i did stay up last night and finish the whole back quarter of neon white, and while i think the game design & most art & soundtrack are a revelation and one of the best experiences i've ever had in a game... holy shit that writing lets it down. like, i kept waiting for it to go 1 level deeper, and Nope. not since i played murder by numbers have i completed a story that felt that bankrupt of character - it's not AS bad, but, it's really really not fully baked. there's like 30-40% of that narrative cake in the middle of Neon White that's just not there and all the frosting is collapsing in. and i reserved my judgment! i got the kind of mediocre first impressions many of my friends did on the writing, but i kept them in the buffer - gotta be open minded and ready for it to surprise you and recontextualize those impressions, art can change your mind at any time. and i waited until i finally hit the title screen again to solidify my opinion, but Nope! No surprise. it's just empty! it's just nothing. within a couple minutes you can be sure that almost every assumption you make about a character based on their trope archetype will never be challenged or subverted. the most complex character in the whole thing, i think, is the fucking prozd funny italian cat angel.
and it's not that i think the writing's Problematic or anything, i honestly like most of the macro plot, but the execution is so not there. compared to the masterful work that went into so much else in the game, it's a staggering dissonance and man does it conclude the whole experience with a dull-ass faceplant.