Duplicity: Beyond the Lies
Aug. 25th, 2012 09:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkRandom rambling is random!
I decided I needed a game to pass the time, and so on a whim I picked Duplicity. I'd played Cafe 0 and didn't enjoy it much, but I played the Duplicity demo and was like, okay, I'll follow the story to see what happens.
...I wasn't a fan.
Roseverte (and sorry, but I can never get the random capitals right) tends to write "dark" stories, if Cafe 0 and Duplicity are any indication. I'm not against "dark" stories as a whole (heck, I'm told I write plenty of dark and depressing stuff), but sometimes I'm leery of them. It's better to write a mediocre, light-hearted story and make people laugh, rather than a medicore "dark" story and make people roll their eyes or stare at their computers confusedly.
There are a lot of similarities between Cafe 0 and Duplicity, I think. Both have the random, mysterious, annoying boy, with the exception that in Duplicity he's datable and not in Cafe 0. Both have the older, "mature" guy and the regular boyfriend. I've never been a fan of romances between a girl and a much older guy, particularly a guy who's been explicitly described as a father figure (so...what, is this spiritual incest?), and the whole clone thing in Duplicity made it...slightly more creepy, if understandable that a guy would clone his dead girlfriend.
I thought Youji was the most interesting boyfriend possibility, but his character wasn't handled well at all. He had moments of "darkness" and mystery that never meshed seamlessly with his moments of kindness, and I still can't say what kind of person he is.
Rei...I just found completely annoying, and I couldn't get over his whole "spectator" schtick. I sort of liked the author/character analogy going on between Kouichi/Youji/Yukina, but then I couldn't get Rei's spectator thing.
The whole clone idea? Yeah, the theme wasn't particularly handled in a novel way. I can accept "genetic memories," but only up to a point before it seems more like "destiny." It worked in Assassin's Creed; it doesn't work here, from the romance angle.
I'm not a fan of the art style, and I'm starting to feel more and more dislike for heavily Japanese-influenced stories (with the honorifics and stuff).
I decided I needed a game to pass the time, and so on a whim I picked Duplicity. I'd played Cafe 0 and didn't enjoy it much, but I played the Duplicity demo and was like, okay, I'll follow the story to see what happens.
...I wasn't a fan.
Roseverte (and sorry, but I can never get the random capitals right) tends to write "dark" stories, if Cafe 0 and Duplicity are any indication. I'm not against "dark" stories as a whole (heck, I'm told I write plenty of dark and depressing stuff), but sometimes I'm leery of them. It's better to write a mediocre, light-hearted story and make people laugh, rather than a medicore "dark" story and make people roll their eyes or stare at their computers confusedly.
There are a lot of similarities between Cafe 0 and Duplicity, I think. Both have the random, mysterious, annoying boy, with the exception that in Duplicity he's datable and not in Cafe 0. Both have the older, "mature" guy and the regular boyfriend. I've never been a fan of romances between a girl and a much older guy, particularly a guy who's been explicitly described as a father figure (so...what, is this spiritual incest?), and the whole clone thing in Duplicity made it...slightly more creepy, if understandable that a guy would clone his dead girlfriend.
I thought Youji was the most interesting boyfriend possibility, but his character wasn't handled well at all. He had moments of "darkness" and mystery that never meshed seamlessly with his moments of kindness, and I still can't say what kind of person he is.
Rei...I just found completely annoying, and I couldn't get over his whole "spectator" schtick. I sort of liked the author/character analogy going on between Kouichi/Youji/Yukina, but then I couldn't get Rei's spectator thing.
The whole clone idea? Yeah, the theme wasn't particularly handled in a novel way. I can accept "genetic memories," but only up to a point before it seems more like "destiny." It worked in Assassin's Creed; it doesn't work here, from the romance angle.
I'm not a fan of the art style, and I'm starting to feel more and more dislike for heavily Japanese-influenced stories (with the honorifics and stuff).
