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Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.


What is this?

The City Of Lost Children is a 3D adventure game released in 1997 and it is loosely based on the film 'The City of Lost Children' which was released in 1995. The game is very minimalistic in its approach, so much so it seems to assume that you've seen the film already as it throws you into the game with next to no information about anything. What we do know right now is that kids are being kidnapped from the streets and we are playing the game as a kid ourselves. We play as a twelve-year-old girl called Miette, who is part of a criminal gang of orphans that is run by the orphanage owner "Pieuvre" (Octopus). We start off with a task to accomplish

There isn't a whole to see apart from the main playthrough. When I said the game is minimalistic that also means the gameplay as well, there's little to no deviation from the main path. There's also little in the way of dialogue and interactivity as well. This game also suffers from other issues, inventory items are hard to spot and can only be picked up if you're standing right above them, there are no hints on how to proceed with puzzles and the puzzles themselves are not very intuitive.

I'd highly recommend watching the film for yourself.

LP Details

This will be a VLP and I will be recording commentary live and unscripted. I don't have a schedule, it all depends on when I have free time around work and child care but I will aim to have at least one video up a week. Even though there isn't a whole lot of deviation in the storyline there are fail states, something which I will attempt to show off in a video separate from the main playthrough.

Let's Play: The City Of Lost Children





Bonus Video: Additional Footage

Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Sep 14, 2023

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Randalor
Sep 4, 2011



I remember seeing this movie a long time ago back when I would regularly rent random sci-fi movies from the video rental places. Good times, I found some solid sci-fi movies that I had never heard of, and odd foreign movies like this. That's probably the biggest casualty of video rental places shutting down.

anilEhilated
Feb 17, 2014

But I say fuck the rain.

Grimey Drawer
Oh, nice, I remember really liking the movie (quite a long time ago, I wonder how it aged...). The game seems like the precursor of those tie-in games every big movie in 2000s had to have by law, though.

Samovar
Jun 4, 2011

I'm 😤 not a 🦸🏻‍♂️hero...🧜🏻



Amazing! I had always heard of this from my partner, but never thought I'd get a chance to see it.

I remember the movie being quite good.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
This has been on the burner for a while but I've kept putting it off. I've tried to play this a number of times over the years but I kept bouncing off of it. I think part of it was that I was trying to play it like a normal adventure game and getting frustrated by the lack of interaction with the game world and dialogue, the other part of it was the issues with inventory and not knowing what the hell that I'm meant to be doing.

This is a bit of an odd choice for an adaptation. Despite the film becoming a cult classic, it bombed in the cinema and the studio and ended up losing millions.

PurpleXVI
Oct 30, 2011

Spewing insults, pissing off all your neighbors, betraying your allies, backing out of treaties and accords, and generally screwing over the global environment?
ALL PART OF MY BRILLIANT STRATEGY!
I remember watching the movie and mostly feeling like I just watched a dream that only very vaguely had each part connected to each other.

Captain Hygiene
Sep 17, 2007

You mess with the crabbo...



Oh wow, what a weird production to base a game on, I'll be curious to check this out. I'll have to give the movie another go too, it's been long enough that I don't remember much about it. The other weird thing is that I absolutely would've sworn it was a Guillermo del Toro production, I guess it was the foreign production/Ron Perlman combo that got that stuck in my mind. Well regardless, this'll be interesting.

Samovar
Jun 4, 2011

I'm 😤 not a 🦸🏻‍♂️hero...🧜🏻



Man, now I'm imagining Alien 4 having been directed by del Toro, and now I'm sad.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.


We return safely after a job well done only to be sent on another task. Once again we're sent off with the most bare amount of details and left to figure everything out for ourselves.

I was going to post an update this morning but ended up re-recording this section again just now after getting home from work. One of the puzzles in this section has two solutions and I was only able to find one of them this morning, the other solution was eluding me as I couldn't find a couple of objects to complete it. I was all ready to push the post button but this was nagging me so I poked around a bit and found a guide with details of where to find the missing items, so I made the decision to pull the update so I could include both solutions instead of shoving it into a separate video.

Samovar
Jun 4, 2011

I'm 😤 not a 🦸🏻‍♂️hero...🧜🏻



It's so weird seeing a representation of the film's aesthetic and it not being in French. Miette sounds just so... generic.

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.

Samovar posted:

It's so weird seeing a representation of the film's aesthetic and it not being in French. Miette sounds just so... generic.

That may be down to how she was directed than the voice actor herself, she became the voice of Lara Croft two years after this game: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0254511/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_8_q_jonell%2520elliot

Samovar
Jun 4, 2011

I'm 😤 not a 🦸🏻‍♂️hero...🧜🏻



Rocket Baby Dolls posted:

That may be down to how she was directed than the voice actor herself, she became the voice of Lara Croft two years after this game: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0254511/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_8_q_jonell%2520elliot

I THOUGHT she sounded familiar!

Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.


This video is the finale of The City Of Lost Children.

Thank you, everyone, for watching and being a part of this LP. This was a short run but it's only a short game, unfortunately. This game definitely feels unfinished and like it was patched up and rushed out for release. There seems to be plot holes and missing scenes\dialogues and the final section of the game is reduced to a cutscene. There seems to be a lot of potential with this game, I don't think that it would have reached the status of being a classic but there's a whole lot more that could have been done with it. Ah well, it is what it is. If all goes well I'm going to attempt an LP of The Neverhood next, another game from my youth that I never really got the chance to play properly.

Edit: I will put together a bonus video for this game, hopefully I'll have something up within the next couple of days.

Rocket Baby Dolls fucked around with this message at 17:38 on Sep 12, 2023

Samovar
Jun 4, 2011

I'm 😤 not a 🦸🏻‍♂️hero...🧜🏻



...wow. That was quick as all hell. Still, thanks for LP'ing it.

By popular demand
Jul 17, 2007

IT *BZZT* WASP ME--
IT WASP ME ALL *BZZT* ALONG!


What an odd little game, if you found the movie hard to follow* this will not help.

*everyone did.

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Rocket Baby Dolls
Mar 3, 2006

Normally I don't make aesthetic criticisms in other peoples' homes, but that rug looks like a beaver exploded. If meat is murder, then that rug is at least a severe beating.
Bonus Video: Additional Footage

This video is in three sections. The first section shows off what happens if you keep getting locked in the cellar, you really do only have two occasions as you are locked out of the game on the third occasion. The second segment shows what happens if the watchman catches you, there doesn't seem to be a limit to how many times that you can get caught which means that you can keep throwing the metal bar at the lighthouse fuse box. The third section shows what happens when you use the scissors on the rope tied around the crate in the courtyard, this is the only one scene that I know of with an actual game over screen.

This LP is officially over. I'm going to aim to start the next one this weekend.

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