Lessons from Luxor

You might have read my blog about Laser Lords from July 2015 called "An analysis of parody, satire and intentions; A tale of Lasers, Lords and -isms part 0: Prologues, introductions and the apathy of Eunuchus; or making Corelis go insane", which is quite the title. I had intended to write more blogs like it, but didn't get around to it, likely since the topic is rather complex and Laser Lords is a substantive game with tons of NPCs to consider, so it'd be hard to keep track of.

I've recently rekindled my interest in Laser Lords, I hope to acquire its audiofiles which seem to have been lost on the web, but for now I thought it would be interesting to tackle a more cohesive topic, namely the design choices made on Laser Lords' 'tutorial planet' to determine how the game teaches the player how to interact with its various NPCs and other basics of the game. For this I'll be using images and a video playthrough made by YouTube channel BrokeBackBros LousyLay.

Introduction

The video starts with the game's intro, which explains the overall goal of the game to stop an extra dimensional being of condensing the universe into a crystal. That's quite the task, of course, so the game knows to guide the player on their first steps with a cutscene suggesting the player start on Luxor. The game then does something very important, which is give the player three goals to accomplish on the planet Luxor which do not directly relate to the overall main quest.

There are as follows:
-Find Petra
-Learn the Sooth Song
-Awaken Seb

For a short introduction, Luxor is an Egypt-inspired slave planet to a large space empire, known as Argos. Argos instituted  an oppressive and theocratic ruling class on Luxor consisting of Koptoans, followers of the god of death, gold and grain Koptos, who seek to betray Argos and expand their religion across the whole Void with the help of the sleeping god Seb. Opposed to them are the oppressed Gameans, followers  the goddess of fertility and flora Sysis, who also seek to awaken Seb, but to free them from both the Koptoans and the Argosians. Both the Gameans and Koptoans follow the same code, the Sooth Song, which concerns Sysis and Koptos' status as Seb's parents and Seb's destiny to free Luxor from Argosian rule.

The game itself doesn't give an introduction like this and doesn't require the player to read its manual to find it out either, but it makes it easier to discuss the game in this blog. The same goes for the controls which can be accessed through an in-game help menu but basic movement can be intuited just be regular play.

Once the player beams down at 2:45, they do not actually see any NPCs on the first few screens, these screens only serve to give the player a safe zone to practice movement in, which works in a sort of grid-based fashion, and lets the player use movement keys to move around, to jump, to crawl and to descend/ascend traction beams (which function identically to ladders) and handle staircases. The menu would have also ikely have been brought up by now, showing various options such as Hail and Name. These screens also show off the planet's Egyptian vibe Which helps to explain the planet's culture.

Come in! Come in! Have some Jiva.

Once the player walks far enough at 3:08, they come to a screen with a wandering NPC and a house. At this point the player can either talk to the wandering NPC or enter the house, for the purposes of this blog I'll follow the video and assume the player enters the house first.  

Inside the house, there is another wandering NPC. At this point the player should be able to intuit they need to Hail the NPC. Once they do this, they are taken to this screen.

At this point they also hear the AMAZING VOICE ACTING. 

This is a very important moment and a very important screen, since dialogue with NPCs is the main purpose of the game and what most gameplay consists of.

There are several things that draw attention. First there is the lovely face of the NPC you are talking to, which paired with the voice acting helps keep every NPC distinct, though this part of the screen is static so it's otherwise not too important to talk about.

More importantly, the word Jiva is clearly highlighted, and is the default highlighted word in these sentences. I believe it's also possible to select Void, but the game clearly guides to player to pick Jiva first by making the NPC tell you to take it.

Then when you select Jiva, two things happen. The NPC gives you the Jiva, which is an introduction to item management, and starts to talk about Jiva since it's the keyword you selected. This is the main way conversation works, by saying a highlighted keyword the NPC goes in more detail about it. It's also good to note that Zendo, the reptile from the game's intro serves as your guide through the game's menu by telling you you have received an item.

The next dialogue option is Starman, which prompts the NPC to hand out a sentence which obviously contains multiple keywords by asking the player what they are after, Gold or Glory, but also allows the player to ask about Luxor. From here the player can get used to the way the game handles its dialogue and get some information about Luxor as well as Argos, showing that it's valuable to talk to NPCs in detail since they can give the player useful information and more detail about the game's world.

If you choose the right keyword, you can get a discussion about how the NPC misses his son who has been taken by Argos and he asks the player to SAY 'Rahman' (the NPC's name, this can be found out by choosing Name rather than Hail) to his son if you find him and to richly reward the player if they bring any news from his son. This is another important moment, since it's the first time an NPC makes a request of the player with the offer of a reward in the form of a subquest. It also shows that while you may be on Luxor right now, this quest requires you go to Argos to complete it, showing that not every quest in the game is contained to just one section or even planet.

That's quite a lot to take in from just one NPC! It's good to note that Rahman is an overtly friendly NPC, he freely offers you an item, information and gives you a quest, and there is no way for Rahman to be angered with a player, meaning the player can safely faff about with Rahman. If the player says something or does something that does not make sense to Rahman he just gives a standard "I don't know about that, Starman." reply, which also has the Starman keyword in it which shows that even is the player messes up they can still get access to a keyword for it.

Once the player is done with Rahman, they can examine their inventory and see the Jiva he gave you. Looking at it reveals it's pretty much Luxorian coffee, and if the player uses the item then Zendo says it restored your life force. At that time the player could ask Rahman for more Jiva and receive it, but it's not possible to ask Rahman to give you two Jivas at once, if you do that Zendo tells you he's no longer has Jiva and Rahman gives his "I don't know about that, Starman" reply.

So, time to move on!

I am Baahka

Once outside the house, there's still the other wandering NPC. Once more, the player can either Hail her or ask for her Name, asking her Name makes her reveal she's Baahka and a priestess of Sysis, but for now let's just Hail her.

THE MOST AMAZING VOICE

Unlike Rahman, Baahka does not offer the player an item, but she does give a variety of other keywords. This could also serve as the player's first introduction to the dialogue system, so like Rahman Baahka is still an overtly friendly NPC who can't be prompted to leave or attack but freely gives out information.

There are a few interesting things about Baahka. Much of her dialogue centers around Luxor's lore, which can be overwhelming to a first time player since she talks about the history of Luxor and its religion in contrast with its current state. 

One keyword that stands out is Sacred Songs, since it directly ties in with one of your quests on Luxor, namely to learn the Sooth Song. If you choose this keyword, Baahka tells you she's sworn to sing only the first verse of the Sooth Song, and then sings it for the player, at 5:20.

Not only is Baahka a wonderful singer, but she also marks the first tangible achievement the player makes in their quest on Luxor and introduces the concept of Recital and Codes of Wisdom. Since the game says you've learned Verse 1 of the Sooth Song, you can look around the menu and find that in the Recite menu it now says you have a quarter of the Sooth Song, clearly indicating the player needs to find three other verses.

Of course, there's 7 other Codes of Wisdom. So much Wisdom.

Trying to Recite the Sooth Song doesn't work, since you only have one verse, but the emptiness of the screen makes it rather clear that there's more to learn than just the Sooth Song, which is in fact true as every planet as a Code of Wisdom they live by and there's eight in total. Acquiring these Codes of Wisdom not only allows the player to Recite them to satisfy certain NPCs but also increases your maximum health, though that's not relevant quite yet.

Interestingly, choosing this option also doesn't give the player any keywords, prompting them to try to either Hail Baahka again or try asking for her Name, which reveals that even at the end of a chain of keywords the player can just starts over with the Hail or Name function.

Baahka also has important information to reveal about two of your other Luxor quests, namely Seb and Petra, though the video doesn't cover this. If you ask her about the Shrine of Life she says it's a lovely secret garden where Petra sings and if you ask about the Sebine Seal she reveals Seb is sleeping in his crypt and what you must do to get into the crypt. This makes Baahka a very valuable source of information, further pushing the player to diligently converse with NPCs.

Yet another piece of wisdom Baahka holds is that Sahti is the high priestess of Sysis and to speak with her you need to SAY to her that 'Baahka Sent Me'. As with Rahman, this prompts the player to say something to another NPC. 

At this point the player should have figured out that using the Word function, they can REMEMBER a highlighted keyword, and that both 'Baahka Sent Me' and 'Rahman' were clearly words you need to remember not only because the NPCs told you to, but also since the keywords had apostrophes around it to show it's a word you should remember. Not all words that need to be remembered are this clearly telegraphed, but any word which is telegraphed like this is worth remembering.

Again, a lot learned from one NPC.

Lessons learned

From Baahka and Rahman we've learned quite a lot about Luxor's religious and political situation, fleshing out the game's lore and world, but we've also gotten some lessons in basic gameplay such as:

-How to talk to NPCs using keywords, Hail and Name

-That NPCs can give you items and quests by choosing the right keywords 

-That NPCs can recite parts of a Code of Wisdom for the player to learn

-That the player can remember words and recite complete codes of wisdom.

And most importantly, that NPCs are worth talking to. I think this is the most crucial lesson to learn from the first two NPCs, the player should by nature feel at ease talking to NPCs since the game hinges on its NPCs to give out most of the game's items, quests and information.

Of course, Luxor still has ample NPCs left, and not all of them are this honest and nice. There's still lessons to be learned.