Redryhno said:
FirstNameLastName said:
Well, I personally did play the game, and quite enjoyed it, but I actually kind of disagree with the idea that you need to experience the "player agency" of making the decisions yourself. Thing is, the decisions them-self, while nice, aren't exactly all that complicated. It's no Witcher 3 or Mass Effect in that department; you don't have the consider complex moral and political context to base your judgements off. It's pretty much, do you you want to kill every single monster bar none, or do you want to go through the game handing out free hugs? Anything more than a hair to either side of these extremes and you get the neutral ending.
If you paid even the slightest bit of attention to the fanbase, development, marketing, or even just the in game dialogue, you'll figure out immediately that you're supposed to go through the game without killing anyone. So you'll basically find yourself picking all the black and white nice options just to get the good ending, then picking all the evil options when you inevitably do the genocide run.
Another thing, I found the constant references to anime to be rather cringe-worthy by the end. I get that it fits into characterisation, but after a while it started to feel less like a valid character element and more like an excuse for all involved to reference stuff they like.
Now, I do like the game, so take that into consideration before getting mad at me for "hating" on it. I just think it's rather unhealthy and obnoxious to never criticise things you like.
Honestly that's alot of my thoughts as well. I certainly don't think it's a bad game. It's got annoyances like the bullet hell and the damn screen loading times taking longer than alot of the fights that I really wish weren't a part of it because it was largely a hardware limitation making it like that back in the day, no excuse today, largely the same rason Bloodborne was hated on release. But when people are praising it for having an INCREDIBLY binary system they've complained about in other RPGs, you really have to wonder sometimes if people pay enough attention to their complaints to carry them to the next conversation with any amount of consistency.
And the quirkiness is neat, it jumps headfirst into it and rolls around in its own quirky filth, but some of the jokes sorta took a page out of Monty Python and didn't read that while the funny, not funny, funny again method can work, you have to stop before it becomes downright stupid to continue going back and forth eventually.
I actually liked the bullet-hell aspect, which is strange, because I've never had any interest in actual bullet-hell games. Maybe it was the fact that it was an easily accessible bullet-hell lite that I enjoyed about it.
One aspect I don't really like about the fanbase is the way so many seem to think this is the new Spec-Ops, holding a mirror up to other RPGs where you kill lots of monsters. I'm not sure of exactly how much of this is intentional, and how much is just people's perceptions of the game, but there do seem to be a large number of people who believe that solving all conflicts without violence isn't just revolutionary, but is somehow a profound statement about other in game enemies and the way we deal with them.
Here's the thing, as nice as the in game world is, and as interesting as the story is, the scenarios in which you are able to simply complement or pet your way out of every conflict are completely contrived and in no way reflect reality. There are already plenty of games that involve stealthing your way out of conflict, and plenty that depict unnecessary violence as despicable, but all these comedic solutions really can't work outside of the setting or tone. It's all well and good to show absolute mercy towards a world of cute, anthropomorphic animals that seem to have near human levels of intelligence, but I don't see why anyone should expect others to show mercy towards more typical RPG enemies.
Real world conflicts are far too complicated for any simplistic pacifist morality, and as horrible as it might sound, sometimes violence is necessary. Yes, despite what you've been told all your life, violence does indeed solve problems in certain cases. Sorry to invoke Godwin's law here, but I would have loved to see an alternate history in which the allied soldiers locked hands, sang songs, and attempted to complement their way to victory against the Nazi's. I'm sure the Nazi's, with their guns, tanks and planes, wouldn't stand a chance against all those kind words.
By all means, create more games with more interesting gameplay elements than repetitive combat, and create more stories that don't just paint any and all opposition as monsters deserving of death, but if you expect me to spam mercy at every skeleton, zombie and demon that crosses my path, then guess again. Most skeletons don't serve you spaghetti and witty puns.
Now, I'm not saying that the game is bad for such morals; it was a pretty emotional story. But I am rather sick of the fans who seem to think this game is some great and profound thesis on morality, conflict and violence.
