Major/Minor: Tokyo Yifft

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Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

So wait, what is this magical fate power Rabies has? The ability to save the game? Is Klace trying to go for a furry Undertale here?

# ¿ Dec 6, 2016 17:31

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# ¿ May 19, 2024 09:28

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Caylen's a he? Is Jade the only female character so far?

# ¿ Dec 6, 2016 22:58

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

quote:

Well this picture certainly doesn't.

Also, a retro arcade with half the machines out of service -- okay, in my experience that checks out, but one without a snack bar? That's just shameful mismanagement.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2016 21:19

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

I think a good rule of thumb for your furry/fantasy/sci-fi/whatever fiction is to ask yourself, "If these characters were mundane human beings, would I care about them?" And if not then you need to take another pass at character development and where your drama is coming from.

Take these technicolor squirrel people and replace them with schlubby regular dudes and it's easy to see how little is going on here.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2016 21:43

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Whatever you call it, if it's a mega-popular classic fighting game, your sprawling arcade paradise should probably have more than one of them.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2016 22:17

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Being in Klace's inner circle sure opens doors in Tokyo, even though it also puts you under suspicion for magical murders I guess?

# ¿ Dec 8, 2016 07:28

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Jade is crazier than poo poo, but she's got motivation and a goal and I think she should have been our protagonist.

You could still keep Rabies around as the Dr. Watson dumbass she explains everything to.

# ¿ Dec 9, 2016 08:15

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

I made a crappy attempt to rewrite this shitpile of a scene. I don't know why. I guess it's my way of finding catharsis.

Figured it would work better if Furry Stranger was panicked and stressed out, more Kyle Reese than Morpheus.

quote:

Listen: there are endless worlds out there. My world. Your world. An infinity of others. Some like ours; others with -- with *terrible* things.

And across all these worlds, to some people, the universe gives a power. Nobody knows where it comes from. Nobody knows why it picks them. But these people can move between worlds, any world, as easy as snapping a finger.

I have this power. It's how you got here. And you have it too.

So what? I'm some sort of god now?

His tension vanishes for a second as he chuckles, grimly.

Sure, I guess you could put it like that. You can bend spacetime. You can destroy worlds, or save them. I guess that qualifies.

Now pay attention. You're only now finding out about this power you have. But I've known about you for some time. I sensed you. And I'm not the only one.

There are going to be people who'll try to *use* you -- try to manipulate you into using your power for their own ends.

You *cannot* let that happen. When a power like ours is misused, the consequences can be catastrophic. I've ... seen it before. I won't again.

There's a world that's trying to summon you right now. They've been using some sort of ritual to pull you across the barrier.

I've tried to stop these people -- tried to learn more about them, find out who they are, what they want. Tried to stall them. I've sent others in your place, but they keep zeroing in on you, getting closer --

What the hell do you mean, "sent others in my place"? What did you do?

Wait a minute -- the Midnight Murders. Is that you? Do you have something to do with that?

The what? No. LISTEN TO ME! We're running out of time! They could be trying again right now, don't you understand?

I start to feel lightheaded. Am I dizzy from the flood of information? Or is it something else?

This may be my last chance to warn you. I can't leave this place, and I don't know how much help I can give.

I'll do what I can, but wherever they're trying to bring you, when you get there, it's going to be up to *you*. Do you understand?

There's a sense of vertigo. The ground feels like it's dropping away, like I'm becoming detached from the world. Something's pulling at me.

He doesn't seem to notice.

Don't trust anybody. Be careful not to overuse your power.

And above all, *whatever* you do, remember --

Whatever he says next is lost as the world wrenches around me. This isn't like how it felt coming to this place. This is crude, forceful.

Painful.

The last thing I see is his face turning to shock as he realizes what's happening.

And I'm gone.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2016 06:13

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Not a goddamned thing.

# ¿ Dec 14, 2016 06:29

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Rigged Death Trap posted:

Oh no
Klace the super popular super idol is dead
And you should care so so much
You actually care so much that im going to make your PC care for you

Such a tragedy has befallen this furry world, oh the animality of it all

B-but our protagonist's all expenses paid trip to Tokyo may be cut short! :ohdear:

# ¿ Dec 14, 2016 15:42

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

I wouldn't expect it to be this soon, but does the title get explained at any point?

# ¿ Dec 14, 2016 17:18

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Rabies has been sent from his regular universe where everyone's a furry to a different, alien universe where everyone's a furry.

Also he supposedly has the ability to move between worlds, but as yet he hasn't actually done that, he's only been yanked around by other people.

The author's insert character is dead and this is sad.

That's, that's pretty much it so far.

# ¿ Dec 15, 2016 20:42

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

As soon as I began seeing this as Idiocracy for furries, everything made sense.

Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:

This game is so long because every idea is expressed in the least efficient way possible.

I know a speedrun trick for this game, it's called "taping down the Enter key".

# ¿ Dec 16, 2016 01:46

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

King Velasquez came from another dimension, but here he is immortal, and he likes summoning other heroes from other dimensions to solve his problems. He is the furry Lord British.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2016 06:28

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Maybe the Terra adventure is just a dream Rabies is having as he's being asphyxiated by the murderer.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2016 16:37

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

We say "teeth", but it looks to me like one big tooth with a partial groove down the middle. Needless to say, this makes eating pocky quite the challenge!

# ¿ Dec 17, 2016 07:39

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Up till now the only characterization we've had a say in is our opinion of maid cafes. Now, in chapter 2, we're ambushed and bludgeoned with a questionnaire.

There were no opportunities in the Tokyo chapter to organically address such issues as "enjoys being with others" because I dunno fighting games.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2016 05:52

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

A humble guitarist? Now I know this is science fiction. :v:

# ¿ Dec 21, 2016 15:44

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

GeneX posted:

Why are we supposed to give a crap about these characters we've never met, exactly?

In a normal story, this is the point by which the audience is supposed to understand the stakes. That is, either 1) we know the protagonist well enough to be invested in what happens to them, or 2) an external conflict is revealed and we're invested in what happens with that. Or both! Both is fine! Neither is not so good.

So in Major Backslash Minor, what are we supposed to care about?

Is it the fate of the protagonist? Well, Rabies is a complete cipher. We don't know his background from before the game started, he doesn't have any particular wants or needs, he has no connection to any of the other characters (if he has friends/relatives they're all back in Furry America), and such characterization as we can glean from his narration boils down to "is confused". We might fear for his personal safety, or accept him as an Arthur Dent everyman -- except the very first thing in the game is a reveal that Rabies is Supa-Special (and, I think, can't die?). So no tension or identification there.

Moreover, to the extent the story is about Rabies and his experiences, none of these Earth scenes about Klace matter at all. Rabies is not on Earth anymore.

So are the stakes found in a conflict in the setting? There's a better case for that, because there's clearly some conflict happening on Terra. (Not so much Earth -- there were the deaths, but we know what's causing them now.) There's a king and he's got a plan of some sort, and there's a noble who wants to be mayor, and these two people are at odds in some fashion. But we don't know what this means. Are King Furry and Furry Trump good or bad people? Good or bad rulers? What are the consequences to Terra if Furry Trump usurps the king, or if he fails to do so? There doesn't need to be a clear-cut good guy and bad guy, but we do need to know enough about the stakes to be able to have an opinion on it. And, again, if the plot is about political intrigue on Terra, then there's no purpose to the Earth scenes we continue to be subjected to.

In short, this is the part of the story where we need to be knowing and feeling some concrete things. You can't propel a narrative on ambiguity -- it makes for a great setup, but fairly quickly you need something real to happen that drives events and audience interest.

In the case of this Rocker and Dazz scene, for instance, we learn (eventually) that some sort of ritual ... thing is planned for the end of the tour. And that's kind of interesting! Even if only because it's so weird and unusual, it's kind of interesting and it has the feel and shape of a plot element. The only problem is we have no idea what it's supposed to mean, or how this ritual is going to change things, or impact whatever we imagine is the story at this point. Basically, if you're going to introduce a scene like this, the audience should know enough about what's going on to be able to say "Ah, but if they do that then that means ... and then this will happen ... and then ..." and that's what drama is and we're just not getting it. If this scene deserves to exist at all, it needs to be moved to later in the story when the audience knows enough to understand why it's significant.

# ¿ Dec 21, 2016 17:31

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

FractalSandwich posted:

according to my copy of The Hero With a Thousand Faces, we should have a Refusal of the Call coming up soon

Campbell was not prepared for this degree of laziness.

# ¿ Dec 22, 2016 07:32

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Well, whatever the new game is like, it can't be blamed on lack of experience.

# ¿ Dec 23, 2016 22:30

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Phidget dreams of being the best waiter in a tavern with only two waiters. That's even more depressing than the dead mom.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2016 02:10

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Also, are the two idiots full-time royal assassins and right-hand men of the king, or are they freelancers paid by the job and only work for him sometimes? Make up your drat mind, game.

Also also, every character in this game is the loving worst at their profession. Even when multiple characters have the same job, they somehow all manage to be the worst at it. This further bolsters my "furry Idiocracy" interpretation.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2016 02:33

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Maybe Rabbit Mom was summoned to Earth and she's playing arcade games in Akihabara right now.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2016 02:43

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Data Graham posted:

His voice is very deep. And his accent is thick. Like what you'd expect from a band of tribesmen. Wherever he's from -- he's not from around here.

Instead of telling us about his unusual accent, Klace might have shown us by giving this character a distinctive speech pattern and word choice. Each character should have a unique voice anyway; this is just a component of that.

On the other hand, you want to do it with nuance because lines like "Tell zem to kheep zayre mouths ZHUT!" are distracting and kinda offensive. A little seasoning goes a long way. So maybe it's just as well Klace didn't try to be ambitious here.

# ¿ Dec 28, 2016 20:13

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Oh yeah, the "calm before the storm" when that wave of murders was happening.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2016 02:22

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

You can distract the player with schemes and skullduggery all you want, but this chapter is still just about two idiots checking their mail.

# ¿ Dec 31, 2016 09:32

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Velasquez has been king for like five hundred years, right? If he were a tyrant I think it would be apparent to people by now. If he has a nefarious scheme, I want to know why he's just now getting around to it.

Anyway, pick the team Kila is not on.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2017 08:02

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Soup Inspector posted:

I say we go for the inept assassins, because saying "gently caress you, Kila" by doing the exact opposite of whatever he wants should be all the reason we need.

It's also a chance to say "gently caress you, Klace" because the author clearly intends Good Guy Bear and Best Buddy Squirrel to be the "right" choice. Well, gently caress that noise.

I'm half expecting this to be a fake choice and that we can't go with Wolfencrantz and Guildenwolf even if we pick them.

Mechanical Ape fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Jan 3, 2017

# ¿ Jan 3, 2017 17:43

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

So ... Rabies can jump dimensions at will, and every time he does, he leaves a Rabies corpse behind.

I can think of some really great practical jokes.

# ¿ Jan 3, 2017 18:43

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Despite this huge undigested wad of exposition, we still don't know 1) who, if anyone, is telling a reliable truth, and 2) what exactly Rabies' task is supposed to be. So all this chatter is just useless guff.

Here's how this is supposed to work: the protagonist talks to the king right away and is told, "Your quest is to do such-and-such," and after that start, then we start learning that things are more complex and sinister than they seem. Start simple, then add complications.

We don't know what to think about anything, so how are we expected to care?

# ¿ Jan 5, 2017 15:50

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Blarghalt posted:

I think we're supposed to understand that the tavern is full of patrons, so either Klace doesn't know what "littered" means or, this being furryworld, there are literal litters of baby wolfpeople scampering about.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2017 16:46

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:

Why does Rabies so unconditionally accept every word that's said, even the ones that contradict each other? Why does he invest himself so personally in every single complication in the lives of every single person he meets? It'd be an interesting character flaw to have someone who compulsively dives head-first into every little issue he comes across, but that'd take a good writer doing it on purpose, and not Klace creating this well-meaning weirdo entirely through incompetence.

This is what drives me nuts: our protagonist mulls over every piece of hearsay and its possible meaning, and then invariably concludes "I guess I don't know what to think about this". He's constantly reflecting, never deciding. It's a waste of words and the player's attention. I guess all the characters engage in this, but it's particularly galling with the protagonist, who's SUPPOSED to be the one who drives the story.

But I guess we already knew that Rabies' head is one gear and it isn't turning.

Data Graham posted:

It might be an unavoidable side effect of deciding that your POV protagonist's vocabulary is limited to "..."

This is where Telltale's system, for example, works well. Not all your choices necessarily matter, but they still serve to establish character or let the player work out their own thoughts/ideas.

Dialogue options are good because it requires the writer to think about the player's POV and anticipate what they might be thinking at that point. For instance, I'd have really loved a chance to respond to the news that Velasquez atoned for the Exodus fuckup by building a goddamned bar. Being able to ask "Wait, he did what?", even as one of four options, lets the game acknowledge that yes, this is weird and it's valid to feel that way. The reader gets to express in-game what they're feeling and gets validation that the writer was aware enough of their own story to anticipate it.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2017 17:32

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

Well I'm on the king's side, so far anyway. Project Exodus was a shitshow, but in general the guy's reputation as a good king seems to really be true. I mean, he's been running Terra for millennia; if he were inclined to turn the place into Mordor it would have happened by now. What we seem to have (from the little we've seen, basically one forest and one tavern) is a decently well-run society ruled by a dude who has his detractors, as all leaders do, but a guy whom most folks are happy with and, surprisingly often, appear to know personally. It's hard for me to imagine he's running an evil scheme where Step 1 is to rule with wisdom and kindness for 3000 years.

I ain't saying Velasquez is a completely good guy, or even very smart, but he's got my benefit of the doubt until we learn something concrete. Righty appears to know some dark secret, but he's keeping it to himself because of "honor" I guess so gently caress him. At any rate, Terra's whole deal is that it gets a regular influx of immigrants, and they must be happier here than whatever world they came from, or else there'd be a lot more unrest (since going back home isn't an option).

The famine is bad, but didn't we learn (or at least it was alleged) that it's actually caused by Plair hoarding all the food? Although I think this is something the player knows but Rabies doesn't? It's confusing.

Then there's the fact that Velasquez employs assassins, but I think we're not meant to see that as a bad thing. I think Klace never questioned that there would be assassins because this is Adventure World and of course you have assassins -- it's one of the standard jobs in a setting like this, just like mercenary (hired by whom to fight whom?) or king. And anyway these are friendly, colorful assassins so that marks them as good guys, let's forget that they murder people for a living.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2017 20:27

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

inthesto posted:

Every time somebody makes a long effortpost in an attempt to rationalize this shitheap of a plot, I grow stronger

I view these effortposts as bricks of hatred upon which we may build yet greater criticisms to come. Even though I know that every time we do so, we fall into Klace's trap of pretending like this is a real story.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2017 21:06

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

KataraniSword posted:

It all makes sense, now. They don't actually murder anyone, they just get wicked-rad critical hit rates for no good reason.

I think you could build an interesting moment from these two guys, if they spent a few chapters as the harmless garish buffoons we're seeing now ... and then suddenly, some sucker runs up on them and they just loving cut his throat in an eyeblink. And that's when you realize, this is all a front and these guys are actually dangerous. But that's not going to happen with these characters in this game.

What it feels like, so far, is that Klace has romanticized the job of assassin the way that pirates are sometimes romanticized. You know how in the kiddie theme-park version of pirates, they never engage in any, you know, piracy. They just dress colorfully, sail the high seas, and search for treasure chests that spontaneously spawn underground like truffles. In the same manner Dumb and Dumber are "assassins" because that's cooler than being called spies or agents, but I'll be very surprised if we ever actually see them practicing their trade.

(Alternate theory: they do kill someone and spend the rest of the game moping "oh no, what have we done, there is blood on our hands" because they are the worst)

# ¿ Jan 5, 2017 22:32

Mechanical Ape: Aug 7, 2007; But yes, occasionally I am known to smash.

We'll never be free of Kila because, as has been foreshadowed, we have each other's contact information, so he'll probably call every five minutes to share theories and gush about his new best bear pal.

# ¿ Jan 5, 2017 23:37