I think morale is slightly down since the Melissa interview
To know that even Melissa is having issues with this season kind of worries me. And to know that she recorded a ton of content that got scrapped must be horribly frustrating for her given how short the episodes turned out. I agree there needs to be more Clementine and she should be playable in the present. I really like Javier though so I hope these criticisms don't hurt his character in the end. But she has basically the same gripes that most of the fans do and she kind of shied away from addressing the flashbacks but I have the feeling she's not too happy with them given she and Gavin are really close. If Telltale needs a few months to make an awesome product where Javier and Clem get plenty of screen time, plenty of hubs, plenty of chances for dialogue then so be it. Just please don't screw the rest of this season up, Telltale. You have a great idea here with Javier getting to know the new Clementine. I think we need to maybe get some news or some kind of word from Telltale because morale is seriously down right now. I'm glad Melissa came down on our level though.
Comments
The interview definitely gave critics and cynics some ammo, which is fair. It's probably comforting for fans to know that there are people in TellTale that aren't entirely satisfied with the way things are going, and I highly suspect that this extends to actual developers and not just Melissa.
The 'delay' that's been mentioned could be good news and could be a sign that TellTale are trying to respond as fast as they can which, if true, is great. It's much better news than "Hey, Episode 3 by the end of the month. We've had no time to respond to your criticism but here you go."
And just to emphasise for people reading this, a lot of people who are criticising the way in which the game is going, like Melissa, are largely doing it out of care and sincerity for the franchise and not necessarily out of malice or hate for the series or even for TellTale. Nothing hurts more on these forums than having to type up criticism, especially when said criticism could have been easily avoided.
Definitely. I think a lot of us just really care about the series and want the best for it and maybe some important people at Telltale see the criticisms. Melissa certainly does and I doubt she browses the forum here.
I'm not going to lie, it was kind of nice after listening to some people go on about how the criticism is simply coming from the vocal minority. It was a huge downer to hear about how much was cut, especially because they seemed like good stuff, stuff I expected early on following up on S2, and hearing about the rewrites because that just makes it seem like everyone's all over the place. But it gives me a bit of hope that everyone involved isn't without their share of issues with what was released, and maybe some of the criticism will be addressed.
But you're absolutely right, some people here have treated any criticism as some sort of personal attack on TT and the people who have worked on the game, like it's coming out of a deeprooted hatred for them or their games. It's really the opposite for me. I love this series, it's one of my favorite currently running series and easily knocked aside every release as my most anticipated the moment it was announced.
Watch the trailer when it was first announced, look at the first artwork, Clem is featured like she's playing an equal role. And then 20 days before the game launches, they say it's Javiers story. Like a week or so before the game comes out, it goes from TT saying Clem will be a playable protagonist to Clem being playable in flashbacks, and this was revealed in the description of the game in stores. For me, it's not coming out of hatred, it's disappointment. And I don't think the staff was purposefully trying to disappoint or anything, I know they're putting work into it. I just wanted more time with the episodes, I wanted more time with Clem.
Yeah I'd be way more cool with things if Javier and Clementine had their own sections and the episodes would be a good bit longer. Plus the flashbacks have no real substantial meat to them. They're only a few minutes long and we can't walk around with Clementine really. I was really hoping for a Tales from the Borderlands vibe. I loved that dynamic.
Good, Anyway for telltale to listen
In my opinion, they should just split the playtime between the two characters to please everybody sort of like Borderlands did. It was still mostly Rhys' story but Fiona had good playtime that didn't get in the way. It's what we thought would happen at the time and most people were relatively happy with it.
Personally, I think Clementine as a side character works oddly now because, in the middle of an all new cast, she manages to steal the show and control us as players a lot of time as evidenced by the stats where 85-95% of people side with her - and her personality won't always match what everyone wants it to be and this upsets some people. So giving us some control over her in present time would fix a lot of these issues and not have to involve her in major choices.
Just my two cents on the whole deal.
It certainly does provide further legitimacy to the frustration of this installment. It comes off to me that telltale really has no idea of what to do with ANF.
Agreed. Honestly, I thought that was how it would be when it was announced. And then when the game went up for preorder on steam or some place, someone posted a link asking why it says Clementine is playable in flashbacks lol
Yeah I agree. I thought that was what was going to happen when the teaser trailer was released.
I remember when this was first announced and they really made it sound like we'd be playing both as in equally, not four minute flashbacks for the most iconic character of the games.
I remember writing "I don't mind, I wanted to play Clementine and I get to do just that". I mean, hey, it was a way to please everybody.
Now... not so much.
What I don't understand is if Clementine was only going to be playable in flashback, you'd think the flashbacks would be a lot better because it's where she gets her main focus but instead they're a few minute rushed segments where we lose beloved characters in shitty ways and then we only play her one more time in a short section in episode 2. I don't understand. They should've went with either the flashbacks or playing her in the present with one or two flashbacks by the end of the season. I almost think they forgot why they're doing the flashbacks.
What I don't get is, it sounds as though the flashbacks were supposed to be longer and with more Kenny and Jane stuff, but along the way they went. "This is too long. Cut it down to five minutes."
And then you get people tweeting, I don't know if it was Jobs or Gavin, about how emotional this episode was and they had tears and whatever, and yet the only emotional moment could've been anything to do with Kenny or Jane as they were the characters we emotionally invested in, yet all we got was a blink and you'd miss it appearance by both of them. They went so quickly there was no sadness to them dying, just a WTF
I might've cried if there was build up to Kenny's death instead of Benny Hill flying out the car window and getting eaten by walkers. I mean couldn't we have a more dire situation than that? And even Jane's death could've been a lot sadder. They shouldn't have trimmed them down and in my opinion, they should patch the rest of those scenes in by the next episode's release. I'm sorry but come on. It's insulting to the voice actors.
Well my morale isn't going anywhere. I love the season so far, it's fantastic and that opinion is not changing anytime soon.
Thank you, Melissa Hutchison. The truth has been spoken.
I guess we can wait more 3 or 4 months for E3, since they'll rewrite everything
[stops eating hazelnut chocolate spread out of a jar with a spoon]
L-Liar, my spirit is strong...
Really, what was your first clue?
Now this just makes me even more worried for the future of telltale games.
I got dem instinct skillz
I won't lie, I'm slightly concerned too when one of your central voice actors is questioning your decisions...
this might be telltale right now
They can start by looking at the forum criticism lol
lol that's what i mean. after criticism coming from fans and now Melissa, they're probably in panic mode.
Not sure I agree it was mostly Rhys' story? I got the impression it was very much a two part story. Playtime is split pretty darn evenly.
The only way it could be seen as Rhys' is because of the fact that you start as him, but you gotta start as one of them.
I'm more worried they didn't have a game plan for the season.
I mean that mostly because of the Hyperion relevance and him being related to it moreso than anything, if that makes sense.
Which is funny because I liked Fiona more.
their game plan was probably to make money off the walking dead name alone. forgetting about quality. hopefully this changes things.
Well that sounds like a good sign.
....
What interview?
I guess telltale is busy playing the rewrite simulator?
It's in this thread.
My hope is they're rewriting to prevent it from sucking.
Please, for the love of God, let these ridiculous delays have meaning. Please let this have a purpose.
Mari's death hit me pretty hard.
she said the damn episodes would be out maybe in march or april when they should have had them all done already
holy god
they want us to pay 23 bucks for a 5-7 hour game that's not even 100% complete
Of course it has. Morale can only go down when the voice of Clementine talks about massive content being cut. It gives big time credence to the people who (correctly) were making the argument that Telltale was cutting corners and a cut an episode in half which should have been only 1.
I personally liked episode 1 and 2 but we all knew that it was way too short. Should have been 1 episode.
Hm, I can't find this interview. Can someone link me to it please? Thanks.
I think the points she made are valid and carry some weight in the writing room. She having such a large role in Telltale's The Walking Dead she having doughts should inspire Telltale to improve and stop with unnecessary rewrites
I really hope so, especially combined with the fan reaction. It really kills me that this game was presented as something entirely different from E3 up until 3 weeks before launch. Crazy thing is leaving in some of the parts she talks about being cut in the two episodes that were already short on content probably would have improved the reception a lot.
They have a chance to fix things, the only question is - will they? They've known for literal years what their fans love and hate about their games, it's their choice whether they want to be that company that gave us great story-telling and well developed characters, the company that rose to the top with a narrative-driven adventure game, or they can continue down their road of cash-grabbery.