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indigozealWe return to Mystic Ark: Maboroshi Gekijou to showcase...a stunning lack of progress.
The elevator leads to...a sewer. How creative.
I got a photo of an enemy for once, by the way. These bats are punchable and a bit more mobile than last chapter's spiders but still not much of a problem. (Plus, they don't seem to respawn.)
Lizard in a bucket, with a frog in the next one. Nothing we can do with either.
No entry without my permission! - Monstrorum
Boarded-up tunnel entrance on the next screen.
The sewer dead-ends at a box. There ain't nothin' inside, though.
The cover's off the air duct, but Remy can't reach it, even though there's what seems to be a very climbable pipe right next to it.
I then recall that there was a ladder upstairs. Ostensibly, it's for searching the tops of the bookcases, in the room, but there's nothing on top of any of them right now. I try to bring the ladder downstairs...but the game won't let me.
By now, you may be noticing a pattern of seemingly interactive elements that we can't do jack with.
"Three chemicals...mix two together...combine..."
Deluged with dead ends, I start playing with Monstrorum's chemicals. It turns out that one combination restores your health; one drains it; and one summons a spirit who'll play a card game with you.
"...What am I doing here? I can't remember..."
Out of desperation, I examine the counter, and it turns out that the head can talk.
His name is Ferguson. Ferguson the Frankenstein's Monster. He's not exactly in a position to help me, though.
I examine a bookshelf, which yields what seems to be a clue: red, blue, and green are the colors of the chemicals I can combine on Monstrorum's shelf. I can't combine red & red chemicals, though, and I've exhausted all the mixing combinations I've been given.
By the way, this skeleton is smaller than Remy's body. It's that of a kid. REMY'S NOT THE FIRST KID SFT SENT TO MONSTRORUM, IS HE
"Shall I imbue myself in this lamp?"
Finally, in click-on-everything desperation, the game hints to me that this lamp is unlit. I imbue the Ark of Courage, and...
"...Hmm? It looks like you might be able to fit through here!"
...the resultant stray sparks burn away some of the boards from the tunnel entrance.
Through the archway are a couple of sarcophagi and a flyer with a Resident Evil game over message on it.
Tearing off the flyer awakens these mummies, who apparently are easily angered (if removing a flyer provokes them to blows) but still kind of lazy - they don't even have the good grace to remove themselves from their coffins fully. They still almost get the better of me, though, since I forget the combat controls for a bit. (It's been a good while since the bats.)
Here's my health meter with only one pip left. Instead of the orb extinguishing, they just go from yellow to green. Not very intuitive.
To the left of the mummy room are these barrels. You're supposed to kick the barrels to access the upper shelves, I gather, but there doesn't seem to be anything up there when I investigate. I decide to leave the barrels alone for the time being.
I instead retrieve the lever for the elevator in the mummy room and go upstairs.
Upstairs is a moon statue that says (yes, says) that it'll open the door if I answer a riddle. Then it says that I don't have enough "knowledge" to do so yet. Guess it's obvious which Ark we're getting in this world.
Before I can contemplate my next move, however, a Matoya's lighthouse-like pitfall drops me down a level.
Into a graveyard.
Surely this won't be trouble.
"There's nothing inside."
Aw, what a gyp.
...Does that tombstone say "RPD"? "Best cream"?
The text says it's blocking my way, but I can't push it, punch it, kick it, or use any of my items on it.
(The other tombstones prompt little cutaway graphics when examined, indicating that they're important.)
"That door over there was the product of the professor combining an ordinary door with some sort of creature. It's a talking door!"
I can, however, speak to this extremely first-gen-polygon deer head to learn that the talking door nearby (as opposed to the one near the moon statue, who flatly denies entrance) is rather out-of-sorts. I can talk to the door repeatedly, but he'll just demand something to eat in return.
OK, so I got completely good and stuck here. There were about ten leads (for the record: the books on the shelf; the ladder & bookcases; the animals in the buckets; the box near the vent; a locked door in the sewers; the barrel room; the coffin; the tombstone blocking the way; the other tombstones; and the living doors), and I couldn't do anything with any of them. After summoning an Ark of Courage and trying to instill courage and/or set on fire everything & one in the lab, I went back to the first world in frustration.
There I found a bowl of apples.
"There's a golden treasure hidden in this world!"
A spirit emerges from the apples with an important message. Mystic Ark is a very animistic game.
We ain't finding this "golden treasure" now, though.
"Those apples are just ordinary apples, but I've heard that there are SPECIAL apples somewhere in the forest."
SPECIAL apples! Is THAT what we need to sate the door?
Naturally, these special apples are nowhere to be found. Also, these regular apples won't cut it. I putter around trying stuff like attempting to boil the egg in the pixies' stewpot, but nothing yields any leads.
At this point, I had spent a good 90 minutes stumbling about fruitlessly (har), so I broke down and looked at a walkthrough. It's a good thing I did, because I never would have clued in to this little gem of game design on my own.
Remember the buckets? They had a lizard and a frog inside them; I couldn't do anything with them, though. It turns out that you have to go to the buckets directly after meeting with the door and search the right one; only then will you get a prompt to take the frog. The prompt will not appear before that. The prompt will also not appear if you investigate the door, save, and then go look in the right bucket. You have to look in the right bucket immediately, or at least in the same gameplay session, or else the prompt won't appear.
So, yes, my enthusiasm for the game dampened greatly by the end of this little escapade. Hopefully, next time, we'll make some actual progress and maybe get out of this aggravating chapter.
.
The elevator leads to...a sewer. How creative.
I got a photo of an enemy for once, by the way. These bats are punchable and a bit more mobile than last chapter's spiders but still not much of a problem. (Plus, they don't seem to respawn.)
Lizard in a bucket, with a frog in the next one. Nothing we can do with either.
No entry without my permission! - Monstrorum
Boarded-up tunnel entrance on the next screen.
The sewer dead-ends at a box. There ain't nothin' inside, though.
The cover's off the air duct, but Remy can't reach it, even though there's what seems to be a very climbable pipe right next to it.
I then recall that there was a ladder upstairs. Ostensibly, it's for searching the tops of the bookcases, in the room, but there's nothing on top of any of them right now. I try to bring the ladder downstairs...but the game won't let me.
By now, you may be noticing a pattern of seemingly interactive elements that we can't do jack with.
"Three chemicals...mix two together...combine..."
Deluged with dead ends, I start playing with Monstrorum's chemicals. It turns out that one combination restores your health; one drains it; and one summons a spirit who'll play a card game with you.
"...What am I doing here? I can't remember..."
Out of desperation, I examine the counter, and it turns out that the head can talk.
His name is Ferguson. Ferguson the Frankenstein's Monster. He's not exactly in a position to help me, though.
I examine a bookshelf, which yields what seems to be a clue: red, blue, and green are the colors of the chemicals I can combine on Monstrorum's shelf. I can't combine red & red chemicals, though, and I've exhausted all the mixing combinations I've been given.
By the way, this skeleton is smaller than Remy's body. It's that of a kid. REMY'S NOT THE FIRST KID SFT SENT TO MONSTRORUM, IS HE
"Shall I imbue myself in this lamp?"
Finally, in click-on-everything desperation, the game hints to me that this lamp is unlit. I imbue the Ark of Courage, and...
"...Hmm? It looks like you might be able to fit through here!"
...the resultant stray sparks burn away some of the boards from the tunnel entrance.
Through the archway are a couple of sarcophagi and a flyer with a Resident Evil game over message on it.
Tearing off the flyer awakens these mummies, who apparently are easily angered (if removing a flyer provokes them to blows) but still kind of lazy - they don't even have the good grace to remove themselves from their coffins fully. They still almost get the better of me, though, since I forget the combat controls for a bit. (It's been a good while since the bats.)
Here's my health meter with only one pip left. Instead of the orb extinguishing, they just go from yellow to green. Not very intuitive.
To the left of the mummy room are these barrels. You're supposed to kick the barrels to access the upper shelves, I gather, but there doesn't seem to be anything up there when I investigate. I decide to leave the barrels alone for the time being.
I instead retrieve the lever for the elevator in the mummy room and go upstairs.
Upstairs is a moon statue that says (yes, says) that it'll open the door if I answer a riddle. Then it says that I don't have enough "knowledge" to do so yet. Guess it's obvious which Ark we're getting in this world.
Before I can contemplate my next move, however, a Matoya's lighthouse-like pitfall drops me down a level.
Into a graveyard.
Surely this won't be trouble.
"There's nothing inside."
Aw, what a gyp.
...Does that tombstone say "RPD"? "Best cream"?
The text says it's blocking my way, but I can't push it, punch it, kick it, or use any of my items on it.
(The other tombstones prompt little cutaway graphics when examined, indicating that they're important.)
"That door over there was the product of the professor combining an ordinary door with some sort of creature. It's a talking door!"
I can, however, speak to this extremely first-gen-polygon deer head to learn that the talking door nearby (as opposed to the one near the moon statue, who flatly denies entrance) is rather out-of-sorts. I can talk to the door repeatedly, but he'll just demand something to eat in return.
OK, so I got completely good and stuck here. There were about ten leads (for the record: the books on the shelf; the ladder & bookcases; the animals in the buckets; the box near the vent; a locked door in the sewers; the barrel room; the coffin; the tombstone blocking the way; the other tombstones; and the living doors), and I couldn't do anything with any of them. After summoning an Ark of Courage and trying to instill courage and/or set on fire everything & one in the lab, I went back to the first world in frustration.
There I found a bowl of apples.
"There's a golden treasure hidden in this world!"
A spirit emerges from the apples with an important message. Mystic Ark is a very animistic game.
We ain't finding this "golden treasure" now, though.
"Those apples are just ordinary apples, but I've heard that there are SPECIAL apples somewhere in the forest."
SPECIAL apples! Is THAT what we need to sate the door?
Naturally, these special apples are nowhere to be found. Also, these regular apples won't cut it. I putter around trying stuff like attempting to boil the egg in the pixies' stewpot, but nothing yields any leads.
At this point, I had spent a good 90 minutes stumbling about fruitlessly (har), so I broke down and looked at a walkthrough. It's a good thing I did, because I never would have clued in to this little gem of game design on my own.
Remember the buckets? They had a lizard and a frog inside them; I couldn't do anything with them, though. It turns out that you have to go to the buckets directly after meeting with the door and search the right one; only then will you get a prompt to take the frog. The prompt will not appear before that. The prompt will also not appear if you investigate the door, save, and then go look in the right bucket. You have to look in the right bucket immediately, or at least in the same gameplay session, or else the prompt won't appear.
So, yes, my enthusiasm for the game dampened greatly by the end of this little escapade. Hopefully, next time, we'll make some actual progress and maybe get out of this aggravating chapter.
.
