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.
@@not_jon_vendi lucky to have creators who just make stuff about what they enjoy , some of these games were super long and i tried multiple times to get through and couldnt do it , watching videos like this about his enjoyment help me power through and get the full experience out of the ones i can ! Lucky hes here for the ones i cant also !
@@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
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.
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.
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 DVD-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😂
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!
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).
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
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.
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
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 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.
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!
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
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!
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.
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...
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.
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!
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!
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.
I think one good example of the trend of “We won’t let you get lost, precious baby” game design would be the Re4 remake. I know the yellow paint on everything you need to interact with wasn’t in the original and its inclusion in the remake felt downright insulting.
This is absolutely one of those games that are best skipped as a game and instead binged as a movie on youtube. It has so much movie quality. And the controls plus scenes, both while going back and forth to solve puzzles. It kills the pacing and mood. Just a longplay is already long enough. Really deserves to be made into an actual movie.
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. ❤
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.
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
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
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!
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 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.
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!
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.
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.
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:)
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 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
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.
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.
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.
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!!
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. 🙇
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.
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 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!
There's a pretty infamous glitch in the original version with an elevator a ways into the game. Basically the speed of the elevator was tied to your actual processor on your computer so when you have to press a button at a specific time its impossible unless you messed with your pc. Thankfully the remaster fixed this so thats not an issue anymore!
I'd disagree with "logic goes out of the window" being a "classic LucasArts adventure game style," because LucasArts adventure games were always some of the MOST logical games in the genre. Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, the Indiana Jones games ,etc. they were the ones you could actually beat without buying a guide. If you want Moon Logic Bullshit, you're dealing with Sierra adventure games(except for the Quest for Glory series), especially King's Quest.
16:55 point and click controls are available only in the remaster. The original was keyboard controls only. You moved Manny with the cursor keys and tank controls, and used a couple of buttons for actions. By moving closer to an interactable object you'd see Manny's head turn towards it. That was the clue the object was selected and you'd perform actions on it.
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
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!
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!
Stories about the afterlife or lands beyond the veil of death are so rare and they're endlessly fascinating to me. They're such fertile fields for creativity, yet nobody ever does anything with them. Between Grim Fandango and Afterlife, Lucasarts games at the time really cemented my unending curiosity with the subject. Perhaps if we put more stories into these limbo worlds, we would be less terrified of our own mortality.
After abandoning the game 3 and a half years ago at the start of year 3, I recently decided to finally finish it and then youtube suggests me this freshly made video, which was a nice time coincidence! I really don't like hand-holding games, but completely obtuse games aren't nice either and Grim Fandango is definitely the latter, but I was still a bit sad to have ended the story: using a guide almost feels like the best way to play the game, as the world and its story are definitely worth the time investment. I'm glad I decided to still finish it and this video served as a nice way to conclude it all.
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
So, the thing with the bone grinder is, there are lots of exits from the sewers. The florist dropped a can of sproutella, and it's leaking. From the point where he fell, you can use the grinder, spreading bone chips, which land in the sproutella leak and grow. You're supposed to follow that trail to the flower shop.
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!!
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
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.
My friend brought up this guy because i like long form videos ! Been hooked since the first video i watched !
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.
@@not_jon_vendi lucky to have creators who just make stuff about what they enjoy , some of these games were super long and i tried multiple times to get through and couldnt do it , watching videos like this about his enjoyment help me power through and get the full experience out of the ones i can ! Lucky hes here for the ones i cant also !
@@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.
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.
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
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 DVD-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😂
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!
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).
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
Just when I needed a revisit to the land of the dead this video pops up, such an incredible game.
39:25 The cat is an Alebrije. Think fun, colorful chimera. Something a child would draw, like a dragon with donkey legs.
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.
"We may have years, we may have hours, but sooner or later we push up flowers"
Damn, that goes HARD
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
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 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...
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!
One of the all time greats! "Death makes sad stories of us all."
Rainy weather, comfy blanket and a new Dungeon Chill. Hell yeah.
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
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!
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.
My friend, you don’t even know how much these videos help my mental. I wish you all of the success possible
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
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
The Petrified Forest puzzle still gives me nightmares
This was so cool. Thank you so much for covering it dude. You're amazing 🙏😃
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!
The best example of a great point-and-click story, clouded by moon logic puzzles.
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.
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.
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.
ah dude what a CLASSIC jus started watching your channel for games ive never heard of then you drop this banger GAT DAYM
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.
I think one good example of the trend of “We won’t let you get lost, precious baby” game design would be the Re4 remake. I know the yellow paint on everything you need to interact with wasn’t in the original and its inclusion in the remake felt downright insulting.
This is absolutely one of those games that are best skipped as a game and instead binged as a movie on youtube.
It has so much movie quality. And the controls plus scenes, both while going back and forth to solve puzzles. It kills the pacing and mood.
Just a longplay is already long enough.
Really deserves to be made into an actual movie.
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.
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.
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. ❤
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.
34:34 i love the casablanca reference, so good
Appreciate the width of the games you cover, and the depth of said coverage. Keep kickin ass, good sir! 🤘🤘
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.
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.”
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!
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
Always nice to see you upload! These long videos are the best
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
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!
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 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.
So excited to watch another BANGER on a classic. Thanks for putting out such high quality stuff man!
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
oh FUCK YES, peak adventure gaming with Dungeon Chill ❤❤❤
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!
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.
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.
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:)
Saturday morning dungeon chill, of one of the best adventure games ever? Thank you so much man ❤
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 know this was posted recently, but i really hope this video gets the recognition it deserves. Amazing analysis and you earned a subscriber!
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
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.
This is the video I didnt even know I was waiting for. Fantastic as always
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.
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.
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!!
Your videos are so comfy and perfect, hope you get the millions of subscribers you deserve my dude
I love that Domino's death scene is a mixture of the crusher in Temple of Doom and the propeller scene in Lost Ark.
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. 🙇
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.
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!
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.
I actually did what you suggested. I went and played this again before watching the video. What an amazing game.
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
1:14:00 the logic here is hes dripping the sproutella goo- so the bone dust makes it grow
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!
There's a pretty infamous glitch in the original version with an elevator a ways into the game. Basically the speed of the elevator was tied to your actual processor on your computer so when you have to press a button at a specific time its impossible unless you messed with your pc. Thankfully the remaster fixed this so thats not an issue anymore!
This game is special to Brazilian because it was one of the 1st and few games not only translated to Portuguese but also dubbed. Love Lucas arts
Thank you for this precious sustenance 🙏
You Never disappoint. Thank you and good luck!
Manny has been my steam profile pic since forever. This game has an extremely special place in my heart, to say the least
The greatest adventure game imho. Such a cool, epic story. So glad to see one of my favourite TH-camrs cover it.
I'd disagree with "logic goes out of the window" being a "classic LucasArts adventure game style," because LucasArts adventure games were always some of the MOST logical games in the genre. Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle, the Indiana Jones games ,etc. they were the ones you could actually beat without buying a guide.
If you want Moon Logic Bullshit, you're dealing with Sierra adventure games(except for the Quest for Glory series), especially King's Quest.
The cat hair mustache puzzle on Gabriel Knight 3 is infamous for a reason.
16:55 point and click controls are available only in the remaster. The original was keyboard controls only. You moved Manny with the cursor keys and tank controls, and used a couple of buttons for actions. By moving closer to an interactable object you'd see Manny's head turn towards it. That was the clue the object was selected and you'd perform actions on it.
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
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!
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!
Stories about the afterlife or lands beyond the veil of death are so rare and they're endlessly fascinating to me. They're such fertile fields for creativity, yet nobody ever does anything with them. Between Grim Fandango and Afterlife, Lucasarts games at the time really cemented my unending curiosity with the subject. Perhaps if we put more stories into these limbo worlds, we would be less terrified of our own mortality.
After abandoning the game 3 and a half years ago at the start of year 3, I recently decided to finally finish it and then youtube suggests me this freshly made video, which was a nice time coincidence!
I really don't like hand-holding games, but completely obtuse games aren't nice either and Grim Fandango is definitely the latter, but I was still a bit sad to have ended the story: using a guide almost feels like the best way to play the game, as the world and its story are definitely worth the time investment.
I'm glad I decided to still finish it and this video served as a nice way to conclude it all.
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
1:15:50 i think things are happening in the wrong order, and this is what the disguise is for
It's always a good day when I see a new Dungeon Chill video
Thanks for the real captions
I preferred the non clickbait title. But hey, a man's gotta make a living. Thanks for the content. Keep up the good work!
So, the thing with the bone grinder is, there are lots of exits from the sewers. The florist dropped a can of sproutella, and it's leaking. From the point where he fell, you can use the grinder, spreading bone chips, which land in the sproutella leak and grow. You're supposed to follow that trail to the flower shop.
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!!
Manny saying "I thought you were created just to drive" after Glottis plays the piano made me howl.