[David-kyo]

I was talking about TN with regard to hallucinations. I believe in the special edition of 7DAS, or maybe in a forum post somewhere when he released it, Yahtzee states that he had no explanation for one of the appearances and it was just to create a horrific mood, but it's possible I'm just making that up (don't have the special edition around to check).

Hmm, I still prefer my own explanation, I think it's more logical.

[GhostRobot]

I have a question. I dont remember very well but wasnt the idol destroyed in 7 Days, wouldnt that allow the demon to come through?
Also I think the Tall Man killed lenkmann beacuse he needed something he could speak through to the other cult followers. Since we never actually see him speak it makes sense to me.

This post has been edited by GhostRobot: 28 June 2006 - 10:52 AM

[David-kyo]

I have a question. I dont remember very well but wasnt the idol destroyed in 7 Days, wouldnt that allow the demon to come through?

That will give place to a new problem, because it destroys DeFoe's soul. The mind is what we don't yet know about. Maybe by the time Somerset destroys the statue Trilby will have taken care of the other problem, but we won't know anything for certain until Yahtzee releases the sequel.

Also I think the Tall Man killed lenkmann beacuse he needed something he could speak through to the other cult followers. Since we never actually see him speak it makes sense to me.

It's definitely not just for that.

[GhostRobot]

Well not just for that but it is an additional purpose for killing him. As for the whole idol being destroyed thing, my believe is that the next game will be about the demon being released into the world.

[David-kyo]

Possibly. Anyone recall the scene in 7DAS when Somerset gets taken away by the Galactic Police and when everyone leaves, you see a hand starting to open the box for a split second. Back when Yahtzee made that game, it must've born no more significance than the last scene of Freddy vs. Jason, where Freddy's severed head winks at the audience.
However, this harmless little joke might have just turned into something more sinister, if we look at it from our current perspective...

[BovineBeast]

Two. I don't think those were hallucinations in 7DAS, it might've been John DeFoe trying out the different bodies (as you later hear William Taylor saying that none of them he found strong enough, so he sewed them into one). Of course, I may be wrong here.

No, because you see Selena after you've found her torso. Although Barry is clearly a physical entity.

[Cowd]

The storyline is very complex (which is one reason I love the games). It's got me quite confused however. Let me try to get it straight now.

- The druid tried to summon CHZO (The King) against the Romans, but was taken and turned into a big tree to suffer for centuries. In order to cross over into our world, CHZO needs a "Bridge", a creature of Technology and Magick.

Question: What makes someone a Bridge?

- After a millennium, the Robin Hood lookalikes come and chop down the tree. This angers the King, who sends the druid a.k.a. tall guy (The Prince) to kill them, but not before the kid throws a rock at him, imbuing the rock with dark power.

Question: When did the druid become the Prince? Before or after his tree was chopped down?

Another question: Did this happen in the non-shadow world? If so, then what was the purpose of the ritual at the end of TN? Or is proximity to wood from the Prince-tree what causes the reality-shifts and everyone the Prince has killed have actually been shifted? This would then include the unfortunate couple whose bodies lie scattered around the Dark Hotel - they came there from our world, and then they shifted while near/in the hotel.

Hey, do the notes at the bottom of the staircase even refer to the house as a hotel? If not, then I can abandon all the strange parallel universe theories I concocted to explain that couple's presence. They simply arrived there a few years/decades ago, while the hotel was still an abandoned prison/hospital/something.

- The inn was built of the wood from the Prince-tree, and the 17th century guy was killed there along with the innkeeper. One wall was then made into the harpsichord which Frehorn got ahold of. Frehorn was an occultist, and already knew of the Prince and the King. When the Prince shifted the house and came to kill him, Frehorn fell on his knees and became the first prophet of CHZO, he started Lenkmann's cult.

Question: What exactly was the concrete mission of this cult? Summon CHZO i guess, but how were they to pursue it?

- Frehorn, or someone else, loaded off the harpsichord with O'Malley shipping, who built it into the crate which the slave (Mbuko, sp, there are so many hard to remember names in this game that I really can't be expected to keep track of them all) fashioned his idol from. The Prince did not particularly like this, shifted the ship and everyone on board and slew them.

- Sir William DeFoe came across the idol while hunting in Africa and brought it home. Later, he slew his retarded son with the idol.

Question: This is where something that's beneficial to the cult happens right? What exactly is it? I can't quite remember what Lenkmann said. Did John DeFoe become the bridge?

- Trilby breaks into the manor, cue the events of 5DAS.

Question: Why exactly did they need Trilby alive? What about Siobhan? Did it have anything to do with her heritage?

Question: At the very end, we see the Tall Man speaking to the cultists "through Lenkmann" in some fashion (note, Lenkmann is probably not dead: Sibhain specifically only says that Mr. Tall did something "very bad" to him). The cultist scene appears to be in the non-shadow world. Did the ritual then succeed after all?

God, I'm thinking so much about this that I'm becoming afraid of the dark. Great game Yahtzee!

[Gobbler]

You know, my little grand cousin Ayşa (I posted a picture of her somewhere in the Night Life 2006 Photo Album) was born on... 28th of June... hang on, I give my cousin a call and ask whether she's been hiding a twin.

[Yahtzee]

I'm playing 5DAS again right now, just for kicks. Couldn't help but notice that Matthew's birthday is the 28th of June, not July. The diaries of Sir Roderick and Matthew also indicate that John DeFoe was killed with the idol on the 28th of June, not July as it should be to maintain continuity in Trilby's Notes... Or am I missing something here?

Whoops! Er... pretend it says July. Consider it a retcon.

[Chyld]

I'll answer what I can, but rest assured that half of this stuff is "loose ends" and will be awaiting answers in a sequal.

Question: What makes someone a Bridge?
Question: This is where something that's beneficial to the cult happens right? What exactly is it? I can't quite remember what Lenkmann said. Did John DeFoe become the bridge?

Right, you've got John DeFoe, who was battered to death with the idol which, lets not forget, is made of the Prince. Somehow, it stuck John's soul in the idol with the Prince, thus making him the Bridge. For reasons I'm unsure of, the destruction of his body (the bones), soul (the idol), and mind (which Y-mans keeping as a trump card, methinks) creates the Bridge for Chzo. So... yeah.

Question: When did the druid become the Prince? Before or after his tree was chopped down?

Far as I can tell, before. His soul, I believe, is the tree. The bit I'm not sure about is whether all the flashbacks happened on the same day, because then it confirms that there's one day the Prince can come into our world and inflict gory death on people who go 'round chopping up his soul.

Another question: Did this happen in the non-shadow world? If so, then what was the purpose of the ritual at the end of TN? Or is proximity to wood from the Prince-tree what causes the reality-shifts and everyone the Prince has killed have actually been shifted? This would then include the unfortunate couple whose bodies lie scattered around the Dark Hotel - they came there from our world, and then they shifted while near/in the hotel.

I think you answered yourself there. Remember how Abed died? Got pissed and miserable, shifted, then had his head replaced by the porcelin head.

Question: What exactly was the concrete mission of this cult? Summon CHZO i guess, but how were they to pursue it?

Worship, I think, that and summonation. And apparently, the Prince knows how to summon Chzo (make the bridge! Damnit!), so summoning him (the ritual at the end) would be damn helpful.

Question: Why exactly did they need Trilby alive? What about Siobhan? Did it have anything to do with her heritage?

Far as I can tell, the summoning of the Prince involved Agonies of the Mind, Body, and Soul. Apparently, Lenkmann was the Mind (not explained how, a plot point for the sequal?), Siobhan "had to make do" as the Soul (also no idea...), and the huge gaping knife wound in Trilby's stomach counted as the Body (an Agony of the Body... makes sense to me). Obviously, you can't be in a lot of pain if you're dead (unless we delve into metaphysics, which we won't - for now, when you're dead, you're dead), so it screwed up the ritual. How big time, we don't know.

Question: At the very end, we see the Tall Man speaking to the cultists "through Lenkmann" in some fashion (note, Lenkmann is probably not dead: Sibhain specifically only says that Mr. Tall did something "very bad" to him). The cultist scene appears to be in the non-shadow world. Did the ritual then succeed after all?

To be honest, I had no real idea what was going on there whatsoever. Maybe it did, maybe it didn't. We don't really even know where they were in the end. Once again, plot point for the sequal...

God, I'm bored.

[Willeth]

I understood it that the druid was the block for the Prince entering our realm, and that Trilby was the Bridge as he was supposed to break down the block - comprising of three parts, the mind, the body and soul. His soul was in the tree, for example.

[Yahtzee]

Hey, do the notes at the bottom of the staircase even refer to the house as a hotel? If not, then I can abandon all the strange parallel universe theories I concocted to explain that couple's presence. They simply arrived there a few years/decades ago, while the hotel was still an abandoned prison/hospital/something.

I'm keeping most of it to myself but I'll answer this on a whim. The corpse of the young man in the stairwell appears to be quite fresh, as is the blood he has been using to deliriously smear words on walls, so he must have died quite recently. When he came to the hotel it was already in dark world. In actuality, the young man was also from dark world. His body and diary are very strong hints to the effect that not all of the ethereal world is dark and evil - the hotel is because it is the Tall Man's home, and perhaps the island as well, but the rest of the world is normal and populated by normal people who live alongside magick. Another clue to this is that Cabadath speaks of communing with creatures from the Ethereal Realm, and most of them seem quite friendly - Chzo is considered evil by them.

[Cowd]

I'm keeping most of it to myself but I'll answer this on a whim. The corpse of the young man in the stairwell appears to be quite fresh, as is the blood he has been using to deliriously smear words on walls, so he must have died quite recently. When he came to the hotel it was already in dark world. In actuality, the young man was also from dark world. His body and diary are very strong hints to the effect that not all of the ethereal world is dark and evil - the hotel is because it is the Tall Man's home, and perhaps the island as well, but the rest of the world is normal and populated by normal people who live alongside magick. Another clue to this is that Cabadath speaks of communing with creatures from the Ethereal Realm, and most of them seem quite friendly - Chzo is considered evil by them.

I see you're pulling a Longest Journey twist aswell.

I take that the tree is Cabadath's soul, whereas Mr. Tall (someone photoshop that) is what remains of his body. That would be the meaning of the writing on the wall: "His body is here, his soul is not". What about his mind?

Nice that you made such a complex and (comparatively) consistent backstory for your game. In TN you managed to avoid pretty much all the traps (listed under the "make my game" menu in AGS), which, I believe, is the first time I've ever experienced that in an adventure game. Every single commercial one I've played has been marred by one or several of those things.

P.S. are you ever frightened by your own creations?

This post has been edited by Cowd: 28 June 2006 - 07:30 PM

[Yahtzee]

P.S. are you ever frightened by your own creations?

Fuck no. I know what to expect. I'm more likely to be concerned it's not scary enough.

In fact, making horror games lends me a certain immunity in playing them, too. Silent Hill just doesn't scare me any more, and I'm playing Project Zero 2 right now (aka Fatal Frame 2 in the US) quite easily despite being too scared to finish the first game when I played it a while back.

[StantheGarbageMan]

Say Yahtzee, what is the name of that weird palm-tree weapon the Tall Man weilds?
Oh yeah, and here's some fanart for ya:

http://www.deviantar.../view/35498278/