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Psion posted:Tell me they make you chop all the jungle again. FOREVER. It's much worse.  doing the obvious posted:Speaking of music, you forgot to link the jingles for Limbo and The Underworld. Ah, whoops, thank you. I'll edit it in.
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May 14, 2015 18:39
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Hyper Crab Tank posted:It's much worse. Of course it is. 
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May 14, 2015 18:45
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The return to Isle of Cats in this path isn't too bad, thankfully. I still really like the night music for Kyrandia. It's bittersweet but still has the underlying tone of adventure that Frank managed to work into all the songs for the major acts. Also please tell me you'll be showing off what happens when you don't take Stewart's advice about not buying a specific item from the Pawn Shop later on 
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May 15, 2015 01:11
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Nah, it's the Isle itself that's annoyingly troublesome. As previously mentioned, the "Kyrandia at night" music is some of the best in the game. Most of it's pretty good, but that one really hits the spot for me. And don't worry, all shall be shown off, even if it ends up killing us! ... besides that one thing I still can't make happen.
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May 15, 2015 01:28
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Ah, repeating content. At least the music is new.
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May 15, 2015 21:49
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Chapter 9: Wherein a Slight Feeling of Déjà Vu Sets In Last time, Malcolm returned to the land of the living, got reacquainted with his good conscience Stewart, and was told to go back to the Isle of Cats to get some jewels. Again. To that end, we arranged for a pegasus potion and took right off.   That's a little tougher at night. Exhilarating! Nothing like a pony ride to get the blood pumping! Sure. Especially when YOU'RE the pony!Music: Isle of Cats Well, here we are again on the Isle of Cats, on the beach where we first hired those treacherous pirates. It's night time here, too, and the pirates as well as all the dogs are gone. Sitting right behind us on the sand is our old trusty friend the machete.  Unfortunately we seem to have lost the rest of our inventory in transit again, so the machete is all we've got. We're going to need it - the dog with the cart is long gone, so if we want to get anywhere on the isle we're going to have to go through the jungle again.  The jungle works the same way as it did last time, except now it's all blue and dark. We're not getting anywhere unless we clear the room of underbrush, and it grows back when we leave the room. None of the cardinal directions make any sense, so you're still going to get lost unless you memorized all the connections.  Naturally, I didn't, so I spend the next ten minutes getting lost.  Oh, and the snake piles are back, too.  For some reason, so are the random bones, but we have no use for those anymore so I'm just going to ignore them.  After a little while, we stumble on the old dog fort. The dogs are gone, and there's a new structure in their place. Someone rebuilt the entrance to the ruins. We can go inside if we want, but there's not much reason to. At least it's lit up now. The Hieroglyphic Room is intact as well. Since we're done with the whole elements puzzle, we don't get any more hints by clicking on the cat idols, but Malcolm does comment on what he thinks they're called.  That must be the cat idol Tuna-breath. That must be the cat idol Flea-bag. That must be the cat idol Stinky. That must be the cat idol Fur-ball. That must be the cat idol Itchy. I wonder how I can get touch with that Belloc [sic] fellow.The game misspells his name, but René Belloq is of course the primary antagonist in Raiders of the Lost Ark. There's nothing else for us to do here, so back to the jungle we go.  The jungle is the same on this side, too.  After a few more minutes of hacking the jungle to shreds, we run across another old pal! Fluffy! Is that you? You look like you're still rebelling. Why?  We must return to our natural ways.The cycle of revolutions never ends, does it. We don't really care though, we're here for the altar of cats (which is actually nearby).  You help me, and I'll help you. We of the revolution are how buying our weapons from the Dogs.How ironic, but I don't see what that has to do with me.  Ffffffffffffffffffffuuuuuuucccckk yooooouuuu.  Oh great! Now we're collecting bones. My mother said I should go to work for one of the Seven Deadly Sins, but nooo, I had to be a conscience! Complaining never solves a problem, Gunther. Let's just find those bones and be on our way.So yeah, hey, remember how last time we were here the game made us grind for goddamn bones in the jungle forever and ever so we could get that dog to dig up jewels for us? The game designers, in their magnanimous genius, decided that a great puzzle for the final act of the game would be to make us do all that again! Doesn't that just sound like great fun?  Like before, we can spend our time bumbling around the jungle cutting down bushes and looking for bones that way.  There is another way, though, assuming we can first bumble our way back to the Dog Fort. We can use the machete on the ground here.  That is the dorkiest digging animation I've ever seen, but the good news is we managed to unearth one of the bones Duke buried way back several years ago when we were here last! The bad news is there are some 20-odd spots we can dig up on this screen, and not all of them have bones buried in them.  All in all I pick up five bones here and five from the jungle, for a full complement of ten. From there on, it's just a matter of rampaging randomly through the jungle until we find our way back to Fluffy again.  And then slowly, painfully picking up and dropping all those bones on him, watching the slow-rear end inventory animation each time.  Here, I can't use this mouse-made device. Take it and destroy the evil Fat Cat magic.At last, our hard work pays off. What wondrous artifact might we be getting for our trouble?  It's... what the heck is that? The inventory calls it a Cheese-Maker. This is about as cheesy as it gets.Fluffy refuses to give us any more information on this thing, so I guess all we can do is give it a go. I hope no one's looking...  Ta-da! One chunk of mystery cheese. Why do we want cheese, again? We're here for jewels, man. I guess we'll have to trust the weird feline revolutionary and head over the colossus and give it a go.  The monument is not far from Fluffy's location. The game is kind of freaking out here for some reason and decided to layer the mouse statue behind the cat statues that are supposed to be in the back. At least this bug is only visual.  Nothing to do but to try smushing some cheese against that mouse statue that's totally there in the middle. Let's see if this cheese does anything. Empowerment of the mouse. I guess that will bring the Fat Cat society to an end.How, exactly? Good work! We might have some fun here after all! Do you call destroying innocent statues fun?!Strangely, that had exactly the desired effect. The cat idols turn back into weird mud balls, and all the jewels fall out, ready to be picked up. We're halfway done - all we need now is to find a way back to Kyrandia.  Here. Take this Magic Can. One whiff, and it will take you anywhere you want to go.You're not making any sense, cat man. One... whiff?  What a lovely, trusting individual! Now we've got an old can of cat food. Super!What are we, garbage collectors? Actually, considering the amount of digging through trash heaps we've done in this game, that's not an entirely unfair description. Well, here goes.   Yuck! I vote we don't do THAT anymore! For once, we agree!Okay, game, whatever you say. Somehow that worked - we have returned to Kyrandia, jewels in tow.  All we have to do is give the jewels to the pirates and they'll leave us alone, right? Let's have a quick chat with Brandon and Kallak first, though.  You spoiled brat! I'd like to see you get a job in the real world sometime. You're not exactly the one who's being ransomed, pal. Kyrandia needs its King, but I'm not sure I can afford to pay for you too. Maybe I've got them, and maybe I don't. Again I demand that you release all the entranced Kyrandians!Uh, I don't know if "entranced" is the right word here. They've been turned into mice.  You haven't paid yet. I'll pay when I'm ready. But betray my trust again and we'll hunt you down like dogs! Yeah, yeah yeah. Bring us six large jewels or stop bothering us.Let's just hand them over.    Thanks. You're not such a bad jester after all.That's one. Repeat five more times, and...  ... okay, I'm not surprised the pirates don't actually seem to have any intention of returning the country to us, but I did expect the game to at least, y'know, tell me something new here. I don't know if the scripts are just buggy or what's going on, but the conversation essentially stalls here and none of the pirates will say anything new. So what gives? Well, there is a puzzle here, and the jewels have nothing to do with it. We need to go retrieve one of the items we lost going to the Isle of Cats first, though.  As is tradition, all our items ended up in the dump after we lost them. For some reason the fish collar isn't in with the rest of the garbage, though. At any rate, it's the item we need to proceed.  Again, the scripting here is really confusing. Clicking anywhere on the screen with the collar in your hand causes Jean-Claude to demand you be searched. I don't know what "rest of the stones" he's referring to, since we already gave him all six of them.  This looks like an interesting piece of jewelry!Captain Barbecue seizes the collar from us, at any rate. I guess it is kind of valuable.  I ask you all: Who is the most handsome monarch in Kyrandia.And promptly puts it on. Which, as it turns out...  ... was a mistake. (What good timing! I think the Queen is back on her throne.)  Ahh, how fun. I hope he's okay down there! Why don't you go find out?  How satisfying. Jean-Claude gets yanked all the way down to Limbo by the magic collar, and the remaining pirates promptly lose their nerve and skedaddle. Kyrandia has been saved once more!We're not done, though. Kyrandia still kind of hates our guts, since they all think we killed King William and all that. Next time, we're going to see about putting and end to that, and the game, for good. Hyper Crab Tank fucked around with this message at 22:23 on May 17, 2015 |
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May 17, 2015 22:19
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I wonder why our good conscience is so cheesed off at us reverting those statues. Maybe he's just out of practice.
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May 17, 2015 22:33
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More grinding. But why.
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May 18, 2015 05:09
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Man, this game absolutely reeks of out of time out of money. It's quite sad, because even now I can still see some good hooks in this game.
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May 18, 2015 07:28
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I found this interview with Rick Gush, the director and writer for this game, from 2002. He mostly mentions that both this one and Hand of Fate were rife with internal political problems and lack of marketing, and by implication lack of faith in the product by Westwood in general. He mentions the game got pushed aside in favor of C&C a lot, which may well explain why it ended up so half-baked. I was also somewhat surprised to learn the Kyrandia MUD predates the adventure games, and that Westwood bought the rights to the setting to make these games.
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May 18, 2015 13:08
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Hyper Crab Tank posted:I found this interview with Rick Gush, the director and writer for this game, from 2002. He mostly mentions that both this one and Hand of Fate were rife with internal political problems and lack of marketing, and by implication lack of faith in the product by Westwood in general. He mentions the game got pushed aside in favor of C&C a lot, which may well explain why it ended up so half-baked. From a brief browse, it looks like the guy ended up leaving the company he said he was with soon after that interview, and hasn't been doing very much since, other than a few documentaries in 2012. I half-expected to see them at Telltale, but guess not. Also, I knew about the MUD predating the game, solely because I happened to saw a few articles about the troubles they had with the MUD developer trying to claim money or somesuch once it got famous.
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May 18, 2015 14:08
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I'm fairly sure this is one case of "they noticed the game was shaping up to be utter shite and so didn't throw good money after bad" rather than the other way around.
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May 18, 2015 16:33
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Going through the jungle? Again? Now I'm glad I never bought the game.
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May 20, 2015 02:29
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Hyper Crab Tank posted:I found this interview with Rick Gush, the director and writer for this game, from 2002. He mostly mentions that both this one and Hand of Fate were rife with internal political problems and lack of marketing, and by implication lack of faith in the product by Westwood in general. He mentions the game got pushed aside in favor of C&C a lot, which may well explain why it ended up so half-baked. idonotlikepeas posted:The designers of the graphical Kyrandia games actually bought the name and concept from the door game designer. (I think he later sued them.)  I actually played that game back in the day. The grindy weird puzzles involving disappearing jewels are an effective homage to it, I'd say.
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May 22, 2015 01:54
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Interlude: A Matter of Conscience A little while ago, when Malcolm returned from the Underworld to the land of the living, we were asked to choose which half of our conscience to keep. At that time, we chose to keep both Gunther and Stewart around... but what if we'd chosen differently? Let's explore Gunther's path first.  Stewart poofs out of existence, and we're left with good ol' Gunther, just the way we like it. Like before, our mood meter is busted, so we can't choose how to approah people anymore. However, choosing only Gunther instead of both halves of Malcolm's conscience will impact future conversations.  For now, we're getting captured by one of Barbecue's pirates, just like before, and dragged back to the castle lobby.  Well, here I am. How about letting me become a pirate? It looks like fun!As you can see, this time Malcolm is a lot more enthusiastic about the current situation. Maybe. Maybe not. So, what do I have to do? Is there a handshake to learn, or dues, or what? Hmm... in order t join this club, you'll have to prove your devotion by bringing us all the jewels from the Isle of Cats!This part feels familiar. Just like before we're tasked to go back to the Isle of Cats and bring back the jewels from the cat monument. Well, we know how to do that. First, let's go back to the prison and free Zanthia so we can get a new pegasus potion.  Like before, we swing by the dump first to get a nail. The nail opens the lock to the jail, and then we unlock the stocks, just like before. Okay, I'll let you out. No, on second thought, I don't think I will.... or not. Without Stewart to guide Malcolm's conscience, he will just flat-out refuse to release the prisoners. Zanthia won't be brewing us any potions while locked up, so we need another plan.  Remember this rug? Way back at the beginning of the game we used it to teleport to Darm's hut. As it happens, the rug still works. Clicking the green apple then the red apple activates it.  Hello Darm, how's tricks? Do you have any portal potions or anything I can borrow? I've got to get to the Isle of Cats. Portal potions? Ask Brandywine.Malcolm gets straight to business.  I guess I'm hard to get rid of. Do you have any of those portal potions? I've got to get to the Isle of Cats. Are you going to help, or not? Somebody has to rescue Kyrandia? I suppose you're right. Bring me a squirrel as a gesture of good faith, and I'll see what I can do.This, too, is familiar. We know where to get a squirrel.  There is a problem, though. In order to hypnotize the squirrel, we need it to come closer. To do that, we need to lure it in with some sesame. Well, no problem, right? We'll just go get some from the dairy.  Alas, it is not so simple. The bag of sesame that was sitting right here earlier is gone now. Since Malcolm refuses to help the prisoners in the jail, we can't get their sesame either. There is only one source of sesame available to us on this path.  This guy. We didn't need to use him before, but in order to get that sesame we need, we need to conduct some business with Herman.  He asks for random items we might have. We don't have any fondue sets, though, so I'm just going to leave the pawn shop and immediately re-enter it.  No machetes either. I do this three or four more times until Herman starts asking for something I can actually get.  I don't, but we do have access to the toy factory and plenty of random firewood lying around.  Making a new toy horse is a piece of cake. Back to Herman!    What's your gripe? All my other customers love them! Sure, I'll bet most of your customers are mice, too!All Herman will ever give us in exchange for anything we give him is a pile of sesame. It's a rip-off, but coincidentally also exactly what we need right now.  Put sesame on ground, lure squirrel, hypnotize squirrel.  Feed squirrel to dragon.  ... Cupcake?  ... well, we got the potion we wanted, at least. Like before, we need to go to the Arena to activate it. First, though, we're going to check out something you can do in this location only after coming back from the Underworld that poster Zeniel pointed out and I wasn't originally aware of: You can attempt to leave Darm's hut and go outside. The game doesn't indicate that you can do this - the cursor normally changes to an arrow when you can leave a room, but it doesn't here. However, clicking on the right side of the screen still triggers it.  Shadow wraiths are those things that attacked Brandon in the first game if he went into the maze without a source of light.   How embarrassing! That whole scary Shadow Wraith thing is a fraud! Cute little creatures, weren't they? Whelp, that's something all right. Let's just get to the Arena and get the heck out of here.   Wow! What a ride! Let's do that again if we get the chance!We're back on the Isle of Cats. You'll recognize this as the underground temple in the old Dog Fort. The machete is sitting on the ground just outside, ready to help us hack our way through the jungle again.  And just like before, we need to talk to Fluffy. Fluffy! Is that you? Aha. You are back. You look like you're still rebelling. Why? Now we are fighting against the Fat Cats. We have grown lazy. We must return to our natural ways. I guess that's what activating the cat monument did? I feel like this might be something that got cut, because no one ever actually explained what activating that thing really did. Well, gee, any chance I could get a few of those gems from the Colossus? Use it to topple the decandent colossus!For some reason, Fluffy is a lot more generous this time around and doesn't ask for any bones. Instead, he just gives us the cheesemaker right there. Well, I'm not complaining.   From here on, everything is almost exactly the same as the Gunther + Stewart path.  We use the same can of cat food to get back to Kyrandia...  And once there, we use the same trick to get captain Barbecue whisked off to Limbo, and we're back where we left off in the main timeline. As you can see, Gunther's path is a bit different from the one we'd seen before, with a completely different puzzle replacing the pegasus potion one, and for unknown reasons we also didn't have to go digging for any bones.  But what if we'd made a different different choice way back then? Groannnn! With Stewart in tow, things might be different for Malcolm. We still can't avoid getting captured the second we try to go anywhere, though.  Yes, Stewart, I'm sure a kind word and diplomacy is all it takes. We didn't think we were ever going to see YOU again! Tough luck, Hopalong. Here I am. Hey, you up there, Mister bigshot Barbecue. Remember me? His eminence, huh. When did HE become King of Kyrandia? Well, actually, your little Mousification spell turned out to be a very effective weapon. Don't tell me you've turned all the Kyrandians into mice! You thought it was pretty funny when you did it to me!Well, he's got a point. This is the only path on which the game explicitly tells us what the pirates did to take over. I mean, it's pretty obvious, but still. And I think it's about time you joined them!Wait, hold on, there's no need to do anything rash now.   Well, that's different. This time, the pirates threw us straight in jail with the other Kyrandians.   It will take more than a band of pirate rejects to get rid of this jester!They don't really have anything interesting to tell us, though. We're chained to the wall there. If we had a nail we might've been able to pick the manacle lock, but we don't. Oh well. Nothing to do but laugh.   Using the Jester's Staff twice on the mousified fish cream clerk will make him laugh hard enough to dislodge a nail from the stocks there, which conveniently lands right next to us. I'm not sure how you're supposed to know to do this, but oh well. Also, since the Jester's Staff is an optional item and it's entirely possible to come all this way without ever picking it up, the game is generous enough to spawn it just sitting on the floor next to Malcolm if you ever make it to this scene without it. Time to get out of these chains! Some quick nailwork later, and we're free of our chains, and the rest of the mice, too.  Good! See, generosity and forgiveness feels good, doesn't it? However, we still have a problem: we're trapped in here. The lock is on the outside of the door, so we can't lockpick it from here. Freeing the mice did leave us with their uneaten lunch, though.  Fish + sesame = fertilized seeds. Ah, perhaps the old botanical bomb will pop this door open.Putting the fertilized seeds by the door, then pouring the water on it should do the trick. Well, let's see if this works. Sure did. The door is open, and we're free to leave. By the way, this is one of the few places where I think you can get legitimately stuck in this game: if you use the water bottle on the fertilized seeds in your inventory, you'll get a sesame sprout instead, and I don't think there's any way to get more sesame or another eel from in here.  We're free, but still a mouse. Hey, Zanthia, I don't suppose you have any cheese?  This stuff is strong. Wow, that WAS strong! Hmm, maybe Zanthia isn't so bad after all. Zanthia! What an angel!All right, that takes care of that. Next would be making our way to the Isle of Cats, and with Zanthia freed, she should be waiting for us in the town hall.  Except she isn't - because, actually, the pirates never asked us to get any jewels this time around. They just threw us in jail. Before we can continue, we have to go back to the castle and confront them again. You'd think that would be the dumbest thing you could possibly do, but that's the right answer here.  So I escaped from your jail. Can you blame me? I demand that you release all the entranced Kyrandians!Again, mousified, not entranced. Oh, you demand, do you? Rest assured that we Kyrandian patriots will never cease in our opposition to pirate rule!Good-conscience Malcolm sure feels different. It's pretty weird. Since you are so confident, we will make a deal with you... bring us, shall we say, six large jewels, and we will allow you to ransom your beloved kinglet.And there we go. Ransom demand made. By the way, if you'll recall, the first time we got to here they specifically asked for "the jewels from the Isle of Cats", which made a subsequent piece of dialogue where Malcolm extrapolates that maybe if they went to the Isle of Cats they could get some "large jewels" seem pretty strange. Here's the reason why: They likely designed this path first and didn't mind the details too much. Getting back the Isle of Cats works the same way on this path as the both-consciences path: talk to Zanthia, get a toy horse, use it to make a pegasus potion, and fly over there. We can go talk to Darm instead for some amusing dialogue, though.  We try to stay out of Kyrandian politics these days. Surely you'll help me? Everybody has been turned into mice! This must be some sort of trick, and I'll have none of it!Let's try Brandywine. Can't you go torch those pirates? I tried that. They turned me into a mouse. Luckily, I have my last piece of cheese with me. Are you going to help, or not? We must rescue Kyrandia! Yep. Darm and Brandywine refuse to help Malcolm, because he's too nice now that Stewart's around. Anyway, the pegasus potion is all we need to get where we need to go. Things play out the same way as they did before: get machete, hack your way through the jungle, find Fluffy.  The conversation with Fluffy plays out exactly the same as it did on the Gunther path, and once again we're spared the trouble of collecting bones for the revolution. Fluffy just gives us the cheesemaker, and we use it to get the jewels back, then teleport back home via can of tuna. There. Somebody trusts you. Doesn't that make you feel better about yourself? Interestingly, Stewart is much less concerned about the well-being of the statues this time around.  Once back in Kyrandia, we use the same trick a third time to get rid of Barbecue. See? Finally, virtue is triumphant!And with that, we're joined up to the main timeline once more. Next time, we'll finish this once and for all. Hyper Crab Tank fucked around with this message at 12:37 on Jun 2, 2015 |
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Jun 1, 2015 14:56
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I seem to recall the reason for the cat guy asking for bones if you took both consciences instead of just one was because if you had both of them you weren't showing "commitment" to any one side. At least I seem to remember as much from the hint book. I would swear you could get the potion from Brandywine also even by taking the both consciences path, it was only if you went full goody-goody they were freaked out with you.
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Jun 1, 2015 21:12
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The slightly diverging paths for choosing which conscious to keep is a neat idea, but it seems rushed, like most of the rest of the game, unfortunately.
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Jun 2, 2015 00:31
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I don't know if you ever showed it off, but you can actually leave Darm and Brandywine's house via the front door... Although I'd save if you do.
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Jun 2, 2015 05:47
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Zeniel posted:I don't know if you ever showed it off, but you can actually leave Darm and Brandywine's house via the front door... I would like to see that. At least taking down a dragon by mousifying it makes sense.
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Jun 2, 2015 07:03
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Zeniel posted:I don't know if you ever showed it off, but you can actually leave Darm and Brandywine's house via the front door...  I actually didn't know you could do this, since it only works in this part of the game and not the first time you visit them and you don't actually get a navigation cursor if you mouse over the edge of the screen. That's great. Here's what happens (I'll try to sneak this into the update, too): How embarrassing! That whole scary Shadow Wraith thing is a fraud! Cute little creatures, weren't they?It's those things that mobbed Brandon in the dark labyrinth near Darm's house in the first game!
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Jun 2, 2015 10:07
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That is hilarious!  How knew squirrels were scavengers.
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Jun 2, 2015 10:51
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The most bizarre part about this game is that you can actually see that there's a fun game with genuinely good jokes buried beneath all the  . Like, if they had a bit more budget and time this could have turned out very differently.
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Jun 2, 2015 12:23
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I did some testing with the final act recently and found out a few minute things I didn't know about. If you go up instead of down from the crossroads, you can actually access the land fill. So you can get a nail and not need one from the fish cream dude since they don't empty your inventory in the Stewart path. If you tried to leave key inventory items you'll need for after the the Isle of Cats, you'll get 'Nice Try' points and they'll be erased from the worldspace upon your return. By key items I mean a bottle of cream or sesame seeds. If you try to enter the castle, you get jumped by the midget pirate instead of the fat one. Also, if you managed to get more than 500 points (regardless of what path you chose), Gunther is impressed, then insults you before the end game sequence. Didn't even know the last one was possible, just wanted to see how many points I could get and ended up with 600 or so, so it might be 600. I did take some screenshots I'll share later. I didn't know about the Shadow Wraiths thing, that is a funny little easter egg. doing the obvious fucked around with this message at 02:44 on Jun 5, 2015 |
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Jun 5, 2015 02:35
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Chapter 10: Wherein a Ghost Testifies, and Provides a Conclusion Welcome back to the final chapter in the legend of Kyrandia. We've come a long way, and we're nearly there. Last time, Malcolm tricked the pirates with the fish queen's choker, and Kyrandia is free once more. Well, mostly. There are still a lot of mouse-people walking around, including the king and his advisor back there. From here on, your choice of conscience matters less. There are a few minor differences, and I'll mention them when we come across them, but the puzzles are mostly the same.  You know I have committed no crimes, Kallak.We can't do anything else in here right now, so let's head out.  Music: Back in Kyrandia (This is still the best track in the game. Listen to it.) It sure is sweet. So what do we do now? We accomplished what we set out to do and got rid of the pirates, but surely this isn't the end of the game. In order to get a clue on what to do, we have to leave this screen and come back.   Please! Give us some cheese! I'm tired of being a mouse.Leaving and coming back frees Brandon and Kallak from their bonds - if not their mousification - and dumps whatever gems you gave to the pirates on the ground in front of the castle. People in Kyrandia have really strange ideas about the value of precious minerals. Your father's going to return for my trial, you know. What? I'll be performing a Royal Séance. Actually, I don't remember him.Brandon would've been an infant when all this went down, so that's not so odd. At any rate, we have a clue, then: We need to arrange for a séance to clear Malcolm's name. We'll scoop up all those gems while we're at it. Since we still have that cheesemaker, we also have a choice of whether to unmouse Brandon and Kallak or not.  Which I'm going to do. What? Why would you waste perfectly good cheese on them? I think it would be a nice gesture of reconciliation. Well, charity does begin at home. Oh, that Kallak. We had the option to do this, by the way, because Stewart is with us. If we'd opted for Gunther, he would've stopped us from giving them any cheese. Small difference at this stage, but it's there. So, if we're going to put ourselves on trial, we need a judge.  Like this guy. Zanthia seems to have left, meanwhile. ... let's get on with the trial! I don't think those pirates will be bothering Kyrandia any more. How on earth are we going to do that?  Show me the artifacts you plan to use to summon William's ghost.Right. Let's think back to what we learned you need to do to perform a Royal Séance, all the way back in Limbo: You need seven people who want the king to return, a way to see back in time, and a portrait of the deceased. We know where to find the latter; Malcolm had a photo album back in his apartment with a portrait of William.  Unfortunately, it looks like someone kinda trashed the place while we were gone.  Fortunately, the page is still here; it's just hidden under the bed. How you're supposed to know to click on those few pixels is beyond me. This is a good likeness of William.That's one part of the puzzle, but we still need something to see back in time with. There doesn't seem to be any newspapers lying around this time. Actually, I'm not at all sure how we're supposed to know this, since there are no clues that point to it, but we have come across such an artifact already.  It's this thing: Marko's magic cabinet. We trashed it in one of the alternate timelines, but no one ever actually told us what it does. But we don't have the required seven people. I can override that requirement just long enough for us to get a preview.Very convinent.    Malcolm did not kill us. There is a curse on the Enchanted Knife. Any person of Royal Kyrandian blood who touches the blade will be stabbed to death.... well, that sure is enlightening. All that weird plot foreshadowing from way, way back is coming back in force, now. With the cabinet and the crumpled portrait, we're two down, one to go. Next, we need to gather up some people to witness the séance. Once again, the game is refusing to give us any good clues. But there is one place where we've seen large numbers of people before:  The Fish Cream Parlor. Of course, the place is not really operational right now. The clerk is a mouse, and the machine is wrecked. If we want to get the people back in here, we need to repair that machine. There are two ways of getting the job done; an easy way and a hard way. The easy way is only available if we have Stewart with us, which we do.  A quick spin of the cheesemaker, and we can unmouse the clerk.  Wonderful! You're becoming a caring, sensitive person after all! Caring? Sensitive? No way!The next time you enter the parlor, the clerk will have fixed the machine. However, if you took the Gunther path, the clerk isn't here, since you never freed him from jail. He's not in jail either, mind you - he's just gone, along with the other prisoners. Instead, to fix the machine, you need to engage in some trading (which you can still do in the other paths if you feel like it).  Malcolm, here again? I'm going to put myself on trial. Let me know how it turns out. I like to keep ahead of these things.Herman's pawn shop is still operating. The difference is from before is... So, what do you have for sale? At this moment, I am selling this beautiful item: ... he actually has items for sale now. Every time you enter the pawn shop, he will offer a new random item for sale. It's mostly fairly ordinary items, like leather balls and toy soldiers. If you don't like what's on offer, just exit the shop and come back. In this case, we're looking for a particular item.  This crutch, probably belonging to one of the pirates. Now we just need something to trade for it, and there's only one price Herman will accept.  That's fair. It's yours."Fair", right. Herman wants gems, and won't take anything else in exchange for his items, no matter what the item is. We don't really have any other use for them, though, so we'll gladly fork some over in exchange for plot-crucial items. Before we go, there is one more thing to do. While cycling through Herman's inventory, you'll eventually come across... this.  I don't know about you, but a knife sounds like a great thing to have. Easily worth an emerald or two. I wouldn't buy that if I was you. We ARE him, you idiot!Nonsense, I don't know what you're talking about. It's just a knife.  See, you even get some Not Paying Attention points for doing it. Let's just pick that up, a--  All right, that's... different. Now I don't know about you, but I'm not quite that old, so for now we'll just pretend we are and find out what this is all about, eh?    Oops! That had to hurt! That was totally uncalled for! I'm going to have to report somebody to the authorities!So... I guess we found that enchanted knife the ghost of king William was talking about, huh. We already knew from the photo album that Malcolm is royalty, but I guess this confirms it. The knife is always instant death, there's no way to actually get your hands on it. Let's go fix that sandwich machine.  I'm not sure exactly what we just did there, but the machine sure is fixed!  Say! You're not a bad mechanic! Splendid! You have some unexpected capacity for honest work, I see. Big deal. If we had to wait for this moron, the machine would probably never get fixed!All right, machine fixed. That's not enough to bring the people, though. Now can you make some sandwiches? Sorry. We're all out of ingredients.To recap: to make a fish cream sandwich, you need some fish, some cream, and some sandwich. Er, sesame.  Unfortunately, as you might remember, sesame has become scarce in post-mouse Kyrandia, and what's more, we need quite a lot of it in order to get the cows to come home so we can harvest their cream.  The only source of sesame in Kyrandia right now is Herman. I spend the next few minutes here walking back and forth trying to get Herman to buy something I have available, and end up selling him the machete, a toy horse, and a toy soldier that he'd exchanged for a gem just minutes ago. Three piles of sesame seed is all you need - the gauge still needs to get up to 5, but there's a trick to get a little more mileage out of your seeds.  We also need to spend some time at the dump picking up our nut-on-a-string, a few nails (one of which is used to make some new fishing implements), and a flask. I'm just going to leave the gems on the ground. We don't need them any more.  Back in the cellar, the rug to Darm's place has vanished, but the game doesn't quite seem to realize. At any rate, we'll use the bent-nail-on-a-string to fish up some eels and combine them with two of the sesame seeds.  As you might recall, eel-fertilized seeds make large sprouts, and large sprouts count for two in the feed hopper. Don't forget to fish up a third eel for the sandwich machine, too.   They should be eating grass out on the prairie. You're right. Maybe we could start a rehabilitation program for them. Or maybe we have more important things to worry about!Sprouts go in hopper, cows come home, and the cream is flowing.  Open the container with a nail, and we can get ourselves a nice bottle of fresh cream. With that, we have all three ingredients we need: flask of cream, sesame seeds, eel.  Pour them in the hopper, and just like before, we're rewarded with a fish cream sandwich. The parlor should be back in business now, too! Let's leave the parlor and come back to confirm our work.  Hm. No people. Actually, this feels like a half-finished puzzle to me. It seems clear that the intention here is for you to repair the fish cream parlor so that the people will come back and get you the necessary seven witnesses. However, they just... don't. Nevertheless, as we'll soon find out, this is a required step, and an upcoming line of dialogue seems to reinforce the theory that this is supposed to get all the Kyrandians back in one place. At any rate, now that we have a fish cream sandwich as proof that we fixed the machine, we can go and bring that back to the Voice of Reason. It's also possible it's a bribe. I'm not sure.  Excellent. You have assembled all the required elements. Yeah, but how are we supposed to get the Kyrandians in here? They won't budge. Yeah, this is the part that seems to indicate what effect our earlier actions were supposed to have. No matter, the Voice of Reason seems to have this one sorted.   There we are, and the people have finally decided to show up.  Our inventory has been stripped, save for the one item we need, and the Voice won't let us interact with anything else. Do not waste our time! Summon your witness! The only thing left to do is to use the portrait on the cabinet and start the séance. Here goes. The moment of truth, and the conclusion we've all been waiting for. Please enjoy.  Video: Ending & Credits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43vLiR18dyQ  Music: Testimony of King William Any person of Royal Kyrandian blood who touches the blade will be stabbed to death. I don't think they're convinced. They think this is just a parlour trick. Isn't there any more convincing proof? Let us view the events in question... it was many years ago... Malcolm and I were alone in the dining room... we had roasted a delicious Kyrandian pheasant for dinner. The rest you can see for yourselves. As you have seen, my faithful cousin Malcolm is innocent! I think you, Kallak, have particular need of delivering an apology! Music: Finale This whole odyssey has been annoying, but necessary I suppose. I'm sorry Malcolm. I owe you an apology. I love this part of my job! Eeeuw! You make me sick! So, does this mean I'm your uncle? Your mother's half-cousin? Finally! A clean slate! A fresh start! Who could ask for more? Sure, but what are we going to do for fun now? What's fun about that? Virtue is triumphant, and a job is well done, that's what's fun! Oh yeah? Well I... I've got an idea: Why don't you both get lost? I'll take charge from here on, thank you!  Yeah, yeah, yeah. You did good. And you scored a lot of points, too!At this point, someone knocks on the door to Malcolm's apartment. Music: Ends of the Earth (For some reason)        Another knock.  Uh, excuse us, but Brandon here insists on abdication. That means you, Malcolm, are the new King of Kyrandia. Hmm! Well then, as my first official act as King, I order you two to go repair the Colossus on the Isle of Cats and turn yourselves back to mice! If you didn't unmouse Brandon and Kallak, this sequence is instead their mouse selves showing up begging Malcolm to turn them back into humans. ... and a third knock. Poor Malcolm just can't get any rest.  Rowena? And who...  And with that, the game is over! After a long, hard journey that took him literally to Hell and back, Malcolm has finally cleared his name, become the new king of Kyrandia, and is now in charge of his own destiny. I don't want to speculate on exactly what caused that last little scene to be a thing, but I'm sure that happened somehow at some point, too! We never did find out where the Enchanted Knife came from, though... and for all we know Herman still has it in his pawn shop. That's the kind of thing that might come back to haunt you one day. The only difference to the ending other than mouse Brandon/Kallak if you didn't unmouse them is that Stewart/Gunther have slightly different lines if they're on their own, but nothing major. What follows is the dorkiest credits sequence I've ever seen. It's in the video above if you want to see it. I hope you've enjoyed this look at the Kyrandia trilogy. Despite its many flaws and shortcomings, I have some fond memories of this series, even if it's difficult to see exactly why sometimes. Thank you for reading. Hyper Crab Tank fucked around with this message at 00:16 on Jun 12, 2015 |
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Jun 12, 2015 00:11
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And with that, an incoherent adventure is over! Many thanks for showing this off, HCT, it's an interesting part of an interesting time in gaming history, and, for all its flaws, it was a hell of a ride. That last bit did seem a bit out of the blue, though, agreed. Still, the expressions Malcolm makes, even when his back is turned, are great. You can see the "ARGH, IF ONE MORE PERSON KNOCKS" in his pose. 
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Jun 12, 2015 00:29
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As previously mentioned, I wanted to see how many points I could get doing all the optional and obscure things I could. So, this is what happens if you do get a lot of points. As mentioned, Gunther has a slightly different dialogue, is somewhat impressed, then insults you in a very passive way before the ending spiel and credits. Kind of befitting that the reward you get for exploring as much of the game as possible is something very minute and passively insulting. Stay polarizing forever, Malcom's Revenge 
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Jun 12, 2015 01:09
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Thanks for playing through this for us, it's nice to finally see what I missed out on. Pretty sure I never would've beaten this game without a walkthrough, even if I DID decide to give it a fair try.
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Jun 12, 2015 07:56
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Thanks for playing this so that we didn't have to. It was fun to watch.
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Jun 12, 2015 08:03
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This game sure has an ending. It's strange to see that the mechanics were mostly done, yet the storyline is pretty non existent. Such a missed opportunity, this game couldve been brilliant. I was expecting Kallak to be evil. Thank you for showing this hyper crab. I enjoyed reading through all 3 games very much.
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Jun 12, 2015 14:46
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I doupt Kallak was the one who put the knife there, he's royal blood so he'd stab himself.
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Jun 12, 2015 15:10
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Iretep posted:I doupt Kallak was the one who put the knife there, he's royal blood so he'd stab himself. That's the thing, though - Kallak is not of royal blood. He arranged for his daughter Katherine to marry King William to get his dynasty in with the royal family, and Brandon is of royal blood since William is his father, but Kallak himself is not. It's kind of strange, for much of the game it seems like they're explicitly going with the idea of Kallak being responsible for everything, but the plotline is completely dropped at the last moment and he just apologizes for being a dick to Malcolm I guess? Of course, this doesn't explain why the knife stabbed Katherine, since she isn't technically royal either... unless it counts becoming royalty by marriage?
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Jun 12, 2015 15:27
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And Malcolm was running around turning people to statues and killing Brandon in the first game because... ? Thanks for showing off this trilogy. Completely confirmed by pre-existing bias.
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Jun 12, 2015 21:37
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Darth TNT posted:This game sure has an ending. Yes, that's about all I can say about it either. This entire game is just one long string of 
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Jun 12, 2015 22:01
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Man, that magic knife gave me nightmares. It's some creepy poo poo. Imagine you want to open a bread roll for your breakfast and the knife suddenly turns in your hand and you get stabbed. Makes me shudder. And for some reason as a kid I was totally convinced Kallak send the magic knife. I felt like Sherlock Holmes seeing through that game. "Hah, you can't fool me! It's clear as the ocean: Kallak is the murderer." 
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Jun 12, 2015 23:33
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Thanks for showing this off. I always wondered what I missed out on by not getting this game oh so long ago. And now, I'm rather glad I never actually picked it up.
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Jun 13, 2015 01:09
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Xander77 posted:And Malcolm was running around turning people to statues and killing Brandon in the first game because... ? Revenge on the people who'd locked him up - I think he only ever attacked Brandon because Brandon went after him, and even then, he gave Brandon plenty of chances to walk away or just not fight him. It makes a bit more sense, actually, when you know that he'd never done anything wrong to begin with.
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Jun 13, 2015 01:10
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Hyper Crab Tank posted:That's the thing, though - Kallak is not of royal blood. He arranged for his daughter Katherine to marry King William to get his dynasty in with the royal family, and Brandon is of royal blood since William is his father, but Kallak himself is not. It's kind of strange, for much of the game it seems like they're explicitly going with the idea of Kallak being responsible for everything, but the plotline is completely dropped at the last moment and he just apologizes for being a dick to Malcolm I guess? Maybe by her giving birth to Brandon who had both William and her's blood she became royal blood through that.
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Jun 13, 2015 02:05
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OminousEdge posted:Maybe by her giving birth to Brandon who had both William and her's blood she became royal blood through that. Vulnerability to the cursed knife is an STD. Most of the kingdom is actually susceptible to it - Herman's one of the rare exceptions.
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Jun 13, 2015 03:02
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You always were a kidder Malcolm. Congrats of finally finishing the series, Hyper Crab Tank. Especially this last incoherent mess of a game. I could never finish it more than once as its just constantly forcing you to grind items for no good reason. That and what the hell is this game about anyway? Malcolm just comes back to life, swears vengeance, bumbles around, hires some pirates who betray him, he's exiled to a waterfall with caves full of 90's 3d roller coaster graphics then dies or something, more grinding nonsense, rediscovers his old conscience(potentially), then stops the pirates and proves his innocence for a crime that's a complete footnote of a plot point in this game?
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Jun 13, 2015 03:02
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Zeniel posted:That and what the hell is this game about anyway? Malcolm just comes back to life, swears vengeance, bumbles around, hires some pirates who betray him, he's exiled to a waterfall with caves full of 90's 3d roller coaster graphics then dies or something, more grinding nonsense, rediscovers his old conscience(potentially), then stops the pirates and proves his innocence for a crime that's a complete footnote of a plot point in this game? This game is really bad at explaining itself, and Malcolm's motivations aren't always clear, especially in the early and late parts of the game. It's fairly clear they had an idea of how the game would progress in the early chapter (which is also the most ambitious in terms of alternative solutions, as we've seen): 1. Get freed from statue. Bumble around getting used to the interface, picking up random items because you're an adventure game protagonist. Overall, though, Malcolm's motivations are unclear other than "kick Brandon and Kallak's butts". 2. Stumble into the Baths, or Zanthia arriving via Pegasus, or somehow figure out to bring a squirrel to the Fish Cream Parlor. 3. Get arrested by Herman while bumbling around. Receive the whole spiel from Brandon and Kallak about leaving Kyrandia for good. Spend some time in jail. 4. Take the hint and actively strive to get off Kyrandia, eventually landing you on the Isle of Cats one way or another. But here's where things kind of start breaking down. Talking to the pirates will cause Malcolm to suggest they go with him back to Kyrandia to exact some revenge, but until that point, you're just bumbling around a stupid jungle maze getting progressively more frustrated. Okay, so you figure that out, but there's no real link between the pirates and what you actually need to do. The only real hint you have is the sesame cart cat telling you to go find Fluffy in the jungle... but even he won't tell you about the bone/gem puzzle. Then the Ends of the Earth sequence happens and you have no idea what the heck you're doing. There's nothing about that waterfall that makes any sense. You're just doing things because they're there. Limbo is slightly better in that at least "get the hell out of this stupid situation" is a reasonable reaction to have. Then the final act starts, and nothing makes a whole lot of sense. Malcolm's shown no real interest in redeeming his name before, and instead goes from wanting revenge on Brandon and Kallak to actively helping them out. The enchanted knife plot is clearly unfinished and only receives half of a conclusion, but no one seems to mind. Either way, there's very little to tell you what you need to do at any point - you're expected to walk around randomly until you find a conversation that has a hint dropped in it, sometimes with Malcolm himself providing the hint! What it comes across as is just random garbage happening, without much of a real story arc... unless you count the enchanted knife thing, which gets hinted at a lot but not really resolved in the end.
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Jun 13, 2015 16:21
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