| Salnax said:
I feel that the Morality should have been handled better, but is also necessary. Thematically, the conflict of Lawful Angels vs the Chaotic Lucifer and Co is what makes the story work. Both factions of supernatural beings have common traits with Humanity, but are largely incompatible with human welfare. Hence, humans are screwed by default when either side wins.And since that's an integral part of the story, it should connect to gameplay. Perhaps the ideal solution is to have two or more good endings, with one being closer to Law and the other Chaos. Good endings take more work to reach of course, and even the good endings include unfortunate sacrifices, but don't necessarily refute both sides of the conflict. As for gameplay integration, I'm thinking a bit about Strange Journey and some Western RPG's. Strange Journey made morality a factor when recruiting demons, team dynamics, and conversation options. You could also include a more basic faction system that intertwines with various groups. Sticking specifically with SMT4 for example, the quests and actions you complete could affect how not only the two recurring factions interact with you, but also human and non-aligned demonic groups like the Kingdom of Mikado, Ashura Kai, Ring of Gaea, various Neighborhoods in Tokyo, and the Buddhist, Hindu, Greek, Norse, and Japanese pantheons. |
I just feel like law vs. chaos, as a concept, is so shallow, since it's really merely an extemist version of good vs. evil, and the way SMT handles it is so juvenile. I don't think they shouldn't connect with the gameplay, but they shouldn't effect the outcome of the plot in the drastic way that they do. No offense, but Atlus clearly doesn't know how to write these kinds of branching endings in a believable way, so they shouldn't even try. The fact that there are "good endings" and "bad endings" proves that. There should never be a bad ending. Every ending should be good (as in well written and satisfying), believable, and sensical. You should finish the game feeling like the ending you got was the only possible ending, and you shouldn't be able to tell where the story could have broken off. You should finish the game wondering how they could have possibly ended the game any other way. That requires a tightness of narrative that literally no game has successfully been able to accomplish. I've never played a single game, in my life, that wasn't ruined by having multiple endings because it always, somehow, fucks up the writing. And no, Zero Escape and 999 don't count.
I wouldn't mind what you suggest in the third paragraph, though.
