Let's Play Mystery Legends: The Phantom of the Opera, Part 7
For those of you who want to play this but have hesitated at shelling out the dough for the collector’s edition, the standard edition of the game is now available at Big Fish Games.
And now, the obvious warning: we’re wrapping things up, so be aware that this section (and the one after it, which will cover the bonus level) will contain SPOILERS. If you don’t want to know how the game ends before playing it, don’t read on. Or rather go out, play through the game (which I do recommend highly) and then come back to discuss.
Part 7: Bring me the hearts of the Power Rangers
The actor’s alley HOG resets (see Part 4) and yields a ballerina, who “looks like she belongs on a music box.” So, it’s back into Christine’s room we go. First, there’s some opera glasses to pick up:
Well, that sounds nice and innocent and totally not freakout-worthy…
Now for the music box:
The music this thing plays sounds familiar, but I didn’t listen long enough to place it. (Anybody recognize it?) Opening the music box reveals a gold coin-yay, something to give to the organ grinder in the ballroom!
The dressmaker’s dummy is wearing a heart pendant, which we take:
A different type of scavenger hunt this time: once you find a heart, the Phantom gives you a hint on where to look for the next one. Sounds like we’re headed to that freezing path outside the conservatory, but that will have to wait. I’ve been wanting to revisit the ballroom with its puppet show of crazy for this entire game, so let’s go there first.
Cute monkey. Really creepy rest of the room, but cute monkey.
The organ grinder does his thing, and lowers the Phantom and Christine puppets:
While she’s on the subject, Evelina decides she probably ought to get Daddy down as well. Let’s see…grappling hook doesn’t work, the opera glasses, heart, and money don’t seem suited for the job, which leaves-the bow and arrow? Who do I look like, Legolas? Okay…duck, Raoul!
*k-THWIP!*
*THUMP*
Great shot kid; that was one in a million!
A sword seems like an odd thing to leave on the effigy of someone you want to depict as helpless and impotent, but who am I to argue the presence of helpful objects? I know just what to do with it, too…Samurai Puppet Separator, HIIIIII-YAAAA!
”Is this how you repay your Angel of Music?!” Wow, chill, Erik! I mean, it was a really cool thing you had going on here with your Room of Crazy Revenge Fantasy, and I do feel sorry for your puppet self lying there all fetal with its hands over its face, but we really need…um, the mask, it looks like. Which has somehow become half a mask. Okay, fair enough. (I strongly suspect splitting the mask into two halves for this puzzle-and one which we’ll find in the bonus level-is a way of alluding to the iconic ALW mask design without directly copying it. Clever.)
Oh, and since we’re over here we might as well do the stuff with the opera boxes. Let’s see, the auditorium door still won’t budge, but we have a gargoyle and a grappling hook…
Yuck, I’m having elementary school gym flashbacks. Hope Evelina has better upper arm strength than I ever did.
And here we are! Box Five remains barred, so the only thing left to do is peek through the curtains left with the opera glasses:
Huh, okay…maybe it’s like the telescope on the roof, and we’re supposed to find something, like the other ha-
AAAAAAAAAAGHJESUSFUCKINGODGAAAAAAAAGH!!!
Sorry, little startled there. Still, um, it is nice to see Erik properly threatening again, isn’t it, what with the broken mask and the jumping up from out of nowhere? Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get my heart rate back to normal…and clean this unfortunate stain on my computer chair… *mutters* Lousy jump scares…
Anyway, there’s now a doll near the Box Five door, which doesn’t show up until after that little cutscene. So despite serving no purpose other than to give the player a near-fatal heart attack, it’s impossible to progress without going through it. That’s just cruel.
Hmm, this looks like a good place to leave extortion money. Here you go, sweetie, 20,000 francs. (The doll’s eyes open when you put the money on her tray, which just adds to the already generous amount of creepy.) And Box Five is now open!
…And dear Lord, it is a mess. I’m not sure if Madame Giry is being paid too much or not enough.
This is, in my opinion, the most difficult HOG scene, in no small part because most of the objects are either very cleverly concealed in their surroundings and/or bizarrely disproportionate (check out the world’s largest saltine cracker in the back, for example).
After picking up the second mask, we can now go back to the conservatory grounds for the second heart.
Okay, so we have to go to the roof next. Of course, it would have made more sense if we’d been directed there first, as it was closer to Christine’s room, but ah well…
Aaaand we have to walk all the way back to the first level now. Since the next heart doesn’t appear until you get the previous one, I wonder if Erik is sending Evelina the long way around so he’ll have time to hide them (“Shit, she’s coming! Gotta stash this thing, quick!”)
But maybe I’m not being fair. Maybe the last heart will be reasonably nearby…
….Or maybe it will be aaaaaaaall the way on the far end of the map. You’re doing this just to irritate me, aren’t you, Erik?
”I will make you love me!”
Between scaring the pants off me and making me trot back and forth all over the building, you’re not doing a very good job of that.
In a minute, let me catch my breath! And also have a look at the journal page for the final heart, which I find beautifully eerie:
*shiver*
Okay, let’s take these things back to Christine’s room:
Not only is the mask divided into halves, but it’s half-black and half-white. Nice touch. Use the stage manager’s and costumer’s notes for the key: black, blue, pink, red, white.
This has bad idea written all over it. Still, we’ve come this far…
Thanks…I think…
D’aaaaaw, don’t Raoul and Christine look so cute? Although judging by the height and location of the Eiffel Tower, they’re actually standing on the Palais Garnier façade part of the Paris-Las Vegas casino…
And hey, imposter!Erik, if you’re going to insist on intruding on these scenes, could you at least put your hood up or something? It might make you look a little more like someone about to go on a mad vengeful tear, instead of a sulky teenager who just found out his crush is going to prom with another guy. I mean really, Christine and Raoul don’t seem particularly worried about you, and you’re standing ten feet away from them. (Either that or they REALLY failed their spot check.)
And now, here it is, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, presented without interruption…the FINAL SCENE!
(Okay, just one interruption: does Evelina look remarkably composed under the circumstances or what?)
….Yyyyyyyyeah.
And now, for a commentary on the ending of Mystery Legends: The Phantom of the Opera, please welcome a group of people who know a few things about confounding finales, the cast of Lost!
The cast of Lost, ladies and gentlemen! Let’s give them all a big hand!
I should admit that when it comes to video games, I have a very strong personal bias towards happier endings (games like World of Warcraft, which basically require the universe to be in a state of perpetual crisis, are an obvious exception to this). Few things are more frustrating than slogging through several hours of gameplay only to discover that demons have conquered the Earth, the evil computer is still alive and our princess is in another castle (among other things, it serves as a nagging reminder that my free time might have been more constructively spent). And this can hardly be called a happy ending (though Lord knows there are people who have tried to interpret it as such) but more to the point…it’s not really an ending at all. The game starts with Evelina finding herself in the Phantom’s clutches, and as it concludes she’s…still well and truly clutched. We don’t get to see Erik’s home (at least in the standard edition) or an unmasking scene-two of the most iconic pieces of the PotO story-and most important of all, we never find out for certain whether he needs to be redeemed or destroyed. The story feels half-over, and I can’t think of any reason the designers would stop it here unless they’re deliberately cutting things off for a sequel, which strikes me as a blatant cash grab and really annoying.
What’s more annoying is that I will probably go right along with it.
I mean it. I’m not much of a “collector” phan; I won’t buy anything PotO-related unless I really believe it’s worth my time and money. But for all its flaws, I really like this game. The visual element is brilliant, the puzzles-while not super-challenging-were interesting enough to keep my attention, and the replay value of it was actually much better than I expected. And the story is not bad, only unfinished-I would welcome an opportunity to see it properly concluded, either by having Evelina find a way out of her current predicament or having Christine and/or Raoul coming to rescue her (after the indignities of Love Never Dies, seeing Raoul in Papa Wolf mode would be very refreshing). If the game-makers want to finish what they’ve started, I’ll be happy to play along.
Next time, though, I want a gun.
And thus concludes standard gameplay for Mystery Legends: The Phantom of the Opera. We will conclude with the bonus level in the final installment.
~LCD
And now, the obvious warning: we’re wrapping things up, so be aware that this section (and the one after it, which will cover the bonus level) will contain SPOILERS. If you don’t want to know how the game ends before playing it, don’t read on. Or rather go out, play through the game (which I do recommend highly) and then come back to discuss.
Part 7: Bring me the hearts of the Power Rangers
The actor’s alley HOG resets (see Part 4) and yields a ballerina, who “looks like she belongs on a music box.” So, it’s back into Christine’s room we go. First, there’s some opera glasses to pick up:
Well, that sounds nice and innocent and totally not freakout-worthy…
Now for the music box:
The music this thing plays sounds familiar, but I didn’t listen long enough to place it. (Anybody recognize it?) Opening the music box reveals a gold coin-yay, something to give to the organ grinder in the ballroom!
The dressmaker’s dummy is wearing a heart pendant, which we take:
A different type of scavenger hunt this time: once you find a heart, the Phantom gives you a hint on where to look for the next one. Sounds like we’re headed to that freezing path outside the conservatory, but that will have to wait. I’ve been wanting to revisit the ballroom with its puppet show of crazy for this entire game, so let’s go there first.
Cute monkey. Really creepy rest of the room, but cute monkey.
The organ grinder does his thing, and lowers the Phantom and Christine puppets:
While she’s on the subject, Evelina decides she probably ought to get Daddy down as well. Let’s see…grappling hook doesn’t work, the opera glasses, heart, and money don’t seem suited for the job, which leaves-the bow and arrow? Who do I look like, Legolas? Okay…duck, Raoul!
*k-THWIP!*
*THUMP*
Great shot kid; that was one in a million!
A sword seems like an odd thing to leave on the effigy of someone you want to depict as helpless and impotent, but who am I to argue the presence of helpful objects? I know just what to do with it, too…Samurai Puppet Separator, HIIIIII-YAAAA!
”Is this how you repay your Angel of Music?!” Wow, chill, Erik! I mean, it was a really cool thing you had going on here with your Room of Crazy Revenge Fantasy, and I do feel sorry for your puppet self lying there all fetal with its hands over its face, but we really need…um, the mask, it looks like. Which has somehow become half a mask. Okay, fair enough. (I strongly suspect splitting the mask into two halves for this puzzle-and one which we’ll find in the bonus level-is a way of alluding to the iconic ALW mask design without directly copying it. Clever.)
Oh, and since we’re over here we might as well do the stuff with the opera boxes. Let’s see, the auditorium door still won’t budge, but we have a gargoyle and a grappling hook…
Yuck, I’m having elementary school gym flashbacks. Hope Evelina has better upper arm strength than I ever did.
And here we are! Box Five remains barred, so the only thing left to do is peek through the curtains left with the opera glasses:
Huh, okay…maybe it’s like the telescope on the roof, and we’re supposed to find something, like the other ha-
AAAAAAAAAAGHJESUSFUCKINGODGAAAAAAAAGH!!!
Sorry, little startled there. Still, um, it is nice to see Erik properly threatening again, isn’t it, what with the broken mask and the jumping up from out of nowhere? Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get my heart rate back to normal…and clean this unfortunate stain on my computer chair… *mutters* Lousy jump scares…
Anyway, there’s now a doll near the Box Five door, which doesn’t show up until after that little cutscene. So despite serving no purpose other than to give the player a near-fatal heart attack, it’s impossible to progress without going through it. That’s just cruel.
Hmm, this looks like a good place to leave extortion money. Here you go, sweetie, 20,000 francs. (The doll’s eyes open when you put the money on her tray, which just adds to the already generous amount of creepy.) And Box Five is now open!
…And dear Lord, it is a mess. I’m not sure if Madame Giry is being paid too much or not enough.
This is, in my opinion, the most difficult HOG scene, in no small part because most of the objects are either very cleverly concealed in their surroundings and/or bizarrely disproportionate (check out the world’s largest saltine cracker in the back, for example).
After picking up the second mask, we can now go back to the conservatory grounds for the second heart.
Okay, so we have to go to the roof next. Of course, it would have made more sense if we’d been directed there first, as it was closer to Christine’s room, but ah well…
Aaaand we have to walk all the way back to the first level now. Since the next heart doesn’t appear until you get the previous one, I wonder if Erik is sending Evelina the long way around so he’ll have time to hide them (“Shit, she’s coming! Gotta stash this thing, quick!”)
But maybe I’m not being fair. Maybe the last heart will be reasonably nearby…
….Or maybe it will be aaaaaaaall the way on the far end of the map. You’re doing this just to irritate me, aren’t you, Erik?
”I will make you love me!”
Between scaring the pants off me and making me trot back and forth all over the building, you’re not doing a very good job of that.
In a minute, let me catch my breath! And also have a look at the journal page for the final heart, which I find beautifully eerie:
*shiver*
Okay, let’s take these things back to Christine’s room:
Not only is the mask divided into halves, but it’s half-black and half-white. Nice touch. Use the stage manager’s and costumer’s notes for the key: black, blue, pink, red, white.
This has bad idea written all over it. Still, we’ve come this far…
Thanks…I think…
D’aaaaaw, don’t Raoul and Christine look so cute? Although judging by the height and location of the Eiffel Tower, they’re actually standing on the Palais Garnier façade part of the Paris-Las Vegas casino…
And hey, imposter!Erik, if you’re going to insist on intruding on these scenes, could you at least put your hood up or something? It might make you look a little more like someone about to go on a mad vengeful tear, instead of a sulky teenager who just found out his crush is going to prom with another guy. I mean really, Christine and Raoul don’t seem particularly worried about you, and you’re standing ten feet away from them. (Either that or they REALLY failed their spot check.)
And now, here it is, the moment you’ve all been waiting for, presented without interruption…the FINAL SCENE!
(Okay, just one interruption: does Evelina look remarkably composed under the circumstances or what?)
….Yyyyyyyyeah.
And now, for a commentary on the ending of Mystery Legends: The Phantom of the Opera, please welcome a group of people who know a few things about confounding finales, the cast of Lost!
Click to viewThe cast of Lost, ladies and gentlemen! Let’s give them all a big hand!
I should admit that when it comes to video games, I have a very strong personal bias towards happier endings (games like World of Warcraft, which basically require the universe to be in a state of perpetual crisis, are an obvious exception to this). Few things are more frustrating than slogging through several hours of gameplay only to discover that demons have conquered the Earth, the evil computer is still alive and our princess is in another castle (among other things, it serves as a nagging reminder that my free time might have been more constructively spent). And this can hardly be called a happy ending (though Lord knows there are people who have tried to interpret it as such) but more to the point…it’s not really an ending at all. The game starts with Evelina finding herself in the Phantom’s clutches, and as it concludes she’s…still well and truly clutched. We don’t get to see Erik’s home (at least in the standard edition) or an unmasking scene-two of the most iconic pieces of the PotO story-and most important of all, we never find out for certain whether he needs to be redeemed or destroyed. The story feels half-over, and I can’t think of any reason the designers would stop it here unless they’re deliberately cutting things off for a sequel, which strikes me as a blatant cash grab and really annoying.
What’s more annoying is that I will probably go right along with it.
I mean it. I’m not much of a “collector” phan; I won’t buy anything PotO-related unless I really believe it’s worth my time and money. But for all its flaws, I really like this game. The visual element is brilliant, the puzzles-while not super-challenging-were interesting enough to keep my attention, and the replay value of it was actually much better than I expected. And the story is not bad, only unfinished-I would welcome an opportunity to see it properly concluded, either by having Evelina find a way out of her current predicament or having Christine and/or Raoul coming to rescue her (after the indignities of Love Never Dies, seeing Raoul in Papa Wolf mode would be very refreshing). If the game-makers want to finish what they’ve started, I’ll be happy to play along.
Next time, though, I want a gun.
And thus concludes standard gameplay for Mystery Legends: The Phantom of the Opera. We will conclude with the bonus level in the final installment.
~LCD