Adventure Gamers - Forums

I am posting this mini-FAQ as a FYI for those who are unaware of the game’s existence, as a mini-review of my experience with the game, and as a technical support guide to actually playing this game. I kind of suck at writing things like this, so don’t expect anything too professional.

1. What is The Book of Watermarks?

It is an adventure game made for the original Playstation gaming console that was only released in Japan back in 1999.

2. What type of adventure game is it?

It’s basically a Myst clone. It utilizes a first person perspective and is of the slide-show with animated node transitions variety. Like Myst, most of the gameplay involves scouring the environment for clues to solve the puzzles. The game does have an inventory and a few simple inventory puzzles as well, but many inventory items are simply items that have to be placed in certain places based on the aforementioned environmental clues.

3. Can I play the game if I don’t know Japanese?

Absolutely. All the cutscenes are in English and there is no Japanese text in the game itself. Only the menus are in Japanese and below I have provided screenshots with translations for those who don’t want to puzzle it out themselves. I suggest you turn off the Japanese subtitles if you don’t speak Japanese. 

It is also important to note that the button assignments on Japanese controllers are different than in the US. O = Action Button. X = Cancel/Back. This messed me up a bit at first as I am used to it being the opposite.

4. Where can I get the game?

As the game is out of print, you will likely have to look for it on ebay, Amazon or other such marketplaces. I purchased my copy off of ebay.

5. Will the game work on my non-Japanese Playstation?

I don’t own an original Playstation, but I can confirm that an unmodified US NTSC PS2 Slim will NOT recognize the discs. Whether this is due to region coding or simply a problem with the PS2’s backwards compatibility, I don’t know. Unfortunately, I can’t confirm or deny any other hardware as I don’t own it.

6. Will this game run in a Playstation emulator?

Yes.

7.  What emulators does the game work/not work in?

PSX v1.13: Game plays perfectly with no tweaking, but the emulator can’t handle the disc change.

Epsxe v1.70: The controller/keyboard doesn’t work properly with Pete’s D3D plugins. Forward becomes backwards and some of the buttons stop working making the game unplayable. It only worked for me with Pete’s OpenGL v2.08. For reference, my video card is an AMD 6970. I don’t know if this is just a problem with my particular video card or a compatibility problem with the plugins themselves. Your mileage may vary. This emulator handles disc changes just fine though.

As I played half the game in PSX v1.13, I simply used epsxe to get past the disc change and then went back to PSX to finish the game. While I can’t 100% confirm it, the best option seems to be epsxe with Pete’s OpenGL v2.08 video plugin, which should get you through the whole game without problems.

If not, then do the memory card switch (simply rename the file and copy it) like I did to go back and forth between the emulators to get past problems.

Note that the emulators PSXeven and PCSX utilize the same plugins as epsxe and hence exhibited the same problems for me as well.

8. How long is the game?

Due to the technical difficulties I had with the emulators interrupting my play, I can’t say for certain, but I would say the game is about 3 hours long. It’s definitely a very short game.

9. How difficult is the game?

It’s not very difficult. Once you have discovered the clues, the solutions are very straight forward. If you miss a clue somewhere you can always consult the Book of Watermarks, which can be found near the save point in the game and it will give you a strong hint. I didn’t know the book supplied hints when I played the game and almost spoiled a puzzle for myself, but fortunately I already knew the information it provided. So take that as a warning to avoid the book unless you are truly stuck.

10. What is the story about?

Story? What’s that? You need to find a bunch of books that have been mysteriously hidden behind a bunch of arbitrary puzzles spread across a few islands. In return, you get FMVs that feel like music videos with historical and/or fictional references about the contents of said books spoken over them.

11. Are there any reviews of this game?

Here are two reviews that I know of:

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/watermarks/watermarks.htm
http://www.gamefaqs.com/ps/575489-the-book-of-watermarks/reviews/review-146609

As for me, I liked the game despite its shortcomings. It’s one of those games that is weak only for what it lacks and not for what it actually contains. The latter is a problem I encounter far more often than I would like in the genre.

In short, it feels like a demo to a game I would want to buy, but alas, the demo is all there is. It just feels unfinished. As such, I wouldn’t recommend anyone pay very much for this game, but if you can get it for a cheap price, give it a try if you want a casual Myst-like game to play after work one day.

If anyone has any other questions, just ask. I’m terrible at this stuff and probably missed something important.

Screenshots:

A Japanese Myst-like? I’m sold.