Compass Rose playthrough notes (main_gi)

This introduction was very strange. You're in a top-down perspective even though it seems like there is no character on the screen and no decoration. I clicked every button before thinking to click the edges of the room.

The effects are neat, and the captioning is nice. Kinda unnecessary censorship in the introduction. The flashing "pixelated falling" graphic needs a lot of work, I think. It's not realistic and could require an epileptic warning. Also, the introduction's story seemed kind of padded/rushed? "I have gear and supplies! Whoops. Fell in a cave, don't have them anymore!"

The dialogue with the "broken phone" is a hint towards "you can solve it without online help".

I got the line, "why so many locked doors with nothing behind them?" in the top room, without seeing any other doors with nothing behind them. I guess the designer thought this wouldn't be the first solved room. Quick realization: Oh, it means that there are *many* locked doors, the entire sequence of which ends with nothing.

Somehow the East Puzzle Hint 4/6 is locked for me even though I solved the whole sequence. I like when puzzle games let you see all hints after solving.

The top and right sequences are the ones I had already solved, so I'm recounting my first playthrough here.

Top:
This is not very original, it's just a version of the "[OMO puzzle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYJPxH6gLDw)" (this in itself being a copy of one of the many ways this puzzle is posted) which I already knew of before this game, so I solved everything immediately. Funnily enough, I even noticed how the 8 looked like "four balls".

Right:
Simple observational trick. Probably took me ~3 minutes to find it. The alpha build I played had a hint about the "heart of a fool" being zero or one or something (I forget), but that was cut in the final build. Definitely cool though, to see all the herrings in hindsight. The issue with these puzzles (or at least an annoyance) is the amount of clicks needed.

Bottom:
Nice to be able to right-click to cycle back.
Took about 10-15 minutes? Didn't use any hints, but was confused even before the 'gimmick phase', as the game makes several stretches to justify colors ('wood' = green?). Probably took less time for me to figure out the gimmick than the pre-gimmick stage. I was already expecting something like the right sequence.

Left (final sequence):
These early 4 hints are annoying me so much, because I figured out so many clues before, and this is just telling me what I already know. Hint 5, I looked at the numbers and tried to input them at the top in a different order but nothing happened. The "Are you sure you want to use a hint?" box also doesn't let me skip the text.

The two eyes at the top of my body widened as soon as I realized the shape of the 8.

E = Emerald
S = Sapphire
N = Nothing (Post edit: Apparently this meant nothing in the actual puzzle.)
WENSEW
ANSWER?

(letters) 957846
ESSNSW

(numbers) 746985
I get: UUPGBU
Well the room styles don't match those colors...
Oh I see! The end of each corridor's gem is a color. So:
UUPGBU = SSWENS (pink must be west)

This sequence probably took me about 30-40 minutes but it was satisfying to see the multi-step sequence work even though there were many red herrings (room color, which of the number sequences to use, messing with the input on the actual numbers room, start of your character's lines of text, ESN at the end of the rooms)

*Are you kidding me?* The game is using those hints I read *after* I completed the puzzle against me by 'tracking' them. I only really used 7 hints at the final puzzle and 1 hint in the general room.