Of the two alternate endings you’ve not seen, one of them is pretty hard to miss if you get the jacket as soon as you can. The other one requires you to be a bit more meticulous about searching everything and trying all options, but is (I think) well worth the effort required to find it.
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I think I found all but the second ending.
First ending is leaving the planet with Cathabel, when you speak to her in her chambers while wearing the jacket.
And I found the other three you mentioned. I think. (who is the bee guy? I would have called him the apian).
I had a little more trouble than you (Mike Russo) unlocking the various costumes… only got one on the first go, and still missing four at the second go.
To unlock all but the last costume (third try) I relied heavily on the kimono, saving all my bullets. But this was slow, because it often takes ten to fifteen stabs to kill a monster. Also discovered I could summon the apian to dispatch several enemies at one time, as long as they are all in the same place. Very useful.
Reading all the other reviews, and playing the game a second time, helped me to understand the backstory in a way that I really didn’t understand the first time through.
There was something I saw that I thought might be an allusion to “Superluminal Vagrant Twin” an atlas of other planets. But not having played more than ten minutes of that game, I wasn’t sure.
One more question… is there a way to kill the countess?
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“Apian” means bee-like or bee-related so I’m pretty sure you’re talking about the same guy.
To your “one more question”: I’m pretty sure the answer is no.
I personally think anyone who hasn’t seen the second alternate ending is missing out badly, so a hint for anyone who hasn’t found it: look around carefully and check out all possible interactions in the areas where you obtain the silver bullets.
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Doh, yeah, I made that connection myself about twenty minutes after I posted. All along I’d been reading it as “simian” and imagining a big ape-like creature. The dialogue even mentions the Hive. And I actually have bee-hives on my property (but the neighbor takes care of them, and I pay no attention). A real head-slap moment for me.
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Hahaha, ending 2 is great (full spoiler: talk to Nel about the figurines in her display cabinet).
Has anyone figured out if there’s anything to do with the unintelligible holographic charts and runes in the VEC meeting rooms?
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It distracts baddies for a couple turns after you turn it on, which can help you sneak into the elevator without killing everybody.
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Ah, so like the shadow sinks, got it. I discovered pretty early on that there seemed to be plenty of bullets if you searched everywhere so I just killed everyone and didn’t notice that.
Also, thanks for saying “once you’ve found some money” because I totally missed that: I had found two items that seemed valuable but at that point I had stopped taking everything back to the POST point so I hadn’t figured out how to get actual money out of them.
I like that there are some ways to kill a couple enemies without using bullets: did other people switch on the guardians and then lure a junker in there? Kinda tedious since they don’t usually follow you, but… a nice touch.
Also while replaying for the alternat endings I got 3650 with the 500-point never-changed-outfits bonus. I wasn’t sure if that was possible: I kinda thought you needed some help from the opera dress or something to score enough to unlock the final outfit.
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Thanks for the tips on finding the 2nd ending. That was the canonical ending, as far as I’m concerned.
reminded me of a funny episode from sketch comedy series “Portlandia”, the Battlestar Galactica binge-watching skit.
I played “Forsaken Denizen’s” one more time (playing out ending 2 in my own fashion) and finished with 4025 pts. The opera dress is a definite improvement over the kimono.
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I haven’t played it a third time to try to optimize the score, but I suspect the key outfit is the one that doubles the amount of bullets you find since that helps you “grow the pie” rather than just being more efficient with the scoring opportunities that are always on the table.
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Yeah, I think max score is actually two outfits: the opera dress burns enemies without having to use bullets at all, and then once they’re all dead you can go back through with the nurse costume and get double the bullets.
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Yeah, using the two outfits seems to be the ticket.
I’ve already said pieces of this, but to me an ideal scoring system might be based on total turns:
- taking items takes turns
- healing takes turns
- shooting takes turns
- running in and out of rooms takes turns
- having the right tool at the right time saves turns
- planning routes becomes necessary
Or something? It would be a way to require intimacy with the map, and it would raise the stakes of fight or flight. The problem is that randomness begins to matter: getting hit, etc. Which could be frustrating.
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Games can’t afford too much strangeness in too many facets at the same time. You can watch the obtusest artiest experimentalest film from beginning to end and receive exactly the same information as the greatest expert in the world; you can read the entire Ulysses as soon as you are alphabetized and find a version in a language you understand; but computer games are different. They need to be manipulated by the player if the player is going to get anywhere, and they are fundamentally difficult things to manipulate. To make that easier, games default to convention: in their interfaces, mechanics and stories.
A consequence of this, that has been noted many times, is that fiction shines in uniqueness, exceptions, constant changes, impredictability, frustrated expectations; and that can be hard to marry to a medium, games, based on repetition, loops, consistency; we could even say that games are, by default, based on normality.
I don’t think CEJ Pacian has found a way to break free from this framework (I’m not implying he’s looking for one). But he’s taking it very far. He builds a basis of conventional, easily explorable mechanics, and on top of them he dials the uniqueness of in the fiction almost as far up as it can go.
It’s very, very cool.
If I have a criticism, is that the game felt, to me, a bit too easy and smooth. Easiness and smoothness are not a problem by themselves: Superluminal Vagrant Twin has both. But it’s a bit incoherent with these mechanics and this fiction.
Very good game anyway.
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dropping in my separate review
I’m stopping my play at 2 hours, so it was fascinating to learn from this thread how much more there is waiting on re-play.
I definitely noticed the same thing, although I think my emotional response was more just to shrug and go “thanks for this great non-survival horror game!”
Agree, although I also had a moment of looping back and being like “hmm that could have been presented in a less confusing way.”
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Yeah, I do think this has ended up being my favorite game that I’ve played in the comp. And in hindsight I do think the writing works as Cath overreacting to the “danger” and Dor being like “eh.” *blam*
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I liked this game well enough, but it’s definitely the one that I have spent the most time with, far beyond the 2-hour standard for judging. The alternate endings, unlockable outfits, and score optimization have enough going for them that I replayed several times to see if I could get everything.
The best score I was able to get was 4550. That’s with the following:
- the opera dress to kill all the junkers
- the nurse costume for max bullets - 72
- the photographer’s outfit for max fruits - 10
- not healing at all
- (no score bonus for the money - found TJ 2000)
I still haven’t found any way to deal with the Countess. I tried to hire Zras, the Apian assassin, by offering to pay him and then whistling in both locations where she appears, but that didn’t work.
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Hmm… I got to 4750: 80 bullets. So I think that’s probably just the final set of 4 bullets from the bandolier in Upper Illume during the final fight. And I don’t think anyone has found any way to deal with the Countess. Nicely done!
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I was playing this again, was curious if it was possible to unlock all the Auto-Tailor passwords without switching outfits, and sure enough… I got to 3950 points (need 3500 for the last password).
Killed Cordelia & Daluka with one call to Zras, also Egil & Ferking. Killed Irereo & Jago with the guardian in the Servants’ Hall and after waiting FOREVER I got Khuit, Lupa, and Nennius with the guardian in the VEC. Nine free kills, leaving Antonia, Brutus, Gudrun, Hama, Mavia, and Oenus. I averaged 2 bullets each, leaving me with 40 - 12 = 28 bullets.
Huh. And actually you only need 10 remaining bullets (250 points) to unlock the final password (1000 King + 500 Archduke + 250 Viscount + 500 all Junkers + 500 Never changed outfit + 500 health 10x + 250 bullets 10x = 3500). So you could use up 30 bullets, and since you tend to use about two for each of the 15 Junkers… you might not even need Zras or the guardians to kill any, if you had decent luck with your accuracy…
Also, I think all the alternate endings are explained in this thread, but to collect them for convenience… You need the biker jacket - which is password FINALLY OVER from the Auto-Tailor (and can be worn over any other outfit, I think?):
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We ran: get jacket before talking to Cath for the first time, choose to run away with her.
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We forgot about the Haustorium and watched anime: Talk to Nel about display case figures.
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Dor abandoned me: Ask Zras for passage off-world.
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Queen Doris I: negotiate with the King when you meet him the first time.
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A new beginning: Tell Gia you’re staying here when she revives you afer the King kills you.
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That’s impressive! I thought the bonus for never switching outfits was essentially a red herring, but I don’t think I ever figured out the extent to which it was possible to exploit Zras and the guardians.
Also, yes, I’m pretty sure that you can wear the biker jacket in combination with any other outfit .
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