Witches’ Legacy: Slumbering Darkness Review – Impish Delights

Witches’ Legacy: Slumbering Darkness is a casual adventure game that follows in the footsteps of the previous title in the series, Witches’ Legacy: The Ties that Bind. Everything starts out innocent enough with Edward and Lynn, a witch and a …

By
Share this
  • Share this on Facebook
  • Share this on Twitter

Witches’ Legacy: Slumbering Darkness is a casual adventure game that follows in the footsteps of the previous title in the series, Witches’ Legacy: The Ties that Bind. Everything starts out innocent enough with Edward and Lynn, a witch and a witch hunter, on a romantic date in a creepy county fair, complete with sinister puppet show. The puppet master turns out to be more than just an entertainer, surprise surprise. He kidnaps Edward and forces Lynn to follow him into another realm. Looks like you’re the only one who can save these two love birds from an ugly otherwordly fate.

Slumbering Darkness keeps things compact and easy to follow by providing puzzles, obstacles, and items within a few screens of each other. Instead of trekking across the map to find that one missing piece, all you need to do is look a little deeper, click on more things, and think logically about each solution. The beauty of the puzzles in Witches’ Legacy is they all make perfect sense, but not right away. Experimentation is key, as is a full inventory of items, not all of which will seem useful at first.

Hidden object scenes are appropriately unique in Witches’ Legacy. Each one follows the usual layout of providing a list of items with a crowded scene sitting just above. The difference lies in how you access those items. Sometimes you’ll need to uncover the objects one group at a time by completing quick mini-puzzles. Other times you’ll have silhouettes to decipher or interactive items to piece together and solve, all of which lead to new layers of puzzles that uncover even more things to click and find. No matter the gimmick, each hidden object scene presents something useful and entertaining, which is always a good thing!

One of the highlights of previous games in the series makes a triumphant return in Slumbering Darkness. Pazu, your pocket-sized imp companion, is back! The little guy sits on your HUD ready to run out and give you a hand wherever you need it. He functions a lot like a catch-all puzzle solver, climbing up high perches to retrieve items, pushing things out of the way, or even crawling under low-hanging obstacles. It’s predictable and obvious when it’s time for Pazu to do his thing, but he’s so well-animated and adorable it’s still a ton of fun to watch.

The world of Witches’ Legacy is just mad. Calling it dark or surreal doesn’t do it justice. You’ll find demented puppets, living plants, angry statues, and so much more, all packed inside an environment that’s ready to twist your mind into knots without provocation. It’s a lot of fun to stick your head around the corner just to see what’s next. It also makes digging into the scenes to find every important item a lot more entertaining.

Witches’ Legacy: Slumbering Darkness is built on a pretty standard hidden object frame, but it stands out thanks to excellent art design, unique puzzles, and creative mini-games. The hidden object scenes alone are worth the price of admission. If you’re in the mood for an off-beat casual adventure game, turn off the lights and let Witches’ Legacy creep you out.

The good

  • Fantastic hidden object scenes with layered puzzles and items.
  • Clever, unique, and surreal setting.

The bad

  • Some of the animations, while cute, take forever to complete.
80 out of 100
Author, game writer, narrative designer, and more!