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View Full Version : Story seems a little fragmented? (spoilers?)



Petunia
Dec 15, 2015, 01:14 PM
I'm still progressing through Ep2, so no spoilers if possible.

With that out of the way, I'm finding Ep1's story to be very fragmented and hard to follow. I stopped doing Ep1 way back in 2012 and only picked it up again a month ago, so there's a chance I forgot some of the stuff between then and now, but there's a lot of stuff I remember pretty easily.
So I'll just throw out these questions and if there was an answer to them that I missed, please say.

In no particular order.
1) Who is Sara and where did she come from? She kinda came out of nowhere.

2) The hell happened to Theodore between Ep1 and 2? Something about Ulc dying, but there's literally no mention of it at all. He just goes coocoo at the start of Ep2 with no explanation until he starts saying "she wouldn't have died" like 2 Chapters in.

3) How is this whole time travel thing working? I either save Matoi or encounter Persona and Gettemhart, but in the end I did both? I think Afin even mentioned how I was with him during the ARKs Tourney at the end of Ep1 (quickly followed by my character acting as confused as me, turns out even the paths I don't go down happen anyway).

4) Why does Melphonsina hang around Gettemhart so much and treat him like royalty despite the abuse she gets? Heck, whats up with Gettemhart full stop? I feel like there's a story between him and Zeno that we're not seeing.

5) Who the hell is Quna and why should we care about Hadred? No, seriously. Elder awakens, Zeno 'dies' and sheets hit fans as Elder reforms and destroys most of Nab as he blasts off into space, then we go on a little side quest to find a Dragon.

6) So how did we come to fight Dark Falz Elder anyway? I assume there was an intro cutscene the first time you take him on, like there was for Doubles, but I can't find it in my Room and I can't find any youtube video of it, so as far as I know, Elder takes over Gettemhart, flies into space then randomly attacks us with no warning and we beat him back. It seems so bare bones.

I think that's everything... Maybe I'm just being dumb or maybe I missed a very specific sub cutscene...

TehCubey
Dec 15, 2015, 01:26 PM
Congrats, you just discovered that PSO2's writing is not very good. More specifics:

1. Sara's role in the plot is explained later but yes, she does come out of nowhere.

2. Ulc died during the darker attack on the ship. I think it was chapter... 7 or something like that? There are cutscenes before that where she talks about trying to help Arks even though she can't use photons, and she becomes a paper pusher. Then the attack happens, and she happens to be there.

3. Yes, both things happen in the end. Matter Board magic. Don't question it.

4. It's explained later but if you're familiar with anime storytelling tropes and cliches, you can probably figure it out already.

5. A character who appears out of nowhere, has a dramatic story out of nowhere, and later turns out to be very important to Arks - as usual, out of nowhere.

6. You got that right and yes, it's pretty barebones.

Saagonsa
Dec 15, 2015, 01:30 PM
1. That's explained in 2-6 and 3-2

2. I believe there was an optional node on one of the episode 1 matter boards where he talks to you about how she died

3. Everything you do in the past happens at the same time as the original events, so you're basically in more than one place at a time.

4. That's mostly explained in the episode 2 extra chapter

5. The chrome dragon storyline doesn't really have much of a point other than to highlight corruption in ARKS as far as I know

6. That's pretty much it. Elder isn't too happy with ARKS due to his imprisonment, and he inherited Gettemhart's love of fighting and saw ARKS as a good challenge

Anduril
Dec 15, 2015, 01:46 PM
1) You find out more about Sara later in the story, but in short, she is Maria's apprentice.
2) Ulc dies in the Darker attack in Ep1Ch7. There is mention of the casualties shortly after that.
3) To quote Ron Stoppable: "Time travel is a cornucopia of disturbing concepts."
4) You learn more about that later, particularly in Ep2's EX Chapter.
5) I believe that the Quna chapter mostly helps to shed some light on some of the shady things going on behind the scenes in the ARKS organization that were earlier hinted at with Rogio.
6) [Elder]'s intro scene takes place at the end of Ep1Ch8. You see him rising out of Naberius, and the story assumption is that the EQ takes place immediately after that. Also, there is a later scene that explains what happens between the Hunar fight and [Elder] taking his true form.

Petunia
Dec 15, 2015, 01:54 PM
Huh, well then. Thanks for the answers.
I thought I was being dumb, but it appears it was PSO2's story that was being dumb. :|

I'll have to scour through the cutscenes to find mention of Ulc's death, but still, it's a bit annoying that Theodore becomes such an important part of Ep2 yet the reason for his change (and the change itself) happens offscreen.
Is that meant to reflect how we can't see everything that happens, all we can see is what we see before us (if PSO2 was real, we wouldn't see Theodore's reaction to Ulc's death, nor would we see the transition from timid boy to Lisa). I'd believe that if we didn't see things that happened without us on several occasions (the meet up of Falzes, Apprentice showing up after we return to the campship, etc).

I like to use parentheses.

LonelyGaruga
Dec 15, 2015, 02:34 PM
I'm still progressing through Ep2, so no spoilers if possible.

5) Who the hell is Quna and why should we care about Hadred? No, seriously. Elder awakens, Zeno 'dies' and sheets hit fans as Elder reforms and destroys most of Nab as he blasts off into space, then we go on a little side quest to find a Dragon.

Unfortunately, Quna and Hadred have a lot of information about them locked away in the Complete Materials Works that, as far as I know, isn't present in the actual game itself, and involves events that cover all of EP2's story. But to put it as broadly as possible, by themselves, they appear to be a random incident, but in the full-sized picture, they're a major plotline within the Void Research Facility story. But since the Void Research Facility is almost entirely a background thing, it does come off as rather random.

By the way, you may want to finish EP2, as a lot of things will make much more sense by the end of it. You know how some stories give bits and pieces that don't seem to tie in at all until the very end of the story and it all makes sense in the end? It's kind of like that.

TaigaUC
Dec 15, 2015, 02:39 PM
Yeah, it's PSO2's story being dumb. It has its moments, but I think it's generally not very well constructed or conveyed.

I think it's good that you assumed it was a problem on your side first.
Most people tend to assume it has to be a problem on the other side, and so they never improve.

Going by comments I've seen here and there, even JP people seem confused about Hadred.
Was Hadred confirmed to originally be a human or a dragon?

LonelyGaruga
Dec 15, 2015, 02:55 PM
Hadred is an artificially created dragon (造龍, artificial dragon). The entire Chrome Dragon race was created by Void Research Facility for experiments, developed from researching the Amduscia dragonkin.

I have no idea where anyone got the idea that Hadred was formerly human, although the process of making these dragons is not specified...but they can't be formerly human because Hadred was used for experimentation on darker absorption over Quna precisely because he was not human.

TaigaUC
Dec 15, 2015, 02:58 PM
Probably just me being confused about Hadred being like a little brother to her.
By artificially created, I guess I thought that could include making dragons out of people, or something.

Thanks for clarifying.

Anduril
Dec 15, 2015, 03:00 PM
Probably just me being confused about Hadred being like a little brother to her.
By artificially created, I guess I thought that could include making dragons out of people, or something.

Thanks for clarifying.
They are "siblings" because they were raised together and gained a deep connection to one-another.

starwind75043
Dec 15, 2015, 03:06 PM
I found it easier to understand pso2 story by going back from the event viewer also.

Petunia
Dec 15, 2015, 03:15 PM
By the way, you may want to finish EP2, as a lot of things will make much more sense by the end of it. You know how some stories give bits and pieces that don't seem to tie in at all until the very end of the story and it all makes sense in the end? It's kind of like that.

I'll get on that once the servers are back up.
That's even more annoying, though. I can't imagine playing through Ep1 when that was all we had and having all this stuff being unexplained until the next Episode.

TaigaUC
Dec 15, 2015, 03:32 PM
They are "siblings" because they were raised together and gained a deep connection to one-another.

Yeah. Just had to make sure there wasn't more to it than that.