Re: Final Plot Update - Planning Thread
#38 by Mir - Jan 20 2015
Oh, no! I'm not too late, am I? I've been replaying the game and thinking about this and I've thought of a few more suggestions. If everything has been decided, please disregard the below.
1. Requesting a few more details about Banion, Brin, and Bennett. One person brought up that Banion will still marry Elodie even if Brin has been executed and there won't be any (additional) signs of tension in the marriage. I agree that Banion would probably still marry Elodie, but something like Elodie having a lot of near misses with freak accidents after the heir to the throne (and possibly Maree) have been produced would be a nice touch. Also, Banion being killed in a duel or being executed doesn't do anything to stop Brin from sending Elodie flowers and becoming her girlfriend if she dances with her, even though she still votes with her brother at the Vote of No Confidence. That strikes me as a little odd. Perhaps have her abstain/vote with the queen at the ball (if she's lovestruck) or never send flowers at all (if she's angry over her little brother's death). (And if Elodie win the Vote of No Confidence, Banion's titles go to Bennett, but in the case of Brin's death or disinheriting, Bennett is already the Duke of Hellas. There could be another few lines addressing this (even if it's just something as simple as "I don't know! Pick someone to be Duke of Maree!"). ...I'm actually curious as to what happened to get him disinherited. I can kind of guess with Ignatius, but Bennett's a mystery (was it marrying Lieke?).)
2. Thirding Spybard as another female love interest. She's so hilariously smug. I love her.
3. I also really like the idea of meeting other characters in the castle, just for flavor. Being able to speak with Arisse at least once if she's your advisor is one I'd really like to see, but a couple of other encounters appeal to me, too- I like people's idea of being able to play toys with Charlotte and Adair, and I think speaking with Briony as either a guest or a hostage somewhere would be great. You could also speak with Talarist on week 12 if you turned him down and passed the Court Manners check, since he asks Elodie to show her around the castle (Animal Handling skill check here? Marrying him after this if you don't make him your subject gives the player an epilogue about them having a family with a bunch of exotic pets, so just perhaps an occasion for Elodie to successfully make small talk. Failing wouldn't make him talk about her behind her back, though).
4. Related to the above, I could dig a few more details about the Sedna-Elath situation being added to the game. For example, if you speak with Fabian at the ball while engaged to Talarist, he could have some slightly different dialogue implying, as politely as he can, that he's a little concerned about your choice of husband. He might not think that Adair might be in danger anymore, but he still doesn't feel good about the son (grandson?) of the people who killed Duchess Cayleigh's mother and sister being the king. If Elodie passed the Foreign Intelligence check earlier in the conversation, she'll know exactly why he's concerned. Also, if Adair is successfully assassinated and Elodie doesn't make Talarist the Duke, I think there should be some issues if she tries to marry him at the end of the game, especially if she suspects him of killing Adair and/or he invades when she gives the Duchy to someone else. Marrying him to improve border relations while Adair is still alive is one thing, but things after an assassination would be different. Either she'd be too suspicious to marry him, the nobility and peasants would be too against the marriage to accept it, or both she and him would have demands about the border situation after the invasion that neither was willing to meet or compromise about. Could be another way to get the heartbreak window pane without being rejected by Kevan. If the ending about them having a nice family after a long courtship is supposed to imply that they worked out everything despite Talarist being a manipulative jerk, I think it's best reserved for when Talarist doesn't succeed in any power play he tries - whether it's killing Adair or getting engaged to Elodie (Elodie chooses to go after him in the ending). ...Unless Elodie's cruelty stat is high and the implication is that they're awful people together.
5. Potentially sacrificing other people to the Kraken? If Elodie talked to Julianna beforehand about Selene being a Lumen, there could be an option to attempt to talk Julianna into being the sacrifice. High public speaking + presence + lore or something like that to convince her that being a sacrifice is absolutely serving the needs of Nova, the crystals, and Lumenkind - because if someone doesn't stop the Kraken, it might ruin Nova and cause Lumens to be reviled even further because people would know what woke up the Kraken. Her sacrifice could be seen as a taking of responsibility - damage control. I don't know. This still might not be appropriate for Julianna's character (she might respond that Elodie's the more appropriate candidate), but if it is....perhaps an Internal Affairs skill check to ask her about her feelings about leaving Ursul's duties to Briony or Ignatius? Still a cruel action, but doesn't get you hated like sacrificing Charlotte, since people see it as "good riddance to bad influences". Selene would abandon you after the sacrifice if you did this, however, possibly after attempting to drown you in your bedroom while you slept (Swimming check to survive long enough to open the window to let the water out, reflexes check so you can grab onto something and not get swept out your window and crack your skull)? Or you could sacrifice Selene and have Julianna abandon you? Sacrifice Lucille and ruin your relationship with Charlotte? Possibly have Joslyn step forward and offer himself as a sacrifice if Elodie tries to offer herself? Alternatively, if you defeated the condemned man on week 20 and passed the Lore check when discussing the crystal with your tutor, you could potentially offer other nobles-as-potential-Lumens as a sacrifice. Now that could get a bit tricky, considering the sheer amount of nobles, but it could be limited to whoever you have in jail (Laurent, Banion, Kevan...though I can see the Kevan option going very wrong and Elodie having to select again next week) or....well, if Adair has been assassinated and Elodie was suspicious of Talasse but still ennobled Talarist, she could offer Talarist as a descendant of the House of Elath as a human sacrifice, assuming she has enough troops to arrest him. You'd have to reassign the Duchy of Elath once again and Talasse would be angry with you in the epilogue, but it might bring up noble and commoner approval a little if it's framed as divine justice for Adair's death. Sacrificing Laurent or Banion would still get people angry with you, even if they won't be as angry over sacrificing a grown man as opposed to an innocent young girl. I do like the idea of being able to sacrifice Arisse if you fail a Novan History check (and have enough troops) and having it not satisfy the Kraken since Arisse is a descendant of Yeveni nomads, not Lumen. It would end in everyone being so angry with you that you lose your right to rule and get a non-standard game over. However, I imagine that Arisse probably has some Lumen blood from her house intermarrying with the other noble houses, so that might not make sense.
6. Again, having Briony and Elodie develop a more mature love if the Mead Ducal Family starts communicating again and Elodie can decipher the letter. It wouldn't be super srs business (because Briony), but it'd be nice to have another Elodie/Briony ending.
There are a few other things (marrying Chaine of Mima, getting intelligence about Arisse's successor and unlocking the option to successfully marry Kiran without it turning out badly, getting Kevan out of his situation and into a better one without marrying him, getting Julianna and Selene to marry without slaying Togami...), but those sound more like wanting everything to be perfect, which it can't be. ^^ Also, a friend of mine would really like to see a portrait for Adair if it turns out that more art will be provided after all.
Thank you so, so much for taking fan feedback. I really appreciate it. (I hope this all didn't sound too demanding...)
