Thanks for the video. Well done.

Wonderful video and it captures pretty much exactly what makes me love Riven so much. I got the game when I was about 6 or 7 years old, and even though the puzzles flew right over my head, I was immersed in the look, feel, and sound of the world that the Miller Brothers, Richard Vander Wende, and the rest of the Cyan team created. The soundtrack alone was burned into my psyche and still gives me chills to this day. Over the years I beat it a handful of times with the help of guides, but it wasn't until this year that I finally solved all the puzzles, including the fire marble puzzle, myself. The sense of achievement I felt was overwhelming, and it almost feels as though a chapter of my life came to a close.

Came here after remembering this game from when I was about 10 or 12. What I remember was how atmospheric it was. I felt do isolated and even scared, even though it takes place (for the most part and beginning) on a sunny island in the daytime. I remember feeling existential dread when I got stuck with the Dad in his book.

I think having the end "puzzle" in plain sight serves a different purpose in Riven than in Myst. In Myst it's a "how did i miss this?" In Riven, going to the telescope and smashing the barrier is a big deep breath that you're done. You've explored the world and solved the puzzles and now you, the player, at your convenience, get to finish the game.

I still haven't gotten over this game after all this time, it's my absolute favourite game, I only wish that I could convince my friends to try it out

For me the sense of accomplishment was better in Myst, but the conclusion was much more rewarding in Riven.

Teeelllll uuuuuus the patteeeeeerrn! (I am never going to play this game XD )

It’s a good game except for the beginning, when I bought eponia this game was included in that bundle almost for free on steam and I did not played for long on how ridiculous difficult to guess was the beginning then I decided to give it a new try and even when it was bad it was progressively going better and I end-up liking it a lot

The mechanical age's "lift middle button" puzzle sucked ass too.

The selenitic age just sucked ass. Still a great game, but selenitic age really soured the experience a bit... especially because it was my last age.

Great game, never played it myself but watched more than 10 playthroughs.

34:13 One of the coolest example of something like this comes ironically enough from a non-puzzle game - an NES platformer called Little Nemo: The Dream Master. In the game, you control a pajama-wearing kid called Nemo, wondering in magical dreamscapes, fighting monsters and taming animals with candy. If as a dream-filled kid yourself you manage to get good at the game enough to reach the final stage, you are met with a hellish landscape with flames shooting from the ground, and after a while an end-boss - a Penguin King, whom you must now fight. But how should you fight this Penguin King? You have no weapons, since the only tool at your proposal so far has been candy, which you use to tame animals, a couple of which can then perform attacks. But here your only friend is a lizard, who is nimble, can fit through tight places and crawl on walls - but he has no attack to speak of. And it is at this point, where Nemo draws from his back a sceptre, filled with magical power! And the cool thing is: this staff has been on his back throughout the game, in the game sprite itself, which you have controlled for so long! At least me and my sisters never noticed this detail - how cool is it that the solution to this end-boss was hidden in plain sight all alone, and even travelled with us all the way! * In reality, the Penguin King is _not_ the end boss - he is simply cemented as such in my mind, since I never got past him as a child! So you traverse more nightmarish landscape, only to fight a second boss, a fire-shooting Manta Ray. If you are skilled enough to beat him, you glimpse in the distance a huge imposing figure while traveling across this treacherous terrain - a truly devilish creature, whom you know you will finally have to fight to conquer Nightmare Land and to beat the game. But you try to calm your nerves, hoping that the sceptre at your back and the skills you have gained are enough to get you there. To this day, that game remains as one of the greatest I have played, a true gem, and the absolutely sublime music that haunts Nightmare Land remains one of my favourite video game tunes of all time. And seeing that sceptre reveal on encountering the Penguin King remains one of the most memorable gaming moments from my childhood. Knowing now that he is not the end boss takes little away from the reveal - in fact it gives me enthusiasm to fire the game up once more, and finish the fight that was left on pause for such a long time.

I remember this was the first video game that truly freaked me out. I found their books before I found Atrus' message and having the emptiness of the island disrupted by these maniacal brothers trapped in books along with the static was truly jarring....Wish I had my Myst notebook still! Check out Gabriel Knight, Blood of the Sacred Blood of the Damned

I love all.the games in their own ways...glad to see riven remake... i got 10 days off work to live in Riven vr....

11 years later and this game is still the shit, so fucking good.

Instead of Myst, The Witness reminds me much more of the RHEM-Series. And endless amount of puzzles and each one of them sticking out.

one of my favorites

your passion for the game shines through, man. i know it's almost impossible to be able to talk about ALL that you want to when creating a love letter type of video for something, but I can tell you that what you made was able to shed a ton of light on why it holds a special place for you. video ruled, thanks for sharing.

A puzzle game I bet you haven't even heard of is called Obsidian. It's a great game lost to time. I wasn't ever able to finish the game as it always crashed after I got out of the chemistry part of it....perhaps you could do a video on that game :D Also I think Outer Wilds is definitely overrated, but that's doesn't mean it's not good, it just means that it didn't really speak to me like all these people around me claim it spoke to them...maybe I missed something, but I seriously don't get the hype of the game. Or maybe the hype became too large and annoying, and I got tired of hearing people constantly gush about this game Add nauseam....and thus it soured my experience. Whatever happened, I just don't see the magic that other people do. With that said, this was very good video.

What about an obduction video?

I'm pretty sure there are some psychopaths that translated the language of the instructions manual.

Homestar Runner video, yes please!

I love that still to this day people are discovering and falling in love with this franchise. I remember playing it back in ‘97 and just falling in love with the island and its puzzles

With the exception of Hyper Light Drifter which I've finished multiple times, I also bounced off the others. I've tried finishing Prey and Hollow Knight multiple times but just can't. I can respect them as well-designed games but there's just something missing with them to grab me till the end.

Hello from the end credits. One of my all time favorites. I have jumped around some of your content the past few days, starting from the Firmament video, then to Myst and Riven (my all time favorite), and now here. I haven't explored your catalog too thoroughly, but have you covered Obduction fully?

1:12:12 - Not quite. _That_ mushroom is slightly different. Though it'll heal you the same as the original one, if you use it in battle it'll also turn you into a mushroom. (The description hints that something is off about it too.)

Man, seriously great stuff. Now I gotta watch all your Myst videos.

Fantastic!

49:52 YES someone else else who vibes with the Strong Bad-ser take on the Koopa king >:3c

Mario's lowest point was probably trying to punch Gaz in the face

This video is really well done, and I found it to be an excellent watch 💯 I feel like your deep affection for the game definitely shone through 😃

Beautiful video on a SNES classic. This was my first experience with an RPG, so the concepts of turn based gameplay was foreign to me, but it had Mario so it was plus! Just watching this makes me wanna say, F it. I've holding off making passion projects like this b/c I wasn't "big" enough. But screw it, let's just them out b/c you love them!

But is your totally-not-made-up NEW Riven video gonna come out before THAT remake? 🤔 All jokes aside, great video. Always love hearing stories of games I never played that were integral to another person's growth.

Mario RPG is cool

I really hope this video takes off! It might be difficult since Mario RPG is off the algorithm since the hype for remake is over - it could have exploded if you released it with the remake launch, but i hope it performs well!! Such a great video!

but have you ever played paper mario????

I think its great you are able to share your thoughts on your writing struggles and make long form content.

I wonder how much influence SMRPG had on FFVII. It gave them experience with using pre-rendered graphics in games, as well as how successful the game can be with a party of 3 and minigames galore, although I guess you could say the same about Chrono Trigger.

I really really really miss Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars as the original and remake. As much as I admit the awesome and nostalgic remake was an extreme dream come true, a bigger wish of mine still has not come true. I have been wishing for such a long, long, long time Mallow and Geno returned and were seen as major playable characters in some or even many more Mario games following Super Mario RPG. They had such an awesome adventure during their debuts in the original and seen in the remake. Sorry if you do not know, but what is the huge deal?

This is a video where I sing part of a Rush song and do a bunch of Homestar Runner talk, pretty much my favourite video ever!

This is the video about Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars that we both needed and deserved. Such a well done piece-by-piece examination of one of the greatest SNES games and RPG's ever made. I still have so many fond memories. I, too, didn't know what to think of it at first, but when I kept playing and the game revealed itself to me, I think my eyes opened and remained open for the entirety of that story. It just clicked, and I'm glad that it did. I remember we also had a guide book for it. That sacred tome, that is surely creased and missing pages because I used it so much in my many childhood playthroughs of it, led to a lifetime of enjoyable experiences that some other games haven't reached. I'm glad there's a remake now as a new generation of people can experience this wonderful assembly of pixels and code, but I don't think I'll ever play it, as I'll always just want to remember Super Mario RPG how it was for me growing up. The ending to this video is so poignant and relatable that I felt it deep in my soul. I'm glad you had an easier time with this one. If you ever need a Pick Me Up (hehe) when things feel too overwhelming, you know where to find me. Keep up the outstanding work that I already know you will.

I’m jealous of the people that read about the age of riven in ‘the book of atrus’ before riven came out

I don’t see riven as a video game. It’s more like a real experience that I had

I feel like the real time 3-D breaks the illusion of it being made by pictures of a real place

Myst is great, Riven is perfect, Obduction is near-perfect, and Firmament is highly underrated. I thought the gameplay and puzzle design was very good in the ways you described, the environments were fantastic, and I could not stop thinking about the story afterward. Riven and Myst have deep and interesting lore and larger than life characters, Obduction's premise/lore was fascinating and beautifully cosmic and spiritual, but Firmament's story felt much more... i dunno.. darkly human and emotional to me. I think they knocked it out of the park. Suffice it to say, Cyan has an incredible catalogue, they are geniuses. I'm sort of feeling like the riven remake will be beyond perfect.