“You're still happy now. Changing your lies to suit the listener, and getting by on slipping through the cracks. Building layer upon layer of convenient stories until nothing means anything to you anymore. You're happy all the time, because you don't even notice you're doing it. Think hard. Who are you really? You're not a victim, and you're not the silent majority. You're a perpetrator. And a petty hypocrite. The real world doesn't make you suffer. It's the other way around!”

You most likely have already heard just how much of a technical marvel this game is and yeah, that indeed is the case and many would probably agree that the gameplay is treated quite fairly at least when compared to the games of its time. Now where the game is not being treated fairly, I think, is its story-telling and even if I do not mind players not caring about narratives in video games, I will still try to appreciate it here, since I consider MGSV’s plot to be at least as good as the rest of the series and quite frankly I do not have much else to talk about.

That being said, this will be a mini-review and I won’t really be talking about a wide variety of things that can be discussed about it and won’t really bring many examples.

I think people mostly not click with Phantom Pain because it connects to the entire series in an overly subtle manner but otherwise has very grounded and small scale conflict and its not as expressive as the rest and also it requires from the player to take it into account that its moreso a prologue (you could overthinking as it coming back to the very first Metal Gear game to form an ouroboros from various angles) to the rest of the series and thus they should not be expecting a cathartic ending - which is also highlighted by how it fundamentally mirrors Sons of Liberty - but the way its using the entire series for its own good is what makes it the best

How well do MGS2 and MGSV contrast one another is already elaborated here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hV4wY2rjAWY and to put it shortly, we have two cases of identity crisis being born by the influences of the Snakes and how the reaction (or lack of thereof) by these people (re)shapes the MGS world. A spontaneous descent into ‘evil’. Many might have been disappointed by how said promised descent was not really directly focused in long-winded sequences and instead we have not even played as Big Boss as he was absent for the whole game, but that is exactly what makes it more natural and plausible to me. We did not have to witness the change in Big Boss, we only needed one big reality check to realize that he has always been one, come make the point sounds. As a result, we get a room to sense the noticeable (unless you are Venom) change in Big Boss after the events of Ground Zeroes as the ‘ideological clash’ - of what kind of a person everyone (by the most closest one, The Medic) thought Naked Snake was in the romanticized lenses and what kind of a person he actually turned out - is born between his current self and his present self, or rather what Venom (We) understood of him in Snake Eater and Peace Walker. Vices come from short-sightedness, after all…

... the 'evil' of Big Boss being, of course, doing the very thing that was done to The Boss to his comrade, essentially becomin whatever he sought to fight against...

… in 1984 Metal Gear universe is full of aimless proxy wars and impending apocalypse of information.

Everything is a lie to establish another lie.
Everything is a trap to establish another trap.
Everything is a gambit to establish another gambit.

And then we have ten thousand peoploids split into small tribes, the Diamond Dogs - on the surface, a group seeking to appease their loss and establish a place gathering people regardless of their age, ethnicity and gender (diamonds are a girl’s best friend, and a dog is a man’s) all while letting them learn to use their skills for good and leave whenever they please, as well as building separate territory to the ones not indulging in warmongership and educating them in civil manner.
Beneath the surface, we have good old manipulators, accomplices, puppets, rapists, war-criminals, victims, perpetrators, traitors, torturers and whatnot, all keeping the 'Outer Heaven' grounded to the existing reality.

Contrary to the RPG nerds' beliefs, MGSV's pseudo open-world is doing exactly what it should be doing - we are not getting a talking simulator full of lousily connected (if at all) side-quests detracting from the main plot, but the aspect exists with the sole reason to immerse as in the freedom of espionage. It may feel bland, sure, but it is 'an official' war-zone between people with a thick language barrier, all that is left to them is to kill and manipulate and be killed and manipulated. Not to mention how emptying the environment (to safety) is also a part of their job and that's a refreshing thing about Phantom Pain's world, it is not about what quests you are taking and what is the extra context that characters are telling you about their lives, but what you yourself are doing and how are you doing it (the world having to adapt to your legendary status) every bit of task and mechanic further drives that point, with no unnecessary content to be found.

All in all, we get a game completely focused on (in)direct progression of its mechanics and narrative. Although, side-ops would have benefited if the locations had missions with different contexts instead of repeating the same thing over and over again, especially when, say, you are supposed to rescue someone in a certain location, they will always be at one fixed location. And if I mention another issue I have with the game, it is the boss battles - Now unlike others, I do not think we got the small amount of boss and battles with them, in fact there is a very good amount of fights and part of them are simply more than just fights-to-death like in other MGS games, showing clear maturity, but that very maturity and realism gets a bit too much when these boss fights are not getting their own 'stage' of sort, to give them their own unique flamboyance to them, as the boss fights get influenced too much by the game being open-world to the point that they feel like engaging in average MMORPG type action with them and there really is not much to do against them, they come off as very easy, be it you getting free missile launchers, airplane help or just blatantly run away from them easily without you being affected in any negative form because it does not even affect your mission rank.

The game would also massively benefit from more indoor sequences/set-pieces and whatnot. Prologue showcased a fantastic example of what could have been achieved, but unfortunately it is never repeated.

What I appreciate a lot in MGSV is that it is up to the players to decide whether story content gets in their way or not. Or we can just get the minimal amount of information or just dig in the cassettes and interpret various things in various ways. We can take the name of the series as an example. Hell, we can take one letter from the name as an example - V - and take connections such as… it is not a proper number because the game is some sort of a spin-off… it being two lines mirroring one another… it represents peace or victory… or maybe it is Vendetta... or it could also be used by the villain to give a hint with double meaning as to where the bomb is located…

… there is a mission in MSGV where Venom Snake is being bit by venomous snake so funny and full of meaning he biting himself and generally Snakes and clones all die by other snakes' hands… and this is basically how MGSV manages to be a free resident of my mind, you can connect to one another as much as you like.

Sure there are a lot of questionable plot development and connections to the lore established in the previous installments… for example, how the final mission with Skull Face starts, our veteran Venom Snake almost announcing to Skull Face that he was indeed approaching him for the kill, in the open field, which seems very weird at first, but then we can look at the mask of the Third Child (who is in fact Psycho Mantis, but never gets named for exactly the lore reasons) and it becomes clear that he was manipulating Venom through his bloodlust, given the visible horn on him, the detail that keeps changing according to who the child is manipulating at the moment. So yeah, slowly and surely, thinking about such satisfying details and making sense out of the game is exactly what makes it age so well for me.

Basically, you could even skip all of these cutscenes and just play the missions, indulging in the mechanics as you please, the story won’t get in your way, aside from explaining some mechanics here and there. What’s more, gameplay itself plays a vital part in the development of at least one narrative point. You can see Automata’s Ending E being praised by anyone and anything and it is quite easy to do so, given how blatant and shoved down your throat it is (not to say that I do not like the ending), but barely anyone appreciates MGSV doing the same thing with its nuclear disarmament, but in much more subtle manner.

I know, I know… having to listen to cassettes is the gravest sin towards writing and all… but on one hand they are not really necessary and on the other hand, video games are not advanced enough (if they will ever be) to hold such high standards for them in this very medium, so I really do not see the reason to be so unforgivable and harsh towards MGSV.

Of course, there are other interesting mechanics… one of the memorable ones being how the soldiers you recruit learn to speak more and more languages, which then gets directly revealed as a theme, language’s power, that which was very well elaborated in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8EJyHh2xfM

"Your favorite song... Nicola, Bart — immigrants, wrongly executed... But their deaths served as a message to others: that ours is a society that murders the innocent. Do you, too, believe that your sacrifice will change the world?"

(says the guy who basically proudly delivered everything catastrophic that was about to happen in the MGS-verse before he himself - or should I say, got turned into a phantom pain to the world? Alright, sorry for the lame joke… and he is as much of a shadow to Big Boss as much Venom Snake is… foreshadowing, foreshadowing…)

what I love about Phantom Pain, aside of its relatable language power theme that serves as clear message in comparison to pure emotions that other series are trying to convey via vague resolutions that are not really saying anything, is that even if characters are doing questionable things in a harsh world, it's not a 'necessary evil' propaganda, but Venom Snake's squad is constantly improvising and questioning the missions they are provided to complete. Were they vaguely asked to kill and it turns out they were asked to kill children? They just record fake video and if it works it works, if it does not work then they won't care about the mission and when they take children back, they don't turn them into soldiers, but make separate space for them to get educated. it starts as a seemingly random band but it grows and shapes as an interesting system in itself

And then all of it crumbles… the final nail being put by Big Boss himself… making Venom realize that the point of no return has been crossed by not only himself, but his present environment too, and it's too late for him to fight for his own good, so he should do it for the next generation.

Well I love the whole cast - even Ocelot, who is seemingly ‘not himself’, but actually cleverly plays with the expectations once again and Huey who I find as a fantastic subversion to the expectations built by his son (in addition to the proofless and self-(un)aware bickering between Huey, Ocelot and Miller that makes the matter unreadable and unpredictable through the various possible outcomes) - but I will solely focus on Venom here. The shadow of Big Boss that still remained as the expendable shadow even after literally turning himself into the Big Boss himself. Or on meta level, us, the players, towards whom the Venom is looking as we break the mirror and there remains nothing to reflect on.

The way he was given the most freedom and agency out of the protagonists and at the same time he was the least person you would call 'free', the way he can bond with the system he built and various individuals and commit atrocities towards enemies and his own people alike, all with their own consequences and having psychological issues of his own on top of that, while also make poor choices both in how he judges people and how convincing he is - in just a single game - makes me appreciate him on quite a high level, as it is an achievement that none of the protagonists have achieved (and Sutherland nails it the way I do not see Hayter being able to do, for this particular character)

I also liked how it does not really feel like the game is making a 'twist' out of his identity and it is only a fault of main character's identity crisis/twisted perception and maybe player not giving much attention to A LOT of details telling you that he is not the real Snake (heard people already knew he was not Big Boss, from the original trailer alone... with very simple and natural details like what they are smoking and etc). But then again, all of the Snakes and 'clones' in general are very close, so I don't really care about their ranking. He kinda lacks catharsis and is probably the most brooding of them all in how silent he is, that downplays him a bit, but at least he is not pushing people away like you would expect from such an archetype and its also done with its own interesting purpose (as he is supposed to be the self-insert, in comparison to Raiden who was supposed to have his own life and it could not have been suppressed in favor of Snake's role machinations)

Venom might be ‘mute’, but he still an individual, making his own choices that can go against his surroundings, not being influenced by them, as seen in his judgment of releasing Huey and most definitely not using nuclear weapons in action, but just as a symbol, to completely negate Naked Snake in him. He is, of course, also capable of going with reasonable suggestions and change his mind, as seen by him changing his mind about the kids once Miller affirmed his stance to treat them well and put them outside the warfare. And, of course, he could be forced to commit things he does not want to commit or not commit just for the satisfaction’s sake, which can be seen in Skull Face’s final moments, Miller forcing his hand… and Miller himself is the one who respect Venom for not indulging in vengeance as his character progresses. After all, he has always been a medic and the role he is forced into is the complete anti-thesis to him.

See, everyone but Venom Snake desires revenge in the game. One might think that expressing the desire to vengeance is what would define someone and thus Venom Snake does not really have personality, but one thing is clear, that very specific desire is made universal in the game and not admitting to it can only be defined as the trait.

I love how Venom has memory problems and only retains romanticized view of Big Boss and then is trying to uphold it, thinking it's him and he feels more and more comfortable in it but at the same time feels guilty and pessimistic about his previous identity, self-unaware as he can’t even recollect in objective manner the most crucial event in his life, the one he feels guilty about. That he was unable to locate the bomb and got Paz killed. Or so he thinks, to not shift the blame to someone else, like Eli, but to himself. It was his fault. He should have been better… and that’s the transformation that occurs to Venom, he embraced his fate to weaponize in favor of the Boss’ wish.

Everything comes and culminates together in the final scene in front of the mirror. In the mirror. Which is in itself mirroring. It's his 'phantom self’ looking at what he has become on the one hand and despising, but another (something that is presented as ‘reflection’ to us, as the Phantom is reflecting on his life) probably is his gradual change looking at his 'phantom' self at every change and despising himself even more on top of that, as it is drifting further and further away.

I don’t feel like I have unpacked all of the scene myself, so bear with my rambling.

As the game starts by the view going into the tape and ends out of the tape too, the whole game is indeed what Venom was reflecting into.

That scene does not take place in one fixed time, but throughout the whole ‘Venom’s Life’ (you have heard of the life flashing in eyes before one is about to die). Blue color is about it happening in his gaslighted mind (the whole room is in blue and it is moreso when he is playing the second recording and we heard the noises, likely placed by Ocelot, who was also brainwashing even his own self), red is being influenced by emotions of vengeance (of the real Big Boss, that does not belong him so it is on the outside and not being accepted as part of Venom identity, he does not care about vengeance throughout the whole MGSV, but about himself. That is, up until the MGSV ends and MG1 starts) and then breaking the mirror (his face neither red nor blue, but moreso green/yellow, color of peace) seeing the general picture, sorta absorbing the blood, coming clean AND then starting uprising at Outer Heaven on his own from thereon to ruin the reputation of 'Big Boss' (lashing out, as that was the sole purpose that Big Boss reduced his life to) and maybe sacrifice himself to Solid Snake, to do with Solid what the Boss did to Big Boss and just like Skull Face leaving his phantom pain, he would leave one through Solid Snake... while OG Big Boss was doing MG1 plot to catch two birds by sending Solid Snake for them to kill Venom or/and die trying and freely continue the rest of his goals in Zanzibar.

Also, Venom is colorblind, so he mixes red and blue (as we see at the start of the game, blue bloodbath in the hospital) and that might symbolize his unawareness and confusion in the grand scheme of things as well. Red and Blue is also basically a subversion of Red Oni and Blue Oni tale that I need to research a bit, but the game was called Project Ogre initially (ogre = oni), the intent is present. Also how Ocelot is dressed yellow-ish, while having red scarf on the surface (probably symbolising how he does not really care about the revenge and is just there to help out OG Big Boss), to contrast Miller who is dressed yellow-ish on the surface but beneath its all red (and not forgiving OG Big Boss for what he did in MGSV, because revenge is important to him. Of course there were many other examples in the game (such as Huey’s judgment - between red and yellow) as the color symbolism is quite prevalent there.

Venom smiling after hearing how he too is a Big Boss would basically be something like 'you are telling me this now, huh' and then shifting the expression immediately, making his mind up about ruining Big Boss because his whole existence in basically Big Boss reputation at this point and by looking at the mirror, its him realizing what exactly going on and negating the attempts of brainwash and then breaking the mirror on his own, embracing what he is right now and making it unable for himself to reflect on himself ever again and stepping into the mist, being wiped not only from the history but from his mind as well (foil to Skull Face - who ironically dresses and acts as over-the-top American ideal chad while taking revenge on America... and like Venom, he understood the Boss' will (or lack of thereof) too... but when SF satisfied his personal desires despite failing at his goals, Venom achieved his goals, all of it to go in an exact opposite way as he would have wished) and that would at least give meaning to his and his fallen comrades forgotten lives, who would all have been already lost as the sacrifices to Big Boss’ grander plan.

There never was neither ‘You’ nor your idea of Big Boss. Nor did anyone have any proof of consent to do something so horrible, to rob someone of his life, to Venom Snake. That very idea of Big Boss has fled away in the mist with us. Venom Snake never needed the title of Big Boss to exist, but it is all to late now, no matter what he will try to do about it - he is Big Boss and will always be one, he sees himself as Big Boss and will always see himself as one, everyone sees him as Big Boss and will always view him as such, he has commited sins and there is neither redemption nor heaven awaiting for him, but at least there is future for Solid Snake, but for that he has to embrace embrace what he was made into.

As one of the tapes goes: “It is just a dream. It is all a dream. I am in it, and you are in it too. I am the dreamer, but you are having my dream. Do you get it now? You do, don’t you? Peace Day never came … Our wishes do not come true. We just cling on to our dreams, our phantoms. Mine and yours.”

Naturally, there is room for the head-canon in this interpretation (considering we only had revealed the connection between Venom Snake and the final boss of MG1, but not the answers as to how it all could have happened) and they all would be connected to Miller purposely going to Solid Snake and training him for this exact plot development, as he wishes ever since it was revealed to him as to what Big Boss did (likely after he was rescued by Big Boss at the start of the game - which would explain why would he be opposing Ocelot’s (towards which we were naturally catering) decisions throughout the game… it has always been interesting as to why would he be presented as someone so bickering despite how everything he was advocating for was in the framework of rational decision-making, so we had a nice ‘little’ pay-off to that)

Implications towards this can be found once achieving the unachievable, getting rid of every single nuclear in the online gameplay of MGSV and we get Venom talking to ‘the phantom that the Boss has left behind’: “I haven’t forgotten what you told me Boss. We have no tomorrow, but there is still hope for the future. In our struggle to survive the present, we push the future further away. Will I see it in my lifetime? Probably not. Which means there is no time to waste. Some day the world will no longer need us, no need for the gun or the hand to pull the trigger. I have to drag out this demon inside me and build a better future. That’s what I…heh…what we will leave as our legacy. Another mission, right Boss?”

As well as Miller’s reaction to Big Boss’ doings: “No…Big Boss can go to hell. I’ll make the phantom and his sons stronger, to send him there. For that… I’ll keep playing my role.” - Venom is about to become the weapon that would attack the very thing he was meant to protect. He might not get any achievements of his own, no celebration whatsoever and not even leave behind small bits of himself in any shape or form as he will be nullified from history, but at least he will indirectly destroy Big Boss’ whole being. And the better future might come through Solid Snake guiding Raiden, what could and should have been the relationship between Big Boss and The Medic.

TLOU is painfully mediocre. Except for Ellie, everything else in it is too aimless, too simple, too cynical, has no replay value whatsoever and writing is too weak to care about it. The most of the game feels like a filler and it does not even have fun set-pieces with its cinema-wannabe presentation. Strange to see how people craving towards full freedom in video games make such an exception for this game.

I had the highest amount of technical issues while playing this game than any other one - plot-important doors not opening, FPS being very unstable, walking animation being nullified and characters starting to move in T poses, textures not loading to the point of me just standing in the void and so on and so forth - but I would not say it was anything significant, as I got used to FPS and the bugs disappear from the game moment you reload from the last checkpoint

The Last of Us is immersive but merely on a micro level, with very small details that people usually do not really care about while playing games, aside of companionship with Ellie that feels very natural and there is a lot of effort put to flesh out their dynamic... and generally facial expressions and body language is good to capitalize on it further. Although conversations themselves in general are good in how they flow, as the game does not over-explain itself and establishes the kind of relationship several characters may have with one another, as well as making some neat wordplay (such as Ellie asking Joel about the gunfire and him answer 'cicadas', meaning both the group of people and how short-lived the actual cicadas by nature are).

Meanwhile, literally everything else is very lacking - such as, only having three type of monsters or fighting against fodders (who also have attempts to be humanized, but they all feel like one character anyway... hell the moment you arrive to your brother, you start seeing girls and generally more individuality in the camp, but every enemy (bar one girl in the ending) is the same face maniac guy) in cover shooters and that makes it super repetitive. In the whole game, you really only get caught by fodders in some small ares and trying to deal with them by killing or running away/stealth (You basically either repeat some simple stealth stuff or just run around to not get hit...). At least, these things have weight behind them, with heavy gunfire, close-range weapons that can be used only once most of the time, scarce ammo, how deadly the enemies are despite their small numbers and how destructive the playable characters are instead of being un-diagnosed schizophreniacs.

I did not particularly care about the opposing A.I. and they were coming off goofy whenever they tried to come at me bare handed in the middle of two-sided gunfire, even when I had more than Ellie as an ally. A.I. for the companions are good (or, at least, convincing enough for me), though and they do not really do anything that breaks the immersion despite them performing things that usually warrant flow-breaking cutscenes even in many other PS3 games and is generally convincing and entertaining, even if most of the things they do are predetermined and they even are invisible amidst the stealth, I still like it because of how puzzles would not work for a lonely brooding character, communication in the fights, delivery of some items and them being visible in stealth scenes would make the game way too insufferable.

That said, the game not having co-op option only switching POV with Ellie in a very convenient moments really does feel like a cop-out, because Ellie can disappear anytime from Joel's vision and then spawned wherever the story wants her to be. I would say RE: Revelations 2 (even if its nowhere near as immersive as TLOU - but that is not the point I am making right here, so let us ignore it) did a better job at it and it also gave each of the supporting characters different roles.

Puzzles as a breathing room? Haha, you literally just drag ladder/'boat' from one place to another obvious place like 15 times and that's it, every pathway is almost identical. It is mostly used for mundane interactions to bond the characters further, so here is that.

Of course, it has zero replay value because it is trying too much to come off as a movie, but is not good enough even at that. You can even kill zombies just by punching them. Not only that, but it virtually has no story - seasons are basically episodic story-lines with abrupt and forced plot advancements, to the point of feeling like fillers because they barely (if at all) have any importance and get immediately forgotten, making the story drag a lot despite all of these story-lines being rushed as hell (you waste whole game to get to one place and you only have one scene there... there is a story-line where Ellie gets kidnapped by a faction, Ellie kills some guy in their camp and the plot-line immediately ends in the middle of nowhere... There is also a guy and his brother you befriend, but the moment they finish their job in the plot, brother gets turned into a zombie out-of-nowhere and his older brother immediately kills himself - all this getting zero foreshadowing, internally or externally).

And there is also a weird habit of cutting the scene and immediately skipping the time, dropping as in tonally different scene the moment after something supposedly emotional happens in the story. Prominent example of this being the very prologue - first, story wants us to get attached to father and his daughter with a speed of light and even cheaply plays on the expectation by giving as 3 minute gameplay section for the daughter. 10 minutes later she dies at the hand of the soldier, who is spawned out-of-nowhere and who gets completely unjustified order and he gets confused as if he was a teenager (because that's within the characteristics for such an important job, right?). Then instead of seeing Joel's grief to at least emphasize to his grief by his own very emotions to connect with the scene, story simply does not let us and skips 20 years of his life. Needless to say, both pacing and structure of this story is quite unappealing to me personally.

Aside of Ellie, not only none of the characters give you much reason to either care about them or find interesting and be intrigued about their placement in the overarching plot, but even main characters themselves do not care about them or get affected - Joel's inseparable best friend? Dies a meaningless death at the start and Joel does not even raise an eyebrow (well he does a bit more than that, but its just not enough to be convincing)... Ellie gets assaulted? Kills someone for the first time? Someone she befriended turned into a zombie in front of her AGAIN? Well too bad, no reaction (aside of Joel being proud of her...), in the next scene she will start whistling or something I guess... Like yeah, it is mature and all with how selfish and survival oriented everyone is as the result of civilization's fall and how even the main characters can commit bad deeds without feeling bad about it, but it is just too cynical when there are not exceptions made for people they have established attachment and thus very dry for me to experience. Joel only really gets mad and tortures the random fodders, so the full potential to communicate is not reached. Oh and characters also change their minds pretty fast as well - you have Joel who does not want to take Ellie with him because he trusts his brother more than himself (that was a nice bit of confession, I must admit) and fights with her, but in the next minute he takes Ellie back... Joel's brother does not want to help Joel because he does not want to risk his family, but then sees Joel killing people and talking to Ellie and immediately changes his mind...

Also, you can't really try to come off hyper realistic and, at the same time, let some 50 years old guy (do not know his actual age, but you get the point), who can't even make proper jumps and whines about his age, to massacre an army equivalent of soldiers in their own base AND then allow him to somehow slip through the rest of the army in their own building with predictable exit routes while he is carrying a child with him. You also can't make the girl 'easy to track' in the middle of the camp full of people hunting her down and, at the same time, let her get away completely scot-free (funnily, the story-line ends before they even get out from that place). So, basically, Ellie (virtually alone) not only ruined the whole camp, but did that without any consequences whatsoever. Hell, they never get injured at someone else's hand throughout the whole game, Joel only gets injured once and that's just because he drops on something. That is not a characteristic of a plausible cinematic experience (well, not counting blockbusters), but good old FPS shooter.

And the story is full of such convenient developments in favor of main characters - like in Winter, we have a smart guy who deduced just by girls' impressive skills and need for medicine, that she was with Joel and trailed the girl, BUT somehow, his whole camp ONLY came after Ellie and completely forgot Joel's existence... - while everyone else are just always suffer heavy consequences - so even if they are not really winning anything, I still was not really invested in their conflicts, because at least they were not losing things, in comparison to everyone else - the ending was probably the only exception (and it standing out highlights how the rest of the story does not have much effort put into it), because you get like 1-2 tapes (which is quite very little) where you can see the people you are killing are struggling too and doing something for the better, while we have selfish Joel lying to even Ellie. That being said, game being so cynical and dead AND still trying to make you believe that a sacrifice of one girl WITH NO GUARANTEE OF SUCCESS can have any worthwhile effect on the world is iffy to me, given the damage seems irreversible and I fail to grasp what exactly would Ellie's sacrifice fix. Although, that probably makes the ordeal better, rather than dampening its quality.

TLOU is fine in terms of showing the consequences over the world, what the zombie attack ha done to society and an individual, but the presence of something that would deny the zombie virus and how denying people of that miraculous chance is not provided.

Already much prefer TLOU2 to it and I have not even played it

There are already tons of reviews full of praises, so here I will just focus on what I disliked, thus expect this review to be quite one-sided (this, of course, is just an excuse to rant)

I would recommend reading the prequel VN first to enhance the experience of the OG one, considering its mystery is worthless anyway, in case you have even a tiny bit of idea of where the story is heading (by knowing character designs, names, and a number of doors) - it is that kind of a story that you need to experience completely blindly and have room to speculate on everything along the way to be completely invested in it. Now sure, these details may seem trivial on the face value and not ruin the experience, but the thing is, that they help build the expectations and serve as the crucial hints for the story as you start experiencing the VN. Like, some people are saying things like ‘how is Morgana’s existence spoiled by knowing her character design, her name is in the title’, but in the story itself Morgana’s identity is unreliably narrated and thus it is part of the mystery at first and even her ‘clean’ face is some sort of a revelation later on.

Boggles my mind how do people say stuff like ‘we love Fata Morgana because of characters, not the mystery’ when mystery and its presentation is exactly what's supposed to make the perspective of these characters compelling, so how else are you getting invested? Of course, there will be people saying that they went into Fata with these spoilers and still ended up liking the story, that which is of course within the possibilities, but I do not particularly care about these examples as it is not what I am talking about here and changes nothing in their terms

How the mystery is structured seems decent-to-fine to me, but it is the general picture that disappointed me. Although the premise itself is also decently satisfying - Just like any other edgy Japanese story that's trying to give the hopeful message, it is also about the lack of connections, and all of the problems could be solved by characters just sitting and talking them out (cheese, I know), instead of overreacting everything, sure, but it is also trying to say how impulsive the human nature is and how it gets in the way of forming the relationships and how the resulting actions craft the twisted, fake perspectives (Unfortunately the reactions themselves are so overblown that it seems ingenuine to me, as well as how the all of the interesting concepts are pretty much discarded)

What I dislike is how gimmicky it is - oh look, we have stories full of tragedies that are an homage to Shakespeare and fairy tales, oh look we have a sexy maid, oh look we have different time-periods, oh look we have characters literally named after a saint and a witch... you get the point. Everything exists just for the sake of sensationalism.

And hardly anything here is over-arching and cohesive, since everything constantly makes drastic changes and you constantly need to be re-attached to things even after playing half of the visual novel.

Visuals are just pretty, soulless designs with very limited expressiveness and range, on top of the backgrounds that are just random pictures mixed with some cheap filters and borders. It's also inconsistent as the sprites keep changing in style for no reason whatsoever - on top of that, not only some characters are literal walking paintings that are hard to be taken seriously, but characters, that are not getting too much of a focus (but otherwise have quite high relevance), do not even have designs whatsoever (maybe not even the names) and in a good chunk of the scenes you end up seeing characters just standing all alone while talking to others, which to be fair makes the framework rather theatrical and results in turning it atmospheric in a way that can be appreciated, but there is no ‘acting’ so as for the feeling of the disconnection to be compensated. Now I am not asking for it to have literal actors doing expressions, but looking at some of the other visual novels (such as Muv Luv and Mahoyo), there is so much more that can be done with it.

Oh and some of the scenes that are supposed to hit you emotionally with how visceral they are, are just lacking in terms of CGs and you end up watching mere blood splatters, that's also taking away from the experience even further. They even shied away from showing an oh so disturbing scar on a woman’s body - I guess it would not have mattered either way as the character is too hyper-sexualized for it to have an effect and would still be distracting. It is almost completely relying on your imagination, so it might as well have been just a novel… It is not really using its medium's potential, so I would have preferred if it was a collection of OVA anime directed in a theatrical manner (like that one episode about Melos from Aoi Bungaku). But I have to admit that the reliance on imagination does warrant investment/immersion, in the same manner it does for the novels.

Prose… Well, I think for a medium that is generally infamous for its redundant prose, it’s pointless to talk about this exact aspect, especially when so many things may be lost in translation and thus it’s not really something the author is responsible for. Not to mention how the prose of Fata seems exceptional and well-written mostly because of how good of a translator it got to have and original Japanese prose is supposedly PTSD inducing, as I have directly heard from the Japanese readers. Aristocrats talking with slang and all. I have not even read any substantial argument as to why would Fata’s prose be exceptional, so there is that - there are characters that talk in a manner they are not supposed to talk and even if I were to ignore that, I do not really see a reason to praise never-ending conversations that are just exposition of emotions, instead of characters doing something actually interesting

Soundtracks are probably the best part, but still, a hit or miss, considering how sometimes they just absorb you into the scene with how heart-pumping and fitting they are, but in other cases, they just hurt your ear with how their momentum just does not fit the scene and vocals amidst dialogue do not help either with their stand out voice that keeps detracting the attention... There also are not any voice actors to compensate for the lack of sprites, sadly. Maybe it's just me, but they also resemble JRPG soundtracks too much and my immersion was breaking even more as a result. Another problem of mine is just how much of a difference is between the backgrounds and the OSTs - on the one hand, you have something that is trying to craft an atmosphere in a way to make you imagine the environment with its own depth of field, but on the other hand, you have a static, lifeless visual presentation that is clashing with it. I could see how these scenes can be enhanced with the help of the imagination once the scene ends and you can re-build them in your own mind so I would still give it props, but that does not really happen for me mid-way playing the visual novel, so the point that it was clashing in my experience still stands.

Setting is... I have no idea, it just is. It is random after-life or purgatory or something, it is not explained or hinted at properly or anything. There are random doors that for no reason serve as a cursed reincarnation and somehow they can also be faked... then it is also revealed they you can also do all sorts of magic by the power of will, which is in itself inconsistent, considering how sometimes they are able to do things and how they just are not and random things happen that were not wished by anyone. Why are they even able to do it if it is only Morgana who provided the curse? And why was she able to do it anyway? Not only I legitimately have no idea what the hell is going on the more the story progresses, but it also gives me all the reasons to not care about a single thing that has happened - it's just a gimmick house that merely shows to me how some randoms have died (well if I know that they gonna happen, why would I care) and how nothing I will do will have any effect on the story… Oh, right, why is the character even able to move and interact in the final door? Why would Giselle be a mere voice then? How are these people unable to understand the identity of the white-haired girl when they were the ones who made her anyway and why is she able to interact in the real world anyway?! Not to mention how uninteresting presence she has, literally doing nothing for the whole run, just exists to have parallels or something. She is somehow a separate entity in the real world and in the... dunno, somewhere? How do these people get reincarnated if their souls drift around and why they get reincarnated only once anyways?

Someone could say that I am nitpicking and should instead maximize my suspension of disbelief to indulge in the narrative, but I refuse to do so in case of stories that do not have anything satisfying enough to compensate for its shortcomings to me

Regarding the ‘take you on a journey through the different time periods’ I would say that the events here are taking place in the same household for 80% of the screen time at the very last and none of the periods have been exceptionally explored either way (they just feel mere homages that are not trying to stand on their own with their own unique input on the table), on top of not even having the fitting visuals - like my friend mentioned ‘I like how this is supposed to look like a victorian European city and it has modern pottery and the roads aren't covered in horse feces’.

Characters are simple and random, to the point you can't even understand why do they even exist, to begin with, and the story does not even have banter between them to make them feel like actual personalities and they just talk and talk and talk about their emotions they can be understood quite quickly, to the point that you keep guessing whole sentences at the beginning of each one. I have a hard time understanding why people love these characters so much about Fata’s cast (well, aside from their ideas, of course) when these characters are barely doing anything, to begin with and feel more like they were spawned to do their single fixed role to the bitter end. It's especially hard to care about them when you know that after 2-3 scenes they will overreact to something and just die in a meaningless, rushed and edgy manner - because some background characters are mad. How am I supposed to care about the CHARACTERS if first I am not convinced that they are human? Especially when they are merely made to suffer and I already know that about them for the get-go? Hell, their character ‘climaxes’ also get repetitive as you move towards the ending and you start expecting that amidst the tension characters will just start feeling bad and move on, nothing else, really.

They all also accept magic rather strangely. background characters are overreacting everything and label everything as evil, satanic and so on without confirming anything, but whenever it comes to the main character - not only do they never give in to these rumors and never assume such things on their own, but they are never even get affected, never terrorized/frightened much by such unknown and supernatural things that are not really established as a norm in their lives or anything, they just carry on their lives.

The work does not really understand the 'twisted' perceptions of varied individuals (there is more to it than just being optimistic or pessimistic), as everyone admits to the same old morality and does not conflict it with a wide array of beliefs, superstitions, and whatnot. Here you either are a kind partner (being victim of something/someone and forced to do something being their only 'flaw') who keeps being idealized with or evil incarnate. Well I guess there is Yukimasa as a sole exception, but him being bewitched by Michel (as well as being seen by Pauline, but that does not fix the issue to me) so easily was quite disappointing to say the least - really underestimating the stubbornness of human nature

That would not be the case if Fata had some other novelties that could pique the interest, but it really does nothing aside from demanding empathy from the player. As well as 'mysteries' that only really consist of 'how did this guy turned into psycho', which is quite a corny experience when the answer is always either voodoo magic or abuse.

Morgana - titular character, who was... abused and life never gave her freedom to live her own life... so now she is cursing the souls of those who wronged her, but... her perception was also damaged and thus twisted? So then... where are the other characters that wronged her... like her mother... and what are Giselle and Michel, who have never met her, doing in the 'house'? no idea, no idea... She is completely unlikable and 'gets bored' of abusing the souls after Michel proves the capabilities of sympathy towards her and probably regrets giving up hope on humanity. I do not know, man, traumatized people won’t suddenly get good, their trauma will surely get over them and they will commit something all again, that’s the most interesting part, but her character arc ends here? Yeah, the story ‘knows’ how to dig a hole by putting characters in as miserable as it gets predicaments, I guess, but how does it go above? ‘Get a lover who will be with you in your darkest hours?’ What am I supposed to take away from the story? I do not believe that these characters are redeemable, so why is the story putting the idea down my throat? I mean, sure, I can understand the sympathy/empathy towards them, that they were not just spawned evil in this world, but it is easier to advocate for them once they are dead and turned into souls because the only thing that left for them is to be freed, as there is a whole eternity of opportunities for that - but there are no souls in the real world and the consequences remain permanently. Sure, you could say that Morgana has not forgiven (as if she has any right to forgive them anymore) them for what they have done, but these were may as well be unreliable.

Regarding her twisted perception, that's the whole point of Morgana's character, that she is unable to properly look at things in an objective manner because of her trauma, but then somehow proceed to make a perfect copy of Michel or something?

Regarding her godly powers... why do they even exist? why does she even have them? I would understand if the work sneaked in ambiguous details as if demanding from the players to connect the dots by themselves and achieve various interpretations of what is really going on at the higher plane of existence and what kind of unreachable and incomprehensible beings are present there, but this is not the case here - details are just nowhere to be found... Morgana is just randomly born with magic powers, uses them for a bit, the world does not start caring about said powers further than just drinking her blood (while from various religions we can see how messiah attracts way more relevance in the world and shifts the destiny of the whole world, not just a singular house, just by a mere presence) and then stop using her powers up until she dies... then she is allowed to use her 'sacred' powers for the opposite, devilish, matters for some unknown reason. Neither point nor sense can be found here.

She is foiled by Michel, which is also strange, because we do not even know why would all these 'jesus figures' would be born and why would only Morgana be with magical powers and why would she would exist
simultaneously with the white-haired girl (be in the real world or in that 'ghost world' or whatever, handing out the sword to Michel out-of-nowhere) when she did not even have DID when she was alive traumatized or why would she even think she is Michel(le) or something. Foil feel as forced as it gets.

Her identity is quite obvious since Morgana is pretty much the only character who has no identity for a good amount of time and DID through several forms is just a common technique in the medium. BUT the story is still trying to throw the most forced red-herrings known to mankind at you for some reason (concealing things in the text and showing them as - - when characters are meant to be just talking) and repeatedly twisting the identity by constantly revealing someone else to be thinking that it is, in fact, them - for no reason whatsoever.

That being said, she is interesting conceptually - a girl born as something more than human, thus she was never perceived as a human being, everyone being more interested in her larger-than-life identity eventually shaped not only her perception of the world and herself, but also her deeply rooted nature, which gives her internal conflicts resulting in her double identity as people's perception towards her transforms from the saint to that of a witch - that which leads her to both accept the identity of the witch (as she was tainted from her point-of-view too) and still do the bits of kindness.

Message being that societal labels are pretty much irrelevant on the grounded level and that they are merely weaponized by higher ups for their own good and that has consequences over the masses. But would have been better if I were to witness her being an actual human being, though - I do not think execution and her personality do the justice to the concept.

All in all, no matter the era, she will either confront her deeply rooted issues both in her and the society/system or she will end up self-sabotaging all of her longings.

Now of course it is perfectly fine to highlight how deeply rooted expectations laid on people melting their psyche and asking people to see people as people, themselves, but what I find strange about this is how she clearly is not human and that has always been the root of her problems, which is way more than just someone placing expectations on you. So when these very traits are treated as just the backstory and the characters are actively trying to ignore them just to view her as an average persona, that to me does not really communicate anything regarding to the fundamental issue.

Giselle - well she is just another historical girl who got a job because her family needed money and is expected to have sexual relations with the boss... nothing exceptional about her, up until she randomly gets turned into immortal (idk how, don't ask, writing is just nowhere to be found here - I could somehow make sense out of affecting someone else's psyche, but how do you turn someone into zombie witch? And how come for so many hundreds of years people shrug her mysterious existence off just by saying that 'she must have been working here for a while'. For one, she does not even look that old and two, nobody has lived here for two generations to notice how she just does not change? Yeah I just can't buy that) and... she just gets sad after hundreds of years... that which gets miraculously 'cured' after a while, instead of leaving permanent marks into her character, as if nothing had happened... So the concept of immortality is not really explored with her - the only interesting part about her character is just used as a gimmick… a sexy maid as a means to not lose hope in humanity. I liked how some pathetic randoms forced her to blame things on Michel, that which had an emotional culmination in the fifth door - and both of them got close by venting each other’s flaws, as well as realizing their own ones, so it was pretty touching, as it may as well be the most sincere and satisfying way of opening-up and thus bonding, rather than just sitting and calmly talking about each other - but that's pretty much it.

Which brings me to the scenes of rape and the abuse in general - How are these nobles getting away with literally anything they are doing? Not to mention how superficial and unreasonable said actions are. Like, what's with having public rape attempts? A noble teenager comes into the house of another noble and randomly decides to assault someone, but makes up an excuse as if he was drunk and gets away with it, nobody says anything. There is also an instance when the boss is trying to rape her in their own house, with several people there, including hysterical wife - like, may try to be cautious? Ask someone to get you a maid that will be okay with sex or something? Anything? They can make a living for someone else’s whole family (by the way, where are they), right? So, for instance, how are they unable to go to the brothel? Why even send Giselle to Michel? What did these guys expect? Giselle would not tell Michel what happened? Michel would kill her? Yeah no. Forced.

On another note, she strangely is not being called out for being a passive bystander (at the very least) of so many atrocities that were happening in front of her all of these years.

Talk about repercussions and call outs, the romance between Michel and Giselle is quite strange - first, a rape victim is running around with open cleavage for quite a good amount of time in front of a man for some reason (and the story even turns that into comic relief once Michel randomly touches her breast and they just make 'feels like rat' joke about it). Two, they tried to kill each other and somehow just talked it out... Like, yeah, empathy may make you understand someone so you forgive and realize that you two are in similar shoes, so you believe that they are actually good, sure... But why is that the case in-between them? Not only they are two drastically different personalities with drastically different upbringings and problems they have faced both externally and internally, but they also forget it right away that they did bad to each other out of their nature - as the lurking suspicion and overthinking should remain... Instead they just confess to each other, while not really having anything else to do with their lives and not wanting even for a bit to go out somewhere else, not being done with that damned place. And three, Giselle's questionable future aside, Michel without consent forces Giselle to remember things she does not want to remember, hurting her deeply with such behavior - so... Why do they end up as perfect, unconditional couple regardless of so many internal and external problems influencing their mindset?

Their interactions as a couple also come out rather cringe-worthy to me

Yeah, romance has always been quite questionable here... Like with the third door, accompanied by another passive love interest that is White-Haired Girl... She never starts holding a semblance of grudge or anything negative, really, even after being locked up for several months and does not really have any character/personality on her own aside from his husband, who she has only seen once doing something considerate (not romanticized at all)... Then there is that Jacopo who is presented as someone who was just a bit late to save his marriage... Yeah, there somehow a glimmer of hope for his relationship that was being crushed not because of himself alone, but because of some other human being (Maria), despite him being a massive scmbag, who treats everyone like trash (but then for that gets his parent blamed, as he himself is just a boy who struggled with brainwashing because he is not actually such a freak... Who believes in that?)

Michel - hmm... his character goes two ways... one is 'how miserable would it be if we were to put a hermaphrodite in the past' that which is not an exceptional idea (Not to say that it makes the character bad (quite the opposite, it raises contradictions within the character and he gets defined well) just that I have seen it in other stories, such as Shigurui, so it's hard to get interested again) and does not offer anything aside of suffering... and the second way is just how much of a saint s/he is - which is weird for someone who is being cynical around the family at first and no one in the environment really affirms that saint-hood... but it goes on such ridiculous levels, that he 'cures' people of their 'aggression' (for the lack of better word) by merely talking about their 'alternate selves' and then he gets hailed as a saint in a heavy-handed manner as well (like yeah, I noticed his name and how he is standing in front of backgrounds full of saints, chill and stop looking down at readers). Michels disposition to be more talkative and sociable feels more like the writing requiring him to become that way in Door 8 rather than natural development for him. Although I like the part in which his image of his own idealized brother gets crushed and how that experience allows him to help out Nelliel's relationship with her brother - I wish so much that every door was as lengthy as the eighth door to be full of such interactions

Talk about being Jesus, is not that kind of a contradiction regarding the themes of identity here? For Morgana, it is irrelevant whether she is a saint or a witch, because one can be both and thus labels become pointless (although to be fair she has not done anything to be referred as a saint - since her death), but what about Michel being presented as clear-cut saint? Do not give 'yeah he was trying his best, but emotionally he disliked three men' when he has not been defined by these emotions there.

He does not really affect anything and we have no idea how the setting operates, as well as how there are no proper hints towards the happy or bittersweet future, but the ending still wants to give a hopeful message, despite being a forced tragedy throughout the whole run - completely ingenuine. I was constantly being reminded of anime named Princess Tutu, which is all about criticizing authors that put all sorts of devices and whatnot to force the story towards culminating into the tragedies and love that aspect wholeheartedly

It is also weird seeing him coming out of his cynical phase just because of Giselle and buying everything she says so easily, despite how she clearly even sold him out for her own good, so when the guy has only such selfish people at every corner of his life, one would think he would remain cynical. But Giselle is that cute, I guess.

The plot is basically meaningless, the character is merely observing some random, disconnected, and simple stories that end in patterned tragedies that you have no reason to care about, considering the pacing that equals the speed of light the moment characters stop rambling about their feelings. Not sure, you need to have a terrible attention span to consider it as a good one (to be fair my attention span is also quite short, but it breed these other problems for me). Oh, you were interested in what happened to the characters after the tragedy occurred? Were you interested in the setting and seeing how connected details were affecting each other to lead from one period to another? Well, too bad for you, we never cared about such trivialities. There really is no coherence whatsoever. I guess it gets some semblance of plot since the fifth door, but really it's just a poorly structured drag with nothing much in it, the whole story is told through individual and boring flashbacks and then you get to the last door. I still have no idea how so people are trying to sell Fata as if it was taking the players on the ADVENTURE through several different periods when 90% of the time the player sits in the house alongside the maid

Oh and, the most amusing part is how literally none of the conflicts ever get resolved. All of the plot points end in the simplest, tragic way because characters do not even think about finding out some unique ways to fix the problems, and aside from the character that gets sad in the afterlife, we have no idea what happened to other characters that were responsible for the most crucial of the plot development and what happened to them - well, they probably died of sadness because that's how every human being's life goes in this universe, I guess. Only meaningful thing here probably is 'move on' aspect, but I do not want to hear that from dead people that are ready to be reincarnated with no problems in their next life for some reason. At least do not bring the conflicts that are not supposed to be 'resolved' through the 'moving on' and 'empathy'.

Recontextualization is also abysmal as these details are not really being added in the context of the first doors themselves, because characters in the first doors are completely different incarnations of their original selves and thus do not really have much connection to each other and you just look at the ‘parallels’ (be damned). The only thing you can probably do is to judge them from a different perspective after hearing their stories, but I am not really convinced enough... now sure it is still good that it gives you the room to enjoy the re-play, of course, but that comes off with a price of making the whole first run completely lacking in the hook department, as you can't really solve anything and the overarching plot is virtually non-existent up until you finish at least the 70% of the story. So if you are not into a collection of little mysteries in each door, there really is no other novelty to keep your interest/attention - and even if you were into such mysteries, they are very predictable, so you understand almost the whole picture in each case, before finishing the doors.

Door 1 - That was the instance when I actually liked this VN, as it seemed distinct enough and conflicting character traits were very well implemented in the dialogue, but alas it ended up as some spoiled brats whining about their predicament and losing their mind in a blink of an eye, instead of coming in terms with the reality... Mell is just a cowardly guy who is being torn in-between the ideals of her sister and the hardships of reality between religion and the business - as he fails . Needless to say, he is completely unlikeable and is not progressing at all - he just seeks comfort in the white-haired girl and that also results in complications (also forced one, as the character and characters in her backstory could actually done literally anything else and it would feel more natural (say, artist getting another job)). One would think Mell would have been disillusioned after understanding what that girl actually was and would have tried to escape from her (a girl intentionally trying to ruin your family and all, you know), which would be a norm for him, but oh well.

and the door suddenly ends after 15 min long climax and my feelings were left hanging. There was parental emotional abandonment as well, but I did not find it compelling as the dad himself had no progression or/and exploration of said actions (or lack of thereof).

Without giving as details to speculate what would have happened in the future this is just a very cheap ordeal.

Also not sure why Nel settled on merely cutting the hair of the girl, instead of killing her. That does not really fix her problem in any shape or form.

Door 2 -That was the instance when I ‘paused’ this VN for good. So a BEAST appears... and then the twist is that the BEAST is... a SADIST... shocking, I know. At first, it somehow wants you to believe that the literal monster is somehow becoming a human (again, nothing exceptional, especially when it has no other context for a while - there is no in-between scenes for his gradual transformation for us to have the proper sense of its value and it is solely used as killing machine of the guests), which is a ridiculous idea... although later it gets revealed that it's just a twisted perception that somehow stems from him being a sadist and being called out for his race... I do not really know if that was a realistic exploration of anything psychological, it seemed too over-the-top to me. Maybe Morgana affected his mind? But I am not sure about that because Morgana did not affect that way neither Michel nor Giselle. Not to mention how he had no problems seeing the Maid and the White Haired Girl like proper human beings, but for some reason his girlfriend is an exception.

Another problem is how the story gets detracted to the point of tonal whiplash with an introduction of some naive girl, that repeats and repeats her naivety and dies in a brutal manner but I hated the girl and it was also too over-the-top, again, so if I have felt anything, it would be a satisfaction - and also a child, whose parent was killed by the beast, but instead of having a damaged psyche, he just acts like a random introverted boy from the 21st century that somehow drops 'interesting' views, that should not make sense, considering he should not be that educated to begin with and should not word things like that. The cherry on top is, how the village somehow blames the victim child TO BEING UNABLE TO KILL A BEAST ALL ALONE. It is a cartoony ordeal at this point. Like, guys, literally every frightened-of-a-scary-house villagers I have ever seen in the media always go and burn the damn house, so… what stopped you to do so?

You could say that the twist and message were how these deeds that are usually pointed towards made-up images of the monsters in actuality could be done by our beloved representations of the human race, but I think this door would have benefited of this idea if it was used as a prologue door, considering we as players would not have any idea that there were no actual monsters in this story (coming from the first door, I think we can already assume that) and it would serve nicely as it would have been the most surface step of the ideas that Fata Morgana is trying to convey. For a story that is trying to set up the criticism of naivety and romanticism, I think it is not really doing a good job up at properly providing ideals and just comes off as edgy 'haha, you are such a child for believing in ideals, now suffer', but at the same time, ends on a romantic/idealistic note regardless - both achieved in a forceful manner. So if the author himself can not naturally make his views flow through his own work and has to rely on the forced devices, how am I supposed to believe in whatever he is trying to tell me with his work?

Door 3 - Jacopo is such a sensitive child, that with barely any proof just gets enraged towards a girl that he should know very well, as she is his wife, but somehow he has only interacted with her only once in his life. He somehow has that inferiority complex towards noble, rich women, that which is not explained - I also have no idea how he can explain how no one bats an eye when her wife is locked somewhere in the house, in a room for SEVERAL MONTHS... why is he so insecure? And if he is so insecure, how does he manage to have a successful business and 'mafia' of some sort? Yeah, his dad was trying to brainwash him, but he clearly is an emotional wreck as a result and has not really done anything of that sort. Well, anything besides the 'romance' tends to be an afterthought and a just another discarded theme in each of the doors, unfortunately.

Oh, and the door ends with Jacopo miraculously being able to somehow kill a girl (awfully accurate aim for someone so insecure, especially while being in haste and aiming at his beloved childhood friend), who had him on a gun-point... if anything, Maria was the one who deserved to survive here, but no, everything needs to be bleak. And even if I liked Maria, she was still quite disappointing in the role of villainess... her satanic laugher aside, she could have had some competent goals and motivations, alongside petty emotions to counter/contrast the irrationality of the couple, but no, nothing. Everything is an afterthought here, after all. Now to be fair, I just liked the twist and the idea behind it, but the way she ‘disconnected’ the couple was also quite implausible (exchanging the letters for months was especially absurd, as it does not seem likely for hyper insecure Jacopo to not take suspicion towards Maria just because she is a childhood friend as he should have overthinked that as well and at least ask other maids to keep track of things in secret)

Talk about the dad, why is his whole character/personality being an asshole who conveniently pop-ups to say basic cynical stuff? What is wrong with parents in general here, why does this thing feels like some anti-parental movement? No redeeming qualities whatsoever, all of them are just psychos

Now you could say how he may remember his 'sins' from his previous life (as in a body memory or whatever... or soul memory... Jesus), but that makes no sense, considering how it can't be explained by the rules of the setting, so I don't really care. Heck, it is not even foreshadowed or anything, so who cared about that 'recontextualization'? It won't suddenly replace my initial experience and it makes things even worse when the witch is supposed to be blamed for everything - like, evul Maria was being blamed for it either, so what does it change? Not to mention how lazy the whole 'yeah it was not too good but hey the witch arranged it with the means that makes no sense whatsoever, so it is suddenly a 10/10 door' thing sounds. No, I do not admit to such non-sense, whether the witch did it or not, the door should make sense through the humane means and not 'it was all magic' (to blur the line between the witches and humans, on top of that)

Door 4 - basically a FORCED filler to make a message about how FORCED the interactions can be made in romantic tales but the reality is oh not like this at all... self-unawareness here is hilarious, considering I do not find this story in its entirety to be realistic, at all. It just feels too meta for no reason at all and it is also a story she managed to remember for centuries to cling to the hope of them getting together? Well leaving the positive stuff as nostalgic bits in the memory does seem realistic enough to me, so it is fine I guess. It is just Michel coming back as he made the change in her character quite irrelevant as the whole appeal of the march of time and separation is how after the fundamental changes two personalities do not click to each other in one way or another - be it the external factors such as environment or the internal factors such as personality traits being changed or new ones being acquired and all - but none of these were present at the end of the day in their dynamic.

I keep hearing how The Maid is deliberately hiding things from these doors - how is she even aware of such capabilities of her own - and heavily altered the fourth one or/and Morgana actually made this whole door up on her own, somehow - It seems rather strange to me that it is possible to make up, fabricate the stories in the doors themselves? How can you make something up out of someone else’s memory bits that can be viewed as if you were watching a TV? ‘It's just magic?’ I don't really get it, from where would she even learn that? She just hid the truth that it's a fake door for some reason? Hell, how is she even able to ‘reconstruct’ Michel out of thin air and turn into someone that can’t even be distinguished from the original one, especially when she did not even remember him properly or at all? even if she was not the one who made this door, then how else would there be a fake door.

Door 5 - problems repeat - two characters just talk and talk 80% of the time, but unfortunately they have nothing interesting to talk about... 10% is random disconnected things that happened and 10% is the sudden tragedy… really, it is just a generic romance, I have no idea where the appraisal comes from, these people have not been watching movies, I guess. Well, they actually vented and formed a relationship, so it was not as miserable as the previous ones, which is a breath of fresh air. I just disliked how they forgot that they would not have been able to get away with suddenly arriving at the family house and getting away with it. Oh and it was rather strange in the middle of the door, the random people being scared of a ‘monster’ that looks so pretty. Not even one human being had a different enough personality to at least throw something towards someone who looks so fragile as obviously is not a monster? I think they should have had enough adrenaline as well.

the shift in tone is also quite jarring on here. I could understand if this was the first door, making us care about the characters, unaware of what may come, but... here it is just place in the middle of constant misery? It has been pretty visceral and fast paced before, but now it wastes time on slice-of-life things (that does not even make sense for its time-period... meditation? enlightenment? really now) as if nothing has happened? I am afraid I can't get invested in that.

Door 6 - how Morgana is trying to corrupt Giselle, who was corrupted by a random village in a blink of an eye in the previous episode... but somehow Morgana can't get under Giselle's skin for hundreds of years... just because she remembers Michel... romanticization through the character rewrite is off the charts. Oh there was also Morgana’s backstory, which was uncommonly good as it does blur the identity of a girl, whether she is a saint or a witch. Unfortunately, I found everything surrounding it to be hyper edgy. Like, why is it even being narrated, I am getting whole individual doors for randoms like Yukimasa, but I can’t get one for the main antagonist? Lol, alright. I dunno how does a child gets brainwashed into thinking that she is a saint that shall never sin when that’s not very childish to me; I dunno why her mom allowed her saint-ly deeds to kick-start if she was so cynical, what did she expect (was it a forced contrast to Michel? Morgana getting treated positively (at first, at least) for being special, meanwhile Michel was being tortured? To be fair Michel was indeed named as a saint, so their dynamic should probably viewed as a foil, but I did not mean the names here) and then it’s just suffering that I have no reason to care about and feels like I am yet again being forcefully drained.

Door 7 - I already talked about Michel's backstory... It is just Michel reacting to things and not doing anything, even in his own door and then Michel gets magically saved by Giselle... Oh there is also a satanic girl in this door, who randomly comes to Michel and tortures him/her, as if the story was not cartoony enough already. I would have liked it if these characters came to terms with their problems after so many years and somehow went on compromise and tried to adapt with one another, instead of just sending Michel away out of nowhere.

I am not so sure that evocating the pity is the best way to deal with these themes.

That said, the very existence of this plotline is strange. These layers have always been present within Michel - him standing in front of holy thing as if Fata was written by Zack Snyder to symbolise him being a Jesus figure and as well as secret about Michel's body being slowly revealed, that which serves narrative of perspective very well - but as if that was not obvious enough, we now need to indulge in several more hours of pure misery just for the story to put it down our throats just how much of a saint he is by with excessive violence having him hanged on a cross by his brother for virtually no reason and then of course be resurrected. Then somehow that brother is somehow expected to be atoned or something, despite acting all evil even as a ghost (why is he even there)

Best part, of course, was when we were witnessing the drastic changes of Michel's body, but everything else leaves much to be desired.

Door 8 - The episode starts with the hidden identities of the men, but the girl’s identity is not hidden and we see her being called a sister… like why hide it then if you are going to make it so obvious?

To start with the positives that are minimal, well… I like the idea of using saint blood or whatever it is, I don't even know why it is. Despite being edgy, it does blur what exactly is the truth behind it, what is the motive of using said blood, no one should be able to tell that. There was also some semblance of banter between secondary characters so at least there is that. You are somehow able to see what actually happened before everyone died. Like, Morgana did not know these stuff, right? So by whom were these events crafted? You are somehow able to interact with the characters... you also know since the start that all of your actions will bear no fruit, but somehow it is still served as a plot twist. And about the story in the door itself... well... our saint's 'talk no jutsu' somehow is able to change the minds of hardened assholes with no consequences whatsoever (broken fingers aside, but they were useless and lack of fingers won't affect future developments (neither in conflict, nor in bed), so there really is no value in their loss) and... that's pretty much the 'climax' of the 30-40 hours long build-up. Seriously, the guy we knew was sadistic on unhinged, uncontrollable levels, somehow is not losing any sense and conveniently stops once his beloved appears conveniently… then he starts praising the random lunatic as Jesus in a blink of an eye. Well Jacopo is a loser so there were no difficulties there, so its not even a climax… then random magical things happen again and we also see how sorry they are in front of Morgana… Yeah, okay, that was not very interesting. Why do I care whether Morgana gets satisfied by that? Well of course people start feeling bad once consequences come to bite them. At least they had goals and motivations here (a bit too late, though). Why did I waste 50 hours on something so simple and obvious? Nothing actually happened here. Fata Morgana is about people getting dehumanised by others who have no understanding and have expectations too high or too low for other individuals, which is a good starting point... but at the end of the day Morgana calms down after its revealed how whatever happened was the fault and mistake of some specific bad actors and that she can't be mad after hundreds of years of angry (self-)sabotage, while nothing is really questioned and Michel just acts how any priest could act.
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Now sure you could say that motivations of these actors does imply that the source of problems they all share is not caused by them, but the conflict itself is still portrayed as individual oriented where Morgana has to see good in them and forgive them all on her own and that is where the story ends. Morgana, she who has been doing the same thing the world has been doing by goading these actors in other doors and yet no one really pays attention to that, also had to forgive herself since the existence of WHG implies the self-sabotage but end of this door just makes her consciouss that she

replaying to finish this section
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Well it also gets revealed that a silly boy Jacopo over here is actually a pedophile who likes 12 years old girl, that which quickly turns into a joking matter thanks to Maria who says how she was knee deep in dick at her age jokingly and to enable their relationship. Obviously this is terrible so I will leave it at that.

After the door is finished, Michel and Morgana (she is 'redeeming' herself, you see) will free the soul of the tormented, which is sweet and all, but I would not care about the souls, would I now? Sorry but I also do not care about the whole reincarnation thing and find it whatever - they are reborn as identical beings, in the same environment and are magically attracted to each other? If that was the finale (from my understanding, that is) it is quite forced I daresay, there is no reason for this situation to occur but it does. Oh and I do not remember Michel's brothers ever deserving to be redeemed either, so why are they shoehorned into the story AFTER the climax? The structure is all over the place. It does not even make sense how could Didier be forced to brutally massacre his beloved brother, when everything in Fata's universe reeks of corruption, so it should have been perfectly within the possibilities to take care of his brother in one way or another - but he did not do anything.

Can't remember a narrative that is cheaper than that of Fata Morgana - every event is contrived and convenient and simple characters barely do anything, barely change, just talk and spoonfeed you with details. basically the opposite of what an actual mystery that is trying to explore the perception should be - an omnipresence of the lack of credibility through the completely unreliable narrator, that expects from YOU to 'solve' the rabbit hole by yourself, settle on one 'truth' or just accept it as it is, an unsolvable ordeal and do not give in to mania, improve your own life with the infinity possibilities within in you reach (a la Umineko). After all, everything is in the eye of the beholder and the truth never gets reached by mere talking, but quite the opposite, interpretations and retellings further complicate the rabbit hole

Shameless recommendation section btw, read Ravages of Time for the same theme - specifically, how the cultural shift affects the perspective and how we judge the history and legends by re-interpreting the interpretation of those people that had different perception of these words to begin with and more.

All in all, if you don't care about the characters, just like I do not, it is going to be extremely hard to find any merit in this story. In case of the prequel I have to say that I enjoyed it way more, as it focused only one story with the best characters from the OG, accompanied with more side-characters and more slice-of-life interactions that made me able to care about the characters and lack of magic also helped quite a bit - unfortunately it also has its own problems, as its not only lacking in the plot-department (stuff that is supposed to advance the plot is quite random and gets quite easily off-screened) as its not only as edgy as the OG in climactic scenes, but also has fatal problems regarding standing on its own, considering it was not written as self-contained story - for one, its not finished in a satisfying manner in case we won’t take the OG into the account and two, if we take the OG into the account, then the experience of the Requiem seems underwhelming as most of its content was heavily spoiled in the original visual novel.

(credits for researching goes to my friend Fahrenheit)

It's impressive how the of use semi open world areas - to familiarize yourself with environment on your own volition with side gigs and piling up connections instead of doing 'side quests' just to make use of it all in the main story was degenerated into the 'ubisoft open world'

The gameplay and the story are also so well synchronized (pun intended) that even the 'shortcomings' that you can experience as a result of its jank still have opposite effects and further immerse you in the game better and you could keep finding secrets on how to take advantage of its mechanics.

The game creates immersion in very simple yet organic ways, such as there not being any shops, so whenever you run out of knives, you could just ANYTIME ANYWHERE could just go on a detour and steal them from the population. Every mechanic is in such a harmony that you can't stop taking its aspects for granted, but I just kept thinking 'why are such obvious details lacking in other video games?.’

Heavy emphasis is placed on investigations to bear its fruition in the face of immersion. You can of course start investigations on each mission, gather intel and plan out how you gonna enter the area and how you gonna escape it by your own rules and then start the mission confidently, but you can also attempt to start the mission without any investigations, that will give you distinct dialogue and guide as to where could you find hints for your mission, making AC1 a game that can be perfectly played without using any kind of a map or even HUD.

The story is a bit too reddit for my taste with how it's concerned moreso about ‘dispelling the illusion’ and ideals a lot more than everyman, cultivating a bit of arrogant disbalance since I do not think fate of the population should be a matter of one on one ‘discussions’ and duels, especially in-between figures who do not have the same concerns and lives as the general population. But I appreciate that the mental states of said figures are some sort of a plea from the inner turmoil caused by the war-torn era and its never-ending disconnection.

What I could not recollect before replaying is how well structured and planned out its narrative and character work is nonetheless - maybe one of the better examples in the medium, even.

People may have been praising architecture and how districts are laid out in games like The Witcher 3 but Assassin's Creed did it before by exploring its culturally diverse and historically rich locations, actually making use of it all in regards to mechanical depth (say, building being in the middle of reconstruction have their own (dis)advantages for parkour, integral part of the gameplay).

Cities Altair visits are Damascus, Acre and of course Jerusalem. It is also worth noting that the theme songs of these cities correspond to the standing of each of these cities and thus reflect the general emotional state of the environment (as well as making use of different techniques and instruments according to their cultural difference), especially how the theme of Jerusalem is a combination of the previous one to reflect its cultural whiplash and transitory state.

Life is represented by Damascus - given its reliance on economics that distracts them from ever questioning higher matters and any of their propaganda, rather than on its own historical or religious value (to the Crusaders) that which is the very reason as to why they have not been conquered. Making it the very first city Altair visits at this most arrogance.

Death is represented by Acre - given its environmental decay and high body count on full display as it has been invaded in contrast to Damascus. Furthermore much of the Arabian and Muslim culture of the land has been eradicated with all the mosques demolished (that is single damaged one remaining that does not serve as the viewpoint anymore) to make way for churches and architectural design of buildings adopting masonry and terracotta rooftops in the richer districts. Terracotta rooftops are used to remove snowfall and since obviously there is no practical utility in building them in Syria, contradiction stands to send a message that culture is dominated by the Crusaders.

Rebirth is represented by Jerusalem - given how the city managed to revitalize itself after suffering the same fate as Acre and finally managed to move on by putting corpses in their graveyards. That said, cultural remains stuck in-between as the Crusaders influence is still intact.

The game starts by the main character committing a ‘sin’ that is used to put him on the leash and then every single encounter, in the face of an assassination mission he partakes in, seem to be (in)directly correlated to the perspective he currently possess and makes him question and finally alter his mindset by gaining faith instead of being blinded by duty and arrogance, finally reaching forgiveness from someone he wronged at the very start of the game.

Malik’s words are coherent with the themes of rebirth. He states that he doesn’t forgive Altaïr as he’s no longer the man he once knew and therefore has nothing for him to forgive - going to the point of even having enough faith in Altair to question the creed. You can see relationships like this with the other bureau leaders too (and even targets), like the Rafik in Damascus is often too arrogant and cocky and likes to mock Altaïr until he feels Altaïr has outgrown him and feels a bit jealous, the Acre Bureau Leader starts of pessimistic and places no hope in Altaïr until he sees the error in his ways and even apologizes to him

Of course assassination targets are also making maximum use of their minimal screen time to have their presence heard effectively so as for them to not break the flow of the game. My personal favourite being the one that highlights how religion dislikes his kind and only by observing his body language amidst his speech you can see the hint that the cause of this is his homosexuality on top of other personal and political nuances that makes him hate himself and the world alike, forcing him into an active role against the status quo.


Needless to say, the addition of each and every target is nuanced and further thickens the plot.

Game also starts by making use of historical context and weaponizing reputation of the fanatical religious suicidal tendencies into a strategy to defend against the siege.

And if you were to start researching history you would notice that even something as simple as the tutorial section has the assassin's indoctrination as its subtext. To put out an example, in the intro sequence of the game the animus is glitching and Altaïr is surrounded by women in a garden and there's a godlike figure in the back quoting The Book of Ecclesiastes. Symbolic of a myth surrounding the Nizari Isma’illis (aka The Assassins).

Basically a myth spread by their western foes arose where it was hypothesized that the reason why the Assassins were so fearless of death was due to their initiates being put through a process where they would be abducted by their superiors, drugged with Hashish and then taken to a garden filled with pleasures of the world such as beautiful women and exotic fruits. Here they would be granted a taste of paradise and after it would be taken away from the area, they would then be promised a return to the garden as their reward for obeying the leaders of the Nizari Isma’illis to perform their Assassinations.

This is however a myth mind you, as it was only spread by the Western foes of the Assassins and it’s also due to this that u hear the common misinformation of the word Assassin originating from the word Hashashin (meaning those who smoke Hashish) when in reality it originates from the Arabic word Assassiyun (meaning People of Principle). The game incorporates this myth ingeniously as it being the first scene of the game is not only symbolic of the game indoctrinating you as an Assassin just like the initiates were in the myth but the game also acknowledges it as something false and later on goes to dispel this myth and reveal the truth (facilitating the game’s themes of the pursuit of truth and knowledge and is why The Book of Ecclesiastes is so relevant).

Later on Al Mualim even reveals that he allows their opposition to believe this myth as it enables the Assassins to spread their fear and terror to their opponents. Furthermore the final scene of the game mirrors this first scene where Altaïr is in The Garden with Al Mualim quoting The Book of Ecclesiastes only this time we’re given context and see the memory for what it truly was (and have thus been enlightened) The utility of the animus to glitch and combine a bunch of memories to create a corrupted one to later then be dispelled after you finish the journey is ingenious as it not only enabled the team to utilize the historical & mythological context to the fullest but also to simultaneously pursue the themes of the game by dispelling the illusions presented to you

It also subtly hints to how despite their symbolic castration (at least they cut their fingers), assassins still receive earthly delights as rewards (say, prostitution), which makes them more understandable albeit hypocritical.

Assassin’s Creed is a game about what it takes to find true peace. It explores how in order to end war and vanquish the chaos poisoning the world one must first bring tranquility within themselves for it is what belongs within the heart of man that he manifests upon the world. However it also acknowledges that to authoritatively brute control into society is a solution no better than war and that one’s inner rebellion can also act as the harbinger of liberty.


Assassin’s Creed therefore provides the answer that In order to find peace in all things one must first recognize the nature of the world, that Nothing Is True and Everything Is Permitted, thus guiding us to adapt to it. Additionally it also suggests that peace is not something definite in nature to attain as if one attempts to grasp at it, it will fade into thin air like mist. It is therefore wiser to follow its trail bearing the hope in our hearts that we may one day find it

Might also be worth mentioning that the game has a stylistic philosophy of treating its events like an entire dream sequence to facilitate its themes on the power of the human mind. It also fortifies the narrative of Desmond using the animus to venture deep into his mind to discover the truth of his ancestor’s journey through enlightenment. It’s also why the animus loading screens have Altaïr traveling through a blue and white mist as it mimics the sky and clouds to reinforce that dream like state

Unfortunately the game is a bit too ambitious for its own good and thus has visible cracks as a result of being an unfinished product. Notable being traversal area that is Kingdom, which is kind of a meme outside of you seeing the environmental destruction amidst the war (this section was meant to have horse chasers and whatnot) and how entire game goes to complete shit in the endgame by turning 'assassin' simulator into 'deflect another wave', even against the final boss that completely controls Altair's movements but somehow Altair keeps moving around whenever game demands it (this section could have been changed entirely), yet still manages to maintain its narrative on thematic level at the very least and packs the story under all-new concept of (dis)illusionment, making it inherent part of human nature.

Oh yeah side gigs are also lacking in creativity in self-contained sense with how you keep repeating the same thing over and over again and for some reason initial impression and feedback of the game was that it was being too hard, so as a result the game was made a bit too easy - though I guess you could always download 'permanent rank 1' mod to compensate to a certain degree. That said, nobody really gets in your way to make the game more challenging and interesting on your own. I also have personal distaste to how you are keeping a count of how many ‘altruist’ deeds you have remained in the city, but I guess it is also up to the interpretation of the player since it can be done completely on your own volition no matter what kind of perspective Altair has in any point of the game - so it is always blurred whether it is an altruistic or calculated deed to use civilians as his pawns and even traps placed against assassination targets

Nitpicky complain I have in the process of assassination department is that even if replayability in the assassination missions are superb, it's a bit of a chore to actually restart missions - you still gonna have to get through the unskippable dialogue, replay 2-3 side gigs and some of them won't even have fast-travel available, but that's not something impossible to ignore so long as you are willing to put the effort in the game. That said, game making checkpoints depending on which phase your assassination is (be it either infiltration, murder or escape) kind of drags the mission-based nature of the game.

Talking about the base game ends here. Now I asked my friend his opinion regarding the changes done by the PC release of the game since I have not played Playstation 3 release and put his answer down below, which is in-depth and could be read in case there is interest from you all.

AC1’s rerelease on steam aimed to add variety to the investigations so that the process of gaining information was less monotonous. Whilst a noble attempt at refining the game I feel its execution was either misguided or sloppy. My main criticism comes from the fact majority of the new investigations are either superficial in nature or replace older ones which were more meaningfully designed for the Assassination. For example when investigating Tamir one of the older missions that’s replaced in the steam port is an eavesdrop where we gather the location of where Tamir will be found we also learn from the merchants being abused by Tamir are treated as his slaves and that Tamir has even executed some of them in the past.

Furthermore they remark that he’s abandoned the teachings of The Merchant’s Guild. All these details are significant in building Tamir’s profile, his executions already paints him as ruthless using fear to intimidate the workers under him to do his bidding, additionally the fact he sees them as slaves with no other purpose than to serve him displays that he is plagued by ego (this is even reinforced during his confession where he claims himself special by working with The Templars to creat A New World Order and also his ability to recognize arrogance in Altaïr too). Finally there’s the fact he’s forgotten the teachings of The Merchants Guild which portrays that abandoned a Creed he once believed in which not only makes him a good parallel for Altaïr but also reinforces the game’s commentary on faith and how the complete lack thereof can lead to the most heinous of deeds being perceived as justifiable.

All this is lost for a mission which simply requires u to race to an informant who just gives u the information about a meeting taking place at the souk for u to Assassinate Tamir. Even worse at times the additional missions can work in opposition to the game’s narrative. For example in William’s Assassination mission we know he’s been stealing people’s food so he may ration them yet the breaking stalls investigation has the narrative that they’re selling bad meat under William’s command and therefore need to be destroyed which makes no sense when it contradicts William’s goal (i.e taking away food to ration it, not provide it even if it is spoiled).

What’s most unjustifiable about all this is that investigations were always a backdrop and so missions like Eavesdrops and Pickpockets were always quick and to the point whilst being situated in places of interest for the player to study as the real meat of the game’s investigation period comes from studying the environment so to add new investigations which take even more time than older ones makes little sense as it draw attention away from what should be the game’s focus.

Overall it’s not the worst thing I the world as most of the old missions are retained at least and investigations are still a backdrop to the game to facilitate grandeur goals so this flaw is far from a deal breaker to playing the game and enjoying it but it does deserve criticism for making the game overall inferior in some way even if minor especially when it was completely unnecessary.

Since the game is a bit too high IQ for me and thus would require from me to put an effort in writing an actual write-up, ill just throw in some incoherent ramblings I had on discord since recent chainsaw man chapter got me in good old hotline miami mood

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Hotline Miami blurs the line between human and inhuman, whether 'humans are still animals or not' idea is just an excuse, is their humanity a pretense or is it their animalistic behaviour thats a pretense?

anyway you can see Hotline Miami 2 cast as different type of characters that could have been protagonists of the sequel and I think after coming up for so many backstories, writer had an idea to make meta commentary and the subversion on the concept of sequels

difference in level design in contrast to the first installment makes it rather obvious that not a single individual from the ensemble cast is really up to being 'Jacket' that is an idea. On top of them having their individual type of gameplay to reflect their psyche, they all are also a bit too methodical and calculating to their approach to murder and are not as much into delirium when compared to Jacket who was merely seeing things in coma a lot of times and hence his dreamscape being a bit less realistic.

you see Jacket and how his behaviour influences different type of deranged people with their own masks and animals to live with and not only they can never live up to the standards of how Jacket is being idolized and immortalized, but they also never really grasp that whatever they take out from it is not the reality. reality is more fucked up but they get reality check, memento mori and reminded of their mortality

oh the game also has 'recorded' type of presentation when you are supposed to 'eject' the game for it to end, as if it was some cassete shit
it can be interpreted as scattered records to understand the truth on your own (sorta like Higurashi)
but its also usually used to visualize sociopathy (like in Kane and Lynch 2, where 'camera' is basically behaving like a camera man constantly following the main character behind)
there are a lot of interpretable shit

the monster The Son fought in the end was basically him killing The Fans but he was tripping, thinking he was entering valhalla but merely killed himself, he achieved catharsis only in his delusions while just randomly killed himself in reality. fan trip is also probably a result of him projecting jacket into the fans. they are inspired by jacket and were comrades to him in the war (son doesnt know this but its still relevant to the fans' character) and them wearing masks and then targeting the russian stronghold in the finale probably influenced sons mind in that regard

in hotline, we see jackets daily life and how he behaves extensively. his home is mostly empty. we do not see him interact with anyone up until he saves the girl kidnapped by the russians. there doesnt seem to him having anything whatsoever that doesnt make his life completely barren. we dont even see him doing his actual job and his life outside of his apartment and hits on the mafia. these all build up for his sociopathy, making it seem as if he is unable to connect with anyone or be able to complete anything outside of his violent missions. him being mute may just a trope. regarding the events of the games, beard and jacket served together in hawaii and jackets life is then saved by beard. later both of them are discharged and are assumed to have maintained contact with each other. however, towards the end of the war, russians nuke san fransisco, where beard is located. jacket is devastated by beards death, as he sees him in his dreams in the hospital, indicating that he formed a close friendship. this however may be interpreted in a different manner. it may be that due to jackets completely barren life and his unresponsive character, he simply may have exacerbated beards connection and attitude towards him, which build up his sociopathy and social ineptitude even more. after the nuking of sanfran, russia and america governments form a coalition to put a stop to future conflict, and america is humiliated. huge waves of russian immigrants flood america. this flooding is implied by the fact that bolshevik russia was an economical shithole while america was prosperous in the 80s. russians taking advantage of this as well as the indiscriminate bombings and humiliations in the war heightens tensions between the russian immigrants and american citizens. the russian mafia expanding in various parts of the country complicates this even further. the general from beard missions founds 50 blessings organization with other individuals who are disillusioned

with the american governments handling of the things. they attract others into their organization by putting up a patriotic front, but the exact motivations and mannerisms of the higher ups is left to different interpretations with the janitors and the generals behaviour. going back to jacket, as 50 blessings starts recruiting or forcing others to hit russian locales to further their so called patriotic front, jacket is also recruited. jacket accepts everything that is thrown at him. he doesnt ask questions. he doesnt wonder why he is doing what he is doing. he simply seems to not care. he brutalizes russians and their american associates (politicians, fat black enemies in levels, 3rd party drug dealers) without a hint of emotion. the major interpretation is that jacket despises russians because of them killing beard. whether jackets relationship with beard was genuinely mutual or it was his sociopathy and delusions manifesting as early as the hawaiian conflict is up to your interpretation. but in the very first level, despite not showing a single hint of character and personality when killing the russians, he beats a homeless man because of him being a witness to his operation and kills him. and then he pukes. jacket is so far removed psychologically that he feels genuine remorse and/or shock for killing any other guy, but his behaviour is twisted with the russians. he does not have any relationships, and is a complete recluse. he is unable to connect with anyone but then finds the girl tortured, raped and drugged in one of the russians dens and starts an intimate relationship with her. because of her presence, he starts to clean his apartment and seems to correct his errors more often. they eventually are implied to even have sex. the girl may be way over his head because of the trauma she recieved, and such situations cause people to haywire in the head, ie create feelings for people who rescued them instinctually. but jacket does not give a fuck.

he simply relishes in the girls affection for him and either tries to genuinely correct himself or deludes himself due to his erratic psychology. again, this double interpretation is due to jackets sociopathic nature already established with his treatment of the russians regardless of which way you wanna pull it, and so you can either view a lot of stuff he does as genuine or irrational. the latter part i have mostly not seen being said in any hotline community, but i dont interact with them anyways. yet all of that we see is unreliable anyway, because richter shot jacket and jacket was in the hospital dreaming of all the events that transpired before him waking up. this part concludes jackets sociopathy which the video talks about. his ignorance is his other major side of his character. not once does jacket question the authority that tells him to bomb this and kill that. he doesnt give the slightest fuck about why he is doing any of the things he is doing. he never even tries to pick up the pieces together even when there are major hints right in front of him. richter, jake, the original tiger mask guy and plenty of others can be found throughout the levels tortured or murdered by the russians or locked up. they were doing the exact same thing as jacket did, but he never even cared, he didnt even make an effort to notice. richter pleads uselessly to jacket but when he does he also alludes to 50 blessings and how they are connected to everything. instead jacket refuses to listen, and thinks that it was the russians all along. since he doesnt give a shit, he makes up his mind on how the events transpired and concludes that there were rivaling russian factions that wanted to destroy the other ones, and that jacket was simply used by one of them against the other. he stands on trial and gives that statement to the judge. that is his ignorance. instead of trying to get a grip and focus on what is really happening, he just pleases himself with violating russians.

this ignorance and cowardice is also represented in other characters like biker, fans, son and evan. like i have said before, it mocks those who are capable of dealing with the issues at hand but choose to satisfy their base desires instead, and so the generals deranged speech is the clearest statement of what is going on in the minds of those characters. the meta comes into play here. just like how the characters dont give a shit and refuse to reason, to think, to understand, the players themselves also do not care for hotlines story, and the devs criticize them for that, as they think the story and what its saying is important. most hotline fans couldnt give a fuck about anything other than the ultra violence you can perform in the games, and so they complain about all these nitpicky issues about games length, level designs and gameplay issues, which are valid, but neglect the heart of hotlines story and do not want to bother with what the devs are trying to say. so to them what happened is just delirious meme-y bullshit that they couldnt take seriously. and the devs clearly give a huge fuck about the story because look at how intricately woven it is inside the various events of the chapters and how it stretches and interconnects between the perspectives of the various characters between the games. and so richard berates jacket and the others for their inability and cowardice. not because he thought they truly had any power to stop any of what happened, but because they chose to remain lowly while neglecting everything. this is what richard is. an omen that tells people about their impending doom and criticizes them in a completely humane manner, like any other sane person looking at what the people of hotline were doing.

jake was so loyal to the cause and just showed genuine support for the faction and was ready to go berserk but they killed him canonically actually, executed by 50 blessings, it builds generals jadedness and how he doesnt give a fuck about nationalism or patriotism actually

general being coerced to force his soldiers to perform suicide ops because of goverment pressure and patriotic rhetoric being flipped in current hotline era by how he tricks losers by nationalist rhetoric and sends them on suicide missions themselves to unravel russian political dominance

pardo is a mentally stunted attention whore. his personality can be regarded as an aspect of masculinity(though its not exclusive to masculinity). the desire to be on top and be recognized by all. having all the lights shine on his ass and get all the fame. jacket is publicized and his murders are all over everywhere. everyone talks about it and discusses why this mf did what he did. he also has anger issues. we see him suicidally charging into drug dens and cartel bases killing everyone. thats his way of cooling off. and he also has done some pretty fucked up stuff that would cost his job and evan knows this, hence why evan forces him to give info, saying that pardo owes him big time. being pissed about jackets rise, pardo then starts his own murder spree. at first he doesnt know or understand what would get hot on the press, as he didnt murder people meticulously but just gunned down criminals. so he just slits someones throat and thinks its all good. then the cops arrive at the scene and he keeps telling both them and evan that this miami mutilator case is much more sophisticated, subconsciously trying to exert his presence and overtake that of jackets. there is an instance where lightning flashes and we see camera crew filming pardo and the scene. both are more hints to figure out his craving for attention. later, the fans become famous and that makes the jacket case and the situation with the masked murderers across miami even more hot. this pisses off pardo so he tries to get more violent with his methods. disembowels his second victim. then goes berserk and charges into colombuian ship. in his latest murder he slips and leaves evidence for police to find him. the scene is also much more gruesome as this time he flayed the skin of the victim when he was alive, then ripped open his chest. both him slipping and being more grotesque can be interpreted as his subconscious giving way for his apprehension, as that is the quickest way to fame, to stand on trial

like jacket is on trial right now. afterwards he realizes he left his gun at the crime scene and encounters his other criminally insane self, which is a very basic bitch scene. he then dreams of how his apprehension would play out. him being all regretful and telling he had no choice but to do it, killing all the officers trying to take him out, etc. which is even more emphasis on his attention craving fantasy as that is even more newsline worthy material. just like what jacket did to confront richter in the police precinct, gunning down all the cops there. then he wakes up and gets a call thinking his fellow lawmen are gonna bust his ass. he gets paranoid and barricades himself and drinks. but in reality it was them calling him because the russians were gonna nuke the place and his help was needed. and then he dies in his manic state, getting nuked into oblivion like evan, jacket and richter. pardo is the sideman who got delusional into thinking that he needs to be at the center of everything and destroys his life to do so. but in the end it doesnt even matter. no one had the opportunity to figure him out and he died like all the rest.

beards relationship with jacket is also kind of fascinating in regards to how jacket percieves it. he wanted revenge for Beard but probably also thought he was as cool as Beard

Him seeing beard dead next to Richter was already a hint to him slowly ‘remembering’ and blaming it all to Richter, but there is more to it

beard missions portray jacket and beard as comrades but they arent shown as close friends, beard is just a good guy that did what he thought best, the photo scene can be just jacket doing at least some sort of action to establish human contact, but his perception of beard in his dreams and how little interaction there is between the two in reality gives way to jacket being delusional cunt exacerbating his relationship and finding reason to commit mass slaughter without a good excuse

beard and jacket relationship is open to two interpretations. jacket being emotional because of beard death simply because they were friends. You could also say that the other aspect fits more in character with jacket is jacket deluding himself with beards perception and reception of him and then exacerbating it

the idea that someone could do all that shit to Russians was probably plausible since The Beard was just that good so nonchalantly, unlike literally anyone else who holds malice in heart, and all of it got catalyzed by something that was not done in malice at all, hence the cover of the game where Beard is looking into atomic explosion that came out of nowhere to him, he was just doing army gigs after all but somehow it kickstarted environmental destruction on which he had zero awareness and control over. Sort of like ‘death of the author’

i doubt Jacket genuinely cares about beard in a way that would be considered genuine or emotionally healthy and he is using beard as an excuse for his own bullshit desire to go berserk and massacre russians, but he still has gripes as the only time he didnt kill russians and others that werent adverseries made him puke his guts out, like he doesnt question what he is doing with shaking the russian mafia even once during the events of the game, he just goes along with everything 50B is telling him to do, he is senseless and doesnt care, he just likes hurting other people

and thats why richard reprimands and scolds him. because its too late and he never even tried to understand what was happening around him. did you notice what he was saying in his testimony in trial chapter - he was saying how rival russian factions manipulated him to take each other out - fucking dumbfuck.

he would not care about Beard, he was just nervously smoking shit in army and was not talking to anyone

in stories like Apocalypse Now and stuff influenced by it, we always only get stuff about army and how it turns people psychotic and full of PTSD but they always leave the rest up to interpretation. in HM, Apocalypse Now shit is moreso an army backstory, while consequences of such an experience are shown and taken to the extreme

Richter man just lives in shit and has to take care of a mother thats pretty much dying with natural causes instead of violence or anything and he can't really fight it in any shape or form. It's a conflict that can even be associated with Superman

richter in actually is a normal dude who cares about his loved ones and is forced into take action by others threatening to take that away from him, but jacket just sees him as basic villain and richter is also apologetic and sympathetic towards him when he gets confronted in prison, he also makes richter responsible for all the stuff happened so that builds into him deluding himself into thinking russians were just doing their own shit and take each other out, he also makes richter evil by him saying diabolical shit and shooting his woman

i dont even know if richter was the one who shot jackets woman

Its also cool how HM2 menu is nuclear blast and they basically bomb the idea that HM3 could ever exist, pretty much a final nail to the so-called ‘sequel’ coffinn

Don’t remember if I mentioned it above but theres also a cool detail in the game that you can’t actually hurt women in the game and you get punished for even attempting it.

Oh yeah music and level design also fucks in this game idc