Innocent Sin wackiness

Day 405

Persona 2: Innocent Sin is a great game, but it's significantly more bizarre than other entries in the series I've played. Case in point is the dubious choice to include Hitler in the game's plot. Granted, he's referred to only as "Fuhrer," but the Nazi imagery (including Nazi robots apparently?) is pretty blatant. In the world of Innocent Sin, rumors have a nasty habit of coming true. Who exactly chose to spread a rumor that Hitler and an army of Nazi robots were invading Sumaru City remains to be seen. I can only assume the individual responsible is as unstable as they come.

It's difficult for me to ascertain just how close I am to the end at this point. I've definitely reached a part of the game where shit has started to hit the fan. Like the shift between Final Fantasy VI's World of Balance and World of Ruin, the world has fundamentally changed due to the "rise of Xibalba," whatever that is. The only other time I've heard of Xibalba is from the film, The Fountain, which featured a plot possibly just as incomprehensible as Innocent Sin. I have no idea what it is or what it means, but it seems to signify that some serious stuff is going on and the party needs to kick it into high gear--with the assistance of newcomer Jun, who evidently knew the gang all along.

There's a plot point at about the halfway point of the game (and I'm estimating on that) that reminds me a lot of the oft-maligned orphanage plot from Final Fantasy VIII, complete with an included explanation for why the crew of teenagers' memories weren't intact. VIII's hamfisted approach to storytelling in general soured my appreciation of the game so it's somewhat worrisome to see a similar story in Innocent Sin. For what it's worth though, I think it's handled better here, since there's a pretty concrete reason why things are not happening as they should, even if I don't personally know the root cause. 

Will everything make sense by the end of the game? It's possible. I'm historically pretty terrible at internalizing all of a game's plot points and making sense of them and Innocent Sin is certainly not making it easy on me with its wacky themes. This is part of the reason I really prefer more intimate, character-driven stories, even in video games. This also ties into why I hate silent protagonists so much even when they're used so consistently in a series I greatly enjoy like Persona. I still like a lot of the characters, but we'll have to see how I feel about Jun. It's a big adjustment to make after 30 some odd hours of Yukino being in my party.