Random Post #70 - Talking about the Basement Quest

It’s my first time writing one of these, so cut me some slack. I think it kinda comes off as a complaint dump, but I thought you guys might enjoy reading through it. I personally love this kind of stuff, so yeah.

Spoilers of the newest update ahead.

My biggest regret is that there was a LOT of ground that needed to be covered in this quest. Boo and Hildegard’s introductions, Morgan’s character and the reason why the experiments exists, Peach’s indifference to her sister’s plight… I wish this quest could’ve come sooner into the game’s dev cycle, so parts of it could be better digested over time. For example, the extra experiments could’ve played a role in the Goddess content, or even during the parts where the player is wandering around the forest.

The other regret was the quest feeling bloated and dragged out. Again, it’s because there was a lot of stuff to talk about, but it did feel especially long. It reminds me of Illyana’s third quest, which is likely my favorite quest; I know it’s a 30-minute dialogue slog. Because of this, I had to cut some content I wanted to add. Like an interaction between Lene and Hildegard, Peach participating in the dinner, and a more “active” conclusion to Hildegard feeling chained to her sisters, where Boo would overhear Hildegard admitting to the player she would be willing to run away, and the drama that would follow.

Another thing that annoys me about most of the basement content is how far into the game it is. There is a little thing I keep track of that isn’t mentioned in-game, but the game is cut into three difficulties. Early, mid, and late game. Early is the start of the game, Mid is after you beat the goblin queen, Late is after saving Peach (The only in-game implication of this is that the shops update with new gear and enemy balance), and all the experiment stuff is after Peach. (Not counting Lene and Nihil stuff). There is a lot of progress that needs to be made to get to the witch's tower content.

With that out of the way, let me talk about the other characters:

Boo is a funny one. The main idea was to go for a shut-in/nervous wreck of a character, and although I think that’s just how she feels like, that’s not how she acts most of the time. That’s because Hildegard cheats, and tells the player exactly what to do to make Boo cooperative. She quickly gets friendly with the player and isn’t that nervous around him, and that dissolves most of her character traits leaving her feeling just plain horny. I wish I can find a moment in the future to explore Boo a bit more. I wouldn’t say she is underexplored, as she just doesn’t have as much going for her as Hildegard had to carry a quest, but maybe… she could get a friend for herself.

Hildegard is the big one. I consider her one of the most sexualized designs in the game. I always try to stay away from designs that are too on the nose, but I thought it was fine for Boo and Hildegard to be showing off the goods. She was always meant to be the big player of the quest, but not in the way seen in the final version of the quest. I did mention before when talking about the old idea for Lene’s third quest: my desire to make an evil big sister. That was going to be Hildegard, who’d be straight up a liar, who’d manipulate the player to take power all to herself and go crazy on her ideals of superiority. In the first version of the quest I had Hildegard stabbing Boo and the player on the back to access the ley line and the idea was to make her go so crazy with power she’d become a goddess level enemy who’d die in a final confrontation… Yeah. That didn’t happen.

I had a lot of trouble writing Hildegard. She is a bit of a weirdo. She can sound kind and gentle, before randomly being a cruel savage. Even though she didn’t end up as a villain, she is still a bit antagonistic, especially in the Basement Quest.

One other thing I kept regretting about Hildegard was backing off on making her belly a bit chubby. In the first sketch I made of her, she was a bit more… rotund. It made her feel softer and gentler, and it went great with her character. But in the end, we landed on our current Hildegard.

One thing I didn’t notice until someone pointed it out to me is that Peach feels like the antagonist of the quest. Or rather, she is the reason the quest happens in the first place. Of course, she isn’t actively being evil, but instead her indifference pushes stuff forward. I’m going to put a quick: “Peach was also originally made to be evil, and she still is a bit cruel at times”

Now, let me talk about the quest itself.

If you’ve been following the game’s development over the past few months, you’d know I’ve been meaning to do this basement quest for quite a while. Sadly, it ballooned out of control as things tend to happen witouth Zehmun putting sense into me. More than half of it ended up being Hildegard’s romance, and that wasn’t something I initially planned. In reality it would be "finish the basement story and Hildegard would be available", just like Boo is available after the first half of the story.

Speaking of the story, a thing that is a bit iffy for me is how I broke one of my own rules on this quest, and that was taking away how permanent the demonic corruption was. I do like the idea of demonic corruption, and although it’s not something that plays a large role in this game, it is something that is mentioned here and there, and it isn’t really supposed to play out the way it did on the quest. Boo, when fully corrupted, was supposed to be permanently a demon, and Hildegard would at least be half corrupted by the end of the quest. At one point, I did entertain the idea of making a special corrupted Boo art for her fight, but corrupted Boo’s role was so tiny I didn’t think it was worth delaying the update over. And on Hildegard’s case… I was going to give her a demonic pp. If you have any thoughts about the story, I guess we can just say they were corrupted because of the Ley Line connection, and when it got cut they reverted back to normal. That way I won’t feel as bad about it.

And I think that is it. I can’t think of anything else to talk about. Overall, I don’t think I have as many issues with this update as some of the others. I did have huge regrets about the Nameless quest, for example.

Sorry for the wall of text! Glad you read it until here! Now, I'll be hopping into photoshop and finishing the updated pp chart.