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Lttp: Grim Fandango remastered (Christ this game is obtuse)

Mcjmetroid

Mcjmetroid

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,843
Limerick, Ireland
I encourage anyone to try this. I got it for 4 Euros 70% off in the Switch Eshop sales and it's a fantastic game for atmosphere, dialogue and story so far.

However the gameplay is really kicking my ass. This is my first adventure game of this type. I kinda knew what I was getting into but were these obtuse puzzles typical of the time?
Some of them seem to have no logic. A lot of the time I'm fairly sure I have the puzzle solved but I'm missing something small to progress me. There's:

where you had to drive your car into the sign and carry the sign to a maze with a circular group of trees and throe it in the middle. I was that far and j drove my car into the hole in the direction I was facing. It didn't work...so I had to look it up. Turns out you had to move the sign constantly to get a 'secret' exit... Wow

And other examples. I think the issue is a lot of the solutions you don't realise you need to be doing until you have completed them.

Anyway great game but probably one of the most obtuse things I've played in some time.
 
gfxtwin

gfxtwin

Use of alt account
Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,159
Not just of the time - Tim's most recent game is an adventure title with similar gameplay as well.

Yep, the puzzles are esoteric af and I needed to look up walkthroughs to get through it. It's worth it for the fun dialogue and characters though, and replays are a breeze and hold up much better.

Have you played Psychonauts btw? IMO it's Double Fine's best game since it balances the likeable characters and dialogue with gameplay based on Gamecube-era platformers. It's actually a really fun platformer too, with lots of inventive level design. The new one is finally scheduled to release next year!
 
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Mcjmetroid

Mcjmetroid

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,843
Limerick, Ireland
gfxtwin said:
Not just of the time - Tim's most recent game is an adventure title with similar gameplay as well.

Yep, the puzzles are esoteric af and I needed to look up walkthroughs to get through it. It's worth it for the fun dialogue and characters though, and replays are a breeze and hold up much better.

Have you played Psychonauts btw? IMO it's Double Fine's best game since it balances the likeable characters and dialogue with gameplay based on Gamecube-era platformers. It's actually a really fun platformer too, with lots of inventive level design. The new one is finally scheduled to release next year!
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I haven't tried Psychonauts no. I'm one of those gamers who have been out of the loop for s long time and trying to catch up on the classics. I will eventually get to that though it's on my hitlist. I'll keep an eye on that.
 
ZeroX

ZeroX

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,266
Speed Force
All those 90s games have a very bizarre logic to them. You adjust by smashing your head against your deck so hard you damage your brain enough to understand them.

But they're still pretty amazing even if you have to look up guides for every second thing.
 

Deleted member 16908

Oct 27, 2017
9,377
There's no shame in using a guide for the puzzles. The story, characters, art direction and soundtrack are all worth experiencing.
 
Herb Alpert

Herb Alpert

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,033
Paris, France
I'm playing this too and I had to look at a walkthrough really early lol.
the humor is top notch and the voice acting is wonderful.
A great reminder of how awesome these lucas arts games were.
 
Springy

Springy

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,213
Adventure games in their heydey felt like you needed a specific frame of mind to make them click, like how if you do a paper's crossword puzzle for a while you learn to know how the author thinks. They were definitely often tough even back then, and now without anything contemporary to train your brain on I can imagine it being incredibly hard to get into. No shame in using a walkthrough if you're hitting brick walls.
 
Chewie

Chewie

Member
Nov 29, 2017
65
Hungary
Grim Fandango is definitely one of the more challenging games from LucasArts. Year 2 (when you get to Rubacava) has most of those obtuse puzzles in the entire game, imo

And no shame in using a guide for these kind of games! A lot of these adventure games demand a very unique approach to thinking and puzzle solving, but games like Full Throttle can be easily finished without ever having to check a guide.
 

Deleted member 43657

User requested account closure
Banned
May 19, 2018
5,115
After I tried for hours to figure out the first set of puzzles, I decided to use a guide for pretty much the entire game.

I love the story, the voice acting, the characters, the world, but the puzzles are absolutely ridiculous and spoiler, they get even more asinine later.
 

Deleted member 43657

User requested account closure
Banned
May 19, 2018
5,115
Sorry to double post, but I have to add that there is no inherent problem solving in this game. These are not things that can be solved, but rather thinly connected ideas glued together with historical ephemera.
 

Deleted member 4494

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,798
I measure how well I do in these games in terms of how many times I had to look up how to progress (doing well is like 3 or 4 for me).

Somehow, as a kid, I managed to get through both Full Throttle and Sam and Max without help. If you think GF is dense with moon logic, holeeee fuk.
 

Celine

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,030
Some of the puzzles in the petrified forest are very very bad.

It's still a great game for all the rest.
Third favorite Lucasarts P&C adventure after Monkey Island trilogy and Day of the tentacle.
 
Killyoh

Killyoh

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,086
Paris, France
Mcjmetroid said:
where you had to drive your car into the sign and carry the sign to a maze with a circular group of trees and throe it in the middle. I was that far and j drove my car into the hole in the direction I was facing. It didn't work...so I had to look it up. Turns out you had to move the sign constantly to get a 'secret' exit... Wow
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Haha, I think everyone struggled with this one. Otherwise (and a few other puzzles) I didn't found the game so obtuse.
 
skeptem

skeptem

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,749
Just started playing it as well and having played most of the old LucasArts games of the past, I forgot how obtuse they can be.
 
Elephant

Elephant

Member
Nov 2, 2017
1,786
Nottingham, UK
Fandango is probably not the best place to start your venture into Point & Click from a puzzle perspective, they can certainly be frustrating if you choose not to use a guide. But you seem to be enjoying it regardless which is awesome.

I would probably recommend the Broken Sword or the Monkey Island series for your first forays into the genre. If only because they're the games that got me into the genre back in the 90's (along with Discworld 2).

I'm glad people are still discovering these games, it warms the cockles.
 
FluffyQuack

FluffyQuack

Member
Nov 27, 2017
1,353
This is very much on par for the genre, especially between late 80's and late 90's. And the genre started off by being even meaner. It was possible to reach a part of a game where you had no way to progress besides restarting the entire game or reloading an early save. A notorious example is Leisure Suit Larry 2 where you have to use a knife to cut your parachute late in the game, and that knife is on a table at the start of the game. If you didn't pick it up, then you're forced to restart the entire game. It was also possible to die and reach a game over screen in early adventure games, forcing you to reload a savegame.

The adventure game genre became friendlier and friendlier with time, though.

Mcjmetroid said:
There's:

where you had to drive your car into the sign and carry the sign to a maze with a circular group of trees and throe it in the middle. I was that far and j drove my car into the hole in the direction I was facing. It didn't work...so I had to look it up. Turns out you had to move the sign constantly to get a 'secret' exit... Wow
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I think this is the puzzle people have complained the most about in Grim (though there is another which would compete for that acclaim around a third into the game).

If you don't understand the logic, this is how the puzzle works:
The sign doesn't point you in the direction you should drive, it was pointing towards the location of the secret entrance.
 
Tedmilk

Tedmilk

Avenger
Nov 13, 2017
1,916
I find the puzzles in most Lucasart's adventures to be pretty logical on the whole, but Grim Fandango is pretty terrible in comparison. I did not enjoy this game AT ALL and found it to be totally overrated.
 
GoutPatrol

GoutPatrol

Member
Oct 30, 2017
1,697
Yeah I sat with my phone in my lap watching a YouTube walkthrough for that dumb forest. I haven't started year 2 I got so pissed at it.
 
Danstanster

Danstanster

Member
Oct 25, 2017
469
BouncyFrag said:
Heres a really good online guide for the game. If you get stuck it will give you small hints to point you in the right direction, so to speak. It keeps the spoilers to a minimum and helps getting accustomed the genre.
http://mobile.uhs-hints.com/uhsweb/grimfand
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I back this. Please use this as needed. Almost necessary in the remaster of this game. Culture and video game instincts and knowledge of verbs is so steeped in dated nuance that it needs some translation, but not lose the art/humor jokes.
 
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Mcjmetroid

Mcjmetroid

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,843
Limerick, Ireland
Elephant said:
Fandango is probably not the best place to start your venture into Point & Click from a puzzle perspective, they can certainly be frustrating if you choose not to use a guide. But you seem to be enjoying it regardless which is awesome.

I would probably recommend the Broken Sword or the Monkey Island series for your first forays into the genre. If only because they're the games that got me into the genre back in the 90's (along with Discworld 2).

I'm glad people are still discovering these games, it warms the cockles.
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I'm enjoying the story moreso than any game I've played recently which always seem to be grimdark or JRPG save the world stuff.

Also the graphic style really holds up in my opinion. The pre rendered style looks a lot better than say the original resident evil games.

Halfway through chapter 2 I had to more or less use the guide all the time. I wanted to get out of there and try again for the next chapter. So I'm on 3 now.
 

Deleted member 862

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,646
I like everything about this game except the puzzles. I wish they remade it as a simple detective game or something.
 
NeoBob688

NeoBob688

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,639
Honestly, I have played the game for the amazing setting, story, characters, not the puzzles, using a walkthrough.
 
SofNascimento

SofNascimento

cursed
Member
Oct 28, 2017
21,340
São Paulo - Brazil
It's a cool game, although I find the time consuming puzzles can often get in the way of the narrative, which is the stronger point of the it.

There were two puzzles that I had to use the internet: the teeth one and the rocket fuel.
 
DukeBobby

DukeBobby

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,930
I adore the game, but yeah, the puzzles really aren't great. It reminds me of The Longest Journey in that respect.

Fuck the Petrified Forest, though. Absolute low point of the game.
 

Zedelima

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,720
Sorry about the pump but...you are too kind to say is obtuse!

Some parts of the game makes no sense. Like, since the beggining ! You dont have a single clue on anything.
Great writing and characters, im playing with a guide and having a blast
 
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