Hot take: I don’t like the CRK TBD stories.
I feel like I’ve been given a giant table of desserts and told I’m not allowed to have any water until I finish them all. It’s not that they’re terrible, they’re just trying to do so much that I just stopped caring. It’s felt like being stuck on the same two pages of a boring textbook for like three hours.
The TBD is not a group that has simple lore that should be introduced all at once, and the way it’s been used just feels old at this point. They should have had SOME introduction to them BEFORE releasing Timekeeper Cookie because this set of updates makes them feel really incompetent. It feels like they’re trying to use the fact that a lot of players also play CROB as a crutch and that’s NOT good writing. I shouldn’t have to consult a whole other piece of media to understand the plot. That makes you no better than Balan Wonderworld!
And as someone who has played several TBD CROB updates, these TBDs don’t feel like the same organization despite the implications that they are (references to Save the Future).
Timekeeper Cookie especially feels very different because of how much more she appears in the story. In CROB, they’re a mysterious figure whose goals and intentions are not entirely clear. They’re not a character who was made to be so present in the narrative, and definitely not in the sense of being outplayed by a whiner who is whining about not winning at a game no one else wanted to play with him.
Oh yeah, and Shadow Milk Cookie doesn’t feel like himself anymore :/ he feels like a plot device.
TLDR: TBD and Shadow Milk Cookie story not good. I got burnt out from CRK trying to read it because it’s so bad.
I hope Ananas Dragon gets a good update. They deserve it.