Memorable moments in otherwise mediocre/lame RPGs

[King Crispy]

What is it that nobody likes, but directs even the greatest of King's actions. It is much like a blade, and made to hurt, but it has never killed anyone, even though wounding thousands. It thieves no one but becomes rich. It spans the whole world and makes life fit. The greatest of kingdoms it has built, and founded the oldest of them all, but never has it started a war and those that believe in it will be fit forevermore.

The best guess I can come up with is 'writing'. Doesn't fit everything, though.

 

[Kosmonaut]

You are beginning to understand what I had to go through. Good.

The "spans the whole world" bit is better explained with "has spread all over the world" or "has found its way all over the world".

I am now absolutely certain that this riddle is a victim of a poor translation job. Some sentences only vaguely or partially apply towards the answer. I'll keep this up for a little longer and then just reveal the answer myself. I don't want to derail this thread for too long.

- Tongue
- Language
- Head (brain)

 

[Elzair]

Riddle

Well, looking at the walkthrough (cheating I know), I see several places where it says 'Answer: ' Here are the various responses:

FIRE
DAUGHTER
ECHO
EYES
PLOUGH
AND
SOMETHING
CIRCLE
RULER
SPINGO
ICEFLOWER

None of these seem to fit, though.

 

[Smarts]

'Plough' sounds like it could fit.

Nobody likes it, because it's a symbol of physical labour, but it's the cornerstone of agricultural technology - and so it keeps kingdoms fed. It is made like a blade, but it's not at all deadly. It's spread across the world and - taking a bit of license here - it makes the earth fit for planting.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Smarts has it. The answer is the plough.

The fact that Elzair could not see how the answer fitted the riddle, even though he had it right in front of him, should give you people an idea how painful this riddle is.

 

[Seboss]

Hmm yeah, sounds like it. One thing is sure, I would never have been able to solve that riddle.
"Plough". Seriously

 

[Annie Mitsoda]

/facepalm

If there's ever an argument about why good localization is important for many genres to work properly, this must be mentioned.

Cripes, even if I'd somehow thought of it, I'd have typed in the US version and been all PLOW. As in I'm Mr. Plow, that's my name, that name again is Mr. Plow.

aaaaaaaaaaaaand this is why I don't like putting riddles in games. I can see how that drove you nuts.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I like riddles, even in games. But there's a fine line between a hobby and mental illness. But let's try to get back on topic. I can add two more moments that fit the thread topic.

The first one is Veil of Darkness. It's a decent adventure game, but a sucky RPG. In the game you're hired by the local magistrate to hunt down and kill a werewolf that's been butchering innocent people, like all werewolves do. Now, in order to kill the werewolf you have to find it, and to do that you go talk to everybody and accuse them of being the werewolf. This of course can lead to some hilarious responses (like when you accuse a hanging corpse of being a werewolf, or a guy that's been transformed into a tree) but the moment when you actually do find the werewolf...It's hard to forget. It's an interesting "Whodunnit" and as usual, you never suspect who the real killer is.

The second one is from a mediocre RPG (at least, I thought it was mediocre, RPG or otherwise) that has an interesting section to play through. While you're being led through this game by the plot in almost a straight line, there does come a point in it where you're sidelined and must deal with a...curator of a museum of sorts. This section suddenly changes a water-thinned System Shock 2 clone into a surreal journey into madness. It has a whole different feel and vibe to it than the rest of the game, and I have read many on-line claims that this is the best part of the game. Sander Cohen sure gave colour to an otherwise forgettable journey through a game.

 

[Jasede]

You better not be talking about Thief 1. *swings fists warningly*

 

[Carlos' Bitch1]

Dink Smallwood was a mediocre RPG, yet had some hilarious moments.

In particular, the part where you are at your Sister/Aunts/Uncles house with the wife beating husband. The dialogue choices with him were quite funny.

 

[Andhaira]

Veil of darkness sure was a great game. The great thing is that since the text was partly parser, you could actually find the werewolf very early in the game if you kept on calling everyone a werewolf.

And then you would die horribly yes, as you didn't have the gun with silver bullets yet.

 

[Elwro]

Plough becomes rich? Yes, good translation is important.