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(+6)(-2)

I'm not quite sure where to put this so I'd rather leave it on the open. I’ve really been enjoying OBSCURA, the atmosphere, art, music, and the whole illicit underground bazaar vibe are absolutely stunning and the love interests feel distinct and compelling. As someone playing as a female MC, though, I wanted to share some constructive thoughts that might help polish what’s already a strong experience.

First, the pronoun and mask options are a cool touch for customization, but I found myself wishing they had more mechanical or narrative weight. Since everyone’s masked for anonymity, the gender choice ends up feeling mostly cosmetic, other characters don’t seem to perceive or react  differently, and there’s no real gameplay or dialogue ripple from it. In a dangerous marketplace like this (especially one that feels historically flavored from what i perceive), I’d love to see more immersion around objectification, heightened risks, or even subtle social dynamics for female PCs, rather than having the MC default to the same tiring banter regardless. A few reactive lines or environmental cues based on pronouns could go a long way without overhauling the story.

On the MC: the personality is solid and the inner monologue is often sharp, but the dialogue sometimes pulls me out of the tense, cunning atmosphere. The quippy, very modern/informal tone Whedonesque humor feels at odds with the dire, shadowy setting where you’d expect someone in Vesper’s position to be more reserved, vague, or strategically calculating. It makes then feel like a fully established character rather than a blank-slate protagonist you can project onto, which is fine if that’s the intent, but it also limits self-insertion for players who want variety. I’ve seen a couple other comments note that the MC can feel a bit restricting in places. Adding at least 2–3 alternate personality sliders or dialogue variant would give players real agency without straying from the core vibe. Right now it’s hard to play any other role when the lines keep defaulting to casual sass.

Overall, the game has such a strong, coherent dark-fantasy tone in the art and world-building, but a handful of character introductions and exchanges stray into lighter, jokey territory that undercuts the dynamic build-up like a sore thumb. Since Rotten Raccoons is a team, it feels very doable to tweak a few dialogue branches or add optional personality packs in future updates, plenty of smaller creators manage that level of polish, and it would make the experience even more replayable and respectful of the setting you’ve built so beautifully.

(4 edits) (+6)(-1)

I'm not quite sure if I should respond, but I hope my perspective helps.

Personally, as a NB person, I would much rather *not* have pronouns impact the story, even in relatively small ways. Not to mention that pronouns don't have to correlate with sex, gender, or masculinity/femininity, so this idea of added realism would actually come at more cost to player freedom. Actually, a gender-neutral writing style feels even more fitting for this game to me, considering the protagonist themselves has a sense of ambiguity, with the cloak and mask they wear most of the time.

I do understand the point about MC's personality, but I would imagine that with limited resources a more variable protagonist would be very hard to implement in a narratively satisfying way, so having a somewhat more estabilished Vesper is a good compromise to me.

For me, my "vespersona" is not me directly self-inserting, but nor do I view them as a completely separate character from myself, and I'm comfortable with that. That's how I tend to view other games with customizable MCs as well, but I understand that it doesn't suit everyone.

However, the point about "plenty of smaller creators managed to accomplish this" just feels needlessly excessive and hurts the message, to put it politely. I hope I'm just reading into the wording too hard.

(+2)

I actually appreciate you jumping in with your perspective, it's good to see different angles on this.

On the pronoun and gender handling, I understand that NB players like yourself want the fully neutral, ambiguous treatment to match the masked, cloaked vibe, and that makes total sense as an option. The point isn't to drag anyone into unwanted dynamics. It's simply that male and female selections could (and should) get their own reactive lines or subtle social cues for immersion, while NB stays completely genderless by default. That's not limiting freedom,  it's giving each choice actual weight instead of treating everything the same. Nobody's asking for pronouns to rewrite the whole story; it's just basic reactivity where it fits.

The established Vesper personality being a good compromise works for how you experience the character, and that's valid. For players who see this as a role-playing game first and want more room to project their own approach onto Vesper (self-insert, Ocs or whatnot), that compromise lands differently. More variants would open it up without breaking the core.

As for the team being capable of a few targeted tweaks, that's not shade, i want to clarify that. it's an objective observation. I've worked with developing games myself, and implementing a handful of dialogue branches or optional flavor isn't some massive overhaul. It's very doable for a team on the long run, especially when the foundation is already this strong. 

(+3)(-1)

I want to chime in on the gender thing. I haven't noticed any objectification of the female sex in the game overall (I could have missed something, as I haven't played every route), thus it seems an intentional choice; maybe making a world where there isn't so much sexism if any. Also, it would be weird if only she/her Vesper experience 'heightened risks' as you put it without having to write some women NPCs also having those struggles.

Also, I agree with Ember, the option itself is of pronouns rather than sex (or even gender), so MC could have them be refered to something else than above unrelated to their sex/gender. Or it could be an option for trans folks to feel somewhat included. 

Adding variances based on pronoun choice could also pose some problems if someones just not feminine or manly looking/acting/posing. And more, what changes would you implement? Let's say you sexism towards she/her Vesper gets added. Would they/them Vesper experience transphobia, then What would he/him Vesper get, if anything?

If you expand on the choice making it for example pronouns + overall apearence (fem/masc/amb) it could work slightly better, but still, having each combination having some additional flavour irrelevant to the plot would just be some extra work for the creators, while also could be badly recieved if struggles of certain irl people are not understood and implemented properly.

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Just a tiny bit about Vesper. They always felt like their own character with choices they would possibly made, rather than a blank self-instert MC, nor, I believe, was the mc ever marketed to be that. So, it's fine this way imo. More options couldn't hurt but it's not that of a major issue.