Game: Lost Amulets: Four Guardians
Genre: Puzzle, Mahjong, Hidden Object
System: Steam (Windows and Mac; also available for Apple)
Developer|Publisher: MixoGames Ltd.
Controller Support: None
Price: US $5.99 | UK £4.79 | EU € 4,99
Release Date: October 28th, 2022
Review code provided with many thanks to MixoGames Ltd.
Lost Amulets: Four Guardians is a puzzle game with an ancient Chinese theme. This game has just about every type of puzzle, from hidden items to jigsaws and more.
The Story of Lost Amulets: Four Guardians
There isn’t much of a story here, but Lost Amulets: Four Guardians does give players a little myth that they are following. Humans destroyed the four amulets that keep the world healthy and in balance. In order to put them back together, there are tons of puzzles that have to be solved.
The cutscenes play out like a beautiful, ancient scroll that tells the story of the goddess and her kingfisher bird that helps her to give these important amulets to the human race. The cutscenes feel hand-painted and are gorgeous.
First, players collect one of the four amulets, then they complete puzzles to fill them back in with the powerful gem. Once the amulet is completely back together, you have to find the next amulet and the gems for that one as well.
All the music, artwork and even the puzzles add to the feel of this ancient Asian myth, and players get to interact with the world with the help of the goddess’ kingfisher as it takes you through each level and puzzle type.
The High Polish of Lost Amulets: Four Guardians
This game is SO. VERY. PRETTY. I was blown away by the gorgeous music, the stunning visuals, the pretty art, and even the clean transitions between screens. There is a lot of polish in Lost Amulets: Four Guardians, which is surprising for a $5 USD game. I am still in awe at the sheer amount of effort that went into making this game as pretty and perfect as possible.
Each puzzle is introduced by the flying kingfisher who wipes away the darkness and lights up each screen with its magic. All of the images and items used in the game are high-quality images, and the movements are clean and natural looking. The objects that have to be found blend in well with the surroundings, making the puzzles much more difficult than they could be.
Lost Amulets: Four Guardians has a robust hinting system as well; there are hidden pearls in just about every level. Pearls can be used to get a small hint, and larger amounts of pearls can be used to clear away large portions of the mahjong puzzles.
Lost Amulets: Four Guardians is pretty enough that I had a difficult time choosing screenshots from the millions that I took; every inch of this game is absolutely stunning and filled to the brim with personality and beauty.
The Downsides of Lost Amulets: Four Guardians
There weren’t a whole lot of downsides to Lost Amulets: Four Guardians, but my nitpicky self always has at least one complaint about every game. There were a couple of things that bothered me while playing, but not enough to really derail my enjoyment of the experience as a whole.
One of the most annoying little problems was the fact that on occasion, the jigsaw-like puzzle pieces would not click into place. So unless you lined it up perfectly with the spot it was supposed to go in, it would say you got the piece in the wrong place. It didn’t happen often, but it happened a couple of times during my playthrough.
Annoying Buzzer Sound
There was another small issue I had with the hidden item puzzles: When you zoom in, you can drag the image around to look at every inch of it. But sometimes when I dragged the image, it would make the “you clicked in the wrong place” noise.
Even though I was playing on casual and there were no negative consequences for clicking in the wrong place on the screen, I was still frustrated with the way it counted what was a click and what wasn’t. Considering that the rest of the experience with Lost Amulets: Four Guardians was so relaxing, it really bothered me to have that little buzzer sound ringing in the background when I hadn’t clicked anything.
Overall, though, the game was super polished, relaxing, and beautiful, and I’m glad I got to pick up this title for the review. Even when I deeply love a game that I have worked on for a writing job, I don’t often go back to it. There is always another game to play and review or write about, so I have to move on.
I’m pretty sure that Lost Amulets: Four Guardians will be one of the few exceptions, at least until I finish the campaign mode.
A Brief Overview of the Game Modes
There are a total of four game modes in Lost Amulets: Four Guardians.
- Casual Story Mode – Go through the whole story of restoring the Amulets causally.
- Hard Story Mode – The whole story again, but this time with a harder difficulty. Each level has a time limit and there are far fewer hint pearls in levels.
- Casual Endless Mode – Play match the Mahjong pieces basically forever.
- Hard Endless Mode – This mode is also a matching Mahjong mode. But each level has a time limit and fewer hints.
I played mostly on casual, but the challenge levels are fun as well. The timer is not so tight that it ruins the relaxing nature of the game.
Conclusion
I love Lost Amulets: Four Guardians a lot. It has a couple of little things that bug me. But overall, they were so small that they didn’t ruin the enjoyment of this title. If you love hidden object puzzles, matching puzzles, and others, you will almost be guaranteed to love this game.
For only $5, it’s hard to pass up such a wonderful, polished puzzle game to add to your Steam library.
Final Verdict: Two Thumbs Up
