Saturday 1 February 2020

Gobliins 2 - Won!

By Ilmari


Prince is auditioning for the role of Arthur Fleck
(BTW, notice the picture showing wizard goblin with his friends from the first game)

Last time, Prince had just been possessed by a demon, and the wizard goblin suggested using water from his fountain. The water did separate the demon from the prince, but this wasn’t just a good thing.


Captured again

Prince was gone, wizard was of no use and I had no idea what to do. It was back to testing random things - and mostly enraging the wizard in the process. I quickly found a pencil, and if a goblin tried to draw with it on wizard’s portrait, the wizard would throw a boomerang, which the other goblin could catch. If then a goblin would pour water on the wizard, the wizard would throw a toothpick, which the other goblin could catch with the boomerang. The toothpick could then be used on the teeth of the skeleton, which would open its chest cavity and reveal a bottle which would fall down on the floor and break, leaving only a wet puddle.

I also tried to use the pencil to draw a caricature of the wizard on the blackboard. The wizard wiped it away a few times and finally threw his sponge on the floor. I could then use the sponge to clean the puddle of water. If I then blew the pipe to make some smoke and used the wet sponge on smoke, a portal appeared. Yep, the puzzles have become a bit arbitrary at this point of the game.


Surprise, it’s the same demon we defeated once!

The portal took us to the kingdom of death, where the demon Amoniak was the holding prince in his arms. It was again time to test the various hotspots with both of the gobliins. One “button” particularly threw out eye balls, which a goblin could ride to get to a part of the screen where he could catch a mouse.


Yes, it’s a flying eyeball

The mouse could be used to lure a crocodile to lift its head from one of the holes. Jumping on the crocodile would make the goblin fly through the air. The demon would try to catch the flying goblin, which would allow me to throw a boomerang at a nearby stalactite and hit the demon’s hand with it (yet another tight spot requiring quick timing). At this point, Amoniak lost his grip and the prince ran off.


You can see a monster trying to stop the prince and another eyeball convincing it to let go

I had achieved one goal, and I could now pause and decide what to do next. I was still in the realm of death, with no obvious exit. This was again a time for random experimentation. After a considerable amount of false leads, I noticed that I could drop my wet sponge on a rock and then throw the prince with the eyeball machine on it, making the rock wet in the process. I could then use my pencil to draw something on the rock (yes, the puzzles have become a bit arbitrary).


A doorway!


Bye


This is it, this is the ending?

A bit of a letdown, I have to say. Oh well, I’ll return next week with the ratings.

Session time: 3 h 5 min
Total time: 23 h 15 min

10 comments:

  1. Well, the teeth returned with a vengeance in the death realm at least.

    But yikes what an abrupt ending...

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    Replies
    1. Yes, the teeth are back!

      As I've kept saying, storywise it would have made much more sense to end the game after the gobliins rescued the prince the first time. The last two sections have been mostly useless.

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    2. I feel that while the TEETH here are good, but the ones on the demon's throne in the castle are still the best. But that is a matter of personal preference.

      I hope they give Ilmari something more sane to play next as he must be teetering on the edge of madness after this game.

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    3. Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon appears to be next on my list. At least that should be a quick game.

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  2. Everytime I go to a new screen it seems, I start out feeling like this may be the point where it becomes like it was in the beginning. Each time I am disappointed.
    That's not how pipe smoking works. Unlike this time, we don't have the joy of cartoony physics to blame for that. (They do it from the wide end if you're curious)
    ...How is Amoniak both inside the prince and outside the prince? Did he do it as we poisoned him or whatever?
    I'd say more about this section, but when it became apparent that it was going to be yet another series of timed puzzles I gave up. Maybe I was wrong to do that. But I had more important things to do than waste 15 minutes on a game I'm going to be seeing the end of anyway. (plus any greatest hits in terms of animations)

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    Replies
    1. You are right, the whole possession thing is really confusing. The only explanation I can come up with is that prince was possessed at the moment you suggest.

      If I hadn't had the duty of recording this game, I wouldn't either have bothered with the end. You didn't miss much!

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  3. I am confused why the wizard's house looks completely different from the one at the very beginning of the game? Also, is this wizard supposed to be one of the characters from the first Gobliiins?

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    Replies
    1. Good question! Perhaps this picture is taken from a different room?

      At least the picture on the wall would suggest he's the same wizard although the game doesn't explicitly say it.

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    2. Checking my manual for the first game, the goblins names are Hooter, Dwayne and BoBo. I don't know if that's the English translator having fun or not, because I can't find any French versions of the manual. I can tell you that the evil wizard' (from the first game) name is NIAK, which is a sign that he's the bad guy in this or that the writer sucks at thinking up names.
      Also, the reason why the king's son was kidnapped is because the king defeated AMONIAK 50 years before the events of this game. I love when the driving reason for the plot goes unmentioned in the game.

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  4. It's been a while since I played this, but I seem to remember there being some sort of clue regarding what the water does (has something to do with creating portals), either in the manual or maybe if you talk to the wizard enough (maybe after the Prince gets de-possessed and kidnapped?). I could just be remembering incorrectly, though.

    Also, the wizard goblin here is named Tazaar, not Hooter, so unless there was a translation mismatch, it's a different goblin (gobliiin?) who just happens to have a picture of the original goblins (gobliiins?) on his wall.

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