|
LordHippoman posted:I loved this game a lot. It's real good, folks. I think the final puzzle also fits thematically since forgiving yourself is a relatively simple action that can be incredibly difficult to actually do. The act of Lucas forgiving himself was cutting the wire on the explosive which was very easy to do but to even do that he had to go through the entire mansion and solve all of those puzzles which were more difficult.
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2017 18:25
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 21:30 |
|
|
Not quite the ending I expected, but it's an ending, and not a bad one. Considering how early in the day stuff starts to explode, I was expecting Lucas went into a coma after he threw himself out of the clock tower, and doesn't actually know his wife and friends died. The reveal being they didn't, and have been visiting him. That's what helps him realize this fantasy is just that. Would that be too much of a cop-out ending? Thank you for showing this off, Scruffy. You've sold at least one more copy of the game.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2017 18:31
|
|
|
LordHippoman posted:I loved this game a lot. It's real good, folks. it also completes the circle/closes the loop of the game's plot on a more surface-level literal way too. It didn't occur to me until afterwards that the timer for the bomb is the exact same pocketwatch we've been using all this time. That's presumably what Sixpence is frantically searching the safe in chapel for, and why he goes: "LUCAS WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" The synchronised clocks Sixpence invented are being used as the timers for the explosion. It's also why the pocket watch is all broken and burnt up at the beginning. (Looking back at the first video, Lafcadio never actually retrieves the pocket watch from the Chapel, it's handed to him by the bloody girl.) It's literally the bomb timer that was half blown-up by the explosion.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2017 18:32
|
|
|
I like their inversion of the normal color scheme assigned to angel one shoulder, devil on the other. The side promoting eternal punishment is in white and clean, while the side promoting compassion and empathy is red and literally dripping with blood. Right up until the end Lucas thinks this way of handling the guilt is the right one.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2017 19:02
|
|
|
Hidingo Kojimba posted:it also completes the circle/closes the loop of the game's plot on a more surface-level literal way too. It didn't occur to me until afterwards that the timer for the bomb is the exact same pocketwatch we've been using all this time. That's presumably what Sixpence is frantically searching the safe in chapel for, and why he goes: "LUCAS WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" The synchronised clocks Sixpence invented are being used as the timers for the explosion. It's also why the pocket watch is all broken and burnt up at the beginning. (Looking back at the first video, Lafcadio never actually retrieves the pocket watch from the Chapel, it's handed to him by the bloody girl.) It's literally the bomb timer that was half blown-up by the explosion. Oh heck I think you're right about the pocketwatch. The game does a whole lot of that sort of thing, with the Waiting Room description, the ghost playing the organ, lots of things pointing back to the beginning. Jeez that's real frickin' neato.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2017 19:12
|
|
|
So... What is the deal with the playing cards, I wonder? Is it just an extended casino metaphor, or is there more to it? I mean, also what's the deal with them in-game, but more the first.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2017 19:21
|
|
|
I did not expect dark psychological themes, but Bravo! I think it was handled very well, and it portrays the problem effectively. It really resonated with me, so kudos to the devs. I think I'll have to buy this on a later date.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2017 19:26
|
|
|
Hidingo Kojimba posted:it also completes the circle/closes the loop of the game's plot on a more surface-level literal way too. It didn't occur to me until afterwards that the timer for the bomb is the exact same pocketwatch we've been using all this time. That's presumably what Sixpence is frantically searching the safe in chapel for, and why he goes: "LUCAS WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!" The synchronised clocks Sixpence invented are being used as the timers for the explosion. It's also why the pocket watch is all broken and burnt up at the beginning. (Looking back at the first video, Lafcadio never actually retrieves the pocket watch from the Chapel, it's handed to him by the bloody girl.) It's literally the bomb timer that was half blown-up by the explosion. That also means that using the pocketwatch again to reset is still obsessively focusing on it, you're still not over it, Still can't let go of the bomb.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2017 19:44
|
|
|
I think the reason Gold Skull looks younger is because he's trapped in that moment, or at least one shortly after it. It takes a long time to even think about forgiving himself. It's a bittersweet ending, but a good one. I think I can forgive it (sorry) the lack of a good gameplay climax.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2017 19:49
|
|
|
Lazy Bear posted:So... What is the deal with the playing cards, I wonder? Is it just an extended casino metaphor, or is there more to it? I mean, also what's the deal with them in-game, but more the first. There's a secret ending you can get if you get all 52, and the ending explains what they're supposed to represent.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2017 20:47
|
|
|
Too often games try to make an overtly complex presentation to end themselves. Thankfully, this game didn't.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2017 20:48
|
|
|
Thanks again for showing us this game. Like I said before, the music is just fantastic. The story, while slightly weird at the end there, works surprisingly well. I'm kinda sad that you can't really save anyone after all, though.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2017 22:08
|
|
|
I thought I was getting a Bioshock Infinite vibe from somewhere. Kinda wish there was more gameplay at the end but it's framed enough to make that passable.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2017 22:17
|
|
|
VKing posted:Thanks again for showing us this game. Not actively, but the last mask splits you into a bunch of doppelganger that it shows saving everyone at once.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2017 23:14
|
|
|
FoolyCharged posted:Not actively, but the last mask splits you into a bunch of doppelganger that it shows saving everyone at once. Yes, but everyone still died in the fire all those years ago. You're only really saving a memory of them by doing that. Edit: Put in spoiler tags, just in case. Epicmissingno fucked around with this message at 23:28 on Aug 6, 2017 |
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2017 23:22
|
|
|
E: ^^^FoolyCharged posted:Not actively, but the last mask splits you into a bunch of doppelganger that it shows saving everyone at once. Well, you save your memories of them, I suppose. It's a nice bit of symbolism, for sure, but I was referring to the fact that they all died in the fire a long time ago. (I'm gonna spoiler it at least one more page just to be safe).
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2017 23:23
|
|
|
It is a sustained and protracted crime that there has not yet been - and by all signs never will be - a digital soundtrack release. A soundtrack album exists, but you can only get it by purchasing a specific physical edition for PS4. If I were the artist I would be hopping mad about this.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2017 23:55
|
|
|
Fedule posted:It is a sustained and protracted crime that there has not yet been - and by all signs never will be - a digital soundtrack release. A soundtrack album exists, but you can only get it by purchasing a specific physical edition for PS4. If I were the artist I would be hopping mad about this. That is a drat crying shame. And yes, a friggin' crime.
|
|
#
?
Aug 6, 2017 23:59
|
|
|
Whelp. I didn't wanted to be right. 
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2017 00:25
|
|
|
I'm kind of surprised how close I got with blind guessing.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2017 00:43
|
|
|
My last concept art drop, but there's still the small prequel comic which came with the pre-order, so I'll post that after the bonus video.  Lucas, and his stupid ponytail.  All of Lafcadio's concept art now there's no more spoilers in it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2017 00:45
|
|
|
WFGuy posted:I think the reason Gold Skull looks younger is because he's trapped in that moment, or at least one shortly after it. It takes a long time to even think about forgiving himself. Gold Skull's haircut made me think of someone who was shaved down either from brain surgery or admission to prison, or both. Maybe that's just bias on my part.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2017 01:40
|
|
|
That was a really elegant ending, and I'm glad they went for the simple resolution. It was nice to play around with the idea of all the parts fitting together and figuring out a way to save everyone, but after the reveal of the actual plot of the game that wouldn't be as satisfying because the big interconnected house of death is the trap you've been stuck in. You can't take a locksmith's approach of figuring out how to snake through the house pressing everything you need to, you just take the mechanism apart. You're not saving the guests, you're releasing them.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2017 02:02
|
|
|
FoolyCharged posted:I like their inversion of the normal color scheme assigned to angel one shoulder, devil on the other. The side promoting eternal punishment is in white and clean, while the side promoting compassion and empathy is red and literally dripping with blood. Right up until the end Lucas thinks this way of handling the guilt is the right one. You know, I wonder if Lafcadio isn't supposed to be "the angel" here. Everyone's always happy to see him and he saves their lives. Though part of that, I suppose, is the blood-red lady who points him in the right direction. I wonder how many times she's tried to remind him how happy they were not dying.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2017 03:56
|
|
|
Thanks for the LP, Scruffy! To be honest, due to the name, this game would never have come up on my radar at all (the dangers of books and covers and all), but it turned out to be extremely my jam. The music is absolutely fantastic, and it's a real shame they don't have the OST available to purchase digitally. The environments are beautiful, but it's a little hard to appreciate with the camera zoomed out so far out. My only real gripe with the game is (as others have pointed out) I do wish the actually route to saving each victim was more involved/complicated/clever? It seems as much of the game time is just hiding and waiting and running from place to place without much direct player interaction. (I want more reasons to use our sick mask powers!) I think more complicated victim rescues would've driven home how comparatively "simple" the actual act of saving the Marquis is. As an aside: Not like the victims got a whole lot of in depth characterization to begin with, but I really appreciate that they included an LGBT character without drawing attention to it beyond what was necessary for the plot. Redd Rockridge dying trying to save the person he cared about the most got just as much attention as his brother being willing to punch a giant fuckoff spider for his wife and it was treated just as normally.  (Though I do wish Clay had actually punched the spider. gently caress spiders.)
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2017 04:58
|
|
|
I'm happy that you all managed to get something out of this, but the game's ending really peeved me when I got there. Mind you, this was after playing a streak of maybe three other games that all ended with "it was all a dream / purgatory / a simulation". It feels like lazy writing to me, because you can spend the whole game up to that point evoking an air of mystery, but aren't beholden to actually explain how things tie together. Who was that guy? How was this person able to do that thing? What's the significance of those objects? Oh, it doesn't matter, because it was all made up. (see: Lost) It's interesting to see the people in this thread enjoy all the symbolic and thematic stuff, because once the game is over that's really all you have left. Compare to a game like Ghost Trick, which has a batshit crazy resolution which still manages to be satisfying because it plays by its own rules.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2017 05:05
|
|
|
I'm gonna echo the complaint about everything being a bit too zoomed out to really enjoy the obviously stellar art design. At least during the 'cutscenes' and maybe(if you could smoothly do it) during any dialogue that freezes time it could have moved the camera in a bit. Almost seems like they're ashamed of the character designs.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2017 05:17
|
|
|
Lazy Bear posted:I'm gonna echo the complaint about everything being a bit too zoomed out to really enjoy the obviously stellar art design. At least during the 'cutscenes' and maybe(if you could smoothly do it) during any dialogue that freezes time it could have moved the camera in a bit. Almost seems like they're ashamed of the character designs. I honestly think a lot of the biggest issues with TSB could have been fixed with a little more polish. I love the game, but I agree that a lot of the designs are just too far away to really get all the details of, which is why Graylien's art posts have been one of my favorite parts of the thread. There's also the loading issues, and this thing where, at least on controller, sometimes Lafcadio just does not want to open the drat door and you end up having to hit A like, four times. It's not flawless, but I'd still say it's easily worth the asking price.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2017 08:00
|
|
|
Yeah, it's a shame that the schedule of events is railroaded and actually a lot less complicated than it initially appears, but I suppose that's a practical constraint. A mansion that reacted to you doing things to save people and allowed you to save multiple people in a single run would take an order of magnitude more labour/money to build as you'd have to account for so many more different permutations of the basic scenario. It would be really interesting to see what a version of the Sexy Brutale made on a AAA-studio budget and unlimited development time would look like, but it is what it is. The mansion being a dream isn't the most original twist in the world and did leave me feeling a bit cheated at there being no elegant puzzle-solution that I could theoretically have figured out in advance. That's kind of the expectation you enter a puzzle game with I guess, that the entire game is a puzzle set by the developers for you to solve, and the Sexy Brutale turned into more of a story book at the end, and the plot itself is a little too simplistic for me to feel that a genre-switch at the end is really warranted. It's still really good for what it is though. quote:There's also the loading issues, and this thing where, at least on controller, sometimes Lafcadio just does not want to open the drat door and you end up having to hit A like, four times. Yeah, and the PC version has issues with the camera/resolution as well that really make the lack of camera adjustment options grate. On my monitor I routinely get issues in some rooms with doors being off screen so you have to fumble around with clicking while Lafcadio's offscreen and just hope you hit the door. Still worth the relatively modest purchase price though. Hidingo Kojimba fucked around with this message at 08:29 on Aug 7, 2017 |
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2017 08:27
|
|
|
...gently caress, that was a depressing ending. Sure it finishes on a slightly brighter note, but still. And the blood-soaked woman's theme is just so incredibly bittersweet that it speaks right to me about memories of love lost that I don't even have. I guess the way they played it, there's not even room for a scooby-doo style joke ending where it was old man mcginty behind the mask all along trying to scare you out of the casino, and your friends were just pulling a surprise birthday party for you?
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2017 14:02
|
|
|
I do like the implication that Lucas went into the priesthood after the accident due to the scene just before the credits - because hell, people have joined the priesthood for reasons like that. And that it's this aspect of Lucas - one that has lived for years, likely listening to confessions of people desperate for forgiveness and helping them out in that way, that ends up being the one to mentally work through his own pain and forgive himself for something he did years ago. I know for a fact my computer wouldn't have been able to handle this game and I don't own any of the game systems this game can be bought on, so thank you very much for showing it off! It's the kind of game I absolutely love.
|
|
#
?
Aug 7, 2017 21:51
|
|
|
Nevileen posted:I do like the implication that Lucas went into the priesthood after the accident due to the scene just before the credits - because hell, people have joined the priesthood for reasons like that. And that it's this aspect of Lucas - one that has lived for years, likely listening to confessions of people desperate for forgiveness and helping them out in that way, that ends up being the one to mentally work through his own pain and forgive himself for something he did years ago. Well... from what I understand, Lafcadio was a real person who existed, and was the previous owner of the Sexy Brutale before Lucas bought it. And that he died in the explosion. Lucas imagined himself as Lafcadio because he did what Lucas couldn't, he walked away.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2017 00:24
|
|
|
Kurieg posted:Well... from what I understand, Lafcadio was a real person who existed, and was the previous owner of the Sexy Brutale before Lucas bought it. And that he died in the explosion. Lucas imagined himself as Lafcadio because he did what Lucas couldn't, he walked away. Fair enough! To me, it doesn't discount the possibility he could have gone into the priesthood himself - possibly following in the path of his dear friend while trying to atone and punish himself for the accident. It could just be my irl experiences leaking through, though. :V
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2017 03:46
|
|
|
Nevileen posted:Fair enough! To me, it doesn't discount the possibility he could have gone into the priesthood himself - possibly following in the path of his dear friend while trying to atone and punish himself for the accident. It could just be my irl experiences leaking through, though. :V Immersion is always at least partially projection, and it's a sign of a well-written character if you can understand their motivations through the lens of your own experiences.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2017 06:39
|
|
|
Kurieg posted:Well... from what I understand, Lafcadio was a real person who existed, and was the previous owner of the Sexy Brutale before Lucas bought it. And that he died in the explosion. Lucas imagined himself as Lafcadio because he did what Lucas couldn't, he walked away. As has been mentioned behind black bars, Lafcadio was someone who Lucas looked up to. It's mentioned as such a few times and implied that he did Lucas and Emily's wedding. Thus it's far more likely that Lucas followed in Lafcadio's footsteps in becoming a priest, however that's as far as we got of the real Lafcadio: everything attributed to him in the dream would actually be attributes of Lucas himself IE: dream Tequila mentioned his piano playing skill, that'd be Lucas's skill at playing the piano. Or tldr: 'why not both?'
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2017 07:37
|
|
|
Kurieg posted:Well... from what I understand, Lafcadio was a real person who existed, and was the previous owner of the Sexy Brutale before Lucas bought it. And that he died in the explosion. Lucas imagined himself as Lafcadio because he did what Lucas couldn't, he walked away. Slightly wrong in that Lafcadio wasn't even at the Sexy Brutale when the explosion happened, this is why he has no portrait and no Invitation, and presumably why he can break free. His death at the Casino is entirely fictitious compared to everyone else being Lucas trying to give their deaths meaning. Lafcadio thus doesn't need to have his death have meaning, as Lucas didn't kill him in the first place.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2017 09:47
|
|
|
Lord_Magmar posted:Slightly wrong in that Lafcadio wasn't even at the Sexy Brutale when the explosion happened, this is why he has no portrait and no Invitation, and presumably why he can break free. His death at the Casino is entirely fictitious compared to everyone else being Lucas trying to give their deaths meaning. Lafcadio thus doesn't need to have his death have meaning, as Lucas didn't kill him in the first place.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2017 17:28
|
|
|
One more video, for good measure! Last Call/PolsyI still have a few more things to do, like add in more room descriptions into the second post (there's still a few left) but this will be the last video. Thanks for watching! I'm going to take a little break before starting the next LP (not starting it immediately after finishing like this one) because it's a bigger endeavor but this was a nice short one and it was really fun. Giant Boy Detective posted:(Though I do wish Clay had actually punched the spider. gently caress spiders.) For what it's worth, the game does mention that Clay killed the spider when attacked directly, when you look at his portrait in the basement. You just don't get to see it on camera unfortunately.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2017 18:35
|
|
|
What I'm getting from that video is that the Manacled Lord (or whatever his name is) is the representation of the Marquis's gambling addiction. Would that be a reasonable assumption?
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2017 18:59
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 21:30 |
|
|
A gambling addiction, writ large, would explain why he couldn't do a sensible thing like sell the casino. He had to take a risk; he had to make it big and flashy; he had to go for broke.
|
|
#
?
Aug 8, 2017 19:10
|
|
