I am playing and am not at what seem to be the common "stuck points", but I am wondering if I have missed some key Curiosities. The whole garden (not hedge maze) area is throwing me. I worked out the mushroom, every other enemy in this area is leaving me baffled, and I have tried the brute force method to no avail, including doing actions multiple times. Some guidance would be very much appreciated.
Hi Firefairy, thanks for reaching out. The garden area was the point of the game where I realized that up until then, the "smell" sense had gone very underutilized, so following your nose, so to speak, will help you in multiple encounters in this area actually. One of them that doesn't involve the "smell" sense will progress using "taste" instead.
The mushroom creature encounter was the one that was most intended to throw folks for a loop in this area, so congrats on already getting that one figured out. There isn't much that requires curiosities in this area, so you should be okay without having to hunt down more of those for now. See if that's enough help to get you on your way again, and if you're still having trouble, I can give more specific details on what to do for particular encounters if you'd like.
That was all I needed for the garden- I had actually worked out the Taste one between posting and your reply, but thank you on all of those. :-) I was still thinking in terms of "these things look like they can eat my face" and hadn't tried those actions as of when I posted the first time.
Now, all I have left is pages 12, 13, and 18. I saw your comment about how 18 is one of the last ones, but I am curious why I haven't seen 12 or 13 yet. I have done everything else I can find, including having Trudy read me those pages; I just haven't encountered any more creatures.
I didn't get any encounters in the area up the blue stairs (above the Guest Quarters), and despite getting a lot of encounters in the Guest Quarters, I have only gotten one kind of critter, so I am going to go run around in both of those a bit more to see if I have just been getting weird RNG shenanigans. Just a general idea of where to look for the remaining page critters would be extremely helpful.
I'm glad that helped. It sounds like now you're just missing a few of the last trickier-to-find ones.
For #13 you'll need to visit the Servants' Quarters, which if you haven't found that area yet, try sneaking by the guard in the Main Entrance lobby area of the mansion. Careful not to confuse it with the Guest Quarters area too.
You have to do something particular to find it once you reach the Servants' Quarters though. It won't appear with just a random encounter like most of the others do. Check the surroundings thoroughly and you'll find it.
Page 18 is found in the Study area where Trudy is first found with Morty. There's a single encounter in there that you may have missed due to the smaller size of that area.
I'm just guessing here, but you might also be missing Page #3 as well? That's another tricky one that usually ends up being one of the last few for players to obtain. It requires a few steps, including interacting with the creature that gives you page #18 in a specific way, before you can complete it successfully.
#12 is optional, and can be found in the second part of the Guest Quarters. You won't be able to get to it until you've successfully completed the encounter in the first section of the Guest Quarters though. #12 is another one that isn't a random encounter either actually, so that might be why you missed it if you've already explored that area.
I actually did get #3- the hint you already gave here was very useful, not sure I would have figured that out without just brute-forcing it.
I hadn't even noticed there was a second area to the Guest quarters, so that definitely didn't help. Cool, I should be able to finish now. Thank you so much!
Okay, I do have another question, but it's not about encounters. Am I supposed to be able to become Good Friends with everyone? I know Trudy's relationship only reaches that during the ending, but there are a couple of characters I can't find again after making friends with them, and they aren't mentioned in the ending at all. The herbalist and the NRG drink salesman. Not sure if I missed something there or not.
I definitely like the "combat" style in this game. The only real feedback I have on improving it would be to give some in-game hints as to where the more sneaky critters are (these that are specific triggers), and maybe a way to automatically opt out of combat when you are just trying to get from A to B in the long, windy paths. Something that can be turned on and off, so you can still have encounters once you get there.
Overall, my only real issue with the game is similar to what one of the other posters said- there is an encouragement to speak to all the NPCs, but a lot of the dialogue, even when the content amounts to "no real answer" is very long, which makes it frustrating to talk to everyone and get repeats. A speed control, or the ability to very quickly skip through dialogue if it has been seen before would have been really nice. I like the paced dialogue, but the tenth or so time I have seen it, it starts to grate on the nerves.
I really like the game, the mechanic for getting to other characters is unique and interesting, and the approach to the afterlife is one I have run across before, but never in a game, which made it interesting to see explored in this way. Great game
Thanks for all the wonderful feedback! I appreciate getting it, and I'm glad that you enjoyed your time with the game overall.
To answer your question as best I can, it is possible to play in a way that allows you to reach Good Friend status with almost every one of the "significant" characters. Basically if you interact with them and are able to gain acquaintance/friend/etc. statuses, then you can become Good Friends with them.
However, you have to reach Good Friend status with them prior to having them disappear or switching to them as your player character, because once either of those things has happened, they are effectively "lost" for the remainder of the game as far as being able to continue their quests or get to know them better. As long as you reached Good Friend status with them though, you'll get to see their extra little ending scene.
The one exception to the above is Madeline, as she is something of a special case. You can play as her if you've "died" in the game enough times, but no other characters can really meet her or interact with her in the normal ways like the remainder of the playable / significant NPC cast.
Mag isn't one you can befriend directly or play as. She appears mostly as a part of Wiz's story. It would have been interesting seeing things from her POV more though.
Digsby on the other hand, after you assist him with the crates, leave the area where he's usually found and come back to it again. He won't be at his shop stand, but he's elsewhere in that same area instead. Easy to miss.
Fun fact: Digsby is actually one where you can fail to progress his quest properly. If you chose to not help him with his delivery, you won't be able to become good friends with him.