I’m imagining that Krokotopia (Kroko), the second world in Wizard 101, is very similar to the Puzzle Pirates experience. As I discussed in a previous post, all of the questing for this zone takes place indoors as opposed to the predominately outdoor content of, Wizard City. My fantasy tastes run more toward villages, meadows and shire-like scenery but I still had fun making my way through the Kroko, save one problem which took me too long to learn – beware of puzzles!
I didn’t mind the puzzle nature of Kroko. What I did mind was not realizing a puzzle was involved until after I’d defeated the boss and left the kill zone. As is my nature to move on to the next task, I often left the room without noticing clues or waiting long enough for them to even appear. The pace of W101 is such that I sometimes multi-task while playing. Without the necessity of frenzied button mashing, I don’t need to be starring at the screen the whole time. When it’s your turn, you select a spell based on your strategy and current situation and given there's nothing you can do beyond that to affect the outcome, I'm not always watching the whole time. Similarly, at the end of a boss encounter, I’m quick to open my quest log to see what I want to tackle next and race right out of the chamber. I don’t necessarily turn in quests right away. I don’t always proceed to the nearest quest location. Sometimes I delay kill quests in hopes of getting a 2-for-1 deal by receiving another quest that needs the same mobs. Or I decide to wander off to complete a quest waaaay over there just ‘cuz. This behavior proved to be very problematic in Kroko.
The worst experience was in the Ice Vault where it didn’t dawn on me that you must complete the WHOLE series in a particular chain of boss encounters without leaving. If you leave, the zone resets. And as there are puzzles after each of the bosses, the unintentional resetting means repeating a good chunk of work. *Sad Panda*. I did that twice before it clicked in my mind that it wasn’t bugged but operating as intended. Both times I’d intentionally stopped right before killing the final boss to go out and regen mana. Your health regens on its own. Or you can run around capturing health wisps to replenish your health more quickly, and these wisps are available inside of the combat areas.
Mana on the other hand doesn’t regen and the wisps are never in the combat areas. You have to drink a portion (a bit pricey at my level), go to the non-combat zones that have mana wisps and chase them down or go play some mini games. When I have a potion available I do that since it’s the quickest solution. If I don’t mind taking a break from questing, which by the way is why I think they implemented it in this fashion – forced breaks, I head out to the zones where the mana wisps can be captured. In Kroko’s case I often don’t have potions since the vendors don’t sell them there – as far as I know they can only be purchased back Wizard City. In Kroko, the wisps are right outside the dungeons so it’s easier to go out and scoop some up, but NOT if you’re in the middle of doing Ice Vault. Wha-wha-whaaaaaa.
The 2nd time I’d reset the joint it finally clicked that I had to do the whole instance (fairly large) in a single session – slaying and puzzle solving. Not that much of a hardship in a group but doing it solo meant carefully monitoring my mana consumption and going in with two full regen flasks in my backpack to help me through to the end. DOH! I guess I should have realized since it was instanced that it would reset. I’ve done other instances and they reset themselves if you exit but they’ve been single room or tower encounters, with the exception of, Sunken City – which should have been my clue. Ice Vault being like a whole zone threw me.
All in all, I liked the idea of the puzzles, some of which were very clever in deed. I’m a fan of quests that have you interacting with the environment. I loved when Blizzard added more of those types of quests in TBC. I enjoyed running across them in AOC. W101 did them better than either those games with nuisances that required you to pay attention to your surroundings, as well as string multiple pieces of information together to unlock the end zone bosses. Yes, good stuff but I do think they need to somehow alert you with a, “Player beware puzzle crossing up ahead.” I seriously doubt my nephew solved all of them. I wonder if all of them must be completed before you can unlock the third world. If so, I’ll have to check in on him and give him a hand.
The other thing that tripped me up was not realizing that my level 20s spells would no longer come from the professor in Ravenwood. I kept going back to him and wondering why I wasn’t seeing any new spells as I leveled. While I was thinking through the puzzle nature of Kroko, it dawned on me that perhaps there was more there to be discovered. It was then that I remembered seeing a Balance tree and a ladder that I’d taken to an underground location that turned out to be the actual Balance School of Magic that I thought, “Oh crap, I wonder if the tree and that professor have my spells?” Low and behold, I had three – THREE spells sitting with the Balance tree. After checking the professor in the underground classroom, I saw that my other level 20 spells would come from there. Mystery solved.
Since the art of discovery was coursing through me, I decided that I wanted to figure out how to get into the Hidden Shop I’d seen mentioned on the forums, while I was still in Kroko. Hmm, puzzles on the brain, I walked slowly around an inactive portal I’d seen in the Bazaar area shortly after arriving in Kroko. I got on the portal’s pad. I jumped up and down but nothing happened. I tried using the default object interaction key (x) thinking it might be an unmarked interaction but nothing happened. I climbed on to the roof of a nearby shop and looked around. That’s when I noticed the something unusual on the pylons near the inactive portal.
The pylons around the inactive portal had images unlike any I’d seen inside of the dungeons. First off there was an hour glass symbol which didn’t strike me as very Egyptian like. Maybe they should have seemed appropriate - dessert, sand, time, why not? But they reminded me too much of Microsoft Windows, so in my mind, they registered as out of place and smacked of clue! "Blue's clues, Blue's clues, we are lookin' for Blue's clues." Secondly, there was a series of circles and lines going upward that reminded me of that carnival game where you swing a mallet at a lever that shoots a ball high in the air attempting to ring a bell. I starred at the image for another minute or two then it hit me – that’s a count down/up for activation. The hourglass is the timer and those symbols light up, moving upward on the pylon until the portal activates itself. So what starts the timer???
Well I still have no idea what starts the timer. It might be random for all I know. While I was standing there starring at it, the hourglasses started flashing. I raced down from the rooftop with excited glee and waited - and waited. It took what felt like a long ass time but the pylons eventually lit up at the top, the peaks started shining and the portal activated.
I jumped on board and was whisked off to the Hidden Shop. Coolio. There wasn’t much to see inside the shop. It was the usual interior but the Merchant was selling some unique items. The only one that piqued my interest was the alligator pet. I’d seen other players with one and wanted one too.
I named him Sir Henry and replaced my Christmas Elf, Mister Trixie. Unhappily, I found that I didn’t like Henry as much as I thought I would. In fact, from the third person perspective, he has this really creepy way of walking that gave me the heebee-gee-bees. He’s been relegated to the storage trunk in my dorm room and Mister Trixie has returned as my companion. *shudder*
I made it out of Krokotopia and on to Marleybone this weekend, as well as dinging 30. Yay, me! ;)
Marleybone is very 19th Century Victorian. You've already met some of the Marleybone Dogs in Kroko, now prepare to meet the rest of them (inc. Sherlock Bones) with their punningly named stores. Visually, it's very different from both Wizard City and Krokotopia, and taking to the roof tops to complete many of the quests is very cool, and quite the change.
Stick with it, and if I can, I'll get on and help you complete Temple of Storms, defeat Krokopatra and move on to Marleybone.
Posted by: Capn John | December 22, 2008 at 01:43 PM
Thanks John, as you can see I've updated events and I'm in Marleybone!!! I'm half way to level 27. We have to hook up.
Posted by: Alysianah aka Saylah | December 22, 2008 at 05:23 PM
Actually, Puzzle Pirates isn't much like this... at all. There have been a few "exploration" puzzles for events like the release of Atlantis, but most of the game is an interconnected series of puzzle minigames. Sort of like the fairgrounds games, but performance in the game is how you interact with the world, especially combat. :)
Posted by: Tesh | December 24, 2008 at 02:27 PM