Thoughts on Li (Spoilers)

[Zoko]

Sounds like a pretty far fetched theory. I don't think it would really make much of a difference if Eric had a brother who was Li's great-ancestor or something because Naija was created thousands (is that right? Hundreds sounds more likely. At least long enough to create the other civilizations and Aquaria itself) of years after Eric's "incident".

[Alphasoldier]

I've always wondered this myself, how long has the civilisations been there.

Because the story of Mithalas seems like ages old. First making a civilisation, a kingdom, most likely current prince Drask or their parents were NOT the first ones to rule, seeing the creator told that he first tried to make many creatures to be his friend, then he made Mia and Mia made Naija. This alone taking quite a long time, over a millenia, unless he spawned everyone at their adult stage (except Naija of course), then it could've been just 50 years for all we know.

And then I'm not even talking about the sun temple and how much time that has most likely taken.

So, finally, IF Lucien, who is obviously Li and Naija's son WOULD go back to the floating castle it'd most likely be either dead or just as corrupted as the world was underwater. Or maybe even a thriving kingdom, who know? O:

[Choclatechipcookielover]

Well if it IS a thriving civilization by the time Lucien checks it out, I'd like to know who started rebuilding it. I mean, the place was pretty much demolished by those comets.

Where did Eric get all this power anyway. What was that spirit that gave him life?

[Alphasoldier]

Eric got the power from the comets that hit the place in the first place. Seeing he didn't die on first impact, he was exposed to the crystals and presumably taken over by some ominous powerful spirit.

Perhaps someone else gained the same sort of spirit but was still on the floating island? Who knows!? Alec does! D:<

[Zoko]

He might, he might not. It could all be in conception

[Glamador]

Well I never said the blood relation wasn't heavily diluted.  Obviously Mithala had to have time to begin, thrive, fall, and decay so it must have been at least a couple hundred, if not thousand, years.  Anyway another theory could be that Li was exposed the red crystal comet material.  Low levels of comet radiation might permeate the planet by that point, considering how many impacted.

[blackchimes]

Funny. My biggest complaint about the game is Li.

The whole love thing feels forced or added on as an afterthought. It's as if they felt they needed a reason for the player to go and kill the last boss so they added a lover that could be conveniently kidnapped. Call me old-fashioned, but destroying several civilizations is enough of a crime to warrant death penalty already; You don't really need to make it personal.

Li appears, Naija somehow makes him merman, and then he's completely irrelevant to the game till the precise moment he gets captured(the fact that you need him to open doors to Sunken City is just an excuse for forcing the player to have him "in the inventory" after the Mom and Dad boss). One of the first things I did after getting him was to visit the crashed sub in The Veil. He didn't really care. He didn't care about rest of the game, either. He's just blindly following you around and only interaction with him is switching his combat mode on and off. Mechanics-wise, he's exactly like just another pet: minor boost to your combat capabilities.

In fact, that raises some rather disturbing questions. Just what did Naija do to Li? He always follows you or stays where you tell him to. He never speaks(it's true that humans can't speak well underwater, but there's fresh air in the very Li cave so he could simply climb out of the water). Doesn't the guy have any friends or family? Is he last human left alive, just like Naija? If not, I'd imagine him at least letting his mom know he met this mermaid and to not wait with the dinner. As mentioned above, he acts just like a pet, so the only logical conclusion is that Naija lobotomized him when making him merman. You don't know the power of the Dark Side The Verse, indeed.

Then there's the aesthetics. Li's animations are poor(at least compared to Naija's) and because he can't change forms he gets left behind all the time. And while it's easy to accept bosses and aquatic life ignoring your pet, it's much less believable that they would ignore something bigger than Naija attacking them.

So the bottom line is, I feel that the whole love thing hurts the game's back story more than it helps. It would be much simpler to make the recurring theme "civilization x destroyed by Creator", and after visiting all of them Naija realizes that's who is essentially responsible for her loneliness so she kicks his ass(which of course results in unexpected happy end we all know). Don't get me wrong, the game is fantastic, but the story is just hard to swallow, and that's something you need to do every time you play.


On a side note, I read on the Marian site that it will deal with finding love as well and roll my eyes. Dear developers, seriously, you can make a meaningful/"art" game without love themes...

[Alphasoldier]

Okay, besides bumping this thread with just narrow minded negativity let's look at your post.

The dialog in the game about Li, especially in the first one with the creator shows that he's obviously feared and has a big role in the game. That the tainted boy, controlled by powers that effect only the waters envies or despises the one who lives on the land. Obviously not a late add-on.

Naija uses the verse so Li can breath underwater (focuses the small amount of air in the water to him, perhaps away from him, maybe both) , the 'excuse' of having him in your inventory is simply because you need him at the boss fight, or you could've left him at home. The crashed sub was I believe a latter addition and shows that he is STRANDED at that location, just looking around for the girl he once met there, convinced she actually lives while many others have may told otherwise.

He's staying with her because she's all he has left perhaps? Either casted out by his own society or it had troubles or whatever.

The creatures in Aquaria could perhaps not see Li as a threat, or perhaps instead as a deity, second it doesn't fit into the game to have him die so they didn't make him overly useful.

Bottom line, I think that the creators of this game purposely have given Li a lesser role in the story instead of making him an obnoxious addition.

And on the side note, love is part of life, if you want to walk in someone's footsteps love is part of it, get over it. This game isn't BASED around love.

[Xiagan]

What Alpha said.

But I can tell you that you are not alone with your complaints. A lot of people don't like Li, mostly for the reasons you mentioned.

[Alec]

there are a lot of different facets to "love" that don't involve simply "finding a partner"