Have you ever been laughed at on the court in front of a bunch of strangers because some fool just shook you up (basketball term #1) and broke your ankles (basketball term #2) ? Hell you'd go on a thousand journeys to make yourself forget the embarrassment. Claris had fear in her heart to go out on to an audition because she apparently has issues with being disapproved by people. Trust me. No one wants to go somewhere like Showtime at the Apollo or audition for American Idol (I hate that f**k*n show) and get totally ripped on and kicked out of the camera. I'd say NiD's theme (now I might be wrong here) was dealing with issues in society. The fear of not being accepted by people. This stuff often leads to school shootings and suicide a lot here in America.
The theme in JoD was of course family. As you said Will's dad left him and Helen drifted from her mom. It was a nice message but it really didn't feel too important to a lot of people. Now from a kid's perspective the story may have brought them closer to their parents but seriously the Wii as a system was designed to do that in the first place so it felt kinda useless (to me anyway) to try and further Nintendo's idea more than it needed to be. For an entire decade I didn't have my father with me all the time since my people's (that's parents for those that don't know) got a divorce and me and my sis lived with my mom until about four years ago when he came back. I never felt sad really maybe because he used to be a drunken bastard... okay I'm leaving the topic too much now. Basically to sum all of this up I could care less about tender family crap because I have too many issues with what goes on, on the streets in my city. But then again most of the crime that happens in the city happens from kids who's parents may be dead, or don't interact with them enough, or at all, or don't have a father figure or father figure, or a mother or a mother figure. Then again those kids are almost grown teens who know right from wrong but somehow find ways to justify their criminal intentions such as committing crimes to help their family.
DAMMIT WHY MUST BOTH GAME'S THEMES INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER!!!
I completely agree with you!
The Family theme in NJoD didn't appeal to me because my father was a heartless evil man, for what he did..... the neglect and abuse.. Along with us getting taken away from my mother.. I have a hatred for him! But back on topic While JoD is an ok game that I love alot, I love NiD so much more because I can better relate to the feelings and fears that Claris and Elliot go through.