(FIXED) If you're not hearing FREQUENT dialog, stop playing now! (CRITICAL BUG)

[mackit]

A lot of players including myself are experiencing a bug that causes the narrator/companion/mentor to stop saying their dialog. If you watch a playthrough of the game, you'll realize that the narrator is supposed to be talking to you frequently, giving backstory and flavor to the game world.

If you are experiencing this bug, I recommend stopping play right now and waiting until there's a patch to fix this bug. It's clear that a significant amount of the story is supposed to be told through the narrator, and without that the game is critically broken. I've been enjoying my playtime so far without the narration, but I'm definitely going to wait until I get the full experience!

EDIT: Cyan posted on their Facebook that they’re aware of this bug and working to fix it! https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02CW6i5Qn8jYhBToHVozfofUeBqRTHJ8Zcg3ruQg3jQamTuEA4HJpoAqZo4tRuKwocl&id=100063669276253&mibextid=qC1gEa

Em Sea Elle has a good example/explanation of what you should expect vs what happens when the narration is missing: https://steamcommunity.com/app/754890/discussions/0/3826415752026118113/?tscn=1684519180#c3826415752027304941

EDIT #2: The issue is now fixed. Yay Cyan! https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/754890/view/3693559563019616498

[mackit]

I watched a bit more of someone else’s playthrough and yeahhh—I’ve been missing essential plot exposition because of the missing narrator. Sadly I’m definitely going to have to wait before continuing to play this!

[Twizzy]

I played for 6 hours until I remembered that she was talking to me as a cloud right after I left the first bunker. I figured it was a bug once I read on this discussion board that she should have kept talking the entire time.

I learned that you can still trigger her location based voice lines after restarting the game, loading your save game and use the safe location function from the options menu (which should be on the top level of the pause menu, considering how important it is in the game's current state). That seems to reset all her triggers. I guess those lines that were event based are lost for me though.

[13r]

Game is unplayable in current state. I started the first playthrough and realized the dialog bug hours into the game. Started a new playthrought with the dialog working, but after i while i got through walls and stuck on the green world, reloaded the automatic save game to get to a black screen... this needed Q/A time. I dont know how this was released in the current state.

[Damien1this]

obduction had issue at launch as well............

[mackit]

Yeah I’m not too worried about the future of the game, Cyan’s history with Obduction shows they’ll get the bugs ironed out eventually. It’s just a shame if people aren’t getting the full experience, especially if it’s an issue like this where you might not even realize there’s supposed to be dialog!

[joridiculous]

Is the lack of (a very annoying) narration ruining the gameplay for puzzle solving, or is it just lore you don't really need?

[Pleont]

Originally posted by joridiculous:

Is the lack of (a very annoying) narration ruining the gameplay for puzzle solving, or is it just lore you don't really need?

I played through 95% of the game without narration and it didn't affect my ability to problem solve or immerse myself in the environments until the very end when I was supposed to ride an elevator in the Swan, and the elevator wouldn't operate, so I had to close the game and relaunch it (which caused the narrator to return for the final leg of the journey within the final destination realm). While I'm speaking from a position of not knowing what was said, the stuff I did listen to made me feel my experience interpreting the storytelling via the clues scattered throughout the environment was more interesting; I wouldn't have appreciated anything trying to act as a guide through what I was witnessing.

It's unfortunate, unlike previous Cyan titles, that there are very few books and stuff to read. So I guess the narration would be like an audio-book version of previous books without the ability to skim.

[owowg]

I noticed after I loaded my savegame today, she suddenly started talking again. I didn't know she was supposed to talk this much, so I didn't miss it the first time I played the game.

[r1348]

Shutting up the blabbering Mentor is a feature, not a bug!

[KajFlo]

Like always, dont play on release...wait for the first patch. Glad I did not buy it yet.

[Sloopy_DE]

Bump

[Fulcrum]

oh man... i have been scouring places looking for books or something to give me the story. I didn't realize she was supposed to be talking. Pretty game, fun puzzles, but i was like "where the heck is the lore?"

[Tyran]

So glad I read about this before playing too much, after starting a new game twice I was able to confirm my narrator was broken even before reaching the Swan on my first save, and on the second save it broke immediately afterwards...

[Miral]

There's a narrator?

I'm only mostly joking. She's said like five things to me in the entire game so far, none of it made much sense, especially when she congratulated me for raising my first spire -- that was actually my second.

[joridiculous]

Originally posted by Miral:

There's a narrator?

I'm only mostly joking. She's said like five things to me in the entire game so far, none of it made much sense, especially when she congratulated me for raising my first spire -- that was actually my second.

I had her in the start where she said something i didn't pay attention to. Too annoying voice. Then she said something about how beautiful it is (assume the outside view). And not a peep since :)