all right
I played through it twice; once in English on Normal difficulty and once in Japanese on the highest difficulty. English voices are better,
as usual, not that I'm very objective. It's easy for non-Japanese-speaking people to say that Japanese VAing is better, but the fact is, if you can't understand what they're saying, you have no way to judge whether they delivered the lines properly. You can only say what you
thought sounded good to your ears--and for me, there's never been a time in any foreign animated movie, show, or game where the English dub hasn't been miles better.
Anyway, my overall thoughts on the demo are kinda eh. I didn't hate it, and there were a couple things to really enjoy about it, but my chances of purchasing the full game are pretty low at this point.
I thought I liked 2B's design--and on paper, I still kinda do. But what I didn't like is how much the
camera seems to like her design, and how much it seems to think we, as an audience, aren't quite getting enough out of it. Sorry, game, I don't need to have these brief yet candid glimpses at her exposed thighs to see that she does indeed have exposed thighs, thank you very much. To quote 2B herself, "It's not necessary."
You know what else isn't necessary?
This shit. Apparently, if you manage to pan the camera directly under 2B's skirt, she'll briskly push it away. I'm actually not entirely sure how to feel about that. On one hand, it's a clever way to discourage doing silly shit like that--but on the other hand... is it
really discouraging it? The developers gave her an ass and panties to look at. They're there in the game. If anything, having 2B be self-aware enough to know when the player is checking her out is a subtle way of making her even
more sexually alluring, making it seem less like subtle discouragement and more like blatant encouragement.
Speaking of the developers,
they sure put a lot of care and detail into those thighs. Notice how her skin is apparently so soft, it just spills right out of her stockings? They're basically going out of their way to make her as sexually appealing as possible without it being too in-your-face. Which is appreciable, but still makes me feel like an utter creep playing this game, even by myself. And 2B's supposed to be an android, right? Why does she need panties? Why does she have breasts? Why does she need to wear that dress, or that hairstyle? What is the practical, robotic purpose of her ladylike hip swivel during her walking animation? Why is she female to begin with?
I know the answer to all of these questions, and so do you. It certainly doesn't have anything to do with the plot, and that's the problem I have.
The gameplay honestly seemed rather bland and unfocused, yet fun in a base-level kinda way. I found myself holding R1 whenever I could, though, because your little robot buddy's weapon is just that OP. Infinite ammo, easy to aim, takes care of enemy projectiles--it beats your CQC in every way, except maybe in damage output. The only times I found myself using my melee strikes were when those bullet-proof enemies showed up, or when constantly firing became boring. There were various points where a bunch of enemies would show up at once, and I thought to myself, "Am I supposed to be meleeing right now?" but I just continued firing instead to see if it would make any real difference. It never did.
The times when I did use CQC, though, were pretty fun. I especially like the evasion system, even though it seems a little OP. It's a lot of fun slipping and sliding away from a barrage of enemy projectiles (all of which were moving conveniently slow). But at the same time, I noticed that all I had to do to avoid enemy attacks was mash the fuck out of the R2 button, and my enemies could literally NOT hit me, so I tried to avoid doing that too often. Instead, I only used it to avoid slow, parry-able attacks. I love launching enemies into the air and slashing the shit out of them--I just hope this sort of gameplay doesn't get old too fast in the full game. What I need is more weapons and more ways to attack your enemies. Otherwise, it gets super dry super fast.
The graphics are pretty and the music was awesome. The music in particular was probably my favorite thing about the whole thing. I think dramatic organs are very underrated. I could see myself listening to this track in my free time.
The dialogue got a bit eye-rolly at times, but it wasn't terrible. At the beginning, there's a part where 9S starts getting on 2B's nerves a little bit by getting too emotional, and then 2B's like, "Emotions are prohibited." I thought that was interesting. She's an android, so it makes sense for her to be emotionless, but it's not that she's
incapable of expressing emotion--it's just that they're "prohibited." I realized that she only said that to set up some kind of character arc where she ends up cracking her emotionless facade at one point, but I had no idea they would end up doing it so quickly and in the demo
itself.
During the boss fight, 9S comes flying down to assist you. But when he eventually gets smacked down, 2B seems
pretty emotionally adamant about saving this android she's never met before. But I thought emotions were prohibited or something?... Especially in dire situations like this, where getting emotional can actually make you act on impulse and worsen your focus on the mission. It reminded me of that silly scene in Revenge of the Sith where Anakin decides to fall back and rescue a stormtrooper--an expendable who was literally born to die and be immediately replaced. I mean, yeah, it helps to humanize the hero a little bit, but it's also just a little bit contradictory.
But I dunno, maybe that was intentional. Maybe 2B is a young android who hasn't learned how to keep her emotions fully in check yet, but still understands the tactical importance of doing so. Maybe she was really touched by 9S's act of chivalry, and she let it go to her head.
Anyway, I think I had more fun on my second go-around than my first, because of the increased challenge, but overall, I'm a little ambivalent on this game right now. The problem with demos these days is that they show you so little of the game. It makes it difficult to make the call whether to buy it or not.
In any case, I'll keep my eye on it, but I'm not dying to play it or anything.
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