I want to beat up Federico Giallo with a baseball bat but also I love him and I want to give him a kiss. I'm not beating the tsundere allegation.
Overall, it's a pretty good event! It's fascinating how this story commit so much to its characters that it doesn't bother with capital L Lore at all. You want to know why the monastery was important? What's the cube that follows Executor around? Why was he made a saint? Fuck you. Instead, here's how a group of people surmount prejudices and material wants to help each other and live together in harmony. Here's how, despite their effort, when a people are starving a little crack is enough to make things come crashing down.
Oh Hortus de Escapismo is so bleak. People die gruesomely, hopes are crushed mercilessly. Last year, Hypergryph gave us depression in new year with Lingering Echoes. I guess we're continuing the tradition.
Anyway, Federico! Federico Giallo! Saint Executor Federico Giallo Ex Foedere! God, he's so autistic, and he's written so well as one. The way he can't read the room? A one-track mind, hyperfocused on his task? Why is he so bad at reading the room, I want to beat him up. I want to teach him manners, by giving him a book and a set instruction and maybe he'll understand, he'll understand eventually that he doesn't have to empathize with what other people are feelings, he just have to know that it will be in his best interest to understand why those feelings arise and how to respond to them.
And he's learning! From watching people do desperate things when all their hope is lost. It did not escape my notice that he started off saying "I don't understand" as a matter of fact, to saying "I don't understand" as a first step to asking questions. Oh, Federico, you must have lived your life not understanding so much, with your mind that works so differently from everyone else.
Further talk below the line is spoiler (or at least will only make sense if you've read the story too).
Spoiler talks in here
I started the event wondering. "Why the heck was he made a saint? That's so random. Is Laterano really this random?"
And then midway through I was like "Federico! Federico what the hell! You're a SAINT. You OUTRANK EVERYONE HERE. You can MAKE YOUR OWN DECISIONS. DO SOMETHING!"
So was Laterano's God-machine expecting that the Sanktas will have to make their own judgment, eventually? And so spit out the names of those who absolutely, must be the first to learn to ask questions and make their own decisions? Who knows, tbh. Hortus feels like it's just the beginning of something big, just like Federico feels like he's only at the cusp of his character development. Now the question is if the game is deliberately leaving that open for interpretation, or if they're actually planning for a long plotline that might, idk, take another three, four years to see through.
Aside from that, the actual story in Hortus de Escapismo is also, unfortunately, kinda confusing? Like, what was Oren's deal? Why would massacring the Sarkaz solve his problem? The problem, from how I took it, is that that if news got out there's a Sankta monastery who accepted Sarkaz members, and since Sarkaz got absolutely terrible rep after invading Londinium, it'll tarnish Laterano's reputation. Shouldn't he be massacring everyone, then? And why did he stop, after Federico solved the case of who started the fire?
Why did Richele help Oren? What did he get out of it? Why did Serpilia? In what way did they help him, even?
Why was the abbot trying to turn everyone into seaborn? Wait no, this one make sense. He's lost faith in Laterano and he can't abandon his people to the barrenlands, so he thought being together as seaborn would be just as well, but he ended up abandoning the plan. Ok cool. But what happened to the seaborn bread he didn't end up serving? Did Clément eat all of it?
This one's not confusing to me, but I guess it could be if you weren't paying attention: Gerald's death was tragic as hell and absolutely unnecessary, but he didn't know that. He didn't know that the Lateran army was not after him in particular. I wonder if Federico understood the significance. He would have stopped the Lateran army anyway (wait, would he? Violence would be against his task to bring order), but did seeing what Gerald did shake him? Nudged him?
Anyway. Good event. I absolutely will not recommend this to newcomers. Storywise, read Guide Ahead first. Gameplay-wise, oh man there's so many things going on here, I won't wish it on a newcomer. One one hand, you can solve it with a low-level team, on the other hand you need plenty of experience with the game to attempt it. I hope this event isn't giving some poor newcomer out there hell.
