That’s the thing:
Multiple endings, unless you have really silly ones that are just for fun, are all ‘canon’ to the character.
To go and say ‘yeah, this ending you worked for is the WRONG one, try again’ is just… no…
And it’s not the first time that happens in sergi’s writing:
You had it between Hr1 and 2, where he just ignored/handwaved your decisions from the end of the first game, and latest is RS and OS, in which he ignores things that happened in RS and the HR trilogy entirely or just retcons them, in a ‘you thought this happened but actually’ way
Well, this is very disapointing to read. I’ve been looking forward to this last part ever since the release of part 2. I had pretty high hopes for this game, one of them being that the author finally had let go of the canon route and the other was the existance of a good ending that would leave me satisfied. This isn’t it, like others have said if you invest time and money in a series you expect the story to ‘pay you back’ with a satisfying ending. I know it’s his story and he can tell it like he wants, but if you’re supposed to take the true route and everything else is not valid (great to find that out after hours of play and worrying about getting a good ending) then why did he just not make this a novel or something.
Not gonna lie, I greatly enjoyed the first and second parts and I did have fun playing through this one. Lost countless of hours to this series and I was truly invested in the story. The quality of writing was, in my opinion, the same in this last part but it also felt odd. I can’t really put my finger on it but this one immidiately felt different from the previous two.
The author is not a bad writer, he writes compelling and fun stories and is very good at worldbuilding. He’s just not very attuned to what the readers want.
I think what feels so odd with Sergi’s writing since around RS or OS is that he’s gotten very… passive in his prose. In the sense that the MC is made more audience than actor. Things happen or more often have happened, the MC is reminiscent of them and the choices they work towards are more often than not ‘how do you feel about this/what are your goals after ‘experiencing’ these events’.
There’s no real agenda for the MC anymore, and I’d say it ties into another… quirk (?) of his writing: The world-building you mentioned. He has some good ideas, but the overall picture feels more like a quilt or disconnected vignettes. Elements contradict each other, and in some cases cancel each other out, but that is disregarded for the sake of a scene. And that’s the other things that feels odd: said scenes can feel as if he’s, albeit eagerly and excitedly, dragging the reader from idea to idea, expecting that the reader will share the excitement, when often the reader might notice that something is off.
This has been getting some mixed comments I haven’t finished the book myself but I must say that I am not a fan of the way its written. If you place some random name in place of “you” it reads like an article for someone else’s story…something about that doesn’t sit well with me.
Indeed. As far as I know, no CoG title allows you to go back in your decisions. If you choose something wrong or you regret your choice, you have to start all over again. In this case, it’s bad, because it’s right at the end and you don’t even get to an epilogue, and then you have to pick the “Play again!” option at the end.
EDIT: But it is possible to save your progress if you manually copy your save files. You need to find the folder where they are saved, and this may require some digging, but it can allow you to create save states like that.
I was expecting this to be a conclusion to series, but what i got was end of a prologue essentially(a rather good one). Instead of conclusion to series, it was revealed that Empress Vacuss(sp?) is just a scout and real Blot army was approaching from galactic void(Think first mass effect Sovereign and reapers situation). I was left rather disappointed with that.
While the three books were fantastic, bar the “ending” of this one. The revelation at the end kinda sets up arguably a more interesting event to come. And since Deathscapes is the end of the series i doubt we will see or play it out with our characters.
Another issue i had with ending is that, at least for me, conclusion to romance felt unsatisfying. Lady Venuma and breeze, in my case. Ended up remaining on versus and never reuniting with MC. Maybe there is another ending, but i don’t feel like re-reading this after the revelation at the end.
Wow! This is bad. Really bad. The first half of the game is one mind-numbingly convoluted and long-winded lore dump with breaks for LGBT validation and affirmation (which some may get something positive from), sophomoric sermons on spirituality, and overdramatization of the lint in the character’s navel. And why say something in 5 words when you can stretch it to 15 or 20? Let’s make things as convoluted as possible. Great idea. Not. I feel like I’m reading someone’s acid trip. The first half of the game should have been no more than 10% of the game at most. I just couldn’t force myself to read it all. I skimmed through big chunks of irrelevant mumbo jumbo. And when we finally got to an actual battle half way through the game, your skill with the powers developed in the past 2 games is thrown out the window, and its your character’s nonsensical “safety” stat that determines which abilities work best in the opening move of the battle. Whatever.
And to think I’m only half way in. I used to have a love-hate relationship with this author’s writing. There were lots of things I loved and a few things I hated. Overall, the original Heroes Rise was a great deal of fun! But the downward trend in the author’s writing is both unmistakable and unceasing. Reading through the massive lore dump that is the first half of Deathscapes is a slog, and I’m struggling to find something positive to say about it beyond that people who identify as LGBT may feel affirmed and validated by the game. This will be the last work by this author that I will ever read. I’d already given up on the author’s other series, but until now was leaving the door open for this one.
Exactly. You’ve nailed it. The single significant event in the entire first half of the game, the blotting of the most powerful constructives, including the MC’s RO('s), is dealt with entirely in the past tense, and treated as an opportunity to ask yet another inane “How do you feel about…” question. I wanted to scream at the game in frustration.
Yep. Hence my reference to it up above as an acid trip. Instead of Puff the Magic Dragon, we’ve got Dhanthik the Magic Priscan…
To be fair romance has never been a strong point of his. While I love black magic’s character development her romance felt so fake it wasn’t even funny and that might have been the point but some development should have happened. The same thing with lucky as well that felt rushed, but it had an off screen set up. In this series idk about the other ROs but if you pick lady Venuma the relationship stays in first gear from book one to three, there is no development. With all that its pretty easy to see that romance isn’t a strength of his.
It’s hard to make romance work in games. It’s hard to make stories work, generally. But romance specifically, when it involves the player, has to be done very tastefully. The best and most viable part of romance is the development of a connection between two characters, because you can’t keep people perpetually dating a fiction, so you just make their characters progressively interact for as long the main arc develops, culminating in getting together or not at some point, but very little outside of that can be done without trying to create a dating sim, which is not the point of romance in stories.
The prime example of this is Mass Effect 2. While setting up for a suicide mission along the entire game, you form connections with the characters throughout the way, and you may want to commit to them or not. Before going to the finale, you have the opportunity to get together, after which you will likely never have the opportunity again. The experience has a steady progress and a clear payoff. It adds spice to the main plot, which is the point of romance in most games.
In Versus, it seems that romance is present only to fulfill a certain quota, or tick in a box. In Heroes Rise, romance would sometimes change the interaction between characters and create entirely new scenes depending on your choices. This was probably due to the focused nature: you had few options, but they were crafted whole.
EDIT: While it’s true that not every romance has to have a happy ending, it also seem unfair or unnecessary, sometimes, when only some options have reasonably satisfying experiences, and the others are neglected for one reason or another. That seemed the case with some of these last few stories from Zachary.
I was highly anticipating this installment, but it ended up leaving a sour taste when it was over. Like others have said the continuation of any RO plot was glossed over or tossed out. Next to no interactions with them at all after the first demo chapters. Though I think my main issue with this story is that so much was skipped or skimped on. The deathscapes built up to be treacherous and deadly. Yet when there it was a quick blurb of a description about the setting.
In the aftermath of any significant event “what happened was simply too much information for your mind to process…” The answers being too big for the MC to comprehend happens a couple different times in the story. Then there are the characters you absorb off screen, so you can absorb the characters that help the plot, i.e. (need you to evolve, not learn about characters deemed irrelevant)
Too bad though, I had high hopes for this final chapter for Versus. Instead the culmination just makes me question why I bothered in the first place.
Yes, it’s meant to allow you to go through every response however many times you want before proceeding. There are two moments in the game when such thing happens, but on this one you can’t choose the pillars themselves, only your reply, you have to move through them by them.
As everyone said this is a big let down; the RO I had with Oli didn’t even exist it felt in this game, the build up of book 1 and 2 thought I would get more one-on-one with Oli but nope. If I knew this would play for your RO wouldn’t have romance anyone in the entire series. However, I do give him putting his time and effort in written this acknowledgement, as writing is not so very easy. Still I’m not going to lie I skimmed through a good chunk of this book, the paragraphs where very drawn out, and as a “Choice of game”, I felt this game was railroad, it felt more if I was reading and my Decision never mattered. Truly disappointed
During the book you need to lean hard into safety/ risk and combo/focus. Regardless of the other choices, if you remain consistent with those having a large enough amount on either side for each it will be easy to win having Mama Na as an ally and trusting her also injures it.
I’ve been waiting for this since my college days, im so happy~ that I get to play this