Cutscene Gripe

[Lockdown]

I want to start off by saying that this is an interesting game that I am glad is both free and available to all. That said, a big part of the appeal of roleplaying games (at least for me) is the ability to create a character and have them act and react according to the player's design. I created a large Orc barbarian warrior in the hopes of playing a stoic and aggressive character.

As you can imagine, I was immediately disappointed as soon as I crashed the ritual. My 8 foot tall musclebound Orc was pulled around helplessly by a small catgirl, my weathered warrior with history as a brutal barbarian made to such intimidating lines like "Leave her alone!".

After the genuinely cool cutscene following the battle with the scythe guy, I was once again disappointed to be given the compelling choices of "coddle girl I barely know and just met an hour ago" or "run headfirst into a forcefield to avenge the unfamiliar friend of said girl I just met an hour ago". Honestly, I didn't care much for the catgirl or her friend and I highly doubt my character would either, making those two choices painful to have to choose from.

Afterwards, I was forced to watch as my savage barbarian is inexplicably converted into a little boy discovering Playboy before an omnibus with huge tits. There's nothing more to say about this scene without repeating myself.

I understand that no writer or group of writers could possibly know every character personality choice and I don't expect them to. Why not implement something like the "personality choices" of TiTS , possibly even have them line up with the history choices so we don't wind up with the dissonance described earlier. If that's out of the question and there must be a singular default personality, I suggest it be one very little people would have a problem with. After all, who would complain about being portrayed as a badass?

 

[Tainted-Alice]

I want to start off by saying that this is an interesting game that I am glad is both free and available to all. That said, a big part of the appeal of roleplaying games (at least for me) is the ability to create a character and have them act and react according to the player's design. I created a large Orc barbarian warrior in the hopes of playing a stoic and aggressive character.

As you can imagine, I was immediately disappointed as soon as I crashed the ritual. My 8 foot tall musclebound Orc was pulled around helplessly by a small catgirl, my weathered warrior with history as a brutal barbarian made to such intimidating lines like "Leave her alone!".

After the genuinely cool cutscene following the battle with the scythe guy, I was once again disappointed to be given the compelling choices of "coddle girl I barely know and just met an hour ago" or "run headfirst into a forcefield to avenge the unfamiliar friend of said girl I just met an hour ago". Honestly, I didn't care much for the catgirl or her friend and I highly doubt my character would either, making those two choices painful to have to choose from.

Afterwards, I was forced to watch as my savage barbarian is inexplicably converted into a little boy discovering Playboy before an omnibus with huge tits. There's nothing more to say about this scene without repeating myself.

I understand that no writer or group of writers could possibly know every character personality choice and I don't expect them to. Why not implement something like the "personality choices" of TiTS , possibly even have them line up with the history choices so we don't wind up with the dissonance described earlier. If that's out of the question and there must be a singular default personality, I suggest it be one very little people would have a problem with. After all, who would complain about being portrayed as a badass?

I would like to be able too choose a personality as well but if we can't I personaly prefer how it is now then being a "badass" as you say.

 

[cloer]

Excerpt from The FAQ:
"Q.) What is this?
A.) Corruption of Champions 2: Spread of Corruption is a smutty text based fantasy adventure game like everything else on here."

It is not a role playing game. It does lend some mechanics and RPG like features, but it is not, in fact a fully customizable RPG. If your head canon does not fit with what the game is, then that's just natural.

Also, I recommend going over the intro once more because it seems to me you misunderstood/misread a few things. Then again, with the way you described what you expected your character to do, one might wonder if you even cared because such a character would make for bad storytelling because they don't care about anything and any challenge put in their way is overcome with ease because they are such badasses from the start.

 

[Savin]

Much as in CoC1 and TiTS, it's worth remembering that you are not playing your original character; you are playing the Champion of Hawkethorne. While that character has a great deal of customizability, much as you might play Captain Steele or Commander Shepard, you are playing specific individual created for this story. The choices you are presented are there to direct the story and your character's development, not to reflect your head-canon.

 

[Lockdown]

I would like to be able too choose a personality as well but if we can't I personaly prefer how it is now then being a "badass" as you say.

There are people who prefer being the receptor of humiliation and femdom, sure. But that's not everyone.

Then again, with the way you described what you expected your character to do, one might wonder if you even cared because such a character would make for bad storytelling because they don't care about anything and any challenge put in their way is overcome with ease because they are such badasses from the start.

This has nothing to dow with "headcanon". I suggest you read through my post and the character customization options in the beginning again, actually. You'll find that I never said I expected my character to do anything other than act in a way that lines up with the background and appearance options. None of it was actually headcanon. Why give the choice, in the game, to be a Savage, tough-as-nails barbarian that stands 8ft tall and is layered with muscle if all of that is going to be immediately thrown away?

You, my friend, are also conflating "badass" with "Mary Sue". I'm not sure what works of fiction you've been consuming, but when I say "badass", I think of men like Wolverine, Baki Hanma, Superman (when he's written well), Kratos and the like.

Do they always win? No. In fact, they get their asses kicked a lot, even in the fights they do win.
Are they emotional blank slates? No. They have emotions like everyone else, they're just stoic. No, not generic anime antihero "I have no facial expressions and ignore everyone" stoic, but "I have emotions, but I can control them like a grown man" stoic.

Much as in CoC1 and TiTS, it's worth remembering that you are not playing your original character; you are playing the Champion of Hawkethorne. While that character has a great deal of customizability, much as you might play Captain Steele or Commander Shepard, you are playing specific individual created for this story. The choices you are presented are there to direct the story and your character's development, not to reflect your head-canon.

Understandable. The problem here, though, is not headcanon. For an egregious example, in customizing this champion, I was given the choice of a number of backgrounds. The two that stuck out to me were "Soldier" and "Barbarian". They were described as basically being disciplined and stalwart respectfully. As I stated before, this was completely disregarded once I got to the castle. No one who could be described as disciplined or stalwart would speak or act the way The Champion 2 did during the omnibus scene.

I can understand if the background choices were only to affect stats, but in that case I believe it would have been better to keep with the "strengths" options from CoC1 rather than give the impression the players had any say in Champion 2's history and thus personality.

Since you are going the path of character customization rather than character creation, it would have been more appropriate to make this fact obvious from the get-go. Games like those in the Arkham series, for example, let you know that you are Batman. You are not given the choice of your name or your sex or how you grew up. You are still given choices and perk trees and alternate costumes, but because games like that begin with an already established character, nobody is surprised when the character acts a certain way independent of the player.

Now, I'm not saying that all games must be Arkham, but had this game started with something along the lines of:
"You have never heard of Maryth or Ingnam. Your name is Richard. You are aa huma boy. You've lived a sheltered life in a small village and have never seen a naked woman besides your mother. All this changed when you set off for adventure the day you turned 18, which was yesterday."
And eschewed the options of background, race, name and such; I believe it would have been very clear that the players are not creating a character, but merely controlling an already established one with their own goals and habits.

Make no mistake: I've made this thread in order to voice my complaint and offer my two cents, but don't believe you and the others who work and have worked on this haven't done a good job. Quality erotic games with non-erotic components are hard to come by and you've participated in something great. I'm just a random with some critique I thought worth sharing and I hope to be constructive.

 

[Savin]

Understandable. The problem here, though, is not headcanon. For an egregious example, in customizing this champion, I was given the choice of a number of backgrounds. The two that stuck out to me were "Soldier" and "Barbarian". They were described as basically being disciplined and stalwart respectfully.

No, they aren't. The soldier is described as "requiring constant physical fitness and training;" the barbarian as coming from a culture that emphasizes "honor and bravery."

Also, I don't know what forcefield you were talking about in your first post; the Champion chases the cultists up towards a castle. Nothing supernatural occurs until the culists warp away.

Spoiler: Exact text follows:

"Come on!" you shout, grabbing Cait and pulling her towards the shattered wall. "We can't let them get away!"


Cait sniffles, but she doesn't resist. By the time you're outside, she's running on her own, lunging up the hillside after you. Ahead is another snowy path, barely visible through the unstoppable gale, twisting up the hill towards an old stone castle. Just like the crumbling temple, its centuries old and wasting away, walls and towers falling brick by brick, decade by decade.


It's hard going up the hillside, battered by the howling winds and trudging through days of built-up snow. The cultists have a good lead on you, made worse when the stragglers look back and see you. The next thing you know, you're swinging your [pc.weapon] to bat aside rocks hurling down towards you. It's not much, but the barrage slows you down enough that the the cultists reach the gate with a good hundred foot distance between you and their rear guard.


You catch sight of Tollus at the head of the pack now. The black-robed sorcerer is still carrying the small package that fell from the portal in both arms like a child. Just ahead of him, not ten paces past the open portcullis, is a man-sized statue with a blade at his side, and what looks to be an ornate stone pendant in the other, held aloft overhead. A gemstone sits in the pendant's center, barely visible through the buildup of snow.


In a blink, your mind registers a word Tollus used mere moments ago: Warpstone. The sorcerer reaches out, grabs the dangling pendant and in a flash of light that tears through the gale, he and his followers are gone.

Now, that said, if you believe there's a real need for additional choices during the tutorial, feel free to give specific suggestions. The decision breaks in the tutorial are small enough that I could whip up another short path pretty easy.

 

[Lockdown]

No, they aren't. The soldier is described as "requiring constant physical fitness and training;"

Which would practically produce a disciplined character. You cannot force yourself to undergo habitual rigorous exercise to hone your body in the service of others without developing some sort of physical and mental bearing. Bearing that Champion 2 does not seem to be written to have in the first place.

the barbarian as coming from a culture that emphasizes "honor and bravery."

Which would practically produce a stalwart character. From someone who grew up around barbarians and is described as being the sole survivor of an orc raid (assuming everyone else was slain, Orcs included) I would expect a little more...chutzpa?

Reiterating what I touched upon in my previous comment (since I take the fact that you didn't address it to mean that you tl;dr'ed the rest of my comment), I don't think there's anything wrong with these background choices besides the fact that outside of the stat increase they are not reflected in The Champion 2 at all. And it sets a new player like me up for disappointment when a character we customized to be a certain way is suddenly acting as if their background as a soldier or barbarian was completely inconsequential.

I'm genuinely curious as to why the team decided to go the route of custom backgrounds like those if The Champion 2 already has a predetermined personality that conflicts with them.

Also, I don't know what forcefield you were talking about in your first post; the Champion chases the cultists up towards a castle. Nothing supernatural occurs until the culists warp away.

The forcefield I refer to is the one the catgirl companion sprints directly into after the cultists flee through it with her friend. This is when you get the choices of "comfort gir" or "sprint into said forcefield yourself".

Now, that said, if you believe there's a real need for additional choices during the tutorial, feel free to give specific suggestions. The decision breaks in the tutorial are small enough that I could whip up another short path pretty easy.

My only problem with the options is that some of them don't reflect certain background choices. But I'm always down for some funny and/or jerkass options.

 

[Evil]

Well then if you really do have some ideas, why not write them up?

 

[The Observer]

You can contribute. Do so. Be the change you want to see in the world instead of bellyaching about it and hoping someone fixes the problem for you.

 

[Lockdown]

Well then if you really do have some ideas, why not write them up?

You can contribute. Do so. Be the change you want to see in the world instead of bellyaching about it and hoping someone fixes the problem for you.

While these are very good ideas, I'm not all that good of a writer yet, nor did I expect any real change to come as a result of this. I made this thread in the hopes of discussing a grievance I have with the game so far with others as well as getting some insight on why it turned out to be that way.

 

[NotYouNorI]

The forcefield I refer to is the one the catgirl companion sprints directly into after the cultists flee through it with her friend. This is when you get the choices of "comfort gir" or "sprint into said forcefield yourself".

...and the quote Savin just linked clarifies that your character doesn't "sprint into said forcefield themselves", but pursues the cultists out of the temple complex up the actual castle where they teleport to who-knows-where.

As I stated before, this was completely disregarded once I got to the castle. No one who could be described as disciplined or stalwart would speak or act the way The Champion 2 did during the omnibus scene.

Temple*. Also you do defeat a bunch cultists before the "omnibus", who is an otherworldly very powerful being whose arrival caused an explosion that pretty much collapsed the temple shows up. there is always a bigger fish, especially when comparing an demon general to an ordinary orc brute with minimal equipment.

There are people who prefer being the receptor of humiliation and femdom, sure. But that's not everyone.

Have you tried exploring the "Better Offer" option?

After the genuinely cool cutscene following the battle with the scythe guy, I was once again disappointed to be given the compelling choices of "coddle girl I barely know and just met an hour ago" or "run headfirst into a forcefield to avenge the unfamiliar friend of said girl I just met an hour ago". Honestly, I didn't care much for the catgirl or her friend and I highly doubt my character would either, making those two choices painful to have to choose from.

The forcefield was already adressed, however the catgirl and her kidnapped sister are the reason why you are there to begin with. You also do have the option to not care, it's the "Do Nothing" option you can see where that leads you.

To conclude this, for someone who tells others to go back and read the tutorial, you sure have skimmed through most of what happened in the tutorial...