Re: The probelms with bfn's world and story

by TheSprinter85
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The probelms with bfn's world and story

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Note that the pvz comics will not be used as A. Most people don't know of or have read them. B. If it ain't in the game its status as canon can be dubious at best just like other semi canon materials for other franchises. C. Bfn makes references to the comics like mr stubbins yet this makes no sense except to the minority of players that have actually read the pvz comics. You still have to establish who this character is to begin with in this world.

 

If you would like to bring them up then please tell me.

 

So what was the plot leading up to bfn you ask?

 

Well to find this out you have to go to the pve regions in town center and earn medals.

 

Examples:

 

Neighborville is a cute but embattled little town. But the tides turned when Crazy Dave trapped (nearly) all the zombies inside Zomboss HQ with his Smell Jar--a MAJORLY HUGE bell jar.

 

The Smell Jar covering Zomboss HQ was so large, the town considered plans to make it look like "The World's Largest Almond (That Groans "Brainz,' [sic] Sometimes).

"

The Smell Jar was made of B.O.-proof glass, anti-zombie-nail-scratch polish, and un-bite-able peanut brittle, making it unbreakable by zombies and a little bit tasty if you licked it.

 

With the zombies trapped in the Smell Jar, people removed the boards and nails from their windows, walked around without helmets on, and talked about their brains without fear.

 

Any zombie caught outside the Smell Jar found themselves at the mercy of the Invasive Plants: huge, ultra-scary plants that decided NOW was the time to ruin zombies' fun times.

 

Zombies did everything they could to escape the Smell Jar Crazy Dave dropped over their HQ. They bit the glass. They fired their weapons at it. They drew a door on glass with marker and tried to open it.

 

NOTHING WORKED!

 

Dr. Zomboss launched "Operation: Freedom: Of Zombies: From the Smell Jar" to great success. Now, it's time for "Mission: Freedom: Of Brainz: From the Humanz."

 

Zombies gave "Being Trapped in the Smell Jar" two thumbs fallen off and laying on the ground. That's why zombies are battling for Neighborville's brainz like never before.

 

Free from the Smell Jar, Dr. Zomboss pledged to not rest until Neighborville was his, once and for all!

 

Zombies flooded the town en masse, giving the humans almost no time to barricade themselves in the nearest building.

 

The only place this glass bell is referenced outside of medals is the intro to the game which was only after an update halfway through the games lifespan where a newspaper says zombies were contained than glass shards hit the ground and another paper falls on top of it that says the zombies escaped before it goes into come on down to neighborville.

 

I will not connect the games here because popcap didn't bother so neither will I.

 

I have several questions

 

We are never told how long it took dave to make this this bell or what the shape of neighborville was like before hand. How did he get it over zomboss HQ. Why were a fair amount of zombies at the HQ for this to be successful?

 

The medals describe that the zombies fired their weapons at it but nothing worked however the medals never tell us how Zomboss actually manages to get out and as we never see amy remnaints of it in game so I'm left with the question of how he completely destroyed it. Did he get help from remaining zombies outside, did he use some wacky technological gizmo, did he ask breaker bot to just chuck his hammer and pray his hit detection work. Maybe this is why the intro showed it break so fast.

 

Another question is why did plants not prepare counter measures in case the zombies escape like a potato minefield or wallnut cannons. I mean baron von bats can actually teleport so was he constantly escaping? Why not prepare a way to destroy the zombies since they're all in one place and get rid of them forever (i'll get back to this).

 

Now the elephant in the room: humans.

 

Once again no comics only game info.

 

 

So do regular humans just exist now? Gw especially one had the literal writing on the wall of why there were not other humans and it makes sense for those games. The medals even say humans barely escaped the zombie resurgance from the bell escape yet the zombies know they're in their homes and their fairly stupid (we even interact with them as zombies for petes sake!).

 

Man daves neighbor in pvz 1 and 2 was a idiot because simply barricading your door was the true awnser to a zombie apocalypse. Yet we see that windows aren't boarded and that there are chimneys. Do you expect me to believe that a gargauntuar or superbrainz can't break down a door (the medals even imply they know how doors work but they never thought to just break them down!?) or jump through a window.

 

I imagine it would go like this: https://youtu.be/Y2aFEc8dqK4

 

Another question is why in all heck would anyone live here?! Everyday you could wake up then see a buff missile toting zombie shooting barrages at a fire breathing dragon like creature or a giant the size of your house (phew are we lucky these giant zombies totally just can't rip off the entire frame of a house like they did one game ago) shooting massive streams of electricity against a giant pickle. Like what if your out on a walk than a barrage of missilies from z mech start flying everywhere when he's fighting a plant. The medals do mention safeguard warning systems but what if they fail or are too late? Like imagine your aren't warned than a giant icicle longer than your arm flies out of nowhere and nails your dog or something? Good lord this town must have an insurance policy on par with gotham and metropolis for the amount of destruction that must happen every other week.

 

I would've packed up and shipped out the moment the zombies relented or were pushed back.

 

Whats the state of the world? Are zombies everywhere or is it just neighborville, if they planned to show off the jar to the world than is it just in one place where the dead come back to eat brains?

 

Sure the original games didn't allude to the rest of the world but they didnt really need to and humans being alive in mass was never a major point of the world or plot to begin with. Pvz1 is mainly gameplay focused rather than story focused and it works for it 

 

Im not saying more humans can't work in the series but that you have to have a solid explanation ror how there still around while keeping zombies semi competent.

 

Tldr: popcap established an entirely new world but we have no idea of how it works and what the state of everything is in it.

 

 

 

Now let me suggest that the bell was wasted potential for the pve modes as a story.

 

It could've been used for the pve story as you play as a zombie outside of the bell in a straggler group like the dummy cult or something that is guided by zomboss from inside the bell to destroy it before the plants destroy Z tech factory entirely by a tactical cuke or launching into space or something and you have to go around recruiting remaining zombie remnants to join you and collecting items to break the bell which can still justify dreadwood and blight cap as bosses. The plant side would focus on stopping remaining zombies from attacking humans and breaking the bell while destroying remaing factions like olds cools who would be repurposed into one of these remaining remnant leaders while still using disco as a way of trying to break the bell. If zombies win we get and ending that shows them overrun the town and if plants hold the line than we see the base get destroyed. This would reverse the situation from how it was in gw2 as the zombies are now the underdogs of the story from the far superior plant force and tie every individual boss\ministory into an overall narrative with a clear goal. A prolouge could also be used to see the zombies lose and get trapped by the bell that could serve as a tutorial to new players.

 

But given that EA is so adamant against simgleplayer games because they're morons (check out their latest tweets) i doubt we'll truly get a satisfying pvz single player experience.




Now some ranting over trivial stuff

 

In the town center medal bling friends forever states: Olds Cool invited Yeti King to join his Boogie Trappin' clique by offering him unlimited brainz, payable upon getting brainz, AND a shiny buckle off one of his shoes.

 

Was this an error in translation or something? This description blatantly mentions yeti king, not treasure yeti? Was yeti king going to be used first than got replaced with treasure yeti? Or is this just popcap being dumb (fume shrooms portrait is one where his eyes are closed in bfn lmao)

 

Yet in another medal he mentions treasure yeti specifically.

 

Baron von Bats, Treasure Yeti, Zen Sensei.

 

Fancy invitation, right? You iz invited to Olds Cool's excluzive club. Z-Tech Bouncer Bots let only cool zombies in. No plus ones.

- Olds Cool

 

You had one job guys

 

Its nice to see that yeti kings doing well after he got blown to bits in gw2 and that he apparently must have given up on his plans for eternal winter.

 

I don't think i need to explain why gw being canon to bfn would cause even more plot holes in the world with humans being alive when zombies are smart enough to rig bombs to steel pillars, build robots the size of buildings, and can create portals to black holes.

 

If bfn is different from gw than are these entirely new characters? Is rose still from the past? Is superbrainz still a zomboss lab creation? How would he react to an 80s action hero since he believes he's starring in a 80s action movie? Was it really that hard to write almanac backstories for a fraction of the characters from gw?

 

Tldr: grown man complains about world building in pvz.


Do correct me if I missed something.

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Re: The probelms with bfn's world and story

Champion

I will admit that I do not know much about the story surrounding the franchise as a whole, or about the comics either. It made more sense to me in Garden Warfare 2, with the zombies taking over Surburbia and renaming it to Zomburbia, and the plants trying to take it back. Garden Center was a map in Garden Warfare 1, and then it was reintroduced and changed into Aqua Center in Garden Warfare 2. I never really knew the story aspect for Battle for Neighborville, apart from the information that I would have gathered from the free roam regions. Even with the gnome content, it is great that they returned in BFN in the free roam regions, although there is not much backstory that I know of about the gnomes. I'm not sure how much time it would have taken to work on the story, although because BFN was a rushed release and came out of nowhere with almost no advertising, the developers might not have had enough time to completely flesh out the story side of things on BFN.

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Re: The probelms with bfn's world and story

★★★★★ Expert
@TheSprinter85 The overall stories kinda never really been there for pvz as a whole. Pvz2 is a sequel to 1 but other than that it doesnt really have some grand story other than dave wanting his taco again.

Gw1 was completetly seperated from the previous two games outside of some callbacks but it did gives off a nice environmental aesthetic of the two factions fighting in what remained of human civilization with 2 taking place after the zombies fimally broke the stalemate as stated with almanac bios.

Bfn just hit the semi reboot button since the gnomes kinda take a backseat after how much 2 started hyping them up. The pve was gonna be its on game but they must have either been forced to make it a multiplayer shooter or simply made some bad design decisions. Who knows?
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Re: The probelms with bfn's world and story

★★★★★ Expert

I've not read the comics either, although I have thought abut picking them up. Wasn't Mister Stubbins mentioned in GW2 as a side note?

 

I love PvZ in general and the picture it paints, but it has indeed not been consistent. I don't really mind that so much, but it does mean that when they try to focus more on the story, it's less coherent than it could be. I'm mostly here for the game play and silliness, but if they also tell a solid story, that would make things even better.

 

I saw that Tweet too. That thing got hammered all over the place. I have friends that focus on multiplayer online games over single player games but everyone I know that plays games plays at least some solo games, so that Tweet deserved the ire it raised. Part of why GW is my least played of the 3 shooters is that it lacks single player options compared to GW2 and BfN. I just hit 3k hours in GW2 over the weekend, and mostly from playing solo over the game's 6 year lifespan, even if I do like to play multiplayer matches and join open Ops from time to time, I love that I can go solo. I used to mostly play with a friend but when he unlocked everything, he stopped playing and hasn't been back since the updates that added the costumes for Torchwood and Hovergoat. EA has been less excited for single player games for awhile, but live service games are having issues of their own; as BfN amply demonstrates. I love the ability to play solo and quest and explore, even in a game with heavy multiplayer battle focus like the PvZ shooters.

 

I too prefer the way humans were more in the background in GW and GW2; they were hiding and barricading themselves in as the plants and zombies fought a war over their backyards, favorite restaurants, and beaches, and a large part of why I prefer the GW games over BfN is that fact. GW felt the most like the original PvZ game, which is why it has those that prefer it despite it's obnoxious meta and the ability to respawn to avoid being vanquished. GW2 gave us a what if the zombies had won, and humans must still exist but are most likely hiding even more securely than in GW as the plants hold the line on what's left; the backyard battleground is a prime representation of that fact. BfN apparently takes us back before GW, but it just feels off; more generic in game play and how the world feels, less dynamic and interesting, and I miss the zombified areas that even GW had to a point, although GW2 had these areas more open and obvious.

 

I would like them to return to the GW styles of games, adding some of PvZ2's time travel ideas, have more gnome stuff to do (like you @stukapooka I love the idea of the gnomes as a mysterious and enigmatic 3rd side that messes with both), and keep the humans in the background while focusing on the plants and zombies and their eternal battle.

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Re: The probelms with bfn's world and story

[ Edited ]
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@Iron_Guard8Stubbins was in the gw2 comic but zomboss never mentioned him in game.

I've always been more of a gameplay over story kind of player but like you say having both would be good.

I dont even care if a game is multiplayer only i simply just want it to have AI support so my purchase doesnt become worthless after a few months. Its why i couldnt really get into modern battlefield games. Like you its the reason gw1 is my least favorite despite it checking off a lot things I like in its gameplay and maps.

Whats even worse is some of their own studios devs started flaming them for it since fallen orders getting a sequel and a dead space remake is in the works and one of the most popular games this year is elden ring. Maybe they saw that they may lose the worst company award to actiblizzard this year so they had to up the ante. 

Live service games overall have been a massive disaster: bfn, halo infinite, battlefield 2042 (they killed battlefront 2 for this lmao), and so many more. You think they would get the message and stop.

I was semi working on a aesthetic post that went more in depth on these things that gw1 did that seperates it from the others quite well even if I prefer gw2 overall. Bfn really dropped the ball on aesthetic imo.

I would love to see more refined maps for the dark ages, lost city, neon mixtape, and far future. Bringing in gw1 styled maps wouldnt be hard, i mean this is a series with time travel.

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