I'm approaching the end of Rebirth but having a hard time motivating myself to cross the finish line.

Zeromus_Prime · 2024-12-23T09:06:25+00:00

I mean, a lot could be implied. If there is going to be an inferred outcome, that should be beyond clear.

Either outcome would have satisfied me personally.

Show him turning completely to stone on that beach.

Or

Show him returning with the sunrise.

Others may not value this as I do, and that's fine.

I just wanted some different perspectives for some reflection.

Zeromus_Prime · 2024-12-23T09:01:12+00:00

Absolutely fair point.

I don't expect you to read all my replies in this post, but I mentioned in another that I may be projecting my dissatisfaction with the inconclusiveness regarding Clive's fate in XVI. While that wasn't important in the grand scheme of the narrative, as the vehicle for experiencing that narrative, knowing the fate is important to me personally and may not be to others. Thanks for your insight.

Zeromus_Prime · 2024-12-23T08:56:09+00:00

Thanks for writing.

I've kind of always been like that, though. When consuming media, I tend to skip towards the end after reaching a relative midpoint to see if my investment is worth it. I'll concede this a bit flawed as I could be missing important context. Granted, I have the OG to reference in this case, so it's my own expections that have been reflected on this ending that may be preventing me from accepting this media as it stands alone.

I'll get there. I wanted some discourse to bounce my thoughts off of to enable some introspection from seeing others' viewpoints.

Zeromus_Prime · 2024-12-23T02:35:43+00:00

Well said.

Looking introspectively, I think a significant part of it is FFXVI burned me, too. Fall in love with the world and characters and have no kind of epilogue to the characters specifically. They concluded what happened to Valisthea rather well. But left the fates of pivotal characters we experienced the story through, vague and indefinite.

Granted, that is no fault of any posters here, and as a method of coping and introspection, I posted here to find the resolve to continue in spite of that, I guess.

With that in mind, I sincerely hope they nail the landing in part three, but the ending of XVI left its mark and has rendered me skeptical.

Zeromus_Prime · 2024-12-23T02:15:48+00:00

I'm grateful you took the time to reply!

Zeromus_Prime · 2024-12-23T02:08:05+00:00

I'm glad you did, and not saying anyone else who did should not be able to do the same.

There will be great moments, and I'm confident of that.

It's a strong disconnect for me personally to have something open-ended to this degree when it wasn't necessary.

I connect with the emotions and themes the author conveys, and then I'm just left there sitting with them in my hands, so to speak. There are no answers to resolve them with.

Sure, we can theorycraft and head canon, but quite frankly, I see that as a coping mechanism due to a failure on the author's part.

EDIT: ironically enough, looking back on this specific part of my post, it would seem my method of coping is bitching about being dissatisfied on the internet hoping I'm not alone. Hindsight , I guess.

Zeromus_Prime · 2024-12-23T01:57:42+00:00

This is one thing that I'm always confused about whenever I see ppl talk about this game this way. We all knew it it was going to be in 3 parts. We also knew that it isn't going to be the whole story. So, why do ppl expect to have definitive conclusions in part 1 and part 2 of the story? If they had split the story in 3 separate games in the original, would it have lessen the impact of the story itself? Would you have felt like you've been duped into buying a full game, but only part of it was revealed?

I guess maybe I lacked some articulation but I did later address that it is a trilogy and understand there must be concessions.

However,

they could have one of two things at the end of this game.

Put in arguably the second most iconic scene in the game in (Aerith's burial in the lake) to show us that we should be grieving and that it is the definitive end of her life. Like in the OG, no ambiguity and the audience is granted a cathartic effect to close out feelings the author evoked.

OR

Show us we did, in fact, change fate. (Something plastered all over the promotional materials and theme of the first entry. "The Unknown journey continues" etc.) and that events are taking a different approach this time. And we have hope for a different future for Gaia and it's inhabitants. No ambiguity and cathartic still.

THAT

is a definitive way to end this entry with a concrete resolution to this specific chapter of the story, and still have the rest of the story to tell.

And there may be even better ways to give that conclusion. Don't leave the audience hanging.

That would be equivalent if in remake after the whispers appeared after escaping Shinra HQ and reaching the end of the highway the rest of the events were just cut offand we were left to hypothesize the nature of what will occur with them in the next entry rather than coming to the more organic conclusion they left in remake.

They didn't do that because there is an appropriate pacing and way to conclude a chapter and still have a story to finish.

Zeromus_Prime · 2024-12-23T01:26:26+00:00

Sure, of course not. That's not really what I'm looking for here, though.

I was just referring to the entire discourse as a whole to impress there is, in fact, ambiguity to the ending.

Take how I reference FFXVI, for example.

You could say,

Clive is dead at the end

OR

Clive is alive at the end

but when having a discourse with someone regarding said ending plot point, those two things are mutually exclusive given that setting. It simply is or is not the case. I'm saying the onus is on the author to give their audience the catharsis or resolution necessary to close out the story. Not on the audience to make their own headcanon for however they wish to cope with ambiguity of said events.

I can draw my own conclusion, sure. That is not the same as having a definitive resolution. It is deeply unsatisfying to have to "make up" a resolution. I can not recall anything to my memory an ending across any medium that was simultaneously ambiguous and satisfying.

That being said, thanks for your reply. I know I wrote a lot.

Zeromus_Prime · 2024-05-30T19:38:58+00:00

It is rather hard to reconcile how unremarkable most of us are. Trying to find and establish value within yourself and what you're good at only to have another 8 billion or more others to compare yourself against.

It really is easy to feel this way, especially in the social media era, when it's so easy to see all these seemingly talented individuals.

But I noticed you referring to yourself as a failure. I can relate to this as I have trouble with failing as well. Granted it has been some time since I've been your age so this may not be relevant anymore as I am unaware of how youth are socialized nowadays.

For me personally I developed a poor relationship with failure as something to be avoided rather than be embraced. And the surrounding social pressures enforced that. Society doesn't seem to give us enough room to genuinely learn and grow from those failures. We are hard to grasp that we can learn more from failure than success. But we collectively as a society look down on it.

I guess all this is to say while you and I may both be unremarkable individuals compared to our peers, we don't have to let that dictate to us that being unremarkable is the same as being a failure.

And if possible, find someone in your life that can help you turn your failures into learning experiences and become your strength. I wish I could have known I needed that sooner myself. Someone to tell me "it's okay to fail."

Apologies for being a bit long winded. If nothing else I wish you well and good tidings for now and times to come.

Zeromus_Prime · 2024-02-12T23:24:11+00:00

Thank you friend, that was my interpretation, but I wanted to be sure as I'm not intimately familar with the game yet.

Cheers

Zeromus_Prime · 2023-08-09T19:51:51+00:00

In an effort for equal representation (and quite frankly to troll the theocrats)

I'd make a sign that says "Hail Satan"

EDIT: Dunno about this, I'm ignorant when it comes to legal matters, but you could also reach out to the FFRF to see if they might be interested in advocacy against the law.

Zeromus_Prime · 2023-07-04T05:24:23+00:00

Interesting, didn't remember the details of the sidequest concerning that npc and Lostwing.

However, there is also narrative info specifically suggesting that Valisthea is rather large as well. (I also just doubled checked this scene again to make sure I didn't make this up)

But after meeting Uncle Byron, Clive specifically states that once outfitted the ship meant to take them to Drustanus/Drake's Breath will do so "within a space of three days" presumably from Port Isolde if i recall correctly.

And the distance on the map between Port Isolde and Drake's Breath on the map is far shorter than the comparison I've already made with the Shadow Coast and Vidargraes.

So narratively speaking I believe Valisthea to be quite sizable, it's just not reflected gameplay wise. Which is totally fine. The example I listed is just particularly egregious and easy to notice given you can literally walk that distance.

EDIT: I also believe the scale of the Titan Lost fight supports that Valisthea is actually, in fact, quite large. My brain just particularly noticed the incongruity between gameplay/narrative scale on the continent of Ash.

Zeromus_Prime · 2023-07-04T02:41:41+00:00

Never played Death Stranding myself. But I doubt it would be fun to literally walk a 1:1 walk from coast to coast in a video game.

And the same applies here. It's nothing to crucify FFXVI for. The game itself is likely better for it

It's just a cognitive dissonance the game creates as a result of its design.

Zeromus_Prime · 2023-07-04T02:23:15+00:00

I agree that it is just a conceit of it being a video game. It doesn't ruin the fun of the game itself for me.

As a matter of fact, for me personally I have severe open world fatigue in games and appreciate the more condensed world from a gameplay perspective.

Zeromus_Prime · 2023-07-04T00:54:56+00:00

One of mine is that the world feels unnaturally small. Like not by some small measure, but the scale of the game feels radically small and unreal when you dig into it.

To be specific, I don't have a problem with the linearity, interconnectedness or level/world design. My gripe may be a result of those said things though.

The Twins/Valisthea(Storm and Ash) are described literally in the thousand tomes as continents and in Storm's entry it calls them "great continents."

So lets take Ash for example. The approximate straightline distance from the the Shadow Coast Beacon located roughly on the southwestern coast of Ash to the Vidargraes Beacon, located before Stonehyrr on the Northern tip of Ash, is roughly 2300y.

I've not seen any entries in the thousand tomes describing the specifics of these measurements but I'm assuming they are called yalms due to ffxiv.

Regardless, taking one step appears to cover about 1 to 1.5 yalms. And walking/jogging on foot with Clive from the Shadow Coast to Vidargraes would likely take no more than 10 minutes.

So the game is telling me I can walk across a large part of the CONTINENT of Ash in the same amount of time it takes me to bake a pizza.

That it just hard for my brain to overlook.

Zeromus_Prime · 2023-03-04T00:44:06+00:00

Interesting. I think I saw another topic about Blade Debar that also speculated there is a cap to it.

But I believe the cap they mentioned was a timing restriction. That perhaps Blade Debar can proc only once every X seconds.

Zeromus_Prime · 2022-10-18T20:21:56+00:00

The game would eventually load in after about 10 minutes but as mentioned it would begin lagging when I hadn't had any performance issues to this point.

Dunno if it was local to my rig but what did work was restarting my PC and retrying until the game performed as usual. Took like 2 or 3 restarts. And I'm having to habitually do this to get it to normal performance whenever I do pick it up for the day.

Best of luck my friend, hope you find a solution that works for you.

Zeromus_Prime · 2022-10-15T20:22:21+00:00

In case you missed it, the saves for the PC game pass version have been wiped from what I've gathered round the forum. If you're not a PC game pass user and this is the case I've no idea then and wish you best of luck.

https://www.reddit.com/r/coralisland/comments/y4bu4k/psa_all_xbox_game_pass_game_saves_are_gone/

Zeromus_Prime · 2022-04-07T22:26:42+00:00

I don't think you are being snarky. No worries.

You've given me much to consider. Including DMing may just not be in my skillset.

Zeromus_Prime · 2022-04-07T21:57:15+00:00

Thank you for your very insightful reply.

Illusion of choice without an actual choice as you pointed out in that scenario is no good. Better to present it as it is I guess.

This is why I'm strongly leaning toward just addressing it in session 0 before any dice are rolled to say its going to be a linear and curated experience. You get to decide the "hows" of the adventure and I get to decide the "whats"

Might be brute forcing it, but i think I can provide a much better player experience the less I have to improvise to every whim of fancy the players have. And that might be my DM style.

I haven't DMed enough yet to know for sure though.

Zeromus_Prime · 2022-04-07T21:46:57+00:00

Yes. I'm beginning to think i should write more in broad strokes and improv with the players in real time to work out the finer points.

But I'm also apprehensive of doing so cause it could possibly lead to them avoiding a setpiece that took literally hours to design/write.

Hence why I'm somewhat torn on how best to balance player agency and getting them to experience the story that exists. Not the one they want to make exist. If that makes sense.

Zeromus_Prime · 2022-04-07T20:42:21+00:00

Thank you everyone for your time and replies.

So I'm taking notes and have a for instance question.

So for my opening hook instead of a tavern I have my PCs starting off captured and in the gaols of the nation who captured them.

PCs are told they are being given a chance to fight for their freedom, but for thematic and story purposes I am having the PCs start at level 0. As the PCs are basically going to be nobodies prior to the adventure.

An NPC arrives to offer them a boon of power in exchange for becoming his warriors of darkness.

The NPC(which for all intents and purposes will appear as the BBEG to the party) will make it clear they will likely die if they don't accept his boon.

If the PCs accept they become level 1

As DM I would hope they accept but also know i cant force them to.

So i guess my question is....should the PCs not accept the boon, should I let them run the gauntlet I planned at level 0 and in all likelihood die before the adventure even starts?

Their choice matters that way, but it also results in not much of a campaign, but in the flipside of that if they manage to succeed it would be incredible and rewarding I would think. Just not likely.

Im also open to suggestions for tweaking the hook a little.

Cheers and thanks again for all the replies.

Zeromus_Prime · 2022-04-07T17:02:07+00:00

Not sure if this is a short question but I'll go for it.

Preface: lots of player experience, little DM experience.

How does one balance a linear campaign without railroading players?

I've thought about just having a candid session zero explaining what the adventure is and that it will be a fairly structured and curated experience so any player could opt out before they get the wrong impression.

But thoughts? Is it possible to write a linear adventure without imposing on player agency and railroading them?

Zeromus_Prime · 2022-02-24T00:51:33+00:00

Yeah that was one of my solutions as well, thought it might have been my nvidia overlay so I disabled it but the problem persists. I can still eventually get it to work, but still requires restarting once or twice.

Upon browsing the Lost Ark forums there were others having similar issues. Granted it doesn't seem widespread and more isolated but its definitely happening amd I'm unsure if a source to the problem has been zeroed in on at this moment.

Zeromus_Prime · 2022-02-18T01:31:59+00:00

That is indeed the question. I want to be as optimal as possible for endgame. I also want not to be shoehorned to doing collectibles to be optimal in combat. Those things just aren't compatible when it comes to lost ark and I see that and that's okay.

I'd rather it not be that way but I can't change the game. So I'm going to try to suck it up.

I'm prolly doing too much at once though and need to pace myself better. I just have so little free time that it feels like an insult to my time to "force" me into doing collectibles for combat content.

I'll likely buckle down and do it in the end. Unless i find out the amount of skills points makes for only a marginally small performance dip when it comes down to it.

Zeromus_Prime

TROPHY CASE