Text bubbles, narration and overall storytelling

[Aeroprism]

So I'm playing Buzzsaw's arc, final mission. Good stuff. Well done. I had tons of fun.  

 

So when I hit the quest completion point, the quest text informs me that Cortex had a nice chat with Dr Vahz.

 

Wait that?

 

Vahz is among my favorite villains in this game. How did I miss this?  Oh, that's right. When the quest objective said "Where is Cortex?", I did find him but he was impossible to interact with. I had to talk to Dr Vahz who was behind a door.  Fortunately, they were still there so I went back and I could still make the conversation play out.

 

And the meat of my topic:  Between the several pages of long quest text paragraphs (Right Window on the screenshot) and the torrent of very very quick chat bubbles flowing AT THE SAME TIME (Chat log, left Window on the screenshot), It was impossible to follow. Fortunately, I mostly solo so I could take the time to re-read it all afterwards but by then, the exposition effect was ruined and gone.

 

This game needs to choose.  Use text bubbles, use quest text, but don't use both to deliver three pages of text at the same time.

 

It. Does. Not. Work.

 

Edit: Also, I will never, ever, ever say this enough: Dark blue text over a dark background is pure ocular murder to read.  Please let us format our text color.

 

Edited June 1, 2021 by Aeroprism

[Greycat]

There's ... so much that could be improved with text and such in this game. Stuff like clues or plaque text I'd love to look back on - but can't. NPC text vomit as soon as a mission's entered (mostly an AE thing.) Having a way to go back and *read* these things would be great.

 

But.. yes, 100% to this.