Time Limit Question

[Babbles]

If I may ask: I have read some 'red' reviews and it seems there is a pretty harsh time constraint in this game? A bit like Pathologic 2 where you have the time in a play-through for one major plot reveal, with limited time to explore.

Is that the case with Mask of the Rose?

[hanchan]

There was; the first update doubled the amount of in-game days and reports are that people are finding it much more pleasant to explore and make connections without the stricter day limit. :)

[Sephira jo]

Originally posted by hanchan:

There was; the first update doubled the amount of in-game days and reports are that people are finding it much more pleasant to explore and make connections without the stricter day limit. :)

I still think it could benefit from 3 turns a day but yeah now that it's longer it's a lot less of a rush feeling and you can really dig in to the story :)

[KocLobster]

Originally posted by Babbles:

If I may ask: I have read some 'red' reviews and it seems there is a pretty harsh time constraint in this game? A bit like Pathologic 2 where you have the time in a play-through for one major plot reveal, with limited time to explore.

Is that the case with Mask of the Rose?

I thought this game was great to begin with, but it is definitely improved a lot with the developers recent update. The time restraints aren't as harsh. This game was always meant to be played more than once anyways, so I don't fully understand why people had such an issue with pacing. FG has a long history of being a solid developer that listens to their fans, I'd expect they plan to continue to fine-tune the game even more as they get more feedback.

Originally posted by hanchan:

There was; the first update doubled the amount of in-game days and reports are that people are finding it much more pleasant to explore and make connections without the stricter day limit. :)

I saw one of your responses to one of the negative reviews that was mostly aimed at the pacing complaints (pre-update). Made me feel bad. Hopefully you see this.

Just a friendly reminder that people generally are more inclined to speak up if they have a negative experience rather than a positive one. For every negative review, there may be several people out there that would leave a positive review, but just didn't feel like having to leave a review at all.

[anonymouse]

Originally posted by cookie!:

This game was always meant to be played more than once anyways, so I don't fully understand why people had such an issue with pacing.

I was one of the people that felt like the time was too crunched. A number of things combined in a way to make it frustrating for me:

- I just had less time than I expected, in general, which isn't anyone's fault
- I misused storyboarding on my first playthrough and was already out of time when I realized my mistake (separately addressed by forcing people to use unknowns)
- Fast forwarding doesn't pause at unseen text; I had planned to restart for multiple endings and character explorations, but had hoped it would work differently or that there would be an option for that.
- I love the idea of the wardrobe but disliked the reality of opening and closing it every time I visited someone

Most of those things don't seem directly related to pacing, but they do directly relate to how enthused I am to play the *same* exact path again with only tiny differences because I chatted up Ivy one too many times or wore the wrong hat once.

I did wonder if extending the seasons might have some negative effects, like content drought or discouraging restarts by increasing the time investment for any given playthrough. I think the latter is still a minor factor (which would be eased with multiple save points!), and the former shows up in a few silent, lonely suppers with Horatia, but in all other ways it made it a lot more comfortable for me. I can still chat with my favorite characters while focusing on new goals.

I do think 3 actions post-Constance would be too many, though. It feels like it's in a pretty good place, now -- you still need to replay to dig all the way down into every character's route and explore different endings, but you're not limited to like one + the main plot (assuming you don't screw it up). And it's much more forgiving towards a player just flitting around trying to figure out what to do.