Episode 2 Discussion (SPOILERS)

So that was a really engrossing installment which saw me take Big B down a more sympathetic route after beating the shit out of Tweedledee.

So that ending huh? That was pretty gross/disturbing

What did you think? It was over in a flash and the story never really lull'd and loved the new characters.. roll on episode 3!

Also

TJ Lives YAY!

I thought it was a really good episode. I didn't see that ending coming. (I thought that it would be a psychotic Prince Charming but that incriminating photo of Ichabod with Lilly's body threw most of my theories out the window.)

I saw some people on the game's Steam forums bitching and complaining about how short this episode is, but I thought it was a fine length. I'll gladly wait another 4 months for episode 3. (I'm kidding, I'm sure the rest of the episodes will be out much sooner and more consistently.)

Did anyone else not get their Player Choices showing up in the end? It didn't let me scroll down and then skipped back to the main menu when I hit Continue. Then in the Extras thing, Player Choices didn't list any Episode 2 stuff.

This episode really felt to me like "Bigby trying to find a medium between the Man and the Wolf", at least the way I played it. Last episode I really kept it cool then blew my lid and tore off Gren's arm. This time, I think Bigby is just generally scattershot and not sure what kind of person he's aiming to be. I tried to talk to Tweedle Dee nicely, only once resorting to physical attack by tightening his wristlocks. I was cold to Crane and nice to TJ, but still a little distant. The Georgie scene was interesting because it really was a matter of me slowly whittling down to the point where Bigby was just sick of being nice and started smashing things again (though never attacking Georgie himself). Finally, Bigby started to turn while fighting Beast, and decided to just let Beast throw him through a door rather than fight back. Whether or not this represents the turn of his character for me to a guy that just tries to keep cool at all times, I guess we'll have to see what happens next.

The way I played it was he was really angry (more than the first episode) until he found out snow white was alive, where I played him as a delicate little flower (because Love n shit)... I beat the shit out of Tweedle... like every response other than one resorted in physical pain (and this ended up with him talking a lot sooo YAY).

Uhm as for the ending I think the perverse act was deffo him but as for the murder, I don't think so... I think someone killed the unconscious victim thinking it was Snow White long after he was done with her.

I loved this episode because it got suitably dark towards the end, built a lot of character and the club owner is one I look forward to seeing more from the future... I thought it was a great episode even if it was short. Also one of the main complaints I've seen was 'not enough action'... what you mean QTEs? I thought gamers hated QTEs! People are soo fickle XD

Totally. The way they constantly give you the option to bully almost everyone around you in this episode makes it even more meaningful when you chose not to. It really feels like you're holding out the beast in a way. Brilliantly done.

My only complaint as far as the action sequences go is how TellTale for some reason likes to ignore how important meaningful decisions are whenever it's in the context of a fight. Like, I was fighting Beast but I didn't want to fight him at all, so after dodging, ducking and smacking him away a couple times, I stopped. He then smacked my head into the wall and I got a Game Over. I'd much rather have had it end with Bigby passing out or something and then wake up to find Beauty and Beast settling things; it'd have made me feel like I missed out on something as a result of not fighting, but also that i'd made an important character decision to not fight. In the end I just fought until the game said I was allowed to stop fighting, then Beast punched me through the door and the scene went on; it just didn't feel quite "right" like the rest of the episode did.

Oh I decided to stop got clocked in the head with a bottle then broke the door with Beasty, but yeah that was probably because of the stage of the fights we were in... wish they were handled better TBF... I almost feel like a Game Over page should never be a thing in a Teltale game

Well the plot certainly got very L.A. Confidential in a hurry.

I'm fine with that and this episode though. And I'd really forgotten quite how stunning the artwork and colouring is.

Did anyone catch who voiced Georgie Porgie btw? Pretty solid accent if he's not from 'oop North'

Also I seem to be the only person who threw Beast through the door. Guess I'm playing more as a bastard than you guys :)

I threw Beat through the door, he just hit me in the head with a bottle first. I was a total nice guy otherwise though.... apart from when I pretty much killed tweedledee in the interrogation room ^.^ ( I was upset my love interest was dead.. okay!)

I thought it was weird when you are fighting Beast that when you smash through the door all of a sudden everything is fine and dandy. What was that about?

Damn that dude was fingering her.

This really felt like ti was kinda short. Or maybe it was just too good and felt like 30 minutes XD

Anyway. I am getting really invested in these characters and the story. I also played Bigby to handle most of the stuff very nicely. Maybe because I thought this is how he would react after he thought he has lost Snow for ever. Crane was always vey suspicious and while I do not believe he murdered faith he is still very fucked up...

Sadly I did not get any players choice screen or maybe it was broken? (Playing on the PC)

Im guessing Beast saw the room and was like 'oh'

Is that what you see if you open the door to the room where there's sex happening? I knocked on the door and then decided to just go to 207.

Well, don't you get right to the point of the matter? Something about him seemed off early in the episode, and I suspected he was hiding something. Now I know what it was. But I suspect the killer is not our current suspect as well, something feels off about this and I suspect there is another person on a mission to take out the fables they deem un-worthy or something. Maybe some kind of purification scheme? Kill all the dirty ones and leave behind the pure ones or something.

That aside. Really liked it. I intended to go through the entire episode on a rampage killing and maiming my way to the killer... but I ended up going soft through the whole episode. Seemed to fit more with what things that were going on. Eagerly awaiting the next couple episodes.

Im talking about Ichabod Crane motherfuka

Did anyone else think maybe it wasn't Ichabod? Like if someone could glamour a troll to look like Snow, why not glamour themselves as some other fable to help maintain his own identity? I know the odds of Telltale pulling that whole "everyone is glamoured" thing is pretty unlikely, it just struck me as unbelievably convenient that there would be a picture of Ichabod in the act like that at the crime scene. Also, it's a pretty weird angle unless he had Buffkin playing photographer for the special occasion.

Also, Bluebeard is totally the same guy who voices Lee in Walking Dead right? Don't know if this was old news, or wrong and I'm completely crazy, but it sounded so similar...

@meaninoflife42: I think there is a slight chance that Ichabod is being framed. Granted my opinion on this is based on my knowledge of the comics, and assuming that this is still a prequel and not just a alternate "universe."

@velamo05: Now that you mention it, in the "next time on" bit, when Ichabod gets in the car, one of those glamour vial things falls out of his pocket, so it is possible. Also, I think you are right on Bluebeards voice, though I heard a sit ton of voices that sounded familiar during this episode, I swear TJ is voiced by Clementine

Yeah, Bluebeard is totally voiced by Lee's actor; and Beauty totally started sounding like Clementine at one point. And I would agree that TJ also has Clementine's actress. Anyone catch what's up with the cassette tape? The game decided to progress when I opened the wardrobe, so I didn't have a chance to check it out.

I also didn't get to see my choices summed up for me at the end.

@thunderslash: the cassette is some music that Beauty said was playing really loud the previous night and then just stopped.

@thunderslash: It was kinda bullshit though. It was basically those nature noises "help-you-fall-asleep" tapes, and Beauty and Bigby were all like "Oh, definitely used to cover up the sound of the killing"
Right. Cause no one can hear you murdering people over the serene sounds of flute music and birds chirping.. -.-

@sgtsphynx: Yeah I thought the same thing about TJ, definitely a lot of cross-over with the voice work, but not like that wasn't expected. Plus, it always sounds so good anyway. Though Beauty sounded a bit like a sorority girl at times with all her "Oh my God"s'...

The cassete mimmicked the disney soundtrack to when Snow White was being helped by the dwarves and critters from the film... proper disturbing

After reading some of the comics, I think I played this episode a bit differently. I was always on the cusp of beating people down and breaking all their shit, but never actually did it(I smashed Georgie's sign and ciagrette machine, and punched the woodsman once). I kinda feel like the scariest part about Bigby isn't that he WILL hurt you, it's that he MIGHT.

Anyway, I thought it was a good episode. A lot of the thoughts I have tie in to what I know about the comics so I won't say anything about that. Just that I hope I get to beat the shit out of Bluebeard at some point.

It was a good episode, but it had a stupid moment that forced me to restart it. When I was interrogating the Woodsman, Bigby was being relatively nice to him, offering him a smoke and a swig of his alcohol, but I decide to tighten his restraints for the final piece of dialogue and suddenly I've "beat him up" and both Crane and Snow's talking about how I beat this dude up and that I'm too violent. Really dumb.

The Bigby vs. Beast setup was all too predictable. Other than that, it was a cool episode with engaging character interactions. Don't know how I feel about the intrigue anymore, but that cliffhanger at least has me more interested to know what's going on.

@fluxwavez: They say that even if you don't touch his straps or lay a finger on him, pissed me off too.

Anyone else notice how the preview for episode 2 contains scenes that weren't in the full release? And how the Episode 3 splash screen was totally changed from the cop lady to this new car one?

Also, anyone find the ribbons the strippers at the Puddin' N' Pie wear sorta suspicious?

That was insanely short (shortest Telltale episode yet?), but the pacing was great. I kind of roleplayed Bigby (as I see him, anyway... I'm unfamiliar with the comics) a bit instead of going with my gut, drifting back and forth between violent and sympathetic, and I was impressed at how well that played out. I think I'll keep up with that for the rest of the series.

I do wish they'd axe the mandatory "X will remember that" messages, though. I like not knowing.

I just realized something, did anyone else have their steam achievements reset for this game? It is now only showing me having unlocked the achievements for episode two.

Hopefully the next few episodes come on a monthly basis. Really enjoying this series and LOVE the art style.

Snow White being alive was something pretty much everyone predicted so no shock there. I tortured the fuck out of Tweedle whoever, because fuck both of those clowns. I got my information too so that was a cherry on top.

I played it cool the rest of the episode though. REALLY wanted to wreck Georgie's club, but I resisted and luckily I was rewarded. Was tackling Beast through the door an option? I saw the prompt and just assumed I had to do it. Either way great end to the episode.

@kishinfoulux: You could have just stood there and let him tackle you through the door.

The opening of this episode really played on the strengths of the lighting. Also it shocked me around as much as the last episode with the pre-opening credits scene. It does take away some of the shock value of the ending when they pull back cards like that, regardless of how often it plays in media for cliffhangers. The rest of the episode I liked, but I found some of the parts at the Pudding and Pie where you had to continuously make choices while Georgie was being insistent no matter what you did, feel strained in keeping up the pacing of the writing and atmosphere.

I still really liked all the little nods, even as someone who hasn't read the comics. Pointing out similarities between the real world and the fable one, or how the myths are separate from the truths. Even just as throwaways it was enjoyable.

I did worry about the actual length though. I feel like the whole nudity worry that seemed to keep this on a bit of an edge in terms of release was worrying, cinematic styling or not. I'm hoping it was actually about filling out later parts of the game and re-working bugs/questionable-content to make this and later episodes better. As it stands the second half is extremely short. The second half especially in the motel where after exhausting all options it was about five minutes from the last chapter.

The last point I worry about is when you make a choice without it being completely clear. Often there's no muddled lines in this game. With the woodsman (who I got for my boss's sake) I went to his restraints, but knowing him tightened it. This got me to succeed but treated me like I was breaking the man, when even he just took it as a sarcastic move. For a game that likes you to tread the water before making a strong choice, sometimes this or sections like explaining your theory on the crime scene to snow white last episode feel like they break when a reasonable statement leads to an unexpected one. Especially when the writing is expected not to convey your choices, but why you picked your choices. Regardless of how it actually affects the game it sticks with you. Those choices show you as you play the character and undermine the design of these interactive stories when the game breaks from one reaction to another.

Still I liked the episode overall. The setting is still unique, and the near over the top hard life world is always compelling. Mix in the writing and the few cinematic angles with lighting and it makes for a great time. I still like it more in what it seems to be than the walking dead, but I really hope that it brings in some tougher scenes and better usage of this style they craft over the murder mystery investigation. For now it's a good jump from an great first episode.

Yeah, I was genuinely impressed when he said "It's nowt to do with me". It was a nice touch.

One thing that was super dumb about the episode was that last investigation thing. Seriously, you're in a brothel, it's been alluded to that some people like it when Fables glamour as other Fables, Beauty even mentions seeing a woman that wasn't Snow.. how does it take Bigby like four solid pieces of evidence before he can put together that it was a dude that wanted to have sex with someone pretending to be Snow?!

Yeah, it seems reasonably likely that the photo of Crane might have been a glamour. In the post game outro you see him throwing a glamour onto a car seat while wiping blood off his face. That's either another Snow White glamour, or a glamour for Crane. Bluebeard was in a position to get the ingredients for a glamour for both of those Fables, and it seems like he has something to gain from Crane's downfall, who knows!

edit: although that doesnt really explain why a fable glamoured as Crane would get angry and smash the mirror...

Enjoyed the episode, it was mostly dialogue, but that was ok with me.

I'm liking the dichotomy they're setting up with this game. In The Walking Dead there were a lot of choices that involved either being nice and keeping people happy, or being a survival focused asshole with a full stomach. Wolf Among Us seems to have a similar trope in that you can be nice to people and keep them on side, or lean more into the hard boiled detective character and get more information out of them.

Really? Because I replayed that part immediately after it happened due to not being pleased with how they responded, and this time when I loosened the straps instead, Blue Beard got angry at Bigby instead of Crane and I had the chance to tell Snow that it was Blue Beard who roughed the Woodsman up, not Bigby.

Still really dumb that simply tightening the restraints caused that reaction in the first place. Really took me out of the game.

Another fantastic episode.

The only problem is the Beauty/Beast stuff. Everything about that last scene felt forced. She didn't need to be there; he didn't need to be there; the conflict didn't need to be there; the forced quick-time fight didn't need to be there.

I'll bet you a dollar that the reason for that scene is that it's setting something up for future episodes. I wouldn't be totally surprised if Beauty is the next victim or something. Clearly something is up with those two besides her working in a seedy sex hotel.

Fantastic stuff in this episode. I just hope we don't have to wait as long as we did for 2 when it comes to episode 3! Spoilers below - obvioulsy.

Really solid in terms of story, pacing, voice actting, presentation - its all top notch. I played Bigby pretty chilled for the most part, especially when it came to dealing with TJ (adorable little scamp). I liked how (atleast to me) Bigby can be played so clearly intimidating to the other characters. The whole Georgie scene was fantastic. I didn't throw a single punch or break anything and still got everything I wanted out of him. The more you pushed him - the more you could tell he fold in the end.

I did have an 'Oh God!' moment when Beast found Bigby and Beauty at the hotel.

All in all - great stuff...now sadly I'm left just wanting more.

Why was Beast at the hotel at all?

I wondered that too... and also thought there's something fishy going on with Beauty's part in things also.

I thought it was good, but having to wait 3 months for it kind of sucked; I forgot a lot of the stuff from EP1. Hopefully EP3 doesn't take as long to get released.

I have to wonder if they made some changes to the story. I don't know how Telltale makes their games, but perhaps the police lady couldn't commit to more voice-acting?

I started reading the comics shortly after episode 1, and I have to advice people NOT to do it.

The comics are perfectly fine, but the presence/absence of certain characters could really spoil some of the biggest twists. I read only the first couple numbers, and it was enough to know Snow was alive, and something was going to happen to Crane.

Only just recently bought the season so I essentially played Ep. 1 and 2 back to back. The Wolf Among Us has a lot more flair and imagination to it than The Walking Dead, that's pretty obvious from the jump. Even compared to The Walking Dead Season 2, it seems fairly obvious this is the big budget Telltale game, from the opening credit roll to all the fancy colors. That said, this has also been a way rougher experience for me than Walking Dead. I'm still playing on PS3, but transitions/load times have been even hitcher than they were on the original Walking Dead, with some scenes experiencing super noticeable framerate drops (something I typically don't have a strong opinion about) as well.

I also think they've been a little sloppier with their situational writing; like many have said, this game seems to get confused about what's going on at random moments. During the basement scene, I had punched him in the gut once and tightened the cuffs, but didn't do anything else violent to him before offering him a puff of the cigar and everyone in the room, including Dumb, was basically flabbergasted (in a negative way) over it. Then all of a sudden Dumb isn't, because the game realizes he just told me was saving that for later and then I gave it back to him, only for Wolf to throw the rest of it on the ground and stomp it out after one puff. Combined with the entire Beauty & The Beast element and one or two random things from the first episode, and this game's mostly felt like style over substance so far, where Walking Dead was much more about the substance.

Everyone's a whore in Fabletown and only as good as their fists, so I'm a little forgiving. Through two episodes it's obvious they're trying really, really hard to make a proper competitor to The Walking Dead, but between technical issues and more immediately obvious scripting issues, it seems like Telltale's taken a step back in the areas they most needed to take a step forward.

I think it's safe to assume the "unfortunate circumstances" they were talking about last month had something to do with this. It's hard to know for sure but maybe they had to rewrite a large portion of the story, which would definitely explain a lot. If that's the case I guess that means we shouldn't see any more delays for the remaining episodes though, so that's good.

I liked it. It was a little short, but that is fine with me. The technical issues though need to get fixed. I'm on PS3 and it stutters and gets framy on a regular basis.

Thought this episode was good. Thought Crane turning out to be the guy was a good move. His character in the comics wasn't exactly a swell guy and him in a position of power at the beginning was perplexing to me.

Two questions

1) Did anyone find anything to do with the money you gave Faith from the first episode?

2) Did anyone investigate the...occupied room at the hotel?

I definitely enjoyed the episode but man, it felt really short. I hope they shorten the release dates between episodes for the rest of the season because after months of waiting, just about anything they put out is going to feel anti-climatic.