Let’s Share Fez Notes!

the first half of fez was a much better game

all that cryptography crap adds nothing to the core concept of the game

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I used ten pages of my notebook for this game. Best ten pages ever spent. I also did most of it myself, though I had to look up a few things. One thing was the numbers. I just couldn't understand it, and after looking it up I now know I would never have gotten it myself. So I don't feel bad about that one. The second one was the actual pangram. I found the stone, saw the fox and the dog and knew it was something special. But since I am not a native English speaker, that phrase wasn't stuck in my mind good enough for me to decipher anything. I did decipher the stone myself after finding the actual pangram though.

Also had to look up the security question. Another one I would never have gotten on my own, no matter how long I would think about it. At least I deciphered the text. And of course the black monolith.

@theveej said:

man this shit is crazy. I was interested in Fez before, but now this looks a bit too complex for a video game. Don't get me wrong, game looks awesome and I'm not knocking anyone down for playing it and deciphering mad shit in it, props to you all. For me, If I am going to use substantial amount of brain power and a multiple hours to decipher a video game, I might as well use that effort to do something productive in either making some money or learning something new.

But you are learning something new in Fez.

@jonnyboy said:

@Chavtheworld said:

Yay for having everything in the game and being stuck at 200%. Fuck you broken leaderboards.

I purchased the game minutes after it was up on the market place, between that point and now I have yet to see the leaderboards, Keeps telling me I'm not conected to XBL. On the podcast when they were talking percentages I was like "What the fuck are these guys on about?". I've collected all the cubes, items and built the heart, so I'm calling it complete.

Dat sux hard! Me too.

DO YOU SEE!!! You're all crazy!!

Edit: DO... YOU... SEEEE

In a brilliant move I started my note taking on generic post-its. By the time I finished the game I had a table full of them. I trashed them before I could get a picture though.

@Chavtheworld said:

Yay for having everything in the game and being stuck at 200%. Fuck you broken leaderboards.

I purchased the game minutes after it was up on the market place, between that point and now I have yet to see the leaderboards, Keeps telling me I'm not conected to XBL. On the podcast when they were talking percentages I was like "What the fuck are these guys on about?". I've collected all the cubes, items and built the heart, so I'm calling it complete.

Says a lot about me that I got to 32 cubes, started New Game+, played for about 30minutes and then turned on Trials instead. I can understand those who want to solve puzzles like this, but mixed with the travelling back and forth, I got very bored, very easily

How do I unlock the STEAM version?

I'm still on my first playthrough (still working on that 32 cube door) so i apparently haven't gotten to the "true" fez yet. I'm loving the shit outta this game (saving it for weekends,) the art, music and puzzles i have managed to wrap my head around all give this strange sense of magical wonder that makes this game so refreshing to me.

I think articles like this and "meta game" and "hive mind" severely over hype what is actually going on. The game was great, but I haven't been this disappointed in awhile.

Yay for having everything in the game and being stuck at 200%. Fuck you broken leaderboards.

This, right here. This is madness. Just so you know.

@Vitor: Man, seeing so many people reference the Rosetta Stone makes me want to know which room it is...but I don't know that I would know what to do with it if I found it.

I just reached the kill screen last night, and started wandering around afterwards...to be honest, I hardly know where to begin. I've documented (with screenshots more than scribbles) things that may or may not be significant, but I understand so little. I figured I'd start with the bell, because it seems like that's key to some other parts of that area...but I haven't yet figured out how many of the things relate.

It's tough, because I don't want to look at outright solutions, but sometimes I really want to get some hints when my wheels are spinning. My roommate lent me a book on cryptography, but I don't think I have enough in-game context to make sense of it.

Fez bums me out. Not because of what it is, but because it reminds of what I can't do right now. I have a six month old baby, a wife, a dog, and lots of freelance work (on top of my day job). I played through Fez and got the first ending, and I know there's so much more, but I just can't go after it. At the end of the day, when I have 30 minutes to an hour to play a game before crashing into bed, I want to turn my mind off, not bust out the notepad.

I LOVE that Fez has this crazy mystery locked inside. I LOVE that it's bringing people together, even if I have to watch from the sidelines.

Jeff wondered on the last podcast if someone that didn't go after the secret stuff would enjoy Fez for what it is. I did. It was a visually appealing platformer with some clever, but not very taxing, puzzles. Of course I knew that the extra stuff was there, lurking under the surface as I played. That added a layer of satisfaction for me--knowing I hadn't seen it all. The secrets called to me.

"Austin, I'm here. If you ever have time. Maybe when the kid gets older. Maybe during those slow summer months. I'm here."

Until then Fez.

o_O

*slowly backs away from thread...*

This is way too weird for me. o.O

man this shit is crazy. I was interested in Fez before, but now this looks a bit too complex for a video game. Don't get me wrong, game looks awesome and I'm not knocking anyone down for playing it and deciphering mad shit in it, props to you all. For me, If I am going to use substantial amount of brain power and a multiple hours to decipher a video game, I might as well use that effort to do something productive in either making some money or learning something new.

Am I alone in having enjoyed the game before all this crazy shit started coming up, but now that the game requires more research than a term paper, being afraid to get invested?

I loved fez a little ashamed that i did cheat a little bit had to find out some of the alphabet and numbers still had a few eureka moments so im happy i played it

I've got some!

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Edit: Bonus footage!

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I didn't even recognize the tetris shapes on those blocks! Man, seems like that was sooo long ago.

I've seen conflicting things about notes. People say that you really need to be paying attention to that stuff and others have said that they managed to solve them without and that note taking was not necessary. One of our very own members collected all 64 cubes within the very first day.

That looks absolutely horrifying.

Here are mine

I used frequency analysis to translate the language that's why the "the" word was so important to me.

Here's mine, about 35 cubes or so into the game. So you know, just getting started:

I'll play Fez . . on the PC. Yeah, still have ways to go.

Man, so annoyed I let so much get spoiled. Should have waited for the bombcast discussion but I got it day 1 and hit the forums soon after. I had no idea it would get to this level of complexity so I never even thought to look at the world and decipher things. Thought it was just a platformer with mild puzzle elements and that I'd get a new ability at the end that let me decipher the codes without any work.

Plus I never came across a certain Rosetta stone like room on my first playthrough so missed out on a big clue which meant I was frustrated enough to read just a little too much online. Wish I could have participated in the weird and wonderful online meta-game for this but alas, I was too busy with study and too much in a rush.

I love the notes on the clock. My notes for the clock were "come back at 9".

I finished everything, found everything, finished everything again, and only had 193%. /shrug

Video please! I'm talkin' deep round table discussion. With notes, screenshots, the whole thing. Thank you.

I feel like this game deserves a quicklook redux.

I just beat the game with minimal entry to the finish line and feel too intimidated to touch the game again, staring at a video game for 3 hours trying to figure something out doesn't seem like any fun at all when I could just pop in The Witcher 2 and move on with my life.

Really need to pick this game up.

Hmm.. Now I'm afraid of playing this! xD

CANT WAIT TO PLAY THIS!!!

The quicklook made it seem boring, but now that I know there is all this stuff in it I cant wait.

God i need to play this.

Note: If you have not played Fez, do not read further. There are spoilers. You have been warned.

209.4%. Feels good.

There’s a moment when the Fez you've come to know ends, and the real Fez begins. Making heads or tails (or owls) of anything required me to keep the lights on and a pen handy. Soon, the nonsense began.

That nonsense was absolutely crucial to finding my way through the labyrinth of logos, maps, and ciphers that awaits anyone who wants to explore the other half of Fez, which may as well be a completely different game. It was often frustrating, always maddening, but lead to fist-pumping a-ha elation.

I didn’t come up with the idea for sharing notes about Fez--that distinction belongs to this brilliant Tumblr blog--but I wanted to bring that idea to the Giant Bomb community. Also, that blog didn't allow me to attach more than a single image, and I sure as hell had more than a page of Fez notes!

If you, like me, appreciated the joy of cracking Fez’s codes, please share your notes, too!

...or you can just laugh at how many times I had to scratch out ideas that didn’t make any sense.

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