Very disappointed with undertale. Would have been much better if pacifist run made you kill someone, and genocidal run had someone you couldn't kill. Always like it when you are forced to confront your own philosophies.. but the game never makes you ask what you do when the easy answer doesn't work.
http://diggercomic.com/blog/2008/08/22/digger-533/
One of the greatest pieces of web fiction I've read was Digger, partly because it puts characters in difficult and dangerous situations that cannot be solved through philosophy. It's deeply gripping to read characters who are in situations where they don't get what they want, and where goals may in fact simply be impossible, or where multiple driving forces come into conflict. The interesting and fun situations are the ones where the easy answers are not possible.
That said, though, fiction like that is rare and precious. Ones like Undertale, while good, are much more common, and I'm disappointed how rare it is to see protagonists put in situations where what you want is not possible. I could tell, from the very first, that I would never be forced to make a choice between what I want and what would happen, which made the whole plot and conflict turn into so much meaningless fluff for me.
...Y'know, I think this is the first time I've ever seen honest criticism of Undertale which actually seems logical and valid. Of course it's from you. For your next trick, can you explain why A Song of Ice and Fire is sloppily written and low quality?
More seriously, don't you think that perhaps Undertale wouldn't actually be improved by such a thing, because it's not the type of thing most people enjoy? I'm not saying it would--IMO, I agree with you, though I still haven't played the game--but just going on popular opinion I feel like you're a bit wrong.
Also, have you ever played Planescape: Torment? I'd love to hear your opinion on it, largely because I have no idea what your opinion would be. On one hand, it really fits your seeming desire for crushing depression, but on the other hand, technically things can end relatively well, and you aren't forced into failure if you have the right goal.
To be fair, Syv, my first exposure to it was from a person who thought it was exactly as I suggested.. a pacifist-run but one, and that came along with a very sincere and hearfelt love of the game. Undertale is very good. Wanting it to be something different, and being disappointed due to those expectations, is a product of context as much as it is anything else.
A good example of this was Patrick Rothfuss majorly changing his appreciation of
Rendezvous with Rama upon discovering Clarke intended it to be a standalone work. Rothfuss makes the entirely understandable and legitimate complaint, from the point of view of a storyteller par excellance, (and with his fine bibliography in particular) that the writer should know the secrets that aren't being told the reader. Clarke, on the other hand, was a writer and a scientist. To a scientist, having questions that you don't know the ultimate answers to, and advancements that consist of discovering better questions to be asking, is as natural as is breathing. Neither of them is wrong, but it's as understandable as all get out.
Another thing like that was thinking that Into Darkness would be better if Kirk died and Khan got away, with a very strongly implied sequel hook right in it. I think that could have been amazing, and it can't help but colour my opinion of the work as is.
Planescape: Torment is amazing.
If you want me to talk about ASoIaF, it'd be best to take it to PMs. Could be some long conversations otherwise.
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Topic: Einsteinian Roulette: OOC and NEW PLAYER INFO (Read 2522298 times)