Line #6 YMMV/CytusII


1	* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: A lot of [[spoiler:Noah's true character is left up in the air until his final moments where he shows a genuine desire to repent and disgust towards his prior actions. While he has expressed a desire to repent throughout the story, he attempts to do so in some pretty atrocious ways such as robbing Kaori of her identity and then attempting to erase her memories all over again after confessing his crimes to her. It isn't made clear if him turning Kaori into Aroma's duplicate was simply him being obsessed with Aroma or if he genuinely wanted a second shot at actually being a real ParentalSubstitute after giving into his vices the first time.]]
2	* AngstWhatAngst: [[spoiler:Even after her memories come back, PAFF (who has both Aroma and Kaori's memories) doesn't even act antsy when she meets Noah again, despite the incredibly dubious circumstances of their reunion. All things considered, she's incredibly forgiving to an almost saint-like degree to the man who erased her original identity and attempted to rape the original Aroma.]]
3	* AntiClimaxBoss:
4	** The FinalBoss song of the main storyline, " ͟͝͞Ⅱ́̕", only has a rating of 14 on Chaos difficulty. For comparison, "V.", the previous boss song, is a Chaos 15, the highest rating possible. Most of its difficulty also comes simply from [[EpicRocking its sheer length]], rather than actually having a challenging note pattern, and no individual section would feel out place in a Chaos 13 or even 12 song.
5	** In more a story-sense. [[spoiler:Diego was built up throughout as a fairly major threat, only for him and many of his associates to be killed off by Xenon somewhat suddenly.]]
6	* BrokenBase: Rayark's DLC practices are heavily contested. Characters and Black Market packs are both priced at around $1 per songs: some players think it's a fair price compared to other games (for example, ''VideoGame/RockBand'' set the standard for rhythm game song DLC at $2 each), especially considering how the base game costs only $1.99, while others feel that it's too expensive since all of the characters and packs together can cost over $100, and much of the game's story is locked behind these paywalls.
7	* CatharsisFactor: [[spoiler:After what he pulled on Joe and being a guilty party in Kaori's TraumaCongaLine, it's safe to say that Diego dying at the hands of Xenon was completely deserved.]]
8	* ContestedSequel: Fans of ''Cytus II'' prefer it over the original ''VideoGame/{{Cytus}}'' for its aesthetic, fleshed out story, and increased difficulty, while detractors [[PlayTheGameSkipTheStory find the story to be too in the way]], despise the excessive use of paid DLC, feel that the game resorts to FakeDifficulty for more difficult charts, and the tedious LevelGrinding that one has to do to progress said story and unlock new songs.
9	* DieForOurShip: Cherry is viewed rather negatively by fans who ship Xenon with either [=ConneR=] or Neko. [[spoiler:Of course, her actual death was met with a [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor lot more mourning than applause]].]] Interestingly enough, [[spoiler:Hayato hasn't been nearly as negatively received despite his ShipTease with Aroma. Most of the people who shipped Aroma with Neko just accepted that the ship was sunk.]]
10	* EnjoyTheStorySkipTheGame: Depending on how many characters you have, ''Cytus II'' has a 40 to ''whopping 70-hour-long'' story, on par with ''VisualNovel/FateStayNight''. It has 12 main characters[[note]]PAFF, Neko, ROBO_Head, Xenon, Conner, Cherry, JOE, Ivy, Sagar, Rin, Vanessa, and Ilka[[/note]] with an additional five guest characters[[note]]Miku, Kizuna AI, Alice, Hans, and Kaf[[/note]] who are also nicely integrated into the story. As a result, the game is not for [[PlayTheGameSkipTheStory people expecting a "normal" rhythm game]], as rhythm games in general tend to have a low or nonexistent [[StoryToGameplayRatio Story-to-Gameplay Ratio]]. That isn't to say the gameplay is poor by any means; it is a huge improvement over [[VideoGame/{{Cytus}} its prequel]] with new game mechanics and four difficulty levels (plus [[HarderThanHard one more]] once the story is finished).
11	* FandomHeresy: Saying "''Cytus II'' should have less plot." will make every ''Cytus II'' fan hate your guts.
12	* HarsherInHindsight:
13	** A major plot point in Aroma's story is Aroma refusing to perform after collapsing on stage while trying to sing Gravity. Nikki Simmons, who sang a lot of songs for both PAFF and the Aroma DLC and is closely associated with Aroma's character in general within the fandom, would announce on August 5, 2019 that she would be [[https://youtu.be/OphzsAb9P1k taking a break from singing to explore other venues]], feeling that she's plateaued as a singer. Fortunately, she returned the following year to sing an ImageSong for the game ''VideoGame/NoStraightRoads''.
14	** Cherry was hit a bit by the DieForOurShip crowd, with people disliking her character partially for her relationship with Xenon. [[spoiler:Come the 2.6 update, they basically got their [[KillTheCutie wish granted]].]]
15	* HilariousInHindsight: Fans have long since dreamt of Nikki Simmons voicing PAFF, the character she does several of the songs for. Come the announcement of the game ''VideoGame/NoStraightRoads'' where she's voicing a character who happens to be an incredibly popular IdolSinger that performs in virtual space.
16	* HesJustHiding: [[spoiler:Fans were very quick to point out ways Cherry could survive despite the 2.6 update very heavily suggesting she died of her wounds. She's confirmed dead in the 2.7 update, but the update after that suggests she's actually still alive in some capacity. The 3.0 update proceeds to exploit this, with Xenon meeting an illusion created by Vanessa in digital space to steer him into a trap.]]
17	* HoYay:
18	** Quite a few fans have interpreted [=ConneR=]'s rather coy interactions with Xenon in an almost flirtatious light. [=ConneR=] in general does seem to have a particularly keen interest in Xenon. Though Xenon is less than receptive of [=ConneR=], it could also be seen as Xenon being a {{Tsundere}}. [[spoiler:Funnily enough, [=ConneR=] casually drops to Joe that he's completely straight in the 3.0 update.]]
19	** There are a number of hints that Neko is into girls. Her first interaction with her friend Linda had Neko come up from behind Linda and hug her by the waist, not to mention she gushes on several occasions about how cute Linda is. The subtext is arguably even more pronounced with her interactions with Aroma. They become close friends ''incredibly'' fast after Neko lets her stay in her room. There's also the scene where Neko gets a look at Aroma's figure and says her boobs look amazing. Then there's the scene afterwards where Neko [[SkinshipGrope straight-up fondles said boobs]].
20	** Despite Ivy describing her and Vanessa's relationship as being like sisters, their friendship borders on PseudoRomanticFriendship with how devoted they are to each other, Ivy especially considering the sheer planning she went through just to wake Vanessa up.
21	* ItWasHisSled: Good luck avoiding fan art of Xenon without his helmet or of Ivy and Vanessa together.
22	* MemeticMutation:
23	** JUST NEKO [[labelnote:Explanation (Spoilers)]]Neko#ΦωΦ's level 25 story event has [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou a fourth-wall breaking attack from [=AEsir=] against the player]], leaving you with a glitchy character menu where all of the options are replaced with Neko#ΦωΦ. The event has been compared to a scene out of ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'', and more specifically the "JUST MONIKA" meme from that game.[[/labelnote]]
24	** [=#InConneRWeTrust=][[labelnote:Explanation]]Due to [=ConneR=] being one of the most proactive in discovering the world's secrets, his active resistance against the oppressive ARC, and his general vibe of being a gentlemanly action hero, some fans believe he'll be the one to resolve the story's conflict.[[/labelnote]]
25	** PAFF/PAFF/PAFF/[[labelnote:Explanation]]The InUniverse emoticon PAFF's fans use to represent them cheering for her. The out of universe fandom has picked up on this. They've also inserted other character names in.[[/labelnote]]
26	** [=#PrayForPAFF=] [[labelnote:Explanation]]The InUniverse hashtag after news gets out of PAFF collapsing on stage. Out of universe, fans started using this hashtag as well after finding out just how frankly traumatic Aroma's life was revealed to be near the end of her DLC chapter.[[/labelnote]]
27	** Cherry cries [[labelnote:Explanation]]Players have picked up on the fact that many of Cherry's recent logs conclude with her crying. It's become a RunningGag in the fandom.[[/labelnote]]
28	** [X] is [=AEsir=] [[labelnote:Explanation]]Because [=AEsir=] was a character whose motives and identity were completely shrouded in mystery, numerous players theorized which character he could potentially be. Eventually, people started jokingly including incredibly improbable suggestions. This continues to be a running joke even after Ivy was revealed.[[/labelnote]]
29	* MisBlamed: A lot of players utterly ''loathe'' Nate [[spoiler:for gunning down Ivy right when she was about to peacefully save Vanessa. In reality, Nate was the only member of the ARC raid party who attempted to ''negotiate'' with Ivy, sensing that there was more to her story than her being the source of the Architect invasion. The one responsible for gunning Ivy down was an unnamed agent accompanying him, who overruled his attempts because the higher-ups explicitly ordered them to destroy Ivy and not ask questions.]]
30	* MoralEventHorizon:
31	** Many players completely lost sympathy for [[spoiler:Noah after it was revealed that he [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil sexually assaulted]] a 16-year-old Aroma. Even after it was further revealed that he passed out before he could go through with it, the intent was ''very'' clear, and his lack of repentance afterwards firmly cements that he attempted to cross the line.]]
32	** [[MadScientist Kim]] already crossed it by performing dangerous experiments on infants, but he proceeds to careen over it even further when he [[spoiler:leaves them all in the wastelands to die to TheVirus after the experiments were deemed a failure]]. And he just keeps ''going'' after that.
33	* TheScrappy: Nate, an agent working for ARC, is an interesting example. Players mostly regarded him with indifference when he was first introduced, but after [[spoiler: gunning Ivy down right as she was about to peacefully save Vanessa]], he quickly became ''very'' hated by the player-base to the point where many wish [[spoiler: there was a way to kill him beforehand. Admittedly, the animosity is somewhat [[MisplacedRetribution misplaced]] as he was actually the one member of the squad trying to ''negotiate'' with Ivy. It was really one of the trigger-happy agents accompanying him who opened fire on account of it being [[JustFollowingOrders the command of the higher-ups]]]].
34	* ScrappyMechanic:
35	** The CAPSO system allows players to win random prizes after playing enough songs. These include things like new songs, [[HarderThanHard Glitch charts]], and character skins. However, you can earn skins and charts for characters you haven't purchased yet (which makes them useless until you buy that character), there's a chance that you might earn no prize at all (even if you still have plenty of prizes left to unlock), and activating the CAPSO machine in the first place requires a microtransaction (in a game that's already criticized for having a lot of things to buy).
36	** Version 4.7 finally introduces Master Mode, where the sole scoring system is a harder variant of the accuracy-based TP system, and which has the "Master" judgement above C-Perfect. Unfortunately, it has two major problems:
37	*** Unlocking Master Mode for each songs requires you to grind for and spend CAPSO, forcing you to ration your CAPSO if you still have songs and charts left to unlock.
38	*** Master Mode is only available for Chaos and Glitch charts. Not skilled enough to play a song's Chaos chart, or otherwise just want to use Master Mode on an Easy or Hard chart? Too bad.
39	* ShockingMoments:
40	** Probably one of the most depressing versions of this occurred in the 2.6 update of Crystal [=PuNK=] with the [[spoiler:[[CharacterDeath death of Cherry]], one of the ''main characters''. Needless to say, everyone was caught off guard.]]
41	** Version 4.0 (Vanessa Level 50) has TheReveal that [[spoiler:the whole game is a dream of you, the player, while you're in a coma caused by the Ender virus]].
42	* {{Starboarding}}: PAFF x Neko was, and still is, a very popular ship, but when Hayato started getting more and more ShipTease with PAFF, some shippers instead started to believe that Neko has an unrequited crush on PAFF, [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy yet still supports PAFF and Hayato's relationship]].
43	* ThatOneLevel:
44	** "Space Alien" from Sagar's pack quickly became infamous for its build-up section, where the scan line slows to a crawl (making it harder to judge the song's rhythm) while the chart turns into a chaotic mess of tap and tap-drag notes which is very difficult to navigate, especially once the scan line starts to speed up again while the pattern becomes more complex and harder to follow. Despite its rating of Chaos 13, most players view it as harder than the majority of Chaos 14 songs, and even a few of the lower-end 15s.
45	** In a different way, the Crystal [=PuNK=] folder. At some point in the story you have to level them up to 25, and you start with a measly ''three'' songs, meaning that unless you invest in Black Market DLC packs to expand their songlist, you will be playing and hearing the same three songs over and over, and new songs are slowly drip-fed over the span of those 25 levels.
46	* UnexpectedCharacter: While players expected [[Music/{{Vocaloid}} Vocaloid]] music to show up eventually, it's safe to say they weren't expecting Music/HatsuneMiku to be a full-blown DLC character complete with her own story set in the ''Cytus II'' universe.
47	* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: [[spoiler:Noah is presented in the narrative as a conflicted individual attempting to redeem himself after giving into his vices. However, the fact that said crime was attempting to sexually assault a minor who saw him as a father figure, in addition to him erasing the identity of an innocent girl in his pursuit of redemption, caused him to come across as far more villainous to most of the fanbase. It also made it difficult for his desire to repent to be seen as sincere.]]
48	* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: The game was rated ''E10+'' despite containing a lot of mature subject matter that is both implied and plainly shown, including HumanTrafficking (strongly implied to be for sexual purposes), people getting brutally beaten and shot, strong language (some of which, such as "dick" and "retard", being completely uncensored), and offscreen sex scenes, one of which is [[spoiler:non-consensual and involving a minor]]. Eventually, the game is re-rated to ''T'' on Google Play.

Context YMMV / CytusII