Forgotten Hill: Pico



"Can you take Pico back to its cage?"

- Quote from the game's official website.

Plot:
The game starts with an old fashioned menu screen and after clicking to proceed, we are greeted with a pixelated version of a familiar home. Entering the first door, we are greeted by a cat on a table and an unnamed scientist who explains that the creature made during his latest experiment escaped containment. Our task is to find it and return it to its cage before it does any damage.Exiting back through the first door, we head right twice to see a painting of music notes (a hint for our first puzzle). Moving once to the left, we see various mounts that can be moved upward and downward. Referencing the painting, we solve the puzzle and the painting to the left of the mounts slides open to reveal a hidden compartment with a key inside. Heading right three times, we use the key on the locked door to open it.

Going through the door, we see that the room is some form of lab with a decaying body on a table and arms hanging from hooks, a large basin collecting the blood draining from it below. Moving left within the room, we see the open cage from which Pico escaped with a hook inside, a control panel, and a note. Examining the note, we learn that Pico is extremely attracted to mandrake seedlings and we will need to find and use some as bait. Exiting the room, we head left twice and open the door next to the painting of the musical notes, no key needed.

Once inside, we are greeted by a cell containing multiple chains with colored skulls, a bloody grate, and creature in a pot who, upon being interacted with, starts to sob about how his creator did not give him legs and as such, he can't leave the room. He asks for us to "show [him] something beautiful". That in mind, we leave the room and move all the way to the right, opening the left door. Inside is a kitchen and from which we grab the knife and the cup from the top shelf and exit with them. Returning to the lab, we collect blood from the basin with the cup. Returning all the way to the right, we "water" the plant in the center with the blood and it flowers. Taking the knife, we use it to pick the flower and then return to the creature with it in hand. He thanks us profusely and mentions it is "much nicer than the rhyme that the creator always sings" which he follows by citing the rhyme, saying "5, 3, 1, 4. These are the numbers I need to store."

Leaving the cell, we move all the way to the left (where we originally started) and examine the bookshelf. Clicking on the sections of books with stripes on the spine totaling the aforementioned numbers in order, a red gem is revealed! Going down the hallway to the section outside of the lab, we place the red gem on the pillar on the left. With both gems in place (the green one having been there previously), the picture frames above them reveal hints for a new puzzle. Moving inside the lab, take note of the paper hanging above the body. Leaving the lab, we move left once to see a cabinet with a flower in a vase atop it, a painting above them, and a giant clock. Keeping in mind the hints, we align the colored clock arrows with their respective symbols. (Red being an hourglass, blue being a heart, and green being a star.) Once the arrows are all in place, the painting is removed to reveal another secret comparment with another key inside!

Moving all the way to the right once more, we use the key to open the right door which lets us outside the home. We see a moonlit sky, a grave, a glass jar, and a tall tree with a spider on one of its branches. Taking the jar we move right and are greeted by an angry dog guarding both a gated shrine and a shovel, barking at us if we attempt to proceed. We must assuage the beast. And how better to do that than with food?

But first, to catch that spider! Back to the lab we go and above the decaying body buzz a few flies, attracted to the rotting meat. Taking the jar in hand, they are easily captured. Returning to the gravesite outside, we release them, causing the spider to decend, attracted to the potential of a fresh meal. After eating the flies, it stays put and we snatch it up without hesitation. Returning back indoors (but still on the far right of the hall), we place the spider inside the frame with a spider shaped indent. This causes an arm to spring up from the pot we got our flower from earlier, a new key for us in hand.

We take the key and go inside the kitchen, unlocking the cabinet below the sink. The door opens to reveal a nice slab of meat for our guard dog outside. Taking it with us, we place it in his bowl and he barks in appreciation, allowing us to take the shovel. Moving left to the gravesite, we dig up the grave and find a ring hidden in the dirt. We put it inside the specially shaped lock for the gate and it opens loudly. We can now go inside the shrine and explore.

We see several colored skulls on stakes, a panel above them, and a saw on a chain to the right. A chainsaw. Moving left is a locked door and a puzzle made of large panels but we don't have any information that would help us solve that one yet, so we head back inside. Returning to the creature's cell, we examine the color order of the skulls and realize there is one missing from the collection in previously gated area. Thankfully, it's just a regular skull so we can hurry into the lab and use our saw to remove the skull from the rotting corpse. Returning to the shrine, we remove all of the skulls off of their respective stakes and sort them from left to right as we saw on the chains (green, plain/white, red, blue, and yellow in that order).

The panel moves to reveal an ornament which we take with us back inside. Moving down the hall to where the clock is, we place the last ornament in the indent on the cabinet to unlock it and inside sits a mandrake seedling. We now have our bait for Pico. Back inside the shrine, we go left to interact with the panels, learning that we need to change their faces to make an "H" our of the red symbols, with the center top and bottom faces being the ring symbol. Once that is done, the door opens and inside the dark room is Pico himself. Interacting with him causes him to do a sort of bark, implying we can't just pick him up. But wait! We have our seedling. With it equipped, we move back through the shrine, through the yard, and up the hall until we step inside the lab and go in front of the cage. With the seedling still in hand, we hang it on the hook attached to the chain inside of the cage and he follows it inside. Pressing the button on the pipe leading to the cage, it shuts and traps him inside, the scientist congratulating us on a job well done.

Trivia:

 * At the end of the game, Oliver comments on our character being "an excellent servant" and that "[he] will miss [our] services when [we] move to the Ostergard family next month". This implies that the character we play in Pico is the same butler that gets murdered by Theodore in May of 1890.
 * This game was made using the Pico-8 fantasy console, which the titular creature is named after.