Puzzles are at the core of Adventure gameplay, they provide challenges for you to overcome with brains rather than brawn. For Action Adventures, they offer a break from the hacky-slashy-stabby-shooty element of title.
Every week I’ll bring you a new puzzle, drawn from some of the best and worst adventure or puzzle games I’ve ever played. Every once in a while I’ll even leave you one of my own for you to solve. If you do, I’ll find a way to reward you!
The answer to the puzzle from the last couple of weeks was A TREE.
This week’s puzzle comes from The Longest Journey as well and it’s one of my favourite sequences in the entire game. About mid-way through it, you must venture into Klack’s castle and face the sorcerer to release the winds he trapped so April can travel the seas. The castle itself is a giant puzzle with gargoyles and the sorcerer himself. You start at the bottom and in front of you is a begging gargoyle. You put a coin in its hand and it starts a chain of mini-puzzles, from putting its fiery hands out to taking pepper and blowing it on an animated wall to open the way to another segment. There is even an alchemy puzzle in which you craft several potions. Finally, Klacks himself is a continuous presence throughout the castle, teasing you and one of the last steps in this multi-layered puzzle of a sequence.
I’ve mentioned it’s one of my favourite puzzles in the entire game and it’s for a couple of reasons. The first is that I love multi-layered puzzles, where you have to complete multiple minuscule tasks in the same room to progress. The goal of this puzzle is to reach the top of the castle, but to do so you need to overcome the defences. It’s a giant puzzle made of smaller parts and I love them, as I mentioned in the Sam & Max Weekly Puzzle some weeks ago.
The Second reason for loving it is that perhaps more than any other sequence it made me believe that Arcadia was magic. A lot of what you do in the castle is reminiscent of classic fantasy. There’s an element of Disney wonder (and a bit of Fantasia) to it all, from sneezing rocks to evil mirror images. It made the child in me—which is always on the surface as I am a big kid after all—giggle with delight.
The Longest Journey is a treasure trove of awesome puzzles, and I’ll probably return to this title in another Weekly Puzzle. If you’ve played this game and have a favourite puzzle, let me know in the comments and we’ll get it up here as a future Weekly Puzzle!
(Video Credit: Dilandau3000)
