Alright I finished Lostbelt 7 at long last and it's good, damn good for an ultimately "simple storyline" that is basically about defeating ORT... or Lostbelt ORT that's barely connected to PHH ORT...
Of course I had done some really bad takes in the past when it came to me guessing shit about LB7 when it came out in Japan(Stating what Daybit had in his chest was the Angel Relic rather than U-Olga's heart is a classic that I can never get out of my head...) so now that not only is the critical context finally there but I basically went through all of it, I can actually do the typical critique and praise I do for these Events and/or Storylines(And people should know I'm not biased I shat completely all over Heian-Kyo at NA release and I even tried to give it a fair shake meanwhile I think Shimousa was actually better than people give it credit for at the same time):
- The Deinos, The Ocelemeh and The World of Mictlan
Honestly, I have seen people in Beast's Lair actually state that Mictlan has the most amount of world-building out of all of the Lostbelts(including LB6)... but I'm inclined to state that I would say they are actually both neck and neck.
Mictlan absolutely has one of the better worlds of the Cosmos In The Lostbelt Saga and that's basically nonnegotiable in that you get actual major time tables, ruins of past civilizations, actual major differences and we see the damages of those differences all at once... but Faerie Britain has alot of those same elements, especially in regards to Mash's going back in time and even the bits we get is how radically different Faerie Britain was then... but of course, the stars of the show are the Deinos and they are the most tragic beings in all of the Lostbelts.
Say what you will about the Yaga or the citizens of QSH's Empire or even the Olympians and Faeries, atleast they have shown actual drive, the want to protect their land and some sad semblance if they just had the right hand, things could have been different(I mean again, the Faeries are absolute ass and they was fucked considering they spawned from those who committed the crimes and never learned shit)... but the Deinos... are just too perfect. The game does lay it on a bit too thick even at the beginning(But seeing as how many people I have seen missed plot critical lore or details... I can understand) that the Deinos are ultimately just too perfect but I feel it ultimately highlights the tragedy that they are everything Kirschtaria Wodime wanted in Humanity. They was uplifted by the Divine Filaments instead of Humanity who explicitly chose them because they was connected to The Earth and found out their arrival wiped out the Dinosaurs and uplifted them instead but went further and beyond. They became as strong, if not stronger than Servants, they have supercomputers for brains to the level that can easily rival any Atlas Alchemist, their bio-electricity can be fashioned in literal electromagnetic armor to block attacks and they heal extremely fast if they are hurt, they have telepathy and are empathetic to a fault and they basically can have the Malla just update them on anything new that ever appears... and then you found out that they was ultimately coddled so much by the Malla, despite living for 66 million years, they have absolutely nothing to their name.
They aren't want for conflict, needs or wants... but they also have never faced any level of hardship because the Malla refused to even allow them to take ORT's crash arrival at all or face the issues afterwards(Creating Mictlan and the first artifical Sun which basically crippled it doing so). By not having any real needs or wants, they ultimately never created any kind of culture which with Daybit's and Tezcatlipoca's arrival combined with their vast interest in Chaldea's stories about the Lostbelts, Singularities and PPH only further shows they never even thought of anything but their current situation(thus not even a single spark of creativity or "outside the box" thinking). Hell, they even accepted their own deaths/pruning/extinction as "shit happens" with remarkable grace that only heightens the sheer tragedy of the species. Even their final go at ORT is only done because the DoK/Blue Tezcatlipoca(I am not gonna even remotely type the actual name) literally told them that because there's no tomorrow, just do whatever today and even Tepeu has to bluntly state their refusal to even make the equivalent of a mistake is why he sees PHH as more successful than the Deinos when Mash tries to argue that the Deinos are what Humanity should strive for. It's honestly something you never really see be done that well in most fiction(You either get the typical perfect Elves that no one can ever argue with right... or you get the extremely shitty and stupid Elves that somehow just walk into extinction despite having the same mental faculties as humans) and it's a real breath of fresh air to see that yes, the Deinos could have very well been even more than that... if they was never coddled by the Malla, something even it regrets deeply.
- LB ORT
Alright, I'm gonna give an actual "controversial" take that goes against what I said 2 years back when I agreed with Type-Rey on LB ORT:
They actually did a damn fine job with actually selling the sheer terror and horror of ORT in the cutscenes, in the gameplay and even in the World Map. Like I have seen someone state something in the Discord and it's something that basically got me further wondering if ultimately Type-MOON never really hyped up ORT but if the fans themselves did. Now of course, there is still obvious precedent considering Notes exist and Notes still had the Ultimate Ones basically up and destroy a completely built up Humanity at that but that's still loads different than how it came off to me from the start.
Of course, the real controversial take is if you look at both the Official English Translation and Fantranslation that either states:
A) OE; That LB ORT isn't even remotely the same being as PHH ORT and is literally another being of it's species that became a weaker Ultimate One than PHH ORT even BEFORE we get to it losing it's Heart.
B) FT: LB ORT losing it's Heart is such a massive downgrade that it's basically a completely different lifeform than ORT is ala a subspecies.
So depending on which you wanna take, it can either be a slap in the face we didn't defeat the actual ORT or basically just a taste of how insane it is to even defeat an Ultimate One even as heavily weakened as LB ORT was.
- U-Olga Marie
She's a dork... but nah, I honestly enjoyed what Nasu wanted to do with her in that, shock, gasp, horror, she IS Olga Marie Animusphere somehow been absolutely modified into virtually an Ultimate One-Class being. Like yeah she was never gonna be the final boss(Have no idea what Kool-Aid I drunk there to believe she ever would be) but it's ultimately something to basically the universe basically never give Olga Marie any breaks and away from the funny moments it's just painful that the worst person standing infront of Olga Marie's happiness... is Olga Marie herself regardless if it's U-Olga or just Olga. It's as Daybit stated, she could have truly been the Commander that everyone loved if she ultimately was able to get over her daddy issues, her daddy being the symbol of excellence and Lev's venomous fangs and it's ultimately no different with Kotomine basically playing the same role. I remember before hearing that it's better if she just stayed dead rather than what they are doing now and back then, I disagreed... and I still do now. It would be the easy route to just have Olga Marie get her 2nd chance, squander it again and die for good(Especially as she was tortured in Chaldeas and suffered countless deaths) and say that's good shit but I feel it would ultimately be for the better to be able to give Olga Marie ultimately a happy ending(Especially as LB7 states the reason U-Olga never truly tried to regain her power... was so she can stay around Ritsuka and Mash with them fearing her).
- Daybit & Tezcatlipoca
Alright, this is where I begin to get somewhat critical... but not on Tezcatlipoca but on Daybit... and it's not even that Daybit's bad but I think I may have selected the wrong choices because I feel I didn't really get to truly know Daybit when it came to Daybit vs. Ritsuka face to face. I think Daybit's biggest issue is that unlike most Crypters, Nasu really went all in with Daybit's psychosis and the fact that he's basically a loner who can't talk or chat due to his 5 minutes of memory per day... but it really makes it hard to get to know him which is why it feels like Nasu gave him the most out of the Crypters to basically explain everything else either throw flashbacks or exposition from characters finding the bare minimum from Clock Tower Records or hypothesis that just happened to be correct. The issue with them is that it ultimately leaves him in the shuffle in comparison to Kadoc, Wodime or even Ophelia... normally but I did actually warm up to him in the final confrontation in which we actually get more to Daybit in that he really has a genuine sense of fair play(okay that was there when he gave us the equipment to get through the Underworld), him basically ribbing Tezcatlipoca any chance he gets and even being sore he ultimately lost. I just wish we had more of that when the official From Lostbelt Manga actually shows Daybit is capable of making an ass out of himself for a joke with Wodime in a random aside.
Meanwhile Tezcatlipoca... I'm usually not the type of person who says that a character wins me over on their very first conversation... but he won me over on his very first conversation. I can tell very much that Nasu wanted him to matter more because he got interested in everything about the Aztec God and I can see how. You have a character that is basically what his epithet represents(The Enemy of Both Sides) who values warriors(winners or losers) above all else... but he hates how Ritsuka has only ever won through sheer luck and never had any major injuries or death in the process... but then immediately has to consider that Ritsuka is in his Underworld and thus mean that he sees Ritsuka as a warrior unconsciously despite his conscious decisions. He's capable of tapping into the powers of every other Tezcatlipoca... except White(Quetzalcoatl) simply because he hates her with all his being, his effects of changing into his different forms is utterly different than any other being by basically becoming smoke itself. Even though the game isn't throwing him at you, you can basically understand fully that he's 100% without kissing the player's ass(Even mentioning he would have shot Ritsuka dead if they ever teamed up due to his preference for Daybit's dream) but at the same time ultimately accepting Ritsuka for what they are(Even if again he cannot stand the fact that it's mainly luck).
Cont.