The story goes that you captain the Spirit of Wandering ship with your beloved husband, Jack, until one day when you encounter The Flying Dutchman and all of your crew, including Jack, is spirited away. Left only with the magic orb Jack gave you and your undying love for him, you set off to locate the ship's crew, one by one, who are being held in the spirit world, in the hopes that they can lead you to Jack's location. As you work your way through levels, you'll be looking for a series of Normal items, which then allow you to locate Cherished items. Each of the six chapters represent one of the crew and their Cherished items tell a little bit about them, such as the cook's favorite pot or Jack's favorite hat.
Instead of a written list of items like most hidden object games, Spirit of Wandering: The Legend HD uses an outline of the form of the item you are looking for, which is much trickier. The objects can be oriented in any way, hidden or obscured behind other things or even tiny in size, as is the case in the last few levels. You will have 3-5 levels within each chapter and then rounds (for lack of a better word) within each level. When you click on a level, it will tell you how many Normal items and Cherished items you are looking for, typically 20-something Normal and 5 Cherished. On the right side of the screen, you'll see an area with the outline of 5 Normal items to find, while at the top of this area is the outline of the 5 Cherished items. Once you find the 5 Normal items, one of the Cherished items fills in and you can then click on the magic orb at the bottom left which then places it on your screen. Everything is then shrouded in darkness and the orb reveals the location of the Cherished item by glowing as it gets near and then burning with a ring of fire as you scroll over the item. If you hover for a few seconds, the previously invisible item will usually manifest and you will click it to obtain it. Then your next group of Normal items will appear for you to begin again.
If you get stuck locating a Normal item, you can click on the compass located next to the orb's spot and although this will cost you 50 gold pieces, the compass will then point to a Normal item remaining on your list. There are also treasure levels where you can click to collect as much gold as you can in the time allotted. This builds up your coffers so you have some breathing room and available gold for using the compass when you need it.
