OKAY SO RUINA THOUGHTS

1: angela still fucking rules. half of my commentary playing this game is inevitably something on the lines of "god angela sucks i love her" or "angela is the best character in this game"

i really really really love her dynamic with roland

on that note—Roland!!! Roland is great and while at this point I'm becoming Aware of his uh. issues i kinda love how much of a chill dude (to a fault) he is at least for...the first section of the game

also very happy that this game literally opens on roland getting his limbs forcibly removed from his body and turned into angela's dog. good for him

I've thus far done floor realizations for everyone up toooo tiphereth and working on doing gebura's

i love getting the extra context for Shit Angela Went Through and seeing how different she was at the very start of the loops. also dang ayin sucks (fond)

i think i made a joke about ruina being angela's FFX-2 journey as i was starting this game but now she's out here getting actual dress spheres in the realization so joke's on me

speaking of, magical boy roland is inspired

I'm like going through my screenshots rn trying to see what i missed

i love. angela and roland

like. a lot

here we have the yuri gods hearing my prayers and giving me this cutscene

i know binahod is niche but. LIKE???????????

honestly i love hod with anyone bc i just like hod and same goes for binah

the gap moe of binah asking everyone who comes to see her to come back and spend time with her again

she's lonely a lil bit

OH HEY BY THE WAY SWITCHING GEARS REAL QUICK

Carmen.

carmen carmen carmen.

I want to study Carmen in a fucking lab

she's such a fascinating character to me because almost everything we know about her is second-hand and what we do know about her is VERY CONFLICTING

like back in lobcorp she's this benevolent, magnetic figure and you don't really question her that much because. she's carmen! and also the player's knowledge of the situation outside of the facility is extremely limited, so yeah of course carmen's cool. Ayin fucked over so many people in her name she's gotta be cool

but then you start to listen to the former sephirot actually talk about her in ruina, and it's like....oh wow hearing someone talk about it out loud just makes carmen sound batshit

but like, was she??? was she a benevolent person who genuinely wanted to save humanity from a dangerous downslide, and just had a wacky way of going about it? was she a lunatic cult leader?? we don't know!!

i was looking through Nikolai and Maxim's books and im just. man, carmen???

she's so interesting to me

oh speaking of the R crew the "m&m's battle royale" scene with myo was possibly one of the wildest things this game has thrown at me

like it makes SENSE but

anyway i think that's about it for what i've got for the most part....i'm gonna continue throwing myself at gebura's floor realization bc i'm bad at this game

cute

burrowing heaven design is iiiiinchresting this time around

roland.

it's almost embarrassing how down bad hokma is for ayin

the man's got a hozier mixtape somewhere

you really need an outlet my dude

Okay got around to playing a little more and tackled chesed floor realization and lemme just say

ROLAND????

I’m trying to find words to describe how I feel about the way this game is very casual on gender and presentation but: it’s good

also Roland’s wife is cool and I like her (what little I’ve seen of her) rip to a real one

the world just couldn’t handle a strap that heavy

Hey what the absolute fuck is the sound design in tbis game

It’s so good

I got to the last node on the Index branch last night and

Fucking wet typewriter noises first of all

Also children of the city is an UNBELIEVABLE bop and I absolutely wasn’t expecting Ruina to chuck “vaporwave bossfight” at me

Poor Yan. I find it interesting that between this game and the last one Yan is thus far the first and only character to have a surname

Yan is very cute even when distorted into a juicy typewriter also

That boss fight DID suck until I figured out the gimmick though. I’m not smart enough for this game lmao

I have....one more node in star of the city and it’s almost certainly Xiao Bossfight so

But I have to work on coding project first RIP ME

Oh yeah since I got there the other night. Xiao Thoughts

God she’s so cool

I thought she’d distort for SURE but NO SHE JUST TELLS CARMEN TO FUCK OFF

what a cool character shame we’re about to book her

.....once I figure out a deck that works

FINALLY BEAT XIAO, pushing us over into Impuritas Civitatis!! I’m low on books so I’ll almost certainly need to fight her and Yan again at some point but....not right now

We got the Hana Association so that’s Fun and Lore

Also unlocked both Binah and Hokma’s floor realizations so naturally I went for Binah first because who do you think I am

I LOVE ANGELICA......I LOVE ANGELICA

girlbossing her way into Roland’s heart

also it’s always fun seeing Roland lose his cool. It’s happened a couple times in the floor realizations alone but he’s still putting up the Chill Guy front for Angela (and most everyone else) so it’s nice to see him freak out and cry a little

punk-ass young fixer Roland is also fun

ALSO HEY REAL QUICK

BINAH REFERRING TO AYIN IN PRESENT TENSE???

“The one who I am keeping an eye on” YEAH????

Guh tho I might need to rearrange my decks bc apocbird is a s l o g

As of now all realizations (sans Keter) DONE

I’m so glad I did Hokma’s last because it’s AMAZINGGGGG HOLY SHIT

I’ll pop some screens and further thoughts in the morning tho I gotta sleep

okay so like. small talks

are delightful

absolutely adore binah's assistants dragging chesed down to make the two of them bitchfight over beverages

it's so fucking funny

okay that said

BLACK SILENCE

i have pretty much guessed it earlier on but heeheehoo

roland is a lying liar who lies

and i still adore his dynamic with angela

im currently doing an unreasonable amount of setup because

project moon is about to Day 49 my ass and i'm going to cry

Instead of doing a reasonable amount of actual setup I spent all night writing custom dialogue for all 45 of my nuggets.

....I got nervous.

Okay so like we have. STARTED the endgame. It’s happening

Some things:

-Roland saying “motherfuckery” is for some reason really funny to me

-I do really love. The Exposition Guy For The Entire Length Of This Game Has Been Severely Withholding Information From You

-Jesus CHRIST, Argalia

-I CANT BELIEVE I SPENT MULTIPLE HOURS WRITING CUSTOM DIALOGUE FOR 45 PEOPLE AND THE FINAL STRETCH OF THE GAME ENDED UP HAVING UNIQUE PRESET DIALOGUE ANYWAY

I should screenshot those before I clear the game actually nobody cares about this but me but I’m proud of myself for that aight

-Greta is cute and good and I can see why people ship her with Hod. I approve

-I’m very impressed that projmoon managed to make a conversation where fully one half of it is [CARTOON ANIMAL NOISES] meaningful and heartfelt

We’re up to tiphereth vs oswald (which is. Something) and we’re doing gebura onward tomorrow....we doin it!!!

Okay I forgot to update this but

Elena: genuinely wants a better world for people like her, reminisces on how she used to have moral quandaries over needing to kill people

Binah: lol. lmao.

Binah still sucks. Love her so much

meanwhile hokma and Pluto having an actual philosophy discussion

that fight also sucked by the way WHICH BRINGS US TO

I LOVE THAT THIS WHOLE GAME I WAS LIKE “I want Roland to cry” and it has. Delivered

Angela/Roland also has gone from a good ship to a god-tier ship

I’ve mostly rambled about this at kari last night while I was streaming but they are THE SAME KIND OF PEOPLEEEEEEE

and just. God. I swear I had more eloquent thoughts about this last night but it’s really really good

My excuse is that the ensuing fight turned my brain into mush

I’m following a guide which has so far not steered me wrong EXCEPT for the use of argalia’s page which is....????? Maybe I’m doing it immensely wrong but getting that one going and maintaining tempo (ha) on it feels nearly impossible

I’ve been using binah’s floor which has been working well for me except for the final phase where everyone runs out of light and eats shit

And then I have two other floors that require so much wind-up time that they can’t even hit their stride before Roland turns them all into paste lol

I’ve been trying to figure out a better strat for this but UGH I’m bad at this game

Keter realization. Angela is still amazing. I am still bad at this game

I’m up to Snow Queen and getting my shit rocked by rng

DONE

I’m

So fuckin in my feelings right now

Keter realization was beautiful. True end is beautiful. Once I finally figured out the trick of the blue reverb rematch it was HILARIOUSLY trivial lmao

Gebura absolutely no-selling the entire ensemble was incredible even if it was a royal pain to set up

AND THEN IN COMES ROLAND LIKE THE GOOD DOG HE IS

I love Roland and Angela so much y’all

I’ll be real I was BRACING for like. The last quarter of this game I thought they were both gonna die but Especially Angela

But no that ending was deserved and beautiful and I love them and THEY WROTE THE ARTBOOK

Listening to Poems of a Machine and crying at 2am

Roland never did get that HamHamPangPang sandwich though lol

But what he did get. Was a lifelong friend and companion. And a new lease on life.

[for the 174728384727th time] Angela is such a phenomenal fucking character

I’m gonna be in my feelings about this for a good while but that I’m unspoilable for ruina means LEVIATHAN TIME

Also it means me going through the LoR ao3 tag which I have largely been holding off on

Me for the past half hour

Actively taking damage [ Library of Ruina ] (SPOILERS) Side Episode: A Frit...