Reuniting with Koto.../Shattered Time: Rewind/Part 16

[@ardrethshadow9338]

Again looking at Amor Fati as a "template," MC is still kind of high on his "victory" over Joichiro, but he doesn't do anything unspeakable to Natsuki like that other guy did to Sayori (and just totally enraged me more than I already was). I kind of looked at Revenge of the Sith for the scene with Natsuki and MC, mirroring Anakin and Padme when he's completely consumed by his lust for power. In this case, he just happens to have an evil reindeer man and a dark entity controlling him like a puppet. He thankfully snaps out of it before he does anything regrettable (looking at you, AF) thanks to Natsuki getting through to him. The Kotonoha sequence was something. I cried while writing it. I cried the few times I had to revise and rewrite it. I credit while voice-acting it. And I cried while editing the video for the dev commentary. Aside from just the pure heartbreak that's already in the scene, I suppose it hit me harder for the simple fact I still miss both Madeleine and Darlene to this very day. Both gone and out of my life for different reasons, but still painful to think back to how happy I was when they were part of my life for whatever time I had with them. The same way MC is here thinking back to how happy he was with Kotonoha, just for Joichiro to literally rip that away from him. I guess you can say the sort of "lesson" with this mod is about the importance of moving forward in life. MC even says that he's caught up in the past. He's still mourning Kotonoha and in addition to blaming himself for "failing" her, he's even there thinking about how forgetting her would be the same as never acting like she mattered to him in the first place. Then he meets Natsuki and starts falling in love again. His meeting with Kotonoha was meant to not just serve as a temporary farewell, but also to show that although we may miss the people we love, they're always still with us. And in some ways, they'd want us to carry on and live a fulfilling life. Kind of like some of the last words my mother ever said to me when my father was judging me for not living up to his standards for me.

[@Dokizoth]

THat Koto scene hit really hard, you really cooked with that one

[@d4rkghost80]

Brother, the scene was incredible, be proud of It, you deserve after writing with such passion, absolutely loved It!

[@d4rkghost80]

Good video!! Awesome!!

[@Dokizoth]

Great to hear!

[@ardrethshadow9338]

To the people who wrote this mod off for being a fantasy mod and thereby just complete uninteresting nonsense... In some ways, I can sort of understand why you feel like this mod is a load of nonsense and pointless garbage that has no meaning. At the same time, though, I feel bad that you seem to be close-minded about being open to new ideas and concepts. If you strip away the fantasy elements, there is still a meaningful story at the heart of this mod about loss, love, grief, and trying to move forward when the world seems like it's crashing down around you. It's about opening yourself up at the risk of being hurt again in order to heal and continue forward. In every mod I've written, I put my heart and soul into it. My happiness. My anger. My sadness. My pain. And probably the most obvious, the loss I feel since losing my mother and Darlene (and the added pain of Maddy essentially forgetting about me). It's our experiences that make the stories of our lives interesting in their own right. And through most of the mods I've written, they all pay tribute to the people who meant a lot to me and even shaped the person I became (or in Captive Heart's case, paying "tribute" to my father and how it led to me having a low opinion of myself). For the useless trivia this time around, there were two songs that went into the relationship. Kind of old songs, but I think they still hit even now. The first being "Forever" by Vertical Horizon, which I head canon as being MC's song/message to Kotonoha for how he misses her and how he's struggling to continue living without her. "You'll be in my Heart" by Phil Collins, which I head canon as Kotonoha's song/message to MC, in the sense that although she never said it to him directly, she loved him more than words could express. In a case of accidentally falling in love with someone you'd never have expected, MC meant a lot to her and even now she's still looking out for him. She even sings a piece of the song to remind MC that even if she's not there physically, she's still there in his heart. So long as he keeps her there, he'll never forget her and she'll never truly be gone.

[@Dokizoth]

I feel like some less grounded elements are not bad in mods if executed correctly, Like here, its done quite well!