FacetiousFuckBoy's companion/romance rant

Prone Squanderer said:
I'm a lost cause. Gonna have to give me the Old Yeller treatment.
Click to expand...
2012_men_in_black_3_021.jpg

Stare at this for a moment. It's for your own good
 
DirtyOldShoe said:
I get you Phipps, but honestly, I have selective reading and no matter how long or short a statement/post. I will stop reading/have no interest in discussing 3/4 unless it is to attack them, so if you, going forward decide to use 3/4 as a justification for something, or you're own personal head canon, don't expect a reply from me. Just a friendly heads up. I do enjoy communicating with you, but you'll have to try harder if you want me to take your opinion as serious. I like to troll people as well, but you've been here long enough to be considered someone that might stick around. It would be nice to recognize your posts as valid instead of ignoring them as I have been.
Click to expand...

I understand but in the Fallout 4 forum, I have no interest in doing nothing but attack it. I'd prefer to actually discuss it.
 
Prone Squanderer said:
Ah ok, but it doesn't say he was turned into a ghoul by Nuka Cola, it just says he has a Nuka Cola collection.
Click to expand...

The article used to say it was believed to be that way but I must admit I didn't encounter him myself.

In any case, I'll have a post soon about my own thoughts on Companions and romance.

Some worked, some....less so.
 
CT Phipps said:
The article used to say it was believed to be that way but I must admit I didn't encounter him myself.

In any case, I'll have a post soon about my own thoughts on Companions and romance.

Some worked, some....less so.
Click to expand...
I sure wish there was a nuka cola deathclaw companion.
 
Prone Squanderer said:
I did like Curie, but I'm not sure if I can accept that a Mister Handy (or Miss Nanny w/e) is able to be sentient. Maybe if she was like the personalities from Big MT, but as she becomes a synth she becomes more intelligent and self-aware and it goes from there. Or something like that, I dunno.
Click to expand...

Actually, she does mention that she is becoming more sentient, feels "real" emotions, and so on. Also, that she no longer is as invested in science as she used to be (because she no longer is a single-minded robot programmed for science but a "real" human). I liked that because it indicates that Curie's quest for inspiration kind of ruined her as a scientific instrument.

Admittedly, though, to make it work with Fallout, I would have made Codsworth and Curie to be Robobrain equipped Mister Handy's. Just invisibly behind their chassis because robobrains are disgusting.
 
Prone Squanderer said:
I did like Curie, but I'm not sure if I can accept that a Mister Handy (or Miss Nanny w/e) is able to be sentient. Maybe if she was like the personalities from Big MT, but as she becomes a synth she becomes more intelligent and self-aware and it goes from there. Or something like that, I dunno.



EDIT: Ave, true to Caesar!
Click to expand...
Seeing those shitty models and animations makes me want either an isometric version of FNV or for it to be remade entirely in RedEngine 3. Just think... it could be glorious.
 
hag said:
yes. if there's anything i truly hate about Fallout 4, it's that you can tell it was written with Nate in mind—no, not merely "male PC", but NATE, straitlaced goody-two-shoes veteran. Fallout 4 is the story of Nate. Nora is an afterthought—and for what reason did they insist on making her a lawyer? lawyers were obsolete in 2077.
Click to expand...

As much as I generally defend Fallout 4, I had two early moments where I knew this was going to be a sinking ship. The first moment was opening with Nate talking about his great-grandfather who fought in World War 2. Not only is this deeply defining the character, it has jack all to do with Nora. The second moment was the spouse's execution, which is the single laziest damn thing you can do with a wife in a video game.

Actually, scratch that, storytelling in general.

I would point out a Lawyer is very good at persuading people and rebuilding civilization, though, because the Commonwealth has a dire need for law as well as negotiation.

also, it's why i don't like Curie. her entire character felt like a pander to the waifu crowd. just my humble onion!
Click to expand...

I find that to a somewhat questionable assertion as Curie is almost unique in the Companions, matched only by Paladin Danse in that she actually has relevance to the supposed main issue of the story. For a game which has one of the central issues of the storyline being about Synths and their maybe/maybe not humanity, Curie is the single character who can answer the majority of those questions or at least provide insight.

Curie as a Ms. Handy is able to talk to us about concepts like her limitations as an A.I. including a lack of inspiration, certain emotions, and an inability to move beyond her programming. She's obviously, gleefully a sentient being but at least its not an unlimited one. However, we see after her transformation things like an inability to continue with her current obsession with science and monomania about it (like, say, a robot built for science should have) because she's growing as a person.

Which, admittedly, removes just about every bit of ambiguity about Synths you can get but provides actual background information about the subject of Synth slavery. In a weird way, I was regretful I couldn't say, "Curie, you have provided us with a scientific experiment to measure Synth sentience! Brilliant!"

Mind you, I'm aware her post-human arc very much has the potential to be, "I wish to bang now because I feel the urge to do so." I didn't see her character as one which has been created for the sole purposes of being a character for internet nerds to masturbate to/fantasize about as the waif concept exists. Understand, I also am familiar with the concept since I used to be a regular on the Bioware forums.

Edit:

The Companions concept is the thing I believe Fallout 4 did the best in but even then I feel like they had a bunch of concepts which they intended to explore but didn't really get a chance to get around and doing. Codsworth, Strong, Deacon, and Piper all feel like they had storylines/quests which weren't completed for example.

Still, the Companion questlines and conversations are so integral to the game I can't help but feel like the game made a serious misstep in making "grinding" a part of their storylines. I think it would have been better to have the option of simply being able to trigger Companion quests if you visited certain areas.

Some ups and downs about the Companions and their characters/quests are as follows.

1. Nick Valentine's quest is really damned schizophrenic as it's a fairly deep issue around a ridiculous premise. We start with the idea of a Pre-War ghoul, a Vault which has a constantly changing combination, and the fact he murdered Nick Valentine's girlfriiend. That's a lot of stupid to unpack. It's to Stephen Russel's credit, he handles it with true professionalism and acts genuinely emotional and panicked about the whole thing.

However, the quest isn't about VENGEANCE or justice. Nick is actually here because he feels that he's trapped by the programming of his uploaded memories. Essentially, Nick is aware he's a clone of a man and it tortures him. There's some fascinating stuff there that is torturing him because he's angry at his existence--that he's parodying the life of a man he admires. The conversation after his quest is a really meaningful one about who he is, what he can become, or what he should be.

Probably the best in the game.

4:20



2. Piper is, ironically, probably the character which comes closest to one you're supposed to romance since her face is set pretty close to Nora's default presentation. She also crushes on the Male Survivor pretty heavily. Still, I generally think of her as probably the most three-dimensional character in Fallout 4 alongside Nick and Cait (bad stereotyping for Cait aside). The problem is I feel like there's a quest here which doesn't exist. I also feel like you should have been able to send Piper's sister to one of your settlements to live.

3. Paladin Danse's story being underdeveloped is literally true because he's stuck in the Second Act of his story. We know the original plan for the story is that you can inspire Paladin Danse to challenge Elder Maxson for leadership of the Brotherhood of Steel. There's also some really good cut dialogue files as well.

PALADIN DANSE'S CUT DIALOGUE



Aside from "The Brotherhood of Steel practices Thunderdome" and "The PC becomes Elder", I feel it was really good.

4. Despite being an afterthought, I actually thought MacCready had one of the more interesting storylines in the game from the context of actually bothering to take a moment to reflect on how much the Protagonist has lost in the game. He, unlike everyone else, understands what it is like to lose a spouse and may be in the process of losing a child. You also get the "grace of God, go I" option in the fact MacCready is a Raider (despite his protestations) who lost himself because of the compromises he had to make in the Wasteland. Certainly, I feel like MacCready has more options to express his loss about his wife and feelings than the Male Sole Survivor ever does.

In a weird way, I feel cheated by MacCready because he has quite a bit of my arc which I was forced to keep in my head.

5. Part of what I felt worked about Cait's fundamental quest is the classic "hard exterior over a soft interior." Cait is a hard-drinking, hard-killing party girl but the further you go into her storyline, the more you get to deal with the fact it's covering up things she bitterly regrets like murdering her own parents. Even though they sold her to slavers at the moment of her life she was going to be strong enough to get out from underneath their thumb. I also like how the fact that even if you do help her clean up, she still remains a hard-nosed mercenary who feels you're being taken advantage of by not driving the hardest bargain you can.

6. Strong's character is really a missed opportunity for Bethesda because there was a whole bunch of potential for discussing Super Mutants and their culture in the Commonwealth. We get a few interesting ideas like the fact that they are a communist society which doesn't war on itself (at least until Strong joins you) but it's mostly left away. The Milk of Human Kindness story is left up in the air, which seems unfortunate as you could either teach him the true value of it or give him a Milk and Psycho recipe.

7. Another problem I have with Fallout 4 is there's hints they had plans for more "cute character moments" they didn't follow up on. There's a Chapel in Diamond City which actually has a wedding so I have no reason why you shouldn't be able to marry one of your companions (or multiple companions). There's no special scene for giving a wedding ring to one of your companions after you've romanced them when that seems like a dialogue button which should have been emphasized. Finally, I think it would have been nice to have dialogue reflecting the fact you're in a romance with multiple characters.
 
Last edited:
hag said:
he also has a lot of location-specific commentary that seems intentionally written to portray him as a witless dolt—but then in his personal quests he acts like an exceptionally competent tactician.
Click to expand...
Do you....... you think that Danse was Bethesda's failed attempt at replicating Cabot? From the way you describe him, he sounds awfully similar to Cabot.
 
hag said:
ah, i hadn't heard Danse's cut dialogue before, though i'd known of the cut ending. i'm not sure how to feel about it since i generally am fed up with Bethesda's "conquer faction" shtick, and the Brotherhood accepting a synth as their leader would be simply antithetical to their dogma.
Click to expand...

I actually question whether Synths actually are the enemy in Danse's storyline. In Danse's storyline, he would still be justified in fighting the Institute because the Brotherhood of Steel's mandate is to take down technologically powerful rivals to their organization. The Synths don't actually go against the Codex as far as I can tell, except that Elder Maxson is interpreting Synths as weapons. Which is true to the letter of the Codex while disregarding the spirit.

As for accepting a Synth as their leader, I wonder if that's why you become Elder in the end.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top