Mastodawn

I think the reason chapter 1 of Enigma Heart works so well narratively is because it is on rails. You're guided through a linear story.

Wanting to take the rails off and let the player do things in any order from chapter 2 on is really at odds with me wanting to tell a story, especially since all of Zalia's friends are in Lydaea, and Zalia is on the move halfway across the continent.

(cont'd)

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Clarissa | making Enigma Heart 5d ago

I really don't think, once people enter the valley, that they're gonna go back to Lydaea for updates now that they can just explore at will.

Zalia being solo really makes telling a story about relationships hard. Like, in a party-based RPG, your "hometown" (as it were) travels with you, so you have a built-in narrative device.

And I think Zalia and Esme writing letters back and forth is going to get old fast.

I really do think I've designed myself into a corner.

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LezLiz 🏳️‍🌈

@ClarusPlusPlus If the romance interest is independent and adventurous enough, you could just make the protag stumble upon her at various places. Otherwise, I guess either going back needs to be easy, like the Diablo town portal thing, or you need to come up with story reasons to meet the romance interest in more convenient locations.