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tenshinoakuma) wrote2012-06-14 07:58 pm
tenshinoakuma) wrote2012-06-14 07:58 pm
Entry tags:
On silent protagonist dialogue choices
Let me talk about Devil Survivor 2 for a while. There are a lot of reasons I love this game (and a lot of reasons you should play this game right now if you haven't) but I'm just going to focus why I love the dialogue choices available for the silent protagonist, who I'm going to refer to as Hiro, since that's his name in the manga. This is mostly a result of me working on the game script.
Firstly, disclaimer. My main experience with silent protagonists have been with Atlus protags and I'm mainly writing this post in this kind of JRPG context, rather than, say Okami. Also, it's been a while since I've played most of the games mentioned here, so I could be off on some details.
So with a lot of these silent protagonists, it tends to be pretty obvious what the "right" dialogue choice is, because the plot and the gameplay push you to make decisions in certain ways. Social linking mechanics in Persona 3 and Persona 4 encourage you to be nice to all the people you social link with. After Minato died in Persona 3, the fallout that happened after was due to SEES, well, loving him too much, indicating positive links with them.
Digital Devil Saga also pushes you to make decisions in certain ways, but far less so, since most dialogue choices are repeatable and (for the most part) don't impact the story or gameplay. For the most part, there are few 'wrong' answers, and that's mostly because most of the options are 'right' to begin with. The ones that do have an impact, though, and come down to a binary choice.
The Devil Survivor 1 MC (I believe his manga name is Kazuya?) is interesting in that all the various Route choices are presented as valid (with the exception of Yuzu's, I believe?). I believe this is the case with Devil Survivor 2 as well, based on what I've heard (I've only completed one Route, so...). You still need to do a lot of talking to other characters in DeSu 1, because otherwise people are dying everywhere (...though they can still end up dead even if you do talk to them) and you can't open up other route endings.
Uh.
Where was I going with this...
Anyway, in DeSu 2, the social linking aspect of Persona 3 and Persona 4 is back under a different name. As Hiro becomes closer with characters, he will gain Fate with them, up to a maximum of 5. But there's a few things about this incarnation of social linking that are really nice.
Firstly, what Hiro says during plot events can have an effect on Hiro's Fate with other characters, which is something not present in P3 or P4.
Secondly, there are more events than needed to max out someone's Fate. You have no gameplay reward for spending more time with people Hiro has reached Fate 5 with, but sometimes you just want to spend time with them anyway to complete their Fate story :>
Thirdly, there are multiple 'correct' ways to respond.
The third point is what I want to focus on, because I think this is something that was missing from P3 and P4. Going by memory, most of the dialogue choices in P3 and P4 are binary choices; you can either choose the 'right' answer, or a wrong answer. Or the choice doesn't even matter anyway. If I recall correctly, there's that one section in P4 that everyone needs a guide to otherwise they get bad endings (aka DON'T PUSH NAMATAME IN THE TV) that had more than a binary dialogue choice, but there's still obviously one 'correct' answer in order to put you on the path to a normal/true ending.
What's really nice about DeSu 2 is that there are several moments where you have three dialogue choices rather than the usual 2 (which makes it a pain in the ass to script but WHATEVER), which gives you far more dimension than binary choices. What's even better about this is that more often than not, there are multiple ways to elicit 'positive' responses from characters. With Daichi, who is Hiro's childhood friend, you can get him to respond positively by being supportive of him, but you can also yield positive responses by saying some somewhat mean things, but in a joking manner. You can have Io respond positively by being nice and calm, but also by being a goofball and being playful. Joe tends to like it when Hiro plays along with his antics and stays hopeful, but he also responds positively if Hiro's harsh with him at certain points in the game.
There's a section in the game where you'll be recruiting characters to your cause. Unlike the segment of P4 where Souji tries to convince the party not to push Namatame into the TV, while you're presented with dialogue choices at many points in the conversation, there's a variety of different things you can say to get someone on your side.
...As well as a variety of ways to fail. The ways you can fail tend to be a bit more involved than "be mean." You can fail by withholding information from Fumi or by failing to pique her interest. By far, one of the biggest ways to fail to recruit someone, or block off a certain character's route, is by failing to give them hope.
tl;dr I think the main strength of DeSu 2's dialogue choices is the fact there are multiple ways to succeed and fail, making all characters involved seem more well rounded.
Firstly, disclaimer. My main experience with silent protagonists have been with Atlus protags and I'm mainly writing this post in this kind of JRPG context, rather than, say Okami. Also, it's been a while since I've played most of the games mentioned here, so I could be off on some details.
So with a lot of these silent protagonists, it tends to be pretty obvious what the "right" dialogue choice is, because the plot and the gameplay push you to make decisions in certain ways. Social linking mechanics in Persona 3 and Persona 4 encourage you to be nice to all the people you social link with. After Minato died in Persona 3, the fallout that happened after was due to SEES, well, loving him too much, indicating positive links with them.
Digital Devil Saga also pushes you to make decisions in certain ways, but far less so, since most dialogue choices are repeatable and (for the most part) don't impact the story or gameplay. For the most part, there are few 'wrong' answers, and that's mostly because most of the options are 'right' to begin with. The ones that do have an impact, though, and come down to a binary choice.
The Devil Survivor 1 MC (I believe his manga name is Kazuya?) is interesting in that all the various Route choices are presented as valid (with the exception of Yuzu's, I believe?). I believe this is the case with Devil Survivor 2 as well, based on what I've heard (I've only completed one Route, so...). You still need to do a lot of talking to other characters in DeSu 1, because otherwise people are dying everywhere (...though they can still end up dead even if you do talk to them) and you can't open up other route endings.
Uh.
Where was I going with this...
Anyway, in DeSu 2, the social linking aspect of Persona 3 and Persona 4 is back under a different name. As Hiro becomes closer with characters, he will gain Fate with them, up to a maximum of 5. But there's a few things about this incarnation of social linking that are really nice.
Firstly, what Hiro says during plot events can have an effect on Hiro's Fate with other characters, which is something not present in P3 or P4.
Secondly, there are more events than needed to max out someone's Fate. You have no gameplay reward for spending more time with people Hiro has reached Fate 5 with, but sometimes you just want to spend time with them anyway to complete their Fate story :>
Thirdly, there are multiple 'correct' ways to respond.
The third point is what I want to focus on, because I think this is something that was missing from P3 and P4. Going by memory, most of the dialogue choices in P3 and P4 are binary choices; you can either choose the 'right' answer, or a wrong answer. Or the choice doesn't even matter anyway. If I recall correctly, there's that one section in P4 that everyone needs a guide to otherwise they get bad endings (aka DON'T PUSH NAMATAME IN THE TV) that had more than a binary dialogue choice, but there's still obviously one 'correct' answer in order to put you on the path to a normal/true ending.
What's really nice about DeSu 2 is that there are several moments where you have three dialogue choices rather than the usual 2 (which makes it a pain in the ass to script but WHATEVER), which gives you far more dimension than binary choices. What's even better about this is that more often than not, there are multiple ways to elicit 'positive' responses from characters. With Daichi, who is Hiro's childhood friend, you can get him to respond positively by being supportive of him, but you can also yield positive responses by saying some somewhat mean things, but in a joking manner. You can have Io respond positively by being nice and calm, but also by being a goofball and being playful. Joe tends to like it when Hiro plays along with his antics and stays hopeful, but he also responds positively if Hiro's harsh with him at certain points in the game.
There's a section in the game where you'll be recruiting characters to your cause. Unlike the segment of P4 where Souji tries to convince the party not to push Namatame into the TV, while you're presented with dialogue choices at many points in the conversation, there's a variety of different things you can say to get someone on your side.
...As well as a variety of ways to fail. The ways you can fail tend to be a bit more involved than "be mean." You can fail by withholding information from Fumi or by failing to pique her interest. By far, one of the biggest ways to fail to recruit someone, or block off a certain character's route, is by failing to give them hope.
tl;dr I think the main strength of DeSu 2's dialogue choices is the fact there are multiple ways to succeed and fail, making all characters involved seem more well rounded.