Shadowgate (Switch)

It's Only A Model!

As mentioned in my post about Shadowgate 64 I was really interested in checking out the remake of the original game and lo and behold, they gave me the game on Switch to enjoy. And I played through it and afterwards it felt... I don't really know. Fun to get the story before Shadowgate 64 and characters like Lakmir, Jair and Talimar, but it might be inherit in the design of the old point and click games, but it was a lot of walking back and forth trying everything on anything to progress in the end. Not even the incorporated help of Yorick could help me so I caved in and looked up the solutions online. And I'm glad I did it at the lowest difficulty because adding a time-restraint as well would have made me go berserk. Now, problem with going for easier is that it doesn't give you the whole experience since they got certain event and puzzles (I gather by reading the guide since it mentioned a fifth mirror in the mirror room and different solutions to puzzles). 

Story is that Jair is summoned by the last wizard Lakmir, from the Circle of Twelve to the Castle Shadowgate in order to solve its puzzles and stop Lakmir's brother Talimar, the Warlock Lord who was thrown out of the Circle of Twelve and now attempted to unleash the Behemot on the world after taking over the castle and killed all denizens. As Lakmir guides Jair, he will uncover the truth of his own past and end up under the catacombs of the castle and fight off the Warlock Lord. Now, all the story about the different wizards, the history of the lands and such are real fun reading. I also noticed the shout-outs to Ridley Scots Legend and Dragon's Lair. 

For half the game the puzzles worked fine with little trouble (could also be that the Nintendo Magazine I had from my cousins were full with tips and tricks for the NES port of the game since it seemed to be one of the more played games and probably due to it being one of the few NES games that actually got a Swedish translation). But when I got to the Castle proper the game began to drag. It was up and down the towers and checking the different doors, trying to figure out the spells and much more. Could also be that I took 2-3 weeks break from the game there and was rather lost on where everything was or how I could use my items.

Overall, sitting with pen and paper and committing to the game on its rules would probably be the best solution. Also more people to share with it, like a kid, to get that childlike sense of adventure would probably help. Graphics are nice (certainly better than the N64-game), but the music is kinda bland (here the N64-game shines above the remake) so I don't get into the atmosphere like in the N64-game that oozed of it. Also, several times the game froze on me and rebooted me to the Switch interface. I don't know why, since I don't feel I taxed the game that much... maybe playing to long before starting over would have been a cause, but the first time was a couple hours into the game while the second time was randomly inbetween shutdown I made to the game. Reminds me of a game I bought for the Wii U that at a point constantly froze for some reason.

Shadowgate 64: Trails of the Four Towers (N64)

Time for an adventure

As you noticed I've been playing some Nintendo 64 at my parents place at the moment and I dug up this old game which I never finished. I get that it is a continuation from an old adventure game that had a port on the NES and I guess the reason they made this to the N64. I've never played that game, but I read about it in some Nintendo magazines. So story is that you are Del Cottonwood, a halfling that traveled in a caravan that got attacked outside of castle Shadowgate and brought to the dungeon by the thieves inhabiting it. So your mission is to get out. 

Damn, those graphics haven't aged well

It wasn't mostly blind, certain things I remember, but I never finished it and only got half-way through the game. So I played it only trying to find the solutions from the game it self. So I tried looking and talking to everyone. So, next to your cell you have an imprisoned wizard that tells you the deal of the castle. During the conversation the dungeon keeper arrives with some food that you devour and finds a bone. Looking at the bed of hay you find a sewer grate that you bend up with the bone and your out. And here I find the first problem. Right behind me behind a gate of iron (that you can't pass) there is a plank of wood and a floating bottle. You can't pick it up and the game doesn't tell you why since it can't clearly know what you look at since their is no cursor in this 3D environment. And you get bottles later on so that is just irritating. Anyway, you get out of the sewers and enters the tower of disiples where you met the apparition of Lakmir appears, the sorcerer that was one of the founders of the Circle of Twelve and ally and friend to King Jair, the man who I get is the main character of the original Shadowgate. Lakmir guides you on the quest to stop Belzar, the former apprentice that have turned to the dark side and intends to relase the Warlock Lord, Lakmirs brother Talmir and another founder of the Circle of Twelve. So I'm supposed to get to Lakmir's tower to find some magical artefacts I need on my quest. Problem is, I can't get out of the tower.

And get it, the exit is right behind you... if it wasn't locked.

Now, the solution was using a pixie flute at a certain area in order to shrink and climb down a rope you tied to a window. The thing is, I guess the name says what it does, but it only works at that one spot. And the book that are supposed to help you especially points out that he doesn't know how to use it. Thanks game. I got out into the graveyard and entered the cathedral finding my way up to the roof and into the tower of Lakmir. And here I was at my best. Using the books and text I found I was able to go through the whole tower and getting my hands on the three rings hidden away.

Wizards, magic rings, a dragon and a halfling? Someone been reading the Hobbit.

One of the rings give me the power of talking with the dead. So all corpses, skeletons and gravestones now can talk back. More information, but this time gotta remember it on my own. Damn you game. And now I gotta leave this place. After running around the graveyard, cathedral and tower a couple of times I looked it up and apparently I missed a key in one room in the tower. It was in the colour of rust at grey floor. If I didn't know the room they described I wouldn't have found it. So with that I could leave the two first towers and finding some actually living people. Running around solving errands for the dead and living I finally get to enter the third tower for the first time ever. I recall being afraid of some poisoned gas thing that would kill me going through this tower... that I must have imagined before entering the tower since it isn't here. Maybe I interpreted the two mazes as being that. One had a poison that made the game controls reversed and you had to go through a room with spinning blades (you solve this by using the blue ring you got with the red dead ring which have the same effect, but since you already affected it puts you back to normal). Another maze there is taking a burning candle to the other side before the candle burns out. After doing it some time I checked the solution since I spent to much time on it and it rather annoyed me). Entering the final room you stand before three mirrors and looking in each of them you need to decided who you really are and then walk backwards into the mirror (of course I choose the wrong ones every time and just reloaded so I didn't have to redo all the tower all the time). Behind the mirror was another ring, the ring of the Kingdom. With that you open the locked door in the towers of diciples to get the dragon flute so that you can enter the final tower, the dragon's tower. And you basically just walks around it. Pick up all the stuff and there is pretty much only one puzzle and it is a damn music puzzle. Listen to  a song and the recreate it with four statues by pulling the correct wing in the right order. I looked that up since I'm bad at this. And then you find a petrified dragon with a staff stuck in the head. Using the ring of the kingdom picks it up and you enter the end game. The dwarven soldiers of Belzar now looks for you so you put the stable on fire to distract them and run for the chamber Belzar is planning the resurrection of the Warlock Lord. Blocking your path is a man named Saul, who turns out gave Belzar the staff he believes to be the Staff of the Ancients that you picked up on the dragon tower. Showing him his mothers necklace you got from her dead corpse he sees his madness and helps you inside. While inside the chamber you see the fake staff and puts on a dragon eye from the dragon tower and hides behind a tower as Belzar appears and starts the ritual.

The graphics really are blocky

As he performs it the staff explodes killing him and the chamber crashes in. From the rubble Del heads out and find himself around the fountain area. From the chamber the visage of the Warlock Lord appears and Lakmir tells me it it up to me now, since he doesn't know what to do and he wish Jair was here. The thing is that in the fountain area a statue of Jair stands. Putting the Staff of Ancients and the ring of the Kingdom at the statue enables it to come to live and pierce the Warlock Lord by throwing the staff and the world is saved. Del rides away on the dragon and credits roll.

Moments before his death

It was atmospherical. Playing it again after all these years and actually understanding what was written in the books and papers made the world itself come alive. I got a real itch to play the original game now and maybe I pick up the remake on steam or such one day. There is problems with it though, for one, after checking the save time right before the end I just spent just over 5 hours on the game. It's short. As mentioned pixel hunt for items on the floor or knowing what you can interact with or pick up would need to be refined. The graphics overall could need an overhaul, but the music is nice at times. Fun to finish it for the first time. I definitely gotta use some of these things for a DnD campaign.