Moacube's Solstice - open threaded discussion
Friday, 1 July 2016 07:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarasa_catHave you played Solstice? Let's talk.
Haven't played Moacube's Solstice? Go play it and come back in 7-9 hours. I'll be here. :D
There be spoilers beyond this cut.
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.
.
.
.
.
.
I don't even know where to begin so I will just toss this starter package of things into the mix.
Go make a threaded comment on a topic of interest! I'll make my own comments below (between doing chores and other random weekend stuff).
Here are some starter questions to pick and choose from. Go go go!
1. The City as a Character: Discuss!
2. What ending did you get first or which ending feels most satisfying to you? Do you think it is fair to call all of them "downer endings"?
3. The cast, diversity, tropes, ...thoughts.
4. Gender: portrayal, tropes, inversions, ...thoughts.
5. Constance. (huh, even the symbolism in her name too. huh!)
6. If you had (or have!) the time & energy to write one fanfic for this game/universe, what would it be?
7. What fanwork would you want to see someone else (not you) create for this game/universe?
8. Thoughts on either of the two optional romances?
9. Meta on the larger theme (the symbolism in the city and what it was created for ... the ultimate meritocracy, etc etc) and how that theme was portrayed.
10. The visuals (so pretty) and the ways in which the visual style of this game is juxtaposed against the theme, characters, and story. Would a AAA game ever have this amount of visual pretty and this cynical a world view? (personally, I can see a japanese game doing that but not an american game.)
11. This is for the media-critters & media-makers: oh wow the WORK put into subtle little things in the animation like the dramatic speed of the text and the various character poses and all the pretty pretty pretty -- that is a lot of work for a teeny tiny indie company (10,000 kudos to them!). I love the look and feel of this game because I am a sucker for pretty visuals. Do you think the story/gameplay would have been as effective if the animation efforts+budget had been scaled back? Would this have worked as well if given very large budget and a larger staff?
12. Comparisons between Solstice and Cinders? I love both but they are different. (to me, different is good and I welcome the differences as I happily roll around in all the artistic pretty).
13. Anything else? Really, just go wild and add comments below with a comment title that vaguely describes your topic of interest.
I need be a responsible adult on and off over the next few days but I will add my thoughts to this post as comments over the next day or so. Please add yours. Please invite people to add theirs. Obviously, spoilers will exist.
I think I have everything set up so anyone can comment no matter if they are a DW or an LJ user (this is crossposted to both). DW users can track this post for new comments.
.
List of threads / thread-starters:
Haven't played Moacube's Solstice? Go play it and come back in 7-9 hours. I'll be here. :D
There be spoilers beyond this cut.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I don't even know where to begin so I will just toss this starter package of things into the mix.
Go make a threaded comment on a topic of interest! I'll make my own comments below (between doing chores and other random weekend stuff).
Here are some starter questions to pick and choose from. Go go go!
1. The City as a Character: Discuss!
2. What ending did you get first or which ending feels most satisfying to you? Do you think it is fair to call all of them "downer endings"?
3. The cast, diversity, tropes, ...thoughts.
4. Gender: portrayal, tropes, inversions, ...thoughts.
5. Constance. (huh, even the symbolism in her name too. huh!)
6. If you had (or have!) the time & energy to write one fanfic for this game/universe, what would it be?
7. What fanwork would you want to see someone else (not you) create for this game/universe?
8. Thoughts on either of the two optional romances?
9. Meta on the larger theme (the symbolism in the city and what it was created for ... the ultimate meritocracy, etc etc) and how that theme was portrayed.
10. The visuals (so pretty) and the ways in which the visual style of this game is juxtaposed against the theme, characters, and story. Would a AAA game ever have this amount of visual pretty and this cynical a world view? (personally, I can see a japanese game doing that but not an american game.)
11. This is for the media-critters & media-makers: oh wow the WORK put into subtle little things in the animation like the dramatic speed of the text and the various character poses and all the pretty pretty pretty -- that is a lot of work for a teeny tiny indie company (10,000 kudos to them!). I love the look and feel of this game because I am a sucker for pretty visuals. Do you think the story/gameplay would have been as effective if the animation efforts+budget had been scaled back? Would this have worked as well if given very large budget and a larger staff?
12. Comparisons between Solstice and Cinders? I love both but they are different. (to me, different is good and I welcome the differences as I happily roll around in all the artistic pretty).
13. Anything else? Really, just go wild and add comments below with a comment title that vaguely describes your topic of interest.
I need be a responsible adult on and off over the next few days but I will add my thoughts to this post as comments over the next day or so. Please add yours. Please invite people to add theirs. Obviously, spoilers will exist.
I think I have everything set up so anyone can comment no matter if they are a DW or an LJ user (this is crossposted to both). DW users can track this post for new comments.
.
List of threads / thread-starters:
Endings
Date: Saturday, 2 July 2016 03:33 am (UTC)First playthrough gave me the Clear Waters ending with this set of variations. Pretty much a happily ever after for most of the character. (Is this the highest amount of happily ever after? not sure but it feels close to it.) Although the city. THE CITY. ...the waters... the tribes...
Anyhow, while playing, once I realized that the two POV characters are withholding info from the player and that the people in the city are massively withholding info from the POV characters, I decided to take the chance of being open, honest, and erring toward the side of "noble decisions for the greater good" whenever given the choice between telling the truth-vs-lie or making a major decision. Keeping with this theme, when given the chance to make an accusation, having Yani accuse Istvan felt in character for this approach even though I personally suspected she would pay heavily for it.
My first PT also pushed full force on the flirt factor for Galen/Kasiya and Yani/Sem. Didn't want to miss any of that in my first PT. ;)
My final decision to have Galen check on Constance rather than Istvan was ... idk ... a hunch. I had a good feeling for what Istvan was doing when Galen (has the option to?) barge in on him during Chapter 4. Constance, on the other hand, struck me as suspicious for not being suspicious. Plus water. Bathhouse. Water<->Bathhouse. She must be privy to a secret about the water that hadn't yet been revealed. For a character like Galen, it made sense to me that he would want to check on her when the city started falling apart, thus my decision.
In the end, giving nearly everyone(?) a 'happily ever after" style ending felt emotionally satisfying although it also resulted in saving the magical water *and* tearing the city down, which sows seeds for future conflict for people not featured in this story. So, my ending has that selfish kind of happiness for the people I, the player, was made to care about.
And, as for the city, the families, and the tribes -- people I do not know:
When the Families finally arrive, they discover their city in ruins. They quickly decide to rebuild, assign a few overseers, and rush back to their winter palaces.
A servant most of her life, Laura finally decides to use the changes to her own advantage. Relying on her experience, she strengthens her position in the reforming hierarchy of the new city.
...
The Northern Tribes tell the tale of the night the city towers fell and the elders sang with joy, feeling their holy waters would finally be returned to them. But the Families are relentless. Soon the Jewel is rebuilt, its splendor even greater and influence even broader than before. They give it a name worthy of its strength and beauty: Adamant."
Ouch. A city that is just as bad at exploiting people with a system that is even more well defended... (I'll go sit in the corner now)
Sort of interesting because everyone I meet in the game more or less ends up getting what they want so why would they care if the city is rebuilt as Adamant-Explotation-Hell? There in lies the cynical message about being honest and noble?! ;)
Re: Endings
Date: Sunday, 3 July 2016 01:51 am (UTC)Re: Endings
Date: Monday, 4 July 2016 02:31 am (UTC)I like how the game limits how many people you speak to in each playthrough and how no one appears entirely reliable as narrators. As I select different paths the situation feels even more grey despite it feeling *very* grey on my first PT. Chatting up Yakone in Chapter 1 during this second PT darkened the shade of grey even further.
After it becomes clear that the City was constructed as a magitechnological wonder on top of stolen indigenous lands, designed by academic technocrats off in the distance and run, in actuality, by a class of wealthy merchants and bankers who labor using legalisms that are hardly distinguishable from slavery, the ... well, the bluntness of the metaphor is certainly one that leaves me smirking.
If RPing from Yani's and Galen's point of view, they benefit hugely from being academic technocrats who are usually off in the distance, away from this broken place, so having them perpetuate this horrible system, even if it makes them somewhat uncomfortable while they are there, is what would probably happen: they are young, they are career focused, and they each need to look out for number #1 because this is only a temporary assignment. Save lives in an imperfect (horrible) system and return home to be rewarded.
... So, allowing Constance to win *while* attempting to RP this game in character sort of requires a post-game rationalization in which Yani & Galen are unlucky, or that they are incompetent for this job because they are inexperienced, or they are struck a sense of fanatical idealism. Although I need to see how the "escape with Yakone" variant of this ending plays out because there might be an additional way to RP it.
All that said, I prefer games that force the player to become aware of how their point of view (and their ideals) are complicated by the situation presented in a choice based game.
Re: Endings
Date: Monday, 4 July 2016 11:38 am (UTC)Re: Endings
Date: Tuesday, 5 July 2016 07:00 am (UTC)Gender tropes
Date: Saturday, 2 July 2016 03:49 am (UTC)A. Yani & Galen, and the inversion of the tired old "Mother Nature/Father Science" trope, although a lot of media has inverted this for years now (Scully & Mulder). Still, glad to see it inverted again. Yani is definitely the Scientific Scully Skeptic in this world.
B. Meanwhile, point A is juxtaposed with the gender essentialist "magical female" trope regarding how sensitive women are to the solstice, etc.
C. The obvious sexism and gendered roles regarding how the city works: men from the families hold outward power, women less so. And how "every beautiful woman -- Constance, Slava, even Laura - can come into and leave the Families' quarters without permission" (so says Istvan). *cough*
D. Constance, who is a discussion point of her own, although my first playthrough revealed enough about her past that I feel ... she's a well handled trope? She ends up being a complete deconstruction of the High-class Courtesan. Also, many of the characters in the game appear to underestimate Constance yet, in the end, she is the force who is willing to sacrifice (and unlucky others) herself for people's freedom. Villain? Hero? Sliding-scale no doubt. Once I hit chapter 5, I was digging the deconstruction that the writers put into Constance. But I can also see how her characterization could be controversial?
...
Handling of gender in just about any story is probably guaranteed to be a mixed bag -- an author's choices isn't going to work for everyone. (there is a whole different discussion about m/m slash popularity to be had here, but that is for another day). Personally, I find it comforting at times to escape into stories that present sexism in a matter of fact way. After all, sexist world. Acknowledged. On the other hand, I sort of want those stories to tackle sexism and power, even in subtle ways. I ... sort of feel this story does that although I am still forming words.
(also, I am really hungry and need food.)
This is a placeholder for future thought and an invitation for more thought.
Visual style
Date: Saturday, 2 July 2016 03:57 am (UTC)Interesting how the game provides such a strong aesthetic experience -- a city that is jaw droppingly beautiful and full of pretty people -- yet all of this beauty is surface-level masking the ugliness of the city's social structure and the brokenness of every person we meet.
Gotta admit I sort of prefer this approach: a veneer of beauty masking endemic ugliness. (Compare to the grimdark-ugly-raw-power aesthetic that is currently popular in american media which masks ... idk? what does it mask?)
Fanworks that I would consume
Date: Saturday, 2 July 2016 04:30 am (UTC)1. Tarot Cards.
2. Fanfic about the Families -- development of the city when business is in full swing with a mix of OCs and canon characters.
3. Elaborating on the backstories for any of the characters.
4. Post-game fluff.
5. ???
Tempting fanworks & plot bunnies
Date: Saturday, 2 July 2016 04:42 am (UTC)Highly tempting plot bunnies:
1. A character study of Constance.
2. Backstory of the city's engineering and the water. (given how much handwaving there is in the canon story).
3. Galen/Kasiya post-game+reconciliation.
Other bunnies that have potential to bite:
4. Character study of Laura.
5. Yani/Yakone femslash. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Re: Tempting fanworks & plot bunnies
Date: Monday, 4 July 2016 11:39 am (UTC)Re: Tempting fanworks & plot bunnies
Date: Tuesday, 5 July 2016 07:01 am (UTC)¯\_(ツ)_/¯