how good is the narrative / story?

[Khrusayder]

the game looks really nice and charming but im wondering just about the narrative part of the game. Good, bad, or it not even have one.

Thanks in advance!

[HealthBar]

Star Renegade's story-writing is bad. It is one of the few that doesn't fit with the game.

It tries to be funny with character backgrounds and dialogue full of old-man jokes.
A few might find it hilarious, but it honestly doesn't match how the game is described in the trailer video, the intro(when you boot up the game), and the game-world where humanity is at risk due to a cosmic invasion.

Since there is literally no important information in character dialogues, and there's also no penalty for skipping it, you eventually forget and dismiss the narrative in the game.

If you are buying this game, buy it for squad-based tactical combat. It is the game's primary focus, and is the very reason this game has received good reviews.

[Khrusayder]

Thank you!

[Papa_Jango]

I 100% agree with Healthbar. The combat is fun, but the story is not good at all. I'm a big RPG fan and I read every file/dialog in a game. But the lore of this game is whack, the characters are not interesting at all and the jokes are bad. I just skip trough everything.

Nevertheless I realy enjoy the game. I'm not trough with the story yet and only played it a couple of hours, but the fighting, exploring and leveling is very fun.

[Sekoria]

Not to mention that the animated into basically spoil the entire story for you :p

[Ashtrails]

In some places it really seems like there was a different idea / approach that got turned around mid-development.
Given all the information we have at the end of a run, what we see in the intro cinematic shouldn't even be possible and makes no sense retrospectively.
(like, you see the valkyrie fighting herself... while the game makes it an actual mechanic that the same person can't exist twice in any given universe - if it's her mother, it's even weirder, since that never gets mentioned at all anywhere in the game)

This being said, while the dialogue is often very cringy, there are some nice nuggets between the lines and I think the world building is really interesting and entertaining.
The visuals do most of the heavy lifting, but just the messed up state the universe is in according to some characters and what all went down is very creative.

[Vivisector 9999]

For some reason, the writing doesn't bother me. Okay, it's not exactly Tolstoy, but for a questionably dubbed anime-esque cheesy space opera where the heroes call their special attacks as they plow through increasingly ridiculous enemies? The lame dialogue hits that vibe kind of perfectly.

I much prefer this way (a weak story with great gameplay) than the opposite (a great story with weak gameplay).

[Graven]

The writing is extremely out of tone with everything. The gameplay, the aesthetics, the graphics, the music, everything is ace, but the writing is the low point easily, Unfortunately.

[oo00RAVEN00oo]

Yep story is weak, in the opening animation sequence (pretty sure the same sequence that brought you here), where wynn is put into a capsule to escape a war, only to return (solo) to an nameless base to find what should be her mother (according to the pendant) who is now MOTHER (play the game, you'll understand MOTHER). Apart from that, there is literally no reference to any "story", as people have mentioned crew dialogue is pointless and doesn't add to any sort of story, just information about the characters.

Finishing the game is extremely disappointing, there is literally nothing more than *pat on the back* go do it again, with even more crap dialogue from the devs themselves portrayed as in game bar npc's (want another drink card? pleeeeease.)

[chand3123k]

I'm with Vivisector on this. I think the writing is fine. I actually really enjoy the humor and quirkiness of it. Its actually quite cynical underneath all that humor.

I also wouldn't judge the game for trying to have a good/bad story. It just doesn't try and I think it is better for that especially for Roguelike. Having a substantial story can bog down a game that is supposed to be played multiple times. And I MUCH prefer that than having a long dragged out mediocre story.

[Crusher Von Splattenheim]

I'm glad there's a thread on this topic because it gives me an opportunity to express my thoughts;

There were a couple reasons why I didn't pick the game up at launch. Petty reasons--admittedly.

1. I wasn't sold on the rough pixel look of the game.
2. The dialogue between characters were bugging me.

Well now that the Steam sale is here and I finally caved and bought the game? Even beaten my first campaign? It's clear I've been missing out. The game is a lot of fun. It does a lot of things right.


1. I've more or less warmed up to the rough pixel look of the game. The only thing that still bothers me about it is that when the character portraits are talking... the way the lips on some of these characters move brushes up against the uncanny valley--at least IMO. At least for me.


2. The writing still gets me.
It's not a matter of the writing being "bad." It's not "bad writing." It's tone-clashing writing like other posters above said months ago. When you watch that opening cinematic? It gives the impression that a person who picks the game up is in for a dramatic and emotional journey. They want to see Wynn get her vengeance. 99% of the dialogue in the game has no drama. Any emotional impact that would stem from the gravity of the situation the Renegades are facing is constantly being undercut by the silly things they have to say.

Like let me put it this way: Let's say you're driving along and you come across a pretty good looking steakhouse. You decide to stop and grab a bite. You go in and place your order for a steak. The waiter comes back and presents you with a burger. Now I mean at the end of the day it's all beef and the burger is probably quite good too. But you didn't want a burger. You wanted a steak. That opening cinematic screams "steak" and the writing screams "burger." And the fact you were sold on the notion of eating a steak puts a damper on the affair of eating this, probably still quite good, burger that's placed in front of you.

Now speaking of the actual quality of the "burger"?

Like the reason why I don't think the writing is "bad" per se is because the Imperium's dialogue is--generally--decent. They're actually funny and when they're not the game tosses out the rationalization that all the dimension hopping they've done inevitably fries their brains which is a good enough excuse to not completely smash a person's suspension of disbelief. So, fine, they're a little screwy and they're constantly crying for "MOMMY."

The Renegades just aren't afforded the same excuse. Like you can get this character interaction between Wynn and I forget who else in which this other character asks Wynn if she even likes defending the laws "that don't make sense." And Wynn's response is to say something along the lines of liking to champion "especially the laws that don't make sense." I don't need to read that. That doesn't endear me to any of the characters. More importantly I didn't laugh.

It's not that it's a poor attempt at humor either. It's that the humor has zero support.
What am I talking about?

Like look at the cartoony-style of Halcyon 6. I don't mind a little zaniness there because it looks like a cartoon. Now look at the art style and general presentation of Star Renegades. They're worlds apart. Halcyon 6 characters have gigantic heads and tiny bodies. Star Renegade character proportions can get a little out there depending, but by and large? Their design reflect far more realistic proportions. So "realistic" that clearly I should also be complaining about how a rag-tag group of people could even hope to challenge a dimension hopping imperial dictatorship with the resources of a thousand other dimensions at their disposal?

Eh.
That's the funny thing about suspension of disbelief.

A guy can see a dragon flying off in the horizon and see no issues but then something far more mundane and not completely unreasonable like a character who's been on a farm their entire life but who can't even hazard a guess about growing a type of crop might just immediately pull someone out of a game/story--even if it is technically stupid to think that just because someone grew up on a farm means they were at all involved with the business and goings on in the farm. And even if? That doesn't mean the farm they grew up on necessarily grew crops--I mean what exactly did this character farm? And yet unless this farmer who "doesn't even know how to farm" is given adequate support within the narrative and prior to this revelation of "being a farmer who doesn't farm"? A lot of people would just put the book down or close the game app and not care to find out what the narrative has in store next.

And that's more or less the issue the writing is running up against.

With a different presentation it'd be downright hilarious. Because it is when it works. But without that presentation? Sometimes it's like going to a fancy restaurant and the table next to you has some guy dressed in a t-shirt and shorts loudly cracking fart jokes. I mean the fart jokes might be top notch, world class even--so much so that you have to stifle a giggle or two when your date isn't looking--but now's not the time nor setting, right? While the comedy club a few blocks over has a more gritty atmosphere and those types of jokes would easily fly there in that setting.

So in short, it's not that the writing is "bad" or the game is bad. They're both good. But unfortunately the writing often clashes harshly with everything else the game has to offer leaving it alone without support. And this effect is causing some other people to see the writing as "bad."

And it's really unfortunate. Because I can tell that the writing did have a lot of effort and care put into it.

But, no, it's not in truth bad writing.

[vukotlak]

I accepted pretty fast that the storytelling is out of place. And now i just skip everything.

It is kinda pointless as it is just random nonsensical smalltalk.

[DAVOS CENSORSHIP 2030 FTW!!!]

At least is not Memes every 5 seconds.

[Karundo]

I just wish they added some extra dialogue for the Overseer boss

[letir]

Writing is definitly not best part of the game. It contrasting with general tone of the game, being silly and weak, and getting repetetive fast.

Characters repeating their conversation notes every time when you build a level (and you would do that a lot), characters getting generic lines regardless of their personality (paragon selling enemy ship to a smuggler), and there is little of actually funny jokes.

Somebod tried to write cliche parody into grim world and failed miserably.

[Beastly_Zero]

To be honest i am quiet sad about this, the game looks incredible,
is like one of my favorite style for a game, the animations, the illuminations, the style, everything, the kind of combat-style, there is just one problem. i LOVE the Lore in-game.

It's ok even if the story is simple, but for me the most important thing together with the gameplay is the lore, i would like even to buy the collector for Switch (for me to play this kind of indie in handled mode is a paradise), but is you confim that there is ANY file that you can find in game to read the lore of the world, the characters eccc..., i am really sad because i think about the potential for a game, and then the devs "ruin" the atmosphere with this mistakes...
It's so simple to put i don't know....maybe 20-30 text file that you can find or unlock with some requirements in game and read about the flora-fauna-world-races? come on, there are indie so stupid and bad that has that, and this awesome game not?

They even can put it with an update, together with an Achievement section (like Hollow Knight or Ori) in game and an encyclopedia, and the game will have a boost to the atmosphere.