Having played, and enjoyed, the first Amaranthine Voyage game, I was thrilled when I found Amaranthine Voyage: The Living Mountain. And I definitely wasn’t disappointed once I started playing.
Amaranthine Voyage: The Living Mountain picks up after the end of the last game: You’ve returned victorious from finding the Tree of Life, and everything’s great except for one small thing - No one believes you.
You’re pretty much resigned to living a life of mockery when an older man approaches you after class and says he believes you. So does his son, as it turns out, and that belief got him sucked into the world you’ve so recently escaped. Now you have to solve the riddle of the Three Standing Stones and travel back to the land of your adventures to find this guy’s son.
Good times! (Although I was pretty creeped out when I was talking to the guy. Look at those dead eyes! Creeeeepyyy).
Amaranthine Voyage: The Living Mountain is a beautiful game, and I loved just sitting back and taking in the world. But that’s not all I loved!
The music is fun without being obnoxious, I didn’t have a problem with any of the voice actors, and best of all: If you’re more than a few rooms away from where you’re supposed to be and hit the hint button, you’ll get a portal to the proper place. Talk about eliminating useless walking around. I didn’t get lost a single time! Hooray progress!
The hidden object areas in Amaranthine Voyage: The Living Mountain were also lovely to look at, which is nice, and just about the perfect level of challenge (for me, anyway). There’s a good variety, too, with some lists and some silhouettes. But at the end, each will give you a little riddle you need to solve to find the final piece.
It’s a pretty cute touch, in my opinion, and one of the things I remember loving from the first Amaranthine Voyage game.
And better yet: you can choose to do a bubble shooter instead of the HOA if you’re stuck or just really, really hate hidden object areas. I love this growing trend of allowing people to play a hidden object game even if they hate hidden object puzzles.
Some people just don’t do well at I Spy (myself included) and giving them a chance to play without having to suffer though the hidden object areas is genius. (Although I should probably admit that I’m even worse at bubble shooting than hidden object areas. I just can’t keep all those colors straight!)
I even enjoyed the puzzles in Amaranthine Voyage: The Living Mountain, and if you know anything about me, you know that’s quite a feat. They were fun to figure out and not at all impossible.
The challenge was just enough to keep me from going for the hint button. And if I can do it, anybody can.
All in all, I loved Amaranthine Voyage: The Living Mountain. Who wouldn’t want to be a kick-ass lady professor who’s not afraid to figure things out for herself? This is no damsel in distress character, and I thoroughly enjoyed stepping into her shoes.
If you were a fan of the first Amaranthine Voyage game, then I have one piece of advice: Give Amaranthine Voyage: The Living Mountain a try. You won’t be disappointed.
