Understanding the cryptic nature of this game

[HGWhiskeyJack]

Hello,

I've played the game for around 2 hours and am still stuck in the cell.

I am trying to understand what it is the game wants from.

Much of the text is very abstract. The judges questions and the observations from the window lack any context and it feels like I'm guessing at my responses. Such as the first question as to whether I'm a warrior/prophet/artist etc, so far my answers are just guesses with process of elimination being the goal.

I'm still in the cell and feel like I'm where I was when I started.
I've killed the rat and not killed it, grown the sapling but accidentally killed it twice, drank various teas, observed the city outside, had my responses influence the nature of the neighbor on the wall, spoken to my friend and drank the poison.

I can't help but feel I'm missing something, as right now my current process is, try something different and see what happens. It feels like I'm throwing things against the wall to see what sticks, when there's probably a more informed approach I'm missing.

What am I not 'getting'?

[Sumgai]

I don't think there is anyway to get out of the cell in the first three days. You can only get out after using the hacked bat file (which I will refer to as the second set of three days) which changes a few things.

If you drink the poison in the first set of three days check your inventory as it changes when you go to the second set. For the tea drinking and tree watering you just have to keep at it from the first to the second set of three days. There is some set of options to get the rat to help you but I'm not quite sure what they are.

[HGWhiskeyJack]

Originally posted by Sumgai:

I don't think there is anyway to get out of the cell in the first three days. You can only get out after using the hacked bat file (which I will refer to as the second set of three days) which changes a few things.

If you drink the poison in the first set of three days check your inventory as it changes when you go to the second set. For the tea drinking and tree watering you just have to keep at it from the first to the second set of three days. There is some set of options to get the rat to help you but I'm not quite sure what they are.

Thanks, I've done 2 full cycles, so two lots of 3+3 days so far.

I'll give some of those things a try. So the text is meant to feel somewhat abstract and not really related to what you do to move forward? They feel pretty disconnected to the things I'm doing atm.

[Sumgai]

Originally posted by HGWhiskeyJack:

Originally posted by Sumgai:

I don't think there is anyway to get out of the cell in the first three days. You can only get out after using the hacked bat file (which I will refer to as the second set of three days) which changes a few things.

If you drink the poison in the first set of three days check your inventory as it changes when you go to the second set. For the tea drinking and tree watering you just have to keep at it from the first to the second set of three days. There is some set of options to get the rat to help you but I'm not quite sure what they are.

Thanks, I've done 2 full cycles, so two lots of 3+3 days so far.

I'll give some of those things a try. So the text is meant to feel somewhat abstract and not really related to what you do to move forward? They feel pretty disconnected to the things I'm doing atm.

I would say maybe 5% to 10% of the text is related to what you should be doing with the rest related to the story. Make sure to look for the tic tac toe on the floor of the cell. I don't think it does anything when your in the cell but it comes up way, way later and not noticing it before that made me look up a video because how stumped I was.

[Sofi]

Originally posted by Sumgai:

Originally posted by HGWhiskeyJack:

Thanks, I've done 2 full cycles, so two lots of 3+3 days so far.

I'll give some of those things a try. So the text is meant to feel somewhat abstract and not really related to what you do to move forward? They feel pretty disconnected to the things I'm doing atm.

I would say maybe 5% to 10% of the text is related to what you should be doing with the rest related to the story. Make sure to look for the tic tac toe on the floor of the cell. I don't think it does anything when your in the cell but it comes up way, way later and not noticing it before that made me look up a video because how stumped I was.

Wait, does this have to do with the part near the end where you need to win at tic tac toe again? I'm stuck right now and can't seem to make full use of the tic tac toe spaces.

[Sumgai]

Originally posted by Sofi:

Originally posted by Sumgai:

I would say maybe 5% to 10% of the text is related to what you should be doing with the rest related to the story. Make sure to look for the tic tac toe on the floor of the cell. I don't think it does anything when your in the cell but it comes up way, way later and not noticing it before that made me look up a video because how stumped I was.

Wait, does this have to do with the part near the end where you need to win at tic tac toe again? I'm stuck right now and can't seem to make full use of the tic tac toe spaces.

Yeah that is the part. I never noticed it the first time through so was confused at what I was supposed to do.

[Sofi]

Originally posted by Sumgai:

Originally posted by Sofi:

Wait, does this have to do with the part near the end where you need to win at tic tac toe again? I'm stuck right now and can't seem to make full use of the tic tac toe spaces.

Yeah that is the part. I never noticed it the first time through so was confused at what I was supposed to do.

Ok so I just tried playing the game on my computer and I'm able to use the full tic tac toe spaces now. I think it is a steam deck glitch, not sure if that's the case for you though.