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Message: [QUOTE="LiberoVulpes, post: 376673, member: 204772"] [JUSTIFY][ATTACH type="full" align="right" width="458px" alt="10343233-mary-skelter-finale-playstation-4-front-cover.jpg"]131260[/ATTACH]The time has come, to cover the grand finale to the Mary Skelter series, everyone knows that 3 is the magic number after all. If you are just joining… Weird that you start with the review for Finale, but you do you, I am reviewing the Mary Skelter series in the recommended play order, so, that means Mary Skelter 2, Mary Skelter Nightmares, and Mary Skelter Finale. This game did have some issues while in development, not too big, but worth noting, for instance, its the most censored one in the series due to Sony’s meddling, it also suffered some minor delays to its release, likely due to COVID. Now, if you haven’t played the previous games, Finale got your back, it not only includes full recaps of the previous games, it also includes the prologue novels for both games, so, if you don’t mind some reading, you can easily catch up and enjoy this game regardless. And, keep in mind the novels are completely optional. This game also includes the full gallery and music from all the previous games. Aight, without further ado, let’s get on with it.[/JUSTIFY] [HEADING=2]Story & Setting[/HEADING] [JUSTIFY]What was once the city of Tokyo has caved in, consumed by a living Jail which feeds upon human suffering. Withing the Jail, Marchen and Nightmares reside, the purpose of these creatures, to torture humans in order to satisfy the Jail’s desires. The Blood Team lead the charge against the Jail and its creatures, after enduring much struggle, a crushing betrayal, and saving friends from another timeline, their blood, sweat, and tears, finally culminated on a wish being granted, to escape from the underground. But, when they finally arrived on the surface, things weren’t looking good. Met with the visage of death, more Jails, and worse, a welcome committee consisting of powerful psychopaths, without warning, people are mangled and murdered, Massacre Pink have made their intentions known, too powerful for The Blood Team to fight, things seemed hopeless. Yet, the final miracle occurred, scattering everyone through the world, to give them a fighting chance. Now, in unknown territory, battered, and scattered, the divided members of The Blood Team together with old and new allies, must once more go through the Jails, fight Marchen and Nightmares, and, get a revenge match against Massacre Pink, the future of the world depends on their victory. Things are about to get quite bloody.[/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][MEDIA=youtube]ORQId-qY6mo[/MEDIA][/CENTER] [JUSTIFY]You know the drill, this one also has a prologue novel, although its optional, some characters get their characterization only from it.[/JUSTIFY] [HEADING=2]Presentation[/HEADING] [JUSTIFY]The usual Compile Heart anime style makes a return, with quite animated stills during the VN sections, like characters blinking, moving their mouths, clothes/hair swaying, and, in some instances, having little idle animations with the arms swaying slightly (mostly with the default look for the main girls, and their swimsuit variants). There is quite a lot of use of CGs for special moments, and, since this is the Grand Finale, there are quite a lot of special moments. All the dungeons follow a specific theme, either a sin (seemingly inspired by the Divine Comedy in some aspects), a form of punishment/execution, or a combination of the 2, they look quite cool for the most part, although I quite dislike how bright Salvation Tower is, making it hard on the eyes. The only exception goes to the final dungeon, which follows a different theme of technology fused with flesh. All enemies have 3D models which show up during battle. [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" alt="Presentation.webp"]131261[/ATTACH][/CENTER] [JUSTIFY]For the Marchen, there isn’t much variety, specially if you are coming from the previous games, you will notice quite a lot of reuse, there is also quite a lot of recolors when it comes to stronger variants. The Nightmares follow a similarish theme to the dungeons, some going harder on surreal or dadaist directions, that’s for both their models, there are some which are quite silly (like the Eiserne and Grave tower ones). Massacre Pink follows themes of execution methods, very obvious which is which, and they don’t have anything pink on them (even a character mentions it at one point). A lot of the fanservice was lost in this one, with some Blood Skelter forms being toned down (one character even has a line acknowledging it), the purging CGs being removed with the mini-game (being replaced with still images of the girls in the clothes they wore in that mini-game, which can only be seen in the gallery), and far less “sexy” events. [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" alt="Presentation 2.webp"]131263[/ATTACH][/CENTER] [JUSTIFY]For music, its pretty good overall, the biggest standouts come from the boss fights and dungeon exploration, there is some reuse of music from previous games, but its the ones often used for specific plot moments, like the sad music, or the hype music. Per usual, the English Voice Acting is absolute garbage, so, make sure the 1st thing you do, is to go to options and switch to the original voices. But, some characters like to scream their lines, so, it can become a problem for the ears (especially with Clara’s crew). [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][MEDIA=youtube]e1wPruN04t0[/MEDIA] Favorite track goes to the Devouring Armada Tower theme.[/CENTER] [HEADING=2]Mechanics[/HEADING] [JUSTIFY]There is quite a lot of mechanics, most of which return from previous games. The dungeon has desires, hunger, libido and sleep, you can satisfy them in order to spin the wheel for a bonus which can range from really good to worthless. Hunger by killing enemies, hitting crits, and hitting their weaknesses. Libido by finding items in the dungeon, finding hearts in the dungeon, and by using the lick command. Sleep by not taking nor dealing damage. The rate in which it increases can be boosted by the color of the moon, which changes randomly as you explore. By satisfying the dungeon’s desires, you reduce how much it has noticed you, the higher your notoriety the more dangerous it becomes, but, the better the rewards. But, higher percentages of notoriety bring other problems, like the dungeon spawning the Nightmare (boss) more frequently, and the rate in which insectmares attack. Insectmares are enemies which don’t actually hurt the characters, instead, they are annoyances, when they latch onto a party member, they obfuscate their view, and, they make some actions unavailable, the longer a character has insectmares on her, the more actions become unavailable. In order to remove them, characters need to cover themselves in Marchen blood, either from the blood bag in the inventory, or by making enemies bleed, removing insectmares give characters a small buff. They attach either at the end of someone’s combat turn, or when you are hit with a trap while exploring. Killing enemies gives both items and blood crystals, blood crystals are a special currency used for many things, it can be used to upgrade equipment (up to +20), to get new classes for the characters, to get more skill slots, and for planting blood flowers in the dungeons (blood flowers give you extra equipment and items, equipment obtained this way can go up to +99 if you are lucky). [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" alt="Mechanics.webp"]131265[/ATTACH][/CENTER] [JUSTIFY]When characters level up, they get Combat Points, which they can use to buy or upgrade their skills. Every 5 levels, characters earn job rights, which are used to unlock extra classes, by having a class unlocked, characters can learn and use and its skills (as long as they have skill slots for them), both passive and active, although, skills work better when used by the its respective class. Each class also comes with its own stats, and character art. Characters have 4 classes to unlock (not counting their default, nor DLC classes which are free to unlock). You can also use blood devolution to level down a character, when they level up again, they will get extra Combat Points, and better stat increases. Unless you are playing on FEAR (hard) its not necessary. In this game, you will be controlling multiple parties, each with its own inventory, and its own character line-up, giving you multiple perspectives on the story, and making dungeon exploration more complex. The parties help each other progress through the dungeon, by opening closed doors, and finding keys. Since each party has its own inventory, you need to use the dustbox to send items to the other parties, this is not limited to keys, you can also send consumables, equipment, and other miscellaneous items. Thankfully, when you open a door for another party, the game will give a heads up as to which party got the help. Thankfully, the party switching screen will tell you how much treasure and how many events are left for each party. Eventually, all the parties will have to make it through the dungeon, and, if any of the parties is wiped, is game over. You won’t be able to choose who goes in which party, the story will do that for you, all you get to do team comp wise, is pick which classes they use, and their formation. Formation is simple, on the front they do and receive full physical damage, on the back they do and receive less physical damage (unless they have a special weapon). The order they are in the line-up has no discernible effect. All the blood maidens, have the blood splatter bar, when its full at the start of their turn, they will automatically turn into massacre mode, getting a stat boost, and access to massacre skills which are very strong and very cheap mana wise, and will heal some health and mana when enemies bleed, the duration of massacre mode is random. You get more massacre skills, by increasing the girl’s affection/trust, and watching the affection/trust events. [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" alt="Mechanics 2.webp"]131266[/ATTACH][/CENTER] [JUSTIFY]But, there is a catch, when characters receive damage, or party members are down, they will accumulate corruption, which is shown on how dark the blood splatter bar gets, when there is even a little corruption, there is a chance that when the blood splatter bar is full, the characters will turn blood skelter instead, which enhances theirs stats immensely, with the downside of not being able to control them, and they will attack both allies and enemies, you can use embrace to get them to target a specific character. You can manage the blood splatter bar, by using the lick command, which triggers a recovery or defensive skill, depending on who gets licked. Characters can only get licked, if their blood splatter is at 3 or more, keep in mind that using blood to get rid of insectmares, also increases blood splatter. In order to cure corruption, you have the party leaders, Jack, Clara, and Toh, they are the 6th party member for their respective teams, they take a purely supportive role, and all 3 have the same abilities, by using the Mary Gun to cure character’s corruption, recover someone’s mana slightly, give small buffs, and cure blood skelter, they can also use items or tank a hit from someone else. The catch, is that using the Mary Gun costs blood, the lower the blood, the higher the chance they will be stunned, if they run out of hearts, they will be downed for the remainder of the fight, thankfully they have a reload command which refills some of their blood, the more they level up, the more blood they have available. In chapter 1, before parties consolidate with the leaders, the smaller leaderless parties have special means to cure corruption exclusive to chapter 1. Each character has a special skill for dungeon exploration, and all the dungeons will require heavy use of those skills in order for you to solve puzzles and advance, the only truly useless skill is Charlotte’s which is a glorified tutorial screen. You can complete commissions (quests), to get some extra gold, blood crystals, and gift items to increase trust/affection, its pretty useful in the early and mid game, but by the end, doing them becomes very unnecessary. The traveling merchant, which is pretty much a rare random encounter, often sells really good stuff. Let’s move on to the Nightmares, which are the bosses for the dungeons, they follow special rules, as long as the dungeon cores are alive, Nightmares are immortal, and, they will chase you around the dungeon, you can avoid them solely by putting some distance, if they corner you, you will have to fight and do enough damage for you to run away. But, when the cores are destroyed, you get to fight the Nightmare proper, in a 2 phase fight. All parties will have to find cores, and fight core guardians (mini-bosses). But, the game will allow you to pick which party gets to fight the Nightmare. You can add Jail trials, to handicap yourself while exploring the dungeon, in order to gain some extra rewards. And, you can use the Jail control system, to add items to the roulette that appears when you satisfy a dungeon’s desire. [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" alt="Mechanics 3.webp"]131267[/ATTACH][/CENTER] [JUSTIFY]And that’s pre- NOPE, we ain’t done yet. You see, this game includes 2 short Visual Novels. Mary Skelter: Locked Up In Love, and Mary Skelter: Locked Up In Love ~True End~. The former, its a parody of high school slice of life dating sims, which takes place in an alternate universe in which everyone is a high school student attending Blood High, this is a kinetic novel, and the only decision you get, is to pick which of the girls Jack dates (from the original 10 Blood Maidens), and you can also see some scenes with Otsuu and Little Mermaid dating. Originally, this was a pre-order bonus for Mary Skelter 2, but now, its included within Mary Skelter Finale. The latter, is the epilogue of Mary Skelter Finale, taking place right after the True Ending, this one is another kinetic novel, in which you get to see how some of the NPCs are doing, and, you get to pick which events you want to see, in this one, you also get to pick which of the original 10 Blood Maidens Jack gets to date, and marry, and you get some extra scenes for other characters, for example, with Clara hitting on her boss. There are a few ways to unlock these VNs, 1 is through the DLC management menu, the other is by beating the game. Getting Bad Ending 2, takes you to Mary Skelter: Locked Up In Love, and, getting the True Ending takes you to Mary Skelter: Locked Up In Love ~True End~, once unlocked, you can freely switch between them and the main game. And now, we are done with mechanics, for real this time. The early game is an absolute tutorial hell. [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" alt="Mary Skelter Locked Up In Love.webp"]131268[/ATTACH][/CENTER] [HEADING=2]Final Thoughts[/HEADING] [JUSTIFY]Gameplay wise, this is the best game in the entire series, taking the best from the previous installments. Although some mechanics were nerfed (the Blood Farms specially), and we lost the purging mini-game. Having 3 teams was an interesting decision, it makes you actually use all characters, instead of you just minmaxing a dream team and benching everyone else, it makes encounters more interesting, and can make some sections of the dungeons more difficult, dividing the inventory was interesting as well, was a good way to keep me from snowballing too early, always being starved for blood crystals until chapter 4, even with jail trials on. But, the dustbox thing was annoying, having to remember who has what key, or having to backtrack in order to get a key from it gets old really quick, its even worse that it doesn’t let you filter categories when putting things in the box. It goes on the character driven direction of Mary Skelter 2, with a lot of pretty good character events (although some can feel like retreading the same ground, specially if you have played the previous games), I liked Toh’s interaction with his team the most, Clara was alright and her team gets some of the best character development, Jack’s team has the weakest events, but its decent overall. The story has a very good start, but quickly loses steam as it goes, there are some really cool moments near the end, in which even the traveling merchant gets to do cool things, but the villains make the overall story pretty weak. Massacre Pink members are pretty 1 note (with the exception of Pyre, but she joins your team), Guillotine is proud, Iron Maiden is sadistic, Gallows is manipulative, they get far too little chance to show more than surface level “we evil and kill for fun,” their boss has interesting reasons, but he does his thing way too late to have any chance for his characterization to do much. They get more in the prologue novel, but I am not a big fan of having to consume side material to enjoy a game. This game suffers a lot from having to rely on the prologue novel to actually get the full picture, not just for Massacre Pink, but for Mary and Charlotte as well. Thankfully its short, but, again, not a big fan of having to interact with side material to get something that should have been in-game. The story repeats a lot of beats from Mary Skelter Nightmares, with some moments feeling like literal copies. There are also some twists which are extremely obvious if, 1 you have eyes, and 2 you are paying attention. Overall, big gameplay improvement, weak story, enjoyable characters, but uninteresting villains. As for the VNs, they are very short, taking a little under 2 hours each if you wanna see all the events, its a very good way to end the series, with Jack finally ending up with 1 of the girls, although the series has been pushing Alice as the main girl since the 1st game, thankfully all girls get some really nice scenes, so whichever one you like most, you will be eating good regardless. If you are curious, Cinderella is my favorite, then Sleeping Beauty, then Hameln. No harem end, you disappoint me Jack. And, that’s it for the Mary Skelter games, what a series, it does get a bit repetitive when you play them back to back, but, I did enjoy my time with this excuse to re-visit them, as they are among my personal favorites, truly the best Compile Heart has made, and the fact they were willing to end it in a pretty good note is respectable, instead of just continuing to milk it with a story that makes less sense the longer it goes *cough* Legend of Heroes *cough* If you are only going to play 1 game in the series, then it should be Finale, it has the before story section for you to catch up whenever you wish, and it has the best gameplay in the series. [/JUSTIFY] [CENTER][ATTACH type="full" alt="The End.jpg"]131269[/ATTACH][/CENTER] [/QUOTE]

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