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bleepbloo · 2 years ago

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In Stars and Time Review/Rant

Spoiler Warning, and full disclosure, I spoiled myself on the ending, and some of the parts, and I gave up on it. Just FYI.

I want to start this off by saying this isn't a bad game.

The core of the gameplay loop, combat, characters, soundtrack, and basic story narrative - all work within the bounds of the game and the narrative.

But I have some (big) issues with it.

But first the basic plot:

(Spoilers and full review under the cut.)

Edited on 1/3/2024 to finish the sentences I missed and correct spelling

The basic plot goes like this. You are Siffer, a rogue in an adventuring party that needs to take down the King that had come out of nowhere to threaten the country, because the King has been freezing people in time to protect the country.

You make a wish, and then - after entering the he dies in the deadly room due to a trap, before resetting back to when you started the game, laying down on the grass. There's a Star that informs you that you are stuck in a timeloop, and that they (the star) informs you that they are there to help and be an ear to you.

Eventually you do beat the king, time resets, and Sif is back where he started; clearly, defeating the King doesn't work by itself, so clearly there must be something else you have to try.

During the entirety of the time loops, not once does Sif communicate with his party about the situation. Eventually, you reach a breaking point, lashing out at your friends in a flawed attempt to rush things along, and go on to take the King down by yourself, because there's nothing else left for you to try.

The party - with help from the star - was able to follow and locate you, and it all culminates in a big moment where the pressure valve is released and it's revealed that Sif wished to be able to spend more time with his friends, his family.

And it's a big moment, because he's finally communicating with the team, and they're with him, he's with them, and the story ends there.

By itself, with the gameplay being as tight as it is, that is not that bad.

The combat is basically rock, paper, scissors, with each member of the four party members have some utility towards that, and it's really good! The fast forward and looping mechanics are also handled well, and it just ties everything together nicely, on a surface level.

What bothers me is the set dressing, it's the extra details thrown in, it's the King's backstory, it's Sif's backstory, and it's an NPC who sometimes does and does not have a sister-

Because a sizable element to the story is that there are things Sif cannot read, there's an NPC who's sister left to go to a foreign country but the NPC can't remember the name of it before the world resets itself to allow the NPC to be an only child, and the King mentioning - when you beat him - that he can't go, because he can't say the name of it yet.

As you go through the game, it's revealed that there is an island that just - straight up and down, unironically, disappeared from the world, within the last eight years in game story, given that Bonnie - youngest member of the party who's about 11 or 12 at most - is able to remember people talking about it for weeks when it happened. What's more, is that no one is able to remember anything from the island. Not the culture, the language can't be read, and - most telling of all - the name of the island cannot be said. It's both implied and then outright confirmed that the King and Sif are both from that island, hence why the King is trying to hard to preserve the closest neighbor and why Sif has no real past to speak of, because they can't say/remember their home; that NPC's sister I mentioned earlier? The NPC's sister was almost certainly on that island when it disappeared.

Additionally, remember when I mentioned earlier

The Head Priestess, she would - after to talking to Sif, thanking him for his help - immediately state that the world was 'breaking apart' that the world was dying prior to Sif resetting back to the grass.

There was also a tiny detail of like the world not having color as it disappeared slowly, day by day, until it was just gone and the world was in black and white.

All this, in my mind, while I was playing it, was building up to us being able to bring back the island, bring back color, and basically fix the world of whatever was wrong with it.

I was in the later half of Act three at this point? And that's when I looked up a video, just to try and find where the secret room was.

It's ten hours long, but it was the only one up at the moment, and beggars couldn't have been choosers.

So I watched it, at the point where Sif and Mirabelle were talking and saw where it ended at like Sif talking to the Head Priestess, at the very end of the game.

And I was hyped! I was like, wow, what an ending, the art direction was sound, the music was nailed, everything was very cool and interesting and I couldn't want to wake up the next day to get to it myself.

But I kept turning, turning, and turning it over in my head, and the more I did that, the more I was realizing - I don't really like how it ended. Maybe I had too high expectations, maybe if I had actually played it through to that point I would have seen the vision, but like.

Why were those extra details in there that didn't amount to much? Because like. The island - everything about it, from it being unable to be named, from it just disappearing one day, from the NPC's sister who was on the island country when it was wiped from existence - didn't actually come back? Like. That's still not fixed? Not to mention the chehov's guns that never fired. I mean, yes, the team was there for Sif, but none of them were ever able to realize something was wrong with Sif, at least not to the point of actually confronting him about it until the last go around (there were hints, but there was never any follow through, again, from the point I played and the point I watched - I fully realize I missed things as a result of my skimming).

The King was unable to say it's name, even as he died/was frozen in time?

Sif still doesn't remember any of his past - and he can't remember the island/old home at all, or his own childhood, because the island is still gone! The block is still there! There's no explanation for why that happened to begin with!

And the NPC's sister is still also gone! The NPC will never fully remember their own sister, because the foreign country she went to was wiped from the world and from memory! The color is still gone! Why include what the Head Priestess said about the world rotting and being corrupted when it was just the wish magic functioning? Shouldn't she have been able to do or say something different when Sif interacted with her?

Like, ok, the color thing about colors fading from the world - cute detail, nothing crazy.

The book series in the world - nice detail, not much to mention.

It's the disappearing island that is the biggest offender of this. That is the one thing that needs to gtfo, that's the one detail that is PLOT RELEVANT and stupid!

(Edit: I failed to mention; it's only not the island disappearing part I have an that much of an issue with, it's more the context I take issue with more. The fact that not only was the island was just gone, but that anything even tangentially related to it were suppressed, from the language, to the culture, to the memory of it, to the extent anyone that was still on the island was forgotten about, except in tangential glimpses and stone hops. And that's not going to the people that actually LIVED on the island, like the King and Sif, where they can't remember their past - their parents, their friends, their loves, the food that comforts them - ANYTHING, it's suppressed and rewritten over by the universe. That is demented - that is dark and heavy sci-fi dystopian level stuff, and for the take away to be 'let it go'? To forget the crumbs that you have of your life before, your family, the life you lived, the decisions you made? I don't know, that feels bad, and that doesn't feel satisfying to me, particularly. I admit bias here. Especially because that one NPC, even after everything, won't be able to remember their sister, whom they clearly really really loved.)

If you've read this far, come take a walk with me down a hypothetical scenario, on another path.

Consider if you will, instead of just - fucking disappearing and being blocked from memory for some reason that is NEVER EXPLAINED - it is instead destroyed by nature (think Earthquake and/or Tsunami). Many people die, the island is just destroyed/gone, and what's left of the people get scattered to the winds because who wants to live by the place where your life was destroyed?

And that way, it be less about this weird block on the memory and more about Sif actively avoiding any mention of his old home or Sif not remembering the name of his old home due to trauma, and the King's motivation would make more sense; he wants to protect the people of his country that still exist, and the majority of them are in the main story's country, as well as preventing any changing nature to affect the country that houses most of the people! ( I don't care enough to look up the name)

It would have been 1) more fulfilling, imo, 2) would have given him more depth and more of a religious crisis, 3) he would have to confront the King, this person from the home he can barely remember, every time, and kill a real part of his past, 4) it would give him more reason to want to not lose the family he currently has because he's already gone through it once, 5) It would actually be relatable to people who have/are currently losing their culture to time and just not being able to practice it, 6) it wouldn't be so fucking bizarre!

And the fact that it didn't is...not bad? The developers were still able to tell the story they wanted to. And on a basic character level and overarching, they did succeed, I won't discredit them that! But like. The setting lore - feels like cardboard, like you poke at the setting hard enough it'll break. Especially with the disappearing island that's just- blocked from people's memories, again, for reasons that the story never explains how or why that even happened. Especially with all the other details in the game it's just. Bad. It tastes like Ash.

TD;LR: This game is not a bad game, but it's not internally strong enough to be considered Indie peaks like Hades, Slay the Princess, Undertale, and I personally would not recommend the game.

#in stars and time #in stars and time spoilers #isat spoilers #isat #bleepbloo thoughts

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bleepbloo · 2 years ago

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So I'm no longer into the Second Citadel, but I want to Rant

Basically what the title says. This point will be divided into two parts: What made me ultimately give up listening to the show, and the spoilers I was made aware of due to the latest episode dropping.

Td;lr: I wouldn't recommend listening to the Second Citadel; you're only going to be disappointed.

So, let's start with the season 3. I'll be blunt and admit that I never listened to it, but I did read the transcripts and know the ending to the season.

Namely, Caroline leaves her position as Captain of SC, taking Olala, Quanyii, A'le, and Angelo with her.

Now, I did like Olala, as a character and as a concept, because she was cute, and brought something new to the world, but I wasn't the biggest fan of this move on Caroline's part; especially since the previous season she had just stated that "She had found peace there", but I was ultimately accepting of it, mostly because I knew Kevin was struggling.

Look, if you listen to the commentary tracks and listen to the storylines, you can TELL Kevin has a hard time writing multiple characters at once and keeping track of the plotlines. Which, fair, that's not a easy skill to master, especially with what is regarded as a ensemble cast.

But, at the time, I had had faith towards Kevin as a creator; I had thought that he would have been able to handle it well. Send Caroline away with the new cast, let them have adventures we can catch up on; we can then refocus on the other members of the cast!

Like Marc, who had finally become a knight, but was still struggling in his role, what did he face in his day to day? Was it actually what he wanted, or just the best way to gain respect and be treated as a 'normal man'?

Or Tal, who still needed to talk to Marc about what he wanted, or more importantly, what he didn't want in life, which was being a knight? How was he going to bring up the conversation? What would end up being the breaking point for him?

Or the Bonquet, still trying to work things out together? Or the Queen, trying to rule in a time of famine? Or Absolum? And finally figuring out what was up with Dampierre?

That didn't happen.

Instead, I found out that there was a timeskip of multiple years, and we were still focused on Caroline and her merry band.

I don't mind Caroline as a character, but why were we still focused on her? She - in an ensemble cast - had gotten PLENTY of her own episodes last season, alongside Angelo and Quanyi. Also, there was no mention or show of the characters we had previously known in the first part of the series. What happened to them? Did they all get killed by the Citadel?? Also, having briefly read the wiki to part 1 of the Perils, why was Angelo saying he had only learned to enjoy reading with Olala, when in S2, he openly read stories to Damien? Did he not actually like reading to Damien?

Hey, Kevin? Why did Angelo tell Olala that he had had sex with A'le? Why is an adult man talking about his sex life to a teenager? Why is that a thing the wiki fucking says for Perils part 1? How is that even remotely ok?

The thing that really upset me, and made me drop in it's entirety was the fact that in portion of the transcript I read - Angelo never mentioned talking to Damien within the opening paragraphs.

His best friend? His favorite rival that he pulled out a tree for? That they read stories to each other? Hugged? Angelo being terrified when Damien handed him the letter to give to Rilla if he had died?? Those two guys??

And not once, in the many years, did either of them try to find each other, send each other letters, or even WONDER about each other?

I don't know if any one has a best friend before, but like, you tend to worry about them if you haven't heard from them in a while. It would probably be worse if there wasn't a way to instantly get in contact with them; they don't have phones in the Second Citadel.

And Damien IS an anxious worry-wart; he worried about his friendship with Angelo when he had given him a tree that was ONLY two feet tall? (Or was it too men tall? Can't remember, point still stands.)

Like. If you have listened to the second season of SC, with Damien's mind constantly going and assuming the worst, having to see certain things with his own eyes whether or not Angelo was ok -

You are very good at LYING to yourself.

Also, that's a hell of a long time for the things to be left behind, especially with the various event flags set up the previous season; such as, the war the monsters were attempting to kickstart, the huge bug that had just been hatching out (that could possibly have had functioning wings!!!), Dampierre, the lack of resources regarding wood and the famine previously mention, how Marc and Rilla's relationship was doing after she lost Olala (whether Olala had left willingly or not, Rilla still lost something Marc had entrusted her with, which is bad), Dampierre, what it meant to be a god in this world, the Kite and him being a former knight, the other missing Golden Age Knights, Dampierre, the previous characters mentioned in the previous season, the Saints and their whole deal, and did I mention Dampierre?

There's more, but, I think you get the idea.

That was not a problem with the characters or the world itself; that's an issue with the writer, and I was (fortunate to have) recognized that.

If the writer couldn't care enough about the characters to keep their characterization straight, why would - or, more importantly, should - I care?

That was the point I dropped SC, and the penumbra podcast as a whole.

Like, I had liked Juno Steel when I had listened to it, but SC had scratched an itch I didn't even know I had.

And now it had given me a rash.

For a time, that was it, that was all it was. I hadn't kept up with SC at all, and unfollowed a lot of the SC blogs I used to follow.

Then I happened to hear about the latest episode

And boy, a lot of the feelings I had regarding it came rushing back

And all the questions I had had nearly two years ago were still present!

Not once was it ever addressed Marc's ascension to knighthood and how he was dealing with that!

Not once was Tal able to talk to Marc1

Not once did Rilla kiss her Lizard!!!

So much is still left unanswered!

And it's still left unanswered!

We don't know who Marc and Tal's mom is, if their dad is even still alive, if Rilla's Parents are still alive, why Absolum has such a hate boner for Marc, whether Mira is actually a Lesbian or just trying to be a Good Ally (TM), how Caroline and Quanyii even met, whether or not Rilla and Damien will even be married TO EACH OTHER, much less Arum, how did Arum know so much about humans to begin with, what Angelo is - something like Olala or a monster wearing a human skin - and how come he's so strong,

or even at the bare FUCKING MINIMUM, how magic even works in this world!

And it's been three years since the show started! I shouldn't have to wonder about how magic works!! or have to wonder about monster society!! Like was Arum special because he had the Keep, or was he just given the title recently - in the story - for his work against the humans??? What separates Arum as a Lord versus the other monsters? Is it his intelligence? The Keep? The fact that he can talk? I don't know! I shouldn't still have this question, BUT HERE WE FUCKING ARE, I GUESS.

Honestly, I would have preferred an entirely new cast of characters working with Olala, because at least then, we could have gotten more world lore!

I am just now reminded of it, but we never got an explanation for why there was a monster sneaking into the Citadel, just to try and kill Damien. There were a lot of theories and talks about it, to which I contributed to in the discord, but we never actually got an explanation for why that happened. Did the monster consul send out a hit-job for Damien? Is Damien regarded as something like a demon to the monsters? What about Rilla? Are monsters scared of her for her closeness to Damien? Is Arum dating the SC equivalent of John Wick (Damien) and Hannibal (Rilla) to his people? I don't know!

The show never gave us the answers to begin with.

And it never fucking will, because all the answers and any legitimate care for the show, has been shot out in an airplane, into the night sky, like a shooting star.

And it is burning itself to the ground.

This is no long a Second Citadel blog anymore.

#anti tpp #second citadel spoilers #bleepbloo thoughts

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