All the plot issues with OM! IDO (that I know)
Note : I want to preface this by saying that I understand the game is in incredibly early stages, and this is not a hate post. In addition, this post will not address the game mechanics in any way since optimisation is still a possibility.
This post is centred on Lucifer, Diavolo, Satan, Barbatos and Mammon. (with focus on Diavolo and Lucifer because I am me.)
• The whole "graduation from RAD" spiel : From the first game, RAD has been an important part of the plot and Devildom politics considering it introduced the exchange program which is essentially a foreign affairs program. We've spent a lot of time at RAD, and I'm glad that we have finally moved on to new ventures and the characters have been given more roles than "anime student", but there is no satisfaction here because they don't show any of the graduation process. Not even a poorly written graduation party, there is an evident timeskip and the lack of buildup to our (and the brothers'/side characters') graduations doesn't give me any contentment with the resolution of that arc. Do you mean to say that we simply...just graduated? Forget us, after possibly centuries, the brothers graduated and there's no fanfare about it?
• Diavolo's Coronation : I debated putting this in Satan's route, but this IS general considering the fact that it affects everyone in the OM cast and the three realms as a whole. Similar to RAD, Diavolo's coronation has been a matter that has been considered a major event since the first game. He talks about becoming King often in his scenes and you'd expect Diavolo's coronation to be the spectacle of the century — they could've made a separate main plot dedicated to Diavolo's coronation simply because there are so many possibilities and potentials for it! We've waited THIS long, do you think we wouldn't wait a bit longer for a huge, deserved coronation? It feels like they shoved the crowning into Satan's route prematurely because people were upset that Diavolo wasn't crowned before the end of NB, but this is somehow worse. Diavolo doesn't even have a model yet. He deserved a model and an outfit and an actual ceremony and a CROWN. He is the main figurehead of the Devildom, I cannot believe he is getting this treatment.
• The levels of immaturity in all of the brothers' conflicts : I see a lot of people enjoying this, and I always respect other's opinions, but I cannot fathom why? Even in NB when each of the brothers' conflicts with their sin were rushed, the stakes felt serious and I actually had moments where I almost cried. The dialogue felt emotional in a way that none of IDO's does (even though it's supposed to be the opposite). Again, I will say that I haven't played all the routes, but I know most of them minus the twins. Lucifer's arranged marriage arc, Mammon's and Leviathan's insecurity, Satan essentially inheriting all of Lucifer's workload, none of the conflicts felt grounded or like they had stakes because of the light language and quick resolution. Which brings me to the route specific issues.
• The conflict : Lucifer's arranged marriage arc felt like a poor play on the jealousy trope, did not make sense, and was rushed massively. He doesn't even communicate with us and we don't have the option to act like a mature adult. I could see the arranged marriage scandal happening, but in a much more serious sense unlike how it was depicted in canon.
• Character building issues 1 : I also dislike the fact that Diavolo is essentially blamed for "not protecting" him, since he was able to imprison Belphegor in the first season. People do not seem to understand that IDO rushed its worldbuilding a lot, for example, in NB Lucifer does not compare to Diavolo's power, but in IDO he's able to curse Diavolo. Diavolo's inagency in protecting Lucifer isn't a flaw in his personality, it's an inconsistency in his character and is used as a plot device to put Lucifer in a compromising position to create conflict (and it worked, people are going insane threatening that woman when we don't even know her. For all we know, she was forced into it too.)
• Character Building Issues 2 : Returning to Lucifer himself, a lot of the decisions in his route are strange and out of character. For one, he seems to abandon Devildom politics entirely, and for the other, he leaves the HoL and his brothers to move in separately with MC. I cannot even begin to describe the inconsistencies here.
But we'll start with his brothers; in both games, Lucifer has been shown to prioritise his brothers over everyone else, and while he eventually accepts the MC as a part of his family and a dear one (regardless of romance), that doesn't mean he'd choose them over his brothers. There are so many instances of this that I cannot pinpoint one, but the fact that his greatest desire in S3 NB is being happy with his brothers, and the fact that he says that he's glad that the HoL "will be their own space" makes it clear that he does want to stay with his brothers. A huge portion of Lucifer's character stems from loving his brothers, even if everyone left the HoL he would be the last and I don't think he'd be happy about it. You could argue that him leaving the HoL doesn't mean he can't visit or love them anymore, but the way the HoL is set up in the first two games is painfully sweet. They take care of each other when sick, they cook for each other, they have movie nights and little events, and Lucifer simply up and leaves all of this?
Second, in both games, Lucifer has continuously stated that he wants to see Diavolo crowned and that he trusts Diavolo's judgement and he'll do almost anything to support him and make it happen. Lucifer likely took pride in the role, and considering they were friends, also genuinely wanted to stay by Diavolo's side in a non-dutiful sense. He says in OG that he "hopes Diavolo will continue to need him." To strip that away simply for the sake of romance with MC feels wrong to me, you can prioritise both romantic and platonic relationships. Lucifer was never lacking for a genuine connection with mc in the previous games while also prioritising his brothers and Diavolo, why the change now? This feels like a change specifically intended to make Lucifer "exclusive to us" even though he's already belonged to you for several seasons now. In fact, this behaviour makes him even more unattractive to me.
I've seen some people say that it's an act of Lucifer choosing himself and henceforth significant, and I understand, but he could choose himself and relax even within the roles he was already taking. He says in IDO that "as long as he stays in [HoL], he will forever be the eldest brother" which didn't make sense to me because...yes, that is also a part of your personality. You being the older brother isn't a job, it's YOU. It's draining and it's stressful sometimes but you do it because you love them. What is your personality now? Because it doesn't scream "just Lucifer" to me, it screams "I am MC's husband and that will be my only personality trait from now."
• Worldbuilding issues : I've already talked about the First Consul issue here, but I can now add that he refers to Satan as Diavolo's right hand now (a position he's had no issue with and even liked for centuries), and that Satan will assume presumably both Lucifer's and Barbatos's responsibilities. First of all, it doesn't make sense that he assumed Barbatos's role because Barbatos was a butler and never filled in for Diavolo's royal duties (Lucifer basically called him a "royal steward" in NB), Satan is not taking Barbatos's duties, it's entirely Lucifer's. Second, does Satan even want this? I'll elaborate on this in the Satan section, but it's so incredibly ironic that they have Satan in Lucifer's former position. Satan, who has explicitly had breakdowns multiple times over the thought that he's just an extension of Lucifer, he's not different from Lucifer or his own person etc.
• The conflict : I don't have much complaint with his route in general. Asmodeus's trope felt somewhat believable to me, even if the conflict didn't feel grounded like the first two games or serious, he talks to you and you're able to come to a resolution. Though I don't think Asmo as he is in OG would ever want to leave the public eye (because I have the personal opinion that he thrives in it, though he does yearn for meaningful love as well), it's a possible facet of his character and genuinely sweet and true to his and the MC's relationship. Possibly the most mature brother I've encountered so far that wasn't altered to fit the standard.
• Worldbuilding Issues : Lucifer steps down and Satan becomes consul in this route as well, as well as in Satan's route, so we can assume this is a general occurence across all routes. Alright. At least in Lucifer's route, you can argue he was doing it out of love. But why would Lucifer choose to step away from Devildom politics for no reason? Is he tired of it? If so why doesn't he express it in the past games? Overworking himself is purely a Him Issue™ but that's just another part of his personality like Satan liking cats or Asmo liking makeup. He just up and leaves in every route for no reason and leaves Satan in his position with no warning. They also never address what Satan was doing beforehand and if he had to sacrifice it or balance it with the new workload, they didn't think about Satan at all.
• Character building issues : I feel as though the main problem with Satan's entire characterization in this game (throughout all routes) is the fact that him taking up Lucifer's intended position seems to have given him a Lucifer-esque personality. I won't say that he's exactly the same, I do see parts of the original Satan here and there, but the way he acts now is eerily similar to Lucifer and I know Satan would consciously be aware of such a thing and try not to act like it. His main conflict in NB and OG is that he's afraid of being an extension of Lucifer and feels that his existence is meaningless and he lacks individuality, making him more similar to Lucifer defeats the point in my opinion and is incredibly ironic.
You could argue that it's him maturing and taking up responsibility doesn't automatically mean he's "acting like Lucifer", because characters other than Lucifer are allowed to act responsible, but it's a bit odd that he now seems to feel responsible for his brothers (goes after making sure Mammon doesn't do anything) and displays other traits that. Well. Were exclusively confined to Lucifer in the past. I will admit though that I also haven't played all of his route and I may be wrong.
• Character building Issues 2 : Barbatos. I could've made Barbatos a section in the general category, but I specifically want to address something that's said about him in Satan's route.
"he [Barbatos] really hated doing that stuff." – This I believe is a direct inconsistency with previous characterizations of Barbatos because Barbatos has mentioned multiple times that he wishes to support Diavolo in his endeavours, always endorses Diavolo's decisions even when they're conflicting, and has been shown to care about Diavolo from the beginning. Perhaps they meant to say that he was indeed fond of Diavolo and only tolerated the butler duties (despite disliking it) due to that fondness, but it eventually tapered out.
But Barbatos has never expressed discontent with his duties before and even seems to take some pride and comfort in them. He likes baking and brewing tea. He canonically will ramble about tea if you let him. And if Barbatos didn't want to be a butler, he didn't need to. He could've easily asked told Diavolo that he wanted a different position and Diavolo would've agreed because he only craved the companionship. He has that level of power. I dislike the fact that the Devs seem to take away this sense of power and autonomy from the characters in this game just to make their struggles seem more viable.
Another thing that I would like to mention (again) is that the description of his duties has some inconsistency. In IDO, they say that he essentially used to act as Diavolo's second and stand in for him in case of his absence, but Barbatos's duties in previous canon was always tending to Diavolo's personal needs and maintaining his personal regimen. Whenever Diavolo leaves, Barbatos follows. They are rarely ever separated. If anything, Lucifer used to be the person that stood in for Diavolo, acted as his second and took up a portion of his duties. And I don't think this change was unintentional.
I believe the devs were trying to distance Lucifer and Barbatos's characters from Diavolo for the sake of making them more appealing as love interests. It is no secret that both of these characters pledge incredible trust in Diavolo, are loyal to him and share a deep relationship with him. However, it is also a long standing subject of conflict that they seem to "choose Diavolo" over the players at times. This applies for Diavolo too, but they haven't butchered his character to my knowledge. I personally think that characters are allowed to have relationships outside of their romantic interest, because that is how healthy relationships function, but considering the decisions they made this seems like a very petty sense of isolating the fantastic three from each other so that they will only have "eyes for the MC."
This becomes worse if you think about the fact that Diavolo is both undateable now (meaning he has no MC) and two of his most trusted and only friends have left him. I love Satan, but he doesn't share the same relationship with Diavolo as Lucifer and Barbatos do. It'll take a long time for them to become true friends (if they do, Satan seems to view him predominantly as his superior in a way Lucifer did not).
Mammon (brief Leviathan mention)
This section will mostly be focused on Mammon, but I will say that I've played neither of these two routes and all my knowledge comes from screenshots and fan thoughts so feel free to correct me on something.
First of all, I don't even need to know much to talk about this, but I'm done with the game's treatment of Mammon. I thought that after all this time, their graduation, some timeskip and character development (that they explicitly address because they say that the brothers have grown a lot in some route in reference to Beel being able to control his gluttony), the game would finally take Mammon seriously as a character and give him better treatment and characterization. I was looking forward to it even despite not expecting much.
But I'm thoroughly disappointed that these idiots are about to get married and still act like children in the treatment of their brother, it's absolutely embarrassing at this point and I don't even blame the brothers because it's the DEVS that I'm sure want to treat Mammon this way. He's been targeted from day 1 for absolutely no reason. I want his character to be more than just being bullied and I'm losing hope that canon will take it seriously at this point. This especially frustrates me because Mammon has many other canon personality traits that they could explore but choose not to.
To add insult to injury, they yet again compare Mammon to Lucifer with the insecurity arc in this route and honestly, if they had really gone through development, Lucifer and Mammon's relationship should be secure enough that Mammon wouldn't feel such a way, but alas. I absolutely hate when games do this thing where a character is constantly worried about you favouring another in game character when you've already chosen them. And to be clear, I'm not against exploring deep seated insecurity or envy. I'm against using it as a cheap plot point to create conflict and elevate a certain character's interpretation (in this case Lucifer). Mammon is not Lucifer, Lucifer is not Mammon, anyone who chooses one will know that they are not the other. And yet. I haven't seen much of Levi's route but apparently he also mentions this at least once and I'm SO DONE. Lucifer is not this all powerful flawless perfect untouchable character, he's arguably one of the most pathetic of the cast because of the way he acts. I want the devs to stop favouring him especially when it comes to his brothers feeling inferior about themselves, so he and the MC can come along like saviours and comfort them. I'd word this in a better way but I'm just DONE. Please stop. That's all I can say.
Final note : Some parts of this, especially the last parts, were rushed because I wanted to stop talking about it and it's been in my drafts for days. I stopped playing IDO because it didn't give me much enjoyment.
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