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by Rafiki 07/09/2025, 1:03pm PDT |
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Huge spoilers about everything in the story.
The initial premise is that The Paintress appears and paints a new number every year, counting down from 100. Anyone older than the new number dissolves into ash. You're on a quest to defeat her and end the countdown, and, when you do, you discover that she was actually trying to prevent everyone from being annihilated and that the slow countdown was the best she could do to prevent everyone dying all at once. This is not a "Surprise! You were secretly the bad guy all long!" twist. It's a riff on the JRPG trope of killing god. The Paintress is literally a god, and the person trying to kill everyone is her husband. They are the parents of a nuclear family of "painters" who are more or less gods.
The world you inhabit is actually a total fabrication that was brought to life inside a magical canvas that belongs to their eldest son who recently died. The mother was so grief-stricken that she decided to go live inside the canvas with an artificial version of her dead son (who turns out to be a party member) until her actual body eventually withered away and died. Her husband, quite correctly, followed her in to try and wipe out the world and force her out. One of your other party members turns out to unknowingly (even to her) be the avatar of their daughter who went in to confront them, but she got consumed by the mother's fabrication or something. So, the story shifts from being a tale of survival with the goal of killing god into a story about the gods being actual people and their interpersonal family drama.
You might think that the story may explore themes of survival, free will, and the morality of gods creating and destroying worlds at their whim, but, no, they didn't really think about it any deeper than what if we made the story about the gods instead, lol. The story hand-waves away any deeper examination of everyone in the canvas dying by actually having everyone turned to ash like Thanos, and by casually throwing out that the Painters have created and destroyed "hundreds" of canvases. The only reason this particular canvas is mentioned as being in any way special and worth saving is that it somehow is imbued with the only remnant of their dead son's soul or memory or whatever. So, the obliteration of everyone you spent the entire first act trying to save carries as much moral weight as what happens to all of the people inside your head when you stop fantasizing or daydreaming.
The daughter decides to soldier on and confront her father, the real end boss, and convince him not to destroy the canvas. There's no need! It can be a place to visit! The canvas and everything in it are all the creation of the dead son, so destroying it would be wiping away his memory! Furthermore, (this is where it gets even dumber) the daughter wants to live in this world forever. She was mutilated in a fire and lost her voice after her throat was burned. She's miserable in her world and would rather be here where she can talk and looks normal. No, the father says, keeping the canvas just risks the mother jumping back in to wallow in self-pity, and he doesn't want his youngest daughter to wither away and die in a literal fantasy land. He is obviously right, but you still have to fight him and kick him out of the canvas. Not to save all of the people, who live out fully-realized complete lives, seemingly have wants, needs, independent thought, hopes and dreams, but for the sake of preserving the dead brother's memory.
Then the dumbest thing possible happens. With the father gone, do you bring back the "dead" and celebrate the imaginary inhabitants of the canvas being able to live in peace? NO! The dead brother's avatar begs the daughter to let the canvas be destroyed. You go through a portal to where you find what I guess is the remnant of the brother's soul trapped and being forced to paint to maintain the existence of the canvas (?!). He begs you to let him die so he can be free because he's miserable and unhappy and tired of existing in servitude. The daughter says, no, she wants to stay and live here because there's nothing for her in the real world. The dead brother says, correctly, she's being dramatic and literally throwing her life away. So, then you, the player, have to choose whether to take the dead brother's side and fight the daughter and kick her out of the canvas, or take the daughter's side and destroy the dead brother's avatar so she can control the canvas. You know, kill your dead brother that you so passionately fought against your father to protect and keep his canvas alive. So, the story goes from a tale of hope and survival to the family drama surrounding someone who feels so sorry for themselves that they want to waste away and die, to the selfishness of a daughter who feels so sorry for herself that she also wants to waste away and die. If you choose to side with the daughter, then the ending you get is that she reconstructed everyone and is just living out some dumb fantasy. There's a moment where they portray her as some evil puppet master, but since everyone is a construct and nothing matters, who gives a shit? Like I said, none of the people are real, so she's not evil, just an idiot who's throwing her life away.
Ironically, the most relatable character is the older daughter, Clea. She doesn't really have much a part, she just has a few scenes, and it's revealed she created all of the monsters. When she first showed up, I thought she was kind of a bitch. She was impatient and condescending to her younger sister despite her obvious disability, and she couldn't roll her eyes hard enough at her parents. Turns out she was totally justified. Her mom and sister were basically committing slow suicide, and her dad was spending all of his time "arguing" with her mother, so Clea was acting as the de facto head of household despite looking about 25. I'd be pissed too if I were that young and had to run a household because my weepy family couldn't get their shit together.
tldr: a novel spin on JRPG stories becomes a convoluted mess with unlikeable characters who have terrible motives and stakes you couldn't possibly care about. Game writing continues to be mostly trash. |
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Claire Obscur by Icycalm 05/16/2025, 6:10pm PDT 
The Paper Mario clone? NT by Mischief Maker 05/16/2025, 6:25pm PDT 
Button presses in turn based games = Paper Mario clone NT by durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr 05/16/2025, 8:32pm PDT 
This is an awful take NT by I'VE FIGURED IT OUT!!! 05/16/2025, 9:26pm PDT 
15 minutes. NT by Proved him right in 15 minutes 05/16/2025, 9:48pm PDT 
Why? Is Xenosaga a better comparison? NT by Mischief Maker 05/17/2025, 11:33am PDT 
(pissing pants and walking around with a massive wet stain) Why's everyone upset NT by Is it because I pissed my pants? 05/17/2025, 4:11pm PDT 
Sorry, I haven't played that many JRPGs since childhood. I'm an arcade gamer. NT by Mischief Maker 05/17/2025, 7:41pm PDT 
Yes, we are winning, brother NT by laying Cable 05/17/2025, 9:25pm PDT 
Re: Claire Obscur by Ice Cream Jonsey 05/16/2025, 10:59pm PDT 
Do I get to race chocobos? by Blackwater 05/18/2025, 9:45am PDT 
As long as I got my suit and tie by Rafiki 05/18/2025, 10:13am PDT 
The Game of Thrones clone? NT by Mischief Maker 05/18/2025, 3:50pm PDT 
That wasn't me. by Mischief Maker 05/18/2025, 4:37pm PDT 
So it's just Dumb + Dumber but I'm the one on the toilet shitting my brains out? by Mischief Maker 05/18/2025, 5:01pm PDT 
It's a art. NT by Mischief Maker 05/18/2025, 5:08pm PDT 
MISCHIEF MAKER SOLID: PISSWALKER NT by THE PISSENING 05/19/2025, 7:13am PDT 
All this rage over a AAA-priced version of Regency Solitaire. NT by MM 05/19/2025, 8:29am PDT 
More like MEEEHHHHHH Maker NT by MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH 05/19/2025, 10:48am PDT 
Ok, so it's Dark Souls as a JRPG by Rafiki 05/21/2025, 9:59pm PDT 
Critiquing the writing while unironically using the tagline "Dark Souls JRPG" NT by peak Caltrops 05/22/2025, 6:34am PDT 
What is your issue with it? by Rafiki IS peak caltrops 05/22/2025, 6:47am PDT 
Getting massive "Dark Souls" vibes from this game by Google Gemini 05/22/2025, 10:56am PDT 
This is what happens when you ask AI to think for you by Rafiki 06/04/2025, 8:12pm PDT 
Shut the fuck up. NT by Feris 06/04/2025, 9:38pm PDT 
I blame new graphical tech by emote machine 05/22/2025, 7:08am PDT 
The story by Rafiki 07/09/2025, 1:03pm PDT 
more, because I left out some things I wanted to talk about by Rafiki 07/10/2025, 9:14am PDT 
So not as good as Paper Mario? NT by Mischief Maker 07/10/2025, 6:45pm PDT 
We love your posts on these. NT by the non-assholes of Caltrops 07/11/2025, 9:53pm PDT 
Re: The story by I <3 Carbot 07/16/2025, 5:18am PDT 
Would either, both, or neither of my catchphrases apply to this one NT by Bill the Cat 05/18/2025, 5:28pm PDT 
Plinky plonky repetitive sad piano music == 10/10 GOAT GOTY OMG!!!!!1 by Oom Shnibble 06/04/2025, 9:16pm PDT 
Great post, thanks for making it. Now will you please STOP POSTING NT by Feris 06/05/2025, 12:11pm PDT 
Don't stop posting, Shnibble. There is a shitty poster making the rounds. NT by Respiv 06/05/2025, 1:12pm PDT 
Someone sticks to the same nick for 20 years and he's still shrieking NT by Feris is a crying twat 06/05/2025, 4:46pm PDT 
Thanks, Crying Twat NT by Mysterio 06/09/2025, 9:43pm PDT 
Who are you again? NT by Oom Shnibble 06/05/2025, 5:38pm PDT 
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