#welp it's expected. be happy for the reapers anyway!!! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

emmys-grimoire · 3 years

Text

Season 2 review

It is done!

I’ll preface this review with the obvious but nevertheless important: these are my opinions. I am fine with others criticizing my opinions, mind you, but I’m usually disinclined to changing them. Like most opinionated people.

And as with most things covered in this blog, spoilers ahead. Don’t read it if you don’t like ‘em.

The Good

I believe the devs did the side characters justice in terms of character development, which is impressive because they have to fixate on seven other characters for most of the story (the demon brothers are the draw, afterall). It’s a little frustrating because it shows they are capable of revealing a lot about a character in just a single conversation, but they spend a great deal of their time on fluff. It is nothing unsurprising given the aim of the game as a whole (romantic fantasy/escapism), but it does detract from… well, everything else. If you don’t care about everything else, this doesn’t matter. If you’re one of the few who do, like me, you’re in for a drought before you get to the next juicy story morsel. Alas, that is the price we pay.

But, this is ‘the Good’ section of the review, so I will focus on that. Diavolo, Luke, Simeon, and Solomon get fleshed out more than they did in the previous season as promised, and their growing closeness to MC doesn’t feel hamfisted; there’s little realistic hooks strewn throughout that makes the relationships grow organically compared to, say, the newt syrup arc.

At the end of the season MC is set to become Solomon’s new apprentice, they are now instrumental in Diavolo’s plan for realm-wide peace instead of just being a particularly charming exchange student, Simeon is more interested in learning more about MC due to MC’s meddling during the retreat and their performance in his play, and Luke finally can bring himself to admit that he actually enjoys being in the Devildom. Michael is being alluded to more and more and finally drops in to say hi, even though the game stops short of explicitly revealing that it is him. It all feels like a good transition into more romantic things with them in the next season, and I look forward to exploring more hidden depths.

I am relieved they steered away from additional time travel due to its potential to confuse everyone and everything. We need to learn what the deal is with Barbatos but I’m sure it can be done without meddling with the time continuum. The introduction of the Reaper has interesting worldbuilding implications: the souls of all beings are overseen by what appears to be an unaligned third party, though prior lore implies that the departed souls still return to their respective realms (Lilith allegedly forgot how to ascend to the Celestial Realm in her desire to watch over her siblings). But, like with Michael, they avoided actually showing him by having him take a vacation right before Solomon and the brothers arrive.

On the whole, I’m happy with the season’s ending. It’s probably as good as it can get, and sets up the next season well -- assuming there is one (I think there will be).

The Bad

It’s hard to frame this because there were never any explicit promises made but wow was the build-up wasted and the climax went down dry.

Diavolo’s wishy-washiness and reluctance to tell Lucifer about how MC’s presence was slowly tearing the Devildom asunder, his growing jealousy and his doubt in the strength of Lucifer’s loyalty, the foreshadowing in Simeon’s play, Barbatos warning Lucifer that one day he may need to choose between Diavolo and MC/his family and how he was reverting back to his angelic self, the very foreboding storm that was brewing outside, how Lucifer was certain “something bad” was about to happen… all that juicy potential rendered impotent because of the Ring of Light and amnesia.

It didn’t lead to a tortured, difficult choice Lucifer had to make that had the potential to put either his relationships or the realms in jeopardy -- and it really felt like it was headed in that direction. But it couldn’t really lead there because Lucifer lost his memories, and he was just re-familiarizing himself with all those relationships. Instead we had to choose whether or not we let Lucifer martyr himself, and of course he’s willing to do that because he loves us even if his memories aren’t fully intact, and it’s heavily implied that he’s his angel-like self again. The choices we made during the play don’t really come into fruition, and the Ring of Light helps make our choice ultimately irrelevant anyway.

It felt like they winded up for the pitch and then lost their nerve.

Though I’d argue that Lucifer would ultimately be okay with sacrificing himself for MC and the realms even if he was still his full-fledged, assholish demon self… but it definitely felt like fate was going to make him choose between his loyalty and his love. You know, the whole “love is the death of duty”/”duty is the death of love” shebang. It would have been more rewarding -- they can even let the Ring of Light ultimately fix everything and I’d be happy if it was that dilemma! But this isn’t Game of Thrones, so I can’t be too disappointed that my expectations weren’t met.

If you like Lucifer and Mammon fluff, this season gives it in spades. If neither of those two are your favorite you might have been bummed out. They give Asmo an arc but he ultimately concludes he was trying too hard to be like Lucifer which left me all ?????? How? Satan tutors you, but he doesn’t really deviate from what he usually does (though his minor tiff with Simeon when he’s physically affectionate with us was amusing). The devs did suggest they want to explore Satan’s origins more thoroughly in the future in one of the newsletters, and I think we’re due for that in the next season. There’s hope for the others yet... just not much in this season.

The Future?

I think there’s a high probability that we’ll get a season 3. Nothing about season 2’s ending felt like they were wrapping things up. The season as a whole felt like a transition.

I think we’ll get more romantic scenes with our “undateables” and they won’t officially be considered “undateables” any more. We’ll probably get more cards with them. I’m not sure if they’ll fully graduate into dance battle sprites because that’ll require more creative color assignments for glow sticks, but I wouldn’t entirely discount the possibility. There are many shades in the rainbow.

I think worldbuilding necessitates more exploration of the Celestial Realm, and an eventual conclusion to the game storyline requires officially mending relations between the angels and demons and healing the wounds incurred by both the wars of the distant past and the Great Celestial War (which was essentially a civil war). Such a thing requires an honest dialogue between the two factions for it to ring sincere, not just a continuation of the exchange program. The game doesn’t hesitate in stating how violent all of it was.

To that end, I think we’re going to at least get a full-fledged Michael eventually, though I understand the reluctance to add him due to the work that will follow in adding another handsome man fans will undoubtedly want to make blush and kiss. They may leave him a disembodied voice for as long as they possibly can, but at some point fans will start complaining at the teasing. It’ll be like continually having to skip a missing step on a ladder.

Until then, though, he’s a missing step that’s fun to conceptualize.

You won’t get routes. The setting is ideal for a harem: all the potential love interests loved each other before MC ever entered the picture, so they will eventually accept having to share them, jealousy be damned. I’m pretty sure they’re all aware of MC’s affection towards each of them already: it’s just a matter of contention of which among them MC prefers the most. If MC wants to pursue only one of the brothers, it is up to them to do just that -- in the confines of the presented story.

Conclusion

There were some good story bits to chew on here and there, but as a whole the writing fell flatter than season 1’s writing, in spite of the predictability in the latter. The general unpredictability of this season has made things more exciting than the conclusion we eventually arrived at; it’s hard to commend it when it just doesn’t lead to something intriguing.

Welp, at least we get time to level up our cards for the next season. I only have three URs so it was pretty rough.

I’ll probably do more analysis and essays in the interim, as I work through hard mode and think more about stuff. It’s been fun, in spite of my critique.

#obey me!#obey me #obey me spoilers #obey me season 2 #obey me season 2 review #review

25 notes · View notes

mistytpednaem · 4 years

Text

okay, so i’ve finished the great ace attorney! some overall spoiler-free thoughts before i move on to case-by-case remarks:

it waaaaas a good experience overall, but unless i’m mistaken, this game has the weirdest, if not actually the worst pacing out of the entire series? like, i was warned about plot threads not reaching a conclusion since this game was made with a sequel in mind from the get-go; that’s not what i’m talking about. i’m talking about redundancies in the writing and just... bold decisions in how long certain parts of certain cases go on for, i suppose you could say?

still, as long as you’re prepared for that and are ok with it, it’s still absolutely a worthwhile experience. i mean i love ace attorney so of course i’d say that but still. this game has a really strong cast and i can’t wait for the sequel to get a thorough fan translation as well, so great job and thanks to studio scarlet (EDIT: wait no. it’s scarlet study) for helping people enjoy this game!

OKAY. more specific and spoilery observations under the cut:

case 1: I’m gonna be honest I played a lot of the early bits of this game in bed right before going to sleep so my judgement may not be the best because i was only half-conscious at times w-whoops. this one’s a fine intro case, even if it starts to run a bit long towards the end. great intro to our anxiety boy, hosonaga did not disappoint. obviously, now that i’ve played the game, i can no longer say he was the first de killer... ... he’s just OBVIOUSLY shelly’s actual blood ancestor. like, hello?? the gumption? the dedication to his job??? please do not die of tuberculosis, hosonaga. also asougi’s hair is dumb but his theme is really good and oh no he shares his VA with bruno bucciarati oh no

case 2: i cannot in good conscience dislike this case, which is honestly kind of impressive considering it’s All Investigation. :V but maaaan, it really started dragging towards the end. :( the climax just felt... drawn out and unsatisfying, unfortunately, and i feel like that’s a symptom of this game’s format being so different from all the rest - there’s a much larger focus on telling a long, overarching story. and that’s not necessarily wrong, and i appreciate them trying out something new, but... if it’s not broke... i’m honestly surprised by how much i liked sherlock, haha. i mean susato is also great but i was just not expecting to be so amused by holmes?? what a great take on the character. also the Deduction bits may not be particularly challenging - and, yes, suffer a bit from the game’s overall weird pacing - but honestly i love them. love holmes being a ham, love naruhodou joining him

case 3: this fucking case shook me to my core. i happened to examine the omnibus close to the end of the first part of the trial, and then close to the start of the second part, which meant the details were still fresh on my mind AND the alarm signs started going way the fuck off in my head from early on. it’s a fun play on the old ace attorney gambit of “oh no our defendant looks shady but surely he must be good” - it adds the conclusion of “oh FUCK NO oh my GOD eat the RICH.” i’m still sad barok’s name wasn’t ultimately romanized as baroque, but alas, that doesn’t detract from my big awful crush on him. i may or may not still blush when i think of him stretching his leggy out and i’m glad his rampant xenophobia seems to be something that might get character development’d out. ALSO the new juror thing is fun too! i really like all (... or most) of the new mechanics in this game. shame most of the jurors don’t get names, though, especially since so many of them are so much fun - capcom ripped off my oc and didn’t even give him a proper name?? no dignity OH YEAH SPEAKING OF ROMANIZED NAMES: i still think HURT VORTEX is superior but i’ll take hart vortex too

case 4: welp, there’s usually ONE downer in these games and this one’s mine. i’m not even saying it’s objectively bad, but between the fat jokes and the spousal abuse jokes, by the time the truth was becoming clear, i’d reached 2-3 levels of “NO SHUT UP THIS IS STUPID”. shame, because I actually quite like the garridebs’ character designs, and souseki is great fun - you all know i’m a fan of taking real dudes and having fun with them in fiction. it... didn’t help that i got very drowsy during chunks of the whole thing ultimately, i think one of my favourite parts of this case was one that wasn’t connected to the case itself, and that’s not great praise, haha :V;; (”what’s the big deal with the grim reaper anyway we won that trial just fine” “yeah but is megundal alive” “wh-” “IS HE ALIVE, BOY”) ALSO another symptom of the weird, bbbbbold pacing and writing decisions in this game: this one... shakespearean dude who just showed up for two minutes and then fucked off for the rest of the game?? hello?? sir???? what????? WAIT DOUBLE ALSO was this the case where barok just flung his bottle behind his back for the first time because the first time i saw that animation i had to stop and laugh for a second and i love it when these games do that to me

case 5: this case is extremely good because a) the pacing is super fucked (it takes like an hour for a crime to even happen and it gets up to INVESTIGATION 4 before the trial starts, jesus) and i still had fun and b) chekov’s cat flap gun is objectively dumb and i don’t even mind. it bothers me way less than Knife Drop actually so. disclaimer. i’ve thought “egg benedict” was incredibly handsome from the moment i first saw a screenshot of him, so obviously i’m biased, but to no surprise he’s my favourite culprit in this game w-whoops. the ones i wasn’t expecting to ALSO love were the tinpillars, holy shit, what a power trio. i was in fact a little disappointed that rupert (... robert? i’ve seen a couple of different romanizations of his name) was not the long lost third tinpillar brother, but then the credits had them pose together and i felt so much joy in my heart (also, extremely unusual for the true culprit of a case to be in the credits, but i’ll take it??? especially for the GROUP POSING i seriously can’t overstate how happy i was)

anyway, these thoughts are a little disjointed, i know, but i always have a little trouble getting my shit together when i’m talking about a game like this, haha ;v; feel free to ask me stuff or just casually hit me up if you wanna chat, though!

“wait, naem! you said you liked ALMOST all of the mechanics in this game! what’s the exception?”

........ well

it’s not so much a matter of not LIKING it, i just

i cannot, for the life of me, get magic eye pictures to work

yes i know how to cross my eyes. yes i have read how to do it multiple times. at this point i’m convinced my eyes are just fucked in some particular way that doesn’t let me Get It

i will never, ever know the unabated joy that case 5′s juror 3 experienced...........

#dgs spoilers //#dai gyakuten saiban spoilers //#wait i need a tag for this game uhhh #the olde age of the law #there

5 notes · View notes

abakura · 5 years

Text

Welp, im back to tumblr not afraid of avengers spoilers. That was a long week xD.

Anyways, spoilers ahead , Infinity War was way better than End game. It was a super fun movie, but not epic. The best final battle lasted like.. 15 minutes, super quick for such a huge fight. Infinity was shorter but balanced the screentime between so many characters in such a great way. Endgame had way to much time for the same main 6 characters we already seen so much before, plus nebula en rocket for the sake of the plot, and Carol was like not even in the movie.

Many things didnt made sence because it wasnt logical even en de mcu context. I knew it had to be some type of dimension travel and was excited to see how they were gonna use the stones to pull it off. But nope, it was a simple time traveling thanks to science and Tony's brain and for some reason the antman power bottles, because of course we were previously taught that. If they were gonna make so many weird stuff in the past and not care about any paradoxes, why not use magic or something elae that doesn't need explaining? We have sorcerers and infinity stones that dont give a crap about reality! And all the stealing the stones and putting them back together later was nonsence but ok we roll with it because thats the plan. We dont care about Present Nebula killing her past self, or Loki just runing away with the Teseract for the sake of the future series and nobody even worried about that, or how they traveled not only time but space, reapering in any part of the universe??

Also, i think the comic relief in Infinity was well used and balanced, but for me Endgame was a Comedy with action for the most part, so i had some trouble with the tone and pacing. Mostly with Tony's death, i was still so excited about the whole fight and action and happy with everyone back, that when peter and pepper were saying goodbye i did feel sad, but not like in tears. I heard everyone was dying in tears, but i was also satisfied of how tony saved the world, i tought that that was a good end for his character (also expected and not that schocking tbh).

Also a huge downer for me is the lack of actual Thanos. I saw him like a God after Infinity, then boom he nothing and he dead, hella fast and easy. Now other Thanos from the past sees an oportunity and takes it. Sucks for everyone but for him is like "oh cool, convenient mostly because i didnt do crap". For me they didnt battle the real Thanos, but a cheap younger one that hasnt use one stone yet. Also, now that i think about it, nebula just gave him a lil bottle of formula so he could travel (because of course its one per person as used before?) So how the heck did he time traveled all his army out of thin air?

Another thing, i didnt feel like it was that much at stake, if they didnt succed the plans they would keep living like they have been for the past 5 years, no biggie. It was just a way to try to fix it but not the end of the world a second time. They shoulda made more important the returning the stones on time so their reality wouldnt break or something like that. They only knew about the new Thanos threat till the very end.

Also also, how did everybody in the universe came just in time and to the exact place the halp to the war. The entry was super epic but also conveniently well timed vs the Thanos army, how did everyone organized such thing?

Triple lil also, Thor fighting with mjolnier and the storm breaker at the same time was super cool, but he looking like a fat hippie made way less epic im sorry xD.

And dunno if its only me but, how old was supposed to be steve to still be alive in 2024? If he lived with Carter i think thats way to long ago.

But we have Groot back and Rocket tried to body shield him so thats 10/10

#me #movie review #avengers #spoilers #endgame #more like a huge rant of my opinion #sorry but i loved infinity #i couldny say a single thing i didnt like about aht movie #endgame otherwise gave me many buts and wtf moments #and i dondt like muc carol xd #such an unlikeable character #aba review #review

1 note · View note