I got to thinking from another post about puzzles past that drove me crazy. I'm very curious what the community thinks are the Hardest (or Cruelest), Stupidest and Craziest puzzles we had to solve in the history of Myst (I, II, III, IV, V) and everything associated with Uru up to and including Minkata.

Now we all have to admit that there have been some doozies out there that drove us crazy.

Hardest: The "Fire Marbles puzzle" (from Riven) which had a trial and error component to it which gave it that extra level of difficulty.

Stupidest: Standing still for 15 minutes in The Watcher's Sanctuary. (from The Path of the Shell)

Craziest: The monkey sound wheel puzzle to control the monkeys with most of the 'clues' in the cutscene. Many will probably disagree, but this was one I could have never even guessed the solution. To add a layer of crazy you had wheels which had to be turned to the exact place for the proper duration. (from Myst IV)

Of course, runner up to these 3 is the "Spider Chair Puzzle" in Myst IV and I'd be remiss without throwing in the Firefly puzzle from the original Uru, which would probably fall under "most annoying puzzle".

I'd love to hear what everyone thinks about this.

Hardest: Riven aside, finishing Spire with no assistance was a real pain. Also, seeing how I had to patch the game before I could solve the puzzle didn't make it any better.

Stupidest: Closing the doors in Crater Island from the inside. Ha!
Craziest: Appeasing the ancestors in Serenia with offerings. That was a real neat way to interact with the environment and I enjoyed it.

For me:

Hardest: the crystal locks puzzel in spire.It drove me CRAZY!!!
I gusse the riven fire marbles puzzel COULD be hard too,only if I didn't use walkthrough right when I saw it...

Stupidest: well...I think it's the serenia "please your spirit" puzzel in myst iv.Serenia is a great age,but I understood what to do in this puzzel,I just didn't clicked at the spirit when he looked at me! and I gusse myst iv opening puzzel (I don't know how to call it) was stupid too..."move the slider"..."no,it's not the right one"...

Craziest: the first dream world in serenia puzzel...I gusse you all know why.

There are more hard,stupid and crazy puzzels,but those are THE MOST hardest stupidest and craziest puzzels I have ever played.

*I didn't played the first myst and myst online uru live ever.And myst v is just a stupid game,so I can't remember the puzzels in it.

Good topic!

Hardest: The spider chair at the top level on spire. I loved it, though. The crystals were hard to "set."

Stupidest: To be honest, Minkata. I hate it. The pod ages weren't much fun, either. They were both kinda for "smart people" to figure out. The ages are PRETTY, though, and so I'm not completely mad at Cyan. Very fun to look at, and that's half of the fun for me.
So as puzzles, they're well thought out. Maybe TOO well.
I also hated the riven "fire marbles"/color reflectors.

Most Hilariously Infuriating: the Revelation opening puzzle. XD omg.

Craziest: Yeah, the Dream World was pretty crazy...and...well, I'll just go with that.

Let's see...

Stupidest: The final puzzle in Myst 4. I won't spoil it for you, but... while story-wise it's a mildly clever idea, the implementation is non-fun and terrible.

Hardest: Unfortunately, since I'm weak-willed, I tend to check a site like UHS-hints when I get stuck, so it's hard to comparatively guage how hard some puzzles are relative to one another. I might say the Firefly puzzle, since even after reading explicitly how to do it, I couldn't figure it out, and if I hadn't gotten hints, none of the steps in the puzzle would have ever occurred to me.

Most inane and lame: In Myst 5, there was a door that was locked, and the combination was 3 colored shapes. You walked around the building and looked through the window, and there was a piece of paper with the three colored shapes on it. In a Myst game? Seriously?

Craziest: The endgame puzzle to Myst 3 was pretty clever and unique.

Hardest: Firemarble puzzle in Riven or the organ puzzle in the spaceship on MYST. Or the Spider Chair.

Stupidest: Yeah, Watcher's Sanctuary. That, or getting the white page in Myst.

Craziest: The monkey puzzle in Haven... Or pretty much any of those puzzles.

Now, if we're just talking Uru...

Hardest: Fireflies.
Stupidest: Still Watcher's Sanctuary.
Craziest: Ahnonay's puzzles with swimming out to the other islands and such. That or the Gahreesen jump to the Journey door.

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-Whilyam

Oh, there are plenty of stupid puzzles in Myst games...

* Anything in TPoTS that requires waiting for an extended time period
* The hunt for the Relto page in Ahnonay (were they KIDDING?!)
* Seeing Gehn's musical 'performance' in Riven... especially if you missed a click spot and have to find your way back there (but on the other hand, this is just an Easter Egg, so it doesn't count)
* The animal noises puzzle in Myst 4. That thing probably took me two hours to get right, even with a strategy guide.
* "A little to the left. Back to the right. Adjust the frequency dial." Shut up, Atrus. Shut up now.
* The 'rainbow clouds' puzzle in Myst 4... that was the most bizarre 20 minutes of my life, ever.

But on the other hand, there are several puzzles that make up for those...

* The whole age in Myst 3 that turns into a massive roller coaster. Go, ice ball, go! (My niece is always very entertained by that.)
* The Channelwood Age, trying to route the water. I dunno why, I like that one, especially in RealMyst where it's considerably easier. Maybe it's just because I have a soft spot for Channelwood.
* The marker hunts in Uru are always fun.

The firefly puzzle wasn't horrible, IMHO, it was just boring and time consuming, that's all.

The good news is, there are so many choices!

Hardest: Spider chair. I thought most of Myst IV was harder than is fun, but that was worst.

Stupidest: Obviously, the Pods. Think about it--it doesn't matter whether you get it by luck, relentless patience, or clever calculation, you're still just standing at the window of a zoo exhibit where the animals aren't usually even around. No exploring, no spectacular scenery, not even any interesting jumps, because you have to use the ladders to get down. All for a portal to appear as a reward for doing absolutely nothing.

I should say that if the Pods didn't exist it would become much tougher to choose, whether it's waiting in the Sanctuary (how can waiting 15 minutes be stupider than waiting 15 hours, folks?), or a puzzle based on the idea that a cave explorer cannot find any sources of light except for attracting fireflies.

Craziest: Probably the swimming in Ahnonnay. That's an extremely strange and original puzzle.

Last edited by vidroth on Mon Jun 18, 2007 2:55 am; edited 1 time in total

You know what? Let's go through this firefly puzzle thing, one step at a time.

1. The tunnel is dark. What do you do?
-Feel around
2. Sorry, that won't work. It's dark. You can't find anything
-Flashlight
3. Nope. You can't carry anything back with you from the surface
-Fire marbles? You know, from the Bevin?
4. Sorry. You can't pick stuff up either. And you can't move stuff through the linking books.
-Can I light something on fire? There's a lot of wooden stuff here, and it's hot
5. Wrong. Totally wrong.
-Um... I give up
6. Here's a hint: it's in the other garden age.
-What? I thought I couldn't move stuff through the linking books?
7. This is an unexplained exception.
-Oh, thanks. Oh, fireflies. Can I catch them?
8. Well, yes and no. They'll sort of hang around you.
-Oh, that's cool I guess. *runs* Hey, where'd they go?
9. Sorry, they don't like running
-Oh, that's cool I guess. *walks* Hey, where'd they go?
10. Sorry, they don't like rain.
-I see... *walks carefully, avoiding rain, and links* It worked!
-Wait, where'd they go!?
11. You gotta watch out for that steam vent in front of the link-in-point.
-Well, crap. *repeats previous steps, then avoids steam vent* OH CRAP
12. Yeah, you'd think you would figure out by now that they wouldn't want you to walk through the water either.
-But they don't touch the water, it's like ankle-high... Whatever *repeats previous steps, but this time jumps over the river. Then jumps behind the waterfall* Huh?
13. They don't like jumping.
-But I jumped before
14. You can jump once, but that's it
-That doesn't make any freaking sense!
15. These are one-jump fireflies. Now shut up and make it so you only have to jump once.
-Can I step over the thin part of the river?
16. You probably could, but that'd be too easy.
-I guess I have to build a bridge of some kind?
17. Pretty much.
-I can kick this fish-basket around. It'd be nice if I could just pick it up, but this isn't so hard.
18. That's the spirit!
-I could make a second bridge for behind the waterfall if I could use this big pile of miscellaneous wooden stuff. Do I need a second bridge?
19. Not yet.
-But I will later?
20. Well, yes.
-So why can't I use this stuff?
21. It's just part of the "background," you can't use it.
-Riiiight. So what do I build the second bridge with?
22. There are more fish baskets up there. After a mini-waterfall to ensure that you lose your fireflies
-Oh, thanks. Why do I need the second bridge? Can't I jump once?
23. You can, but you need to save the jump for another tiny river that any normal person could just step over.
-Okay, screw this. I'm going to play Paper Mario.

LOL

That was possibly the greatest thing I've read on these forums!

LuigiHann, will you marry me? I have never laughed harder on this forums. =)

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KI #: 00472008

LuigiHann, thank you for giving such a laugh. Really brightened my day!

That was great! Those stinking fireflies cost me more time than almost every other puzzle put together.

Hahahaha! Yeah, I've got to join in on the LuigiHann adoration too. Just perfect

Firefly puzzle has to be the hardest, stupid and craziest puzzle for me for sure.

Edit: You missed a step though:

...
2. Sorry, that won't work. It's dark. You can't find anything
-If I look carefully I can just make out the silhouette of the lantern, but its button doesn't work.

2.5 Yeah... you're not supposed to be able to see that so we disabled it. Just pretend you didn't see anything.
-Flashlight
...

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Great Zero Runners Bevin