Daniel's sister -- Hazel.

[Kein]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6InMclWdfSY

I don't get it. How can we play Daniel as a good person if there is none to care about, except Agrippa? The commentary says "others", plural. Who those others? May be we should skip that even with knife in Choir Entrance and don't touch anything in torture rooms (in Transept/Choir, you can trigger some tools and hear screams, etc)? Make NO sense at all, but thats' the only way I can think about.

[Hofmannism]

I just pressed all that torture stuff because I wanted to see the effects. Also i'm a gore-lover.

[Crabski]

A mystery I've wondered about myself. Only time will tell.

[serotonin]

I suspect this bit of commentary was simply recorded before some content was cut, and Frictional overlooked it.

Perhaps at one point in the development cycle there were other encounter-able NPCs Daniel could choose to aid, and thus would have influenced the loading screen text excerpts regarding Hazel.

Or maybe earlier in development Agrippa was encountered much sooner, and if Daniel created the optional tonic to help him out he'd have ended up having Agrippa's head in his inventory for a longer portion of the game, thus allowing time for the loading text blurbs to mention an event regarding Hazel in which Daniel saves her from something.

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I don't get it. How can we play Daniel as a good person if there is none to care about, except Agrippa? The commentary says "others", plural. Who those others? May be we should skip that even with knife in Choir Entrance and don't touch anything in torture rooms (in Transept/Choir, you can trigger some tools and hear screams, etc)? Make NO sense at all, but thats' the only way I can think about.

Another idea...

Maybe opening all the cell doors in the area before the Chancel level entrance?

As you go around that area for the first time, there are disembodied voices constantly coming from inside the cells. I opened every door looking for items, and once when I opened a door right as a voice was coming from inside it, there was one of those brief "unsettling events" (vision darkened and there was like a blast of air or something from the cell, iirc).

Maybe if you do that it translates in game terms to Daniel trying to let people out? I did that, but I don't recall ever seeing any loading text about Hazel surviving some sort of event (but then again, I wasn't really looking for it).


But, yeah, like your ideas, this seems pretty unlikely, since these aren't really deliberate decisions the player would knowingly make. More likely, the truth is what I suggested before, regarding cut game content.

Only time will tell.

Doubt it.

[Kein]

I did open them all. No effect.

Hmm.... or do you mean - open the doors BEFORE the Shadow kill them? It's impossible, the Shadow is way too fast, you won;t be able to open them all right in time.

[serotonin]

I did open them all. No effect.

Hmm.... or do you mean - open the doors BEFORE the Shadow kill them? It's impossible, the Shadow is way too fast, you won;t be able to open them all right in time.

No, just when the area is first accessible.

[nofsky]

Here are the texts mentioning Hazel.

He fell to the kitchen floor. Tears were beginning to well in his eyes as he received the first kick in his stomach. Hazel remained hidden, in fear she too would be punished.

Hazel spent all summer in bed. He used to read to her after helping father with his work. In his mind he was like Scheherazade, and as long as he kept telling the story she would not die.

When Hazel turned fifteen she had lived three years longer than doctor Tate had foreseen. Her parents had given up from exhaustion and decided to have her committed for permanent treatment at Canterbury Hospice, but she was still alive. She had embraced him and wished him a grand adventure in Algeria.

The last two, it seems, are displayed when you have been captured. Is the first of the two her dying and the last her living? Apparently she had some kind of illness.

[wally]

Edit: Didn't read the post above me. Disregard.

[Crabski]

I suspect this bit of commentary was simply recorded before some content was cut, and Frictional overlooked it.

Perhaps at one point in the development cycle there were other encounter-able NPCs Daniel could choose to aid, and thus would have influenced the loading screen text excerpts regarding Hazel.

Or maybe earlier in development Agrippa was encountered much sooner, and if Daniel created the optional tonic to help him out he'd have ended up having Agrippa's head in his inventory for a longer portion of the game, thus allowing time for the loading text blurbs to mention an event regarding Hazel in which Daniel saves her from something.

I'm pretty sure the commentary was recorded very late in the development (as in, in the past month or so), so I doubt the content it references was cut. Also, according to one of the commentary pieces, Agrippa went from being a very minor character to what he is now in a short period of time, due to changes in the level layouts and design needs. Take that as you may; it might also rule out the last theory there.

As for the second one, it's very possible IMO.

[superluser]

I suspect this bit of commentary was simply recorded before some content was cut, and Frictional overlooked it.

As mentioned above, Commentary was the last thing they did so there was no time to change anything.