Melina

[Armameteus]

I understand why she's not nearly as present as someone like the Emerald Herald or the Doll, as people often complain about their existence feeling intrusive or cumbersome to interact with, yet are required to interact with to allow the player to level up. The things is, Melina is already presented differently than other From Soft "maiden-type" characters in two key ways:

1. She can appear and disappear at will
This allows her to be anywhere at any time the story deems it necessary. This leads into the second point.

2. She follows you to each Grace
This removes the requirement that the player go to her and instead flips the dynamic, allowing her to come to the player. This removes the tediousness her contemporaries in previous games had.

So, my question is: why didn't From allow her to appear more often at Grace sites for things like flavour-text, general interactions with the player (such as the level-up animation where she clasps your hand; this animation is only ever shown a single time) or even simply to reaffirm her presence with the player as they travelled? Would it have hurt all that much to just show her kneeling by the Grace with you whenever you did?

I ask because, frankly, she feels very... under-represented in the game for being such an important character. When she claims to be leaving you when you rest at a Leyndell Grace site, there's very little impact because, well, she's not really been all that present to begin with. If she'd been universally present at Grace sites every time you rested at one, her absence for the following ones would have felt much more significant and lonely, allowing the player to feel some sense of loss or abandonment. Likewise, when she joins you in the Morgott fight if you summon her and offers to rejoin you to take her to the Forge of the Giants, those moments, too, would have heightened narrative impact.

TL;DR

I feel like making her more present would have significantly helped to make her existence feel more meaningful without the tedium other such From Soft maidens have had. Without her around, even though she's technically with you the entire time, she feels like a very hollow — even unnecessary — character.

How does anyone else feel about her execution in the game?

[LexCondran]

melina sucks, we do all the work, and then set her on fire
and if we set our self on fire, she gets pissed and leaves

[Armameteus]

Originally posted by LexCondran:

melina sucks, we do all the work, and then set her on fire
and if we set our self on fire, she gets pissed and leaves

I mean, without her we wouldn't even be able to do the work, considering she's the reason we can level up. Otherwise, we'd all be stuck at HL1 forever and trying to beat the game like that is next-to-impossible.

[LexCondran]

Originally posted by Armameteus:

Originally posted by LexCondran:

melina sucks, we do all the work, and then set her on fire
and if we set our self on fire, she gets pissed and leaves

I mean, without her we wouldn't even be able to do the work, considering she's the reason we can level up. Otherwise, we'd all be stuck at HL1 forever and trying to beat the game like that is next-to-impossible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gej8tyckF3U

yes actually

[Kyutaru]

What's wrong with being level 1 forever?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTpR6V6wLYc

[Armameteus]

Originally posted by LexCondran:

Originally posted by Armameteus:

I mean, without her we wouldn't even be able to do the work, considering she's the reason we can level up. Otherwise, we'd all be stuck at HL1 forever and trying to beat the game like that is next-to-impossible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gej8tyckF3U

yes actually

I said "next-to-impossible", not "impossible". You can technically get an ending, but asking the average player to do so permanently stuck at HL1, without Torrent, is not reasonable.

[Ashtrails]

I think unlike most other fromsoftware games, Melina really just offers us an accord, she's not devoted to the player - she's useful to us, we're useful to her.
Like, that's in important point she even makes during the journey: she's not really your maiden. She has a goal, so have you, and those goals align in the same direction.

We're more like colleagues in a carpool, only in the home stretch you get the feeling that she's actually fond of the player character and looks a bit beyond the confines of her job and purpose.

As a narrative decision, it makes sense, she has a job to do and no reason to get attached and just has rare moments where she shares some things with you.

It's not a narrative decision for everyone - I dislike it a lot too, since I enjoyed the interactions with her, but they're so few and far between that there was a stretch of 60 hours without her saying _anything_ and just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ off after dumping me at the hold.
I actually thought after the Capital she'd get more talkative, since we're now on a cool roadtrip to ♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ up _together_.

[socially ept outcel]

Originally posted by LexCondran:

melina sucks, we do all the work, and then set her on fire
and if we set our self on fire, she gets pissed and leaves

Isn't that always the way with wom— I mean, Type Bs.

[TyresTyco]

She still has much more to say than every single flame keeper in every souls game together. But I agree with Ashtrails. Pretty on point.

[Armameteus]

Originally posted by Ashtrails:

I think unlike most other fromsoftware games, Melina really just offers us an accord, she's not devoted to the player - she's useful to us, we're useful to her.
Like, that's in important point she even makes during the journey: she's not really your maiden. She has a goal, so have you, and those goals align in the same direction.

We're more like colleagues in a carpool, only in the home stretch you get the feeling that she's actually fond of the player character and looks a bit beyond the confines of her job and purpose.

As a narrative decision, it makes sense, she has a job to do and no reason to get attached and just has rare moments where she shares some things with you.

It's not a narrative decision for everyone - I dislike it a lot too, since I enjoyed the interactions with her, but they're so few and far between that there was a stretch of 60 hours without her saying _anything_ and just ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ off after dumping me at the hold.
I actually thought after the Capital she'd get more talkative, since we're now on a cool roadtrip to ♥♥♥♥ ♥♥♥♥ up _together_.

You're still in the car with her though, to use the carpool reference. Even if she's not all that talkative or has any attachment to you, she still has a job to do and is, ya know, there in the car with you.

She didn't necessarily have to like you; again, even just seeing her sitting at the Grace alongside you and/or doing the level-up animation where she grasps your hand I think could have added a lot to a sense of attachment for the player.

[Ashtrails]

Originally posted by Armameteus:

You're still in the car with her though, to use the carpool reference. Even if she's not all that talkative or has any attachment to you, she still has a job to do and is, ya know, there in the car with you.

I guess it's the equivalent of sitting there in awkward silence, not making eye contact and constantly swiping left to right on your smartphone homescreen, then ; )

But yeah, personally, I would've liked more opportunities to interact as well.