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Eien no Aselia discussion

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Krozam:
Chapter 4

The plot starts getting a bit more twisty here, and I'd like to avoid spoilers, so I'll keep this a bit shorter and leave out the screenshots. Besides, I'm in a hurry to start the last chapter...

In my opinion, this chapter is the high point of the VN. Specifically, the second half of the chapter, which not only contains the most climatic battle in the story, but also some great plot twists, and some seriously awesome aftermath. Truly exquisite bittersweetness, I was on the verge of tears most of the time.

The campaign in this chapter takes place in the Sargios Empire. It's a bit more difficult than the campaigns before, so even though there are only three missions, if you aim for a high rank, you may have to spend some time redoing the missions. Honestly, I felt like it was impossible to get SS ranks from any of them, but it was probably because I took SS ranks from almost every mission before and didn't spend enough time levelling up my characters. It was a bit frustrating, but on the other hand, it was nice to have a bit more challence for a change.

The story part before and during the campaign was great as usual, but it was afterwards that the story really got brilliant. I already mentioned plot twists and bittersweetness, so enough of them. However, there is more. There are a lot of extremely interesting revelations, and the BIG picture finally opens wide for us. I remember that on my first playthrough, I was left slack-jawed more than once. It felt like the story so far, the dozens of hours of gameplay time, had been nothing but a prologue to a much, much bigger story. A story that for the most part will never be told, though I'm sure Seinarukana will dive much deeper into that story. Additionally, several major themes in the story receive conclusions. From that point of view, it's more like this chapter ended the first story, and the last chapter started a whole another story. Sadly, if my memory serves me, the last chapter was a bit of a letdown in some respects. Still a fine chapter, but not as good as the 4th chapter.

Character-wise, this chapter offers us another view on how the main characters have changed. Mainly Yuuto, Kaori and whichever girl's route you are on. That is not to say that the last chapter doesn't have character development, but it's relatively minor compared to everything seen so far. It feel like at the end of this chapter, the characters are at the end of their way in terms of development, and I must say, that way has been a long one. Looking back, I'm amazed how Yuuto and Kaori have changed. Kaori always felt more like a plot device than a person, until this chapter. My favourite scene in the whole VN is a certain scene between Yuuto and Kaori, which shows just how much she's changed, and actually had me in tears. That scene made Kaori a person in my eyes.

Yuuto, on the other hand, has always had great development, and the results have been apparent before, but this chapter is where it starts feeling like he's finally reached the end of his potential, reached maturity. Become a true hero, if you will. Now, finally, every stone has been turned, every fundamental of his personality has been examined, shaken, and either changed or empowered. As I've said before, his character development is top-class by any standard. I seriously consider Yuuto as one of the greatest hero characters in the history of fantasy literature.

Aselia has changed as well. I will admit I've grown fond of her, she has some great moments in the third and fourth chapter. However, I get the feeling that unlike Yuuto and Kaori, she's still incomplete. Esperia was, at this point, too. I think the last chapter will continue her development, even shift some attention from Yuuto to her, as it did in Esperia's case.

Shun finally gets his chance to "shine" in this chapter, he's the main antagonist of this phase of the story. We learn to know him better, we see a bit deeper into his twisted soul. I never really learned to hate Shun, the way I did with Soma, instead I feel... pity. He's a narcisstic bastard, yes, but I feel it's more due to mental illness and unhappy childhood than intentional malice.

Tokimi finally gets a major role in this chapter. Can't say much about her without spoiling, but I'll say this: There is one conversation with her that downright shocked me. One revelation that tells me so much about her character that all of a sudden I wanted to play her route. This was on my first playthrough, this time I knew to expect it, but the point is that this one conversation - hell, this one line - raised her in one go into the group of this VN's most interesting characters. Out of pity and interest, I really want to play her route some day, even though she's just a secondary heroine whose route was added in an expansion, together with Kyouko's.

The other characters get their share of interesting scenes, but it's more before the campaign than during the "brilliant" part, after the campaign. The sub-spirits' stories are all brought to conclusion before the campaign ends, and the heroines whose routes I didn't choose don't get much attention at the end of the chapter either. Character-wise, it's like the story slowly widened its scope until the first part of the 4th chapter, then started to narrow it down and increase focus on the mains. Feels like an intentional choice, and personally I feel it works fine.

Well, that's it, I guess. I feel like I've exhausted all the thoughts this chapter raised in me, though I may have forgotten something, since I didn't write any notes this time. Time to continue on to the last chapter.

Edit: Oh, forgot to mention that Desire has some really great moments in this chapter. Major spoiler: (click to show/hide)I kinda wish he wasn't destroyed, but instead absorbed Oath and become a rank 2 sword. It would've been interesting to see how his personality changed. Well, a big part of his epicness is in his last moments, and how a part of his will remained in the fragment to free Yuuto from the memory spell. It wouldn't have been the same otherwise.

Krozam:
Finished it!

Chapter 5 and Epilogue

I'll have to tread carefully here, talking about this chapter is difficult without spoiling important stuff. I already implied in the 4th chapter review that it feels like that chapter was a climax of its own story and this chapter a beginning of another story. I must say, story-wise this 5th chapter is pretty weak in comparison to the others. Most of the time is spent clearing the map from dragons and mana crystals and levelling up the characters, because the last mission has no time bonuses. There is relatively little plot progression, mainly just the preparation and the final boss battles. What little character development there is, is strongly focused on Yuuto and the girl you chose. The antagonists have next to none, which severely limits the impact of the final battles and scenes. There are some extremely interesting scenes at the beginning of the chapter, as follow-up to the end of the previous chapter, but as a whole, the chapter feels both rushed and drawn-out. Rushed story-wise, drawn-out for the strategy map phase. Though if you don't care about the dragons, I suppose you can end it pretty quickly. The labyrinth at the end is still annoyingly large, though, takes some time to clear.

In contrast, the epilogue is an epic piece of work, almost as fantastic as the second half of the fourth chapter. It wraps things up in a satisfying, emotionally appealing way that's neither excessively happy nor too sad. It's not an exaggeration to say that I cried practically non-stop through the whole epilogue, and especially hard during the ending song. Except when I laughed through my tears at the silly parts. The sole weakness in the epilogue is that some of the texts describing what happens to the characters afterwards go by way too quickly, I was only able to read about half of each screen.

Now for the big question: did I come to love Aselia like I love Esperia? The short answer is no. Esperia is still my #1 girl in this VN. But I did grow fond of Aselia, and as expected of the main girl, many of her scenes were given particular attention: good writing and relatively many unique CG's. The "problem" is, she's simply not my type. Oh, she changes, she gets much more loveable later on, but she's no match to Esperia in my view. I have no doubt, however, that someone who's drawn to Aselia's type (essentially kuudere) would enjoy her route as much as I enjoyed Esperia's.

All in all, this second playthrough was almost as rich an experience for me as the first one was. The first time is always special, especially since I liked the girl whose route I chose more, but the replay value of this VN is not to be underestimated. Yes, I took a break between them (after the first chapter of the second playthrough anyway), but not such a long one. The new scenes unlocked by the first playthrough and the route-specific scenes were totally worth the second playthrough. And the strategy map missions were still fun, though that I'd attribute mostly to the break.

Now then... There should still be some extra scenes unlocked for the third playthrough, not to mention two or three more girls whose routes I want to play. Lesteena and Tokimi are both very interesting characters whose routes I intend to play. Possibly also Orpha's, though not so much because I want to experience romance with her, but because someone once told me that her route is strongly tied to the main plot and reveals some interesting new information. I'm even considering playing all the routes - over several years, of course - to get the whole picture. Yes, that's how much I love this VN. I can't wait for Seinarukana's translation to be completed...

Krozam:
Ah, it's just incredible... I only need to listen to the ending song of EnA and think back on the two endings I've seen (mainly the Esperia one, it has a much bigger emotional impact on me), and I cry. It's a beautiful song, but not that beautiful, it's mostly because of the nostalgia. It helps that I don't over-listen to that song like many other of my favourite beautiful songs, I've listened to it less than 10 times in total. That way it retains the impact much better.

I kind of want to start on my third playthought now... But my spare time is very limited right now, and it all goes with Thousand Arms, the JRPG I started after finishing Lunar. I should probably be happy about the fact that Seinarukana isn't going to be released any time soon - if it was, I wouldn't get any work done until I'd finished it. :P

Krozam:
Holy shit! Seinarukana is available for pre-order! I was beginning to lose hope this day would ever come. :o The translation was finished years ago, at least according to the project site.

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