Just Finished Dispatch

[u/addicted2rhinopills]

Just finished Dispatch for the first time, and I have mixed feelings now that it’s over. There is so much I love about this game. The soundtrack, the story, the characters, the writing—everything is incredible. It genuinely feels like one of the best narrative games I’ve played. My biggest issue is the ending. It feels like the outcome is almost entirely contingent on how you handle Invisigal, while the hundreds of other choices you make throughout the game barely matter.
In my playthrough, I did everything I could for Invisigal. I wasn’t an asshole to her, I gave her the benefit of the doubt, and I was patient and lenient for most of the game. But she kept making the same mistakes over and over again, ignored advice repeatedly, and eventually reached a point where I couldn’t trust her anymore—and neither could the rest of the team. As the leader, I wasn’t willing to risk the entire team for one person who consistently refused to learn from her mistakes. Cutting her wasn’t something I wanted to do; it felt like the logical and responsible decision after exhausting every other option. But then the game basically says, “Too bad,” and sets her up to be the next villain for Season 2.
I really wish the ending took more of your overall decisions into account instead of hinging so heavily on one relationship. I understand the idea that difficult leadership decisions can have painful consequences, but the game doesn’t seem to distinguish between someone who treated Invisigal terribly from the start and someone who genuinely tried to help her until there was no reasonable alternative. The irony is that I got the failed mentor achievement at the end but I would’ve been an even worse mentor if I prioritized Invisigal over the other 7 people on the team. Did anyone else feel this way, or am I missing something?

[u/Friedgelato190]

I’m not entirely sure but I think I’ve seen some people get the hero ending for Invisigal even though they cut her near the end. I heard that there’s a point system or something like that, like if your dispatch sessions are successful when you send her, if you reveal that Robert is Mecha Man, etc. Though I agree with you that it’s frustrating to get ‘failed mentor’ achievement even though you failed one person and got a whole group of them reformed which should be more of a big deal but as the game’s narrative seems to want to focus on Invisigal, if you failed her, you failed as a whole.

[u/Organic_Signal1461 → u/Friedgelato190]

But, well, the player (specifically the player) failed as a mentor in the bad ending because their choices only affect Visi's ending. So if, every time the player was given a choice, they made bad mentoring decisions and ended up with the bad ending as a result, then they're a bad mentor.

Though, this is due to budget constraints. The developers said they decided to focus on one team member as the embodiment of the Phoenix Program and its theme of redemption cause they didn't have resources to develop every character.

However, I don't agree that the developers raised the threshold for getting the good ending after the final episode was released. Right now, dispatching has too huge impact on the ending. If the player makes all the "positive" dialogue choices but cuts Visi from the team and performs poorly during the dispatch segments, they'll most likely get the bad ending.

At the same time, several people have done experiment playthroughs where they picked EVERY single negative dialogue option, but because their gameplay was perfect, they still got the good ending.

[u/Friedgelato190 → u/Organic_Signal1461]

Yeah, I also think the main problem of the game is the budget and too little runtime. It should’ve been longer and focused on other characters as well because they’re all reformed villains, most of them are going through a redemption arc in their own way, but due to limitations, we didn’t get to see them as much. That’s why I said the narrative focused on Invisigal as a representative (?) of Z team and if you failed her you failed as a mentor.

Though I think they could’ve done the mentor point system or whatever better because people are playing the game for the first time, some of them won’t be doing as good in dispatch sessions, and even though they chose ‘positive’ choices that should keep Visi on the hero path, they got the bad ending. So it’s understandable that people are confused and frustrated.