My God [Story discussion - heavy spoilers]

[dr.strange]

ES1 starting my gaming experience, all those years ago. I have been a fan and gotten every game since. Just fired this mod up and thought back to Skyrim I go. I applaud everyone on the team. Undying gratitude. I hope some who wish apply to Bethesda to work on the next Elder Scrolls game out-2022? Your talent would be appreciated.

[Kralomax]

I have to agree. Everything from the beauty of the world to top notch voice acting. I'm like the entire thing so far in the 3 hours I have put into it!

[Daxim]

After binge playing since release, I just finished the main storyline, and... wow. Seriously, nothing has ever been such an emotional rollercoaster to me, I'm not even exaggerating... SureAI certainly succeeded in making a story that was terrifying, traumatising, sweet and nice in some places, and utterly depressing in others... these are all good things, of course, if something can invoke that much emotion it's well done. This is a work of art. Now to the side quests that I've slightly neglected!

Also, can we just talk about the bread woman? Is it just me or is the bread woman definitely a highlight?

[Nicolas Samuel]

Haha, everyone loves the bread woman! And I always thought people would talk about the gossip women and Prince Mith.

Thanks for your compliment! I needed that. After reading the rather sobering review on PCGamer (Which didn't discuss Enderal's themes at all, though they are one of the things which are, in my opinion, what stand out about the project) I was beginning to think that maybe our approach to writing wouldn't click with the English-speaking community.

[SarahAndreaRoyce]

Just read it. It somehow escaped my google alert. But they don't like the mechanics and say nothing about the way the story is written. Thinking the story didn't klick with them is a bit reading between the lines what isn't there.

What I got from some comment sections is that there is a memetic critic about how Enderal ripped of Mass Effects story - repeated over and over by people who haven't experienced the story yet but want to seem sophisticated.

[Starac]

PC Gamer review is a joke. It is written by the person who thinks that collecting 1000 potions, visiting 1000 dungeons, and killing 1000 dragurs is what game should be?

[Nicolas Samuel]

@Sarah

Yeah, it's true, but it's the only explanation I have. When he critizes the quest-design, it sounds so matter-of-factly, more like a hardware review, particularly given the quest he's talking about (If you haven't played it yet, bear with me. In my opinion, it's one of the most emotional parts of the game and had some people crying). Obviously there are flaws in our game, but most of them are due to the fact that we simply didn't have the means to do otherwise. This is also something that irritated me - all he said is that we were a "hobbyist studio", but the fact, that Enderal is a one-of-a-kind project (Not counting those that haven't been released yet) and that we managed to find 88 professional voice actors (Some of them Hollywood talent) to participate for free, is never mentioned. To me, it sounds as if this is something any 15-year old with a little spare time could do. In a way, I get the feeling that the writer doesn't know too much about game development - not games, game development! - in general. Even Bethesda said that they found the scope of our projects impressive, and I'm guessing that has to mean something. But then again, maybe I'm just very biased, knowing how much time we sunk into this (30 000 hours at least).

And yeah, the Mass Effect comparison bothers me a lot. I get it why, after the trailer, the story pattern sounds similar, but I thought the first five minutes of the game (the dream) would make it obvious that not everything is as clear-cut as it first seems. I loved Mass Effect, but, without giving a way too much for those of you who haven't played it, it's essentially a deconstruction of a "Save the world"-plot.

@Starac

It did have that feel, yeah. It's obviously very subjective. I've read some more reviews of that writer, and it seems that he's not overly into deep stories. What can you do. :-/

[ArsCortica]

It's a bit ironic. On the one hand, many modern "gaming journalists" will endlessly circlejerk about "story-rich" games like Gone Home or whatnot, but god forbid you actually give them an actual, well-written story that isn't (and excuse my wording) pretentious hipster garbage.

Of course, the fact that many of the indie developers who get endless praise for their games by these journos for some reason tend to also be very good friends with said journos or have a not-so-indie publisher with a bit of spare money they happily donate to said journos is another story.


That all being said, Enderal definitely has one of the best stories I've ever seen in an RPG, particularly so because it's actually bold enough to tell the player that his or her character is not, in fact, the inevitably victorious savior of the entire world. I kind of expect that many people will be unhappy with the lack of a proper "happy ending" (still remember the backlash Deponia 3 got), but imho that one plot twist regarding the beacons very nicely tied in to a story where nothing is quite as it initially seems.

That this all comes in the form of a free fan project with professional voice acting and a degree of polish you'd usually find in an AAA title just puts the icing on the cake for me.

[Daxim]

I can assure you, that quest that they criticised did indeed get to me, and I wonder if that reviewer even bothered to get that far.
Though, to be fair, I was wary and sort of expected the way it ended from the start because everything else had already BEEN SO CRUEL! WHY DO YOU TORMENT US?!
Joking aside, I'm impressed by the ability that's been shown to invoke all sorts of emotions, and for once in a game I actually bonded with the characters. It's a tragic story, but an extremely beautiful and well done one that I hope to see continued one day. No matter what salty reviewers said, you've done something amazing, and you should be very proud, as we are very grateful.

[Starac]

It did have that feel, yeah. It's obviously very subjective. I've read some more reviews of that writer, and it seems that he's not overly into deep stories. What can you do. :-/

Bah, his opinion is irrelevant.
Duty of every reviewer should be to address important elements. And many of them hide some unfinished or broken elements, like horrible/broken quests in Skyrim for example. Some of them didn't mention this problem at all.
Reviewers like this dude will tell you his opinion about specific game, which is ok. But don't hide things just because you are TES fan?
And the funny thing is that they will address the same problems in some other game. I have seen this many times, and when i ask them about this, they ignore me.
You can't act like a fan if you are reviewer.