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No no no, you got me wrong. I wasted more then 100 hours on this game, but that doesn't mean you will or should. I played it blindly, and so obsessively mapped every corner, grinded a lot, spent shitloads of time trying to solve the puzzles (yeah, A LOT of time was wasted on puzzles) as well as rearranging the equipment, experimenting with things, etc. I probably wandered around pointlessly a lot, too. Having read this LP, you can probably complete the game in 50-70 hours tops. Or maybe even less if you speedrun through it, I can't really tell.
kyrub said:
You did mention there were probably too many "easy" encounters, like wolves etc., throughout the game. Is this what makes the game too long?
Dunno, really. In the second part of the game, you can recite MORPETH to reduce the random encounter rate. In the first part, yes, that rate can be quite high. It's an RPG, duh; it has a lot of combat. Still, this game is definitely NOT as encounter-heavy as, say, Wizardry 8 (iirc). Puzzles, not combat, are its main time-wasters. Plus overall I don't feel like the combat part was tedious; on the contrary, many fights were definitely tough, fun, and memorable. And the system of spells and prayers is definitely one of the game's highest points, being varied, fun to learn, and rewarding to master.
Blackadder said:
Indeed. You certainly rank up there with other 'Lets Play!' veterans here, and seem to be on track to surpassing them.
Thanks! I'm flattered. Still, I have a long way to go until I reach the top, and I'll never be able to reach the quality of, say, Black Cat's LPs. Also, I fully expect my real life to prevent me from LPing this much pretty soon. I've just been lucky enough to have enough free time in the past few months to become active here on the Playground.
Blackadder said:
It is the complete package; other games can outdo it in each element, yet it is greater than the sum of its parts.
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30: Chaos: Dead and Done
In which we explore the Chaos, free Mara, and detonate the beacon.
Alright, ladies and gentlemen, the time has finally come. I bring you the saddest ending update ever. I'm sad the game ends, yeah, but not only that.
And so our task is set:
Exploring the Chaos, freeing Mara, and then firing the beacon. Got it.
We teleport to the Chaos first.
Nothing seems quite as it should be indeed.
The Chaos is an extremely weird area, probably the best one I can recall from any RPG I've played.
Mara seems to be lying, frozen, behind the bars.
In the Chaos, you can't really be sure of any step you take. Literally. With every step, you can expect the surroundings to change drastically. All the walls in this area seem to be one-sided, incomplete, fluid and fleeting. A lot of spinners in here, too. And the area is, of course, unmappable -- well, there is an automap, but it won't help you much. The correct path through the Chaos is quite rigidly predefined: it is a puzzle, after all, and only the correct sequence of steps can bring Mara her freedom. Overall, the area is infuriating, as you always end up in places you didn't expect to end up in, and at first it all may seem completely random. There is a logic to this Chaos, though. Still, even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to draw a map of this area for you, as I've no idea how one should depict the weird shit that happens in here.
One good thing about this area is that it is an exclusively puzzle one: no random encounters in here. One bad thing is, I haven't been able to find the way to exit the Chaos and go back to the sanctuary: I got out once by pure chance, which means there is an exit route, but I couldn't do it again no matter how I tried. So I wasted a couple of Medals of Escape here. Meh, no big deal.
There are a lot of inscriptions around, which all must be translated by applying NGOSLAZAR a few times.
The inscriptions are all hints and clues, but truth be told they don't help much.
Some of them seem to give the direction to a puzzle-crucial item. Directions are fuzzy in the Chaos, though.
There is a familiar copper hoop aka teleporter in here -- we saw those in the Pyramid, as you may remember -- which means we'll need to fetch the magic cards (stored in the URZHUT sanctuary) to use it. We'll go back for the cards a bit later, after we have explored the Chaos a bit.
Another (sixth) magic card is hidden somewhere in the Chaos, as this inscription tells us. We'll find that card later -- by pure chance, naturally.
The grates are locked, of course.
There are some teleporter plates around the area; without spekkio carrying the cards, they teleport us back to the starting location.
This automap doesn't mean shit.
Neither does this one. It helps you get some sense of direction, but no more than that.
This inscription refers to the latch puzzle we'll get to later.
We find an altar we could use to recite TULAR in case we needed more food.
The way around the Chaos is marked by strange short words such as OSA, TUS, TER, etc. I must confess I haven't fully grasped the system behind it, but I assume it makes the exploration much easier once you've mastered it. We'll be doing it the hard way, though, through trial and error.
One of the few well-defined subareas in here. The wall we're walking along can in fact be passed through from the opposite side. And the automap doesn't show the doors and walls annoyingly appearing out of nowhere.
This inscription gives us directions to the key needed to open one of the plot-crucial grates in the area.
Along the way we find some "gateways", A to E. Together with the inscriptions they are supposed to be guiding us around.
Some of these walls are deceiving.
And here's the main clue to the latch puzzle. To set Mara free, we'll need to activate all these nodes in one go, from A to Y. A rage-inducing puzzle, believe my infinite attempts.
And here are the directions to the card. Har har har.
Another area we can access by going through one of the walls.
And here's the automap of the starting area, by the way.
Time to pick up some magic cards, so we use a Medal.
We fetch the cards from the URZHUT sanctuary.
The Scrying mirror gives us an image of the beacon's future destruction. Let's hope we manage.
And now we can use the copper hoop in the Chaos.
Previously, once we stepped on this square, we used to get teleported back to the starting place. Not now that we have the cards, though.
Yup, there's a teleporter here. I'll skip all my hours of frustration and just show you how I finally beat this area.
Teleporting to 1 is pointless.
Nothing here, so back to the teleporter we go.
Teleporting to 2 is crucial.
We find ourselves in a one-square room of four doors. It took me a couple of efforts as there's, from what I gathered, only one correct path you can take here: first north, then west.
A key!
To the west is a grate.
And the key fits!
Another grate? WTF?
Ah, a drawing depicting the only correct path through the latch puzzle!
Let's now teleport to 3.
Which brings to the sixth card of moving. spekkio picks it up.
With the six cards, we can now teleport to a new area. And this is the latch puzzle area. Almost totally incomprehensible. In here, you must move north first, else you'll have to return here again.
The problem is, you're facing south once you've been teleported to this place, so the game is trolling you. Quite frustrating, I must say.
We turn around and are now facing north.
Moving north we spot the first ... shaft? hole in the ceiling?
Nope, it's Latch A. Weird. To solve this puzzle, we must now move in the way depicted in the last drawing.
Latch V activated.
And now Latch C. Don't forget to check out the compass as there may be spinners on the way.
Latch L.
Latch R.
Latch E. Only one latch left.
Yay!
Now DON'T go back as touching any latch again will reset the puzzle! Just exit this subarea.
And the grate to Mara's prison is now unlocked!
Hmm, let's Look at the amulet.
Look at her robe?
Touch her forehead?
Call her name?
Hmm. Let's now Touch the amulet.
Take the amulet?
We call Mara's name again.
Cool, the only thing left now is to activate the beacon. We use one of the two remaining Medals of escape to exit the place.
We teleport to the Beacon:
Sagaris is already waiting for us.
As is Mara. Destroying the evil ahoy!
End our lives!? B-but what about all the riches, you know, the gold we've collected? :/
Oh yeah, I remember the pool of testing. That was tough as we were very low-level back then.
Join the Heroes above! Bah!
You can find the prayer of lighting in the manual. (I got a bit frustrated here as at first it didn't occur to me to have a look in the manual for it.) It's a prayer to Fshofth called LAIRIAN:
LAIRIAN The Untranslatable Prayer
Umhir deln Fshofth, Du saq mishallfen,
Ersan su stramanlisa du saq verhallfen,
Itor ka skirian, thror qastura taras,
Wur qanar wur stilor wur kas.
Epic ending. High fantasy at it's best. Cerebral and visceral,Crooked Bee
knows how to give life to a story and guides the reader with deft and
precision through labyrinthian depths of Eriosthe. Simply Brilliant!!!
You've done the impossible, you completed this game (and lp)
That ending where your party dies was absolute trolling indeed. A relatively recent game, Nier, not only does this but it also deletes all of your saves, and it taunts you while doing so. Anyways, many for the lp. Now, there's a pretty but very spoiled princess that needs your help, I believe
I'm surprised you aren't taking a break, though. Right on to the next one...not that I'm complaining or anything; you pick interesting games, for sure.
Now you've finished, did you check walkthroughs and the like to see if you missed useful things in chaos, or you just happy to have it all done and finished?
Or maybe even less if you speedrun through it, I can't really tell.
I'm flattered. Still, I have a long way to go until I reach the top, and I'll never be able to reach the quality of, say, Black Cat's LPs. Also, I fully expect my real life to prevent me from LPing this much pretty soon. I've just been lucky enough to have enough free time in the past few months to become active here on the Playground.
Weird. To solve this puzzle, we must now move in the way depicted in the last drawing.
B-but what about all the riches, you know, the gold we've collected? :/
Even more shiny!
