Dream Chronicles: The Book of Water is the latest puzzle, adventure game released in the Dream Chronicles series. It picks up where the previous edition, Dream Chronicles: The Book of Air left off with Lyra, the half-human, half-fairy daughter of Fidget, a fairy, and Faye, a mere human, previously ignorant to the enchanted world of fairies, but now deeply involved in it’s magical ways. We find Lyra aloft guiding her father’s magical airship through a relentless storm centered over her hometown of Wish. After walking away from a crash landing outside the gates, she discovers her father in a deep, unawakeable sleep and the only inhabitant left in the beleaguered town. She quickly discovers her mother is missing and Lilith, the Fairy Queen of Dreams, has returned and unleashed her son to wreak havoc on Fidget and the town of Wish. Lyra must follow the clues left by her now missing mother to solve the puzzles blocking her path, collect magical symbols left by her fairy relatives and overcome Lilith’s constant intervention to stop Lyra from waking her father, saving her town and recovering her mother.

First, Dream Chronicles: The Book of Water contains the same game interface seen in The Book of Air and, presumably, throughout the second trilogy. This includes a focus on puzzles over hidden object scenes, Dream Jewels that, when completed, provide the player with tools that are quite useful and, at times, required, as well as travelling from place to place by airship. Thankfully, at some point between The Book of Air and The Book of Water, the airship apparently had an engine upgrade which significantly enhanced it’s MPR (miles per rock) efficiency. We’re no longer required to go through the process of unlocking additional fuel rocks via puzzle interface prior to each flight; something which, while entertaining at first, quickly became annoyingly laborious.

Like the other four installments, The Book of Water includes gorgeous artwork, several animated vignettes and a stellar soundtrack with hints of the, now familiar, Dream Chronicles tune. The attention to detail on the non-gameplay items results in, as has become expected from this series, a high-quality, visually engaging puzzle, adventure game. Unfortunately, while The Book of Air started off the second trilogy of the Dream Chronicles series with a bang, Dream Chronicles: The Book of Water returns to the shortcomings we saw in the first trilogy (Dream Chronicles (the original), The Eternal Maze and The Chosen Child). The storyline continues but ends with very little advancement or accomplishment and, by spelling out the solutions immediately when obstacles or tasks are revealed, reduces the potential challenge and/or entertainment value to barely worthwhile (except in as much to setup the final installment). The inclusion of Help, Skip Puzzle and the hint-like Find Object buttons (even though the latter two are time-restricted), while overkill in combination, is completely unnecessary because of the extent to which the dialog and/or diary entries clearly describe every step needed to resolve each and every situation.

The bottom line is that the player is lead exactly from Task A to Task B to Task C without any challenge or thought required, thus lacking the “adventure” aspect which made the previous installments so unique and successful (in my mind, at least). Essentially, we are just whisked through this chapter of the Dream Chronicles story without much ado, strife or difficulty. Dream Chronicles: The Book of Water may appease fans of the series, but it’s value can only be worthwhile when included as a small piece of the whole and decidedly not on it’s own.

Hints

1. Should you somehow miss the obvious directions the dialog provides, as with the rest of the series, your diary contains specifics on what to do next.
2. As with The Book of Air, the Dream Jewels are actually vital to your advancement. Take your time in each scene to collect the “shiny objects.” But, after you get the fourth Dream Jewel tool, the jewels will only add to your score (i.e. pointless).
3. In the Crater of Time (which I would have expected to be more impressive), don’t forget to use your Dream Jewel tools. They provide access to the missing pieces. It’s also not exactly clear, but you need to collect all seven magical symbols to complete this scene.
4. If you get stuck on the Gramophone puzzle, check to the left of the gramophone; there is a stack of books that will lead you to the missing pieces and save you hours of banging your head against the metaphorical fairy tree stump.
5. At the obelisk, start building the colored drawings by progressing from the biggest to the smallest. The first two each have one out of order if you begin with that sequence.
6. In Barge City, when creating the magical paint, a combination of all five colors is required even though the sample only clearly identifies three.

Final Thoughts
Disappointed.  Bring on the next, but seriously hoping Playfirst saved the best for last!