solution v1.7


                  Company : Psygnosis
                   Title : Ecstatica - a state of mind


   I haven't written any solutions for a while but Ecstatica is definitely 
something that justifies time spent on writing the solve. This awesome 
adventure features creatures  made of  vector balls resulting 
(despite numerous bugs) in very beautiful and very playable scene. Also it 
has a awesome musical score and cool sound effects.
   But enough of that, let's start with the actual gameplay.   

First some general hints about fighting techniques. Fighting is fairly 
straightforward. One can 'duck' - 5-key, strike from above - 7-key or strike 
horizontally 9-key. While engaged one should duck often and before creature 
can recover from momentum of his blow whack an opponent once or twice, 
then go thru same procedure again. There are numerous killing 'instruments'  
available but the difference isn't so great, with one notable exeption. You can 
waste most of the characters so it's up to you to decide who should live and 
who should die.

 Werewolf - he seems to be immortal ?

   Werewolf is that merry creature that makes a point of jumping on you from 
rooftops and being pain in the ass in every way. It is often speculated that  
he's impossible to kill and this seems to be the case. 
   It's recommended to give him some blows just to show who's the 
boss and run away. 

  Little beeping buggers 

  They shall sometimes attack in big numbers but have no fear - they are easy 
to beat even with bare hands.

   House with three little buggers and knight's armour
  
   You can equip with a basic sword here and also you can get a white
armour from the wall. The armour is funny to play with as it makes
hilarious sounds but it slows you down do the extent of unplayability
in some battle instances and should be mainly considered a red herring.
   
   Store with a dying man

   Man who gets killed tries to give you something. It seems to be some kind 
of a key. It's not needed however so we can go on and explore back room. 
Here can be found carrot kind of thingy that is needed later and also some 
barrels that are good for playing hide'n'seek.

   House with a little obnoxious girl in it.

  Girl wants to get her little teddy bear so you should fetch her one. It can be 
found at the second floor of the house with the drinking bear. Girl gives her 
bear a little 'hug' and storms to outside. Let's follow her to the church. As you 
are obviously too big to fit into that little passage, our little friend opens a 
door to the dungeons for you. Here can be found some undead people and 
some impressive graphics.

  Church - what to do?

   There is a ladder to the tower, where a lonely monk can be found. You can 
banish him if you like but he's just misinformed. Below the hanging monk 
can be found mandrake root kind of thingy that is needed for magic potion. 
Also there should be a bible lying about. This item is usable for gaining 
entrance to monkery.

  House where drunken fellow fights with a dragon

  Jump in and kill dragon. Now you can take a drunk warrior and carry him 
to the relatively safer place. He talks some info, so be vigilant. After saving 
old fellow you can return to the house and grab his weapon, which is a little 
better than just sword. Go behind a counter to have a little drink.

  House with a drinking bear

  Hmm, isn't it a charming fellow ? With just a little reaction you can render 
him dead. Just remember to duck when closing in on him and choose a 
moment when he is trying to drink his booze. Alternatively you can leave 
him to his drinking and strode to the second floor. Here can be found a girl's 
teddy bear and an interesting diary. Read the diary, it'll casts some light to the 
happenings in village. On third floor is heater that should be used for 
producing magic potion. You can learn about magic formula from the book.
You need :
    1 carrot kind of thingy - from store
    1 mandrake root kind of thingy - from church  
    1 red flower - from road to monkery.

  OK, put those items into heater and run over it to drink the potion. You'll 
be turned into something. Now it's good time to go to the area below church, 
where little girl wants to go and play. Go there and climb the stairs to the 
knight's quarters. He shall freak out and give you his golden sword.
 Some people have been reporting that they've got a bug - game refuses to 
admit that drink is ready. We shall address that problem later on (look for
the "Getting Golden Sword from knight without a magic potion" section in this 
solution).

   Garden

 In the garden you are likely to come across some minotaurs. There are two of 
them, one of them is a lot harder to kill than the other one. But you should 
kill then anyway to grant some freedom of movement for yourself.

   Singe spike trap in garden - how to pass ?

  This trap seems to be impossible to circumnavigate unless you're happen to 
be green at the moment but there is other way around it. We will return to 
that much later.

   Castle

 Front entrance to the castle can be hazardous do your health so go a little 
further and find another entrance to visit a wizard. Sadly he takes a very dim 
view about visitors and turns you into nice little frog. Being frog can be 
dangerous sometimes, but it's can also be very entertaining to hop around in 
places you could not reach in human form. Now it's possible to check out 
areas behind a spike trap and some parts of the dungeons. When you've had 
quite enough of froggin' go find a lake. In the little house beside lake lives a 
woman with overflowing sexual tendencies. She can help you to regain your 
accustomed form.

   Little house beside a lake

  Here lives a woman who can revert you from frog to human and there is an 
interesting, not to say, magical broom. It can be used to get a golden sword 
off from knight later.

   Monkery

 In order to enter here you must carry bible found from church and use your 
somewhat rusty latin. Go straight to the library (talking with some monks 
first) and examine some books found there. Helpful monk will give you 
resume on most interesting books. 
  There is an useful relict on the altar that you should get. It is discussed that 
after taking the relict it is necessary to kill all monks but this is not so. If 
you're not too bloodthirsty, you can grab relict and run for the hole in the 
library.
  A word of warning, though : If you haven't got golden sword yet and you 
can't make a magic potion do not grab relict yet or you might find yourself 
helplessly stuck.

   Getting Golden Sword from knight without a magic potion

  To follow this path, you must have so called magic broom in your 
possession. Ride the broom to the monkery and try to drop the broom 
exactly above the hole in library. You should fall down and drop broom. 
Grab it again and remount. Now all you got to do is to ride straight to the 
next room, drop broom and climb stairs.
 It is safe now to visit monkery and steal their most valuable treasure - the 
holy relict, or as matters stand, old bone.
   
   Golden Sword - what is it good for ?

 You need Golden Sword to become a knight. Take it and walk to the lake. 
There is a rectangular stone by the shore so climb on it. Now follows a little 
animation and Lady of the Lake gets fitting reward for making you a knight.

   Castle - again

 Now that you are a knight, ol' wizard seems to be a lot friendlier and invites 
you into his humble home. Go straight to the tower's upper level and read 
another 'magic' formula. All that we need is a book of magic ...
Climb down the stairs to the depths of the tower. Here is a big stone dude 
who tries to whack you with his mighty weapon. Here you should use a 
duck'n'run tactics to get past this obstacle. You will be attacked by (almost) 
invisible warriors, they are fairly easy to dispose of. Don't descend from 
nearest stairway if you don't desire to get 'spiked' but take a little walk around 
and duck'n'run to get past stone dragon. If you should still get 'spiked' try to 
move from a little different angle, it should work. 

   Below the castle

 In the middle of the big room is a little room where you can equip with a 
good armour that doesn't slow you down a bit. On we go via grilled gateway.
It opens and you'll be knocked out cold. It is not necessary to take that path 
put it holds some nice animation's. After cleaning up your guard's house you 
should steer to the room where a book lye's on the pedestal. Listen what that 
little green thing has to say and hit him. Too bad. OK, get a magic book and
go check out another archway that leads downstairs. Remember this 
wonderful place ? Yeah, but this time we are not going to just hop around. 
Go to the lover level and put King to the final sleep. We don't have a good 
enough weapon yet to battle Devil himself so retrace your steps out of the 
tower and out of the castle (don't forget to take magic book with you). 
Getting back from spikes between stairs can be tricky but it can be done. 
Backward walking worked for me.

   Finale

  Now that you have bone (holy relict) and magic book, run to the stone 
circle with them. After some effects you find that you have a potent weapon 
in your disposal. Dump magic book and speed back to the castle and descend 
to the room you got that magic book from. Door is open so walk boldly in 
and watch how demon changes shape to become something more interesting.
Be polite and sit at table to have a little meal. Now he asks to turn over that 
stupid little bone you are carrying.
  It's your choice. You can give him that worthless piece of bone and live 
happily forever after or you can choose to stay plain mortal, leave your 
place of honour at table and run to the possessed girl. If you choose to do the 
latter, you'll have to fight demon to the death. Too bad. 


  THE END



    This little solution was written by
 
Veikko Danilas - Maintainer of The Spoiler Centre
https://the-spoiler.com/    (web site)

If i missed something vital, mail me at internet [email protected]

Copyright (c) Veikko Danilas

19.12.94 02:32 am

Merry Christmas to everybody !!!