Hi Redshrike!
Orlinn is probably the most hated character in VT.

Redshrike {l Wrote}:Note: it is most certainly *not* fine. I got stuck on it as well, and had to watch the video. I generally do NOT expect random NPCs to start acting differently after a quest is given without any hint of their involvement. And I CERTAINLY do not expect a previously inaccessible area to become accessible for no reason other than mere convenience for the flow of a quest. That's just not right.
I found the quest frustrating, but that's quite normal for jRPGs to do to me so I probably am not the target audience. Are you a player of many games with similar style and mechanics and find they don't have comparably frustrating quests?
Having played a few jRPGs, I learned that when you don't know what to do, you have to start talking to every person. As soon as you talk to Orlinn, he obviously reveals his involvement and that you have to catch/find him. The issue that you have is that there is no lead that he might be involved and that you have to find the right NPC to talk to by trial and error? If yes, do you have a suggestion, how to easily add a hint to the current structure of the quest, that Orlinn might be a person to ask? One simple thing might be just having Georges say "Talk to the other villagers, perhaps they have seen my pen." at the end of his "find my pen" speech.
I didn't realize there was a "suddenly accessible region" after start of the quest. The cliff is not accessible before the quest?
The first time I played, it threw me off that Orlinn's first hiding spot wasn't the region to which he ran away but one region (level transition) further. I was very sure that he would be one transition away, simply because I expected the first quest to be straightforward. When I finally found him in the next area, I was scared by the prospect of the quest being very hard. I expect a multi-stage quest to become harder with each step, so I assumed #2 and #3 would be even harder to find and might be placed even further away. Especially with the north west area being accessible, the space of possible hiding spots is quite large and the variance of "hiding between objects" and "hiding on a cliff" makes it even more complex. All this is quite harsh for a first quest. I think the last hiding spot is the easiest to find and the second one is the hardest (because you don't expect him to not hide behind something, so you're focused on things you can reach and look behind and it's a surprise that Orlinn is out in the open (at least visible) instead).
VT devs: Is the intention of the quest to make the player feel clueless and kind of helpless/tired by having to check for all the nooks and crannies in the game world that is accessible? Or is the quest actually not supposed to stress the patience of the player?
Simply because it's the first quest, I would suggest making this quest easy and having a similar but harder one later in the game, referencing the first hide and seek quest (for example by having hiding spots that have the same nature: building, cliff, tree).
One idea how the quest could be made easier and reward attentive (reading) players: The kid could reveal the nature of his next hiding spot by shouting "But you'll never find me hiding behind the buildings!", "You'll never find me hiding on top of the cliffs!" and "You'll never find me hiding behind the trees!" or "You'll never find me hiding behind the..."/"Hey, why am I telling you my hiding spots?!" - The explanation for the hint-giving would be that he is excited and the adrenaline rush makes him speak what he thinks without realizing it.
PS: I think it's acceptable to tolerate imperfect quests/battles, as long as they are not broken, rather than constantly improving them. A complete game with issues has more value than a perfectly balanced but incomplete game. Minimizing tweaking time spent by the core developer team and instead have community members make specific suggestions for tweaking might be a compromise.
PPS: I noticed that "hide and seek" and "hide n seek" are used inconsistently, at least for variable names, for that quest.
PPPS: Georges reminds me of
Cacofonix, another "village's artist" that nobody wants to practice their art.

Sorry for probably being repetitive and blabbing too much in this post. I'm currently fighting a fever.
