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When it first told me I had to wait, I thought weathering and erosion would smooth the path out for me...well, that was a waste of 300 years.
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lol, I can only imagine what kinda wild crazy religion these folks develop thanks to the moai that wakes up and walks around for no reason then stops for another 40 years.
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What if this is what the Easter Island heads are doing? Just waiting for something to happen that will help them prevent a disaster?
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There's a secret in this game. If you grab a chestnut from the village and go past the volcano, you can climb up a series of ledges that will lead to a grave which says
''Here lies a traveler between worlds,
Whose name is unknown.
May his curious soul find a way home,
Like you have found his resting place.
I wonder what that means...
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"Dad, why is that man in the middle of our village?" "Well son, 40 years ago, he walked there and just stopped. No one knows who he is, or why he's there, bu- OH SHIT HE'S MOVING! RUN!!!"
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Patience is a virtue. That is why this is the most virtuous rock EVER! Unless another rock come along and waits longer
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Waited 100 years for the people to stop running around because they're hungry. Then I realised that they're running around in fear because a giant freaking moai is walking around.
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Ironically, the volcanic plug created intense pressure to build up instead of letting it slowly release over time. As a result, the eruption 400 years later was much more catastrophic than it should have been.
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Here lies a traveler between worlds, whose name is unknown. May his curious soul find a way home, like you have found his resting place. :)
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Village Child: Help mister stone man! Our village is starving.
Statue: Have no fear! I'll be back with food in about 50 years!
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As I left the far right of the world, I was extremely upset.... Who chiseled that bizarre gibberish on the face of one of my relatives?
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"Hey, could you people ferry me across the river in your boat?
...
FINE, I'LL JUST HAUNT YOUR VILLAGE AND STEAL YOUR CHESTNUTS EVERY SEASON UNTIL I FIGURE THIS OUT MYSELF!"
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Here lies a traveler between worlds, Whose name is unknown.
was it this guy? http://www.kongregate.com/games/scriptwelder/a-small-talk-at-the-back-of-beyond
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So, after 200 years of waiting, the statue managed to clog the lava in the volcano, letting it build up pressure until it erupted violently enough to block out the sun with ash for years, killing all plants and animals on Earth. If the statue had not clogged the lava, it would have periodically released pressure by erupting relatively peacefully until it became completely dormant without causing much damage. So, the statue is actually evil, and is willing to die to achieve his dream of total destruction.
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How weird would it be to find a statue that your grandparents told you about just walking around then stopping for another 20 years?
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The statue settled in for a long wait. Longer than any other he had lived through. The volcano was silent and the village was safe. The grateful villagers, with tears in their eyes, baded farewell to their silent stone benefactor.
"What now?" they asked. "What other great deeds will you accomplish?"
The statue turned and regarded them with ancient eyes. "I must wait."
"But for what?" they cried.
The statue's eyes closed, and with his last breath he whispered his last great mission, his final purpose.
"For Half Life 3 to come out."
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Everyone here is commenting on the game itself, and while I agree, it is a great game for all the given reasons, I find that the music is just beautiful. I can't find the words to describe it, but it's so relaxing, it's unbelievable.
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Sometimes to overcome he just had to wait. And thus, he waited 400 years for the sheer edge of the lake to erode away, leaving a slope he could walk up. But alas, it was too late. The world had ended.
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I've noticed all of the comments for this game are sarcastic or commenting on how 'boring' the game is, but I honestly thought this game was beautiful, and the statue spirit made a sacrifice to protect humanity. It waited hundreds of years to grow trees and plant things all for us, without getting anything in return. Think about that.
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Quick tips for people who have trouble: 1. Water freezes in winter 2. if you see a tree or a stalagmite near a ledge, wait for it to grow 3. Chestnuts drop in Autumn, then plant them near a ledge 4. Grain can be picked up in autumn as well, deliver it to the citizens via the underwater passage and then plant it on the left side of the village 5. To get a helping hand, you need to wait for the people to develop after having planted the grain, they will build two bridges (one after the other) after a while. 6. Observe the underwater path, position yourself above the hole in winter, then wait 7. the boat gets to the left on spring and right on autumn. Go to the left of the town, you will see a ledge with chestnuts to be planted on the other side. 8. Get into the volcano, the end.
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I think as soon as you bring the grain, the village needs to start growing within a year, to indicate that you've done something correctly. With the trees and the water, they grow and change quickly enough that I know that I'm doing something right. But with the village, it takes much longer. I'm too afraid to burn that many years on what might be the wrong solution, so after seeing no change for a couple years, I'll wander around some more and look for something I might have missed, checking each season one by one. After about 15 minutes of checking the entire explorable area in each season, I'll notice that something seems kind of different about the village, and only then realize that I'd solved the puzzle all along.
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There are many narrative qualities to this game, but the one that stands out the most to me was how the statue face-planted every time it jumped down a cliff.
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First of all, great game and original concept. It is not very often you find a game that presents original gameplay, mixed with interesting ideas and questions.
I know alot of people are asking for the ability to walk faster, (and I would usually agree,) but I actually enjoyed the slow pace of the stone monolith because it lent itself to the idea of this Easter isle - type demigod intervening on humanity's behalf. As a result, I found myself asking alot of questions about the meaning behind it; plus, the visual image of this behemoth standing there, waiting, while 100 years sped past was sublime. Especially, contrasted against the hurry and panic of a human lifetime.
All in all, it is a beautiful presentation of supernatural / supra-natural forces working behind the scenes to assist and intervene on our behalf, in ways the we just don't notice for many reasons.
Thank you very much for sharing your thoughts on 400 Years. I think you've captured exactly what I tried to show with this game. I love your interpretation !
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You know what they say.. a chestnut on the ground is worth two in the hand, because in the hand for some reason they can't survive a season, but on the ground they can. They say some oddly specific things sometimes.
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I sat in a small pond for 8 years waiting for the land beside it to erode before realizing I was supposed to wait for winter to freeze the pond over. Whoops.
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The world flees at my passing, yet, I hold no contempt for them, for all they see is an act of God, my only regret, is that they shall never know what my task was, and they shall never know my sacrifice.