Worldbuilding is a weak point in an otherwise fantastic game.

[SporkofDeath]

I played the demo and really enjoyed everything about the combat, customization, aesthetic presentation, etc. It looks like it'll potentially be a lot of fun after the demo when things expand a bit. Love how useful flanking is and how much of a difference mobility makes. I ended up with a super speedy sniper and a slow heavily armored and shielded tank who would just walk through all the enemy fire to smash people's faces before circling them and shotgunning them in the back.

My one major concern is how seemingly intentionally generic all the characters and settings are. All the events are just like "one of your pilots" does this thing, or that thing. "Two of your pilots are chatting." The enemy are just "the enemy" and they're bad because that's what the story needs them to be. It feels like an outline of a story and characters where the placeholders set there while the writer figured out a good name for things just never got replaced.

Anyway, great game aside from that. I definitely wanna get this at some point. Cause aside from that one major issue it feels right up my alley.

[SporkofDeath]

Oh uh... also sorry if this sounds really harsh. I'm not good at tone, especially in text.

[[☆] flyboy179]

You're not alone. It's pretty clear the focus is on the gameplay. cuz the writing so far is pretty generic YA novel stuff to the point of eye rolling.

[SporkofDeath]

Originally posted by ☆ flyboy179:

You're not alone. It's pretty clear the focus is on the gameplay. cuz the writing so far is pretty generic YA novel stuff to the point of eye rolling.

I mean, if anything YA novels tend to have too much world building, and it's often not very good. This is almost like the opposite problem. What little is there is fine, but there's almost nothing there. It's kind of a weird contrast between the tutorial where you actually get some characterization from the Lieutenant, Commander, and Cadet, and the rest of the game where they don't even have like, randomly selected pilot names for the events where your pilots are involved.

[minus]

I agree, the game itself is fun, but I was surprised by the lack of even a basic explanation for *why* the army of the enemy nation (which I don't recall even being named) began its invasion. I'm not even sure if "generic" covers issues like that, because even the most basic foundational mecha media like the original Gundam have a lot to say about the motives of their villains.

That single issue kind of permeates the whole story, at least so far, because the lack of motivation behind the antagonists' actions results in the protagonists not having anything specific to fight for or against beyond a vague group of Bad People who do vaguely defined Bad Things for no particular reason.

[プレロマンス]

Yeah they could literally just copy a gundam plot

[ksen]

Originally posted by ☆ flyboy179:

You're not alone. It's pretty clear the focus is on the gameplay. cuz the writing so far is pretty generic YA novel stuff to the point of eye rolling.

eye rolling is good way to put it. Better than harsher words I wanted to type.
Really, if your setting is so simplistic - make it at least dry as much as possible. No need to beat player with "This is where you are supposed to feel bad" blatant moments like a dead horse.

[[☆] flyboy179]

Originally posted by MIKI:

Yeah they could literally just copy a gundam plot

The one year war is pretty much a god story that can fit into Black and whit or gray and gray format. though Operation british is a permament black spot on zeon.

[[☆] flyboy179]

Originally posted by ksen:

Originally posted by ☆ flyboy179:

You're not alone. It's pretty clear the focus is on the gameplay. cuz the writing so far is pretty generic YA novel stuff to the point of eye rolling.

eye rolling is good way to put it. Better than harsher words I wanted to type.
Really, if your setting is so simplistic - make it at least dry as much as possible. No need to beat player with "This is where you are supposed to feel bad" blatant moments like a dead horse.

yeah it was pretty cringy with how blantant it is. It's like watching a bad propaganda film. hell if the devs wanna be clever they'd make the current feel to be a bad propaganda film.

[ksen]

Originally posted by ☆ flyboy179:

yeah it was pretty cringy with how blantant it is. It's like watching a bad propaganda film. hell if the devs wanna be clever they'd make the current feel to be a bad propaganda film.

Bad propaganda movie would be X-Com 2. This doesn't really even count as that.
I feel like I watching twitter activists instead.

[constantinople]

Completely agree. The combat and customization fking RULE. And the story and worldbuilding (and visual design) are generic to the point of being cringe...

[SporkofDeath]

Originally posted by constantinople:

Completely agree. The combat and customization fking RULE. And the story and worldbuilding (and visual design) are generic to the point of being cringe...

I find the visual design to be ok. Like, it's not super distinctive, but the really spartan yet fragile looking mech designs are an aesthetic.

[minus]

Originally posted by Balm:

Yeah the story is definitely lacking.

The bad guys are evil because they have to be for the story, and the good guys are good because they fight the bad guys. There is zero nuance or worldbuilding. The bad guys are so evil they try to arrest the heckin kiddos at the playground, because playgrounds are banned! Give me a break.

Definitely some eye-rolling moments right off the bat. It was so cringe I actually went and tried to find out what sort of goofs come up with this garbage, and well...

See for yourself.

https://braceyourselfgames.com/about/

To be fair, Necrodancer and Cadence of Hyrule are supposedly good games from what I hear. Jumping from those to a very serious RTS about the horrors of war, however, seems like it isn't doing them any favors. I'm not under the impression the musical skeleton game was very heavy on lore.

[minus]

Originally posted by Balm:

I actually really like necrodancer, and I've listened to the OST many times. I'm sure they had their reasons for shifting lanes into a totally different genre. I just wish it wasn't so obviously 'safe' storytelling.

I assume the studio just decided to try branching out and chose to take a chance on a creative director who really likes mecha. I agree about the writing though. I honestly don't understand why you'd take a genre that's known for its complex characters and lore, and then boil all that off. People haven't been watching Gundam and Macross for four decades just because the robots are cool.

[SporkofDeath]

Originally posted by Balm:

Yeah the story is definitely lacking.

The bad guys are evil because they have to be for the story, and the good guys are good because they fight the bad guys. There is zero nuance or worldbuilding. The bad guys are so evil they try to arrest the heckin kiddos at the playground, because playgrounds are banned! Give me a break.

Definitely some eye-rolling moments right off the bat. It was so cringe I actually went and tried to find out what sort of goofs come up with this garbage, and well...

See for yourself.

https://braceyourselfgames.com/about/

This type of sterilized tripe is what you can expect when everybody is terrified of writing something original. It doesn't need to be a complicated story, it just needs to be at least a little bit compelling. I'm willing to forgive a lot if the gameplay is good though, and that's what I'm here for.

I'm not sure the point you're making here about the devs. Like, corporations lie all the time, but smaller ones tend to need to rely on good will more than bigger and indie devs are pretty small so being blatantly dishonest about their values would be PR suicide... and well, their stated values seem pretty good. They made one massive hit and have used that to guarantee their continued financial stability while branching out into various other projects. Is it cause they made a licensed game? If so you picked the wrong page to link to. I guess they don't have a writer on staff. That would definitely help them with worldbuilding.

[Addie]

We purposely didn't focus on the war as a whole, or get deep into political intrigue about why the war happened. The game is focused on what happens with your squad, and their interactions with civilians, the home guard, and invaders during their fight to liberate their homeland.

If the story isn't you're cup of tea, or you feel the writing isn't to your taste. You're perfectly entitled to your opinion. We're a small Indie team, and all of us did our best to make a game we thought everyone would enjoy. Our goal is always to make the best game possible.

We always appreciate constructive feedback, and will apply that information and learning to our projects going forward.

You're welcome to continue discussing things if you wish, though please keep in mind Steam's rules of conduct and content as you do so.