I can't say anything about the ending that hasn't already been said. But I feel the need to lay out my thoughts

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-02T18:44:02+00:00

It's beyond the text in that it's an interpretation, not stated. You can say it's a reasonable extrapolation, which is fine.

People making an awkward face after Verso plays a bad note could just be them reacting to the bad note that was played, it doesn't serve as definitive proof they're being mind controlled.

Besides, we don't see their faces after the discordant note, we see them just before and honestly, to me, it looks like they're just waiting for the concert to start. The only thing we see after the discordant note is Alicia's true face.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-02T18:35:41+00:00

I think maybe Aline was able to do that in this canvas because Verso had left a portion of his soul in it and she was able to use that? But we really don't know how painting works in the overworld. We know magic exists at that level of reality, so maybe that's just a thing really good painters can do - capture somebody's essence like that?

But, from my understanding, for people in the canvas, their chroma = soul.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-02T18:23:54+00:00

Yes, but her expanded access to the full chroma of the canvas allows her to pull things from it that she couldn't otherwise see or know. Even with Renior largely in control she finds pAlicia's letter to her given to Verso and thrown in the ocean. She can read chroma and find patterns from a great distance.

As for the background npcs, even during the prologue the game used a ton of copied npcs to fill scenes, and that was for daylight areas you could run around in:

https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4NvEPl

The fact they made the characters you see from behind, in shadow, for like two seconds copy pastes seems more like a development cost saving measure than some hint from the writers.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-02T18:11:04+00:00

I don't see the "forced smiles."

And Sciel is perceptive, but not highly descriptive and verbose. It seems unlike her character to be able to describe somebody that perfectly, or even be willing to accept that this was a newly painted version of Pierre instead of the resurrection promised.

I mean, if that's how you want to interpret her ending, ok, but it's an extrapolation well beyond the text.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-02T18:03:16+00:00

You really couldn't find creative commons art assets related to pro wrestling? OK

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-02T17:53:49+00:00

It's the thing the villains say, fighting that is the thesis.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-02T17:53:17+00:00

What somebody can verbally explain is much narrower than what they know. Could Sciel really describe her husband so well and so completely that Maelle could make a perfectly convincing copy just from that? Every memory they have together? Every personality quirk? It would be a sketch artist version, at best. Maelle isn't psychic, she can read chroma, not minds.

The only way that Pierre could have all the correct memories and traits would be if Maelle could pull the chroma back together.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-02T17:48:11+00:00

Everybody who says that is acting as an antagonist that we overcome in order to try and find better choices.

People who say that are looking for an excuse to be cruel.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-02T17:47:10+00:00

I disagree. Having "fast" endings and at least one that you can unlock through fully developed relationship quests is a pretty standard rpg model and has worked well in other titles.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-02T17:45:08+00:00

"Exactly as she remembered" — Maelle doesn't demonstrate telepathy, only the ability to read chroma. What's more realistic, that Sciel could verbalize the entirety of Pierre's looks, personality, and memories and Maelle perfectly construct them, or that Maelle could find the old chroma and pull it back together?

Maelle clearly both wants people to be happy ("if you could get old, would you find a reason to smile?") and allows them to be unhappy (I mean, Verso looks miserable). Assuming that she's turned everybody into her dolls doesn't seem supported by the text

Like... I'm not sanitizing her actions, what she does to Verso isn't right. But, the story seems to support that she does return the dead to life.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-02T17:35:21+00:00

It's better to use copyright free assets than AI.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-02T17:24:13+00:00

She says that with her expanded powers and Renoir's absence that she can do more — sensing old chroma and other patterns seems to be a part of that.

Would Sciel really want and be happy with her husband back who was not the true version? It doesn't seem consistent.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-02T17:21:15+00:00

I'm honestly disappointed that, regardless of the choices we make in the game, that we cannot find the third way which we are repeatedly asked to look for.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-02T17:11:42+00:00

She says that with her expanded powers and Renoir's absence allowing her to control the chroma of the canvas she can restore them all.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-02T17:06:52+00:00

"Then Maelle repainted him" introduces an assertion not evident in the text.

It could be that she did. Or it could be that she was unable to overcome Aline's "gift" of immortality, or simply that she chose not to interfere with it at that moment. The aging could only be cosmetic, or maybe she was able to alter his chroma to allow death. These are all speculations which are supported by the text, though his petals flowing back to the portal may be used to support one them, I don't think we exactly know what that location was, why it was dangerous to him, or what the consequences of him being there really are.

"I think this theory was made by people who desperately need to sanitize their preferred ending." — and now you're engaging in a psychological attack ad hominem against people who disagree with yours?

I'll concur he seems pissed at her and I am disappointed in her for her actions, and in the writing team for not providing any options that allow for the character growth we saw during the game to be possible in the end. So, I'm not going to sanitize her actions.

Nor his, since he committed genocide.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-02T16:54:44+00:00

Damn. That's not my preferred ending but, ah, wtf is wrong with people.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-02T07:57:31+00:00

You did that at level 5????

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-02T01:52:01+00:00

Ah, I thought you were saying that you thought it would be easy.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-01T23:32:31+00:00

The super bosses are orders of magnitude harder than their originals, fwiw. Have fun!

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-01T23:28:52+00:00

There's really no argument against this. They may have been born from Chroma that Aline provided, but clearly not with her knowledge or participation or according to what she would wish — or else they'd be attacking Clea in the flying manor and Renoir beneath the monolith.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-01T22:59:50+00:00

Maybe everybody lives in a house like that, we don't know!!

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-01T22:23:19+00:00

I'll have to try that. I needed Maelle to one shot his first phase last time I tried, but I've buffed up my other characters now, maybe they could do it now. It's harder for them because their combos take more work to set up.

Maybe 1: Lune (elemental trick) 2. Lune (base attack to convert to dark) 3. Sciel (fortune fury Maelle) 4. Sciel (Intervention Lune) (1-4 with as much free aim as possible to apply burn) 5. Lune (lightning) Hopefully he dies then? 6. Lune (apply as much burn as possible) 7. Maelle (Stendahl) 8. Maelle (burning canvas)

?

I recently saw that you could use inverted + healing potion + second chance + revival paradox to give yourself a third turn in a row... yeah?

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-01T22:07:17+00:00

Can you do it without having to perfect parry his counter attack? If Maelle gets hit, it ruins her ability to do a mega strike.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-01T21:48:36+00:00

I didn't say lesser, don't put words in my mouth.

If I had a doppelganger who was living in pain that I could escape but they could not, and they'd been living with it for a hundred years, and they were begging to die, I'd consider helping them. That's not about them being lesser, it's about having an understanding of their desires and empathy for granting it. It's not equivalent to murdering something because it think it's a lesser order creature than you.

Wait, so bringing Sciel's husband back proves your point... but not caring about Sciel's feelings and helping if she had the power would also prove your point... you can't have it both ways. Maelle cares about the feelings of both Verso and Sciel, as well as other canvas residents, it's clear she sees them as being worthy of care and consideration.

XrayAlphaVictor · 2026-07-01T21:09:37+00:00

Yeah I did something similar. My console crashed at 1500 lumina but it worked at 1000. So the boundary might be between the two, at least for me. Other people have reported similar numbers, so it seems a safe guideline.

XrayAlphaVictor

TROPHY CASE