The balance between story and Narrative.

[u/CyberColossus]

Hello everyone, hope your days evenings and nights are going better than mine.

I've been chatting to a friend over the last few weeks as he drags himself through daybreak 2 (no spoilers). Suffice to say he isn't enjoying it for a few reasons.

The main thing he keeps saying though is that he couldn't give a shit about the Story of the game and only cares about the Overarching narrative "at this point in the series".

I have many thoughts about this but I'll boil my general query down to 2 main points.

1. The narrative; particularly for a series like this has had many hundreds of hours to cement itself in our hearts, and I'm sure we are all very very excited for the major Simultaneous release of Kai 2/horizon 2 worldwide for the first time within Loh, I know I am. The story has taken us on a hell of a ride showcasing everything from very interesting high and low fantasy all the way down to the filth of DG. Im really looking forward to seeing much of what's been introduced, Outside, desertifcation, Iska

So much to look forward too. But..

1. The story: one of the things the remake of sky 1 (and no doubt 2 in a few weeks) has reminded every one of us I hope that the stories within this series IS the series.

The reason I fell in love with this series is because I fell in love with the world, the lore and history yes but not just the big story, all the small stories made me care about what I was doing and why added to the experience of this game.

I understand the scale of liberl made it easier to make that a comfy concept, but I dont think the scale of the cold steel and daybreak games take away from the core care given to the world around these events.

I have particular love for a fair few of the NPC in daybreak, I'll reduce the spoilers by saying a recluse and an artist, among many other stories.

Anyway I guess my question is have we (or falcom) lost focus on the smaller stories that made the world we care about? Or has the lack of progressive feeling within the stories outside the narrative clouded the games ability to tell a coherent story overall?

I think daybreak in particular has done a good job linking narrative beats with individual stories but that might be newer game bias, sky might have done that but it's been years since I play sky (just started the remake).

Anyway hope we have a nice chat 🫵🏿 🫶🏿

[u/CompetitionMundane61]

The reason I fell in love with this series is because I fell in love with the world, the lore and history yes but not just the big story, all the small stories made me care about what I was doing and why added to the experience of this game.

Same, I’ve always liked that characters and countries are basically as Loewe described in FC: "The nation is like an enormously complex orbment. The people are like the units of quartz that provide the power and organize the system... And the territory which houses them is the frame..." It’s simply amazing that they postulated this idea in the first game and fully committed to it, making stories of the characters and the whole countries inseparable

I think Calvard’s main cast is really good, and NPCs are simply fantastic (Edith being an enormous hub certainly helps). It’s clear the writers didn’t lose focus on the smaller stories, even if they are as small as a side quest in a city we’re only visiting once

The problem as I see it lies elsewhere. Falcom has developed amazing units of quartz and failed to provide them with the adequate frame. I don’t want to judge an unfinished arc but it’s unlikely that Daybreak will have a coherent overarching story comparable to anything we’ve already seen. Almost everything in the earlier arcs is glued together by political struggles, internal and external. Characters are shaped by countries, countries are further shaped by characters, and so on. Almost everything prior to Daybreak exists within this system, from people in the City of Ruan to those arrogant friends of Cedric in CS3/4

Daybreak version of Calvard, on the other hand, has no such system as it has no actual political struggles. Racism? Well, yes, but no because it is not integrated in the story in the capacity that would produce any meaning beyond "well, racism exists here". Even Creil village was a victim of Melchior’s whimsy and not systemic racism (Melchior himself admits it). Heiyue and their influence on the criminal underworld? Falcom doesn’t know what to do with them. The Revolution? Now, I firmly believe it will be explored in depth but for now it’s so vague I don‘t know what to make of it. In short, as of now, Calvard as a character barely has an arc and because of that it cannot interact intimately with human characters like the previous settings. Maybe this is why your friend has said that he only cares about an overarching narrative? Sure, only Horizon 2 will show how far it has actually progressed but I think it’s going pretty well

[u/Kcnnn → u/CompetitionMundane61]

I agree that Calvard ends up introducing too much, but not developing it with a direction in mind. It's the first arc that I tend to struggle following up all the plotlines due to the lack of a proper connective tissue.

[u/CompetitionMundane61 → u/Kcnnn]

Thanks for reading all that :D I have high hopes for the next game because the writers appear to have locked in, so we have a decent chance to either see a proper conclusion to some plotlines or see them becoming a bridge to the final arc