Both of your ideas are pretty good actually. It does annoy me when characters in games say one thing, but then do another. Seeing him cowering in a corner, or imploring the player to do the killing would make alot more sense, but it's an extra step that isn't really needed, since you can just fill in the blanks in your head.
Almost like the Skeleton King dilema. Cain telling you "This is the only route Hero, we can only go deeper into the crypts from here. There is no turning back!" would help, but you've already got a quest telling you to slay him anyways. Hopefully, there isn't alot of this in game. Another thing that annoys me, is constant reference to the threat at hand, or what's going on. The latest Legend of Zelda game did this with Skyward Sword, where you were constantly told what was going on. You'd watch a cut-scene of a door opening, after hitting a switch that you KNEW would open the door...to then have to read text telling you the door was open.
The other thing to remember, is how much more the devs know about the game and story than us. It's incredibly hard to re-call all the details of something when you're so wound up in the development and creating of it. You know what's going on and happening, so you don't feel the need to explain yourself at all times. It happens, but hopefully it won't happen very often during the 4 acts.
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"Pull 'em in, den smash 'em up gud!" - Grimjaw, Barbarian Poet
I think this is almost where story and gameplay have to be merged or forgotten a little, in order to have a working game.
For your first example, you could explain it that deep inside he actually wants to kill his family. Deep down, he knows he needs to do this, to end their suffering but it's his family he has to kill! It's not a simple "Oh, they're zombies, where's my axe?" question, it's pretty deep. But considering his entire family has become lost, with no way to seek much closure about their position other than death, almost any excuse or co--ercision into what he truely wants, is going to push him down that path. He just needs a little push down the "correct" path and he kills them.
Now, if this happened during a cut-scene, you'd probably see his sadness, anger and depression at this point. Sadly, it's in game and out comes his axe and he's chopping off zombie heads. Sometimes the gameplay, has to over-ride the story, else at every single tangent you'd see in game characters or even your own breaking down with emotional stress.
As for the skeleton king, i've got no idea for the question regarding the crown. I've been trying to keep myself spoiler free, but i'm sure there's an answer later on in that act (or at least i'd hope so). As for pressing deeper into the Cathedral, it's another gameplay over story argument. Would it be cool if you could search for a secret passage, advoiding the boss and then triggering new events to occur in the game? Of course it would be, but how far would you take this? Would ever boss skipped, would every monster slain/left alive twist and shape the story? It could, but that's a hell of alot of extra programming that would probably leave with a very fractured and un-cohesive story.
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"Pull 'em in, den smash 'em up gud!" - Grimjaw, Barbarian Poet
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Almost like the Skeleton King dilema. Cain telling you "This is the only route Hero, we can only go deeper into the crypts from here. There is no turning back!" would help, but you've already got a quest telling you to slay him anyways. Hopefully, there isn't alot of this in game. Another thing that annoys me, is constant reference to the threat at hand, or what's going on. The latest Legend of Zelda game did this with Skyward Sword, where you were constantly told what was going on. You'd watch a cut-scene of a door opening, after hitting a switch that you KNEW would open the door...to then have to read text telling you the door was open.
The other thing to remember, is how much more the devs know about the game and story than us. It's incredibly hard to re-call all the details of something when you're so wound up in the development and creating of it. You know what's going on and happening, so you don't feel the need to explain yourself at all times. It happens, but hopefully it won't happen very often during the 4 acts.
"Pull 'em in, den smash 'em up gud!" - Grimjaw, Barbarian Poet
For your first example, you could explain it that deep inside he actually wants to kill his family. Deep down, he knows he needs to do this, to end their suffering but it's his family he has to kill! It's not a simple "Oh, they're zombies, where's my axe?" question, it's pretty deep. But considering his entire family has become lost, with no way to seek much closure about their position other than death, almost any excuse or co--ercision into what he truely wants, is going to push him down that path. He just needs a little push down the "correct" path and he kills them.
Now, if this happened during a cut-scene, you'd probably see his sadness, anger and depression at this point. Sadly, it's in game and out comes his axe and he's chopping off zombie heads. Sometimes the gameplay, has to over-ride the story, else at every single tangent you'd see in game characters or even your own breaking down with emotional stress.
As for the skeleton king, i've got no idea for the question regarding the crown. I've been trying to keep myself spoiler free, but i'm sure there's an answer later on in that act (or at least i'd hope so). As for pressing deeper into the Cathedral, it's another gameplay over story argument. Would it be cool if you could search for a secret passage, advoiding the boss and then triggering new events to occur in the game? Of course it would be, but how far would you take this? Would ever boss skipped, would every monster slain/left alive twist and shape the story? It could, but that's a hell of alot of extra programming that would probably leave with a very fractured and un-cohesive story.
"Pull 'em in, den smash 'em up gud!" - Grimjaw, Barbarian Poet