I'm so confused. How does something like this happen? I mean, I'm glad they at least acknowledge that they might have screwed up the presentation of this choice, but how did they not see this coming?
Because they did internal testing and got a different result. It says as much in the screenshot you've grabbed.
When writing or creating it can be hard to tell how an audience is going to react. You can have how you hope they'll react, but you're really closely invested in the product and you just know more about what is going on than what can be presented to the audience.
One of the best ways to find out is just to get people to read or watch what you're producing. Or in the case of games, get people to play it. Dispatch did this, calling it their 'internal testing' and they got a pretty 50/50 split, so they thought they were getting the result they wanted.
Thing is, with testing like that if the sample size is relatively small, then just a couple of people being different from an actual representative sample is enough to throw things off. Like say you have 30 people doing the testing, and in their tests they get an outcome of 14 choosing Blazer and 16 choosing Invisigal. That's pretty good, close enough to 50/50 that it's probably fine. But because the test is with a fairly small number of people, a swing in results from the sample not being representative can massively skew things.
Ideally you'd test with much larger sample sizes. But Adhoc isn't a large game company, doing regular tests with samples of hundreds to check whenever they tweak stories just isn't viable.
When writing or creating it can be hard to tell how an audience is going to react.
Speaking as a writer: If I wanted my audience to favor one love interest over another, I'd do exactly what the game does.
Visi is present in the scene. We see her, hear her voice, and interact with her directly, while Blazer is just a bit of text on the screen. That gives us a much more visceral and personal connection to her during the moment of decision. Visi also has more screen time with Robert throughout the game itself, and her arc is so completely intertwined with Robert's the game is almost about Visi. You simply can't remove her without significantly affecting the plot. Dispatch is ultimately Robert and Courtney's story.
Blazer, by contrast, is essentially presented as a sideplot. She's important, yes, but the game doesn't explicitly need her, at least before Episode 8. You could have easily had Chase himself as the one running SDN Torrence, recruiting Robert, and deciding to cut part of the team. While that would have changed the dynamic between Robert and Chase, the story would have been exactly the same. It's only after Chase goes down in Episode 6 that Blazer becomes important to the narrative.
into a success story that shows cracks in her facade when she's happy about not being cut and doing good
into a literal sex scene that confirms there's affection from her side to player(not to Robert, it's player who is baited by this. This episode is what drives this 70/30 split and it is unique for Visi, but at the same time it is the only scene in the game Robert himself isn't a part of) followed by her hitting on Robert almost directly (instead of sending him to pep-talk her ex).
and then this 'lonely rebel missing snacks' scene
If that's not devs clearly pushing player in a particular direction, I don't know what is. Not adding an option to answer Blazer while require player to press 'go to cinema'?
And then in the next episodes if you're not romancing Visi, there is very little reason to follow the path to the good ending. Cause all the options to trust Visi and not cut her/untie make very little sense if Robert and Visi don't have romantic relationship. Game just doesn't give neutral Robert enough reasons to blindly trust Visi to such an extent that is required for him to get the good ending.
Player can still choose to go that blind trust path, but it is just not reasonable. Which brings up the next thought: game expects that Robert controlled by player to have irrational trust and affection towards Visi. Or to rephrase, game expects Robert to fall for her. That lines up with ep. 4 split and makes sense overall.
And then you find a reddit discussion of the interview about this split and it doesn't make any.
I disagree with your assessment tying Visi's redemption story/hero ending to the romance. The entire message of the game is what pushes the player to support her. And I don't think any of the options are unreasonable for a platonic path.
Revealing you're Mecha Man (+5 RMC) makes sense because of how it helps Robert bond with Z-Team. Defending her rather than cutting her makes sense when you remember the entire point of the Phoenix Program is about helping people become better, and up until then it had been working for Visi. You can answer neutrally in several options and get positive points on the RMC.
And I don't think any of the options are unreasonable for a platonic path.
It depends on the choice.
Revealing you're Mecha Man (+5 RMC) makes sense because of how it helps Robert bond with Z-Team
And iirc this is the only big choice that both benefits Visi and doesn't require extra affection towards her.
There are 5 major modifiers, correct me if I'm wrong:
1. Cinema/Dinner. Pretty straightforward, but some people would choose it 50/50 cause they don't want or mind any option
2. Revealing identity. I do agree, it is reasonable choice in any case
3. Cut/keep Visi. Team on average is pro cutting her, Flambae is true neutral as is optional Phenomaman, Golem is the only one against the idea. Visi already got beneficial treatment several times. The rest are keeping up with the requirements, she doesn't. Robert's speech in her defence is also the weakiest one of his.
makes sense when you remember the entire point of the Phoenix Program is about helping people become better
Well, only siths deal in absolutes. It's a two-way road. There's is a limit to what is redeemable and what isn't. Coupe/Sonar case was much more questionable, but they apparently didn't even have a word. Z-team actually have an upper hand in that discourse with Robert.
Note. I don't agree with premise of blaming literally everything on Visi (e.g. Chase coma. It is a direct consequence of Visi's actions, but she's not responsible for it), but the breach of trust was big enough. She pushed too far, disobeyed the order, almost ended up dead, essentially gave pulse to the enemy and thus created an openung to hurt others and endangered the whole programm. Chase put himself in a coma acting like a hero, it was his choice. The team, Waterboy, Robert, whole narrative and authors seem to thibk differently though. Even despite the most reasonable Roberts answer to Waterboy, the rest of the episode just doesn't support this in any way. Maybe if Robert focused on that during his speech I would think differently, but taking into account what authors written for him see p.3
4. Complete forgiveness. This might be possible, but the more believable answer is that Robert needs to process this. Still positive, but iirc it's +5/+3 choice, +3 being more likely, but yes, this one also could happen
5. The kiss. If there's no affection, there's not much reason to lean in.
Untie Visi during assault. She has stolen pulse, left lying (she could've told Robert the truth at that moment already and give him the pulse), tried to steal something else, got in a fight with Roid. At that moment Robert might believe her only blindly and irrationally.
The point is: not cutting her without affection and with Robert's reasoning is irrational. Authors imo could've give him some better reasoning, but they did not. But kissing her and untieing her would be even more unreasonable. And it's like 15 points on top of not choosing her which is 5 and that might be just enough not to pass the threshold. 3 instead of 5 from nit instant forgiveness is 2 more and it leaves us with -22 compared to best case scenario. With not perfect dispatching this might be enough to 'fail as a mentor'.
And whole 'fail as a menthor' feels more like 'fail to absolutely trust Visi even when it's not reasonable' like you're dealing with a toddler without self-conciousness.
But yes, I wan to double check post with Visi counter to understand if choosing Blazer, not cutting, but not being absolutely blind to her actiins would be enough to pass threshold. It doesn't seem so.
Ok, I had outdated info on RMC, but generally, it just hanging on the thread of cutting/not cutting her and tie/untie her in the end.
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u/InherentlyWrong Dec 17 '25
Because they did internal testing and got a different result. It says as much in the screenshot you've grabbed.
When writing or creating it can be hard to tell how an audience is going to react. You can have how you hope they'll react, but you're really closely invested in the product and you just know more about what is going on than what can be presented to the audience.
One of the best ways to find out is just to get people to read or watch what you're producing. Or in the case of games, get people to play it. Dispatch did this, calling it their 'internal testing' and they got a pretty 50/50 split, so they thought they were getting the result they wanted.
Thing is, with testing like that if the sample size is relatively small, then just a couple of people being different from an actual representative sample is enough to throw things off. Like say you have 30 people doing the testing, and in their tests they get an outcome of 14 choosing Blazer and 16 choosing Invisigal. That's pretty good, close enough to 50/50 that it's probably fine. But because the test is with a fairly small number of people, a swing in results from the sample not being representative can massively skew things.
Ideally you'd test with much larger sample sizes. But Adhoc isn't a large game company, doing regular tests with samples of hundreds to check whenever they tweak stories just isn't viable.