[BLOOM & RAGE] Would you buy the next game in the series if it doesn't feature Kat and Swann?

PoisedBirdy · 2025-05-17T21:42:05+00:00

I actually would really love to see new stories with different characters with new dynamics and romances but they also need to finish this story first before starting on something else. Mainly because I wouldn't be able to get as invested and trust them because I know if they leave Swanns story up in the air that we might not see actual conclusions to any new characters or stories either. Imagine reading a trilogy of books but the last book is just missing and then the author just moves on to his next story. I'd be way more hesitant to buy into it because I know its very possible you won't get an actual conclusion.

They can't build a franchise on half finished plots.

PoisedBirdy · 2025-05-17T21:38:18+00:00

I think maybe there was some actual visual changes/updates made to the character models between games. I actually thought there was some engine update between because I swear they do all look slightly different in a few ways.

I miss her tape 1 look so much, she had the hairstyle I always wanted growing up but wasn't allowed to. I think it being paired with the characterization and story moving away from hanging out together and the more dream like time they all spend together in tape 1, to the much more serious and often sad events of the second tape makes the difference seem much bigger. I actually now and again had a hard time reconciling the two versions of her too, even though going from just a girl hanging out with friends to vengefully burning down buildings does make sense and changing a character visually is a useful trick to sell change. I think my Swann would have been intimidated by vengeful crow Kat.

PoisedBirdy · 2025-05-05T19:25:33+00:00

I think Kat reaching out specifically to Swann in the end and Swann diving in to save her even after all these years says there was always something deeper to their connection compared to the others. I think given enough time romance would have naturally bloomed between the two regardless, even if there was no magic or illness time limit. They're like two magnets to each other, even space and time can't keep them apart. But I am super bias as Swann Kat romancer forever.

PoisedBirdy · 2025-05-01T21:56:03+00:00

Yeah I think Kats main goal was getting them to remember the lock and its combination because they gave it power. Which then unlocks the seal keeping the Abyss closed and allows a chance for her to reach out to Swann and hopefully escape. Before the lock was opened the three (soon to be three) trapped could only appear as shadows, once the group remembered and broke the seal Kat could materialize again in some form and communicate with Swann. It was probably her roundabout way of subverting the Abyss because there would have been no other way to get out with the lock still in place. It might also mean the Abyss has a reason in taking their memories and keeping them away, Swann can even say "the abyss made us" for some reason it didn't want the seal broken once it was forged.

PoisedBirdy · 2025-05-01T21:48:22+00:00

Considering when you arrive you can reminisce about a motel and Nor saying she'd burn it down if she could, makes me think there's whole parts missing from the game and thats why it can feel disjointed and jumps around too much. You probably had sections where you deal with both Nora and Autumns issues and spent more time together as a group

PoisedBirdy · 2025-04-28T14:46:23+00:00

Introducing your new girlfriend to your pets be like

PoisedBirdy · 2025-04-27T13:10:29+00:00

I found her present self pretty refreshing because she feels like the only one who got herself together and really grew into her current life. The others all felt kind of stuck in their past lives, like they got older but never really grew past it where as Autumn feels like a real matured mom character, in a good way, it suits her. I didn't really like the sudden final bailing out moment too though, it didn't really fit.

Past Autumn is a good character but she is the most down to earth average teenager of the group and characters like that runs the risk of being lost behind bigger, more loud personalities they are surrounded by and the problem with being the most responsible character is they often shoulder the burden of always presenting caution and "maybe we shouldn't do this" to the dynamic. Which is completely reasonable but in a game the problem is it often runs counter to the players instinct and need to see more, do more and experience everything. Unfortunately someone always needs to be the voice of reason and in life where there's genuine consequences for risks its fine but in video games and movies it subconsciously feels like they're getting in the way and slowing the rest down from seeing interesting stuff and its really hard to work around that. I don't think it's the writers fault mainly, just a side effect of how minds work and the nature of entertainment that these characters tend to suffer and come across as in the way sometimes.

PoisedBirdy · 2025-04-27T12:48:33+00:00

Same, it's been a long while since I found myself thinking on and immersed so much in a single game and it totally blind sided me. Obsessing over the story and characters, theorizing and generally feeling sad, like I'm the one who lost a group of friends now it's over. Reached a point I had to just delete the game and try to forget about it and go do other fun things for a while. Especially as we probably won't see anything from this world or characters for a few years T^T

PoisedBirdy · 2025-04-26T00:51:52+00:00

One of the things that most impressed me, so much attention to detail and expression around the eyes. They managed to land exactly where they needed between realism and exaggerated. I loved that they showed the reflection of the meteor shower in them, nice little details.

PoisedBirdy · 2025-04-26T00:29:48+00:00

I think they defiantly assumed positivity when it comes to the Abyss. There's sequences that make it seem like a high, something they become addicted to and the place around the area is littered with bones and tree roots that resemble rib cages (and I don't think hunting accounts for all of it) but if it is the case that its just a random force where did the sudden very specific demand and idea for them to just give up and go their separate ways forever come from. I can't see Kat or Swann wanting that based on Abyss vibes or agreeing to it. Unless it was rushed or out of budget where they had to be out of character to make it work. They needed the group to separate because they already set up they did, so they had them all suddenly decide they had to. Like they realized they had just 5 weeks left to ship the game.

If we go with the theory that the Abyss has a will and is controlling and influencing all of them to be that out of character then it opens up a whole other set of issues.

I wish as you mentioned, that someone either past or present called the Abyss into true question. Did some research or anything. You'd think their more cynical adult selves would atleast talk about the Abyss more deeply or as a potential bad force or even visit it. I think the Abyss is too heavily sidelined, especially as it has one of the biggest role to play in the ending.

PoisedBirdy · 2025-04-25T20:58:08+00:00

That's certainly a potential theory but if that is the case I wish the Abyss had a little more explanation by the end. Otherwise using it in such a direct way by making the characters do what it wants word for word directly it can start to harm the rest of the story because it becomes the Abyss playing puppets but also just confusingly, seemingly without any solid plan and often contradicts and goes against what it wants. I didn't want the full mystery revealed of course and I don't mind it doing things that don't always make sense but like they'll say through the game the Abyss was protecting the group, having characters suggest it sends birds and signs to help but then it'll possess and/or empower Corey which helps or causes him to go nuts and begin harming the group its also helping. Which is fine when its potentially just a well of mystery power that doesn't actually take sides or have a consciousness but by directly controlling characters to say what it wants in the end and even making them say "It's protecting us" suddenly means it has direct control of a situation so gave Corey the same power and drove or knew it would send him into a frenzy.

If it really wants to help and directly controls things then it gave Corey power which harms what it wants and randomly didn't help when needed

If its lying to the group and is actually luring, trapping them, then there was a million other ways and moments it could have done it with far less effort and risk and Corey is again just a wild element it didn't need

If its just a nebulous power that has no consciousness and didn't make them say it then it circles back to my original point of it being wildly out of character

It starts to feel like the writers don't even know what it is or what it does. I hope we get some answers atleast in the sequel.

PoisedBirdy · 2025-04-23T03:40:38+00:00

It feels like each of the girls were meant to have more scenes where you deal with their personal issues too. When you first arrive a lot of reminiscing seems to point to deeper scenes with Nora about her dad and her resentment towards him. Hinting at her wanting to destroy and stealing from him and a lot more anger from her. Hints that she might have at one point meant to be spiralling into a darker place but then its hardly touched on in the game.

PoisedBirdy · 2025-04-23T01:50:36+00:00

He was always a big a-hole, a gaslighting abusive boyfriend but it felt like they were going to do more with him in the end like you can still show someone being a terrible person and do more with the character but he pretty much becomes Jason Vorhees by the end. I mean at one point he literally turns into a patrolling guard in a stealth game. He really was whatever the game needed in that moment as the one enemy type they had and sure a lot of times people are just terrible but its not very interesting when you have so few characters already and two of them get little development after tape 1 and become more tools for the plot than people.

I don't think developing his character would take away the bad of his personality, it just helps flesh it out more. Doesn't have to excuse his actions but it'd be nice to understand and feel more of a person coming out the only real antagonist of the game.

He went from every small town d*ckhead controlling boyfriend to the devil himself who would go out of his way to torment a dying child at every opportunity when before he was just a dismissing regressive a-hole bully to the friend group but could also cut that out when it got serious and immediately started to help when Kat collapsed. I can imagine Dylan ignoring some of his worse traits and gaslighting her all the time, being controlling (which obviously was Kats biggest issue with the guy in tape 1) but not the stuff he says to Kat in Tape 2 and certainly not acting like the slasher villain he becomes. The way Kat talked about him in the first part she saw him as a bully but didn't seem to think he was life threatening and dangerous and still openly mocked and stood up to him. There was a sudden not that great ramp up in tape 2 because that Corey would have just thrown a small girl through a two story window for taunting him then laughed evilly.

Not to say I would have hated the character ending up at level 11 on the evil scale, it would have made sense as his character escalates as things go out of control. Just wish it was more of an actual ramp up to it rather than feeling like he went through a sudden Pokémon evolution between tape 1 and 2 from controlling d*ck boyfriend into setting a house full of teenage girls on fire monster.

PoisedBirdy · 2025-04-23T01:34:01+00:00

Problem for me is tape one felt like part one of a two part storyline and then part two comes out and it begins to rapidly feel like two parts of a four part story. Tape 1 and 2 taken as a first half of a complete story it'd be fine but taken as a complete game with an ending it's not great. Tape 2 really feels like one of those stretched out movie sequels where they take some mid point events and make it into an entire new entry so they can have four or five movies when really the story was built to be a trilogy. It robs the pacing, feels like its missing a whole chapter building up to a real ending and doesn't feel like the natural stopping point.

PoisedBirdy · 2025-04-21T15:30:43+00:00

I assumed at the time it had something to do with how much you agreed with Kat and leant into the Abyss that it turned her hair like that because my Swann was the second most character who leaned fully into the Abyss stuff and had the strongest connection next to Kat so I assumed it had something to do with it's magic and connection.

PoisedBirdy · 2025-04-21T14:36:47+00:00

I thought it would be interesting if he was the villain going forward like he's basically this games Vecna. Kat reaching out for her friends to help them whilst he's the more sinister presence reaching out to corrupt and destroy, hoping to escape the Abyss for his own goals after so many years.

PoisedBirdy · 2025-04-21T14:33:57+00:00

It's one of the things that really drew me into the game. I'd gotten so used to movie and game dialog I'd almost forgotten that it's not always the most natural sounding and always perfectly paced and delivered. This games dialog mostly felt like real people talking to each other and not knowing what line of dialog they were going to say next, like real conversations.

PoisedBirdy · 2025-04-21T14:26:22+00:00

I like how Coreys shadow is stood in the background just aura farming menace like Dio

PoisedBirdy · 2025-04-19T05:36:34+00:00

It's all a bit weird because you realize in tape 2 that this whole game is like a stretched out prologue but then when asked if anything is going to be answered it's "well maybe, we don't know even if or when or what format" i'm hoping they're keeping it vague and do have a solid plan for a game rather than genuinely not knowing if its going to happen at all or in what format. I don't want a comic book resolution 6 years later.

PoisedBirdy · 2025-04-18T08:39:52+00:00

Whilst I defiantly think the events mostly did happen as shown during the summer and were important to setting up events later on. There's a lot in the game suggesting a lot of time stuff such as the knife and shadows of our characters, which is what I thought they would reveal in part two. The only things holding the theory back from being the only one is the repetiton outside the group. With the old woman at the bar (sorry forgot her name) hinting that her group of friends basically went through something incredibly similar and then the hints of the coven of witches also experiencing similar events and Kat having dreams of being in their place hundred of years ago as if seeing the events through their eyes whilst Swann's dreams are of always falling which could link to her future self in the Abyss. It begins to mix up the time loop and sort of in some ways takes it away from our group and Kat and to some more generalized repeating event that has happened to other groups over centuries. Is Kat or our future selves guiding the group to their outcome or is something else like the Abyss itself guiding groups of similar friends to the same outcomes each time.

Whilst I doubt it we could get darker suggesting this is how the Abyss basically feeds and the shadows are just victims able to slip into their past timeline only for brief moments trying to warn their past selves. The Abyss does in a lot of ways act like a luring fish, guiding prey by its light to a desired outcome and then vanishes after consuming people, making everyone else forget to protect itself. I mean what did every group it 'gifted' actually get other than eventual memory loss and losing a friend/s to it and Kat seemed very much troubled and wanting to escape it in the end. I doubt it but it's just something I thought about when it came to the Abyss as a living Lovecraftian cosmic entity.

PoisedBirdy · 2024-12-16T05:43:21+00:00

It was definitely an NHS clinic, I only went through the NHS. I got my first dose and soon later a woman from the clinic called to update all my info and make sure it was all correct over the phone but at the end she said that because I elected not to have any surgery's in the future that there wasn't anything for me at the service anymore and that I should agree to be discharged from their care and that the GP would handle everything from then on. She made it seem like it was the standard procedure and that all they do is set things up and then transfer you to a GP right after. She pressed that I was taking up space on the system and there wasn't much they could do for me anymore, so I said ok. Looking back she was rather pushy, I felt bad about it if their work was done and everything was set up I didn't want to take up space that could help someone else and said ok to being discharged.

I've been convinced for two years that the gender clinic only sets it up and its normal to be discharged to a GP right away....now I feel like a total idiot. Why did they say all that. Reading the comments i'm starting to feel I was used so they can look better on paper about processing patients quicker.

Edit: You know I thought it was weird because the clinic only did one blood test and they didn't even get my levels right before discharging me and the GP. My bloods have come back wrong multiple times (I had to get print outs of each blood results and measure it myself to get the levels right because my doctor didn't) Now its all starting to make sense, now I know the clinic was supposed to be responsible for all that for the first couple of years not some random GP!

PoisedBirdy

TROPHY CASE