Let's Play Riven (2024) - part 14 - Catherine's journal

[@swirm621]

I was so floored when they opened the door to let us explore the tree. I was in VR and spent at least half an hour exploring that tree.

[@JessMichael150]

I took like 25 screen shots I was so excited 😅

[@andy-nicholson]

Listening to you reading the journals is one of my favourite things to look forward to in your let’s plays, Sven!

[@StrimClocks]

No it is not. He read Catherine's journal before he explored the tree.

[@Nero_Jero]

They really tricked me when you couldn't look out of your door window in your little prison room. I was SO happy when the door opened and I realized I could walk around. I've been wanting to explore the inside of Tay since 1997.

[@micahbush5397]

One other interesting connection with the crystal substance used to make the Book Windows is that it seems to grow in geodes, and Atrus also used slices of geodes to stabilize the crystals he used for the Crystal Viewer (the crystals themselves apparently simulated the special ink used for writing Linking Books).

[@micahbush5397]

Come to think of it, even the fire marbles seem to come from some kind of geode. Maybe that explains why one rolling over the Gateway Image was able to clear it up slightly, as well as why the Book Windows glow when placed correctly.

[@sashakindel3600]

I've seen people express disappointment that there isn't more to do in Tay, but I can't imagine what they could have done beyond add more scenery to look at than they already did. It certainly doesn't seem narratively conducive to a puzzle.

[@Dilandau3000]

Yeah, same. It'd be really weird if there was a puzzle there, unless they want to pretend we're breaking out of our cell instead of being let go or something, that that would also be a strange choice, story-wise.

[@PensiveElephant]

"Oh no, we dropped that prison book into a chasm that can only be reached by listening to audio cues given by a book tracking lizard."

[@micahbush5397]

20:36 "Pneuma" is sometimes used in reference to a soul or spirit (particularly the Holy Spirit, the agent of the "breath of life," hence the association). It's a weird word choice, though, and they should have just stuck with her old statement that believes the Fissure was "born of the will of the Maker."

[@HalaBasinah]

This game was always really ahead of its time in the way it handled its themes. Also everything about Catherine as a character. I love her and I found her treatment in the later non-Cyan games to be very disappointing. I especially like that Catherine and the Moiety have done 99.99% of the necessary work already and just hit a snag that you can help them get past; you're not the person who swooped in and fixed it all for them, which is how games usually handle this kind of thing. Of course it wasn't perfect, and it still isn't, but it was damn good then and even better now.

[@Dilandau3000]

I agree, the Catherine we see in her journals in Myst 4 feels like a completely different character. The voice actress sounding so different doesn't help either.

[@TheBookgeek7]

That's one of the things I like about Myst as well! It's Atrus who does all the work, we just help him over the snag! Very unusual for a video game

[@blanketfox]

40:02 in the 1.3 patch that came out recently there is now a book in Gehn’s furnace which appears to be have been burnt.

[@Dilandau3000]

Oh cool, I haven't seen that location in the new patch yet.

[@micahbush5397]

The inability of that furnace to properly incinerate paper is astonishing.

[@ShadowzGSD]

wonder what the 'several poor souls' thought of the new world they ended up on after they had been thrown into the hatch.

[@nicholasimholte7359]

At least they were free of Gehn.

[@packered]

Another thought on how a recruit would find the final graveyard totem. All of the Rivenese would know where all 6 graveyard totems are, so even though they can't walk to it anymore, the prison island totem would be known to them. Given their lifestyle, I'd imagine most if not all of them are familiar with how to use a boat and could manage to navigate there. While they are forbidden to go there, breaking that law of Gehn's would serve as another test of their dedication to joining. While they have marked the domes, that's likely for their own use rather than aiding recruits. Working out how to use the domes and/or expecting them to be a means of travel is probably not something a recruit with little context would figure out when trying to devise a way to reach prison island. Most people will reach for the solution most familiar to them, and for island fairing people that would seem most likely to be boats. Of course, the one hole in this theory is that I don't know we see any Rivenese boats in the village.

[@Quickshot0]

I guess considering that in the new world they had a raft like transport, one could reasonably conclude that things like rafts are known to them.

[@micahbush5397]

Even assuming that new recruits would have to use the dome system to get to Prison Island, it's a pretty good test to see if they can get around while evading detection by Gehn's men. Even if they fail and are put in the prison cell, the Moiety could rescue them, and there's no turning back once Gehn has condemned them.

[@Mirality]

It's not really surprising there aren't any boats in the village itself; the lake there is mostly enclosed and there aren't any surface entrances (there do seem to be some underwater routes, both for the sub and presumably warhk can get in too or the prison hangman thing would be kinda pointless; one can definitely get in over at Survey Island's lake too). So the question is whether there's any boats on the seaward beaches. I didn't see any, but I have little doubt they'd be well hidden. Or it could even be a bravery/rite of passage thing to swim over there to demonstrate you're not afraid of Gehn or his warhk.

[@PensiveElephant]

I only now realised your thumbnails have the proper D'ni numbers! ❤

[@woodencoyote4372]

I wonder how much of Gehn's downfall is brought on by sheer lack of man power. Riven couldn't have had a very big population to begin with, at best of times it probably never went past a few hundred. Gehn indulged in grizzly executions, driving people into hiding and then into Tay, and I'm sure his vast building projects were costly in human lives. Meanwhile the islands are falling apart, which must have impacted the native's ability to fish and forage. I was thinking about this watching you come out of the secret tunnel, and reflecting on how lucky it was that someone just happened to not be walking past at the time. But we don't see any of his minions besides Cho and the one scribe. He watches the player the whole time, which is creepy, but he might not have the force to do much more. My memory says that all the villagers are ordered to stay in their huts, but I can't remember if that's something we actually learn in game or just conjecture.

[@WarthogDemon]

So the game designers DID keep an indicator on the domes. They just changed it from gold to invisible paint. Also couldn’t the recruits dare to use the maglev to Prison Island? We don’t know when that track broke. Could’ve been just last week.

[@micahbush5397]

Judging by how the station has drifted away from Prison Island and the fact that the call button for the Temple Island station was removed, I'm guessing that particular route has been out of commission for quite a while, probably since Gehn set up the dome system.

[@PensiveElephant]

I wonder how Tiana wrote in the books. Maybe upside down and in her books the linking panels were in the lower left. (Sadly not true as she wrote Myst I think)

[@actsapologist1991]

Lol. Happy to help! It is indeed on each dome!

[@AzurGamer81]

30:29 Almost feels like the Narayan Lattus Tree from Myst 3.

[@JessMichael150]

33:24 I was hoping you'd comment on this statue and the fruit offerings! I couldn't tell who the statue was emulating! Also... I really hope they do a remake of Uru, but I hope they take their time. I'd love to be able to jump and land appropriately. 😅 But they can probably charge $50 or so for that game because of the complexities and beauty and capabilities of it.

[@randyroper9648]

The grave markers represent the different clans on Riven

[@isyoulame]

I had no idea they marked the domes, I assumed the Moiety would find trustworthy villagers to visit Catherine by boat during the night and maybe camp under the tree.

[@danielash1704]

The maintainer suit was a huge difference from the beginning to shifting the multitude of unique structures in each state if gases are present it breathes for the person that is caught in a different environment oriented to the suitable environment

[@danandtab7463]

kind of interesting they basically added an area that is full of people, even if it's mostly guards keeping you from going into doors.

[@TheInkPitOx]

"I have no idea if these people understand English" The Stranger doesn't talk anyway

[@cfibanez]

The image on the cover of the trap book looks like Gehn's father, Atrus' grandfather Aitrus.

[@Izual_Rebirth]

My wife says you sound like the bad guy from suits and now I can’t unhear it 😂.

[@danielash1704]

Diffused light on a book by the wavelength being beamed in optical energy vibrations is light literally

[@donwald3436]

At least leave the two journals behind before going to Age 233, if Gehn reads them the gig is up!

[@weirdalexander8193]

29:52 the maker works in mysterious ways, my friend.

[@micahbush5397]

It's interesting that Gehn believed the rifts were a gift of the Maker, because they were, just not in the way he expected. If the rifts hadn't opened, he wouldn't have found a way to power his flawed Linking Books; Catherine would have been unable to link to Tay initially, so she wouldn't have been able to relocate the Moiety, and she might not have been able to evacuate the remaining Rivenese to safety before the Age collapsed.

[@clipturn5205]

The most recent patch (1.3) has added a couple of things here and there, I would like to point out one of them since IMO its pretty significant and want to make sure that you dont miss it. Trying to keep it vague but still, SPOILERS: After you have captured Gehn and can go outside the Building in 233, look straight up into the Sky. You should notice something quite "starring".

[@danielash1704]

Resonance is a driver of a vibrational structure to understand that the true nature of earth is a resonator of mass density and weightlessness in waves and waves can be powerful enough to produce a large amount of energy projecting

[@pipperrytook2314]

I had always thought the tree was weirdly shaped 😅 But I believe they must have used clay or something similar around the tree, like a tree house 😂 Their houses did look the same 🤔

[@susannabennison-composer9743]

Once again, I made so much noise when I realised you could explore Tay!! There was so much squee-ing. I am one of those people who, having completed any Myst game (with walkthroughs because I am a heathen) will just boot it up and wander around an Age just for the enjoyment of it, so even if there’s nothing much to do, I don’t care.

[@trapez77]

It shouldn’t have been that hard for Cathrine to see prison island. In the original it feels like it’s on the other side of the world

[@micahbush5397]

Maybe the mists were particularly heavy that day.

[@StrimClocks]

Tay was so awesome

[@YouFightLikeACow]

Sven, what's your favorite linking sounds from all games? Also, almost at the end!

[@Dilandau3000]

I've always liked Riven's version. What's interesting is that when Atrus uses the Myst book in the intro of the remake, it makes the "classic" linking sound, so I guess they're going with the explanation that the different sound in Riven is because of Gehn's flawed books? Although I'm not sure why that would apply to Riven's descriptive book, and not only to the books Gehn made himself.

[@YouFightLikeACow]

@@Dilandau3000 I just rewatched your first video and the linking sound is definitely of the older sort, although it sounds a bit differently mixed. Yes, mine would be Riven's as well, although I have a soft spot for Revelation's super weird one.

[@danielash1704]

The crystal plates were made from a different age moyaty in the stone soils of the tree it powers the books Gehn written in his age books but uncompleted in the middle of the pages or he had ripped them out. So the binder had to be redone in it integrity of the wood or roots that was large enough to not rot in the world it goes to the vibration of the structure to understand that the true nature of the ages is vibrations that resonances fall into it because of the world itself

[@michellehainze3345]

How do you find your achievements? GoG says I don't have any even though I have finished the game twice and I can't find anything in game to check for them.

[@Dilandau3000]

I own the game on Steam, so I'm not sure how it works with GOG.

[@ScooterBond1970]

I don't think the GOG version has the achievements activated. I also have the GOG version and I never saw hide nor hair of them. Come to think of it, aren't "achievements" specifically a Steam thing? (That they borrowed from consoles?) Most PC games don't have achievements unless they're baked into the game code itself.

[@NikaNakaidze]

Guards r holding pizza cutters sven

[@JaneXemylixa]

I doubt that a book that Gehn burnt in his lab, aka one of the dysfunctional books he created, would have Tay in it. (unless it's NOT one of the dysfunctional books he created, and something he stole from rebels)

[@kattastic9999]

It was a broken foundation of an Age that, even if accessed, would be unsuitable for life. Catherine _re-Wrote it_ and made a new Age entirely. Without any reference materials of her own, she could only correct and alter Gehn's shoddy foundation, but she's such a better Writer that she made it work out just fine.

[@NikaNakaidze]

Yeah sven its funny to me too

[@NikaNakaidze]

Sven i want to share ur vid in fb but thumbnail is missing weird

[@NikaNakaidze]

Hello buddy

[@NikaNakaidze]

I think its natural sven

[@NikaNakaidze]

Bye sven

[@danielash1704]

Relto6 has a variety of different types of anomalies within the islands own star Fisher to Earthly relme in the mindset of Dni City council members there writes about a lot more information about ages and finding the right direction somewhere in each one has multiple choices for a reasonable reason these new ages have the mindset of the writer who made the age like a wavelength of the brain itself as a whole grouping between each age or the contents usually of a tallow flow spinning black or white or defused colors of rainbows I'm thinking about the spheres after Gehn shooting themselves through the densely packed dimensional space of the Fischer

[@NikaNakaidze]

Bad choice to give book to gehn sven 😉

[@BelbozUnderhill]

I would treat her differently too, if she used ‘diaspora’ while talking with me.