ABANDONED: Broken Sword: Director's Cut

[kjorteo]

Just doing some bookkeeping here. I haven't actually picked this game up and tried it again recently; I'm just making this entry to make the abandonment official. Technically I started it in the past, it was on "I should try that again one of these days" status, and then conversing with xyzzysqrl convinced me that, no, I shouldn't.

Broken Sword is a game about about Nico Collard, a French writer investigating a murder with conspiratorial undertones. The situation turns increasingly grim as she gets closer to uncovering things she shouldn't, but throughout it all she remains a cool, poised, witty, and enjoyable heroic figure.

Oops, excuse me, sorry.

Broken Sword is a game about George Stobbart, an American on vacation in France, who wrong-place-wrong-times himself into being the star of this investigation despite being a flirty, air-headed obnoxious tourist. His job is to bumble his way around the screen and make you wish you had Nico back.

Wait, no, one more try.

Broken Sword: Director's Cut is an enhanced remake of the first Broken Sword game (Shadow of the Templars.) It has been compared to the enhanced edition remakes of the original Star Wars movies, in that it takes a cherished property and completely butchers it in an attempt to add new content that no one actually asked for. The original game is a George Stobbart vehicle, with Nico as a supporting NPC who may eventually become more of a central character around Broken Sword 3 or 4. Director's Cut went back and added an expanded prologue and a few interstitial scenes where the player temporarily plays as her, though the actual game which is still about George.

I didn't know any of this, because I'd never played a Broken Sword game before. Everything I just said about these two is secondhand info I passed along after xyzzysqrl explained this all to me. (I still don't know anything more than what she told me and thus what I've repeated here, so no spoilers please.)

Extra Nico is well and good. Nico is awesome, and the Nico-led prologue was my favorite part of how far I got in this game. The problem is that they made her great at the cost of completely assassinating George's character. I was able to confirm this after Sqrl pointed it out by looking up YouTube longplays: they rewrote George's dialogue to change him from slightly naive yet still likeable hero type to self-centered dumbass.

I had previously shelved this game over the sense of disappointment over going from an awesome Nico-led prologue to "awww you mean now I have to play as this dork?" Seeing those two videos side by side was what convinced me not to go back and try the Director's Cut version again. Shadow of the Templars, for as much as Director's Cut clearly wishes it weren't, is still a George Stobbart game. The Nico scenes don't actually go anywhere, because they can't; the story is pretty firmly set with George's plot and with where things pick up in Broken Sword 2, so there really isn't a whole lot of room to invent anything new for Nico to be up to in the meantime. Instead, they basically sacrificed George for nothing, and then left you stuck in the ruins anyway. "Haha, isn't Nico just better than this version of George in every measurable way?" this game asks. "Well, too bad; this is still Broken Sword 1 and you still have to play as George, even though we made him an insufferable dipshit now."

What I'm saying here is that this game feels like it was written by Nico herself after a messy breakup with George, as far as which one is painted in the better light. It's a very Emmet and Wyldstyle relationship, even down to the fact that Emmet is still the hero anyway and that's bullshit. And the worst part about it all is that the ploy worked; I definitely love Nico and hate George now. And that's... unfortunate. It wasn't supposed to be like this, probably. (Other Broken Sword fans in the audience please confirm.)

I do still intend to give this overall series another chance someday, but I'll be going back to the original version when I do. Not because of purism or anything, but because if you're going to make me play through two or three Broken Sword games before I actually get Nico, the least you can do is make George tolerable until then.

Comments

[xyzzysqrl]

I am both apologetic for ruining this game for you and not sorry at all.

[kjorteo]

Nah, you didn't ruin this game for me. This game ruined itself by seemingly designing itself around making you resent/be comparatively disappointed by one of the characters and then saddling you with that same character. Like, if you go out of your way to make me not want to play as this guy, then tell me I have to, I'm going to get discouraged and play something else.

If anything, you saved the rest of the series (or at least gave it a fighting chance; admittedly Director's Cut poisoned George bad enough that I'll have a lot to unlearn by the time I start the originals) by cluing me into the fact that, hey, normally it's not like that.

[xaq_the_aereon]

This reminds me an awful lot of a game I picked up for the 3DS, "Castlevania: the Dracula X Chronicles." It had 2 games, including Symphony of the Night, on it, which apparently included all of the content the PS1 version cut and improved voice acting/dialogue.

...But in order to play it you had to unlock it in the other game on it, Rondo of Blood. :[

Uhh, I'm sorry, what?

[kjorteo]

Eh, "improved" the dialogue. The old was at least a meme; the new version they fixed up just enough to make it okay and therefore incredibly forgettable. Also, I miss Alucard's original voice actor. :(

[xaq_the_aereon]

Ah. Well, I never got to that point (mostly out of being outraged by the fact that I didn't have immediate access to the whole reason I bought the damn thing), so I wouldn't know. :/

[penguinmayhem]

I have never played a Castlevania and I can recite that scene from memory it is basically the best thing about Symphony Of The Night how could you remake it that should be a crime.

[kjorteo]

I know right.

Like, what is this nonsense.

First off, okay that's actually a really good Dracula VA and Richter isn't terrible either, but it's not like their original voices were bad. I think Dracula has more pathos in the final battle but other than that it's kind of, like, either is fine?

On the other hand, I hate to say this because going from Robert Belgrade to Yuri Lowenthal is probably an upgrade star-power-wise, but... no, I'm really sorry but I have to say it: what happened to poor Alucard.

And the actual line changes... yeah. Like I said, I get that the PSX version is infamous at this point, but wow that sure is some average dialogue now.

[xyzzysqrl]

Huh.
I'd advise giving that a try, at least. Rondo of Blood is often brought up as the single best traditional-style Castlevania game ever, and original copies of the PC Engine version still sell for $100+ on eBay.

It might not be what you wanted, but it's still pretty good.

[EDIT] After hitting Youtube, I see they did an overhaul on the graphics on Rondo of Blood.

I can see why you'd nope out.

[swordianmaster]

It's not even a "clear the game" bonus or "play a couple of hours".

No, in order to unlock SotN and Original Version Rondo of Blood (which are both unlockables in the game, mind you), you have to find them as hidden collectibles within the 3D Rondo's stages.

Did I mention that Chronicles controls about half as good as Original Rondo does (it's not quite SNES Draculax bad, but it's getting there) and has some serious issues with hitboxes/floor detection?

Yeah. Yeah.

[xaq_the_aereon]

That was my greatest gripe with it. The unlock requirement for those should have been more along the lines of "buy the game."

Yeah, I think I'll keep any SotN reminiscence to my PSX emulator, thanks.

[swordianmaster]

Hell, if you have a PSP and a pressing need to play SotN on it, I think the Playstation Store lets you buy it. That might just be Vita though, I don't know.

[xaq_the_aereon]

I technically do, but it's about 540 miles away at the moment.


(Side note: Apologies for inadvertently hijacking your post, Celine! ^_^;; )

[kjorteo]

Believe me, I do not mind getting a flood of comments, even unrelated-to-me ones when two other commenters are off talking to each other about something like that. It tells me that what we have here on Dreamwidth is an active community, and holy God did I miss that after LiveJournal fizzled and Tumblr was a cesspit.

[xaq_the_aereon]

"Was?"

[kjorteo]

Before I left there to focus on here, you see. I mean it undoubtedly still is, but that's no longer a problem I personally deal with.

[xaq_the_aereon]

Ah. Fair point.

[kjorteo]

On the other hand....