“One other win, however who’s counting?” It’s the stupidest factor an individual might say after a battle. Nobody. Nobody was counting. Together with you, Kai, until you assume “one other” is a numeral. Recognizing a win in no sense implies tallying something. It doesn’t make sense. Cease saying it, man. Simply cease saying it. In reality, until you’ve received one thing helpful to say, possibly don’t say something in any respect?
For so long as I’ve performed what I believe we are able to sensibly name BioWare-like RPGs, this concern has pushed me to distraction. Companion characters who really feel the necessity to remark on the finish of each battle, however say nothing of curiosity or value, after which say it again and again and over once more. Possibly it couldn’t be a factor?
I love Avowed, I’ve been so lucky to have had code for a few weeks earlier than its launch, however no deadline to complete it by—this has allowed me to actually sink into it, to discover its sprawling Dwelling Lands at my very own tempo, by no means pressured to achieve a narrative beat. I spent the 25 to 30 hours the sport is meant to final reaching simply its midpoint, and am nonetheless in no hurry. I suppose you possibly can argue that I must be barely extra motivated to hurry up given the size and hazard of the Dreamscourge, however I’m not in a position to stay in denial of its unfold being solely beholden to my advancing the plot. The plague can wait, as a result of I simply noticed what could be a hidden cave entrance and it might find yourself being a complete different dungeon to discover.
The catch is, I’ve survived a lot of battles, large and small, primarily skirmishes with Xaurips or spiders who’re hanging out within the subsequent valley I’m poking my nostril into, defiantly fought solely with my bow and arrow. And each single time, each single certainly one of them, certainly one of my two companions feels the necessity to touch upon it. However every seems geared up with solely two or three various things to say. So pricey God, I’ve heard all of them so many bloody occasions.
“One other wonderful battle!” bellows Kai, my fixed companion (I can no extra go away him in camp than I might when he was in his Garrus incarnation in Mass Impact), following our killing a bunch of halfwits who couldn’t be talked out of attempting to kill us. No, Kai, no it wasn’t. It was ignominious at greatest, and extra realistically, pretty grotesque. His cheering in delight after I’ve been compelled to slaughter some dumb-dumbs rebels who wouldn’t hearken to calm purpose makes me assume there’s one thing actually very unsuitable with him.
Far worse occurred with one other companion after a big story occasion that I shall not spoil. Let’s put it this manner: every thing she’s recognized and beloved has simply been destroyed, she’s distraught, and seconds later, on stumbling into a gaggle of sentient toadstools or the like, she’s straight again to fortunately cheering me on and celebrating wins.
Or how about one companion found in a while who, each single time she makes use of her “dispel” potential, says the identical two issues. “What, prefer it’s exhausting?” and “Youngster’s play.” Each issues. Each time. And neither of them makes any sense in context.
Avowed deserves so significantly better than this! The sport has incredible writing all through, with a very beautiful group of pals to speak to, and banter between all of them in camp is an actual deal with to face nonetheless and hearken to. So why, for the love of all issues why, does every solely have three issues they are saying on the finish of each battle?!
Given the verbose nature of Obsidian and BioWare’s RPGs, and the way the voice actors have to be spending days and days within the recording studio performing their billions of strains, why can’t they every simply have a few dozen completely different post-fight strains to drop? It’d add, what, ten minutes to the recording time? And it’s not precisely a Herculean writing job. Watch, I’ll do some now:
- “Phew, glad we had been in a position to put that lot down so shortly.”
- “Hey, I believe you clipped my ear with certainly one of your photographs that point!”
- “Ha! They actually thought they might beat us, didn’t they?”
- “I instructed my dad and mom it was value spending a lot time training with this bow.”
- “Effectively, in the event that they weren’t all lifeless, I believe they’d must admit they had been impressed.”
That was a minute’s work, and no, none of them is especially good, however then neither is any line any companion has ever stated in any recreation in the identical circumstances. They’re actually up there with Marius telling me that he’s pulled his shoulder for the 786th time.
All of them could be deeply annoying the second time they had been spoken, so that you write 20, 30 of them per character, and have them tick off so that they don’t repeat till they’ve all been stated. Executed. Downside solved. I fastened a 30-year-old bane of RPGs, and I don’t even know learn how to use C++.
There’s a fair simpler resolution. Maintain on tight. Don’t have them say something in any respect! Nothing must be stated! I simply killed seven skeletons that had been stood by that rock, as a result of I needed to go previous that rock. It wasn’t a battle about which operas will probably be written, it was only a little bit of busywork in a online game. It requires no remark. Silence does completely.
Heck, I’ll compromise! I’m that respectable. How about they solely say their foolish strains after a named boss battle? There are many these in Avowed, they usually are likely to really feel like a extra main occasion, even when they’re simply ticking off a bounty. Once I’ve gained a type of, I really feel like I’ve no less than achieved one thing, so positive, let Kai declare it a wonderful battle. Give him his second.
That is completely not an Avowed concern, however an RPG video games concern. However that doesn’t let it off the hook. Obsidian, if you make the inevitably (and deeply desired) Avowed 2, please, please, might you be the staff to prepared the ground on altering this? As a result of the selection is doing this, or I’ll someway prepare on your associates and households to reply, “Nice work, you actually ate some mouthfuls” each single time you have got a meal for the remainder of your lives.
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