Dispatch’s story focuses heavily around your relationship—platonic or otherwise—with Invisigal, the SDN’s resident burnout. At least, before Robert Robertson III arrives on-scene; Whether or not you support her has a huge impact on the story, making for a nicely focused arc in AdHoc’s debut game. However, things could’ve been very different.
That’s per a Polygon interview with narrative director Pierre Shorette, who told the site: “In the very original script, you basically picked your starter Pokémon. You didn’t have a team. You showed up and [your boss] is like ‘pick someone you want to mentor.’”
Who would those starting three be, you might ask? Maybe a pick between Flambae, Malevola, and Invisigal? Wrong. AdHoc’s original vision for the game saw you choosing between a troubled criminal with strong ties to the central story and themes, a perpetually wet nerd, and a guy in a fursuit.
That’s right, Mr Whiskey (who I assume is the only thing keeping SDN’s Torrance branch together) would’ve been a starting option as someone Robert would closely mentor. This wasn’t quite landing right, explains Shorette:
"We realized at some point that the thing that we’ve always done in our career, and that people have liked the most, is the kind of narrative storytelling and interactivity that builds across a season and makes you feel invested in this larger story.
“We had almost put that aside, and I remember there being a turning point where it was like, 'why are we doing this? What if we just take the setups that we have and start looking at it on a higher level for a season arc?”
This shift in development also marked the start from a more grimdark series to a more hopeful one, thanks to a one-two punch of the Covid-19 pandemic and feel-good sports sitcom Ted Lasso: “[there were] a lot of discussions where we were just like… do we have to hurt people? Can we just have hope?”
Honestly, it’s probably all for the best. I can see Waterboy working at a push—Hermy is genuinely a charming little guy, and I didn’t regret putting him on my squad for a second. But Mr Whiskey?
Imagine trying to get emotionally invested when your go-to guy is in a mascot suit; Robert having a heart-to-heart with an expressionless feline face that looks like it ought to be captioned with the words ‘does this look like the face of mercy to you?’ Eh, maybe in Season 2.
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