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Journey Into [Myst]ery
Stilts
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Welcome, Stranger. You're about to go on a very, very long journey. And it all starts with...
The Book of Ti'ana, actually. This novel covers the life of Ti'ana (Atrus' grandmother) and the fall of the City of D'ni.
The Book of Atrus is next on the timeline. This one follows Atrus' life from childhood up to just before the start of Myst. If you ever wanted to know how Atrus learned how to write Ages, this is your book.
Alternatively, you could also read the webcomic adaptation.
Ah, here we go. The original Myst is the second best-selling PC game ever at over 6 million copies (The Sims is #1, if you're curious). This is where your story starts, Stranger. You find yourself stuck on a weird island and have three people imprisoned in books yelling at you to help them get out. Myst was actually remade twice: there's also realMyst (which has 3D environments and a new area) and Myst Masterpiece edition (which ups the resolution of the prerendered images and remasters the audio).
Next is Riven, which has the incredibly blunt subtitle "The Sequel to Myst" just in case anybody got confused. This time, Atrus's wife, Catherine, is trapped and the Stranger has to free her and trap Gehn to save the day. The good news: I and many others consider this game to have the best atmosphere and world-building of any Myst game. The bad news: it is also unanimously considered the hardest game. Riven straight up hates you, and I'm pretty sure almost anyone who's actually beaten it has used a guide at some point. There is no shame in giving in to GameFAQs. Riven's just a fucking asshole of a game.
We return to literature for The Book of the D'ni, which puts the focus on Atrus as he builds a new home for the D'ni. It's meant to bridge the gap between Riven and the next game in the series...
Myst 3: Exile. This is my personal favorite game in the series. It also has the easiest puzzles. But remember, this is "easy" by Myst standards, so you're still gonna have to exercise your brain. It's just that this time the actions you need to take are significantly more intuitive, and the consequences of your wanton switch-flipping and button-pressing are made much more obvious. The Ages look pretty cool, too.
Oh, and I guess there's a plot about some asshole named Saavedro trying to take revenge on Atrus and, by association, the survivors of D'ni who are now living in Releeshahn. It's fine, but kind of forgettable.
Myst 4: Revelation has some goddamn gorgeous Ages. In terms of art design, I consider it to be right up there with Riven. Its puzzles are around the same difficult as Myst 1's: hard, but not quite on Riven's "go fuck yourself" level. It also has my favorite soundtrack. I mean, just listen to the main theme.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjiBnoNMbBMSo good.
Just like in the previous Myst games, you take control of The Stranger. During another visit to Atrus' home (these never end well, do they?), his daughter, Yeesha, goes missing after being chased by a mysterious figure. Atrus fears Sirrus and Achenar (the antagonists of Myst 1) are responsible. It's up to you to figure out what happened to Yeesha and if Atrus' sons have reformed enough to finally release them from their prison Ages.
Uru: Ages Beyond Myst is a weird game. Not only is it the first game to not feature the Stranger, but it's a third-person game with a customizable avatar that also has an MMO version. So like Second Life but with puzzles. The basic plot is about your avatar helping the D'ni Restoration Council in their quest to...well...rebuild the D'ni's civilization. I only played a couple hours of this game, so that's all I've got.
Finally we come to Myst 5: End of Ages. This is the only Myst game I have not actually played yet. Like realMyst and Uru, Myst 5's environments are fully 3D and rendered in real time. Your quest-giver this time is Yeesha, who entrusts you with the task of unlocking the power of a mysterious tablet in order to fully restore the D'ni civilization.
Now, there's a reason I bothered writing up that whole chronology. This isn't just going to be a thread for reminiscing about the games. Oh no. My goal is to play through every single Myst game and document my progress: like a more laid-back version of an LP. I invite you to play along with me.
You can find realMyst, Myst Masterpiece, Riven, Uru and Myst 5 on Steam and GoG. Myst 3 and 4, unfortunately, are only available as physical copies.
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"Sandra has a good solid anti-murderer vibe. My skin felt very secure and sufficiently attached to my body when I met her. Also my organs." HAIL SATAN
She never managed to finish it.
I remember that they let me play Riven when I was about five and I kinda knew there were puzzles but instead I just ran around all the islands looking at the pretty things
Again, Riven is so hard I didn't even really know that there was an objective
We got about to the train station without even touching a guide
I'm convinced that, because of the game's approach to explaining puzzles, it is the hardest vidya game ever created
At the very least it's gotta be in the top 10.
I bought realMyst from GoG yesterday. I might be able to get the first segment out tonight, but most likely I'll start tomorrow.
Also I just started playing Riven again and while I can remember a lot of the broad strokes of what needs to be done in each case, the actual combinations for everything are randomized at the beginning of each playthrough, so I'm still gonna have to learn a base 5 number system to solve all of them
this very much
Are you fucking serious?
AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH
Yeah, sorry buddy
sorry i get really excited about myst sometimes i should play all of them again
ineedmayo.com Eidolon Journal Updated
Those two indie guys had been working on one for a couple years prior to that but the new word was that a couple of actual Hollywood producers had come on to get the ball rolling faster
A little digging indicates that's probably not going to happen real soon
it still creeps me the hell out, even though I know I'm completely alone in the world(s)
Steam | Twitter
But are you
Well I was playing in parallel with my mum and got a hint from her at one point.
AUGH
Pretty sure it got shut down?
Also: friggin' loved visiting Atrus' sons' prison ages in revelation. The forest one was neat, but the rocky one was amazing
Hahaha that fucking door
Still running, free to play, servers are fan-run
http://mystonline.com/en/
Good luck finding the four people who are still playing it
I was given Uru as a gift but I never got far into it. I just can't really get into it I suppose?
Yo
When my LP gets to Uru...
Let's do this.
pre-rendered all the way
but I also say this as a guy who never actually finished the original Myst, nor played any of the sequels
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
I already played the Masterpiece Edition, so I figured I'd go with realMyst this time.
I am down like James Brown
wasn't just that
Stilts Plays Myst: Part 1
I begin by touching a mysterious book. What could possibly go wrong?
Turns out a lot, because I'm now stuck on a weirdass island that looks like a theme park.
The first thing I see is a switch. Which I flip. It doesn't appear to do anything.
There's another one up by the two giant gears. I flip it. Again, nothing seems to happen.
And one more up by this building. Maybe I have to flip all of them? Might as well.
Yeah, that chair doesn't look suspicious.
I turn of the lights and...oh, hey. It's like a virtual observatory.
Okay, I have a good idea of what I have to do with this, but first I'm gonna need to find out what date to look up. Otherwise I'm gonna be going through a LOT of combinations.
I pick up my first red page. Soon after, the game crashes. That's....great.
I manage to read a little of one of the books in this library place before the game crashes again.
I decide to stay away from the library for now. It can't be a coincidence that the one place that makes my framerate plummet also is the one place that seems to make the game crash. This model ship probably has something to do with the ship by the pier where I first arrived, but I'll be damned if I know what.
These things change color when I press them. Predictably, switching them all to green does nothing. I'll need to be more specific, it seems.
Fuck it, let's go inside this creepy building. After flipping the switch, that is.
Yeah, this looks legit.
Huh. A power plant, maybe? I hit some buttons, which increase the power by a certain amount. I write down how much they increase the power by.
10 1
7 2
8 22
16 19
5 9
I initially think that I need to hit 100 exactly, but all those numbers combined only reach 99.
Okay, so I need to hit a specific number in order to power the "ship." Of course, I have no idea what that number even is. I leave and follow the power line, hoping to find a clue.
Well, that's definitely the ship. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any clues about the power generator.
How very rustic.
Okay, this seems to control the pressure of...something. Most likely air.
And this safe probably contains something really important. But once again, I'm missing some numbers.
Again, the workings of this puzzle are pretty obvious. The time I need to hit, though? No clue.
It's at this point that I realize the books in the library are probably not just for show. Unfortunately, the library in realMyst is...unstable, to put it lightly. Looks like I'm gonna need to switch to Masterpiece Edition if I actually want to make progress.
it worked well for me when I first got it but I started it up a couple of weeks ago and it was torturous
I'm also gonna do an LP of the Journeyman Trilogy once Project Pegasus comes out on GoG.
Fuck yesssssssss dude
This was my golden age