Antagonist(s) + character development for better plot

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Antagonist(s) + character development for better plot

Postby Gashadokuro » 20 October 2020, 12:17

Hello, this is possibly my main concern with PB2.5 and its future installments.

Antagonist(s)

The game currently lacks any proper villain or iconic boss besides Sword Bot from PB1, who didn't organize the Falkok outpost defense or say anything. What do all the following have in common?
- Androids.
- Civil Security.
- Human soldiers.
- Usurpation.
- Falkoks.

They're all the same, nameless enemies without motives or anything to make them stand out besides their design. This is similar to Metal Gear Solid 5 where all the enemies were random soldiers, mercenaries and leaders who did not play any active role in the story and didn't go against Venom Snake in an active manner. And the bosses, such as the Skulls, had no personality either, unlike Liquid, Volgin, etc from the previous installments. An easy fix / suggestions would be:
- Androids -> who gave them freedom -> A mad scientist? Rogue AI?
- Civil Security -> who's their leader -> A corrupt official? A tyrant?
- Human soldiers -> who or what are they defending -> A military facility? A secret weapon?
- Usurpation -> who told them to, or why did they attack -> Their despotic queen? Their race is dying?
- Falkoks -> who's their leader?

Character development

More background information such as:
- How did Noir recover?
- How did they join CS9?
- Marine meeting Noir.
- Origins.
- Training.
- Why was Marine chosen?
- Why was Noir chosen?
- Why was Proxy jailed?

More character dynamics such as:
- Does Marine have feelings for Proxy?
- Does Noir ever resent Marine for stealing the spotlight?
- Does Proxy trust Marine and Noir?
- What if one of them is a liability?

More personal details such as:
- Are they confident?
- What are their fighting styles?
- What are their goals?
- What are their likes and dislikes?

So while I'm aware Eric will very probably develop the faction's stories and goals in PB2.5, I hope he will also insert a few characters + clearer protagonist dynamics to make the game more memorable, otherwise it will be mostly killing nameless enemies.
Last edited by Gashadokuro on 23 November 2020, 18:11, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Antagonist(s) + character development for better plot

Postby yizhe » 24 October 2020, 07:18

This is a very good template for Eric to further develop his lore
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Re: Antagonist(s) + character development for better plot

Postby Mean Me » 24 October 2020, 21:09

Also would recommend Eric to make differences in abilities for special factions. Like for the Falkoks, give them their jetpacks back by default, or for another factions to weak to a certain projectile type like rails but easily maneuvers against another like rockets. This would change things up gameplay wise and also give some lore aspects to examine.
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Re: Antagonist(s) + character development for better plot

Postby maxim12 » 23 November 2020, 18:10

Absolutely agree, PB2 really lacks any good plot writing except for just random levels with random 'souless' dumbed enemies with no personality whatsoever.
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Re: Antagonist(s) + character development for better plot

Postby nightmar » 24 November 2020, 09:40

Although I agree that we need better storytelling, I believe that asking for character development is too much to ask for, given how no other 2D game (that I know of at east) does not have that.
How many bugs does this game have anyway? jeez
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Re: Antagonist(s) + character development for better plot

Postby Gashadokuro » 25 November 2020, 23:31

nightmar wrote:Although I agree that we need better storytelling, I believe that asking for character development is too much to ask for, given how no other 2D game (that I know of at east) does not have that.

Character development can be very simple, and we already have 3 installments (PB1, PB2, and planned PB3), so if we take Marine & Noir's jeep ride, sword bot fight and PB2 crash, we would perfectly have the following character development for Noir:

Marine is a complete stranger -> They fight Falkoks together -> Noir is 'saved' twice -> Noir knows he can trust Marine.
Marine is an unnecessary burden he has to drive -> He stays back during the sword bot -> He revives him in PB2 -> Noir hates Marine for stealing the spotlight.


Just add a few lines of dialogue, a little music, cutscenes and here we go, Noir bonding with Marine or hating him based off a few brief, canon flashbacks. And these features are all already present, and we have cutscenes planned for PB3.

Because otherwise we can perfectly sum the series like this:

Earth is doomed for some reason -> let's go back to past -> let's kill 100 human guards -> hi, let's drive -> let's kill 100 falkoks -> I do not say farewell lol -> let's kill 100 CS -> let's kill 100 usurpations -> hi, we both hate CS -> lol I know that guy who just crashed -> end.
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Re: Antagonist(s) + character development for better plot

Postby nightmar » 26 November 2020, 02:11

Gashadokuro wrote:
nightmar wrote:Although I agree that we need better storytelling, I believe that asking for character development is too much to ask for, given how no other 2D game (that I know of at east) does not have that.

Character development can be very simple, and we already have 3 installments (PB1, PB2, and planned PB3), so if we take Marine & Noir's jeep ride, sword bot fight and PB2 crash, we would perfectly have the following character development for Noir:

Marine is a complete stranger -> They fight Falkoks together -> Noir is 'saved' twice -> Noir knows he can trust Marine.
Marine is an unnecessary burden he has to drive -> He stays back during the sword bot -> He revives him in PB2 -> Noir hates Marine for stealing the spotlight.


Just add a few lines of dialogue, a little music, cutscenes and here we go, Noir bonding with Marine or hating him based off a few brief, canon flashbacks. And these features are all already present, and we have cutscenes planned for PB3.

Because otherwise we can perfectly sum the series like this:

Earth is doomed for some reason -> let's go back to past -> let's kill 100 human guards -> hi, let's drive -> let's kill 100 falkoks -> I do not say farewell lol -> let's kill 100 CS -> let's kill 100 usurpations -> hi, we both hate CS -> lol I know that guy who just crashed -> end.



Meh it's a bit more complicated than this. Marine and Noir Lime are elite dudes sent to the past to stop humans from activating a protal that leads to the usurpers who then deliciously exquisite pizza sauce the Earth, but C9 messes up and sends them to the future instead and separated from each other. The rest of it is pretty much kill everything till they meet, then kill some more, have noir lime die to a weird robot, and then have marine go find the time portal to do it right this time. CS has not idea why they exist or who they are so they go bum bum when seeing them.


Having this lore, I can hardly think of a way we can put character development in there but we could make a thread with ideas? Eric has not worked on the campaign of pb3 yet so I think he might be open to new ideas.
How many bugs does this game have anyway? jeez
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