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Old 03-14-2007, 12:11 PM   #21
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Finally an excuse to play this game I bought ages ago.

Finished episode one

Good

Voice acting is pretty good.
Music is fantastic I could spend all day listening to the tunes.
Graphics are ok for the times.
Nice idea of deciding on who goes up and who goes down, but I felt you really didn't have any say in this so far. Felt more of a witness

Bad
Annoying cursor wasn't that obvious about the inventory usage locations.
Journal Pages couldn't figure out how to skip to next pge.
Is there any point to the sink?
The arcadey ghost ride.

For Colpet
Spoiler:
I got the strainer and ash bit, bit I spent ages thinkin I must have to put in in the sink or get water from the tap before I realised you just shake the thing.

The Lottery ticket was the prize to the one sister that chose money over love. I though the Hannibal character was just after teh money anyway and not interested in either sister.
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Old 03-14-2007, 12:39 PM   #22
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I have to echo everybody's sentiments on the quality of the voice acting. I, too, can't enough of Mephisto's voice, especially in the menus. I'm still not getting used to the characters' weird faces, though.

I remember feeling a tad confused when I first played the game. Not so much about the part in Jody and Lily's home but the part with Theodore at the end of the episode. It was quite unclear what was going on, or even who was talking.

A couple of things got me thinking (spoilers ahead; if you haven't done so already, go play the episode instead of reading this thread! ):

1) Theodore chooses to comment on force and counter-force. Those who've already played the game know the significance of this comment in the larger picture, but how does it relate to this episode in particular?

2) In the end, after all she had done to conceal her crime, Jody turned herself in, seemingly feeling remorseful over the death of her sister. How does that fit with what we know of her personality and of the sisters' relationship?

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Nice idea of deciding on who goes up and who goes down, but I felt you really didn't have any say in this so far. Felt more of a witness
That's mostly how the game works at first, but things may evolve a bit as the game progresses...

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Is there any point to the sink?
Not that I know of.
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Old 03-14-2007, 12:47 PM   #23
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She turned herself in? Even with dialing down the audio and graphics acceleration, the cut scenes are still choppy and the voices cut out (it didn't do this to me the first time) so I missed that (if you have any ideas, post here - thanks ).

Also, what colpet was saying about the saw and it happening in real life, that must have been a short time frame because that would've freaked out everyone had they seen them separated.

When I get things fixed, I'm going to replay the first part so I can hear everything (and figure out about the force/.counterforce thing). Also the toilet (the seat part) always cracks me up.

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It would have been fun but it was too long. I think the choice of direction was an illusion - you would have ended up at the end no matter what you did.
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Old 03-14-2007, 12:53 PM   #24
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She turned herself in? Even with dialing down the audio and graphics acceleration, the cut scenes are still choppy and the voices cut out (it didn't do this to me the first time) so I missed that (if you have any ideas, post here - thanks ).
That's not a cutscene, that's in Theodore's notebook in the end. (Well, I've re-read the part, and "turned herself in" is not exactly accurate, but she didn't try to flee or anything, just stayed at her home until someone came to find her, and she immediately confessed her crime. So there definitely is an interesting change of behaviour here.)

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I think the choice of direction was an illusion - you would have ended up at the end no matter what you did.
I'm not sure. I remember trying, and if you just let the game pick the direction (left), I think you just go in circles until you decide to pick right.
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Old 03-14-2007, 01:02 PM   #25
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Originally Posted by Kurufinwe View Post
That's not a cutscene, that's in Theodore's notebook in the end. (Well, I've re-read the part, and "turned herself in" is not exactly accurate, but she didn't try to flee or anything, just stayed at her home until someone came to find her, and she immediately confessed her crime. So there definitely is an interesting change of behaviour here.)
It's a cutscene in my thinking - regardless, it's the non-interactive clip that you watch and I missed all of that. All I saw was her holding the skull at the end of that clip but I didn't see the subtitled dialogue that said she confessed so now I really need to go back and redo it.
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Old 03-14-2007, 01:10 PM   #26
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It's a cutscene in my thinking - regardless, it's the non-interactive clip that you watch and I missed all of that. All I saw was her holding the skull at the end of that clip but I didn't see the subtitled dialogue that said she confessed so now I really need to go back and redo it.
I understand the cutscenes aren't working fine for you, but what I was referring to is written stuff, accessible from the main menu, that has nothing to do with cutscenes or voices or subtitles or anything of the sort.
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Old 03-14-2007, 01:18 PM   #27
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I never looked there the first time I played it either (mostly because I didn't really know it was there). Lately, if something isn't shoved in my face, I don't necessarily go hunting for it very well (and I haven't officially finished the first episode/chapter-I wrongly assumed it was something that happened within the game).




I feel cranky today.

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Old 03-14-2007, 02:50 PM   #28
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Originally Posted by Kurufinwe View Post
A couple of things got me thinking (spoilers ahead; if you haven't done so already, go play the episode instead of reading this thread! ):

1) Theodore chooses to comment on force and counter-force. Those who've already played the game know the significance of this comment in the larger picture, but how does it relate to this episode in particular?
The only thing tht occured to me was the dual nature of the twins personalities being in contrast. One good one evil which I assume sets up the idea of the fairground being in limbo between heaven and hell. One sister ges up and the other down.

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2) In the end, after all she had done to conceal her crime, Jody turned herself in, seemingly feeling remorseful over the death of her sister. How does that fit with what we know of her personality and of the sisters' relationship?
I was kind of unsure about that one. From the clips etc I didn't get the impression she would have felt any regret or remorse. After all she killed her and divided her into little bits. She only wanted the money all to herself.
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Old 03-14-2007, 05:29 PM   #29
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Okay, I'm back with a few more comments.

I like to know as little as possible when coming in to a game - I don't read the back of books or watch previews either - so I just installed the game and plunged in with no backstory. The first significant thing I clicked on was the strainer and suddenly wow... I'm in another time and place and siamese twins are crawling around looking for nickels. I felt like I was really exploring something, walking around the caravan collecting some things, but mostly piecing together the story.

Like others, I found some irritating bugs that the patch doesn't seem to fix. The first time I started playing I had very choppy audio and I seemed to miss some cut scenes. I'm still not sure if it was a bug or if I missed something, but some how the first time through I managed to miss the tooth and the bit about the skull, all though I had sifted through all of the ashes and done everything else in the scene. I couldn't figure out how to go on and I feared I was developing a toilet fixation. In the end, I started over to fix my audio problems and somehow managed to catch the tooth the second time round. The controls are a little quirky, but on the bright side, it adds to that "no idea what's going to happen" whenever you touch something.

The gazebo at the end of chapter 1 had me hung up for along time. I spun in circles til I was dizzy, constantly wandering all over to see if anything changed. I went through every screen at least three times before I found the switch *blush*

Very interested to find out what is going on in this game. I am looking forward to playing on!
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Old 03-14-2007, 07:08 PM   #30
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Just bought it... will catch up with you guys when it arrives!
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Old 03-14-2007, 08:49 PM   #31
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Hello to everyone at AG. I am new here, but I had to sign up when I read about the game discussion. I enjoy hearing different opinions about a game and also enjoy sharing my own.

I agree with colpet about the issues with interpreting the cursor. Many times in playing the game I just kept hitting the button to set if I would "spark" something because I never knew what I could or couldn't do. Also, I find that I would have never known to go BACK to chapter one to read the journal after completing it, without having played the game before.

For me, the most interesting line was at the beginning of the chapter. Mephisto says that there is a difference in being "attached" to someone than being "bound." He goes on to say that couples (who are "bound") have a more difficult time staying together because things (material items? other people?) get in the way of their stability (I paraphrase, and even reinterpret... ). How do other people feel about this? Despite the obvious reference to chapter 1 and the "bound" twins, did anyone find it an interesting comment on life and relationships?

Please forgive me, if my opinions go beyond what is normally discussed. I enjoying "overanalyzing" games, books, movies, plays, etc. like this.
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Old 03-15-2007, 03:23 AM   #32
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I was kind of unsure about that one. From the clips etc I didn't get the impression she would have felt any regret or remorse. After all she killed her and divided her into little bits. She only wanted the money all to herself.
Exactly, I'm not sure I fully understand her either. I guess that she reacted very rashly when she killed her, under both the influence of her greed and the feeling of being fed up with that sister she had been bound to all her life (when you see her cutting up the body, you can see in the way she does it that she's venting some anger that had been piling up for years). And yet it seems to me that, in the end, when she got time to think and realise what had happened, she probably regretted her actions and started missing her sister, whom she probably cared for more than she realised. What I find interesting is that, while definitely being a greedy bitch, she's not altogether evil or heartless.

Obviously, Mephisto acted like a sneaky bastard. By appealing at once to both her greed and annoyance with her sister, he really brought out the worst in her and made her commit an action that could not be undone. I guess that's his job, and he did it superbly this time.

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Hello to everyone at AG. I am new here, but I had to sign up when I read about the game discussion. I enjoy hearing different opinions about a game and also enjoy sharing my own.
Welcome to the forums.

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For me, the most interesting line was at the beginning of the chapter. Mephisto says that there is a difference in being "attached" to someone than being "bound." He goes on to say that couples (who are "bound") have a more difficult time staying together because things (material items? other people?) get in the way of their stability (I paraphrase, and even reinterpret... ). How do other people feel about this? Despite the obvious reference to chapter 1 and the "bound" twins, did anyone find it an interesting comment on life and relationships?
Definitely. I'm a very independent person and absolutely need my daily dose of loneliness and privacy, and that need is stronger than bonds of friendship or love. So I can completely understand Mephisto's point -- and he definitely played the right card with the twins.

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Please forgive me, if my opinions go beyond what is normally discussed. I enjoying "overanalyzing" games, books, movies, plays, etc. like this.
Don't worry, I think Faust is meant to be analysed a lot.
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Old 03-15-2007, 03:48 AM   #33
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Quote:
For me, the most interesting line was at the beginning of the chapter. Mephisto says that there is a difference in being "attached" to someone than being "bound." He goes on to say that couples (who are "bound") have a more difficult time staying together because things (material items? other people?) get in the way of their stability (I paraphrase, and even reinterpret... ). How do other people feel about this? Despite the obvious reference to chapter 1 and the "bound" twins, did anyone find it an interesting comment on life and relationships?
Good point, and welcome to the forum .
When Jody and Lily were attached, they had to compromise, literally they could not live without the other. Greed (their sin) couldn't take root unless it was something they shared together, like their obsession with money. Mephisto needed to separate them to allow them the freedom to choose how far they would go . In Jody's case, her greed was enough to commit murder for.
I, too, am unsure of why Jody confessed, other than it would have been near impossible for her to explain the disappearance of her sister.

Does anyone know what the PACT means in the bottom left of the menu screen? Also, I would have thought that the signed Mephisto note from the skull would be more EVIDENCE than the lottery ticket.
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Old 03-15-2007, 03:53 AM   #34
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Does anyone know what the PACT means in the bottom left of the menu screen?
If you click on it (on the page of an episode you've already completed), you can re-listen to this episode's pact. (So for episode 1, you get "I, Mephistopheles, will give Jody fabulous wealth in exchange for", etc.)
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Old 03-15-2007, 07:56 AM   #35
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Okay, since it seems like unbridled speculation is acceptable here... my theory is that the "evidence" will eventually be weighed against the "pact" in each case, sort of like Homer and his immortal soul donut. Maybe Mephistopeles is up for his annual evaluation?
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Old 03-15-2007, 03:57 PM   #36
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Definitely. I'm a very independent person and absolutely need my daily dose of loneliness and privacy, and that need is stronger than bonds of friendship or love.
But they don't have to be mutually exclusive. You can have friendship and love and have alone time. In the case of Siamese twins, perhaps they are mutually exclusive and to be suddenly faced with the idea that they can both have privacy must have been overwhelming and I agree Mephisto played it perfectly. Had he not been in the picture, I don't think that murder would have ever happened.
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Old 03-15-2007, 07:38 PM   #37
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But they don't have to be mutually exclusive. You can have friendship and love and have alone time. In the case of Siamese twins, perhaps they are mutually exclusive and to be suddenly faced with the idea that they can both have privacy must have been overwhelming and I agree Mephisto played it perfectly. Had he not been in the picture, I don't think that murder would have ever happened.
I can't believe I wrote that. If he hadn't been there, they wouldn't have been separated, etc. Don't mind me...
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Old 03-15-2007, 10:01 PM   #38
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For me, it goes back again to "attached" vs. "bound" which makes the difference in the difficulty of the relationship. Yes, obviously they were physically bound but also in their financial loaning schemes and their love for the strongman. Their individual desires to be separated were both motivated by greed: financial greed and individual love.
Would their lives have been easier if they were just loving sisters without competiting for the same man, or loaning money. In other words, do relationships become more difficult once we bind them with material items?
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Old 03-16-2007, 08:46 AM   #39
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Their individual desires to be separated were both motivated by greed: financial greed and individual love.
This seems a little unfair to me, equating financial greed and the desire to love. Both sisters did not court their fate equally, it only took one of them to accept the pact. The desire for love is not the lure here, it's the forfeit. Jody was willing to sacrifice love for money, Lily was not. The terms in which Lily refuses are also interesting, if she got the money she would just have to share it anyways, whereas to Jody he promises it will be hers all alone. The pact is perfectly calculated to polarize the peronality diffferences between the sisters and "divide" them. The division seems superficial however, as both sisters are still "bound" in the chain of events that Mephistopheles set in action. There is perhaps a certain symbolism that Jody's pact is found in Lily's skull.

The words about balance and counter balance from the end of the episode come to mind. Together, Jody and Lily had a kind of balance. Jody was hard, greedy and domineering, Lily was vulnerable, romantic and submissive. In the choice he offered, Mephistopheles disrupted that balance, ensuring the destruction of both.
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Old 03-16-2007, 11:28 PM   #40
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Very good points, Buddi. I feel Lily becomes a tragic case because, of the two, she is more agreeable, and was less greedy. The issue I have though, and the reason I said both were motivated by greed, is what happens in their dream. Mephistopheles states that Lily does not care about the money (even calling here "the little brat," if I remember correctly), but she also clearly states that she would like to have Hannibal "all to myself." If she is not a necessary constituent of the pact, then it wouldn't have mattered to have the addendeum about Jody giving up her love for Hannibal. Jody would have just asked for money and separation from Lily. Lily had to get something out of it, (Devil's pacts seem to require this), and her desire to have Hannibal alone set the deal.

Someone please clarify this for me if I am misreading (misplaying?) this, but why include dialouge from Lily in the dream if Lily didn't have to be part of it?
Why isn't Lily a co-signer of the pact? Why not just give Jody separation and money, and end the pact and story there?

I think both sisters did court their fate equally when Mephistopheles influenced them in their dream. Jody of course was more aggressive about her greed, and I think, on a second thought, Jody could have given up Hannibal too, but she wanted him ALONE, and she states this. This statement is what allows Mephistopheles to create a pact with Jody.

Without Mephistopheles, Jody perhaps could have killed Lily on her own (doubtful, but a possibility). Pacts with Mephistopheles always give advantage to Mephistopheles by playing to the signer's weakness (here greed). If Lily was completely innocent (without greed or a weakness for Hannibal) Mephistopheles would not have had a pact.
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