Love Ya, Stupid.
Apr. 12th, 2019 10:26 amWatching a Let's Play of Zanki Zero, I was astounded that it kept getting more and more tailored to my interests. A group of strangers are thrown together and forced to bond by shared adversity! Haruto and Mamoru discuss the nature of love and Haruto concludes, blushing furiously, 'I think... I love everyone here,' in an outright invitation for me to write the character/everyone fic I write in every fandom! Tentacles! Who the hell filled this game with things I love and then gave it gameplay I hate? I'm so frustrated!
I thought at first that Mamoru would be my favourite character, but I think my top three are actually Ryo, Minamo and Haruto. I'm fond of everyone in this cast of traumatised bisexual clones, though (even Zen, who I initially wasn't expecting to care about at all). I ship everyone in a big poly mess, and I feel the game supports me enthusiastically in this.
Ryo sort of reminds me of Prompto from Final Fantasy XV: passionate and friendly and fun, bit of a cowardly streak, enjoys photography, wears his heart on his sleeve, slightly in love with everyone. (If Prompto were in the same situation, he would definitely also be taking imaginary photographs with his inoperable camera.) Both Ryo and Prompto took me by surprise; I wasn't expecting them to be my respective favourite characters in their games, but they're great. Plus Ryo easily has the best hilariously sparkly pin-up CG of the Zanki Zero cast. (NB: the image linked to, although it's not graphic, is not very safe for work. Also, I promise there's a good reason he has a D-pad on his stomach.)
I can't explain my fondness for Haruto. My weakness for bland Spike Chunsoft protagonists strikes again! But characters like Haruto and the various Danganronpa protagonists do have just enough character to distinguish them and make me feel they're not just a blank slate. Haruto's pretty reserved; he cares, but he gets embarrassed if things get too intimate or sincere. He's interested in the world; he wants to understand everything he encounters; he likes to listen to people talking about things they're knowledgeable or passionate about. They're not very flashy traits, but they're enough to make me feel there's a person to get to know there.
In this fucked-up situation - one of the last eight survivors of humanity, short on food, trapped in a cycle of endlessly dying - I think Haruto is happier and more at ease than he ever was in his regular life, and that sort of breaks my heart.
Zanki Zero is flawed, even if you disregard the gameplay. It's very backstory-heavy, but a lot of the backstory bits don't really feel like they have much impact on the plot, making the story feel a bit unfocused. But I really just wanted a bunch of characters suffering and struggling and coming to love each other, and it more than delivered on that. I hope it gets a fandom.
The biggest way this game let me down: I can't believe one of the characters of Zanki Zero is a bondage artist who can manifest tentacles and yet never ties anyone up with his tentacles. This is an outrage.
I thought at first that Mamoru would be my favourite character, but I think my top three are actually Ryo, Minamo and Haruto. I'm fond of everyone in this cast of traumatised bisexual clones, though (even Zen, who I initially wasn't expecting to care about at all). I ship everyone in a big poly mess, and I feel the game supports me enthusiastically in this.
Ryo sort of reminds me of Prompto from Final Fantasy XV: passionate and friendly and fun, bit of a cowardly streak, enjoys photography, wears his heart on his sleeve, slightly in love with everyone. (If Prompto were in the same situation, he would definitely also be taking imaginary photographs with his inoperable camera.) Both Ryo and Prompto took me by surprise; I wasn't expecting them to be my respective favourite characters in their games, but they're great. Plus Ryo easily has the best hilariously sparkly pin-up CG of the Zanki Zero cast. (NB: the image linked to, although it's not graphic, is not very safe for work. Also, I promise there's a good reason he has a D-pad on his stomach.)
I can't explain my fondness for Haruto. My weakness for bland Spike Chunsoft protagonists strikes again! But characters like Haruto and the various Danganronpa protagonists do have just enough character to distinguish them and make me feel they're not just a blank slate. Haruto's pretty reserved; he cares, but he gets embarrassed if things get too intimate or sincere. He's interested in the world; he wants to understand everything he encounters; he likes to listen to people talking about things they're knowledgeable or passionate about. They're not very flashy traits, but they're enough to make me feel there's a person to get to know there.
In this fucked-up situation - one of the last eight survivors of humanity, short on food, trapped in a cycle of endlessly dying - I think Haruto is happier and more at ease than he ever was in his regular life, and that sort of breaks my heart.
Zanki Zero is flawed, even if you disregard the gameplay. It's very backstory-heavy, but a lot of the backstory bits don't really feel like they have much impact on the plot, making the story feel a bit unfocused. But I really just wanted a bunch of characters suffering and struggling and coming to love each other, and it more than delivered on that. I hope it gets a fandom.
The biggest way this game let me down: I can't believe one of the characters of Zanki Zero is a bondage artist who can manifest tentacles and yet never ties anyone up with his tentacles. This is an outrage.
