Post by kalwinters on Jan 22, 2020 1:33:20 GMT -8
I’m sure Love in Space is sick of Liberation Day feedback, but I’ve been tormented by the thought of not at least trying to get what I have to say heard, especially at a time when it can still make a difference. So, you’ll have to forgive me for this.
Liberation day broke my heart, but the Re:turn dlc and the recent Q&A’s, while they didn’t ‘fix’ anything, proved to me that LiS does care. I hope that Lib Day was just a clumsy setup to a fantastic next part.
1. More little ‘meaningless’ choices: In my opinion, Versta was the pinnacle of the dialogue in Sunrider, specifically the game’s system as Ongess has to take the cake in terms of narrative. I absolutely loved the small talk with the crew before and after. Ava doing her diligence by showing you different points of view, even if she didn’t personally believe in them, Asaga telling you her decision that she believed no matter what, and Chigara telling you she was too busy diddling fusion reactors to have an opinion at all! Liberation day lacked these almost entirely. On paper, these choices did nothing but change two lines of dialogue and nudge around affection/prince/moralist numbers, but the essence of them did so much more. They let you flesh out ‘your’ Kayto before the big meaningful choice, whether to save the diplomats or not, giving the you a much more engaging way to gather information than endless monologues, not to mention giving you a window into how your companions will judge you for each outcome and their personalities as a whole. I know having more than one or two proper branching paths is nearly impossible task, butterfly effect and all, and I’m not asking for that. MOA was marvelous while really having only three impactful decisions amongst several dozen dialogue choices. These interactive chats have to return, please. I promise you, for what they cost to implement they can do nothing but improve the game.
2. New places/world building: We didn’t go to a single new place of note in Lib day, no unique planets, star systems, or even space stations, and I think that’s a big reason why it felt so small. Yes we got to step foot on the paradox core, but before doing so we knew it was built by PACT and blew up star systems, and that’s all we knew by the time we left it and cast it into the fires of Helion. I can’t imagine it happening again in Captain’s Return, but I’m putting this in here because I was shocked it happened in Lib Day.
3. Voice acting: I miss the original cast of English VA’s, pretty much the whole cast was fantastic, especially Icari’s, and I know some of them still are in the business. I would really love LiS trying to do something again with some of them, even if it doesn’t pan out. I’m also not sure how I feel about fully voicing. I’ve looked into the pricing, and I believe LiS when they say it didn’t have a huge monetary impact on the development. That was my main worry, and I still think it would be resources better spent elsewhere, but if LiS thinks it would better the game then go for it. I just don’t want it to lead to less dialogue and little choices.
4. Personalities:
• -Ava was her same cynical, suspicious self, but not incapable of bending away from those traits. Would’ve liked for her to offer up a bit more of that ol’ Crescentia wisdom.
• -I liked Claude’s development personally, I think she has a lot of potential, so long as her powers aren’t just used as plot devices, like cheaply saving the crew from death and such. The reveal where she used her powers to save herself was fine, but from now on her powers should be used frivolously, like to cause mischief aboard the ship harassing whichever girl the Captain fancies over her, or practical jokes on Kayto to get attention. At least until she finds a way to… deal with… Sola, then you can go nuts. Such is her personality. Just make it relatively clear she’s using her powers for antics, so it’s not like she just forgets she had powers until the time comes to clean house.
• -Kryska had some good growth, forced to choose between Shields and the Alliance. Would like to see her faith in either of those shaken some more.
• -Sola was still her stoic self, but she didn’t show that vulnerable side she had in MOA as far as I remember, and I don’t think she ever had a moment where she got past her abuse during her time at Ryuvia. I mean, on one of the dialogue paths when you talk to her on the beaches of Lydia, she sort of moves past it, but it would be weird for her to get over it in the same conversation we find out about it. So, some things to explore.
• -Icari is the one I’m most worried about. Even in Re:turn, which tried to right many wrongs, she still wasn’t herself, for no good reason that I can see. It’s more than her not doing badass things, which Re:turn tried to remedy. In MOA, she used to hurl insults and point out flaws in the entire rest of the cast, and I think that was a far better representation of her insecurity than the constant blubbering embarrassed state she was in during Lib Day and Re:turn. But Kal! Icari cried when you first met her at Versta and saved the diplomats! Yeah, but that was after she chose to let go of her hatred of PACT for the first time, you know, the only thing that had given her meaning in life for literal decades. I can visualize my grievance perfectly with the scene where Kryska tried to assassinate Kayto after the massacre. The Icari I knew in MOA was the last person on the entire cast who would graciously stomach a betrayal. She would have shot the pistol right out of Kryska’s hand, staring coldly as Kryska slowly scooted back from her in numb terror, pale as a ghost, barely able to believe that Icari had actually fired at her. “You’re lucky I’m such a good shot, Soldier Boy, that stupidity of yours almost got you killed.” The return of the ‘soldier boy’ insult would represent the damage to relationship, just one more thing the prototypes have destroyed. Please leave the tears and tsun for when she’s drunk or something, I would actually find it kind of funny if she was a soppy drunk, just give some reason for the cracks in her persona that isn’t something as trivial as social awkwardness, she’s too hardened by the world for that.
• -What to do with Asaga… It’s not like she can go back to being the dopey hero of justice, which I was not very fond of in the first place. I liked her energy in Re:turn, but again, I think the events of Lib Day would have matured her beyond that. As for atoning for everything she did, I don’t want do see her flagellating herself and apologizing for forever either, a promise once or twice to do good would be enough. I don’t know.
• -Chigara. I seriously hope LiS has a knockout plan for her future after Lib Day. The loss of her and Grey left a huge hole in the cast. Personally, while I might have sacrificed the fantastic character of Grey to shift the tide of the war, I would have never sacrificed Chigara in a million years. Her personality brought a refreshing, aloof innocence that no other crewmember comes close to sharing, something that stood out to a point where it can’t really be replaced without blatantly feeling like ‘oh, here’s the Chigara replacement.’ Her duality with Ava at the end of MOA, where they both got to see underneath the facade of Shield’s confidence to a degree the rest of the crew never achieved, Ava choosing duty and Chigara choosing her heart. I wish this had been played upon more even in MOA, where Shields was giving his speech before Helion, Chigara should have been the only girl not cheering on the flight deck, knowing that deep down he didn’t believe a word he was saying, in the end, PACT had won every battle he would ever fight with the slaughter of Cera.
• -Kayto. I sincerely believe he should be a nastier person, specifically to his enemies, after all he’s a man filled with hatred and has little left to lose. His vow to Fontana at the Lib Day massacre sets this up well too. Any dark deeds would give the cast a reason to actually confront him personally, rather than just talk at him about the war and day to day stuff and such.
• -Fontana. I feel like him shooting Chigara was a good moment for his personality, showing he’s prone to giving in to his fear. His fear of the Alliance’s retribution would’ve strongly echoed the fear of the New Empire’s retribution during the Compact revolution, evoking that violent response. However, with the Captain’s edition extended ending, he seems awfully calm for someone who’s entire life’s dream is at risk from all sides. I’m not saying he should become some wide-eyed cackling crazy person, that wouldn’t be good, but he should definitely be jaded, weary, devoid of any shred of his past mercy or smugness, suffering no enemies or traitors, like a father forced to defend his family.
I think these practically essay length posts myself and a few others have written are a testament to just how great Sunrider is. If any of you people at LiS like what I’ve put down here, I’d be more than willing to help with story writing. I freaking love this series to death.
Liberation day broke my heart, but the Re:turn dlc and the recent Q&A’s, while they didn’t ‘fix’ anything, proved to me that LiS does care. I hope that Lib Day was just a clumsy setup to a fantastic next part.
1. More little ‘meaningless’ choices: In my opinion, Versta was the pinnacle of the dialogue in Sunrider, specifically the game’s system as Ongess has to take the cake in terms of narrative. I absolutely loved the small talk with the crew before and after. Ava doing her diligence by showing you different points of view, even if she didn’t personally believe in them, Asaga telling you her decision that she believed no matter what, and Chigara telling you she was too busy diddling fusion reactors to have an opinion at all! Liberation day lacked these almost entirely. On paper, these choices did nothing but change two lines of dialogue and nudge around affection/prince/moralist numbers, but the essence of them did so much more. They let you flesh out ‘your’ Kayto before the big meaningful choice, whether to save the diplomats or not, giving the you a much more engaging way to gather information than endless monologues, not to mention giving you a window into how your companions will judge you for each outcome and their personalities as a whole. I know having more than one or two proper branching paths is nearly impossible task, butterfly effect and all, and I’m not asking for that. MOA was marvelous while really having only three impactful decisions amongst several dozen dialogue choices. These interactive chats have to return, please. I promise you, for what they cost to implement they can do nothing but improve the game.
2. New places/world building: We didn’t go to a single new place of note in Lib day, no unique planets, star systems, or even space stations, and I think that’s a big reason why it felt so small. Yes we got to step foot on the paradox core, but before doing so we knew it was built by PACT and blew up star systems, and that’s all we knew by the time we left it and cast it into the fires of Helion. I can’t imagine it happening again in Captain’s Return, but I’m putting this in here because I was shocked it happened in Lib Day.
3. Voice acting: I miss the original cast of English VA’s, pretty much the whole cast was fantastic, especially Icari’s, and I know some of them still are in the business. I would really love LiS trying to do something again with some of them, even if it doesn’t pan out. I’m also not sure how I feel about fully voicing. I’ve looked into the pricing, and I believe LiS when they say it didn’t have a huge monetary impact on the development. That was my main worry, and I still think it would be resources better spent elsewhere, but if LiS thinks it would better the game then go for it. I just don’t want it to lead to less dialogue and little choices.
4. Personalities:
• -Ava was her same cynical, suspicious self, but not incapable of bending away from those traits. Would’ve liked for her to offer up a bit more of that ol’ Crescentia wisdom.
• -I liked Claude’s development personally, I think she has a lot of potential, so long as her powers aren’t just used as plot devices, like cheaply saving the crew from death and such. The reveal where she used her powers to save herself was fine, but from now on her powers should be used frivolously, like to cause mischief aboard the ship harassing whichever girl the Captain fancies over her, or practical jokes on Kayto to get attention. At least until she finds a way to… deal with… Sola, then you can go nuts. Such is her personality. Just make it relatively clear she’s using her powers for antics, so it’s not like she just forgets she had powers until the time comes to clean house.
• -Kryska had some good growth, forced to choose between Shields and the Alliance. Would like to see her faith in either of those shaken some more.
• -Sola was still her stoic self, but she didn’t show that vulnerable side she had in MOA as far as I remember, and I don’t think she ever had a moment where she got past her abuse during her time at Ryuvia. I mean, on one of the dialogue paths when you talk to her on the beaches of Lydia, she sort of moves past it, but it would be weird for her to get over it in the same conversation we find out about it. So, some things to explore.
• -Icari is the one I’m most worried about. Even in Re:turn, which tried to right many wrongs, she still wasn’t herself, for no good reason that I can see. It’s more than her not doing badass things, which Re:turn tried to remedy. In MOA, she used to hurl insults and point out flaws in the entire rest of the cast, and I think that was a far better representation of her insecurity than the constant blubbering embarrassed state she was in during Lib Day and Re:turn. But Kal! Icari cried when you first met her at Versta and saved the diplomats! Yeah, but that was after she chose to let go of her hatred of PACT for the first time, you know, the only thing that had given her meaning in life for literal decades. I can visualize my grievance perfectly with the scene where Kryska tried to assassinate Kayto after the massacre. The Icari I knew in MOA was the last person on the entire cast who would graciously stomach a betrayal. She would have shot the pistol right out of Kryska’s hand, staring coldly as Kryska slowly scooted back from her in numb terror, pale as a ghost, barely able to believe that Icari had actually fired at her. “You’re lucky I’m such a good shot, Soldier Boy, that stupidity of yours almost got you killed.” The return of the ‘soldier boy’ insult would represent the damage to relationship, just one more thing the prototypes have destroyed. Please leave the tears and tsun for when she’s drunk or something, I would actually find it kind of funny if she was a soppy drunk, just give some reason for the cracks in her persona that isn’t something as trivial as social awkwardness, she’s too hardened by the world for that.
• -What to do with Asaga… It’s not like she can go back to being the dopey hero of justice, which I was not very fond of in the first place. I liked her energy in Re:turn, but again, I think the events of Lib Day would have matured her beyond that. As for atoning for everything she did, I don’t want do see her flagellating herself and apologizing for forever either, a promise once or twice to do good would be enough. I don’t know.
• -Chigara. I seriously hope LiS has a knockout plan for her future after Lib Day. The loss of her and Grey left a huge hole in the cast. Personally, while I might have sacrificed the fantastic character of Grey to shift the tide of the war, I would have never sacrificed Chigara in a million years. Her personality brought a refreshing, aloof innocence that no other crewmember comes close to sharing, something that stood out to a point where it can’t really be replaced without blatantly feeling like ‘oh, here’s the Chigara replacement.’ Her duality with Ava at the end of MOA, where they both got to see underneath the facade of Shield’s confidence to a degree the rest of the crew never achieved, Ava choosing duty and Chigara choosing her heart. I wish this had been played upon more even in MOA, where Shields was giving his speech before Helion, Chigara should have been the only girl not cheering on the flight deck, knowing that deep down he didn’t believe a word he was saying, in the end, PACT had won every battle he would ever fight with the slaughter of Cera.
• -Kayto. I sincerely believe he should be a nastier person, specifically to his enemies, after all he’s a man filled with hatred and has little left to lose. His vow to Fontana at the Lib Day massacre sets this up well too. Any dark deeds would give the cast a reason to actually confront him personally, rather than just talk at him about the war and day to day stuff and such.
• -Fontana. I feel like him shooting Chigara was a good moment for his personality, showing he’s prone to giving in to his fear. His fear of the Alliance’s retribution would’ve strongly echoed the fear of the New Empire’s retribution during the Compact revolution, evoking that violent response. However, with the Captain’s edition extended ending, he seems awfully calm for someone who’s entire life’s dream is at risk from all sides. I’m not saying he should become some wide-eyed cackling crazy person, that wouldn’t be good, but he should definitely be jaded, weary, devoid of any shred of his past mercy or smugness, suffering no enemies or traitors, like a father forced to defend his family.
I think these practically essay length posts myself and a few others have written are a testament to just how great Sunrider is. If any of you people at LiS like what I’ve put down here, I’d be more than willing to help with story writing. I freaking love this series to death.