Writing Tips and Reviews

Let's Look At God Eater

So I finished a play through of GE3, I don't have a PS4, I have an Xbox. And I expected just as much, what I didn't expect, was to cry as hard as I did when Shio left. Grant it, Phym is also still alive, but GE knows how to pull my heart.

What is God Eater? It's a post apocalyptic game about the "Aragami" or "gods" who have taken over the world. These aragami eat everything, and I mean everything. The only thing that lies between the destruction of the world and the aragami are "God Eaters" and everything like them. It changes based on the game. In GE Resurrection it was just the God Eaters, in GE2 it was Blood, and GE3 it's the AGES.

Introduction done, why do I love this series? Let's break it down.

Theme:

The theme is never about good and evil, they effectively toss that out the window during the beginning of the game. It's about survival, there is no good or evil, even the aragami are just trying to survive. I find myself routing for a group only to start routing for the enemy as well.

In GE3, the Crimson Queen is seen as the enemy, then they reveal that they're just trying to live without discrimination. Fenrir has always been the good guys, but the leaders usually do terrible things to rid the world of the aragami. It can mean the death or abandonment of innocent lives in favor for a certain group.

God Eater is about the weak trying to survive while the strong fight for the weak. It's a story about learning what you think is right and wrong. It hammers in the idea that friends and family mean everything and it really hurts when a member is gone. The protagonists always fight so hard to fight for the better of humanity only to learn that the only way for humanity to live, is for another race or world to die. I've stuck some lyrics of God and Man by Go Shina just to show you.

Soundtrack:

"But it hurts to have to leave you so, I don't want to go.
Could this sacrifice cost me my life?"

"Oh, just to live my life again, to treasure every little moment then,
satisfied, I'd leave you all behind, accepting of my fate.
But I am full of grief to leave this life so incomplete.
My dream is coming to the end."

I swear this song was made for Phym.

Just from the soundtrack alone, you learn that nothing will change if nothing is done. But to make a change, something must be sacrificed. I think this is a great theme, and one not done much. People fight and bicker about what's better for the world. Instead of one group trying to save the world and the other trying to destroy it, God Eater says "screw that" and does literally whatever it wants.

Singularity:

Humanoid aragami, whatever. I like that the singularity is always a cute child who needs to be protected. Phym does fight more and is much more of a kid than Shio was. Shio was more a teenager. Phym effectively makes me want to hug her and give her all the candy I have. She doesn't understand everything and it makes for both cute and sad scenes, and sometimes both at the same time.

The singularity is what is needed to destroy or save the world, but they're more than that. They become a loving member of the party, the become the glue that sticks them together, and they become the reason the party continues to fight. If it weren't for them, the party may have just killed each other if they wanted to.

Shio was a member who proved herself through her feats and her will to do more. She felt sad when Soma scolded her, she felt happy when Alisha pet her head, she smiled and laughed with everyone. Shio decides to go the moon instead of destroying the earth, she wanted to save her friends and the people who weren't chosen to be saved. She sent an avatar (not sure what it was actually) just to be with them again. She missed them and looks out to the earth when she thinks of them. She was more than just a plot point, and I love that about God Eater. The important plot device is important both for the story telling and an important person to the characters.