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AG Community Playthrough #37: J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars
I don’t mean to interrupt the flow of the thread, but the new CCPT voting/nominating thread is now open. There are a few participants on this thread that have also been regulars on the other. Don’t forget to stop by and vote.
That’s it! Go back to what you were doing!
For whom the games toll,
they toll for thee.
Since it is the last part, then there are no longer any restrictions, just play the game to the end. I will also not set an outright deadline for when you have to finish it.
Thanks! I have been looking forward to finishing this game. I suspect that this game is going to have a great ending!
EDIT: I just finished the game - and didn’t see a few things coming!
The final chapter has a major decision you have to make to decide the ending. I choose Earth.
Thanks for a great CPT - looking forward to the next one!
I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.
Since it is the last part, then there are no longer any restrictions, just play the game to the end. I will also not set an outright deadline for when you have to finish it.
Thanks! I have been looking forward to finishing this game. I suspect that this game is going to have a great ending!
EDIT: I just finished the game - and didn’t see a few things coming!
The final chapter has a major decision you have to make to decide the ending. I choose Earth.
Thanks for a great CPT - looking forward to the next one!
The game autosaves so you can easily see both endings. Load a savegame called Decision 
Someday You\‘ll return, J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars, Serena, Vampires!, J.U.L.I.A.: Untold, Ghost in the Sheet
That’s me done too. Really enjoyed playing this, I had bought and downloaded a year or so ago but held off from playing in the hope of a community playthrough. Glad it finally happened!
I went for the save the Ambrosians ending first, then immediately went back to see the return to Earth ending. Difficult decision!
Highlight for me was the first visit to Ambrosia, so many great puzzles in that section.
Regarding the save the Ambrosians ending, what’s the sparkling in the corridor while Rachel works at the microscope - presence of a Rock Being perhaps?
I like the landscapes on the last planet—an interesting combination of the mechanical and the organic. I’ve arrived in the room with the giant alien internal organs. I’m surprised that Rachel is put off by them—you’d think an astrobiologist would find them fascinating. Maybe there’s already been so much strangeness and so many surprises that she’s reaching her limit in terms of being able to process all these alien experiences.
The light beacon puzzle was tough—I ended up using a lot of trial-and-error. Xir seemed easy after that. I like the idea that you are given increasing time with the Xir encounter each time you fail. It seems so sensible, why don’t we see it more often with timed puzzles? Or is it used so subtly that we don’t even realize that it’s happening?
Re: the Rock Being as vaguely humanoid—I suspect that those rocks can form any shape at all. It’s humanoid in this case because it knows that Rachel will be more comfortable talking to it if it looks somewhat familiar (just as the furniture in the puzzle/testing rooms is meant to look familiar to her).
Finished the game.
Had a good chuckle at the Steam that Greeenlights. 
What an amazing “WHAM” cutscene where we find out that J.U.L.I.A. was indeed behind all the team deaths. I get the reasoning, but it’s still cold as hell. Lark was the only real culprit, and the only one responsible. At worst Krylov too for making that weapon. The rest are innocents or at worst “just following orders”.
It’s a shame that we don’t find out why we were cryo-prisoned early on. Would have been interesting to know why and how (presumably Lark) discredited us from the get-go.
The big decision at the end isn’t really a decision for me. I chose to save the Ambrosians, and didn’t think twice about it. I didn’t expect the (very logical) bad result for our attempt to live on Ambrosia - it makes perfect sense that the Ambrosians hate our guts for being human, and that their big “savior” is Mobot and not Rachel. It’s easy to overlook this from our viewpoint. Good catch!
The game autosaves so you can easily see both endings. Load a savegame called Decision
Another great decision to include this! I hadn’t saved yet when I arrived at the decision, and I thought I would have to reload the entire final planet to get to the alternate ending.
Regarding the save the Ambrosians ending, what’s the sparkling in the corridor while Rachel works at the microscope - presence of a Rock Being perhaps?
That’s exactly what I took it to mean. Perhaps our actions in the end made them deem us “worthy” of their knowledge?
Re: the Rock Being as vaguely humanoid—I suspect that those rocks can form any shape at all. It’s humanoid in this case because it knows that Rachel will be more comfortable talking to it if it looks somewhat familiar (just as the furniture in the puzzle/testing rooms is meant to look familiar to her).
Makes sense.
Re: Izno’s “signal timing”. Maybe the signal that made us investigate that solar system came from the method the Ancients used to poison the lake or from whatever method the Rock Beings used to kick the Ancients out. That all happened a lot later than the Xenophone bombing.
All in all this is a very solid game with great puzzle design. I have to admit that I seriously underestimated it beforehand. I read the reviews but didn’t think it would be this good.
J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars is an easy 4/5 game for me. I will now be looking forward to CBE’s next offering. 
@ Fantasy: in your review, you mentioned a “poignant moment” that was diminished in this version, when compared to the original - what was it?
The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka
@ Fantasy: in your review, you mentioned a “poignant moment” that was diminished in this version, when compared to the original - what was it?
I haven’t been able to play along with you guys, so my memory of it is a bit rusty. But in my humble opinion, the scene after defeating Xir, we don’t get an answer from Mobot and we think he was killed. I was very moved by this scene and Rachel’s emotion in the original release, but in the current one it felt a bit too heavy handed.
Favorite Adventure Games-Lost Crown, Longest Journey, Dark Fall 1&2, Barrow Hill, Black Mirror, Blackwell games, Riven, Myst
Favorite Other Games-Kings Bounty, FTL
Currently Playing-Barrow Hill:The Dark Path
Looking Forward To-Last Crown/Braken Tor
What an amazing “WHAM” cutscene where we find out that J.U.L.I.A. was indeed behind all the team deaths. I get the reasoning, but it’s still cold as hell. Lark was the only real culprit, and the only one responsible. At worst Krylov too for making that weapon. The rest are innocents or at worst “just following orders”.
It’s a shame that we don’t find out why we were cryo-prisoned early on. Would have been interesting to know why and how (presumably Lark) discredited us from the get-go.
Agreed. People who argued with Lark ended up dead. He clearly started exerting so much influence that no one would stand up to him. Julia could have eliminated all the problems simply by “eliminating” (or cryo-imprisoning) Lark. It would be very interesting to find out why Lark was chosen for this expedition—he clearly had a screw loose. Maybe cryo-sleep sometimes drives people mad? I suspect the reason Rachel was imprisoned early was that Lark could tell that she wouldn’t buckle under with his program, and she had enough friends and influence that she might have caused him some significant headaches.
Near the end, I thought that perhaps the Ancients had kept a secret outpost somewhere and were influencing Lark so that he’d kill the Ambrosians. Wanting to kill all the Ambrosians to cover up the crime of, um, killing Ambrosians seemed rather futile. Any later expedition would surely be able to tell what type of weapon had wiped out alien life and trace it back to the first expedition. Or was there reason to believe that the weapon left no traces?
I liked the music that played during the credits. A question for Jan—at what point in the development process did you compose the music? Also, what were your influences for the story?
I finished the game, and it was nice to see I guessed right that JULIA caused all these deaths.
I really liked the game and like Tim, would give it a solid 4/5. Some of the voice overs were not that good I thought (especially Rachel’s voice, it sounded very monotonic and lacking emotion throughout most of the game). The story was very intriguing, and it was hard to stop playing and wait for the next deadline. I always wanted to go further to see what happens next. The puzzles were interesting, logical, and different than the normal inventory puzzles in traditional adventure games, and it was fun to figure them out. Some of the stand out puzzles were the mobot construction, and deciphering the cryptographic message. I think I encountered a bug in the last planet where, you have to get all the nodes to light. The first time I tried the third one of these puzzles, the screen went completely black, and you couldn’t see the connection between the nodes. You can still click on the nodes, but you had to guess where they are. A reload seemed to fix that, so it must have been a glitch.
As far as the ending, I played both but chose the save the Ambrosians ending first since it fit Rachel’s personality the most in my opinion. The Ambrosians ending was definitely much more interesting than the earth ending.
As far as the rock guy teleporting in Rachel’s ship, I think Tim’s suggestion that he trusts April now makes more sense than my initial guess. At first, my guess was he was behind messing with JULIA’s circuits to deal with the humans and save the Ambrosians, like he did with the ancients before that.
JULIA caused all these deaths
1) yes, I played out the second ending, much better than the one I originally chose.
2) I should have seen the above coming, once it is revealed to you it is so obvious.
I enjoy playing adventure games on my Alienware M17 r4 and my Nintendo Switch OLED.
Great job everyone! I really enjoyed it.
I love some of your theories although the reality can be a bit more complicated. 
Have you ever thought why it looks as if the crew landed on every single landable planet (not counting the cloaked one) except Hermes Alpha? Coincidence?
I liked the music that played during the credits. A question for Jan—at what point in the development process did you compose the music? Also, what were your influences for the story?
Thank you! The song is called Piknik and is from our album Luff we’ve recorded in 2006 (whoa! ten years ago!) with Metamorphosis
I was actually (unlike it’s customary) composing all the way through because there is a lot of music in Julia and it takes time. By the way, if you find yourself too rich, you can now buy DLC which has soundtrack, hintbook and J.U.L.I.A.: Untold which is basically 50 more challenging circuit constructions and 5 story sequences telling (among other things) why was Rachel really cryojailed.
Someday You\‘ll return, J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars, Serena, Vampires!, J.U.L.I.A.: Untold, Ghost in the Sheet
I’m changing my mind - the latest one is killing me!
Could I check what you were referring to here? I thought you meant there would be another Mobot upgrade at some point but there wasn’t one - or did I miss something?
By the way, if you find yourself too rich, you can now buy DLC which has soundtrack, hintbook and J.U.L.I.A.: Untold which is basically 50 more challenging circuit constructions and 5 story sequences telling (among other things) why was Rachel really cryojailed.
Actually tempted by the circuit constructions, even though I got hopelessly stuck previously! 
I can however promise you that there are two more Mind’o'Matics in this part
Oops. I must have missed one.
I got one for the events in the solar system (Ancient History). What was the last one? A chronicle of our entire expedition (and J.U.L.I.A.‘s actions)?
Any idea how I can still get it?
The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka
Oops. I must have missed one.
I got one for the events in the solar system (Ancient History). What was the last one? A chronicle of our entire expedition (and J.U.L.I.A.‘s actions)?
Yes, it is called Revelations, and becomes available right after seeing the cutscenes with what Julia had done.
Any idea how I can still get it?
Just load the save game you made at this point - Or if you didn’t save, which I guess you didn’t Load the Decision autosave, and choose to save the Ambrosians. It should then be available from the log screen.
You have to play the game, to find out why you are playing the game! - eXistenZ
Just load the save game you made at this point - Or if you didn’t save, which I guess you didn’t
No luck there…
I must have legitimately missed it. How does one miss a Mind-o-Matic?
The truth can’t hurt you, it’s just like the dark: it scares you witless but in time you see things clear and stark. - Elvis Costello
Maybe this time I can be strong, but since I know who I am, I’m probably wrong. Maybe this time I can go far, but thinking about where I’ve been ain’t helping me start. - Michael Kiwanuka
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