Episode 4 Story Discussion

[Zeroem]

Honestly, when reviewing how Aru was created, not really a surprise if he's going to do a face-heel turn somewhere along EP4. Or perhaps Aru's created as a subtle callback to Endu (Dark Falz x Olga Flow ---> DF photonsxEther).

As for hooded woman, it's clearly Kohri (if we're using anime mindset and cliches). Honestly, I would be surprised if the hooded woman is not Kohri.

[loafhero]

Just saw one more cutscene that I missed. It involves Aika and Zelsius Quna.

- Aika is surprised that the PC overheard what Zelsius Quna said even though that shouldn't be possible (Quna's Genesis Weapon conceals her from people's vision and hearing unless she chooses to let people see and hear her). Zelsius Quna switches off her cloaking and tells Aika not to worry as the PC has always been able to see and hear through her cloaking. Zelsius Quna says she feels nostalgic in regards to how the PC could always see past her cloaking. They then talk about Aika's involvement with Itsuki and Rina and that Aika had been keeping something a secret from Quna and Casra who have already figured out her secret. I'm not sure exactly what Aika's secret was but Quna seems rather cool about it so it may not be anything serious. Aika is pissed however about this secret being revealed and storms off from the conversation. I can only assume this secret was of personal value to Aika.

- Funny enough, at the end of the cutscene, Zelsius Quna refers to Casra as the "insidious four-eyes" which was the same insulting nickname that she normally uses when in Idol mode :-D Then again, Zelsius Quna has always consistently broke character though only in the PC's presence as the PC knows that Idol and Zelsius are the same person.

Seeing this cutscene, I noticed how Zelsius Quna sounds a little different. The VA is obviously the same and while she sounds the same when voicing Idol Quna, she sounds a little different when voicing Zelsius Quna. Maybe she hasn't voiced Zelsius Quna in a while? Of course, this is just what I think.

[Sirius-91]

Just saw one more cutscene that I missed. It involves Aika and Zelsius Quna.

- Aika is surprised that the PC overheard what Zelsius Quna said even though that shouldn't be possible (Quna's Genesis Weapon conceals her from people's vision and hearing unless she chooses to let people see and hear her). Zelsius Quna switches off her cloaking and tells Aika not to worry as the PC has always been able to see and hear through her cloaking. Zelsius Quna says she feels nostalgic in regards to how the PC could always see past her cloaking. They then talk about Aika's involvement with Itsuki and Rina and that Aika had been keeping something a secret from Quna and Casra who have already figured out her secret. I'm not sure exactly what Aika's secret was but Quna seems rather cool about it so it may not be anything serious. Aika is pissed however about this secret being revealed and storms off from the conversation. I can only assume this secret was of personal value to Aika.

- Funny enough, at the end of the cutscene, Zelsius Quna refers to Casra as the "insidious four-eyes" which was the same insulting nickname that she normally uses when in Idol mode :-D Then again, Zelsius Quna has always consistently broke character though only in the PC's presence as the PC knows that Idol and Zelsius are the same person.

Seeing this cutscene, I noticed how Zelsius Quna sounds a little different. The VA is obviously the same and while she sounds the same when voicing Idol Quna, she sounds a little different when voicing Zelsius Quna. Maybe she hasn't voiced Zelsius Quna in a while? Of course, this is just what I think.

It's this:

[SPOILER-BOX]http://i.imgur.com/nvCl73N.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

She got it from Casra.

She sounds different because her Assassin form is supposed to be a secret.

[loafhero]

It's this:

[SPOILER-BOX]http://i.imgur.com/nvCl73N.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

She got it from Casra.

She sounds different because her Assassin form is supposed to be a secret.

Ah, thanks. Upon second viewing, I think did hear Quna saying "Maid dress".

I don't know, Zelsius Quna's speech tone when speaking with the PC back in EP1-3 sounded a little different here. Back then, she sounded more sad and serious. In this cutscene, she sounded slightly more upbeat. This could be intentional on the VA's part to show that Zelsius Quna is a slightly more happier person... well, that or its just because Zelsius Quna is getting a kick out of teasing Aika about that little school project of hers back in the anime.

[Meteor Weapon]

Well with Luther out of the picture and only PD being the threat that doesn't really screw around with how ARKS works, Quna becoming lenient after time passes wouldn't be really surprising.

[Sirius-91]

Lisa's dialog to Hitsugi really kills me.

わからない、とは、ますますわかりませんねえ。
死んでいるのを確認し、死体を確認したからこそ
亡くなった、と言っているのでしょう？

To which I think of: http://www.awkwardzombie.com/index.php?comic=030716

[Meteor Weapon]

Well it's her fault for not checking whether he's dead or not, and just went "OH MY ONIICHAN IS DEAD WOE IS ME!"

Did no one ever bothered checking the court field with all the havoc going on or that camouflage thingy was in play?

[loafhero]

Lisa's dialog to Hitsugi really kills me.

わからない、とは、ますますわかりませんねえ。
死んでいるのを確認し、死体を確認したからこそ
亡くなった、と言っているのでしょう？

To which I think of: http://www.awkwardzombie.com/index.php?comic=030716

Oh, thank goodness! A character in the story that's actually speaking some common sense (and its Lisa of all people!).

Seriously, though. I know it was night time, where most people are in their homes, when the explosion occurred but the severe lack of effort on Hitsugi's part to properly confirm her brother's status was just so fucking stupid.

Off topic, seeing Aika's Rappy pet and thinking on the implications of using a Rappy pet against a regular Rappy makes me think of this:
https://youtu.be/_EUOJ9zfv9k

[Sirius-91]

Oh, thank goodness! A character in the story that's actually speaking some common sense (and its Lisa of all people!).

Seriously, though. I know it was night time, where most people are in their homes, when the explosion occurred but the severe lack of effort on Hitsugi's part to properly confirm her brother's status was just so fucking stupid.

Off topic, seeing Aika's Rappy pet and thinking on the implications of using a Rappy pet against a regular Rappy makes me think of this:
https://youtu.be/_EUOJ9zfv9k

It was broad daylight.

[loafhero]

It was broad daylight.

The sky was a little dark to be considered broad daylight and the buildings in the background had obviously turned on lights. If you look closely at the sky, you can see stars.

Unless of course you thought I was talking about the battle with Train Ghidoran which definitely occurred in day time.

[Sirius-91]

The sky was a little dark to be considered broad daylight and the buildings in the background had obviously turned on lights. If you look closely at the sky, you can see stars.

Unless of course you thought I was talking about the battle with Train Ghidoran which definitely occurred in day time.

It was definitely daylight, maybe early morning, but it was definitely daylight.

[loafhero]

It was definitely daylight, maybe early morning, but it was definitely daylight.

Not that that's much of a difference anyway since that's still a time period where most people aren't outside.

Besides, if you check the time & date that's always displayed before a cutscene starts, when Hitsugi arrives at the track, it was 18:00 as in 6:00 PM. In Tokyo, 6 PM is when the sun sets. So at best, it was late evening.

[Sirius-91]

Not that that's much of a difference anyway since that's still a time period where most people aren't outside.

Besides, if you check the time & date that's always displayed before a cutscene starts, when Hitsugi arrives at the track, it was 18:00 as in 6:00 PM. In Tokyo, 6 PM is when the sun sets. So at best, it was late evening.

I don't even pay attention to the dates anymore, they keep switching between AP and AD.

[Tymek]

Thanks! :-) Nice to see that Mother Cluster's members aren't exclusively Japanese. They wouldn't seem so influential if their reach extends only to Japan... even though most of Earth's events occur only in Tokyo.

... Wait

Oh, I see what they did there :-D

Those names are so weird though. Who the hell names their children Phul and Och?
Not to mention that Phul and Och look ridiculous though. They look weird Anime girls because of the whole Real World context thing. I don't know how to feel about this yet. We'll see.

What did they do there?
Sexual innuendo?


The player character!
HAH!


The english patch doesn't do her name justice, they missed the crucial part of her name; Xiera.

Both Dengeki (http://dengekionline.com/elem/000/001/205/1205236/) and 4gamer (http://www.4gamer.net/games/120/G012075/20160121059/) use Xiera, and not Sierra.
Interesting!


Mother Brain existed in the past game,

Phantasy Star 2 Mother Brain ruled the entire Algol system and caused stagnation to the entire humanity.

Phantasy Star Zero, Mother Trinity caused the destruction of Coral and caused the Great Blank, turning the entire civilization back to stone age.

Phantasy Star Universe- not sure about her, other than the fact that she got infected by SEED.

In PSO2 The thing leading the Mother Clusters is probably the failed Copy Xion that was thrown into some subspace by the Photoners. Profound Darkness was the perfect copy Xion that fell into corruption, while this Mother Cluster thing is the other Copy Xion that lost control and was probably behind the earth incident. Still a theory so far
Let's not forget that in PHANTASY STAR ONLINE EPISODE II, in the "side story" quest(even though it's one of the biggest most important parts of the game with extremely crucial information relating to the Ragol Incident and anything beyond your wildest imagination) Seat Of The Heart, they meet the "Mother System", Delta.


So i rewatched the late June update about the new Mother Cluster apostles and i decide to watch closely the hooded apostle :

Is that blond hair ?
http://i.imgur.com/2GApoMZ.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Vwmvpy6.jpg[/spoiler-box]

So it might not be Kohri, unless she used [S]Ethera hair color.
I was actually thinking this might be Kohri too. Maybe Mother gave her/authorized Ether magic powers or something? :P It's definitely obviously Kohri. :P


Well it's her fault for not checking whether he's dead or not, and just went "OH MY ONIICHAN IS DEAD WOE IS ME!"

Did no one ever bothered checking the court field with all the havoc going on or that camouflage thingy was in play?
Not to mention, even if camouflage was in play;
wouldn't everyone be freaking out over an entire part of the dorm being completely blown up, and extremely confused because SOMEHOW nobody seemed to notice that an entire part of the dorm was missing?

All in all, Bethor's weird. Good weird though.

[Altiea]

Those names are so weird though. Who the hell names their children Phul and Och?
Not to mention that Phul and Och look ridiculous though. They look weird Anime girls because of the whole Real World context thing. I don't know how to feel about this yet. We'll see.

After seeing Hagito and Bethor, I did some supplementary research on this. Every Apostle of Mother Cluster is named after an Olympian spirit that represents a heavenly being in the Solar System. Hagito is named after Hagith, and the rest are named accordingly.

I used to think Mytyl was a weird name, until I realized it was a reference to a play I've never heard of...

[Meteor Weapon]

This? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympian_spirits

[Altiea]

This? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympian_spirits

Yeah, pretty much.

[loafhero]

Not to mention that Phul and Och look ridiculous though. They look weird Anime girls because of the whole Real World context thing. I don't know how to feel about this yet. We'll see.


Yeah, the hair color (purple) of the long-haired Apostle girl seems like an odd design choice. The anime gave me the impression that Earthlings have mostly realistic hair-colour akin to real life as opposed to Oracle people who can actually have wild anime-hair colour as their natural hair colour. Hagito's (a Japanese person) hair colour could easily be explained as him dying his hair blonde as dyed blonde hair is a typical trait of rich boy characters.



What did they do there?
Sexual innuendo?


Nah, I was under the impression that the surgeon apostle's description was a reference to a well-known anime/manga character, Black Jack.

Anyway, apparently each Apostle represents an element. Hagito is the Apostle of Metal (which is why he only summons the metallic/vehicle/weapon wielding Phantoms). Bethor is the Apostle of Wood so since wood is related to nature, its probably why he only summons animal Phantoms with his Train Ghidoran being a bit of an exception to his animal Phantom-only rule as Train Ghidoran is a monster based of a movie Bethor directed just like how the Yamato was based of Hagito's love of old-school war machines.

This could mean that we'll be seeing new Phantom monsters in future updates just so that the other Apostles can have specific Phantom monsters consistent with their respective elements. Its kinda like how the Dark Falzes (except Persona) had their own specific species of Darkers they summoned (Elder = Aquatic Darkers, Apprentice = Insect Darkers, Loser = Avian Darkers, Double = Toy Darkers)

[CocoCrispy]

The distinction between Sierra and Xiera could either be an oversight or a preference choice. I don't know how many times I've seen gratuitous engrish in Phantasy Star art books, but my favorites would have to be Alicer Landale, Rudoga, and Ryre. There comes a point where you believe the engrish as the true name or to use a different name. Granted, the online generation seems to do better with westernizing the names.

For myself, I can't stand the name Klariskrays. That's her official name on the pso2 website but it's so awkward. It's very long and the way it spelled makes it appear like a 2 worded name. Claris Claes all the way! Let's see, who else is there. there's also Right. Mr. Right is always right. I'm going with Light. And we can't forget Marlur. This is just such an unusual name. I'm going with the popular Marlu we've seen this whole time.

The AP and AD difference should be important because, although they've been established that both dates are parallel, they are also both correct. AP is AD, but to translate AP as AD would be wrong because their use of time could very much be different. Keeping track of the 2 is crucial to understanding what takes place when and establishing a timeline.

[Renvalt]

-snip-

For Claris and Marlu, I think an alternative to those could be Clarice Kreis and Marla (though I arguably like Marlu as well).

I also always wondered why they went with Reda instead of Leda, but then again that might just be me nitpicking.

P.S. I still think Huey is the most ridiculously terrible name for a member of leadership ever; but then again, given how the fool acts I'd say it fits him because you're hardly ever able to take him seriously.

[CocoCrispy]

P.S. I still think Huey is the most ridiculously terrible name for a member of leadership ever; but then again, given how the fool acts I'd say it fits him because you're hardly ever able to take him seriously.

Haha, Huey is the best. It's so simple that it's anything but him! The pso2 team definitely have an interesting sense of humor, I'll give them that. He took a step up in awesome for me when he comforted Claris in the mothership, showing he does have a side to him that's not hyper shounen warrior.

[Sirius-91]

For Claris and Marlu, I think an alternative to those could be Clarice Kreis and Marla (though I arguably like Marlu as well).

I also always wondered why they went with Reda instead of Leda, but then again that might just be me nitpicking.

P.S. I still think Huey is the most ridiculously terrible name for a member of leadership ever; but then again, given how the fool acts I'd say it fits him because you're hardly ever able to take him seriously.

The names are mostly cause of this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minor_planets

Ones that you'll recognize are these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/97_Klotho
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/746_Marlu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/990_Yerkes

As you can see, SEGA has free range of names to go by.

[Renvalt]

Haha, Huey is the best. It's so simple that it's anything but him! The pso2 team definitely have an interesting sense of humor, I'll give them that. He took a step up in awesome for me when he comforted Claris in the mothership, showing he does have a side to him that's not hyper shounen warrior.

Hence why I said "hardly ever"; indicating that, for all the moments you absolutely CANNOT take him seriously, the few moments where you do tend to make you forget that he's a loudmouthed shonen senshi who just so happens to share his name with one of the three nephews of Scrooge McDuck (which also explains why I find the name cringe-worthy; to me, DuckTales and all Disney toons are meant for widdle kiddy kids).

Yes, he happens to be a badass; unfortunately the writers made the script leaning towards him being the proverbial butt monkey of the Council (more so than Zeno - at least HE can be taken seriously more often than not).

[CocoCrispy]

Hence why I said "hardly ever"; indicating that, for all the moments you absolutely CANNOT take him seriously, the few moments where you do tend to make you forget that he's a loudmouthed shonen senshi who just so happens to share his name with one of the three nephews of Scrooge McDuck (which also explains why I find the name cringe-worthy; to me, DuckTales and all Disney toons are meant for widdle kiddy kids).

Yes, he happens to be a badass; unfortunately the writers made the script leaning towards him being the proverbial butt monkey of the Council (more so than Zeno - at least HE can be taken seriously more often than not).

Aw, I liked Ducktales. Classic Disney cartoons I think are pretty timeless regardless if you're a kid or an older adult. Newer Disney though, yikes.

If you don't like the duckling, there's always Huey from Fist of the North Star or the Huey from Baccano. I guess if you also don't like any of those either, he might be a lost cause. :wacko:

Zeno. I dunno how I feel about him. He's very stereotypical brash good guy I don't think there's much I can say about him. Has he even done anything notable recently besides being inducted into the Council of Six?

[Poyonche]

Aw, I liked Ducktales. Classic Disney cartoons I think are pretty timeless regardless if you're a kid or an older adult. Newer Disney though, yikes.

If you don't like the duckling, there's always Huey from Fist of the North Star or the Huey from Baccano. I guess if you also don't like any of those either, he might be a lost cause. :wacko:

Zeno. I dunno how I feel about him. He's very stereotypical brash good guy I don't think there's much I can say about him. Has he even done anything notable recently besides being inducted into the Council of Six?

Zeno helped us against Casra and [Loser] during Episode 2 Chapter 6.

Anime wise, he fought Dark Rina [Apprentice] to let Aika and Itsuki escape.

[Renvalt]

Aw, I liked Ducktales. Classic Disney cartoons I think are pretty timeless regardless if you're a kid or an older adult. Newer Disney though, yikes.

If you don't like the duckling, there's always Huey from Fist of the North Star or the Huey from Baccano. I guess if you also don't like any of those either, he might be a lost cause. :wacko:

Zeno. I dunno how I feel about him. He's very stereotypical brash good guy I don't think there's much I can say about him. Has he even done anything notable recently besides being inducted into the Council of Six?

Wait, Hokuto no Ken had a Huey? That last anime ref is not one I'm familiar with, due to never having heard the series, but errr, yeah.

Also,[SPOILER-BOX] I'm more of a Looney Tunes man than a Disney one. There's something about scheming yourself right into your own demise (or the slapstick that comes from constantly taking lethal blows and still somehow managing to stay alive in spite of it all). That, and I'm a big sucker for Daffy and Wily E.[/SPOILER-BOX]

Also, totally with you there about New Disney. I mean, just... yeesh, Disney - when'd you lose all that soul that made you what you are? When you made that Pixar contract for "gloriously" endless Pixar films?

[黒雪Yacchi]

It could be worse, they could have called Huey Keith (1000 meseta to whoever gets that reference)

[loafhero]

Zeno. I dunno how I feel about him. He's very stereotypical brash good guy I don't think there's much I can say about him. Has he even done anything notable recently besides being inducted into the Council of Six?

Zeno has a likeable personality and while he played important roles in EP1 (Voluntarily using himself as bait to lure Elder away) and EP2 (Saving Echo, became a Council Member and assisted the PC against Falz Angel), he has become as irrelevant to the story as Echo by EP3. In the anime, him losing to Rina Apprentice's human form made him look like a joke when you consider how Itsuki and Aika (who are weaker than Zeno) along with Rina (who had no idea what the hell was going on) were able to defeat Apprentice in its final form with a bullshit super move that never existed before.

EP1 hinted that Zeno and Gettemhart's rivalry had a little more history to it beyond Gettemhart being an uncooperative jerk but we never find out about it and the rest of the story completely forgot about it entirely. The chapter in EP3 where Elder sacrificed himself (and when Gettemhart's personality temporarily resurfaced) would have made a perfect opportunity for Zeno to reveal his history with Gettemhart.

Yeah, Huey is a good character with depth. What I like most about his bond with Claris Claes III is how the both of them share something in common; being the most disliked members of ARKS (in-universe) for their irritating personalities :-D. Their vastly different people in terms of personality and yet it makes so much sense that they'd have a close relationship. I enjoyed how Huey is shown to be secretly insecure about his lack of (in-universe) popularity as he clearly does want to have more friends.

[EspeonageTieler]

Zeno has a likeable personality and while he played important roles in EP1 (Voluntarily using himself as bait to lure Elder away) and EP2 (Saving Echo, became a Council Member and assisted the PC against Falz Angel), he has become as irrelevant to the story as Echo by EP3. In the anime, him losing to Rina Apprentice's human form made him look like a joke when you consider how Itsuki and Aika (who are weaker than Zeno) along with Rina (who had no idea what the hell was going on) were able to defeat Apprentice in its final form with a bullshit super move that never existed before.

EP1 hinted that Zeno and Gettemhart's rivalry had a little more history to it beyond Gettemhart being an uncooperative jerk but we never find out about it and the rest of the story completely forgot about it entirely. The chapter in EP3 where Elder sacrificed himself (and when Gettemhart's personality temporarily resurfaced) would have made a perfect opportunity for Zeno to reveal his history with Gettemhart.

Yeah, Huey is a good character with depth. What I like most about his bond with Claris Claes III is how the both of them share something in common; being the most disliked members of ARKS (in-universe) for their irritating personalities :-D. Their vastly different people in terms of personality and yet it makes so much sense that they'd have a close relationship. I enjoyed how Huey is shown to be secretly insecure about his lack of (in-universe) popularity as he clearly does want to have more friends.

I think the thing between zeno and shitface was just that they had to completely opposite personalities I dont think it goes any deeper than that. Also zeno lost to Rina because he didnt have friendship power to beat her

[oratank]

zeno need a brand new weapon this gs clearly can't handle a single df or maria just mock him up by not giving a real ranger weapon

[loafhero]

I think the thing between zeno and shitface was just that they had to completely opposite personalities I dont think it goes any deeper than that. Also zeno lost to Rina because he didnt have friendship power to beat her

But Zeno is all about friendship. Protecting your friends is pretty much his prime motivation. It just so happens that the power of friendship only applies to main characters, and Zeno was only a guest character in the anime.

[yoshiblue]

Not enough people give Zeno the energy he needed for a shining finger attack. Itsuki sucked it all up. Just like we would. :wacko:

[Renvalt]

Not enough people give Zeno the energy he needed for a shining finger attack. Itsuki sucked it all up. Just like we would. :wacko:

To be fair though, Itsuki is just another shonen protagonist fresh from the Kirito mass-production mold that Japan keeps in its anime factories.

And if you're made from that mold, plot armor is essentially one of the key ingredients required to forge a hero from it. Alongside Gary Stu-nite, One-Hander God Mode Uberhax, and so on and so forth.

Yes, Zeno doesn't get all the glory, to be sure, but he's not a complete Gary Stu to the level that "Sir Itsuki of House Aincrad" is. Which is probably the one thing that saves him among other things - especially now that he went from generic mentor shonen to member of the council. Last I checked, that doesn't happen often with characters of his kind.

[Meteor Weapon]

People forget that Itsuku is a level 50 player with Photon Phantasm Radiant Excalibur with inbuilt PA Stargazer Excalibur and a potential of 99% chance of one shot-ing enemies including bosses, Shujinko Universe-Rear, Shujinko Cosmos-Arm, Shujinko Dimension-Leg with all affixes of Kirito Soul, Protagonist ∞, Plot Resist ∞, Harem Fever, Terra Factor with set bonuses of 9999 to all stats elements included.

[SteveCZ]

With blocking gunslash. Never forget.

[Renvalt]

With blocking gunslash. Never forget.

That shit still makes me bitter.

I mean, granted it doesn't beat me having beef with how Knuckles are just Wired Lances stripped of range and forcing my char into a janky-as-fuck MMA stance (not to mention there's no real "straight overhead" type of PA), but for all it has shown, Gunslash has always been the "runt" of the weapons.

Why they just don't make a class that uses only Gunslashes, I'll never know.

Not to mention some of the skills on Su just make me think "crappily placed EZ-Modo bullshit"... but that's a discussion for another thread.


People forget that Itsuku is a level 99 player with Photon Phantasm Radiant Excalibur with inbuilt PA Stargazer Excalibur and a potential of 99% chance of one shot-ing enemies including bosses, Shujinko God-Rear, Shujinko God-Arm, Shujinko God-Leg with all affixes of Kirito Soul, Protagonist ∞, Plot Resist ∞, Harem Fever, Terra Factor with set bonuses of 9999 to all stats elements included and Level 9 UberHax potential.

And the best part? Dudu only ever got a single meseta for all of that.

Fixed some shit for you. And I'd like to add that Kiritos are a race - a very broken one, to be sure, but a race all the same, much like the Kugyus (who can seriously burn in hell for all I care - DEATH TO KUGYUS!)

[loafhero]

Yes, Zeno doesn't get all the glory, to be sure, but he's not a complete Gary Stu to the level that "Sir Itsuki of House Aincrad" is. Which is probably the one thing that saves him among other things - especially now that he went from generic mentor shonen to member of the council. Last I checked, that doesn't happen often with characters of his kind.

Never really thought of Zeno as a generic shonen mentor character mainly because he lacks quite a few of the stereotypical traits of one. For example, he's not old (he should be 26 years old by now), he doesn't project an aura of overwhelming power, he's not mysterious, he's not eccentric, he's not a pervert, he actually has a life of his own that doesn't revolve around the protagonist enough that he could be the star of his own story, he lets the PC do their own thing without much intervention, and he doesn't really give much words of wisdom beyond "Don't push yourself too hard" and "Care for your juniors".

If anything, its Zeno's mentor that seems to fall under the stereotypical shonen mentor type... at least, based of Zeno's point of view. Although, after learning the truth about Zeno's mentor, I think its evident that Zeno's overly positive opinion of his mentor is a case of hero worship due to the fact that Zeno didn't really know his mentor that well nor for that long and Zeno was an inexperienced ARKS trainee at the time which made him very impressionable.

[EspeonageTieler]

But Zeno is all about friendship. Protecting your friends is pretty much his prime motivation. It just so happens that the power of friendship only applies to main characters, and Zeno was only a guest character in the anime.
True but he needed friendship with rina beat her cuz #animu

[CocoCrispy]

Meanwhile Takuya's main character powers go largely underappreciated next to Itsuki. I'll give the stage play props for giving us the super mom all soccer moms strive to be. Totally didn't expect that to happen at all, and it wasn't even selfless sacrifice material either. She just came in, became epic, day is saved!

Since that thing isn't ever referenced like the animu is, I'm going to assume it was just spin off and not canon. :wacko:


Wait, Hokuto no Ken had a Huey? That last anime ref is not one I'm familiar with, due to never having heard the series, but errr, yeah.

Also,[SPOILER-BOX] I'm more of a Looney Tunes man than a Disney one. There's something about scheming yourself right into your own demise (or the slapstick that comes from constantly taking lethal blows and still somehow managing to stay alive in spite of it all). That, and I'm a big sucker for Daffy and Wily E.[/SPOILER-BOX]

Also, totally with you there about New Disney. I mean, just... yeesh, Disney - when'd you lose all that soul that made you what you are? When you made that Pixar contract for "gloriously" endless Pixar films?

MONAYYYY, mah boi. Without a strict perfectionist successor to the Disney man, this is why we can't have nice things.

And yeah, there was! Although wikipedia calls him Huei: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fist_of_the_North_Star_characters#Huei
There's also a wikia page on him: http://hokuto.wikia.com/wiki/Huey

[Tymek]

After seeing Hagito and Bethor, I did some supplementary research on this. Every Apostle of Mother Cluster is named after an Olympian spirit that represents a heavenly being in the Solar System. Hagito is named after Hagith, and the rest are named accordingly.

I used to think Mytyl was a weird name, until I realized it was a reference to a play I've never heard of...

Holy crap! Nice find! :o
I guess they just "Japanese'd" Hagito's name because he's Japanese and all.
Guess all that's left now is Phaleg/Phalec/Pharos.

[Meteor Weapon]

I've been wondering but....do we even have a reason to take down Yamato to begin with? Couldn't Earthlings deal with their own problem instead of having ARKS to deal with it? It's like Magatsu all over again but Falz Double was directly involved with it so ARKS are partially responsible with it.

Yamato? I feel like ARKS never had the feel to be responsible to deal with whatever shit Earthlings do to themselves, unless it's heavily involved with Darkers and the like which doesn't have any indication so far other than a rift between earth and ARKS open for some weird reason.

[FANSean]

I think it was mentioned earlier that Mother Cluster has unpleasant designs on the ARKS so we have a vested interest in assisting deal with any trouble they cause. Yes maybe Earth can handle it themselves, but if they fail then ARKS has no buffer.

[Poyonche]

Didn't Hagito summon Yamato just to annoy ARKS ?

[Cyber Meteor]

Didn't Hagito summon Yamato just to annoy ARKS ?
Well, more like Hagito cannot stand with the feel of being defeated so easily. The videos tend to say all by themselves in the end so you don't really have to think too much about what happens concerning Yamato : he was summoned to attack ARKS directly as the MC ship is now orbiting Earth. As to why we're bothering with Earth problems (responding to some posts above), it's pretty simple : we went to investigate about unregistered ARKS and Xierra asked us to go along one of those, Hitsugi, in a mission to know more about the matter. After that shadow corrupts her and you heal her, she gets back to earth via log out, but her PSO2 avatar took real form in her room for some reasons, Hitsugi gave her the name of Aru. So now you're basically protecting her and the avatar as they are precious infos ressources for your investigation, but Mother Cluster and their apostles also got very interested by those two, Hitsugi having the ability to make a katana appearing by mental power, and Aru for being a pretty abnormal occurence in their eyes. So in the end you're messing with Mother Cluster plans just because Hitsugi and Aru got all the attention from all the high ranked persons of 2 different worlds : Guardians from ARKS, and Apostles of Mother Cluster from Earth.

[Dark Emerald EXE]

It could be worse, they could have called Huey Keith (1000 meseta to whoever gets that reference)


This?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHAdR98D9Us

[Poyonche]

@Cyber Meteor :Oh i see now, thanks.
Another question, why did Phantoms appeared when Aru came out ? Is that because they are kind of an Anti-Virus system and Aru is considered as a Trojan Horse ? :wacko:
Oh and is Hagito the one who kicked Hitsugi and Aru from PSO2 when they came to the Bridge via PSO2 ?

[Sirius-91]

@Cyber Meteor :Oh i see now, thanks.
Another question, why did Phantoms appeared when Aru came out ? Is that because they are kind of an Anti-Virus system and Aru is considered as a Trojan Horse ? :wacko:
Oh and is Hagito the one who kicked Hitsugi and Aru from PSO2 when they came to the Bridge via PSO2 ?

Mother Cluster apostles know that PSO2 isn't a game. However telling earthlings so would probably freak them out, and question their code of ethics. Most of their technology seems to be from reverse engineering how we use photons as how they apply and use ether.

Phantoms are Mother Cluster's beings similar to Darkers. They're likely darkers of Earth, noting that they can be infected. The Apostles of Mother Cluster are likely the Falzes of Earth, except they're hell bent on world domination.

Fun Tip, the Seiga Series of weapons are meant to be used to fight Mother Cluster.

[AnikaSteinberg]

Fun Tip, the Seiga Series of weapons are meant to be used to fight Mother Cluster.

This reminded me of how the Seiga weapons descriptions felt to me like there's a Super Sentai-like group out there somewhere on Earth wielding them for "justice"

人の心が生み出す力をエネルギーに変換し悪を討つ！

[黒雪Yacchi]

Nope, Hoodwinked

[Meteor Weapon]

Honestly, when Aru revealed to have Apprentice sleeping inside him I want Apprentice screw the whole Mother Cluster team so bad. Inb4 True Apprentice using Mother Brain as the host being the final boss of EP4 lol

[TaigaUC]

I haven't been doing the story at all. Is that true that Aru has Apprentice inside of him?
If so, that's the 4th time they've reused Apprentice.

1. Oldprentice and Yucrita
2. Aurora Apprentice
3. Rina Apprentice
4. Aru Apprentice

Apprentice never struck me as that important of a character.
Feels weird to me that characters like Elder did barely anything and vanished, while Apprentice keeps resurfacing.

[loafhero]

Apprentice never struck me as that important of a character.
Feels weird to me that characters like Elder did barely anything and vanished, while Apprentice keeps resurfacing.

I think its just the story's way of compensating for the fact that Apprentice is arguably the weakest Dark Falz in the story. So, what Apprentice lacks in power she compensates it by being extremely persistent.

It could also possibly be a new Dark Falz.

[Meteor Weapon]

Mother Cluster Apostles feels more of a pushover to me than any other Falzes and their self-centered arrogance doesn't really help much, Hagito getting his Shipfu's ass kicked while being overly prideful already shows much. I've said this before but MC was like meh when dealing with phantoms, then again already being canonically as one of the strongest ARKS Operative helps a lot.

Can there be anything more surprising after this? Well probably when Apprentice screws up everyone in the story, but who knows. I don't really see Mother Brain being more threatening than Apprentice despite all the strings being possibly pulled by it. The only threat I can see Mother Clusters pulling is hijacking ARKS, screwing them up and leaving no one to stop the threat of Profound Darkness.

[EspeonageTieler]

speaking of apprentice did they ever state how afin's sister stopped being under the falz control? or was it just a mental thing?

[Sirius-91]

speaking of apprentice did they ever state how afin's sister stopped being under the falz control? or was it just a mental thing?

She was partially "infested" if you will. The Falz portion did have control over her, however it was still relatively weak as Double consumed the majority of Apprentice before she could fully possess Eucreta. Thus once Eucreta "woke up", she was able to effectively gain control of her body and mind again.

All of Apprentice's former hosts all have a connection with each other via hive mind and can feel/sense the presence of Apprentice whole.

[loafhero]

The only threat I can see Mother Clusters pulling is hijacking ARKS, screwing them up and leaving no one to stop the threat of Profound Darkness.

Going by this, it'll probably be followed by Mother Cluster having to team up with ARKS against Profound Darkness once they realize that both Earth and Oracle are now left vulnerable against it.


She was partially "infested" if you will. The Falz portion did have control over her, however it was still relatively weak as Double consumed the majority of Apprentice before she could fully possess Eucreta. Thus once Eucreta "woke up", she was able to effectively gain control of her body and mind again.
For a fake Apprentice, Eucreta was surprisingly powerful considering that she's the one who summoned the army of Darkers for the first three Mining Base EQs.

[ZerotakerZX]

Was Gattermhart a 'fake' Elder as well?

[silo1991]

nah , elder was the real one , gettemhart was just his new body ,until double absorb him in Ep3 . is still a mistery what happen to his old body

[Alenoir]

Can there be anything more surprising after this?

Koyasu (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takehito_Koyasu)'s voicing Ophiel. I believe in SEGA's choice of voice.

[loafhero]

nah , elder was the real one , gettemhart was just his new body ,until double absorb him in Ep3 . is still a mistery what happen to his old body

Seeing as how Luther seems to have been separated from Dark Falz Loser while in Double's pocket dimension, chances are, Gettemhart might have also been separated from Elder. The PC and Matoi's accidental trip into Double's dimension at least confirms that no one actually dies when being consumed by Double and that most still retain their free will... but since Double has been completely consumed by Profound Darkness, its unlikely that any rescue attempts will be done for Double's other victims like the Kuronians and their king.


Koyasu (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takehito_Koyasu)'s voicing Ophiel. I believe in SEGA's choice of voice.

And if their smart, they might release his Dio Brando character's voice ticket or have Ophiel yell "ROAD ROLLLAAA DAAA!!" when summoning the Road Roller Phantoms.

[TaigaUC]

I have to wonder if the reason they're focusing so much on Apprentice is because of all the Apprentice fan art.

Possessed guy? Nobody cares. Possessed attractive girl? Now yer talkin'!
Or I assume it works something like that.

[Zeroem]

I have to wonder if the reason they're focusing so much on Apprentice is because of all the Apprentice fan art.

Possessed guy? Nobody cares. Possessed attractive girl? Now yer talkin'!
Or I assume it works something like that.

I feel like it's one way or another related to Suganuma's departure. Up to EP3, the format is something like one Dark Falz as main antagonist. I kind of think that perhaps the original plan is for [Double], and subsequently [Profound Darkness] to be the star of EP4, while EP3 was intended to solve [Apprentice] shenanigans.

I guess something happened, and what we got is EP3 crammed up with lots of things. We got [Double] and [Profound Darkness] as the star of the show. [Apprentice] issue are solved in the sidequest, and the anime (in a sense). Also, don't forget [Persona] shenanigans tied and wrapped.

Almost like they (SEGA) want to wrap Falzes saga as quick as possible for whatever they conjured in EP4.........And here we are.

[Meteor Weapon]

Seeing as how Luther seems to have been separated from Dark Falz Loser while in Double's pocket dimension, chances are, Gettemhart might have also been separated from Elder. The PC and Matoi's accidental trip into Double's dimension at least confirms that no one actually dies when being consumed by Double and that most still retain their free will... but since Double has been completely consumed by Profound Darkness, its unlikely that any rescue attempts will be done for Double's other victims like the Kuronians and their king.


The reason why they're still alive is because their photon are very differebt from the others, having contact with Clarissa which protects them from being consumed by Double. Double herself state she fills weird after consuming both of them. Luther probably had enough knowledge to separate himself abd the negative photon to prevent him from being consumed or the fact that he's a photoner prevents that. Anyone else just gets absorbed completely

[loafhero]

The reason why they're still alive is because their photon are very differebt from the others, having contact with Clarissa which protects them from being consumed by Double. Double herself state she fills weird after consuming both of them. Luther probably had enough knowledge to separate himself abd the negative photon to prevent him from being consumed or the fact that he's a photoner prevents that. Anyone else just gets absorbed completely

Oh, well that sucks.


Also, don't forget [Persona] shenanigans tied and wrapped

Could've been worse ways to tie up Persona's story like maybe Persona automatically becoming friendly because both his/her and the PC's mothers share the same name...

[黒雪Yacchi]

Could've been worse ways to tie up Persona's story like maybe Persona automatically becoming friendly because both his/her and the PC's mothers share the same name...

Well from a technical standpoint, that is true that they would have mothers with the same name.

[Sirius-91]

Heavy spoilers uncovered while translating items.

Enga's TMG's
Item Name: 幻銃・トゥーハンド | Phantom Guns: Two Hand
Weapon Description: エンガｖｒ双機銃

[Zangor17]

Interesting.

but is he gonna be on our side or with Mother Cluster. I cant really tell without more translated/context

[KazukiQZ]

Uuu.

Really hope Enga is on Hitsugi's side. He's such a cool bro D:
Maybe one of the ARKS saved him from that supposed death or something? :D

Plus too many people on Mother Cluster side already.

[Sirius-91]

Uuu.

Really hope Enga is on Hitsugi's side. He's such a cool bro D:
Maybe one of the ARKS saved him from that supposed death or something? :D

Plus too many people on Mother Cluster side already.

Itsuki looked at him briefly in the anime

[loafhero]

Itsuki looked at him briefly in the anime

And that is pretty much the extent of Enga's along with Hitsugi and Kohri's role in the anime... which was none.

Not surprised that Enga might be an awakened Earthling ARKS too. All that mysteriousness of his made it so obvious.

[KazukiQZ]

^Dem that would be so cool if it were true xD

[Poyonche]

They added two "new" Mother Cluster apostles in the data : char21_oc and char22_fl. The first one might be the mathematician (TriangleShoot, TriangleCuting) and the latter one the "Famous author" because BookAttack. Also the latter appears to have some kind of support role : buff and heal. So I think the next fight might be against those 2, in a single fight. :wacko:

[loafhero]

They added two "new" Mother Cluster apostles in the data : char21_oc and char22_fl. The first one might be the mathematician (TriangleShoot, TriangleCuting) and the latter one the "Famous author" because BookAttack. Also the latter appears to have some kind of support role : buff and heal. So I think the next fight might be against those 2, in a single fight. :wacko:

Oh, so we're not getting the Apostle voice by Takehito Koyasu first? Bummer.

At least these other two Apostles will be fought at the same time so that we can get through this Apostle story arc faster. I've never been fond of the Shonen formula of fighting through a Miniboss team before reaching the final boss especially if each one is being given far too much screen time.... although, I (and surprisingly quite a few) actually enjoyed Bethor Zelazny's character. I guess it really depends on how interesting and entertaining the minibosses are.

[Poyonche]

Oh, so we're not getting the Apostle voice by Takehito Koyasu first? Bummer.

At least these other two Apostles will be fought at the same time so that we can get through this Apostle story arc faster. I've never been fond of the Shonen formula of fighting through a Miniboss team before reaching the final boss especially if each one is being given far too much screen time.... although, I (and surprisingly quite a few) actually enjoyed Bethor Zelazny's character. I guess it really depends on how interesting and entertaining the minibosses are.

Well, maybe he is char20, but this one has attacks focused on kicking. :/

[Tymek]

They added two "new" Mother Cluster apostles in the data : char21_oc and char22_fl. The first one might be the mathematician (TriangleShoot, TriangleCuting) and the latter one the "Famous author" because BookAttack. Also the latter appears to have some kind of support role : buff and heal. So I think the next fight might be against those 2, in a single fight. :wacko:

Oc -> Och
Fl -> Phul

[Poyonche]

Also found another spoiler going with the idea of everyone else on this thread.

Enga is alive and is going to be on our side.

Spoiler : http://i.imgur.com/PUJbFAB.jpg

[Tymek]

Also found another spoiler going with the idea of everyone else on this thread.

Enga is alive and is going to be on our side.

Spoiler : http://i.imgur.com/PUJbFAB.jpg

Do you have the full set of the new Story Board panels?

EDIT(WARNING: SPOILERS):
Christ, Enga, really? You have the super uber Ether powers, and you just summon a pair of plain Machine Guns? :|

[Poyonche]

Do you have the full set of the new Story Board panels?

EDIT(WARNING: SPOILERS):
Christ, Enga, really? You have the super uber Ether powers, and you just summon a pair of plain Machine Guns? :|

I got it, maybe they didn't add the whole set for now or maybe we're going to have long cutscenes. Or just 5. :wacko:

Spoilers : http://imgur.com/a/vvlgJ

[Tymek]

I got it, maybe they didn't add the whole set for now or maybe we're going to have long cutscenes. Or just 5. :wacko:

Spoilers : http://imgur.com/a/vvlgJ

Wow.
That's...not a lot.
It's interesting that none of those have any of the other Mother Cluster Apostles in them.

[Sirius-91]

Wow.
That's...not a lot.
It's interesting that none of those have any of the other Mother Cluster Apostles in them.
My guess is that Bethor talks to them (to introduce them to us), and they leave to allow bethor to attack us.

[Poyonche]

Wow.
That's...not a lot.
It's interesting that none of those have any of the other Mother Cluster Apostles in them.

Maybe it will come on the next update, i hope.

Or what Sirius just said.

[Zangor17]

Wow.
That's...not a lot.
It's interesting that none of those have any of the other Mother Cluster Apostles in them.

As far as I can tell that looks like just enough for the second part of Chapter 3 we are getting later this month. maybe plus 1 scene. It is weird tho because the last time we got story stuff we got all the way up to Aika showing up almost a month before it was due to release in the game.

[loafhero]

The other Mother Cluster members might probably appear at the end, maybe after we beat Bethor. Kinda like how after we beat Elder in EP1, the other Dark Falzes (minus Loser) revealed themselves.

[mickbis]

We only get 1 storyboard today
but a first good playable mission at last
sadly this might be the last time we see Bethor....
and look like the Doctor is one of the real top Mother Cluster now

also the big reveal before the fight against Bethor himself

Enga.. Hitsugi's brother lead the group that oppose [Mother Cluster]
using Ethel technology to summon modern machine gun and join our fight
look like they are the one already in contact with ARKS and already have their group name relate to ARKS

This also connected to Anime the episode where Aika tag along Itsuki and Rina to another Academy and that where we see the cameo of Enga

[Zanverse]

HYOLY SHIT, OPHIEL DID THE SAME KNIFE THING TO BETHOR THAT DIO DID TO JOTARO IN STARDUST CRUSADERS!

[TehCubey]

HYOLY SHIT, OPHIEL DID THE SAME KNIFE THING TO BETHOR THAT DIO DID TO JOTARO IN STARDUST CRUSADERS!

Same voice actor, too. Pretty sure that's a deliberate reference.

So, Enga is Zeno 2.0, huh. Looks like we're back to PSO2 standard of NPCs being badass and solving the plot by themselves while the player character just stands there uselessly and does nothing.

[loafhero]

Gotta say, I love the nickname Bethor gave our character, "Player-chan". I think I might use that to refer to our character from now on in this thread :D




Enga.. Hitsugi's brother lead the group that oppose [Mother Cluster]
using Ethel technology to summon modern machine gun and join our fight
look like they are the one already in contact with ARKS and already have their group name relate to ARKS

This also connected to Anime the episode where Aika tag along Itsuki and Rina to another Academy and that where we see the cameo of Enga

While Enga's return was laughably predictable, the reveal that there are many other awakened ARKS Earthlings who are part of an anti-Mother group (and Enga being apart of it) was quite surprising.

By the way, Aika never tagged along Itsuki and Rina during their visit to Hitsugi's school. While Enga did appear in that episode, his appearance there had absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the anime nor did it even foreshadow anything about what just happened in this chapter of the game. Enga's role in the anime was the same as Matoi, Zeno, and Echo... they were just there.



So, Enga is Zeno 2.0, huh. Looks like we're back to PSO2 standard of NPCs being badass and solving the plot by themselves while the player character just stands there uselessly and does nothing.

Yeah, that happens a lot actually. Only time Player-chan ever gets to do something legitimately cool on their own is if it involved Matoi.

Enga does seem a lot like Zeno in both his role in the plot (hogging the spotlight and getting all the cool one-liners) and some of the personality too. Would have preferred Zeno back though cause Enga seems like kind of a douche.

Anyway, I too got excited when Ophiel used that Dio-like knife throw to eliminate Bethor. Kinda saw Bethor's death coming though. I mean, the whole blowing up buildings to force Hitsugi out of hiding did seem kinda stupid and too crazy and would have been more of a nuisance to Mother Cluster than an actual benefit.

[NephyrisX]

Man, I hope Player-chan does something cool on their own. I mean, Player-Chan has participated in all the battles against Dark Falz, help uncover a damning ARKS conspiracy and ousting Luthor as well as being the major factor in containing Profound Darkness. Player-Chan at least deserves some recognition/reward for being a badass.

[loafhero]

Man, I hope Player-chan does something cool on their own. I mean, Player-Chan has participated in all the battles against Dark Falz, help uncover a damning ARKS conspiracy and ousting Luthor as well as being the major factor in containing Profound Darkness. Player-Chan at least deserves some recognition/reward for being a badass.

The uncovering of the ARKS conspiracy was more of the effort of Sara, Xiao, Maria, Casra and Quna though as they've been digging up dirt on Luther long before Player-chan even knew about a conspiracy. Player-chan was mostly needed for their fighting prowess. The most that Player-chan contributed in exposing the conspiracy was drawing most of Luther's rage against him/her making it easy for the others to do their stuff.

Only significant recognition Player-chan has gotten that I recall is being seen as a hero in the eyes of the Dragorii clans for their fighting skills and was held as primarily responsible for restoring good relations between ARKS and Dragorii again.

EP2's final chapter was a pretty good example of making Player-chan feel like they have something that's unique to him/her alone; A main heroine (Matoi) who's life had changed significantly because of Player-chan's influence and a personal antagonist (Persona) that is unique to Player-chan alone complete with an epic one-on-one stand off that Player-chan never received before in the story prior to this... Seriously, we need more dramatic one-on-one or one-against-many stand offs for Player-chan like this


http://swf.tubechop.com/tubechop.swf?vurl=8KzwomBRuJQ&start=55&end=82&cid=8124017

[Sirius-91]

Man, I hope Player-chan does something cool on their own. I mean, Player-Chan has participated in all the battles against Dark Falz, help uncover a damning ARKS conspiracy and ousting Luthor as well as being the major factor in containing Profound Darkness. Player-Chan at least deserves some recognition/reward for being a badass.
We get Quna's old position of peace keeping, without having to answer to anyone except Ulc and Xiao.
We're like the Spectre's from Mass Effect, I think that's a perfect role for us.

[Rupikachu]

We're like the Spectre's from Mass Effect.

Do we get stupid council that ignores the obvious facts?

[NephyrisX]

We get Quna's old position of peace keeping, without having to answer to anyone except Ulc and Xiao.
We're like the Spectre's from Mass Effect, I think that's a perfect role for us.

My issue is that Player-Chan is still dependent on others for plot, which seems to be still the case with the addition of Enga to 'assist' us when we are perfectly capable of wiping the floor with most enemies.

I just want a section of the story devoted to how Player-Chan singlehandedly kicks ass and chew bubblegum.

[Sirius-91]

My issue is that Player-Chan is still dependent on others for plot, which seems to be still the case with the addition of Enga to 'assist' us when we are perfectly capable of wiping the floor with most enemies.

I just want a section of the story devoted to how Player-Chan singlehandedly kicks ass and chew bubblegum.

Replay EP3.


Do we get stupid council that ignores the obvious facts?
We already did!

[gabor100]

Why dont we brainwash the Apostle guys and take the boss out?

Why don't they brainwash us like how Regius did, Apostle guys are mostly in Tokyo, wouldn't be that hard to set something up for it there.
I would like to work together with Och Miller till Matoi comes back

[Meteor Weapon]

All this time throughout the story I was thinking, why am I even here? I don't really care about whether it's because ARKS was connected to ES-CA through their version of PSO2, but I feel like anyone strong enough other than Player-chan can deal with whatever crap Mother Cluster dish out, I mean ARKS even took out Yamato without breaking a sweat due to thank god no Darker gonna infect AIS so we can go Gundam as long as we want. Well I guess it's because we were forced link to Hitsugi for some reason, she ain't really that bad of a character but I feel like they're trying too hard to make Hitsugi a Matoi V2 with a more active personality.

What was even Och even saying about the whole percentage thing?

We were told that Regius, Maria and Huey are on set on a long mission far away, I hope it has something to do with a whole new planet, Rykros would be nice or their just, again dealing with Eartling issues secretly.

[Kintama]

"
What was even Och even saying about the whole percentage thing?"

Player-chan and the others are weaklings, yeaaaah, i'd like to see these weaklings against new PD...

"
We were told that Regius, Maria and Huey are on set on a long mission far away, I hope it has something to do with a whole new planet, Rykros would be nice or their just, again dealing with Eartling issues secretly. "

NOPE! Sega got rid of the ep 1-3 cast and is slowly replacing them all with new characters, Hitsugi is serves as a Matoi replacement (which could mean Matoi could never wake up ever again), and Enga serves as a copypasta Zeno replacement, i like to think of episode 4 as total pso2 sequel rather than just an extension, the game ended and we're just getting fillers/a crappy PSO2-2 until the end.

[Nyansan]

We were told that Regius, Maria and Huey are on set on a long mission far away, I hope it has something to do with a whole new planet, Rykros would be nice or their just, again dealing with Eartling issues secretly.

Sounds to me like Sega is still trying to schedule recording contracts with the voice actors again. But yeah I do hope we get to see a new planet after Mother Cluster goes down eventually

[NephyrisX]

Replay EP3.


That's the thing. Player-chan already proved herself in EP3 and given the role of the Guardian, meaning we should be able to strike off on our own, but it feels like EP1 again where we are accessories to other characters.

[loafhero]

We get Quna's old position of peace keeping, without having to answer to anyone except Ulc and Xiao.
We're like the Spectre's from Mass Effect, I think that's a perfect role for us.

Wait, since when did Quna ever have a position of peacekeeping? She was pretty much an assassin who was a slave to orders by the higher ups until Player-chan told her to stop being a close-minded tool. Heck, I'm pretty sure it was said by Sierra that the "Guardian" rank was a newly made position made specifically for Player-chan and Matoi.



We already did!
But we don't get to tell them off or cut off conversations under the pretense of "losing connection" whenever we get annoyed with their bullshit. Heck, Player-chan seems actually okay with Casra lying and keeping Earth a secret up until him/her discovered its existence. Player-chan is extremely complacent and passive with Casra's bullshit.

[Meteor Weapon]

I'm pretty sure Player-chan is pretty much too tired to deal with the new bullshit going on but just went along with it or else somebody is gonna complain regardless, at least that's what I see from my character.

[loafhero]

I was actually pretty amused with how the new Apostles made their normal day careers/talents blatantly obvious:

- Och, a math prodigy, judges everything with math equations and statistics.
- Phul, a best selling author, writes down any potential novel material into a memo.
- Aratron, a historian and archaeologist, probably talked about history stuff or something (I honestly think the T-Rex Phantom should have been exclusive to him only)
- Ophiel, a surgeon, uses scalpels to murder people... which I'm pretty sure is the exact opposite of what a scalpel is supposed to be used for.

Pretty typical introduction procedure for an anime villain team. Rather than defined by any interesting personalities, their defined by their quirks and gimmicks.


Why dont we brainwash the Apostle guys and take the boss out?

Why don't they brainwash us like how Regius did, Apostle guys are mostly in Tokyo, wouldn't be that hard to set something up for it there.
I would like to work together with Och Miller till Matoi comes back

Pretty sure that only works on ARKS ops. It was never really explained as to how an ARKS op could be mind controlled in the first place but my guess is that every ARKS op had undergone some kind of mandatory medical procedure, while being told it was for the good of their health, without ever realising that a mind control device was secretly implanted into them. The only reason Player-chan was unaffected was either due to their connection with Xion or probably because Player-chan was scared of needles and secretly skipped out on the medical exam :-P

[Meteor Weapon]

You forgot Echo wasn't affected by it.

[Sirius-91]

Wait, since when did Quna ever have a position of peacekeeping? She was pretty much an assassin who was a slave to orders by the higher ups until Player-chan told her to stop being a close-minded tool. Heck, I'm pretty sure it was said by Sierra that the "Guardian" rank was a newly made position made specifically for Player-chan and Matoi.


But we don't get to tell them off or cut off conversations under the pretense of "losing connection" whenever we get annoyed with their bullshit. Heck, Player-chan seems actually okay with Casra lying and keeping Earth a secret up until him/her discovered its existence. Player-chan is extremely complacent and passive with Casra's bullshit.

Keeping the peace through assassinations. We don't even know what other horrors Quna may have destroyed before we finding out about her assassin gig.

Casra knows we know who Dio Hunar is, but because we aren't sharing secrets, neither is he obligated to.
There's a reason why Casra kept it a secret, the Falz attack with Rina is one of the reasons.

[loafhero]

You forgot Echo wasn't affected by it.

A non-cutscene optional dialogue with Zeno after completing EP2's Chapter 5 (thereby restoring Zeno back to his usual spot at the Shop area) while starting Chapter 6 reveals that Zeno had used Avis on Echo, giving her the order to do whatever she wants thus, overriding Regius's Avis order. So its not that she wasn't affected by it. Zeno protected her... again.

[loafhero]

Keeping the peace through assassinations. We don't even know what other horrors Quna may have destroyed before we finding out about her assassin gig.

Casra knows we know who Dio Hunar is, but because we aren't sharing secrets, neither is he obligated to.
There's a reason why Casra kept it a secret, the Falz attack with Rina is one of the reasons.

Well, we don't even know if what Quna destroyed during her assassin gig actually posed a threat to ARKS either. Quna was still Luther's lapdog back then so what was considered a "threat" to ARKS back then was more in line with what her superiors (mostly Luther) perceived as. Lets not forget how Rogio was once targeted for assassination for simply being curious about Planet Naberius's geographical inconsistencies.

And no shit Player-chan wasn't sharing secrets with Casra. Player-chan was frozen for 2 years after EP3. Its not like they wanted to keep Dio Hunar's identity a secret. Heck, Player-chan was actually being very open about their plan to save Matoi and probably anything that transpired after their battle with Viel Hunar. I'm pretty sure most of ARKS knows that Profound Darkness's host is Persona and Xion. And its not just the fact that he keeps secrets from Player-chan and Sierra but the fact that he kept secrets from the other ARKS Divisions and its commander even though the new branch divisions were specifically meant to NOT keep secrets from each other and to discuss any security issues that concerns Oracle with every division and the commander. Hence, why Ulc had Player-chan investigate the unregistered ARKS and Casra's division in the first place.

[Great Pan]

Sum of this EP: Another Japanese saturday cartoon show. Thankewberymachu.

[oratank]

well it has some story improve about mother want to take revenge on arks but i think we are already know that

[Zeroem]

And no shit Player-chan wasn't sharing secrets with Casra. Player-chan was frozen for 2 years after EP3. Its not like they wanted to keep Dio Hunar's identity a secret. Heck, Player-chan was actually being very open about their plan to save Matoi and probably anything that transpired after their battle with Viel Hunar. I'm pretty sure most of ARKS knows that Profound Darkness's host is Persona and Xion. And its not just the fact that he keeps secrets from Player-chan and Sierra but the fact that he kept secrets from the other ARKS Divisions and its commander even though the new branch divisions were specifically meant to NOT keep secrets from each other and to discuss any security issues that concerns Oracle with every division and the commander. Hence, why Ulc had Player-chan investigate the unregistered ARKS and Casra's division in the first place.

I don't think the Six Heroes knew that Clarissa II still have a bit of Shion left in it. The only people who knew that are Shao, us, Matoi, and [Persona]. Remember when the host transfer to [Persona] happened, the rest of the Six Heroes are in their own place, maintaining the imitation of Sukuna' barrier to contain [Profound Darkness]. Perhaps only Shao knew about [Persona] using Clarissa II, but there's always possibility that even Shao didn't knew about that detail. Even if the higher ups knew about the true nature of [Persona], they won't reveal it as it would make a very weird circumstances about us.

"Hey, remember about the outstanding member of ARKS who help everyone? Well, you are going to fight its darker version that time-travel from the future when Matoi died. Good luck!"

As for the intel, well you know what they say. "Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer". Unregistered ARKS is slowly noticed phenomenon, and Casra wasn't sure which one is enemies among ARKS who might be snooping around and eave-drop the intel if they decided to talk about it like usual. Not to add the methods of they snooping in and eave-drop the conversation. Rather than taking unnecessary risk, might as well keep everyone in the dark until the time arise to reveal the intel. Basic spy 101.

And not like we was around to be informed anyway. Plus, it only took 9 days since our reawakening to Casra formally greet us.

[loafhero]

Even if the higher ups knew about the true nature of [Persona], they won't reveal it as it would make a very weird circumstances about us.

"Hey, remember about the outstanding member of ARKS who help everyone? Well, you are going to fight its darker version that time-travel from the future when Matoi died. Good luck!"


Persona's identity doesn't seem like an important information that concerns all of ARKS anyway because as far as every other ARKS is concerned, Persona is just another Dark Falz that threatens all of existence. Everyone (including Player-chan and Matoi) were already dead set on killing PD with Persona as its host. Even if Persona's identity was revealed, Player-chan was already going to be put into cryo sleep to be cleansed of all the Darker energy they absorbed so no one ever has to worry about him/her turning into a Dark Falz. Simply put, it wasn't the kind of info that was on a need-to-know basis.

Besides, my concern was less so much that Casra kept secrets from Player-chan. The whole being frozen for 2 years thus, being out of the loop is obvious. My problem is that Casra kept secrets from the other higher ups of which his and every other division were specifically not meant to do yet he faced no repercussions for it. Now, I understand that the whole unregistered ARKS problem isn't an information that should be recklessly made known to everyone in an instant. I understand that Casra needed to avoid potential spies from knowing what they know. However, I just don't see why Casra needed to keep secrets from the other division members who are obviously not unregistered ARKS especially from its commander (Ulc). I'm not really sure whether Regius and Maria are in on the secret but keeping the commander out of the loop seems like an irresponsible thing to do. Its one thing to keep your enemies closer than your friends but its a pretty dumb move to potentially antagonize the allies you do have.

If the problem was that Casra didn't think of Ulc as a competent commander to be trusted with the info, well then who the hell is he to judge people's competence? Aika was his chosen spy to go undercover in Earth but she turned out to be a shitty spy who not only had terrible social skills as well as lacking in any sense of subtlety but ended up exposing herself to not one but two Earthlings (Itsuki and Kouta) during her mission. Only reason Aika didn't screw things up worse is because Seiga Academy students and teachers are morons. He even thought it was necessary to start a Quna concert while Dark Falz Apprentice was already recking shit up. The standard procedure is to start Quna concerts before a Dark Falz can start its attack.

Casra could have easily just secretly arrange for a meeting between Division heads and the commander in a secluded place while making sure no one else gets involved then brief them of the unregistered ARKS problem along with the discovery of Earth. Only problem this possible alternative plan poses is that it gives no reason for Ulc to bring Player-chan out of cryo sleep earlier to investigate the Earth problem.

[Meteor Weapon]

Was Episode 4 translated that far or are you just guessing whatever Casra had in mind and saying? I wouldn't be fast to judge but, then again sending Aika to Earth as a spy was a terrible choice, and she got lucky that people at Seiga are pretty moronic tho I don't think anyone could guess she's from ARKS but still attract a lot of attention anyway.

[Zeroem]

Besides, my concern was less so much that Casra kept secrets from Player-chan. The whole being frozen for 2 years thus, being out of the loop is obvious. My problem is that Casra kept secrets from the other higher ups of which his and every other division were specifically not meant to do yet he faced no repercussions for it. Now, I understand that the whole unregistered ARKS problem isn't an information that should be recklessly made known to everyone in an instant. I understand that Casra needed to avoid potential spies from knowing what they know. However, I just don't see why Casra needed to keep secrets from the other division members who are obviously not unregistered ARKS especially from its commander (Ulc). I'm not really sure whether Regius and Maria are in on the secret but keeping the commander out of the loop seems like an irresponsible thing to do. Its one thing to keep your enemies closer than your friends but its a pretty dumb move to potentially antagonize the allies you do have.

If the problem was that Casra didn't think of Ulc as a competent commander to be trusted with the info, well then who the hell is he to judge people's competence? Aika was his chosen spy to go undercover in Earth but she turned out to be a shitty spy who not only had terrible social skills as well as lacking in any sense of subtlety but ended up exposing herself to not one but two Earthlings (Itsuki and Kouta) during her mission. Only reason Aika didn't screw things up worse is because Seiga Academy students and teachers are morons. He even thought it was necessary to start a Quna concert while Dark Falz Apprentice was already recking shit up. The standard procedure is to start Quna concerts before a Dark Falz can start its attack.

Casra could have easily just secretly arrange for a meeting between Division heads and the commander in a secluded place while making sure no one else gets involved then brief them of the unregistered ARKS problem along with the discovery of Earth. Only problem this possible alternative plan poses is that it gives no reason for Ulc to bring Player-chan out of cryo sleep earlier to investigate the Earth problem.

Do remember that the current organization hierarchy was made to take over Shao's role (which is to supervise all over Oracle, not just ARKS). It could just meant that the other 'heroes' are just that busy to even wandering around Oracle just for chit-chat with other members. Not to add that the very chance of these heroes meeting with the spy on their duty is high, and the last thing people want is slip of knowledge to potential enemies that ARKS did not aware of at that time. Better to keep everyone out of the loop rather than make everyone informed, but possibility of fatal slip of tongue.

Besides, I think we already cover why Aika is the spy sent to Earth. You can't send Quna or any ARKS member that 'unregistered ARKS' knew from playing 'PSO2' to Earth since it would blow the spy mission fast. And to be fair it was purely by chance called coincidence that Aika blow her cover to Kouta. Who can predict Kouta would walk into where loud noises come from? (I mean who won't check if they hear loud noises nearby?)

[loafhero]

Do remember that the current organization hierarchy was made to take over Shao's role (which is to supervise all over Oracle, not just ARKS). It could just meant that the other 'heroes' are just that busy to even wandering around Oracle just for chit-chat with other members. Not to add that the very chance of these heroes meeting with the spy on their duty is high, and the last thing people want is slip of knowledge to potential enemies that ARKS did not aware of at that time. Better to keep everyone out of the loop rather than make everyone informed, but possibility of fatal slip of tongue.


I doubt Regius and Maria would so callously leak information to any random ARKS they met. Player-chan had to work really hard and resort to time travel to find out any info those two had been hiding during EP1 and EP2.... Huey and Claris Claes III, though?.... you might have a point there.



Besides, I think we already cover why Aika is the spy sent to Earth. You can't send Quna or any ARKS member that 'unregistered ARKS' knew from playing 'PSO2' to Earth since it would blow the spy mission fast. And to be fair it was purely by chance called coincidence that Aika blow her cover to Kouta. Who can predict Kouta would walk into where loud noises come from? (I mean who won't check if they hear loud noises nearby?)

Though, Kouta finding out about Aika wasn't 100% her fault, it can't be denied that she did a lousy job of keeping her true identity and intent a secret from Itsuki.

They wouldn't have recognized Zelsius Quna as she isn't an NPC that can be found in the lobby or shop area though and since Earthlings are really weak to young pretty faces, they wouldn't even bother to question the identity of a blue haired girl that kinda looks like Idol Quna. Sara would have been suited to undercover work on Earth too as she's also an NPC that can't be found in either the lobby or shop area. Actually, maybe Matoi too as in the anime, she was not found in her usual spot at the lobby area which was why Itsuki didn't recognize her when they first met so it can be safely said that unregistered ARKS aren't familiar with her.

[Zeroem]

Though, Kouta finding out about Aika wasn't 100% her fault, it can't be denied that she did a lousy job of keeping her true identity and intent a secret from Itsuki.

They wouldn't have recognized Zelsius Quna as she isn't an NPC that can be found in the lobby or shop area though and since Earthlings are really weak to young pretty faces, they wouldn't even bother to question the identity of a blue haired girl that kinda looks like Idol Quna. Sara would have been suited to undercover work on Earth too as she's also an NPC that can't be found in either the lobby or shop area. Actually, maybe Matoi too as in the anime, she was not found in her usual spot at the lobby area which was why Itsuki didn't recognize her when they first met so it can be safely said that unregistered ARKS aren't familiar with her.

The thing is, back in episode 3 of the anime, when Rina talked about the ESCA tower, they show sihlouette of 'story events' of PSO2. Might be red herring, but not really far fetched to think that Earthlings played the story mission. They could possibly knew about Quna's existence and other story-sensitive characters. Itsuki got the jail-free ticket since he's only recently 'play' PSO2

Besides, you can't make Quna went invisible forever. Remember, using Mai is dangerous for Quna's body (yes, that plot point is still there and unresolved), and intel gathering is best done with blending in. Also, it's not 'unregistered ARKS' that is dangerous and should be wary of. Mother Cluster member and Apostles are (whixh despite Casra's supposedly rich intel, was only recently known).

[CoWorker]

can someone tell me the reason why the Surgeon dude killed Belthor? i know its for incompetence but seriously killing their own allies is a stupid move on them cuz they already pissed off a intergalactic military organization that already bitched slapped a destroyer of the universe....

[Meteor Weapon]

Actually ARKS almost failed to stop PD if it wasn't for Persona turning back PD's time to the point before it warped in. ARKS simply weakened PD for Persona before it could devour the Naberius. Imagine if Mother Cluster hijacked Oracle and completely distracting ARKS from trying to stop PD when it decided to warp in anytime. I believe the most dangerous thing about Mother Cluster is that they don't even know what their dealing with and end up having PD destroying everything as a result, unless their version of Mother Brain has enough power to stop PD which I doubt it.

[loafhero]

The thing is, back in episode 3 of the anime, when Rina talked about the ESCA tower, they show sihlouette of 'story events' of PSO2. Might be red herring, but not really far fetched to think that Earthlings played the story mission. They could possibly knew about Quna's existence and other story-sensitive characters. Itsuki got the jail-free ticket since he's only recently 'play' PSO2

Besides, you can't make Quna went invisible forever. Remember, using Mai is dangerous for Quna's body (yes, that plot point is still there and unresolved), and intel gathering is best done with blending in. Also, it's not 'unregistered ARKS' that is dangerous and should be wary of. Mother Cluster member and Apostles are (whixh despite Casra's supposedly rich intel, was only recently known).

It shouldn't be possible for Story Quests to exist in the anime as that would imply that EVERYONE in the anime who has played PSO2 had been the main character, defeated Dark Falzes and have been the special person in Matoi's life. While Itsuki is new to PSO2 at the start, halfway through the anime he managed to level his character to lvl 50 which means that at least a lot of time had passed since Itsuki started PSO2. Its even possible that Dark Falz EQs don't exist in the anime as someone who has reached lvl 50 in PSO2 should have done at least one of it, otherwise Itsuki wouldn't have been clueless to the term "Dark Falz". Besides, Story Quest can easily be seen when talking to the Quest Counter NPCs so its doubtful that Itsuki would have skipped it especially since he was tasked to make reports of nearly everything there is to learn about PSO2.

Also, I never said Quna would need to use her cloaking ability. All she would need to do is to use her Zelsius hairstyle and personality or an entirely brand new look and personality for an undercover mission on Earth. Her acting and social skills are pretty good so she wouldn't need to rely on her Mai daggers to blend in.

I also think it made sense that Casra didn't have intel on the Mother Cluster members. They probably went unnoticed by Casra thanks to their normal day careers that don't actually raise any suspicions that they could secretly be part of an evil organization. Granted, each of them are somewhat famous within their specific professions but it couldn't have meant they had something to do with unregistered ARKS. Only Hagito would have been a suspect due to his corporation's ties with ESC.


can someone tell me the reason why the Surgeon dude killed Belthor? i know its for incompetence but seriously killing their own allies is a stupid move on them cuz they already pissed off a intergalactic military organization that already bitched slapped a destroyer of the universe....

For story purposes, its meant to show that these Mother Cluster members (or at least just Ophiel) are merciless individuals who aren't above murdering their own kind thus, making them an enemy meant to be taken a bit more seriously. Other than that, I guess Bethor was just too much of a loose canon to be considered trustworthy to their goal. Plus, they currently have 6 members (or 5, assuming Hagito was killed off for his failure) which is probably considered a suitable number for them to carry out their plans without much trouble.

[Zeroem]

It shouldn't be possible for Story Quests to exist in the anime as that would imply that EVERYONE in the anime who has played PSO2 had been the main character, defeated Dark Falzes and have been the special person in Matoi's life. While Itsuki is new to PSO2 at the start, halfway through the anime he managed to level his character to lvl 50 which means that at least a lot of time had passed since Itsuki started PSO2. Its even possible that Dark Falz EQs don't exist in the anime as someone who has reached lvl 50 in PSO2 should have done at least one of it, otherwise Itsuki wouldn't have been clueless to the term "Dark Falz". Besides, Story Quest can easily be seen when talking to the Quest Counter NPCs so its doubtful that Itsuki would have skipped it especially since he was tasked to make reports of nearly everything there is to learn about PSO2.

I did not imply that the story mission 'PSO2' have is the same as the one we have. They could just presented it in dialogues and cutscenes......just like storyboards. Remember, Mother Cluster got access to Oracle and fashioned it as 'PSO2'. Who knows what else they did gather while 'monitoring PSO2'. ARKS member dossier, perhaps?

Which is why sending Quna is super risky. The unknown factor whether her cover is already blown by Mother Cluster or not; not to add the possibility that 'players' can put two and two together that Zelsius Quna = Idol Quna. Besides, Quna is the right hand of Casra in the intel division. Someone with that high rank could be a better choice for intel mission, but Casra would risk losing more if the unseen enemies (Mother Cluster) captured Quna and perhaps utilize her Mai to invade ARKS. In short, Aika was expendable......in a sense, while Quna is not.


can someone tell me the reason why the Surgeon dude killed Belthor? i know its for incompetence but seriously killing their own allies is a stupid move on them cuz they already pissed off a intergalactic military organization that already bitched slapped a destroyer of the universe....

Loose translation of mine, but Belthor is too flashy and hinder the Mother's grand plan. Even flashier than a guy who's supposed to be a company CEO. I mean blowing up buildings, Enga's dorm, loose usage of explosives, wrecking the dorm yard + Tokyo Station, just outright chaos? That's just hard to be covered up, even with the help of Ethers and other Apostles.

[loafhero]

I did not imply that the story mission 'PSO2' have is the same as the one we have. They could just presented it in dialogues and cutscenes......just like storyboards. Remember, Mother Cluster got access to Oracle and fashioned it as 'PSO2'. Who knows what else they did gather while 'monitoring PSO2'. ARKS member dossier, perhaps?

Which is why sending Quna is super risky. The unknown factor whether her cover is already blown by Mother Cluster or not; not to add the possibility that 'players' can put two and two together that Zelsius Quna = Idol Quna. Besides, Quna is the right hand of Casra in the intel division. Someone with that high rank could be a better choice for intel mission, but Casra would risk losing more if the unseen enemies (Mother Cluster) captured Quna and perhaps utilize her Mai to invade ARKS. In short, Aika was expendable......in a sense, while Quna is not.
.

If Mother Cluster did have background info on most of ARKS, or rather, if Casra really did assume that Mother Cluster has said info, then why is it that he sent Aika undercover on Earth without requiring her to change her name or appearance? The most she changed was somehow hiding her Newman ears to look like Human ears and giving herself a surname (Suzuki) but other than that, if Mother really did have background info on Aika then they'd easily discover that she's an ARKS especially since she didn't really did a good job of hiding the fact that she's a real ARKS evident by how "seriously" she took PSO2. Not to mention how she made her superhuman feats easily seen in public (during a basketball match at school and when helping a lost kid in a mall).

Sure, there is the fact that Aika never appeared before in EP1, 2 and 3 but she couldn't be seen as a no-name ARKS because she works under a well known member of the Three Heroes. They'd definitely pay attention to reputable ARKS members and anyone affiliated with them.

Furthermore, if the problem was the risk of Quna's Mai daggers being reverse engineered to be used against ARKS, then just don't let Quna use her Mai Daggers for an undercover mission. The point of an undercover mission is to blend in among people, not to be unnoticed by them as undercover missions require extracting info by directly talking with people. Its not like Quna is terrible at conventional stealth/undercover and it would have been a great way to deter Quna from slowly killing herself from extensive use of her Mai daggers.

Also, while Quna being Casra's second-in-command does make her more of a valuable asset than Aika, considering how serious the whole unregistered ARKS problem is, it would have been wiser to send someone Casra trusts more than some newcomer ARKS of who Casra probably doesn't know very well. Quna had already proven herself to be excellent at extracting intel and staying undercover as seen in EP2's Chapter 5. Yes, its risky to send in someone that isn't expendable but its also risky to send in someone who might not be that good at being a spy. At the end of the day, getting successful results on a mission is more of a priority than losing your best subordinate, no?

[TehCubey]

can someone tell me the reason why the Surgeon dude killed Belthor? i know its for incompetence but seriously killing their own allies is a stupid move on them cuz they already pissed off a intergalactic military organization that already bitched slapped a destroyer of the universe....

Something something you have failed us, you're destroying things we're supposed to be ruling over, no better than our enemies etc.

Now the real reason:
It's a VA joke. The surgeon guy is voiced by Takehito Koyasu, who also voiced Dio from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure... as well as many, many other characters. This guy is all over in anime.

[Zeroem]

If Mother Cluster did have background info on most of ARKS, or rather, if Casra really did assume that Mother Cluster has said info, then why is it that he sent Aika undercover on Earth without requiring her to change her name or appearance? The most she changed was somehow hiding her Newman ears to look like Human ears and giving herself a surname (Suzuki) but other than that, if Mother really did have background info on Aika then they'd easily discover that she's an ARKS especially since she didn't really did a good job of hiding the fact that she's a real ARKS evident by how "seriously" she took PSO2. Not to mention how she made her superhuman feats easily seen in public (during a basketball match at school and when helping a lost kid in a mall).

Sure, there is the fact that Aika never appeared before in EP1, 2 and 3 but she couldn't be seen as a no-name ARKS because she works under a well known member of the Three Heroes. They'd definitely pay attention to reputable ARKS members and anyone affiliated with them.

Furthermore, if the problem was the risk of Quna's Mai daggers being reverse engineered to be used against ARKS, then just don't let Quna use her Mai Daggers for an undercover mission. The point of an undercover mission is to blend in among people, not to be unnoticed by them as undercover missions require extracting info by directly talking with people. Its not like Quna is terrible at conventional stealth/undercover and it would have been a great way to deter Quna from slowly killing herself from extensive use of her Mai daggers.

Also, while Quna being Casra's second-in-command does make her more of a valuable asset than Aika, considering how serious the whole unregistered ARKS problem is, it would have been wiser to send someone Casra trusts more than some newcomer ARKS of who Casra probably doesn't know very well. Quna had already proven herself to be excellent at extracting intel and staying undercover as seen in EP2's Chapter 5. Yes, its risky to send in someone that isn't expendable but its also risky to send in someone who might not be that good at being a spy. At the end of the day, getting successful results on a mission is more of a priority than losing your best subordinate, no?

Well, even if the choice to send Quna for the spy mission and forbid her from using Mai do exist; Aika is still the most sensible choice. Quna is a better spy, but she led a double life as an idol for the entire ship under Oracle. And as real JP idol business proved, idol life is quite harsh and heavily monitored by her fans. Quna can't afford to went missing for a long time, even if the goal are for ARKS' safety. If Quna went missing for more than 6 months (or the exact time of Aika's intel gathering period), that would raise questions and uproars; not only to her fans at Oracle, but also her Earthling fans and possibly Mother Cluster (assuming that she is listed as 'PSO2 live event' by Mother Cluster).

Also, if we turn our way of thinking around, even though Aika was really bad in using Earthling's common sense and led some people to discover her true identity; at the end of day, she did what Casra asked her for. Gathering intel about Earth. Gaining Itsuki (and the rest of his misfit crew) as ally for ARKS is just pure coincidence and a side bonus.

[loafhero]

Well, even if the choice to send Quna for the spy mission and forbid her from using Mai do exist; Aika is still the most sensible choice. Quna is a better spy, but she led a double life as an idol for the entire ship under Oracle. And as real JP idol business proved, idol life is quite harsh and heavily monitored by her fans. Quna can't afford to went missing for a long time, even if the goal are for ARKS' safety. If Quna went missing for more than 6 months (or the exact time of Aika's intel gathering period), that would raise questions and uproars; not only to her fans at Oracle, but also her Earthling fans and possibly Mother Cluster (assuming that she is listed as 'PSO2 live event' by Mother Cluster).

Also, if we turn our way of thinking around, even though Aika was really bad in using Earthling's common sense and led some people to discover her true identity; at the end of day, she did what Casra asked her for. Gathering intel about Earth. Gaining Itsuki (and the rest of his misfit crew) as ally for ARKS is just pure coincidence and a side bonus.

Except that Aika herself could return to Oracle at any time to do some questing as seen in the anime which could mean that she's not required to stay on Earth 24/7 for some reason. Quna concerts lasts for about 4-5 minutes so if Quna were to be given the undercover mission, should she need to return to Oracle to do a stage performance, she wouldn't be leaving Earth for that long. We also don't know just how similar a JP Idol's life is to an Oracle Idol. As far as we know, Quna's idol schedule isn't really that tight as she doesn't do things like handshake events, TV interviews or autograph signing events though we do know she does bikini photos (with her own handpicked photo crew) and advertised herself as a restaurant mascot for Franka's cafe at some point (based on EP3 Material Collection artwork and the actual "Waitress Quna" picture).

Yes, Aika did ultimately get the job done but it was arguably more because of dumb luck than skill.

[Zeroem]

Except that Aika herself could return to Oracle at any time to do some questing as seen in the anime which could mean that she's not required to stay on Earth 24/7 for some reason. Quna concerts lasts for about 4-5 minutes so if Quna were to be given the undercover mission, should she need to return to Oracle to do a stage performance, she wouldn't be leaving Earth for that long. We also don't know just how similar a JP Idol's life is to an Oracle Idol. As far as we know, Quna's idol schedule isn't really that tight as she doesn't do things like handshake events, TV interviews or autograph signing events though we do know she does bikini photos (with her own handpicked photo crew) and advertised herself as a restaurant mascot for Franka's cafe at some point (based on EP3 Material Collection artwork and the actual "Waitress Quna" picture).

Yes, Aika did ultimately get the job done but it was arguably more because of dumb luck than skill.

To be fair, the only idol activites that we knew Quna do is the concert. Is there more activities that Quna did as idol? Definitely. Do we knew about it? Just barely. And again, Quna did singing tour to every ship in Oracle (not just one ship) just for her singing gig. That 4 to 5 minutes concert time can easily bloated to hours. Also, again, Quna are possibly on Mother Cluster's watch, since both version of Quna is a prominent figure.

[loafhero]

To be fair, the only idol activites that we knew Quna do is the concert. Is there more activities that Quna did as idol? Definitely. Do we knew about it? Just barely. And again, Quna did singing tour to every ship in Oracle (not just one ship) just for her singing gig. That 4 to 5 minutes concert time can easily bloated to hours. Also, again, Quna are possibly on Mother Cluster's watch, since both version of Quna is a prominent figure.

If Quna can take the time out as Zelsius Quna to either carry out an assassination, interrogating random ARKS through threats or going on a personal vendetta for who knows how long or just to visit Hadred's grave/lingering spirit, I'm sure her Idol schedule doesn't really take too much of her time.

Also, while Idol Quna is a very prominent figure, has it been confirmed that Zelsius Quna is? I'm pretty sure Zelsius Quna makes her appearance known to very few people.

Just as a reminder, when Sierra was briefing Player-chan of the new Hierarchy system, when she pointed to Casra's division, Quna (both Idol and Zelsius) and no one else was shown to be mentioned within Casra's division (unlike the other Division Leaders who are normally listed together with a second-in-command i.e. Regius & Zeno, Maria & Sara, Huey & Claris Claes III) which suggests that anyone affiliated with Casra's division are kept anonymous.

[Zeroem]

If Quna can take the time out as Zelsius Quna to either carry out an assassination, interrogating random ARKS through threats or going on a personal vendetta for who knows how long or just to visit Hadred's grave/lingering spirit, I'm sure her Idol schedule doesn't really take too much of her time.

I'm afraid that case you mentioned above is kind of invalid at this point, since that happened on EP1 (more than 2 years ago since us first saw her), back when Quna are still wishy-washy about her idol life.


Just as a reminder, when Sierra was briefing Player-chan of the new Hierarchy system, when she pointed to Casra's division, Quna (both Idol and Zelsius) and no one else was shown to be mentioned within Casra's division (unlike the other Division Leaders who are normally listed together with a second-in-command i.e. Regius & Zeno, Maria & Sara, Huey & Claris Claes III) which suggests that anyone affiliated with Casra's division are kept anonymous.

Also, the hierarchy picture indirectly mentioned here are not meant to show everyone affiliated with the division; and just show the head and second-in-command [SPOILER-BOX]http://i.imgur.com/1wLSoi5.png[/SPOILER-BOX]
Which means that Aika name was indeed not meant to be mentioned on the chart. When you're showing the hierarchy tree for explaining where the old head was, mentioning the new subordinates are not on the priority.

[loafhero]

I'm afraid that case you mentioned above is kind of invalid at this point, since that happened on EP1 (more than 2 years ago since us first saw her), back when Quna are still wishy-washy about her idol life.


I'm pretty sure her Idol gig was going smoothly following the standard ship-to-ship tour schedule she had. She may have been wishy washy about it, but she was still adhering to her schedule (which I still don't think is particularly too cramped), aside from not doing any encores. Let's not forget that she spent most of EP2 digging up dirt on Luther and any secrets hidden by ARKS while her Idol career was still going smoothly.



Also, the hierarchy picture indirectly mentioned here are not meant to show everyone affiliated with the division; and just show the head and second-in-command [SPOILER-BOX]http://i.imgur.com/1wLSoi5.png[/SPOILER-BOX]

I admit that I erred in mentioning the hierarchy as Quna's name is indeed on the list under Casra's name... oddly enough.

[Meteor Weapon]

You know, is there any reason for her jump ship to ship just to perform? There's like hundreds of ship and it's impossible for her to jump around in just a single day, what with ARKS themselves being busy all-round. That one on the stage is most likely just her hologram.

[loafhero]

You know, is there any reason for her jump ship to ship just to perform? There's like hundreds of ship and it's impossible for her to jump around in just a single day, what with ARKS themselves being busy all-round. That one on the stage is most likely just her hologram.

Well, we did have Hatsune Miku perform on stage soooo...

[Sirius-91]

Well, we did have Hatsune Miku perform on stage soooo...
But she's as real as tupac was at coachella.

[Meteor Weapon]

Can anyone translate what was Olc(whatever her name is), The Math Prodigy said to us about 70% weak something?

[Sirius-91]

Can anyone translate what was Olc(whatever her name is), The Math Prodigy said to us about 70% weak something?

Och Miller, commenting how they were expecting us to be weak or something of the sort. Basically trying to evaluate us with math.

Full script here:

[SPOILER-BOX]全員でっていうから、どんなやつがいるのか
５０％期待してたのに……
どいつもこいつも、７０％ぐらい弱そう。


で、あのちんちくりんが、ヒツギっての？
１００％生意気そうだし
今ここでやっちゃおうよ、フル。

[/SPOILER-BOX]

[loafhero]

After some thinking, I realize that it actually makes sense that Och thinks Player-chan was weak. She was using Bethor as a measuring stick of Player-chan's power after all and Bethor wasn't much of a threat in a fight. I doubt Player-chan was actively trying to kill Bethor either because:

a) Bethor probably had more value alive as a prisoner than being dead;
b) Player-chan, despite his/her absurd kill count, has never committed actual murder (unless you count the Claris Claes III clones and Matoi in EP3's bad ending) and is an overall kind person.

In hindsight, its actually a good thing that the Apostles thinks Player-chan is weak because it means they'll underestimate Player-chan and be less prepared in the future.

[Meteor Weapon]

I'm not even sure if they got the memo that Player-chan somehow pushed back a colossal abomination that tried to eat a planet and the entire universe even in it's not so weakest state, because Hitsugi kinda got it before they started their first mission together in Ultimate Ruins.

[loafhero]

I'm not even sure if they got the memo that Player-chan somehow pushed back a colossal abomination that tried to eat a planet and the entire universe even in it's not so weakest state, because Hitsugi kinda got it before they started their first mission together in Ultimate Ruins.

They probably have no idea how powerful PD was as they've never encountered it before. Seeing is believing after all. If they really want to determine how strong Player-chan really is, they'd have to directly confront him/her or send in their strongest monster that they could throw.

Also, you could argue that the battle against PD isn't a good way of measuring Player-chan's power as he/she wasn't alone when they fought back against PD. Based on the cutscene that can be triggered after beating PD, Player-chan's canon MPA consisted of Oza & Marlu, Azanami & Io, Lisa & Fourier, Patty & Tia, and Matoi. Would've been hard for Mother Cluster to assess Player-chan's real strength on his/her own when up against PD when they had help from other ARKS and the ARKS Level thing that granted Player-chan a power boost from outside help. Not to mention, Persona managing to force a one-on-one confrontation at the last minute which prevented PD from unleashing what could've been a party wipe attack. The battle against PD was, canonically, a team effort and so Mother Cluster have a reason to assume that Player-chan isn't that strong when going solo.

So, in short, Mother Cluster does have a good reason to think that Player-chan is weak as frustrating as that is.

[Poyonche]

Yep this is frustrating.

Please, the only things they are able to do are summoning ugly monsters, and some weird things like creating some scalpels to kill people or TriangleSlash (Och). The other girl is just good to write stories while the old eyeless dude's life could be resumed as "I love rocks !".

How are they even able to talk of strenght ?

[Meteor Weapon]

Aika's CO on the new TA which required only Aika and Player-chan to complete it proved that Player-Chan is an extremely powerful ARKS ops that could manage 3 Hunar forms at once, even if it's a virtual reality(are all TA VR's?).Then again I'm not sure that's canon in the story.

That Dio wannabe just uses ether reinforced surgery knifes, a regular Force could spam Sabarta or Grants all day auto-locking it on their target which could kill a normal person easily.

[loafhero]

How are they even able to talk of strenght ?

Yeah, none of them actually have backgrounds and occupations that suggests any real life combat experience. Its possible that the reason their so confident in their combat capabilities is because they judge their power based on "human" standards of what is considered deadly. Think about it. You're a regular human being (with an amazing occupation and accomplishments) that suddenly gained powers that allows you to kill others with literally a snap of your fingers and summon monsters based of the deadliest beings on Earth. Why would you ever think that you'd need real combat experience when the powers given to you already break human standards of common sense? A regular human being granted with such power would definitely go a little crazy and overconfident. It doesn't help that the Apostles are cruel and lack empathy.

Its different with ARKS because despite their amazing power, their constantly facing monsters that are either bigger and stronger than them or severely outnumber them and have watched others die on the battlefield, all of which served as a humbling experience and a reminder of their mortality.

Off topic, I like to imagine that when we eventually fight Olc, she'll force to us to solve a math equation to get past a Phantom barrier :D The more equations we solve, the more damage we do to her ego.


Aika's CO on the new TA which required only Aika and Player-chan to complete it proved that Player-Chan is an extremely powerful ARKS ops that could manage 3 Hunar forms at once, even if it's a virtual reality(are all TA VR's?).Then again I'm not sure that's canon in the story.


Pretty sure that TAs and Extreme Quests are virtual reality training and aren't good ways of measuring an ARKS power. For example, Aika says that she has completed every quest available in the anime (presumably solo judging from her anti-social behaviour) yet she's far from one of the strongest ARKS as she can barely compete with the really strong ones like Matoi who can clear out several boosted enemies with ease and with a casual smile to boot along with Zeno. Besides, its only Aika who sees Player-chan's real power in that CO, not Mother Cluster.

[Poyonche]

Off topic, I like to imagine that when we eventually fight Olc, she'll force to us to solve a math equation to get past a Phantom barrier The more equations we solve, the more damage we do to her ego.

Sorry but she will attack us with triangles, data has talk. :wacko:

(And it looks like Phul will use grimoire and kind of play the role of Techer, as it looks like she heals and support, maybe Playaaaaa-Chan and Hitsugi VERSUS Och Miller and Phul giousdhyg ?)

[Meteor Weapon]

Loser: "演算の必要もない！/ Enzan no hitsuyou mo nai!/ There is no need for calculations!"

[Poyonche]

Wait so regarding Och...

Was she expecting us to be weak at 50% but she considers us weak at 70% ?
Or is it Player-chan weakness : 50%, Enga-boy : 70%, Hitsugi-Girl weakness : 100% ?

Google Translate sucks, I don't understand anything.

[Meteor Weapon]

My friend tried to translate, but since he has no idea context he just kinda direct translated it.

biOch: "You said it's "everybody" so I had about 50% expectations for them, but... they're like about 70% weak"

"So that shorty is the sheep? He/she seems 100% self-conceited"

[Altiea]

Question for earlier content: What is the "七の男神と十三の女神"?

[AutumnChronicle]

Question for earlier content: What is the "七の男神と十三の女神"?

Directly translating, it's the 7 Gods and 13 Goddesses. Whatever that means in context of EP4.

[Altiea]

It seems to be a group of Photoners that Aurora used to be a part of and became Genesis weapons. It sounds like their members were Aurora, Mai (became Mai), Labu (became Labrys), Flora (became Flowenvelg), Loto, Nanaki (became Nanaki), and Tam. I can't make out much else.

[oratank]

when was aurora mention their name?

[loafhero]

It seems to be a group of Photoners that Aurora used to be a part of and became Genesis weapons. It sounds like their members were Aurora, Mai (became Mai), Labu (became Labrys), Flora (became Flowenvelg), Loto, Nanaki (became Nanaki), and Tam. I can't make out much else.

Woah, that's interesting new info. I thought Aurora was the only being capable of transforming into a Genesis Weapon but turns out, every Genesis Weapon is made out of dead Photoners.... that's kinda metal. Makes sense too since Xion provided the "core" for each weapon (with Zieg doing all the crafting work) and almost every Photoner chose to become a part of Xion.

I always found it funny how Quna's Genesis Weapon had a name that sounded too cute to be taken seriously (granted, she has a job that actually requires her to be super cute) but now it makes sense. Heck, it now makes sense why Genesis Weapon users have to shout out the names of their weapons in overly dramatic fashion; their weapons have a living soul in it.

So, I'm guessing Loto became Yonohate (Regius's weapon) and Tam became Wolfram (Huey's weapon) or is the other way around?

INB4 Luther becomes a Genesis Weapon.

[Altiea]

In a sense, it also makes sense why Nanaki gets to "choose" its wielder. The keyword entry on the Seven Gods and 13 Goddesses has no data on Loto or Tam and simply states that they were members.

[Meteor Weapon]

Oh wow, now i wished Ep4 focused on the ancient civilization of photoners instead of Urf

[loafhero]

In a sense, it also makes sense why Nanaki gets to "choose" its wielder. The keyword entry on the Seven Gods and 13 Goddesses has no data on Loto or Tam and simply states that they were members.

So, in total there should be 20 Genesis Weapons and currently only 7 known Genesis Weapons so far in the story (including Aurora but excluding Claris Claes III's fake Clarissa) which leaves only 13 Genesis Weapons assuming the other missing Photoners can even turn into a Genesis Weapon.

Looks like there's hope for Playa-chan acquiring a Genesis Weapon of their own, after all. The only kind of Genesis Weapon that would make sense for Playa-chan is the kind that can transform into any type of weapon and acts as a temporary super mode instead of as an item that can be stored in the inventory (there's no way the game would ever eliminate the need to collect more rares). Or maybe a Genesis Armor just for the sake of being different.


Oh wow, now i wished Ep4 focused on the ancient civilization of photoners instead of Urf

A part of me wishes that PSO2's story did something similar to Halo 4 and make it focus on discovering and fighting the ancient civilization of the respective game's lore. I mean, both PSO2 EP4 and Halo 4's story starts off with the main protagonist waking up from cryo sleep after a few years and suddenly facing a brand new enemy type on an "alien" planet.

[AutumnChronicle]

A part of me wishes that PSO2's story did something similar to Halo 4 and make it focus on discovering and fighting the ancient civilization of the respective game's lore. I mean, both PSO2 EP4 and Halo 4's story starts off with the main protagonist waking up from cryo sleep after a few years and suddenly facing a brand new enemy type on an "alien" planet.

They've already done that (kinda) in PSU and Portable 2 though. Not that I hated the Ancients.

[loafhero]

They've already done that (kinda) in PSU and Portable 2 though. Not that I hated the Ancients.

Never played Portable 2 but PSU's story, or at least just the characters, kinda sucked.

[Altiea]

About Ultimate Amduscia: According to the keyword entry on the Ultimate Areas, only Naberius and Lillipa were affected by the Profound Darkness's influence, and it's implied that the drastic change to the surroundings is the result of temporal distortion/displacement. There is no reason in-story for Ultimate Amduscia to exist.

[Saffran]

Altiea > So episode 2 never happened? Sounds like a dumb mistake on Sega's part.

[yoshiblue]

If I remember correctly, Amducia doesn't have a known falz sealed inside of it, and at best got a darker invasion that was warded off by Arks and the dragonkin. Just Luther and his shenanigans.

[Meteor Weapon]

Darker's infections are still running around in Amduscia, so Ultimate Amduscia might be Kashina trying to ward it off but end up failing or there's a hidden Dark Falz we don't know of. Or worse content case scenario, phantoms reached Amduscia for some reason and started to mutate Dragonkin's and I prefer not that to happen.

[Altiea]

Darker's infections are still running around in Amduscia, so Ultimate Amduscia might be Kashina trying to ward it off but end up failing or there's a hidden Dark Falz we don't know of. Or worse content case scenario, phantoms reached Amduscia for some reason and started to mutate Dragonkin's and I prefer not that to happen.

SEGA could also pull a fast one and retcon their own supplementary material.

[Raujinn]

This is just a dumb connection don't read into it much...

But the Mother Cluster folks and Amduscia's Dragonkin sure do like cubes :wacko:

[NoobSpectre]

This is just a dumb connection don't read into it much...

But the Mother Cluster folks and Amduscia's Dragonkin sure do like cubes :wacko:

We ourselves have enough reasons to like cubes.

[loafhero]

I still have no idea what exactly Ro' Kamiz is other than that she seems to be a supercomputer and is the source for the unusually high tech stuff found around Amduscia.

I was always under the impression that Ultimate Amduscia is simply a hidden undiscovered part of the planet where a brand new Dragonkin clan resides in.

And Ulimate Lilipa is also affected by PD? I thought it was just an area where the more advanced Lilipa Mechs are being manufactured.

[Meteor Weapon]

In story, Aurora herself mentions that Ultimate Lilipa is an unstable area filled with time and space distortions, and while she did not mention the cause, it was obviously Dark Falz Apprentice's body and Anga Fundarge causing it. Lilipa was also one of the planets that PD was supposed to warp in, but was left unused.

[Altiea]

Considering that all of the Tunnels we come across in Lillipa are dilapidated and out of use, it's possible that Ultimate Lillipa is actually Lillipa of the distant past, if it was temporally displaced by PD.

[D-Inferno]

Profound Darkness isn't really gone; so Ultimate Amduscia's back story could be similar but slightly different. Would be nice to get away from the Earth nonsense.

[AutumnChronicle]

Ultimate Amduscia doesn't necessarily have to involve PD or Darkers imo, it'd be a great opportunity for them to throw in something new.

[loafhero]

Ultimate Amduscia doesn't necessarily have to involve PD or Darkers imo, it'd be a great opportunity for them to throw in something new.

Like instead of Ult Nab's mutant apocalypse or Ult Lili's advanced past, Ult Amduscia could be an opportunity to introduce a brand new Dragonkin clan with the Ultimate Dragonkin's reasons for being stronger is simply because their better trained and evolved better than the other clans.

[Meteor Weapon]

And they'd still need to find a reason why ARKS be invading attacking them in the first place. ARKS doesn't really need to be there in the first place unless Ro Kamitsu requested them to do so(which is very unlikely, it's not really ARKS's bussiness in the first place to deal with their clan problem) or Darkers found something deep wtihin Amduscia and started wrecking havoc and corrupting stuff.

[loafhero]

And they'd still need to find a reason why ARKS be invading attacking them in the first place. ARKS doesn't really need to be there in the first place unless Ro Kamitsu requested them to do so(which is very unlikely, it's not really ARKS's bussiness in the first place to deal with their clan problem) or Darkers found something deep wtihin Amduscia and started wrecking havoc and corrupting stuff.
Its not their business but maintaining good relations with the Dragonkin is important.

[AutumnChronicle]

Dragonkin civil war maybe? They could always do a throwback to the secret experimentation on Hadred and the chrome dragons, like maybe they didn't reconvert into souls properly like normal dragonkin and got super-corrupted or something. Not sure how popular Quna is but if Matoi isn't coming back yet I'd rather play with Quna than Hitsugi.

[Altiea]

Speaking of Quna, the directors are pretty much retiring Quna for any EP4 Live Stage content. Thought I'd throw that out there.

[Meteor Weapon]

Dragonkin civil war maybe? They could always do a throwback to the secret experimentation on Hadred and the chrome dragons, like maybe they didn't reconvert into souls properly like normal dragonkin and got super-corrupted or something. Not sure how popular Quna is but if Matoi isn't coming back yet I'd rather play with Quna than Hitsugi.

Unlike naturally born Dragonkins from Amduscia, Hadred and the rest of the chrome dragon don't go through soul-phasing process and reincarnate, so that's out of the picture.

[loafhero]

Unlike naturally born Dragonkins from Amduscia, Hadred and the rest of the chrome dragon don't go through soul-phasing process and reincarnate, so that's out of the picture.

Actually, its not really confirmed 100% if that's true or not. Quna could definitely feel Hadred's soul around the Dragon's Altar area but Ro' Kamiz could not guarantee if an artificial Dragonkin like Hadred can be reincarnated or not.

From a story perspective, I'd prefer that Hadred stay dead because I think that his death at the end of EP1 was done well and bringing him back to life would take away the impact of EP1's finale.

Anyway, AutumnChronicle's suggestion of a Dragonkin civil war does sound plausible.


Speaking of Quna, the directors are pretty much retiring Quna for any EP4 Live Stage content. Thought I'd throw that out there.

Awww.

[Altiea]

Actually, its not really confirmed 100% if that's true or not. Quna could definitely feel Hadred's soul around the Dragon's Altar area but Ro' Kamiz could not guarantee if an artificial Dragonkin like Hadred can be reincarnated or not.

According to Materials Collection, that's a "no" on the reincarnating. So he's pretty dead.

[loafhero]

According to Materials Collection, that's a "no" on the reincarnating. So he's pretty dead.

Well, I'm actually glad that's the case.

Seriously, though. I am envious of the amount of info you got with the EP3 Material Collection in your hands.

[CrossOmega]

I have a fan theory on how Episode 4 is going to end.

In the climax, after Player-chan fight Big Mama herself, all her apostle will be like "How is that possible?!" and group attack Player-chan. Finally, the stress of Episode 4 and Earth finally hit boiling point of Player-chan and he/she speaks. Speak not in choose your option but rather with Persona voice. Turns out the Player-chan you were playing for the entirety of Episode 4 was actually Persona. Persona was captured at the time he/she met with Matoi post anime and when he/she got out of cold sleep, was amnesiac of the time he/she was a Dark Falz. Episode 4 pissed Persona so bad, the stress turned all his/her photons back to negative and he/she became the Profound Darkness again... such a shame for us considering it was already purified. He/She will proceed to corrupt Mother making her stronger and against Earth instead and disappears to wherever Profound Darkness like to rest when not dealing with ARKs. For the epilogue, we can have our real (to me) Player-chan and Matoi-chan truly wake up to deal with corrupted Mother.

This theory explains why we use Persona's double blade instead of our handy(?) gunslash. Turns out ARKs was also fighting a weakened clone of Profound Darkness this 2 years. Thus explaining how ARKs was able to beat it up without Player-chan & Matoi-chan's help and not really finding out that Persona was really us in the 1 v 1 part of the fight.

Tl;dr: Ep 4's Player chan was actually Persona and Earth finally got to him/her at the end.

Sucks that Sega won't definitely pull this plot twist knowing Sega :v

[Meteor Weapon]

They wont because of Dio Hunar's appearance right after Aika absorbed Apprentices essence.

[Poyonche]

I want Dio Hunar to make a surprise apparition on Earth and to wreck all of the Mama Cluster apostles

[loafhero]

Insert "But it was me, Dio!" meme.

[CrossOmega]

They wont because of Dio Hunar's appearance right after Aika absorbed Apprentices essence.

Maybe they caught Dio and lied bout it? :v

Well its only a theory.

[Altiea]

Insert "But it was me, Dio!" meme.

Someone please Photoshop this.

[Poyonche]

Someone please Photoshop this.

I made this one : [SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgflip.com/17ssit.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

And this : [SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgflip.com/17ssu7.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

[Meteor Weapon]

^That was Genius

[loafhero]

I made this one : [SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgflip.com/17ssit.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

And this : [SPOILER-BOX]https://i.imgflip.com/17ssu7.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

Thank you.

[Altiea]

It gets even better when you remember that PD has the ability to manipulate time (but not stop it, unfortunately).

Also, random tidbit I came across while perusing the interview pages: The writers have no reason for giving Dark Falz kanji names but making their titles Katakana. They did it because it was cool.

[ranrii]

So, in total there should be 20 Genesis Weapons and currently only 7 known Genesis Weapons so far in the story (including Aurora but excluding Claris Claes III's fake Clarissa) which leaves only 13 Genesis Weapons assuming the other missing Photoners can even turn into a Genesis Weapon.

Looks like there's hope for Playa-chan acquiring a Genesis Weapon of their own, after all. The only kind of Genesis Weapon that would make sense for Playa-chan is the kind that can transform into any type of weapon and acts as a temporary super mode instead of as an item that can be stored in the inventory (there's no way the game would ever eliminate the need to collect more rares). Or maybe a Genesis Armor just for the sake of being different.

Undiscardable weapon camo awarded after completing the mission that gives the player the Genesis Weapon would do. This way, better weapons would still have to be grinded for. Players will also be able to "summon" their Genesis Weapons by equipping their camo, and unequipping their camo would be like how the Council of Six uses regular mass-produced weapons for normal missions.

[Altiea]

Undiscardable weapon camo awarded after completing the mission that gives the player the Genesis Weapon would do. This way, better weapons would still have to be grinded for. Players will also be able to "summon" their Genesis Weapons by equipping their camo, and unequipping their camo would be like how the Council of Six uses regular mass-produced weapons for normal missions.

The problem being that if you put this in the player's inventory and make it count towards normal inventory space, it would steal a slot. It's not that significant when it's in your 500/600 slot storage, but when it's in your pack, you have one less slot to work with out of 50, which can be kind of annoying. There would have to be a way to exclude the camo from normal storage to implement such a thing. In addition, this doesn't take into account that the player can be any class in the game, unlike Genesis Weapon wielders who are usually locked into one class (hooray, 3rd Gen ARKS). It's inefficient to supply the player with a camo of one of every type of weapon, and the game has no way of knowing what class you like or what weapon you play with.

[黒雪Yacchi]

Your inventory can be expanded to 150, I don't see how 1 camo would be a problem.

[loafhero]

Undiscardable weapon camo awarded after completing the mission that gives the player the Genesis Weapon would do. This way, better weapons would still have to be grinded for. Players will also be able to "summon" their Genesis Weapons by equipping their camo, and unequipping their camo would be like how the Council of Six uses regular mass-produced weapons for normal missions.

Yeah, but that's no fun since its a Genesis Weapon that already canonically belongs to another character in the story. It would make Playa-chan look like a shameless copycat. I'd prefer a Genesis Weapon that's unique to our character only. It'd be awesome if we get to give it a name of our own thinking too.


It gets even better when you remember that PD has the ability to manipulate time (but not stop it, unfortunately).


Too bad Dio Hunar didn't completely absorb Loser's time stop ability.

[黒雪Yacchi]

Genesis camo that can be used for every weapon type in game

[TheszNuts]

Genesis camo that can be used for every weapon type in game

Universal camo, yay they're giving the player a Gunslash! Oh wait...

[Altiea]

Your inventory can be expanded to 150, I don't see how 1 camo would be a problem.

You have to pay AC for expansions, though.

[Zyrusticae]

Genesis camo that can be used for every weapon type in game
HEY GUYS, REMEMBER ME!?
http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/t650/CyberMeteor/Design%20Contest%202014/Versatile_zps3e72d144.jpg~original

You're allowed to cry. I did, too. :-(

[Cyber Meteor]

HEY GUYS, REMEMBER ME!?
http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/t650/CyberMeteor/Design%20Contest%202014/Versatile_zps3e72d144.jpg~original

You're allowed to cry. I did, too. :-(
Yeah i definitly remember that one, it was so awesome but it didn't got selected, what a waste! But i'm sure it was exactly for that reason it didn't got selected : it covered every weapon type:wacko:

[Poyonche]

HEY GUYS, REMEMBER ME!?
http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/t650/CyberMeteor/Design%20Contest%202014/Versatile_zps3e72d144.jpg~original

You're allowed to cry. I did, too. :-(

There is another item design contest, send it again but just add Tact ! :v

Edit : Nvm it ended 3 days ago.

[Meteor Weapon]

Sega's poor programming left out such a great design.

[Zyrusticae]

I do get the impression that, if they were ever to add such a camo, it would be at the conclusion of some kind of special challenge or event near the end of the game's lifespan. Since such a design would obviate the need for any other weapon camos, obviously it would cut into their profits to release it. But once the game reaches its end-of-life stage, that would no longer be a concern.

On the flip side, they could just stick it in a scratch, as the demand would be sky-high. However, the amount of complaints for the incredibly low odds of getting it would inundate all of their communication channels. Worth it? :confused:

[Maninbluejumpsuit]

There is another item design contest, send it again but just add Tact ! :v

Edit : Nvm it ended 3 days ago.

Is there a link to some of the entries this time?

On topic: I have a question about the bit of EP4's story I was forced to do for the P & T mag device.

What's Kohri's deal? Why did she drink the mother cluster crazy koolaid and want Hitsugi, and Aru to come with? On that note, why was the pervert interested in them?

[AutumnChronicle]

What's Kohri's deal? Why did she drink the mother cluster crazy koolaid and want Hitsugi, and Aru to come with? On that note, why was the pervert interested in them?

My memory's a little fuzzy but from what I can recall, she basically is super clingy and thought Hitsugi was abandoning her 5ever. There's something about Mother saving her from loneliness, so her accompanying Hitsugi to Oracle and leaving Mother Cluster herself is out of the question too.

As for Aru, Mother Cluster wanted to get him because they were curious about his origins since he was neither ARKS nor an Earthling. Something along those lines, please feel free to correct me.

[Sirius-91]

What's Kohri's deal? Why did she drink the mother cluster crazy koolaid and want Hitsugi, and Aru to come with? On that note, why was the pervert interested in them?
Every mother cluster agent/apostle can hear Mother speak into their heads directly, and hitsugi could not as she switched sides by interacting with ARKS.
Kohri: "Mother just told me everything! Why can't you hear her Hitsugi!?"
Hagito: "Like I said. That child's a traitor. Mother had forsaken and disowned her."

[udon-GE]

that camo design, instead of camo, it actually has a worth of a 13 *weapon series

[loafhero]

Every mother cluster agent/apostle can hear Mother speak into their heads directly, and hitsugi could not as she switched sides by interacting with ARKS.
Kohri: "Mother just told me everything! Why can't you hear her Hitsugi!?"
Hagito: "Like I said. That child's a traitor. Mother had forsaken and disowned her."

They have a weird lady's voice speaking inside their heads?... No wonder Kohri seemed like she had a few screws loose in the head, even by anime highschool girl standards. Heck, it probably explains why Kohri and Hitsugi don't seem to have many friends besides each other. Who'd want to be friends with a girl with voices in her head? :D

[Sirius-91]

They have a weird lady's voice speaking inside their heads?... No wonder Kohri seemed like she had a few screws loose in the head, even by anime highschool girl standards. Heck, it probably explains why Kohri and Hitsugi don't seem to have many friends besides each other.

Kohri didn't have mother speaking to her until hitsugi came back forcibly via code olympia. Mother would have chosen Hitsugi too if she handed over Aru. Kohri's only friend is Hitsugi, and like a creepy yandere, ensures that the same goes for Hitsugi.


Who'd want to be friends with a girl with voices in her head?
Our PC is friends with Sara.

[Great Pan]

Can't we just kill them Mazaa Kasta all and take over the Earth by ourselves? Coz we're ARKZ! The Space Piratez!

[loafhero]

Kohri didn't have mother speaking to her until hitsugi came back forcibly via code olympia. Mother would have chosen Hitsugi too if she handed over Aru. Kohri's only friend is Hitsugi, and like a creepy yandere, ensures that the same goes for Hitsugi.


Oh, so she really is just a regular creep.



Our PC is friends with Sara.

What I mean is that some people wouldn't want to be friends with someone who says or looks like their speaking to a voice inside their head unless there's a reasonable circumstance behind it.

Yeah, Playa-chan is friends with Sara but we didn't know that she had a voice in her head for all of EP1. In EP1, Sara was just that cute cliche tsundere girl who hangs around with Maria.

Even in EP2, Sara didn't just outright tell us she has a person speaking in her mind like "Hey, did you know I hear voices in my head?". She introduced Xiao to us first before we learned about their telepathic bond (and said revelation came from Xiao first). Even then, when Sara does telepathically communicate with Xiao, she looks like she's speaking through a comm earpiece (with her hand placed on her ear) instead of like a crazy person.


Can't we just kill them Mazaa Kasta all and take over the Earth by ourselves? Coz we're ARKZ! The Space Piratez!

After seeing those few seconds of that Gothic Apostle Lady (Phaleg, was it?) in action in the Vegas update trailer from the latest livestream, I'm actually convinced that might not be an easy task. While Hagito and Bethor gave a pathetic (but entertaining) impression of Mother Cluster and Ophiel's multi-scalpel kill doesn't look like an attack we can't dodge or Just Guard are way out, lets not forget that Hagito's Yamato forced ARKS to use AISs against them. ARKS won but if a wimp like Hagito could summon something of that power, then other Mother Cluster members that are stronger than him are at least deserving of being taken a little more seriously.

[Poyonche]

So you're telling me that we might fight "Phantom Mathbook College Edition" or "Phantom Deadly Scalpel"? :wacko:

[Eternal255]

Would anyone be able to provide a summary of the events in the ep4 story so far? I can't recall when I last checked into the story, but I am curious as to what is happening and whether I should just play the untranslated story right now.

[loafhero]

Would anyone be able to provide a summary of the events in the ep4 story so far? I can't recall when I last checked into the story, but I am curious as to what is happening and whether I should just play the untranslated story right now.

Our character is awakened from a 2 year cryo sleep to investigate the strange occurrence of "Unregistered" ARKS. Together with new personal navigator, Xierra, our character starts his/her investigation by joining one of the "Unregistered" ARKS on a mission. Said Unregistered ARKS is called Hitsugi, in reality, a teenage girl from Earth (which exists in a different dimension than the PSO2 world) who "plays" PSO2 through her created character. A mysterious Dark Falz creature suddenly attacks Hitsugi and our character. Our character fends it off but Hitsugi is caught off guard and is nearly consumed. Our character saves her but Hitsugi quickly logs out fearing for her safety. Doing so in a rushed manner caused her created character to be brought together with her on Earth.

The Phantoms, EP4's new enemy type, attack Hitsugi and her created character eventually named Aru. Our character saves them. Afterwards, we spend most of the story monitoring Hitsugi's personal life... for her safety and in the security interest of ARKS. During this monitoring phase, the viewers are introduced to Hitsugi's best friend, Kohri. After finally deciding to directly contact Hitsugi into meeting our character and Xierra personally together with Aru, Hitsugi attracts the attention of Mother Cluster, the evil organization that made her into an Unregistered ARKS for the purpose of spying on ARKS. Mother Cluster is displeased with Hitsugi's "betrayal", especially Kohri who is also a member. At the same time, they want to capture Aru whose entire existence has potential benefits for Mother Cluster's plans. After our character saves Hitsugi (again) from another Phantom attack, Hitsugi and Aru are brought into Oracle where she is properly introduced and acquainted with the NPCs. Feeling regret for her involvement with Mother Cluster and a sense of responsibility for Mother Cluster's actions, Hitsugi decides to side with ARKS to put a stop to Mother Cluster.

The rest of the story so far is mainly protecting Hitsugi and Aru from Mother Cluster's repeated attempts to eliminate or capture her and Aru. We also learn later on that that there is an Anti-Mother Cluster group on Earth that allies with ARKS. Hitsugi's older brother, Enga, happens to be apart of it and joins the fight against Mother Cluster.

Mother Cluster is led by a mysterious woman named Mother who seemingly holds a grudge against ARKS for unknown reasons.

[Eternal255]

Thanks loafhero, really appreciate it. Didn't know anything about the Mother Cluster group and was wondering why the story just kept showing random scenes of Hitsugi's life.

[Poyonche]

Also, if I remember correctly, one of MAZA CLASTA objective is to make PSO2 a bug-free game. Now I let you think what they are considering as "bug" and why we have to stop them. :wacko:

[Meteor Weapon]

Mind controlling/brain-washing, what else? Here's hoping PD would still have any relation with the story.

[loafhero]

Also, if I remember correctly, one of MAZA CLASTA objective is to make PSO2 a bug-free game. Now I let you think what they are considering as "bug" and why we have to stop them. :wacko:

I was under the impression that the whole "checking for bugs in the game" thing was really a lie Mother Cluster tells their chosen spies. Whenever an innocent Unregistered ARKS who are part of Mother Cluster similar to Hitsugi reports to them about any "bugs" they see, what they are unknowingly doing is providing sensitive information about ARKS that Mother Cluster intends to use to destroy ARKS while simultaneously remaining one step ahead of ARKS.

By the way, there is a Youtube channel by a user named Kanzanboshi that's providing English subs (through Youtube's closed captions) for the first part of EP4. Cutscenes like our character's reunion with Io, introduction to Pietro along with the cutscenes where we monitor Hitsugi's adventures with Aru and Kohri have been subbed so far.

[Poyonche]

I was under the impression that the whole "checking for bugs in the game" thing was really a lie Mother Cluster tells their chosen spies. Whenever an innocent Unregistered ARKS who are part of Mother Cluster similar to Hitsugi reports to them about any "bugs" they see, what they are unknowingly doing is providing sensitive information about ARKS that Mother Cluster intends to use to destroy ARKS while simultaneously remaining one step ahead of ARKS.

Oh yeah, now that you are telling this...

[Eternal255]

By the way, there is a Youtube channel by a user named Kanzanboshi that's providing English subs (through Youtube's closed captions) for the first part of EP4. Cutscenes like our character's reunion with Io, introduction to Pietro along with the cutscenes where we monitor Hitsugi's adventures with Aru and Kohri have been subbed so far.

Awesome, I'll definitely check it out. Thanks.

[Zysets]

Mother Cluster is led by a mysterious woman named Mother who seemingly holds a grudge against ARKS for unknown reasons.

I got through maybe just under half way through Episode 3 before I stopped keeping up, but do we know what happens to Apprentice? I know Eucreta is back, but what about the actual Apprentice? I imagine Apprentice would have a good reason for holding a grudge, plus the shadow at the beginning is supposedly similar to a Falz.

[Sirius-91]

I got through maybe just under half way through Episode 3 before I stopped keeping up, but do we know what happens to Apprentice? I know Eucreta is back, but what about the actual Apprentice? I imagine Apprentice would have a good reason for holding a grudge, plus the shadow at the beginning is supposedly similar to a Falz.

TD4 has you seal it every time.

[Zysets]

TD4 has you seal it every time.

Ah yeah, completely slipped my mind. You'd think I'd remember that, oh well.
I'd still like to think it's the case, because they mention that shadow was similar to a Falz, but they don't seem to ever talk about it again.

[Altiea]

Mind that the essence of Apprentice was also dealt with in the anime (Aika absorbed it, but had to be purified).

[loafhero]

I hope that the shadow creature that attacked Hitsugi is a new Dark Falz. It'd be pretty interesting to see what a Dark Falz in direct service to a proper Profound Darkness (one with a host) would be like. Previous Dark Falzes have either been doing whatever the hell they want (Apprentice, Elder, Loser, Persona) or focused on reviving PD (Double).

I think someone else had theorised that Aru is actually a vessel to the Falz creature that attacked Hitsugi. Playa-chan was unable to 100% complete the purification of Hitsugi while in PSO2 due to her panicking and logging out the moment her hand could move. It would somewhat explain why Aru, a created character, could suddenly be brought into Earth. Only downside to this possible plot is that it would be repeating the Matoi situation all over again.

[loafhero]

So, new Story update just came out. To summarize to the best of my understanding:

- Enga is already in the Bridge area, commenting on how advanced ARKS is. Enga is then properly introduced to Aru and both quickly accept each other as siblings with a brotherly hug. After annoying Hitsugi for a bit, Enga then explains about the organization he's a part of called "Earth Guide".

- Second cutscene has Enga questioning Hitsugi's resolve and motivation. Hitsugi doesn't give a straight answer. Hitsugi and Enga then get into an argument, with Hitsugi seemingly challenging her brother to a fight to prove her resolve but Aru yells at them to stop and focus on their current objective.

- Third cutscene which takes place at the shop area has Playa-chan and Enga talking. The topic being about Enga and Hitsugi's late parents (FYI, back in Story Board 31-C, Hitsugi has an inner monologue talking about how her parents died in an accident 5 years before the start of Episode 4).

- Fourth cutscene, Hitsugi complains about her brother with Aru listening. Soon afterwards, a special person overhears Hitsugi's loud complaining and helps to console Hitsugi over her Onii-chan issues:
[SPOILER-BOX]MA-TO-IIIIIIIIIIII!!![/SPOILER-BOX]
Sadly, Playa-chan does not have a direct reunion with said special person on-screen.

- Fifth cutscene, Playa-chan, Enga and Hitsugi arrive at Las Vegas and are confronted by Phaleg, the new Apostle. She teleports behind Playa-chan but he/she dodges Phaleg's OP handwave attack at the right time. Unlike Hagito (who doesn't fight at all) and Bethor (who's fighting style is too much of a joke)... Phaleg turns out to be kind of a badass. Her attacks consist of flame-powered kicks. After completing the boss fight, story-wise, there is no winner. While Playa-chan looks perfectly fine, Enga and Hitsugi are tired out.

Xierra, Hitsugi and Enga begin to question if Phaleg is even human as her abilities are quite super human. Phaleg teleports close to Hitsugi and casually throws her away at an absurd distance with seemingly little effort. Phaleg then comments that Playa-chan is quite impressive and is evidently more interested in fighting Playa-chan again. Phaleg then teleports away for some reason. Hitsugi's confidence is shaken by the curbstomping she received especially as Phaleg had taunted Hitsugi over how she could have easily killed Hitsugi if she wanted to.

- Next cutscene introduces the leader of Earth Guide but I'll comment on that later.

[Vatallus]

10/10 Would watch Phaleg chuck Hitsugi two blocks away again.

[Meteor Weapon]

Matoi said she feels nostalgic when she met Aru, well I wonder why? ....shit is Aru, Persona/Xion reborn or something?

Earth Guides has been around on earth since ancient times fighting against phantom beings, but something happened in 2016 that caused humanity to achieve rapid growth in technology, which is also around the same time Matoi was sent to the future. I'm willing to bet that PD did something.

So Hitsugi has lv2 Ether potential, where does Itsuki one shoting Apprentice fit in? Lv Kiritard?(sorry i still hate him for that)

[Kondibon]

I like how we kinda outclass the earth guides. I wonder if it's just Playa-Chan or the arks in general.


Matoi said she feels nostalgic when she met Aru, well I wonder why? ....shit is Aru, Persona/Xion reborn or something?Honestly, I've been thinking Aru is related to PD or the Falzes in some way due to what happened right before he appeared. I won't be surprised at all if he turns out to be made of negative photons or something.

[Poyonche]

en_char23_kr.ice has been added (and some phantom enemies), she (because I guess we might know who it is) will use attacks equivalent to "SABATA" (yush, spelled like that), Over End and Rising Edge.

And there are, of course, story board icons that haven't be used yet, I'll upload them in spoiler box soon.

Edit : There, I actually decided to just put them on imgur so nobody see those pictures accidently. :wacko:
http://imgur.com/a/Tzo0Y

[EspeonageTieler]

I like how we kinda outclass the earth guides. I wonder if it's just Playa-Chan or the arks in general.

Honestly, I've been thinking Aru is related to PD or the Falzes in some way due to what happened right before he appeared. I won't be surprised at all if he turns out to be made of negative photons or something.

inb4 hes the final boss of the episode and cucks the PC

[Poyonche]

inb4 hes the final boss of the episode and cucks the PC

Isn't this dude (in spoiler-box) looking like Aru ?

[SPOILER-BOX]http://i.imgur.com/XARd8aV.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]

[Koishi]

Isn't this dude (in spoiler-box) looking like Aru ?

[SPOILER-BOX]http://i.imgur.com/XARd8aV.jpg[/SPOILER-BOX]
[SPOILER-BOX]His costume looks like the male ver of Apprentice's costume [/SPOILER-BOX]

[loafhero]

Edit : There, I actually decided to just put them on imgur so nobody see those pictures accidently. :wacko:
http://imgur.com/a/Tzo0Y

[SPOILER-BOX]Yup, as theorised before, Aru is a Falz vessel.

Messy black-haired girl might be Kohri aka the hooded girl in the Mother Cluster group shown before.

Dem spiky shoulder pads on Huey.[/SPOILER-BOX]

[Kondibon]

Does Lisa have some sort of gun boner for Enga?

[loafhero]

Does Lisa have some sort of gun boner for Enga?

She has a gun boner for anything that moves.

[Sirius-91]

[SPOILER-BOX]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDgskpEtezQ&feature=youtu.be[/SPOILER-BOX]

[loafhero]

[SPOILER-BOX]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDgskpEtezQ&feature=youtu.be[/SPOILER-BOX]
Important exposition scene with fun-looking animations but I would appreciate a translation.

[Kondibon]

She has a gun boner for anything that moves.I specifically meant she seems to have a crush on him because he also uses machine guns.

[Meteor Weapon]

I think she's just saying she knows what weapon Enga uses, and keeps on blabbering how fun it is to shoot shoot shoot and shoot enemies till they're deaddeaddead.

[loafhero]

I think she's just saying she knows what weapon Enga uses, and keeps on blabbering how fun it is to shoot shoot shoot and shoot enemies till they're deaddeaddead.

Ah, so its just the usual Lisa dialogue in pretty much every Lisa cutscene.

[Tymek]

Aether!
Isn't the organization "Earth Guides"?
Thanks for the heads up about Kanzanboshi! Does it exist, though? It doesn't show up anywhere when I search for it.

What an interesting bunch of events that are currently unfolding.

[EB25]

Aether!
Isn't the organization "Earth Guides"?
Thanks for the heads up about Kanzanboshi! Does it exist, though? It doesn't show up anywhere when I search for it.

What an interesting bunch of events that are currently unfolding.

Missed spelled the name. It's Kazanboshi (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAx8N8-oeCkQzAZoW2Ll0-Q/videos).

[udon-GE]

Lisa know Enga have tendency towards gun and rifle user just by looking at him, SNIPER.
Katori look like she is trying to talk about playing bouncer to Hitsugi probably.
Even meet on the first time, Matoi and Aru both think they have met somewhere before.

Look like previous episode story and new episode story starting to intertwine

[ratatosk]

I love Phaleg and i want her costume i also hope they keep her for longer then the other 2. I also want a class that can fight like phaleg does. sega get working on it

[Altiea]

Phaleg seems to exist to piss people off, but her style is awesome. Not to mention that she hits decently hard and apparently ignores headshots (my Blitz Fender is crying in a corner right now).

[NephyrisX]

Is it fair to say that things are starting to pick up from here?

[Sirius-91]

Important exposition scene with fun-looking animations but I would appreciate a translation.
Posting it here since its one of those cutscenes that don't have a script. I suspect it's similar to a "hard sub".

[NephyrisX]

While I can't fully understand the story since there's no translation yet, it's pretty clear that both the visuals and storytelling have noticeably improved.

I really like where this is going, especially since the new Apostle is clearly taking the situation more seriously and is more powerful than the last two Apostles.

[Altiea]

I'm wondering what kind of boss fight Phaleg will pose once she takes off the kid gloves.

[EspeonageTieler]

I'm kinda confused as to why matoi and player did not have a reunion. Isn't the player like the closest thing she has to a family?
Also did her voice sound softer/weaker? or has it just been that long since I've heard her speak lmao.

[Zysets]

Also did her voice sound softer/weaker? or has it just been that long since I've heard her speak lmao.
Some characters have slightly different voices now, like Afin, do make the passage of time between Episodes 3 and 4 more noticeable, I imagine that's what's up with her voice.

[TehCubey]

Can't say I noticed Matoi's voice sounding any different. But then I can't stand it (there's being soft spoken, and then there's sounding so slow and timid that it actually becomes annoying) so I try not to listen to her too much.

The story quest itself was good. Dare I even say, surprisingly good.

[Great Pan]

The Returning of Matoi, Patty and Tea is all I care.

[loafhero]

I'm kinda confused as to why matoi and player did not have a reunion. Isn't the player like the closest thing she has to a family?
Also did her voice sound softer/weaker? or has it just been that long since I've heard her speak lmao.

Its possible that the Earth events have been keeping Playa-chan so busy that an opportunity to have a proper reunion with Matoi hasn't been possible so far. Maybe Matoi is waiting for the right time for her reunion with Playa-chan as a poorly timed reunion would be unsatisfying. I just hope that Playa-chan and Matoi's reunion involves an emotional hug. Playa-chan and Matoi almost hugged in EP3 but it was in the bad ending and Matoi vanished from existence the moment she and Playa-chan came close to hugging.

Yes, I have noticed that her voiced is too high pitched, too timid and too soft-spoken compared to how she previously sounded. It could be the result of the VA (Satomi Sato) having not yet adjusted to voicing Matoi again after having not voiced the character for so long. This is pretty common for most VAs. Satomi Sato probably should have been given more time to adjust herself to matching her original voice pitch for Matoi.

From a story perspective, Matoi's current voice pitch contradicts her character development from past Episodes and it makes it awkward to watch as she assumes the wise older sister role in her talk with Hitsugi (whose voice sounds more mature than Matoi). It made sense for her to sound so soft and timid early in EP1 as she was mentally and physically weakened at the time. Late in EP1 and in most of EP2 and 3, Matoi's voice had more "energy" to it to reflect that she has gained strength in both mind and body.


I also want a class that can fight like phaleg does. sega get working on it
I think we sorta have that in the form of a Knuckles Fighter in Limit Break mode. Phaleg just happens to use kicks instead of punches and seems to be in an infinite Limit Break mode.

Phaleg's fighting style is basically Falz Hunar but with kicks instead of punches. Like Falz Hunar, her attacks are focused on charging in fast and dishing out huge bursts of force with every blow. She seems to have much lower health than Falz Hunar which is justified cause she's still made of flesh while Falz Hunar was basically a humanoid golem.

[Altiea]

Mind that she's also way more agile. It's like giving Knuckles the speed of Twin Daggers. We also didn't really get to "fight" fight her, since she made it painfully obvious that she was just playing with her food first.

[loafhero]

Mind that she's also way more agile. We also didn't really get to "fight" fight her, since she made it painfully obvious that she was just playing with her food first.

Yeah, being more agile makes sense to compensate for her low defense (and the fact that she's not a giant golem man).

While her "defeat" animation has her looking composed and applauding us (I can see why most are ticked off by that), it is worth noting that in the cutscene, its Hitsugi and Enga that she's mostly toying with. She respects Playa-chan as a worthy adversary. This is even reflected within the actual boss fight where Enga and Hitsugi's attacks do only 1 damage point to Phaleg while Playa-chan's damage points on Phaleg follows accordingly to their damage stats.

With that said, I am really pleased that we're getting an adversary worth taking seriously after how much of a joke Hagito and Bethor was. I recall there being complaints over how arrogant the Mother Cluster group were despite not looking like dangerous fighters at all. At least with Phaleg, her cockiness isn't unfounded because she is a surprisingly badass combatant with a cool-looking fighting style. After the nauseating cuteness of the Summoner class and the groan-inducing beginnings of EP4's story, the story is finally injecting a bit of testosterone and badassery.

[Altiea]

I wouldn't really equate her dying so quickly to having low defenses; she simply doesn't have lots of HP. I don't think this has to do with her physical limitations either; she was just stopping the fight. Her defenses are statistically astronomical; breaking five digits per hit is something of a challenge.

[loafhero]

I can imagine any partner dealing only 1 damage to Phaleg; their low damage against her relatively astronomical defensive stats means they do squat.

I guess the more accurate statement would be that Phaleg has high defense but really low health. Upon doing the boss fight again, she really does have high defense. Still, it fits for the story that Hitsugi and Enga can only manage 1 damage point on Phaleg.

[Meteor Weapon]

In other words, Earth Guides are in particularly useless against the Mother Cluster Apostles and needs ARKS(particularly the stronger ones such as ex council of six, P-chan and Matoi) involvement to stop them. I doubt they themselves could even handle Yamato lol. ARKS did it with only supply of 1 ARKS Ship and a couple of AIS beamraeps to finish it off.