41:35 - there's actually a very significant extra part to this segment, although it's easy to overlook. If you re-run the sequence of Olivia stealing your poem several times, eventually instead of just repeating Manny's nonsensical beat poems she will recite a proper song, with lyrics that tie into the themes of the game complete with a title drop. "...so now we dance this grim fandango, and will four years before we rest."
I remember getting that song but don't remember doing anything quite complicated. Probably just sucked at the minigame or didn't realize what I was doing 😂
I remembered that sequence although I can't remember if it was mentioned in this video but I think the game was supposed to be called The Day of the Dead and they changed it to avoid having death in the title and that poem is the only time the title is mentioned in the game.
Interestingly, the original version and the remastered version handle this scene slightly differently. In the original, Olivia delivers the Grim Fandango song on the ordinary club background like all the other poems she recited. However, in the remaster, there's a special cut where the camera zooms in close on Olivia and rotates around her. They were aware how important this song was!
Salvador's end is extra bitter, because he dies just a moment before Manny finds Salvador's Double-N-ticket, meaning he was truly one of the good guys and never knew this. I found that to be a really tragic moment for some reason.
I suspected Olivia to be a double agent from the start when I saw her also working for the LSA. Corruption always runs deeper than you think or expect.
My grandpa and i played this when i was a kid, i can still remember that family computer room. We never got to finish it as our copy frooze up during the elevator puzzle in year 2. My grandpa passed of cancer about 6 years ago and it wasnt until maybe 3-4 years ago i playex it on steam and finally finished it for us. I cried at the ending, the story just seemed so fit perfectly with emotions i was feeling so this game will always be in my heart forever. Thats why i like TH-cam so much, too, because i can find the cd games we played back then and relive those memories
Having a designated computer room is a mood. My parents were very protective of our pc and even kept an old but clean, flowery bedsheet draped over it. Very important to keep dust off fine machinery! The computer sat on this wooden table that had been made in a prison. Odd combination of memories but that's how i learned to install games and im glad i had the chance to tinker with computers from an early age!
@KaWalla0 so many creators these days try and play the algorithm game. It's awful and it shows in their work. I watch TH-cam mostly on my TV so I'm not looking for short 10 minute videos. He acquired a huge following really fast by doing what he loves. Creators should take note
bro he just narrates his playthrough like a lot of other youtubers who make this type of content. dont get me wrong i enjoy this content too but dont act like it's some complex herculean feat to do this
A few things: They don't just sprout Marigolds as flowers. The flowers that they sprout are kinda used as symbolism. For instance Lola sprouts Forget Me Nots. When Manny gives the Excelsior walking stick to the guy at the beginning he mentions it's a four year journey by foot. The game takes place over four years for Manny. I'm pretty sure in this world flowers ONLY grow on bone matter. Making the huge flower field around the green house at the end even more chilling.
1:15:40 there's dialogue with the coroner in Rubacava which explains that, since in the Land of the Dead flowers and their craft symbolize True Death, florists who in life were artistic souls with an appreciation for beauty have a hard time keeping it together. In Bowsley's case you'll note he's secretly constructed a fake florist shop whose displays are all lined up with corpses, and upon ringing the doorbell he wholly disassociates and regresses to the friendly florist he must've been in his better days.
I'd just like to point out a few things: 1. The balloon that scares the pigeons on the roof doesn't have to be shaped like Robert Frost - any of the balloon animals will do. It's the bang that scares the birds. 2. The whole Rubacava chapter is one big reference to Casablanca and it's great. 3. You get a hint for the toaster-fire extinguisher-mug puzzle (1:09:12) early in the game when the janitor is fixing the pneumatic tube system (warns you about "blowing the place sky high" when his shirt catches fire and you try to use the fire extinguisher to help him). 4. In the sewer maze puzzle (1:14:29), you don't leave "bone crumbs" for you to follow back out of the maze - you use the bone dust to follow a trail of sproutella the florist leaves behind him (you can see the sproutella puddle where he fell down on 1:14:01). The bone dust creates a trail of flowers Manny follows. I'll admit it took me ages to figure out this puzzle at first... 5. Hector is not fat - he's big-boned... Also, the original game was not a point-and-click. It didn't even support any mouse control. It was all weird keyboard-only movement with tons of different buttons to "examine" or "use" or even access your inventory. It was terrible. 10/10
@@Calavera357 Just someone who played the game waaaay too many times since it came out in 1998 😅 For example, it took me way too many playthroughs to get that it was Domino who boobytrapped the Bone Wagon with dominos. Which is really obvious, but never clicked for me
the joke with the florist is that the mortician used to be a gardener. hence he is good working with plants, which in the land of the dead represent pain,. and laments how its worse for florists. who are slowly driven mad by this fact. the florist has recreated his shop and falls back to old habits after her hears the bell.
They don’t “represent pain” they are literally what remains of the dead when they die a second time. They become flowers. Forever part of the land of the dead.
@@VuotoPneumaNN if that was true the bone damn made by the beavers would be covered with plant life. I'm paraphrasing in game dialogue from the Mortician in Rubacava.
Manny's attitude is really what made this game for me. Protagonists that have lost hope and given up are hard to motivate oneself to pilot through the plot. But if they maintain a level of fight in them and especially with good delivery and likeable personality, that makes for great motivation.
He’s a heck of a go-getter also. At the end of the first act he’s mopping floors in the automat, and after a year he’s running it as the second largest casino in town. Likewise the act three transition has him start as a basic crew member on the Limbo, and after a year he’s captain of the ship!
@@WarmSunandGreenGrass I love how those timeskips between years showcase just how active he is and how, if not stifled by corruption, he's really capable. I love a protagonist like that. makes the ending also a lot sweeter as you know that Manny will find a way to make whatever uncertainty comes in paradise, work.
@@potentiallyunfunnyguy9716 I like that it's also another piece of evidence that something really is wrong at the DOD. When he's not working in a place filled with corruption, Manny easily works his way up the ranks and into leadership roles
53:07 In the original version, that puzzle broke when computers became too fast. The bug was quickly patched but you needed to "download" a 2 MB exe file - in 1998. Wild times in the CD-ROM era.
That is the reason why I couldn't finish it back then because we had internet but didn't get the patch because we hadn't thought about LucasArts needing one😂
1:14:30 The reason you need the bone grinder is because Bowsley is carrying a leaking can of sproutella. (You watch it start leaking in the cut-scene.) If you use the grinder in any of the rooms leading to that tunnel, the bone fragments will mix with the sproutella on the floor and make a trail of flowers that lead to that tunnel. (Manny then uses the flower trail to track Bowsley through the offscreen tunnel maze towards his hideout).
Me and my twin brother started playing this game during Halloween week and have only completed it last Sunday. Man, I've forgotten how good Tim's writing can be. I loved Glottis too! The game is definably from an different era, for better or for worse, but overall, its charm is overwhelming and its nice to see that its still being talked about in 2024.
The original release didn't actually have point and click controls, it was actually tank based controls and I remember in the remaster developer commentary, they make fun of Tim Schaffer because he pushed for it to be tank based controls on keyboard because he believed it was the future!
@UncleCloud you can still optionally use the tank controls, but the console version also got free movement controls based on the camera and not tank, so both versions have options for it which is great!
Every Nov 1st, my spouse and I sit down to a no-commentary playthrough of Grim Fandango. It's just... a wonderful, beautiful game with a story that holds up better than most actual movies- in our opinion. I also remember seeing an ad for the game in my school handouts. So glad that people can still play it, even if the Steam release has its bugs and graphical glitches.
About the florist: I think there was a bit about how florists in life loved flowers and are driven a bit loopy in the afterlife by how flowers are a sign of death. So the bell in the florist's shop is a pavlovian thing that snaps him out of it and returns him to his normal self.
I'm pretty sure the "worker bees" in Rubacava aren't just that, they're also a reference too the US Naval Construction Battalion, also known as "Seabees"
That's exactly right, one of the objectives that Velasco gives you during the Rubacava chapter is that Glottis' tools have to be "authentic Sea Bee equipment only", which is why you have to talk to the bees specifically in the first place.
Great video. One thing I will add regarding the puzzle difficulty: like most other Lucasarts adventure games, you can't die or get permanently stuck, so you at least know that whatever you need to solve is around, somewhere, and you didn't miss something important. Didn't keep me from spending hours going around in circles in Rubacava but it at least lowers the stakes a little.
Yeah, that was something I really liked about the LucasArts style as opposed to the Sierra style (other companies did it, but Sierra's most associated with it in my mind) of these point-and-click adventure/puzzle games: you couldn't lock yourself or get killed by doing certain things. Which I feel is important in a genre where you're supposed to pick up everything and try every interaction, because randomly punishing you for doing exactly that (or failing to pick up something hours ago) didn't really mesh well with the core gameplay idea.
43:04 neat little tidbit about tattoos, depending on how close to the bone you get it it actually does mark the bone! It's why knees, elbows, ribs, and other places like them are considered so painful, because the bone itself is being struck, meaning even your skeleton gets to keep some of your ink!
The point-and-click remaster of this game is THE best adventure game I've ever played. As a sort of swan song to a bygone gaming era, it really does represent everything that was both great and not so great about this genre. Although this is an entirely subjective thing, I disagree that this game is specially egregious in the puzzle design department. Yes, it can be sometimes difficult and frustrating. Being stuck and having to figure your way forward is as integral mechanically to adventure games as dying in combat is to souls-likes. But I think progress is signal-posted quite well, the puzzles are perfectly integrated into the storyline even if sometimes a bit absurd or humorous, and there are often if not always hints as to how to proceed. The only part that felt broken to me was the forklift puzzle, which is supposed to be a bit more intuitive in tank control mode.
Thank you for covering this amazing game. I played grim as a kid and loved the game. It's great to see life breathed into these games and hopefully, this gets more people into these older games. Amazing video!
I remember this game originally didn't have the mouse click action panel. They attempted to make the game fully keyboard with Manny turning his head to look at interactive items.... It worked about as well as you can imagine.
Man, I remember being 16 in 1998 and playing the HELL out of the first chapter that was included on the PC Gamer demo disk. I bought the full game but never completed it until two years ago, when I bought it off Steam, used a FAQ, and beat it in an afternoon. Fantastic game. thank you sir
i got so excited when i saw this video on my feed my uncle collectedgaming magazines in the 90s to early 00's and an ad for this game really captivated me with its artstyle it didnt occur to me to search it up as a kid and i could never find the issue again
this game is like a more grown-up version of the kiddy adventure games i played when i was little like spy fox and putt-putt before i took a 20ish year hiatus from playing video games...AND it's not horror/suspense so I might actually give it a shot for once!! i love the music and graphics!!
If you want point-and-click adventure games that aren't too kiddie or horror, there's a whole bunch of options for you! Anything by the company that made this game, Lucasarts, is a great start, but there's also a whole series of games based on the Nancy Drew detective books that have a cult fanbase, and also the King's Quest games, and plenty more I just don't know off the top of my head.
If you're a fan of the game but haven't played remastered, I highly recommend it for two reasons: 1, there's a director's commentary that has a lot of fun nuggets of information and is just generally a good listen, and 2, there's a concept art gallery that actually shows some cut elements that give us just the *tiniest* glimpse further into the world.
I like the remaster for the achievement for playing it all the way through with tank controls the whole way canned something like "Tim made us put this in," making fun of how aggressively Tim fought for the original game to be the tank-controlled thing it was, originally.
This game holds a special place in my heart because I watched my mom play it when I was little. We never got past the spiders in the forest but that didn't matter much.
You covered Grim Fandango, one of my favorite games of all time?!!! Awww heck yeah!! Another awesome video, Dungeon Chill! Keep up the fantastic work, pal.
Grim Fandango holds such a special place in my heart. Growing up I had access to some PC games, but definitely used console more. I never played any point and click adventures besides Putt Putt and JumpStart, honestly. As I got more into gaming as I grew, I just didn't have the resources to play these games. In college, I came across a Grim Fandango silent longplay and just fell utterly in love. When it was remastered for modern everything I was hyped, bought it immediately, and played through it. I owe my now love of point and clicks to Grim Fandango. Such an incredible game. Thank you so much for covering it, Dungeon Chill!
I saw you uploaded this the other day and knowing about this games cult classic status decided to pick it up on PS5 and beat in it before watching your video it was worth the wait and the game is a masterpiece
Thanks for highlighting this game. I loved the LucasArts adventure games back in the day but this one passed me by. My core memory of Grim Fandango was repeatedly trying to take the badge off a skeleton in Monkey Island and hearing “I don’t want people asking me about Grim Fandango” repeatedly. I also love that there was a team purposely working to make solutions even MORE asinine in an attempt to justify the bizarre assortment of junk that was stuffed into the game and then, like the player, just slowly gave up trying to use items in more obscure ways and just attempted to speed run the final act.
So is Ross' Game Dungeon just like, the next door over? I'm used to going there but walked past his place this time. This looks like a pretty nice dungeon though, guess I'll need a sweater this time.
So fun to go back and look at this one. I played it years ago (probably around 2005) and haven't returned to it. The voice acting, style and presentation is so advanced. I wouldn't have appreciated it as much then but I really do now. And the humour oh boy this game is sharp.
This is hands down my favorite point and click adventure I've ever played and that, at least by my opinion, says alot considering the competition. I remember the exact moment I fell in love. for a tinsy bit of premise, I'm 42 now. it was the September issue of pcgamer in 1998, I was 16. It came with a demo of this game. it hooked me sooo damn hard with its over abundance of character. a little side note on the research I did to verify, pc gamer magazine is now approx 75 pages in length, that very issue in september of 1998 was 309 pages long.....I always tell people pcgamer is a shadow of its former self and that's a damn shame. It introduced me to soooo many games back then (I subbed for nearly a decade, through most of the 90's and a small portion of the 2000's before ending my sub. The golden era of pc gaming Id argue was the 90's. pc gaming is still fantastic but it doesn't hit the same and the market has definitely shifted in ways I can't quite explain
22:48 That’s exactly it. The market is so filled with games that at the slightest frustration of being unable to advance the story, people just drop the game and move on to the next one in their backlog. I remember playing Grim Fandango a lot when I was a kid, just like Fallout 1, and I finished most of the quests. I mean, if I wasn't playing Fallout 1, I wasn't playing anything else. Now, I finish a game and sometimes rush through it because my backlog is getting out of hand. There are so many new, promising games, but so little time...
Ive watched you a long time now (well listened) and always loved your vids, but that rant about how games are today and not letting people tell you how to play, i have a new found respect for you... just epic!
I remember playing this game with my dad when I was about 11-12. Its visuals and music really stuck with me , and I found myself thinking about it often even today like 10 years later. While we never completed it we did get to the edge of the world area and completed the first boat puzzle. This is a huge throwback. Also I have grim fandango as my steam profile background thing, it’s been that same background since I got it so easily 8-10 years
Started watching this vid, but am going to put it on hold until I play the game this month (inspired by your vid)-- can't wait to come back and watch the rest afterwards!
this channel feels like a blessing. I've been curious about so many of theese games since I was a kid, but never found the patience to play any of 'em! xD Thanks for all the great content!!
Played this on release and is still one of my favourite games of all time. One of the best narratives in any video game ever. Took me months to complete without a guide and was one of the most satisfying experiences I’ve had with a game. ❤
Man I am so glad someone’s doing Grim Fandango I played it when I was a kid and it felt like a fever dream and I’ve never played something like it since
This is exactly the thing I needed the most now. Thank You for covering this masterpiece, dude. Not enough recognition is given to it, that's for sure.
Great video, thank you. Grim was always one of those games that I saw ads for in gaming magazines and was mildly interested in, but just didn't ever get around to playing it, and likely never would have. I can see why it's accumulated such a cult following.
Didn't see this in my notifications until today! T_T Never played Grim Fandango (was never in adventure games too much) but heard good things about it. So I'm looking forward to finding out why folks loved this game so much. Thanks for covering this, Dungeon!
This was a good video man, makes me want to play it again. Oddly, I love the puzzles in this game they make just enough sense if you've been paying attention.
not only did i just say i was looking forward to more dungeon chill videos like what...yesterday, you dropped one on one of my all time favorite point and click adventure games. you are the greatest youtube content creator of all time. 🙇
A masterpiece because there’s no better word to use. It is truly transcendent and even as a kid every hour captivated me and during a replay in my 20s I noticed so many funny things. This remaster is incredible but I would have put even more time money and conceptual visions to beta levels etc etc there is never enough fanservice for this. I remember it was going to be the first game I bought for pc and console and then they cancelled the ps1 version which is crazy bc the demo was on several demo disks. Also that exact softlock with glottis happened to me during one of my original plays so many years ago so maybe it’s not the remake
I was always a Sierra kid, and I didn't play any of these Lucasarts adventures on principle in the 90's. It was a weird time. But when I finally played Grim Fandango in 2015, it became one of my absolute favorites, so I'm glad to think about it again!
I remember pucking up this game some years ago because it's one of those "all time classics" I never played. Gameplay definitively doesn't hold up today, specially because of the curse of "adventure game logic" from back in the day, but the style, some characters and story certainly do. Proving once again that graphics don't matter. If you manage solid gameplay or can tell a good story with a unique style that's gonna give your game more staying power than just "next gen graphics". If you combine both the effects are exponential!
Imagine a world where George Lucas didn't became jealous from any media he wasn't involved with. I'm pretty sure I'd be a totally different adult without these games. R.I.P Lucas arts, always in my heart.
Hey dude, love the channel! Just wanted to be the "ACTUALLY" guy for once, first job for Tim Shaffer was tester on Maniac Mansion I think ;) Thx again great vid!!
Imo the best game made by Tim Schaefer. The game creates Land Of The Dead inspired by film noir is clever, Manny & Glotis are such memorable characters
nicely done, just a quick reminder that mexico is not part of south america so there are not south american flourishes I think the correct term would be "Mexican flavor." but it's just my opinion:)
Great Video! I know you couldn't list all of the VO Talent, but it's worth noting that Pamela Segall ('Bobby' in King of the Hill) also had featured work in this title.
Oh the noise of joy I made when I saw this! Maybe someday we will get a video about Space Bar- who can resist a sci fi murder mystery solved with Empathy Telepathy
few games or anything really had an impact on me quite like grim fandango. basically opened me up to film noir, movies in general, detective fiction, short kings, suave protagonists, positive masculinity and the coolness of smoking. maybe that last one wasn't all that great.
it one of the first game I ever play/beat that game was the game that made me love game it as so many nuance it a journy of redamtion and grow it a story rich in sub-text it realy one of the best story game ever.
41:35 - there's actually a very significant extra part to this segment, although it's easy to overlook. If you re-run the sequence of Olivia stealing your poem several times, eventually instead of just repeating Manny's nonsensical beat poems she will recite a proper song, with lyrics that tie into the themes of the game complete with a title drop. "...so now we dance this grim fandango, and will four years before we rest."
Yeah, That was one of the highlights of the game. I was waiting for that :(
I remember getting that song but don't remember doing anything quite complicated. Probably just sucked at the minigame or didn't realize what I was doing 😂
@@mafiousbj It's not really complicated, you just need to keep asking Olivia for a poem until it triggers.
I remembered that sequence although I can't remember if it was mentioned in this video but I think the game was supposed to be called The Day of the Dead and they changed it to avoid having death in the title and that poem is the only time the title is mentioned in the game.
Interestingly, the original version and the remastered version handle this scene slightly differently. In the original, Olivia delivers the Grim Fandango song on the ordinary club background like all the other poems she recited. However, in the remaster, there's a special cut where the camera zooms in close on Olivia and rotates around her. They were aware how important this song was!
Salvador's end is extra bitter, because he dies just a moment before Manny finds Salvador's Double-N-ticket, meaning he was truly one of the good guys and never knew this. I found that to be a really tragic moment for some reason.
@@lothiaskane2614 First time I discovered that I actually had to stop the game. It's so depressing.
Miyonnez
I suspected Olivia to be a double agent from the start when I saw her also working for the LSA. Corruption always runs deeper than you think or expect.
Yo I didn't leave that message, what is going on??
I wonder if Salvador could've been saved if there was enough liquid nitrogen left. Which makes it even worse.
My grandpa and i played this when i was a kid, i can still remember that family computer room. We never got to finish it as our copy frooze up during the elevator puzzle in year 2. My grandpa passed of cancer about 6 years ago and it wasnt until maybe 3-4 years ago i playex it on steam and finally finished it for us. I cried at the ending, the story just seemed so fit perfectly with emotions i was feeling so this game will always be in my heart forever. Thats why i like TH-cam so much, too, because i can find the cd games we played back then and relive those memories
Having a designated computer room is a mood. My parents were very protective of our pc and even kept an old but clean, flowery bedsheet draped over it. Very important to keep dust off fine machinery! The computer sat on this wooden table that had been made in a prison. Odd combination of memories but that's how i learned to install games and im glad i had the chance to tinker with computers from an early age!
@@ThommyofThenn We had a closet that housed our computer for ages! I had to be on lookout while my brothers played nono-games like Duke Nukem 3d.
Man how do you keep putting out such high quality, big ass videos each time? And this one is for Grim Fandango? You’re too good to us Dungeon Chill.
I've been a day one. I was blessed by the algorithm for putting this guy on my page for his first video. He's incredible.
@KaWalla0 so many creators these days try and play the algorithm game. It's awful and it shows in their work. I watch TH-cam mostly on my TV so I'm not looking for short 10 minute videos. He acquired a huge following really fast by doing what he loves. Creators should take note
dude, the video is mostly a retelling of the game's story.
bro he just narrates his playthrough like a lot of other youtubers who make this type of content. dont get me wrong i enjoy this content too but dont act like it's some complex herculean feat to do this
@@slimeprivilege ooook thanks for letting me know I've never watched TH-cam before 🙄
A few things:
They don't just sprout Marigolds as flowers. The flowers that they sprout are kinda used as symbolism. For instance Lola sprouts Forget Me Nots.
When Manny gives the Excelsior walking stick to the guy at the beginning he mentions it's a four year journey by foot. The game takes place over four years for Manny.
I'm pretty sure in this world flowers ONLY grow on bone matter. Making the huge flower field around the green house at the end even more chilling.
1:15:40 there's dialogue with the coroner in Rubacava which explains that, since in the Land of the Dead flowers and their craft symbolize True Death, florists who in life were artistic souls with an appreciation for beauty have a hard time keeping it together.
In Bowsley's case you'll note he's secretly constructed a fake florist shop whose displays are all lined up with corpses, and upon ringing the doorbell he wholly disassociates and regresses to the friendly florist he must've been in his better days.
I remembered that from when I played it way back when. I thought it was such a clever idea.
I'd just like to point out a few things:
1. The balloon that scares the pigeons on the roof doesn't have to be shaped like Robert Frost - any of the balloon animals will do. It's the bang that scares the birds.
2. The whole Rubacava chapter is one big reference to Casablanca and it's great.
3. You get a hint for the toaster-fire extinguisher-mug puzzle (1:09:12) early in the game when the janitor is fixing the pneumatic tube system (warns you about "blowing the place sky high" when his shirt catches fire and you try to use the fire extinguisher to help him).
4. In the sewer maze puzzle (1:14:29), you don't leave "bone crumbs" for you to follow back out of the maze - you use the bone dust to follow a trail of sproutella the florist leaves behind him (you can see the sproutella puddle where he fell down on 1:14:01). The bone dust creates a trail of flowers Manny follows. I'll admit it took me ages to figure out this puzzle at first...
5. Hector is not fat - he's big-boned...
Also, the original game was not a point-and-click. It didn't even support any mouse control. It was all weird keyboard-only movement with tons of different buttons to "examine" or "use" or even access your inventory. It was terrible. 10/10
Was going to comment that the original game was a weird tank controlled thing, but you beat me too it. Still a fantastic game though!
A true fan right here.
“Bone crumbs” is such a funny phrase though
@@murph64 Should have gone with "Bone bits". Sounds like a cereal
@@Calavera357 Just someone who played the game waaaay too many times since it came out in 1998 😅 For example, it took me way too many playthroughs to get that it was Domino who boobytrapped the Bone Wagon with dominos. Which is really obvious, but never clicked for me
"We may have years, we may have hours, but sooner or later we push up flowers"
Damn, that goes HARD
the joke with the florist is that the mortician used to be a gardener. hence he is good working with plants, which in the land of the dead represent pain,. and laments how its worse for florists. who are slowly driven mad by this fact. the florist has recreated his shop and falls back to old habits after her hears the bell.
😲this game
They don’t “represent pain” they are literally what remains of the dead when they die a second time. They become flowers. Forever part of the land of the dead.
@@VuotoPneumaNN if that was true the bone damn made by the beavers would be covered with plant life. I'm paraphrasing in game dialogue from the Mortician in Rubacava.
@graycard668 No because those souls did not get sprouted. They were torn to pieces. Just like what happens to Domino at the end of the game.
Manny's attitude is really what made this game for me. Protagonists that have lost hope and given up are hard to motivate oneself to pilot through the plot. But if they maintain a level of fight in them and especially with good delivery and likeable personality, that makes for great motivation.
He’s a heck of a go-getter also. At the end of the first act he’s mopping floors in the automat, and after a year he’s running it as the second largest casino in town. Likewise the act three transition has him start as a basic crew member on the Limbo, and after a year he’s captain of the ship!
@@WarmSunandGreenGrass I love how those timeskips between years showcase just how active he is and how, if not stifled by corruption, he's really capable. I love a protagonist like that. makes the ending also a lot sweeter as you know that Manny will find a way to make whatever uncertainty comes in paradise, work.
@@potentiallyunfunnyguy9716 I like that it's also another piece of evidence that something really is wrong at the DOD. When he's not working in a place filled with corruption, Manny easily works his way up the ranks and into leadership roles
It's great to see that positivity even in a game with such macabre themes
53:07 In the original version, that puzzle broke when computers became too fast. The bug was quickly patched but you needed to "download" a 2 MB exe file - in 1998. Wild times in the CD-ROM era.
That is the reason why I couldn't finish it back then because we had internet but didn't get the patch because we hadn't thought about LucasArts needing one😂
that was CD-ROM era...
@@BlehstorThx! I corrected it.
Damn i actually remember that happening now
Hmm. Imagine that. A bug in an old videogame. It's as if bugs are an inherent part of all forms of coding, regardless of our rose-tinted glasses.
39:25 The cat is an Alebrije. Think fun, colorful chimera. Something a child would draw, like a dragon with donkey legs.
Manny saying "I thought you were created just to drive" after Glottis plays the piano made me howl.
1:14:30 The reason you need the bone grinder is because Bowsley is carrying a leaking can of sproutella. (You watch it start leaking in the cut-scene.) If you use the grinder in any of the rooms leading to that tunnel, the bone fragments will mix with the sproutella on the floor and make a trail of flowers that lead to that tunnel. (Manny then uses the flower trail to track Bowsley through the offscreen tunnel maze towards his hideout).
Just when I needed a revisit to the land of the dead this video pops up, such an incredible game.
Me and my twin brother started playing this game during Halloween week and have only completed it last Sunday. Man, I've forgotten how good Tim's writing can be. I loved Glottis too! The game is definably from an different era, for better or for worse, but overall, its charm is overwhelming and its nice to see that its still being talked about in 2024.
The original release didn't actually have point and click controls, it was actually tank based controls and I remember in the remaster developer commentary, they make fun of Tim Schaffer because he pushed for it to be tank based controls on keyboard because he believed it was the future!
Haha you can’t blame him really. It was the resident evil era.
nothing wrong with tank controls though, they worked fine on games like this with fixed camera
I suppose it made sense for a game with pre-rendered backgrounds, Resident Evil was popular so most gamers of the time would pick it up quickly.
And people whined so much about it for years and years. I say they should've kept it in as an essential part of the experience.
@UncleCloud you can still optionally use the tank controls, but the console version also got free movement controls based on the camera and not tank, so both versions have options for it which is great!
Every Nov 1st, my spouse and I sit down to a no-commentary playthrough of Grim Fandango. It's just... a wonderful, beautiful game with a story that holds up better than most actual movies- in our opinion. I also remember seeing an ad for the game in my school handouts. So glad that people can still play it, even if the Steam release has its bugs and graphical glitches.
Rainy weather, comfy blanket and a new Dungeon Chill. Hell yeah.
About the florist: I think there was a bit about how florists in life loved flowers and are driven a bit loopy in the afterlife by how flowers are a sign of death. So the bell in the florist's shop is a pavlovian thing that snaps him out of it and returns him to his normal self.
One of the all time greats! "Death makes sad stories of us all."
I'm pretty sure the "worker bees" in Rubacava aren't just that, they're also a reference too the US Naval Construction Battalion, also known as "Seabees"
That's exactly right, one of the objectives that Velasco gives you during the Rubacava chapter is that Glottis' tools have to be "authentic Sea Bee equipment only", which is why you have to talk to the bees specifically in the first place.
So named because their rate is abbreviated as CB, Construction battalion.
Great video. One thing I will add regarding the puzzle difficulty: like most other Lucasarts adventure games, you can't die or get permanently stuck, so you at least know that whatever you need to solve is around, somewhere, and you didn't miss something important. Didn't keep me from spending hours going around in circles in Rubacava but it at least lowers the stakes a little.
Yeah, that was something I really liked about the LucasArts style as opposed to the Sierra style (other companies did it, but Sierra's most associated with it in my mind) of these point-and-click adventure/puzzle games: you couldn't lock yourself or get killed by doing certain things. Which I feel is important in a genre where you're supposed to pick up everything and try every interaction, because randomly punishing you for doing exactly that (or failing to pick up something hours ago) didn't really mesh well with the core gameplay idea.
43:04 neat little tidbit about tattoos, depending on how close to the bone you get it it actually does mark the bone! It's why knees, elbows, ribs, and other places like them are considered so painful, because the bone itself is being struck, meaning even your skeleton gets to keep some of your ink!
Yeah, inscribing onto bone is a real activity and it's called scrimshaw, I imagine it'd be quite popular in skeleton land.
Grim Fandango still talks circles around most games, to this day. Some of the best dialogue and voice active I've ever heard in a video game.
The point-and-click remaster of this game is THE best adventure game I've ever played. As a sort of swan song to a bygone gaming era, it really does represent everything that was both great and not so great about this genre.
Although this is an entirely subjective thing, I disagree that this game is specially egregious in the puzzle design department. Yes, it can be sometimes difficult and frustrating. Being stuck and having to figure your way forward is as integral mechanically to adventure games as dying in combat is to souls-likes. But I think progress is signal-posted quite well, the puzzles are perfectly integrated into the storyline even if sometimes a bit absurd or humorous, and there are often if not always hints as to how to proceed. The only part that felt broken to me was the forklift puzzle, which is supposed to be a bit more intuitive in tank control mode.
"I like to keep my scythe next to where my heart used to be."
Thank you for covering this amazing game. I played grim as a kid and loved the game. It's great to see life breathed into these games and hopefully, this gets more people into these older games. Amazing video!
I remember this game originally didn't have the mouse click action panel. They attempted to make the game fully keyboard with Manny turning his head to look at interactive items.... It worked about as well as you can imagine.
you can still play it this way in the remaster, i finished the game like that and it was okay, however, i like tank controls so...
This game was a HUGE part of my childhood. Really hits different as an adult who works full time.
I can't wait to see what you cover next.
That forklift puzzle back in the original game got us working for 1 extra year,. thats how games used to be we just came back :D
I got this for Christmas in 1998 with the soundtrack CD as a bonus. This is still today my favorite adventure game and video game soundtrack.
Man, I remember being 16 in 1998 and playing the HELL out of the first chapter that was included on the PC Gamer demo disk. I bought the full game but never completed it until two years ago, when I bought it off Steam, used a FAQ, and beat it in an afternoon. Fantastic game. thank you sir
Those PC Games demo discs were legendary! Coconut Monkey for life!
For a moment I had totally forgotten about demos
I love that Domino's death scene is a mixture of the crusher in Temple of Doom and the propeller scene in Lost Ark.
My friend, you don’t even know how much these videos help my mental. I wish you all of the success possible
i got so excited when i saw this video on my feed my uncle collectedgaming magazines in the 90s to early 00's and an ad for this game really captivated me with its artstyle it didnt occur to me to search it up as a kid and i could never find the issue again
this game is like a more grown-up version of the kiddy adventure games i played when i was little like spy fox and putt-putt before i took a 20ish year hiatus from playing video games...AND it's not horror/suspense so I might actually give it a shot for once!! i love the music and graphics!!
If you want point-and-click adventure games that aren't too kiddie or horror, there's a whole bunch of options for you! Anything by the company that made this game, Lucasarts, is a great start, but there's also a whole series of games based on the Nancy Drew detective books that have a cult fanbase, and also the King's Quest games, and plenty more I just don't know off the top of my head.
@tatltails3923 oh sick thank you! i honestly haven't looked too hard but i will def have to check these out when i have time 😊
Broken Sword 1/2/5
If you're a fan of the game but haven't played remastered, I highly recommend it for two reasons: 1, there's a director's commentary that has a lot of fun nuggets of information and is just generally a good listen, and 2, there's a concept art gallery that actually shows some cut elements that give us just the *tiniest* glimpse further into the world.
I like the remaster for the achievement for playing it all the way through with tank controls the whole way canned something like "Tim made us put this in," making fun of how aggressively Tim fought for the original game to be the tank-controlled thing it was, originally.
The Petrified Forest puzzle still gives me nightmares
Man I love tim shafer's works so much. Psychonauts might be one of my very favorite games but I never played this one, glad to see it delivered!
Bro Grim Fandango had controller / keyboard controls ONLY when it first came out, in Europe at least. This is my favourite game ever. Great video.
This game holds a special place in my heart because I watched my mom play it when I was little. We never got past the spiders in the forest but that didn't matter much.
First time I replayed a computer game more than once. I love everything about it, the music, the art, the dialogue, and every character in the game.
You covered Grim Fandango, one of my favorite games of all time?!!! Awww heck yeah!! Another awesome video, Dungeon Chill! Keep up the fantastic work, pal.
This was so cool. Thank you so much for covering it dude. You're amazing 🙏😃
Favorite game of all time! thanks for the video! my eyes are shining with tears
Thank you for this precious sustenance 🙏
Grim Fandango holds such a special place in my heart. Growing up I had access to some PC games, but definitely used console more. I never played any point and click adventures besides Putt Putt and JumpStart, honestly. As I got more into gaming as I grew, I just didn't have the resources to play these games. In college, I came across a Grim Fandango silent longplay and just fell utterly in love. When it was remastered for modern everything I was hyped, bought it immediately, and played through it. I owe my now love of point and clicks to Grim Fandango. Such an incredible game. Thank you so much for covering it, Dungeon Chill!
I love this game so much
Again great video as always
Also Lupe’s voice actor is so adorable 😅
I saw you uploaded this the other day and knowing about this games cult classic status decided to pick it up on PS5 and beat in it before watching your video it was worth the wait and the game is a masterpiece
ah dude what a CLASSIC jus started watching your channel for games ive never heard of then you drop this banger GAT DAYM
Thanks for highlighting this game. I loved the LucasArts adventure games back in the day but this one passed me by. My core memory of Grim Fandango was repeatedly trying to take the badge off a skeleton in Monkey Island and hearing “I don’t want people asking me about Grim Fandango” repeatedly.
I also love that there was a team purposely working to make solutions even MORE asinine in an attempt to justify the bizarre assortment of junk that was stuffed into the game and then, like the player, just slowly gave up trying to use items in more obscure ways and just attempted to speed run the final act.
oh FUCK YES, peak adventure gaming with Dungeon Chill ❤❤❤
Just found your channel. Right up my alley. Great to watch whilst gaming or falling asleep as your voice is very calming. 8.5/10
I remember when I subbed to you, you were only at about 22k subs, I’m glad to see you got the recognition you deserve!
Always nice to see you upload! These long videos are the best
So is Ross' Game Dungeon just like, the next door over? I'm used to going there but walked past his place this time.
This looks like a pretty nice dungeon though, guess I'll need a sweater this time.
34:34 i love the casablanca reference, so good
So excited to watch another BANGER on a classic. Thanks for putting out such high quality stuff man!
Wonderful video. I have been waiting a long time for a reviewer I respect to give this game the comprehensive analysis it deserved.
So fun to go back and look at this one. I played it years ago (probably around 2005) and haven't returned to it. The voice acting, style and presentation is so advanced. I wouldn't have appreciated it as much then but I really do now. And the humour oh boy this game is sharp.
Saturday morning dungeon chill, of one of the best adventure games ever? Thank you so much man ❤
The greatest PC Adventure game ever! “Mr. Flores, you are qualified for a walking stick. It has a compass on it, you won’t get lost.”
Appreciate the width of the games you cover, and the depth of said coverage. Keep kickin ass, good sir! 🤘🤘
This is hands down my favorite point and click adventure I've ever played and that, at least by my opinion, says alot considering the competition. I remember the exact moment I fell in love. for a tinsy bit of premise, I'm 42 now. it was the September issue of pcgamer in 1998, I was 16. It came with a demo of this game. it hooked me sooo damn hard with its over abundance of character. a little side note on the research I did to verify, pc gamer magazine is now approx 75 pages in length, that very issue in september of 1998 was 309 pages long.....I always tell people pcgamer is a shadow of its former self and that's a damn shame. It introduced me to soooo many games back then (I subbed for nearly a decade, through most of the 90's and a small portion of the 2000's before ending my sub. The golden era of pc gaming Id argue was the 90's. pc gaming is still fantastic but it doesn't hit the same and the market has definitely shifted in ways I can't quite explain
22:48 That’s exactly it. The market is so filled with games that at the slightest frustration of being unable to advance the story, people just drop the game and move on to the next one in their backlog. I remember playing Grim Fandango a lot when I was a kid, just like Fallout 1, and I finished most of the quests. I mean, if I wasn't playing Fallout 1, I wasn't playing anything else. Now, I finish a game and sometimes rush through it because my backlog is getting out of hand. There are so many new, promising games, but so little time...
most people don't even play single player games anymore, they play online multiplayer service games and gachas on mobile
I know this was posted recently, but i really hope this video gets the recognition it deserves. Amazing analysis and you earned a subscriber!
Your videos are so comfy and perfect, hope you get the millions of subscribers you deserve my dude
This is the video I didnt even know I was waiting for. Fantastic as always
Ive watched you a long time now (well listened) and always loved your vids, but that rant about how games are today and not letting people tell you how to play, i have a new found respect for you... just epic!
I remember playing this game with my dad when I was about 11-12. Its visuals and music really stuck with me , and I found myself thinking about it often even today like 10 years later. While we never completed it we did get to the edge of the world area and completed the first boat puzzle. This is a huge throwback. Also I have grim fandango as my steam profile background thing, it’s been that same background since I got it so easily 8-10 years
Started watching this vid, but am going to put it on hold until I play the game this month (inspired by your vid)-- can't wait to come back and watch the rest afterwards!
this channel feels like a blessing. I've been curious about so many of theese games since I was a kid, but never found the patience to play any of 'em! xD
Thanks for all the great content!!
Played this on release and is still one of my favourite games of all time. One of the best narratives in any video game ever. Took me months to complete without a guide and was one of the most satisfying experiences I’ve had with a game. ❤
Grim has top 3 Soundtrack of any game ever ! no debate
So glad you did this video. I always wanted to know what this game was about but I was way too young to grasp it when it came out
Man I am so glad someone’s doing Grim Fandango I played it when I was a kid and it felt like a fever dream and I’ve never played something like it since
This is exactly the thing I needed the most now.
Thank You for covering this masterpiece, dude. Not enough recognition is given to it, that's for sure.
Great video, thank you. Grim was always one of those games that I saw ads for in gaming magazines and was mildly interested in, but just didn't ever get around to playing it, and likely never would have. I can see why it's accumulated such a cult following.
Didn't see this in my notifications until today! T_T
Never played Grim Fandango (was never in adventure games too much) but heard good things about it. So I'm looking forward to finding out why folks loved this game so much. Thanks for covering this, Dungeon!
This was a good video man, makes me want to play it again.
Oddly, I love the puzzles in this game they make just enough sense if you've been paying attention.
not only did i just say i was looking forward to more dungeon chill videos like what...yesterday, you dropped one on one of my all time favorite point and click adventure games. you are the greatest youtube content creator of all time. 🙇
I preferred the non clickbait title. But hey, a man's gotta make a living. Thanks for the content. Keep up the good work!
A masterpiece because there’s no better word to use. It is truly transcendent and even as a kid every hour captivated me and during a replay in my 20s I noticed so many funny things. This remaster is incredible but I would have put even more time money and conceptual visions to beta levels etc etc there is never enough fanservice for this. I remember it was going to be the first game I bought for pc and console and then they cancelled the ps1 version which is crazy bc the demo was on several demo disks. Also that exact softlock with glottis happened to me during one of my original plays so many years ago so maybe it’s not the remake
I was always a Sierra kid, and I didn't play any of these Lucasarts adventures on principle in the 90's. It was a weird time. But when I finally played Grim Fandango in 2015, it became one of my absolute favorites, so I'm glad to think about it again!
I remember pucking up this game some years ago because it's one of those "all time classics" I never played.
Gameplay definitively doesn't hold up today, specially because of the curse of "adventure game logic" from back in the day, but the style, some characters and story certainly do.
Proving once again that graphics don't matter. If you manage solid gameplay or can tell a good story with a unique style that's gonna give your game more staying power than just "next gen graphics". If you combine both the effects are exponential!
I actually did what you suggested. I went and played this again before watching the video. What an amazing game.
The greatest adventure game imho. Such a cool, epic story. So glad to see one of my favourite TH-camrs cover it.
The best example of a great point-and-click story, clouded by moon logic puzzles.
You Never disappoint. Thank you and good luck!
Imagine a world where George Lucas didn't became jealous from any media he wasn't involved with.
I'm pretty sure I'd be a totally different adult without these games. R.I.P Lucas arts, always in my heart.
Hey dude, love the channel! Just wanted to be the "ACTUALLY" guy for once, first job for Tim Shaffer was tester on Maniac Mansion I think ;) Thx again great vid!!
I was hoping for a vid this morning but it’s a super big pleasant surprise that u are doing Tim Schaefer’s ‘98 classic!
Imo the best game made by Tim Schaefer. The game creates Land Of The Dead inspired by film noir is clever, Manny & Glotis are such memorable characters
nicely done, just a quick reminder that mexico is not part of south america so there are not south american flourishes I think the correct term would be "Mexican flavor." but it's just my opinion:)
It's always a good day when I see a new Dungeon Chill video
Great Video! I know you couldn't list all of the VO Talent, but it's worth noting that Pamela Segall ('Bobby' in King of the Hill) also had featured work in this title.
Oh the noise of joy I made when I saw this! Maybe someday we will get a video about Space Bar- who can resist a sci fi murder mystery solved with Empathy Telepathy
few games or anything really had an impact on me quite like grim fandango. basically opened me up to film noir, movies in general, detective fiction, short kings, suave protagonists, positive masculinity and the coolness of smoking. maybe that last one wasn't all that great.
it one of the first game I ever play/beat that game was the game that made me love game it as so many nuance it a journy of redamtion and grow it a story rich in sub-text it realy one of the best story game ever.