Sunday, February 19, 2023

Anime Murder Mystery

Me: Hahaha what the fuck


 
Paul: It's an anime murder mystery!! Inside the television sets of a small town!

Me: Anime Twin Peaks, basically.

Me: Is this what they call a “visual novel”?

Me: 90% of the gameplay so far is clicking through text.

Paul: Japanese games are kind of on rails, they can be super linear.

Paul: This one is super linear.

Paul: Yeah the entire plot is on a timer like in ME2 after the Collectors attacked the ship.

Paul: You're on a schedule the entire game.

Paul: Only covers you have are when to do main plot things and whom to hang out with outside of school.

Paul: Honestly, just play Fallout 2. Less time investment and less Japanese.

Me: I can’t with those old CRPGs.

Me: CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK

Paul: You'll never escape clicking.

Paul: Fallout 2 is honestly better storywise.

Paul: No but actually there are a lot of keyboard shortcuts, like K kills something etc.

Paul: Yeah Persona 4 is in retrospect like 50 hours of JRPG spreadsheet and calendar management with a totally bizarre anime main plot and admittedly good anime side plots, nice design and great music.

Paul: If you don't like anime I don't think you'll finish it.

Paul: Also it's annoying near the end where you have to get things exactly right or else it gives you a shit ending haha.

Paul: Fallout 2, Subnautica, Tyranny, Outer Worlds... All objectively better.

Paul: If you want a linear story-based RPG, then I guess it's your ticket?

Paul: .....But if you want a story-based RPG in a really well built WORLD, like Mass Effect or Kotor, srsly it's not the game for you, the others are.

Paul: Surely the CRPG is less foreign to you than the JRPG?

Me: It’s weird and different but I don’t dislike it. The time management stuff is getting irritating because apparently you have to join clubs and get a job to raise your stats but that limits potential party interactions.

Me: Unless it’s a false dilemma like in those stupid Telltale games and none of your choices actually matter.

Me: Combat is a little tedious but basically just Pokémon so I’m used to it.

Me: Otherwise it’s fine. Whereas I was unable to progress very far in Planescape: Torment because the interface was so dense and unintuitive.

Paul: You 100% have to pick and choose. I think technically if you follow a guide you can do it all but lol how annoying.

Paul: I think that game is boring. All the lore is D&D lore. That's such a boring world.

Paul: Idk yeah I think it doesn't matter too much what you tell your party members.... Except for a handful of cases.

Me: I remember playing the Telltale Walking Dead game like 10 years ago and there’s one part where one of your party members abruptly gets murdered so I was like whoops must have picked a wrong dialogue so I replayed that section half a dozen times before realizing oh you can’t prevent this I guess. So I replayed other parts where you had to make decisions and you eventually were railroaded to same place either way.

Me: What a betrayal lol.

Paul: Yeah well

Paul: Idk, actually I remember there are some decisions which don't matter (most story events) and a fair number that do.

Paul: Like, if you're doing a character's side quest and they ask you a question... Like once every two or three choices it's am important one. You have to rely on your understanding of that character to say the right thing to them.

Paul: Fuck it up and they'll like you less.... Sometimes just stop hanging with you altogether.

Paul: You know, in the massive emphasis on character side quests it IS a lot like Mass Effect.

Paul: ME2 specifically.

Me: Do the characters from like band club or whatever eventually become involved in the TV world plot or are they permanent distractions?

Paul: Some do... It might surprise you what characters the TV plotline suddenly entraps.

Paul: But mostly no.

Paul: You know....a group of high school kids dealing with a supernatural threat is actually right up your alley. You like Animorphs, you probably liked Stranger Things.

Paul: You will eventually have a choice between band and theatre. I recommend you choose theater, that character's narrative is a lot more compelling.

Paul: Full disclosure: I chose band camp and the band camp girl is super cute and I was down with being her platonic friend.

Paul: And then the game decided this 12-year-old had a crush on the MC, and that you could date her and it wasn't weird at all.

Paul: Of course the real problem is that she's a boring character compared to the theater girl.

Paul: Anyways if you dislike a character you can just ignore them and not be their friend, skipping their activity.

Paul: Date a 12-year-old, it's cool in Japan.

Paul: Don't you want to be cool?

Me: I do like the premise! Also very Twin Peaks with some Stephen King’s It.

Me: They should have stopped Stranger Things after season 1.

Paul: Yes.

Me: The latest season is better but each episode is the length of feature film so I can’t force myself to sit through it.

Paul: Yes.

Paul: This is the story of all television.

Paul: I mean, IMO it may also be the story of Western Civilization but jury's out.

Me: Feel bad for Gen Z who has to “binge watch” terrible Netflix shows just to maintain any meaningful social interaction with each other.

Me: In high school I was binging 30-year-old detective shows on DVD.

Paul: You could still be a rebel today I think.

Me:



Paul: Idk how it'd go down.

Paul: The nouveau fascism is worse on the coasts and with the rich.

Me: But the real question is

Me: Which underage schoolgirl in this pervert game is best waifu?

Me: I feel like the game is pushing me toward spastic kung fu movie nerd girl by front-loading her interactions.

Paul: I went with her, she's down to earth.

Paul: Another girl who shows up late in the game is also great though.

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