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smallsamson

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A member registered Dec 18, 2020

Recent community posts

(3 edits)

Warning: MAJOR spoilers. Don't read if you haven't played it. Also I played the whole main game, but not the part you unlock after the ending, and I think there were a couple late-game side areas I didn't see. Anyway:

OH MY GOD this game is amazing! The Bible references may be a little much for some people, but I honestly loved them. I grew up fundamentalist - PCA, not Catholic, but still a very toxic abusive culture and belief system - so I like seeing those ideas deconstructed and reframed in a way that makes more sense, and this game absolutely does that. There's an underlying mentality of powerlessness and self-worthlessness in fundamentalist culture - a sort of double standard where unjust authorities are excused and even credited with safety and stability when it's there, but when their oppression is revealed and it's undeniable that they're profiting from the fear and submission of people under them, the cost of straying is too great and there's death and destruction around every corner, to the point where you can't even trust yourself and your knowledge. I grew up with a lot of that mentality, and I've seen people - especially in positions of power - with even more of it, and you absolutely NAILED it in this game. In the hospital, the staff keeps creating demons even when they know that's what they're doing; in the palace, everyone worships Sapphira out of fear of the demons even though she does nothing to help them, teaches them unconditional submission instead of protecting themselves and each other, and fills her palace with gold and ornate rooms while her people live in poverty.

The blood addiction she gives them and the amplified passions in the hospital are important images. A big part of toxic theology that people often take for granted is the lie that valuing yourself and being arrogant - or seeking freedom and seeking power - are the same, and particularly that freedom actually means doing what you're told, and slavery means making your own decision. In this game they're different. The emotions Babylon and the demons have - the "passions" they enslaved people to - are the thoughtless, power-seeking ones that come from shame and fear and hide behind a thin veil of confidence, and the desire to be actually free from them - the emotion that's like "One thing's for sure, I'm not putting up with THIS shit anymore" - that gives you power. When the voice calls out to a character and gives them Jubilee power, it always begins with a question implying that they're better than letting themselves die like this. And yet it never feels like a heavy-handed metaphor or 1:1 comparison with capitalism or real-world slavery. The oppression by the demons is its own thing with all the same foundational lies, and you've shown it brilliantly. You can tell how much care you've put into all the conversations, like with how repetitively the Babylon people ask you to join their side and tell you you have no hope, as if they're so unprepared for any opposition that they can't deviate from their one line of reasoning. I love all the main characters, but especially Leah. It's just too bad that her best lines are in an optional party dialogue (the one where she tells Miriam about good and bad people).

The one big thing about the story that I'm not sure about is that Babylon's propaganda is almost too true. The demons are so much stronger than non-Jubilee humans that even a small number of relatively weak ones could wipe out every human in Neo Rome if they wanted - they wouldn't, of course, because they need a stable human population to reproduce, but the humans don't know that, and even if they did, no amount of rebellion would stop them from killing all the rebels and replacing them with more subservient humans. And even though killing all those demons and taking down Babylon is necessary and ultimately succeeds, your party really doesn't address what will happen to everyone when the areas you take back get overrun by demons or suffer a similar fate. Like if you go back to Moab late in the game, it won't be overrun by demons, but almost everyone has either left or killed each other, presumably because they were still addicted to blood and Miriam turned it all into water. Which you can't really blame your party much for - it's not like they had the resources to help that many people individually or the time to quietly start a rebellion, especially when they were the only known people with Jubilee power - but it does kind of feel like Babylon was right about humans in general being helpless, it's just that now they're helpless and relying on you instead of being helpless and relying on Babylon.

The game also seems a little grindy and item-heavy, since it takes a while for Amos and Leah to reliably regenerate their JP during battle, and Miriam never really can since they have to swap it with their LP, which is never really safe when it's low, and Amos is rarely fast enough to heal them before an enemy attacks. So you basically have to use items after every battle for a good part of the game. There are a few bugs - the shops in Nineveh are blocked by lampposts on the sidewalk (but you can warp by then so it's no problem)(Edit: You actually can get to them), I'm pretty sure one of the item descriptions says HP instead of LP, copies of Micah's face replace your other party members' faces on the timeline in the final battle - but nothing that really affects the gameplay.

Which brings me to the ending, and HOLY SHIT I didn't expect it - you have to fight the literal devil, and it's someone who actually understands what kind of power you have and throws Micah's line back at you. It gets a little cliche in some parts, like when Miriam talks about working together and when you basically believe Babylon's power away, but honestly it kinda makes sense since their power is demonic, and it answered a question I had earlier in the game: If levels are measured by a character's faith, how come Amos thought God didn't care about him in Nod when he was near level 30 (for me at least)? Turns out it was because the level cap is 777, and you can only get it by trusting God through death. Which is honestly pretty relatable for me since I have OCD and a lot of intrusive thoughts - you can see tons of proof and evidence that something is true and reason it perfectly in your mind, but sometimes it's still hard to feel confident about it until you act on it.

Anyway, AMAZING job on the game. I just have 1 question, and maybe I just missed this, but do we ever see who it is that dragged us into the Nightmare originally?