Hi Malin, I’ve looked forward to this tiny demo than I’ve looked forward to full mainstream releases.
Painfully too brief, but still a nice taste.
- Bugs and rogue pronouns: I didn’t really notice off-hand, certainly nothing that screamed out but I’ll do another playthrough and note.
- One item: the f in “the farm” should be capitalized as you’re talking about a specific place, not a generic farm.
- Pathing: I only played through with Argent rescuing me (and in a relationship with her) and the amount of dialogue felt right - sufficient, but too brief by necessity and with the hope of more soon. Likewise the “we’ll discuss more later” dynamics with the mob crew. If I had a request here, the Argent dialogue was more banter than earnest, and I’d love at least a couple of spots in there to be affectionate if in a serious way, even if just right in the parting - a few words or unspoken moments (held hands) that cut through the gallows humor.
- A place where I want another choice: Apropos of my comment here, I’d love for you to keep developing the “no one needs to know I’m a killer”, with an ability during the sketched out character creator here to have that as an option - that the MC does kill, but in ways that provide plausible deniability.
- This leads me to one suggestion for further into Revelations. If the Puppet is Heartbreak, I can’t help but think there’s an easy detente to be achieved here between them and the MC - enemy of my enemy, and all that. I imagine them meeting atop the building they first “met” having that conversation and reaching an accord. I could see it as mass murder version of “no one needs to know I’m a killer” with Heartbreak bearing the heat for future killings even though they’re working in lock step with a surreptitious MC.
- Another spot that I’d like a choice: Jake Monolo had been to my base before, and at least not that I saw, it was never established why or if he knew who was there. It feels like there should be a choice to either have someone guarding, and specifically against hollow ground minions. This could be a Tactician-specific choice, too, with the pain proving too much a distraction for other MC builds. I don’t think this necessarily changes your writing much, as whoever is guarding wouldn’t think to stop the puppet, at least not at first, and that belated suspicion could be a prompt that gets the puppet to flee.
- The HQ scene with the armor present also seems like a point where the Rat King would put in an appearance (and likewise be watchful), and probably a good opportunity to introduce that thread as right now only people captured at the casino are aware of it.
- During the dream sequence, the MC notes Ortega’s longer hair. There’s a spot in Retribution (the dinner date) where the MC can comment on Ortega’s hair - whether they preferred their old hair, like the current, etc. This spot in the dream feels like a nice way to call back to that dialogue flag.
- Confusion - I haven’t the foggiest about how many pain gates I’ve opened so I don’t know how to accurately define that. I’d like to.
- Confusion - All this stuff with The Cult of the Green, The Void, etc. seems super significant if it’s a historical event and while I’m sure it’s mentioned in the prior games, it’s a big information dump that feels more like “where the hell did this come from?” I realize that this is at least partly intentional, as the MC grapples with why they’re remembering this so lucidly now. My suggestion at the part would be to have a couple of paragraphs at the start where the MC places this memory and describes their recollection of it and the historical record of it (ie the public view) before diving into the dream vs reality vs. suppressed/excised memories. The player could use some grounding here before diving into what’s a very strange and apparently important sequence.
- Confusion - With Apple’s comment below in mind, this confrontation event and the Void as a villain seem significant enough that they could be referenced/foreshadowed in the prior games at points, in passing as a detailed “remember when” in any of the Ortega or Chen conversations in Rebirth and Retribution, and I could see Chen referencing it as a further point of guilt about abandoning the search for the MC, recalling how the Rangers’ slowness allowed the Void to mess with the MC and Charge for so long.
Will amend if I think of more. I’ve added in a bit based on a couple of other playthroughs, one with Argent rescue, one with Ortega rescue, one with Dove rescue, all with mob boss trait.
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