Path of Truth Feedback: Notus in Artifice to End [SPOILERS]

Overall point:

- I as the player have to work hard to weave the story together to make it coherent. But then it becomes a chore and full of my assumptions.

Main points:

- Notus present the child trap as a "choice". It can be stumbled over by accident and thus not a "choice". Or to put it in other words, people don't choose to fall into traps. This is not an ethical dilemma.
- Notus is the "boss" and you can't fight him.
- Little information given on Boreus and what happened to him.
- The whole thing about "not many come this far" is a stretch. You really have to do nothing of skill or consequence to get through Artifice. We can "pretend" it was hard to avoid getting sucked into the pleasure rooms, but it really doesn't feel that way at all.
- Appearance of Kiakis in Library is unnecessary again.
- Perri's cameo is a strange one.
- Exiting Artifice is an artificial hoop, which makes you have to stretch the story to wonder why Hephaestus is so concerned about Perri.

Vyrin: children
Notus: Yes, the test you underwent on your way to see me. Surely you realize that there was no need to kill those children. You could have walked right past them. Yet, you chose to kill them. Was it for your own amusement? Were they in the way? Did you not seek to find another way through? It does not matter. It is a reflection of your nature.

Wasn't a test, was a trap. Not presented as a choice. My concern here is not that Notus might goad you but that it makes it sound like one of those "ethical dilemmas" we were promised. And this isn't really.

Vyrin: anapa
Notus: We have of course heard of your victory over the undead lord. But we will not be that simple. I have no desire nor need to fight you. I represent a people, not just a free-floating anger. You cannot kill every elf. And if you do... well, then I suppose that means the strong will rule over the weak and I was correct.

I imagine at this point most people would want to fight Notus no matter what he says. You can't. You as the avatar just have to accept that Artifice will keep going on... deeply unsatisfying. And not from a story that leaves you intentionally unsatisfied as a goal, but unsatisfied because in what is supposed to be an interactive story there are no choices! At this point you know you're trapped in a "choose your own adventure" book that never presents options but just goes page to page like a normal book.

I wrote of finding Boreas and his crown in my journal.

All you get about Boreus - unsatisfying. You do learn a little from Hephaestus, but not enough to weave together what really happened. I have to assume Notus tricked him somehow using the crown. And again, the titans seem weak when they have previously been presented as wise and powerful.

Vyrin: destiny
I wrote a new entry in my journal.
Hephaestus: You need to go to library downstairs. There a faun there. He not like other fauns. He like you. He have his own path. He lost it. You go show it to him. Then come back.

And so begins the quest for Perri - which you can assume from the book even though Hephaestus doesn't know his name as a keyword. This is response to the Avatar's "destiny"... not the larger destiny implied by the rest of the conversation. Shouldn't this be "help" or portrayed as something that's "part of" or "before" you follow your "destiny"?

Vyrin: mistake
Kiakis: (to you) Having strong weapons will not protect we Vertas elves. The humans outnumber us by many thousands. We cannot win a war. This is what makes us different from the Obsidian elves. I must speak with Kiriad on this.
Vyrin: kiriad
Kiakis: (to you) Kiriad is the leader of the Vertas elves. There are two possibilities explaining this place and his involvement.

Again, Kiakis really serves no purpose other than to queue something up that doesn't affect the larger world and you can't do anything about. It would be great to be able to go back and confront Kiriad with the news... <sigh>. And Kiakis just appears through Artifice where "not many get this far".

Curious Faun: Hi... not many come this far...

The whole thing about "not many come this far" is a stretch. It's echoed by Notus and Hephaestus. You really have to do nothing of skill or consequence to get through Artifice. We need a little challenge in the quest to at least feel like this is true.

You've convinced Perri the Unchained to resume his fight to free his people!

By typing keywords. Ugh.

Perri: Thank you. You've saved me. You've saved my people. Go tell Hephaestus I'll be OK and to lift the lock on the gate. We both... need to leave. You need to save your people and I need to save mine.

So this means that Hephaestus wasn't going to let you out until you convinced Perri to get back to his cause. That means Hephaestus want the fauns to be freed (ok, but didn't seem all that interested in it when I talked to him - AND it's subversive to Notus whom he now serves willingly... hmmm) and he couldn't do it himself. If this is the case Hephaestus needs to have more development, more dialogue around why you have to rescue Perri.

Vyrin: not many
There's Kiakis the elf... he came just recently... and Hephaestus upstairs... he's nice... but past that are the satyrs.... and they're afraid of me. And they should be.

Why would the satyrs "imprison" a rebellious faun. Every other behavior seems to indicate they would execute anyone who is a problem to them. Or are the satyrs actually sophisticated enough that they don't want to create a "martyr" and are forcing Perri to renounce his rebellious tendencies to other fauns. That doesn't seem like a subtlety satyrs might appreciate. And it's only my assumption - nothing in the story tells me what happened.

Perri: The fauns will always remember the name of Vyrin. I promise!

No they won't. Your brethren in the mines will still act the same.

Vyrin: destiny
I wrote a new entry in my journal.
Hephaestus: Is that an original mark 1a dagger you have? Odd that. Older model. We give it to satyrs. You no need it.

The final step - Hephaestus all of a sudden realizes that you have the dagger? Somehow the bonesteel forger missed that in your extensive first conversation with him. Which included discussion of bonesteel! He should take it from you in the first conversation if it needs to be returned.

 

Can I just add to this bit of feedback that there's a longstanding issue throughout the game that this post eloquently points out - the names in this game are not at all memorable.

Here's the list from this post alone:
Notus
Boreus (Boreas?)
Kiakis
Kiriad
Perri
Hephaestus

These are almost all weird names. I can't spell these off the top of my head. I don't even know how to pronounce Hephaestus, which further alienates me from it. This is just a small list, but everywhere is like this.

Names like Devon, Vardion, Mordea, Batlin, Abraham, Elizabeth, Selina. All pretty straightforward, all pretty memorable.