Send Help Or Let Me Die

My take on poppy playtime and it’s long I’m sorry:

I do enjoy the games, I enjoy the lore and the style of everything. But. It’s quickly becoming the Netflix of games. With very decent/okayish chapters but like at least year in between so hype just dies out immediately.

I still enjoy it but this last chapter I have to say for me was very meh. Like in the previous chapters it felt a bit like its own story tying together to a bigger one. Like you have this main goal of coming back(why? Who knows) and you’re here to help all the people/toys and defeat the prototype.

But also with every chapter you are given a smaller goal of here’s a companion, they’re gonna tell you about this smaller villain who you got to defeat to get to the big villain. And every chapter that’s what you would do. It felt like each chapter could be somewhat playable on its own, Cause it felt like its own little story. You could find little pieces of info that would bring a backstory to a character you would never meet and it would create a whole life to give your goal a new meaning making it feel more worth while.

Also seeing big cutouts of characters and who you might get to meet in the game was such a fun thing cause would they be a villain, would they be a new friend?! It was exciting and made you look forward for what’s to come.

But this last chapter oh my god. It was fine don’t get me wrong. I didn’t HATE it but also it’s definitely a chapter Id skip replaying cause it felt worthless?? Like yeah it’s the big bad reveal, but once you know what the prototype looks like, why play it again you know??

I love Lily Lovebraids! Love the character but it’s wasted because it just feels like a mommy long legs rip off. Which are both great characters but I just felt like I was playing a game that was basing itself off a game I loved ya know?? Her character is decent but her hair extension is just mommy’s long limbs. The countdown is the exact same thing mommy does. Even playing around with the main character. Like it just felt the same! The only unique thing was the glow in the dark but they barely used it! It was just a follow this! And that’s all they used it for!!! The main thing that separated the characters and they barely used it in an interesting way! I couldn’t enjoy her and I feel sad about it cause she could have been so much better!!!

Her character backstory doesn’t even really make much sense?? Like her being Ms. Grace is fun and interesting but like we JUST met Ms. Grace, I have no connection to that character other than actor paid by bad company to make weird videos, who for WHATEVER reason, the company decided to make her into a toy????? Why?!?!!! I can’t see why she would want to and if they forced her why would she be like an excited prototype follower??? I mean I can guess it’s cause she was paid or just fine with the company doing whatever but why would the company tell an Actor what they’re doing??? They didn’t even tell most of their employees?? I feel like an actor you’re paying to make these weird videos wouldn’t be high on the list. I wish they could’ve introduced Ms. Grace wayyyyy before so we could’ve gotten a little more backstory on her and actually feel a way towards her other than random new character. The prototype doesn’t even seem to like her AT ALL. So why is Proto just letting her do whatever?

Gosh it feels like a waste of potential for her. And then for her to just die that quickly and you don’t even really fight her to win. She just kind of stops chasing you and lets you do the power hand which she can see and does nothing to stop you or use her hair to like help herself not fall. It’s just so anticlimactic that I was like there’s literally no way she’s dead!! Like she just got here and even when she was here I was running around in other rooms doing tasks for her so I didn’t even really interact with her. Just a waste.

I love Lily Lovebraids but I didn’t get to enjoy having her around. The part where you see she takes care of her original body is such a lovely moment and shows you she doesn’t want to be a toy but has separated herself from her old body and gosh just so much they could’ve expanded on. Also why was she leaving notes everywhere? Like they never really leaded to anything super revealing it was very eh??

The insideoutimals like I get but I don’t ya know? Like I had a toy that urned inside out into like a monster version of the toy but I don’t know how they make sense in the game. Like the company making them makes sense but why would Proto be making them?? Just for creepy vibes?? Puts all this effort into taking living creatures and just flipping them inside out and for what?? Like Proto did it to Giblet and Giblet is still the same? When you find the note where he owes other insideoutimals and other critters it shows that some of them are still humanish, they still make homes, so why is Proto doing it? For the love of the game? Science? He’s not controlling any of them. They’re still like the smile critters above just inside out. Like it didn’t change anything? Didn’t make them harder to kill or scare away. It seemed like it made it easier, with the light you know? And why are they scared of just light and not flares? Why is Giblet not?

Speaking of Giblet, I know he’s scared and ‘not a hero’ but he really is like no help at all other than resurrecting us. And I’m not asking him to come fists swinging but he could break a window for me or help with one of the MANY switches in the game just something

Chum I adore but same thing, introduced and then just gone. Would’ve loved to have seen him way earlier in a cutout so I could’ve been excited to see him when he finally arrived but like he was fun but he’s just gone away somewhere.

Braun I wish we could’ve helped in some way like I wish we could’ve helped Dogday. Even if it was just getting the animals to stop eating him and he could rest.

Kissy swinging hands is always my favorite. If kissy is dead I’m gonna be pissed.

Huggy would’ve been so cool to see turn around and become an Ally. Like the shock factor was a good effect and interesting but if we got to see Huggy turn completely even after all the awful stuff that happened to him, it would show how we could still help all the other animals change.

Poppy I don’t even know. She’s fine and I feel bad what happened to her but like everything that’s happened to her felt sort of like she deserved it a bit? Like all the other characters like her but all of them say how she wasn’t around and doesn’t know and none of them agreed that they wanted to blow the place up. I get she was trying to save the orphans but if they really are all gone then like what are we still doing there? I know we’re there to destroy Proto and rescue the other beings but what after?? Like what do they do? I don’t think they can turn back? Most of them are savage now. And even if they somehow all survive they’ll have to live the rest of their lives as toys, and that’s if the government doesn’t get involved to start it up all again.

I just don’t understand the motives anymore.

I like Protos design I think it’s very cool, the whole jester look. I like the theory of the king but like I said I’d rather know a hint of the big bad than be surprised by it. Proto also doesn’t seem like that difficult to defeat honestly. I know the train and the freezing and blowing up stuff didn’t get him but it definitely stopped him. I feel like two well timed trains could get him you know? Cause really how else in this game are we defeating Proto that won’t involve the same mechanics we just played in this chapter??? Proto doesn’t eat or drink from what I can tell, seems completely mechanical other than ‘Oliver’ being his origin. But he’s mostly mechanical, is it like only a brain attached to that frame??? His mouth doesn’t open and I feel like if he did eat we would’ve seen it by now especially with all the ‘surgeries’ he does. I feel like we’re just going to get a big mechanical suit or just a ramped version of the doughey fight.

Also there was like no fighting in this game I realized it’s just puzzles and chase scenes. Like the catnap fight was the closest we gotten to an actual fight scene but even then that’s just a timed puzzle. I wish there was actual fights in the game. We have a flare gun we could use it! The pressure hand could work too!!! I just want to have a fight sequence in the game. Like tell me you wouldn’t try to swing at the computer Doc was? Like immediately wack!

I don’t mind chase scenes really, they’re fine. But I felt like these weren’t designed well?? Like when I played I kept somehow going the wrong way or discovering what the new mechanic was too late. And then I watched YouTubers play and they all did the same! Like I’m not a great gamer and I figured ahh it’s probably me. And then seeing gamers do what I did, I was like oh it’s not me okay. Like everyone playing your game shouldn’t die in the same places multiple times, that’s not user error that’s the design error.

Everything felt rushed in this chapter? Like nothing let you sit for too long. In the doughy chapter you were allowed to walk around a few times to explore. This one they really kept things very straightforward and short. You meet a character then bam they’re gone, meet a villain then bam they’re gone, meet poppy and missy, bam gone. Like let me be around for a second geez.

The doc coming back? I really don’t care. Amazing voice actor so yay for that! There’s no way the doc doesn’t try to betray us. And if he doesn’t that just seems out of character.

The main character is very quickly becoming (to me) an unreliable narrator. The don’t have a motive that we know of and just goes along with anything (which I know is how games work but it’s just now becoming ‘like really’ why would you do this’ because the game won’t let us explore as the character) The character has NO personality at all to the point that when they got stabbed by Proto it’s not significant because one I don’t care about the main character. It’s a voiceless body that im running around, but not really because the game only lets us run around in a straight path now. Like we don’t get injured. We are either dead or alive in a scenario where it would be interesting to be injured in certain situations. I’m not saying the character has to talk but we’re seeing all these things and we have NO idea what it means to our character at ALL. We don’t know if they knew about the toys who were humans before (it’s hinted at). If we were big dogs in the company or just some low pay employee. I would love to see some insight even just thoughts or emotions from our character. Like if they were going to make the character as uninvolved with the story they should’ve just been some random person who walked in off the street. At this point in the game I feel like an emotionless blob. Imagine that instead of showing us slowly jog away from danger in a cutscene our character was injured or we were told the equipment we have is heavy and instead of feeling like “MOVE MF” it would make sense! If we saw the character recognize somebody but not get recognized by that person because of how much they’ve been through. The emotions we could’ve got by all the stress and run arounds Poppy put us through. I just feel so disconnected as the player. Like when I play other games, I go out of my way to try to not hurt my character because I feel bad about it. I try to go find little story plot pieces because to me it feels important to my character to find them.

I feel like the backlash is not that warranted honestly. I feel like one bad chapter doesn’t ruin the game for me. Unless they’re gonna revamp the chapter I honestly don’t care. But I do get the frustration. It was SO MANY chase scenes. And they weren’t good. Oml. I don’t mind the puzzles, it’s a puzzle game. But I feel like the lack of connection to your character is what’s hurting the game cause you honestly don’t care about them. You don’t even think about them in the game that much either!! It’s very much an entire chapter just to show off the Proto. Which is fine, I just wish they just did it better. Like spent the entire chapter showing off Proto and why he’s the big bad. How scary he is and how dangerous he is but all they did was show him off, show other characters scared of him, and then we almost defeat him with a train. Like I’m not scared of the Proto at all. Cool character style!! It’s also that with everything leading up to this chapter it felt like they weren’t giving us anything new other than the Proto was going to be a big part of it. So even I thought it was the final chapter! And then all of a sudden here’s a bunch of characters and new mechanics that have never existed before or hinted at and now half of it you’ll never see again. And also it’s not the final chapter and we’re bringing back a character you destroyed so now it feels like all the work you put into destroying that character was meaningless even though you spent an entire chapter dedicated to doing just that!

I’ve seen people compare the complaints to similar games like Fnaf and like I get it but at least every game was its own game. You don’t have to play every game to understand it or even get the lore to understand what you’re doing there. Also because the lore was a fun extra to the games to connect them it’s more enjoyable. This is literally ONE story split into multiple parts like a Netflix series. And like a Netflix story it’s at least a year in between each series so you lose hype and you forget about it so you don’t have patience because when you’re left on another cliffhanger again after a bad chapter, you get mad because you know you’re gonna have to wait another year for hopefully not another bad cliffhanger. Also to point out the lore is something you have to get to understand most of what’s going on which is fine but they make it hard to find or have time to go through. Plus there’s so much of it each chapter you have no idea if you’ve missed some of it.