Act 1 killed my enthusiasm (Spoilers)

[WokeGoblin]

I have to say i have lost all enthusiasm to carry on the game after act 1. Mainly and obviously because I liked Gustave as a character. But I also don't really care for any of the other characters,their development has been rather shallow and at this point(in my opinion) and im not really interested in carrying on the journey with them. I guess this was a little vent but also to see how other people felt.

I know some people may read this as hating on the game and that not my intention and im not against the killing of your protagonists. I was also loving the game up until that point and will probably keep playing and eventually like the other characters but i cant help but feel apathetic towards the rest of the game.

Maybe people will disagree (feel free to) but I wanted to see what people thoughts were and if any were in the same boat.

[weiss]

Originally posted by Zyrconia:

It is an incredibly weird choice.

This is a very good game, but we live in very fortunate times: we have a ridiculous amount of very good games, more than I could ever play.

What made this game special was the setup through the masterstroke prologue and the immense emotional weight which was anchored around Gustave, Sophie, the stakes, what was lost, the hopeless journey and Gustave's growth.

The writing team is were talented, but it was take some incredible writing to recover this lost emotional anchor. The new guy does not yet evoke any emotions.

I have a feeling it won't recover, even if the story will turn out too be great. Very hard to pull this of. Especially since, while I see what they were going for, they kinda fumbled the moment of Gustave's death. It is a bit unearned, gratuitous and shallow. Lacks the proper gravitas. And weird stuff like shields and coincidences with the resurrected boss. This should have been a far more clear cut moment of self sacrifice or something similar.

Especially when they follow up all these surrealist story beats and setup with a simple "yeah, the bad guy want to live forever". Sure, they are not telling us everything, might be a red herring and all, but it will be really hard to recover from this.

its not only the story.
the battle system is awesome.
it is round based, yes ... but not so boring roundbased like other round based rpg´s. this game keeps you engaged in the battle and being able to dodge and even parry in a round based battle system is amazing. i think no other rpg aside from paper mario and the old mario rpg did this where you can actively dodge and parry in this battle system type.

[Karotte]

"kill your darlings"

[ah.fedzi]

I feel like it happened so early in the game that I didn't really get affected that much by the death aside from it being obviously shocking and heartbreaking in the context of the story. As far as gameplay and character design is concerned though, I personally find Verso to be a superior character.

[RogueTrooper]

well i didn't even make 20 mins as i was bored to death of the cutscenes and the zero gameplay..... who is gustav????? sounds boring as the game

[Loudness]

I felt similar to you, except that this game is definitely going to draw me back in right away lol. The new chick I barely know, and I don't care for her. The young girl also came in later, she seems likeable enough though. I don't even know their names yet lol, so it's just Lune and Gustave that I care so far. I hope the new guy will be a nice replacement, hopefully he's a bit "stronger" than Gustave. Gustave felt kinda wimpy in his conversation.

The game is absolutely crazy though, I didn't know what I got myself into when I bought it. I just wanted a new game to play after Khazan, I never heard about it before (no trailers, preview info etc at all), some guys in this forum recommended it so I bought it.

It's basically OG Squaresoft from the PS1 era time-warped into 2025 releasing a classical JRPG with modern technology including the trailblazer graphics and sound that Squaresoft was known for back then. I played the FF16 demo and this is far more Final Fantasy than that game was and it's not even close lol.

[iRSS]

You need to keep going for Gustave. His death must be avenged!

[Vashe]

Just continue the game... His death is not meaningless

[Xan84]

Wanted to start a topic on this very issue. This is obviously just my opinion and how I feel about it but its one of the dumbest decisions following what they did with The Last of us 2 where they killed our main guy. You just don't kill your main protagonist half way trough, only to replace him with some other guy (i don't even care what's what with the new guy).
I am still forcing myself to finish the game since I really like the gameplay but man, I stopped looking everywhere(I used to explore very path, trying every hard encounter) and just doing a beeline to the finish line, this really killed it for me.

[toughnails]

Originally posted by Xan84:

Wanted to start a topic on this very issue. This is obviously just my opinion and how I feel about it but its one of the dumbest decisions following what they did with The Last of us 2 where they killed our main guy. You just don't kill your main protagonist half way trough, only to replace him with some other guy (i don't even care what's what with the new guy).
I am still forcing myself to finish the game since I really like the gameplay but man, I stopped looking everywhere(I used to explore very path, trying every hard encounter) and just doing a beeline to the finish line, this really killed it for me.

Just keep playing, I wasn't a big fan of the twist either, but it makes sense later on. Gustave is not related to anything that happens in the story later, so he would be a poor protagonist anyway. He was really likeable though, I agree.

[Xan84]

Originally posted by toughnails:

Originally posted by Xan84:

Wanted to start a topic on this very issue. This is obviously just my opinion and how I feel about it but its one of the dumbest decisions following what they did with The Last of us 2 where they killed our main guy. You just don't kill your main protagonist half way trough, only to replace him with some other guy (i don't even care what's what with the new guy).
I am still forcing myself to finish the game since I really like the gameplay but man, I stopped looking everywhere(I used to explore very path, trying every hard encounter) and just doing a beeline to the finish line, this really killed it for me.

Just keep playing, I wasn't a big fan of the twist either, but it makes sense later on. Gustave is not related to anything that happens in the story later, so he would be a poor protagonist anyway. He was really likeable though, I agree.

I already know how it ends and what is going to happen (for the most part) since the moment I guessed what's going in I googled it since I really dislike this type of plot(about what the world really is). That aside I really don't care how much connection he had to the story aside for being a protector to the girl, that was enough for me.
I am going to keep palaying since I really like the gameplay and I paid money on it but I am still quite pissed at it, the premise, As well as letting me build a character with items and everything and then going nop, no more character for you. I invested some 12h into building my party and looking everywhere, I can't even imagine if Baldur's Gate 3 decided half way trough to remove 1 of my part characters "just because". If you want people to die, do it at the bloody end.

[Meeka Moon]

I stopped playing after act 1. It pissed me off.

It didn't work for the Last of us 2 and it didn't work here.

And I refuse to play male-Abbey who took part in Gustave's murder and is obviously there to kill or betray the rest of the party.

Lune would destroy this random guy on sight after what he did to her man and even admitting he's part of the paintress's death cult. She would not be letting him join the party.

Gustave and Lune were the main protagonists and romance. This was their story. Without them there is no story.

"If you do that, we both die."

I was expecting a hero's journey, a underdog story with a happy ending. Gustave and Lune are on ALL the promotionals.

Not weird Last of us 2 crap.

The end of act 1 killed it for me. They wanted emotional. I'm emotional.

The game was perfect and I couldn't stop talking about how amazing it is... Until the "plot twist" for no reason other than to be edgy and stunning and bold and "subvert expectations"... It's needless and bad enough the paintress is cruel and evil to the people of Limere. The game did not need to be cruel to the players, too.

We loved Gustave and Lune. None will come after.

[Xan84]

Originally posted by Meeka Moon:

I stopped playing after act 1. It pissed me off.

It didn't work for the Last of us 2 and it didn't work here.

And I refuse to play male-Abbey who took part in Gustave's murder and is obviously there to kill or betray the rest of the party.

Lune would destroy this random guy on sight after what he did to her man and even admitting he's part of the paintress's death cult. She would not be letting him join the party.

Gustave and Lune were the main protagonists and romance. This was their story. Without them there is no story.

"If you do that, we both die."

I was expecting a hero's journey, a underdog story with a happy ending. Gustave and Lune are on ALL the promotionals.

Not weird Last of us 2 crap.

The end of act 1 killed it for me. They wanted emotional. I'm emotional.

The game was perfect and I couldn't stop talking about how amazing it is... Until the "plot twist" for no reason other than to be edgy and stunning and bold and "subvert expectations"... It's needless and bad enough the paintress is cruel and evil to the people of Limere. The game did not need to be cruel to the players, too.

We loved Gustave and Lune. None will come after.

If you are not going to continue the story watch the ending on youtube, the paintres and the world itself is not what you think. On my part, its far worse then what you think in this post.
As for the "new dude", I guess it would depend on how you interpret his actions but from my part, you are dead on what he is there for.

You should also check this post about the ending. I
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1903340/discussions/0/592896225883208839/?tscn=1746587124

[toughnails]

Originally posted by Meeka Moon:

I stopped playing after act 1. It pissed me off.

It didn't work for the Last of us 2 and it didn't work here.

And I refuse to play male-Abbey who took part in Gustave's murder and is obviously there to kill or betray the rest of the party.

Lune would destroy this random guy on sight after what he did to her man and even admitting he's part of the paintress's death cult. She would not be letting him join the party.

Gustave and Lune were the main protagonists and romance. This was their story. Without them there is no story.

"If you do that, we both die."

I was expecting a hero's journey, a underdog story with a happy ending. Gustave and Lune are on ALL the promotionals.

Not weird Last of us 2 crap.

The end of act 1 killed it for me. They wanted emotional. I'm emotional.

The game was perfect and I couldn't stop talking about how amazing it is... Until the "plot twist" for no reason other than to be edgy and stunning and bold and "subvert expectations"... It's needless and bad enough the paintress is cruel and evil to the people of Limere. The game did not need to be cruel to the players, too.

We loved Gustave and Lune. None will come after.

There was pretty much no chemistry between Gustave and Lune, that's entirely your headcanon. Gustave just had his lover die in his arms, why the hell would he suddenly gun for Lune? It makes no sense.

Also, Verso took no part in Gustave's murder, rewatch the scene if you were too busy scrolling through Tik Tok on your phone lmao

[Zeus]

Exactly. Very poor decision by the developers IMO. I spent over 20h connecting with the protagnoist only to be dissapointed like this. And immedateily a new dude enters, takes all Gustave loot and I should care and play like normal? No, thanks. Game was easy GOTY for me until end of ACT 1. Uninstalled it and that's it. Just left a very bitter taste. Googled the ending and the ending is ♥♥♥♥ as well so I'm glad I didn't waste more time.

[Veny]

Very sad but at least unexpected. Kinda cool seeing unexpected twists in games nowadays.
Bad is, i invested tons of lumina into him and he carried my team :D