Does Telltale resent TWD or something?
I played Batman and GOT and why are their episodes 2 hours longer than all of the episodes combined in A New Frontier and Season Two?
Idgi. No one cares about the other Telltale games except for TWD, it was TWD that put most of those boring games Telltale created on the map. They're using the money they made from the Season 1 fans to create Batman and GOT.
There's a reason why that out of all their franchises, Telltale's TWDG is the only memorable one.
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After Season 1, many of the primary writing team left to create Firewatch so that creative team was no longer behind TWD. From what I know, ANF was mainly created from freelance writers which may explain the lack of length in their episodes.
That's awfully presumptuous and flat out incorrect of you to say that no one cares about the other TellTale games or that none of the other games are memorable. There are tons of people on this board alone who'd disagree with you.
The problem with A New Frontier was the rewrites that happened late. If they had been given extra time and not rushed to release the game this game could've been really good but they were rushed and ultimately the game failed in the beginning but got better in later episodes.
The Walking Dead is the biggest franchise yet it's the weakest developed when compared to Borderlands, Batman, Guardians etc.... fans might care about the others somewhat.. but I think Walking Dead has been followed/cherished the most. Which should logically mean getting the most focus from TellTale to not allow it to get screwed up in any way due to half assed effort, but yet it's been screwed up a couple times in spite of being their best series to date that put them on the hall of fame to begin with .. Probably because they know they can still get high sales without as much work being put in as the level of effort they put in those other games that are generally less interesting compared to Walking Dead. Just one theory I've long had.
Factually that is incorrect that none cares for any other Telltale games as i would argue "Tales from the Borderlands" was one of the best games telltale has made to name one of many. Telltale doesn't resent or hate TWD so much as they've lost what made TWD as unique as it was and tried a new formula that failed.
Agreed. It's baffling how Telltale has been treating the one franchise who gave them any relevance in the first place. I'd even say even the Wolf Among Us owes a great deal to TWD for its popularity, it's no secret that throughout the whole Telltale collection proximity of release to TWD S1's correlates with sales figures and relevance on the market.
It's like what others on this thread said. They took TWD for granted, developed the sequels in a careless manner and went on to pursue the most ridiculous and unrequested game ideas ever, which led to all the resources being put on those games' development rather than on TWD's.
And even with the recent changes in upper management, I'm still unsure that anything will change with S4, their last shot at this by the way. They've completely written themselves into a corner with ANF. It would take a highly skilled development team to undo all the damage and somehow pull off a good story and at the same time a satisfying conclusion to the series. It seems however that the company will be resorting to tons of fan service, even if it's forced as hell (Christa, animal companion). It remains to be seen.
Based on Glass door reviews I'm betting that with the strenuous crunch time and deadlines they just didn't always have enough development time to make a satisfactory episode length. Either that or Telltale really just didn't care about the length of the episodes so long as the story was to their liking as they have admitted in the past.
Telltale doesn't resent ANF, they used it as a cash cow. Given the severe lack of development time for the final season, I would not be surprised if that also holds up to this title.
As for other Telltale titles, I haven't played them. But I'm sure a lot of people would disagree with that statement. The Wolf Among Us being an example.
ANF development time was a joke. Im pretty sure no real development went into it until after Michonne ended/reached final touches. There is no way in hell ANF was worked on from the 2 1/2 years it was originally announced. And if it was... Jesus Christ.
I mean seriously, thats terrible development. You dont announce a game and dont actually start development on it a good long time later. Almost makes me think S2 was suppose to be the end but then Telltale staff just went "YEAH BOI WE DOIN ANOTHER OOOOOONNEEEEEE!!!" and then they were like "well fuck it would be awkward to back down after that."
Uh, you do realize that Season 1 was a long time ago, right? 6 years, just about? And that the gameplay style introduced there is reflected in most of the games that came afterwards? By that token, you're implying that TWDG Season 1 was a boring game that was lucky enough to come first.
Also, something I believe most tend to overlook about this company primarily makes licensed games. So, this award winning game was merely the biggest thing for them to "cash in" on at the time and the fact that it ended up "putting them on the map" is ultimately little more than bragging rights and a shiny plaque for a job well done; that the people in charge of making it ended up going higher and beyond what was expected of them is what truly deserves the accolades. And that has continued to be the pecking order with most of what they've produced since the end of the world.
And you know what, TWDG isn't the sole jar of vitality for the company to draw from and it really shouldn't have to be. Other games, The Wolf Among Us for example, have been outings that turned out to be vivid experiences and have attained dedicated fanbases as a result, both without being TWD. Hell, the fact that Minecraft and Batman both got sequels, at least one of which are actually pretty good games from what I hear, tells me that Telltale can indeed continue making games that people will not only buy, but will enjoy as well if they are well-made and fun.
Now, with all that said, I have come to the conclusion that Telltale may simply be long since tired of the Walking Dead, which seems to be fading off as a series anyway. That's no excuse for why the other installments in the series have been increasingly decreasing in their size and rank, mind you, but it does seem to add up.
ANF was just a vehicle for them to release the greatest feature ever, Crowd Play. Because playing a story and "choice" based game can only be improved by playing it by consensus.
Not hyped for the “last season.” That’s all I’m gonna say.
No.
Telltale have just learned from their mistakes (GoTG and TWD: ANF sold poorly and prompted them dropping 25% of their work force) and now they're trying to focus on "less games, better quality". This is why Batman: Season 2 so far has been well received and have episodes that are longer and even more choices/effects
I'm inclined to agree (and Liked your comment), and it looks a lot like they're (probably) putting effort towards the final season, but TWD also has a track record for being TTG's most neglected game of any choice-based set post-S1, regardless of how well the other games are doing.
As someone who knows jack all about Game of Thrones to begin with, what exactly were some of the issues there?
GoTG = Guardians of the Galaxy, GoT= Game of Thrones
Oh.
Wait, I thought someone said Guardians of the Galaxy was pretty decently made?
GOTG is just uninspired. Its just really forgettable and feels like sad shell of the movies. There just isnt anything remotely interesting about it for someone to go "Wow holy shit now THAT is a story that needs telling!"
It has a decent amount of fans on this board. Including me.
Agreed. I don't know how they thought they could get away with publishing ANF in the state that it's in. For a game company that is heavily dependent on story making and past choices, it's an outright insult to the fans on the series. Personally with how the endings worked out for Season 2, I would have been content with waiting far longer just to make sure the story was satisfactory.
Whoever is responsible for making the call to completely disregard the season two endings in a New Frontier should be ashamed of themselves. I would go as far as to say that Javi was only introduced so they could push away from the continuation of our own endings. The fact that they didn't go for this route, alienates what Telltale stands for.
Worst part of ANF was a lot of the lies before release like the whole "episode so big its split in 2" and all that shit. Really loved the original steam name of "The Walking Dead: A New Frontier (Season 3)" which then removed Season 3 on release day because Telltale already got those sweet sweet preorders and then started saying that ANF isnt "really" season 3, but ANF instead !
Even the name seems completely arbitrary, "Season 1, Season 2, ANF, Final Season? Why not just keep the numbers? Seems obvious to me that they made it "ANF" because it would tempt more fans in as they imagine it'd be something that starts, I.E new. Somewhere Telltale said something about wanting to get new fans in, so I think this evidence is pretty solid on the removal of the Season 3 text in the Steam store too. I'll say this once and I'll say it again, if you're playing a sequel first, you're doing it wrong.
People are pissed off because the choices hold little weight like a feather. A couple dialogue changes per chapter should not be accepted when those choices are so huge that they warrant massive changes. ANF's failure is simply because of Season's 2 expectations, they rose the bar so high that they couldn't be bothered to uphold it and stooped it far lower. This is a perfect example of illusion of choice in video games. I'm not saying every single choice should be worked under a microscope, there are limits afterall. But there does need to be a certain expectation.
This is why I consider ANF to be a cash-cow. Nobody should be lowering their expectations to ANF's level, and for those that do; I feel sorry for you.
Another thing that annoys me, and really irks me for the whole walking dead game series. S1 is about Lee and Clem's story, Lee dies Season 2 is about Clem's story, ANF Clem is there but completely useless and its Javier's story, then S4 is back to Clem's story. Its just mind boggling with the thought process. It just makes ANF seem like a huge hicup in the series, considering S4 seems like its going to completely forget ANF events, making ANF feel worthless to the series as a whole. And because of this, I believe S4 is going to suffer hard at the start.
Yeah exactly, I find it pretty hard to understand why people defend Telltale in this regard, or assume Telltale learned their mistake with ANF. Like I wish I could agree, but considering we all thought Telltale was listening to fans up to release of ANF just for the complete 180 with it seeming like Telltale just did everything fans DIDNT ask for, its hard to assume Telltale cares.
savage
Like I said before when the game was in development they suffered from rewriting parts of the game like Javi was supposed to be a New Frontier member and have their brand on his neck, also the one thing everyone was waiting for in A New Frontier was the slaughterhouse scene which was removed entirely and never mentioned.
I don't know why people are saying that Game of Thrones sold bad I mean it was pretty popular the last episode was really good I hope that it gets a Season 2 because they promised us a Season 2 three years ago.
It would have been far better off as a detached spin off season like Fear the Walking Dead is. They essentially made a big mistake with S3 and may want to make amends now with S4. Think they were experimenting with Javier taking over for main character, saw how this flopped and now are running back to Clemmy.
Saddest thing I think about with New Frontier is that it was never without great potential.. it's as if they purposely had a decent story then hammered it to pieces a few weeks before release because a black cat winked at them in the street who knows why. There is a saying that one should usually go with their first mind.
Sadly I think Telltale is trying to make fans happy with S4 but so much damage was done with ANF that I honestly dont really care about this series anymore. Half the time I was playing ANF I was just making fun of how terrible it was, rather than getting involved in the story.
Im pretty sure the only reason Javier exist is because fans said it was unrealistic that everyone asked Clem for help. But then Telltale made her old enough where it wouldnt be that strange so... Also when Javier was originally announced I thought it would be flipped like Tales from the Borderlands where we go 50/50 so when more "adult" things were going on we'd play as Javi.
I thought the same. The way Borderlands did it was great. Would have worked wonders for A New Frontier. Atleast then Clem would not have to stick around to keep the story interesting for veteran players, after she says she's gonna leave like every episode and doesn't truly leave until the last episode. She got her car like in episode 2 and always had some contrived reason to bump into Javier again and again. Thought that was odd though I didn't mind seeing what she's up to each time. They could of split it like Borderlands for the first three episodes and then follow them both from far distances like Game of Thrones did their main characters.. This might of been a neater way of handling them to get the bigger picture.
Yeah, similar thing here.
Yeah, I do think that was one of the bigger wasted opportunities with the earlier conceptualization. Swapping back and forth between two different characters--each with their own strengths, weakness, motives, etc.--and interacting with them and the other characters from either perspective sounds like a pretty big leap in gameplay, even if games like GTA V beat em to the punch.
Did she tho?
This. Holy shit, this. I thought about doing a Failed Aspirations post on this very approach a while back.
A little. I cared less for Javier and his pudding war with Max. Nor his brotherly headbutting with David. I wanted season three to reveal the inside of Wellington, show us what went down with that family at Howes and see how Clem got her brand possibly showing how life within the New Frontier went before she was expelled for theft. Everything just could of been handled better be it Clementine or Javier's story. It was overall awkward and weak.
Eh, to be fair, that was just meant to be a small kickoff to an evolving conflict with the New Frontier and Max wasn't really meant to be more than a starter villain threat-wise and even that wasn't gonna stick for very long regardless.
Yeah, admittedly, that's a very major part of why the story dropped off after the halfway point.
Yeah, those were definitely wasted premises. Having longer episodes could've(and in some cases, would've)fleshed things out more.
Truth.
Same thing happened in Season 2. From what we know about what was originally going to happen, S2 had the potential to rise above S1 (and before the S1 mob burns me at the stake, I found out about TTG's TWD after S1 concluded thus the hype wasn't as huge for me). TTG has a recurring bad habit of changing their minds too often with the consequence being good ideas being tossed aside. I site upper level micromanaging in that issue, so hopefully the restructuring will resolve that somewhat despite what the Glassdoor reviews say.
Yeah. I think TTG saying we would be playing both as Javier and Clem after showcasing 2 games using a multiple protagonists model was the move that set up ANF for what ultimately happened to it. Yeah the story lacked and the game was buggy, but that statement was taken as gold by the TWD community which brought forth expectations that were never intended to be fulfilled. Had they omitted that and not released the first 2 episodes together (those two being the PR one-two-punch that doomed ANF), I believe ANF wouldn't have been as controversial within the community as it is now. If anything, it would have only been slightly below S2. But that's just me.
Yes season two had the most potential to be better than it was. New Frontier had potential to be good but season two had potential to be great, maybe even surpassing season one if not on par had they kept all the good ideas. I pray they don't throw out all season four's good ideas last minute either.
If anything, I'd rather TTG not tweak the season live based off of fan reactions and decision stats and just roll with what they envisioned. If you have an idea, be confident with it and stand beside it. I'd rather see skewed choices than a patched up story.
For some ANF apparently had exceeded their already low expectations/tastes. I recall their being a little war in the forums between the few that did enjoy and those that didn't. I compare it almost to the Jane side against Kenny side war after S2 concluded .
I liked the GOTG game. I found it less obnoxious than the movies were, and by the end it's surprisingly emotional.
The only issue to me is the graphics are really uninspired and kinda cheap looking. Guardians was a comic book first, why can't they use the cel shading/comic book art style for GOTG game too?
I figured The Wolf Among Us had gotten great development the way so many were hollering for a sequel for years.
I'd wager a guess that, because of how some of their mature games like Walking Dead and Batman use the comic art style, they probably didn't want younger players seeing that Guardians had the same comic art style as Batman/Walking Dead and mistakenly thinking that those other games were also friendly for a younger audience. It's a stretch, but the best guess I can come up with.
That, or maybe Marvel just wanted Telltale's Guardians game to stand out compared to the other games' art styles.
For what it's worth, I do agree with you they should've had Guardians use the comic art style too.