Long overdue review of Lostbelt 2.
Putting under the cut in case its too long and in case some mutuals are still behind.
I finished this a while ago actually lol. Anyways, When we first arrived in Scandinavia, I was unimpressed with another snowy place, like they really chose Jötunheimr for the location amongst the entire Norse mythology worlds but it explains it all in the end.
I have to admit after Lostbelt 1, this Lostbelt felt...lackluster. I feel like I enjoyed almost all of the characters--Napolean was really great. He came in with a strong introduction and continued to carry us throughout the Lostbelt, at times when he was withholding information I thought maybe he was suspicious but he wasn’t. He was a man who had regrets, and love and despite the harshness and almost hopelessness of the entire situation he kept going with a smile and I loved it.
I mentioned before that I love Ophelia. Coming to know her was great, her story chapter and her relationships with Mash and Napoleon were both touching and funny. I was also glad to see it wasn’t focused entirely on Guda.
I feel like Brynhildr introduction and the lore dump was good, the mystery revolving around Sigurd and Surtr’s integration. I loved the cast of Lostbelt 2, but the story took a dive in the wrong direction.
I know the entire point of the Lostbelt was stagnation, but having the plot go that way was a poor choice in motivation in my opinion. Skadi’s own unwillingness to act made the entire chapter feel like I was reading the same 10 pages over and over again. The fact they tried to make her an all-good Queen was...okay? I guess, it just felt that it lacked wisdom in my opinion. It was an interesting concept to explore about the all-loving-Queen and a world without war and hatred, only for them to turn around and try and say she wanted better but just couldn’t do so because of Surtr, just to justify the stripping of humanity, and making kids breed before 15 and killing at 25 was in poor taste. It felt like a poor ploy to try and sympathize with her.
I don’t know, it just felt like if someone told me ‘oh Zouken used the worms on Sakura because he wanted to eradicate all evil so he was good actually’ like that doesn’t excuse the crap he did to Sakura, in the same way, I don’t care that Skadi wanted better for humans when she was the cause of it all, killing what made them human to begin with. The fight for their survival here felt weak too.
I wished it had explored more on Gerda and her hopes and dreams in the aspiration from Napoleon. It felt like it was heading that direction but they wanted to beat around the bush.
Sitonai’s and Dante’s guest appearances made me happy but then they barely played a role at all so it felt a bit useless.
There was also something, I don’t know if it was just me or what, but the pacing of story segments after and before battles felt...off? Many times after I read a segment, I felt like I was missing something or that I skipped something entirely.
And when Ophelia died, it made me incredibly sad, but then Mash was on the field again and no one talked of Ophelia, and just...what even happened to her body after that??? Did we bury her, or did it disintegrate because of the Sirius Light? It never explained.
I don’t know, each character arc in this was great but piecing it altogether felt like a hot mess which kind of sucks to me because I really liked the cast. I loved Ophelia, Bryn and Sigurd, hell Napoleon was great too.
Oh! The part of putting Holmes on the bus, when he fought alongside us against Not Sigurd was great. The little tidbit of information of Helena, and him being sad, I really loved it. Like I want Holmes with us on the field! I don’t want him to be just another Romani.
I don’t know, if there’s any mutuals here that did love it, I would be happy to hear about your opinions! For me, this is just in the less than favorable opinion. Lostbelt 1 really went all out for me and maybe that just rose my expectation too high.
