Crestfallen Studios

A few days ago, I was introducing a friend to The Way series (he's hooked BTW). I started Episode One, and let him play through the first parts of it. The opening cutscene has a few....interesting phrases. I'm pretty sure I'm probably not the first one to find this, but whatever:

It was also on that day that I last saw..."her".

She is a part of me and her absence pains me greatly.
I know that I will find her...someday... or else I will never have any peace.

Well, maybe I'm looking too much into this, but it seems the the double quotes around "her" seems to imply that she exists only figuratively. Like she wasn't real or something. Kinda interesting, since there are many theories that support this, and it would be just like Lun to throw us hints right in the beginning of the game.

I wonder where this winding river will take it... What a sad thing... to have no control over ones destiny...

Okay, this relates to the thoery that the pendant made Cesta evil. This seems to imply that the pendant is controlling someone's destiny (aka Cesta), just like Rhue "controlled" the pendant he threw in the water's destiny. Just a thought.


Or course, these probably isn't the only example of foreshadowing in the Way. So what other hints has Lun put into the game?

SpaceBoy2000 wrote:Well, maybe I'm looking too much into this, but it seems the the double quotes around "her" seems to imply that she exists only figuratively. Like she wasn't real or something. Kinda interesting, since there are many theories that support this, and it would be just like Lun to throw us hints right in the beginning of the game.

The second time I played episode one, I noticed this as well. It does suggest very strongly that's there's something not quite normal about Rhue's memories of Serena. It also shifts the ephasis of the sentence very heavily onto that one word; this may be done to point out that "she" is by far the most important concept in Rhue's thinking.

SpaceBoy2000 wrote:Okay, this relates to the thoery that the pendant made Cesta evil. This seems to imply that the pendant is controlling someone's destiny (aka Cesta), just like Rhue "controlled" the pendant he threw in the water's destiny. Just a thought.

fwacho as much as said that the pendant was not a magical artifact that drove people to evil. At this point, the pendant just seems like a MacGuffin to me. It's an object whose only real purpose is to drive the rest of the plot; this was particularly evident at the end of episode two, when the sight of the pendant drives Rhue to save Violet's life in a very bizarre and otherwise totally unframable turn of events.

If the pendant being thrown into the water is supposed to symbolize something, it's almost certainly related to the manner in which people (and perhaps "Serena," specifically) are carried forward along The Way.

well, rhue throw the pendant into the river for no reason at all, while cetsa throwing it may mean she throwing awawy her older self and trying to change (which will not end good, but she tried)

I think the whole "throwing the pendant" thing was supposed to show irony because just like the river has total control over its "destiny", the memory of Serena affects everything Rhue does, basicly controling his desitiny.

Sage Of The Wise wrote:I think the whole "throwing the pendant" thing was supposed to show irony because just like the river has total control over its "destiny", the memory of Serena affects everything Rhue does, basicly controling his desitiny.

I think you might be getting too specific with this metaphor, but the basic idea is doubtless right. The river and The Way are very similar, carrying objects and people inexorably along.

So, do all rivers on The Way flow the same direction, going forward toward the mists? Or do they veer off and disappear off the sides? (Does The Way even have sides?) Actually, all the rivers flowing roughly the same direction is not even unrealistic. On the earth, essemtially all rivers of substantial size flow towards the equator; they're driven that way by the fictitious forces of the planet's rotation. (The sole exception is the White Nile, which flows away from the equator for no other reason than that it begins at the equator, and it has to go somewhere from there.)

I've noticed a lot of irony metaphors. I can only think of one big one off hand, and there's something VERY interesting about it:

In older E4 version

*Rhue examines the mirror in his first room in the Grand Casino*

Rhue: I hate mirrors. They lie to me.

In most recent version of E4
Rhue: Fancy mirror.\.\. I hardly recognize myself\..\..\..
<Variable: $@$ Look here + 1>
(And a switch is turned on so that Rhue says "..." any time he looks at it afterwards.)

I can't remember if anyone noted this before, but there appears to be a varible of how many mirrors Rhue looks at.

I actually did notice that variable once... I don't see what it can really do in the end. How is looking in one mirror any different to looking in five?

It doesn't make much of a difference in the story I guess, but it's a good way to measure two things:
1) Is the player actively speaking to objects on the map
2) Is the player aware of the fact mirrors seem to have relevance to the story.

Let's hope it won't influence anything though

I for one think it's got something to do with rhue's "relationship points" as its stated in the other topic on this board...
Standing in the evil circle in sacrificia rhue will say something different wether you made him a bad character or a good character (depending on the answers and actions you took earlier on)... i think it somehow ties to that...

Impossible wrote:I actually did notice that variable once... I don't see what it can really do in the end. How is looking in one mirror any different to looking in five?

I can think of a very obvious reason to have the mirror counter; I just don't think Lun has implemented it fully. (Either he has decided to wait until more episodes are complete, or he has dropped the idea of doing this altogether. I think the first is more likely, for reasons I shall outline.)

In my hypothetical final version of the game, there's just a counter that keeps track of how many mirror's Rhue has looked at. Each time he gazes into a new one, it gives the next quote on the list. Ultimately, it will be rather like the organs in Final Fantasy V, yet without the silly reward at the end.

If Lun has not dropped this idea, the easiest way to implement it in the final version would be to have a single block of code for every mirror in the game. This could not be finalized until all the messages have been written. Lun may be writing them as he goes along, episode by episode, and when the series is done, he can produce the final code and copy it back into each earlier segment.

Refer to my theory that the Purpose controls everything.

Thanks, Alundra

err... i was referring to trihan's post...
Post subject: Maximise your relationships!
..but you're welcome tough...