#shine rants

Sorry for putting negative opininons in the tags, but I've seen it done before and I'm warning you to stop reading now if you don't wanna see it. That said, spoilers for everything ahead, read at your own risk.

(I wanna complain in detail, so I'm gonna break every point down)

•Where's my Convergence

Up until the finale the game was hinting towards all three routes merging at the end. And then it just. didn't. This would've been okay if from the start Nomad/Knight/Ambassador were the three roles you could choose, and even if they were nods towards the other two, they didn't have any real weight on the story and who you chose was the only, well, Chosen One. But they didn't do that!! It's obvious all three routes are supposed to happen simultaneously!! Maja literally tells Knight they're not the only one marked, Raiden tells Ambassador if they know anything about Knight because Erik is worried about them (implying their being snatched by the gods), I'm pretty sure in Nomad x Erik he tells them they're not the one they were looking for/expecting (he was looking for Knight!). And then in the finale they forgot about the existence of the roles you didn't choose. What happened with the other two Chosen ones. I get it would've been difficult to orchestrate this, but if you build up expectations then you need to live up to them.

•Erik's Bloodline

Where the actual hell did that come from?! You can't just pull that kinda stuff out your arse at the end in a haha gotcha, if you wanted to go for that you should've left hints. And no, having him exiled on weird circumstances isn't a hint. I assumed their Majesties set up a trap for him because he was a good knight who cared about people and that doesn't bode well for you when you're doing things that will actively harm said people. And in this assumed scenario it makes sense they exiled him? They didn't need him dead, just out of any position that holds power. But with the actual reason? Him being the Chosen One the only who can defeat their plans and their god? Yeah, I'm not buying that they went "well maybe exile will be enough lol".

Plus, Erik being from a bloodline of kings and then becoming King it's. eh. Don't get me wrong I'm not mad that he is King, he would make an amazing one, but I kinda wish getting back his old life (now upgraded) wasn't the only way he can get his happy ever after. It would've been cool if they went for 'what happened was not your fault and you don't need to go back to your old life for happiness', but I understand that's a subjective thing.

•Sword for the Ambassador

This is how I dubbed the fact that no matter which role you take the Mythical Item To Defeat God is a sword. Even when you're an ambassador that (canonically) hasn't held a blade in their life and just barely gets the basics of how to hold a dagger before the final battle. Yeah, sure, just strap the thing to their back and sent them to battle, what could go wrong? The sword made sense for Knight, but I assumed the item would be different for every role tailored to each on'es skills.

•The Final Battle

It was kind of anticlimatic after all the build up of it being a battle between gods/gods' Chosen Ones. And in the end it's a man with a bloodline and magic sword, a Fake Chosen One, and a god that *checks notes* gets distracted by mages throwing debris at them. This is where convergence and magic items tailored to each role would've been awesome.

•Suddenly Important Triplets

Look. I'm not against having the triplets have an important role, but the last time they appeared was all the way back in the prologue, Ambassador route only, and they were presented as kind of shallow and dumb. And now they are the masters of secrets holding super important information? What?! If they wanted to go for this it should have been hinted so that, at least in hindsight, it makes sense.

Also, side note on the favours. They should be different for every role. Up until I caught up that the three routes were not hapenning simultaneosuly anymore I thought good lord why is everyone being asked for Erik's hair. But no. Not everyone. Just who you're playing as because the other two Chosen Ones are not that important anymore and hold no role in the story.

•Dialogue Recycling

I mean, in the end a lot of the other points are tied to this. They wrote one thing and made the bare necessary changes to make it for the three roles. And we've seen dialogue recycling before! Sometimes it's necessary! In ch5 we've seen some dialogue recycling, but it was less... obnoxious is not the word I'm looking for but it will have to do, and generally made more sense (there were a couple instances in the polyam options were the recycled dialogue implied you'd entered the romance from the wrong side, but I'm not here to critique ch5, let's stick to the finale). However, in the finale the dialogue recycling has been constant across all three roles. Not much to distinguish if you're playing as Knight, Ambassador, of Nomad from the events/dialogue except how people address you. Before every route was distinctly different.

•Loose Threads

It drives me nuts that we've had the finale without all questions being answered. What the fuck happened with the cultist at the forest, for once? It was given so much importance and then they were not to be seen or even mentioned again. And what about Callisto's hiring of Raiden? I'm okay with not knowing how she got the Guild's favour (I would be more okay if the sisters were introduced from the start as sneaky and secretive little bitches), but who is Rai murdering? He even mentions it's a job he would have gotten eventually and it feels wird af that you can't even guess about it?

•No Time for Love

This might be slightly more petty, but it is a big pet peeve of mine when once a romantic route is selected you actually have less romance/content with the LI instead of more. But it's only a natural outcome when you combine 'Where's my Convergence' and 'Dialogue Recycling'

•King, Queen, and Special Little Friend

More petty things, but why don't MC, Erik, and Maja rule as a throuple in the polyam routes? I could buy it that Nomad doesn't want to because they made it clear they do not want to live in court like that (and still Maja and Erik could pester them about it). But with Knight and Ambassador? If ruling by three isn't a concept yet then their new Majesties would certainly make it one.

•I Love You but I Love Heist More

Also a petty one, but it didn't feel right for Lucien to leave for the next heist when you just started your relationship with them. Lucien, who so romantically told you that being so ancient they count time not by the seasons but by the lives of those they love. But then they can't wait the blink of a human lifetime for the next heist? Or failing that take you with them? I get that in the polyam routes Raiden has to stay in Novus as the new Viper, and that MC would stay with him rather than leave too, but the monogamous route? Kinda unnecessary for MC to stay.

(And then again, if Lucien is so ancient what is a human lifetime to them? Heist is good and all but are you really telling me it's the only source of entertainment you get? My friend, I say this as someone who loves you: you need to get hobbies)

•Bad Ending

I could write a whole essay on this, but enough to say that the Bad Ending isn't bad as in tragic but bad as in nonsensical. Why can Novoth make you replace the god who marked you? Why does that make you forgive you about yourself, your friends, your lifes and experiences? Why does everything go to shit immediately after (the gods told that Novoth wanted a utopia eventually leading to ruin, not the apocalypse? But well, they made Novoth straight up evill instead of not understanding how humanity works which was a far more attractive idea, so yeah. I could make a whole other point about this, actually). Additionally, why do your friends give up immediately after and scatter? They had strong bonds tying them together before you came around!!

Also, if you change your mind last minute and switch to the Good End halfway through it is. the most. nonsensical thing. of all.

And that has been all!! Thanks for coming to my TED talk. If you're still reading I commend your commitment.

I genuinely liked the game (still do, finale notwithstanding), the characters and overall game up until ch5 were amazing and it seemed like they were leading to an equally amazing finale. I was wrong. But I became attached to the LIs and my OCs, so I'll still be obsessed with this game for the foreseeable future.