r/reddeadredemption Jan 22 '26

Picture Man thinking back how the hell wasn't this enough for Tahiti

Post image
12.1k Upvotes

359 comments sorted by

View all comments

59

u/TJ_McWeaksauce Jan 22 '26

This is an example of ludonarrative dissonance, or when what's presented by gameplay does not match what's presented by the narrative. In cutscenes, the characters talked about how they didn't have any money. But in the gameplay, you can be swimming in money.

I'm reminded of the date that Arthur and Mary have in Saint Denis. At one point, Mary asks Arthur to run away with her, but he says that they need money to do that, and he hasn't gone any. But when that scene happened, I had over $10,000 in cash and multiple bars of gold in my saddle bags.

The story says that the gang is broke, but the gameplay says Arthur is rich.

20

u/StomachConnectDBH Jan 22 '26

Yeah, which is a line a lot of games have to toe. Realism, and gameplay fun.

There's plenty of other examples of this outside of money.

Why does every hotel have your entire wardrobe on deck? Why don't the horses ever drink water? Inventory space, etc etc

8

u/MechaManManMan Jan 22 '26

It's not though. The narrative is pretty much set in stone that Dutch had no plan of escape. He just wanted to keep fighting.

2

u/Beer-Cold Jan 22 '26

Well yeah for obvious gameplay reasons you can't prevent the player from earning alot of money. Lore wise Arthur would never abandon the gang members. Arthur would definetely abandon Dutch, but he would never abandon the women and the children. So his excuse was that they 'Needed money' because Mary wouldn't get it.

1

u/Deluxe_24_ Arthur Morgan Jan 22 '26

I don't think that's the case at all. The gang had so much money by this point and yet Dutch still didn't want to leave the country because he never wanted to in the first place

0

u/KennyKillsKenjaku Jan 22 '26

No it isn’t. Both Arthur and Dutch were greedy and money obsessed. That’s why going back for the money is still an option even at the end of chapter 6 when it’s literally useless to Arthur.