Games ending (Spoilers)

[IndustryStandard]

I don't like the games ending twist that was built up. Like at all.

Did the game explain why he killed you off and replaced you? I didn't hear any explanation given to the player, the ending seems to just kind of happen and then end, and I just sat puzzled at my desk wondering the motive and kinda disappointed. I'm happy with the game overall, but the twist was so, odd.

He even expressed distaste for the emperor in the final mission it seems weird that he would want anything to do with him.

I was hoping heart of gold would follow up on this but it has you playing as a different underlord, so I somewhat doubt it will.

[nutter666]

That was kind of his plan all along, to kill off all the emperor's allies and people who could assist him so that he would be forced to do something insane like consume the full power of the Aum. Once he had it was just a case of letting him commit an act of true evil, destroying your core and 'killing' you, that would turn him to the dark side and Mendechaus would have gained a powerful new champion. I personally believe his mention of 'distaste' was to throw you off the scent of his plan.

The key thing to remember is that this wasn't really your personal (Oberon's) war for the Overworld, the battle was already ongoing before you entered the fight and is still ongoing after your 'death'. This was a battle between Mendechaus and Kira, two warring Gods, who were representing chaos and order.

If you remember from the very first cinematic at the beginning of the campaign a female voice, Kira, told you to "now go Oberon" before you end up meeting Mendechaus. The real twist, which isn't made very clear by the ending, is that Kira sent you as a double agent knowing what Mendechaus would do.

During the end campaign cinematic Kira finally intervenes, at the moment of your cores destruction, saving Oberon whilst still allowing the problematic Emperor to be destroyed. She didn't want someone so power mad or easily twisted as the leader of the Empire. By acting at the time she did she was also able to steal victory away from Mendechaus and recover her double agent in a way that Oberon is believed to be dead.

Mendechaus told Oberon numerous lies during the campaign or perhaps half truths as an Underlord can never truly be killed they just simply return back to the Aether usually with little/no memory of who they once were. The character Marcus, from campaign level 4, is a good example of this as he seems to still remember some things from his previous life/lives. Rhaskos is another example.

This does lead on to Heart of Gold as Mendechaus is still at war with Kira with another Underlord, Kasita, under his command.

--

That's just a rough outline of the plot of the first campaign and what the ending portrays. I've paraphrased a bit of course, but I realise the actual ending isn't as clear as it could be. It's something the Dev team are hoping to look into at some point now they have more time and resources.

[Noontide]

Honestly, the story of WFTO is a bit of a mess for a number of reasons.

Part of this can be attributed to the original writer (no longer with us) who was genuinely a great guy, talented and had fantastic ideas on where to take the story and how, but was often difficult to work with. No doubt made worse by the fact we were an entirely work from home outfit back then.

The other big factor was simply a lack of time on anyone's part, trying to catch up with earlier disruptions to production and on a strict time and budget limit the campaign was very rushed and this is no more apparent than on the final level and in the ending.

To give some perspective the vast majority of the story was written in the course of the last month of development, while the campaign was being developed. The final level was not "complete" until the last week before launch.

There's no doubt the story and particularly the ending suffered because of that, but there was nothing we could have done otherwise.

Nutter's analysis of the story is pretty good and I can also add my own analysis that I posted a few months ago on Reddit. He's also correct that it's one of the few things we're considering for improvement from the original campaign, but I can't say yet whether or not that will definitely happen. We have some ideas at the least and if we do change it I can say the general story won't change just the delivery of the ending.

You're right in that Heart of Gold really doesn't touch upon the ending of WFTO, we didn't want to bite that bullet with HoG instead we wanted to simply expand the universe a little beyond what you know thus far. It does take place in the aftermath though and certainly the behaviour of Mendechaus has been changed slightly as a result of his somewhat embarrassing pyrrhic victory.

As for where the second expansion will take the story I've already hinted on it in a few places, certainly quite recently when I was feeling festive, though people missed the biggest one straight from the horse's mouth. All I can say for now though is that it doesn't continue the main WFTO story (that's reserved for Oberon) but it will be focusing on building up some characters and relationships in particular.

Since we brought Tim on as our lead writer I've been working closely with him and the lead designer to try and solidify the WFTO universe and lore (we even have a few story bibles now!), he's doing a great job with it and I'm really looking forward to expanding the story a little bit further while we can! :)

[IndustryStandard]

I understand, I am guessing you can't share if the new expansion will have more length then heart of gold by any chance?

Regardless the explanations of the story ease the blow so I'm content.

[Noontide]

Originally posted by IndustryStandard:

I understand, I am guessing you can't share if the new expansion will have more length then heart of gold by any chance?

Regardless the explanations of the story ease the blow so I'm content.

I expect there will be more levels but due to the nature of the gameplay it could either go by quicker or not. Will have to see when we get to testing.

[IndustryStandard]

Either way the game impressed me enough to buy the extra content and gleefully wait for the next DLC

[Kerican]

While I throughly enjoyed play your game. That ending kinda ruined it all for me. I live for a story, and I've been patiently waiting for that Plot line to be resolved. So now that this post confirms that Heart of Gold does not pick up the orignal plot line, then I will pass on it and every other expansion or add in until their is some completion.

[Noontide]

Originally posted by Kerican:

While I throughly enjoyed play your game. That ending kinda ruined it all for me. I live for a story, and I've been patiently waiting for that Plot line to be resolved. So now that this post confirms that Heart of Gold does not pick up the orignal plot line, then I will pass on it and every other expansion or add in until their is some completion.

Sorry to hear that. Unfortunately the plotline in question isn't feasible to resolve in the scope of WFTO. It's something that requires a lot more than the game itself is able to deliver. So it's something we'll likely look towards picking up in a sequel where we can do it true justice.

[Kerican]

Kinda sucks to hear. Looks like I'm going to be waiting a while. If you do figure out a way to do it,you will have me eagerly lining up to wanting to buy it as an expansion. I'm just not that interested in the endless modes, or pvp or even simulated pvp. I love good story, and right now I want to take part in a good story of getting even with Mendechaus. Just that ending felt so unfair.... you work through the entire campaign just to have it end in basically a "game over" roll credits... Not that rewarding.