In Chapter 13, you're given three choices, which are presented as a balance between the more practical choice that poses the greatest risk to the city/people (Benedict's plan), the most difficult choice that is the safest for the city (Frederica's) and a middle ground (Roland's). Yet no matter what choice you make, the result is the same: massive destruction in the city, and a significant portion of the people are pissed at you. There's no appreciable difference, even though Benedict's choice involved flooding the city while Frederica's was specifically designed to isolate the castle and reduce the damage. You'd think that'd make some difference, at least.
- Military history teaches that plans very rarely survive contact with the enemy. It's easy to imagine that Thalas or Erika ordering scorched earth tactics to be carried out the moment they realize the full scale of the sudden Hyzante/Wolfort attack, certain pockets of Aesfrosti soldiers doing so on their own or resisting especially fiercely, or even something so simple as an out of control fire raging amidst the chaotic fighting. Battles have a tendency to get messy.
Most of the choices the player has to make during the game seem fairly balanced, since you're often choosing between practicality and morality or between allying with two deeply-flawed countries. But one of the options in Chapter 15 seems strange: why in the world does it make sense to return to Wolffort? The other two options (guarding the Roselle from bandits or ferreting out the Royalists' corruption/stopping them from misappropriating supplies) seem far more pressing, particularly since the news out of Wolffort is that Lord Symon is recovering, not getting worse (would make far more sense, at least from a personal standpoint, for Serenoa to want to return home if he had received news that his father was dying. This is a particularly fraught point for the kingdom of Glenbrook, after all, so why does it make any sense for the second-most influential person in the kingdom not to be handling one of the more time-sensitive problems facing the realm? It makes far more sense to send one person (in this case, Benedict) to bring tidings to Symon, while delaying the homecoming until the kingdom is more stable. It makes even less sense for Serenoa to bring his whole retinue sans Frederica and Roland, rather than leave them with the groups that are expecting to engage in combat. What makes this worse is that this feels like the least reasonable decision, but it's the one you have to take to get the Golden Ending. How does that make sense, especially since your presence there doesn't affect anything anyway? Either of the other routes could easily have led to the Golden Ending, while also allowing the player to make a decision that keeps Serenoa focused on his responsibilities to Glenbrook.
- The part about the Golden Ending at least makes sense when you consider that hearing the truth directly from Symon gives Serenoa a stronger motivation towards choosing his own path, as Serenoa muses when trying to plan a way to get Frederica, Roland, and Benedict to work together. It's a bit easier to see in hindsight, but the reasoning is there.
So, the game plays up that salt is a necessary resource for life, that people can't live without... but at the same time, several characters refer to most people only using it to "season food" because they don't know other uses. So... is salt really that essential for life? Or is the game just overdramatizing it?
- Considering all the uses Dragan finds for it, and other day-to-day purposes (like preserving food as well), the characters and narration likely mean that salt is essential for a lot of things that would allow for huge amounts of development if people did know these things. It seems to be equal parts availability and potential, though the game could be clearer on the wording.
- That doesn't really make any sense. All those things Dragan mentions are largely unknown, even to the people in charge of the three nations, so they wouldn't go to war over it for that reason. You don't go to war for something because some lost knowledge might let you theoretically advance, you go to war because you need it. Peasants aren't paying for illegal, low-quality salt because they think it might allow for technological advancement, they'd do it if they physically need it to live.
- And it looks like we do — since I asked this question, I found out from a friend that not having enough salt is indeed a very bad thing for humans
. - If Dragan can name other uses, then they're clearly known, just not by the average peasant who doesn't have access to higher education. Nobles who can afford more salt than they can eat would naturally be more inclined to seek out other uses for it, the poor haven't had any reason to bother at least since the salt-iron war.
- Dragan names them in the context of revealing uses that he had to do research to find and Serenoa and his party are clearly very surprised about it. The wars start because salt is treated as a resource necessary to survive, even by the nobles, not because it might theoretically have novel uses.
- And it looks like we do — since I asked this question, I found out from a friend that not having enough salt is indeed a very bad thing for humans
During the Golden Ending, after defeating Minister Kamsell and demolishing the statue, Frederica’s regiment is surrounded by Minister Tenebris and a fresh force of Hyzantian soldiers in the center of the Source. However, before they can close in on them and the Roselle, word comes of an attack on the north gate by Jerrom and the other free Roselle villagers, which causes enough chaos to allow the regiment to slip away. But how on earth is that supposed to work? Jerrom has a hastily thrown together village militia - they aren’t toting siege weapons, and the Goddess’s Shield is unbroken. Why wouldn’t they just close the gate and let the Roselle outside futilely pound on it while concentrating all their forces on surrounding and annihilating Frederica’s little uprising? Then they could sweep out from the gate and slaughter/enslave Jerrom’s forces with ease.
- It seems to mostly be the element of surprise. Though it probably also helps that Frederica's regiment kills Kamsell during the battle and Tenebris on the way out, which could be causing the Hyzantians to panic and making things easier for Jerrom's group.
