Date played: September 4th
Platform: PS4
I finished Broken Age!
Honestly, while the ending was really cool from a story perspective, the puzzles were too fucking difficult... It turns out, most of the end game revolves around wiring Hexipals, but the system is kind of fucked. Basically, there are 6 possible soldering points on the robot, and each of these corresponds to a randomized icon. I found three clues in the world that explain some of it.
There was a picture in Mom's room that listed a combination. There was a book in the basement of Alex's ship with another combination. Finally, there was the Hexipal on Shay's ship that had some hints on it for wiring.
The problem with the puzzle is that I had to first figure out which icon corresponds to which soldering point. Then, I had to figure out the direction of the current, because it wasn't already complicated enough. Then to add insult to injury, I had to remember the patterns for all three combinations because I had to rewire the fucking thing 15+ times. I mean, I used a guide, and I still had a ton of trouble... I appreciate what they were going for here, but this puzzle was just too long and too complicated.
Thankfully, the story was cool. The two heroes try to work together to destroy the ships and stop the evil bad guys from continuing to harvest young women. The idea is to use Grabbin' Gary to get the ships to hug each other, then to use the laser weapon from Alex's ship to melt the ships and stop the bad guys.
However, Shay's mom doesn't like it, and Alex doesn't like it, so I had to distract them somehow. For Mom, this meant wiring her Hexipal to the harp-playing pattern that was listed in Shay's ship. I then placed the Hexipal at the base of the Weaver's weave. The harp-playing movement made the weaver ticklish, which attracted Mom's attention, leaving me an opening to turn on the manual controls for the boom arms and Grabbin' Gary.
Back in the other ship, I had to use the "repair man" pattern to fix the ship. Then, I had to use the harp-playing pattern to get some savage Hexipals (living in the basement of Alex's ship) to follow me to a music room. They like the music... This allowed me to find a mallet, and to turn power back on in the ship. Then, I had to give the mallet to my Hexipal and teach it the "waving" pattern, from Vella's Hexipal. Then I had to make my Hexipal play some drums to attract Alex's attention.
Once both were distracted, I was able to use Grabbin' Gary and the laser at the same time, melting the two ships together. They melt at the plague dam, creating a bridge to connect the different worlds of the planet. Vella and Shay finally meet properly and become good friends rather quickly. All is well that ends well!
I really enjoyed Broken Age. Most of the puzzles were fun, kind of intuitive, at least for this type of game. The real reason I kept playing was the great writing, the loveable characters and the silly situations. The great art style and voice acting helped too. I'm glad I played this, I just wish the last few puzzles weren't so obtuse.
Platform: PS4
I finished Broken Age!
Honestly, while the ending was really cool from a story perspective, the puzzles were too fucking difficult... It turns out, most of the end game revolves around wiring Hexipals, but the system is kind of fucked. Basically, there are 6 possible soldering points on the robot, and each of these corresponds to a randomized icon. I found three clues in the world that explain some of it.
There was a picture in Mom's room that listed a combination. There was a book in the basement of Alex's ship with another combination. Finally, there was the Hexipal on Shay's ship that had some hints on it for wiring.
The problem with the puzzle is that I had to first figure out which icon corresponds to which soldering point. Then, I had to figure out the direction of the current, because it wasn't already complicated enough. Then to add insult to injury, I had to remember the patterns for all three combinations because I had to rewire the fucking thing 15+ times. I mean, I used a guide, and I still had a ton of trouble... I appreciate what they were going for here, but this puzzle was just too long and too complicated.
Thankfully, the story was cool. The two heroes try to work together to destroy the ships and stop the evil bad guys from continuing to harvest young women. The idea is to use Grabbin' Gary to get the ships to hug each other, then to use the laser weapon from Alex's ship to melt the ships and stop the bad guys.
However, Shay's mom doesn't like it, and Alex doesn't like it, so I had to distract them somehow. For Mom, this meant wiring her Hexipal to the harp-playing pattern that was listed in Shay's ship. I then placed the Hexipal at the base of the Weaver's weave. The harp-playing movement made the weaver ticklish, which attracted Mom's attention, leaving me an opening to turn on the manual controls for the boom arms and Grabbin' Gary.
Back in the other ship, I had to use the "repair man" pattern to fix the ship. Then, I had to use the harp-playing pattern to get some savage Hexipals (living in the basement of Alex's ship) to follow me to a music room. They like the music... This allowed me to find a mallet, and to turn power back on in the ship. Then, I had to give the mallet to my Hexipal and teach it the "waving" pattern, from Vella's Hexipal. Then I had to make my Hexipal play some drums to attract Alex's attention.
Once both were distracted, I was able to use Grabbin' Gary and the laser at the same time, melting the two ships together. They melt at the plague dam, creating a bridge to connect the different worlds of the planet. Vella and Shay finally meet properly and become good friends rather quickly. All is well that ends well!
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| Shay and Vella finally meet, after it's all over |
