If exploration and thinky puzzles are the beat you tap your feet to, here's a homespun, folksy game to appeal to ardent escapers. Despite its humble attributes, After Golden Bells by Timefall amuses with a variety of brain teasers to tune up your lateral thinking and sleuthing skills.
Controls are rudimentary and helpful features are sparse, especially when you're used to the bigger stars of the genre—there's no changing cursor and you have to drag inventory items to use them. You'll also need a keen eye for exploration and a high tolerance for pixel hunting. Nonetheless, After Golden Bells is not without its charms. The key to escape is found via eight golden bells hidden amongst the modest surroundings; as you investigate every angle of the room, looking for answers to the puzzles that guard the bells, gustoso guitar music keeps pace with your efforts. After golden bells, then what? Just the simple satisfaction of a puzzle solved.
Walkthrough Guide
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AFTER GOLDEN BELLS WALKTHROUGH
ITEMS TO COLLECT
Zoom in on the round table. Grab the chisel. Do a 180, and zoom in on the yellow demilune table; grab the battery. Zoom out, then zoom in to the wall mounted bookshelf. Grab the small slip of paper with the number "8563" written on it.
Hmm, pretty flowers. I wonder if they smell nice...
Zoom in, collect the small grey key.
Click to the right, zoom in on the small chest of drawers. Collect the screwdriver located between the lion's feet.
Zoom out, then click on the couch. Moving the left pillow reveals a cleaning cloth, and the right one reveals a remote control.
BLACK BELL
While facing the round table, click on the spiky plant in the corner. Notice something to the left of the plant?
Pick up "black" bell (yes, it's more brass-colored, but the handle and hammer are painted black).
WHITE BELL
While still zoomed in to the spiky plant, take note of the floorboards to the right of the plant--seems something might be hidden there...
...looks like the panel is affixed with screws...
...use the screwdriver to unscrew the floorboard panel, collect the white bell.
RED BELL
Zoom in to the painting above the round table. Pretty birds...hmm, wonder if I can yank on the frame. Paging Tesshi-E...
Click on the painting to reveal a gold brick. If only I had something to loosen it...
I'd love a slice of bread; a shame they left me a chisel instead of a bread knife. Perhaps it's stale...
Use the chisel to loosen the brick, reveal a keyhole. If only I had a key to open it...
...use the grey key found in the flower. Gahhh, another puzzle? Hmm, four number combination...
...oh yeah, that slip of paper I collected had a four digit number. I enter the code, collect the red bell.
YELLOW BELL
While facing TV console, click the lower right corner of it to zoom in. The bottom left and right doors are clickable. Click on the left door to reveal a puzzle of colored dots and arrows. When I click on the arrows, they either turn grey, or change direction. Hmm, this is a toughie; maybe I should sit down on the comfy couch, try and figure things out...
Zoom into the couch. Looks like someone got creative when they upholstered the seat cushion...
...there are colored buttons on the sofa cushion. Hmm, they're the same color as the dots on the console door puzzle...as I look from left to right, there's a red button, then blue, then green, etc...
...the order from left to right should match the path of the arrows in the puzzle. Start at the red dot, then click to highlight the arrow between red and blue; do the same to the arrow between blue and green. Click twice to highlight and flip the arrow between green and orange, then highlight arrow between orange and purple. Collect the yellow bell.
PURPLE BELL
While still at the TV console, click the right bottom door to reveal a puzzle of grey angular tiles. Click once on a piece to change it to red, and again to change it to green. Hmm, I should look around the room, see if I notice something with a similar pattern...
...ah, the string art above the couch has lots of angles in it! Better get a closer look...
...how odd...some of the strings have been colored green, making a specific green shape. Wonder if I could recreate that shape with the tiles...
..indeed, I can! There is my matching green polygon. But nothing happened. Wonder what would contrast well against the green...
...well, I have a lot of bells. Maybe this is a Christmas-themed puzzle? So I highlight all the remaining tiles in red, and voila, I collect the purple bell. Next stop, small chest of drawers.
GREEN BELL
Three drawers, and I click the middle one at random. Gadzooks! I have no clue to solve the puzzle. I am perplexed. I need to "reflect" on this predicament...
...so I go to the mirror. Gahh, so dirty! Can barely see my face. If only I had some way to clean it...
...oh yeah, I do have that cleaning cloth. I guess I'll use it to remove the smudges...
...I peer into the reflection. Hmm, what's that on the wall next to the spiky plant...colored bricks? weird--why can't I see that looking straight at it? Ah well, they could be useful...
...I return to the middle drawer of the yellow chest, and now I can see the buttons change color when I click on them...
...the colored rectangles correspond to the colored bricks. I enter the code, take the Green Bell.
ORANGE BELL
While facing the chest of drawers, I try the bottom drawer. Alas, another puzzle I cannot solve! This room is getting on my nerves. I'm going to take a break, watch a little TV. Blast it, the remote doesn't work...
...ah, but I DO have a battery. Maybe if I combine the two...
....I drag the battery over to the remote, now it works. I turn the TV on, and it's one boring channel--a grey screen with a field of Xs. It's STILL better than Jersey Shore, though. Perhaps a bit more useful, too...
...I wonder if they get the Starz channel? Oh, wait, stars...
...perhaps if those were stars in that pattern, instead of Xs...
...I use the pattern on the TV to solve the bottom drawer puzzle, highlighting stars where the X's went. I collect the orange bell.
BLUE BELL
Finally, I try to open the top drawer of the chest. Jinkies, another number/color puzzle! Something doesn't add up here...
...if only I had a calculator. But I don't. Perhaps an abacus will do; I think I saw one on the wall-mounted bookshelf. Darned if I know how to work it, though...
...interesting--rows of colored beads, the same as the colored numbers on the top drawer puzzle. I wonder if it is a coincidence. I also wonder if the grey bead in each color group is significant...
...ahh, I see what I have to do. If I take the beads from the LEFT, divide by the beads on the RIGHT, then multiply by the square root of the hypotenuse...
...or perhaps I am overthinking it. :( Maybe I should just try counting them all together, left AND right...
I start on the first row, far left...I count the number of purple beads up to the grey marker bead. The grey bead was the seventh in the row, so perhaps the first number of the puzzle is 7? It seems to fit, as there is only one purple digit.
But what about the color groups where the grey bead appears in the second row?
...I count the first row, CONTINUE counting on to the second row until I stop at the grey bead. For the yellow group, I get the number 19. Again, I go back to the puzzle, and there are two yellow digits, so it appears to fit. I continue on with the same strategy...
...and I get red:5, green:13, blue 8. I plug my numbers into the puzzle, the drawer opens, I retrieve the blue bell.
ESCAPE
I return to the demilune table, bring up the bells puzzle, start dragging and dropping bells. Grr, why won't they stick?
Ahh, even though all the empty spaces look the same, each bell has a specific place on the circle--I drag and drop a bell to each empty space until I find the one that sticks, continue placing the rest of my bells in a similar fashion. The key appears, I place it in the front door lock, and yippee! I'm out. :)
Posted by: awfulperson
|
November 25, 2011 12:46 PM
Colorblind Solutions
For middle drawer:
From top to bottom
4 clicks
3 clicks
1 clicks
2 clicks
For Polygon Puzzle:
(bottom right door of entertainment cabinet):
1 = 1 click = red
2 = 2 clicks = green
screenshot (shape highlighted):
Polygon Colorblind Help
For Colored Dots/Arrows:
(2nd from right bottom entertainment cabinet door)
Please refer to screenshot:
Colored Dots and Arrows
Posted by: elle
|
November 27, 2011 6:36 PM