Considering the author stated they didn’t want any pedophile scenes, it seems a Masa romance isn’t likley.
Honestly the way their relationship now is perfectly fine. It gives the the Ronin the perfect chance to show their softer side and character development. I liked seeing how far they would go to keep the kid safe, as well as protect the innocence. It also gives Masa a good view of the Grity reality of the world.
Though I will have to admit the if the chance to get some payback on the good ol’ ruler for sending us on this quest comes up…yeah I’m taking it.
I’m not sure how I would feel about the relationship even then. We basically know the kid as about 14 years old and act as their gardian. It would take a significant time skip for them to grow up, and even then if we did romance them it would make us the Ted Nugent of Samurai…which to be fair is a pretty funny concept, in a god help us kind of way. I can can kinda see why Devon has avoided listing them as a option so far, but yeah at this point who the hell knows.
I’m wondering why the Baron arc dragged on for so long into Book 3? It really made this game feel like a marathon.
And the source of the Jigoku Ittō-ryū’s power lies in an act of cannibalism. The question is, is that literal or figurative? One uses the Strike of Non-Thought by emptying oneself of anything human and becoming a husk, driven by nothing but raw killing intent. Maybe the Ronin was only able to use it because at a point in their lives they forgot themselves and surrendered completely to pure survival instinct, feasting on the flesh of dead children.
So if the power isn’t derived from the act itself, but what it represents, then what did Junko do to have wielded it? What did Gensai do to have CREATED it?
A lot of the the descrptions of them such as describing them as prepubescent, baby face, or barely over four feet along with other details about their devepment lead us to estimate about 12 or 14. 14 is the generous number, but yeah definatly not 18.
I’ve never felt the need or seen any signs of the Masami romance angle a lot of readers bring up. Not every female needs to be a RO. They have a very parent/child, or at the most older/younger sibling like relationship, where they both care for each other. The MC’s thoughts have never even drifted in that direction, we know this because it’s all in first person.
Just doing a time skip and making Masami an adult just for the sake of a romance would kinda undo the great character and relationship building over the last 3 books imo. Others are free to disagree of course, but it’s a route I’d never play through.
I was also under the impression that Masashi was around 12-14 years old given the vague descriptions throughout the books. I don’t think a romance is possible because, even if our ronin was 10 years older, that would still be considered pedophilia, plus, as HitenMitsurugi said, it wound ruin the dynamic between the two of them. And let’s not forget Junko’s messed up past - we don’t want a repeat of that.
THIS. In my playthrough I had something with Toshio, but we never defined what. So, yes, there was attraction and we care for each other, but no one said anything about a serious relationship. So I gave Kohaku the vague option “It’s complicated” and now the ronin blames herself for… what? She’s not to blame! This made me uncomfortable, especially as my ronin is female and she’s blaming herself for “leading on” a guy. AND SHE DIDN’T. Because she didn’t say: Mmmm… maybe we’ll have something She said she HAD something with someone ELSE, but it was complicated. How is that leading him on?
I don’t know. To me I think it’s because Kohaku is kind of naive so cryptic/unclear answer just resulted in him believing in what he wishes to. ‘Complicated’ resulted in him thinking it was him that the Ronin was talking about. Since they got off with a bad start. He might think the Ronin developed conflict feeling for him. And well ‘no’ resulted in him thinking this is his chance. And though that might not be a green flag it’s something his weak mind after that trauma he went through tries to grab onto.
Not quite true. When Masashi/Masami appears to the ronin in the “other world” in the first book when trying to free you from the demon, your ronin—no matter how you as the reader feels—is extremely attracted to Masa.
I don’t think adding a romance necessarily undoes any character development because unlike some other characters, Masa has relevance and personality outside of their crush on the ronin. I trust the author to handle the implementation of it (if it does happen).
Honestly, I still can’t tell how old Masashi is supposed to be. On the one hand, he is usually always described as a child, is rather meek/short in physical height, and acts childish, so could be around 14ish. On the other hand, I have a really hard time imagining a 12-14 year old having as a mature intellectual outlook as Masa seems to. So based on that, and his/her magical skill, and dialog in books 1 and 2, I had thought he was at least 16ish–the MC describes him as around the same age as the young women in book 2 who were crushing over the Kabuki actor in the theater. So around the same age, as Ige, I thought, at least? Who is a teenager.
Of course an MC over the age of 20 or 30 would probably still think of a 16-18 year old as a “kid” in any case. It’s unclear how old the MC actually is, but we can say they definitely “feel” old, due to the hard life they have led, and aging isn’t seen as a good thing for a warrior/samurai. And if the MC is female? In a society like that, you’d be considered over the hill if you didn’t marry young, I imagine. I know, historically, it wasn’t that unusual for people to marry (and die) young. Life expectancy being what it was.
Still, I don’t see the MC as having any perverted intentions towards Masa at all (even if they do joke/tease sometimes) as Jun claims. Masa might have a crush on the MC, but the MC seems to instead value being close to someone in a non sexual way for once, as we can see with their friendship with Hatch.
It’s also apparent that some part of the MC is emotionally stunted too as a child due to his/her traumatic past, as reflected in how they appear to Masa as a child in the dream sequence at the end of book 1. There are at least two places where the MC describes Masashi as “fatherly”, which is odd enough given the age difference. That might just be symbolic though (a bit of a Jungian influence on the part of the author?). It really doesn’t seem like the MC has ever had a normal/healthy relationship of any kind with a member of the opposite sex, father figure included.
I don’t know how I would feel about a Masa RO at this point, but given Masa’s crush on the MC, his/she is probably going to be jealous when they choose someone else, whoever it is, and already seems to be jealous of Jun. Hopefully Masa doesn’t go off and do something stupid over it. Jealousy and unrequited love seems to be a big theme in the story. It might be Masa will love the MC no matter what we do, and will suffer consequences for that.
While I’ve never entertained the idea of romance with them, Masa being no older than early 'teens seemed blatant enough to me. While they are in the middle of a growth spurt, I never really thought of them as being older than 15, at most. Yes, intellectually, Masa is oddly mature, philosophical and contemplative, but their emotional maturity quite definitely breaks that illusion for me.
And, of course, said maturity is less startling when you know the historical period the game is modelled after. Considering Miyamoto Musashi was 13 years old when he struck down and killed his first opponent, and 12 years old was considered a coming-of-age in most households (with samurai households sometimes expecting their children to be trained killers by age eight), Masa doesn’t stick out as strange to me.
Not every teenager is an unbearable brat whose only skill consists in picking their nose and acting spoiled. Just like some adults are and will always be children at heart, some children are capable of displaying maturity well beyond their years. Masashi is a bookworm, reading is a healthy hobby that can teach you new things and give you new prespectives, plus he comes from a rich family and was taught in the ways of magic, so he ain’t no ordinary kid.
My protective ronin does everything she can to keep him safe but the truth of the matter is that, in every aspect besides sworfigthing, he has shown way more capability than she will ever have due to his lineage, knowledge and talents. She cares about him but her attitude ins’t entirely selfless - she purposely keeps him “stunted” because that way he will be forced to rely on her and not the other way around. (Book 1)
In other words, Masashi is a prodigy of sorts who could very well do without our ronin if it weren’t for the fact he’s in hidding. Shugenjas are automatically enlisted in the army due to their talents, something he or his family are trying to avoid, hence why he needs someone to do the dirty work for him.
That’s also not quite true. In the spirit world, the ronin is attracted to the person that’s in front of them but that changes as soon as they learn who that person really is. The ronin immediately goes back to thinking of them as “kid”. Like they always do.
So there really wasn’t any point in those three books my ronin ever though of Masami as anything other than a child she was tasked to protect.
It’s been a while since I’ve read book 1/2 so I don’t recall that word being used, but if so, then you’re right.
To clarify, I didn’t mean to imply all teenagers were immature, or anything like that, just that I had figured he/she was one, and not (as some were suggesting) as young as 12 since it seems Masa has had some experience/training in magic already. It’s possible Masa was a prodigy though, sure.
Honestly, I’m not really worried about it. The author stated there won’t be anything like that in the game.
So I’m nearing the end of the game, and I have one minor complaint.
The attunement stat is unnecessarily frustrating.
I’m trying to get it (and keep it) at 100, and have had to restart the game at least 50 times because of it.
I feel like there are a lot of choices that shouldn’t have any bearing on your attunement, and it kinda distracts from the role playing aspect of the game because us perfectionist who want 100% in our stats have to keep checking over every small decision to see what it does to our attunement.
If not less attunement affecting options, can we at least get it back in proportion to how we lose it? I’m going nuts when I see that I lose 10% over an option that I thought was in character for my Ronin.
Other then that great game. Going to restart again to get perfect attunement.
It is possible to get back the 100% attunement after making a choice that decreases it. Happened to me a couple of times. I’m not too worried about having it at 100% but I just make choices that would be appropriate for my brutal/impulsive ronin which usually is a little obvious once you learn how that personality works in the series.
That is true but I have to agree with @Dwise here that sometimes it can be a little frustrating and detract from enjoying the game. If it’s an important choice like how to react to an attack or choosing what advise to give your students then a heavy attunement drop is expected if you pick a wrong choice.
But if it’s just a joke or a harmless inner dialogue then I don’t really think the attunement should drop so much. It puts unnecessary stress on me when I really want to pick an option but I’m scared of how much attunement I might lose just because I said Hatch looks more dangerous with a beard.
She said she HAD something with someone ELSE, but it was complicated. How is that leading him on? 