Chapter 3 Retrospective

Hi everyone.  Over the weekend, I re-rendered nearly 200 more images, completing the Bad Girl Toilet Ambush, Lola's sex scene and the third period sp... corrections.  I'm also now on the last couple of maps of the slaver base, meaning completion of the maps and coding is imminent!  Once again though, this is just steady progress with nothing cool to show that you haven't seen before, so redoing the slaver base got me thinking that I'd like to do a proper retrospective on Chapter 3 now that you've all played it, and with work on Chapter 4 resuming soon, this seems like a great time.

I suppose it should go without saying, but if for some reason you haven't played Chapter 3 yet, this piece will contain major spoilers for it.

Chapter 3 is a strange beast among Missy quests.  It starts a whole new story thread, it takes place entirely outside the central setting and a character can die.  It's even been described as "filler"  So what's the skinny on why I did it the way I did?

After the introduction of the school in Chapter 1 and the craziest fetch quest ever in Chapter 2, this chapter begins with some fairly heavy revelations about Missy's past.  I wanted to get these out of the way early, rather than allow the mystery to build up to the point that any revelation would be anticlimactic.

Renée obviously bears some intentional physical resemblances to Missy, which you'd expect at least one of her mothers to have.  Note that as with traditional reproduction, it is often the case that children can look more like one parent than the other (Abbie and Malia look more like Carmela than Janette, Lola looks more like Claire than Monica, and so on.)  We therefore don't have any clues yet as to what Ezra may look like.

Unquestionably my favourite part of Chapter 3 is the exciting gun battle escape sequence, as I mentioned the other day.  In the updated version here, you can also see the town guards looking smart in their redone glory.  Bottom right, there.  Renée and the slavers are still waiting for their turn.

This sequence, together with stuff like wrestling Nissa and the overlook sequence at the end are part of why I built Missy with RPG Maker.  A lot of the game could be done with the Ren'Py engine, and would likely reach a larger audience, but using this engine lets me do stuff like this.  Missy is part action RPG, part visual novel, and in this chapter, I wanted to show off some of the action RPG elements.  Missy's life is in genuine danger during the battle and this felt a lot more real than anything I could have done in a visual novel.

Speaking of which, what ending did you get for Renée?  Did she escape safely or leap to her death rather than be captured?  If you want to know how to get a different result next time round, I'll put the answer at the bottom*, and if you don't, then... stop reading before that, I guess.   Renée gives you the clues you need, if you listen to what she says.

Anyway, again, the overlook sequence provides a climactic scene which plays out one of 4 different ways depending on the choices you made.  Whether Renée lives or dies, though, Missy's deal with the Sapphorian authorities remains intact.  This will matter later.  A few people expressed disappointment at being unable to actually go with Renée and become a slaver.  One of the limitations of videa games, I'm afraid, I'd have had to make a whole new game for that!  But hey, assuming you didn't get her killed, I'm sure she'll be back to try again...

Despite how eager I've been to crack on with Chapter 4, I don't think it would have been right to put it straight after Chapter 2.  It would have been possible for someone starting the game to play through Chapter 1, then do Chapter 2 without going to school again in between and then for their second school day to be a scripted day in which some fairly major stuff happens between Missy, Jess and Miss Paris.  Obviously I wanted an average player to have experienced several more days before they got to that, so this chapter also serves as a useful separator.

On Wednesday, we'll have a full roundup of where we are with the remaster.  I hope you've enjoyed today's glimpse into the creative process, and if you don't want to know what factors decide whether Renée lives or dies, stop reading now!

Trinian

* Actually, it's pretty straightforward.  Remember how Renée tells you that in her line of work, indecision gets people killed?  Well that's the clue.  If you chose to go with her when she asked you, but then change your mind and go with the captain during the battle, or if you told her you were going back to Karen, but then went with Renée during the battle, it will cause her to hesitate, allowing Captain Elysee to catch her.  If you stuck to what you were doing, either way, then she knows what she's doing and escapes unharmed.