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P-Tux7

Member
Mar 11, 2019
1,344
I guess this isn't "dialogue" but a writing trope that I rather dislike is mind control/brainwashing, for several reasons

1. It removes the idea that characters' choices drive the story. It's basically "You get to decide what moral code to follow... unless you don't"

2. It immediately makes any God/gods/divine powers rather suspect. Like thanks Farore, you couldn't make humans have inviolable free will?

3. When used in plots like Final Fantasy 4 where it's implied that you can only be "brainwashed" to do what you secretly want to do, it feels a little better because it is at least ripe for emotional usage. But if it's literally used like "Swiggity swooty, I control your boody" like in Mario Odyssey, My Hero Academia, Archie Sonic/SatAM, Zelda Oracle of Ages, etc. it adds all of that ambiguity about making moral choices and the morality about whoever created humans, but without any real deep look into it.

I feel it's really lousy to put it in and not have much emotional depth with it, because like I said it's a deep subject that I inevitably think about more after the show, so if those deep things aren't explored in the show/game itself it feels like a rather cheaply-used plot device.
 
Oct 27, 2017
5,494
Not to defend one of the least tasteful video games ever made or Gamergate but Postal 2 predates it.

So don't defend it if you don't know what others are talking about:

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Oct 28, 2017
1,202
Almost every line of dialogue in DmC: Devil May Cry. Also Bulletstorm's attempts at humor repelled me from playing the game at all.
 

MegaBeefBowl

Member
Oct 31, 2017
1,890
The "ALL UNITS, BE ADVISED, FEMINISM IS AWESOME" thing from BattleBorn evokes a pretty big eyeroll. The Torque character from Borderlands 2 has some similarly bad quotes.

Something about the concept of the tough macho man shouting out progressive viewpoints angrily just felt... dumb as hell? Like the joke is that masculine dudes aren't usually progressive?
 
Apr 25, 2018
269
I regret continuing to play Persona 5 after that first homophobic scene. It felt like a slap in the face when I came across it and it completely soured my opinion of the game.
 

Aprikurt

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 29, 2017
18,773
I don't know what else I was expecting, but Kingdom Hearts 3 manages to top every prior game in terms of horrendous dialogue. Just the absolute worst.
 

Bigg

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,618
A dystopian future where people have dissenting opinions sometimes. The horror.
It's an awkward hamfisted piece of dialogue that is not only an unfunny joke but also seems like a unnecessary soapbox for the developer. I never said no one can have dissenting opinions, but that specific exchange was weird and bad. I still really enjoyed Va11-Ha11-A on the whole.
 

mclem

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,417
I may be alone in this, but what the hell? That complete silent exchange where they stare intensely at each other with zero words, the tension, then support C is obtained. Holy shit I'm dying. That was incredible.

Honestly, if we take that as a deliberate gag for a support conversation between two taciturn characters... I kinda like it? That said, it did mean that a lot of character detail was lost as a result.
 

Linus815

Member
Oct 29, 2017
19,670
Borderlands 2 is insufferable for this. It doesn't help that a lot of the memes it references are (obviously) way outdated now, making them feel even more cringeworthy.
 

AllEchse

Member
Oct 29, 2017
4,125
I generally really liked Va11-Hall-A but this weird "SJW" joke felt out of place and put a bad taste in my mouth

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In a game that is otherwise really progressive and inclusive, it seemed like a really weird bit of commentary that didn't fit.
I recall people getting frustrated at the PC game because it made reference to 'SJWs'. Does the game contain many bad takes like this?
You have to look at it in the context of the game, it's not like anyone in the game likes Donovan cause he's an asshole, so of course he would say stuff like this.
He is obviously a caricature and the game doesn't want you to sympathise with him in that moment.

edit: whoops, I don't know how this happened. Crossthread weird.
 

LiK

Member
Oct 25, 2017
32,018
I generally really liked Va11-Hall-A but this weird "SJW" joke felt out of place and put a bad taste in my mouth

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In a game that is otherwise really progressive and inclusive, it seemed like a really weird bit of commentary that didn't fit.

Wow, this just turned me off the game pretty hard.
 

PSqueak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,464

diakyu

Member
Dec 15, 2018
17,518
Persona English dub obsession of keeping Japanese honorifics. Mitsuru-senpai, Yukari-chan, Naoto-kun.

Honestly, if you are going to localize the game to English, get rid of the honorifics.
I like the part where the characters in P5 complain about not being able to read something in english, all the while speaking perfect english.
 

Astral

Member
Oct 27, 2017
27,986
Futaba's gamer speak in P5 was kinda cute because most of it wasn't voiced and just came from her social link. However, actuallY HEARING it fully voiced over and over again in P5D makes me wanna yell at my TV. Shut up Futaba. No one speaks like that.
 

PSqueak

Member
Oct 25, 2017
12,464
I like the part where the characters in P5 complain about not being able to read something in english, all the while speaking perfect english.

It's funny in a meta way, but i think most people understand that the game is taking place in japan and they're speaking japanese and we, the players, hear it in english for our convinience.

Think of it as that bit on the 90's fantastic 4 cartoon where Stan Lee briefly appears to say that for the convinience of the audience we'll here the skrulls in english rather than their language.
 

CandySTX

Member
Mar 17, 2018
1,628
Scotland
Didn't the dialogue for the shopkeeper in The Messenger have some nods to Jordan Peterson?
It's been a while since even thinking about that game, but this thread reminded me that there was a reason I went cold on the thought of playing it.
 

KDR_11k

Banned
Nov 10, 2017
5,235
The referential humor in Supraland is pretty bad. Fortunately you don't spend much time in that game talking to people and the rest of it is so damn good that it doesn't hurt much.
 

Bigg

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,618
You have to look at it in the context of the game, it's not like anyone in the game likes Donovan cause he's an asshole, so of course he would say stuff like this.
He is obviously a caricature and the game doesn't want you to sympathise with him in that moment.

edit: whoops, I don't know how this happened. Crossthread weird.
Context there matters. The guy spouting those lines is supposed to be an asshole that no one likes. The character is like the people who would say that stuff in real life.
I played the game. I know Donovan is supposed to be a shitty person. I still think it's a crappy joke that I found off putting.

And, as I've said multiple times, I still enjoyed Va11-Ha11-A quite a bit.
 
OP
OP
dock

dock

Game Designer
Verified
Nov 5, 2017
1,366
Context there matters. The guy spouting those lines is supposed to be an asshole that no one likes. The character is like the people who would say that stuff in real life.
This 'SoCal Justice Warriors' reference suggests that the writer is an asshole and putting their shitty IRL commentary into a fantasy world. There are so many ways to reflect real life persicution in narrative without co-opting the specific phrases used to incite harm towards others.

For example, I think it would be an incredibly bad idea to represent someone as an asshole by showing them rallying around statues with tiki torches.

I appreciate the writer's intent, and I've heard many good things about the game in general. I don't generally do well with visual novels but I still intend to give this a shot.
 
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Treasure Silvergun

Self-requested ban
Banned
Dec 4, 2017
2,206
I don't know what else I was expecting, but Kingdom Hearts 3 manages to top every prior game in terms of horrendous dialogue. Just the absolute worst.
The dialogue at the Toy Story world boss is probably the moment KH made me cringe the hardest.
But KH3 is pretty bad all around in its dialogue. It's rare that a conversation can go on and not make you roll your eyes at least once or twice.
 

Daysean

Member
Nov 15, 2017
7,380
I was all fun and games with DmC even with Dante's shit, because I was just like "he's young and cocky in this reimagining whatever"
But when vergil made the bigger dick comment and the sniper rifle abortion i was fucking done, finished the game and didnt even fucking touch the DLC
 

Deleted member 2669

user requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,044
Persona English dub obsession of keeping Japanese honorifics. Mitsuru-senpai, Yukari-chan, Naoto-kun.

Honestly, if you are going to localize the game to English, get rid of the honorifics.
This is wild because the honorifics in the localizations don't even match the ones in the Japanese dialogue. They're literally only there for the sake of cheap exoticism.
 

Aprikurt

▲ Legend ▲
Member
Oct 29, 2017
18,773
The dialogue at the Toy Story world boss is probably the moment KH made me cringe the hardest.
But KH3 is pretty bad all around in its dialogue. It's rare that a conversation can go on and not make you roll your eyes at least once or twice.
It's definitely something that becomes more apparent upon replaying the games you first experienced in adolescence.
 

Deleted member 9714

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
1,882
I have no idea who they thought this joke was for. I remembered when this launched and the SJW jokes, 'white knight' and 4chan references made me want nothing to do with the game.

Any developer so glib about people facing abuse deserves giving a wide berth.
The game developers used to post on 4chan's amateur game development general. If I remember correctly an early prototype was made for one of their game jams.
 

Deleted member 18407

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,607
This 'SoCal Justice Warriors' reference suggests that the writer is an asshole and putting their shitty IRL commentary into a fantasy world. There are so many ways to reflect real life persicution in narrative without co-opting the specific phrases used to incite harm towards others.

For example, I think it would be an incredibly bad idea to represent someone as an asshole by showing them rallying around statues with tiki torches.

I appreciate the writer's intent, and I've heard many good things about the game in general. I don't generally do well with visual novels but I still intend to give this a shot.
I'm not sure what you're saying here. I don't think the SoCal Justice Warriors joke itself is very good and I think it shows up way too early in the game before you can really understand the tone of the game but do you really think that every character in a game should be an exact reflection of what the writer feels? I think there is a way do your tiki torch example in a way that's not offensive and effective too. Do I trust most devs to pull it off well? No, but I don't think it's impossible.
 

Mr. Capo

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
527
SMT IV Apocalypse's entire script but special mention goes to whenever Toki speaks. What a horrible experience.
 
May 9, 2018
240
Overly obvious Dark Souls references annoy me for reasons I can't quite explain. Incidentally, that's another strike against Dead Cells (in addition to the already mentioned scene with the hanged person)
 

Budi

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,881
Finland
I probably wouldn't be a fan of the writing in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 anyway, but this scene straight up makes me uncomfortable. From what I've heard the voice actors seem great, but the dialogue really tarnishes their work.
 
Oct 27, 2017
3,884
London
Every single line from Divinity Original Sin 1. Including this exchange which made me uninstall the game which went if I remember correctly:

Protagonist: "Tell me about the sects of Rivellon"
Mayor: "Did your mother not tell you about the birds and the bees?"

Cringe.