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Myst is a game that is, very likely, within the first 15 games i ever played in my life. It has been a constant in my life ever since i first played the game in the early 90's. It is a game with a reputation that precedes it as obtuse, difficult, and "just, really not my thing". It is EXACTLY my thing, however and i figured a perfect opportunity to bring back the For Better or Worse format of my videos. Let me explain to you why i think this game is great.
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Robyn Miller - "Classic Games Postmortem: Myst": gdcvault.com/play/1018048/Cla...
Myst Co-Creator Rand Miller: Extended Interview | Ars Technica • Myst Co-Creator Rand M...
The Manhole on the Internet Archive: archive.org/details/TheManhol... - เกม
just want to point out that the sounds in the selenitic maze are not trial and error in principle, they are very well defined if you went to mechanical first.
I love that still to this day people are discovering and falling in love with this franchise. I remember playing it back in ‘97 and just falling in love with the island and its puzzles
It is a testament to it's universality. It's kind of amazing that a strange fantasy world like this can reach so many people. This game does so much right it's crazy.
I’ll never forget the day my dad brought this home. We lived in a little neighborhood right outside of Philadelphia. It was a warm September day much like today. We had a Macintosh computer in the spare bedroom on the second floor. We sat around the computer for hours in that sunny cozy little room. We just wonder around the island clicking everything we saw on each new screen. Every September, I’m brought back to that wonderful childhood memory.
I also have a vivid memory of my dad handing me the box for this game seemingly countless years ago now. Like I say in the Outer Wilds video, later on in this series, I found this game so unnerving and scary back then, but the mystery and totally silent and gentle approach was so mesmerizing. I'm really glad this game entered my life when it did.
so, so similar to my story. My dad who is not a gamer bought it at Sam's Club based on the cover art alone and he and my brother joined me and we banged out as far as we could get. Which was only Channelwood but hey, it made quite an impression on me
"…which is handled in the game's sequel and boils down to-"
YOU FOOL! WATER BOILS *UP* IN THE SEQUEL!
Seriously though, great video.
brilliant
@@jaredgunkle1562 lol thx!
Myst has been the first game I played that I recognized as something 'more' than just a few casual hours of fun jumping around in some fantasy world. Myst, Riven and Zork Nemesis became the trio of games that shaped a lot of what I would expect from games in later years, to often a little bit of disappointment. Fantastic analysis, I loved reliving through it while watching it narrated by you. Kudos (Also, found out about you through Razbuten)
This is a video i've wanted to make since i started working on my channel all those years ago. I'm so glad i finally worked up the courage to do so. It's helped me connect with so many Myst fans out there so far, which is great as i was always saddened by how unknown this game was in larger gaming circles.
25:04 Alright, gotta justify the maze. It's Rand Miller's favorite puzzle after all, despite its infamy.
If you understand that the sound tells you where to go, trial and error is not required.
It's the big red button that gives you all your clues. It does nothing but make a sound, which is the only clue you need to solve it. You've already been primed from everything else on that world and leading up to it to listen to sounds for clues.
First you can only go North, so the sound must be North. Next you only have the option of going back (South) or going West. You don't want to go back, so the next sound must be West. 2 sounds already. Next is North again so you confirm your North sound from before. But the next room has another new sound. South isn't an option, leaving only East. And by process of elimination, whatever new sound you come across must be South. You have all the clues by step 4.
It's one of the worst puzzles in that it's so easy to mistake it for an arbitrary maze, every right or wrong choice has a timer before you can act again, and mistakes compound unlike most other puzzles. And it's a b***h for speedrunners. But it's also a puzzle that meters out the clues and they're all there from the get-go, even tying to other worlds... And in 1993 those quicktime videos were pretty cool.
..I will admit having to do it twice to get the second page is super annoying though.
Indeed, I have come around on the maze somewhat, even if I do think it kind of flies in the face of the flow of the philosophy of the game somewhat. Either way, I'm glad I get to see what so many people take away from this game that I have missed over the years.
Whoa I can’t believe you published this so recently! I was just telling someone I didn’t understand why there weren’t more retrospective videos on the Myst series because they were such iconic games that hold up really well.
I started playing them in the early 2000s and they completely captured me. I became an uber nerd and I don’t think I would have fallen so deeply into gaming without encountering them.
As with parkour, NPC dialogues, actionadventure ability unlocks, crafting systems, and audiologs, I'd say the architectural narrative (multimedia plot scraps ornamentation everywhere) and spatial storytelling (meaningful structures of open and closed space, obscured and visible sightlines) that this game mostly popularized has seeped into pretty much all other games by now, in a way that's hard to notice as much as this game made people notice it back then. So even if it's not much of a living game genre or franchise anymore, at least the influence of it is everywhere.
Really solid look back on this one, man. Great use of cutaways, good pacing, etc. Making my own retrospective on this one at the moment and yours is one of the very few that exist that feel approachable and not pie in the sky
Ooh thanks for examining what made the game's entire opening and gameplay on-ramp so perfectly enticing. One of those perfect bits of game that loads of people probably faintly remember, even if few of them ever finished the game. Also I love that every Cyan game in this series adds its own bit of context to that opening, not by telling you, but by letting you explore. Opening the same fissure yourself by the end of Riven, finding that the main dad's original home is on earth in Uru, then finding out that he'd sent his book back there in End of Ages, to you the desert tourist, by finding the other end of the fissure inside what must be the volcano you saw at a distance in Uru. No overt exposition, but just narrative architecture to explore and poke around in, like a giant puzzlebox full of archaeological meaning.
Of all the reviews I’ve seen of Myst, not one has ever went into the deeper history of Cyan. Very cool! Subscribed:)
The whole video was great. I especially enjoyed the in-depth analysis of the switch puzzles.
I've always thought the switch markers in Myst were so much cooler than people gave them credit for. Glad I took the time to talk them through this way :)
Also, there's some more discussion of Cyan as a studio in my Firmament video, stuff I wish I had found while I was writing the Myst video.
Amazing video! I am so glad people are still discussing this. Like you, I also grew up with Myst. It was one of my first games that I got for my new Pentium 75 computer back in Christmas of 1995. I got Myst and The 7th Guest and I spent hours on both as a 16 year old. I had a notebook where I took all my notes for Myst and Riven down, it looks like a diary of a crazy person. I still have the original boxes and CD's in my cupboard. I was such a Myst nerd that I had printed hundreds of pictures of Myst and Riven backgrounds and screenshots and stuck them all over my wall and desk at the time, meanwhile guys my age were sticking up pictures of half naked girls on their walls. I practically got everything I could Myst related. All the games, the books, the soundtracks, the collections, the mouse pad, the shirt, I had a lot of Myst related items. I had finished every single game in the series more than a few times each. I just wished that all the games were re-released for modern consoles (PS4/PS5) so that I could play them all over again. I still have the original game CD's and DVD's, but don't have a proper PC that I can actually run those games on. Those years in my youth were such good memories of video games.
Not much i love more than meeting other Myst fans out there. It's half the reason i made this video. I was the same way, but played the games much slower throughout my life, and in fact i've never even started up End of Ages yet, something i should do one of these days.
This was such a fascinating watch for me. I was too young to have played Myst when it first came out, but as kids who liked games in the 90s, my partner and I both received remastered versions as gifts. Turns out both of us were too young to figure out how to play it and just wandered around the first island, not finding any of the puzzles. We recently came back and played it as adults, and while it was interesting to visit because of its cultural importance, the magic was definitely lost on us-- playing games that were inspired by Myst before playing the game itself definitely didn't help me see it in the best light, and my memory of the game is mostly overshadowed by the Selenetic maze. You said you weren't sure you got across the feelings that Myst evokes in you, but I did really feel that, from this video, and I appreciated it a lot, as someone who couldn't access those feelings first-hand.
Well thanks very much. I love hearing other peoples' stories with this game, as they are also varied and far reaching. This game has one of the strangest presences within the hobby of gaming so it was great to be able to put this together for anyone who was unfamiliar or just wanted another perspective on this weird game :)
i like the switch puzzle because if you just flip on each switch as you find them, then once you found them all go back to the first one you found, you could solve it incidentally on your first playthrough.
Agree with your comments. The haunting music and the disjointed ambiance were enthralling when I first played the game. This was the first computer game where I felt the potential of computer games and artificial environments. The world of Myst was so recognizable but out of kilter at the same time. It was captivating. Occasionally I still play the music.
Stumbling upon this video after 3 years... and being that I am an old man now and having played the original PC game...
The one thing that was emphasized that many seem to have overlooked... and something that was further impressed upon in Riven was...
Sounds!
Myst wasn't just a challenge of visual puzzles but audio cues that were consistent across at least two ages.
Listening to the background and ambient music were further cues to solving many of the puzzles.
Maybe it was due to the fact that I was raised to play musical instruments and now later in my life I am a Radio Broadcaster and Audio Engineer that I can fully appreciate the effort that went into the sound tracks of all the Myst games
You're definitely right. There's a lot I would do differently in this video if I took a second swing at it (which is basically true of all of my videos in the end) but talking about the sound design would be top of the list. Between the music and the way sounds are used in this game it's probably one of the strongest auditory experiences I have tucked away in my brain, both because of of how early on I played it and how much sound is emphasized in this game.
I think you nicely balanced spoilers with descriptions here. This was great! Maybe I should check out the soundtrack...
Oh you should, you DEFINITELY should!
The intresting things i have found is between sirrus and achenar.
Sirrus fits and checks off almost every box for a psychopath. Hes manipulative, power hungry, does not care who or how many he hurts on his quest for more. He enjoys using people as pawns and playing with thier emotions, hes a charmer and able to get people to do what he wants.
achenar on the other hand is a classic example of just somone who has mentaly snapped you see signs that he has lost controll of himself you see abandonment issues you see his brothers minipulation of him. And you do see signs he actully has some empathy(not a ton but still more then his brother) hes somone that if given help could come back cause he actully wants too sirrus does not and never would no matter how much help he was given.
Yet amoungst the fan community there is insanely higher sympathy and love for sirrus. Its that charm thing. Nothing else matters. Even after myst 4 where it shows him to be even more evil and even more minipultive and achinar as even more sympathetic fans still gravitate to sirrus far more
Yeah, says a lot that people like that so often work their way into positions of power, less maybe about them, more about the people around them.
I just googled release dates - I've always assumed the Book of Atrus - the Myst novel that explains the circumstances of Atrus's life basically leading up to the moment when he throws himself into the fissure and uses the book - was written before Myst. That the game was alluding to a fully written story. But according to the Wikipedia article on The Myst Reader (which appears to be Wikipedia's sole entry on the Myst novels), they were sketching fragments of story as they made the games and only after the game's success did the Millers actually write the Book of Atrus.
It is worth noting, to those who are interested in the books but have yet to read them: they continue the trend of having a superb setting and weaker-than average plot. If you like Myst, that probably means it'll work for you just fine.
TH-cam recommended your Riven video which then led me to this one, and both were such a fantastic watch! Truly preaching to the choir-Myst is absolutely the reason I am the person and artist I am today-but just a lovely, therapeutic breakdown of the game's appeal and legacy. Thank you so much for putting it together! 😄📚
This is so great to hear. TH-cam doesn't like to spread my videos around much, but I'm glad you found them. The Myst series is so underappreciated these days and that's a big reason why I made these videos. I am hoping to get to the rest of the series one day but it's those first two games that have really stuck with me over the years. Thanks for your kind words!
Thanks for taking the time to put this together. A really great video about a great subject. :)
Glad you enjoyed it! I had a lot of fun working on this one.
This is such a delightful and insightful retrospective. Definitely deserves more views!
Thanks! Sorry for not responding sooner but I was in full edit mode until today. I'm glad this video has found something of a second life, cause when these Myst videos first went up it was not happening. I'm always happy to hear about Myst being appreciated out there, so thanks for stopping by!
I actually think the gear puzzle is one of my favourite puzzles, which just goes to show how subjective things can be. I get that it can be frustrating, but it the solving of it was satisfying to me.
Yeah I don't hate the gear puzzle, but I think mine (and Robyn's) gripe with it is that it is a sudden departure from the philosophy of the other puzzles in the game. I do think it's appropriate considering it's essentially building a vault for something that needs protecting.
35:40 Outer Wilds kinda has this. If you know what to do, you can beat the game in one go. But what's beautiful is all the knowledge you gained in that journey through exploration.
Gosh, I love Outer Wilds. One of my favourite games for sure!
I'm only 10min in, but I was also around 7-8 when I played Myst. It scared the absolute fuck out of me, I had only played a few games before that. I was too young and stupid to finish it. I think I got to the second island with the tree houses and was honestly too freaked out to continue. Glad I'm not alone in this type of experience
There's a lot of power hiding in these games if you know where to look for it!
Again, great video :) it was enjoyable hearing your insight into Myst :)
I would watch this but I am in the middle of playing Myst myself so I think its best that I wait
Is Myst Island really meant to be a place where they lived? If so, where do they get food? Where are the bedrooms? Where is the toilet? The sink? The kitchen?
This video is criminally underviewed! Pointed out some things I never noticed, after almost 30 years with the game.
I'm never not amazed at what reveals itself to me every time I go through Myst again.
Excellent review. I have fond memories of myst, even though I was never patient enough to finish the games unaided. Even with a walkthrough by my side, the mystery of the worlds was enough to draw me in an make a lasting impression.
Exactly my feelings and experiences! Thanks for watching, and great to hear from you. I hope you're doing well!
Amazing work , congrats
I’m not a gamer, I’m a writer, and when I tell you how HEAVILY this game has influenced my writing 😂 I only write about alternate realities and pocket dimensions and the vibe is always very Myst like: Remote, windy, expansive, ethereal.
It’s like my writing has a “Myst filter” on it 😂 and I’m so happy about it 😊
I always enjoy seeing these kinds of inspirations in the things I'm reading. I work a lot of stuff from my favourite games into my DnD sessions :)
Great video, very enjoyable to watch as someone who grew up playing Myst and Riven. I was curious to know how much detail you've gone into the books. I used to read the first one all the time as a kid and at one point I managed to get my hands on an audio book version from my library that was completely dramatized with a cast of voice actors. I have the three books in these big hardback cover versions (as well as my highschool copies of the paperbacks) and my wife has allowed me to display them with some pride in our kitchen. Little stuff like that has led to some interesting topic starters when we have visitors. They're no great pieces of literature, but they lend their hand to the richness of the world that the Brothers Miller created.
Unfortunately i never actually got through any of the books. I did start one in high school, but i was borrowing it from a friend and i'm a slow reader, so i wasn't able to finish it before graduation and he picked up and moved away for university. Perhaps i should look into track them down.
Amazing video essay as always, Alec. You have a real talent for this and I’m so glad you’re back at it. Keep up the awesome work, and MAN, this game really is a masterpiece of sorts, one of my favorites of all time. Even through its flaws, it shines as one of the greatest adventure/exploration/puzzle games I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing. Thanks so much for the deconstruction, and I look forward to more from you, whenever we are fortunate enough to receive. ~
oh there's more coming. Already working on some more stuff, i just need to slow down these days. Thanks for the kind words.
Here's an example of a 'puzzle hidden in plain sight' that you probably already know but just didn't think of. Spoilers:
It's the Lost Woods in Zelda: Ocarina of Time (or the same woods in A Link to the Past I suppose, but its placement within that game is different). You can enter the woods from the beginning. But most players are probably gonna walk in, get lost, exit back out into the village and move on with their lives. Way later in the game, you head back and have to actually figure out that there was a puzzle there, and how to navigate through it. I could probably think of a few more examples like this in other games. But yes, I agree, Myst's version is fantastic. And it's always a fun moment when a game pulls it off and you realize this big thing was right there all along.
Anyway, good video!
Puzzles in plain sight?
The Witness of course is the biggest one.
Oh I agree. Great game! Did a video on that one too, th-cam.com/video/cpi2ntLtlx8/w-d-xo.html
25:10 I disagree with the maze part. Man, as I kid I remember getting just hopelessly lost in here; this part terrified me. But replaying the game again a few days ago I realized that identifying the sound cues is quite natural, and indeed a lot of thought was put in to making sure you can figure it out naturally. The first two junctions only have 1 direction you can go, making it easy to identify that sound as the correct direction. Also, you have to go 5 junctions before you reach an option that isn't N, S, E, or W (in this case NE), and hear two sounds piled on top of each other.
The fact that none of the wrong directions can loop into each other certainly makes the puzzle easier, although for 8 year old me that was just fine... I'd add as well that the same sound cues for directions are used in the mechanical age.
If you ever get a VR headset, Myst should be your first game for it.
You know, I have never even tried VR to this day. Always been curious but it's never come up :(
"Tunic" has aspects of that hidden-in-plain-sight thing that you mentioned. I won't spoil further: it's my favorite game
Yeah, Tunic rules! Did a video on it just last year in fact.
@VZed ahh sorry, I'm a new sub, so I haven't done the deep dive into your stuff yet; I'm on ot
@@benjscar1540 no worries whatsoever! Happy to have you. I get a lot of people responding to this video with suggestions of games that I've covered since so always just hoping to spread the word :)
Fantastic!
It's weird that this was the biggest game back in the early 90s when the people playing video games are mostly young kids. This honestly looks like something your dad back then would play and enjoy.
Thanks for this video! Having replayed Myst just last year (after not having touched it in some 20-odd years), I really enjoyed your analysis of the game's design philosophy and what made it so special.
One question though: at the end of your video, you mention - and show footage of - a number of games "influenced by Myst". Could you list out what these games are? What I love most about Myst is how well its puzzles are integrated into its gameworld, rather than being random puzzles that some game designer arbitrarily slotted in to their game because "we need a puzzle to fill out this section of the game". So I'm curious about other games that have that same approach to organically in-universe puzzles.
Glad you enjoyed the video! The games I showed footage of at the end are:
-"The Witness" (which I also did a video on in this series)
-"Amnesia: The Dark Descent" (horror game that is primarily puzzle based)
-"What Remains of Edith Finch"
-Footage of "Firmament" trailer (the game Cyan is working on currently but has not yet been released)
-"Obduction" (not shown but mentioned) is the puzzle game Cyan released in 2016.
Happy puzzling!
enjoying this script! good job! subbed!
Thanks so much! This one was really satisfying to work on. Glad people are still enjoying it.
You touched on it but playing this together with someone helps accelerate the thinking and gives a shared sense of accomplishment and experience. Also, back in early 1994, I remember returning to the software store to buy the hint book and encountering other people saying "you're stuck on an island too?". Just played the 2021 remake and was only disappointed by the new animations of the brothers until later I found out the original videos were added back as an option.
My thoughts exactly when trying to install Myst on a newer incompatible PC when attempting to share it with someone who missed out.
I first played Riven, 2 years ago and I got obsessed with the series. Then went back and played Myst and I equally loved it. In fact, I loved it more because how hard Riven was for me over all, even though Riven has an incredible world. But, I am obsessed with even the later games!
In my opinion....NO ONE HAS. EXPLAINED THIS GAME BETTER THAN YOU !!! All details are covered here. Best MYST Review EVER!! My favorite game of all time M/RIVEN!!👍👍👍
well thanks very much. This game, even for me has been such an enigma, and working on this video was great cause it helped me understand this game myself. My favourite game changes basically by the week, but yup... I agree!
@@VZed thanx for your reply!!😃
Gained a subscriber. Love your content!
Glad to hear it! Always good to know there are more Myst fans out there!
Just imagine being able to teleport into a book. The only problem is, the story (is required) to exist in the past, and time would only be able to proceed forward normally after it's ending, because the entire contents of the book would be locked in time, including it's ending. When you read a book, you read the past. Nothing can change the words, for if it is changed then that books story would be completely destroyed, even if it was changed by one letter, punctuation mark.
Unless there are more than one dimensions.
Are we or are we not, just words in a book? Locked in time, unable to change our will, fates. Is free will an illusion? Are we just words?
Once the book's ending is written, it's story cannot be changed at all, or it's universe/dimension would be destroyed.
I finished Myst, by myself, before I had internet. I've beaten much harder games in the years since, but this one felt really special.
I've always wanted to play the sequels, but don't really have a PC. This was a good review of the original, and that wiki page said it's on Android? I'm downloading Riven now. Wish me luck!
this is a good video bro
Thanks a lot. It's good to know these older videos still reach people.
I played Myst when it first came out, and then bought and played all of the ones that followed. I still have the original disks. I couldn't play them after my old XP computer gave out. Last week I managed to get the old beast working again, and have now reloaded all of the games and can for the first time in years been able to play them! I would love to play any new remastered versions on my newer PC and/or on my M1 Mac, but I have no idea how to get them. Can anyone enlighten me? I would appreciate it!
Cyan actually acquired all the rights to the games they didn't make and ported the whole series to Windows 10 a few years back. They're all on Steam under the name "Myst 25th Anniversary Collection", and you can buy them separately if you want. All of the footage captured for this video was from that version of Myst. I have so far only played Myst and Riven from this collection, but I can attest, they preserved the look and feel of those games perfectly.
HE BACC
yeah... i'm thinkin' i'm back.
29:17 Aaaaah uh so what happened to their followers and why Atrus's writing doesn't match up because...the boys killed them all. Atrus's books are now empty because they were all murdered by his own sons. Yikes.
It wasn't only the games limitations, it was made into a story reason.
25:11-25:21 Not true, you can find out what the sound cues mean quite clearly in the mechanical age. It’s still crap though because that requires you to go to the ages in a specific order which runs counter to the free form nature of the entire rest of the game. Also if you don’t go to the mechanical age before the Selentic age well you’re shit out of luck.
The first few nodes of the maze are set up so that there are only two directions that are not dead-ends - one of which is the way you entered from. So you can learn the sounds as you go without having been to Mechanical first. Yes, it's definitely harder, since you also have to realize that the sounds are linked to directions and are the vital clues needed to navigate the maze. It's also quite possible to finish Mechanical without realizing that the sounds you hear when you rotate the fortress are linked to the rotation, so solving the Selenitic maze can also help you if you do Mechanical after Selenitic!
I realize you arent a every day content provider, but your content tells us you could be and be top notch.
Thank You I really enjoy the way you presented this loved favorite. I think I'll subscribe.
Note I just linked out if Myst Uru it needs a visit by you Once Again.
Thanks so much! I wish I had the time to work on stuff like this more often but it is what it is. I've got another one in the editor scheduled for soon. It's a bit different but I'm excited for it!
@@VZed Hey that's great. I'm loving the new fan ages. I kind of figured it was a once in a while thing. I just renewed my 2014 account and for ten years my last two rings for the two garden ages I can finalize get them now. I'm on there making a new journey going by Mister Homn.
@@VZed There is a 4 CD Gane called Silent Steel it's an old favor and set-up so Dos Box changes the CDs. It's on Abandon Wares. It's worth the 2 gig download.
I honestly didn’t expect anyone to actually like this game. My first myst game was the 3rd installment on Xbox. As kid I had no idea it’s history for gaming at all and as a simple minded kid I grew up absolutely despising that game with a passion. If I would have had it my way back in the day it would have been burned or (or less dramatic) thrown in the garbage. I could not understand how the game worked and there’s little explanation on how everything was suppose to work. I never got pass the first level or set of puzzle challenges which ever it is. I would be bored out of my mind but angry that I couldn’t advance further then the beginning. However my step dad would play it all the time and knew all there was about it but never taught me just to piss me off. We had that old Xbox and so many games including that piece of Sh!T game. No offense to anyone who liked it I mean to each their own no judgement here but I utterly despised it.
However on a side note though you absolutely crushed this video and knocked it out of the park!!! You almost made me like that game 😂😂 I do hope there’s more gaming content in the true from you.
Well i'm glad you at least liked the video. I guess I can understand how it might take a REALLY early exposure in life to get someone as attached to Myst as I am but i'll never get sick of this game. Either way, thanks for stopping in!
You're verified narrator verifies that they have no imagination within the first 29 seconds of the video I'm I can easily imagine an exact autism that requires an acknowledgement that you are in fact playing a computer game and not literally walking around the island of mist however it takes something more than an exactitude to ignore the many layered communications of the developer that you are you in the game of mist now I imagine that the narrator is part of a select many who are unable to be trapped and therefore cannot find themselves verbally discussing mist without verbally describing an avatar or the player or the stranger but
Stop saying singular
When you have a chance will you make Myst Uru Lives On-line Again.