>>712614946
i know, but i've already been thinking about this and it still amazes me just how much of a clusterfuck chapter 3's development cycle ended up being:
>toby had most of ch3 figured out by late 2022 and heavily teased it in the sweepstakes
>a lot of those teases (the fun gang outfits, the shadowguys, 8-bit lancer, the weather couple, susie blinking, etc.) were the same in the final game
>despite this, all of the 2023 newsletters were spent reminding us how long ch3 was taking to finish
>toby announced content cuts twice (like the infamous cowboy show), which was really odd
>a full tenna board was removed late in development just to improve pacing
>susiezilla was reduced to a throwaway minigame
>the tv world itself feels unfinished, and there's no hometown section to make up for it
>lanino and elnina don't get a segment and are instead shackled to rouxls for some reason
>the bonus spamton scene feels like a direct response to his popularity, as if toby wasn't sure what to do with him
>this was intentional, but toriel and undyne doing nothing felt like a cop-out
>ramb being a red herring was also deliberate, but he still came off as underutilized
>there's no "real" snowgrave route or secret boss like ch2 (although i think the knight + sword route were good replacements)
>there are a few setpiece rooms (room_dw_teevie_stealth, room_dw_teevie_maze) that were entirely thrown out
>this is a stretch, but the mike room might imply that toby had to overhaul certain plot points mid-development
>even though the switch 2 was heavily delayed, it doesn't feel like the extra development time made ch3 more cohesive
>this was also the first chapter made by toby's full troon team, and it seems like they slacked off until hiring a producer
the fact that it mostly turned out well is a miracle, but if ch4 didn't come out alongside it then we would've all seethed for a week straight. imagine thinking that ch2 would take the longest time to be finished, fucking lmao