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Over Hyping TSL

Started by TheReturnofDMD, July 17, 2010, 12:57:23 PM

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Fierce Deity

Quote from: TheReturnofDMD on July 18, 2010, 03:00:46 PM
Quote from: Fierce Deity on July 18, 2010, 02:56:22 PM
Quote from: TheReturnofDMD on July 18, 2010, 02:51:34 PM
They had darkness, but not soap opera angsty Twilight-ness.
There's a difference.

I think we're playing a different game, cause the plot of TSL can't be compared to a story about whiny teenagers falling in love with mystical creatures.

Not the plot. The over-dramatic and dreary tone and melodramatic dialogue. There's just an "Emo" feel to the atmosphere of the game.
And you can't say it's because of what happened to Alex and Rosella, because look at KQ5--Graham's whole family is stolen and the game doesn't feel depressing or dreary or ''emo.''


I think the emo atmosphere stems from the weather. On top of the events happening, it's raining outside. However, the storm is being caused by Shadrack (I think), so I don't get an emo feeling from it as much as I get an ominous feeling. Also, people from the island closing up shop makes sense. They would have closed up shop anyway for the wedding, but when the twins became comatose, does anybody expect them to just go back to work? Also, the doomsayer was kind of a downer, I'll agree. But he was also a silver robed guy that is also ominous. This is why I didn't get an emo feeling from the game, cause I already had a different mindset, so naturally, I had a different perspective. But to each their own.
Freudian Slip - "When you say one thing, but mean your mother."

Baggins

QuoteDidn't you lose sympathy for him?
No, I didn't lose sympathy for him. He knew, and I knew he would be able to save them. He's been on adventures in the past, as KQ7 hintbook jokes, they have adventures almost weekly LOL. He just tightened his hat on his head, and did what he had to do.
Well, ya, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know its Daventry. But its somewhere on Earth."-Roberta Williams http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Daventryisearth.ogg

TheReturnofDMD

Quote from: Baggins on July 18, 2010, 03:33:58 PM
QuoteDidn't you lose sympathy for him?
No, I didn't lose sympathy for him. He knew, and I knew he would be able to save them. He's been on adventures in the past, as KQ7 hintbook jokes, they have adventures almost weekly LOL. He just tightened his hat on his head, and did what he had to do.

Exactly. Graham didn't sit around and wish he could rip flowers up (like he feels in TSL) in KQ5, he just does his duty and isn't a push over to everyone like in TSL. Graham asserts himself in KQV, whereas in TSL it feels like everyone (for example, Hassan) is trying to get over on him, pushing him around or (in the case of Azure) disrespecting him. Graham feels like a different guy here, and the whole atmosphere feels more Hot Topic than KQ.

crayauchtin

Hassan's not trying to get one over on him, Hassan is trying to run a business. And Lord Azure has never been respectful of any humans in the series, why would he start with a king from a land that isn't his? They are not the first characters to disrespect Graham -- in KQ5 alone he's walked all over and/or disrespected by the gypsy, Prince Herbert, Princess Alicia, the guy with the wagon, Queen Beetrice (really, he saved her and she gave him one honeycomb... seriously??), the grandfather gnome -- and I haven't even started in on the minor villains from that game none of whom were exactly nice either.

And his other adventures? KQ1 and KQ2 hardly have any characters at all and have so little dialogue you'd never know!

Graham is asserting himself, but as always he is trying to be polite and nice and people are not always going to respond to that by being nice back.
"If your translation is correct, that was 'May a sleepy hippopotamus lie down on your house keys,' but you're not sure. Unfortunately, your fluency in griffin-speak is too low."

We're roleplaying in the King's Quest world: come join in the fun!

oberonqa

#64
Quote from: TheReturnofDMD on July 18, 2010, 03:39:29 PM
Quote from: Baggins on July 18, 2010, 03:33:58 PM
QuoteDidn't you lose sympathy for him?
No, I didn't lose sympathy for him. He knew, and I knew he would be able to save them. He's been on adventures in the past, as KQ7 hintbook jokes, they have adventures almost weekly LOL. He just tightened his hat on his head, and did what he had to do.

Exactly. Graham didn't sit around and wish he could rip flowers up (like he feels in TSL) in KQ5, he just does his duty and isn't a push over to everyone like in TSL. Graham asserts himself in KQV, whereas in TSL it feels like everyone (for example, Hassan) is trying to get over on him, pushing him around or (in the case of Azure) disrespecting him. Graham feels like a different guy here, and the whole atmosphere feels more Hot Topic than KQ.


Yes Graham does his duty in KQ5... as he does in TSL.... but how does he feel about doing his duty?  Is he not allowed to feel anything?  Is that really what you think of humanity?  Something bad happens and simply do your duty... don't think about what prompted you to action.... just do it and be done with it.
 
Chronicling the history of Sierra through the conversion of it's premiere magazine into an easy-to-use, searchable wiki format.

Lambonius

Quote from: oberonqa on July 18, 2010, 03:26:12 PM

King's Quest was also marketed for many years as a family-oriented series for children of all ages.  Those same children who grew up playing King's Quest are now adults and as such a more mature story is required.  

You're right, most of that crowd is now age 25-35.  Which, one could argue, makes the choice to go "teen fantasy" even less appropriate.

Erpy

#66
I wrote this kind of thing before, but...

QuoteAnd Alexander's cheerfulness has always defied logic -- he was enslaved by an evil wizard. He's obviously been through *some* trauma!

Eh, if you think about it most of the royal family would be majorly effed up by the time MoE comes around. I mean, look at them...

Valanice: Spent an undetermined amount of time in complete isolation in an utterly alien realm. Now, if you lock someone in a room and completely deprive them of contact, it'll start getting to them eventually, but if you want to mess them up further, fill the room with all sorts of funky lights and colors. Eventually they'll start wondering if what they're seeing is real or if it's all in their mind. Making someone question their own sense of reality is fun for all the family. It's a miracle Valanice can stand sleeping in a room with the door closed.

Rosella: When she was young, her twin brother was abducted and it seems her parents spent a great deal of time grieving over him and searching for him. If that kind of thing happens to a kid in real life, he can develop some serious inferiority issues. The kid feels the disappeared sibling is always on the parents' minds and becomes either resentful towards the sibling or (more commonly) become starved for attention. Yes, becoming the willing sacrifice for the dragon in KQ3 was in fact the ideal way for Rosella to finally stop living in her brother's shadow. She'd die, but she'd be remembered on equal terms with him. Oh, she also grew up in a smouldering cinder of a realm, which probably does wonders to one's disposition towards life. With the troubles of the kidnapped Alexander and the destruction of Daventry on their minds, I wouldn't be surprised if Graham and Valanice neglected Rosella at least part of the time.

Edgar: Was kidnapped as an infant and grew up in a dark castle with an utterly evil fairy as his sole parent and role model. Lolotte was so twisted the positive energy from Cupid's arrow killed her. You know what a domestic situation like that looks like, don't you?
- Edgar: Mommy, I feel under the weather. Can I get a hug?
- Lolotte: Edgar, you know mommy's allergic to love. She gets a bad rash from hugs. Why don't we go and mutilate some peasants on that device in the dungeon?
- Edgar: Sniff, okay.
Anyway, we all know what happens to kids who grow up with distant parents who refuse to give them affection whatsoever. There's no way Edgar could ever function in a normal, loving family. It'd feel threatening and alien to him. Genesta's statement "You have a beautiful soul, Edgar" is kinda hogwash. We all know that how people turn out has less to do with what kind of genes they're born with and a lot to do with how they're raised in the first 1.5 decade of their life. Nevertheless, Edgar has issues. Unavoidably so. This is the guy Rosella's gonna start a family with. Hooboy.

Cassima: Was kidnapped by an evil wizard, treated like a slave (double whammy after being used to the life of royalty), when she came back she found out her parents both died and then she spent another undetermined amount of time in total isolation. Since she probably had a fairly normal childhood (compared to the rest), the local shrinks probably consider her only a mildly interesting case compared to the rest, if the undoubtedly massive post-traumatic stress-syndrome is disregarded. (no doubt her homecoming cranked said shell shock up to eleven)

Alexander: Edgar could already be considered a basket case, but at least Lolotte acknowledged him as her son. Manannan wouldn't even relate to Alex in that way. Complete denial of any affection whatsoever, severe physical and emotional abuse and total neglect to the kid's needs. They did this kind of thing as an experiment with monkeys and said monkey became either unstable and prone to bouts of extreme aggression or completely catatonic. Of course, Manannan didn't really have to worry about what kind of people his slaves became since he killed them on their 18th birthday anyhow, but it's really questionable whether Alex will ever have something like a life. Kids in real life with Alexander's upbringing tend to be extremely messed up. Obviously Alex isn't catatonic, so chances are high he's a very unstable person whose extreme mental conditioning prevents him from letting out his angst in front of others, so he wears a stepford smile during the day, and he secretly tortures puppies in the basement at night. (this is probably why you can't enter there in episode 1 yet) Due to his upbringing, Alexander would be even less capable of functioning in a normal domestic situation than Edgar and it's doubtful his marriage to Cassima would last long. And they put this guy in charge of the Green Isles. Zounds indeed.


With this in mind, it begs the question why KQ is still so cheerful, colorful and happy-go-lucky, even though its main cast is disfunction junction personified. The answer is, for the same reason fairy tales are the happy-go-lucky stories we tell our children in the evening. Let's take a quick look:

Parental Abandonment: Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel and Tom Thumb too.

Domestic Abuse: Cinderella, Rapunzel and probably Snow White as well.

Stockholm Syndrome: Sheherazad. For 1001 nights, she prolongs her life by telling stories to a sultan who planned to kill her. (insert Dread Pirate Roberts joke here) After that, the sultan ditches the idea of having her killed and proposes to her instead. She accepts. Similar story to the female protagonist of Rumplestiltskin.

Self-mutilation: Cinderella's stepsister cuts off her toe in an attempt to have her foot fit in the glass slipper.

Yeah, fairy tales tend to have some extremely disturbing sides and no doubt if we'd look at these tales through a more realistic scoop, we'd deduce that a lot of those  protagonists probably have some pretty severe trauma underneath. No doubt we could create a more realistic version of Cinderella, whose traumatic domestic situation causes her to spend the biggest part of the day angsting, instead of singing happy-go-lucky songs with mice and birds. It'd be more logical, for sure. The reason why fairy tales seem happy-go-lucky despite their extremely disturbing subthemes is because the mental results of those traumatic experiences are handwaved away as detracting from the overall story and therefore unimportant. This effect is what makes fairy tales fairy tales and this effect is carried over to KQ as well... this is why Alex is a functioning human being in the KQ games instead of an angst-ridden mental wreck. I'm not certain what'd happen if you'd take this effect away. The fairy tales would probably stop being fairy tales. Instead, you'd have a medieval version of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

So yeah, Alex' cheerfulness (and overall personality and functioning) defy logic, but this very defiance of logic is an integral part of the fairy tales that form the base of the KQ series.


TheReturnofDMD

Quote from: Erpy on July 18, 2010, 04:32:47 PM
I wrote this kind of thing before, but...

QuoteAnd Alexander's cheerfulness has always defied logic -- he was enslaved by an evil wizard. He's obviously been through *some* trauma!

Eh, if you think about it most of the royal family would be majorly effed up by the time MoE comes around. I mean, look at them...

Valanice: Spent an undetermined amount of time in complete isolation in an utterly alien realm. Now, if you lock someone in a room and completely deprive them of contact, it'll start getting to them eventually, but if you want to mess them up further, fill the room with all sorts of funky lights and colors. Eventually they'll start wondering if what they're seeing is real or if it's all in their mind. Making someone question their own sense of reality is fun for all the family. It's a miracle Valanice can stand sleeping in a room with the door closed.

Rosella: When she was young, her twin brother was abducted and it seems her parents spent a great deal of time grieving over him and searching for him. If that kind of thing happens to a kid in real life, he can develop some serious inferiority issues. The kid feels the disappeared sibling is always on the parents' minds and becomes either resentful towards the sibling or (more commonly) become starved for attention. Yes, becoming the willing sacrifice for the dragon in KQ3 was in fact the ideal way for Rosella to finally stop living in her brother's shadow. She'd die, but she'd be remembered on equal terms with him. Oh, she also grew up in a smouldering cinder of a realm, which probably does wonders to one's disposition towards life. With the troubles of the kidnapped Alexander and the destruction of Daventry on their minds, I wouldn't be surprised if Graham and Valanice neglected Rosella at least part of the time.

Edgar: Was kidnapped as an infant and grew up in a dark castle with an utterly evil fairy as his sole parent and role model. Lolotte was so twisted the positive energy from Cupid's arrow killed her. You know what a domestic situation like that looks like, don't you?
- Edgar: Mommy, I feel under the weather. Can I get a hug?
- Lolotte: Edgar, you know mommy's allergic to love. She gets a bad rash from hugs. Why don't we go and mutilate some peasants on that device in the dungeon?
- Edgar: Sniff, okay.
Anyway, we all know what happens to kids who grow up with distant parents who refuse to give them affection whatsoever. There's no way Edgar could ever function in a normal, loving family. It'd feel threatening and alien to him. Genesta's statement "You have a beautiful soul, Edgar" is kinda hogwash. We all know that how people turn out has less to do with what kind of genes they're born with and a lot to do with how they're raised in the first 1.5 decade of their life. Nevertheless, Edgar has issues. Unavoidably so. This is the guy Rosella's gonna start a family with. Hooboy.

Cassima: Was kidnapped by an evil wizard, treated like a slave (double whammy after being used to the life of royalty), when she came back she found out her parents both died and then she spent another undetermined amount of time in total isolation. Since she probably had a fairly normal childhood (compared to the rest), the local shrinks probably consider her only a mildly interesting case compared to the rest, if the undoubtedly massive post-traumatic stress-syndrome is disregarded. (no doubt her homecoming cranked said shell shock up to eleven)

Alexander: Edgar could already be considered a basket case, but at least Lolotte acknowledged him as her son. Manannan wouldn't even relate to Alex in that way. Complete denial of any affection whatsoever, severe physical and emotional abuse and total neglect to the kid's needs. They did this kind of thing as an experiment with monkeys and said monkey became either unstable and prone to bouts of extreme aggression or completely catatonic. Of course, Manannan didn't really have to worry about what kind of people his slaves became since he killed them on their 18th birthday anyhow, but it's really questionable whether Alex will ever have something like a life. Kids in real life with Alexander's upbringing tend to be extremely messed up. Obviously Alex isn't catatonic, so chances are high he's a very unstable person whose extreme mental conditioning prevents him from letting out his angst in front of others, so he wears a stepford smile during the day, and he secretly tortures puppies in the basement at night. (this is probably why you can't enter there in episode 1 yet) Due to his upbringing, Alexander would be even less capable of functioning in a normal domestic situation than Edgar and it's doubtful his marriage to Cassima would last long. And they put this guy in charge of the Green Isles. Zounds indeed.


With this in mind, it begs the question why KQ is still so cheerful, colorful and happy-go-lucky, even though its main cast is disfunction junction personified. The answer is, for the same reason fairy tales are the happy-go-lucky stories we tell our children in the evening. Let's take a quick look:

Parental Abandonment: Hansel and Gretel, Rapunzel and Tom Thumb too.

Domestic Abuse: Cinderella, Rapunzel and probably Snow White as well.

Stockholm Syndrome: Sheherazad. For 1001 nights, she prolongs her life by telling stories to a sultan who planned to kill her. (insert Dread Pirate Roberts joke here) After that, the sultan ditches the idea of having her killed and proposes to her instead. She accepts. Similar story to the female protagonist of Rumplestiltskin.

Self-mutilation: Cinderella's stepsister cuts off her toe in an attempt to have her foot fit in the glass slipper.

Yeah, fairy tales tend to have some extremely disturbing sides and no doubt if we'd look at these tales through a more realistic scoop, we'd deduce that a lot of those  protagonists probably have some pretty severe trauma underneath. No doubt we could create a more realistic version of Cinderella, whose traumatic domestic situation causes her to spend the biggest part of the day angsting, instead of singing happy-go-lucky songs with mice and birds. It'd be more logical, for sure. The reason why fairy tales seem happy-go-lucky despite their extremely disturbing subthemes is because the mental results of those traumatic experiences are handwaved away as detracting from the overall story and therefore unimportant. This effect is what makes fairy tales fairy tales and this effect is carried over to KQ as well... this is why Alex is a functioning human being in the KQ games instead of an angst-ridden mental wreck. I'm not certain what'd happen if you'd take this effect away. The fairy tales would probably stop being fairy tales. Instead, you'd have a medieval version of Neon Genesis Evangelion.

So yeah, Alex' cheerfulness (and overall personality and functioning) defy logic, but this very defiance of logic is an integral part of the fairy tales that form the base of the KQ series.



That that escape from logic is what made the games so fun.
Escapism, people. Why does everything have to be so realistic?
Can't anything be simple, and not complex?
What is with media today? Everything has to be emotional, or psychological, or gritty, or realistic.
Come on. Escape for a little while. It's fun.

B'rrr

Quote from: oberonqa on July 18, 2010, 04:11:51 PM
Yes Graham does his duty in KQ5... as he does in TSL.... but how does he feel about doing his duty?  Is he not allowed to feel anything?  Is that really what you think of humanity?  Something bad happens and simply do your duty... don't think about what prompted you to action.... just do it and be done with it.

Random comment from KQ5

What a wonderful bluebird.  It could almost make Graham happy again if it wasn't for his family.

This was the easiest one I could go to, only had to cross 2 screens to get to it.  There are more like these. maybe they are not as gloomy as TSL's but they are trying to set a tone in most KQ's that the adventurer (in this case Graham) isn't really as happy and careless as some want to picture him.
~Mary Jane supporter~
~Legend~

Fierce Deity

Quote from: TheReturnofDMD on July 18, 2010, 04:47:02 PM
That that escape from logic is what made the games so fun.
Escapism, people. Why does everything have to be so realistic?
Can't anything be simple, and not complex?
What is with media today? Everything has to be emotional, or psychological, or gritty, or realistic.
Come on. Escape for a little while. It's fun.

I'm not seeing how TSL is "realistic, psychological, or emotional". Is TSL departing from the trends of a fairy tale? Yes, most certainly. But is it preventing you from an "escape"? Not at all. You're still playing the game. That's a form of escape in itself. The story and atmosphere may be outside of what was normal for the series, but it is in no way complex. It's easy to understand, it is straightforward, and it is still in a realm of magic and myth (not realistic at all).

If you are suggesting that the "emo" mood is the only thing that is making TSL complex, realistic, and psychological, then you need to be more specific, because the definition of those terms do not adhere to TSL's situation.  
Freudian Slip - "When you say one thing, but mean your mother."

Baggins

Ya, exactly, Graham had some feelings in KQ5, but he doesn't show them outwardly, he holds a stiff upper lip, and does what he has to do, he even manages to crack a few jokes with Cedric, and he never takes out his sadness on any character treating them with the utmost dignity.
Well, ya, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know its Daventry. But its somewhere on Earth."-Roberta Williams http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Daventryisearth.ogg

Goldenfoxx

#71
Just a couple of thoughts about all this...

1. lol.  I'm not sure saying that what they've done to KQ is what Nolan did to Batman is the way to turn anyone against anything about this game.  What Nolan did to Batman was make him watchable again while at the same time making him culturally relevant.   That being said, I'm not sure this comes anywhere close.

2. Yes, they should have announced ahead of time that Episode 1 was a prologue.  In fact, I'd go as far as to say they shouldn't have even called it "Episode 1."  And you can argue that maybe some people might not have downloaded the pack if they'd known, but I have two responses to that.  First, that you can just as easily say that if they'd known, they'd have simply waited for more to be released.  Second, you can most definately argue that the number of people who DID download the game and were put off by the length might very well outnumber the number of people who simply wouldn't download a prologue.

3. No, you can't blame Activision for wanting to hold on to their IP.  What annoys me more than anything here, though, is that Activision owns this IP at all.  For one thing, they're not planning to do a thing with it (which, by the way, with both Monkey Island games released on Xbox Live Arcade, is a BAD decision...).  Love 'em or hate 'em, Kings Quest is a large piece of gaming history, and Activision is squandering it.

4. As one of those 35-year-olds who grew up playing all of these games, I don't get this debate on the tone.  I certainly don't get how anyone gets off calling this installment "emo" just because the tone is darker.  KQ was never as light-hearted as, say, Space Quest.  And this certainly isn't as dark as The Colonel's Bequest or Phatasmagoria.  In fact, it feels very much like a reversal of roles from KQ4 (where Graham was comatose and Rosella did the adventuring).  Why is everything that decides to touch on anything emotional beyond "dude, this sux" is instantly labeled as all-around emo??  If this were emo, Graham wouldn't have put on his adventurer's cap and gone out to do something about the situation, he'd have hunkered down in his bathroom with a razor blade and whined a lot about how much his life sucks.

I can only think to myself that the darker the situation at the beginning, the more powerful the resolution at the end, and if there is any sense of closure at the end of this game, that's exactly what we need.  

Baggins

#72
Honestly I don't think the game has gotten all that dark just yet. I'll have to wait and see what happens in future episodes.

Honestly as far as Darkness goes, MOE, was much darker... and Realm of the Dead in KQ6 was much darker than Episode 1. Some of the Ooga Booga stuff seemed darker.... Oh ya the night sequence in KQ4 seemed darker :p...

:p...

However, I would say that some of the snarky and fourth-wall breaking narration is juvenile and adds little to the story... That has nothing to do with "darkness" or so called "angst".
Well, ya, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know its Daventry. But its somewhere on Earth."-Roberta Williams http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Daventryisearth.ogg

TheReturnofDMD

Quote from: Baggins on July 18, 2010, 05:45:40 PM
Honestly I don't think the game has gotten all that dark just yet. I'll have to wait and see what happens in future episodes.

Honestly as far as Darkness goes, MOE, was much darker... and Realm of the Dead in KQ6 was much darker than Episode 1. Some of the Ooga Booga stuff seemed darker.... Oh ya the night sequence in KQ4 seemed darker :p...

:p...

However, I would say that some of the snarky and fourth-wall breaking narration is juvenile and adds little to the story... That has nothing to do with "darkness" or so called "angst".

Like I said,  I find a big difference between darkness--suspense, tension, eeriness--and angst.
There's a difference, for example, between HP Lovecraft's works and Stephanie Meyer's. One is so teenage it's not even funny.
The earlier had the previous kind of darkness-scariness. Not emotional angsty-ness.

And Fierce Diety--Cesar has said the focus is going to be on Graham's psychological feelings and the psychological impact of Mannanan on Alex.

Baggins

#74
I don't even really see angst just yet, well maybe except for your reference to Graham wanting to rip up flower pots, destroy mirrors, and vases, :p...

I do see alot of juvenile pointless narration of the non-story sort about "Ninjas, Samurai, anime, Japan, :p'', which are bit too "Hot Topic" as you said for my taste.

I really don't like the break the fourth wall style narration (luckily that king of thing was extremly limited in the earlier KQ).
Well, ya, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know its Daventry. But its somewhere on Earth."-Roberta Williams http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Daventryisearth.ogg

Goldenfoxx

Quote from: Baggins on July 18, 2010, 06:05:06 PM
I really don't like the break the fourth wall style narration (luckily that king of thing was extremly limited in the earlier KQ).

I can't say it really bothers me, but it does feel closer to SQ than KQ, no doubt.  But except for the tongue-in-cheek nature of some of the comments, I'm not sure how much different it really is than KQ5.

And going back to tone for a second, it just occured to me that the entire first act of KQ7 was pretty drab, too.  Heck, that was closer to emo than this installment is...

Baggins

#76
QuoteI can't say it really bothers me, but it does feel closer to SQ than KQ, no doubt.
Oh, if it was Space Quest, I would actually expect the game to break the fourth wall. That's part of Space Quest's charm, part of what the whole Narrator in space quest was.

QuoteBut except for the tongue-in-cheek nature of some of the comments, I'm not sure how much different it really is than KQ5.

I can't think of any place where KQ5 broke the fourth wall. KQ5 also had a more limited narrator, there were times when I wish it would have explained some of the things I was looking at, like in KQ6 :p... I was annoyed to get the big ol red X when looking at some points on the screen.

Well, ya I was going to say Rosella's comments were pretty emo in KQ7, and many of her lines were pretty juvenile (that's meant to be part of the story). She was uh can I say very whiny... a bit of a brat at points...

That game didn't have a narrator though.
Well, ya, King's Quest is on Earth. Daventry is very old city from a long time ago. It's in ruins now and people aren't quite sure exactly where it used to be. There are some archaeologists searching through the ruins, they think they know its Daventry. But its somewhere on Earth."-Roberta Williams http://kingsquest.wikia.com/wiki/File:Daventryisearth.ogg

Fierce Deity

Quote from: TheReturnofDMD on July 18, 2010, 05:55:13 PM
Like I said,  I find a big difference between darkness--suspense, tension, eeriness--and angst.
There's a difference, for example, between HP Lovecraft's works and Stephanie Meyer's. One is so teenage it's not even funny.
The earlier had the previous kind of darkness-scariness. Not emotional angsty-ness.

And Fierce Diety--Cesar has said the focus is going to be on Graham's psychological feelings and the psychological impact of Mannanan on Alex.

I understand that, but that isn't psychological. Emotional, maybe. But definitely not psychological.

Also, I still don't understand what you are getting at with the metaphors. You say that TSL is angst, and then don't give an example. You say the game is like Twilight, Hot Topic, and Emo, but then you don't give an example. You quote Erpy, and then add on some terminology that doesn't apply to the game (like complex, realistic, and psychological). It's not any of these things, and while you are clearly convinced that this game is "Hot Topic", I would just like an explanation that doesn't lead to another comment about how "Twilight" it is.
Freudian Slip - "When you say one thing, but mean your mother."

kindofdoon

Personally, I like how TSL has a more dreary, realistic, humanistic feel. It gives more life and emotion to what is normally a fairly straightforward series.

And again, this is only the first episode we are talking about. I am sure future episodes will broaden the scope of TSL's emotional spectrum.

Daniel Dichter, Production/PR
daniel.dichter@postudios.com

sahara

Quote from: Baggins on July 18, 2010, 06:10:20 PM
QuoteI can't say it really bothers me, but it does feel closer to SQ than KQ, no doubt.
Oh, if it was Space Quest, I would actually expect the game to break the fourth wall. That's part of Space Quest's charm, part of what the whole Narrator in space quest was.

I think the TSL team needs to think harder about what voice the narrator is supposed to bring.  As it stands now, the narration is too many things: expository, jokester, telling Graham's inner thoughts, self-aware narrator acknowledging the fact that it's just a game.  It's a bit of a mess.  If they were going for a darker, more serious tone, then why in the world would they include such an often nonchalant style of narration. PO should pick a voice and stick with it.  Myself, I think it would be cool and less disjointed if the narrator was Graham's own voice as he thought to himself.