This review contains spoilers
SPOILERS AHEAD:
Where to begin with this...
I loved the first game, it was a very interesting proposal for a new saga, the mysteries it had were great, the characters were cool, the story was engaging. It had its issues, of course, but I still enjoyed it very much.
Nirvana Initiative, on the other hand, is very conflictive for me. Aspects like music and graphics are excellent, I have no comments there, so let's focus on the story, characters, pacing, etc.
My main issue with this game is as follows: while the big plot twist was amazing and I was very surprised by it, its very nature leads to the first half (ha) of the game having bad pacing, confusing story, and weird character interactions.
Ryuki being an unreliable narrator is not bad, but then they barely do anything else with him after Mizuki takes over, I felt disappointed with that. The main villain, Tearer, has his identity revealed in the first half and that's it, there's not much else to do with him and then you realize he is actually dead already, so there's not even a confrontation with him. Then there's the no spoiler policy, this reeeeeeally hurt the game, especially with the interactions between the old cast and the new one.
I felt like many of the games moments weren't earned, but rather, shoehorned, for example, Komeji and Shoma having an ending for the sake of having one like Ota and his mom in the first game, or everything about Lien and Kizuna's relationship.
Finally, the Somniums. I'm afraid to say that they are mostly a big step down from what Somniums were in the first game. In the first game they were these dreamy sequences that had lots of options and ways to interact, but here they (not all of them) are very linear or have no room for diversion. The very second Somnium is easily the worst Somnium in both games by far, it literally has basically nothing that makes a Somnium, it instead is a linear sequence that drags and drags.
All in all, I feel like in the quest for explaining the twist, many of the game's elements HAD to suffer, and I don't know if it was worth it in the end. Not all is bad though, it does have its great moments, emotional moments, funny moments, but they aren't enough to "justify" the bad moments it does have.
Where to begin with this...
I loved the first game, it was a very interesting proposal for a new saga, the mysteries it had were great, the characters were cool, the story was engaging. It had its issues, of course, but I still enjoyed it very much.
Nirvana Initiative, on the other hand, is very conflictive for me. Aspects like music and graphics are excellent, I have no comments there, so let's focus on the story, characters, pacing, etc.
My main issue with this game is as follows: while the big plot twist was amazing and I was very surprised by it, its very nature leads to the first half (ha) of the game having bad pacing, confusing story, and weird character interactions.
Ryuki being an unreliable narrator is not bad, but then they barely do anything else with him after Mizuki takes over, I felt disappointed with that. The main villain, Tearer, has his identity revealed in the first half and that's it, there's not much else to do with him and then you realize he is actually dead already, so there's not even a confrontation with him. Then there's the no spoiler policy, this reeeeeeally hurt the game, especially with the interactions between the old cast and the new one.
I felt like many of the games moments weren't earned, but rather, shoehorned, for example, Komeji and Shoma having an ending for the sake of having one like Ota and his mom in the first game, or everything about Lien and Kizuna's relationship.
Finally, the Somniums. I'm afraid to say that they are mostly a big step down from what Somniums were in the first game. In the first game they were these dreamy sequences that had lots of options and ways to interact, but here they (not all of them) are very linear or have no room for diversion. The very second Somnium is easily the worst Somnium in both games by far, it literally has basically nothing that makes a Somnium, it instead is a linear sequence that drags and drags.
All in all, I feel like in the quest for explaining the twist, many of the game's elements HAD to suffer, and I don't know if it was worth it in the end. Not all is bad though, it does have its great moments, emotional moments, funny moments, but they aren't enough to "justify" the bad moments it does have.
Reviewed on Sep 26, 2022