#but this stuff is kinda expected when the car is soooo on the edge... it looked like he had to wrestle it the entire session

[russellius]

2024 SAUDI ARABIAN GP Qualifying : P7

GEORGE: Kicking myself a little bit, I think that P4 was on the cards... [...] Really impressed from Ollie, I watched him in F2, I remember watching his laps in Mexico last year in Haas, thought he was driving really well and he definitely exceeded my expectations.

[eliz1369]

Guess who’s route I just finished...

Wow Fran... You’ve uh... gotten taller... and that’s a whole lot more skin you’re showing... O.o

Has anyone else ever noticed this? I was only half watching the ending video, but it was kinda hard to miss the red, orange, and well... lack of a lab coat. (not like this wasn’t one of my favorite scenes or anything...) I’ll be curious to see if Lupin’s and Saint’s videos have something like this, because Impey and Van Helsing all had their correct cgs. 

On a side note I now have absolute proof that Evil Emperor Aleister is a jerk. Cardia’s chair falls over and the first thing he says is “Did that hurt?”  No, you sadistic bastard, it felt great. In fact it was so much fun, why don’t you sit me up so I can do it again!  

Sorry, back on topic.

I liked Fran’s route, I really did, but idk at this point it falls behind both Impey and Van for me. The romance build up was definitely there, but the emotion on my end wasn’t. Having that cg with Impey show up in the end video made me remember the other cgs that went with the “With You, My Love” BGM. That moment with Impey had me in tears and Van’s had the emotional hit and then relief of Cardia thinking he was dead. In terms of my emotional investment, he’s coming in 3rd at the moment. 

I find his route’s plot to be an interesting case. On my scale of routes for this game, he’s sitting cleanly between Impey and Van, with Van being the best so far. I’m going to have to replay Impey’s at some point, but my overall impression for him was that the cg moments overrode my ambivalence toward some of his character traits and the god-awful antagonist. Van’s went the opposite direction, where the plot was so engrossing, I could overlook the romance and then the ending was so unbelievably emotional. 

Fran’s plot is interesting to me, because while the idea is excellent, some of the execution bothered me and his CG moments weren’t enough to over come it. 

I’m going to start with this dynamic as one of my problems with the route. Every time these two were together after this cg, Victoria turned into the classic “Monologuing Bond Villian”. I could forgive Nemo since he was insane, and Darth Aleister’s end-goal was Van and their relationship was much closer (and he was insane). It seemed odd that so conniving a queen would risk them messing with her plans by revealing so much. I would have liked to see one of these become a “listening at the door” scene or something, rather than a monologue. Did not one of the guards present for these things ever think “Whoa, wait! You’re going to kill us all with poison gas?!? Count me out! I didn’t sign up for this!”

Then there’s also the coincidences... Looking back on Van’s route, Sisi becoming a bloodhound and following Van’s scent drifting off a car falls into this category, but Victor had a couple places that left me scratching my head. 

Several of these belong to Victoria. Leonhardt showing up in the garden was completely believable and slightly humorous. “You’ve been here every night???” but I’m less inclined to forgive the cold and calculating queen.

First was “Muahahaha! I planned for you to escape my dungeon and show up here after I caught you!” Why would you keep everyone waiting in the throne room when you’d clearly thought you had foiled their plan? Then there was the “Muahahaha! I planned for you to escape my palace and lead me here!” You know these are sounding more and more like contingency plans... -.- and I would have respected her a lot more if she’s admitted her main plan didn’t consist of her spilling everything while expecting they would escape. 

This was an awesome moment for Fran. It had the tension, his logical deduction, and that hidden courageous recklessness. What bothered me was him showing up there in the first place. Cardia gets a note telling her to go there, but Fran was what? Taking an evening stroll? He wasn’t in communication with the group, so for him to randomly stumble across her at this point seemed a little fortuitous. 

This was the first moment to really start pulling at my heartstrings and an excellent revealer of the strength of his character... but his abrupt “I’m leaving” as soon as the cg was off the screen made me feel like I had whiplash. 

I’d also use the word fortuitous to describe Lupin and the others showing up. Yes they knew to go to Tower Bridge, and I could see them deducing that the pair went over the edge, but there are two sides to a river people... and not knowing where they got out and on which side would make it really hard. Given how skilled they all are, I see it as way more possible than Fran showing up on the bridge, but it still pulled me out of the story to think “Hey... how’d they do that?”

Gotta admit, this touching moment (pun fully intended) was right up there with Impey holding Cardia’s hand. Absolutely no complaints here. 

...though I’m starting to understand @shell-senji‘s saltiness. Is Van the only one to not get a kiss and this moment? 

Speaking of the kiss, it was going so well. Nearly perfect with the tension and the emotion. (no those aren’t tears in my eyes!) And then... 

Gah and here’s another plot convenience tainting a perfect scene! Why?!? Someone correct me if I missed it, but how hard would it have been to put in a throw away line during his monologue about developing the Zicterium? Instead we get “Oh, by the way, it’s less toxic as a liquid. Isn’t that great?” Good grief you can’t just keep pulling these ‘revelations’ out of nowhere and expect me to not see them as plot hole fillers. 

Writer 1: So in the last desperate moments, she’s to weak to drink the life-saving elixir. To save her life Victor takes it into his mouth and kisses her, risking his own life to save hers. Writer 2: Wow that’s a great true ending! Writer 2: Wait... isn’t that stuff highly toxic? Won’t it kill him? Writer 1: Um... Well obviously it’s less toxic as a liquid. Writer 2: Uh huh. Sure it is.

This scene was wonderful and made perfect sense for his route, but I couldn’t help being a bit jealous. Come on Fran, get your butt in gear and find a cure in the other routes too! Why are you the only lucky one? I mean, what’s the kiss count now?

1st: Victor - 3+Cure 2nd: Impey - 2 3rd: Van Helsing - 0 (No, your “I just wanted my glasses” scene does not make up for the lack of kiss/touch scenes! -.- Trying to make up for something were we?)

I have to give Kakihara Tetsuya massive credit for voicing Fran. It wasn’t until his last line before the Zictirium tree-thing was about to go off and the screen faded to white that I had to pause the game as I thought “Wait! Wait! Wait just a gosh darn second! Was that... NATSU?!?!”

I tend not to look up voice actors until I have a suspicion that they’ve voiced someone else, purely because it can be hard to “unhear” another character. 

Morikubo Shōtarō is easily identifiable as Souji from Impey’s first line in the game, but I literally didn’t have even the faintest inkling that Kakihara had also voiced Natsu. It took me forever to stop hearing Souji in Impey, but even knowing that they’re voiced by the same person, I don’t hear Natsu at all in Fran. (except in those tense “I’m not giving up moments” which are quintessential Natsu :P) 

Back on the topic of romance (ish), I can’t help feeling that Leonhardt and Victoria stole the show a bit. I was genuinely shocked when Victoria stabbed Leonhardt and their moment in the hallway did a lot for humanizing Victoria and her reasoning. 

Honestly this was the BEST scene I have come across so far in any of the routes. I was laughing so hard I was crying. And then Cardia’s last line of “He must really hate caterpillars.” This extra was perfect XP

I can’t help feeling this plot had soooo much potential for me. Not only was the romance well built in, but the idea of the Zicterium gas and Victoria as the antagonist was fabulous, especially in light of history. I know it’s dumb to connect so fanciful a game to real life, but the events of WWI (~40 years after her death) gives so much weight to her worries of a future war where the loss would be catastrophic due to both sides having such advanced technology. Plus there’s the obvious connection between Zicteruim and the mustard gas used during WWI. Then there’s also Victor’s comment that war won’t give her what she wants and it will only create more bad blood. Something which can easily be seen in how the repercussions of the end of WWI led right into WWII. 

Despite my complaints, I really really did like Fran and his route... *sigh* I think I just got ripped out of the story one too many times and the individual moments weren’t quite enough to make up for it.