#aligern

The Changing God had been dead long time ago. Sooo, soooo PoE that. In their games there are never Gods at all. The Ninth World, like Planescape:Torment gives a really amazing landscape to explore and different quests with different chars, but everything feels too shallow. I mean, you go to Sagus, to find the Martial Artist there, you solve the problem and that's all. You never again interact with him. It's a world so empty of “daily life”. It feels like the whole world is setted in a way just for you to explore, command and do staff. I don't know why I feel it that way.

The merecaster system (exactly the same system you use for “reading souls”in PoE) was quite interesting, even though sometimes it was boring. The long descriptions of the environment was too much sometimes. But I have the feeling that most of them, when they are not related to castoffs, it's just a bunch of scattered memories, they do not make sense , they dont have anything where to fit, (and produce a higher feeling of shallow senseless in a world like the Ninth, where you can see headless people walking around, chilling.) Probably this is what strikes your mind most of the time: the lack of sense in everyone’s existence. Of youse, you can interpret Ninth as an allegory of our current life, but it doesn’t suffice. At some point, you have to stop trying to find sense or symbolic interpretation, because everything is crazy. Like the Baker with the “wrong” Levy, asking another year of his life. I mean, there are amazing things and concepts such the Dendra O'Hur cult, or the Changing God itself, Aligern’s family/tatoos in his body and mind, th glow of Erriti that will kill him but it was going to be “amazing”, the Bloom itself devouring us all to its whim, Rhin crafting her own “Gods” (sublime allegory) or the same existence of the castoffs. All of them are quite interesting allegories, but you need to stop at some point, because everything goes too wild. Like the people living in a Whale, with the lack of written words, and ill, that wanted to land in Sagus, or the book you return to Falinda (she speaks narrating). Or the man researching the reproduction processes of many species... one of them was removing a limb of your own body from which the “kid” developed itself, condemned to have a role according to the limb (like, arms=worker, head=scientist, etc). This was a whole .. what? the?fuck?.

Characters

Now, this was really good.

Tybir broke his heart and mine, and probably most players' (I’m grateful he didn’t turn in a story I was expecting of, the greater betrayer). However, I'm angry at this story, because this is the usual sad, angst gay story. I grow up reading and watching these stories, and I 'm not fond of them, in fact I’m too tired for them. It's like repeating all the time that gay relationships are always condemned to death. Anyway, what I loved of this quest was that the concept didn't go only into a bad ending romance. It was also the exploration of  human kindness. Tybir and Auvigne were both kind men. Tybir was raised to be honest and gentle, he said so, but the world hardened him. He lost his faith in the world, mainly after the Endless War that clearly messed his mind beyond repair. On the other hand, Auvigne was more optimistic. He did not lose his faith in the world, he even wanted to change it, to turn it into a gentler place. Everything goes to hell when Tybir lived Auvigne's death in the endless war. He was never again the same.

The story sound quite real for Ninth (this world is crazy). I resent a lot that you, with all your mighty ass of a castoff, can't find an object and use it as a mere to change that past and make Auvigne to avoid the Bloom. With that it would have been enough. I hate that the game did not offer you options here. You change everything, even the Changing God's end! But not Auvigne 's. Pft.

And the ending of Tybir going to atone his sins in the village he almost destroyed... alone... meh. The big protector, dying old and alone. I don't like that ending :/.

Aligern is another of my favourite chars. His story was more like I would have liked for Tybir. The man with all his angst about his daughter and wife, and in the end, you can save them. You have the option through the choice of using or not those tattoos. But we all know heterosexuality is a bless, and makes things go right most of the time. Meh.

Anyway, I liked his story. From the fallen Aeon Priest, to super angry, cynical, grumpy dad, to a man in peace with his fate and his family sound and safe.

Rhin!!!!!!! My god. She is perfect. She simply is. She crafts now “Gods”, and they are powerful when they are crafted with the bounds of love. Myyy. I let her go to her world, thinking that was going to be all, but... I couldn't believe she was an adult woman (TALLER than the your char themself!) coming to rescue the “castoff in distress”. I loved her. Every bit of her.

Erritis. I only played more with him after I sent Rhin to her world. I think I missed his personal quest, if he has one... but the small bits I saw in the process were scary. I made the surgeons to dig inside of him, and the nano-bright bullshit was a horrible discovery and still yet, amazing. I loved his symbol. I mean.. yeah, it's sad I don't know if he chose to take those nano-things on him.  But the concept is really good. Scary, but good. This thing of live fast and intense but short. That was more or less what he did. Burning his life through the nano-bright shit to enjoy life to the extreme. What I think it’s a bit troublesome is his lack of bounds. He doesn’t remember himself, he doesn’t remember his family, where he comes, or anything. He is blind enthusiasm for new things, all the time, everyday, until the last day of his life. And, his end was sooo very very PoE (Very Sagani :(  ). Just died in a road, there, left to rot. Alone.

Sadly, I got Matkina too late in the game, I was too curious about Aligern’s and Tybir’s and Rhin's backgrounds to get her into my party. So she did not catch my attention.

Same happened with Callistege. In the first moment I chose Aligern over her because well... Aligern was all the time saying she was going to back-stab me, so.... that, and the small details that showed her like a character more interested in learning things, and curious about knowledge than caring over people. She really felt like she could put you into a machine with some tricks just to research yourself. I mean, more of less it was what she did with Aligern (keep him close as long as she could understand the tattoos and what happened). Of course both characters keep saying that they got a kind of short mutual benefit in their weird relationship.... but... The way she used Aligern, even though she was fully aware of the extremely vulnerable state that he was... I don't know. Thing is, I did nothing with her... so, at the end of the game, she finished dead somewhere, they don't even specified that. Like in a dark corner of the streets... wtf.

I don't know. I liked the choices, the story in general, the way you develop the plot through scraps of memories lost everywhere.  It has a clear sign of PoE’s people everywhere.

I liked the end they allowed me to choose. I was mostly a golden-red castoff, so I played all valuing life individually. The final end allowed me to be coherent with that, even more, the Sorrow said “well, the solution is not the optimal, but it makes sense with what you said before, so, cookies.” lol. That was weird, very very Ninth, that the Grim Reaper congratulates you for being coherent with your words and actions. Like, sure, man, did I impressed you so much for you to stop chasing after me?. No?. Sad.

I left the things the way they were. Every castoff had to choose how to live their lives until the end. With the Sorrow.

What I don't understand much in this is the concept of the Sorrow. The Gods do not exist, or they are small powerful being, no more. However, the Sorrow looks like a Death God, who protects the “seals of the madness”. I don't know, the Sorrow looks like too much of a God to my taste, and I think there is a contradiction in this because, after playing PoE and this game now, I know that both games reinforce constantly the concept of “there is no God in this world”. I would like to read any meta related to the Sorrow, if someone gave a thought bout it.