This review contains spoilers
The Pursuit of Moths is our opening to the Season of Adoration. The season is about "love of all kinds from friendship to worship". This serves as a fairly cynical introduction to the theme. All the characters are motivated by some form of love or adoration, and all those relationships are unhealthy and destructive.
You get involved in a club formed entirely around the works of a specific street artist, the Moth-cloaked Vandal. The Vandal is making highly illegal graffiti art of Correspondence sigils around the city, using them to draw in Frost-Moths, one of the many stranger life-forms that only exist in the Neath. The club all claim an interest in the Vandal as an artist, and have analyses of here meaning, but all (or at least most) of these are put-ons.
As you investigate the Vandal together, all the other members find reasons to reveal their secrets to you, with the hope you'll help them achieve their real goals. One is an undercover agent for the Ministry of Public Decency and wants to arrest the Vandal. One is a Revolutionary who wants revenge for the Vandal deserting the cause. The final member is her father, and a Snuffer, who wants to reconcile an extremely troubled family history. The founder of the group is more 'sincere' if that's the word, in admiration for the Vandal's art, but that also get's dark.
The Vandal herself also turns out to be somewhat fanatical. She knows about the existence of the Judgements, and that her own parentage makes her "Shameful", condemned by the Judgements for being outside of their design. The Frostmoths are like this as well, and so she is gathering as many as she can to take to the surface to offer up, along with herself, as a sacrifice, knowing that she won't be given salvation.
The Vandal is interesting because you learn broad swaths about her background, but don't know the details. She must have all this information based on how she's making her decisions, but which parts had she known and been willing to live with, and which was the final straw that made her abandon the revolutionary cause for this self-destructive end is left up in the air.
All the characters have some overriding motivation that drives their actions, love for a cause, for the rule of law, for family, for art, for god. Everyone dearly wants something from the Vandal, and it's never something she wants to give. Including the player, if you want her to live. It's hard to judge, but it's quite possible this story is impossible to end bloodlessly, and likely if you did there would be at least as many unsatisfied people as in one of the many ends where at least one is dead.
At the time of playing this felt like a very strong indictment of "adoration", but considering it in hindsight it maybe feels like it's more that you're arriving too late, that any of the characters might have been reconciled with each other but they have gone past the point of no return. I'm not sure exactly. It definitely came off as rather bleak, but I would still say it was satisfying to play.
You get involved in a club formed entirely around the works of a specific street artist, the Moth-cloaked Vandal. The Vandal is making highly illegal graffiti art of Correspondence sigils around the city, using them to draw in Frost-Moths, one of the many stranger life-forms that only exist in the Neath. The club all claim an interest in the Vandal as an artist, and have analyses of here meaning, but all (or at least most) of these are put-ons.
As you investigate the Vandal together, all the other members find reasons to reveal their secrets to you, with the hope you'll help them achieve their real goals. One is an undercover agent for the Ministry of Public Decency and wants to arrest the Vandal. One is a Revolutionary who wants revenge for the Vandal deserting the cause. The final member is her father, and a Snuffer, who wants to reconcile an extremely troubled family history. The founder of the group is more 'sincere' if that's the word, in admiration for the Vandal's art, but that also get's dark.
The Vandal herself also turns out to be somewhat fanatical. She knows about the existence of the Judgements, and that her own parentage makes her "Shameful", condemned by the Judgements for being outside of their design. The Frostmoths are like this as well, and so she is gathering as many as she can to take to the surface to offer up, along with herself, as a sacrifice, knowing that she won't be given salvation.
The Vandal is interesting because you learn broad swaths about her background, but don't know the details. She must have all this information based on how she's making her decisions, but which parts had she known and been willing to live with, and which was the final straw that made her abandon the revolutionary cause for this self-destructive end is left up in the air.
All the characters have some overriding motivation that drives their actions, love for a cause, for the rule of law, for family, for art, for god. Everyone dearly wants something from the Vandal, and it's never something she wants to give. Including the player, if you want her to live. It's hard to judge, but it's quite possible this story is impossible to end bloodlessly, and likely if you did there would be at least as many unsatisfied people as in one of the many ends where at least one is dead.
At the time of playing this felt like a very strong indictment of "adoration", but considering it in hindsight it maybe feels like it's more that you're arriving too late, that any of the characters might have been reconciled with each other but they have gone past the point of no return. I'm not sure exactly. It definitely came off as rather bleak, but I would still say it was satisfying to play.