I think Invisigal had a lot of potential as a character and so did Blonde Blazer but both got theit entire personalities and motivations steamrolled by the writers deciding to make half the game Twilight For Dudes™️
Visi as a morally grey person who fucks up and hurts Robert IS interesting and could have made for a really good, nuanced female character who could be explored through both the lense of good and bad depending on the player's choices. The problem is whenever the game had a chance to truly develop and expand on her character they also used it to show off their own invisiboner for her and would use that as a stand-in for legitimate character motivation. It's why her first interaction in the conference room feels so strange, she just immediately starts gushing over Robert over basically nothing and then just continues to push and push. Instead of giving an explanation in episode 8 for her grabbing the pulse she just goes "trust me bro i did it for the right reasons" as if that's at all a convincing statement regardless of the person saying it. In episode 5 at the bar if you reject her after a date she just tells you that you can't and insists you are dating, if you dance with blazer at the party in episode 6 they pan to a shot of her with the big sad puppy eyes. They continue to fuck over her character by just ignoring real rules of character writing in favor of trying to convince the audience they should want to fuck her. It's a disservice to fans who didnt want to romance her and have to put up with the guilt tripping throughout the game, AND to fans who did want to romance her and actually develop a proper and nuanced relationship with a character.
On the opposite, Blazer as a character gets almost zero focus and gets sidelined consistently. People call her boring because even when you romance her you barely get to know a thing about her. We know she's the branch manager at the Torrance location of SDN, that her and phenomeman dated and broke up, there are lines that allude to alcohol issues and a backstory we never get to see, and the most intrigueing information we get about her is never expanded upon. She has a whole ass amulet that is the source of her powers, but not once is there a cutscene where she gets to expand on it or talk about it. We learn she's a normie like Robert and is insecure about being powerless but the reveal falls flat when it gets revealed on a FIRST DATE with no build up to a deeper connection, especially after finding out via the episode 8 dialogue that Robert is the only other person who knows (in the case that you go on a date with her in episode 3). Furthermore, the lack of expansion on her character and backstory makes her insecurity fall flat! Without context, when she reveals herself and the only major changes are a slight height difference anf a new hair color it just comes across as the basis for a 'not like other girls' joke! If there were notable physical changes like weight changes (either showing she's heavier and the amulet gives her a more "ideal" physique, or that she's not muscular and strong at all and is scrawny without the amulet showing she feels like a "liar") or her not revealing it on that first date and waiting till later after some sort of conversation with Robert about her own backstory and insecurities, then it would feel more genuine.
The game ends up fucking over both characters by never letting them have stronger motivations than "I want to fuck Robert Robertson" and gives Robert no actual motivation to want either of these people romantically. It's why fanfiction and fan content about these characters is so wildly different from fic to fic, because there's a very interesting shape hidden under a pretty blanket that we're told is a full character, but in reality there's nothing substantial to the scaffolding underneath. It happens for really all the characters in the game, which sucks for a game with such an interesting ensemble cast!
The entire time you play the game you have hint after hint to these character's backstories and personalities and lives. You know theyre ex-criminals, you know their rap sheet, you know their skillset, you know they're trying to become better.
But the game never expands on WHY anyone did these crimes! Invisigal gets somewhat of a reason through her reveal of asthma and working with shroud bringing her to the pheonix program after hurting robert, but we never get a reason for why she really started crime in the first place anyway. Not even a throwaway line of "after i aged out of foster care" or "after my parents died" or some shit!
Flambae gets a whole cutscene showing his fight burning down the mall as rubble falls all around, and we know he can't burn his own body, but we never find out why he was lighting those fires! Was it insurance fraud? Was it a mental health crisis? Was it someone in his life who wanted him to do it for them? Was it an attempt for suicide via cop or to get crushed by the building? We never find out, and it sucks!
Golem is a mud construct built by a sorcerer and named after a piece of Jewish folklore, Prism is a pop star from Michigan and we know she doesn't have a dad, Sonar went to Harvard and is a cokehead, Malevola is a literal demon with an australian accent and we dont know why she's in LA, Coupe was a contract killer for however long and left, Punch Up was a circus strongman but we never know why, Waterboy lives with his grandma and a bunch of cats and has an insanely inconvenient power, Phen (im not gonna even try to spell his full name) is a literal alien who became the posterboy for SDN, Royd is a huge hunk with insane mechanic skills who moved from Hawaii to the mainland, and Robert is a fucking legacy hero on a revenge quest with passive suicidal ideation.
All of these characters have so much potential and great banter and are so fun to watch, but they never get expanded upon regardless of the goddamn screentime! It sucks SO much because fans want to learn about and have fun with these characters, but they just get sidelined for what? A completely unneccesary sex scene for one romance option?
I love Dispatch, don't get me wrong, it's one of my favorite games. But good god it fucks up so hard for no good reason and it sucks to watch them fumble the bag.
Ugh anyway, TL;DR Dispatch had a lot of great potential but fucks over its own writing by focusing too hard on their boner for Invisigal which makes it hard to enjoy what could have been a really interesting character, as well as the rest of its ensemble cast
