As usual, my commentary is in italics, except for dialogue.
Last time, Watts was chewed out by Rosalene for having spent too much time snooping around the house. Thing is, what was supposed to be a house tour turned out to be a house, lighthouse and the grounds tour, because of weird origami rabbits. Anyway, the machine's all set up for use now.
So he initiates it!
- The doctor and Lily both turn towards the doctors as they begin to don their helmets.
Dr. Watts: Ready or not, here it goes!
- All three helmets light up, and the power dims again. Upon starting the machine's program, the screen quickly fills with light and flashes to...
- ...the same room, but in yellow and black and white, alternatingly.
Dr. Rosalene: This should be the last accessible memory.
Dr. Rosalene: Disable speech for all except Johnny.
- Watts presses a button and then speaks, facing Rosalene.
Dr. Watts: Done. Let's get 'im.
So yeah, this machine basically lets people view the memories of others. It also allows them to modify those, else this whole talk about fulfilling death wishes wouldn't mean much. Given the obvious ethical concerns this brings up, no wonder it's restricted to strictly only be applicable to people on their death beds already. You have to wonder what the process for drafting laws and regulations for it must have been like, but that's a different topic entirely.
We can explore the second floor, but there's nothing of note. The paintings in the side hall are all blank in this memory, either Johnny didn't remember them well or didn't draw them yet. The story is largely similar for the first floor. Going out, however, we see the memory in more regular colors, and run into something on the left path.
- Watts is stunned at what he sees ahead. We pan up to see Johnny and Lily looking at the lighthouse. The doctors slowly walk forward.
Dr. Rosalene: Johnny?
- Both Johnny and Lily turn around, Johnny walks to face them. He's a bit stunned.
John: What a pleasant surprise... We don't get many visitors around here.
While the game says his name is Johnny, John is often used in the dialogue boxes. I'll just transcribe the boxes as they are and call him Johnny the rest of the time. Not much of a difference between the two anyhow.
- Rosalene walks forward a bit more towards Johnny.
Dr. Rosalene: My name is Dr. Eva Rosalene, and this is--...
Dr. Watts: (turning around with his arm stretched) Dr. Von Matterhorn...(line break for emphasis) ...Dr. Lorenzo Von Matterhorn.
Dr. Rosalene: (turning sideways, face towards Neil) ...Dr. Neil Watts.
- Neil sounds angry, but Rosalene promptly turns back to Johnny and continues.
Dr. Rosalene: Are you familiar with the Sigmund Agency of Life Generation?
John: Oh, are you two from the agency?
John: (walking towards them) How convenient; I've just been thinking of calling you.
- Johnny turns to face Lily.
John: Lily, get us some tea please.
- Several moments pass, and Lily does not respond. Johnny gets curious.
John: ...Lily?
Dr. Watts: Actually, you've already called us.
- Johnny turns towards the doctors, Neil then makes Lily vanish. Johnny turns back to face her and is shocked. He slowly backs away from them, even as Rosalene walks forward a little.
Dr. Rosalene: ...We're here to fulfill our contract from the relative future.
- Johnny, unconvinced, continues to back away. He almost runs into the fence near the cliff.
Dr. Watts: (exclaiming) Careful there. If you slip off the cliff, we're gonna have to reload this memory.
Dr. Rosalene: (again turning sideways, facing Neil, whispers) Watch it Neil, show some respect.
Dr. Watts: (whispering) Eh, it's just a program y'know.
Dr. Rosalene: (whispering) I know. But this is his last accessible memory, and we need its cooperation.
Dr. Watts: (whispering) Worst comes to worst, we can just reboot it.
Dr. Rosalene: (turning around to fully face Neil, annoyed) Why would you waste time like that?
John: You...
- Both doctors turn around to face Johnny.
John: ...You are here to take me to the moon, aren't you?
Dr. Rosalene: Yes, John.
- Johnny contemplates this for a while, then turns around.
John: ...I suppose I had a good run.
Dr. Watts: Not good enough, it seems.
John: So, can you do it?
- Johnny turns to face the doctors again.
John: Can you take me to the moon?
Dr. Rosalene: We can't, but you might be able to.
Dr. Watts: Why do you want to go there?
John: I don't know.
- Rosalene turns sideways to Neil again. Neil is quite stumped at this answer. Rosalene turns back to Johnny and walks towards him.
Dr. Rosalene: It's fine, you can tell us. It's essential for helping us to get you to go there.
Dr. Watts: Do you want the fame? The money?
Dr. Watts: You've got to have a motive.
John: I'm sorry, but I really don't know.
- A short pause follows.
John: I just ...do.
Dr. Watts: (whispering) I can already tell that this is gonna be a pain in the ass.
- Rosalene walks even further towards Johnny.
Dr. Rosalene: Nevertheless, Johnny, here's what we will do...
Dr. Rosalene: We need to get to your childhood, but it is too distant to do so in one memory hop.
Dr. Rosalene: Thus, we will need to traverse through your memories with gradual backward leaps.
Dr. Watts: (excitedly) Which you've given us the permission to do in the relative future.
- Rosalene turns around for a while towards Neil, then turns back to Johnny.
Dr. Rosalene: Once we lay down the waypoints in your childhood memories for direct access, we will return here.
Dr. Rosalene: That's when you'll need to help us influence the childhood you to become an astronaut.
Dr. Watts: ...Or to get on a giant catapult.
Dr. Rosalene: The point is, you'll need to have more to say than just "I don't know.""
John: As long as you can take me to the moon, I will cooperate in any way possible.
Dr. Rosalene: Good.
- Rosalene walks back a bit towards Watts, and turns around again.
Dr. Rosalene: Now, in order to leap to a memory...
Dr. Rosalene: ...We need an item that is of importance to you.
Dr. Rosalene: Do you have a memento of some sort to get us started?
- Johnny walks back to his bench to collect something, then walks towards the doctors. He places the yellow and blue rabbit from the lighthouse onto the ground.
Dr. Rosalene: That'll do.
Dr. Rosalene: (turning to Watts) Well, shall we?
Dr. Watts: (walking towards Rosalene) Ladies first.
Alright, a big block of establishing text there. The doctors first cause a minor faux pas by using their machine to vanish the patient's caretaker, then fight with each other before introducing their current task. You would think the priorities would be reversed, and you would also think that maybe using your awesome mind bending powers to remove the sole company your patient has had for ages is maaybe not prudent. Maybe.
Johnny turns out to be a fairly uncooperative patient, perhaps because of how the doctors treated him, but also perhaps because he genuinely doesn't remember. Recall that these are his memories while he's on his deathbed, his recollection is going to be rather doubtful. Whatever it is that these doctors do to grant wishes, the motive behind the wish seems pretty important, since they spend a decent chunk of time trying to probe him for it.
Eventually, they decide to do the smart thing and ask him for something to probe his memories by themselves even further, which leads to my next point. They specifically need items connected distinctly in two memories to jump between them. This seems rather inefficient, but given that this is already a sophisticated machine that allows reading and manipulating memories, it can be overlooked. Perhaps the tech to specifically look up important memories isn't there yet.
Johnny's memento in his latest memory is the yellow and blue rabbit from the lighthouse. This isn't a surprise to us since the kids mentioned that he always carried it with him, but not all future mementos will be so predictable or sensible.
The doctors interact with the rabbit, and a note is added to the Notes page. Some dialogue ensues.
Dr. Rosalene: We'll need to prepare this memento first...
We are then prompted to prepare the memento. Doing so brings up a little minigame, with some tips on what to do.
Honestly it's fairly simple: just hit the buttons to fill the squares, fill up the entire picture to win. There's one specific complication that probably just makes the game easier, as well as an ideal move counter. You don't have to worry too much about the ideal move counter, and the complication is not much of one once you see it in motion. Puzzles like these will be used to bookend nearly every memory from now on, though.
Completing it lets the doctors move on to other memories. As they begin to leave, Johnny suddenly speaks up.
John: Wait, what about my privacy?
Dr. Rosalene: We'll try not to violate what we can avoid.
Dr. Rosalene: But in most cases... It can't be helped.
- The doctors leave, and Johnny is left pondering. They move to...
- ...the inside of the house, with Johnny playing the piano. Lots of paper rabbits are strewn everywhere, and the house is minimally furnished.
Dr. Rosalene: Turn off visibility and interactivity, it'd be messy to be seen.
- Watts does so by pressing some buttons.
Dr. Watts: Yeah yeah, happy?
- Watts goes forward and looks around. He notices the piles of rabbits everywhere and begins pondering.
Dr. Watts: Geez, I forgot to ask him about all these... rabbits.
- Rosalene begins to look around herself.
Dr. Watts: This is creeping me out. We probably should have checked his record for psychopathy first.
- Suddenly, Johnny stops playing. Both doctors notice this. Neil is a bit puzzled.
Dr. Watts: What the-... did he hear me?
Dr. Rosalene: That's impossible.
- Rosalene walks forward toward Neil.
Dr. Rosalene: It's probably just a part of this memory.
- Johnny angrily slams on the piano keys, stunning both doctors.
Dr. Watts: ...Then I stand by my point.
Dr. Rosalene: (turning to Watts) Anyway, quit blabbering and find a memento here to hop from.
This is clearly sometime right when Johnny had begun moving into his house. He certainly seems depressed for some reason, hence him angrily hitting the piano and all the rabbits strewn about. Remember, they were in his personal vault and the lighthouse back in present day, so they clearly mean something close to him. Perhaps it had something to do with his wife's death? She died just two years ago.
We're now given control again, and can explore the first and second floor, though not in their entirety. Parts of both floors are faded out in memory. We're also prompted to interact with objects to establish memory links. This, alongside the puzzles bookending memories, is what most of the gameplay is, assuming you don't count movement as gameplay.
As for the note, here's what it says.
This is how useful, interesting or informative notes remain for most of the game. They're more like short reminders than actual notes. I won't be showing any others off unless I find them interesting or enjoyable.
Touching the obvious blue and yellow rabbit gives some dialogue.
Dr. Watts: Well, aren't you special? Having two colours when all your siblings look like they drowned in bleach.
Dr. Watts: What's that? You think you're really creepy? Why yes, I agree!
An orb proceeds to fall into the bar after that bit of monologuing. We can interact with the umbrella and clock next. The umbrella is covered by a glass orb, which only breaks when we shoot five orbs/memory links into it. The clock is silent, and grants an orb as well as a note for examining it. On the second floor, we can interact with old Johnny to conjure him elsewhere, as well as bring up a bunch of stuff in his room. One of these is The Emperor's New Clothes, one an old backpack, one a jar of pickled olives and one a bunch of fresh flowers. The backpack and olives stir some dialogue.
Backpack:
Dr. Watts: What is this, a million years old?
Dr. Rosalene: I guess we'll find out.
Olives:
Dr. Watts: Peh, I hate this stuff.
Dr. Rosalene: What's to hate? It's pickled olive!
Dr. Watts: ...Exactly.
We can also attempt to interact with old Johnny in the side hall, but all that does is cause Rosalene to chide Watts for needlessly attempting to converse with him. The flowers, The Emperor's New Clothes and the olives provide orbs. We can now go down and interact with the umbrella to actually break the orb. While doing so...
Dr. Watts: HADOOUUKEN!
Dr. Rosalene: (looking at Neil in disbelief) What the (censored) was that?!
Dr. Watts: What?
Dr. Rosalene: (Firmly turning away from Neil) That's it, I'm doing the breaking from now on.
And with that out of the way, the doctors proceed to solve a simple flipping squares puzzle.
This is the one complication of this puzzle minigame. Honestly it's not much of one, because the minigame never gives controls for flipping things from upwards or the right, seriously limiting the design scope of these. More often than not the diagonal actually serves to make future puzzles easier, betraying their potential complexity.
This isn't necessarily a problem though, given that this game was advertised based on the merits of its story and making puzzles, especially required puzzles, too complicated would go against it. Just makes you wonder about their purpose, outside of being bits of gameplay to bookend a sequence, as well as add some flavor of playing with a computer interface.
The doctors solve it easily enough, and then proceed to leave.
Not a whole lot learned in this memory, there were some personal belongings we were introduced to, like The Emperor's New Clothes and the jar of pickled olives, but they remain hooks rather than messengers of the story. We also saw that Watts remains childish and the author keeps lengthening sequences with irrelevant bouts of slapstick humor.
Next time, we continue our trip through memory lane, in search of both clues and story. See you then.
Next: In Which We see Someone Dying.
Dr. Rosalene: Disable speech for all except Johnny.
- Watts presses a button and then speaks, facing Rosalene.
Dr. Watts: Done. Let's get 'im.
So yeah, this machine basically lets people view the memories of others. It also allows them to modify those, else this whole talk about fulfilling death wishes wouldn't mean much. Given the obvious ethical concerns this brings up, no wonder it's restricted to strictly only be applicable to people on their death beds already. You have to wonder what the process for drafting laws and regulations for it must have been like, but that's a different topic entirely.
We can explore the second floor, but there's nothing of note. The paintings in the side hall are all blank in this memory, either Johnny didn't remember them well or didn't draw them yet. The story is largely similar for the first floor. Going out, however, we see the memory in more regular colors, and run into something on the left path.
- Watts is stunned at what he sees ahead. We pan up to see Johnny and Lily looking at the lighthouse. The doctors slowly walk forward.
Dr. Rosalene: Johnny?
- Both Johnny and Lily turn around, Johnny walks to face them. He's a bit stunned.
John: What a pleasant surprise... We don't get many visitors around here.
While the game says his name is Johnny, John is often used in the dialogue boxes. I'll just transcribe the boxes as they are and call him Johnny the rest of the time. Not much of a difference between the two anyhow.
- Rosalene walks forward a bit more towards Johnny.
Dr. Rosalene: My name is Dr. Eva Rosalene, and this is--...
Dr. Watts: (turning around with his arm stretched) Dr. Von Matterhorn...(line break for emphasis) ...Dr. Lorenzo Von Matterhorn.
Dr. Rosalene: (turning sideways, face towards Neil) ...Dr. Neil Watts.
- Neil sounds angry, but Rosalene promptly turns back to Johnny and continues.
Dr. Rosalene: Are you familiar with the Sigmund Agency of Life Generation?
John: Oh, are you two from the agency?
John: (walking towards them) How convenient; I've just been thinking of calling you.
- Johnny turns to face Lily.
John: Lily, get us some tea please.
- Several moments pass, and Lily does not respond. Johnny gets curious.
John: ...Lily?
Dr. Watts: Actually, you've already called us.
- Johnny turns towards the doctors, Neil then makes Lily vanish. Johnny turns back to face her and is shocked. He slowly backs away from them, even as Rosalene walks forward a little.
Dr. Rosalene: ...We're here to fulfill our contract from the relative future.
- Johnny, unconvinced, continues to back away. He almost runs into the fence near the cliff.
Dr. Watts: (exclaiming) Careful there. If you slip off the cliff, we're gonna have to reload this memory.
Dr. Rosalene: (again turning sideways, facing Neil, whispers) Watch it Neil, show some respect.
Dr. Watts: (whispering) Eh, it's just a program y'know.
Dr. Rosalene: (whispering) I know. But this is his last accessible memory, and we need its cooperation.
Dr. Watts: (whispering) Worst comes to worst, we can just reboot it.
Dr. Rosalene: (turning around to fully face Neil, annoyed) Why would you waste time like that?
John: You...
- Both doctors turn around to face Johnny.
John: ...You are here to take me to the moon, aren't you?
Dr. Rosalene: Yes, John.
- Johnny contemplates this for a while, then turns around.
John: ...I suppose I had a good run.
Dr. Watts: Not good enough, it seems.
John: So, can you do it?
- Johnny turns to face the doctors again.
John: Can you take me to the moon?
Dr. Rosalene: We can't, but you might be able to.
Dr. Watts: Why do you want to go there?
John: I don't know.
- Rosalene turns sideways to Neil again. Neil is quite stumped at this answer. Rosalene turns back to Johnny and walks towards him.
Dr. Rosalene: It's fine, you can tell us. It's essential for helping us to get you to go there.
Dr. Watts: Do you want the fame? The money?
Dr. Watts: You've got to have a motive.
John: I'm sorry, but I really don't know.
- A short pause follows.
John: I just ...do.
Dr. Watts: (whispering) I can already tell that this is gonna be a pain in the ass.
- Rosalene walks even further towards Johnny.
Dr. Rosalene: Nevertheless, Johnny, here's what we will do...
Dr. Rosalene: We need to get to your childhood, but it is too distant to do so in one memory hop.
Dr. Rosalene: Thus, we will need to traverse through your memories with gradual backward leaps.
Dr. Watts: (excitedly) Which you've given us the permission to do in the relative future.
- Rosalene turns around for a while towards Neil, then turns back to Johnny.
Dr. Rosalene: Once we lay down the waypoints in your childhood memories for direct access, we will return here.
Dr. Rosalene: That's when you'll need to help us influence the childhood you to become an astronaut.
Dr. Watts: ...Or to get on a giant catapult.
Dr. Rosalene: The point is, you'll need to have more to say than just "I don't know.""
John: As long as you can take me to the moon, I will cooperate in any way possible.
Dr. Rosalene: Good.
- Rosalene walks back a bit towards Watts, and turns around again.
Dr. Rosalene: Now, in order to leap to a memory...
Dr. Rosalene: ...We need an item that is of importance to you.
Dr. Rosalene: Do you have a memento of some sort to get us started?
- Johnny walks back to his bench to collect something, then walks towards the doctors. He places the yellow and blue rabbit from the lighthouse onto the ground.
Dr. Rosalene: That'll do.
Dr. Rosalene: (turning to Watts) Well, shall we?
Dr. Watts: (walking towards Rosalene) Ladies first.
Alright, a big block of establishing text there. The doctors first cause a minor faux pas by using their machine to vanish the patient's caretaker, then fight with each other before introducing their current task. You would think the priorities would be reversed, and you would also think that maybe using your awesome mind bending powers to remove the sole company your patient has had for ages is maaybe not prudent. Maybe.
Johnny turns out to be a fairly uncooperative patient, perhaps because of how the doctors treated him, but also perhaps because he genuinely doesn't remember. Recall that these are his memories while he's on his deathbed, his recollection is going to be rather doubtful. Whatever it is that these doctors do to grant wishes, the motive behind the wish seems pretty important, since they spend a decent chunk of time trying to probe him for it.
Eventually, they decide to do the smart thing and ask him for something to probe his memories by themselves even further, which leads to my next point. They specifically need items connected distinctly in two memories to jump between them. This seems rather inefficient, but given that this is already a sophisticated machine that allows reading and manipulating memories, it can be overlooked. Perhaps the tech to specifically look up important memories isn't there yet.
Johnny's memento in his latest memory is the yellow and blue rabbit from the lighthouse. This isn't a surprise to us since the kids mentioned that he always carried it with him, but not all future mementos will be so predictable or sensible.
The doctors interact with the rabbit, and a note is added to the Notes page. Some dialogue ensues.
Dr. Rosalene: We'll need to prepare this memento first...
Honestly it's fairly simple: just hit the buttons to fill the squares, fill up the entire picture to win. There's one specific complication that probably just makes the game easier, as well as an ideal move counter. You don't have to worry too much about the ideal move counter, and the complication is not much of one once you see it in motion. Puzzles like these will be used to bookend nearly every memory from now on, though.
Completing it lets the doctors move on to other memories. As they begin to leave, Johnny suddenly speaks up.
John: Wait, what about my privacy?
Dr. Rosalene: We'll try not to violate what we can avoid.
Dr. Rosalene: But in most cases... It can't be helped.
- The doctors leave, and Johnny is left pondering. They move to...
- ...the inside of the house, with Johnny playing the piano. Lots of paper rabbits are strewn everywhere, and the house is minimally furnished.
Dr. Rosalene: Turn off visibility and interactivity, it'd be messy to be seen.
- Watts does so by pressing some buttons.
Dr. Watts: Yeah yeah, happy?
- Watts goes forward and looks around. He notices the piles of rabbits everywhere and begins pondering.
Dr. Watts: Geez, I forgot to ask him about all these... rabbits.
- Rosalene begins to look around herself.
Dr. Watts: This is creeping me out. We probably should have checked his record for psychopathy first.
- Suddenly, Johnny stops playing. Both doctors notice this. Neil is a bit puzzled.
Dr. Watts: What the-... did he hear me?
Dr. Rosalene: That's impossible.
- Rosalene walks forward toward Neil.
Dr. Rosalene: It's probably just a part of this memory.
- Johnny angrily slams on the piano keys, stunning both doctors.
Dr. Watts: ...Then I stand by my point.
Dr. Rosalene: (turning to Watts) Anyway, quit blabbering and find a memento here to hop from.
This is clearly sometime right when Johnny had begun moving into his house. He certainly seems depressed for some reason, hence him angrily hitting the piano and all the rabbits strewn about. Remember, they were in his personal vault and the lighthouse back in present day, so they clearly mean something close to him. Perhaps it had something to do with his wife's death? She died just two years ago.
We're now given control again, and can explore the first and second floor, though not in their entirety. Parts of both floors are faded out in memory. We're also prompted to interact with objects to establish memory links. This, alongside the puzzles bookending memories, is what most of the gameplay is, assuming you don't count movement as gameplay.
As for the note, here's what it says.
This is how useful, interesting or informative notes remain for most of the game. They're more like short reminders than actual notes. I won't be showing any others off unless I find them interesting or enjoyable.
Touching the obvious blue and yellow rabbit gives some dialogue.
Dr. Watts: Well, aren't you special? Having two colours when all your siblings look like they drowned in bleach.
Dr. Watts: What's that? You think you're really creepy? Why yes, I agree!
An orb proceeds to fall into the bar after that bit of monologuing. We can interact with the umbrella and clock next. The umbrella is covered by a glass orb, which only breaks when we shoot five orbs/memory links into it. The clock is silent, and grants an orb as well as a note for examining it. On the second floor, we can interact with old Johnny to conjure him elsewhere, as well as bring up a bunch of stuff in his room. One of these is The Emperor's New Clothes, one an old backpack, one a jar of pickled olives and one a bunch of fresh flowers. The backpack and olives stir some dialogue.
Backpack:
Dr. Watts: What is this, a million years old?
Dr. Rosalene: I guess we'll find out.
Olives:
Dr. Watts: Peh, I hate this stuff.
Dr. Rosalene: What's to hate? It's pickled olive!
Dr. Watts: ...Exactly.
We can also attempt to interact with old Johnny in the side hall, but all that does is cause Rosalene to chide Watts for needlessly attempting to converse with him. The flowers, The Emperor's New Clothes and the olives provide orbs. We can now go down and interact with the umbrella to actually break the orb. While doing so...
Dr. Watts: HADOOUUKEN!
Dr. Rosalene: (looking at Neil in disbelief) What the (censored) was that?!
Dr. Watts: What?
Dr. Rosalene: (Firmly turning away from Neil) That's it, I'm doing the breaking from now on.
And with that out of the way, the doctors proceed to solve a simple flipping squares puzzle.
This is the one complication of this puzzle minigame. Honestly it's not much of one, because the minigame never gives controls for flipping things from upwards or the right, seriously limiting the design scope of these. More often than not the diagonal actually serves to make future puzzles easier, betraying their potential complexity.
This isn't necessarily a problem though, given that this game was advertised based on the merits of its story and making puzzles, especially required puzzles, too complicated would go against it. Just makes you wonder about their purpose, outside of being bits of gameplay to bookend a sequence, as well as add some flavor of playing with a computer interface.
The doctors solve it easily enough, and then proceed to leave.
Not a whole lot learned in this memory, there were some personal belongings we were introduced to, like The Emperor's New Clothes and the jar of pickled olives, but they remain hooks rather than messengers of the story. We also saw that Watts remains childish and the author keeps lengthening sequences with irrelevant bouts of slapstick humor.
Next time, we continue our trip through memory lane, in search of both clues and story. See you then.
Next: In Which We see Someone Dying.
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