Mad at Chapter 7- but not what you're thinking.

[Solar_Flair]

I DID lose the battle a few times just testing it out, but I could tell it was meant to be hard. So I went back a bit and did some planning, was going to beat it no trap style. However, I discovered that the 4th trap existed. And when I examined it I realized it doesn't burn down ANYTHING. It just... leaves a burnt patch of land where market stalls WERE at (they take them down). So... I thought to myself, surely this can't be considered actually harming the town. You can just slap a market stall right back down on this baby. May as well put Avlora and as many units that will follow her right into that. HAH. NO. IDIOT. YOU SUFFERED HEAVY LOSSES (dialogue repeated in various substories).

Its actually funnier than it is upsetting- I did it knowing this might happen but its just SO stupid. Like, you can see after the battle that the only thing wrong with this town is this little burnt patch. I feel like if you win using just that one trap the game should give you full credit as normal... either that or using one or more traps should show the town in flames afterwards, but that's a bit unsporting.

As is I consider this a glaring oversight. Like, if I play tested this I'd report it as an important bug. It should be patched, in my opinion.

[Melodia]

There's a reason that using any trap doesn't "give you full credit" as you say, but that would be a spoiler.

[Solar_Flair]

Originally posted by Melodia:

There's a reason that using any trap doesn't "give you full credit" as you say, but that would be a spoiler.

Yeah I think I saw, to put it vaguely, that its related to the true ending, but its REALLY hard to justify the way the plot takes 'oh man, this empty patch of land in the middle of town got burnt' and turns it into THERE WERE HUGE CASUALTIES, CAN'T BELIEVE THEY BURNED THEIR OWN HOMES, CHILD IN THE VILLAGE SAYS HER FRIEND'S HOUSE BURNED DOWN, WE'RE IN TROUBLE OH MAN, WE NEED ALLIES FAST BECAUSE UH OH.

Its the sort of thing that some guy would have reported to a general in a war 100 years ago, then the general and his advisors show up to survey the damage, the 'huge casualties', and find out there was just this burnt patch and the battle was won with zero casualties. Then they snark about it for awhile, maybe some jokes get around. People might put up an ironic little monument on it to 'mourn' and have a little celebration. You'd see it in a history book as like a fun quirky note.

And that's just not really the road a plot should go down and take it seriously. The justification is just WEAK. I don't care how integral it is to the story later... if the set up is this flawed then something should have been done better in the early stages of designing it.

Again, I'm not so much mad as bewildered. Like I'm still enjoying the game and just playing down this sub-optimal path, I'll play the optimal route some other time. But like... what the hell?

[sleeve]

It does make sense in the end, and it makes the true ending that much more satisfying

[Solar_Flair]

Okay guys, I don't know what its going to do that setting off one trap magically changes the ending and not doing so makes it so great. But you can't argue this- its stupid as hell in the meantime.

Empty patch of land gets burnt, the whole course of your life changes, suddenly all your people are suffering. The absolute black and white of it would be fine if the execution was better- but its awful.

I dropped my spoon on the floor, now the entire town is starving.

Honestly, all they had to do was make something else also catch on fire or leave the damn tents there and let THOSE catch on fire. Instead its just stupid.

Elaborate voting and morals system, branching plot, all sorts of characters to recruit with their own skills and weapon upgrades and class upgrades. Side stories and dialogue choices you unlock by doing some actual investigation.

Can't figure out how make 4th trap have actual impact, grr, ugh. Bad as burning down houses.

[primeentertainer]

You have to consider that there were other soldiers fighting in the area, setting fires wherever they saw fit. And probably the signal to start lighting fires was watching for the smoke of your elite team setting things off. Those other soldiers on your side aren't just relaxing and watching youtube vids while your team goes to war.

[Spider]

I agree with the OP. If you burn the other houses you get specific dialogue about them. With this they could have written some alternate dialogue that wasn't quite as dramatic given no houses were burned.

It 100% makes sense that it would affect the ending.

[khronoschoty]

Originally posted by primeentertainer:

You have to consider that there were other soldiers fighting in the area, setting fires wherever they saw fit. And probably the signal to start lighting fires was watching for the smoke of your elite team setting things off. Those other soldiers on your side aren't just relaxing and watching youtube vids while your team goes to war.

This ^