#dio is.....a bit less grounded but still is pretty complex overall

[dentpx]

maybe i'll make a cleaner post about this later but it seems so obviously dissonant with the themes of 999 and VLR that Zero's motivation would be so batshit insane and selfish. because obviously "let's save the world!" was not his primary motivation and no matter how many times a character says "my motives are complex" it doesn't make it true. especially because the characters in this game include Akane, Sigma, Phi, and Junpei.....who are all legacy characters with a really strong moral code, 3 of whom are ALREADY taking actions to save the world and would definitely take further action if they KNEW there was more shit to be working on.

what's REALLY strong about 999 and VLR is that the characters go through a bunch of crazy suffering, some of which is by Zero's design and some of which is caused by the randomness of 9 separate characters having 9 separate belief systems and motivations. but then, when you get to the end of the game, it makes sense that things HAD to progress in the way they did to get to the end result, which is generally pretty selfless and did not intend harm on the participants. and most of the really nefarious stuff that happened was the result of the players themselves jumping to conclusions and taking drastic actions.

at the end of ZTD, you DEFINITELY do not feel like "wow, that was crazy, but also this was the only solution to a batshit insane problem". you feel like "who is this guy and why did he do all that". i did honestly enjoy the over the top violence and edginess of ZTD but it did not make sense in the story and honestly all it really does is make you distrust Delta.

also part of this is an issue with ZTD having three protagonists too who are split up into three groups...there's less space to play around with how people are motivated because there's less "bad actors". pretty much everyone in the game is acting selflessly and rationally besides Eric and Mina. to me at least it seemed like it was implied every time a protagonist character made an immoral choice, that was possibly the result of Delta's mind control. so if pretty much everyone has the same goal and no one wants to make selfish choices, the character driven conflict from previous games just isn't there.

i did have a good time playing it but i'm REALLY glad i came back to it many months after playing VLR and also that i had no spoilers. the story stuff that worked, worked! and i enjoyed that stuff! and the story stuff that was stupid was stupid and i'm just going to laugh about it for a little bit.