- Oct 14, 2018
- 714
- 783
Oh man, I'll try to explain this as best as I can with my English skills; I hope it's understandable^^The end of update pidgeon says as much.
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Objectively, this update is a huge return to form. Part 1 was ALL like this. Go to school, do a thing, catch some peeping scene, go to FOG and see some battle harassment, with the consequences getting worse each time. The other characters? Side content. Inconsequential and used to pad out the perv forum, or show little snippets of lewd action between other scenes.
Then Part 2 happened. Massive snapback away from the Stormy Night in which Asu/Ino first fucked. Huge regression to the story, and the known start of the Administrator fuckery. We've spent 4 updates working back up to that point, wasting time expanding the side character stories while Inoda fucks around with Kyoko, tries to regain Asuna's trust and plays his part in Liz' scheme.
Everything about Sugu? Inconsequential, so far. Not one thing she's done or said has had any impact. Its all 'she's fucking Hebishima' or 'she's not fucking him right now'. She's not Kirito's girlfriend; there was never any chance they'd hook up, have kids or get married. It's not even netorare; Sugu's story is just a corruption story of a single girl, but it already peaked back in Part 1. She's not Kirito's girlfriend, so spending time with her that doesn't result in any progress with the Asu/Ino plot is just time wasted. And Sinon too; what impact has she had on the story? There is not enough space in an RPGM game to focus on the side characters as much as Asu/Ino. Sugu/Alice/Sinon can't have an equally deep story without, as the updates up until now have been, shifting the focus away from Asuna and Inoda. So (in my opinion) they should be kept to cameo's and snippets to not dilute the focus of the game. At least Alice is building up to a (probably) NTR story, if she's been slutting even before Klein met her. I'm hoping her whole plot that lead you to a house next to the brothel leads to some kind of peeping scenario down the line, otherwise what was the point?
Notice I exempt Liz from that list? It's precisely because she's made herself important to the main plot, by being Inodas accomplice. Even though I don't like her scenes or the implications, at least she's relevant.
I think a lot of people who like the Sugu plot and want to see a lot more of the other girls see this as a game where all the girls and their stories are equally important. They seem to believe it's a game about all the SAO girls getting corrupted and stolen in some way. And while it is to a degree, Part 1 set the tone that this was a story about Kirito's actual girlfriend, Asuna, falling to a fat ugly nerd, Inoda. Part 1 set up that this is an netorare story about Kirito, Asuna, Inoda. The other SAO characters were just filler.
A good writing rule goes something like this;
"If you can cut a character out of a scene/story and nothing about the plot would change, then they should be cut".
I'm not really arguing that they should be cut, moreso that their inclusion needs relevance to the main plot, without being a complete side track. The side girls should be made important to Kirito's story somehow, or left as minimally seen cameo's, like when you'd visit Sugu at the cafe or just see her new bf's photo's of her posted on the perv forum.
Okay, I understand your perspective, and his comment after the update clarifies some things. To be honest, I'm not entirely convinced it's not just an excuse to please the audience, but that's just a mixed feeling of mine. If he indeed believes what he says in that comment, then I'm sorry to say this, but it's just very bad writing and a lack of skill, storywise, this update is a complete mess.
As I mentioned before, I believe Fujino should have approached the game as he did in the previous ones because that's where his strengths lie. I liked the quick progression, and I admire the scenes, animations, and battle situations he creates. But it was his decision to try to make a more 'realistic' story, so this is now part of the game that needs to be considered.
I think one of the main issues is that many people are way too focused on the sole updates, not considering the story as a whole. If you do, various things just don't make sense, and I'm not talking about NTR logic that applies as an excuse for scenes—I'm fine with that. Especially in part 2, it feels like different people are writing the story, not knowing what happened previously or what personalities the characters have.
On a side note, I don't consider Sugu as NTR; it's a side story. In part 1, it was straightforward corruption but got some really interesting twists in part 2. As I'm not a fan of the main plot, I've been hoping to see more of Sugu's story in the future. I'm not demanding scenes every update; I'm fine if there is an interesting continuation of her story here and there. However, after this update, it's probably unlikely that we'll get back on that track, though not impossible.