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JWeinCom on 05 August 2016
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MTZehvor said:
JWeinCom said:

Considering that you had to make the choice at the point of sale (unless you bought the special edition of the game) then I'm not sure how you could have expected them to have a huge build up to a major choice. Considering how early you had to make the choice, I'm not sure what you could have expected. 

Trailers are meant to give an overview and to harp on a game's selling point.  In this case, the selling point was simply that there were two different versions of the game.  That is all.  In developer interviews, it was made clear that players should choose based on gameplay preferences.  It was never billed as a moral choice system in the same way as Mass Effect, Deus Ex, or Catherine, which you actually have control over the narrative.   It was simply "hey there are two different versions of this game".  

You actually don't have to make the choice at the point of sale. Yeah, you have to purchase either Birthright or Conquest, but the path you choose at launch is not locked in; you can still choose Conquest if you purchase Birthright as long as you're willing to pay the $20 right there (and vice versa). In other words, if you're an FE fan and plan on playing both routes, then which version you buy makes no difference besides which game box gets displayed on your shelf. Setting that to the side, though, much of my excitement was from the trailer(s) released before we even knew that it was a dual release; the decision mechanic was announced several months before we were aware that the game would be sold in two editions. It's more than reasonable to be excited about a concept billed as a difficult decision by its own trailer when the separate release thing isn't made public yet.

And I would argue that it was most certainly billed as a moral dilemma, again, considering that we were informed of the decision before we even knew it was being sold in two separate versions. It's certainly not the same kind of moral choice system that Mass Effect or Deus Ex is, but it is a choice that is at least meant to be somewhat founded in an emotional response, and the fact that that was so shallow is what disappoints me.

Yes, you do have to make the decision at the point of sale.  You have already paid for whichever version you wanted.  You own that version.  You are free to buy the other version if you want, and you could even play that one first.  Doesn't change the fact that you already decided to purchase one version over the other.  

You keep bringing up "before we knew it was being sold in two separate versions" and I don't have the slightest idea why that's relevant.  By the time the game was released, you had much more clarification.  By then it was well established that the purpose of the dual releases was to have a game to appeal to more hardcore fans and one for more recent fans who started with Awakening.  It was also established by that point that the choice is made fairly early in the game, so I don't know how you expected them to form deep and meaningful relationships by that point in the game.  Aside from that, I'm not sure why you would think of an advertising slogan as gospel anyway.

Regardless of what you thought based on the first trailer, it was clear by the time the game released that this would not be what you had in mind, could not be what you had in mind, and was not intended to be what you had in mind.  You can be disappointed if you want, but that's entirely your fault.