Sep 2, 2023
This story really needed to breathe, like a big, inhale, exhale, relax, gather your thoughts, and continu... okay, move it along, I guess.
In theory, the story is an incredible series of events, triggered by a prophecy that has to be broken for the characters to reach a happy ending. An odyssey of will, the strength of connection, and how those matter in the face of destiny. Reincarnations, magic, increasing power systems, and everything laid out to the reader... but with a catch. It's a speedrun towards making the story make sense, while trying to finish it in record time.
A guy, finds himself entangled with
...
specters, when he just wanted to live cheaply, work to get his living. He finds one thing after another, everything a weird coincidence, until maybe someday finding the woman he's been recurrently dreaming about. It begins with a small premise, that can branch out and reach the heavens if given enough time to familiarize ourselves with the characters, and world. Sadly, that's not the case. Introduction, fight, off you go, now we gotta put you into the next fight, the next thing, snap, snap, snap, instant, no breaks. They're given small conversations that are supposed to connect them, but if you lay out the story in time, it takes days (from the perspective of the characters we follow) for the story to end. We're revealed so much, we get so many rules, and there are entire scenes of people dumping all the info we need for the end, that it gets exhausting. You NEED all that information, and giving it away as exposition, made me wanna skip it entirely. I tried to skip, and I lost the plot, so I went back just to get it all. It's a good story, sure, but we don't get it in a good way.
The characters are the same. We're given motives, past, everything, but we don't connect, since it's a speedrun to set them up. We go to their past, OH there's conflict, OH TRAGEDY, okay, let's go to the next one now. Bombardment, all the time, and even if the main characters get more story, it's at the same speed. There's a romance there, people who did things in the past that affect the future in mayor ways. It should've been great, but the speed at which it happens just... doesn't do anything. Everything ends up being great in concept, but bad at execution.
What kept me going then? Art. Of course, it's the art. The dynamic fight scenes, the expressions on the characters, impact, visual motives and creature designs. It can go grotesque, to beautiful, and meaningful (if the story worked). The color, designs, it's incredible, and it's what I expect from the artist of "The Breaker", and the sequel "The Breaker: New Waves". I really wish that quality translated to the rest.
"Promise of an Orchid" is some of the most wasted potential you can imagine. Everything needed space, but it's slightly worth it for the art, and the fights. If you don't mind a self-contradicting, overly expository story, with an ending that makes no sense (contradictory), and good art, knock yourself out. I don't recommend it that much, but I know there's gonna be an audience for it.
5.6/10. I guess happy endings matter more than logical ones.
Reviewer’s Rating: 6
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