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.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
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:
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.