|
Bluu -> RE: Friday, February 28th Design Notes: Book 2 Reimagined: The Lost Ateala (3/4/2025 20:55:20)
|
After a little bit of a dry spell from DF, I finally really enjoyed it again.
I have been feeling as though the releases have been a bit too... cosy... in the past few months--understandably so, since the team was just done with the finale--but I do think that the atmosphere and tension in this release is picking up speed. In these two quests, we have actually built up a lot on the city and the characters, which extends back to the previous Atrea release. I loved the dialogue about the Atelalan plant that Etaos mentioned which the Hero roughly translated to potatoes. That felt like such a genuine moment between the two as Etaos, despite having been through so much in such little time, felt so excited to share something about his homeland that he was so passionate about with... an alien! He really comes off as a genuinely sweet and kind-hearted person that was kinda like us back in his own world.
I like the establishment of social hierarchy. I think the releases did a great job of capturing that the Atealans lost a whole planet full of people, and Atrea was just one city that was teleported in with a slew of refugees, some of whom lived largely outside of civilization. They genuinely do feel like a "people", where before, they felt like a strong tribe but not a nation bound to a hidden empress like they were described to be. Now, it feels like we actually get to see it, even through the lens of the mourning poet who wished to write verses in the Song of the Ateala about those who otherwise wouldn't have anyone to remember them. I also like that Yolande is shown to be a person of power, someone who managed a community, had connections with everyone, helped people out -- kind of like a small scale hero or spirit of the village. It really brought a nice vibe to the idea of what their society was like back on Somorrah.
I LOVED the dialogue between the hero and the people at the market - some of them traumatized and still in shock from the event, some so weary that they didn't fully process the conversation, some that were excited to see an alien, and some who, hilariously, mentioned that lots of Ateala went missing - all of which you'd actually probably expect in that situation. It all felt so real to me.
Finally, I really like the buildup of the concern that Alz'ein has for Veyla. She was too cruel to Veyla in the previous iteration in my opinion, which greatly clashed with her personality in Book 3. However, she comes off now as someone who is concerned about the members of her clan - like they're a family, a team, a group. It makes their base class system sound really fascinating. As though you are actually training to be a member of their faction.
Overall, I liked these two reimagined releases because they felt very substantial and qualitative whilst also being snappy. They were concise and got a lot across in a short amount of time.
|
|
|
|
