Post by beastneverseen in Build 0.3 General Discussion

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Hello! Just got kicked here by the survey link, thought I'd take the time to leave my two cents.

First, I'd like to say that I really enjoyed the prose in 0.3. There were just a lot of small, enjoyable flourishes, a lot of moments where the action paused to take a moment to breathe that I really appreciated.

I do have some criticisms, and unfortunately I get the sense that things are a bit too far along for them to really inform how the story is being told. First, it's... well, really strange to me that all of the major branches (as mentioned at the end, I've only done one playthrough) seem to be off of how we treat Asterion. Everything about the story paints him in a sympathetic light, so it's a bit jarring for the game to lean over my shoulder and go 'but hey, what if you treated him like shit? You know, for the lore.' I can't help but feel like the branches could have been routes based on other things. Unless this is leading to some fourth-wall breaking true route about how we're the real monster for wanting to see everything in which case, neat, I guess, but it's been done.

Besides, a lot of the times when we do treat him well is just doing the bare minimum. The actual trip out into the valley was a good instance of the protagonist actually having to put forward effort, but throughout the game it feels like the protagonist gets a lot of back patting just for not outright abusing him. It makes sense coming from Asterion, but there are times when the protagonist's behavior doesn't really seem to acknowledge the low standard.

Going back to the subject of branching, the replayability is a bit of a mixed blessing. Skipping endless lines of text to hunt through choices and try every different possible combination in sequence (or just randomly refreshing the expeditions) isn't really very engaging gameplay. Branches are cool, of course, but I wish it was done more transparently through something like the route selection diagrams in the Zero Escape trilogy.

Lastly, I found the post-healing appearance a little too... bara? It kinda moved from 'a muscular guy' to 'a muscular guy in a cartoon.'

Anyway! Despite the focus of this post, I very much enjoyed the game and I'm looking forward to more!

Minoh Workshop3 years ago(+2)

Hello! Thank you for writing your thoughts in such an organised fashion. It's very helpful to us when people dedicate time of their day to lay down what they think and how the story can be improved.

Keeping in mind I don't want to spoil future events in the story, I can offer a few details that will contextualise some things.

Regarding the fact that the player character (PC) doesn't do much beyond being a decent person... Yes! That's absolutely true and intentional. It may sound weird, but that was our intention. There's a reason though, and it goes to how we wanted to portray the PC and his growing relation with Asterion. It's because, assuming the player hasn't gone out of his way to be mean, the PC will be consistently characterized as a thoroughly ethical person above all else. That's one of his defining traits, alongside with being a good manager/leader.

This is why there is such a thing as a "bad" route. The branching point is whether or not the PC is ethical, whether or not the player will choose to perpetuate a cycle of abuse or do the bare minimum to be a decent human being. We felt that without this the story as a whole would be incomplete, and if the player has the choice to refrain from seeing what's in the bad route that would make his choice to do the right thing make impactful.

throughout the game it feels like the protagonist gets a lot of back patting just for not outright abusing him. It makes sense coming from Asterion, but there are times when the protagonist's behavior doesn't really seem to acknowledge the low standard.

And you are right! Do keep in mind, however, this is part of the PC's arc and the plot as a whole. As the story progresses — and I am including the next build here — we will see the PC's actions shifting a bit from "just being a decent person" to "going out of his way and making sacrifices to do what is right". This relates to the growing friendship between the two of them — as the PC thinks more dearly of Asterion he will become proportionally proactive and invested in securing his well-being.

About the last two points you raised, I will refrain from saying much now but I will assure you we take them into consideration. About Asterion's sprite in particular... That one was one of the first sprites we did and we do know it might not look as good for a number of players. But before we make any decision on it we want to get build 0.4 out to see if player perception will change.

I hope this addressed some of your criticism. To a certain extent these are issues we already estimated and planned for, but as we go along we keep tweaking things here and there so we are on the right course and your points absolutely help in figuring out how to fine tune the story. Thank you for your time and I hope you'll enjoy what we have in store.

beastneverseen3 years ago (1 edit) (+3)

I guess my point is that the things that come with the PC being an 'ethical' person thus far aren't really any different from what I'd honestly expect from a random person off the street. The piece that I feel is missing is internal monologue to the effect of 'man, all I did was invite him to eat breakfast with me and he's acting like I parted the red sea, this is kinda fucked up.' Like, some of the early romantic overtures from Asterion were genuinely sweet, but they perhaps should feel a little offputting with where he's coming from. The expedition was definitely a step in the right direction, and the other stuff you mentioned sounds good!

As far as less important things, this might be specific to the humanities route but the random UN stanning kinda felt like it came out of nowhere? Critique of the organization aside, it makes the protagonist come across as a bit of a naive ivory tower dork. Though, actually I suppose that scans for the 'humanities' stereotype. Similarly, I think Asterion speaking so fondly of being in a 'border patrol' probably came across a bit more politically charged than intended- not that I think that was on purpose, but it was a bit of a 'wait, what?' moment.

itch.io

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