- Joined
- Feb 7, 2019
I'm not sure you understand the meaning of this word--. I also don't see anywhere where you've actually rebutted my points, and I have to question whether or not you actually read or understood my post.
I guess I'll step through this with you this time, but if you don't have actual rebuttals to my points in the future, I'm not going to bother.
More screen time, probably. More importance? Doubtful. Not considerably more, at least.
When? In what ways?
You can clearly see that Shilin has a thing for Ryo. It's given context by her high moral standards, and a belief that Ryo is a representation of those moral standards, as well. The first game does not give any context for why Nozomi is so infatuated with Ryo, and it seems insincere at best, shallow at worst, as a result. If you dig into supplemental materials, you can find out that Ryo would stand up for her when she was bullied for not acting as Japanese as everyone else when she moved back for junior high. The game itself doesn't provide this context.
This is why I say it seems like you didn't read my post. I mentioned the tattoo parlor as the first instance of a cutscene involving Nozomi. Until this point, Nozomi seems like just another one of Ryo's friends. As for the cat, I was only remembering there being one of those cutscenes with Nozomi, but there were apparently three. It doesn't materially change anything, because two of them do absolutely nothing to develop their relationship, and the third one is basically Nozomi yelling at Ryo for not talking with her openly enough. They're also all optional, and easily missed.
The crux of the matter is that if one were just going through the first Shenmue, and not investing in optional content, Nozomi is a paper-thin character that the game appears to thrust on the player. That doesn't seem like it differs greatly from people's complaints of Shilin. Even with all of the optional details, and non-game materials, Nozomi still seems like a shallow, and undeveloped character, to me.
More importance ? Definitely. Do you have an exemple where Ryo and Shiling gets as many interactions ? Where the character is as close ? In fact, Nozomi gets as far as being mentionned in 2 and "appearing" in 3. So yeah, heavy revisionism going on here.
When does the game gives you insight ? As the game progress and developps. Nozomi starts, as you said, as a character in which you just have an ingame conversation. And it unfolds furthermore.
Yes; I readed your post: What you describe is called "character developpement". When you meet Nozomi, she's introduced as a regular NPC. And then it opens up, you get more insight on their relationship as conversations unfold. Even if you just hold onto the optional content, which is skipping the additionnal cutscenes, Nozomi is still a more fledged and important character than Shiling. Then again:
You litterally have an entire plot point revolving around her.
I mean, I cant believe I have to argue about that:
There's an entire setpiece dedicated to her and Ryo. Shiling and Nozomi have the same importance and as much developpement ?
Can you say that again for real ?