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Moebius
I wouldn’t recommend Moebius as anyone’s first Jane Jensen game, but just like with novelists, directors, screenwriters, musicians, or painters, once you’ve exhausted a favorite creator’s A catalog, if you really like their style, you may move on to their B catalog and it will still have unique qualities of that creator’s voice which you will not find even in the A catalog of other creators. It’s why I know every musical Stephen Sondheim has written—even when his works aren’t 100% successful, he always has something interesting to say, at least to me, and his is a unique voice in musical theater. I’m sure many people have some favorite creators they feel that way about.
QFT. I think this is the best way to approach this game.
Noknowncure has played the game to completion.
So he wrote. But slagging off a character’s English accent when said character isn’t actually English made me wonder.
I didn’t say he was English - although at a couple of points in the game he regards himself as ‘British’, certainly in one of the deduction segments - I commented that the attempted English accent - which is what I personally think the VA was trying - was flawed.
There is nothing wrong so far with the English accent!
The Voice acting didn’t impress me and Malachi’s attempted English accent was full of flaws.
Incidentally, I do wonder how many players will skip or miss the Intro E-Comic and not know Malachi’s backstory.
which explained Gabriel’s mission for Prince James and how he came to Rennes-le-Chateau, In GK1, Gabriel’s ancestry and nightmares were still re-capped enough elsewhere in the game proper that the comic gave extra detail, rather than essential detail. Moebius is in the middle.
I’m not really going anywhere with this, just an observation.
Incidentally, I do wonder how many players will skip or miss the Intro E-Comic and not know Malachi’s backstory.
True enough - it is one of the dangers of using a comic like Jane Jensen often does. I have to admit I’m not a fan of the approach - apart from the dangers of it being missed, the art style frequently jarrs with the game itself. I found the drawing in the GK3 comic pretty ugly to be honest.
I suppose Moebius’ comic is not quite as essential as GK3’s comic…but it seems a bit more essential than, say, the comic in GK1.
Agreed totally. I think you’d be totally lost in GK3 without the comic - I seem to remember that I just started it up initially to make sure it was working Ok, and wondered what on earth was going on! Then I read the comic
As for GK1, I never saw the comic until pretty recently (wasn’t with the version I got back in the late 90s) and I can confirm the story works fine without it. Indeed it’s all a bit more of a mystery - I’ve wondered whether, with the comic, the story becomes a bit too obvious? Thoughts? Though the comic does make certain background historical aspects clearer.
Good review by AG, sums it up pretty well. This is not Jane Jensen’s best effort, in fact in my opinion her worst, and if I were to rate some of her titles it would be something like : Gabriel Knight The Beast Within : 9.5/10, Gabriel Knight 3 : 9/10, Grey Matter : 6/10, Moebius : 5/10.
Gabriel Knights were classic, replayable, engrossing, and some of the very finest adventures I have played. Grey Matter, the ending made it just about worthwhile, I may play it once more again some time in the future. Moebius I will never be playing again. To me it looks like Jensen has played all her cards and the well is now well and truly dry, and the ending to Moebius I think sums it up more than adequately. That was.. embarrassing. It was really… really bad.
That said, there were glimpses of Jensen’s best here and there in Moebius, but they were fleeting, and overall the game was unrewarding, and to me it felt like, believe it or not, there was an effort to save money. Some bits seemed rushed, the ending for instance she seemed to not even bother any more, the dialogue was plain uninspired… perhaps Jensen is just worn out and really did this for the people more than for herself, because there just wasn’t any heart in it.
Overall, just about worth playing - once - but I think, unfortunately and sadly, its time for Jane to hang up the gloves. She has done some magnificent work and its now heading downwards so time to quit in my opinion, but thank you so much for your wonderful work.
Voice acting is excellent in the game, especially Malachi. Now I’m no expert in accents so I really can’t tell if he “nailed it” but if two Brittish people here say that it sounded fine I’m having hard time believing others saying that it was horrible.
I think all the Gabriel Knight games really deserve 5/5. If we use more accurate scale, I’d probably give them 9.5 to 10. But I really loved Gray Matter, it’s another 9.5 to me, I have no clue what people dislike in that game. The speaking 3D models could have been better and the whole magic trick interface too. Everything else in the game was excellent.
Moebius I didn’t find as good, but I’ve heard people say that they preferred it over Gray Matter which I can believe, because Moebius is a good game. Not nearly as good as GKs but it has some great strenghts, the best being good protagonists with an excellent vies of their relationship. And as people kinda agreed on the “romantic games” thread, we really need more well done relationships in games. In this case I see the relationship romantic but if people choose to think it only as a friendship, it is still a really good story about a friendship.
I can accept the AG review too, as well as anyone else saying that Moebius is mediocre, because if one doesn’t love the characters and their relationship as much as I do, I get that the shortcomings of the game probably do drag one down quite a lot. The horrible bashing and saying it’s a terrible game - that I find baffling.
Currently Playing: Dragon Age Origins: Awakening
Recently Played: Red Embrace: Hollywood, Dorfromantik, Heirs & Graces, AI: The Somnium Files, PRICE, Frostpunk, The Shapeshifting Detective (CPT), Disco Elysium, Dream Daddy, Four Last Things, Jenny LeClue - Detectivu, The Signifier
But I really loved Gray Matter, it’s another 9.5 to me, I have no clue what people dislike in that game. The speaking 3D models could have been better and the whole magic trick interface too.
They were two definite flaws - the “talking heads” in Grey Matter I found extremely distracting and irritating; far more so, to be honest, than any of the graphics and animation issues in Moebius.
The other thing for me was that there were a few too many clichés in the game for my taste. The “brilliant, handsome, upper-class, rich” character of David Styles was a bit too much for me, with the classic accident (including Phantom of the Opera mask), loss, recluse element thrown in for good measure. That plus the rather stereotypical portrayal of Oxford & Britain irritated somewhat.
But I do agree that it proved to be a verygood game despite those flaws. JJ managed enough twists that, despite the clichéd beginning, I found Styles to be an excellent character - his voice acting certainly helped. In total, the voice acting in JJ games is (imho obviously ) excellent.
Think I’d give Grey Matter an 8.5 or 9 overall. Haven’t finished Moebius yet, but I think it’ll be a little lower.
I liked grey matter. Compared to moebius, i think its story “landed” much better. It was not without problems for sure… and i think they really missed an opportunity to make the magic trick puzzles awesome.. but instead they were kind of so-so. Even so, i still liked the magic trick puzzles better than the analysis.
I didn’t mind the clichés, I thought them to be quite intentional really. The whole thing was a gothic romance novel you know. And I love them 
. Puzzle wise I thought the game was excellent (apart from the lost potential in magic tricks but they were still fine too). I think what really made me substract a star from Moebius was the puzzles, which were from a couple of crappy ones to good, but not excellent. The awkward animation itself wouldn’t have done it.
And I agree that GM’s story indeed “landed better”. I’m actually getting quite eager to replay, but I guess it’ll have to wait a while still.
(I gave Moebius it a 4/5 and Gray Matter 5/5 which was rounded up.)
Currently Playing: Dragon Age Origins: Awakening
Recently Played: Red Embrace: Hollywood, Dorfromantik, Heirs & Graces, AI: The Somnium Files, PRICE, Frostpunk, The Shapeshifting Detective (CPT), Disco Elysium, Dream Daddy, Four Last Things, Jenny LeClue - Detectivu, The Signifier
(apart from the lost potential in magic tricks but they were still fine too).
Honestly, i hope somebody rips that idea off and does it right in a future game 
Because its really a great idea to build an adventure game around.. you just need many magic tricks that the player needs to improvise beyond the instructions.
Im not forseeing GM2 as likely… so get to it indie devs!
Voice acting is excellent in the game, especially Malachi. Now I’m no expert in accents so I really can’t tell if he “nailed it” but if two Brittish people here say that it sounded fine I’m having hard time believing others saying that it was horrible.
I don’t know why you’d be having a ‘hard time’ when it’s simply three different peoples opinions. Two people not minding somehow renders another persons opinion as inconceivable?
I’m English and have studied accents and there are lots of ‘tells’ that are easy to miss if you’re from one country performing the accent of another - some actors are flawless, but many let these little differences slip and they really stand out if you’re aware of them.
A simple example that illustrates the rookie errors I’m talking about, is the English vs. US pronunciation of the word ‘Due’ - Americans typically pronounce the word as ‘doo’, whereas the English pronounce ‘d-yew’.
Like the translation errors people have mentioned, it probably doesn’t make a difference to casual observers, but it stands out like a sore thumb to people in the know.
Other than that, the voices didn’t particularly stand out to me in any way and had several cringeworthy moments - most of the scenes with characters laughing immediately spring to mind, as they didn’t flow particularly well and came across as embarrassing for all the wrong reasons (although genuine sounding laughter is difficult).
I also think the poor character models detract from vocal performances, when there’s a disparity between what the voice and physicality are telling us. Stiff, wooden ‘acting’ can make a mockery of what’s being said. That’s not to say animation has to be complex; simple, expressive animation can be hugely effective, unfortunately awkward, jerky animation and lifeless expressions are detrimental.
I didn’t mean to completely dismiss your opinion, I just feel that it’s exaggerated. If it isn’t perfect, it isn’t perfect, but you’re making it sound like this was the crappiest voice acting in a decade. If native Englishmen don’t spot flaws in the accents, it’s in my opinion very passable then. Using crappy translations in a text that a lot of people can read and understand is a lot worse. Not to mention a lot easier to fix.
Currently Playing: Dragon Age Origins: Awakening
Recently Played: Red Embrace: Hollywood, Dorfromantik, Heirs & Graces, AI: The Somnium Files, PRICE, Frostpunk, The Shapeshifting Detective (CPT), Disco Elysium, Dream Daddy, Four Last Things, Jenny LeClue - Detectivu, The Signifier
(apart from the lost potential in magic tricks but they were still fine too).
Honestly, i hope somebody rips that idea off and does it right in a future game
Im not forseeing GM2 as likely… so get to it indie devs!
I really enjoyed GM - cliched Oxford and all - and I’ve always thought the magic tricks mechanic had potential, but the way it was implemented let it down; it essentially just became a recipe.
I’m no puzzle designer and have often struggled to think of how to better include the concept. I suppose a kind of reworking of the initial trick instructions, ala voodoo doll creation from MI2 taking place in two slightly different fashions.
The deduction puzzles in Moebius felt similarly unrealised - much of it boiled down to guesswork, whereas there must be some way to perhaps incorporate environmental observations into more concrete deductions. A lot of Malachi’s assumptions seemed unsatisfying in their relative groundlessness.
Voice acting is excellent in the game, especially Malachi. Now I’m no expert in accents so I really can’t tell if he “nailed it” but if two Brittish people here say that it sounded fine I’m having hard time believing others saying that it was horrible.
I don’t know why you’d be having a ‘hard time’ when it’s simply three different peoples opinions. Two people not minding somehow renders another persons opinion as inconceivable?
I’m English and have studied accents and there are lots of ‘tells’ that are easy to miss if you’re from one country performing the accent of another - some actors are flawless, but many let these little differences slip and they really stand out if you’re aware of them.
A simple example that illustrates the rookie errors I’m talking about, is the English vs. US pronunciation of the word ‘Due’ - Americans typically pronounce the word as ‘doo’, whereas the English pronounce ‘d-yew’.
I’m very English ‘too’ which rhymes with the US version of the word ‘Due’ when it’s pronounced ‘doo’ according to ‘you’ which also rhymes with poo! Did you find any bad pronunciations in Moebius that rhyme with ‘troll’ by any chance?
I didn’t mean to completely dismiss your opinion, I just feel that it’s exaggerated. If it isn’t perfect, it isn’t perfect, but you’re making it sound like this was the crappiest voice acting in a decade. If native Englishmen don’t spot flaws in the accents, it’s in my opinion very passable then. Using crappy translations in a text that a lot of people can read and understand is a lot worse. Not to mention a lot easier to fix.
Voice acting is a real interest of mine and I generally feel like a great number of Adventure Games aren’t up to snuff. There are a couple of studios that put an emphasis on acting, but it often seems to be an area where ‘That’ll do’ is the attitude. On the whole, I prefer text alone to bad voice acting, but that doesn’t seem to be a viable option these days.
I don’t think Moebius has the worst voice acting by any stretch, but I similarly don’t think it’s worthy of any great praise.
I’m very English ‘too’ which rhymes with the US version of the word ‘Due’ when it’s pronounced ‘doo’ according to ‘you’ which also rhymes with poo! Did you find any bad pronunciations in Moebius that rhyme with ‘troll’ by any chance?
Depends on how you’re pronouncing Troll - to rhyme with Goal or to rhyme with Doll?
Do you accuse everyone who doesn’t lavish unconditional praise on something you like a troll?
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