This review contains spoilers
I'm not exactly sure what to make of this game since I have mixed feelings about it, so this is going to be quite long.
First I'll explain the downsides that kept me from fully liking the game, then moving onto its more positive aspects.
I feel my experience was greatly undermined by the fact that it actually ran quite poorly? Even though in theory I have way better memory, space, processors etc. than the minimum requirements specify, I still persistently got major audio and graphical delays, specially with scripted events. Several times did something happen and it didn't graphically load until several seconds later, in which whatever asset was to appear was placeholded by an eye-jarring box with [EVENT] written on it, highly taking away the experience, and moreso, the intended effect and scare.
Beyond that, I feel the game overall was pretty....slow. Not only were the menus, scenes and loading times slow for a relatively simple RPGMaker game, but I missed some way of skipping though scripted scenes/events and dialogue, which I wasn't getting anything out of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th time over.
It took me about 20 hours to get all the endings, just from having to start the game all over from having missed one regalia at the very start. Which is fine, since you need to be on NG+ to unlock the new one anyways, but with the game playing so slow I wasn't particularly happy about it.
The story is kind of the middle ground for me. It didn't pique my interest as much as I'd wanted because I felt there wasn't enough for me to hook on. It's not horrible nor badly told at all, but feels kinda underexplained. Not just directly, but also with how little clues I consider there are up to you to read into. Even having read and mulled over every bit of dialogue, letters, text and rest of bits of the story and exposition, I still couldn't pierce the story together beyond the family falling apart because "wow! DID!--i mean... insanity and dementia!" (which is what the protag is actually diagnosed with) and that somehow probably the pact the mother did with the demon caused it?? But nothing is ever explained further than that, and there's not much more to go on for much longer on your own, either. We get close to no answers beyond that. What exactly was that pact? How come we know nothing of it if it's so vital, triggering everything in the story? The way I see it, maybe the price for the pact was either the protag splintering/losing her identity or for the demon to "own" the protag -something he repeats a few times- and upon learning that her family had basically sold her to him she developed DID? even though it doesn't work like that at all? And how are the brother and the strange boy/demon related exactly? Are they supposed to be the same person since their design is obviously similar? But why and how would they be? The entity the pact was made with was implied to be an outsider from the family, encountered in the woods, and the brother was only known to be able to see demons and the like, not be one. But maybe it's just me not getting it from being exhausted having to replay the game so many times over to get all the endings in hope of some final exposition (which doesn't happen).
I'm not saying a game has to completely spoon-feed you its story for it to be any good, but I'm not a fan of having to look up "X story explained" after scrutinizing the whole game, trying hard to pierce it for myself and not getting anywhere.
Besides that, and moving onto its more positive aspects, I felt each character's roles as alters was pretty realistic, which was the reason I first figured out that was what was going on. I actually really like all of them except for maybe Fleta. The symbolism for each of them was also good and fitting, which is why I don't have many complaints in that regard.
Going though each character's parts was greatly enjoyable, as they all had very distinct and strong personalities and the way it was reflected in their sections made for great ambiental storytelling. The diferent areas are really stellar, not only in setting and ambience, but also in the graphical and audio departments. The art and its direction is absolutely gorgeous, and the music is incredibly good as well. It really helps cement the whole "mysterious wonderland of whimsical dream spaces" setting and feel, and each area had its own particular charm and executed well its role, be it cutesy fancy parties and gardens, run-down yet romantic old mansions, creepy and abandoned underwater circuses, mystical rose-filled churches, or floating dreamy theatre corridors. God, I absolutely loved them all, but my absolute favorite was Enjel's, I legit spent at least a couple hours just wandering around basking in the ambience of the place.
Aesthetically and ambientally this game is a solid 10, and I feel it's worth playing just to experience going through these spaces, so beautifully crafted and put together. It's noticeable the huge amount of love and thought that went into them.
As a sidenote, I also quite enjoyed the occasional inspiration from and references to Madoka Magica, as a fan it really won me over.
First I'll explain the downsides that kept me from fully liking the game, then moving onto its more positive aspects.
I feel my experience was greatly undermined by the fact that it actually ran quite poorly? Even though in theory I have way better memory, space, processors etc. than the minimum requirements specify, I still persistently got major audio and graphical delays, specially with scripted events. Several times did something happen and it didn't graphically load until several seconds later, in which whatever asset was to appear was placeholded by an eye-jarring box with [EVENT] written on it, highly taking away the experience, and moreso, the intended effect and scare.
Beyond that, I feel the game overall was pretty....slow. Not only were the menus, scenes and loading times slow for a relatively simple RPGMaker game, but I missed some way of skipping though scripted scenes/events and dialogue, which I wasn't getting anything out of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th time over.
It took me about 20 hours to get all the endings, just from having to start the game all over from having missed one regalia at the very start. Which is fine, since you need to be on NG+ to unlock the new one anyways, but with the game playing so slow I wasn't particularly happy about it.
The story is kind of the middle ground for me. It didn't pique my interest as much as I'd wanted because I felt there wasn't enough for me to hook on. It's not horrible nor badly told at all, but feels kinda underexplained. Not just directly, but also with how little clues I consider there are up to you to read into. Even having read and mulled over every bit of dialogue, letters, text and rest of bits of the story and exposition, I still couldn't pierce the story together beyond the family falling apart because "wow! DID!--i mean... insanity and dementia!" (which is what the protag is actually diagnosed with) and that somehow probably the pact the mother did with the demon caused it?? But nothing is ever explained further than that, and there's not much more to go on for much longer on your own, either. We get close to no answers beyond that. What exactly was that pact? How come we know nothing of it if it's so vital, triggering everything in the story? The way I see it, maybe the price for the pact was either the protag splintering/losing her identity or for the demon to "own" the protag -something he repeats a few times- and upon learning that her family had basically sold her to him she developed DID? even though it doesn't work like that at all? And how are the brother and the strange boy/demon related exactly? Are they supposed to be the same person since their design is obviously similar? But why and how would they be? The entity the pact was made with was implied to be an outsider from the family, encountered in the woods, and the brother was only known to be able to see demons and the like, not be one. But maybe it's just me not getting it from being exhausted having to replay the game so many times over to get all the endings in hope of some final exposition (which doesn't happen).
I'm not saying a game has to completely spoon-feed you its story for it to be any good, but I'm not a fan of having to look up "X story explained" after scrutinizing the whole game, trying hard to pierce it for myself and not getting anywhere.
Besides that, and moving onto its more positive aspects, I felt each character's roles as alters was pretty realistic, which was the reason I first figured out that was what was going on. I actually really like all of them except for maybe Fleta. The symbolism for each of them was also good and fitting, which is why I don't have many complaints in that regard.
Going though each character's parts was greatly enjoyable, as they all had very distinct and strong personalities and the way it was reflected in their sections made for great ambiental storytelling. The diferent areas are really stellar, not only in setting and ambience, but also in the graphical and audio departments. The art and its direction is absolutely gorgeous, and the music is incredibly good as well. It really helps cement the whole "mysterious wonderland of whimsical dream spaces" setting and feel, and each area had its own particular charm and executed well its role, be it cutesy fancy parties and gardens, run-down yet romantic old mansions, creepy and abandoned underwater circuses, mystical rose-filled churches, or floating dreamy theatre corridors. God, I absolutely loved them all, but my absolute favorite was Enjel's, I legit spent at least a couple hours just wandering around basking in the ambience of the place.
Aesthetically and ambientally this game is a solid 10, and I feel it's worth playing just to experience going through these spaces, so beautifully crafted and put together. It's noticeable the huge amount of love and thought that went into them.
As a sidenote, I also quite enjoyed the occasional inspiration from and references to Madoka Magica, as a fan it really won me over.
7 Comments
Really is a good review!
A big problem here really are story elements that should be extremely crucial to understanding the plot are often left vague or ambiguous. And for a game that wants you to understand the ENTIRE picture…that can suck.
The whole magic caused her DID thing was a common theory for quite a while and become even worse when they released “faint”, a theater video about Henri on YouTube (funny how only parts of this are in the new content, yet this is still canon) Parts of the dialogue made it sound like Goldia’s DID was caused by the curse. But based on the way the SB describes his shock about her shattering in the witching hour and the fact that the game implies that he personalities were created to protect her, it’s much more likely that it was “natural”.
The price for the wealth was her (Elise) children’s souls, or rather her name initially. I believe it’s the Liebesbrief or the records that specifically say it was her name.
Apparently it was also her own as well based on her appearance in the new ending but that wasn’t directly said before this! The endings have this problem of not really being helpful at all. The only one that tells us anything about the story whatsoever is Dawn, which just gives us confirmation that Goldia is in an asylum and has DID. Though at the very least the new ending showed us some sort of direct confirmation that the SB collects the souls of his victims, and that was his goal all along. Meaning the pact, curse, or whatever was inevitably going to claim all of them regardless. Except Goldia, who remembers her name which I guess is able to break the pact.
Then there’s Henri…what a character. His appearance is similar to SB though this might not have been intentional (?) simply because the character really isn’t related to him, he just pledged servitude after realizing he would inevitably have his soul claimed anyways. He disliked Goldia’s personalities, his mother died and he hated his drunken father. So I guess he thought he had nothing to lose. Why is he the only one who can see the SB? Gosh who even knows? There’s the annoying excuse of “SB could’ve shown himself to anyone but chose Henri specifically”, then there’s just the idea that he was “gifted” sight. Maybe at birth, through studying, or by Rozenmarine. The answer MIGHT be there…but if it is, it’s not in the dialogue or I haven’t found it yet.
I do not blame you for not trying to research this stuff. It’s a complete mess and while fun at times the ambiguity of things can make it such a miserable MESS.
A big problem here really are story elements that should be extremely crucial to understanding the plot are often left vague or ambiguous. And for a game that wants you to understand the ENTIRE picture…that can suck.
The whole magic caused her DID thing was a common theory for quite a while and become even worse when they released “faint”, a theater video about Henri on YouTube (funny how only parts of this are in the new content, yet this is still canon) Parts of the dialogue made it sound like Goldia’s DID was caused by the curse. But based on the way the SB describes his shock about her shattering in the witching hour and the fact that the game implies that he personalities were created to protect her, it’s much more likely that it was “natural”.
The price for the wealth was her (Elise) children’s souls, or rather her name initially. I believe it’s the Liebesbrief or the records that specifically say it was her name.
Apparently it was also her own as well based on her appearance in the new ending but that wasn’t directly said before this! The endings have this problem of not really being helpful at all. The only one that tells us anything about the story whatsoever is Dawn, which just gives us confirmation that Goldia is in an asylum and has DID. Though at the very least the new ending showed us some sort of direct confirmation that the SB collects the souls of his victims, and that was his goal all along. Meaning the pact, curse, or whatever was inevitably going to claim all of them regardless. Except Goldia, who remembers her name which I guess is able to break the pact.
Then there’s Henri…what a character. His appearance is similar to SB though this might not have been intentional (?) simply because the character really isn’t related to him, he just pledged servitude after realizing he would inevitably have his soul claimed anyways. He disliked Goldia’s personalities, his mother died and he hated his drunken father. So I guess he thought he had nothing to lose. Why is he the only one who can see the SB? Gosh who even knows? There’s the annoying excuse of “SB could’ve shown himself to anyone but chose Henri specifically”, then there’s just the idea that he was “gifted” sight. Maybe at birth, through studying, or by Rozenmarine. The answer MIGHT be there…but if it is, it’s not in the dialogue or I haven’t found it yet.
I do not blame you for not trying to research this stuff. It’s a complete mess and while fun at times the ambiguity of things can make it such a miserable MESS.
*her name referred to Goldia’s not Elise yeah there’s typos sorry lol
@moschidae I completely forgot about mentioning that issue! I totally had it happen all the time as well and it was so grating to see. I'm guessing it's because the sprites are not a sole image but a "base" one and then a transparent png with just the face features that change with each pose, and they both have to load when the sprite appears and it propably takes the "base" longer to load because I assume it's heavier (even though there shouldn't be that much of a difference to cause this). It's really a bummer. I feel like in an attempt to "modernize" or amp the game quality up from the original freeware they rearranged a lot of the internal processes and needlessly complexified them, making them less efficient in practice.
@lemonous you've summed up exactly what I felt let down on.
I actually know about "faint", but I've only listened to it on spotify and didn't know it was more that that lol, I'll def check it out.
Thanks for the explanation, you've sewn together a bunch of stuff I felt were it but couldn't really pinpoint its relation to the rest. That bit about Goldia remembering her name being what breaks the curse makes so much sense, I wish it was more clearly stated in the game. Because otherwise you just assume she wants to remember her name as the obvious thing to do if you forget it, but nothing beyond that.
I find Henry interesting, but moreso because of his connection to the SB. If I recall correctly, I'm pretty sure the reason he can see the SB is because he was born with the ability to see ghosts or supernatural entities, as explained in the book that dissapears from Fleta's library once you read it, which is the one that gives you the first key to his room in NG+ for the new ending.
I appreciate your comment. It is interesting to research and theorize about a game's scattered hints online and such, but I just complained that it's pretty difficult to walk away from the game feeling like things make enough sense on their own after playing it that it gives you an incentive to search for the details. The problem here imo is that you have to go theorize online to get even the most crucial of plot points that keep the story together -let alone the details-, so it's easy to feel like you finish the game pretty much empty-handed in regards to info.
I actually know about "faint", but I've only listened to it on spotify and didn't know it was more that that lol, I'll def check it out.
Thanks for the explanation, you've sewn together a bunch of stuff I felt were it but couldn't really pinpoint its relation to the rest. That bit about Goldia remembering her name being what breaks the curse makes so much sense, I wish it was more clearly stated in the game. Because otherwise you just assume she wants to remember her name as the obvious thing to do if you forget it, but nothing beyond that.
I find Henry interesting, but moreso because of his connection to the SB. If I recall correctly, I'm pretty sure the reason he can see the SB is because he was born with the ability to see ghosts or supernatural entities, as explained in the book that dissapears from Fleta's library once you read it, which is the one that gives you the first key to his room in NG+ for the new ending.
I appreciate your comment. It is interesting to research and theorize about a game's scattered hints online and such, but I just complained that it's pretty difficult to walk away from the game feeling like things make enough sense on their own after playing it that it gives you an incentive to search for the details. The problem here imo is that you have to go theorize online to get even the most crucial of plot points that keep the story together -let alone the details-, so it's easy to feel like you finish the game pretty much empty-handed in regards to info.
I completely forgot that the library book mentions that about Henri! I guess that furthers the point of it being a lot to look through…small notes like that are the only mention of some very important details. Even if something is in the game you’re right you have to dig and analyze to even find it. When every single plot point is like this it just can make things so confusing or disjointed. It really is a little disappointing that there weren’t any rewrites or story additions for this remake since I really do think a few smaller additions like a menu with found notes, a character and location bio screen, just some sort of codex to assist in piecing together things would’ve at the very least allowed the main plot to appear more clear. There’s nothing wrong with symbolism and subtly, but being this subtle is…too much.
@lemonous You're totally right, such addittions would really make the game all the more easy to pierce together, or just more enjoyable, if only a little. And they're always appreciated as fun little extras.
moschidae
10 months ago