If I remember correctly this is not an open world game. Lol…I mean as much open as can be in a text adventure. It was always liner. There was no branching that leads to different ending. Only few small difference like if you romance someone, then you will get few different dialogue and few small things. Nothing big. And then when it reaches lvl 4, complaining the game is railroaded is…I don’t know what to say. I have no words.
It’s not about if the is liner or not. The main thing is the ability to tell a story. And the author has done an amazing job at that from the beginning.
I think it’s very unfair of you to come forward and say people are complaining about the story as though it’s unnecessary or unwarranted. I’m sure most of these people are victims of abuse—myself included—and it’s almost insulting to see it handled in such a haphazard way.
Had the author marketed this as a romanticized abuse story then nobody would be bothered—plenty wouldn’t have read it fullstop—but everything after the demo is a contrary from what many readers had been led to believe. It’s not at all wrong to complain that the Ronins we’ve made are forced to be attracted to Jun/ko and excuse their assault, it’s not at all wrong to complain that our Ronins are forced to be thankful for Gensai’s abuse (getting D&D vibes), and it’s not at all wrong to complain about the ham-fisted retconning of people’s beloved Ronins.
I can understand what you are trying to say. But you have to understand what I am trying to say as well. This game never had any branching that would leads to different ending. What you can choose is, if you want to romance some NPC or ignore them.
There was no option to backstab/kill Jun/co because they are the centre of this book 4. Also like it or not, MC and Jun/co were lovers for a very long time and MC is used to their forced love/lust.
And many people only see the negative in sensei. If he wanted he would have killed MC when they first met. Even though they wanted to pass their legacy, they gave MC a home, a family, food, clothing and life long lasting lesson. MC never thanked them for anything so sensei never called MC by name. Both of them were stubborn like that. The last thing sensei said about MC is forgotten by many.
They said that MC was a genius. He can learn a technique so fast no one can match him. Sensei intentionally held MC back so that MC won’t forget the basic. And after MC thanked them for every little thing (even though they were abusive you are who you are because of them. You owe everything to them. Don’t forget that. It will be asked by Jun/co and sensei is the right answer) they called MC by their name for the first time. And only after MC thanked them that sensei got defeated by MC.
No, I get what you’re saying. As much as I hate Jun/ko and however cathartic it would be, allowing the Ronin to kill them halfway through the story would be silly.
But this story is not at all suited to bring a choice game. Having most choices be “three ways to console my incredibly abusive ex-partner” it’s obvious that the author is trying to force the reader into playing the kind of Ronin he envisions for the story. The reader rarely gets a chance to act against Jun/ko, when they do it’s for Jun/ko’s benefit or the reader is guilted into feeling bad. Again, this would be fine in a novel, not a choice-based game.
As for the Gensai drama… wew. You don’t thank abusers, it’s as simple as that. Thanking abusers enforces the idea that abuse is a positive—a stepping-stone to character growth. It’s not, quite frankly, and it’s a stupid concept. I could go further into this but it’s a very emotional topic Don’t try to justify a poor attempt at writing abuse.
I don’t know what sensei did to your Ronin differently, because to me what he did to my Ronin was to prepare him for the future and even my Ronin was able to see that at the end of book 4. Sensei did everything for the future. For the hyuga. To change the world for a better place.
There is a some sort of saying in the series. To forge a weapon that can cut the heavens, it must go through some breaking/reforging or something like that.
Your MC is a Ronin, who has the ability to weild the hell release as well as the ability to weild the spirit to the maximum potential. Don’t compare your MC to a simple broken human. He is much more than that even though he sometimes get lost in his path.
If you start to compare yourself with the MC of the series, then that would be unfair. If you want to compare yourself, then I would say compare yourself to the many NPCs who are too weak to fight for themselves and needs the MC for support.
On another note… Who else failed miserably at remembering a lot of the references? I hadn’t re-read the previous books and while some things came easy… A lot didn’t.
And I’m horrid at picking the right cimbat techniques… Every single time.
I did and I feel ashamed of not re-reading Book 1 to Book 3. My last playthrough on Book 1 and 2 was on 2016 and Book 3 was 2017. I really didn’t expect we will have throwback questions.
Oh yeah those were hard…I also haven’t played books 1 and 2 since 2017 so I couldn’t remember a lot of the minor character names. I also had trouble remembering the combat styles and which ones went with what stats.
Luckily I did pretty good with most of the text input answers this time, though.
The text input are actually hard this time. A guide would be awesome but I suppose I should have went with choice based first before delving into text input.
Was it just me or was the “better place” an actual horrifying nightmare zone. Gensai legit wanted to plummet the world into hell. That wasn’tsome philanthropic quest for making a utopia. He taught two kids a vicious style that would very well warp them and control whatever the hell comprises the jigoku after cannibalism. (cause those golden eyes need an explanation) Bringing hell was his mission. He did prepare your Ronin for the future but didn’t prepare him like how a parent would prepare a child for the future. He prepared the ronin to be able to kill, not save the damn world, he was abusive and dangerous. That wasn’t tough love, it was straight up abuse and neglect like how he strangled Junko cause she was better than his son with the Jigoku. What better place did you see him trying to make.
Not trying to justify it but i wasn’t against my guy thanking Gensai for that one brief moment of actual humanity where seeing the kid ronin do what he was doing, he could’ve killed him then but took him in. Everything afterwards tho, nothing to thank him for. The jigoku isn’t even something to be thankful for. Hooray you got beaten and treated like crap to learn a style that could very well destroy you. Hooray
you are trying to catch the fish, about what it means to live. My first try I said “to die” and the game said that was too grim …
Basically, Jun/ko wants you to stop thinking so much with your head, and use your instincts instead…and to stop being selfish and pay your respects to Sensei.
Why can’t I quote a spoiler? Anyway…in the past Jun/co has said many times what it means to live. And they actually expect you to remember it. If you remember, your spirit will also be happy. @Beaterxys we seem to have understood totally differenty about what sensei actually meant about the future. And no, opening the hell was never sensei’s idea. It all ichiro’s idea. When you don’t have something, and you are obsessed about getting it, it will do some stupid shit. If it was sensei’s idea, he would have done that many times ago. Since he was more powerful and none can match him at his top form.
This was a period of time in hyuga, where strong rules over weak. Samurai had right to kill anyone weak anywhere if they wanted. So sensei prepared MC to survive this world and what do you ‘a common pirate whore’s child’ need to survive? To be able to kill, to be a better killer, to be a predator instead of prey.
Now imagine that. Is it really that bad to be able to learn to survive in a chaotic world filled with unfairness? You are calling sensei an abuser, I am calling it tough love. Because if others were in his place, then you would have truly learnt what is hell like Jun/co firsthand experienced.
The dude didn’t have any access to the resources that Ichiro had. In my opinion, in the era sensei was in, what shugenja would he have used to open hell exactly. Gensai took two kids and molded them into killers. Not for preparing them for a harsh world. Why couldn’t he have taught them any other style, he was one of the greatest swordsmen, hell he couldve even taught them nothing but the quick draw technique, make them the fastest samurai so that nobody could hurt them. He didn’t care about them like that, he didn’t care about their safety, he just cared about passing on his techniques. Even the MC realizes the Jigoku is a dangerous and messed up ability, they just think they need it because that’s been the skill they relied on for years. The hell Junko experienced didn’t even start with Gensai, it started with her father in an extremely fucked up situation. What the two went through, that wasn’t hell. The hell was the hunger and starvation for the MC. The hell was the abuse by her father for Junko. He took the two to pass on his techniques and what better than two damaged kids who, if they had better sense and were less abused before meeting him, would’ve proved unable to actually stay with him, and dont forget that the two were already at the starting point for the techniques. Junko saw him as a father and possibly a savior so she wasn’t going to run away from him, she wasn’t going to disappoint him and the MC had nowhere to go. He didn’t teach them to survive or make their own way. He thought of his style, he thought of preserving what he had, not of the kids. Don’t forget, He legit was about to kill Junko until kid MC tried to bite his face off.
I just don’t know how to feel about this right now! I’m halfway through and are very much enjoying it, but I’m so conflicted. I really just want Jun(ko) as a lover but also don’t want to give up what I’ve built up. AHHH. My heart has never broken more than the “You’ve lost your attunement” I wanted to cry. My poor 100%.
As you said, sensei was an abuser and tried to kill Jun/Junko, he was nothing like his/her abuser blood-related father, why does Jun/Junko saw him as a father, a truly father for them that they never forgot?
Don’t try to justify a poor attempt at writing abuse.
