Impressions on Narrative and World Building

[finite lotus]

I had some thoughts I wanted to share with RFG on narrative/world and how they hook the player - not suggestions - just impressions for consideration. Also I don't want to mislead into thinking I don't like the narrative or characters, just that I hope to see these things reinforced as development proceeds.

1. I don't yet feel as connected to the world and characters as I did in Cross Code

CrossCode did a wonderful job of throwing me into a very thought out setting and world with a lot of mystery to explore. AD has elements of an intriguing world yet I feel like I'm not getting enough to be fully pulled in yet. I think, in part, this is because our "guy in the chair" is Cabbage, and Cabbage doesn't know anything. Sergey was our touch point in CC for learning about the world, since he can briefly explain things to Lea (who like us, doesn't know). As a player, I don't know what Juno knows and peripheral conversations, NPCs, and quests don't push me into AD's fiction as much as they did in CC. I'd love to see this doubled down on -- CC's world building and narrative are what make it stand out above other ARPGs.

2. I felt more disconnected from the character narrative in AD than in CC

I think this is because I really don't know enough about Juno in the first 10 hours of play to build a conception of her as a character. The game is trying to breadcrumb that backstory to the player over the course of the whole game and right now I have only part of that, but I felt like I needed more upfront. I found her lack of confidence in mid-story a bit of a surprise, for example. I likewise also didn't realize Juno and Filia were supposed to have known each other until some of the flashback scenes where I actively thought "Oh, wait... I guess they did know each other before?"

3. I felt the restricted number of "main" characters made the possibility space of the game feel a bit empty

CC introduces quite a few 'main players' in the story pretty early on. Emilie, Sergey, Lukas, Apollo, Joern, Satoshi, Shizuka, and Gautham's avatar are all introduced in the first hour and remain present through the entire narrative as primary characters and C'Tron introduced not long after. Quite a few more highly relevant secondaries are introduced in the first 8 hours. AD is more focused with Juno, Cabbage, and Filia with most other characters in tertiary NPC roles. The cast feels a bit incomplete at this stage, with fewer characters I want to learn more about or see more of. Maybe the Chosen from the starting flashback will get more screentime, but I don't feel as much story promise from them as they're ostensibly dead (I think they're not, but that's not the topic here.)

4. The core premise of Juno's journey doesn't quite translate into the gameplay cleanly yet.

The core premise is that Juno needs to drive the Nyx out to restore her civilization and people. The execution felt a bit too simple so far -- everything is messed up, Juno blows up a tower, and everything grows back and then... on to the next tower. I don't quite feel the sense of struggle here - the Nyx just... let me rip them up? I do fully expect this to get disrupted in the story and have my thoughts, but wonder if the story lags with those torques deferred past the 12 hour play mark. There's no sense that the Nyx are fighting back against this -- just camping until Juno attacks them. We get the event with the flame knight, but as a player it feels more like an introductory setup for Filia's role in the story than actual struggle against the Nyx -- like why do the Nyx only counterattack once?

Additionally, watching the land heal after the towers are wrecked is really cool, but the world feels empty afterwards - this is maybe an entirely different post to dig into. We do get to see the village rebuilding, but the wilderness is lifeless. I get the impression the Nyx are corrupting natural life (and there's a line about the bull enemy maybe being a Motoyaki that insinuates this), but once we break the Nyx control none of that wildlife returns. It'd be great to see non-enemy creatures in the environment as it recovers -- birds, insects, fish, healed 'whatevers' after the Nyx beacons break. I'd also love to see some narrative follow through about how the destruction of the beacons affect the Nyx in the area - they certainly don't seem to mind or be affected by the loss of the beacon.

5. I would appreciate a little more fictional grounding to separate intentional narrative build-up from intrinsic features of the setting

There's a lot we don't know about AD's setting just yet. Is it meant to be grounded in real world possibility? Is it an intrinsically magical world where things happen because that's just how things are? I would love some narrative seeds to help me navigate that distinction since it helps ground me in the narrative space. Speculation is a really strong part of narrative delivery but it does need a touch of structure.

For example, after destroying the first nest, everything grows back very very quickly (nearly instantly) and Juno's dialogue sort of insinuates surprise at this, as if it is an incredulous thing to happen that breaks her natural understanding of the world. But... nobody else seems phased by this -- so I'm left unsure how the story wants me to understand it. Is this believable to the people because the world is inherently magical, or is this beyond comprehension for them?

6. I miss some of CrossCode's slightly tongue-in-cheek elements and embrace of calculated goofiness.

I felt the intentional embrace of the silliness of an MMO and its contrivances, and the integration of humor about real people playing a game was a real strength to balance CC's narrative. The setting in AD is more self-serious and inherently rejects that -- understandable -- but I did think RFG had a really great strength in telling that kind of narrative. I hope it does not limit creativity -- I doubt I'll see an angler fish in a mech suit in AD, for example -- or enemies like DO NOT USE. I hope the seriousness doesn't translate into a burden.

[novel rapids]

Some great points here!! But I feel like a great half could be naturally fixed with the story expending! I mean once we learn more about the mysteries, stakes and symbolism, being thrown in this world with few informations in the intro could works really well!

More consistency in world building could still be great, but I feel like it's hard to judge since we don't know almost any stakes so far!

[dapper glade]

I think this post gets at some of the issues I have with the narrative so far (to be clear I still like the story so far, just not as much as the start of CrossCode), but it doesn't directly talk about the stakes of the story.

The start of CrossCode is much lower stakes. The Blue Avatar showing up on the boat sets up a more distant issue, but for the most part it's presented as just playing a video game to try and recover Lea's memories. I've seen people say it's slow and poorly paced, but I feel like it gives us a lot more space to get to know the characters and the world without feeling like some big disaster is politely waiting for us to continue the main story. And then from there the stakes can escalate naturally into the big climactic moments.

AD is a bit strange in that the stakes are basically at the maximum from the moment Juno wakes up. The world is destroyed and the gods are missing, she's the only hero left to fix it. But then we clear the first nest basically as part of the tutorial, restore a section of the world, and gain a whole village full of allies plus another party member by the time we leave. There's still a lot of mysteries to solve, some hints at a twist or two laid out, and the knight showing up to keep things interesting, but by the time we get to the city and clear another nest the stakes feel much lower than when we started. It makes it harder to really connect with Juno's self doubt when she's undeniably on a roll with a ton of wins under her belt already. Which, I don't think it's wrong for her as a character to still feel that way, it just doesn't line up as well with what I feel as a player.

I'm confident that as more story comes out these issues will be addressed, especially if/when the rug pull happens that recontextualizes things, but for now it leaves me wanting for more out of the narrative we had in a way CrossCode didn't at the same point.

[dapper trellis]

(this isn't meant as fighting back against anything that's already said, this just feels like a nice place to talk about my own thoughts on the plot!)

i've been really enjoying the writing and worldbuilding so far. i remember being a bit underwhelmed story-wise in the demo, but then a few more playthroughs and some time to let things settle, and i really love it now... it's very basic so far but it's so incredibly comfy and nice. i'm usually against Chosen One stories but this game uses it as a vessel to explore Juno's character, and i relate a whole lot, she's wonderful. there's enough long-term intrigue to keep me tossing plot theories back and forth with my partner for a few weeks after playing it together too. (the sword monster from a new meteor, and the exact circumstances of the intro battle, are the two big things we've been trying to understand!)

i do agree that it went from "total apocalypse, everyone's probably dead" to "nature is mostly restored and Juno's surrounded by loved ones" maybe too quick, that was pretty jarring my first time. in repeat plays when i knew it was coming, it all makes sense and fits into everything nicely though, and i think the new fog helps too.

i really think there should be birds and squirrels and foxes in the wilderness though! that's a very good suggestion. ❤️

[dapper glade]

I should add that while the stakes of the story feel a little off to me, I think that pretty much across the board the character interactions have been top notch. The main trio of Juno, Cabbage, and Filia are especially great, carrying most of my investment in the story right now. The only real feedback I could have there is that I'm excited to see them interact more and hope we get a ton of it when the next big story update happens

[smoky drift]

Radical fish said this story will not still typical for long in the devstream

[plush stump]

tbh my guess is that it's intentionally a little too easy for things to return to normal. partially because people knew this was going to happen and planned for it, and partly because of some suspicious shit happening we dont know about yet

[dapper trellis]

my partner has some theories why it was so easy/sudden, i'm interested to see if they're right 😄