Episode 4 Story Discussion

[IchijinKali]

And there we go I am done with episode 4 with all my characters. Now to wait for Kazen's translations to see if at any point I was correct in assuming what characters were saying based solely on attitude, posture, and cliches of anime RPGs.

[loafhero]

And [162-B]

Spoiler!

- Oh, Sara (or Sarah? That's apparently how the credits spells her name). Her sassiness is always a joy for me to watch but it only makes me feel sadder about the fact that she's at the bottom of favourite female character rankings. Either her recent rankings will cause the devs to cut her out of future story content or it'll encourage them to make Sara more relevant and interesting (or at least, just give her a new outfit that's a little more distinct)

- I talked before how Matoi's current tone of voice kinda bothers me but after watching this cutscene, I think I now know exactly why her voice really bothers me. Its that listening to a super soft, child-like tone of voice coming from a girl with an erotic body & outfit is just SO jarring. Why sex her up in appearance if the voice and personality don't match? Is it some kind of stupid attempt to maintain her "purity" while still giving players a dose of fanservice at the same time? I still wonder why the outfit is called "Innocent Cluster". There is nothing "innocent" about that outfit

I thought to myself that if I imagined Sara's voice coming from Matoi's body (or if she's the one wearing Innocent Cluster), its actually less jarring because I think Sara's voice and personality fits. Like, when Matoi gets called out on her outfit, she gets flustered and embarrassed (i.e. MB 3-7 and the short CD special featuring Matoi and Luther) but say if Sara was in the same shoes, she probably wouldn't give a damn.

- Anyway, dumb ranting aside, I like how even though Matoi dwarfs Sara in height, Sara was clearly the bigger girl in that conversation. Sara's evil smile was adorable too. Upon a second watch, I could tell that Sara deliberately causing more problems for Maria (who obviously couldn't let go of the fact that her brother won the Instruction Unit leader position instead of her) is just her way of getting Maria's attention.

- This cutscene apparently gives the excuse that the reason Matoi (and many more qualified ARKS for that matter) aren't getting involved in the Ardem business (until the upcoming raid, that is) is cause, to quote from Sara "If too many ARKS get involved, that alone will cause confusion."...um, wut? How the hell would reducing ARKS involvement make the situation any less confusing? I'm pretty sure the situation's gotten to the point where everyone's grown numb to all the weird shit that's happening.

[Altiea]

I don't think Matoi is that much taller than Sara. One thing I pointed out as far back as EPISODE 3 was that the Innocent Cluster has ridiculous heels. It's painful to even look at them because they're so unrealistically tall that no person other than whose who would desire the deepest pits of hell to their feet would even think about wearing those.

When you think about it from Earth's point of view, having a bunch of weirdos and aliens suddenly showing up for no apparent reason might understandably cause a ruckus. Much less a whole fleet of them. Although the game considers humans other than the core characters nonexistent, so.

Also, I never understood why Matoi is considered sexy. Sure, they try to push the point with her outfits, but she leaned closer to "cute" for me.

[mickbis]

That another way of pushing responsibility on the player chan

[Xaeris]

Fun fact: Innocent Cluster adds 7 inches to a character's height in the salon.

Waiting on Kazanboshi to grace us with a translation like the rest of you, but it seems rather clear that Episode 4 is wrapped up, apart from Phaleg still having to issue a duel challenge to PC. So I'm just kinda wondering how Deus fits in. Ether is clearly still a thing, and phantoms apparently always existed through Earth's history, so the elements for Deus to self embody like Mother does are present. But the Arks can't keep babysitting Earth forever (r-right?), and the idea of something like Deus Zephyros being able to continually reembody itself is rather bleak. I dunno, it's just weird to me that the EQ follows the climax of the episode's story, unlike previous episodes where the EQ was the climax.

[loafhero]

I am well aware that Matoi's heels are boosting her height. I've made fun of her heels a few times already. The point is that I enjoyed how Sara came off as the bigger and more mature girl despite being shorter (and slightly younger) than Matoi (heels or not). Back in the "10 years ago" event in EP2, Matoi was the "onee-san" to Sara. Now the roles are reversed.

Also, I never understood why Matoi is considered sexy. Sure, they try to push the point with her outfits, but she leaned closer to "cute" for me.

That's my point. Her personality and voice leans towards cute & moe but her outfit and her certain endowments make her appear sexy, which creates this jarring feeling for me. Its like they wanted to maintain her "purity" without compromising on her sex appeal but its executed in a way that just comes off as a little... well, dumb. Its jarring (but actually kinda funny in a way) to see Matoi whining like a little girl in an outfit that's certainly popped a few boners.

Personally, a balanced cuteness-to-sexy ratio for Matoi was already accomplished back when she was Klarisklays II and without giving her an overly sexy outfit.

[Renvalt]

That's my point. Her personality and voice leans towards cute & moe but her outfit and her certain endowments make her appear sexy, which creates this jarring feeling for me. Its like they wanted to maintain her "purity" without compromising on her sex appeal but its executed in a way that just comes off as a little... well, dumb. Its jarring (but actually kinda funny in a way) to see Matoi whining like a little girl in an outfit that's certainly popped a few boners.

Personally, a balanced cuteness-to-sexy ratio for Matoi was already accomplished back when she was Klarisklays II and without giving her an overly sexy outfit.

With regards to this... I have a theory.

You know how Touhou and KanColle are notorious for the influx of hentai content made by fans? In a sense, one might argue that they're trying to maintain a certain image for Matoi to avoid being thrown into R18 territory (because you can definitely tell they WANT to go there, but the rules of public image dictate that they can't), but the devs are effectively saying "If you CAN do erotic stuff to her without using our assets, we'll turn a blind eye to it".

I mean, think about it. How many explicitly R18 SAs have you run into during the course of your time playing JP PSO2? In other games, people would flip and report you to be banned without a second thought. But it's there (trust me on this: I still see them whilst browsing shop searches from time to time) - and almost nothing really gets done about it.

In the case of Touhou and KanColle specifically, you don't have to look far to find that kind of stuff. The creators themselves outright say they're not okay with it... but if that was the case, wouldn't the crackdown on that stuff be harder?


As always, it's just a theory, though. Pay no mind to my incessant, ignorant rambling.

[IchijinKali]

Will say it gave a good kodiak moment

Regular

Spoiler!

Darker

Spoiler!

[loafhero]

@Renvalt Actually... you have a good point there. I'm familiar enough with that particular tactic used by creators to encourage R18 stuff without being held accountable for it.

I mean, think about it. How many explicitly R18 SAs have you run into during the course of your time playing JP PSO2? In other games, people would flip and report you to be banned without a second thought. But it's there (trust me on this: I still see them whilst browsing shop searches from time to time) - and almost nothing really gets done about it.

Yup, I still see some of that even now.

Anyway, my thoughts on [168-D]:

Spoiler!

- I just love how while Hitsugi and Kohri went through a deep, emotional crisis to get their weapons, Enga was all "Give me a goddamn gun already" to acquire his.

- Like before, Kohri's dark moment is treated as a joke just to maintain that ditzy girl appeal she has going for her. Instead of going in any further as to why Kohri still retains traces of her "destroy everything, including myself" and why her evil sword stays the same, everyone (including the normally emotionless Player) decides to just laugh at Kohri's obvious mental issues... actually, forget what I said. I'm completely on board with laughing at Kohri cause her character is really lousy.

[Meteor Weapon]

So, does anyone have any idea where Deus Hunas originated? Was it Ardem's ideal of God coming to materialization or an ancient God resurrected from it's eternal slumber?