Now that the stream is uploaded, I can see the orbment slots clearly and it’s seems like they are still using CS’s system of locked elements. So far we have:
Van - 2 Time/1 Earth
Agnes - 2 Space/1 Water
Feri - 2 Fire/1 Mirage
Van having two time slots isn't that surprising given his role as the outsider/outcast, but earth changes my original interpretation of the character a little. Single Earth is the protector. Does this make Grendel the Dark Knight?
Agnes’s slots are not surprising at all. She’s basically the token noble party member that follows her heart.
Feri has double Fire which is the reckless/independent type. I was honestly expecting Aaron to have this but Feri makes sense too. Single Mirage is interesting. I expect Feri is be the kind of person who just says whatever is on her mind. It wouldn’t surprise me if a running gag is Feri wanting to purify people with fire.
Something I didn't spot during the stream itself, there's a very brief moment where they pull up the equipment screen and we get to see Van's setup.
For his weapon at least we can see there's a 'Main Module' which appears to be the weapon itself and a 'Sub Module' which is affixed to it, along with a cool little graphic of the weapon. Van has something called the Mirage Turbine equipped to his weapon. It also shows that weapons have leveling of some sort.
Another thing we can deduce from the shot is that the proverb manual accessories are returning, which means that there's probably going to be another concealed yojijukugo pun in these ones.
EDIT: Having looked around for some options, I'm guessing that it's either going to be 色即是空 ('All is Emptiness') or 暮色蒼然 ('Gathering Dusk').
EDIT (9/20): Since I just translated all the Arts, Crafts and Shard Skills in the livestream for someone on Falcord, I'm dropping it here too for easy access:
Stun Slash (30 CP, Damage C+, fan-targeting, Impedes and has the 'Flanking' property that increases damage based on your angle)
Aerial Buster: 50 CP, Damage B, circle-targeting, inflicts Delay (S))
Coin Bullet (20 CP, Damage D+, fan-targeting, inflicts STR Down and Hate Up)
<Agnes' Crafts>
Glow Hammer (20 CP, Damage D+, circle-targeting, restores EP)
White Heal (40 CP, AoE healing (M) and cures status ailments)
<Feri's Crafts>
Rapid Burst (20 CP, Damage D+, fan-targeting, inflicts Slow)
Heat Edge (50 CP, Damage B+, line-targeting, inflicts Burn and has the Flanking property)
Ignis Rampage (S-Craft, Damage S, circle-targeting)
<Grendel's Attacks>
Savage Blow (Basic attack, inflicts DEF Down)
Heavy Spike (Basic attack, inflicts ATS Down)
Savage Hands (Physical Craft, AoE, inflicts SPD Down)
Regal Strike (S-Craft)
<Arts>
Crest (15 EP, circle-targeting, DEF UP)
Stone Crack (15 EP, Damage D, fan-targeting)
Acid Cloud (60 EP, Damage C, circle-targeting, inflicts Corrosion)
Amber Crack (?? EP, Damage B+, fan-targeting)
Tear (20 EP, single-targeting, Heal (S))
Hydro Cannon (15 EP, Damage D, line-targeting (S))
Icicle Hammer (60 EP, Damage C, circle-targeting (M), inflicts Freeze)
Cataract Wave (?? EP, Damage B+, fan-targeting)
Forte (10 EP, circle-targeting, STR UP)
Fire Bolt (15 EP, Damage D, circle-targeting)
Abyss Flame (60 EP, Damage B+, fan-targeting)
Flare Squall (?? EP, Damage B, circle-targeting)
Spark Edge (15 EP, Damage D, circle-targeting (S), inflicts Seal)
Aerial Dust (60 EP, Damage C+, circle-targeting)
Plasma Wave (?? EP, Damage B, circle-targeting)
Chrono Drive (20 EP, circle-targeting, SPD Up)
Shadow Spear (100 EP, Damage C+, fan-targeting, inflicts Deathblow)
Saint Arrow (100 EP, Damage C+, line-targeting (S), inflicts Mute)
Argent Thorn (140 EP, Damage B, circle-targeting)
<Weapon Shard Skills>
Earth Impact (2 Earth, 50% chance to add extra Earth damage to attacks)
Earth Impact II (8 Earth, 50% chance to add extra Earth damage (L) to attacks)
Flare Impact (2 Fire, 50% chance to add extra Fire damage to attacks)
Chrono Impact (2 Time, 50% chance to add extra Time damage to attacks)
Chrono Impact II (8 Time, 50% chance to add extra Time damage (L) to attacks)
Shieldbreaker (4 Earth/4 Mirage, 20% chance to inflict DEF Down)
Shieldbreaker Assault (6 Earth/6 Space, 50% chance to inflict DEF Down during a preemptive Shard attack)
Swordbreaker (4 Fire/4 Mirage, 20% chance to inflict STR Down)
Fatal Lancer (4 Earth/8 Time, when enemy HP is low, a near-fatal attack will kill them instantly)
Fatal Lancer EX (6 Earth/12 Time, when enemy HP is low, a near-fatal attack will kill them instantly)
<Shield Shard Skills>
Earth Resist (2 Earth, 50% chance to prevent Corrosion)
Earth Resist II (7 Earth, 75% chance to prevent Corrosion)
Aqua Resist (2 Water, 50% chance to prevent Freeze)
Aqua Resist (7 Water, 75% chance to prevent Freeze)
Flare Resist (2 Fire, 50% chance to prevent Burn)
Flare Resist II (7 Fire, 75% chance to prevent Burn)
Crest Guard (6 Earth/6 Time, 50% chance when Guarding to receive DEF Up)
Forte Guard (6 Earth/6 Fire, 50% chance when Guarding to receive STR Up)
Cover Shield (2 Earth, 10% chance to reduce damage to allies when they're attacked)
Cover Shield II (8 Earth, 20% chance to reduce damage (L) to allies when they're attacked)
Recovery Guard (6 Water/6 Space, 50% chance to restore HP when Guarding)
Rise Guard (6 Fire/6Wind, 50% chance to gain increased CP during enemy turns when Guarding)
<Drive Shard Skills>
Earth Boost (2 Earth, 50% chance to increase damage when using Earth Arts)
Earth Boost II (8 Earth, 50% chance to increase damage (L) when using Earth Arts)
Aqua Boost (2 Water, 50% chance to increase damage when using Water Arts)
Chrono Boost (2 Time, 50% chance to increase damage when using Time Arts)
Chrono Boost II (8 Time, 50% chance to increase damage (L) when using Time Arts)
Gold Boost (2 Space, 50% chance to increase damage when using Space Arts)
Gold Boost II (8 Space, 50% chance to increase damage (L) when using Space Arts)
Chaos Boost (2 Mirage, 50% chance to increase damage when using Mirage Arts)
Chaos Boost II (8 Mirage, 50% chance to increase damage (L) when using Mirage Arts)
Spirit Cracker (4 Water/4 Mirage, 20% chance to inflict ADF Down when using offensive Arts)
Arc Feather (4 Wind/8 Mirage, after casting an offensive Art, 40% chance to Delay and inflict extra damage)
Arc Feather EX (6 Wind/12 Mirage, after casting an offensive Art, 50% chance to Delay and inflict extra damage (M))
Avenger Spell (6 Fire/12 Space, when evading a magic attack, 40% chance to counterattack with an available Art)
<Extra Shard Skills>
Arts Starter (4 Space, 50% chance to give ATS Up upon Shard activation)
Arts Starter II (8 Space, 75% chance to give ATS Up (M) upon Shard activation)
Guard Starter (4 Earth, 50% chance to give DEF/ADF Up upon Shard activation)
Guard Starter II (8 Earth, 75% chance to give DEF/ADF Up (M) upon Shard activation)
Energy Starter (4 Water, 50% chance upon Shard activation to give HP Regen)
Energy Starter II (8 Water, 75% chance upon Shard activation to give HP Regen (M))
Power Starter (4 Fire, 50% chance to give STR Up upon Shard activation)
Power Starter II (8 Fire, 75% chance to give STR Up (M) upon Shard activation)
Gift Starter (4 Wind, 40% chance to gain 1 turn of Insight upon Shard activation)
Gift Starter II (8 Wind, 50% chance to gain 2 turns of Insight upon Shard activation)
Quick Starter (4 Time, 50% chance to gain Quick upon Shard activation)
Quick Starter II (8 Time, 75% chance to gain Quick (M) upon Shard activation)
Phantom Starter (4 Mirage, 40% chance to gain 1 turn of Stealth upon Shard activation)
Phantom Starter II (8 Mirage, 60% chance to gain 2 turns of Stealth upon Shard activation)
Auto Crest (7 Earth/7 Space, when acting during Command Battle 10% chance to gain DEF Up)
Auto Forte (7 Fire/7 Mirage, when acting during Command Battle 10% chance to gain STR Up)
Auto Quick (7 Wind/7 Time, when acting during Command Battle 10% chance to gain Quick)
HP Charger (5 Water/5 Space, restore HP (S) after winning a Command Battle)
HP Charger II (9 Water/9 Space, restore HP (M) after winning a Command Battle)
EP Charger (5 Earth/5 Water, restore EP (S) after winning a Command Battle)
CP Charger (5 Fire/5 Wind, restore CP (S) after winning a Command Battle)
CP Charger (9 Fire/9 Wind, restore CP (M) after winning a Command Battle)
Legbreaker (4 Wind/4 Time, 20% chance to inflict Slow upon attacking)
Speedbreaker Assault (6 Water/6 Wind, 50% chance to inflict Slow to all enemies a preemptive Shard attack)
Hawkeye (2 Space, see all enemies on the mini-map)
Treasure Hunter (2 Mirage, see all treasure chests on the mini-map)
Gift Steal (6 Wind/12 Mirage, 20% chance when attacking to steal an enemy's AT Bonus)
SCLM Up (12 Water/6 Time, increases the AoE of SCLM during Command Battles)
It wouldn’t surprise me if a running gag is Feri wanting to purify people with fire.
If I'm right on the Zoroastrian influences, she very well might. xD
Interesting new details we got today, but I'm especially curious about this power that Ellroy has that " can rot away even demons in purgatory." Given gematsu named him as an Enforcer rather than an Anguis, I'm taking that line with a grain of salt, but assuming it's right, I wonder if that's an artifact or if he's got something mixed in him, too.
Speaking of Ellroy, it might be hard to say given how little we've seen of him, but does his speech pattern match up with what we saw in the 3rd?
Also, cool little Gambler Jack nod in Gerard's description. Might need to go back and re-read those!
It's mostly accurate, his description says he has a 'mysterious' power to ruin/destroy (or possibly 'corrode' but that sounds weird) even the Devils from Gehenna. It could well be he's got some sort of connection to the Beyond. And yes, his speech pattern (that we've seen) fits with how the Fourth Anguis talked in Star Door 14, there's one quirk that Ellroy hasn't used yet that I can recall (ending some questions with ねェ) but the general style matches up.
And that was a really good spot on the Gambler Jack thing, I'd completely forgotten that guy's name.
So, Falcom just dropped the OP movie on us and it is glorious.
- The juxtapositioning of Agnes in the intro with a shot of Gramheart makes me think they're related. We know she has a voiced line addressing her father at some point that's obviously quite tense so...
- Grendel does a number on something large and mechanical, it's got some similar stylings to the Soldats (the shoulder joint at least) so it could be some sort of reverse-engineering attempt, or something unrelated. Either way, that looks cool.
- That is definitely a Dominion with the pale hair but it looks like some other church-affiliated individual is waiting for a reveal.
- Seeing Zin and Walter fighting again just got me so hyped.
- We have a new trio of villainous-looking people who also wouldn't look out of place in a sentai show. I wonder if they're using special Hollow Cores like Van and (presumably) Judith.
- Falcom's previous footage lied to us. Shizuna has creepy golden eyes during her fight with Van. Alternatively the OP is lying to us but either way, both of those videos can't be true.
- Dingo shows up in a shot with Gerard doing... something dangerous-looking. I hope he wasn't trying to get an interview with the obvious lunatic.
- One of the last shots seems to be Agnes crying while holding Van's (not her) XIPHA.
Hell of an OP and it certainly makes it look it'll be the most action packed first game of an arc. Interesting shot of what looks like some kind of magical clock tower. I'm guessing it's the final dungeon appearing in the capital. Or maybe a Sept Terrion hint?
The middle of those 3 sentai villains is totally Gerard, right? Interesting how he and Hakai seem to have the same weird slitted eyes.
Also, some of the imagery involving Van seems a little suggestive of something befalling him. Agnes' tears falling on his Xipha; the way he's looking back at her...Will Van be usurping Rean's throne of suffering?
What an awesome OP.
Things that struck out to me.
- Agnes' special orbment becomes even more intriguing. There are these sixteen... circles depicting seemingly different phases of the internal orbment mechanism, though they remind me of moon phases out of some reason. Well sixteen is a multiplicative of four so it might work out. Hmmm, perhaps the moon might be a reference to werewolves and their lunar dependent transformation?
- I spot what seems to be a radio in Agnes' room, except this thing doesn't look out of place in a modern 20th century household. Compare and contrast to that clunky thing George gives Rean in Cold Steel 1.
- Quatre inside that observatory looks gourgeous. Reflecting telescope, moving dome. Then again, I'm a sucker for astronomy so I might be biased.
- Van fights toe to toe against Kasim? Wasn't he touted as basically a high level jaeger on par with the likes of... well, probably not Rutger or Baldur, but perhaps nearly Sigmund or Xeno/Leonidas level? This is pretty impressive.
- Rene walking beside Kaela. I live for these Kiseki callbacks.
- Shizuna with glowing eyes... this freaks me out a little. And the color just happens to be the typical eye-color of Gnosis victims like Renne and Tio. Okay, I've already written a messy, disjointed theory about a possible connection between Gnosis and ELOB, or more concrete, Spirit Unification, but this seems like a good time to turn my brain farts into something coherent.
- So the villains also have Sentai transformations. What comes around gets around.
- And thinking about it, with Rixia here, we have two female high-level martial artists associated with silver and moon. Shizuna's first depiction in Reverie was with a full moon as a backdrop and she is the Divine Blade of Silver.
It doesn't reveal too much, but the mysterious hooded Gralsritter also seems to appear alongside Cao and we get a better look at his face and potentially...green...hair? If you squint a bit. Maybe?????
- Agnes' special orbment becomes even more intriguing. There are these sixteen... circles depicting seemingly different phases of the internal orbment mechanism, though they remind me of moon phases out of some reason. Well sixteen is a multiplicative of four so it might work out. Hmmm, perhaps the moon might be a reference to werewolves and their lunar dependent transformation?
Or maybe that Sept-Terrion are secretly Shards of Adonalsium? xD
- Shizuna with glowing eyes... this freaks me out a little. And the color just happens to be the typical eye-color of Gnosis victims like Renne and Tio. Okay, I've already written a messy, disjointed theory about a possible connection between Gnosis and ELOB, or more concrete, Spirit Unification, but this seems like a good time to turn my brain farts into something coherent.
I'll be looking forward to reading that.
It doesn't reveal too much, but the mysterious hooded Gralsritter also seems to appear alongside Cao and we get a better look at his face and potentially...green...hair? If you squint a bit. Maybe?????
Wow, I'd forgotten all about that shot. Nice one.
So I went and did another pass at the video and spotted a few more little things that may or may not mean anything.
- Falcom really wants us to pay attention to Agnes' orbment. Not only was it on one of the first pieces of concept art and does finding it drive the Prologue (and the Dengeki LE includes a replica of it) but it's the first thing we see in the OP as well. And later on, the same design is incorporated into that ominous tower that's probably going to show up in the endgame.
- There's probably something symbolic about all the chains in the first sequence. The motif reappears near the end as well.
- I somehow hadn't noticed it before but Feri is wearing an earring, I'm going to guess it's a religious icon rather than a fashion statement since she mentions her goddess repeatedly in other material and if you squint you could get a winged figure out of that design.
- Kaela is in the OP so she's probably going to be at least reasonably important to the plot.
- Kasim's weapon functioning like a sword is confirmed, presumably it's also got some sort of gun mode because jaegers love that.
- The central figure in our colorful trio has irezumi-like markings on their arms and shoulders which look like they might be serpents, but I don't think that's supposed to be their skin we're looking at. The figure on the left's weapon seems to open and close like a pair of scissors. If these are Almata members with transformations, Melchior and Alexandre would be the most obvious candidates with Gerard as the middle figure. I dunno if that's what they're supposed to be though, as opposed to something else.
- It probably doesn't mean anything but since it took me a few goes to spot, one of Quatre's drones is hovering by Van in the shot where he's transforming into Grendel. I like the idea that Quatre saw what was going on and was all 'I must record this, for Science!'.
- I like how the shot of Van and Agnes turns into the shot of the whole group (with Agnes going from her uniform to her casual outfit) which feels like it's meant to represent the growth from the beginning with a student and her Spriggan hire to this whole team of diverse people united.
It doesn't reveal too much, but the mysterious hooded Gralsritter also seems to appear alongside Cao and we get a better look at his face and potentially...green...hair? If you squint a bit. Maybe?????
I agree with Yotaka, that's a great catch! It seems like a new character
There's probably something symbolic about all the chains in the first sequence. The motif reappears near the end as well.
I think chains were shown on Kuro's teaser site as well when it was first shown, if I'm not mistaken. I wonder if they have to do with the
- The central figure in our colorful trio has irezumi-like markings on their arms and shoulders which look like they might be serpents, but I don't think that's supposed to be their skin we're looking at. The figure on the left's weapon seems to open and close like a pair of scissors. If these are Almata members with transformations, Melchior and Alexandre would be the most obvious candidates with Gerard as the middle figure. I dunno if that's what they're supposed to be though, as opposed to something else.
I think the blue one on the left is actually female.
Per a translation someone did of the Dengeki review, I'm liking the sound of these "connect events." Seems like other party members get involved, which is something I really wanted back in CS, and they don't involve romance? Even better!
The rest of the review seemed pretty effusive with praise, but I always take that kind of thing with a grain of salt. Does Dengeki have the kind of questionable rep that Famitsu has?
Uhhhh, I dunno personally. I've usually already made up my mind to purchase something well before their reviews come out so I just skim them for anything interesting or concerning (and ignore the numeric score entirely). As an aside, the direct comparisons of Van to hard-boiled detectives has me giddy.
And then they had that livestream today... after taking several hours to properly wake up after watching it, there was quite a bit to take away from it as a last-minute update. I was kind of expecting a 'Long PV' to go with the 'Short' one, but oh well.
- Lots of S-Craft animations got thrown at us and aside from most of them looking really good it's interesting to note that Fie (and Walter but he hasn't appeared in any 3d games yet) got an all-new one instead of recycling Lethal Crusade. Thanks to the gameplay footage we get a bit of extra detail on the first three and the way the clips are cut we got to see the details of Walter's too:
Van: Vandalize Raid (circle-targeting, S+ damage)
Agnes: Brilliant Halo (all-targeting full HP restoration and HP Regen)
Feri: Ignis Rampage (circle-targeting, S damage, inflicts Burn)
Aaron: Firebird Storm Dance
Fie: Azure Greon (as in the Natial from VM)
Shizuna: Zeroth Gleaming Moon
Walter: Alcatraz Blow (line-targeting, SS damage, inflicts DEF and ADF Down)
Olympia: Aurum Shangri-La
- Shard Skills have a popup when they trigger and the 'Impact' ones can add their damage to S-Crafts. That elemental damage comes with a visual effect too, as the enemies affected will flash an appropriate color when hit.
- In addition to keeping a form of Hajimari's QoL improvement showing at-a-glance elemental weaknesses, the popup telling you what the items you find do upon obtaining them is also retained.
- Apparently doing this particular monster elimination quest increases your Gray alignment, who knew? Based on Agnes' dialogue, the CID are the ones who sent us down there, which is funny because that sort of thing is normally right up the bracers' alley so there must be a catch to it.
- A few new regions in Edith show up on the map, Riverside, Station Street and the Tyrell District. Or possibly Tirer, since this is Not!France. xD
- Map-targeting appears to still be a thing, as we see Grimcats (who is totally not Judith, really) run around while a line-targeting Art is charging and the indicator doesn't move with her.
- Speaking of whom, for an actress she's not very good at keeping her cool. True, we don't know what she was doing when she runs into the team and she obviously wasn't expecting an audience but she gets flustered easily. She's got a pretty sweet wall-running scene though.
- Argent Thorn looks awesome (and is either this arc's replacement for Silver Thorn or an upgraded version of it) and debuffs ADF.
And now back to finishing up my predictions. Glad I waited because the stream did give me a little bit more to work with for one idea.
I've seen some people say that Van had some choice words for Grimcats (someone said a nympho?!), and if so I already enjoy him not being a squeaky clean boy scout like we've had for the past 5 games.
Edit: Ok, so I saw someone translate that little exchange, and it wasn't that at all, but still, Van looks pretty fun.
I just posted my usual crack predictions for Kuro, so we'll just have to wait and see how many of them turn out to be wildly off-base this time. I also threw in a bonus mini-theory on McBurn while I was at it.
In other news, apparently the trophy list has leaked but I'm not touching that with a ten-meter pole personally. All I know is that Hellseye found one of the names he saw 'interesting'.
