I think that if you get the Director ending, you should be allowed to get U to rejoin the AIU. I know they have a huge vendetta against it but 1. they still care about stopping anomalies and 2. their anger was at the AIU being too ineffective and cutting them loose for doing their job as I understand. If they had other reasons to hate it, I didn’t pick up on it and I still find the idea of getting them to rejoin for our sake way more interesting in a way that make just as much sense for their character. Having to pick between one specific ending to get a RO and another where you accomplish great things just doesn’t work here imo. Both endings were great on their own but I dislike the dichotomy.
I rather liked it, this game doesn’t feel like one where some sort of truly golden ending where you get everything belongs. No matter how successful you get, no matter what path you take, there’s always going to be a feeling of melancholy at the end of it all
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Regardless of whether it feels like a game with a golden ending, this particular dichotomy doesn’t make sense to me and even if it did, I don’t think I’d find it any less frustrating because it fit.
I mean, that path is where you basically choose that you don’t want to be with Uly, when they effectively make you pick “it’s either me or your job”. It’s a bridge you set on fire, blew up and nuked it from the orbit to make sure. There’s no going back from that, not with the sort of person Uly is.
Now, not being able to even go on a frickin’ date with Castle when you are the director who gets to decide whether having relationships is allowed in AIU? That is pure bullshit. /s
(also, Uly’s issue with AIU isn’t really that’s ineffective or anything like that, but the way it’s built on effectively enslaving people into the service. That’s why the think they’ll “free the MC” if they manage to convince you to go with them)
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Yes that’s exactly my complaint.
In fairness - if Uly knew you were going to become the head of the organization they might’ve put up with it. But for all they knew, you were going to go back to being an AIU puppet with no autonomy, and you presumably were for a good few years.
Since they couldn’t possibly know how it would turn out, it makes perfect sense they’d have a ‘me or your job’ ultimatum.
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I don’t even think that would do it. They really hate the AIU, for good reason. The MC is not changing how the department operates, they do what they’re doing because it works. Uly hates them because of that; an MC who becomes the director is just gonna be the chief butcher.
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Why can’t we like, tell them then?
In any case, all the watsonian justification isn’t going to help since I’m going at this from a doyleist perspective. It can make all the sense for the characters to make these decisions in the world but that doesn’t mean that it’s best to have designed and written the endings this way. I’m not saying that these endings are objectively worse than how I’d have preferred it but if I don’t like the ending and it’s the ending is what makes most sense for the characters, my logical conclusion is not going to be that the ending is good, it’s going to be that the story would be better with slight adjustments to said character. Obviously the writer doesn’t feel that way but not agreeing with the writer on this specific choice is kinda the reason I posted in the first place.
The doyleist explanation given above was that it fit the tone of the game to have endings like this and I just don’t think “the ending fits the tone” is enough here. There are quite a few ways you could have the ending fit the tone without this particular dichotomy. And even if it makes sense for the characters here, I’d say the alternative could easily make just as much sense so long as it was written well. And if two hypothetical endings work just as well, I’m going to pick the one I prefer for other reasons. Nothing about the tone of the story or even themes is going to make be less frustrated by pitting a love interest against a broader ending. I just generally dislike that trope. Some tropes frustrate certain people no matter how well they’re executed and honestly I’ve seen this trope executed a whole lot better.
That’s not saying any of this ruins the whole game for me. It’s a fantastic experience. But I feel this is a low point. Every story has them. It is what it is.
Tell them what? That you will become the agency director 10 years in the future? The MC obviously isn’t privy to this knowledge when they make their decision. And 10 years later Uly isn’t going to care, because you’ve spent those 10 years on the AIU leash (and then holding the leash of your AIU “indentured workers”) instead of picking to be with them. They’re simply not going to forget it, kiss and make up. Not to mention by not choosing them you’re effectively making them fall out of love with the MC and they no longer care.
Well but again, telling them what in the hospital, exactly? As it is you either tell them that yes, you want to be with them, or no, you don’t appreciate him trying to control your life and hence you’ll do as you please and they can fuck off, thankyouverymuch. What do you imagine the MC should be telling them instead?
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I feel like just telling them in the hospital should at least lead to further conversation.
What’s there to tell?
I found another route last night and realized I’ve been drawing Uly wrong this whole time. I was fucking pissed because I spent several hours drawing Uly memes that turned out to be lore inaccurate so I made this.
I also decided to play with colors a bit.
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Great book! I have a few questions, however.
- Did Ulysses try to tell Whiskey about what he has found about Uvarov and Warp drive before he got shot by him or not? It comes off very unclear in the text - he’s incredibly shaken by Whiskey putting AIU over him, but he doesn’t give any details.
- What led to Whiskey putting a bullet into his lover? The mere thought about doing it again causes severe distress with high longing, and doing it causes a panic attack in Whiskey with high longing - he loves him, deeply, and it must have been something incredibly major. We don’t get to see a confrontation or reasoning for the fact that Ulysses raised a gun on Whiskey as well either. What was the confrontation? How did it look?
- Whiskey describes himself as such: That starving street kid from Sahara; that petty criminal who did his crimes with his best friend Ulysses; that delinquent forced into the Academy; that rifleman who turned to the bottle after the things he saw; that purposeless, retired, drifting vagabond…. Yet there are mentions of being a ward with Shonin (“It refers to me being a ward of the state,” you say. “I never knew my parents.”) and being taken into nature preserve once or twice by his own school in, again, a conversation with Shonin (You shrug. “I was a city kid. My school took me once or twice, but I don’t remember much.”). Is he a starving street orphan who turned to crime and then got forced into army or a orphan from a children’s home who went to school? Does school in Shonin conversation refer to the Academy, which seems military in nature, or to school provided by children’s home?
- Proctor states that, I quote, “It runs deep. It’s connected to politicians across galactic sectors. It’s connected to the Navy, too. Even the Swordfish Transportation Agency—a megacorporation with a staggering thirty percent market share of all Arks across the galaxy—has been indicted”. If the degree of corruption is this steep, why hasn’t AIU done something before the ten years after Ulysses’ attack have passed? And, to add onto that, why does Proctor state that “Ulysses made his bed back on Earth, inside that Uvarov office nearly a decade ago” if, in the end, only he has directly opposed the Warp break that would’ve led to apocalypse by stealing Uvarov prototype engine? AIU can freely give false identities to Whiskey, and it seems that no one knows how Ulysses looks in person, given lack of reaction from GU marines or Driver/Castle when they see his face. Shouldn’t Ulysses also be pardoned? He prevented the anomalycalypse for ten years while Whiskey has only stopped a second attempt with his stolen drive.
- Why wasn’t AIU tipped off by all outside communications stopping from Prometheus? It’s a factory and hive world with massive human population and heavy industry and it also has headquarters of Uvarov on it together with residences of many important and powerful people. Isn’t it a sure sign of anomaly cult preparing for summonings?
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It wouldn’t necessarily be an automatic sign though they’d still probably look into it pretty quickly. The maintenance excuse wouldn’t hold for long for a total blackout. Nonetheless, there ARE some mundane (comparatively) reasons for a blackout of the scale and we contacted the AIU and GUNI before they had the chance to investigate.
They were investigating it this entire time. Until now, they couldn’t figure out what the actual master plan was or confirm it was specifically a cult involved. Just that SOMETHING was amiss.
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Think of something that you hate so dearly and would NEVER give even an ounce of time to.
That’s Ulysses/Ulyssa towards the organization.
Look at the unchangeable haters. Not the ones misled but those that REALLY hate. They won’t change their mind. (Even since locked away since 07, ex won’t be released by either R or D side. That insane of hatred.)
Seen that it is either Uly or UIA is fine.
Another x friend that hates equality (learned late!) hasn’t changed in several years.
Uly is believable to me. I got more examples of worse. Only days running isn’t going to change a mind that drastic.
Edit to add: We only go several days of running. Uly has been doing that for 9 years by the way. Meanwhile, our running wasn’t being chased down prior to Castle/Driver contact.
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Ulysses and Whiskey but they’re doing Bayonetta poses
When will my addiction to making W4 fanart end?
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When ITFO 2 releases then you’ll go to that? But end up returning anyway?
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Again, it can make as much sense IN UNIVERSE as you want. My concern has NOTHING to do with whether it’s internally logical or not; I didn’t say it was a plot hole. Things SHOULD be internally logical but that’s not the sole criteria for me liking it. I was, a few comments ago, stating that this aspect of their character should have been CHANGED. I don’t think it’s integral enough to their character that this would undermine it. The last second ending choice was the only time I felt their hatred of the AIU felt essential to the plot. Not coincidentally, it was the only time I felt genuinely frustrated with them rather than interesting.
?! I’m confused here.
So you read it as they only hated AIU at end?
I think my memory is right. They didn’t like AIU throughout and was only helping you to stop/finish off the corporation. Which was both of our goals, with/without AIU attachment. Depending on player choice if player still likes the AIU or not. Goal regardless is same. Destroy Uvarov, with or without Uly’s aid.
Edit: I recall Uly ALWAYS hating AIU.
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