Just take a look, it's in a book! Let's Play Riven

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Just take a look, it's in a book! Let's Play Riven

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

Myst and Riven don't get nearly the love they deserve when people look back fondly on 90s adventure games. I actually replayed Riven a while back and it's awesome but boy are some of these puzzles tricky.

# ¿ Sep 22, 2016 18:38

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 05:48

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

I may be remembering this wrong, but another thing about the puzzles in the original Myst vs. this game is that things were much more compartmentalized in Myst. With one exception I can think of, everything you needed to "solve" an Age was in that Age, and the puzzles on Myst island all had their answers there if you looked hard enough. Here however, there a number of instances where info from one island is needed in order to figure out something on another island, so it's less obvious when and how something is important when there's nothing in the immediate area that makes it relevant.

# ¿ Oct 16, 2016 22:03

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

I actually like the contrast between Riven and Myst/its Ages in that regard. The environments in Myst feel very artificial and isolated, both for story and game tech reason. You're coming to these environments after Sirius and Achenar have messed them up, and using Atrus' self-made hub world of Myst to go between then. In Riven however, it's made clear from the start that you're trying to save this very real world, where life is continuing to operate unaware of the impending disaster.

Some of Myst's puzzles do revolve around structures in the Ages that were in use at one point, but in Riven those things are still active and running and that becomes part of the challenge.

# ¿ Oct 17, 2016 05:04

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

I never did anything with the fish head statue this early on, there's another way to figure out its hidden entrance later on.

# ¿ Oct 18, 2016 13:20

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

Fedule posted:

I contend that there are only actually two puzzles in Riven.

I've heard the same thing, and having played through the game I agree. Everything else is just getting around and figuring out what the puzzle pieces actually are.

# ¿ Oct 19, 2016 18:08

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

A little surprised by your decision to skip that island with the locked door, but it has info you need in order to beat the game so I guess we'll be seeing it anyway! It also contains an alternate hint to the puzzle we just solved, which I think is an interesting thing to have.

Bruceski posted:

And the intro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKCawALGeXw

There's a good GDC post-mortem about Myst (done by Robyn Miller) in the Related Videos for this one- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cULHgP8tmo. Spoilers for Myst, maybe light spoilers for Riven too? I don't remember any plot or puzzle points coming up for Riven, at least.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2016 06:14

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

My friend had the 5-disc Riven CD-ROM release, I want to say each island had its own disc but I'm not certain. Definitely a sight to behold to my nine-year old self who was still somewhat new to PC games.

# ¿ Nov 18, 2016 23:45

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

RickVoid posted:

In June of this year, Loading Ready Run (a Canadian comedy troupe that also streams video games and such) played through Myst in two sessions, roughly two and one-half hours apiece. You can view them here and here if you have ~5 hours to kill.

The reason I bring this up is that, besides watching two genuinely funny guys who are really enjoying the game bumble their way through half-forgotten puzzle solutions, they also take the time to draw attention to how certain effects were created, what the developer was attempting to make the player infer from the things being shown, and how a generation of game developers failed to understand what made Myst a successful game, and have inflicted upon us 20 years of games that would have been passable if not for having Myst-styled logic puzzles shoehorned into them.

My favorite bit is how, despite neither of them having played or being familiar with the plot of Riven, managed to draw a coherent parallel between how Atrus creates his worlds (trying to understand how his writing programs the world to do certain things and try to limit instability thereby), and how some game developers look at games that were created with that kind of care and understanding, decide they want to make something like it, but then just blindly copy the formula without understanding how or why it works, creating buggy and incoherent messes. They managed to get to "Why Gehn is the bad guy of Myst and Riven" without actually knowing that he exists.

Pro-click here. Best reaction was them unlocking the chest in Stoneship and finding that it contained another key :lol:

# ¿ Nov 22, 2016 01:23

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

IronSaber posted:

We're probably able to pinpoint where on the grid the domes are with that Topographical Map Generator. You know, the one that uses all those raised metal pins or whatnot.

The domes are there but they're a little tough to discern because 1997. In the game itself I believe you can rotate the grid maps to an extent. That's why we need them to make realRiven!

Also minor request- if it's not too much trouble, could you put all of the music clips in a list in the OP?

# ¿ Dec 17, 2016 07:11

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

I love this predicament because it's basically seeing how well you've paid attention to the writing and dialogue of the other characters up to this point.

# ¿ Jan 8, 2017 23:04

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

Also do we know how old any of these characters are? 30 years seems like a long-rear end time between the intro to Myst and now. I feel like Atrus and Catherine would have had to have been fairly young when they first escaped Riven.

# ¿ Jan 9, 2017 14:47

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

bitprophet posted:

IIRC they were in their early 20s when they escape Riven at the end of the Book of Atrus (and the Myst linking book falls into the starry crevice while Atrus narrates), presumably Sirrus & Achenar were born a few years after that, on Myst, and then the PC arrives on Myst Island when the sons are full-grown men (I'd guess in their 20s or 30s) and thus Atrus/Catherine are in late middle age.

I forget if there's any canon for how long the PC wanders around the Ages of Myst between the 1st game and Riven but it's probably not more than a few months or years? Only so many times you can ride that friggin' subway system on Selentic before going mad...

I could buy Atrus being 50 but drat Catherine looks good for her age. Maybe it's just the 90s FMV messing with me.

If she was able to write Botox into her prison on Riven, why didn't she just write herself a way out too :v:

# ¿ Jan 10, 2017 00:42

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

Zore posted:

They could also both have extended lifespans compared to modern humans. Atrus is part D'ni who explicitly live many times longer than normal earth humans and Catherine is from an alien world with all kinds of weird and hosed up ecosystems.

Yeah sure that's fine. I just really wanted to make that Botox joke.

# ¿ Jan 10, 2017 01:22

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

Get owned, sucker. I don't remember this basement room but it has the combination for Catherine's cell so I guess I was down there before?

Also, do you intend to show off any of the bad endings? There are some hilariously dickish moves you can pull considering that you're carrying the bad guy around in your pocket, and can release him at anytime.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2017 18:26

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

Yeah, releasing him in Tay is a huge dick move.

Nicely done on this LP, would definitely read one for Exile if it happens.

# ¿ Feb 25, 2017 22:09

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# ¿ Apr 19, 2024 05:48

C-Euro: Mar 20, 2010; Soiled Meat

Tunicate posted:

Are you going to cover the island's final riddles?

Honestly, I think the game is old enough that they aren't really remembered anymore.

#1

Where creatures float and waters rise,
only one of five will open.
The one that stands out is your prize,
small, orange and unbroken.
#2

Slowly rising from the bed,
and closer to your goal.
Clear the cobwebs from your head,
and search the empty bowl.

#3

Control the bridges, enjoy the view,
and think about the ride here.
Something you see just can't be true,
so make the mirage disappear.

#4

It rises from the water,
and asks you to come in.
Don't yet go where it's hotter,
first find the sign of Gehn.

#5

Call the first magcar again,
and search the rocks mearby.
The name of an historian
is just four pixels high.

poo poo, I just remembered that I was going to post about those. This link gives the answers to these so :siren:

don't click it if you want to figure it out yourself! :siren:

-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5Dz5XEmLVc

# ¿ Feb 26, 2017 06:36

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Just take a look, it's in a book! Let's Play Riven