The problem with "400 Days" is in the title

Catedratico

Let me start by saying I really liked 400 days. It was a good taste of TWD, even if it didn't have the deets of what happened to Clem, Omid, and Christa, but it was definitely a ten. Get out of my head Nate:eek:!

Regardless, those of you who have read my other posts know by now that I'm a stickler for consistent time continuity within a game. That's why 400 Days bugs me.

Season 1 ends 3 to 4 months into the apocalypse. It was 3 months in at the start of episode 2, episode 3 seems to have happened a few days to a couple of weeks after that (judging by Kenny asking if Clementine was still mad about the station wagon and the fact that Ben had time to get tangled up with the bandits), and episodes 3-5 were back to back. That's roughly 120ish days in.

The only storylines that have happened by then in 400 Days are Vince's in the prison bus and Wyatt's in the beater. No Russell. No Bonnie. No Shel. The old couple hasn't been shot at the truck stop yet, Roman's group hasn't taken the place, and we have no idea where the other characters are and who they're with yet, since they haven't all gotten together to form the camp where Oprah finds them yet.

That means one of two things. Either season 2 is going to start more than nine months after the events of episode 5 to integrate all the choices made in 400 Days, or the story will pick up where it left off with Clem and the two strangers on the hill and none of the the later 400 Days choices will matter.

The first possibility is... disappointing. I was hoping to find out what happened to Clementine, Omid, and Christa without a massive flash-forward. If the story does make that kind of jump, either everyone from season 1 is dead, or they've gone so far down their own path since then that our choices as Lee mean nothing. If they survive, in nine months, Christa will have given birth (assuming that's not just a red herring by Telltale) and Clementine will have found a new group (I can't imagine her surviving on her own for almost a full year).

The second possibility is demoralizing. If telltale built a DLC that was supposed to tie season 1 and 2 together, only to make half the content in said DLC inapplicable to season 2... that's not a very good tie-in.

Which route do you think Telltale will go down, and which one would you rather they go down? Is there some third possibility I haven't mentioned?

Kaserkin

I totally agree with you. 400 days after the beginning of the epidemic is kind of a strecht. If is was 200 it would be slightly better, having a smaller gap.

Crixus

Yeah I agree I think 400 days was way too much,200 days would have been fine

thestalkinghead

there could be some big time skips, so you could start the game with clementine just after the epilogue, then time skips maybe more than once to 400 days and we continue on the story

Crixus

Also in regards to a third option i'd recommend something like starting Season 2 Episode 1 straight after episode 5 with Clem on the hill. Maybe by the end of episode 1 they find the community then do a few months timeskip into Episode 2 and then maybe another few months timeskip into episode 3 so by the end of episode 2 or 3 you should be up to 400 days,then episode 4 and 5 continue on from there I guess.

thestalkinghead

umm... yeah, great idea Crixus

Crixus

thestalkinghead wrote: »

umm... yeah, great idea Crixus

Thanks, Telltale would have saved themselves so much work and hassle when it comes to writing if they had just limited it to 200 days.

thestalkinghead

:eek: :cool:

RainbowKitten

I don't think Telltale would have said 400 day choices would effect season 2 if that's the case.

I have a feeling gameplay WILL start at the settlement with those that left with Tavia but Clem will be there also and the two figures in the distance will be one of the first things answered. Hopefully because it WAS Omid and Crista and all 3 are now at the settlement. I have a feeling Clem will mention the figures/how she ended up there either way though. There may even be a short introduction that reveals the figures before the gameplay actually starts.

Also for Lee's story. We know the beginning of episode 2 was 3 months in so I like to think episodes 2 - 5 didn't all happen in the space of a month. We don't know how long they were on the train for, they spent quite a while looking for a boat and getting to Crawford and back again, no one knows time or dates. Also Savannah/Marsh House was absolutely crowded with Zombies yet at the end Clem is in countryside that shows absolutely no sign of walkers so it must have taken Clem a while to get there.

HelloCthulhu

Not to mention Lee was out cold in that cop car for a good while.

CreeperX

Crixus wrote: »

Also in regards to a third option i'd recommend something like starting Season 2 Episode 1 straight after episode 5 with Clem on the hill. Maybe by the end of episode 1 they find the community then do a few months timeskip into Episode 2 and then maybe another few months timeskip into episode 3 so by the end of episode 2 or 3 you should be up to 400 days,then episode 4 and 5 continue on from there I guess.

I was thinking something like this too. I think it would be the best solution because then you would see the effects of your decision from both Season 1 and 400 Days. How cool would it be that while you are heading towards the 400 days mark, you could see familiar characters from the DLC who are in the situations you made them to be. Like, you could run into Nate and if you had Russ stay with him, then they will be travelling as a pair. In turn Russell's presence could effect the way the encounter goes and also show glimpses how good/bad they actually get along. Same goes for many other characters like Bonnie or Vince. Vince accompanied by Danny would be different than one accompanied by Justin and so on. That would be sweet.

RainbowKitten

I also like Crixus idea of having episode 1 set straight after Clem and the figures on the hill. With the start of episode 2 being a few months later to tie in the 400 days survivors.

Bioshock Infinite WD

I thought that would be a good idea to, and it's be doing that 404 crap on me all morning.

Hudomonkey

I honestly think Nate and Eddie are likely to be the people who turn up...
I mean Eddie is before Season 1 ends and Nate is only some time after end of season 1...
Also I don't think skipping most of a year is a good idea and Immortal characters don't work well...

Hudomonkey

RainbowKitten wrote: »

I don't think Telltale would have said 400 day choices would effect season 2 if that's the case.

I have a feeling gameplay WILL start at the settlement with those that left with Tavia but Clem will be there also and the two figures in the distance will be one of the first things answered. Hopefully because it WAS Omid and Crista and all 3 are now at the settlement. I have a feeling Clem will mention the figures/how she ended up there either way though. There may even be a short introduction that reveals the figures before the gameplay actually starts.

Also for Lee's story. We know the beginning of episode 2 was 3 months in so I like to think episodes 2 - 5 didn't all happen in the space of a month. We don't know how long they were on the train for, they spent quite a while looking for a boat and getting to Crawford and back again, no one knows time or dates. Also Savannah/Marsh House was absolutely crowded with Zombies yet at the end Clem is in countryside that shows absolutely no sign of walkers so it must have taken Clem a while to get there.

They couldn't have been on the train for more than a day and episode 3 couldn't be more than a couple of weeks after episode 2...
Kenny in episode 4 says 'I've only known you to for about 18 hours'
And Kenny in Episode 3 says 'Is your girl still mad about what we did last week'
They also spent only around a day in Savannah from the looks of it...
It looks like Season 1 ended within a fortnight of episode 2...

Piast

Bioshock Infinite WD wrote: »

I thought that would be a good idea to, and it's be doing that 404 crap on me all morning.

For some weird reason this happens to me too but only in the morning...

Bioshock Infinite WD

Well it's a first for me.

DomeWing333

I think they’re going with the first possibility you mentioned. It may be a little disappointing, but it makes the most sense given that the game is essentially a first person narrative seen through the eyes of the player character, and the player character can only have direct knowledge and experience of events that he or she is involved in. So unless we were going to be playing as Omid, Christa, Clem or whoever she might have encountered up there on the hill in Season 2, there would be no way for us to be shown what happened since our player character wouldn’t have been involved in those events. I’d imagine that when we eventually meet Clem/Omid/Christa/whoever, we’ll have a few dialogue options to find out more about the events that took place, but probably no more than that. Kinda sucks but that’s life. You don’t always get the director’s cut.

loop hole

RainbowKitten wrote: »

I don't think Telltale would have said 400 day choices would effect season 2 if that's the case.

I have a feeling gameplay WILL start at the settlement with those that left with Tavia but Clem will be there also and the two figures in the distance will be one of the first things answered. Hopefully because it WAS Omid and Crista and all 3 are now at the settlement. I have a feeling Clem will mention the figures/how she ended up there either way though. There may even be a short introduction that reveals the figures before the gameplay actually starts.

Also for Lee's story. We know the beginning of episode 2 was 3 months in so I like to think episodes 2 - 5 didn't all happen in the space of a month. We don't know how long they were on the train for, they spent quite a while looking for a boat and getting to Crawford and back again, no one knows time or dates. Also Savannah/Marsh House was absolutely crowded with Zombies yet at the end Clem is in countryside that shows absolutely no sign of walkers so it must have taken Clem a while to get there.

I think episode 5's ending is a little over a week after episode 2’s ending. Ep3 began no more than a week after the station wagon incident because Kenny asked Lee if Clem was still upset about him taking the supplies last week. By nightfall the group have long left the motor inn and Doug or Carly are killed off. A day after that Duck and Kat die in the afternoon then Lee meets Christa a few hours later and they continue their journey to Savannah. I think the train ride was a few hours and they arrived later in the afternoon since there wasn’t any caption stating a day had past and there was no mention in dialogue off the group stopping over anywhere to camp. They go onto Crawford probably after midnight. Then they leave in the morning. Lee has a little nap whilst Kenny works on the boat, a few hours later Lee awakes and finds out Clem is missing. Less than an hour after that he goes to the morgue and then he probably finds Clem in the evening. I think Clem may have reached the field the next day after hiding out. That’s my take on it anyway.

Viner16

We'll see what happens.