The Shortest Journey To Disappointment

[Vorpal Da Wondercat]

So, finished Dreamfall Chapters. I decided to wait for the final cut edition and played from the beginning again.

My verdict: This ties up Zoe and Kian's story neatly, but it really does a disservice to April Ryan's story. The fact that Saga appears as an unexplained Deus Ex Machina at the very end just reeks of terribly lazy writing, especially when we haven't seen any hint of the journey she took from begin that rebellious teenager who decided to run away to the thirty-something♥♥♥♥♥kicker who apparently knows *very specific prophecies.*

This was, honestly, a huge let-downs. The use of prophecy is the greatest show of laziness a writer can have: Why does the character do something? "Because prophecy." How do they know to do this other thing? "Because it was written."

April may have been reborn, but the event itself feels hollow because all we got to see of her was the prologue before her story could have gotten interesting, and then a piece of her in medias res where she's clearly gotten the hang of a lot of things, but we haven't seen how she came to be this way... and we don't get to see anything else, except the very end when she is an old woman as Lady Alvane and she reminisces about all of the apparently great adventures she had. The whole bunch of them that we never even get to see.

Oh, and confused ramblings about her connection to April Ryan... from a narrative perspective it's obvious that she is April reborn, but some of her lines come across as if she considers April a separate entity instead of her past life, and it's frankly rather confusing coming from a woman who seems to know the exact time and place where she needs to be, and the items she needs to bring, to avert catastrophe at several junctures.

And, to boot, we have all that bit about 'songlines' that Saga discovered- once again, everything happened off-stage, in another time, out of sight from player eyes.

So, good job, Red Thread games. You managed to take April Ryan, a very compelling character who carried the debut of your series and who grew on most players... and turned her from a protagonist whose journey interested us into a plot convenience who has no journey. At least none the player can witness in order to identify with her, and so there is not much to love about her. The compounding effrontery is the fact that not only her past has taken present behind-the-scenes, but also her present and her future. "I'll tell you everything, later, I promise" she says, or a variant thereof, several times to characters before the scene pans away and figuratively slams the door on the player. Saga is cool, guys, the game tells us, take our word for it. No, we can't tell how why or how she got that way, just trust us.

I'm afraid this exercise in trust failed. While this game is ... okay, I would have gladly given it up for The Longest Journey Home. April deserved better, and I rather feel that so did the players. Now that the Longest Journey Home is never happening this is probably the worst, and most rushed, ending you could have given to April's story.

[Talana 💃]

Originally posted by Zardu Hasselfrau:

I'm afraid this exercise in trust failed. While this game is ... okay, I would have gladly given it up for The Longest Journey Home. April deserved better, and I rather feel that so did the players. Now that the Longest Journey Home is never happening this is probably the worst, and most rushed, ending you could have given to April's story.

And I am afraid I agree with you. I loved the first game . The second was ok, but I missed April - and it felt a bit rushed.
Then came Dreamfall chapters ( after a looong wait ) - with too much political agenda, and the fairytale totally gone, along with April. Who was the reason to play it all.
Yes, I understand most of what the ending is about, allthough it is very confusing.
Nope, I do not find it interesting, enchanting or fun in any way - Totally ruined story.

[excelatrate]

Devs have already explained Dreamfall games are stories for Zoe and Kian, almost like sidestories that are in the same "universe".

They spoke of making The Longest Journey Home which would be dedicated to April but Ragnar decided not to because....Money, probably? Truthfully, he's probably just burned out and wants to do something new.

They also put themselves into a hole by doing the little April Ryan cameo at the end which makes no sense at all. Saga met with Zoe and Kian when she was young, after April died but originally April visited her through the secret door when Saga was old?

It would only make sense if Saga could time travel but time travel was never established in the story which makes it one of sloppiest cameos I've ever seen, that last little moment completely ruined the ending for me. Apparently time doesn't work the same in the house but then why does Saga still age? It's just bad storytelling ultimately which is a shame because everything else I've experienced in the TLJ universe has been amazing, including Zoe's genitals.



Also, what's up with them not showing what happened in Europolis? It was a huge part of the entire game and we never got to see what became of it or it's citizens, I made tons of choices and it all amounted to no payoff.

Still enjoyed my time a lot with the game though.

[Spectral]

Originally posted by Deer Deity:

Devs have already explained Dreamfall games are stories for Zoe and Kian, almost like sidestories that are in the same "universe".

They spoke of making The Longest Journey Home which would be dedicated to April but Ragnar decided not to because....Money, probably? Truthfully, he's probably just burned out and wants to do something new.

They also put themselves into a hole by doing the little April Ryan cameo at the end which makes no sense at all. Saga met with Zoe and Kian when she was young, after April died but originally April visited her through the secret door when Saga was old?

It would only make sense if Saga could time travel but time travel was never established in the story which makes it one of sloppiest cameos I've ever seen, that last little moment completely ruined the ending for me. Apparently time doesn't work the same in the house but then why does Saga still age? It's just bad storytelling ultimately which is a shame because everything else I've experienced in the TLJ universe has been amazing, including Zoe's genitals.

:happycrank:

Also, what's up with them not showing what happened in Europolis? It was a huge part of the entire game and we never got to see what became of it or it's citizens, I made tons of choices and it all amounted to no payoff.

Still enjoyed my time a lot with the game though.

The Longest Journey Home was a Kickstarter stretch goal that was never reached.

[Bethany]

I agree. As a whole, I enjoyed the game.
I definitely felt like we needed more of older Saga's story, and it felt as though they intended to go somewhere with the character progress, but ran out of time/money. All the 'prophecy' stuff, and the nonsense about "you will become the Bloodless King, you will adopt me, and I will become a princess", so corny, I actually cringed. It all felt really out of place, and very sudden.
The April and Crow Storytime scene really wasn't needed.
I was disappointed too at the lack of explanation of what happened to everyone in Europolis. I was expecting to get to go back at some point!

Like I said, I still thoroughly enjoyed the game, but it just feels like a big chunk is missing from it!

[excelatrate]

Originally posted by spectral2k:

Originally posted by Deer Deity:

Devs have already explained Dreamfall games are stories for Zoe and Kian, almost like sidestories that are in the same "universe".

They spoke of making The Longest Journey Home which would be dedicated to April but Ragnar decided not to because....Money, probably? Truthfully, he's probably just burned out and wants to do something new.

They also put themselves into a hole by doing the little April Ryan cameo at the end which makes no sense at all. Saga met with Zoe and Kian when she was young, after April died but originally April visited her through the secret door when Saga was old?

It would only make sense if Saga could time travel but time travel was never established in the story which makes it one of sloppiest cameos I've ever seen, that last little moment completely ruined the ending for me. Apparently time doesn't work the same in the house but then why does Saga still age? It's just bad storytelling ultimately which is a shame because everything else I've experienced in the TLJ universe has been amazing, including Zoe's genitals.



Also, what's up with them not showing what happened in Europolis? It was a huge part of the entire game and we never got to see what became of it or it's citizens, I made tons of choices and it all amounted to no payoff.

Still enjoyed my time a lot with the game though.

The Longest Journey Home was a Kickstarter stretch goal that was never reached.

And your point is? Ragnar said theyd make it anyways then what I chronicled is what happened.

[gresh]

I would have loved to follow looong journey home.
Plus some explanations: She is dead so how cam she appear alive again? Is it possible to still be alive in Drreamtime even when the physical body is dead?

Hm, same question for the reappearance of Crow as an old bird.

[MASTAN]

Originally posted by gresh:

Hm, same question for the reappearance of Crow as an old bird.

Crow was reborn or something like that. In 5th book there's a cinematics of Kian & Saga standing in Azadi capital in some future and a younger Crow is sitting on her shoulder.

[oniric.sound]

Originally posted by Zardu Hasselfrau:

So, finished Dreamfall Chapters. I decided to wait for the final cut edition and played from the beginning again.

My verdict: This ties up Zoe and Kian's story neatly, but it really does a disservice to April Ryan's story. The fact that Saga appears as an unexplained Deus Ex Machina at the very end just reeks of terribly lazy writing, especially when we haven't seen any hint of the journey she took from begin that rebellious teenager who decided to run away to the thirty-something♥♥♥♥♥kicker who apparently knows *very specific prophecies.*

This was, honestly, a huge let-downs. The use of prophecy is the greatest show of laziness a writer can have: Why does the character do something? "Because prophecy." How do they know to do this other thing? "Because it was written."

April may have been reborn, but the event itself feels hollow because all we got to see of her was the prologue before her story could have gotten interesting, and then a piece of her in medias res where she's clearly gotten the hang of a lot of things, but we haven't seen how she came to be this way... and we don't get to see anything else, except the very end when she is an old woman as Lady Alvane and she reminisces about all of the apparently great adventures she had. The whole bunch of them that we never even get to see.

Oh, and confused ramblings about her connection to April Ryan... from a narrative perspective it's obvious that she is April reborn, but some of her lines come across as if she considers April a separate entity instead of her past life, and it's frankly rather confusing coming from a woman who seems to know the exact time and place where she needs to be, and the items she needs to bring, to avert catastrophe at several junctures.

And, to boot, we have all that bit about 'songlines' that Saga discovered- once again, everything happened off-stage, in another time, out of sight from player eyes.

So, good job, Red Thread games. You managed to take April Ryan, a very compelling character who carried the debut of your series and who grew on most players... and turned her from a protagonist whose journey interested us into a plot convenience who has no journey. At least none the player can witness in order to identify with her, and so there is not much to love about her. The compounding effrontery is the fact that not only her past has taken present behind-the-scenes, but also her present and her future. "I'll tell you everything, later, I promise" she says, or a variant thereof, several times to characters before the scene pans away and figuratively slams the door on the player. Saga is cool, guys, the game tells us, take our word for it. No, we can't tell how why or how she got that way, just trust us.

I'm afraid this exercise in trust failed. While this game is ... okay, I would have gladly given it up for The Longest Journey Home. April deserved better, and I rather feel that so did the players. Now that the Longest Journey Home is never happening this is probably the worst, and most rushed, ending you could have given to April's story.

I agree with everything you've said
one can use prophecy in a story...but you have to KNOW how to use it

[::::lol::::]

Hassrit hasst hassan

[::::lol::::]

spielschüchtig?

[Preacherface]

YES. This is not at all what we wanted. Stop George Lucasing us. If you want to make a seperate game with seperate heroines and storylines, then do that. Don't use TLJ as a bait and switch. We kept buying the games to get more APRIL.

Dreamfall, took us back to the Borderhouse and the Cafe, teased us with Cortez. But then for no reason killed April. This was the move that started the messiness and the bloat of the story. Dreamfall would have been so much better as a stand alone title. We would have bought that.

What happened with the Vangaurd? Where is Cortez? Why no mention of the Guardian? Why no mention of the Balance? Why is Dreamfall and Dreamfall Chapters a string of cut scenes and loading screens? Where are the puzzles? Why is everything so obtuse? April at least KNEW that this savior of the world thing is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ crazy. Where are all the funny side characters like the Detective, Flipper, and the Movie theatre guy? Where is the silliness and the wonder? What happened to the suspense? Dreamfall takes itself more seriously, which loses me, a bit.

We are all suppose to just go along with it.

I tried so hard, dudes. Dreamfall was interesting. Chapters was bloated. Little reward.

Heartbroken.

[aeonfluxx75]

Sadly, I agree with 100% of everything Preacherface and OP said.

[excelatrate]

Originally posted by aeonfluxx75:

Sadly, I agree with 100% of everything Preacherface and OP said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znKt5RGdENY

[Robensnest57]

Personally when they put April Ryan to rest at the beginning of Dreamfall Chapters, there the story ended. I had fallen for April Ryans charecter big time and loved the first story and only continued on to the second part in hopes of seeing more of her, which they really disappointed me in. Instead they brought to life a whole new charecter in Zoe, I liked her and she had charecter and was interesting to a point, but nothing like April. I felt that April had almost Immortal qualities. { I know my spelling sucks.} So I still bought the third game in the series only to bring me to a quick disappointment. I had thought or was hoping they would somehow bring April back to life and after the openng of dreamfall Chapters they only bringing Aprils death to fruition just ruineed the whole thing for me. I really doubt, after reading how the game turns out, that I will ever finish it its just lost all of its lovelyness without April.

[Loot Hunter]

Originally posted by Mausdu Hasselfrau:

Oh, and confused ramblings about her connection to April Ryan... from a narrative perspective it's obvious that she is April reborn, but some of her lines come across as if she considers April a separate entity instead of her past life

I don't see anything confusing. April and Saga are two separate characters, one is reincarnation of the other.