I'm just curious... We can text with a guy named Thunderbird (in our story). He tells us something about a group of friends who apparently went to the Greenside Motel. "They partied, got drunk and had fun. And then something happened." He doesn't know what, but he emphasizes that "one of the girls" had to be taken to the hospital due to a serious injury. Do you think it was the clique? Maybe it's the incident Ash was talking about with Eric?
Greetings from Germany 😁
Ohhh, I See a fellow German! Hi there. Hallöchen back to you. Or Moin or Moinsen or maybe Servus! :D
Ouhhh, that sounds very interesting. I haven't thought about that yet. To be honest, I don't remember what exactly they are saying in the conversation, I just couldn't find it, which is a first to me. But that being said, that means I can't exactly argument against it. However they all seem to behave as if they don't have much knowledge about the Greenside Motel. I mean, when talking about it. After all, they could say they know about the motel and it wouldn't really give anything away. So I'm not sure about that.
But the thought would be very interesting for the plot, since it's kinda similar to the Duskwood plot. A group of friends, alcohol, an accident happens. One girl is brought to the hospital. Who knows how heavily she was injured or whatever happened. So, now some person, kinda like we assumed with Michael Hanson back then, now wants revenge or face them to tell what really happened. And is doing all of that to scare them or make them tell the truth or just for good old classic revenge. Maybe a family member of said girl or anything. Maybe Adam was the first to get targeted and he found something out so he tried to locate said person. Maybe also not the whole group was part of it. Maybe thats why the Greenside Motel and Adams key. Maybe the culprit wants to confront them with the Motel. Many options. Very interesting.
On the one hand, it might be too similar to Duskwood. One the other hand, also kinda... not. And a few theories we had about Duskwood would also fit this plot. So maybe Everbyte got inspired or who knows.
Remember back then when we shortly suspected the janitor from the Duskwood Motel? With the dead bird and the disabled daughter of the Motel owner. I forgot his name. Was it Will? I don't know. Anyway, we questioned if he lives alone in the woods in an old cabin or something. And now we have Whitemore who DOES LIVE ALONE IN THE WOODS IN THE CABIN. So... What if Whitemore used to be the janitor of the Greenside Motel and was included somehow in what happened and after that he went to live in the woods. You know? Because he got a card as well. So he somehow has to be part of it, if that theory is possible.
But then also, if it really was the group, this would fit right into the area Charlie works for. What was he? Blogger? I believe so. I mean, it seemed like his buddy, his plan B, is more for the reality stuff so... who knows?
I mean, I probably can't remember all the facts so maybe it's complete bullshit what I'm coming up with here. But who cares? Just had lots of fun with that thought.
Damn, thats some good old theory talk right there. I just realize how much I missed this. That's an amazing thought, Anon. Thank you so much for sending this in. I'm sorry it took me so damn long to answer. 💚
Because nobody asked for my opinion... I'm going to give it anyway.
Thought, pros and cons of the new game. It's not super spoilery but I'm going to hide it just in case.
First, I would like to say I was NOT at all expecting the new story to be a continuation of Duskwood or to even be a similar story to Duskwood. Everbyte made it very clear this is not what Moonvale was meant to be. I went into this with a completely open mind and tried my best not to compare Moonvale to Duskwood. I was still disappointed. There were several changes Everbyte made that were great but they were overshadowed by the negative changes.
Pros:
1. There is now an LGBTQ option when you enter your name and Duskwood code. This doesn't apply to me so I'm not sure what it changes in the game but this option was needed.
2. You can use diamonds to skip mini-games. I would have spent money just to do this if everything else didn't cost so much.
3. This is just my opinion but the mini-games seemed to be a bit easier.
4. The Duskwood side story. It's not much now but I would play the game just for that. Was it worth spending money to finish sooner? No.
Cons:
1. Money money money. There's no premium package that unlocks everything. I get that Everbyte has to make money off of the game but the content wasn't worth what they were charging!
2. I found the characters really unlikable. Eric was alright, but the rest I couldn't care less for. I started out liking charlie but he quickly became annoying. I really wanted to like Ash but something about her just rubbed me the wrong way. Where was the character development here?!
3. The story line! The Billy Blake story was long and pointless. Maybe it will be important later on but it definitely could have been shorter. It took like 3 mini-game sessions just to get through it! When he said "should I continue" I literally yelled no!
4. The story line! It was unoriginal. Some parts felt very copy, paste, change a few lines and here's a new story.
5. The mini-games. I didn't like how it forced you to play them at set times. One of the things I liked about Duskwood is that you could play all the mini-games in each set and then not have to stop the story so much.
6. AI! I get that they don't have actors for all of the characters but why not use stock images like before? Why do they have to use AI?!?!
7. You can't rewatch ANY of the videos or phone calls. They literally disappear. Yet somehow they are "saved" so you can send them to other characters.
8. We waited 2 years for that?! It had the potential to be amazing and even better than Duskwood. We know Everbyte can make an amazing game Duskwood is proof of that. This did not live up to those standards
I'm sure there's more but this is all I can think of at the moment.
While I have many issues with Moonvale, Eric is not one of them. He reminds me of Enzo from The Vampire Diaries, and my smut brain is very happy with this. I’m a one-trick pony; sue me! He is beautiful, and I am but a simple lady with simple pleasures. Imagining fictional characters getting railed is my passion, and I, for one, am glad to have a pretty new man to gaze upon!
Still love Jake, but Eric is the clumsy man of Moonvale and I really like the idea of getting under his clothes!
Moonvale's pacing is insane,why is the richy wannabe guy telling the player his traumatic backstory when one of his friends is missing and the other one is all alone in the woods
No one ever said they can't use AI in general. Nobody said this. As long as they don't let the chats be written by AI they can use it for whatever they want.
Me personally, I'm a little fan of AI in general. ChatGPT took Googles place in many situations for me. It's super easy, super interesting and faster. I use it instead of reading millions of Google sites. (of course I don't trust everything right away, check your sources, lovelies)
But that's not what I want to say.
I saw no one complaining about the usage of AI in general. As long as its not creating the whole game and especially not what the characters say etc.
The critism was about the usage of AI ART, not AI in general, completely missing the point in my eyes.
And yes, they're right. AI became a huge part of our lives now. We find it everywhere and we won't get rid of it again. That won't happen. For me, it's okay as long as it's not used to generate money by letting it write texts and stuff.
And I'm completely fine with them using it. Of course, it's still stealing and I won't deny that, but as I said, we won't get rid of it again.
But the usage of AI generated Art is wrong and should actually be illegal. They, as a small developer studio, they should know and they do know, how it is when your work gets stolen and used by strangers.
And that's exactly what AI does. And that's not okay. It simply isn't. Every generated art is based on hundreds of real arts our there. The smallest artist who posts their work will be a victim of that. Because AI pulls it's knowledge and the ability for art out of every little art source there is. And that's wrong.
And I'm disappointed about their statement with this point.
And the second statement about AI art...
Yes, it's wonderful that you will introduce new actors to us. Great, amazing. And yes, we do remember how it was in Duskwood. And we do remember that actors were introduced after some time. Hannah joined in the last episode, and this was great.
But the huge difference is, you used stock photos. Real photography. Real designs. Created by photographers or whoever. The point here is: Real human. And real work.
I don’t think I'm the only one. But the first second I saw the profile picture of Ash, immediately I was like "Hm, that reminds me straight up of arcane"
Which is logical when you use AI generated art because the AI of course uses at first the most popular references.
Fact is: We don't support the usage of AI Art in Moonvale.
Question is: Why didn't you use stock photos just like you did before?
Everbytes answer: Yes, okay, we can change their profile pictures. (Point done)
And I mean, come on. Violet has a freaking cat as profile picture. Where was the problem with just using a real cat for that? Nothing easier than finding a good picture of cats! 😭
And if you didn't want to use stock photos. Have you seen how many incredibly talented digital artists your fandom has? Have you seen the insanely good work they created for your game?
How about contacting a few of them? How about asking them to draw the characters you wanted to have? I'm 100% sure you wouldn't even have to pay them for. Most of them would do it for free right away.
Plus: Real art created by real people
Plus two: No money spending.
Yeeey.
And if you don’t want that...., ✨STOCK PHOTOS✨
To be honest, they took a crumb of the criticism, twisted it a bit. Used the word AI, twisted a bit more, left their statement and at the end they gave us a small little victory by saying "They get new profile picture, see we're listening to you". They gave us a little "victory" so that we hopefully will be satisfied and not mention it again.
Yesssw, I was already working on it. Your wish is my command 🫡
-> Moonvale episode 2 spoilers! <-
(Includes my thoughts about the story itself, the game, the design, the changes everbyte promised us, the Ai art thing, the episodes pass, some words to the character and of course about the Duskwood side story. Oh, and it's long)
So... Where do I start here?
It was definitely an interesting episode and damn, very, very long, which is mostly a positive thing. It was definitely longer than Duskwood episodes were. Or maybe it just felt like it.
For me, personally, this episode was definitely much more bearable than episode 1 was. It was more exciting, more happenings, especially more video material which I love and is necessary to make the game thrilling and exciting and to add the adrenaline to it. Watching it and not knowing what is going to happen etc. And for people who played Duskwood, we all have calling traumas, I believe.
However, I have to say, I bought the episode pass so I had all the contents free so just watch and didn't have to pay with gems. So I believe, which I still don't like, people who can't buy the pass because they can't afford or similar, they still have the same problems with running out of gems and all that. Which is sad. But my problem with the 'premium'/ episodes pass is, that you have to pay for every single episode the amount of money. Which is unfair and let's be honest, just manipulation. At least the way they did it. 'You can only buy it here' and '50% off'. Like, come on. 50% off? Really?
Don't get me wrong, I definitely understand that Everbyte needs to earn money. And I also understand that they need to earn more money now. Everything is more expensive, all the costs that come with making a game, the actors, getting locations and all that. I do understand. And I have to say, it was 5€ for me, which is, in my position, every couple of months not too bad. But many people aren't that lucky. They can't afford it and it doesn't change the fact that the gems system is kinda... ouch.
However, I believe getting the episode pass saved me from many problems during the game so my experience was probably better than the once of others.
Let's get more into the episode itself. I think the story line is interesting and has a lot of potential. And it can be great, however, I have to honestly say, I'm missing something. I'm missing something that keeps me hooked and makes me want to keep playing. Sadly, for me, there is a big difference. When I played Duskwood I was always like "Oh man, I hope the episode doesn't end. Please don't end, please, I need more. More information, more chats" etc. etc. etc... But while playing the Moonvale episode I was just like "How much longer? How much more is left? Is it over soon?" I liked the story. And luckily, in between there were moments in between that gave a new push of excitement. But around that? I was more like... Hm... That's damn much episode but it didn't kept me hooked. I wasn't like "I have to keep playing!"
I have to say, I can't deny that Jake's character was a big part, yes, maybe even the biggest part why I loved the Duskwood episodes so that. And of course it's a mystery game, not a romance game. But it's also the story itself. It's good, but it's more of a 'yeah I keep playing because maybe the next episode will be better'. You know what I mean? I'm just missing something that makes me feel like "I have to know what happens next! I have to know more. More story, more interactions with the characters!" and not just "Yeah, it's good, I keep playing"
And I'm also still missing the depth of the character's. Like we got more about Charlie, and in my opinion, he's the most interesting character in Moonvale. Violet is... silent. Eric is... not too bad but also somehow boring, for me. And Ash... I don't like her. Really not. She's so bitchy and always so... haughty, in my eyes.
And for me, I also think the episodes are too dry. Too much talking about things that aren't really that exciting, of course it's only the second episode, but still. And I also really don't like how slow the damn chats are. Of course, I think it's a way to make the episodes longer, which is a way to go, but in my eyes not a really good way. I would kill to make those chest faster. I think there should be an option to set the pace like it was in Duskwood. Simply because for people who think it's too slow and dry, like me, it makes me lose interest and it's more like a "Yeah, whatever, let's finish this".
I think a great addition to the game was definitely the 'Story' part, where we had to post the story. And as we all have seen, there was also a Duskwood picture, so I can very well imagine that in the future, that's might be the way how we are going to reach the others, by posting a story.
Speaking of Duskwood, let's go in with the side story. Which was, of course, also not too much yet, but it gave us a great inside of what is going on and it's very interesting what is happening. Like, they're shutting the whole town down. No messages in or out, no signal and now all of them are brought away by, obviously, the FBI probably. And of course all that is happening because of Jake. Shutting the town down etc. Which is absolutely exciting and the biggest reason why I keep playing Moonvale. I think it's very interesting how NYMOS was brought in and I think it's a believable way why the dw characters can't reach us. And I also loved how Everbyte included that the characters are speaking to us. Like Dan, Thomas, using our name and reaching out to us and not just talking with the group like they are still waiting and hoping for us. And at the end also Cleos video and that she spoke about Jake and all that... It's just a big relief to see them back and all that. And I think in the future it will definitely bring us a great experience.
Back to Moonvale: I also though some chats did not make much sense to me. Like, some theories and stuff, I think they forgot a bit about the end call with Adam in episode one and that he was alive there and all that. Even if he didn't talk etc. I don't know, I think some chat path weren't that logical. But I love how they kept using the right time line. Like 'last night', 'now it's morning', that's often a big problem xD
And some more positive about the game design now. I think the way the mini games are designed isn't too bad. It's still cute and has more of candy crush but it doesn't bother me that bad anymore like it did at the beginning. I'm glad they changed the backgrounds and the messanger chat layout. It's more realistic again and also the sounds are more realistic. The theme music is more realistic and I really like that and I'm happy everbyte went that way now.
I'm also glad we got a bit more profiles of the character's. Like the picture and videos. It makes the whole thing more real.
Sure, we still have some Ai in the game and I still don't support that. But I'm glad at least Charlie and Violet both have a real picture now and not just AI generated pictures. It would be best to completely remove Ai, we talk more than enough about why. But I can go with it, for now, as long as it doesn't come back like in episode one. (Of course I don't protect Ai art here now, and as I said, I would prefer it it were more real like on Duskwood. With stock photos and stuff. But fact is, AI art is indeed a part of this world now, if we want or not. And even if it's not good, there is also not much to do against it. Which doesn't mean I like it)
I'm sad we didn't get the option to chose out own profile picture and background etc. To really customize our profile and the game experience. And it's still only Ai art, which is really disappointing for me. Especially also because you still have to be lucky when you pay gems for more wallpapers and so. Why not letting us just buy what we want as profile picture. It's still a way to make us buy more gems if necessary which is sad. And like, how am I supposed to customize my profile to make it more *realistic*, when I only have background and wallpaper that aren't even close to what I personally like? It just makes it less real, in my eyes, and that's very sad.
And I also think it's a bit annoying that we still haven't Charlies and Violets contact with names just because we don't have them in personal Chats yet. I would very much prefer it they would see the names instead of the numbers.
Let's talk about the mini games for a second. First of all, too much. Really too much. Why not staying with only three per break? I mean, that more than enough. But sometimes 4? And then having only a short chat and having to play again... It's too much in my eyes, really. I found them much more bearable this time, however. Still not that easy but better than in episode one. Those killed me. Way too much and too hard. It just added onto the not so great play experience. This was better here, in my eyes, but still a bit too much in my eyes. Keep it calm, don't make us play so many, we lose hearts, gems and time. We play for the story, not for the mini games. I get that we need to do that in between, but four are just too much.
So, a bit more about the story itself. I think it was really interesting with Eric and Whitmore. Like, I somehow liked him xD. I just love weird characters and I thought he looks really cool for this role. (I won't comment on any acting here.) The way he suddenly appeared, with that look, those eyes, I loved it, gave me a good amount of chills. He gives me 'wannabe survival trainee'- vibes. Like, you know, those guys who train in case the world ends? He gave me those vibes. Likes it. Whitmore is approved. xD
I think it was very interesting that whitemore also had a tarot card. Like, we got 'The Stranger', Whitmore got 'The Liar' and ad Unknown said, he is indeed lying. So we are, apparently, somehow connected with Whitemore definitely. And it's obviously that whatever is happening, we are a big reason for it. I feel like someone is challenging us to solve this case. Maybe Unknown, maybe someone else, I don't know.
Unknown is my favorite character so far, to be honest. Yes, I'm a simple person. But he is obviously somehow important for all this and knows things that might be important for us. The Greenside Motel story is very interesting for me as well. I like how they made this mystery around it. The room Adam got and how we have the theory that the room was for us and not for Adam himself. The bonus with doing the Viral Story gave the whole thing an extra touch and made it more exciting. The comments we get, what the people say about the Motel, the whole stories and stuff, I think it's very interesting.
And I also liked the little bonus about the girl who was asking for Eric. Seems like those two had a rather stromy relationship or anything since Ash said 'Like she has any right to know' and stuff like that. I really do wonder how Charlie managed to deal with her.
Oh, and another big thing: WHERE THE HELL IS BRIAN?? Like two episode and dude didn't appear? Sus! Come out, say hello. I don't have time to wait.
So, long story short, my opinion in a few words: The story is great and has definitely potential. However, I'm still missing something that really keeps me up on my toes and and give me that adrenaline like feeling. The episode was definitely much better than the first one, although, in my eyes, sadly,.. chewy and still a bit too dry.
(Oof, so, that was a lot, actually. And the first time I really made a whole post about my thoughts. I'm sure I forgot about things I wanted to mention but if so, I will just add it to this post by reblogging. I hope you found my answer likeable and you had some fun reading it. Of course, if you want my opinion on something specific you can ask away any time.)
I also apologize for the rather negative answer here. It's sadly how I feel about it and please don't forget 'it's just my opinion', my opinion about the game and the characters. You can like it much more than I do. I don't try to make people sad or anything with it. I'm still looking forward to episode three and how the story will continue. 💚
Thank you very much for asking, lovely anon, I'm always happy to see people are interested in my opinion and my thoughts to it and I hope you have a great game experience. Have fun, detectives! 💚
