“May’s Mysteries – The Secret of Dragonland” Review
Developer Studio V5
Publisher Mastertronic
Platform PC
Release Date Out Now
I know what you’re thinking. One look at any aspect May’s Mysteries – The Secret of Dragonland, and you think “Hey, this looks a bit like Professor Layton”? Well, you wouldn’t be far wrong.
Puzzle Driven Mystery adventure? Check.
Main character with button-like eyes and clichéd thinking pose? Check.
Similar art styles and user interfaces? Check and check.
But don’t let that put you off because the more fun mystery puzzle adventures the better.
The story starts off with the main character, May, and her brother Terry, taking a balloon ride on a beautiful day. When their pilot (engrossed in fixing a fault in the balloon’s engine) falls out the balloon it blows aimlessly in to the path of an oncoming storm.
Next thing May knows, she’s crash landed outside of a town named Dragonville, her brother is missing, and soon after entering the front gates she begins to discover that not all right with this odd little town. She is not alone in her quest to find her brother, as several characters, including the slightly nutty ex-mayor, come along to help progress the story.
To progress through the story, the player must solve various different types of puzzles, which can range wildly from almost too easy to utterly skull-busting in difficulty, about 90 of such puzzles form the main bulk of the story.
Fear not however, if you get stuck on a puzzle you are not doomed. The game uses “hint points” as a form of currency that allows you to “buy” a clue to help solve the puzzle. Hint points can be earned by completing extra side puzzles available in May’s journal on the left side of the screen.
A total of two clues are available to for each puzzle, one hint costs one point. Using 15 points can purchase the option to skip over the puzzle entirely. Unfortunately one of the most annoying things about the “skip” function is that it doesn’t tell you how to solve the puzzle. After spending so long trying to figure it out, it just skips the darn thing without ever revealing how to beat it.
The game mechanics are pretty solid – however, some of them need a little more polish, especially the drag and drop puzzles. Some re-arranging of puzzle pieces can be awkward, and ultimately frustrating. The puzzles involving hidden objects can often be hard to find (not just because they are hidden) but because the lighting in the environment is poor.
Moving around Dragonville is a point and click affair, making “travelling” fairly linear, and sometimes a little boring – you will pass through several areas more than once in this game. Arrows will appear at various areas around the borders of the game screen, indicating that you may either travel in that direction, or direct your attention to something unusual in the area, most often finding either a person to talk to, or a puzzle to solve.
One of the games strongest points is its wealth of puzzles. 270 in total, there are plenty of puzzles in here that can keep even the most fanatic of puzzle lovers occupied. Unfortunately, some of the puzzles can be vague in their wording, and can be almost impossible to solve without the use of hints.
May’s personality and the recurring characters that appear are consistent, and May’s quest to find her brother never strays from top priority. Despite good quality animation and decent voice acting the cut scenes (had they have been longer) could really have added so much more to the game.
The playful theme music and art style of the game fails to appropriately represent the underlying menace and danger that May is placed in including an incident of a failed assassination attempt.
The game as a whole is an interesting and often fun experience, but had the potential to be a much better game; there were a few times where nothing particularly exciting happened for quite a while between major story events, and the sheer number of puzzles makes it hard not to have a few repeats thrown in.
Ultimately, while “May’s Mysteries: The Secret of Dragonville” is a good game in its own right, May has a long way to go before she reaches Professor Layton’s reputation.
Originally porting as a Nintendo DS game, and most recently making its way to PC, May’s Mysteries is retailing on Steam for €7.99, or approximately $10. If you’re a fan of puzzle games and want to give your grey matter a stretching, May’s Mysteries can certainly cater to that.
Score 3/5
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