LogFAQs > #906648768

Am going to talk about the final act of the game, and how it re-contextualizes both the first three Doors and their three main characters, and makes them better.

I really liked the first three Doors, but I felt like each one was a little worse than the last (and they're all on a step below from the Fourth Door onwards). The First Door was an excellent story of creeping dread, where the music and writing gave me just enough of an idea of what was going on that each charming scene between Mell and the White-Haired Girl made me increasingly nervous - but the story doesn't delve much into the dark side of Mell's personality, really only touching on it in the last 10% or so. The Second Door, like the First, only gets into the meat of Yukimasa's personality near the very end. It actually felt pretty jarring that he was always a crazy murderer even before losing his memory as his scenes with Pauline gave no hint of that whatsoever. The Third Door has a great setting and the first half is extremely good, peppering in strong interactions between Jacopo/Michelle/Maria and good foreshadowing that gives you that subtle feeling of dread that Fata Morgana does so well. The second half (personally) falls apart somewhat because I found the whole 'Michelle writes a letter every day and somehow Jacopo never questions the situation or goes and visits her' unrealistic, and because while Maria's face turn was great I felt like she became too much of a cartoon villain. Her 'evil' sprite with her open mouth looks fuckin' weird.

The Final Door more or less erased all these issues I had. Seeing these characters in different scenarios, yet making the same mistakes, gave much greater insight into their personality defects than before. Mell's story diverges the most from the First Door, because as it was hinted at in the First Door, Mell kind of sucks when things aren't handed to him on a silver platter. After getting banished for admittedly harsh reasons, he refuses to support Nellie in any real way, and he gets so complacent with Nellie's affections that he considers marrying her even though he obviously doesn't have the same feelings for her that she does him (what the fuck, Mell). He enlists Morgana's help becomes her friend, then distances himself from her the moment she starts to creep him out despite her continued help, and then abandons her (just like he abandoned Nellie in the First Door) the moment Yukimasa threatens him. Are these scenarios difficult? Yes. It sucks that Mell had to go through them. But it all displays how weak-willed Mell is when things get rough, and how quickly he is to abandon others to make things easier on himself. It provides an excellent contrast to the First Door, where Mell's faults are much less pronounced thanks to his cushy lifestyle.

In general, Yukimasa's character makes far more sense after The Final Door. Seeing him act like he did before he became The Beast (for longer than one-two scenes) with all the knowledge of what happened in The Second Door made it much clearer that he's always been this deranged. One of the most tense scenes in The Final Door is the 'Last Support' bit, which is just Yukimasa probing you with fairly innocent questions and then leaving. Nothing happens but it feels like he could snap at any moment. The bad ending where you take Maria's knife is terrifying simply because The Beast's savagery feels far worse when he's doing it directly to you - the front-facing portraits (as opposed to Door 1-3s sideways portraits, which are meant to show that you're watching other people's stories) really emphasize this effect. The concept of his 'tethers' is further detailed as well, and makes it really clear how important Michelle and Pauline were to his sanity in The Second Door. After reading The Final Door, I can totally, easily believe that this dude could become The Beast if given any little nudge in the wrong direction.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.