MLG_WANNABE'S PROFILE

I didn't get enough world building for why the terminus gates leak miasma. Even if that was just there as an explanation for why there are monsters in the world, there needs to be a reason for why terminus gates are even a thing. There could've easily been lore on people discovering terminus gates, trying to bury them/contain them, failing at that, and make reasons for why people don't just put kiyomas all around terminus gates, but I never found anyone or any bookshelf detailing this.

According to Myra, Arya's father was so depressed about his daughter not coming home, so instead of GOING TO FIND HER, he told Myra, a GIRL IN A WHEELCHAIR, to find Arya for him right before committing suicide. And that scene that Myra said this was supposed to be sad for Zero? I don't know, but I just dislike Arya's father even more because he wasn't willing to risk his life to find his own daughter. That's true love. Not asking someone handicapped to do it for him.

I stopped liking Cieran once I learned more and more about him. In the stratum that we learn about his memories, I immediately got reminded of Cecil from Final Fantasy IV from how Cieran's past seemed like. Uh, spoilers for FFIV incoming...

Anyway, Cieran went to Purgatory and turned crazy from the Miasma Sickness to practically be an antagonistic puppet. It's not like he had inner motivations to do what he did. His actions were just instinctual to be against Zero and co. I can't even be sympathetic for the guy because he wasn't in total control of his actions once the Miasma Sickness struck. Cieran became a figurehead of antagonism gone wild. No real charisma or understanding to relate with.

Now to talk about the prophecy. I'm very confused about this. Here's what I think happened. Jack, Isaac's dad, thought Isaac and someone else would go to the terminus gate outside of Orias in pursuit of Cieran, and Isaac is supposed to be realized by the terminus gate and become the chosen one who kills off the other child who was with him, but to prevent this prophecy from happening, Jack told Cieran to kill Isaac before he becomes realized as a chosen one. However, Arya also happened to be a chosen one, who gets realized by the terminus gate, and this was unplanned to happen according to Jack. What I don't understand is how Isaac actually fits in the picture because Alex was with Arya, and we know Isaac isn't Alex. Also, if Cieran was supposed to kill Isaac before he was realized by the terminus gate, why didn't he just kill the supposed Isaac when he first entered the ruins? Why did Cieran wait right in front of the terminus gate? Isn't that risking the whole plan by making it more likely for him to be realized since he'd be closer?

Finally, I don't like how every NPC before the final stratum was saying, "You are ready," to Zero. Apparently according to the bonus room, it's up in the air with whether or not Haven and its citizens were also illusions created by Zero's regrets, but... that doesn't explain all the items you get there. If I get a weapon that lets me use an attacking drive on an enemy in purgatory, that drive isn't an illusion since it actually hurt the enemy, which means the weapon that gave the drive isn't an illusion, so there's no way the person I paid marks to is an illusion since said person had to give me the weapon in the first place. Let's say I entertain the idea that everything with Haven was an illusion. I'm pretty sure Zero and co. would be dead from dehydration since there wouldn't be any clean water for them to drink if everything was an illusion. There was no kiyoma anywhere in Haven after all, and there was poisonous water right outside purgatory. I believe I read from some dialogue that miasma, when concentrated enough, will kill all life and degrade everything around it, so all that water we see in Haven might look good, but it might actually be an illusion for poison water. Because of this, it's also very possible that everything after the childhood arc didn't actually happen, and the events of the adult arc is Arya's purgatory before Heaven/Hell/whatever otherworldly place you want to call. Now, let me entertain the idea of Haven being completely real. All those adventurers who supposedly died in Purgatory? They're alive again. Everyone suddenly wanted to say, "You are ready," to Zero one day while staring at her profusely. It's pretty obvious that this alternative is off putting, too, in terms of plot.

In the second to last stratum when you activated the switch, fought Cieran on the rooftop, and had to go back down to the first floor, I went through utter hell trying to get down the stairs because Cieran would force me back, fight me, run away, and I'd try the other staircase. Same thing happened. Then, I thought, maybe this is supposed to happen once on both set of stairs to get at least one more fight with Cieran. Ok, I'll try going down the stairs again. NOPE! I tried looking around the whole room one more time, and there were only two staircases to go down, and I suddenly find Cieran coming at me, so another fight happens, he runs, and I'm confused. That's when I thought, "Maybe I'm supposed to think that I can't go down from the stairs since he's somehow guarding both of them, so I let him come up to fight me, and now that I did, I can go down the stairs!" NOPE! So, I literally spent a minute or so waiting idly next to a staircase to see if I can go down it while Cieran comes from who-knows-where on-screen. Never showed up. So, I wandered for a while and got him to appear. I did the ring around the rosie trick, and was able to go down the stairs. This ate a TON of my healing and attacking items. I almost thought of save scumming, but then, I looked at how many materials I had to make more items, so I decided not to. Was the solution to this "puzzle" supposed to be obvious? I sure didn't understand what I was supposed to do right away, so believe me when I say that I was almost as frustrated as the OriginFury chase scene.

Speaking of crafting items, there was a huge lack of armor crafting compared to weapon and healing/attacking item crafting. I hoarded all my armor to think I could craft some amazing armor, but I never found any armor crafting recipes. Then again, Adventurer's Tunic for +5 SP and Fancy Dress for Encouragement are hard to replace, even if other armor items have better stats. Anyway, this lack of armor crafting felt weird when there's a huge emphasis on crafting everything else.