Fahrenheit (2005 video game)/Headscratchers

• After Lucas commits the murder, he has the presence of mind to mop up a small puddle of blood on the floor, assuming you play it that way. That's fine. However, it seems he doesn't think to do anything about the HUGE SMEAR OF BLOOD that clearly indicates that someone's dead body has been dragged into one of the toilet cubicles. So what was the point?
  • Maybe he needed to at least do something to make himself feel better? Gameplay-wise cleaning the blood restores his Sanity Meter a little, so that must be the whole point.
    • Sure, but that still doesn't explain why he only mops up a tiny amount of the blood, rather than all of it. One would think that'd reduce his stress even further, because it would then take much more time for the body to be discovered, making him less of a suspect. I suppose one could argue that he's panicked and he isn't thinking clearly, but when it's supposed to be up to you to decide how clearly he's thinking, that doesn't really work.
• Why, in a game called Fahrenheit, do the captions all give temperatures in Centigrade?
  • Probably because Quantic Dream and writer/director David Cage are French. However in North America it was released as Indigo Prophecy, so there's less confusion factor there. I'm guessing here, but they probably picked that name for the European release because of how it sounds (Fahrenheit sounds nicer to the ears, at least imo), or to avoid association with some other work named Celsius(?).
    • I'm not sure if you did it on purpose or not (I'm going to look silly if you did) but god damn if you didn't manage to get that completely backwards. The game was originally released as "Fahrenheit", and got changed to "Indigo Prophecy" to avoid association with the movie Fahrenheit 9/11.
    • I admit nothing! My subconscious was to blame! Gollum Made Me Do It! ... Yeah, it's been a while since I read about the name change, and I must have confused the details pretty badly. ^_^;
• What the hell happened to the last third of the script? No, really, I'm curious. It's said to have been Executive Meddling, but does anybody really know for sure?
  • I can't remember sources at this point (the last time I read this was years ago) but apparently it was largely due to cut content, rather than the script. They had an idea for this grand evolving plot which would slowly reveal each of the clans, building on the revelations. Tiffany would be around for longer, so her death hurt more, and then Lucas and Carla would spend a lot longer together. Apparently the cuts were so severe that what we call the first two acts were supposed only be one act, ending about when the reveal of supernatural powers comes, then the second act would spend just as long revealing the secret societies etc, then finally the third act would come after Tiffany's death and involce Lucas and Carla falling in love and saving the Indigo Child. In effect, the game should have been at least twice as long, but Executive Meddlers decided that it was too long and convuluted, and also too expensive, so they cut the Second and Third acts together and made it all one big mess.
• Okay, he dies and comes back as a walking corpse for some reason. That's fine, let's leave it at that. But then comes the part where he and the woman cop whose been chasing him for murder decide out of nowhere that they are in love and then go have a little sexy time. Did I mention he's a freaking corpse? I'm no biology expert but it's stated many times that he doesn't breathe and he's ice cold which seems to indicate he doesn't have a working bloodflow going on. How the heck does he even get it working? And on top of that, the woman becomes pregnant!
  • Chroma Did It.
• The mechanic of limiting the extent of the game's dialogues bothers me, especially how much it was advertised beforehand. The idea itself is sound, but the problem comes from how it is implemented in practice: The character you are controlling just suddenly decides, "okay, that's enough talk". I could understand if the conversations ended due to the other person becoming suspicious, tired or annoyed of all the questioning. This is especially glaring when two of the three playable characters are police officers on a murder investigation, which gives them both good reason AND the authority to question people as long as they damn well please.
• I was always annoyed by the fact that, early in the game, when Tyler is sent looking for information on The Tempest, he's sent to some generic old bookshop. Surely there's got to be some place in the vast city of New York where you can find more specialized information on Shakespeare?
  • Probably, but an antique bookstore is still the best place to learn about 19th century printings of said Shakespeare.
• While on the subject of the book, why didn't anybody find the clues it contained before the trip to the bookstore? If they'd simply opened it the bookmark would have fallen out, and the handwriting didn't need an eagle eye to spot. The book had already been dusted for prints, didn't the forensic examiner think to have a look inside?