#1 by plisken
2022-09-14 at 19:50 | < report >The romance flags do have some bearing on the story prior to Liberation Day, and will have an effect in the next chapter, Captain's Return, as well.
Essentially Liberation Day was something that needed to happen in the story. It had been building toward it since day one. Some people felt, well, betrayed by the betrayal/death, but it was inevitable.
Also Chigara isn't as dead as you think. Her will and consciousness still exist among the other clones, as evidenced by L7NN suddenly having a conscience and saving the captain's life at the last minute. As she was the main villain of Mask of Arcadius, doing something like that would have been completely out of character ... without Chigara's influence.
Also, if you had played all the way through, you would have gotten to the DLC, where you're given the choice of who to romance. Asaga is one of the options, but certainly not a requirement. Not to mention the sexual attraction that almost EVERYONE in his crew has for him - even the complete tsundere Icari. This is a teaser of things to come.
Basically, your criticisms are largely on the story, and it's mainly due to misunderstanding the plot. I'd say the biggest failure of Liberation Day isn't the story, as it's only one chapter of the story, and certainly not the conclusion. The biggest failure is, by far, the gameplay. Seriously, what the hell happened to the coding in this game? It somehow runs worse than the first game, and their idea of ramping up difficulty is to throw as many enemy units at you as possible. It's such a mess that it turned the experience from being a relatively enjoyable space opera VN into a nightmare of a slog.
The developers have promised a totally revamped gameplay experience with an in-house engine for the game parts, so hopefully they'll deliver.
P.S. What the hell is up with the Japanese voice acting, anyway? Given that this is a Western made VN, it makes no sense other than to appeal to weebs. The English voiceovers were perfectly fine and fit the characters. The switch was stupid, to say the least. |
#2 by SomeDude
2022-09-14 at 22:54 | < report >I'm aware of the DLC date routes, and I'm also aware that they're not canon to the main story... they're essentially just fanservice and a way to apologize to fans for betraying them the way they did in Liberation Day. Love in Space announced that Captain's Return will follow after the events of Liberation Day, not the events of the date route expansion DLC, so Chigara is still dead.
And there's zero excuse for Asagi's betrayal, where she tried to murder her best friend. Throughout the first two volumes, she's portrayed as a true hero who would do anything to save her friends... whether or not they have sex with her crush.
Plus, the H-scene from Liberation Day, if you can even call it that, is bad. Like, really bad. Anyway, there's a reason this game bombed so well... most of the fans either didn't like Chigara and didn't want to be railroaded into her romance, or like me, they DID like her and got extremely upset by her death. And EVERYONE was upset by Asagi's betrayal, as it didn't suit her personality as well. And yes, I had already reasoned what you spoiler tagged, but having a bunch of clones inherit some of her personality traits and feelings towards the Captain doesn't change the fact that the original Chigara is dead. I believe 2B even touched on this topic in regard to backing up an android's data, if you're familiar or have played Nier: Automata.
I could see Cosette pretending to join the crew only to betray them... but they spurned all options for her character growth already in the first two volumes. She's simply another unlovable, irredeemable villain by the events of this one.Last modified on 2022-09-14 at 22:58 |