Hi EHG and friends. It’s me, Immersturm.
So once upon a time (about two weeks ago), I applied to EHG’s Narrative Designer opening. I haven’t heard back from them yet, but I’m not holding my breath - nothing against EHG, of course, I just know it’s a tough job to get. All the same, whether I get the job or not, I still feel it’s worth putting my thoughts on the state of Last Epoch’s story with hopes that, if nothing else, they kickstart some ideas that help the game improve narrative-wise. I’m loving the game so far, and I’d love to see it grow between now and its full release.
Saddle up boys, girls, and those of unspecified gender! We’re going on a trip.
So right now what we’re looking at with Last Epoch is a world that has a history. A lot of history, in fact - more than 200 years’ worth of history. The trouble is, as a player, I have difficulty getting invested in this universe without a certain amount of context, or a grounding point to latch on to. Let’s put it this way: the average person probably hasn’t lived through an apocalypse, but people will always gravitate towards people and emotions.
Let’s see an example in another game, similar to Last Epoch. Grim Dawn, like Last Epoch, features a post-apocalyptic setting, but without the time travel. The world ended, and now iron is prized more than gold. It’s gritty, it’s dark, and in many cases, it’s remarkably twisted. The trouble is, then, that while the universe is certainly interesting if you ask a hardcore Grim Dawn fan’s opinion of the story, they probably wouldn’t even be able to remember the names of the major quest-givers.
But you know what I can practically guarantee they’ll remember? The “Trip South.”
Grim Dawn features a “lore log” system - the player goes out into the world and picks up fragments of journals, written by NPC’s. One of them is a three-part series called “Trip South.” It features a mother and a daughter, and they’re stranded in thoroughly inhospitable mountains. Their descent into madness and cannibalism would tug at the heartstrings if it didn’t create so many knots in the stomach. Despite its brevity, it ties into universal feelings that every human ever born has felt: hope, hunger, and desperation.
In the opening moments of Last Epoch, we’re dropped headfirst into a world with lore that the average person has no clue about. There are bird-people called Osprix attacking people on the road? They’re clearly organized - why is this empire attacking random passers-by? Sure, we learn later that they’re getting spurred on by Rahyeh, but at that moment it’s very, very alien, and it’s difficult to connect emotionally to something that’s alien. This gets compounded by the fact that you’re abruptly pulled over 1000 years into the future within the opening 30 minutes, and it’s a brand new timeline with fresh enemies and lore. Whatever attachments and understanding of the world you might have formed gets immediately dropped, and you don’t get to really revisit that era for several chapters.
For me, I would say that the immediate way to solve this issue would be to provide that human connection, which can be accomplished in a couple of different ways.
A fresh series of side-quests could be drawn up, with characters that exhibit a greater amount of personality, and who stick around longer than a single quest. Elder Erza and Artem have a conflict of interest in that they both want Erza’s ledger, and we get a snippet of what each is like, with Erza being arrogant and snooty and Artem being a little more flippant, a little shiftier, a little more apt to bend (or break) the law. That kind of conflict and character dynamic could have been further developed and expanded upon, but that quest is it. They’re around for a single side quest, open and shut, and this happens with nearly every side quest in the game. Recurring characters are exceptionally rare in Last Epoch, so it’s difficult to get attached, and those who do stick around are just a tad wooden. I’m sorry, but I’m up to Chapter 9, and Yulia’s defining character feature seems to be saying “Oh, I serve the Immortal Emperor in the future? Sounds unlikely.”
Last Epoch would absolutely benefit from its own “lore log” system. Going back to Grim Dawn, players were encouraged to explore and seek out these hidden logs for the slight experience boost they would provide upon acquisition. Each entry was kept pretty brief, with an average length of about 3 short paragraphs. Likewise, a similar system was in play in Diablo 3, with lore entries being found out in the world or acquired upon slaying an enemy. Perhaps Last Epoch players would be motivated to seek these out for an experience boost, or another kind of reward.
Depending on the budget, the guidebook could even receive a whole separate section dedicated to the game’s world, complete with art complementing each entry. An example of this in play might be a player being able to click on a fallen Osprix statue, and receiving a guidebook entry on their empire and way of life. This could also help solve some of the lighter, less pressing questions the world poses (i.e. the current dating system uses either “b.e.” or “a.g.,” but I haven’t found what either of these terms means; is it “before empire” and “after godhood?” Or is it something else entirely?). Whatever you do though, EHG, don’t make the same mistake that Diablo 3 did with its lore log system, in that you only receive lore on the boss after killing it. The suspense would have been built to a much greater degree if the boss and its killing potential were described before we wound up killing it.
I would, overall, strongly recommend tightening the game’s focus with its narrative. What is our goal, as a character in Last Epoch, other than to get cool loot and awesome powers? Ostensibly, it’s to stop the end of the world. Okay, how do we do that? Well, we need to stop the Void. To stop the Void, we need to kill the Immortal Emperor. Before we kill the Immortal Emperor, we need to kill Rahyeh. Before we kill Rahyeh, we need the Lance of Heorot, along with Heorot’s blessing. Then we need Lagon and Majasa’s blessings, too. But before we can get their blessings, we need to go around the world and collect the seven MacGuffin Muffins. At this point, the story has more or less folded in on itself for me. Who is our main antagonist? Is it the Void, the Immortal Emperor, Rahyeh, or Orobyss? We need a singular antagonist, one who’s well-defined and developed. If our big bad is the Immortal Emperor, we need to know more about him and how he rose to power. If it’s the Void, we need to be constantly reminded that it’s out there, and it’s always looking for a way into our timeline.
At the same time, with this lack of focus, events that should have been prominent, even tragic, to the player have become completely glossed over (at least from my point of view). We kill an Admiral Harton and a Spymaster Zerrick, but when we meet their pre-Empire versions, I had no idea who they even were. When my character told Harton “Hey, your name sounds kinda familiar,” I thought he might’ve been one of Elder Pannion’s students who were overtaken by the Void. I had to look both of them up to make the connection. I think the impact of both characters’ boss fights could have been amplified significantly if we had a connection to these characters beforehand, or at least built up their role in the story when we first meet them in their undead forms. As it stands, I just kind of ran into Spymaster Zerrick as I was muddling through the desert and I had little to no idea of his greater significance to the story.
Okay, I’ve gone on for about four pages double-spaced, and we’re nearing the end of my TED Talk. I won’t lie: in a perfect world, I would absolutely leap at the chance to join EHG, and maybe a small part of me is wishing this little essay might garner some attention from the higher-ups on that front. But I sincerely hope that, if nothing else, I came across as respectful and helpful. You guys have definitely built something great here, with a fascinating world and an intriguing story, and I am so excited to see where you take it.
Regards,
Sturm
P.S. - When writing dialogue, you probably want to use “cannot” instead of “can not.” Both are technically correct, but “cannot” just reads a little better.