Work in progress.

Ask Galatea about love.

After playing through the IF game, "Galatea," a few times, the solution became apparent. You have to ask the statue about love. Of course, you also have to ask her about tons of other things before she'll allow that discussion. I played through it three times, and it seemed like she only opened up after much discussion of "him." "Him" was the only modifier that appeared to work in the game -- asking about Pygmalion yielded little result.

Also, you had to ask horribly invasive questions. At one point, I asked her how she was "born" (using the word "waking" works too, as does repetitive questions about sight), and she responded:

Her eyes meet yours briefly. "It was night. I had been able to hear, and see, for a long time -- it was the talking, or the pain of being carved, that made me aware, I think.

"But one night-- he slept in a corner of the studio-- I heard him screaming in his sleep. More loudly than usual. And I forgot that I couldn't move, and I just stepped down and woke him."

She gains confidence as you do not interrupt. "At the time he seemed glad to have me there, to listen to him -- though I think he thought that I was only another dream. It was only afterward that it became strange."

>ask about strange
"Strange how?"

It seems like after that, the player is allowed to ask about love. Thus, comes the solution:

"Were you in love with him?"

Her eyes meet yours briefly.

"I know I loved him," she answers. "And there was a time when I might even have said that he loved me, too. Things seemed simpler before I began to move, before I woke up. I didn't realize that you could loathe your own creation."

"So now you know. That's all there is -- my one and only secret." She smiles, but it doesn't reach her eyes. "All the rest of my life's just circumstance."

A closing line if you ever heard one. You give her a nod and walk away, half your mind already on the buffet in the next room, and what you're going to say about her, in there.

*** The End ***

However, this game is supposed to have over 40 different endings. I just keep getting this one. I tried different tactics, I asked her about art, being owned, and even whether or not she had relations with "him." The only way I could solve it was to ask her about love, but only after I created some sort of rapport with her by asking other questions.

This makes me wonder -- at one point, the instructions came up and told me how to interact with her by asking her questions about her surroundings and so forth. It said, "Many standard verbs have been disabled. All the sensory ones (LOOK, LISTEN, SMELL, TOUCH, TASTE) remain, as do the NPC interaction verbs ASK, TELL, HELLO, GOODBYE, and SORRY; KISS, HUG, and ATTACK." So, perhaps I would've gotten a different result if I attempted to touch, kiss or hug Galatea. At one point, the game suggested I try to move Galatea, but I couldn't find the right combination of words to make that possible. Maybe I'll try again. Did anyone else attempt to hug Galatea?

Posted by Julie Young at March 30, 2004 07:44 PM