Company : Psygnosis
Title : Ecstatica - a state of mind
I haven't written any solutions for a while but Ecstatica is definitely
something that justifies time spent on writing the solve. This awesome
adventure features creatures made of vector balls resulting
(despite numerous bugs) in very beautiful and very playable scene. Also it
has a awesome musical score and cool sound effects.But enough of that
, let's start with the actual gameplay.
First some general hints about fighting techniques. Fighting is fairly
straightforward. One can 'duck' - 5-key, strike from above - 7-key or
strike horizontally 9-key. While engaged one should duck often and before
the creature can recover from momentum of his blow whack an opponent once
or twice, then go thru same procedure again. There are numerous killing
'instruments' available but the difference isn't so great,
with one notable exeption.
You can waste most of the characters so it's up to you to decide
who should live and who should die.
Werewolf - he seems to be immortal ?
Werewolf is that merry creature that makes a point of jumping on you from
the rooftops and being pain in the ass every way.
It is often speculated that he's impossible to kill but this is not a case.
You Can definitely dispose of him but it takes a lot of dedication.
You have to drive him to the corner and keep whacking on him for some good
5 minutes or so.
But generally it's a lot easier to give him some blows just to show who's
the boss and run away.
Little beeping buggers
They shall sometimes attack in big numbers but have no fear - they are easy
to beat even with bare hands.
House with three little buggers and knight's armour
You can equip with a basic sword here and also you can get a white
armour from the wall. The armour is funny to play with as it makes
hilarious sounds but it slows you down do the extent of unplayability
in most battle instances and should be mainly considered a red herring.
Store with a dying man
Man who gets killed tries to give you something. It seems to be some kind
of a key. It's not needed however so we can go on and explore the back room.
Here can be found carrot kind of thingy that is needed later and also some
barrels that are good for playing hide'n'seek.
House with a little obnoxious girl in it.
Girl wants to get her little teddy bear so you should fetch her one. It can be
found at the second floor of the house with the drinking bear. Girl gives her
bear a little 'hug' and storms to outside. Let's follow her to the church.
As you are obviously too big to fit into that little passage, our little
friend opens a door to the dungeons for you. Here can be found some
undead people and some impressive graphics.
Church - what to do?
There is a ladder to the tower, where a lonely monk can be found. You can
banish him if you like but he's just misinformed. Below the hanging monk
can be found mandrake root kind of thingy that is needed for magic potion.
Also there should be a bible lying about. This item is usable for gaining
entrance to monkery.
House where drunken fellow fights with a dragon
Jump in and kill dragon. Now you can take a drunk warrior and carry him
to the relatively safer place. He talks some info, so be vigilant. After
saving the old fellow you can return to the house and grab his weapon,
which is a little better than just sword. Go behind a counter to have a
little drink.
House with a drinking bear
Hmm, isn't it a charming fellow ? With just a little reaction you can
render him dead. Just remember to duck when closing in on him and choose a
moment when he is trying to drink his booze. Alternatively you can leave
him to his drinking and strode to the second floor. Here can be found a girl's
teddy bear and an interesting diary. Read the diary, it'll casts some light
on the happenings in village. On third floor is heater that should be used
for producing magic potion.
You can learn about magic formula from the book.
You need :
1 carrot kind of thingy - from store
1 mandrake root kind of thingy - from church
1 red flower - from road to monkery.
OK, put those items into heater and run over it to drink the potion.
You'll be turned into something.
Now it's good time to go to the area below church,
where little girl wants to go and play.
Go there and climb the stairs to the knight's quarters. He will freak out
and give you his golden sword. Some people have been reporting that they've
got a bug - game refuses to admit that drink is ready.
We shall address that problem later on.
Garden
In the garden you are likely to come across some minotaurs. There are two
of them, one of them is lot harder to kill. But you should kill then anyway
to grant for yourself some freedom of movement.
Singe spike trap in garden - how to pass ?
This trap seems to be impossible to circumnavigate unless you're happen
to be green at the moment but there is other way around it. We will return
to that much later.
Castle
Front entrance to the castle can be hazardous do your health so go a little
further and find another entrance to visit a wizard. Sadly he takes a very
dim view about visitors and turns you into nice little frog.
Being frog can be dangerous sometimes, but it's can also be very
entertaining to hop around in places you could not reach in human form. Now it's possible to check
out
areas behind a spike trap and some parts of the dungeons. When you've had
quite enough of froggin' go find a lake. In the little house beside the lake
where lives a woman with overflowing sexual tendencies.
She can help you to regain your accustomed form.
Little house beside a lake
Here lives a woman who can revert you from frog to human and there is an
interesting, not to say, magical broom. It can be used to get a golden sword
off from knight later.
Monkery
In order to enter here you must carry bible found from church and use your
somewhat rusty latin. Go straight to the library (talking with some monks
first) and examine some books found there. Helpful monk will give you
resume on most interesting books.
There is an useful relict on the altar that you should get. It is discussed
that after taking the relict it is necessary to kill all monks but this is
not so.
If you're not too bloodthirsty, you can grab relict and run for the hole in
the library.
A word of warning, though : If you haven't got golden sword yet and you
can't make a magic potion do not grab the relict yet or you might find
yourself helplessly stuck.
Getting Golden Sword from knight without a magic potion
To follow this path, you must have so called magic broom in your
possession. Ride the broom to the monkery and try to drop the broom
exactly above the hole in library. You should fall down and drop broom.
Grab it again and remount. Now all you got to do is to ride straight to
the
next room, drop broom and climb stairs.
It is safe now to visit monkery and steal their most valuable treasure -
the holy relict, or as matters stand, old bone.
Golden Sword - what is it good for ?
You need Golden Sword to become a knight. Take it and walk to the lake.
There is a rectangular stone by the shore so climb on it. Now follows a
little animation and Lady of the Lake gets fitting reward for making you a
knight.
Castle - again
Now that you are a knight, ol' wizard seems to be a lot friendlier and
invites you into his humble home. Go straight to the tower's upper level
and read another 'magic' formula. All that we need is a book of magic ...
Climb down the stairs to the depths of the tower. Here is a big stone dude
who tries to whack you with his mighty weapon. Here you should use duck'n'
run tactics to get past this obstacle. You will be attacked by (almost)
invisible warriors, they are fairly easy to dispose of.
Don't descend from nearest stairway if you don't desire to get 'spiked' but take a little
walk around and duck'n'run to get past stone dragon.
If you should still get 'spiked' try to move from a little different angle,
it should work.
Below the castle
In the middle of the big room is a little room where you can equip with the
good armour that doesn't slow you down a bit. On we go via grilled gateway.
It opens and you'll be knocked out cold. It is not necessary to take that
path put it holds some nice animation's.
After cleaning up your guard's house you should steer to the room
where a book lye's on the pedestal. Listen what that little green thing has
to say and hit him. Too bad. OK, get a magic book and go check out another
archway that leads downstairs. Remember this wonderful place ?
Yeah, but this time we are not going to just hop around.
Go to the lover level and put King to the final sleep. We don't have a good
enough weapon yet to battle Devil himself so retrace your steps out of the
tower and out of the castle (don't forget to take magic book with you).
Getting back from spikes between stairs can be tricky but it can be done.
Backward walking worked for me.
Finale
Now that you have bone (holy relict) and magic book, run to the stone
circle with them. After some effects you find that you have a potent
weapon in your disposal.
Dump magic book and speed back to the castle and descend to the room
you got that magic book from. Door is open so walk boldly in and watch
how the demon changes shape to become something more interesting.
Be polite and sit at table to have a little meal. Now he asks to turn
over that stupid little bone you are carrying.
It's your choice. You can give him that worthless piece of bone and live
happily forever after or you can choose to stay plain mortal and leave
your place of honour at table and run to the possessed girl.
If you choose to do the
latter, you'll have to fight demon to the death. Too bad.
THE END
This little solution is written by
Veikko Danilas - Maintainer of the Spoiler's Centre
http://www.et.ee/spoiler (web site)
If i missed something vital, mail me at internet veiks@et.ee
Copyright (c) Veikko Danilas
19.12.94 02:32 am
-*-*-*--
edited and uploaded To compuserve By John Newton dynacom@dircon.co.uk
