now that i've finished the game i cannot believe the main discourse is about genre racism or whatever and not Act 3. sorry this isnt a review at all this is just me posting about the ending of this game and getting annoyed. i felt like i was watching the concept of narrative itself fall apart before my eyes. your party of women who dont matter are shockingly chill about learning that they dont fucking exist!!!

ok look here's the thing. there's two metaphors here right. there's the main one that the game settles on, which is the idea of grief as a self destructive cycle that hurts you and others and the only solution is to face reality and not run and hide. perfectly normal messsage that we can all sympathise with. however. the world of the painting is real! the people who live there are real, they have free will, they have a past they have a future. your weird ass family are genociding like a million french guys every time you do the painting thing.

like maelle is not escaping her grief to a fantasy world or living in the matrix, she's staying with her friends who are real who have treated her better. but she doesn't say this! the game frames the conflict as being over whether she can let verso go or not, the emotional metaphor about trauma completely overrides the reality of the characters and their world. they are completely at odds. the final choice is less about which character you side more with and more about where you thematically buy in to the text. thats why everyone who picks one ending thinks the other one is morally unconscionable because they both operate on entirely different logics. and then the game clearly takes a side anyway lmao.

anyway all that leads to a game where most of the story is doing fetch quests while the characters who know whats going on vaguepost to each other being very careful not to say anything too explicit for the camera they apparently know is watching them. the characters can't have real conflict about different viewpoints on the games core themes because the order of the day is mystery and intrigue. and then by the time all the cards are finally on the table it speeds through its final act into an ending that makes me feel crazy. anyway.

also and this is neither here nor there but the game does not portray loss. its all very what is grief but love perservering, a script for ff14 fans that post screenshots captioning them this is the most moving and powerful thing ever and then the line in question is "to truly see out of the darkness thou must persist into the light, together." there's no edge. no hatred. no bitterness. no jealousy. no wailing as all possibility is stripped from you in an instant. these things are alluded to but never felt, always resolved within a conversation that ends on a platitude. its going for a distant melancholy but it feels dishonest to the raw nerve that is grief and death.

three stars tho cause the game part is good. like i wish there were less parries but the rpg systems are fun, the music is good, the bosses have hype moments and aura like i'm not actually a hater but i did want to talk about the story making me insane. wow the combat is satisfying, the music is banging and the story makes no sense! i guess it really is a jrpg after all