I hit major stride this weekend and figured out Remnant’s Stats, part of what drives the player’s actions, and part of the game’s core concept: The pangs you obsess over drive you, the passion inside ignites you, the light you radiate enshrines you, and the stain in your heart devours you.
The range of emotion the player can express, and how capable they are at chasing their obsessions, reaching out to others, and staying afloat in the sea of their depressions are linked. If you need the passion to succeed you can stoke the fire inside to increase the odds in your favor, but that fire isn’t going out on its own. You have to talk yourself down, have someone reach out to you, or let the color that empowers you go and watch your dreams drift further out of reach.
I’ve got further to go on this, but the direction feels thematically appropriate.