Hi Legacy Gamers, Kelly here! With great honor, please allow me to introduce my good friend Zac, known for his extensive game library, countless hours in video games, and strong love for hidden object games and puzzles of every kind.
When you first boot up Margrave: The Blacksmith’s Daughter there’s something that I bet will take most veteran fans of the hidden object genre completely by surprise– The game greets you with a beautifully melancholic song. The Sunflower Song sets the mood for the entire game going forward: haunting, wistful, and enchanting.
Before I get ahead of myself, allow me to explain the premise. This game is technically the 4th (and seemingly final) entry in the Margrave series by Inertia, but you don’t need to play the others first. The story is nicely contained within its own game. Join Edwina as they journey into the lost civilization of the cyclops to save their boyfriends’ soul from being used to free a dangerous automaton. Along the way, you’ll free the inhabitants of the city from their 300 year slumber, come head-to-head with a deranged witch, and confront the atrocities that caused everyone to be sealed away from the waking world.
After starting the game, I found myself completely starstruck by the game’s background art. Gorgeous images of the overgrown city permeate every screen. The art in this game is some of the best I have seen in the hidden object genre, but the artistic talent is in no way limited to the landscapes. Margrave is littered with excellently crafted snippets of art through the hidden object scenes, animations, and puzzles.
It’s this artistry that makes the scares so effective! The horror elements are few and far between, but when they hit… they hit hard! The game is unafraid to be downright disturbing at times, and these images contrast sharply against the awe-inspiring landscapes in a way that makes the world of Margrave strangely compelling.
There’s also something to be said for the puzzle design in this game. It’s been a long while since a hidden object scene properly stumped me! The hidden object sequences are difficult in a way that never feels unfair, which I’m sure will be a breath of fresh air for most. I could say the same of the puzzles.
The tarot card sequences are some of the most intricate and ingenious puzzles I’ve seen. The game asks you to arrange a sequence of cards to match a series of shapes. You have to do this several times throughout the story to free characters from their dormant state. In doing so, you not only beat a really cool puzzle, but are rewarded with the background story of each of these characters in a very engaging way, building the narrative in a way that feels unique.
Margrave also does a great job of giving you multiple interesting tools to explore the world with, like decoder rings and a mechanical bird! Scour the world of Margrave, sending your bird out to hidden corners once thought inaccessible and using the ring to decode locks as far back as the first screen of the game.
However, if I were to critique Margrave, it would be its slightly archaic save system. The game relies completely on autosaves, which can feel random at times. This issue is even more apparent when it makes some collectables permanently missable if you’re not careful.
Minor criticism aside, do yourself the favor of playing this game! As someone who has been playing adventure and hidden object games since the early 2000s, I can say with all seriousness that this is one of the best! For those of you that have been enjoying the hidden object genre for years, do not miss this hidden gem!
Find Margrave: The Blacksmith’s in the Haunted Horrors – 15 Pack and Underworld Wraiths – 10 Pack!
Happy gaming!