I was playing this game last night and hit a point where I seem to have totally run out of options. The most recent thing that happened was the player character was beat up by punk skaters, and won’t go back to the beach under any circumstances. The dream about the angelic figure just occurred.
The plot had seemed pretty linear and was moving along just fine, but now it’s just…stuck. If there’s a real puzzle mixed in there, it will be the first of the game. There doesn’t seem to be anything new to do no matter where I go. I noticed the last major plot movement required a bit of waiting. Is that something I’m supposed to do? Or is there something more? Is the camera ever useful? Do you ever get to call Val?
Thanks in advance for any advice. I was really hoping for a satisfying conclusion, and I’m hoping I missed something.
I haven’t played Narcolepsy since it was originally released, and I know I didn’t play much of it, but what I remember isn’t very good. The game is structured like a choice-based game, but the choices you have available at any time aren’t obvious and they’re scattered about the map game. In practical terms, two-thirds or so of the game space is unlikely to be at all useful to you, based on whatever choices you made early in the game. I suppose there’s replay value in having several story branches in there, but I personally found the experience very poor.
In other words, I don’t know what to tell you, and I don’t remember anything specific in the game.
Hmm, I went and replayed it to get to your spot, and I had forgotten that the game is actually nonlinear and has a lot of different endings.
The last time I played, I ended up with some kind of underground lizard people thing or something, but that’s years ago and I don’t remember well.
This time, I ended up being a sleeper agent for the government and murdering juan goat. I got there by meeting an agent in my backyard, using the sheep button on a remote, getting kidnapped by agents, going to the hospital, going through the Junta drive in, playing games in the arcade, playing lasertag, and hanging out with boy scouts.
Don’t forget to check out subspaces of earlier spaces, like the arcade, the theater, etc.
The dreams are completely randomized, except one or two that are important. They just asked people in the community to contribute surreal miniature games and then inserted them as dreams, so you’ll get different ones every plathrough.
I didn’t know that. Maybe I’ll just play again from the start and see what happens. Still, it plays as if it is linear. I didn’t feel as if my choices made any practical difference on the plot or outcome of anything. Even the choice-based dialogue seemed to be a matter of picking options until you’ve cycled through them all.
The game was weird fun for a while. Hopefully, I can reach a real ending during one more playthrough, but I doubt I’m going to be overly persistent beyond that. In my first game, I, too, seemed to be leading up to the murder of Juan goat, at least if the dreams and the homeless guy’s mutterings on campus meant anything. But all I really got was being thrown into a ridiculous mime prison and later being beat up by punks.
Oh if you made the mine prison you’re really close! From there I went to the hospital and the arcade, which a really both mini locations.
The three branches are determined in some really weird way, like I think it’s how you leave the first room (something like if you go to the bathroom you get story one, if you go to the backyard you get story two, etc).
I just noticed this thread about the difficulties people with screen readers have been having with spoiler tags. So what follows is entirely a spoiler. You have been warned.
Anyway, what I had concealed with the spoiler tags was events in the game, such as being beat up by skater punks, and getting captured by secret agents and being thrown into a mime prison. I also mentioned one dream the player character has about an angelic figure. Brian/mathbrush suggested visiting the hospital and the arcade.
In case anyone who uses a screen reader has actually played the game, I am curious as to how accessible it is. It seems to have a lot of text scattered across the screen, and it would be interesting to know how well it can be navigated with a screen reader. Honestly, even as a sighted player I found the interface a bit irritating, but it was at most a minor inconvenience.
If I recall correctly, the key initial branching is how the PC sees or interacts in any way with the world outside the house. So turning on the TV and seeing a news program before leaving the house can make all the difference.