LogFAQs > #897279747

The characters themselves were mostly quite good. Class VII has a great dynamic between them, and by the end I liked every single one of them. Machias was a bit of a twit at first, but he actually probably got more development than anyone else, and by the end I liked him more than several other party members. Alisa was generally likable other than the odd forced tsundere scenes. Laura was cool from start to finish - didn't get as much development as the others, but I assume 2 will help out a bit with that? Her rivalry with Fie was great at least. I like how both of them realize it's stupid and they solve it between themselves rather than really needing help. Emma's mystery was all good and I like how she was generally more confident than girls of her archetype, but it felt like they left it a bit too mysterious (she said she was going to explain things after the festival, and then a week later she hasn't said anything. Also no one ever asks her about her family for some reason...). I love how Jusis seems like an asshole at first but basically everything he says is right and he's basically just a cool dude the whole game. But like Laura, he's a bit lacking in development after the Field Study focusing on him. Elliott was just right in his role. Gaius is the main weak link. At first he seems like a great guy with an interesting back story, and his family being just awesome people with no tragic backstories rather than traitors to the nation was a good change of pace, but...that's all there is to him. No conflict, no flaws, just a good guy. So not a very interesting character. Rean's a bit iffy too. They try to do interesting things with his backstory to make him more unique, and I like his general take charge attitude, but they make him too much of a blank slate. There's a lot of Persona influence here with the ability to choose romantic partners and bonding events and such, but the developers didn't give the player nearly enough choice to make that system effective. The reason blank slate protagonists work in games like Persona or Mass Effect is that you get a ton of choices to make so it feels like you're really role playing the character. Here your choices have barely any effect, so you're getting the worst of both worlds. Rather than getting an excellent developed romance like in Sky, we get one or two minor scenes. Rather than being able to develop a deep relationship with any cast member (or all cast members) like in Persona, we get a bunch of shitty 'jokes' about him being a ladies man harem protagonist (Zero and Azure had the same issue). Committing to a single love interest (probably Alisa) would've made for a much better total experience. Perhaps most importantly though, they all fit really well together. By the end of the game it feels like a big group of friends. Reminds me of Persona 4 in that respect. None of the original Class VII members feels like an extraneous cast member.
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