Its title might make it sound like a morning zoo radio team, but Olav and the Lute, a music-focused point-and-click adventure by Shelly Alon, and Johann & Daniel Von Appen takes a much more cerebral work for its inspiration: the 1990 Lucas Arts adventure game Loom. Olav and the Lute might add a heaping dose of post-apocalyptic wasteland to its fantastical aesthetic, but the concept of exploring a world with quite a bit more magic in it than our own, and using the power of melody to put right what has gone wrong, is well intact. Check out the game's official website for a download version and also, if you like the game, be sure to shoot a message to the developers through Shelly Alon on Twitter. Your comments will be music to their ears!
Click to direct where Olav should walk, with the pointer icon automatically changing to show when an item can be examined or interacted with. Early in the game you will pick up a blank songbook and a magic lute. These will be key to progressing. The lute has five different note tones you can pluck, and you will be able to cast spells by plucking certain four note sequences. As you discover these sequences, they will be added to your song book. Playing the sequences in reverse, however will reverse the effects of the spell: an unlocking spell becomes a locking spell, a spell for fire becomes a spell for freezing, and so forth. It's up to you to change the world, for better or worse.
While Olav and the Lute would likely not have been created without the existence of Loom, it does a good job of setting itself from its predecessor. First of all, Olav is a surprisingly sassy son-of-a-gun. There's kind of an expectation that protagonists of these kind of artistic adventures will be ominous, if not altogether silent so as not to break the zen, so the subversion that comes with Olav's snark (and, uh, a little gratuitous swearing) is a knock on the side of the head, though it is not used so much that it doesn't fit with the mood. It's just that the few things he says make him come off a bit like any of us would act if thrown into a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with mysterious artifacts and runes for unknown purposes, given a magical guitar and told to get at it. Who can blame him? The world he's exploring is similarly unique. The Japanese influence in the scenery and characters give it the serenely creepy (or creepily serene) vibe of a Buddhist temple several years after a nuclear disaster, and its a delight to piece it all together.
The musical spell-casting is at the center of this game world, and Olav and the Lute provides some quite interesting puzzles in that direction. Some lateral thinking will be required to get through the game, and that's meant in the best possible way. If anything one wishes there were almost a few more red herrings along the way. After all, is there any gamer who, once they've gotten their hands on a fire spell, won't immediately try to figure out all the things they can use it on? The game is rather short, with playtimes typically averaging between fifteen minutes to half an hour, but packs in a lot of atmosphere and ideas into a small map despite a strange ending. Olav and the Lute is a unique bit of gaming, continuing the trend of point-and-click adventure games being able to effectively integrate music puzzles into their world.
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Walkthrough Guide
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Olav & the Lute Walkthrough
Cave
Click the empty SPELLBOOK to pick it up from the ground.
From now on, you can click the book at the bottom right corner of the screen to view any music spells you have currently collected.
Move right to the next scene. Take the LUTE from the pedestal in front of the Old Runestone.
The lute now appears at the bottom of your screen. Click the musical instrument to select it, then click on any of the 5 multi-colored triangles to play a string.
For those who are colorblind, refer to the numbers used in this walkthrough to identify the colors of the triangles. On the lute, the triangles appear from left to right in this order: Red=1, Orange=2, Purple=3, Green=4, and Blue=5.
You can play up to four notes to complete a song. We haven't learned any songs yet, so you can put the lute away for now.
Also note the symbols carved into the Old Runestone:
At the top of the stone is an image of the Loom, and below it are three symbols - a water droplet, a fire, and a wrench.
Walk right twice until you reach a large gate at the end of the cave.
Click the King-sized Key to learn a new song, Open/Close.
Click the Queen-sized Door to select it, then click your LUTE and play the "Open" song.
To cast "Open" click the triangles in the following order: Blue(5), Orange(2), Blue(5), Red(1).
Go through the open door to enter the Forest crossroads.
Forest
Examine the Cracking Leak at the side of the large water tank.
Select the leak, then use your LUTE to play the "Open" song again to widen the crack.
Remember, the song is Blue(5), Orange(2), Blue(5), Red(1).
The water from the tank will pour into the sishi odoshi, which will teach you two more song spells, Fill/Drain.
Follow the upper right path to the Snowy Canyon.
Snowy Canyon
Click the low waters of the River to select it, then click your LUTE to play a song.
Cast the "Fill" spell to raise the level of the waters by clicking the triangles in this order: Blue(5), Green(4), Orange(2), Red(1)
Once you've raised the water level, you can walk over the log bridge that floats to the surface of the water and move across the river. Continue right to the camp at the next scene.
Click the fire in the middle of the camp to learn the Heat/Freeze spells.
Move left once to return to the river. The bridge is gone, so you'll have to find another way across.
Select the River and take out your LUTE. Play the "Freeze" song to turn the river to solid ice.
To cast "Freeze," click the triangles in the following order: Blue(5), Purple(3), Purple(3), Orange(2).
Continue left to return to the Forest crossroads. This time, take the lower right path to go deeper into the forest.
Forest
Click the giant mushroom to add two new spells to your book, Poison/Heal.
In this scene you'll also see a broken television and a crying ghost. We don't have the necessary spells to fix the problem, so we'll have to come back later.
Walk left once to go back to the Forest crossroads, then continue left again to reach Buki's House.
Buki's House
Select Buki, the sleeping drunk blocking the door, then take out your LUTE to cast another song spell.
Play the "Heal" song to wake Buki up by clicking the following triangles: Red(1), Purple(3), Orange(2), Green(4).
Follow Buki into the house through the opened door.
Click the Power Switch to turn on the Destruct 300 machine, which will teach you the Destroy/Repair songs.
Walk right three times to exit the building and return to the ghost in the Forest.
Forest
Click the Broken Television to select it. Use the LUTE to play the "Repair" song and fix the tv.
To cast "Repair" click the following triangles: Orange(2), Purple(3), Red(1), Blue(5).
The ghost will sing you a song after you've repaired its television, which will also add the Sleep/Awake spells to your book.
Go back to the crossroads, then return to the Cave.
Cave
Walk left until you reach the chamber with the Loom and three pedestals.
Use the three clues from the carvings on the Old Runestone to determine which spells to cast on each object.
Select with the Goblet on the left pedestal. Play the "Fill" song on the LUTE to fill the goblet with water.
To cast "Fill" click the following triangles: Blue(5), Green(4), Orange(2), Red(1).
Next, select the Fireplace inside the middle pedestal. Cast the "Heat" spell to light a fire.
To play the "Heat" song click these triangles in order: Orange(2), Purple(3), Purple(3), Blue(5).
Lastly, select the broken Sword. Play the "Repair" song to fix the shattered blade.
Cast the "Repair" spell by clicking these triangles: Orange(2), Purple (3), Red(1), Blue(5).
Now click the Loom to select it. Your character will say you need to "wake it up now."
Play the "Awake" song on your LUTE by clicking the following triangles: Orange(2), Purple(3), Green(4), Blue(5).
Posted by: Trinn
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October 12, 2013 9:42 PM