Name:
Northern Star
Rating:
Review:
Harmonious Kingdom brims with heart-warming magic thanks to its cozy community of critters and soft, yet brightly luminous, colors. Visually, this puzzle is certainly 5-star enchanting, and I'm sure many others would rate it 5-stars overall. A special note, the layers of luminous colors, especially in the background of land and starry sky, really come to life in natural light. Thus, to best enjoy the magic of this enchanted night, assemble during the day near generous windows.
As alluded to in an earlier review, there is an abundance of correlating whimsy pieces that don't float through the puzzle as stand-alones, but actually turn most of the puzzle into a kind of gentle parallel scene. While the embedded scene created by the pieces' physical shapes reflects the charm of the colorful image, it also relies quite heavily on many pretty smooth sides with numerous pieces loosely connected to their neighbors. I, personally, prefer assembling pieces that interlock more firmly, so this looseness-of-fit is my reason for giving 4-stars rather than 5.
That said, I am certainly delighted to have this puzzle in my select Artifact collection! For me it is a sweet, relaxing break from more intensely difficult puzzles, which I am generally drawn to, that can take over my kitchen table for days, if not weeks, as in the case of Bokuyo Forest (a breathtakingly gorgeous puzzle, by the way, but on another plane of difficulty, for sure!)