mirror of
https://github.com/ad044/lainTSX.git
synced 2024-10-22 23:19:06 +00:00
implement the new and improved guide
This commit is contained in:
parent
8ebc8e501c
commit
5655e31bfd
2 changed files with 105 additions and 71 deletions
|
@ -11,91 +11,121 @@ const Guide = () => {
|
||||||
<>
|
<>
|
||||||
<Header />
|
<Header />
|
||||||
<p className="guide-paragraph">
|
<p className="guide-paragraph">
|
||||||
<br /> A bit of a disclaimer - as stated on the main page, these are
|
Welcome to lainTSX: a web-based, open source, English recreation of the
|
||||||
entirely my thoughts from observations while developing the game, some
|
underappreciated 1998 PlayStation game <i>Serial Experiments Lain</i>.
|
||||||
of the information may be innacurate. <br /> <br />
|
In an interview with character designer Yoshitoshi Abe, he said that the
|
||||||
First, let's get this out of the way - Serial Experiments Lain PSX isn't
|
game started development before the far better known anime of the same
|
||||||
a "game" in a traditional sense, it's more like a visual novel which you
|
name, which means that SEL was intended to be a mixed media project.
|
||||||
piece together yourself. The story revolves around Lain and her
|
Unfortunately, the game never took off as well as its television
|
||||||
interactions with her psychiatrist - Touko.
|
counterpart and ended up getting left in the dust. Although you could
|
||||||
<br /> <br />A common misconception about the game is that there's no
|
experience either the game or the anime first, the game will make more
|
||||||
specific order, and that you just randomly watch stuff and come up with
|
sense if you have seen the anime and not so much vise-versa.
|
||||||
an explanation yourself. From what I've noticed, this is not entirely
|
|
||||||
true. Let me explain:
|
|
||||||
<br />
|
<br />
|
||||||
<br />
|
<br />
|
||||||
The blue orbs that you navigate through (we'll call those blue orbs
|
As for how to actually play lainTSX, that’s a bit trickier to explain.
|
||||||
"nodes" from now on) contain either:
|
This isn’t really a video game and I’d even struggle to call it a visual
|
||||||
|
novel (although it is closer to the latter). The “gameplay” revolves
|
||||||
|
around selecting files in a menu and eventually getting to experience
|
||||||
|
all of them.
|
||||||
<br />
|
<br />
|
||||||
<br />
|
<br />
|
||||||
A. Media (audio/video)
|
The file types are:
|
||||||
<br />
|
<br />
|
||||||
B. Collectibles
|
Touko’s Diary (Tda) - Touko’s personal thoughts.
|
||||||
<br />
|
<br />
|
||||||
C. Upgrades
|
Lain’s Diary (Lda) - Lain’s personal thoughts.
|
||||||
|
<br />
|
||||||
|
Counseling (Cou) - Interactions between Touko and Lain.
|
||||||
|
<br />
|
||||||
|
Diagnosis (Dia) - Touko’s diagnosis of Lain.
|
||||||
|
<br />
|
||||||
|
Digital Camera (Dc) - Video clips.
|
||||||
|
<br />
|
||||||
|
Polytan (P2) - parts of Lain’s bear, Polytan.
|
||||||
|
<br />
|
||||||
|
Saisei-kun (SSkn) - upgrades needed to access more nodes.
|
||||||
|
<br />
|
||||||
|
Gate Passes (GaTE) - upgrades needed to access Site B.
|
||||||
|
<br />
|
||||||
|
Talk (TaK) - Random quotes by Lain.
|
||||||
<br />
|
<br />
|
||||||
<br />
|
<br />
|
||||||
There are also multiple "types" of nodes. You can tell them apart by
|
At the beginning, you’ll see an odd and clunky hub with a bunch of blue
|
||||||
their names and icons.
|
orbs. This is the main menu, so you better get used to it. Those orbs
|
||||||
<br />
|
are called nodes, and they each represent a specific file. Blue nodes
|
||||||
Here's a basic list of these nodes according to their names in their
|
haven’t been assessed yet and grey nodes have. If a node you already
|
||||||
respective categories:
|
went through is still blue, that means you haven’t actually
|
||||||
<br />
|
listened/watched all of it. There’s a progress bar on the top right of
|
||||||
<br />A category (Media) - Tda, Lda, Dia, Cou, TaK, Dc
|
the screen which will show how far you are into the clip, so I recommend
|
||||||
<br />B category (Collectibles) - P2
|
checking that before leaving the file.
|
||||||
<br />C category (Upgrades) - SSkn, GaTE
|
|
||||||
<br /> <br />
|
|
||||||
Let's step through each of these one by one:
|
|
||||||
<br />
|
<br />
|
||||||
<br />
|
<br />
|
||||||
Category A - Media:
|
If you try to access a node by selecting it, there’s a good chance
|
||||||
<br /> Tda - Touko's diary - Touko's personal thoughts.
|
you’ll be greeted with an animation of Lain either knocking on the node
|
||||||
<br />
|
with no result, knocking on the node and falling on her face, or getting
|
||||||
Lda - Lain's diary - Lain's personal thoughts.
|
shot at with lasers coming from the node. This is the only real puzzle
|
||||||
<br />
|
that the game provides you with. What you need to do is access all the
|
||||||
Dia - Diagnosis - Lain's diagnosis after their interactions, provided by
|
SSkn files in numerical order, meaning that you’re gonna have to search
|
||||||
Touko.
|
through four of these nodes starting from the very bottom of the map.
|
||||||
<br />
|
There are also six P2 files, and after accessing them all you will
|
||||||
Cou - Counseling - Lain and Touko's interactions.
|
unlock two more files. The GaTE files are the last collectable, and
|
||||||
<br />
|
collecting all four will unlock Site B; Site B is another area that can
|
||||||
TaK - Not sure what TaK stands for - Random quotes by Lain.
|
be accessed by going to the menu and selecting “Change”, although I
|
||||||
<br />
|
wouldn’t recommend doing this quite yet.
|
||||||
Dc - Videos.
|
|
||||||
<br />
|
<br />
|
||||||
<br />
|
<br />
|
||||||
This is where the no-real-order issue comes into play - each of these
|
Now that you have all these files at your disposal, you’re probably
|
||||||
separate types are put in chronological order, meaning After Lda001
|
extremely overwhelmed. “Oh no,” you might be saying to yourself. “How
|
||||||
comes Lda002, then Lda003, etc. This is identical for every other node
|
will I be able to experience this story in a streamlined, linear order?”
|
||||||
type I mentioned. <br /> <br />
|
Try as much as you want to go in a straightforward path, but the game
|
||||||
What might lead some people to believe that there is no real order is
|
will constantly discourage you. There is no direct order to experience
|
||||||
that the way you UNLOCK them may not be entirely chronological, for
|
everything in, even with the individual files being numbered and each
|
||||||
example, the first node you'll most likely interact with from Tda is
|
level being a direct progression from the last. Even having gone through
|
||||||
Tda028, since that's the closest to where you start from at the
|
all the collectibles and upgrades, there’s still a ton of stuff you
|
||||||
beginning of the game.
|
haven’t yet unlocked. As you chug through the game, more and more files
|
||||||
<br /> <br />
|
will pile up. On top of this, each audio file contains three key words
|
||||||
There's also another issue - despite these separate types being put in a
|
of literal or thematic importance, and each word brings you to a file
|
||||||
specific order, it is unclear how they interact with each other. For
|
that will most likely be on a completely different level. I strongly
|
||||||
example, there is no way (to my knowledge) to tell which Cou comes after
|
believe that part of the artistic vision behind this game was to have
|
||||||
which Lda judging by their names alone. What might help here are the
|
players jump around the map and experience it in their own unique order
|
||||||
"words" you select while you play them (on the right hand side there are
|
through whichever key words or plot elements they find themselves most
|
||||||
3 floating things on each audio node which you can select).
|
interested in. Take this however you want and go through the files in
|
||||||
<br /> <br />
|
whatever way you find the most engaging. Personally, I took full
|
||||||
Category B - Collectibles: <br />
|
advantage of this unique system and found myself loving the game even
|
||||||
P2 - Polytan - You collect parts of Lain's bear, after you collect all
|
more for it. It becomes a bit tedious when you only have a few nodes
|
||||||
the pieces, 2 extra idle media files become available.
|
left since you’re booted so often to files you’ve already gone through,
|
||||||
<br /> <br />
|
so at that point I just directly exited out of files after listening to
|
||||||
Category C - Upgrades:
|
them and selected the blue node closest to me.
|
||||||
<br />
|
<br />
|
||||||
SSkn - Saisei-kun (roughly translates to Mr. Recovery) - The main
|
|
||||||
upgrade inside the game. Some nodes have an "upgrade requirement" that
|
|
||||||
you need to meet to be able to view them, the way you do that is by
|
|
||||||
collecting these. So, the next time you see Lain try to knock on a node
|
|
||||||
and fall over, know that you need to collect more SSkn nodes.
|
|
||||||
<br />
|
<br />
|
||||||
GaTE - Gate (I guess) - A "gate pass" as the game calls it - after
|
Once every single node on all twenty-two levels has become gray, it’s
|
||||||
collecting all of them, you unlock Site B, which contains more nodes and
|
time for you to go to Site B! This is a direct continuation of the story
|
||||||
is the place where you continue the story.
|
in Site A, and there are only thirteen levels this time around. There
|
||||||
<br /> <br />
|
are no P2 or GaTE files in Site B, but you will have to find three more
|
||||||
|
SSkn files before you can freely access everything you see. There’s also
|
||||||
|
a one-shot manga called Serial Experiments Lain: The Nightmare of
|
||||||
|
Fabrication that takes place sometime during the events of Site B, so
|
||||||
|
you’re gonna want to read that.
|
||||||
|
<br />
|
||||||
|
<br />
|
||||||
|
<br />
|
||||||
|
Everything below this line is post-game, so you should have watched the
|
||||||
|
ending before reading this final paragraph.
|
||||||
|
<hr />
|
||||||
|
After watching the final cutscene and pressing continue, you will be
|
||||||
|
booted back to Site A. This time, there are a ton of added blue nodes!
|
||||||
|
While some of these are useful or add to the story, there’s a new file
|
||||||
|
type labeled TaK which is pretty much just a five-second quote from
|
||||||
|
Lain. A majority of these new nodes are TaK files, making the post-game
|
||||||
|
an absolutely tedious grind. If you want to unlock even more stuff, you
|
||||||
|
will have to go through each and every one of these; there are
|
||||||
|
one-hundred and twenty-one in total, counting those on both sites. After
|
||||||
|
all your nodes are gray once again, watch the ending and you’ll get the
|
||||||
|
remaining nodes—sixty-one of which are more TaK files. You get very,
|
||||||
|
very few important files. If you grind your way through all of these and
|
||||||
|
watch the ending once again, you’ll get… nothing. This is it. You’re
|
||||||
|
done. Yeah, the post-game isn’t great to say the least, so you decide if
|
||||||
|
you’re Lain enough to complete it.
|
||||||
</p>
|
</p>
|
||||||
</>
|
</>
|
||||||
);
|
);
|
||||||
|
|
|
@ -94,6 +94,10 @@ const MainPage = () => {
|
||||||
name={"Magikarp"}
|
name={"Magikarp"}
|
||||||
credit={"Provided initial models for the rings."}
|
credit={"Provided initial models for the rings."}
|
||||||
/>
|
/>
|
||||||
|
<Credit
|
||||||
|
name={"The God of Kino"}
|
||||||
|
credit={"Writing the guide."}
|
||||||
|
/>
|
||||||
<Credit
|
<Credit
|
||||||
name={
|
name={
|
||||||
"mutronics, lelenium, Lorenzo, elliotcraft79, Nichts, Mikix, shemishtameshel, espilya, Yokuba, oo, Shuji, Bunbuns, claire, Eternofímero, Cal, Cena"
|
"mutronics, lelenium, Lorenzo, elliotcraft79, Nichts, Mikix, shemishtameshel, espilya, Yokuba, oo, Shuji, Bunbuns, claire, Eternofímero, Cal, Cena"
|
||||||
|
|
Loading…
Reference in a new issue