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gimme the GOD DAMN candy
Jul 1, 2007
at least the game has done an excellent job of making you not mind much about which of them died.

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Seraphic Neoman
Jul 19, 2011


Kusanagi did everything wrong lmao.

Blaze Dragon
Aug 28, 2013
LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

Seraphic Neoman posted:

Kusanagi did everything wrong lmao.

I don't think this can be overstated. Learning more about Kusanagi has made him less likable, not more, and he was already a piece of poo poo to begin with.

Now not only do we know he was a terrible husband and constantly talked to his wife like she was a child, but also he got his boss/father-in-law killed and he was genuinely just as incompetent as the wife he constantly insulted.

Seraphic Neoman
Jul 19, 2011


I think I have a lot of sympathy for Ririko because she genuinely tried to grow into her own in the first few chapters but Kusanagi is just

quote:

My body hurts everywhere so I treated you in a nasty way that you didn't deserve. I apologise for that, too. But I didn't want to talk about cancer, because I promised that I will not die before you. And a promise is a promise, right?

Like wow you picked the absolute worst series of options available congratulations.

CremePudding
Oct 30, 2011
I will be very mad if Ririko doesn't do the title drop to Kusanagi's face and walk away :v:

ivantod
Mar 27, 2010

Mahalo, fuckers.

CremePudding posted:

I will be very mad if Ririko doesn't do the title drop to Kusanagi's face and walk away :v:

If you look deep in your heart, I think you will know whether this will happen or not... :v:

On another note, I will definitely get the last couple of updates out much faster because it's just the two possible endings. Also I want to play an actual good game and not be still at this by next year!

Psion
Dec 13, 2002

eVeN I KnOw wHaT CoRnEr gAs iS
ivantod I gotta be real with you, I am so lost with this game, and yet I am so okay with that


this game is just ... beyond words.

TitanG
May 10, 2015

I got completely lost a while ago, nothing makes sense anymore and everyone is stupid
however I'm looking forward at how this is going to end

Blaze Dragon
Aug 28, 2013
LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

TitanG posted:

I got completely lost a while ago, nothing makes sense anymore and everyone is stupid
however I'm looking forward at how this is going to end

Nothing makes sense anymore and everyone is stupid: Anata Wo Yurusanai

ivantod
Mar 27, 2010

Mahalo, fuckers.


Good news everyone! I've decided to put everything that's left in the game into one big final update! So, no more waiting! Let's go!

So last time, Ririko was faced with the following dilemma about what exactly she should be thinking in her head:



Which one should it be, A or B, hmm? As explained, depending on the choice, the identity of the person under the sheet will be different, and we'll be getting one of two different endings that this game has. Yes, the only thing that decides which ending you get is this one choice right here.

Anyway, neither ending is particularly exhilarating, and they are both relatively short(ish), so no reason not to see both of them when we're already here--although the game definitely considers only one of them to be the "true" ending.

So we'll start with the "not-true" ending then, which in our case is B. Clearly, this makes the dead person Kusanagi himself, so let's see how that plays out. The question mark in the dialogue will be that policeman from last time.






What's going on?
...That's my husband.
Looks like they shot at each other from close range. We think that the criminal was also hit. Could you tell me the victim's name?
Kusanagi... Manabu.
Profession?
Detective.

        

The game has kind of given up a bit at this point (or ran out of budget for the illustrator), so the fisherman doesn't have a portrait either! Oh, well.

Oh, that young man? He said he cut himself with a coral. So I took him to Iriomote island.

I am NOT going to post the map again! It's just one of the nearby islands, a few minutes away.

Iriomote?
Yeah, because there's no hospital on this island here.
Ah, could you give me a lift, too?
Sure thing.

    

As you can see, we are barely even bothering with the dialogues either! Anyway, shortly after...

        

Who are you, police?
A detective.
Name?
Kusanagi Ririko.
Ah, right, the woman from that building. So you survived.



You killed my father, right?
Father? Ah, the old man. What was his name...?
Takeuchi. Takeuchi Isao.
Right, that was the name. Haha, but that means... I've killed both your father and your husband, haven't I? I'm pretty bad, right?



But don't worry, you'll be meeting them soon.
How many people are you still going to be killing?
No idea. How many people have I killed so far? No idea. Our sins get forgiven anyway.
What are you talking about.



My father was a priest, right. He prayed to the god every day, in the place of us.
That's a bit convenient. Kill people you don't like, yet your sin is forgiven. You can do whatever you want. Nobody ever taught you discipline.

He fires the gun.

    



Stop talking to me like I'm a child.
Disappointing. To think that my father and Kusanagi were killed by someone like you. Just some brat.

He shoots again.



If you're going to kill me, then kill me.
I'll kill you soon enough. Do you believe in god? Think carefully and answer, you don't want to die, right?

Well, I guess we remember this part from the book...

Unfortunately, I don't believe. And you're supposed to be some kind of a son of a priest, and talking about mercy? Don't make me laugh.
I see, so you've read the book. It's stupid, why would he write a book like that anyway.
You went to see Asakura Tetsuya, didn't you?
Yes, I did. I wanted to be nice enough to show him that his son had become the devil.
You wanted to make him regret, right?
Nah. I wanted to stop the deal between Shun and Tanaka. Shun never listened to me. So I got the evidence and gave it to him.
Asakura Tetsuya?
Right. But he was such a stupid guy. No spine. So he just wrote that absurd book and ran away into hiding as quickly as he could.



He's just a coward. Do you know what he said to me in the church?
I don't know, "go to hell" maybe?
You're funny. I don't actually want to kill you, you know.



Anyway, what did he say to you?
"God bless you." Hahaha, isn't that just hilarious?
Not really.
Well, that's enough of that, let's bring this to a close. Get down on your knees, and pray to god to make your death as painless as possible.
Hey, be careful!



Who are you talking to...?

And then, several gunshots are heard.

        

Ahahahahaha, of course even at the end it has to be somebody else to do the hard work! In any case, all through the game Yuuji has always been a way cooler character than Ririko and it stays like that to the very end!

(Yuuji never stops to amaze me. So that's where the Tokarev from the safe went. But when I asked "Yuuji, why did you hide this from me?", Yuuji didn't answer me and only smiled a little.)



Yeah, we're totally not doing dialogues any more.





And now, a small epilogue...

        

        

        

    

And, so, there's your ending B. It's not super fantastic, but in all honesty, it actually feels more true to this story than the "true" ending according to the game, and I can safely say that I prefer this one.

Ok, now that we've seen the ending that actually makes sense in the context of the story, let's have a look at the ending A, what the game considers the "proper" ending. And, oh boy, this one is actually pretty bad in more ways than one.

So, reloading our save file back to this point in time:




...we'll let Ririko choose option A to think about. This, of course, results in the dead body belonging to Ryou:



What's going on?
That's not my husband.
Looks like they shot at each other from close range. We think the other person was also hit. But wait, could it be that your husband shot him?
It looks that way.
W-what's his name?
Kusanagi Manabu.
Profession?
Detective.
But you are a married couple, why do you have different names?
Oh, sorry, I kept using my maiden name for business reasons. My real name is Kusanagi Ririko.

    

According to the police...
Where did he go? The police is watching the harbour...
Maybe he didn't run away. Don't talk to him like he's some kind of a criminal.
Sorry.
I'm sorry too. I need to think a little. Is it ok if I go on my own for a bit?
Of course.

And so she does. Eventually...





What's up?
I came to say goodbye.
Did you get revenge for your grudge?
Didn't I already tell you? I hold no grudge against anybody. I was just asked to protect you.
Who asked?
......
Right. You're not going to answer. Well, let me try to ask you. Kawabata Yuusuke?
No.
Kawabata Yuumi?
No.
So it's not your mom or dad then? Then, who? God?
Don't be silly.
I'm not being silly.
You're annoying.
Perhaps, was it... the boss?
My promise is now fulfilled. So, farewell.



And with that, she's gone, never to be seen again. As you can see, even the end of the ghost storyline is just as dumb as you might have expected.

In any case, while this is going on, Ririko is found by Yuuji.




Sorry.
I found the person who took Kusanagi-san on a boat! Let's go to the harbour!

And so, we're again there, talking to the faceless fisherman.



I had no idea. He said he cut himself on a coral, but I thought it was a bit weird. It looked really painful. I took him to the Iriomote island.
Iriomote? Is that close to here?
Yeah, it should take about 15 minutes over to the Uehara port.

Yes. The port on Iriomote island is really called Uehara in actual life. Not to be confused by the person named Uehara, of course.

And where's the hospital?
About 10 minutes by taxi from there.
Did you already talk to anybody about this?
No.
Please. He's not a criminal. Can you not talk to the police until the evening?

Uh, sure, but what about if the police comes to talk to him? Should he tell them to come back in the evening?

Fine. I had a feeling something was wrong. He didn't look like a bad person. Let me take you there.
Thank you.

Once again, we travel to the other island...

    

I'm sorry. I gave him first aid, but he escaped when I wasn't looking. It was a gunshot wound, so it was bleeding pretty badly. He shouldn't be moving around.
Have you contacted the police?
No, we wanted to find him first. One of our nurses is looking around the area.

I'm sorry? Say that again? Why would you... oh, whatever, I'm not even going to waste time on this. Also, as you can see, we've definitely ran out of budget for character portraits at this point!

Do you have any idea where he may have gone?
Well, I just treated him. Oh, but he was asking if there is a big river around here.
River? Is there a river?



Yes, the Urauchi river. It's the biggest river in Okinawa prefecture.

I guess all these islands technically fall under Okinawa prefecture. Also it's true about the river, it's pretty reasonably sized river!

Can you do canoeing there?
You can.
Thank you very much.

And so, Ririko goes and finds Kusanagi in a boat on this river. For real.

        



Does it hurt?
Not any more. The painkillers are working.
I read your letter. So I was thinking what I would do in your situation. I guess I would have done the same as you. So you don't need to worry about that any more. It's... okay. Let's go back to living together again?



Yeah, sounds good.
Also, using a boat with the motor like this doesn't count. Once your injury is healed, we're going to the Yukon river. You're not allowed to say you're busy. We're going, even if it's in the middle of the winter.



Haha, you're too much.
If it's too hard for you to talk, you can just listen to me.
Did you deliver the documents?
Don't worry. I gave them to Uehara-san. We shouldn't always talk about work. Let's relax together sometimes. Do you remember when you proposed to me at Sakurabashi? We were in the middle of a stakeout. But I was really happy. I'm not usually this open... but today is different. Am I going to have to be like this every day? You have that look on your face, you know.
About cancer... I didn't know. I know it was hard for you to tell me. But I'm glad you remembered your promise. A promise is a promise. And I'll make sure you keep it. I'm healthy, you know, so I'm going to live to 90. And that means you're in trouble, because you can't die until least to 91.



It's so quiet here... Can you hear it? The birds... It's nice here in the green.
The snow... it's falling.
That's right. It is.
Hey, honey... how do you fish for a pike?



Honey. You'll teach me, right?



Hey.



......

        

And well, there you have it, here's the second ending. This is the one that the game considers the "true" ending. And to be honest, I'm not sure. On one hand, to see the reconciliation between these two is nice in isolation, but it really doesn't follow from anything we've been shown of their relationship over the course of the game. If the writer wanted to make this work, there needed to be more scenes with them, and not to have Kusanagi disappear for 90% of the game. For this reason, I prefer the other ending, as it just fits better with the plot of the game, such as is it is anyway.

In any case, it's time for credits!






Here we also make an interesting discovery:



Somehow, this game was, at least partially, made by Cavia, of all people. Ok then.

Incidentally, if you pick the other ending, you just get a plain "The End" screen, as you saw, no closing credits or anything like that.

Anyhow, we're not done, because there is still a short post-credits epilogue. So, sigh, here goes.

For that, we will visit the Limelight bar one more time!




        

Yes. Thankfully, they've found my father's body, so we were able to hold a memorial service.
And Kusanagi-san?



Unfortunately, he's now with my father.
You must be very lonely now...

How? They barely interacted while he was alive, except to fight.

It helps with everybody around. Oh, but... it really helped me to be able to use this place for a while!
Ah, no, no, don't worry. I wish I could have done more!



That took a bit longer than I expected...
It takes a while to sort through the evidence...



Whose? The brothers'... or their father's?
Both. But, as a person with two sons, I understand a bit their father.
You have sons!
I've never heard about this before either!
Well, I do. Unlike Asakura Tetsuya, I'm not Roman Catholic. I'm married.
Don't tell me... twins?
Regrettably, no. But, hearing about twins, reminds of the story of Lucifer and Michael.
Meaning?



Michael is said to be the archangel. But his brother is Lucifer. Lucifer is said to have been an archangel even higher than his younger brother. But he went against god and became a fallen angel.

I'm not sure how this analogy works when here both brothers are evil...

But, both Asakura brothers were demons.

Yeah, that.

That's right, they were both fallen angels. Asakura Tetsuya abandoned them, didn't he? What should he choose? God? Or his sons?
But wouldn't it have been fine if he loved the woman?
That also comes with the consequences. Human karma is deep, let's just leave it at that.

This conversation made zero sense. It's like after Ririko questioned the metaphor he just kept moving the goalposts and finally handwaved the whole thing. What was even the point of this?



Ah, when I listen to you talk like this, it really touches my heart. I get that nostalgic feeling...
Really? Well, it makes me happy to hear that.
Oh! I almost forgot!
What is it all of a sudden?
What are you talking about?
Yuuji's first book is coming out, it's a picture book.
Congratulations!
It was tough, thanks to Ririko. I had to rewrite quite a lot.
How is it my fault?
Well, just read it. It's a small gift from me.
I will look forward to reading it too!

*    *    *

Some days later...

    

(It would be nice to go to St. Andrew's once. Even just to watch. But some day I want to see with my own eyes the fescue grass golf course that my father longed to play on.)

St. Andrew's, a golf course in Fife, Scotland. Also, the oldest golf course in the world, established in 1552. That's pretty crazy.





And that, my friends, is finally and definitively THE END of this game's story (also, at least we got a nice looking final screenshot)! I'll give more of my opinion on the game in a moment (as if you need more of those), but for now, let's check a couple of odds and ends!

First of all, the game actually shows you the completion percentage! So here, for example you can see...



...that for the first chapter, our completion is 84%. What this means is that you can now go back and replay parts of all chapters to try and get 100% completion in all. This is of course achieved simply by going through all possible dialogue choices and other choices where possible. Why you would want to do that, I have no idea. Also, there isn't really any reward for doing so.

Because all the "reward" you can get, you already get by finishing the "true" ending.

The reward is of somehwat dubious value, and consists of being given the opportunity to actually read Yuuji's book/story. And because we really don't know better by know, yes, of course we're going to do so! Well, it has nice illustrations, at least.

Ok, brace yourselves, because... Here. We. Go! (Gulp.)




BORIS AND YVONNE

Text and illustrations: Kizaki Yuuji




"It's a pickpocket! Catch him!" shouts a portly gentleman with a large gold watch attached to his wait, waving a walking stick. Pepe pulls out the gentleman's wallet and runs down the street at high speed, turning right at the intersection. He exchanges a look with a shoeshine boy, tosses him the wallet, and flees down an alleyway.

Just as the gentleman with the gold watch rounds the corner, out of breath, a strong-looking man named Mackie appears, bumps into him and says: "Hey, watch out!". Mackie hels the gentleman up, but at the same moment, Yvonne, who had been hiding in the shadows, jumps out, pulls the gold watch off its chain and runs in the opposite direction.

"H-hey...!", the gentleman who has now lost both his wallet and his watch sits down on the street, looks up at the sky and shakes his head.



"Well, well...", Mackie was murmuring under his breath, looking over the contents of the walled and the gold watch., "We've been successful. You did well." Pepe is laughing happily, walking behind him. Moko, who is wearing the diguise of a shoeshine boy, is scratching his head awkwardly.

Sorry for the interruption, but I couldn't help but notice that random references to literature and French cinema seem to be continuing here too. "Pepe le moko" is the name of a 1937 French crime film! But the content of the film has no relation to our story here, so not sure what's the point of this. All right, let's continue.



Yvonne also smiles, without even realising. This is her daily life, after all.



Yvonne's father Jean is the leader of a gang of thieves, living in the countryside. He's also like a father to Pepe, Moko and Mackie. They are not related by blood, but they are all like friends and family at the same time. Yvonne and her friends live a big red brick house in the woods on the edge of the town.

It was a big family, Jean equally welcomed orphans, drifters, poets and musicians into the house. "We'll manage with the food. You can stay as long as you like. You can leave whenever you like. But you have to promise me one thing," Jean would always say, while glaring at them, "No blood can be spilled. As long as you keep that promise, we're all family."



Jean's father was a big time gangster. His father and his father's father were all gangsters. For turf, for honour, for revenge... there were many reasons, but the result was always the same: a lot of blood was spilled. Retribution, retribution of retribution... retribution of retribution of retribution, the path of killing would continue.

As a child, Jean's father taught him: "Kill before you are killed.", but at the time he was internally screaming: "I don't want to see the blood! I don't want to be dirtied by blood!"

He stood tall and straight, and his dark eyes showed the strength of his will.



Jean loved Yvonne as if she were his real daughter. "How are you getting on with everyone?", he would ask her every day. "It's good, don't worry," she would always reply.



One day, a young seaman who said his name was Boris, arrives and joins the family.



Everyone is keeping him at an arms length because he is always drinking and wandering around. Except Yvonne.

Boris sets his bottle down on the floor and starts playing the trumpet.

She can't give him a compliment: "You're not very good at this, huh?"

"That's because I'm actually a pianist."

And, so, Yvonne begins talking to Boris.



"Howl, howl!", you can hear the howling of the wolves. But on nights of full moon, a party is always held at the red brick house in the forst. The whole family stays up all night. Yvonne is singing around a fire in the courtyard. She is accompanied on the piano by Boris.

After she finishes a song, Yvonne says to him, "You're not very good at this, huh?"

"That's because I'm actually a poet," he replies, lighting a cigarette.



Another day, in the garden of the brick house, Mackie is teaching Pepe and Moko how to throw knives. He used to work in a circus and was an expert knife thrower. "Put your elbow forward, like this," Pepe and Moko are listening to him enthusiastically. "Strong, short exhale. Come on, try it now." But the two knives end up on the ground.

Now Mackie throws the knife which lands with a bang straight into the centre of the target. Pepe and Moko look at him adoringly. "Don't forget your promise," Jean suddenly says, showing up from behind. "Of course, we're just having a bit of fun," Mackie replies.



In actuality, it was a gangster named Weill who really ran the country town where Yvonne lived. Jean had left Paris becasue he hated violence, but only to end up realising that the countryside had its own kind of violence. In order to keep things peaceful, Jean gives Weill money every month.

But for Weill, the existence of Jean is of no consequence. He wants to make a name for himself in Paris and is looking for a young and strong fellow to take with him. Weill turns to Mackie and asks, "What's the use of playing around in this dirty crib? Why don't you come with me to Paris and make some money?".

And so Mackie takes him up on his offer and leaves the brick house.

Jean tries to stop him, but it's no use. Pepe and Moko, still young and with big dreams in their hearts, also decide to say goodbye.



Every evening, Yvonne and Boris talk a lot. They talk about music, poetry, novels, but above all, about Paris and the Seine. Yvonne is fascinated by Young seaman's stories: she feels that he knows things about her that even she doesn't.

To leave the her country town and live in Paris this becomes her wish too.



"Howl!", the howling of the wolves can be heard in the dark forest.

That night, Yvonne asks Boris, "Where are your parents?"

"Your parents? My parents? Doesn't matter. Maybe they are all in that forest. You can hear the howling, after all."

"Dead humans... do they become wolves?"

"Yes, but not all of them. Only those who lead really desperate lives."



Yvonne is now 15 years old.

"Well, take care, ok?"

Soon after saying that, Boris, the piano playing trumpetist poet (but most of all a drunk), leaves the brick house too. He considers taking her with him, but in the end is not able to say it to her.



During the next six months, Yvonne stays in the brick house, where Boris once lived, lost in her own thoughts.

Then one day, she decides to leave. She wants to see with her own eyes the city of Paris and the Seine that Boris told her so much about. While she's packing her luggage, Jean appears.

"Are you leaving?"

When she sees Jean, she feels a bit of pain in her heart, but her decision is unwavering. Instead of saying anything, she just nods.

"You can come back any time you want. I'll keep a room for you."



Without Yvonne, the brick house seems to have lost its light. Her frends who were all so close to each other have now gone their own separate ways and the living room, the kitchen and the garden are all quiet. Jean is living there on his own.



Yvonne is now living in a small flat on the banks of the Seine. She works in a small cafe; it's a meager life, but she is able to feed herself. For the first six months of her new life, she was walking around the city hoping to see Boris's figure, but slowly... she gives up. Paris is a very big city, after all.



"Yo, Yvonne, long time no see!", a young man with a fancy tie and a hat says loudly.

"Mackie?"

At first she doesn't recognise him, dressed up in fancy clothes, but when she looks closer, she recognises a familiar face.

"It's Mackie no longer."



"Mack the Knife!"

"We're now the big guys around here!", the two of them say.

"Pepe! Moko!"

Both of them are now fancy looking young men.

"Seems like you're having a bit of a hard time," says Mack, "Why don't you come and sing in the cabaret? You can make a lot of money that way with your voice."

Another quick interruption, because we have another random cultural reference here! As you probably already know, Mack the Knife is a character from The Beggars' Opera, later reworked into a play Threepenny Opera by Berthold Brecht in 1920s. The songs for the play were composed by Kurt Weill. So essentially it's all random name-dropping. Ok, let's continue.



Yvonne's voice is like that of a lark. But she is like a delicate flower, completely unsuited to a seedy bar like that.



Yvonne's singing is popular and the cabaret is a great success. The men are lining up with flower bouquets. But Yvonne is uneasy because some of the customers are a bit too insistent.

One day, one of the cabaret regulars says to her: "I'll take care of you. It's a waste for you to sing in a place like this. I'll get you on the radio."

She doesn't really want to be famous, but goes along with it because he speaks in a similar way like Boris did.



The man is a liar. He doesn't get her on the radio. Yvonne is still singing in the bar. Then the second man appears. The the second man disappears. Then the third man appears. The the third man disappears. Yvonne's money goes on paying for their drinks.

Before she realises it, Yvonne is drinking heavily, too.



With Pepe and Moko tagging along, Mack achieves a number of successes for Weill the gangster and asks for a share of the territory in return.

All three of them are masters of Knives. People hide in the shadows when they see them walking on the street.

One day Mack enters the barbershop that he always goes to.

"As usual!", he says, but as he sits down, a black car comes speeding around the corner.

The sound of tires squealing and machine gun fire rings out. He doesn't have time to even get his trusty knife out.



In the black car is Weill the gangster.

"Dangerous buds are better picked early."



Ten years have passed.

Ravaged by alcohol, Yvonne's voice is like that of a wolf. Her skin is rough and she's no longer the delicate flower she used to be. Men don't come to offer her help any more.

But her voice still touches people's hearts.



One day, a well dressed older man comes up to her and gives her his card.

"I'm from the radio station and I was wondering if you would consider doing a show for us?"

Yvonne takes the card with a trembling hand, but then drops it immediately on the floor. Without bothering to pick it up she runs off to her dressing room.



It is a midwinter night, so cold that even the full moon seems to have frozen over. Yvonne on her way home from work as usual, is wandering around with a cheap bottle of gin in her hand.

She sits down on the cobbled pavement and looks up at the moon in the night sky.

"Yvonne."

The voice is so quiet that at first, she thinks she's miseheard it.

She looks around, but there's no one.

"Yvonne."

This time she hears it clearly. It sounds familiar.



She turns around and sees a big wolf staring at her.

"Come on, Yvonne, let's go home."



The two wolves are close together. They take a breath and hurry on. The big clear moon shines in the sky and lights up the pavement.

"Can I run, Boris?"

"You'll do fine, don't worry."



The two run in a hurry and cut through the darkness.



Tonight is the night of the full moon. Many wolves have gathered in the brick house in the forest.

Pepe, Moko, Mackie and, of course, Jean are all waiting.



"Howl, howl!", the voice calling the two comes from the forest far away.

"Hooowl!", Boris howls back.

"You're not very good at this, huh?"

"That's because I'm actually a drunk."



The end.

Whew, that was way longer than expected.

Also, your guess is as good as mine. I have no idea why this thing is even in the game. I mean it's not like it has some kind of connection to the plot or anything. It's just another random thing that this game is full of.

But like I said, I do like the illustrations. Apparently for that there was definitely enough money in the budget. Counting the files on disk, there is, believe it or not, 34 of them.

Anyway, what this also means is that we're well and truly done with this game.

What can one say at the end? Of all the games in this thread, this is probably the only one which I actively hated by the end. I'm not saying it's the worst, that's probably still Batista, objectively. It's more because this game has a ridiculous amount of potential and also really good technical aspects. The graphics are pretty and I love the style. The music is fantastic. But, oh my god the writing.

It kind of starts with a big tease over the first three chapters. I mean the actual mysteries are kind of meh, but there is that promise of a big and interesting overarching story. And then the game decides to put that overall story into focus and things become way way way worse.

Everything is just nonsensical. Nothing adds up. The actions of people are illogical. None of this would even remotely fly in real life. Who in their right mind decided this game is ok to be released with the script in this kind of state? Seriously. Everything is just random, the story events just don't make sense to happen like they do here.

To add to the randomisation, although I've already touched on this, are all the various cultural references to works of art that this game makes. Sure, it's fun to have the characters discuss Raymond Chandler's books for a while. And sure it was fund to figure out what the hell they where even talking about when the two characters started discussing waka poetry and a specific Japanese play from the 1600s. I honestly enjoyed researching that one (and was mildly amused when I looked up a commentated Japanese LP of this game and it turned out that a Japanese person was there also at a total loss and even had trouble with some rare kanji which appear in that segment!). But when I look back, like most things in this game, none of it matters. It's all just random poo poo.

Anyway, I'll say something positive. The writer has a good ear for dialogues, and the way people talk in this game sounds good and natural, even if what they are saying mostly doesn't make sense.

By the way, don't even get me started on the whole ghost nonsense. What even was the point of that? Who the hell knows.

Anyway, now I'm done with this game for real.





    

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

Yuji's story has better writing than the rest of the game combined.

I wonder if the writer is related to some higher up in the dev company and was basically given carte blanche with no editor leash, because the game script has a big first draft feel to it.

Booky
Feb 21, 2013

Chill Bug


its kinda funny that kusanagi dies whatever option u choose

Seraphic Neoman
Jul 19, 2011


Booky posted:

its kinda funny that kusanagi dies whatever option u choose

He had to. They needed him to be a martyr for this story otherwise his treatment of Ririko would look like it was utterly foolish and peak rear end in a top hat. Cause it was.

tomanton
May 22, 2006

beam me up, tomato
yuuji's book is where all the noses went

kirbysuperstar
Nov 11, 2012

Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I possess.
ride or die with yuuji

Taberquol
Jun 16, 2012

Yuuji's story is much more cohesive than the game.

A lot of the characters in this game I like, I wish they had a better game to be in.

I'm not sure why one ending gets a post credit epilogue and the other doesn't, the epilogue doesn't conflict with the other.

Mraagvpeine
Nov 4, 2014

I won this avatar on a technicality this thick.
Thanks for putting up with this game for as long as you have.


EDIT: Holy poo poo, since February 2020?!

Mraagvpeine fucked around with this message at 08:14 on Aug 29, 2021

CremePudding
Oct 30, 2011

Mraagvpeine posted:

Thanks for putting up with this game for as long as you have.


EDIT: Holy poo poo, since February 2020?!

And the thread is all the way from 2015! What a trip.

Too bad the ending is unforgivably bad :v:

Ibblebibble
Nov 12, 2013

Have I been following this thread for 6 years? Jesus

ivantod
Mar 27, 2010

Mahalo, fuckers.

Mraagvpeine posted:

Thanks for putting up with this game for as long as you have.


EDIT: Holy poo poo, since February 2020?!

CremePudding posted:

And the thread is all the way from 2015! What a trip.

Too bad the ending is unforgivably bad :v:

I guess this thread had an average speed of about 1 game/year or so. Though I must admit I slacked of quite badly in the last few updates because the game got so stupid and boring that I found it hard to get motivated to do it. So there we ended up with about one update per month, which is not really an ideal schedule.

So I do want to say thank you to everyone who followed and especially if you stayed until the end because the game sure wasn't giving us any reason to keep going. However, I don't really like to abandon an LP (and never have yet) so I guess my stubborness got me through in the end.

It's hard to believe we've been going here for around 6 years already, that's for sure.

In any case, I don't intend to stop, so I will shortly be starting the next game, Linda3, which we already talked about a bit here. Although that's definitely going to be in a new thread since the game is a bit of a cult classic and I think it makes sense to have its own thread. I will of course keep this thread open until such time so feel free to post whatever in the meantime. :v:

I am also very much looking forward to playing a game which not actually a visual novel! Although it does have a decent amount of text still, it's nowhere even close to the level of games we played in this thread!

Also, if you want a bit of a preview of Linda3, here is the short "prologue" cutscene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fL3rtTSehs

Anyway I will post here when the new LP is ready for those who are interested!

Seraphic Neoman
Jul 19, 2011


Yeah nth-ing Yuuji being the real hero of this shitshow.

gimme the GOD DAMN candy
Jul 1, 2007
she was the least bad character. asuka had potential too, but then she got ririko'd out of the story.

CremePudding
Oct 30, 2011
The game probably would have gone down better if it went all in on irrelevant side cases and focused on Ririko growing along with her staff.

Instead we got a lot of stuff that seemed important but Ririko has no way to meaningfully react to, like this massive criminal conspiracy thing, disappeared dad and deadbeat husband, and a ghost. Meanwhile all the things Ririko could deal with just get pushed out of the picture.

ivantod posted:

I guess this thread had an average speed of about 1 game/year or so. Though I must admit I slacked of quite badly in the last few updates because the game got so stupid and boring that I found it hard to get motivated to do it. So there we ended up with about one update per month, which is not really an ideal schedule.

So I do want to say thank you to everyone who followed and especially if you stayed until the end because the game sure wasn't giving us any reason to keep going. However, I don't really like to abandon an LP (and never have yet) so I guess my stubborness got me through in the end.

It's hard to believe we've been going here for around 6 years already, that's for sure.

All the past stuff was pretty amazing, too. Stuff like the Batista game aren't exactly hidden gems, but they were great fun to see someone go through and is unlikely to surface elsewhere, so thank you! :v:

It might be good to submit all these games to the LP archive, by the way.

CremePudding fucked around with this message at 08:29 on Aug 30, 2021

Geizt
Dec 10, 2014



Man, I can't believe that trash fire of a story is finally over. God, what a garbage ending for a confusing story.

Definitely submit it to the archive though, the rest of the stuff in the thread was good.

Can't wait to see the next lp!

Blaze Dragon
Aug 28, 2013
LOWTAX'S SPINE FUND

I'll third submitting all of this to the LP archive because you've done a lot of work here. I'll also nth the fact that this game was a complete and absolute mess that did not live up at all to its potential.

At least Yuuji's story was pretty good.

Psion
Dec 13, 2002

eVeN I KnOw wHaT CoRnEr gAs iS

CremePudding posted:

It might be good to submit all these games to the LP archive, by the way.

Absolutely, you put in a heck of a lot of work that should get preserved somewhere, the odds of any of us seeing these things without this thread are basically zero

also pretend I made a gangtag for yuuji's yahoos to commemorate the real hero of this story

rejected tag ideas include yuuji's yodelers and yuuji's yuppies

Psion fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Aug 30, 2021

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ivantod
Mar 27, 2010

Mahalo, fuckers.
Hey so I made a thread:

https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3978577

If you are interested in the Linda3 game, come and have a look!

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