One thing I do also want to address is the layla scene. DO NOT CHANGE IT. The implication that she or the prism river sisters have died or that you've caught her specificially and not her puppet is A+ STORYTELLING. darker themes like this are AWESOME. Rewriting this portion of it because it is somehow "problematic" is tumblrina safespaceism at its finest and not something I can support at all. +1 for cleaning up the text and presenting the scene better but do not censor or otherwise alter the mood and underlying theme. when i originally played the game 5 years ago this was a huge wham moment and further cemented my appreciation for gensokyo scenario/another world.
Hm...I'll think about it. I understand where you're coming from. I don't know if I'd really call it solid storytelling exactly. My problem with the whole thing is that there isn't really all that much that's explained neither through text nor through context. Now, if this were to say, give a bit more clarity to what boneka/puppets are in the context of the characters they were based off of and give a darker, more interesting subtext to their creation, then I'd agree. I think that that would be a very interesting way to tell a story by showing but not telling.
But the problem is, the Layla scene doesn't really make sense. Reason being, the game actually tells you enough on its own merely through the typing of the sisters and the setting itself, and this is strengthened by the fact that Merlin, Lunasa, and Lyrica are all catchable, complete with dex entries that straight up tell you that they're a poltergeist. And there isn't really much to say that you are fighting a puppet of Layla- the implication being that you aren't and that you're fighting her ghost, obviously. I actually don't mind that, since that type of off, "what were the developers thinking" idea that unnerves the player the more they think about it really melds with this game. The problem, however, comes with the fact that she can be caught. That and, in regards to the original Prismriver Sisters, there's no actual implication that they're dead, largely because, officially, the three sisters went their separate ways prior to Layla creating the Prismriver Ensemble, but the sisters died after the fact.
If anything I'd say it works more as a tribute or a sacrifice to Layla, and it's a bittersweet encounter rather than a dark one. Considering that the area is barred off from entry by a boulder, it's not all too unlikely that the poltergeist sisters just didn't want anyone disrupting their master's eternal rest and, as such, used that room- whatever it used to be (probably not a bedroom, considering it was right next to their "auditorium")- as a gravesite for her. You disturb that and she attacks you. That I'm fine with- hell, even if that's not what Sanae had in mind, what I said right there is a fine enough narrative on its own that I'd be okay to leave it alone if it were just that.
But you can
catch her. Which doesn't really make sense in the context of...anything. Even if you wanted to make the argument that maybe have the souls of the characters that they're based off of in them or something like that, there are simply too many of each to have something like this really sell that as a narrative twist. And what's more, that the spirit itself attacks you kind of takes away from Layla's place in the Prismriver's story at all simply because it means that she is, indeed, a ghost, and by dying the Ensemble hasn't really lost her...I daresay nothing's changed, probably. So I can't say it's exactly the brilliant writing that you say it is, and while I don't want to change what Aichiya has in place completely I do want to make it consistent with the rest of the game.
