Hey guys,
This post is about the stat behavior in the 2015 version of Until Dawn. The original game certainly had a problem with unhighlighted stat changes. The game usually indicates one or two stats after you make choices, showing you what changed. These stats are obvious; the trait lights up and the bar clearly moves.
But then, in the original game, you also got some slight shifts of the other, non-glowing stats. This happened nearly every time.
These patterns are so clear and so pervasive, I think it's pretty indisputable that unhighlighted stat changes aren’t meant to be giving you valid information about the characters. Now full disclosure, I didn’t look at every stat in the entire game, but I looked at a ton and this trend is consistent for everything I checked.
THIS IS THE STAT PATTERN IN THE ORIGINAL GAME
While I did find some slight exceptions which I have a heading for, the majority of stat changes follow this pattern. Again, I looked at MANY MANY stats and nearly all but the ones in my exception section (which actually do this as well but with a caveat) did this:
- If the indicated stat goes up, all other stats but Curious go down almost imperceptivity.
- Curious will eventually go down, but this will not be shown happening. It will just be there by next stat change.
- If the indicated stat goes down, all other stats but Curious go up almost imperceptivity.
- Curious will eventually go up, but this will not be shown happening. It will just be there by next stat change.
- If two stats rise, the drop happens moew, making the non-highlighted shifts clearer.
- If two stats drop, the raise happens more, making the non-highlighted shifts clearer.
- If one stat goes up and the other goes down, then nothing else moves.
EXAMPLE ONE: IMPACT OF TINY SHIFTS UP AND DOWN
Here is Sam's first choice is about whether to snoop or close Chris's bag for him. I chose to close Chris’s bag which is an increased stat (Honest). Here, because of where the line is, you can see barely visible drops in everything but Curious and Honest.
Honest up, everything else but Curious (for now) is opposite.
Sam’s very next stat-related choice is about if her tone towards Chris and Ashley will be mocking or flattering. I chose flattering which is another increase, this time in Romantic. (NOTE: I noticed Curious is now level with the other stats that barely dropped, meaning it also dropped, just off-screen)
Because I increased Romantic and Honest, that meant Funny, Brave, and Charitable all went down slightly twice. After two choices, the stat behavior is more obvious, and it doesn’t make sense. Why would respecting Chris’s privacy then flattering him and Ashley make her less charitable>
Then, I took Sam in the opposite direction.
I avoided stat changing decisions until I told Josh that he was also scared of the noise. This drops Sam’s bravery. NOTE: Curious is again level with the other stats from last choice.
I then had Josh go with Sam to explore the noise which has Sam’s bravery go down again. Likewise, this very slightly increases the non highlighted stats of honesty, funny, romance, and charitable. If I show you her stats again, all those seemingly unrelated stats are raised back towards the line. Curious is now reflected as being part of this.
This is the opposite from the first example. Sam's Brave drops so all other stats but Curious rise (and you can tell Curious has been lowering off screen for my pervious stat raises. Next choice, I saw it had risen based on this one).
So that’s what most choices look like. To me, the stats almost seem like they’re accommodating the highlighted ones by shifting to make up some of the difference. I can’t actually say why they’re doing it, but that’s how they behave.
EXAMPLE TWO: DOUBLE STAT ONE DIRECTION
I also tested this on double stat changes and the effect made sense.
One example is Mike being heroic and jumping to help Jessica. This increases two stats: Romantic and Bravery. Each stat that normally would go down almost imperceptivity gets dropped double and the change is far more noticeable. (The Curious thing happened with his stats off screen as well.)
Seeing this, I made the guess that if a choice raises one stat and lowers the other, that the remaining stats would balance out. And I was right.
EXAMPLE THREE: STATS BALANCING
Just one example of many: if Matt threatens Mike, it increases his Romantic but drops his Charity. Because of this, Funny, Brave, and Honesty get a raise and a hit, so none of them move.
SO ADDRESSING ASHLEY
So let’s go to the topic at hand.
When Ashley shows remorse for the prank, she's obviously getting a Charitable boost. So what happens? Everything but Curious takes that teeny stat hit.
Like the earlier Sam examples, all unhighlighted stats move oppositely from the highlighted one.
It’s not just her Honest dropping, everything but Charitable which rose and Curiosity (which stays in place unless that's the highlighted stat) drops.
I think the issues was that someone once checked Ashley's stat page after showing remorse, and her lowering Honest stat caught that person's eye. But there are two issues:
- Romantic, Funny, and Brave are also lowering. You can't even see the others if you focus on one.
- If you rarely look at stat shifts OR don't know what you're looking for, you can't see that this same thing impacts everyone.
The hilarious thing is that basically every time Charitable goes up, Honest will go down (unless it's a double boost with honesty or another stat was lowered). This is true of EVERY character.
In fact, I even checked it with Chris. He gets a Charitable bump if he asks how Matt is doing. You can see here that what happened to Ash's stats happened to his stats when he said something charitable. You can also see his other stats are also lowered equally from when I was Charitable to Josh at the door:
Identical to Ashley's stat change. If Charitable goes up, ALL other stats but Curious go down.
EXCEPTIONS
Here are a few odd exceptions I found.
Mike shooting Emily.
His stats do somewhat follow the pattern but also not. I'll explain. If I check Mike's stats right after shooting Emily, all of them are highlighted and move. Oddly, only his relationship with Chris moves. However, if I leave his stat page then go back in, the stats for Ash and Sam will be low. I also think it's interesting to note that Curious is on a slight delay, as that is the one that changes off screen for unhighlighted stats..
In the remake, he only gets drops in Brave and Charity. This makes a bit more sense I think. There's not good logic for like why his romance would go up after shooting Emily.
Now here's the thing. This is an exception because everything IS highlighted. However, the stats DO behave in line with the bug. If you take the remake's version to be what the stats SHOULD do (two going up) then the others all dropping are in line with that. The remake is, across the board, keeping stats that make sense and removing those that go in the opposite direction. I do want to point out that this case is less obviously part of the bug because of there's a red bar for honest (despite it not lowering more than everything else) and everything highlighted though.
Another odd thing is that, I tried waiting a bit longer to check Mike's stats, and it showed honest as the only highlighted stat.
Ashley at the projector.
I tried to make Ashley sorry here to see what happens. And these choices stat behaved a bit against pattern.
If I make Ashley unrepentant, she gets a lot of highlighted stats. Her Romantic and Charity dip and her Honest, Funny, and Brave rise. This is the same as Mike shooting Emily. It does in fact behave in line with the bug, but it's different because everything IS highlighted. The remake kept the Charity and Romantic dips which makes sense, and it removed everything else going in the opposite direction, employing a "fix" that follows the trend of what they did to the unhighlighted choices.
I saw two different things if I made her apologize:
I saw one version where her Charitable went up and everything else slightly went down without highlights, the typical stat behavior in the og. But I also saw another version where her Charitable went up and her Brave went down unhighlighted for some reason. Like with the Mike thing, it changed based on when I checked the stat.
Mike in the guest cabin.
This one is the same. Every stat gets highlighted. However, the stats still behave in line with the bug, and BM's version acts like what they did for the clearly unhighlighted stats. Charitable and Romantic go up, everything goes down). The remake only keeps the Charitable and Romantic stats and removes everything that went in the other direction.
While everything is highlighted, this still works in line with the bug. The reasonable traits (Romantic and Charity) rise while all others drop. Interestingly, Curious is delayed, and that's the one that shifts off screen. This same thing happens if he kills Em.
(Note: When Mike tells Jess she's hot and carries herself well, it's completely in line with the bug. Charitable and Romantic up, everything else down.
My guess: I think that if the stat change is dramatic, it might end up highlighting everything. For example, in the guest cabin, Charitable gets a very large boost. If Mike shoots Emily, Charitable gets a very low drop. At the projector, Ash's Romantic gets a large drop. Then all these choices also get a stat boost for another stat, making everything else move far more than the typical.
CONCLUSION
I mostly did this for the wiki footnote on the page tracking remake stats. Thanks u/zakplayk and Abstruse for doing so much for that page. I just wanted to add more to it by showing actual comparisons. This was really interesting because it gives the picture that the stats are trying to balance themselves out in the original game? Again, doesn't happen in the remake. What the remake did was move everything that move opposite the intended stats.