By Ilmari
Last time the goblins had just infiltrated the castle grounds and found a friendly dwarf who had promised to help them, if they just brought him an imprint of a lock in a chest.
Courtyard was full of sleeping guards. Except for a tube of mayonnaise I could pick up, there wasn’t that much I could immediately do, since interacting with any of the guards would result in goblins getting bitten or hammered. One disturbed guard would even throw a knife, which would hit another guard, who would open his mouth, where I could see something red. Could I take this something red? Indeed, I could take it - or more precisely, I could take bubble gum from the guard’s mouth, while it was open. Using the gum on the lock, I received the imprint I needed.
I gave the imprint to the dwarf, but he still needed some metal to make a key for the chest. I did not find any metal at the forge, but I did get a most important tool - a stool. I immediately had an opportunity to use it. You see in the picture above a guard holding the meat? Well, while the other goblin poured some mayo to his mouth, the other goblin could stand on the stool and snatch a piece of meat.
Where to get some metal? I could use the piece of meat to catch false teeth from one guard, but those were not made of metal. After wandering aimlessly for quite a while (a few hours too many), I decided to see if the producers had programmed some kind of response to a goblin dropping on a tube of mayo.
With the guard’s face covered in mayo, the other goblin had a chance to pick up his sword. I took the sword to the dwarf, who still wanted my help for using the bellows. This was a relatively simple puzzle - I just had to get to the other side of a guard with some use of a stool and careful timing and then jump on the bellows. With key finally made, I could open the mysterious chest, which contained two wetsuits.
Despite having visited it many times before, I’ve left the third screen unmentioned, because all the puzzles in it form a thematic unity. The room had a clear goal - to open up the closed well, so that the goblins could dive into an underwater area. Biggest problems in that regard were the lid and the guard holding that lid in its place, and they were both resolved with the same solution.
First, I had to scare the guard a bit. A goblin could enter the dinosaur and phrase some threats to the guard, who was startled for a while. During his time of confusion, the other goblin used the trusty stool and tied the other end of the rope to the back of the guard (I can see where this is going…). Then the guard was scared again, this time by a goblin wearing some false teeth. Now, the guard slipped in his steps and was left hanging.
If only the guard would have fallen a bit lower, so that the lid of the well would have risen. Luckily there was a helpful tool I could pinch from another screen.
Since I’ve again completed a section, I’ll stop here. I'm starting to feel more and more ambiguous about the game, and the unpredictable use of mayo was especially a letdown. Still, there have been enough interesting puzzles and situations, so that I am looking forward to what's coming next!
Inventory: stool, elixir
Last time the goblins had just infiltrated the castle grounds and found a friendly dwarf who had promised to help them, if they just brought him an imprint of a lock in a chest.
 |
| Target: the chest with the fish |
Courtyard was full of sleeping guards. Except for a tube of mayonnaise I could pick up, there wasn’t that much I could immediately do, since interacting with any of the guards would result in goblins getting bitten or hammered. One disturbed guard would even throw a knife, which would hit another guard, who would open his mouth, where I could see something red. Could I take this something red? Indeed, I could take it - or more precisely, I could take bubble gum from the guard’s mouth, while it was open. Using the gum on the lock, I received the imprint I needed.
 |
| The forge |
I gave the imprint to the dwarf, but he still needed some metal to make a key for the chest. I did not find any metal at the forge, but I did get a most important tool - a stool. I immediately had an opportunity to use it. You see in the picture above a guard holding the meat? Well, while the other goblin poured some mayo to his mouth, the other goblin could stand on the stool and snatch a piece of meat.
Where to get some metal? I could use the piece of meat to catch false teeth from one guard, but those were not made of metal. After wandering aimlessly for quite a while (a few hours too many), I decided to see if the producers had programmed some kind of response to a goblin dropping on a tube of mayo.
 |
| They had (BTW, this seems a very unfair puzzle, since there’s no indication that you could do something like this) |
With the guard’s face covered in mayo, the other goblin had a chance to pick up his sword. I took the sword to the dwarf, who still wanted my help for using the bellows. This was a relatively simple puzzle - I just had to get to the other side of a guard with some use of a stool and careful timing and then jump on the bellows. With key finally made, I could open the mysterious chest, which contained two wetsuits.
 |
| Eyeless dinosaur - one of the dead ends of evolution |
Despite having visited it many times before, I’ve left the third screen unmentioned, because all the puzzles in it form a thematic unity. The room had a clear goal - to open up the closed well, so that the goblins could dive into an underwater area. Biggest problems in that regard were the lid and the guard holding that lid in its place, and they were both resolved with the same solution.
First, I had to scare the guard a bit. A goblin could enter the dinosaur and phrase some threats to the guard, who was startled for a while. During his time of confusion, the other goblin used the trusty stool and tied the other end of the rope to the back of the guard (I can see where this is going…). Then the guard was scared again, this time by a goblin wearing some false teeth. Now, the guard slipped in his steps and was left hanging.
 |
| Like this |
If only the guard would have fallen a bit lower, so that the lid of the well would have risen. Luckily there was a helpful tool I could pinch from another screen.
 |
| The anvil from the forge |
 |
| And the result |
Since I’ve again completed a section, I’ll stop here. I'm starting to feel more and more ambiguous about the game, and the unpredictable use of mayo was especially a letdown. Still, there have been enough interesting puzzles and situations, so that I am looking forward to what's coming next!
Inventory: stool, elixir
Session time: 6 hours
Total time: 15 hours
I just love the screen with all the goblins...or whatever they're called. The other screen too. All these interactions with the monsters are great.
ReplyDelete...that's mayonnaise? That's awfully yellow. We sure nobody accidentally translated mustard wrong?
I feel like the biggest problem with the spoiled mayo is that you don't necessarily know you can climb up that thing in the background. At this point, I just assumed the game was going to try to pull a fast one with some of the puzzles and figured I needed to do something with the mayo on the ground. (you didn't mention they drop it everytime you use it)
I also encountered a strange glitch after getting the false teeth, every time I clicked somewhere with Fingus, he went "No, no". Just in that area though.
Stupid hatchet puzzle. Could just take the hatchet and put it somewhere else, but no, we have to be clever.
Winkle, when entering the Godzilla hedgehog, says "Lie down you fake ninja turtle." Somewhere along the way, someone thought that to be a clever line.
Speaking of which, when I try to click on the hoist while Fingus is doing something to distract the guard, Fingus says "he's too vigilante, we'll have to think of something to distract him". Okay, why didn't you tell me that before I figured that out?
Chewing gum doesn't work like that.
"...that's mayonnaise? That's awfully yellow."
DeleteTranslation issues might be an answer. Then again, I did some googling and apparently a) home-made mayonnaise is usually yellower than the mayo found in stores and b) some recipes even add mustard to mayo, making it even yellower.
"(you didn't mention they drop it everytime you use it)"
On hindsight, that was a clear hint, but at the time I just didn't get it (on the other hand, I found the climbing pit easily).
"Stupid hatchet puzzle."
Ah, I forgot to mention it completely! For those who haven't played the game, one goblin has to lift a hatcher, revealing a button, which the other goblin has to press, in order to open a doorway. A bit contrived, admittedly.
"Chewing gum doesn't work like that."
Yes, this is more Looney Tunes logic than a real thing.
Actually, checking mayonnaise, there shouldn't be an issue, since it should be the same word. It came from the French, so this isn't like Ween where sleeping draft gets translated to poison. Just old-fashioned mayonnaise.
DeleteCan't blame you for forgetting about the hatchet part, most of that screen was rather forgettable.
Mayonnaise is oil emulsified with egg yolk and a bit of acid such as lemon juice, so if the yolk was very yellow-orange (depends what the chicken ate) and you used an oil that was yellow in hue (like see corn oil vs. the lighter canola, although I doubt corn oil would be the oil of choice in France) you might wind up with something yellow. The fact that it's in a squeeze tube like toothpaste is what's weird to me.
DeleteLisa H.: Where I come from, toothpaste type squeeze tubes are the norm for mayonnaise and other similar condiments, like mustard.
DeleteAnd where would that be, the International Space Station?
DeleteJokes aside the theme is at least very consistent, I don't mind cartoon logic in a cartoon world. The monster's eyes showing when being sprayed by the musterdnaise is perfect!
There seems to be a fine line between "creative puzzle solution" and "obscurely difficult puzzle solution" in this game series. What I think is interesting is that puzzles that are hard for some are super easy for others. It's been a few years since I played this, but I don't remember having any issues with the mayo puzzle, but it took me forever to figure out that you had to push the "make the dino's mouth move" button at the same time that the other goblin was in the head saying something. I suppose that's the problem with some of these puzzles being so non-intuitive: unless your mind happens to go where the developers' minds went, you're just stuck clicking everything on everything.
ReplyDeleteAt this point I was already accustomed to try something with the other goblin when the one goblin was doing something else, so dino's head wasn't that big of a problem. But yes, the game has so absurd a tone that clicking A with B is often the only way to decipher what is expected of the player.
Delete