KickStarter Stygian: Reign of the Old Ones - a Lovecraftian Computer RPG

[GentlemanCthulhu]

We are supposed to meet ''The Carion'' at Wessex hotel, but I never met him.

My memory is hazy, but isn't The Carion Wax Face's henchman? If so, i did certainly meet him.

 

[V_K]

We are supposed to meet ''The Carion'' at Wessex hotel, but I never met him.

My memory is hazy, but isn't carrion Wax Face's henchman? If so, i did certainly meet him.

You don't actually have to meet him if you play an Occultist. I mean, technically, I don't think there's any information in that branch of the investigation that you can't get from other sources, yet it's somehow required to unlock some completely unrelated answers.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

We are supposed to meet ''The Carion'' at Wessex hotel, but I never met him.

My memory is hazy, but isn't carrion Wax Face's henchman? If so, i did certainly meet him.

You don't actually have to meet him if you play an Occultist. I mean, technically, I don't think there's any information in that branch of the investigation that you can't get from other sources, yet it's somehow required to unlock some completely unrelated answers.

Sure but that wasn't the point here though. That post was talking about cut content.

 

[Van-d-all]

From what I know:

Spoiler

The biggest offender is that soon after starting the game, your main task is to decipher the meaning of a poem and to unlock the mysteries of a certain statuette. It's like finding the Eye of Innos in Gothic 2.
But the game ends abruptly by sacrificing a companion. Statuettes? Poem? To dust.
But among other things
- when asking the owner of the painshop about better price, he mentions calling the player on an errant at a later time to complete the deal. Only, it never happens.
- you can't complete the quest of the lone soldier, because Gwen is nowhere to be found.
- and same for Randolph Carter, that could also be part of an expansion, but that's a bit off. Even more considering that you've got a full fledged follower seeking him.
// We are supposed to meet ''The Carion'' at Wessex hotel, but I never met him. I mean, I have an entry stating that I met him at Wessex Hotel, never happened. I 'heard' he was there from the receptionist. I also witnessed some girls being called in his room, but never actually saw the face of the guy.

And that's only what I am aware of.

The last two are wrong?

Spoiler

• Randolph Carter is found at the end of Stanley Fredkin's quest to gather electric parts and formaldehyde. In the basement.
• The Carrion is the guy in room 303 that you have to beat/outdrink/scare to get inside. The last two hotel floors become available in the stabber quest.

Even if on the short term it makes their wallet heavier, not even sure it might work, it will on the long term be a backlash.

Hmm, they released (contrary to, say, Early Access) an incomplete game, so I thought the backlash deal is sealed already anyways. For me, "released" means over and done, but then again, recently the definition of "finished" (and few other things) has bean greatly devalued. Indeed, ATOM RPG had endgame content added post launch as well, and seeing how dramatic gamers are, probably a specific event of releasing a DLC would start a bigger shitstorm...

 

[Trash Player]

From what I know:

Spoiler

The biggest offender is that soon after starting the game, your main task is to decipher the meaning of a poem and to unlock the mysteries of a certain statuette. It's like finding the Eye of Innos in Gothic 2.
But the game ends abruptly by sacrificing a companion. Statuettes? Poem? To dust.
But among other things
- when asking the owner of the painshop about better price, he mentions calling the player on an errant at a later time to complete the deal. Only, it never happens.
- you can't complete the quest of the lone soldier, because Gwen is nowhere to be found.
- and same for Randolph Carter, that could also be part of an expansion, but that's a bit off. Even more considering that you've got a full fledged follower seeking him.
// We are supposed to meet ''The Carion'' at Wessex hotel, but I never met him. I mean, I have an entry stating that I met him at Wessex Hotel, never happened. I 'heard' he was there from the receptionist. I also witnessed some girls being called in his room, but never actually saw the face of the guy.

And that's only what I am aware of.

The last two are wrong?

Spoiler

• Randolph Carter is found at the end of Stanley Fredkin's quest to gather electric parts and formaldehyde. In the basement.
• The Carrion is the guy in room 303 that you have to beat/outdrink/scare to get inside. The last two hotel floors become available in the stabber quest.

The starfarer isn't Randolf. Jack has to be dealt with one way or another to get into Julian's room.

 

[V_K]

We are supposed to meet ''The Carion'' at Wessex hotel, but I never met him.

My memory is hazy, but isn't carrion Wax Face's henchman? If so, i did certainly meet him.

You don't actually have to meet him if you play an Occultist. I mean, technically, I don't think there's any information in that branch of the investigation that you can't get from other sources, yet it's somehow required to unlock some completely unrelated answers.

Sure but that wasn't the point here though. That post was talking about cut content.

I'm just pointing out why he might have thought that guy was cut.
To be fair, while I'm disappointed with the amount of cut content, it's easy to understand why: the art style they've chose allows very little asset reuse. Their art pipeline - and budget - ended up being essentially that of Adventure game; and for an Adventure, 15-20 hours is a ridiculously high length, even without all the alternative paths and solutions. Even worse, they combined the most costly art aspects of Adventures and RPGs having both unique backgrounds and paperdoll-style character sprites. But given how essential the art style is in creating the atmosphere, which is one of the game's strongest points, I'd cut them some slack for not considering its cost properly.

 

[Van-d-all]

From what I know:

Spoiler

The biggest offender is that soon after starting the game, your main task is to decipher the meaning of a poem and to unlock the mysteries of a certain statuette. It's like finding the Eye of Innos in Gothic 2.
But the game ends abruptly by sacrificing a companion. Statuettes? Poem? To dust.
But among other things
- when asking the owner of the painshop about better price, he mentions calling the player on an errant at a later time to complete the deal. Only, it never happens.
- you can't complete the quest of the lone soldier, because Gwen is nowhere to be found.
- and same for Randolph Carter, that could also be part of an expansion, but that's a bit off. Even more considering that you've got a full fledged follower seeking him.
// We are supposed to meet ''The Carion'' at Wessex hotel, but I never met him. I mean, I have an entry stating that I met him at Wessex Hotel, never happened. I 'heard' he was there from the receptionist. I also witnessed some girls being called in his room, but never actually saw the face of the guy.

And that's only what I am aware of.

The last two are wrong?

Spoiler

• Randolph Carter is found at the end of Stanley Fredkin's quest to gather electric parts and formaldehyde. In the basement.
• The Carrion is the guy in room 303 that you have to beat/outdrink/scare to get inside. The last two hotel floors become available in the stabber quest.

The starfarer isn't Randolf. Jack has to be dealt with one way or another to get into Julian's room.

Spoiler

Lol, there are 3 jars. The middle one is Randolf. You can even carry him around.

 

[Wunderbar]

From what I know:

Spoiler

The biggest offender is that soon after starting the game, your main task is to decipher the meaning of a poem and to unlock the mysteries of a certain statuette. It's like finding the Eye of Innos in Gothic 2.
But the game ends abruptly by sacrificing a companion. Statuettes? Poem? To dust.
But among other things
- when asking the owner of the painshop about better price, he mentions calling the player on an errant at a later time to complete the deal. Only, it never happens.
- you can't complete the quest of the lone soldier, because Gwen is nowhere to be found.
- and same for Randolph Carter, that could also be part of an expansion, but that's a bit off. Even more considering that you've got a full fledged follower seeking him.
// We are supposed to meet ''The Carion'' at Wessex hotel, but I never met him. I mean, I have an entry stating that I met him at Wessex Hotel, never happened. I 'heard' he was there from the receptionist. I also witnessed some girls being called in his room, but never actually saw the face of the guy.

And that's only what I am aware of.

The last two are wrong?

Spoiler

• Randolph Carter is found at the end of Stanley Fredkin's quest to gather electric parts and formaldehyde. In the basement.
• The Carrion is the guy in room 303 that you have to beat/outdrink/scare to get inside. The last two hotel floors become available in the stabber quest.

The starfarer isn't Randolf. Jack has to be dealt with one way or another to get into Julian's room.

Spoiler

Lol, there are 3 jars. The middle one is Randolf. You can even carry him around.

middle one is Stanley, left one is Star farer (not Randolf), and right one is some alien.

 

[Van-d-all]

From what I know:

Spoiler

The biggest offender is that soon after starting the game, your main task is to decipher the meaning of a poem and to unlock the mysteries of a certain statuette. It's like finding the Eye of Innos in Gothic 2.
But the game ends abruptly by sacrificing a companion. Statuettes? Poem? To dust.
But among other things
- when asking the owner of the painshop about better price, he mentions calling the player on an errant at a later time to complete the deal. Only, it never happens.
- you can't complete the quest of the lone soldier, because Gwen is nowhere to be found.
- and same for Randolph Carter, that could also be part of an expansion, but that's a bit off. Even more considering that you've got a full fledged follower seeking him.
// We are supposed to meet ''The Carion'' at Wessex hotel, but I never met him. I mean, I have an entry stating that I met him at Wessex Hotel, never happened. I 'heard' he was there from the receptionist. I also witnessed some girls being called in his room, but never actually saw the face of the guy.

And that's only what I am aware of.

The last two are wrong?

Spoiler

• Randolph Carter is found at the end of Stanley Fredkin's quest to gather electric parts and formaldehyde. In the basement.
• The Carrion is the guy in room 303 that you have to beat/outdrink/scare to get inside. The last two hotel floors become available in the stabber quest.

The starfarer isn't Randolf. Jack has to be dealt with one way or another to get into Julian's room.

Spoiler

Lol, there are 3 jars. The middle one is Randolf. You can even carry him around.

middle one is Stanley, left one is Star farer (not Randolf), and right one is some alien.

Oh, ok. My bad. That's what I get for playing til 4 in the morning. No wonder I thought Sonia's reaction was missing.

 

[Sloul]

Seems like I mixed up names. I was referring to Sonia's husband, the same guy we meet in a dream.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

We are supposed to meet ''The Carion'' at Wessex hotel, but I never met him.

My memory is hazy, but isn't carrion Wax Face's henchman? If so, i did certainly meet him.

You don't actually have to meet him if you play an Occultist. I mean, technically, I don't think there's any information in that branch of the investigation that you can't get from other sources, yet it's somehow required to unlock some completely unrelated answers.

Sure but that wasn't the point here though. That post was talking about cut content.

I'm just pointing out why he might have thought that guy was cut.
To be fair, while I'm disappointed with the amount of cut content, it's easy to understand why: the art style they've chose allows very little asset reuse. Their art pipeline - and budget - ended up being essentially that of Adventure game; and for an Adventure, 15-20 hours is a ridiculously high length, even without all the alternative paths and solutions. Even worse, they combined the most costly art aspects of Adventures and RPGs having both unique backgrounds and paperdoll-style character sprites. But given how essential the art style is in creating the atmosphere, which is one of the game's strongest points, I'd cut them some slack for not considering its cost properly.

I won't cut them slack because i don't think rewarding bad behavior is constructive. Doubly so because the cut content, specially the abrupt ending, has reportedly ruined an otherwise good game.

 

[Van-d-all]

Seems like I mixed up names. I was referring to Sonia's husband, the same guy we meet in a dream.

Actually I did, but it's cleared up now. Randolph Carter, Sonia's husband is missing from the game, as you wrote.

I won't cut them slack because i don't think rewarding bad behavior is constructive. Doubly so because the cut content, specially the abrupt ending, has reportedly ruined an otherwise good game.

Oh, I don't know, it's their first game and I honestly prefer a glitchy half of a good game, than a shitty whole game, like the ones the returning industry superstars are shoving up now (Underworld Ascendant, release day Wasteland 2, Numenara...). Plus, they'll probably be spared anyways, since the game is too small to make up a real fuss about being unfinished, and a lot of people won't even play enough to ever realize it.

On a side note, the technical level of glitches in Stygian seriously send shivers down my spine, because many of them are symptomatic to some really poor coding. Like the issues with load/save area state persistency point towards issues with event flag management; or glitches with modal windows...

 

[Sloul]

Couldn't agree more. I prefer a buggy mess of a prestigious game than a perfectly polished turd.

 

[Prime Junta]

Couldn't agree more. I prefer a buggy mess of a prestigious game than a perfectly polished turd.

In all fairness, polished turds are pretty cool.

 

[GentlemanCthulhu]

It's good to not lose sight of the game in question though. Stygian is not a "buggy, prestigious game". You can read my review a page or so back. I think it's just an average game. It would be an above average or even a good game if the story held up all the way and there were less save-ruining bugs.

I don't personally prefer incomplete, buggy messes over declining, yet complete and polished products. I dislike them both equally. The standard should be a complete, polished, prestigious game. While such a game is currently theoretical, i don't think it's reason to give under-delivering devs extra slack. They do make campaign promises during their kickstarters, and they charge money for their work at the end of the day.

 

[Sloul]

They just pacthed the game with a fix for Hunter and Aristocrat followers. https://steamcommunity.com/games/779290/announcements/detail/1580125491776524699
Also:

Sorry for not being super active in the forums. We are focusing 100 % on the patches, to fix the problems reported by you guys. We swear, that we will make it up to you Also expect a Stream tomorrow where we will talk about the state of the game and its future. I bet you also have tons of questions

 

[Tommy Wiseau]

What am I supposed to do after solving the mystery of the murders?

 

[Iluvcheezcake]

Atm the game is 1.0.4.

Think ill wait for a few more patches and restart my cursed aristocrat playthrough.

TBH so far ive had almost 30 hours of fun with it

 

[Egosphere]

What am I supposed to do after solving the mystery of the murders?

Back in town, you should witness cultists doing something, which will give you new objectives

 

[Cross]

As a little sidenote, if we get more Lovecraftian games in the future (which I'm starting to hope we won't given that they all end up being disappointing), I really hope that we will get a game that is not just a collection of Lovecraft stories. In my mind, you can be Lovecraftian without referencing Innsmouth in every goddamn game for example.

Write something that has similar sensibilities, unlocking the mysteries of the world, dealing with sanity and horror, all that shit. But do it without referencing Cthulhu or Dagon or all the other well known stuff that's been done to death. Keep the atmosphere but come up with new stuff. Getting a Cthulhu statuette is not interesting or mysterious, seeing the Marsh family referenced in every Lovecraft game ever made is not interesting or mysterious, having a quest essentially be The Whisperer in Darkness gives away the fact that yes, I will be meeting and probably fighting one of those flying Yuggoth cunts at some point. It goes on and on and on and it's not scary, it's not mysterious, it's not interesting. It's just "hey guys I get that reference, that's so cool!" and it's shitty.
Lovecraft is well known pop culture at this point. I have a Christmas Cthulhu plushie in my sofa. Cthulhu is nostalgic. It's not scary or interesting any more. It's been sucked dry of mystery.

Fuck the stories and come up with something new and have the "oooh it's a Lovecraftian game!" come from the atmosphere instead.

Already exists.

It's called Bloodborne.

Somehow I doubt that H.P. Lovecraft's creative vision included beating the shit out of Elder Gods in hand-to-hand combat.

 

[RNGsus]

Fuck me, Stygian's already 15% off. btw how do you find steam sales numbers?

 

[Strange Fellow]

Fuck me, Stygian's already 15% off.

Have you ever heard of a launch discount?

 

[Berekän]

Fuck me, Stygian's already 15% off. btw how do you find steam sales numbers?

Uuuuh, that's the launch discount.

 

[RNGsus]

Have you?

No, I have not heard of uh, launch discounts. I haven't bought a game at launch since Shogun 2 TW.

 

[Strange Fellow]

I'm not sure if you're trying to make some sort of joke, but most releases have 10-15% off the first week or so. Even Grimoire had a launch discount.