Beatrix is Pointless... (Spoilers for the game.)

[KlutzyNinjaKitty]

The past couple weekends I've practically lost hours of time on this game (Not through Steam; rather, I played it on Xbox) and I have to say, I do love it. It's cute, simple, and scratches my farm simulator itch. My main problem with the game (other than the Glass Desert and there's not a lot of replay value) is that the main character, Beatrix LeBeau, has no real reason to be in it at all. I’m going to avoid mentioning her appearance since it’s been discussed so much already.

I get the purpose of silent protagonists, they’re there to help the player get immersed without the worries of who you’re playing as, but there’s no reason to have a silent protag here. My favorite example of this done right is in Persona 4. In that game, the focus was on the friends you made and their personalities. You were given different choices that could further the plot towards an ending or to strengthening your relationship with the characters. You could have put yourself in the protag’s shoes or you could have made up your own interpretation/character of ‘Yu Narukami,’ the official name for the protag, while you played. Though you never got to customize the appearance, you did get to put in a different name.

Here, the devs tried to give Beatrix a very loose personality and backstory without any actual character and no one else to really interact with. It’s implied that Bea likes to travel from the messages of romantic interest(?) Casey and that’s what eventually drove them apart; but, there’s nothing else there. We don’t know if Bea’s shy around people, impulsive, or anything else. We don’t have any messages we the player can send to Casey but we do know that Bea is responding judging to the ‘RE:’ at the beginning of each message Casey sends Bea (which mean’s ‘regarding’ for anyone who doesn’t know.) Rather than letting Bea just be a vessel for the player and let them decide who Bea was, the developers found it necessary to push in a forced appearance, vague personality, and relationship with Casey that distracts from the rest of the game and results in nothing changing. We’re still at the ranch at the end of the credits, so all the melodrama between Casey and Bea was just there as filler shoving the message further in our face.

All throughout the Far, Far Range we do get notes from Hobson mentioning how he left someone he loved for the prospects of slime ranching, leading up to when he ultimately follows his heart and decides to go back to be with his special someone. Though somewhat unrelated to the world around the notes (I wish they mentioned fun secrets about the slimes/biome the Slimeapedia wouldn’t mention, like maybe a hidden grove of fruit or hints about caring for some slimes) I found that he had some character to him, someone who truly loved nature and wondered about his place in the world, and I enjoyed reading his writings as I explored. I wish that the team just left it at that and scrapped all of the Casey Starmails. Hobson’s notes portrayed the message they wanted enough and didn’t require me to drop what I was doing to read them and go through a random credits sequence.

All the time, effort, and money put into Bea and Casey could have been put into something else like more slimes or biomes. Or, if they wanted to keep the two of them, they could have given us Starmail options to send to Casey, nicer messages helping us decide if we go back to them, following our heart, or nastier messages leading us to stay at the ranch and follow our heads which would tie with the end of the Hobson notes which mentioned 'choosing different paths.'

This might come off as if I’m angry, I’m not. In all reality I’m more confused at why Bea as we know her is here and not some faceless avatar as her, and Casey’s, existence does nothing for the game other than distract from the rather chill and upbeat vibe of the ranch. If anyone has anything they want to add, go right ahead.

[Lena]

well for my part, i mostly completely ignore the mails i get from casey because they are not relevant for the gameplay and they tend to get tedious to take care of because there are so many.

i dont mind that there isnt a "deeper" meaning in all of this because the main focus is still farming, slimes, selling plort, making money, exploring etc.

imho, the devs gave both of them some sort of a story just to fill the void and to at least give some sort of background story.

maybe in the very far far far far far future there will be some options regarding casey and starmail but thats highly unlikely.

in the end it is what it is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Edward Wigglesworth]

welp here we go again

[Tim Timsen]

(*sigh* this kind of thread again...)
Just ignore the little side plot and don't put too much thought into it? Some people want to know who the protagonist is, what their motivation is, if they have friends etc.
The devs added that for that purpose.

Originally posted by KlutzyNinjaKitty:

All the time, effort, and money put into Bea and Casey could have been put into something else like more slimes or biomes.

90% of the side plot is text messages, 5% is the credits, 5% is the song that's playing during the credits. And you're seriously implying that they wasted time, effort, and money on that?
Have you never written love letters or poems nobody but you was allowed to read? Never written anything for school? You've been to school, right? I'm not trying to sound harsh here, but making up a story and writing it down is part of every school's homework, at some point.

I wrote a 3 pages long "short story" when I was in fourth grade. It took me less than a day, and the teacher was baffled, because the task was to write a single page, and I stood there with 3. All my other class mates had either 1 1/2 pages or wrote so big that the page was filled out with text that could've fit onto half of it.
My excuse: I didn't know how and when to stop, there was so much going on in my head.
I also blame my obsession with some TV series like "Alfred J. Kwak" and "Gesucht, entdeckt, erfunden" a cartoon series that covered everything from Galileo to Louis Pasteur, FOR KIDS! I don't know how it's called in English, Google doesn't give me anything except for the German and Japanese titles. That stuff influenced my imagination as a kid, I even dare to say it influenced my entire childhood.
The teacher gave me a B-, they said the story was A material, but I missed the task (B), and they didn't accept my excuse (-), even said I could've written it again, just differently.
They had to change it to an A after my parents took it to the principal and asked them why imagination and creativity get punished.

You're criticizing creativity, you're (indirectly) asking someone to not put effort into their ideas, to not make something enjoyable for a wide variety of people. Many people want more content in a game, you seem to want the opposite.
I got the part where you said that you're not angry, but I still think you're an ass.

[KlutzyNinjaKitty]

Here's the thing, you can make more than one game/book/comic in your lifetime. It's not a 'you get one shot to do this' thing. The stuff with Casey could have been a separate game or a promotional comic in the style of the 2D artwork we see in the loading screen and end credits. Maybe as a surprise secret for completing an objective.

What I didn't like was the fact that they half-assed Beatrix. Rather than giving her a full personality and backstory with visible characteristics they still kept her a hollow shell with only 1 trait (she likes to travel) but still had all the backstory while pawning her off as a proper character with motivations. I can only assume this is to try to make both sides of the argument happy which you just can't do. Either go all the way or don't bother.

Slime Rancher's not a narrative driven game and that's fine. Not every game needs to be this glorious work of interactive literature that makes the player think about the socio-political consequences of everything. Those games are great and they have their place, but putting these obvious messages in something where it doesn't fit is just weird.

The Hobson notes were good enough for me, I actually cared about him and the notes made me think more about the message than the Casey letters, and they still fit the adventure/exploration theme of the various zones. It put the core themes in the back of your mind without distracting from the other elements of the game.

Originally posted by Tim Timsen:

The teacher gave me a B-, they said the story was A material, but I missed the task (B), and they didn't accept my excuse (-), even said I could've written it again, just differently.
They had to change it to an A after my parents took it to the principal and asked them why imagination and creativity get punished.

Your creativity got punished because you didn’t properly do the task assigned. It’s that simple. My creative writing class had a limit of 5-7 sentences for the project so that I could figure out what was more important relating to the topic. You don’t want to drag on, especially in short stories, and it’s not a good habit to get into. I get the part where you don’t know when to stop, I’m especially like that with my fantasy worlds; but, knowing when enough is enough and the world/product is done is an important skill. I struggle with that as I’m a perfectionist and I mentally have to fight myself when making a first draft of a book since I can’t keep going back and changing things or it will never get done. Your parents bailing you out actually hindered you in this scenario.

Originally posted by Tim Timsen:

You're criticizing creativity, you're (indirectly) asking someone to not put effort into their ideas, to not make something enjoyable for a wide variety of people. Many people want more content in a game, you seem to want the opposite.

So people shouldn’t criticize things? People should put effort into their ideas; but, if the idea and/or execution is weak then it should be expressed. Just because there’s creativity involved doesn’t mean that it gets a ‘get out of jail free’ card and is now safe from criticism, which would actually stifle creativity since we wouldn’t be able to learn and grow. What I want is more necessary, good content. If a character/concept doesn't help with the plot/themes then it should be scrapped or tweaked. Just because there's more of something doesn’t make it good. I want quality over quantity, not the other way around.