3D South Korean games are always known for eye-popping graphics and visuals, even back in AION days. It’s no wonder that Nexon’s looter-shooter managed to grab gamers’ attention through eye candy and enticing character designs. However, there is one ugly duckling here: a smug character with a punchable face called Jeremy. It’s safe to say that Jeremy is the community’s most hated character in The First Descendant. But besides his design, what made him a bad character, both in and out of the game? What did Nexon do wrong with him, at least from my point of view?
Huge spoiler warning below; you have been warned.
Why Jeremy is Not Just the Worst The First Descendant Character, But Arguably the Worst in Video Game History
Once you reach Vespers, you’ll be quickly introduced to Jeremy, a cocksure Descendant with Arche skill to back it up. According to other characters, the conceited blond trooper is supposed to have the ability to “blink” or teleport all over the place. He said it himself — that his power alone could’ve ended the war in an instant.
Sure, we often see all Descendants teleport, just like how we can jump from Outposts to Outposts. But Jeremy’s Arche is different. He doesn’t need any fast travel points; he said he can just zip into an Ironheart and steal it under Karel’s nose.
Okay, cool, I can deal with your whiny “Oh, they should’ve let me do things my way, boo hoo” if you step up your game. Now, after all the boasting, can we see how his blink Arche works, though? Nope — well, at least not until much later, and at that point, it’s all far too late anyway. This game is all tell and barely show.
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The First Descendant Interview: Lead Developers Talk Monetization, Pay-to-Win, & Post-Launch SupportImagine listening to how good your friend is at guitar but keeps saying his fingers hurt when given one. That’s what it’s like reading Jeremy’s excuses for at least 12 The First Descendant missions in a row. He always looks down on our characters, too, regardless of our accomplishments just to add salt to the wound.
Eventually, it is revealed during Echo Swamp missions that Jeremy is planning to “uplift” humanity and Descendant through technology similar to Vulgus’s monstrosities. That’s why he’s always so frustrated with his fellow Descendants who don’t approve of his Ironheart research. I understand what he’s getting at and why Nexon and Magnum Studio wrote him that way. But they should’ve held back a bit and made it more subtle; this is just lazy writing to force you to hate an antagonist.
But anyway, after the reveal and long-winded chase, does Jeremy get his comeuppance? Nope, he ends up being cannon fodder that dies in a cutscene. Yeah, finally seeing how his Arche works, how he zipped around the battlefield picking up guns is cool and all. But there’s no cathartic feel to his demise because The First Descendant didn’t even think of making a boss fight against Jeremy for some reason. A build-up with no payoff, so to speak.
Sure, Alpha slapped the douche’s face and, paraphrasing Nell, “he deserved much worse.” We can’t smack his mouth shut and make him blink, cry to his mommy, or heck, even loot his pants for Level 60 gear. Even Greg, out of all dungeon bosses, got his own Ultimate Weapon.
The “hold the ground” scene also doesn’t make sense when, aside from being a prick, he’s always been depicted as an opportunist. He literally just left his comrades to die — gruesomely, I might add — to Vulgus’s stabby-tentacle-monsters a few seconds ago!
While Jeremy’s depiction is close to infuriating, it’s not Nexon’s gravest sin in this regard. It’s giving this completely unlikeable character the Arche with the most fun gameplay potential.
The First Descendant launched with aggressive monetization and questionable drop rates — and honestly, I feel like it has worse optimization than the beta period. Despite all that, I do enjoy the core gameplay mechanics. Bunny charges her electricity by running around, and Valby’s puddles are fun gimmicks that can differentiate it from most shooters in the market.
Obviously, Nexon will add more Descendants down the line, too, as is common with online and live service games. Imagine if we get a playable character that lets us slash and dash around arenas like we’re playing DMC or something. But for now, the South Korean company has dashed our hope by giving that power to an NPC that we’re glad to never return.
While I’m at it, I’m going to add one more rant to the list. Why does The First Descendant use such boring names in high-fantasy settings? I mean, Jeremy? Come on. You can do better than that, Nexon!
This world is filled with try-hard names like Ajax and Amon or silly ones like “Le (E)pic” and Bunny — which isn’t her codename. On the other side of the coin, we have Jeremy, Kyle, and the infamous Greg the Starcrossed. Seriously, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to hearing Greg in a science fantasy epic.
