Originally Posted by Tuco
She made her choices.
Originally Posted by MelivySilverRoot
But at the end, people make their own choices.

Their mistakes are not yours smile

That's exactly where the issue lies though. It doesn't feel like her choice because her going to fight more goblins is completely inconsistent with her dialogue and responses, not to mention her behavior as an NPC. This is her entire dialogue played in the best way possible:

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

So here we have her acknowledging we are right, she calms down, admits that killing goblins won't change anything and walks peacefully away with Memnos being supportive. That's it, at this point in the story Arka's arc should no longer revolve around revenge and instead revolve around grief.

But then look at this messy dialogue inconsistency where immediately after she acts as if we fueled her rage, but then at the blacksmith is completely sad because she's been in the grove pondering about our talk. You only have 15 seconds in total after the original dialogue to get all of this dialogue before she despawns and dies:

[Linked Image from i.imgur.com]

So the inconsistencies based on the second dialogue which is visually split into two:

  • All of this dialogue happens literally in just 15 seconds after the first dialogue before she despawns, yet her mood is incredibly different before and after she gets to the Blacksmith.
  • If you do not follow her and she walks out of the minimap range, she despawns completely and you do not get any of this dialogue even though she has plenty and is supposed to have one after some time has passed.
  • If you talk to her before she leaves the room, she acts annoyed as if you used confrontational choices during the original dialogue. Makes no sense considering we just reasoned with her and she calmed down.
  • If you listen to her talk at the Blacksmith, she is sad and bored, but wondering when the goblins will come so she can have some target practice. Implying she's waiting at the grove for for the goblins to come.
  • If you talk to her while she is at the Blacksmith, she acts sad because she's been thinking a lot about our talk, which implies that some meaningful time has to have passed for her to be able to think about it to such extent. How can that be though when the talk JUST happened. So this line seems to be intended for later, but later never comes since she despawns and dies.

So this makes me believe that Arka's story is actually unfinished and that these are two separate dialogues for two different outcomes, but for some reason feel jammed into one with just a singular outcome in which she always dies.

  • The first half of the dialogue definitely falls into her being consumed by rage either by killing Sazza or sparing Sazza through confrontational dialogue choices. So the way it should play out is after killing Sazza or sparing her reluctantly, she becomes annoyed, mentions leaving with Memnos and walks off screen to despawn only to be later found dead alongside Memnos near the camp.
  • The second half of the dialogue near the Blacksmith however falls into reasoning with her and her remaining at the grove with Memnos. So the way this one is supposed to play out is her walking over to the Blacksmith after sparing Sazza and telling Memnos she is sad and bored, wondering when the goblins will attack so she can have some target practice. And after some meaningful time has passed, we'd find out she's been thinking a lot about our talk. She lives, but also grieves for her brother.


This way it would feel cohesive with actual player choices being taken into consideration and actual NPC behavior logic being in place where she does not despawn so forcefully. Unfortunately though this doesn't happen. Instead she instantly despawns or if you follow her you have 15 seconds to experience this inconsistent dialogue that makes no sense given the timeframe, after which she just despawns in front of you and dies.