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xyzzysqrlSo in the interests of being completely honest, I have to admit that I feel a little performance anxiety as I start in on Nancy Drew Adventure Mystery Number Two. Like, what if it's not as GOOD AS THE FIRST ONE and I screw up writing the text here and it is awful and my blog loses all followers and you guys shoot me from blimps with paintball guns that explode and print "LOSER" across my forehead?
That seems like a remote scenario but I'm pretty sure it's happened and Snopes does not prove me wrong so it -is a plausible outcome-, okay?
Anyway, I'm gonna try and do it up like the first, in that this will be a psudeo-walkthrough/THINGS THAT HAPPENED guide, and I reserve the right to handwave and blah blah anything that's boring. But I'm gonna try to give some more insights into how I solve these things because people keep going "UGH ADVENTURE GAME LOGIC HUH" so I feel like I have to stand up for my favorite genre even though it really is pretty stupid most of the time. That said, uh... I don't think I'm gonna get to stand up for much in this one, because from the look of the trailer and all, this is going to be one of those games where Nancy Drew adventures her way to a mystery solution by doing every stupid sidequest she can locate.
Random Woman: "I've got a mystery you can solve!"
Nancy: "I'm ready for anything!"
Random Woman: "I have this big pile of work to do, but MYSTERIOUSLY it's not done. Why don't you solve that paperwork for me?"
Nancy: "...sigh."
Even a stupid mystery is better than no mystery at all, though... So join me, won't you? THIS IS THE HAUNTING OF CASTLE MALLOY!
Okay, you remember how before I said all the Nancy Drew games start with a Dear Ned letter? I WAS WRONG. In this one, we start out at Nancy's desk while she explains that she is a WORLD FAMOUS DETECTIVE and welcomes us back. Hi Nancy! It feels good to be traveling with you again! She invites us to look through her old case files... which I do, peering mostly at Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake to see how she wrote it up. Vaguely, it turns out. These are little mini-advertisements for previous games in the series, in case you don't own them. For the record, I actually do NOT own all of them! Rest assured that will be remedied over time.
Ahahaha oh god I'm an addict.
We've jumped from game 07 (Ghost Dogs) to game 19, here. It's cool, though. Let's consider these writeups an ALTERNATE CONTINUITY. With our hands and hearts together we will forge a new future of Nancy Drew.
Anyway, she also has a NEW case file. I've reproduced it here.
So that is the gist of the plot for this game. We're going to Dublin, Ireland to attend a wedding at an old mysterious castle! I have no reason to believe this will end poorly.
I also flip through "How to Be A Detective", by Nancy Drew. It's a glorified tutorial, explaining concepts and controls, nothing new to a seasoned hand like me. (Mmm, seasoned hand. Nomnomnom.) This brings about the choice, though: Junior Detective, or Senior? As a Junior I could get more hints and easier puzzles... but no. I am a Senior Detective. Even if a puzzle threatens to kill me, I will bring about its undoing. I select my difficulty of choice and grab Nancy's plane tickets, wedding invitation, and prepaid phone card (yessssss) off her desk. It's time to go to Ireland. And collect IRE.
In an Indiana Jones style montage we're shown as Nancy crosses the Atlantic by plane and sets down in Ireland. Jump straight to Nancy driving her rental car down a dusty road in the dark of night, chatting with Ned on her celphone. Ned is off to a party that will last all day, but he doubts he'll have any fun without Nancy there. Nancy assures him that things will be fine, and that she's gotta go. Tut, Nancy. Talking on your cel while driving? That's a bad habit. ... Sure enough, a pale glowing green thing shoots across the road and Nancy plows offroad into the trees. I TOLD YOU, SIS. I TOLD YOU ABOUT PHONES.
Suddenly it's Metal Gear Solid as Nancy skulks off to investigate! Or... that's what it looks like. Repressing the urge to talk in a raspy voice, I carefully poke at the darkness to see what's up. Not too far away is a gate which gets me back into first person perspective mode. A stuffed doll lays forlornly by the road side. As Nancy picks it up, a badly animated sheep crosses the road, notices her, visibly jump-startles, baaas noisily, and runs away.
Just as I'm trying to figure out if I can somehow make this sound even MORE like a dadaist story, I notice something. On one side of the enormous stonework arch that spans the road, there's an inlay of two dragons facing each other. On the other side, however, there's a... sliding block puzzle.
The first puzzle of the game is a sliding block puzzle YEEEEAAAAARRRRRRRGH ahem sorry. I hate these things so MUCH, you guys. Oh well. I chose SENIOR DETECTIVE for a reason. Let me solve this... WITH MY BRAIN. Sigh. Dear game developers. Come here so I can set you on fire. Luv, a sqrl.
Fun trivia facts: Did you know that implementing a sliding block puzzle in any known programming language causes... uhm... rectal cancer? Yeah. And ... exploding eyeball syndrome. Which is a real disease and not something I made up right now.
ANYWAY when I'm done the STUPID 15-BLOCK SLIDING PUZZLE YEAAAAARRRRRRGH Nancy observes that it seems as if a piece of the mural is missing. I'm kind of grateful, because as dickerly as a 15-puzzle is, a 16 puzzle is literally impossible to slide around. But it does scream that I'll have to back off and come at this later. It's then as I check Nancy's inventory and notepad that I realize the greatest casuality of the car crash. Nancy's phone was lost in the wreckage. Not only is the rental company going to have at her, and her insurance will probably skyrocket (can you imagine insuring Nancy Drew?) but I'm left without a lifeline to contact Bess, George, and Ned.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Ah well. Pressing on through the archway and across a bridge, I find a long winding dark pathway that ends in a wooden door with knockers on it. (And WHAT knockers.) I give them a clunk and an old man opens the door. Nancy explains that she's here for the wedding. "IT'S BEEN CALLED OFF. GO AWAY." But her car's in the ditch! She can't go ANYwhere! "Give me your keys and I'll deal with it. You can stay at the inn down the road. Go away." But can't she at least talk to her friend Kyler? "NO. GO AWAY." Door-slam.
I think that went well! At least there's no creepy Riff Raff hanging around -this- old place. Nancy hikes back down the dark pathway and heads up the road towards the inn. This cannot be good for her jet lag. The inn that GO AWAY mentioned is called the Screaming Banshee, and it looks like a run-down old dump, but any port in a storm. Speaking of any port... thank goodness, the Screaming Banshee has an old-fashioned phone booth out front. I sprint inside and stuff my phone card in the (very modern, surprisingly) phone within.
PICTURED: High Technicaaaaaaaal.
I call Bess, of course.
Actual In-Game Dialogue
*ring*
Bess: "HI. If you're looking for Bess Marvin..."
George: "Or her SUPER-COOL COUSIN, George Fayne..."
Bess: "You're outta luck, 'cause neither of us can pick up right now. But leave a message. Because after all..."
Unison: "YOUR CALL IS -VERY- IMPORTANT TO US."
*boop*
Nancy: "Ah... hey guys. I, ah. Just wanted to let you know what was going on here, and talk for a while. I... I'll call back!"
End Actual In Game Dialogue
Nancy is -super adorable awkward- when she's on an answering machine, you guys. I have her call like three more times, and by the second Nancy is actually imitating Bess and George in a squeaky little voice while they do their answering machine routine. Oh god I love this series so much.
Anyway he's my last choice, but I give Ned a call. Get his answering machine too.
Man, this had better not last or this playthrough is going to come up DISAPPOINTINGLY SHORT on WACKY ANTICS.
That seems like a remote scenario but I'm pretty sure it's happened and Snopes does not prove me wrong so it -is a plausible outcome-, okay?
Anyway, I'm gonna try and do it up like the first, in that this will be a psudeo-walkthrough/THINGS THAT HAPPENED guide, and I reserve the right to handwave and blah blah anything that's boring. But I'm gonna try to give some more insights into how I solve these things because people keep going "UGH ADVENTURE GAME LOGIC HUH" so I feel like I have to stand up for my favorite genre even though it really is pretty stupid most of the time. That said, uh... I don't think I'm gonna get to stand up for much in this one, because from the look of the trailer and all, this is going to be one of those games where Nancy Drew adventures her way to a mystery solution by doing every stupid sidequest she can locate.
Random Woman: "I've got a mystery you can solve!"
Nancy: "I'm ready for anything!"
Random Woman: "I have this big pile of work to do, but MYSTERIOUSLY it's not done. Why don't you solve that paperwork for me?"
Nancy: "...sigh."
Even a stupid mystery is better than no mystery at all, though... So join me, won't you? THIS IS THE HAUNTING OF CASTLE MALLOY!
Okay, you remember how before I said all the Nancy Drew games start with a Dear Ned letter? I WAS WRONG. In this one, we start out at Nancy's desk while she explains that she is a WORLD FAMOUS DETECTIVE and welcomes us back. Hi Nancy! It feels good to be traveling with you again! She invites us to look through her old case files... which I do, peering mostly at Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake to see how she wrote it up. Vaguely, it turns out. These are little mini-advertisements for previous games in the series, in case you don't own them. For the record, I actually do NOT own all of them! Rest assured that will be remedied over time.
Ahahaha oh god I'm an addict.
We've jumped from game 07 (Ghost Dogs) to game 19, here. It's cool, though. Let's consider these writeups an ALTERNATE CONTINUITY. With our hands and hearts together we will forge a new future of Nancy Drew.
Anyway, she also has a NEW case file. I've reproduced it here.
So that is the gist of the plot for this game. We're going to Dublin, Ireland to attend a wedding at an old mysterious castle! I have no reason to believe this will end poorly.
I also flip through "How to Be A Detective", by Nancy Drew. It's a glorified tutorial, explaining concepts and controls, nothing new to a seasoned hand like me. (Mmm, seasoned hand. Nomnomnom.) This brings about the choice, though: Junior Detective, or Senior? As a Junior I could get more hints and easier puzzles... but no. I am a Senior Detective. Even if a puzzle threatens to kill me, I will bring about its undoing. I select my difficulty of choice and grab Nancy's plane tickets, wedding invitation, and prepaid phone card (yessssss) off her desk. It's time to go to Ireland. And collect IRE.
In an Indiana Jones style montage we're shown as Nancy crosses the Atlantic by plane and sets down in Ireland. Jump straight to Nancy driving her rental car down a dusty road in the dark of night, chatting with Ned on her celphone. Ned is off to a party that will last all day, but he doubts he'll have any fun without Nancy there. Nancy assures him that things will be fine, and that she's gotta go. Tut, Nancy. Talking on your cel while driving? That's a bad habit. ... Sure enough, a pale glowing green thing shoots across the road and Nancy plows offroad into the trees. I TOLD YOU, SIS. I TOLD YOU ABOUT PHONES.
Suddenly it's Metal Gear Solid as Nancy skulks off to investigate! Or... that's what it looks like. Repressing the urge to talk in a raspy voice, I carefully poke at the darkness to see what's up. Not too far away is a gate which gets me back into first person perspective mode. A stuffed doll lays forlornly by the road side. As Nancy picks it up, a badly animated sheep crosses the road, notices her, visibly jump-startles, baaas noisily, and runs away.
Just as I'm trying to figure out if I can somehow make this sound even MORE like a dadaist story, I notice something. On one side of the enormous stonework arch that spans the road, there's an inlay of two dragons facing each other. On the other side, however, there's a... sliding block puzzle.
The first puzzle of the game is a sliding block puzzle YEEEEAAAAARRRRRRRGH ahem sorry. I hate these things so MUCH, you guys. Oh well. I chose SENIOR DETECTIVE for a reason. Let me solve this... WITH MY BRAIN. Sigh. Dear game developers. Come here so I can set you on fire. Luv, a sqrl.
Fun trivia facts: Did you know that implementing a sliding block puzzle in any known programming language causes... uhm... rectal cancer? Yeah. And ... exploding eyeball syndrome. Which is a real disease and not something I made up right now.
ANYWAY when I'm done the STUPID 15-BLOCK SLIDING PUZZLE YEAAAAARRRRRRGH Nancy observes that it seems as if a piece of the mural is missing. I'm kind of grateful, because as dickerly as a 15-puzzle is, a 16 puzzle is literally impossible to slide around. But it does scream that I'll have to back off and come at this later. It's then as I check Nancy's inventory and notepad that I realize the greatest casuality of the car crash. Nancy's phone was lost in the wreckage. Not only is the rental company going to have at her, and her insurance will probably skyrocket (can you imagine insuring Nancy Drew?) but I'm left without a lifeline to contact Bess, George, and Ned.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Ah well. Pressing on through the archway and across a bridge, I find a long winding dark pathway that ends in a wooden door with knockers on it. (And WHAT knockers.) I give them a clunk and an old man opens the door. Nancy explains that she's here for the wedding. "IT'S BEEN CALLED OFF. GO AWAY." But her car's in the ditch! She can't go ANYwhere! "Give me your keys and I'll deal with it. You can stay at the inn down the road. Go away." But can't she at least talk to her friend Kyler? "NO. GO AWAY." Door-slam.
I think that went well! At least there's no creepy Riff Raff hanging around -this- old place. Nancy hikes back down the dark pathway and heads up the road towards the inn. This cannot be good for her jet lag. The inn that GO AWAY mentioned is called the Screaming Banshee, and it looks like a run-down old dump, but any port in a storm. Speaking of any port... thank goodness, the Screaming Banshee has an old-fashioned phone booth out front. I sprint inside and stuff my phone card in the (very modern, surprisingly) phone within.
PICTURED: High Technicaaaaaaaal.
I call Bess, of course.
Actual In-Game Dialogue
*ring*
Bess: "HI. If you're looking for Bess Marvin..."
George: "Or her SUPER-COOL COUSIN, George Fayne..."
Bess: "You're outta luck, 'cause neither of us can pick up right now. But leave a message. Because after all..."
Unison: "YOUR CALL IS -VERY- IMPORTANT TO US."
*boop*
Nancy: "Ah... hey guys. I, ah. Just wanted to let you know what was going on here, and talk for a while. I... I'll call back!"
End Actual In Game Dialogue
Nancy is -super adorable awkward- when she's on an answering machine, you guys. I have her call like three more times, and by the second Nancy is actually imitating Bess and George in a squeaky little voice while they do their answering machine routine. Oh god I love this series so much.
Anyway he's my last choice, but I give Ned a call. Get his answering machine too.
Man, this had better not last or this playthrough is going to come up DISAPPOINTINGLY SHORT on WACKY ANTICS.
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Date: 2012-08-18 07:11 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2017-05-26 01:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-05-26 01:50 am (UTC)But I'm pretty sure David will come reading through here at some point, so I'll pass on that.
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Date: 2017-05-26 02:01 am (UTC)