Final Thoughts and Spoilers. (Gaming)

by cheapLEY , Saturday, September 25, 2021, 17:45 (1158 days ago) @ Cody Miller

The empathy mechanic is not really as well explored as Max's time rewind ability from the first. Max's ability felt so integrated into the game mechanics as well as the theme, that is felt absolutely essential. Alex's ability is supremely important thematically, but it feels less important in terms of game mechanics. The ability to feel and manipulate emotions can be fraught with moral questions, and it's pretty much just always best to use the power to help the person.

I may have missed something, but I can’t think of a single scenario where feeling others’ emotions was the wrong choice. I do wish there had been some nuance there.

The tougher decision is when you can transfer the emotion off of them and on to you, freeing them but burdening you. There's really only two major decisions regarding this, and it would have been cooler I think to make it a sort of cumulative running total, where each person you help burdens you more and more, which can have varying consequences. It would have made the mechanic much more interesting to use and implement, requiring you make decisions.

I made the opposite choice from you in both of those situations. Charlotte ended up basically being dead inside. It’s a little ambiguous as to the permanence of that. She is a shown looking very happy with Ethan in the “what if you stay” scene at the end, which may just mean that it’s a scene that doesn’t account for any choices.

In any case, the way Charlotte turned out made me not take Pike’s fear away, but that actually seems like it may have turned out better.

The story is a much more straightforward affair than the original. I feel like it was maybe just a bit TOO streamlined, and some more subplots like the original could have helped.

I agree with you there. A few more things to explore would have been welcomed. Although, by looking at the end of chapter stats, you missed quite a few of the ones that existed. Granted, most of those were one off little scenarios rather than subplots. Can’t believe you didn’t help Duckie, though! What did you do to get Eleanor to back you up, though? I helped her on the shop. Is it just that in my game Riley didn’t go away to school and stayed to take care of Eleanor, I wonder?

I do like the town in the game though, and how much more open and explorable it was compared to the other games.

I think this game is up there just behind the original. The main character is much stronger, but I feel like the supporting cast is less interesting. Deck Nine is doing a pretty great job here.

I like the cast of True Colors better, in general. Although the best side character in this game is also just from the first LiS. It only suffers in that regard because of the lack of many subplots involving a lot of them. I think they really stepped it up with the writing. There are still some awkward lines, but for the most part, the conversations all felt pretty real and natural.

LiS > True Colors > BtS > Lis2

I think I liked True Colors more than the original. I’ll have to sit on it and play it again and after a bit to really know for sure.