Despite everything, the storyline was quite solid. The characters meshed just fine, the mystery, the plot twists... Dreadful Night combines everything cliché from the horror genre and uses it to its own advantage. It knows what it is, and forces the characters to live through that suffering. My review may be biased, considering that I kept reading this BL past midnight over the span of 2 weeks, so certain plot twists or discoveries hadn’t surprised me at all (I had read season 1 to early season 2 before). The setting and story premise was already unique by default, trying to escape a 'horror game' that kept looping itself upon death. Bada's stubborn goal-oriented personality made me even more curious about the plot and what could happen next. His design was particularly eye-catching. Eventually, we learn that behind his antics, a lot of desperation and grief hid within. The scene where his thoughts trail off, figuring what he should do next, what clues to gather next, to him being done with the game, sold me. And that was also where my heart strings were last tugged at. It is true that the horror aspect was later pushed to the sidelines. The game’s function was mostly said through dialogue and the rest was later explained in the author’s notes. Season 1 focused on the game mechanics and Bada’s exploration, which I would argue makes it the weakest of all the seasons. The main focus shifted more on Pi Bada’s and Doha’s relationship later on. Honestly, their relationship progressed accordingly like how it’d read itself on paper. I wouldn’t say it’s the deepest relationship out there, but it maintains the character-trope gimmick that fits the genre like a glove, in an ironic sense. Doha loves Bada because he can read him like an open book. Bada loves Doha because he finally filled the emptiness inside him left by the repetitive game cycle. It’s simple and digestible, with little to question about its complexity. A twisted love on paper. Maybe the game just forced them to be this way, which would make sense after all. I gradually grew to roll my eyes at the smut scenes as the plot continued to develop. Since it's a BL genre, I suppose it has to meet the genre's status quo first. The sex scenes generally slowed down the pacing after season 1, which annoyed the hell out of me. Characters gaining sentience and later finding out their past experience was surprising to see though. Especially the scene where the first person gets a nose bleed from all the knowledge overload. The madness gradually amped up to the climax where Doha crashes the car and is left to fight Pi-Seongchan’s psychological warfare, resulting in the loss of Bada’s save file. The idea is cool and the reveal of him being the villain all along was satisfying. The next phase of the story went downhill from that point onward, focusing on Bada’s memory loss, which I found to be slightly unnecessary, and again with the sex scenes. I don’t think there was anything memorable about that section aside from the showcase of Doha’s undying resolve and loyalty to bring Bada back. But did they grow immensely as characters? Not really. It felt like a mild cat-and-mouse chase. But Bada’s save file eventually gets restored as planned. The introduction to the camera and additional exposition about the villager were necessary for the development, yet felt rather clunky to some degree. It was silly though, seeing all of the characters plot against Pi-Seongchan and work together, boosting team morale by placing their hand on top of one another. And so, after the repetitive cycle of collecting endings and possibly hoping for the game to end, we reach the epilogue. Pi-Seongchan is sacrificed, paying for his actions, while everyone drifts toward the gate to exit the game. Everyone thanks Pi Bada before disappearing, and Doha and Bada share one last, tender moment. The bittersweet catharsis after all of the events they have endured brings the game toward a melancholic close. And they all end up in the hospital! So was the game a game in the first place? The whole time, we had assumed that they were trapped in a virtual world and the goal was to escape into their actual, physical world. But that was not the case and the resolution felt rather lackluster for what it was worth, maybe anti-climatic, and disappointing for selling a premise that had held so much potential. All of the characters lose their memories except for Pi Bada. The irony lies in the omnipresence of tropes, justifying the story’s trope-yness. So it makes sense, but it’s rather unsatisfying. Because Doha had talked to Pi Bada about this in the early chapters, asking what he was like in the ‘real’ world (according to my memory), which indirectly exposed the idea of a ‘real REAL world’ besides this one. So all in all, the ending didn’t quite fulfill me, but the irony alleviates my dissatisfaction just a bit. A tropey ending to tie a tropey story. I still remember when there had been only 10 chapters. I had read past season 1 and dropped it after a few chapters in season 2. So I'm quite relieved, now that I've finally digested the story as a whole, without being updated one week at a time with a new chapter. 6 months after the final chapter had been released! Overall, the plot twists were nice, some parts felt lacking, while others were nice. It was good.
Despite everything, the storyline was quite solid. The characters meshed just fine, the mystery, the plot twists... Dreadful Night combines everything cliché from the horror genre and uses it to its own advantage. It knows what it is, and forces the characters to live through that suffering.
My review may be biased, considering that I kept reading this BL past midnight over the span of 2 weeks, so certain plot twists or discoveries hadn’t surprised me at all (I had read season 1 to early season 2 before).
The setting and story premise was already unique by default, trying to escape a 'horror game' that kept looping itself upon death. Bada's stubborn goal-oriented personality made me even more curious about the plot and what could happen next. His design was particularly eye-catching. Eventually, we learn that behind his antics, a lot of desperation and grief hid within. The scene where his thoughts trail off, figuring what he should do next, what clues to gather next, to him being done with the game, sold me. And that was also where my heart strings were last tugged at.
It is true that the horror aspect was later pushed to the sidelines. The game’s function was mostly said through dialogue and the rest was later explained in the author’s notes. Season 1 focused on the game mechanics and Bada’s exploration, which I would argue makes it the weakest of all the seasons. The main focus shifted more on Pi Bada’s and Doha’s relationship later on. Honestly, their relationship progressed accordingly like how it’d read itself on paper. I wouldn’t say it’s the deepest relationship out there, but it maintains the character-trope gimmick that fits the genre like a glove, in an ironic sense. Doha loves Bada because he can read him like an open book. Bada loves Doha because he finally filled the emptiness inside him left by the repetitive game cycle. It’s simple and digestible, with little to question about its complexity. A twisted love on paper. Maybe the game just forced them to be this way, which would make sense after all. I gradually grew to roll my eyes at the smut scenes as the plot continued to develop. Since it's a BL genre, I suppose it has to meet the genre's status quo first. The sex scenes generally slowed down the pacing after season 1, which annoyed the hell out of me.
Characters gaining sentience and later finding out their past experience was surprising to see though. Especially the scene where the first person gets a nose bleed from all the knowledge overload. The madness gradually amped up to the climax where Doha crashes the car and is left to fight Pi-Seongchan’s psychological warfare, resulting in the loss of Bada’s save file. The idea is cool and the reveal of him being the villain all along was satisfying. The next phase of the story went downhill from that point onward, focusing on Bada’s memory loss, which I found to be slightly unnecessary, and again with the sex scenes.
I don’t think there was anything memorable about that section aside from the showcase of Doha’s undying resolve and loyalty to bring Bada back. But did they grow immensely as characters? Not really. It felt like a mild cat-and-mouse chase.
But Bada’s save file eventually gets restored as planned. The introduction to the camera and additional exposition about the villager were necessary for the development, yet felt rather clunky to some degree. It was silly though, seeing all of the characters plot against Pi-Seongchan and work together, boosting team morale by placing their hand on top of one another.
And so, after the repetitive cycle of collecting endings and possibly hoping for the game to end, we reach the epilogue. Pi-Seongchan is sacrificed, paying for his actions, while everyone drifts toward the gate to exit the game. Everyone thanks Pi Bada before disappearing, and Doha and Bada share one last, tender moment. The bittersweet catharsis after all of the events they have endured brings the game toward a melancholic close. And they all end up in the hospital!
So was the game a game in the first place? The whole time, we had assumed that they were trapped in a virtual world and the goal was to escape into their actual, physical world. But that was not the case and the resolution felt rather lackluster for what it was worth, maybe anti-climatic, and disappointing for selling a premise that had held so much potential. All of the characters lose their memories except for Pi Bada. The irony lies in the omnipresence of tropes, justifying the story’s trope-yness. So it makes sense, but it’s rather unsatisfying. Because Doha had talked to Pi Bada about this in the early chapters, asking what he was like in the ‘real’ world (according to my memory), which indirectly exposed the idea of a ‘real REAL world’ besides this one. So all in all, the ending didn’t quite fulfill me, but the irony alleviates my dissatisfaction just a bit. A tropey ending to tie a tropey story.
I still remember when there had been only 10 chapters. I had read past season 1 and dropped it after a few chapters in season 2. So I'm quite relieved, now that I've finally digested the story as a whole, without being updated one week at a time with a new chapter. 6 months after the final chapter had been released!
Overall, the plot twists were nice, some parts felt lacking, while others were nice. It was good.