[SPOILERS] Ambient Dialogue Suggestion

[Faangzzz]

After the ghost ship update, a certain character is killed in the final encounter. I think that as much as I really wanted this to be a big emotional punch, I wasn't sold on my character and his relationship. The boss fight was really good, the music and execution and writing was good, and I think honestly that it might be my favorite boss fight in the game. But I feel like a lot of his writing and dynamic throughout the rest of the game was very sarcastic, enough so that I don't think I properly understood what our relationship was supposed to look like. (The sarcastic writing isn't bad. I like it! But. I didn't feel like Luke was my friend, or that he was mine.)

Most of the writing that describes the relationship between our character and Luke is Bag's dialogue, and that sets up the dynamic of Luke being very strong and a bit of a dunce. It's bag's opinion of Luke, not our character's, so I had a false impression of what I was supposed to think of Luke. More ambient dialogue throughout the game would help this out. If your character notices Luke's favorite ice cream at the ice cream stall then that establishes they not only know Luke very well but think about him a lot. That's information that I think is missing from point a to point b in the game's overall writing atm. I felt like there was a big explosive emotional moment happening but I didn't feel the writing had properly carried me to a position to receive it.

P.S. Thank you for keeping at this game! I understand development's hard recently, and it's really impressive that you've managed to carry on past that. Hope you had a relaxing break!

 

[res7less]

Huh, that's actually interesting. It's interesting because, while what you say is true, when I played through it, it was just secondary information in the back of my mind and the main source of the emotional impact came from me as the person in front of the screen caring about that character, instead of the player character I'm playing or Bag. I guess it's just a matter of individual perception. The lack of a defined relationship between the two didn't really impede anything, at least for me, and judging by various posts on that subject, there were more people similarly affected.

I think there are two reasons why the player character is not that talkative, one being the usual: to avoid bias within the player. Every game with a controlled main character has to make that decision at some point - do I want to tell the story from the perspective of someone who has a name, personality et cetera and let the player be an observer, or do I want to make him neutral and let the player write the story for him, give him a name et cetera? Both have advantages and disadvantages, but in SoG's case, the decision was the latter.

The second reason for this is assumedly rooted within the plot itself and is currently one of the remaining unsolved mysteries that will hopefully be unveiled in due time. Surely, that second reason influenced the course of action when it comes to the definition of the relationship between those characters, neglecting it in favour of keeping the player character's origin a mystery until some later storytelling payoff.

 

[Faangzzz]

I do understand why the player character's silent and stuff- It's something a lot of rpgs do. The scene's good and I liked it! But I think that the game up till that point hadn't let into some of the emotional bits that were present(boss tag being Bestest Friends Forever, the pc trying to throw Braazlet off the ship, etc.)

It's less that I the player didn't feel the impact of the scene and moreso that I didn't feel the writing in earlier parts was communicating to the player how they're supposed to feel about Luke in as many areas as it could. To compare him to Zhalma, there's a lot of environmental storytelling about the cataclysm and how people were trying to fight back against him. Once you see Zhalma and tread through his story, it's communicated to the player that Zhalma's role in the story is both a tragedy and, for you personally, a warning. Because earlier parts of the game (the Flying Fortress) set up the scale of the destruction Zhalma caused, the cautionary themes hit much harder- don't be like him, don't become so obsessed and addicted to your character's progression. Stuff like that! Interacting with a gift in your room and finding out Luke gave it to you. Seeing stuff in the world that shows you hung out a lot. Just more fluff

Actually since I'm thinking of it the big element of Luke's character that work *very* well with that scene is how his monstrous strength is foreshadowed. He's a scary boss at a glance because the writing does a really good job of selling that he's much, much stronger than you in a fight. The only moment I felt that helped convey one of the other elements of his character was during the festival sequence (friendship with the pc), while there were quite a few where Luke was shown to just be super strong.