About 2 months ago I finished beating a video game called “Plague Story: Innocence”. It had an amazing story and the gameplay kept me in a trance from start to finish. This ended up being one of my favorite games and they did an amazing job during development. That’s why it had mostly high reviews everywhere when it first came out.
Before you read any further, please note that this blog post does have some spoilers and a few of them are end-game important spoilers. So, if you have not played the game up to this point, then stop reading now before you get spoiled on the game. Just wanted to put a spoiler warning in there before continuing.
I made it through the most of entire game without running into many issues at all. As long as you are smart, tactful and using common sense in regard to your upgrades, crafting and inventory management most players (even casual gamers) can work through the game at a good pace. The only time I ran into issues was during the scene where Rodric pushes a giant cart across the courtyard to protect you and Luke from archers. That is the only scene that I was stuck on for a while.
After being stuck 2-3 times I did some research online and realized a lot of people are having issues at this point in the game. After spending 2-3 hours learning the mechanics of this part of the game, I found a way to get through this specific section of the game with minimal effort. After playing around with the scene several times I got to where I could do it on the first try every time without any issues.
The first thing to address is Rodric’s death. Rodric does die after this scene, and it leaves the player wondering whether or not they could have saved him. I have confirmed that no matter how this scene plays out you have no chance of saving him. He dies no matter what happens in the scene, it is scripted to happen. I have confirmed this using several youtube videos of people trying to save him, plus my own efforts. There is no way to save Rodric. The arrows that hit him come out of nowhere even if there are no archers shooting arrows at the time.
Most people have issues with this scene because they are worried about the archers and trying to save Rodric. Since he is not able to be saved it is best to ignore the archers entirely and focus on your positioning and protecting yourself and Luke. Whether you kill every archer as they come or not, nothing can save Rodric from dying. When I realized that I was able to develop a technique in this scene that works every time and keeps you from dying. Making it easy to get through this section even on harder difficulty settings.
When Rodric first starts pushing the cart be very mindful of your positioning. You don’t have to worry about archers or anyone for a bit but make sure you are positioned on the other side of the cart and that you are in a place where the archers can’t reach you. Keep an eye out both in front of, and behind you for people running at you on foot.
When the cart gets pushed a little way, you’ll see a half wall with stairs going down. Go down there and hang out in that lower area behind the halfway but still keep in mind the position of the cart and make sure you don’t open yourself up to archers or exposing yourself to their fire. Stay in that lower section and when the guards start coming just hit them all with rocks as soon as you are able. You’ll have 2 come from in front of you, then some from behind then they start to alternate between both directions.
If you aren’t focused on the archers and you are just working on killing everyone on foot and making sure you stay in the right position to be protected from archers, then it’s easy to get through the scene. As soon as the cart goes a little further than the halfway make sure you are on the other side of it until Rodric lays down beside it. If there are no enemies coming from either side you can take out a few archers at the very end carefully if you want, but if you just stay out of the way long enough then the cutscene will activate shortly after that and handle the archers.
As long as you are mindful of your positioning so the archers can’t hit you, and as long as you take out the people on foot quickly as they appear it should go very smooth, and you won’t get overwhelmed with guards. Most of surging it is just about your positioning in relation to the archers and staying on top of the guards that keep trying to rush you.
I’m writing this because I know a lot of people online had issues with this scene and I just realized consciously the reason I was having issues was because I was worried to much about Rodric, and less about my positioning. If you are very careful about your positioning and make sure everyone that appears on foot dies quickly then you can get through this within 1-2 tries with no problem.
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