#i had to replay again and ok i maybe accidentally got spoilers that kim ends up in the hospital (i didn't know HOW at the time)

[hmmwellok]

not to be dramatic but i would, with no hesitation, die for kim kitsuragi

[raventheempress]

So, I finished V’s route and I just need to get everything out. Obviously, this will be riddled with spoilers for Seven’s route, both secret endings, V’s route.... really, the whole fucking game. This will be very long, and probably quite unorganized. Also, cursing, because this is me. You’ve been warned.

I want to start off by saying, that we really fucking owe Cheritz big time. I will never, ever complain about hourglasses again. I’ve never complained about the hourglass cost on DLC, instead saving my complaints for missed chats and such after you’ve already played a route, but damn if they aren’t easy to earn and Cheritz deserves all the fucking money. If I see anyone else complain about the 300 hourglasses needed to unlock V’s route, I will fucking fight you. Not only is the route worth so freaking much more than that, but they are stupid easy to earn and cheap enough to buy. There is so much content in this route alone that it could easily be the Casual route twice. There are 18 visual novels before the first game branch alone! I counted 68 total for the route, and that was just rushing through quickly. Days 7 and 9 have VNs for all but 2 of their chats that day. And many of these VNs were longer than the entire party of the Good Ending. There is so much content and story in this route that I am shocked and amazed at the work that Cheritz put in. And I didn’t even play it with sounds!! I went back and listened to some of the voice acting and the music and it blew my mind. Cheritz has given us so much, and this is a free game!! They deserve all the love. All of it. Forever. In fact, this shit needs it’s own post. Done. Someone needed to say it, and it will be seen better in it’s own post. Moving on.

So, I got the Good ending. I wasn’t surprised, except for the fact that I was aiming for the normal ending. Despite only, accidentally, opening two emails from guests, I still managed to invite 22 people. I mean, how? Was there even 22 possible guests?! I usually save right before a party so I can get the normal route and then load the save, open the emails, and get the good ending, but that didn’t work for me this time. I think what it might’ve been, was that I had done Seven’s route just before and never gone through the party, so when I began Another Story, I was still getting emails from guests in Seven’s route. So I will have to do a full replay to get the normal ending, which is annoying because the whole thing is just so heartbreaking. I have been spoiled on two of the bad endings though. I know there is one where you basically become Rika’s lover, and then another where V doesn’t learn to treasure himself and allows you to become his new obsession. You decide to force him to do a photoshoot of you basically in an orgy and he goes along with it because he just wants to make you happy.

I will say, I wasn’t happy with the Good Ending. Maybe Day 10 just took too much out of me and I wasn’t able to see anything good, but I wasn’t satisfied. Yes, V ventures off and learns to love himself and that is great, but there was just something about it that left me feeling very unfulfilled. Maybe his After Ending will make up for it once it’s released, but I felt that his ending was the worst for me, barely beating out Yoosung’s ending.

After playing through his route, I have to say, everything is V’s fault and happens because V is the most selfish person in the game. That isn’t completely a bad thing, but I believe it’s the truth.

V is the one who obsesses over Rika, believing it to be love. Yes, everyone makes mistakes and this is one of his, but it all stems from him being selfish and wanting to find his meaning without really trying.

All of the members could’ve been “saved” had V just seen past Rika and paid more attention to the people he surrounded himself with. (I’ll go into this in a minute)

The twins never would’ve been separated.

Saeran wouldn’t have died.

Rika might’ve been able to be saved, because she would’ve gotten proper treatment if he had pushed it on her a bit more and also not kept her condition a secret. Knowing Yoosung and imagining what kind of parents he must have, you know damn well Mrs. Kim would be in there with a wooden spoon making her get treatment, regardless if she wanted it or not, because Mama Kim is all about what you need, not what you want. #MamaKimForPresident

There wouldn’t have been a fucking bomb in an apartment! It was a residential area for Pete’s sake (who is Pete and why do we sake him? /random)! What if someone had been injured?! Seriously!!

There would be no discord within RFA, because there wouldn’t be secrets in RFA. Aside from maybe who the Choi Daddy is, because that could be important, but that is more a Choi secret and not an RFA-V-is-an-idiot secret.

Now, despite it all being his fault, I still can’t bring myself to hate V. Everyone makes mistakes, his are just greater than others. I understand why his guilt pool is overflowing and I still stand by him deserving to be saved. However, after playing his route, I feel like I understand why we weren’t given that option originally. I always felt that he could’ve been shot but survived in surgery. I still, partially, stand by the idea that he didn’t need to die, except, maybe he did. He let things get too out of hand. In the Casual/Deep stories, I really feel like he did need to die. It wasn’t fair to lose him, but things had exploded out of control so badly that I feel like his death was needed to bring a close to everything and set the world back on the right track. Having him live, would’ve caused more stress for longer, making the characters continue to suffer instead of allowing themselves to begin to mourn, which honestly might’ve been the exact reason V lied about Rika dying to begin with. So everyone could mourn who she had been while he dealt with who she became.

In Another Story, he didn’t need to die, but I also can’t get behind the idea of him ending up with the MC. It’s fine for him to have fallen for her, but I truly feel like she should’ve been with someone else. Anyone else. I think I felt so unfulfilled with the Good Ending because literally, no one else is saved. Jumin is still emotionally stunted, Jaehee is still a workaholic in a job she hates, Yoosung is playing LOLOL and seems to still be skating through university, though at least not as depressed and hopeless as before since he received some closure but not enough to set him straight, Zen is fine, but he also didn’t need saved as badly as the rest. Then there is Seven. Poor, goofy, loveable Seven, who doesn’t smile or have any real emotions in the ASGE (Another Story Good Ending) at all, who, assumingly, doesn’t know that his precious brother is dead, and is still working at a dangerous job that he hates and that only makes him hate himself.

The fate of Saeran really is the worst for me. I think out of everything, that burns my britches the most. That precious baby didn’t deserve his fate at all, and it’s all V’s fucking fault and you won’t convince me otherwise. Saeran died, Seven is left in the dark, but V is all better and loves himself and is ready to jump into a relationship after being away from everyone and everything for two years and I am supposed to be ok with that? No. I adored V, right until the moment that he said he was done with the secrets and then turned around and lied to Seven’s face about who the hacker was. That chat, right then, Day 8, “17:32 - It’s all my fault”, that was the moment I threw my hands up and said “I’m done.” Tbh, going into this route, I expected death. I expected Rika would die though. When her apartment blew up at the end, I wasn’t shocked in the least. I was when she showed up at the party the next day, but not when the apartment blew up. I didn’t expect Saeran to die though and that really killed me inside. Here was a poor, innocent little cinnamon roll, who yes, did some bad things, but not nearly as many in AS as he did in the CS&DS, since he didn’t have those extra two years of angst and the elixir to screw him up more. He was still pure and warmhearted, only truly beginning his spiral. He could’ve been saved and wouldn’t have been tainted like he was after the Secret Ends, he could’ve returned to the Saeran he was before. He could’ve stayed Ray instead of Unknown. When I was spoiled early on in AS, my dislike for Rika grew into absolute hate, until I actually saw the end of Day 10 for myself. Contrary to my belief, Rika doesn’t order him to stay behind and die in Mint Eye as his “mission”, she had told him to escape. He chose not to, because he had “nowhere else to go”, something that could’ve been avoided if V had just told the fucking truth and allowed Seven to contact Jumin sooner so they could drag him out of ME kicking and screaming if they needed to, so he could get his brother into detox and therapy and spend the rest of his days helping him to find happiness. Saeran’s death was completely needless, which is probably why it is so heartbreaking and I can’t get over it. His death alone took AS’s enjoyment level from a 3 to a zero. The story is a 5 star all around, but enjoyment level... unless you are a masochist, yeah, it’s pretty low... I couldn’t even cry at that point. I was just, numb. V should’ve told Seven. He should’ve. I will never forgive him for not doing so.

And on that note, why was this a thing to begin with? I won’t ask for a Saeran route, I know that we were blessed by the great Cheritz Gods to be given a V route as it was, but I would hope for another Secret Ending, or something, somewhere, even a simple VN memory... or a series of VNs for Saeran as he is looking back at things. Anything. I need to know why. Why were the twins separated to begin with? Why did that even make sense? Yes, Choi Daddy is a big bad who would want them dead so they can’t make him look bad because appearances are everything, but why did they have to be apart? Seven joined the agency to hide his identity. Alright, that makes sense, but who was hiding Saeran’s? He didn’t join the agency. The agency didn’t even know he existed. Yes, V and Rika got Saeran out, as promised, and he was clearly happy for a time, but then what? Where did he go? What did he do? And why didn’t V know, or expect for that matter, that Rika would pull him into ME with her? He very clearly didn’t know Saeran was there until he ran into him, and such a thing seemed to still be the case, that he had only learned he was there recently, in the other routes. Why were they drawn apart and what happened to Saeran during the time V stopped giving a shit until he was drawn into ME? It’s the only thing in this game that I feel desperate for an answer for. Anything else is meaningless. But the fate of Saeran matters to me. It might be my Seven-bias speaking in that, but it still remains so.

The lack of resolution really bothers me. No one else was saved. V’s, and eventually MC’s, friendship could’ve been enough, but it didn’t happen that way. V went off on a trip of self discovery and left everyone alone to their own devices to hope they get better, or not, he doesn’t care. Even coming back in the ASGE, he finally treasures himself, but even his words was off-putting. “I want you to love me, because I love you like I love myself.” I might still be mourning Saeran, but it just felt... wrong. It felt unhealthy. Sure, V was healthy, but after 2 years... was anyone else? Zen, really didn’t need saved. He lacks confidence, but true friendship and care could’ve handled that. Yes, he needed to reconnect with his family, but even that could’ve been handled through friendship. Jaehee needed encouragement, to be told she was better than she was allowing herself to be. MC could’ve been her bestie, regardless who she ended up with, and still given her that push to the coffee shop that she deserves. It wouldn’t have happened as quickly as it did in her route, but it still could’ve happened. Yoosung... he got some resolution. I feel like his (outside of the Choi Boys) was the most tragic of plots. I wanted to strangle him through AS, he just... ugh!! He got on my nerves so hard. It was so frustrating to watch. I understand the boy was in pain and hardcore denial, and he got that closure when he saw how out there Rika was, but he doesn’t appear to ever get help. The whole group really felt like empty shells in the ASGE. Only V felt like he had any life in him at all. Even Zen felt like he was forcing himself. Jumin, he could’ve been better also. He didn’t need MC, he just needed V. V was so selfish and narrow minded, that he couldn’t even tell that his closest friend was in pain and in need of help. He couldn’t see that Jumin had feelings for Rika, past what was appropriate for his BFF’s girl. Had he seen, knowing Jumin as well as he flattered himself, he could’ve done more for his friend to help him be around women. And having MC around, even without a romantic attachment, would’ve been good for him to become more comfortable and trusting around women, especially if she were to never work with him. Seven, wouldn’t have needed saved if V had never tried to pull the Choi Boys apart to begin with, but I bet if he had said something after AS, Jumin would’ve pulled all the fucking strings to help him out of the agency and to keep out of Daddy Choi’s sight so he and Saeran could live in peace. But all V could see was himself, and he ruined six beautiful people and contributed to the faster decline of a seventh. And Seven not knowing about Saeran... I can’t live with that. I can’t love, trust, or even respect V with that. At the end, it really felt like V was the only one with any kind of a happy ending. Yes, it was his route, but even in Seven’s route (which I consider to be the true end), everyone was better off aside from maybe Jumin. The whole route just contributed more and more to me seeing nothing more in V than his abhorrent selfishness.

I really expected to hate Rika through this, but in the end, she was still a victim. She isn’t blameless, Gods no, she deserves serious judgement and I will forever be convinced that she shouldn’t be allowed to get off on a plea of insanity. Her disease didn’t make her do all the wrong she did, it just twisted her moral compass away from the rest of society and it’s laws. I do, however, feel more pity for her now. I can’t blame her for things. Before AS, I blamed her for 90% of what had happened, but now, I can see that it wasn’t as much her fault. V coddled her and placed her on such a high pedestal that she couldn’t get down on her own and couldn’t see past his light. She couldn’t ask for help because she was so suffocated by his obsessive love that she was in fight-or-flight mode and just wanted to run. If V hadn’t been so obsessive, and even controlling, then she could’ve gotten help before it was too late to turn back. But he was so determined to by her messiah or die a martyr, that he foolishly took things in the wrong direction and became a controlling boyfriend. He controlled her treatment, her death, her darkness. He controlled everything about her, trying to keep her from doing anything without his hand, because he was supposed to save her. He was supposed to make her his greatest masterpiece and no one was allowed to break his control to change that. So in the end, I went from loving V to barely liking him. Sure, you could push it back on V’s parents, namely his father, for him becoming the way he did. But at the end of the day, everything really does stem from V’s selfishness allowing everything to be his fault. Everyone is responsible for their own actions, but his influence was the catalyst to everything wrong that happened.

TL;DR: V deserved to be saved, he really did, but Rika was much more of a victim than the rest of the game leads you to believe. He never should’ve been with MC, because he really doesn’t deserve her past friendship, and I will never forgive him for lying to Seven and preventing us from making a harder push to save our precious Saeran.