Dratomos
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Over the years, playing main story quests of DragonFable has felt a bit more like a chore for some reason. And I think the most recent quest, even short as it is, finally made me try to write why I feel about this.
It's the handling of Hero. And how they are written.
Hero can be anyone. Even a self-insert. And was planned to be a blank state. But it becomes a problem due to lack of dialogue choices. But Book 1 still managed to make our Hero a lovable person, who can sometimes be a bit of a dummy, or a snarky, but generally a helpful one, who goes on adventures.
And I think Calamity is the highlight of how Hero was written. We felt the stress, uncertainty and we saw them feel things. We felt the rage they felt when our dragon was taken. But for some reason, we have lost that personal touch.
With Book 3, we lost that more and more, when Main story moved forward. The focus on Hero and their memorable lines lessened and their relationships with different characters feel more artificial than earned. Especially in this latest quest. Our friendship with Tomix feels much more real than many others and we feel grief for his loss. But here, our hero states that Teral and Karina are our friends.
Except that it’s entirely possible the player never even met these guys. It would be fine, if Hero was an established character. But they aren’t. They are in odd limbo where they are both self-insert who rarely presents any view on bigger stuff but also state most odd things every now and then. So, to have them talk about friends only reminds me of “my good friend Sielu” -line from Espina Rosa, that is joked about in the community to this day.
I don’t think this is because the writers are incapable of writing Hero. It feels more like an arbitrary restriction than anything else, that is there so that no player would feel like the hero isn’t them. But when you try to please everyone, you end up pleasing no one. We are left with a bland main character, that is uninteresting to follow or hear what they say. Because most of the time, it’s very generic stuff. Because of these “restrictions”. There are only so many variations of “time of to be a hero!” our main character can say, before it gets tiring and stale. And it unfortunately happened during Book 3 finale arc.
But then we have cases where our Hero does show personality and views. But it doesn’t fit, because before that in the same storyline, they were written in a way that was most generic. Best example I can think of is Remthalas and how our Hero was ready to fight for him during Defiers of Fate story. But I never got the sense we hero felt any sense of sympathy towards Remthalas. So it was left up to the player. But our hero’s response was not. And it’s this kind of writing that makes it very hard to be invested in our Hero. Or when it comes to killing, where they give responses that can either work for or against killing.
Another example is the choice in Maleurous (this isn't about criticizing that arc, I swear). Hero is written mostly in one way (siding with Uaanta) and then suddenly the character is self-insert once again and you choose between Notha and Uaanta. But, this isn't a bad thing, I prefer this much more than not even trying!
But like I said, I don’t think it’s because you developers are bad at your job. On the contrary, you have already showcased you can write our lovable Hero well.
I don’t wish our Hero to be catered to me. What I want is for them to be more of a clear character with their own motivations, goals, dreams, fears and worldview. We see snippets of that in side stories, but for some reason when it comes to Main story, we don’t. We all know dialogue choices are not really an option, so why not make Hero more of a character of their own?
Have them flex with their knowledge about the lore, or ask questions when others explain stuff to us. Don’t let them always be a silent listener! Have them make snarky remarks, jokes here and there, be stressed, be angry, be anything else except an AI character who responds with generic statements. Have them have nice banter with others (especially with our dragon), maybe tease a little, or just be tired to all shenanigans they experience! Have them be more active! Make more decisions and not just wait for something to happen.
Anything is better than just “time to be a hero!” for the umpteenth time.
I think with the rewrites Book 2 is experiencing and Book 4 development, now is the perfect time to make our Hero more of their own character. How does the trauma of Book 1, losing to Seppy and SMUDD, missing Warlic and all make them feel about the stuff that happens in Book 2? How do they feel when they inevitably find out that Wargoth is one of their oldest friend? Those are interesting stories I wish to experience. Or how do they feel about the world post Book 3? Is there any sense of trauma, feelings of failure, doubts, anything? I hope we get to explore something in Book 4. And with our Hero now having a clear task to stop Aequlibria, I hope to see them more active and use the skills and knowledge they have gathered over the years to do so and not just wait for a new npc to to come in town and tell them stuff.
I understand writing weekly for games like DF is not an easy task and I am grateful for you devs. I wouldn’t write this or play this game for almost 16 years if I didn’t care about it or the work you put. I hope to see more great stories in Book 4!
And in closing, I just want to writers to not restrict yourself because you try to please everyone. It's impossible to succeed in that, so why not make the Hero your own? Give it a spin, and show us why it's specifically Dragonfable's Hero and not just some bland protagonist! Try new stuff, like Maleurous and don't give up if it fails! Better to try something new and learn than just not try at all and stay stale!
< Message edited by Dratomos -- 1/22/2025 17:57:17 >
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