LostWinds Well and truly stuck... (possible spoilers)

[thinkdrastic]

I've played quite a way into the game and seem to have got to a place I can't get out of.

I've worked my way through the Melodia city and come out at the Great Bridge Base. I wasn't sure where to go next, so I headed back up and into the top of the city again. I worked my way through again, saving at the Shrine of Drilling Wind.

Alas when I make my way through into the Furnace Room the wind ball is missing, so I can't open the door on the far right. What's more, if I load the game again, I'm right back at the Shrine with nowhere to go but back into the Furnace room. The path back up is blocked...

Any ideas how I might get out of this?

Edit: Seems to be the same room as this issue.

 

[Michael Brookes]

Have you tried the solution I posted in the other thread?

Michael

 

[King Luigi]

A Trap Not Even Balasar Could Escape...

I've also gotten stuck in the same way as described in the 1st post.

The fact is that both of us have already solved the puzzle in 'The Furnace' room!

The issue here is, both of us returned to Melodia City shortly after escaping it the 1st time (I assume he also picked up the Cape on the way out as I did) but once we reach 'The Furnace' again, the Windstone has completely vanished from the entire area & we can't move past that door on the far left as a result.

Also, by using that save totem in the 'Shrine of the Drilling Wind' area during this return trip it pretty much guarantees that you're completely trapped.
(That pit in the 'Palace Garden' is a 1-way trip down & we can't exit 'The Furnace' because of that Windstone door at the end, thus we're stuck.)

Oh and I'm playing the US version just so you know.

 

[Callum Rowley]

We've been unable to find a resolution to this issue within the game without looking to release a hotfix patch. What you can do to resume playing the game is the following:

Go to an earlier save, start the game over (if you don't have an earlier stage) or grab someone elses save game and play from there (I've sent you both PM's about this option).

To avoid the issue from happening again, refrain from returning back to the underground of the Melodia City after having just left it.

Apologies for any inconvenience this issue has caused you both.

 

[blindfish]

(Spoiler warning)

I've just encountered exactly the same problem: Got the cape, figured I'd go back round to collect the idol that seemingly can only be collected using the cape. Saved, went down a waterfall into the next room. No noise-ball meaning I'm stuck and no point reloading the save since there's no way back. Since I hadn't made copies of previous saves I'll have to start from scratch.

...But this is the second time I've tried playing through and it's the second time the game has glitched in such a way it can't be completed. The first time I'd reached the king and was leading him back to the city, but a platform that should have disappeared (I checked an online video walkthrough) hadn't disappeared meaning I couldn't progress any further.

I shouldn't have to rely on someone else's save-game to be able to complete it and it shouldn't be possible to get stuck in this way just because I didn't do things in the order someone expected me to. QA obviously sucks on this one. 6 hours of my life wasted. I want my money back

 

[Callum Rowley]

I shouldn't have to rely on someone else's save-game to be able to complete it and it shouldn't be possible to get stuck in this way just because I didn't do things in the order someone expected me to. QA obviously sucks on this one. 6 hours of my life wasted. I want my money back

Hi Blindfish,

We can offer you the save game to help you resume playing Winter of the Melodias. Though it's by no means the most suitable solution, it will enable you to play through to the end without having to start from the very beginning.

Apologies for the issues this bug is causing you. I hope the save game can help you resume playing.

 

[blindfish]

By all means send me the savegame, but what happens when I encounter another bug? There seem to be several issues that can make it impossible to complete the game. I shouldn't have to come begging for a savegame to get me back on track each time I encounter one. I should be able to go down the wrong route without the game punishing me by making it literally impossible to complete.

It may sound like I'm just having a moan, but I paid money for this and QA really should have picked up on these issues: these seem to be fairly blatant bugs that can only have been overlooked because QA knew the 'right order' to play the game through; or didn't consider the possibility that we might save and stop playing only to come back and find things borked...

 

[Callum Rowley]

By all means send me the savegame, but what happens when I encounter another bug? There seem to be several issues that can make it impossible to complete the game. I shouldn't have to come begging for a savegame to get me back on track each time I encounter one. I should be able to go down the wrong route without the game punishing me by making it literally impossible to complete.

It may sound like I'm just having a moan, but I paid money for this and QA really should have picked up on these issues: these seem to be fairly blatant bugs that can only have been overlooked because QA knew the 'right order' to play the game through; or didn't consider the possibility that we might save and stop playing only to come back and find things borked...

I'm quite certain this is the only game breaking issue you'll find with the game, and the only one which wasn't spotted by QA before the game was released - I hope you understand these things are sometimes overlooked and slip through (both our internal QA and Nintendo QA). I know it's frustrating and it's an annoyance, so you're entitled to a moan on this occasion

It's not in anyway an excuse, and in any normal situation we'd quickly and promptly release a hotfix, but on this occasion we're unable to (as of yet!).

I've sent you a PM on how I can go about sending you the save game.

 

[skip]

Still no solution to this?

Is there any viable solution to this problem besides completly restarting the game? A patch or redownload of the game isn't possible? I would assume that Nintendo would want this fixed for people downloading it for the first time. Do they allow you to update your code in the event of a major bug like this?

 

[Callum Rowley]

Is there any viable solution to this problem besides completly restarting the game? A patch or redownload of the game isn't possible? I would assume that Nintendo would want this fixed for people downloading it for the first time. Do they allow you to update your code in the event of a major bug like this?

I believe this might not be an issue in the EU version of the game, but it is a bug with the US version. So the only option at present for US players is to restart the game, or revert to an earlier save.

 

[skip]

My question though, is whether there is ever going to be a fix for the US version. I'm about 90% of the way through the game so if a fix is coming soon I'll wait rather than having to restart the game from the beginning (my only save is in the previous room, so I'm stuck). If no fix is coming, either you or Nintendo should advertise this bug so new users can avoid it.

 

[Callum Rowley]

My question though, is whether there is ever going to be a fix for the US version. I'm about 90% of the way through the game so if a fix is coming soon I'll wait rather than having to restart the game from the beginning (my only save is in the previous room, so I'm stuck). If no fix is coming, either you or Nintendo should advertise this bug so new users can avoid it.

It's not in our short term schedule, and it's not entirely in our hands on whether we can ever get a fix in place. For now, my best suggestion for you would be to restart the game from the beginning. Apologies for any inconvenience caused by this.

 

[skip]

Ok, thanks for the reply. It's obviously a pretty big inconvenience considering I'm 90% through the game, but if that's all that can be done...

From a customer service perspective, it's very surprising that a) a bug of this nature got through at all and b) that it seems like you as the developer don't care too much about it. I understand it may be Nintendo's final say whether or not you can issue a new version fixing this, in which case it's extremely illogical of Nintendo to not allow bug fix updates (the process should be simple) to existing titles.

I still love the Lost Winds games, but please do more thorough QA in the future.

 

[Callum Rowley]

that it seems like you as the developer don't care too much about it.

We certainly do care about the impact this is having on our players, and I wish there was a simple process to update and remove such a bug from the game. Previously we were able to send those affected a save game prior to this bug occurring, but Nintendo have changed something so this no longer works - leaving us, as the developer, with very few options.