Rare but true: Negative game review

1oldtymer · Post by **1oldtymer** » Thu Oct 06, 2022 5:51 am

What a great review! Your analysis of the messed up morality and squandered opportunities for difficult choices for the characters is very insightful. Thanks for your detailed description of the game mechanics and your thoughtful explanation of the story's moral stance.

Cainohpue · Post by **Cainohpue** » Thu Oct 06, 2022 8:14 am

Yeah, letting the heroes remain "pure" is a typical Japanese thing, its purpose probably being that players can more easily "self-insert" themselves into the characters. Silent protagonists serve the same purpose, and I'm glad they're mostly a thing of the past.

Great review, but I disagree with regards to one aspect. From their points of view, the villains are justified. Slaughtering the "infected" people is meant to save the world and doesn't aim at power gain/preservation, even though it's a consequent side effect. Their means are wrong, though, and - even worse to my mind - ineffective, so there's no doubt they must be stopped at all costs, and in the end,

Personally, I deem those storylines much more irritating in which a Holocaust-like genocide is supposed to make the villains look evil, only to present a flimsy excuse for their actions at the end that makes them look like maniacs or complete idiots.

Nevertheless, "Alphadia Genesis 2" is far from being my favorite Exe Create game, but dependent on your perspective, it's enjoyable to a certain extent.

Victar · Post by **Victar** » Fri Oct 07, 2022 12:38 pm

I couldn't put AG2 ending spoilers in my review (for obvious reasons), so I'll discuss a few things about AG2's Normal End and True End behind a spoiler guard here.

Prince Julius, one of the genocidal villains, does survive in the True End. He only dies in the Normal End.

The former Emperor also dies in the Normal End and survives in the True End, although he isn't portrayed as a villain. The former Emperor does not personally engage in or command genocide, and it's implied that he does not have the power to make the current Emperor stop the war.

Both the Normal End and the True End compound the story's flaws. In the Normal End, Julius and the former Emperor are executed by NPC allies of Dion and his band, and the war drags on. With no emperor or high-ranking military generals left, apparently the Lucerians keep fighting to exterminate Atramians. This makes no sense; leaderless armies tend to fall apart very quickly. The story is twisting itself to show that executing Julius was "bad".

In the True End, Prince Julius is never punished for his war crimes. He isn't even stripped of political power, although he does agree to suspend the war. Confirmation of the black energi's threat - including the discovery that black energi will destroy the world in a year, if the Atramians do not find another world to live in - cause Julius to warn Dion that Julius will resume the war of extermination if the Atramians do not travel to another world quickly enough. The Atramians successfully evacuate to another world, and Julius is presumably left to rule over his Lucerian-only world.

While the threat of the entire world's destruction can be viewed as a justification for Julius' extremism, it should be noted that Julius and the other villains never knew about the world-destroying threat during the course of the war. Julius only learns of it in the True End. During the war, the only excuse given for killing Atramians is that Atramians very rarely turn into monsters - even though nearly all Atramians live in their own territory, far from the Empire. Compound this with the Emperor's constant dehumanizing talk of Atramians (comparing them to rats or dogs) and it's pretty obvious that hatred is the real motive for the genocidal war.

Cainohpue · Post by **Cainohpue** » Sat Oct 08, 2022 1:10 am

Thanks for sharing the ending details. Though my post's focus wasn't on them, my oversimplification didn't do them justice. You're totally right with regards to the fact that the story is poorly executed in many aspects (but still enjoyable to a certain degree). I also don't like it when the only thing that keeps the plot moving is "We don't talk to each other, we don't trust anyone" (which is practically the gist of "Bravely Default", for example).

Shilka · Post by **Shilka** » Wed Oct 12, 2022 2:43 am

Despite AG2's story being a step back from the 1st game, I still liked the game for what it was (at least it wasn't a complete disappointment compared to say, Asdivine Hearts 2.)