sale. Easy achievements, easy to beat, relatively low replay value.

This game is a re-release. Indeed, publishers changed: it is now in Artifex Mundi's catalogue and I can understand why as they have the sequel already in it. Anyway, apart adding trading cards and taking time to put achievements, I didn't see any difference between the previous and this game. Anyway, I don't care having paid for this one. A -40% is a nice discount and the game at full price is less expensive than previously.

Allow me so to take my previous review and to put it here.

For your first investigation, you have to solve the mystery of several children's disappearances in Charmeville. But what to do when you realize that your main suspect isn't maybe as malevolent as you thought?

I should have began by this game first before playing the sequel. The gameplay is the standard one (hidden objects scenes, puzzles, items to find) but at least, it's easy to find the items needed, even in the hidden objects scenes, compared to the sequel. Anyway, or I was blind in the previous release, or it was added because I found finally a map, which is easier to go through scenes.

The graphics are correct, I love the fact that it's set during one night and that you're visiting locations like a crypt, graveyard, sewers, etc.. I love mainly when Artifex Mundi publish games that are supposed to be dark and creepy. It's better when they're writing and developing games but well this one is good enough. Besides, cutscenes are perhaps not animated but the people speaking are. Voice acting is also good.

Given the price tag, I would say that now, you can go ahead. Even if you already own the previous game, it's still a good bargain. Anyway, I don't know if owners will get a copy. It's the same game, without improvement, apart for cards and achievements. It's just a change of publishers. True, games that were re-released were or given for free for owners or with a very interesting discount (Sleeping Dogs, Zombie Army Trilogy, Letter Quest: Grimm's Journey are fine examples of that). But I didn't mind buying it again. I've quite a soft spot for Artifex Mundi.

Anyway, free copy or not, the game is still worthy for any newcomer.