[h1]Cyberpunk Theology[/h1]
[h2]Story[/h2]
Like previous games in the series, [i]Son of Man[/i] is a story about divided people and oppression in a caste. [spoiler]The Pleroman soldiers and government brutally dehumanize the Shemerians, while the citizens are kept in the dark about most of the atrocities, causing them to think the Shemerians hate them for no reason. Additionally, oppression tends not to breed "perfect victims" who care about the rules of engagement, after all, their oppressors never seem to follow those rules. This results in a resistance movement that wants freedom as much as they want bloody vengeance, even if that vengeance is directed towards civilians. Maybe I'm too terminally online, but this sounds like real life.
Speaking of online, I saw a tweet of someone complaining about "both sidesing oppression" trope, but I think this trope can be done well if it portrays the oppressor as the greater evil in asymmetrical warfare, which this story does. The game shows that while the Zealots (and later Jessua's) extreme stance leads to a cycle of revenge that they cannot win, it also shows that Joseph and Judas are wrong to rely on toothless diplomacy, since the Pleroman government refuses to see them as human beings, plus they have no leverage to incentivize the Pleromans to keep their promises. As much as I prefer morally simple rebellion stories over the both sides trope, I think this story's use of the trope is more nuanced than most. Plus, I like how they portrayed the camaraderie between the rebels, making them sympathetic despite their issues. Though it does feel like the protagonists never had a chance no matter what they did.
There are some loose ends that were never answered, like John's fate, Simon's archon form, and the final boss at the end. The final boss, the spirit of Kenoma's suffering, kind of came out of nowhere with little foreshadowing. My hypothesis is that Nicodemus somehow caused the Kenoman spirit to appear sometime before the Zealots' attack on Pleroma. And then the spirit planted memories into Jessie's head, causing him to experience all of Pleroma's atrocities and become a mad avenger. If this hypothesis is true, then maybe the spirit represents the weight of humanity's sins that Jesus is supposed to bear. But Jessie's mental defenses were slowly weakened over the course of the game, due to the death of his mother, all the horrible things he learned about Kenoman experiments, and the death of Lazarus. Plus, he's really a normal mortal given a bit of power by Hashem rather than a true saint. As a result, he was unable to handle the weight of humanity's sins and went insane. It's only when he got crucified that he realized that the Zealots were sinning too and that the Pleroman citizens suffered greatly from those atrocities, causing him to realize that he needs to save everyone in the hopes that they can eventually overcome their sins. Is that what the story is trying to tell the player? I'm not sure, because the ending is not spoonfed enough. You have to remember that us gamers have no media literacy and that we need all the themes spoonfed to us like we're students.
I actually went back to my Exodus video and realized that Nicodemus might actually be slave 666, the number of the beast. He mentioned that he was once a slave and that Judas doesn't know what true torture is, which implies he was a Simru during the time of Moshe. I see no other reason for that guy to have that exact number printed on his chest. They must be the same person and they sold their soul to the Accuser to get revenge on all of Kenoma. Because he got cucked by a Misru lord. Maybe his real goal isn't just revenge on humanity, but to make Jessua, the nicest guy on Kenoma, succumb to hatred like he did in order to justify his own decisions?
As for Lena piloting Kaphar, I really wish the game did more with that. It would have been a cooler ending sequence if she had to fight a solo battle against Pontius Pilate in his Enkidu. Yes, he's absolutely cracked, but the playing field would be more even due to him being injured by Nicodemus. And after Lena wins, she can decide whether or not to take revenge, which would give her a chance to essentially redo the choice she made against Herod. Maybe having Hashem near her would also affect her decision. I feel like Lena could have gotten better closure instead of being sidelined.
For the ending in general, I feel like the pacing is really weird. I guess it is kind of inevitable due to Jessie being executed, but this means Herod's building is essentially the final dungeon, and it doesn't really feel like one compared to the final dungeon of Babel Code. I think there should have been a final dungeon that Jessie and Judas should complete together in order to give time for them to sort out their issues with each other and give more context to the spirit of suffering.[/spoiler]
The next game seems to take place on Idin, but the endings of the games are starting to get a little predictable due to the sheer invincibility of the main antagonists. Maybe that game will surprise me somehow?
[h2]Gameplay[/h2]
The game now features three different attack stats, one of which is the physical attack stat that was something unavailable to the player in the first game. This adds a lot more potential weaknesses for enemies, and characters don't have equipment restrictions. There is some differences between the characters, such as Jessua having unique TP skills and everyone having slightly different strong and weak stats, but anyone can be built for any role. I personally wish every character had unique TP skills in addition to the one from heavy equipment in order to differentiate them more.
As for balance, I found that putting all the best Adeptness gear on a single person is a really good strat because Gladius has no cooldown, which means the character just needs to worry about building TP, which is easy with whips. On a related note, 3x Strike is really OP in Azar combat, since it generates TP per hit and actually generates more TP than the supposed weaker but more TP efficient Bash. Still, neither are anywhere near as OP as Frozen Waters spam from the first game, though the meta strat is much more obvious than in Exodus.
Also, Heaven's Light doesn't scale well no matter how high your Adeptness is, so it kind of falls off in the endgame.
The game has two guest characters, Lazarus and Simon, to give the player enough people for split party situations. To ensure the player doesn't leave equipment on them and lose it, talking to Simon in the base allows the player to access the guest equipment and unequip them. Though I think the game should prevent players from using nectar on them, [spoiler]since Simon is only really playable for one dungeon and Lazarus is only playable for three[/spoiler].
The game features Azar combat, which is functionally similar to regular combat but with bigger numbers. I feel like Azars are underutilized in the final part of the game, which is a shame because it would have been cool if the protagonists could improve their skills and upgrade their Azars further [spoiler]to take on the Pleroman top brass, who have their own powerful Azars[/spoiler].
[h2]Other[/h2]
This game brings back lore collection and properly explorable maps, and I like the aesthetic of the first town. Though I wish Pleroma was more explorable, both to take in its aesthetic and learn about the citizens' mindset, [spoiler]though learning their mindset too early would make the extreme rebel trope not work, so maybe it's inevitable that Pleroma is unexplorable[/spoiler].
[h2]Verdict[/h2]
8/10
As much as I enjoyed the rebel story and retelling of Jesus, I feel like the ending needs to be paced better and introduce the actual final boss better. The gameplay is more challenging and balanced than the first game, but I still found a way to unga-bunga my way to victory despite the enemies' speed advantage.
