Episode 4 Story Discussion

[Mattykins]

Well, seeing as we had someone literally log out during a Story Quest, I dunno what else to assume.

And our char is mostly fine with this? I was expecting a little more, well...

Spoiler!

[Renvalt]

did they actually say that we are from a game tho? or just that its different universe/dimension?

I'm honestly going to say that they may have just pulled a Star Ocean 3 here.

Also if E4-1 is any indicator, then I think I might have an idea of what Earth's second area could be (though I could be wrong as I usually have been so don't quote me on this).

[EspeonageTieler]

I'm honestly going to say that they may have just pulled a Star Ocean 3 here.

Also if E4-1 is any indicator, then I think I might have an idea of what Earth's second area could be (though I could be wrong as I usually have been so don't quote me on this).

not sure what that means tbh

jk just wiki'd it pretty interesting there are actual theories about the subject too

[Massaki]

Jesus christ we got Star Ocean 3'd

Jesus Christ, hahaha. This is so on point it hurts. I almost can't believe they actually went with this route.

[Rakurai]

I was really afraid they were going to go the whole Star Ocean 3 route with this, as well.

Here's hoping there's something more to this and that isn't actually the case.

[Squall179]

I've completed all the storyboard so far I can get to, I want that Soro outfit, but... while I've done N3 and O4, how do I get to O2 and how do I get past N2? Am I missing something?

.......and am I the only one actually finding this more entertaining than annoying? I mean, yeah, its weird as all hell, but Sega has had weird things before similar to this. Just look at the storyline for Virtual-On. They actually pulled this in the backstory for Virtual-On in the 90s.

You, as the player sitting at the arcade machine, are fighting a war in another dimension entirely. This isn't actually out of the realm of Sega's actions when you factor THAT in.

[landman]

I've completed all the storyboard so far I can get to, I want that Soro outfit, but... while I've done N3 and O4, how do I get to O2 and how do I get past N2? Am I missing something?

.......and am I the only one actually finding this more entertaining than annoying? I mean, yeah, its weird as all hell, but Sega has had weird things before similar to this. Just look at the storyline for Virtual-On. They actually pulled this in the backstory for Virtual-On in the 90s.

You, as the player sitting at the arcade machine, are fighting a war in another dimension entirely. This isn't actually out of the realm of Sega's actions when you factor THAT in.

Yeah but the same as in Star Ocean, this is a problem when they are actually affecting a whole franchise. I don't want all my games to transform into this:

[Killerwing]

So I haven't gotten too far, and I don't understand Japanese well enough to understand all of what Ciela said, but here's the gist of what I got based on what I COULD make out (spoilers though I guess? so read at your discretion):

Spoiler!

During our time in cryostasis, the ARKS underwent a massive hierarchical structure revamp.

Basically, Ulc's the boss of all ARKS, with Theodore directly under her, and then the Six Pillars have been completely dismantled and restructured into four divisions, with the former members of the Six becoming the heads of these divisions (in order, Huey and Claris are Div 1 Leads, Maria and Sara are Div 2, Regius and Zeno head up Div 3, and Casra and Quna head up Div 4).

Our character and Matoi take up what was basically Quna's old spot in the system - the "Guardians". We basically don't necessarily answer to any one particular group, but are subordinated as the situation calls for it (basically, Guardians are free-agents).

With that now covered, we move on to Chapter 1's plot (or what I could make of it, for that matter). Note that the following is extremely tl;dr, so don't open unless you like reading long explanations.

Spoiler!

Ciela sends us on what is basically a "rehabilitation mission" to get us used to doing work in the field again (since she apparently thinks we need it). Our "mission" as it were is the training of one "Hitsugi" (the blonde shota ARKS that we see, more on this later). Routine patrol, although Darkers show up so we do what must needs be done.

However, at the end of the line, a DF-tier "presence" appears, and due to our recklessness (or lack of classification of the threat, more rather), we almost get infected.

"Hitsugi" shoots the DF-Ghost, saving our hides, but they let their guard down, causing the presence to attempt infection. However, with one of the "powers" gifted to us by Xiao when he left to go calculate how to unravel the Madoka-tier time loop we all made, we purify our naive ARKS friend of the Darker taint.

In the aftermath of all that BS, "Hitsugi" undergoes a panic attack, and in a facepalm-worthy moment of Laharlian fourth-wall breaking, they "log-out". Yeah, I'm not making this up. They log-out. They were "playing the game".

We find out that "Hitsugi" is actually a generic anime waifu that looks like the long-lost twin of Azanami, and that, in her carelessness during the situation, her "logging-out" had the unforeseen side-effect of "creating" our blonde friend in her dimension (complete with its own Matoi-grade cluelessness - and with an extra bonus of being in the buff in a JS-girl's bedroom).

Hitsugi freaks out, thinking this is some weird delusion or dream or whatever, but it's not, and she continues to freak (for more reasons than one, naturally - considering who else is in the room). However, suddenly, space zombie attacks. Our blonde friend "Aru" shields Hitsugi from the attack, and then her pleas cause us (in another four-wall breaking moment) to come out of the computer in her room to deal with these space-zombies.

We do our stuff, get the hell out of there, and Hitsugi wakes up, thinking it's a dream, but blondie's presence reminds her that shit just happened, and now she has to deal with her own Laharlian screw-ups (which, need I remind you, were her fault because she logged out before the photons we gave her cooled down).

tl;dr version: ARKS got a cabinet rework, a stupid high school girl playing a vidya logged out during a Deus Ex invocation, the whole thing created life and gave rise to space zombies on Earth, and now Ciela demands that we fix this shit. Because reasons.

There is an extra detail that Renvalt hasn't mentionned about his summary of the story that should please a lot of people that seem to think the plot is Star Ocean 3 again. (Kinda glad I decided to translate the cutscenes with Google Translate. Even if the translation is nowhere near perfect, it does give a good gist of what is going on).

Will cover the info in a spoiler box(there's a few extra notes about the anime included) just in case, but here it is:

Spoiler!

In one of the two cutscenes before the actual Story Mission takes place(specifically, it's the one right before she explains the new ARKS organization, Ciela plays an audio message(or it's an audio communication) from Ulc, who is now ARKS's commander. She explains that lately, there has been a number of odd/irregular ARKS members that have begun appearing, and she wants us to investigate the issue.

So if you fast forward back to the Story Mission, you can realize that the 'training' mission with Hitsugi is basically a pretense to keep an eye on him(though Ciela is quick to point out at the end of the cutscene where you meet Hitsugi that he seems to behave a bit more like a girl).

In other words, there's a very good chance that somehow, the people of Earth have been able to connect to ARKS, most likely due to how their revolutionary worldwide internet system works. If you've been watching the anime, then you should know that the anime serves as a prelude to the events of Reborn: Episode 4.

Especially since in the anime's first episodes so far, the characters clearly don't somehow enter the world. They're just playing it as if a normal MMORPG. And also, the anime happens 1 year before Reborn: Episode 4, so in that 1 year gap, clearly something happened if somehow the girl had managed to 'enter' the 'game' of PSO2(given the first cutscene in which we see her, she literally pops out of her computer screen.

Therefore, it's likely that based on what I just stated in the Spoiler Box, that this might not be a remake of Star Ocean 3's plot.

[Edje]

Soooo if i keep playing this game and in my case i have the possibily of appering a 1 meter and 90 cm tall naked dude in my bed. Time to make a waifu in the new slot. kappa

[Squall179]

...like I said. Virtual-On refers to this as Reverse Convert. taking digital data and turning it into solid mass, and the other way around (VO MARZ EN translation redubbed this in the easier to say Retroconversion) If something like players accidentally tying into an existing reality can happen that just so happens to exist within another dimension, again, Virtual-On provides an answer. They are in Metacyberspace in PSO2, they exist within this entirely other plane of existence where physics behaves differently, photons can provide powers to their wielders and so on. WHo is to say the process of Reroconversion is new to ARKS? or Not new? Is that not the principal of the storage and retrieval system that ARKS uses for its equipment?

Sega could very well just be applying what they made use of i nVirtual-On to PSO2's setting for this venture, and the process of entering the world outside of PSO2/Meta Cyber Space, is a Retroconversion process, taking matter that, to us would be digital but within meta cyber space has actual mass, and restructuring it to function as solid mass within the world outside.

And does anyone have an answer to my previous question about how to get to Storyboard O2? I cannot find a way past N2.