Not bait, what could have been better?

[Oberon's Top Guy]

Purely from a viewpoint of seeing the game through till the end and knowing the intended messages or character motives, all that. Was there anything you saw with the game that you thought could have been better? Not a jab at the developers, thinking of it like this can also help appreciate certain value the game has. There's sacrifices and takeaways needed in development and obfuscating the message too much makes the game inaccessible for larger audiences.

I feel like the mouthwash did not tie in too well but did enough to subvert expectations, just not how I had initially hoped for a stranded horror survival story, but this has good qualities,

I personally think the "hard to handle" elements of the story that are delicately touched on for motive and nuance are handled very poorly and too obvious. I could not see how you'd miss that but it also didn't have any kick to it, aside from making me realize why they ended up in this mess.

Development for games takes time and a lot of resources, if the game had 10% more dialogue in the form of interactions and had loosened the metaphors then it would probably be perfect, but for what it is, it seems nearly perfect.

[MysteryGourmet]

The surreal nightmare sequence at the end (everything after Jimmy goes into the vent) definitely feels like it drags. Like they brainstormed a bunch of ideas for a "Jimmy loses his sanity" sequence but then couldn't decide what to use so they put them all in. By the time we reach the horrible-horse-baby section you're checking your watch and wondering how much longer it's going to go.

The individual scenes with Swansea on the chair, Curly on fire, and Polle at the end were all good, but the stuff between felt like it was just trying to shuffle you from one to the next.

[Oberon's Top Guy]

Originally posted by MysteryGourmet:

The surreal nightmare sequence at the end (everything after Jimmy goes into the vent) definitely feels like it drags. Like they brainstormed a bunch of ideas for a "Jimmy loses his sanity" sequence but then couldn't decide what to use so they put them all in. By the time we reach the horrible-horse-baby section you're checking your watch and wondering how much longer it's going to go.

The individual scenes with Swansea on the chair, Curly on fire, and Polle at the end were all good, but the stuff between felt like it was just trying to shuffle you from one to the next.

Agreed, I liked the vent portion and the part with the gun a lot but it did feel like it fell off a tiny bit, I think the cameras and Curly eating puzzle was good and more of that style for the insanity bits or puzzles in general could have been great. Just maybe a bit earlier on as "signs" even though we had the invisible horse section,

[al infierno]

I definitely agree that while the story is very clever and well-written, it didn't feel very cohesive to me by the end of it, and the timeline jumps were needlessly confusing compared to similarly structured pieces of media like Pulp Fiction or Before the Devil Knows You're Dead. The amount of focus on the mouthwash motif was odd given how little it actually impacted the story aside from a few plot points (like the great reveal that it's the only thing they're carrying). Is there something thematic going on with mouthwash that I'm not getting, other than the whole "kills 99.9% of germs" being a parallel to Jimmy killing the crew or something

I'm also not crazy on the "delicate" aspects as you put it. It explains why Jimmy did what he did, but it didn't tie very cohesively into the survival story or cosmic/surreal horror elements.

[Saint Skeleton]

Originally posted by Saint Skeleton:

Originally posted by Blacker Battler:

Purely from a viewpoint of seeing the game through till the end and knowing the intended messages or character motives, all that. Was there anything you saw with the game that you thought could have been better? Not a jab at the developers, thinking of it like this can also help appreciate certain value the game has. There's sacrifices and takeaways needed in development and obfuscating the message too much makes the game inaccessible for larger audiences.

I feel like the mouthwash did not tie in too well but did enough to subvert expectations, just not how I had initially hoped for a stranded horror survival story, but this has good qualities,

I personally think the "hard to handle" elements of the story that are delicately touched on for motive and nuance are handled very poorly and too obvious. I could not see how you'd miss that but it also didn't have any kick to it, aside from making me realize why they ended up in this mess.

Development for games takes time and a lot of resources, if the game had 10% more dialogue in the form of interactions and had loosened the metaphors then it would probably be perfect, but for what it is, it seems nearly perfect.

*SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS*

I think, or at least im convinced the "Hard to Handle" elements are a red herring, the same way most would assume Curly was the person who crashed the ship I will die on this hill

to me it just doesnt make sense for someone who was assaulted to confront their predator and tell them they were the father ... the only way that whole conversation taking place even makes sense to me, is its under the premise of Anya somehow wanting Jimmy to be in their Child's life, and they just both just lost their jobs effectively which ties into the responsibility theme better than sexual assault would be able to ... how do you take responsibility for something like that, face the consequences? :boozebottle

*SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS**SPOILERS*

[Hannibal Lahr]

Originally posted by MysteryGourmet:

The surreal nightmare sequence at the end (everything after Jimmy goes into the vent) definitely feels like it drags. Like they brainstormed a bunch of ideas for a "Jimmy loses his sanity" sequence but then couldn't decide what to use so they put them all in. By the time we reach the horrible-horse-baby section you're checking your watch and wondering how much longer it's going to go.

The individual scenes with Swansea on the chair, Curly on fire, and Polle at the end were all good, but the stuff between felt like it was just trying to shuffle you from one to the next.

100% agreed. I liked the occasional trippy moment but at that point it just kept going on to point where I didn't feel like I was engaging with either the literal narrative or the themes of the game. I'd also argue that the reveal that Jimmy crashed the ship should've come closer to the finale as it felt like the biggest moment. Maybe if that scene was moved to right before the finale with Curly it would've landed better. Just a thought.

[Like_That_But_On_Fire]

Just trim the fat. If they wanted to do a surreal out of sequence walking simulator to reveal the story, that's all well and good. It's a slightly dressed up graphic novel, but then it felt like they didn't have confidence in that so they put in a bunch of hallucinatory game play sequences that aren't needed and aren't really very engaging. They don't deliver new information and they just pad the ending out to the point where I'm sick of it.

I personally figured out what Jimmy's Deal was before I hit the spooky graveyard sequence and all, so the remaining fluff driving home what he did just felt...unneeded. I guess I'd rather have played a tight hour long story and been done with it.

[Saint Skeleton]

Originally posted by Like_That_But_On_Fire:

Just trim the fat. If they wanted to do a surreal out of sequence walking simulator to reveal the story, that's all well and good. It's a slightly dressed up graphic novel, but then it felt like they didn't have confidence in that so they put in a bunch of hallucinatory game play sequences that aren't needed and aren't really very engaging. They don't deliver new information and they just pad the ending out to the point where I'm sick of it.

I personally figured out what Jimmy's Deal was before I hit the spooky graveyard sequence and all, so the remaining fluff driving home what he did just felt...unneeded. I guess I'd rather have played a tight hour long story and been done with it.

but then they could only charge $6 instead of $12, overall good game, hope they told the story they wanted to tell

[STANN.co]

i'm not super sure on what and why stuff happened. Maybe im just stupid, but jimmy got anya pregnant, and then ♥♥♥♥♥♥ everything up. Did jimmy rape her? Or was he just scared of having a child?

near the end there's a few baby scare segements, like the ultra-sound and weird catterpillar baby, so i dont really know what the takeaway for that is to be honest.

And was the "rape" before or after the psych evaluation?

[CrabNicholson]

I really liked how human the characters were, and the nightmare sequences where everything goes freaky seemed a little overdone in contrast. It was kind of jarring to go from "this guy has feelings of inferiority and is trying to convince himself he's fixing things (while actually making them worse)", a very grounded character arc, to "this guy is cuhraaaaayyyzzeee and has visions of a giant monster horse while he hunts for mouthwash!". The subtle parts were the best parts, and you can easily figure out that he's insane from the context without needing the old horror insanity cliches.

[jra.470]

I found the twist with Jimmy and Anya to make both of them look worse as characters. For starters Anya being the only female character and then being turned into the ultimate victim of the story made her seem sorta one dimensional and made people lose interest in her as a well written and compelling character. Now a lot of people only really talk about the abuse she suffered, or fantasize about her getting revenge on Jimmy. It really simplifies her as a character which is kind of an injustice.

Jimmy would be a lot more recognized for how amazingly well written he is if he wasn't a rapist. I've had people disagree with me about this but I'm standing my ground that he would be so much more compelling without that stain on his character. Here you have a cynical, sarcastic, bum looking dude who is his own worst enemy in life. He does nothing but ♥♥♥♥ things up and never takes responsibility until it's too late. He can still be the miserable chicken ♥♥♥♥ coward that he is but he would be a character that resonates with people, and it would make the message of taking responsibility feel like more of a message to the player, not just taunting a rapist.

I feel that the story would feel so much more personal if the events of the game were centered around Jimmy trying to run from an unwanted pregnancy at all costs and Anya having to bear the burden alone.

Anyways game's still a masterpiece 10/10

Thank you for coming to my ted talk

[Sardonicus]

I wish the game felt more like a game with a story to tell. Instead of a story that decided to tell itself through a game. I feel like having more things to do besides walk around, click on some stuff and read text would add to the experience.

[Villain]

Is the scene where you can't see/acknowledge the part of the medbay missable? chronologically after Daisuke crawls in? I was watching someone play it for the first time and they never went to the med bay D: what a shame

[Oberon's Top Guy]

Originally posted by Villain:

Is the scene where you can't see/acknowledge the part of the medbay missable? chronologically after Daisuke crawls in? I was watching someone play it for the first time and they never went to the med bay D: what a shame

Yeah and that felt pretty important, Imagine if we had voice acting in the game and moments where you could interact with them after key parts and hear memories echo in Jimmy's head,

[Berserk_ayt de Mecha]

I honestly think that the game could use more other mechanics to make us fall in love or engaged with the characters, like, they are already making so many other tiny things like feeding Curly, why not adding a dialog choice at the beginning to make interact more with the crew
And those conversations can be pointless or just give us more about the general aspect of "oh, we are in a space ship with a super important cargo", "oh yeah, I feel super important carrying this only for captain eyes stuff" just to discover is Mouthwash and drag the characters down even more. Or even create a more close relationship between characters if we are actually able to, I don't know, see the full spaceship with personal objects from the crew or just hearing a little bit more, but this also can be a double edge sword

The other thing I agree with is the ending. They should show who crashed the ship closer to the ending itself rather than that horse x-ray or running from the vents that I barely understood what did I supposed to do, just to drop me back at the start multiple times (felt unnecessary and frustrating for a really well paced game)

Of course, is easier adding all this after playing the game, and it is a fantastic game, but I'm just answering your question

[IcyCola]

I think the conversation between Jimmy and Anya from the demo should've made it into the final game, where they're having a discussion (I believe about his psyche evaluation.)

In terms of world-building, I personally would've enjoyed seeing more of the characters interact that wasn't related to the story such as Anya and Daisuke playing their board game more of Culry and Swansea or what Jimmy was doing around the ship.

I think some of the story was too linear and wanted to see more interactions from the characters or explore more of the ship. I love the story being told from an unreliable narrator like Jimmy and then Curly's but a glimpse of the others would've been interesting to see.