Tristes tropiques: The worst chapter in Reverse 1999
Alright, so Iâve wanted to talk about ch8 of the main story since Iâve finished it because itâs, imo, the worst drop in writing quality weâve seen in the game so far. It has a lot of inconsistencies, things that arenât explained or happen off-screen, and the emotional segments are rushed/not impactful enough, and about characters weâve barely seen (excluding Anjo Nala, who is the best part of the chapter imo). Now, as you can see, this will be quite a negative take, so if you liked this chapter, please donât let me ruin your fun lol. Also, itâll have spoilers, so be warned.
Part 1: The representation.
Alright, had to get this out of the way first because itâs what everyone is talking about. The representation.
Is the representation bad? Yes. Really, really bad if we compare it with literally all other stories in the game. To put things in perspective, imagine if in the Notes of Shuori event nothing changed but they clamed this was Japan instead of China, yet characters still spoke in Chinese, had Chinese names, and many of the references were Chinese. That would have been outrageous, wouldnât it? Well, thatâs basically what happened here but with Brazil and other Latin American countries.
What they tried to do, basically, was dump all of Latin America (you, know a region thatâs bigger and more diverse than Europe) into one singular âcultureâ and put this in fictional Sao Paulo. Why do I say that? Because many of the words they use for different things are in Spanish, and many characters speak in Spanish, have Spanish-sounding names, and reference things from other countries in Latin America. Also, one of the npcs, whose name I donât care to remember, is literally a walking Mexican stereotype. To me what this says is that they didnât do any research at all about Brazil (for those of you who donât know, they speak Portuguese and are also far enough away from Mexico that these two cultures arenât really comparable); enough that they couldnât get even the language right, or even the geography or the Sao Paulo landscape, judging by what Iâve seen being said by Brazilian players.
Remember when they accurately portrayed the Secession building in Vienna? Or Jantar Mantar in Mor Pank? Or how they usually have characters speak small phrases in their native language, which is appropriate to the region and their character? Well, Bluepoch doesnât, apparently.
Then thereâs the whole âlife here is hell, this is hopeless and everything here sucksâ aspect of their portrayal of Sao Paulo (and their infamous tweet). This feels especially disrespectful when the story so far has always had quite a good amount of nuance. Vienna for example, having the contrast of being the âcity of freedomâ, yet having such a strict oppression of arcanists. Or San Francisco, having such a huge poverty and gang problem, yet still portraying the people living in these conditions as actual humans with hopes and dreams that they sometimes were able to accomplish.
And finally, to wrap up this representation thingâĶ it feels disrespectful that the only Brazilian character we get is Mr. Duncan. Mainly because it seems heâs not really Mr. Duncan, but actually Mr. Karson. You know, an English man. I think they shouldâve made Lopera Brazilian because so far having her be from Colombia adds nothing to the story, and if she was from Sao Paulo itâd make a lot more sense for her to be Vertinâs guide/translator in the city.
Okay, so thatâs what we get from the representation in this chapter, which is pretty bad (havenât read Anjoâs character story, which Iâve heard is better in this aspect, but thatâs not actually part of ch8, so I excluded it). However, honestly I wouldnât mind that much if the story had at least been good. SoâĶ letâs talk about that next, shall we?
Okay, first letâs get the good things out of the way, because I donât want to sit here and pretend that everything about this chapter was bad; that would be unfair and disingenuous.
I liked Lopera and Molly. They were interesting characters and have a lot of potential for the future of the story, which I really hope they deliver in future chapters.
I liked White Rum; sheâs a funny character, and the concept of an Awakened pirate ship that has the skeletal hand of her former captain (Anne Bonnie, my favorite pirate of all time) is quite an interesting and unique idea, and I wish we got more characters like this. Also, I need to see her interact with Regulus lol.
I absolutely adored Anjo Nala. Sheâs the highlight of the story for me; an interesting, complex, and adorable character with a lot of potential for stories to tell, both about her past and her future. I really became attached to her over the course of this story, and I think they did a good job making you care for herâĶ in this specific chapter. Donât look back at versions 2.0 and 2.1 if you donât want to get your fun ruined, because consistency is something they didnât care about at all while writing this patch. And that brings us toâĶ
Buckle up my friends because whatâs bad about this chapter is really, really, REALLY bad. Consistency is something they donât believe in anymore, retcons are on the market, and setting up characters/settings/relationships is a thing of the past.
Does it sound like Iâm being too harsh? Maybe, but itâs deserved, so idc.
Letâs start from the least bad, shall we? Anjo Nalaâs hunger. In 2.0 and 2.1, as well as the first of Anjoâs monologues (the things you unlock after getting traces of a specific character), itâs implied that she canât eat human food. Not that she doesnât find it satisfactory, or that she doesnât like it. Itâs heavily implied she literally canât eat it.
But then she steals some bread and Vertin gives her chocolate, and she eats both, soâĶ whatâs up with that? Also, they never really explain what her hunger is for. Was it really just normal human food? Or something else? In her trailer (which btw I wouldnât consider it part of the main story because itâs a freaking trailer, but whatever) she âfeeds on someoneâs loveâ by using her tail. Okay, but then that person turns into a âwalking corpseâ. Does she have to do that every time sheâs hungry? What happens if she doesnât? Is human food substitute enough? The game never answers these questions, which is a mistake because this whole thing is a central part of Anjoâs character, as well as her turning from her bloodthirsty self to the Anjo we meet in this chapter.
And this brings us to my second issueâĶ the inconsistency of Anjoâs character with the two events we had before this patch. Donât get me wrong; Iâm not saying anything she ever did was her fault since she was simply a slave following orders, and one thing that is consistent about her character is that she doesnât like when people do give her orders. However, what really annoys me is how in 2.0 she was very bloodthirsty. Sure, she didnât know J and his gang, and she had done these types of jobs before, but imo it wouldâve been more consistent with the other patches if she was indifferent about killing them, rather than excited. 2.1 was slightly more consistent with ch8 when it comes to Anjoâs character, but itâs kind of implied it was all an act, and her ârealâ personality was that of 2.0.
Now, Iâve seen some ppl explain this as âwell, in a wilderness interaction she says she acts however her master prefers her toâ. Okay, but why put such important information in a freaking wilderness interaction and not in the main story??? You canât even see those unless you have the character, and seeing as Anjo is limited, not everyone will have her. This is a fact.
Another problem I have with Anjo (this is the last, I promise) is that weâre not introduced to her again in ch8, which surely is a decision. Why? Because 2.0 and 2.1 arenât part of the main story; theyâre side events, which are time-limited and, at the moment, not available in-game. This is a problem because anyone who didnât play those events for one reason or another will be very confused by Anjo Nala and how Vertin reacts to her. It wouldâve been better if we were introduced to her from the pov of Lopera, for example, when she raided the Manus base and captured her. And then we could have Vertin run into her on the ship and explain to Sotheby (with a little more detail than what we got) that she actually met her before.
Iâm just saying, this isnât the first time we got a character in a main chapter that had been previously introduced only in an event (Marta/Bessmert), but in that case, if you missed the event, you could still fully enjoy the main chapter, because you wouldnât even know that you were missing information. Thatâs not the case here.
And speaking of UrdâĶ okay, letâs talk about how little sense it makes for the Foundation to want to find her in this chapter. In ch5 Vertin and her team found a suspicious radio that talked about a travel note about Aperion written by someone named âUrdâ. In this case it makes sense for them to want to investigate, since the base Ms. Radio was in had things that belonged to the Manus, and they found some Manus followers there as well. Even after ch5 and everything that happened, it still makes sense for Vertin to want to keep looking for Urd because now she has the suspicion, based on what 6 said, that Urd is her mother.
However, although it makes sense for Vertin to want to find Urd, it doesnât make sense for the freaking Foundation to want to find some random UTTU editor. Because thatâs really all Urd is, isnât she? Sheâs not the head of UTTU (thatâd be Pandora), and the fact that she can traverse the storm, which is the only reason weâre given in ch8, is shared among all UTTU editors, as we learn from Barbara.
But even if we assume the Foundation wants to know how UTTU keeps its editors safeâĶ first of all, why? We already have the equilibrium umbrellas, donât we? We spent a whole chapter seeing their creation, and even saw ppl die for this cause. Why would they need yet another method for surviving the storm? If they instead suspected UTTU to be involved with the Manus somehow, and thatâs how theyâre traversing the storm, then at least give us that!
Furthermore, the Foundation already knew where she was! They were the ones who gave her the white marble chair with a button! If they just wanted to speak with her, surely a simply call wouldâve sufficed? Why send Vertin?
And thatâs another thing! Constantine knows Vertinâs mom, and I'm sure sheâs not the only one in the Foundation who does, yet the Foundation tried to cover it up and tell Vertin that she doesnât have a mother. Clearly they have some motivation for keeping it hidden, right? ThenâĶ why send Vertin specifically to search for Urd? Why not send some other random investigator, preferentially one with experience finding ppl? Why Vertin???
If Vertin had gone out of her own will, like in ch5, Iâd have no problem with this, but no; the Foundation sent her this time. And I just canât bring myself to understand why.
Maybe if Urd isnât Vertinâs mom, that would explain this, but for now this makes no sense at all.
Next I want to talk about Lopera and Mollyâs relationship. I said before that I truly liked their characters and their relationship, which is true, butâĶ I wish it had been better stablished. Why? Because we had only had one, one single scene, of them together and the suddenly there was a grand betrayal and weâre supposed to feel bad for Lopera? Lmao.
If I felt slightly bad for Lopera it was because of the voice acting, the music and the art. I can assure you, not one single ounce of those feelings came from the actual story being told. Itâs even worse when it comes to Igor because he barely exchanged words with Lopera, and all we know from their relationship comes from Lopera telling us âheâs better than my biological fatherâ. And letâs not talk about Ptoleme. He literally only appeared to be a jerk for like five minutes and neither Molly nor Lopera seem to care much about him. How are we supposed to care about that entire family? They really donât feel like a family at all (except for Lopera and Molly, but even then, itâs the bare minimum this chapter could do with this concept).
It wouldâve been so much better if we had this whole chapter to stablish Loperaâs relationship with her adoptive family, with Zeno, the veterans and the Sao Paulo community, and then in the next chapter we could have the big betrayal be more impactful. But here? We barely spent any time with these characters!
And then we have the actual betrayal scene, which isâĶ nonsensical. At best.
What happened in it? Molly arrived at the Colonelâs manor with her squad of Zeno soldiers and attacked the few Apostles Brotherhood ppl that remained, then says sheâs glad that Lopera was able to rescue Dr. Dores and that they should all go back to the base. None of this is suspicious, imo, because Vertin had already told Lopera that she was going to call Zeno for reinforcements, specifically to assist with the rescue of Dr. Dores. Itâs true that Molly hesitates a little when Lopera asks âwhat about the timekeeper?â, and that she dismisses Loperaâs concerns about evacuating Sao Paulo, but imo this shouldnât be enough for Lopera to be so suspicious of her freaking sister. Also, why ask âwhoâs waiting for you in Tierra del Fuegoâ? Why would Lopera every think this was anything other than a mission from Zeno???
Sure, they didnât tell her about it, but also sheâs been gone from the base for a couple of days and she knows thereâs been traitors and rebels. A lot couldâve changed in that time. Even if she didnât want to leave because she got attached to Sao Paulo, I think itâs weird that she immediately was so confrontational about it, especially with her sister, who famously just follows their fatherâs orders without questions.
This couldâve worked if Lopera was already suspicious of her family beforehand, or maybe even of Zenoâs higher ups, or if Molly and her squad had just waltzed in without attacking the Manus or being attacked by them. But thatâs not what happened. Also, if she really was suspicious, why not go back to the base and question Igor about this whole thing like Molly suggested? I donât see why she immediately would think base=bad when her whole family and the army sheâs part of is currently at the base.
Like, I get she already had trauma because of her biological father being a jerk, but that situation doesnât seem to have anything to do with this one imo. All in all, what Iâm saying is that the bad writing of this scene lessens the emotional impact.
And itâs not the only emotional scene thatâs affected by the blatant bad writing in this chapter. No, that âhonorâ goes to the scene the trailer for this patch opens with; Anjo being ordered to kill Vertin by Ptoleme.
Okay, so as a refresher, Igor requests that his son, Ptoleme, is sent to the base because âhe can only trust in his children because they always obey himâ. Okay, so then what does Ptoleme do when ordered to bring back Kimberly, preferentially without a fuss? Of course, cause the biggest scene imaginable, which leads to Kimberly being freed.
Now, I wouldnât be so harsh on him if his actions were reasonable but due to circumstances led to an unfavorable outcome for him, but thatâs not what happened. Okay, he ordered Anjo to kill Vertin. Whatever, heâs a sadistic asshole, but this at least kinda makes sense. What makes no sense whatsoever is that he not only gave Vertin a gun because âhe wonât shoot an unarmed civilianâ (why does he care? Also ultimately he orders Anjo to kill her, so he wouldnât have shot an unarmed civilian anyways), but also that he kept trying to make Vertin shoot Anjo.
Why? Just why? There was no reason for him to want Vertin to kill Anjo. None at all. And if what he wanted was to convince Anjo to kill VertinâĶ he canât play both the âIâll free you if you kill herâ and the âVertin, kill her, sheâs a monsterâ cards at the same time. It makes him look like a pathetic moron with no sense of reality whatsoever, and in retrospective makes Igor look like a bigger idiot who doesnât know his children at all. I think the reason they did this is because they wanted to replicate the infamous orange scene from ch2, but without all the logic, lore and emotional impact behind it, just hoping players would feel emotions by association.
And finally, we come to my biggest complain about this chapter: the retcon about how the storm works. Because yes, it is a retcon. Why do I say that? Mainly based on ch6.
In ch6 we learn that Heinrich, in 1912, left Vienna to study at Berlin. There, he met the Manus and joined them, surviving that storm, and subsequent ones, until time returned to 1913 and he went back to Vienna, reuniting with his old friends and telling them about the storm.
Now, how is this relevant? Well, from Heinrichâs story we learned two things; 1) you can indeed see again someone who was once reversed by the storm, but only if time ever goes back to that era, and 2) The fact that his friends recognized him and he recognized his friends, and his friendsâ existence was consistent even though the storm had once reversed them. You see where Iâm going with this, donât you?
At the end of ch8, Vertin says âthe storm doesnât kill ppl, at least not physicallyâ. Okay Vertin, did you have a lobotomy between chapters? The storm has never killed ppl; itâs just the end of an era, remember? It reverses time! Itâs in the freaking name! The scariest part about the storm isnât the storm itself, but the storm syndrome, which is when most casualties seem to happen. Sure, the storm sucked for Vertin because she kept traversing eras and losing the friends she made in them, but those friends remained anchored in their own time (perhaps with the exception of ppl who had already crossed the storm at least once, like The Ring and Isabella, but I digress).
My point is, that I really donât like where this retcon is headed, but I do hope they somehow fix it in the future, either by making it clear that not everyone who gets reversed is reincarnated and thereâs very strict conditions that should be met (like having knowledge about the storm, for example), or this hypothesis is wrong and the storm isnât actually making ppl reincarnate.
One reason I especially donât like this new reincarnation thing is thatâĶ Mr. Duncan isnât Mr. Karson. Letâs not lie to ourselves. He looks nothing like Mr. Karson (and I wish the game would stop gaslighting me), doesnât act like Mr. Karson, doesnât speak like Mr. Karson, and doesnât even have the same nationality as him! The only things that are similar about them is that theyâre both old war veterans who once had a dog and now have a soft spot for young ladies. And if this is the approach theyâll use to bring back characters in the futureâĶ thanks, but Iâd rather they stayed reversed.
Think about it! Will they next say that Anjo is Schneider? They look similar enough (more similar than Duncan and Karson, thatâs for sure!), both were antagonists that joined the manus for reasons beyond their control, both had a fight with Vertin in which they almost got killed, and both have a snake bracelet on their left arm. Surely thatâs enough to say theyâre one and the same, according to this logic!
My point is that using such simple similarities, they can literally invent any new character they want and then say âthis is actually this other character, who was once reversed by the stormâ, regardless of if theyâre actually similar at all, and I donât think that people who wanted them to bring back Schneider or Marian, or Mr. Karson, or 888, or literally anyone, wanted them to be brought back like this.
But thatâs enough of me ranting lol. What do you think? Did you like this chapter? What are your main complains about it?
To be clear Iâm not saying we should stop playing the game or anything like that; from what Iâve heard the next event is actually good, and I have faith Bluepoch will listen to the players and make sure ch9 is better than whatever ch8 was, but itâs precisely this why it is important for us, as players, to speak out when we donât like something so that Bluepoch knows they canât get away with such blatant drops in quality.
Now, if you somehow made it to the end, thanks for reading!
