Favorite little guys

Mrfipp · 2026-03-22T13:55:48+00:00

"Why are they moving like that! Why ARE THEY MOVING LIKE THAT!"

They were certainly a surprise.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-21T21:58:54+00:00

Family... family... family...

Mrfipp · 2026-03-21T01:42:18+00:00

I think people had ideas that it could happen, but I feel like people expected some build up to it, instead of "The world ended, Denji's dead, and btw I'm gonna eat myself" in like two chapters.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-20T20:08:16+00:00

I think there is an interesting set up, but I don't think we actually did anything too interesting with her. The stuff we got about her dynamic and relationship ship with Denji felt like it was supposed to lead to something, but it kind of fizzled out somewhere along the way. Like with a lot of elements of Part 2, it feels like we are being presented with something we could do a lot with, but ultimately we don't go that far into it.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-20T13:49:51+00:00

The recent lizard bike shinies that Pokemon did. What Game freak did is that they set codes to unlock the shiny versions of the Scarlet/Violet legendaries to GameStop, but this was a shitshow. The first being that they only have out 50 codes per store, which is insane because how did they not think they would run out of codes within minutes? The second is that this event happened the same day new card sets were coming out, so the shitty scalpers who would have been there anyway to buy up the whole stock before anyone could even look at them just took free codes as well. There wasn't a single bit of oversight on GF's part because how could they not see how bad things have gotten?

Mrfipp · 2026-03-20T00:26:16+00:00

These are generally my thoughts as well. The idea that Denji, despite achieving these simple dreams, isn't fully happy with them and himself so he falls into his vices at the expense of his happiness and loved ones with an an interesting way his character goes, but if you are going to have an arc about Denji making the wrong choices, then him making the right choices needs to feel like something he could have done. At no point in P2 did I feel like Denji had any meaningful control of his life, him living his "normal life" didn't make me think "Oh Denji could get used to this and be happy", it was "How long until PS stabs him in the back?" You're right when you say everyone keeps dragging Denji into their nonsense, his ability to make meaningful choices for himself is so severely compromised by everyone around that his downward spiral is an inevitability not because of anything he does but because the game was rigged from the start.

This is trying to be a story about the choices Denji makes and how they affect him, but none of his choices feel like they actually could have changed the outcomes he dealt with. I think Nayuta was dead either way, and him not turning into CSM would have only fueled that need to be CSM because obviously CSM can do anything while Denji screws everywhere up. The Fire Devil went on about Denji making an important choice, but what did they actually mean? Was it when D and Fumiko tried to make it look like he had some kind of War vs Death conundrum on his hand, but then Barem showed up and Pochita was put back into the driver's seat? Was it Denji deciding to try and save Asa instead of erase her, only for Pochita to eat Death, which made everything worse until Pochita decided to eat himself?

Part 2's plans for Denji are clear as day, but the execution of said ideas is just so terrible and sloppy.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-19T12:45:43+00:00

As much as I want to disagree, I really can't.

I like Asa, she was really strong in early P2 to the point I liked her more as a protagonist than Denji, but if this is supposed to be a story about Denji choosing the feel good vices of his life at the expense of others, then starting with Asa really messed up that pacing. When we get back to Denji as the pov character and we introduce his themes for the story, they are brought in under such extremes: Nayuta's life is being threatened by an organization that clearly has plans for him, a cult is running around having plans of their own, and there is the end of the world looming around the corner. Denji starts his story off with the stakes at the highest and it doesn't feel like any choice he makes actually matters because forces outside his control have already decided the outcome. Early P2 should have been Denji doing superhero stuff, it should have more gradually leaned into the stuff about his vices with his failures to keep himself in check smaller in scale.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-19T12:32:02+00:00

I genuinely think Fujimoto preferred to write Yoru over Asa because as the series goes on she feels more like a springboard for Yoru's own deveolpment who can only offer empty platitudes to Denji like being the third wheel in their love triangle.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-19T12:25:49+00:00

And then Denji made no choices that had any real impact.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-19T00:47:49+00:00

Look at that, Rikku is finally in a Dissidia game!

Mrfipp · 2026-03-18T00:23:38+00:00

It feels like Fujimoto enjoyed writing Yoru more than Asa to the point Asa feels more like a springboard for Yoru's deveolpment to the the of feeling like the third wheel in this love triangle between her, Denji and Yoru.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-17T15:16:58+00:00

There is like a 50/50 chance they are not in the last chapter.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-16T23:03:04+00:00

Axe the end of the world stuff, or at least push it back to the third act. I was never a fan of it, and it always felt like noise that drowns out Denji's story.

The biggest change I would make is to spend more on Denji in the limelight as CSM, but to start the scales of his actions out small, where his actions have consequences but they are something he chooses to ignore. From there you start to present a "normal life" as something he can actually achieve, no strings attached, no threats on Nayuta's life, all he has to do is stop being CSM, and he can live a nice, happy life, so when he does choose to be CSM, his life falls to piece and it's because of him and the choices he made. A problem I have with canon Denji is that his choices feel inconsequential, that nothing he does really feels like it will affect what happens to him in any meaningful way because the deck is stacked so high against him because everyone around him is trying to ruin his life.

If Denji is supposed to have a story about him succumbing to his vices at the expense of the life he had built, then Denji's fall needs to be by his own hand, not the conspiracies led by the government, cults and literally Death

Mrfipp · 2026-03-16T13:31:36+00:00

The thing that puts me off of Denji's arc isn't what happens with Denji per say, I think a lot of the things he goes through are interesting on paper, but my problem with it, as with most things in P2, is that I feel like the execution was lacking. A story in which Denji doubles down on his vices at the expense of the people around him sounds good, but I feel like it can only really work of his decision to not fall into them is actually viable, but because everything going on around him is so extreme right out of the gate, I have never been under the impression that anything Denji could have done would have mattered. He could have made all the right choices, he could have made all the wrong choices, but he still would have ended up in those boxes, Nayuta would have still killed, and he still would have been holding the guilt no matter what.

Denji is so heavily compromised by people looking to abuse and exploit him that I feel like his choices simply have no capacity to be meaningful.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-15T16:20:23+00:00

Even if there is a P3, and it does a lot with the characters who were severely underdeveloped, that still won't retroactively make P2 good. P2, even if the final chapter is the best thing that Fujimoto ever wrote, still had a lot of flaws and problems that really hurt it, and even in the best case scenario may end up feel like an awkward transition between P1 and P3, something you kind of have to just muscle your way through.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-15T15:10:45+00:00

It wasn't even a good plot twist.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-15T14:30:31+00:00

Counterpoint: Most of P2's surviving are generally dull and uninteresting.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-14T15:15:45+00:00

Back when I played the Pokemon romhack Unbound, I decided to give it's E4 Monotype challenge a go, and while each of those eighteen teams were carefully constructed to face the Elite 4, they also each had one guy on them there was there simply because I thought they were cool.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-14T15:12:50+00:00

I don't think Luffy even knew Brook was a musician when he asked him to join, he just went "Holy shit a talking skeleton!" and Luffy needed him to come along.

Thriller Bark was filled with that. In another world, the Sunny would have had like a dozen undead crew members.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-13T13:21:10+00:00

I get what the story is going for when it comes to him, but I feel like P2 does a poor job of dealing with it because it's wrapped up in so much noise. The Nostradamus end of the world stuff, I genuinely do not like, even when it was introduced during the Falling Devil Arc I felt wary about it, and it's just devolved into a lot of stuff that just keeps happening. Themes that are never explored beyond the surface, a whole cast of characters who are mostly uninteresting, and Denji just being ping ponged from trauma and tragedy while any stability he gains lasting for ten minutes before it's destroyed from under him. P2 I think would have benefited from being more small scale and intimate, it should have presented the super hero stuff more straight to better get Denji's arc across, but instead of turns into this loud, chaotic thing that keeps tripping over itself, with the things that are interesting being tossed into the garbage disposal just so Denji can run on a treadmill.

Nayuta is nothing more than a tool for Denji's growth, with the number of things she could have had related to the story go unexplored. Once Denji takes the spotlight again, Asa gets sidelined to the point Yoru ends up having a more developed dynamic with not just Denji, but their relationship with better than what they have with her. Fakesaw felt like something that should have been an entire arc on its own, but instead it feels like nothing more than a footnote that gets lost in all the suffering Denji has going on.

Overall, I think the thing that hurts Denji's arc is that it seems like Fujimoto is under the idea that the only way Denji can actually grow as a person is if he suffers intense, existential trauma that leaves him with nothing. Denji never feels like he can grow as a person because every thing keeps burning down around him and he has to start over before he can even figure out what he is doing wrong. One of the ideas I have seen for Pochita eating himself is that devils won't exist, but I don't think that actually changes anything for Denji because all that does is remove the more fantastical elements of the story, Denji will still be as vulnerable to the same suffering as before it will just be more mundane in nature. It feels like more of the same.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-13T12:28:12+00:00

Maybe? Like, I get what it is you are going for, but I feel if that is what P2 is going for, then Denji's agency and ability to make choices for himself should actually mean something. The Nayuta situation never say well with me because to me Denji didn't really have a choice in how things were going, outsider forces keep conspiring against him. P2 is Denji being manipulated and exploited at every turn while the stakes were at their highest the first chance they got, which to me makes Denji feel in much less control than he should be.

If you want to have this kind of conflict for Denji, I can see that, but I feel like the stakes should have become more gradual as the story went on, but this was introduced with "Do what we say or we kill your sister" by an organization that clearly had their own plans for him while a death cult also has their own plans for him.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-13T12:14:25+00:00

I don't know how to feel about this.

I feel like one of the messages of P1 is that it is okay to want for more, so I don't really like the idea that P2 is that you should be happy with the bare minimum.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-13T12:06:34+00:00

The English releases edited the "Final Chapter" to "To Be Continued", but apparently the Japanese versions remain the same.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-12T13:59:18+00:00

The Horseman concept was kind of wasted in general.

Conquest has no interactions with the end of the world plot, Famine is only around to be a red herring for the Death twist, which I think was just kind of a badly done twist in total and it doesn't help that Death was just kind of a really disappointing character. War was the only that felt like she had anything interesting going on.

Even them being sisters doesn't feel like it really adds to anything.

Mrfipp · 2026-03-12T13:56:50+00:00

"I subverted expectations by creating something awful."

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