u/DDTheExilado

The Remaid of Dreams patch added a while back this version of The Revenants' Dream, where as far as I am aware doesn't change the original text (or if it does, not in any significant way, but feel free to correct me). And it adds sprites, backgrounds and CGs to the short story, which was in NVL mode originally. It's basically TRD but in Fragment's format.

Since AFAIK no one recorded this version of TRD I thought I'd do it myself, and here it is for anyone who wants to check it out.

Door 3, Jacopo is daydreaming and thinks the Maid is the White-Haired Girl

Door 6, Jacopo talking to the Maid about the White-Haired Girl

Door 6, Jacopo talking to the Maid about the White-Haired Girl

I'm rereading the base game with my best friend and we have different opinions on whether these screenshots foreshadow Jacopo's tie to Morgana. I feel like it's pretty obvious that he has a sort of "gut feeling" in his soul regarding the White-Haired Girl and how she reminds him of Morgana. What do you think? I can link the videos time stamped here as well, if you need more context:

Door 3
Door 6

Do you think I'm wrong like my friend and you have a different interpretation, or?

I often see people saying the first couple Doors are boring or that they're not nearly as good as when the game becomes about Michel and Giselle. While I agree that Door 5 onwards is when the game becomes GOATED, I found myself really enjoying the previous Doors, I thought they were great. After I finished Door 1 I was immediately invested to see where the story was gonna go, and Door 5+ made me emotionally attached to the game.

Door 1 was honestly a big surprise for me, imo Mell is a character with so much going on yet many people seem to overlook it. On the surface, he’s probably the easiest character to relate to in this story, he’s kind but not overly so, grounded and kind of awkward. He doesn’t have malice or any *obvious* major flaws that can directly hurt people, at least not in a way like certain other characters in this story do.

Mell is the epitome of letting things go on for way too long. From childhood, he lets Nellie see him as her “prince”, the one who can do no wrong, who’ll always be there for her. The only one she really has. He doesn’t do anything, and that’s the issue. Mell just let Nellie grow up, isolated, without any other meaningful bond other than him, her world revolved around him. He could have helped her grow into a more well-rounded, autonomous person, help her make friends, but he didn’t. Her attention for him felt too good to let go, even if it would only partially go away, she could still give him attention even with other people in her life.

He genuinely cares about people and his kindness towards them isn’t dishonest, he’s not someone who deliberately tries to take advantage of other people emotionally, but as much as he may try to deny it, he feeds on the approval he gets from them. He didn’t dote on Nellie purely because he wanted her to love him, compliment him, etc., he genuinely cares about her, but in a way, he needs that love to survive. Just like the beggars he helps, or the White-Haired Girl, Mell wants to help them and to make them feel seen and understood, but at a price even if Mell himself doesn’t realize it. He is unable to focus his affection on more than one person at a time, rather, when the love of the person he is focused on is compromised, he can’t help but fall into despair.

The White-Haired Girl enters his life, and she steals all the attention he usually gives to Nellie, accidentally. It doesn’t mean that Mell ever stopped caring about Nellie, but the effort he must put to “fix” Nellie at this point is too great, he was more than happy to keep the status quo going before the White-Haired Girl showed up. That is, Mell didn’t really try to make a difference in Nellie’s life, his support was always superficial. Then he found someone else to give his attention to, breaking his own status quo. A beautiful girl his age to whom he can offer his love to and be reciprocated, a girl who can give him more satisfaction than anyone else can, even more than Nellie, who has the barrier of being his sister since that’s a very different kind of relationship and less intimate.

Mell goes to great lengths to make the White-Haired Girl feel comfortable, even putting aside her attempted murder and trying to understand the circumstances that led to that. Then Nellie needs him and he doesn’t have a reason to put up with her anymore, why care if he has the White-Haired Girl now, whose affection feels so much better and who is much easier to handle and lower maintenance compared to Nellie? Mell is so lost in his world with the White-Haired Girl that he can’t bring himself to empathize with Nellie’s situation, so to him she ends up being a nuisance in his new growing relationship instead of someone he should help, as seen in the theater scene. Suddenly Nellie requires support that isn’t gratifying for Mell, and requires actual effort from Mell’s part, but Mell doesn’t have the emotional capacity to deliver that at the time, so he snaps at her and Nellie is out of options to get out of her situation, or simply emotional support.

Finally, everything crumbles down. The iconic scene of Nellie in Mell’s room with the wig happens, which is the catharsis to Mell looking away from Nellie’s problems all this time. He left her go unchecked and in practice his attention didn’t really help her, it was just him continuing to offer surface-level support without really reflecting on his actions. And, at the end, Mell’s ultimate test. All he cared about was getting the White-Haired Girl back after his relationship with Nellie was ruined, and when a “beggar” appears and they need help, he doesn’t care. It’s different from Mell simply not being in the right headspace to help someone like that because he’s worried about something else. Mell insulted the “beggar” and showed his ugly side, showing his hidden prejudice even though he did help beggars in the past. He’ll do the right thing and help someone in need, but when he’s so focused on someone he can’t care about anything else and all the buried, repressed thoughts about them come to the surface. Turns out the beggar was the White-Haired Girl, proving how fleeting his attention can be, once again, no matter how honest it is.

Mell’s core issue is how non-committal his good actions are. He is kind and understanding but ultimately avoids conflict and doesn’t reflect on the consequences of his actions, despite them being good on the surface. He doesn’t want to let go of his “prince” image and doesn’t want to reveal how cowardly he truly is, nor his hidden prejudices, even if he knows they’re wrong and doesn’t wish harm on anyone. He is unable to properly distribute his love to people, anyone who’s not his current focus shall become background noise who he can’t give his full attention to anymore. By enabling Nellie’s dependence on him, Mell indirectly forces that view on her as well, Nellie doesn’t know how to care for people other than her brother, so all her love goes to him because that’s all she has known, she doesn’t have anyone else she can confide in. All those things crumble down when their affection is not mutual and Mell’s attention goes to the White-Haired Girl, which backfires on Mell at the end.

As much as I love >!Michel, Morgana, Giselle and Jacopo!<, I do feel like the other characters in Fata Morgana are overlooked, Mell is my 6th favorite character in the entire story and I think he is pretty amazing, he deserves more love.

I really like Deltarune and I hope I don't have to explain that in detail to you just because I'm going to criticize it, I just wanted to make this post to make a point about chapter 5 and the game's structure and tone as a whole.

Look, I think Deltarune is a very fun game and the silliness and wacky stuff are an integral part of the experience, but I also think it's disappointing how obsessed the game is with that. Those things worked best in the first 2 or 3 chapters since there's still a lot of novelty and you don't feel the urge to get to the "meat" of things yet. I think the game does a decent job of escalating things and changing the tone up to Chapter 4, even though I still wish there was more explicit focus on the more serious side of the story.

Then Chapter 5 came and thematically it's very much a story about letting go of the "good old days" and going through a last fun adventure. The thing is, Chapter 3 is exactly this. A last fun adventure. It's still important in its own way, it's much shorter than Chapter 5 and it ends with a huge tone shift with the Knight's appearance, and Chapter 4 follows that, having a mixed tone of not being completely serious but also not really silly, until towards the end anyways. So... Chapter 5 just repeats the theme, throws away the momentum and tone built up by the previous Chapters, it's one of the longest Chapters, people complain and fans shield themselves from criticism by saying people only care about the lore, answers, plot and blablabla... Please have some nuance...

For the record I enjoy Chapter 5, simply because it's another wacky adventure it doesn't mean it's bad, it's just disappointing to me and pretty repetitive. Toby Fox has his own vision and I get that, but I wish the game had a more balanced focus and tone. He has stated Chapter 6 will be pretty short even though it'll be finally be something more serious, so this means we'll only get Deltarune possibly at its best and most impactful in a very backloaded way, in a short Chapter 6 and who knows how long Chapter 7 will be. Obviously Deltarune has its own fair share of seriousness, especially hidden between the lines, it just makes me sad because I wish a bigger chunk of the game had Deltarune firing on all cylinders.

TLDR: Wacky and silly adventures can only carry the game for so long imo, and we should have left that after Chapter 3. Chapter 5 criticism is way more than just lack of answers and it being "filler". I wish Deltarune had different priorities and gave more screentime to its meaty stuff instead of backloading it so much.

For the record, this is not a propaganda post for Van x Agnès, although I think it is possible that Falcom will go that way with their story. I wrote this for my Discord server and thought "Eh, why not post it in the sub Reddit as well?"

Trails always has been, to some extent, about choosing your own path, the kind of life you choose for yourself (or not), and how that shapes your relationship with others. Calvard takes this in a new direction through two key concepts: The morally gray side of things and the idea of time. That second element is what I want to primarily explore here.

Obviously, in this game we learn about Laegjarn's Chest, the Sept-Terrion of Time, so it's less subtle than ever that time itself is something relevant not only to the plot, but it's also central to what the game is trying to say. Firstly, Van represents both sides of these ideas. He’s in constant tension between his past and his current life, his trauma, resentment and regrets; and the current life he built for himself, not shying away from what he chose and not pushing people away anymore, may it be old or new loved ones.

With Elaine, Van is tied to the past and his history with her. Even though they still deeply care for each other, even romantically, they are rooted in their history together, a version of themselves and of their relationship that no longer exists. Every time both have an introspective moment together, they reminisce on their good old days which often lead to remembering the tragedy that befell those same days. As a result, they seem incapable of building something that can exist independently of that past, instead of moving forward they let their shared history and the pain within it define their present, ultimately stagnating it.

On the other hand, Agnès represents something closer to the present, or even the future. She is directly tied to the life Van currently leads, one where, despite everything, he has managed to find some stability and fulfillment, now guiding those who lost their way, or who never knew what that means in the first place, as we see with Jorda and Ixs. Or in the ASO’s case, helping them shape their path forward for themselves, free from what was imposed on them and instead defining themselves on their own terms.

There is no shared history to weigh down Van and Agnès’ connection, no lingering resentment shaping it either, she was what set Van’s growth in motion. In that sense, Agnès and the ASO were a new dawn of sorts for Van.

However, Van seems to be waiting for the “right moment” to decide what to do about his relationship with Elaine, waiting for some kind of resolution regarding Vagrants Diaspora so he can properly move on. But that time might never come, much like Diaspora, the past is something that cannot be erased or completely resolved, but instead something that must be carried within.

So, Van’s arc in this game is not about his growth, but instead about his stagnation and hesitation to act, it’s no longer a focus on his internal issues, now it is about how he should confront them, externally. Despite finally finding a place of fulfillment and being comfortable enough with his own history, Van is unable to achieve closure, always waiting for the “right moment” to act, as seen with everything regarding Elaine.

This is contrasted with Agnès’ actions throughout the game, at the end of Van 3 she completely blindsides Van by confessing her feelings to him, demonstrating that she is willing to confront and resolve her issues, she can tie her loose ends instead of endlessly putting them off. All of this ultimately culminates at the end of the game, Van literally runs out of time to accomplish the closure he so desperately wanted to seize, when the reset happens. There was never that so called “right moment”, time slipped away before he could have that opportunity.

Beyond Elaine and Agnès, there’s also René. After such a long time away from both Elaine and René, Van eventually tried to rebuild those connections, trying to bring back what they shared. However, Van fails to realize something important, time doesn’t stop for anyone, it’s always moving. Everyone changes, everyone has their own conflicts. René didn’t stay frozen in time from their high school days until when they reconnected, he went on with his life and shaped his own path with his own ideals.

“What do either of you truly know about me?”

“Behold the third armored beast, supplanter of Zolga and bringer of dawn.”

Van and Elaine, both stuck to their past with him, they could only perceive René as that same person they knew, failing to consider that things don’t always remain constant across time.

Let me know what you think, or prove me wrong I guess!