Romance is bland in ANE: The Rant
I was pulling up videos from TO and ANE I have for inspo for my Faepedia and the difference of quality between TO and ANE is downright horrific.
Each and every episode in TO was like a loooong episode in a series where at the end of an episode I was like "OMG so much info, so much happened". Every episode had some action, some filler, quality time with basically everyone including the LIs, while moving the story along, giving us stuff to think about.
In ANE however, the episodes are just as long (roughly 2 hours of content in one video) but virtually nothing happens. How in the world do I play for 2 hours and STILL have no actual shit happen??? Even though I spend more maana than I am comfortable with on side characters, the conversations are so damn empty, they give you no extra info about the world or it's characters, NOTHING. I can barely muster up the energy to play the episodes as they come out, I feel like I am wasting my time.
On the LI's:
In TO, the four LIs (Valkyon, Nevra, Ezarel and Leiftan) were all different personalities woth different attitude to things and people, different likes/dislikes, strengths and weaknesses, AND they each had a personal problem they had to tackle.
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Nevra was your typical arrogant looking womanizer who only thinks about chasing chicks all day long and being totally nonchalant about it and thus mad irresponsible both personally and professionally. He turned out to be a hardworking, diligent, responsible guy who would carry his girl around on the palm of his hand like they were a princess. He was one of your biggest supporters in TO and I really felt like he cared for MC as a person (even though he was not my route) and was worried about her like they were brother and sister. He was such a dork, I loved him so much.
Now we have this cold, mission oriented, unsupportive guy who just fucks to forget while claiming that he's lost so much in the war and how could we understand it? How we shouldn't be so surprised that he is different because it's been 7 seven years, we should move on from this memory we have of him, while he himself was unable to do so. Cold and distant, you have to basically force your companionship onto him until he gets more open with you.
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Leiftan was your support from day one, calm, collected and very gentle, shielding you from the hostile HQ while trying to get close to you and still be looking like the most unapproachable guy there is. He felt waaaaaay out of our league in multiple ways and his attention was always special, even I felt honored when he made time for us (again, he was also not my route). He in fact was a hurt, rage and vengeance filled creature who was killing almost indiscriminately, trying to get back at the world for his own suffering and pain, while being smitten with the MC just because she was from his own race which he's the last of. She was his last chance to have a place to truly belong.
Now he's a guilt ridden coward, afraid to be consumed by his past and his darkness he can't seem to get rid of. He really doesn't want to be anywhere near people, but he has absolutely nowhere to go and (in his mind) nothing to do. He just sticks around for the MC because he's still in love with her, but he doesn't dare move a muscle to prove it. Again, cold and distant, you have to chase his ass around endlessly in a game of cat and mouse reassuring him all the while.
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Lance was the bad guy, the villain if the story, willing to kill everyone in his way and I do mean everyone (we all know what happened). He was intelligent, cruel, downright sadistic, but he never lied to us, not once. His whole thing was the "righteous rage" we all felt after the lies and betrayals in HQ, when we just wanted to leave the Guard, preferably in flames for the shit they did to MC. A charismatic, feral bastard, he managed to lead a whole army of disenfranchised outcasts on a suicide quest, they all knew what they were signing up for, since again, he was utterly honest. This was a before he went COMPLETELY bonkers.
And in ANE we got this weak imitation, a stand-in for Valkyon we never wanted. He's blindly following someone who keeps secrets and lies all the time (*cough* HH *cough*) while staying in Nevra's shadow not doing much until he's given orders. He's acting like a henchman to the Council, not thinking for himself at all. I haven't heard this man argue/audibly disagree with anyone so far and we are 16 episodes in! All this talk about him being a different person: it's not hard being a different person when your soul is crushed and you can barely get yourself out of bed due to crippling depression, just sayin. And yet again, cold and distant until you smack some life into him so that he would talk to you.
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(I'll skip Mathieu since he was not in TO to make a comparison, I find him extremely annoying, also I find it stupid as hell to bring a regular-degular human into a fantasy themed game and I say this with all the respect my 160cms have to the elusive Mathieu stans, we see just as often as we see good content from Bee.)
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In conclusion: all of them are cold and distant, just waiting for the MC to make a move, put in the work while feeling absolutely sorry for themselves, saying that they shouldn't be together yada yada. And then they are together like magic, without explanation, without a proper build-up, nothing. I bet if I'd asked Er*ika (Little Miss Took-a-bite-bigger-than-she-can-chew) about good things she sees in her LI, she couldn't say more than "looks hot, has a dick".
End rant
