Myst The Witness - first-person puzzler in the vein of Myst

[Zombra]

Does anybody else come up with little nicknames in their head for the different areas? Yesterday I was excited to finish the Quarry, the Arboretum, and Castle Numbskull. I guessed the first puzzle at the Temple of Light completely at random and that led to finishing the whole thing. Right now I'm stuck at the Treehouse of Lies and Fuckface Dojo.

 

[J1M]

Before your kill yourself, you should know that one of the audio puzzles has a bug.

 

[Zombra]

So now that I'm starting to feel like all I'm doing is backtracking and returning to things I couldn't solve before, I started keeping a google doc with everything I know of I haven't completed yet. At first I thought it was going to be a list of like 3 puzzles I can't crack so I could complain, "Well there are only 3 things left and they're too hard," but there's actually a lot left. For fun in case anyone is curious, here it is (it has spoilers obv). Comments are enabled but no direct spoilers please. (I don't mind hints like "keep looking" or "yeah you are done there".)

One of the audio puzzles has a bug.

Is there maybe a screenshot of that area so I know where not to punch my monitor?

 

[J1M]

So now that I'm starting to feel like all I'm doing is backtracking and returning to things I couldn't solve before, I started keeping a google doc with everything I know of I haven't completed yet. At first I thought it was going to be a list of like 3 puzzles I can't crack so I could complain, "Well there are only 3 things left and they're too hard," but there's actually a lot left. For fun in case anyone is curious, here it is (it has spoilers obv). Comments are enabled but no direct spoilers please. (I don't mind hints like "keep looking" or "yeah you are done there".)

One of the audio puzzles has a bug.

Is there maybe a screenshot of that area so I know where not to punch my monitor?

It is a jungle where you have to listen to audio clips to know what type of line to draw. It really should have been cut from the game in its entirety.

Very small spoiler for one potentially frustrating puzzle:

Spoiler

The 'good' audio puzzle was the one where you had to listen to the sound of your footsteps to know where to walk.

 

[AN4RCHID]

I don't recall any of those puzzles being bugged. At any rate I was able to solve them all.

For fun in case anyone is curious, here it is (it has spoilers obv). Comments are enabled but no direct spoilers please. (I don't mind hints like "keep looking" or "yeah you are done there".)

You still have a chunk of game left to go. You won't generally get blocked in this game because you're missing one hidden puzzle panel somewhere.

 

[Zombra]

You still have a chunk of game left to go. You won't generally get blocked in this game because you're missing one hidden puzzle panel somewhere.

Yeah. My list was an attempt to prove 1) I'd found everything I was going to find and 2) everything that's left is too hard for me. Happily, neither is the case ... yet.

 

[Zombra]

The audio jungle was completely fine for me, no apparent bugs.

I'm down to one puzzle I feel like I have to do, and then some super hard side ones I'm hoping I don't have to do. I've read that some people do 50 hours in this game but I'm only at 24. Definitely hope I don't have to scour the island another 600 times looking for monolith runes before seeing some end credits.

 

[AN4RCHID]

Definitely hope I don't have to scour the island another 600 times looking for monolith runes before seeing some end credits.

You don't. There is a real non-bs ending to the game.

 

[Zombra]

♬ You lied to me with kisses
♬ I've tried to stop dreaming of
♬ But you were only fooling me
♬ While I was falling in love

I trusted you!

I'm down to one panel puzzle I can't solve*, and I think that only gates one of the optional (?) movies. Other than that I'm down to blundering around the island looking for monolith runes. Every laser I'm aware of is active.

*Not counting the unpowered one on the mountain. I keep trying but it looks impossible from all angles with those statues there. I'll keep looking.

Time to sleep on it I guess, but I'm getting discouraged again. 50 hours is looking real.

 

[AN4RCHID]

How many lasers do you have?

 

[Zombra]

How many lasers do you have?

Up to 11, which seems like it can't be right; who would choose 11 as their magic number? I suppose there must be a whole district somewhere I'm unaware of. I know there's at least one underground room I haven't been to. Will continue backtracking and criscrossing I guess

 

[AN4RCHID]

How many lasers do you have?

Up to 11, which seems like it can't be right; who would choose 11 as their magic number? I suppose there must be a whole district somewhere I'm unaware of. I know there's at least one underground room I haven't been to. Will continue backtracking and criscrossing I guess

I don't think you're missing any critical districts. Finding more monolith runes is not going to unlock the way for you, i haven't even found every single one yet and I'm at 50+ hours.

 

[Zombra]

Weird, I guess it's down to beating my brains out on the three puzzles I'm aware of

Spoiler

* The one in the shipwreck, which I assumed was an optional "movie night" door. Do I have to get all 6 movies I wonder? I've only found 4/6, if this has another one that makes 5/6, there must be another one somewhere
* The one on the mountaintop which has the statues standing on it with an unlit power cord running to the box. I thought I had to solve something somewhere else to get power to them to get them to move. This looks impossible with them standing there. I'll keep trying it from time to time, maybe I'm missing something
* The weird pottery thing where I can elevate a vase of my choice in the little boathouse studio. Not a proper puzzle, but there must be something to this I haven't guessed yet

Other than that and finding collectible runes, I've solved everything I'm aware of.

 

[AN4RCHID]

Regarding the third one you mentioned

Spoiler

don't kill yourself trying to find a solution to that one. It has thematic significance like the environmental details all around the island, but it is not strictly speaking a puzzle.

 

[Zombra]

Jesus fucking christ, thank you AN4RCHID for being such an excellent coach with no spoilers.

 

[AN4RCHID]

Hell yeah dude, congrats.

 

[Zombra]

Was that the elevator ending or the other one?

Spoiler

The elevator. I read that there was another hidden "joke" ending involving a bomb or something at the very beginning of the game, but I never saw that.

 

[AN4RCHID]

I had to look up spoilers for how to find the last hidden puzzles, even when I knew roughly where they were. Glad i did though because it includes the best/worst puzzle in the game

 

[AN4RCHID]

Zombra btw did you notice anything interesting about

Spoiler

the lake?

 

[Zombra]

Zombra btw did you notice anything interesting about

Spoiler

the lake?

Spoiler

I saw the screenshots of a Buddha-like figure reflected in the coastline at one point, but never noticed it on my own.

Lake. Lake. Is there an actual lake on the island? I guess there's that pond sorta by Fuckface Dojo. No, when I first saw it I asked "Can I walk in there?" and when the answer was no I stopped paying attention to it.

 

[AN4RCHID]

Spoiler

I mean the reflecting pool near the windmill and town. It's worth checking out again if you're still playing

Would be interested in your post-endgame verdict

 

[Zombra]

Well, here's my take on the "main ending":

Spoiler

It looks like everything I did was erased and "reset", which is all fine. I kind of get the idea that I could start over and play again with a much wider perspective, solve everything faster, see tons of monolith runes I wasn't aware of the first time, etc. I'm sure I'd eventually find the "challenge room" I've heard of, get to that spot below the windmill, maybe get the last couple of films. But this all feels like I'd just be going back to "100%" the game, which honestly I don't care about. I might want to replay it in a couple years just to replay it, but I'm not a fanatical completionist.

Another possibility is that a 2nd play contains something more meta, like in Nier: Automata where the "real story" doesn't even appear at all until you play through for the 3rd time.

The game did a great job convincing me that it's over, and I have no interest in returning to it at the moment if I'm essentially collectible hunting. But if the "real story" doesn't start until the 2nd playthrough, I'd be curious to go back.

So in that light, what do you recommend, Coach?

 

[HansDampf]

Have you figured out the triangle puzzles?

The elevator "ending" sucks, btw, and isn't really an ending. It also doesn't reset the puzzles. It just puts you back to the starting point.
If you want to see the true ending (and you should), you won't need 100%. All you need is

Spoiler

knowledge which you should have at this point.

 

[AN4RCHID]

Well, here's my take on the "main ending":

Spoiler

It looks like everything I did was erased and "reset", which is all fine. I kind of get the idea that I could start over and play again with a much wider perspective, solve everything faster, see tons of monolith runes I wasn't aware of the first time, etc. I'm sure I'd eventually find the "challenge room" I've heard of, get to that spot below the windmill, maybe get the last couple of films. But this all feels like I'd just be going back to "100%" the game, which honestly I don't care about. I might want to replay it in a couple years just to replay it, but I'm not a fanatical completionist.

Another possibility is that a 2nd play contains something more meta, like in Nier: Automata where the "real story" doesn't even appear at all until you play through for the 3rd time.

The game did a great job convincing me that it's over, and I have no interest in returning to it at the moment if I'm essentially collectible hunting. But if the "real story" doesn't start until the 2nd playthrough, I'd be curious to go back.

So in that light, what do you recommend, Coach?

Spoiler

I consider the elevator to be the legitimate official ending. Everything you can find after that has a less serious tone, and the last hidden puzzles are twists on the existing mechanics, not new mechanics.

The hidden content is very cool, but it's so well hidden that i don't think most people can find it by themselves without reading about it online. It's like certain secret stuff in Braid, not comparable to Nier Automata. I would probably recommend just looking up a guide on how to access the challenge if you're interested in more panel puzzles, otherwise you would probably spend a long time frustrated looking for it.

 

[Zombra]

Cool. I'm not a walkthrough guy, and have no intention of going over the whole island 10 more times looking to 100% the secrets. Maybe I'll start the game up one more time to see if something new has obviously appeared, or if my innate HansDampf knowledge causes something obvious to leap out at me within a few steps of the starting point, but assuming it hasn't and doesn't I'm satisfied with the mainline ending.