I'd thought for a long while about whether I wanted to do New Game Plus or just start a new save file in Expedition 33. Indeed, I'd worried for a bit that one couldn't even make a separate save file (Oh, apparently Control Resonant will have a NG+, but no word on retroactively implementing that for the first game or if there will be a conventional "multiple save files" for Control Resonant, but it's something).
Anyway, having ground all the way to level 99 on all characters on my original save file (and still hitting brick walls on the DLC bosses) I decided I wanted a return to the simple, early levels of the game, and so just started a brand new save file.
Knowing what I know now, I found the Mime to fight in Lumiere (which gets you a record you can get at the end of the game). The game takes a fair amount of time before you actually get into the meat of it - though I suppose you can skip a lot of dialogue if you really don't care about the stuff in Lumiere at the beginning - I think you'll miss out on some materials, but it's not like you can't find Chroma Catalysts, Recoats, and Chroma out in the world.
The Gommage scene still yanks at your heartstrings, though it's also kind of fascinating seeing all the subtle hints at what's to come now that I know the real story. (For one thing, the fact that Lumiere Harbor is flanked by statues of Verso is kind of crazy). It's pretty nuts to think that, as devastating and horrific as this moment is, it's not even the most emotionally devastating moment.
When I first played the game, I truly knew nothing of the coming story, so it didn't occur to me to think of Lune and Sciel as anything special in the send-off party the night after the Gommage. While, again, the plot takes even darker and more painful turns, there's this constant juxtaposition of beauty with all the existential horror. Even the Nevrons (especially in these early areas) are kind of beautiful. The more terrifying designs like the Marionette are a ways off, and so the Lanciers and such that we encounter in Spring Meadows honestly look like they could have been whimsical guardians and protectors rather than human-exterminating death-constructs.
Because this is a game where good timing can prevent all damage, and the Nevrons you encounter at the start of the game rarely do more than a single attack in a turn, I've done a pretty decent job of getting no-damage encounters, which then gives you bonus XP. With only a pair of weapons for Gustave and Lune each, there's very little "build" going on here, which is kind of refreshing. I think, knowing the mechanics of the game a lot better, I'm going to try to lean into making my own builds for the characters, though again, I kind of prefer when it's more just taking what you can get.
AP is a lot more plentiful later in the game, so I'm getting used to the rhythm of having to do regular attacks every other turn or so - though of course, if you're really good at parrying, you can generate a ton of AP that way.
But yeah, I'm not executing everything perfectly, but these early levels are also a lot more forgiving - I think I only got all the parries on Eveque's "casting a spell" attack once or twice, but getting hit only did like 25 damage or something when Gustave was at like 400 HP and Lune at maybe 250. Very different than when, at high levels, you basically go down if you miss like two dodges/parries in a monster's 7-hit combo.
I do remember finding the game plenty challenging even before the post-game stuff - I remember dying several times in the first Renoir fight. But so far, it's been relatively smooth sailing (Lune went down during the Chromatic Lancier fight - which you might be intended to skip initially. I think Chromatic foes are usually there to give you an excuse to return to zones, but I felt confident I could handle it, and seem to have been right.
Indeed, I think the only thing I have left to do in Spring Meadows is to come back when I can break those paint-spikes.
Ok, just in case people who want to try this game but never got around to it are reading, let's do a spoiler cut.
Gustave's impending death - still a ways off, as I haven't even gotten to the Gestral Village yet - does weigh on things. He's there for Sophie when she undergoes her Gommage, and we're led to believe that the narrative is going to be largely about this very good, big-hearted man living with survival's guilt.
But I also think that there's a "too good for this sinful world" element - the fact that Verso is a less likable character, even, arguably, somewhat villainous (when you dig into his past and the history of betraying Lumierans) is intentional: One theory of Gustave is that Alicia unconsciously created Gustave to be an idealized big brother, bringing him into existence when entering the painting. The dynamic of Maelle's family is not entirely dissimilar to her life as Alicia, with two pretty significantly older siblings, one of whom she adores and the other who is a bit cold and distant.
The original Verso's nature is also something that's left as a big mystery: Renoir doesn't seem to really trust him, even if he loves him, creating an Axon that is all about deception to represent him. (Honestly, the Axons are sort of backhanded compliments to the people nearest to him, with Sirene beautiful and compelling, yes, but also seductive and good at lulling you into a stupor.
I do think that the giant twist at the end of act two is a real twist of the knife: Lumiere is presented as a totally real place with very real people. The details are a little sketchy, but the assumption I've had is that that's just because the game doesn't really want to focus on the intricacies of day-to-day Lumiere life.
And yet, we're left to wonder: are the details sketchy instead because these people aren't actually real?
The morality of the choice at the end - to play as Verso or as Maelle and see their will done - does rest on the humanity of the Lumierans. I did see an argument that points to the fact that, after we defeat the Paintress, everyone in Lumiere is really just Alicia/Maelle's copy/imitation of them - that the deed is essentially done. And yet... Well, even if Maelle didn't conjure back the same souls into the same painted bodies, are these people not, themselves, you know, people?
Once again, I really think that the position of the game's creators is that neither choice is the "good" ending (indeed, I think the lead writer said so explicitly,) and the arguments online that try to claim one side as the clearly morally superior choice are missing the point.
Still, after the utter horror of the Gommage at the beginning, and then Renoir's massacre of the expedition on the beach (I'm still not totally clear on how Gustave gets to where he wakes up,) once Lune talks Gustave out of blowing his brains out, the game's tone becomes more adventurous and the beauty of the world gets to shine.
In my first playthrough, there were tons of optional zones and hidden world bosses that I didn't find until much later than I was probably meant to. The Abess Cave, for example, was one of the last zones I found. I'm surely too low-level to take on the Chromatic Abess fight in this playthrough, but I've at least got it located.
Anyway, I'll be excited to find out what the studio plans for next, but for now, I'm having fun revisiting this gorgeous and heatbreaking game.
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