Guess I'll do my best to answer this for you.Originally Posted by The White Wizard of Fynn
Sorry to hear that...Let's get this out of the way - we were both pretty disappointed.
I only partially agree, I do feel it could have been handled better but I can't say I was disappointed with the execution as much as you seem to be.The ideas and themes were all pretty interesting. I think it's awesome that we got a conflict within the party, but the execution was forced
The cast is large and by splitting the group into four groups of two you end up creating the classic MegaTen conflict:why fight in pairs?
- Aigis/Metis/Fuuka = Player character and the power of choice
- Junpie/Koro-chan = Neutral they don't want conflict and see both sides of the argument.
- Akihiko/Ken = Law, they wish to maintain the status quo.
- Yukari/Mitsuru = Chaos, they wish to change the world fo themselves, even if might mean the end of the world.
Largely because Akihiko or Yukari's team would eventually come after her for her piece of the key. By collecting all the key parts, she can forcibly stop the groups in-fighting.Why is Aigis fighting at all if she doesn't know what she want?
Largely cause Junpei needed a partner, partly because Koro's personality aligns with Junpei's neutral stance, and partly because the Answer shows that Koro is the next closest to Junpei after Shinji thanks to their flashback showing that the two met prior to the beginning of P3.Why is Koromaru with Junpei?
Junpei knows he needs to protect his key, as I said, Yukari and possibly Akihiko would have forcibly taken the keys from everyone else had Aigis not beaten them to it. Junpei is also unaware of what Aigis intends to do so he can't very well just hand them over to her since she is also uncertain about which path to take.Why does Junpei fight if he's just scared of Nyx?
Because Junpei isn't totally aligned with Akihiko. Sure he believes undoing the seal on Nyx is a bad move but as the other person closest to the MC, he can totally sympathize with Yukari's stance. In truth, Junpei wanted to talk the issue over some more but both Akihiko and Yukari made their choices and were ready to fight for it so he took his own side as the side of moderation. If you remember he was the one thinking the group needed to sit down and discuss the situation further. Had Aigis been less wishy washy, I feel Junpei would have sided with her.Why aren't he and Koromaru on the same team as Akihiko and Ken when their goal is the same - leaving the dorm (other than the fact that a two-on-four battle would be too hard)?
The other issue here is that the battles represent Aigis making sense of her her own social connections. She doesn't have any friends outside of S.E.E.S. and since the game didn't feel like re-hashing the Social Link system, Aigis had to find another way to reach an "understanding" and build a better bond with the few friends she had in order solidify the game's theme about "bonds and choices".
As a Wild Card, Aigis is a threat so Erebus does have reason to strike but maybe my memory is foggy but I was pretty sure Erebus is simply a rage monster that attacked the group because they were there. If it felt like Aigis was single out its simply because she's the 'leader".Now, time for Erebus. Again, I love the idea that it's humanity's own fatalistic tendencies that are the true villain instead of Death personified. But what does fighting him accomplish? Why does he target Aigis? I understand she has a wildcard now, but she's not exactly a threat as the seal's already in place and placing another won't change a thing so essentially, killing her does Erebus no good. Fighting it accomplished absolutely nothing aside from giving the game a final boss. If they had only discovered the true nature of the seal and not battled, it would not have impacted the plot in the slightest, because at the end they say Erebus is a threat as long as people don't change. Not to mention, he seems pretty anticlimactic, but that's subjective.
The battle itself was also largely symbolic. the party finally discovered the truth about the MC, not simply what he had done at the end but also the secrets he kept like the Velvet Room and so forth. In truth the party realized that the battle they fought against the Shadows and Nyx was a fight he really did fight alone and so stopping Erebus, even if it was only temporary, was a means for them to feel like they were helping him when they really couldn't before.
The other issue is that Erebus ultimately reinforces the theme of P3 and the Apathy Syndrome cases. Mankind is the source of its own downfall but it can also be the source of its greatness. This is a theme that pretty much every entry in the series shares and most of the threats to humanity over the course of the series is directly the result of mankind growing too complacent and forgetting to appreciate what they have and thus subconsciously calls down disaster upon themselves to shake up their ho-hum existence. The Revelation of Erebus gives the team a new focus in the aftermath. Before they simply were besides themselves with grief but now they known how they can make a difference and the discovery changed their perception of the world and how they view it. Now they realize the power they really have and how their goal should be to enter the world and make it a better place. It's a pretty damn optimistic ending and excellent closure to a group that has endured so much. It's even amusing seeing how this has affected them when you see the group again in P4 Arena, with Junpei and Yukari doing their part to make a new generation appreciate life and have hope for the future. Hell even Erebus makes a return in Elizabeth's story and it seems to me like the writers are not quite done with him.
Any thoughts? Perhaps some answers to those questions, other that sloppy writing? I really was expecting better, especially after such a strong scenario in "The Journey", this just seems shoehorned in, unnecessarily padded, rushed, and a waste of good potential.
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