Part 69: Blackwell Epiphany - Update 1 (Part 2)

As Joey floats out into what's left of the room, he suddenly senses the presence of a ghost - looks like we've got a spook! Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to hear his calls, and floats away upstairs.



Joey heads in pursuit, but the distance between him and Rosa is too large.

I can't make it any further. I'm too far from Red. If I want to get up there, I need to get her closer.

You know, I can't help but feel that these two would be more effective if they didn't live in a city with so many tall buildings.



There's more graffiti on the wall, including this painfully obvious hint. The note said to "check by the stairs", and sure enough, next to the staircase we see that there is something special about the word "Reclaim", or more likely, the brick with "Reclaim" written on it.



Joey ducks into the next room to see if there is anything useful there, but like the rest of the Karth House, it proves to be a total wasteland.

The view's pretty nice, but it's a shame about the rest of the place.

Joey checks out the various pieces of junk around here, starting with the toilet.

Wheover used this thing probably didn't care much for privacy.
An empty bottle. Looks like it used to be full of cheap booze.
This side of the newspaper just shows a bunch of ads.



Now, that newspaper may have something interesting on the other side, and although Joey is incapable of picking anything up, we've seen in the past that he has the power to summon up a light breeze. Perhaps he can blow the newspaper over?

Nothing. The paper's waterlogged and stuck to the floor.

Apparently not.

Horatio Street



Anyway, Joey returns downstairs to give Rosa the good news!

We do?
A woman. Only got a brief look at her before she buzzed off.
Why didn't you go after her?
She's too far away. We need to get you inside to bring her within range.
Fine. Let's hurry, then. It's freezing out here. You think it's any warmer inside?
It's not exactly inviting, but we'll get you in. There's got to be a way. I'm sure the answer is right in front of us.

Of course, Joey is right - the bricks from earlier warrant a second look.



I didn't know you were such an expert.
I've seen my fair share. But words written on bricks? What a waste of paint.

Joey really doesn't like graffiti.



Let's check this out...

This brick is definitely hollow. But the ice around it is so thick, I can't pull it loose.



Fortunately, Rosa is carrying a hot coffee around, so melting that ice should be easy! I'm not sure how it has remained hot, given it appears to be in a paper cup and she's been standing in the snow for over thirty minutes, but we'll go with it.

*sigh* The cost of this coffee is so going on my expense report.

Poor Rosa sounds so stroppy here



There. It's melted. I'd better do whatever I need to do before it freezes again.

Let's crack this baby open!



Bingo.

I guess this joint isn't too worried about security.
Not exactly a secure hiding spot, but who'd want to break into this place anyway?



As she grabs the key and walks to the door, Rosa chats with Joey a bit more.

At least this is one door I can follow you through.
It's easy enough to get through more. All you gotta do is stop breathing.
I'll pass, thanks.

There's the first appearance of the new Rosa "hmph" portrait



And with that, Rosa enters the Karth House!



Having entered the Karth House, Rosa takes the time to reflect on what a fetid pile of rubble and garbage it really is.

Hm.
Nice place, huh?
It... has its charm. I guess.
Yeah, it's got something all right. Come on. We have a spook to chat up.

Rosa decides to stick around and chat for a while first, though.



Well, everyone already thinks you're crazy. Homeless is just the next obvious step.
Thanks.

This is a new thing that happens in Epiphany, though unfortunately not very often. If you loiter in an area for a while, Rosa and Joey will sometimes have something to say to one another. It really makes their dynamic feel more real, as opposed to usual when they only converse if you make them or you enter a new area.

Look at that mattress. You think people slept on that?
The people who slept here weren't exactly spoiled for choice.

Unfortunately, the spontaneous dialogue thing kind of slipped by the wayside and really only happens regularly here at the start of the game.

Still snowing. I don't think it's gonna stop anytime soon.
Well, it's not like we're going anywhere. If I didn't need the money, I'd be tempted to just blow Durkin off and go home.
We're beyond that now. There's a spook here, and that makes it our problem. Not his.

You know, that's a good point. You get the impression that Durkin knew there would be a spook here - otherwise, why would he have sent us here? There's certainly nothing else worthwhile inside for us to find.



Rosa continues to chat with Joey.

Well, you're here. I just hope you had all your shots.
Looks like people used to live here.
Yeah. Whatever happened, they sure cleared out fast.
I suppose if a building had to be haunted, it would be one like this.
No accounting for taste, I guess.

Much like in Deception, Rosa and Joey are in maximal chatting mode at the start of the game, presumably because Gilbert wants to show off early, and also to allow new players to get used to the Rosa and Joey dynamic. They'll settle into a more natural amount of dialogue pretty soon, but for now, we get to enjoy a double dose of their banter!

It's weird to think. This building's going to be knocked down once we're done.
Once we clear out the spook, yeah.
So next year, there could be a bank or a drug store here or something.
Could be. So let's enjoy these luxury surroundings while we can.



Yet more dialogue...

Gentrification is a slow process, but pretty soon old buildings like this won't exist anymore.
And this is a bad thing?
Just saying.
How're you holding up? Any warmer in here?
Not really. This place isn't exactly well-maintained.

That's an understatement. You'd have to work damn hard to even reach this level of filth.



Nah. It would still be a dump.
Since you're inside anyway, how about you look around? Maybe there's something useful.
Like what? The used needles, the dirty mattress, or the fallen bits of ceiling?
Don't get snippy, darling. Who knows what's useful and what's not? Physical objects are your gig, sweetheart. You got hands. Use 'em.
Let's keep looking around. I don't want to spend more time here than I have to.
Right behind you.



Finally, Rosa starts to search around the room, but she doesn't see much she likes.

If that desk had drawers, they rotted off long ago.
It's the elevator. I don't think it's working.
They prevent people from getting in, but that's about it. Whoever put these up probably didn't have insulation in mind.
This door rotted off it's frame a long time ago.
It's been exposed to the elements for too long. It's rotted and useless.
It's full of old newspapers, candy wrapped, and used syringes. Even with gloves, I'm not putting my hand in there.



I know I've said it already, but this place is the absolute pits. Finding herself suitably unimpressed with the ground floor, Rosa heads upstairs to see if things get any better.


It's a slow start here, but I want to make sure we have time to get settled back into the Blackwell mould. Join me tomorrow as we do our best to save the latest spook, and get started on this game proper. In the mean time, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the art, and what little we've seen of the game world so far. It's great to be back!




But wait, we're not quite done yet!! As I aluded to earlier in the thread, I had the recent pleasure of communicating with creator Dave Gilbert and ask him some questions about the Blackwell series as a whole. Rather than go through the usual "why did you become a game developer?" and "do you think the adventure game genre is dying?" questions, I thought I'd take the opportunity to ask him all of those dangling questions I had about the Blackwell Universe, the motivations of certain characters, and anything not sufficiently addressed by the end of Epiphany. Being very cool (and actually having visited this thread a couple of months back!) Gilbert took the time out from working on the latest Wadjet Eye Game to type out some fairly detailed responses, and hence we have a new segment - Word of God, where Dave Gilbert explains (albeit through my paraphrasing) the more unclear parts of the Blackwell universe, as well as some of his thoughts on the series.

Now, around half of the things we spoke about relate to Epiphany, so those will be revealed as we approach them. The rest of them are about other titles in the series, which will serve as "in-between" Word of God segments. I will include one such segment at the end of each update.

Since I'm keen to make these more interesting as we go along, we'll start with some quite pedestrian reveals here today, but they should get more exciting within a few updates!

Gilbert loved the Karth House

Out of all the locations in all the Blackwell games, the Karth House was Gilbert's favourite. He has mentioned a couple of times in his commentary that he loves it when there are lots of connected areas that all line up nicely, and where the actions in one room logically affect another, and the Karth House did that the best. We'll see more of how the Karth House's rooms are connected in tomorrow's update, but for now, a good example of what I'm talking about is the yacht from the start of Deception. The puzzle where Rosa puts her hand through the vent in the roof, while Joey in the room above blows the key towards her, was one of Gilbert's favourites. A similar puzzle here in the Karth House will feature in tomorrow's update. And naturally, he also loves the visuals on display, as evidenced by his choice to use a couple of areas from the Karth House quite heavily in the advertising campaign for Epiphany.

While we're discussing Gilbert's favourites from the series, his favourite ghost in the series was Jeremy Sams, describing him as the "emotional core of the story" in Deception, which he claims came about completely by accident. Because Rosa cares so much about what happens (and happened) to Jeremy, the player ends up caring as well, more so than for other ghosts. It became so much more personal than usual. Gilbert lists Jamie Graham as his second-favourite, mostly because he was proud of managing to write the Joey seduction scene without making it horribly uncomfortable, but also because of Sarah Elmaleh's excellent performance as voice actress.

Finally, his favourite self-contained story arc goes all the way back to Unbound, with the story of Isaac, Sarah and Cecil. While expressing some regret that it was mostly told through fetch quests and dialogue, Gilbert rates the story itself as the most perfect ghost story of the series.