WHY IS THE PROTAGONIST A DOORMAT ?

[loricogno]

In one of the first scenes in the game we see somebody being tortured. Every time I'm facing a grunt or a thug they just talk shit in front of my face with no pokemon left and I can't do shit ? Every other character treats you like shit and you just have to take it. Let me burn some grunts alive at least. The world is dark and I'm a fucking saint wtf ?

The guys I beat just walk away like nothing happened. At least make them run smh.

 

Aside from that great game.

 

[Youmu9]

1 hour ago, loricogno said:

In one of the first scenes in the game we see somebody being tortured. Every time I'm facing a grunt or a thug they just talk shit in front of my face with no pokemon left and I can't do shit ? Every other character treats you like shit and you just have to take it. Let me burn some grunts alive at least. The world is dark and I'm a fucking saint wtf ?

The guys I beat just walk away like nothing happened. At least make them run smh.

 

Aside from that great game.

 

A good example of this is the first Solaris fight. If the PC defeats his Garchomp, nothing substantial changes. The Garchomp is seen running around like nothing happened a few seconds later. It would have been a better pay-off if the Pokemon fainted and caused it's trainer to become a bit flustered. But I guess that would be too big of a change from the original script.

 

As for the other points you made, I agree. It would be nice to have a choice on whether a grunt lives or dies but it seems Reborn isn't that type of game.

[Vinnie]

Reborn already gets a lot of flack for being very dystopian, I'm not sure if this would be a good idea.  Killing certain grunts would ruin certain events as well.

[loricogno]

1 minute ago, Vinnie said:

Reborn already gets a lot of flack for being very dystopian, I'm not sure if this would be a good idea.  Killing certain grunts would ruin certain events as well.

Maybe not kill them but you could knock them out or something. 

Are we supposed to be 10 years old too ? If yes then I would understand.

[Candy]

it's because there are some players like me who are doormats irl so gotta set the low bar with the silent protagonist uwu

[Waynolt]

I guess that a huge reason for this is that creating one game is already hard enough as it is: making relevant choices for it would mean creating many different games (if you give them earlier than the final act).
Think for example to The Witcher 2: there is one single choice that is actually relevant to the plot, and because of that The Witcher 2 is essentially two different games bundled into one.
(Without choices the protagonist could only have one character: it was simply given the "doormat" one.)

[Kweh]

I was also disappointed  back in 2013 when I did beat solaris but the fight is suppose to be unwinnable in the first place so it doesn't matter rather you win your fight, the fact that its suppose to be winnable just means you outplayed them but it doesn't change the script. Now if for example the only difference I could see is that if the garchomp faints then you are prompt to battle his full team in which at that stage of the game you will not win no matter what you do(unless you cheese it with fear). If the choice was that you could battle him 6 times 1 Pokemon each the odds of winning would be pretty high with the right strats and enough items. This would of been a fun as a little easter egg if that was one way Lin was introduced by beating his full team but again it would change the way the story works.

The silent protagonist is the easiest way to make the story, well your story. Adding too many choices would mean that you need many different paths in your story and that could cause a lot of issues later on which would ultimately alter the way you want your story to go unless you have muti paths that you want your story to take in which the player would have to play the game multiple times (example Crono Trigger) to get to a specific point in the game or a different ending. 

[Sirrobert]

Yea, you didn't actually beat Solaris. You beat his first pokemon.

He has a full team, he just didn't use it.

[kithas]

2 hours ago, Sirrobert said:

Yea, you didn't actually beat Solaris. You beat his first pokemon.

He has a full team, he just didn't use it.

Yeah, I think it would be more realistic in that case if he used his full team in that battle (being unbeatable except very specific builds probably).

On the subject of the MC being "a doormat" I think it is because it's the bare minimum for the players to insert themselves (or their proxy) into the story, that's how it has always been. If the MC punch everyone in the face just because you would, the people who wouldn't would say it's too aggressive. I think this way you can insert mentally the bits lacking there for immersion. I don't think people would say only a sentence and be static in the same place all the time, right? But I can insert a real world alternative right there, and I can insert the MC throwing insults or punches to everyone I don't like. Obviously more extreme actions like "being a late teenager/young adult who stabs every minor criminal/blue collar grunt for the local team" would be game-breaking (and probably even worrying, I don't think anybody would think what Titania did was good even if she were in a very bad state of mind at the moment) but I think the doormat MC is there, both in the main games and here to allow immersion. 

[loricogno]

3 hours ago, kithas said:

Yeah, I think it would be more realistic in that case if he used his full team in that battle (being unbeatable except very specific builds probably).

On the subject of the MC being "a doormat" I think it is because it's the bare minimum for the players to insert themselves (or their proxy) into the story, that's how it has always been. If the MC punch everyone in the face just because you would, the people who wouldn't would say it's too aggressive. I think this way you can insert mentally the bits lacking there for immersion. I don't think people would say only a sentence and be static in the same place all the time, right? But I can insert a real world alternative right there, and I can insert the MC throwing insults or punches to everyone I don't like. Obviously more extreme actions like "being a late teenager/young adult who stabs every minor criminal/blue collar grunt for the local team" would be game-breaking (and probably even worrying, I don't think anybody would think what Titania did was good even if she were in a very bad state of mind at the moment) but I think the doormat MC is there, both in the main games and here to allow immersion. 

 

I'm not really talking about "choice" just little details that make us look more like a threat. For example 

Spoiler

in the zone where you have to free the police officers there's a grunt standing to the far right just after the entrance. You battle him and he just stands there like nothing happened. What was the point of fighting him ?

Also the guys who scam you for 500p at the beginning when you find them in the house. You beat them and they just say oh well... bye bye and you can't do anything.

It's not really important but it's a bit frustrating.

[Swampellow]

8 hours ago, loricogno said:

 

I'm not really talking about "choice" just little details that make us look more like a threat. For example 

  Reveal hidden contents

in the zone where you have to free the police officers there's a grunt standing to the far right just after the entrance. You battle him and he just stands there like nothing happened. What was the point of fighting him ?

Also the guys who scam you for 500p at the beginning when you find them in the house. You beat them and they just say oh well... bye bye and you can't do anything.

It's not really important but it's a bit frustrating.

I mean for those examples, that’s just how a bunch of games in general work, regardless of how active the protagonist actually is.

[Lyumia]

Probably because Reborn isn't the player's story but rather the the one of an RP group the game is based on, and the player is a voyeur to the events. Hence why they literally just stand there when people take the four mcguffins from them. As for being able to kill people...