Fez was brought to PSN earlier this week, and although I do own it on Steam I had never put more than an hour or two into it, so I decided to pick up this version as I felt I was more inclined to stick with it on a console.
For the first few hours I was enjoying it on a very surface level, but I was also scrutinising each symbol and glyph I encountered and was very much aware that Fez had secrets to uncover.
Eventually, however, I ran out of places to explore and had still not worked out Fez's secret language. After spending several hours looking at symbols which made less sense to me the more I analysed them, I broke down and spoiled the secret for myself.
It turns out that the solution to Fez's alphabet is a non-descript engraving (in a game littered with tonnes of non-descript engravings) in what appears to be a not very important part of the world. In front of that engraving, however, a fox is seen jumping over a dog.
'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog'
Which is what the engraving states. Apparently it's a well-known pangram. Unfortunately it's not one I had ever encountered.
To add insult to injury the engravings must also be read from top to bottom and right to left.
So, if I'm understanding correctly, the line of logic should have gone something like this.
At some point I would have encountered a specific pangram about a fox jumping over a dog. Upon seeing the fox and the dog in the background of this particular area I would then intuit that they were meaningful, as opposed to all the other animals in all the other areas in the game. The actions of the fox and dog would then bring to mind that one pangram that I know so well. I would then, somehow, also intuit that in the world of Fez words are written from top to bottom and from right to left. Oh, also, certain symbols can represent two different letters.
ahhhh...ok. That's cool.
Quick question though, What if I never encountered that one specific pangram? You know? 'Cause then the playful fox jumping over the lazy dog would just seem like a neat little piece of animation? Like the spinning turtle in the waterfall area, or the mouse that runs away from you in the city area. Without that one specific piece of information, without having knowledge of that one pangram, the fox and the dog really don't seem that important. In fact, the area itself is kind of forgettable, especially after you leave it. I mean, why would you ever return? The map even highlights the area in gold, indicating that there's nothing else to uncover. Why would you go back to that area or feel compelled to dig deeper when there are plenty of other areas on the map with '?' marks on them indicating that there's more to be done.
Why if that were the case, then...well then the whole premise of the game would seem like complete nonsense.
Good thing then that every person on the planet happens to know that one pangram. No need to have that line included in the game in some way. Neither is it necessary to highlight that area as being of huge importance. No siree!
...
Joking aside though. That code was crappy and it has kind of soured the game for me.
Topic: Pangram style (spoilers for Fez) (Read 2247 times)
