#but the protagonist just sees a beast wearing the skin of a cute little 19-year-old punk rocker

[funishment-time]

i desperately want more spin-offs like UDG where we're given the events of DR through Very Different points of view.

one idea i always enjoyed is a Protagonist completely disconnected from the main cast, who does not know or care that the Remnants were once innocent kids and will once again be (mostly) innocent kids, who is not invested in hope versus despair or whatever the fuck. they see terrorists and suffering and they want the Remnants dead.

battling big-ass Nekomaru is cool and all, but i'm thinking boss fights to agonize the player where you're chasing down non-fighters like Ibuki and Mahiru and you see a flash of who they used to be before delivering the blow. each time the protagonist has to be convinced to only knock them out, to let the FF deal with them. each time the protagonist has to tell themself that the infinite layers of grief they see in those young eyes are manipulative, false.

you don't know who Sato or Natsumi or Chiaki are. you know half your friends are gone and your city's exploded and you haven't heard from your partner in two months. you're able to split up the yakuza couple and, heavily injured and unable to move, the bodyguard woman with the sword yells for her boss. what was it? Inuhiko? Fuyuhiko? she reaches out. you swing the bat.

because it doesn't matter what they were: it only matters what they took from you, the Protagonist