Oh damn, I saw the free theme but didn't see the avatar set was free too. Awesome.
You can expect around 5 hours for a normal playthrough, and an additional 2 to 3 if you want to get all the petals and flowers/get the trophies.I put in about an hour this morning and really like it so far. It starts off wonderfully and I'm impressed with the visuals and music. I really like the characters too. From what I recall reading, it's fairly short?
You can expect around 5 hours for a normal playthrough, and an additional 2 to 3 if you want to get all the petals and flowers/get the trophies.
I'm torn with this game, so far this forum seems to love it, but most of the online reviews that I have read says that the game isn't good from a gameplay point of view (everyone says that the music and graphics are top tier though)
I also think the gameplay ties into the story and characters well by giving you a sense of how they might feel - you genuinely worry for the Prince when you leave him alone at times, and it's relieving to go back to him.
So, we tried something kind of new and novel for this release. We're big into physical presence and wanted to make sure this game got on store shelves, which we really only felt was possible through the "standard" LE SKU @ 40$. There is no retail SKU that is just the $20 game, that is only the price for digital. We've done a really limited number of prints of the physical. We're testing the waters in terms of what is possible in a changing market.
Working on the storybook was a lot of fun for the design/editing team, we had to create that from scratch basically.
Fun Fact: This was one of our annual "Inside Indies" projects from NIS. Basically every year, everyone at the Gifu office is allowed to pitch a game idea and everyone there votes on it. Winner gets to be the director of the project. Previous titles under this process include the first Yomawari and A Rose in the Twilight.
EDIT: Funner Fact and pluggable (forgive me): We have about 20~ or so stuffed wolves remaining in stock if you want to get an adorable original plushie for the title. NIS liked them so much they bought a bunch from us and immediately sold out.
Has anyone figured out what the four-number sequence is in the "four stories within stones" puzzle in Hollow Tree Hill? I've spent hours on this and I just don't get it. Tried countless combinations and my patience is wearing thin.
Hints are greatly appreciated. I would still like to avoid simply copying the correct numbers if I can help it.
You're definitely overthinking it if it's taking that long, the same happened to me. The answer is something that is simpler than you're imagining. The most important wording to consider is that the stone with the numbers states "Each story contains information that indicates the order and location". Anything beyond that is superfluous information.
The third line of each story indicates how far along horizontally, the fourth line indicates how far down vertically. So "Wake at the first hour and not a second past" means first column, second row, etc.
I kind of feel like they built some ideas and mechanics that they could have taken further than they did, as most of the puzzles felt pretty simple and straightforward. The exception to this is of course a couple of the number puzzles, the "difficult road" in particular, which I still feel is a bit overly obtuse in how it's described to the player.
Yeah, I definitely think that puzzle stands out among what is otherwise a very clean difficulty curve progression and very consistent presentation. The game has a couple other word-based puzzles in the same chapter but they are typically only single layered, while that puzzle is multiple layered and expects you to solve what appears to be several riddles at once. With no confirmation if you get one right, as well as awkward communication (like the fact the puzzles are ordered anyway meaning you don't need to find the order like it says you do) it essentially doesn't communicate to you very well what the scope of the puzzle itself is. Obtuse is definitely the word. A shame as I felt like communication of puzzle parameters is spot on in every other level in the game.What's bizarre to me is that up until this point everything was very simple and easy, except for some brief trial and error sections and those annoying floating Boo-like platforms. Then suddenly this random unnecessarily obtuse word logic puzzle came out of nowhere and had me stumped to no end, tossing a wrench in my enjoyment of the game. I feel that the "1, 2, 3, 4" hints were completely unnecessary and totally threw me off. If each story only had the two relevant numeric hints in the third and fourth lines, they would've been much clearer to decipher. Definitely one of the most jarring roadblocks I've ever encountered in a game relative to the difficulty before it.
Yeah, I definitely think that puzzle stands out among what is otherwise a very clean difficulty curve progression and very consistent presentation. The game has a couple other word-based puzzles in the same chapter but they are typically only single layered, while that puzzle is multiple layered and expects you to solve what appears to be several riddles at once. With no confirmation if you get one right, as well as awkward communication (like the fact the puzzles are ordered anyway meaning you don't need to find the order like it says you do) it essentially doesn't communicate to you very well what the scope of the puzzle itself is. Obtuse is definitely the word. A shame as I felt like communication of puzzle parameters is spot on in every other level in the game.
Aaaah, she's adorable. Wish I could get her here in Europe.
Just finished, and I actually enjoyed it, with exception of the word puzzles of course. The puzzles were a bit too easy, but I agree that the word puzzles felt rather out of place and became a road block, I'm curious how they were worded in Japanese just to compare.
Just finished, and I actually enjoyed it, with exception of the word puzzles of course. The puzzles were a bit too easy, but I agree that the word puzzles felt rather out of place and became a road block, I'm curious how they were worded in Japanese just to compare. I love the presentation from the look to the music. Everything felt "cozy" which is exactly what I wanted from a title like this.
And I regret not getting that plushie...
Not sure about the original, but I can tell you it was pretty well done in the Chinese version. The instructions were clear.
Instead of saying "cross", it just outright tells you to multiply (乘) it. The one with the four stories just tells you to overlay the stories with the numbers, and the overlaid number will be the answer.
Here is an example (story about the Moss Whale's Carcass):
苔(1) 鯨(1) 亡(1) 骸(1) 有(1) 4(5) 天(7) 會(1) 閃(4) 耀(3)
光(5) 芒(7) ,(2) 據(1) 說(9) 此(6) 現(2) 象(0) 數(0) 年(3)
僅(2) 有(1) 一(5) 次(0) 。(0) 苔(0) 鯨(0) 亡(2) 骸(1) 就(9)
位(6) 於(1) 深(6) 邃(3) 的(9) 森(9) 林(9) 深(0) 處(0) 。(0)
Each character and punctuation mark is equivalent to one number. You can immediately see that the number "4" is overlaid with "5". That means the 4th answer is 5. The original is probably the same. Each Japanese character, hanji, and punctuation mark is overlaid with one number.
It's quite interesting in how it's handled in the English version. The story in English is about a death in the forest instead. They make you search for the number by the column and row number (3rd column, 3rd row) to get the answer "5". It's not that bad considering it's impossible to achieve the same effect in English compared to Japanese/Chinese. Making you overlay each letter in English words isn't appealing, and the stories are too long to be kept the same.
Cozy is the perfect word to describe it. It'll be a treat replaying this later in the year around Halloween, preferably with some hot cider in the evening.
Wow, this is some excellent insight, thanks! Would help to explain why the English translation was restricted for that puzzle, which is a shame since the rest of the story text is very well done.
This is absolutely incredible! Great work!
How long did it take you to finish?
This is great!! And I definitely agree with your assessment of how they handled the English version.Not sure about the original, but I can tell you it was pretty well done in the Chinese version. The instructions were clear.
Instead of saying "cross", it just outright tells you to multiply (乘) it. The one with the four stories just tells you to overlay the stories with the numbers, and the overlaid number will be the answer.
Here is an example (story about the Moss Whale's Carcass):
苔(1) 鯨(1) 亡(1) 骸(1) 有(1) 4(5) 天(7) 會(1) 閃(4) 耀(3)
光(5) 芒(7) ,(2) 據(1) 說(9) 此(6) 現(2) 象(0) 數(0) 年(3)
僅(2) 有(1) 一(5) 次(0) 。(0) 苔(0) 鯨(0) 亡(2) 骸(1) 就(9)
位(6) 於(1) 深(6) 邃(3) 的(9) 森(9) 林(9) 深(0) 處(0) 。(0)
Each character and punctuation mark is equivalent to one number. You can immediately see that the number "4" is overlaid with "5". That means the 4th answer is 5. The original is probably the same. Each Japanese character, hanji, and punctuation mark is overlaid with one number.
It's quite interesting in how it's handled in the English version. The story in English is about a death in the forest instead. They make you search for the number by the column and row number (3rd column, 3rd row) to get the answer "5". It's not that bad considering it's impossible to achieve the same effect in English compared to Japanese/Chinese. Making you overlay each letter in English words isn't appealing, and the stories are too long to be kept the same.
This is amazing
Thanks. I'm so enamoured with the game.
Holy crap that's amazing! Awesome job.
Just finished the game together with my little girls and the ending was really beautiful. I actually choked up at the Epiloge when I was reading it out loud for the kids. The game is far from perfect but I consider it a small treasure.
Aw, that's sweet. It's a really precious game despite its flaws and it's still one of my top five games of the year. I plan on playing through it a second time in a few weeks since it's pretty much the perfect Halloween game. :)
I was super worried that the game will have a super dark ending given some of the story beats in prior moments and I would have to come up with an alternative translation for the kids LOL
Will try for myself to get the platinum still.