[Remnant]

I really thought of 5DaS and 7DaS as a whole, it made sense, it had atmosphere, it was about John DeFoe and the abuse of welding utilities. Trilby's Notes was definitely a great and scary game, but it was almost too much, too complex. I guess I'm a simple mind after all, but I always had some kind of feeling of "Huh, alright, if you say so... Chzo FTW it is now, I guess" running along. The last one was pretty darn good, too, but I still couldn't help but thinking that all that Chzo stuff was merely invented after 7 Days a Skeptic, kind of like what George Lucas did with Star Wars. It didn't really seem to belong there anymore. Something placed on top of the original, I dunno.

What is it with people comparing the Chzo Mythos with Star Wars? lol. Poor Georgie boy, that has to be the most overused similie in history now.

I actually got a bit lost with Notes and thereafter. I began to ask a number of questions, most commonly: "What happened to the DeFoe freak?" Supposing we run with a Star Wars rip, it would be like... having Vader and the Emperor as antagonists in the original first two, then all of a sudden Maul and Dooku arrive in the third. I got lost somewhere in the mysterious idol backstory, to the point that I almost had to cattle-prod myself and reiterate that the idol was what we shouldn't really care about, as it gets blasted in 7DAS anyway.

Maybe I have to replay Notes. Maybe Yahtzee just absolutely scared the plot out of me lol. Arguably, the series could have ended with 7DAS. Manor destroyed, idol blasted. A nice little twist ending, too.

[Gobbler]

lol.

rofl, he said "lol".

[Remnant]

.....

o.0

[Stalky]

TN. Simply the most enthralling, scary and artistic of the four, in my opinion. I expect 6DAS would have been voted for if I had enjoyed it being set in the future, but I believe that was a gimmick that belonged to 7DAS and should not have been revisited. Still a great game and great end to the storyline nonetheless, though.

I still couldn't help but thinking that all that Chzo stuff was merely invented after 7 Days a Skeptic, kind of like what George Lucas did with Star Wars. It didn't really seem to belong there anymore. Something placed on top of the original, I dunno.

I agree. I'd like to see 5DAS and 7DAS revisited in order to blend them into the tetralogy a little more, sort of like a director's cut - I'd especially like to see John DeFoes birthday edited in 5DAS, if I remember correctly it's currently the 28th June, rather than the 28th July. Still, I'm not expecting anything, with free games you get what you're given and live with it.

This post has been edited by Stalky: 29 January 2007 - 07:29 PM

[setasouji]

The last one was pretty darn good, too, but I still couldn't help but thinking that all that Chzo stuff was merely invented after 7 Days a Skeptic, kind of like what George Lucas did with Star Wars. It didn't really seem to belong there anymore. Something placed on top of the original, I dunno.

That's because it was. In fact, Yahtzee said as much when he published Trilby's Notes.

This is also an opportunity to expand the X Days A Sauerkraut storyline. John DeFoe is all very well but I wanted to tell something slightly more epic, so I'm trying to work what's already happened in 5DAS and 7DAS into a larger plot.

I'm partial to Trilby's Notes, although one of my friends likes 7DaS the best simply for, "I JUST WANTED TO GO INTO SPACE!"

[David-kyo]

I agree. I'd like to see 5DAS and 7DAS revisited in order to blend them into the tetralogy a little more, sort of like a director's cut - I'd especially like to see John DeFoes birthday edited in 5DAS, if I remember correctly it's currently the 28th June, rather than the 28th July. Still, I'm not expecting anything, with free games you get what you're given and live with it.

Well, there's the Half Life 2 mod project going along (I hope), I'm guessing that it will have many new things to show us. If it gets done in this decade.

[Don Andy]

Well, there's the Half Life 2 mod project going along (I hope), I'm guessing that it will have many new things to show us. If it gets done in this decade.

Heh, it's a mod. It will never get done as long as you follow its development. Only when you look away for about a year you will suddenly surprised it's done.

That's how mods work. *forgets it*

[hydra9]

I'm in the minority, but it has to be... 7 Days A Skeptic!

Also, I just finished playing 6DAS, so if anyone cares, here are my opinions on the whole series:
* I liked the first game a lot. It was a little rough around the edges, but overall, I was very impressed, and wanted more! (Rating: 7/10)
* The second game is definitely my favourite. It was a little more mature, it had a great atmosphere, setting and characters. I thought there was quite a lot of subtlety to it; for instance I liked the way that the 'laid back joker' type of guy became a quivering wreck when the shit began to hit the fan. I am a sucker for sci-fi, too, which helps. (Rating: 8/10)
* Third game: Once again, technically and artistically more developed. I loved being able to play various characters over various time periods. Again, I liked the characters. However, the whole Chzo mythology and 'dark world' didn't quite do it for me. I did like this game, but I thought it started taking itself and its Silent Hill-influenced mythology a wee bit too seriously. And there's a magical cursed TREE? Oh well. Text-parser was fine, but still not as good as point-n-click. (Rating: 7/10)
* 6DAS... First off, GREAT idea to do those three mini text-adventures (The 'Countdown'). I loved the fact that we got to go back to those characters (Frehorn, Somerset), and meet a couple of new people, too. As for the actual game, I have to admit, I was very disappointed. I mean, it sounded fantastic in theory (secret underground cult headquarters/research facility - YES!), but the game was dull. It was all Chzo mythology, very serious, taking place in too confined an area, and with nothing particularly to intrigue or excite. Nice graphics as usual (becoming better and better all the time). But this is definitely a chapter too far for me. (Rating: 5/10)

[Bottom line, though: Great series. The only 'amateur' point-n-click adventures I have ever bothered to play through (as these were the only ones that didn't *feel* 'amateur' - Mr. Yahtzee, I thank you, and take my hat off to you!]

[sputnik]

I'd have to say Trilby's Notes, 5DAS in second place.
5DAS was an easy game to follow, had some mild shock value and it had good puzzles.
7DAS' puzzles were very good, but I think the plot relied a bit too much on gore/scares.
Trilby's Notes set an amazing atmosphere, was incredibly scary, had good puzzles and the plotline was really intriguing (Chzo/Tall Man was a good idea.)
6DAS was good. I liked the puzzles and I liked the confined area. It had good plot and both raised and cleared many questions. Many aspects were very unexpected. I rank it 3rd.

This post has been edited by sputnik: 31 January 2007 - 02:03 PM

[Millitant Pacifist]

I liked 5 Days a Stranger best, although Trilby's Notes is a close second, with 6DAS third, mainly because my name was in the credits.

7 Days a Skeptic was scary in a more unreal sense than the first two games. All the gore was creepy, there was a lot of tension and reasonable empathy with the characters, but it didn't stop me from sleeping. Probably setting it in the future made it less convincing, for lack of a better word.

6 days a Sacrifice had a dose of the same problem, and the characters weren't as developed as I would have liked. It made it harder to get scared or care whenever they died. I'm not sure whether I would have preferred all the loose ends explicitly explained, to satisfy my curiosity, or have the game left as is and find myself trying to fill in the blanks. Still, the points where you work out what's happening from a subtle hint makes it worth playing over again, for the added fanboy rush.

People have already mentioned the tacked-on feel to the later two games, and that's one of the big problems with 6DAS, and to a lesser extent, Trilby's notes. Of course, it's hard to see how you could make a sequel without introducing a bigger storyline, unless you want John Defoe chasing people against a variety of different backgrounds for 20 games. Trilby's notes definitely had the suspense and atmospheric horror feel I like, and the soundtrack was creepy as hell- I took tranquillizers like sweets to avoid hearing the faint-voices-screamy-ambient-noise.

5 days a stranger was scary, well written and a fun game to play. It made you care about sprites. There were touches of humour. A welding mask at head height caught the light of my torch when I was looking for something in an old shed, and I screamed. The plot didn't need pain gods and magickal realms, and it was all the better for it. That was what made it the scariest game- it wasn't entirely impossible. The first nightmare with it's jagged chord was a shock- by the time of 6DAS, I was jaded and unfrightened by ominous dreams. It was the first in the series, and the best.

So, there's my essay on the Days series. I don't know how I managed to write that much mildly pretentious crap for fun.

[Dacabe]

5 Days a Stranger: It was a very good game, but not the best, the story was not as complex, like in the following games (Notes and 6DAS).

7 Days a Skeptic: It was more psychological and more dramtic than 5DAS. The space ship enivorment was one of my favourites.

Trilby’s Notes: The scariest of the four, it had a creepy atmosphere, and the story was better than in the previous two games.

6 Days a Sacrifice: I think 6DAS was the best. The story was the most complex in this game and the ending was great. Chzo mislead everyone He was much more powerful than anybody else, it made the atmosphere completely hopeless. He sees every time so no one can trick him.

[Sinclair]

I'd say 5DaS is the single best on its own. I think it stands on its own well, and everything seems to tie together pretty well. Haven't played it in a long time though.

7DaS was probably the nicest looking, although I'm working on memory here. It was very good, about as good as 5DaS, but it was rather less standalone, not just for being a sequel, but for the fact that (unless I missed something) playing 6DaS makes it make rather more sense. It gets points for scaring my younger brother so much he refused to finish the game and had nightmares for about a month.

TN was definitely the scariest. I can't say I liked the text interface, but I'm too young to have played the classic text-based adventure games, so I can't really hold that against it.

6DaS: Just finished this, I'll probably mull it over. I should probably have played the text adventures first, I guess I'll get around to that.

All are absolutely great, especially considering they're free (gotta look into PayPal to order the special editions, I do).

[Maelin]

Well, I'm in the minority, but I said 6 Days, just because the ending was so chilling, and also for that awesome, awesome descending scene with Somerset. That scene blew my socks off, and much of the credit for that goes to m0ds for the awesome Descent theme.

Having played the Special Editions of the four games now, I understand the story much better and appreciate it more.

[brdgt]

I wanna play this "typing a lot about all the games" game!

5DaS got me excited about videogames again, and that is why 5DaS wins my heart. It's a complete and enthralling mystery, and I don't mean complete as in "beginning to end what's a chzo why a chzo i loves defoe " way--I mean that it's the most mysterious. (I'm so, so, sorry, English language.) You start the game without having any idea whether the supernatural is what's keeping you in the house, what the dreams are, who what and why the weldor is, and for all you know AJ put peanut butter on the windows to keep them shut. The rest of the games all have very well-timed plot revelations, but in 5DaS you just have no idea and that's exciting.--That's not to say that I don't think that alll the other games have virtually everything going for them.
7DaS is a definitively badass game. YOU'RE IN SPACE. YOU ARE IN SPACE. THERE'S A SPACE CREW. EVERYTHING IS AWESOME. THE PUZZLES ARE FUN. AND DID I MENTION SPACE HORROR. I don't even really like space horror that much! It just felt cool all the time! And it was a good sequel--Like, a really good sequel, and even though you had a vague idea of what was going on, scarythings did feel new again, there was a feel of enigma, and character interaction was generally good. Also, changing back into my uniform only to come out in weldorclothes was pretty much the coolest scare. (I'm going to assume that's not a spoiler because having played through all the games should sort of be a prerequisite to this thread.)
I don't even have to rave about why TN was so good--all you have to do is scroll up. Anywhere. On this entire forum. But also..TN was so good.
6DaS gets major points for exactly one reason (among others, but this is the most prevalent) which I can sum up in one sentence: It scared me so bad that when I got the 5DaS SE, just being in the kitchen made me quiver. Movies don't scare me. I don't know what happened. It scared me. It made me afraid. I went to sleep and had nightmares that I died. .......... It was awesome.

ohgod words are alotofwords.

[Gobbler]

I second that notion about SPACE OHMIGOD SPACE. I've been replaying 7DaS lately, and yup, it's definitely still my favorite. Let's see whether I can do a better job of articulating my reasons this time...

So yeah, first, it was in space. Woo! That cold cold sincere dangerously vast place out there. Perfect setting and athmosphere for almost any kind of story.

Second, and in correlation with that: The music. It just fit the mood and - most importantly - it wasn't always there. Made you somehow feel like you were really in space and hearing its silence. Best use of music, in my opinion.

Third, the characters. I can't really say that I was on good terms with 6DaS' cast, they were just too bland, while 7DaS had some very extreme characters. One might argue that they were too extreme and therefore unbelievable, but I don't. I actually like it that way. I see enough of well rounded people in reality already and it's quite boring. Plus, you were already friends with them and there were some pretty likeable ones among them - which makes watching them getting slaughtered a lot more dramatic, eh? I giggled when the blood started to gush out of Sam's throat, but it freaked me out when Adam got killed.

Fourth, the dialogues. Oh how I loved them. Funny, sometimes sincere and almost always appropriate in regards to the situation and the character. In 6DaS, I just felt like "Alrighty, let's talk to Sam to gather some information. *sigh*", while in 7DaS, I was all like "Oh hey look! It's Adam! YO! Adam! Wait up man, what's the news?" and weren't disappointed once.

Fifth, the rooms were so goddamn small. Never underestimate claustrophobia, especially when you know that you really can't just open a window and escape. I know, I know, you couldn't escape in those other games too, but just knowing that there was a perfectly secure world behind the walls of DeFoe Mannor lessened the effect a considerable bit. I guess I was hoping to just somehow break free there, while in 7DaS, you just knew that you would have to face the Welder at some point in time.

And yeah, sixth, good ol' Johnny doing what he's best at. You had just spent some good quality time with the crew, and then you suddenly find yourself running from a guy with a machete. Yikes. Nice contrast. Especially if you were wearing white pants.

Alright, I think I'm finished now. Back to work with me.