Originally Posted by Vystria
While increased dialogue would go a ways to improving player reception of the character for reasons you've stated, unless they come with some sort of meaningful reactivity I doubt those complaints will subside.

I don't disagree with your point about the need for increased reactivity, though I think his role as a plot device (I don't deny he functions as a plot device, I just think his character is much more interesting than any of our companions) restricts just how much he can have.

Letting players interact more with him would go down well with both fans and detractors, as I said. Distrustful players can be more confrontational and maybe even ask him to stay out of their heads if he bothers them that much. Perhaps interactions could take the form of players approaching him in the Prism instead, giving them a feeling of greater agency.

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To this, people would argue that the Emperor being unable to restrain itself and lash out at us would be a personality flaw - which could be believable. Except, the Emperor is an illithid, the Emperor makes it clear that it likes being illithid. It's never really made clear how much of the host's memories and personality were left in the Emperor. So for me, this would be an area that I think the game would need to expand upon to allow for the Emperor to be more reactive and also not come across simply as the game giving the players predisposed to disliking the Emperor reasons to dislike the Emperor for that final choice. It's also just one area of many in which I think the writing of the Emperor needs more work than additional dialogue.

I thought the story made it very clear he retained most of his memories and personality. Are you talking about the final battle
where he switches sides if you free Orpheus?
Because I think that could definitely be better explained. Better yet, we should have to choice to persuade them both to work together. Forcing us to make a choice was unnecessary here, I believe, as their immediate goals aligned.


Btw, I was not part of EA, but I deeply disliked what I saw of Daisy on Youtube. And I find the idea of our dreams being just the tadpole rather uninspired. I'm very glad we got Emperor instead.