Extremism aside, I question the apparent policy of making the Councillors and Generals as unlikable as you have made them. I have watched a number of "Let's Play"s of the beta Campaign on YouTube, and I can say with relative certainty that you have made a good job of making me loathe every single one of them, thus far. They're all utterly unsympathetic.

Yorric: Bigot.

Catherine: Bigot.

Edmund: Bigot.

Fastaff: Asshole.

Trinculo: Asshole.

Scarlett: Dumbass.

Henry: Dumbass.

That leaves the princesses and Prospera, who haven't been introduced yet, Grumio and Maxos, who are largely non-characters, and Oberon, who I thus far haven't heard much from. Hopefully those characters can turn out to be comparatively likable and sympathetic, because I firmly believe it is sorely needed at this point. Making the player hate his or her immediate companions is in my opinion not a very good recipe for a pleasant gameplay experience.

These characters aren't even the good kind of unlikable - that is to say, people whom you would do your best to avoid in real life, but makes for a thoroughly enjoyable screen-presence in a game/movie/book - They're just unlikable-unlikable. From the second they enter the screen to the second they leave, you just want to punch them in the face until they stop breathing.

I take from your comments that you apparently intend for them to go through little character arcs in order to become more rounded, or something. This is good, although you need to pull of some serious storytelling in order to save some of these characters. I can't even imagine what monumental events you would have to put in the storyline in order to make Catherine stop being a female supremacist or Edmund stop being a racist and it still being plausible.

(On the note of Edmund, I would perhaps point out that using him as a statement against racism doesn't really work when all the ambassadors of the different races are so utterly stereotyped as to confirm every prejudice.)

---

To be clear, I wouldn't object to the characters being unpleasant bastards if they were only unpleasant bastards in a way that would make me still enjoy being around them. Sort of like how you can enjoy a good villain in a movie. These, however, aren't. I just want to kick them straight off of my airship.


Last edited by Lusketrollet; 03/08/13 01:06 PM.