Up or down? Too bad, down!

[SuperBelkar]

So I was playing some SMT: Devil Summoner- Raidou Kuzunoha Vs the Soulless Army <-- Is that a long enough title for you? Anyway, during my play through the game keeps asking me to make decisions and instantly smacks me for throwing curve balls. I get that the game has a story to tell, but why give me a choice only to rip it away from me? This kind of shit happened in Kingdoms of Amalur, and I remember seeing this in other games as well. I should state that I'm mostly having fun, but the minute this happens it only serves to grind my gears plus there's this Reporter named Tae Who's seriously starting to piss me off so that's not helping. Is there a reason for this? Are other SMT games like this, I haven't played any others so I don't know! Doing that is like the playing videogame equivilant of castration! This frustrates me to no end, but how about you guys? Do you know any games that do this? Thoughts on the matter would be appreciated.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Afraid I haven't played that one, but the two SMT games I have played do pay attention to your choices even if it doesn't appear to change anything at first. In both, dialogue choices affect your alignment, which becomes relevant when the time comes to make your final definitive choice whether to side with Law, Chaos or Neutral, which I have learned is a tradition for the whole series.

Of course, most RPGs are exactly as you said with most of their false dialogue choices, only affecting what how other characters respond before forcing you into the next steps regardless.

 

[SweetShark]

Yep, nearly all the classic SMT titles have this style.
However they have the habit to be VERY obvious what it will happen if you choose specific side.
I don't mean specificaly to the plot, but about the "personality" of your hero.

 

[Someone Depressing]

Raidou isn't like other SMT games - which do keep track of your dialogue choices, and where they do have a larger effect. Rather, it tries to tell a story while shooing you away from it because it's afraid you're going to mess up its JRPG magic.

If you want a game where every other dialogue choice leads to either the death of half your current party, or... not, then play the Devil Survivor games, or the older Persona games.

 

[deathzero021]

Most games do this, the majority of games that give you choices, is never really giving you a real choice, they just provide the illusion of choice. A great example of this is Telltale games, especially The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us. These games mastered it, with little visual messages telling you "he will remember this" and occasionally having a line of dialogue refer back to a decision you made but the story never alters from it's only per-destined path. At the very most, in these games you can make decisions that will change how a few characters interact with your character but that's it.

The only reasons I can assume they do this is because of money, as usual. Making a game that actually branches off into different paths would require more time and therefore more money. And with the way money is spent on games today, it's not hard to believe they would rather spend that money on voice acting and graphics rather than a game with real choices.

I agree though, this crap is frustrating and it's killed the experience for me in many games. Once you realize it's all an illusion, all the choices you make after that feel pointless, if not insulting, which ruins the game. this needs to stop.

 

[SuperBelkar]

Those other persona games don't sound too bad, may give them a look. I'm glad That at least a few feel this way because I feel, that while not the root of the issue, is another branch in this brambly tree we call improving games. I just want to play a game where I have agency or purpose, both would be real nice, but pick your battles I guess. Like Dragon Age Origins, or even that Way of the Samurai game.