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 What is Fez? Fez is a game that looks like this:  But it really looks like THIS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZfnxKB9HCM (And it sounds like this) It's a really good-looking game with a really immersive, relaxing atmosphere. It's the kind of game you put on at the end of the day to calm down and just go. Something you look up from and realise that two hours have gone by while you play, and that you've explored so much that you're twenty rooms away from where you started. There's lots of nooks and crannies with secrets to find, some good puzzles, some great music; and one of the most infamous development histories behind it. But we're not going to focus on that. We're going to focus on the "relaxing" part of the game. And so I only have a couple of rules for the thread: 1) DO NOT TALK ABOUT PHIL FISH - I'm not saying we can't say anything bad; I'm going to say bad things about the game when they come up, because the game is by no means perfect, but since the odds are pretty high that nobody here actually knows Phil as a person, I don't want to hear any discussion on the kind of guy he may or may not be based on any interviews or tweets you may have seen. Separate art from artist and appreciate the work that went into this. 2) DO NOT SPOIL ANYTHING - You might be aware that Fez has some pretty deep puzzles, whether by word-of-mouth or playing the game yourself. That is true, but I'm LPing the game in two halves. The first half is EXPLORATION MODE, where I'm going to explore every inch of the map that has cubes and cube bits in it. Once we've collected all 32 cubes and ascended to New Game Plus, we'll begin PUZZLE MODE, where I'll cover all of the proper puzzles in the game. If you know about the puzzles and their solutions, please don't say anything until I cover them. If you haven't played the game and this is all new to you, you might be able to piece together some solutions in Exploration Mode. Feel free to discuss puzzles if you're new to the game and genuinely haven't seen them before, I encourage you to collaborate with other people in the thread who haven't seen the puzzles, if there are enough of you. Collaborative puzzle solving is, in fact, completely intended as part of the game's design. 3) DO NOT DWELL - Like I said, I'm not going to heap praise upon every aspect of the game, but try not to get caught up on the bad stuff. There isn't enough of it in the game that it should be ruining your fun with it. 4) WATCH IN HIGH DEFINITION AT 60 FRAMES PER SECOND - This is more of a suggestion, but since YouTube allows for 60fps videos, I recorded the game that way, and it looks really good at 720p 60fps, so I do encourage you to watch that way if you can. And now, unless I'm forgetting something important, let's all take a deep breath… … …and exhale. Let's begin. NEW GAME - EXPLORATION MODE ACTIVATE!  Part 01: Chilling And Crashing Part 02: Crate Expectations Part 03: Neon Genesis Evan-bell-ion Part 04: Mine Your Manners Part 05: Welcome To The (Light)House Of Fun Part 06: Wind(mill) Me Up And Watch Me Go Part 07: Dizzying Heights Part 08: Industrial Revolutions Part 09: Application of Rotation Theory Part 10: The Other Kind Of Chilling Part 11: Throne Into New Experiences Part 12: Let Me Lens You A Hand Part 13: Time, Space, Continuum NEW GAME PLUS - PUZZLE MODE GO!  Part 14: The First-Person You Think Of Part 15: Reflect On These Lessons Part 16: Owl Do The Talking Part 17: That Syncing Feeling Part 18: Don't Go Rotatin' My Heart APPENDICES Appendix A: The Endings of Fez Appendix B: The Music of Fez Appendix C: The Puzzles of Fez PHOTO ALBUM - GOMEZ'S SUMMER MEMORIES This is from that one time I looked at a reverse sunset.  This is from that one time I looked at a forward sunset.  This is from that one time I jumped into some water.  This is from that one time I was in some water.  This is from that one time I looked at this really cool neon sign.  This is from that one time I sat on this spinny thing.  This is from that one time I looked at the top of this really cool neon sign.  This is from that one time I danced at an underground rave.  This is from that one time I looked at a tree.  This is from that one time I looked at a stream of water.  This is from that one time I stared into the infinite vastness of space.  This is from that one time I forgot what time it was.  This is from that one time I remembered I'm actually Phil Collins. 
frozentreasure fucked around with this message at 04:00 on Apr 7, 2015 |
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Nov 9, 2014 02:06
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Bookmarked. I've been curious about this game for two years, but been too lazy to buy it and play it. Perhaps I should fix that.
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Nov 9, 2014 02:51
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This game and La-Mulana fascinate me with their ciphers and seemingly bullshit though somewhat workable puzzles. Fez is really chill, but also really great if you like solving obtuse puzzles. I've got my eye on this. 
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Nov 9, 2014 03:00
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Nice start OP. I've had this game myself for ages but never played it. I didn't realise how pretty it was. Does the passage of time in game have any effect on gameplay?
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Nov 9, 2014 03:03
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Excellent, Been looking forward to a good Lp of Fez. Will definitely follow along with this 
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Nov 9, 2014 03:07
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This game is really far too nice to have been made by the guy it was--frozentreasure posted:1) DO NOT TALK ABOUT PHIL FISH - I'm not saying we can't say anything bad; I'm going to say bad things about the game when they come up, because the game is by no means perfect, but since the odds are pretty high that nobody here actually knows Phil as a person, I don't want to hear any discussion on the kind of guy he may or may not be based on any interviews or tweets you may have seen. Separate art from artist and appreciate the work that went into this. Oh well alright. Fez is cool, neat graphics but infuriating puzzles. I hate games that offer you pretty much no hints whatsoever, so while it's great to get lost in exploring Fez's world, it's frustrating to find some block puzzle and spend an hour doing combinations for what feels like an obvious solution only to know nothing more about it than you did when you started.
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Nov 9, 2014 03:24
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Man, I've wanted a proper informative LP of this wonderful game for a long time. I'm glad you're the one tackling it, your previous LPs were a lot of fun. Fantastic start. I was waiting to see if you would play along with the especially surreal moments in the intro and was not disappointed
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Nov 9, 2014 05:15
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Yes, another Fez LP! It's always a good day when I log on to see someone new tackling this. I really dig the idea behind separating out exploration and puzzle-solving, as a way of trying to use the first half to get people to get the game for themselves. It's been a long while since I've played Fez, so I'll be following this like a hawk.
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Nov 9, 2014 05:56
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Argh, my eyes!  Some of the strange quirks this first video showed with the perspective shifting were kind of disorientating. Still, this looks like a pretty promising game. I'm looking forward to more chill Fez time.That 'most hattering qualities' line was pretty great too. 
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Nov 9, 2014 07:03
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Yapping Eevee posted:Some of the strange quirks this first video showed with the perspective shifting were kind of disorientating. That's thanks to the way 3D projection is used in the game. The way a 3D world easily snaps to a 2D perspective completely eliminating depth is thanks to a concept called parallel projection. It's a cool facility of computer graphics that is only really used in stuff like AutoCAD. This is the only game I know of that uses it.
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Nov 9, 2014 07:11
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I finished this game 100% with a walkthrough for the stupid poo poo. I really liked the game but strongly question a couple of the design decision Fish made. Once one of them pops up I will bitch about it. I suspect the OP is going to say the same thing.
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Nov 9, 2014 07:35
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I got this from a humble bundle or something played for a couple hours and got horribly lost and confused then proceeded to never touch the game again. I was told that i'd love it since La-Mulana is one of my favorite games but something about Fez just didn't click with me for some reason.
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Nov 9, 2014 08:40
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I've played this before. Fez is a great game in so many ways, but sprinkled throughout is occasional moments of total bullshit and/or complete nonsense. And the ending sequence is purely pretentious nonsense and I don't feel bad saying that. But the game itself, like the op said, is a beautiful, relaxing, puzzle/exploration platformer that does some absolutely amazing things with mechanics, atmosphere, visuals, and music. It has a deep sense of flawed genius to it. I'm hoping to see what kind of stuff I missed because I only ever did one playthrough and couldn't be bothered to solve the puzzles. This feels a lot like that Arkham City lp that just started up.
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Nov 9, 2014 17:09
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Fez is a good game and I love your narration. Looking forward to this.
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Nov 9, 2014 17:14
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Put me down as another "Nice game, but a number of puzzles and design decisions are highly questionable" guy. Looking forward to the LP.
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Nov 9, 2014 18:04
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Just from watching the video, I'm fully assured I'm never going to be able to play this; puzzle platformers frustrate me to no end and the whole perspective premise sees to be a massive pain to adapt to. All the more reason to follow the LP! Wait, now I remember why it looks familiar. Wasn't this guy a cameo in Dust: An Elysian Tail?
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Nov 9, 2014 18:24
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Yeah. Fez dude was one of the guys in a cage.
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Nov 9, 2014 18:47
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I got this game a while ago, just to find out that my old computer can't handle it. As you're planning a comprehensive playthrough and your narration style is really nice, I'll certainly follow along with this one. By the way, Dot being a four-dimensional hypercube is a neat touch. It's also a full explanation of how she (she's a she right? I hope she's a she) can show what's outside doors.
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Nov 9, 2014 19:30
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Roro posted:Does the passage of time in game have any effect on gameplay? I was just joking around in the tutorial; you can spend ages talking to people and it'll still be Special Day. If anything, it shows, again, how the intro has some pacing issues. BottledBodhisvata posted:I hate games that offer you pretty much no hints whatsoever, so while it's great to get lost in exploring Fez's world, it's frustrating to find some block puzzle and spend an hour doing combinations for what feels like an obvious solution only to know nothing more about it than you did when you started. While I disagree with the notion that it gives you no hints whatsoever (it really is like Dark Souls in the amount of information you have to be paying attention for), I will grant you that the exploration and the puzzle solving come at odds and can result in frustration. It happened to me when I first played the game; I was expecting some puzzles and some platforming, but the extent of the puzzles wasn't what I was ready for and I didn't know where to start paying attention and writing things down, what I should be writing down, and so on. Same thing happened with La Mulana, in fact. Anyway, here's a super punctual update to get us into the real part of Fez, as well as open up some discussion on the lore of the world of Fez. Part 02: Crate Expectations I forgot to duck the audio at some of the louder segments. If it's too hard to listen to, let me know and I'll fix it.
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Nov 10, 2014 10:06
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The last time I saw this game LP'd, my impression was that FEZ is a Metroidvania that uses knowledge of how to solve puzzles as the "upgrades" that you need to collect in order to progress further (at least, for 100% completion; I don't know if it's possible to stumble through the game without figuring anything out and still hitting an ending).
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Nov 10, 2014 11:22
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FEZ's soundtrack is really great to chill. Especially Compass (the music at the end of the first video), my favorite.
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Nov 10, 2014 14:34
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frozentreasure posted:I forgot to duck the audio at some of the louder segments. If it's too hard to listen to, let me know and I'll fix it. Sounds fine. Great lp btw, though you intentionally skipping those shortcuts is annoying me. My inner explorer is crying out. ViggyNash fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Nov 10, 2014 |
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Nov 10, 2014 16:13
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The image in the OP is giving me a horizontal scroll bar, can you make it smaller/a thumbnail?
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Nov 10, 2014 17:37
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I think our next stop should be the Bell Tower For no particular reason. (we are voting on this, right?)
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Nov 10, 2014 20:29
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ViggyNash posted:Sounds fine. Great lp btw, though you intentionally skipping those shortcuts is annoying me. My inner explorer is crying out. If I took the little gate I ignored, all that would have accomplished would have been needing to backtrack to where I was. We learned what they do later on, so we know what would have happened. Unless you mean the other thing. Aishlinn posted:I think our next stop should be the Bell Tower For no particular reason. (we are voting on this, right?) If it makes you feel better, sure. In truth, because I know what directions lead to dead-ends and what ones lead to new areas, I've got my path through the game pretty much all planned out. While letting the thread decide where to go would be a fun idea and fit in with the exploration, I need to have some predefined structure to help me explore everywhere without wasting everyone's time. Having said that, the bell tower is actually next.
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Nov 10, 2014 23:43
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I honestly thought you were going to swim to a secret that would get you to that floating chest. But nope, just swimming until the stars come out. Which was really cool.frozentreasure posted:If it makes you feel better, sure. Just like U.S. politics, your vote matters!
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Nov 11, 2014 01:54
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Ho boy, Fez! This game brought out my inner code-breaker and had me addicted for weeks! Especially the cl- Uh... Nothing. Never mind. We'll get to it and I can wait. Totally bookmarked this LP. Like. Totally.
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Nov 11, 2014 02:37
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^^^ I logged in every day for a couple weeks to finish that stupid POS...just so I could finish the drat game. Horrible, horrible design decision.
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Nov 11, 2014 02:46
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I love this game. My fiancée was playing and in some room for like 20 minutes doing random poo poo because she kept insisting there was a puzzle and I told her she was overthinking it. Then it played a noise and she'd solved the puzzle and my mind was blown. Of course, then EVERYTHING turned out to be a puzzle and some of them were infuriating, but drat was it fun just screwing around trying stuff. Never looked at a walkthru so I'm looking forward to this
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Nov 11, 2014 03:11
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I'm wondering if anyone has ever finished this game without a walkthrough or hints of some sort. I ask because there is one puzzle in particular that is so needlessly obscure, I can't see how anyone would have figured it out.
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Nov 11, 2014 04:16
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halo
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Nov 11, 2014 04:18
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The Cave People, and their apparent strict 2D-ness, reminds me of Flatland. Anyway, I'm looking forward to more updates!
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Nov 11, 2014 21:06
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frozentreasure posted:If it makes you feel better, sure. In that case I vote bell tower too  I liked your pid lp so I'll be sure to follow this one
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Nov 14, 2014 22:34
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Seems good so far. Never got far into FEZ because, frankly, it bored me. I really only made it out of the tutorial and then a bit though, so I probably ought to give it another try. But I'm too busy playing Binding of Isaac: Rebirth so I guess that won't happen for a while.
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Nov 15, 2014 01:03
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I had to play FEZ with a walkthrough (and not a very well-written walkthrough either) because I eventually solved all the puzzles that didn't require codes, and got stuck. Also can I just say that every song on this soundtrack is basically wonderful, even if you're not into chip/techno music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbeFOFzsI2A
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Nov 15, 2014 02:57
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Waltzing Along posted:I'm wondering if anyone has ever finished this game without a walkthrough or hints of some sort. I ask because there is one puzzle in particular that is so needlessly obscure, I can't see how anyone would have figured it out. It would depend on what you mean by "finished" and "puzzle". Since you said "one puzzle", I have an inkling of which one you mean, and if I'm right, it's not that obscure. All in due time, though. Part 03: Neon Genesis Evan-bell-ion
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Nov 15, 2014 07:48
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I think that 'glitching out' in Neon City was supposed to be lightning.
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Nov 15, 2014 11:19
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As much as I dug the look of Neon City, I was more unsettled by it than chilled out. Probably the lack of other people. I've never finished this, so i'm unspoiled on the ending. I'm interested to see if it makes me as mad as it aparently did a bunch of people.
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Nov 15, 2014 23:10
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Carbon dioxide posted:I think that 'glitching out' in Neon City was supposed to be lightning. Yeah... dunno what happened with yours. RickVoid posted:I've never finished this, so i'm unspoiled on the ending. I'm interested to see if it makes me as mad as it aparently did a bunch of people. The ending is dumb as gently caress and you missed nothing. The real ending is the joy of finding and completing everything. Which I have never done.
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Nov 16, 2014 00:58
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I'm not sure if it's the ending that makes people upset so much as the endgame and its obscurantist BS puzzles.
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Nov 16, 2014 01:22
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