The problem is that sometimes the masks turn neutral at the end of the fight, after Ethel is dead, and sometimes they don’t. I have not found a pattern to this. I thought it might be tied to Ethel getting in her surrender speech but that’s not it. It makes no sense to me that the behaviour isn’t consistent, and that even if they do stay hostile you can flee and come back and they are neutral.
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I speculate that you may not harm the masks at all, nor Mayrina + husband, or they will still be hostile after the Vettel's death, or become so again.
That doesn’t seem to be it either. I’ve completed this fight a number of times in different playthroughs, including ones when I didn’t harm the masks during the fight and they still remained hostile after Ethel died, whereas in other games when I thought I’d done exactly the same thing they got an attitude adjustment at the end of the fight and turned neutral. And recall, it’s not that they remain hostile permanently, as I can run away and come back and they’re no longer hostile and will talk to me, though only one has a mind left.
Given the behaviour is so unpredictable from a user perspective I still think it probably is a bug, but if it’s intended and there is some pattern that I’ve not spotted, then I think it’s poor design and should be changed. I can metagame and run away and come back to talk to the freed mask, but why on earth would a new player discover this? I suspect only people replaying the game who have had the masks turn neutral immediately in another playthrough would even try, so it feels that all that having the masks sometimes stay hostile for longer is doing is cutting some users off from fun content for no good reason I can see!
