Princess Isabella: The Rise of an Heir

Good fun.

To be honest i like this part more then the second part. Its at least not completly the same as the other two. Still many mechanics are the same, the story kind of too. But still it was more fun then the second part. The Epilogue was a nice look back to the last parts. All in one a pretty cool game. I can recommend it (when on sale)

The third and the last of the trilogy of games. Also the more graphically updated and the easiest one to boot.

This time you don't even save people like in the previous one. Nope. You clean up their dead bodies... I mean you "take care" of their spirits in the Bonus Game.

There is also not much story nor motivation... I mean... You just go and fight an evil Witch. That's it... I guess you save your mom and you never see your dad...

It says "Happily Ever After", but with so many people dead...?

I am completely neutral towards this game. Maybe everyone was tired of creating the trilogy and they just put out what they could. *shrugs*

Otherwise, not a bad way to pass time. I think...

Having played all 3 games, I highly recommend this series mainly because it contains game mechanics that are unique to the HOG genre. These were made in the good old days of HOGs where developers were creative and didn't just lazily copy off of one another. Unlike other reviewers I thought the 3rd game in the series was just as good as the first 2.

Wasn't horrible, but there are better games for your money (even when buying on special). Game only took 2 hours to complete in advanced mode, and the puzzles were mostly on the simple side. There were also quite a few glitches. Indication stars appearing before you can actually access the puzzle, puzzles appearing as solved before you've solved them, messages telling you to do things that have already been completed... There were even just basic errors and oversights like throne being spelt "frone" in on message, or instructions not being clear/correct on puzzles. At one point I searched for ages for a butterfly, only to find they meant "dragonfly". For a lot of the game I had to use the "just try everything" technique because some of the solutions made no sense. The ship that needed sails for instance, three tiny mandrake leaves was certainly not something I would have thought of (never before or after is the fairy's power used for growing the size of leaves). Or when looking at the lionhead statue, I could certainly see no logic as to why an empty chalice activated it. Not why a flower was his choice of food after being activated. Or the witch battles where the witch herself was simply background noise and added nothing to the puzzles themselves. None of this made the game unplayable, but it was quite annoying. The whole storyline was kind of slapdash as well. They evil red eye mounted at the top of the tower was straight out of Lord of the Rings. It seems that multiple people in the kingdom had the ability to defeat the witch, and I still can't figure out why most of them didn't rather than leave clues for the main character to defeat the witch later. And the story all wraps up with them living happily ever after despite the fact that most people in the castle were dead, or had lost so much of their lives to the curse.

3 hours of gameplay without any major obstacles. Not the best title, but if you are into such games then it is solid. But surely there are better ones out there, Only buy on sale!

"Don't touch it with a stick" level of quality. You really need a talent to make something as horrible, because this game failed in all possible aspects: story, visuals, gameplay and even techical condition. First of all, let's talk about visuals. And they are ugly. Please, arrest this artist for the crimes against art, before he will draw something as ugly again. But at the same time I must be honest - ugly art is presented mostly in the initial locations and outside of the castle. Inside the castle it looks rather beautiful, as it was drawn by other person. But even inside the castle sometimes you can notice some... incompatible visuals.

Gameplay. Most of the time you are collecting pieces of paper. Or water seeds to colect pieces of paper. Or doing X to water seeds to collect pieces of paper. Or doing Y to do X to water... - you got the point. Very boring, repetitive and lazy. Who thought that it will be interesting to repeat the same stuff dozens of times? HOG scenes seemed more or less ok. Puzzles and mini games? - nothing remarkable.

Story. Let's not even start. Press F.

Visual effects and animations. Few of them are good (during the transformation of locations). But most of them either look pathetic or bugged, or even missing. This leads to another issues - technical ones. For example, you do X, cutscene where location starts it's transformation begins, a-a-and... cancels. You do it again - cancels again. Third time - finally it worked.

The game has bonus chapter. Better it didn't, because it's totally broken. You have an owl companion who helps you... somehow. No idea how. You just use him and... something happens. No special affects, no animations - nothing. They didn't even bother to draw something here. When you open your task book, it breaks ingame sound and keeps looping forever. Some cutscenes worked only after 2nd or 3rd try. This is how I was finishing this chapter.

FInal verdict. Ugly, lazy, boring, broken. Would not recommend even for collection. Avoid even on sale.

Ooof, rough one.
I imagine this is among the older hidden object game titles from Artifex Mundi... or an early entry for the studio involved.
It has all the markings, by which I mean problems, of older ones.
Spoilers bellow.

First, a story that is a bit... weird, let's put it this way.
A princess (Isabella of the title) that goes after a witch by herself to rescue her baby (you, Bella), who is then "saved"/stolen by a friendly dragon, which leads to a moment of distraction for the witch that was seemingly defeated to turn the queen into stone, which becomes a new source of power for her.
For whatever reason, the baby is now all grown up, it's you, but you didn't know about the witch and your mother's story somehow? Sounds like something was left out there.. the entire castle, servants, guards, King and Queen all transformed and ruined. I think I get it now, but it's weird how the story goes.

The prince was cursed by a black rose with dark magic and turned into an old man, you know this and you still take his advice because reasons? I think they meant he just lost his memory, but man, spoilers... I just find it hillarious that the prince (your father) never turns back to his former self, while Isabella look as young as you. xD

But like, no one tried to rescue these people since then? How did you grow up? What were you doing at the beginning of the game? Why did the witch have to go after you? Why didn't she use the erm... eye of Sauron to kill everyone who got close there.
And now, conveniently, the curse on Isabella could become irreversible, right when the story is revealed and you happen to be on way to save your fairy godmothers? Anyways, it's a whole bunch of either plotholes, convenient coincidences, or just weird reveals all around. xD I know early Artifex Mundi games had lots of those, so I just find it kinda funny.

The fist cutscene also left me all confused... I guess the witch was trying to get you, but instead locked up all fairy godmothers that protects you, the dragon coming to the rescue once again. But the cutscene is pretty weird in itself, it talks about your mother, but she's been cursed to a stone way back then?

On the mechanics... it's pure hidden object puzzles without extra sections, which I'm fine with. Also ok with it not having collectibles... don't like them too much.
But like many other Artifex Mundi early games, this has items to pick up strewn about undistinguishable parts of the scenario (that is, if you are playing on expert mode). Playing on expert in newer Artifex Mundi games isn't much of a problem because they don't have these hidden objects in regular scenarios, but in early games it's just an exercise in frustration. You just have to drag the cursor all over the screen until you find something, and sometimes it's really hidden.

So, to free the fairy godmothers you have to find several pieces of their pictures/photos... and so you get the problem. 3 fairy godmothers, probably over 30 pieces of photos to recover, that are all at random locations... inside tree trunks, mushrooms, glass domes, and other weird places that makes no sense a piece of photo would end up at. Well, ok, I think they figured it wasn't great and changed the whole thing for mandarakes to have most of the rest of the pieces, or them being at places you'd have to use fairy godmother magic to get to anyways, so it becomes easier to find afterwards.

The art... is still ok, but in that style of older titles too. Perspectives are a bit wonky, sometimes you get a hidden object that for whatever reason is kinda transparent, sneakily hidden, or more than half behind something, there are backgrounds and scenarios that you just can't figure out what the heck the mess is... I can't quite explain it, but it's like a weird collage of objects that don't seem to quite fit. It's not as bad as some hidden object games that uses collages of... apparently stock photos or something, with all sorts of resolutions, lighting quality, transparency treatment and whatnot, but it's still not great. Again, on par with early Artifex Mundi games.

Another weird thing that can be perhaps a bit problematic... there are some hidden object parts that tells you to find "evil" objects. xD Not very PC these days, but it's spiders, snakes, skulls, centipedes, monsters and stuff like that. Poor fellas, why do those have to necessarily be "evil"? Game is a bit judgemental. xD

There are some very few bugs, misnomers, and duplicate objects too that I've noticed.

But anyways, it is still a fairly competent hidden object game with puzzles and a story. I'm fully aware that there are horribly worse hidden object games out there, so as an early entry, I'll still recommend just with the caveat that there are some frustrating parts in this one.

pros

+ decent story which is inspired fairy tales
+ nice variety and fun to solve 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
+ three difficulty options
+ there are steam achievements
+ there is bonus chapter

cons

- some trial and error and slider puzzles
- dated background graphics
- game short
- there are no cards

Overall, this is an average but enjoyable HO game.

One of the worst HOG Artifex Mundi (as publisher) came up with.
On the plus side it's rather short, and purifying places and collecting portrait pieces are nice mechanics, but the imagery is super lackluster and often it's not clear what you need to do.

Been thinking about how to rate this one quite some time. If available, this would be a neutral rating, but given the drawbacks.... I'll go for the "thumbs down".

Major issue is: I just can't engage with the characters. Too stereotype, good is good and bad is bad and there's nothing in between. Minor major issue: the very straightforward story. No surprise, no twist, nothing like that. Even though the game is graphically pleasing and presents some neat ideas like commanding animals to help you in certain situations and the HOG scenes are challenging, at the end of the day all of the good things are not enough to outweigh the downsides. And as I've played other titles from the same publisher (e.g. the Enigmatis series) that truly knocked me off my feet, sadly it's just not enough.

I definitely enjoyed this game.
The low rating seems unfair, or at least much too harsh, to me.
Play this game to have fun ~ it's campy, it's a little (sometimes a lot) on the easy side, and the plot is pure Disney. But the visuals are gorgeous, and it's very relaxing. Plus, the Bonus play was arguably better than the main story, and long enough to satisfy.

The music is nice, but does get repetitive - you can turn it off if you want to (I just turned it down).
Everything ran smoothly for me, and the game has a map (with features depending on your chosen level of play).

This would be also fun game for a reasonably adept child, especially to get them interested in these, but keep in mind that there are always one or two harder to find objects, and there are lots of little puzzles. Adults looking for a challenge should play on the hard level and then just relax if it isn't as tough as newer or purposely harder games.

Definitely not one of Artifex Mundi's better works. This game is laughably simple, with absolutely no challenge, no extra collectibles to find, and the plot barely holds water. The animations for the fairy godmothers' spells and the dragon take really long, too, which bogs down the simplistic gameplay and makes it worse.

There is also a fairy named Fairy.

Game Information

"Princess Isabella: The Rise of An Heir" Collector's Edition is a Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game. The game was developed by Gogii Games and published by Artifex Mundi.

"The Rise of An Heir" is the third episode of "Princess Isabella." Previous episodes: "Princess Isabella" and "Return of the Curse."

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; Advanced and Expert.

The notebook keeps track of all 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 automatically given at the start of the game.

There is no padlock feature that is available to lock the inventory panel in place to make it stationary. 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 magic wand tools, there are two kinds of magic wands: Fairy and Dark Magic, both of these wands function differently from each other. They can be used at certain situations within the game. However, both needed to be built before they could be used.

There is a dragon helper in the game. It is summoned via pan flute. The dragon helper can complete certain tasks that the player cannot do themselves.

There are also Fairy Godmother helpers in the game. They also can complete certain tasks that the player cannot do themselves.

The hidden object scenes consist of the following: Find 'x' amount and Traditional word lists. Some of these hidden object scenes may require little or no interaction. Most of the hidden object scenes can be replayed in the game's extra feature section.

The puzzles are fairy easy to solve without having the need to skip any of them. Most of the puzzles can be replayed in the game's extra feature section as well.

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

There are nine 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 are unlocked.

Miscellaneous

There are extra features in the game: Bonus Chapter; Bonus Hidden Object Scenes; Bonus Puzzles; Wallpapers; Concept Art and Soundtracks. Most of these extra features can be accessed only after the entire game is completed.

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 cards: 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.

Not fun to play. Bad story and poor graphics. Very short, easy and confusing at some point. I bought it because of the publisher (artifex mundi), they usually got really nice games but it proved disappointing.

I've played all AM games on Steam so far. This game is the shortest one. I've finished it in 1 hour with all achievements and bonus story and just waited for cards to drop. Main story is fairy-like and really simple and obvious. Bonus chapter have so boring story and gameplay, gosh! Controls a little annoying because of long actions scenes, you just have to wait 10-15 seconds 'till game will finish your action in "beautiful plausible" way. I don't really care about seeing 100% movements of EVERY object I'm placing or taking.
AM have a lot of good puzzle game series, this is not one of them.

Princess Isabella: The Rise of an Heir is the last game in the titular series, and probably the weakest game in means of gameplay dynamic, puzzle choices and story elaboration to begin with. It was in the Steam Store for ages alongside other two games before Artifex Mundi got the rights from Gogii Games to remaster. The old original game - a cheesy, yet okay conclusion to otherwise beautiful series - is sadly not acquirable through the Steam Store anymore. This is the remaster arranged by Artifex Mundi, and even though that I'm a fan of the publisher, I'll go out on a limb and declare that they didn't even try to make a decent job here.

Spoiler Alert! Isabella's last battle with the witch didn't end happily. Yes, she managed to rescue Bella with the aid of her companions, yet her momentary distraction costed her everything. The witch turned her into a stone statue, Prince Adam completely lost his mind and the kingdom has fallen under the tyrannical rule of the witch... Yet, in a silent and peaceful corner of the realm, three fairy godmothers and the dragon raised little Bella to be a capable wizardess just like her mother, for her to return and complete the deed that her mother failed to do so. Upon finally discovering Bella's location, the witch sends her hounds after Bella, and her hurry to clean this mess begins... Will there be a happily ever after, after all?

Let's start with the display options. The old original - just like previous games - was weaved out of pastel colors, dusty environments and all pictures carried an elegant shimmer. With new rendering of the images, filter and tone choices for colors got bolder and shinier. As a personal choice, I found that a bit of an unnecessary contrast with the original setting, lessening the atmosphere. Quoting from a friend's comment: "Pictures look like Walt Disney threw up all over the place." Well, that is kinda appropriate of a definition here. I usually adore Artifex Mundi's color choices, yet playing prior games it felt unfitting for Isabella series' elegance and naivety. Resolutions compared to the old game are marvelously better though, I won't lie. Art works and HOG scenes are much clearer, and it got a lot much easier to go through item fetching.

Some great annoyance on my part was that some voice acting got changed - to a lesser quality, surprisingly - and others are completely missing. Some character introduction scenes and other cutscenes are cut out, leaving small holes in the original plotline. The setting was overwhelmed with the concept of catholic evil to begin with - cleansing the evil out of all places that we run through, wickedly laughing villain, Eye of Sauron-ish watching eye of the witch, a curse so sticky that it takes 3 games to clean thoroughly - and not very original about it. Cutting out content leaves it fatally wounded. Sure, we are lucky that this is a collector’s edition which offers some bonus gameplay and references to older games, but I'd appreciate if I'd be able to see mandrake's introduction scene or hear the voice of the whale that resides on the beach.

HOG scenes got a heck lot of easier with lesser items to find on cleaner picture renderings. They are mostly redone with the same items. Puzzles are altered too; some getting ridiculously easier, others unnecessarily complicated. Item interface has also been changed with your wand being in dangerous proximity to hint button; just be warned. I do not recall whether there was a map or not, but I certainly hadn't any need for it. The environment itself is somewhat limited anyhow with a backtracking being mandatory.

Overall, this is most certainly not one of Artifex Mundi's better games, neither the best game in Isabella series anyhow. I could recommend the game only if you've played previous games and curious about what will happen to Isabella in the end. Even then, I recommend finding and playing the original through Big Fish Games.

Please also check out Lady Storyteller's Curator page here - follow for regular updates on reviews for other games!

And also Lady Storyteller's HOG Gems here - for casual games and HOGs you may enjoy!

Hmm, well this is a dissapointment for me.

Ok, the story is good and the achievements are easy but
that's about the only thing that kept me from not exiting the game.
I encountered alot of bugs/mistakes wich should/could have been
adressed but apparently someone decided to let them in.

My hair on my back was doing overtime so i decided to stop and have a smoke.

Voice acting:

- Fairy sounds as if it was sped up.
- Man in the maze, he's outside but the voice sounds indoors and too close to the mic aswell.

Cut scenes:

- Some scenes have no voice over, text only.
- HD graphics is sometimes non-existent.
- A few spelling mistakes.

Sound :

- At some point, i checked the diary and turned a page, i went
back to the scene and the page turning sound kept going.
- Some sound volumes are way too high compared to others.
- When in a cutscene, sometimes the normal music keeps playing
and the cut scene music plays aswell.

References to movies:

- "Bella, oh my sweet little Bella" :- Twilight movies
- "The Eye overseeing the lands " :- Lord of the Rings
- "The dragon" :- DragonHeart

Overall, i am not impressed, Enigmatis was/is superior to this one
in allmost every way, wich made me sad, i expected a good game, but this is not it.

But, there's some good games one the horizon, so don't let this negative review fool you.
Sometimes this happens, but i rather write an honest review hoping they will learn from it
and make the next adventure better/fantastic.

i don't see what all the negative reviews are about. Okay, the instructions on the color wheel puzzle are completely useless, and it _does_ have a few "what the hell just happened?" moments, but other than that i'm finding it to be a decent HOPA, with mechanics i've not yet seen in a HOPA (e.g. the wand's abilities) and a nice atmosphere. The graphics quality is slightly sub-par for modern HOPAs (but better than the Time-whatever series), and the video cutscene quality is notably sub-par, but the voiceovers and music are well done. Some players complain about the generic names of the characters (Fairy, Owl, etc.), but i actually prefer such names over arbitrary made-up names which few players can remember. Challenging? Not particularly, but it's colorful, has relaxing music, and suitable for casual gamers. It's certainly short, though - not quite 3.5 hours for the main story plus unlockable add-on adventure.

I'm not going to say that I was kinda excited to see Artifex Mundi pick this one, because this is the worst title in the series of Princess Isabella. Indeed, it was previously on Steam and I've played the "old" version. Be aware that I would have given a neutral rating if I could. If anything, there are better titles in Artifex Mundi's catalogue, so if you can avoid this one if you're a non-English player, do it. I'm still doing a positive review but the line is thin. Also, as I've said, I've played the previous release in English, which is why I was more sure of the positive than the negative than for this release.

Years after Princess Isabella saved her daughter thanks to her fairy friend and the little dragon and became a statue because of the evil witch, the kingdom is waiting for someone to defeat that person. Bella, now in age and learning about her lineage, is ready to deliver her parents from their fate though her godmothers got kidnapped and jailed by the evil witch...

The plot is still the same from the previous games: you have to purge scenes of all evil or to reconstitute portraits to save people in it (here, you have mainly the godmothers). You have also a magic wand to break stuff and also acquiring powers thanks to the fairies once free. You can also use a music instrument to call the dragon to lift heavy items.

The gameplay is very classic though, with hidden objects scenes and puzzles, that are quite easy to play. While I loved the first part of the game, once I've reached the castle, I was kinda bored and once on the beach, it was worse. Everything is kinda easy, but the hidden object scenes tended to have objects partially hidden. What I find interesting was the little mandagore figures to help. It has precious objects and well, they're not too much annoying, because they weren't invading the game.

The graphics are quite good, I loved the little mandragores though I hated the spider, too big for my taste. The voice actings for the dragon, the fairy or the witch are correct but the godmothers... Not only they looked like the same but I can't say I was charmed by their voice. However, I have a little complaint for the graphics: they were kinda looking like grainy. I wonder if it's because Artifex Mundi adapted it for widescreens (as it's a possibility that the previous release was still in 4/3 ratio) or if it's because the new HUD, which was way more colorful, is making this being more highlighted.

I appreciated the soundtrack too.

However, there is a major problem for anyone playing in another language than English: the poor translation. It's unusual from Artifex Mundi to release a game with so many bad translations that it's becoming not understanble or playable (it was horrible in the hidden objects scenes). I think that the people that redid a little the game used Google Translate. Bad idea. Very bad idea. In the end, some parts of the story didn't make sense as the sentences weren't rightly build and I know that pipe can be translated as tuyau in French, but a smoking pipe is also called a pipe in French. Without forgetting that pinecone (pomme de pin in French) got translated in céramique (a vase/pot). It's not worse than in Demon Hunters but at least, there, it was mainly the hidden objects scenes that were affected, not the story.

I've thumbed up the game in English, despite being mixed about it. I've enjoyed some parts and it stayed true with this re-release. I admit that the fact that it's a collector's edition is helping. Next time, Artifex, make sure that you checked the translations. Usually, you're managing well with them. I was hoping to have my mind changed about this game and I'm still at the same point: should I thumb it down because of my own playthrough, knowing that the English is correct, because of my previous experience or should I thumb it up, because, despite this, the game is still enjoyable?

I'm barely putting a thumb up. If you're playing in English, you should be fine. For other languages, I can't say. For French players, I've made a little guide with the right translations. It should be easier for you to play with that.

This is a quite short and repetitive game. The story is cringeworthy (but at least they included the eye of Sauron...) and that the names are simply 'owl', 'fairy' and 'dragon' (really their *names* are that) shows the lack of imagination that went into the game. The presentation shows that the video sequences weren't touched at all (if you play a non 4:3 resolution you'll see what I mean) and the voice acting is quite amateurish. Compared to the original (which was only a dollar on Steam) there's trading cards, achievements and a questionable bonus chapter to be had.

The game isn't fun to play to begin with, but the really weak 'update' (most of the puzzles were just dumbed down to a point were you only have to click a few times) makes it hard to recommend at any price. If this is part of a bundle you might want to pick it up, but otherwise I wouldn't recommend to get it.