Massive difference between the maturity of stories.

[Scy]

I refuse to believe the same person who wrote Agnea's cringefest also wrote Osvald and Throne's stories. Former feels like it was written by a stars in his/her eyes 9 year old who has no idea how the world operates yet, maybe some VIP's kid in the company. I'm skipping her dialogues from now on.

[Minneyar]

I could consider Osvald and Throne's stories to be more "mature" if your benchmark for maturity is just how much death a story involves, but the writing isn't really any more nuanced. Osvald has the absolute flimsiest setup with no understanding of how justice systems or criminal investigations work and characters have paper-thin motivations, while Throne's revolves around the absolute edgiest, most grimdark thieves guild imaginable that could not possibly exist in a remotely realistic society.

Agnea's story may be a lot more lighthearted, but at least it's not completely failing to handle its subject matter.

[blindmew]

Originally posted by Minneyar:

Osvald has the absolute flimsiest setup with no understanding of how justice systems or criminal investigations work and characters have paper-thin motivations, while Throne's revolves around the absolute edgiest, most grimdark thieves guild imaginable that could not possibly exist in a remotely realistic society.

But Harvey bribed the justice system. I don't think that's necessarily flimsy set up and thought that part was believable enough. And I don't see why a non-realistic thieving society is a bad thing in a fantasy game.

In any case, there's nothing wrong with Agnea's story being lighthearted. I didn't love it, but I didn't think it was a cringefest either. It's better to view Agnea as a change of pace from the other stories, a way to balance out with the darker tones rather than adding on to them.

[Scy]

Gotta admit I've created this topic out of frustration during Agnea's second chapter because she repeated the "SMILE TO PEOPLE'S FACES" line 10+ times and I had to facepalm irl. I highly doubt you can cure someone's lifelong problems only by repeating some cheerful, cheesy lines ... which she does at ease. I guess it could make sense if you look at Agnea's story as a breath of fresh air between the edgy and dark stories of the other two but it's underwhelming and too childish in my opinion, especially if you play it right after finishing Osvald and Throne. Should have put Ochette (mid story) between those two for some balance but then again you don't really know what to expect if you don't spoiler yourself.

[rasabt]

nah
it's just normal jrpg cringe
i mean...have you played/seen some of the stuff in Xenoblade Chron. 3?
"Mu" is all i'm saying...the cringe in that game reached levels that made it unplayble for me (and i'm a fan of the series, ever since Xenogears).
Octo has some hit'n miss going on with it's writing, setup and scenarios, but you could just put that down to em wanting to reach a wider audience than just us edge-lords.
when it comes to em making this feel like a "real"-party, then i got some real issues (still), but the cringe is somewhat managable.

[Sauriel]

I usually like when games are disconnected from dark real world in some ways