Actually I agree completely on this and I've already got some ideas regarding stuff like that. I've been thinking of dedicating an entire update to the MC doing bad stuff and actually developed bad endings to some of the routes.
Awesome! Personally I would like to see bad things that aren't endings - it feels like lots of choices end up as either 'be perfect or MC/character death', while I feel like there's room inbetween where I think some really good story could happen - both for betrayals as well as honest failures. Maybe that would also help the slight repetition in the "player meets girl -> solves her problems after 5 conversations -> everything is now perfect and singing kumbaya with everyone" loop. (exaggeration I know, but it starts to feel that way by the end). The elf village storyline is on the right track here, but still ends up immediately writing out a character to avoid you having any significant lasting consequences of your actions.) As specific examples, the threats made in the talking goblin encounter are a massive bait
and could easily result in an escape afterwards. Then, the end of staying to watch Thea being attacked by goblins feels very clearly like the devs are trying to punish/chastise you for picking that option, which would be fine if it didn't seem contrary to the tone of the marketing of the game.
Yeah, I think some of the grind is a bit overdone. Especially with Gabe's quest and part of Cynthia's quest, though for the rest... I don't know, it's hard for me to think of this as a new player because when it comes to money matters it's really easy to never have to farm money just by doing story content, and for levels needed for stuff... you basically just need level 2 in all skills which doesn't really take more than 6 in-game days, but if you can tell me more specifically where the grind feels off I will gladly take care of it.
I used the cheat menu after going through each hunt once and weapon trainings (so no opinion on those) but I do remember doing Stealth Training for like 20 minutes straight or something. My finger was definitely sore by the end, but that could also be because I didn't see any indication that I was done training, but it didn't feel like I had all the Thea sleep options. (disclaimer: I didn't finish Thea's stuff - it was very wholesome and heartwarming, but after essentially the same thing in so many of her conversations I just wasn't interested)
I see where you're coming from and I agree it can be improved, though I feel like possibly it didn't come across that well that it's not supposed to be the ending at all but just the ending to a first chapter of a story. Anything can still happen after it, it's perfectly possible you'll meet the characters from the first part again in the future, but yeah, I can see why you might not like it.
To be clear I like most of the ending (just had another read through to write this) - the get well card is amazing - but the very very end just kinda shattered the vibe. MC says he doesn't want anyone to get involved, which would make sense if he was going to do something mega dangerous, but he's... signing up to be an entry-level army grunt? I would be totally on-board and ready for a sequel if he was going to do some high-risk cloak-and-dagger, but MC just doesn't seem like the kind of guy to process his immense (
partially demonic?) need for revenge by deciding to work his way through the ranks of army bureaucracy, taking what, years to decades, all the while having to fight bandits and not-demon-queen things for the government. There's no reason why he would need to prevent his friends from following to the capital while he trains & skirmishes for years.
And plenty of MC's friends are fellow students and so not particularly battle-ready (which makes sense), but also some of his friends are wayyy stronger than he.
To be fair, MC only has like a couple points in combat and a few months in school, so maybe he doesn't decide to go on an assassination quest, but silently leaving kinda feels like spitting on all the relationships that the player has spent the entire game building, especially after they attend to MC as he recovers. Ideas for potential changes would be:
- letting MC recover to a happy ever after, and then the demon vision, and then the "I'm gonna kill her", but then fade to black there and shift the part where he actually writes letters and ditches his home into the beginning of the next story.
- Replace the silent leaving with a training montage ending with the mentors telling him they have nothing left to teach him and his town sends him away with happy tears (would seem to fit the tone of the rest of the story)
I was too thrilled when the uncle turned out to be a total homie rather than a stereotypical creep to even think about plot twists, so I didn't mind the '
MC is the demon king' thing at all - whereas the (batman voice) 'I have to do this alone' seemed like a stereotypical edgelord MC thing.
Who knows, maybe this whole section means I'm just a sucker for happy endings.
