An exploration-focused puzzle-adventure game led by the creator of the 2008 indie game Braid. While exploring a quiet but colorful island, players must solve a series of maze-like puzzles on numerous electronic puzzle consoles.
You can also find transcripts of sorts in the game directory under data\strings. They are scripting for the subtitles, in multiple languages and timestamped.
After hearing Austin was going to be doing a thinkpiece on the Witness, I decided to jump back in and hunt down all of the audio logs I was missing to see what interpretations I might come up with for myself. There weren't any guides that I could find when I started, so I figured I'd make one myself. Sure, you could use the flowers in the lake as a map, but if that sounds like too much work, keep scrolling!
Altogether, there are 49 logs. This guide begins at the starting area, moves East to the Monastery, then moves clockwise around the island. Apologies if the recorders are too hard to see in some places: I adjusted the FOV in some shots to show more of the surroundings for context, but this can shrink the audio recorders themselves. Keep an eye out for the glowy green and yellow lights!
Also, if you're still working on figuring out all of the puzzles for yourself, many screenshots below spoil various solutions across the island. You've been warned!
Starting Area (4)
Walled Garden (Rooftop): "Searching for, but never finding, the builder of this house." Unattributed (Ashley Johnson)Walled Garden (Above Exit): "It is a complicated business." Arthur Eddington (Matthew Waterson)Walled Garden (In Outer Wall): "Not one I would want to devote myself to, except for the society of true searchers." -Albert Einstein (Phil LaMarr)Binary Squares Tutorial: "We should maintain the tension resulting from these two opposites." -Werner Heisenberg (Matthew Waterson)
The Monastery (1)
Monastery: "Acts of perception attach themselves only to veils, which leave traces in the owner of the eye that percieves them." -ibn Arabi
The Ruined Town (5)
Town (By Reflector Panel): "The clock never strikes the hour, save when the concept biddeth." -Nicholas of Cusa (Phil LaMarr)Town (Chapel): "The God of the church isn't Big Enough." -Richard Feynman"Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." -Augustine of HippoTown (Bell Tower): "They stop their ears and say they cannot hear Thee." Hans Denck (Ashley Johnson)Town (By Column): "The human mind, no matter how highly trained, cannot grasp the universe." -Albert Einstein (Ashley Johnson)
Symmetry (2)
Symmetry (By Fading Line Puzzles): "Thus, my God, you are equally invisible and visible." -Nicholas of Cusa (Ashley Johnson)Symmetry (Near Beam): "It is only when you hunt for [the Inner Light] that you lose it." -Yung-chia Ta-shih (Ashley Johnson)
The Desert (1)
Desert (North of Digsite) Einstein: "Serious scientific workers are the only profoundly religious people." (Phil LaMarr)
The Quarry (1)
Quarry (In an alcove inside): Quote byHugh Kingsmill (Phil LaMarr)
Shady Trees (2)
Forest: "[Zen] recognizes that previously accumulated ideas and knowledge [...] block the direct perception of reality." -David Darling (Terra Deva)Forest (Near Beam): "Only listen to the voice of pines and cedars when no wind stirs." -Ryonen (Ashley Johnson)
The Keep and Shipwreck (5)
Shipwreck: "He had acquired his belief not by honestly earning it in patient investigation, but by stifling his doubts." -William K. CliffordKeep (Alley): "Then [such a man] should have no time to believe." -William K. Clifford (Matthew Waterson)Keep (Behind Throne): "Could an 'I' be more like an elusive, receding, shimmering, rainbow than like a tangible [...] pot of gold?" -Douglas HofstadterKeep (To the side of the first glass panel maze): "And you sit there smiling." -Rabindranath Tagore (Terra Deva)Keep (Atop parapet beyond hedge mazes): "Who is to construct the controlling environment, and to what end?" -B.F. Skinner (Phil LaMarr)
Treehouses (3)
Treehouses (Green bridge positioned to the right): "Don't even choose love. Choose silence, and love is apparent." -Gangaji (Ashley Johnson)Treehouses (NW Shore): "These hearts were woven of human joys and cares, Washed marvellously with sorrow, swift to mirth." -Rupert BrookeTreehouses (Boardwalk that connects to the dock):"...Niffari, circa 970."..."What?" (Ashley Johnson)
Found Via Boat (2)
Via Boat (Near Treehouses): "There hung a darkness, call it solitude, Or blank desertion." -William Wordsworth (Ashley Johnson)
Oops! There's a minor ending spoiler in this next image. Link here.
And so it is with man. If he could only roam empty through life, who would be able to injure him?" -Zhuangzi
The Marsh (2)
Marshes (Coastal path around the back): "It simply does not do to expose the workings of a joke." -Arthur Eddington (Ashley Johnson)Marshes (Underwater, near the beam) "It is true that if we look at a glass of wine closely enough we see the entire universe."-Richard Feynman (Phil LaMarr)
The Jungle and Southern Peninsula (5)
Near Southern Docks: "Life would be stunted and narrow if we could feel no significance in the world around us." -Arthur Eddington (Matthew Waterson)Southern Peninsula: "You are absolute from all things that can fall within any concept." -Nicholas of Cusa (Phil LaMarr)Jungle Entrance: "We work with being, but non-being is what we use." -Lao Tzu"The two are similar, the affair is confused." -Sahib bin AbbadJungle (Near the Beam): "If we did not have a doubt or recognize ignorance, we would not get any new ideas." -Richard Feynman (Phil LaMarr)
Ascending the Mountain and the Greenhouse (3)
Greenhouse (5th Floor): [A super-dense quote from Arthur Eddington about color wavelengths and the inadequecies of materialistic scientific dissection]Mountain Ascent (From path starting on Southeastern face): "The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious." -Albert EinsteinMountain Ascent (Near Parabolic Arches): "And you realize from that perspective that you’ve changed." -Russell Schweickart (Terra Deva)
(Endgame Spoilers Below!)
The Bunker (6)
Bunker (First Overlook): "This is the wall of paradise, and it is there in paradise that you reside." -Nicholas of Cusa (Phil LaMarr)Bunker (First Crossing): "The relationship between the controllers and the controlled is reciprocal." -B.F. Skinner (Phil LaMarr)Bunker (Past the first crossing): "Their [Koans] common aim is to induce a kind of intellectual catastrophe." -David Darling (Ashley Johnson)Bunker (Second Overlook): "If I think while I paint, if I meddle, whoosh! Everyhing goes to pieces." -Paul Cezanne (Matthew Waterson)Bunker (Bottom Floor): "Looked at on the astronomical time-scale, humanity is [...] a new-born babe". -James Jeans (Phil LaMarr)Bunker (By Exit Door): "Sooner or later the pieces of the puzzle must begin to fit together." -James Jeans (Phil LaMarr)
Underground (First level, past the elevator): Ashley Johnson & Matthew WatersonUnderground (Second level, past wooden floor puzzles): Phil LaMarr & Matthew WatersonUnderground (Top Level)Underground (Past elevator towards Marsh exit): Terra Deva & Ashley JohnsonUnderground (In water near turn table): Matthew Waterson & Terra DevaUnderground (Beneath the wooden town building): Ashley Johnson & Phil LaMarrUnderground (Near desert exit): Terra Deva"
@deachem: You can also find transcripts of sorts in the game directory under data\strings. They are scripting for the subtitles, in multiple languages and timestamped.
@yellownumber5: Is there anywhere online where I can just read all those transcripts? I have the PS4 version and want to read all the quotes but really don't want to go find them myself or listen to the often sub-par, monotonous voice acting.
@yellownumber5: Is there anywhere online where I can just read all those transcripts? I have the PS4 version and want to read all the quotes but really don't want to go find them myself or listen to the often sub-par, monotonous voice acting.
You seem like such a joy every time I read your posts.
@yellownumber5: Is there anywhere online where I can just read all those transcripts? I have the PS4 version and want to read all the quotes but really don't want to go find them myself or listen to the often sub-par, monotonous voice acting.
I haven't checked. Your Google search would be as good as mine. Maybe I can check Game Faqs and post something if it isn't already there.
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I've added it to GameFAQs if it passes submission.
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![Greenhouse (5th Floor): [A super-dense quote from Arthur Eddington about color wavelengths and the inadequecies of materialistic scientific dissection]](https://www.giantbomb.com/a/uploads/scale_super/19/190655/2827579-7018304170-)
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