Dream Chronicles: The Book of Water is a hidden object adventure title and continues directly after the events of the previous game Dream Chronicles: The Book of Air. Lyra comes back to her hometown of Wish and finds a never-ending storm over it. It is caused by the Fairy Queen Lilith who cast this spell to take revenge on Lyra's father, Fidget, hiding away the Book of Water in order to keep it out of Lilith's possession. Soon after entering the city, Lyra finds that her father is in a coma-like state caused by another one of Lilith spells. Lyra's mother, Faye, has left the town trying to track down Lilith, so it is now up to Lyra to find a potion that will cure her father. She also has to find the Book of Water as that will help her get rid of the storm that has blanketed her hometown.
The gameplay is typical of the hidden object genre where players have to scour an area searching for items to progress. However, this game eschews the usual long checklist of items that have to be located. In addition to searching for items, locations have dream pieces scattered around which can also be picked up. Picking up those pieces goes to powering up the magic powers Lyra can cast. Casting these spells is required throughout the game to progress, so collecting dream pieces is not a side task to increase the final score. There is also a locate button that highlights a collectible item or dream piece lying around in an area. It takes some time to recharge after it has been used. The game also features different types of puzzles in each location to figure out.