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Can we talk about the writing?

A topic by Gilmok created Apr 25, 2023 Views: 985 Replies: 3
Viewing posts 1 to 2

First, Spoiler Warning.

Let me say it started off really strong and I really liked it.  

Festival of Greed was amazing (9/10).  Fortress of Wrath was OK (7/10).  Eternal day of Sloth had serious problems (4/10). 

The positive thing about Sloth was that it introduced the concept of demon achors being inside people.  Really interesting.  However, the way Sloth implemented it did not make sense at all.  With the people of Mountainreech being dead, the dead bodies could have been basically the same as artifact anchors.  Also, while you might say that the person replacing the rocks in the mine was slothfully avoiding a real solution, it's hard not to argue that good habits are a way of defeating sloth (so I don't see why that person deserves a demon portal).  

My main disappointment, however, was the lack of exploration into how the Sloth demon works.  I was expecting the demon saying something like "these people wished to die, and I granted their wish", but all I saw was the little girl summoning stuff to protect a demon she didn't understand.  The only thing stopping it at the end was Aura threatening to take the life of the little girl, and I think Aura could have done more to truly convince the girl.  

I hope the Belphegor scenario is just a small dip in writing quality, and not a trend.

You have something really good going.  To me the strength of the game is in the demon realms and exploring their flawed values.  I do look forward to what you do with the other demons.  Veradeux seems like it's ripe for Lucifer (Pride demon), and I do see a whirlwind for Leviathan (Envy demon).  I look forward to seeing their phlosophies and how they enter the realm and the hearts of the people.  I think, for example, a child beauty pageant would be quite approprite for Asmodus's realm.

Thanks for reading!

Deleted 1 year ago

Sloth would be infinitely more annoying if it was too long though, it's already quite resource intensive to knock out in one day to avoid the curse progressing beyond 1 step. Between building to 100 mana, getting 10 or so blessed energy potion+'s, the health you'll burn through collecting all the ethers and maleficums,etc. If there's a problem with the sloth arc it's that the game doesn't properly convey that mount firestorm or whatever isn't the combat level of the domain/Belphegor. I put off sloth a lot thinking it'd be similar levels/Aaron would relocate on to the mountain, not just near the other miner, and ultimately wasted a lot of time. 

Definitely want to see the game finished though, after Belphegor and Sathanas, I've lost motivation to keep playing for now since I've successfully downed them both under 100 days. Lascivious coating drug on Aura and having a fire slime mega pumped with sweet memories and ridiculous amounts of defensive feedings before bloodshot eyes for the demons, they ended up being some of the easiest bosses in the game.

What annoyed me about the curse of sloth arc is that you can't avoid legs of sloth progression when learning open domain II or leaving Mountainreach by getting a curse trap barrier from the Draknor Fortress survivors in advance. It feels like the sort of preparation this game is supposed to reward, even if you accept a Doylist reason for it not allowing Aura to get at Belphegor without disabling the barrier.

Eh. I can see what you mean but 3 MP loss for an optimal mountainreach is hardly something to worry about. Mana comes so easy by then.