Together Retro: Grim Fandango

[nullPointer]

Warning: save often. The game does not autosave ever, and apparently it has a bit of a soft locking problem. I blasted through year three and was part way through year four and then I soft locked the game; got stuck in an animation trying to trigger a conversation after using an item on a character and the game was unrecoverable.

This is good advice. The same thing happened to me in Year 1 while I was looking for the gate key. Luckily I had saved fairly recently, but it did mean that I had to redo the wheelbarrow puzzle which was annoying. Still enjoying the game though!

[nullPointer]

Ok I've played a a bit more and ran into few more of puzzles causing "WTF moments". I don't mind obtuse puzzles all that much as they are part and parcel of this genre; and particularly so in Tim Schaefer adventure games. What I don't enjoy is when the game presents a particularly obtuse puzzle and intentionally adds a red herring on top of it to further obfuscate the puzzle at hand.

The first time this happened I didn't think too much of it. I'll put these in spoilers being as they involve talking about specific puzzle elements within the game.

It was at the point in the petrified forest where you have to use the sign in order to point the way to the gate key. After planting the sign a couple of times, I was able to grasp what the game was wanting me to do (despite the fact that the draw distance is huge on that screen), but the puzzle take place in a maze of caves in which the opening of one cave leads to the exit of another. I was sure this was some sort of "Legend of Zelda - Lost Woods" sort of puzzle in which picking a specific order of caves would eventually spit you out into some place new and different. But no! The sign points you to a specific spot on the single screen, with the caves merely serving as added fluff.

That one wasn't so bad though. Perhaps a bit of an odd choice in terms of design, but well within reason. The second one though I felt was downright frustrating.

In Year 2 you acquire a counterfeit ticket machine. Upon using the machine and examining the output you discover that it produces betting stubs for the cat race track. It's quite the involved process to figure the proper inputs into the machine that will yield the desired outcome which in turn allow you to receive the next necessary item to proceed in your quest. I have to admit that I referred to outside assistance for this puzzle. Turns out I had correctly surmised 2/3 of the inputs but had missed a rather veiled clue regarding the third input. Ugh! I hate turning to outside sources in adventure games. So I go to submit my counterfeit ticket (presumably with the proper information on it), and the guy in the booth immediately rejects the ticket as being counterfeit. This is crazy because at this point I know I have the proper inputs thanks to the combined might of "random dude on the internet". "WTH!?" I think to myself, "maybe it's actually randomly generated sequence per game?". So I walk around the track a bit and come back upon the ticket counter again ... except this time it's presented in a different camera perspective. The perspective switch isn't unusual for this game, being that as you move from screen to screen the same features in the game are naturally presented from different camera angles and draw distances. What is unusual is that I try the same inputs again, except this time it's accepted as genuine. As it turns out there are two ticket counters, a fact that is only revealed as you as your walking away from this baffling encounter, and the two guys behind each counter (who also happen to look identical) exchange some quips. This last bit is played off almost like concession to the player just how confounding this red herring is and what a bunch of BS this puzzle was. I was actually a bit disappointed about this last bit.

I'm coming to agree with Popo's comments that the game is good despite it's puzzles rather than strengthened because of them. But make no mistake it is still a good game, and I'm looking forward to seeing where it takes me next.

[BogusMeatFactory]

i never thought the forest, "maze," was that obtuse. It took a second, for sure, but I figured it out quite naturally.

the ticket machine though....yeah...that is a horrible puzzle.

[nullPointer]

i never thought the forest, "maze," was that obtuse. It took a second, for sure, but I figured it out quite naturally.

the ticket machine though....yeah...that is a horrible puzzle.

You're probably right about that. It didn't take me more than a few minutes to land upon the proper outcome for the forest area, but I definitely went all the way through the tree tunnels 3 or 4 times before hitting upon the correct solution. I kept on planting the sign which would point at one tunnel or another, and I'd head all the way through the tunnel rather than taking a more incremental approach.

The ticket machine thing I don't know if i would have solved without outside confirmation that I had the proper inputs. As soon as the ticket guy dismissed the ticket as counterfeit I would have just assumed that my inputs were wrong. OTOH I never realized there were two ticket windows until after solving the puzzle. Maybe the "other ticket window guy" makes an indication of being slow or near sighted or something in previous dialogue. I hadn't talked to him previously.

[MrPopo]

I believe the two ticket counters make it obvious that they're different if you're just talking to them. When I first got to year two I made a pass through everything talking to everybody, so I saw there were two ticket counters; one if you turn right after going up the stairs to that area and one if you turn left.

[nullPointer]

I believe the two ticket counters make it obvious that they're different if you're just talking to them. When I first got to year two I made a pass through everything talking to everybody, so I saw there were two ticket counters; one if you turn right after going up the stairs to that area and one if you turn left.

I'm sure you're probably right. After discovering the second window, it does seem pretty hard to miss. I may have to replay year two at some point so I can hear any of the previous dialogue that I missed. Here's my main question though, because it may have been something that I just missed; is there ever any indication that one ticket window will accept the counterfeit ticket whereas the other one will not? That's the part I found most confounding with that puzzle (well other than interpreting the clues for determining the proper inputs to generate the ticket in the first place).

At any rate I played through year three last night, and I felt that the puzzles were a lot were a lot more manageable once again. So far year two seems to be an anomaly both in the length of the level and in the difficulty of the puzzles (although admittedly it's also probably been the most interesting level thus far).

[MrPopo]

Yeah, once you get past the first puzzle of year 3 (seriously, that thing is what the hell) you're past the hump. As for the ticket thing, as I recall the only dialog I ever got at the first counter was talking about not getting the free thing while the other counter mentioned you could turn in tickets for the photo finish results. I don't remember all the details, but one sounded more useful to me than the other.

[nullPointer]

Yeah, once you get past the first puzzle of year 3 (seriously, that thing is what the hell) you're past the hump.

Oh dude, YES I almost forgot about that part. I think I probably waited for Chepito to come around at least 5-6 times before I (sort of) got lucky on that one. It wouldn't be half as bad if it didn't take him so looonnnnnng to complete his circuit. The "sea monsters" bit was pretty great though!

[MrPopo]

I was actually talking about the escape at the start. Chepito I did one circuit with then figured out the right thing. But yeah, that takes WAY too long.

[nullPointer]

There's something I've been meaning to mention specifically in regards to the Remastered version of the game. While the gameplay segments of the game have all been remastered and look very nice with crisp edges, it seems like the CGI cutscene movies remain untouched. For any seasoned retro gamer this issue is a trifling thing, and the cutscenes do look good enough, but the fact remains that it's a slightly jarring transition when the game suddenly shifts from nice crisp anti aliased visuals to a grainy CGI cutscene. Definitely not game breaking or anything but definitely noticeable.