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I've been enjoying Tower of Oz after mustering up the courage to finally do it and am currently aiming to past Floor 43. However, for the potential questions of Floor 11 and 13, I each have to record number of black golems killed and number of white bears/green flower cows killed and find them beyond what should be asked of the player.

The problem with counting the number of black golems killed in Floor 11 is that you have to kill 300 of the monsters contained in that room. The black golems are not there by themselves, and have a sort of 50/50 split with its other variant. The only difference they have is their color, everything else is the same (such as their dying animation). With a big room, having many platforms, and with Finley being summoned if you stay there too long, it is quite frankly, too demanding to ask us to count how many black golems we have killed to pass the room. There should be a notifier that tells us how many black golems we have killed. There already is one for how many total.

Now, my problem with Floor 13 is that the monsters here are too close to be able to count. Players are pressured to count 2 types of monsters, while they must dodge meteors that deplete a very significant amount of their health, while also making sure no monster passes a certain area. With the guide I am referencing to help me do the Tower, they do not seem to have a set amount spawned, so players cannot give an automated response. Again, if there was a notifier, or even if the monsters were spaced out more, it could greatly alleviate this problem without changing things too much.

Now, I understand that we can screencap for Floor 13 or use OBS for the whole thing, and I like the idea of exploring the more niche systems of the game, but I feel this is going a bit too far. The game shouldn't require third-party help, or clunky answers that only serve to slow the player down. Like, I can just about accept the other questions, but these two, are too much.

I wish I could complain about Floor 48 because it looks really stressful. Can't even practice it? C'mon!

AKradian wrote: »

The Tenebris Expedition story does indeed only have to be done on a single character on the account.

As for skipping stories entirely - should we also allow people to skip boss fights, if they happen to dislike them? Or grinding, if they don't enjoy that?
Stories and quests are part of the game. At least you can spacebar through them to make them go by faster, which one can't do for some other aspects of the game.

Also, you yourself pointed out that the developers go through quite a bit of effort to make all this story content, for a single use.
And then you ask to be allowed to skip even that one use, wasting their effort entirely?

I only feel the need of having to skip the story because I believe the quality of the content is not satisfactory.

The way Maple have told stories was always basic and unfortunately only got worse with the blockbuster-style format. Before, yes, it was barebones and just text - but at least it did allow the freedom of you skipping it fast and more importantly, if you wanted to get invested in the story, you could take the time to do so. With the blockbuster format, you have more quality of course. There's cutscenes, images to emphasize certain scenes, videos - just more production all around. However, with this, you also have significantly long pauses of nothing (transitions, things loading in, etc.) , QTE's with no fail states, padded with kill or fetch quests or other filler, pacing off between interaction and non-interactive play, and the stories themselves being too long.

Ideally, the reaction to doing story content should be with a sense of excitement and urgency. Unfortunately, all I feel is dread. Functionally, the blockbusters are clunky. Story-wise, it has problems too...Which I will not get into.

In the end, it's just as you say, and we can just still spacebar our way through the text. Still, that answer is obviously not optimal. You want people to want to experience the story. The very idea that story can only be made in the form of cutscenes and dialogue is just the starting point. Quests, the maps, monsters, music, rewards; they and many other seemingly ineffectual aspects all add to the story. My suggestion would be to perhaps look into other video games and see how they handle their balance of story and gameplay.

Heck, to not even end on a downer, I know one good story content that was already made: in the form of CrimsonWood Keep (not Masteria Through Time). The maze of the forest, the music, the mansion, fearful of getting ambushed by Headless Horseman and Bigfoot one-shotting you, the jump-quest that lead to, at that time, very good maps, the castle itself, and to top it off, the CWKPQ...It was beautiful.

Yea, it's kind of strange how much effort and spectacle they put with this kind of content, only for it to be disposable after the first experience. I know some stories have branching paths, and differing rewards, but it doesn't fix the way they are played out. Reminds me that maybe I'm not so much in the stories because there's hardly any recurring characters or meaningful interactions in them but now I'm going on a tangent.

Maybe have a skip button once you've completed it with one character?

Aggraphine wrote: »

I mean, if you don't have the time to sit through a lot of dialog, perhaps save story content for when you do have the time?

I think you misunderstand. It's not just that they can be long. The fact that they are long-winded and padded with numerous filler is the problem. When a story segment starts, I am no longer in control of my character and railroaded with scripted scenes and gameplay. Maybe patience would have been a better word for it.

Sometimes I don't have time to sit down to read or watch, or quite frankly, care about some of the story content. This is emblematic for blockbuster and the current story progression for the Black Mage event. I think it would be nice to have the option to skip it, even at a cost. Sure, I can still technically skip dialogue and such by holding down a button, doing a few QTE's or if I pay attention, but that still takes time, and is quite the inelegant solution.