It's been about a month since I picked the game up after my spouse finished up with it, and I'm on NG+ because I want Baguettes for everyone.
The game looked really good, and even had the kind of dad character that reminded me of Corvo. The setting, with its broken buildings and debris suspended in the air, reminded me of the Void in Dishonored and it made me upset again that there isn't a new Dishonored for me to play with. And then I saw the turn-based combat and was thoroughly disappointed because I hate turn-based, so I got the story second-hand from spouse as he was playing.
He showed me the cutscene where Gustave dies, when I pointed at Verso and was like, who the heck is this. I was pretty gutted he died, even without playing the game. After he got to Act 3, he explained the world of the game and I thought of the children playing with the world in Pathologic immediately. So going into the game, I was here for the vibes since I got the gist of the story already.
The opening scene made me realize that this story was not meant for kids at all. I still get the vague sense that the world sees video games being for kids the way they see animation as being for kids. But what kind of kid would get the reasoning for having children vs not having children in light of impending mortality?? In the real world, climate doom is not as impending as a Gommage, but it still hangs over our heads, and the topic of making more people to live in this world is much the same. Sophie's choice is the same as my own choice, that my personal experience of the world is not one I want to make someone else go through. My reasoning ends up being more selfish than hers though, because in a world without Gommage, you get the impression she would gladly have kids. Unless I am a completely different person, I would not, in any kind of better world.
Even in NG+ I was surprised by Gustave's death. I just never seem to be prepared for how fast it happens. The first time I regretted not doing more side content while he's still in the party, but on NG+ I realized you can't actually go much of anywhere with him. You're mostly landlocked, the skills to traverse the map unavailable. You're not actually meant to keep him much more than just following the story would let you. Disappointing!!! I never got over Gustave. I am so not-over it, I put Verso in Baguette as punishment for not being Gustave. When it's revealed he let Renoir kill Gustave, it felt thoroughly deserved. Emotional scenes will never hit properly with this silly man in his silly costume.
My feelings about Verso are pretty complicated. I knew Gustave's death was coming, so as soon as he was gone, I latched onto Maelle, and stayed latched until the end. The entire story is kind of happening to her, so it seemed appropriate.
I also deeply empathize with her wanting to remain in the Canvas. She suffered such a great loss, and it feels like her family, especially in the scene with Clea, blames her for it. The weight of it must be so intense. She did say that there's nothing for her out there in the real world, no friends, no voice, slightly hostile family. The Canvas world, where she was reborn and lived a whole life without the weight of the real world, must at this point feel more real. The people of Lumière were the ones who were emphasized throughout the whole narrative, we were meant to see it from their point of view. Someone online said the existence of the Paintress and Gommage, and the reality of who and what those are, and who they are themselves, are all a complete cosmic horror to them. They are real people, they have real desires to live. I was lead to this conclusion by the narrative!! On purpose!!!!
I'd choose Maelle's ending every time. I've seen the cutscene for Verso's ending. It made me so sad. Sure Esquie and Monoco accepted Verso's decision to stop existing, because they know him and witnessed his suffering. But Lune was so unaccepting, furious even. She Gommaged angrily!!! And I think she's right. These humans were created as a cope, but I don't think they have to stop existing just because the cope is bad. It's a whole life, it might be on a lower level of real compared to the real world, but to themselves they are as real as they possibly can be. You can't comprehend being more "real" than how you already are, and it certainly doesn't convince you that your existence is less worthy.
Maybe I'm selfish. I'm a sad person. I exist in the world sadly. I understand what it's like to exist in the world sadly the way Maelle did in the glimpse of real world we get to see. I understand her desire to be in the Canvas world, even if it kills her. Sometimes it hurts so much to exist you just want it to stop.
Both endings were never meant to feel entirely good. That was a strong choice by the studio, I stand by that. But I gotta cope, I need them all to look silly so I stop feeling so bad.