Dark Fall: Ghost Vigil 11: The End of the Ending

Well that was quite a trek! The endgame is really kinda tough.

I confess that I did watch CJU's latest video (as of this writing--he hasn't finished yet) and saw that I missed the final clue to the order of the lyrics. So, it's a good thing I watched it! I would have had to look it up and I hate to do that. But he left off at the entrance to the underground passages, so I finished ahead of him.

As to my mouse sensitivity, I did try using my controller and it did definitely help, although even that jumped around a bit in certain areas. I actually never knew that you could use a controller in place of a mouse, but it really isn't that different. Because we're just moving one click at a time it doesn't weave all over the place. I didn't need it to get through the miasma, because winning the trials opens that up. I switched to it when the mouse got too out of control, so that made things better.

Now then. The trials.

First, you have to find stuff in all that rubble. Warning: not as straightforward as it seems. Yes, those elusive stones are there, but you kind of can't look for the actual stones. Instead, look for the hand icon, because the stones are quite well camouflaged. I finally found the last one by just getting a flash of the hand icon for about a quarter of a second, and then had to keep sweeping the area until I got it again, and got the cursor to stay put on it long enough to click it.

So, a challenge.

Get the right stone on the right pedestal

I started with the sound puzzle. It's randomized, and you do get good clues, but the problem is that the patterns on the stones are quite difficult to match up to the clues. Once you get that right there is a brief sound clue. After that it's really not that tough, and I love it that it's the same sounds that were in the original Dark Fall: The Journal. (If you have not played that, for heaven's sake, play it! Fantastic game and it costs less than $5.00 these days.)

Then we have the standing stones puzzle. Yeah, the PDF walkthrough says that the clue is in Harwood's study, but we can't get back to Harwood's study, because after we solve that puzzle, the time-travel icon disappears and we're just in the nursery again.

The standing stones, however, aren't that difficult to solve if you just use common sense. Really, it might take a couple of tries, but no more than that.

For the final trial puzzle I really did have to look up the clue, at least. With that I was able to figure it out on my own. 

The Dark Fall Pit!

And then we get into the Dark Fall chamber! There are supposed to be three endings. However, if you have done the Saxton puzzle in the boys' dorm you will get the Saxton ending. That is the one I wanted and I got it, and it was deeply satisfying!

Home!

However, I would like to have won and freed my colleagues and the other souls trapped in the place. Plus, I don't know how to lose. I tried to lose. Nothing happened at all. I might go back and try again, but I'd like to see all three endings if I can.

Well, I will certainly replay the game again all on Steam just for the achievements. This time I won't do the Saxton puzzle and we'll see what I get after that.

And I finished ahead of CJU! Ha!

MAJOR MASSIVE UPDATE: I went back and did what the caretaker told me to do and this time I won! Hey ho! There's a lot more to come when you win! And we do get out:

Escape!

Still haven't lost yet, but CJU just uploaded his final video of the game so we'll see how that works.

I never did hear my name in the game, but I'm now wondering if the names might just be randomly said by Matron (Nanny Noah) as we wander around on the upper level. Never heard my name but I suppose it could be there and I just didn't get it. Well, yet another reason for a second playthrough!
 

I will say that the cursor sensitivity for me was a major problem. CJU hasn't had that problem at all in his videos, and I've looked at several other videos of playthroughs and nobody else has the problem either. So somehow it must be just me. I cannot understand why. I must have something set improperly on my PC, because the problem persisted even with the trackpad. Only the controller helped, and even that wasn't perfect. The problem was in both the Shadow Tor and Steam versions of the game, for me, anyway.

MAJOR DISCOVERY: I solved my cursor sensitivity problem by going into options and turning video quality from high to medium. If only I'd figured that out early on!

But I also went back and replayed to get all of the Steam. achievements. That was fun!

Musings: This really may be the best Darkfall, although game one is quite competitive in that way. This one is newer and far more polished, of course, with greater depth to the story. I absolutely loved it that so many little memories of that game were in this one. I almost wish I had made a list! 

Of course, nobody has to play the original game or any other to fully enjoy this one. It's just that you will get these little fun reminders, especially if you know the games well. I even saw one reference to something in DK2: Lights Out (a little poem). If there was anything from DK3: Lost Souls, I missed it. And of course, there are plenty of references to The Lost Crown. The Saxton ending was perfect, because this game was made mainly to get the financing they needed to finish TLC2: Blackenrock. 

So, a great time with this one! Really took me back to the days when I was just immersed in PnC adventures. This is the kind of game I'm always looking for.

Absolutely loved it! Yay!