(Continued from my previous posts on The Dark Crystal.)
To continue directly from last time, I had unearthed a spiral but with some confusion as to what to do with it.
One of my readers (RavenWorks) suggested GAZE off my verb list, referencing the odd reaction where Jen was refusing to look at it closely.
This was easy to miss, and someone who later is trying to solve the riddle “legit” (by thinking what normal word might be an answer) would get incredibly frustrated.
From here I got stuck for a very long time and I ended up breaking my streak on Roberta Williams games: I looked up a hint. (I beat Mystery House, Mission: Asteroid, and Time Zone without needing any. Alas.) It turned out that back where the lily pad could be cut (we’ll use that shortly) there is another secret.
I had tried GET FLOWER and got the same response I had gotten in some other locations that mention flowers, namely:
JEN PICKS A FLOWER AND SAVORS ITS LOVELY FRAGRANCE. NOTICING NOTHING ELSE REMARKABLE ABOUT IT, HE DROPS IT.
I was still slightly suspicious of the flowers, but I had treated “chattering” as a mere metaphor (like a “babbling” brook). I should have done TALK FLOWERS.
To be fair, just to the west there is a scene with “THE CHATTERING OF FLOWERS AND CALLING OF CREATURES IS ALMOST DEAFENING”. LISTEN FLOWERS also gives the message (in both rooms) “WITH THEM ALL TALKING AT ONCE, HE CAN’T UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY ARE SAYING.” I guess it’s a “fair” puzzle but it was a very strange one (in terms of narrative momentum) to be stuck for several hours on.
Taking the advice to listen to the brook:
This is just directions. Normally going EAST and then EAST again has the path blocked by foliage, but after hearing from the brook, the path is open.
Trying to go farther north (following the directions of the brook) the game says “THE SWAMP LOOKS DEEP AND DANGEROUS” and that it appears suicidal to attempt a crossing. I had already tried RIDE PAD earlier with the river; this is the real place to use it. After using it to swim across it floats away (one less inventory item to test everywhere, good).
Going north and then west gets the player stuck in a bog; that’s a good place to go, but it’s too early. You’re supposed to instead go north and east (the last part of the directions) and get caught in some vines.
After several moves, Aughra appears.
You can SAY YES followed by typing MOON DAUGHTER. Imagine being stuck at this point!
She leads you/Jen north to her observatory, where she asks what you want. Hopefully players paid attention during that info-dump at the start so they know to SAY SHARD. She will put four colored shards up on the table, and say that she doesn’t know which is the real one. Finally, my obsessive playing of the flute pays off.
I vaguely recall something like this happened in the movie, but I don’t recall detail. I’m still waiting until I finish the game to go back to rewatch.
That’s three puzzles in a row that require a piece of information or item from somewhere that isn’t trivial to get:
a.) first, the lily pad for swimming obtained by cutting the stem
b.) then, the riddle answer obtained from an extremely random spot in the game (the spiral hidden under moss), where it seems like you ought to answer the riddle normally
c.) then, the flute which is buried and which I got via luck.
The linear structure with secret requirements is rather different from the previous Roberta Williams games. You could argue the entirety of Time Zone was a treasure hunt intended to allow making it through a long linear set of puzzles in the finale, but it is clear from the start you’re going to need to build up a collection; here, it is unclear if such a hunt is needed in the first place. This really comes into focus with the next puzzle: after you get the shard, the observatory is attacked. You have one move to react.
I tried some natural and intuitive ways to escape, but failed to have any luck, so I spent some time combing over locations for yet another missed item. (What’s especially suggestive is that the eye-bat shows up when you land after passing through the swamp using the pad; I thought maybe I needed to kill the bat so the enemies wouldn’t show up after, leading me on a fruitless hunt for slingshot ammo.)
It turned out an early command I tried (CLIMB WINDOW) was right. I was just supposed to type GO WINDOW instead.
Since the pad is gone Jen can’t swim back, so the only choice is the bog where Jen gets stuck. Fortunately, there’s help this time.
I knew immediately this had to be Kira, but assuming someone who hasn’t seen the movie at all, they’d have trouble here because her (and her pet Fizzgig) don’t get mentioned in the text. I imagined I was a player who didn’t know her name and finally hit upon LOOK GELFLING.
After the rescue: “I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY LIVING GELFLING. BUT THEN, I GUESS YOU MUST HAVE THOUGHT THE SAME THING!”
The remainder of my gametime has Jen and Kira travelling together, and all commands affect both of them. This is very, very, unconventional, although it works; I never got confused because of the dual-person controls, although I was a bit boggled by the fact that all the previous scenes (barring the opening area blocked off) get re-rendered with both characters in them.
This is emphasized by the very next act, which requires flipping a shell, and the game states it is too heavy for just Jen to move, and both Jen and Kira need to work together to FLIP SHELL. This reveals a pouch of “SMOKE SEEDS”, and the shell itself can be used as a boat.
The two land in the village from earlier, and while the scene shows merriment, a bat also shows up; the player needs to type EAST or WEST (or some direction to leave) quickly enough and they’ll be able to escape. When they come back the village is destroyed.
I could make fun of how blasé this is (especially with the commands just being one to leave, one to go right back), but track back to all our previous adventure games (1982 and before): when have any tried to do a moment like this? Nobody — not even Infocom, yet — had previously had a main character have everyone they grew up with suddenly get suddenly wiped out (or at least captured). The closest I can think of is Saigon: The Final Days. So while to modern eyes this seems clumsy, I do want to emphasize it was getting into new game design territory (in order to follow the plot of the movie, I assume).
For some reason, having Kira with us makes the Landstriders friendly enough to ride, but before I show that, I want to mention one of the other scenes has a difference:
A Skeksis appears and says he is tired of killing and wants peace, and says to follow him south.
Ha ha no of course not. Fortunately you can just avoid going south and you won’t have the death scene (alternately, do the ruin viewing before the chaos starts).
Hopping on our new rides (no explanation is given why they are fine with being ridden now, I assume Kira helped):
The Landstriders easily make it over the chasm. This then leads to a long and I think empty span of rooms.
This seems to be reaching back to Time Zone rather than forward to King’s Quest. The art is atmospheric, at least.
Fizzgig looks unhappy.
Eventually you come across a combination castle/ravine that you can circle all the way around if you like, but must eventually approach.
Approaching results in another Gathrim attack, and then you only have one turn to react. If you do poorly, you get a front-line seat at the Great Conjunction.
Maybe I can call this BAD END and end the game here?
It took me a beat to realize Jen and Kira are near the ravine so the right action is to JUMP. This causes a disk swap to the final side.
I assume this will be the final stretch, so … one more post? Two? It depends if I have to talk to any more flowers.
Since we’ve run into a Skeksis in-game now, I wanted to show this. The illustration comes from Leonard B. Lubin, via a book of Lewis Carroll poems. This was Jim Henson’s original inspiration in 1975. “It was the juxtaposition of this reptilian thing in this fine atmosphere that intrigued me.”
Renga in Blue 
Hi Jason,
I mentioned one of my prior comments that the Aughra riddle and the strange face-entrance to the castle were stumbling blocks for me as they were not in the movie, and actually felt quite frustrating at the time. I know Roberta felt the film should not be a defacto walkthrough for the game, but I distinctly remember at the time feeling like these puzzles didn’t belong there.
For instance, there is no in-world reason why Aughra would be testing Jen with a riddle; after all, in the film SHE is the one who tells Jen the prophecy that a Gelfling will heal the crystal. She knows that Gelflings are all but extinct. And she’s the one with the shard to heal the crystal. (And what happens if you don’t/can’t answer Aughra’s riddle correctly? Is it a softlock, or do the vines strangle Jen effectively dooming the world?)
Likewise, Aughra doesn’t need Jen to tell her why he is there. She knows already.
As for the castle entrance with the mean-looking face, I distinctly remember as a child going back to the movie (we had a Betamax tape of it) to figure out how they got into the castle. And they literally just walk right in– there is no barrier. At least this one isn’t breaking the movie lore the way that Aughra does in the game.
It would be really nice if, after completing the game, you watch the film and then make another post, or incorporate your thoughts in your final post, about how the film compares to the game.
Before Jason can watch the movie, he should also play at least the menu-driven version of this game (which is different enough that playing this parser version doesn’t give away every solution to its puzzles) and maybe even the far more recent “recreation” that is available at darkcrystal.com/galleries/dark-crystal-galleries/play/ (which is a simple one-word parser game).
One more quick comment, Jason- I watched the ending on a walkthrough and the ending of the game is another film lore-breaking event. In some ways the game follows the movie quite closely, and in others it just ignores critical aspects of the world. I will be very interested to hear your perspective on the ending both before and after you’ve watched the film.
Not that I remotely figured this out, but “chattering flowers” does seem kind of fair to me–“babbling brook” is usually metaphorical but the metaphor is for the sound the brook makes, so if the flowers chatter that’s at least a sign that something is going on.
I remember playing this game when it was released. I do know the answer to the “Pebble” question – but in fairness to your walkthrough – I’ll wait until you finish the game to reveal it, unless you figure it out yourself. I’m being purposely vague to not spoil your game.
For some reason, having Kira with us makes the Landstriders friendly enough to ride
That’s essentially how it is in the movie too. Kira has some sort of ability that gives her an affinity with and ability to speak to animals.
I have now finished the game (and watched the movie) and yeah, the movie makes it super clear. The game does not have the scene later where she calls the animals in the castle.
What might have worked better is when getting help in the bog, rather than what happens in the game (she extends a log to grab onto) she does the same thing as in the movie, which is communicate with the animal under Jen to lift him up.
Probably no post until tomorrow.
This is another good example of the mixed feelings I have about Roberta’s accolades as a “master” storyteller. Kira’s ability to speak with the animals is not only to the lore but how she actually resolves conflicts in the film. To strip this element out entirely seems an amateurish and perhaps arbitrary decision.
I just rewatched the film the first time in a long while and would like to amend some prior comments that I made.
First, it does say that Kira talked with the flowers, so the chattering flowers puzzle is not completely bonkers. Of course Jen doesn’t have this ability (it was taught to Kira by the podlings) so again the game puzzle contradicts the lore.
In the film, when he’s tangled up in the vines, Aughra DOES ask Jen what he wants and he tells her he’s looking for a crystal shard. She also disbelieves her senses that he’s a helping, because she was under the impression they were extinct. So although she does know all about the prophecy, her mind is a bit muddled in that moment (she is over 1000 years old, of course).
It’s still quite a remarkable film despite it being 40+ years old (1982). My 5 year old daughter lived out, though some of the scenes were too intense for her (e.g. when Kira was about to get her essence drained, I had to reassure her 1) they are just puppets and 2) she fights back)
Also Jen starts the movie playing his flute. It’s an analog to the Mystics’ magical chanting. So to have to find his flute buried under a random tree makes no sense, and is another example of Roberta adding moon logic puzzles for their own sake. Plus, consider of you had not seen the film before playing the game- how were you to even know to look for a flute? This would seem to contradict Roberta’s assertion that you didn’t need to have seen the movie to play the game?
Lastly, regarding the game ending, Roberta just can’t get away from the “kiss the princess to wake her up” trope which I feel is a slap in the face to the screenwriters. I have to wonder whether the Henson team had final approval of the plot points of this game. It would be interesting to know their feelings.
Typos:
*Gelfling
*loved it