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ghouldaddy07
Jun 23, 2008

Dapper_Swindler posted:

maybe. My honest guess is the all the families will kill each other to the last person.

I'll bet money on Ramsey coming back to kill the Victorious family.

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Dapper_Swindler
Feb 14, 2012

Im glad my instant dislike in you has been validated again and again.

ghouldaddy07 posted:

I'll bet money on Ramsey coming back to kill the Victorious family.

seeing that this games a massive erection for Ramsey "eunuch maker" Bolton, your probably right.

Kawalimus
Jan 17, 2008

Better Living Through Birding And Pessimism

a cop posted:

Glad to see the game doesn't know what to do or give a gently caress if you agree with Royland in almost all circumstances but make the other guy your sentinel.

Hahahah I noticed the exact same thing in my game. I played Rodrik as the cripple with a death wish. Not only that IIRC Ethan is the one who picked the sentinel anyway so why should it even matter! If they were going this route they should have made it based on how you acted not on some random choice you made as a completely different character. So so bad and dumb.

bobjr
Oct 16, 2012

Roose is loose.
🐓🐓🐓✊🪧

Dapper_Swindler posted:

seeing that this games a massive erection for Ramsey "eunuch maker" Bolton, your probably right.

To be fair it's not like the show is any different in that regard.

Generic American
Mar 15, 2012

I love my Peng


They really should have just made Duncan the spy, regardless of whether you chose him as Sentinel or not. It would still be a bit cheap, but I could at least appreciate the twist considering that he is the ONE you are told to trust above all others... by Lord Forrester, who could have easily made the mistake of trusting him in the first place. Making it the one not chosen just come off as unbelievably petty and childish, like the worst shades of Kenny and Luke from TWD Season 2. :suicide:

Pththya-lyi
Nov 8, 2009

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2020

So It Goes posted:

The trailer for the telltale minecraft thing looks absolutely awful. Like, that art style is just hideous.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAnRtMEDrvU

The art style not only doesn't bother me, but I also can't understand why someone wouldn't expect the Minecraft art style from a Minecraft game. What should the style be, if not "a complex arrangement of blocks?"

Please understand, I'm not trying to be rude, but I just don't get the objection.

Accordion Man
Nov 7, 2012


Buglord

a cop posted:

Glad to see the game doesn't know what to do or give a gently caress if you agree with Royland in almost all circumstances but make the other guy your sentinel.
I love that Royland was the only person to find Roderick on the corpse cart so he easily could have killed him right than and there and nobody would have known. Or how I traveled to Ludd's keep with him without an army and he was totally willing to kill Ludd for me and did so in that game over sequence. It's like he was a loyal retainer the whole time, same as Duncan, but Telltale just wanted a cheap twist.

Telltale is poo poo.

Accordion Man fucked around with this message at 00:28 on Jul 23, 2015

Junkfist
Oct 7, 2004

FRIEND?
Who says your choices don't matter in a Telltale game? By making the traitor determinant they determine how little sense the story makes!

Jimmy4400nav
Apr 1, 2011

Ambassador to Moonlandia
I've mentioned it several times, but I'll likely echo my self and others here having 5 interlaced POV's just don't really work for this context, part of what makes ASOIF work a bit better is that while somewhat interlaced, quite a few of the POVS are independent of one another and in one way or another can stand on their own as stories (Deneys POV from book one actually got released as a standalone novella and it works well on its own). Think about it, the 2 POVS people like in this series have been Mira's and Ashers, they were the two most removed from the central story of whats happening at Ironwrath, Gared suffered from "being at the Wall" narrative syndrome.

Ideally, for the story, cutting out Rodrick's whole player control might have been better. Ethan's POV was fine, it didn't out stay its welcome and it does a good job setting the scene for the higher goings on at Ironwrath. Once his business is done, just focusing on Gared, Mira and Asher would have been a better bet. Gerald's story would have needed revision, the whole North Grove thing is getting a bit silly. Instead, to make it work better with what everyone else has been doing, imagine instead the Foresters have some secret dealings with the Wildlings, and Gared's mission North is instead to figure out a way to cash in on some favors the family has to get some Wildling muscle. True its kind of functionally similar to what Asher's goal is, but in the context of everything else it could have worked better. Heck Gared could have wandered more around the North trying to pave the way for wildlings, go back and forth between Ironwrath and the Wall and allowed us to see an incomplete picture of what was going back in the homestead.

I don't know maybe I'm reaching but I feel like the narrative of this game would have benefited from some serious trimming.

Accordion Man
Nov 7, 2012


Buglord

Jimmy4400nav posted:

I've mentioned it several times, but I'll likely echo my self and others here having 5 interlaced POV's just don't really work for this context, part of what makes ASOIF work a bit better is that while somewhat interlaced, quite a few of the POVS are independent of one another and in one way or another can stand on their own as stories (Deneys POV from book one actually got released as a standalone novella and it works well on its own). Think about it, the 2 POVS people like in this series have been Mira's and Ashers, they were the two most removed from the central story of whats happening at Ironwrath, Gared suffered from "being at the Wall" narrative syndrome.

Ideally, for the story, cutting out Rodrick's whole player control might have been better. Ethan's POV was fine, it didn't out stay its welcome and it does a good job setting the scene for the higher goings on at Ironwrath. Once his business is done, just focusing on Gared, Mira and Asher would have been a better bet. Gerald's story would have needed revision, the whole North Grove thing is getting a bit silly. Instead, to make it work better with what everyone else has been doing, imagine instead the Foresters have some secret dealings with the Wildlings, and Gared's mission North is instead to figure out a way to cash in on some favors the family has to get some Wildling muscle. True its kind of functionally similar to what Asher's goal is, but in the context of everything else it could have worked better. Heck Gared could have wandered more around the North trying to pave the way for wildlings, go back and forth between Ironwrath and the Wall and allowed us to see an incomplete picture of what was going back in the homestead.

I don't know maybe I'm reaching but I feel like the narrative of this game would have benefited from some serious trimming.
It totally didn't need to be six episodes either.

Tofu Injection
Feb 10, 2006

No need to panic.
Ugh, I love Telltale and I love Game of Thrones but this is just so boring, and when it isn't boring its rock stupid.

I wish they would just go back to doing Sam and Max games because those were always charming and fun. I don't begrudge them their success with the whole choice driven narrative thing because the first Walking Dead was fantastic, but it seems like they got lucky with that and don't really know what made it great. Meanwhile all the old point and click stuff was on point, and even the weird missteps like Wallace and Gromit had so much more heart than this. It sucks that they seem to have outgrown what I think was their biggest strength.

RBA Starblade
Apr 28, 2008

Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

Dapper_Swindler posted:

maybe. My honest guess is the all the families will kill each other to the last person.

I'm assuming the same thing now which is why Asher and his pit fighters are going to kill them all then go pillage the landscape probably. Also wow the Whitehills are just constantly smug. And there needed to be an option to call Daenerys out. Also I don't give a poo poo about Gared and apparently every Forrester is "reckless". I still like it but wow the traitor thing and all that is kind of annoying. Though I imagine what it will actually be is war between the families or reconcile by marrying Gwyn or something.

quote:

I wish they would just go back to doing Sam and Max games because those were always charming and fun.

I don't understand why they haven't yet. :(

RBA Starblade fucked around with this message at 02:26 on Jul 23, 2015

Emmideer
Oct 20, 2011

Lovely night, no?
Grimey Drawer

RBA Starblade posted:

I don't understand why they haven't yet. :(

Because these CYOA games are making them money hand over fist, especially when cashing in on other IPs. Is it any wonder that they're shot-gunning out multiple mediocre products as quickly as possible? I know if feels like forever between episodes, but considering the time it usually takes to make a game and also that they are progressing multiple games at the same time, they come out really fast.

etalian
Mar 20, 2006

I like how the culmination of Asher's arc was just to get a army of 8 gladiators.

Jimmy4400nav
Apr 1, 2011

Ambassador to Moonlandia
Alright finally sat down and played the episode...

Holy crap, that scene in the cell with Mira needed an extra conversation option, that was the worst railroading I've seen in this game. Lie to Tyrion and he sees right through you, or tell him the truth, either way you get hosed. I was seriously expecting after telling the truth and having grumpy guard burst in having an extra lying option about why I was there (Cersi wanted to know any escape attempts, contacts, etc), some kind of half truth about WHY I got sent since no matter what Tyrion knows who sent you and you get scolded. I was expecting that extra lie option and grumpy guard catching on and letting me do my thing while looking mad, but no instead the game just has you fess up and get nothing. :argh:

That being said though I can't be too mad at that last scene, I had Rodrick go out in a blaze of glory, it seemed fitting for his arc, spending the whole game kissing Ramsey's rear end, building the families strength and getting hitched with a nice woman. All those tees getting lined up and it be almost criminally not GOT-like to have him avoid dying in the penultimate act.

etalian
Mar 20, 2006

Most of the concept is constrained by the whole canon straight jacket. You can't have things like Ramsay getting served or Tyrion escaping his predicament.

I think Borderlands or Wolf Among Us ended up being more interesting since they didn't have canon straightjacket.

Ekusukariba
Oct 11, 2012

etalian posted:

Most of the concept is constrained by the whole canon straight jacket. You can't have things like Ramsay getting served or Tyrion escaping his predicament.

I think Borderlands or Wolf Among Us ended up being more interesting since they didn't have canon straightjacket.

That's what i loved about walking dead season 1, it was same setting and rules but otherwise got to go wild, still surprised how they could gently caress up season 2 so bad, I'm pretty much done with telltale after thrones but I'm for sure done if season 3 of walking dead has Clem as the player character again, she was the worst

Knuc U Kinte
Aug 17, 2004

The illusion of choice is so thin in this game that I'm just punching and mocking everyone wherever I go. The final choice was already decided.

dmboogie
Oct 4, 2013

you know, I've kind of been enjoying this series. Definitely not Telltale's best, but still a good story in the GoT universe. The intro of episode five is seriously making me reconsider this.

Why the gently caress is Ramsay here? Why the gently caress can't Rodrik, a man who you can establish many times to put pride above all else, stab the man who killed his brother? I don't care if you give me an immediate game over, just give me the option! What purpose does it serve to watch Rodrik get kicked in the shins while Ramsay taunts him and cuts a man open? Do we really need more of an affirmation that Ramsay is a one-dimensional evil son of a bitch we'll never get to touch?

Literally everything about this game only serves to make Tales from the Borderlands look better, not that it needed the help. (TftB spoilers) When Vallory curbstomps your party, it's alright, because Vallory at least has style. It's alright that she sends two canon characters to take you down, because even though you're hopelessly outmatched, you still get a few good blows in and they don't overstay their welcome. It's the sort of the thing that'll make it even more satisfying if/when you finally take her down.

tl;dr: gently caress this game

Arrrthritis
May 31, 2007

I don't care if you're a star, the moon, or the whole damn sky, you need to come back down to earth and remember where you came from
I seriously can't figure out why Telltale went with the Not-Starks for this game. We already know about how poo poo goes down in the north and the decision poo poo they're giving us is a joke (especially in a currently licensed ongoing series) so it's not like we're going to get much investment in the characters anyways. They might as well have set this poo poo in the Vale or Dorne or the Reach where we don't really know what's going on instead of giving us the laziest loving characters and the railroadiest story.

Arrrthritis fucked around with this message at 06:51 on Jul 23, 2015

dmboogie
Oct 4, 2013

Played through the rest of the episode. It didn't sink to the lows of the opening again, but at this point I'm just here for Asher and Beskha.

The ending would have been a lot more impact if it hadn't been so rushed, and Rodrik dying is the only choice that made narrative sense, at least to me. Asher didn't go through all that poo poo in Essos just to die pointlessly five minutes after he landed in Westeros.

I have to say that I find it bleakly hilarious that house Forrester is On its fourth lord of the series. :v:

Knuc U Kinte
Aug 17, 2004

dmboogie posted:

Played through the rest of the episode. It didn't sink to the lows of the opening again, but at this point I'm just here for Asher and Beskha.

The ending would have been a lot more impact if it hadn't been so rushed, and Rodrik dying is the only choice that made narrative sense, at least to me. Asher didn't go through all that poo poo in Essos just to die pointlessly five minutes after he landed in Westeros.

I have to say that I find it bleakly hilarious that house Forrester is On its fourth lord of the series. :v:

The worst part is that you just know that Asher is going to be Roderick with a different voice actor if he survives the opening act of chapter 6

Irish Joe
Jul 23, 2007

by Lowtax

dmboogie posted:

The ending would have been a lot more impact if it hadn't been so rushed, and Rodrik dying is the only choice that made narrative sense, at least to me. Asher didn't go through all that poo poo in Essos just to die pointlessly five minutes after he landed in Westeros.

I forgot Rodrik just boinked the woman he blackmailed a few episodes back when making the choice. A possible alliance with her house or three gladiators with no armor and no discipline.. tough choice.

RBA Starblade
Apr 28, 2008

Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

dmboogie posted:

you know, I've kind of been enjoying this series. Definitely not Telltale's best, but still a good story in the GoT universe. The intro of episode five is seriously making me reconsider this.

Why the gently caress is Ramsay here? Why the gently caress can't Rodrik, a man who you can establish many times to put pride above all else, stab the man who killed his brother? I don't care if you give me an immediate game over, just give me the option! What purpose does it serve to watch Rodrik get kicked in the shins while Ramsay taunts him and cuts a man open? Do we really need more of an affirmation that Ramsay is a one-dimensional evil son of a bitch we'll never get to touch?

tl;dr: gently caress this game

I laughed when he gave you an A for effort for trying.

Asema
Oct 2, 2013

by Jeffrey of YOSPOS
I know I've said it before in this very thread but that latest episode pretty much confirmed that I'm never buying a telltale product again. I'll just watch some nerd play it on youtube and save my money for better games. (life is strange just hit 1 million sales with the next episode next week woo~)

CottonWolf
Jul 20, 2012

Good ideas generator

Irish Joe posted:

I forgot Rodrik just boinked the woman he blackmailed a few episodes back when making the choice. A possible alliance with her house or three gladiators with no armor and no discipline.. tough choice.

I'm pretty sure my Rodrik didn't blackmail her...

Also, my House Forrester could not be in a worse place at this point. I think everything is hosed far more that it could have been even in the limited choice the game gives you.

CottonWolf fucked around with this message at 13:50 on Jul 23, 2015

Jimmy4400nav
Apr 1, 2011

Ambassador to Moonlandia
Also what happens if you spare the kung-fu dude in the pit? Does he join your merry party of gladiators travelling to Westeros, or does another gladiator finish him off and the rest of them call you a wuss for not ending him or something like that?

RBA Starblade
Apr 28, 2008

Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

Jimmy4400nav posted:

Also what happens if you spare the kung-fu dude in the pit? Does he join your merry party of gladiators travelling to Westeros, or does another gladiator finish him off and the rest of them call you a wuss for not ending him or something like that?

He joins you and is pissy you didn't let him have an honorable death. The gladiators cheered when I spared him then kicked him in the face for good measure.

RIP Beast. :(

Jimmy4400nav
Apr 1, 2011

Ambassador to Moonlandia

RBA Starblade posted:

He joins you and is pissy you didn't let him have an honorable death. The gladiators cheered when I spared him then kicked him in the face for good measure.

RIP Beast. :(


Aw man Now my gladiator army is down an extra dude, though I half expect him to die in a random scene in the next episode, maybe taking an extra soldier with him or something like that.

Also yes, RIP Beast, you're the closest we will get to Strong Belwas

RBA Starblade
Apr 28, 2008

Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

By the way with Tyrion, can it ever end with you not getting tossed out by the guard? I'm guessing no matter what Cersei won't help because she's Cersei.

Accordion Man
Nov 7, 2012


Buglord

RBA Starblade posted:

By the way with Tyrion, can it ever end with you not getting tossed out by the guard? I'm guessing no matter what Cersei won't help because she's Cersei.
Nope. I have no freakin clue how Mira's subplot is going to be in anyway relevant now unless Cersei just up and decides to help for the hell of it.

Last episode is going to a be trainwreck, I'm actually looking forward to seeing how bad it gets.

bobjr
Oct 16, 2012

Roose is loose.
🐓🐓🐓✊🪧

Accordion Man posted:

Nope. I have no freakin clue how Mira's subplot is going to be in anyway relevant now unless Cersei just up and decides to help for the hell of it.

Last episode is going to a be trainwreck, I'm actually looking forward to seeing how bad it gets.

I almost think it's just going to be a "Everyone dies hopelessly regardless of what you do" ending, but I don't they could do that without losing a lot of fan goodwill. Gared and Mira's plots stalling to a halt the past 2 episodes really make it feel that way.

Shard
Jul 30, 2005

bobjr posted:

I almost think it's just going to be a "Everyone dies hopelessly regardless of what you do" ending, but I don't they could do that without losing a lot of fan goodwill. Gared and Mira's plots stalling to a halt the past 2 episodes really make it feel that way.

To be fair, I think the books and show proper are going to end in a snow-zombie Armageddon. The game might end up being close to the source material in that sense.

Dolash
Oct 23, 2008

aNYWAY,
tHAT'S REALLY ALL THERE IS,
tO REPORT ON THE SUBJECT,
oF ME GETTING HURT,


Yeah, this latest episode wasn't really holding me. I think this late in a season that indicates the game hasn't succeeded, which is a pity because I'd like to like it a whole lot more than I do.

The ending choice is pretty good and I thought about it for a while, but by that point I could feel that I just wasn't as invested in that choice as I should've been. If a prior game had given me the choice to save either Lee or Clementine, or Rhys or Fiona, I'd have thought it was a much bigger deal even while dreading that Telltale probably couldn't follow through on a determinant choice that big.

I feel like the game could've been stronger if it had stuck to Roderick and Asher, building up to this choice. Gared and Mira struggle for relevance and the fact that it's so hard to imagine them doing anything in their respective areas in time to impact the outcome of the Ironrath/White Hills plot is worrying - either that means their payoffs are meant to be long-term, so they won't happen until a season 2 that may or may not be coming, or else they'll be contrived and deus-ex-machina-y. Or they're just supposed to be plot threads taking place on their own and don't connect back to the main story.

I saved Asher, partly because it seemed like a good cap for Roderick and partly because Asher's storyline has more interesting plot threads and making him Lord puts most of those front and center - will he marry Gwen to unite their Houses in peace? Will he be able to control his pit fighters? Will Beshka stick with him? Will his old House accept him after so long away? I wasn't even having Roderick pursue Elaena anyway since she rebuffed him at first and I decided to have him respect that, so plot-wise I'm not really losing anything.

Also the traitor thing was the worst. It's so petty and shallow, makes no sense with the other things they're willing to do (someone working for Whitehill will happily kill him in the game over scene?) and can especially make a fool of Gared if his uncle turns traitor. "I have to do this for my family!" indeed.

Snuffman
May 21, 2004

Dolash posted:

<Spoiler about who the plot should have focused on>

Lot of really good points, and thinking about it I think rather than having the games focus on 5 different members of the same house spread out so far geographically to have little to no effect on one another, the games would have been better if they'd focused on a single member of 2 houses that are at war with one another. Shades of grey, much more Game Of Throne-y.

Play as the Whitehills and the Ironwraths and just focus on their struggle. But then I suppose they could pull in all those actors from the show. :shrug:

RBA Starblade
Apr 28, 2008

Going Home.

Games Idiot Court Jester

The player should be Ramsay and his struggle to balance his desire to gently caress around and do whatever and his desire to please his father and do his duty.

"75% of players chose to stab Ethan"

BillBear
Mar 13, 2013

Ask me about running my country straight into the ground every time I play EU4 multiplayer.
I want to love this game because I love the show and books to death but Christ, TT aren't making it easy. :(

That Mira thing, like why... we all know Cersei isn't the smartest but she would have to be Hodor tier to send god drat Mira to find out what Tyrion's plan is. Holy christ that was bloody terrible and is obviously TT trying to have the show characters show up as much as possible for cool points.

I liked Asher winning the mercs over the best this ep, that was really cool and shows what TT can do when they aren't so heavily restricted by canon, I really wish the whole game was like this because it's great.

The beyond the wall plot isn't exactly compelling to me, they need to explain what the gently caress this North Grove stuff is before I start caring.

The ending does feel really rushed, Asher going from slaver's bay to the North should have happened over the course of a ep at least, not even the show and books have teleporting dudes this fast. Also the family reunion felt like they just met last week rather than years apart. That choice made me feel conflicted as gently caress but lol at TT crippling Asher with that crossbow bolt, appears being crippled is somehow still important then.


This game would have been completely awesome if it was just Asher, he's cool as gently caress and is always entertaining, he also has way more interesting characters around him.

Jimmy4400nav
Apr 1, 2011

Ambassador to Moonlandia

BillBear posted:



This game would have been completely awesome if it was just Asher, he's cool as gently caress and is always entertaining, he also has way more interesting characters around him.


I second that, I could have been a fun Tales from the Borderlands like adventure of him and Beshka bro-ing around the Free Cities, kicking rear end, taking names and trying to make a little gold here or there whenever they could.

etalian
Mar 20, 2006

Ekusukariba posted:

That's what i loved about walking dead season 1, it was same setting and rules but otherwise got to go wild, still surprised how they could gently caress up season 2 so bad, I'm pretty much done with telltale after thrones but I'm for sure done if season 3 of walking dead has Clem as the player character again, she was the worst

It would would be just better to use the setting IMO and try to avoid main characters.

For example having a group of people try to survive the war torn Riverlands would be more interesting than not Starks noble house making bad decisions plot premise.

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Max
Nov 30, 2002

Jimmy4400nav posted:

I second that, I could have been a fun Tales from the Borderlands like adventure of him and Beshka bro-ing around the Free Cities, kicking rear end, taking names and trying to make a little gold here or there whenever they could.

I think the reason for this is that he is the least restrained by Canon out of all the playable characters, and is free to actually do things. Also, Beshka is actually an interesting character to interact with.

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