Cthulhu Saves the World
Still haven't quite finished Cthulhu's Angels; at
the Magitek Facility Innsmouth there.
Cthulhu - 7/10. Sure, Cthulhu has his moments. Or at least, when the game has actual humor, Cthulhu is usually involved.
Umi - 6/10 Decent enough parody, also gets amusing lines. C's Angels form is a different parody, and rather one-dimensional at times, but still works.
Sharpe - 2/10. The game does precisely 0 with him. Recruitment scene is random and Dragon Questy. I think he's supposed to be the straight man, but he doesn't even really do that.
October - 4/10. 2/10 in CSTW, nothing here either, which is a damn shame since necromancer cultist has just a ton of options and funny jokes to run with when fighting with *Cthulhu*, but heroic Cthulhu. +2 for some amusing lines in C's Angels that properly explore heroic necromancer thought processes. "Well everyone didn't like me because I was a Necromancer, and you're an outcast too, so clearly you're entirely right about being a reformed hero now!" Nicely quasi-pathetic, doing something. Still not enough to make her a *good* character but hey.
Paws - 4/10. Game doesn't do much with Paws, but his introduction plot arc is funny enough, and has a few amusing backchatter lines with Cthulhu.
Dacre - 2/10. See Sharpe. I reserve 1s for characters that actively offend me so "plotless recruit" is still only 2/10. His C's Angels appearance is also lame but not offensively so.
Ember - 2/10. Has one funny line, otherwise see Sharpe / Dacre.
Elonalina - 7/10. Okay she was pretty funny, and probably what they should have done with Sharpe. Having the adventuring heroine randomly helping out Cthulhu has comedy potential and it is actually explored. Well as much as you might expect in a low-dialogue game at least.
Molly - 4/10. I admit she gets funny lines later, but she is a very blatant, ah, "phone in" character who is obviously so cool, because she's cool, or something. "lol she's a werezompire with a cell phone" or something. Maybe there's some kind of hipster irony at work here where being cool is merely a matter of declaring the fact? Whatever. I thought it was more lame than funny, stating something rather than working with it, but she gets good lines later, so whatever.
The Narrator - 6/10 Plays off Cthulhu well enough, sure.
Wild ARMs 3
Check out this overwhelming wave of meh.
Virginia Maxwell - 3 Meh.
Jet Enduro -3 Meh.
Gallows Carradine -3 Meh.
Clive Winslett - 6 Okay I liked Clive. A bit Gary Stuy sure but the scholar researching the... as it turned out utterly bizarre plot twist that requires, frankly, reality sculpting rather than any experiment gone wrong, played to my biases.
Janus Cascade 6/10.
The guy's a tool and gets played like a fiddle by villains above his payscale.
That. But... Janus has a fanbase that thinks he's generically badass from NEB's comment?! Oh well. I liked Seifer and I like Janus. He's pathetic but the game knows this and he has his own menace anyway. That's actually something you see in a few Westerns that's hard to sell in video games... the cowardly bully is actually a problem, because he'll start firefights by shooting first in situations that could be defused. (But luckily everyone is shooting blanks in video games or something, so the idea that the wimpy gunfighter can still freaking shoot you dead in the back at the bar doesn't really translate).
Maya Schrodinger -3 Meh.
Alfred Schrodinger -3 Meh.
Todd Dukakis - 3 Meh.
Shady Thousand -3 Meh.
The Prophets - 6/10 I once more agree with NEB. Their individual motivations are on the lame side... and honestly the Beatrice reveal later further undercuts their own stock to raise hers... but they a reasonably effective opposition as a group. Sadly the dramatic quality of the villainy drops as the game moves on and uses more powerful yet lamer villains.
Asgard - 2/10 I don't recall what Asgard does in WA3 at all.
Zeikfried/Seigfried - 3/10. Meh.
Beatrice - 4/10. Meh. +1 for planting hints about her reveal in the diaries at Leyline Observatory, but still a bit space fleaish even with the foreshadowing.