HENRCAST
Lv. 1 Adventurer
- AKA
- HENRCAST
Unless someone finds some new in-game or interview information, we are probably only going to spin in circles in regards to what happened plot-wise. Regardless of the possibility of multiple universes, certain characters surviving, or the past events being changed, I think we can all agree at this point that this was an elaborate way for the developers to say that they won't bind themselves to the OG anymore. This does feel like it will go down like Rebuild of Evangelion, with the first installment adhering closely to the original and the following ones diverging increasingly.
Right now, the largest point of contention is whether the developers pulled their stunt successfully, and whether they needed to do this at all. Like others, I think that it is simplistic to label people who didn't like the ending as purists. Most people's complaints aren't that they are doing things differently. Some grievances are:
- The developers stated multiple times that the reason they are making multiple games is that it would be impossible to cram the original into a single game while upholding modern standards. They spent years implying that their goal was to reconstruct the OG, only to pull a "GOTCHA" as a plot-twist at the end of the first game;
- There was no reason to create an entirely new and very meta plot point simply to justify differences. People who played the OG didn't need whispers to notice changes, and people who didn't play the OG can't even understand their significance. They could have changed stuff and played with fan expectations without these explicit meta winks (much like Rebuild of Eva 2);
- Justified or not, this plot-point was simply written in a very sloppy manner. It's one thing to leave people guessing - most serialized material aims for this. What they did, however, was inserting a thematic shift through numerous indecipherable events at the very climax. A story about standing up to oppression suddenly became a story about fighting fate. No one knows what in the world that portal was, and what Aerith did to it. No one understands the characters' motivations. Most of what Sephiroth said was gibberish. There is a reason why so much of the discussion here sounds like ramblings of mad people.
Look, I'm not against changes (even radical ones) at all, but I have serious issues with this ending. And I don't think it to be necessary to postpone judgement until the we see part 2. As the developers themselves said multiple times, this is a complete game. It's not unreasonable to expect an ending that fits with the first 30 hour of gameplay.
Lastly, I also think that it is lazy to say that any evaluation is simply subjective. Of course, everyone is free to like the ending or not, and to be excited or anxious for what's to come. But criticism can also based on arguments that don't depend solely on subjective preferences and may not even be connected to them (for example, the climax adds nothing to the central conflict of the story thus far). It's entirely coherent to think the ending was sloppy af and still like it.
Right now, the largest point of contention is whether the developers pulled their stunt successfully, and whether they needed to do this at all. Like others, I think that it is simplistic to label people who didn't like the ending as purists. Most people's complaints aren't that they are doing things differently. Some grievances are:
- The developers stated multiple times that the reason they are making multiple games is that it would be impossible to cram the original into a single game while upholding modern standards. They spent years implying that their goal was to reconstruct the OG, only to pull a "GOTCHA" as a plot-twist at the end of the first game;
- There was no reason to create an entirely new and very meta plot point simply to justify differences. People who played the OG didn't need whispers to notice changes, and people who didn't play the OG can't even understand their significance. They could have changed stuff and played with fan expectations without these explicit meta winks (much like Rebuild of Eva 2);
- Justified or not, this plot-point was simply written in a very sloppy manner. It's one thing to leave people guessing - most serialized material aims for this. What they did, however, was inserting a thematic shift through numerous indecipherable events at the very climax. A story about standing up to oppression suddenly became a story about fighting fate. No one knows what in the world that portal was, and what Aerith did to it. No one understands the characters' motivations. Most of what Sephiroth said was gibberish. There is a reason why so much of the discussion here sounds like ramblings of mad people.
Look, I'm not against changes (even radical ones) at all, but I have serious issues with this ending. And I don't think it to be necessary to postpone judgement until the we see part 2. As the developers themselves said multiple times, this is a complete game. It's not unreasonable to expect an ending that fits with the first 30 hour of gameplay.
Lastly, I also think that it is lazy to say that any evaluation is simply subjective. Of course, everyone is free to like the ending or not, and to be excited or anxious for what's to come. But criticism can also based on arguments that don't depend solely on subjective preferences and may not even be connected to them (for example, the climax adds nothing to the central conflict of the story thus far). It's entirely coherent to think the ending was sloppy af and still like it.
