#but i genuinely did enjoy .karma files and i can't wait to see where both routes would lead to

[valkyrie-of-the-rising-sun]

general thoughts on karma files/favorite route?

...Well, damn, this is going to be a long answer. Putting everything under readmore in case it veers off into spoiler territory.

So I prefer the paragon route, generally speaking, but I can see why you guys might like the renegade route more.

What I know is from watching playthroughs of the renegade route on youtube, but the way the plot that route is leading towards does lowkey intrigue me. Especially how the two route exclusive(-ish?) characters are connected (from what I understood, after M2 attacked the MC's host in the Plane of Dissonance, she was spirited away by Karma and placed into the body of the renegade route's Melia while the paragon post-PM Melia somehow ended up in M2's original body where she wandered around for a bit with the MC's host until she was given the chance to return to the point where she left off. Not to mention that the paragon and renegade MCs seem to be in cahoots with each other, with the End of Night spell and the Red Chain trade).

.Karma files on the other hand? I absolutely adore it. I love how in the paragon route we get the chance to bond with the main cast, either through the main story or through sidequests like the Xenogene movie. And we finally get some well-needed Crescent lore! Before v13.5 I didn't really care much for her since she felt more like a plot device and deus ex machina to bail the MC out of tight spots than an actual character, but in the current version she feels more human and def way more involved (the part where she intervenes in Helojak was fucking awesome, have I ever mentioned that? And then there's also where you talk to her after the Valor Summit incident, which feels more... I don't know, real? At least it got me more invested in her than v13 did and maybe a smidgen of guilt).

Can I just say that Crescent is adorkable? She's now one of my top fav rejuv characters, right behind Erin.

And then there's the Renegade stuff. I don't really have much to say about the main story stuff, but the events leading to the final boss was... interesting, to say the least. Spacea and Tiempa were Interceptors from the era of the Old Earth, who later became Overseers of the System by merging with Palkia and Dialga respectively? So it does imply that they're either something like a prototype for the Interceptor MC, or they're only "Interceptors" in the sense that they were beings summoned from foreign worlds to serve as wildcards to give them an edge. The final part of the Missing Children sidequest does seem to give the second possibility some credence with V, who claimed to be an "Interceptor" by virtue of being from another world but since they weren't chosen by the System like the MC and Crescent did they had no real power beyond the ability to interfere with another's fate.

On an unrelated note, the space hags are fucking cheaters in both the Paragon and Renegade versions of their battle. It's a neat concept in theory, but in gameplay it makes me want to throttle them. Spacea steals your Pokemon and Tiempa (perhaps the most bs mechanic in rejuv imo) would fucking reset your team like how a player would spam f12 to get the rng in their favour. Maybe it's payback for us abusing tf out of the game's quicksave function, but it sure doesn't feel nice (in a humourous "Only I can heal in battle, not the NPC Bosses" kind of way).

tl;dr I think .Karma Files is awesome, and my fav route is the Paragon Route (Renegade is great too, and in some areas more fascinating that Paragon, but I just don't have the heart to do all that effed up stuff lmao)