So, I've started playing Star Wars: The Old Republic again. Why? Well, clearly I must enjoy being aggravated by game choice systems that keep tantalizing me with possibilities, but then completely disappoint me in implementation. So I thought I'd rant about it here.
Here's the situation in the game. I'm about to go confront my boss (who hired me after having me kill the previous apprentice, so they're not the most trustworthy sort). They've asked me to come help finish some ritual, and said that it's kind of a sensitive matter, so don't bring along companion B or C, just bring along companion A. However, a separate mysterious person who has been helping me along the way has warned me that my boss really shouldn't be trusted and is likely to try to kill me, so I shouldn't listen to the advice and I should bring along someone who would be useful in a fight against them, and, in fact, that I should strike first, before she has a chance to be prepared.
"Cool", I thought, when this setup happened. It's a bit of a non-standard choice mechanic: while you're playing the game you can choose to have one companion with you as you're wandering about, and you're free to choose, and normally it doesn't matter other than a little bit of flavour text. Some missions require certain companions, and some companions are happier when you do some things rather than others, but other than that it hasn't done much. But here, rather than doing a dialog choice (the main choice system in the game) they're letting you affect things by switching companions. And maybe I
So, I thought for a minute about what I wanted to do. I could bring along companion B or C, but that would signal to my boss that I don't trust them, and probably lead to questions as to why not. Or I could bring along companion A, who is still kinda useful in a fight (although I'm worried that my boss has something planned to turn companion A against me). I ended up deciding to go with companion B.
Off I go to the location to confront my boss. I step into the corridor towards where the boss is, and a message pops up: "You must have companion A with you to continue".
What!!?!?!?? Seriously? I don't actually get a choice? Why the hell did the writers set up this whole question and then not let me do anything about it?
I'm especially annoyed since this was only the second time in the whole game so far that I've had what looked like an interesting choice (or at least a choice with consequences). But no, it wasn't a choice at all. No idea what happened here. Did they originally plan to have different things happen based on who you brought, but never completed the alternate dialog?
<sigh>
Here's a video someone posted of the process. (3 minutes of dialog starting at 05:06)
