The End of Riven

 I can't say that I completed the game without any help, but I do think I really understood all the puzzles in a way I hadn't before.

I'll also say that my previous post was somewhat disparaging of the graphics - while there are some environments that are maybe a little lower-rez than a AAA-level game could do nowadays, I've actually warmed up to the NPC models.

The remake of Riven changes some of the puzzles. Most notably, it introduces a new area, the star fissure, which becomes a convenient way to travel between the game's five islands as well as being a necessary part of what is probably the most complex puzzle in the game - empowering the book to the 233rd Age.

One thing I found surprising was that the remake actually gets rid of what I thought was the most memorable puzzle in the original, which was finding the little rotating balls set into certain places with D'ni numbers and hidden animal shapes that are required to solve the puzzle that leads into the age of Tay, where the Moiety rebels have taken refuge (ironically, the cover art for the original Riven box portrays the giant tree-village that is actually in Tay, not Riven).

The replacement for this puzzle does involve finding hidden animal shapes, but it's also randomized and requires learning the Rivenese number system.

This, actually, is kind of hilarious. The original game required you to learn the D'ni numbers (which I had previously assumed to be native to Riven,) but I suppose after 27 years they figured enough people already knew that, so they introduce an entirely new numerical system that you can only learn if you also known the D'ni ones. I believe the Rivenese one is just base 10, but builds its digits in a sort of base 3 system. While it's probably easier once you know how the Rivense one works to convert larger numbers (as every Rivense digit corresponds to an Arabic one, though I don't know if they have a zero, instead seeming to have a digit for 10,) I find the cleverness of the D'ni one - being sort of base 5 and base 25 at the same time - a little more satisfying.

Really, the thing that felt very gratifying is that I actually think I understood the multiple aspects of the puzzle required to empower the link to 233. I think it was also made a little easier because rather than having to place the fire marbles on a, like 25x25 grid, it's now just a 5x5 grid - easy enough to just draw it and mark where the marbles for each island go.

One funny note is that when I found one of Gehn's journals, I saw that he made note of when I accidentally destroyed the bridge to Boiler Isle - given that I don't think that you need to do that to progress, I wonder if this entry either disappears or is different if you never do that.

And boy, if you had any doubts about his malice and thought that Gehn was maybe just a misguided but well-intentioned person, the journal betrays an utterly callous and cruel colonialist mindset that makes me feel pretty ok trapping him in a broken linking book forever. You can find some holograms in his bedroom in the 233rd age that do hint at the complexity of this family tree.

I remember buying the Book of Atrus when I was like 9 or 10, but never read it. I've heard that the Myst books (at least those released in the 90s - not sure if there have been more) are actually pretty good, and the book is literally sitting on my bookshelf here, but I still haven't read it.

Anyway, it's been nice revisiting this. While I did also play Myst 3: Exile when it came out, I don't think it really left as much of an impression on me as the first two games did. Riven, indeed, ends on a note that could have been a pretty good grand finale for the duology.