The choices in Bandersnatch are definitely not meaningless (to the point even your choice of cereal or what music to hear on the bus at the beginning changes the dialogue a bit further on the movie), there's also some "break the 4th wall" moments where you got into the same scene but with completely different dialog because it took into account the choices you've made before or on a previous run.
All of that was great and I was expecting way less of Bandersnatch, but yeah, from all of the available endings you can eventually get, I felt there were no good ending either, in all of them something bad happened to the protagonist or the surrounding characters...
(01-08-2019, 12:22 PM)MayImilae Wrote: [ -> ]Well, I thought Life in Strange's ending was bad too. It was extremely forced to push a sacrificial ending on a "maybe" and just, no. Hated that! It was better throughout the game though, imo.
As for meaninglessness as a valid strategy, you can't just have choices and then have them turn out to be nothing. That's not commentary, that's just bad storytelling. To make a game with meaninglessness as a theme, you need to have it throughout, and actually comment on it and use it! I guess I'd use MGS2 as a decent example of this. Though I didn't enjoy that game at all (that's complicated), it's a good example of a game that uses meaninglessness as a theme.
I'd say that it
was used throughout in LiS, just not always made obvious. The biggest examples were
Time did
not like being meddled with at all, and just because there was a constant glimmer of hope and a friend along for the ride, it didn't mean that there wasn't a good chance of it being snuffed out.
(01-09-2019, 04:48 AM)mbc07 Wrote: [ -> ]The choices in Bandersnatch are definitely not meaningless
They're "meaningless" because essentially, it boils down to the ending/outcome not really changing, no matter your choices. Even the review on Ars Technica highlighted this "meaninglessness". It's not that the choices don't do anything at all, per se, just that it doesn't have a serious impact on where you ultimately end up when you're done watching (in terms of good/bad endings). The "bad ending(s)" is unavoidable. It's definitely a central theme they tried to convey through their storytelling.
AnyOldName3 I highly disagree. Throughout the game, you are making lives better, improving the situation around you. That's the theme of the game - a "just a person" given powers and struggling to use them to make the world better.
It wasn't meaninglessness that it was illustrating (after all, there would be major and meaningful differences in the world if you chose the other ending, just that the other prior choices would
), it was that meddling with forces you didn't fully understand made things worse. I've not played Before the Storm or LiS 2 yet, but the ending didn't necessarily say that Max was never going to try to use her powers again, just that, on reflection, the consequences of her initial choice were more negative than she was prepared for (or, if the other ending got chosen, that they weren't).
PP (i think it's random enough)
@Shonumi - So I just happened to pick up Bravely Second on sale a week ago! I guess I'll get to try it soon. ...though I never actually finished Bravely Default. I may try to do that, or at least watch a let's play of the ending. Do you think I should?
Lemme remember Bravely Second and how I felt about it... Been a while.
The combat is a bit more streamlined, iirc. It's more of the same with Brave and Default mechanics, but they made it flow easier, particularly with the Auto Battle mode, and a new Next Battle mode. You can basically chain another battle instantly for stronger enemies and bigger EXP and money drops. It's not as grindy if you start power training at the cavern with all of those different status effects (one of which is that every hit is almost certain to be critical, so Auto Battle with 4 Braves and keep chaining 2/3 battles).
The new classes are okay, but they really don't have the same flavor as the first game's. There are some cool combos to mess around with, but IMO less interesting stuff to actually come up with by yourself. However, just like the Arcanist in the first game, the Exorcist class is OP when properly utilized, allowing you to nerf foes without fear of dying. It's easy to mess up and screw yourself with Undo and Auto-Undo. It's borderline game breaking, but not nearly as much as Stillness was from Bravely Default.
Now, about the story and characters. Tiz is back, and more tolerable than the first, but in his place as Male Rookie RPG Hero is Yew. Meek, timid, wishy-washy, but strong convictions when pushed. Eh, seen it before and don't care about him and his archetype. He does grow, but that's expected. Magnolia and Edea are better characters. Stronger personality types and more enjoyable dialog. The story itself is nothing special, but unlike the first game, there's no lull, no infinite time loops. Well, there is one, but please read a guide before you take on Big Bad himself, else you encounter a loop that's more infuriating than the first game's. The "true" Big Bad and the story behind them is trippy, unexpected but a nice change of pace in terms of plot twist.
I will say, this game loves Disney Deaths too!
Overall, the combat is better, grinding is there but minimal as far as RPGs go. Main male characters are boring, female ones have better characterizations, story doesn't drag on and repeat itself (it won't if you read that guide, basically just use the hourglass time stop power during a certain boss battle). There are more classes but less interesting combos for abilities. Overall, better, but not without it's flaws. The story's pace alone might draw you in as opposed to Default's. I enjoyed it for sure. I think you'll find it an improvement.
I just spent the last 2 hours trying to get my Nvidia card to recognize my freesync monitor. Now I find out Nvidia's "freesync" update only supports 10xx series cards and newer.
IIRC, there's been a way to hack it into Maxwell for a while now. Googling for it might be pretty hard now there's an official way that could drown out relevant results, though.