The issue is mainly that there's no stake in the story. So even seeing Kaga in that state, doesn't really do anything, doesn't really invoke any sense of tragedy, because at the end of the day, you know damn well she will be totally fine and everything will get sorted out, probably by next event. It's a story fully focused on war, but there's no deaths, no compromises, nothing. Every other character is supposed to suffer from loss, but they never really do. Yorktown came back, Bismarck came back, Hood came back, Amagi is coming back, Kaga will come back, Lexington will come back, and every other character that is supposed to be dead have been retconned to be "ill" instead (Yorktown, Lexington and Hood being the prime examples).
The story is more and more pursuing a super cliché happy end, and that's a shame.
The issue is mainly that there's no stake in the story. So even seeing Kaga in that state, doesn't really do anything, doesn't really invoke any sense of tragedy, because at the end of the day, you know damn well she will be totally fine and everything will get sorted out, probably by next event. It's a story fully focused on war, but there's no deaths, no compromises, nothing. Every other character is supposed to suffer from loss, but they never really do. Yorktown came back, Bismarck came back, Hood came back, Amagi is coming back, Kaga will come back, Lexington will come back, and every other character that is supposed to be dead have been retconned to be "ill" instead (Yorktown, Lexington and Hood being the prime examples).
The story is more and more pursuing a super cliché happy end, and that's a shame.
Damn, getting downvoted because you actually appreciate the story like Kancolle did.
Damn, getting downvoted because you actually appreciate the story like Kancolle did.
I really appreciate the investigative side of the story. Trying to puzzle everything together and understand what happened to the original branch, where the X are coming from and everything. That is something AL does fairly well (when the translation doesn't fck things up).
But there's nothing to appreciate on the tragic side. Maybe there was at some point, Crimson Echoes remained my favorite event for a long time purely because of the tragic story, and Scherzo was pretty good too thanks to that. But in the end, the impact of those events were completely nullified because "don't worry guys, they weren't dead actually". Even the Sirens are not safe from it, look at Compiler. I'd be willing to bet even Aoste and Anzeel will come back at some point, lol.
You're not wrong. Most of us assumed the likes of Yorktown, Hood, and Bismarck were dead for good, and the events where they were revealed to be alive marked a point where I stopped enjoying the story's writing.
Still, even if Amagi and Kaga do come back, it doesn't undermine the sense of loss Akagi felt when her ritual to resurrect Amagi failed, and she realized just how alone she felt, or the regret Mikasa and Musashi felt when they realized they should've stopped Akagi much earlier, but didn't. Not to mention, these last two events finally return to the story about the cold war between Akagi and Nagato/Mikasa, a plot line I thought Manjuu had abandoned entirely, and they even went so far as to tie the events into earlier ones, such as the first chapter of the campaign, or the Visitors Dyed in Red event, again, things I thought were retconned.
Maybe these last two events aren't as good as they could be, but they're still good events, much better than most of the events we've been getting over the last two or so years.
Oh I'm not saying they're bad events by any means. I still enjoy them to an extent, story-wise. It's just that they could have indeed be way better if not for the questionable writing decisions that have plagued the story for quite some time now. The story can still have exciting developments (Rondo at Rainbow's End is to me the best event story of the game for that), but overall the enjoyment and engagement I had from the story has been gradually reduced because it's plagued with those questionable writing decisions.
Whether they can't commit to characters deaths, or choices having no real consequences, or the lot of technobabble that doesn't make sense, or the convenient Deux Ex Machinas (Helena META, or for this event Zuihou), all of this made me pretty apathetic regarding the story. And everything that's supposed to be impactful isn't anymore because I know that further down the line, what's happening right now won't matter anymore.
To answer what's under your spoilers, I'd say the same thing. The sense of loss of Akagi doesn't matter, because it's more than likely it will be gone next event when she gets reunited with both Amagi and Kaga. Same for Musashi and Mikasa, writers fainted their deaths just to save them last minute. Their sense of sacrifice was thus rendered meaningless and the weight of regret for their decisions will be caducous, because in the end it won't bring any consequences. Everyone will probably be saved and all is well that ends well. The story has become way too predictable and cliché. I could still be wrong we'll see, but that's been the constant for years, now.
But hey, we got a couple of very enjoyable years for the story, I'm glad it happened. At this point I just hope for more Opsi files, for me OG branch story elements is the last interesting stuff we're getting now, because it has a way more mature writing than the event stories. The things happening there actually matter and do have consequences.
