Part 14: Tony's Family

Update 14 - Tony's Family







A cold opening, and we are now just straight up barging into people's rooms. I don't know if that's worse than reading their private correspondence though.

First up, let's get some light in here.



Ah, that's better.

Now, our mom actually has something to say about this house.

This reminds me a bit of the house I was in as a child. It was a big house out in the country, so much space... It even had a secret passage that led to a small unfinished room!

This house has so many memories in it, I can just feel it...

It adds a bit of character building for her. Now, you may recall that our mom did not have any dialogue about the last "dungeon". That's because she wasn't there! Not to go back and beat on that dead horse even further, but another major mistake the first "dungeon" did was not having the mom to be there with you. Her not being there added to the creepy environments and made you feel the total isolation that fit with what Gemma likely felt. However, it took away another part of what makes this game unique. I talked about how the devs likely realized some of the mistakes of the first part while in development, and my rationale for this is because Mom isn't leaving our party for the rest of the game. There's more reasons later, but you'll see when we get there.

Now that the lights are on, we can explore a bit of our surroundings.





The journal is locked, and can't be read. Foiling our attempts to violate even more moral codes and sensibilities.


Benny, you'd better not try to read my diary. There is girl-stuff in here, so keep out! Love, Christy.

Threatening note, that ends in love. That can only be the love that siblings share.



>Top Left Drawer


Hi Christy! You'll never believe what I found today in your room! Another secret passage in the wall! See if you can find it. If you can't, ask me and I'll tell you. Love, Benny. p.s. I was only in your room because Ogee was hiding under your bed. And I didn't read your diary.

Surprised he didn't blame the diary being read on Ogee too.

>Top Right Drawer

Neatly folded clothes fill the drawer. You see something shiny underneath one of the shirts. You found 5G

Stealing from the past? Won't that have major ramifications on the present? Oh God, let's not introduce time travel to the plot, abort... abort!

>Bottom Drawer

The bottom drawer is locked



One book is slightly out of place. You find a letter that has been wedged in between the books.

posted:

Dear Christy,
This place is pretty neat after all! The house is big with lots of rooms to explore. Some of the doors are locked though. And the outside part is REALLY big! There's a river and even a waterfall! And today Mommy found a turtle! Anyways, when you get back from school we should go play. I have lots to show you!
Love, Benny

The laundry basket contains... laundry, the coat pockets are empty, and the book on the floor is just a mystery novel. With the door leaving the room locked, it's time to find the secret passage! Can you guess where it is?



Did you guess the correct spot out of the four possible options!? Your prize is creepy music and an abandoned attic!



Storage Area



Yeah, this ain't foreboding at all. Let's check out the letter on the floor. There's going to be a lot of letters in this house by the way.

posted:

Dear Christy,
How's my little girl? Are you helping your mother around the house? Are you getting good grades? When I come home, I'll be bringing you a special present for being so good.
Love, Dad

At least it's a happy letter.





Going down the stairs reveals a small room and a locked door.


Deliver to: Culver City, CA



The creepy messages followed us from the Hospital! No! Shoo messages, don't bother me!







I guess the creepy messages are here to stay! Because they sure as hell didn't go away.



>Top Drawer

The drawer is filled with letters and postcards addressed to houses in several different states.

>Middle Drawer

You found Christy's Dresser Key.

>Bottom Drawer

A photograph of a man in a pilot's uniform standing by a girl in elementary school. There is faded writing on the back- St. Louis (1st grade)

With the dresser key, we can head back to Christy's room and see what that unlocked.



Even the writing on the walls followed us too?!



You found the Passage Key.

Here's a dumb thing that also followed us from the last "dungeon". We went downstairs to get a key to unlock a drawer upstairs, that unlocks the door downstairs. And, (spoilers) that will have the key we need to leave this room. You could get rid of the two middle steps and no one would be crying on an LP forum about it.



Granted, the wall having new words each time you walk through is a bit creepy.





The box puzzles too!?

The side part contains a blue toy train car with the name "Benny" on it. There's nothing else in the room so let's grab the treasure chest.



*GASP* THE KEY TO THE ROOM. WHO COULD HAVE GUESSED.

Wait, there's something else inside...
What is it?
Hm... it looks like a letter that never got sent. It's got a stamp on it and everything...
"For Tony only" it says.
Maybe we'd better not open that.

Oh like that's stopped us before.

We can hold onto it and give it to Tony the next time we see him.
What about this weird drawing that the letter is atached to... what is it?
Ah, well now... I'm not totally sure. If I had to guess, I'd say it looks like a set of "plans" for building wings, don't you think?
It's definitely drawn by a little kid. Look what's written on the back!

If I want to see him, I have to build wings.

Hm... let's study these "plans." Maybe we could even build our own wings using materials from around this house. Whaddya think?
Yeah!!
Okay... here are the plans.



OH MY GOD IT'S ADORABLE. This did a lot to satiate my complaints, not gonna lie.

You found Insturctions for Making Wings. You found Letter to Tony.

So... 6 feathers, 8 sticks, backpack straps, and glue.
That shouldn't be too hard to find.

Alright, we've got the key, we've got our wing making instructions (smile:, now let's head on to Christy's room.



Not only do two chests appear, but the creepy message turns cute.

The yellow chest contains a Feather. While the red chest contains two Sticks.



We finally leave this part of the house...





A Family of Bears





Do you see them?



... How... how am I supposed to deal with this cuteness!? Christina's portrait is literally, too adorable for words.

I want to eat them all!
Heh, soon enough. We're gonna be very quiet... we're gonna listen very carefully... When the time is right, you'll know it.
But what if I don't know it?
You will.



Do you see it?
Where? No, I don't see it yet!



I see it now!
Get ready... And remember what I taught you.





You did it! My little girl caught her first fish.
Daddy, I did it! I caught a fish!
I knew you could do it! I'm so proud of you.





Broken Attic



Welcome to Tony's house. It even has it's own theme! You may notice that each door has a lightbulb above it. No we don't have to make them think, but there is a gimmick involved we'll see in a little bit.



Here's the rest of the floor. The door on the far left has a light on, which means the door is unlocked. As it is the only one, besides Christy's room, to have a light on- let's check it out.



Tony is apparently a very fond fan of home security, as he has put in 5 trap doors.

posted:

I'm growing increasingly concerned about Christina. She used to pay attention in class, and always completed her homework on time. Lately however, she's been having difficulty concentrating during lessons. And in the past week alone, she's already forgotten to turn in her homework 3 times.

And there's the gimmick. There are switches located downstairs that you turn on to allow you into different rooms. Turning on all of them, leads up here.

We'll head back into the hallway and swing by the master bedroom.





Decent size bedroom. Tony clearly made a good bit of money as a pilot.







We saw 13 before as a message, so I assume it refers to the same thing this message does.



>Top Left Drawer

There is a letter inside

posted:

Dear Daddy,
When are you coming home? I think you've been gone a long time! Mommy made cookies today. They were good. Someday I'm gonna fly just like you!
Okay I have to go now.
Love, Christy

>Bottom Left Drawer

The drawer is empty.



>Top Right Drawer

Stacks of neatly folded flannel shirts. There's a small, empty box tucked beneath one of the shirts with a note attached.
Benny found them so we decided to throw them away. Please don't be mad at us, they aren't good for you. Love, Benny and Christy

>Bottom Right Drawer

There is a piece of paper inside that looks as though it was torn off of a larger document.
...reported that he is being "teased and pushed around" by his peers at school. Because he experiences rejection and teasing, it is difficult for him to build strong interpersonal relationships.

A good mix of and . We're hitting all the emotional notes today!

Let's check out the bathroom.





Remember when I said the mom would be with us for the whole journey? I neglected to mention bathrooms. She doesn't follow the boy into any bathroom except Sues- because of the door to Morizora's Forest. It's such a small little detail to include, but it's really cute they thought of that issue.

There's only two things of note in here, one is the laundry which has another letter inside the pocket of a pair of pants.

posted:

It seems the children have found their own clubhouse. It's not in the trees, apparently it's somewhere inside the house! Benny hinted at it today. I'm guessing they found a little room connected to one of the closets perhaps? As long as they're safe I don't mind. But could you keep an eye on them when I run to the store? I won't be long.

We've only seen a portion of the letters, but it's super clear Tony was really freaking busy as a pilot. To the point his wife is leaving him letters to update him on the kids lives when she goes to the store.





That's uh, ominous.

That is it for this room...but...



There we go.

Back in the hallway, there were two doors we've yet to visit.





The guest bathroom. It contains literally nothing of interest.



And the laundry room. A somewhat big laundry room for just a hamper, washer, dryer, and treasure chest containing a Feather. There is another letter in another pair of pants though.

posted:

Honey, I am worried about Christina. Her teacher called today with some bad news. I think we need to talk with---

Did the letter get torn?... Or ripped? Regardless, we're done on this floor for now. Let's make our way downstairs.





Storage Area



A very nice house, too bad about the soundtrack selection. Let's check out the door with the light on above it.



Here's the switch room. From here, we can pull these three switches and that changes a combination of doors that will open. It seems complicated, but you have to turn the power on for each switch first, which simplifies things a bit. If you're unable to get in a door, just try a different combination till you're able to get in.

The poster on the wall just details what I already mentioned. Let's check the box next to it.







The two chests are locked and can't be opened until their corresponding color switches are on.





Another bathroom, it makes sense for the house design but it isn't all that interesting to look at or talk about.





Again with this 13 steps nonesense. Was this a dance craze that struck the nation and I missed it?



There's a room up here somewhat hiding from the rest of the house. It's a bit tricky to remember, especially because it's optional.



The dining room is quite nice, even has a nice view.



A good sized kitchen too. Always the hallmark of a fancy house from my experience.





The kitchen is, sadly, quite boring for us. Let's move south.





You found Backpack Straps.

We're making progress on those wings. Still need the glue, several feathers, and several sticks.



We also turned the blue switch power on. We still need to go actually turn the switch on to unlock doors though.



You can however make out the writing in one of them.

posted:

To my family,
Just made it to London in record time. And it's a good thing, because they tell me that a giant storm is coming in! Be good to your mother and eat your vegetables. I miss you all very much.
Love, Dad

Awww . There's been a lot of adorableness with Tony and his family.



Someone has etched something into the bottom right side of the frame.



Yikes, and we're back to creepy. It's worth noting that in this area is a clock that you can't do anything with but it is very loud. As you move away though, it gets quieter. It's a neat little thing that kinda adds this unsettled feeling to the place.



So this kinda dates the house a bit. Does this little boy even know what a record player is?

The chest contains another Feather for our wings. We'll come back to the storage closet in a little bit. For now, let's go turn on that switch.



As you can probably guess, the lights in this room correspond to the lights on the second floor. So if our calculations are correct, the first door on the floor should now be opened.



Bingo!







A Family of Bears





I can't believe how much he looks like Christina.



You're a big sister now, Christina. How do you feel about that?
It makes me really happy. I feel like I've waited forever for a baby brother!
You'll finally have another cub to play with.
I'll teach him everything I know! I'll teach him the best games, the best hiding spots, the best places to catch fish!



I'm sure you will be, Christy.





Broken Attic



We go from cuteness incarnate, to a room filled with tiny pianos. Let's check out the letter on the ground.

posted:

Dear Christy,
While you were at big kids school, I found this room full of baby pianos. Pretty neat, yeah? But here's the bad part... they're all broken! Each piano only has one key that works! Weird! If you wanna play a real piano though, there's one of those downstairs.
Love, Benny

An extremely convoluted setup for them to have a music puzzle.



Sure enough, if you go downstairs you can find a piano and treasure chest. The chest contains a Feather, and the piano will play a short song for you. The chessboard on the table can be examined, which offers this:



It's a solution to a future puzzle, so better remember this perfectly!

Anyway, back to the mini pianos. While the piano downstairs does tell you what to do, you can also just trial and error the solution by randomly trying combinations. This didn't work for that chest in the caves, because the buttons didn't reset when they were incorrect. These will.



Here's the order.



Here's the result. With that over with, we can go turn on the red switch.



Obligatory creepy writing on the walls.



As you can see, the first door is now closed, and the second to last door is now open. So if you need to go in a room again, you'll have to rejigger the switches. Turning them all on, doesn't just open every door sadly.

While we could go in that room next... Let's go check out that closet we skipped over earlier.





Doesn't look like anything's out of the ordinary. Let's start our investigation with those books in the corner.





We know one of the kids is getting bullied, but it may be both of them at this rate.





This is the only box with anything written on it.

Now, we could leave here... but I'm pretty sure the messages kept referring to a secret room in the closet. So let's check around.



Uh, we found the secret creepy compartment. Well, 13 steps had nothing to do with the last closet. And with the writing on the wall, I'm guessing there's a secret behind the 13th wall panel.



Hey we got it! Time to see what's behind this one.



...Oh...

This... this isn't going to have a happy ending, is it?