So, at the risk of catching slack for this, I feel like I have to say it:
If I could sum up this game in two words, they would be “bad faith,” because that’s the position the narrative seems to be arguing from.
I don’t want this to turn into an angry rant, but it might happen anyways in the course of me outlining my point, so I apologize if I seem a bit hostile at any point during this:
Right from the beginning, the characters are all hostile towards you, with the friendliest of them being sarcastic at best, and they and the narrative waste no time trying to hammer it into your skull that, “humans bad, supernaturals poor abused victims, you owe them the world,” even though these same supernaturals will then turn around and mock humanity for every thing they possibly can and overtly threaten violence for every presumed slight and take great joy out of treating you like dirt, and if you try to fight back and stick up for yourself, but make the mistake of not having the stats to meet the required checks, they have the gall to act offended that you even tried.
It feels like every choice I make or piece of dialogue between characters or bit of banter is expecting me to unconditionally side with the supernatural, and if I don’t, the narrative leaps on the chance to call me out for being a closed-minded racist human asshole. Hell, sometimes, even if you succeed the checks, it feels like you’re still being heavily judged for your choices. About the point where Matron asked me for advice - I didn’t offer to help, they ASKED ME - and I got it wrong, and Michelle had the nerve to sneer at me for even trying, I really started feeling like the story was going out of its way to vilify me at every chance it could. And when a SUCCESSFUL skill check with Lady Rastan still resulted in me being forced to go outside, because how dare I want some time to process my situation and unwind away from the other students, I started wondering if it was possible to have a “right” answer.
And my extremely presumptuous aunt tells me point blank that it’s my responsibility, as the sole human student in the school, to keep the peace between the supernatural students and set right the old grudges between them and humanity. Oh, she sets it up like she’s asking a favor of me, but the dialogue from that point on is that it’s my job and I’m supposed to be doing it.
Lady, your job was to keep an eye on me while my parents were away, not force me to enroll in your school and be shoved face-first into your students’ drama, where do you get off with this crap?
Why is it my responsibility? What, because I’m human? We’re really dumping the onus of responsibility on my shoulders because my fellow humans sometimes act like crap towards the supernatural? You serious? And you really think that getting these two SMALL, TEENAGE GROUPS to play nice with each other is going to fix the overarching racial issues of the whole world? Because that’s what keeps getting shoved in my face: “if this succeeds, it’ll prove that cohabitation between our respective species is possible!”
No, it’ll only prove that these particular kids can get along with each other.
Hi, Aunt Cavalcade: I don’t represent the greater interests of humanity, and these kids don’t represent the greater interests of the lycanthropic or vampiric peoples. We represent ourselves, and only ourselves. I have also commit no crimes for which I owe anybody any apology, and refuse to shoulder the blame for another person’s faults. Kindly step off with your self-righteous nonsense.
Speaking of self-righteous nonsense, this is the first game where I physically said, out loud, “how dare you?!” in response to a character’s actions. I think it was Max, and the line he threw at me was to the effect of, “Some of us have lost family to human treachery,” with the unspoken but very clear implication that I’m supposed to apologize and make amends for this event, that I had no hand in, and should not be shouldering the blame for.
I’d like to know what evidence of this human treachery there is that I’m supposed to be trying to make amends for, according to this school, because every human you meet in the game is actually pretty reasonable, downright charitable even (Cavalcade notwithstanding), and the most you ever hear about humans being pricks is from secondhand implications and the occasional, “oh yeah, this guy’s acting like a prick, by the way.”
It doesn’t help, either, that the narrative is really pushy about you doing what it wants you to - normally, when a game presents progress bars for different plot points, you have the option to either engage with, or ignore certain content as you so choose. In this game, if you try to avoid dealing with the student turf war, both Rastan and Cavalcade get up your ass about it at every possible turn: “Are you doing your job? Why aren’t you doing your job? You’re supposed to be doing your job. You’re gonna do your job, right? You’d better do your job, it’s what you’re supposed to do. If you don’t do your job, the consequences will be severe.”
Enough already. Harping on me does not make me more inclined to want to help you, it makes me want to set my feet and let the school fail on purpose out of spite.
And probably the most damning thing, for me, is that the story at one point goes, “hey, so now would be a great time to flirt and schmooze with your fellow students, you know, if you feel up to it.”
Really. These kids have consistently treated me like crap the whole story so far, even when they were being nice to me, and you really think I’m gonna waste my time romancing any of them? I almost started a romance with Will just to spite the story - oh, I have all these supernatural options? Hmm, nah, I’m gonna hook up with the only human option instead.
I ultimately decided to go no-romance. It didn’t feel worth it to even try.
I… yeah. I don’t know what to say here, other than that this is likely the first game where I’ve ever actually been genuinely pissed off after I got done reading it. And not because I’m super invested in the story, but because I feel like I’ve been bullied by the story the whole way through. I’ve been annoyed with stories, I’ve been unimpressed with them, I’ve enjoyed the stories themselves but hated the main cast, but this story is the first one where I have gotten this mad.
So yeah, I’ll probably catch some guff for saying all this, but I needed to get it off my chest.