#kliff... can definitely be very veeeerry interesting.

[instantartific]

CLARIFICATION ON MANIPULATED BY KLIFF don't get me wrong most certainly like. B2J was definitely already going for it. But I don't think they would have been NEARLY as successful otherwise, given how much in resources Kliff provided them- we don't get a ton in game but dialogue implies Kliff has a TON of notes taken on all the nsrtists and gave that information to Mayday and Zuke- but a line I always think about is in the briefing before Yinu, actually. An exchange happens that is something to the effect of Mayday saying "Wait, we're going to be fighting a CHILD?" and Kliff responding "Don't underestimate her because she's a kid!! Yinu is just as much an artist and still powerful," and just. I look at this and think about Mayday's morals showing for a second and think about if Kliff hadn't been there, would Mayday have actually taken it that far? She was nice enough to the sayu crew that to go from that to such brazen endangerment... I dunno. I may be reading too much into it but also at the point we're at who isn't. I don't think Mayday or Zuke would have gotten as far as they did without Kliff for better or for worse (and this isn't even getting into the security systems they broke through ALSO likely because of how much help Kliff offered against them- he clearly knew his way around security enough by the end of the game to hijack the robots (albeit with less proficiency than the artists who originally set them up, given the reduced complexity of attack patterns and only one robot in use and hohoho I think about security so much-

A lot of that is really fair, actually! In all honesty, my memory's hazy on the Kliff elements of the game due to skipping some of his dialogue. And I'm putting some efforts into trying to find his exact quotes, but I may have to play through the game again and compose the dialogue myself. My copy of the game is also so bugged that I was never able to complete it so all I know of the ending is from what I was told happened.

That being said: while playing the game, I do remember hearing some of the things he was saying and going "???? is that public knowledge? how do you know that????"

AND I THINK I REMEMBER THE YINU BRIEFING, ACTUALLY. That is a really, really good point. I do actively remember Mayday hesitating now but I really felt like it conflicted with the battle right after.

As for the security... I again never saw the ending, so I am not a good merit as to what happened there. I know vaguely that Kliff hijacked everything and that's why you have to run around and give control of the districts back to the Charters, no?

Something I will say I've thought about the security is that... Kliff takes down the satellite that Nova was overseeing production of, if not made, right? If Nova had to do with the programming or general control of it all: he either oversimplified it so that "even a simpleton" could understand how to work it and bring it down or Kliff figured out how to do it on his own from the ground, not right with it. I feel like that can be a testament to his prowess, too.

You could even argue that him finding May's number is a part of it, actually. The longer I think about Kliff the more I realize how mildly terrifying his skills are, actually.

All that being said, this is somewhat making me want to do an analysis on Kliff as a character and fully dissect the "who's responsible for what" conversation.