Let's Play Myst (2020 Remake) Part 1 - I Remember Where I Am, but Not How to Do It

[@renmcg12]

Several years ago, as I was discovering the world of video game playthroughs on youtube, I went in search of someone who had played the Myst games. Your channel has been a part of my life ever since.

[@masterpeace8539]

That's how I found it too. And then there was an epic playthrough of The Witness )

[@KaWolfram]

Yes! That's what I am here for. Thank god for the patched-in original video clips. That 3D character model was... unacceptable... much worse than what I expected from the screenshots I have seen at release. The audio, the music... so iconic and nostalgic. They make me feel like a kid in the 90s again with my first computer. I love it. Back then, MYST was competing with the OG minesweeper and solitaire, and that 3D bumper car Win95 game on my PC, I think. So yeah, it was utterly different and confusing in the most wonderful way. Mindblowing. Much too difficult for young players, but that's fine. I didn't play to complete games or understand them, I played just to have fun and get immersed in a game world. It was also the days of dial-up internet and would never have crossed my mind to go online looking for help when I got stuck for literal weeks on Mechanical Age. That also contributed to making it a unique and lasting memory in turn. I tried to get clues from other kids at school who played videogames, eventually bought the MYST guide book. And that taught me an important lesson about elevators. (I remember you credited previous elevator knowledge from Darksouls when you first played MYST and encountered that puzzle a few years ago - I wasn't so lucky.) Anyway. Thank you for playing this and sharing it. Looking very forward to the rest of the series!

[@RudeMyDude]

Had no idea Myst was *30* years old, that's wild! I vividly remember being very confused but entranced with the copy we had when I was a kid.

[@RBRSC]

It’s tough to directly connect the books to this game, because this game came first before any of the expanded lore existed (the books came out around the time of Riven, 3 or 4 years later). Even D’ni is just a random throwaway nonsense name for the Age Atreus is in in the context of the original game. Even the linking books were a macgyver for technical issues getting the videos (which had to be small 2d rectangles)to work in 1993. And a convenient half explanation for ways to hop between wildly diverse puzzle locations. It’s an odd phenomenon that’s mostly unique to video games, where it’s not even prequels, but the later entries obviously had more ambition or resources to drastically alter the story (or good old George Lucas effect of refusing to let the original be). Ultima 6 and 7 p2 try and retrofit 1-3. Elder Scrolls is full of it. The many FF7 spin-offs. New Doom.

[@basiator2]

1:20:24 On Riven, Atrus meets Catherine, a local inhabitant and a brilliant student of Gehn's who shows promise in the Art of writing Ages, despite not being D'ni herself. Together they trap Gehn on Riven. Atrus' grandmother, Anna ("Ti'ana"), helps Catherine by writing the Age of Myst as an escape route while Atrus destroys every other linking book on Riven. The linking book to Myst is dropped into a starry expanse known as the Star Fissure, where it is presumed lost (but later found by the Stranger, beginning the events of Myst). Catherine and Atrus start a family on Myst, raising their two sons, Sirrus and Achenar; however, both boys grow greedy and seek to strand their parents, trapping Atrus on K'veer and luring Catherine to Riven, where she is captured by Gehn.

[@johnjohanson8662]

an interesting theme of Myst is that all 4 of the worlds (Channel, Stone, Mech, Selenic) started out as lovely, peaceful worlds that flooded, overturning all life and leaving each entry point an isolated island in a vast sea of empty water. one could almost conclude that this recurring theme in Atrus's writings might be reflective of a deep melancholy or depression, and is the complete opposite of the worlds his wife Catherine creates (or even what Gen makes). can't help but wonder if his inattentiveness towards his kids might have coincided at this time.

[@CtrlCthenV]

Long time lurker, first time poster. I felt like I have to express some of the joy in my heart at watching you start this game.

[@OriionCygnus]

"Osmoian Age" is a reference to Cosmic Osmo and the Worlds Beyond the Mackerel, one of Cyan's previous games before Myst. Fun fact: Cyan Inc. is the oldest surviving independent videogame developer in the US having been founded in 1987. Myst is also single-handedly responsible for popularizing the CD-ROM format for PC games in the early 90s. The huge profits from its sales allowed Cyan to afford the same production software used for rendering the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park to make the sequel: Riven.

[@OriionCygnus]

Oh wow they added the frog. Thats incredible. There was an old promotional render from RealMyst that showed a screenshot of Channelwood at night with a frog on the walkway. But in the final game the frog was nowhere to be found and the day/night cycle which was included in some Ages was not present in Channelwood which I remember being a big deal at the time because people were expecting to be able to find that frog. That's a neat easteregg that only die hard fans would get. To everybody else it's just a frog.

[@cloverknot1029]

I am loving this. I watched your first play thru years ago and seeing that you have this and riven I get to binge it again! Yes ! Feels good to come back.

[@LittleWeevil]

You're right in that this game is less grounded then later games in the series, though you can see points where they were trying to move in that direction. I think of Channelwood where the puzzle is just rerouting power to different parts of the age, or how Atrus's journal is in the library. Smart game design would be to take the chapters of that book and spread them out though the ages, with each chapter sitting in the age it refers too. But logic dictates that Atrus's journal would be sitting in his library, as one complete whole, so that's where it is, even at the risk of dumping too much on the player at once.

[@Cuiasodo]

I feel like people playing the modern remakes might have an easier time with the game just by pure virtue of being able to look around in a 3D space. The treehouse maze in Channelwood previously more or less REQUIRED you to write down the map included in the journal, whereas I remember being able to intuitively navigate that area in realMyst without really having to refer back to the map. Same goes for some of the trickier, find-the-thing-to-click-on segments like in Stoneship. The puzzle design in Myst is some of the best organic, built-in puzzle work that I've seen in a video game, but it can be hard to wrap your hear around if you're not in the headspace of, "nearly everything in this room was put here for a reason and is either meant to lend to the story or give a hint at how something works."

[@Tortuosit]

Played this game in my childhood, was 21 back then.

[@jimmyp.6180]

Hey Keith dunno if you'll see this but the reasom Myst island is so wonky os that canonically it isn't the "real" myst but the game but a very basic teaching teaching tool created by Cyan to teach the general public about a very rudimentary approximation of the first actions of the Stranger. They used recignizable objects and reduced the size of the island presented to keep things concise. Long and short: -The "real" Myst Island was much bigger. -The places of protection existed but would have been more akin to D'ni design. -The Stranger managed to rescue Atrus without ever actually meeting Sirrus and Achenar. -The Stranger did not actually collect pages. The things shown in game are just, canonically, Cyan introducing the world to the events in the most stripped down basic way possible after the establishment of the D'ni restoration Council (which worked with Cyan).

[@05Matz]

Oooh, Myst got remakes. I didn't play Myst as a child, but I DID play The Journeyman Project: Turbo! an awful lot. I really recommend the The Journeyman Project series to people who like this kind of adventure game!. I kind of wish that series got modern games too. ...IIRC the first game _technically_ already has a remake (still fixed-perspective, though), the version you'll find on GOG/etc. is "Pegasus Prime", which is the PC port of the expanded remake they did intended for consoles (the Sega Dreamcast was their main target but the deal fell through IIRC?). In my opinion the interface got kind of screwy in the double-transition though, but that might be nostalgia talking. The sequels are still 'original' (but the engine they use is much more sound than the old TJP1 engine, and IIRC they're stylistically more in keeping with Pegasus Prime).

[@Divector8]

Fortunately the face models in the Riven remake are looking much better. Game Informer's article on the Riven remake from April features a picture of Ghen's face model and it looks great.

[@michaelmatter1222]

Basalt columns have become an invasive species 👀

[@Art_911]

Though it hasn't aged so well graphically, and the "remakes" are doing better (besides they horrible CGI characters). This game is still so classic. And OMG I still love the music. Unfortunately since you are free to raom in these now, it messes up the timing of when the music plays and cuts out, so that's a bit jarring. TURN OFF THE LIGHTS in the dentist chair, I mean the star char LOL. In the original you couldn't see the stars if you didn't. This game is so ingrained in my brain, I do remember a lot of the solutions and steps to take to complete it. Still fun to watch someone playing though it again though.

[@PacNW]

You're correct about the red and blue pages in the OG Myst - it was always (kind of) a pain to make a second trip for the second page. I'm also glad you decided to play with the old video characters...I prefer to see Rand and Robyn, not rough-made graphics.

[@laZOETje]

Nothing is laid out linearly. You are meant to wonder around confused and explore. Nothing is given, you work for it. The not is meant to fall in your lap. You look at everything to figure out what you are doing,

[@laZOETje]

Yeah, the animatec faces are kinda creepy😳, good call reverting!

[@thederpyguy2295]

Also immediately turned off the creepy 3d models when I played.

[@Nikkiflausch]

They replaced the live-action parts with 3d models??? What the hell were they thinking?!?

[@LittleWeevil]

1:10 Actually, the second remake of Myst. First there was Realmyst, then Realmyst Masterpiece edition, which you played. So this is the third remake.

[@HerrFinsternis]

Riven is getting a remake? 😍

[@skylarkeighley2369]

releases some time towards the end of the year

[@HerrFinsternis]

@@skylarkeighley2369 nice. I absolutely adored that game. Thx for the info

[@aaronh6489]

Releases june 25th....pancake and vr

[@nikogarcia201]

57:18 Sirus and Achenar were so messed up. Then again, that’s what being worshiped will do to you if your never taught to be humble.

[@godomoths242]

I guess myst Island was built as a vacation home but these Puzzles were maybe built do protect the books they guard. Either from strangers or from the Sons. That's my guess at least

[@donwald3436]

11:22 Right??? lol.... it should have been like, enter the number on a pad located inside a bear trap.... don't get it wrong or you'll be there a long time!

[@nikogarcia201]

At least, Atrus learn from his mistakes when he had his daughter.

[@aaronh6489]

You ever play return to zork? Zork nemisis , or zork grand inquisitor ?

[@leonardorocha2244]

Can you subtitle the video clips, please? I'm having a hard time understanding what they are saying with all the distortion... Like, I get that the books are supposed to be difficult to understand , but I could get maybe half of what the visualizer hologram was saying

[@leonardorocha2244]

@@generrosity Thanks!

[@retyroni]

D'ni is pronounced 'dunny.' _snickers in Australian_

[@CoastalSphinx]

If I recall correctly, it was originally spelled "dunny" too! Pretty much all the lore was written *after* the original Myst game - when the first game was a huge success, they needed a bigger world for the sequel.

[@jonnyfavors7585]

Dude...your voice sounds almost identical to that other gamer channel "MANLYBADASSHERO"..