It's been over a year since ComBu's original release, and the special postmortem guidebook is still underway (slowly but surely, I want it to be perfect haha), but I thought to talk a little bit about a certain decision (which I will also cover in the guidebook... probably going to be a revised version of what you see in this post, so take it like a little preview?)

This post contains major spoilers if you haven't played the game, you have been warned. 

You may be aware of a certain storytelling rule known as "show, don't tell". This advises against just telling the audience things and encourages to actual show it. And I'm sure you're aware that ComBu breaks this rule, with certain moments "telling, not showing". And I actually did this deliberately. It wasn't just a decision based on the jam constraints, although it is part of it, but also to purposely keep the audience from forming an emotional bond to Noah's character based on information only the audience sees, but not Annelise.

Let me explain--

Noah often tells Annelise information that she no longer is aware of. When Noah talks about how they were paired, or about Lillian's downfall, etc etc. I could've easily visually shown flashback, or certain imagery and dialogue whilst Noah told the story. Scenes like that are very effective in getting the audience moved, only there's a problem... Annelise has amnesia, and you play her. To give the audience information in an interactive experience that Annelise doesn't currently remember would sway a bias to trusting Noah whole-heartedly. I'm sure most audiences did trust Noah, but I didn't want that to be because they were moved by certain flashbacks that made the information he was feeding Annelise genuine, but because they believed his words could actually be trusted. Because Annelise is an amnesiac, I wanted the audience to have the same feelings as her; confusion, disbelief, suspicion, doubt, etc etc. Can she really trust what Noah is telling her? Is he really who he says he is or an enemy? In order to preserve Ann's doubt and reservations, I decided it was best to tell and not show. That way, the decisions you make for her at the scattered choice points would be dictated on whether or not you believe you can trust Noah. I wanted the player to feel just as confused as Annelise was. If she really does have no memories at all, then giving the audience little snippets gives the player an unfair advantage. 

So, by deciding to simply have scenes where Noah explains things that have happened or about how his organization works etc etc. without any visual aids or flashbacks I feel gave a more realistic feel if; someone came up to you, claimed they were someone and then claimed YOU were someone else--naturally if you were an amnesiac you'd have to be told things that may not trigger any memories (if, they weren't lying to you). You are Annelise, and shota boy has just broke into your house making outlandish claims about himself and you... I wanted the players to feel that. How would you feel if someone broke into your house claiming to be your butler, oh and that you're somebody else and not even from this world? That's a lot to take in. You literally only have their word to go by... the random people attacking you left and right gives some weight to that claim, but can you really be sure? Is Noah's word and the people attacking you really enough information to go by? What if Noah was lying to you the whole time? This lack of information, and simply being told a bunch of things can be used effectively in how the player makes the story unfold. I also feel it adds more weight to certain revelations, especially if you happened to have fell upon the bad ending, there's a lot more guilt if you didn't trust Noah's word.

Another thing... it allowed audiences to be properly torn over Sora and Noah... we know Sora is a close friend has feelings for her, but considering what Noah is claiming we're aware he appears to have affection toward her either. If I gave too much bias toward Noah with "show, don't tell", like I mentioned earlier, audiences would most likely be swayed to Noah. After all, he's central to the story, it's why we have that crazy title, that in itself lets players know he is important and that alone would sway people to Noah... but.... being in Annelise's shoes, remembering nothing about him, with only his word and a few crazy villains to go by... you don't have a lot to work with, you really have to exercise trust here. And early, we already establish Ann and Sora being close, which shows him as a trustworthy subject. I wanted Sora's character to be equally seen as a potential love interest for Annelise, which also makes the revelation that Noah and Sora are actually the same person feel that much more shocking and satisfying. There was a lot I had to do for that build up, and my favorite versions of that revelation are found in finding an injured Sora in place of injured Noah, and the chilling being told they were the same person by Jason (who reveals himself to be Isaac). 

I feel like putting players in the same position of Annelise, having no advantage of information you can see but she can't, having to be told things instead of shown, helped the experience to feel more immersive and caused players to really think hard about their decisions. There were only a few choice points present, and I wanted them all to count. Every choice had a purpose (which I will explain in more detail in the upcoming guidebook). And like Annelise, you made every decision based upon the limited information you had. You made them for or against your better judgement, for or against your gut feelings. You played through the eyes of Annelise, saw things how she saw them, heard the thoughts of how she perceived this information, and at any point you had the power to change how the story would end... you had to decide like she would decide, and it all boiled down to... could you really take Noah at his word? Because his word was all the information you had.