The narrative decline of the X-Series

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Melecus
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Joined: Sun, 13. Jan 19, 21:24

The narrative decline of the X-Series

Post by Melecus » Fri, 7. May 21, 11:40

1) Brennan/Kho-Family-Saga:
-X Beyond the Frontier (game)
-X-Tension (game)
-X Farnham's Legend (book)
-Beyond the Frontier (album)
-X2: Nopileos (book)
-The blue haired girl (that lived to be a thousand) (album)
-X2: The Threat (game)
-X3: Yoshiko (book, only German)
-X3: Reunion (game)

2) Terran Conflict:
-X3: Terran Conflict (game)
-X3: Hüter der Tore (book, only Germann)
-X3: Wächter der Erde (book, only German)
-X3: Albion Prelude (game)

3) Gate shutdown:
-X3: Farnham's Legend (game)
-X Rebirth: Plutarch Rising (book, only German)
-X Rebirth (game)
-X4: Foundations (game)

The X-series begins with the Terrans Kyle Brennan and Elena Kho stranding in the X-universe. After they are out of immediate risk of dying, their goal becomes to get back to earth. Almost everything they do relates somehow to this cause: The development of the gateless jumpdrive, the founding of the TerraCorp, the search for the AP Gunner... During that time other universe-changing events occur, but they are also mostly related to the narrative drive. The best example of this is obviously the war against the Khaak. The first contact actually happened while toying around with the first prototype of a jumpdrive.

At last, the finding-earth-arc ends with the battle of Heretic's End, where the Sol-System again becomes a part of the gate network. From now on the games make a drastic shift in playstyle - they become way more sandbox-ish:

During the first phase, the player was playing a real protagonist, who is deeply entangled with the history and future of the X-Universe. But in X3TC and X3AP the player is just a random person with no lore and own ambition, that somehow gets involved in the interstellar conflict, which becomes the narrative drive for the second phase. This causes many problems:

First, the stories in X3TC and X3AP become not very engaging, because you have no acting protagonist. You just have a random dude, that accepts quests, because he can. Imagine the player from X3TC is the martyr that blows up the Torus instead of Saya Kho: "Crazy rich Argon, Terran, Teladi, Split, Paranid or Boron guy blow up the Torus because someone offered him a quest to do so."

Because of the sandbox-ishnes of X3TC and X3AP, the player can't be the driving force behind the overarching storyline and is therefore reduced to a bystander. But that doesn't mean X3TC and X3AP don't offer universe-changing plots. Operation Final Fury and the rediscovery of Aldrin for sure a universe-changing and have an impact even in further games. But you don't find an entry in the timeline, that says: "Crazy rich Argon, Terran, Teladi, Split, Paranid or Boron guy led a huge army against the Khaak and got rid of this scourge because someone offered him a quest to do so." The player is just a random pilot amongst many during these plots. In contrast, Elena and Kyle have sectors named after them for their services in the war against the Xenon.

Furthermore, this sandbox structure causes problems across games: First, the player from X3TC and X3AP has to be erased from the timeline after each game. This is most obvious with the Hub: At the beginning of X3AP, the Hub is for some reason in the hands of the Borons with almost no mention of the previous owner a.k.a. the X3TC-player. In X4 it's just reduced to a background easter egg in Eleventh Hour and you find no entry in the timeline about a crazy rich Argon, Terran, Teladi, Split, Paranid, or Boron guy messing up the gate network because he can.

The one reason these games can erase the player from history is that the player has no choices that can alter the fate of the universe to create two separate timelines, that future games would have to follow. The only thing that comes close to a universe-changing choice is the choice to end the war in X3 AP but in the end, your choice doesn't matter, because the soon following gate shutdown nullifies the outcome of the war.

X3TC and X3AP also leave huge lore gaps between themselves. The Second Terraformer War and the destruction of the Torus are mostly contained in the books "X3: Hüter der Tore" and "X3: Wächer der Erde" and are just quickly mentioned in the opening cinematic of X3AP: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoD_orR4ZoI. So it sucks if you can't read German... But on the other hand, you could easily follow the stories of the first phase, even if you haven't read the books.

Now let's move on to the era after the gate shut down. First of all, the possibilities for this phase are almost endless. I would love to read/play more stories in this unstable time but after the flop of XR, Egosoft tried to move on as fast as they could.

XR has many flaws, which mostly concentrates around its lack of sandbox-ishnes, but at least we got a decent story. XR is again focused around a single main storyline with a playable protagonist and other not one-dimensional NPC. Although they mostly end up annoying as hell. On the other side, XR is really good at showing the mayhem and the reorganization that followed the gate shut down as well as the first contacts as the gates reactive. Although the Omicron Lyrae storyline was way too short and the DLC regions are a lore graveyard. But one of the biggest flaw in XR's story is, that it takes place in a region of space separated from the "real" X-Universe we see in X4.

X4 on the other side takes place a couple of Jazuras after the reactivation of the gates and skips the phase of mayhem and the phase of reorganization that followed the gate shut down. This game is really bad at telling the story of the X-universe. First of all, the ingame timeline only sums up the rest of the franchise and doesn't explain how the states and political structures we now see formed. It only hints at it and it will need some time for Helge Kautz to fill in the gaps, so Germans can read it.

Furthermore, X4 has the highest degree of sandbox-ishnes of any X-game. First of all, you are again a random crazy rich Argon, Terran, Teladi, Split, Paranid (or Boron) guy, that manipulates interstellar wars, because Dal Busta offered him a quest.

Second, X4 has many different plotlines, that almost always offer universe-changing choices for you to make, but the question is why? X4 lacks an overarching purpose or narrative. Most factions from X3 have just rebuilt themselves and are no longer in mortal peril like many factions from XR and X3: Farnham's Legend.

You just have a sandbox, where a bunch of factions wage against each other for various reasons, and your holy mission as the player is to manipulate these wars to create profitable opportunities as Dal describes it?

Please don't get me wrong, X3TC, X3AP, and X4 are undoubtedly the best games in the franchise, precisely because they are the biggest sandboxes. Their storytelling flaws mostly only appear, when you look at the big picture and X4 is creating more and more problems, that will cause a reckoning in the future.

Be realistic - what will happen with the X-franchise? First of all, there will be a Boron DLC for X4. We all know that - even Bernd knows it and he's tired of people asking about it. But what will happen in X5?

X5 will have to deal with all the universe-changing choices from X4. In X4 you can create factions and empires and even exterminate entire races if you want so.

You also can't erase the player from history. All plotlines center around a group of three people, that singlehandedly changed the universe. For the future history of the X-universe, you can't just ignore Boso Ta, Dal Busta, and Crazy rich Argon, Terran, Teladi, Split, Paranid (or Boron) guy, that destroyed the Amplifier and terraformed half the universe.

So... how will Egosoft one day address these problems? I can think of four different solutions: First, they could set X5 so far into the future, so your choices won't matter anymore. Second, introduce a cataclysmic event between X4 and X5 like the gate shout down, which also renders all your choices irrelevant. And third, Egosoft has to formulate a canon, that sets all your choices into stone. All of these possibilities are unsatisfying and undermine the effort and choices in X4.

The only compelling solution I could come up with is the Mass Effect approach. X5 should ask you to upload an X4 savegame, which becomes the foundation for the universe in X5 and if you don't have a savegame, it should ask a bunch of questions, that serve the same purpose. For example: "Are the Paranids unified or still split up in two or three factions?"

So now the question is, how to avoid further problems in X5? First of all, get rid of the many game starts. Be realistic - what changes between the different starts? It's mostly just the starting ship and starting position and these differences can be leveled in X4 in a manner of about an hour, except for the one game start, where you start with the PHQ.

The game starts also determine your race, but does that matter?
Interviewer: "What changes when playing with different races?"
Bernd Lehahn: "The camera hight."
The only instance where your race can become important is when you roleplay for example as a Zyarth Split fanatic that wants to conquer the galaxy. Then it can become a problem if a cutscene reveals that you are actually a tiny space krakan instead of a mighty split warrior.

I also know that some X4 starts offer little unique quest lines, but they are unimportant in comparison with the real plots for every game start.

For X5 I would like to have a main protagonist, that can leave his/her/its/lar footsteps in the timeline of the X-universe. A person with own background and motivation, that actually has a reason to take part in the various conflicts and plotlines. The game starts then would only alter the starting conditions and not the person you're playing.

X5 should have a main storyline, that drives the lore progression of the whole X-series forward. In addition, there would be of course a lot of site plots with choices, that also could alter the universe like some of the plots in X4 and result in a Mass Effect like lore progression, but none of these site plots should have an impact so large you would have to create different timelines for future games. Imagine having the choice at the end of X3TC to blow up the Torus or not. X3AP and literally the whole universe would be drastically changed depending on that choice.

Most of all, X5 again needs an overarching storyline that stretches across games. The first phase always had the finding-earth-aspect in the back of its head. This plotline ended with the battle of Heretic's End and naturally led to the Terran Conflict. This war ultimately ended with the gate shut down and if you believe this theory/interpretation the Sohnen shut down the gate network precisely to end the war. The shut down then inevitably leads to an era of chaos and anarchy.

But now in X4, the natural lore progression has ended. The chaos of gate shut down and reactivation is over and stable interstellar states have formed again. At the end of XR or the beginning of X4, you should have found something or someone in a previously unknown sector, that is so dangerous/powerful/interesting, that it can change the universe and serve as a driving force and lore foundation for several X-games.


Congratulations to every mad lad, who read my 2.000 words of overanalysis/rent. So, what do you think about my criticism of the X-lore and my proposals?

rudi_pioneer
Posts: 394
Joined: Fri, 2. Apr 21, 21:06
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Re: The narrative decline of the X-Series

Post by rudi_pioneer » Fri, 7. May 21, 19:10

Tangentially related, sandbox environment of X4 has let me write many stories and characters I play my own way, rather than force me to follow one; so from my perspective, narrative has never been better.

Totally get what you mean about lore though - I just worry that anything more story focused would take away from sandbox magic X4 now has. I like the current idea where finding data vaults add more to the overall lore + some rewards without being in your face in the game. In world of infinite resources, I'd be ok with X4 having some dedicated story modes too.

Like I mentioned on reddit, I don't need X5, I think X4 as a solid foundation has way more to go the way it's already going, and maybe that codebase can be used for dedicated story continuation too.

TheDeliveryMan
Posts: 687
Joined: Sat, 10. Dec 11, 03:10
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Re: The narrative decline of the X-Series

Post by TheDeliveryMan » Sat, 8. May 21, 10:32

X is a multiverse that contains all possible X-universes.

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Pesanur
Posts: 1892
Joined: Sat, 5. Jan 08, 22:06
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Re: The narrative decline of the X-Series

Post by Pesanur » Sat, 8. May 21, 22:03

X3 AP also have one of those choice "a", "b" or "c" plots, the one of the female Split engineer, where you can side with the Splits, Jonferco or the Yaki.
In X Rebirth the results of this plot are present, but with the Jonferco's end. Also all mention to the female Split that is who really developed the prototype of the engines used by the ships ox XR, was removed and all the merits are for Jonferco.

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