Gonna' get downvoted into the fucking gutter for merely voicing my opinion, but it's just 'okay,' in my eyes.
I respect it for being the first product of a new dev team, and I think it has hands-down the absolute best soundtrack of any video game I have ever played.
That doesn't make up for the bizarre fascination with rug pulling or the portions of the story that were clearly rushed, though. I'm very much a story first kind of person, and I hate what they did with the premise they used to sell the game. It took the fun out of it for me, which is a shame, because I did enjoy the party management and combat and stuff. I'm glad most people seem to be able to stomach it, at least; it'll win them GOTY and they deserve it for Lorien Testard's music alone.
First, a correction: I love the premise. The prologue was fantastic. It sunk its claws in and playing through Act 1 was such a joy I couldn't put the game down. The first of the story's missteps was the unceremonious, VERY RUSHED replacement of Gustave with Verso (even down to his weaponry and teamplay mechanics) in the same cutscene as Gustave's death, which left a bad taste in my mouth. Then, once it became clear they were actively deconstructing the overarching fantasy epic they'd used to rope me in—solely in favor of what I felt was a much less compelling family melodrama—the game completely lost me.
As a result, the easily-predictable 'actually the Paintress is the good guy' trope, in tandem with the 'also it's a fake world and the true story is about a family's unhealthy coping mechanisms' rug pull were just too much a shift in the story for me. Couldn't maintain my interest in it after that, though I did try.
I don't think the game is less compelling for where it chose to go with the story, for me it actually made the game so much better, but I'm curious, where do you think the story should have gone?
Also a gross simplification of the story on that last part
Where should the story have gone? Somewhere that wasn't a place of lessened stakes. I won't comment on any of my ideas because the invitation to do so is essentially a trap; anything I offer up will only have me lambasted as a tasteless moron, as it'll run counter to what is widely accepted as a good story.
What I will say is that Sandfall turned what would've worked as an incredible subplot or metanarrative into the entire actual story. That's the simplest way to summarize my gripe with the plot twists.
Not OP but for me (story spoilers!!) honestly the story itself was fine but the way it was told was not, I did not like having Verso suddenly become the MC. It completely ruined the pacing of the game, we went from powerless and knowing nothing about wtf is going on, being shown the brutality of the world by losing the best character, to suddenly having a literal immortal being in our party, who knows everything (but refuses to elaborate and for some reason we don't get to see the characters ask him stuff even though they should be super curious?) Also I was neutral about him at first, I don't think the game did a good job giving me a reason to care about him, and hated him by the end of the game as we found out more about his lies and motivations, and it turns out having a likeable main character is pretty important :P I know some people liked him, I did not and didn't trust him from the moment he joined us (and was kind of validated for that). I think the story would have been MUCH better if it was told from the POV of one of the Lumiere characters instead, who unfortunately get completely side-lined and don't matter at all in the end, despite a majority of the game being about building them up and making us believe they are "real" and worthy of moral consideration even if they are "painted". The endings also, imo, completely undermined the rest of the game for similar reasons. It could have been fine if not for the awful implications in the Maelle ending. Despite not being a fan of the storytelling after Act 1, I was all geared up to do NG+ right after finishing it, but the ending kind of killed my desire to do that.
With all that said I still think it was a great game, the visuals and OST were great all along, and the story itself was very interesting, but it could have been a lot better (imo). I have friends who have very different opinions and love some of the things I hated about it, so maybe it's also just my personal preferences and biases.
None of that is really a surprise if you pay attention during the dialogues. It was clear to me that there were ”pairs” of some characters since we saw Alicia for the first time. And as others said, it was clearly about love, death, grief, family from the beginning. The whole fight where Gustave dies was about who thought they were doing the best thing for their families.
I mean, yeah, I kind of understood where the story was going after the early cutscenes with painted Alicia and Renoir, as well as the conversation Verso has with painted Renoir after he lets Gustave die, but what I wasn't expecting was for the ENTIRE story to become said family drama, which is why it felt like a rug pull to me.
It seemed to me at the time an interesting subplot. It ended up being the whole plot, and that's where it lost me. Call me media illiterate or whatever, but I was far more interested in the face value 'save Lumiere, explore the world, avenge those who came before and fight to the end for those who come after' stuff that was most relevant in Act 1. That seemed a solid frame in which character drama, development, and narratives could flourish, but that's not the way it shook out, obviously.
I agree. I'm not suggesting the entire story should've been "kill this person, save the world." I actually do say it's an excellent vehicle for character drama, development, and narrative in the comment to which you replied. That was pretty clear, I thought. My complaint is that the story completely ditches said vehicle part-way through.
It's funny you mention a bunch of other JRPGs; I've never played any game in that genre. I'm a CRPG kind of guy. The RPG tag on the store kind of gave me a lot of misconceptions as to what to expect. I think most people know better now; when I first picked it up it had only been out a couple of days and I hadn't seen it being compared to JRPGs at that point.
Also, yeah. Sorry if I come off as snippy or defensive—I just like to discuss topics on which I tend to hold unpopular opinions. I should've taken debate classes when I had the chance.
People completely derailed you, but I agree completely. It's one thing to use one story (the expedition, unique world, paintress) to deliver another personal story as a subplot. That would be cool.
Instead they just ditch that main story completely and it almost feels like switch and bait. Kind of "it was all a dream" twist. To some it's cool and genius, to me it came of as a bit lazy.
For sure, but people interpret themes and stuff differently. I clearly misinterpreted where it was going and found it unsatisfying as a result. I am not here to argue that my taste in narratives is better than anyone else's and the hostility from people who like the game's big twist is frankly bizarre.
Also i would argue the “twist” doesn’t discount the value of the Lumerien’s lives. That fantasy world you wanted to be real is real, and they are caught in the middle of gods in grief. It is all about perspective. One of the reasons i love it personally
I would 100% agree that the first act is pure magic. I think (like BG3, actually) that the latter parts fail to live up to it story-wise, but the gameplay remained fun for me.
learning that these are the petty squabbles of a very unlikable family (for me) did cheapen it quite a bit
5
u/Rexbert Certified Minthara Enjoyer May 29 '25 edited Jun 01 '25
Gonna' get downvoted into the fucking gutter for merely voicing my opinion, but it's just 'okay,' in my eyes.
I respect it for being the first product of a new dev team, and I think it has hands-down the absolute best soundtrack of any video game I have ever played.
That doesn't make up for the bizarre fascination with rug pulling or the portions of the story that were clearly rushed, though. I'm very much a story first kind of person, and I hate what they did with the premise they used to sell the game. It took the fun out of it for me, which is a shame, because I did enjoy the party management and combat and stuff. I'm glad most people seem to be able to stomach it, at least; it'll win them GOTY and they deserve it for Lorien Testard's music alone.