to convince him to return, but Selius refuses, revealing that the Academy simply locked him in the dungeons. His unstable shadow magic causes his own nightmares, those of the heroes, and even the inhabitants of the wilderness to manifest physically, and Selius flees. While tracking the prince, the trio helps the creatures of the wilderness in fighting their nightmares and in return three nature spirits give them a potion of light, which should help Selius—it does, but it also empowers Selius's shadow, since the brighter the light, the deeper the shadow it casts. The trio assists Selius in fighting his shadow; ultimately, the prince is able to use the power of light to seal his shadow back into his soul. His magic now stabilized, he agrees to return to the Astral Academy. Melody of Mystery Some time after returning Prince Selius to the Astral Academy, some of the students (all first seen in Nine Parchments) began rehearsing for an autumn play. One of them, Cornelius, stumbles upon a magic music box, accidentally releasing a spirit known as Melody, who traps the students in a magical dream where their wishes come true. Selius, unaffected thanks to his own dream magic, summons the heroes of Trine into the dream world, seeking their assistance. The heroes traverse the students' dreams, and learn that Melody is a genie-in-training who uses dreams as a way to grant wishes, not understanding that it is harmful for humans to sleep forever. The heroes successfully wake up all the students except Cornelius, who is so attached to his dream that he must be forced to awaken. Reception The game has received positive reviews. The game was given "generally favorable" reviews according to Metacritic. IGN gave the game an 8.5/10 saying, "Trine 4: The Nightmare Prince is a sequel that plays it very safe – which, in this particular case, is for the better. Coming back to the traditional style of co-op gameplay and puzzle solving that made the first two games so delightful is exactly the kind of refocusing that the Trine series needed after the misfire of Trine 3. Some lackluster puzzle designs, technical issues, and a lack of difficulty stand in the way of it overtaking Trine 2 as the best of the series, but Trine 4 still remains a shining example of how cooperative gaming should be, and is one of the most gorgeous looking