Even if I can't understand any of them

I've been following this game for what seems like forever - I adored Pathologic and still play it on and off to this day. Translation was a little dodgy but it almost added to the charm of the game, if that makes any sense at all. However this past weekend my friend got a hold of a copy of Tension, and naturally I jumped at a chance to try it out. It's absolutely beautiful, needless to say, and I can't help but feel moved by the combination of deep and thoroughly developed visuals and the astounding sound design of the game. The soundtrack is by far and away one of the single best I've ever heard, and I'm now listening to it on a regular basis as inspiration for my own artwork. I have to express my absolute gratitude to developers such as Ice-Pick Lodge for these games - they are unlike anything else on the market, and the art direction makes them feel more like a painting sprung to life than a game.

So I've been playing Tension on my time off from work this week and was surprised at how quickly my day disappeared. I have to admit, my ability to read russian is infantile, so the game's story eludes me (at least until I can get a copy off steam or any other digital medium when it's released as The Void) - and yet I can't help but be drawn in by the sights and sounds. I know I'll understand the motivations and interactions in due time (boo patience, boo) but in the mean time I'm hung up a bit on gameplay points.

I've read a bit here and there where I could find it, and alot of the game is still a bit murky as far as mechanics go. For example, Unlocking hearts is straight forward enough, but I can't seem to advance too far into new cells - they don't unlock so easily. Is it just a matter of filling up more bars on the sisters? All of them, or just the ones adjacent to locked cells? Also, some of the glyphs seem a bit ambiguous as to their function - the videos help on combat glyphs, but for the ones concerning interaction with the sisters, I'm at a loss. Should I just worry about the donor glyph until the english release, or do the others have more than a narrative purpose? Also, every sister has two colors associated with her - are they both good for donating or just one of them (i read somewhere you can hurt the sisters with certain colors :s )?

Anyways sorry for the huge post - Just wanted to say thanks and don't stop - you're doing it right.

The donor glyth is the most important in all the game, the other glyths you can use on the sisters are of the narrative genre to help better understand the story, so except the first glyth you get (looks like a lied down 6, can't remember the name) you don't need to use the others with the sisters.

Both colours displayed on the sister screen are the colours they like, and hence you can give it to them to fill their hearts. When you select a colour that is poisonous to them you will hear a rattling sound, similar to a snake.

To unlock chambers you need to fill the hears of the adjacent sister to at least level 2 (two red bars).


And finally, welcome to our little world.

Hey,

Thanks for a the quick response - gives me a little direction that'll go a long way.
As for the little world, I hear it's the quality not the quantity.

Cheers

Those glyphs are not only narrative, but some of them are used to get new hearts from sisters.

Only the inverted 6 iirc, neither of the other ones gave me hearts, at least not that I can remember.

Right, so finished my first playthrough, and it wasn't until around cycle 20 or so I realized this game really does not favor a conservative play style.
I don't think it helped that I was never able to access both the glyphs used for the mines, and I did not get the Shell glyph until 2/3rds the way through the game.
Some of the Brothers are nigh impossible to drop without the shell - I also suffered a couple of crippling minor deaths because I would feed a sister, then get ambushed by a brother with no way to escape, and no way to refill color. So I was feeling one or two steps behind afterword.

A few questions before the next playthrough - do any of the sister's give out heart's after the second level ? like on levels 3 or 4? or is getting all of them to level 2 enough (for the hearts, not the accent)? Also it was a bit wierd that brother's never seemed to be aware of what was happening amidst themselves. If I knocked one or two off they hardly noticed - and sometimes they'd just swing by and lecture, while others intentionally seeking a fight for some unexplained reason. Is this normal?
One last one, when fighting the Brothers, they have 3 concentric rings rotating by their health, with the outermost always having a color highlighted. What's the signifance of them?

Regardless an incredible game so far - look forward to seeing the rest on the next run. Oh yeah, and anyone else find the two wandering sisters to be reminiscent of the two masked guides in Pathologic? Gave me a laugh anyway.

The glyths that exists on the field are random, so you could get lucky and get shell on the first mine

As far as I remember Sisters only give up hearts up to level 2. so no point in filling a sister above level 2 just for the hearts.

Some brothers are more aggressive than other, and as you may have figured, each sister has a brother, so if you feed a sister the corresponding brother may not like it while the other don't care much

As for the brother rings, as far as I could tell, it depicts the colour affecting the brother in that instant (more speed, more defence, more offence, etc).

Also, remember asking for the narrative glyths? One of them (can't remember which one) asks the sisters about her respective brother, so they may reveal weakness and battle strategies against that brother that may help you. (Never the less some battles are insanely hard).

Some sisters, e.g. Yani give heart only after certain chapter.

As for the rings, ring shows for which color brother is more vulnerable at the moment, and he is most vulnerable for the highlighted color.

Ohhhh, guess I had that the way around

That could explain why would Ironclad would take an enourmous amount of lympha to take down

Ironclad is just the most heavy guy of all Brothers. His health is around 7000, if I remember well. So, of course, proper use of information these rings provide makes thing MUCH easier.
I don't remember if you can actually get some information about the ring in the game. The only place whre I've seen something on this topic is game's manual.

Nope, there isn't any ingame information for those rings. *hint*englishversion*hint*

Wow busy month - although I've toyed around with the game a bunch more but have run into another obstacle just as my victory seemed assured. I've killed almost all the brothers, have every sister up to 2nd level and two up to 4th, and 20 hearts unlocked. Only problem is I've filled all the hearts and let the nerva fill up as well - but I'm just shy of being completely filled with color. I seriously have maybe 40 points of color (if that) shy of being completely full. Are there more than 20 hearts (I have breakthrough and color no longer evaporates from me) - or am I required to fill the hearts with specific colors at all?

In any event the game was brilliant the second run through so far, and much easier with an aggressive stance off the get go. Thanks again,

Cheers

Well, there are 21 hearts in all. Though some people say it's possible to do without this last one if you use the right colours, try to look for it in the places you haven't searched yet. Good luck!

Can't remember well, since the last time I finished it, but doesn't breakthru only appears when you have all the other hearts?

IIRC with all the hearts you should be able to hold 300 lympha in each memory slot.

I guess Breakthrough appears somewhat in the 25th or 26th cycle.

Ohhh... I though it was related to the number of hearts not a particular cycle.

Anyway, if you are missing one heart I can remember at least one that is well hidden

Right so now to find the missing heart. I hope it isn't with the Worm because that cell crashes before I have a chance to explore it every time. Barely a minute in and every time the game freezes and drops out : s.

As for ones that were well hidden, the whale tank and the mine with the heart 100 feet up were pretty tricky - the rest were straight forward enough. Right, well I'll get back to searching and let ya know.

You need to kill the Worm to get the heart in that cell. It's very tricky, indeed)

Actually, there are more random hearts than needed - you might have missed one of the hearts that Sisters give - like Ole gives Shell in chapter 5, and Yani should give something too.

I don't remember the worm having a heart, but if it has, you don't need to kill it, since I never killed it in the game I finished.

I do remember however that Lemma has a hidden heart in a small cave near the bottom.

Yes, you do not need to kill the Worm to finish the game, since threre are more random hearts than needed (about +3 or +4), as LxR mentioned. But you need to kill it to get the heart from it.

Alright, then I'll do some exploring. I've received the chapter dependent hearts already from the sisters, I'll recheck the reservations and gardens to make sure I didn't overlook something.

There's a mine, where you have to attract the heart with a gravity mine.

Guys, you are all telling different things ^^

And no, you dont have to kill the worm - at least not in the german version. The heart is hidden in one of the little black holes the potatomonsters come out.

(And what the hell is a whale tank?)

Also you get the breakthrough-Glyph from Montgolfiere.
He even says "But I cant give you the Breakthrough-Glyph without resistance" and when you kill him (at cycle 30. 25 he attacks) you get it.

Seems like there are more differences in the different versions than we all expected, huh?

We where discussing the Russian version, in which the game is way harder, and some location / glyphs have changed from one version to another.

In the Russian you don't need to kill any brother at all to finish the game. (Refer to play long play, although I did Patriarch in the long play has he decided to attack me.)