Hard Choices

[Wolf Kanno]

How do you feel about games that force you to make a choice you can't back out of? Whether the choice is simply concerning certain items or one that may change the course of the story itself, do you like having big choices that change the game or do you prefer smaller more inconsequential choices so you don't wonder about that "road less traveled"?

[Pumpkin]

I quite like them. It makes your choices have actual, meaningful impact. Plus adds some replay value. I prefer when they literally affect the progression of the game.

That being said, while I don't mind general humanitarian dilemmas, I have a much harder time with cultural dilemmas because, like... I know what I prefer but that doesn't mean that what I like is better for the culture, you know? I don't know what the best decision is for these fictional cultures

[Spuuky]

They're great and I wish that most games let you meaningfully impact the world and story arc, but almost none do, usually the "choices" are just token choices that don't really mean anything in the end.

[Del Murder]

I like them but I'm always second guessing myself. I often read spoilers to see what the choice leads to so that I make the best decision. I like it best when the games have return points so you can see how the other choice plays out. Like in Tactics Ogre or Radiant Historia. Otherwise, it is probably less stressful for me when they aren't in there.

I also like seeing my choices have an effect later on but it gets annoying when the game is part of a series. Choosing to kill off a major character limits what the writers can do with that character in later games. So if I like that character and allow them to survive it doesn't really change their role in future installments. Mass Effect actually did this pretty well since you can kill off most of your characters but the ones you keep alive can still have major roles in the later games. However, in Dragon Age Inquisition, one of the major choices allows you to kill off (SPOILER)Hawke which means we probably won't see him in any major role for a later installment.

[Pete for President]

I made spoiler tags because this meme contains the f-word (sorry admins!) but for anyone who has played Dark Souls this totally belongs in this thread! That Forest Covenant yes or no choice, omg.

Care for languageveBvUyv.jpg

[Vermachtnis]

Choices are great. An evolving ever changing world is great. It's always fun to talk with other people about how a scene played out differently in their playthrough. And I like roleplaying and thinking about what the character would do. But it's also because of that, that I hate choices between items. I will always pick the one with the better stats even if the other choice is more lore heavy.

[Spuuky]

However, in Dragon Age Inquisition, one of the major choices allows you to kill off (SPOILER)Hawke which means we probably won't see him in any major role for a later installment.

(SPOILER)*her

[Madame Adequate]

I like tough choices when they're meaningful and feel like they make sense. Sometimes it's just a really obvious cheap ploy though.

[Vincent, Thunder God]

What bothers me about choices is that they often follow a good/evil dichotomy, and mixing up your dialog responses will usually limit your persuasion abilities by endgame and also the game won't often recognize a user-chosen dramatic change in choice between the good or evil path. I would like to see a game that is intelligent enough to realize moments when a sudden change in a character towards good or evil is recognized and it impacts the story, and doesn't punish the player for sometimes picking a more sarcastic choice for fun even if you're playing a mostly "good" character.

[Forsaken Lover]

Choices and roleplaying is what drew me to WRPGs after a lifetime of playing JRPGs.

Big or small, I like having that control. I also think the people who get into debates about "how much did they REALLY matter?" are annoying. The changes being minor or superficial just don't matter to me. Unless the choice you made was huge and climatic, like giving the most powerful object in the galaxy to a group. Nothing of substance coming from that is dumb.

Heavy Rain had choices too, which is another reason I love it. The fourth trial is really hard because of this.

[Galuf]

Liked them in ME

i guess Undertale was similair too.

yeah theyre pretty nice

[Elly]

i dislike them... usually with "hard choices" we lose the possibility of ever 100% a game on a single play-through, due to a "hard choice" forcing something or someone to be excluded...

[theundeadhero]

I don't feel the need to control the world around me. I'm fine whether choices are there or not.

[Skyblade]

Does character customization count? Because my GOSH I have spent so much time on those choices, and they are some of the hardest I've faced in gaming.

[VeloZer0]

I actually really dislike storyline choices in games. When I see a choice I don't think "what do I want to do?" I think "which of these options do I want to be locked out of?"

I also feel it really weakens the story. Having a much more linear story progression allows them to write a much tighter and cohesive plot. (Whether they do so is another story...) Tactic Ogre had great plot lines, however because you could chose from multiple paths I felt the whole thing was cheapened and I had no investment in any of them.