Posted By: Jenny100
Chayowo Games and Dark Hills of Cherai - 03/04/18 01:57 AM
Recently I replayed The Dark Hills of Cherai and its sequel The Dark Hills of Cherai: The Regal Scepter. Afterwards I was motivated to seek out the developer, Chayowo Games, to discover what became of them, and whether they made any more games.
This wasn't the first time I've replayed The Dark Hills of Cherai, but it's the first time I did so without getting lost. Somehow the idea of Tara going to the treasure hunter's house while Rahul (and later Maya and her Grandma) go to the magician's house always confused me. Being lost made the game seem longer and more mysterious, so knowing where I was this time around wasn't entirely a good thing. But the game still did an exceptional job with the environments, giving a rarely encountered feeling of being on the border between a real place and an imaginary place. The naturalistic graphics make the game look like it might take place in a mountainous jungle area of India. But I can't be sure where, or even exactly when the game takes place.
In the introduction, the Grandmother is telling the four cousins (Tara, Rahul, Maya, and Arjun) a story about the treasure hunter, his cursed treasure, and the evil magician that wants the treasure and thinks he can remove the curse. Arjun gets up early next morning and leaves to find the treasure. You first play as Tara, leaving a note for Rahul saying she is going to the treasure hunter's house to see if Arjun is there, because she is concerned the magician may have captured him. You play as Tara up the the point where Rahul wakes up and finds Tara's note. He decides to look for Arjun at the magician's house, and you play as Rahul for a while. Later Maya finds Tara's note and leaves with her Grandmother for the magician's house. Apparently Maya is too young to go by herself. At this point you can switch between Tara, Rahul, and Maya, and swap inventory items between them.
I'm not sure when the Cherai games were released, but my purchase date for Dark Hills of Cherai is December 2009, and for The Regal Scepter is November 2011, so they are at least that old. Considering how old the first game is, it shouldn't be a surprise that it is mostly hidden object scenes mixed with some puzzles and exploration. You can teleport to every place you've previously visited using the Map. Mostly I like Dark Hills of Cherai for the mood, and the fact that it takes me to a place that other casual games don't.
Tara, Rahul, and Maya are back in the sequel, Dark Hills of Cherai: The Regal Scepter. There is a lot more swapping of inventory between characters, and switching between characters in this 2nd game. The music sounds more "Westernized" than in the first Cherai game. It also seems to take place at night, and some of the locations look more like some place in Europe, like the area with the castle and catapult that Rahul went to.
The first couple of times I replayed the Cherai games, I thought the Regal Scepter was the better game, but this playthrough I preferred the first game. Though the graphics were nice in the sequel, I missed the more consistent environment of the first game, with the mountainous jungle, the animals, and the distinctive architecture and decor of the big houses.
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