Interview Torment revisited by GameBanshee

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Chris Avellone; Planescape: Torment

<A href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/">GameBanshee</a> has a <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/static/EEFkpEFpFVKnyFIzTe.php">series of articles</a> about <b><i>Planescape: Torment</i></b>. Here's a bit from the <A href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/interviews/pstrevisitedavellone1.php">interview</a> part of the collection:
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<blockquote><b>GB: Before starting on Torment, how familiar were you with the Planescape setting? Did you have to do a lot of reading and other research before becoming involved with the game?
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Chris:</b> I didn’t know anything about it, to be honest, so the first order of business was to read every module and book I could get my hands on. There weren't nearly as many as you need to go through to do Star Wars research (like for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords), but there was enough to keep me occupied. I think I still have those modules and books boxed up in a backroom somewhere, with all the modules with scribbles and barely-decipherable notes in them.</blockquote>
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I'm not sure <A href="http://www.starwars.com">Star Wars</a> books actually help matters. I've read two in my life time. Even though they were supposedly canonized by <b>George Lucas</b>, he pretty much tossed all the back information from them when he did the recent trilogy of movies.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.shacknews.com">Shack News</A>

 

[jiujitsu]

Torment was awesome. I don't know how close it got to the Planescape universe, but it sure was one of the best games I've played.

 

[Volourn]

Torment was good; but not quite top 10. It had an unoriginal story (look ma! i ahve amnesia!), and barely par combat and combat played a big part in the game so that's a good portion of it that sucked. Plus, half the npcs were overrated shit (this looking at you fire freak!).

 

[Avin]

oh, nwn npcs were perfect, for sure.

it will rain blood before volo post his "good npcs"

 

[Volourn]

Huh? I said half of the PST npcs sucked. The other half are some of the best npcs ever. Why do you focus only on the pronounced negativity of my post yet ignore the implied positivity?

R00fles!

P.S. NWN OC npcs were solid. None of them *reallY* *really* sucked; but none of them are amongst my fvaorites either. Overall, PST wins the henchmen battle with OC. Then again, I prefer PST over the NWN OC.

You lose, again.

 

[Avin]

Huh? I said half of the PST npcs sucked. The other half are some of the best npcs ever. Why do you focus only on the pronounced negativity of my post yet ignore the implied positivity?

'cause it's funny, you silly.

 

[Sammael]

P.S. NWN OC npcs were solid.

How can anybody in his right mind call Linu "solid"?

 

[roguefrog]

Even the NPCs that were not as good as the Prime NPCs were still a lot better than ones in other rpgs. (this includes all Final Fantasies)

 

[jiujitsu]

Tomi Undergallows...... solid? ARIBETH solid?! Great fuck!

Aribeth was one of the worst, snot nosed, characters I've ever heard of. She was a good concept, but was just done retardedly. I was glad to kill her. The voice actress was the worst person ever on Earth. The voice really killed her for me and created a lot of blind hatred for her which even carries over to the game as a whole. I hate that character more than a lot of things.

 

[Volourn]

Aribeth was not a joinbale npc in the OC dumbass.

Secondly, her voice acting was damn good. Sure beats half the stupid joinable npcs in PST.

I mean seriously.

Tin Can was garbage.

Flame Face was boring.

Maze Munckin was horrendous.

Period.

 

[spacemoose]

Petition to change Volourn's title to 'Roofler'

 

[gromit]

All right, dislike Ignus all you want, but the implied knocking on his voice-acting does not fly. Charlie Adler's the shit, even if he really only works for "theme characters."

Anyway, I found him a fairly compelling character, if a little over the top. He's the twisted jetsam of TNO's darkest days, his manipulations lacking any of the foresight or subtlety of those imposed upon Dakkon, and I guess something about that just struck a chord with me. However, without the strong plot ties of Morte and Annah, or the inventive advancements and progressive revelations of Dakkon, I can see how some would find him dull. Still, he had as much going for him as most NPCs in Torment's contemporaries.

PS: Do not engage in a romantic subplot with Ignus. There are much safer places to stick it.

Vhailor was certainly lacking - the tension with TNO either never boiled over, or only due to a few lines of dialogue, depending on how you played it, and he didn't have anything else interesting to do. I think he was a sound concept, but I chalk up his faults to appearing so damn late in the game. If he had been with you in the early game, when you're in the moral playground of Sigil, I think some interesting reactions could have happened, particularly in the cases where the lawful solutions were clearly not the goodly ones.

Never got Nordom, so I can't speak for him - I plain didn't want to slog through that dungeon. From what I've heard, he, too, had but the glimmer of philosophical potential, and, in the end, came off as a joke dispenser, and not half the one that Morte is.

 

[aboyd]

Maze Munckin was horrendous.

You are insane.

-T

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

He's got that title for a reason you know.

 

[whitemithrandir]

I agree with Volourn. Vhailor and Ignus were not as well developed as they could have been, since they were introduced so relatively late in the game, and by that time, you've already made your moral decisions.

But compared to the shitfest excuses of the most one-dimensional characters ever that make up the menagerie of the NWN OC NPC's, Ignus and Vhailor were just plain Shakesperean.

 

[Avin]

P.S. NWN OC npcs were solid.

How can anybody in his right mind call Linu "solid"?

yeah! solid shit.

 

[Jora]

I love Vhailor and Ignus because of their backstories and the options they provided. For example, with sufficient stats Vhailor could be convinced to believe he shouldn't exist which makes him very dead. Ignus can teach you magic by sacrificing your body parts and it has always chilled me to find out what role TNO played in his development.

They are such cool characters tied neatly into the plot and the history of the places you visit. If I had to choose the least interesting followers, I would say Annah and Nordom. Dak'kon just owns, of course.

edit: Another thing I like about Vhailor is that every time he opens his mouth (or whatever it is he does), I'm instantly tempted to kill him. I love to hate him.

 

[Avin]

"Ignus hears you" ... although I hate this guy he is far better developed than any NWN/SOU/HOU character.

 

[Atrokkus]

It's all in the writing. ONe that really grabbed me was the way they did the dialogs: I felt like I was reading a book, a VERY good book, where you could see, with your mind's eye, every tiny detail of every single NPC you were talking to. That was amazing, and I really like to see more of that book-style in other RPGs.

 

[gromit]

For example, with sufficient stats Vhailor could be convinced to believe he shouldn't exist which makes him very dead.

Well... looks like I need to replay Torment... again. My first encounter with him was picking him up, talking to him for a little while, but not too too deeply (just enough to find out that my character would hate him and never leave Annah in Curst Gone in trade for him tagging along) and then tapping on Dakkon's shoulder, and saying "In some teaching of Zerthimon that you're not smart enough to understand, it says you need to kill this armor fellow. Hop to."

 

[Volourn]

"Ignus hears you" ... although I hate this guy he is far better developed than any NWN/SOU/HOU character."

A 3 year old fire bug has more depth than Ignus.

Hahahahahaha!!!

 

[TheGreatGodPan]

I remember having to send in Vhailor to attack Trias and get himself killed first so he wouldn't interrupt me when I was trying to forgive Trias. Vhailor doesn't wasn't carrying anything other than his axe (which he can't lose) when he died, so ressurecting him after I automatically teleported out was no problem.