The finale of the Arcadion is an absolute disapointment.

[GeneralPenny]

all of you people who are excusing this joke of a plot twist by bringing up wrestling dont even watch wrestling
stop making up excuses for bad writing already and hold them accountable for the unbelievable slop you are being fed

insanely infuriating that even in the arcadion story the concept of stakes is non existent

[Jeeqbit]

all of you people who are excusing this joke of a plot twist by bringing up wrestling dont even watch wrestling

Obviously everyone that has brought it up has or they wouldn't even know it's related so this is a strange accusation. It's not exactly hard to watch it. You can literally lookup 1 or 2 segments of wrestling on YouTube and then start to get it. And a lot of people who play this are old enough to have seen it at some point in their life.

stop making up excuses for bad writing already and hold them accountable for the unbelievable slop you are being fed

Wrestling stories themselves are slop these days. Arcadion's story was literally more interesting than almost anything actual wrestling companies do now.

You've gotta go back and watch stuff that Hulk Hogan, Undertaker or Kane did to see anything of the magnitude that Arcadion portrays. They don't have characters with atmosphere like that these days. They're all just boring muscle people.

You wouldn't get a "Brute Bomber" that throws harmless exploding snaps or a "Honey B Lovely" that has moves involving honey and stinging in 2025. You would definitely get characters like Black Cat and Vamp Fatale but they'd be considerably more boring than this game portrays them.

"It's wrestling, it's supposed to be silly!" is not a good argument to me. It's possible, and perfectly reasonable, to do over-the-top pro wrestling things in the ring, and still have a serious story behind the scenes.

There was a serious story behind the scenes though - which was the fact the President had made themselves the host of an egg and actually had to die. Also, the disease was real and was a genuine risk to their life, it's just that they pre-empted that and put them in stasis.

The convoluted ruse pulled over the WoL was cheap writing, plain and simple. How come the WoL couldn't be let in on the plan?

Honestly, the reason is because it would have spoiled the story. If they came to us and said "this is the plan", then they've flat out spoiled the entire Arcardion story for us as players. Now they could have had them whisper it to the Warrior of Light but fade to black so we (the player) don't see the story, but I think to an extent they couldn't have been sure if WoL was the one.

What if the WoL never showed up? Was the President going to continue to put his best fighters into indefinite stasis and just hope that eventually someone strong enough to kill him would appear, all for the ratings?

That's what the story told us, yes.

That's pretty evil, if you ask me.

Well yes. But what else could they do? They were now a monster. The cure was in the extraction of their defeated body. Now, would it have been sufficient for them to simply try and defeat themselves? I don't know, but maybe they could not fully control themselves in this form.

And then we have the surfer dudes committing crimes (breaking and entering, felony property damage, kidnapping), along with near bloodshed in the streets as the fighters challenge the WoL, all waved away with "Nah, we're just playin', bro."

Standard wrestling stuff. You see police in wrestling rings all the time (they are wrestlers in police costumes obviously). You see ambulances and handcuffs in wrestling rings a lot. Sometimes they will have a film play of a wrestler going to another wrestler's house and breaking in. It's all an act. It's all entertainment. Obviously, all participants should be in on it, but there are cases where that doesn't happen, especially in 2025 where it can leak online easily if too many people know.

This isn't much different than what we got, but I can see potential for a much more personal, grounded story.

I guess that could work but I rather found SE's version of the story more fun and entertaining than having the focus be on the backstage politics.

[SpookyKobold]

Wild how almost every forum complaint about the story is easily debunked by.... actually reading the story. Not understanding bakool jaja, thinking the brute bomber had a "stronger soul" like you just didn't read the story lmao. Maybe try reading it first then come back here.

[Vrankyl]

evil, if you ask me. And then we have the surfer dudes committing crimes (breaking and entering, felony property damage, kidnapping), along with near bloodshed in the streets as the fighters challenge the WoL, all waved away with "Nah, we're just playin', bro."

Actually... this sort of thing did happen in Wrestling a lot. It was all still staged. The only difference between what happened in Arcadion and its IRL counter part is that the WoL and Black Cat aren't in on it. Other than that... yeah no that sort of thing was very common in the 90s error of wrestling, and still even happens now. I'm not even a wrestling fan and I know that... granted I am married to a huge wrestling nut.

[RedLolly]

Wild how almost every forum complaint about the story is easily debunked by.... actually reading the story. Not understanding bakool jaja, thinking the brute bomber had a "stronger soul" like you just didn't read the story lmao. Maybe try reading it first then come back here.

Like people being up in arms over shutting down Living Memory... Then I actually played the back half of base DT and yeah, it needed to go without question. Those "people" were just shitty computer programs with 70 layers of personification. The timing with the psychopathy around the real life AI boom is poignant, too. No, the big computer that runs off of Endless Brand Life Aether Gasoline from the soul bleach factory shouldn't keep going. Bruh.

[HiroesX81]

If I actually had one complaint its that not a single chair was thrown XD

[Carin-Eri]

If I actually had one complaint its that not a single chair was thrown XD

Offset by the fact that The Tyrant throws most of the damn ring at us!

[TaleraRistain]

The WoL can't be let in on the plan because, in a real way, the plan depends on the WoL taking it as serious as a heart attack. It is well established that the Warrior of Light loves a good fight, but he doesn't 'burn his life save for reasons he deems worthy.' The problem facing the President is he needed to be killed by someone exceedingly capable, and for all this time no matter how much he tried with the cycle that was causing the problem in the first place, he couldn't find anyone capable of killing him in his lindwyrm form. He's tried, repeatedly. He needed the WoL, but he needed the WoL willing to make EVERYTHING BURN. And you get that by presenting the WoL with the real situation in such a way that makes him want to burn the entire Arcadion down to fix it, not just come up to the penthouse for tea and a little fight with one suicidal monster. Inviting the WoL up for tea, crumpets, and a deathmatch gets you a WoL trying to do something entirely different. Maybe something better, but let's face it, at this point the president is pretty committed to his plan and neither thinks anything else is possible nor trusts the random unproven WoL enough to try a different way.

This, exactly. If the WoL knew, the WoL wouldn't fight him. The WoL would call in every possible Scion to try to both find a cure and a way to revert the President back to a human and disconnect him from the Lindwurm. The WoL enjoys a good fight but the WoL doesn't strike someone down because they say to do it. And when given the choice, they won't sacrifice someone without going to the mat to find every other possible way.

[Godzillaxpowerrangers]

Offset by the fact that The Tyrant throws most of the damn ring at us!

Have it be in his savage fight. Or let monks lb3 turn into a metal chair to smack the others in the face.

[Gwenkatsu]

You've gotta go back and watch stuff that Hulk Hogan, Undertaker or Kane did to see anything of the magnitude that Arcadion portrays. They don't have characters with atmosphere like that these days. They're all just boring muscle people.

I'm old, so I watched wrestling back in the 80s and 90. From an athletic standpoint, their performance is astounding. Unfortunately wrestling is only 10% about athletics, and 90% about people in silly costumes shouting nonsense at each other, making and breaking alliances on a whim, striving for world leadership, or whatever flim-flam the writers came up this week.
No idea why people accept this carnival of 8 year olds as entertainment, but obviously many do.