Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-6747658-20130401084750/@comment-1971498-20130703062533

Misterbunnsy wrote: DementedP wrote: Exactly! Admittedly it's why I wouldn't mind it, as long as they actually bother to flesh out the character enough to warrant the connections (that way, at least the connection isn't necessarily what's important, but how their roles actually mean in regards to the connection). At least in this case, I'm referring to Skull Face anyway, as Liquid being Eli seems like a no-brainer route and it'd be a waste not to reveal him as Liquid. I'm glad we're thinking on the same page. Yes, the backstory would really need to be developed a lot. I'm thinking, like with Pliskin's purpose in MGS2, one of the CODEC contacts could serve to explain a bit about some of the characters you meet. That was sorely lacking in MGS4, although I suppose Drebin did fill you in after you defeated the B&B Corps. Yeah I like what they did with Pliskin's purpose. Beyond the fact that Drebin was such a missed oppotunity, I dislike how he ended being more like the go-to info dump for the B&B Corps.

Admittedly, the idea of filling in the backstory worked for Laughing Octopus, mainly because there's that sense of mystery as to why she's "laughing" (a positive emotion within a battlefield is already puzzling, and one which would normally be attributed to a simple insane liking for violence). Through our discovery of her tragic history, we gain sympathy towards her instead of feeling alienated.

What makes this jarring for the following two members of the B&B Corps is that it loses the same level of impact during the first time. Take this for example: had we gotten Crying Wolf's backstory first before her actual fight, it's more likely for us to question our decision to kill her due to her tragic history being coupled with what was actually an outwardly sorrowful emotion ("crying"). The same could be said for Raging Raven, getting her backstory before encountering her in Act 3 would have enhanced the experience as the raw and violent nature of her history would have hyped up the eventual boss fight as well as her relentless attacks during the motocycle chase scene. Having their backstory filled in afterwards gave that sense of a scheduled routine, it dulled the experience through repetition, leading us to just wait for Drebin to give us the needed backstory to make us "feel sorry" again.

Aside from Laughing Octopus being the only one where it felt fresh, I'm willing to forgive Screaming Mantis's case as the revelation of Psycho Mantis' and the very horrific nature of her history made for a great ending to the B&B Corps, despite the shoddy execution of the middle two. In this regard, I hope that if we DO get history for Skull Face, it'll actually be done with care in terms of how it's meant to impact the audience.