Hunter’s Journey: Tears of the Lake Collector’s Edition

Hunter’s Journey: Tears of the Lake Collector’s Edition tells the story of an apprentice hunter who embarks on a quest to awaken his powers, discover his spirit animal and prove himself to the academy he enrolled in. Guided by his master, he is tasked to find a missing girl, believed to have been abducted by monstrous mermaids. The story is passable, though quite predictable. While it could benefit from more coherence and unexpected twists, it remains enjoyable enough for players to experience it fully during the six hours of gameplay that the game offers.

Hunter’s Journey: Tears of the Lake Collector’s Edition is divided into three main chapters plus an additional bonus chapter, all of them included in the base game purchase. The story is choice-driven, offering three possible endings per chapter depending on the dialogue options you pick. However, these variations are relatively minor and do not influence the overall direction of the plot. Important to note here is that obtaining the “good” ending for each chapter requires purchasing the Hunter’s Journey: Tears of the Lake DLC., which allows you to pick some dialogue options that are otherwise locked.

Pros:

✅ A wide variety of minigames with clear instructions, all enjoyable to solve. The difficulty can be set to “Easy” or “Hard” at any time, regardless of the overall game difficulty that you set at the start of the game.
✅ A strong mix of hidden object scenes of various types, each beautifully illustrated. Some of them allow playing a Match-3 minigame as an alternative.
✅ A very useful indicator showing whether there are still ungathered collectibles in the current scene.
✅ A map that enables fast travelling between locations
✅ The puzzles are contained across 2–3 locations per chapter, keeping the tedious backtracking between different scenes to a minimum
✅ Beautifully crafted environments with vivid colors, exuding a mysterious atmosphere
✅ No horror elements or jump scares.
✅ An “Extras” menu offering replayable minigames and HOPs, collectibles display, wallpapers, soundtrack and cutscenes.
✅ An in-game walkthrough and guide

Cons:

❌ Several achievements tied to collectibles are currently broken.
❌ The DLC is required for the “good” endings and obtaining full completion. The DLC itself doesn’t add much content except one extra location per chapter, which unlocks its respective achievement.
❌ Harshly designed timed achievements, requiring you to find 10 hidden objects in 10 seconds or completing 5 HOPs in a row in one minute each. These feel out of place in an otherwise very casual game. On top of that, these achievements cannot be unlocked when replaying through the Extras menu.
❌ Low-definition cutscenes that clash with the otherwise high-quality artwork.
❌ Clunky animations of the NPCs

Overall, Hunter’s Journey: Tears of the Lake is a mixed bag: charming in many respects, yet undermined by frustrating shortcomings. While the gameplay and presentation offer decent enjoyment, the broken achievements and DLC-gated “good” endings make it difficult to recommend at full price. Unless these issues are addressed, I’d suggest waiting for a discount (around 80%, which is common for this publisher). Unfortunately, the developers have been unresponsive in the forums, and despite the game being out for more than three months, there’s been no sign of fixes or any feedback from them in that regard.