Episode 4 Story Discussion

[loafhero]

Except that her first CO is "ARKS Basic Skills Test"?

I can understand that she wants to see if the PC is the real deal but Basic Skills Test? Now that's just being condescending.

[Zeroem]

Except that her first CO is "ARKS Basic Skills Test"?

I mentioned how one of my characters would react to her "tests" earler, but in this interpretation my other character's reaction becomes more fitting.

Alessandra: If you really want to test me, ask for something I can't do in my sleep?

Well, I only based that reasoning from her in-game dialogues.

As of why the content of the COs.....it's more to maintain the game flow, I guess. After all, not all characters started from EP4 are veterans. If Aika's didn't have the "ARKS Basic Skills Test", new and fresh players might see it as......disheartening?

.........I mean look, that quest is clearly put by SEGA for the new players that come to the game either from anime or some other media promotion. She's easy to access, even for new players. 2 story mission that scale with your level, and all buttloads of dialogues that can be skipped (also the nodes that need clearance of certain free fields, which naturally will be finished given time). Besides, as insulting as it is for veterans, you can grab it and be done with it within seconds (assuming they knew about FQs).

I see her COs are that one point when I should think that this request are not made by Aika as story character, but from Aika as game NPC. Just like why class cubes COs opened when your character not even reached their maxed level (probably leftover from when the level cap is still low, and still not adjusted to this date), and the old days when the SP quests need you to kill specific enemies with specific weapons.

......I understand why some people questioned the way Aika presented her COs. But personally, I think this matter is blown beyond it's actual proportion. Better save energy about this matter to when SEGA made more stupid decisions in the future (looking at you, Star Gems).

[Meteor Weapon]

Kressida's CO dialogue is a lot more harsh and disheartening starting on Hard mode if you ask me, she was like don't get too cocky or else you die. At least that's understandable since that's the start of the game and she reminds us it's gonna get harder from there.

Since Aika is involved in story-wise in EP4 and not from the start of the game, the way she presented the CO is...well.

[Stormwalker]

Kressida's CO dialogue is a lot more harsh and disheartening starting on Hard mode if you ask me, she was like don't get too cocky or else you die. At least that's understandable since that's the start of the game and she reminds us it's gonna get harder from there.

Since Aika is involved in story-wise in EP4 and not from the start of the game, the way she presented the CO is...well.

At the point that we start hard mode, the player character is still very much a rookie,. It fits.

At the start of Episode 4... well, I'm just remembering Casra stating outright that the player character could be the next Regius. And remembering that there wouldn't BE an ARKS any more if not for the player character stopping Luther's scheme.

So, Aika... why not just ask your boss about our skills?

Now, I did notice the client order mentioning something about cold sleep, but if the justification for this is verifying that we still have all of our skills after that, it's an extremely flimsy one given that if they had any real concerns abut this they should have administered any such tests right at the start. This is coming a few months and a full story chapter too late for that! I imagine most of us have already done all the things Aika is adking for since Ep. 4 began... I know I have.

Katarin: So... you could just check my mission logs for that, right?

Really, this is all symptomatic of the larger problem. Sega is so focused on this idea of creating a new starting point that they have destroyed all sense of continuity to the previous story. This is why having Matoi conspicuously absent and unmentioned is bad. This is why client orders that treat the greatest hero in ARKS like a rank amateur is bad. This is why large time skips in general are usually a poor plot device. And it's the primary reason Episode 4 in general rubs me the wrong way.

It's like everything we've accomplished up to this point means nothing.

[Alucard V]

I've got to ask, where's the Government in all this? I mean you've got monsters roaming the streets led by psychotic hipster cultist and aliens popping out of thin air. So where's N.A.T.O. or the G.U.N. from the Sonic games or Kamen Rider?

[Tymek]

Nah, the guy you quoted probably mis-interpret the line. In both of her introductions, Aika presented herself as the member of Casra's division (Information division, IIRC). And she called Casra as 'Commander'. Also, her stay at bridge have nothing to do with Guardians or whatnot.

Also, I think I kind of get as of why she gave those COs. She did say that she want to be certain of something about us (also act as representative of Earthlings or something). Calling it a test is not wrong, but I think it's more likely that she wanted to see if the words and praises about us are real. After all, she became ARKS when we're in popsicle, and the only thing she possibly heard about us is praises.

.....For her, we are almost like urban legend.

You mean, part of the division thingy that was formed when the Council of Six "split-up"?
I still wonder why Aika was picked. What makes her so special?

[Sirius-91]

I've got to ask, where's the Government in all this? I mean you've got monsters roaming the streets led by psychotic hipster cultist and aliens popping out of thin air. So where's N.A.T.O. or the G.U.N. from the Sonic games or Kamen Rider?

Earth in this universe seems to be dominated by ESC-A, who are involved with everything from the governmental sector to the civilian sector.

The plot is more or less Terminator: Genisys. ESC-A IS SKYNET.

[Stormwalker]

You mean, part of the division thingy that was formed when the Council of Six "split-up"?
I still wonder why Aika was picked. What makes her so special?

All of ARKS was reorganized into Divisions, outside of Ulc and her staff, and the Guardians. Casra and Quna's division is responsible for intelligence, among other functions. Which makes sense, as Casra has "I'm a spy" stamped all over him. Aika is merely a member of that division, an intelligence operative. That doesn't make her special at all, it just assigns her a role within ARKS.

What is really confusing right now, though, is the chain of command here. This is complicated by the fact that ARKS is
a Mildly Military organization at best, but... who is in charge of this op?! Unless we think Sierra is commanding an entire ARKS ship by herself and with no support, her position on its "bridge" makes no sense at all. I'm not inclined to think she has that authority, and that this so-called "bridge" is not actually the ship's command center but rather some kind of information center / war room.

The logical choice for command of this operation is the player character, but the way Sierra acts suggets that she's doing most of what she does on her own initiative, not on your instructions. Of course, without understanding Japanese, I can't discount the possibility that she just has a very informal approach to following directions.

And then there is Aika. Why is she here? Logic suggests she was provided as an expert resource with respect to Earth... but then her giving you tests makes even less sense.

The other alternative is that Aika has been put in charge... which would be one heck of an insult to the player character and would go against the stated role of a Guardian, so I don't think that is the case.

Sega's utter lack of a grasp of military protocol really muddies the waters here, but that is only a problem if the answer isn't actually stated in the dialogue (and I can't say one way or the other, since I don't know Japanese). My great fear, though, is that nobody is in charge, because that's the way it "feels" from how the various players carry themselves. I really hope I'm wrong on that point, because that would be... well, if ARKS works that way, Ulc needs to be sacked. And I would like to believe that Sega is not that stupid.

What I actually SUSPECT is the case is that the player character IS in charge, and Sega is just horribly bad at reflecting that in how other characters address them. Because that would make the most sense, given the player character's role in ARKS. The strongest argument against this interpretation is that it would make Aika's client orders very strange.

Someone please tell me the actual dialogue makes sense of this? I'll be greatly relieved.

[Zeroem]

The way I remember the structure, is something like this:

Xiao-->Ulc(-->Theo)--> the new structure of Six Heroes + Quna and Sara

Guardians exist outside that hierarchy, and the only one that can order Guardians around are Xiao. Which means that the Guardian's leader are Xiao. We're just a senior member of the division, since Xiao already mentioned that we are best placed in the field instead of being the head of ARKS (or Guardians head, on this case). Technically, Sierra acted as the third party between Xiao and us, since she's the one that hold the Story Board (Matter Board used to be handed directly to us)

The whole 'illegal ARKS' mission are under Ulc's order. If I remember it correctly (Sierra did mention about this, and Casra didn't deny that), Infomation division's early surveillance are ordered by Ulc. Aika's in bridge as Information division representative for the whole 'Illegal immigrant ARKS' mission on Earth, Earthlings-ARKS representative, and also for her personal reasons. Well, there's also some mention from Aika that Casra suspect this whole matter are inside job, since ARKS are the victim here.

For a sidenote, it's kind of funny that Ulc took our advice back in EP2 to dismantle the Six Heroes struxture in order to create better organization hierarchy post-Luther, after they decided to keep it as it is 2 years ago.

[Sirius-91]

The way I remember the structure, is something like this:

Xiao-->Ulc-->Theo--> the new structure of Six Heroes + Quna and Sara
Guardians exist outside that hierarchy, and the only one that can order Guardians around are Xiao. Which means that the Guardian's leader are Xiao. We're just a senior member of the division. Technically, Sierra acted as the third party between Xiao and us, since she's the one that hold the Story Board (Matter Board used to be handed directly to us)

The whole 'illegal ARKS' mission are under Ulc's order. If I remember it correctly (Sierra did mention about this, and Casra didn't deny that), Infomation division's early surveillance are ordered by Ulc. Aika's in bridge as Information division representative for the whole 'Illegal immigrant ARKS' mission on Earth, Earthlings-ARKS representative, and also for her personal reasons.

Well, there's also some mention from Aika that Casra suspect this whole matter are inside job.

Spoiler!

One thing to note, is that Xiao is indisposed atm, so we report to Ulc.