By Ilmari
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| What happened last week |
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| And what I am facing now |
I found myself beside a black gate, behind which lied the lair of the evil witch, holding princess Lorealle. The way inside was prevented by five obstacles (moon, tarpit, eye, crow and thunderbolt). There was also a skeleton holding a candygram, which according to a fine print contained explosives that would kill anyone opening it. I also appeared to have a new verb to use (Hoot).
So, there were five obstacles and the whole game has been spent gathering five magical objects (Pitchfork of Damocles, Crescent Wrench of Armageddon, Raw Steak of Eternity, Crowbar of the Apocalypse and Bolt Cutters of Doom) - this seemed pretty simple. Crowbar took care of the crow, Bolt Cutters of the thunderbolt. I guessed Steak should be put on the eye and the Crescent Wrench worked for the crescent moon. That left only the pitchfork and the tarpit.
Five keys for five locks and the gate was open. Apparently the locks had been set up to keep the witch and her evil minions imprisoned. Now I had freed them to terror the land, as long as the castle of the witch stood. As if this wasn’t enough, the witch imprisoned me and set a deadly spell.
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| How can I ever survive this? |
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Simply. But why was the witch so stupid to leave the hourglass to my hands?
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With that worry solved, I just had to escape the room. There wasn’t any clear hint what to do - even that big book had nothing in it - but I did manage to take that pair of eyeballs and put them in the skeleton, which made the mirror on the wall glow. I received points for the effort, so apparently I was doing something right. Eventually, I tried my new verb (there
was an owl in the room) and the spirit of the mirror answered.
Seeing like a mirror? So backwards? Yep, the correct answer was IIIVX. The mirror opened up and revealed a secret passageway. Entering it I found a chain hooked to the ceiling and running through a hole through the floor. When I checked the hole, I saw that the chain held a chandelier that was straight above a black circle inscribed on the floor. Remembering that the circle was meant to be the place of the Beast at his wedding at the ceremony, I knew I had to somehow break the chain at the right time.
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| Is this made from Monkey Island grog? |
Continuing the passageway, I found the witch’s bedroom. On the table I found a pot of makeup that would eat through metal in thirty minutes. I grabbed the pot, went back to the passageway and applied the makeup to the chain, when it was just thirty minutes to the beginning of the wedding. The chain started to corrode, and at precisely 11.00 the chandelier fell on top of the beast, killing him. Her mother, the witch, alerted the guards and killed me at once, when they found me. Not a perfect plan.
After restoring, I continued searching the witch’s bedroom. There was this conspicuous broomstick still lying around. When I had opened the window, I could use the broom to fly, not everywhere in the world, but to few specific spots: witch’s bedroom (where I started), the black gate and another passageway, this time under the Great Hall, where the wedding was to happen. Opening a trapdoor and eating my way through, I found myself in a wedding cake.
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| Perfect hiding place |
The events proceeded much like previously, chandelier falling on the Beast and witch becoming enraged. The difference was that I was now beside her and had one turn to do something before getting killed. Perhaps the witch would like the candygram?
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| Kids, always remember to read the fine print |
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| BOOM! |
All I had to do was to blow the whistle the princess had and wait for the Pegasus to get us.
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| I guess this will do |
At this point, the game is essentially finished. There are still some dots to connect, and this is done in some blocks of text. In summary, the King Fudd, who was prophesied to die all the way in the beginning of the game, is just reborn as a more invigorated king. Her evil wife, who attempted to get her own daughter coronated, is jailed, and princess Lorealle is married to Eric.
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| Pity there was no second part |
Next time, we’ll see how well Eric the Unready will score!
Well done finishing the game!
ReplyDeleteDid you know that you can score 1001 out of 1000 points in the game? I actually found the last lousy point when I was playing this game along with TBD... but it was more than 1 year ago and now I've forgotten how to do it -_-'
V bayl erzrzore gung vg vf na npgvba gung lbh qb va gur ebbz jvgu gur zveebe va gur pnfgyr.
I remembered you commenting about the extra point in one of the earlier posts, but I didn't find the point myself. Maybe someone else knows how to get the point (CAPs up for grabs!)?
DeleteI actually went back to the game and messed around trying to get the last point, and I actually did it.
DeleteThe command to do it (va gur ebbz jvgu gur zveebe va gur ynfg puncgre) vf HAFPERJ BJY. Why, I have no idea.
The response to that is as follows:
"There has to be SOME way to reward an input as neat as that. The only thing I can think of is to give you one more point than everyone else. So now you can finish the game with 1001 points instead of 1000. Congratulations."
It's like in the original Scott Adams Adventure when you FPERJ ORNE, but in reverse.
DeleteWhat, no princess Lorealle in a revealing/tight fitting dress to end the game? What happened at Legend systems to cause this appalling oversight?
ReplyDeleteThere's some solid jokes here at the end, but the bit I played was not very difficult and it doesn't look like that has changed.
It also occurs to me now the eye may be defeated with a rib-eye steak. Don't know if that is correct but considering the other solutions it would fit the overall theme.
DeleteThe last two sections were clearly on the easier side - which I'd say is a good design choice, since getting stuck five moves away from victory would be immensely frustrating.
DeleteI'd say they could have spiced the very ending (after the pelican) somehow. There are no real jokes anymore, no interesting animations or new pictures, and it manages to seem both slow - since you are just pressing ENTER to get from one text box to another - and rushed - since they are trying to cram in too many plot twists.
(test. usually I don't have trouble commenting here but they seem to be just vanishing without any error message, notice that comments have been moderated, etc...)
ReplyDeleteAhhh okay. It's not accepting the blockquote tag, but that error message itself won't show up unless I turn off Firefox's enhanced tracking protection. Annoying.
ReplyDeleteIs this made from Monkey Island grog?
A dilute preparation, perhaps! Monkey Island grog mostly eats through metal in seconds.