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Originally recorded: October 27, 2024
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I guess it makes sense that these streams would go about as oddly as the game itself. But seeing as I managed to stick to my timetable for the finale, I can't really complain about it. The second-to-last "real" chapter in the game took me way longer than it should've to beat, if only due to its unusual nature and Brown being rendered useless in both of the "scavenger hunt" segments and the utterly confusing layout of the orphanage. Seriously, you'd think that given the size of the airship, it'd be a lot more difficult to figure out where to go... but in reality, it's all fairly linear and straightforward. There's also the fact that the in-game map is actually helpful there, whereas the one for the orphanage doesn't really clue you into what each specific room on the floor plan is.

That being said, the combat this time was relatively tame -- both while tackling the respective enemies needed to conclude November and for the final boss fight itself. Honestly, the bosses just got progressively easier as the game progressed, which just feels a bit weird. It also kind of makes me feel like a bit of a sucker for hoarding all of those chocolates for the final boss fight, given that each of them are essentially a full heal. The fact that I found a bunch of them in the second-to-last chapter with relative ease was just adding insult to injury.

I ended up starting with the good ending, which was ironically the easier of the two to unlock... so long as you know exactly what to do. I'm not sure why, but seeing the good ending play out actually did make me tear up. Perhaps it just resonated with me, since I've had two dogs that have passed on -- even if Brown definitely resembles our current dog more than those that are no longer with us. Then again, the same damn thing happened to me when I read "Where the Red Fern Grows" back in grade school... and I didn't even have a dog back then.

The bad ending, on the other hand, felt pointless by comparison. Honestly, I don't really think it needed the credits to accompany it... but at least they had the good mercy to not allow you to save afterwards, thereby preventing players from locking themselves out of the good/true ending. Best of all, I even had enough time to rewatch the intro cinematic as promised. Too bad discovering most of the actual context behind the footage by playing the game itself destroyed most of its shock factor. In retrospect, it's pretty weird that the moral panic crusade against this game in Europe got off the ground. I guess it just goes to show that moralistic busybodies won't even do the bare minimum of research, no matter what era it is.

While I'd definitely classify this game more as "fascinating" than "good", I have no regrets with playing it. Honestly, I think the positives outweigh the negatives and frankly, with some additional polish to the collision detection, a remaster could absolutely become a diamond in the rough. I'm hoping that Onion Games manages to wrest control of this one from whoever owns the IP -- whether that's Sony, Atlus USA or 505 Games -- and gives it the treatment it well and truly deserves. In the meantime, it sounds like they released a spiritual successor (thematically, not in terms of gameplay) on modern platforms. Maybe I'll check that out at some point on my own...