141 | in which I start Crisis Core & ramble on about the Liar! series

[straightforwardly]

► I’ve been (slowly) making my way through Crisis Core. Right now, I’m at the point where Zack’s just finished meeting Aerith for the first time, and now he’s gone to help defend the Shinra building from Genesis.

Bullet points!

• I am so in love with Angeal, omg. I mean, I don’t understand what’s going on in his head at all at this point, but I liked him almost instantly and nothing that’s happened since has really dissuaded me from that. His and Zack’s relationship is excellent (I was so into that scene when he told Zack that he was a “little” more important than his sword ♥), and I’m definitely shipping it. I had Zack join his fanclub with glee.


• (I also had him join Genesis’ fan clubs because I didn’t want to miss out on anything, but I wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about that one, haha.)


• Unfortunately, I am 100% sure that Angeal is going to die at some point, since he has the Buster Sword and it needs to pass on to Zack somehow. :(


• I wasn’t quite sure what to think about Sephiroth and Zack’s interactions at first (especially considering what we see of them in FFVII), but the game ended up selling me on it. I loved how they come together because they both care about Angeal (and, in Sephiroth’s case, Genesis as well)? Just, something about them bonding over being the only two who care about keeping them alive really works for me.
  
  Also, Sephiroth’s interaction(s) with Angeal alone are adorable.


• That being said… I don’t like Genesis. At all. Maybe that’ll change as the game goes on, but right now I just find him incredibly pretentious and irritating.


• Speaking of my opinion on characters, YUFFIE. YUFFIE. ♥ I had no idea that she was in this game, so her showing up was such a pleasant surprise. I kind of loved her interactions with Zack— so cute!


• My feelings about that scene weren’t all unabashedly positive though, mainly because of all the implications that come with her (inadvertently) letting Zack get away, which allowed him to aid in harming her beloved Wutai. The whole Wutai sequence in general left me feeling vaguely uncomfortable since… it’s just helping Shinra beat them down. I’m the kind of person who can’t be mean in choice-driven games, so it didn’t really sit right with me even though I agree that it makes sense for Zack to be going unquestioningly along with it.
  
  On the other hand, I feel more amused than anything about Zack going to protect Hojo from Genesis (which is where I should be heading right now). Hojo really doesn’t deserve it, but I think I’m leaning closer to the amused side of things because I’m not really a fan of either side, Genesis or Hojo.


• I can’t really take the wings seriously? There was this whole dramatic scene between Zack and Angeal about whether his wing is that of a monster or an angel, and I’m sure that it was meant to be touching and deep and all that… but the wing looked so ridiculous that I ended up trying not to giggle through most of it.


• Zack and Aerith were adorable, omg. I could definitely ship it. I’m not really sure how I feel about some facets of Aerith’s characterization (I am much more aboard with puppy!Zack and everything with Sephiroth), but it’s nothing that I’m upset about either. It’s more of a “huh, that’s kind of weird” feeling every once in a while.

I think a good way to sum up my general opinions so far is this: while I’m not sure how I feel about this game as a prequel to FFVII, when I take it as a game standing by itself I definitely like it.

► I know I haven’t really been talking about Liar! Uncover the Truth here (mainly because I haven’t had much to say), but I played through the last one standing’s lover’s route about a week ago, and I had thoughts. Mainly, that Itaru’s lover’s route transformed him from simply being bland and boring to being as creepy as hell. Not even Azusa’s lover’s route sent so many red alarms ringing for me, and he’d literally admitted to trying to scam the MC out of her money! All I wanted was for the MC to run screaming from him— unfortunately, she didn’t. =/

Weirdly enough, though Sotaro and the MC were super shippy in Itaru’s lover route. I wasn’t half as interested in their relationship in Sotaro’s lover route as I was here.

► I’d been planning on doing the 6th and 7th Uncover the Truth liars’ lover’s routes after I finished with that one, but then Liar! Office Deception decided to celebrate its release with 1) ten tickets per day until 9 June, and 2) a very tempting reward (which, if my eyes did not deceive me, includes Azusa!) if you finished the 6th liar of Office Deception before 15 June, so… I started paying that instead.

I’m finishing up the 3rd liar now, and… I kind of love it? Possibly even more than Uncover the Truth. The main character is a dream. The only downside is that there are three potential liars that I’m already really attached to as people (as opposed to having only one I really loved/hoped wouldn’t turn out to be a terrible person in Uncover the Truth). Hopefully one of them will be the last one standing, and none of them will turn out to have done something unforgivable.

► Some fic I've written since I last did a round-up:

• Concealed [AO3] (Fire Emblem: Awakening, Tharja/f!Robin, 1.1K)
• The Intervention [AO3] (Dragon Friends, Bobby & Freezo & Philge, 1.1K)