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this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2023
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Asklemmy
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Spoilers for Dragon Quest 11
I've played a lot of Dragon Quest games over the years so I'm used to the mostly cheerful games.
In Dragon Quest 11 one of your party members dies to save you so that you can make another attempt to save the world after you fail. Their death is fairly well handled by the party and the party had been friends for awhile by that point.
She willing sacrificed herself to save you and the rest of the party after you fail at saving the world because she believes that you can still do it. She believes that you can still win if you have another shot.
Her sister in the party comes to accept her death and uses it as a driving force to push harder to save the world with you.
The party grieves for her.
At the end of Act 2 though the story undermines it IMO by allowing you to head back in time to change things to save her and the world if you push hard enough, but by heading back in time you erase the future that you built with your party. All that build up, all the character growth, all that copping with the loss and unification that comes from it all. You can change it.
To me it felt like as a player I was betrayed by the story. I felt that her sacrifice made the story that much better. Her sacrifice made the story less "I need to save the world because it's my destiny," and changed it into, "I need to save the world because if I don't than my friend died for nothing." By going back in time and changing things you end the world as it is.
No one else would remember what you did if you succeeded, only you would remember how things were. If you failed then the world would be trapped in a cycle of darkness.
To me it felt wrong to do that, so that's where I stopped. I technically never finished the game but honestly I feel by not making that choice to go back in time that I got the better ending.
Silly I know but I feel that by destroying the timeline as it stood was worse than what the Dark One had done in destroying so much the first go around. Because they only destroyed a small chunk in comparison as you would be destroying literally everything just for the chance to bring that party member back.
Edit: Basically in that moment where they ask you to go back in time (which they insist you do) they are asking you to become the villain of that entire timeline for selfish purposes. That moment when you say yes is how Act 3 starts. In that moment by saying yes, you are no longer the hero. You are no longer the good guy. You no longer saved the world. You destroyed it because you wanted to.