>>56445497I liked that the friend characters weren't actually your friends right from the beginning. It's very different from the XY friendgroup which I despite because they just endlessly praise you for no reason. With the SV friends, they are at times even a little rude, and you can be a bit rude to them as well. Even Nemona, who is like "hi we just met but wanna be friends?" rival you can say "No" to. I liked that the MC wasn't just mute in general actually.
Arven is an asshole to you at the beginning and seems generally kind of suspicious until you slowly earn his trust and he tells you what his deal is.
Penny is just a weird mysterious kid, and even though it's pretty obvious that she's Cassiopeia, it takes a while to understand what her deal is. And even though she's my least favourite of the group, I like how she's socially inept and unintentionally rude to others, it's funny and charming.
I like how they set up the mysteries about Area Zero, with how they drop hints here and there that make you question what's really going on there and who is really saying the truth. So when you finally get to Area Zero (which really does have a unique, otherworldly atmosphere with the weird lighting and cool music) and also have the 3 characters from the main storylines come together, it does really feel like it ties up to a proper finale.
The twist with the AI professor was cool, for once I couldn't see the twist coming from miles away like it was with previous gens. The game has a "things aren't as they seem" theme that was interesting and not super predictable for once.
I was also really (positively) surprised how cruel Arven's and the prof's backstory was, they didn't shy away from outright saying that his neglectful parent died instead of just vaguely implying those things.
So how exactly did the friends "get in the way"? They are a means to progress the story, and Arven's story is directly connected to the box legendary.
What kind of story do you want then?
