So. Some of you may be wondering why we havenāt written a whole ton about the secondaries or what have you. Hereās the reason: we were waiting for them to end before we really dug into the problems we were noticing. We felt that it was only fair to wait for the routes to finish so that we had an understanding of the writersā vision. Who knew, we thought, maybe they would see the problems themselves and course correct, maybe they are building to something we canāt quite see yet and these issues will have actual payoff, maybe-
In light of Muriel and Lucioās endings, and the general mess that has dominated Portiaās route for a year plus now, we are breaking our silence. We are actually going to talk about this shit show.
The fandom at large has talked about a bunch of issues with the secondaries but for me, the cardinal sin, theĀ thing that really all the issues lead back to, is this: the writers lost sight of the tarot themes which so strongly defined and held together the primary routes. Let me explain.
The primary routes each center around three thematic cores:
The Love Interestās Major Arcana and its Reversed/Upright meanings
The MCās Foolās Journey, both how it can go right and how it can go wrong
A question about the MCās identity and their relationship to said identity
Asraās route asks: Who was the MC? How does the MC navigate a past they cannot and will not remember? What do they owe a past they cannot remember? How do they handle the revelations of what Asra, Nadia, Julian, etc did? How do you right the past? Can you?
Nadiaās route asks: Who is the MC? The MC has no past. Are they the Fool only? Are they actually the same person they were? How can they tell? Who are they, really? Are they an imposter? No one can answer these questions for them.
Julianās route asks: Who will the MC become?Ā How does the MC see their future? Is there anything worth fighting for for that future? What will become of them and their loved ones?Ā
Now, if you notice, these themes are expertly woven throughout the primaries. Asraās past dominates his route, Nadia is also missing memories and trying to construct her identity both with her family and with Vesuvia, and Julianās fear of the future drives his flailing for control. Asra has to learn to take a broader view of his actions to get his Upright Ending, Nadia has to learn to trust herself and those around her for hers, and Julian has to learn how to let go for his. These lessons are the issues their cards stand for. The primaries are so dang elegant and delicate in their handlings of theme it is honestly awe-inspiring.
Thematically, the secondary routes have completely lost their hearts. First of all, the MC does not have strong, core questions which need to be answered. They just donāt. I suppose the writers did not want to retread old territory (which is weird considering how tightly bound the primaries are; it really tricks you into thinking youāre living the same events but from different angles depending on your route) but they did not replace the old with anything new. Murielās route is, on the surface, about discovering and owning his past, the good and the bad. Why not tie MCās self-discovery to that story? Or they could have taken the angle that Murielās route is about convincing him to be present and active in the world while MC builds an identity for themself outside of Asra, the shop, and the memories they cannot retrieve. Why not tie the investigation themes running through Portiaās early route back to MC and their past? Portia has the unique angle of being as in the dark as MC about all of this, why not discover the past together? And for goodnessā sake, Lucio has no future when his route begins, why not tie that to his need for growth, responsibility, and MCās own future between the Fool, the Devil, or something mortal and in between?
Secondly, the routes lost their tarot backbone. We have a primer on how to get specific endings for each LI and it still holds, but the writers did not follow through on the thematic coherence of each secondary. The Hermit is looking for something, be it perspective, insight, a solution to a problem, whatever. The key here is that the Hermit must find or learn what they are searching for, this thing must change their understanding of the world, and finally, they must bring this lesson back to the world from which they retreated. Can someone please enlighten me as what exactly Muriel learns then teaches the world around him? Nothing Muriel learns from Morga, MC, or even the Hermit ties back into anything. The Devil warns that you are out of control and exerting a lot of manipulative, destructive behavior on the world around you. It asks you to take responsibility for yourself and your actions. So can someone tell me why Lucioās route actively avoids any interaction or reflection on two of Lucioās biggest victims: Muriel and Julian? Why does the route only try to make amends with theĀ āeasierā of his victims in the cast? The Star is first and foremost the card of clarity, the light at the end of the tunnel. Perseverance, if you will. Yet Portiaās route has been the muddiest of the trio; the writers drop the investigation aspect of her route in favor just handing her and MC information they could have easily found and muddying the waters with Tasya (she blows up the palace but itās all okay bc she has a secret daughter Julian never thought to bring up or mention) and the complete removal of the Devil as antagonist.Ā
So that leaves just the Foolās Journey trying to hold this stool up with only one leg. And wellā¦it doesnāt go well. At best, the secondary route books pay the barest surface level homage to the themes of the individual cards. At worst, they ignore the cards completely.Ā Murielās Moon book has nothing to do with illusions or delusions or lies or even an Alice in the Looking Glass upside down world. Portiaās back half is a complete and utter mess, starting with her Temperance book being so badly mangled that Murielās aftermath book does it better. Lucioās route too bungles the Tower and the Star. There just isnāt enough here to carry the routes alone.
Add to the core loss the loss of intertextuality. The primary routes are very good, even great but they too do have their moments and mistakes. What helps strengthen them when the cores stumble is how the trio is woven together. Things you learn in Asraās route can inform the way you play Nadiaās, for example. Julianās route informs what is going on in Asraās route and slots some missing puzzle pieces together. Nadiaās route tells you of the power struggles she is facing and informs the other two routesā handling of Julian and his trial. On and on, the three routes support each other because they are built out of the same basic plot beats, just tackled in very different ways. Now, the writers are allowed to try and write whatever they want. They apparently wanted to be more experimental and less tied down to an overarching plot with the three secondaries. Okay, fine, they are allowed to do that. The problem is that they sacrificed one of the key strengths of the primary trio and didnāt replace said strength with anything else. They also, on some level, harmed the very premise of the game, which is that only the playerās choices and route selected change the overall plot. Instead of feeling like legitimate possibilities or offshoots of the same timeline/plot, the secondaries feel almost like Arcana AUs. The secondaries throw out all relations to the primaries and each other as quickly as possible and for what?Ā
It is probably the height of arrogance to suggest fixes for works whose behind the scenes I do not know. At the same time, some small, obvious changes could have salvaged Muriel and maybe Lucioās endings (rip Portia). Instead of having the Hermit appear as a disappointing cameo, why not have him say something cryptic to Muriel, then have MC start trying to seal the Devil. Then let Muriel use his forget me mark to cloak MC and hide them from the Devilās attacks. Protecting MC by hiding them from Lucio, keeping him focused on Muriel, seems to me a simple third solution between Murielās desire to run and his desire to never fight again. It lets him stand up to Lucio and let him have it while holding onto who Muriel has become. The Reversed End would have MC try to draw Lucioās attention at some point, disrupting the sealing, and eventually leading to Muriel killing the Devil. With Lucioās Upright End, I just have to ask: why doesnāt MC fully claim the power of the Fool instead of the Devil? We donāt need the other Arcana involved in this fight; we have three routes that demonstrate that. Just have MC pull Scout into the conflict, then have Lucio tell MC he believes in them, then add his power to the mix. You got yourself a full Fool who leaves Scout guarding the realm until they and Lucioās mortal bodies fail and they return to the realm to be together forever. Boom, youāre done, you can even add some ambiguous lines so that players can decide how happy their MC is with this arrangement, send me the check.
Here is the bottom line. Our group is full of aroace, and several combinations therein, individuals. We are the last group who should have gotten into a dating sim of all things. But the Arcana did something with the primaries that was special; they wrote a compelling plot with dazzling lore, complex characters, and strong themes wrapped up in a dating sim bow. The writers know better and we know they know better. I do not know what happened with the secondaries, especially around books 10-11, which is where minor issues slowly start spiraling into major ones, but it is clear that Nix Hydra needed some more planning before they released these routes. Hopefully they will learn.
TL;DR: Nix Hydra fired their tarot consultants about eighteen months ago and it has wrecked their secondary routes until they were just embarrassments. They never intended for the secondary routes to even exist and once they had to make them, they scrambled and threw out everything that made the primaries work. ā Mod Telos
