Dreamfall discussion *spoilers*

[Moosferatu]

So... what are your thoughts on Dreamfall?

Ragnar said on his blog, "The ending is definitely worth it, I promise." It's a delightfully ironic statement considering the ending is one of the first things you hear people complain about, right after the combat. I thought that the ending really was quite beautiful, and I admit that I was on the verge of tearing up. Not only was it beautifully delivered, but as far as I know it's one of the most unique endings in video game history. It seems like the vast majority of games have the typical canned happy hollywood, whereas Dreamfall's ending is much more like something you'd expect from an indie film. It's about the journey that took place, how the characters changed, and excepts that not everything turns out perfectly. This aspect of the ending I absolutely love. Then there's the other part of the ending. The part that left huge questions unanswered. It's this part that I have mixed feelings about. I don't really mind that this things were left opened as I'm sure they'll be answered in the third and final game, but the hard part is that it could well be 2015 before it comes out if what Ragnar has said in the past is anything to go by. Now that sucks. Actually, when it comes down to it, this is probably the real reason people are upset about it. I'm almost certain that after the last game comes out people will look back on Dreamfall's ending with great fondness.

You know, Dreamfall's ending and the reaction to it actually reminds me a lot of the ending to LeChuck's Revenge (man, it's been way too long since I last played that game.). Here's to hoping that this is where the similarities to the Monkey Island series end and the third game actually gets made.

Some thoughts on random stuff:

--I'm fairly certain that Brian is "the prophet" who was manipulating the Azadi. The must puzzling thing about Brain's character is the fact that Cortez both trusted him and aided him. I thought that Ragnar might just gloss over this, but the clip after the credits certainly shot that theory.

--I'm sure no one actually thought that April was really killed for even a second, so there's not really any point mentioning that, but there are still a couple of interesting things to note. First, someone in the Funcom forum pointed out that the old woman telling the story in TLJ (ei April) goes by the name "Lady Alvane", which happens to be Kian's last name. Suspicious. The second thing is probably the thing that bugs me the most about the game because I feel like the answer is there but I just don't see it -- how did Zoe save April? No, I don't mean because April "died". What I don't understand is what Zoe had to do with anything. I somehow fail to see how she had any impact on either April's character or the situation leading up to April's "death". Does anyone get this?

--Another thing that bothers me is the way Charlie and Emma are treated. They didn't get any closure in TLJ and the don't get any this time around either. I'm guessing they'll finally get their due in the final game having now seen that Ragnar really is doing an amazing job of continuing character development cross games.

Yeah, I think that about sums up my thoughts and speculations. I really loved this game. It's going to be a long, hard wait for the grand finally, but I'm sure it'll be worth it.

[netmonkey]

Definitely the ending is going to be a subject of great debate for a while. I personally thought it was a great ending, an ending you love, and yet an ending you hate because there are so many questions left open it messes with your head. Brilliant stuff, really, and I sure hope that the third game will be made for sure, to bring some closure to the story. I did also think that it felt very monkey island 2, not like in a WTF way but more like I wonder what happened, beyond our comprehension sort of way. Somebody called it a "shit hits the fan" ending. I think it's a pretty good tagline for it. You can't save the world and have everyone live happily ever after through the course of a game, anyway.

To your points:

- I didn't really notice anything about brian because he seemed so much nicer in this game than the previous one. Though the only suspicious thing is the death of the kin, because brian was in the library. and the chaos vortex at the beginning. And what wise manny chavez says. But brian is not magical and the profet seemed to be as he opened that portal.

-April must be alive. She has to become lady alvane, who else would have such a relationship with Crow? And you notice that kian has some kind of affection for April, even if it's because she is such a strong person towards him as she's the one he's been looking for and the one who questioned his own people. I still don't see how Zoe saved april in any way. For all I know, she just witnessed the event, but what does that have to do with anything?

-I am glad that charlie and emma got a bit more developed this time, specially charlie. His character just had that Newport feeling of kind of tough but yet soft on the inside. I hope they meet april again in the next game.

Which brings me with my crazy theories:

1) The Azadi, the prohpet, and WATIcorp are all somehow working together. I'm thinking this is true because of the coincidential release of the dreamer at the same time the tower in marcuria was completed, a tower that channels dreams somehow, or whatever April said about what she found. The vanguard may be involved.

2) April is supposedly dead, but that single event might save her as she might have shifted back to stark or something while she fell. Yep, this is quite crazy, but what would you think about in a such a time, when you think you're about to die? Home. Your friends. Charlie and Emma. Before it all went to shit. And advanced medical facilities that can cure you.

And there are so many questions left:

The whole white dragon thing. why did she do what she did, and what happened to her? who was hunting the kin?

I really thought this game was going to be about the war to the balance, but instead it's really the introduction to the war of the balance. If you can recall tlj, the war of the balance is about a warrior princess who unites the two worlds, or something along those lines.

[Moosferatu]

Yeah, I thought about Brain some more after posting, and I think you're probably right. I realized that they did show part of the prophet's face at one point, and if I remember correctly he did not have a beard. I still think he's up to no good though. I mean, sure he's a lot nicer this time around, but what about that deal at the beginning, the feeling the White Lady had when he arrived, Brain's comment after watching Zoe disappear, and what the White Lady said before whatever it was that happened to her? Sure, it's possible that he's still a good guy, but I think he's rather suspect. I mean, who else was there in the Dark People's city? Really the only other options are Crow or one of the Dark People unless someone was hiding on the airship.

In reference to what you said about April in the other thread, yeah, she turned out to be not so bad. When you first play as her I was a bit disappointed, and thought she was the same bitchy April from the last game, but I was wrong. Ragnar did a really good job developing her character. Who wouldn't feel biter and lost after what happened at the end of TLJ and the events that followed? I'm guessing that what happened to her at the end will be the turning point for her, and in the next game she become a bit more like the April at the beginning of TLJ, except less old of course. That brings up an interesting question though, I wonder how many years are going to pass between Dreamfall and the next game? April is what, 28 or 29 now?

I think your theories are pretty sound. It also occurred to me that there might be more to Zoe's "mother" as well. I can't remember exactly so I could be wrong, but didn't she say that if she got Faith to let go that the dreamcore would die or go off the wire or something? It seemed to me as if she was saying that if she got Faith out then WATI wouldn't be able to release the dreamer, and yet three months later they do. It's quite possible that I misunderstood what she said though.

This is quite unrelated, but does anyone know who the other sidekick is that Crow referres to? I couldn't figure that one out. Maybe it's no one.

[ysbreker]

Ok I just played dreamfall for a bit and stopped playing just after meeting reza. Is it just me or is the voice acting horrible and is dreamfall suffering from a bad case of uncanny valley?

This is bugging me so much I had to stop playing. It felt as if I was watching a bad episode of thunderbirds or something. As long as the characters aren't talking or not too close up it's ok. But as soon as you're in a conversation it just irritates me no end that there is no facial expression other than a flapping mouth and some rolling eyes. If only the voice acting wasn't so liveless I'd might have overlooked all this.

It probably just me but I'm rather disappointed in dreamfall...

[Moosferatu]

Really, you didn't like the voice acting? I thought it was pretty good. I enjoyed Zoe's accent. Have you played the demo for Keepsake? Now that game has some voice acting that makes you want to kill yourself.

[netmonkey]

I thought the voice acting was pretty good. It needed a lot more body language, but you can't win them all. Though the best character in both voice and body language was crow, I think. He just moved like a bird, and had some pretty hilarious things to say! And what the hell are you doing here talking about this? don't you see that this is the spoiler infected thread?

So, the gameplay, the weak point of this game. I think that a lot of people are going to blame it on not being point and click and therefore it made it bad/evil, and I fear that they will go back to that in TLJ 3 just like other games like Broken Sword 4.

I thought it was a very noble attempt though still bounded by the poor adventure game mechanics. For example, when you fight the big... Grubbers I think they were called, the LOTR movie troll like creatures. You obviously can not defeat them becaue they're too strong, so it's merely a suggestion to trying something else. Which I thought was a total cheap way of doing it. And when you push stuff and climb on ladders, you have to push a button... or click on the ladder if you consider your ego to be a cursor

I didn't mind the combat at all. In fact, I though that Kian could have been mostly combat and should have been given some opportunity to kick some serious ass. And yet, Kian is the enemy and if you're for the good guys you really don't want to kill them, so it's a controversial choice. The combat is yet poorly executed because it was too simplistic, not responsive enough, and it activated on its own instead with some kind of focus method to engage in combat.

The other good thing was the full 3d experience. Just running around and doing stuff was wonderful, 1000 times more liberating than flat backgrounds will ever be. I just wish that you could move the camera a lot more freely and or in first person. It felt very limiting in that it was difficult to look around sometimes, specially in situations with those troll creatures again.

And, just the overall sequences between cutscenes were too short, another adventure game limiting factor. I wouldn't have minded if a few things were repeated as long as they varied along new challenges and such, but when you start using the lockpick and your cellphone on everything and avoiding those spiders/robot and that's it, then it's quite dull. And there isn't even enough of that. You do it once and you're already unleashing major secrets in the game. Cliche saying: It was plenty of meat and not enough potatoes. Or is gameplay the meat? I guess it depends on what you like the most.

ALSO...

Someone pointed out to me that in the intro with Brian Westhouse, that if you walk close enough to the monks and are able to listen to their conversation, they talk about Brian being the last hope to them... what does this all have to do with the undreaming and what's happening on Dreamfall, I wonder?

Also, "the future holds secrets only the past can reveal"? the undreaming? brian? huh?

Aw man, why do we have to be tortured like this?

[Moosferatu]

I would agree with you for the most part about the gameplay. I really liked that none of the puzzles really felt out of place or just there to extend the life of the game. When I replayed TLJ a couple weeks back I was annoyed a number of times by a few needless and repetitive puzzles. The part where you infiltrate WATI, for example, I thought was great. But, Dreamfall could have without question posed more of a challenge. I think the only time I was actually stuck was on that musical puzzle when you first arrive in Arcadia, and that was just a bad puzzle. There should have been more inventory based puzzles. One obvious place where it would have been easy to insert more of a challenge is in the 8th chapter when April is trying to get Zoe out of Friar's Keep. It was sort of a cop-out that all you had to do was run back and forth between the keep and the Roper's stand to get various potions. I'm hoping that next time around they'll keep all of the great stuff like the 3d exploration and sneaking, timed situations and death, and the what not, but also add more difficult puzzles and more of them. Essentially, a happy medium somewhere between TLJ and Dreamfall.

I thought one of the strongest points of the game was the way it presented the story (which in and of itself was great). There were so many great and cinematic scenes. A few examples: the part where you infiltrate WATI and Damian gives you instructions as you go, the part when April and Kian first meet and the point-of-view switches back and forth, the entire "Crossroads" chapter was amazing, and how Faith's story was told on the datacube (reminded me of Boondock Saints). Dreamfall really was more like playing a movie than a game, but I'm fine with that. It excelled at what it was. It's hard to get down on it for this too -- Full Throttle anyone?

[ysbreker]

I thought the voice acting was pretty good. It needed a lot more body language, but you can't win them all.

Maybe the uncanny valley is getting in the way of me liking the voice acting. Oh and the fact that every 5 meters I walked there was a load screen. Not that the load times were that big but it taxes your suspension of disbelieve if you ask me.

And what the hell are you doing here talking about this? don't you see that this is the spoiler infected thread?

*gets the hell out of the thread*

[netmonkey]

I've seen worse. Most realistic games have a serious case of uncanny valley, though not as much dreamfall. Some good examples are the godfather game, and well any game made by EA, really. Lots of their sports games have players that almost look like players but not quite, and they move quite like players but not quite either, making it quite creepy, specially in "ultra-realistic" cut-scenes.

I do agree with the loading screen. I thought they were quite shameless to use it. If one thing adventure games should be proud of in technical achievement was the lack of loading screens. Also true for nintendo games, but they know their stuff!

[Moosferatu]

The load screens only really bothered me during the last chapter which was essentially one long cutscene. Talk about breaking the mood.

[wuwoze]

So, there is only one ending? The sad one right, with so much left unanswered?

I personally think that it is a very very lousy game. Many things inside are very unrefined. It is basically a disgrace of name TLJ.

Where is April in the end? Who is the white lady? WTF wasting my time.

[netmonkey]

The five stages after playing Dreamfall: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

[Hunter233]

I also really enjoyed the ending. After a while, heh.

I guess any complaints I have about the game were covered by you guys. Loading screens during the finale = bleh.

I mainly came here to answer your question about the "other sidekick." He was talking about Sam from Lord of the Rings. He said something like "What did he do?? Carry some guy up a mountain on his back? Big deal!" which is a reference to the ending of RotK.

Oh, also, is the "white lady" supposed to be the White of the Draic Kin? Isn't she dead by then? It made me wonder if perhaps Brian or whatever else might be hunting the Kin is able to use their forms afterwards. Maybe Zoe didn't actually "save April," and the hunter just wanted her to think she had so she'd stop trying, so it came to Faith in the White's form to feed her misinformation. That would explain why we can't figure out what Zoe actually did. The only other explanation I could think of would be shaking April out of her stupor. That still wouldn't explain why the White would be able to tell Faith that at that point.

That also got me thinking about how much of this game might have been misinformation. So here's an interesting theory:

First off, I'm fairly convinced Brian is the one hunting the Kin. Only I don't think he's actually Brian Westhouse anymore. I don't think he has been since the intro to the game. My guess is that whole thing with the Undreaming was his form being taken by it so it could do whatever nefarious things it's up to. But then why would Cortez/Chavez have helped him, if he was going to end up becoming a bad guy? Well, and I this notion took a while for me to deal with, maybe Cortez isn't a good guy after all. It's been a while since I've played TLJ, so that game might poke some holes in my theory, but I'm gonna throw it out there anyway. Maybe the Balance being restored in the first game wasn't such a good thing after all. We know the two worlds reunite by the end, and within April's lifetime, so maybe they were supposed to have reunited then, in order to stop whatever it is that's happening now. But Cortez wanted what's happening now to happen, for whatever reason, and so he set events in motion that would keep the Balance going. This would also maybe explain why the Guardian told April that she's not needed anymore. That could have been misinformation as well. A big part of the philosophy behind this game seemed to involve purpose, and how lost one is without a purpose. Perhaps the Guardian knew that for the events in motion to be stopped, the twin worlds would have to be reunited, thereby eliminating the Balance and denying him of his purpose. Rather than once again living life without purpose, when the opportunity arose he did what he could to set April down the wrong path, thereby securing his purpose by denying April hers.

[Hunter233]

Oh, reading the "gone gold" post reminded me of a couple things.

First is another complaint I had about the game. I used to love the beautifully done CG cutscenes of the first game, and so I was really disappointed to find there weren't any in this game. Yeah, I get it, they have their 3D engine now. But firstly, the graphics aren't that great to warrant the complete elimination of CG cutscenes, and secondly, the animations are so lacking that, while they didn't bother me terribly during conversations, the game would have really benefitted from a few hand-tailored CG cutscenes. Oh, and having them would have eliminated that whole loading screen problem during long chunks of cutscene. I mean, how much better could the ending have been if part of it had been taken care of with a simple CG scene?

Second, you guys have the PC version, right? Is there a focus field in that without using a gamepad? I borrowed a friend's PC copy to see which I preferred, and right now I'm having to say I like the X-Box one better simply because I can't for the life of me figure out how to activate the focus field with a mouse and keyboard.

[ysbreker]

With a right click you activate it and when you move the mouse you move the focus field.

[wuwoze]

They (developers) just killed all the good characters and explained nothing?

Na'ae, Charam, Brynn, April, White Kin........... what happened to them? I love the sexy White Kin.

The worst game ever....... . This game can be easily counted as >50% incomplete.

The adventure is too straight......... . The difficulty is for baby, but the narration is for 17+.

People say in this game the narration is the main acttraction. I would say sometimes it is too much and others gaming elements are too weak and underdeveloped.

Such a shame. I loved the first so much. But after how many years? 6? They created nothing but shit. Complete shit.

[Moosferatu]

I mainly came here to answer your question about the "other sidekick." He was talking about Sam from Lord of the Rings. He said something like "What did he do?? Carry some guy up a mountain on his back? Big deal!" which is a reference to the ending of RotK.

Thanks, I can't believe I couldn't figure that one out. Probably was because I was just thinking about other computer games. There are so many references in this game. Another one that occurred to me yesterday, is the Victory Motel a reference to LA Confidential? It seems like a bit of an odd connection, but they do have the same name and function.

That's a really interesting theory, Hunter. You might be onto something. The using of bodies makes sense, but I don't think Cortez is a bad guy or that what you did in the first game was wrong. After all, April helps April in TLJ, and if there's anyone who you can trust to tell you the truth you'd think it'd be your future self, right? Not to mention both of the Kin in Ardadia help her, and all of the magical creatures who need separate worlds have somewhat cheesy prophecies about her restoring the balance, though there's also a negative side to the prophecies which hasn't come to light yet. Possibly the reunification of the worlds?

It occurred to me that Brian might really not be bad or hunting the Kin. Things certainly don't look good for him, but that's part of the reason I think he might not be all bad. There really isn't any concrete proof either way, just inferences. Regardless of whether or not he is or isn't, I'm almost positive that the White Dragon isn't dead. There's still more mystery to be uncovered between her and April for her to be dead.

[netmonkey]

It all goes back to the storytime and the undreaming in the first place. The Kin are definitely aware of it since the white and the red have said things that seem like, like the white dragon recognizes that zoe is different and that brian gives her goosebumps since he is perhaps affected by the undreaming, and she is behind the find her, save her plot. But for some reason Zoe and Brian are connected to the overall storytime, and the plot to reunite the worlds. in the introduction to the game, if you turn on the subtitles and listen to the two monks who are talking near the circle, they say that brian is their last hope, so why would monks want the undreaming to be unchained? Chavez also recognizes this, has he goes to help westhouse survive up in himalayas. Why did Zoe save april even though she just saw the event? Does this have to do with the story time? can Zoe change the past? Ahhh!

[Moosferatu]

It's possible that the monks don't want the undreaming, and they were just unaware of the consequences of whatever it was that the did would be. Some guy in Funcom's forums was calling the place where that weird guy with the fire was The Winter. Is that really The Winter? I thought The Winter was just that small, white world where Faith was. Are they connected?

I have a gut feeling that people are going to be upset about the end of the next game too. I'm almost certian Ragnar will leave something open, though not nearly as much as in Dreamfall. After all, one of his favorite movies is Lost in Translation. Who wasn't thinking "What the hell did he just say to her?" at the end of that movie the first time seeing it?

[Moosferatu]

Hey, I was right! Check out Ragnar's most recent blog posting here.

You see, it could be that some questions aren’t supposed to have answers - and even if they do (and they do), you’re not supposed to know them.

I'm glad that he doesn't seem disheartened by some people's responses to the ending.

[TLJ Fan]

I was able to shrug off the blatent ripping off of "The Ring", "Myst", "Omikron", "The Matrix", "Tomb Raider", etc etc. UNTIL I saw the ending.

Call me old fashioned, but I've been through questionable endings with Myst and the like, and I even waited for "Return of the Jedi" when I was younger. Imagine my nerve to expect this game to have an ending, instead of a sad playstation generation ripoff, eye candy, and a sequel setup.

Someone please tell me I've made a major gaming mistake, and they didn't ignore Crow, murder April, put the white dragon in a vampirella outfit and make silly sex jokes, or Cast Lara Croft-- Oh I mean Zoe Castille-- As the hero.

Sorry I'm one of those "Some People" who responds negatively, but I was disappointed. I won't be around for the sequel-- because you just might decide to use one of Cortez's quotes to make TLJ4 justifiable. Well trust me, Cortez is rolling over in his grave.

A lost fan

[Closer76]

I just finished Dreamfall yesterday, and I admit that the ending can be frustrating at first, if it is taken "out of context". Now let me explain what I mean. What the author is going for here is formulating a sort of play or trilogy. For any of you who have seen Shakespeare, then you know that at the end of the second Act, everything has gone to Heck, and it may look like nothing is recoverable. It is the darkest moment of the play, when the protagonist has seemed to lose and the antagonist has seemed to win. Thus the ending, seen in this light, is perfect. You're supposed to ruminate on what is occuring and egarly await the conclusion, or final act. So I have quickly come to terms with the ending and seen in this light like it. However, I do feel there are some concerns or criticisms that I would like to verse. Zoe's character isvery well flushed out, and April's is pretty good too, but Kian's character just does not have enough time dedicated to him. There needed to be at least one more scene with him, perhaps with Na'ane on the way to the swamp where he can tlk with her and start to contemplate his place in the world and the Azadi. His character arc is a good arc, but goes so quickly that one has to go on faith alone to believe that his change makes sense. There needed to be more time with him, probably 2 scenes at least, and I would have liked 1 more scene with April if possible for more character advancement. The other problems I had with the game was it was too short, overall. It took me about 14 hours to play, and I tried to talk to everyone about everything. There needed to be more meat, (and potatoes) there. I think some more puzzles which are a little more complex, some more items and some more complex item combining would have been nice. One thing adventure games have done in the past few years is allow you to fully 3D examine an object and find clues and such from the object by closer examination. This would have been nice. Also, while I don't have any real problem with the combat, per se, the camera should fix it self behind you when in combat. The camera is so annoying to get where you want it that it can be pretty detrimental in combat.

No before I shut up, I also have a few story observations. One that I don't think has been brought up is that the Innkeeper Benrime never saw that cloaked man come into the inn. This leaves 3 possiblities. He can make himself invisible. Unlikely since you see him, but maybe April has a special ability. The second option is that Benrime is in on the conspiracy, but this seems pretty unlikely, since she is helping rebels against the Azadi. The third an final option is that the Robed man was someone she knew, and when he took off his hood she didn't have a second thought. I suppose a fourth option is in the conspiracy option, the prophet is trying to bring down the Azadi secretly, but this seems unlikely. Through this, I think the best conclusion is that it is Brian Westhouse since she wouldn't have noticed him as an evil cloaked figure, and thus answered April in the negative to this question. However, if it is Brian, then I believe that he doesn't realize that the undreaming is inside him, and it lies dormant until it wishes to take him over. He probably doesn't remember anything that occurs during that time. The two holes in this theory is that the prophet doesn't look like he has a beard, and when Brian says "interesting" in response to Zoe's power. This can be reconciled with the fact that maybe the undreaming was controlling him at that point. Just thought I'd throw it out there.

[Moosferatu]

I'd completely forgot about Benrime not seeing the prophet. Intriguing... I really like your Westhouse theory, but I think it has one major flaw. Doesn't Brian make his return to Marcuria and the inn several scenes after the incident with the prophet? I'm not saying that he couldn't have been there before just that Benrime hadn't seen him before then. Benrime not seeing the prophet makes me think that he wanted April to discover what she did, but why?

That's also a fair point about Kian's character development. You're right, he was a bit neglected, and turned out rather stereotypical.

[Closer76]

Yeah, I had thought about that whole Westhouse showing up a few days later thing. But, it might be reconciled if he said hello to Benrime and said he needed something from the basement before they talked. It's not a great explanation, probably pretty bad. The key is to collect all the incidents with the prophet, Brian, and that Dark One that didn't recognise April and piece together what information we have.

1. The Prophet goes to the Inn and somehow goes unnoticed by Benrime, even though he opens up the door to the cellar.

2. Brian appears a day or two after the Prophet incident and appears in good health and age. I forgot, but I guess someone said that April remarks on how young he still looks.

3. Brian went into the portal in 1933, is supposedly "the last hope" according to some Monk's, and meets the undreaming.

4. Brian "reappears" in Arcadia about 300 years later, and while a drunkard, appears to be an honest, good person. He says this is a result of him being "unstuck" in time.

5. The Dark One ship captain doesn't recognize April when he should. The other Dark One says that something might have "blinded" him.

6. Brian remarks with "evil intrigue" at Zoe's power. Also, the White Dragon has a strange reaction to him.

7. The White Dragon seemed to recognize her assailant before the attack.

The problem is reconciling all of this data into a cohesive, probable story. Here's my theory.

1. Brian Westhouse was invaded by the Undreaming and taken control, but the Undreaming lay dormant. He was stuck in time until the Undreaming saw it's opportunity for its evil desires, so it "kicked" Westhouse out of statis he was in, and into Arcadia. Lieing dormant once again, it allowed Westhouse to live as he wished to, gaining trust and reputation in Arcadia. Now the Undreaming is taking control of Westhouse much more than before, but he remembers none of it, an unwilling, unknowing accomplice. Westhouse is the Prophet, and attacks the Dragons (this would work well with his journeys across the globe) and is behind the plot to destroy dreams. In this tale, Westhouse is merely a tool. The problems here, as you stated Moo, is that Benrime, while not noticing the cloaked man, reacted to him as if she hadn't seen him for years. This can be solved by a hypothesis: the Undreaming can cloud people's thoughts, and not allow them to recognize truth as it is. This would allow the Prophet/Westhouse to walk into the Inn, and cloud Benrime's thoughts making her forget that she had seen Westhouse, that he was even there. This would also account for the Dark One and the White Dragon, who's thoughts had been clouded by the Undreaming. This makes sense since the Undreaming must be some supernatural force that deals with thoughts, so clouding others thoughts might be a tool it has. Just as it clouds Westhouse's mind so he never realizes it is there. It is killing the Dragons because they, like the Jedi for the Emperor, are the only real force that stands between it and what it wants. What does it want? Dreams. It hates dreams. By definition, it is the Undreaming, and any dream that occurs in the world drives it mad with jealousy and hatred. We have seen that the Undreaming has a good potential for extending livespans, so my theory is it also exists in or controls Peats. Sure machines are necessary, at least for looks, but it is really the Undreaming that is controlling Peats and creating the scherme for dreams. Thus upon Peats death, the Undreaming leaves its control of him, and takes over Reza. I think the Undreaming can only control 2 people at a time, one in each world, and this would explain the whole remark from Zoe that Reza is not really Reza. That's my theory, please point out missed points or holes, and I'll try to fill them.

PS- I love you quote, Moosferatu! Psychonatus rule! That's my favorite level in the whole game!

[Megabyte01]

i finished dreamfall 2 days ago. after playing through the game, i have a lot more questions than answers, particually about the ending.

the ending scene, with the tower being activated, definitely showed how the two plans, the dreamer and the tower, where connected somehow. we know that the tower captures dreams, or something like them, because april heard people dream when she went to the base of it. the tower became active when the dreamer came online and a lot of people went into it. the question is why. why would someone want a lot of people to arcadia via their dreams? what would someone have to gain from upsetting the delacate balance of dreams? speaking of balance, the guardian's stated role is the balance between science and magic between the two worlds. balancing dreams is not his responsibility. if someone where interfering with dreams, he wouldn't know about it untill it affected the science/magic balance. and when the tower activated, i think that's what happened.