very late request to lock a path

[YukoValis]

I wanted to suggest locking off the path "walk away" from the first time playing. I've seen a few people play the game and pick that option for the fun of it. The issue is that path reveals a LOT of things. If anything it could be considered multiple paths in one. So my suggestion is only have that option on your second path+

[RenWyvern]

Considering there's a unique ending you can get with the Stranger being the first path, I disagree. I see it more as a sneak preview of what's to come. Besides other paths reveal much more of what's going on.

[Dallar]

Eh, but how much can you really gather from what is shown by that point, on your first playtrough?

Besides, Stranger is the best girl, and that is worth some light spoilers.

[YukoValis]

Here is my point. With this path the first time you enter the cabin it is a functional broken mess. The first time you reach the stairs it is barely drawn concept art. The first time you meet the princess it is her body in the dark mocking you and now being twisted into various moods. Then it shows off like 6 of the voices. This is why I say it is showing a bit too much.

[RenWyvern]

Originally posted by YukoValis:

Then it shows off like 6 of the voices.

But the only voices are the Hero and the Contrarian?
Unless you mean versions of the Princess, in which case, not really- It's supposed to be that you don't know who she is, you don't know what to think of her, and that's why she splinters- the whole point is that you've never met her and she's a total (pardon the pun) stranger. That's why I think it makes a perfect first route. A wonderful surface glimpse of the horror to come and a hint that the Princess isn't quite what she seems.

(Also I don't recall her mocking the player in the dark when you, she just asked if I was alright, but maybe that changes depending on stuff (or the demo, but I never played the demo))

[YukoValis]

So I replayed again and I think I did something different. Now I had the nice princess and only 3 voices. I could have sworn I got a new voice after every fracture, but either I was wrong or couldn't redo it. I also got a nice princess for the first one and I know for a fact she can start as one of the 6. I know because I can find the video of someone getting that.

So my request still stands for slightly weaker arguments unless I really am able to get multiple voices with the right selections.

Main arguments: first time in the cabin is a mess. first time seeing most of the game areas is concept art. shows off many of the princess personalities.
Minor/invalid arguments: if you can get multiple voices it reveals so many. a really crazy path that makes the others seem more normal.
request: just lock it until you have completed one path.

[Hanabishi]

Your point is valid, but considering that you get a whole unique ending for it, amount of content being cut by you proposition is too high.
Also there are other crazy spoiler-ish paths, like the Razor and Moment of Clarity, where you do actually get all voices at once.
I.e. fixing it properly requires a serious restructuring of the game.

Originally posted by YukoValis:

I could have sworn I got a new voice after every fracture, but either I was wrong

Yes, you are wrong, that never happens.

[Sardonicus]

Originally posted by YukoValis:

So I replayed again and I think I did something different. Now I had the nice princess and only 3 voices. I could have sworn I got a new voice after every fracture, but either I was wrong or couldn't redo it. I also got a nice princess for the first one and I know for a fact she can start as one of the 6. I know because I can find the video of someone getting that.

So my request still stands for slightly weaker arguments unless I really am able to get multiple voices with the right selections.

Main arguments: first time in the cabin is a mess. first time seeing most of the game areas is concept art. shows off many of the princess personalities.
Minor/invalid arguments: if you can get multiple voices it reveals so many. a really crazy path that makes the others seem more normal.
request: just lock it until you have completed one path.

The princess you start with is dependent on which path of stairs you pick. If you pick the sharp path on the left, you get a snide callous princess. If you take the middle path you get the default princess you usually see after picking up the knife and going down stairs. If you go on the right soft path, you're going to get the princess you see if you don't pick up the knife the first time.

The number of fractures happening depends on how many questions you ask the princess, and specific questions are more likely to cause fractures than others..


You can learn just as much about the story or more from other paths. People who end up with the Razor or the Moment of Clarity will meet all the voices before anyone else does. As someone who only got those paths later on, it feels strange thinking about how different my playthrough would have felt if I knew about all the inner voices all along instead of each time being a surprise who I'm going to get. Yet I wouldn't remove it.

If you end with the Wild and choose the princess over the narrator you get a peak of one of the final endings of the game where you choose to be gods with the princess. If you end up getting the good ending, you're going to play the rest of the game knowing just how deceptive the narrator is, and the specter and the tower will both outright spoil what the narrator is later on if you allow her to possess you or let the tower win. And EVERY route is going to teach you that your princess is going to change each time you die, so finding out early on that the princesses personality can change is honestly not that big of a reveal. Every first route is going to teach you something about the world. The stranger is one of the shortest routes so there's actually a lot to still figure out.

[YukoValis]

I kind of said all I needed to, but I do want to say a bit in response. Which princess you get at first is a bit of a moot point because it shows examples of all the personalities. In a single path this takes away from a first experience of "oh she is acting different this time" when you show all of the acting different parts. There is magic in the first time, and I feel this takes away from it. Be the personalities, the inside cabin, stairway, and everything else along this path.

[brickey.8]

I think there's a lot of value in the game organically letting you choose which actions you think are right for your first playthrough, and a lot of players are going to naturally want to try out "refusing the call" as their first idea. Allowing them to do that and rewarding them with a trippy meta ending feels far more valuable to me than avoiding spoiling anything too early. I do think the first moment of "wait that's not the same act 1 princess" is a cool one though.

Also this isn't really spoiling any of the princess's personalities because the personalities in this chapter don't all appear again in other chapters.