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AG Community Playthrough #33: Scratches
What he did is pay a company to deliver raw meat to the house indefinitely.
WoW! Didn’t guess that one at all. Yet it does make perfect sense.
Bravo!
I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.
Nah…It’s just 2 flowers on a rock.
You’re kidding, I hope. If not, look again. It’s easy to miss.
“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.” -Bill Watterson
My favorite adventure game by far // cannot wait for Asylum!
So low on the Hype-o-Meter on the frontpage!!
Thanks. I don’t think Asylum should be on the Hype-o-Meter even as we’re deliberately keeping things low key ourselves. When the time comes, rest assured we’ll be making lots of noise again 
I’m glad you mentioned the movie connections as this is something I wanted to mention as well. While it’s true that Scratches has been inspired by Italian horror, I’ve been able to distill exactly which elements from the game came from which movies. Of course, we’ve already established that the game is Lovecraftian through and through, to the point where I found myself trying to emulate his writing. But when it comes to movies, here goes:
[spoiler]- The ending. For sure the culprit is House by the Cemetery, the movie that fired up my obsession with basements. I saw it when I was very young and Fulci’s surreal atmosphere and penchant for over-the-top gore really stuck with me. In fact, the dream I had might’ve been primarily inspired by the ending of this movie. I think Scratches owes to Fulci more than you can imagine. Speaking of which, did you find the nod to this infamous Italian director?[/spoiler]
- The setting. The old Victorian house with dusty corners and age-old secrets comes from The Changeling, a movie that I still admire to this day. I’ve re-watched it rather recently and I’m positive that my desire to do an adventure game based in the “haunted” house setting was inspired by this movie.
[spoiler]- The story. I have to give credit to the obscure post-Hammer Films movie House of the Long Shadows. The only movie starred by the four greats in the horror genre: Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Vincent Price, and David Carradine. Once you start watching the movie, the similarities with Scratches are eerily apparent, especially the story element of the mysterious son that is locked inside a room. The premise (writer must finish a novel in a seemingly abandoned house) is popular and overused, but it was probably inspired by this movie as well. While there are many things in common, the story in Scratches followed a very different direction once the similar elements where introduced.[/spoiler]
- The African theme. Inspired by Ghost and the Darkness. Especially the bridge construction referenced in Blackwood’s journal, I think.
Surely there must have been others, but those are the major ones. Thank the 80’s and the amazing quality in horror movies back then. All of the ones I’ve mentioned are highly recommended!
Senscape // Founder // Designer | Working on: Asylum | Twitter: @AgustinCordes
- The supernatural vs. scientific tension is a major feature of the game. I think it’s the reason why the story has remained embedded in people’s mind. This duality allows you to believe what you want as the entire plot can be explained both by mystical phenomenons or cold hard facts.
Yeah, I think that the duality of the story is its greatest strength, not just the duality in the final explanation with supernatural vs. scientific, but also that we have both the story of the mask and the African tribe, and at the same time the whole story of the Blackwoods and what happened in the house. On top of that with The Last Visit, we also have two different protagonists with a different angle or approach to what happened. Had it all been about the supernatural without the large focus on the Blackwoods, then I think I personally would have been disappointed.
- Speaking of which, I see that many of you are leaning towards the rational explanation of the occurrences in Blackwood Manor. Which begs the question, what do you think about the final, evocative image in the game?
To be quite honest - I haven’t got the slightest clue at what I’m looking at.
- And that’s not even the final, final sequence! It seems that you missed a little detail since you discussed whether Michael left the door unlocked or not. This video comes after the credits sequence:
Lady K did mention that, personally that was also what I believed I remembered, but when checking the other scene to make sure, I thought that I had remembered wrong, and forgot about the post credit scene.
What he did is pay a company to deliver raw meat to the house indefinitely. That pool of blood in the last scene—the lair—is supposed to be the remnants of that meal.
I did notice both the invoice in the attic and the last supper in the cellar, but I didn’t make the connection that he had paid someone else to feed Robin. Up until Robin broke free, I thought that Dr. Milton regularly returned to feed him himself.
At first the story was going to be mostly about the family with the hidden secret. The African theme is a latter addition.
That is interesting because to me it felt like the story of the Blackwoods was the most important part of the story. It might of course just be my own preference shining through and others felt the Mask the most important part, but nevertheless interesting.
Does anyone have a theory as to who painted the artwork in the attic? I found a newspaper clipping in the chest in the upper attic referring to a fire at the Swain School of Design in New Bedford, Massachusetts. I’m not sure why the Blackwoods would keep this clipping. Did the painter in the family maybe attend the school at some point (was Catherine originally from America, and was she the painter?).
My initial thought was that it was Catherine that had painted those paintings, but then I kind of forgot about them because other things started to happen. In retrospect it could perhaps also be Dr. Milton who painted them, in the period between James dead and his own disappearance, when he was living in the house - though the clipping, which I didn’t notice myself, does seem to point at Catherine being the artist.
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
Nah…It’s just 2 flowers on a rock.
You’re kidding, I hope. If not, look again. It’s easy to miss.
That’s not a face.
At least that wasn’t the intention 
Senscape // Founder // Designer | Working on: Asylum | Twitter: @AgustinCordes
I finished the game some days ago, just haven´t had time to comment.
Haven´t been this creeped out by a game since I was 14 and played the first Silent Hill (alone in the apartment, at night). 
Being really tense doesn´t do anything good for my ability to solve puzzles. Some of the puzzles were a bit annoying as well, but there seems to be agreement on that.
I also had some problems with hotspots that you can´t even look at before they become active (coffee grinder..).
I think this is the kind of game that could benefit from RL note-taking. I had forgotten all about the weird plant in the greenhouse when I needed it.
I quite liked the african tribe/mask part of the story-that was actually the part of the game that had the most Lovecraftian flavour to me. Mostly the way it was told, I think.
The Last Visit didn´t seem necessary. A bit too blunt in its explanations.
Nah…It’s just 2 flowers on a rock.
You’re kidding, I hope. If not, look again. It’s easy to miss.
That’s not a face.
At least that wasn’t the intention
It’s the face of the mask, isn’t it, or am I still missing something?
“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.” -Bill Watterson
My own theory—Robin was kept in the room next to his parent’s bedroom when he was very young. I don’t think he ended up in the cellar until after Catherine’s death. I suspect the “good” doctor was the one who imprisoned him there once it was clear that he was a significant danger to others.
I don’t think so. The furnishings in the hidden nursery were for a baby or very young child, not for an older child or adult. Robin wouldn’t have been able to kill Catherine when he was a baby or toddler. Then we have the teddy in the basement. Though it’s not impossible for an adolescent or adult to keep a teddy, I think its presence in the basement suggests Robin was placed there while still a toddler.
When was the nursery walled up? If it was walled up at the time Robin was locked up (and Robin was locked up as a toddler) that suggests that James Blackwood wanted to forget he’d ever had a son. If the room wasn’t walled up until after Catherine was killed, that would put a slightly different spin on it—James wanting to forget his son murdered his wife rather than James wanting to forget Robin was his son.
I don’t buy that Thalidomide itself was to blame for Robin’s condition. As rtrooney noted, Robin wasn’t missing any limbs. Even if Robin suffered mental retardation, that doesn’t usually equate with violence. But that distinction might have been lost on Dr. Milton. Dr. Milton (and Catherine) may have believed the thalidomide was responsible, and that would explain why Dr. Milton felt “guilty” about Robin, at least initially (at least until he found James’s writings about the mask).
Robin’s attack on Dr. Milton in The Last Visit suggests that Dr. Milton wasn’t expecting it. Did Robin go through periods when he was not violent? Was he only that violent because he’d just been in the bathtub in contact with the mask?
[spoiler]Was Robin locked up because he looked weird or because he was excessively violent? Was he excessively violent only because he was locked up? Was he mistreated because of his father’s belief that the mask had some evil power that had taken over his son? What happens to Robin after he escapes the house and the house is destroyed? No more free meat. No place to stay. Does Robin take to roaming the countryside and eating anyone who’s out for a walk alone?
What was the point of razing the house? Did someone intend to rebuild on the property? If so, and you’re assuming the mask, which apparently was not destroyed, had some evil power and is buried in the rubble underneath the new house, then the problem with the mask’s influence is not solved.
Horror stories are full of characters who attempt to find scientific explanations for evil mystic happenings, and eventually come to grief because they never discover the real threat. In the Scratches world, the only complete explanation requires that the mask does harbor some malevolent power. As the narrator/reporter suggests at the end of The Last Visit, something is missing otherwise.
Crabapple—I’m pretty sure that Robin was born in August 1961. Then Catherine was murdered in May 1963. And James died in July 1963. This, in my view, argues that Robin was possessed in some way by the demon in the mask. It’s the only way to explain that kind of violent strength in a toddler. Well, maybe not the only way, but the most likely explanation, given the story so far.
I agree that the influence of the demon from the mask has not been completely exorcized.The ritual that Michael performed near the end of the game may have merely intensified the demon possession of Robin. I suspect that they’re razing the house because it’s now such a mess. I wonder what they’ll build once it’s razed?
I just noticed that Agustin Cordes sent a note 4 days ago to all Asylum backers about our Scratches playthrough and I would like to thank him (yet again) for that move.
Crabapple—I’m pretty sure that Robin was born in August 1961. Then Catherine was murdered in May 1963. And James died in July 1963. This, in my view, argues that Robin was possessed in some way by the demon in the mask. It’s the only way to explain that kind of violent strength in a toddler. Well, maybe not the only way, but the most likely explanation, given the story so far.
I missed the date Catherine was killed.
I agree that possession by the mask is pretty much the only way to explain a 2-year-old being able to do something like that.
Assuming it was Robin who killed her, I see no other explanation other than the mask.
I wonder if Dr. Milton really believed Robin was capable/guilty of killing Catherine. Dr. Milton didn’t appear to be carrying any weapons when he went back to see Robin in The Last Visit. If Dr. Milton knew Robin was dangerous, why go unarmed? Or is it possible Dr. Milton did have some sort of mystic weapon, or possibly some acid or poison hypodermic, and the scream you heard was Robin and not Dr. Milton.
[spoiler]I agree that the influence of the demon from the mask has not been completely exorcized.The ritual that Michael performed near the end of the game may have merely intensified the demon possession of Robin.
I don’t think it could have gotten any worse than it was.
However it’s possible it had no effect or was only temporary.
I suspect that they’re razing the house because it’s now such a mess. I wonder what they’ll build once it’s razed?
Probably one of those evil sanitariums that are so rife in casual games. Why raze a place unless you have some plans for the property? Otherwise save money by letting it partially fall down on its own before bringing in the bulldozers.
There is a point where I think we start to over analyze things. Forget about Robin being able to kill Catherine when he was 1.5 years old. Think about the way Catherine was supposedly killed ,,, neck savagely ripped open by an assailant’s teeth. At Robin’s age, when Catherine was killed, Robin wouldn’t have had teeth capable of doing same, let alone the “toddler” strength to do it.
If you had to speculate based on supernatural activity, you would have to think James killed his wife based on his possession of the demon mask. As well as his observations of demonic killings in Africa.
That in no way undermines my theory of the maid in the crypt. Or anything else for that matter.
But I really wish we could get out of the conjecture stage and find out what really happened. Only one person can provide that information.
Agustin?
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
Finished ‘The Last Visit’ on youtube. Yea, was only 17 minutes long - including credits.
Yep, well worth watching and the Director’s Cut is a better deal than the standard edition - unless you already have the standard edition.
Once again, didn’t see the ending coming at all, did however like the game wrapup just prior to the end credits.
I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.
I just noticed that Agustin Cordes sent a note 4 days ago to all Asylum backers about our Scratches playthrough and I would like to thank him (yet again) for that move.
Have been following this thread because of Agustin’s shout out. I have been a fan of Scratches for a long time. Thank you for the playthrough and thank you Agustin!
Hey, I’m finally seeing the face Lady K mentioned.
http://i.imgur.com/8w8BMmF.png
[spoiler]It’s above those two poisonous-looking flowers that have just appeared (apparently in the greenhouse?). If you look above those flowers just a bit you’ll see a grey nose and above that, one eye (the other eye is blocked by something else). [spoiler]
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