Amazing game! Brilliant space opera. It's definitely a Makoto Shinkai film plus Dune, like that one reviewer said. It's the perfect way to describe this visual novel(?). Sigono games are always really endearing. I'm excited to see what they're going to create in the future, their games are only getting better.
Anyway, about the game. I like the interesting game over mechanic where when you die you get taken back to the real world of Old Jun remembering his past, dismissing it as him just misremembering the story or else he wouldn't be there today. I thought it was really clever, and a unique way to do a game over. Assassin's Creed did something similar but yet different with the Animus and you "desynchronizing" if you made a mistake in your memories.
Speaking of game overs, I loved all the ways you could get one. I love making bad decisions in games just to see what happens. You can't put a United Mining military station there and think I WON'T go there.
I found all the characters of the game interesting and fully-fleshed out. The flashbacks were amazing. They really gave us context behind the motivations and personalities of our main cast. It was like a well-crafted movie but in video game form so you're the one making the choices. Jun being a crybaby was hilarious and it was obvious Eda was kind to him the entire game just because she liked him. Remi hating on Jun was something I never got tired of, it was hilarious and such a funny relationship (until it climaxed to putting Jun's life in danger, then it wasn't funny anymore. That tonal shift was great). Eda was the only one who seemed like she didn't mature as she remained stubborn in wanting to find her master until the very end, never listening to her that she needed to be her own person. But I realized that characters don't have to have perfect character arcs, that's boring. It's nice once in a while to see a character do something unexpected and not change, to remain stubborn. It's what makes the character them.
Speaking of the ending, wow. That was such a great ending. Sometimes the painful ending is more powerful than the happy one. I know for sure the ending, which was basically revealed at the beginning of the game, made a lot of people very sad. Like an "all that for nothing" type of moment. You're telling me we spent the whole game watching these two fall in love and they never got to be together? That's rough. And there's a second lumen war? And Remi never becomes happy? Nothing changed since the start. It's depressing to see the permanence of the characters and their situations, but sometimes that is real life, and things don't go your way. Especially in a world where life is tough for everybody after the war.
The ending speaks something bittersweet about the idea of patience being important in life to make things go your way. If Eda had listened to Jun and waited for Phoenix to circle the galaxy and come back, they would be able to find it 66 years later and she would be old with Jun. But the point was she had no idea if she would ever get that sort of closure, and so the story sends the lesson that you shouldn't wait for your dreams. She found her master early but ended up stranded and died alone, but she did get her dream accomplished. So it's an open-ended debate whether going out and taking what you want is the right way to live life (but you will have to make some sacrifices), or to play the long game and have patience and things will eventually come your way. There is the interpersonal aspect too of waiting for people to catch up to you, or going ahead with your dreams and losing those people, but it's fine because you'll always be emotionally connected (if you are fine with that eternal physical distance), in this game told as a metaphor with the cosmic blue resource with conscious properties.
Anyway, speaking of Jun and Eda's romance, it can be boring as the whole game they are frustratingly, perpetually stuck in a will-they-won't-they where it's obviously clear to us, and to all the other characters in the story, that they love each other but they're just too awkward to act on it and only get flustered at the thought of the other leaving. But at the same time it's fresh and it lowkey reflects real life romance as well. You don't want to be too melodramatic or show emotion or act too clingy for fear of scaring the other person away, even when you both know you love each other. That being said, the ending still fell into the trap of being too melodramatic though. It really could have been toned down a bit, and it would have been an improvement.
I loved all the bits and pieces of lore, that of which I didn't even collect all of but only a majority, scattered across the solar system for you to find. The game really respects those that want to explore its world. I thought the lore was really fleshed out and well done. The story of the Lumen War and United Mining's imperial conquest vs big factions and rebel workers. The Myrian mythology of worshipping the sun and planets as gods. All of it was very interesting to me and I didn't get tired of reading every piece of lore.
I loved the random encounters while travelling in between asteroids. They reflected the state of their world, how it's so hard to trust anybody. It's always a gamble to help people or attack them first. It creates a culture of distrust. The game was really effective in making you feel that.
Anyway, artstyle-wise, this game is just beautiful to look at. Like a Makoto Shinkai film, as mentioned earlier. All the art was fantastic, and the 3D sections looked amazing too. The sound design is, as it was marketed and as it should be, gorgeous as well. The soundtrack was profound and memorable. The sound effects were high-quality.
The voice acting of the Full Bloom edition is a bit disappointing because not every line is voiced over, leading to a disconnect of experience, but the lines that were voiced were really good. But, well, they just weren't in English. I couldn't understand them. But at least I could feel their emotion. My one wish is to get the full game voice acted in English (please).
Anyway, gameplay-wise this game doesn't have much going on but for me it isn't a flaw because I totally understand what this game is trying to do. It's meant to be an interactive experience, it's not trying to blow your mind mechanically or anything pretentious like that. The puzzles are clearly not meant to be anything difficult, I don't get the people who complain about that. It's not trying to be anything it's not. It's just what it is. And for what it is, I really enjoyed it. Enough so to make it one of my favourite games ever. It was a wild, emotional ride from start to finish and I was really engaged in the story and the lives of the characters. This is a game I would recommend to anybody period.
Anyway, about the game. I like the interesting game over mechanic where when you die you get taken back to the real world of Old Jun remembering his past, dismissing it as him just misremembering the story or else he wouldn't be there today. I thought it was really clever, and a unique way to do a game over. Assassin's Creed did something similar but yet different with the Animus and you "desynchronizing" if you made a mistake in your memories.
Speaking of game overs, I loved all the ways you could get one. I love making bad decisions in games just to see what happens. You can't put a United Mining military station there and think I WON'T go there.
I found all the characters of the game interesting and fully-fleshed out. The flashbacks were amazing. They really gave us context behind the motivations and personalities of our main cast. It was like a well-crafted movie but in video game form so you're the one making the choices. Jun being a crybaby was hilarious and it was obvious Eda was kind to him the entire game just because she liked him. Remi hating on Jun was something I never got tired of, it was hilarious and such a funny relationship (until it climaxed to putting Jun's life in danger, then it wasn't funny anymore. That tonal shift was great). Eda was the only one who seemed like she didn't mature as she remained stubborn in wanting to find her master until the very end, never listening to her that she needed to be her own person. But I realized that characters don't have to have perfect character arcs, that's boring. It's nice once in a while to see a character do something unexpected and not change, to remain stubborn. It's what makes the character them.
Speaking of the ending, wow. That was such a great ending. Sometimes the painful ending is more powerful than the happy one. I know for sure the ending, which was basically revealed at the beginning of the game, made a lot of people very sad. Like an "all that for nothing" type of moment. You're telling me we spent the whole game watching these two fall in love and they never got to be together? That's rough. And there's a second lumen war? And Remi never becomes happy? Nothing changed since the start. It's depressing to see the permanence of the characters and their situations, but sometimes that is real life, and things don't go your way. Especially in a world where life is tough for everybody after the war.
The ending speaks something bittersweet about the idea of patience being important in life to make things go your way. If Eda had listened to Jun and waited for Phoenix to circle the galaxy and come back, they would be able to find it 66 years later and she would be old with Jun. But the point was she had no idea if she would ever get that sort of closure, and so the story sends the lesson that you shouldn't wait for your dreams. She found her master early but ended up stranded and died alone, but she did get her dream accomplished. So it's an open-ended debate whether going out and taking what you want is the right way to live life (but you will have to make some sacrifices), or to play the long game and have patience and things will eventually come your way. There is the interpersonal aspect too of waiting for people to catch up to you, or going ahead with your dreams and losing those people, but it's fine because you'll always be emotionally connected (if you are fine with that eternal physical distance), in this game told as a metaphor with the cosmic blue resource with conscious properties.
Anyway, speaking of Jun and Eda's romance, it can be boring as the whole game they are frustratingly, perpetually stuck in a will-they-won't-they where it's obviously clear to us, and to all the other characters in the story, that they love each other but they're just too awkward to act on it and only get flustered at the thought of the other leaving. But at the same time it's fresh and it lowkey reflects real life romance as well. You don't want to be too melodramatic or show emotion or act too clingy for fear of scaring the other person away, even when you both know you love each other. That being said, the ending still fell into the trap of being too melodramatic though. It really could have been toned down a bit, and it would have been an improvement.
I loved all the bits and pieces of lore, that of which I didn't even collect all of but only a majority, scattered across the solar system for you to find. The game really respects those that want to explore its world. I thought the lore was really fleshed out and well done. The story of the Lumen War and United Mining's imperial conquest vs big factions and rebel workers. The Myrian mythology of worshipping the sun and planets as gods. All of it was very interesting to me and I didn't get tired of reading every piece of lore.
I loved the random encounters while travelling in between asteroids. They reflected the state of their world, how it's so hard to trust anybody. It's always a gamble to help people or attack them first. It creates a culture of distrust. The game was really effective in making you feel that.
Anyway, artstyle-wise, this game is just beautiful to look at. Like a Makoto Shinkai film, as mentioned earlier. All the art was fantastic, and the 3D sections looked amazing too. The sound design is, as it was marketed and as it should be, gorgeous as well. The soundtrack was profound and memorable. The sound effects were high-quality.
The voice acting of the Full Bloom edition is a bit disappointing because not every line is voiced over, leading to a disconnect of experience, but the lines that were voiced were really good. But, well, they just weren't in English. I couldn't understand them. But at least I could feel their emotion. My one wish is to get the full game voice acted in English (please).
Anyway, gameplay-wise this game doesn't have much going on but for me it isn't a flaw because I totally understand what this game is trying to do. It's meant to be an interactive experience, it's not trying to blow your mind mechanically or anything pretentious like that. The puzzles are clearly not meant to be anything difficult, I don't get the people who complain about that. It's not trying to be anything it's not. It's just what it is. And for what it is, I really enjoyed it. Enough so to make it one of my favourite games ever. It was a wild, emotional ride from start to finish and I was really engaged in the story and the lives of the characters. This is a game I would recommend to anybody period.