Dark Parables: The Little Mermaid and the Purple Tide (PC) review "Dark Parables: The Little Mermaid and the Purple Tide is the 8th game in the Dark Parable series."

Dark Parables: The Little Mermaid and the Purple Tide is the 8th game in the Dark Parable series. (The Dark Parables series does have an overall series story arch which this game references. However, it is stand alone as it.) I highly, even passionately, recommend this game.

Storyline: In 510AD the palace of the Alexandros, King of Prasino sunk beneath the ocean waves ending a decades long war with King Bluebeard of Kokkino. Centuries later the palace rises from the ocean depths causing a tsunami and a lethal purple tide. As the Fairy Tale Detective you have been tasked with discovering the reason for this occurance. Upon arriving you free a mermaid, Althea, one of the former King Alexandros's 5 daughters, cursed by the Sea Goddess, Thalassa for the father's betrayal and imprisonment. And meet a mysterious stranger who has the key to everything. Find out why the palace rose again, break the mermaid's curse, free the Goddess, and stop the purple tide - all in a day's work for the Fairy Tale Detective.

Gameplay: A mixed combination of Hidden Object picture assembly, easy point and click, find and use inventory, and a variety of puzzles with a built-in strategy guide. Nothing overly hard and the sheer variety of things to do makes the gameplay smooth and effortless. The lock puzzles are logic "match" games and logic "mazes" (move a ball of energy from point A to point B without losing all the energy). There are sliders, picture puzzles, recipe, assembly, and a Master Puzzle (which is a puzzle with many smaller puzzles included). There is a skip option on the puzzles, and a hint feature. Also the inventory is interactive in some cases when assembly or disassembly is required.

There is a interactive fast travel map which shows the location of things that need done and the chapter objective. (One of the few maps I actually use.)

There are the 3 usual modes: casual, normal and hard. Though this game has a custom mode feature which allows the player to pick and chose how much or how little "help" they wish to receive while playing.

Extra finds: 40 crescent moons, 20 morphing objects which are the parable story pieces, and 2 sets of "secret" extra finds - 6 teacups and 3 Big Fish Game Felix the Fish mascot.

The 5 Parables tell pieces of the story line, a bit of back story and three tell the fate of the mermaid sisters Naida, Calliope, and Theresa. Which is pretty impressive considering each parable is only 4 pages long and about 100 words each.

Extras: Lots and Lots. Bonus chapter which recalls the events just prior to the palace of Prasino disappearing beneath the ocean waves, and tells of Bluebeard, King of the rival Kingdom Kokkino. An extra game called collectibles, where the player goes back through every scene in the game to find a single item or object (easy and fun). Replay feature of all HO scenes and puzzles. Plus wallpapers, music, video, etc.

Achievements: In-game only but there are Steam trading cards. The achievements are fun too and not the usual find everything in less then a minute variety. There is an achievement for idling, over-clicking and watching cutscenes. There is even one for watching the credits, which are really worth reading since they are so funny.

So the big question: Is this game worth the price? Yes, and well worth FULL price. The game itself takes about 4-5 hours to play and all the extra gaming that can be done probably adds at least another 3-4 hours. So an 8 hour HO game is well worth full price. Big Fish Games is not known for putting their games on sale either, and this is less expensive then the price in their web store.

Community review by joan4003 (August 17, 2016) Joan would much rather give up her day to write but that requires a substantial income and in-coming paychecks for said writing ability.