Adventure Gamers - Forums

BTW I just noticed:

diego - 11 August 2013 03:50 PM

I don’t know if my reasoning was right, but in trying to determine which of the 3 symbols is the right one, I noticed the “mountain” is the only one without a fancy animation of it , and tried that one first

Whereas:

Iznogood - 13 August 2013 12:48 PM

and it just turned out that the only symbol I could figure out how to solve was the leaf which was also the correct symbol.

That seems to indicate there are multiple solutions here, and it doesn’t matter which of the 3 symbols you create

Nah, you’re right, I’ve made a typo - there’s only one solution to it. And like I said, I don’t know if I was hallucinating or something , but I noticed how mountain and water symbol were changing colors and sparked a little, while leaf wasn’t and that’s why I tried it first

Home in the valley…

That’s Lydia’s child version in a window, in what’s her “biggest fear”. We learn of an interesting backstory, also.

Anyway, the third trial might be the hardest to Lydia, but not to a player - it’s not really much of a puzzle, but in a metaphorical kind of sense nicely represents the determination

Alrighty, then:

Guardians feel a bit philosophical.

I saw the light…

Part 6: “Up, where we (now) belong”

An so, we’re teleported to a new section of the Academy.

Exploring a little bit, for starters.

This part is not without its bird’s-eye views as well!

And the palette nicely changes to an orangey-sort spectar, the kind seen in cover arts:

(I forgot to resize this one as well, sorry )

Hmmm… the teleport pods don’t seem to work.

Oscar - 15 August 2013 09:12 AM

Diego, I see you’re also playing Sands of Time (sacrilege! a non-adventure game!).

Guilty as charged! But you know - Jordan Mechner designed it, so I might get away with it And, apart from adventures, my two other fav genres are strategy games and platformers, like Aladdin, Pitfall… and I think Sands of Time really captures the spirit of classic 2D platformer in a 3D world.

Oscar - 15 August 2013 09:12 AM

Hope you enjoy it because I thought it was a great game.

It’s one of the greatest games ever, and I’m only at 33%. It’s incredible how Jordan Mechner has those revolutionary ideas, and one can connect “The Last Express” rewind feature with the time concept of Sands of Time. The movie after the game wasn’t really that bad, but I’m sure it would have been even better if it had sticked to the game more closely.

Oscar - 15 August 2013 10:06 AM

edit: or did you mean the 2010 movie?

Is there any other?

Just butting in here to say that yes, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is indeed one of the greatest games of all time. I liked Warrior: Within equally. Two Thrones not as much, but it’s still a kick-ass trilogy.

And the movie was more fun than I had thought it would be. Heck, in terms of video game movies, it’s one of the best ones ever (mostly because there aren’t that many good ones, but still)...

I know this is neither here nor there, and it doesn’t have anything to do with Keepsake, but meh. I love The Sands of Time.

Iznogood - 13 August 2013 12:48 PM

This was actually the very first puzzle I solved in the game, before I had even found Zak. I just happened to stumble across it and though “hey here is a puzzle to solve” without having the slightest idea about what I needed it for or what would happen when I solved it.

Hehe, never knew you could do that. As a matter of fact - I only discovered this part of the garden later when I needed to solve the puzzle, and (falsely) concluded that it was unreachable at the beginning.

Iznogood - 13 August 2013 12:48 PM

This actually annoyed the hell out of me

Now, it’s vice versa - I ran through the kitchen dozen of times and always made sure to click on the fireplace. I didn’t know why before the cauldron thing, but I knew the puzzle will have to do something with the fireplace, and it was the first room I looked for a smaller cauldron. Still, somehow I haven’t bought Lydia’s “we need a bigger cauldron”, and I was lucky to get the “trigger” pretty fast.

Iznogood - 13 August 2013 12:48 PM

As you said there more than one possible solution to each riddle, but once you realise that the same rune can only be used once, then there is only one possible solution to all the riddles. So it is both a riddle puzzle and a combination puzzle.

Still, I was damn sure the answer to

Hard as rock or soft as moss,
I am a source of life but kill as well.

is water - which can be hard (ice) or soft, source of life and kill as tsunami, not to mention that Earth, Nature, Energy… are pretty related. It would be even more of a combination puzzle if you had a feedback, like when you placed one book at the right position, but you need to place them correctly all at once, or you wouldn’t know if you’re on the right track.

Iznogood - 13 August 2013 01:07 PM

It seems like you are ready for the upper part, I won’t spoil any surprises, but I will say that this is where that map becomes a real life saver!

So far, I’ve tried to use the map more sparingly, but it helped me get unstuck on couple of occasions. Even though the map is not part of the hints, I’ve used it more once I’ve explored all the areas and got to know surrounding a bit better (and even then I couldn’t remember how to reach some places).

TimovieMan - 15 August 2013 06:25 PM

Just butting in here to say that yes, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is indeed one of the greatest games of all time. I liked Warrior: Within equally. Two Thrones not as much, but it’s still a kick-ass trilogy.

Lord of the Rings trilogy counterpart in games? They even almost share the title of the final part Just kidding, but yes, I’m looking forward on playing the trilogy.

TimovieMan - 15 August 2013 06:25 PM

And the movie was more fun than I had thought it would be. Heck, in terms of video game movies, it’s one of the best ones ever (mostly because there aren’t that many good ones, but still)...

Most probably, at least of those I’ve watched. And kill me, but I loved Street Fighter

Oscar - 15 August 2013 06:31 PM

When you said movie after the game, I thought you meant the cutscene at the end of the game. So I was scratching my head too!

Hehe… But you should watch the movie if you haven’t - even though I don’t know if you would be disappointed ‘cause you played the game first, unlike me.

diego - 16 August 2013 03:21 PM

Most probably, at least of those I’ve watched. And kill me, but I loved Street Fighter

God, that one was awful!

But hey, we all have our guilty pleasures. I loved the first Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil movies - coincidentally both by the same (somewhat underrated) director.

TimovieMan - 17 August 2013 08:23 AM

But hey, we all have our guilty pleasures. I loved the first Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil movies - coincidentally both by the same (somewhat underrated) director.

Hey, no movie with Christopher Lambert in it can suck - it can only suck so bad, that it’s good actually.

diego - 16 August 2013 03:21 PM

Iznogood - 13 August 2013 12:48 PM

This was actually the very first puzzle I solved in the game, before I had even found Zak…

Hehe, never knew you could do that. As a matter of fact - I only discovered this part of the garden later when I needed to solve the puzzle, and (falsely) concluded that it was unreachable at the beginning.

The games is sort of a mix of linearity and non-linearity. As a general rule you have to do things in the correct order, but it also allows for free exploration and some puzzles can be solved in parallel or at least be partly solved out of order. When looking at your playthrough there is quite a few things I have done in a different order, even though the general flow is the same. 

diego - 16 August 2013 03:21 PM

Iznogood - 13 August 2013 12:48 PM

As you said there more than one possible solution to each riddle, but once you realise that the same rune can only be used once, then there is only one possible solution to all the riddles. So it is both a riddle puzzle and a combination puzzle.

Still, I was damn sure the answer to

Hard as rock or soft as moss,
I am a source of life but kill as well.

is water - which can be hard (ice) or soft, source of life and kill as tsunami, not to mention that Earth, Nature, Energy… are pretty related. It would be even more of a combination puzzle if you had a feedback, like when you placed one book at the right position, but you need to place them correctly all at once, or you wouldn’t know if you’re on the right track.

The answer to the riddles are not obvious and it is a quite difficult puzzle, I guess I had the advantage that I was 100% sure about one of the answers (spirit) which gave me a starting point, but even then I still only “guessed” 3 correct on my own. But in retrospect I found the answers to the riddles to be the ones that made the most sense.

I don’t think I would have preferred some feedback when getting one right, that would simply allow us to solve it using brute force, and one of the things I love about the puzzles in Keepsake is that brute force is (almost) never the correct way, which I find is rare when solving mechanical puzzles.

I actually quite liked this puzzle even if it was a bit difficult, but I have always been a sucker for a good riddle.

diego - 16 August 2013 03:21 PM

Iznogood - 13 August 2013 01:07 PM

It seems like you are ready for the upper part, I won’t spoil any surprises, but I will say that this is where that map becomes a real life saver!

So far, I’ve tried to use the map more sparingly, but it helped me get unstuck on couple of occasions. Even though the map is not part of the hints, I’ve used it more once I’ve explored all the areas and got to know surrounding a bit better (and even then I couldn’t remember how to reach some places).

Well I did the upper part a bit differently, before I started freely exploring the whole place, I listened to the *hints* that Zak and Lydia give us and visited two places first, story-wise and logically this also makes more sense, after all isn’t there some things that is higher on our priority list then others?

Zak: We are in the students quarters. I remember Celeste’s room not beeing far from here.

Anyway I will predict that without the map you will quickly become completely lost

Iznogood - 17 August 2013 10:17 AM

I don’t think I would have preferred some feedback when getting one right, that would simply allow us to solve it using brute force

Yes, I agree, especially because there’re only 4 “slots”. There’s a similar kind of puzzle in Toonstruck:

where you need to fill 11 slots with right objects out of 20+ inventory items based on some “clue”. The game will tell you how many objects are “right”, and how many of them are placed in the correct position. I agree it might had proved too hard if the game hadn’t provided any feedback until you positioned them all correctly, but perhaps the compromise with Toonstruck puzzle would be if the game told you only how many objects are “right”, so that it can’t be brute-forced easily once you realize you have the correct 11 items.

Iznogood - 17 August 2013 10:17 AM

I actually quite liked this puzzle even if it was a bit difficult, but I have always been a sucker for a good riddle.

It’s a nice puzzle alright, even though it might be discussed again how “fair” is to include “outside the game” knowledge. I think this one hits just the right balance, although it wouldn’t hurt if there was a book or something on the subject nearby.

After all - it’s a nice little homage to Conquests of the Longbow riddles:

which is to be expected from a game featuring a talking tree