OK, now it's time for a few random things, that some may have missed. Note that if you want to try things out, you can just copy your save (blue.egg) to red.egg; which will allow you to keep your current save, and have another one for experiments (obviously, you could also just restart from the beginning, but I doubt you'll want to do that by the time we reach the 3rd CD). OK, random highlights:
1) It's interesting that
Jaurès was supposed to be on the train, and finally decided not to come (bad decision; getting away from Paris would have been
good for his health 
). I have no idea if this has a historical basis, of it's something the writers invented. You might say it's a good thing he wasn't on board, though, as there doesn't seem to be a free cabin for him!
2) For the umpteenth time, I almost missed the scarf in Tyler's cabin, and only went back to retrieve it when I first saw Anna Wolf and remembered about it. Her reaction when you try handing it to her (twice!) is great.
3) Why do Anna and Schmidt talk to each other in English instead of German?! I guess there are
some realism problems even in this game.
4) Did you find the conductor's sketchbook? It's a nice little Easter egg of sorts. And more sketches are added as the game progresses.
5) I saw a little scene I had never seen on my previous playthroughs (this game is just huge; I don't even want to think about the budget that went into it): when the conductor visits all the cabins to make the beds, he tries to enter the Turk's harem – and gets insulted and almost attacked as a result!
6) Another little scene that's easy to miss: after you talk to Kronos, his
pet panther bodyguard Kahina tries to get into Anna's cabin, but must give up because of the dog.
7) Note that if you look at the passenger's list, you can click on the names of the people you've met, and hear a "typical" line from them (those change as the story progresses). I found on my first playthrough that this acts as a good reminder of who is who, and what is going on. (And the choice of quotes is nice too; currently, Rebecca's is her trademark indignant 'Sophie!'. And Anna's interesting too – fits her to a T.
)
Speaking of which, I must say that the characters that made the biggest impression on me in this first part were the two girls (Sophie and Rebecca). Even though it's still unclear why they're here, or even what their relationship exactly is (on my first playthrough, I think that by that point I had already started wondering if I wasn't over-interpreting things), you can really grasp the dynamic of their relationship, the difference of attitudes (Sophie completely liberated and, as Fienepien said, provocative, Rebecca shy) and social standing (see how Sophie chides Rebecca for even considering having dinner early – which the upper society would not do; by the way, that probably tells us something about Schmidt, who did have dinner early). Sophie both feels younger, freer, less worried, and yet older, acting like a teacher to Rebecca, showing her her world. And you can already see that Rebecca feels both attracted to it, and yet sometimes shocked, clinging to the (obviously very different) education she's received. We'll have time to discuss Anna, and Kronos, and all the others later, but for the moment I find that it's really Sophie and Rebecca who steal the spotlight.
