?Unknown Episode - Part 6

[davidn]

And this time, it's my turn - a large portion of this episode is me monologuing, punctuated by a series of disbelieving squawks of "WHAT?!" as another of my characters kills everybody once again. He isn't named here out loud, but there's a quite striking point where you can tell from my voice that I've realized exactly who it is.

Then, in the best of Hatoful traditions... things start to get even worse.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGvD1mhRe1w

0:15 Stormtrooper
0:35 Hope
1:35 Mental institution
1:55 Transformation
3:15 Not evil
4:25 My guess
4:45 The King's story
7:20 Interlude
11:40 Betrayal
12:20 Realization
14:45 The King's Picture Book
18:15 True throne room
18:45 We don't like this
19:10 Not the time
20:50 Dark metamorphosis
21:30 FORMAT C:
21:50 What we're dealing with

Comments

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

I realised one thing about this game—all the killers in it are motivated by grief. Hitori for Nageki, Shuu for Ryuuji, and Yuuya for his father... I'm not sure how significant it is, but it sprung to mind.

Moa...... really has some actual issues, doesn't she? I still can't decide whether I'm thankful for this story or not, in the final tally. It has some truly moving and heartwarming moments, but.... it does feel like stumbling onto someone else's fetish material, not for the pigeons but for the horror, physical and emotional.... it's all bitingly effective, but also nearly completely unnecessary except for horror's sake itself.... it just feels a little irresponsible to mix it that liberally into a story that people have unrelated reasons to get into, but then maybe some people feel the same way about anthropomorphic characters in contexts where it doesn't "add anything". Ah well.

[kjorteo]

I can't get enough of this kind of stuff, personally. That's why my novel is as depressing as it is, and even when I'm playing video games, my favorite RPGs tend to be the ones whose plots are full of cynical political intrigue and backstabbing, rather than cheery wide-eyed JRPG protagonist adventuring. I am currently playing the Tactics Ogre PSP remake, for example, and that's already one of the bleakest settings I've ever seen before the game even starts. (And then it twists and turns more from there, but I won't get into that.) The last part of the intro ("Victory begets peace, and for once, the battlefields of Valeria stand silent.") is striking to me, since it comes right after announcing that the genocidal blood war instigators won; a more ideal setting would paint the resistance as "come on, good guys, let's go take down the evil empire :D" but this one isn't afraid to address the fact that even if a country is brutally oppressive, civil war isn't exactly fun either, and the "Yet none believe the calm will last" line actually comes across as more of a threat than a promise that things will improve. In other words, Valeria is a hellhole whether you fight the system or not, welcome to Tactics Ogre. :D (I love this game's story, I really do)

This part was legitimately uncomfortable for me, but only because of concern for my teammates. I realized hey, this might not be the sort of thing David should be reenacting right now but it was too late, and I was (and still am!) legitimately worried about him. :( But me, personally? I love pathos; I'm probably the guy The King was thinking of when he asked Yuuya if he enjoyed pain. (Down, Yuuya.)

[davidn]

People enjoy being taken on an emotional rollercoaster sometimes... I'm not usually one to like dark stories like this, but I really enjoyed being flabbergasted and shocked and relieved by the ending, sharing the experience with everyone else. Hatoful would have been great without the possessed nightmare BBL route underneath, but that route was what really got me to care about the characters and their stories...

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

I definitely agree that the emotional rollercoaster is worthwhile, but some of its twists there's just no need for.... They could have been informed of Teo's death by a security guard, instead of Ryouta carrying her head in a box himself.... Hell, the King could have been the original Shuu rather than the original Kazuaki, leaving us with at least SOME respect for Hitori (since we already had none left for Isa)... I'm sure there's other examples, but I can't come up with them off the top of my head at the moment..