Some puzzles doesn't make any sense... need better design! (and I am LOVING the game!)

[Fibrizzo]

Hello there!

I'm really enjoying the game, A LOT! But there are several puzzles and things in the game that doesn't make any sense and I need 100% a walkthrough to understand it. And I am GOOD at puzzles... but some of these are IMPOSSIBLE!

For example: the Code in the mines for the containment room has five symbols (using square-like symbols). It is never explained how to translate those symbols to numbers (it's not logical at all). One of the notes should talk a little bit more about that and how to solve it. For example, by having a number already translated into symbols so we can get the idea for the solution.

Another example: the tree and the cat solution in the graveyard is NOT consistent: sometimes there are no cats and you need to bark (I didn't know I could bark with the dog until I saw it on a walkthrough). But barking ANYWERE will make the cat meow, and you need to LISTEN with HEADPHONES to see when the cat sound is coming from. I had to watch two videos to see that my problem was that I wasn't using HEADPHONES so I couldn't distinguish where the sound was coming from. A better solution should be that the meow ONLY happens when you bark in front of the VALID exit, or in front of the VALID small gate near the trees.

And sometimes there are MORE than ONE cat. Which exit should we use??? It is just NOT consistent!

Another one: I am at the spiral castle and got the prostetic arm to get the code to open the padlock. So far, so good. Check it, rotate and see the disposition on the fingertips of the hand... but IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE.

It is a RIGHT ARM, so the button should be pressed AGAINST the panel. So, with the thumb on the left, the buttons are these, for the INDEX, HEART and RING fingers (collumns):

[O] [O] [O]
[_][O][_]
[_][_][O]

Which corresponds to numbers 1,2,3,5,9.

¡¡¡But THE CODE has a 7 in it instead of the 9!!!

And, what is more... it has FIVE numbers, without repetition, which means we have

ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY possible combinations!

Are we suppose to check ALL OF THOSE until we get the valid combination!

One possible solution to this is having the recorded dialogue say something like "I only have to remember to input the highest/smallest number with these keys". So you get the TWO pieces you need: first the five keys to press, and then the order.



The design of some of the puzzles are too twisted (and lack enough information) in my humble opinion. The rest of the game is really good (except for aiming with the pistol, which sometimes doesn't face the enemy and waste bullets).

But the puzzles should be a little bit better designed. I say this as a video game designer with 15 years of experience designing games.

[Bocchi]

About the code in the mines, I'm pretty sure there's a paper that give's u a hint on how to solve the puzzle. It shows a numpad and says something like "some may need this to remember". The numpad is like:
_|_|_
_|_|_
| |

So u match the drawings with the numbers
_| is 1
|_| is 2
_
|_| is 5

[Aricou]

So, about the meowing, what I did is bark in front of a exit, then if the meowing is loud enough, that is the right exit.
About the hand, I don't know what are you talking about, it is clearly a 7 on the hand. And you don't need to guess a right combination, any combination works. There's no order in any padlock.

[Fibrizzo]

Originally posted by Aricou:

So, about the meowing, what I did is bark in front of a exit, then if the meowing is loud enough, that is the right exit.
About the hand, I don't know what are you talking about, it is clearly a 7 on the hand. And you don't need to guess a right combination, any combination works. There's no order in any padlock.

If you bark a lot, the meows are like random (duration and strength), so it is no clear 100% if the correct portal. It should be easier (and, specially playing with no headphones, since it's more difficult to identify in a TV if the sound is 30% left, 70% right). It should be clearer, in my opinion. No meow in the invalid door, or a special meow ONLY for the valid door. (try to bark seven times in each door, and you'll see that the meows lenght are randomized, The volume is higher, yes, but the lenght is not!)

For the keypads, there are several that needs 5 digits, and ONLY the valid combination works. I have tested several times with 3 different keypads: Director's room in the basement (hub). The paper marks which 5 keys you need to press: 1, 4, 6, 8, 9. But the ONLY valid combination is 14698. If you use ANY OTHER combination (for example, 64819) it DOESN'T work.

This has happened at least 2 times during my playthrough: the prostetic hand and the director's room. And with 5 different valid keys, there are 120 different combinations!!

-----

For the hand, if you use your PALM to press the buttons, the INDEX falanges relates to numbers 1,4 and 7. If you look at the prostetic hand, it has the TOP and the BOTTOM falanges with the TRIANGLE; which means number 1 and 7 are part of the code.

-----------
By the way... the binary combination for Alan's room is 110100101, and the code for the door is 1-2-4-7-9.

WHY? How does the binary number 110100101, which is the digit number 421, leads to "1-2-4-7-9"??? I tried grouping by 3 digits (it would lead to 645),

---------------

Another example: in the spiral castle, in the basement, you need to point your UV flashlight to the generator to give enough power to open a door. But you cannot run for it because you would stop pointing at the generator. So the solution is...
USE THE DOG TO INTERACT WITH THE BUTTON??

The dog has NEVER pushed a button BEFORE (and I am pretty sure it won't do it ever again in the game): So how CAN I KNOIW that the dog can press buttons now?? It is a ONE TIME THING that I needed to look for in a walkthrough.

I you want yo use the dog, you can teach the player by having a button pressed by the door before (as a tutorial), or, better still, having a PRESSURE PLATE that needs weight to open. That way it is MUCH BETTER to understand that "the dog can move there and stay to open the door" instead of thinking "the door can stand in two legs and press a button,..."


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These are the kind of things I don't understand. I really LOVE the game, but these puzzles are not well designed in my opinion.

Of course, it is MY OPINION. But this is the first time I need to consult guides for a survival horror, puzzle game, in my life. And the solutions were NOT logical

Anoth

[Babs]

Howdy!

The code in the mines does have a paper with some hints, its in the engine room

Agree about the cats and trees, I absolutely dont like those audio needed things... shouldnt be this way. Maybe some paws footprints?

The hint for the arm code is he needs that to remember the code, so... he should look at the hand to see the numbers, not face the hand against the panel

Im pretty sure that in Verissimo's room I used the combination 1-4-8-9-6, what does that mean? welp, you have to follow a line to solve the puzzle, meaning the solutions 4-1-6-9-8, 8-9-6-1-4 and 6-9-8-4-1 should work (has other combinations) I guess

Alan's room is not a binary code, its just that when its 1 you press, when its a 0 you dont press
123
456
789
-
110
100
101
This way you have: 12479
To be honest, almost all the codes in the game are five digits and have the same logic when looking at a panel

Lupi does a lot of things, including press buttons in another situations
By the way, thats a tutorial like situation around the castle
And I used this logic in the entire game: when I dont know what to do, just change to Lupi to see if he does something, it worked almost all the time lol

Good luck! I hope you have a better experience with the next puzzles! Its nice to see you are enjoying the game besides this <3

[alissonkira7]

the only inconsistent puzzle you listed was the cat one, there is nothing that includes that you should follow the loudest meow. there are a hint that you should back for them, but if you bark anywhere you can hear the meow... and about the number of cats.. there should apear 3 which are Fernanda's cats... but in the Order notes, there are only two cats draw... so yeah not the best one. even tho i had thought and token prove that some gates had louder meow, i also thought that it wouldnt be it because was way to simple, there was already another sound like puzzle and there was none information about it...

[Aricou]

Originally posted by Fibrizzo:

Originally posted by Aricou:

So, about the meowing, what I did is bark in front of a exit, then if the meowing is loud enough, that is the right exit.
About the hand, I don't know what are you talking about, it is clearly a 7 on the hand. And you don't need to guess a right combination, any combination works. There's no order in any padlock.

If you bark a lot, the meows are like random (duration and strength), so it is no clear 100% if the correct portal. It should be easier (and, specially playing with no headphones, since it's more difficult to identify in a TV if the sound is 30% left, 70% right). It should be clearer, in my opinion. No meow in the invalid door, or a special meow ONLY for the valid door. (try to bark seven times in each door, and you'll see that the meows lenght are randomized, The volume is higher, yes, but the lenght is not!)

For the keypads, there are several that needs 5 digits, and ONLY the valid combination works. I have tested several times with 3 different keypads: Director's room in the basement (hub). The paper marks which 5 keys you need to press: 1, 4, 6, 8, 9. But the ONLY valid combination is 14698. If you use ANY OTHER combination (for example, 64819) it DOESN'T work.

This has happened at least 2 times during my playthrough: the prostetic hand and the director's room. And with 5 different valid keys, there are 120 different combinations!!

-----

For the hand, if you use your PALM to press the buttons, the INDEX falanges relates to numbers 1,4 and 7. If you look at the prostetic hand, it has the TOP and the BOTTOM falanges with the TRIANGLE; which means number 1 and 7 are part of the code.

-----------
By the way... the binary combination for Alan's room is 110100101, and the code for the door is 1-2-4-7-9.

WHY? How does the binary number 110100101, which is the digit number 421, leads to "1-2-4-7-9"??? I tried grouping by 3 digits (it would lead to 645),

---------------

Another example: in the spiral castle, in the basement, you need to point your UV flashlight to the generator to give enough power to open a door. But you cannot run for it because you would stop pointing at the generator. So the solution is...
USE THE DOG TO INTERACT WITH THE BUTTON??

The dog has NEVER pushed a button BEFORE (and I am pretty sure it won't do it ever again in the game): So how CAN I KNOIW that the dog can press buttons now?? It is a ONE TIME THING that I needed to look for in a walkthrough.

I you want yo use the dog, you can teach the player by having a button pressed by the door before (as a tutorial), or, better still, having a PRESSURE PLATE that needs weight to open. That way it is MUCH BETTER to understand that "the dog can move there and stay to open the door" instead of thinking "the door can stand in two legs and press a button,..."


--------------
These are the kind of things I don't understand. I really LOVE the game, but these puzzles are not well designed in my opinion.

Of course, it is MY OPINION. But this is the first time I need to consult guides for a survival horror, puzzle game, in my life. And the solutions were NOT logical

Anoth

Well, the only thing that counts is the volume of the meows, not the length. You should always focus on the volume.

For the keypads, any combination that I tried works, don't know what is happening with your game for it not to work, maybe it's just for these in specific that has to be in ascending order? Dunno.

For the Alan code, I had some issues with that too. It isn't binary, it's true or false, but there isn't any document that points to that solution. This is the only puzzle for me that I feel like it should be designed better, I agree with you on that.

For the generator, I didn't even know you can use the dog for that, I used the Deja Vu radio to complete this puzzle. But I guess what the devs wanted you to think is, if the dog can open doors, he can press buttons too. And I mean, there's multiple solutions to that, like I said, I didn't need to use the dog to open that door, so you can try various things to complete this puzzle.

I guess it varies from person to person, but for me the only puzzle that I feel like it needs better clarification is the code for Alan's Room, but I understand where you come from, in the end, we all have different logics to solve the puzzles, and for me that is the fun in those games.