Why does Awakening give you multiple choices if they all lead to the same results?

[IceBrand]

When I played chapter 9 for the first time, I was really nervous on what choice I made. I thought that whatever action I make will affect the rest of the game. So much in fact that I restarted the chapter over to see what the other choice would lead to. Sadly, it was just different dialogue and the same result. My suspension of disbelief was ruin since I knew that the next time an option like that appears my choice wouldn't matter.

[Anacybele]

Yeah, that was kind of dumb. I was disappointed too. :/

[Interceptor]

It's just a cheap way to make you feel more a part of the story. As you saw, it can backfire.

[Ϲharlie]

It's dumb, but it's not like it hasn't been happening in JRPG's for the longest time. Try refusing Banon's offer to join the Returners in Final Fantasy VI three times and see what happens.

[Roflolxp54]

Insult to injury is the fact that you can press the Start button to SKIP the entire cutscene, thus making the choices pointless/nonexistent.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Roflolxp54

[IceBrand]

It's dumb, but it's not like it hasn't been happening in JRPG's for the longest time. Try refusing Banon's offer to join the Returners in Final Fantasy VI three times and see what happens.

But that's a problem altogether. Why give the player an option if the choices affect nothing in the story?

[Refa]

It's dumb, but it's not like it hasn't been happening in JRPG's for the longest time. Try refusing Banon's offer to join the Returners in Final Fantasy VI three times and see what happens.

You get something out of it though, so the choice did have an impact on the player's experience.

[Interceptor]

But that's a problem altogether. Why give the player an option if the choices affect nothing in the story?

At least it's better than a "but thou must" situation.

[Buttocksinator]

Emm still decides to kill herself and Grima would still try to assimilate you regardless of the choices you take, so it's not like there is a reason for it to heavily impact the story. It's like your mother asking you to take the trash out, it will end up the same way, just in one instance you get slapped across the face which only effects the immediate conversation. I didn't mind them, and the option to skip means I don't have to worry about watching long cutscenes on future playthroughs. Just another opportunity for role play.

[Etria]

Because game designer haven't realised yet how much bullshit these pseudo-choices are? Same reason why I now hate Dragon Age 2. Choices my ass. I was never so angry about "choices".

When I first played chapter 9 I was cautiously hoping that Awakening would actually do something with choices so I immediately restarted after watching the cutscene. After seeing that it didn't change anything, I knew what to expect so I didn't give much of a fuck about chapter 21.

[RJWalker]

Illusion of Choice

It's actually not that uncommon. Even a series like Mass Effect uses it regularly. You get multiple dialogue options but the end result is usually similar with cosmetic differences. But that game is built upon player choices so naturally. And yet there are still vastly different outcomes as well. This creates problems when you get to the conclusion as anyone familair with the Mass Effect 3 ending fiasco will tell you.

And Awakening is not a game build upon such player choices so I have no idea why the few choices you do get are completely meaningless.

[Crooks]

To try to force you to feel more connected to the story, but it's cheap and poorly done. It doesn't affect anything in the future, it only changes a small amount of dialogue before the ~~ultimate outcome~~. The game focuses a lot on the future, fate, and destiny, so the choices are actually interesting, or would have been, if they had mattered.

If it had at least changed some dialogue in the future, then it would have felt like it mattered. All it changed was the dialogue in the immediate situation, making it pointless.

I can think of a lot of games that give you serious choices that do effect the gameplay and dialogue, including in future installments of the series if there are any, but those games' choices are much more frequent than Awakening's choices.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Crooks

[shadowofchaos]

I even restarted the chapter 9 completely in 2012 to see if anything changed.

Asdf.

[GinRei]

At least it isn't a key marketing aspect of the game, unlike Tales of Xillia 2. Like Awakening, 99% of the choices you make only affect the dialogue being said immediately after it. There's really only 3 choices in that game that actually change anything for the different endings, despite the marketing that every decision matters.

[Queen Sars]

I thought the same too when I first played through so I tried answering what I thought would be the right thing to do...and then found out it didn't matter. Is this the first time in the series they do present choices like this, or is it just Awakening? I mean, it's a little disappointing that it doesn't effect the future of the game, but at least it effects the current conversation. I've ran into these in other games to the point that it just makes me ask "why bother"?

[Ownagepuffs]

At least it isn't a key marketing aspect of the game, unlike Tales of Xillia 2. Like Awakening, 99% of the choices you make only affect the dialogue being said immediately after it. There's really only 3 choices in that game that actually change anything for the different endings, despite the marketing that every decision matters.

ToX2 gives you awesome shit like dual mystic rates so I ain't even mad. And at the very least ToX2 has the balls to give you a bad ending (a really messed up one, at that) that shows the consequence of picking 1 person over the world whereas in Awakening it is more along the lines of "lulz someone else will handle it you're too awesome to die Robin!"

So yeah, ToX2 is a bad comparison in this case.

[neolyn]

At least the number of time we have to choose is limited. not like in mass effect where you make choices during all the freaking games which have repercutions into the next and in the end your final choice is not influenced by any of them.

[Ϲharlie]

You get something out of it though, so the choice did have an impact on the player's experience.

You get something out of it either way, though. It's just a choice between a gauntlet and a genji glove.

Here's another example: Heeding the Mist Dragon's warning and returning to Baron in Final Fantasy IV. That gets you a whole lot of nothing.

[Rehab]

On one hand, I disagree that Mass Effect's "cosmetic differences" are always that bad, though they're far from preferable. There's at least some room for role-playing in mass effect despite the limited choices, even if it is kind of railroadey; there's more room for players to have different interpretations of what their Shepards thought and why they acted how they acted than if it were just a cutscene. And all of what DAII got wrong or messy taken into account, I did still like how Hawke would form a "personality" depending on which of the 3 sorts of dialogue choices you had chosen most, and respond differently in the next parts of the game accordingly ("diplomatic Hawke" having different responses in all 3 dialogue choices lategame from "deathly smarm Hawke," etc. I think that was cool)

The alternative as in Awakening is just rubbing your nose in it. It's not even an illusion of choice, it's watching a fed-up magic performer drop their hat and seeing the rabbit was in it the whole time. It's worse than nothing- it stokes distrust from the player.

[NoNameAtAll]

Golden Sun, Final Fantasy IV Advance (Kain's trial)...

This is nothing new.

[Ownagepuffs]

This is why Tactics Ogre: LUCT is so amazing. Your choices had one hell of an impact on the story. Denam was a Lord too, coincidentally enough. The next Fire Emblem should really be split path.

Imagine what would happen if Awakening was split path. If submitting to Grima made you fight your party that would be something.

[IceBrand]

Golden Sun, Final Fantasy IV Advance (Kain's trial)...

This is nothing new.

Just because it as has been done before does not excuse it from being bad.

[Loki Laufeyson]

This is actually the thing (besides wasted potential and Emmeryn) that pisses me off the most about the game. Like i was legit angry that no matter what, Emmeryn jumped off that fucking cliff. Chrom always interrupted Lucina and Avatar. Grima falls no matter what. While, in fairness, the endgame choice DOES have an impact, it doesnt make up for the nonsense from earlier in the game. (plus Avatar lives anyway.)

Its cheap and that angers me. IS has made in-game choices matter in other games. (or result in a non-standard game over. Thank you, Paper Mario.) Especially since in RD, theres a choice you can make that really does matter. I just...oooooo...

[Anacybele]

Oh yeah, RD DID give you a choice like that, didn't it? The part where you can choose whether to have Micaiah kill Pelleas. Makes Awakening's use of choices look even dumber now.

[IceBrand]

Oh yeah, RD DID give you a choice like that, didn't it? The part where you can choose whether to have Micaiah kill Pelleas. Makes Awakening's use of choices look even dumber now.

To be fair when you're on your first play through, both of the two option leads to the same fate. It's only on the second trip this changes.