Episode 4 Story Discussion

[Zysets]

I've not played the other PS's so this is all pretty new to me. I've understood most of it so far, but the time travel did mess me up a bit. I was starting to think Mother was a young version of Xion, not a clone, since scenes before her have that black and white screen blip before they start - kind of like it's a time travel thing. But I also think it was weird how Matoi found the player out of nowhere and came to save the day .... (but I think that's a plot thing from Ep3)

The blip, like the blue line that goes across the screen between scenes? That's just to show that the scene is changing from Hitsugi on Earth to player on ORACLE.

And if by matoi coming to save the day, you mean when you fight Mother, I'm guessing she just knew because Sierra told her to go help out, she IS the player's partner, for the most part.

[loafhero]

Yeah concept art shows them as Visors that move over her eyes in a "Battle Mode" but they never did that in the game.

Oh, man. Not another cool concept thrown into the bin. It would've been so cool to see that. They could have also carried over that "Visor Mode" look to Eucrita's current appearance as a pair of retractable sunglasses. Its not like Eucrita gave up the insect motif with her ARKS outfit and given her cool "bitch" personality along with her using guns, sunglasses wouldn't feel out of place with her.

Xierra's glasses are sort of the same thing too.

While I agree they look ugly, fetishized isn't the way I'd put it.

Well, without the proper context (Hitsugi and Kohri), yes.

And if by matoi coming to save the day, you mean when you fight Mother, I'm guessing she just knew because Sierra told her to go help out, she IS the player's partner, for the most part.

Still didn't make sense that Matoi didn't join the party at the beginning. It wouldn't have been the first time the Player infiltrated a Mothership with a 5-man party (MB 2-5).

[Zysets]

Still didn't make sense that Matoi didn't join the party at the beginning. It wouldn't have been the first time the Player infiltrated a Mothership with a 5-man party (MB 2-5).

Honestly I'm disappointed about that too. Having Matoi there could have helped with developing Hitsugi, she could have been a much better "Mentor" character than the player, because she can actually talk. Plus, I just like Matoi, it's always great to have moments with the Player and Matoi working together, it's only fair considering their past.

[loafhero]

That would've been nice but the Story went "Nope!" on that and Matoi gets relegated to having no relevant input to the scene at the end just like the Player has for most of the Story.

I'm now convinced that staying quiet and doing nothing in the background most of the time is part of a Guardians job.

[Zysets]

I mean from the very beginning of PSO2 Sega hasn't been the best at this sort of thing, so it doesn't particularly bother me as much anymore, but it's still really disappointing. PSU (and it's portable spin offs) handled silent player characters a bit better imo, wish it felt more like that.

[Xaeris]

On that note, I would have liked to see a small difference in the order of events following 4-7. Rather than us defeating Mother and then promptly standing back like prop scenery while plot revelations are afoot, I would have liked it if Racing the Phantom Mother had been sewn in, like how big boss EQs from past episodes were sewn into chain of events. That way, our characters' lack of participation can be explained by the fact that we'd be off chasing after Mother's apparition. Way it could happen is that, right after Hitsugi comes back from talking Mother down, Xiera would interrupt with her spiel about Esca Mother reembodying itself and how player-chan needs to address it immediately. You need to tweak a few details for Esca Mother to be able to reembody herself with Mother still alive, but that's a small matter. Since no one on Team Earth is old enough to drive at night, it's a job for Arks, Team Earth gets left behind to have their happy reunion while player-chan is off doing the EQ. After player-chan and Matoi leave, Ardem comes in with his cheap shot and the scene unfolds normally from there.

[loafhero]

That would at least make Player and Matoi look less stupid. I wouldn't mind only Team Earth being made to look like idiots during that whole Ardem betrayal scene because I have already decided that the Earth characters (good and bad guys) are morons and that such idiotic actions are par for the course for them.

I mean from the very beginning of PSO2 Sega hasn't been the best at this sort of thing, so it doesn't particularly bother me as much anymore, but it's still really disappointing. PSU (and it's portable spin offs) handled silent player characters a bit better imo, wish it felt more like that.

But its noticeably worse here in EP4 compared to EP1-3. You know EP4 screwed up badly if it made EP1 look like it did a better job in making the Player feel more relevant.

[Great Pan]

Next update, we Bayonetta now.

[Golgotha]

This would explain why some people think that EP4 is trash.

Ep4 would have been 100% great, if dying bears and helicopters would fume red mist instead of blue cubes. (c) pso-world

That would at least make Player and Matoi look less stupid. I wouldn't mind only Team Earth being made to look like idiots during that whole Ardem betrayal scene because I have already decided that the Earth characters (good and bad guys) are morons and that such idiotic actions are par for the course for them.

You can't make them look less stupid by just that, if everyones' perception is significantly degraded when it comes to Earth.
You need exclusive Adam's directions for finding any sort of location, and even Arks intel can't guess what is going wrong, even if they suspect something.

"Dudes, my Ether camera not working for the first time in this deciding moment, but good luck on your terminal stage of operation. No you can't quickly teleport to my place to see whats wrong."

And Its funny, because Adam didn't betray anyone, technically.
Arks agreed to help Earth Guide in defeating Mother, and they did. There wasn't any sort of special clause where we definitely should be able to bring sense into her, hold hands and prance back into our dimension to live happily ever after.

Its like something is about to go out of order, and you come to clean up only when its absolutely FUBAR. Like for example you won't touch Mother until it infests its body with blue roaches, and you can't defuse Adam until he is going to screw himself and planet up.

Everyone was intentionally silly from the very beginning. Either because Arks supposed to be naive due to meeting for the first time a decently developed civilization that learned how to lie, or because it was the only way to give food to gameplay quests at all. Since any other direction would lead to carpet bombing the planet first and resolving problem at its roots. Which, sadly, doesn't give any reasoning for immortal rogue creatures reappearing to cause destruction on every planet in both universes.

But to be fair, Ep4 isn't exactly different from Ep2, for instance, where sixpil and pretty much everyone else will do nothing and even oppose you, when you try to mingle with a steadily worsening situation, which lingers like a gangrene until its finally time to chop the dying limb off.

[oratank]

still wonder why sega didn't add bayanetta2 collab when the game came out. nintendo license are too strict?