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Frogger on 31 December 2016
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Super_Boom said:
spemanig said:

The party members are something I honestly hated about Apocalypse. It just feels so un-SMT to me to have party members who are characterized like that.

This is going to sound weird, but the cast being "boring" in SMT4 is one of my favorite things about it because it normalizes them. It's the only JRPG I've ever played with characters who didn't feel like walking gimmicks. At least not until the end of the game. It's why I want to play Noctorne and Strange Journey and why I like Kaneko. His art seems to bring out that "'bland" characterization I like so much that counter acts all of the hyper personalities JRPGs and anime tend to have.

I'm only ~20 hours in, so maybe it gets worse, but so far I already like the cast more than anyone in IV. 

To your point though, that is fair, since tropes are a problem with a lot of these games. My problem is more the opposite though. If the cast is boring, I don't really have a reason to root for them. 

I've had this conversation over movies, anime, manga etc, over whether the characters or plot should drive a story...and I'm definitely on the character side. I can understand if others don't feel the same...but if a story's characters don't interest me...the whole experience will fall flat. That was my big issue with IV...I felt I was constantly watching these tragic scenes that I felt like I was supposed to care about...but just didn't. If the cast was more fleshed out, it would have gone a long way, and I think it would have helped me actually feel the impact the game was trying to convey.

Don't get me wrong though...it's still a solid game, and I highly recommend it. It's just when it comes to characters alone, I didn't find it to be a very stong title.

Yeah, I totally get your criticisms though. I still felt like they were extremely 1 dimentional, but that didn't bother me because I felt like they were so likable.

My problem with Apocalypse isn't that I don't like them - I do. I just feel like they don't belong in a main SMT game.

Which tragic scenes, though? I feel like the only ones that were in that game revolved around situations wrather than party members, at least until the end, but I don't think you're supposed to feel bad for anyone except maybe Isabeau, depending on the ending.