First off, don't TL;DR my post to "mercs are jerks". It was about more than the mercs.
Sure, quests try to make you feel like the best thing since sex, but all the praise and accolades ring hollow when you can't get Sex Parts x3 to shut her yap. As an aside, some of the random encounters feel like the same, unnamed NPC, which adds to the feeling, but that's probably just me. As I have mentioned before in this thread, your personality spectrum ranges from "good guy" to "somewhat ignoble good guy" with little deviation. The reason I hate the mercs so much is that you can't really do anything about them. These people, who tried to rob you, just show up where you live and start fucking your companions, and your response is to...let them, because you're a gutless milksop apparently, not at all the kind of person who could conquer the Frost Marches. Do you see the issue here?
It's a breath of fresh air when Kas shows up at the winter ball and it's noted that we're kind of playacting since my character is so corrupt, but then Kas shows up in my dreams disguised as a demonic Brienne and is all, "Yo, wouldn't that be hot? I could do that, you know," and PC goes, "No, you can't have mah friends." You could charitably interpret this as the PC being territorial, since concern for her companions' wellbeing could not possibly have motivated her to say that, but the writing elsewhere does not support that. I often find my conception of the PC clashing with the text, and while, yes, it's impossible to account for everything, it would be nice if there were a consistent be evil option for those of us who want to be evil. It's really just that simple. All these problems would go away if this were a standalone title, but there's an established property to compare this to where all of this was done just fine.
But with all that being said, am I in the minority on this? I thought that the corruption content was what drew people to CoC in the first place, but I'm seeing a lot of posters say they prefer the pure path. It was even apparently the canonincal ending to CoC1. Personally I don't see the appeal of playing a good character in these games, but maybe I'm just a weirdo.
I mean, I can not lie, I did try to be condecending there since that merc talk about Jen made me laugh. But not the way you intended to since well your anger just seemed overblown, and not in comedic effect as you intended. But yeah, sorry for that. Still, true, I would like to be able to comfront my attempted rapist about the part where they attempted to rape me.
But yeah, we do not have many chances to be evil or let our past questionable decisions carry some weight. Kitsune content is worse about it as of now. Like, I enjoy being good there, but I wish there were some ways that we could do some questionable stuff. Not in a showy way, more of "evil behind the curtans" kind of way. Where we do stuff to people like Kohaku and Rindo that are morally dubious. Since they are two of the most socially removed characters in the colony, it could work. While yes, this horse is beaten to death, but there is a reason for it. Especially since Tobs, with his other contents, is one of better people at giving people choice at how they want to accomplish something. Like rescuing Garth and stuff inside of Kiyokos medallion had a lot of simple but satisfying options that made each playthrough more varied.
And I do agree with you on our character being goody two shoes most of the time. As I said, let me be an asshole. Let it close some doors as long as it opens others. It does not need to have as many as good path, just enough to make my play through feel different.
But still, when it comes to stuff that Is written, I do feel that this game does better job at making me feel powerful/important then OG one ever did. Like yeah, we are not doing it alone. Like yeah, we are not making selfish changes to the world as we did in OG one. In that way,It is a less of power fantasy then before, which developers themselve said was intended. Make that of what you will.
But what is written is so much better and it makes your actions feel more meaningful since they are. Stuff like being Champion of Winter city and thus making you the enemy of people of Glacial rift. You being the Champion having some importance at Winter City ball. You helping Etheryn makes her more assertive and freer to show her addoration of you in front of people.
As for gameplay:
Now sure, random encounters are annoying, but the reason they feel even worse here is because game is unfinished. Having so little explorable space and seeing same encounters over and over does get boring. But that is flaw in how this game is developted, not in how it is designed.
Well mostly, I do wish that after some point, some of these encounters would just stop once they realised that you are to much for them (that kitsune group for example). Turn them hospital . It would prevent the tediom of fighting them, it would make you feel more powerful for making them reconsider how they wanted to deal with you. And it would make it harder for you to grind levels on weaker foes. But then again, game is sometimes even good in that regard in a lot of cases since it does that with some of them. Like they did with that ninja kitsune or hornets. This also adds to that sense of progression. It would make them feel more like real characters.
I also do like that the game is challenging enough, especially on darker difficulty, to where your accomplishments feel earned.
Since a porn game, besides Alicesoft developted ones such as Lance series , that makes me think about some stuff when it comes to its gameplay is so god damn rare. It is not as deep as those, but it is not that far off from most JRPGs.
Now, I am not saying this to silence you or anyone else. I hope that I never came off that way. I encorage people to discuss stuff since that is what I like about these specific threads. I just feel that a lot of anger here is not well comunicated or misguided in some cases.
Only things I have left to say is, you are right, mercs are jerks.
