Underwhelmed by "True" ending

[Ω]

Just gonna go ahead and spoiler everything:

On my first, blind playthrough, I managed to barely beat out the timer with less than 10 hours left to spare for some NPCs. Even though I didn't lose anyone, it was still a really intense mechanic, especially trying the final boss again and again knowing I only minutes left before someone's timer was up. It made the fight feel really meaningful and the ending very earned, as a result.

The second playthrough I wanted to complete the clock that I'd found a piece of by beating the crab the first time around, and with a bit of help from guides managed to put things together (I'd found M in the first run but hadn't thought to interact with her thinking it might lock me into stealing anima, and I truly don't think I'd have found any of the other parts even if I spent 20 hours.) Being able to reset time was a nice reward, and the extra phase of the final boss was fun, though not as intense because of the lack of time pressure, but it felt like the ending I got was exactly the same as the first time around. I was expecting some further revelations about M, or about why there's a wall that lets you time-travel beneath a church, but it was just the same ending with more time left over. Most other things about this game had surpassed my expectations, so I guess this just felt like a bit of a let down. It feels more like a way to make sure no save file is past the point of no return when it comes to getting the best ending than an actual better or "truer" ending in and of itself.

[Ω]

Looking back I may have been too critical in this post, most likely because every source I looked at labelled this a "true ending" when it's really just a secret boss, and it does a fine job as a secret boss. Having gone back to play the hide your sin version of the fight, and the combination of both of those modifiers (which is so ridiculous that it managed to be just as intense as the base version, even without the time crunch) I think it was my expectations that were off, rather than what the game delivered. I even found some of that closure I was looking for with M, though it seems a bit unintuitive that you have to fight her again to get it if you loop even though she's maxed out on hearts. Her sacrifice might've felt a bit more meaningful if getting out of the tower with Raquel was much harder, but it was still a nice way to tie up loose ends.

[Tiani]

Dev here, I don't like commenting on things like these, but I just want to clarify something you've noticed:

This isn't the "true" ending, and we never called it that during development. It's always supposed to be just a secret phase of the final boss. We intentionally hid things VERY well, so players could join up in a community to find it together, and that happened.

Sadly, some guides started saying it was the "true ending". Even though it's just a secret phase of the final boss, and changes nothing about the ending. Some people even feel that it's cheap because it's almost impossible to find the clock pieces by themselves, and that's exactly the point, it was supposed to be a special secret for the community to find, not something you HAVE to find on a normal playthrough.

We know how little clues there are and how hard it is to find without a guide, and that's why we didn't want to lock away any substantial content behind it. so that's why it's just the final boss phase, and a secret way to revive everyone - which in the end, is a neat gimmick, but skilled players shouldn't need that. It's only if you took very long to find the pieces.

Honestly, if someone that wrote a guide is reading this, it would be nice if we could change it to "secret boss" instead of "true ending". Since that's what it is, and helps to manage expectations.

TLDR: The "true ending" is the one you get by beating the boss normally. There's no judgment of better endings or anything like that. The clock pieces quest was never supposed to be the "true ending", and guides started calling that without consent from devs. The game never calls it that, and it's not expected for players to find it on a normal playthrough.

As always, thanks for playing and enjoying the game! And it's a relief seeing someone else noticing this issue with how guides are calling this part of the game!

[zaku_zelo]

The lack of M content annoys me more than anything else. You use the keycard to access the lab where she was remodeled, but that doesn't actually DO anything. The clock blueprint in that lab, but it's completely unrelated and doesn't affect M at all. It feels like there's more that's supposed to happen, something you can do with that lab or M after going back in time.