The Witness - Spoiler Thread (plot related/large secrets/no-puzzle solutions)
- Thread starter Archurro
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Here are some panels I thought were easy to miss:
-3 panels at final underground area elevator
-1 panel at each dock
-1 panel off the beaten path in the swamp, kinda hidden in the purple area
-1 (maybe 2?) panels for doing the triangle pillar/floor puzzle in the tutorial area
-1 panel for reactivating the white gate in the tutorial area
-Double check all the panels in the underground area outside of the challenge, could be easy to miss one since none of them do anything
-3 panels at final underground area elevator
-1 panel at each dock
-1 panel off the beaten path in the swamp, kinda hidden in the purple area
-1 (maybe 2?) panels for doing the triangle pillar/floor puzzle in the tutorial area
-1 panel for reactivating the white gate in the tutorial area
-Double check all the panels in the underground area outside of the challenge, could be easy to miss one since none of them do anything
Remembrance
Member
Eight years after Braid... Blow put in another puzzle where you have to wait for a
.
Well, now we know to expect that every time.
cloud
Well, now we know to expect that every time.
SpeedBeatz
Member
Another easy-to-miss panel is in the upper area of the quarry building, on the wall inside the section where the upper ramp controls are.
Does it take less than
6 hours
This and the final video is what made me feel comfortable in deciding never to get all the + puzzles in the game.
Yeah that's another good one. Interesting note, I believe that puzzle is the exact same as the one for unlocking the first door you come across with a video, except it has the tri-screw symbol added.
Remembrance
Member
5-10 minutes. Not nearly as bad.
I've reached 520, and two of the remaining three are grey panels that I can't find even knowing where they must be. After that... anybody's guess.
Edit: The source of the voices lines over the first ending has been found: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_Sutra
BrightLightLava
Unconfirmed Member
If the leaf is ab0ve the water, that's it. If it's under the water you already got it.
I finally got all the puzzles. The one eluding me was the hotel gate. I'd opened it but then had to reload a save when I walked off the boat on accident. That,s possible, be careful. May go back in to finish all of the environmental puzzles, but probably not for a few months or until someone finds some crazy secret they unlock.
Great game, so pretty.
You can leave the elevator. Look down.
Doh. I only looked at the picture on the save. Thought it was already in the air. Thanks.
Remembrance
Member
The various unattributed voice recordings also turned out to be quotes:
"Through many births I have wandered..." - attributed to the Buddha in the Dhammapada
"I thought that my voyage had come to its end..." and "It was my songs that taught me..." - both from Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore
"Through many births I have wandered..." - attributed to the Buddha in the Dhammapada
"I thought that my voyage had come to its end..." and "It was my songs that taught me..." - both from Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore
When you've be searching for those types of puzzles elsewhere for hours you pick up on conspicuous rounded ends or possible starting points. I doubt anyone found that on their first time through the area instead of starting the game up from a new game after the ending.
So I actually stopped searching for them after finding them. I planned on going back and doing them...
I was only 380 and 15 when I finished. Guess I played it incorrectly. Brain was not trained like it should have been and I didn't even notice the one at the beginning on restart.
Remembrance
Member
Now I realize that is what you're supposed to notice upon auto-restarting after the ending. I feel like it was more satisfying to get it after turning the gate back on, though. "I thought that my voyage had come to its end..."
I did it! Found the last one. It was a puzzle in the desert temple, in the water room. I guess it creates another light source but I managed to complete the area without it for some reason. Sorry for derailing the thread away from the main topic of discussion. I'm still missing some audio logs and 40ish environmental puzzles, but I'll take a break for a while.
What's the purple swamp one, not sure if I have it and haven't noticed anything going through there.
Yeah, I promptly googled the words as soon as I finished listening. I wondered at the time whether Blow had turned Buddhist or something.
All 6 videos
All boat panels
All the triangle puzzles
All the puzzles in the secret area as far as I know, I even checked with some guides
Final elevator checked
If you mean underwater panel as in underwater rooms I completed those, if you mean the actual panel is underwater then that might be it but I couldn't find anything
I've still some environmental puzzle to do so maybe one of them will lead me to the final puzzle, I don't know. 522, so close
One puzzle commonly missing is the one upstairs in the first building in the quarry. Most people skip this one the first time through and then completely forget it existed (it was my 523rd as well).
RoadHazard
Gold Member
So I finally
But again, I'm sure something big is going right past my head.
got the "real" ending last night. I think. The one where you walk through a place that seems like it's for people watching the "island games" as entertainment (or they're watching an experiment? Many of the audio logs in the caves seem to be hinting at that), there are credit tapes around, then you walk through some weird void, and finally I guess you (or Blow himself?) wake up from having been "jacked in" for a long time? So what's this all about? It was all just a simulation? Or it's real (with spectators), but you experience it remotely Avatar-style? Probably there's a deeper meaning I'm not grasping. I somehow doubt Blow would simply pull an "it was all a dream!". And I still don't really get what the big THING some people have been talking about is. That huge secret. "OMG, the THING!". Is it just that which I just described? Eh. It was neat, but nothing mindblowing to me.
InaudibleWhispa
Member
I'm not sure there is one big thing that everybody is talking about. Unless someone clarifies, it could mean anything. For example a lot of the reviews alluded to some big secret they didn't want to spoil which could simply be the +1 puzzles. People could be referring to the secret door in the entrance gate, or the FMV ending, or the vast underground caverns full of dozens of new puzzles, or the final music box challenge. There's a lot of cool secrets towards the end of the game that could result in an "OMG I just did/saw that thing" post.
Tbh, beyond the "Credits Ending", the only thing that's made me go "wow" was when I picked up an audio tape of Ellie reading something and then another voice comes in to ask about what she's doing before they talk visiting and leaving the island etc. That was really interesting, everything else has just been "This is a cool environment" sort of feeling, not one of shock.
InaudibleWhispa
Member
Yeah I wouldn't say anything is shocking post-ending, the new stuff is just harder version of already established rules. I was definitely surprised by scale of the underground/credits area though. I expected maybe a hard to find secret room with a video hex inside, but you essentially get a 12th laser's worth of content. I think I would have preferred if the whole mountain interior established a new hard rule though to keep the sense of discovery alive rather than a timed challenge.
I thought there was deeper meaning to him walking the studio but as it went on it seemed like a parody. The last video you unlock ffrom the challenge kinda supports that idea. It was so absurd the way he's pawing at coincidental shapes and trying to suss out what they mean in the real world, it was like this game's equivalent of the Tetris effect.
This is actually one of the very few things I dislike about The Witness. Other people got to the end before me, so what I was expecting to find was after you loop back to the beginning, and emerge from the cave, that the line puzzle would be right there, all lined up, staring you in the face. It's just that the first time through the game you don't even know to look for something like that
But it totally isn't - you still need to move around and line up up perfectly.
Even after spending hours searching for environmental puzzles, I never, ever would have found that one on my own - I don't think it's obvious enough after re-starting.
Enordash
Member
I definitely have The Witness version of The Tetris Effect right now. Holy hell. It's actually making me love the game even more, lol.
Although, after finishing it at 7 lasers, I'm much less inclined to beat my head against the wall trying to figure out certain puzzles (
).
It's disappointing to hear that solving all the environmental puzzles doesn't open up some crazy secret area. They felt tedious to me. I just didn't get the same sense of progression with those than the when working toward a laser.
Although, after finishing it at 7 lasers, I'm much less inclined to beat my head against the wall trying to figure out certain puzzles (
apparently I don't understand the sun shapes or colors as much as I thought I did because there's this one bitch ass door in the Hub...
It's disappointing to hear that solving all the environmental puzzles doesn't open up some crazy secret area. They felt tedious to me. I just didn't get the same sense of progression with those than the when working toward a laser.
Remembrance
Member
Yeah, that's why I think finding the solution to close the gate again makes much more sense. It forces you to think about why you did that.
Best to leave that area for last, after you've mastered every type of puzzle.
D
Deleted member 30609
Unconfirmed Member
Holy shit. How did I miss this one? It's the one like the first "boss" puzzle. Awesome, I'm at 523 now.
Oh no. There's no panels left.
+121 now too. There's one in the treetops that's killing me. I have a few left in the town and swamp/mountain. So close.
It's a good talk.
My favorite "video" of them all by far.
TimeEffect
Member
Man Im hoping there's some crazy undiscovered revelation that we are all missing. Game is so impressive
Remembrance
Member
The meaning of the white flowers finally came to me while searching for collectibles.
All they mean is that a triangle panel is nearby! This was never so obvious as in the Town, where a flower is in the fireplace of the red brick house and the triangle panel is on top of the same fireplace. The flowers are colored yellow and white, and so are the panels.
Even the one on top of the mountain is signalling not only the location of the big triangle panel at the bottom of the mountain, but it's even next to the mechanism that activates it. And the windmill flowers in an X just marks the number of triangle panels on the island.
I consider that to be case closed on that particular loose end.
All they mean is that a triangle panel is nearby! This was never so obvious as in the Town, where a flower is in the fireplace of the red brick house and the triangle panel is on top of the same fireplace. The flowers are colored yellow and white, and so are the panels.
Even the one on top of the mountain is signalling not only the location of the big triangle panel at the bottom of the mountain, but it's even next to the mechanism that activates it. And the windmill flowers in an X just marks the number of triangle panels on the island.
I consider that to be case closed on that particular loose end.
On the side of the swamp nearest to the dock there's another underground room in the purple area, and you can get there by doing a tetris piece puzzle that rotates around a pathway. There's a challenging panel down there that does nothing. I think that's where it is anyway.
Nice catch, I thought they signaled an audiolog nearby because of how they work on the lake. Makes sense to me though, I remember seeing one at the door of the Boathouse/parallel lines area, and there's a panel up on the roof (but no audiolog there...I think).
Enordash
Member
Thanks for the advice. Saving my life.
Remembrance
Member
Wanted to post Luis Antonio's artwork retrospective here, too: http://www.artofluis.com/3d-work/the-art-of-the-witness/
Interesting to confirm that the starting house was originally the "bunker", presumably before we ended up with the "greenhouse" bunker we have now.
I'm really looking forward to seeing earlier versions of the mountaintop, which definitely went through several massive changes based on in-development screenshots.
Interesting to confirm that the starting house was originally the "bunker", presumably before we ended up with the "greenhouse" bunker we have now.
I'm really looking forward to seeing earlier versions of the mountaintop, which definitely went through several massive changes based on in-development screenshots.
Wok
Member
This is some good stuff.
petethepanda
Member
Just finished the Challenge. Watching the last video now. This really has gone full-on Adaptation. It's about games, it's about you playing this game, it's about making games, it's about the making of *this* game...
LightofRohan
Member
Thanks for posting!
As a game environment artist this would be a dream game to work on, the forced minimalism would require you to learn to deal with just the basics and really teach you about composition + color balance. It's way too easy to just overly work on something and hide all the problems with more detail, love it.
(Also not to be scared of using hard edges to boost a silhouette)
TimeEffect
Member
You know, I find the whole breaking the 4th wall thing to be really weird. It broke the immersion and Im not sure why it was included
The ending video felt like a parody.
Anyways, is anyone else still so fascinated with the island? I want to hope and believe that there is a massive secret we've all missed. Maybe something crazy that ties certain clues together or something.
I also wish this could have been ...more of a eerie game. Not necessarily a horror game, but there were so many damn times where I'd look out into the world or through a hole and get scared that I would see someone or something.
The statues were creepy, but I would have loved to see something in the distance that was alive. To make me feel that I wasn't alone, and scare me.
The island is so damn neat, and I was afraid of it at times. Just my own imagination trying to make stories in my head, but man, it would be so awesome if Blow put something clever and well hidden in the game.
The ending video felt like a parody.
Anyways, is anyone else still so fascinated with the island? I want to hope and believe that there is a massive secret we've all missed. Maybe something crazy that ties certain clues together or something.
I also wish this could have been ...more of a eerie game. Not necessarily a horror game, but there were so many damn times where I'd look out into the world or through a hole and get scared that I would see someone or something.
The statues were creepy, but I would have loved to see something in the distance that was alive. To make me feel that I wasn't alone, and scare me.
The island is so damn neat, and I was afraid of it at times. Just my own imagination trying to make stories in my head, but man, it would be so awesome if Blow put something clever and well hidden in the game.
Fess
Member
Yup, the path right before the FMV ending was like something from Silent Hill in my head, so creepy, the FMV ending was scary too, I was all tense waiting for something horrible jump out at me. I know it's just my imagination going haywire just like you say too but yeah for me it wasn't quite as cute and fluffy as it may look at first glance with all the colors and nice vegetation etc.You know, I find the whole breaking the 4th wall thing to be really weird. It broke the immersion and Im not sure why it was included
The ending video felt like a parody.
Anyways, is anyone else still so fascinated with the island? I want to hope and believe that there is a massive secret we've all missed. Maybe something crazy that ties certain clues together or something.
I also wish this could have been ...more of a eerie game. Not necessarily a horror game, but there were so many damn times where I'd look out into the world or through a hole and get scared that I would see someone or something.
The statues were creepy, but I would have loved to see something in the distance that was alive. To make me feel that I wasn't alone, and scare me.
The island is so damn neat, and I was afraid of it at times. Just my own imagination trying to make stories in my head, but man, it would be so awesome if Blow put something clever and well hidden in the game.
I didn't get the story at all though. The atheism/science vs religion speechs seemed to go somewhere but they lost me half way and when that lady said you should just give up your dreams and things you wanted in life I almost got angry. Psychological brain washing type of bullshit.
Great game for the puzzles though. I'd give it a ten if it weren't for that diobolical music challenge puzzle, now it gets a 9. It will probably still be on my GOTY list for 2016.
Wok
Member
The challenge fitted the game perfectly: it is the ultimate troll, you get music plus anxiety in what was a peaceful game.
Where is that image from? I've been through the Hotel and seen the shadowy side rooms (real world?) you can peek into on that last path - I only had one puzzle panel in the pink (IIRC) border which switched some lights on in the 'real world' as I perceived it But I couldn't make out anything like that image.
SmiteOfHand
Member
Might want to go take another look there, that is absolutely from the spot you are talking from. To the right if you are facing the side where the panel is. In the "back" if you are around the corner. Kind of hard to miss honestly.
RepairmanJack
Member
Finally can post in here and all I have to say is I will be supremely disappointed if the vases by symmetry don't turn out to be more than a way to get a + puzzle. I was obsessed with those damn things for too long. Felt like a genius when I figured out how to raise and lower them.
Yeah I am going back there. I was too awestruck and full of adrenaline at that point after finally figuring out the columns, getting the 'ending', wrapping back round to the start and noticing the sun puzzle... Just blown away through the Hotel section trying to see if there was something else at the end of it so I didn't really pause.
SmiteOfHand
Member
Just noticed this in the OP. What is this referring to?
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