[Moczo]

Originally Posted by Haak

Finally got round to finishing Heaven's Feel:

Spoiler for wall of text and a lot of swearing:

So Rin and Ilya plan to help Shirou project a weapon powerful enough to defeat Saber. Wow, for once they’re actually forming a proper strategy instead of just winging it. Then Rin decides to be harsh to Sakura. Er...shouldn’t you be a bit more considerate to someone who was raped and traumatised, Rin? And how come no one has considered Sakura being the shadow, yet? They’ve already established that it might be independent of Zoken. I can understand Shirou trying decieve himself (This is the second time though. It may be understandable stupidity but it’s still stupidity) but Rin? Well later Shirou has a touching conversation with Ilya. And yet more Sakura hints. And Zoken refuses to have Assassin kill Shirou and Rin because of arrogance and sadism. *sigh* So he’s just as bad as Gilgamesh. Speaking of Gilgamesh, he attacks Sakura AND GETS TAKEN OUT. Let’s clarify this shall we? Gilgamesh...fucking Gilgamesh gets caught in the Worf Effect. Holy shit...

So Shirou’s desperately trying to deny what Sakura is doing. There’s no easy way to say this but Shirou officially has blood on his hands. People have already died and he knows they’ve died because of his indecision. Then Rin explains that she knew about Shirou before, the same way Sakura did. So that’s what she was referring to at the end of UBW. Well isn’t it nice to know that you can attract girls without even knowing just by being an idiot? Let’s ignore the massive coincidence that the only two girls to notice Shirou then just happened to have been related in such a ridiculously fucked up and unlikely way. The bigger coincidence is that Rin picks the worse time to say it, not just because it was a completely random change of subject but also that Sakura overhears it and just so happens to harbour deadly feelings of jealously already. Oh joy. Then Shirou finally learns that Sakura is becoming the Holy Grail. So basically she’s fucked and there’s absolutely nothing that can be done. And we also learn that psychology in this world is strictly Freudian. Lovely.

Well Shirou comes to the dilemma of whether or not to kill her and decides to not to. He essentially becomes a bad guy. This would’ve been good if the game wasn’t making Shirou out to be a good guy instead:

Spoiler for wut:

Personally I would’ve rationalized it by getting the whole picture first and not just take Zoken’s word for it. I wonder what incredibly convenient plot element will be added now to turn things around so Shirou doesn’t have to become a complete monster? Ah, the answer comes from everybody’s favourite psychopathic priest.

Anyway Sakura goes to confront Zoken (Oh boy, I wonder how that’ll turn out) ordering Rider to make sure Rin didn’t leave (for some reason she didn’t think to extend that command to include Shirou). Anyway, Shirou finds out that the spawn of the devil tainted the Holy Grail and now it’s trying to be reborn through Sakura. I would have so laughed if it turned out that the shadow thing couldn’t have actually been born but now that Shirou had sex with her it could. It would just been the most awesome message against unprotected sex ever. Anyway Kotomine asks what Shirou would do if he does manage to save Sakura since she’s already killed people. Apparently he subscribes to a philosophy and believes that intentions don’t matter and Sakura must repay for her crimes with something of equal value (Personally I think it’s actually ALL Zoken’s fault and Sakura is completely blameless but whatever. I’m not dickish enough to say my views are right and his isn’t) But he says he won’t let that happen. Odd. His morals tell him that doing so is wrong so instead of discarding these morals as false like any other person, he simply accepts that he’s doing the wrong thing for the sake of a selfish desire. I’m not quite sure what to make of that. Is he needlessly tormenting himself or is he just cynically realistic? I can’t tell. Anyway, what the hell is the deal with Kotomine anyway? If he knew he had issues and wanted to find out why, did the thought not occur to him to seek psychiatric help? Frankly a lot of characters here could use psychiatric help...

Then a whole load of shit happens. Bastard Shinji tries to rape Sakura. Sakura kills the fucking bastard (That’s one death Shirou doesn’t have to atone for), goes insane and decides to give up, become the Holy Grail and NOT try and kill Zoken or some strange reason. Insanity sure can be a convenient thing. Makes you wonder what Epiphany Therapy or equivalent Sakura will get that will cure her from her insanity despite that such a psychological problem would probably take years of therapy and a shit load of citalopram. Then there’s a confrontation between Sakura and Rin who is a real bitch to Sakura. Wow she’s evidently a believer of tough love. Then Ilya takes a hell of a lot of time to decide to talk Sakura out of killing Shirou and Rin. You know, you could’ve tried that before Rin got caught in the evil mud...

Then Kotomine remarks how apparently Rin’s related to vampires...

Spoiler for HURR:

And what’s up with Rin? Did she know that Sakura was killing people all along or something. So Shirou, Ilya AND Rin knew but none of them talked to each other about it and form a plan together because they were afraid of each other and facing up to the issue. Brilliant. Nice Job Breaking It you three.

Then Kotomine teams up with Shirou and they go after Ilya. Shirou meets Ilya again and comes across a dilemma of whether or not to bring her back...or not. Lol, real subtle, Nasu. Anyway, Kotomine Takes A Level In Badass and outsmarts both Zoken and Assassin. You are awesome Kotomine, you really are. Shame Dark Sakura kills you. Dark Berserker catches up but Shirou takes the shroud off, levels up and takes down Berserker in the most awesome way possible. For some strange reason he doesn’t die like he’s supposed to (though I saw that coming a mile away). Well at least it’s fucking up his mind, but it better be a permanent problem (lol, I’m such an ass). Naturally though, Shirou manages to survive in the end by pure luck as Saber doesn’t do anything. Later Ilya gives a lot of info dumping and Sakura drops by to tell them to gtfo but it doesn’t work. Odd Sakura doesn’t seem that crazy actually. Then they go along with the plan to project this Plot Device sword that’ll make all the difference, and succeed and Shirou convinces Rider to join forces before the final day.

Then it turns out Zoken isn’t actually dead. *sigh* I just want this sick bastard to die so much. Luckily Sakura kills Zoken quite easily. Lol, so when Kotomine said removing the crest worm would kill Sakura he was just trolling Shirou wasn’t he? Blatant lies. You know what else are blatant lies? This:

Spoiler for Lies:

This is probably unintentional on the authors part but I’m actually starting to like this Sakura more than the normal one. Anyway Shirou and Rider face Saber and Rin faces Sakura in what has to be the most incredibly epic sisterly rivalry EVAR!!!! Meanwhile Rider and Dark Saber have an epic fight and Rider manages to wound Dark Saber with Shirou’s help, so Shirou goes to over to deliver the final blow only to find that Saber has perhaps come to her sense, so Shirou - NOOOOOOOOOOO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING SHIROU?!?!?! WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!?!?!?!

*kills Saber*

Spoiler for *deep intake*:

The only reason I’m accepting this is because Saber would’ve disappeared anyway so there wasn’t really anyway to save her. I refuse to accept the idea its okay to dedicate yourself to one person if it means at the expense of others. Thank you, Heaven’s Feel, for teaching me that. It was, however, important for Shirou to fully realise the implications of his beliefs.

NOW ONTO THE MAGICAL GIRL BATTLE! Rin dispels Dark Sakura’s curses with ease, and Dark Sakura cries her heart out but Rin has none of it and starts being a real bitch again. Thankfully it was all just a touching facade and Rin couldn’t go through with it after all. This was very touching; however, I can NOT accept the fact that Sakura is blaming herself for this. As far as I can see, she’s totally blameless in everything, so it’s a bit hard for me to accept that this is what snaps Sakura back into reality.

Then Shirou comes to rescue Dark Sakura with his Gar determination. But he says Sakura has to take responsibility. Like I said, I think these are beliefs that are conflicting with my own so it’s kinda irritating that THIS turns out to be the Epiphany Therapy that suddenly cures Sakura of her trauma. And to save Sakura, he projects...


....



...Rule Breaker...



....


*deep breath*


AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!
That is really fucking convenient. Wait, couldn’t Shirou have just projected rule breaker before the final fight and show it to Rin to tell her “look, you don’t have to kill her. You can just break the contract using this!” That wouldn’t have worked why?

So this is the end right? Sakura has been saved and it’s all over? Nope. HERE COOOMES KOTOMINEEEEEEE!!!!

Spoiler for squee:

He gives a lot of philosophical ramble: ironically proves to Shirou that he can’t talk about what is evil and what isn’t (But apparently we’re still supposed to believe that Shirou’s the good guy right? You know what, I’m just to believe he’s the lesser of two evils) aswell as explain why he wants Angra Manyu (It actually explains a lot and gives Kotomine a lot more depth which I really appreciate) but then degrades this epic finale to a shonen style fist fight.

OH FOR FUCK SAKE, IS ZOKEN STILL NOT DEAD YET?!?! Let me guess Shinji’s still alive too? WTF, did Ilya poke-evolve? Damn it, I can’t believe this bastard gets a Redemption Equals Death. He so shouldn’t get one.

...and Kotomine dies because he ran out of time...wut? That’s a little anticlimactic...
But Ilya makes up for it by making a touching Heroic Sacrifice. ILYA FOREVER! THE GREATEST LOLI IN FICTION!

Epilogue:

Apparently Shirou got his new body from this lady:

Spoiler for Aozaki Touko:

WTF?! Rider was saved but not Saber?!?! Bastards...And why the hell did they act like Shirou was dead. Scaring me like that for nothing. Bastards. Damn, I forgot Shirou had such a stupid ass face. Bastard. And the normal ending is just too depressing for me to even comment on. Bastards...

So what are my final impressions? I think first I ought to point out the problems I had with the other routes:



Many of these problems aren’t much of a problem in this route. The RPG-like battling I can sort have handle because in this route it’s mostly the masters that do the leg work and the servants take the back seat. The sex scenes aren’t much a problem for me this time, either. Unlike Fate and UBW most of the storyline isn’t spent on conflicts with other masters in order to slowly build up the connection to the main storyline. However, the first half can be a bit uninteresting and they’re not exactly subtle on what the shadow thing was. And whether or not you empathise with Sakura can be a major factor in your enjoyment of this route. In the end I only managed to start empathising with her AFTER she went batshit insane. That's kinda disappointing for me since this is the route whether the romance becomes more relevant. Compared to the routes i have to say that the finale in this route was by far much more epic and “finale-like” than the previous routes and I ended up enjoying it a lot. There are some minor problems I’ve had that I’ve already pointed out but these are only minor complaints and it’s just me being picky.

Final Scores:
Anime: 4/10
Fate Route: 5/10
Unlimited Blade Works: 7/10
Heaven's Feel: 8/10

Yeah, that's reasonable. I'd say that the parts of the game you seem to like the least (the Servant vs. Servant conflicts and such) were the parts I liked the most, so it does make sense we'd have largely opposite opinions. I thrive on grand, elaborate shonen-esque battle sequences with power-ups and glowy beams and crap, so HF didn't really click for me until near the end when Shirou started pouring out toxic amounts of Raw Awesome. That was enough to save the route for me, but came too late for me to call HF anything other than 'my third favorite'. Still, I'll admit that the finale from Dark Sakura's first appearance onward was excellent; I just found a lot of what came before that a slog.