Anyone else loves this game but hates everrything about the story and its characters ?

[Ayyyymen]

This game really scratched my ADHD itch, I love the gameplay loop, it is such a relaxing game and even helped me discover some new music genres.
But I hate everyone in this game, not a single character is relatable or acts like normal human beings. The story just doesnt unfold in an interesting way and is just a mess.
Characters motives dont make any sense.
The new lingo spam and explanations never stop...
I just wanna deliver boxes with my lil lou.
Also why is a certain bb exactly similar to another certain BB
Like same model and all.

[glueless]

Originally posted by Ayyyymen:

But I hate everyone in this game, not a single character is relatable or acts like normal human beings. The story just doesnt unfold in an interesting way and is just a mess.
Characters motives dont make any sense.

that's just how kojima likes to write his characters

[train cookie]

idk i like the story and charters alot mainly i like how buck wild everything is cause its like learning a new world and how even tho the world is horrible people still are delivering play stations and paintings and stuff it kinda feels normal while weird at the same time

[👽Shini]

i really like the japanese girl with funny pronunciations
thats some good character writing there i think

[Robob]

Definitely,the story almost seems like it was made to annoy you on purpose,3/4 of the game is spent trying to reach someone you feel zero connection to nor care about.
(spoiler related to the ending) And I almost threw my keyboard out of the window when I didn't even get to shoot amelie as the final prize

Just make it an open world delivery simulator damn it,no need to tack bossfights and a terrible story onto it. I genuinely enjoyed all the deliveries but the plot ruins the whole experience

[Johnny Bombeiro]

Hard agree, luv being a porter, hate kojima writing. Simple as

[WarnerCK]

Originally posted by Robob:

Definitely,the story almost seems like it was made to annoy you on purpose,

It absolutely was, and that's not at all a controversial take nor new for Kojima.

See, for example MGS2: people really liked MGS1 and wanted more of that, so with MGS2 Kojima gave players a taste of that at the beginning and then did exactly MGS1 again but with an unlikeable character instead.

Obtuse world-building and unreliable narrative is a deliberate design choice, so that the player can feel a sense of mystery, and feel that there are plot twists when given new, conflicting, information. This is universal in Kojima games. The ridiculous info dumps and insane repetition are just bad writing. This is also universal in Kojima games. Things improve in accordance with how much power the editors and translators get to override "the vision." You might get something pretty tight (with rough spots) like MGS1, or you might get the Guinness World Record Longest Cutscene In A Game like MGS4.

One of the things that people get out of Kojima games is how the game can make the player feel a particular way at a particular time at the designer's choosing. But he'll happily choose to make the player feel annoyed (pizza deliveries), bored (the Beach), or frustrated (premium deliveries in the mountainous areas coupled with the lacklustre vehicle physics). And he'll happily chuck in random commentary of his views on gamers (including the player) - see the MULEs, Cliff/the player "wanting their BB back," and pretty much all of Higgs' dialogue - or cameos from his celebrity friends (see getting a model who doesn't speak English to do the English lines phonetically rather than picking someone that could speak English, or swapping out the voice of Snake after 4 games to get a celebrity buddy to do the voice for the final game).

But he is good at creating a compelling mechanical gameplay loop, and he is good at fostering emotions in the player. One should spend their effort on the parts they enjoy, and only give as much effort to the parts they don't as they choose.

[DruAndrew]

I get pissed off that there are characters with thick accents. in the story, Fragile and the Chiral Artist were both raised in the USA- but somehow adopted foreign accents and speech patterns of someone who learned English as a 2nd language. Yes the actors are beautiful, and go Kojima for doing what he wants- but that is not how language works. People talk like the people around them when they are young. There is no international travel eluded to or logically available in the world that is setup.

I really love the playing of the game- but the story has a lot of holes and stupid ♥♥♥♥. Cliff's story is mechanically really well done. I think it is really good how his narrative is drip fed and has a pretty good misdirection that doesn't resolve until the very end. Which proves that Kojima does understand some important aspects of delivering a compelling story. But there is a lot of sappy and lame stuff that really rubs me the wrong way.

I enjoyed the mysterious nature, I enjoyed the fact that I had to read the interviews and emails to get certain aspects of the story, and I love the ♥♥♥♥ out of the gameplay loop. I feel like I like how weird and out there the story is, and I end up just putting up with all the stupid ♥♥♥♥ because ultimately it justifies (though weakly) the things I like. I do think it is cool that I need to have a baby strapped to my chest to see the ghosts. I dislike the logic used to explain the ghosts, but I like them being there and I like the mechanics of how they behave.

I really hate Amalie- she is the worst psycho controlling girlfriend who demands that everything be about her- and if you don't do what she says she will do whatever it takes to destroy your life. I really hope she is kill-able in DS2.

[Alexander]

Early on I realised I just don't care about the plot or the world lore. They are just beyond my ability to suppress disbelief.

First and foremost, it is a game about logistics. It contains advanced structures, cities with half hundred thousand inhabitants, and all this supposedly depends on solitary people hauling stuff on their shoulders. And it is not even important stuff half of the time: toys, art objects, freaking pizza (there might be a deep philosophy there, but I find that I don't care). Nonetheless, every time I deliver something, NPCs shower me with praise, as if the contents of my backpack really could matter much for a city with 80000 inhabitants.

Second, the emails. They are the worst. Incessant stream of nonsense and annoying emojis. I think they are supposed to create a connection between the player and the NPCs, but for me it worked in the opposite manner.

Information entries about the world lore are intersting, but... given the points above I realised I don't care anymore.

The gameplay is solid though, so I just decided to ignore everything else.
Except Lou, of course.

[Wingnut Mcmoomoo]

I just decided to reinstall and play through again because I wanted to experience the story for a 3rd time. I'm not gonna pretend the story is for everyone but I really do like the whole thing. Mix that with the really chill way the game plays and its just a wonderful and very kojima experience. I totally get why people wouldn't really like the story, its not a mass appeal sort of story so some people are gonna dislike it. But i am glad people still enjoy the game through that tbh.

[Shinviroz]

story is very unrealistic.
there's no way america would need to be rebuilt like this.
where are all the elites? the illuminati? the rothschilds? the rockefellers?
the word 'united cities of america' is so cringe and shows how naive hideo kojima is regarding the lack of elite power in this game.
if america failed like this, then the new world order agenda would be responsible. rebuilding it would not be part of that agenda, at least not in the fashion that hideo kojima imagined it lol.
important question is, did america play a role in the upcoming war in middle east against israel? and is the fallout of america the result of that? and if so, who would be responsible for the rebuilding of 'united cities of america'? (((cringe)))

[buttchin]

i really enjoyed mid game
the thing i hated is those repetitive cutscene that plays when you do delivery
and that long ass ending beach credit cutscene, literally what's the point of that cutscene?
she doesn't even tell anything new or interesting
social aspect of game is really cool i would loved it more if whole game is just pure gameplay with challenging world
BTs and mule are piss easy, i hope they make ds2 world more harsh and we see more porters in game

[WarnerCK]

Originally posted by buttchin:

and that long ass ending beach credit cutscene, literally what's the point of that cutscene?

So that the player can experience how bored Amelie will get stuck on the Beach on her own with nothing to do.

Whether including that in the game rather than leaving it to the player's imagination was a good choice is a different question.

[buttchin]

Originally posted by WarnerCK:

Originally posted by buttchin:

and that long ass ending beach credit cutscene, literally what's the point of that cutscene?

So that the player can experience how bored Amelie will get stuck on the Beach on her own with nothing to do.

Whether including that in the game rather than leaving it to the player's imagination was a good choice is a different question.

not a good game design though

[Foxpass]

I wouldn't say I hate everything about the story and characters, but a lot of things. I like the Clifford story.

[woodygeronimo]

I just started playung. Im 4-5 hours in and i dont have any idea what "BT" stands for. Why the world is in that state. I have some sort of power called doom or something but i dont know what it is. What are the "likes" for