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Color mixing makes some form of sense, but backtracking for the gemstones is a bit odd. You just got access to a huge new area, you'd think the solution was there, but nope.
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Aug 30, 2014 17:04
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Stabbey_the_Clown posted:By the way, the stump on the far side of Zanthia's tunnel has an special item. You can do something with that item to get another item, but that second item is useless. It seems that was for a cut puzzle. Yep, I'm aware - after the end of the LP (there's only like two more updates to go, actually), I'll be doing a bonus update with all the stuff in the game that doesn't seem to have a purpose, including the dummied-out items you can't actually get.
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Aug 30, 2014 17:06
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Jesus! I think I know why I never beat this poo poo as a kid now, good Lord. Also I think that's not a whale, but some sort of Plesiosaur, though why it eats random, harmless glitters of light but not delicious flying horses, I have no idea. Maybe it has allergies to horsemeat.
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Aug 30, 2014 18:04
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To be honest, I thought the potion puzzle made plenty of sense, at least until I got to the point where I had to figure out what to do with the potions. Like you said in the update, putting blueberries in the cauldron was the obvious first step and made it turn blue, but Brandon says the potion is only half-complete. From there, it seemed reasonable that I needed another blue item, and the only other blue items were gems. I think any gem with some blue in it works. That solidifies the pattern of a gem and a plant of whatever color, and the rest follow naturally - I think a ruby works for red, and of all things, an emerald is acceptably yellow. Mixing the potions at the crystals of alchemy is logical if you've found it at all, and then it's just a matter of realizing where you need to use the orange potion, which I was familiar with from later games.
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Aug 30, 2014 19:34
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I think the more pressing concern is why Zanthia asked us for blueberries, given that the end product there is either A) A potion that doesn't get us to the castle, or B) DEADLY POISON. 
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Aug 30, 2014 19:37
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Hyper Crab Tank posted:I think the more pressing concern is why Zanthia asked us for blueberries, given that the end product there is either A) A potion that doesn't get us to the castle, or B) DEADLY POISON. She just wanted some blue dye for her clothes.
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Aug 30, 2014 19:53
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Nidoking posted:and then it's just a matter of realizing where you need to use the orange potion, which I was familiar with from later games. Unless I was spectacularly unobservant, the only connection was: The potion smells like Alfalfa > Alfalfa is for horses > I saw a horse statue And while it makes reasonable sense if you know that middle part... it does kind of require some information that I wouldn't exactly say is commonplace(I knew it, but it's certainly not something I'd assume everyone would), and isn't mentioned anywhere in the game itself.
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Aug 30, 2014 20:32
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Hyper Crab Tank posted:I think the more pressing concern is why Zanthia asked us for blueberries, given that the end product there is either A) A potion that doesn't get us to the castle, or B) DEADLY POISON. The answer is in the opening of Kyrandia 2: Hand of Fate: Blueberries are an ingredient for a Portal potion, which can teleport people to a specific location. It's likely that Zanthia wanted to make a portal potion to teleport you into the castle. PurpleXVI posted:Unless I was spectacularly unobservant, the only connection was: It's not so hard to figure out. That platform is clearly an Important Place. You can make six different potions. Try using potions at that place and eventually something will happen. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Aug 30, 2014 |
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Aug 30, 2014 20:52
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Yeah, a lot of the puzzles in this game do have solutions that make sense at least after the fact; the problem is that the game relies heavily on trial and error, and provides only a minimum of hints along the way. That kind of puzzle-solving is generally considered unreasonable today, but back in 1993, we put up with a lot of way worse poo poo than that. Hand of Fate greatly improved the quality of the puzzles, and introduced several pun-based ones that I shamefully think is my favorite part about the game.
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Aug 30, 2014 20:59
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Hyper Crab Tank posted:Yeah, a lot of the puzzles in this game do have solutions that make sense at least after the fact; the problem is that the game relies heavily on trial and error, and provides only a minimum of hints along the way. That kind of puzzle-solving is generally considered unreasonable today, but back in 1993, we put up with a lot of way worse poo poo than that. Hand of Fate greatly improved the quality of the puzzles, and introduced several pun-based ones that I shamefully think is my favorite part about the game.
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Aug 30, 2014 22:50
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Ah, nothing like points of no return to make an adventure game memorable.
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Aug 31, 2014 20:51
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I think putting the point of no return behind the most  puzzle is kind of genius. Unless you are the master of leaps of logic you'll most likely do all the more obvious puzzles around the forest before there's literally nothing left to do but drink the unassuming alfalfa potion on the weird platform.
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Aug 31, 2014 21:54
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dijon du jour posted:I think putting the point of no return behind the most The best part is that even after solving every puzzle in the forest, you can still render the game unwinnable. I'll show it in more detail next week, but even if I reloaded and solved the Chalice puzzle (which I assume you are referring to), I would still be unable to beat the game.
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Aug 31, 2014 22:34
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Short update today, folks, but it has three videos in it. Chapter 8: Wherein Steps Are Retraced, and a Seance is Held Last time, we got through the Faeriewood by concocting a pegasus potion and using it to fly to this dreary-looking island, on which sits our destination, Castle Kyrandia. The kyragem is close now. What could possibly go wrong this close to the end? But first, you know the rules: new area, new complaints from Brandon.   I'd do anything for a pair of sandals! I wonder how Grandfather is doing?Oh, you know. Being a rock. Good thing he's indoors, or the birds would be having a field day. Let's just stumble haplessly to the east and see if we can't find that castle. Music: Gloom (Tindeck)  Are we dead already? ... almost walked off the edge there. The next screen has a grave. I wonder whose it is.  Hello mother, father. I wish I could do something to honor their memory.Aww.  We don't have anything, but it's the thought that counts. Let's just keep going and take it all out on Malcolm. There it is: Castle Kyrandia. Malcolm has had free reign of the place for the past eighteen years, and it shows.  Man, this gate is pretty spooky, but there's no way we're stopping now.    I think this is the most disturbing death sequence in the game. Geez.So the castle gate is locked, and there are gargoyles guarding the gate. The iron key in our inventory has a good chance of fitting the lock, but trying it just gets you killed by the gargoyles again. Our parents' grave is back up the hill, but there's nothing we can do with that, either. This area has been very small so far. What could we be missing? Actually, we're not missing anything. Not on this side of the ocean, anyway - what we need is back in Faeriewood. Well, no problem, we can just turn back into a pegasus a-- oh, right. No more potion. As it turns out, the game is unwinnable for us at this point. We jumped the gun on the pegasus puzzle, went past a point of no return, and left several things behind that we need to progress. There are three items we need before we go to Castle Kyrandia, and we only have one of them: the iron key. We also need the Royal Chalice and one more item which we'll get to. Naturally, the game warns us about none of this, and two of the items (key and mystery item) are really easy to overlook. Time to reload a save...  Let's tackle the Chalice first. It's just sitting there, taunting us - we still can't really interact with it, and none of our potions are helpful. Once again the game has not seen fit to give us any hints. The answer to this one generally comes down to stumbling upon it, which usually happens at an earlier point in the game than this, but I've held off on doing it until now.  Remember that magic water we got for Zanthia? We can drink it, too.  Hey, one of the amulets on my amulet is blue now! Okay, that's a little weird, but it looks like we unlocked another jewel on our amulet. What does this one do? We have no clue. The actual name of this spell is never mentioned in-game, but it's actually Dispel Magic. The way Brandon stretches his hand out does suggest a connection to the Chalice, so why not go give that a try? I'll try it on the Chalice. Hey! Bring that back! Hey, what's the big idea?Right on the cusp of victory, some goat-legged butthole goes and steals our treasure! This guy is not named in the first game, but his name (or maybe just species) is revealed to be Faun in Hand of Fate. Where could he have gone to?  Tiny man, tiny door. Hey, pipsqueak! Are you in there?I don't see why we can't just use our giant strength and kick his dumb little door in, but what the game wants us to do is use that other potion we found to go have a little heart to heart with the thief. Video: Faun (Youtube)   I can't help but feel there is a problem with the scale here. We shrunk to about half our original height, and yet by the back wall there's a pair of glasses taller than we are, and a teacup we could sit in. My interpretation is that Faun has a fondness for comically oversized versions of everyday items and has been obsessively hoarding them in his house for years. You have my chalice! I have MY chalice. No, it's mine! Yes, it's MINE. Why would you want it? I don't think he needs the chalice for that. By the way, where is my chalice? I have hidden it in a very safe place. Oh my. Well, let's see what we've got. How about this nice, juicy apple we picked up about ten seconds into the game? How about a big, juicy apple? I'm not tall enough to pick apples!I'm beginning to think this obsession with giant-sized household products might be part of a larger complex, here. Well, where did you hide my chalice? I hid MY chalice outside, you big oaf. Go outside and take a look.What are you talking about, we were just there. There was no chalice. Are you scamming us, shorty? Ugh, let's just go check.  Nice burn, Brandon. I guess this butthole is going to make us search for the chalice. Time to run around all over the woods agai--  Come on game that was not there a minute ago. This looks important!It definitely is, although it's for reasons we won't discover for a while yet. Now that we have the chalice and the Dispel Magic spell, we're almost ready to go back to the castle and make some progress. However, we would still be unable to get through the gate. The gargoyles are not impressed by Brandon's chalice, and dispelling them is another nonstarter. What are we missing?  Here we are again back at the pegasus platform. I threw away the empty bottle and the poison, as they are useless. The thing we need is on this screen. Do you see it?  That's right: we need another orchid. This one is completely impossible to predict until you've already gone past the point of return, so saving and loading is 100% required to beat this puzzle unless you're a compulsive hoarder and decided to hang onto an extra of that particular item over any of the other random junk that won't fit in your inventory. Now that we have it, we drink the pegasus potion again and off we go to castle island.  Well, now we can. It's just a flower, but it will have to do.   Video: Queen Katherine (Youtube)  You have grown up handsome, son. You have your father's eyes. I use them only to seek your revenge!That's... really dorky-sounding, Brandon, geez. Hey, where is dad, actually? Shouldn't he be here as a ghost too? Control your anger, Brandon. You must free the Kyragem to reclaim your throne. Malcolm is vile and deserves to die! Do not waste your powers on destruction, my son. You will require the Royal Chalice...If it wasn't already obvious the chalice is an important item that you shouldn't just ignore, ghost mom makes it clear to us here. Fortunatey, we brought it with us. ... and this. You have my gift. It is all I can give. Be brave, my son, and use your magic wisely. Mother? Communing with the dead has unlocked the final gem in our amulet! Let's check it out. Invisibility! Wow, thanks, mom. I wonder if we can get by those gargoyles with this?  Sure enough, now that we can turn invisible, we can use the iron key on the gate lock without the gargoyles being any wiser. We're nearing the end, now. Next stop: Castle Kyrandia.  It's huge!Sure is. And not a single homicidal clown in sight.   Welcome, lad!Spoke too soon.  Video: Malcolm at Castle Kyrandia (Youtube) I see you got past my puppies! You must be VERY clever! But since you've made it, you'll have to stay. You will not be able to leave this island.Yeah, we noticed, thanks. I have but two rules here in my home: Do not disturb my morning naps, and enter not the Kyra-Vault!No promises. Move aside, you purple windbag! Now, now. I've been patient... can we not continue? Oh, and yes! A friend of yours now serves me here.Ha! Joke's on you, Malcolm, Brandon doesn't have any friends. Oh Herman... Herman... Brandon is here! Hmm? I don't know where he is, but I'm sure that he'll find you. Finally! About time. I'm not sure what we're sawing all the way over here exactly, but that rusty old thing is ours, damnit.  What a fool. Preaching to the choir, Brandon. Well, we finally made it to Castle Kyrandia, and Malcolm has mysteriously elected not to turn us into a pile of ashes where we stand despite having had ample opportunity to several times now. Not that Brandon looks all that threatening when it comes down to it, I suppose. Next time, we'll explore our castle and reclaim our birthright.
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Sep 6, 2014 15:37
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Ha ha Jesus Christ, between the chalice and the orchid being necessary, you could basically deadlock yourself without ever having any idea you'd done it. The chalice MIGHT be somewhat obvious(but how to unlock the dispel magic, in no loving way whatsoever, Christ), but bringing the orchid? Nope. Not to mention you could have accidentally melted down the drat key in the cauldron(if I remember right) or thrown it away at some point. This game puts Roberta Williams to shame in terms of pure hating the player.
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Sep 6, 2014 16:09
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I assume it'll turn out that Herman wants to "return" the saw to our ribcage or something similar. Which would mean we'd have an excuse to kill him! Malcolm isn't so bad after all.
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Sep 6, 2014 16:21
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PurpleXVI posted:Ha ha Jesus Christ, between the chalice and the orchid being necessary, you could basically deadlock yourself without ever having any idea you'd done it. The chalice MIGHT be somewhat obvious(but how to unlock the dispel magic, in no loving way whatsoever, Christ), but bringing the orchid? Nope. You whippersnappers just don't know how to adventure properly these days. If you were dumb enough to throw a key into a cauldron or throw it away, you deserve what you get. For being dumb. The chalice is obviously important. Drinking the magic water is not a difficult thing to figure out either. Who wouldn't drink magic water, in fact? I think that actually, you can go back and fill flasks with all kinds of useless water, and Brandon has quotes for drinking it. That said, the flower being needed for the grave is a total bullshit move, because there's no way at all that you would know ahead of time that you need that. That one did get me. *** Malcolm doesn't really have any quarrel with Brandon, since he was locked up in the castle since Brandon was an infant. Honestly, the game over where you get frozen for NOT immediately trying to kill Malcolm seems out of character. Stabbey_the_Clown fucked around with this message at 17:23 on Sep 6, 2014 |
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Sep 6, 2014 16:22
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PurpleXVI posted:This game puts Roberta Williams to shame in terms of pure hating the player. Hahahahaha no.
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Sep 6, 2014 17:53
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As macabre as it may be, that gargoyle death animation is another pretty awesome example of how fluid the animations in this game are. Were there any tools to use for this back in 1992, or was whoever made them just a (slightly messed up) genius? It doesn't look like anything you'd get out of 3D Studio or the likes, or did they maybe render the animation 3D Studio style and draw the pixels over it? And yes, I have no clue whatsoever how animating things works.
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Sep 6, 2014 18:21
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I believe you can also use a tulip on the grave - any kind of flower, although there are only two kinds in the game. Drinking the magic water didn't occur to me when I played through, but I think one of my brothers came up with that one. I had an extra flower in my inventory when I used the Pegasus potion - can't remember why - but was pretty lost without the chalice.
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Sep 6, 2014 18:25
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fixelbrumpf posted:As macabre as it may be, that gargoyle death animation is another pretty awesome example of how fluid the animations in this game are. Were there any tools to use for this back in 1992, or was whoever made them just a (slightly messed up) genius? It doesn't look like anything you'd get out of 3D Studio or the likes, or did they maybe render the animation 3D Studio style and draw the pixels over it? Yyyyeah, this is just a matter of having a decent artist who knows how animation works. How did you think that Warner, Disney, et al managed to make their cartoons back in the day? Same idea, except that instead of drawing on paper, you draw in a drawing program on a computer. There's usually some technical trickery at play in these old games just to save on space and computation (for example, I'd bet that Brandon's head is a different sprite from his body), but the actual process of generating the animations is otherwise pretty straightforward.
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Sep 7, 2014 05:11
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Well, I do know how the concept of how classic cel animation works (in theory), but still, I'd imagine that if somewhat chunky pixels on a computer screen are all you have to work with, it might be a lot harder to come up with something that looks as smooth as it does here. I'm sure there were special programs designed for making animations back then, but like I said, I have no clue what they were.
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Sep 7, 2014 09:56
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I had this one when I was a kid too. I don't remember if I ever finished it or not, but I never got any of the sequels. I remember one death that I could swear was in that lava room in the labyrinth where he says, "Oh poo poo, I'm burning!" I was shocked at bad words in a computer game, that was pretty much unheard of back then.
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Sep 7, 2014 23:31
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:There's usually some technical trickery at play in these old games just to save on space and computation (for example, I'd bet that Brandon's head is a different sprite from his body), but the actual process of generating the animations is otherwise pretty straightforward. There's some separate-head Brandons for talking and such  but most of the death animations and such redraw everything for each frame:  
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Sep 8, 2014 02:16
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Little late to express just how much I despise Fireberry cave, but still, I suppose late hatred is better than no hatred. Of the three, this is definitely the worst, and I've added it and The Dig to my list. Specifically the one headed "Why did I like these games in my childhood again?" Still, nice to see it LPed, many thanks HCT! EDIT: Even though we're not done with the bullshit... Oh-hoho no... JamieTheD fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Sep 8, 2014 |
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Sep 8, 2014 03:59
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All this pain and suffering will be worth it, once we get to Hand of Fate.
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Sep 8, 2014 06:40
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Was hand of fate really that good? I skipped after slogging through this one.
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Sep 8, 2014 10:19
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It's basically like this game except better humor, just as good music and art and while some of its puzzles can be a bit tricky there's none of the gently caress you variety that this game has. It also pays brief homage to this game while being entirely its own thing. You could totally play it without ever realizing it was the sequel to another game, like what I did back in the day.
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Sep 8, 2014 10:24
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Deathwind posted:Was hand of fate really that good? I skipped after slogging through this one. Hand of Fate is significantly better. The puzzles are a great deal more logical, with solutions that are actually hinted at instead of being random trial-and-error. There are no points of no return where you can screw yourself over, and I don't even think there's any way to permanently lose important items. They replaced the magic amulet with a more interesting potion mixing puzzle element. They kept the gorgeous art and music and tweaked the interface a little bit for the better (nothing significant on that front though, really). They greatly expanded the amount of things you could click on to get information or hints. Hand of Fate is actually a good game, if you can believe it. Hyper Crab Tank fucked around with this message at 13:00 on Sep 8, 2014 |
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Sep 8, 2014 12:56
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Hyper Crab Tank posted:(nothing significant on that front though, really) 
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Sep 8, 2014 15:00
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Hand of Fate has almost no filler, but I do remember a bullshit "lost woods" jungle in Malcolm's Revenge (and being really annoyed about having to repeat something involving chess, but I can't remember what).
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Sep 8, 2014 15:06
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skoolmunkee posted:(and being really annoyed about having to repeat something involving chess, but I can't remember what). It's Tic-Tac-Toe. The third game unfortunately backslid a fair bit into Book One territory on some of the puzzles.
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Sep 8, 2014 15:31
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Aw. I figured this would be a vexing riddle adventure now, like in Zork Zero, but I guess Malcolm's mostly bored with just taunting us.
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Sep 9, 2014 02:04
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Glazius posted:Aw. I figured this would be a vexing riddle adventure now, like in Zork Zero, but I guess Malcolm's mostly bored with just taunting us. Brandon wouldn't notice the clown nose until it was too late.
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Sep 9, 2014 02:06
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Chapter 9: Wherein the Royal Vestments are Recovered Last time, we finally made it all the way to Castle Kyrandia, and had a brief encounter with Malcolm the Jester in the entrance hall. The Kyragem is close. The background music in Castle Kyrandia is a little unusual. There are actually two themes: one that's rather quiet and ambient and plays when you first enter or load a game. Once it has finished once, there's a second, more melodic theme that starts up and loops forever. I rather prefer the second one, myself. Music: Castle Kyrandia A (Tindeck) Music: Castle Kyrandia B (Tindeck) Those stairs look mighty tempting, but let's start by exploring the ground floor of the castle.   A lot of the castle consists of relatively featureless corridors like these. Fortunately, there aren't nearly as many empty corridors as there are empty forest locations in the rest of the game, and they're laid out fairly logically. The castle has an east and a west wing, each with two floors and with a few rooms on each side.  In the corner of the bottom floor of the east wing is the kitchen. It's pretty gross. Malcolm has been hanging out in the castle all alone for the last two decades and his hygienic standards leave a lot to be desired. We can examine a bunch of stuff in here, like the barrels in the middle of the room... Looks like they're filled with dust.... and the tap on the left. I wouldn't dare drink anything from that!It looks like there's an opening in the top right corner of the room, but clicking on it does nothing. Maybe you could go there in an earlier version of the game? What we're after in here is hanging from one of the hooks on the right.  Not just any poker; it's the Royal Scepter, the second of the three Kyrandian regalia. Obviously an item of royalty.There's nothing else in the kitchen that's of any use of us, so it's time to leave and get back to exploring.  In the middle of the castle is the great hall. Brandon can't resist the temptation to break out a lame pun. Most of the little doors on this screen lead to other parts of the castle, and you can also get to this room from the top floor. The most important door is the one against the back wall of the bottom floor, with the two big golden bits on it.  Drat. We'll need to find a key or something. Wherever it is, it's not in here.  Ugh. That makes Brandywine look good.The only interesting room on the bottom floor of the west wing is this study. Most of the room is taken up by a massive and impressively ugly fireplace. The floor has a peculiar design on it, too. Of primary interest to us are the bookcases on the left and right sides of the room, however.  Clicking one of the bookcases makes Brandon pull out one of the books and comment on its title. There are six books in the left bookcase we can look at. In addition to "P" for Potions, there's: That book is marked "G" for Gemlore. That book is marked "A" for Alchemy. That book is marked "M" for Magic. That book is marked "E" for Enchantment. That book is marked "N" for Nature.There are two more on the right.  That book is marked "O" for Opals.Interesting. There are eight books in total, labeled P, G, A, M, E, N, R and O. Clicking one of them again pushes it back into the bookcase. It almost looks like we could spell something with that. But what? There are a lot of words we can make from those letters, but one sticks out as particularly relevant. We'll leave G, A, M and R as they are, pull out the rest, and...  PEON? NOPE! In an unusual twist, the game has presented us with a puzzle that's both logical and easy to do once you've figured it out. Spelling out "OPEN" rotates the hideous fireplace, revealing... another identical fireplace on the other side of the wall. Very useful. But what's that sitting among the ashes?  It must have been on the other side of the rotating wall. We have the full set of regalia now, although we're not really sure what we need them for yet. The door in the great hall looks promising, but we still lack the means to unlock it. As it turns out, part of the solution to that little problem is staring us right in the face. With its own face.   Clicking the fireplace itself rotates the entire thing, depositing Brandon in a dark, dungeon-like room on the other side. You don't need to do the OPEN puzzle to do this - we could have done it right away, and if we did, we would've seen a glimpse of the crown on the other side.  Much to our dismay...  ... this area is another labyrinth. Mercifully, it's not nearly as big as the one in the cave, and we don't have to bring any light sources with us. We just have to wander around randomly for a little bit until we come across something interesting.  Like this, for instance. Looks like some kind of magical force field.Indeed, the green light is preventing us from going that way, which is a sure sign that we should be going that way. How do we get rid of it? This might work. Good job, Brandon. The blue jewel on our amulet dispels the magic wall. Now, do remember that we were never told what this spell was actually called. Given what we used it for earlier, it's easy to mislead yourself into thinking the blue jewel is Telekinesis or something like that, rather than Dispel Magic. In other words, this is another puzzle where the solution is not really hinted at, and trial and error is necessary.  On the other side of the wall is more of the same. More dark, identical dungeon rooms. Fantastic.  More random wandering on this side of the dungeon eventually takes us to this room. Do you see anything... different about this one?  Part of the floor is slightly different, and can be moved aside, revealing a golden key! This has to fit something. This probably isn't to the restroom!More likely, it will help us open that door in the great hall. Let's go give it a shot.  Drat. The key did something, but whatever it was, it wasn't enough. For now let's just reload our game and head on up to the top floor.  These stairs will take us right up to the balcony.  This room is actually a copy of the great hall with the balcony graphics overlaid on top. There's not much of interest here, other than the exits - we can go back down the stairs, or go east or west.  Both exits lead to more uninteresting corridors, just like on the bottom floor.  I think this must have been Zanthia's bedroom. Looks like a lot of Zanthia's useless stuff.The top floor is mostly bedrooms. The east wing has Zanthia's bedroom in it. She was presumably kicked out of it along with everyone else eighteen years ago, so the spiders have had free reign of it for a while now. There's not much of interest here, although you can pick up the green ankh sitting on the shelf in the back.  Could this be carved from emerald?The item itself is useless, however, so we won't be hanging on to it.  The next room over is Darm's, judging by the very lifelike statue of himself he apparently had made at some point before leaving the castle. Wait...  He didn't get Brandywine too, did he?... that's actually Darm himself. Looks like Malcolm's been busy while we were running around making potions and talking to our dead mother. Alas, we can't cure Darm's present condition, and there's nothing else of any interest in this room.  Going west brings us back out to the top floor of the great hall. Those two doors in the background are just for decoration and can't be entered, but we can go west.  Judging by the decor, this must have been Brynn's bedroom.The first room on the west side of the top floor is another bedroom, with another lifelike statue in it.  More rock-based puns from Brandon. There's an unusual item in the corner of the room.  How long has that been there?  Yuck. The fish, like the emerald ankh, is another red herring (what are you talking about, it's clearly blue) and has no use in the game whatsoever. There's only one more room on the top floor to visit, and it's also on the west side.  It's to the left of this otherwise unremarkable bit of corridor. Why are we stopping here? Keep going, Brandon.  Music: Danger (Tindeck) Oh jesus. Er, hi, Herman. You look different somehow.  Brandon, I have your saw! But I sharpened it just for you!Looks like our old pal is back and just dying to return the saw we lent him way back near the beginning of the game. Well, green skin or no, we're not going to let that loser stand in the way of what we want, right? We can just push right past him.  I had a hunch it would be something like that. Oddly enough, and unlike the gargoyle-induced melting we saw earlier, this particular death is just really cartoony and goofy-looking. I guess there's no PG-13 way to show someone being sawed in half, but couldn't they have done like a discretion shot or something? This situation is also different from the Malcolm encounter earlier, where clicking anything other than the single correct thing would cause instant death. We can do anything we like, even leave the room, and Herman will just stand there with his goofy grin on. The one thing we can't do is go left. Okay, problem solving time. You might think the solution is perfectly straightforward: If the Invisibility spell worked on the gargoyles, it should work on Herman, right?  ... but for some reason Brandon just turns visible again when you get near Herman. This always annoyed me, because it makes it look like Brandon deliberately ended the spell at the dumbest possible time, and invisibility feels like it should be the perfect solution. It's not explained why it doesn't work, either, it just doesn't. We're in the right neighborhood, though. If we can't sneak past Herman, then maybe we can cure whatever magical influence Malcolm has on him?  ... okay, not quite what I expected, but we'll take what we can get. The Heal spell is indeed the correct answer, but rather than actually cure Herman and require the developers to come up with something for him to say in response, the spell just puts him to sleep. The end result is nevertheless than we can get past him now.  Beyond is another bedroom, this time conspicuously absent an actual bed. Looks like we found Zanthia, too. Poor Zanthia. Hopefully she can be restored too.On the left is another peculiar item.  Seriously Brandon what is it about the castle that makes you break out in all these horrible puns? Sadly, the hourglass is yet another useless item. I'm not sure why there are so many items in the castle that have no use, but there you go. The only other thing we can meaningfully interact with is the set of bells in the middle of the room.  Clicking a bell causes Brandon to tell us what note the bell plays. There are four of them: DO, RE, MI, and FA, starting from the bottom. You can grab the mallet, which lets you play the bells by clicking on them.  After striking four bells at random, Brandon puts the mallet down. I hope I'm not supposed to sing now!No, please don't. As you might have guessed, this is another puzzle with no hints to it in the game. The names of the notes are insignificant and the answer isn't a famous tune or anything like that. The random trial-and-error puzzles in this game are really getting tiring at this point, so let's cut right to the chase: Strike the bells in the order DO, FA, MI, RE and the puzzle is solved.  Well, well, well...Hey, the painting moved, and there's a key behind it.  It looks identical to the one we got earlier. Maybe now that we have both keys, we can open that door?  Indeed! What could lurk within?  That must be the Kyra-Vault!We're so close that we can taste it now. The Kyragem is on the other side of that door. What should we do to open it? We'll find out... next time.
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Sep 13, 2014 18:34
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Brandon's terrible sense of humor must be genetic. Now we know why his family was overthrown and that Malcolm is actually the hero of the piece, deposing the cruel tyranny of dad jokes.
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Sep 13, 2014 18:46
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The green ankh was a shout-out towards the "Eye of the Beholder" RPG series, the first two games of which were also made by Westwood Studios, the authors of the Kyrandia saga. In the series (based on D&D) the clerics used a green ankh as holy simbol: using it opened the clerical spells menu. By the way, there is another easter egg in the scenery: ordering Brandon to interact with Zanthia shows that among his own long lest of faults, beside horrible sens of humor and dim-wittedness, it must be added lechery.
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Sep 13, 2014 19:46
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Guy Fawkes posted:By the way, there is another easter egg in the scenery: ordering Brandon to interact with Zanthia shows that among his own long lest of faults, beside horrible sens of humor and dim-wittedness, it must be added lechery. This is either an urban legend or something that was removed in the CD-ROM version, because I know what you're referring to and I cannot reproduce it.
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Sep 13, 2014 19:54
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Hyper Crab Tank posted:This is either an urban legend or something that was removed in the CD-ROM version, because I know what you're referring to and I cannot reproduce it. Probably removed because of the bad taste. I had the floppy version, and touching Zanthia around the breast area resulted in the comment "I've always wanted to do that". The fact that Zanthia's statue is the only one without a comment about clearly shows that something's missing.
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Sep 13, 2014 19:59
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 22:34 |
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Guy Fawkes posted:The fact that Zanthia's statue is the only one without a comment about clearly shows that something's missing. Brandon does have something to say when you click Zanthia (it's in the update), but it's not... that.
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Sep 13, 2014 20:00
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