I had this same experience, for me it didn’t get much better as the game progressed because opportunities to increase stats were very sparse. The stats system ended up feeling very oppressive to me. I wish cheats systems like what Unsupervised had caught on in more CYOAs, but especially more difficult ones!
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I think the problem is that you can make choices to be (mildly) hostile, but then the narrative continues on acting like you didn’t make them and you’re cool with all the characters. And just in general it feels like the narrative can ignore your choices.
The option to just ignore the fight should absolutely be there. Picking it could lower your relationship with Z and RC, and another student could step in and tell Gladiator to stop things or something. And afterwards why is the automatically MC trying to visit RC in the hospital after the fight with Z in the first place when I chose for them to blow off their apology (and it’s weird that a brush off is all you can do to this rando who ran up on you. Yeah it’s a superhero school so random fighting isn’t as unacceptable as it’d be to us irl, but I think being actively hostile to is an option you should have).
A choice on whether I wanted to go would make sense, or at least have it check our relationship value to decide whether MC goes or not. Same thing in c3 where the game automatically decides you want to hang out with all of the characters. Especially bad with Germ where all the options are trying to help them out of their funk. Yes, some of them you’re trying to help in less nice ways, but no matter what you’re still acting like you’re friendly. This theoretically could be fine if our previous relationship was different, but it’s very noticeable when there’s no compelling reason for your characters to be friends.
And unrelated to RC but related to there needing to be more options, it’s weird that there’s no skill check to avoid the cultist stabbing you. Haven’t you been a superhero half your life? How’s MC alive when they have no awareness of their surroundings? A cunning skill check or something to avoid the stabbing in the first place would go a long way. I didn’t go past the trial so maybe it gets better about this sort of thing, but overall I feel this game really suffers from a lack of choices and narrative dissonance.
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Here I am just wondering why Gladiator is dressed up as a centurion. But then again, that’s a very superhero-y thing to do.
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If this was the intent, I don’t think it was conveyed well at all. I came away with the impression the PC was in real danger of being killed and that Red Claw was at best not thinking about whether their attacks might result in the PC’s death.
Faculty/student non-intervention is an ineffective signal in a genre where “school bullies being ignored despite literally being in the process of giving the victims of their bullying life-threatening injuries” is well-established trope.
If there had been references to Red Claw pulling their punches or avoiding obviously lethal moves, I think that would’ve been a more effective way to get across what you intended.
But now you and Red Claw are staring at each other, a potentially lethal fight ahead of you. You could try to handle this fight responsibly or get as brutal as she is.
How do you proceed?
I really don’t know how else to interpret this though?
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This is a school where you get beaten bloody during your entrance exam and you’re not offered any kind of medical treatment afterwards. Harry Potter levels of unconcern for student welfare.
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I Interpreted it as a super hero schoolyard fight personally. I didnt read anything in that scene as either character being in any actual danger outside of what any fight between kids entails.
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I think what makes it feel really aggressive is that the PC didn’t really… do anything to trigger this? They were literally just minding their own business talking to someone; RC wouldn’t really know they were friends/acquaintances with Conjurer unless they were specifically eavesdropping either. And it’s made all the worse if, like me, you decided to pick options to try to pacify them and deescalate the fight right out the gate.
All of this combined doesn’t make it seem like a naturally escalating brawl, it makes it seem like your PC literally getting jumped for nothing at all, and RC taking out their aggression and issues on the first schmuck they could get their hands on—someone completely innocent at that, because the PC finished their exam after Red, so they weren’t even part of the crowd that didn’t cheer for them to begin with.
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The game does try to frame it as a 1 vs 1 fight you’ve both willingly agreed to rather than a victim desperately trying to protect themselves. And “potentially lethal” comes up as a descriptor more than once - this telegraphs a life-threatening situation, not a schoolyard brawl.
Like I said above, given the way we were introduced to the setting, I don’t find this whole situation too jarring, and fortunately my character could basically stay out of RC’s reach until it blew over. But the seriousness of it all could’ve been emphasized a little more.
Edit: I also would’ve liked a response to Germ that was a little more put-out, without going so far as to antagonize them. Like, “How often does your friend try to kill people when he’s not being watched?!”
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I might have too, were it not for the narrative describing the fight as “potentially lethal”.
To me that strongly implies there is a high chance of someone in the fight dying. That sure sounds like ‘actual’ danger to me; if risk of death is not actual danger, what is?
I would not describe the average schoolyard fight between kids as potentially lethal, even though every fight has a non-zero percent chance of death. Same way I would not describe pants as potentially lethal, even though a non-zero number of people have died putting their pants on.
If the intent was to get across that no one in the fight was in danger, I stand by my opinion that calling it “potentially lethal” was a poor choice of words.
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This isn’t an average school, this is a superhero school and that means that expectations are different. Fights are gonna be more dangerous because the power scale is higher. Fights are also gonna be more common because you’re superheroes and fighting is what you do. You might think “they’ll be less common because they’re more dangerous and they’ll be taken more seriously”, but getting into fights with other heroes and getting over them almost immediately is kind of a convention of the genre because superhero fights are cool.
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How are more dangerous, potentially lethal fights compatible with no one being in real danger?
I assume fights would be less common at a superhero school because it’s a superhero school, where presumably there should be an emphasis on not beating up your fellow students over nothing.
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You are applying real world logic to a superhero setting. KZV already answered your question at the end of their post:
Later in the storythe MC is stabbed with a evil dark magic knife only to make an immediate and full recovery. Also, the MC dies and comes back to life in the fight against Sprite.
Both the story and the genre (ie., comic books) which inspired it do not treat violence and near-death experiences with the same gravitas as we do in the real world because of how reversible they are.
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I’m just quoting the author’s explanation of why no one’s in actual danger there - not because of genre conventions or metaknowledge, but because “This fight isn’t the real thing. RC is attempting to assert dominance (which is stripped the moment they are chastised by Germ), but isn’t trying to kill you”.
That’s different from, “In this genre, potentially lethal battles don’t matter, you’re expected to gloss over stuff like that and move on”.
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To add to your already excellent points, half of the actual classes at the school involve sparring in the classroom, literally or proverbially. Sure, in those cases it’s in a controlled environment, under the eye of someone who (presumably … ahem, Gladiator) can and will stop it if something goes too far. But it goes to show that in the superhero world, picking a fight isn’t even an essentially hostile act. That’s not to say it’s always welcome or appropriate; it definitely isn’t. But what RC did, seen in that light, is more of a huge social faux pas than an unprovoked violent assault. (And it’s true that classes hadn’t started yet, but many of the students had some previous training and/or experience as sidekicks, so intense physicality and competitive spirit is practically a microcultural norm, even setting aside the fact that RC’s actual home culture was downright brutal.)
That said, I think there’s some missed potential for a more dramatic relationship arc. Even if it’s essential for the story for the PC and RC to at least have each other’s back as teammates, it definitely could have been a slower and more arduous process, and the story would have been better for having that as a possibility - but there’s so much else going on I can understand why that might have been glossed over to keep things moving.
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Hello, I just finished the game and I love it. I think I saw some small errors (a few missing letters, nothing bad). Also I accidentally foreshadowed my own ending XD, I called my team “New legacy” (because every time members are struggling with their parents’s legacy in some way) and in the epilogue, it said that the wardens were disbanded and my team filled the hole.
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To be clear, I’m fine with RC picking a fight for the reasons the author outlined above. It makes perfect sense. I’m just pointing out that these two things can’t simultaneously be true:
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You were in no danger, it was all basically posturing. That’s why no one really cared and you shouldn’t either.
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You were in lethal danger, but the game takes such things lightly. That’s why no one really cared and you shouldn’t either.
It certainly came across to me as if my character feared for her life in that scene, I was supposed to fight as if RC intended to kill her, and no one around seemed to care a single bit, which was very strange. I can get past it with a little metaknowledge and headcanon, though.
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You claim:
Both the story and the genre (ie., comic books) which inspired it do not treat violence and near-death experiences with the same gravitas as we do in the real world because of how reversible they are.
You’re both right and wrong to have this impression, and this is due to inconsistencies in tone throughout the story. Either one of two different framings are used to inform the player’s internal thought and resulting breadth of reaction for every story beat: one supporting your claim, and the other opposing. A set of parallel scenes that clearly demonstrate these differing framings are Red Claw’s fight with the PC, and Red Claw’s practice match with Z.
EXHIBIT A: THE FIGHT WITH RED CLAW
This scene would be one supporting your claim that superpowered violence is relatively chill, with different standards for life-and-death situations. Red Claw is allowed to freely use his powers on you, and you on him, and he draws blood.
Here is what the author says (SAME THREAD, POST 19):
You’re superpowered beings in a superpowered school. This fight isn’t the real thing. RC is attempting to assert dominance (which is stripped the moment they are chastised by Germ), but isn’t trying to kill you, unlike… (PARA 3)
Note that drawing blood is liable to make the reader assume killing intent in a fight against another character.
Let’s see if this lines up by examining the fight (quoted from the book):
- … you can feel the heat level rising in the immediate area. The tips of the tree leaves even wilt. (SUPPORTS CLAIM, as this is showboating without harming you)
- Revealing his large red hands, his claws grow longer and blacker before he lashes out, striking said tree… you reflexively dodge it (implying it was falling on you). The tree crashes to the ground between the two of you (still showboating, but WHAT IF YOUR PC DIDN’T/COULDN’T DODGE? NOT ALL PCs HAVE SUPER DURABILITY)
- … lashes wildly. In the chaos, Red Claw slices your chest and cuts through your uniform. It leaves a bloody wound… (‘wildly’ implies a loss of restraint. In all cases, bringing out a sharp object to a fistfight and then drawing blood is CRAZY escalation and will definitely make someone assume they are in a life-death battle. No mention of how deep the ‘bloody wound’ is but it can be construed as life threatening.)
- Red Claw reaches his arm back, summoning a strange, orange energy into his hand. You’re freaked out… (Actual use of an ability implied to cause severe harm, with appropriate reaction)
…potentially lethal…- Not to mention Red Claw punching you half a dozen times with a clearly enhanced physique, therefore even his regular punches are uses of his power.
The other students laugh and take bets the whole time. This is the author implying through a lighthearted, unserious tone that the fight is just spectacle and therefore nonlethal. My character did not think so - he is even scripted to show fear (tonal inconsistency).
We must make another set of points clear:
- The world logic does not make clear the cut-off point between nonlethal and lethal violence.
- A 2nd person POV is not omniscient. In the heat of the moment, my character will not immediately come to the conclusion that the bully literally slashing him open in a berserker rage is just a sympathetic underdog with a heart of gold trying to prove his dominance from a place of insecurity.
The logic behind Roland Barthes’ idea D*ath of the Author (please don’t ban me for using that word and ‘author’ in the same phrase, this is an actual legit writing concept published in 1967) comes into play here. A text’s meaning as derived by the reader may divert from authorial intent. And here, the author states that you are in no real danger, but if I were in my PC’s shoes, slashed, bleeding, with my opponent channeling an energy attack toward me, when by their inaction the in-world safety systems (if any even exist) have failed to protect me… I would absolutely see this as an attempt on my life, and make my choices accordingly.
Is there enough plausible deniability to believe you weren’t in any real danger? YMMV. Let’s continue on with the story…
EXHIBIT B: RED CLAW’S PRACTICE MATCH WITH Z
To provide context, this scene takes place within a controlled situation (a combat classroom). Z is paired up with Red Claw to spar against each other. However, Red Claw taunts Z (… of course he does) and Z immediately styles on the gran pendejo.
This is what the author believes is the ‘real thing’. He believes this is very much a life-or-death situation, and superpowered violence is very much treated with urgent and immediate gravity (by our character, though not by the authority figure whose job it was to prevent this supposed brouhaha from happening).
Here is what Z does (quoted from the book):
- He runs faster and faster in a circle around Red Claw… Red Claw is now in the center of a speed whirlwind… all the while, Z is launching attack after attack from every angle. He… sending Red Claw scrambling left and right, unable to regain his footing. (Z uses his powers to fight. Completely fine, because we’re all superpowered beings in a superpowered school.)
- This is no longer a friendly match… becomes evident when a splash of Red Claw’s black, acidic blood hits the ground… (Z uses his powers to bleed Red Claw. Light bloodshed is allowed, as seen in our earlier fight. Completely fine, because we’re all superpowered beings in a… WAIT a second! This is no longer a friendly match!)
Z does basically the same things to Red Claw that Red Claw does to you. He uses his superpowers. He draws blood. Yet one is a playground fight, the other is no longer a friendly match.
As mentioned previously, Exhibit B is set in a classroom presided over by a super powerful hero, Gladiator, who should be able to put a stop to this any time she wants, but she doesn’t. If a powerful authority figure does nothing while one student under her care seemingly beats another to death under her watch, then this implies to the reader that she believes that their conduct does not exceed friendly match etiquette (thus reinforcing your claim).
The author doesn’t seem to think the same way, though.
Straight from the author’s keyboard (SAME THREAD, POST 19):
… isn’t trying to kill you, unlike when Z attacks RC in chapter two, literally sending them to the infirmary… (PARA 3)
Even during Z’s attack on RC, you can just tell Gladiator to stop the fight (Sure, you could say it’s forcing you since you can’t just let Z kill RC if you want). (PARA 5)
From what we can see, the author’s intended reading unambiguously calls this attempted murder, creating little room for alternative interpretation and a great deal of tonal inconsistency with Gladiator’s inactivity. This gets so urgent and dire that your PC is compelled to take action, and save Red Claw whether you as the player want to or not (I didn’t).
In conclusion, Exhibit A (Red Claw fights you), argues that:
You are in no danger. This was just a play for dominance, just horsing around among immature school kids. The game takes violence and near-death experiences lightly. You shouldn’t read so deeply into this.
On the other hand, Exhibit B (Red Claw fights Z) paints an entirely different picture:
You can die / get hurt and it is a big deal. There are such things in this setting as going too far. The game does not take violence and near-death experiences lightly.
Both examples approach the same problem of tonal inconsistency from diametrically opposed positions. The first attempts to convey to the reader that they are not in danger, while the reader may feel markedly different. Meanwhile, the emotional impetus and call to action of the second hinges on the realisation that Red Claw is in danger, while the reader may, due to pattern recognition from the former scene, believe that the situation is under control.
Both characters do the exact same kind of harm to their victim to a T, but Red Claw lashing the player character “wildly” with massive claws and then channeling a devilish kamehameha isn’t considered “life-threatening”, but Z using his speedster powers is? Why are we being told through two different tonal framings to take one battle as serious, and the other as trivial?
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Do we ever find out what the glowy orange thing would’ve done to the MC if Germ hadn’t interrupted (and Conjurer was satisfied with just shouting “No!”)?
I was expecting my telekineticist to at least try and protect herself with a forcefield, but that didn’t come up.
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Sorry, I don’t understand what you’re getting at. It isn’t an average school so expectations are different – yes, exactly; that was the point I was making. Other than “You might think ‘they’ll be less common because they’re more dangerous and they’ll be taken more seriously,’” which I don’t think, I agree with all the statements in your post.
For clarity, I liked this scene. I didn’t have any problems with it when I played it – it was fun and I enjoyed it precisely because I (thought I) recognized it as the genre-typical fight it was. First day of school and I’m already in a life-or-death fight with The Bully who clearly has a complicated backstory and will probably become an ally later? Where’s the caller because I just got a bingo on my trope card. It’s dramatic, over-the-top, totally on-genre, and that’s what makes it good, I thought.
Which is why I was surprised to learn this was apparently not the reaction I was expected to have to this scene. That it was intended to feel like we weren’t in any real danger, that it was a trivial slap fight, and that – intuiting from other commenters – such fights are this setting’s equivalent of exchanging business cards. That death is so meaningless and reversible describing a fight as “potentially lethal” should not be taken as a statement employed to imply danger and build tension, but banal redundancy, like describing an apple as “potentially red” or warning a UFC match will be “potentially sweaty”.
All I’m saying is, if that is the desired experience, 1.) the prior associations around how “potentially lethal” is invoked work against cultivating that and 2.) I think it makes the fight way less cool.
Your milage will vary.
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Hahaha! Yup, you must be psychic 
Glad you enjoyed the story!
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