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seimeinotakaAt this point I no longer know if the game upsets me or I am so indifferent to it that I can't be assed to upload pictures or maybe I'll just upload like 4 and call it a day.
I have to say that one of the personal problems I have with Amnesia is the inclusion of Trash because BOY HE DID IT AGAIN! Amazingly though I felt this route was overall shorter or it felt shorter than Ikki's for some reason, though the ending DRAGGED AS FUCK
The route starts with Ari in the hospital because she had serious injuries, but she is on the way of being discharged and some stranger, our boyfriend in the heart world, Shin, apears. I do have to credit this route for cutting all the bullshit. Shin sees right through the heroine and in two days quickly realizes that she has amnesia so he did what no one else did: Presenting himself and explain absolutely everything (well not everything but far more than what others did) that was going on. He also spends the first week helping Ari get ready for work, while taking her to places in hopes she remembers things.
Most of the way to Shin's heart is to trust what he says. The overall mystery is the accident that caused Ari's injuries and for 80% of the game it's basically a sloppy mystery game. Shin has some past issues. His dad got drunk and killed someone in a fight, so he had the stigma of being the son of a murderer (even if it was just lesser manslaughter charge). This makes Shin a hard person to deal with. He constantly calls Ari an idiot (though the degree of idiot decreases as long as she is on his wavelength and she is overall trusting and shares things with him), kisses her randomly to "cross that bridge of childhood friend to boyfriend material", and is distant and a self-proclaimed jerk. In fact, he actually mentions how Ari used to be bothered by him being a jerk to her as props to amnesia.
Shin does have a good side, he is just shit at showing it so. When Ari gets injured, Shin took responsibility for the case (despite probably having a good idea of the truth at that point in time) and apologized to her parents. He makes sure to help her keep the charade and is constantly helping her, except his support is the kind of "tough love" to an extreme. To add to this route, Trash appears back as a main character and he could shove himself to the garbage container because man...
One of the main issues in the route is the constant comparison between Shin and Trash's methods. As Ari recovers memories and interacts with them, she will be criticized by Shin but pampered by Trash. There is a memory recovered in which Ari recalls trying to make a band and Shin's comments about her bad singing making her cry. In said memory, Trash went to defend her and basically it sets up the dynamic: Shin is blunt and honest with no regards of her feelings but with hopes that she will stop wasting her time, but his comments actually end up making her try harder, maybe to please him. Trash is kind and undestanding but will lie when it is convenient for him and sometimes for her, so he won't hurt her feelings with "incovenient truths". It really is up to the reader's taste of if they prefer to be told the truth or have their feelings spared and both actually have points about it. Shin is very harsh about the truths and might upset people, while Trash wishwashes and avoids anything that is inconvenient to him or his appearance. HOWEVER, Shin gets my favor because when Ari does something good or she improves, he will acknowledge and compliment her. So it's not like he says shit to piss her off but he does notice when there's improvement (And as I've said, the closer she is to his wavelength and understanding procedures in the mystery game, the less he calls her an idiot).
For example, in the first day of the cafe work, if Ari works hard and does well, she can tell him she did well. He won't believe her because the pre-Amnesia Ari was a klutz. Waka will back up her story, even saying he was surprised she did so well. After they exit the cafe, Shin apologizes for not believing her and compliments her good work. Shin even admits during a fireworks festival that he was surprised when Ari actually worked very hard to improve her singing, and it in turn encouraged him to try. As the son of a murderer, he felt he could do nothing but seeing her try and improve made him try as well. He will study hard and get into college with a scholarship and then work.
There wouldn't be a game without some kind of sloppy mystery, as in Ikki's route of "is he faking it or not", though Trash's had no mystery and was straight up horror material. Ari has to gather information about her accident. About two weeks in the game, Shin is taken into questioning and Ari has to ask other people about it, to whether believe Shin and try to find proof of his innocence or just find out who the culprit was. Several people like Mine and other lodge members will believe Ari's relationship with Shin was bad, because of how he is a jerk to her while think her relationship with Trash was better because he is dotting and nice guy. Meanwhile, when Shin is taken with the cops, Trash goes to visit him and gets worried, same for Sawa and Ari and defends Shin on the accident. While it was an apparent one, however, Shin believes it wasn't entirely so.
Ari will visit the other resident psychopath Rika, but she is less of a bitch in this route, only because Ari has no interest in Ikki. Rika's testimony is honestly worthless but she does link Ari and Orion to the real duo that knows the important facts: Ikki and Kent. The half-facts because telling everything is telling the fucking damn story:
Ari and Shin went out in the forest in the Shinano lodge of the Ikki route. In the lodge there were the following people: Ari, Shin, Trash, Sawa, Mine, Ikki, Kent, Ukyo, Rika, and the owner. According to Shin, Shin teased her about doing it in the cabin but she got flustered and ran away, then she slipped.
Ikki and Kent add the following: Shin went back to the lodge and told everyone about the accident (Shin adds that he didn't go search for her immediately because before Ukyo had told him that if something were to happen, they should make sure to not have a second accident, as in, someone hurting themselves trying to help someone). Sawa and Trash darted to find Ari, but Kent gathered everyone, examined a map. Kent determined the possible routes and instructed people in terms of their physical skill (Mine was sent with Ukyo and they weren't sent to physically compromising places like down the cliff, just the top) and they all went accompanied to avoid more accidents. Ikki and Kent had the most places to search, based on the probable places she could have fallen and where she could have moved herself if she was conscious (and Kent had actually the lights lit in case she tried to find the inn, she could see it in the dark). It was them that found her and honestly, Kent was the best damn thing in this route because that is a good way of searching and while cold-headed, was very smart and praise-worthy. I don't know if I'd be able to keep such a cool head to plan things out but I'd like to have it one day.
However, there is an issue. Ari recalls Shin helping her but Shin never said anything about it and Ikki and Kent say that they were the ones who rescued her. If we choose to believe in Shin, maybe the memory was wrong, but if we think it was him, since that is what half of the people are saying, well, he is just lying.
To prove his innocence, Shin has everyone go back to the lodge in Shinano to find proof he didn't commit the crime. He actually wants proof of the culprit's guilt but he can't come out and say it directly. The first night is chill and everyone plays air hockey, but Shin and Trash get trashed by Ikki with Kent's analysis, and then everyone bails out in a poker competition because Shin and Trash can say ridiculous shit without batting an eye, so YEAH.
In the morning, things change. Shin has everyone re-enact their movements back then as he tries to have Ari remember what had happened. She does recall the incident with the flirting and the slipping which confirms Shin's version. Shin also says there was intent of hurting her, since the doctors and pre-amnesia Ari mentioned that she had hurt her neck with some glass of trash bottles (with a NO LITTERING PSA too!) but the most serious injury was a blunt blow to the head in a rock further from where she had fallen. The hit to the head wasn't possible if she had just fallen and someone must have bashed her skull against it, so it is why the police is investigating.
The others report things and Sawa or Mine find a set of messy bloody footprints, as if someone had been walking around, confused. The existence of a bloody rock with signs of skull bashing is present too. At night Sawa is apparently attacked and, since they concluded there was someone out there for Ari, she stays with Shin, who casually asks for a fucking wooden bat and makes his intentions obvious. The rest of the night goes without issues and Shin later "accidentally" gets all the shoes of people dirty so he can clean them and by clean, he intends to take pictures of them because the culprit couldn't get rid of the footprints before they were found so they will get rid of the shoes as soon as they get home.
After that, they all go home and Shin has Ari go to his house because she is still in danger and no matter what her answer is, he basically makes her :/ Trash goes too and they find that Shin is actually learning to play the bass in hopes of joining Ari's band. After some mocking, Trash leaves and the next day, they go visit him but find he suddenly disappeared and in other instance, has Ari distract Trash in an attempt to bring her to a playground they went as children so that she'd get back some memories. There's some heartfelt talks about not wanting to hurt Ari's feelings and then the cat is out of the bag.
OK, when the whole "accident is not really an accident", I had exactly TWO suspects. Rika is out because Ari has no business with Ikki, so it had to be Psycho Ukyo OR Trash. In the good route, Ukyo isn't batshit insane, so when I noticed he hadn't turned crazy, it was only Trash. And of course he was. Turns out that Trash was the first to find Ari in the accident and helped her but Ari mistook him for Shin (hence she thought she saw him). Trash went all fucking nice guy, and snapped, as in "How can you choose Shin when he is a jerk to you but I am so nice", yeah he honestly threw that kind of sob story and then BASHED THE SHIT OUT OF HER SKULL AGAINST A FUCKING ROCK.
Yes. Touma bashed her head because he got pissed because even in this route, he is in love with her, blah blah blah.
Because of this and the following segment the quality of the route went downhill because I think the game goes through unnecessary means to have him sympathetic and the heroine has questionable tastes and decisions.
The climax of the route is Shin confronting Trash about what he did. Trash conveniently wants to shrug it as a fucking accident because LOL YOUR SKULL SLIPPED AGAINST THE ROCK and not admit he is a fucking garbage travesty of nature in someone else's route. Ari blocks out the memories because for some reason she can't believe sweet big bro Touma isn't a fucking trash, because bashing someone else's skull is a normal way of displaying anger. Now, I do know that when you are angry you do dumb things, but one is telling her shit or screaming and another is BASHING SOMEONE'S SKULL. Ari had serious injuries for this and depending on where it hits, she could have died or ended up comatose. Shin does tell Trash that he conveniently lies about the things that are bad for him and Ari has to honestly see the truth behind it, then the game goes through a lengthy badly paced argument about how Trash isn't too bad but he was too much of a coward to confess to Ari in the first place. Furthermore, the entire "accident" is in a way downplayed because it boils down to "But Trash didn't want Shin to go to jail and if he had been arrested, he'd have confessed", except Trash wanted to keep quiet about it and pretend it was only "an accident". In all routes, he never flat out says "I bashed your skull because I am a pathetic motherfucking piece of garbage and a petty jealous bastard". Since it all went more about FEELINGS~ and FRIENDSHIP~ and POOR TOUMA, IT WAS MY FAULT THAT I AM HER BOYFRIEND (I shit you not)~, the whole attempted murder, even if it wasn't premeditated, was shrugged and had lessen importance than what it should because Ari, now with memories and everything, still feels bad for him and wants to be friends. I honestly would have flipped him, told him to fuck off if not go to the fucking police and have nothing to do with him.
But this game NEVER GIVES ME ANYTHING I WANT.
In the end, trust and love won, Trash leaves and Ari and Shin are reunited.
Before going to the other endings, I do feel the whole Trash apologism fest lessened the impact and my personal like of the route. I felt it dragged too much on it as oppossed to Ikki's route that seemed to have a slow pace everywhere except the forest psycho part. Furthermore, the fact that Trash was a very important character was obnoxious to me because he once again proved what kind of a shit he could be and it gets only better and by better I mean Drakengard style of "better". It didn't help AT ALL that they all tried to excused themselves over the incident. Shin says that if he hadn't confessed to Ari OR teased her, nothing would have happened and he is taking a responsibility that does not belong to him. Trash had his chance or he could have IDK FUCKING TRIED but he wussed out. Shin is not responsible for that. Furthermore, even if Shin is partially responsible for her sliding accident, that does NOT excuse Touma for harming her when he got pissed. The game mistakes coincidence for cause-and-effect and it really tries to lessen what Trash did. Trash had free will to do whatever he did. Finally, the game shoves already Ari as someone who is just so helpless that hardly her opinion is taken into consideration except the one time you choose and you can get a bad ending. Figures.
OK, Speaking of which. After Sawa is attacked, which was Trash but this time it was an accident, IKR, Ari can pick someone to stay with. Picking Sawa or for some reason Ukyo has her going outside on her own because THAT IS A GOOD IDEA!!!! for some painkillers and she finds Ukyo. Except he snaps and stabs her and she dies.
*shrug*
However, Ukyo does make it clear that he wasn't the skull basher, it just happened that in the same fucking lodge there was a trash and a real murderer.
Bad end 2 is even more ridiculous because it means that Ari still suspects Shin actually tried to harm her and sides with Trash. Before the confrontation, Trash figures out Shin's plan so he calls Ari to the same alley she had tried to escape in the Bad end 2 of his route after giving her some coffee. Trash implies that he was the culprit but he didn't want to be hated except his logic is idiotic because THEN DON'T DO BAD THINGS YOU FUCKING SHIT!!!!!!!! He says they'll be together and Ari dies because he poisoned her coffee and ladies and gentlement, I hate this game and this fucking bullshit attempt of a character.
Normal end is almost as the good end, except Ari refuses to see Trash in his all decayed rotten bastard unglory and she never recovers most of her memories. She is still in touch with Trash and Shin realizes that she isn't the Ari he had fallen in love but he'll break up and just try to win her over again.
As of now I've played 3/5 routes and I have to say I have great difficulty getting emotionally invested in these characters. It seems every route has something questionable that makes me shrug or want to burn down the Otomate building. Trash and Shin's routes have Trash, for starters, but Shin's jerkass traits at times are hard to just go along even if he is well-intentioned. Ikki is nice and sweet but the whole dating in secret and being locked out can be daunting. In a way the game reminds me of Drakengard 1 in that everyone had one thing that made them irredeemably bad like the good and reliable man just happened to molest kids in his free time and that sort of thing just makes it hard to connect. I pray to baby jesus that Kent's route makes up for this because so far Amnesia has been an underwhelming experience.
no subject
Date: 2015-12-21 06:24 pm (UTC)I really don't understand the writers and their apologist treatment to Toma, and, just, remembering that he's the most popular guy in Japan's Amnesia polls...
I really do hope Kent's route makes it up for this entire game's existence, since he was always a wonderful oasis in all the other routes. Good luck!
no subject
Date: 2015-12-23 06:46 am (UTC)It boggles the mind that he is the most popular guy and the game was apologetic enough BEFORE it was released :')
I had big hopes for him because he seemed like the best choice so I'm looking forward to how his route goes
no subject
Date: 2015-12-21 11:14 pm (UTC)Thanks for writing a detailed synopsis/review even when it was frustrating at times. It will probably help someone out there decide whether to buy the game (and satisfy my curiosity about the green people, lol). I hope you enjoy the Kent route, he seems to be a shining star so far!
no subject
Date: 2015-12-23 06:49 am (UTC)I do want people to support the industry so that more games coughLafa'scough get localized but I'd suggest RN that people got it on the Steam sale or similar.
As for Kent, hopefully I'll have something up soon