gekigengar gargant III!!! (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aestivalis) wrote2021-04-30 10:33 am
aestivalis) wrote2021-04-30 10:33 am
"Lord DeRosso, how could you possibly be that old!?"
It has been over a week and I still have not played Episode: Ardyn. I think there's a part of me that still wants to have keep some FFXV content in reserve indefinitely. When I play this last DLC that will actually be it! There will be nothing left that I haven't seen!*
*This is a MASSIVE lie. I haven't watched any of the additional media. I certainly haven't completed all the sidequests available in the open-world portion of the game. But it feels different, man. It just feels different.
Let's ignore that, though, and talk more about Bravely Default instead! I am up to chapter five now, titled Yesterday's Scenery. If you've played this game before, then you know what that means.
Bravely Default is a very strange game but I still love it very much.
✦ We have begun the first time loop! Well, it's not really a time loop, I guess. We have entered the next cycle! We have reached another layer of Luxendarc! It is time to begin all over again!
I had honestly forgotten just how strange things are the first time the party reawakens after the events at the Pillar of Light. Agnes literally speculates about the possibility of everything having only been created five minutes ago! And Tiz is like honestly just like 'um... maybe?' because seriously, how do you answer that. So Agnes is going full existential dread, Ringabel is stubbornly refusing to even engage with the fact he's just been confronted by the Alternis Dim connection for the first time, Edea is feeling particularly confused and out-of-place even compared to everyone else (she's not supposed to have met them yet! if this is the past, then why is she already with them!), and Tiz... Tiz is just ready to do it all over again, bless his little heart. Not a big thinker, that one.
It's fun seeing the kinds of questions the party are asking, because I honestly don't remember a lot of the answers. If this is the past/an alternate world, then where are the alternate Agnes, Tiz, Ringabel and Edea? The townsfolk of Caldisla are talking like Tiz and Agnes have just recently agreed to go and confront Ominas Crowe, which suggests these doppelgangers are actually somewhere super close by! I don't recall the party ever encountering themselves from other worlds (Ringabel-Alternis connection obviously excluded), but it seems like something they should be trying to do.
Is this a fanfic opportunity? It could well be a fanfic opportunity.
✦ I haven't actually started exploring Luxendarc Two yet, though I'm about to begin. All the asterisk holder rematches! All the confusion and chaos! I fully understand why this part of the game is such a drag for so many people, but this was the part that really elevated Bravely Default for me. This is where it stopped being a fun but standard-feeling JRPG and started becoming something strange and weird and bold.
✦ To cut back a little bit earlier, though, Lester DeRosso is such a good character. He's not what I would usually consider my type, I don't think? But there's something so earnestly bonkers about his whole situation that I just want to bring him straight into my heart. I love that people started calling him a vampire so he just ran with it, but he says he doesn't drink blood because he doesn't enjoy it. MEANING HE TRIED IT? YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO DO THAT, DEROSSO. YOU... YOU REALLY JUST...
He's ridiculous. But he's also this absolute font of world-building and politics and history, and I love him for that. Vampire Castle might be a horrible location, but it's also probably my favourite in the whole game because I just love the lore that's given to you there. I love learning about his relationship with Yulyana, that enemies tolovers allies thing they've got going on. Though I also found that I shipped DeRosso with Agnes a little bit this time? Which was weird and unexpected. and intriguing? maybe a little intriguing.
✦
There's a lot about this game that doesn't add up under even the smallest amount of scrutiny, but I'm not sure I would actually change anything about the main story. If the details don't always line up completely logically, then fine—it hits all the thematic notes it wants to, and surely that's more important. I'm over sixty hours in at this point with plenty more left to go, and I'm having a blast being in this world again.
*This is a MASSIVE lie. I haven't watched any of the additional media. I certainly haven't completed all the sidequests available in the open-world portion of the game. But it feels different, man. It just feels different.
Let's ignore that, though, and talk more about Bravely Default instead! I am up to chapter five now, titled Yesterday's Scenery. If you've played this game before, then you know what that means.
Bravely Default is a very strange game but I still love it very much.
✦ We have begun the first time loop! Well, it's not really a time loop, I guess. We have entered the next cycle! We have reached another layer of Luxendarc! It is time to begin all over again!
I had honestly forgotten just how strange things are the first time the party reawakens after the events at the Pillar of Light. Agnes literally speculates about the possibility of everything having only been created five minutes ago! And Tiz is like honestly just like 'um... maybe?' because seriously, how do you answer that. So Agnes is going full existential dread, Ringabel is stubbornly refusing to even engage with the fact he's just been confronted by the Alternis Dim connection for the first time, Edea is feeling particularly confused and out-of-place even compared to everyone else (she's not supposed to have met them yet! if this is the past, then why is she already with them!), and Tiz... Tiz is just ready to do it all over again, bless his little heart. Not a big thinker, that one.
It's fun seeing the kinds of questions the party are asking, because I honestly don't remember a lot of the answers. If this is the past/an alternate world, then where are the alternate Agnes, Tiz, Ringabel and Edea? The townsfolk of Caldisla are talking like Tiz and Agnes have just recently agreed to go and confront Ominas Crowe, which suggests these doppelgangers are actually somewhere super close by! I don't recall the party ever encountering themselves from other worlds (Ringabel-Alternis connection obviously excluded), but it seems like something they should be trying to do.
Is this a fanfic opportunity? It could well be a fanfic opportunity.
✦ I haven't actually started exploring Luxendarc Two yet, though I'm about to begin. All the asterisk holder rematches! All the confusion and chaos! I fully understand why this part of the game is such a drag for so many people, but this was the part that really elevated Bravely Default for me. This is where it stopped being a fun but standard-feeling JRPG and started becoming something strange and weird and bold.
✦ To cut back a little bit earlier, though, Lester DeRosso is such a good character. He's not what I would usually consider my type, I don't think? But there's something so earnestly bonkers about his whole situation that I just want to bring him straight into my heart. I love that people started calling him a vampire so he just ran with it, but he says he doesn't drink blood because he doesn't enjoy it. MEANING HE TRIED IT? YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO DO THAT, DEROSSO. YOU... YOU REALLY JUST...
He's ridiculous. But he's also this absolute font of world-building and politics and history, and I love him for that. Vampire Castle might be a horrible location, but it's also probably my favourite in the whole game because I just love the lore that's given to you there. I love learning about his relationship with Yulyana, that enemies to
✦
Victoria: Unnh, Victor... Victor, where are you?I had no idea this dialogue existed until yesterday! And it is just exactly my brand of twisted and fucked up. There's a lot about the Victor and Victoria dynamic that really appeals to me. It's such a god awful shame that her design has to be Like That. Otherwise I swear they could be just... perfect. Just the kind of garbage I love best. I know what I'm about, son.
Victor: R-right here... by your side.
Victoria: I just wanted to say...I really hate you. You wouldn’t let me die, though I suffered so. But now, finally, I’m free. Free of this pain.
Victor: No, I will not let you go. If I’m to die, my soul... It shall join you.
Victoria: Fine, I suppose there’s no getting rid of you.
Victor: Th-thank you, Victoria. Sweet Victoria...
— Victoria and Victor when dying simultaneously
There's a lot about this game that doesn't add up under even the smallest amount of scrutiny, but I'm not sure I would actually change anything about the main story. If the details don't always line up completely logically, then fine—it hits all the thematic notes it wants to, and surely that's more important. I'm over sixty hours in at this point with plenty more left to go, and I'm having a blast being in this world again.