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Acts 1-3 were nowhere near as bad as y’all are making it out to be
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Now I’ll admit the EN dub is pretty hairy, I switched to JP for the main story (but have gone back to EN now I’m just exploring since I can’t stand Encore and Verona’s JP voices), but that’s not the issue here.
I saw everyone describing it as half-hour walls of text and confusing lore dumps and over-explaining everything, so I went in expecting it to be worse than Genshin on that front, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was very wordy, yes, and definitely could have been strimmed down, but it was still nowhere near as bad as Genshin’s main quests have been. Then acts 4-6 really got the ball moving, they felt nice and snappy.
If you’re being discouraged by the calls of terrible writing but have already suffered through Genshin, I’d say these comments are a huge exaggeration and it’s worth giving it a try
Top Comment: It's just badly executed. Things happen fast and 4920 terms are thrown at you constantly. It just makes it boring and a bit hard to follow. But the actual worldbuilding of the frequency and all was very interesting, I've always been drawn to that stuff in science and esoterisn.
If you haven't already, consider switching to the ACT. Seriously.
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I just recently got my March 1st ACT score back and received a 34 composite score. This is a cold score; I did no studying or preparation beforehand. In comparison, I took the October SAT and poured my entire summer into studying to get a 1450. I understand the ACT is not for everyone, but as someone who despises fast-paced tests and being unable to double-check my answers, I was shocked that I did better on the ACT. The reading section is all verbatim; you can easily find all the answers in the text unlike the SAT. There are no traps with seemingly subjective reading questions. You don't even need to really understand the passages, as long as you can point to the details. The same with science, but it's charts. If you're having the same problem I had with the SAT (high math, low EBRW) look into the ACT. It's a simpler test and I really think it is easier to study/improve your score.
Top Comment: THANK U - u convinced me. I have been dying over a low english score and i have been trying to raise it for so long.
Does anyone else have a lot of trouble with second acts?
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I’ve been really struggling with my second acts and I could use some advice and/or perspective on how to tackle them.
I find myself deeply analyzing my idea for a script to try and get to the core of the story. I want the simplest version before I start writing or even outlining in any significant way so that my script is focused and the story is clear to me throughout the writing process. This always leave me with a compelling “problem” to introduce in the first act and a way to solve it in the third.
Inevitably, I end up with a solid first act that introduces my characters and the story. I’ll have a clear picture of where the second act ends and how to wrap the story up in a way that feels earned. The issue I’m having is filling out the second act in ways that feel compelling yet original. Maybe it’s a creativity issue. The consistent advice that I hear is how the second act is about conflict. I find it hard to develop interesting ways to get my characters from the end of act 1 to the end of act 2. The ideas tend to feel inessential to the story. They’re just jerry-rigged roadblocks or tangential plots that slow the characters down.
Example. I’m working on an action/adventure script where the end of act 2 essentially requires the characters to get to a location in a wilderness setting. I have them stranded somewhere else to start act 2. The nature of the script doesn’t allow for interaction with other humans throughout the journey. The only ideas I can come up with are things like wild animals attacking or obstacles in the terrain. These ideas feel so familiar and unoriginal. I’m also trying to introduce a subplot of conflict within the group but even that feels derivative of so many other movies.
I suppose my question is about coming up with fresh feeling ideas in a second act. Is it a story problem? Should I focus on how to use these traditional second act tropes in original ways? How do people design conflict in their second acts?
Thank you.
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Honestly this is pretty normal for most writers. My screenwriting mentor once said to me “The second act is where good stories go to die.”
What helped me really was working backwards a bit in the outline.
Act 1, while the most complicated, is the easiest. And it seems like you got that down. Great. Then, what I do is I outline Act 3. I’m a huge believer that the end of a story is the most important part. It solidifies your theme, your “dramatic question”. It’s the ultimate conclusion of your characters arcs from where they began in Act 1.
After I have Act 1 and 3, then the outlining for Act 2 starts. I usually start with the midpoint because it’s such an important beat to hit, then work out from there. How can I get the characters from point A to point B to point C in an interesting, dramatic way?
That’s how I outline. It’s not the only way, of course! I know so many great writers that outline in order or don’t even outline at all. But if you’re really struggling with Act 2, I encourage you to nail down your Act 1 and 3 first then work from there! It might help! Certainly helped me!
Acts 1 and 2 don’t matter?
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Just finished our first game of the blighted reach and I wanted to love it so badly. I really enjoyed the base game and love learning rules so I was excited for the campaign, but the one thing I can’t get over was how pointless acts 1 and 2 turned out to be and I want to know if it was just the play through we did or if this is common.
In our four player game I was the only one to successfully complete my A fate (as the Believer), the other three didn’t complete theirs. In act 2, I failed my fate and two other players succeeded in theirs which very much set up a 2v2 for act 3.
However due to the point halving we all went into act 3 within ~20 points of each other and due to failed ambitions and mass outrage ( !> due to the Planet Breaker and some court crisis cards !< ) pretty much every card from people’s earlier fates was gone. Acts 1 and 2 changed the board state and the deck but no player entered act 3 with any kind of advantage, it felt like the last 6 hours of gameplay and all of the agonizing decisions we made completely useless.
I get that it would suck to not have a comeback mechanic - you shouldn’t be totally out of the campaign because of a decision in act 1 - but i just can’t wrap my head around having the first 2/3 of a long thinky campaign not matter at all
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This doesn't sound like Acts 1 and 2 didn't matter. This sounds like the circumstances and story of these games ended up producing this particular board state. If two soccer teams go into the second half tied 2-2, did the first half not matter?
Consider an alternative where what you describe can never happen. People play Acts 1 and 2 and necessarily one of the players goes into Act 3 with a significant advantage. Suddenly we have the opposite problem - why even bother with Act 3!
And at the very least the court deck gets significantly modified by the earlier fates, even if you somehow manage to end up with no court cards in front of each player. The ships you have, the placement of your buildings, and the location of any blight will also play a role in the final act.