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| Character Development; Or the lack thereof | |
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| Topic Started: Oct 26 2016, 04:21 PM (623 Views) | |
| Violet Spinel | Oct 26 2016, 04:21 PM Post #1 |
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Mars CEO
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This started as a Discord discussion. Spoiler: click to toggle It was around here we decided to make a thread. So, how do you guys feel about character development? Edited by Violet Spinel, Oct 30 2016, 12:31 AM.
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| WitchRolina | Oct 26 2016, 04:51 PM Post #2 |
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Missing the Unified Aesthetic
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O.o Development isn't spelled with an exclamation point. Anywho, the need for character development is a well known thing in GS. DD's "attempt" at it was... well, terrible to say the least, but it'd be nice to have more fleshed out characters than the one-note guys we get now. I mean, sure - as fun as the shipping nonsense has been, I'd still very much prefer 2- to 3- dimensional characters to what we get. |
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| Nedben | Oct 28 2016, 01:01 PM Post #3 |
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I'm going to restate my perspective from earlier: now that we've established that Golden Sun's characters are one-note, what are the notes we get, and what can we guess about a wider character from those notes? (and what does having identical classes or ridiculously underfitting alt-classes imply about the characters, wider world, and classing system itself lol) I feel like there's already a compilation of all the character dialogue and moments we can find and some we can't, has anybody put together a complete analysis of every bit of information we have? As far as I remember, Isaac's a protagonist stand-in and because having highly flexible dialogue isn't really doable we get silent protagonist whose personality beyond what we choose to do with him is kinda lacking. I always saw him as intentionally kinda hollow inside and kinda shy because he seems to let the other characters speak for him outside his explicit decisionmaking and how he always looks at the player when in the overworld menu in order to help with the protagonist-but-other-people-are-handling-plot-events vibe. gaah brb finishing later Garet can be read a few different variations of 'that one friend', maybe they were trying to do the plastic character easily headcanoned into a full one thing. Mia is overt healer girl archetype, with humorous elements and/or hidden negativity or some sociopathic tendencies from living overworked in depressing winter land with all of her family gone and her few remaining goals in life like protecting Mercury Lighthouse failed, and by one of said family members violating their shared oath even etc. but a lot of this is implied or given only through infamous 'what, is there a pharmacy down there' moments. Maybe I'm just heavily biased by RJ but I think all she got characterizationwise beyond her default role was even more subtle in a game without much to begin with. Midway thought: Are those comics canon? Ivan I think was just a servant who was a wind party member because one was needed, does he even HAVE any personality beyond 'yo I am doing quest thing with you'? Felix as mentioned had his characterization then it was negated in TLA by being the player character but not pulling a Bachelor and having the character respond as themselves during cutscenes. Jenna what did Jenna even do again I think she turned impossibly red about Isaac once and said "don't die" and that was it, too busy being hostage or attacking caster. Sheba was sad the first game and sad-angry the second, right? Piers had his moments in the spotlight that weren't really easy to develop personality off of from uninflected text and basically said 'okay this guy's a fairly normal human I guess', right? How many ways are there to interpret Piers? Kraden was complainy old man, the Proxians were villains who did nothing to avoid being so even when it was kinda counterproductive until it became out of their control, and Alex was all mysterious dickery, Wise One was evil, idk Are these fairly accurate summaries about the way most people end up viewing the simple characters as? Edited by Nedben, Oct 28 2016, 01:30 PM.
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| WitchRolina | Oct 28 2016, 01:37 PM Post #4 |
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Missing the Unified Aesthetic
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Comics are doujin, not canon. |
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| Violet Spinel | Oct 30 2016, 12:39 AM Post #5 |
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Mars CEO
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I think there was a thread for this but I'll put my two cents, huh. Isaac is a generic do-gooder. He does good. Always helps those in need. Likeable guy, bioring character, huh. Garet to me was a clusmy, mildly idiotic guy who was very hesitant but he's a good friend. I always wanted to get some development about how Ivan feels lonely since everyone thinks his powers are creepy and weird and how Isaac helped convince him that there are people like him out there, huh. Instead, we get basically a robotic character. He speaks what everhone already knows and not much more. Mia... I really don't know. She... doesn't like extreme heat? She is ashamed of her connection with Alex? I know very little about her personality, huh. Felix, oh Felix. Even as a silent protagonist, I had decided who he was. He will do anything to get the job done, even if it means looking like a villain to his childhood friends. If Isaac is Lawful Good, Felix is... Lawful Neutral, really. He does what he needs to do, the only reason it became a matter of world-saving was because he lost his ability to make decisions. Jenna is my unironic waifu, so I feel any opinions would be biased, huh. However, we know she's irritable at least, and certainly smarter than Garet. She gets frustrated at Felix like any sibling would, huh. Sheba is a strong independent woman whose purpose has been forgotten by the developers, huh. Rest in peace, Sheba's backstory. Piers... I dunno, he is about as flat as Mia. L keeps telling me how much he "is so done with everything" but I don't see it, another example of the characters being so flat that they are projected onto like sileng protagonists even if they aren't, huh. |
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| WitchRolina | Oct 30 2016, 05:11 AM Post #6 |
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Missing the Unified Aesthetic
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Yeah, the problem was that most of them were simple archetypes. Isaac, for example, is a simple "yes man" good guy because he's an archetypal paladin, from his class, to his actions, and even the way his game was told (TBS is mostly linear). Garet's an Archetypal soldier guy, Ivan an Archetypal wizard, Mia an archetypal healer (even down to her gender). Their roles informed their personalities more than their actual dialogue and actions. |
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