This review contains spoilers
Ribelio is my 2nd favorite RPG maker game character of all time. So I hate Chapter 11 on a PERSONAL level because they took an extremely promising character and completely butchered any interesting traits he had. It is singlehandedly the most disappointed I have ever been at an RPG. I'm only giving it 2 stars because it's a nice-looking/high-quality RPG Maker Game.
Before S11, Spica had only been shown to be awful and horrible to Ribelio. She boasts to Caron about wanting to completely destroy Ribelio's will to live. She laughs in Ribelio's face and mocks his upsetness after he fails to stop the protagonists. She gives Ribelio a fake sense of control when really she's waiting for the perfect moment to completely ruin all his plans. For fucks sake, in Chapter 9 she literally tries to enslave another person that Ribelio was desperately trying to help. She does that by threatening to kill all their friends. She's pure evil from the actions depicted alone.
Chapter 9 starts out strong, with Ribelio questioning if he even has a right to be mad at Spica. His friend group was the one who attacked Spica with the intent to kill. Spica acted in self-defence and the death of Ribelio's friends was their fault. Even if Ribelio was blackmailed by Spica, he still decided to sacrifice himself in exchange for his FRIENDS BEING REVIVED. That is such a massive request for anyone to make. From an outside standpoint, Spica should absolutely not be abusing Ribelio. Ribelio himself would debate and go, "Hmmm, maybe it's okay. Maybe Spica is being nicer to me."
And they took that concept and made it real. When Ribelio's friends rightfully try to kill Spica and get their friend back, Ribelio is left unsure about everything and tries to justify Spica. Suddenly, everything in Chapter 11 tries to force it down your throat that Spica is actually being a lot nicer! Some random military guards say that Spica is actually very childish. Ribelio says that Spica is actually a lot nicer and more childish which NOBODY could infer from what's been seen of her. He even said that Spica is tolerable and just follows along with Ribelio's goals. Looking at what I just said above, he is completely wrong.
The best justification I could give for this from realistic writing is that Ribelio suffers from Stockholm syndrome from having to be with Spica every single day. In reality, I doubt Kawano was smart enough to even go that far. When Ribelio hears her tragic backstory about being sacrificed, he suddenly decides to hear her. Her backstory doesn't even have to anything do with Ribelio because he's UNRELATED TO A TRAGEDY 100 YEARS AGO. She's just so bitter that she's using Ribelio as target for abuse.
Spica is so angry at Ribelio finding out that she tries to get rid of them. Then when they fight again, Spica attempts to make Ribelio kill ALL OF HIS FRIENDS AGAINST HIS WILL. Then a couple hours later Ribelio finally overcomes Spica's control over him. So they fight, and then suddenly Ribelio and Spica's relationship is completely resolved.
It just sucks for Ribelio to just suddenly forgive his abuser and then unrealistically get over it. Ribelio consistently says "It's my choice" but that just sounds like his stockholm syndrome kicking in. Not even Ribelio's friends reject Spica joining the friend group. Even though Spica was the reason Ribelio was separated from his best friends in the first place. Their reactions are just "Woah!! We have another girl in the friend group, that's awesome!" ...and Ribelio's permanent immortality problem is never solved so he's destined to outlive his friends one day LOOOOL.
I also wanted to add that Ribelio is not a good person either. Not saying that he justifies being abused. But when Ribelio tortured Oscar for 30 days all that Noel says about it is "Well if you help us, then Oscar can forgive you for what happened!" And then it turns out that Oscar is peacefully working under Ribelio at the end of the story. The amount of unreasonable forgiveness these characters have is absolutely ridiculous.
Ribelio and Spica had so much potential at demonstrating a toxic relationship tackled CORRECTLY just for S11 to happen. Instead, it ends up being outrageously offensive and written in poor taste. Just watch Renfield. The movie did a much better job of portraying an abusive relationship between a benefactor and his master than Ribelio and Spica.
Before S11, Spica had only been shown to be awful and horrible to Ribelio. She boasts to Caron about wanting to completely destroy Ribelio's will to live. She laughs in Ribelio's face and mocks his upsetness after he fails to stop the protagonists. She gives Ribelio a fake sense of control when really she's waiting for the perfect moment to completely ruin all his plans. For fucks sake, in Chapter 9 she literally tries to enslave another person that Ribelio was desperately trying to help. She does that by threatening to kill all their friends. She's pure evil from the actions depicted alone.
Chapter 9 starts out strong, with Ribelio questioning if he even has a right to be mad at Spica. His friend group was the one who attacked Spica with the intent to kill. Spica acted in self-defence and the death of Ribelio's friends was their fault. Even if Ribelio was blackmailed by Spica, he still decided to sacrifice himself in exchange for his FRIENDS BEING REVIVED. That is such a massive request for anyone to make. From an outside standpoint, Spica should absolutely not be abusing Ribelio. Ribelio himself would debate and go, "Hmmm, maybe it's okay. Maybe Spica is being nicer to me."
And they took that concept and made it real. When Ribelio's friends rightfully try to kill Spica and get their friend back, Ribelio is left unsure about everything and tries to justify Spica. Suddenly, everything in Chapter 11 tries to force it down your throat that Spica is actually being a lot nicer! Some random military guards say that Spica is actually very childish. Ribelio says that Spica is actually a lot nicer and more childish which NOBODY could infer from what's been seen of her. He even said that Spica is tolerable and just follows along with Ribelio's goals. Looking at what I just said above, he is completely wrong.
The best justification I could give for this from realistic writing is that Ribelio suffers from Stockholm syndrome from having to be with Spica every single day. In reality, I doubt Kawano was smart enough to even go that far. When Ribelio hears her tragic backstory about being sacrificed, he suddenly decides to hear her. Her backstory doesn't even have to anything do with Ribelio because he's UNRELATED TO A TRAGEDY 100 YEARS AGO. She's just so bitter that she's using Ribelio as target for abuse.
Spica is so angry at Ribelio finding out that she tries to get rid of them. Then when they fight again, Spica attempts to make Ribelio kill ALL OF HIS FRIENDS AGAINST HIS WILL. Then a couple hours later Ribelio finally overcomes Spica's control over him. So they fight, and then suddenly Ribelio and Spica's relationship is completely resolved.
It just sucks for Ribelio to just suddenly forgive his abuser and then unrealistically get over it. Ribelio consistently says "It's my choice" but that just sounds like his stockholm syndrome kicking in. Not even Ribelio's friends reject Spica joining the friend group. Even though Spica was the reason Ribelio was separated from his best friends in the first place. Their reactions are just "Woah!! We have another girl in the friend group, that's awesome!" ...and Ribelio's permanent immortality problem is never solved so he's destined to outlive his friends one day LOOOOL.
I also wanted to add that Ribelio is not a good person either. Not saying that he justifies being abused. But when Ribelio tortured Oscar for 30 days all that Noel says about it is "Well if you help us, then Oscar can forgive you for what happened!" And then it turns out that Oscar is peacefully working under Ribelio at the end of the story. The amount of unreasonable forgiveness these characters have is absolutely ridiculous.
Ribelio and Spica had so much potential at demonstrating a toxic relationship tackled CORRECTLY just for S11 to happen. Instead, it ends up being outrageously offensive and written in poor taste. Just watch Renfield. The movie did a much better job of portraying an abusive relationship between a benefactor and his master than Ribelio and Spica.