35 hours, 13th chapter. By all accounts, I should see the credits roll around the 50-hour mark, which still kinda surprises me — for even though internet wisdom claimed that HM offered 50-ish hours of play, I somehow didn't want to believe it. But hours fly as missions and chapters roll by, and I finally fathomed that the Digimon series is not going to deliver the same kind of compact, swift runs I've come to expect from the Pokemon series. Which, by the way, is totally fine. It's actually quite awesome to get such different experiences from both series, and to know that each of them can profusely scratch gaming itches that the other one can't come close to reaching. Now I'm dying to try Yo-kai Watch and see where it falls between Digimon and Pokemon.
Another thing that wildly differs between HR and your average Pokemon entry is the relationship I'm building with their resident creatures. While I always get that strong, intense bond with my One and Onlies in the latter, I find it a bit harder to get genuinely attached to my team in the former. It's not just the fact that my party is currently teeming with Digis-in-training, with a perverse inverse correlation between the size of my crew and the intensity of my affections; it's also the fact that all the back-and-forth between Digivolutions and the sometimes wild form changes involved in said Digivolutions make it harder to get attached to Digis. I don't really feel — and really don't feel in some cases — like I'm dealing with the same creature at all, and it does a serious number on my fondness for the involved Digi. To alleviate that feeling of alienation, I'm trying my hardest to stick to similar forms into a given Digivolution line, with reasonable success so far. But more on my winning team later!
For now, I want to say how much I love the story. I though I wouldn't care whatsoever after a couple of hours, but the opposite is actually happening: I'm getting more and more emotionally involved by the chapter. Oh, how it's gonna hurt when I get slapped in the face by the sad ending — because there's no way this game can end up otherwise than very badly indeed. (Minor spoilers!) My heart already kinda broke when poor Chitose was left with Eden Syndrome; and while I fervently hope there's a way to cure him down the line, I have a hunch that it's gonna involve some heart-wrenching sacrifices. Also, I'd bet my arse that K is actually Yu in disguise; and the though of it really breaks my heart in advance, because I've gotten attached to that shy friend of mine. Or not-so-shy in some cases: I swear my heart skipped a couple of beats during the ferris wheel sequence. Why, I could totally feel the intensity of the boy's repressed lust, and the sheer entanglement of his complicated feelings towards Keisuke. This is not just otome level — it's better than 90% of the otomes I've played.
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| Oh, Yu animal. |
And oh, Erika. Forget the whole 'Defrosting Ice Queen' theme: she was the one who pierced my heart, as I found myself tearing up during the hugging scene at the end of chapter 11. This was not your usual dere-dere moment, when you're supposed to feel all happy that the cold b*tch finally opened her heart; it was a genuine emotional cracking, a character folding under the pressure and letting it out before composing herself again and getting back into fighting mode. And my, did it feel raw, intense and most, importantly, authentic — the kind of thing that does actually happen IRL. Seriously, my heart totally belongs to Erika and Yu now, which was probably the writers' fiendish intent all along. (End of spoilers.)
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| Also Erika, because I cannot choose. Can I have 'em both, game? Pretty please? |
Anyway, I followed my fellow gamer Kumiko's wise advice regarding Digi growth; and my team now comprises three PlatinumNumemons that make XP rain on us all. Oh, the glory! Seeing my crew rack up levels so fast all of a sudden had an hypnotizing effect on me, and I'm currently deep into a bout of level-grinding. I'm concurrently starting to figure out the mechanics of skill learning, and thus I'm going to use the opportunity to switch between Digivolutions and have my Digis learn a couple of neat skills for the fights to come. It's pretty safe to assume that my team has now reached its final form and that no new recrue will join the fray in the next five chapters — although you never know, of course; so I'll wait a bit longer for that post about my awesome crew. At any rate, it's back to the grind now — see you later for more juicy Digimon tidings, dear fellow gamers!
Byahahbahh, it's been so hard not to give you spoilers. Hang in there, you're almost there!
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, my heart broke for poor Chitose. That said, I wasn't that shocked, because he was my favourite male character, and digimon always do this to my favourite males. Even if they are digimon, hello season 3 of the show.
Isn't the natural bisexuality just grand? This is partly the reason why I both want, and desperately fear them going the atlus route and adding romance links. Digimon survive is already half-way there with letting you pick the events you want to watch in favor of others, so you can ignore certain characters and just develop the ones you want. That's half way through adding social links.
But this is Japan, so I'm afraid once they left the ambiguous stuff behind and jump to straight romance, they'll drop the bisexual stuff (this is assuming there's no more games where they let you pick your gender. But even then, I liked having both Kyoko and Arata flirting with me, don't take away one of them). This is why yu-gi-oh always the token useless girl nobody likes, so they can do all the gay stuff they want but still have the protag with her by the end, so not gay or bi my dudes. It's a total joke by this point. Or like Atlus, who riddles persona with bi stuff, but then chickens out and doesn't let you date even one of your bros while letting you date 10 women at the same time. Again, a joke.
But....Fire Emblem Three Houses just released, and it does have tons of bisexual options. So maybe Japan is slowly changing. Either way, I hope Digimon doesn't jump to full on romance for a few more entries and keeps developing all characters equally until then.
Speaking of three houses, that game did an absolute genius move and only lets you marry after the story ends. This means you can skip the feature if you want, no awkward future children, no getting your units into marriages you don't want just to get those OP children units, and no favouritism during the story like in previous entries. Good going Nintendo, I'm actually proud of you.
"Isn't the natural bisexuality just grand": It totally is. And I mean, the game goes mightily far, with Yu's not-even-thinly-veiled love confession and that dialogue option that allows Keisuke to just plainly say that he loves Yu. I actually gaped a little at that; I didn't expect such frankness and boldness. It's kinda refreshing. And then there's the Fei-Yuugo situation, which I frankly didn't see coming at all. I was pleasantly surprised — well done, game.
DeleteAh, now you're selling me Three Houses! The combination of bisexual options and lack of mariage sound really neat. Guess I'll get it once I get my paws on a Switch Lite. ^^
The Fei-Yuugo situation was alluded more in the last game, and it's what kept the entire female cast from slobering on your PC, so yeah, I really loved that one.
DeleteSadly, futher research shows Japan is still behind: there's 5 options for a female player, and only 2 for a male one. Come on.....
Also, how late the marriage comes, depends on what house you choose. The Blue Lions is right before the end, and the Black Eagles 4 chapters before the end, and I haven't found when the Golden Deers do. So if you want to get married late, pick the Blue Lions (thankfully I picked this one before even knowing this). Either way, you must first get through the first phase of the game, which I hear is 60 hours long.
I'll keep the House advice in mind, thank you. ^^ But... 60 hours for the FIRST PHASE? Really? It looks like Intelligent System tried to make up for Fates' utter butchering. Which would be nice, even if I'm not a fan of long-arse RPGs as a rule.
DeleteNow that I'm a bit farther along, I think those 60 hours come from the inclusion of side quests, and the calendar based class system which is straight out of persona...and the calendar system is my least favourite part of persona, because with all the social links that game has, you either follow a guide to the letter, or it's replaying the game for you.
DeleteWhile not as bad as persona, it's still rather nerve-wracking. And unlike the sidequests, you can't skip days too well...
That said, they have definitely made up for Fates. You get 4 stories in this (the black eagles have two paths), and from what I hear, all of the paths are bittersweet. No golden path here that makes you feel like the other two games you were forced to buy were totally trash. I doubt I'll ever play all the paths though, since I just don't care for the other factions. If I play Golden Deer, it's purely to romance their leader, and I don't care for the Black Eagles female leader, so....(not that I even want to play Golden Deer, since Blue Lions has 3 guys I like better)
Good to know. I'll do a bit of research once I get the game, and then I'll roll with the faction I like the most. There's no guarantee I'll even manage to replay it, so better go straight for the better path! ^^
DeleteDefinitely do a bit of research beforehand. I ended up dropping it early, cause I just wasn't in the mood for dealing with the calendar, the side quests, and the wandering around the school. It's I'll wait for a walkthrough and then go from there. The fact that the game starts slow, unlike Fates and Awakening, certainly didn't help.
DeleteIn the meantime, I'd much rather grind 2 billion hours in tales of Graces F, cause I thought it was a great idea to both go for the Chaos difficulty and platinum the game in one playthrough, even though I'm not that experienced with tales' battle system and it's recommend to go for 2-3 playthroughs. Smart ain't I? Not complaining, I'm having a lot of fun, but at the rate I'm going it's gonna take me 2 to 3 months, longer than platinum'ing FFXIII took. And even then, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna go and sink about 50 hours in that new Yu-Gi-Oh switch game instead...
Yeah, the slow start and the calendar system (that I have great trauma with thanks to Persona) didn't endear me.
(I meant to say it's weird for me to wait for a walkthrough, since I like to discover things myself, but I ate my own words. Again, it's persona's fault. That game is pretty much impossible to 100% complete in one playthrough even with following a guide, much less without one. Man, the more time passes, the more I dislike persona, despite the fact I can see they're quality games.)
Delete"In the meantime, I'd much rather grind 2 billion hours in tales of Graces F": Amen! Grinding is life! ^^ And seriously, going platinum with your first playthrough is the way to go with the Tales series. While highly enjoyable, those games also have a way of wearing you down that makes the mere thought of back-to-back runs insufferable.
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