This review contains spoilers
Some of the slickest art and graphical design and one of the best soundtracks of all time with writing that I sadly think doesn't completely match up to the reputation of what came before it. All 3 stories start off about as strong as The Silver Case does but the only one which really keeps it up all the way through is Placebo, which is some of the best stuff in Kill The Past and justifies the entire work.
I think Correctness's individual parts are very good, chapters 2 and 3 in particular, but I don't know how much I like it as a unifying story. The Kurumizawa stuff is amazing but feels almost underwritten compared to the far less interesting Kosaka scenes which felt like they were there to over-explain what was happening in chapter 5 especially.
It's the Matchmaker story that bumps this down to something lower than it probably deserves though. First two chapters are amazing until it slides down the yakuza plot line for two chapters which is the first time in any of these games I felt like I could predict every single thing that was going to happen next. It ends well enough but what started as a funny dark parallel story to Correctness which enhanced both stories ends up fairly tedious and damaging to the other stories it's supposed to help prop up.
Placebo really is excellent though, Tokio's chapters in The Silver Case are some of my favorite writing in any game and I'm glad to say they don't drop the ball here. In particular chapters 3 and 5 are so pitch perfect and quietly devastating that it's almost enough for me to look past my issues with the other stories.
I think in the end what has me prefer TSC far above this is mainly personal taste. I loved TSC because it was simultaneously a horrifying nightmare paranoia world that was incredibly human. The cast was all memorable and the way their stories came to truly violent ends by the end sat with me strongly. There's really no such interesting character dynamics here. There's no Kusabi type to center everything. Kuro is a hell of a lot of fun but she doesn't have much to do post chapter 2, and Tsuki and Osato's dynamic also pretty handily peaks at chapter 2 for me. I do think this distance is a deliberate choice but it's one which I feel doesn't fully resonate with me, especially at the ends of these stories where they try to have moments where it feels we really should care about the relationship between the cast.
Still, it's Kill the Past, it's still unlike anything else that I can think and even if I don't think it fully lives up to its predecessor, very few things can.
If I'm given 50,000 yen I''ll bump the score up
I think Correctness's individual parts are very good, chapters 2 and 3 in particular, but I don't know how much I like it as a unifying story. The Kurumizawa stuff is amazing but feels almost underwritten compared to the far less interesting Kosaka scenes which felt like they were there to over-explain what was happening in chapter 5 especially.
It's the Matchmaker story that bumps this down to something lower than it probably deserves though. First two chapters are amazing until it slides down the yakuza plot line for two chapters which is the first time in any of these games I felt like I could predict every single thing that was going to happen next. It ends well enough but what started as a funny dark parallel story to Correctness which enhanced both stories ends up fairly tedious and damaging to the other stories it's supposed to help prop up.
Placebo really is excellent though, Tokio's chapters in The Silver Case are some of my favorite writing in any game and I'm glad to say they don't drop the ball here. In particular chapters 3 and 5 are so pitch perfect and quietly devastating that it's almost enough for me to look past my issues with the other stories.
I think in the end what has me prefer TSC far above this is mainly personal taste. I loved TSC because it was simultaneously a horrifying nightmare paranoia world that was incredibly human. The cast was all memorable and the way their stories came to truly violent ends by the end sat with me strongly. There's really no such interesting character dynamics here. There's no Kusabi type to center everything. Kuro is a hell of a lot of fun but she doesn't have much to do post chapter 2, and Tsuki and Osato's dynamic also pretty handily peaks at chapter 2 for me. I do think this distance is a deliberate choice but it's one which I feel doesn't fully resonate with me, especially at the ends of these stories where they try to have moments where it feels we really should care about the relationship between the cast.
Still, it's Kill the Past, it's still unlike anything else that I can think and even if I don't think it fully lives up to its predecessor, very few things can.
If I'm given 50,000 yen I''ll bump the score up