Review of MAMIYA -DoomsDay Dreams-
| Subject | MAMIYA -DoomsDay Dreams- MAMIYA - DoomsDay Dreams- |
| By | Helpfulness: 1 Vote: 7PapaEthanF on 2024-11-11 last updated on 2024-11-12 |
| Review | DoomsDay Dreams (which I will abbreviate as DDD) is an acceptable—although not exceptional—conclusion to the story of MAMIYA. Much of the excellent presentation from the first two parts of the story (FallDown and Downfall) carries over to DDD, but also slightly worsens in some aspects. The stock-yet-well-curated nature of the soundtrack persists with many of the songs returning in DDD, but some new inclusions dilute its high quality. In particular, a few new overbearing electronic songs and songs with vocals were so distracting that they often made it difficult for me to focus on reading when they would play. On the other hand, the visuals in DDD continue to be stunning, although there were a few lackluster CGs, and the new sprites for some of the characters were somewhat incongruous with their original sprites. Overall, DDD's presentation, while still great, is not as consistent as it was in FallDown and Downfall. As for the story, DDD continues from the cliffhanger ending of Downfall with the protagonist rebounding from its shocking events. Following a brief prologue, the story branches into two halves—DayDreams and DoomsDay—that each focus on an interconnected story between Ryou & Keito and Minato & Haruki, respectively. (Each character has their own route within these interconnected stories as well.) Given that DDD is as long as FallDown and Downfall combined, these routes were an opportunity to explore and fill in some of the glossed over details about the four members of the main cast. However, the results of that were mixed, and the splitting of the cast took away many of the group interactions that made the first two parts of MAMIYA so enjoyable. DayDreams—Ryou and Keito's story—retreads much of what we already knew about them from MAMIYA's first two parts. There is a new plot with new events happening to them,—and it does contain some emotionally wrenching moments—but it doesn't reveal much new about their personalities or the struggles they went through. They simply get over them by the end of the story, apropos of nothing. Fortunately, DoomsDay—Minato and Haruki's story—does expand on their backstories and personalities. We learn a lot more about both characters' personal lives and some small details about them that were mentioned but not fully explored in previous sections of MAMIYA. Haruki's route in particular employs a motif that, when repeated at emotional high points during his story, made his route so much more impactful. All in all, the conclusions to both Haruki and Minato's stories develops much more naturally and is much more satisfying than those of Ryou and Keito. Finally, the ending to DDD—and the story of MAMIYA as a whole—kind of just happens; I found the conclusion to the story acceptable, but it felt lackluster compared to what I was hoping for. After finishing all four character routes, the true route unlocks. It begins with a twist that felt like it came out of nowhere and was only included to ramp up the stakes for the final route. But, taking the twist as a given, the way it's resolved is done well. There's also an alternate ending that unlocks if you gather all of the bonus scenes in the extras menu, and I thought that ending resonated much more with the overall themes of MAMIYA. Although, I think some combination of the true ending and the alternate ending would have made for the best possible conclusion to the story. In conclusion, DoomsDay Dreams presents a fine, if somewhat lacking, conclusion to MAMIYA. Its characters are as great as ever, as is its presentation. Although the latter is marginally worse than in the first two parts of the story, and DDD's writing leaves not a lot, but at least a little to be desired |
| 1 point |