Hi, Klatremus, Hoping to shed some light on the meaning of the readables in this mission. They speak to Azaran's ritual and the way Hume disrupts it. 9:45 - the phrases "flegmat, sanguin, coleric, melanc" refer to the four humors, which is an ancient theory in medieval medicine. The idea was that your brain, heart, liver and spleen each secreted quantities of phlegm, blood, black bile and yellow bile respectively, and that a person would suffer emotional or physical ailments by having too much or too little of such. We also see that the symbols associated with the phrases are arrayed in the sketch of the ritual circle, suggesting a connection. Notably, they correspond with the position of the four lights on Azaran's ritual circle, which are white, red, black and yellow respectively. The note at 1:39:15 mentions that the Brand upon Hume will act as a conduit to draw souls into the Heart. In addition to souls captured by the Brand, the ritual needs amounts of the "flesh materials," which suggests that Azaran and his followers have been butchering people for their organs, which they then drain of the four ingredients for use in the ritual. The "division of light" countering the "combination of flesh" likely refers to the the stolen souls and the secretions from the organs being mixed via the ritual for a desired result. We know from 25:01 that the necromancers are trying to achieve immortality. That is the "magnum opus" of the ancient alchemists-- to perform a union of opposites and create the substance "rebis", better known as the Philosopher's Stone, which would give immortality to its creator. It was believed that, once elements underwent a process of putrefaction and purification, their opposing qualities could be united in the form of the rebis. This is characterized variously in alchemical texts as the union of sun and moon, gold and silver, male and female, or (most relevant to us) red and white. So, taken together, these readables suggest that Azaran believes he's found a perverse shortcut to achieving immortality by creating opposing elements from stolen souls and refined bodily secretions-- the "red" of the flesh/humors and the "white" of the light/soul, then uniting precise quantities of them in his ritual in order to create a rebis/philosopher's stone for himself. So, of course, Hume is able to disrupt the ritual by tampering with the balance of the ingredients, ruining the ritual. At 54:49, the name "Mrityudeva" is a reference to the Hindu god of death. It is likely that being in the "realm" of Mrityudeva refers either to the dimension where Azaran's ritual is conducted, or the practice of black magic/necromancy. Perhaps, in line with the union of opposites theory, Azaran believes he must stray into the realm of necromancy, magic associated with death, in order to attain eternal life. At 45:31, 1:02:33, 1:10:59, and 1:21:50, we find evidence of this theory: chambers full of blood, phlegm and bilious fluids. I cannot translate the text on the plaques, but they mention "Sangrix", "Mucusque," "Noirebile" and "Pus". These refer to the four humorous secretions. The writings around them are arranged in patterns, with repeated invocation of various demons mentioned in the Ars Goetia (e.g. Andromalius, an Earl of Hell) and an entity called "Liraja!". This name may be how the necromancers refer to the idol or the Heart. These patterned scripts were common ways to arrange written incantations among medieval occultists. So, I believe these chambers were used to extract the fluids from the organs in large quantities; Azaran's process of alchemical putrefaction. The bowls of reagents Hume finds in the sanctum beneath the ritual platform, therefore, are the purified versions of those secretions, refined into a powder or paste for use in the ritual. It's likely that the written incantations are part of the purification process, perhaps concluded by Azaran with the tools in his sanctum. At 1:37:06, the note mentions that Azaran believes the ritual will give him control of the Heart. Azaran apparently can't accomplish the ritual without it, but it is a Sentient with a will of its own, like the Eye; hence the need to pacify it with Tatyana's flowers. I would guess that he needs it to act as a medium for the transmutation of the souls and flesh ingredients into the rebis, and he hopes to do this during its periods of docility. But, it does not want to be used for Azaran's ends, and refuses to cooperate. So, Azaran is not able to complete the ritual, which is why the Brand on Hume has not yet been activated. Azaran has no means to control the Heart except by trying to brute-force the result, hoping that if he performs the ritual enough times, eventually the Heart will submit. On a personal note, I enjoyed this level immensely. The cosmic horror atmosphere was extremely effective, even more so with the implications of Azaran's plan made clear. However, I do think it would have been more interesting if, instead of finding a surplus of Azaran's mixture already prepared, Hume had to search for each chamber where the ingredients were being putrefied, then take quantities of them to Azaran's sanctum below the ritual platform and purify them. That way, the player would be incentivised to explore the entire tower rather than shooting straight for the top.
Wow, really appreciate all that knowledge! I didn't catch even half of that when playing. So cool how this world grows for every person who comments. Love it.
I have to agree with you there-- the thing I love most about the Thief games is the subtle worldbuilding-by-implication, and I think Feuillade have not only met but exceeded the benchmark set by the original trilogy in that regard. Stunning stuff, made all the more impressive by their being confident enough to leave these story breadcrumbs instead of spelling everything out for the players with a clunky villain monologue. All the little nods Feuillade have made to much-loved FM's in the community makes me wish for some kind of encyclopedia of the interconnected Thiefverse fan works. There's so much great work that builds on the foundations laid by LGS, and I'd love to see it all compiled in some kind of setting bible, especially with all the work that Yandros and Random_Taffer are putting into The Broken Goddess.
@@talhoyle I'd still be interested to hear if you have anything to add. I'm not a scholar of alchemy or demonology, I just like to watch Max Derrat, so my post is all borrowed knowledge (leaving me, in the estimation of the Keepers, as ignorant as the man who knows nothing).
@@adamlslap8040 The Rebis is indirectly alluded to with our buddy in the basement of mission 9. You've hit several points I was going to mention regarding the intersection of the Galenic humors and the elements; I'll be getting into more detail on the ttlg forums.
Dude, thank you so much for this amazing walkthrough. You took so much time and energy to deliver great content. Super pumped to have found your videos and I’m looking forward to watching more of your stuff. Patriot has been amazing too. Much love to you!
I would say it's a proper "final boss level": mercifully short, linear and to the point (and with ton of sightseeing). And story-wise it fits perfectly: in penultimate mission many plot threads came to resolutions; take the bonfire fest - all those readables were successful in building up player's anticipation for the forthcoming event, and it payed off big time. And the main quest has led us to a totally logical and 100% predictable finale: we're on our own, betrayed, with nothing to lose and with the only obvious thing to do. A perfect ending to a brilliant campaign. To be honest, I'm not sure if I would appreciate another Soulforge. It is also a masterclass in deconstructing the "noble criminal" trope: from what we have read and heard we learn that Hume was not a sympathetic character; in fact he was very bad and very dangerous man, the one you wouldn't want to cross your path with. To the point that after completing TBP you start re-evaluating the alleged nobility of Garrett himself. Brilliant level design - check, brilliant writing - check, I rest my case.
Out of the Maw, Soulforge, and this, I'd have to say The Black Parade is by far my favourite final mission. When I think of Soulforge, I think do-a-thing, run to another place, do-another-thing, rinse and repeat 50 times. It's basically a stealth arena full of side quests. The Black Parade is go-up-a-tower and do-a-thing, but the body horror and enemy design elevates it above the other two for me. I was especially impressed that the dev team designed quite a few enemies just for the finale.
Really wish I'd not missed the premiere here! I'll talk about complex theories of elements and translations on ttlg, but some shorter notes on other items here (warning, spoilers abound): 1. The seated zombie on the landing will, if awakened, work sort of like a stationary turret. 2. Of course you can't really trust anything the statuette says; it does appear likely that abubtiyar's artifacts had some effect, seeing as how all the undead in the manor died. 3. Just so it's in a record outside the chat, Marble Man confirms that the tentacular creatures are shoggoths, that they are "distant relatives to the shapeless spawns from Into the Odd", and they're unkillable- although the necromancers somehow got pieces from one in the manor basement. It appears these and the worm creatures are natural denizens of this world, unlike the other enemies. 4. The collection of necromancers on the bottom floor appear to be the "procession" mentioned in one readable. 5. I'm not going to struggle through all of them, but testing a variety of the other encoded text throughout the mission suggests that most of it is copied from part of a single texture (that I oddly can't find) with the text of lorem ipsum, which is I guess appropriate. Extremely frustrating after all the work I put in! The text on the bottom floor and the text of the two small overlooking paths (visible at about 53:20) contain some other easter egg text, nothing lore related. 6. The readable at 55:10 basically spells out that this world inside the statue/the statue itself is "Mrityudeva", another term for the Hindu representation of death. It indicates that it's all screwed up because the "Mortideu" (death god) basically broke the natural order of things, making it incredibly unsafe and presumably sprouting the hostile wildlife and facilitating undeath. In specific, it seems that this world literally materializes nightmarish creatures from your idle thoughts. The final parts referring to the undead constructs as "Hylics forms" just means they don't have minds and therefore are safer- and indicate that the lower you go, the worse the threat is (which has interesting ramifications given that the higher parts of the tower are more "alive". All of this is from the perspective of Azaran's followers, and thus not very reliable. 7. The plaques and their locations appear to correspond to the four Galenic humors, and through them, to the four classic thief elements and the four elements of the body in the readable back in the manor. I'm still puzzling them out, since as you identify they're a whole mess of languages and references. 8. Recording another "word of Marble Man", the wandering translucent figures are previously branded souls. 9. "liraja" also appears in the various plaques around the tower, so it's a sort of cthulian cry. The general implication here and throughout seems to be that the statuette either is, or is a tool of, a lovecraftian hostile entity from beyond the world. 10. From my testing I believe that (massive spoilers, warning!) there is no actual time limit: Azaran's ritual is futile and cannot work. I also strongly suspect that at some point you were required to collect ingredients from each of the "altars" (the plaque locations) in the tower - though if that had been the case I imagine Marble Man would have said so.
the odd multi-lingual plaques scattered throughout remind me of the made-up language of Salvatore from Umberto Eco's "Name of the Rose", comprised of fragments from Spanish, Latin, Italian and German.
I'm a lifelong Thief fan and have adored most FMs I've played, although admittedly I haven't had time in the past few years to play many. I actually found out about this campaign by checking the TTLG forums to see if anyone needed any help voice acting their characters for any upcoming FMs, which led me to your videos. First off, lovely job navigating the campaign and sprinkling it with meaningful commentary. I find it hard to watch letsplays because often the balance of gameplay and commentary isn't equal, or the commentary is too distracting. You did a great job of finding that balance and letting the story shine. As to the campaign, I'm blown away by the quality. Having dabbled only slightly with dromed, I can see why this took seven-ish years to complete. Often during your videos I wondered "How long did it take for the devs to make just this one building?" The writing was spectacular from a story teller's perspective, however some of the readables and voice acting fell flat in my humble opinion. For something this ambitious, the typos should've been easily spotted by an editor (the obviously intentional typos aside). Some of the dialog, particularly Hume's, felt strange. It sounded like the written script didn't fit his voice actor at all. I found his voice particularly grating, his Solid Snake/Garrett hybrid impression sounded like it hurt and strained his vocal cords. One of the female servants also sounded strange, she had a slight southern twang to her voice which felt extremely out of place. I got the impression that that was her natural speaking voice and that she didn't try to add any character to her lines like pretty much everyone else did (unless she was intentionally going for the southern twang, which is a... strange choice). Other than that, quality issues affected some of the voice actors (mic/recording space issues, audio quality, etc). It was jarring when one character voiced by someone with great audio quality was talking to another character voiced by someone with terrible, muffled audio quality. That's something I'd expect and be fine with in a smaller, less professional attempt at an FM, but it sticks out like a sore thumb when everything else in the campaign is top notch. I don't mean to be harsh; I had a blast watching along with everyone else and it hardly affected my opinion of the campaign overall, but as a fellow voice actor/writer I can't help but notice things like that. Fenphoenix, who I recognized immediately, sounded perfect in his role. Kudos to all the other VAs as well. I particularly liked the Hammer guards, they felt like they could fit right in with the original campaigns. Congrats to the devs for making a masterpiece of a campaign!
Thanks for your comprehensive comment! I agree on your points about readables and voice acting, although I have no experience in the field like you. Overall, this campaign will stand as a monumental achievement and the standout release of the NewDark era.
A fitting ending to this campaign, and I'm saying this as one of those who appreciated this mission A LOT. Sure, it has its weak points, and you could basically speedrun your way to the top of the spire with not much else to do; but when I wrote the same re: Kept Away from View it's because, after all these years, we've become familiar with the lore of the Keepers and their sanctuaries, and in that particular mission I was honestly expecting more riddles and STAND NOT AGAINST US, instead of "Oh, here's the key to our forbidden library. Ta-ta.". Anyway, back on topic: So there is not a lot to do, but, unlike KAfW, this is really bringing Thief into untreaded territory - I mean, the atmosphere in this mission...my god. We started out picking pockets and robbing houses in the City and now we have just invaded an eldritch dimension that makes the Maw look like Pagan Disneyland in comparison. I was reading the live chat when someone mentioned Quake, this was actually my first thought when I saw what was past the manor section. It exhudes pure dread, and as you head towards the top of the building, things get progressively more and more disturbing. So yes, it's like sneaking through an OG Quake map, and I love it! Tl;dr once again congratulations to the many people in the fan community who have brought this campaign to life, and many many thanks to Klatremus for showing us things around through this rollercoaster ride!
Thank you very much for your comment and your very kind words. It has been a pleasure playing this campaign for all of you to watch. Appreciate the support. Yes, a big thanks to Feuillade Industries for giving us this masterpiece.
The Charaka is an enemy that I first encountered in The Black Frog campaign. Here is a link with a timestamp to a sequence where that monster is visible in mission 5 of that mission pack. Spoiler alert! If you plan on playing this (which I highly recommend), then don't watch it! th-cam.com/video/T75pkORseWs/w-d-xo.htmlsi=bSiX-77dFoCM8Zl_&t=11324
Back alive, and, boy, missed already two vids and a competition! @klatremus: Since you asked: - I don't believe I am qualified to say anything negative about this campaign! I am absolutely amazed by the bobdingnagian amount of dedication put into it - new enemies, beautifully crafted animations, eye-catching level design and texturing… not to mention funny dialogues... (The amount of love for Thief 1/G is equally huge, but we already knew that from the previous work of the authors). - The stuff you deemed ‘negative’ is for me a plus. I am lousy player, and the only thing that kept me hooked was the fact that the difficulty was tuned for a broader audience (rather than for super-experts like you) and the objectives were not overly complicated. I am grateful for that! - I won’t rate the missions by _quality_, but rather by personal _preference_, and here I will say something only about the missions played by me (the first seven). My top three is the same as yours (Trial of Iron, Death’s Dominion, The Long Shadow Falls), the next tier consists of Where Old Faces Fade and The Brand, followed closely by Return to the City and Kept Away From View (in which I loved the keeper sanctuary, but I was a bit irritated by the loot hunt). But ALL are great!
Fair enough. Thanks for your comment, UV. Too bad you missed the last two premieres and the contest. It was much more successful this time and I will definitely repeat that format in the future.
Hey Klatremus I hope you don’t mind me asking but are there any chances of you doing a Gloomwood series in the future given it’s a spiritual successor to Thief?
Once again, after the premiere watch-along, great playthrough! I was able to Iron Supreme this mission today :D Can be viewed at th-cam.com/video/pGc6TEMHzZY/w-d-xo.html A few items that might interest you are: - Different way to get to the fourth floor - Short way to get to the upper floor (although you play it differently to show more of it in the video) - Using the final item without dropping from the top by getting there early
I was supposed to start playing T3 for myself this summer, but due to real life wasn't able to. Once I do, I'll make that decision. Right now it's a maybe.
My ranking is: Top tier: M2, M4, M8 Tier 2: M6 Tier 3: Rest Tier 4: M3 Tier 5: M10 I thought M10 would be worse considering the general opinion, but yes definitely lacking. And while there are interesting nooks and crannies, I didn't like the texturing, it kinda repeats a lot in most parts of the tower. Also no reason to explore, even though there are a lot of paths throughout the tower. Really a missed opportunity, I agree. M9 I though had just too many guards and it became tedious. Also small castle is kinda redundant. No real reason to go there other than just being a completionist. It's not a particularly interesting place, same gameplay, no secrets etc. My biggest criticisms regarding the missions themselves is that they play it too straightforward. I like missions with surprises, missions that completely change the notion you had about the objectives midway. Missions with great variety within them. Missions with weird and creepy secrets. The Black Parade doesn't do any of that. l like missions that feel dynamic, like for example The Builder's Paradise. I also like missions with more adventure elements, like Random_Taffer's Conall missions. But again, nothing on this front here. So I echo your objectives sentiment, variety is kinda lacking in terms of what you do in the missions, and also varied environments and gameplay within missions. I think this is why I liked that gambling den at the end of mission 4, its a breath of fresh air, something completely different compared to the rest of the mission. I also like the separate "halves" in M5 and M6. What I actually would have liked to see is small missions. Marbleman said that in M9 they wanted a breather between two nightmare missions, but I think going for something on the scale of The Tower by Lady Rowena here and there would have worked better for the overall structure and pacing of the campaign. Otherwise the worst thing about the campaign is IMO the plot. I don't care about it at all, nor the characters. Which is very weird to say since I love the readables within missions. But the overall narrative with Hume and Azaran is a complete nothing burger imo. You don't even properly stop him at the end, the whole story feels like its just there because it needed to be there in order to have a campaign with 10 cool levels. Feels like a complete afterthought, which is disappointing considering all the posts throughout the years of sckacky and co. thinking about expanding the lore of the games. I expected a lot on that front in the plot and missions themselves, but we actually got very little on that front, at least compared to what I was expecting. Overall, excellent effort, but not quite in my preferred FM style. I wish they went for more variety and bold experimentation, but what we got is still great.
Remember, it is tough to make a campaign as a love letter to a game and then dare to go very unexpected ways. Thus, the missions end up "safer" by keeping to the standard mission formula. But I do agree the difficulty and variety could've been changed some. Not sure I agree with the plot being so bad. It kept me engaged, but it's not the campaign's best feature. Appreciate the lengthy comment!
I felt the same about not caring about any characters in The Black Parade. I found the story interesting and serviceable enough, but I largely didn’t care what happened to Hume by the end, whereas I did with Garrett and Zaya. Maybe TBP could have used a mission where you have to “locate character X for plot dump” or something like that. The first mission kind of did that, but that only told us Hume’s backstory. Infiltrating the Keeper compound in mission 6 provided a plot dump, but only through readables, not through character interaction. I’m thinking more along the lines of tracking down Lieutenant Mosley in Thief 2 which leads to reconnecting with Viktoria or tracking down Inspector Drept in Thief 3 which leads meeting Lauryl in Shalebridge Cradle. Or, in Thief 2X you have the ongoing story of Zaya trying to help her brother. There’s a total lack of memorable characters like that in The Black Parade. That said, even if the story didn’t draw me in, I still enjoyed The Black Parade as a game. Even if the missions lacked surprises and twists, like you say, I liked the variety of the different environments and I very much enjoyed the heavier presence of supernatural and horror elements. The complete removal of horror from Thief 2 is why I always enjoyed Thief 1 and Thief 3 more. In that sense, I really enjoyed The Black Parade.
I liked the mission, i think... this is probably one of the first times ive gotten properly frustrated with your gameplay of the mission though. The reason being ive just watched the previous mission and im immersed in what happens, but it felt like every 5 minutes, you would break the immersion by running through the map willy nilly and being like "but you can also go here and do this" while all creatures big and small are trying to kill you as you ignore them. ive seen every single video you've made all the way through so i know that this happens and normally it happens maybe 2 times in a video but it felt like it was every few minutes. I had to skip forwards until you were back on track again every time and I eventually became annoyed enough that I didnt really care what happened in the end.. lol the other missions are great though.
Lol understandable for sure. I guess I felt bad rushing through the mission, since it's fairly short and most areas unnecessary to ever even go to. I usually try to be complete in terms of different routes to take, but maybe I overdid it in this one. Sorry.
@@klatre theres no need to apologise of course, I understand what you were doing and why since you explained it in the video itself that you can run through and get to the top in 5 minutes flat if you really wanted to. haha, I guess I was more annoyed at it being the final mission of such a long anticipated campaign. since I know this has been on the cards for a really really really long time. I watch these videos to calm my nerves and to chill all of the way out so i get really invested and I was pretty hyped to see the end but.. :D I appreciate the playthrough non-the-less and look forward to the next video as always :)
0:00 - Intro
11:34 - Hawtrey manor
29:58 - Caves
42:37 - Sanctuary, lower floors
1:03:45 - Third floor
1:17:30 - Fourth floor
1:31:45 - Upper floors
1:46:00 - Ending & campaign reflection
2:03:02 - Final cutscene & credits
Hi, Klatremus,
Hoping to shed some light on the meaning of the readables in this mission. They speak to Azaran's ritual and the way Hume disrupts it.
9:45 - the phrases "flegmat, sanguin, coleric, melanc" refer to the four humors, which is an ancient theory in medieval medicine. The idea was that your brain, heart, liver and spleen each secreted quantities of phlegm, blood, black bile and yellow bile respectively, and that a person would suffer emotional or physical ailments by having too much or too little of such. We also see that the symbols associated with the phrases are arrayed in the sketch of the ritual circle, suggesting a connection. Notably, they correspond with the position of the four lights on Azaran's ritual circle, which are white, red, black and yellow respectively. The note at 1:39:15 mentions that the Brand upon Hume will act as a conduit to draw souls into the Heart. In addition to souls captured by the Brand, the ritual needs amounts of the "flesh materials," which suggests that Azaran and his followers have been butchering people for their organs, which they then drain of the four ingredients for use in the ritual. The "division of light" countering the "combination of flesh" likely refers to the the stolen souls and the secretions from the organs being mixed via the ritual for a desired result.
We know from 25:01 that the necromancers are trying to achieve immortality. That is the "magnum opus" of the ancient alchemists-- to perform a union of opposites and create the substance "rebis", better known as the Philosopher's Stone, which would give immortality to its creator. It was believed that, once elements underwent a process of putrefaction and purification, their opposing qualities could be united in the form of the rebis. This is characterized variously in alchemical texts as the union of sun and moon, gold and silver, male and female, or (most relevant to us) red and white. So, taken together, these readables suggest that Azaran believes he's found a perverse shortcut to achieving immortality by creating opposing elements from stolen souls and refined bodily secretions-- the "red" of the flesh/humors and the "white" of the light/soul, then uniting precise quantities of them in his ritual in order to create a rebis/philosopher's stone for himself. So, of course, Hume is able to disrupt the ritual by tampering with the balance of the ingredients, ruining the ritual. At 54:49, the name "Mrityudeva" is a reference to the Hindu god of death. It is likely that being in the "realm" of Mrityudeva refers either to the dimension where Azaran's ritual is conducted, or the practice of black magic/necromancy. Perhaps, in line with the union of opposites theory, Azaran believes he must stray into the realm of necromancy, magic associated with death, in order to attain eternal life.
At 45:31, 1:02:33, 1:10:59, and 1:21:50, we find evidence of this theory: chambers full of blood, phlegm and bilious fluids. I cannot translate the text on the plaques, but they mention "Sangrix", "Mucusque," "Noirebile" and "Pus". These refer to the four humorous secretions. The writings around them are arranged in patterns, with repeated invocation of various demons mentioned in the Ars Goetia (e.g. Andromalius, an Earl of Hell) and an entity called "Liraja!". This name may be how the necromancers refer to the idol or the Heart. These patterned scripts were common ways to arrange written incantations among medieval occultists. So, I believe these chambers were used to extract the fluids from the organs in large quantities; Azaran's process of alchemical putrefaction. The bowls of reagents Hume finds in the sanctum beneath the ritual platform, therefore, are the purified versions of those secretions, refined into a powder or paste for use in the ritual. It's likely that the written incantations are part of the purification process, perhaps concluded by Azaran with the tools in his sanctum.
At 1:37:06, the note mentions that Azaran believes the ritual will give him control of the Heart. Azaran apparently can't accomplish the ritual without it, but it is a Sentient with a will of its own, like the Eye; hence the need to pacify it with Tatyana's flowers. I would guess that he needs it to act as a medium for the transmutation of the souls and flesh ingredients into the rebis, and he hopes to do this during its periods of docility. But, it does not want to be used for Azaran's ends, and refuses to cooperate. So, Azaran is not able to complete the ritual, which is why the Brand on Hume has not yet been activated. Azaran has no means to control the Heart except by trying to brute-force the result, hoping that if he performs the ritual enough times, eventually the Heart will submit.
On a personal note, I enjoyed this level immensely. The cosmic horror atmosphere was extremely effective, even more so with the implications of Azaran's plan made clear. However, I do think it would have been more interesting if, instead of finding a surplus of Azaran's mixture already prepared, Hume had to search for each chamber where the ingredients were being putrefied, then take quantities of them to Azaran's sanctum below the ritual platform and purify them. That way, the player would be incentivised to explore the entire tower rather than shooting straight for the top.
You obviate my need to post. Well said.
Wow, really appreciate all that knowledge! I didn't catch even half of that when playing. So cool how this world grows for every person who comments. Love it.
I have to agree with you there-- the thing I love most about the Thief games is the subtle worldbuilding-by-implication, and I think Feuillade have not only met but exceeded the benchmark set by the original trilogy in that regard. Stunning stuff, made all the more impressive by their being confident enough to leave these story breadcrumbs instead of spelling everything out for the players with a clunky villain monologue.
All the little nods Feuillade have made to much-loved FM's in the community makes me wish for some kind of encyclopedia of the interconnected Thiefverse fan works. There's so much great work that builds on the foundations laid by LGS, and I'd love to see it all compiled in some kind of setting bible, especially with all the work that Yandros and Random_Taffer are putting into The Broken Goddess.
@@talhoyle I'd still be interested to hear if you have anything to add.
I'm not a scholar of alchemy or demonology, I just like to watch Max Derrat, so my post is all borrowed knowledge (leaving me, in the estimation of the Keepers, as ignorant as the man who knows nothing).
@@adamlslap8040 The Rebis is indirectly alluded to with our buddy in the basement of mission 9. You've hit several points I was going to mention regarding the intersection of the Galenic humors and the elements; I'll be getting into more detail on the ttlg forums.
watching you ghost this campaign has been a blast. I look forward to watching more of your playthroughs :)
Cool, thanks!
Dude, thank you so much for this amazing walkthrough. You took so much time and energy to deliver great content. Super pumped to have found your videos and I’m looking forward to watching more of your stuff. Patriot has been amazing too. Much love to you!
Glad you enjoyed it! Appreciate the support.
Thanks for the explanations and gameplay!
You're welcome! Did you watch the entire playlist?
@@klatre I didn’t know there was a playlist, TH-cam recommended your videos to me, so I’m watching
@@klatre added a playlist I'll watch from the very beginning. Thank you
Yeah I meant the whole Black Parade campaign. Here: th-cam.com/play/PLUqNXawrRQDVl09g2mhhGpCY8HnHUTS6-.html&si=gq7xBJtYt0sIYFyN
I would say it's a proper "final boss level": mercifully short, linear and to the point (and with ton of sightseeing). And story-wise it fits perfectly: in penultimate mission many plot threads came to resolutions; take the bonfire fest - all those readables were successful in building up player's anticipation for the forthcoming event, and it payed off big time. And the main quest has led us to a totally logical and 100% predictable finale: we're on our own, betrayed, with nothing to lose and with the only obvious thing to do. A perfect ending to a brilliant campaign. To be honest, I'm not sure if I would appreciate another Soulforge.
It is also a masterclass in deconstructing the "noble criminal" trope: from what we have read and heard we learn that Hume was not a sympathetic character; in fact he was very bad and very dangerous man, the one you wouldn't want to cross your path with. To the point that after completing TBP you start re-evaluating the alleged nobility of Garrett himself.
Brilliant level design - check, brilliant writing - check, I rest my case.
Very insightful comment, I appreciate it. Thanks for watching.
Out of the Maw, Soulforge, and this, I'd have to say The Black Parade is by far my favourite final mission. When I think of Soulforge, I think do-a-thing, run to another place, do-another-thing, rinse and repeat 50 times. It's basically a stealth arena full of side quests.
The Black Parade is go-up-a-tower and do-a-thing, but the body horror and enemy design elevates it above the other two for me. I was especially impressed that the dev team designed quite a few enemies just for the finale.
Really wish I'd not missed the premiere here! I'll talk about complex theories of elements and translations on ttlg, but some shorter notes on other items here (warning, spoilers abound):
1. The seated zombie on the landing will, if awakened, work sort of like a stationary turret.
2. Of course you can't really trust anything the statuette says; it does appear likely that abubtiyar's artifacts had some effect, seeing as how all the undead in the manor died.
3. Just so it's in a record outside the chat, Marble Man confirms that the tentacular creatures are shoggoths, that they are "distant relatives to the shapeless spawns from Into the Odd", and they're unkillable- although the necromancers somehow got pieces from one in the manor basement. It appears these and the worm creatures are natural denizens of this world, unlike the other enemies.
4. The collection of necromancers on the bottom floor appear to be the "procession" mentioned in one readable.
5. I'm not going to struggle through all of them, but testing a variety of the other encoded text throughout the mission suggests that most of it is copied from part of a single texture (that I oddly can't find) with the text of lorem ipsum, which is I guess appropriate. Extremely frustrating after all the work I put in! The text on the bottom floor and the text of the two small overlooking paths (visible at about 53:20) contain some other easter egg text, nothing lore related.
6. The readable at 55:10 basically spells out that this world inside the statue/the statue itself is "Mrityudeva", another term for the Hindu representation of death. It indicates that it's all screwed up because the "Mortideu" (death god) basically broke the natural order of things, making it incredibly unsafe and presumably sprouting the hostile wildlife and facilitating undeath. In specific, it seems that this world literally materializes nightmarish creatures from your idle thoughts. The final parts referring to the undead constructs as "Hylics forms" just means they don't have minds and therefore are safer- and indicate that the lower you go, the worse the threat is (which has interesting ramifications given that the higher parts of the tower are more "alive". All of this is from the perspective of Azaran's followers, and thus not very reliable.
7. The plaques and their locations appear to correspond to the four Galenic humors, and through them, to the four classic thief elements and the four elements of the body in the readable back in the manor. I'm still puzzling them out, since as you identify they're a whole mess of languages and references.
8. Recording another "word of Marble Man", the wandering translucent figures are previously branded souls.
9. "liraja" also appears in the various plaques around the tower, so it's a sort of cthulian cry. The general implication here and throughout seems to be that the statuette either is, or is a tool of, a lovecraftian hostile entity from beyond the world.
10. From my testing I believe that (massive spoilers, warning!) there is no actual time limit: Azaran's ritual is futile and cannot work. I also strongly suspect that at some point you were required to collect ingredients from each of the "altars" (the plaque locations) in the tower - though if that had been the case I imagine Marble Man would have said so.
Awesome list of stuff! Lots I didn't know or pick up on. Yeah I was hoping you would be in the chat, but oh well.
the odd multi-lingual plaques scattered throughout remind me of the made-up language of Salvatore from Umberto Eco's "Name of the Rose", comprised of fragments from Spanish, Latin, Italian and German.
I'm a lifelong Thief fan and have adored most FMs I've played, although admittedly I haven't had time in the past few years to play many. I actually found out about this campaign by checking the TTLG forums to see if anyone needed any help voice acting their characters for any upcoming FMs, which led me to your videos. First off, lovely job navigating the campaign and sprinkling it with meaningful commentary. I find it hard to watch letsplays because often the balance of gameplay and commentary isn't equal, or the commentary is too distracting. You did a great job of finding that balance and letting the story shine.
As to the campaign, I'm blown away by the quality. Having dabbled only slightly with dromed, I can see why this took seven-ish years to complete. Often during your videos I wondered "How long did it take for the devs to make just this one building?"
The writing was spectacular from a story teller's perspective, however some of the readables and voice acting fell flat in my humble opinion. For something this ambitious, the typos should've been easily spotted by an editor (the obviously intentional typos aside). Some of the dialog, particularly Hume's, felt strange. It sounded like the written script didn't fit his voice actor at all. I found his voice particularly grating, his Solid Snake/Garrett hybrid impression sounded like it hurt and strained his vocal cords. One of the female servants also sounded strange, she had a slight southern twang to her voice which felt extremely out of place. I got the impression that that was her natural speaking voice and that she didn't try to add any character to her lines like pretty much everyone else did (unless she was intentionally going for the southern twang, which is a... strange choice). Other than that, quality issues affected some of the voice actors (mic/recording space issues, audio quality, etc). It was jarring when one character voiced by someone with great audio quality was talking to another character voiced by someone with terrible, muffled audio quality. That's something I'd expect and be fine with in a smaller, less professional attempt at an FM, but it sticks out like a sore thumb when everything else in the campaign is top notch.
I don't mean to be harsh; I had a blast watching along with everyone else and it hardly affected my opinion of the campaign overall, but as a fellow voice actor/writer I can't help but notice things like that.
Fenphoenix, who I recognized immediately, sounded perfect in his role. Kudos to all the other VAs as well. I particularly liked the Hammer guards, they felt like they could fit right in with the original campaigns.
Congrats to the devs for making a masterpiece of a campaign!
Thanks for your comprehensive comment! I agree on your points about readables and voice acting, although I have no experience in the field like you. Overall, this campaign will stand as a monumental achievement and the standout release of the NewDark era.
A fitting ending to this campaign, and I'm saying this as one of those who appreciated this mission A LOT.
Sure, it has its weak points, and you could basically speedrun your way to the top of the spire with not much else to do; but when I wrote the same re: Kept Away from View it's because, after all these years, we've become familiar with the lore of the Keepers and their sanctuaries, and in that particular mission I was honestly expecting more riddles and STAND NOT AGAINST US, instead of "Oh, here's the key to our forbidden library. Ta-ta.".
Anyway, back on topic: So there is not a lot to do, but, unlike KAfW, this is really bringing Thief into untreaded territory - I mean, the atmosphere in this mission...my god. We started out picking pockets and robbing houses in the City and now we have just invaded an eldritch dimension that makes the Maw look like Pagan Disneyland in comparison.
I was reading the live chat when someone mentioned Quake, this was actually my first thought when I saw what was past the manor section. It exhudes pure dread, and as you head towards the top of the building, things get progressively more and more disturbing. So yes, it's like sneaking through an OG Quake map, and I love it!
Tl;dr once again congratulations to the many people in the fan community who have brought this campaign to life, and many many thanks to Klatremus for showing us things around through this rollercoaster ride!
Thank you very much for your comment and your very kind words. It has been a pleasure playing this campaign for all of you to watch. Appreciate the support. Yes, a big thanks to Feuillade Industries for giving us this masterpiece.
What's the enemy you mentioned at 1:41:50? Is it an enemy that appeared in a previous mission? I don't recall it.
The Charaka is an enemy that I first encountered in The Black Frog campaign. Here is a link with a timestamp to a sequence where that monster is visible in mission 5 of that mission pack. Spoiler alert! If you plan on playing this (which I highly recommend), then don't watch it! th-cam.com/video/T75pkORseWs/w-d-xo.htmlsi=bSiX-77dFoCM8Zl_&t=11324
@@klatre Oh, so it was in another campaign, that's why I don't remember it. Thanks for the detailed answer, I'll be sure to check that out!
Back alive, and, boy, missed already two vids and a competition!
@klatremus: Since you asked:
- I don't believe I am qualified to say anything negative about this campaign! I am absolutely amazed by the bobdingnagian amount of dedication put into it - new enemies, beautifully crafted animations, eye-catching level design and texturing… not to mention funny dialogues... (The amount of love for Thief 1/G is equally huge, but we already knew that from the previous work of the authors).
- The stuff you deemed ‘negative’ is for me a plus. I am lousy player, and the only thing that kept me hooked was the fact that the difficulty was tuned for a broader audience (rather than for super-experts like you) and the objectives were not overly complicated. I am grateful for that!
- I won’t rate the missions by _quality_, but rather by personal _preference_, and here I will say something only about the missions played by me (the first seven). My top three is the same as yours (Trial of Iron, Death’s Dominion, The Long Shadow Falls), the next tier consists of Where Old Faces Fade and The Brand, followed closely by Return to the City and Kept Away From View (in which I loved the keeper sanctuary, but I was a bit irritated by the loot hunt). But ALL are great!
Fair enough. Thanks for your comment, UV. Too bad you missed the last two premieres and the contest. It was much more successful this time and I will definitely repeat that format in the future.
Hey Klatremus I hope you don’t mind me asking but are there any chances of you doing a Gloomwood series in the future given it’s a spiritual successor to Thief?
No sorry, I won't branch out to other games. The Dark mod is as far as I'll go.
Once again, after the premiere watch-along, great playthrough!
I was able to Iron Supreme this mission today :D
Can be viewed at th-cam.com/video/pGc6TEMHzZY/w-d-xo.html
A few items that might interest you are:
- Different way to get to the fourth floor
- Short way to get to the upper floor (although you play it differently to show more of it in the video)
- Using the final item without dropping from the top by getting there early
Any chance of a Thief Deadly Shadows play through by you in the future?
I was supposed to start playing T3 for myself this summer, but due to real life wasn't able to. Once I do, I'll make that decision. Right now it's a maybe.
My ranking is:
Top tier: M2, M4, M8
Tier 2: M6
Tier 3: Rest
Tier 4: M3
Tier 5: M10
I thought M10 would be worse considering the general opinion, but yes definitely lacking. And while there are interesting nooks and crannies, I didn't like the texturing, it kinda repeats a lot in most parts of the tower. Also no reason to explore, even though there are a lot of paths throughout the tower. Really a missed opportunity, I agree.
M9 I though had just too many guards and it became tedious. Also small castle is kinda redundant. No real reason to go there other than just being a completionist. It's not a particularly interesting place, same gameplay, no secrets etc.
My biggest criticisms regarding the missions themselves is that they play it too straightforward. I like missions with surprises, missions that completely change the notion you had about the objectives midway. Missions with great variety within them. Missions with weird and creepy secrets. The Black Parade doesn't do any of that. l like missions that feel dynamic, like for example The Builder's Paradise. I also like missions with more adventure elements, like Random_Taffer's Conall missions. But again, nothing on this front here. So I echo your objectives sentiment, variety is kinda lacking in terms of what you do in the missions, and also varied environments and gameplay within missions. I think this is why I liked that gambling den at the end of mission 4, its a breath of fresh air, something completely different compared to the rest of the mission. I also like the separate "halves" in M5 and M6.
What I actually would have liked to see is small missions. Marbleman said that in M9 they wanted a breather between two nightmare missions, but I think going for something on the scale of The Tower by Lady Rowena here and there would have worked better for the overall structure and pacing of the campaign.
Otherwise the worst thing about the campaign is IMO the plot. I don't care about it at all, nor the characters. Which is very weird to say since I love the readables within missions. But the overall narrative with Hume and Azaran is a complete nothing burger imo. You don't even properly stop him at the end, the whole story feels like its just there because it needed to be there in order to have a campaign with 10 cool levels. Feels like a complete afterthought, which is disappointing considering all the posts throughout the years of sckacky and co. thinking about expanding the lore of the games. I expected a lot on that front in the plot and missions themselves, but we actually got very little on that front, at least compared to what I was expecting.
Overall, excellent effort, but not quite in my preferred FM style. I wish they went for more variety and bold experimentation, but what we got is still great.
Remember, it is tough to make a campaign as a love letter to a game and then dare to go very unexpected ways. Thus, the missions end up "safer" by keeping to the standard mission formula. But I do agree the difficulty and variety could've been changed some. Not sure I agree with the plot being so bad. It kept me engaged, but it's not the campaign's best feature. Appreciate the lengthy comment!
@@klatre They went safer than even the OG missions though. The OG missions are downright experimental compared to The Black Parade.
I felt the same about not caring about any characters in The Black Parade. I found the story interesting and serviceable enough, but I largely didn’t care what happened to Hume by the end, whereas I did with Garrett and Zaya.
Maybe TBP could have used a mission where you have to “locate character X for plot dump” or something like that. The first mission kind of did that, but that only told us Hume’s backstory. Infiltrating the Keeper compound in mission 6 provided a plot dump, but only through readables, not through character interaction. I’m thinking more along the lines of tracking down Lieutenant Mosley in Thief 2 which leads to reconnecting with Viktoria or tracking down Inspector Drept in Thief 3 which leads meeting Lauryl in Shalebridge Cradle. Or, in Thief 2X you have the ongoing story of Zaya trying to help her brother. There’s a total lack of memorable characters like that in The Black Parade.
That said, even if the story didn’t draw me in, I still enjoyed The Black Parade as a game. Even if the missions lacked surprises and twists, like you say, I liked the variety of the different environments and I very much enjoyed the heavier presence of supernatural and horror elements. The complete removal of horror from Thief 2 is why I always enjoyed Thief 1 and Thief 3 more. In that sense, I really enjoyed The Black Parade.
I liked the mission, i think... this is probably one of the first times ive gotten properly frustrated with your gameplay of the mission though.
The reason being ive just watched the previous mission and im immersed in what happens, but it felt like every 5 minutes, you would break the immersion by running through the map willy nilly and being like "but you can also go here and do this" while all creatures big and small are trying to kill you as you ignore them. ive seen every single video you've made all the way through so i know that this happens and normally it happens maybe 2 times in a video but it felt like it was every few minutes. I had to skip forwards until you were back on track again every time and I eventually became annoyed enough that I didnt really care what happened in the end.. lol
the other missions are great though.
Lol understandable for sure. I guess I felt bad rushing through the mission, since it's fairly short and most areas unnecessary to ever even go to. I usually try to be complete in terms of different routes to take, but maybe I overdid it in this one. Sorry.
@@klatre theres no need to apologise of course, I understand what you were doing and why since you explained it in the video itself that you can run through and get to the top in 5 minutes flat if you really wanted to. haha, I guess I was more annoyed at it being the final mission of such a long anticipated campaign. since I know this has been on the cards for a really really really long time.
I watch these videos to calm my nerves and to chill all of the way out so i get really invested and I was pretty hyped to see the end but.. :D
I appreciate the playthrough non-the-less and look forward to the next video as always :)