THE el berto

Relic weapons feel like they only exist for plot armor as opposed to an actual thing within the setting used not only to progress the story but within battle or other situations as well.

Now, granted I feel the need to press again that I haven't done Anisa's story just yet but I feel like it's telling that in Felix and Sage's routes I've seen enough to form this opinion.

Yes, I understand that in Sages route a big portion of his story revolves around getting and rekindling Zenith but Zeniths story feels... lacking? It is definitely better than in Felix's story where we only actually even learn about his Relic randomly because we needed an out for an impossible situation they wrote us into and even Felix is like "wow that probably shouldn't have worked!" Which made it feel so inorganic paired with our previous lack of knowledge of it.

Zenith is, for the majority of Sage's story, just a sword because it has stopped attuning to him or something, and it finally reactivated through the power of love and the magic of friendship because he found something to protect again or whatever instead of just being a hired blade. But something about it just leaves me unsatisfied.

And now I'm going to rant about the MC's weapon. I'm unsure if its different depending on if you use a sword or a staff, but I know for a fact that if you use a staff it just feels unsatisfying. The MC's weapon is by far the WORST of the offending relics besides Felix's, not because we don't use it, but because that inorganic feeling is ten times worse.

You only really remember to use it when you absolutely need it and something has gone horribly wrong and the extent of what exactly it can do feels horribly inconclusive and unoutlined, and it usually just APPEARS for you. If you choose the staff at least, Rime was a healer, so you would assume its powers are specified to healing, and thats not entirely untrue in the way it "heals" people in each route, but "healing" doesn't seem to be specific but rather a broad definition of the word. I'm not entirely against that but I just feel... unsatisfied with it? It feels like its only meant to be there as a "someone's in a bad situation! Good thing you have the 'get better' staff!" ALSO YOURE TELLING ME ITS CALLED THE ASTROLABE BUT IT HAS LIKE NOTHING TO DO WITH STARS OR SOME KIND OF STAR MAGIC???

God. Felix's is SO the worst offender though. It isn't mentioned a single damn time in his route until you're pinned in a bad spot and suddenly Felix uses it and hits you with a cheeky little "oh yeah just my relic, I didn't tell you about it? Yeah lol I used up all of its energy before, I'm surprised it worked." And just like?? What??? FELIX WHAT YOURE TELLING ME YOU HAD THAT THE WHOLE TIME? I get it, it was drained or something but dude I have a feeling we could have done something about that if you had just said something about the damn thing.

I have no idea about Anisa's relic or the state of it, or if its even mentioned thanks to the shortness of her route (I'm so sorry Anisa enjoyers, I weep for you) and so I can't comment on hers but if anyone actually reads this I'd be so grateful if you could tell me what that looks like because I'm SO curious.