I started writing this in the other thread but I figured I may as well throw it all in here with no black bars. Plus I wanted the shock value of seeing my one-sentence posts then seeing this one! Before --- is opinion and after it is questions.
By the way this post was twice as long before I went over it a couple times. Sorry if it's still unreadable.
I loved it. I'm really childish in my taste with stories and I love shit like twists and crazy stuff for the sake of being crazy stuff, so I knew why I was playing it and why I got it in the mail with Ghost Trick. And it delivered because it was fucking crazy. And it totally didn't seem like it (even after the first two endings I expected one mastermind and no supernatural effects) in the beginning, which is what drove me to replay it so many times.
It's probable that no one remembers this but among the page-5x I posted how I really didn't like the multiple-playthrough system and that I probably won't be stubborn enough to complete them all (as I knew myself). Like I said the first ending was so much nothing (knife ending) that it forced me to discover just how much was hidden until the final ending. Once I got over the wall of choosing things that I'm against choosing, it was smooth sailing.
I still don't quite know if this style of multiple-endings was a good choice, but considering I was initially against it, that says a lot about how my perception of it vastly improved. It was really well done. Later on, I didn't even mind the fact you can't skip puzzles (which stands against everything I love and know and think and feel)!!
I did, however, want to be able to shortcut through them using the telepathy (like, if Junpei didn't need to go in the kitchen - he'd just get "43" flashing in his head, or if that's too much, if he held the freezer's door open by instinct, and we would have gotten the dialogue (which we can skip) without the puzzle). That seems like wasted opportunity to make the gameplay better while tightening the story even further. You'd get vague hints of telepathy (depends on how vague they make them - the player can simply think that "43" popped up to make the puzzle skippable, without paying mind to it story-wise), and skip the puzzles, without breaking the flow of the story. There were also a lot of parts where it was possible to shortcut (like in the Prologue puzzle), but only if you wrote down the code beforehand... which is really unnecessary. If we finished the puzzles, the game should be guilt free when giving us the codes if we replay them.
I got the endings in this order: Knife, Submarine, Axe, Coffin, Safe and then True. This might be some sort of psychological fallacy, but I really think this is the best order I could have asked for. I always felt like each ending gave me a a bit more info than the last, with the first being completely vague, and the one before True almost revealing everything. The Safe ending was basically scenes from the Knife and Sub endings, extended (like with Santa's on the stairs). While I'm not sure if people could get the Safe ending first, they definitely shouldn't be allowed to. The game should have blocked it like it blocked the True ending. If the puzzle skips were better made, no one would have complained if 2 endings were required instead of 1.
I might have been better off without the Coffin ending, but it was so enjoyable by itself anyway, I can't say it's that big of a deal.
My favorite moment is the upside-down stuff. I was worried my DS would stop functioning from my sweat getting in between the buttons! That was when I realized the whole Akane-was-bottom-screen and I just went "whoooooaa" for a good couple minutes.
There were also those moments I love most in these types of stories, where they basically explain plot points that I completely forgot about and didn't even think they needed an explanation (example: Ace acquiring the medicine that boosted his company).
I want a sequel with both Santa, Junpei and Akane involved (Seven was awesome but he can't really be more than a side character after this, and Snake and Clover have had enough of that shit). And not AA4 style. It'll probably be hard ass to pull off but I want it. Shit, maybe even tie it to the Alice stuff and make it seem like you had intended it all along!
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So yeah I must say I still have a ton of questions (I still haven't read the answers thing from the OP, the page is blocked here, so I'm basically just writing them to remember for later, you don't have to restate something if it was already answered there).
Initially during the ending I thought this: Santa funded and created the second game (he did say stuff about doing stocks so that's probably his money source). By saying he was the assistant he just meant he did it for her and it revolved around her, rather than saying that she really planned anything.
Now though I'm not quite sure anymore. Where the hell did she disappear to in the incinerator? If she ran away, why? She could have caused Junpei the same reaction if she just lay there looking all painful like with the fever. And how did she even do it, doors and everything?
If she really disappeared, why? I mean there's no reason. Junpei solved the puzzle.
Hardest thing for me to accept was that she was faking everything besides the lovebird stuff with Junpei, but I guess there's no other way to spin that. She really did. Even the screaming and injuring her knuckles in Door 3? Damn that's hard to accept.
And for the final scene, uh, well, uh. Uh. Uh!
Akane, right? What the hell is with that Lotus body/out of character pose, then? Why's she in the middle of nowhere where there's no guarantee the other car would have passed through? Why not just wait for them outside if you bothered to run away from the incinerator. But hell why even run away from the incinerator to begin with. You're risking the chance that Junpei would burn to death after rescuing you (where you could have stayed inside the incinerator, or came back after he solved the puzzle, and told them of the q stuff, or just flat out opened the door for them and shut the incinerator).
Was Santa just driving alone or something? Why did he leave Ace with the other group (I would have taken him, tied him to the back of the car with rope and driven off).
And about the whole telepathy stuff... so both Akane and Junpei were both transmitters and receivers? And wasn't Santa supposed to be a good "host" for Akane too? Why did nothing in that area happen between Snake and Clover? Initially it makes a lot of sense because I thought of it as a rather weak thing, but then Junpei basically talked with Akane and I thought damn, that shit's strong enough that Clover should have known some stuff.
I guess the whole sibling and transmitters/receivers thing is not really valid since Junpei shouldn't have even been able to do much compared to Santa. I'll call it "Telepathy: Power of Love Edition"
And about the "truth had gone", was that Akane transmitting it to Junpei after he transmitted it to her in the Safe ending? Why even go through the trouble instead of having Santa just let Junpei find the note? It would have had an equal effect and far more reliable. Hiding it that late-game and having Akane transfer it to him after failing once seems really roundabout.
And last... do Santa and Junpei become bros forever and Junpei and Akane having sex furiously? The ending should have included that. It totally should've.