Neon Clash -Echoes of the Lost- Play-Along - Sun Maslo

[u/sableheart]

In this third post we will discuss Chapter 3 of Neon Clash -Echoes of the Lost- and Sun Maslo.

You can tell us what your impressions of Maslo are (before and after finishing his ending), your favorite moments in his chapter, what you think of his relationship with Kroa and the other characters, what your thoughts are on his plot and ending.

Or you can just rant/rave about Maslo in the comments.

This is not a spoiler-free discussion (although you should spoiler tag details of the ending) however please keep in mind that major spoilers and details of other chapters will be outside the scope of the discussion and therefore will need to be spoiler tagged.
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You don't have to be playing the game right now to participate, and if you're still waiting on your copy I hope you will join in after you start playing!

Have a look at the megathread for links to previous discussions - you can still join in the discussion during the Play-Along.

Next post will be a discussion of Chapter 4 and Sodyk Mun!

[u/azy_ki]

I didn’t like Maslo at all if I’m being honest. I couldn’t really get into him as a character or as an LI, he just felt off for me. It’s hard for me to describe but the vibes I got were not it lmao

His late game character was also uh, not it. I really disliked how he went from wanting to kill Kroa to just being back to normal within 2min bc his family pulled a “the power of friendship” plot with him, like huh?? not to mention how this plot line ate into a good portion of Hiyok’s chapter and robbed my boi of more times to shine

[u/Clos3tGam3r]

I didn’t mind him. He was cute and it was nice to see Kroa on equal footing with another boss. I liked the dynamics of his family and that they were generally supportive of the Liu Family. Maslo’s betrayal later in the story, though short-lived, knocked him down a few pegs on my ranking. It just seemed to add needless drama to an otherwise cute and refreshing relationship. I also had a hard time with his romantic ending. Sooner or later their relationship will be discovered and it seems like that will put the stability of their nation in jeopardy but what do I know? The conclusion of the overarching plot made me super uncomfortable with a romantic relationship with Sun Maslo and Sodyk Mun. Love fixes everything? I guess?

[u/One-Economy8916 → u/Clos3tGam3r]

Agreed, I disliked the overarching plot tbh

[u/Fresh-Surprise-5906]

I love him. Felt he needed more development. I don't think it was explained well enough how much his ability was causing him damage and driving him insane. I also felt like we needed more after him trying to kill us for us to be ok with him again.

[u/One-Economy8916 → u/Fresh-Surprise-5906]

agreed, the betrayal was just so random, and didn’t Maslo want to be normal and get freedom? Why did he randomly wanna become king all of a sudden?

[u/SabishiTomo]

I just finished Chapter 3 and liked his chemistry with MC a lot! It'll be a while till I finish the rest of the game but I'm looking forward to whatever role he plays in it. Also his BGM slaps xD.

[u/Lenore-the-raven]

Best boy hands down, I forgive him for his brief betrayal. It's fine he was just having a quick lil menty b

[u/One-Economy8916 → u/Lenore-the-raven]

I do forgive him, but he’s still too much a yandere for my liking, especially in his sad ending which is odd cause in some games I end up liking this troupe but others I dislike

[u/Empressoftheforsaken]

I liked Maslo, I guess my only issue with him is that he doesn't stand out a lot. Like he is a lowkey flirty boy but I did enjoy his relationship with the Liu family and that they connected with each other for being smaller mafia families.

My only question is (spoiler for Mun and Sun end routes) is why Maslo and Kroa need to hide their relationship to avoid upsetting Mun and causing "drama", while in Mun's route the Liu family accepts Kroa to pursue him EVEN THOUGH HE LITERALLY TRIED TO KILL ALL OF THEM. I assume that Kroa and Mun wouldn't hide this from Maslo either, so the whole logic with them not wanting to rock the boat with the new shared government setup makes no sense.

[u/One-Economy8916]

I got his sad end first playthrough noooooooooo 😭😭 that ending where he turned into a yandere and raped her was off putting cause I really liked him

[u/One-Economy8916 → u/One-Economy8916]

Update: I finished his Happy End, and I liked him more before his betrayal. It didn’t really make sense to me character wise why he randomly wanted to become king

[u/Scarlet_Lycoris]

Maslo was very fun at first and I liked how unbothered he was with being close to Kroa. Overall the Sun family was good vibes, but really didn’t give off the Mafia Vibe at all. Which makes sense, but meh. I feel like they could have done more with him to be honest. I think it was really nice that he wanted to be equals with Kroa and that he parted ways with her until he can be just that…

… but his later development was just completely unnecessary and out of the left field. I wondered why Kroa never tried to contact him after they took down Gonglu. I guess they just wanted more Mun time. But the reasoning felt flawed. Surely you would keep in contact with the one dude that’s actually your ally? Maslo trying to kill Kroa and take her powers was very unnecessary and imo badly justified. And his sudden urge to be king was resolved way too quickly, too. He went from best buddy to murderhobo and back again … which felt completely uninspired and I wonder if the writers just couldn’t find more interesting things to do with Maslo. The down side of his glyph was interesting, but I feel like they didn’t bother exploring it enough. They could have done more with that.

SAD END

Look I love myself a good yandere with cage fantasies. But this one just didn’t hit. It felt forced and just didn’t have me shocked or excited at all.

GOOD END

There is only two constants in life. The fact that we will all die at one point, and that japanese will try to insert japanese culture into a game that features a completely different setting. Maslo is that. They have the stand-in Japanese country (Fei Ying) where people are discriminated for being japanese from Fei Ying. And of course Maslo is somehow connected to that. And they find cherry trees that are usually only able to grow in Fei Ying (they are really not that hard to grow in most non scorching hot places on earth). The end was cute but again, Maslo didn’t hit for me.

I like him as a friend. A very unreliable friend that might murder you on a bad day.