"Assento Dele" is the real star of the show here: a short, heartbreaking, neatly packaged short story revealing new depths to the greatest character in video game history.
"A Requiem for Innocence" proper was…a little disappointing, if I'm honest. The first half especially feels like a compilation of all the most widely criticized aspects of the main game, from its overreliance on "misery porn" to its repetitive dialogue. The way the game doubles down on the nature of Jacopo and Morgana's relationship is particularly unfortunate—it's not quite the emotional crux of the story as I feared it would be, but the notion of Jacopo the Groomer still sours an otherwise perfectly believable caretaker relationship, all for the sake of a few dozen lines of dialogue (which is a pittance in this context). By the time the "Part II" title hits, apart from the introduction of two new characters, there's hardly anything in "A Requiem for Innocence" that couldn't already be gleaned from the base game, in terms of breadth or depth.
The second half shines, though. Once the plot refocuses itself on the themes and dilemmas that define the series (most notably its explorations of the different ways people respond to pain and hardship), it becomes a gripping tragedy, with even scenes taken verbatim from the original game taking on new significance. (One in particular receives a new, totally gutting presentation that's up there with any of the most excruciating moments in the original.) Part II is so many orders of magnitude better than Part I that I almost wish the story had just started at the halfway point. It's still decent overall, but superior to The House in Motherfucking Fata Morgana? Not a chance.
Also, that Michel/Giselle story is lovely. Just the sort of epilogue I wanted for them. I'll still play Reincarnation at some point, of course, but a part of me wonders whether it was really necessary, you know?
"A Requiem for Innocence" proper was…a little disappointing, if I'm honest. The first half especially feels like a compilation of all the most widely criticized aspects of the main game, from its overreliance on "misery porn" to its repetitive dialogue. The way the game doubles down on the nature of Jacopo and Morgana's relationship is particularly unfortunate—it's not quite the emotional crux of the story as I feared it would be, but the notion of Jacopo the Groomer still sours an otherwise perfectly believable caretaker relationship, all for the sake of a few dozen lines of dialogue (which is a pittance in this context). By the time the "Part II" title hits, apart from the introduction of two new characters, there's hardly anything in "A Requiem for Innocence" that couldn't already be gleaned from the base game, in terms of breadth or depth.
The second half shines, though. Once the plot refocuses itself on the themes and dilemmas that define the series (most notably its explorations of the different ways people respond to pain and hardship), it becomes a gripping tragedy, with even scenes taken verbatim from the original game taking on new significance. (One in particular receives a new, totally gutting presentation that's up there with any of the most excruciating moments in the original.) Part II is so many orders of magnitude better than Part I that I almost wish the story had just started at the halfway point. It's still decent overall, but superior to The House in Motherfucking Fata Morgana? Not a chance.
Also, that Michel/Giselle story is lovely. Just the sort of epilogue I wanted for them. I'll still play Reincarnation at some point, of course, but a part of me wonders whether it was really necessary, you know?