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[krisistrying]

I need to ramble about A Plague Tale: Requiem

Man i have so many thoughts over a plague tale: requiem and i need to share them or write them down somewhere or I think i will aHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

the game is so good dude, like, holy shit. i loved innocence, i really did, but there were some aspects that were okay. ya know? like, sometimes i think there was this whole, "illusion of choice" thing present. like more than one way to get pass enemies but in truth there wasn't really.

but requiem? holy shit dude, requiem really dID give you a choice. I noticed it the MOMENT Lucas pointed out how Amicia (the player, technically) handled the situation, and the game showed 3 different like, skills that will develop depending on how you get by enemies. One for stealth, one for aggressiveness/fighting, and another that I don't really understand but I think it had to do with alchemy. And oh BOY WERE THERE CHOICES IN THIS GAME.

There's like, all kinds of different ways to get by enemies, 17 different PATHS, DUDE IT'S SO GOOD. HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK

the story, oH MY GOD, THE STORY WAS SO GOOD AND TRAGIC. I LOVED the new characters. I absolutely adored Sophia, though I wish they gave Arnaud a bit more screentime. With him we just snuck around and walked around town. With Sophia we like, spent a whole fucking day with her. The game did such a good job at establishing her character. Showing her traits and her thoughts and loyalty. My favorite being after she finds out about the rats, after she finds out about the curse, after she learns EVERYTHING, she STILL choses the kids. She still picks them. Still helps them. She stays by their side until the end and even more so then. GOD, it was so good, and I loved her character. And I'm sO HAPPY SHE DIDN'T DIE.

We didn't see much of Beatrice but one scene with her keeps replaying in my head. When the rats are taking over the town, and Amicia reaches Beatrice and Hugo. Beatrice watches the rats, believing, yet also hoping Amicia's words will reach Hugo in time. And there's a moment, where, she accepts the worst. Accepts the fate of herself and her children. And rather than panicking, rather than scolding Amicia, or telling her to hurry, she hugs them. She hugs her children. She wraps her arms around them and holds them close. Because if this is truly the end, she wants to be with her children.

Beatrice, in all her being and faults, is not a perfect mother. And to me, she didn't have enough screen time to me to truly make an opinion of the type of mother she is. Yet, I think about that scene a lot. Because to me, it shows that she loved Amicia and Hugo dearly. She closed her eyes, held her children, and accepted her fate.

I loved Lucas in this game, you can truly tell that he's a bit more mature. That's he's grown from the previous game, and even the stuff that happened in between the two games (because apparently there's books that go over events between the two games and the moment they get translated I am going to buy the sHIT OUT OF THEM).

I love how he was the balance in this game. He kept Amicia and Hugo, especially Amicia grounded. He calmed them down, comforted them, supported them, held them, he was their strength when they had nothing left.

If the world was being consumed by a hurricane, Lucas was the eye of the storm.

You could tell how much he loved Amicia and Hugo, how much they meant to him. In Innocence it was obvious that he cared for them after a while. But Requiem showed that he began to love them. That they mean everything to him. Maybe it's because Lucas is my favorite character, but it was so obvious that he thought of them as family. Or at least as something as strong as family. They meant everything to him, he loved them both so much. The De Rune were his world, and it hurts to think that he almost lost it, and in some cases, practically did lose it.

Amicia, holy shit Amicia, it's so obvious the effect the 1st game had on her, the consequences, the toll. Amicia is ready for everything to go wrong, but she still holds on to hope that maybe, just maybe it won't. She acts less like a young girl trying to survive and weighing her decisions, and more like an adult who is ready to do what is necessary even if she doesn't want to. And it hurts. It hurts to see what she has become, and to see how the 1st game has changed her. It hurts to see her deal with trauma at a time where stuff like that wasn't really discovered??? At least I don't think it was all that known.

And Hugo? God, Hugo. My poor boy. You can tell how much he wants to be like other kids, how much he wants friends, and peace. How tired he is, he's 5 years old and he's already tired. He hadn't even lived yet, the choice to live was stolen from him by selfish assholes. And it hurts to see how afraid he is of dying in the beginning only to reach the end and... It's just so.. Obvious that he knows what has to be done. That he knows he's going to die. And he's okay with it. Hugo has come to terms with it and it hurts. He's 5. FIVE. FIVE YEARS OLD. When I played Innocence for the first time, all I could think about was, "Hugo has never been outside, this is his 1st time outside. This is his first impression of the outside world. A beautiful yet cruel place" And that thought is still so strong in Requiem. And it hurts.

This game hurts, and it knows it hurts. It's a beautiful yet cruel game. And I love it.

I can't stop thinking about it. It's all I can think about. God, I fucking love this game.

When people would ask me, "What's your favorite game?" I never had an actual answer. I could answer my favorite video game franchise, but I've never had a favorite game before.

Now, though? Requiem changes that.

I adore this game. Replaying it now hurts, but something is missing now. And I know what it is.

I want to experience the game for the first time again. In all it's beauty and pain.

I've never felt that way about a game before. And I love it.

I love Requiem. In all it's being.

To think none of this would have happened if I hadn't stumbled upon a random video showing Innocence's gameplay.

I wouldn't change a thing though.