notbobsmith wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 1:06 am
I finally watched your commentary playthrough. I think you covered pretty much everything as to why I couldn't stand this game either.
7:00 The inability to look at inventory items so sometimes you can't even speculate what you are carrying. I was trying to remember what the two things that look like sunflower seeds did.
Yes, that bothered me so much. Like I get, sure you leave the main character ambiguous - so maybe it's not read in their voice. But a text description would be great.
This is even further problematic because SOME of the items you NEED to look at them to do something with them (like the bird that goes in the clock).
I just wish it was consistent - always give a text description below the item - and if you can rotate it (like the bird and a few other things), you can do so.
Otherwise, the player is discouraged from every looking at the items since the first few items don't do much.
Well, except the lighter.
notbobsmith wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 1:06 am
8:00 and 8:44 Poorly designed rooms where you have to be in a specific location in order to interact with something. I think I remember the room you mention at 8:44. I got "lost" in a small, circular room.
There's a number of times, where it's just a small room (top of the lighthouse, the other thing with the hook and fish, the cannonball room) where trying to get back out/down of the room is difficult.
notbobsmith wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 1:06 am
10:07 The pan flute thing is used to summon the flying machine to your location. That way if you leave it on one island, but end up on another using other means (e.g. the portal) you don't end up stuck. I don't think I used it on my playthrough and you don't technically need it if you complete everything you need to do and don't need to go back.
Do you? I thought I used the flying machine and went to a different island. But maybe I restored when I saw it was the island I was already on? But I thought you could just use the bird to fly back? No need for the flute thing?
Because after the lighthouse on the other side (for lack of a better word) - you pretty much have the sub. So if you sub to the bird lighthouse - then bird fly to the talkative girl island - you can just fly back from there, right, without the flute? Because I thought that's what I did. I may have just restored though. Can't remember, since it was 10 hours and 58 minutes of hell.
notbobsmith wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 1:06 am
23:00 I had the same problem with not seeing the hallway even after walking past it a dozen times.
Glad I am not alone. Was a fluke when I happened to have turned. I think I even said something about maybe it opens after something is triggered.
Or...
It's just that easy to miss.
notbobsmith wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 1:06 am
39:21 It is pretty funny that you can't use the drill to get through the rocks. Isn't that what the machine is for?
That was literally my thought. "Oh, cute you caused a cave in. Well I got this handy dandy drill. Oh, I can't use it here?"
(10 hours later)
"Wait, so I can't drill through some boulders, but I can drill through a stone wall? Ok..."
notbobsmith wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 1:06 am
56:52 My memory is fuzzy, but I don't think you need to set off the bomb. I seem to remember that during the closing sequence, the scientist just says something about hoping that no one finds the portal technology. I
think there is another ending where you don't capture the Dark Being, but I forget how you do that.
I don't think the bomb is required.
I only did it because when I used the dynamite for the aforementioned rock slide.
I saw the clock, and when I couldn't use it for parts - I was like, "I bet this is part of a bomb."
I assumed, that's how you'd defeat the Dark Being - is knock him out and use the digger as a bomb.
Did not think the gun was going to suck him into a container...
Which was also odd.
notbobsmith wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 1:06 am
One of the things you mentioned about the small number of save files from my playthrough: part of the reason I had so few was that the game (to its credit) doesn't actually have any places to dead-end. I never felt the need to save too often.
Hah. I think I saved so often (well over 140 saves, because once I reached 99 I was overwriting older ones) - because a lot of times, I had no idea what I was doing and wasn't sure if what I was doing was a good idea or not or going to dead end me. But I think you're right, there's no way to dead end...
notbobsmith wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 1:06 am
You do compliment the graphics, but to be honest, I wasn't thrilled with them. Compared to Myst, everything just looks drab and uninteresting.
Yeah, I still liked them, over all. I didn't feel like they felt... dated. Like when I look at Mask of Eternity, it feels so horribly dated to me. (Which only fuels my dislike of it, further).
notbobsmith wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 1:06 am
I'm still not sure what caused your bug.
Neither am I - because, even when I restored further back in the game (still on the "digger island/volcano island") - whenever I got to the same part it'd freeze on the spin.
It even froze before that on one of my restore attempts, when turning the digger.
So something in how I did something, caused the game to lock up.
I have thought back to it - and the only thing I can think that was off - is when you cut the boards (for the bridge) - you can cut more boards than you need - and it leaves two boards on the table.
But I have to imagine, others have done the same... and this bug, which is what I suspect it is, would have been found before I found it.
So I am not sure.
But when I restored your game, further before Amanda, all you had was the same stuff that I had. And yours worked when I caught up to where I was.
Which further tells me - it's definitely a very weird bug in something I'd done in my game.
So I am not sure.