@Richard Davey
"Anyone found the old man who asks Riddles yet?"
Yes, and I bloody hate him! I tried twice and got burned on both times by some really hard riddles!
Here's the first one:
Walks in the Wind
Runs in the Rain
Makes Dry Oceans in the Sun(or something close to that)
Counts time, Stops Clocks
Swallows Kingdoms, Crumbles Rocks.
I'm not sure if I got the wording on the third line correct, but it is pretty similar to that if it isn't. My answer to this was Water. It walks in the Wind(waves in the ocean); It runs in the rain(obviously water is running down something when it is raining); I'm not sure about the dry Ocean part. I think it means that it evaporates. Counts time(in the days of the Roman empire they used to fill large buckets with a corked hole in the bottom with water up to a certain level. Then they would pull out the cork when the wanted to measure the length of time for something. Since the water would flow out a near constant rate it they would only have to measure the amount of water that was left in the bucket to estimate how much time something took.) As for stopping clocks, if water gets in a clock it will rust the gears and stop it(I know, I personally lost one of my favorite watches to carelessness with water. Remember people, water resistant does not equal water proof!) Swallows kingdoms(Atlantis, flooding, etc.), crumbles rocks(erosion).
And after all that reasoning I was WRONG! It didn't even have the dignitiy to tell me the answer! I remember reading that if you take too long to answer you get it wrong no matter what. But I don't know if I took too long or I was wrong. Or I didn't format my answer correctly. That's just poor game design in my opinion. They should have given you an example of how to answer before unleashing this whacko on you. I don't know. Maybe they should have given you a plucky sidekick or something in the beginning and have him answer crazy guy's riddle in the correct format. Maybe that was what drove the guy into the forest. Your sidekick answered the riddle promptly and correctly and the old guy went bonker's screaming into the forest. That would both help you to understand how to answer the riddles and provide a reason for the guy to be there.
Anyway, since I didn't learn my leason the first time, heres the second riddle I accepted:
Turns us on our backs
and opens up our stomachs
you will be the wisest of men
though at a start a lummox.
My answer was Sleep. Heres my reasoning:
"Turns us on our backs" Obvioiusly a reference to sleeping on ones back, the most common position to sleep in. "and opens up our stomachs" I honestly at the time wasn't sure about this one. In retrospect, it could mean that you are hunger when you wake. That would make sense. "You will be the wisest of men" I remember reading that a refreshing nights sleep is good for the brain. Indeed, being groggy(without sleep), I find it hard to concentrate or think my way through problems that, after a good night sleep, are simple and immediately apparent. "though at start a lummox" Now I don't know about you guys but I'm not a morning person. I am definately at start a lummox.
After some consideration, I think that there is another possible answer to this and that is Time. For the turning us on our backs reference, that could mean, instead of sleep, death. After all, when you see someone in a casket they are always on their back and death comes to us all after a certain amount of time. For opening up our stomachs, this is where Time seems a bit unlikely. Although after enough time we become hungry again, there is nothing intrinsic within the concept of hunger to connect it to the concept of time in my opinion. When we think of time we generally don't think about hunger. The you will be the wisest of men reference does a bit more damage to idea that this is about time but it can make sense from a certain viewpoint. Don't we all get wiser with age/time? Notice how in stories there is never a wise
young man on top of a mountain. Old men, as a concept are widely connected with wisdom(although in this game the seem to be connected to giggling for some bizarre reason.). For the final part, "though at start a lummox", strengths the idea that this is about Time. When we are born we are "at start" and we are clusmy and not too bright. Essentially a "lummox".
Either response can be argued with merit, but that doesn' detract from the point that these riddles are poorly integrated into the game. They are probably the hardest part of the game and I bet that not one person here has gotten one correct. I also have a sneaking suspicion that even if you were to get the riddle correct you would probably get some lame award that in no way reflects the difficulty of these riddles. The only thing you get is probably a gem or some measly experience points which would be a major let down for beating one of the hardest parts of the game. I sincerely hope that the reward matches the difficultly and my cynicism is misplaced because I'd know that I would be
seriously pissed if I answer one of those tough riddles correctly and all I got was One Bloody Gem!
This is probably the one part of this game that I honestly don't like. I've encountered the old man 2 more times after these riddles and I turned him down evertime. And I will continue to turn him down everytime and that does sadden me. I hate having to give up on a part of this game because it is poorly designed.
