Story Discussion **HUGE SPOILERS**

[Sunset Sullivan]

There are some elements of this plot that I'm not sure on right now.



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There are roughly three plot points I'm confused about currently...

1) Why does Mara/Elaine disguise her identity? What's the purpose of this? I feel like Tolman recognizes her anyways, which he strongly implies in his dialogue.
2) Why does Arthur sit in the car the whole game? It feels like he has nothing to really do compared to the more active plot members.
3) Same thing with the vial plot point. It feels like a really interesting moral choice, with six vials versus seven potential survivors. However, two of them die, and then Crow himself is the final boss, effectively eliminating this issue. I thought this was setting up a great moral dilemma, having to pick who gets the vial between Natalie and Arthur (innocent victims), Tolman and Marv (crooks who nontheless have some regrets), Harrison, Julie and Elaine (good people who could sacrifice themselves for others) and Crow (who doesn't deserve redemption but is clearly remorseful and desperately trying to fix things).

Overall I thought the game's plot was good, but these "loose" plot points kind of confuse me.

[doordash me some dopamine]

Originally posted by Sunset Sullivan:

There are some elements of this plot that I'm not sure on right now.



----------------
There are roughly three plot points I'm confused about currently...

1) Why does Mara/Elaine disguise her identity? What's the purpose of this? I feel like Tolman recognizes her anyways, which he strongly implies in his dialogue.
2) Why does Arthur sit in the car the whole game? It feels like he has nothing to really do compared to the more active plot members.
3) Same thing with the vial plot point. It feels like a really interesting moral choice, with six vials versus seven potential survivors. However, two of them die, and then Crow himself is the final boss, effectively eliminating this issue. I thought this was setting up a great moral dilemma, having to pick who gets the vial between Natalie and Arthur (innocent victims), Tolman and Marv (crooks who nontheless have some regrets), Harrison, Julie and Elaine (good people who could sacrifice themselves for others) and Crow (who doesn't deserve redemption but is clearly remorseful and desperately trying to fix things).

Overall I thought the game's plot was good, but these "loose" plot points kind of confuse me.

1. I can only assume it's because she's infected and escaped from the hospital she was at. She has an infection no doctor knows how to cure so she was probably under supervision. A run away person with an infection no doctor knows how to cure probably has her being looked for frantically. Julie laid out a picture of her on the table in the one room so even Julie knows about her. She stole Harrison's stuff to impersonate a special agent and Harrison being an officer, I'm sure he even knows about her real identity so to get to where she wants it's only natural to hide your identity. Tolman probably understands how Elaine feels and probably sympathizes with her. He doesn't outright stop you but he also doesn't make it easy for you.

2. I mean Arthur has a leg injury and just wants to go home. Mara had to help him to the car so most likely he can't move around himself. I gave him a bandage so I don't expect him to come to help or anything. Maybe you can give him a medkit and something different could happen but I haven't tried. But yeah, seems reasonable to just sit in the car after being attacked and just wanting to go home.

3. I've only done one playthrough and with the game just having been released no many probably have tried everything. Maybe there is an ending with more choices but I dunno. I also haven't looked into it cause I don't want to spoiler myself too much. I wouldn't put Tolman as a crook though. Tolman seems like he's indebted to Crow and maybe his family and Marv was just in it for the money as Elaine figures out and Tolman confirms. Pike took the easy way out so I'd put Pike and Marv in the same category as undeserving(which I think the devs agree which is why they killed them off). I don't mind the vials being predetermined but I'll need to see if there's a way to get Crow to Natalie or Natalie to Crow since she says bring her dad to her when you find him.

[D-Lan]

At first I thought for Arthur, you'd have to occasionally go back and heal/defend him to keep him alive and either get more story/backstory or items.

[SFBDim]

2) you do get to talk to Arthur from the control room!

[pythonfp]

Originally posted by doordash me some dopamine:

t I'll need to see if there's a way to get Crow to Natalie or Natalie to Crow since she says bring her dad to her when you find him.

There is clearly no way. Natalie doesn't want to join "Mara" and reach the lab since she's too scared to know about her father's secrets. Edward is terminally ill and left a sealed envelope with her name on it in his lab meaning he had no intention to see her daughter one last time.

[Swiftie_Luma]

1) Because theres clearly people searching for her to get her back to the hospital. She escaped and had to find a way to get back to Crow Country and face Crow to ask him all these questions due to her infection that wasnt until the end of the game. There's many people around that know about ''Elaine'' so Mara had to hide her identity in order to avoid people getting in her way.
2) Arthur is just a teenager, younger than Mara and only wants to go home after getting attacked and infected. He hurt his leg and cannot move, you can tell since Mara carries him to the car even after being assisted so there was nothing much that he could do.
I however think they could have used him in a different way since you can actually go back and check on him after he is in the car, moreover you can actually check on him almost at the end of the game with one of the security cameras so idk why they gave so many options to keep an eye on him and yet nothing really happens. He can die offscreen if you dont heal him when he is injured tho.
3) I also didnt understand the point of this other than dialogue. Before this happens you see all the pictures of the characters in the room and it kinda gives this message that something big may happen around that, and yet the game basically tells you that its okay cause 2 people are dead, one will not take the vial, so the others take them instead ... idk it was kinda odd that they set that up as if it was gonna affect the ending when it really doesnt.

I feel that everything mentioned is ''alright'' but the game kinda gives a different message and tricks you into thinking something more complex will happen with certain scenes or choices and then it just doesnt lol Maybe they can add more endings in future patches? Who knows

[neo2157]

I have a theory that things got drastically changed somewhere dureing development, it feels like there was going to be a choice of who to give the antidotes to but that go scrapped so they just killed off two people near the last stratch of the game. there are also optional boss's that you dont' really get anything for defeating... I assume these boss's were originally assets for survivors that didn't get antidotes.

[Atropos148]

Originally posted by Swiftie_Luma:

1) Because theres clearly people searching for her to get her back to the hospital. She escaped and had to find a way to get back to Crow Country and face Crow to ask him all these questions due to her infection that wasnt until the end of the game. There's many people around that know about ''Elaine'' so Mara had to hide her identity in order to avoid people getting in her way.
2) Arthur is just a teenager, younger than Mara and only wants to go home after getting attacked and infected. He hurt his leg and cannot move, you can tell since Mara carries him to the car even after being assisted so there was nothing much that he could do.
I however think they could have used him in a different way since you can actually go back and check on him after he is in the car, moreover you can actually check on him almost at the end of the game with one of the security cameras so idk why they gave so many options to keep an eye on him and yet nothing really happens. He can die offscreen if you dont heal him when he is injured tho.
3) I also didnt understand the point of this other than dialogue. Before this happens you see all the pictures of the characters in the room and it kinda gives this message that something big may happen around that, and yet the game basically tells you that its okay cause 2 people are dead, one will not take the vial, so the others take them instead ... idk it was kinda odd that they set that up as if it was gonna affect the ending when it really doesnt.

I feel that everything mentioned is ''alright'' but the game kinda gives a different message and tricks you into thinking something more complex will happen with certain scenes or choices and then it just doesnt lol Maybe they can add more endings in future patches? Who knows

Wait, so Arthur can die? That changes the ending then, because you can one other person use the cure, right? I'll try this on my second play.

[Johnny Bluejeans]

Originally posted by Atropos148:

Originally posted by Swiftie_Luma:

1) Because theres clearly people searching for her to get her back to the hospital. She escaped and had to find a way to get back to Crow Country and face Crow to ask him all these questions due to her infection that wasnt until the end of the game. There's many people around that know about ''Elaine'' so Mara had to hide her identity in order to avoid people getting in her way.
2) Arthur is just a teenager, younger than Mara and only wants to go home after getting attacked and infected. He hurt his leg and cannot move, you can tell since Mara carries him to the car even after being assisted so there was nothing much that he could do.
I however think they could have used him in a different way since you can actually go back and check on him after he is in the car, moreover you can actually check on him almost at the end of the game with one of the security cameras so idk why they gave so many options to keep an eye on him and yet nothing really happens. He can die offscreen if you dont heal him when he is injured tho.
3) I also didnt understand the point of this other than dialogue. Before this happens you see all the pictures of the characters in the room and it kinda gives this message that something big may happen around that, and yet the game basically tells you that its okay cause 2 people are dead, one will not take the vial, so the others take them instead ... idk it was kinda odd that they set that up as if it was gonna affect the ending when it really doesnt.

I feel that everything mentioned is ''alright'' but the game kinda gives a different message and tricks you into thinking something more complex will happen with certain scenes or choices and then it just doesnt lol Maybe they can add more endings in future patches? Who knows

Wait, so Arthur can die? That changes the ending then, because you can one other person use the cure, right? I'll try this on my second play.

If Arthur dies, there is only 4 vials at the end instead of five. Also, if you ignore Natalie, too then there is only 3 vials (one for Tolman, Julie, and Elaine/Mara). I tried doing a bare minimum speedrun on exploration mode (took about 45 minutes). You have to talk to Marv to get him out of your path in the arcade, and Julie twice to get her to help on the Seven Seas ride, but nearly all other conversations or characters can be skipped or ignored. Close to the end you have to talk to Julie and Tolman, and Crow too. I couldn't see any way to skip those.

[Atropos148]

Originally posted by Johnny Bluejeans:

If Arthur dies, there is only 4 vials at the end instead of five. Also, if you ignore Natalie, too then there is only 3 vials (one for Tolman, Julie, and Elaine/Mara). I tried doing a bare minimum speedrun on exploration mode (took about 45 minutes). You have to talk to Marv to get him out of your path in the arcade, and Julie twice to get her to help on the Seven Seas ride, but nearly all other conversations or characters can be skipped or ignored. Close to the end you have to talk to Julie and Tolman, and Crow too. I couldn't see any way to skip those.

Yeah, i tried it myself, that is clever idea to always have just the correct amount of vials. I also got the 3 vial "ending". What i don't understand is the counter at the end of the game called something like Lives Used. There are no lives, you just reload from last save. I assumed it would count the people who can die, but i still had 0 even with just 3 vials.
At least i got that A score bonus :)

[pythonfp]

Originally posted by Atropos148:

There are no lives, you just reload from last save. I assumed it would count the people who can die, but i still had 0 even with just 3 vials.

In the game options, you can choose to enable "extra lives". I don't know how it is supposed to work though...
Good thing it is disabled on startup.

[Zinvue]

I guess if an enemy kills you, it's counted as one life loss for the counter?