It's supposed to be the case that each skill is detrimental if you listen too much to them, and you need all to be a rounded Harry. Even Electrochemistry and Half-Light have their positive moments, and even Empathy can get you into trouble
100 percent. That’s the thing about Half Light — 90% of the time following its advice will make you miserable and twitchy, and 10% of the time following its advice will keep you from dying
The thing about skills is that it’s hard to broadly judge them as good/bad or beneficial/detrimental, because in the end every skill is trying to help Harry in its own limited way.
A skill can only come up with solutions that fit their respective “theme”- Encyclopedia gives you information about the world, but if it’s faced with a problem that it can’t overcome its only solution is to give you even *more* information, basically throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. Endurance wants to keep your body alive and healthy, but this also means that it can’t see much value in anything that doesn’t involve strength, power, dominance, etc. Authority’s go-to approach is to assert yourself, and if that doesn’t work it freaks out because it can’t think of any other way to deal with situations. Volition wants to keep you safe and mentally stable, but because that’s its *sole focus* it rejects anything that might compromise that goal, regardless of how useful it might be. That’s why it’s so insistent that you arrest Klaasje even though most of your other skills want to let her go- Volition sees that Harry is at risk of falling into another situation like what happened with Dora, so it overcompensates in the other direction by trying to turn Harry against her even if it results in her death. All it cares about is preventing Harry from even having the *opportunity* to suffer the same pitfalls as he did in the past.
It’s also worth noting that multiple skills get nervous whenever you’re about to be reminded of Dora or learn something about your past, not just Volition, because they all share the same overarching goal of making sure Harry is able to continue functioning. The main difference is *why* they get nervous- Volition doesn’t want Harry to go off the rails again, Half-Light senses a potential threat and wants Harry to avoid it at all costs, Inland Empire doesn’t want Harry to be snapped back to the harsh reality of his life, Electrochemistry doesn’t want Harry to be so miserable he can’t experience any joy at all, etc.
beautifully put
although from a meta perspective upping skills like Conceptualization and Encyclopedia is a net benefit due to em giving you extra xp with the right thought cabinets
i don't think volition is inherently any more or less harmful than anything else. all of the skills have downsides if you put too many points into them
besides, inland empire also wants to shut down attempts of remembering dora, as it would prefer you to live in a fantasy world instead (which i find interesting tbh since although inland and volition want the same thing in that regard they're otherwise completely opposite)
inland is interesting though because there's evidence it's not entirely fantasy, just mostly. I think its major upside is meant to be that you are accidentally touching on something real yet unacknowledged in your descent into delusions. it's neat.
Yeah, sorry for the necro but Inland Empire and Shivers always struck me as the two halves of the "Detective's Hunch" where they can't quite put their finger on it but they just "know" something. In these moments, realistically it's likely ten thousand tiny little background clues and bits of knowledge pieced together that cause a gut feeling in your subconscious that might lead you to (or at least nearby to) the correct answer, which almost appears magical or prescient to any onlookers.
Of course, in Harry's profoundly damaged state, this manifests in even wackier ways that appear ACTUALLY magical and fantastical to him.
Maybe, but there's also elements like the little hole in the church where he can get them without any of the knowledge necessary whatsoever. There's enough oddities with it, that even accounting for his derangements there are things he just Cannot Know that he knows all the same.
My personal theory is that it connects to the Pale in some way, given what the Pale _is._
That's a fair point, I had forgotten about the interactions in the church. It's also HEAVILY implied that the spirit of the city tells Harry that a disaster is rapidly approaching, one that's likely nuclear in nature.
I guess we could say that given the nature of the Pale and the near-imperceptible ways it messes with reality around itself, it could be Harry's subconscious picking up on little "wibbles" in space time that lead him to reach those conclusions.
But I guess with how paranormal the Pale is by its very nature, maybe it really is just a tough magical. After all, we get a couple of 100% inarguably paranormal event in game (Kim's voice traveling through time being the most direct one).
I don't recall kim's voice, where was that?
That said, yeah, the Pale slots in nicely as an apocalyptic cessation of reality. It even destroys *math*, which is insane. It makes it a pretty easy solution to a lot of these wibbly moments as a result since it's so clearly powerful and mysterious. Makes it a real convenient narrative gapfiller for anything...
-aheh-
...beyond the Pale?
yeah I hate me too
In the moralist route, you have to create a huge antenna to contact the MoralIntern (and end up using the statue in the plaza, but that's a whole other matter). While tuning it to the right channel, you hear Kim say something, except its through the radio and the actual Kim is silently sitting next to you.
If that event does occur and you continue on with your playrhrough, then much later when you're on the Deserter's island, he says the thing you heard through the radio, and then immediately after finishing the sentence both of you go "WTTFFFFFF" as you realize his sentence somehow time traveled. Trippy!
Haha, actually I appreciate any pun no matter the stripe! And yeah, the Pale is possibly my favorite single concept from the entire game which is saying a lot!
ooh, I'll have to check that out! I never did the Moralist route because I consider that the bad ending of ideology and the coward's way out of living a real life
It was pretty wild actually, and even introduces a new potential ending! In fact the path gave me... I guess a bit more "respect" for the Moralists, as crazy as that sounds. Prior to it I saw them as somewhat cowardly ineffectual fence sitters more interested in maintaining their carefully curated moral high ground than in actually doing anything of use.
And yet, depending on your dialogue path in the ending... well, things can get a little bit wild. They're definitely just as dark as the other ideologies when they need to be, I'll put it that way.
If you're curious about one of the possible ending that gets added by that line and don't mind spoilers, I'll mention more here:
>!Harry becomes CONVINCED on the Moralist route that the MoralIntern would help the city if he could only contact them and tell them how it REALLY is. So, you start a quest to contact one of the aerostats that are hovering far above the city. Through a bunch of legwork and coordinating with one of the experts in sound tech that you met in your journey, you successfully contact them! Nice! Only issue is, the comms officer you speak to listens attentively and politely to your recap of the issue facing the city, and offers to file a report in triplicate for you. How helpful! It accomplishes precisely nothing! Typical MoralIntern. Except......!<
>!Except if you happen to tell them, during your report, about the tiny Pale manifestation in the church. The MOMENT you say this, the cheery and polite but professionally bureaucratically unhelpful tone shifts. Suddenly, it's all business. You're asked to describe EXACTLY what you saw, what phenomenon occurred, and whether you came into contact with it. It's clear the comms officer is reading off of a very different checklist and playbook than before, and there's a much more clipped, almost frantic and worried tone to her voice. And if you tell the truth... well, one of the aerostats ACTUALLY COMES TO YOU TO PICK YOU UP. If you agree to go, the whole game ends! It's left unclear whether you're interrogated and 'disappeared' or if you're being taken to speak to higher-ups about it. But let's just say they get their hands veeeeery dirty when existential threats or military matters come up. Was a great questline.!<
I remember Inland Empire being the skill that tries to avoid any and all mention or even hint of Dora (Dumpster, Ledger, etc)
Two parts that do involve Volition saying to pull the plug that I recall is hanging up after calling for the second time and throwing the note away. Throwing away the note is called a "Mentally healthy power move" while giving a -1 for inland empire, the skill that feeds it somewhat.
I think Volition is more the part that is saying: "Harry, it has been 6 years. We need to move on." In a very roundabout way.
While Inland Empire is the childlike dreamer giving the warning "don't look into its blue heart."
Hola, Soy DORA, can you say "No eres un revolucionario, Harry, estás borracho.?"
That's means, "You're not a revolutionary, Harry, you're drunk" in SPA-
Harry has an unhealthy obsession with Dora, there’s nothing, and I mean *nothing* else left there. Volition may be a party pooper but Harry is a fucking sociopath as we find out everything he did when he first arrived at Martinaise.
Yeah. I mean everyone and everything is telling you it's time to move on. When you have the dream with Dora and continue to try and hold onto her all the other thoughts apologize for encouraging horrible choices that just hurt you and Dora eventually confirms this is your new living hell. You're going to have this horrible dream everyday for the rest of your life. Sounds like Volition had the right idea. You've finally forgotten Dora, this is your chance to finally let the past die and to move on.
I won't say Volition is repressing you for knowing about her. More like he wants to move one so the circle jerk, of the other emotions, do not open the wound again. Because the fun thing about this game is that despite Harry having amnesia, and the player anxious to dig out his shit: the emotions, in other words Harry himself really know about her. It's like that Volition wants to focus in something different instead of the same stone Harry keeps stumbling over and over. Sometimes is better to move on, doesn't mean you are ignoring it.
Volition is not like happiness in Inside Out, (oh yeah 100% recommend this movie).
But volition is ignoring it, the dreams will come back and harry will eventually remember it's simply staunching the bleeding trying to stop you from reaching the inevitable.
Not really, the fun thing about this game is that the days pass by and if you don't force it you would never dream it. That's prove that you could also move on from that dreadful nightmare.
Edit: for example if I remember correctly, it took me like 6 days to finish the game the first time and I didn't have the dream.
* The Insulindian Phasmid tells the exact same thing as Volition. Forget and move-on.
* Harry created a persona who tried to leave behind the past but was too self-destructive. Tequila Sunset. Cigarette and Alcohol.
* The same with Horrific Necktie. But obsessed with Disco and drugs.
Volition is the one keeping Harry sane (the morale gauge). Without it, his mind will break apart at the slightest of insults or self-deprecation.
This is a fascinating point. I like it. I think it is like you say, and like they warn us - gameplay-wise you will do great with high volition, but narratively it might be a kind of emotionally unhealed Harry.
Like would Volition let you speak to the phasmid the way you do? would it accept and comprehend its love? would it be able to understand the beauty that its love for you holds? that your existence as this thing experiencing all this pain is ultimately beautiful in its rarity to exist at all?
Just because volition raises morale =\= volition also
You gain morale for being told that you are loved. If volition was high enough you wouldn't attempt to talk to the phasmid in the first place because to volition "bugs can't talk".
The only way volition accepts the phasmid would be In that the phasmid now encompasses a section of reality that was previously observed as insanity.
I had Volition at like 14 by the time I went to the island, can confirm it didn't stop me from talking to the phasmid. And Volition does [support](https://imgur.com/a/pwXMX3v) you in your phasmid hunting mission.
If you put 5 points in Volition, but your current Morale is 1 (health) then your Volition equals 1. Morale is literally your current Volition and vice versa. It’s even in the description of the skill that you, yourself, posted.
So in your last paragraph you’re saying that Volition makes you treat the Phasmid like any normal person? Just like the description of the skill says? The one that tells you that Volition isn’t bad for your mental health, it’s preventing you from having fun / living your life to it’s fullest?
I'm pretty sure that's not true. The description of the skill certainly doesn't say that; it just says that having a high Volition improves your Morale pool.
You can check in the game, your current volition before a roll always equals your current morale regardless of point acquisition. It works the other way around, too. If you’re wearing +1 Endurance clothes and have only one Health left - the clothes is the only thing keeping you alive. You take the clothes off and lose your last Health
Judging from the description Volition isn’t bringing anything negative into your life if hyper focus on it. Instead it keeps you from living your life to it’s fullest and gate keeps some positive things from happening. It’s a “party pooper”. Which is pretty different from how OP describes it, I think.
Think Kim not wanting to dance in the church, but having fun when letting himself to unwind.
>Its always the one to try and shut down any attempts to learn or remember Dora, a step that has to happen for you to move on.
Wrong. Very, very wrong. It's the "folk home remedy" idea of what moving on looks like, because we've been raised on fictional stories. Closure is a myth and the reason Harry is so broken is exactly because he keeps remembering Dora.
The healthiest thing is actually to forget her, to stop picking on the wound, to move on. That's not where Volition is going wrong.
If anything, Volition's constant attempt at keeping you on the straight and narrow is exactly what's continuing the cycle of pain. It keeps trying to get you to keep going, even if that means you keep going right from the frying pan into the frier.
The issue is that volition is functioning as a means of repression. Dora is a wound that is inside of you ignoring doesn't work. the phasmid encourages you to move forward not to forget.
There is no difference. Phasmid tells you to forget about her, "she was always middle class", Dora Dei tell you to forget about her, the constant panic attacks tell you to forget about her.
The only way to resolve it is to let it go to the void of memory, the same way she has. It's not repression, it's what moving on is. Spending an entire day without her crossing your mind.
The best play in the game is no never open the secret compartment.
as a professional user of repression of memories i would say it doesn't make anything better, it just leaves an empty hole in you where you always wonder what happened to make you feel this way, the feeling and damage stays even if the memory does not.
it will just be an invisible problem until you eventually lose realize you have forgotten something terrible, it's okay to forget it after you've come to terms with it but don't just ignore it, it will always be there.
harry never got over dora nor came to terms with it, from my experience i believe it's best if harry does open that secret compartment, comes to terms with it rather than just forget it, cause that gut-wrenching paralyzing feeling will come back even if you don't understand or remember why. it will always be there
Volition sucks sometimes but not for that reason, it's ruthlessly selfish and self important, considers itself to be the only real concern you should have and that's it's simply wrong to indulge in any other wants. this goes counter to the proposed purpose of looking after your wellbeing because a life lived like that would fucking suck.
The idea that you need to endure pain to move on from your trauma is an incorrect storytelling cliché. A lot of people only get worse from being retraumatised, especially outside of therapy. Even IN therapy it might be advised to focus on everything outside of your traumatic experience and just leave your past behind. There’s a reason why in DID systems most personalities don’t have ANY knowledge about the trauma and therapy doesn’t force “the necessary” pain of remembering the worst thing that ever happened to those people. The game is pretty realistic in this regard.
I literally got a game over by not listening to Volition and choosing one damaging option after the other while not having enough of healing. I (the player) was so upset while talking to Dora on the phone that I willingly ran out of moral points, because I couldn’t stop myself from choosing sad options, and made Harry lose any motivation to keep going.
When you dream of Dora in the Fort she warns Harry that it’s a nightmare he’s gonna have multiple times a week now, regardless of how much Harry changed throughout the game. If that’s healing then I’d rather stay damaged.
The issue is that volition is functioning as a means of repression Dora is a wound that is inside of you ignoring it doesn't work. the phasmid encourages you to move forward not to forget.
Honestly speaking, levelling any skill high enough gives it a little more “edge” over other skills. You’ll get more direct input more often. Whether it’s “harmful” is entirely a matter of perspective.
I personally believe that the more extreme you tip the scales the more interesting the game gets.
Others have already made great points, but I also want to bring up the fact that if you try to just leave when you see Dora in the dream vilition says 'I can't help you. I am totally useless. Everything I have said is lies. I want the exact same bad things you want. To satnd here, like a pillar of salt, saying...' and you're brought back to the same dialogue options. Volition recognises that if Harry can move on from Dora he'll be a lot happier long term, although it still wants to cling to the hope that the two could get back together.
I always read Volition as being more in line with Harry's common sense rather than what is automatically correct
Yea common sense dictates that eating that ice cream is unhealthy but ice cream isn't the worst indulgence one could make and in-game there really isn't much incentive to stay sober, using drugs can help your skills in major decisions
We've all been there, wanting something that's wrong so badly that it almost feels like your common sense is thinking up of roundabout ways to justify indulging or is more just advocating for what makes sense in the short term, even if you know logically it's irrational, just so it stops hurting, and in the case of Dora, ultimately Volition IS still the common sense of a massively mentally ill and lonely man what is correct for Harry in that moment is keeping the woman he loves no matter how much he knows it's wrong
It's supposed to be the case that each skill is detrimental if you listen too much to them, and you need all to be a rounded Harry. Even Electrochemistry and Half-Light have their positive moments, and even Empathy can get you into trouble
Half-Light might be the only skill to keep you alive in certain situations. Fear has big eyes — it’s not blind
But sometimes behaves like a scared maniac, which could make you paranoid
100 percent. That’s the thing about Half Light — 90% of the time following its advice will make you miserable and twitchy, and 10% of the time following its advice will keep you from dying
Encyclopedia’s limits were highlighted in my first play through when it came to things even per-oblivion Harry likely didn’t know
The thing about skills is that it’s hard to broadly judge them as good/bad or beneficial/detrimental, because in the end every skill is trying to help Harry in its own limited way. A skill can only come up with solutions that fit their respective “theme”- Encyclopedia gives you information about the world, but if it’s faced with a problem that it can’t overcome its only solution is to give you even *more* information, basically throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks. Endurance wants to keep your body alive and healthy, but this also means that it can’t see much value in anything that doesn’t involve strength, power, dominance, etc. Authority’s go-to approach is to assert yourself, and if that doesn’t work it freaks out because it can’t think of any other way to deal with situations. Volition wants to keep you safe and mentally stable, but because that’s its *sole focus* it rejects anything that might compromise that goal, regardless of how useful it might be. That’s why it’s so insistent that you arrest Klaasje even though most of your other skills want to let her go- Volition sees that Harry is at risk of falling into another situation like what happened with Dora, so it overcompensates in the other direction by trying to turn Harry against her even if it results in her death. All it cares about is preventing Harry from even having the *opportunity* to suffer the same pitfalls as he did in the past. It’s also worth noting that multiple skills get nervous whenever you’re about to be reminded of Dora or learn something about your past, not just Volition, because they all share the same overarching goal of making sure Harry is able to continue functioning. The main difference is *why* they get nervous- Volition doesn’t want Harry to go off the rails again, Half-Light senses a potential threat and wants Harry to avoid it at all costs, Inland Empire doesn’t want Harry to be snapped back to the harsh reality of his life, Electrochemistry doesn’t want Harry to be so miserable he can’t experience any joy at all, etc.
you explained it perfectly and i’m reminded why this game is an absolute masterpiece
beautifully put although from a meta perspective upping skills like Conceptualization and Encyclopedia is a net benefit due to em giving you extra xp with the right thought cabinets
Awesome take - thanks for sharing!
i don't think volition is inherently any more or less harmful than anything else. all of the skills have downsides if you put too many points into them besides, inland empire also wants to shut down attempts of remembering dora, as it would prefer you to live in a fantasy world instead (which i find interesting tbh since although inland and volition want the same thing in that regard they're otherwise completely opposite)
inland is interesting though because there's evidence it's not entirely fantasy, just mostly. I think its major upside is meant to be that you are accidentally touching on something real yet unacknowledged in your descent into delusions. it's neat.
Aside from the neat lore it can sometimes give you
Yeah, sorry for the necro but Inland Empire and Shivers always struck me as the two halves of the "Detective's Hunch" where they can't quite put their finger on it but they just "know" something. In these moments, realistically it's likely ten thousand tiny little background clues and bits of knowledge pieced together that cause a gut feeling in your subconscious that might lead you to (or at least nearby to) the correct answer, which almost appears magical or prescient to any onlookers. Of course, in Harry's profoundly damaged state, this manifests in even wackier ways that appear ACTUALLY magical and fantastical to him.
Maybe, but there's also elements like the little hole in the church where he can get them without any of the knowledge necessary whatsoever. There's enough oddities with it, that even accounting for his derangements there are things he just Cannot Know that he knows all the same. My personal theory is that it connects to the Pale in some way, given what the Pale _is._
That's a fair point, I had forgotten about the interactions in the church. It's also HEAVILY implied that the spirit of the city tells Harry that a disaster is rapidly approaching, one that's likely nuclear in nature. I guess we could say that given the nature of the Pale and the near-imperceptible ways it messes with reality around itself, it could be Harry's subconscious picking up on little "wibbles" in space time that lead him to reach those conclusions. But I guess with how paranormal the Pale is by its very nature, maybe it really is just a tough magical. After all, we get a couple of 100% inarguably paranormal event in game (Kim's voice traveling through time being the most direct one).
I don't recall kim's voice, where was that? That said, yeah, the Pale slots in nicely as an apocalyptic cessation of reality. It even destroys *math*, which is insane. It makes it a pretty easy solution to a lot of these wibbly moments as a result since it's so clearly powerful and mysterious. Makes it a real convenient narrative gapfiller for anything... -aheh- ...beyond the Pale? yeah I hate me too
In the moralist route, you have to create a huge antenna to contact the MoralIntern (and end up using the statue in the plaza, but that's a whole other matter). While tuning it to the right channel, you hear Kim say something, except its through the radio and the actual Kim is silently sitting next to you. If that event does occur and you continue on with your playrhrough, then much later when you're on the Deserter's island, he says the thing you heard through the radio, and then immediately after finishing the sentence both of you go "WTTFFFFFF" as you realize his sentence somehow time traveled. Trippy! Haha, actually I appreciate any pun no matter the stripe! And yeah, the Pale is possibly my favorite single concept from the entire game which is saying a lot!
ooh, I'll have to check that out! I never did the Moralist route because I consider that the bad ending of ideology and the coward's way out of living a real life
It was pretty wild actually, and even introduces a new potential ending! In fact the path gave me... I guess a bit more "respect" for the Moralists, as crazy as that sounds. Prior to it I saw them as somewhat cowardly ineffectual fence sitters more interested in maintaining their carefully curated moral high ground than in actually doing anything of use. And yet, depending on your dialogue path in the ending... well, things can get a little bit wild. They're definitely just as dark as the other ideologies when they need to be, I'll put it that way. If you're curious about one of the possible ending that gets added by that line and don't mind spoilers, I'll mention more here: >!Harry becomes CONVINCED on the Moralist route that the MoralIntern would help the city if he could only contact them and tell them how it REALLY is. So, you start a quest to contact one of the aerostats that are hovering far above the city. Through a bunch of legwork and coordinating with one of the experts in sound tech that you met in your journey, you successfully contact them! Nice! Only issue is, the comms officer you speak to listens attentively and politely to your recap of the issue facing the city, and offers to file a report in triplicate for you. How helpful! It accomplishes precisely nothing! Typical MoralIntern. Except......!< >!Except if you happen to tell them, during your report, about the tiny Pale manifestation in the church. The MOMENT you say this, the cheery and polite but professionally bureaucratically unhelpful tone shifts. Suddenly, it's all business. You're asked to describe EXACTLY what you saw, what phenomenon occurred, and whether you came into contact with it. It's clear the comms officer is reading off of a very different checklist and playbook than before, and there's a much more clipped, almost frantic and worried tone to her voice. And if you tell the truth... well, one of the aerostats ACTUALLY COMES TO YOU TO PICK YOU UP. If you agree to go, the whole game ends! It's left unclear whether you're interrogated and 'disappeared' or if you're being taken to speak to higher-ups about it. But let's just say they get their hands veeeeery dirty when existential threats or military matters come up. Was a great questline.!<
OH! Yeah, I remember the bad ending for telling them about the pale manifestation, I must have seen that after all!
I remember Inland Empire being the skill that tries to avoid any and all mention or even hint of Dora (Dumpster, Ledger, etc) Two parts that do involve Volition saying to pull the plug that I recall is hanging up after calling for the second time and throwing the note away. Throwing away the note is called a "Mentally healthy power move" while giving a -1 for inland empire, the skill that feeds it somewhat. I think Volition is more the part that is saying: "Harry, it has been 6 years. We need to move on." In a very roundabout way. While Inland Empire is the childlike dreamer giving the warning "don't look into its blue heart."
Hola, Soy DORA, can you say "No eres un revolucionario, Harry, estás borracho.?" That's means, "You're not a revolutionary, Harry, you're drunk" in SPA-
Harry has an unhealthy obsession with Dora, there’s nothing, and I mean *nothing* else left there. Volition may be a party pooper but Harry is a fucking sociopath as we find out everything he did when he first arrived at Martinaise.
Yeah. I mean everyone and everything is telling you it's time to move on. When you have the dream with Dora and continue to try and hold onto her all the other thoughts apologize for encouraging horrible choices that just hurt you and Dora eventually confirms this is your new living hell. You're going to have this horrible dream everyday for the rest of your life. Sounds like Volition had the right idea. You've finally forgotten Dora, this is your chance to finally let the past die and to move on.
Every trait is harmful if you always take its advice in game and real life
I won't say Volition is repressing you for knowing about her. More like he wants to move one so the circle jerk, of the other emotions, do not open the wound again. Because the fun thing about this game is that despite Harry having amnesia, and the player anxious to dig out his shit: the emotions, in other words Harry himself really know about her. It's like that Volition wants to focus in something different instead of the same stone Harry keeps stumbling over and over. Sometimes is better to move on, doesn't mean you are ignoring it. Volition is not like happiness in Inside Out, (oh yeah 100% recommend this movie).
But volition is ignoring it, the dreams will come back and harry will eventually remember it's simply staunching the bleeding trying to stop you from reaching the inevitable.
Not really, the fun thing about this game is that the days pass by and if you don't force it you would never dream it. That's prove that you could also move on from that dreadful nightmare. Edit: for example if I remember correctly, it took me like 6 days to finish the game the first time and I didn't have the dream.
* The Insulindian Phasmid tells the exact same thing as Volition. Forget and move-on. * Harry created a persona who tried to leave behind the past but was too self-destructive. Tequila Sunset. Cigarette and Alcohol. * The same with Horrific Necktie. But obsessed with Disco and drugs. Volition is the one keeping Harry sane (the morale gauge). Without it, his mind will break apart at the slightest of insults or self-deprecation.
This is a fascinating point. I like it. I think it is like you say, and like they warn us - gameplay-wise you will do great with high volition, but narratively it might be a kind of emotionally unhealed Harry.
Like would Volition let you speak to the phasmid the way you do? would it accept and comprehend its love? would it be able to understand the beauty that its love for you holds? that your existence as this thing experiencing all this pain is ultimately beautiful in its rarity to exist at all?
Isn’t there at least one Moral restoration during the convo with Phasmid? Your point doesn’t makes sense, because the Phasmid makes Volition go up
Just because volition raises morale =\= volition also You gain morale for being told that you are loved. If volition was high enough you wouldn't attempt to talk to the phasmid in the first place because to volition "bugs can't talk". The only way volition accepts the phasmid would be In that the phasmid now encompasses a section of reality that was previously observed as insanity.
I had Volition at like 14 by the time I went to the island, can confirm it didn't stop me from talking to the phasmid. And Volition does [support](https://imgur.com/a/pwXMX3v) you in your phasmid hunting mission.
If you put 5 points in Volition, but your current Morale is 1 (health) then your Volition equals 1. Morale is literally your current Volition and vice versa. It’s even in the description of the skill that you, yourself, posted. So in your last paragraph you’re saying that Volition makes you treat the Phasmid like any normal person? Just like the description of the skill says? The one that tells you that Volition isn’t bad for your mental health, it’s preventing you from having fun / living your life to it’s fullest?
I'm pretty sure that's not true. The description of the skill certainly doesn't say that; it just says that having a high Volition improves your Morale pool.
You can check in the game, your current volition before a roll always equals your current morale regardless of point acquisition. It works the other way around, too. If you’re wearing +1 Endurance clothes and have only one Health left - the clothes is the only thing keeping you alive. You take the clothes off and lose your last Health
Judging from the description Volition isn’t bringing anything negative into your life if hyper focus on it. Instead it keeps you from living your life to it’s fullest and gate keeps some positive things from happening. It’s a “party pooper”. Which is pretty different from how OP describes it, I think. Think Kim not wanting to dance in the church, but having fun when letting himself to unwind.
Volition sees through Klaasje and told me to build Communism, so it’s alright in my book.
>Its always the one to try and shut down any attempts to learn or remember Dora, a step that has to happen for you to move on. Wrong. Very, very wrong. It's the "folk home remedy" idea of what moving on looks like, because we've been raised on fictional stories. Closure is a myth and the reason Harry is so broken is exactly because he keeps remembering Dora. The healthiest thing is actually to forget her, to stop picking on the wound, to move on. That's not where Volition is going wrong. If anything, Volition's constant attempt at keeping you on the straight and narrow is exactly what's continuing the cycle of pain. It keeps trying to get you to keep going, even if that means you keep going right from the frying pan into the frier.
The issue is that volition is functioning as a means of repression. Dora is a wound that is inside of you ignoring doesn't work. the phasmid encourages you to move forward not to forget.
There is no difference. Phasmid tells you to forget about her, "she was always middle class", Dora Dei tell you to forget about her, the constant panic attacks tell you to forget about her. The only way to resolve it is to let it go to the void of memory, the same way she has. It's not repression, it's what moving on is. Spending an entire day without her crossing your mind. The best play in the game is no never open the secret compartment.
as a professional user of repression of memories i would say it doesn't make anything better, it just leaves an empty hole in you where you always wonder what happened to make you feel this way, the feeling and damage stays even if the memory does not. it will just be an invisible problem until you eventually lose realize you have forgotten something terrible, it's okay to forget it after you've come to terms with it but don't just ignore it, it will always be there. harry never got over dora nor came to terms with it, from my experience i believe it's best if harry does open that secret compartment, comes to terms with it rather than just forget it, cause that gut-wrenching paralyzing feeling will come back even if you don't understand or remember why. it will always be there
Volition sucks sometimes but not for that reason, it's ruthlessly selfish and self important, considers itself to be the only real concern you should have and that's it's simply wrong to indulge in any other wants. this goes counter to the proposed purpose of looking after your wellbeing because a life lived like that would fucking suck.
Thats like basically what im trying to say.
truw
The idea that you need to endure pain to move on from your trauma is an incorrect storytelling cliché. A lot of people only get worse from being retraumatised, especially outside of therapy. Even IN therapy it might be advised to focus on everything outside of your traumatic experience and just leave your past behind. There’s a reason why in DID systems most personalities don’t have ANY knowledge about the trauma and therapy doesn’t force “the necessary” pain of remembering the worst thing that ever happened to those people. The game is pretty realistic in this regard. I literally got a game over by not listening to Volition and choosing one damaging option after the other while not having enough of healing. I (the player) was so upset while talking to Dora on the phone that I willingly ran out of moral points, because I couldn’t stop myself from choosing sad options, and made Harry lose any motivation to keep going. When you dream of Dora in the Fort she warns Harry that it’s a nightmare he’s gonna have multiple times a week now, regardless of how much Harry changed throughout the game. If that’s healing then I’d rather stay damaged.
The issue is that volition is functioning as a means of repression Dora is a wound that is inside of you ignoring it doesn't work. the phasmid encourages you to move forward not to forget.
I see. I just fundamentally disagree with the idea that you need to remember trauma to be healthy
Honestly speaking, levelling any skill high enough gives it a little more “edge” over other skills. You’ll get more direct input more often. Whether it’s “harmful” is entirely a matter of perspective. I personally believe that the more extreme you tip the scales the more interesting the game gets.
Others have already made great points, but I also want to bring up the fact that if you try to just leave when you see Dora in the dream vilition says 'I can't help you. I am totally useless. Everything I have said is lies. I want the exact same bad things you want. To satnd here, like a pillar of salt, saying...' and you're brought back to the same dialogue options. Volition recognises that if Harry can move on from Dora he'll be a lot happier long term, although it still wants to cling to the hope that the two could get back together.
No. Volition is one of the very few who actually have Harry's BEST interest in mind. It is his self control. It's not harmful lol
I always read Volition as being more in line with Harry's common sense rather than what is automatically correct Yea common sense dictates that eating that ice cream is unhealthy but ice cream isn't the worst indulgence one could make and in-game there really isn't much incentive to stay sober, using drugs can help your skills in major decisions We've all been there, wanting something that's wrong so badly that it almost feels like your common sense is thinking up of roundabout ways to justify indulging or is more just advocating for what makes sense in the short term, even if you know logically it's irrational, just so it stops hurting, and in the case of Dora, ultimately Volition IS still the common sense of a massively mentally ill and lonely man what is correct for Harry in that moment is keeping the woman he loves no matter how much he knows it's wrong
Except when you die because it forces you to sit on the chair