#I don’t have screenshots but a few years ago I did a playthrough where the first thing I did was grab the Gerudo girl disguise

[thejolteonmastertj]

BOTW Link was always a crossdresser confirmed. 😂

[white-tulips]

I spent most of this morning continuing playing through the hikikomori route, more of my thoughts below!! (major spoilers ahead!!!!!)

if you haven’t but want to read my first post on my hikikomori playthrough, you can see it [here]!! it’s been a month since I last played any, aha...

I played for quite a few hours earlier but I don’t think I really progressed all that much aha. most of my time went towards grinding and wandering around and seeing little things. oh, and also playing through Orange Oasis. I never actually did that in my first run of the game. it was okay.

I really love how many little details and things to go back to that there are, but I’m still a little bitter at just. how long everything is. I talked about this a lot in my previous post, but it irritates me that the first 15-20 hours (give or take depending on how fast you’re able to blast through this game) is just. exactly the same as what you experience in the main route. especially since now my hikikomori save file is even longer than my main story file, and I think I still have a decent ways to go until I finish. I don’t actually know! I haven’t been spoiled for this route, thankfully, so I don’t really know how much is left. I have a vague idea of a couple areas I need to go to, but that’s about it.

ok, on to my thoughts!! this post is probably just going to be me rambling about tiny details I found interesting since I didn’t progress through much plot stuff, I think.

when I opened up my save file, I. completely forgot what I had been doing a month ago and what I wanted to do next, so I decided to go back to the Last Resort. I don’t know what compelled me to go, but there was a lot of fun stuff there so I’m glad that I did!

I had never tried to use Aubrey to go into the girls’ bathroom before? it was very cute, I liked it. I don’t know why, but as soon as I walked in it really reminded me of Basil. I think it’s all the flowers, photos hanging from the wall, and general soft cutesy vibe. I’m not really sure what to make of that, but it was just my general impression. hmmmm.

I have no words for this other than it just made me amused. go get your vacation, king.

also:

I didn’t know Hero had a confirmed age!! all this time I had been assuming he and Mari were 16 years old, so it’s nice to have something set in stone!

I have no words for these, either. seeing all of the Hero pictures just made me laugh out loud a little I loved it.

when I was standing in Jawsum’s office, I noticed that the elevator behind his desk was shaking. I went to examine it, and was surprised when this was where I ended up.

the black space elevator.

something I completely forgot to mention in my last hikikomori post was black space!! it had completely took me by surprise so I can’t believe I forgot to talk about it.

last time I played and went back to Last Resort, there was a completely black car on the highway and it had really freaked me out. as soon as I clicked on it, instead of giving me some kind of prompt Omori just got in and it drove off. I was so shocked because I wasn’t expecting it fhgjdfhgj. it ended up taking Omori back to one of the black space rooms, and I had no clue what to make of it. I wandered around for a little while, and ended up finding this... friend?

I’m... not sure! who are you......

anyways, so I got in the elevator and we’re back here, now with more spiders.

the spider wasn’t interactable. not sure whether to be upset or relieved.

aaaand then there was this guy in the treehouse. I want to know what these black space NPCs are!!! as soon as I tried to interact with it, the screen glitched out (intentionally) and then it was gone. one day I’ll know what it means.

oh, another thing I spent quite a bit of time doing at the Last Resort-

getting statues made of everyone!! RIP to all of my clams, but these are so cute.

cuuute.

I really liked the comment on Mari’s! it made me happy that it highlighted her playful side.

after I was done reexploring Last Resort, I wanted to go back to Sweetheart’s castle. I was walking through Pyrefly Forest, and I noticed one of the picnic blankets had a cooler open (signaling that you can see a new picnic cutscene) so I went to go sit down and have a picnic.

so, when I was going around earlier and doing some stuff, there were a few picnics that I think I had skipped for some reason so I was doing them and mindlessly skipping through the text for no reason other than it would bother be if I just left them. nothing about the conversations was different even though Basil is here now, so I didn’t think anything would be different for the one in Pyrefly Forest, but I was wrong!! I almost completely skipped through everything aha.

it started off the same, with Hero being scared of the spiders, and then Kel prompted Basil to say something positive to try and make him less scared.

it’s pretty insignificant, but I thought it was interesting that he said pretty much the exact same thing he says in the spider room in black space.

when I got to the castle, I went straight to the library. something about the pattern of going to black space, plus being able to go into the barn in Otherworld, just made me feel like there would be something there. and oh boy was I right. the entire place was crawling with Something.

very good.....

I wasn’t able to get screenshots of them, but there were a couple text popups that really stood out to me. my memory is so bad I can’t remember all of them even though it was only this morning,,, but I’m pretty sure one of them had a popup that was just “Liar.” and I was like HM....

it just really had me thinking....

in my previous post, I mentioned that I had a gut feeling that the Something in the barn was supposed to represent Basil, not Mari. this kind of added fuel to that thought!

the barn in Otherworld was only used in the main route in reference to Basil, with it literally showing Omori a vision of him, and also having Stranger walking into it. now, the library also has a lot of connection to Basil! after picking up one of the keys, it shows us another vision of him, and it’s also littered with egret orchids. I don’t think choosing to have all of these Somethings in both of these places is just a coincidence.

now, about the “Liar.” line. in any fight with Something, if there’s a text popup meant to be Something speaking, it’s always done like this-

with the “???:” to indicate character speech. but the “Liar.” popup was just a standalone line. and it instantly reminded me of this room in black space-

and this just kept making my brain whirl.

in this room, there were all of these popups with “Liar.” and then of course there was-

see here how there also weren’t indications of who was saying ‘liar”, but there was for Something? my idea for this room was always that it was Omori repeating it to himself. because we all know by now that Something is Mari, and her saying “I love you”, especially in this form, is nothing but pure torment. and I think here, we have Omori unwilling to believe it. there’s no way Mari could love him/Sunny. she has to be lying.

soooo then, this brings me back to the library. having the “Liar.” popup there, keeping in consideration that the Somethings there might represent Basil, what could that mean?? it could be in reference to Basil’s words “Everything is going to be okay” because clearly everything is not okay. if all of these Somethings are meant to be Basil, it could fit!!!

... so there’s my long winded theory. idk! I think it makes sense, but I could be wrong!! that’s just my first impressions right now, maybe my thoughts will change when I play more!

moving onto the piano room-

this was when I thought “ohhhh so that’s why the wall always felt hallow. it all makes sense now”

and then I spent the next 30 or so minutes fighting all of the Somethings

I LOVED this. this was the first time a fight was put on a time limit, and since Something was so much more powerful, it felt actually stressful. I was stressed! but I managed to make it with 2-3 turns left, and I didn’t die. I did die about 1 or 2 times to arachnophobia and thalassophobia though F. but it’s okay because I got an achievement and also Omori’s suffocate skill is really good.

anyways I did some more mindless walking around (I had to kill time waiting for all my statues to be built, you know!)

this made me really happy. Big Molio I love you you’re the mvp and you deserve the world.

... looking through my screenshots I wish I could forget this one-

,, do I need to even explain it.

I remember a while ago, I saw someone on twitter post this and iirc the caption was something like “isn’t it a bit morbid to have the jumprope there” and, at the time, I had never gone through Orange Oasis, so seeing that tweet I had the wind knocked out of me. I was just sitting there like “fuuuuuuuuck”. and then I went through Orange Oasis today, saw it again, went “fuuuuuuuuck” and then forgot I screenshot it. it’s just a lot.

okay who knows how I filled the rest of the 6 hours I played because I didn’t take many screenshots of the downtime and running around completing sidequests I never did. the last point of interest today was I had went back to Humphrey.

I didn’t do too much, but I did fight Mutantheart.

I adore her!!!! so cute!!! Mutantheart my beloved.

I lost to her once, because I was a bit confused, but once I caught on to the gimmick of her fight, it was actually pretty easy. rest in peace, queen, I love you...

and then, uh. Her-

I tried 3 times. I didn’t win... all of the characters are maxed leveled at 50, but this is so difficult... well, the first half of the fight I found to be pretty easy, actually. but once she switches into full power mode it’s over. I don’t know how I’m supposed to win. farewell my dream of completing the foe facts book, it was a nice goal while it was realistic. 

and then I stopped for the day! I think I needed that month of not playing, because coming back into the game after a lot of my rage and burnout settled was probably best, and I had a lot of fun playing! hopefully it doesn’t take me another month to continue.

if you made it all the way through this post, thank you for reading! I hope you like my thoughts~

I’ll leave on this note-

king shit

[annakie]

So I decided to squeeze in a ME3 (only) playthrough to finally do MShep and an Engineer in ME3.  I started this guy many years ago and never went very far with him, despite really loving the character design.  BTW, I captioned all the screenshots above if you wanna clickthrough. So (re)meet Aldis.  I tried to do his initial facial design off of Aldis Hodge, though I’m bad at creating/mimicking faces I think he still turned out as one of the most attractive mSheps I’ve ever seen, if I can say so mysellf without sounding too braggadocios. :) When I made him, there were a couple of goals I wanted to accomplish... Obviously, just finally do ME3 with a MShep.  I did ME1 and ME2 with one even longer ago, but I romanced Liara in those and I really wanted to see a MShenko romance, to see the more gradual “Hey let’s get together” in ME3 instead of the “let’s reaffirm our relationship” like with my FemShep.  I also wanted to do a more renegade playthrough, since it’s been many years since I did my Femshep Shakarian Renegade playthrough.  He is still the “I’m nice to my crew, and I’ll try a diplomatic approach but my tolerance for bullshit is near zero.”  And last, I’m just gonna wear a bunch of the dumb armors I almost never wear and just try and do things different in other ways than my main FemShep. Since the next time I do a full trilogy playthrough, it’ll be with my canon femshep in the Legacy and there may not be the possibility of mods then, I wanted a heavily modded run to see all the mods again, plus the improvements since my last ME3 playthrough about a year and a half ago.  So this time I’m playing with:

Lights Effect as the FX mod

Girl Plays Game Hair Mods as DLC (Maleshep’s ”Macho” is the specific hair mod.)

Project Variety, which, btw means no Thanemod or Backoff. because they’re incompatible.  Project Variety adds SO MUCH to the game, several of which are highlighed in the screenshots above.

Expanded Galaxy Mod (I have no idea how I can ever play without this mod again, gonna make the LE playthrough so hard and bland.)

Spectre Expansion Mod... also one I don’t ever want to live without in the future.

I have MEHEM installed because... yeah.  I still don’t feel like not having a happy ending.

So of course Citadel Epilogue Mod to close out the game.

ME3 Recalibrated to fix all the lore and errors that need fixing.

And Better Journal to make quest descriptions better.

Casual Outfits for MShep.  There’s also other new casual outfits installed for MShep and I don’t know where they came from, but I do love them. (See pics for more.)

Priority Earth Overhaul Mod to make the endgame even more epic.  The creator also made Immersive Thessia which is sadly incompatible with Project Variety so for now I’m not using this... maybe a future playthrough will swap out PJ for Immersive Thessia, ThaneMod and BackOff again.

Omega Hub for extra Omega content post Omega-DLC, really looking forward to seeing the improvements in this one.  It was just a fun 10-minute diversion last time I played through.

Ark Mod for extra missions that bridge the gap between ME3 and Andromeda.

Better Dreams for awesome and non-annoying dreaming... getting rid of The Kid as much as possible.

Alliance Warpack for more Companion outfits.

Citadel DLC Redone so most companions wear unique casual outfits during Citadel DLC

ME3 Opening Remaster to make those few seconds of the opening a little more epic.

Miranda Mod to have Miranda on the Normandy and give her cool stuff to do after Horizon.  Also if you’re a Miranda Romancer gives her a better ME3 romance.  Also better clothes.

Respawn - Mission Overhaul IDK why it’s hidden on the Nexus, but I had an old download I’m using.  Makes combat more difficult by giving the bad guys more varied powers.  A nice change of difficulty without making it crazy on normal.

Allers Redone to put Allers in a decent outfit.  Still don’t know if I’m going to bother talking to her, though I did put her on the ship.

A Lot Of Videos 4k - I’m a 4k gamer finally.... I want what I can make look good... look good.

I’m NOT using ALOT this time -- I didn’t want to not be able to easily fix things should some mod installation be wonky.  I figure the Legendary Edition is gonna be my big “Take ALL THE PRETTY SCREENSHOTS!!” time... this one is just for fun, and enjoying the mods and my pretty, pretty mShep.

Hey the new post editor SUCKS because I’ve run out of space for new paragraphs but I can add new bullet points.  Anyway, I’ll probably make a few more screenshot posts as I progress through the game.

[loreweaver-universe]

And that’s...

...the show.

That’s Steven Universe.

That’s the end of the most important show I’ve ever watched.

That was...perfect.  I wasn’t sure if they were going to nail it, but they did.  I was crying through half the episode, really blubbering.  I could barely take it.  This was SO good.

Steven Universe...what a show.  This show was so important.  It broke so much ground, and it affected my life in countless ways.  I don’t know where I’d be without Steven Universe, but I don’t think I’d be anywhere near as happy.  This show means so much to me, and I’m sad to see it go.

It’s the end of an era.  I...wow.  I finished Steven Universe.  That’s it.  It’s done.  I can’t believe it.  One hundred and eighty liveblogging sessions.  A little shy of twenty thousand screenshots, counting the ones on my old fried laptop.  4.46 million views.  It’s nuts.  What a journey.

According to my Discord chat, I’m the first person to liveblog every episode of Steven universe?  Some people beat me to the final episode, but they’re ones that started midway through the show.  Who’d’ve thought I’d be the first getting from start to finish?  Crazy.

I’m stunned.  I can’t believe it’s over.  It...man, I’m gonna talk in circles here for a minute, but this show changed my life.  I can’t believe it’s over.  I can’t believe it.  There’s no more Steven Universe for me to watch.

I thought it would feel like there was a hole in my life, but instead I feel...complete.  That finale really finished it off for me in such a satisfactory way.  That sense of completeness is really buoying me in a time when I thought I’d be absolutely crushed.  It’s amazing.

I did it.  I made it all the way from start to finish.  That’s Steven Universe.

Goodbye, Pearl.  Goodbye, Connie.  Goodbye, Amethyst.  Goodbye, Garnet.  Goodbye, Greg.  Goodbye, Peridot.  Goodbye, Lapis,  Goodbye, Bismuth.  Goodbye, Ruby.  Goodbye, Sapphire.  Goodbye, Sadie, and Lars, and Onion, goodbye Sour Cream and Buck and Jenny and Ronaldo.  Goodbye, everyone.

Goodbye, Steven.  I’m going to miss you so much.

The Future comes in at my new #1 for Season 6, displacing Snow Day, and my new #1 for the series, displacing A Single Pale Rose.  Very little in this show is on par with it, and nothing made me cry like it has.  What a capper.  What a perfect sendoff.

I love this show.

If you’d like to read some other Steven Universe liveblogs, now that I’m done, I have a few active ones for you to check out.  Minda Reads is finished with Steven Universe, though he only started with Three Gems and a Baby.   Taz, the SU Workbook, is the newest game in town, and damn is she good at what she does.  Zephyr is another liveblogger that started at the beginning, and he’s halfway through Future, so there’s quite a lot there to read.  MissFineFeather is another liveblogger that started midway, with Can’t Go Back, but is up to Prickly Pair in Future.  All of these people also do other shows and webcomics, so check them out if you want to branch out, too!

As for me...I’m going to take Friday off.  I think I’ve earned it.  Well, off from liveblogging; I’ve got streams like Baba Is You and Final Fantasy VII Remake to do, and I may do those for fun, but I’m taking my usually scheduled Friday off from liveblogging.  I’ll be getting back to liveblogging on Monday, with the Patron Picks, and after that will be more She-Ra; my plan is to finish Season 1 of She-Ra, then take a big bite out of Season 2 of Infinity Train.

This has been a thrill, liveblogging for you.  I hope you Steven Universe fans stick around for the other shows I do, but if not, know this: I treasure every moment we’ve spent together.  It’s all been so important.  You all make this possible, with your patronage and your fandom, and I owe each and every one of you for making me able to do this for a living.  Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

I’ll see you next time.  I love you guys.

(For the record, I did this entire liveblog wearing the Shouty Goat shirt that @thischick25 made me years ago.)

IN OTHER NEWS:

Back in January, I completed a blind playthrough of Steven Universe: Save the Light!  You can view the full playlist by clicking here!

I recently completed my playthrough of the second story campaign in Fire Emblem: Three Houses!   You can view all the streams of the Golden Deer and Black Eagles routes I have done by clicking here!

I recently completed a blind playthrough of Hollow Knight on Twitch!  You can watch all the Hollow Knight streams I’ve uploaded to Youtube by clicking here!

If you’d like to help me pay my rent, buy me some food, or help with my bills and medicine, please use my direct donation link!  If you’d like to support me per liveblog completed every month, please pledge to my Patreon! Becoming a patron not only allows you to vote on what shows I do whenever I choose a new one, but also grants access to the community Minecraft server to $5 patrons or higher!

You should also go pledge to Gio’s Patreon–our Discord server maintenance tech, creator of Rubybot, and community Minecraft server overlord deserves far more than I can afford to pledge to him by myself.

If you’d like more of me and my content:

My Episode Lists master page, where you can find every show and liveblog I’ve done!

My Discord server, where you can come hang out with me and other fans, check out member liveblogs, and join community gaming guilds!

My Twitch channel, where I stream variety games every so often!

My Youtube channel, where you can check out past streams!

My ask blog, where you can send me questions and comments!

My Twitter, where I make announcements about liveblogs and streams!

It’s your kindness and support that lets me do this stuff, and I wouldn’t be where I am without all of you to do it for.  Thank you all so much for your support, and for tuning in every episode!

OTHER PEOPLE YOU MAY ENJOY:

I may have been one of the earlier Steven Universe liveblogs, but a whole community of livebloggers has sprung up over the last five years!   I linked to a bunch individually for a few wrap-ups, but honestly, this end-slate is already eight billion miles long, so I’m just gonna link to my links page.  Click here if you want recommendations of other livebloggers, or other neat people, or webcomics and podcasts that I recommend.

[satoshi-mochida]

Tobyfox has provided a status update on the second chapter and beyond of Undertale sequel Deltarune in celebration of Undertale‘s fifth anniversary today.

First, here are the latest screenshots from Deltarune‘s second chapter:

Get the full update below.

Introduction

Hi everyone.

If you’re reading this, you must have been sticking around for about five years.*

I want to express my gratitude for everyone that has supported and encouraged me over this time.

Thank you.

I’ve said it many many times before, but I didn’t expect the simple game I made to receive so much attention. Because of that, many interesting things have happened, and now I can even spend my time making another game.

It seems both of us received a lot of happiness from this occurrence.

If it’s okay, I would like to keep striving to do things that make both of us happy.

Let me know what you think about that.

*Since the Undertale demo released in 2013, the game has really existed for 7 years. It’s already been more than 25% of my life…

Deltarune

I will make another.

I am making a game called “Deltarune.” It is the second game in the Undertale series.

The game will be released in many “Chapters,” the first of which I released two years ago on Halloween. Since that time, I’ve been working hard to figure out the rest of the game.

However, it’s a game that’s much harder to make than Undertale.

Graphics are more complicated and several times more involved.

Systems are more complicated.

Exposes the weak points of my creative and artistic ability.

Plot is much harder to tie together (more characters, more important locations).

Significantly more content than Undertale in one playthrough (especially cutscenes).

I have only made one game ever.

Unlike Undertale, this is the type of game that would normally have many designers working on each aspect of the game.

A story writer, a composer, an audio director, a map designer, a battle designer, a minigame designer, and an overall director. Instead, all of those roles end up handled by me.

The good news is that a few months ago, I completed a significant milestone regarding the game’s design. I completed readable outlines for every chapter in the game, including first-pass dialogue for almost all the cutscenes, examples of the music, etc.

Although certain details are still hazy, the flow of the game and all major events and battles that take place are now clear.

In summary, I largely spent the past two years writing, composing, designing, and drawing. However, that’s not the whole story.

We had actually attempted to develop the game since the time too. Development started around March 2019 and a 99% work was spent on investigating engines alternate to GameMaker, which I used for Chapter 1.

Without getting into the details, I decided a few months ago to go back to GameMaker after all. It still felt like the best fit for the project. So using Chapter 1 as a base, we’ve started creating Chapter 2 since May 2020.

A lot of progress has been made since that time. I believe we can complete this chapter, content-wise, before the end of the year (not accounting for translation, bugtesting, and porting).

I feel very confident. And the strange thing is, even though we ended up using the original engine, I don’t regret the lost time, either. Not only was I still busy designing the game, but during that long period, I was able to think of many ideas that make the game’s story and characters better.

I’m glad that I’m making the Deltarune that I have now and that we are making healthy progress.

Deltarune Status Estimate

■ Chapter 2 (04.15.20 – 08.13.20)

Phase 1: Design

Main Design: 100% (dialogue, etc.)

Initial Setup: 100% (stuff involved setting up people to make the game, adding debug tools, documentation, etc.)

Phase 2: Implementation (05.01.20 ~ 08.13.20)

Art: 90%

Cutscenes: 80% (90% are started, needs 2nd pass)

Bullet Patterns: 70% (enemies are mostly completed, bosses are about 40% done, needs 2nd pass)

Non-Bullet Battle Elements: 30% (Some ACTs are done and enemies are fightable, but interactive ACTs need to be completed and polished and the bosses aren’t programmed outside of bullet patterns)

Audio: 80%

Maps: ??% most are started or placeholder, most need 2nd pass. NPC interactions are completed in all spots where written.

Other: 65%

Phase 3: Finishing

Balancing: 0%

Bugfixing: 0%

Translation: 0%

Porting: 0%

(Honestly, a lot of stuff FEELS like 80% to me, but the truth is that what’s there is quite rough now. Polish ends up taking a lot of time, so the real actual time value may be around 50% done…? We’ll see what happens. It’ll be a lesson for everybody.)

■ Chapters 3 and Beyond

Phase 1: Design

Story and General Game Progression (first-pass): 100%

Cutscene Dialogue (first-pass, lacking cutscene instructions): 95%

Map Design (textual): 70% (varies per chapter, earlier chapters totally completed)

Map Design (drawn): 0% (this takes a lot of wrist energy so I don’t do it until we start programming)

Enemy Design (conceptual): 90% (all bosses are known)

Enemy Design (bullets / visual): 80% (varies per chapter, earlier chapters totally completed)

Music (concept): 95%

Music (completed): 50%

Visual Design:BG Concept (first-pass): 75%, Important Character, Bosses (first-pass): 100%

Phase 2

Sprite Art: 20%?

Other Content Creation: 0%

Phase 3

Release Readiness: 0%

(These numbers can be somewhat deceptive though. My true design style is to reach the moment where we have to make something, then suddenly think of something different at the last minute. This is always how it’s been with me and my work. It feels like no matter how much I plan, everything comes down to what I think of at the last second…)

Team and Disability

You may have noticed from my phrasing, but yes, there is a team helping me create the game. Other than me, there are about three active team members working day-to-day, with a few other people pitching in from time to time.

Their roles of the main members are overall content implementation and organization, bullet pattern implementation (part-time), and art (Temmie). Other than designing, I still have the role of system programmer.

I’m extremely grateful to have a team helping me carry out my design especially because of my disabilities, which have also made development more difficult.

Although I have long suffered from wrist and hand pain, about five months ago my wrist was the worst it’s ever been. I could not play the piano, use the mouse, and barely could use the keyboard. I navigated everything through voice to text.

Through weightlifting, exercise, and various equipment I have been able to somewhat increase the stamina of my wrist to an extent. Various solutions have included trackball mice for each hand, using voice to text whenever possible, using a foot pedal to click the mouse, etc.

Now I can use the mouse and keyboard for a certain amount each day provided I take frequent breaks. I wish I could work without stopping. Once the world situation improves I would really like to take physical therapy again and/or investigate surgery to repair my wrist.

Future Plans

Once we finish Chapter 2, I would like to use it as the base to create future chapters from. After gaining experience from this chapter, I think making future chapters will be easier.

Part of me wonders if we could make the game faster if we increased the size of the team and did something insane like create multiple chapters in parallel. However, another part of me understands that, adding more people doesn’t guarantee that the game will be created faster if it’s not done properly. I’m already just barely avoiding becoming a bottleneck on development even with a team of this size, due to my physical limitations.

To that end, I am interested in making a list of people that could potentially help me make the game. I’m not 100% sure if I’m going to ask anyone to help, but I think if I could find just 1 person that works well with me, it’s worth asking.

Chapter 2 is proceeding at a good pace, so if we do take anyone on, it will probably only be for Chapter 3 onward. So please understand that anything you send in may not have an immediate result.

People I Am Looking For

Feel free to send in your portfolio if you have the following qualifications:

Worked in the game industry before

Worked under NDA before

Have professional references

A degree of creativity while also being okay with just following directions

Fluent in English

People I Might Actually Use

Music Transcription / Basic Arrangement (Part-Time)

I usually start making songs by playing the piano and singing. An important step after this is to take this basic outline and transcribe it into melodies and chords. Though there are not too many remaining songs to transcribe, it would still help my wrist to have someone else start this process for me. Although I know many musicians, I’m sheepish to ask for help to them, because the main role is actually just to help me compose my own music…

Helpful qualities:

Good at transcription.

Can stand listening to me sing.

Optional: can use an old version of Fruity Loops.

Bullet Pattern Programming (Part-Time)

I’m looking for someone to help me program bullet patterns into the game. These people will work from text and visual designs to create fun battles that match the feeling of the game. I already have one person helping with this, but I think a second person would help a lot. You have to be able to use Gamemaker Studio 2 to manipulate objects on the screen / okay with using pre-existing scripts to accomplish this.

Helpful qualities:

Sense of fun and understanding of player perspective and gameplay balance. This aspect is [many times] more important than programming ability.

Reliable.

Able to make patterns based off of visual/text instructions.

Fine working with a poorly made battle system.

Able to sprite bullets.

Good visual / timing sense.

Minigame Programming (Part-Time)

There are a few minigames and small interactive events in the game, which appear in and outside of battles. These could take any kind of form… who knows what I’m thinking! Have you made a game before?

Helpful qualities:

Same sense of humor as me.

Some level of spriting ability is useful.

You have to have made a game that is fun.

Ability to work together with me.

Unlikely to Hire, But Send Me Your Information Just In Case

Cutscene Programming (Part-Time)

Besides the battles, the largest amount of content in the game is definitely the cut scenes. You will have to understand Gamemaker Studio 2, but the majority of the work is simply using a scripting system that I created to make characters move around the screen. The most important quality you can have here is not programming ability but the ability to efficiently use the system in order to create scenes with a good sense of humor, timing, and emotion.

I’d strongly prefer to hire someone I know to do this because it involves the story. So I most likely won’t hire anyone else.

Helpful qualities:

Can take text instructions and impart a proper sense of timing, humor, and weight to them.

Fine working with a custom scripting system (or smart enough to make something better that makes the game easier to make).

Art (Part-Time)

Sprite art—Temmie has already drawn a massive amount of art for the game, and continues to do so. And I actually already have a few other artists that have helped me that I’m more than happy to keep working with if things become more overwhelming. So currently I actually don’t need any more artists.

However, personally, I’d really like to build up a portfolio of available pixel artists and even concept artists. It’s not as if this is the only game I will make during my life. Anyone chosen for this game needs to be able to match the style of the game, but I’m interested in seeing people with different styles as well. Knowing that I have different options can open my mind up to different creative pathways.

Helpful qualities:

Can take bad looking sketches and turn them into art that looks good (magic).

Don’t mind if your work gets completely drawn over or thrown out.

Anyone that can draw cute or cool poses is good.

Uninterested in seeing people that have an art style outside of the scope of the game.

Write (Full-Time)

Someone needs to transform into a new wrist for me.

Helpful qualities:

Flexible.

Doesn’t hurt.

Musical sense.

That’s everyone I’m looking for. The only other kind of person I might hire would be a single jack-of-all-trades type that can do any sort of things such as cutscenes, bullets, or even system programming, with a good degree of visual flair. (But if you can do those sorts of things, aren’t you busy making your own game already!?)

Anyway, I’ll show you the e-mail now. Just make sure you read these rules first:

Don’t send in e-mails about anything else!

Don’t send to other team members, Fangamer, etc. about helping out!

Got it? Then please send your information to this e-mail address:

deltarunejobs@fangamer.com

Since Fangamer will be sorting through the e-mails for me, we’ll stop taking e-mails at the end of September so they don’t get overwhelmed. Ultimately, I’m only looking for one or two people, and to make a list of the rest of the potentially helpful people in the world.

Undertale is available now for PlayStation 4, Switch, PS Vita, and PC via Steam and GOG. Deltarune Chapter 1 is availble for PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Deltarune.com.

[mysmashplaythroughs]

Ice Climber Playthrough

Fighter: Ice Climbers, Popo & Nana.

Game: Ice Climber, Wii U virtual console (NES). First Released on January 15th 2007.

Fighter Bio.

Popo and Nana are climbers who over their careers have scaled many mountains. They each carry a mallet which they use as their weapon in order to fight off dangerous animals and break ice blocks from below so they can jump up to the next platform. Popo is the one in blue and Nana is the one in pink. During the events of Ice Climber, it seems a Condor has stolen their food so the two compete to climb the mountain, reclaim all the vegetables they can and if possible, jump and grab onto the condor who flies above the mountain’s summit.

Friends: The exact relationship between Popo and Nana is unknown, in Ice Climber they compete whilst climbing the mountains to see who can get the highest score, however they are well known in the Super Smash Bros series as a duo and as such seem to be closer than simply rivals. Whether they are siblings, lovers or just good friends has never been stated, and I believe neither has their age.

Enemies/Rivals: The main antagonist of the Ice Climbers is the Condor, who has stolen the food and scattered it over the summit of the mountains. The Ice Climbers don’t fight the Condor but simply jump and grab onto it by its feet in order to complete a stage. Of the enemies the pair fight, there are Topis, which in Japan appear as seals but elsewhere appear as little yeti sort of round creatures with beaks. These enemies will repair ice blocks the Ice Climbers have broken, which means they will have to be broken again in order to pass. When hit with a hammer Topis retreat back into the entrances in the mountain they originally came from. Nitpickers who are birds that swoop in are another type of enemy, these will fall out of the sky if hit with a hammer. Finally, if the Ice Climbers take too much time on a stage, a polar bear with sunglasses and pink shorts will walk into the stage, and when reaching the middle of it, stamp the ground causing the stage to scroll up one level. If the Ice Climbers are on the level that is scrolled past they will fall and fail the stage. The Polar bear similarly to the Topis will retreat when hit with a mallet. Finally, there is a somewhat harder to get version of the game, Vs. Ice Climber which had a few changes to it, and in this version later on the Condor is replaced with a giant Moth instead which similarly has to be grabbed at the top of the mountain. This version of the game also has bees as enemies.

Crossovers with other Smash characters: It would seem there are none. The Ice Climbers similar to other characters appear in things like Warioware Microgames and NES Remix, but have not had any direct crossovers or cameos in any other games.

Why this game?

Very simply, because it’s the only Ice Climbers game really. There is another version called Vs. Ice Climber but it’s not as easy to get ahold of and the differences are pretty negligable.

My past with this game.

So, I have no past with this game, similarly to most people, I only really first saw Popo and Nana in Super Smash Bros Melee, and I had no idea where they came from. Some time later, I either read in a magazine or saw on a website that went over various easter eggs and things in Smash Bros what the original game was and it did like most things in Melee make me curious about it. I remember when actually getting a chance to play it though, unlike a lot of cases, I pretty quickly lost interest in the whole thing. It was neat Super Smash Bros brought such unusual and obscure characters into the game, reinventing them really (the official art for the characters is practically non-existent) but that’s really all I have to say overall about them. Now however, there’s one final thing I have to say about the series, which is, if Nintendo wanted to take a pretty much blank slate IP and do something completely new with it, I actually feel of any of them, this game could be the most interesting one to see get a sequel. Taking the concept of climbing mountains and just going wild with it could really lead to something special in my mind, like when they took the concept of Captain Toad’s bonus stages and expanded it into a whole game, only this time there wouldn’t be a restriction of it being specifically a Mario game. The first mountain could be essentially a remake of the original game, with the Topis, Polar Bear, Nitpickers and Condor at the top, then the game could go wild, mountains going up into space, all sorts of physics and gravity bending structures, mountains with a variety of themes, and given just how expansive game worlds can be nowadays, the mountains could end up being absolutely huge locations you have to climb up. This isn’t really a thing I write to make up things I’d like to see, but really, there’s so little to talk about with Ice Climber overall, that the potential revisiting this concept might allow for is honestly all I can find interesting about it.

My Smash Playthrough.

So, this part will be somewhat short, although I wanted to have something memorable about this game so I did two ‘playthroughs’. My first playthrough years ago was on the Wii U Virtual Console, where I simply played through a few mountains. Being made a year before Super Mario Bros, this game is far more in the vein of classic Nintendo arcade games such as Donkey Kong and Mario Bros, so there’s no real end to the game, just trying to beat your high score. I could have tried to get the Condor on every single level, but the thing is, the game honestly isn’t that good, even compared to other old arcade style games that were on the NES like Donkey Kong or Mario Bros. The most irritating thing is building up momentum with the jumps, where unless you’re running before you jump, you’ll barely be able to move in any direction whilst in the air. You’re required to smash blocks from below to make a hole you can jump through, so having a small gap (that the Topis can fill in if you’re too slow) and trying to propel yourself perfectly through it can be really irritating. This is part of the challenge I realise, but I tend to dislike when part of the challenge in a game is getting around how awkwardly a character controls personally.

Many years later, I decided to test out the Switch’s NES online service, which allows you to play NES multiplayer games with friends online. Because of this and Nana only appearing in two player games, I got a friend of mine to help me play through some stages. The game wasn’t overly fun this time either, but at least having a friend join me made it a little more memorable. Still overall, this game isn’t one I’d really call a classic of Nintendo’s past, although I still like the Ice Climbers in Smash, so I’ll be thankful it could lead to that, but that’s really it when it comes to this game.

Specific aspects about the game relating to Ice Climbers in Smash.

Well, they have hammers. Honestly, the only thing I really did with my ‘playthrough’ was play the game in multiplayer in order to have Popo and Nana both in the game. If you were really dedicated, you might be able to set up the game so that one controller moves player 1 and 2 simultaneously to try and replicate the way they move in Smash, but even I think that might be going too far. Anyway, the only other thing really is grabbing the condor at the end of the level, seeing as it makes up part of the Ice Climber’s Final Smash and their entrance, but that’s really it.

Credits.

For information on this game including dates of releases I must give credit to the Ice Climber Wiki. (Which yes does actually exist and had the info about the bees and moth in Vs)

The screenshots in this post are taken by me using Miiverse before it shut down and with the screenshot feature on Nintendo Switch.

[peopleofmechonis]

High Entia Ancestry

 I’ve posted a list of headcanons last time and addressed a bit about my thoughts on the ancestry of our favourite winged folks, the High Entia. 

I’ve stated that I headcanon the High Entia as originally reptillian and/or avian... Scratch those. I think dinosaur-like is better. They were both reptillian and avian anyway. However, I thought that might be a fun topic to touch on further, with some observations I’ve made while playing the game. 

It’s quite a wild headcanon, but it is one that makes sense to me. At least it has some basis on what I’ve seen in the game. 

Since my observation posts tend to be long, I’ll be placing a ‘’keep reading’’ as per usual. 

Hope you enjoy!

One of the few things about the High Entia that stood out for me was the very first High Entia NPC I talked to.  I was exploring Alcamoth for the first time at the time, and there were two NPC’s standing near one of the tall statues in the Great Hall. They were discussing their ancestry and that the High Entia likely looked very different from what they look like today. 

The statue showed a very angelic looking humanoid. Wings on the head, wings on the back, the complete angel package. It was very abstract however, and details were hard to pinpoint. 

(Credit: https://xenoblade.fandom.com/wiki/Great_Hall )

Above is the best image I could find straight from the fan wiki. As said above, it’s fairly abstract, and the head is obscured. The skirt-like appendage around the waist could be another set of feathers, a body part, or formal attire. 

The gist of this statue, plus the dialogue of the NPC’s, is that the High Entia indeed, looked very different from now. 

A little further into the game, we get to see another ancient High Entia statue, this time at Prison Island. Riki points out the statue, and Melia, too, comments on the change in their appearance over the years. 

No one in the party catches the hint of Dinobeast -> Telethia -> High Entia yet.

To be fair, I didn’t either. 

Anyway. In my latest playthrough, I decided to give the statues a closer look, and I understood why the party didn’t connect the dots. 

The statues were similar to Telethia, someone who has seen Telethia often, like the Nopon having been implied to have, would recognize them as such. But those who didn’t, would see a creature that is too humanoid for a Telethia. 

I couldn’t find a screenshot of the statues, but I’ll hopefully edit this post to add as soon I have one. If I don’t forget to, that is.

It’s not too unsimilar to the Phoenix Telethia, the ones Shulk encounters alongside Alvis, but it is different. From what I could see, it looked like a cross between those and the current High Entia. 

The missing link perhaps?

It did have everything the abstract statues in the Great Hall showed. Head wings, back-wings, skirt like appendage that some Telethia also possess, and a face with a beak or snout. 

I’m aware the Telethia are more or less the Bionis’ cells, likely the white bloodcells (T-cells perhaps?), built to eradicate anything ‘’wrong’’. Zanza gave them sapience because he felt lonely. At that point, the Telethia became the High Entia, even though the bodies were different compared to today.

This either implies the Telethia gained sapience and eventual civilization after the Titan Battle, or that the Telethia were the first sapient race of the Bionis, before the Giants. 

I’m leaned towards the latter, because it is said the ancient High Entia locked Zanza’s host body up in Prison Island. They were sapient and civilized enough to know how create and/or handle the technology used to seal away their former God. 

The technology containing Zanza’s host body, looks similar to the technology seen in the High Entia Tomb and some other ruins. Mag Mell Ruins comes to mind here. 

Therefore it is safe to say it was High Entia tech all this time, and they specifically created Zanza’s prison rather than utilize some abandoned tech. 

Another thing I like to consider a clue of the ancient High Entia being basically sapient humanoid Telethia is their military attire of today.  The guards and soldier all wear helmets with elongated beaks as visors. There is a lot of empty space between where the face is and where the ‘‘beak’‘ ends. 

This probably used to protect their actual beaks/muzzles back in the day, and it never changed. We all know High Entia like their traditions, and this is perhaps one of the many traditional things they never got rid of. 

But why do the High Entia look so humanoid today? 

We know, thanks to Melia’s outing into the Tomb, that High Entia rulers were working on integrating Homs genes into their bodies. What if... the so-called purebloods weren’t as pureblooded as they thought?

They did say a lot of High Entia history got lost because none of it was in writing.

The ruler Melia spoke to is said to have ruled many generations ago, I don’t remember the exact number, but I think it was around 40 generations?  They had been working on integrating Homs genetic data into their own kin for at least 40 generations. Possibly far longer... likely as soon as the first Homs appeared on the Bionis. 

The Giants went extinct after the Titan Battle, the Nopon probably did not exist yet, and if they did, they simply were biologically compatible. 

So the ancient High Entia pounced on the new race as soon they appeared, seeing them as a way to get rid of their curse. 

Them turning more humanoid over the years is merely a byproduct of their lengthy genetic planning. And with not everything being in writing until a later point, the initial goal became forgotten by many over the course of generations.

It became a secret closely guarded by the Antiqua family as well as the Bionite Order. For opposite reasons. 

The Antiqua family wants to steer the High Entia into the right direction and continue the lengthy project started by their ancestors.

The Bionite Order likely wanted to revert things back to as they once were, being devoted to Zanza, and probably engineering things here and there to de-taint their kin.

With the truth becoming such a closely guarded secret only a few were privy to, the common folk ended up ignorant. 

If one does not know the how or the why behind something, they will come up with their own conclusions.  With these statues of High Entia of old standing in the Great Hall, some with the larger wings felt they were closer to what were, in their eyes, the ‘’true’’ High Entia. 

And that’s probably when the whole pureblood thing started.

Ironic, isn’t it?

[haledamage]

Bless Me With Your OTP

Rules: answer as many of the following questions as you want, and add art/screenshots to show off your OTP!

Tagged by @queen-scribbles​ :D tagging… @allisondraste​ @risualto​ @serenbach86​ @shimmer-like-agirl​ @ariela-of-aedyr​

I’m gonna do Vesiya/Jorgan because that’s who I’m writing right now :)

I feel like I’ve already answered most of these, in some variation, with Kai and both her boys as well as Cait/Nate, and this way I don’t have to choose a Bravo Boy for Kira :P

Do they fight often? If so, what is their dynamic like?

They butt heads a lot when they first met. They’re both headstrong and natural leaders, but it wasn’t so much fighting as it was posturing.

Now that they’ve settled down around each other, they don’t fight, but they do have Disagreements that mostly involve them both using their Commanding Officer voice and referring to each other entirely by their rank rather than by name. It doesn’t happen often, they agree with each other most of the time, and when it does happen it’s almost always about work things not about personal things. Ves will only pull rank to stop an argument if they’re in public, and she hates doing it.

They will, however, fight anyone and everyone on each others’ behalf. They will pick a fight with the Supreme Chancellor himself if they think he’s insulting their spouse. That part started all the way back at Ord Mantell, long before they’d even considered a romantic relationship - really, even before they were friends. Ves almost lost command of Havoc as soon as she got it because she argued so strongly against Jorgan’s demotion.

Who is the most skeptical of the two?

Definitely Jorgan, which I’m sure surprises no one. The man’s never believed a single word that comes out of a politician’s mouth, and only half that come out of Republic Command. And don’t even get him started on what he thinks of the SIS. While Ves is certainly not a push-over by any means, she’s a lot more likely to give someone the benefit of the doubt than he is.

Who would be most likely to suggest a night of dancing?

Ves. She loves dancing and is very good at it, though her experience with it is mostly either by herself at a cantina or out with a group of friends. Jorgan surprises her when she asks him to dance by saying yes, and surprises her again by being skilled at it. She even lets him lead… for a little while. I’m actually in the middle of writing this scene as we speak

What would they do if the other was injured in battle?

If Jorgan is injured, Ves’s first priority is getting him away from the fighting and out of harm’s way. As long as he’s conscious, Jorgan’s going to keep fighting, and she can’t help him if he’s still fighting. She’s not above ordering him to stand down. Her second priority is healing him. She’s a trained medic, though not as skilled as Elara she’s definitely good enough to deal with an injury in the field until they can get to a medcenter to take care of it properly. Even at the medcenter, she prefers to treat his wounds herself if she can, rather than let Elara or the medical droid do it; if it’s not something she has the power to treat, she hovers, needing to be useful or have something to do to help.

If Hallis is injured, I feel really sorry for whoever hurt her. The first thing Aric does is make sure it’s not life threatening, and if it is, to patch it up enough to stabilize her. He’s no medic, but he’s been in the field for a long time and knows how to patch a wound enough that it won’t kill you anymore, even if he can’t do much more than that. The second thing he does is kill whatever is responsible for hurting Ves and anyone that might be working with them. Then he gets her to Elara or a medcenter as fast as he can. He refuses to leave the room while she’s being treated, and won’t leave her side until she’s recovered.

How do their fighting styles complement each other?

If Ves had had any say in who the first member of Havoc Squad could have been, she’d have still picked Aric. She’s an assault cannon specialist, he’s a sniper, so generally she goes in loud to draw the enemy out and he takes them out as soon as they pop their heads out of cover. Quick, clean, surgical, with barely a word spoken between them. Honestly, by the time she’s promoted to Captain, the two of them can clear an entire battleship without a word, they understand each other on such a fundamental level that they don’t need to call out corners or targets anymore. There’s a reason Havoc ends up with the reputation it does, and it sure as hell ain’t because of Tavus and his squad.

Do they want children? Does it frighten them? How many do they want?

Vesiya would love to have kids. Her brother’s kids are the light of her life and she’d love to have some of her own someday. Jorgan I don’t think had ever really considered it before, he’s a career man through and through, but things change after he meets Ves. And after she was missing for those five years… when he gets her back, I think family is a much higher priority to him then than his career ever was.

I don’t think Cathar and Mirialan are reproductively compatible, but adoption is an option, and one I think they’d both be happy with. I could see them with a whole litter of kids from various races.

As parents, they’d both be a little on the strict side, but fair. Ves is great with kids, and very patient, and Jorgan would be a fantastic dad once he warmed up to it. Can you imagine, a little army of younglings following him around?

What happened when they took them home to their families? If their families aren’t in the picture anymore, how do they feel about it?

I maaaaaay already have some fic ideas floating around for this. 

I don’t know if Jorgan has any family? I can’t remember if he mentions it, he hasn’t so far in my playthrough, and the last one was years ago, so I’m gonna skip that. If he does, I’ll edit this and come back to it :) 

But Ves’s family adores Aric. She comes from a very Republic-centered family - her mother is a senator, her father a retired admiral, her twin brother and his wife are both SIS, and she has a younger brother who’s a Jedi (though she hasn’t seen him in like 15 years since he first showed Force sensitivity because Jedi can’t have attachments and all that) - so chances are good that he’d met some of them before he met her, or that they’d already heard of him at least. He makes a better first impression with them than he did with Ves XD

Vitrin, her twin, is probably the slowest to come around, but only because he’s very protective of his sister, and Vit’s wife Lena is the fastest to accept him because she’s got really good instincts about people. Ves’s nieces, Scout and Zan (Scout is a nickname, her name is actually Kesiya (after her aunt, sort of), but no one calls her that anymore), are already calling him Uncle Aric before they’ve finished that first dinner.

After Ves is declared MIA, Jorgan still keeps in touch with her family - though at first, mostly at their insistence. Vit and Lena have a 3rd kid while Ves is “missing” and they name him Aric, and if that doesn’t tell you how much they love him, I don’t know what will.

How does each person show affection towards the other?

Both of their main love language is Acts of Service, so the biggest way they show affection is by doing things for each other. Jorgan does weapon checks and makes sure Ves’s armor is in good working order, that she’s as safe as he can make her. Hallis makes sure he isn’t hurt, checking for injuries after every combat situation even when he claims he’s fine (he is not always fine. He doesn’t like to worry her about the small stuff. She worries anyway); she does most of the talking, especially to politicians, so he doesn’t have to. Whichever of them wakes up first makes sure the other has a cup of caf waiting for them. They watch each other’s backs.

Besides that, Aric likes to give gifts. Not big ones, necessarily, though he does some of those, too, but a lot of little things. Like a beer at a cantina after the end of a long mission, or an upgrade for her cannon that he knows she had her eye on. Little things that say “I was thinking about you” or prove how well he knows her and what she likes.

Ves likes physical affection. A hand on Jorgan’s shoulder or his arm, a quick kiss before a mission, she’s especially fond of the forehead lean. She won’t do much more than that in public, they’re both very professional, but it’s still her way to silently say “I’m here with you, I love you”. In private, there will never be such a thing as too many hugs. She could wrap herself around him and just stay there all day and be happy.

Who cries the most? Who is better at comforting?

Oh boy, neither of them are big criers. I won’t say they’re repressed, because they aren’t, they both are fairly good at expressing emotion, especially for career soldiers, but any strong enough negative emotion that would elicit tears mostly just turns to anger for both of them. There are a few major exceptions, but they all revolve around that pesky time Ves was pronounced dead for a few years. That was obviously a very hard time for Aric, and when Ves got free she had to make peace with the idea that she’d missed five years. She definitely had at least one very large breakdown.

If I had to pick one, I’d probably say Ves cries more, if only just and only very rarely. And only in absolute privacy where no one can see it at all.

Ves is probably better at comforting, by merit of having a lot of family, especially young children. Or rather, she’s very good at verbal comfort, but Jorgan is probably better at physical comfort. Just look at him. Clearly the man gives good hugs, just look at those arms. Plus, don’t Cathar purr? :)

Who is the bigger flirt?

Jorgan, believe it or not. He’s the one that initiates, most of the time, and Hallis just plays off of what he says. Neither of them are very good at blatantly stating their feelings for each other for a really long time, but admitting attraction is easier. They’re very playful flirts, much more playful than they are in absolutely any other aspect of their lives. It’s a dance, a push and pull, a subtle competition between them. They flirt for a long time before they ever make a step toward an actual relationship.

They very, very rarely ever flirt in public, and when they do it’s always just a quiet aside, not meant to be heard by anyone else, and it’s never anything incriminating. Poor Elara, though, for having to put up with these two. Patience of a saint, that woman. Anyone else would have thrown them out the airlock ages ago.

Of course, it takes them months to get to the point where they’re comfortable enough with each other to start flirting. And outside of each other, they don’t flirt. Like, at all. Ves didn’t even flirt with Balkar.

[jira-chii]

World 1 story summary

A friend needed a summary of story mode ASAP so I quickly wrote this up in about a week.

Very obvious spoiler warning.

Some notes:

This is by no means a perfect recount of World 1. In fact, it is not even based on my actual experience (I watched this playlist by Shinchan, and viewed each video in its entirety exactly once). 

This version of World 1 is fully voiced and uses the Shoumetsu Toshi 2 tutorial, which I did not experience when I first played story mode back in 2015. However, I imagine this is the version most players would now be familiar with. (Honestly though, from what I remember, apart from the beginning the changes are very minor, so you’re not missing much).   

I do still want to replay main story for myself, take screenshots, and rewrite this post eventually. In particular, I want to go into more detail about the gameplay mechanics that contribute to the story (like literally having to move back a few chapters to progress at one stage of the story).

As this is a summary focused on giving an overview of the story only, I have most certainly missed out on many nuances in the character dialogue. These are not necessary to understand the story, however they add a lot more depth to character personalities and motives. This will be something else I will pay more attention to when I replay the game. But not now.

I have not recounted each chapter exactly as it plays out in the game, because 1) I was writing this in a rush, and 2) there is a lot of repetition. I have tried to keep everything thematically consistent, although this means I may have shifted the order of some of the information you find out. Therefore, if you are using this as a guide for your first playthrough, do not read my chapter summaries until you have actually finished the entirety of said chapter (which are the sections on the map which have the character 話 at the end of them), or else there may be experience-ruining spoilers.

Alright, enjoy.

Shoumetsu Toshi's opening literally throws you right into the action. In fact, you are informed, it's the final battle to save the world! Yuki tells you to collect spheres while she uses tamashii to fight against ????. It is in this moment of intense tension that you are given a tutorial on how to play the game.

Just as you are getting the hang of things, ???? reveals  a new power. A panicked Yuki exclaims it feels similar to when the city “disappeared”.

Suddenly, as ???? is about to attack, the game freezes and the screen glitches. We pan out to a shot of the city in time to see a silent explosion.

The narration explains this “second Shoumetsu” brought about a new world and the start of a new story. It all began with the “first Shoumetsu” that happened in that city, which we will now turn to.

Three years after the initial Shoumetsu, inside a mysterious organisation, hooded figures panic as they search for an intruder..on a scooter?

Takuya is a courier with a request to save a girl and get her out of the facility. The girl's name is Yuki and she is able to summon these beings called tamashii. Takuya doesn't stress the details though, and just follows her instructions to keep driving and collect spheres. After all, his mission will end once he delivers her to his client and they won't have to see each other ever again.

Takuya brings Yuki to a research facility, where they meet up with a scientist. Scientist researched “parallel worlds” with Yuki's father. And it seems like he's not done with Takuya just yet.

Scientist explains that three years ago, a city disappeared (“Shoumetsu” means disappearance/extinction/annihilation). They now call that area “Lost”, and he wants Takuya to take Yuki there. Takuya accepts the job after making sure the reward is worth it.

After the opening sequence, we find out the hooded figures from the organisation are after the two of them to get Yuki back.

PART 1: Searching for Nakama

Chapter 1

Takuya communicates with Scientist through a mobile phone while he drives his scooter. First he wants to know why Yuki wants to go to the place where a city disappeared, the Shoumetsu Toshi, Lost.

Scientist said Yuki's father, who should have disappeared in the incident three years ago, sent a message to Yuki saying he is waiting at Lost.

During battle Takuya asks Yuki about the tamashii. They are the “wills” of people who disappeared in Lost. There are even little girls, who probably aren't even aware they have turned into tamashii. But some tamashii are also able to realise their unfulfilled dreams in this form, as was the case with a singer we fight.

Yuki can summon tamashii in battle if she is able to visualise their “wills” or “feelings”. For that, she needs to know a little bit of their background information, so Takuya takes her to an information broker he knows, called Headhunter.

Headhunter has a list of all the people who disappeared in the Shoumetsu. He is a businessman who works only when money is involved. According to his introductory bio, he also likes anmitsu and geisha.

Chapter 2

After the visit, scientist calls again, with another request. He wants Takuya to retrieve some stolen data, on Yuki's father's research. The culprits are the mysterious organisation that Takuya rescued Yuki from.

Takuya happens to have a friend called Geek who is great at finding information. But when he tries to call him, Geek doesn't pick up.

Yuki and Takuya's relationship is still tense, with neither completely trusting the other yet. Yuki comments that all of Takuya's acquaintances are weird people. Takuya refuses to talk to her about anything unrelated to the job. So when he asks Yuki to explain her dad's research she is unwilling to say anything. Until Takuya makes her realise he is putting his own life on the line to help her, so the least she could do is let him know why.

Yuki's father was researching how to make tamashii stronger.  But that's strange, because tamashii didn't exist until after Lost, so how could her father be researching them before the Shoumetsu happened? Yuki won't tell him anymore though, because he won't open up about himself either.

The two finally arrive at Geek's place. Geek managed to get the data but he is very scared. He doesn't want to be involved anymore. He doesn't want anything to do with Yuki, the girl involved in Lost. He agrees to give them the data if they leave asap.

The men from the organisation find out their computers were hacked, but they definitely won't make another mistake. They won't hand over the  “evolution” data.

Well, guess what our next mission is.

Chapter 3

Scientist had planted a spy in the organisation who is currently stealing the evolution data. Takuya and Yuki are to meet up with them to retrieve it.

Yuki is still feeling hurt over what Geek said, but she says she's used to it. A lot of people said hurtful things to her out of fear in the three years after the Shoumetsu. Takuya knows it's also impossible to like everyone you meet, so he reassured her it's OK.

There are a lot of grass enemies in the area so the best element to put in our team is fire. Like the guy in the suit Yuki first summoned. Yuki clarifies his name is Akira, but won't go further into their relationship.

Takuya changes topics and asks about the mysterious organisation. They did experiments on Yuki to get her power. Takuya knows they are a dangerous group to mess with, because he used to be involved with them, before he became a courier. That’s why he knows they don't let off traitors easily. So we should probably be wary of Scientist, who was gutsy enough to plant a spy in there. What kind of man is Scientist, and is he really trustworthy?

Yuki admits even she sometimes can't tell what Scientist is thinking, but he is the last living person carrying on her father's will. They have no choice but to rely on him.

Takuya gives her a piece of advice, which is to be true to yourself. What an uncharacteristically useful thing to say. Well actually he didn't come up with it himself, he read it in a book.

Yuki wonders what Takuya was doing before he became a courier. He was in a detective group, but he doesn't want to tell her why he quit. She asks if he still keeps in contact with his friends from back then. Takuya gives an unconvincing answer of “sometimes”.

Takuya and Yuki arrive, but there is nobody around to greet them. Then they find a corpse. It looks like the organisation is onto them. But they have the data now. The spy hid it inside their mouth so the enemy wouldn't find out. But how important is this mission to need everyone to go to such lengths?

Takuya tells Yuki to go outside and take some deep breaths to calm down while he sends the data to Scientist.

The hooded guys from the organisation realise Takuya and Yuki must have gotten the data. Their next strategy is use their network, the detective group.

Chapter 4

Takuya is furious at Scientist. Clearly he knew what was up, so why would he keep quiet and subject a young girl to a scene like that? Scientist explains it was because he didn't want to risk Takuya pulling out of the job after knowing the dangers. Takuya makes it clear he is definitely going to see the job through to the end, so he doesn't want to see Yuki hurt anymore.

Poor Yuki is still in shock. Takuya diverts the topic to another acquaintance of his they are going to get help from. Researcher is his childhood friend and an expert at gathering data. She was also his colleague in the detective group. The truth is, he never wanted to contact her again, but Yuki taught him that relying on people once in a while is not such a bad thing. He hasn't talked to her in a while because “it's complicated”, but he assures her Researcher is trustworthy.

Why did Takuya leave the detective agency even with someone as trustworthy as Researcher in it? Takuya still won't tell the details, but he claims he was put in charge of a big case, was told by his higher ups to pull out, got made to take responsibility for it and was consequently kicked out of the group. It sounds bad, but in a big organisation it isn't strange for one person’s happiness to be sacrificed for the group collective. But Yuki probably won't understand until she's older.

Researcher greets the two of them at the pub, and says she has good news and bad news. The bad news is that she has reported them to the higher ups in the agency. They want Takuya to hand over Yuki. But the good news is, if he does so, they will consider everything he's done water under the bridge, and let him back into the group.

So the detective group was affiliated with the mysterious organisation after all. Takuya is furious at Researcher's betrayal, tells her to forget everything and never appear in front of him again.

As the two make their escape, Takuya apologises to Yuki. He truly thought Researcher was able to be trusted. Yuki doesn't mind though. She asks if they dated. A woman's intuition is a scary thing. Just once, Takuya says.

It's a shame how things turned out, but Yuki doesn't think it was wrong for Takuya to have tried to trust her.

Suddenly they get a message..from Researcher: “Head in the two o'clock direction.” But can this message be trusted? Yuki says yes and that's good enough reason for Takuya to do so too.

On the way they see a very strong tamashii called Hazuki, who emanates an intense feeling of regret, that never disappeared even when she became a tamashii.

Researcher immediately apologises when we meet up. Takuya knows she didn't mean it, but it’s hard to trust her now that she’s put them in danger. Researcher admits that just now, she quit the group, and won’t leak any more information to the organisation. She is completely on our side now. But...why?

“It's because I like you” she simply states with a smile.

The organisation lost their source of information from their detective group network. But, they did locate the man who hacked their computers and stole their data…

Chapter 5

Geek is in danger! Takuya and Yuki race to his rescue. But when they get there, there's someone else's corpse at the entrance. Did Geek do that?

No, a little boy of all people came and killed the henchman from the organisation. Who is he? Scientists seems to know. He warns Yuki that what lies ahead is a reality she may find hard to accept. But Yuki will move on regardless, because she has to.

Takuya is grateful to Yuki for tagging along to save Geek. While it's true Geek said some hurtful things to her, she knows he is an important person to Takuya.

Takuya and Yuki resolve to make a move against the organisation. After all, the hunter is stronger than the hunted.

Chapter 6

Takuya had a reaction when Geek mentioned the mysterious boy. Actually, the big case he worked on as a detective was an investigation on a boy who used strange powers to kill people.

Headhunter managed to get some info on him. There is a rumour he is also heading for Lost.

We also find out the organisation planted a bug on Geek, so he knows everything. It looks like a fight with the boy will be inevitable.

The confrontation with the boy comes with an unwelcome shock for Yuki. He is her younger brother, Souma. Souma figures out she is with Takuya because she is not “perfect” like him and so needs Takuya to collect spheres.

Souma doesn't want Yuki meeting their dad in Lost. What is his goal? Souma says he is “making the world right”, and he will kill everyone who gets in his way, even his own sister.

Are we going to make Yuki fight her own brother? Yes. She pleads for Takuya to not give up, and bring her to Lost no matter what.

After the fight, Souma concedes he can't beat us in his “current body”, but he won't let us off so easily next time. He is no longer the Souma Yuki knows, and will only get stronger and stronger.

He also tells Yuki not to be fooled by Takuya, who still hasn’t revealed much about himself to Yuki.

Finally, before he leaves, Souma tells Yuki she can't change the past. Their dad is gone, and there's nothing they can do about it.  

Takuya demands answers from Scientist. Why is he making Yuki do this? Scientist replies: “there is no other choice.” On top of saving the world, there is another consequence for Yuki that she isn't even aware of yet. Yuki is actually deeply connected to Lost, so if it expands it will suck her life energy. That is, if nothing is done about Lost, Yuki will die.

PART TWO: Evolution

Chapter 7

We now know the enemy tamashii are being summoned by Yuki's brother, Souma. Defeating him is a necessary sacrifice to ensure Yuki gets to Lost. The enemies are strong, but Takuya advises we don't panic, and proceed to get stronger at our own pace.

Yuki and Takuya try to figure out what happened to Souma, but the truth is Yuki doesn't know much of what happened after the Shoumetsu. Takuya is actually in the same boat. He recalls that on the day he was close by, possibly observing someone. But he can't remember who he was observing, and why. How strange that neither Takuya nor Yuki remember the events of that day.

Now that Takuya is aware of the stakes, he asks Yuki once more to explain the purpose of their journey. Why was her father researching tamashii?

The truth is something hard to believe. Yuki's dad got his data from the future. Which means even if he should have disappeared, even if he shouldn't be alive right now, there's a possibility he is. Everything will become clear only once we meet him. So for now we can only trust his message, that he is waiting for Yuki at Lost.

It seems like Souma also wants to meet his dad, so why can't the siblings talk it out? Yuki feels Souma is different now, she isn't even sure he is her brother anymore. Though he looks exactly the same as her brother, he behaves differently. It's like he doesn't even see Yuki the same way as before anymore.

Takuya has his suspicions someone else is pulling the strings. Souma doesn't act like a kid his age should.

Yuki talks about how her brother used to be. He gets lonely easily. He used to drag a blanket around the house, and Yuki and her dad would laugh and say he was like an anime character. On that topic, Takuya mentions he never really got into anime, but he would read his older sister's manga. Yuki giggles. Shoujo manga seems somehow fitting for Takuya.

Yuki now turns to her concern for Souma. When tamashii get hurt, their summoners also take damage. To think that Souma may be getting hurt because of them is unpleasant. But we can only move on. There is no time to worry about the enemy.

Meanwhile, Souma himself is also powering up, as indicated by the more evolved tamashii standing in Takuya and Yuki’s way. But it's still not enough. They are still being defeated one after the other. It's almost driving him mad. Suddenly a mysterious man appears and tell him he's done enough. Enough to show he's useless. Souma asks for another chance from the man, Taiyou. Taiyou says he is free to try harder. But depending on the result he may “fix” Souma. For example, maybe he'd be more useful if he was made immune to fear of pain, and able to summon tamashii continuously until the very limits of his mental ability?

Chapter 8

Takuya wonders what will happen if they get to Lost, but don't find Yuki's dad. Yuki assures him she is fairly sure of where he would be: on “the other side” of Lost.

Lost looks like a hole, but that hole is actually connected to another world, a “parallel world”.

Do you know about Schrodinger's cat? If you put a cat in a box and close the lid, you won't know if it is dead or alive until you open the lid. The cat is technically alive and dead at the same time.

In a similar way, Lost leads to a parallel world that shows a different “possibility” of this world. Poor Takuya still doesn't quite get it, but in a nutshell, the enemies are coming from another world.

Yuki apologises for involving Takuya in such a dangerous job. But Takuya says he has no regrets. The job is pretty interesting, and he doesn't mind being with Yuki either. So instead of apologising and saying “sorry”, he wants her to say “thank you”.

At the organisation, Souma is being pushed to his limit. Even the hooded henchmen are getting concerned. The boy is too young, and can't handle the power.

Meanwhile Geek gets a visit from a woman. Her name is Tsuki and she is Taiyou's partner. Tsuki knows Geek is the hacker and she wants information on Takuya.

Yuki is feeling conflicted about Souma. Is it really alright to move forward knowing you will be harming your own brother? But she has no choice. She can only pray that he gives up eventually.

Yuki thinks the next time they meet she will try to talk to him normally. Souma also went through Lost, so he must have had to endure many horrible things, just like Yuki did.

There are many evolved tamashii in our way. It's happening abnormally quickly. With the defeat of the next enemy we cut back to Souma at the organisation. He's started to go crazy, continuously repeating the phrase “I won't forgive you”.

Chapter 9

From threatening Geek, Tsuki learns Takuya is not related to Yuki in any way, which is hard to believe. Geek says Takuya has always been like that, a kind person at heart, even to complete strangers.  

Tsuki figures he isn't lying. But she does get one piece of useful information: Takuya and Yuki can't fight unless they're together. Before she leaves, Tsuki calmly requests that Geek stop hacking the organisation, or else she will kill him. But of course he won't give up that easily.

Geek contacts Takuya and Yuki to tell them about Tsuki. He also informs them Souma is in a bad condition and his mental state can't take the pain anymore.

Yuki needs to prepare for the worst. She doesn't want to fight Souma, but if she doesn't the world might disappear. This is news to Takuya. Yuki explains Lost connects two worlds, but the two worlds cannot support each other's existence. One will suck out the possibilities of the other, and destroy it, turning everyone into tamashii. Yuki's dad hopefully has a solution to avoid this catastrophe, but truthfully Yuki isn't sure what can be done.

Headhunter investigated Souma. The boy should be dead. He even has a corpse, albeit a missing one. He hasn't investigated why it went missing yet, because that's out of scope of his request. Researcher pays him to continue the research.

So, Souma should be dead, but somebody has forcefully resurrected him. Yuki doesn't want to believe it, but Takuya tells her she must make a choice now, because to not decide anything is the worst thing that can happen.

Yuki asks what Takuya will do, to which he replies he will follow his contract to the end, like he has always done.

As we fight the next evolved tamashii enemy, Yuki is concerned Souma must be in a lot of pain. He probably doesn't want this either.

We cut to Tsuki and Taiyou, who are having a strange conversation. Tsuki says she's always been jealous of big breasts, but now she finally has them she's realised how much they make her shoulders hurt. Taiyou berates her for not choosing a body similar to her parallel self.

They then talk about what to do with the “corpse”.

Souma is not just in a lot of pain. He's snapped mentally, muttering things as if in a trance: “play with me… I'm lonely… don't come… quick, let's play…” He probably can’t do much more in that state, but Taiyou thinks it a waste to just throw his body away. Furthermore, the “Apocalypse calendar” is also looking forward to him.

Yuki makes a decision. She will fight and move forward, no matter how painful it gets. She tells Takuya that no matter what happens, he can't give up on her, because she needs him.

Yuki tells Takuya her mother died soon after her and Souma were born. Her father worked hard to raise them and do his research at the same time, but Yuki hated it. She hated not having her mother there and often cried a lot about it, causing her father a lot of grief. That's why she wants to save him, but to do that means hurting Souma...

Chapter 10

Yuki needs a small break after defeating Souma. She asks Takuya to lend her his back (so she can cry). Takuya asks her what she wants to do once everything is over. The thought had never even crossed her mind. Takuya says they should find her a new house in a new city, so she can start a new life. Yuki can go to school, and make friends her own age. Such an ordinary life should be everyone's right. Yuki agrees, that it would be nice to have such a life.

Yuki continues thinking about the ideal future Takuya outlined for her. Will she be able to make friends her own age? Will Takuya visit? Takuya also joins in the fantasising. He will visit her occasionally, but he's still got a job so he can't look after her all the time. Yuki gets a little annoyed he's treating her like a child. Takuya says he'll definitely make that future, that dream come true. We fight a Judo girl, who fulfilled her dream to get stronger as a tamashii. Takuya says he and Yuki will fulfil their dreams too, not as tamashii, but as humans.

Yuki is a little conflicted, but Takuya tells her the most important thing to success is to believe, even if that is a lie. He convinces Yuki to believe in this little dream they have created. When Takuya comes to visit, maybe she'll make him breakfast. Takuya doesn't think Yuki looks capable of making anything complex. He tells her he'll settle for anything as long as there's coffee.  Yuki berates him. If it's breakfast in the morning, it's got to be rice.

In this chapter, Takuya and Yuki also noticed something strange about the tamashii. Even though they defeated Souma, the enemies keep getting stronger.

Actually, Souma is being forced to summon them. He is in a lot of pain but Tsuki tells him to be a good boy and endure it. He's the only one who can summon tamashii for them, so they need him to keep working.

Meanwhile, Researcher finds out from Headhunter that Yuki and Scientist are hiding something very important from Takuya (Headhunter doesn't tell Takuya directly because he knows Researcher will pay good money to know anything concerning Takuya's wellbeing).

Researcher calls Takuya at the end of the chapter and pleads for him to stop the job: If Takuya continues the journey to Lost, his life will be in danger.

Chapter 11

Many people who investigated Lost have died, and the small amount of survivors suffered damage to their memory and mentality. There is a type of energy wave emanating from Lost that has negative effects on people. Yuki probably knew this, but she didn't tell Takuya.

Takuya asks Yuki how meeting her dad will help stop Lost. According to her father’s research, Yuki’s power is an important key to closing Lost. When Yuki summons tamashii with her power, she is essentially opening a gate to the other world. By the same logic, she should be able to ‘close’ that gate that is Lost.

Our next enemy is not evolved, so the enemy must be getting weaker. Takuya and Yuki are also getting closer to Lost.

Takuya talks about his philosophy around contracts again. He has pride in fulfilling his contract. The higher the hurdle the better. Takuya acknowledges he has a dangerous job, but to fail even once means loss of credibility, and no more jobs. So he will definitely fulfil his contract with Yuki, no matter what obstacles lie in the way.

Takuya's pride is a troublesome thing, but it's what keeps him going. He remarks it might be good to settle down after all this, but Yuki asks if he's scared he won't even make it back. Takuya reminds her they decided they wouldn't regret anything. To falter even a little bit means death.

On Tsuki and Taiyou's side we get confirmation that they are tamashii from the other side, who have successfully taken over bodies from this side. Also there are 30 seconds left on the ‘Clock of the End’, but Lost is spreading too slowly. The Noah plan won't succeed like this.

Souma is also now able to summon even stronger tamashii, even though he should have hit his limit long ago. Taiyou seems to know more.

Souma's ramblings are now about the sister he loves. Tsuki thinks it's kind of gross a corpse is talking about his sister.

Chapter 12

Scientist is concerned Takuya will not help them anymore now that he knows about the dangerous waves, but Yuki knows he is stronger than that, and will go on. Even knowing there is a good chance he will lose his memories, and possibly his life.

It seems Yuki is now conflicted between having Takuya continue to help or, or having him give up and preserve his life. She asks him if he has any regrets. Takuya says instead of thinking about the painful near future, it is much better to think of the happy future when everything is over, even if that future is a lie.

The next enemy is Akira, the SP who guarded Yuki and Souma's dad. Which means Souma is still summoning the tamashii.

Yuki is in shock, she can't even give advice normally anymore, instead delegating that task to Takuya to advise us on what we should focus on next for our team building.

Researcher relays the news to Headhunter that Takuya won't stop, because he's found out from Scientist that Yuki will die if he does. Headhunter doesn't understand how one can stake their life on just a contract, but that's Takuya for you.

Souma's condition has gotten to the point even Tsuki is becoming concerned about him. But Taiyou doesn't care if his body breaks or his sanity is destroyed. As long as they can get power out of him. Tsuki conceded he is correct, too correct. But she still secretly lets him go before he evolves.

Yuki is horrified when she sees Souma. He's gone crazy. He's no longer her brother. And she has to defeat him.

After the battle Yuki tearfully apologises. “I'm sorry I couldn't save you. But I have things I have to do. I can't stop here, I have to go ahead.”

Now Takuya and Yuki have reached the vicinity of Lost. No matter what happens, Taiyou will ensure the Noah plan goes ahead. Taiyou thinks the waves around Lost will be enough to get rid of the two of them, but just in case, he tells Tsuki it is her turn next.

PART 3: Towards Lost

Chapter 13

Tsuki has no choice. It's her turn next. She wonders how there could be people idiotic enough to sacrifice themselves just to reach Lost. What a stupid story this is becoming…

Takuya and Yuki are feeling the impact of the waves. Both already have splitting headaches, and the enemies are getting stronger.

Tsuki makes her appearance. She tells them to stop but ofc they don't. They're the exact type of idiots she was talking about earlier. We beat her once, then she escapes to get stronger. She tells Taiyou the waves might not be enough to stop them. Taiyou says they have to do everything they can to stop them, which is bad news for Tsuki. Tsuki doesn't say anything. She’s scared of what will happen to her.

Yuki feels like the scenery around her is familiar, and it's too clear to be Deja Vu. She can even see what is going to happen from here on, as if she was seeing another memory. Something like this had already been happening to her, it was why she always had a bad feeling right before an enemy was about to appear.

These are actually the memories of her parallel world version flowing into her. Takuya asks what will happen next. In a desolate tone, Yuki says the two of them will be defeated by a powerful enemy. It’s Tsuki.

Scientist's tamashii research lab was invaded by some men from the organisation. He managed to chase them away, but not before they destroyed some of his equipment. He clearly identified them as from “the other side”. Geek tells him to not give up. They'll give the organisation some dummy data and find an alternate route to keep supporting Takuya and Yuki.

Tsuki is amazed Takuya and Yuki are still going to challenge her, even though Yuki's memories say they will die by her hands. The two confidently tell her things will go differently, because this is a different world and they are not like their parallel world selves.

Against all odds, they do defeat Tsuki, sending her into a bit of a panic. She doesn't want to keep going, she doesn't want more power, she doesn't want to become like Souma…

Chapter 14

Taiyou thinks it odd that Takuya and Yuki are still able to maintain their sanity after so long. As Takuya and Yuki get closer, their pain increases.

Scientist finally explains the nature of these waves. They are the memories of their parallel world versions. But if Takuya and Yuki can handle it, they will absorb the wills from the parallel world and grow even stronger. It's incredibly dangerous, but in the end it's a battle of wills, and Scientist is willing to bet on that miracle.

Yuki becomes concerned about the possibility of losing her memories. What if she forgets her purpose for journeying with Takuya in the first place? How will she be able to keep moving forward?

Takuya is also in a bad situation. His head hurts and his mouth is dry. But somehow, he still has this feeling that despite all that, they will still win. Even if their current selves forget everything, they only have to trust in their past selves, who have been able to endure everything up to now, to get them to this point.

Yuki makes a revelation about the tamashii in our party. Even though we should only have capacity for five in our party there's always one more, the helper tamashii. We know now, it's another version of us, helping each other from different parallel worlds. So even if Takuya and Yuki lose their memories, they won't lose their strong will.

Tsuki comes back. Yuki can sense conflict within her. Tsuki is afraid of fighting us, but she doesn't say anything. Taiyou steps in and says even if she loses her self, as long as she has power left she will stop the two of them. Tsuki gets pushed to her limits under Taiyou's command, and evolves into something that isn't even human anymore.

Chapter 15

After taking down Tsuki, it’s Taiyou’s turn in the ring. The strange but powerful man is able to induce a headache purely through his aura. We win anyway. Taiyou retreats to get more power.

Geek has finally found a way for communication to reach us inside Lost. But Takuya and Yuki no longer remember him, nor Headhunter, nor Researcher, nor Scientist.

But all of them assure the two they have a team of allies ready to support them, and offer various pieces of advice. Who are these people and why are they helping us? Can we even believe them? But Takuya says he is willing to take a gamble on them, and Yuki agrees, that trust is truly a wonderful thing.  

Yuki admits that sometimes, she would suddenly forget her reason for continuing to move forward, and become very worried. But then she sees that Takuya is there, right in front of her, and she trusts him completely. Likewise, Takuya says when he feels Yuki’s chest against his back, he remembers he has to keep moving forward. This elicits a less than friendly reaction from Yuki.

We have the final fight against Tsuki, and another fight against Taiyou.

Also random trivia we learn: the quote “we still have bullets left”, which we often hear Akira say, is from a movie that Yuki likes.  

Chapter 16

Yuki becomes concerned about her own wellbeing. If they continue to fight like this, will she become a tamashii like the one we just defeated? Will she become like crazy, like Souma and Tsuki and now Taiyou?

Researcher and Scientist echo similar worries. Yuki will be in danger if she keeps fighting, and may suffer intense mental damage. But they cannot stop them, they have to keep going forward. Scientist also says he feels the two are different from their parallel world counterparts, who perished halfway.

Taiyou wants more power. He claims the calculations from the Apocalypse calendar shouldn’t be wrong. He shouldn’t lose anymore.

We can see the waves impacting on Takuya and Yuki’s memories a little bit more now. Yuki becomes concerned again. Should we really keep going? What if it’s the wrong choice? But, like Takuya said, the worst thing to do is to make no decision at all. She had just forgotten it.

When Yuki realises, she apologises. But Takuya tells her not to say sorry, but thank you. Yuki wonders why that phrase sounds so nostalgic. Takuya wonders if somebody important to her said that to her once. He has forgotten that person was himself.

Even Taiyou is being affected. He doesn’t quite remember who Takuya and Yuki are, but he knows he will destroy anyone in his way.

Once we defeat Taiyou, he begins to mutter what sounds like gibberish: the communication ship should not reach the bulb…?

Taiyou makes his escape once again. Then Researcher calls. Though neither Takuya nor Yuki remember her, she tells them how to make sure they don't lose their goal. She tells them to remember their image of the happy future, grasp onto it and never let it go. Scientist later explains to her that if the two of them are able to hold onto just one memory, even if they lose all their other memories, they will keep their sanity. This is the only way they will be able to maintain their purpose.

Taiyou evolves. The hooded henchmen of the organisation talk amongst themselves. If Yuki touches the core, Lost will close. But the organisation hasn’t lost yet. Taiyou is growing ever more powerful, to the point he breaks his body. As he reaches his final evolution, the men say it is time for Plan B.

Chapter 17

Yuki and Takuya are now inside Lost. The mysterious organisation know that if Yuki manages to touch the core of Lost, a contradiction in the calculations of the Apocalypse calendar will cause Lost to close. They are unsure if Taiyou can even stop them now, so they are initiating Plan B, which is to make Takuya and Yuki disappear, along with the rest of this world. Then according to the “Third War” (which seems to be what the Noah plan is), the world will become a place humans can no longer live on. They will then have to abandon this world, and find another timeline to inhabit. This is probably harder than it sounds, but everything will be fine. Because they have “God” on their side.

Inside Lost, Takuya and Yuki can see many parallel worlds. Takuya cannot stop driving, otherwise they could fall in the gaps between the worlds. But after a while, the scenery has not changed, and it feels like they are stuck driving in circles. Yuki’s father is also nowhere in sight. Here, the signals of Geek’s communication device cannot reach them, so their allies can only pray for their safety and success.

Taiyou continues growing stronger. He trembles with power as he absorbs the memories of all the lost souls. He utters “everything will go according to the Apocalypse calendar”.

Taiyou approaches and Yuki can feel her sanity slipping away. She asks Takuya to forgive her, if she uses up too much power in battle, and ends up forgetting him.

We fight Taiyou, we beat Taiyou. Then he evolves into a...fetus?

We defeat the monstrous baby, but at a dear cost: Yuki has lost her memories.

Chapter 18

Poor Yuki has lost her memories of Takuya, of Lost, of her journey. She says: “I don’t know who you are, but I know we have to go. That’s what’s important to us.”

As Takuya continues driving, Yuki hears a voice, telling her that she has done enough. She has worked hard, gone through so much pain, but it’s alright to forget everything and rest now. It’s her dad.

Yuki’s dad apologises for not being a good father, always being too busy to care for her. He doesn’t want Yuki to feel pain anymore. He invites her to stop moving forward, and rest her weary body in this warm and happy place. Just the word “happy” triggers Yuki into wanting to accept the tempting offer, but Takuya stops her. Taiyou is still not defeated, they can’t afford to rest just yet, there is still unfinished business left to do. It’s the less comfortable choice, but it’s the one Yuki has to make. She can’t rest like her dad just yet.

Taiyou is still alive gdi. Men in hoods explain he has totally abandoned his body, to become a corrupt being. The man (if he can still be called one), cannot be stopped now. The world will be destroyed.

They also explain that getting power from Yuki’s father, who has become one with the core, is their Plan B. The core contains the wills of everything. With that much power, the organisation will destroy this world. They have confidence that Yuki will not be able to touch the core in time, because she has to get past the will of her own father first.

Yuki is definitely tired. Her dad’s voice becomes more powerful. If you are tired, you should rest. Besides, there is no proof that what you are doing is even the right thing. Good and evil do not exist in this world; they are just concepts we created, they all boil down to electrical impulses in the brain. Instead of doing noble things, we should each just chase after our own happiness, and maintain the balance of the world.

Yuki cries hearing her dad talk of happiness, but she doesn’t know why. But Takuya does. He urges her to remember, the reason they move forward, is to grab their own happiness. A peaceful life in a different town, and delicious coffee in the morning! Yuki tells him it shouldn’t be coffee, it should be rice. And with that she’s back, just in time for the final fight against Taiyou.

After beating Taiyou, Yuki's memories come back. She has to touch the core to get rid of Lost, but getting that close means she might not be able to escape in time, and will disappear along with the rest of Lost. But she will do it. Her father is holding the core so it's power doesn't escape, but this means he has been trapped like that for a long time. Yuki wants to release him, and tell him it's OK for him to rest. So she asks Takuya once more, to please take her to the core, and then run.

Yuki's dad tells her to stop, but she won't. When we see him he takes on the appearance of a grotesque wall of objects. In order to stop Lost spreading, he absorbed everything around him to the point of losing his mind and body. Yuki gently tells her dad, she's different from the old Yuki. She now understands many things: the bonds between people, what a strong will is, and what a happy dream looks like. With those things, she is able to do anything. She can keep moving forward forever. And to move forward, is what it means to live. Yuki is grateful for learning those things, and she is grateful to her dad, for giving her life, and for being her dad to the end.

Yuki's dad is defeated, revealing the core. But Takuya keeps driving. He's not letting Yuki off just yet. He will fulfil his contract, and bring her right up to the core, staying with her until the end.

If both of them get that close, there's a good chance neither will survive. Yuki becomes very sad, and lets out a bit of an emotional confession. It's because of Takuya that she was able to come this far. Before she met him, she was always alone. Her first impression of him was a very rude and unreasonable man, dragging her around without any explanation, doing anything he wants without a care for others. He rode a weird scooter and also stunk slightly of sweat.

Takuya realises what tsundere Yuki is saying and says he's glad to have met her too. His last words before the credits are: “Even if you touch the core, I'll keep moving on. So grab onto me tight, I'll save you. And after everything is over, we'll get out of here.”

After the credits, we hear some thoughts from Yuki's dad. In his hazy consciousness he saw his daughter. Lost will disappear in time and the world will be saved. He has no more power to continue watching this ‘story', but he is glad he got to see Yuki in the end. Thank you, Yuki.

PART 4

Chapter 19

One year after Lost disappeared, Yuki has locked herself in her room, depressed. She doesn't want to see anyone and doesn't want to go outside. The reason is that she feels responsible for another catastrophe that occurred after Lost disappeared and the world was supposed to be saved: the town turned into stone, and the area into an uninhabitable wasteland. And it's slowly spreading.

Meanwhile, a woman approaches Takuya, claiming to have been searching for him. It's Lisa, an executive of the detective agency Takuya used to work for.

Lisa claims she has cut ties with the agency, and now needs Takuya to head north, in order to protect Yuki. Takuya now has to drag an unwilling Yuki to go on another journey with him.

Our enemy are still tamashii. Yuki still remembers how to fight them, even though she wanted so much to forget all about them.

Yuki talks about how people around them have moved on with their lives. Apparently Headhunter started a new business, healing the hearts of those who were harmed by Lost. He does this by altering people's memories to remove their trauma. Yuki might be thinking of doing the same.

They meet up with Lisa. She praises Takuya for his speed, though that was something she taught him. Lisa explains that in the north is a place called Lost Zero. According to a mysterious note called the Isoya Report, there is a group who are planning to destroy the world with their Plan B. The start of that destruction is Lost Zero. So she wants the two of them to go there and stop it.

Yuki never said she would help Takuya, she didn’t want to go on another journey, and she doesn't want to fight anymore. She wanted to save the world before, but then look what happened. So why is Takuya so willing to believe what Lisa is saying, with no basis at all?

Takuya tries to explain that it's fine if it turns out to be a lie and nothing happens, but what if it's not? Yuki accuses him of actually wishing for the end of the world. He just wants to believe there is something else he can do to save the world. She thinks he wants to erase his sins, and that's why he hopes the note will be true, so he can redeem himself.

Takuya claims it's not about saving the world. He just wants to protect the people close to him, even those that didn’t ask to be saved. It could just be his ego, but he wants to do it. If he doesn’t he will surely regret it.

However Yuki does not think like that. She doesn't want to save anyone anymore, because she doesn't want to let down those expectations. She doesn't believe in the note, and she doesn't want to go on this journey. But Lisa asked her to trust in her, for just six days. So once those six days are up, she will go to Headhunter, and ask him to erase her memories. She just wants to forget it all.

Lisa also meets up with another new character in this new chapter. Kouta used to be a talented rookie in the detective agency, and now works as a courier. He feels competitive around Takuya, who is basically his senpai.

He thinks this new job involving Takuya will be troublesome. But Lisa assures him it's completely safe. Unless he gets caught by the enemy, of course. Then he's dead. But worry about that when the time comes. For now she just needs him to get some information on Ginga and Souya. Or was it Touma?

The goal of the mysterious organisation is to erase this world, because they think it “should” disappear. That was supposed to be its fate, it's pre-written history. But Takuya changed that ‘history' by preventing its destruction. So now they are trying to fix it to the way it was supposed to be. They are aware Takuya and Yuki are on the move again, but this time they are sure “Ginga” will defeat them.

Ginga is the new enemy character. He is a mysterious old man who came from a parallel world after hearing about Taiyou's defeat. Ginga says the fact part of the city turned to stone is proof that this world should not even exist at all, and so he will destroy it himself. There is no time. He will not allow Takuya and Yuki to get to Lost Zero. He will not let them break the “fourth wall”.

Yuki knows when she lays eyes on Ginga that he is too powerful to fight against. Ginga affirms this. Takuya and Yuki will not win against him, this is the end of the story.

The screen turns black. When Takuya regains consciousness he and Yuki are back inside Lost. Ahead is a very bad ‘fate’ for the two of them. How will they go ahead? Yuki says she needs “our” power…

Chapter 20

Takuya has to stop the erasure of the world. He needs to go to Lost Zero. He needs to save Yuki.

Suddenly Kouta yells his name. Takuya is surprised, the two haven't been in touch since he left the detective agency. But Kouta acts like they've been together for ages.

Takuya's got no time to worry about the strange things Kouta is saying though, he's got a world to save. So he leaves him behind and drives off.

But curiously, even Yuki seems to know Kouta, and calls Takuya weird for forgetting they met with him only yesterday. So today is not the second day of their journey, but the third day? Takuya begins to realise he has lost a whole day's worth of memories.

Kouta catches up to Takuya. Takuya is still suspicious of him. Why is he tagging along? Kouta says he doesn't want to be with him either, but it was an order from Lisa. He's the only one who can help Takuya right now, in fact Takuya requested his help only the day before!

Takuya calls Scientist, hoping for an explanation for what is happening. But Scientist apologises, says he cannot help him, and also asks Takuya to not contact him again.

Takuya tries to contact Geek but gets a very strange outburst from him. Geek can't help, but on top of that, claims he hates Takuya for always taking advantage of him whenever it suits him.

A call to researcher also results in rejection. “I'm sorry I can't help you, and I can't tell you why either. We're walking different paths. This is our fate.”

Takuya is sad he got rejected by all his friends. Yuki wonders if it's his personality. Takuya should be more honest. Takuya wonders if Yuki will also walk a different path to him. Unfortunately Yuki can't guarantee anything, especially with how strange Takuya is acting right now. She isn't sure if it's still alright for her to be with him. But, the fact is she cannot fight without Takuya, so she can only rely on him.

Yuki was also pretty nonchalant about moving ahead without the help of our allies. Takuya is confused Yuki wants to go ahead at all, considering how she was so against this journey on day one. Yuki says she already told Takuya her reason, but it looks like he forgot. She's doing it for her “precious person”. She wants to meet him and apologise.

Takuya eventually agrees to accept Kouta’s help. He is able to tell us the enemies up ahead are all water element, so we should build a grass element team. Takuya is puzzled Kouta knows what enemies lie ahead. Kouta is puzzled Takuya doesn't know, because he was the one gave Kouta this information in the first place.

Kouta later also gets some information on Ginga, and Souma, who is summoning the enemy tamashii. Ginga can control the waves that Lost emitted, meaning he can remove people's memories. Takuya figures the source of his memory loss must be Ginga, and maybe he took away the memories of all their allies too.

The enemies begin to overwhelm the two of them. There’s even Akira, confirming Souma is still the one doing the summoning. Yuki is almost at her limit, but suddenly Kouta comes through with a new route and allows them to escape to regroup with Lisa.

Lisa doesn't reject Takuya like the others, so he explains the problem to her. She admires that he didn’t give up even though all his friends betrayed him, but did they really? The route that they escaped through just now was actually discovered by Geek, Scientist gave advice on tamashii, and Researcher scouted out the path ahead. The truth is, Ginga has intercepted their communication lines, meaning it would be dangerous if he discovered the allies that were working for Takuya. How did they know this? Well, Takuya told them. Unfortunately Lisa can’t really explain what happened to him, but she assures us she will always be our ally.  

Chapter 21

This chapter opens where chapter 19 left off. Ginga states Takuya and Yuki cannot win against him, and this is the end of their story. He then orders them to close their eyes. But then out of nowhere, Takuya has an epiphany. He gets it now, and he tells Ginga things won’t go according to his plan. Ginga is stunned because he hasn’t even told them his name yet. Even more, Takuya knows Ginga has the power to erase memories. Ginga escapes.

Yuki has a lot of questions, but it’s complicated, time is scarce, and Takuya asks her to just trust him. Yuki says she will only be around for five more days, confirming we are on day two.

Takuya asks if Yuki is really fine with running away: turning a blind eye to the world’s destruction and not doing the things only she could have done.

Takuya and Yuki meet up with Lisa, who appears to have been expecting them. So she has noticed Takuya’s “will” can “transcend” time. Lisa asks Takuya if he would believe, that she met Takuya from the future?

Lisa looks depressed for a moment as she thinks to herself. This is a fate she cannot escape from, so there is no point being depressed. Lisa offers to get Kouta to assist the two of them, but Takuya knew that already.

Takuya asks Kouta for his help without even a greeting. There is no time to lose, he tells them about what will happen tomorrow, the memory loss, and the enemies they will face. Kouta is understandably confused, but it’s alright if he doesn’t believe it, he just has to remember.

Finally, Takuya sincerely thanks him, which feels kind of weird for Kouta.

Yuki comments that it is rare to see Takuya trusting somebody so easily. Takuya tells her Kouta is reliable, and the only person who can help them. So even if the time comes when she is no longer able to trust Takuya, she can trust Kouta.

Yuki notices there are a lot of water enemies, and wonder if this is a plan by the enemy to prevent her using Akira, meaning they know about her connection with Akira? Takuya says it’s likely her brother is still fighting for the enemy, so she should prepare for the worst.

In a strangely random but excited outburst, Takuya calls the final evolution of Gambler Yuri the “Gamblest”.

Scientist calls because he has noticed there are a lot of enemy tamashii. He only knows Yuki and Souma who can do this. Takuya asks him to find out more, but also to stop contacting him. In fact, if he does try to contact him again, Scientist should reject him.

Researcher calls after hearing Kouta is helping Takuya, and offers her help too. But he doesn’t want it. Instead he wants her to “put on an act”, and pretend she is not helping him.

Yuki asks why Takuya is rejecting the help of their friends. He explains the “strategy” he will use to make it them seem like they are not helping him, in order to protect them from getting their memories wiped by Ginga. He tells her not to reveal the strategy to anyone, to pretend she doesn’t know anything. Yuki asks if she can blame it on his personality. Takuya says he will be sad, but if he just thinks of it like she is acting, he will be ok with it.

Scientist implied Souma could still be fighting for the enemy after being forcefully resurrected, which makes bad memories resurface in Yuki’s head. But if this is the Souma we already defeated, maybe things can still work out if we talk it over. Maybe he could even fight alongside us.

Souma is being forced by the organisation to continue summoning. A grunt from the organisation explains to Ginga there was a lot of resistance from him, especially when he heard his sister was involved. They are now torturing him by tying him up and ripping his fingernails off one by one. But this can only go on for so long.

At the end of the day, Takuya and Yuki regroup with Kouta. Takuya informs him that the Takuya of day three knows nothing, so he asks that Kouta support Yuki. Kouta still has no idea what he’s talking about, but Takuya says everything will become clear by tomorrow. So if everything Takuya is saying is the truth, where will his will fly next? The fourth day?

Chapter 22

Takuya’s will did not go to the fourth day as planned. It is actually day five, and Yuki is struggling against him to get off the bike. She doesn’t know why enemies are attacking them, she doesn’t know why she has to fight against them, and she doesn’t know who Takuya is.

Yuki is very distressed. She claims she never wanted anything to do with tamashii, she just wanted to live her life peacefully. Takuya tries to make her remember about Lost, about how the world turned to stone. But she doesn’t remember, and even calls Takuya horrible for accusing her of being responsible for turning the city to stone.

Takuya then gets a succession of calls from his former ‘allies’. Scientist claims Lost is just an urban legend, and Researcher calls him the worst for kidnapping a girl with no basis.

Did Ginga’s plan succeed? Takuya has to defeat Ginga to get everyone’s memories back. But it’s hard when your partner is calling you a liar and wants desperately to escape… Not even talking about Yuki’s dad will bring her to her senses.

Was everything just a dream? Did the city really disappear? Are we just believing in some made-up world we saw in a game?

I understand it’s hard to believe, but everything will be ok. Let’s calm down, good, and now take a deep breath. Let it all out, forget everything, breathe... It’s just a game. So stop touching the screen...Just stop...Stop it...Stop.

Takuya begins to doubt himself. Are his memories fake? Is this really just a game? Is he actually the one going crazy?

But then he steels himself. No, there is no way this is all a lie. He is going to move forward no matter what, to Lost Zero. In fact, even if everything is a lie, that’s still fine.

Then, Geek calls. And, he didn’t lose his memory! It looks like for some reason Ginga didn’t think he was Takuya’s ally. Lisa and Kouta are ok as well, and have gone ahead to the north. Takuya is going to catch-up to them now, and he’s bringing Yuki with him whether she likes it or not.

Takuya tells Yuki the one summoning tamashii is definitely her brother Souma. This puts even more distress on the poor girl because 1, how does this man know about Souma? And 2, why does she have to fight her own brother? Takuya also now seems like an even more horrible person in her eyes.

At the mysterious organisation, we get confirmation that Ginga has managed to wipe out everyone’s memories of Lost. He has also wiped all of Souma’s memories. The boy is no longer human, but just a tool to summon tamashii. Ginga claims he feels remorseful, but he had no other choice. He hopes in the next timeline there will be no more sacrifices like Souma.  

Yuki has flashbacks of Souma before everything happened. He was always so understanding, but also lonely. When Yuki got depressed thinking about their mother, he told her they had to survive and live on. When their father was working late again, he said he would be ok, because Yuki was with him. Another flashback shows him being worried when Yuki came home late, because being by himself was lonely. How could Yuki fight him? Why would Takuya make her do this? It doesn’t make sense to her at all.

We defeat Souma, but Ginga claims their fate will not change. Yuki wants to escape from her painful reality, so he will let her forget everything. Then he orders Yuki to close her eyes, so he can take her memories…

Chapter 23

We return to the day before, day four. Takuya tells Lisa what will happen on day five, meaning today is the day everyone will lose their memories. But Takuya won’t give up. Lisa tells her the fifth day he saw may have a different meaning…

The plan is now to lock away Yuki’s memories before Ginga can get to her, i.e. make her temporarily forget them. Because you can’t remove memories if they aren’t there, right? Lisa paid Headhunter a large sum of money to get him to help them.

Yuki is understandably concerned at this prospect. Because she doesn’t want to forget about Takuya. Knowing she will soon lose her memories also makes her remember other ones about their journey thus far.

Yuki’s first impressions of Takuya were not good. This man came out of nowhere, and forcibly dragged her around with no explanation. He seemed weird, and cold. But she knows now that was because he was bad at expressing his real feelings.

She remembered that when she first met Geek, he hated her, and Takuya had to comfort her.

Yuki is worried that when she forgets everything, she will be unable to face painful things. Kouta knows she is especially worried about forgetting Takuya, because she likes him (she denies this, of course). But he assures her that Takuya will definitely get her memories back, and she will definitely remember Takuya again.

Yuki saves her most heartfelt memories for last. She remembers it was Takuya who taught her not to say sorry, but thank you. She thanks him for journeying with her. Though she knows it will be hard from now on, though she knows there is a good chance she will have to confront Souma again, after everything is over she wants to say thank you to him. So until then, even if she loses all her memories, she will not say sorry.

As the two journey to Headhunter’s, Ginga is going around memory-wiping everyone. He manages to track down Scientist and Researcher. Researcher leaves him with a beautiful quote summing up her belief in Takuya: “Even if my memory disappears, my will will remain.” But Ginga responds with “the hands of the clock will not turn backwards”.

When he gets to Geek though, he becomes confused. According to his sources, one of Takuya’s allies should be around here. Somebody with powerful engineering skills and networking knowledge. Somebody with great ability, intelligence and judgement. But it looks like he is not there. He even tells Geek to get out of his way as he continues searching. Geek is incredibly offended, but it seems he was saved?

Lisa wants to speak to Yuki in private before they get to Headhunter’s. First, she laments that Yuki’s beautiful hair is getting all messed up as she rides around with Takuya. Next she tells her that she knows without a doubt, that this story will have a happy ending. All the bad guys will go away, and Yuki will live happily ever after, so there is nothing for her to worry about. But don't tell the others. A story won’t be interesting anymore if you know the ending.

The chapter ends with Yuki getting her memories wiped by Headhunter. Yuki says she is prepared, and she vows to get her memories back, no matter how much pain waits ahead. Lisa chimes in that it’s because Takuya is there with her. Takuya asks Lisa if he is footing the bill for this one.

Chapter 24

It is now the sixth day, and Takuya is trying to restore Yuki’s memories. Headhunter had said there should be no issues getting it back, it will just take some time. Takuya keeps checking in on her, to make sure she is ok. Yuki seems tired and confused, and doesn’t say much.

Though Takuya is comforting her, he himself is plagued with worries. What if Ginga was able to destroy the locked up memories too? He recalls how much pain Yuki was in just now after taking down Souma. She had said she would rather die than be exposed to such a painful feeling.

On the way Takuya keeps urging her to remember, she said so herself that she would. But Yuki right now doesn’t want to remember at all. It’s just too painful.

Lisa and Kouta are currently chasing after Ginga. Takuya catches up to Kouta and relays the bad news about Yuki. They don’t have much of a choice but to continue north in hopes of catching Ginga. Takuya thanks Kouta for just being there. The man is probably the only person there keeping him sane at the moment. Kouta claims he’s not doing it for Takuya’s sake, but he does get annoyed seeing him so depressed.

Yuki is having an inner battle with her mind. She lost her loved ones one by one. She never did anything wrong, just wanted to live peacefully, so why does she have to remember all these painful things? Souma surfaces in her mind. Didn’t she decide to kill him and move forward? Where did all that determination go? But Yuki claims she never decided on anything.

Scientist appears in her thoughts. Everything is a battle of will. If Yuki can make the decision, everything will go well. But why does it have to be her?

Geek pops up now. Yuki right now is not the Yuki he knows. The Yuki he knows is strong, and always moves forward. Instead of inspiring her, this makes Yuki even more desolate. She couldn’t live up to everyone’s expectations. She isn’t the person everyone thinks she is.

A flurry of characters appear, overwhelming her thoughts. Takuya, Kouta and Lisa are all urging her to remember. Didn’t she decide on that? Didn’t she decide to remember Takuya, and keep going forward?

Yuki cries out in pain. She wanted to forget so badly, she could finally run away from everything, so why is everyone forcing her to remember?

Suddenly she hears her dad’s voice. It was hard, it was painful, but she doesn’t have to do it anymore. Yuki agrees. She’s done her best, and it’s alright to give up now.

But then another Yuki stops her. A stronger Yuki, who doesn’t want to give up. She wants to keep going. She wants to save the world. She wants to keep journeying together with Takuya.

Yuki begins to unearth the deeper reason to her motives. She said to herself that she came with Takuya on this new journey in order to erase her sin of turning the city to stone. But that was not her real reason. Takuya was the one who accepted her. She was so happy being with him. That’s why she journeyed with him, defeated tamashii, and even took down her own brother.

On cue Souma’s image surfaces. He accuses her of using the excuse of saving the world, to be with Takuya. She wanted to be together with Takuya so much, and that was why she killed her very own brother. Yuki tries to deny it, it’s not true. But the other Yuki does not lie. It is true. When she talks to Takuya her heart skips a beat. Yuki has fallen in love with Takuya.

Yuki comes to terms with herself, accepting all her memories and her true self. She admits that she wasn’t journeying with Takuya for the sake of the world, nor for other people. She was doing it for herself. But is that really so bad? Takuya thinks it’s fine. Nobody will hate her for it. Not even her brother.

Now Ginga is coming, but Yuki knows just her and Takuya’s power alone cannot defeat him. The two of them do not have the power to continue the story alone. But she wants to live. She will accept the part of her that shouldn’t be forgiven. And she will continue to fight, to win and grasp her happy future.

We defeat Ginga, and he has figured out, that no matter how strong he gets, we will always be stronger. Takuya's memories are still intact because the fourth wall has opened, and a very powerful will, the Observer, is helping Takuya, because the Observer wants to see the continuation of the “story”, and saving Takuya is the only way to do so. Obsever’s will is so powerful it can even bend time, meaning Takuya and Yuki have all the time in the world to get stronger. There is no way Ginga can win…against “us”.

The screen turns black, and Ginga speaks as if addressing the player, the Observer, directly. We can't pretend to be an outsider to the game anymore. Our fingers continue to touch the black screen which we see our own faces reflected in. Ginga orders us to stop being involved in this world. Stop touching them, stop touching the screen. But we do not stop. We keep tapping.

The black screen reverts to the main screen. The main menu screen and BGM then start to glitch. We see flashes of Lost, of Yuki’s face, of a desolate wasteland. Then back to black.

We then hear Yuki’s voice. “Hey, why do you pretend not to know anything? I’m here in so much pain. I need you. Please, I’m praying from the bottom of my heart. Please, won’t you help us?”

PART 5：Goodbye

Chapter 25

The chapter opens with a flashback of Tsuki saying of course she is scared. But Taiyou told her their bodies are just a facade. Even if they lose the body, their minds will remain in this world. To see the mission through to the end is their “freedom”.

Yuki regains unconsciousness and sees an unfamiliar scenery. The landscape all around her is a desert. She realises while fighting Ginga, her power must have gone haywire again, and caused this.

Yuki becomes disheartened once more. Fighting Ginga was inevitable, but did it even do anything? He could still be alive. So what’s the point in fighting? Takuya says right now we have no choice but to believe in Lisa’s note and head to Lost Zero. But should we even be going? Should the note be trusted? Should Yuki keep fighting? What will happen if the same destructive phenomenon happens again? Takuya wants to keep going, but will it be possible to continue onwards without hurting anyone else?

As we take on more tamashii, Yuki thinks about how they are the reflections of dreams that were never fulfilled, and futures that never happened. And we are using those wills to destroy the world. She wonders if it is right to rely on the strength of the tamashii. It could be dangerous. Suddenly she hears a voice in her head. She tells it to go away, but it won’t.

Kouta is glad to see Takuya alive and well, and vice versa. He explains Yuki’s power only impacted a small area so the desert is not that big. Everyone else is also alright. But it is concerning to think that the world could be destroyed by Yuki’s hand before the actual end of the world. Kouta then asks Takuya if he will really sacrifice Yuki to move on for the sake of believing a note that has no basis, because Kouta can’t bring himself to. Instead, he chooses to search for Ginga.

Lisa anticipated that nobody would believe her, and she does not have the right to force them to. What Takuya should do from now on is something he has to decide for himself. Will he go on to Lost Zero, or give up? Incidentally, the enemy after this is Satoru.

Takuya decides to goes on, so Yuki continues to fight.

Yuki asks for a quick break. She knows they don't have a lot of time to get to Lost Zero, but she is feeling very tired, and has a bit of a headache.

Also, the disturbing voice in her head is getting stronger. It becomes even more disturbing when Yuki starts talking about a communication ship that won’t reach.

The next day the two meet with Lisa. Lisa realises that Yuki is having trouble controlling her power, and that there may be somebody trying to gain control of her mind. Somebody who might be trying to get their hands on the note.

It is a frightening thing to not have control over your own body. If Yuki’s consciousness is being controlled, how can she believe these feelings of wanting to save the world, of wanting to trust Takuya, are true? Takuya tells her to believe in him. They’ve been together so long, Takuya knows this is the real Yuki. When Yuki feels concerned, she should just rely on Takuya. He echoes a memory from long ago when he felt having Yuki rely on him was annoying. But since then he’s found that being relied on once in a while doesn’t feel so bad after all. We also get a flashback about believing in the future, even if it’s a lie.

But Yuki is still concerned. She doesn’t even know if she is truly herself anymore. How long will Takuya be able to trust her?

Behind the scenes, Taiyou is encouraging Yuki to believe in herself. A human without doubts can become anything. That is their freedom.

Ginga feels Taiyou beginning to move. The end of the world is in motion. Ginga will also fight, as will Souma, who is not much more than an empty shell at this point. Souma only says two things in this scene: “Taiyou” and “Uchuu”.

Yuki feels the power of Ginga’s waves. Her will wavers among her panic and she starts saying more phrases from someone else’s memory, Taiyou’s memory. Takuya is getting scared. They stop for a break and contact Kouta.

Takuya apologises for his outburst at Kouta before. He is willing to accept his help now. Kouta’s got a plan. Ginga is probably with Souma right now, so while Takuya and Yuki distract Ginga, Kouta can save Souma.

The plan gives them some hope and Yuki is able to focus better. She has to do her best, for Kouta’s sake too.

Scientist reviews the information he has. Yuki’s power turning everything into a desert, Taiyou’s mental resurrection, the increasing number of “replicants”...with a sinking feeling he realises it is everything Lisa predicted. Meaning everything is now up to Takuya and Yuki.

Chapter 26

Now that Scientist has realised the note’s predictions were correct, he is willing to believe in it with no scientific basis. Lisa confirms that the note predicts the future, and she got it from a precious person. Scientist will offer his help to get Lisa to Lost Zero, but both know her chances are not good.

Unfortunately, Scientist is probably Lisa’s only other ally. Researcher doesn’t believe in the note. She doesn’t want Takuya to go to such a dangerous place like Lost Zero, and she doesn’t want to see Yuki suffer more as she fights. Researcher can tell that Yuki is worried about her powers going berserk again. She tells her that worrying is a good thing, because it is proof you are alive. But she really doesn’t think anything good will come of Yuki and Takuya chasing after a baseless note.

However she also knows she cannot stop them. She sends them Kouta’s location. He was successful in rescuing Souma, but he is currently being chased by Ginga, so he went into hiding. It is likely we will have to fight the old man again.

Kouta has a pretty bad headache. Ginga is powerful, and there are many enemies after them. Kouta tells Souma his sister is coming, and he won’t let the bad guys use him anymore. He promises Souma will be happy. But actually he is powerless against the enemy, and if Takuya and Yuki don’t arrive soon, they will be in trouble. Unexpectedly, Souma tries to tell him it will be ok, and even calls him “big brother”. It works to cheer him up.

Yuki is still worried about losing control of her powers. She apologises for putting everyone in danger. Takuya, of course, tells her to stop saying sorry. Yuki thinks that her consciousness won’t wander if she is able to hold onto her memories of Takuya. So she thanks him, for being with her the whole time.

Taiyou’s words are getting so strong they escape the bounds of proper formatting. Yuki begs him to leave him alone. Her pain gets worse. Takuya offers to stop for a break, but they’re running out of time!

Geek and Researcher come to Takuya and Yuki’s rescue. They will stall the enemy, and find a path with less tamashii. Before they head off, though, Researcher and Yuki have a quick talk,  but Yuki won’t tell Takuya what it was about. She does assure him though that she will now be able to maintain control over her mind.

Researcher actually gave Yuki some pills. The medicine will allow her to suppress her powers. However they come with side effects. While they will protect Yuki mentally, they will break her body down physically. Researcher gave her five pills, but told her not to eat them all, or she will die. Yuki is able to move forward thinking Ginga is the final enemy, and everything will be over once he is defeated.

Ginga starts to say some pretty cryptic things as he prepares for battle. He notes Taiyou intends to see everything to the end. Everything will go according to Uchuu’s will. Taiyou is now a figure closer to Uchuu than he is. Taiyou is now a higher being than Ginga. Ginga will destroy Takuya and Yuki, if that is what Uchuu wishes. Ginga will use all his power to stop them.

We fight Ginga, who accuses Yuki of standing up to him just to satisfy her ego. There is no proof that the note is real. Even then she will sacrifice her body in order to fight him. Takuya is shocked to hear Yuki is sacrificing herself and demands to know what is happening after the fight.

Ginga is still alive, by the way. He is furious. At Yuki for standing in his way. At us Observers for continuing to watch. And at Taiyou too, who is also only observing. Taiyou knows Ginga cannot beat them alone. But if Ginga and Taiyou combine powers, they can win. That was supposed to be the plan from the start. Taiyou’s power is that strong. He will surpass the fourth wall, he will surpass the bulb.

The game glitches as Ginga’s body descends into corruption.

Chapter 27

Taiyou and Ginga’s voices combine to symbolise their powers fusing. They become stronger and stronger. Their power is overflowing. Takuya and Yuki can only run.

They go to Lisa for advice, who urges them to not touch Ginga, and go to Lost Zero instead. But Takuya is conflicted. So many people are against him following the note, and he doesn’t want to put Yuki in any more danger. And if they can just defeat Ginga, won’t everything will be finally over? Lisa knows she cannot force him to believe in the note. But regardless of what he chooses, she will go to Lost Zero.

Takuya has made his decision, but has he really? Yuki wants to know that he is fighting Ginga instead of going after Lisa because he really wants to, and not just because he is concerned about Yuki and the medicine. Takuya demands to know everything about the medicine. He knows there must be side effects, because otherwise Scientist would have passed it to them earlier. He is mad that Yuki ingested the pills knowing those side effects. He also says that after winning against Ginga, they should head for Lost Zero, if it is still possible to do so.

Takuya calls Researcher to yell at her for not understanding Yuki’s feelings and making her sacrifice herself. Researcher retorts that the one who doesn’t understand Yuki is Takuya. Yuki is no longer a child. She feels responsible for causing the desert, and the thought of it happening again has been tormenting her the whole time. To continue on in that situation would be impossible. So Researcher asks Takuya once again, to forget about the note, and believe everything will be over once they defeat Ginga.

Unfortunately this is juxtaposed with a flashback between Lisa and Kouta. Lisa tells him defeating Ginga won’t end everything, because another Shoumetsu will occur at Lost Zero. Sadly, Kouta still doesn’t believe the note, and is dismayed that Lisa continues to hurt herself. But Lisa will still go to Lost Zero, because she made a promise.

Kouta wants to stop Lisa so badly, but he is stuck being surrounded by enemies. He can’t do anything with his power. Souma tells him not to cry.

Everything will be over once Ginga is defeated. This is the only thing we have left to do. And we have the support of everyone to do it. According to Geek’s information, Ginga is very powerful, but that power is unstable, and follows a wave-like pattern. We have to attack him when he is at his weakest for a chance at victory.

Among the enemies on our way to Ginga, there is Akira, who seems confused and then sad when he realises he couldn't protect Yuki. She wonders if defeating Ginga will free tamashii like him of their pain too.

Ginga needs more power. Suddenly he hears a voice, that he can only hear because his consciousness and Taiyou's are now one. It's Uchuu.

After hearing Uchuu, Ginga becomes stronger. But if we hurry and get to him before his power reaches its peak we can still win.

Yuki is still wavering about Lisa and Lost Zero. But Takuya tells her she has the right to live her life the way she wants to, and weave her own future: the peaceful future that she and Takuya dreamt up together. To do that we need to defeat Ginga.

As Yuki's will continues to waver, Lisa approaches Lost Zero. And Uchuu finds her. Lisa claims she isn’t scared though, because she believes in Takuya. But that man is currently distracted fighting Ginga.

Kouta realises Scientist let Lisa go to Lost Zero. He is furious, accusing him of treating Lisa like a test subject. Unable to bear knowing Lisa is in danger, Kouta resolves to go to Lost Zero to stop her.

Lost Zero seems to be getting stronger. Lisa suspects it is reacting to Ginga's power. Lisa realises she is probably not going to survive after completing her mission. She wonders what Takuya would do in her situation. Bear the danger and get closer, or run? Obviously though, she can't run, or else Lost Zero's power will overflow and Ginga will become unstoppable. So she will use what little power she has to do what she can. Because she doesn't want to regret anything. Lisa will sacrifice her life for the hope of a better future. Finally, she asks for Takuya to believe in her.

The power flowing into Ginga suddenly stops, giving Takuya and Yuki a chance to beat him.

We hear some of Lisa's final thoughts, as a message to Takuya. “Takuya I will go to Lost Zero. To truly save the world, I need your power. I wonder if it will be ok to leave the future to you.

Hey Takuya, to tell the truth, it's actually just a little bit scary. I always seem strong, but even I want to be held by someone sometimes. Someone who will stroke my head, and tell me not to be afraid. But I guess I have no choice but to live this life. Ahh, Takuya, I actually really would have liked to have a boyfriend like you.”

Kouta arrives just in time to see Lost Zero disappear. He was too late. Lisa is gone. And he won't forgive whoever made her do this.

Chapter 28

We see a confused jumble of flashbacks and glitchy words: Yuki wondering if it is really alright to ignore the note; Lisa sacrificing her life to make a small but significant difference toward hope; Kouta vowing to never forgive those who did this to Lisa.

We then get some sort of meta philosophical pondering as, over a montage of real photos, Yuki asks if we think tomorrow will always come like a normal day. It is something we always take for granted, but the truth is, such normality can disappear in the blink of an eye. Just like what happened the day of the Shoumetsu.

The Shoumetsu Toshi logo appears, but Yuki’s silhouette disappears from it.

Scientist told Takuya Lost Zero is storing a huge amount of energy, so despite defeating Ginga, despite believing everything would be over now, Takuya and Yuki must now head over there.

Yuki is in a lot of pain though. It's so bad even collecting spheres will hurt her, something that has never happened before.  

They take a break and Yuki takes her second last pill. Takuya wants Yuki to give him her last pill, but she won't. This last pill represents her life. So she wants to hold onto it with her own hands. She wants to be the one to determine her own fate.

We hear Yuki's silent thoughts to Takuya. “Hey Takuya, don't worry. If I have to take the last pill, I'll take it in secret. Because I know, that if you find out I am going to die, you will be very sad. You won't be able to smile anymore. You probably think I'm a troublesome woman right now. And you would be right.”

Yuki no longer feels concerned over taking the medicine. Because she knows once she takes it, she will disappear.

Kouta is still furious over Lisa, but his rage is beginning to manifest itself in a strange way. He continues to repeat the words “unforgivable”. And then we see an image of Taiyou overlaid over his.

Kouta is filled with so much anger with no one to direct it to. So he goes around to everyone: Scientist, Researcher and Geek, accusing them of abandoning Lisa to die. They must have planned to sacrifice her from the beginning. Pushed all the responsibility onto her and just watched from a safe place.

A conversation between henchmen of the organisation confirms that Taiyou has taken over Kouta's body as the new “vessel”. The intention was to steal the “replicant's” body but that was difficult so he took over the body of the one closest to him. As the images of Kouta and Taiyou alternate, the hooded men explain that “that person” cannot even think right now. He has no idea what he is doing. Engulfed by hatred, he will continuously desire power, and be lost until Uchuu erases him. Why does he go so far for that power? It is even destroying his consciousness. What a poor fellow.

Taiyou and Kouta's voices merge in a similar way to how Taiyou took over Ginga. Kouta begins to repeat Taiyou's phrase. But it seems different. The communication ship is turning in the starry sky. The stars are twinkling.

Yuki gets a bad feeling when she feels a strong power emanating from the place where Lisa disappeared. It feels like malice.

Takuya and Yuki get an urgent call from Geek. Kouta is acting strange. Scientist calls Yuki to tell her there is only one way to save him, but it involves sacrificing somebody else: Souma.

Taiyou is controlling Kouta from within Souma. If we force Taiyou’s will back into Souma's body, taking down Souma should kill both of them. However, it is risky: if we fail to kill him he would gain access to Souma's summoning abilities and become even more powerful.

Yuki remembers in the past, Souma used to complain about their dad’s job. It was painful not being able to see him while he was at work, but it was a very important job only he could do. There was no other choice, just like now. Yuki resolves to kill her brother, because to defeat Taiyou, someone must be sacrificed, and between Kouta and Souma it is clear who should be the one to survive. Because no matter how much Yuki loves Souma, the fact is that he should have died that day.

Researcher will use a special technique to knock out Kouta. The moment he loses consciousness, Taiyou will be forced into Souma, and that will be our only chance to beat him. According to Takuya, once Researcher uses her special technique on Kouta, his stomach will hurt so much he will be unable to stand for days.

Yuki and Takuya cross the bridge leading to Lost Zero, the beginning of the end of the world. There is no more land, only sea. They spot Souma.

Yuki needs Takuya to give her the courage to stand up to her brother. She trembles as she asks him to not look back. Look forward, so she can too. Neither can afford to falter for even a second.

Souma has likely noticed something is up with “big brother” Kouta. He is scared and lonely and cries for his sister to save him.

Taiyou and Souma's wills begin to merge. As Taiyou craves more power, Souma calls out to Yuki for help. It's lonely, it hurts. Why isn't Yuki saving him? Why can't he be happy? He doesn't want Taiyou inside him. It feels bad, it feels good. He wants to disappear, he wants to die. He wants more power. More and more and more….

As Taiyou's consciousness rampages within Souma, he begins to multiply.

We fight the Souma replicants, and after taking down each one we get a snippet of their thoughts. “Will you smile and like me?”; “If only I just worked harder, and harder”; “Even though I tried so hard, even though I endured more than anyone else”; “Please, look at me. Pay attention to me. Like me”; “Don't come over here.”

And with each version of her brother that falls, Yuki has a reply: “I'm sorry, I must defeat you”; “I know it must be painful, but it's alright, I'll lay you to rest”; “you can hate me, it's ok”; “I'll end it, I'll end your battle with my own hands.”

And her final message: “Goodbye Souma, and thank you. Thank you for being born, for being my brother, thank you so, so much.”

When all the replicant battles are over, Yuki cries. Did it really have to end this way? Was there really no other way? She misses him, she wants to see him again so badly.

A flashback shows Souma agreeing to endure the pain of not being able to see their dad, because he believes that one day, when everything is over and their dad doesn't have to work as hard anymore, the three of them can live happily, together.

Instead of heading straight for Kouta, Takuya drives around a little longer. He tells Yuki if she wants to cry, she can. He'll even lend her his back. Yuki calls him awful for being nice now.

Kouta makes sure to apologise when he does regain consciousness. Takuya says it wasn't his fault. But they can no longer fight because there is only one medicine pill left and Yuki will die if she takes it. What should he do?

Kouta berates him for being uncharacteristically sad. Use your head Takuya, you have a special power! Jump to the past, and do what Lisa wanted you to do!

Chapter 29

Takuya and Yuki must go back to the past now, to the gap in their memories right after Yuki turns everything into a desert. They are relying on the ‘God' on their side to help them do so. We, as their ‘God’, have been with them and watched them grow since the start of the journey. We will take them back to the past where they need to go. Because this is not just Takuya and Yuki's story, it's ours too.

The screen glitches as we attempt the time travel process. It's not quite strong enough yet. Yuki and Takuya's prayers have to reach us, and then we need to transmit those through our own thoughts (just keep tapping).

It works, but time is scarce. They've got to beat Ginga first, but if they've done it once, they can do it again. Ginga curses us after the battle, telling “Observer” he will be back.

Lisa is alive and well here, but she knows what Takuya and Yuki are trying to do, and that they can't do it. What has been decided already cannot be changed. The two of them are only watching the past. She tells them the time they should have returned to is not now, but one year ago, when they escaped Lost, and got the note.

The Isoya Report collates the research of Yuki's father and records the disappearance of the world. Takuya and Yuki must go back and escape Lost again, to get the note, pass it onto Lisa, and set everything in motion.

Lisa gives one final warning: don't think of changing anything. Any action their current selves make in the past is a contradiction in the timeline of this world. If the two of them think of doing anything other than passing on the note (such as saving somebody who was meant to perish), this world might disappear due to taking on more contradictions than it can handle.

Takuya and Yuki don't actually remember how they escaped Lost at the end of their journey one year ago, but that is exactly why they can now travel back to that period. After another prayer session, they time jump to the moment right after Yuki's dad is defeated. Now they need to find him.

Takuya drives towards the place the two of them fought him. Yuki hears her dad's voice, as well as someone else's.

It's Tsuki, meaning we didn't complete defeat her. She sounds lost without Taiyou to guide her. And in a lot of pain. Everything went wrong. It shouldn't be this way, she doesn't want this kind of fate.

After beating Tsuki, we see the note. Yuki has a final conversation with her dad, apologising for not being able to save him. Her father thanks her, saying he was glad to see her in the end. But now she must escape, because Lost is disappearing and he cannot maintain this form for long. Before she leaves Yuki assures him she is no longer the same Yuki from the past.

A flashback illustrates this point. Yuki's mother took her to the amusement park, but she didn’t want to go home, so she pretended to sleep for longer. Current Yuki wonders what the purpose of her journey is. Who does she journey for? What does she gain after all this pain? Lisa told her the past couldn't be changed, but is that true? Is it really not possible to save her dad and Souma, and live together happily again? Because if that is not possible, where is she going to return to once everything is over?

Takuya knows in the present, Yuki’s body is reaching its limit, but he won’t let her eat the last pill. If Yuki has to sacrifice her future, this whole journey would be pointless.

Lisa’s philosophy was that there are no “right” choices, we can only try to make them right after the choice is made. Takuya wonders how to make the “right” choice. Will everything really be good as long as he hands Lisa the note? What choice will they make after everything is over?

Takuya and Yuki now need to find Lisa and hand her the note. They also have to tell the unsuspecting Lisa all about the painful truth and her fate. We realise now that Lisa actually knew everything. She knew she was going to die, but she went ahead and sacrificed herself anyway, because Takuya was the one who gave her the note, and she trusted him.

On their way to get out of Lost, Takuya and Yuki have to fight Taiyou again. Taiyou agrees that there is no right choice, only choices we make right. And that is why he seeks power.

Souma still haunts Yuki’s mentally. He asks her why does she keep moving forward? Where is she going? Will she become happy like that? Is what she is doing truly happiness? Even though Souma himself wanted happiness so badly.

Yuki admits she doesn’t know if this is the right choice. She has lost many things, but right now there are other things she does not want to lose. That is her reason for moving forward. She wants to keep journeying, with Takuya. She wants that happy future. She apologises for being selfish, but for the very first time in her life, she has a dream she absolutely does not want to let go of. She pleads forgiveness for her selfishness, which has been the cause of her progress up to now.

After beating Taiyou, we hear Takuya’s thoughts. He also does not know what is right, only that he wants to protect the small life behind him.

If Takuya had never passed the note onto Lisa, she wouldn’t have been involved in Lost Zero, meaning she probably wouldn’t have died. Should we really give the note to her then? But while not giving the note to Lisa could save her, it could also result in a heap of other changes. Takuya and Yuki would never have set off on this second journey, they would never have stopped Ginga, and Lost Zero may have erased the world. Lisa would probably have chosen to save the world too.

As Lost is disappearing, Yuki’s dad who has lost his conscious thought, approaches for a fight. Yuki is very unwilling to fight her father, again. Then Akira’s tamashii reaches her, saying he can hear her father asking her to kill him. Akira also tells Yuki that it is okay to be selfish. The person most important to her should be herself, and she has every right to a happy future. This time, Akira will protect her.

Yuki thanks Akira and resolves to not waver anymore. No matter the sacrifice, she will move on, for the sake of her own happiness.

We beat her dad but his will is still alive. If we do not bring him down for good, he will be consumed by Lost, and become like Taiyou. So poor Yuki has to fight him again. It does not help that his last words are: “It hurts. Why Yuki? I don’t want to die.” Yuki tells her dad she will work hard and make sure his will does not go to waste. Somehow her and Takuya have ended up carrying the wills and expectations of many people. But that is why they have to believe in themselves and move on.

Yuki asks Takuya to promise to be with her until the end. Takuya confirms he will definitely fulfil his contract, and make her happy. It was here that Takuya also secretly made a decision, about who was most important to him, and who he wanted to protect the most. Takuya thinks cryptically to himself. He will be the one to make the hard decision. He will be the one to end this journey.

The two meet up with Lisa and she is understandably skeptical. But Takuya and Yuki don't have much time left so they can only relay what they know. Lisa does ask a difficult question though: why her? If she accepts the note, even if she doesn’t believe it, she will never stop thinking about it day and night. Why would Takuya wish something so tragic onto her? She ultimately takes the note though.

The next time in history we jump to is back to right after Yuki’s powers turn a part of the city into desert. Lisa had indeed been thinking about the note the whole time, and now that she’s seen its prediction about the desert was true, she will probably go through with what she has to do. Takuya apologises but she brushes it off. She does tell him though, that to save the world, one needs to be determined enough to sacrifice even the person most important to them. Takuya vows to save the world, earning praise from Lisa that he’s reliable. She also tells him that she really wanted a boyfriend like him.

Takuya and Yuki leave to return to their original time period, knowing that they will not be able to return. So they can only believe that the choice they make here is right.

Thank you, Lisa, and goodbye.

Chapter 30

Scientist recaps what is happening in the present. Lisa is approaching Lost Zero with the intention of sacrificing herself. She will disappear, and use her power as a tamashii to suppress Lost Zero erasing the world. But she can only do so for a few hours.

Additionally, Yuki’s body is also at her limit. It is turning to stone, like the city. There is one pill left but it will kill her if she takes it.

Scientist relays his final request to Takuya: Go to Lost Zero and stop the erasure of the world, no matter what. Takuya accepts the job.

Time is running out, for the world, and for Yuki. Takuya wonders cryptically to himself when will be the last time he will say goodbye to Yuki forever. He remembers that, after so long avoiding people after leaving the detective agency, it was only after meeting Yuki that he learnt to connect with people again. That’s why he had forgotten just how painful it is to say goodbye.

Yuki notices Takuya is losing focus. The reason for this was actually hinted at in the previous chapter. Lisa sacrificed herself in order to open a path to the source of everything: Lost World. To end everything, what Takuya really needs to do is not stop Lost Zero, but go to the parallel world, Lost World. There, a being called Uchuu is controlling everything. He has to defeat her, or there will be no way to stop Shoumetsu from reoccurring. However, to do so requires Takuya to make a very difficult decision.

As the two approach Lost Zero, Takuya asks Yuki if she is still ok to fight. Yuki confirms that when she is with Takuya, she feels like she can do anything. This draws a conflicted reaction from him.

Takuya asks Yuki if she still remembers her dream to live peacefully after everything is over. Of course, Yuki never forgot. Takuya tells her to chase that future, he wants her to be happy. But to Yuki, that alone is not enough for her to be happy: she wants Takuya’s happiness too. Won’t he stop taking on dangerous contracts after this, and settle down like her?

Takuya admits it would be easier if he did do so. Incidentally, the enemy we fight when he says this is Luna, the ultimate symbol of not being honest to yourself.

Takuya thinks to himself, that he can never see Yuki’s face directly, because she is always behind him. Is she sad? Is she thinking about something? Has she noticed the truth already? That Takuya cannot bring Yuki with him on his next journey.

Only one person is able to go to Lost World, where Uchuu is waiting. Takuya isn’t afraid of going. It’s almost shocking how unafraid he feels. But he does feel that the thought of leaving this world, and never being able to see everyone again, is very painful.

Takuya has in fact already said his farewells to the others. But not Yuki. He claims he doesn’t want to put her in danger anymore, but it was he who didn’t understand. Yuki has clearly noticed something is up, and Takuya is only pretending not to notice.

Yuki tries to convince Takuya to stay. She reiterates how much of a good thing it is to have him there with her. If Takuya never came for her, she would still be alone. But Takuya argues she isn’t alone anymore. She has lots of friends now, who will support her. But that’s all because of Takuya, Yuki counters. In stark contrast to how she thought at the very beginning of this story mode, Yuki says she now believes that good people gather around Takuya.

Takuya tells Yuki the happiest meeting for him, was meeting her. But Yuki picks up on the past tense. Why did he say “happiest”? Why did he say it in a way that sounded like things were ending?

She pushes him. “Hey Takuya, you won’t go, right? We’ll be together forever?” Takuya avoids lying by saying he will fight with her until the end. But Yuki sees through it. And then what? What will you do? Takuya avoids answering by telling her to focus on what’s in front.

Takuya never said goodbye to Yuki properly, because he didn’t know how to say it. But that’s a lie. He ran from telling her the truth, because he couldn’t bear to see her sad.

When Takuya said goodbye to Headhunter, he gave him one key piece of advice: If you are going to disappear, don’t say anything. Don't make promises you know you can't keep. That would be the most horrible thing to do to anyone. But then he also getsTakuya to promise to return all the money he owes him eventually. Because that’s separate business.

Back at the organisation, two members discuss how Lost Zero has stopped spreading. But this is fine. They just have to open the next Lost. Uchuu has enough power to make it happen.

As if on cue, we hear the voice of Uchuu, saying she is bored. One of the men then disappear. The other, realising what has happened, starts to beg for his life. But Uchuu eliminates him too.

Uchuu waits in Lost World. She tells us to hurry up, unless... (cue fucking jump scare) “are you scared?”

Uchuu loves Takuya, does Takuya like Uchuu?

Yuki asks if Takuya is crying. She’s always behind him, so she can never see his face. That’s why she hates his back.

Takuya resolves to tell her the truth. Yuki is devastated, begging it to be a lie. When she finds out it isn’t, she predictably asks to go with him. When he tells her she can’t she gets even sadder. What is she supposed to do? It’s not as if she could forget about him. Yuki’s happy future, that the two of them came up with, was one of the few things keeping her going. And in that dream, Takuya was right there by her side, smiling next to her. Yuki asks a whole bunch of “why” questions: Why are you going by yourself? Why can’t you be with me? Why aren’t you saying anything?

Takuya finally speaks. He tries to explain to Yuki that in life, people have to say goodbye. And then they have to move on. It’s something she will understand when she’s older. But Yuki right now doesn’t understand. There is no way there will ever be a replacement for her memories of this journey, and of Takuya. Takuya thanks her, and says he won’t forget what she said.

The final boss battle of World 1 is Lost Zero, with Lisa trapped in it. Its defeat signals the end of our gameplay, the end of Takuya’s contract, and the end of his partnership with Yuki.

Takuya must now say his final goodbyes to Yuki. He tells her not to be sad. As she grows older, she will make many more memories. Her journey with Takuya will eventually become one small memory in a huge mountain. Once in a while, Yuki might remember, and she will be sad for a moment, but that’s alright, because that is what it means to face the future, and move on.

Takuya’s speech does nothing to lift Yuki’s spirits. She is still sad. She still doesn’t understand. She still clings on to hope. She asks: “Hey Takuya, it’s not the end, right? We’ll meet again, right?”

Headhunter’s final piece of advice flashes into Takuya’s mind: don’t make promises you can't keep.

Takuya tells Yuki they will definitely meet again, bringing a smile back to her face. Yuki says she will believe it, forever.

Takuya: “Thank you, Yuki.”

Yuki: “Thank you, Takuya. For coming with me on this journey, for fighting with me, for giving me a dream...Thank you so much.”

But when Takuya leaves, she drops the smile.

The credits roll, and we see the Shoumetsu Toshi logo again. This time, we know the meaning behind Yuki’s silhouette disappearing.

The epilogue plays in between the credits. Researcher and Scientist note that Yuki is still feeling empty, but she will be ok. When they were her age, they also made many memories, but they only occasionally remember those days now. It will surely be the same for Yuki. That is what Takuya hopes for the most.

We also find out Headhunter is paying Yuki’s living fees. He can do this because it’s going to Takuya’s bill, who will pay him back ‘eventually’.

Geek is incredibly depressed Takuya is gone, because Takuya was his one and only friend in this world. But when Kouta offers his friendship, Geek rejects him. Poor Kouta.

Appropriately, the final person we see is Yuki. After some time, she took another look at the note, the Isoya Report. In addition to her father’s actual research, there was information Takuya noted for Lisa. And on the last page, was a short letter from Takuya to Yuki.

Dear Yuki, I’m sorry I couldn’t live in the world peacefully with you. I’m sorry I couldn’t fulfil our promise. But there are things I need to do, to make sure you and everyone else can live peacefully.

The truth is I am a little excited about going to a parallel world. What if in that world, the secrets of the Ancient Civilisation have all been uncovered? I would definitely find a way to bring that back. Sorry, but this will be my last contract. Look forward to when I get in contact with you guys about it.

Thank you, Yuki.

Yuki: “You’re such an idiot.”

World 1 story mode finishes with a preview of Lost World. We see someone who appears to be Yuki with red hair, talking to ???? from the tutorial.

[musingmycelium]

da 20 questions

i was tagged by @goblin-deity thanks dear <3 and i’ll tag @lyrium-lovesong @raymurata @pegaeae @veridium-bye and @crystal-grace <3 no obligations of course <3

01) Favourite game of the series?

ooooghghghghghgh Origins is my Favorite, the Story........

02) How did you discover Dragon Age?

i recieved a copy of inquisition as a gift, became immediately immursed but i didn’t dig more into the series for a good half a year or so? at which point i discovered the other two games and went Oh Fuck

03) How many times you’ve played the games? 

oh, uHHHHHHH, Far Too Many. i’ve sunk over 1k hours into dai alone, origins and da2 probably have about 1k combined?

04) Favourite race to play as?

i’m always a slut for elves 

05) Favourite class?

me, a staff wielding bisexual: i’m Mage, all the way. though i don’t mind rogue if i mix things up [which is like, i think i have three or four rogue play throughs out of all of them?] i NEVER play warrior bc i’m a bottom i’m not about that life

06) Do you play through the games differently or do you make the same decisions each time?

i play in character! so i’ve got some Wildly different world states depending on which playthrough/oc i’m on

07) Go-to adventuring group?

for my Canon world states i’ve got origins gang: sten, zevran, morrigan. da2 gang: fenris/aveline, anders/merrill, varric. dai gang: dorian, bull, solas/sera  i sense a theme...... 

08) Which of your characters did you put the most thought into?

oh god, ellanis and noure are my most fleshed out origins kids, wren and galahad are less fleshed out, sorta, but i Love them, idrilla and da’ean are pretty fleshed out as well -though linayel and mithra are also fairly fleshed out i just never write about them 

09) Favourite romance?

ZEVRAN -god i love him so much hhhhhHHHHHHHH he’s got Everything, everytime i play ellanis and he goes ‘the grey wardens die here’ i’m Fucking Lost Already man. hhhhhoooohhghghghghghgh i’d go on but i’m running on cough syrup and midol so it would be even less coherent than ususal

10) Have you read any of the comics/books?

lmao i own all the books but i haven’t been able to finish them because My God are they poorly written. LIKE good Characters, good characters, shit prose.

11) If you read them, which was your favourite book?

the one i’m furthest along in rn is stolen throne so i’ll go with that one

12) Favourite DLCs?

jaws of hakon -holy shit as an archaeologist grad student i cannot tell you how much i Fucking Loved the lore dump in site form that was jaws of hakon JUST OH MY GOD it was AMAZING the first time you talk to professor what’shisface with the hot accent and he starts talking about chronologies via buckles i was fucking lost in nerd heaven

13) Things that annoy you.

homophobia and transphobia and racism. the games are Rife with bad correlations between real people and grey morality and poor handling of sensitive contents, though i don’t know if it was all done for ‘woke’ points or if some came from legitimate good intentions, most of my problems lie in those areas. fandom also hits a lot of my annoyances but that’s what block is for

14) Orlais or Ferelden?

antiva bitch

15) Templars or mages?

mages

16) If you have multiple characters, are they in different/parallel universes or in the same one?

same one! ellanis is my canon hof but noure is a part of his backstory and they meet during the blight [ellanis frees noure from a sentence of tranquility and conscripts them, uh, temporarily] noure leaves the group after like a week?ish and goes to nevarra. wren and galahad are twins, wren being the older one and the main rabble-rouser hawke. da’ean is the only quizzy but idrilla, linayel, mithra and a handful of other lavellan ocs all exist within the clan -idrilla and linayel and a few others come to skyhold after clan lavellan handles the unrest in wycome with da’ean’s help [my canon there is a bit wonky as of yet as i’m still working out the kinks]  

17) What did you name your pets? (mabari, summoned animals, mounts, etc)

this is the part i suck at, i think ellanis named the mabari something after the flower that saved him? but i don’t remember tbh, and that’s the only one i cna think of rn too lkjlkjlkjklj

18) Have you installed any mods?

oh yes. ohhh yes i have an extense amount of mods on all three games, mostly cosmetic ones but a few gameplay ones

19) Did your Warden want to become a Grey Warden?

ellanis didn’t no, he thought warden’s were a bit of reality mixed with myth. when duncan shows up he’s more skeptical and curious than anything else, and his joining is less than enthusiastic but he makes the most of it for a good five years, before he fucks off to do his own research in antiva in seclusion -he just leaves, with an encripted note for nate making him warden-commander of ferelden while he’s gone and tells him not to tell anyone where he’s gone. only nate and velanna know where he is in the wardens

20) Hawke’s personality?

wren is a purple hawke! she knows what she wants and she is not afraid to go after it, although she does care deeply and shows her affections loudly. she’s a fucking chaotic stupid mess and i love her.

galahad is blue throughout. a natural big brother, super loving and patient and caring. he’s always looking to help, though when things go wrong he tends to blame himself only, he’s more together than wren though. 

21) Did you make matching armor for your companions in Inquisition?

....yes.......  my inquisition is a fashion disaster, everyone has a palatte but i do complimentary colors for my parties and lis Of Course

22) If your character(s) could go back in time to change one thing, what would they change?

yes, ellanis would go back and kill the shems before they could crash the wedding -to prevent shianni from ever having to live through what she did. he would still have probably been conscripted by duncan soooo not too big a change for him but, for shianni it would be huge. 

ellanis has another but it’s tied up with noure’s: noure would go back and ambush the templars before being captured and then run for their life. without ever having lived in the circle i don’t, know exactly how noure would come out -probably happier, less jagged, less terrified and paranoid. but probably not by much if they had to live their life constantly looking over their shoulder. they may have ended up in nevarra this way too, but they wouldn’t have ever made it to kirkwall and they never would have met anders or karl, they may have never fallen out of love with ellanis via distance/assumed death, it would be far different than what happened.

wren and galahad both would go back and save bethany. doesn’t matter how, or what the cost to themselves would have been that’s their little sister and they would do anything to save her if they could.

da’ean’s is much the same. his biggest regret, the thing which haunts him the most is ashalle’s [not dao ashalle lmao] death. he was supposed to protect her and after what happens in that field and that month, da’ean blames himself for how his sister died. though he isn’t the one to blame, and later [far, far later] he is able to come to terms with what happened. though he never Truly shakes the guilt.

linayel would probably try to save his mother’s sight. he would tell her to stay with him by the fire, or would try and find a cure faster for her. the illness wasn’t his fault and he knows it wasn’t but given the chance he would save her sight if he could.  

23) Do you have any headcanons about your character(s) that go against canon?

lmao canon? never heard of her, a shitton of what i write is either me taking canon and making it Good/Useable or me shitting on it and saying this is My Castle Now

24) Who did you leave in the Fade?

this choiice always pissed me off, or it did after i knew who they were. when i first played i had no idea who hawke was or who the grey warden contact was [stroud for my first couple of play throughs] at all. so i would flip flop between them without care really. 

now, in my canon alistair stays behind while hawke physically drags da’ean out because he was going to stay and fight or find a different way out. i still think its shit and a naratively piss-poor meta punch though

25) Favourite mount?

i’m a dirty gatherer so i don’t actually use any mount. the only time i Have used a mount was the royal 16 for screenshot purposes, which i lost when my harddrive crashed a couple months ago D:

[ego-centrick-moved]

EGO MAYHEM THEORIES: II

THIS IS PART II. CLICK HERE FOR PART I.

OK FUCKERS LET’S FIRST COVER SOME STUFF:

Jack posted a photo to his instagram with red lights shining on his face as he wore chases shirt and marvin's mask was spotted in the back

he livestreamed some fortnight and @lisasepticsuperplier spotted marvin’s mask hanging on the whiteboard. @maggiemaemoo also noticed and pointed out when he went on a “pee break” the mask went missing. this same mask was on the whiteboard in his new “am i colorblind” video.

it’s important to note that the red lights were in every video between chapter one and the colorblind video.

RGB lights/lens flares in most thumbnails.

he wore a black shirt in every video up until today (5/9) where he switched it out for chases shirt in “try to fall asleep” and a fairly normal tee in “am i colorblind”

i don't think “am i colorblind” is important to our theories at all, i actually think for once we got a normal video? besides the mask, nothing off happens the whole video and there’s no red lights. did jack go back to sleep?

CHAPTER 4: “IT WAS ALL CONNECTED”

"you see a man in front of you. this man looks strange, not like any man you have seen before. suddenly, you realize you were looking in a mirror..."

by this point we know all of the intros are connected/parallel events having to do with jack/the egos. this intro doesn’t end with “stories untold.” it’s likely the case because in game, we learn what the characters “untold” story is- and we start to uncover jacks. 

all of his egos have a similar likeness to jack, so he could be referring to coming face to face with any of them. i think, however, this is more of a “i don’t recognize myself” statement. jack has lost his memories, he hasn’t been himself and his subconscious knows. that’s why he doesn’t recognize the man in the mirror, why it looks strange to him. mirrors have been a common theme over time regarding anti/broken!jack, and mirrors were also involved in the second video this day.

i really think jack did a good job choosing stories untold to be The Game(tm) where all this shit goes down. there’s a lot of very obvious connections you can make with jack/the ego’s stories and this game, and i enjoy it a lot. i took some notes while watching the video, it would take to long to expand on them individually so i'll just share this screenshot. it’s a lil messy:

now let’s jump to that ending. i’m still reeling from it; wig evaporated. 

i still have NO SOLID IDEA what he could’ve been referring to. does he remember everything or just some things? does he blame schneep or anti? does he remember who everyone is again? SO MANY QUESTIONS! gif credit

@fear-is-nameless pointed out he looks directly at the camera, not through it. almost as if he's talking to someone. i think he’s either talking to us, or talking to schneep/chase considering (i think) they were the ones trying to get him to wake up to begin with. 

@no-strings-puppet pulled together the whispers that you can listen to slowed here, slowed and reversed here.

@damienisverygood made a transcript of the whispers, i have a hard time hearing it so i cant rly confirm for 100% that this is accurate, but definitely worth noting.

@monochromemedic had a really interesting theory about schneeps involvement in it all, it’s definitely worth taking a peek at.

@booperdoopcr has a theory that really got me thinking as well.

i really do think someone has been “pulling the strings,” choosing what jack can remember and locking away whatever memories either a, hurt him or b, doesn’t serve their agenda. it’s hard to tell if it’s anti who’s in control of what jack knows or if it’s our doctor. 

i don’t think schneep is evil or malevolent. if he’s keeping jack from remembering it’s for jacks health or the well-being of the other egos/himself. it’s an outdated theory that anti thrives off of attention (i can’t remember but i think jack said that wasn’t quite the case) so it would make sense for henrick to lock away memories that involved anti, it would also explain why jack doesn’t remember him (considering he was corrupted last time we saw him). the thing that doesn’t quite add up with this theory is why schneep was so frazzled to see jack playing his role, when he knew jack didn’t remember him or really know what he was doing. schneep looked scared when confronting jack, he knew something was wrong. overnightwatch happened after schneep left for “vacation,” yet jack seems to forget about that too. i don’t dismiss this theory completely, it just leaves a lot of questions.

anti, however, would benefit from jack having amnesia about him. if he doesn’t know who anti is and doesn’t know there’s something fishy going on, he can’t stop it. it would make sense for anti to make jack forget schneep, considering he tried to save him. it also could’ve just been a casualty of trying to get jack to forget everything regarding the glitch demon himself. it would also make sense for schneep to be frazzled in this case when confronting jack, because he likely didn’t know who he was talking to. he recognized jack, but he didn’t know jack. if that makes any sense.

i stand strongly by my theory that memory-lacking jack is just a puppet of antis, being controlled by him without really knowing. schneep has experience with anti, he was likely afraid of the unknown possibilities that stirred around confronting an unstable, unknowing puppet!jack. i honestly believe schneep came back to try to save jack. after he confronted puppet!jack, i think he started some sort of therapy to get him to remember, and had chases help. (like a parallel to the dr. alex/mom and james in the game ya feel?)

@chronically-illustrated pointed out that all of the endings could be a bit of interpretation of what happened to jack over the years. James Ation had a hard time interpreting reality so the truth manifested in complicated and symbolic ways. the outros could’ve symbolized jack’s memories coming back to him/events that have been actively happening. 

we see jack “wake up” periodically (i think the jack that remembers is conscious, just locked away, being tortured and watching everything unfold) , leaving hints and cries for help littered here and there. they almost ALWAYS get removed though, seemingly by anti trying to get things back under control. the tags on the DDLC playthroughs that got deleted (canyouhearme, i remember what happened), the entire overnightwatch stream getting deleted (seemingly from memory as well), the random tags showing up on posts only to get deleted later (the sos in morse code). anti doesn’t want jack catching on, he deletes all signs of him he can and all of jacks cries for help while simultaneously taunting us and fucking with us (like overnightwatch as whole). thanks to @fear-is-nameless for reminding me about the tags on DDLC.

no traditional outro or intro

CHECK PLEASE

this video just seemed very off. i don’t have a lot to say about it, but i’ll let my notes sum it up:

i don’t really know what to make of it, other than it’s suspicious as all hell. the red light was in this video as well. 

he mentioned magic 6 times, made a blood/knife/threatening comment about 5 times, and got injured/burned twice. 

that mirror speech was all fine until he said “you got this- we got this.”  i just don't trust like that.

if anything, i think this just helps solidify the idea that memory vacant jack is just a puppet of antis. it might also reveal that anti’s whole plan is to become one with jack and be the foreman (host).

“papa” sounds a lot like anti in the closing scene lmao. i don’t think there’s much to read into, its just something funny. if he is a puppet i wonder if he sees anti as dad?

there IS a traditional outro/intro

TRY TO FALL ASLEEP

i hate this man. i absolutely despise him. im kidding i love him and his creativity and torture knows no bounds. this mother fuck really did this to us.

before even watching the video, i knew we were NOT in the clear, after jack seemingly “waking up” yesterday and then this video? i love hate him. 

here are my general notes on the video. i added lines to make it easier to read cos this was a Lot:

i take the notes during my first watch through so i'm sorry for the meaningless comments/reactions throughout. 

let’s break this down a lil bit. the video starts off weird. there’s no normal intro, and the red lights are there- just dim (this was brought to my attention from this post by @markired), “jack” fades in through static. 

@lizziebirb made this gif where you can see marvins mask show through the static:

then that creepy grin is back as he introduces the game. he stares directly at us as he makes his “speech” about going to sleep. when he makes the comment “when you drift off, that’s when the fun begins,” i half expected to hear anti’s laugh. bone-chilling to say the least.

the character in the game is someone who just went through an accident of some kind, and memory loss is mentioned (another parallel?). jack glosses over that, and instead focuses on brain damage. now hear me out; what if jack doesn’t want to remember? what if he wants to stay asleep because he’s afraid? i feel like due to the theme of the last game egos aside, he normally would’ve pointed it out or made a connection? i could be wrong, im just thinking out loud.

he also, out of place, brought up “why are all these people in my house” which reminded me a lot of a post he reblogged a few days ago.

he says “i don't know if i need a mask” (referring to gas masks in game) but that line stuck out to me, due to the fact two egos have masks and one of them even popped up in this video. the other ego (jbm) we haven't heard almost anything from since this all started. 

i found a lot in the TV snow. we see marvin, JJ, and a hidden message. ill link the post with all the pictures here, but i would like to highlight a few screenshots in specific.

in this one, jack’s webcam seems to glitch out when marvin pops up. i don't know if that was something that messed up in the rendering of the video, but it honestly reminds me a lot like the glitches that popped up during the antipocalypse days. with the way the color fades and there seems to be hints of color over his face. i wonder if there’s a second image there we just can’t see?

and then there was this:

i traced over the words, but that’s all i saw. i’ve seen people claim it says “you need to wake up” but i just... don’t see that. it would make sense, but i never see the end of this sentence and i very clearly see an “A” in the 3rd word, so it doesn’t say “need”. it could say “you have to flee,” considering that is the next word we see after this. if that’s the case, who is he fleeing from and why? 

it could ALSO be someone telling jack he HAS to wake up. like they’re telling him he doesn’t have a choice, he can't just keep acting like things didn’t happen and put off confronting his memories/his egos. after waking up yesterday, and then this video today, i wouldn’t be surprised if he’s deliberately trying to fall back asleep.

we also see JJ. but why? this is the only time i see him, and as far as i know jack doesn’t even reference him in this video, unlike how he referenced marvin with the abundance of magic-related comments. what’s the significance of JJ being in this video/making an appearance?

he also makes a face worth mentioning after reading the phrase “loose lips spit sekrits.” (i’m p sure it’s spelt that way because in dreams it’s common for things to be a little off, especially words. it wasn’t a typo by the developers, it was deliberate). this face goes entirely full screen and only lasts for about a second. it could be for comedic effect because he thought it was a typo, but it could also be a certain someone throwing some shade, yanno? someone's been slipping us hints, “spitting sekrits,” and another someone is probably not very thrilled about it.

he then makes a comment about “revive” due to the word being on a podium. he picks up a fuse and says, “can the doctor revive me after this” (as JJ pops up on screen) which could be a direct reference to schneep “reviving” jack- or at least his attempts to.

fear was a big theme in this video, he repeated that he “wasn’t afraid” many times even though he was very obviously afraid. i wonder who he was trying to convince he wasn’t afraid? who are we even watching in this video, and who are they trying to prove something to? he breaks the fourth wall towards the end and tells us “no fear, im repeating it so you guys remember it.” does he want us to have no fear, is it important that we aren’t afraid? or is he trying to convince us/whoever he really isn’t afraid, just cautious for our sake? 

there were about 5 mentions of magic i caught throughout this video.

no traditional outro/intro

i’ll add more as the days go on, but in another two days (if there’s still ego stuff goin on) i’ll make another one. :D if you have any theories to add lmk by tagging me, messaging them to me, or just replying here ! i’ll throw them in where/if they fit and tag you. thanks for all the positive responses on my first theory post, i hope this one is as helpful. :D

Tags (im sorry): @jacksoopticboop @jacksepticeye-protection-squad @lum1natrix @puppet-master-anti @kasper-the-ghost @septicjacks @mrcamillaa @hufflepufftrax @rogue-of-broken-time  @marielgum @markired

[feisty-mary]

A King and a Duchess: Thoughts on TRR Book 3, Chapter 2

I don’t usually write detailed reviews of TRR chapters aside from screenshots of my playthrough with some comments. But I’ve had tons of feelings since the lackluster pilot and now even chapter two is a disappointment, so I decided I might as well summarize what I think and get it off my chest once and for all.

Note that this post will be peppered with links to my other posts, since I usually write down my thoughts immediately after finishing a chapter so I don’t forget them. It won’t be necessary to open the links to follow what I say here (unless otherwise noted), but please feel free to visit them for screenshots and additional insights.

1.    We finally have the names of the likely enemies of the Crown!

It’s always frustrated me how Liam dances around the issue and says absolutely nothing to his future bride and Queen about the enemies of the monarchy. I understand he can’t (especially if you’re not romancing him), but that doesn’t make it less annoying. It’s a relief to finally get some clues about who they might actually be in this chapter.

According to Bastien, there are three suspects:

    a. Liberation Core. Anti-monarchists, have grown more outspoken in their criticisms against the Crown.

    b. Sons of Earth. Newer faction. Pro-trade, in favor of bigger concessions.

    c. Nevrakis Family. Olivia’s parents were part of an attempted coup.

I reckon Francesco (the Italian ambassador) is part of the Sons of Earth, since he’s been pushing for Cordonia to grant Italian artists more access to Cordonian market. I don’t think they necessarily want to overthrow the government; I imagine they’re mostly businessmen who want a big share of the market for their own benefit. If this is the case, I think we can conclude that they will be the last people who will want instability in Cordonia, since an uncertain environment is bad for business.

Liberation Core sounds the most obvious culprit at the moment, since the videos from the assassin explicitly say that they want to shift the power from the monarchs to the citizens. I wonder if this is a call to change the form of government from monarchy to democracy?

I’ve already said that I have some faith in Olivia’s friendship with Liam. However, it’s her Aunt Lucretia that I’m very wary of (the one who left her to fend for herself after her parents passed away). In this chapter Olivia seems fiercely determined to support Liam, but that’s not necessarily true for the rest of her family, is it? Where has Aunt Lucretia been all these years?

Coup d’état is defined as “a sudden and decisive action in politics, especially one resulting in a change of government illegally or by force” (Dictionary.com, 2018). It’s interesting that this was what Olivia’s parents were involved in, and this is also in part what the assassin in the video threatens to do if Liam doesn’t abdicate the throne (“the palace halls will flow with the blood of tyrants”).

I’m not drawing conclusions from the points above yet, though I admit I’m frustrated that Constantine never dealt with the potential threat in Olivia. If I remember right, Olivia’s parents died when she was around 6 or 7, so this coup d’état must have happened some twenty years ago by this time in canon. The fact that this problem still haunts Liam now that he’s already king is… well, very disappointing.

2.   The enemies of the Crown publicly threaten Liam’s life again in this chapter, but everyone pretends everything is okay. 

Everyone includes but is not limited to Ana and Donnie (the media), Bertrand (who calls the entire thing “a PR miracle” if you don’t botch it up), and even Liam himself, who doesn’t discuss the assassin’s video with MC, but invites her to soak in goddamn bathtub instead (if you’re romancing him). I personally bought Liam’s diamond scene, and except for the two lines where Liam asks MC how she feels after what happened, they don’t dwell much on the video message from the enemies and then continue acting as if it’s really not that important.

Excuse my French but, uhm, what the fuck?

3.   To Ana’s and Donnie’s credit, they don’t pull their punches when they ask Liam what he plans on doing following the demands of the enemies of the Crown. (You might want to open this link in another tab for context.)

“And what about their demands, King Liam? Given everything that’s happened over the past few days, are you thinking of stepping down?”

They go right for the jugular with this question. And Liam, oh my dear Liam disappoints spectacularly in this one. Here he “pauses to gather his thoughts”, and then it’s basically MC who takes over and sends a message on Liam’s behalf.

My question is: Why? Why does it have to be MC who has to do all the talking, when the question is very clearly addressed to Liam, the actual King of Cordonia? Granted, in my playthrough my MC is romancing Liam and is thus his future wife and future Queen of Cordonia. ‘Future’ being the operative term. Why does she get to speak on his behalf, and why are we given the impression that her words instead of the King’s are enough to assuage the fears of the media and the public? Who the hell even is she? If I were a citizen of Cordonia, why would I believe this person in the first place?

I’m incredibly upset by this sequence, because we’ve been told since Book 2 that Liam has to earn his reign in order to regain his kingdom. In this scene, though, after he supposedly pauses to gather his thoughts, his only words are:

“She’s right. I have no intention of giving in to their demands.”

It gets even worse when you remember how much they’ve been emphasizing that there needs to be a display of strength following the assassination attempt during the Homecoming Ball. And like we’ve been told since Book 1, appearances are everything. In this scene, Liam is supposed to show that he isn’t unruffled by the assassination attempt. He’s supposed to show his constituents that he’s a leader they can look to for guidance, a pillar they can lean on in times of chaos and confusion. It’s supposed to be an opportunity for him to start proving himself to the public.

But no. Instead the writers give the spotlight to MC, and it’s her who gives a strong message that appears enough to alleviate the worries of the public (based at least on the reaction of the media).

This just didn’t work for me. I understand that the writers must have wanted for players to have some input in the direction the dialogues are supposed to take, but to me this greatly undermined Liam as the King. This guy was brought up to be a prince, and then eventually the ruler of his own kingdom. His reign has just been threatened publicly, twice, in the span of barely a week. Is this really all he has to say about the matter? “She’s right. I have no intention of giving in to their demands”?

Wouldn’t it have worked better if Liam, as King of Cordonia, had taken the lead and sent a message to bring his people together, assure them that all is well? That’s literally his job. Ana’s and Donnie’s question isn’t something that should have caught him by surprise – not after that botched up assassination attempt. Couldn’t MC have just rallied behind him, said something in support of his statement, as a Duchess and/or future queen? 

This entire scene was just ridiculous. I know the entire premise of TRR banks on a lot of suspension of disbelief, but they really did Liam’s character dirty with this one. 

4.   Madeleine will be our new press secretary! 

I’m surprised but at the same time I’m not? Back in Book 2, even Justin himself remarked that Madeleine was really good at handling the press. Which was when I started lowkey shipping them. I still do; you can fight me. 

I know a lot of people dislike Madeleine, but I’ve grown to really like her. Like I’ve said here, I think she will be perfect for this role, considering her upbringing and her knowledge about Cordonia. I’m not sure how we will convince her to help us, though. I know she does want power, so maybe we’ll make some concessions? A higher position? I for one am not entirely opposed to the idea. You can hate her guts all you want, but even Liam and her mother Adelaide have both acknowledged that Madeleine will make a good queen.

I’m also thankful and happy that they decided to take this route with respect to her character development. I wholeheartedly acknowledge that Madeleine hasn’t been the most pleasant person since we first met her in Book 1. But in making her MC’s press secretary and thus an ally, the writers will have more room to explore who she is: what her motivations are, how she has dealt with Leo’s abdication and her being cast aside, her relationship with her mother and Regina, what she feels about Liam and his decision to choose MC in her place, etc. The writers will add more depth to her character instead of simply writing her off as another evil, power- hungry woman. I for one am keenly looking forward to what she’ll bring to the table once she becomes our ally.

=================================

I’ve never done this ‘thoughts on a TRR chapter’ thing before so my ideas are divided between several posts. I’m adding links to those related to this one. I have already mentioned some of them in the text above.

Enemies of the Crown | Truth behind the Death of Olivia’s Parents | Questions We Need to Ask Ourselves Post-TRR Book 3, Chapter 2 | King Liam, MC, and Answering the Press | Madeleine as MC’s Press Secretary

[annakie]

An Annotated Mass Effect Playthrough, Part Eight

List of Posts: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

I accidentally messed up the numbering on part Seven’s link to post six, so if you missed post six (or yesterday’s part seven), the numbering up there is correct.

Wherein we get back out into the galaxy, explore, help some people, and kill some others!

So now that we have Liara, it’s time to really dig into the galaxy.  We have a few people we talked to on the CItadel who need help, and maybe we’ll stumble into a few more things along the way.

First of all, let’s check out the galaxy map...

Hey wait a sec, what’s this?

Petra Nebula!?  Oh hey, another new addition by the ME1 Recalibrated mod.

Gorgeous map, only one system available.

Heeeey we recognize this place, we’ll get to go there in.... two games!

Can’t land there (or anywhere in the system) but it’s cool that it exists! There are a couple of other neat little things in the system I didn’t screenshot so that you can have a cool new experience yourself if you decide to use the mod on your next playthrough.

What I really miss from ME3, by the way, is the % markers which note when you’ve fully explored a system or if there’s more stuff to find there.

Anyway, my PLAN had been to take a screenshot of each planet or spacecraft before I entered it to help orient the playthrough better, and then the non-screenshotting couple of hours happened, so we lost some of that along the way, sorry.  

Still, let’s see what kind of trouble we can get ourselves into.

I love this planet.  The lava juuuuust below the surface, peeking out.  Just some of the coolest terrain in the game.

What a great view, let’s get a little clo--

OOPS.

I meant to do that.

Wide open spaces with no fears of a thresher maw living in the lava! ...I hope?

Ah, here’s our objective, a distress signal being sent from this location, let’s see if we can help...

FUCKING GETH AMBUSH.

Aw yeah, jumping over those explosives like a pro!

...most of the time.

Well this planet was a bust.  Let’s see if we can actually help someone.

Another planet, scanned a few things, not sure what we’re doing here but hey, I found a lone building!

Ah yes, a prefab which is totally different from all the prefabs we’ll enter because the creates are stacked in a different configuration.

Honestly they should have put one of these prefabs in ME3 for Old Times Sake. (The ones that actually look like homes/labs/whatever make so much more sense.)

Annnd we’re being attacked.  Not sure why, but here we go!

Awww yeah, Throw!  And Ash and Kaidan managing to be useful I think?

Except they let a guy slip by us, but luckily there’s a convenient explosive nearby.  That got ‘em.

OK back to facing forward OH FUCK A KROGAN.

Kaidan’s biotics and my shotgun, a favorite combination.  Now stay down!

Sweet, level up!

And that fight’s over, time to explore this pla...

Whew, thanks Kaidan.

This guy thought he could sneak past me.  Well me, my shotgun and my 20 shield strength sure showed him.

ME1 combat is so... messy though.  I mean, I honestly still enjoy it, but I’m in the camp that agrees combat gets better every game, Andromeda included.  Of course, I just REALLY LOVE Vanguarding in ME3... charging into a group of enemies, hitting Nova, spamming charge again praying that I’ll find a good target to charge to in time.  ME1 combat is basically all just... spam abilities from cover and hope your companions are doing something useful.  Being a Vanguard is more about style over substance in ME here.  I mean you do get some really useful abilities, but your shotgun isn’t that much use unless things get too close.

Which, you know, they do pretty often.

Anyway, remember... I WILL DESTROY YOU!!!

FUCK I hadn’t been back to the Citadel to pick up Nassana Dantius’ quest yet.  Let’s just reload the quicksave from outside and we’ll... come back and do this the right way later and see the entire quest.

I do this more often than I care to admit.

Also no screenshot for this but... I also found Wrex’s personal quest planet and recognized it only when I saw the building, since it’s in a pretty memorable location.  Still, grabbed everything else off the planet so it’ll be quick when it’s time to go back and do that quest.

Well let’s go back to poking around the galaxy.

Message coming in.  Patching it through.

Ah, yeah, hey Hackett.  What’s that?  You’ve got some dirty work you need me to do for you?  Cool, be right there.

Before the ME2 DLC Arrival came out, Hackett was one of Mass Effect’s biggest mysteries.  Who is this guy?  Why is he telling us to do things?  Does he have some secret agenda?  Why is he so sketchy?  Our Shepards seemed to trust him but WOW he sure did send us on some touchy missions.  Speculation was all over the place on what he looked like and what he was really doing.

Turns out, he’s just a pretty cool guy who wants you to take on all the secret spy missions the Alliance doesn’t want to take credit for.

I wish I’d saved it, but just a week or two ago I saw a pretty great post circulating about Hackett.  He IS the guy that’s going to make sure a job gets done, even if he’s not going to do it himself.  He’s the back-room Admiral with the squeaky clean image up front.  He’s the Gus Fring of the Alliance.

Also getting Lance Riddick to voice him was great.  Just a real authoritative, steady guy who you actually want to trust.  

And it turns out he looks basically exactly like most people thought, but maybe with a few more scars. (I mean, he really looks a lot like Lance Riddick, tbh)  But we don’t know that yet.  For now, let the mystery be.

Time to actually go help someone.

Ah yeah, Chairman Burns, we do negotiate with terrorists, in this case.  But they needed negotiating with.

Maxing out the Paragon-meter is worth it for moments like this.  These guys have probably suffered and it’s no surprise that no one has really listened.  Sounds like a lot about the galaxy hasn’t changed since we got out there.

This is also an excellent moment for Kaidan.

Being able to let Kaidan reason with them is fantastic.  Although he probably ultimately doesn’t make a difference mechanics wise, it’d be nice if maybe the check is easier if he’s here.  I don’t know.  But Kaidan knows, even if he’s one of the “lucky” ones who “only” gets migraines.  

One of the grossest posts I’ve seen about Kaidan are people who argue she shouldn’t be on the team because of his implants and since he has a “disability”.  Or that it’s “kinder” to sacrifice him on Virmire.  That’s some real gross ablism you’ve got there.  

Anyway, I love being able to keep this situation under control. Burns actually comes through if you do, even if those guys probably go to prison for awhile for terrorism.  Better than being dead.

Time for... another planet!

Again, didn’t take a screencap of this one but... there’s a missing survey team? I must have picked this quest up in the elevators, because normally you get it on Noveria.  Anyway,  Let’s go find them on Trebin, I’m sure they just can’t broadcast anymore or something.  It’s cool

FUCK. SHIT SHIT SHIT.  FUCK!!!

I probably could have actually used Warp or Throw or even Barrier there but... too late now!  We lived!

I was all ready to blame this on Cerberus, but creepily, there’s no explanation for who huskified them or why.   I’m still going to blame Cerberus, seems like something they’d do.

Well, time to move on.

Honestly, I can’t believe anyone who says ME1 isn’t beautiful.

And driving the Mako is FUN in places like this!

Oh there’s a camp up ahead, we’re here to find the remaining crew of a crashed ship for our new friend in the Citadel Tower.  

Again, no footage/screenshot but eventually you find where the mercenaries tracked down Willem (the brother) and killed them.  Shit.  We were too late.  I actually tear up sometimes telling Garoth that his brother died.  They held out for awhile, too, but we were too late.

It would have been nice if, say, if the very first thing we did after leaving the Citadel was to come here, we could have saved him, but I guess this quest is another way of Bioware telling us that sometimes, there’s just nothing you can do to change things.

One more quest this update, then we’re stopping back off at the Citadel next.

Presrop, one of the most well-known of the sidequest planets. (OKok, technically it’s a moon.)

One of my favorite landing sequences, just because the stars make it so... dramatic.

I mean DAMN.

Klendagon's most striking feature is, of course, the Great Rift valley that stretches across the southern hemisphere. What is most fascinating about the Rift is that it does not appear to be natural. The geological record suggests it is the result of a "glancing blow" by a mass accelerator round of unimaginable destructive power. This occurred some thirty-seven million years ago.

It took a solid three minutes of Flycam flying to get that closeup shot, btw.  I actually flew all the way in the first time I came here, and didn’t take screenshots.  Took about six minutes.  The updated texture is impressive.

Well, Hackett sent us here, let’s deal with Major Kyle.

Being nice and non-threatening gets you into places.

I’ll admit, before I came in here, I decided to cheat in enough paragon points to max out Paragon already.  For me personally, I’m trying to make sure this is an “ultimate” playthrough, a save file I can just use over and over from here on out.  I want everything to import into ME3 the first time around with all the plot flags set how I want them without messing with Gibbed’s Savegame Editor, so making sure I can convince everyone how I want them to is important.  So hey, Major Kyle, stand down.

I don’t think I’ve ever played as a Ruthless Shepard in ME1, or if I have, it’s been so long I’ve forgotten how it goes.  But he was the commanding officer at the battle of Torfan, and your CO if you’re Ruthless.  He’s also a reminder of how serious PTSD can be, and what it can do to a person.  

I also love this tidbit from the Wiki, which I didn’t know since I’d never done these particular choices before:

(In Mass Effect 2)  If Martin Burns was not saved in 2183, a news report on the Citadel will announce that Kyle is trying to form an all-biotic community as the reparations were not given to L2 biotics and they have become even more alienated from galactic society.

I really liked that if you reason with him, he doesn’t give you any trouble and turns himself in like he says.

Hey, this negotiation thing is easy when you’re the best person in the galaxy at it!!

[regiwi]

It’s been a while. What I’ve been up to.

Hey, so I dunno who still follows me on here, I tend to avoid a lot of social media now and don’t really look on tumblr like I used to years ago, still I’ve been working on something lately and wanted to use this blog to advertise it to anyone who’s interested that might follow this etc. I’m afraid this isn’t me returning or anything (granted it’s hardly like I did much exciting with this blog anyway). With that said, I wanted to wait until I was a bit more used to doing it and had at least a bit of content on there already before saying about this thing here. I want to make it clear before I carry on this isn’t anything big, just a ‘project’ I’ve been doing for fun that I decided to do a little more with.

So, for the last couple of years now I decided to do something I always wanted to but felt too big of a thing. Being the massive Super Smash Bros and Nintendo fan I am, I always wanted to play the various games the characters have come from etc. Over the years I played a fair few and started some but admittedly never got far on them, although I usually trawled websites reading spoilers eventually regarding them anyway. As a way of finally doing this and clearing a fair bit of my backlog of games I’ve never finished, I decided to make a list of every single game represented in the Super Smash Bros series, from playable characters all the way down to spirits and trophies. Yeah, I know the obvious response to that is ‘you have way too much free time on your hands’ and, yeah there’s no real argument against that. Still, what I decided to do, was where possible pick a game to represent every element present in Smash, the priority being it’s a game where the character is playable or the location is present or the item plays a key role for example. My main aim for this was I wanted to sort of see what stories these characters and locations etc came from, granted some don’t exactly have stories, but my favourite aspect of crossovers is seeing characters with vastly differing narratives meeting together so I wanted more context beyond just reading of their origins.

Following making the list, my big plan with this was to do sort of ‘Super Smash Bros canon runs’ so to speak, where I try to play through the games using setups as close as possible to how they appear in Super Smash Bros. As an example, Robin appears in Super Smash Bros with the default avatar settings, the Tactician class with various tomes, a Levin Sword and Bronze Sword. Therefore for my playthrough that was the equipment I mostly kept him with when I could. As part of this simply for my own amusement I would take screenshots of my playthroughs and try to perhaps get a comparison shot in Super Smash Bros. Here’s an example using Lucina.

As you can see I tried to keep her as close as possible to her look in Smash. So, I have played through quite a few of the games at this point and I decided that I wanted to maybe do something with all this rather than just keep it purely to myself, especially as I’d gathered a lot of screenshots by this point. It was with this I decided as I’m not really capable of making videos of my playthroughs (especially as I’ve done a lot of them already) that I wanted to start a new blog and write some posts going over my playthroughs of the various games. There’s info on anything you could ever want to find regarding most games and things now on the internet, so instead of just doing straightforward reviews or something, I decided to make these posts a lot more personal to me, going over my history with the games often relating it to my past and going over how my playthrough of the game for my list went. I also detail other things like writing bios for the subject (currently just the playable Smash Bros fighters) and detailing what setups I used on my playthroughs for characters etc.

So, that’s basically it, I’ll link the blog at the end of this post for anyone who wants to check it out, there’s a few options at the top such as the ‘Blog Map’ where you can find links to all the posts I’ve done so far, ‘My Goal’ where I go over everything I can regarding the blog, what I’m doing and what I’d assume would be common questions from people on it, and finally ‘The List’ which is an updated version of the list I’ve been using for all this, with the games I have yet to complete at the top and the ones I’ve already played through at the bottom. With new characters, spirits and stages still being added to the Smash series as well as new games where possibly characters who weren’t playable before become so for the first time, I’m always tinkering with the list adding in games. Age of Calamity for example I recently added because it has the Champions, who are spirits, playable for the first time. I realise this is ridiculously nerdy and if you’re looking for deep analysis of these games and a critical eye I’m afraid you’ll probably be disappointed. Unless it’s something I really find frustrating I tend to be more on the positive side most of the time with these games (there are one or two down the line I’ll probably be a bit more critical on.) so don’t think of these as reviews or anything like that is what I’m saying. These posts also aren’t necessarily recommendations, I know I tend to be very easy to please to the point I’ll pretty rarely find something absolutely awful to play. This is mostly just my way of going over my experiences with these games and having some fun with them whilst hopefully making something somewhat entertaining to read for a couple of minutes.

Finally, as I said earlier, I’m not really coming back to this blog, but I have just opened asks on my other blog so if you have any questions feel free to ask and I’ll try to answer there. Other than that, here’s the link, hope you enjoy.

My Smash Playthroughs.

[here-comes-troubelyan]

101 Dragon Age Questions

[by @madmagemaidmarian​]

I did warn you I was going to answer these. Enjoy!

1. How did you get into Dragon Age?

It was definitely a friend. And it took a while; I remember a couple years ago he tried to give me a run-down of what it was about, and I got super lost and didn’t get into it for a few months after that lol. Then I think I picked up Origins on Steam one day when it was on sale/I was bored/procrastinating.

2. Have you finished all three games? Yep.

3. How long did it take you to finish the series? Uh, a few months? Less than a year, definitely. There was a bit of a gap between DA2 and DA:I because I had to upgrade my graphics card, lol.

4. What was your first Warden (gender/class/race/personality)? Male Dalish Rogue, quiet and cautious. Lived happily ever after with hubby Zevran after an extremely awkward encounter with Morrigan, lol.

5. What was your first Hawke like (gender/class/temperament)? Male Warrior purple as fuck. Sticky-sweet romance with Fenris. Gross.

6. First Inquisitor (gender/class/race/personality)? Female Dalish Mage. “Why can’t we all just get along??” Engaged in actual Disney-princess romance with my girl Josie.

7. Favorite DA:O backstory? I haven’t even played them all, yet! I haven’t played either dwarf origin or the human noble one. Of the ones I have played, I think I like Tabris best.

8. Preferred class overall? Mage, pew pew. I like playing with range and AOE shit because I’m bad at video games, lol.

9. Do you tend to play male or female characters most? Eeeeeeeh??? It really depends on my mood when I start up a new game, lol. 

10. Share a pic of your favorite OC from any DA game. Maxwell, my sweet son!

I WILL PUT THE REST BEHIND A CUT BECAUSE I LOVE YOU 😘

I didn’t finish all of them, but I may come back and answer some later, when I’ve played through the games more recently 😊 11. Best Hawke quote? “Helping people and killing people are what I'm best at.”

12. Do you prefer DA:O, DA2, or DA:I most? Eh, DA:I, but only because it’s prettiest. 13. Favorite mission from DA:O? 14. Favorite DA:O party combo?

Leliana, Wynne, and Sten/Alistair.

15. Favorite DA:O companion overall?

Hmm. Close call between Zevran and Leliana. Also, Sten has grown on me the more I play through the game. And of course Shale. 

16. DA:O: Did your Warden survive?

Yep. You wouldn’t know it from the look on his face when Morrigan was crawling towards him in that bed, though.

17. What did you name your Mabari? I think my first Mabari was called Boone, iirc. 18. Who did you choose to rule Ferelden?

Anora. I have a hard time making Alistair rule because he so doesn’t want to, and Anora is clearly more fit for the position.

19. Favorite mission from DA2? 20. Was everyone loyal at the end?

Yep.

21. Did Hawke side with the Mages or Templars?

Mages.

22. Favorite DA2 party combo?

Oh, I mix them up a lot. I don’t like having Fenris and Merrill in the same party, though, and I tend to avoid Anders and Aveline (I don’t have anything against Aveline, I just tend to pick Fenris over her most of the time). Carver, Merrill, and Bela is a great combo. 23. Did you give Fenris back to Danarius?

Fuck no.

24. Favorite main-story quest from DA:I?

Wicked Eyes and Wicked Hearts, of course! 25. Favorite DA:I place?

Ooooh, tough. The Emerald Graves. 26. Did your Inquisitor choose the Mages or the Templars? Mages.

27. Which did you leave behind (Abyss)?

Ah, the first time I played I didn’t port in my world state, and ended up with what’s-his-name the random mustachioed Warden, so he stayed behind (easy choice). I’ve since left behind both of the others, though, and each is hella sad.

28. Inquisitor’s feelings on being the Herald of Andraste?

Ella was super Dalish, and was very uncomfortable with it. Max was super Andrastian, and was also very uncomfortable with it, though he was admittedly better at playing the role. Ana (my second dalish mage, lol) was super agnostic, and was very uncomfortable with it. And grumpy and ragey about it.

29. What are your feelings on the Chantry? My feelings on the Chantry directly mirror my real-life feelings on Christianity. The system has become corrupted beyond the intentions of the people who started it. I mean, WWAD, y’know what I mean.

30. What are your feelings on the Circle?

Extremely complicated. To be brief, I think the handling of mages needs to be divorced from the Chantry, or at least not monopolized by it. I think mages need more options, though I do not believe they can be allowed unconditional freedom, as much as that pains me to say. I think the Circles (or other such institutions) need to focus on education. I think the Harrowing is fucked up and unethical. I think that mages who fear their powers should have the option of seeking a safe place where they can feel protected. I think that Templars should continue to be trained, although lyrium is its own separate issue. This is probably the most complex socio-political issue in the whole game universe, and it would take a large, varied, dedicated committee a whole lot of time to figure out a better way to do things. (Incidentally, these complex feelings are what allow me to get along with Vivienne.)

31. DLC for the first 2 games: All of it, some of it, or none of it?

[Editing this question because we’ve got DA:I DLC, now.] Some? I never actually got around to playing Awakening, lol, I keep meaning to. And... I don’t remember the DLC for DA2. I probably played it, though; I have it all installed. I’ve played all of the DA:I DLC, and most enjoyed Jaws of Hakkon (don’t even get me started on Trespasser; I made a new question for that, lol).

32. Favorite DLC mission overall? The Ameridan arc in Jaws of Hakkon. 33. Favorite DA character overall?

Ugh. Decisions. Fuck. Hmm... oh, Varric. Easily Varric. Best bro.

34. Least favorite character?

Fuckin egg.

35. Who do you want to see return in the next game?

Dorian. I wanna go to Tevinter, damnit. And meet Mae! It’d be cool if Fenris had an opportunity to show up, too.

36. What kind of DLC do you hope for for DA:I? Feelings on Trespasser?

Opened up more cans than it needed to, tbh. Also, fuck Solas’s entire storyline. Just. Fuck it. I’m salty that it is most likely going to be the premise for the whole next game. What a fucking jackass. 

37. Bloodmagic: yes or no?

It’s complicated? Like, clearly using people/their blood against their will is not cool. But like, Merrill’s blood magic? I don’t really have a problem with. Doesn’t strike me as much more risky than magic in general, re: demons and such. The stickiness of the issue revolves around consent. Also, can I just say, phylacteries? Hypocritical as fuck.

38. Funniest moment in the games? 39. Creepiest moment in the games?

All That Remains. Ffffffffffuck.

40. A moment/action you regret in-game? 41. Who did you romance in your first playthrough for each game?

Already answered, but Zevran, Fenris, Josephine.

42. Who do you wish you could romance that you can’t?

Fuckin Krem! And Scout Harding!!!

43. Favorite romance overall so far?

Nggggggaaah... Like. They are all great?? Cassandra is in the running, but tbh I haven’t finished her romance, yet, lol. But, like. Zevran. 

44. One romance you just can’t stand/doesn’t make sense/etc?

Anders. That shit is unhealthy as fuck. Also fucking. Solas.

45. Which 3 DA characters would you want as your best friends?

Isabela, Varric, Bull. Since I’m limited to three. Unless I can make sets out of Merribela and Doribull, lol.

46. A character you’d love to drop in a volcano and forget about?

Boiled. Egg.

47. Best antagonist in the series? 48. Worst antagonist in the series? 49. Something you do in EVERY DA playthrough, no matter what?

Choose the Chargers.

50. Describe your perfect playthrough for any DA game. 51. Favorite Warden/Hawke/Inquisitor headcanons (any or all)? 52. Favorite non-Player Character headcanons? 53. That One Headcanon that hurts to think about? 54. Fluffiest headcanon ever? 55. Your non-Player Character OTPs?

Doribull, Merribela, Alistair/Morrigan for teh lolz

56. Your absolutely NOTP?

Fenders... *shudder*

57. Who would you date if you could (as you, not your OC)?

Krem. But he’d probably reject me, so I’d probably end up with Cullen.

58. Who has the best character arc overall? Honestly? I want to say Anders. But I feel like I kinda have to dig deep to get at it, which is a shame. It’s very subtle, and has everything to do with Justice/Vengeance. Also Leliana’s has potential. 59. Who was written really poorly?

Jean Valjean Blackwall

60. Who do you wish had been given more story?

Sandal.

61. Favorite NPC [not companions]?

Have I not answered this question, yet? Bodahn and Sandal (they are a set).

62. A character you think deserves more fan love?

Bodahn!

63. Best story moment? 64. Favorite achievement? 65. Any epic game play moments in any DA game? The Arishok. Hahahahaha. Run. 66. Something you hate about any/all of the games? Solas. Also most of the gameplay mechanics, especially in the first two games, lol, but it doesn’t bug me cuz that’s not why I play. 67. Best non-OC quote? 68. Have you cosplayed any DA characters?

No, but I’m in the process of making an Inquisitor cosplay!

69. Who would you cosplay if you could (no holds barred)?

Cassandra from DA2.

70. Did you read the comics?

No, but I want to.

71. Did you read the novels?

I’ve read Asunder and The Masked Empire.

72. Did you see Dawn of the Seeker?

Yes, and it was terrible, lol.

73. Favorite OST song(s)?

I’m Not Calling You A Liar (Florence and the Machine, DA2) 74. Do you take screenshots in any DA games?

Oh yes. Like a bajillion. Sadly, many died in the Great Sims Purge of 2016.

75. Do you edit images/gifs or make videos about DA?

No, but I dream about it, lol.

76. Have you ever made a DA Let’s Play?

No, but I totally would. And might. 

77. What moment/memory still gives you chills/feels? A lot of them, honestly. But, like. All That Remains, lol. So bad. Also Fenris’s reunion with Varania.  78. What are you hoping for from DA4? Grey Wardens!  79. What are you worried about for DA4? That it will revolve around Solas. 80. Favorite fanmix? 81. Favorite fanfic? House of Ash and Salt by paperiuni 82. Favorite fanart/fanartist? 83. Favorite fan musician/music? 84. Favorite cosplay(er)? 85. Favorite Let’s Play? 86. Favorite DA-themed blog? 87. Do you create anything in the fandom (write, draw, craft, gif, etc)? I mean, I’m supposed to be writing a piece for the Adoribull Minibang, but... procrastinangst, looool (it’ll happen; have faith!). 88. Do you participate in or run a DA RP? 89. Are you on any DA forums, chats, reddit subs, etc? 90. Do you run an DA-themed blog/page/website?

I mean, this one, but I mostly made it so I could stop spamming my main blog with DA reblogs, lol.

91. Do you have any friends who love DA too?

Yep, a couple.

92. Did you get someone into DA? Almost, lol, but she got real annoyed at the gameplay in DA:O (totally fair). I might still see if she wants to give Inquisition a shot, though, since it’s more like what she’s used to. 93. Do you own any DA merchandise?

Yesss, my Dorian and Cassandra plushies! And a sweet Cassandra hoodie.

94. Have you ever made any DA-themed crafts (clothes, toys, etc)? Does the Ardent Blossom crown I made for my Dorian plushie count? 95. Which actors would you cast for a movie of your fav DA game? 96. Do you use game mods?

Yes, lol, and mods crashing my game are why I haven’t finished playing Cassandra’s romance, yet.

97. What’s your favorite DA mod?

I love the mod that adds your dog to your party in DA:O, and in DA:I the one that removes gathering animations is a lifesaver. Though I also really love Seasonal Palettes. And of course, various Skyhold pjs replacements, lol.

98. If you could be any non-Human DA species, which and why?

Probs a qunari so I could fuck shit up and be a dragon.

99. Where would you live (Fereldan, Orlais, Free Marches etc?)

Antiva, bitches!

100. Circle, Templar, Chantry, Guard, Seeker, Inquisition, or none?

No? lol

101. If you could meet your Warden/Hawke/Inquisitor, what would you say? Love yourself, babe.

[entergamingxp]

Five of the Best: Cheat Codes • Eurogamer.net

Five of the Best is a weekly series about the incidental details we don’t celebrate enough. We’ve talked about all kinds of things so far from Game Over screens to Scares and Villains – there’s a whole Five of the Best archive if you’re interested. But there’s so much more to talk about too.

Five of the Best works like this. Various Eurogamer writers share memories and then you – probably outraged we haven’t included the thing you’re thinking of – can share that thing you’ve been thinking of in the comments below. Then we all have a lovely chat about it. Your collective memory has never failed to amaze us – don’t let it stop now!

No, no, I won’t do it, I won’t cheat, you can’t make me. I’m going to play this game properly and if it gets hard then so be it. That’s the challenge, that’s when I really learn the game. If I cut corners then what kind of player am I? But gosh this section is hard, I don’t think I can take dying again. Maybe I’ll just pop in one little code in to help…

We’ve all done it. Tell me you’ve never used a cheat code and I’ll call you a liar. But are they really so bad? Was typing PANZER to drop a tank on your location in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City really that bad? No! It’s hardly unfair to have a tank is it? Precisely. And aren’t cheat codes secretly what games charge us for in their stores these days anyway?

So here’s to cheat codes, those little developer hacks we don’t like to admit we can’t live without. And here are five of the best.

Blind-typing in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

When I arrived back from three months in Australia, many years ago, I had a broken heel and a broken wrist. I had been a silly boy and jumped off a roof. Both breaks were on the same side of my body, I should add, so I was only allowed one crutch and hobbled around like a pirate. It was a strong look. You should have seen my dad’s face when he picked me up at Heathrow.

Anyway, it meant I couldn’t do much that summer but stay in and play games (I’m sure there probably were other things I could do but I didn’t want to), and one of the games that kept me – and my lovely friend Tom, who kept popping round to see me – busy, was Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. We loved it, pootling around 80s Miami getting into all kinds of trouble.

Pretty soon, though, trouble piled up and, well, GTA games can be really annoying sometimes so we reached for a bit of help. We cheated. We began blind-typing (we couldn’t see what we were writing) cheat phrases that would do all manner of wonderful things. “PANZER” to spawn a tank – it just fell out of the sky next to us. “GETTHEREFAST” to spawn a speedy Sabre Turbo. “BIGBANG” to blow up all vehicles nearby. (There’s a whole list of GTA: Vice City cheat codes elsewhere on Eurogamer but fair warning, some haven’t aged well.)

We got really good at typing them – hey, some weren’t easy! And I’ve got fond memories of us both knowing instinctively which phrases to deploy and when. Ah, that was a lovely summer.

-Bertie

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Sheng Long in Street Fighter 2

There were a lot of fake Street Fighter 2 cheats floating around my school. I remember someone (could have been me, honestly, it was that long ago) claimed you could unlock the bosses – Balrog, Vega, Sagat and M. Bison – as playable characters. That was rubbish. Someone else (again, could have been me) told everyone there was a cheat code to get blood in the censored SNES version. Again, rubbish.

But one that definitely got me was Sheng Long. “You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance,” Ryu would say after winning a match. What a troll. There was no Sheng Long. No cheat code to unlock him. And yet, I spent hours trying to.

I can’t remember exactly how I became aware of this infamous Street Fighter 2 hoax, but I think it originated from an import copy of Electronic Gaming Monthly, a US magazine the newsagent around the corner from my secondary school on Beulah Hill in South London would sell a couple of months late (I used to get so excited for EGM as it had screenshots for games we wouldn’t see sold in the UK for months, sometimes years).

In early 1992, EGM ran an April Fool’s article explaining how to unlock Sheng Long, complete with photoshopped screenshots. To unlock Sheng Long you had to beat all the computer players without taking a single pixel of damage. Then, when you got to evil boss M. Bison, you had to draw 10 rounds in a row without taking any damage. Do that, EGM said, and Sheng Long would appear on-screen, chuck M. Bison out of the arena and fight you. This was all, quite clearly, bollocks, but 11-year-old me didn’t realise it was a joke. I didn’t realise this joke was supposed to be about the arcade version of Street Fighter 2, either. I didn’t even realise Capcom changed the mistranslation in Ryu’s win quote from “Sheng Long” to “Dragon Punch” for the console release. I was 11.

But as people in my school claimed they’d managed to unlock Sheng Long by doing this cheat (the liars!), I tried my hand. I tried. And tried. And tried. And tried, for hours and hours and hours until my fingers literally bled on the SNES d-pad. Every now and then I’d get to M. Bison without taking any damage, but the bastard dictator would always nick a pixel off me, usually through cheap chip damage. I raged.

Eventually I gave up, and the Sheng Long hoax sort of just went away. But it got me. I could not defeat Sheng Long. I did not stand a chance.

Bastards.

-Wes

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Going west in Wonder Boy 3

Wonder Boy 3 was one of those crucial games that blew my mind – one of the rare games that pops up every now and then to tell you that everything you thought about the possibilities of video games has to be re-evaluated. It was an RPG that behaved like a platformer. Since platformers were linear, this was a revelation – a platformer in which you could go everywhere! I played it endlessly with my school friends. And there was a rumour in the playground about this cheat code for it.

“Type in West One” someone told me one day. The game used a password save system. Couldn’t be too hard? But what my friend and I heard was “Type in West 1.” So we did. Nothing. We retyped it. Retyped it again. And again.

Then we started adding ones. Or 1s. Anyway something magical happened. West 111111 worked. It’s a weird cheat – drops you about halfway through the game with a fair amount of loot and also casts you as Wonder Boy, who you don’t get to play as very often here. It’s not as good as West One, which drops you at the end of the game with everything.

But it felt special: it belonged to us, my friend Gareth and I. We found it. We were the only people who knew about it.

Years later I discovered that West One is actually Westone, the developer of the game. Years later than that a beautiful new version of the game came out. And West One still works! As does West 111111. An incredible feeling.

BTW, I think it was actually We5t One back in the day, because the system didn’t have an S.

-Donlan

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Wonder Boy is wonderful, in case you’re wondering. Skip to around the twenty-minute mark if you’re impatient!

God

I’ve got a confession to make: You know Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines? I cheated at it. I pulled down that console and typed ‘god’ and never looked back. It’s hardly my fault if they make it that easy to do, is it? Plus which, vampires kind of are gods, aren’t they? I don’t think it was unreasonable of me to try and role-play one that way (they’ll never buy it Bertie).

Truth is it’s not the first game I’ve done it in, either. God mode propelled me through a few games from what I can remember. Jedi Academy; Duke Nukem 3D; the Quakes. And that’s where it all started: Quake. By pulling down the console with the tilde key, or the key above TAB in my case, you could enter the code IDDQD and become invincible. This was quickly coined as “god mode” by the community and so the code became “god” ever since.

-Bertie

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This seems like a nice playthrough series. I can’t wait for the sequel!

Ms Pac-Man and Galaga 20th Anniversary

Years ago, though of course it feels like a month or two at most, I had a gloriously tedious data-entry job in Brighton. I could pretend it was toil, but that kind of empty-headed typing gig has always brought me a certain kind of pleasure – I’m pretty empty-headed typing this right now – and even better there was another temp working with me called Stu who loved video games and actually got me back into the scene after a few years away from it all.

Every lunchtime Stu and I, and another colleague called Fi who wasn’t a temp but was allowed to come along anyway, would go down to one of the arcades on West Street. One of them had a 20th Anniversary Namco machine, Ms Pac-Man and Galaga on a single cabinet. We were terrible at these games but we’d each have a go, and we were soon fighting a couple of strangers for regular spots on the leaderboard.

Then Stu did a bit of research and discovered that if you entered a code with the joystick before you chose your game you could play the original Pac-Man. I gather – I may be wrong – that the original Pac-Man is nowhere near as good as Ms Pac-Man. But it had rarity – just playing it on the machine felt illicit. I would love to tell you that we ended up fighting over the scoreboard with the same strangers who regularly beat us at Galaga and standard Pac-Man, but I just can’t remember.

What I remember is that the first time Stu input the code and a new game appeared. It felt impossible, like a tiny 8-bit hole had been poked in the universe. And on the other side of that hole were pixels and dots and power pills.

-Donlan

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This is not Donlan’s friend Stu by the way – but I bet he wishes it was!

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/07/five-of-the-best-cheat-codes-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=five-of-the-best-cheat-codes-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net