Hear me out before you pick up the torches. But I'm replaying older versions of this game for archival stuff. And seeing how unfiltered the comedy was made me kind of miss it.

What made this game so unique for so long was the dialog, they were dnd games. And you could really tell. But over time as they ran out of campaign to adapt, you started to see more of just...Quasi. I love this game, I think it's the best written MZ cast bar none still. But...It really made me miss old LOA.

Back when you had people racing to level 99 in the starter area, an arms race of bugtesters and dev adapted into absurd death note-esque memes,  Fan videos that never came out due to eventual burnout, and a tiny JRPG that spread via word of mouth alone.

This game is by no means huge now don't get me wrong. it's still TINY compared to the big indies. But we were the number 1 JRPG a few months ago. We were in the top 100 singleplayer games on the platform. where do we go from here?

I see these new features and they're insane, and make the combat way more fun, but as the game gets more polished, and the systems get more intricate, I can't help but wonder how much of this game really is about five losers anymore? We barely get content for Kaori and Sylvanna, And of the main cast only Leran and Keito are given spotlight. Occasionally Kaas. And now the developer is trying to push Ren into LOA, Scuffparty, And his new game? I love Ren. I think he's an amazing character and a perfect subversion of the average Roland trope. But it's hard not to wish the light was spread a little more. And I get it's one update at a time now. And work comes first. But still!

I've been a fan of this game since it came out. I remember the ups, the downs, the funny events, the dumb ones too. I remember when the community was just 8 people, when it was 3. And I guess my point is to sum it up...

I miss when LOA was an Epic of Five Losers. As the world got grander and grander...I guess that loser aspect was kind of lost.

If you're reading this Quasi. Please know that this is still 100% my favorite game. And that whatever you're being fed by the normies? Throw it out. We're not here for an epic without the five losers. We want that stream of consciousness writing that makes LOA LOA. We still have that to an extent. But there's no better time than now to lean in. Do your funny thing magic man!

[SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!]

You know, explaining this game to a friend is like, SUPER hard.

I was explaining this game and what started as "Oh, this game has multiple routes?" devolved into a discussion on how quantum mechanics would apply to a world that exists in the form of story and song. And how two songs playing over eachother could feasibly exist at the same time to form a whole. Allowing for events to both happen and not. 

Allowing two states, one where the protagonist lives on in ignorance and one where he goes mad with grief and sells his soul, he sells his soul to bring his lover back, his lover sells hers to bring his back, thus putting the world into a time loop where the reality where he lives in peace as she wished exists alongside the reality where he's sold his soul. The overlapping timelines creating a sort of Polyphony where both timelines both do and don't exist. and eventually i just looked at them and realized I had just given this poor guy a headache.

Like, when you break down the lore of this game, it becomes damn near as hard to explain as the fate timeline, and all of it is optional. I still get woozy mapping it out. That's not even getting into the King of Nothing Shenanigans on the wiki and in game, or Base64, the fact you have to cross reference wiki pages with characters and item descriptions for full context.

it's pure insanity, absolute manic energy over here.