Thoughts on Episode 3

[wolfhawk]

Hello everyone!

Since there was a thread for thoughts/wish list for episode 2 a while back, I thought I’d start one for episode 3.

I’m not sure how many episodes Kan is planning for this saga.


Story

New Characters

I’d really like to see a female character be the focus of the story. In To The Moon, I thought River was one of the most important and pivotal characters (although I think seeing her from the outside was an interesting story decision), so I think it would be really cool for the client to be a woman instead of having the main female characters be family members or important friends.

I think I think it would be cool for the client to be younger – not necessarily a young child but someone in early adulthood or middle aged. It seems logical that SigCorp would target seniors in their advertising since they are thinking about their incoming mortality, but younger people with a terminal illness might also be considering their services.

Eva and Neil

I hope we can see more development of Eva and Neil. Some (non-spoilery things I hope):

How will Neil’s painkiller addiction turn out? Will Eva push him on it? (Pretty sure she already knows).

What happened between Neil and his family that he can’t talk to them anymore?

I’d like to see more of Eva’s family – seeing her sister and her family in minisode 2 was great.

Other SigCorp Characters

I hope we will see more of the other SigCorp characters, especially Roxie and Rob.

Plot

On Twitter, Kan said: “To the Moon was about seeking fantasy from reality, whereas Finding Paradise is about seeking reality from fantasy. Two sides of the same coin.”
Since the themes of these two games are so intertwined, I wonder where the next game will go thematically. I’m not sure there is a third side to this fantasy/reality theme – so where will it go next?

It would be fun for there to be a client with a wild fantasy, although I’m not sure how this would fit the themes of the series.

It would be interesting for there to be more explanation of the ethics of what SigCorp does, in addition to the effects it has on the family of the client that was touched on in FP. Also, in the minisodes we saw some of the protestors – maybe we could see more of them.

What if a protestor’s family member hires SigCorp? That would be interesting.

Since so many elements related to Neil and the SigCorp machine (more in the spoilers section below), I think that that will definitely be explored.


~~~Spoilers!!!~~~

Neil’s Tampering

I think we are all wondering what’s going on with Neil’s machine. Will Eva find out about it? Since Rob and Roxie are now in on it too, it seems to be more complicated than Neil just wanting to program games into the machine (Like we see when Neil and Faye duke it out in Episode 2). What is the purpose of these changes? What are the different areas of the program we saw in Episode 2? What is the solution that Neil calls “her”? Is it Faye?

Also, did Neil’s changes to the machine cause the decaying orbit travel pattern we saw in FP, or was that just the needs of Colin?

Also, I hope we will find out why Eva is seen in the machine at the end of SigCorp minisode 2. Did Neil test the machine on her? Why did she see an apparition of herself?   

~~~End Spoilers~~~



Gameplay

Since the mechanics of preparation of mementos changed between TTM and FP, it might be cool to introduce a new mechanic for E3 just to keep things new.

I like how different gameplay mechanics are introduced for small parts of the story – like the rpg elements or side scrolling shooter.  They do seem a little random at times, but it would still be cool to include. Including those at important points of the story would be great.

Art

The art is great. My one thing is that sometimes zooming in on the pixel art of the character looks somewhat weird.

 

What do you all think?

[Sun]

Hm, just the other day I thought that I really wouldn't mind if all future patients are men, too, as long as the story is good, we can relate to them and all that.
I don't actually have a wishlist for the new episodes. Had a short one after TTM because I was a bit unhappy with the ending, but not after last game's.

[splitsticks]

I think you're right that we'll see more about the ethics of Sigmund Corp in Ep3, and I think it has a lot to do with Eva.  I have some ideas about this, so here goes:

Spoiler: show

In the minisodes we see that Eva has been having doubts about her work with Sigmund Corp but continued to believe in her cause; fulfilling wishes and making people happy, despite what the protesters say.  But then she met Colin, and those experiences have shaken her confidence and spirit.

Eva's desperation for meaning and purpose shows at the end of FP when Neil intends to give Faye control of Colin's memories.  Eva pleads that their work is different and important, that "what we do, it has to be more than just that of an imaginary friend."  "Has to be more"...  she says this as much to herself as she does to Neil.  It has to be more, because Eva needs it to be more, because if not then all of Eva's work and all her good intentions are for nothing, or worse, she's hurting people.  Colin would have lived a happy and contented life were it not for Sigmund Corp and doctors like Eva.  Not only that, but if Eva's best intentions are put to shame by an imaginary friend already within Colin's mind, then what good is she?  And it pains me to think... what will become of Eva if Neil's secret "solution" comes to fruition?

After all is said and done, Eva attends Colin's funeral.  Eva and Neil don't normally attend funerals, but she does so because she feels she owes Colin.  I think she feels like she let him down.  She feels like a disappointment.

So where does that leave us with Ep3?  While Colin and Neil took the spotlight in FP, I think Ep3 will bring a new patient and Eva's search for meaning to the foreground.  That's what I'm thinking for Ep3 anyway.

[fenzil]

since we're doing spoiler alerts in this thread, I'm gonna say that my whole reply is a spoiler

I just finished an old German movie/miniseries (not specifying the name because I don't want to spoil it) in which a company runs a computer-simulated copy of the real world, only to find out that they themselves are a computer simulation, and the real world is one level above them. It got me thinking about this series, and the potential for a reveal that the "real world" of Sigmund Corp is actually a simulation of a higher-level Sigmund Corp (or similar group). Maybe Neil or Eva are having their memories changed. I know this has been mentioned on the forums quite a bit already.

To the Moon was about seeking fantasy from reality, whereas Finding Paradise is about seeking reality from fantasy. Two sides of the same coin

I think Kan is pretentious enough (I mean that in a good way!) to follow up with a synthesis. Now that we've explored the way Sigmund Corp turns F to R and R to F, we will be confronted with a situation where we can't tell reality from fantasy (i.e. the possibility of meta-simulation). Maybe Neil is on his way to figuring it out, with all the secretive stuff he's been up to. Or maybe Neil, Rob, and Roxie are all from the real world working on Eva's memories? Neil clearly is up to something that Eva isn't fully aware of, so it's a possibility. It would be even more interesting if, rather than a big reveal, we see Eva (or whoever the subject is) start to wonder and a slow buildup to an answer that may or may not be a meta-simulation.

Then again, the meta-simulation angle is such an obvious direction for the story that maybe it'll be something entirely different for less predictability. There's also the question of how long the series will be, as a big reveal could only happen if #3 is the end.

Something that could be interesting is if they get a client whose fantasy turns out to be something bad. How would Sigmund deal with someone who wishes they'd killed a person?

As for a more basic wishlist, I wish Kan would drop RPG Maker XP. It just sucks having to play in a small window or blurry fullscreen. I've heard there are technical and legal issues that would make an engine switch difficult and unlikely at this point though.

There's nothing I particularly want story-wise, despite my speculation. I'm just along for the ride!

Spoiler: show

a female character

cool for the client to be younger