Salutations MasterXY,
But I want to be engaged with the story, and given how this game has been talked about I was under the assumption these NPC's and choices I make now will effect me later and I'd like to be able to follow the story somewhat as opposed to just mashing through every dialogue box that pops up.
Ah, sorry friend, I paid more attention to the 2nd part I had quoted instead of giving equal attention to the entire thing as a whole, and appear to have only responded in a way that makes sense if you ignore the first half.
I would imagine that several NPCs contribute to their own little stories that span across several levels, even if not directly relating to or making an impact on the general plot of the game.
As cool as it would be to have every NPC play a vital role in the overall story, I feel like with the first level alone, even if half the NPCs were re-occurring characters that played a role in the plot, that would be too many. There's what, like 12 or so NPCs with their own little stories? I can't imagine how someone would work out 48 different characters having such important roles.
Simply saying "well you don't have to read it" is a very poor argument when the dev wants you to take his game seriously. How is anyone going to take this game seriously when the most common response to lore is "lmao just skip it, the dev is already expecting people to not read it". Especially when 75% of the game is this lore.
I assumed you meant that the databanks were a chore that you felt that you were forced to collect. You're right though, the argument for "just skip them" doesn't apply in the case. I hope you see where my viewpoint came from.
If you're indirectly referring to the last thing I quoted and responded to, that was a joke as I took an absolute stance to combat your absolute stance, as this scenario seemed pretty open ended.
My argument is not against the inclusion of databanks that tie into NPC's, my argument is that there is simply too much meaningless databanks mixed together with ones that are actually relevant to the plot/lore/characters, and that it is creating contradicting gameplay loop in which the game wants to be an action platformer, but every room you enter has at least 2 databases with 2-5 minute voice clips and 1 NPC so you're getting like 30-60 seconds of gameplay inbetween every cutscene or voice clip. There is no balance between gameplay and story telling, and the sheer volume of databanks being thrown at you is overwhelming. I am trying to follow the story but I can't keep track of anything, and if I'm trying to keep track but can't, imagine all the people who aren't going to try. Some of the databanks should honestly be culled or removed, or turned into a bronze databank where they just get sent to your codex instead where you have to open it to listen to them there. The silver ones can be ones that are important to the plot/story or an NPC, and the gold ones are about seeber. That would be a better solution if people are against their removal, because there's no way in hell you will ever convince me half of those databanks are even worth reading.
I'm actually right there with you, there's way too much to keep track of without keeping a diary. However, after having done and seen (possibly) absolutely everything this demo has to offer, I see the appeal of fleshing out minor characters and having all this extra stuff, regardless of it probably not contributing to the story. All this lore building of random characters isn't really my main concern when playing a game, so the fact that I can ignore it entirely, or spend some time to learn more about something I assume won't matter in the long run, isn't too big of a deal to me. It's not that much different from audiologs and whatnot in other games, just some extra filler for those who want it.
I'm almost positive that the game tells you not to worry about talking with anyone or looking at silver databanks as they're a waste of time, then mentioning that gold databanks are all you need to focus on if you only want the main story.
I mean, who knows, these little sidestories impact so many things already in this level, so I'd imagine they'll contribute either directly, or indirectly, to the overall story at some points.
Cordially,
OmniFurious
