straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2025-10-15 01:31 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2025-10-15 01:31 pm
320 | completing the a date with death dlc
Last night, I went and finished up the final three endings I had left for A Date With Death’s Beyond the Bet DLC. I had a great time!
Like I mentioned in my previous post, I decided to go for the “Forget-Me-Not” ending—aka the bad ending—first. My main takeaway is that I don’t think bad endings are this game’s strong suit, unfortunately, though I did like this one more than the base game’s bad endings. The mini-bad ending from the base game just didn’t have enough content to feel satisfying, and the main bad ending didn’t really make narrative sense to me, in that there was no in-game reason for why the MC started having problems with her soul then and not in the other endings. But the “Forget-Me-Not” ending worked for me in that regard, because it had a very clear trigger for why it happened!
In the other three ends, the MC goes out and actively tries to find a solution to their problem, which each ending being the result of the solution she finds. But in the bad ending, she takes a more passive approach, allowing Casper to tackle their problem alone, which leads to him getting in way over his head.* There’s a clear reason why things go wrong now as opposed to the other routes, which is what I want from any visual novel story!
*(...This phrasing makes him sound incompetent, so I have to add, in his defense—he does find a solution to their problem too! He saves the MC from being reaped, which was his main goal! It’s just that he dies in the process, which… is not ideal…)
I did figure that Casper would be the one to tragically die in the DLC bad ending, since the MC did in the base game’s bad ending, so called it…? Also, he looked very good all bloody and beaten like this <3
What I didn’t like about this ending was mainly that the final conversation between the two of them did get a little too melodramatic for my tastes, and—more importantly—the MC got hit with the amnesia trope, which, noooo, I hate that. ;_; Like, it makes sense that 5012 would take away her memory of all that she learned and experienced, since he’s all about upholding the rules and proper order of things, but the thought of everything being wiped away like nothing had ever happened is just not the kind of ending I’ll ever enjoy.
After that, I went for the “Interwoven”, which ended up being my favorite ending of the entire game! I can’t believe they actually went for a soul baby ending (Casper: it’s not a soul baby!!!), BUT in a way that makes sense and is utterly delightful. Like, I loved the running soul baby joke, but if the two had literally had a baby together, I would have not been there for that. But the two of them combining parts of their souls together, both becoming something neither human nor reaper, which so happens to have a manifestation that the MC can joke about being a soul baby to Casper’s exasperation…? Perfect, utterly perfect <3
Also, I loved this exchange between them during this scene:
MC: “Casper, do you trust me?”
Casper: “...Unfortunately.”
Cuties <3
I went for an axolotl as the form their soul…shield…thing takes, because that felt the most appropriate to me of the three options—I wanted something that felt like the two intwined, and the skull felt weighted too much to the grim reaper side, while the sunflower… does actually work too, in some ways, as a symbol of their relationship, and I might go for that option another time, but in the moment it felt weighted more strongly towards the MC.
I am a little sad that Casper’s loses his “physically can’t lie” thing in this ending, but not enough for it to weaken my love for the ending as a whole. And the bathtub scene in the epilogue was so fun. Between Casper’s hand kink and the MC’s hair kink, I personally am being very well catered too.
Also, while Casper is my obvious fave, I love the MC too, and this route had a great example of why. So, Casper had this moment where he melodramatically goes, “You are my only weakness…”
And the MC’s response? “That, and you type incorrectly a lot” <3
What a great callback to the “bad at typing” thing, and I fucking love that even in the midst of such a serious situation, she’s not afraid to tease him and lighten the mood. Also, his face when she says that (the little pout!) is so cute <3
Finally, I finished up with the “Metamorphosis”, which was also quite good! We get confirmation that the reapers were all once human—which was fairly obvious, but it makes sense why it would be such a shock for the characters in-universe. I’m here for the overthrowing the system plotline—and in fact like to think that this is where things eventually go in the “Both Win” ending as well—and I really, really liked seeing 5012 become an ally rather than an enemy. The three of them actually have quite a promising dynamic as a trio!
And… that’s about all I have to say about the endings, but I do have some screenshots I wanted to share! I… tend to take far, far too many screenshots while playing games, unfortunately, so this morning I decided to sort through the ones from my playthrough of the game and see if I could delete any. And I did, but I also found far too many favorite moments that I wanted to highlight here! Believe it or not, the present selection is me restraining myself, lol.
Presented in the order in which I took them.
Exhibit one, from early on in the game!
I love this conversation (also from early in the game—right before the soulbond stuff goes down and the MC realizes he's actually, genuinely the Grim Reaper).
In which the MC has excellent priorities <3
So much of what Casper says is made more amusing by the fact that he genuinely, physically cannot lie.
Them <3
BEST DIALOGUE CHOICES ARE BEST DIALOGUE CHOICES. My favorite dialogue path was the first one, but the third was also fun <3
And the delightful follow-up if you chose the first option <3
<3
Casper: sorry, but they don’t come in mortal
MC: I hope you do ;)
Casper: ??? what?
MC: you know… come in mortal ;)
Again, I love her, and I love them.
SUCH a cutie <3
Finally, I think this conversation really highlights the best of their dynamic after they’ve openly admitted their feelings and have gotten together.Again, made even more delightful by the fact that Casper can’t lie. They’re openly in love! Casper turns out to be a bit of a romantic sap! But they’re also continuing to tease and roast each other; the MC still spouts nonsense for fun and Casper is still exasperated by it, and there’s a lot of “you’re an idiot, but you’re my idiot <3” coming from the both of them. It’s very cute and very fun.
After I was fully finished with the game, I ended my evening by reading the A Date with Death ZERO prequel webcomic. It’s a short, easy read, though my feelings about it are bit more mixed.
Namely, I don’t feel like all of it quite works with what we see of Casper in the base game. His being friends with Rowan, and Rowan then being terminated—yeah, that’s fine, and works for me. But him being there on the scene as Rowan dies? And put on trial himself? Doesn’t work at all with the mental state he’s in leading up to the endings in the base game, particularly the You Win and Wedding endings. Like… if he’d already experienced all that, he should be a lot more stressed in those scenarios than he is, imo.
It was nice to see the MC’s pet being portrayed as cat, though, since that’s what I picked <3
Like I mentioned in my previous post, I decided to go for the “Forget-Me-Not” ending—aka the bad ending—first. My main takeaway is that I don’t think bad endings are this game’s strong suit, unfortunately, though I did like this one more than the base game’s bad endings. The mini-bad ending from the base game just didn’t have enough content to feel satisfying, and the main bad ending didn’t really make narrative sense to me, in that there was no in-game reason for why the MC started having problems with her soul then and not in the other endings. But the “Forget-Me-Not” ending worked for me in that regard, because it had a very clear trigger for why it happened!
In the other three ends, the MC goes out and actively tries to find a solution to their problem, which each ending being the result of the solution she finds. But in the bad ending, she takes a more passive approach, allowing Casper to tackle their problem alone, which leads to him getting in way over his head.* There’s a clear reason why things go wrong now as opposed to the other routes, which is what I want from any visual novel story!
*(...This phrasing makes him sound incompetent, so I have to add, in his defense—he does find a solution to their problem too! He saves the MC from being reaped, which was his main goal! It’s just that he dies in the process, which… is not ideal…)
I did figure that Casper would be the one to tragically die in the DLC bad ending, since the MC did in the base game’s bad ending, so called it…? Also, he looked very good all bloody and beaten like this <3
What I didn’t like about this ending was mainly that the final conversation between the two of them did get a little too melodramatic for my tastes, and—more importantly—the MC got hit with the amnesia trope, which, noooo, I hate that. ;_; Like, it makes sense that 5012 would take away her memory of all that she learned and experienced, since he’s all about upholding the rules and proper order of things, but the thought of everything being wiped away like nothing had ever happened is just not the kind of ending I’ll ever enjoy.
After that, I went for the “Interwoven”, which ended up being my favorite ending of the entire game! I can’t believe they actually went for a soul baby ending (Casper: it’s not a soul baby!!!), BUT in a way that makes sense and is utterly delightful. Like, I loved the running soul baby joke, but if the two had literally had a baby together, I would have not been there for that. But the two of them combining parts of their souls together, both becoming something neither human nor reaper, which so happens to have a manifestation that the MC can joke about being a soul baby to Casper’s exasperation…? Perfect, utterly perfect <3
Also, I loved this exchange between them during this scene:
MC: “Casper, do you trust me?”
Casper: “...Unfortunately.”
Cuties <3
I went for an axolotl as the form their soul…shield…thing takes, because that felt the most appropriate to me of the three options—I wanted something that felt like the two intwined, and the skull felt weighted too much to the grim reaper side, while the sunflower… does actually work too, in some ways, as a symbol of their relationship, and I might go for that option another time, but in the moment it felt weighted more strongly towards the MC.
I am a little sad that Casper’s loses his “physically can’t lie” thing in this ending, but not enough for it to weaken my love for the ending as a whole. And the bathtub scene in the epilogue was so fun. Between Casper’s hand kink and the MC’s hair kink, I personally am being very well catered too.
Also, while Casper is my obvious fave, I love the MC too, and this route had a great example of why. So, Casper had this moment where he melodramatically goes, “You are my only weakness…”
And the MC’s response? “That, and you type incorrectly a lot” <3
What a great callback to the “bad at typing” thing, and I fucking love that even in the midst of such a serious situation, she’s not afraid to tease him and lighten the mood. Also, his face when she says that (the little pout!) is so cute <3
Finally, I finished up with the “Metamorphosis”, which was also quite good! We get confirmation that the reapers were all once human—which was fairly obvious, but it makes sense why it would be such a shock for the characters in-universe. I’m here for the overthrowing the system plotline—and in fact like to think that this is where things eventually go in the “Both Win” ending as well—and I really, really liked seeing 5012 become an ally rather than an enemy. The three of them actually have quite a promising dynamic as a trio!
And… that’s about all I have to say about the endings, but I do have some screenshots I wanted to share! I… tend to take far, far too many screenshots while playing games, unfortunately, so this morning I decided to sort through the ones from my playthrough of the game and see if I could delete any. And I did, but I also found far too many favorite moments that I wanted to highlight here! Believe it or not, the present selection is me restraining myself, lol.
Presented in the order in which I took them.
Exhibit one, from early on in the game!
I love this conversation (also from early in the game—right before the soulbond stuff goes down and the MC realizes he's actually, genuinely the Grim Reaper).
In which the MC has excellent priorities <3
So much of what Casper says is made more amusing by the fact that he genuinely, physically cannot lie.
Them <3
BEST DIALOGUE CHOICES ARE BEST DIALOGUE CHOICES. My favorite dialogue path was the first one, but the third was also fun <3
And the delightful follow-up if you chose the first option <3
<3
Casper: sorry, but they don’t come in mortal
MC: I hope you do ;)
Casper: ??? what?
MC: you know… come in mortal ;)
Again, I love her, and I love them.
SUCH a cutie <3
Finally, I think this conversation really highlights the best of their dynamic after they’ve openly admitted their feelings and have gotten together.
After I was fully finished with the game, I ended my evening by reading the A Date with Death ZERO prequel webcomic. It’s a short, easy read, though my feelings about it are bit more mixed.
Namely, I don’t feel like all of it quite works with what we see of Casper in the base game. His being friends with Rowan, and Rowan then being terminated—yeah, that’s fine, and works for me. But him being there on the scene as Rowan dies? And put on trial himself? Doesn’t work at all with the mental state he’s in leading up to the endings in the base game, particularly the You Win and Wedding endings. Like… if he’d already experienced all that, he should be a lot more stressed in those scenarios than he is, imo.
It was nice to see the MC’s pet being portrayed as cat, though, since that’s what I picked <3