Emotional attachment has really gone downhill with this game
Now lets be honest, 99% of people loved Season one and everything about it, Season two was generally liked but nowhere near to the standard of Season one but Season three/ANF has had quite a variety of opinions and one of the main reasons we are seeing a downslope in this series is emotional attachment not only to the story but the characters. In S1, we have Lee who is the protagonist so theres already going to be some form of attachment to him, when he gets bit everyone is shocked and sad at whats happened not just because we are going to die as the player in game eventually, but because the main character that everyone loves is dying and we are thinking how will this effect everyone else too. When Clem finds out she is distraught and that last scene btw is a major scene for emotion but ill get onto that in a second. We have Clementine who is the protagonist of S2, the little girl who we cared for and taught to survive as our own in S1 and i dont really know what to call her or what real purpose she has had in S3 but we all love her because of that attachment to her in S1. You have Kenny who has featured in all seasons and has gone on to be a favoured character(For some), seeing everything piling on him in S1 especially of how his family died all at once no matter what you had towards the guy will have had players feeling some form of sorrow for him, when he came back in S2, alot of players were surprised and happy to see him back just because its Kenny and its a familiar face ( Just disregard how you felt of him with the story for now), when he died in S2 for me and for quite alot of other gamers it was quite a heartbraking scene and not to mention leaving him at Wellington, but in ANF, when he dies, it does leave the people who stuck with him sad that this has happened but people are more angry than sad because of how he died, our choices not mattering and i could go on.
In Season two there is not much emotion shown for when people die apart from the deaths related to Kenny (Himself sarita etc), when Alvin died it seemed that no one really cared ( Im talking from the characters perspective) apart from Rebecca who mostly felt anger as soon as finding out, you have Nick who was a character who i quite liked and his treatment was horrible, not just the deaths and screentime but the fact that literally no one gave a shit but Rebecca for like 2 seconds just made it worse, when sarah died literally no one had even mentioned her or even said anything about her and then theres Luke who was one of the people keeping the group together died and there was one short scene of Jane feeling horrible but not much else. There were very few characters who we were emotionally attached to and thats quite shown as almost every character dies.
ANF has hit bedrock with barely any emotional attachment in it, we have Javier which most people like as he is the protagonist being one reason but then again alot of people would prefer Clementine too so theres that going on, but in general hes a cool character who we all like, there are quite a few people who just literally dont give a shit about Gabe, not that wed want to see him die (although some probably do) but he really is stupid and a douche, theres Conrad who we all like at this point for him managing to stay alive till the last episode making him the longest living determinant character and his turn/ new Conrad after the scene with holding Clementine up, theres Kate who I like as a character and when i saw her die ( Might be alive but i doubt it) i was quite sad, but there are a few people who arent really too bothered about her, everyone likes Marianna and her death had everyone sad so shes an anomaly.
I could go on and on about the characters but im sure your getting the point, The Walking Dead needs to be more emotionally driven and its one of the major sections that the game is failing in and I hope that this will be improved on.
Comments
Yeah S2 get's more love now certainly a few months after it ended after the first great Civil War in the TWD section of course
Season 3/ANF had its moments tho. I loved the latest Kenny-flashback, as well as the first one (except for it's terrible ending of course). I'm still attached to Clementine as well. Felt shocked and sad over Mariana's death - and enjoyed taking Badger down. Aaaand still am upset over Ava's death in my playthrough. She was a really good character
Honestly, I kind of even expected this after Season 1, since they killed off so many main characters and left some in an infamous status known as "UNKNOWN".
Even more after Season 2. A lot more.
In ANF there's nearly none I'm attached which is largely in part to the lack of development for characters and interaction with them. Not to mention how inconsistent the characters are which makes it even more difficult to like them. Even clementine I have no love loss for since she's just there with no purpose or meaning into other than half assed fanservice.
I don't think it's meant for fan service, she's still the main character.
Also, I don't believe it's the lack of development from the characters, it's the fact that everyone from S1/2 are dead other than AJ and Clementine. It's their own fault for killing off everyone beforehand.
Lastly, I cried three times in this game; When Kenny "died" in S1, Lee's death, and Kenny's S2 Death. Point being, these two deaths affected me because of how sad and important Lee was, and the fact we spent about 9 Episodes with Kenny.
So, because Telltale screwed over everything (I mean the fact that they kill off every character every season), I feel like only if Javier or Clementine died, I would have the chance of crying.
Maybe if I had more than one deep conversation with the characters and longer episodes I would care about them.
It's almost... as if... most of the problems of the season are caused from the lack of length... who woulda knew???? /s
ANF can have its moments but any real form of attachment to the characters doesn't exist because we've never got to know them at all. Season One was perfect with this because the story started at the beginning of the apocalypse so their past lives were relevant so we could learn about them and create a bond with them about the struggles of survival.
This problem could be fixed if the characters were given more screen time (Hubs!) so we could create a bond with them. But nope instead we get to watch a movie, yay. Its not bad because its still a fun game but I want something similar to the first season because that was more fun. I don't expect TT to re-create the first season perfectly but goddamn they could reuse some of the structure because it worked so much better.
How do you figure she's a main character? What is drastically different if she's removed the past 2-3 episodes? Almost nothing. She disappears and reappears randomly only for her abysmal flashback scenes and contributes nothing the plot. She's just there with no purpose other than the extremely overdrawn AJ story which should've ended way before now. I mean the highlight of clementine is discussing her period in episode 4.
I'm confused as to the point you are trying to make. She's the main character next to Javier and David, and Gabe. These are the 4 main characters being focused on, and David could even be taken out of being a main character as well.
Clementine had the "Being a part of New Frontier" plot, taking Javier back to the junkyard and then her wanting a car. After getting to Richmond, the AJ plot picked up and her distrust in David/trust in Javier. Lastly, we got the two new points, the possible relationship with Gabe, and her period.
Some points are small, other points are larger. She's a pretty important character, but I guess because she's not in every single scene or playable completely, than that means she sucks in this Season. Believe it or not, we have people that actually do like Clementine's role in this game... Myself included.
I don't think that it's the Season's fault, I think this problem goes all the way back to Season One and the fact that they killed off every single character.
In Season 2, I didn't feel much for most characters, though I still held hope because I actually thought some would live this time.
However, they all died, and then I figured Season 3 would be the same, so I didn't get as attached to each new character because I figured that everyone would die again.
Fortunately, Conrad and Tripp are still alive, and no one from the main group is 100% dead yet, so I have hope that maybe a Season 4 could pick up with characters we actually know and care about (However, Conrad and Tripp would most likely die off beginning of S4 or at the end of S3 anyways, just so they could end the story of the characters there).
After episode 1 if you take her out of every episode little to nothing changes. It's not just the fact she's not playable so much as she just disappears and reappears randomly for no reason with no contribution to the story. In episode 4 her importance is relegated to a sub love story and a discussion of her period. In episode 3 (determinantly) she randomly appears conveniently in the middle of the forest to save Javier which the group logically should have done before clementine randomly appeared. She gives a brief flashback which is slightly meaningful and then she leaves at the end of EP3. In EP2 she provides weightless dialogue about the big bad new frontier (which is false) and reveals to be part of new frontier which has had little significance in the story. (determinantly) AGAIN she disappears to randomly reappears in EP3. Even if you keep her with you she's just there with occasional dialogue which has no meaning. When Clementine does appear it's for the half assed fanservice flashbacks and to semi cater to old fans. 90% of her flashbacks are poorly written and design with the majority of them serving no purpose other than giving clementine some form of playability and "attempting" to show S2 ending choices. In regards to your argument of her major plot involvement being part of TNF that really isn't significant since if you take her with you to Richmond nothing important comes out of it. Max casually acknowledges Clementine and David has a little conversation with clementine. Her being part of new frontier has no significance at all which is further shown when she (determinantly) reveals for the first time to the group she's part of new frontier in EP3. None makes a remark or comment and life goes on as usual as if clementine had said nothing of significance.
I agree with the OP. There are several problems with ANF that just leave a lot of people ashamed. For emotional attachment, there really isn't a lot of time to invest with all of these characters. For example, with Eleanor in Episode 3 who barely got any screen-time. Tripps inconsistency I.E Wanting to kick you out of Prescott if you sided with Clementine and then completely being friendly and changing his mind to allow Javier and their family to go back, and then being the leader totally abandoning his own people at Prescott.
Episode 1 and 2 is just around sixty minutes long so there's barely any time given to develop with these characters. Telltale, which did this for money purposes, just decided to let this happen. It's extremely shameful to reduce the episodes length by half compared to Season 1. Despite the fact that Telltale themselves have got more employees since Season 1 and wants to reduce the content in their games as much as possible. Episode length is one of the most important elements and reducing this only confirmed even more that Telltale is slacking and getting greedy.
The flashbacks are absolutely pitiful. You never control Clementine during the main present story line but rather in flashbacks that don't really have any consequences to the main story line at all. I doubt this was done for good intentions. You see, Telltale deliberately put these flashbacks in for fan service. All the flashbacks are extremely short. Not even the Episode 4's flashbacks are suffice. They just give you the emotion that you'll never have these characters again. The writers for Episode 1 and Episode 2 really are one of the worst I have ever seen and I actually believe I could do better. I'm not sure if all the blame should go to the writers however since Telltale's management should also be at fault for letting a travesty happen here. The design for ANF starting is extremely bad. They wanted to go with something new because Telltale could not be bothered to facilitate the endings of S2 EP5 (Not because they wanted new fans, it's stupid to start at a sequel). This is why the flashbacks are in the game as you see them now. Lame. Disappointing. Killing everyone off within five minutes... All emotional attachment that you had with the characters just POOF gone in an instant. Seeing this death was emotional alright, a fucking shameful one.
As for the characters in ANF, some of them are good. Conrad, David and Gabe in particular. I'm not counting Clementine here because Telltale wants to push her off the game at least in my opinion. Clementine should be THE MOST IMPORTANT character right now in this series. Having spending an entire two and a half seasons with her. Any emotional attachment for other people in the previous seasons is gone because everyone is either dead or missing and isn't with Clementine. With ANF right now, the designers have a choice, to either keep the cast around after Episode 5, or to restart YET AGAIN with very few survivors leaving barely any emotional attachment at all.
Not enough calm, bonding moments (like campfire scene in S2).
Or any hub with diverse dialogue options in general.
Literally every single line you put in your post i completely agree with. Thank you for this. You are so right and it deeply saddens me that Telltale can't write a decent game anymore in terms of making us attached to characters or choices feeling like they matter anymore.
Well there hasn't been any emotional attachment so...
¯_(ツ)_/¯