[MAJOR SPOILERS] Plotholes

[Zeks]

1) Where did Flora 2 vanish from the island between acts 0 and 1?
2) Why make a single door that is locked in the whole mansion and not unlock it at 100%?
3) Where is act 5? The story is in no way complete and hacking into game's assets I only see acts 0-4 inside voice section.
4) Why did Tesla not write Swan into his will? It seems inconsistent with his own diary and character. he won't let Flora revive her own husband cause that would screw up 10 other people but can't even write a few words to help Swan? Really?
5) Where is the boat that brought Flora 1 onto the island?
6) Why invite Mundy AND his daughter to undo their mistakes? If Mundy undid his, the daughter also would be un-♥♥♥♥ed up...

[Hudcrab]

Good questions!
1) Maybe she faded out of existence in a Back to the Future-ish way? I would definitely like to see her lurking in the other acts but I fear that would cause structural problems and give the game away too early. Probably the neatest thing to do would be to have her throw herself off a cliff in despair on the other side of the house (so unlikely to be spotted by a first-playthrough) early on in act 1.
2) What door is that then?
3) I don't know what you mean by the story being 'no way complete' - I think that's unfair, we have a pretty decent closure to most storylines and it has to end somewhere, it's fine to leave us wondering a little about the fates of the (remaining) characters.
4) Yes, I agree that is totally unexplained. Tesla is just a jerk, it seems.
5) A bit nitpicky, but I agree that her boat should be visible in the distance and perhaps, even, you should be able to see Gustav's on its way. I certainly looked for them, myself.
6) Well I don't think that Mundy's mistake is what he did to his daughter - given how he displays no remorse at the end. Also, I don't think it is confirmed that Tesla necessarily knows their connection?

[Zeks]

1) it's not how it works. Tesla expected to make an exchange so if anything, the original Flora should have vanished, not the second one. Not to mention she walked out of the hall with a spting in her step of a person who knows what to do next. And I quite disagree that "what to do next" is drowning herself
2) Door under the stairs across from Swan's
3) The portal is *still* active and Swan knows the combination to open the door for one.

[MarquisDeSang]

But what is behind the door under the stairs across from Swan's? It's killing me.

[Zeks]

Theres actually a decent explanation for unupdated will. If the switch between young and old Tesla was done after the promise was made, the one from the future might not have had known about Swan's situation at all. The vehemence at which he denies Flora enrty hints at the futture where he did allow the machine's usage and regretted the death of those men her husband saved. In that future there would be no need to fire Flora though. In such a case he simply couldn' have known to update the will.

[chksix]

With graphics settings to ultra or max, can't remember now, the image becomes perfect. Too bad I found that setting after playing through the whole game at default settings.

[Frankie Soysauce]

Adding another question to the list: Why did Gustav fake the phone call to the police in Act I? I didn't find any motivation for that in the game, and I can't reason out a compelling reason for him to have done that. All I can think of is "because he wanted to solve it for himself", but that's not very satisfying.

[unwaveringresolve]

Originally posted by jyrenth:

Adding another question to the list: Why did Gustav fake the phone call to the police in Act I? I didn't find any motivation for that in the game, and I can't reason out a compelling reason for him to have done that. All I can think of is "because he wanted to solve it for himself", but that's not very satisfying.

He doesn't trust police, based on his own experience failing to catch a serial killer and knowing that 2 of the 5 suspects were rich, powerful people who could probably escape punishment. I think his plan was to build his own airtight case before *actually* getting the police involved.

[foner]

I think q1 and q4 answers each other. Flora, who knows the house and has the keys hides inside that room and only comes out after the game is over, so she is there the whole time. It makes perfect sense.

As for the conclusion I think it has nice ending even though it is a bit of a downer. But it has to do with the fact that the real Edison was kinda a ♥♥♥♥ in real life and the fact he got away with it reflects in the game. All it does is to ruin his reputation for the audience and that is kinda a win.

As for Gustaf, his fate is open to interpretation. He might be dead (punishement for loosing it and go drunk) or maybe he survived and can work on his redemption. It is perfect example of a nice open ending.

[BlueRaja]

7) How did Tesla find out everyone's secrets, including Mary's secret that she's never told anyone?
8) So Tesla goes into the future, communicates with his past self to build the time machine that allows him to go into the future (lol), then comes back after his younger version has left. Alright. But what's the point of having us kill ourselves? Why does it need to look like he died? And why do people of the future think that he is the real Tesla? Wouldn't they know that Tesla was already dead?

[taz.in.bc]

Something even more basic has been bothering me. Tesla wrote to Sarah Bernhardt, right, inviting her to the island. So, are we to believe that the immortal Sarah actually was Mary Mundy all along? So the real Sarah Bernhardt (in this game world) doesn't exist? And if there is a real Sarah Bernhardt, then how did Mary Mundy manage to intercept the invitation and impersonate her? That's been bothering me ever since the mirror/makeup scene.

[Mtext]

I am so glad to see literally every single one of the things I wondered about too mentioned here by someone or other! It really does feel to me like the game is crying out for a Chapter 5 to explain these plot-holes away and tie things up properly, or ideally to somehow stop everything from going so catastrophically wrong in the first place! The story is a real tragedy as it is.

PS. the little shout-out to EM in the final approach to the time machine room was so disappointing to see. The man's a modern-day Edison himself, in all the worst ways.

[GrandMasterFox]

I know it's a very old thread, but I just finished the game so who knows who'll finish even later...


All of these can be explained

1) Where did Flora #2 go? She went to hide in the locked room. We know 2 people can exist at the same time, since her locket was doubled as well.
2) Why is there a locked door? So Flora #2 can hide in it
3) Where is act 5? There is no need to it. The story is pretty much done.
Out of the 8 people we've seen : 4 are dead (Tesla, Vanderberg, Mary\Sarah and Mundi)
Gustav is likely dead as well but we don't know for sure.
Edison pretty much got away with killing the Vanderberg kid.
Swan either got deported or maybe cut a deal with Edison to take him in now? Who knows. Is that part of the story really that big of a deal?

Flora #2 being the last remaining person is probably just stuck forever trying to figure out the time machine.

4) It's funny, when I first read that part of the diary, I understood it as Tesla basically saying: "I promised him I'll put him in the will to shut him up"
He even says in the following sentence that nothing will stop him from achieving his goal, which sounded incredibly sinister on his part.

He never intended to do that is how I understood things. But of course, if you think he did, you can always explain that once the old and new Tesla switched, the old one was the bastard.

Also, I'm pretty sure the line he told Flora about how he can't allow her to go back in time to rescue her husband because 10 others will die is also a lie.
It's a time loop, the older one planned it all along that Flora would kill his younger self.
This is why Tesla repeats it a dozen times in that scene is that the only way for her to get to the machine is if he dies.
He was setting her up all along.

5) We don't know when did Flora reach the island. For all we know she came several hours earlier and worked up the courage to meet Tesla.

6) Why invite these specific people? My guess is that Old Tesla wanted to enforce a time loop here. He knew they were there, so he needed them to be there. He most likely never intended for them to get their wish.

Remember the conversation between Gustav and one of the characters (forgot who)
Where they tell Gustav of something that would make them want to kill Tesla.
Then they ask Gustav, if they were the killer, why would they admit to that?
Gustav tells them that it's usually a thing to tell a little truth to hide a big lie.

Old Tesla basically told a little truth (he can help them undo mistakes) to tell a much bigger lie - he knew how this day would turn out and that none of them would get what they want.

7) How did Tesla find everyone's secrets if they haven't told anyone.
Did he find out? All that we see in their letters is that he told them he can help them undo their mistakes and he never says what those mistakes were. They didn't even understand what he meant as Sarah thought he was trying to blackmail her.

The only mentioned secret in the letters is Edison for stealing an invention, but that was also the only that wasn't that big of a deal as a secret as people knew about it.

8) Why did old Tesla need you to jump from a building? So he can hide the death of his future self as well.

Honestly, none of these issues really bothered me.
The two main things that bothered me:
9) Not a plothole, just straight up goof -
In the chess scene, the board is actually reversed. A queen is supposed to start on its own color and the king on the opposite one. So the black king is on a white square and the black queen is on a black square. But the board is reversed in that regard.
(It's easier to spot in the checkmate move)

10) How the bloody heck is it possible for Gustov to see a dead body and not notice it holds Flora #2's locket in it's hand? It's dumb.
A detective sees a dead body and doesn't bother searching it? Clues? Evidence?
Nah, writers need him to wait 4 chapters, so he'll only do that in the end.