#interea vn

[fullpurpart]

Scene from Echo Project's Interea with a slightly different perspective.

I just think he's neat. :v

[mangopossum]

Almost nobody ever seems to talk about the Monitor from the Adastra VNs, which is such a damn shame. Cause while he may be Mysterious and Intimidating in Adastra and presents himself as such in front of Marco, the amount of SASS he throws at the parents in the beginning of Interea! The sheer disapproval he has for them! Delicious

Can you imagine, the angels openly Mocking Spongebob Dot Jpegging God and getting away with it? Funniest dynamic ever. If he were in a Mundane AU he'd be a 90s Mean Girl. He and Sam would've been such toxic besties (ough, they did what they had to but RIP Smoke Room 😔)

[remirusfox]

I haven't even touched Interea but I just know there's no fanart of Magis, ADASTRA FANDOM PLEASE I BEGGING YALL PLS DRAW HIM MORE. MY HUSBAND DESERVES IT. His age gives him such a wise and soft look. Hmmmm old men...😋 KAYWBWJAISMSKIEJE I WANT HIM GRRRRR ARF ARF ARF

[h-worksrambles]

You know, once all of them are complete, (which will likely take god knows how many years), I’d be curious to see some kind of poll to judge which Echo Project protagonist most fans like the most.

Whether it’s Chase’s grapples with his psyche, Marco’s struggle for agency in a strange new place, Samuel slowly learning to trust again, Cameron confronting his inner demons, Scipio navigating both interplanetary relations and his own past, Alex taking a once in a lifetime shot and finding his self worth, or Danny beginning to reach out to other people after so long, I find all of them pretty compelling in one way or another.

These VNs have consistently impressed me with how they buck the trend of blank slate VN protagonist and strive to give their point of view characters plenty of development. And considering some of them have had a little more than an alpha build’s worth of screentime, that makes their strong first impressions even more impressive. But I do wonder which one people tend to consider their favourite. Though in a lot of their stories it’s far too soon to make a fair judgment at present. Still, it’s an aspect of their works that has consistently impressed me which I’d like to see discussed more.

[h-worksrambles]

A certain 3h video essay made me sit down and read Adastra in like a day and I loved it of course! (This is therefore long and rambly haha). One of the characters that really intrigued me from the start was Alex. While I understand and 100% agree that he's a selfish calculating little shit to put lightly and his cowardice is disgusting, the way the fandom treats any discourse about him seems way too harsh and dismissive for me.

Isn't Marco in a similar boat by the end? He's on a mission, desperately trying to convince himself it's the right thing and that he's not just being used, while the "choice" given to him is not even a choice. We've surely seen that the parents don't give a single shit what happens to any living creature, what horrific spectacles occur, as long as the thing they want happens, cause it's all totally "pre-destined"; all threats and fearmongering coming almost overtly from the parents.

I find it a little similar to the way Alex speaks of certain things in particular to justifying his people trying to isolate the wolves and his actions on Adastra. It's like he's reading a script he learned from memory and I think it's even noted by Marco somewhere near the beginning of the story. I think they're way more similar in how both of their broader situations are sort of decided for them, even if we don't really delve deep into Alex's story or motivations to say for sure. Still, I find the similarities interesting, Marco would never step down to Alex's level per say, but what if he was pushed down?

Of course, it doesn't help that Alex almost immediately falls back to his old ways (planning to steal the ship to leave Adastra) and showing no acknowledgement of seeing Marco again after being basically dead is ice cold (I really think they could've been good friends in different circumstances), but boy does he have a lot right about wolf society and their treatment of others. Amicus is not at fault for what he was born into, but even he has to admit change will be slow. Alex and Marco agree on a whole lot more that Marco and Amicus butt heads on, which I think is an interesting way to have the two couples mirror each other, so it'd be only fair to explore their relationship next.

I really can't help but wonder how much of Cassius' feelings are based on something unknown to us, not just the few tender scenes Marco saw, and how much it's him trying to brush off Alex's actions and spinelessness to avoid being hurt. Even if it's the latter, the quality of Alex's writing to render such feelings is insane. But also them still choosing each other with all the shit they both got into is sweet? Alex is really the perfect poor little meow meow.

Oh sweet! Welcome to the fandom! I do wonder how many newcomers got into this game through that video essay? It certainly pulled me back in.

I think it’s partly a consequence that Adastra is a game that’s very good at playing to people’s feelings and giving them a very emotional response. People are invested in this story. They utterly fell in love with Amicus. And they cried buckets over the ending. And so I think it’s very easy to take a similar response to all the characters, especially the antagonists. As I’ve said Alexios’ betrayal seems to hit very close to home for a lot of people. And, it’s funny that you mentioned Keith Ballard’s essay because I think he made another very good point as to why this gets people when he was examining Adastra through a queer theory lens.

Thing is, there’s a good chance you know someone like Alexios. Maybe they’re not a spy who tears down a government resulting in dozens of deaths in riots. But you may know someone who plays up a sweet facade, puts on a different face to everyone around them and always plays the victim when they’re called out. Alex’s breed of toxic friendship hits a very familiar sweet spot, especially for queer audiences, that prompts an aggressive negative reaction from players. And he’s absolutely supposed to. Which I think is where ghat immediate dismissal comes from.

That being said, I still find him really interesting, and like you, I really like that this character is the one who makes a lot of very accurate criticisms of how awful the wolves’ society is. I definitely also get the feeling that Alex is parroting the Omorfan ‘party line’ so to do speak. It’s how he convinces himself that the consequences of his actions don’t affect him and aren’t his problem. His hands may not be quite as tied as Cassius wants to believe, but he also doesn’t entirely have full freedom of choice either. It’s complicated. And yes, I really enjoy that he voices the same criticisms that Marco and Neferu are also thinking. It makes the parallels between him and Marco kind of fascinating. Your point by the end that Marco’s servitude to the Parents puts him in a very similar situation is a really intriguing point that I haven’t considered before.

As for him and Cass, I definitely think there’s a lot more to their relationship than we actually see. Do I think their bond is healthy? No. Do I ship it anyway? Yes. A major theme in Adastra is that everyone is putting on a facade. Everyone is playing the political game and they all have something to hide and that theme of hiding identity also plays into the queer subtext. The reason Marco and Amicus’ relationship hits so hard is because it’s a rare moment of sincerity. In a setting filled with masks and deception, they’re each the one person the other can be themselves with. But even if we don’t see it as much, I do think that applies to Cass and Alex too. It’s a lot less healthy because they’re both deeply screwed up people. But that doesn’t mean it’s not sincere and I find that really compelling.

So yeah, Alexios is a despicable character, but I think it’s worth briefly putting that immediate emotional reaction aside and digging a little deeper because he’s honestly a really intriguing and well written character. Thank you for your ask. And I’m glad you loved the game too!

I do want to come back to your point about the Parents. But I don’t know if you’re following the ongoing updates of Interea so I’ll hide them in a ‘read more’ to avoid spoilers.

Thing is, Interea has already started to dig into the ramifications of Alex’s actions and to into Omorfa as a whole. He’s still immediately trying to send info back to his superiors back there, suggesting further that he’s learned nothing. And Amicus and especially Virginia are both pretty strongly in favour of having him killed for what he’s done. But what makes this especially interesting is that Omorfa is apparently making steps to isolate themselves from the Parents. And there’s movements on Adastra pushing for the same thing. I have pretty much all the same thoughts about the Parents you do. So once again, we have a character who does deplorable things the cause real harm, but who’s justifications are all things with an uncomfortable grain of truth. As someone who thinks the Parents are giving every sus vibe imaginable (I’ve played enough JRPGs to know a self-involved manipulative god figure when I see one), then I’m curious to see what role Omorfa’s distance from the Parents will play in the story and where that leaves Alex in the middle of it. Again, his role is really fascinating to me.

[quilt-cove]

That feeling of emptiness when you're waiting for 3 WHOLE VNS TO UPDATE AND YOU'RE IN DIRE NEED OF KNOWING WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENS NEXT