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 UPDATE - I am now going to be LPing the fifth game in the series, The Blackwell Epiphany, as well. A short summary of the first four games is included in the update links next post if you want to skip straight to Epiphany.  What is the Blackwell series? The Blackwell series is a collection of, currently, I don't want to give any of the story away in advance, as the slow reveal and strong dialogue is a strength of the series, but loosely speaking the Blackwell series follow the adventures of Rosangela Blackwell, an awkward and kind of goony young journalist whose aunt has recently died after a long battle with a mental disorder. This event ushers a new, supernatural, companion into Rosa's life and turns everything upside down in the process. The games themselves are pretty simple fare, and can be most easily compared to early 90s Lucasarts adventure games. The pixel art is kind of charming in the first couple, and actually quite pretty in the next two games. The puzzles themselves are generally fairly easy (barring a couple of nasty ones) and the games, being episodic in nature, are pretty short. It is the dialogue and the well-crafted story that keeps them interesting. The game is played fairly straight, but is sprinkled liberally both with humour and genuinely touching moments. The games are entirely voice acted, and the acting ranges from very good down to very poor. The early games in particular have some disappointing performances, but fortunately the leads are consistently very strong. The music is also catchy, particularly from the second game forward. The same composer is used for games 2-5 and does a great job. The games tend to have plenty of bonus content, they all come with developer commentary, and I highly recommend them for anyone looking for a bit of a retro adventure gaming experience. The entire series of four is available as The Blackwell Bundle on Steam for $20 at http://store.steampowered.com/sub/13237/, or you can purchase a bundle containing the first three games for $15 on Wadjet Eye's own page. Of course, instead of doing that, you could just watch me play through them instead! In fact, do that. And then buy the games afterwards. How will the LP be handled? I will be doing this game entirely as a screenshot LP. When I think a static image isn't enough, I will use animated GIFs to show off the action. Unfortunately this will not allow you to experience the full voice acting, but it will give me the opportunity to show you the dialogue better. You see, the Blackwell series are quite wordy, and there are often multiple dialogue paths that can be taken. When appropriate, I will show you each of these individually, or try to combine them together whenever possible. I will also be linking to the relevant soundtrack files, which I strongly recommend you listen to. They do a great job of setting the mood in the game and there are some excellent pieces, especially later on. I will be going through each of the games in order, so one benefit of this thread will be that it will get prettier as time goes on. Oh boy!! Now let's set a couple of ground rules here. These threads can be pretty boring if nobody contributes, so I'm really keen for people to comment regularly on what is happening. However I am also hoping there will be quite a few posters who haven't played these games before, or perhaps only played some of them and want to see what happened. So I am requesting that spoilers be kept out of this thread . Not in the spoiler tags, not at all. Feel free to speculate or discuss what has just happened, but if you know what is coming up, please keep mum. This game relies on intrigue to stay interesting.Finally, fanart and other such creative input is very welcome! This thread will be fairly long so you have time to think about it. I intend to update daily whenever possible. Let's go save us some spooks!! cmndstab fucked around with this message at 14:40 on Jul 3, 2014 |
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Oct 1, 2013 15:51
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 Main Menu The Blackwell Legacy As mentioned above, The Blackwell Legacy was the first game in the series, and was something of a test case for producer Dave Gilbert. Legacy plays more like an interactive novel than an adventure game, heavy on dialogue and with very few puzzles that involve much more than talking to the NPCs. Nonetheless, it does a good job of introducing the characters, setting the scene, and was successful enough in its own right to keep Wadjet Eye Games above water in the early days. When Dave Gilbert succeeded in getting the four Blackwell games placed on Steam, one of the requirements was that the original game be effectively remade in a newer version of AGS. This allowed Gilbert to tweak some aspects of the game, removing needlessly heavy dialogue and fixing a couple of puzzles. It also, notably, saw the replacement of lead voice actress Sande Chen with Rebecca Whittaker, who had voiced the role in the later games after Chen had become unavailable. Of course, this won't make a different to an SSLP, but is interesting nonetheless. It should be mentioned that the soundtrack in this game, while containing a few good pieces, is nothing spectacular. Things will markedly improve once we reach the second game in the series. I still recommend you listen to the music when I link it, which I will try to signpost by the flashing sirens. Ashes  We are introduced immediately to our protagonist, standing atop the Brooklyn Bridge. It should be noted that this game is set in New York, where designer Dave Gilbert lives. He states several times in his commentary that one of his aims in designing the game is to give people a taste of New York culture.  All of the Blackwell games, with the exception of the second game, use portraits for their dialogue. In the first and third games the portraits are animated but this is dropped for the fourth game in favour of static portraits. The emotions are fairly well communicated as most characters have several different portrait images. I will typically notate dialogue outside of screenshots, but will show the important parts of the conversation as images.  I guess this is it. Years of watching and waiting and hoping. And it comes down to this. Do I love you? Do I miss you? But you're the closest thing to family I've got, and I suppose that's something. Good bye, Auntie. She scatters her aunt's ashes into the East River...  And leaves, pausing all too briefly for her to notice a wisp of energy swirling in the air. Blackwell Theme  The intro scene scrolls across some pretty space imagery, before settling on the logo.  Which actually looks pretty drat cool. Not Quite Right  What a morning. At least I'm home now.Arriving home from scattering her aunt's ashes, Rosa finds a stranger out the front of her apartment door.  I've never seen this kid before in my life. Before talking with him though, let's check out our inventory, where we have a letter.  Our aunt's physician has offered to speak with Rosa about how she is handling the loss of her aunt. We'll visit him soon enough.  Time for the first of many awkward conversations in this game! Um... hi? So who are you visiting today? The Blackwell games quite commonly give you several options of which only one can be chosen. Usually it makes no difference and just adds flavour to the game. Generally I will pick the most interesting option, but if several or all of them warrant being shown I will do that. It's worth mentioning that there are no "dead man walking" situations possible in the Blackwell games, so if any dialogue choice is actually important, there will be another opportunity to choose it. What are you talking about? Seriously, who are you here to see? I can't let you in unless you tell me. Um... I live here? No you don't. I know everybody in the building. I don't know you. Really, I live here. Nice try. I know everybody in the building, and I don't know ya. Sorry. Then how come I've never seen you before? I have no idea! Does it matter? If you lived here, I'd know you. That's all there is to it.This is going well. Rosa decides to throw it back at the kid.  Jim Burdo. Alright. Jim. Where's the regular doorman? Jeez, where have YOU been? He's on strike. He's what? Strike. All the building servicement in the city are doing it. Union rules or something. How come nobody told me? Noticed were posted all over the building. I put 'em up myself. If you lived here, you'd have seen 'em. Who pays attention to things like that? Well, that's not my problem.I have to admit, I'd probably ignore that kind of thing too. Rosa appeals to Jim's better nature.  I need to get home. Sorry, lady. Rules are rules. How long is this strike going to last? Dunno. Could be a couple of hours, of a couple of days. Depends whether they reach a settlement or not. I don't know the details. Listen. I really live here. Fourth floor. Number 4E. 4E. Hm. No! *I* live there! And I want to GO there, thank you very much. Oh. Hm. Maybe you're telling the truth. He sees reason. Thank God.Good plan, heckling him out loud right as he's starting to come around, Rosa  Do you have any ID? A driver's license or something? Yes! I have a driver's license. It's... upstairs. In my desk drawer. Poor Rosa looks so pathetic here  But Jim is unmoved. Heh. Come on! This is New York. Who actually drives? True, but I still can't let you in unless you prove you live here. I have my apartment key. Will that do? Sorry, no. That could be any key. Well, let's go upstairs and see if it works. And leave the door unattended? Can't do it. Sorry.That's it. Rosa is getting pissed.  I wouldn't do that. Why? Are you going to stop me? Me? No. But I've got a cell phone in my pocket with 9-1-1 programmed in. All I have to do is hit "send" and the cops'll be here in five minutes. Are you serious? Totally serious. I don't believe this.I like the way this game shows its protagonist alternating between stroppy and screaming during its very first scene.  What can I do to prove that I live here? Hm. Well, can anyone in the bulding vouch for you? I'm not sure. I mean, I don't really know anybody here. How long have you lived here again? Be quiet. Not all of us are social butterflies. Okay. Whatever.Jim then finally proposes a solution.  Who is Niss... Nish...? Nish-an-tee. Nishanthi Sharma. She lives in 4F. You know, right NEXT DOOR to 4E? You really don't get out much, do you? Your point? Nothing. But I'm sure she could vouch for you. Great. Call her up. She's not here. Of course she isn't. So I gotta wait here all day for her? You might have to.THANKS FOR NOTHING JIM.  Rosa decides to sum up the situation, just to make things even more tense. So let me get this straight. You want me to go all the way to the park to look for a woman who MIGHT be there and IF she recognizes me, then, and only then, I'll be granted the privilege of entering my own home? That's pretty much it, yeah. This is really stupid. I'm not the one who forgot my ID. I'll be back. See you around. Jim goes back to smoking his cigarette, and Rosa heads off to Washington Square Park. As you can see, these games are fairly wordy.  We get a bit of a look at the "world map", so to speak. It is, of course, a map of a segment of Manhattan. The positions of the location blobs are intended to show quite literally where they are on the map. This is dropped in future games when Gilbert realises that maps where the majority of locations appear in close promixity while one appears further away look really stupid. Washington Square Day  It's been a while since I've been here. Still looks the same I guess. Foreshadowing  There is a sign here. "Please note! Dog walking park is closed until further notice." Hm. Rosa continues to go further into the park...  ...before suffering from a stress-induced headache. Now I'm getting a stress headache. I need to get home.This bodes well. It's nice to know our protagonist is such a competent, together individual. Flute By The Fountain  As Rosa nears the fountain, she hears the sounds of a flute. Presumably Nishanthi is here. Meanwhile a small dog is straining at his leash. Also pictured: Rosa looking like a complete dork as she stares gawkily at the player. He's wearing one of those extendable leashes.Rosa continues past the dog...  I recognize her from my building. Nishanthi... Sharma, was it?Excellent. Now to get Nishanthi to vouch for Rosa, and we'll be back home. What could go wrong?  Oh, how right you are, Rosa.  That's Nishanti Sharma. My next-door-neighbour, apparently. She's playing some sort of flute.No time like the present, girl. Let's go and speak to Nishanthi.  Excuse...Come on, Rosa....  God drat it, woman I can't just barge up to her. Not in front of all those people. They're all staring.Jesus Christ. Our first dialogue sequence is of our protagonist throwing a fit, and then the first puzzle is trying to convince her to overcome her fear of crowds. It's nice to have a protagonist I can relate to.  Let's try this again. Here I go. Hello? Um.... Uh... no. This is pretty sad, Rosa. I just need... to work myself up to it. Okay. You can do this. Right. Uh. Hahahaha, that portrait is just perfect  I love the way she's not even facing Nishanthi. Crap! Calm down. Need to calm down.And now she's having an anxiety attack. Right. This is it. Hi-. Uh. Can... ... drat it. This is NOT working. I can't do this. I just... can't.Sigh. One more try?  I can't do this. I just... can't. I'll just have to wait until she's finished. Or... I don't know. I can't do this with all those people staring at me.Okay, this is going nowhere. With Rosa clearly incapable of interrupting Nishanthi, and Nishanthi herself apparently failing to notice Rosa staring wide-eyed and slack-jawed straight at her, we'll need to solve an Adventure Game Puzzle in order to progress here.  The key here is the dog. He follows Rosa around wherever she walks. Gilbert actually speaks about this puzzle at length in his commentary, where he mentions that getting this puzzle to work right was the single most difficult part of designing this entire game. Not sure I understand why myself, but apparently it was difficult again even when he did the remake. I don't know, folks.  We lead him around this lightpost until his leash doesn't extend anymore and he barks, interrupting Nishanthi. That's right, Rosa. You were just outperformed by a dog. With that auspicious start, I'll end the first update here. Will Rosa finally get into her apartment? Will she manage to form a sentence and speak with Nishanthi? Can we play as the dog instead? Find out tomorrow! cmndstab fucked around with this message at 09:08 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Oct 2, 2013 02:47
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Glazius posted:A passive-aggressive protagonist is certainly kind of new, anyway. There's probably been plenty of passive-aggressive protagonists before, but only so it can be played for laughs, not because they clearly have some kind of social phobia I just love the idea of the game's first puzzle being to figure out how to make someone talk to you, because you're too awkward to talk to them first.Actually, Rosa will become somewhat less useless as the games progress, which is a nice evolution. The Gilded Age posted:I'm looking forward to this LP. Great job so far. Thanks  Next update should arrive later on today!
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Oct 2, 2013 09:01
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Time for continue this wacky ride in Asbergers Simulator X-treme!! Washington Square Park   I can't take you anywhere, can I?Last time, Rosa had almost strangled a dog in order to interrupt its master from playing the flute, because she was apparently incapable of doing it herself. Now to pluck the fruits of her dubious labour. Oh, it's you! The lady next door. Yeah. Hi. Rhonda, isn't it? No. Rosangela. Well, Rosangela. I hope my friend here hasn't been giving you any trouble.It's probably a bad sign that Nishanthi doesn't even know Rosa's name, since she's supposed to be vouching for her. At this point, Rosa has three options, to either compliment the dog, shrug off the trouble, or explain why she just tried to choke the poor thing. That's a... cute dog you've got.Rosa figures this kind of sentiment deserves a big toothy grin.  Hahahaha, Rosa is such a loving dork  Isn't he just! Normally he behaves, but he seems to have taken a shine to you. Oh. Great.If Rosa instead tries to shrug it off, she ends up being a doormat instead. Oh, no no. No trouble. Now don't go defending him. You'll just spoil him. Sorry.And if she tries to explain the situation: He... started following me. I'm not sure why. That's because he recognizes you. He's just being friendly. Right, Moti? Just being friendly, eh?At this point, the dog yaps a bit. See? Right.Of course, Rosa is still too awkward to actually continue the conversation, so Nishanthi takes the lead. Anyway, I don't think we've formally met. I'm Nishanthi. Rosangela. So you said. Oh. Right.Come on Rosa. Take the drat initiative. Um... Yes? Finally. Go ahead and ask. What are neighbors for? You know that building servicemen's strike? Yes. Jim Burdo is covering, isn't he? Yeah, that's the problem, see. He doesn't recognize me. Oh? Oh! So you need me to vouch for you? Yeah. I know this is pretty stupid... Don't worry about it. Moti is getting a little cranky anyway.Nishanthi is actually a pretty decent person, all told.  Thanks. Rosa, Nishanthi and Moti head out of Washington Park Square, though Moti seems a bit spooked as he trots past the dog park, letting out a bark.  Not one to be outdone in terms of causing a fuss, Rosa immediately suffers yet another stress-induced migraine, to the concern of Nishanthi. I'm fine. I just... need to get home. Alright. Let's keep walking.At this point, Nishanthi is probably wishing she had just kept playing her flute. Not Quite Right  Hello, Jim. Hey, Miss Sharma. Jim, this is Rosangela. She lives here. She does? Okay. Sorry about earlier. Had to be sure.At this point, Rosa has three choices of how to respond. Of course, all three choices involve her being a stroppy, whiny little jerk There's the angry response: Fantastic. You're sorry. I am, lady. The name is Rosangela. Will you remember me now? Or do I need to do a little dance as well? Hey, relax. I'm just doing my job.The sarcastic response: Well, now you're sure. And you must be SO proud of yourself. Well...And the passive-aggressive response: Oh, it was NO problem at all. Do you want anything else? Milk or orange juice, perhaps? Um...No matter which one you choose, Rosa makes sure she burns her bridges by finishing with a snappy: Never mind. Just get out of my way. Well. Here we are. Yes. Finally. That stupid kid... Well, perhaps. But try not to be too hard on him. We're all neighbors, after all. Yeah, I guess.Nishanthi is really nice, actually.  Moti is pretty cute, too. Nishanthi excuses herself, but not before extending an open invitation for Rosa to drop around. I'd best get this spoiled puppy fed. Feel free to drop in anytime you want.Rosa again has three options, a surprised response: Really? Yes, really.An uncertain response:  Sure, maybe... No maybes.And a polite response: I'll think about it. No thinking needed.None of which make her look particularly confident in herself. Rosa has serious self-image problems I think. I know we New Yorkers don't usually talk to our neighbors, but who cares? The city can be a lonely place, especially when you live alone. I've got Moti. Who do you have?Uh oh. A personal question. As usual, Rosa has three different ways to embarrass herself! She can get defensive: Look, I know what you're saying. But I don't need anyone to "look out" for me. I'm fine. Oh? I'm sure. No doubt.She can literally just give Nishanthi the silent treatment and say nothing at all: Oh look, now I've offended you. That's what I get for butting in. I'm sure you're fine.Or, my favourite, she can try to crack a really awkward joke!! Oh, I have three great room-mates. Oh? Yes, um. Their names are "me", "myself" and "I." ... Hahaha, even Nishanthi has no idea how to respond to Rosa here. Um... It's a joke... Yes, I get it. Very funny. I'm sure you're fine.Seriously, Nishanthi has the patience of a saint. She follows up with concern for Rosa. Although your episode in the park tells me otherwise. And your eyes... Well. Let's just say the offer stands. Sure. You go home, now. We'll see each other soon, Rosangela, I'm sure.I'm riding Rosa pretty hard here, but in fairness to her, she will get considerably less awkward as the game progresses. So I'm just going to enjoy it while it lasts  Before entering her apartment, Rosa has a rare moment of social awareness. Hey... Yes? Um... You can call me "Rosa", if you like. Rosangela is kind of a mouthful, you know? All right, Rosa. You have a good day now.This is actually a nice touch throughout the series that is played very straight. Whenever Rosa likes someone, she asks them to call her Rosa. For everyone else, it's Rosangela.  I like how Rosa finds the concept of someone being pleasant to her strange. Presumably she doesn't actually have any friends.  Rosa gazes at Nishanthi's door. Should she immediately visit? Yeah, she invited me to come over... But so soon? I just saw her. I can't just invite myself over now. Besides, I'm more eager to see my OWN home.At least she has that subtle little social nuance down pat. Alright, let's get Rosa into her apartment. Rosa's Theme  Rosa has a typically tiny New York apartment, which is presumably all that she can afford on a journalist salary. Other than this main kitchen/lounge, her bedroom is the only other room in the apartment (and we never see it). One interesting point on Rosa's apartment, when the game was in development, the lead artist simply disappeared a month or so before the game was to ship, leaving several of the locations unfinished. The most notable of them was Rosa's apartment, which is close enough, but left Gilbert unhappy. He pokes fun at it in a later game, which I'll point out at the time. Home. Thank God. I've never been so happy to see a 500 square foot room in my life. Unfortunately, Rosa's peace is immediately interrupted by her phone ringing.   This is Dr. Quentin, from Bellevue Hospital? Yes. I was your aunt's primary care physician. Did you receive my letter? Yes, I received it. I haven't had the time to come by, though... That's all right. I'm sure you're busy. However, should you find the time today, my entire schedule is free. I... sure. I'll keep that in mind. Thank you. Good day. I suppose I should just get it over with.This is the game's subtle push to tell you what to do next, but I do like how Rosa considers her physician literally clearing his schedule and booking an important appointment for her as a "bother". First though, let's take a bit of a look around the apartment.  Just some old book review clippings. My computer. It's a bit old, but it lets me access the internet and do my writing.Rosa's computer is a useful object in this game, but less so than in the third game where it becomes useful in almost every puzzle. In the fourth game the computer gets replaced with a mobile phone, which is a cool sign of moving times.  Just a trashcan filled with crumpled-up novel ideas.Rosa is a freelance journalist, as we will soon see, but she also has dreams of being a creative writer.  That leads to my bedroom. It's an oversized closet, but it suits me fine. This is the only living plant I own. I bought it two years ago. It's still living, despite my total lack of care.Total lack of care? Surely not, Rosa!  That's Griff, the P.I. Bear. I've had him for as long as I can remember. He's in horrible shape, but I don't have the heart to throw him away. ...I seriously love Rosa's adorable little dorky smile  There is a photo here of Rosa's (recently deceased) Auntie Lauren, from when Rosa was a child.  It's a photograph of Auntie Lauren and me.Rosa can look at the two of them individually: I look scared out of my mind. I don't remember when this picture was taken, but I look about four or five years old. Auntie Lauren. She took care of my after my parents died. For most of my life, Auntie was a vegetable, slowly rotting away in a hospital bed. I don't remember what she was like before that. This picture is all I have to go by.This probably explains why Rosa has absolutely no idea how to communicate with other human beings.  It's a pity that a quarter of Rosa's entire apartment is taken up with a kitchen she apparently never uses.  No. I open those curtains and a dozen windows can look directly in here. Those curtains stay shut and prying eyes stay OUT.In a stunning wave of character development, Rosa will actually slowly open the curtains further and further in subsequent games.  Rosa's computer is currently only useful for attempting some writing, but Rosa is not interested right now. *sigh* I am just feeling so uninspired today. Maybe tomorrow I'll feel up to it. But today...? It's just not happening.Alright, that's enough stalling. Time to go to Bellevue to chat with the psych.  Washington Square Park is no longer available to visit, but we'll be back later. Hospital Waiting Room  Rosa enters the hospital to flickering lights. This place is pretty run down. Bellevue has probably one of the better music tracks in the game, despite only being 40-odd seconds long.  Looks like a fusebox. Judging by the flickering lights, it must be broken. You need a key to open it.Rosa, of course, immediately scopes out the place. Just in case she feels like messing with the fuses later on. Spoiler alert: She will.  Clicking on pretty much anything has Rosa indignantly deny she's trying to steal something. Sounds like a guilty conscience to me.  It says that this floor is undergoing renovations. That explains a lot.This, again, is Gilbert's subtle dig at the artist who left this room clearly unfinished. A second artist cobbled together the back area and made it join together well enough to look like a midway-complete construction job.  Some small keys. One of them is labelled "F.B.", I assume that means fusebox.I love the way Rosa is looking the other direction, very discrete. Of course, Rosa still has her mind on that fusebox for whatever reason.  As usual, Rosa, the master of social nuances, launches into conversation with the security guard by immediately insulting his place of work.  Hey, old buildings. You know? Always got problems. If the plumbing ain't broken, the lights are on the blink. It's giving me a headache, let me tell you. Did you have contact with Lauren Blackwell while she as here? Nope, doesn't ring a bell. She was in temporary care? No. She was in long-term. That's a whole different floor. This is the floor for temp patients. I see.This dialogue is decent exposition, but a bit strange. Surely Rosa would know where her Aunt was staying, since she was apparently there was years. Also, that security guard looks dumb as gently caress. So what exactly happens here on the temporary ward? It's just that. Temporary. Most insurance plans only cover a two-week stay, so this floor is designed for a high turnover rate. That's why the doctor's offices are usually down here. They need to be on hand when new patients arrive. I'm here to see Dr. Quentin. Uh huh. Is he expecting you? I've got this letter right here. Okay. Looks legit. Go right in. His name's on the door. You can't miss it. Thanks. Rosa waddles on to Doc Quentin's room, primed and ready for the first of several plot dumps this game is going to throw at us. (continued next post...) cmndstab fucked around with this message at 09:12 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Oct 2, 2013 16:45
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Hospital Clocks  Rosa knocks on the door... Come in. Doctor Quentin? Yes? I'm Rosangela Blackwell. Oh, hello. Come in. Come in. For some reason, Doc Quentin strikes this dramatic pose whenever he stands up. No idea here, folks. Throughout this conversation Rosa has a whole bunch of options of how to talk to the doctor. It doesn't matter which we choose, but each of them give a pretty good look into Rosa's psyche, so I'll go over all of them. Yes I did. Good. Good. My condolences on the loss of your mother.Wait a minute, mother? Surely the doctor would know that Lauren was Rosa's aunt? As far as I can tell, Nishanthi might be the only competent person in New York. Rosa has the option to get pissy, or try to correct the doctor smoothly. The first: You mean my aunt.And the second: Thanks. My... aunt... is at peace now. Where ever she is.Either way, the good doctor gets the message. Ah. Quite right. Quite right. So you wanted to talk to me about something? Yes. Yes I did. But before we get into that, how are you holding up?There are several dialogue forks in this conversation, though they all come back to the same point at the end. Rosa here can complain about her day: Just having a really bad morning. Oh? It's.. I'll get over it. Just some stuff I have to deal with.Give a paranoid response, complete with angry glare: I'm... fine. Why? Oh, no reason. Just asking questions. Goes with the job. Right.Or simply brush Quentin off completely. I'm fine. That's good to hear.Quentin quickly changes the subject. You received the ashes? Yes. I scattered them this morning. I imagine you must miss her.You know, as much as I'm dumping on Rosa here, this conversation would be plenty awkward enough with the pointless comments Quentin keeps coming up with. Three more options here. There's the honest response: To be honest, I'm not sure what to feel. It's not like I knew her. Or even remember her from... before. She's like a stranger. So why did you make it a point of visiting her all those years?The callous response: Not really. Oh? Nothing's really changed. Her body might have been alive, but her mind certainly wasn't. That's a... pretty severe attitude, wouldn't you say. Maybe. But if she weren't "alive", as you say... Why did you make it a point of visiting her all those years?And the pissy, petulant response: Why does it matter? There I go again. Asking too many questions. You're not a patient. You came at my request. Right. Auntie was the patient. And you made a point of visiting her for many years. If you'll indulge me one more time, could I ask you why?Rosa can provide a reason for visiting, or just tell the doctor to gently caress off. Habit: Habit, I guess. It was a place to go every week.Family: She was the only family I had. I guess I felt an obligation. Like I had to.And the angry option: I don't see why it's any business of yours. It's all right. Forget I asked. I wanted to come. I came. That's all.Quentin continues to ask really awkward questions by following up with: And now that you don't have to? I have to say, I don't blame Rosa for lashing out here. She literally scattered her aunt's ashes an hour ago and the doctor is asking retarded questions of her. Auntie's dead. Life goes on. So you'll just keep living, is that it? Yes. Keep writing your little book reviews in the paper, right?"Little book reviews?" What the gently caress is the matter with this guy? ... You know about those? It's hardly a secret. A number of the staff have read them, yes. I didn't think a West Village paper would interest anyone up here. I have to be honest, Miss Blackwell. I love the poo poo-eating grin he wears here as he seemingly deliberately pushes the buttons of Rosa's social phobia. Rosa has three ways to throw a tantrum about it. The deadpan response: Oh?The  response: That's... really creepy, Mr. Quentin.And the defensive response:  Why am I here? Their intentions were purely benign, I assure you. It was your aunt they were primarily interested in. They wanted to know more about her family, and you proved to be... shall we say, less than eager to comply? That's their problem. Indeed. It was your choice to make.Not satisfied having thoroughly creeped out and pissed off his dead patient's grieving niece, Quentin decides to be an even bigger prick.  And now that she's gone, I was hoping you'd be more forthcoming with me. Just an informal chat. We can discuss her condition. And yours too, of course.Wait, what does he mean, "yours too"? Wait. What do you mean by "my condition"? Hereditary dementia is my speciality, Miss Blackwell. And in my opinion, there is significant cause for concern.You have got to be loving kidding me. This is the worst psychiatrist I've ever seen. Sorry... did you say "hereditary"? Yes. Two generations. Your aunt, and your grandmother before her. My... grandmother? Yes. Patricia, I think her name was. Right? I never knew my grandmother. Auntie Lauren was it. There was nobody else. She couldn't exactly provide me with a family history. Oh, I see. I had no idea. I like Rosa more when she's yelling at someone who actually deserves it. Did anyone else come in to visit her, besides me? No. You are correct. I should have read the family history more carefully. I do apologize. I just assumed... Well, nevermind. It doesn't change the fact that you should be concerned as well. Go on. Patricia Blackwell suffered her mental collapse at the age of fifty-five. Lauren Blackwell underwent hers at the age of forty. What are you saying? No. I am saying that there is significant cause for concern.No, you were pretty much saying what Rosa thought you were saying, doc. You never could find out what was wrong with her, huh? No, we didn't. But she still remains a fascinating case. Fascinating? I don't understand. Forgive me. I speak from a purely professional perspective. I didn't know your aunt personally."HEY ROSA, SORRY TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR DEAD Seriously, gently caress this doctor. Neither did I. But... fascinating? It might come as a surprise, but yes. But she was practically catatonic. Rosa raises a good point here. She'd sometimes twitch or mumble something incoherent, but I wouldn't call that fascinating. Well, as you know, she wasn't exactly catatonic. We kept her sedated. Right... she had outbursts. Yes, and we had to sedate her heavily to keep her calm. Especially in preparation for your visits. What are you trying to say? Miss Blackwell, we are not a nursing home. We're not content to merely keep a patient comfortable. We are, after all, in the healing profession. We were trying to heal your aunt, and to do that we had to speak to her. Wait... you spoke to Auntie? We tried to. Did she answer back? After a fashion, yes. Another good point. Miss Blackwell, do you remember what brought your aunt here in the first place? Her screaming? Her hitting herself? I...I was only five years old at the time. But I kind of remember. In order to prevent her from doing harm to herself or to others, we were forced to sedate her. That's creepy as poo poo, and his stupid rear end smile is not helping matters. Her natural state, I am sorry to add. What did Auntie say? Nothing that made any sense. "Oh, and by the way, you're probably going to get the same disorder. Have a nice evening!" Pain? What kind of pain? It's difficult to say. But it was... immense. How immense? When we reduced her medication, the transformation was dramatic. Her eyes flew open. She thrashed. Her screams... well. We had to gag her, eventually. My God... I know.I seriously can't think of one good reason why the doctor is telling Rosa this now. Did she still... feel it... when she was sedated? We don't know. But there's no way of knowing. Twenty five years. I know. Poor Auntie.Finally having had enough of this horrifying conversation, Rosa decides to change the subject.  Hahaha, yes, Rosa. Unlike every other living person in history. Apparently, yes. How do you know about her? It was in your Aunt's case history when she was brought to us. Patricia Blackwell's symptoms were the same. Word for word. Patricia's case was severe, and she was young, but it was chalked up to being an ordinary case of dementia. Until... Until it struck her daughter. Until twenty five years later, when it struck her daughter. Yes. It seems impossible. Perhaps it's genetic, but we've detected no abnormality.This is just fantastic. So what should I do. Right now? Nothing. This type of thing is unprecedented. "Basically, you're screwed!  "I'll admit it, I'm being unfair to Doctor Quentin here. His animated portrait goes through several emotions, so he's not just grinning like an idiot non-stop. It's still there often enough to make it look like he's far happier about having this conversation than he should be. You couldn't find any other link between the two cases? None, aside from the family connection. And... a name. A name? What name? The documentation we had on your grandmother is minimal, but there was one interesting item noted. That's a rather odd symptom... Your Aunt, too, would cry out that name on occasion. Joey? Yes. Who's Joey? We've been wondering the same thing for twenty five years.So wait, let's get this straight. You've known about this all along, including the very high likelihood that Rosa is going to be affected by the same disorder, but waited until now to tell us? Jesus Christ. Is there anything else you need to tell me before I go? Your Aunt had some personal effects in storage. As the next-of-kin, you're the beneficiary. It's just a folder. Some documents, and so on. It's being sent to your address via messenger. Oh. Well, thanks for that. It is not problem at all. Good bye, Miss Blackwell. Oh, yeah, we'll get right on that. Quentin decides to drop one more creepy-rear end comment as Rosa leaves. I'm always happy to discuss my favourite patient. Sure. In a daze, Rosa stumbles back to the elevator to ponder this ludicrously awful news she has just been given. If nothing else, Bellevue has just guaranteed a new psychiatric patient for years to come!! We'll stop there after that plot dump and continue Rosa's slow plunge into hideous madness tomorrow. Your comments/questions/whatever are welcomed
cmndstab fucked around with this message at 09:10 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Oct 2, 2013 16:52
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I've replaced all of the Youtube links with ListenOnRepeat links instead, since many of the tracks are quite short. Hopefully it will give a better auditory experience! Next update should arrive later on today.
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Oct 3, 2013 02:03
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Assoonasitits posted:So I don't know if it's early for speculation, but I'm going to guess that the "spooks" you mention in the thread title are directly linked to the "hereditary dementia" in a sort of causing it kind of way. This is going to turn into that awful Ghost Town movie except with a likeable protagonist instead of Ricky Gervais. It's never too early for speculation as far as I'm concerned - I'd love to see a lot more of it  This thread could get boring real fast (not to mention image-heavy) if people refrain from commenting.The nominal spooks will be along within a couple of updates. Actually this game (and the second game for that matter) is pretty short, it will probably only be 12 updates or so. The third and fourth games will be longer. Alright, let's keep moving here. Blackwell Legacy basically puts you through three big plot dumps, then lets you focus on actually starting to solve puzzles. Gilbert has since expressed remorse that he didn't find a less wordy and intrusive way to reveal the backstory, but it is what it is. The good news is once these three plot dumps are over, the rest of the series gets the pacing pretty much spot on. And the plot dumps themselves are fairly well written, which helps matters. This update will cover the second (and shortest) of these plot dumps. Update 3 Rosa's Theme  Rosa arrives back in her apartment, her mind filled with concerned thoughts about her conversation with Doc Quentin.  Immediately, she notices an envelope which has arrived, containing her deceased Auntie Lauren's personal effects. Apparently this envelope had no trouble entering the building. Go figure.Hahaha, I love this Looks like it's from Bellevue. Not Quite Right Here comes the second plot dump, though it is done fairly well.  The envelope contains 25 pages of documents, mostly letters from Lauren's family. Rather than notate them, I will link the screenshots since the various handwriting/typewriting fonts add some flavour. There's a fair bit of text here but it's not too bad.  The first letter is from Lauren's mother, who is presumably the Patricia mentioned by Doctor Quentin. The doctor mentioned Patricia started showing signs of dementia at the age of 55, which is close to what you would expect to be her age around the time of this letter if her daughter was at college already.  The next letter is from Lauren's brother Jack. Unless there are multiple siblings, it's safe to assume Jack is Rosa's father. The little typo markers here are a charming touch.  This letter is a bit of filler, but nice.  Around a year after the previous letters, this one arrived, and it's clear that Patricia is starting to suffer the effects of early-onset dementia.  With a signoff like "Jacko" we can probably assume Lauren is the older sister.  Lauren apparently waited two months to check in with her mother, who is obviously still with it enough to pretend things are alright.  After visiting home, Lauren notices things are getting worse.  "Jack" now. Presumably he's grown up a bit. I guess having his mother slowly go crazy in front of him has forced that.  There's the first mention of 'Joey'. At this point I'm wondering if the doctors ever read this stuff.  Only six months after the first symptoms show up, Patricia is committed to an asylum.  This is all pretty stuff, actually. The next letter comes three years later, after Lauren has graduated, and with Jack about to start college himself.  Lauren was a smoker, apparently.  30 months later, Jack sends another letter, about how he's falling in love with Maria. Judging by the amazing red hair, it's safe to assume Maria became Rosa's mother.  Three more years pass before the next letter. Patricia has died, and Lauren has since become distant from her family.  Only a week later, another letter from Jack, who has been trying to contact Lauren. Hearing her talking with a "Joey" is obviously of great concern to Jack given what happened to his mother.  Several months later, Jack is at his wit's end and hires a private detective to follow Lauren around, and she is acting very strange indeed.  I'm torn between feeling bad for Jack here, and feeling bad for Rosa who is apparently predisposed to this same condition.  The next letter is from Lauren herself, which she either never sent or somehow got back. She tells Jack that she's fine, and that their mother wasn't truly crazy at all. Gotta say, Lauren had gorgeous handwriting.  This explains why Lauren has her own letter, Jack sent it back. He and Maria are now getting married and Lauren is invited.  Writing from his honeymoon (where he apparently still has his typewriter) Jack expresses his appreciation that Lauren made the wedding. This will actually be a minor plot point going forward. There are some pictures stuck to the back of this letter.We'll look at them soon.  Three years later, Jack writes to tell Lauren that he has had a daughter, Rosangela. These games were designed to be "in real time", so presumably Rosa is 30 years old at the time of this game.  This bittersweet message is immediately followed by...  A notification that Jack and Maria passed away five years into Rosa's life. Lauren, despite having remained distant from her family since their mother's death, agrees to take custody of Rosa. With that suitably depressing set of letters finished, we can piece together Rosa's history a bit. Around the age of five her Auntie Lauren took custody of her, which explains the photo of a scared young Rosa. Shortly afterwards, Lauren was hospitalised at Bellevue and kept sedated for the next 25 years. Somehow Rosa was able to support herself and survived. In later games it is hinted that the Blackwell family has a lot of money so I guess various guardians were hired to take care of her.  There are two pictures in the envelope as well. This is from Jack and Maria's wedding. Rosa can look at each of the three individually. That's definitely Auntie Lauren. She's looking at something off camera. I wonder what it was? I assume that's my mother. She sort of looks like me, I guess. Other than that, she's a total stranger. Is that my... dad? He looks so young. I always pictured my dad as being older.Judging by the dates of the letters, Jack was probably around 24 at this point. He and Maria are very cute together  The second picture gets no commentary from Rosa, but appears to be a photo of a young Jack and Lauren with a rather concerned looking Patricia. Presumably this photo is from the Thanksgiving that Jack mentioned in his letter, unless Lauren also came back for Christmas that year as well. Rosa's Theme  After that kind of eerie and depressing set of letters, Rosa's thoughts are again interrupted by her phone ringing. Voice: RosANGelina. Hi. Hi Bob.Voice: Thanks SO much for submitting your last review on time. For once. Yeah.Voice: I got a LITTLE assignment for you today. Assignment?Voice: Human interest, Blackwell. Suicide. A college girl named JoAnn Sherman. This guy sounds like a gigantic tool. That's awful, but -Voice: You know the Brittany House? The NYU dorm? Yes, but -Voice: Speak to some people on her floor. Get a word in with the roommate. Listen-Voice: Speak to the R.A., too. And hey, see if you can score a picture of the girl. But I don't do that stuff! I write book reviews.Voice: Versatility! Time to get out of your comfort zone. Jeremy's over at city hall covering that strike, so you're it. Get cracking. This is our first in-game indication that Rosa is a journalist, other than Quentin's mention of her "little book reviews". Rosa has previously only written book reviews, but it looks like it's time for her to cover a suicide story, because that's what you want rookie reporters doing  The name Jeremy will show up again in later games, but for now he's just a fellow newspaper staffer we don't know much about.  Is freelancing for that stupid paper even worth it? I guess it keeps me writing, but... Oh whatever. I'll just go over there and get it done. It's not like I don't have enough death in my life right now.Yeah, this is a pretty rough deal for poor Rosa to deal with.  Still, she makes peace with it fairly quickly. Perhaps it will help to keep her mind off the procession of terrible news she has received today. My old notepad should come in handy for this. Here we are introduced to one of the stable gimmicks of this series, the notepad. When Rosa receives clues, she will write them on her notepad. She can also combine clues together to receive new (or more specific) clues, which becomes one of the major puzzle mechanics. Gilbert has received a lot of praise for this gimmick, but he says he took the idea from one of the Discworld games. He was apparently never really happy with how the notepad system worked and would try to tweak it in the third game, but received enough complaints that he returned to original system in the fourth.  Here is an example of combining two clues together. We don't get a new clue, but we do get a comment from Rosa about their link. If two clues are unrelated entirely, Rosa will usually just give a standard "I don't see any link between those two clues" type of response. So combining JoAnn and Photograph: My boss asked me to find a photograph of JoAnn to put in the paper.While combining JoAnn's Suicide and Photograph gets us: That makes no sense.In general I will show you the interesting combinations, but leave out those which have no link at all.  Feeling like she could use a friend right now, Rosa decides to take Nishanthi up on her offer to drop in before embarking to Brittany hall. Come in! Nishanthi's Theme Nishanthi's theme is actually pretty decent. One of the better tracks in Legacy's soundtrack, anyway.  Come in. Come in. Don't mind the pooch. He's harmless.Yes, we've met Moti already, Nishanthi.  Periodically, Moti will decide he is hungry and Nishanthi will feed him a doggy biscuit. Moti is pretty drat cute  Rosa starts up a conversation with Nishanthi. I like how Rosa can barge in then immediately ask for permission to leave In order to make these dialogue sequences flow a bit better, I will try to combine the multiple options together when it makes sense to do so. It's not 100% faithful to the game, but it does give you a more rounded picture of things. I think this game was meant to be replayed several times to get a full picture of what's going on. In the later games, there are fewer instances of three dialogue choices where you can only choose one. So... Um. How are you. ... Oh, I'm just fine. Right Moti? Aren't we just fine? Moti barks in response to hearing his name. Seriously, I love this dog. I was just, you know, in the neighborhood... So I thought I'd drop by. ... Sure. Sure. Anytime. This is, um, a lovely place. Thank you! Not the biggest place, but fine for Moti and me.It's never really covered in-game in any of the four titles, but Nishanthi's backstory is supposed to be that she moved to New York as a young adult, eventually realised she had lost touch with her Indian heritage, is now trying to rediscover herself. All in all she's a very pleasant character, though underused throughout the series. Thanks again for helping me out earlier. I'd probably be sleeping in a hotel tonight if it weren't for you. Oh, you didn't hear? Ahahahahahahahahahaha. ... Really. It only lasted a few hours, according to the report on the radio. I suppose that's irony. I suppose so.Rosa tries to get to know Nishanthi a bit better. So you play the flute, huh? Yes, I play the flute. It's called a bansuri. What about you? Do you play an instrument? Me? No. I can hardly play the kazoo. Let's see. You strike me as being creatively inclined. Are you a painter? A writer? I knew it! Anything published? Nothing really. Aside from book reviews in the Village Eye. Village Eye? You mean that little paper they sell at the stand? You've read it? I've seen it around, but I've never actually read it. Perhaps I will, the next time I see it.Again, this becomes a minor plot point in a later game. This series is pretty good at tying things together from previous games.  Moti? He's spoiled rotten, but he'd good company. He's taken quite a shine to YOU, that's for sure. Heh. Yeah. Usually I'm not good with animals. You never had a childhood pet? A pet? No. I... had a teddy bear.Not just any teddy bear, Rosa, it's Griff, the P.I. Bear!! Hah. Well, you probably had the right idea. Moti's a little thing, but you wouldn't know it from the amount he eats. He's very... active, it seems. Yes, that probably explains it. See that box of biscuits? I buy a new one every two days.Maybe that's because you keep feeding him every drat minute?  Haha. Of course, Nishanthi doesn't seem that bothered by Moti's stomach, as she immediately follows that up with: Feel free to give him one, if you like.We'll take Nishanthi up on her offer soon, but Rosa is still busy making small talk. You have a very nice apartment. Thank you. A bit small, but that's New York for you. You seem very... friendly... with the people in this building. Well, I didn't grow up here. I didn't realize it was taboo to chat with neighbors. It's not taboo, exactly. It's just... Oh, I know. Just one of those unspoken things. I've found that most people are pretty friendly though, once you take the first step. People have their defences up, most of the time. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. Yeah, I do. Hahaha, no wonder people have their defences up around here. "What's with the wacky flute, sister?" It's a place to go, I suppose. I was walking there one day, and I had the bansuri with me, so I started playing. Next thing I knew I had a bunch of people around me. So I go there as often as I can now. It gets me out of this stuffy apartment, and I admit I like the attention. Plus Moti loves the dog run there. Well, he did until they closed it down. Why did they close down the dog run? It seemed OK to me. Nobody really knows. It started about a week ago. Dogs started howling, running around like maniacs, acting strange. That's a bit... weird. We saw Moti barking at the dog park earlier. They SAY it's some kind of high frequency wave that's caused by electric cables, or something. Some high pitched sound that the dogs can hear, but we can't. But I know better. You... know better? Definitely. I notice these things. I could tell that things weren't quite right. Something... in the air. It's not a high-pitched noise. That would only cause a dog pain. This was more than pain. The dogs were... scared. What was there to be scared of? I have no idea. But I know what I sensed. Me? You sensed it. Don't think I didn't notice. I didn't sense anything. Well, perhaps. Maybe I'm just spouting nonsense.Actually, my memory of it is the only thing Rosa sensed was an oncoming migraine. Could I try feeding the dog? Sure! Here, take one. I have plenty. Go ahead and feed him. He's always hungry. Let's give this a go! Hi, um... dog? His name is MOTI. Right. Moti. Rosa feeds the dog. I love the way she then bids the dog farewell afterwards  LET'S DO THAT AGAIN Sure! Here, take another. I have plenty.However, this time we pocket the doggy biscuit. Because this is an adventure game, and you always have to take anything not nailed down. Actually, unlike other adventure games, this one doesn't allow you to combine objects together. Now, on the surface, this is a good thing, as the "cram every single object together until it fits" puzzle mechanic is pretty painful. However, it does cause a problem later on when one particular object actually can (and must) be combined with another, without any warning. But we'll cover that later. Well, I'd better go. Take care, Rosa. Come back whenever you'd like. On that unusually pleasant note, we'll finish up for today. Tomorrow Rosa will go and play reporter at the Brittany hall dorm, and the day after that, our final plot dump will hit us and the game proper will finally begin! Again, I strongly encourage any comments, speculation or other input. These screenshot LPs can become horribly clogged up if nobody responds, and pretty boring if it's just one update after another, so the more discussion the better this thread is going to be
cmndstab fucked around with this message at 09:14 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Oct 3, 2013 16:07
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grandalt posted:Well, I haven't heard of these games before. Its nice to have a character who isn't a blank slate for once. Rosa has a lot more personalty than some other adventure protagonists. Assoonasitits posted:I really like Rosa, she's a good unwitting protagonist. The more I read this, the more I think that Joey is a ghost who's been hassling women in Rosa's family and only bugs one when the last one dies. Yeah, Rosa is well-written and for the most part avoids becoming a caricature, which I really appreciate. As for Joey - we're not far away from learning more about that, I promise! bunnyofdoom posted:I dunno. He could be a spy! I mean that title could means spies right? I'm afraid not, no. It's Brittany Hall, which is a real NYU dorm. Wherever possible, Gilbert did use real New York locations and usually travelled there to take a few reference photos to hand to his artists. Bellevue, for example, is a real hospital, and in fact the oldest hospital in the United States, though presumably Doc Quentin is only a fictional rear end in a top hat. Next update later on today.
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Oct 4, 2013 04:33
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Kaja Rainbow posted:It's good to see someone doing those games. As usual for games I've already played, I won't be saying too much. But, yeah, I liked the protagonist. She had plenty of personality. Plenty of personality disorders, perhaps  But seriously, I fully agree with you, this series is very much carried by the lead characters.Let's do this! Update 4 Time for Rosa to continue her quest of being the world's foremost rookie suicide reporter. Spoiler Alert: By the end of this update, a Big Thing is going to happen!!! Now, where were we?  Oh yes. On to Brittany hall. This sequence is primarily designed to introduce us to the notepad puzzle mechanic, and so using the notepad in various ways will be essential to getting past it.  I feel like hell and I have to interview college kids. Hopefully this won't take too long.Upon arriving, Rosa immediately has another one of her now-commonplace headaches. Of course, on any other day she would probably just write it off as stress, but after being told she is GENETICALLY PREDISPOSED TO EARLY-ONSET DEMENTIA, she is obviously concerned. Hospital Waiting Room  Sure thing. You're cleared. Go right in.Rosa decides to quickly duck out and speak with Doc Quentin instead.  This prick is still grinning like an idiot. Doctor Quentin? Oh, hello. Come in. Come in. Do you know anything about... headaches? It's hardly my specialty, but I know enough. Why? I've been getting them. Lots of them. Gee, I wonder what might have caused her some stress? Are they usually this bad? It varies. Over the counter pain medication and rest. That's all I'd suggest. Thanks. I guess I'll head out. Very well. Good bye, Miss Blackwell.Considering last time he told us we were likely to end up in a searingly painful medically-induced coma for decades on end, I guess Rosa is happy to get a null diagnosis this time around. NYU Theme  Okay, back to work. Rosa's boss told her to get a word in with the R.A., and here he is. Also, I have to say, this place's music is pretty drat cool. Probably the highlight of Legacy, though still only a poor cousin of tracks to come in the later games.  Rosa knocks on the R.A.'s door. Hi. I'm Rosangela Blackwell. Can I help you? Perhaps. Could I ask you a few questions? Oh. This is about JoAnn, isn't it? You know her? Well I am the R.A. for this floor. I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't know everybody. The campus police found her around 5am this morning.Rosa decides to cut straight to the chase.  Hm. Well, all right. But could you leave my name out of it?At this point, Rosa has the option to either agree, refuse, or to try to weasel out of committing either way. If she refuses, Adrian clams up: I don't think I can do that. Oh. Freedom of the Press and all? Something like that. Then I'm afraid I can't say anything. Sorry.If she agrees: That shouldn't be a problem. Good. JoAnn's parents have already asked the Dean to fire me. I don't know anyone else knowing who I am.And if she is evasive: I can't promise anything. That's up to the editor. Look, I'll level with you. My job is already on the line, thanks to this mess. I won't say a word unless I have your promise. I suppose I can give my editor a false name. That should be fine.Hilariously, it is revealed in the third game that the article is eventually published with Adrian's full name, so I guess Rosa was crossing her fingers behind her back or something here. Gilbert claims this was accidental and he forgot about Rosa promising to leave Adrian's name out, but I like to pretend it wasn't What do you want to know? Rosa gets to choose what to ask the R.A. from her notepad clues. Note that Adrian himself is now a clue too. The list of clues can get fairly long at times, though the game is pretty good about removing them when they are no longer relevant. Asking about JoAnn and her suicide: What can you tell me about JoAnn? What was she like? I never hung out with her socially, but she seemed nice enough. Nobody ever complained about her. She always had friends around her. She never had any trouble, as far as I know. Her... suicide... came as a total surprise. Can you tell me about JoAnn's suicide? She jumped off the roof. She died instantly. It was the middle of the night. There was... there was no way anyone could have stopped her. Make sure you print that.Adrian comes across as a bit of a creep here, but in fairness, I guess it would be a tough thing to be responsible for a young lady who goes on to kills herself.  Next, Rosa asks for a photo. A picture? No. Why would I? Just asking.Yeah, that would be just a bit too creepy. Rosa quickly changes the conversation. So how did you get to be the R.A. of this floor? What do you mean? Well, it's a girl's floor, and you, well... Aren't? Yes. Well, it's like this. Wait, what? In what Universe is Adrian a girl's name? Have I missed something here? Adrienne maybe? None of the girls have complained? Not yet. They seem to prefer it. This sort of thing happens quite frequently. You'd be surprised.I'm... not sure it does. Even Rosa can't help but tease him a bit further about it. They really thought you were a girl? Yes. Well, that's all for now. Thanks for helping out. Just remember to leave my name out of it.NO PROMISES, SUCKER!!!  Seriously, Rosa has the guiltiest drat conscience. I just wanted you to read them   You're such a delicate little flower, Rosa.  After walking past a handful of doors, Rosa finally comes across JoAnn's dorm. Obviously JoAnn won't be home, but perhaps her roommate Kelly can give her some goss?  Kelly looks like a real reputable character. Rosa has three options of how to introduce herself here, but they all amount to pretty much the same thing Hi. I'm Rosangela Blackwell. Am I supposed to know you? No, I'm with the Village Eye. The village what? The Village Eye. The newspaper. I've never heard of it.Three more choices here. Rosa can either defend her employer, shrug it off or simply move on. I like the first option the best. It's for sale in the stand just outside your dorm. You must have seen it. Well I haven't. What do you want?If Rosa chooses to shrug it off, she mumbles that it's just a small paper, and Kelly drills her with a deadpan "Yeah, I guessed that." I'd like to talk to you about your room-mate, if that's all right? Jesus Christ. I'm busy with midterms. I told the campus police everything. Do you have to bother me? Look... Why is that my problem?Kelly is obviously big on empathy. At this point, Rosa is given an entire smorgasbord of three-choice-dialogue forks, about four in a row. In the interest of keeping this flowing, I'll just present them as one continuous dialogue. So you and JoAnn weren't close? Brilliant deducation, Sherlock. Can you go away? I only want a few minutes. I don't care. I'm busy. I don't care what you want, and I could care less about JoAnn. Just. Go. I understand that this must be a difficult time for you. Difficult? Hell no. It's been great. You know how long I've been wanting my own room?Seriously, Kelly is a huge bitch. That last line is a pretty reprehensible thing to say on literally the day of your roommate's suicide. That's... pretty harsh. Yeah? So what? You have a problem with that? You don't care? Not even a little bit? Why the hell should I? And for that matter why should you? It must have been hard, living with someone you don't like. What, you're psychoanalyzing me now? What the hell do you know about it? You're really starting to piss me off.Mind you, I guess I'd be a bit pissy if some reporter came along and kept asking questions at a time like this too. Rosa can either backpedal, apologise, or remain steadfast. We'll go with the latter... Will you please calm down? Calm DOWN? Who the hell do you think you are? I just want to know a little bit about JoAnn. Look, my boss will kill me if I come back with nothing. Can't you help me out here? ...Somehow Rosa's dorky smile actually wins Kelly over here. Fine. You want to know about JoAnn? She's DEAD. She's still a huge bitch, though. Did JoAnn act... unusual before she died? Nope. Same ole JoAnn. Studied at her desk all day and slept all night, as usual. Quiet as a little mouse. At this point, we can speak to Kelly about our clues. JoAnn: Is there anything else you can tell me about JoAnn? No.JoAnn's Suicide: Do you have any thoughts on why JoAnn would kill herself? Nope. Just another kid who couldn't hack it.Photograph: Do you have a photograph of JoAnn that we could use for the newspaper? You want a what? Just a photograph. You'll get it right back. Yeah right. You think I'm giving you anything? Think again.Adrian: Can you tell me anything about Adrian? The R.A.? He's okay. He helps us when we need it, and keeps out of our way when we don't. That's the way it should be.Kelly: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? Why do you want to know? Just background info for the paper. I don't think so. Suit yourself.JoAnn studied all day:  Yeah, sure. Whatever.JoAnn slept all night: JoAnn never had trouble sleeping? How should I know? You lived with her. Like I pay attention.Well, that was all thoroughly useless. Rosa decides to move on. Thanks for helping out. Yeah, sure. Whatever. Rosa heads back to Adrian. Now that she has a bunch more clues on her notepad, she has extra things she can speak with him about. Hi. It's me again. ... You have more questions, I imagine? Is that okay? I suppose so. What do you want to know?Kelly: What can you tell me about JoAnn's room-mate? Kelly? Have you met her? Yes. Quite a sight, huh? But don't judge her by that. She's the sharpest kid you'll ever meet. She gets straight A's on everything. Really? Yep. She's pre-med. Can you tell me anything else about Kelly? I... don't feel it's my place to say anything else. If you want to know more, you'll have to ask her.JoAnn studied all day:  I don't think she had any problems. But of course, the pressure can get to anybody.JoAnn slept all night: Do you know if JoAnn had any trouble sleeping? I'm afraid I wouldn't. Her room-mate, Kelly, never complained, but that's not surprising. why is that? Well, Kelly rarely spent the night in her room. She only comes here to study, as far as I've seen. Do you know where Kelly was sleeping? No. It's not my place to ask.The fact that Kelly rarely slept at home is then added to the notepad as a clue. Well, that's all for now. Thanks for helping out. Just remember to leave my name out of it.You can keep saying it Adrian, but it's not going to happen!!  Rosa heads back to confront Kelly about not sleeping at home often. So you've been sleeping somewhere else lately? Yeah, I've been at my boyfriend's. You've been following me, or something? No. No. Just confirming the information. Looks like Adrian's been talking. Now this puzzle shows off one of the inherent flaws in the notepad mechanic. You may have already made the logical leap here - how could Kelly know JoAnn slept all night if she was never there herself at night? Unfortunately, Rosa will not make that logical leap until you combine the clues in the notepad. It's a bit of a clunky system, and it does tend to lend itself to simply combining every new clue you receive with all the previous clues just in case something falls out. Still, it's effective enough for what it is. Waaait a minute. Something isn't right. If Kelly's been spending her nights somewhere else... How can she know if her room-mate was sleeping well or not? Hm. I think Kelly was lying to me. I've got no idea. Why don't you ask her?Actually, I'm not sure why Rosa didn't just do that to start with. Over to Kelly we go...  Your R.A. told me that you haven't been sleeping in your dorm. Yeah, so? You told me that JoAnn slept in her room every night. So? How would you know JoAnn slept here if you've been sleeping somewhere else? ...huh? Oh!  Did you lie to me? I didn't lie! I just... Oh screw it. You wanna talk? Fine. What do you want to know?In a fantastic display of Adventure Game Logic, Rosa is actually rewarded for snooping around behind Kelly's back and then confronting her about a tiny slip of the tongue. I think the idea is she respects Rosa a bit more now for actually having thought outside the square, or something. As a result, Kelly will now give somewhat more meaningful responses to the clues. So what was JoAnn really like? To be honest, there's nothing to say. She was studying political science, which is kind of cool I guess. But she was so... vanilla. Vanilla? You know, sweet but not much there? Just a typical college kid. Acted just like everybody else. She seemed proud of it.Presumably by "vanilla", Kelly actually means "didn't wear pyjama bottoms and tank tops with skulls on them." Did JoAnn act... unusual before she died? well, no. That sounds kind of important... What did she say? No idea. Couldn't understand her. She swore up and down that she wasn't doing it. She looked a bit scared, though. Scared. How so? Just scared. I didn't need the drama, so I've been sleeping at my boyfriend's place. So you weren't here when she... Killed herself? No. I wasn't here. Not that it would have made a difference. Are we done?The "Not that it would have made a difference" line is fairly well delivered, with an appropriate amount of guilt mixed in with Kelly's normal defiance. We have all the info we need, but Rosa has one more item she needs for her story.  Hm. All right. Just a sec. This was hers. It was on her desk. She won't be needing it anymore. JoAnn is the girl on the left. Thanks. And here it is. JoAnn is pictured with two friends and looking pretty happy. That's everything - Pulitzer prize, here we come!!  On her way out of Brittany hall, Rosa experiences yet another of her patented headaches. Presumably the stress involved in managing her notepad was too much. This is just getting worse. At least I have enough for the story now. I'd better get home. Not Quite Right  This is... getting bad.Geez, Rosa is a mess. I don't think she stopped for any pain medication on the way either. Hopefully she has some in her apartment.  Oh. My. God. This really hurts. Sleep. That's all I need. I'll just type up this story and get to bed. Shouldn't take that long.Rosa continues to suffer debilitating headaches. This day has really taken it's toll on her.  Rosa's computer now has the "Do Research" option, which she can use to look up information on her various clues. It's not very often useful, but we'll see it feature in a couple of puzzles. For now, however, Rosa simply writes the article. Right. No more interuptions.A quick fade to black, and then: Done. Article's finished. Picture is scanned. And I am DONE for the day. Going Insane  As Rosa walks to her room, however, the worst yet of the headaches wracks her. In the game, this is accompanied by a horror-esque organ screech. Notice the photograph starting to glow.  What... is... happening?Wave after wave of headaches continue to pile onto Rosa as she stumbles around the room, until...  The pain. It's gone! That was strange.After one final headache, the pain suddenly disappears entirely.  The music, despite being a pretty mediocre track, is actually handled pretty well here. It slowly dims as the pain goes away, only to slowly rise in volume again as Rosa approaches the glowing photograph. The photo... something is different about it. I almost don't want to look, but... Motherfucker, there's a goddamn ghost in the loving photo!!!  Rosa is appropriately aghast at what she has just seen, given the conversation she just had earlier with Doctor Quentin. She quickly tries to reassure herself. I did not just see that. I'm not going crazy. No. It's just the stress. That's all. Auntie's death, work, life... I just need a rest. That's all...Suddenly, Rosa hears a swirling sound from behind her. Hello Joey  Rosa approaches the swirling energy, and it seems to implode inside her head - and the form of a ghost is revealed to her. And finally, perhaps blessedly, Rosa simply blacks out entirely.  Why do they always do that?SORCERY IS AFOOT IN MANHATTAN! Join us again tomorrow when Rosa emerges from her stupor to find out just what the hell is going on here! cmndstab fucked around with this message at 09:16 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Oct 4, 2013 13:14
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grandalt posted:Adrian can be a girl name. For example, there's a woman who name is Adrian in the phoenix wright games. And yes, there's a person who thought she was a man. Its name that can be used for either gender. Well, there you go. Maybe it's a regional thing - here in Australia I don't think I've ever heard of a girl called Adrian. Assoonasitits posted:Generally it is spelled "Adrian" for boys and "Adrienne" for girls. This is by no means a hard-and-fast rule, but if you notice one spelling or the other you're generally not blamed for making assumptions about sex. I'd agree with you here except presumably they had to fill out some form to make him the R.A. I really can't help but wonder if Adrian is a reference to something? Perhaps Gilbert knew a guy who this happened to at NYU? Antemony posted:(Cecil Baldwin voice) "The city council announces the opening of a new dog park. They would like to remind everyone that dogs are not allowed in the dog park. People are not allowed in the dog park. It is possible you will see hooded figures in the dog park. Do not approach them. Do not approach the dog park."  These games, particularly the third and fourth, have some gorgeous pixel art. They really remind me of Fate of Atlantis and other such 90s Lucasarts games that are still fairly timeless. Also, I'm pretty sure it's never mentioned in-game, but Joey is indeed supposed to have been a private eye when he was alive. And yes, his addition is about to make this thread infinitely better Next update later today. cmndstab fucked around with this message at 03:22 on Oct 5, 2013 |
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Oct 5, 2013 03:20
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Assoonasitits posted:Gee, Joey, I wonder why every woman you ghost-slap in the face and then dramatically appear in front of faints when you do that. I get the impression he enjoys it more than he should do I love the animation in the sequence, with Rosa grabbing her head, then kind of opening up her hands to peer out at the ghost. It's really quite charming spritework.
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Oct 5, 2013 16:07
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Update 5 This one is going to be fairly long, but once it's finished the plot dumps will all be out of the way, and the purpose of the game (and subsequence games in the series) will finally be revealed to us. So let's get started! Hello Joey LAST TIME  Why do they always do that? Opening Menu So now Rosa is unconcious on the floor, with a ghost apparently floating around in her apartment. At this point I'm wondering if Rosa decided to bypass the over-the-counter medication for some home-grown poo poo.  Long time no see. How's tricks?The ghost floats around the apartment, checking out Rosa's meagre possessions. ... Right. Thought as much.Soon enough, he settles back down over Rosa.  Always sleeping. You're always sleeping and I'm always watching.That's.... pretty loving creepy.  At this point, Rosa finally starts to stir. Mrg. It's about time. Hey, naptime nellie! Wake up! What... *ahem* Shall we try this again? Rosa stands up, hears the ghost's voice, and turns around to find him floating there. Now that's not very polite. Go away! Believe me, I've tried. NO! You don't exist! Oh, yes I do. Look at me.The ghost gets pretty frustrated when Rosa start to deny his existence, but Rosa doesn't want to hear it. This is not happening. This is not happening. Oh brother. I am NOT going insane. There is nothing there. Could you- No! By this point, Rosa is having a full blown panic attack, and for once I can't even blame her. Listen- Get out of my head! There's nothing there. There's nothing there. There's nothing there... Could you- Shut up! Shut up. Shut up. Shut up!Finally, the ghost has had enough of this. No, YOU shut up. I've been watching you all day, sweetheart. You know who I am. No...Presumably he's been watching since Rosa scattered the ashes, judging by the similar swirl of energy. YES. I'm not going away. So there'd be no point in beating around the bush. Now say my name. No... drat you. You KNOW my name. Now say it.He's pretty drat intimidating during this sequence, floating right up behind her and raising his voice while Rosa cowers. You're... Yes? Good girl. You got it in one. Now turn around and look at me.And there it is confirmed. The famous Joey, whose voice falls back to controlled here. I... Don't worry. I won't bite. Couldn't even if I wanted to. Rosa finally summons up the courage to face Joey, who immediately flashes her a charming/seedy grin. She can react in one of three ways - accepting: You really exist? Oh yes. Live and in person. Although I'm not really alive. And I'm not sure if I can still call myself a "person" anymore.Unaccepting: You...can't be real. You're just a... stress induced hallucination. Yeah, sure. Think about your aunt and grandmother and say that again.And confrontational: Who are you, and what the hell do you want with me? Hah! You don't waste any time. You're a Blackwell, all right.Whichever you choose, Rosa then follows up with another pertinent question: So who ARE you? I'm Joey Mallone, and I'm the family spirit guide. Joey's smooth smirk falls onto Rosa's blank stare. Finally, she speaks up again. What? Think of me as the Blackwell legacy, darling. I'm passed down from one generation to the next, like a family heirloom. First your grandmother got stuck with me, then your aunt, and now you.Well, that confirms that theory. Joey "passes down" from one member of the family to the next when they die. Recall that in Jack's letter, he first noticed Lauren becoming distant shortly after Patricia died. So you're a ghost. Yep. You're a GHOST. The true gravity of this situation finally dawns on Rosa. Hey, you're sharp. Took your aunt and grandmother ages to work that out. So I'm not... going crazy? Nope. Ain't that grand? Where did you come from? That's a long long story, Dollface. And we've got more important things to do.It's a bit difficult to convey Joey's tone here without voice acting (which, it must be said, is excellent). He's menacing, but not altogether nasty or cold. At the risk of sounding cliched, he's fairly mysterious here. At this point, Rosa finally gets around to asking the million dollar question. Why have you been haunting my family? "Haunting?" Is that what I'm doing? That's a real ugly word.He actually sounds a bit hurt here. Answer me. Why are you here? You got me, sweetheart. I've been wondering "Why me?" and "Why your family?" since this whole gig started. Must be some kind of gift your family has. A gift? You're a medium. A medium with a direct connection with the spirit world. And I, my dear, have the unique pleasure of being that connection. I don't... Oh you will, babe. You will. It took your aunt a while, but she got the hang of it. Your grandmother never really caught on. By contrast, Joey is at his most chilling here. But that's something we can talk about later. You felt something today, didn't you? Felt something? Yeah. You felt sick to your stomach. I saw you. I've been feeling sick all day. And where did it START? ...Rosa can guess at the various places she's visited today. Let's retrace her steps backwards. That NYU dorm? No, no. That's tied in, maybe. But think further back. Nishanthi? It has something to do with Nishanthi? The old lady? No. Think harder. The hospital? Hell, I hope not. I don't want to go back THERE in a hurry. Think harder.This is an interesting comment - if Joey was haunting Lauren before she died, and Lauren spent 25 years in a medically-induced coma, presumably Joey has just been chilling around for those 25 years as well, which would explain why he hates the idea of going back to the hospital again so much. You mean... the dog run? Yeah. That's where we've got to go. What, right now? Yep. The sooner the better. But it's the middle of the night! So? You've just had a nice nap. You should be ready for action.Rosa is so adorably whiny here  Well, that's where you're wrong. If there's any reason behind this medium business, it's to take care of problems like your dog park. And we have to take care of them SOON.Rosa has various responses: Fine. We'll do it in the morning. No can do. We gotta go now. This is all too much. I've got to sleep on this. Sorry, kiddo. We gotta go now. We've got to go right now? Yes. What's the hurry? Let me put it another way. Do you want to end up like your aunt and grandmother? Wait..... what exactly is Joey implying with that last sentence? Was that... because of you? Did YOU do that? Not me, kid. Not me. I didn't make em that way, and I don't know what did. But do you really want to sit around here and find out? ...Joey actually comes across as genuine here. I can't believe this is happening. Believe it. Maybe I AM going crazy. Maybe I'd PREFER going crazy. Sorry, sugar. You're totally sane. Deal with it. Fine. Let's go. That's the spirit! Joey is altogether too happy about this little arrangement. With not much choice other than to follow, Rosa heads off to Washington Square Park.  Everybody just ignored you. Am I the only one who can see you? Yep. And hear me. So keep your voice low.There's an eerie windy noise in the background here. It's one that will be heard many times throughout this series.  This is the spot. Can you see it? I don't see anything. Can we go? This way.Joey starts floating off towards the entrance to the dog run. Hey, wait! Goes against the rules, whatever they are. Now look inside there. And look CLOSE. What am I supposed to see? Just wait. It'll come. Washington Square Night  Who is that? That's what we're here to find out. I'll talk to the spook. You can stay here. Okay.With that, Joey heads inside the dog run to speak with the ghost.  Why so down, beautiful?Despite Joey's endless charm, the ghost completely ignores him. Ah. I'm a bit out of practice. How should I handle this...Now it's Joey who has a few different choices. He can be firm: I want you to listen to me, girlie. Your tears won't win any sympathy from me. So tell me what the story is, so we can both get out of here.Be glib: Hey, buck up. It's only death. The worst part's over.Or be charming: Hey, don't be like that. If it's one thing I hate, it's seeing a pretty girl cry.All three of which make him look like a bit of an rear end in a top hat, but a charismatic rear end in a top hat nonetheless. The ghost doesn't respond, but does seem to notice Joey, quickly turning and floating away from him. Next up, Joey can let her be: It's all right. Take your time.Stay firm: Hey, I'm talking to ya.Or work the Joey charm: Leaving so soon? I thought we were getting along.Finally, the ghost responds.  They all run. So hard to hold on. It's me. They won't stop!Her voice sounds distant and echoey, not to mention panicked. Joey again chooses from three options. He can explain his business: We're here to help you. Help? Yeah. That's us. We're helpers.He can try to calm her down: Shhh. Relax. Slow down and tell me everything. I'm here to help.Or he can try to make sense of her words: Who won't stop, kid? Try and concentrate. Explain everything so we can help you.The ghost responds, but doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Help. Help. He wants me to help him. But I want to help THEM. Don't they know that? Help who? Can't. Can't. They run away. We won't run away. No. Suddenly, she gets angry and starts yelling.  Got into our head and poisoned us! Whatever happened, darling, it's over. You do know that, don't you? No! I'm poison! Stay away, or I'll poison you! Run away, like all the others!There's only one solution for this kind of hysteria - the Joey charm! He can choose to stand his grand: Not a chance. I'm staying right here. You're... You're HIM! He's the only one who won't go away!He can give it right back to her: Yeah. Keep talking like that, sister, and YOU'LL be doing the running. Now why don't you shut your yap and calm the hell down. YOU! Yeah? I know it's you!Or he can try out his hilarious smooth talking: You're beautiful when you're angry, has anyone told you? NO! You won't trap me again! Again? He made everyone go away. There is nobody else.Joey tries to ask the ghost who "HIM" is: Who? You're HIM! Now look. Darling. Sweetheart. Leave me! Hey- LEAVE!Finally, Joey just gives up. All right. Look, just... sit tight. We'll figure this out. And we'll be back.With that, Joey floats on out of the dog run, a beaten man. Ghost. Whatever.  Hahaha, I love this. Can't get a straightforward answer out of any of em. What just happened? What just happened is we've got an unstable spirit on our hands. Haunting that dog park over there. You wondered why the mutts don't like it here? That's the reason.Joey kind of snaps this answer back, presumably still pissed off at his unsuccessful attempt at smooth talking the ghost. Rosa, however, barely even notices. There's a ghost haunting the dog park. That's what I said. A ghost. Sure. I told you- No. I should go to bed. I really should go to bed.Finally, Rosa has had enough, and just dazedly walks off muttering to herself.  Joey, who has already established that he can't ever be far from her side, has no choice but to angrily follow her back home.  With Rosa collapsing asleep in bed, night turns to day. Legacy is actually only two days long, so we're around half way through this first game already! The second day has somewhat less text and more puzzles, but first we go through the final plot dump. (Continued next post...) cmndstab fucked around with this message at 09:17 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Oct 5, 2013 16:49
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Rosa's Theme  What an... odd dream.Rosa wakes up groggy the next morning, assuming that Joey's appearance was just a horrible nightmare fueled by stress and her chat with Doc Quentin.  Unfortunately for her, Joey is waiting right outside her door for her. ... Oh. You're still here. Wouldn't be anywhere else. Has anybody told you that you snore?Hahahaha, Joey is such a jerk These two are a match made in heaven. I do NOT snore! Like a chainsaw, darling. I'd be a little hacked off, if I actually slept. If it bothers you so much, you can always leave. I wish I could, dear. I told you, I couldn't leave even if I wanted to. Have you been here all night? Where else am I gonna go? I can't leave your side. Doesn't matter if you're asleep or not.At this point, Rosa is starting to get pissed. So this is going to be my life from now on. Pretty much, yeah. You're going to follow me around for the rest of my life. That's how it works, as far as I can tell. Great. Just... great.Joey isn't about to let her do all the complaining, though.  You think I chose to be shackled to your family for the last forty years? Your grandmother refused to accept it, and look what happened to her. And Auntie? She... made a mistake.That's pretty drat ominous. Presumably that "mistake" is what left her insane and hospital-bound for the remainder of her life. What kind of mistake? Hey, what is this? Twenty questions? What's with the third-degree? Are you hiding something, Joey? Who me? I'm an open book. It's not my fault you can't read. What does that mean? It means zip it.Rosa doesn't want to drop it. I have a right to know. No, you WANT to know. There's a difference. I don't have to tell you squat. She's the only family I had. I want to know about her. We all want lots of things. Doesn't mean we get 'em. Look, this isn't easy, you know. My whole life has turned upside down. FINE.Rosa yells the last word through gritted teeth. I have to say, I am liking that these two are both giving as good as they're getting. This scene could be a hell of a lot more uncomfortable if Joey just browbeat a tearful Rosa into submission. But you could at least meet me halfway. You've accepted it, you say? So far, yes. You've only seen a taste of it. Are you ready to go all the way?I'm not sure I like where this is heading... What do you mean? Ready to see what's out there. Ready to see what this is all about.Rosa can either respond positively: Yes. Good. Maybe there's hope, after all.Incredulously: There's MORE? Oh yes.Or just continue being bitter about things: It's not like I have a choice, right? No. You don't. So what is it? I don't have to tell you. It's best if I show you. At this point, Joey undoes his tie. What exactly is he intending to show Rosa...? Now I'm really concerned about his "all the way" line Here. Take a hold of this. I can touch it? Yeah. The only part of me you CAN touch. Unfortunately. It... kinda tingles. What is it? The stuff of life. Or death. I've never quite worked it out.Joey is speaking about his tie here, but seriously, he could just as easily have pulled out his dick and this dialogue would work just as well.  Now you pull. Pull the tie? Yeah, pull! Okay...Hahahaha, I say again...... Inside Nodespace  Rosa yanks Joey's tie, and his spirit collides with her brain, knocking her flying through a portal into some kind of alternative dimension. Oh... my... God! Where have you taken me? Relax. Take your time. It's a lot to take in at once. What is this place? It's the doorway to infinity, darling. Out there, in the distance. This area is never given a proper name throughout the series, but apparently Gilbert always thought of it as being called "Nodespace". The gossamer threads that separate this world from the next. Whatever you want to call it, it's all out there. How did we get here? We're inside your head. You mean, I'm dreaming? Wait, you mean literally "literally"? Remember those headaches you had yesterday? Yeah... That was your power awakening. Or, to be more specific, it was this place. Forcing its way into your mind.Jesus Christ, no wonder Rosa was hurting so loving much. She's got a loving Universe stuck inside her goddamn head. So what does that mean? It means that you've got a spiritual waystation in your head. I'm not sure I like this.Hahaha, this is so beautifully understated. Well, like it or not, we're here. So what does this place actually DO? This is the closest the game comes to calling this area Nodespace. You bring spirits into this place, and then send them on their merry way. That's it? Well there's a bit more than that. I thought as much. You see, many ghosts aren't as lucid as myself. Most can barely tell you their own names, let alone tell you what's wrong. Near as I can figure, they have to come to terms with their... departure... before they can actually depart. You dig me so far? More games need a "You dig" or "You don't dig" option. If you choose the latter, Joey gives a condensed version: No. Can you explain it again? I'll put it more simply for you. The ghosts don't know they're dead. So we have to help them accept it. Once they accept their death, they are much more willing to move on. That's my job, see. I talk to the spooks. They trust me more because I'm one of them. You do the legwork. See?And so now, half way through the game, we finally come to the point of it. Rosa and Joey's purpose, it seems, is to help ghosts accept their death, and then send them on their way to the next plane of existence. Via Rosa's head. And Joey's magical tie.  Actually, she doesn't have that many. What about that ghost in the park. The one from last night. Why didn't we bring her here? First of all, I didn't think you were ready. And secondly, that ghost was too lost and confused. When a ghost is like that, I can't just force the tie into their hands. It won't work. Don't ask me why. They have to KNOW they are dead first. Your aunt called it being "spiritually ready."Next, Rosa asks a very pertinent question. What about you? Can you go through that hole and move on? I wish, darling. But I can't. I've tried before, but it just spits me back out. I'm stuck here, whether I like it or not.Joey sounds a bit drained in that last response, prompting Rosa to ask how he is. Are you okay, Joey? Me, I'm dandy. You don't look all right. Eh, it's just this place. I don't like it. Probably because I don't belong. Maybe someday, but not now.Rosa has only one more question for Joey.  How did that happen? Not sure. Near as your aunt and me figured, the tie is just an extension of whatever power brought us here. It's not a real physical tie. No more than I am a real physical person. But that makes no sense. Look, just accept it, dollface. Forget logic. For you, logic went out the window the day I appeared in your bedroom. There ain't no instruction manual for this. Your aunt and me just figured it out as we went along.So apparently Joey and Lauren were doing this all those years ago. At least until she went insane, I guess. I think I've learned enough. You sure? Yeah. All right. Let's get out of here. Rosa's Theme  Joey and Rosa step back out of Nodespace, and return to her apartment. Welcome back. Ugh. Take it easy. It's a little disorientating. I'm fine. So what now? Go back to the park and bring her to... that place? You got it.Rosa seems to be starting to accept this, which is probably a good thing since Joey does seem all that amenable to being held up. And how do we do that? There are three steps. First, we have to find out more about her. Second, we use that information to her through to her. Convince her that she's dead. And three, help her move on. How do we find out more about her? She could be anybody? Not necessarily. That picture you got? The one of the three girls? That blond girl is either the ghost in her park, or her twin sister. Apparently the ghost in the park looks like the middle girl in the photo. Note that the blonde girl is not JoAnn, so apparently two of the girls are dead. This all seems like a pretty drat big coincidence. You're sure? She's a dead ringer. No pun intended. That's... convenient. Don't look so surprised, darling. This type of things will happen more often than you think.Something else dawns on Rosa. Were you looking through my stuff? What else am I gonna do while you're sleeping?Hahaha, Joey is an rear end in a top hat The blond girl is dead. Looks like it. And this other girl, JoAnn. She's dead, too. Yep. What's going on? That, my dear, is out bread and butter.Alright, so we need to figure out what happened. Next order of business: How do we convince ghosts that they are actually dead? That's the tricky part. Near as I can figure, we need to remind the ghosts who they are. Joey delivers this line with all the snark you can imagine. So we need to do whatever we can to bring them back to themselves. And how do we do that? Usually by finding something that has personal significance to them. It could be an object, a piece of information, or even another person.Obviously, this kind of thing will form the primary source of puzzles throughout the series. So we need to know more about that ghost in the park. You're a writer, yeah? Think of this as the ultimate character study.Finally, Rosa asks about sending the spirits on their way. How do we help a ghost move on? I give one end to the spook, the other end to you. You pull the ghost in, and you send them on their way. You don't come in with me? No, sorry. That's your job.No wonder he felt out of place in Nodespace, he doesn't usually go there. I think I've heard enough. Yeah, let's get going.And with that massive sequence out of the way (at no point during this entire update was there an opportunity to save, move around, or do anything other than be railroaded through dialogue sequences), the setting is set, the leads are revealed, and the game "proper" begins. Of course, Legacy is fairly short, so we're already half way through this one. But the beauty of the episodic format is that subsequent games don't require such a large lead-in, and the leads have enough personality (not to mention as-of-yet unrevealed backstory) to keep things very interesting. Tomorrow we'll get started on saving some spooks!! cmndstab fucked around with this message at 09:19 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Oct 5, 2013 17:02
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So since I'm such a dedicated LPer and all, I thought I'd undertake some hard-hitting journalism of my own regarding the use of Adrian as a girl's name. So I jumped onto thinkbabynames.com. http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Adrian Apparently it's in the top 1000 girl's names in the US. Blow me down. Also, looking at that chart, it experienced a growth in popularity from 1960-1980, when Joey was mucking around with Patricia and Lauren. So perhaps the choice of the name "Adrian" was an inspired choice by Gilbert! More like though, he was just poking fun at a friend with that sequence of dialogue Should have the next update prepared later on today. In the interim, your comments/thoughts regarding Joey's appearance and the direction this game has taken are very welcome! cmndstab fucked around with this message at 07:43 on Oct 6, 2013 |
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Oct 6, 2013 07:35
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Not much in the way of discussion I see (I assume some people are actually reading this thread?) but let's push on with the updates anyway! Update 6 So now we've got the band together - Rosa and Joey are ready go out and chat up some ghosts! Before they do that, though, let's have a bit of a chat with Joey. Rosa's Theme Psst! Joey! What is it, dear? In Blackwell Legacy, Joey is really little more than a companion. Obviously he's integral to the story and will be with us every step of the way, but Rosa is the protagonist. She can speak with Joey and ask him questions, and he'll pipe up himself regularly, but other than a couple of scripted sequences (such as when he talked to the ghost in the dog run), he's really just along for the ride. This will change in later games, where Joey becomes a playable character in his own right who can be controlled at (almost) any time, and puzzles will require us to switch between the two characters at various times. What was Auntie Lauren like? What do you wanna know about her for? I just do. Can't you tell me anything? Hey, we've got lots to do. Ask me later.This is something that the game does pretty well. We've received a few massive plot dumps throughout the first day of the game, but for the remainder of the game backstory is doled out to us in bite-sized chunks. At this point, since he's only just finished meeting us, Joey doesn't have a lot to say, but he will open up about Lauren at several points throughout the game. What was my grandmother like? Her? We have to talk about her? What's wrong with her? Nothing. Forget it. Ask me later.Rosa can also ask about Patricia, but it is very obvious that Joey was not a fan in the slightest.  As I said earlier, Joey is really just an NPC that tags along. He'll often just float around the room and look at random things, hence Rosa's comment here. Huh? The way you float all over the room like that. You're making me dizzy. Pff. You sound like my mother. You're gonna just have to get used to it, babe.I guess it's not like she can do anything to stop him... Can you ever leave? Leave? What do you mean, leave? Leave! Get out of my apartment. Go somewhere else. What? Don't you like me? It's not that. It's just, well... what about privacy? Hahahaha. Somehow I don't think Rosa will be convinced by this And what about personal space? I'm a GHOST. It's not like I take up any space. You know what I mean. Sorry, darling. No can do. I told you, I can't travel far from my... hosts. I can go maybe thirty feet before something stops me. That must be annoying. Eh, it's not so bad now. This seems like a fairly insensitive thing to say, but realistically I guess he knew Lauren a hell of a lot better than Rosa did anyway. Speaking of being insensitive, Rosa decides to try her hand at it as well! How did you die? Excuse me? How did I DIE? Yeah. That's a bit of a personal question, isn't it? Is it? YES. Sorry.Next up, Rosa tries to figure out if Joey is actually useful in any capacity outside of his magical tie and casual witticisms.  Do? As a ghost. Any powers, or anything like that? What you see is what you get, dear. I can float through walls, as long as I'm still near you.Floating through walls is actually an extremely useful ability in terms of fact-gathering, especially as he can never be caught while doing it. But you can't touch anything? Not really."Not really?" What does that mean? Not really? Well, you remember that breeze you felt when I... manifested myself last night? Yeah. That's the extent of my physical presence. Everyone's a critic.If Rosa asks him to demonstrate it again, Joey sarcastically proclaims:  Again, while Joey's light breeze powers just add to his character in Legacy (I think he does use it once, but in a scripted sequence), they will actually become a part of the puzzle mechanics in later games.  Rosa can also speak to Joey about the clues on her notepad. I don't suppose you know anything about JoAnn, would you? Nope. No more than you. Judging by the picture, she knows that sob story in the park. But that's all. Why would JoAnn commit suicide? Who knows? Maybe she was in a hurry. That's not funny. Hahaha, I have to say, I'm very quickly warming to Joey here What do you think of Adrian? Adrian? Hah. His parents must have really hated him, to saddle him with THAT name. Joey... Still... to be sharing a floor with a bevy of young college ladies... Hm. Maybe he doesn't have it so bad.Again, we get a comment from Joey here about Adrian being a bad name for a man to have. Rosa asks about Kelly: What do you think of Kelly? That kid? I suppose once you get past all that metal... and the clothes, and the hair, and the nasty makeup... Hahahaha... ...MAYBE... Nah. Forget it.That's all we'll get out of Joey for now, so it's time to get on with the game. Before heading out, Rosa checks the photograph again.  And Joey too, I guess. It's funny. With Joey there, we almost look like a real family. So Auntie Lauren was a medium, as well. All this time, and I never knew... I can't believe Joey was around when Auntie Lauren was taking care of me.Looking at the photo closer, Rosa remarks: When I was a little girl, I'd try to talk to my younger self in this picture. I was trying to give myself advice about the future. It didn't work then, and I doubt it would work now. That's definitely Auntie Lauren. Even way back then, Joey was following her around. How did she manage it? Turns out Joey was also in this photo, confirming that Lauren was already dealing with Joey by the time of the wedding, like Jack expected.  And, yet again, Joey is in the photograph haunting Patricia, who looks pretty concerned about Joey's death glare. I have to wonder how a ghostly visage shows up in a photograph. Even if we accept all the stuff about a connection to the spirit world in Rosa's head and stuff it still seems a bit weird that a reproduced image would contain residual spiritual images that can only be seen by mediums. I guess we'll just accept it for now.  Continuing to stall for time, Rosa decides to check in with Nishanthi. Come in! Nishanthi's Theme  Come in. Come in.Upon entering, Moti immediately trots up to Joey.  You look a little... preoccupied. I'm fine.Rosa clearly sounds anything but fine here.  Displaying pretty sound judgement, Moti begins to bark up a storm at Joey. Oh jeez. In case you haven't noticed, some animals can sense me. Are you getting a good look, mutt? I'm sorry. He must be sick, or something. It's all right.Joey's response is to startle the poo poo out of Moti, sending the dog yelping and whining away. Rosa can attempt to talk to Joey here, but he quickly shuts her down. Jo- Shhh! You wanna start a riot? Keep your yap SHUT until we're alone.Joey actually has a different "shut the hell up" message for each location, though most of them boil down to this.  Rosa gets talking to Nishanthi, who can tell that something is clearly wrong. Yes? Could you tell me more about that? Well I'm not psychic or anything, if that's what you mean. I'm just observant. Anyone could tell something was wrong, if they kept their eyes open. Speaking of which... Care to tell me what's wrong? What do you mean? You look... ill at ease. Uncomfortable. Nishanthi is indeed pretty observant. Is everything alright? Say you're fine, kid. I'm... fine. Yep. Everything's just dandy. Just dandy. And could you stop looking at me? I mean, I know it's hard...Hahaha, Joey's such a wonderful rear end in a top hat Nishanthi can tell that Rosa is not right, but let's the subject drop. I see. Well, I'm here if you need me.Rosa quickly excuses herself and gets out of there before she makes things worse.  Dogs, cats, birds. Any dumb animal. So what does that make me? I dunno. A gerbil? You kinda look like a gerbil. Shut up.Hahaha, these two have some great back and forth. Washington Square Park  Don't worry. I'll do the talking.Time to get stuck into this. You can't really see in this screenshot, but the ghost is still skulking around in the background there.  No. Maybe.Let's see if Joey can work his way through this conversation a bit more smoothly than last time. He has three choices for approaching the ghost. He can tell her the truth: Can you tell me the last thing you remember? Candy. I was eating candy. Candy? Candy to make the Deacon go away. Ahh... I think I understand. Did it work? I don't hear him anymore. But he did something to me... I... they all go away.So this ghost obviously commited suicide, apparently because of someone called the Deacon. Joey tries the direct approach. Young lady, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you're dead. It's so quiet. I... Sweetheart, are you listening to me? They all go away. The Deacon made them go away. Listen, you don't have to worry about it anymore. Whatever it is. Just... let go. He haunts my dreams. He gets into my head. He poisoned me. He's trying to kill me. But you're... oh forget it. Joey is also able to quiz the ghost from Rosa's notepad. Are you friends with a girl named JoAnn? JoAnn... JoAnn... Beware JoAnn when her plan's unfurled. For she intends to take over the world. She had to go away. He drove her away. She didn't understand. Do you know why JoAnn killed herself? JoAnn? She can't be dead. She'd going to change the world. She's not dead. Even though she had to go away. They all had to go away. Because of the Deacon.The ghost recites the little poem about JoAnn in a very sing-song way, for some reason. Combined with the echoey voice it sounds pretty creepy. How about Adrian? Do you know him? Adrian the man. The man with the plan. Do you know Kelly? Kelly... Kelly... Crazy Kelly. Made of ice jelly. We all drove her away. But that was okay. It wasn't the Deacon's fault. It was hers. Do you recognize the girls in this picture? Oh. It's so hard to see. Maybe I need glasses. Hm. Worth a try.Joey decides to cut to the chase.  The Deacon is the Deacon. We called him and he came. He got into my head. He's scared. He's diseased. He's made me diseased, too. Now everyone goes away.Unfortunately, without anything more to go on, that's all the sense Joey is able to get out of the ghost. At this point there's nothing else to do but go away and try to figure out who the hell the Deacon might be. Look... just sit tight. We'll figure this out. And we'll be back. What, you don't like dogs? You know what I mean.Outside, Rosa is still creeped out about this. If you visit the ghost again, we get the following amusing exchange. She is so... strange! Don't you think she's strange? Not really. I think she's a choice bit of calico, myself. Maybe it's a ghost thing. Rosa's Theme  In general, Rosa has to return to her apartment to have any meaningful conversation with Joey, so I'll often return here between plot points to shoot the poo poo. No idea. Although he must be a pretty formidable fellow, considering what's been going on.This is a bit of an odd comment since we're not really sure "what's been going on." Nonetheless, he obviously has something to do with the ghost in the park. Rosa is also able to ask Joey about the two photographs he appears in (other than the Brooklyn bridge photo), and he'll open up a bit about Lauren and Patricia. Joey, you're in this photograph. So I am. That was Jack and Maria's wedding. My parents? Yeah. Why were you at the wedding? Because your aunt insisted on going, and I go where she goes. I could have talked her out of it, but she put her foot down. There are interesting emotions in this bit of dialogue. Joey comes across as still being annoyed that he was forced to attend the wedding, but his voice is also brighter when speaking about Lauren. It's pretty obvious that he misses her. You don't look very happy in this picture. That's because I wasn't. There was a spirit trapped in an alley, down in Chinatown. A little girl, five years old. Lost and confused and needing our help. But did your aunt want to solve the case? No. Going to the wedding was IMPORTANT, she said. More important. Can you imagine? I... don't know. Can you tell me anything else about the wedding? I don't know. There was music? The bride wore white? It was over thirty years ago. Just because I'm dead doesn't mean my memory is perfect.This bit of dialogue gives us pause to think - how much of a life can you have if you're doing this medium thing? Joey begrudged (and apparently still begrudges) Lauren attending her own brother's wedding. Asking about the photo with Patricia: Can you tell me anything about this picture, Joey? Ohh yeah. I remember this. This was taken about forty years ago. Your grandmother there insisted on it. So that's my grandmother? Yep. And that's my... dad? And Auntie Lauren? In the flesh. What were you doing in this picture? Being ignored, as usual. Real strong believer in denial, that woman. Do you remember anything else about that day? It was over forty years ago, doll. Stupid hair and ugly sweaters, that's all I remember.By contrast to Lauren, Joey is just sarcastic when speaking about Patricia. I get the impression they didn't get along well at all. Once last thing for this update - Rosa can head back to good old Doc Quentin and have another chat. Hospital Clocks  I was stuck here for twenty five years. Why'd you have to drag me back here, huh?Joey is not happy about coming back here. What was it like, staying here? Like? I was on a different floor, but it's all the same. Twenty-five friggin' years. Hovering over your aunt's shoulder. Staring at the ceiling. You wanna know how many cracks there were in that ceiling? Not really. Fifty four! Or maybe fifty five. I was never sure about that last one..The anger and frustration Joey feels about those 25 years are really evident here. How well did you know Dr. Quentin? That quack? He'd come into your aunt's room. Poke her. Prod her. Try to get her to speak. He didn't know from nothing. I'd just as soon never see him again. What was Auntie's condition like? She was a rotting vegetable, sweetheart. They kept her so drugged up that she could hardly move. Which is probably for the best, come to think of it. Without the drugs, she... wasn't pretty. But the doc told you all about that. You don't need to hear it again from me.Joey doesn't want to see Quentin again, but bad luck for him. Rosa heads in anyway.  Rosa can ask Quentin about Joey, or even try telling him straight out that she is being haunted by him. We'll go with the former first... Did my aunt and grandmother ever say anything... specific about Joey? No. Why? Have you learned anything? Oh, no... I was just wondering. Oh, real subtle.Have to agree with Joey here. Meanwhile, trying to tell Quentin directly does not go well. Doctor Quentin, I've got something to tell you... Hm? Yes? It's about Joey. Oh? Oh, no. This is the first time we've seen Joey's angry face. Yeah... Darling, you seem like a sweet kid. Don't ruin everything this early in the game. I... Hey! Whatever you think you're doing, stop right now.Joey moves in closer and closer as he starts raising his voice here.  He... Are you LISTENING? I just spent twenty five years in this dump. I'm not gassed up to do it again, you dig? You wanna be locked up in a padded cell with ME for company? Cuz that's what'll happen. He can be pretty drat intimidating when he wants to be. Um... Think about it.Joey scooches right up behind Rosa's ear and drops his voice to a low, menacing whisper for the final line. Rosa, wisely, decides to leave the topic alone. Yes, Miss Blackwell? Nevermind. Good girl. Keep your yap shut and we'll get on just fine.Joey is a pretty drat likeable character, but geez, he can be a real intimidating rear end in a top hat when he wants to be. We'll stop there, but tomorrow we'll head back to the Brittany hall dorms at NYU to see if we can get any more information! Who is the ghost at the park? Who is the Deacon? Why did Joey hate Patricia so much? Debate it today, tune in tomorrow! cmndstab fucked around with this message at 09:20 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Oct 6, 2013 15:16
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Hey, great to see some legitimate discussion going on in here Hope you all keep contributing!! These SSLPs get bogged down much more than VLPs because the updates separate the discussion by so much more space.ultrafilter posted:I'm looking forward to this. There was an LP of the first game in the series a while back, but none of the sequels have been covered, and as a result there were quite a few questions left open. Valiantman posted:Oh, someone's playing through these? Great! I read TheDarkID's LP of this first part and was left hoping for more. You're doing great with your commentary! I should thank TheDarkID, I took his portrait files for use in my thread since I am terrible with any kind of graphics editing software. We're less than a week from Legacy finishing and the next games in the series starting, so stick around! Legacy sets up some great characters and an interesting setting but all three subsequent games are superior in my opinion, so hopefully it's only going to improve for you.grandalt posted:And now it appears we are at the meat of the game. Plus, we appear to have our big problem to deal with, The Deacon. Well, here's hoping the game stays interesting. One thing these games always manage to do is stay interesting - being relatively short and episodic in nature helps that. Ytlaya posted:I just started reading this, and it's been pretty interesting as an NYU alumni to have the main character visit all of these familiar locations. I'm at the part where she's about to go to Brittany (most of the Freshman dorms are - or at least were back in 2004-2008 - located around Washington Square; I was in Rubin which is a few blocks up 5th ave, and I would pass Brittany pretty much every day since it's located right near all of the class buildings). You'll probably appreciate the attention to detail put into keeping the locations faithful to actual Manhattan locations more than I will then. I've visited New York a couple of times but never really looked at anything more involved than Times Square and the Brooklyn Bridge. TKMobile posted:Man, this is a really interesting adventure here; I'm getting all antsy waiting to see how plot threads from this first game play out into the following ones. Looking at the dates on the letters in Lauren's file, she would have been working with Joey for a good ten years before ending up in the asylum. Presumably things were at least sort of alright over that period of time. So either she hosed up badly somehow, or something messed her poo poo up. Or, I guess, like you say it could be a long-term mental degradation thing from dealing with this kind of supernatural junk for a decade? RickVoid posted:It's too bad that you haven't gotten very many comments, six updates in. This actually seems pretty interesting, and you're doing a pretty good job presenting it. Been a while since I played a good point and click adventure, I think I'd have had fun with this one. But since you're playing through it, Ill content myself with just watching. Thanks, appreciate it And no, it is never too early to begin speculating!Shinjobi posted:The smiling character portraits are the best. It's so hard to take them seriously, it's easily my favourite part of the dialogues. They're delightful, aren't that? In the later games there are multiple different varieties of dorky smiles they bring out WFGuy posted:I would comment more, but I played (and enjoyed the heck out of) all the games, so I'd rather not poison the speculation well. I'd probably be enough of a clumsy idiot that I'd give it away for great speculation like Assoonasitits figuring out Joey's Blackwell link. Yeah, that was my one regret for choosing a SSLP rather than a VLP - the voice acting is very strong, particularly for the leads. I'm trying to describe the emotion whenever relevant but it's one of the flaws of SSLPs. Still, hopefully the benefits more than make up for it! Assoonasitits posted:That's a real nice compliment, thanks! Please do keep speculating As long as nobody spoils what is happening, speculation is probably the most fun that can be had with these LP threads.Antemony posted:Hm. So even back then, Joey didn't feel that it was important for Lauren to attend her own brother's wedding... it wasn't just callousness brought on by staring at the ceiling for twenty-five years. I kind of wonder what kind of life he led when he was actually alive to make him not see the significance of that. Probably didn't have very many close relationships with people. Yeah, Joey is a very interesting character in that regard. He's clearly used to getting his way and doesn't like being told no, but at the same time seems to actually give a drat about the ghosts he's saving as well. Keldulas posted:Joey's argument there does have merit, but it's a massively uncompromising attitude. Part of the problem is that people need to spend at least a LITTLE time on the things personally important to. Otherwise you get burnt out. He doesn't really see it like that. I'm commenting "out of turn" here, since I do actually know how these games play out, but when I was first playing through my theory was that Joey really can't do anything else other than try to deal with ghosts, whereas Patrician/Lauren/Rosa can. So perhaps he resents it when they want to do things he can't really be involved with? A selfish attitude, but at least I could understand it. Next update (and, blessedly, a new page!) will arrive later on today. Edit: Or in fact a new page is already here. Probably a good thing given we had three plot dumps sitting on the previous page!
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Oct 7, 2013 07:18
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Let's keep this moving! Update 7 Having made very little sense of the ghost in the park, Rosa decides to visit the Brittany hall dorm again. Kelly knew JoAnn, and judging by the photo JoAnn was a friend of the ghost in the park when she was alive. So perhaps Kelly will know something? NYU Theme  This time around, Kelly doesn't even bother getting up and meeting Rosa at the door, so we just go inside.  Kelly never even bothers looking up, presumably just focusing on her midterms. I guess this is (or was) a common study area, with Kelly's side covered in various poo poo while JoAnn's side is pretty much empty. At least I assume it's a study area and not the entire dorm... unless JoAnn and Kelly were sharing a bed? This would explain why Kelly never wanted to sleep here. Rosa looks around the room... at Kelly: That's Kelly. She gives me the creeps.At the bed/couch: It's the only bed in the room. I guess Kelly got rid of the other bed after JoAnn... left.Apparently it's a bed. My guess is that this room was another victim of the lead artist vanishing in the crucial final stages of Legacy's design. At the window:  This comment isn't just designed to show Rosa being awkward and insensitive - many upper-floor dorms at Brittany dorm hall actually do have safety bars on the windows in real life. Gilbert was a pretty big stickler for realism when he put real locations in-game. Off on JoAnn's side of the dorm, there are some photos pinned up on a pinboard.  From right to left: That's her, the ghost in the park. She looks so happy here. I wonder what happened to make her... like that. I recognize her. That's JoAnn. The future Mrs. Davenport? I wonder what that means?Can't help but wonder why Kelly didn't just give us this photo of JoAnn before since it was an individual photo and the text could easily have been cropped out. Oh well.  *sigh* Fine. Make it quick.Rosa continues pushing her luck with Kelly. Thanks again for lending me that photograph. No big deal. It was just sitting there on her desk."But damned if I was gonna walk all the way to the loving pinboard!!" How are you holding up? Me? I'm fine. Midterms are a bitch, but I'm handling it. Or, I WOULD be handling it if you didn't keep bugging me. Can I take a look around? What for? Just to see if I can find anything else about JoAnn. What, you're a detective now? Well... Forget it. Please let me look around? It would really help me out. I've helped you out enough. You can ask your stupid questions, but you touch nothing.Kelly is happy for us to be here, but not to actually touch anything. It's pretty obvious that we would want to look at the diary on JoAnn's desk, but if we try, Kelly tells us to take a hike. Come to think of it, why didn't the police take it? Surely they would be obligated to investigate in a situation like this? I don't know.  Rosa asks Kelly about the two girls in the photos, in particular the "Future Miss America". Oh. THEM. You know them? Only through JoAnn. Do you know their names? The blond girl is... Alli. I think. And the Asian girl is Susan. I tried to avoid them when they were here. Really? Why? Look, I need my space. JoAnn needed her friends around her. So whenever JoAnn turned this place into Social Central, I split. They didn't care for me, and I didn't care much for them.So at least we have the ghost's name. Alli. Perhaps that will help Joey bring her back down to Earth again. We also get an explaination of why Alli told us that they "drove Kelly away, but that was okay, she didn't like us anyway." Rosa keeps asking "her stupid questions". After all, Kelly said she could! Does the name "Deacon" mean anything to you? Nope. I'm agnostic. Do you know anything about JoAnn's friend, Alli? You mean Miss Blondie? Yeah. I know enough, which isn't much. She was over here all the time, visiting JoAnn. She was kinda... sweet, I guess. Laughed all the time. Ugh, that was annoying. That was usually my cue to get outta here. Why do you want to know about her?This is a question Rosa will get alot through these series: why is she asking about person A when person B probably only tangentially knows them? I'm having... difficulty finding her. Would you know where she is? I dunno. She could be anywhere. Studying. Partying. Pushing up daisies? Shh! Hm? Nothing. Right...I always get a kick out of Joey piping up in the middle of a conversation where only one participant can actually hear him  Rosa now turns her attention to the third girl. The other two are dead. Either the third girl will be useful in finding out about her friends, or she will also turn up dead. Either way, Rosa needs to know about her. Not much. Quiet, I guess. Maybe she just didn't talk around me. I never stuck around long enough to get to know her.On the photo of Susan, it mentioned she was the "Future Mrs Davenport." Rosa asks about that. Do you know anyone named "Davenport"? No, but it's a stupid name. It's written right over here on JoAnn's bulletin board. You think I care what she does? I mean, what she did. I mean, I don't know anyone with that name. Sorry.Kelly is starting to run out of venom by here, and sounds pretty drained. This interview is probably over. Thanks for helping out. Yeah, sure. Whatever. No. JoAnn and I might not have been buddies. But I'll be damned if I'm gonna let some stranger paw through her stuff.As I mentioned before, trying to take JoAnn's diary elicits an angry response from Kelly. We need that diary though, so we'll need to take advantage of some trickery to get it.  You what? It'll only take a second. Fine fine. Just hurry up. Who do you think you're calling?Rosa grabs the telephone, pretends to dial, and then says: Hello, could I speak to Joey please? ... Hi, Joey? Um... Yes, I had some questions for you. ... Ahh! Heh. Not bad, kid. Not bad! If you got something to say, say it quick. Lady pincushion here is starting to look a little hot under the collar.This scene is a classic because Rosa speaks in such a stilted, put-on manner So what's happening here is that Rosa wants to ask Joey to help her to distract Kelly so that she can take the diary. All in all it's a pretty clever puzzle concept, except for one problem - she could just have easily have stepped outside, spoken to Joey in the hallway (or hell, back in her own apartment), planned what they were going to do, and just returned. Still, if she had done that, we wouldn't have been able to see this beautifully awkward conversation that's about to come!  Do? Look around. Check for clues. We need all the information we can get our hands on. Joey, I'm not sure I can do... what you asked me to do. This is stupid. Kid, you HAVE to. Don't back out now.I love the way Rosa is trying to back out of her own terrible plan here  Huh? You mean metal nose? Yes. She's making me nervous. Me? What can I do?Hahahaha, this is so blatantly suspicious that if Kelly was even bothering to listen she would immediately kick Rosa out. You performed a little trick for me earlier. I'd like you to repeat it for me. Trick? Joey, do you see the pile of papers on the desk? Yeah... I need you to work your magic on them. Ahhh. Sure sure. I can handle that.Honestly, this is the least smooth piece of deception I've ever seen Fortunately Kelly isn't actually listening at all. Thanks again, Kelly. Yeeah. Sure. Joey floats on over and blows Kelly's papers off her desk. As Kelly bends to pick them up she takes her attention off Rosa (whatever little of it was there to begin with, anyway), and Rosa is able to pocket the diary. Nice one! Continuing to flaunt the game's Adventure Game Puzzle mechanics in its face, Rosa then whips the notebook (not a diary, apparently) open right there and then and starts reading it, which of course Kelly doesn't care about in the slightest. Looks like standard poli-sci lecture notes. It looks like JoAnn liked to doodle in class. The last set of notes in this notebook is pretty... strange. I'd better take a closer look. Hahaha, very cute. JoAnn presumably split up with a boyfriend recently, which may or may not be a clue. Susan is buddied up with some cool, hip (or possibly blind?) dude called Alexander. And Alli was polyamarous or something. The next page is a bit more frightening.  See, this is the kind of thing I would have thought the police might want to see. So what can we deduce from all of this? "He" made Alli go, and now Alli is dead. It's safe to assume from Joey's chat with Alli that "he" is the Deacon, whoever that is. On the other hand, it sounds like Susan has been taken somewhere. And in the meantime, JoAnn was apparently going batshit crazy. Rosa checks in with Kelly regarding this Alexander character. Do you know anyone named Alexander? No. Sorry.Nothing much more we can do here, but at least we have a couple of leads now.  You've commited your first burglary. Is that what I just did? For the greater good, kid. For the greater good. That makes me feel SO much better.Seriously, I love the interplay between these two Now, you may have made the mental leap already - if Susan was the "Future Mrs Davenport" and was dating a guy called Alexander, presumably his full name was Alexander Davenport. But of course, Rosa will only make the leap if you combine the two clues together in her notepad. Hm. It's safe to say that these refer to the same person.Rosa starts to talk to Joey about it, but he quickly cuts her off.  Even with nobody in the hallways, I guess it is a bit dangerous to start talking out loud to a ghost with people potentially coming in and out.  Back home, Rosa checks out the web to see if she can dig up anything on Alexander Davenport. Hm. An Alexander Davenport was listed as being on the Hockey Team at NYU. It doesn't say anything else about him, though.That's not particularly useful, unfortunately. Let's see what Joey thinks. Who do you think "Alexander" is? Well, judging from that silly doodle you're carrying around... I'd say he was Susan's boyfriend. You think he's involved? Anything's possible. Washington Square Park  Yeah, sure.Armed with the ghost's name, Rosa and Joey decides to approach Alli again and see what can be found out.  Yes! That's me. Alli Montego of story and song. She kisses the boys, but not for long. Cute. Well, Alli Montego. At least we've confirmed who you are.Excellent, confirmation is had, and we also get Alli's surname. This will be useful for assisting Rosa to cyberstalk her. For reasons which are never really made clear, Alli speaks in rhymes whenever talking about people in her life. Can you tell me about your friend Susan? Quiet Sue. Little Lady Lee, always neat and always fair. Won't say much, but you'll know she is there. Lady... Lee? She had to go away. Stupid Deacon. Sending away all my friends. Even the little, little ones. Do you know anyone named "Alexander Davenport"? On a date, with Alexander the great! Was it an accident, or was it just fate?My guess is that the rhyming thing was intended to be a common trait for all ghosts in the series, but was eventually dropped because it stymies good writing without really adding anything. So if Susan is "Little Lady Lee", presumably her full name is Susan Lee. Fortunately this time we don't need to combine clues in the notepad in order to make that connection. Perhaps this is the game's indication that Joey is better at mentally processing clues than Rosa is? There isn't much else we can get out of Alli yet, so Joey and Rosa excuse themselves and head back out of the dog run. *sigh*. You all right? This is going to take a long time to get used to. We got the rest of your life, doll.I can't tell whether that's supposed to comforting or horrifying. Rosa and Joey head back to their apartment to try to figure things out. Rosa's Theme  Looks like it. And she's trapped in the dog run at Washington Square Park. That's where she is. And we have to save her. Yep. ... Is this going to be a typical day from now on? You'll look back on this as one of the normal ones.As we will see throughout this thread, Joey is absolutely correct here.  Jumping onto her computer, Rosa does some research while Joey scouts out the kitchen, or whatever the hell he's doing. Joey's lack of interest in computers is a fairly well-maintained concept in the games, since presumably his living years were long before computers were invented, or at least mainstream. I guess a career detective might resent a little box that can a thorough investigative job in a few minutes. I think I got her. Susan Lee, 18 years old, was admited to Bellevue Hospital last week after an apparent suicide attempt. I think that's our girl.So it turns out Susan is in Bellevue, where she hopefully is not being seen by that rear end in a top hat Dr. Quentin. At least she is alive, although she apparently attempted to kill herself like JoAnn. Rosa continues her research, searching for Alli Montego. Alli Montego? Let's see if I can find her. Hm. She apparently spent some time on a spiritual internet forum. She was looking for information about... Ouija boards? "Are Ouija boards dangerous?" she asked. "Can they call anything evil? And if so, how do you get rid of it?" Oh jeez.This doesn't sound very good.  This has happened before? A few times. Those things are NOTHING but trouble.Rosa tries looking up information on Ouija boards herself, but doesn't get very far.  There's no way to really tell fact from fiction.So it seems out next step is to try to speak with Susan Lee at Bellevue, in the hopes that the one friend still alive can shed some light on what happened to the other two. We'll get to that tomorrow, but just before we finish today, let's see if Joey is willing to open up a little about Lauren and Patricia.  Eh, I guess. She was a tough lady. Stubborn. Smoked like a chimney. Anything else? Your aunt was... she was tough. Always ready to pick a fight. Wouldn't take guff from nobody. We got on famously.Joey really perks up when speaking about Lauren. It's pretty clear he liked her alot, clear enough that even Rosa picks up on it. So you liked her? Liked her? Hell. Sure I liked her. She was the first person in ten years who was willing to talk to me. She didn't scream, or run away. And she certainly didn't SWOON, like some people. Shut up. She just looked right at me and said "Oh." That was it. That was all I needed to hear.The timeline here mostly matches up. As far as we can tell, Patricia started seeing Joey in 1961, and died in 1970 after eight years in the asylum. Judging by these comments, Patricia had absolutely no interest in acknowledging Joey's existence, which I imagine must have been extremely frustrating for the both of them. So what happened after that? What's this? An interrogation? Cut with the questions, kid. You're bothering me. We'll talk about this later.This is all Joey will say for now about Lauren. After we have solved some more puzzles, he'll open up further. Technically you can wait until the very end of the game and get the entire backstory at once, but I think it works better in dribs and drabs. However, even though Joey is through talking about Lauren, Rosa can still ask him about Patricia.  Ole Pattycake was a real bundle of laughs. Pattycake? Yeah. Your grandmother. Her name was Patricia, right? So you get Pat. Patty. Pattycake. You really called her Pattycake? Joey sounds really pleased with himself about this, hahaha. Come to think of it, just about everything I did hacked her off. Like what? Like... eh, forget it. Ask me later.Apparently we've done enough puzzle solving, because Joey decides it's already later and allows us to continue. Why did she hate you so much? Because I ruined her perfect little life. She had the nice house, the supportive hubby, the two kids... And then I came along. Yeah, you have a way of ruining peaceful lives.It's nice to see Rosa's passive-aggressive streak hasn't diminished at all through this whole experience Hm. Anything else? Nah, I'm done talking about her. Ask me again later.That's all we're getting out of Joey for now. Tomorrow, we'll head to Bellevue to speak with Susan to see if we can figure out just what the hell is going on here. cmndstab fucked around with this message at 09:22 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Oct 7, 2013 13:23
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The game is fairly good at subtlety, so hopefully you'll be happy with how things progress RickVoid ASAII - if your theory proves correct, I'm hoping the Deacon turns out to be Jim Burdo Or maybe it's Moti.....  Cardiovorax posted:This game looks great and I'm looking forward to seeing more. Love the writing, Rosa alone has more personality than five average video game protagonists put together. Glad to have another one on board! The good news is the writing remains consistently strong throughout all four games, so there's plenty to look forward to ahead!
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Oct 8, 2013 06:39
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Let's keep this show running! Update 8 Time to see if we can find out what the "Future Mrs Davenport", Susan Lee, knows about what's been happening. Hospital Waiting Room  First thing's first, though, Rosa will need to get past the security guard. Is Susan Lee a patient here? Susan? Yeah, we've got her. She came in about a week ago.Although it's not 100% clear, JoAnn's note last update seems to indicate that Susan was taken here after Alli died, so presumably Alli has been haunting the dog run for some time now. May I visit Susan Lee? Sure, if you are on the approved guest list. What was your name again? Rosangela Blackwell. Hm. Sorry, you're not on the list. She'll be out in a week, you can visit her then.Wait, really? Out in a week? I would have thought when someone attempts to commit suicide and is subsequently hospitalised in a psychiatric institution that you can't really set a timeline on their treatment like that.  Rosa, of course, is undeterred by the security guard's refusal of her entry, and decides to blatantly lie her way in. I told you, you're not on the guest list. Oh. Well. That's because... I wasn't on the list at the time. I should be on it now. ...Sadly, the security guard is not impressed with Rosa's awesome little smile. Well let's check then. What was your name again? Rosa can then choose names from her notepad, though she will refuse to call herself "Ouija boards" or something else stupid like that. My name is JoAnn. Sorry. There are no JoAnns on the guest list. I don't think they'd let dead people on the list, sweetheart. But good try.Bit of an odd comment from Joey, given that Susan was hospitalised nearly a week before JoAnn committed suicide. But JoAnn did mention that "they wouldn't let" her see Susan, so at least that marries up with her name missing from the guest list.  Of course, this is an Adventure Game, which means Rosa can completely insult the security guard's intelligence by repeatedly giving him different names, one after another, until she hits on one that he'll accept. You did what? Yeah. Gave the wrong name. Sorry! It's... a character in a play I'm in. ... Ugh. That's the best you could come up with?I love the way Rosa immediately follows every single mistruth with her dorky little grin She'd be the worst poker player ever. Really? Well what IS your name? Ahahahahaha. Your name is Susan Lee as well? Er, yes. Right. Well, you're still not on the list. What are you thinking, doll?Rosa can attempt to pass herself off as Adrian, or rather Adrienne... You didn't see it. Maybe you should check again. I missed it, huh? I'm sure of it. ... Well let's check again. What was your name again? My name is.. Adrienne. Sorry. No Adriennes on the guest list....but that doesn't work either. Neither does Alli, which gets the same response as above and Joey's comment that dead people wouldn't be on the list, which at least actually makes sense this time since Alli was dead by the time Susan was hospitalised. Of course, the obvious choice of name that might be on the guest list is Alexander Davenport, but Rosa immediately spots the problem with that name.  But, as we've (apparently) seen with Adrian, sometimes names don't have to be restricted to a single gender.  In one of the least obvious (or intuitive) puzzle solutions for Legacy, we need to combine the Adrian clue with the Alexander Davenport clue. Hm. The school thought that Adrian was a girl because of his name. "Alex" could also be a girl's name. I wonder... Hm. Your name IS on the list."Well that totally makes up for the five incorrect names you gave me earlier!" Can I go in now? Sure. I'll notify the nurse that you're coming. She'll take you in. Thanks.With that, Rosa heads off to Susan's room. Hospital Clocks  Hahaha, whoops! Um, no. I'm sorry. Where's Alexander?Rosa has three choices here, to either tell the truth: He's not here. They told me... they told me he was coming. Yeah. I'm sorry but I... It's okay. He doesn't want to see me, anyway. Who are you?To tell a white lie: He's... right outside. But I'd like to talk to you first, if that's ok. I think you're lying. Hm? Alexander wouldn't want to see me. He can, but he won't. Who are you?Or to heighten Susan's sense of mental instability by just outright pretending the name was never mentioned: Alexander? Who's that? Ooh. That's cold. It doesn't matter. He wouldn't want to see me anyway. Not anymore. Who are you?I'm surprised Rosa managed to refrain from her dorky grin after such blatant lies. Susan sounds thoroughly depressed and tired of life here. My name is Rosangela. I'd like to talk to you, if that's okay. Are you a doctor? Uh, yes I am. ...Ahh, there it is Where's your coat? My coat? It's ah... Mm hmm.Way to stick to your story, Rosa. Susan, meanwhile, doesn't give a drat that you lied to her and very clearly are not supposed to be here. So Susan. Could you tell me what brought you here? I dunno. They think I'm crazy. Are you? Crazy, I mean? I dunno. They think so.Susan really doesn't sound like she gives a poo poo about anything. Rosa keeps trying to speak with her. So how are you feeling? Fine. That's all? Yeah. I'm fine. Whatever.Rosa also tries to relate to Susan. So do you like Bellevue? It's ok. I used to come here every week. To visit my aunt, you know? Mm hmm. I don't think she cares. Well anyway. I'm just saying. I've spent a lot of time here. You don't have to be scared of me.Nothing says sensitivity like trying to compare visiting your aunt to being hospitalised after a suicide attempt!!  Rosa finally decides to just cut to the chase. You know JoAnn? Sort of. What about her? Can you tell me about her? She's JoAnn. That's all.This is going well. Do you know why JoAnn killed herself? ... Susan? She just did. Don't know why.Presumably Susan was told the news by someone, since JoAnn was quite alive when Susan was brought here. Next, Rosa asks about Alli. Do you know what happened to Alli? Yeah. Do you know why she did it? No.Jesus, Rosa wasted a good lie coming in to see this girl and she's got absolutely nothing for us. Susan, can you tell me why you're here? What happened. Nothing! Just... nothing. Can you tell me anything about Alex? I don't know. He's nobody. Just some guy.Finally, Rosa can ask about Ouija boards and the Deacon. Do you know anything about Ouija boards, Susan? ... Susan? They... Susan? Nothing. Who is the Deacon? What do you mean? The Deacon, Susan. He's nobody. Nobody!What a waste of drat time this was. I have to go now Susan. But I'll come back to check on you again. Mmm.Figuring we might actually get a more meaningful response from a panicky, disoriented ghost than we did from Susan, Joey decides to speak with Alli again instead. Washington Square Park  Ouija boards? I hate them. Why did you have to bring THAT up? I had a Ouija board once. The next thing I knew, everybody went away. What happened with the Ouija board? No no no. They are horrible things and I won't discuss them. Kid, we can't help you unless we know what happened. Hmm. Everybody went away.Some serious poo poo seems to have occurred with that Ouija board, and Alli doesn't want to talk about it.  At this point I kind of stumbled around for a while trying to figure out what I should do next, before finally realising that I was supposed to combine some clues together again. The girls were interested in Ouija boards... and they are all haunted by someone named The Deacon. Could there be a connection? Having combined the clues, it is now finally possible for Joey to ask the obvious question. Did I? That's what I'm asking you. I hate those things. I'll never use one again! And why's that? Because...No point beating around the bush, Joey. The Deacon, kid. Did you get in contact with someone called the Deacon? The Deacon! I hate him so much! I knew it.Tired of waiting for a direct answer, Joey apparently just interprets Alli's anger as tacit agreeance.  Don't worry. We'll clean up this mess. It's the same as ever, babe. Just instead of a living person in there, there's a dead one. The sooner you think of us ghosts as "normal", the better.Rosa is still kind of creeped out about talking with Alli. Okay, so now we've reached the stage where we have some idea what went wrong. The three friends were playing with a Ouija board, and apparently summoned some kind of supernatural being called the Deacon. Shortly afterwards, two of them committed suicide, and the third attempted to commit suicide as well. Time to speak with Susan about this. Hospital Clocks  You're not crazy. I know what happened. You summoned the Deacon with the Ouija board. No. That didn't really happen...At this point Rosa sounds like she's playing Cluedo or something. Susan. You don't have to pretend. I believe you. You... do? Whatever happened, I believe you.There is a pause while Susan decides whether she trusts you or not, before she speaks up again.  The drugs keep him away during the day, but when I sleep... He enters my head and he won't stop screaming. I thought I was crazy, but JoAnn and Alli... How could it happen to all three of us? It's impossible. No, it's not.Joey is now starting to prompt Rosa. No, it's not. The Deacon is real? I believe so, yes.Either that or the Ouija board was laced with some seriously good poo poo. Are you here to help me? I'm going to try. Thank God. I was ready to die here, but... I know. Can I ask you some questions about what happened? Sure. Ask whatever you want.Susan perks up a little bit at this point, though only a little. She is also more forthcoming about what happened.  JoAnn wanted to save the world, but she couldn't even save her friends. After Alli... went, JoAnn couldn't take it. She blames herself, but it's not her fault. I don't blame her for it. Any of it. It was only luck that I ended up here, and didn't die. Do you know why JoAnn killed herself? Yes. The Deacon... He got in our heads. His voice keeps pleading, babbling. Nothing shuts him up. Just keeps... going. I just wanted quiet. Peace and quiet. That's why JoAnn jumped off the roof. She was willing to give anything to just keep him quiet. Even her life.That does sound pretty nightmarish, yeah. So what happened to you, Susan? What did the Deacon do to you? The same thing he did to the others. Got into my head and just wouldn't keep quiet. It was just so noisy inside my head, I... had to do something. I saw the speeding taxi, and I just... Well, you know. Here I am. Were you hurt? No. The driver hit the brakes in time. Taxi missed me completely. Then the stupid cop on the corner dragged me here. I can't even kill myself right.That answers that question. The girls all tried to kill themselves to silence the Deacon's voice in their heads. Alli took a lethal cocktail of pills, JoAnn jumped off the roof of her dorm, and Susan attempted to jump in front of a car. Rosa has some more follow-up questions. Was Kelly involved in any of this? Kelly? JoAnn's room-mate? Yeah. No. She always left when we came over. She didn't like us much. But that's okay. We didn't like her either.So Kelly has nothing to do with this. Can you tell me anything about Alex? Alex... was my boyfriend, I guess. But since I came here, he won't see me anymore. Just as well. The jerk.He probably has nothing to do with this either. Finally, let's ask about Alli herself. Can you tell me about Alli? Alli. Oh, I miss her so much. The sweetest, funniest person in the world. You couldn't help but smile with her around. She was always dragging us out on some adventure. She was so... different. Every other girl had pictures of boys on their walls. She had pictures of dogs. She loved dogs. She was studying to be a vet to take care of them. And now she can't. She... She was the first of us to go. Why is that? This whole scene is pretty heartbreaking, really. Susan's voice throughout is mostly a depressed monotone, with the occasional flicker of emotion, but when speaking about Alli she gets relatively upset. Susan's comments about Alli being obsessed with dogs is important, though. As Joey explained earlier, the secret to helping ghosts move on is usually to bring them something of emotional significance to them. A dog might just work for Alli. But where will Rosa find a dog...? I have to go now, Susan. Mmm. Storm  Yeah, I can see that. Was it the darkness that gave it away? I'm just saying.By this stage, the sun has set. In an unusual twist, the hospital music at this point becomes an actual song, complete with singing and all. I'm pretty sure the song is actually built on a midi, like the rest of the game, but with a voice dubbed in over the top. It's a pretty simplistic song, but it's still pretty catchy. This same "technique" is adopted by the composer in the later games, but with a saxophone rather than vocals. The base music will be written as a midi file, and a live saxophone is recorded playing the melody lines over the top. It's surprisingly effective.  Presumably, the song is supposed to be coming in over the radio, because as Joey floats near the radio, the signal cuts out, and the security guard fiddles with the antennae. On the note, I'll finish the update here. Feel free to listen to the rest of Storm in anticipation for the rest of the game - the "storm's coming" lyrics are fitting, because poo poo is about to get pretty drat weird. Coming up next update, we'll attempt to help Alli move on, and see if we can figure out what the hell is going on with The Deacon. We're not far from the pointy end of Legacy now! cmndstab fucked around with this message at 09:24 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Oct 8, 2013 14:56
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inflatablefish posted:I think you made Photobucket cry. Any chance you could switch to a different image host? You motherfucker, Photobucket  I could have sworn I had a pro account, which is why I used Photobucket for this LP - figured I may as well get my money's worth. Apparently that expired a while ago or something. I've topped it back up so the pictures should load fine now. After I finish this LP I might cancel my subscription and move somewhere else.Assoonasitits posted:WELP. Guess I was wrong. This is kind of terrifying in a way, really. Keep it up, you're doing great. Hey, speculating is only fun if you get it wrong occasionally It's a sign of how strong the writing is that the dialogue can be legitimately chilling at points here. Really appreciate your ongoing input and kind words!The Muffinlord posted:I was really enjoying the LP up until this point! I don't post much because I don't know anything about these games, but I'm loving the art style and the characters all have clearly defined identities beyond just being some archetype. I may have to throw a couple shekels the developer's way and pick them up myself. I should point out that Wadjet Eye Games have several other games besides the Blackwell games. I haven't actually ever played any of them so I don't know if they're any good, but Gemini Rue received several awards when it was released in 2011. From memory TheDarkID did an LP of that too, though I never followed it to see if it was any good, or if he finished it. EagerSleeper posted:Cmndstab, thanks for let's playing this game. I've seen theDarkId's thread of this game a while back, and I also went through the the second and third one. I won't be able to join the speculation, but I do want to say that I love that you've put details from creator interviews here. I hardly know a thing about the development of this game or New York so I'm learning new things here. Thanks Initially I wasn't intending to namedrop Dave Gilbert so often, but I've always found indie game development such a fascinating process so it just comes naturally.The fourth game is the longest of all of them, so you'll have plenty of time to enjoy some speculation once we arrive there. Let me just give a big thank you to the readers of this LP so far for having gone through almost all of Legacy without giving away a single spoiler, I think it's really added to this thread. We're only three updates from finishing Legacy now, and let me tell you, they are three pretty crazy-rear end updates. I'll get the next one up later on today.
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Oct 9, 2013 01:45
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"Bad juju" is no less handwavey an explanation than Joey's "their little spirit minds snapped!" explanation as far as I'm concerned. What isn't really clear here is what happened to JoAnn? Presumably she had a very similar experience to Alli, but somehow Brittany dorm hall comes up clear on the ghostometer while Alli bops around in the dog run.
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Oct 9, 2013 09:14
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Jeabus Mahogany posted:That Discworld game the developer mentioned was probably Discworld Noir, where you play as Lewton, the Disc's first and only Private Detective as he is given a missing person case by a mysterious and beautiful woman. From memory, I think you're right. I never played any of the Discworld games so I wasn't sure. Snugglecakes posted:Never played this before. I love how the game picks up speed pretty quickly after the introduction of Joey. I also can't get enough of the soundtrack. Hey, glad you're enjoying the soundtrack! In my opinion the soundtrack in Legacy is decent without standing out, but the later games hit higher peaks. Just getting the latest update set up - should be up soon! cmndstab fucked around with this message at 13:58 on Oct 9, 2013 |
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Oct 9, 2013 13:49
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Update 9 Last update, Rosa had just finished speaking with Susan, and had walked out of her room to see that sun had set. It's not exactly obvious, but the next step for Rosa to take is to immediately spin on her heels and go straight back into Susan's room. Storm  I know that Storm isn't the proper song for Susan's room, but we've heard Hospital Clocks enough and, frankly, it's a pretty boring track. So we're going to listen to this weird (and oddly catchy!) country midi mishmash instead. Besides, "storm's coming" is a fairly prescient lyric, because oh boy is some crazy poo poo about to go down over the next few updates. Hi! It's good to see you again."Hey, you too, Susan! It must have been at least 90 seconds since we last spoke!" How are you now Susan? Better. It's nice to know I'm not crazy.Yeah, that's a good feeling.This dialogue is interesting, because Rosa understands exactly what it feels like to think you're crazy before discovering you're simply a victim of supernatural forces... but she can't actually explain that to Susan, who is probably wondering why Rosa thinks she can empathise with her situation. It's just... these drugs. The meds help keep the Deacon's voice low... and that's good. But they also cause water retention, and I have to take a diuretic pill to fix that... Now that I know I'm just haunted and not really crazy, I don't see why I have to take it. I don't care if I retain water and get fat. I just want to stop peeing! Is she for real?Joey can't tell whether he finds this amusing or disturbing. Thing is, if Susan really is "just" haunted, but the drugs are keeping the Deacon away anyway, surely she'd want to stay on them? I've been palming the pills. Is that bad?I can't answer that. Well, I was hoping you could do me a favor.What?Oh man, here comes another criminal act... Can you take the pills out of here? I'm scared the orderly will find them. Pleease?Fine. Give them to me. Thanks so much.Hey, no problem at all. Medical fraud is one of Rosa's hobbies! Between trespassing on the dog run, stealing JoAnn's diary, committing journalistic fraud by publishing Adrian's name against his stated wishes, and now stealing medication from the hospital (while stealing Alexander's identity no less), Rosa has probably used up her quota of criminal acts for one game. She won't do anything else illegal from now on, I'm sure.  Just kidding!! Rosa is about to do something much worse than any of the above. I'm not even exaggerating here. Nishanthi's Theme  Come in. Come in. I...It's all right. Don't worry about it.Nishanthi is busy washing up in the kitchen, while Moti sits out in the living room. Before we proceed here, let me try to paint the picture of what's about to happen here, and why. So, we know from that Susan that Alli is a dog lover. And we know from Joey that bringing objects or people of emotional significance to a lost spirit often helps jolt them into recognising their own death, a necessary step in allowing them to move on. So the next step is to bring a dog to Alli's ghost. Thing is, Rosa only knows one dog, and that's Moti. I guess Joey just can't wait until the pet shops open up the following day or something. But she can't simply take the dog without Nishanthi knowing, and it's too late at night to offer to take Moti for a walk. Unless...  What if Moti were to, say, suddenly need to go for a walk to relieve himself? What if the dog really needed to answer nature's call badly, but Nishanthi was too busy washing the dishes to take him herself, and for some Godforsaken reason didn't have a place for Moti to relieve himself in her upper-floor apartment? Then Rosa could generously offer to take Moti for a walk, like a kindly neighbour. Only one problem - Moti doesn't need to go at the moment. So Rosa's feverish brain concocts a horrifying, exceptionally dangerous solution! OK. I put the pills in the dog biscuit.Come on Rosa, you're not really going to do this, surely?  Jesus Christ, Rosa!!  So Rosa drugs Nishanthi's dog with a human dose of diuretic pills, and it apparently has an almost immediate effect, with Moti pelting over to scratch and whine at the door. Rosa is so getting taken off Nishanthi's Christmas card list for this. Oh, Moti. Now? I just took you out an hour ago. Well, you're going to have to wait. I have my hands totally full. Unless... Rosa, would YOU mind taking Moti for a walk? If you're going to be friends, this is a good opportunity for you to bond.Oh, SURE! I don't mind at all. Thank you so much. Moti gets cranky when he doesn't get his way. Just take him to the park until he goes. It shouldn't take long.Right. Here you go, boy.I took the liberty of researching this, by heading to that font of wisdom, Yahoo! Answers, and it seems the general consensus is not to feed a 10 pound dog a diuretic designed for a person more than ten times its size. Who knew, hey? This whole puzzle is actually quite frustrating, because the diuretic pill is the only object in the entire game that Rosa can combine with other objects. You can't even try to combine the biscuit with the pill, it has to be combining the pill with the biscuit. If you are a season Adventure Gamer, you are likely to notice that the combining objects mechanic is not included early on and simply stop trying. And it's not as though the "drug Moti for fun and profit" solution is hinted at anywhere in-game. Overall this is up there with the worst couple of puzzles in the series.  Even Joey is a bit taken aback by Rosa's approach this situation. It's only a mild diuretic. It won't hurt him. And you're the one in such a drat hurry. All right. Point taken.Hahaha, I love how they just quickly dismiss it. This was one of those puzzles that Gilbert revisited later when he did the remake and thought, "holy poo poo, what did I write?" He was apparently tempted to leave it out in the remake but figured, what the hell, it's already been done and he didn't get shut down before. Washington Square Night  Alright, let's just get this over with. Presumably Moti either squirts his insides out on the way over, or just decides he doesn't need to go after all, because we never see it happen. Instead, Joey heads back up to Alli with all his usual charm. It's me again. Are... are you him? No, I'm not. But I've brought some friends. Say hi to the kid, sweetheart.Um, hi. I don't think she wants to see me. Hahaha, Rosa's awkwardness is at it's absolute peak in this sequence Go on, kid. Tell Alli how much you want to see her.Um, yeah sure. Great to meet you. See? I don't believe you.Rosa is still kinda creeped out by Alli, I think. It doesn't matter if you believe me or not. She needs your help. Help? See the dog over there? The Boston Terrier? Good, good! You know your breeds. This Boston Terrier is not feeling too well.I WONDER IF THAT'S BECAUSE YOU TWO loving DRUGGED IT, PERHAPS?  I... yes! Yes I can! I know a lot about dogs. So we heard. That's why we came to you. But... they won't let me help them. They always run away. This one won't. Go on. The dog needs you.Come to think of it, why isn't the dog running away or barking like mad? I thought that's what happened in the past when they got near the dog run? I guess he's calmed by Rosa, who he has apparently taken an ill-advised liking to. Or maybe the diuretics are acting as a sedative?  Um, yeah. Sort of."I certainly didn't drug or kidnap him or anything. Really." Hi, little guy. What's your name? Moti responds with a friendly little yap to Alli's question. Heh. Right. Aren't you the cutest thing? Hm. Your ears look okay. No sign of inflammation. Now I'm just going to open your mouth... ... That's odd. I don't feel any breath.Here it comes...  I... Alli's ghostly form starts to flicker and waver as the sound of a ghostly wind rustles through Washington Square Park. This visual/aural effect is used for the rest of the series, whenever a ghost has become aware of its nature. When Alli mutters "oh" afterwards, her voice has lost it's echo, and she sounds more or less like a normal person. This is also maintained throughout the series. I'm sorry. I remember. I'm dead. Yep. I killed myself. I had no choice.Only two things left to do now - find out as much as possible about what happened in case it helps other ghosts, and then send Alli on her way. Can you tell us what happened? A Ouija board. We thought it would be fun. And you called something. Yes! He called himself the Deacon. It's... kinda hazy now, but I remember his voice in my head. Screaming.That matches up with Susan's description, and JoAnn's notebook. What did he say? I don't know. It didn't make any sense. I tried ignoring him, but he just got louder and louder until I took the pills and... Shhh. It's over now.Alli is starting to get worked up here, so Joey decides to let her rest. I know. So what now? Now? Now we're going to send you where you need to go. Time for Joey's magical tie to do it's work. He hands one end to Alli, and the other end to Rosa. You ready?I guess so. Good. Now pull. Rosa pulls the tie, and Alli hurtles straight into Rosa's skull and into Nodespace. Moti is suitably concerned about Rosa collapsing, eliciting an amusing response from Joey. Ow. ...Rosa tumbling face-first through the portal to Nodespace is another constant that will be maintained through the series. Alli is Saved  Pulling herself up, Rosa goes to speak with Alli, who is staring in wonder at the Universe. Yeah, hi!Alli sounds much brighter in here, almost happy. I'm not sure if we've met. I'm Rosangela. I know! You brought the dog to me. You brought me back to my senses. And then you brought me here! Thanks so much!"No problem. And, hey, there's at least a 50/50 chance the dog will be joining you soon enough!" So, are you ready to... well... you know. Am I ready to die?Well, yeah. Sorry, I'm kinda new at this.Hahaha, I love how Rosa manages to come across as the awkward one here Alli is a champ about it, though. That's okay. I'm going to make it easy for you. Just tell me what to do.Just head towards that light. The light. Right. Like every cliche in the book.Alli starts to take off, then stops and turns back.  Rosa, of course, has no idea, so she can choose from three responses. She can either be positive: Sure you will. Fantastic. Uncertain: I'm not sure it works like that, but anything is possible. Well, either way I'm glad this is over.Or just kind of ambiguous: I'm sure you'll find... whatever it is you want to find. Yeah, I suppose you're right.Alli has one last concern before she heads off into the great unknown. And hey, you'll make sure Susan's okay, right?Sure. Well, here goes. See ya! With that, Alli swirls off to the next plane of existence, leaving Rosa to ponder what she has just witnessed. ... See ya.With that, Rosa turns and heads out of the portal.  You're awake. That didn't take too long. She just... went. She seemed happy about it.Rosa seems unsure how to feel about what she's just witnessed here. Yeah. Sometimes you'll get easy ones. The ones who are all too happy to move on. Others, well, you'll see. Anyway, let's get this dog back before your neighbor calls the police. Our work is not over yet.Actually, the length of time here hasn't been that unreasonable. Of course, they'd better hope Moti doesn't show any kind of symptoms throughout the night...  Just a minute! Oh, there you are. I was just about to go to bed. I'm sorry we took so long... Not to worry. Did you have fun, Moti? Did you have fun?Moti yaps back, presumably trying to warn Nishanthi that her neighbour is a canine drug dealer, but Nishanthi misinterprets it as happiness. Of course! Well, good night, Rosa. Thanks again for helping me out.Yeah, "helping" is one word for it.  You're a ghost who has been haunting a family for five decades, and Rosa just drugged her neighbour's dog. Nishanthi is the least strange one here by a country mile. In the next update, we'll head back to Bellevue to see Susan one last time, and try to figure out what to do about this Deacon situation. Today's update may have been pretty out there, but believe me when I promise you that Legacy hasn't peaked in that regard yet! cmndstab fucked around with this message at 09:25 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Oct 9, 2013 14:17
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xedo posted:You are seriously posting at an insane pace. I love it! These games have some genuinely chilling moments, and I'm looking forward to the later games in the series. JamieTheD posted:I think part of the reason the LP's not gettin' so many comments is that you're so gosh-darn quick, cmdstab! Still, it's fun to see it, you're doing a good job, and I'm loving it! Also, for those who are on the fence about buying the games for yourselves (there's apparently a final one out soonish!), the voice actor for Joey, Abe Goldfarb, is a god-drat star, and seemingly a nice bloke too! Yeah, I guess the "substantial update once per day" model is a bit of a double-edged sword in that regard, but I'm glad you guys are enjoying it Still, even at the current pace, this thread will last a good six weeks or so so I figure there is plenty of time for people to get on board. And the rate of commenting has picked up over the last few updates, which I really appreciate.Oh, and yes, Abe Goldfarb does a seriously excellent job of playing Joey. I intend to stop and take a very brief look at the various voice actors at the end of this game. Wentley posted:This game is fun to follow in this format, but I'd never play it myself. You're doing an awesome job though. Those are the best kinds of games for LPs; ones with interesting stories and dialogue, but not necessarily that engaging to play. I should say though, Legacy plays relatively well. The occasional retarded puzzle, but overall it feels pretty tight. I guess that's one of the benefits of writing the game within a propriety engine. Cardiovorax posted:Yeah, this is absolutely retarded, not just because of how absurd and adventure-game-logic-y the puzzle is but also for the stupidly specific way in which you need to solve it. What the hell, Wadjet Games. It's pretty clear that this puzzle was designed well before Gilbert decided to not allow Rosa to combine objects together. The thing is, it's obvious that the functionality is there, since it works for the pill, so presumably he specifically prevented all others from being able to be combined. The games are pretty good at hinting at what should be done next as the series progresses, with Joey often acting as a free clue dispenser. Not so here, though. This puzzle took me a few sittings to figure out the first time I played the game.
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Oct 10, 2013 00:42
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Probably the best full-body image of Joey is from the poster art for the third game, Blackwell Convergence: Judging by the one other ghost we've seen so far, apparently they all are missing the bottom 10% or so of their body/clothes. It's a pretty nice stylistic choice, actually. As for the Deacon, believe me, he's not far away.
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Oct 10, 2013 04:06
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Update 10 So last time, Rosa drugged a dog in order to send a ghost to the next plane of existence. That was pretty wacky, but Legacy has an even wackier surprise in store for us by the end of this game! Before we start working towards that, however, Rosa wants to chat with Joey and get a bit more backstory. Rosa's Theme  Yes, darling? Can you tell me more about Auntie Lauren? I guess. What do you want to know?With Joey seeming to warm towards Rosa a bit, Rosa is suddenly unsure what to ask. I don't know... um, tell me about a case you went on. Hm. It was a long time ago, but I do remember one. There was this brownstone, down in Brooklyn. One of those fancy houses that got converted into apartments. The residents kept complaining of weird noises and bad dreams. Your aunt and I heard about it and went over there. Turns out these two little boys had been locked in a basement closet, over thirty years beforehand. The door was paved over. Nobody knew it was even there. Those two little ghosts had been crying in the dark for thirty years, until we came along. That's... horrible. Yeah, that was a messy one.Thirty years That's pretty awful. How did you save them? We did some snooping. Found the grandmother. Brought her to the house. The boys calmed down, and we took care of the rest. So you saved them? Yeah. We had no choice, did we?Good thing it wasn't any longer than thirty years, or the grandmother could have been dead herself. I can see why this kind of thing could be fairly rewarding for Joey.  Next up, Rosa points out the Brooklyn Bridge photo. Picture? Yeah. The one on the TV. Oh, the Brooklyn Bridge picture. You don't remember? I was five years old. Right. Right. You tend to forget stuff like that, when you're... well. When you're me.It's a neat little character concept that Joey has a blind spot for aging, since he's probably spent more time dead than alive. So what about the picture? Oh. It was just one of your Aunt's little field trips. One of many, I hasten to add. He still sounds fairly bitter here, but not nearly as much as he did about Patricia. Really. Yeah. I knew it was a bad idea.Why's that? Just leave it.But- Shut your mouth, kid. You're attracting flies. We'll talk about this later, maybe.Just as quickly, however, he gets sick of talking about it and fobs Rosa off. This is actually as much as we'll get out of Joey regarding Lauren until the endgame sequence, so for now let's talk about Patricia instead.  I'll be frank, kid. She might have hated me, but I hated her even more. Hated her. The whole seven months I was with her, she spent the whole time pretending I wasn't there. Can you believe that?You're hard to ignore, Joey.The timeline doesn't really match up here. Joey was with Patricia for a hell of a lot longer than seven months. I guess perhaps he doesn't consider the time she spent being treated for dementia as "time with her." Or maybe something happened in the interim? I'd say most likely this is just a little plot hole. Pff. Tell me about it. And I did everything I could to get her attention. I'd yell in her ear. I'd get right up in her face. She knew I was there, and I KNEW she knew. But she just ignored me all the same.Well you can hardly blame her. Don't lecture me, dollface. I did what I had to.Joey gets really worked up here. He's still pissed about what happened over four decades ago. Rosa keeps pushing him on it. Had to? You could have- Could have done what? Look, I'm done talking about that old bat.You're not getting out of it that easy, Joey! Rosa can keep prodding him further. Can we talk about my grandmother more? Don't you let up?You destroyed her life! Yeah yeah. I got enough of that from your aunt.Hey-This is getting a bit tense now...  You Blackwells and your goddamn self-pity. All I heard is "Poor us. Poor us." I'm sick of it. Ever think about what it was like for me? One minute I was breathing, and the next - pow! - dead. I was a ghost. Forced to haunt a complete stranger. I had no idea what was going on. You'd think that Someone Up There would have told me what to do, but no. I was dead, cold, alone, and scared out of my mind. Nobody could see me. Nobody could hear me. Nobody except old Pattycakes Blackwell, and she didn't want to admit I was there. So don't you dare lecture me, sweetheart. You don't know from nothing.I- Forget it. Let's just concentrate on the case.Finally Joey lets loose about the time after his death. It all sounds like it was pretty drat confusing. Rosa and Joey won't talk about the issue with each other any further at this point, preferring to leave the argument unfinished for now. Storm  Alright, with that bit of backstory dealt with, it's time to work on coming face to face with this Deacon character. Rosa and Joey arrive back at Bellevue, but it's just shutting up for the night. Oh well. Looks like we have to wait until tomorrow. No can do, toots. Remember what she said? The Deacon comes to her at night, when she's SLEEPING. Waiting until tomorrow won't do us any good.What, you think we can just waltz right into Susan's room? Sure.How? Improvise, sweetheart. That's what this gig is all about.I love the way Joey's solution to everything is "how about you just break and enter?" While we're here, we should talk to Joey about the radio he floated near earlier. Joey, what happened with that radio? What do you mean?When you got near the radio. The signal got interupted. Was that you? Yeah.How do you do it? No idea. Although your aunt never let me get near the TV during "Days of our Lives." I'm sure there's some scientific explanation, but I have no way of knowing and, frankly, who the heck could we ask?This is the game's hand-wavey explanation for another of Joey's "abilities" - he can disrupt airborne waves, which in later titles will include telephone signals and wireless modems.  Rosa figures that perhaps she can just talk her way back in again. It's not that inconceivable considering the guard bought her painfully obvious lies last time. Visiting hours are over, miss. She's probably sleeping by now.About Susan Lee... I TOLD you. Visiting hours are over.It will only take a few minutes... Sorry, miss. Rules are rules. Nobody gets in past visiting hours. Nobody.Rosa can continue pestering the guard. Please can't I go past? ... Oh jeez. I told you. Visiting hours are over, miss.I'll admit it, I get a kick out of Rosa's earnestness in continuing to try here She can try to sneak past:Hey, what's that behind you? Just the duty roster. I'm on double shifts this week.She can try to threaten the security guard: Look, you'd better let me pass, or... Or what? You'll keep glaring at me? Forget it, miss. Don't threaten me again, or I'll have you escorted out.And hilariously, she can even try to seduce the security guard: Uh, you're kinda cute. I will never, ever, get tired of Rosa's grin I love the way the security guard has his head in his palm here. I'm flattered, miss, but I'm gay.Oh! I'm sorry.Hahahaha. Beautiful.  Rosa returns to the fusebox she scouted out near the beginning of the game. Perhaps if she can short out the power, she'll be able to sneak past the security guard. Judging by the flickering lights, it must be broken. You need a key to open it. Some small keys. One of them is labelled "F.B.", I assume that means fusebox.Of course, Rosa can't simply take the keys, or the security guard notices her and asks what she wants.  The solution, of course, is to have Joey disrupt the radio signal, and while the security guard fiddles with the antenna, Rosa swipes the key for the fusebox. I could probably do something with this.You sure could, Rosa!  Rosa waltzes on over to the fusebox, and shorts the power out, alerting the security guard. The music stays on at this point, so presumably that radio is battery-powered. Now you've done it. You'd better find a place to hide, quick. You'd better leave, miss. I can't be held liable for your safety until the lights are repaired. I'll get the elevator for you.Rosa has only seconds to find a good place to hide, or else she is discovered by the security guard, who is somehow not even slightly suspicious that the only visitor in the hospital is hanging around the open fusebox right after the lights have gone off.  Continuing to prove he is the worst security guard ever, Rosa is able to continue re-entering the hospital and shorting out power, getting caught each time without repercussion, until she finally succeeds in hiding. It doesn't look obvious that this nook is a good hiding spot in this screenshot, but when Rosa steps in here she gets a bit darker, as though she is obscured in shadow. I guess that emergency exit light doesn't go around the little corner here.  As the security guard switches the power back on for the tenth or so time, Rosa sneaks down the hallway to Susan's room.  All is quiet as Rosa and Joey sneak into Susan's ward. I guess the power buzzing on and off didn't wake her up. She's asleep. Yeah. Like a baby. It won't be long.Before what? The Deacon's Theme  With a flash and some noxious vapers, a hideous being oozes in from the mirror and takes a ghostly form, pausing only to sip from a flask before floating on over to Susan. This, presumably, is the infamous Deacon.  Please? Please! Can't you help me? Please? I don't know what to do! I don't wanna burn! Please...Straight away, he starts pleading out loud in a panicked voice.  Please! You can't hear me here, but you can hear me in your dreams. Please! Wake up and help me!I was kind of expecting something more sinister, but this dude seems more frightened than anything else. It's out there. Watching. Waiting. Susan. Susan. You called me. You can help me.At this point, Joey decides to speak up. Ahem. Ignore them, Susan. Listen to me. Help me. Please. Hey! I'm talking to YOU, clown shoes! ... Presumably the Deacon is used to everyone else not being able to see him, so he is understandably surprised when Joey addresses him. Yeah. So can you calm down long enough to tell me what the hell's going on? I... can't! You're like me! What do you mean? Dead, like me!This immediately sets the Deacon apart from other ghosts we will encounter in these games - he is well aware of his own death. Joey immediately recognises this as the rarity is is. Wait a minute. Just a god drat minute. You know you're dead? Yes! Well that certainly saves time. We can help you. Joey whips off his tie and offers it to the Deacon. With any luck, we can help him move on and he'll leave Susan alone. However, the Deacon is having none of it, and recoils in horror. No! Get that away from me! What the hell is wrong with you? You need saving. We're here to save you. What's the problem? I can't! What are you so scared of? You're stuck, right? We can help you move on. No! I don't want to!The Deacon somehow knows what the tie does, and he wants no part of it whatsoever. You don't... want to? No. I... I'm afraid! Oh, you're afraid, are you? Joey is getting more and more pissed here. Rosa tries to take over for a while... What do you want? Safety! Sanctuary. It's following me. Waiting. Watching. Trying to take me! But it hasn't caught me yet. Not yet....but Joey isn't interested in backing down. Yeah, whatever. This guy's off his nut. Let me handle this, babydoll. I know how to speak to spooks like this.What hasn't caught you? It! It! I see it everywhere. In every shadow. In every corner. Why is it after me? Why?! The soft touch ain't gonna cut it, sweetheart. You're too green. Let me show you how it's done.Rosa wants to try one more time, though. Who is after you? It! It! Haven't you ever seen it? Forget it, kid. He isn't listening. We're wasting our time. He knows he's dead. We don't need kid gloves to handle this. Let me take over.At this point, there are two possible options - Rosa can either continue trying to help the Deacon, or she can let Joey take over. Technically, having Rosa succeed in dealing with the Deacon is the "good" outcome, and if she fails at it too often Joey just forces his way in and deals with it himself. For the sake of this LP, we'll let Joey handle it today, and I'll show Rosa's method of dealing with the Deacon in tomorrow's update. Sure. Do it your way.Joey at this point gets right in the Deacon's face, full of piss and vinegar. All right, Mac. Spill. You've scared these girls literally to death, and I wanna know why. What are you so afraid of? I... I don't want to burn! Burn? Oh, I get it. You think you're going to Hell.So this is why the Deacon has been pleading for help, and why he doesn't want to move on. Makes sense, I guess. Joey, however, is not impressed.  The devil himself. He told me! Please don't make me go! You're scared of the devil, huh? Yes! Yeah, well. I don't see any devil. There's just you and me. And you know what? Joey decides to let force and intimidation do the talking for him, grabbing the Deacon by the scruff of his neck. Hey! I've been doing this for forty years, bucko. Every ghost I meet goes to their final rest. One way or the other. You're scared? I don't give a rat's rear end. Two people are dead because of you. So take the drat tie and let's get this over with. No! You can't make me! Don't make me burn. Please! Not one to be deterred, Joey socks him in the stomach. Hurts, don't it? How..? Ghosts aren't supposed to feel pain, but I've learned some tricks. Now take the drat tie!By this point Joey is practically yelling through his teeth, much to the chagrin of Rosa. Joey, stop it! Kid, stay out of this. This is between me and the spook. So are we gonna do this the easy way? Or the hard way? Please! No! What are you gonna do to me? Please don't make it get me! I don't want to go to Hell! Joey isn't taking any poo poo though, and socks him another one. Hell. Shmell. You wanna stop talking crap? Hey! Stop! Let me talk to him, okay?Whenever Rosa interjects, we can switch back to letting Rosa handle things if we like, though she now has less chances to get it right, having already "used" a couple up by letting Joey smack the Deacon around. But let's stick with Joey for now. I don't believe in Hell, buddy. But you have two choices. The slight possibility of an eternal torture in Hell. Or the dead certainty of an eternal torture by ME. But... you can't! Sure I can. You gonna stop me? I... Joey is seriously intimidating here. He's beating the poo poo out of the Deacon. You're hurting him, Joey. Yeah, that's the idea. You got any better ones? Let me talk to him.Rosa again offers to take over, but we'll turn her down again.  Joey continues his physical assault on the Deacon, punching him several times and only stopping to ask if he's had enough. Well? Fine! Just stop hurting me, please! Good boy. Take the tie. Rosa is not at all pleased about what she's seen here, but Joey is too angry to listen to her. This WHAT? It got the job done, didn't it? Now yank this loser out of here so we can go home.Fine. Rosa pulls the tie, and as usual ends up flat on her face in Nodespace. The Deacon is NOT happy to be here. I don't want to do this! Please, send me back!I don't think that's possible. He forced me here. I... JESUS gently caress HOLY poo poo NO! I told you! There's no escape!What is THAT?A giant loving demon, or possibly even the actual devil, appears out of loving nowhere I guess Joey's "slight chance" has just paid out. Rosa immediately tries to hightail it out of here, but the portal vanishes behind her. This is turning into a seriously bad evening. So now the goddamn devil himself has crashed the party and wants the Deacon's soul. Better hope he wasn't watching when Rosa drugged Moti earlier or he may be leaving with two for the price of one! How will Rosa handle this situation? See you all tomorrow for the final update of Legacy! cmndstab fucked around with this message at 09:27 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Oct 10, 2013 15:28
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Fat Samurai posted:Nice time to discover the thread and end up with this cliffhanger... grandalt posted:I think it works a bit differently than that. Well, I know it works differently as I know how this game ends, but I'm not telling. Perhaps the powers that be figured that being haunted by a loud pleading ghost who never shuts up is a sufficient excuse for suicide? MagusofStars posted:Nice suit. Encourages trespassing, theft, and drug running. Gut-punches people as a standard intimidation tactic. Named "Joey". Hahahahaha, this theory is as good as any The grizzled detective front is just part of his cover story, see?Snugglecakes posted:
JamieTheD posted:Naaah, she's already had to deal with incompetent quacks, ghosts of all stripes, and the fact that the one person she's racked up the nerve to come on to (even if it was to get some keys) turned out to be gay. She'll deal. Either that or she's already gone crazy, probably after her first visit to Quentin. The only realistic ending to Legacy would be Rosa waking up strapped to a gurney with Doc Quentin wheeling her into a padded room after she went crazy in his office and started babbling about saving ghosts and drugging dogs.
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Oct 11, 2013 03:36
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The devil is inside Rosa's head. She is going to go crazy, isn't she?
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Update 11 So last update Joey beat the gently caress out of a ghost and then sent him off to be confronted by the devil. Just beautiful Before we continue on with that, let's see what would have happened if Rosa had decided to handle the Deacon instead. The Deacon's Theme  You wanna handle this? Go right ahead. Let's see you do any better.Rosa now has a chance to reason with the Deacon, to get him to move on willingly. You've killed two people! Almost killed a third! Doesn't that mean anything to you? They called ME! Why would they call me, if they couldn't help me?You can't keep going on like this. It's better than burning!However, the Deacon is fairly hard-headed. Mind you, I can't really blame him after seeing the devil appear last update Rosa, of course, has no idea about that, and figures that sending the Deacon on his way is probably going to be perfectly safe. I know a safe place. You can hide there. Really? Where is it?Not far. But you'll have to trust us. Trust you? Why should I trust you?At this point, Rosa has three choices. She can claim to be an authority: Because we know what we're doing. Know? Know?! What do you know?! You know nothing! You're going to make me burn!But the Deacon immediately recognises that as bullshit. Rosa can also try to play on the Deacon's guilt. Because we don't want you to kill anyone else. They weren't my fault! They just wouldn't listen to me! Why don't they want to help me?! Nobody wants to help me. You're a liar.But that doesn't go so well either. Each time Rosa makes the wrong choice, Joey jumps back in and starts pounding the guy. Finally, Rosa hits on the right choice of words. Because nobody else has offered to help you before. Right? Yeah?You ask and ask for help but nobody answers, right? No. Nobody answers!Well we have. We're gonna help you. Has anybody else said the same?This argument seems to penetrate the Deacon's defences. No they haven't! I think... Ooh, I'm so tired of running. If you say you can help me, I believe you. What needs to be done?Just listen to my friend. Joey grudgingly offers up the tie without laying in any more fists, and with that, the Deacon zooms off into Nodespace. ... I can't believe she pulled that off.The game actually gives you an achievement for having Rosa succeed here. In the later games there will be plenty of achievements sprinkled throughout, often for quite amusing things.  This time around, the Deacon is actually pretty calm when he enters Nodespace. I feel... safe!Are you ready? Yes, I really think so. It's really nice out here. Almost like... Going Insane  But either way, the devil still comes to gently caress with the Deacon's poo poo. You lied to me!What? It's here! You LIED!And, once again, Rosa finds the portal closed behind her. Joey? Joey! Get me out of here! Stay away! Stay AWAY! There is nowhere to go. You can not return to the mortal world. You can only go through me. Accept the punishment for your sins, and come with me.The Deacon frantically turns to Rosa, begging for help. Help me, please! YOU brought me here! You have to save me! You have to! Fool! No one can save you now. I will give you a moment to prepare for the eternity to come, but then you are mine.Poor Rosa feels obliged to respond. What is that thing?! It's come to take me to Hell! Just like it always said it would! I... I don't know what to do! I've never done this before! I'm doomed!Rosa can also straight-up deny reality. This is NOT happening! You've got to do something! With nothing else she can do, Rosa starts asking questions. I... don't... know! It haunted my dreams when I was alive, and wouldn't leave me alone after death. And now, there's no place left to run. What are your sins? What have you DONE? I don't know! Please, God, I DON'T KNOW! I didn't mean to kill those people. It's just I've been so SCARED and I don't know WHY! Please help! So what can I do? What does he want? He wants ME. I... I don't know why.The Deacon is seriously losing his poo poo here.  At this point, the Deacon slurps down another hit of whatever is in his flask. What is that in your pocket? My flask?Yeah. What's in it? Nothing. It's just a... force of habit, I guess. Used to keep whiskey in it, when I was alive. After chatting with the Deacon, Rosa decides to start up a conversation with the devil himself. Converse with me not. My issue is not with you, but with this wastrel here. I shall give him some time to prepare himself for the eternity to come. But then, he is mine. How did you get here? What is "here"? It is but an abstract concept, to one such as I. I move at the power of thought. At the speed of death. Once my business is concluded, I shall trouble you no more.Oh geez, apparently the devil is all abstract and stuff. An interesting point on the devil - Gilbert himself did the voice acting, by playing around with various audio filters. Gilbert would continue voicing roles in later games, but unfortunately has a very distinctive (and kind of nerdy) voice, making his characters stand out, particularly among an ever-more-professional cast of voice actors in the later games. Rosa decides to push the issue a bit further. Why are you after this man? For his sins. All this time, he has not renounced them. Even after many years of death, he still carries them with him. Can't you just let him go? He has killed many with his madness. His sins weigh him down even as we speak. Ask yourself, does he deserve mercy? Rosa can actually choose whether she feels the Deacon deserves mercy, though it has no impact on the game itself. If she chooses to say yes, her heart isn't really in it: Yes? You may think so, but your heart does not believe it. You have witnessed the results of his actions with your own eyes.Of course, if she says no, the Deacon is horrified at her: No, you might be right. WHAT? She speaks wisdom, worm. You are totally without redemption, and you know it. Collect yourself, for the time comes near. There are actually two possible endings here. If Rosa just kinda futzes around and doesn't help, the devil will periodically clench his fist, which prompts panicky screams from the Deacon. Please! Help! If Rosa continues waiting too long, or is too slow at figuring out what to do, the devil finally decides to take action. The time has come. No! NO! I'm sorry.This is pretty drat terrifying.  The devil clenches his fist, and the Deacon's soul dissolves away to the sound of a distorted scream. Heed the Deacon's lesson well. For he brought it upon himself. Go, now. And forget not what you've seen here. Remember. Actions in life are remembered in death. We shall meet again. The devil then vanishes, leaving a horrified Rosa free to return to reality. But you know what, that's probably a worse fate than anybody deserves. After all, the Deacon seems more confused than murderous. So let's see if we can sort this out properly.  Rosa notices a loose stone here on the ground. In fact, it's been there the whole time, even during her other visits to Nodespace. She pockets it.  Apparently Rosa has been keeping track of clues in her notepad, even inside of her own head with the devil right there next to her. drat, that's dedicated journalism. The solution, of course, is to combine these two clues and recognise that the Deacon's sins and his flask are related. The Deacon is "carrying" his sins... And the Deacon is "carrying" his flask... Could this be... symbolic?Well, let's test out the theory! Get rid of that flask! Huh? Your flask! Get rid of it! My flask? Why? Just do it!But the Deacon doesn't want to get rid of it. But... I can't. Why not? Because... it's my flask! Rosa comes up with a fairly convincing argument. Well... OK.With that, the Deacon takes one last swig and drops the flask to the ground.  But they still taint this place. That isn't enough to save you.Oh, come on. Rosa decides to just grab the flask and chuck it, but is stopped by the devil. Beware, mortal! The sins this man carried with him are still tainting this place. Touch them and they taint YOU, as well. I am content with taking my quarry, but I have no claim on you. Take this man's sins upon yourself, and I shall be forced to take you as well. You do not want that, and neither do I.Apparently the devil is not interested in Rosa's soul. I don't know, I expected this dude to be fairly evil, but he seems more like a middle manager or something here.  The makeshift solution is to shatter the flask with the stone, which causes both to dissolve. The sins have been abolished from this place! Any my claim on the dead one is gone. Move on in peace, and be troubled no more.And once again, the devil just warps away, leaving Rosa and the Deacon alone.  I think so.So apparently whatever the Deacon did was bad enough to have his soul damned for eternity, but someone else shattering his flask absolved him? This cosmic justice thing seems poorly thought-out. He's... gone! I.. I'm free of him. I'm really free! All this time... It's... all so clear to me now. Like my head was full of cobwebs, and now they're gone. I... Opening Menu Theme Suddenly, it dawns on the Deacon what has happened in the last few weeks. All those people who died... They killed themselves. Because of me.Deciding to interject, Rosa can either agree: Yes.Try to comfort the Deacon: It's all right. No, it's not all right.Or, bizarrely, attempt to psychoanalyse him: And what do you think about that? I don't know.He follows up with a sad confession. I didn't know what I was doing... but that doesn't excuse it. I spent most of my life as a drunk, and most of my death as a murderer. I was worried about going to Hell before. Maybe I'm okay with that, now. Jesus Christ dude, don't say that too loud or the loving devil might come back!! For one final time in Legacy, Rosa gets to choose from three responses. I should point out that in future games this is done less often, or is done in such a way that all three responses flow into one conversation, so I will be interrupting the stream of dialogue less often from now on. Firstly, Rosa can be philosophical: Maybe there isn't a Hell. It's too late for that.I don't know, that seems unlikely considering we just had the loving devil appear right in front of us. She can be hopeful: Maybe you can still redeem yourself. Maybe. Eventually. But not right now.Or, perhaps most fittingly, she can continue to psychoanalyse the Deacon: You seem strangely happy about it. I'm just happy to KNOW.The Deacon leaves us with one final glimpse at his backstory. You see, I was a religious man, once. Before disease took my wife away, and I took to the bottle. If I'm going to Hell, maybe I can still spread the word of God there. Do some good, for once. Good bye, and thanks. With a smile, the Deacon spirals off into the light. The portal reappears, and Rosa departs with only a momentary glance back at the Universe behind her.  Back in the real world, Joey is more than a little concerned at how long Rosa has been under. Yeah... yeah. I'm fine. What took you so long?It got... a little complicated."A little complicated?" You call the loving devil showing up "a little complicated?" Rosa is as cool as a cucumber. As far as I'm aware, she never actually tells Joey about the devil, though I guess maybe she mentions it between episodes? Well, I'm just glad you're okay.Let's get out of here. I need some air. I know the perfect place. Ashes  In the game's final scene, Rosa and Joey head back to the Brooklyn Bridge for some final reflections. I have to say, the pixel-art night time cityscape is absolutely gorgeous. This is definitely drawn from a reference photo. The dialogue in the ending sequence is different depending on whether Rosa was able to convince the Deacon to take the tie without Joey beating him into submission, and whether the devil took the Deacon's soul or not. If the devil takes his soul, we get: Scared and confused and I couldn't do anything. Yeah, well who says you had to.I was just so useless in there. He still moved on. We did our bit.I guess.But if we smashed up his flask, we instead get: He's at peace now, I guess. Wherever he is. I saved him, I think. Gave him some hope, at least. He's getting no more than he deserves. No more than any of us deserve.I guess.Then, if Joey punched the Deacon into Nodespace, Rosa follows up with: Did you have to hit him? It was the only way, darling. I didn't see YOU coming up with any bright ideas. Sometimes the best idea is a punch in the gut.Whereas Rosa's solution elicits: I really wish I could have popped him one more time. He really hacked me off.Is that your answer to everything? Don't you start judging me. You managed to pull it off. I'm impressed. I'm just... glad you're okay.The two of them admire the view in silence for a while, before Rosa pipes up with a question she's been wanting to ask for some time.  Yeah?Why did Auntie stop? Stop what?Stop doing this. This ghost saving. Or whatever it is we do. Oh. Ah...Joey pauses slightly before answering.  Me? She wanted to take care of you. Wanted to do it right, she said. Stopped listening to me. Stopped listening to me. Stopped saving the ghosts. Just put all her effort into taking care of you.Wow. Presumably Lauren made this decision after Rosa's parents both died in an accident. It must have been a fairly difficult decision to make. And then she... fell into that weird coma. Yeah.... I see.Rosa mulls the situation over for a while before remarking.  Is there? Ending Credits Theme And with that somewhat ambiguous ending dialogue, the ending screen flashes up:  Rosa's final comments are left to interpretation, with Gilbert saying as much in his commentary. He does, however, indicate that his reading of the dialogue is that Rosa has come to an acceptance that this is her life now, and that she doesn't really have the choice to stop, so she needs to make the best fist of it she can. A credit sequence rolls, where the voice actors are recognised with photographs. After the credits, a final scene is displayed:  There's hundreds of confused spirits out there, sweetheart. And there's nobody else who can help 'em. There's just us. Bestowing eternity on every sob story out there. One lost soul at a time. ... Whether we want to, or not.And with that, the game ends, though not before providing a code to access hidden features. In this game the hidden features are not that exciting, although some of the voice acting outtakes are quite amusing. In the later games (other than the fourth, which has none) the hidden features are interesting enough that I will make a point of looking at them. And so we've finished The Blackwell Legacy! By all means, please let me know what you thought about the game, speculate about what lies ahead (without any spoilers from those in the know!), or just get excited for the second game in the series! A couple of closing remarks of my own. I like The Blackwell Legacy and think it has some great moments, an intriguing setting and two brilliant lead characters, but I also think that as a game, it falls a bit flat, particularly at the end. Rosa's final dialogue, although very much in-character, doesn't really provide a satisfying conclusion. The music, voice acting, and artwork are all quite bipolar, with fantastic moments mixed in with disappointments. It's painfully obvious that this project was an unfunded indie game with a development cycle spanning only a few months. It's kind of telling that one of the best voice acting performances, that of Rosa, is actually a more recent implementation. The original voice actress, Sande Chen, did a reasonable job, but in my opinion was nowhere near as good Rebecca Whittaker, who took on the role after having played Rosa in subsequent games. Amusingly, Whittaker is actually a burlesque dancer who never uses computers, which makes her brilliant rendition of the dorky, awkward Rosa even more impressive. The scene with the Deacon is very odd. The devil showing up out of nowhere is a massive moment with absolutely no foreshadowing. Gilbert's stated intention was to have the game end on a dramatic moment, but he ended up overshooting the mark in my opinion.Perhaps it's not all Gilbert's fault, however. The character of the Deacon is not entirely his own creation; it was taken from a story told by a famous Manhattan bohemian, who will actually go on to be a feature character in a future game. At the time Legacy was released, Gilbert challenged players to figure out where the inspiration for The Deacon had come from, but as far as I'm aware, nobody did until it was revealed in one of the subsequent games. Still, that's all in the future. For now, we'll stop here. Tomorrow we'll get started on the second game in the series, Blackwell Unbound! Thanks for your support so far, and stay tuned - there's a lot more Blackwell to come!! cmndstab fucked around with this message at 09:28 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Oct 11, 2013 11:54
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Cardiovorax posted:Well, that was random. You get a bunch of vaguely spiritistic handwaving and then bam, giant demon out of nowhere. That's certainly the last thing I was expecting at that moment. Yes, the length of the game is definitely an issue. The third and fourth games are a little better, but overall I prefer to think of the four Blackwell games together as one good-length adventure game, rather than four individual games. Honestly, if the four were linked together in-game it would probably seem quite reasonable to sell it for $20. As I mentioned earlier, it is painfully obvious in places that Legacy was little more than a indie project that Gilbert tried his hand at selling. And yes, the ending is a massive non-sequitur in the middle of nowhere. It's not even an isolated incident for the series - I would say two of the next three games have massive moments in their ending sequences. But this is probably the biggest.Glad to hear you picked up the bundle though - despite the short length, I think you'll get good enjoyment out of the games. Just try not to get too far ahead of me!  JamieTheD posted:I actually really liked Blackwell Legacy, for all its flaws. Especially Rosa, who definitely grows as a character as the series progresses. Still, the second game gave me a mild disconnect, for reasons which will become clear very quickly. You're definitely right that a disconnect is on it's way, though I'll say up-front that I really like the second game. But I'll get into that tomorrow! Assoonasitits posted:That was certainly... an ending. I'd like to think that if Rosa could go back in time after the good ending, she'd let Joey punch the Deacon into Nodespace and then just stand in the corner and let the devil take him. The biggest problem with the deacon is that his solution to nobody listening to him is to act like a four-year-old, which is ludicrous. Judging by Alli, and from what Joey tells us, it seems that ghosts in general (Joey excluded) are completely out of their minds. Alli just talks complete gibberish until Moti snaps her out of her stupor, and even the Deacon stops and recognises what he's done after the devil vanishes. As far as we can see, the ghosts simply cannot be held responsible for their actions before Rosa and Joey show up to set things right. Which makes the whole devil thing kind of creepy. He comes along and accuses the Deacon of not "renouncing" his sins, which apparently refers to throwing away his flask (and then destroying it!), but it's 100% clear that the Deacon has no idea whatsoever that the flask represents his sins, or even why the devil is after him at all. He probably should have known, since he eventually singles out alcohol as his primary vice, but again, he's completely out of his mind and doesn't know how to do anything other than just beg and whine. So the devil was giving him a shot at redemption which he had absolutely no way of taking, and then proceeded to punish him for not taking it. Seems like a raw deal to me. cmndstab fucked around with this message at 13:15 on Oct 11, 2013 |
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Oct 11, 2013 13:13
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Kopijeger posted:I got the bundle as well - the games are quite uneven, but well worth playing on strength of the writing. Two things about Legacy: why didn't JoAnn haunt the place considering that her suicide was at least as traumatic as Allie's, and how did Rosa get out of the hospital without being discovered after sending the Deacon off? Both excellent questions - I already mentioned the first one from memory, and I don't think there is a good answer. Presumably JoAnn was just more "spiritually ready" to move on. As for the second one, at this point I'm willing to bet she just tried to chat up the security guard and then dorkily grinned at him again
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Oct 11, 2013 13:52
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The Diuretic Legacy does sound like a worthwhile spin-off title!
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Oct 11, 2013 15:53
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Glad you two have enjoyed the thread so far Geomancing and EagerSleeper I can't promise the games will answer all of the questions you have, though it will give little "interpret this how you like" kind of hints throughout. Some of the larger questions will also go unanswered, but only because this series is not yet complete and something has to be left for later games. And it sounds like we're all in agreeance - Legacy succeeds almost entirely on the strength of its characters and writing. And really, that's how an indie title should be. You can't really compete with the big companies in terms of production value, but a creative individual is more than capable of building an enthralling setting, and Dave Gilbert gets the tick of approval on that front. Kaja - I was wondering why Rosa didn't simply offer to walk Moti too. I guess Nishanthi would likely have turned it down, since she apparently walked him herself only an hour ago, but I mean.... Rosa didn't even offer. She just went straight to the diuretic solution. I guess we could deduce that Rosa is so drat awkward that she'd rather induce Moti to whine and scratch at the door so Nishanthi asks for it, rather than offering it herself. After all, it wouldn't be the first time in the game Rosa has been willing to take advantage of Moti in order to trick Nishanthi into initiating conversation with her. I'll get the update for the second game going later on today. The story of how it came to be, and the differences between it and Legacy, are interesting and detailed enough that I will mostly just talk about the game in the first update and will leave the actual content until tomorrow. But I guess having one day of in-game content off between games is reasonable
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Oct 12, 2013 01:25
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 Blackwell Unbound Intro Theme Blackwell Unbound The second game in the Blackwell series, Unbound is probably the most unique of the four games for a number of reasons. Principal among these is that we have a different protagonist this time around, namely Rosa's auntie Lauren. That's right, Blackwell Unbound is a prequel, set in 1970s, the decade where Lauren and Joey were busy doing their medium business before she went insane. Specifically it is set around three years into their time together, while Lauren was still estranged from her brother Jack. The change of protagonist makes for some subtle but powerful changes in the interaction with Joey. Unlike in Legacy, where our protagonist had only just met Joey, in Unbound the two leads have known each other for several years and have developed a greater understanding of each other in that time. Lauren herself is a very different character than Rosa, less awkward and more aggressive, but also has her own emotional issues which I will leave for the game itself. Unlike Rosa, who to this stage had been acted by Sande Chen (who is famous in her own right, most notably as the lead writer for The Witcher, but is not a reknowned voice actress), Lauren is voiced by actress Dani Marco, who has credits ranging from Law & Order, to The Sopranos, to Saturday Night Live. I think she does an excellent job of playing Lauren, and provides sufficient strength and conviction to allow Lauren's character stand up alongside that of Joey's. The story of how Unbound came to be produced is interesting by itself. After Legacy was modestly successful, Gilbert found himself doing interviews and speaking engagements for several months, and when that died down he noticed the sales were starting to die down as well. He had a grand plan for the sequel, to be called Blackwell Convergence, during which Rosa and Joey would have an encounter which would remind Joey of a case he had worked on with Lauren. It was planned for there was to be an extended flashback sequence where the player would take control of Lauren, and the sequence would serve to fill in the gaps for Rosa. The only real problem was that the game was at least a year away from being completed, and Gilbert's fledgling company had no income sources other than The Shivah and The Blackwell Legacy. His solution was to take the flashback sequence, embellish it into a full game, and develop it on a shoestring budget. I'm not kidding when I say a shoestring budget either - Gilbert has claimed in interviews that Unbound was produced on a pre-release budget of less than a thousand dollars. In the end, the game he turned out ended up being very good, and in my opinion sits much better as a stand-alone than it would have as a flashback sequence. There are a couple of other noteworthy changes in Unbound. The first, which you may have already noticed if you opened the intro theme link above, is a different composer. Professional musician Thomas Regin was brought on board for Unbound and has remained a mainstay in the Blackwell series since. With apologies to Peter Gresser, the composer for Legacy, Regin was a marked improvement. His technique of blending midi music with a live saxophone is extremely effective for keeping with a retro-style game, while making for a very attractive listening experience. The soft, low saxophone also sets a wonderfully melancholy atmosphere throughout the game. Although there are a few low points, for the most part the next three Blackwell games contain fantastic soundtracks, and in many cases the pieces that didn't end up being used for various reasons are even better than the ones that were. Whereever possible, I will show off the unused themes throughout this thread. It's also worth noting that the melody used in the intro theme for Unbound is rehashed for both subsequent games, making the song you're currently listening to a kind of main theme for the whole series, though in the later games it's more up-tempo. The next change worth mentioning is that of the graphics. One thing Gilbert has done in the Blackwell series has been to use different primary artists for each game. Typically, Gilbert has used one artist for background art, and a second for spritework, with regular artist Eyal Jammer doing additional artwork whenever required. In the case of Unbound, which was being produced on a practically non-existent budget, Gilbert brought on one artist to do both the background art and spritework. That artist was Erin Robinson, who has since gone on to minor repute as the lead designer of Puzzle Bots, also released under the Wadjet Eye Games banner. Shortly after Puzzle Bots' release, she was named as one of the most influential women in technology by Fast Company, which is presumably a moderately high honour. So how does Robinson's pixel art go? Pretty well, for the most part. It's noticably "low budget", and in some places looks inferior even to Legacy, but in other places is quite beautiful. Certainly it's more than effective for what it's made for, and doesn't feel out of place after having played Legacy. The final stylistic change that was made, again for budget reasons, was the removal of portraits from Unbound. The strength of the voice acting meant that this choice worked, but this being an SSLP makes it difficult to convey the emotions and subtleties in the dialogue. I will still provide the majority of the dialogue outside of screenshots, but will have to simply give a name in text rather than a picture. The portraits will return for the next two games. Anyway, that's enough text - let's get started! Today we will just look at the (very short) introduction, but tomorrow we'll get into Unbound proper.  We open Unbound with an image of Lauren standing in Nodespace, smoking a cigarette, presumably having just sent a ghost on its way. It was mentioned in Legacy that Lauren was a smoker, and as we'll see throughout Unbound, that was an understatement. Lauren: Infinity. I've been told it's beautiful, but I don't think it's anything special. But when you live like me, most things become quite ordinary. Life. Death. Tormented souls. It's all the same to me. Sometimes I wonder if anything will ever surprise me again. Despite Lauren's indifference, I think Nodespace is really quite beautiful here. The stylistic choice of having the path spiral off haphazardly was made deliberately. Since Nodespace is literally contained within a medium's head, Gilbert felt that it should somehow represent the medium. Rosa's Nodespace is quite ordered and understated (and in the future games will become quite square), while Lauren's is colourful and chaotic.  Finishing her cigarette and casting the ashes out towards infinity, Lauren leaves us with one final world-weary remark before heading back to reality.  The intro movie scrolls on past...   And finally we settle on scenic Manhattan, circa 40 years ago. Join me again tomorrow as we get Unbound underway! The game is relatively short, probably a touch shorter than Legacy, but still one of my favourites. Hopefully you'll all enjoy it as well! cmndstab fucked around with this message at 09:30 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Oct 12, 2013 11:24
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Personally I'm wondering if the autopsy on Lauren's body showed a decade's worth of stray ash floating around inside her skull I mean, Nodespace is supposed to be literally inside her head, right?
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Oct 12, 2013 14:39
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"Cause of death: extra-dimensional universe complete with windy, ash-laden cobblestone path contained within cerebral cortex" would make for a pretty awesome autopsy report.
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Oct 13, 2013 02:22
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Valiantman posted:You've been mentioning the pluses and minuses of the screenshot format, cmndstab, but let me say that the current implementation is just perfect in my opinion. Having most of the story in screenshots is good but those GIFs really bring the LP alive. You've been keeping them just short enough to add to the flow of reading and not breaking it! Kaja Rainbow posted:I might as well mention this: as a deaf person, I've been really appreciating your including descriptions of the voice acting's emotions and such. While a lot of it I've been able to surmise from reading the dialogue and seeing the expressions (which were pretty well done), seeing a transcription that includes that kind of thing really adds an extra dimension to my understanding of the dialogue. Thanks Regarding the description of voice actors, it will become more necessary in Unbound as the portraits are gone altogether, so emotions can only really be deduced from the writing, and the acting. I'll do my best!KATY PERRY posted:Could you do something abou the incredibly blurry screenshots? Short of keeping them small, probably not much I'm afraid. The game is played at a very low resolution, and I've blown up the images to make them a reasonable size. Sorry about that! I hope they're not too blurry for you to read them. First (proper) update for Unbound is just uploading now...
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Oct 13, 2013 15:49
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Let's get this show on the road! Update 1 Lauren's Theme  Unbound starts off in Lauren's apartment, which is unfortunately one of the least attractive rooms in the game, a pity since we'll return here fairly often. Lauren storms home yelling at Joey, and slams the door on him. I don't believe this scene is intended to follow the introduction from the previous update, since as we will soon see, Lauren and Joey have not succeeded in sending any ghosts on their way this evening.  Joey, in his usual frustrating manner, simply floats through the door and completely disregards Lauren's anger. Lauren: I am NOT talking to you. Joey: Oh, promises promises. So what's next on the list? Lauren: What's next?  Lauren refuses to even look at Joey in this scene. She's very clearly pissed off at him, but Joey doesn't let that stop his sharp tongue. Joey: Why? Going to throw yourself over and join me? Lauren: No. I'm having a cigarette. Joey: Great. You want a cigarette. What am I supposed to do? Lauren: You can do whatever the hell you like.  Sure enough, Lauren marches out to her tiny New York balcony and lights up a cigarette. It's very clear early on that she is a serious addict, and uses cigarettes as a way of dealing with her copious levels of anger and frustration.  Lauren has a few inventory items early on, as well as access to a notepad similar to the one Rosa used in Legacy. Notably, three of her inventory items are her cigarettes, lighter, and a lit cigarette. The only item not tobacco related is the case list, which presumably is the list Joey was referring to earlier. Lauren is not interested in looking at it. Lauren: No. The case list doesn't EXIST. Nothing exists until I finish this cigarette. I am not moving from this spot until I've finished my cigarette. In fact, trying to get Lauren to do anything, from moving, to looking at objects, doesn't really work. Lauren: Absolutely not. Right now, nothing exists except for me and this cigarette.  Lauren: This will probably be my last cigarette of the day. Lauren is pretty much in denial about her smoking habits. If you leave her standing around during the game for any length of time, she automatically lights a cigarette and smokes it, only dousing it (and scattering the ashes at her feet) when you ask her to interact with an object. It doesn't have any effect on the game, but Unbound will actually keep track of how many cigarettes Lauren smokes in the game just for fun. I'd comment about how serious Lauren's smoking issues were, but given that she went insane and then fell into a coma at 40, I guess it was the least of her issues.  This scene is fairly effective at introducing Lauren as a much more emotional, stubborn character than Rosa - however, it's not done entirely for the sake of the writing. By refusing to have Lauren move anywhere or do anything, it clues the player in that a new option has been added to Unbound. We can now switch between controlling Lauren and Joey at any time, other than a few scripted sequences where only one character is available.  Switching over to Joey, we see him trying to continue reasoning with Lauren in his wonderfully annoying manner. Joey: This place is boresville central. Lauren: In a minute, Joey.  With not much else to do, Joey looks around Lauren's apartment. This picture should be familiar, as Rosa had it in Legacy. Unlike in Legacy, we can individually look at each of the four people/ghosts in the photo. From left to right: Joey: If I'd known I could be photographed, I would have shown my good side. Joey: That's Jack, her kid brother. He's all right, I guess. Joey: Oh, look. It's HER. Good old Patricia Blackwell. Also known as Cleopatra, Queen of Denial. Spent seven months bonded to that woman. She never spoke to me once. Joey: Look how young she was. She's gotta be 18? 19? It's been over ten years. Time flies. As was hinted at in Legacy, Joey has some fairly strong feelings for Lauren. It's never really addressed overtly in Unbound, but it is a little creepy since Joey was effectively watching Lauren as a teenager long before they ever truly "met". On the other hand, Lauren was mostly away at college during that time, so I guess it's not all that bad. Joey also reiterates here that he spent seven months bonded to Patricia, which I had assumed was a mistake when he said it in Legacy. It doesn't really line up with Jack's letters, so I guess Joey was just floating around in the ether for a while until Patricia died, or something.  Joey continues looking around the apartment. Joey: Oh look, another ashtray. I REALLY want to blow on this and make a mess. But there'd be no point. It's not like she'd clean it up. Joey isn't kidding when he says "another" ashtray. I think there are five scattered throughout this place.  Joey: Every night, I get to watch her snore on that thing. The couch looks way to small for Lauren, and unlike in Rosa's apartment there isn't exactly a lot of privacy from Joey. I guess Lauren just doesn't care? Anyway, Joey decides to not spend forever looking around here, and continues arguing with Lauren instead.  Lauren: What? Joey: Why the heck are you so mad? Lauren: You honestly don't know? Joey: I have no idea. Lauren: Typical. If you don't know, I'm sure as hell not going to tell you. Joey and Lauren work fairly well as characters because they're both as stubborn as each other, and in many ways, as flawed as each other. Having a ghost, from who the protagonist can't escape, refusing to back off and continuing to argue with her could be creepy, but Lauren has enough fire herself to make the power dynamic feel equitable. Joey: You done moping? Or do you want to grind your teeth some more? Lauren: Christ, Joey. Can't you leave it for just one minute? Of course, that doesn't mean Joey won't frustrate Lauren from time to time. Joey: Look, I'm sorry. Lauren: Sorry for what? Joey: ... Um... Lauren: Exactly. Finally, Joey pushes things one step too far. Joey: Take another drag of that cigarette, darling. You get real ugly when you stop smoking. Lauren: Oh? Is that right? Joey: Well...  I love the way Lauren actually intimidates Joey further and further backwards, even though Joey is a ghost and she couldn't touch him if she wanted to. I'll say this up-front - I really like the character of Lauren. We are seeing a fairly harsh introduction to her here, but I think her character is great, and really suits the mood this game sets. The distinction between her and Rosa is quite profound, and the fact that both characters manage to be likeable and believable in their own ways despite being so different to one another is a credit to Gilbert's writing. Lauren: Like today, when those pipes burst? Joey: Oh. Hehe. Wait. Is that what's got you in such a guff? Lauren: I got SOAKED. And you just laughed. As I mentioned in the final update for Legacy, the "choose one of three options" mode of dialogue is less common in the subsequent games, but it does still happen. Here Joey can choose to either play innocent: Joey: What was I supposed to do? Give you a towel? Tell the truth: Joey: Well, it WAS funny. Or to simply give in: Joey: All right. I'll try and hold it in next time. Of course, none of the three options placate Lauren, and it is very clear that Joey still finds it funny. Lauren: It was cold. And wet. And slimey. Joey: *snrk* Lauren: It wasn't FUNNY. At this point, Joey is cracking up. Joey: You should have seen the look on your face. The way you jumped up and down and ran in circles squealing. Lauren: Hmph. Still wasn't funny. Joey: If you say so.  Unlike Rosa, who tends to stew for a while after an argument with Joey, Lauren seems to use these arguments as a way of blowing off steam. She takes one last puff of her cigarette and disposes of the stub in a pot that serves as yet another ashtray. Lauren: Okay. I'm finished. Let's get on with this. Joey: There's a few things we haven't checked, right? Lauren: Yes. I've got the list right here. Joey: Well, let's check it. Every other case today has been a false alarm. Maybe this will be an easy night. As I mentioned before, no ghosts have been sent on their way so far this evening. Lauren and Joey seem to get their cases by reading through local newspapers and listening to news reports, looking for anything out of the ordinary, and simply following it up. Sometimes it turns up ghosts, but most of the time it just leads to dead ends. Lauren's Theme (Alternative) The actual in-game theme doesn't change here, but I wanted to show off the original theme that was designed for Lauren's apartment, which is actually quite a lovely piece of music. I personally prefer it to Lauren's actual theme. However, as beta testers pointed out, it's quite a happy little ditty, which contrasts fairly sharply with Lauren's character who could never really be described as happy. In the end it was taken out altogether and replaced with Lauren's main theme that I linked above. I will try to show off all the alternative themes (there are six of them) throughout the game, and if we revisit locations I will link to both so you can choose which you want to listen to.  Before looking at the case list, Lauren decides to have a brief chat with Joey. Lauren: I want to talk to you, Joey. Joey: Uh huh? Lauren: I have no idea where we're supposed to go. Joey: You're asking me? You're the one carrying the list. Why don't you take a closer look at it? It should refresh your memory. Of course, we can just as easily switch over to Joey and have him speak with Lauren as well. Joey: I got something to say. Lauren: Yeah? Joey: Hey, have you done something different with your hair? Lauren: What do you mean? Joey: I dunno. Something's different. Lauren: I washed it this morning. Joey: With shampoo? Lauren: Yeah. Joey: That's what threw me. So are we going to futz around here all night? We got stuff to do. Lauren: Yeah. Whenever both have something interesting to say, I will try to merge the two conversations together in a natural way. Again, we see here that Joey and Lauren are much more comfortable teasing each other or just shooting the poo poo than Rosa and Joey were, primarily because of the amount of time they've spent together. In the later games, Rosa and Joey will have developed their own chemistry in the time that passes between the games.  This tiny little blob of pixels is a dictophone. Of course, Unbound being set in the early 70s, technology is a little outdated. There are no computers, the TV is ancient, and the camera is huge. Lauren: It's a dictator machine. I've been trying to keep a record of my dreams by recording what I remember. I guess I could take this along.  Lauren: Does my voice really sound like that? Gotta cut back on the cigarettes. Anyway. I've been having some extreme dreams lately, but I don't remember any of them. I get the strangest feeling that they are important, but I can't put my finger on why. I'm keeping this recorder next to my pillow, so I can record what I remember as soon as I wake up. The dictophone is a required object for a later puzzle, but we can also hear about Lauren's dreams, which are fairly intense and seem more like premonitions than dreams. There are eleven dreams in all. Lauren: First entry, February... 21st? Is it? God, my head. I dreamed tonight. It's already fading away. I saw my mother. She was calling out to me and waving. She was smiling. Her face was bright. So bright. Presumably Lauren still struggles emotionally with what happened to her mother, and how similar a path her own life has taken. Lauren: I see a child. Seven or eight years old. She's surrounded by other children, but she's all alone. I call out to her, but she doesn't hear. Something is wrong. With me? With her? It's fading. I guess this could refer to Rosa, but it's hard to say. Some of the dreams are just kind of mysterious. Lauren: I see a man in tattered clothes. He looks at me, and screams. I look in a mirror, and see a huge, horned demon. For some reason, I'm not surprised. While others are kind of creepy Lauren: I'm on the Brooklyn Bridge, staring at the seaport. I'm all alone. Strangely at peace. The water, it looks so cool and inviting. Suddenly, I'm in the water. Floating. Lauren: I dreamt I was in a strange room. The walls are a deep pink, and there are books and papers everywhere. Joey is behind me. Trying to get my attention. I ignore him. I feel strangely good about it. Lauren: I see Jack and Maria. They are far away, but I know it's them. I see his glasses, and her bright red hair. I want to join them. I run to catch up. I almost get there, but I trip and fall. Maria turns to help me up, but it's not Maria. She's got red hair like Maria, but it's someone else. She says she is sorry. Then I wake up. Most of these just add flavour, though the occasional dream references future events from Rosa's experiences (both in Legacy, and in the later games). The next dream should sound familiar. Lauren: I'm in a hospital room. There's a chinese girl lying on the bed. I want to help her, but she doesn't want to be helped. Suddenly, I say a magic word, and her eyes widen with trust. I've made a friend, and yet I don't want her friendship. I run away. Lauren: I'm on a fire escape. I'm talking with a man who wants to be my friend. Suddenly, his face turns blue. He can't breathe. He dies. It's my fault. I could have stopped it. Lauren: I'm in a huge house. I see gas lamps, and electric lights. I look into a mirror and see an old woman. She reaches out of the mirror to grab me. I take her hand, and hold it tight. Then I wake up. Lauren: I'm on a train. Speeding away into the night. Next to me is a man. I know nothing about him, yet I trust him. I think I love him. Then he disappears. What did I do wrong? The final dream is very eerie. Lauren: I'm trapped. Trapped somewhere bright. I see my mother, and a woman I don't recognize. I see Joey, far away. Calling out for me. We are fighting for our lives, but it's too late. The world goes dark.  This is the last dream on the dictophone. I'm not sure whether to assume that Lauren had this dream recently, or if the dream bothered her so much that she stopped recording her thoughts altogether. I assume this dream refers to Lauren's eventual passing away at Bellevue.  Continuing the theme of lack of technology, Lauren uses a phonebook to look up numbers throughout the game. In the later games, Rosa will use her computer, and eventually a mobile phone for this task.  There are a couple of minor easter eggs if you search for developer names, and you can even search for Rosa, who of course is yet to be born at this point in time. Lauren: Nope. No entry. Joey: Who the heck is Rosa Blackwell? Lauren: I have no idea. Normally Lauren will simply say there is no entry, but here Joey adds a tiny bit extra.  Lauren: Move away a bit, will you Joey? Joey: What, you wanna watch TV now? Lauren: Just for a minute. Joey: You can relax later, sweetheart. Let's finish up these cases, first. Lauren: Yeah, you're right. Again we see that Joey blocks airborne signals. This is handled a little bit strangely throughout the series. It seems that Joey blocks TV signals from afar, only sometimes blocks phone signals, and to block radio (or later, wireless modem) signals he has to be right up next to the transmitter or antenna.  Lauren: I put some money in here whenever I think of it. It's a trick I learned from my mother. There's around 60 dollars in here now. Of course, any good Adventure Game player knows that you must take any money you possibly can from your starting location, but apparently somebody forgot to pass the message onto Lauren. Lauren: I'll save it for when I really need it. Sure enough, we'll get that $60 later, but for now it's staying in the jar.  Joey: Right behind you. Tired of hanging around her apartment, Lauren decides to head outside to focus on some more cases.  However, since we haven't looked at the case list yet, there is nowhere to go other than back home again. This screen functions as the world map in Unbound. Gilbert decided to scrap the street map style world-map in this game in favour of a generic skyline. Note that the twin towers still hover above everything else, this game being set well before 2001. Apparently Gilbert really debated with himself whether he should include them, since they are still an emotional topic for many people, particularly as 2007 wasn't that long after 2001. In the end he decided to put them in, and I think some dialogue even refers to them at one point.  With nowhere else to go, Lauren and Joey return back home.  One last thing to grab before we get to the case list, Lauren has a big clunky camera. Again, much like the dictophone, it is a required object for a puzzle, but it also serves a separate purpose.  Specifically, it can be used to unlock hidden content. There are four characters you can photograph in the game, Joey being the first, and each unlocks a separate section of the hidden features in the game. The most interesting of the hidden features are the alternative themes, but there is some other good stuff in there as well.  Alright, let's get to the case list. I can't help but notice that Lauren's handwriting is different here from the gorgeous script we saw in Legacy, though it's still very nice. Lauren: Ugh. Every one of these leads has been a dead end. Just two more to go and we can call it a night. Let's check these out.  Lauren: I read about a grocer who was complaining about his stock mysteriously disappearing. Turned out to be a bunch of rats. Joey scared them half to death. Joey: Most fun I've had all year. Hahaha, beautiful. The series is very consistent with it's "animals can see Joey" thing.  Lauren: Now THAT was a waste of time. Didn't find any ghosts, and I got soaked. I guess these were the exploding water pipes Lauren and Joey were arguing about earlier.  Lauren: That woman was old, drunk and senile. A total waste of time. Lauren doesn't even try to hide the distaste in her voice here.  Now we arrive at the two cases Lauren and Joey have yet to investigate. As you would probably expect, both will lead to ghosts. Lauren: This one looks promising. Residents have reported strange music on the promenade late at night. Nobody knows where it comes from.  Lauren: A development corporation has halted construction after a series of accidents. Probably nothing, but worth checking out.  With the case list perused, two new locations have opened up on the world map. We'll get started investigating these cases tomorrow! Welcome to Blackwell Unbound, guys Strap yourselves in, it's going to be a bumpy ride!
cmndstab fucked around with this message at 09:31 on Jun 27, 2014 |
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Oct 13, 2013 16:25
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I guess I must have an untrained graphical eye I didn't really notice much difference, though I know how frustrating that kind of thing can be (low quality audio compression is a bugbear of mine). If anyone can recommend a good bulk image converter/resizer that will produce better quality images I'll see what I can do.
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Oct 13, 2013 17:10
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MagusofStars posted:Bah, these aren't ghosts. The strange music is the newfangled thing the kids call "Disco" and the halted construction is probably just an OSHA thing for failure to follow safety protocols. Unfortunately, Lauren can't exactly erase your memory, but she can blind you with her enormous flash camera and then record your voice at 16kbs! Accordion Man posted:Dark Id's LP of Legacy made me buy the series when they first came out on Steam and I've been wanting the rest of the games to be LPed ever since because they deserve it. You've been doing a great job and now I'm wanting the fifth game to come out soon. At the start of the thread I mentioned that the fifth game (apparently to be called Blackwell Epiphany) was due out any time, but I've since gone and read further and it's already been delayed until at least February 2014. So I guess this thread will finish well before it comes out! I'm looking forward to it as well! Slowbeef posted:Can I offer some advice too, besides the graphics? Yeah, bad habit, sorry. I'm keen to try to describe the continuity (and occasionally lack thereof) between the games and saying "you probably don't remember but 25 updates ago, this happened" is less effective than cluing the reader in advance. It's a tough line to straddle without giving too much away, of course. Mentioning that both leads go to ghosts was probably unnecessary I'll see what I can do.I'm about to head interstate for work over the next few days. I still intend to update daily, but we'll see how well that goes when I'm there! Next update should arrive later today once I've touched down!
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Oct 14, 2013 00:47
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