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[Loudninja]

“In the initial concept art there was this young hunter with red hair,” says John Gonzales, Lead Narrative Designer. “And in one particular image she’s seated on a hillside looking out at this valley which has these ancient ruins… it seemed like she stepped out of the concept art and said ‘I’m going to be the lead character in this game'”.

Laying the Foundation of an Icon

Integration between character, narrative, and gameplay is something vital to any story driven title. But Guerrilla didn’t just have the creative muses pushing the charismatic hunter to the fore — it also had a valuable and fundamental game design trick up its sleeve: the three pillars of what Horizon is about.

“Aloy was the first,” explains Mathijs de Jonge, Game Director. “Then she had to contrast against the other two: beautiful, lush nature, and the machines. It was really important to make the whole thing feel coherent and deliver a unique experience to the player.

“At the beginning of the project we didn’t exactly know what the rules of the world would be, so between these pillars, Aloy had to be a very agile and fluid character, and the combat mechanics and stealth system had to be tight.”

Giving Voice

So, with the environment and scenario set, and Aloy’s visual presence emerging, there was another vital aspect in crafting the heroine’s personality — her voice. Enter BAFTA and Emmy nominated actress Ashly Burch. “We were especially fortunate to find Ashly,” says John. “Her voice transmits the three qualities we needed for Aloy.

“First is her incredible toughness and grit, that feeling of someone of substance and someone you wouldn’t want to mess with. Then there’s an intelligence and articulate wit that’s realized in Ashly’s voice. And finally there’s an underlying vulnerability and woundedness based on Aloy’s experiences growing up as an outcast, being out in the wild.

“Aloy is somebody who couldn’t help but dream of being accepted and belonging to a community, but at the same time hating that same community for the treatment she’s experienced — there’s that conflict in herself about wanting to belong. And those are complexities that we as writers tried hard to understand, and to write it in subtle ways — but it wouldn’t work if we didn’t find an actress who could pull that off.”

Character and Consequence

Of course, even with all of these important elements, there’s still one part which is vital to forging Aloy’s steely personality — you. The narrative driven flashpoints let you define Aloy by choosing her reaction to particular events. Essentially, you’re emoting through her, which can affect certain elements by the end of the game. So, choose wisely…

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2017/02/13/horizon-zero-dawn-the-origin-of-aloy-the-hunter/

 

[vivekTO]

Good Read. I really like this part

One of the first flashpoints is deciding how to react to Bast, a young boy who injuries Aloy with a rock during her formative years as an outcast. You can decide whether to retaliate with your own stone, discard your primitive missile, or disarm Bast from throwing another rock

I am playing Mass Effect 2 Now and i still don't feel good about the Renegade and paragon thing, i always choose the Paragon, so making it free of any major consequences will definitely give us some more flexibility with our choices.

 

[Crossing Eden]

The narrative driven flashpoints let you define Aloy by choosing her reaction to particular events.

One of her choices is letting a mentally ill man choose to kill himself and nothing about her scripted dialogue indicates that that's something she'd do. ._. So please way less stuff that feels incredibly off for the sake of making choices the character wouldn't actually make.

 

[Weebos]

One of her choices is letting a mentally ill man choose to kill himself and nothing about her scripted dialogue indicates that that's something she'd do. ._. So please way less stuff that feels incredibly off for the sake of making choices the character wouldn't actually make.

Granted, I haven't watched a lot of footage for this game, but does her scripted dialogue make it seem like something she wouldn't do?

 

[Crossing Eden]

Granted, I haven't watched a lot of footage for this game, but does her scripted dialogue make it seem like something she wouldn't do?

Yes, from her scripted dialogue her character seems to be at best, agnostic. She doesn't seem to believe in the goddess or matriarchal nature of her society. She seems to be a bit of a cynical realist first and foremost and thus doesn't seem like the type to literally tell a mentally ill dude that he should listen to the voices in his head and kill himself.

 

[Loudninja]

Good Read. I really like this part



I am playing Mass Effect 2 Now and i still don't feel good about the Renegade and paragon thing, i always choose the Paragon, so making it free of any major consequences will definitely give us some more flexibility with our choices.

Yeah I like little choices like that.

 

[kyser73]

One of her choices is letting a mentally ill man choose to kill himself and nothing about her scripted dialogue indicates that that's something she'd do. ._. So please way less stuff that feels incredibly off for the sake of making choices the character wouldn't actually make.

It isn't the first time you get to make a choice with a good/neutral/bad ending:

The narrative driven flashpoints let you define Aloy by choosing her reaction to particular events. Essentially, you’re emoting through her, which can affect certain elements by the end of the game. So, choose wisely…
One of the first flashpoints is deciding how to react to Bast, a young boy who injuries Aloy with a rock during her formative years as an outcast. You can decide whether to retaliate with your own stone, discard your primitive missile, or disarm Bast from throwing another rock.
And although Guerrilla has noted that most people seem to go for the last option, the team was not so quick to turn the other cheek.

So quite clearly these moments are there to provide the player with a degree of agency over how they want to define Aloy's character, and also have a limited impact on later stages of gameplay. As for your comments about her scripted moments, you've got the equivalent of about 10 minutes of dialogue to make your assertion out of 10 hours worth of recording. I know you don't like it as an option, but stop trying to make your opinion something objective about the game's design.