No one can live in a world that itself hasn't been lived in. Armor can't be strong if it's never taken a blow, a warrior can't be fearsome if he's never fought. For a game about spilling a lot of innards, there's not a single rough edge on anyone's clothing, not a single nick in any blade. It's just world building 101. And respectfully, I think what started as an homage to high fantasy turned into an artistic failure to include adequate description, detail or explanation. High fantasy and sufficient world detail are not exclusive.
Where is the thread that leads from what I'm seeing back to the game I'm actually playing?
It doesn't take you long to figure out the difference from an Ikea showroom and a real apartment. In fact the discrepancy is jarring. Every time I see my characters tasseled, flawlessly-stitched leather helm in a dialogue screen it is like finding a stock family photo of clearly unrelated strangers hanging on my fridge. I found that helmet in a crate on a beach... but it wasn't just a crate on a beach. It was flotsom from some destroyed ship that washed onto the beach, the wood was swollen and warped from the saltwater, a slimy layer of sea scum coated the whole thing. And what do I pull out of it? This perfect. leather. hat.
Nothing in the game tells you the crate looks like that. We know crates, we know beaches, we know people don't randomly keep crates on beaches. The important lesson here is that no one told me it DIDNT look like that. If someone had described to me a perfectly dry crate, placed on a beach with no signs of wear or exposure to sand or water... I'd be like this is a demon-trap.
That sense of suspicion and incredulity is exactly what the art style of this game constantly injects. And it actively counters the games own narrative in tone and quite often literally.
Take for example the leather armor you start with. The description reads as 'well worn with stains under the armpits.' Yet, according to my 'lying eyes' that thing is tighter, cleaner and higher quality than any of my suits in real life.
Every close-in shot affirms this dissonance. A tasseled helmet? A hazard for battle... and dense shrubbery. I've seen plenty of both, but you wouldn't know it looking at my tassels.
Clearly the dev's get this concept in general. They put a scar on Shadowhearts face, no doubt meant to key us into the idea that she's been in some fights, or that she's a melee fighter. Yet... she's wearing overly ornate, non-functional, brand new armor. So... which is it? What is your message to me as a player when I meet her? Is Lea'Zal an end-game warrior, because that's what her half-plate looks like. Or are all the Githyanki wearing polished tin with red rocks stuck to it?... because that's lvl 1 armor. The second I see another Githyanki and he's shirtless, and/or kicks my ass... what are the implications?
Again, where is the thread that leads from what I'm seeing back to the game I'm actually playing?
Last edited by Stray952; 16/10/20 03:32 AM.
