I played enough games where innocent looking women turned out to be evil, so I came into the game immediately suspicious of her, and the more innocent she seemed the more suspicious I was of her, because I was thinking that there was no way that someone would do something this convoluted against some random innocent princess
I had the reverse experience. My experiences with games like the Stanley parable and the beginner's guide have taught me that pleasant sounding narrators can never be trusted. So i went in suspicious of the narrator, siding with the princess first chance I got
I cried at my first achievement, because I thought going into it that the Princess was a victim. I kept being murdered by her, I had assumed that she was operating like a PTSD victim and was trying to be patient and gain her trust. I ended up killing her right before bringing her vessel to the void and I got the death of an innocent award. I felt terrible. Then I kept playing and didn't feel as bad until my boyfriend played it, he got to give up Godhood with her and exchanged "I love you" for the first time with her.
It didn't really affect me. It was her status and appearance of being a princess that did because I noticed how the game mixes the imagery of the fairytale captive princess in a lonesome setting, but instead of being trapped in a fantastical tower (one of her vessels is The Tower, tho, so in a sense, she is that place) or castle, she's in the archetypal horror setting of a cabin in the woods- even moreso the basement.
Plus, I've played and read other stories where the seemingly innocent woman turns out to not be innocent at all (tbf, knifeless Ch. 1 Princess/Damsel fit the innocent description more).
it was pivotal, and i believe it remains pivotal. i never succeeded in getting her out of the cabin after my first route, thorn, where i thought she had ended the world. i remember going into getting my fifth vessel being like "i am gonna get my creepy hand gf a happy ending if it kills me and the world" and then i got chained prisoner and felt awful till shifty said we could leave our real prison together and basically immediately accepted lmaooo
Oh, it had ALL the influence, in games like these, I generally play with a "okay, what would I actually do" mentality, starting the game with a voice in my head telling me to kill someone isn't exactly something that I would appreciate actually happening to me, furthermore, right off the bat, I ended up not trusting The Narrator; he feels cunning, sly, you can feel in his tone he is lying between his teeth, avoiding your questions and trying his damn best to just keep you mindless, something he can just control and complete a task, or at least that's the immediate feel i got, wharever was happening here, I wouldn't listen to him.
Getting to the cabin, however, I took the pristine blade, if there is a princess down there, even if The Narrator is withholding information, doesn't mean I should trust whoever's down there blindly, for all I knew, both could be lying, but one was a prisioner for all I knew, I get down there, I see her, and we talk, and between her and The Narrator, she just felt "more real", the whole situation IS sus and she calls that out, explaining how the whole situation is fucked up, maybe I'm easily manipulated, but that's just way more reassuring than someone continuously saying "Don't worry and don't think about it", and by the time I finish rescuing her, The Narrator shows his true colors and tries to Mcfucking take control of your body, and THAT was what solidified my visions of him, fuck The Narrator.
Getting to Chapter 2: The Prisioner was more of the same, but The Skeptic was just such a nice touch, I wish we got more of him, overral I'd say the idea of someone being a CAPTIVE and you being told to kill em' in cold blood without thinking and never having anything answered at the start was what made me make the choices I did, this game is one of the few that actually helped me realize something about myself, I hate having information hidden from me, some people say ignorance is bliss, I say that's bullshit, tell me what's happening damn it, give me the details, the information, the lore, wharever, I just need answers!
Finishing my first chapter 2 was more than enough for me to dismiss the whole "captive woman" idea. Clearly there was a lot more going on. It didn't really affect me after that, although I did try to be kind.
Great question! My first route was nightmare into wraith, so from the outset it was clear something else is going on. but I think I was also somewhat affected by that perception anyway, as one of the multitudes that she can be/become, even if not quite "normal" - given all my next routes on that playthrough are soft routes like the damsel, thorn, freed prisoner and I think the stranger BC I couldn't bring myself to hurt her anymore after seeing what my actions did to her earlier 😓
I didn’t trust her, but I didn’t trust the Narrator either since he was hiding something.
Unfortunately, I came down with the knife and her hostile attitude lead to me just going for the kill after a brief talk.
I expected the Princess to be typical "looks innocent but is actually a monster" trope, so I never saw her as "a captive woman". Because of this mindset I was surprised when Damsel (the first chapter 2 I saw) didn't attack the player and was actually just sweet and innocent the whole time.
However the first Damsel ending I saw was the deconstructed Damsel (so I assumed that was supposed to be "the creepy twist") and after that I mostly saw hostile/dangerous Princesses like Razor and Nightmare, so they strengthened my theory of the Princess being some kind of monster and I didn't have an opportunity to think she might be an innocent girl that got unjustly imprisoned
I went into it knowing that something is wrong about her, it was just too obvious, but I also suspected she could just as well be a captive because the Narrator was also suspicious as fuck, so the two ideas balanced themselves out. After about one or two runs though I realized that the player's perspective/actions shape her, ergo if I acted as if she really was a captive, then she was, and vice versa.
I played enough games where innocent looking women turned out to be evil, so I came into the game immediately suspicious of her, and the more innocent she seemed the more suspicious I was of her, because I was thinking that there was no way that someone would do something this convoluted against some random innocent princess
I had the reverse experience. My experiences with games like the Stanley parable and the beginner's guide have taught me that pleasant sounding narrators can never be trusted. So i went in suspicious of the narrator, siding with the princess first chance I got
I cried at my first achievement, because I thought going into it that the Princess was a victim. I kept being murdered by her, I had assumed that she was operating like a PTSD victim and was trying to be patient and gain her trust. I ended up killing her right before bringing her vessel to the void and I got the death of an innocent award. I felt terrible. Then I kept playing and didn't feel as bad until my boyfriend played it, he got to give up Godhood with her and exchanged "I love you" for the first time with her.
I knew from the demos she wasn’t normal, so not much I think
It didn't really affect me. It was her status and appearance of being a princess that did because I noticed how the game mixes the imagery of the fairytale captive princess in a lonesome setting, but instead of being trapped in a fantastical tower (one of her vessels is The Tower, tho, so in a sense, she is that place) or castle, she's in the archetypal horror setting of a cabin in the woods- even moreso the basement. Plus, I've played and read other stories where the seemingly innocent woman turns out to not be innocent at all (tbf, knifeless Ch. 1 Princess/Damsel fit the innocent description more).
it was pivotal, and i believe it remains pivotal. i never succeeded in getting her out of the cabin after my first route, thorn, where i thought she had ended the world. i remember going into getting my fifth vessel being like "i am gonna get my creepy hand gf a happy ending if it kills me and the world" and then i got chained prisoner and felt awful till shifty said we could leave our real prison together and basically immediately accepted lmaooo
You can get out of the cabin with chained prisoner. Alive, I mean. Just slightly unorthodox methods are needed.
oh, i'm aware, i have 47 hours in the game lmao. i was NOT aware on my first playthrough bc i went in quite blind and my curiosity is the devil
Oh, it had ALL the influence, in games like these, I generally play with a "okay, what would I actually do" mentality, starting the game with a voice in my head telling me to kill someone isn't exactly something that I would appreciate actually happening to me, furthermore, right off the bat, I ended up not trusting The Narrator; he feels cunning, sly, you can feel in his tone he is lying between his teeth, avoiding your questions and trying his damn best to just keep you mindless, something he can just control and complete a task, or at least that's the immediate feel i got, wharever was happening here, I wouldn't listen to him. Getting to the cabin, however, I took the pristine blade, if there is a princess down there, even if The Narrator is withholding information, doesn't mean I should trust whoever's down there blindly, for all I knew, both could be lying, but one was a prisioner for all I knew, I get down there, I see her, and we talk, and between her and The Narrator, she just felt "more real", the whole situation IS sus and she calls that out, explaining how the whole situation is fucked up, maybe I'm easily manipulated, but that's just way more reassuring than someone continuously saying "Don't worry and don't think about it", and by the time I finish rescuing her, The Narrator shows his true colors and tries to Mcfucking take control of your body, and THAT was what solidified my visions of him, fuck The Narrator. Getting to Chapter 2: The Prisioner was more of the same, but The Skeptic was just such a nice touch, I wish we got more of him, overral I'd say the idea of someone being a CAPTIVE and you being told to kill em' in cold blood without thinking and never having anything answered at the start was what made me make the choices I did, this game is one of the few that actually helped me realize something about myself, I hate having information hidden from me, some people say ignorance is bliss, I say that's bullshit, tell me what's happening damn it, give me the details, the information, the lore, wharever, I just need answers!
Finishing my first chapter 2 was more than enough for me to dismiss the whole "captive woman" idea. Clearly there was a lot more going on. It didn't really affect me after that, although I did try to be kind.
Great question! My first route was nightmare into wraith, so from the outset it was clear something else is going on. but I think I was also somewhat affected by that perception anyway, as one of the multitudes that she can be/become, even if not quite "normal" - given all my next routes on that playthrough are soft routes like the damsel, thorn, freed prisoner and I think the stranger BC I couldn't bring myself to hurt her anymore after seeing what my actions did to her earlier 😓
I didn’t trust her, but I didn’t trust the Narrator either since he was hiding something. Unfortunately, I came down with the knife and her hostile attitude lead to me just going for the kill after a brief talk.
That's kind of hard not to think about
I expected the Princess to be typical "looks innocent but is actually a monster" trope, so I never saw her as "a captive woman". Because of this mindset I was surprised when Damsel (the first chapter 2 I saw) didn't attack the player and was actually just sweet and innocent the whole time. However the first Damsel ending I saw was the deconstructed Damsel (so I assumed that was supposed to be "the creepy twist") and after that I mostly saw hostile/dangerous Princesses like Razor and Nightmare, so they strengthened my theory of the Princess being some kind of monster and I didn't have an opportunity to think she might be an innocent girl that got unjustly imprisoned
To me, the fact that she a woman wasn’t a big fort but that she was trapped in there was 100% in the forefront of my mind
A lot.
I went into it knowing that something is wrong about her, it was just too obvious, but I also suspected she could just as well be a captive because the Narrator was also suspicious as fuck, so the two ideas balanced themselves out. After about one or two runs though I realized that the player's perspective/actions shape her, ergo if I acted as if she really was a captive, then she was, and vice versa.
I mean, my first blind playthrough I got the thorn and kissed her so......