Choices (Spoilers)

[French Bastard]

Hey all, let's talk about the dramatic choices you have to make in game.

They are one of the best parts of this game, but maybe some of them could have been handled a bit better.


- All Brad's stuff or Terry
I think this choice is a bit weak. Choosing Terry seems like the best choice morally and gameplaywise, so the choice is not an interesting one.
You have no other party members at this point, so even if Terry's weak, he's still a warm body. Going from 2 to 1 party member looks like a big blow at this point. Plus, you haven't really collected that much stuff, so losing it all doesn't seem like much of a problem.
This choice at least gives off a taste of what's to come though, so that's good.

- 100 mags or a kidnapped party member's life
I think most people will freak the hell out upon noticing that one party member got kidnapped, and reload an earlier save, avoiding the choice alltogether.
Pain Mode can circumvent that, but I think most people playing Pain Mode aren't on their first playthrough, so they know to stay the hell away from campfires.

- "All your mags, or we fight, and if we win a village gets destroyed"
This one is fantastic, as the battle is very tough, and if you save in the village you cannot leave. Trying to cheat by buying a ton of things in the village, in order to sell everything later and get some of the mags back, doesn't work either. Really really good stuff, possibly the best choice in the game.

- Party member or Brad's arm
That one's cool. A bit easy to cheese though, by putting someone you don't want (like Percy) to use in front of your team. It could even be morally justified as the best choice: No one would miss Percy, and without an arm you should have a much lower chance of being able to "save" Buddy.
What would have been really great: The game remembering which party members you used against the mutant right before getting the bicycle, and picking one of them. That way it would have to be someone you really care about.

- Russian roulette
There's not really a choice here, but it's cool.
By this point it starts getting a bit ridiculous that Brad falls into so many traps though. Come on!

- 3 party members or nipple
Maaaaaaan. This is excellent stuff, but it could have been even better for the same reasons outlined right above. I think everybody would have a tendency to cheat and reload an earlier save here.
For once, I'd say that it's a good thing that choosing to save the 3 party members has no real repercussion whatsoever later in the game. The nipple is not mentioned again, but it stays forever in the inventory afterwards.

- All Brad's stuff or Brad's arm
This one is a bit weird because, in a normal situation, you'd have to be completely out of your mind to have your arm cut off there. Incidentally this is why the achievement you get at the end being called selfish / selfless doesn't really make much sense in that context, I don't feel I'm selfish for choosing my freaking arm over some bottlse of water.
This is a fairly easy, low stakes choice; I think most people would pick "All your stuff", because they know they could just grind on dark cave enemies for 5 minutes to buy things back.
Still, this choice is right after a difficult one; and two really difficult choices in a row would have been too much. So this isn't that much of a problem.


Maybe I'm forgetting one?

[Flowers]

I kind of feel like if you reload, unless if it is in Pain Mode, it kind of ruins the fun of the game.

[Arbie]

I believe the nipple choice is the best because it's a luck charm and you don't lose anything.
But as a concept it was the strongest choice I made in the game. I spent 4 minutes on stream asking myself out loud what is morally correct by killing 4 strangers in an apocalypse setting or cutting off the last surviving woman who happens to still be an infant's nipple.

Originally posted by Slinky:

I kind of feel like if you reload, unless if it is in Pain Mode, it kind of ruins the fun of the game.

Man you called me out by accident!

I reset a lot where I ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up, like choosing against Rando to have him do both things against me or fighting guys who stole my gang members. It was mostly because of how convenient save points where and no bosses to fight again though that I bothered to do so. I'm a save scum abuser.

[oniiguy]

would have helped if they limited to around 3 save slots, or worse, 1. But yea jrp tropes and save scumming is just part of games unless the devs intend to stop it.

Edit: Even better if they had the member sacrifices rng and not just the ones in your party so that you couldnt control who gets killed unless you reload until you're ok with it.

[tentaclemage]

"The nipple is not mentioned again, but it stays forever in the inventory afterwards."

It's mentioned once. After you kill off the claw guy, Brad asks if Buddy is ok. He says something like "Your eye...and your chest..."
I find it kind of amusing that afterward Buddy tells Brad not to fuss over her by saying she's "not a princess" considering her goal in the Joyful.

[Lucky Kharms]

You can't really fault a choice in a game because of the possibility of save-scumming. That's a player issue, not a developer one.

Also, in my opinion, the choices don't actually mean that much from a gameplay perspective. The game's easy enough that you can beat it without much trouble no matter which option you choose. The choices are more just a moral/RP'ing issue, which I think they pull off pretty well.

[bloops]

You forgot the choice to spare or kill Sticky and Ricky

[NC31]

Originally posted by bloops:

You forgot the choice to spare or kill Sticky and Ricky

The resulting fight hurt. I actually ditched my gang just so Brad and Sticky had a 1 on 1, ended up being even more emotionally devastating.

[Crimsan]

My first PT I went with no arms, hella withdrawals since I avoided the joy. Game isn't that hard once you figure out an oil/fire strat.

Edit: I would of loved more difficult choices that causes my brain to bleed.

[Lumios]

You should make this a guide instead of a standalone comment. Honestly though it's cool that you spent your time looking at all the decisions you can take in the game.

[KiLLER # }]

I've played this game four times already and never used save for cheesing choices
Except for once so xD The one with the "All your mags, or we fight, and if we win a village gets destroyed" reset a lotta times to beat them