Hearing Randy say that he's got plans for Fiona and Sasha is honestly terrifying tbh
They couldn't even be bothered to bring back one of the most important tales character besides Rhys lmao i've got a feeling this is going to be an awful case of meh especially with bruner involved.
A Tales of mediocrity coming out soon boys can't wait.
Every description of him describes him as "trying to be comedic on the side" so it means his whole character will just be a killing machine that makes awkward and unfunny jokes, because that is what the joke is. (In the trailer you can see him not understand the group cheer.) If this was written by Telltale it could be funny, but because its gearbox you know its going to be overdone and never actual funny, it will just be 110% misunderstanding robot man.
Honestly half the reason so many of these characters in the trailer feel so generic is probably because the dynamic is pretty boring. Rhys and Fiona were clearly from 2 different worlds, here we have 2 siblings and then yogurt person for the funny. Even the first Tales trailer set up right away who they were and what their goals were, New Tales is just "New group who are all on the same page!"
Looks like the trend of the best character being a robot might continue.
He definitely has some potential, though to be fair, we haven't heard him talk yet. Who knows what kind of "quirky" and "cool" dialogue has Gearbox in store for him.
The good thing about Randy saying they have plans is that Randy always lies. I mean remember when Troy Baker's recast actually should make sense once we see what is happening with Rhys in BL3!?
Hearing Randy say that he's got plans for Fiona and Sasha is honestly terrifying tbh
They couldn't even be bothered to bring back one of … morethe most important tales character besides Rhys lmao i've got a feeling this is going to be an awful case of meh especially with bruner involved.
A Tales of mediocrity coming out soon boys can't wait.
Honestly, I'm surprised they didn't mention two of the main characters are siblings, since that makes me slightly more interested in the guy, even if every voice line they chose for him in the trailer was annoying as Hell.
Every description of him describes him as "trying to be comedic on the side" so it means his whole character will just be a killing machine … morethat makes awkward and unfunny jokes, because that is what the joke is. (In the trailer you can see him not understand the group cheer.) If this was written by Telltale it could be funny, but because its gearbox you know its going to be overdone and never actual funny, it will just be 110% misunderstanding robot man.
Honestly half the reason so many of these characters in the trailer feel so generic is probably because the dynamic is pretty boring. Rhys and Fiona were clearly from 2 different worlds, here we have 2 siblings and then yogurt person for the funny. Even the first Tales trailer set up right away who they were and what their goals were, New Tales is just "New group who are all on the same page!"
Fellas, what if they kill Rhys for dramatic effect because they have no other idea on how to make people feel something other than killing an established character?
Not really impressed, didn't feel any of that comedy in the trailer. Fell very flat to me.
Have to give credit to Gearbox's engine, whatever it is, because visually it looks really good.
I'm thankful and afraid that they're using an entirely new cast. Because it means they can't run the old ones into the ground if it fails. But it also feels pretty disconnected from its legacy otherwise.
No gameplay other than some figurine minigame? Gotta say, that at least fits the kind of silly humour from TFTB I'm familiar with like the Finger Gun Fight.
Rhys is (un)fortunately back? IMO that sounded like a Troy Baker scream so fingers crossed maybe
The OG Writers and Devs comment is interesting. How valid is it? Who is it?
At least they didn't just use "from the creators or "the team that brought you" because I would have been way more suspicious of marketing-speak.
The OG Writers and Devs comment is interesting. How valid is it? Who is it?
At least they didn't just use "from the creators or "the team that brought you" because I would have been way more suspicious of marketing-speak.
You should read the rest of the thread... it's not any of the original main writers for the first game. They hired Kevin Bruner's company.
Okay, saw the trailer!
* Not really impressed, didn't feel any of that comedy in the trailer. Fell very flat to me.
* Have to give cre… moredit to Gearbox's engine, whatever it is, because visually it looks really good.
* I'm thankful and afraid that they're using an entirely new cast. Because it means they can't run the old ones into the ground if it fails. But it also feels pretty disconnected from its legacy otherwise.
* No gameplay other than some figurine minigame? Gotta say, that at least fits the kind of silly humour from TFTB I'm familiar with like the Finger Gun Fight.
* Rhys is (un)fortunately back? IMO that sounded like a Troy Baker scream so fingers crossed maybe
The OG Writers and Devs comment is interesting. How valid is it? Who is it?
At least they didn't just use "from the creators or "the team that brought you" because I would have been way more suspicious of marketing-speak.
The OG Writers and Devs comment is interesting. How valid is it? Who is it?
At least they didn't just use "from the creators or "the team… more that brought you" because I would have been way more suspicious of marketing-speak.
You should read the rest of the thread... it's not any of the original main writers for the first game. They hired Kevin Bruner's company.
Man, this "original devs" situation reminds me of another game recently that tried to pull this, but was proved mostly false in the end. Claiming to have the original devs from X game working on a spiritual successor, but ended up being someone who didn't helm any major creative or design decisions involved on that OG product.
Can't remember what it was for the life of me though
It really is some painful irony to see Bruner once again attached to a "Telltale" project.
I guess that was too be expected. So it seems the reality is no one who worked as a writer or director is involved, but a writer who worked … moreat Telltale after Tales wrapped is what we consider "original" for this game. Then Kevin Bruner as well.
I assume Bruner House probably has a few more, but honestly something tells me Bruner was a consultant or something. Either way, pretty shitty to act like the game has "original devs" when it doesn't.
Also the irony of the guy who wanted to axe Tales from the Borderlands after episode 3 gets to work on the next game.
Honestly wondering how much choice is actually in this game as the website and the interview they only mention different endings. Hopefully there is a bit more than last 5 minutes of the game actually tries to branch.
Not only that, but New Tales From the Borderlands’ head writer is Lin Joyce who is a doctor of interactive fiction. That means the hundreds of choices Gearbox is promising in New Tales From the Borderlands should surprise players with the numerous ways they can branch off and also converge back into each other.
Honestly wondering how much choice is actually in this game as the website and the interview they only mention different endings. Hopefully there is a bit more than last 5 minutes of the game actually tries to branch.
IGN here says there's "hundreds" of choices, so it sounds like they'll be using the same dialogue+choice format
https://www.ign.com/artic… moreles/new-tales-from-the-borderlands-is-developed-by-key-alumni-from-the-original-game
Not only that, but New Tales From the Borderlands’ head writer is Lin Joyce who is a doctor of interactive fiction. That means the hundreds of choices Gearbox is promising in New Tales From the Borderlands should surprise players with the numerous ways they can branch off and also converge back into each other.
Lin Joyce is a head writer at Gearbox. PhD in Narrative System Design. As well as writing publications on Games Narratives
https://www.lindseykjoyce.com/creative-portfolio
Alright after looking at about 5 mins of gameplay I'm willing to take a crack at it. They pretty much nailed the QTEs and dialog tree system. Writing isn't too bad either. Feeling better about this tbh.
Also Rhys confirmed to be voiced by Ray Chase. Sorry fam.
Definitely a much better impression than the trailers. You can tell it's not done by any of the main Tales writers, but it's a step above the usual Gearbox humor. Although, it feels like the comedy is... oddly subdued? Like, there's quite a few moments where you can play it up (in the not Gearbox obnoxious way). Any emotional moments they try to have in the demo feel pretty flat, but that might be due to missing context. Still, far better than I was expecting after that trailer.
Alright after looking at about 5 mins of gameplay I'm willing to take a crack at it. They pretty much nailed the QTEs and dialog tree system… more. Writing isn't too bad either. Feeling better about this tbh.
Also Rhys confirmed to be voiced by Ray Chase. Sorry fam.
Pretty much this. Its hard to get a handle on the emotional beats when we know next to nothing about the cast beside very on the nose motivations. I'm looking forward to trying it tho.
Definitely a much better impression than the trailers. You can tell it's not done by any of the main Tales writers, but it's a step above th… moree usual Gearbox humor. Although, it feels like the comedy is... oddly subdued? Like, there's quite a few moments where you can play it up (in the not Gearbox obnoxious way). Any emotional moments they try to have in the demo feel pretty flat, but that might be due to missing context. Still, far better than I was expecting after that trailer.
As I said in the Megathread chat, the gameplay reveal made me feel a bit better about this. It hits the gameplay beats with improved animation and graphics. The comedy doesn’t hit, but it’s not over the top/in your face. The big problem was the characters, but even that can be fixed if we see more (though I doubt I’ll be sold on Octavius anytime soon, he seems like an annoying douche).
I think my general opinion would be that the animation and camera work is all good and honestly pretty impressive, but really the make or break is always going to be the direction and writing and really I think "trying too hard" is the best way to describe it. Every line of dialogue is trying so hard to make a joke. In general def feels like a lot of the BL3 random wacky humor. (And I dont really mean it is trying to make you laugh out loud joke, but it feels like every line wants to be quippy)
Also you can very clearly see how little choices are going to matter already. That plan choice basically changes practically nothing. Either Fran kills random solider guy or Octo throws a rock and they sneak by. Each scene is like 7 seconds. Now it isn't like Telltale didn't have choices like this that were overall pretty weak as a choice, but at least this would usually lead to a different kind of gameplay section rather than something so incredibly simple like this.
Also in general it feels like the plot advances because "THING!" rather than the player really doing much. Guys... we're stuck... No escape... Oh never mind we figured it out with 0 player input. omg guys Fran cant make it through!!! Oh, never mind. I really don't want to dig into it that hard but as a preview... usually you want to flex what you got.
It may not be absolutely terrible, but it still feels exactly like a Gearbox led Tales game would be.
This next part is pretty nit picky but I really wish the awkward character stutter trope would die out already. There is nothing truly wrong with it, but when not one minute goes by without someone stuttering from fear or awkwardness it gets annoying really fast.
I actually enjoyed that for the most part, though I feel like this whole sequence feels a little slow paced. I thought the Metal Gear gag was legitimately funny, the figure battle thing was fun looking, if a bit unintuitive since it's pretty much just button mashing, the visuals look good and the characters didn't feel grating like they did in the trailer. The humour is much more hit and miss than the first game, I will say that.
It feels like they’re trying to capture what made Tales from the Borderlands work but don’t really know what it was.
This might be a hot take, but Tales didn’t work because of the comedy. It had fine jokes but it wasn’t the main focus. It worked because the characters were likable and had amusing chemistry, and when dramatic moments hit they hit hard because you cared about those characters. I’m not getting any of that from what I’m watching now.
It might change with the full game, but right now I’m not impressed.
I think it just means you understand why Tales 1 works so well. Tales 1 was dramedy and it simply knew they needed to balance the comedy and drama. Tales 1 is obviously a very funny game, but most of the jokes are paced well so players can take the story seriously and get invested with the characters and also have laughs. Episode 5 goes about 25 minutes of no jokes, just the drama, then the final battle goes another 20 minutes being fun, but also still making the stakes feel real. Even episode 1 which is probably has the most frequent of jokes was a lot better paced than this 18 minute preview.
Not to mention a lot of the jokes actually played around with the game's mechanics and player expectations of those mechanics. The Metal Gear joke in this preview happens with 0 player input, no choice, not even a dialogue of "Haha that's so DUMB dude!" to give any interaction, and even when it happens the player isn't even controlling the scene. Would probably be a lot more investing and funny if it was A the players choice to even do it, and 2 you are actually controlling the box and trying to use it to hide just for the guard to figure it out anyway. The fact all 3 of these characters are playable they do so much without the player making any input, to me is already kind of showing the direction the choices will go in this game as well, which is minimal.
Also sorry to write so much stuff and pretty much just complaining, but the Vaultlanders thing I feel is a pretty big narrative mistake along side being dull. Imagine in Episode 1 instead of actually having any danger with the bandit overpowering Rhys, they do the vaultlanders thing instead? Kills any form of tension immediately. Then I guess part 2 of Vaultlanders is how its just Mash A, then move arrows. Its just a very boring QTE segment but without any cinematics or animation and I can only imagine how dull it will get if the game ends up making players do it a lot, but we will have to wait and see how often they force players to play it.
So I’m watching the gameplay.
It feels like they’re trying to capture what made Tales from the Borderlands work but don’t really know wha… moret it was.
This might be a hot take, but Tales didn’t work because of the comedy. It had fine jokes but it wasn’t the main focus. It worked because the characters were likable and had amusing chemistry, and when dramatic moments hit they hit hard because you cared about those characters. I’m not getting any of that from what I’m watching now.
It might change with the full game, but right now I’m not impressed.
Okay, the new trailer itself was pretty bad. Were it the only thing they released yesterday, it'd definitely worsen my opinion of the game (which wasn't that great to begin with).
As for the gameplay... It wasn't terrible, but it didn't particularly impress me either. Maybe it's just me, but I felt like there weren't nearly enough opportunities to choose dialogue options. From the whole preview, it was like, what, 5 times? I know that Telltale games did tend to have scenes where the dialogue options didn't come up that often, like during QTEs or hubs, but the scenes where the three protagonists were mostly conversing on their own should have more of the player's input, at least in my opinion. Also, a bit of a nitpick, but in Telltale games with several main characters I liked that in specific sections you were controlling only one of the protagonists and it didn't switch to a different one until the scene ended (exception being right at the end of TftB, which was actually used really well there). Here it's switching from one person to another in the same scene, which might become disorienting.
The characters seem... meh at best, annoying at worst. I know this is only 18 minutes long demo, but still, not the strongest first impression. Most of the jokes didn't land for me, however the box scene did legitimately get a chuckle out of me. And it was nice to see one of the battle figurines being Vasquez.
Overall, big meh from me. I doubt I'll buy it (especially at that price, oofers).
I agree with the dialogue stuff. I mean all 3 of these characters are playable but they do so much without the player. Like you were saying, very few chances to have players voice their opinion or make a choice of any kind. I'm also not really a fan of the switching of characters rather than having it more so a scene dedicated to that playable character. Plus the display coming up being exactly the same except for the icon in the center where players are not going to be looking I am sure will lead to people thinking a different character is going to say/choose whatever they are choosing.
Also not related, but like I've been saying how I feel almost nothing will change outside the ending as that's the only thing they ever talk about with choice, now they've confirmed there are 5 endings, once again only discussing choice with the ending. Really hope they at least try to have some meaningful choices in this game outside last 10 minutes.
Okay, the new trailer itself was pretty bad. Were it the only thing they released yesterday, it'd definitely worsen my opinion of the game (… morewhich wasn't that great to begin with).
As for the gameplay... It wasn't terrible, but it didn't particularly impress me either. Maybe it's just me, but I felt like there weren't nearly enough opportunities to choose dialogue options. From the whole preview, it was like, what, 5 times? I know that Telltale games did tend to have scenes where the dialogue options didn't come up that often, like during QTEs or hubs, but the scenes where the three protagonists were mostly conversing on their own should have more of the player's input, at least in my opinion. Also, a bit of a nitpick, but in Telltale games with several main characters I liked that in specific sections you were controlling only one of the protagonists and it didn't switch to a different one until the scene ended (exception being right at th… [view original content]
So the characters... meh? Their motivations and origins don't really hook me in an interesting way. And I don't know what accent Anu's character has but it sounds underbaked. Just my personal opinion
The graphics and environments look really detailed and great. The characters and depth of field work really against each other though. They have heavy cel-shaded outlines and when the background gets blurry it looks like they're standing in front of a green screen.
The comedy is really flat. I'm glad it's not eye-rolling bad, but they really don't seem to get what makes the original TFTB's so good.
The MGS parody was nice, but I wasn't feeling the VA's energy with it.
And a lot of the pacing of humour, delivery, and writing feels... slow? It's not snappy enough for jokes to land. Telltale had that issue sometimes in the past too, but you could excuse that for their hard-to-work-with engine. Gearbox has a competent, modern engine here. Scenes shouldn't have so many brief awkward pauses while characters perform a silly little animation.
They've got the same gameplay style which is neat, and they also seem to have (unintentionally) got the uncanny stiffness in some animations recreated. Though that kind of flies in the face of the stylized realistic art style.
They definitely need different HUDs for the characters, yeah. It's weird they didn't try that.
Overall I feel like it's just directed poorly. Camera angles feel too stable, like with that action scene in the caves. I didn't get much of a feeling of chaos like how it was intended. Music in some scenes is too loud or is absent where it should be. Jokes just don't go far enough in vocal delivery and pacing to land. And too much of the game looks automated.
Maybe it's pre-release jitters, but there's plenty of kinks to iron out it seems.
Glad they gave us a huge preview though. Makes my decision to probably wait for a sale easier. It's... unfortunately average as expected.
Curious what 2k will tell their shareholders about this game being that they’re a public company. Obviously this is a tiny game in the grand scheme of their business but it was one of the few games specifically mentioned during/listed inside their last quarterly earnings report.
I seriously doubt this game has pre sold more than 20,000 units. Even if they’re only a publisher, how will they ever explain this??? They’re probably just going to sweep it under the rug.
Bumps in the road happen for all public companies, but I am confident this will be one of the game industries biggest flops of the 2020’s. That isn’t me over-exaggerating the games flaws as a Telltale fan either. There is near-zero engagement on twitter, steam, youtube videos are getting under 2,000 views. Only 74 followers on twitch.
This is horrendously bad. There is even less engagement for this game than Telltale Guardians of the Galaxy.
Bumping this thread for release.
Curious what 2k will tell their shareholders about this game being that they’re a public company. Obviou… moresly this is a tiny game in the grand scheme of their business but it was one of the few games specifically mentioned during/listed inside their last quarterly earnings report.
I seriously doubt this game has pre sold more than 20,000 units. Even if they’re only a publisher, how will they ever explain this??? They’re probably just going to sweep it under the rug.
Bumps in the road happen for all public companies, but I am confident this will be one of the game industries biggest flops of the 2020’s. That isn’t me over-exaggerating the games flaws as a Telltale fan either. There is near-zero engagement on twitter, steam, youtube videos are getting under 2,000 views. Only 74 followers on twitch.
This is horrendously bad. There is even less engagement for this game than Telltale Guardians of the Galaxy.
This is horrendously bad. There is even less engagement for this game than Telltale Guardians of the Galaxy.
My underrated gem is no longer the most underrated, smh 2K how dare you take this away from me.
I'm very curious as to how this game will be received. Maybe, it'll get some sort of boost in sales after reviews/launch. This release date really feels like it's snuck up on us. Casual gamers will most likely hear word of it and buy it on the assumption of a TFTB sequel alone.
However... this game is also titled super weird, so proper word about it might not spread that far. Plus, since it's got no relation to the original's characters or story, that might also turn people off of it.
The biggest question is how much damage this might do to Gearbox themselves, to the OG TFTB writers, or maybe even Telltale by-proxy, given Gearbox's overlooked takeover of the IP.
Bumping this thread for release.
Curious what 2k will tell their shareholders about this game being that they’re a public company. Obviou… moresly this is a tiny game in the grand scheme of their business but it was one of the few games specifically mentioned during/listed inside their last quarterly earnings report.
I seriously doubt this game has pre sold more than 20,000 units. Even if they’re only a publisher, how will they ever explain this??? They’re probably just going to sweep it under the rug.
Bumps in the road happen for all public companies, but I am confident this will be one of the game industries biggest flops of the 2020’s. That isn’t me over-exaggerating the games flaws as a Telltale fan either. There is near-zero engagement on twitter, steam, youtube videos are getting under 2,000 views. Only 74 followers on twitch.
This is horrendously bad. There is even less engagement for this game than Telltale Guardians of the Galaxy.
It’s a very baffling choice to make this game. Apparently the original tales sold so poorly the higher ups almost cut the game short from what I recall. While I love tales and wanted a true continuation, developing this game just comes across as a very poor business decision. Very few borderlands players are going to play something so deviated from the mainline gameplay. Tales fans won’t play this because it’s not continuing that game’s story.
I’d call it a misguided passion project, but I don’t see any passion in any of the gameplay reveals either.
Bumping this thread for release.
Curious what 2k will tell their shareholders about this game being that they’re a public company. Obviou… moresly this is a tiny game in the grand scheme of their business but it was one of the few games specifically mentioned during/listed inside their last quarterly earnings report.
I seriously doubt this game has pre sold more than 20,000 units. Even if they’re only a publisher, how will they ever explain this??? They’re probably just going to sweep it under the rug.
Bumps in the road happen for all public companies, but I am confident this will be one of the game industries biggest flops of the 2020’s. That isn’t me over-exaggerating the games flaws as a Telltale fan either. There is near-zero engagement on twitter, steam, youtube videos are getting under 2,000 views. Only 74 followers on twitch.
This is horrendously bad. There is even less engagement for this game than Telltale Guardians of the Galaxy.
Most official reviews are pretty lax compared to user reviews. For official I wager it will be around a 7, for user it will probably be a 5. However, that also depends a lot on how many people even review it which may end up being very little seeing how little traction this game has.
Right now on Steam New Tales has only 3k followers, but it seems to be growing these last few days which is pretty common, will probably go up a lot on the 21st. Telltale gotg has 27k followers. Gotg all time peak was launch day with 906 players, so for comparison sake that is probably the number to look out for to see if it does better or worse. Tales 1's peak was 8.6k with the finale. (Although SteamDB is sort of messed up, as gotg says the peak was 6 years ago even though thats impossible and that Tales peak was the week before the finale which makes little sense lol, so this is based on my memory date wise.)
I think what this really means for Telltale and Tales is that there will never be a real Tales from the Borderlands 2. It is way too hard to explain to the general audience what happened with New Tales, who was involved, etc. Obviously it doesn't help the Gearbox decided to be extra slimey with the "Oh yeah there's original people on this haha pleasedontlookintothisatall!!!" because try explaining that to a general audience.
This is horrendously bad. There is even less engagement for this game than Telltale Guardians of the Galaxy.
My underrated gem is no… more longer the most underrated, smh 2K how dare you take this away from me.
I'm very curious as to how this game will be received. Maybe, it'll get some sort of boost in sales after reviews/launch. This release date really feels like it's snuck up on us. Casual gamers will most likely hear word of it and buy it on the assumption of a TFTB sequel alone.
However... this game is also titled super weird, so proper word about it might not spread that far. Plus, since it's got no relation to the original's characters or story, that might also turn people off of it.
The biggest question is how much damage this might do to Gearbox themselves, to the OG TFTB writers, or maybe even Telltale by-proxy, given Gearbox's overlooked takeover of the IP.
Most official reviews are pretty lax compared to user reviews. For official I wager it will be around a 7, for user it will probably be a 5.… more However, that also depends a lot on how many people even review it which may end up being very little seeing how little traction this game has.
Right now on Steam New Tales has only 3k followers, but it seems to be growing these last few days which is pretty common, will probably go up a lot on the 21st. Telltale gotg has 27k followers. Gotg all time peak was launch day with 906 players, so for comparison sake that is probably the number to look out for to see if it does better or worse. Tales 1's peak was 8.6k with the finale. (Although SteamDB is sort of messed up, as gotg says the peak was 6 years ago even though thats impossible and that Tales peak was the week before the finale which makes little sense lol, so this is based on my memory date wise.)
I think what this really means for Telltale a… [view original content]
So there is no full videos out now but from what I've seen so far.
The musical and stylized intro's like, don't exist. They exist, but like, super pathetically compared to the original let alone the main games, assuming things dont change later. The humor isn't funny which I guess was expected, just pretty typical "thing said, lol thats so funny" kind of Gearbox writing or a more thought out joke gets dragged down by already having it work and then trying way too hard.
Rhys is a douchebag and player interaction is overall minimal. Failing QTE's is no different than your average Telltale game. Can't truly compare until I can see the different outcomes, but choices already feel very on rail, for example you can fight or hide, but really that means hide is the wrong choice and after like 45 seconds of that branch you have to fight.
Right now the furthest gameplay I can find is from twitch, over an hour has passed and none of the leads have met yet but we've also scene and played as each one already making pacing feel kind of terrible to be honest. Let's just say having Tales 1 start with Rhys for the first hour and then swapping to Fiona obviously was done for more than 1 reason.
After reading some reviews, I am pretty worried Rhys really is gonna become a horribly written version of himself and then he dies. And god damn, I can not stand the STRONGFORK XDDDDDD thing. Just damn.
Edit: Episode 1 is like an hour and a half and feels more like it ended at the half way point of the episode
Also very hilariously even though they made a big deal about removing the "Will remember that" suddenly you get a pop up saying "OCTAVIO WANTS A BETTER RELATIONSHIP WITH ANU!" because apparently that doesnt fall under telling the player what to think? lol
The intro's suck. Really no other way to put it, reeks of given no budget so there simply isn't any intro credits. Instead you just get a weird minute long song playing as characters just do something bland.
Already a choice made in episode 1 just like- disappears. Spoilers if you care, but Fran can freeze someone in the freezer and not only are they completely forgotten about, they actually disappear from where they were. So either the game glitched and didnt recognize the episode 1 choice correctly, or it is just being forgotten about. Also possible it is brought up again later, but scene framing wise, they seemingly have disappeared. Reminds me of Conrad in anf episode 4 to 5 where he kind of just warps out of reality. (Edit: This choice does get followed up in episode 3 as happening, but they are just moved for whatever reason.)
Edit: Episode 2 just barely reaches an hour and consist of about 3 scenes. bruh
The writing so far is honestly just dull. It just feels so lifeless. The last thing I think we need is for Gearbox to find a way to make Fiona and Sasha this way. So far I fully agree with that rock paper shotgun review.
so rhys mentions fiona and sasha if you shoot the sasha picture. he says they’re MIA.
Given how terrible the direction of this IP is headed, I hope the sisters stay that way.
Also, Vasquez car reappears. License plate and all.
Comments
Hearing Randy say that he's got plans for Fiona and Sasha is honestly terrifying tbh
They couldn't even be bothered to bring back one of the most important tales character besides Rhys lmao i've got a feeling this is going to be an awful case of meh especially with bruner involved.
A Tales of mediocrity coming out soon boys can't wait.
Every description of him describes him as "trying to be comedic on the side" so it means his whole character will just be a killing machine that makes awkward and unfunny jokes, because that is what the joke is. (In the trailer you can see him not understand the group cheer.) If this was written by Telltale it could be funny, but because its gearbox you know its going to be overdone and never actual funny, it will just be 110% misunderstanding robot man.
Honestly half the reason so many of these characters in the trailer feel so generic is probably because the dynamic is pretty boring. Rhys and Fiona were clearly from 2 different worlds, here we have 2 siblings and then yogurt person for the funny. Even the first Tales trailer set up right away who they were and what their goals were, New Tales is just "New group who are all on the same page!"
The good thing about Randy saying they have plans is that Randy always lies. I mean remember when Troy Baker's recast actually should make sense once we see what is happening with Rhys in BL3!?
Honestly, I'm surprised they didn't mention two of the main characters are siblings, since that makes me slightly more interested in the guy, even if every voice line they chose for him in the trailer was annoying as Hell.
Fellas, what if they kill Rhys for dramatic effect because they have no other idea on how to make people feel something other than killing an established character?
Okay, saw the trailer!
The OG Writers and Devs comment is interesting. How valid is it? Who is it?
At least they didn't just use "from the creators or "the team that brought you" because I would have been way more suspicious of marketing-speak.
You should read the rest of the thread... it's not any of the original main writers for the first game. They hired Kevin Bruner's company.
No....!
Telltale-
Telltale Community, I d-don't feel so good...
I hope you've learned a valuable lesson in regards to Randy Pitchford, he's a snake oil salesman
Man, this "original devs" situation reminds me of another game recently that tried to pull this, but was proved mostly false in the end. Claiming to have the original devs from X game working on a spiritual successor, but ended up being someone who didn't helm any major creative or design decisions involved on that OG product.
Can't remember what it was for the life of me though
It really is some painful irony to see Bruner once again attached to a "Telltale" project.
Interview:
Ah, so the game will be episodic, it seems, just all at once.
Honestly wondering how much choice is actually in this game as the website and the interview they only mention different endings. Hopefully there is a bit more than last 5 minutes of the game actually tries to branch.
IGN here says there's "hundreds" of choices, so it sounds like they'll be using the same dialogue+choice format
https://www.ign.com/articles/new-tales-from-the-borderlands-is-developed-by-key-alumni-from-the-original-game
Lin Joyce is a head writer at Gearbox. PhD in Narrative System Design. As well as writing publications on Games Narratives
https://www.lindseykjoyce.com/creative-portfolio
Random tangent but this is a kind of fascinating idea for study. I gotta do some reading.
New character trailer and 18 minutes of gameplay
Alright after looking at about 5 mins of gameplay I'm willing to take a crack at it. They pretty much nailed the QTEs and dialog tree system. Writing isn't too bad either. Feeling better about this tbh.
Also Rhys confirmed to be voiced by Ray Chase. Sorry fam.
What is Randy gonna do to Tales...
Definitely a much better impression than the trailers. You can tell it's not done by any of the main Tales writers, but it's a step above the usual Gearbox humor. Although, it feels like the comedy is... oddly subdued? Like, there's quite a few moments where you can play it up (in the not Gearbox obnoxious way). Any emotional moments they try to have in the demo feel pretty flat, but that might be due to missing context. Still, far better than I was expecting after that trailer.
Pretty much this. Its hard to get a handle on the emotional beats when we know next to nothing about the cast beside very on the nose motivations. I'm looking forward to trying it tho.
As I said in the Megathread chat, the gameplay reveal made me feel a bit better about this. It hits the gameplay beats with improved animation and graphics. The comedy doesn’t hit, but it’s not over the top/in your face. The big problem was the characters, but even that can be fixed if we see more (though I doubt I’ll be sold on Octavius anytime soon, he seems like an annoying douche).
I think my general opinion would be that the animation and camera work is all good and honestly pretty impressive, but really the make or break is always going to be the direction and writing and really I think "trying too hard" is the best way to describe it. Every line of dialogue is trying so hard to make a joke. In general def feels like a lot of the BL3 random wacky humor. (And I dont really mean it is trying to make you laugh out loud joke, but it feels like every line wants to be quippy)
Also you can very clearly see how little choices are going to matter already. That plan choice basically changes practically nothing. Either Fran kills random solider guy or Octo throws a rock and they sneak by. Each scene is like 7 seconds. Now it isn't like Telltale didn't have choices like this that were overall pretty weak as a choice, but at least this would usually lead to a different kind of gameplay section rather than something so incredibly simple like this.
Also in general it feels like the plot advances because "THING!" rather than the player really doing much. Guys... we're stuck... No escape... Oh never mind we figured it out with 0 player input. omg guys Fran cant make it through!!! Oh, never mind. I really don't want to dig into it that hard but as a preview... usually you want to flex what you got.
It may not be absolutely terrible, but it still feels exactly like a Gearbox led Tales game would be.
This next part is pretty nit picky but I really wish the awkward character stutter trope would die out already. There is nothing truly wrong with it, but when not one minute goes by without someone stuttering from fear or awkwardness it gets annoying really fast.
Wow. Really niche reference for Gearbox standards. I'm flattered as a telltale fan to be honest.
I actually enjoyed that for the most part, though I feel like this whole sequence feels a little slow paced. I thought the Metal Gear gag was legitimately funny, the figure battle thing was fun looking, if a bit unintuitive since it's pretty much just button mashing, the visuals look good and the characters didn't feel grating like they did in the trailer. The humour is much more hit and miss than the first game, I will say that.
So I’m watching the gameplay.
It feels like they’re trying to capture what made Tales from the Borderlands work but don’t really know what it was.
This might be a hot take, but Tales didn’t work because of the comedy. It had fine jokes but it wasn’t the main focus. It worked because the characters were likable and had amusing chemistry, and when dramatic moments hit they hit hard because you cared about those characters. I’m not getting any of that from what I’m watching now.
It might change with the full game, but right now I’m not impressed.
I think it just means you understand why Tales 1 works so well. Tales 1 was dramedy and it simply knew they needed to balance the comedy and drama. Tales 1 is obviously a very funny game, but most of the jokes are paced well so players can take the story seriously and get invested with the characters and also have laughs. Episode 5 goes about 25 minutes of no jokes, just the drama, then the final battle goes another 20 minutes being fun, but also still making the stakes feel real. Even episode 1 which is probably has the most frequent of jokes was a lot better paced than this 18 minute preview.
Not to mention a lot of the jokes actually played around with the game's mechanics and player expectations of those mechanics. The Metal Gear joke in this preview happens with 0 player input, no choice, not even a dialogue of "Haha that's so DUMB dude!" to give any interaction, and even when it happens the player isn't even controlling the scene. Would probably be a lot more investing and funny if it was A the players choice to even do it, and 2 you are actually controlling the box and trying to use it to hide just for the guard to figure it out anyway. The fact all 3 of these characters are playable they do so much without the player making any input, to me is already kind of showing the direction the choices will go in this game as well, which is minimal.
Also sorry to write so much stuff and pretty much just complaining, but the Vaultlanders thing I feel is a pretty big narrative mistake along side being dull. Imagine in Episode 1 instead of actually having any danger with the bandit overpowering Rhys, they do the vaultlanders thing instead? Kills any form of tension immediately. Then I guess part 2 of Vaultlanders is how its just Mash A, then move arrows. Its just a very boring QTE segment but without any cinematics or animation and I can only imagine how dull it will get if the game ends up making players do it a lot, but we will have to wait and see how often they force players to play it.
Okay, the new trailer itself was pretty bad. Were it the only thing they released yesterday, it'd definitely worsen my opinion of the game (which wasn't that great to begin with).
As for the gameplay... It wasn't terrible, but it didn't particularly impress me either. Maybe it's just me, but I felt like there weren't nearly enough opportunities to choose dialogue options. From the whole preview, it was like, what, 5 times? I know that Telltale games did tend to have scenes where the dialogue options didn't come up that often, like during QTEs or hubs, but the scenes where the three protagonists were mostly conversing on their own should have more of the player's input, at least in my opinion. Also, a bit of a nitpick, but in Telltale games with several main characters I liked that in specific sections you were controlling only one of the protagonists and it didn't switch to a different one until the scene ended (exception being right at the end of TftB, which was actually used really well there). Here it's switching from one person to another in the same scene, which might become disorienting.
The characters seem... meh at best, annoying at worst. I know this is only 18 minutes long demo, but still, not the strongest first impression. Most of the jokes didn't land for me, however the box scene did legitimately get a chuckle out of me. And it was nice to see one of the battle figurines being Vasquez.
Overall, big meh from me. I doubt I'll buy it (especially at that price, oofers).
I agree with the dialogue stuff. I mean all 3 of these characters are playable but they do so much without the player. Like you were saying, very few chances to have players voice their opinion or make a choice of any kind. I'm also not really a fan of the switching of characters rather than having it more so a scene dedicated to that playable character. Plus the display coming up being exactly the same except for the icon in the center where players are not going to be looking I am sure will lead to people thinking a different character is going to say/choose whatever they are choosing.
Also not related, but like I've been saying how I feel almost nothing will change outside the ending as that's the only thing they ever talk about with choice, now they've confirmed there are 5 endings, once again only discussing choice with the ending. Really hope they at least try to have some meaningful choices in this game outside last 10 minutes.
So the characters... meh? Their motivations and origins don't really hook me in an interesting way. And I don't know what accent Anu's character has but it sounds underbaked. Just my personal opinion
The graphics and environments look really detailed and great. The characters and depth of field work really against each other though. They have heavy cel-shaded outlines and when the background gets blurry it looks like they're standing in front of a green screen.
The comedy is really flat. I'm glad it's not eye-rolling bad, but they really don't seem to get what makes the original TFTB's so good.
The MGS parody was nice, but I wasn't feeling the VA's energy with it.
And a lot of the pacing of humour, delivery, and writing feels... slow? It's not snappy enough for jokes to land. Telltale had that issue sometimes in the past too, but you could excuse that for their hard-to-work-with engine. Gearbox has a competent, modern engine here. Scenes shouldn't have so many brief awkward pauses while characters perform a silly little animation.
They've got the same gameplay style which is neat, and they also seem to have (unintentionally) got the uncanny stiffness in some animations recreated. Though that kind of flies in the face of the stylized realistic art style.
They definitely need different HUDs for the characters, yeah. It's weird they didn't try that.
Overall I feel like it's just directed poorly. Camera angles feel too stable, like with that action scene in the caves. I didn't get much of a feeling of chaos like how it was intended. Music in some scenes is too loud or is absent where it should be. Jokes just don't go far enough in vocal delivery and pacing to land. And too much of the game looks automated.
Maybe it's pre-release jitters, but there's plenty of kinks to iron out it seems.
Glad they gave us a huge preview though. Makes my decision to probably wait for a sale easier. It's... unfortunately average as expected.
Bumping this thread for release.
Curious what 2k will tell their shareholders about this game being that they’re a public company. Obviously this is a tiny game in the grand scheme of their business but it was one of the few games specifically mentioned during/listed inside their last quarterly earnings report.
I seriously doubt this game has pre sold more than 20,000 units. Even if they’re only a publisher, how will they ever explain this??? They’re probably just going to sweep it under the rug.
Bumps in the road happen for all public companies, but I am confident this will be one of the game industries biggest flops of the 2020’s. That isn’t me over-exaggerating the games flaws as a Telltale fan either. There is near-zero engagement on twitter, steam, youtube videos are getting under 2,000 views. Only 74 followers on twitch.
This is horrendously bad. There is even less engagement for this game than Telltale Guardians of the Galaxy.
I dont think it will hurt 2k that badly, but I do think its very bad news for Gearbox Quebec, which really sucks for those working there.
My underrated gem is no longer the most underrated, smh 2K how dare you take this away from me.
I'm very curious as to how this game will be received. Maybe, it'll get some sort of boost in sales after reviews/launch. This release date really feels like it's snuck up on us. Casual gamers will most likely hear word of it and buy it on the assumption of a TFTB sequel alone.
However... this game is also titled super weird, so proper word about it might not spread that far. Plus, since it's got no relation to the original's characters or story, that might also turn people off of it.
The biggest question is how much damage this might do to Gearbox themselves, to the OG TFTB writers, or maybe even Telltale by-proxy, given Gearbox's overlooked takeover of the IP.
It’s a very baffling choice to make this game. Apparently the original tales sold so poorly the higher ups almost cut the game short from what I recall. While I love tales and wanted a true continuation, developing this game just comes across as a very poor business decision. Very few borderlands players are going to play something so deviated from the mainline gameplay. Tales fans won’t play this because it’s not continuing that game’s story.
I’d call it a misguided passion project, but I don’t see any passion in any of the gameplay reveals either.
Most official reviews are pretty lax compared to user reviews. For official I wager it will be around a 7, for user it will probably be a 5. However, that also depends a lot on how many people even review it which may end up being very little seeing how little traction this game has.
Right now on Steam New Tales has only 3k followers, but it seems to be growing these last few days which is pretty common, will probably go up a lot on the 21st. Telltale gotg has 27k followers. Gotg all time peak was launch day with 906 players, so for comparison sake that is probably the number to look out for to see if it does better or worse. Tales 1's peak was 8.6k with the finale. (Although SteamDB is sort of messed up, as gotg says the peak was 6 years ago even though thats impossible and that Tales peak was the week before the finale which makes little sense lol, so this is based on my memory date wise.)
I think what this really means for Telltale and Tales is that there will never be a real Tales from the Borderlands 2. It is way too hard to explain to the general audience what happened with New Tales, who was involved, etc. Obviously it doesn't help the Gearbox decided to be extra slimey with the "Oh yeah there's original people on this haha pleasedontlookintothisatall!!!" because try explaining that to a general audience.
New Tales doesn't look like garbage, but I do think it looks like one of the most Mid games ever. Definite 5 at best, probably...
I'll let you all know how much it stomps on my soul tomorrow.
So there is no full videos out now but from what I've seen so far.
The musical and stylized intro's like, don't exist. They exist, but like, super pathetically compared to the original let alone the main games, assuming things dont change later. The humor isn't funny which I guess was expected, just pretty typical "thing said, lol thats so funny" kind of Gearbox writing or a more thought out joke gets dragged down by already having it work and then trying way too hard.
Rhys is a douchebag and player interaction is overall minimal. Failing QTE's is no different than your average Telltale game. Can't truly compare until I can see the different outcomes, but choices already feel very on rail, for example you can fight or hide, but really that means hide is the wrong choice and after like 45 seconds of that branch you have to fight.
Right now the furthest gameplay I can find is from twitch, over an hour has passed and none of the leads have met yet but we've also scene and played as each one already making pacing feel kind of terrible to be honest. Let's just say having Tales 1 start with Rhys for the first hour and then swapping to Fiona obviously was done for more than 1 reason.
After reading some reviews, I am pretty worried Rhys really is gonna become a horribly written version of himself and then he dies. And god damn, I can not stand the STRONGFORK XDDDDDD thing. Just damn.
Edit: Episode 1 is like an hour and a half and feels more like it ended at the half way point of the episode
Also very hilariously even though they made a big deal about removing the "Will remember that" suddenly you get a pop up saying "OCTAVIO WANTS A BETTER RELATIONSHIP WITH ANU!" because apparently that doesnt fall under telling the player what to think? lol
So on to episode 2 and what I've seen so far.
The intro's suck. Really no other way to put it, reeks of given no budget so there simply isn't any intro credits. Instead you just get a weird minute long song playing as characters just do something bland.
Already a choice made in episode 1 just like- disappears. Spoilers if you care, but Fran can freeze someone in the freezer and not only are they completely forgotten about, they actually disappear from where they were. So either the game glitched and didnt recognize the episode 1 choice correctly, or it is just being forgotten about. Also possible it is brought up again later, but scene framing wise, they seemingly have disappeared. Reminds me of Conrad in anf episode 4 to 5 where he kind of just warps out of reality. (Edit: This choice does get followed up in episode 3 as happening, but they are just moved for whatever reason.)
Edit: Episode 2 just barely reaches an hour and consist of about 3 scenes. bruh
so rhys mentions fiona and sasha if you shoot the sasha picture. he says they’re MIA.
Given how terrible the direction of this IP is headed, I hope the sisters stay that way.
Also, Vasquez car reappears. License plate and all.
The writing so far is honestly just dull. It just feels so lifeless. The last thing I think we need is for Gearbox to find a way to make Fiona and Sasha this way. So far I fully agree with that rock paper shotgun review.