I ll start with saying that i enjoyed the story for the most part. It had its ups and downs.
After replaying the story 2 times with my GF and brother i had the chance to reflect on it a bit more.
A fast rating would be a 6 hard to sell 7.
The start was epic. Everything up until the point that we release Neyrelle was going great. But then it went downhill fast. Hype and cool cutscenes made me realize it a bit later.
So my core issues are the following:
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Them feeding us the conclusion. Lorath saying that he can understand Eru and why the ending happened but still hate Eru. i can make that conclusion, you dont need to seed that thought to my brain for some reason. I am not stupid and i can reach my own conclusions.
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Neyrelle asking dying Akarat that says “i am actually dying” if they will see each other again. like what? Also what kind of soap opera was that?
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Burning church guy had so much potential to be a much better antagonist. Why are we chasing that damn girl again and have half the story being her crying instead of seeing actual character development of interesting characters?
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Based on my previous point, absolute lack of interesting characters that we care for. Legit the first mercs story got me more involved with him losing his arm than anyone else in the story.
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Mercs are also uncool. Handicap chubby dad, grandma cannibal, hobo archer and the only cool one is the worst right now. Is this a checklist? No cool kids allowed? My GF keeps bringing up how she dislikes all mercs and find them all ugly and uninteresting. There are 0 places for her to connect with these characters.
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Jesus. I am not a firm believer but i also believe that line should not have been crossed. There is a 1 to 1 depiction of Jesus here. From akarats body stance in the pool resembling jesus in the cross, to his face being the same shot as the well known movie. Angels, Demons and Church was fine. But this was a little bit too much for my liking.
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Overall a great story tried to be told but it was held back from a weak female lead that spends all her time in the spotlight to present her issues, weak side characters, uncool side characters(why isn’t there a younger spiritborn character that also teaches us some spiritborn lore,his backstory, and fights along involved? You know, Erus student? Young issues again?)
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Lack of backstory and any interesting story altogether for any other character. Who is Makka? Who is Eru? Why is that his favorite spot in the woods and why didn’t we go there once before to have a cool conversation? How did this not happen and we just learn it from a villager a minute before the ending?
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Dialogue system is so…buggy? Designed bad? Big pauses, character moving around slowly to reach the correct position, camera following each person that talks in a static scene. Its such an immersion breaker.
And honestly lets stop pretending for a moment, shall we? The story has been drowned in checklists.
Any strong and smart character we meet is a female(Makka, the swamp sorcerer from base, Lilith, Prava). Every stupid decision or death has happened comes from a male(Donans death, Eru, Drunk Lorath, Inarrius). The only “strong story” merc is the female. The lead that we chose to move the story forward and can manage the burden is a female.
Story checklist complete, lets now sell spiritborn boobas though, aye?
I am fine with female characters and protagonists for the record. I also hate games like the First Descendant that go full nude to capitalize on you know… But as i have tried to describe, this is a bit too much. For the sake of sending a message you guys become the very thing you seek to destroy.
This has to stop at some point, although what you deliver is “good enough” it simply drags down the potential.