Weird how scarlett changes her choice of weapon. I also wouldn't mind seeing other church weapons. I dunno, but I got the impression that they had more than just 2 to begin with, but we see the same 2 all the time it seems (well, unless they just use their fists).
We know the Papal Guard use other weapons at least (one of Gaius' spears notes it in the description) so it's a safe assumption the Gralsritter do as well. We also have an example of a Knight who, yes, fights barehanded. And now there's Wald with his wooden sword. From the conversation that Kevin and Ries have early in The 3rd, it sounds like the members of the Gralsritter can choose what weapon they want to use, since Kevin and Ries each picked their weapon because it was one of the two types that Rufina used. Templar swords and bowguns just seem to be the most common that we've seen so far.
Of course Happiness stone is biggest news. Too vague though, looking forward to the result!
I have a horrible thought concerning this:
So, with Hajimari being a last hurrah of sorts for Crossbell and Erebonia, what SAV songs that've never been used before are you hoping for? Personally wishing for Formidable Enemy (hopefully in the Lloyd/Garcia fight!) and Don't be Defeated by a Friend! That hasn't been used, right? Also, the Old School House
Hmmm, good question. I'd love Arrivederci! from the Zero SAV to show up (Formidable Enemy would be good too) and CS4 pretty much covered the other songs I most wanted to hear, between Belief, Atrocious Raid (which got a glorious inversion at the end where you were the one doing the titular raiding) and finally, finally, Enforcers SAV.
I mean the SAV songs are good but I generally prefer the normal ones and may prefer a new song rather than reusing one like that. Though I like the SAV song blue... something... the SAV version of the final boss in Cold steel 1
Blue Destination? That's a rearrange of CS1's final boss song The Decisive Collision but it wasn't from the SAV album, just the CS2 soundtrack. The CS1 song does have a Super Arrange version and it's used in CS4 but I prefer Blue Destination, easily one of my favorite songs to come out of the entire Kiseki series so far.
Oh boy, another Hajimari update. Looks like we can expect Wednesdays to be the days going forward now. This one rounds out the Old Class VII members at last.
- Fie is brought to Crossbell for bracer work.
- Emma is doing her 'wandering witch' thing and her mother's fate is going to be a major element. The secondary plot thread in CS4 about reviving Grianos seems like it's progressing well.
- Gaius is in Nord due to 'an incident' and his role will have a great deal to do with his position in the Church and with related individuals. Maybe he'll get some of his Bro Cred back after spending two games being the most closed-mouthed of all the Dominion we've met to date... We see more of his family in screenshots.
- We've already seen Millium using Naglfar, it sounds like an Episode will involve how this came to pass and will also at least mention Airgetlam. She's returned to her old job working for the Intelligence Division.
- It sounds like Emma is going to discover some secret of Roselia's. My bet's on her relationship to Emma and her mother, since it's hard to imagine much else that could be significant now that 'loligranny the Divine Beast' is out of the bag. It's also mentioned that she's sensed something unusual is going on and is investigating it, along with meeting Zeit again which we've already seen. It sounds like she's dispatched Celine on some errand as well.
- Celine continues to be a tsundere- I mean cat. Wait, that's redundant...
- Fran is working towards Crossbell's independence and appears with other supporting characters... and is still a massive siscon. The scene in Azure's ending stills involving her will be in the game.
- Shizuku returns from Remiferia where she's been living recently. Her relationship with her father will be a major element of her story.
- The Emperor appears straight from the pages of Three and Nine but how much of the story is true and how much fiction is a mystery... well we can say for sure that the ending was a pack of lies because otherwise he's looking pretty healthy for someone who's supposed to be dead and he's got the full set of the Monarch's Regalia to boot. He's one of the leaders of the organization that Nadia and Swin used to belong to.
- The 'Beach de Vacation' minigames seem to be linked and we see a bit more of the two we've already seen. Watermelon splitting is all about timing, the water sledding event requires you to keep your balance using the control stick and unlocks progressively harder courses.
- Another MWL-linked feature is the 'Communication Event' system, which has been teased previously and will involve the PSVR (in a post-update patch). The conversations you can have with chosen characters contain a great deal of content though it seems like they won't influence the main story.
- Freddy has an minigame Episode called 'Ultimate Wilderness Food' which makes use of the normal combat system where the normal field attacks are used as 'Hunting Actions'.
EDIT: One of the extra screenshots reveals Rixia's Brave Order, Shadow Art 'Shiranui'. Its primary effect is to reduce Delay by half and given that everyone in the party has at least a SPD Up (M) buff, it's a safe bet that's a secondary effect it has.
Hajimari Opening has been revealed on the most recent stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HayuyXb1vzE
Really enjoyed what they did with it. Honestly my favorite moment was at 21 seconds where
Also, thank you Yotaka for answering my Crow-related question awhile back. I knew I'd heard of it before, but never had a source. Thanks again!
Good to see Lloyd about to (hopefully) smack Rufus in his stupid handsome smug face. Always thought it was a shame he never got a crack at it in CS4, but at this point I have to imagine the line for people waiting to get theirs in is pretty hefty!
Also, the Great One in all his glory! Looks pretty cool, can't wait to see the concept art for him.
The mask is interesting, but I wonder if it has any deeper meaning or is just for hiding the wearer's face.
Oh and the lady attacking Rixia...is that supposed to be Ilya? The mask seems like the ones from 3&4, but I never got the impression Ilya was a skilled fighter by any stretch of the imagination.
Finally, lket me just echo Guan in hoping that they haven't blown all the mocap on just scenes for the OP lol
Edit: And Rean vs Arios. 'Nuff said.
Yeah, seeing That Mask set me off on a giggle fit of 'Oh god, they're actually using it!' too.
The way they're doing the OP in-house with the ingame engine is different and at the same time really cool.
Is that.... Dieter in the group shot with Rufus and... Evil Ilya? Yeah, that's a whole mess of WTF. I mean, that could be one of the Gnome masks but that doesn't explain the hair. And we know Ilya's fine because her dancing is part of the Azure ending stills (and we know she's doing that in Hajimari) and she's in the group shot at the end as well and that's post-liberation.
In the quick shot with McBurn in the foreground you can see Novartis off to once side and someone who looks like Schmidt from behind. Time to get some answers about how F Novartis relates to C Epstein et al?
What is that behind the Emperor?! The fact that it shares the same coloring as his Monarch's Regalia can't be a coincidence.
Based on the OP, I'm now predicting that our primary antagonist situation is going to be: Schwarzreaner (Rean), Rufus (Lloyd), The Emperor (C) and the true Great One (combined routes final boss).
EDIT: Oh yeah, since I've mentioned it elsewhere, the text that shows up just before the shot of the Great One is really funky, being a Greek rendering of the Latinized form of a word that was originally Greek. It's 'Elysium' written with Greek letters.
Rean and Arios are having their confrontation in front of the shell of Lost Zem. I wonder if there's significance to that. Rean seems to be getting his training on now that he doesn't have his Ogre powers to fall back on, between sparring with Arios and Matteus.
Oh, and while all that was going on, the website updated as well. A few new details that I couldn't make out in the scans:
- Freddy is trying to get a spot catering Olivier and Schera's wedding and we're helping him do it... why? For bonus points, Sandy's involved, you'd think she'd be a shoe-in with the famous Lenheim risotto.
- I love how Shizuku has apparently been spending her time in Remiferia writing encouraging letters to her father and the SSS.
- The water sledding minigame involves not just the art of not falling off but has some sort of slalom component as well.
Someone noticed that the mask in the OP looks more like a DLC one from 4, than the one from 4's OP
https://imgur.com/a/THD70EC (the second image)
It looks like it's at least based on the original, so that's something.
Lol. Sounds like the intro-name to a Ys boss: "Divine Beast - Loligranny".
I haven't played or spoiled myself with 4 much so the significance of this mask business is lost on me.
As for Ilya's combat talents. Kiseki does tend to make people magically stronger/faster/etc when under a baddie's control. Combine that with her obvious athleticism and I reckon she would be perfectly adept in battle in that scenario. Or maybe she was a battler all along, and is the noble lady Bleublanc 'stole the heart of' or something =P. That's just a wild not even guess, just amusing myself with nonsense.
That said though, not that I'm convinced it's true, speaking of him but it would be interesting if C is BleuBlanc. He busts out a sword for his S-craft IIRC, and never seems to take combat too seriously. Didn't I also hear somewhere that he was with Vita in regards to Oroborus? I have no idea what happens with/to him in 4 though.
Bleublanc does use a sword in his S-Craft... sorta; He transforms his staff into one and then hurls it at his target. And yes, you recall correctly about his connection with Vita. He declines to participate in the events of CS3 because Vita was opposed to the plan.
Actually, my first thought on seeing that mask was 'Wait, did Bleublanc just genderbend?' since there's a vague similarity to his mask, then I looked closer and the hairstyle really stands out.
Did the masks in 3&4 ever grant power to the wearer? She even has glowy hansds! There also appear to be butterflies around Rixia when the masked lady attacks which makes me think of the Golden Butterfly, but Ilya couldn't possibly be old enough to be her.
Angelica described the experience as the mask unlocking her full potential so... yes and no. It sort of functions as a power boost, but only to the extent that the wearer has untapped potential that they're not using.
There also appear to be butterflies around Rixia when the masked lady attacks which makes me think of the Golden Butterfly, but Ilya couldn't possibly be old enough to be her.
That's Rixia's 'Moonlight Butterfly' Craft at work. xD
Just want to point out that the Great One’s design seems based on the Seraphim—six wings + eyes on the wings—which literally means “burning ones” and are the angels considered closest to God.
@hellseye47Reminds me of Angel Weissman. He looked very similar and Kevin described it as "being hit in the face with raw heresy" and Kloe described it as an angel. Probably a connection, to some degree, considering all the eyes there too. If I recall correctly, didn't Kondo confirm the Gospel was deliberately designed to look like an eye as well? Or am I misremembering?
I don't remember that comment on the Gospels but it's quite possible he did. Eye motifs are all over, especially in Erebonia. The Nameless One is covered in them, Crow and Alberich both have references to Balor and his evil eye, the Salt Pales and Tuatha de Danann have eyes, McBurn's true appearance includes a third eye and some bonus Buddhist symbolism in the tenne floating around him...
Just want to point out that the Great One’s design seems based on the Seraphim—six wings + eyes on the wings—which literally means “burning ones” and are the angels considered closest to God.
I'd noticed the eye-like designs on the wings but hadn't made that connection, nice spot.
Now let's see if there's an "Aidios is my co-pilot" bumper sticker!
https://twitter.com/hellseye47/status/1290743507959689216?s=20
Posting a link to my twitter post because that is faster. That is a really interesting localization choice since we maybe know the true name of the Great One.
