more slop as expected. every character continues to be unrelatable, unbelievable, and uninteresting. anime-tier dialogue fucking abounds. Calyx is an anime stereotype with awful, boilerplate dialogue. they spend a lot of cutscene time showing him doing a bunch of nonsense with his computer screen and laser pen, and summoning iPads and shit, despite the fact that he's a fully digital intelligence with no need for physicality. why does he need a computer screen to access a computer he's directly a part of? why would he take the trouble to tunnel into a conveniently placed monitor to show his face but darken it to hide himself? why bother showing your face at all given the fact that it's totally optional? how did they set off a gigantic lightning bolt in the middle of a populated area, which cut the power for a significant period of time, and nobody came to investigate or even acknowledged that it happened? every cutscene is full of half-assed dramatic license that they do nothing with. they made Sphene Copy #2 a bitch for no real reason, I guess to try and get her to chew scenery more effectively, before just giving up and throwing her away completely. the part where Wuk Lamat gets in her face and yells at her for disrespecting "Sphene's love for her people" had me physically recoiling away from my screen. does anybody really think shit like this goes hard? it's worse than a bad Netflix show. I remain convinced that the lead writer is whatever the Japanese equivalent of a Gold Redditor is.
this whole expansion's story is so frustratingly frictionless. it has the pretense of taking on grand, profound topics like death, loss, the struggle against mortality, and the cost of technological advance. but every single attempt to make a statement, or portray a complex topic, or add layers to a character by putting them through a difficult situation, just absolutely falls flat on its fucking face. do the Endless represent effective immortality, an illusory imitation of life, or something in between? doesn't matter, bunmom wants to die. talk to 3 NPCs who also tell you that despite ostensibly having their immortal souls rescued intact at the moment of their physical death, they actually think dying is pretty okay and they don't really mind that much. turn off the terminals, all the pretty lights go out and everything is gray now. wow, so sad! Speak with Wuk Lamat.
I keep waiting to see some spark, some little hint of something that makes me feel like I didn't waste my time watching this shit instead of just skipping all the dialogue and as many cutscenes as possible. this patch was not it. I guess it's good that more people are enjoying it, I don't want to shit on others for finding some happiness on this gay earth. but I can't help feeling that anybody who's actually into this dog shit is more than a little bit basic.
