They changed the climax of the tutorial?

[Distraction]

It's me or they changed it?

The part of the sacrifice I remember being in shock the first time and I loved that feeling, now with the colorful flowers and the wind feels kind of... bland?

[Sol]

I do like that the situation was left in kind of a grey area. I hope this means there is potential for a future update that enables some options to choose a more sinister/dark or feelgood/light set of outcomes.

But, I am an adult and the change is friendly to younger audiences. I don;'t know the demographics of who the game is for or what the hopeful audience is projected as. I also enjoyed Fable.

[Merman Fanatic]

Is the EA build still accessible to those who bought the game after 1.0 was released? If so, they can still experience it with the added benefit of seeing how the farm layout used to look (quite different).

I have yet to get to the end of the prologue in the 1.0 release, so I haven't seen the change, let alone even known about it. However, I wasn't bothered by the darker original because whoever you chose didn't even die since you still saw them in Quill after the time skip. Had they died, it would've been more disturbing, but I still wouldn't have disliked it for the sake of lore.

[Rumpelcrutchskin]

They should have added some bees.

[POP]

I hope you can give us an option to change it back to the EA version, it had more impact and I was looking forward to the scene in 1.0 ,since it's delivery and creepyness were so good and explained why the sibling was so shocked and angry. I was sad to see it now being just some petals.

[t_spacemonkeys]

As someone who's only seen the new version, I still interpreted it as a sacrifice in a creepy situation. In fact I kind of thought the flower petals were maybe how the townspeople outwardly justified it to themselves, allowing them to try and hide the seedy underbelly. Interesting that it used to be actually burning them (which was what I was kind of expecting from the lead up to that scene).

[Cake]

I chose to hold off until 1.0 so I didn't see the original sacrifice cutscene.

I did think it was a bit... underwhelming, beautiful even, for the sacrifice to turn into flower petals. They were very old, too, so I just assumed they were near-death anyway. I thought it was a lovely way to pass on; a nice metaphor for death, being taken to the Goddess' side.

I didn't find the scene disturbing in any way, so it was jarring for me when the sibling got so upset. As a 13 year old child (assuming there has been no trauma related to death before adoption), I'd think it'd be pretty easy to digest an old person disappearing into flower petals; they didn't really watch a person die. Did they die or did the Goddess bless them? Now that I understand that the original scene was much more graphic, I feel that I missed out on the emotional impact that scene was supposed to have.

I understand that some players are much more sensitive to such things (I'm one of them at times), but I bought this game years ago with the understanding that it would be darker than the other games like it. I do wonder if it's fair to players that bought the game excited to see the narrative vision of the game and its writers. There are things that I disagree with and dislike in many games, but I don't feel the need to make demands to suit my own needs if the creators/developers/writers feel differently. There are plenty of other games that I can enjoy.

To be honest, I respect the decision but personally, I'm disappointed (even if the scene would have upset me, that was the point).

[Wayward Will]

I feel a compromise could have been reached. Keep the flames, remove the screams. Let the idea be a little more vague while still keeping the dark undertone. It was supposed to be impactful, now its just silly in a bad way

[Stager]

The original was definitely better and more coherent with the surrounding dialogue. Oh well 🪦

[garbagefangirl]

The original was shocking in a way that was good for the story, since it leads to the sibling disappearing for the rest of the day and the player accepting a not-quite-immortality deal with a fel fae. It fits in with the game having a fairytale vibe, but a lot of the background details feeling disturbing or not quite right.

I admit I didn't initially know how to feel about the original sacrifice scene, but the new scene definitely feels like an overcorrection. A shame too, since they made it clearer ahead of time that Jacob was afraid and probably trying to bribe the player. I feel like the petals fit more in with his (maybe fake?) acceptance of his fate from early access.

Actually, it feels like a lot of the potentially creepy aspects of the game have been walked back a bit. But I'm still in the first week of non-tutorial gameplay, so maybe I'm jumping the gun on that judgment.

[Huntard]

yep the original was shocked same like the first fable when you think is a shill game and Boom your village get raided and everyone get killed even your dad and our sister who has much worse level torture


you really shouldn't have changed the Kynseed original story to please a minority of fragile blue hair

[Merman Fanatic]

Could it be a ratings issue, maybe? I'm just guessing. I know that once this game goes on the Switch, it'll have to have a rating, and I wonder if something like that would be M-rated? Judging by the 1.0 content and story, I'd say it probably would have a T rating. Without the dark elements and sacrifices and whatnot, maybe E or E10. But yeah, the previous burning sacrifice in full view for players to witness would probably score an M rating for just that one brief portion. I'm not saying that's why it was cut, of course, just that for one thing that may or may not push the rating might be worth being changed. That said, I agree with others about having an option as a happy medium.

[Shift]

Saw the new intro. Looks out of place, considering the statue still does look like a sacrificial pyre and the sibling is still in shock. New one makes the thing less impactful and more like of a wholesome scene, like the goddess just took the person to her in a peaceful way.

[bridgeofblues]

Originally posted by Shift:

Saw the new intro. Looks out of place, considering the statue still does look like a sacrificial pyre and the sibling is still in shock. The new one makes the thing less impactful and more like a wholesome scene, like the goddess just took the person to her peacefully.

Yeah, that's what I felt. It makes sense how shocked your twin is or the dialogue Mr. Fairweather has later about witnessing human sacrifice!!!

[ShanachieWolf]

I watched the original on youtube, and it really does set a different tone, the decision at the end of the tutorial which I won't mention due to spoilers and how the NPC reacts to that decision has an even greater impact when you consider the burning wickerman over the blowing flowers. I built a family focused character, and after watching the burning scene, basically had him do dungeon runs going deeper every time until death as a way to rebel against the situation. I'm starting a new character more inline with going along with the situation the player is presented with.

I think the blowing flowers thing really changes the mood and had me thinking "why is the sibling complaining, there is text ingame talking about how people burying the dead was crazy and led to ghosts(maybe), BUT, I also saw the face of the person playing the game on youtube, and they were silent for like 30-40 seconds and you could clearly see the scene had unsettled the person playing something fierce, so I get it. It feels like a Call of Duty "No Russian" skip or alternate scene option should apply. If you want to really sell the Fae nature of the scene, have your Sibling describe the burning wickerman as your player sees the less graphic version of the scene, having the Sibling talk about how what you claim to have seen is NOT what was happening. It would help fix the tone of the scene without needing two different cutscenes.

The switch from cage bars to an open cavity with a face mask also MASSIVELY changes the tone of the scene. If you want to keep the current scene, but make it a bit darker in tone, you could also add the effects from standing on the stone henge platforms where the screen edges go dark and such.

So yeah, something had to change with that scene from being graphic for a lot of players, but the current form makes everything seem a little too benign.

[Kylorian]

do they ever say how often they do this ritual?