#but i guess nomura doesn't write documentation or what documentation he wrote was ignored

[volixia669]

Y’know, the Environment art of The Lochs gives me HUGE, “A lot of content from the end was cut” vibes.

Well, technically Stormblood in general has huge, “We gave the team writing the Doman section priority over the Ala Mhigan team” because uh...The main cuts from the Doman section seem to have more to do with Yotsuyu’s plotline than anything else. The last battle is a bit rushed, but the whole Deus ex Destroy the Palace thing aids in making the assault more realistic.

As for Ala Mhigo...You finally get to Castrum Abania and we’re still trying to tie up the whole rescue Krile thing, while also going almost immediately to an All OUt Assault that should lead to the final battle against Zenos.

Except.

Ala Mhigo is a fucking FORTRESS. A fortress with two main weak points. A small wooden door on the side, and a small metal door on the side.

Additionally, the lochs have the Lochwatch and the Sothwatch, two watchtowers of strategic importance yet there’s not a single Imperial there.

In fact there’s NO imperials on the bridge which is...odd?

There’s also that area with Spectres and the tomb of a King which may have importance in a patch but seems...Forgotten.

As is the Royal Hunting Grounds, which I could have SWORN Zenos invited you to, and yet all we do is nab pheasant feathers?

It leads me to suspect that in the dev of Stormblood, a few things happened:

-The original plan was to explore more points within the Lochs and have a longer more drawn out siege/battle.

-Another Zenos fight scene? Some fucked up commentary on what he uses the hunting grounds for? Something?

-The original plan was for the Ala Mhigan campaign to show more horrors of war, and how brutal occupations are similar to Doma, and how the story starts. (Remember the guy who had to pay tribute to the Skulls? THe guy with the chocobo? Remember him?)

-These notes on what would be needed were sent to the environmental level designers who begun blocking out the areas with placeholder assets while the narrative was still being finalized

-The original narrative was deemed too long, the Doman narrative prefered, but between Ilberd’s narrative arc, and Yugiri’s narrative arc, they couldn’t just nix one or the other. So things got cut.

-Communication breakdown between Narrative and Environmental teams (it happens) occurs, and, well, by the time the super duper final version of the story is approved, well, between asset reuse, the fact most of it is just rocks, and other factors, the environment is mostly done.

-Also I think the UI team got the map and points in fairly early.

-So then Level Design just ends up making adjustments on where enemies are, etc, based on finalized narrative, and thus this odd feeling of “there should be more here”

This is of course just me guessing based on what I know of dev process. But yeah. It’s off. There’s stuff missing. Game dev be like that. Of course there’s things I forget from pre-my most recent hiatus and there’s still five patches I need to get through after this grand battle. So maybe more gets used! But its odd more doesn’t get used earlier.