I was going to call this my official official review in honor of the true true ending, but I thougrht thta would be too twee. Ignore the fact that true true ending is pretty twee in and of itself and just take what I’ve said at face value. Here is the first part of my actual official review, and I’m going to continue with the characters.
I’m sorry. I have to say it I absolutely loathed Nemesis, the character who was supposed to be likke Megaera–whom, I would guess, was one of the top three favorite characters in the first game. She was one of the three Furies, and she was the first boss you fight (at least initially). She’s so memerable, and I loved that I could talk to her back at the House of Hades. We got closer and closer, and she gave me Batty, her animal companion. And we (Megaera and I ) boned, of course. And, my absolute favorite story moment in that game which very few people got, was
*SPOILERS*
a threesome with Megaera and Thanatos, my two favorite NPCs in the game. I had romanced each of them individually throughout the game, and I had hoped that we could have a threesome. At some point, it became evident that the two of them had a romantic relationship themselves. That made me think it might be possible to bone both of them, but the game went on without that happening.
Then, very late in the after-the-ending game (can’t remember if it was pre- or post-plat), I got the situation I was hoping for. I got to have an actual threesome with Meg and Than. They faded to black as the action actually happened, but it was so emotionally satisfying. Nobody was talking about it save a random person on a forum here and there. It made me think that not many people saw it, which wasn’t surprising. Each individual relationship was so elaborate to max out on its own, so it made perfect sense that it would take that long to get the threesome.
I did not expect another threesome in this game, but I was hoping for some really good relationships, romantic/sexual or not. There were a few, but they all stopped less than halfway through the game. Again, that’s partly my fault for how obsessed I was with the game, but it was also that they made it much easier to max out the relationships in this game.
To be fair, it was way too hard to max them out in the first game. It really felt like grinding, so I can understand why Supergiant wanted to make it easier in this game. They overcorrected, though, and made it too easy. In addition, the relationships were not as emotionally satisfying in the sequel as they were in the original.
I’ve mentioned before how two of the NPCs in this game, Nemesis and Moros, are imitations of Megaera and Thanatos in the first game. Nem and Meg are both tall, dark, and smolderingly sultry. They are snappy, sassy, and guarded. The difference is that Meg was also able to connect emotionally, opened up to me (Zag) about her issues with her family, and was playful in bed.
Nem, on the other hand, remained standoffish and aloof, even after we banged. I did not learn much about her personally as she was disinclined to be emotional with me (Melinoë) even as we banged. That was all mostly fine, but what really started to get on my nerves was how she would be so fucking arrogant every time we met on the battlefield. I whipped her ass in almost every contest we had. Most of the time, it was just who could kill more enemies in the battle, and I trounced her most of the time. One time, it was something like 16 to 1. Yet, she’s always was so surprised when she lost–and affronted.
Meg was a real person to me whereas Nem is simply a character in a game. Honestly, I just want to punch her in the mouth every time I talk to her, and I wish she would leave me alone.
This is my issue with most of the characters in this game–they don’t change at all. One of my favorites, Icarus, acts like a real human being in that he’s starstruck by Heracles, intimidated by Eris, scared to get close to me even though he wants to, and scarred by the cruelty of his father. Plus, he’s voiced by Asa Butterfield who does an excellent job of making Icarus human (albeit a dead one). He’s impatient at times, can be petulant, and a whole ‘nother range of emotions. He can also be sweet, loving, protective, and passionate.
Quite honestly, he and Moros are my two favorite characters, and it’s not even close. I like Odysseus as well, but, sadly, I cannot bonk him. I’m still salty that the female NPCs are so poorly written in general, and I am glad that Supergiant gave more heft to Melinoë in the patch (leading up to the true true ending). It’s the first time in the hundreds of hours I have played this game that I thought there was more to her than just a loyal-to-the-Olympians assassin that she was for the entire base game.
I like Dora, but she’s just this game’s version of Dusa from the first game. There isn’t one female character in this game whom I unabashedly liked. Not even Medea, who I really liked as a wicked sorceress. However, I don’t like when she joins Polyphemus the Cyclops in his boss fight for the Vow of Rivals bosses bullshit, and she throws poison EVERYWHERE. Fortunately, there are poison-clearing wells in strategic places in the arena, but it’s still annoying AF. Still. Medea is my favorite female NPC in the game, I think.
It’s sad that I don’t raelly have a favorite female NPC. I maintain that the women are written poorly in this game, much to my dismay.
I know I bang on about it, but since I play the games for the story and the characters, of course I’m going to focus on it. This is all for today; I’ll write more of the actual review tomorrow.