Gusto and Fatale quest chain, worst design ever

[DLM]

I love the game, well I mean loved to the point where I had to deal with Gusto and Fatale which completely ruined my pleasure as I was only concerned about getting things done in time for them. These 2 characters embody some of the worst design choices I have ever seen in video games. What was the reasoning for making them completely unavailable past one point in the story? Really I'd love to hear about it. I spent hours stressed out wondering if I would be able to complete everything for them before they leave (yes I did say "stress", there's something wrong when a game is more stress than fun).

In the end I managed to finish all their quests, I actually finished my playthrough with 19/20 achievements which means completing all the side quests, except that I am missing one skill that they never taught me. I turned in the last item that they wanted but Fatale just told me to come back later to learn it (question: why? why not teach it right away?). I kept coming back to them a dozen of times in the next hours and that last skill was never mentioned again, I completed the last quest for them (discovering why Fatale couldn't sleep) and at this point it was totally impossible to even talk to them, no conversation at all.

Then the story moved on and it was time for them to go. They did tell me that they would wait for me at the chapel on the shore... I still had one spark of hope that it would happen there but they were nowhere to be found, the chapel was empty, their cell was empty. I never got that last skill (the Surge). That's another question and the most important one: why? why make them totally unavailable to the player? Leaving their cell was one thing but why are we not able to still talk to them in the chapel and finish any business there? Why?

Why?

I'm sorry but their whole business is the worst design ever: too many quests that are intertwined and apparently cannot be turned in if you do not meet certain conditions. For example, I had the 12 cards for Fatale's divination right when I got the quest but I had no line to turn in this quest for so long till it appeared because I guess I either moved on their quest chain or moved on the main story. Another example, I was asked to come back the second night to put Fatale to sleep... she was already sleeping and I couldn't talk to her!

All these restrictions are making their quest line simply unfun, it is a burden from the start to the end and since they are quite a central part of the game, it is a burden pretty much for the whole playthrough. If I had one advice, remove all these restrictions and more importantly keep both of them available when they leave their cell with the ability to complete any quest you currently have with them.

At this point I am utterly disgusted, I have several manual saves but I can't even tell at which point I should go back and I'm sorry but I don't feel like wasting another dozen of hours to realize that apparently I still failed to get things done in time.

[FlukeRogi]

There are a lot of quests that you can't finish (ones for the Commander or Silas for example) if you progress past a certain point, so it's not just Gusto and Fatale.

I've played through the game several times, but I guess I can see how it might be frustrating for some. Saying that it's not the first game by a long shot that where missing out on quests can happen.

Who'd have though that getting some achievements might require learning learning/replaying a game though..

[Melody Nelson]

Is there any spoiler free-ish guide that can just tell "don't go to x or do y until you do quest z" or things about area/items become unavailable (if there are any)? I'm just really OCD about missing things, but don't want to just follow the walkthrough and spoil the fun.

[BANANA WIZARD]

I can see why you'd be annoyed if the quests were bugged that bad for you. Since I'd played the early access about 3 times; I don't think the quests overlap bothered me that much. I thought a few times I'd ran into bugs where things were not completable but then everything seemed to resolve as I continued through the main quests. That said, the only quest objective I wasn't able to finish was "trick gusto and fatale". The thief's hat was in a very different location than the early access and I was really trying not to rely on paying rolo for map markers.