Noblesse Oblige Discussion Thread (Spoilers Within)

The Crème MC isn’t mentioned in this one as it’s self-contained, but the Noblesse Oblige MC can have gone to the same school as them when they were younger, or they could have ended up both going to Gessner University. I considered referencing them like in Royal Affairs, but I decided not to as I wanted to focus very closely on this MC and their current situation - especially as I was using fewer words to make the game.

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Oh geez, my bad! That’s it. I confused the two lol it’s ‘Royal affairs’ that you see the prefect NPC right?

Sorry lol

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Oh no worries! :smile: Yes the Crème MC can have some time “onscreen” in Royal Affairs, mostly if they’re a teacher or romanced Rosario.

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Is Blood Money part of this series too?

No, Blood Money is in a different setting and is totally separate!

In case anyone missed the announcement, there is a demo and author interview up here!

For those who played the WIP demo, I added a lot to these chapters during beta testing in response to feedback and changed various things! In particular there are a lot more worldbuilding details, more about the MC’s background, family, and life before the game, changes to Danelak and Rys’s scenes in Chapter 3 to improve flow and foreshadowing for later revelations, and some big Chapter 2 additions showing your lessons with Pascha and more time getting to know the characters. I’m really pleased with the additions and feel they made the game a lot richer - many thanks as always to the beta testers who had a great eye for where there could be more depth and detail.

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hello, I’m not sure where to ask this. I’ve been really enjoying the story but I was wondering who the poly options are? and thank you for including them, it’s hard to come by stories with good poly like in creme de la creme!

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I beta tested it, and if memory serves there is a poly option. I’ll try to find out which Ro’s the option is for.

I found in another thread that one of the poly options are for Pascha and Danelak.

I am not sure if there are poly options with other ROs. If I find any other poly options I can let you know

Edit: @HannahPS beat me to it.

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You can romance Danelak and Pascha in a polyamorous relationship. It’s based on some very spoilery plot actions that you can take that involve teaming up to resolve some late-game issues the characters want help with, but in general in the early parts of the game make sure to keep up their relationships and don’t say "I only want to keep this professional” to either of them.

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Thank you both! i appreciate it! those are my two favourites anyways, so I’m glad! really excited to replay it knowing that :blush:

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Wonderful, I hope you enjoy!

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I’m drafting a retrospective blogpost about making Noblesse Oblige (the one I did about Creme was fun and I’d like to do it sooner than 3 years after release) and it’s reminding me of some of the feelings I have about it and how much fun I had writing! In the interest of not simply writing a post that’s pleading-face emoji all over the place, are there questions you have about the writing process or anything else to do with the game that you’d like to see me talk about?

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What was it like writing a story that took place in the same world but was so tonally different?

Why did you decide to write a game in which all the ROs were not merely flawed, but sinister at best and full of dark secrets? Was it difficult to write characters that were both ominous and appealing?

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Give us some insight into the development of this story! What were the unused elements and why this darker setting?

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And here is my six-month Noblesse Oblige retrospective! It includes how the writing process went, inspirations, structure thoughts, and some things I learned from making it. I hope you enjoy reading, and I’m happy to answer anything I missed, or any other burning (heh) questions!

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Thank you for sharing this!! It’s so cool to see what your gothic influences were – so much love for those picks, especially Jackson (not sure if this is a direct link, but I felt some Merricat DNA in Pascha). Were there any specific gothic motifs that you knew you wanted to incorporate while you were writing?

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No wonder I love this game so much - the list of inspirations is pretty much half “things I loved” and half “things I desperately want to read.” And it’s a special treat to read about the creative process that went into a work for which I feel such affection and connection.

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A lot of it was environmental atmosphere - storms, isolation, crashing waves, and crumbling grandeur. Making the estate very mazelike and forbidding (with some snug bits) helped with that. I think the major characters all have elements of some gothic archetypes. Pascha has some spooky-isolated tones (Merricat makes sense - entertainingly I don’t think I consciously drew on her when writing but they’re very much of a type), Danelak has elements of me prodding at the “devoted servant of the castle” figure, and Rys is a shameless example of a very specific trope I adore of “a flirty stranger turns up at a sinister mansion to upend things”. (Certain MCs would fit this too!)

Also I feel like you can’t have a massive mansion in this kind of story without at least the threat of a fire somewhere :laughing:

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Just finished reading. It was delightful! It was such a treat to return to the setting of Crème de la Crème. I completed Pascha’s route for my first playtrough.

Summary

I went for the path where they set the manor on fire and escape. I am not sure if there are any other ways to complete it. But it kinda felt like I was enabling Pascha in order to stay on his romance route? To me, it felt as if he might be bipolar(?) because even in the epilogue he still seemed kind of erratic. It just made me not feel very secure about Pascha’s and MC’s happily ever after because the MC seems like a bad influence for him.

I will try to do other romance routes next. But, honestly, I would probably feel bad leaving Pascha by himself ahah. He just seems so enigmatic, and I really like him as a character. I just want to hug him and proteccc him forever lol.

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There are.