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AG Community Playthrough #65 - Keepsake

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@Intense Degree: Nice! Thumbs Up

I’ve been catching up, I think I’m about halfway there. I’ve just solved the Minotaur puzzle.

     
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Intense Degree - 28 March 2021 04:38 PM
colpet - 28 March 2021 01:30 PM

Did you open all the trial doors? Maybe you need to see the window from the inside to trigger the discussion about the flower

Now that I haven’t tried - great shout! I had assumed that as we were finishing before trial 2 I should leave them alone but by now i’m desperate enough to try anything!  Laughing

EDIT:

YES YES YES! That worked! Potion made and section complete! Thank you so much all for getting me through this! Laughing

Yay! Glad to hear it worked.

     
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Yay, Intense!  Thank goodness you thought of it, Colpet.  As far as triggers go, the game is more linear than it seems at first.  When I played, I just opened all the magic doors because I didn’t know which one was the first (and because I’m nosy). 

I’ll post info about the new section in a few hours. 

     

Carpe chocolate.

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I love the balconies.

1. The views are amazing.
2. They offer some spatial awareness. (layout is still as confusing as a Faulkner novel though)
3. You get these little details from other floors and the grounds surrounding the academy.

     
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I finally took the time to sit down and play, and managed to reach the stopping point. The first trial is completed and the potion has been made.

The camera angels are excellent, especially during the exterior shots. The clunky navigation makes all this running around a bit annoying though.

     
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Section 3
Main Goals:  Two trials and another power up

Finish the last two trials, then proceed to the upper level of the academy.  You’ll find the transport system very handy for getting around up there, once you get all of it powered up.  After you do, feel free to explore.  There won’t be many puzzles to solve yet, but it’s best to familiarize yourself with everything, and you’ll get more information from Zak as you travel around.  STOP AFTER AN AERIAL THEFT LEADS TO A “SPIRITUAL” ENCOUNTER.

Please note:  To be on the safe side, save your game before starting the second trial, and before transporting anywhere. 

Use your new map.  I have found it easy to navigate with it.

Let’s see where we are by Monday, April 5.   
 
The trial door videos are hypnotic:

     

Carpe chocolate.

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All caught up and ready to go!

I usually skip reading this thread until I finished playing the necessary part, so after looking over it, I was really surprised to find that I, like Tenebra, had no problems with this section at all. When it comes to adventures, I’m the Monkey Island person, not the Myst person (roughly speaking), so I’d expect to be the one becoming frustrated over puzzles, missing things, not knowing what to do next etc. But I found all the puzzles enjoyable, the flow smooth enough not to have too much handholding, but giving fair amount of obscure hints to keep going, and I’m very familiar with a layout now, so I feel at home at the Academy Smile

I do have to add that my handy list where I keep track of all the possible puzzles/items Lydia comments on and where they are very useful! I highly recommend making a quick note if you stumble upon anything. That way, you can just go back and try it instead of standing in the middle of this enormous school figuring out what to do.

I think I’ll be one of those who really likes Keepsake. I’m thinking along the lines Vegetable Party did - this is such a peaceful escape game! No real life exists when I play it, only magic, dragons and ADVENTURE! I also really like the solitary aspect. Thanks, diego, for introducing it to CPT, otherwise it would have been in my TBP pile, gathering proverbial dust…

Seems to me that people generally favor Zak, but I don’t like him. I agree with Lydia when after the first trial she says something along the lines of: “What did I do to deserve such cowardly and depressed dragon as the only companion!” Cowardly is right, as he constantly refuses to help her or leaves her alone if he’s scared (which is often), despite that she released him and worked pretty hard to get that potion going. He also keeps lying even though it’s obvious he is, and after his reaction right before he drank the potion he lost even more points with me for trying to get petty revenge by illegal means. I’m sure there’s going to be a LESSON and an apology from him later in the game, but short of some heroic act (which is absolutely a possibility in this game) it probably won’t be redeeming enough for me. He’s just not a good person (student, as I’m sure he is)

I encountered my first crash — also right after wine cellar, good thing I saved right before that (and I have a tendency to forget to do that), so now, like many people said, I save often, and I want to add my voice to this chorus.

If I had to nitpick (why not? It’s fun!), then I’d probably pick cutscenes as they tend to be overly simplistic AND overly dramatic at the same time. Just a tad too much for my taste.
Also I’d LOVE to have even sporadically placed points of fast travel.

Seeing that we were giving a go for the new section, I’ll dive into it - right away!

     
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DCast - 30 March 2021 11:44 PM

Seems to me that people generally favor Zak, but I don’t like him. I agree with Lydia when after the first trial she says something along the lines of: “What did I do to deserve such cowardly and depressed dragon as the only companion!” Cowardly is right, as he constantly refuses to help her or leaves her alone if he’s scared (which is often), despite that she released him and worked pretty hard to get that potion going. He also keeps lying even though it’s obvious he is, and after his reaction right before he drank the potion he lost even more points with me for trying to get petty revenge by illegal means. I’m sure there’s going to be a LESSON and an apology from him later in the game, but short of some heroic act (which is absolutely a possibility in this game) it probably won’t be redeeming enough for me. He’s just not a good person (student, as I’m sure he is)

We’re obviously to believe that he’s a student, and that’s probably the case. He seems more of a child to me though. Do we know at what age one can start at Dragonvale Academy?

If I had to nitpick (why not? It’s fun!), then I’d probably pick cutscenes as they tend to be overly simplistic AND overly dramatic at the same time. Just a tad too much for my taste.

The cutscenes a weak, to say the least. I would’ve preferred to be without them.

     
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Pegbiter - 31 March 2021 04:25 AM
DCast - 30 March 2021 11:44 PM

Seems to me that people generally favor Zak, but I don’t like him. I agree with Lydia when after the first trial she says something along the lines of: “What did I do to deserve such cowardly and depressed dragon as the only companion!” Cowardly is right, as he constantly refuses to help her or leaves her alone if he’s scared (which is often), despite that she released him and worked pretty hard to get that potion going. He also keeps lying even though it’s obvious he is, and after his reaction right before he drank the potion he lost even more points with me for trying to get petty revenge by illegal means. I’m sure there’s going to be a LESSON and an apology from him later in the game, but short of some heroic act (which is absolutely a possibility in this game) it probably won’t be redeeming enough for me. He’s just not a good person (student, as I’m sure he is)

We’re obviously to believe that he’s a student, and that’s probably the case. He seems more of a child to me though. Do we know at what age one can start at Dragonvale Academy?

If I had to nitpick (why not? It’s fun!), then I’d probably pick cutscenes as they tend to be overly simplistic AND overly dramatic at the same time. Just a tad too much for my taste.

The cutscenes a weak, to say the least. I would’ve preferred to be without them.

I agree that the ‘memory’ cut scenes are simplistic. They could have done better, because the cut scenes of the power and water coming on are well done.

I am enjoying the story that’s developing, and there are a good number of mysteries to keep us engaged. Where are all the students? Who or what is ZaK? How is Lydia communicating with Celeste/Nathaniel? I’m still suspicious about the owl.  Smile

     
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colpet - 31 March 2021 06:39 AM

I am enjoying the story that’s developing, and there are a good number of mysteries to keep us engaged. Where are all the students? Who or what is ZaK? How is Lydia communicating with Celeste/Nathaniel?

Lydia’s visions help us understand a little bit of what happened, but I don’t know exactly how Lydia is able to see that. And about Zak, he is obviously hiding something, he needs Lydia but I don’t know the purpose yet, I don’t think he is there to help us and simply because he is a charitable soul. There is something else…hmm… and even more so after his failed transformation.

I’m still suspicious about the owl.  Smile

You know? I lost it, I’ve never seen an owl : ( . But now you’ve made me suspicious. One more mystery to solve?

     

” I remember. Somebody died. It was me.”
~

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Best place where I’ve seen the owl is in the foreground of one of the views of the basement. You see the back of it roosting on the left of your screen. It is only there when you first enter. Then it makes appearances by sound (hooting) and when Zak says “What was that?”, a number of times when it flies by.

     
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Well, I went one section after the other this time, so I’m posting again right away.

And here I thought I got familiar with the Academy Grin How naive! But also promising.

Surprisingly, I spent the most puzzle-solving time in the game so far on the second trial puzzle, and I’m still kinda grumpy the way it turned out. It did make sense in the end, but I’ll be lying if I wouldn’t admit to some brute forcing there. Despite being creative person, I think I’m seeing a tendency where I usually do better with “mathematical” puzzles (or so I call them), where it’s a matter of discovering formulas, patterns, dependencies or equations etc. I feel like riddles can be very obscure for me, because my imagination immediately takes me places, and things usually end up being a lot more straightforward, so I spend the most time on those. I also spied an astronomy related puzzle while exploring, and those are my least favorite kind. I can spend a lot of time on trying to solve just about anything else, but give me celestial bodies, and that’s where you lose me. What are everyone’s least favorite puzzles?

The tension is now ramping up, as we know a lot more information. Things with Zak turned out just about how I expected, but I was happy to see that Lydia is no doormat either, although she’s probably a better person than me Grin

Yeah, the cutscenes continue to be a weak aspect of the game.

The point where we had to stop, though, brought an unexpected twist, so I’m excited to find out more! As, Lady Kestrel said, there aren’t many puzzles available for us to solve yet (this section turned out to be more about exploring - and it took a decent chunk of time), but - my Lord! - the sheer amount of puzzles that I wrote down in my list for future sections is dizzying! I totally look forward to cracking them.

Also, this was the first section where my game crashed about 6 different times (4 of them happened in the second trial bridges area), so I know I sound like a broken record, but PLEASE SAVE OFTEN!!

I’m still very much enjoying the game and definitely eager to continue, as this section was mostly a teaser of what’s to come.

     
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colpet - 31 March 2021 08:00 AM

Best place where I’ve seen the owl is in the foreground of one of the views of the basement. You see the back of it roosting on the left of your screen. It is only there when you first enter. Then it makes appearances by sound (hooting) and when Zak says “What was that?”, a number of times when it flies by.

Was just about to write that. I think it was sitting there every time you entered basement (anew), up until the moment we broke down the magical door to get from the basement to where the cauldron was, and then it disappeared. Now that I’ve played the next section, and we get to find out who is this owl - it makes a lot more sense.

     
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I added a couple of spoilers to some of your text, DCast, just to be on the safe side. Smile

Regarding section 3, I was impressed with the upper level cut scenes, especially since they help with orientation.  The vision scenes, although mostly static, don’t bother me.  They’re a bit melodramatic but serve to further the story.  They also show the bond Lydia has with her best friend. 

I don’t even mind the screen going black when a complicated action is taking place.  Yes, it would have been more fun to see Lydia struggling to get the cauldron in and out of the lift, but I’d rather use my imagination, aided by some sound effects, if it wasn’t possible to do it properly.

     

Carpe chocolate.

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Tenebra - 31 March 2021 06:58 AM

You know? I lost it, I’ve never seen an owl : ( . But now you’ve made me suspicious. One more mystery to solve?

How about when you opened the door by swapping the green and white dragons?  It swooped out then and scared Zak.

     

Carpe chocolate.

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