Can Anyone Actually Beat Grim Fandango Without Using Some Kind of Guide?

[s y]

For what seemed like the 5th try, I tried to play Grim Fandango and about 30 minutes later felt completely lost to what I'm supposed to be doing to progress. The solutions are never something that make me go "how did I miss that?" but " fuck this shit".

Anybody else feel the same?

 

[Squarehard]

Playing this when it first came out originally, I kinda had to.

It was a pain, but definitely doable.

 

[BrickArts295]

Most likely if you have a lot of time to waste and experiment. Only part that seemed nonsensical to me was the one where you driving in the forest trying to find a way out, I have no idea how one would have figured that out. There were a couple ones towards the end where I just went "Wait what?".

A lot of the puzzles in this game remind me of the "monkey" wrench in Monkey Island, it makes sense once you figure it out but honestly it's just something you don't think of doing the first couple of times, I mean "How was I supposed to know that I needed to use an actual Monkey as wrench?".

 

[Squarehard]

Most likely if you have a lot of time to waste and experiment. Only part that seemed nonsensical to me was the one where you driving in the forest trying to find a way out.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, that was the one I wanted to point out too.

It was also the part of the game where the least was happening since literally shit all everything just happened, and all of a sudden you're in this much different, serene setting, trying to figure this shit out, lol.

Fucking hated that part...

At one point I just started driving randomly into each path out of spite.

 

[Fisty]

I made it until the coral piece

No, I dont believe it's possible without a guide unless you just brute force some of the solutions

 

[Deleted member 4494]

I tried, and failed. I think I had to look up the solution like 4 or 5 times throughout the game. Which, all said, isn't *that* bad - Sam and Max was way, way worse for me.

As a kid, I did complete Full Throttle without a guide. I was lot smarter then than I am now, though.

 

[SmittyWerbenManJensen]

Haha I definitely couldn't. I was frustrated.

The guide made the game more enjoyable and playable for me, so I am glad that I finally gave in and used one.

 

[luther manhole]

The only thing that stumped me truly on my first playthrough was

Spoiler: puzzle spoiler for old ass game

having to pick up the sign in the forest and move it to a specific spot in order to open up the ramp for the bone wagon

other than that, it was challenging but very doable with trial and error, like lots of adventure games of the time.

 

[sir_crocodile]

Grim Fandango has really bad puzzles. It's popular solely based on the story/characters and va.

 

[antitrop]

The only point and click adventure game I ever finished without a guide was Blade Runner. I'll never forget how confused I was the first time I played a King's Quest game, I suck at all of them, Grim Fandango no different.

 

[Shake Appeal]

I did, back when it came out. There are definitely a bunch of insane or fiddly puzzles in it, though. The beavers spring to mind.

 

[KillstealWolf]

Glad to see others calling out how dumb the Forest Signpost one is.

 

[Cels]

i've never gotten into this genre of game due to this kind of thing - impenetrable puzzles that require you to look up solutions or just brute-force completely unintuitively

how is thimbleweed park on this front?

 

[SoH]

Funny enough I started a blog around this exact idea. I got quite a bit farther (just past Rubacava) than when the posts stop but ultimately got busy with other stuff and dropped it. It is definitely possible but there is some bullshit for sure.

Starts at the bottom of the page because I forget how the hell tumblr works and if there is a way to link it the other direction.

https://smiteofhand.tumblr.com/

 

[Piston]

OK, this thread makes more sense than the Zelda one.

I just recently re-installed the remaster on Steam. My first try through the game I got stuck very, very early on and dropped it. I want to try it again at some point.

 

[sredgrin]

Probably, but honestly, you're better off with one. The puzzles are annoying mostly and get in the way of the actual good stuff.

 

[Deleted member 5725]

Glad to see others calling out how dumb the Forest Signpost one is.

Click to shrink...

Yes, I was really lost in that one. No way I was going to spend hours to try and experiment that stuff without a guide.

 

[PucePikmin]

I did, but it was a different time -- almost certainly wouldn't now.

 

[N.47H.4N]

I couldn't,and reading this thread Grim Fandango is as hard as I thought.

 

[Rosebud]

No old P&C can be finished without guides.

I opened a Maniac Mansion guide at random...

You need to fix the wires using the tools from the car's trunk. But you cannot fix them while the power is on or you'll get electrocuted (this is not lethal, but prevents you from doing it). So, switch to another kid and have him go to the cellar and in front of the fuse box. Open the fuse box and turn off the circuit breakers to shut the house's power off, making every room go dark. As with the pool draining above, you can't let the power off for too long or the reactor will malfunction and the house will explode.

Click to shrink...

 

[sir_crocodile]

i've never gotten into this genre of game due to this kind of thing - impenetrable puzzles that require you to look up solutions or just brute-force completely unintuitively

how is thimbleweed park on this front?

Click to shrink...

It has some of the most logical puzzles in the genre, I completed it in a few days without a guide.

 

[LiK]

Not with that moon logic.

 

[Dranakin]

I bought this on the 3 CD set when I was a kid. I had to beat it without a guide back then because I didn't have internet yet. Still my favorite game of all time.

 

[Ænima]

I did it when it fist came out. I looked up in the internet a few times when i got stuck in the remaster though.

 

[sir_crocodile]

No old P&C can be finished without guides.

I opened a Maniac Mansion guide at random...

Click to shrink...

I completed mi1, mi2, fate of atlantis, day of the tentacle, broken sword 1/2 and many others without a guide.

Maniac mansion is way more difficult, yes. Also has unmarked dead ends which should never be in p&c games.

 

[Xanfrabot]

http://www.uhs-hints.com/uhsweb/grimfand.php

I really liked using this site during my playthrough. Instead of just giving you the solution, first it shows you some hints, a little help so you can still solve the puzzles yourself.

 

[Vampirolol]

I can't, that's why I've never finished a Lucasarts point&click: puzzles SUCKED.

 

[daninthemix]

It would take a certain kind of persistent masochist.

 

[Rosebud]

I completed mi1, mi2, fate of atlantis, day of the tentacle, broken sword 1/2 and many others without a guide.

Maniac mansion is way more difficult, yes. Also has unmarked dead ends which should never be in p&c games.

Click to shrink...

The most difficult part in MI1 to me was the store safe box, sadly the only part a guide couldn't help

 

[SoH]

I completed mi1, mi2, fate of atlantis, day of the tentacle, broken sword 1/2 and many others without a guide.

Maniac mansion is way more difficult, yes. Also has unmarked dead ends which should never be in p&c games.

Click to shrink...

In addition I've completed many of Sierra's point and clicks without guides and some of those could be fucking brutal in the bullshit.

At this point it is more lack of patience than anything as the time spent between the eureka moments are ultimately not very interesting. Especially with how much IF has progressed in this branch of puzzle design. We do occasionally get the interesting break out from here such as Barlow moving from IF to stuff like Her Story. Which reminds me I should get around to checking out Telling Lies.

 

[sir_crocodile]

The most difficult part in MI1 to me was the store safe box, sadly the only part a guide couldn't help

Click to shrink...

That's quite surprising. I couldn't memorise it, but with a pen & paper it's pretty easy to get the combination down right.

 

[StarskySilvers]

I definitely couldn't beat it without a guide.
Obtuse is an understatement for some of those "puzzles"

It was still worth playing for the story though

 

[Ishmae1]

Back in the day when I played it when it first came out, I didn't use a guide. I will admit there were times that the inventory system totally got in the way of an obtuse puzzle (I think the ship was the worst culprit area here) and I'd have to sit there and try to combine every item with every other item to get things moving forwards. In those situations, I likely would have looked to a guide.

Every game needs InvisiClues, BTW.

 

[Green Mario]

I did everything legit aside from the pixel hunt you have to do on this big door thing towards the end of the game.

 

[KLoWn]

I did it when I was younger, so yes, it's absolutely doable..

The only puzzle I remember being cheap was when you had to combine some tied together sheets witha hunk of coral to make a grappling hook-thingy. That was some trial and error right there, but everything else I'm pretty sure had clues on how to do.

 

[jon bones]

I did, only took me like 2 summers as a kid.

 

[Reinhard]

It was very doable when it first came out. I played and solved all LucasArts adventure games without a guide when they first came out. There wasn't even an internet available for earlier LucasArts games, although by the time Grim Fandango came out there was late 90s internet with the amazing Netscape browser.

 

[ThreepQuest64]

I stopped playing it once I spend hours in that forest part with that,what was it? some kind of oil pump/machine? I don't know, it's been a while.

But I also don't look at guides because I think: what's the point then? Just looking up every time I stuck is frustrating and tells me that I probably shouldn't play this game or that I'm not good enough. With so many games today I rather just move on.

I also hate it in p&c adventures when you're already on the right track but you have to trigger something first, like a dialog, and you rule out your right solution because it didn't work and just stuck forever.

Another thing is when a glitch or bug, it doesn't have to be game breaking, lead you on the wrong track. Just the other day I did a switch puzzle in The Last Door and the cursor changed to closed hand when holding the mouse and enables you to kind of drag those switches and push them all at once. I thought I had to drag them somehow but it was just a bug and you were going only supposed to press them.The changed hand symbol didn't mean anything.

These little quirks make this genre less and less appealing for the limited time I have.

 

[Javier23]

As far as classic point and click adventures go, it really isn't too bad.

If you are a console player and the Remastered version of this game is one of your first forays into the genre, I totally get why people would feel so lost.

 

[Ogni-XR21]

No old P&C can be finished without guides.

I opened a Maniac Mansion guide at random...

Click to shrink...

As a kid I finished all the possible paths to finish Maniac Mansion (I think it was 5 different ways). We had a lot of time and it was a group effort of probably 5 kids in my neighborhood, but we made it.
It's a different time now, while I still have a soft spot for PnC games I don't have that patience any more. Of course only having a very limited number of games to play back than made us stick to games even if they were hard.

 

[Oinone]

Remember that famous point in Broken Sword where you could suddenly run?

Never played Grim Fandango back in the day, so I thought of grabbing it. But then I watched a bit of a walkthrough and noped out.

 

[Mirage]

 

[Dandy]

Most likely if you have a lot of time to waste and experiment. Only part that seemed nonsensical to me was the one where you driving in the forest trying to find a way out, I have no idea how one would have figured that out.

Click to shrink...

That was the main one that got me, though I am sure there were a few others.

 

[Hucast]

Playing this when it first came out originally, I kinda had to.

It was a pain, but definitely doable.

Click to shrink...

Those were simpler times; a time where patience still existed

 

[Hybrid Rainbow]

Lol I forgot there was a time when people my age and older had to get through games without help of guides or the internet. Shit, the Sega hotline was a game changer when we all got stuck on that particular area of Sonic (You know the one lol).

 

[Grym]

I did when it first came out. I was very into point/click adventures back then though. You just try everything until something works when you get stuck. Though I loved GF, it definitely has some bad puzzles in it

 

[ghibli99]

Nope. And I feel like I need to use one to varying extents for every damn graphic adventure game I play. I have such a love/hate relationship with them because of that. LOL

 

[giant_frying_pan]

I had to resort to a guide for one puzzle in (I think) Year 4.

Turns out it was glitched because of my PC specs at the time...

 

[mclem]

For what seemed like the 5th try, I tried to play Grim Fandango and about 30 minutes later felt completely lost to what I'm supposed to be doing to progress. The solutions are never something that make me go "how did I miss that?" but " fuck this shit".

Anybody else feel the same?

Click to shrink...

I posted this in the other guide thread:

I like to have advance notice of any missables, so I'll quite frequently use a guide for that. I'm also playing through FF12 currently and I'm using guides for much of the side content, but not for any of the story itself.

I got through The Witness and Baba Is You without any guides, but I did discuss individual puzzles with folks around these parts; not quite sure whether people think that those should count or not. Going further back, I do recall completing both Mega-Monkey Curse of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango without any assistance.

Click to shrink...

There wasn't any easily available assistance to have at that point, anyway! Got it for Christmas, got through one year each day, IIRC.

 

[Cheezus H Rice]

i did back as a teen, but i think it probably took well over a year to get through it. All of the lucasarts adventures seemed like sprawling epic stories simply because they took so long for me to complete in real life!

It was like artificial value for money!