First impression - Am I the only one that hate VLR golden file puzzles?

[Fluff Fact⚙ry]

I got halted in one route and forced to midway the other one, have just checked 2 rooms golden answer and what I found out that

"Solutions are too vague, misleading and pointless in meaning, basically all trial-and-error randomly"

Example 1: Infirmary

Solution - You are supposed to compare the clean sheet to the grid table and only get those from grid to the paper, not the vice-versa - from paper to the grid

And I did the vice-versa, which a person should do in terms of logical thinking, by replacing things and summing up the total of things from grid and try different combination.
BUT it's not over yet, I thought it also has something to do withbig huge text in red "AED" so maybe it could change the location, the total as well.

Fine, maybe I am not thinking out of the box enough so I just missed it completely... and then

Example 2: Crew's Quarter

Solution - Just mirror the escape answer password to locker 1

Maybe I'm that stupid to do this, or it is very easy to get misleaded about and think way harder than that. Let me explain more:

First, I am very aware of the mirror. And always do the opposite number when getting certain number combination.
Second, when using the phone in room 1 and check past log I could figure out the number 2592 (mirrored 2652) easily without touching the tape. So I thought the tape must be something very important related to golden file, because the first time I listen to it - it's all quiet, therefore you have to put the correct number then it could be played the right way?
Third, the human body puzzle - you get some number from certain shapes, and it could be flip up and down as well. So how do you take them in order? Well, there are 4 rooms with number on it, and each part of human body puzzle are divided in to them as well - so it's reasonable to think they are related right? So that's why I tried 8169,8196,6918,9618 instead of usual 9861 mirrored from 1986
Last, how am I supposed to know to use the locker 1 to input these number? Not the actual phone of the other two lockers? You must brute-force everything, otherwise you would only think that these locker did their job once, and the vital point of input secret password is the phone

Thefore my impression, why I hate them - the puzzles have many loose spots, and when you use these loose spots to think of a decent solution, the actual one was the stupid idea instead. Anyway, I haven't tried the others yet, and plan to solve them all by myself from now on, hoping them would be better than these examples so I could change my mind about it

[Canard_de_Bain]

its okay, the secret ending from getting all of them is now non-canon.

[Mysti_Fogg]

Well, I didn't play through getting the silver files, but supposedly when you do it that way, your companions give you hints about the files, etc.

So maybe in these hints that show you something of how to do the puzzles are answers to your frustrations?

[Fluff Fact⚙ry]

Originally posted by Mysti_Fogg:

Well, I didn't play through getting the silver files, but supposedly when you do it that way, your companions give you hints about the files, etc.

So maybe in these hints that show you something of how to do the puzzles are answers to your frustrations?

If I have to switch to easy mode to get all direct hints then what's the point of enjoying getting gold files anyway, may as well as just read the walkthrough. Because if the hints for silver are the same hints for gold, then it's not worth trying anymore. It feels like either they tell you everything, or they don't tell you a single thing to indicate that at least you are near the right way, or help eliminate the useless, loose points of the puzzles. And I prefer it to be somewhere in the middle. The same for Crew's Quarter case, if no one say "maybe there's still something in here" to the locker 1, I might just keep toying with the phone and the cassette tape for hours.

Anyway, with the first two secret I think I could grab a hold of the design concept of serect puzzles, so that I wouldn't think too hard again, after all they are not big clever of puzzle that I expected (even though they could, like the Crew's Quater for example, such a waste with the human parts and the rooms)

[Runa Silvertongue]

I'd like to see you make a better DS to PC port than SC did. I dare you, even.

[Fluff Fact⚙ry]

Originally posted by Debra Kadabra:

I'd like to see you make a better DS to PC port than SC did. I dare you, even.

What are you talking about? I never complain about the port or anything like that, only the hidden file puzzles

[Shakajolt]

The infirmary ticked me off and I think one other puzzle, but I'm only about half way through the flow tree. Definitely a few hit-and-miss puzzles in here, but I have no shame going to the steam guides if I've done everything that I think is logical. The Archives messed me up but only because *both* files can technically match at once, and it only triggers one of them at a time, so you have to redo it and figure out which solution it took.

[Fluff Fact⚙ry]

Originally posted by Shakurastial:

The infirmary ticked me off and I think one other puzzle, but I'm only about half way through the flow tree. Definitely a few hit-and-miss puzzles in here, but I have no shame going to the steam guides if I've done everything that I think is logical. The Archives messed me up but only because *both* files can technically match at once, and it only triggers one of them at a time, so you have to redo it and figure out which solution it took.

That's what I'm talking about- If you played the Security room, it is the exact same thing as your Archive situation, but with horizontal and vertical thing added, and it's very annoying as there is no indications of telling you how to input correctly. Therefore, even when you input 100% right answer in good order, it's still wrong because it's not the game's preferred order.

I have made myself promise to solve the golden files without a guide after 2 cheated room above, and so far so good with PEC, Lounge, Gaulem Bay and the Security room. But to be honest, some solving probably due to unintended input rather than being so sure of something (but I was close to it tho...)

P.S: The scariest was the Lounge, that amount of bottle though... luckily there are not many holes in this puzzle design so I could figure it out., otherwise it would be a pretty nightmare of trial-and-error.

[MakoSipper]

I actually think the harder level of puzzles is what makes VLR shine where 999 treated me like a baby and bored me to death. I've been through 11 or 12 rooms now, and the only hint I got so far was from a friend, when I showed him my progress in Security room, when I was trying to find a cipher in order to decode those meaningless letters on the stairs so I could input a 12-character password (supposedly) on the computers, and the hint he gave me was just "... it's a lot more simple than you're thinking"... and that was enough.

There were a few rooms in which I struggled for almost 2 hours, but I always managed to pull through, and I always felt like it was fair in hindsight (and I'm usually very sensible to slightly unfair puzzles like all of those in Goetia cough, cough). I tend to struggle more in mechanical/brute force puzzles, like Lights Out or Tangram, for example, but I didn't have trouble with the game's logic. I think the hardest logic for me to grasp so far was the treatment room, even the normal solution, but when I finally got it I respected the puzzle.

Also, what's the problem with the Lounge? It all made perfect sense to me, and I think I even got the golden file before the normal key.