Immersion Breaking Dialogue

[Dixon Sider]

Why do companions have to say things like "This city will be different after this attack, so finish any unfinished business you have". Why do we have to be spoiled about story content like this in game?

[mreed2]

When you work up after the assault on the Garrison?

Or when you wake up after escaping from the caves? In the later case... Ummm, you misread things pretty badly. She's telling you that the city has changed dramatically (being conquered by demons and all that). No spoilers here.

[MagnusGrey]

Originally posted by Dixon Sider:

Originally posted by MagnusGrey:

Yea, the more i listen to you explain, the more I am inclined to agree with the others. You really are just making up reasons to complain. You knew the act would end, the red hourglasses on the quests already told you that they were time limited.

This is before I even got a quest. This happened as soon as I woke up. If you don't think it was awkward and immersion breaking then fine, but this type of non-fan service stuff does take away a bit of the experience from others. A warning is fine if the context makes sense. This warning was out of left field, unasked for, and she would have no way of knowing that is about to happen.

Ok, but the magical quest log that tells you that you have arbitrary time limits on quests doesn't hurt your immersion? The system message that pops up with the same warning a bit later doesn't hurt your immersion? You can't see the inconsistency here?

[mreed2]

Originally posted by MagnusGrey:

Originally posted by Dixon Sider:

This is before I even got a quest. This happened as soon as I woke up. If you don't think it was awkward and immersion breaking then fine, but this type of non-fan service stuff does take away a bit of the experience from others. A warning is fine if the context makes sense. This warning was out of left field, unasked for, and she would have no way of knowing that is about to happen.

Ok, but the magical quest log that tells you that you have arbitrary time limits on quests doesn't hurt your immersion? The system message that pops up with the same warning a bit later doesn't hurt your immersion? You can't see the inconsistency here?

He's not talking about the warning from Iribeth / Averna -- he's talking about when you wake up after escaping the caves. He isn't even complaining about an act transition, just the fact that a character says "Hey, the city has been conquered by demons, so things are different now." What a shocker.

[Dixon Sider]

Originally posted by mreed2:

When you work up after the assault on the Garrison?

Or when you wake up after escaping from the caves? In the later case... Ummm, you misread things pretty badly. She's telling you that the city has changed dramatically (being conquered by demons and all that). No spoilers here.

"Things could kick off here and just so you know, some things could be changed beyond recognition. So if you have any business that should be taken care of, you better do it soon"

I got that message as soon as I woke up without any context or reason...

[Dixon Sider]

Originally posted by mreed2:

"Hey, the city has been conquered by demons, so things are different now." What a shocker.

She is talking about the future that she somehow is able to predict. Not what you just said.

[mreed2]

Huh. Out of context, it does seem odd, and I don't have a save in the right place to see it for myself.

Yeah, I see your point, but you should have one quest at that point (basically "Kill all the demons") and its warning you that you need to finish that or things will change. Its indirectly warning you that something will happen on a timer.

I think that you are complaining about the game trying to be subtle and missing the point.

[Dixon Sider]

Originally posted by mreed2:

I think that you are complaining about the game trying to be subtle and missing the point.

I am more so complaining about the lack of subtlety. It is like they decided that handing me a disclaimer was more important than the immersion at that time. I was very much into the story and I will get back, but these type of things are detrimental in my opinion. Games have been giving good context clues in other ways that work out well all the time.

Dragon Age 2 had Bethany or Carver die, but it was supported by context clues instead of being read as an out of context disclaimer. Dragon Age 2 is ridiculed for its story yet they were able to successfully handle context clues of this magnitude. That could have been incredibly detrimental, but they used character building to have the player shy away from investing in them as a companion for something that could have ended up being a game ending scenario if you were unlucky.