This review contains spoilers
Very good game, had a lot more fun with it than the original! The music slaps, the graphics are really good (although sometimes too good and clutter the screen), the campaigns are longer but don't feel padded out, and the story is really interesting. Every single NPC design feels like it could be someone's fursona, which is absolutely a good thing and made me want to talk to all of them to get as much lore as I could. I've only completed Lilac's campaign and true ending so far, but I plan on completing all of them eventually.
I only have a couple of nitpicks with the gameplay itself, like the screen clutter mentioned before and some weird acceleration physics as Lilac. Most of my complaints are with how the story was resolved.
I think the way the racism plot was handled was pretty alright! They've exaggerated the earth dragon books and logs and NPC dialogue enough so that it's very clear that they're being racist, and they had a lot of cool metaphors like how the water dragons' forced homogenization mirrors what happened to indigenous people in real life. But then they just... "kill" (not technically but practically) Merga and have racism be fixed by... admitting it happened and becoming a democracy? Sure Merga was an extremist, but... come on, it kind of feels like a cop out to have the oppressed person die so you don't have to listen to their opinion when fixing the system. And hey, even if the Magister's shitty measures do end up raising awareness of the oppression suffered by the water dragons... they're all dead. Lilac is there, and Merga is maybe alive, but... that's it. What does that accomplish? I was hoping they'd go back to where Lilac's egg was found and find a bunch more or something, or have water dragon halfbreeds come forward or become visible or anything, but no. The gesture is ultimately empty.
Though I am not a person of color nor connected or knowledgeable in the Philippines' culture or history (which this game seems to draw heavily on, with some general Asian influences too), so I don't really have much weight in this discussion. I'm just frustrated that this sort of cop out is the most popular way to resolve racism plots nowadays.
Game's good though! I had a lot to say about that negative but game's really good. They have Sonic and Amy in it.
I only have a couple of nitpicks with the gameplay itself, like the screen clutter mentioned before and some weird acceleration physics as Lilac. Most of my complaints are with how the story was resolved.
I think the way the racism plot was handled was pretty alright! They've exaggerated the earth dragon books and logs and NPC dialogue enough so that it's very clear that they're being racist, and they had a lot of cool metaphors like how the water dragons' forced homogenization mirrors what happened to indigenous people in real life. But then they just... "kill" (not technically but practically) Merga and have racism be fixed by... admitting it happened and becoming a democracy? Sure Merga was an extremist, but... come on, it kind of feels like a cop out to have the oppressed person die so you don't have to listen to their opinion when fixing the system. And hey, even if the Magister's shitty measures do end up raising awareness of the oppression suffered by the water dragons... they're all dead. Lilac is there, and Merga is maybe alive, but... that's it. What does that accomplish? I was hoping they'd go back to where Lilac's egg was found and find a bunch more or something, or have water dragon halfbreeds come forward or become visible or anything, but no. The gesture is ultimately empty.
Though I am not a person of color nor connected or knowledgeable in the Philippines' culture or history (which this game seems to draw heavily on, with some general Asian influences too), so I don't really have much weight in this discussion. I'm just frustrated that this sort of cop out is the most popular way to resolve racism plots nowadays.
Game's good though! I had a lot to say about that negative but game's really good. They have Sonic and Amy in it.