"... thematic successor..."?

[acornco]

i had to google that... cuz theres no way this game could actualy be a "thematic" successor to torment... and worse, even if it was... wouldnt it then have to be a dead pan ripoff of torment?

i find it a lil scary that the makers of torment's sequel would use such pretentious and ironicly inapropiate editorial jargon to market their game... cuz these games are filled with creative writing. if these are the words you chose to sell it... what made it into the game?

[Particles]

Originally posted by acornco:

i find it a lil scary that the makers of torment's sequel

You don't need to be scared it'll be alright. For one thing this isn't a sequel to Planescape: Torment; it's a thematic successor...obviously.

But really though the definition of 'thematic' is "having or relating to subjects or a particular subject" therefore it is most definitely a thematic successor. Although plenty of games could make that claim it's up to the players to decide whether they believe it or not and from what I can tell most people are quite pleased with the attention to world and character design/writing.

[acornco]

Originally posted by Particles:

...the definition of 'thematic' is "having or relating to subjects or a particular subject" therefore it is most definitely a thematic successor.

not the word "thematic"... the phrase "thematic successor" in the context of media. you can't just chop out one word and ingnore the rest of the sentance.

[monkeydave]

It's made by the people who made PS: T. They couldn't get the rights. So they took the same themes (immortality, rebirth, dealing with the world that your past self has shaped) and used a new story to explore them. It's a thematic successor. I'm not sure what your problem is. Seems like a pretty apt use of the term.

[philosophercat]

"Thematic successor" seems like the most accurate way to describe it, TBH. It's not a sequel as it isn't even in the same setting as the original; it tells a stylistically and thematically similar tale. It follows after Torment, thus it succeeds it. How well it fulfills its ambition to do justice to the original will always be subjective.

[Drake]

Maybe the choice of word is a little off, but it's essentially like a final fantasy series. Ruleset and world background is different from planescape torment but the core design is pretty much the same (you play an immortal, you go into some kind of mental maze when you die, the game is heavy narrative based, hard choices in dialogs etc.). They easily could have named this Torment 2, even without planescape ruleset.

[acornco]

Originally posted by Sajah:

Maybe the choice of word is a like off, but it's essentially like a final fantasy series. Ruleset and world background is different from planescape torment but the core design is pretty much the same (you play an immortal, you go into some kind of mental maze when you die, the game is heavy narrative based, hard choices in dialogs etc.). They easily could have named this Torment 2, even without planescape ruleset.

thats pretty much what i was pondering. i hadnt figured they would re use the undying aspect or that this wasnt in planescape.

thanks.

[Black Raven]

I personally was rather annoyed by the use of 'Spiritual Successor' and the use of 'Torment' in the title

Dont get me wrong I will still prob buy this game, but when then name game Torment, and use 'Spiritual Successor' then i would expect a D&D game based in the Planescape Universe.

Numenera is NOT Planescape.

If the game was simply called 'Tides of Nemenera' and they simply annouced it was made by the team that made Planescape Torment, then I would have nothing to complain about, and it would got my attention coz Torment was a great game.

Similarity is one thing, but spiritual successor it isn't

[Procrastinating Gamer]

Originally posted by Black Raven:

I personally was rather annoyed by the use of 'Spiritual Successor' and the use of 'Torment' in the title

Dont get me wrong I will still prob buy this game, but when then name game Torment, and use 'Spiritual Successor' then i would expect a D&D game based in the Planescape Universe.

Numenera is NOT Planescape.

If the game was simply called 'Tides of Nemenera' and they simply annouced it was made by the team that made Planescape Torment, then I would have nothing to complain about, and it would got my attention coz Torment was a great game.

Similarity is one thing, but spiritual successor it isn't

Bioshock was a spiritual successor to System Shock and it had a vastly different setting. That's why it's a spiritual successor - it carries some of the same feel and tone, but no story or setting connections. I've never seen "spiritual successor" or "thematic successor" or any similar terms as relating to the setting. They've always been about the feel, tone and theme of the story, the parts totally independent of setting and the actual narrative.

[INDIGO CYCLOPS]

It's not hard to understand; it deals with similar themes as Planescape and will address them accordingly. Just like a spiritual successor is a game inspired by another but may take a different form.

[acornco]

Originally posted by B'oh ShadowFighter88:

I've never seen "spiritual successor" or "thematic successor" or any similar terms as relating to the setting. They've always been about the feel, tone and theme of the story, the parts totally independent of setting and the actual narrative.

maybe thats my beef. the boiling down of the language. so now thematic successor is just a mere synonym of spiritual successor.

but in the spirit of groping for proper context; i think Fahrenheit 451 is a thematic successor to Nineteen Eighty-Four...

[Aeternum]

As long as the game is good enough to stand on its own, it doesnt matter if it's a successor to Planescape or not. They could remove "Torment" from the title and nothing would change.

[Richard_Drake]

I personally think they use the name Torment. Because the setting of Numenara is from a tabletop RPG and not all PC gamers are Tabletop Gamers, if you have only played Computer RPGs you might be more familiar with Torment then the tabletop game of Numenara, helps to serve as a refernce point for PC gamers. The word Numenara itself is also not widely understood by the majority of people. So they used something more familiar.

[Kain]

Dude, the whole thing was advertised as a spiritual sucessor so to speak. That's you found that just now is amazing, you really must be a clueless berk.

[acornco]

Originally posted by Richard_Drake:

I personally think they use the name Torment. Because the setting of Numenara is from a tabletop RPG and not all PC gamers are Tabletop Gamers, if you have only played Computer RPGs you might be more familiar with Torment then the tabletop game of Numenara, helps to serve as a refernce point for PC gamers. The word Numenara itself is also not widely understood by the majority of people. So they used something more familiar.

planescape was pen n paper XP if memory serves it was just a new setting for adnd... but now i have ta check out this numenara... thanks.

[bah]

Although I agree with what most people are saying, when I sat down and played this and started to get into the first chapter, it very much reminded me of my time playing Planescape Torment. Sure the atmosphere is a little different, but it's still got a different twist to it compared to all the other games in this genre, just like the original Torment did. Combat was not a large part of the original torment, and I'm happy to see they stuck with that tradition.