Adventure Gamers - Forums

Interesting because I know you have stated your dislike of first-person games in the past. Yet you view this as some sort of third-person game even though we are playing the game as an un-named protagonist from a first-person perspective.

That would make it an interesting sort of hybrid.

I have reached the cave.

It is not so much games that use first-person perspective that I’m not a big fan of, for example the Tex Murphy series is also 1st-person, and I love those, though I guess you could call Tex Murphy a 1st/3rd-person hybrid. It is more the other aspects of those kind of games, the fact that they are usually based on solitary exploration and have an AFGNCAAP protagonist, that don’t really appeal to me.

What however is beginning to get to me in this game, is not so much that we are an AFGNCAAP, it is more because we are constantly only playing second fiddle to the main character. In the first two games we had to help Iris escape from the tower and defeat the evil king, but it was Iris who defeated him not us, and all through the games we were basically just doing what Iris told us to do, and using the different tools and means that she had created for us.

And now here in the 3rd game, we are once again following in somebody else’s footstep, following the boy through the paintings that he created, using tools that he left behind etc. I am beginning to get real tired of being Dr. Watson to the Sherlock Holmes of this series, and I’m longing to get the chance to for once shine as Sherlock myself.


Anyway I have now also completed the second part, though not the last colouring puzzle, I will leave that for the next part. The puzzles are once again, at least some of them, well constructed and they are also getting more difficult.

I especially had some trouble with creating the eggs for the Easter Bunny.
It actually starts out pretty easy with the first egg, then gets just a little bit more difficult with the second, and had me completely stumped by the third
What made it difficult is that [spoiler]the result you are looking for in some cases, looked nothing like the templates that you had to use. Instead you we have to visualize that a scary ghostly image can be used to create picturesque mountains, and that the tentacles of a monster can be peaceful footpaths when you afterwards paint over 2/3 of the image.[spoiler]

There were however also some puzzles or rather minigames that I didn’t really like, like playing a game of croquet, the rotating rings, and of course the overused trace or colour this painting. Neither really requiring any form of cerebral challenge, just a bit of patience and dexterity.

I’ve reached the cave.

I feel that the series is starting to become repetitive. Not only is the story in this part kind of a rehash of the story in the first two games, but the puzzles aren’t generally as original any more either (how many colouring and tracing puzzles can you have?) and I feel we’re starting to get a bit too many minigames (despite the fact that I like things like that croquet minigame)...

On the plus side: music and artwork are outstanding once again, and everything feels better constructed than in Dark Flight at least…

Curious to see what the cave has in store…

I have always liked 1st person exploration as myself and not linked to any particular character.  I enjoy the 1st person games in which you see the character you’re playing in cut scenes and 3rd person games as well, but this kind of gameplay has always been more immersive to me.

OK! We start the Cave episode today/tomorrow, Thursday, and will finish on Saturday, if not before.

I originally set this up for three days/episode. Not because I ever thought it would take three days to complete. But because it would give everyone an option of when they wished to play the episode. Not everyone has the luxury of playing on Monday!

We’ll play this episode by ear. If all the players are finished before Saturday, we’ll move on.

There was one puzzle that involves four carved puppets on trapezes. (I thought I had a screenshot of it, but I can’t find it.) You’ll know it when you see it. The puzzle is solvable by brute force, if you want to go through all possible combinations, which is the way I tediously solved it. I.e. assign each puppet a number 1 thru 4 and then start working the possibilities ... 1234, 1243, 1324, 1342, 1423, 1432, 2134 ... etc. until the puzzle is solved. If anyone runs across runs across a clue for the solution, I would love to know what it is.

BTW, I have an ongoing rant regarding tedious puzzles on the Casual Games thread.

Anyway, play until you get to the flower bridge and stop.

From here we will enter the final chapter.

Side note: Something unusual seems to be going on. That is that the number of comments on the playthrough is unusually small. I went back and looked at the Phantasmat playthrough, and the total number of comments was 150. We’re at 21! Granted we’re only halfway through, but I’m curious why there is such a drop off. Thoughts?

If we look at the posts from Phantasmat and the previous playthroughs, then they have mostly been about the story elements. How all the dots in the story connects, who has done what, who is alive or dead, what it all means, does it make sense or not etc. But this game doesn’t really have much story to discuss, ergo there isn’t much discussions!

It is probably not the only explanation, but I think there is some games that are simply better suited for a community playthrough than others. It has nothing to do with whether or not it is a good game, but more a question of whether or not the game can create a lively debate, and story heavy games are simply better at that. Especially games where the story isn’t straight forward and leaves a lot of room for interpretations, or for that matter speculations about who done it or what will happen next, are in my opinion well suited for community playthroughs, and is something I always consider when proposing or voting for a game.

And I’m not just speaking about the casual playthroughs, it is I believe also true for the AG CP’s, where some games create more debate than others.

I have reached the flower bridge now.

rtrooney - 25 March 2015 07:36 PM

If anyone runs across runs across a clue for the solution, I would love to know what it is.

There is: The shield we used when creating the dolls also contain 4 symbols, and you just have to use the dolls to align these 4 symbols next to each other. That part actually only took me a few seconds.

What did take me a bit longer, was arranging the sun-discs in the correct order. After using the build in hints I finally realised that I had been over-thinking it, and we only needed to show the clouds parting. I had been trying to also arrange them so the sun would be setting/rising

Another thing that also took me quite some time, was finding all the hotspots. There was especially one that eluded me for quite some time, and here the hint system didn’t provide any help at all.

rtrooney - 25 March 2015 07:51 PM

Thoughts?

Like Izno says: most of the discussion comes from talking and speculating about the story.
This is the third game in a series. We discussed most of the story in the previous games and here it’s more of a (so far unconnected) rehash than an actual new story. That can’t help the discussion…

Becky - 26 March 2015 10:41 AM

I played this game twice before and got stuck on that puzzle with the eyes and the arrows. By the time I’d vanquished two eyes, the third one would always reanimate. This time I did it on the first attempt. I wonder if they made that puzzle easier.

I don’t think so. I had to make a conscious effort to make sure I got all three eyes within the same spin of the outer wheel…



As for this section: the lower part of the cave is apparently the added content from the Collector’s Edition. Can anyone tell me what the difference is with the regular version? Is that painting scrap just lying around, do you immediately jump to the chalk outline sequence inside the chest, or what?

TimovieMan - 26 March 2015 12:27 PM

I don’t think so. I had to make a conscious effort to make sure I got all three eyes within the same spin of the outer wheel…

Ditto.

TimovieMan - 26 March 2015 12:27 PM

As for this section: the lower part of the cave is apparently the added content from the Collector’s Edition. Can anyone tell me what the difference is with the regular version? Is that painting scrap just lying around, do you immediately jump to the chalk outline sequence inside the chest, or what?

Erh… What chest?

Only chest I can think of is the one with the four-part lock in the boat next to the gatekeeper. But that’s in the next episode.

Iznogood - 26 March 2015 04:20 PM

TimovieMan - 26 March 2015 12:27 PM

As for this section: the lower part of the cave is apparently the added content from the Collector’s Edition. Can anyone tell me what the difference is with the regular version? Is that painting scrap just lying around, do you immediately jump to the chalk outline sequence inside the chest, or what?

Erh… What chest?

Yikes, piss-poor incorrect wording. I meant that puzzle sequence where you’re following the chalk outline of Iris and help her over some obstacles until she opens a chest at the end that holds the painting scrap you need to continue.