73 replies to this topic

[Blood-Pigggy]

This series starting going downhill when the second one was released.
I can't count how many puzzles I saw that were too familiar to my tastes from previous ones in the series, and not even intentionally, like they were put in there to be a reference to the other games, just like he was running out of ideas.

Some of the dialogue made me want to punch whoever wrote it, and I thought the story was really predictable.

I'm sorry I don't have the same fever that everyone else has for this series, but when I played it, it just had too many problems for me to actually give it props just because the first two games were good and the third one was merely decent.

[Japofran]

Potatoe, on Jan 28 2007, 01:13 AM, said:

Spoiler said:

Who else here thinks Mr.Dacabe is superman, after all, he had sex after only like 3 days after falling down an elevator shaft..

Well he said it hurt.

This is officially the weirdest game I've ever played. I must say I didn't like it as much as the previous ones, but it's okay for ending the saga. Loved 5DAS, it was about a haunted house, very simple plot starting point but a masterpiece of a game. Loved 7DAS, it was about the same evil spirit onboard a spaceship in the far future and kept or improved the good level. And loved TN. However in TN the plot was strained to compromise the whole universe, and that had to lead to this gibberish.

I'm of the opinion that a story needn't be about the salvation of the whole world to be interesting. It's like when designing a roleplaying campaing, people like it to be about the destiny of the whole universe. And yet if you compare one of those farfetched silly stories about recovering the Orb of Void and stuff, with stories with much more limited scope like Moby *putz* which is about killing a dang whale, or The Lady from Shangai which is about a pair of depraved souls, both plots lacking any noticeable influence in the world, if you compare them the latter are really compelling stories and the former are pulp. In short, I don't think a story needs to be farfetched so as to be interesting, and I think that being farfetched does not add interest to a story; and I think world literature and cinema have more than enough examples to support my point. On the contrary most times stretching the scope of a story just for the sake of it eventually introduces inconsistences.

And TN's story was farfetched but, as I've said, I loved the game. Not because of that, I didn't prefer a story about the planes of existence over one about a ship adrift in deep space, but because TN after all kept the good level. Although the scope of the story had been stretched, the story was well written without disregarding the details.

But playing the sequel game, stretching the scope ever more, necessarily has to end in somewhat of a mess. I do think 6DAS's story is nonsensical at times, although I won't go on about it since it's a matter of opinion just like all I've said. I'll only say that the red "monk" seemed a stupid deus ex machina to me the first time he appeared, and although I expected (more like hoped) future developments to justify him, after playing through the whole game he still, along with other aspects of the story, failed to keep my suspension of disbelief --mine, personally.

PS I noticed the automatic edit after "Moby" when previewing the post. LMAO

[The Arrogant Man]

I personally disagree with all the negativity

Even though it is evident that this was a hasty end to what had been,in my opinion, a saga, it is still very very good...let's not forget that it is NOT the riddles that makes a great adventure game(that would be a hard adventure game:play the ripper or simon 2),it is not the graphics for these do not add any atmosphere.2 things are about adventure games

1st.The Plot

2nd.The atmosphere

and after that little rant   ...

it's been almost 10 years since i've played adventure games tha really spaced me out in their world

once it was The Dig...
Now is this saga...
I don't care for the typicalities,all i know is i had a BLAST playing these games,all 4 of them.they completely scared everything out of me more than once.And having fun is what playing games is all about.this for all those that have forgotten it  

and as my nick implies...


...And I Knew the Name of the King

[taikara]

I'm playing through this game a 2nd time - playing it the first time only made me go "wth?" so I decided perhaps I should refresh my memory with the rest of the series (Trilby's Notes in particular) and try again to see how much I wasn't remembering from the previous games.

First of all, credit where credit is due - Yahtzee really did a brilliant job of pulling the aspects from all the other games together, pulling a game out of thin air and inserting it in the middle (beginning/end) of the series.

That being said, it was still fairly anticlimatic for me, and worse than that, almost entirely a fan game, imho. I say it's a fan game because without having played the prior games, I can't say I would have really enjoyed it much, whereas the previous games were all able to stand on their own to some degree, making them welcoming and enjoyable on their own even to a newcomer of the series. Obviously, they're better when played in sequence, but they still are ace games individually as well.

For me, the best part was:

A bit spoiley said:

The introduction of the "Avatar" and the manner of his creation,

as that was a new and interesting element that made the game really stand out from the rest of the series.

There was a lot of stuff I can't say I understood 100%... such as:

EXTREMELY Spoiley said:

-The Book's reference to the "Thief-Wife" - I'm guessing this was Janine, but labelling her as the "Thief-Wife" didn't make any sense to me, and there wasn't actually any character throughout the series I would comfortably identify as such.

-I was very unclear as to which roles who was playing in this game. Janine seemed most in tune with John Defoe, being unreasonably afraid of Trilby, and for some reason, Dacabe (which sort of equates him as on the same level as Trilby), being drawn to Defoe Manor, etc - but at the end, The Arrogant Man snapped her neck (like a Trilby), and Dacabe sort of became the reincarnated John Defoe/Prince - tossing that idea out the window a bit.

-What exactly was the point of Dacabe/Defoe being sucked into Chzo and becoming the "New Prince" ? Why was a New Prince needed? Did the Arrogant Man really piss Chzo off at some point during his 2000 year servitude? If so, what the heck did he do? I personally thought he seemed really good at inflicting massive amounts of pain on behalf of Chzo...

-Although the Trilby Clone idea was clever and well done, how did Trilby/Trilby Clone really end up chained up in Chzo, and why did we need to suck his soul out to give to the other Trilby? (The most likely explanation is that this is what brought The Real Trilby back to life after the Tree Experience, given the location of the wounds on the body of the Other Trilby) As an aside, god it sucked to watch Trilby get his butt stomped so bad in this game.

-What the heck was so special about Dacabe, anyway? How did he represent the Mind of Defoe, or was the Defoe Manor ruins the actual Mind? If the latter, why did Dacabe actually have to be there for their destruction?

-I think we all realize that The Arrogant Man can do better than to kill a Trilby clone and conveniently disappear. What was up with his restraint? I found this a bit weak as a plot device.

Stuff that I understood and found very cool:

Very Spoiley said:

-The destruction of the different aspects of the Body, Mind, and Soul of Defoe necessary to create the Bridge, and their connection to the past, present, and future. Subsequently, the "ripple effect" of past events colliding with future events in order for the Bridge to be created.

-The explanation for the necessity of Trilby clones. Neat how it tied into the ending of Trilby's Notes. Though, as I've mentioned, sucky to watch them get constantly torn apart.

-Somerset becoming the Avatar - extremely cool.

Okay, well that's my $20, and if anyone cares to throw out their theories for the stuff I'm unclear on, feel free.

[Potatoe]

You need to understand this:

Spoiler said:

John Defoe and 'The Prince' are not the same thing. Their souls were just mixed together in the idol when he was killed.
I'm guessing the manor is John Defoe's mind(as explained in the game) and when it was destroyed the bridge was opened. Obviously 'The Prince' was trying to stop them from opening the portal(atleast too soon), and when he failed this Chzo got pissed at him and made Dacabe the bew prince.

No Idea if that cleared anything up.

[Japofran]

Spoiler said:

Indeed, Defoe and the Prince/Arrogant Man are definitely different persons. The Prince is Cadabath. True that Defoe's soul was trapped into a portion of the wood which was the Prince's soul, and that makes him a wraith subservient to the Prince, who was a lych, as defined in the paper you find in the manor. But still they're different persons, Cadabath is referred to as the Prince or Arrogant Man, and Defoe as the Child or Bridgekeeper, there's no confusion.

What I like least about the Avatar is that his mission (his will or equivalent) is to intervene to make sure that it will happen the things (good or evil) that would happen anyway without his intervention because it's fate? It makes no sense at all. Plus turning Somerset into the Avatar needs the introduction of a brand new mystical item we hadn't heard about before, the Blade of Frehorn, which has no further role in the story.

My 2 cents for Tai's questions...

EXTREMELY Spoiley said:

-The Book's reference to the "Thief-Wife" - I'm guessing this was Janine, but labelling her as the "Thief-Wife" didn't make any sense to me, and there wasn't actually any character throughout the series I would comfortably identify as such.

I think that the Thief-Wife was the woman who was with Trilby in the manor during 5DAS and who appeared killed at the start of TN. True that she wasn't involved in any carnal relationship with Trilby, but she lived within the manor with Trilby and that could be enough for Chzo and his mythical slang. When talking about the Thief-Wife the Book of Chzo was describing the events in 5DAS/TN and not in 6DAS, I think. Plus Dacabe could in no way be described as a Thief.

-I was very unclear as to which roles who was playing in this game. Janine seemed most in tune with John Defoe, being unreasonably afraid of Trilby, and for some reason, Dacabe (which sort of equates him as on the same level as Trilby), being drawn to Defoe Manor, etc - but at the end, The Arrogant Man snapped her neck (like a Trilby), and Dacabe sort of became the reincarnated John Defoe/Prince - tossing that idea out the window a bit.

I hadn't thought of it, I just thought that Janine was too feeble-minded for the whole business and that's why she went half crazy. Or perhaps only not destined to be the Prince like Dacabe, but merely human and so she went halft crazy which was pretty normal regarding what she suffered. And then it's said that when she has sex with Dacabe she's tainted because of Dacabe's gruesome future as the new Prince and consequently killed. Anyway I don't think you have to identify the new characters with the old ones, there are no merging of personalities as I understand it.

-What exactly was the point of Dacabe/Defoe being sucked into Chzo and becoming the "New Prince" ? Why was a New Prince needed? Did the Arrogant Man really piss Chzo off at some point during his 2000 year servitude? If so, what the heck did he do? I personally thought he seemed really good at inflicting massive amounts of pain on behalf of Chzo...

I agree, that would be part of my point. In 6DAS it's clearly implied that bringing Dacabe to replace Cadabath was the sole purpose of the whole opening of the bridge, not Chzo's entering the Universe of Technology. What meas that Chzo worked really hard to bring Dacabe: the plan to open the bridge started when Defoe was a child, and it seems that Chzo wanted it open since before Cadabath was turned into the Prince --Chzo is non-temporal but still.

And there is simply no good reason why Chzo would prefer Dacabe over Cadabath, let alone even before taking Cadabath himself. Maybe Dacabe resulted in a more powerful Prince as it may be implied when they confront at the end of 6DAS, but there's no good reason for that either. Maybe there was just so much energy Chzo could suck from Cadabath's pain (why?) and Chzo already had plans to replace his morsel even before he started to torture Cadabath; take into account that Chzo is non-temporal so words like "before" and "already" are actually nonsensical to some extent. Maybe it has something to do with Dacabe's taking possesion of part of Defoe's substance but it makes no sense whatsoever. He takes his implements (mask, apron and machete) but Defoe is supposed to have been meticulously destroyed (body, mind and soul) so there's nothing left of him except those implements. Plus Defoe was a wraith subservient to Cadabath and presumably powerless in comparison, and he was only just a means to opening the bridge the whole time.

In my opinion it's just that Yahtzee didn't want 6DAS to end with the world destroyed, nor with Chzo thwarted either, and he thought of this instead, but it's lame in my opinion. (This doesn't change my opinion that he's one of the best adventure game developers ever.)

-Although the Trilby Clone idea was clever and well done, how did Trilby/Trilby Clone really end up chained up in Chzo, and why did we need to suck his soul out to give to the other Trilby? (The most likely explanation is that this is what brought The Real Trilby back to life after the Tree Experience, given the location of the wounds on the body of the Other Trilby) As an aside, god it sucked to watch Trilby get his butt stomped so bad in this game.

I didn't think of that explanation and it's really good, becuase Trilby's recovery at the end of TN seemed somewhat forced. (Anyway here the Avatar seems to be changing fate, he makes less sense the more you think about him...)

About Trilby's ending at Chzo's mercy (inappropriate word, I know), there's no explanation, it's a big shame. But I guess it's not a strange turn of events, since the worshippers of Chzo could do whatever they wanted with his clones, and the Trilby inside of Chzo says he may not be the original one. Yes I know it makes hardly any sense that different clones share the same soul, especially because there are dozens of clones of Trilby living at the same time and when one dies the others are unaffected. Well maybe at the end of TN Trilby didn't get his old soul back but one belonging to one of his future clones. :S Then again the idea of a shared soul or similar is reinforced by the fact that the clones have memories from the original Trilby and the previously killed clones. :S

-What the heck was so special about Dacabe, anyway? How did he represent the Mind of Defoe, or was the Defoe Manor ruins the actual Mind? If the latter, why did Dacabe actually have to be there for their destruction?

In the game it's clearly said that Defoe's mind was trapped in the manor. Dacabe had to be there when Defoe's mind was destroyed because its destruction would create the Bridge, and bringing Dacabe was precisely the only thing Chzo wanted the Bridge for.

-I think we all realize that The Arrogant Man can do better than to kill a Trilby clone and conveniently disappear. What was up with his restraint? I found this a bit weak as a plot device.

Ditto. I guess he was allowed to do exactly what Chzo needed in order to accomplish his plans, but still a lame plot/puzzle device.

There is text up there, I swear.

[RyGuy]

I just finished this.(I started 3-4 hours ago.) It's shorter than the others it seems. Unless I just really knew what I was doing. Actually now that I'm thinking about it, it's somewhat reliant on the others. None the less it's great and ties up all the loose endings. It got rid of the text parser which personally I didn't like although it was neat. I recommend this to all, however you MUST play at least 5 Days A Stranger and 7 Days a Skeptic first. Trilby's Notes isn't required, but should be played as well to understand bits and pieces.    

[Tom Henrik]

I didn't really see the reason for this game. What loose pieces needed to be tied up exactly?

This, to me, is the least good game in the series. It has abosolutely no value to someone who has not played the earlier games. As Tai said, the previous games could stand on their own two feet. This one can't.

And even for someone who has played the previous games, this game doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It doesn't tie up any loose pieces, it unties the previous ones and even adds some loose pieces of its own.

Like, why kill the tall man? Why did we not see anything of the Caretaker in the previous games?

This is nothing more but a fanboy game, sadly.

[Icewolf]

Hey there!

I'm stuck in day 6(?) I believe.

Description said:

I'm lying in the darkness. I used my hand on the darkness. He rises his arm and seems to push, I believe. There's nothing more than me and the darkness and I cant figure out what to do. I tried pretty much everything.

Help, please!

[Japofran]

I'm not sure but

Spoiler said:

I think the hand option is what you need but you had to try with a particular region of darkness, the upper one I think. If it doesn't work at first try repeating, it will make sense.

Anyway if somebody's really stuck here's a walkthrough, complete with spoiler protection.

[Icewolf]

Japofran, on Feb 23 2007, 06:05 PM, said:

I'm not sure but

Spoiler said:

I think the hand option is what you need but you had to try with a particular region of darkness, the upper one I think. If it doesn't work at first try repeating, it will make sense.

Anyway if somebody's really stuck here's a walkthrough, complete with spoiler protection.

Sorry, that walkthrough didn't help me much.

spoil said:

And I kept klicking into the darkness - that didn't work either.

EDIT: OK, forget it. It was a simple bug.
When I loaded a earlier game and did it again, it worked.

[Dante]

I thought the game was perfect...though not for reasons that may have been intentional.

The Tribly Series is a cross-over of two things.  Horror films (Most noticeably Seven days a Skeptic which had several references to horror films) and the point and click  adventure games of the early to mid 90's.

The latter is pretty clear.  I mean a bunch of Triblys day of the tentacle much?  Adventure games have a habit of walking right around the need to suspend disbelief, which is probably one of the reason I’ve found them so fascinating.  Story telling so absurdist that is give the finger to story telling cause a programmer thought it would cool to add something.  The over all affect is a story telling A.D.D., pausing the narrative and continuity to solve a frustrating puzzle.

On the other hand, it works well as a horror genera.  Horror movies have a habit of telling a simple straightforward story in the first film.  Take, Child-Play or Hellraiser.  They are remembered as classics.  Then a second is made with the idea of providing the audience the same familiarity, while tagging a long a gimmick to intensify the situation.  For child's play, it was more screen time for chucky (since we all knew Andy wasn't crazy cause the Doll really kills people).  For Hellbound, Kirsty is institutionalized and now has to deal with the cynics who think she's crazy, and the returning cenobites.  Like Childs play II, we know about DeFoe, but in dramatic irony, none of the character's know what they are dealing with.  This allows the game to reveal more about the mythos.  

I guess to sum up, latter episodes of these films became progressively bad. Chucky knocked up his wife and the last i've seen of pin face, he was terrorfying people from the intertubes.  6 days a sacrifice is like the direct to video version sequel.

That all being said, i have to say i enjoyed the game and i think Yatzhee deserves props for being an excellent writer.

[Tom Henrik]

Oh, Yahtzee definately deserves praise for his excellent writing and conceptualization. There's no doubt about that. However, 6 Days falls outside his usual quality.

The story is just confusing, and the game itself can't stand on its own two feet. As such, I can't really get as attached to this game as his other titles.

[Blood-Pigggy]

That's exactly what I thought Tom.

[Japofran]

I already said it but ditto.