#coa route

[azuries]

can anyone hear me

[thlldaconfessions]

what Takumi did to Eito in COA was thoughtless and morally wrong.

BUUUUT!!

COA Takumi had zero idea how the DRCT process worked, like most Takumis post R0.If you are angry at Takumi for being so lax on the brainwashing, why isn't anyone giving the SDU extra shit for it? After all they were there for Eva's brainwashing, and when Takumi asked about it, they seemed perfectly OK with it.

Takumi didn't suggest the brainwashing as somesort of sick attempt to get R0 Eito back, or for some ableist reason like 'him not wanting to deal with Eito's condition', he suggested it as a last resort in order to strengthen the SDU to take out V'ehxness

I feel like people have a tendency to forget that Eito is evil. Takumi had first hand experience of Eito admiting to killing Hiruko, getting Ima and Nozomi killed, and attempting to kill him along with all his other friends. And people also have a tendency to forget Takumi is literally nice, and doesn't want to kill an 'Innocent' person ( Innocent in the largest air quotes possible, just because Eito was stopped from enacting his plan for premeditated murder, doesn't mean he is suddenly Innocent, game/Shion). In his mind, Takumi cannot afford to take any risks with Eito, as this is his final shot for saving his friends

What I am saying is, while Takumi having Eito brainwashed was bad, that doesn't make him a bad person who weaves Machiavellian schemes to try and control Eito.

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[thlldaconfessions]

I want a route where COA Takemaru somehow lands in the COT timeline and teams up with Retsnom Route Darumi (before infection) to take down COT Takumi and his brainwashed harem with the help of Gotoh and Kamyuhnn

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[thlldaconfessions]

While I mostly really enjoyed the Coming of Age route, unironically I think having choices/multiple endings made it worse. I would be able to like and accept the clearly intended true ending of the route (47) more if the game didn't give me perfectly logical other choices and then PUNISH ME for making them. Why can I not save Shion/FB but I HAVE to save Nozomi? Saving Nozomi without sacrificing Shion should have been easy honestly. Could she not have just taken a little (not all) blood from someone else? Or even a little blood from all the remaining SDU members? Killing Game route shows she CAN get by just drinking blood and the fact this option isn't even considered reeks of But Thou Must.

Meanwhile you get to the next choice and she's practically begging you to sacrifice her for the sake of literally everyone else (the same way Shion begged you to sacrifice him for Nozomi, and that was apparently correct!) but get SUCH a cop-out ending for following her wishes. Narratively Nozomi sacrificed herself just so Takumi COULD overpower Eito. And gameplay-wise Takumi absolutely smokes Eito in a one-on-one fight so him dying is SUCH bullshit. It's just to drive home that this is a bad ending instead of giving a more bittersweet ending where everyone else lives but Takumi has to accept that he's lost his waifu. But no, Nozomi is dead and that's bad so you MUST get a bad ending.

If neither of those choices existed I would have been so much happier with this ending tbh. Instead of forcing me to make choices that are perfectly reasonable and then punishing me for them, just don't have choices/endings at all. Have Takumi take the wheel! He loves Nozomi so much he would sacrifice basically anything and anyone for her, fine. Thus we get the cheesy feel-good ending where Shion died to save her but Takumi refuses to let her even consider taking the same choice. But if I the player don't feel half as strongly about Nozomi or her romance with Takumi, and I'm given perfectly reasonable alternative options and then punished for making them, it just makes that good ending feel SO forced and soured.

Also TBH in general the Power of Friendship vibe this route tried to go for was SO unearned. Half your party genuinely didn't trust you and tried to kill you in the end, and you willingly sacrificed the nicest guy who just wanted to be friends with everyone for the sake of your love interest (again, because the narrative forced it! There were other ways to save her and Shion COULD HAVE LIVED), but let's all hold hands and believe in each other! That will surely be enough to beat Eito! Yeah, okay. There's just no time to repair the broken trust & relationship between the two halves of the SDU, so literally winning through the Power of Friendship is so hollow.

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