Version 1.4 Story Quest Impressions
TL;DR at the bottom.
I just completed the new story quest centered around Blackbird and just wanted to share my impressions on it. Obviously, there will be spoilers ahead, so just be wary of that.
First off, compared to version 1.3, I think this is a definite improvement. I didn't think version 1.3 was bad (and I wrote my review for it here), but it suffered from some issues with not really establishing the groundwork for the mystery and story they wanted to set up. The groundwork for the emotional moment at the end also wasn't established properly, which ultimately made that moment fall kind of flat for me.
Here in version 1.4, however, I think they did a much better job of establishing that groundwork. They explain why it didn't make sense for the witch-hunt anomaly to have lasted as long as it did, since the nature of that anomaly should have caused it to die out in the modern era. They later answer that by revealing that it was Merula's Esper abilities that kept it around. They could have definitely expanded more on that explanation, but at least it was a satisfactory answer for me.
I think because they were really only focused on one anomaly and "one" Esper's abilities (Merula/Blackbird), it allowed them to be a lot more focused with the overall story and the relationship between the two.
Secondly, obviously the Salem Witch Trials are a very common story element that's been pulled from in various forms of media, so the setting here isn't really unique. But once again, just like the Fogden game, I think they knocked it out of the park atmospherically.
The setting was obviously very dark and heavy, but it didn't feel overly oppressive, which is a problem I've had with other stories that pull from the Salem Witch Trials and similarly dark themes. The story itself was actually quite good, and the plot twist with Blackbird being half of Merula's soul, and the two of them needing to be reunited to nullify the anomaly, was pretty good.
I do wish the story was resolved by more than basically reminding Blackbird/Merula that Hethereau is her home now and that she can overcome the witch-hunting anomaly. It was a pretty straightforward way to handle the resolution, at least, but it did feel a little anticlimactic after everything that happened.
I REALLY enjoyed the psychological aspect of the story, however. Once the trials got started, I was pretty much glued to my screen to see how it would get resolved lol.
Annie's character was really good, and obviously you're led to believe that she might be Merula, only for it to be revealed that she actually saved Merula, who was eventually thrown into the fire. Half of Merula's soul escaped and became Blackbird, while the other half endured hundreds of years of being burned to death.
I wasn't expecting Annie's character to falter so much toward the end, and I think that definitely added to the whole psychological aspect of the story. There were a lot of points where I was questioning what was actually going on, who was telling the truth, and what people's actual motivations were, and I think that worked really well for this particular story.
Lastly, there weren't any cutscenes that were particularly stunning, and obviously there was much less action here, but I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. This story didn't really need a bunch of flashy action scenes to work.
I do think Skia and Fadia were a little underutilized, though, so I hope next time they think a bit more about how the big characters can have a better supporting role in these stories.
Also, the voice acting here was superb, even for the NPCs. This was the first time I just set the story progression to auto and let all the voice lines play out fully. That's probably the biggest compliment I can give the voice acting because normally I'm sitting there clicking through dialogue lol.
Overall, I'm not ready to say the story is at ABSOLUTE CINEMA level quite yet like I would say for some story quests from Wuthering Waves, HSR, Genshin, and other gachas, but I think they're definitely getting better.
Version 1.3 made me feel like they had some good ideas but weren't quite sure how to put all of them together. Version 1.4 feels much more focused and confident in what it wants to do.
So I'm definitely looking forward to seeing where they take the story from here, and hopefully they keep improving until we eventually reach that ABSOLUTE CINEMA level.
TL;DR: I think 1.4 is a pretty significant improvement over 1.3. The story is much more focused, the mystery/psychological elements worked really well, and the voice acting was excellent. The resolution was probably my biggest weakness with it, but overall I'm liking the direction NTE's storytelling is going.