Ben Jordan Case 5

[Snarky]

It will be explained later in the series. (Like so many other things, including the one question I'm still surprised nobody has asked).

Why did Professor Whatshisname call Detective Yoshi to talk about Ben?

[Grundislav]

Another excellent question (Though not the one I was referring to).Ã,  And it's Percival Quentin Jones.Ã, 

[adventuregamegal]

   Excellent game.  I love the graphics, it's nice and neat (I mean uncluttered)...I only had to check the walkthrough once, and I should have tried a little harder before I did.  I love a game where everything makes sense, the game has a great story, and you can play uninterrupted without spending days on one puzzle, or using hints every hour.  I think it makes the flow of the game more enjoyable.  I love your games.  Please don't stop

[Bjyman]

Great games keep the good work up.  Here's my feedback

-How about a World Map Icon on the Top Interface Bar so you can immediately get to the map without having to go to the exit point get there.  I find that annoying.

-Why wasn't the clothes transition explained from BJ3 to BJ4? Or did I miss it.

-The absence of the cell phone from BJ4 to BJ5 is odd

-Also with all the emenies BJ is facing it would make sense if he gets some heavy artierlary like a tazer or a gun just to be safe.

-I'm guessing with Simon's new invention that pretty much eliminates locked doors as a puzzle for any future BJ games?

-If Ben is teaming up with people could a switch player mode like Day of the Tentacle be possible?

[Dennis Ploeger]

Hi Grundislav!

Just played through BJ 5 and I'm adding myself to the list of "Thank-You"- and "I like it"-sayers. But as you said before, you'd like some critics. So here goes nothing:

Spoiler

- I found it rather annoying to wait until Ben walks from the entry of the small town to the field where the bushes are along the way. This would have been nice, if it was a one-timer. After that I would just either position Ben directly in the field or cut the whole room out.
- As much as I like your "G-R-U-N-etc."-intro I would really like to have an opportunity to skip it the second time I start the game and just jump to the "Load Game"-window. (I've nearly crashed my F7 waiting for the intro to roll through)
- Although I really like linearity, I found it quite awful to go to the police station - no Yoshi - go home, read the paper, go to the police station - Yoshi's there. I know, that you wanted this "Read the paper in the morning"-action every day, but it took me three (game-) days to find this out.
- I wondered, why Ben didn't want to examine the previous crime scenes. In other games (and series and movies) people always examine the previous crime scenes.
- I found this TV show rather uncompatible with the rest of the game. Like others said, I think you're just in the middle of a morph from a comedy adventure to a serious adventure (from what I'd take the second as my favourite one) and this game show would be something to cut out the next episode.
- Perhaps here is the missing question: Why is Ben's such a celeb to be invited in the game show?
- Again about your Grundislav-logo. I think, morphing into serious episodes requires changing the logo. (Sorry 'bout that)

[close]

But after all, again, I liked the game and am looking out for more serious and well-crafted episodes of Ben Jordan.

Keep up the good work!

deep

[edmundito]

Oooh! I want to answer a batch of questions:

what does "visit the CL" mean?

You see... us normies call it the Critics Lounge, but there seems to be a group of people with delusions of acronyms that call it the CL. I actually figured it out right before running into your question.

also:

Spoiler

1.) why does mary tell ben to consider his career path in the dreams?
2.) where the hell was percival for this game??
3.) what was his card for?
4.) will them weird witchy people be returning?

[close]

answers:

Spoiler

1) Hmm... good question. I'm assuming that since it's a paranormal series then ben jordan has very paranormal dreams as well. Now why does mary know so much? well, we'll have to see. or beat up grundislav after case 8 comes out and it doesn't answer all of the questions.
2) Well, I assume that percival has work to do. He doesn't really team up with ben like Simon and Alice do.
3) Just as a reference. You usually get cards from people you talk to when you're a professional. coincidentially, it worked to remind Inspector Yoshi about you.
4) I still wonder the same thing. I mean why would they want ben jordan?

[close]

-How about a World Map Icon on the Top Interface Bar so you can immediately get to the map without having to go to the exit point get there.  I find that annoying.

I didn't mind walking off screen to go back to the map. Otherwise you might as well turn off the walk to option.

-Why wasn't the clothes transition explained from BJ3 to BJ4? Or did I miss it.

People like to wear different clothes?

-The absence of the cell phone from BJ4 to BJ5 is odd

I thought it was more odd that ben got a cellphone while he was in england for a few days, and the weirdest part was that the phone worked like a normal phone and you didn't have to press the send/call button ¬¬

-Also with all the emenies BJ is facing it would make sense if he gets some heavy artierlary like a tazer or a gun just to be safe.

Wrong game. What is this, doom?
Also, it would imply that Ben is afraid, and yet he hasn't really shown signs of fear from everything that's happen so far. Just anger mostly. You can't really fight the paranormal with weapons anyway.

-I'm guessing with Simon's new invention that pretty much eliminates locked doors as a puzzle for any future BJ games?

Uh... dunno... grundislav, do you? Locked door puzzles are very cliché, though

-If Ben is teaming up with people could a switch player mode like Day of the Tentacle be possible?

It's possible to do it in AGS, yes.

(And aren't Japanese toilets known for being absurdly high-tech, rather than the hole in the floor you showed? Though I'm sure that varies...)

It's a myth, really. They do indeed have those ultra-high-tech americanized toilets, but the traditional toilet is the one you can have to squat to do #2 (and #1 if you're a girl), and if you're american you grab a handle for assistance. Wikipedia has interesting information about japanese toilets.

You avoided the danger of ethnic stereotyping (always a danger when representing foreign cultures), but you ended up going too far the other way, so that many of the characters actually looked more caucasian than Japanese, and spoke perfect (or at least very good) English.

I think that it's difficult to portray people who speak another language; it would difficult to express emotions and thoughts where the language is chopped off and made very basic (like the "leskonian" game host because he was funny and didn't have to be taken seriously) However, I thought it was rather cool that Alice could speak very good japanese, so the conversations between her and the window seemed plausible. Excellent use of a supporting character.

[InCreator]

By CL - I *did* mean Critics Lounge.
I'm a CL resident since 2003 so I rarely use full name nowadays.
But why visiting it?

Simply because in game, there was some mistakes (both in backgrounds and sprites) that are most commonly pointed out whenever someone posts something at Crits Lounge. Something like where typical C&C starts from.

If you avoid CL just because you want to keep characters/details in secret, post a sketch or equal sprite... for example, you could have posted a woman sprite similar to Alice and our artists could showed you the way making her better. And then you could make your Alice according to tips you got for this random-female-sprite.

Or simply browse other female sprite posts people have submitted (there's million of them!) and take tips from there.

What I mean is Critics Lounge is endless library of art knowlegde and it would be stupid to ignore that. Ignore ProgZmax's way to give characters very original and detailed look, Bigbrother's/Farlander's minimalistic photorealism, Darth Mandarb's way to make things cute.... etc.

Also that BJ games are my personal favourites (among very few at all) in AGS games and it's a bit sad to see otherwise very solid and compact (i mean, commercial-like) game to suffer under very basic problems that could have been easily avoided.

But all that explaining rolls the problem bigger that it actually was. And BJ5 still IS a great game.

[KristjanMan]

I have a question too!

Do you have the whole story (all cases) thinked through alredy?

[thewalrus]

I really enjoyed the game. I think it was the best in the series so far. The only thing i was a little disappointed with was the ending, I thought it was kinda abrupt. But alll in all a great game that I would have even paid for.

TheWalrus

Goo, goo, ga joob!!!

[duu]

Also, one comment that confuses me a little is

Spoiler

the one about being frustrated by having to look at the monitor to find the wire.  Aren't adventure games about exploration?  I thought that having the hotspot names would make it obvious as to what was important in each screen.  If you look at either of the monitors it tells you that there's a loose wire.

[close]

Spoiler

It's just quite non logical that if Ben tries to use computer, he don't see the loose wire, where as if he looks at the computer he notices it. Where is Ben looking then if he tries to use computer? 

[close]

This is, of course, a minor problem. Thumbs up for a great game!

[Hammerite]

rite ive figur'd out what that excellent surprising-no-one's-asked-it question!!

Spoiler

why in the chinese lady's house is there a picture of a familiar place (which i assume is smailholm)?

[close]

[KristjanMan]

rite ive figur'd out what that excellent surprising-no-one's-asked-it question!!

Spoiler

why in the chinese lady's house is there a picture of a familiar place (which i assume is smailholm)?

[close]

and I think I figur'd out the answer

Spoiler

Remember the Zen monks black roubes?

[close]

but then again I might be wrong...

[Hammerite]

that's a nice thought, KristjanMan.

[nihilyst]

If I remember correctly, Grundislav mentioned that question, that he is surprised, nobody has asked, before the fifth installment was released. That means, the question has to refer to something in the first four cases. And I have a feeling that it has something to do with Percival.

cheers
nihilyst

[Scorpio_Phoenix]

At the end of Ben Jordan 5 i thought there was something weird about Percival....i might be wrong but i think hes going to be a part of a big story line.....

[Hammerite]

btw, am i the only one whose never really thought of ben jordan as a comedy adventure (i think of it more as a serious adventure with humour added, similar to broken sword)

[KristjanMan]

btw, am i the only one whose never really thought of ben jordan as a comedy adventure

What do you mean you are the only one

[Hammerite]

its just a lot of people have said on this thread that from this game its changing from comedy adventure to serious adventure (personally i didnt see much difference in this respekt)

[Gord10]

It will be explained later in the series. (Like so many other things, including the one question I'm still surprised nobody has asked).

Was it

Spoiler

in the case 3; the reason why Ben Jordan was especially sent for the witchcraft ceremony? I think there was a special reason them to victimise him, but not someone else.

[close]

[Grundislav]

Oh boy, I've inspired discussion!

KristjanMan: Yes, I have the rest of the main storyline planned out.

deepgames: You can press the ESC key to bypass the walking in the village entrance, also the elevators.

Hammerite: The picture of Smailholm was just an in-joke.Ã,  But you are right about the BJ games being serious with humor.Ã,  My intent wasn't to make comedy adventures with these, but also not to have a super serious melodramatic story either, I try to balance the dark with humor.

nihilyst: You're on the right track about the question.Ã,  It could have been asked from Case 1, really.Ã,  And you're also on the right track thinking there's something up with Percy.

If you sit down and think about things that seem a little "odd" in this game (like the police letting Ben in so easily) as well as stuff in other games, you might get the impression that it's not all coincidence...