Ooh yeah, I've had that with the camera as well on occasion, particularly when I'm right next to a bunch of enemies and I'm trying to see what the stat effect counters are for a character, especially the Boost countdown.
SpoilerChapter 2 endY'know, I feel a little sorry for Agnes; ever since she hitched her wagon to Van's operation she's seen more murder victims than your average cop, I reckon. Now that I think about it, how's she managed to swing taking so much time away from school? Is this, to quote Instructor Sara, some extreme extra credit?I continue to be surprised at how much more high stakes this game feels at so early a point in the game and for being the first game in an arc. All that stuff with Aaron feels like a mystery that would've been answered in game 2, or much later in this, at least. Is it mentioned whether or not this Taikun(sp?) is a devil or something else? I doubt they'd be getting into Outside stuff already, but it certainly seems fairly not of this world. Also, I'm pretty sure Aaron must have some kind of death wish, since I can't imagine there are too many people who'd take a chance at calling Elaine obahan...
Feri continues to be a treasure.
- Yeah, that definitely feels like something that would have come up later in any other game, which kind of has me worried because if they're doing that stuff now, what are they saving for later? And the reveal at the end about the eldest Lu (I'm not sure what the right romanization for ギエン would be, this is where providing the Chinese characters would be handy) being in on the whole plan in order to strengthen Heiyue's position was definitely the sort of thing that you'd expect to come later. Poor Aaron.
They didn't say exactly what Taikun is, but they do use the term demon constantly; it may not be related to the Outside specifically but the fact that he's a reincarnating presence means it's definitely supernatural. And yep, calling Elaine 'auntie' was asking for it.
- Yes, Feri is indeed a treasure; I loved that scene where they're eating that Chinese-style pudding and she's just staring at it before devouring the whole thing.
Speaking of the cast, Aaron has lived up to my pre-release expectations both in terms of 'I want to know more about him' and 'I think he might be my favorite character' so far. Though unless I missed some dialogue, I still didn't see an explanation for the 'Luozhou' part of his one nickname 'Little Lord of Luozhou'. I was expecting maybe it was a neighborhood but I didn't see any references to it.
- Oh, one other thing of interest in the ending: When Van is trying to get through to Aaron while he's possessed, we see that flashback from the Prologue again but this time there are two new images added. One's a young Elaine and Rene with Van, the other shows them older and it's very interesting. Elaine is holding a letter of some sort while looking devastated, Rene is arguing with somebody and Van is facing away, all of them implied to be separate (but somehow connected) scenes. And Elaine and Rene appear to be wearing Aramis uniforms. Definitely can't wait to visit that place.
I don't remember what Gramheart sounds like, but was that him on the phone to Agnes? If so, I guess they really did go with "head of state is my dad" again. At least it's not the MC, I suppose.
I expect there's an awkward conversation in store for Feri later, when she has to tell Fie about what happened to Aida. Also, nice to see Fie with some cool new crafts (or at least new spins on them) and I'm hoping to whoever's listening that Rixia finally gets a new S-Craft after 4 games with the same one.
Could be that I missed this last chapter, but it seems like you're able to view all connect events? During the day, at least. After finishing all side quests, I got a bonus point and was able to see them all. A change I'm most happy about, if that's the case.
Oh, I was just thinking about every protag's notebook and their code of conduct/rules to live by. And then I checked Van's. Perfection.
I'm still in the middle of Day 1 quests because I haven't had much time to play the game due to helping moderate floofy's streams (my guess is she'll finish Chapter 2 tonight, which should be great popcorn) so I'll wait a bit to read all of that. Though I will say that I'm kind of liking how things just can't be simple when we get these Spriggan jobs.
I just finished the optional quests and got that extra Connect point so I assume I'll be able to finish up the day's content early tomorrow, and then get back on a more regular playing schedule.
Still chipping away at Chapter 3. I think I'm probably on the final day, but this definitely feels like a longer chapter than the previous two.
I have to say, I do feel the loss of 60fps quite keenly sometimes. There was what would've been a pretty nicely animated fight scene, but for the frames plummeting for its duration. I do hope when we get it there'll be a PS5 port (rather than just being backwards compatible) that fixes some of these issues. Either that or Durante works his magic on the PC version.
Has there been much talked about regarding Arusha(sp?)? Curious what the Church thinks about that, although given their acceptance of animism and whatnot, I assume there isn't much friction.
There's very little about the specific liturgical or practical differences between Western Zemurian Eidos-worship and the cults of the Heavenly Holy Mother and Aruja except for different head coverings. The churches look the same, the music is the same, the clothing is the same (cassocks in 40-degree-Celsius weather must not be very pleasant)... The biggest indication that there's a difference between the various forms of worship is that a nun in Creil made a choice between her traditional and regional churches - with no particular pressure or friction about her decision. It's not even clear if the regional religions are separate organizations with their own headquarters or if they also recognize the authority of the Arterian head church.
I wish Falcom had invested more time in thinking about the cultural differences in general and the Middle East in particular, because it's clearly been added during the preparation for this game and it comes off as tone-deaf at least. Let's just say my full sympathies are with the eventual localization team.
Incidentally I got to chapter 4 and have started exploiting the battle system, both of which are contributing to making the game a better experience. w
I think there was a comment from one of the NPCs to the effect that Arteria indirectly administers the regional temples/churches. And of course there's the fact that the emblem of the Septian Church is found in all of them, on the pulpit.
Wound up waiting until I finished Chapter 3, so delayed response to those questions and comments about the first day. And yes, it's a long chapter by comparions.
SpoilerChapter 3 end of Day 1Van just jovially threatening Aaron's life has made me realise that people being seconds away from ending him is a running gag I can get behind. I guess we can definitely say that Van's Elise is his pick up.I don't remember what Gramheart sounds like, but was that him on the phone to Agnes? If so, I guess they really did go with "head of state is my dad" again. At least it's not the MC, I suppose.
I expect there's an awkward conversation in store for Feri later, when she has to tell Fie about what happened to Aida. Also, nice to see Fie with some cool new crafts (or at least new spins on them) and I'm hoping to whoever's listening that Rixia finally gets a new S-Craft after 4 games with the same one.
Could be that I missed this last chapter, but it seems like you're able to view all connect events? During the day, at least. After finishing all side quests, I got a bonus point and was able to see them all. A change I'm most happy about, if that's the case.
Oh, I was just thinking about every protag's notebook and their code of conduct/rules to live by. And then I checked Van's. Perfection.
Van/Truck OTP? Yeah, I can get behind that. xD
- Then there's poor Angie who went five games with no new Crafts. At least Rixia got the minor tweak in Hajimari of getting a slightly shinier version of Paraselene Dance with a new name, and a punny little tweak to the name of one of her other recurring Crafts.
- You can (so far) view all the daytime Connect events but this time I tried to be clever and saved an event to see if the point carried over to the evening so I could see both of those on the assumption there would be more than one again. Unfortunately the point didn't carry over and I didn't feel like having to redo the entire park again. Well, I know for the future.
- Yeah, Van's notebook is great.
Still chipping away at Chapter 3. I think I'm probably on the final day, but this definitely feels like a longer chapter than the previous two.
SpoilerPlayable charactersSurprised to see Risette joined before Judith and her S-Craft might be the best of the group thus far, I think! Although Fie's was pretty dope, too...I have to say, I do feel the loss of 60fps quite keenly sometimes. There was what would've been a pretty nicely animated fight scene, but for the frames plummeting for its duration. I do hope when we get it there'll be a PS5 port (rather than just being backwards compatible) that fixes some of these issues. Either that or Durante works his magic on the PC version.
Has there been much talked about regarding Arusha(sp?)? Curious what the Church thinks about that, although given their acceptance of animism and whatnot, I assume there isn't much friction.
- I've had some slowdown moments too, especially with the big crowds that Tharbad gets as the Chapter goes on. Definitely hoping for some more framerate fixing in future patches, and if Falcom develops an optimized PS5 port I will be happy to double-dip on it.
- As mentioned there doesn't seem to be any friction and it appears that Arteria indirectly runs the regional churches. The attitude seems to be 'Arusa and the Heavenly Mother are Aidios, just known by different names, so we're fine with that'. Whether that's true or whether they're playing on the similarities to consolidate influence and don't care to be dogmatic about whatever differences may exist is another question.
That said, I'm curious now about the Khurga because it seems like the Flame that they talk about is distinct from Arusa, so that might be a strictly regional thing that her tribe believes in. I have some more thoughts on that but they'll go in the full chapter spoilers
And a post-Chapter thought or two:
That said I may have started cursing at the end of the second day in Tharbad when you think things are under control for at least the rest of the night and then Shahina just has to go home on her own...
- That voice that speaks to Van and tells him he's doesn't need to be clad in the nightmare this time because he's going to be the nightmare itself? Not creepy at all... I wonder how long it's gonna take to get context for his repeated flashbacks. Speaking of which, he was definitely wearing an Aramis uniform in one of those this Chapter.
- It's worrying when the presence of an Anguis and an Enforcer in town is not the most troubling thing.
- On Arusa, I'm feeling more confident in my pre-release guess that the name is derived from the Avestan word for 'White' (and an epithet for one of the lesser Zoroastrian divinities) based on Van's comment that Verethragna is a servant of the goddess, and he specifically says Arusa and not Aidios or 'the Goddess' generically. That also suggests there might be some regional variation in the stories about the goddess. The name of Sharid's airship (Haurvatat) is also Zoroastrian.
- Now that we've seen all three of the monsters from the OP, we have very little idea what to expect next, which is both worrying and kinda cool at the same time. Okay, we do see Grendel fighting a mecha that we can assume is probably a boss fight, especially since it now looks like he's ripped off a Genesis from the thing and is holding it in his hand. Remember the days before Kuro came out and we only thought there was one of the things? xD
And a post-Chapter thought or two:
SpoilerChapter 3 (End)- One thing that Chapter 3 does really well is leave you in a state of lingering dread. With the earlier games we've gotten comfortable with certain assumptions, namely that if a character gets a big introduction they're probably important and will be sticking around for a while. With Jacomo and Aida getting intro sequences and being killed before the curtain falls on their introductory chapters (and with Aaron's friends and a bunch of nameless punks getting killed in Langport) we can't be as certain of that any more. Given how many ways things could go wrong in Tharbad, it does a good job of building up tension as you know something's going to happen and you're worried if it means that one or more of the recently introduced characters is going to die.That said I may have started cursing at the end of the second day in Tharbad when you think things are under control for at least the rest of the night and then Shahina just has to go home on her own...
- That voice that speaks to Van and tells him he's doesn't need to be clad in the nightmare this time because he's going to be the nightmare itself? Not creepy at all... I wonder how long it's gonna take to get context for his repeated flashbacks. Speaking of which, he was definitely wearing an Aramis uniform in one of those this Chapter.
- It's worrying when the presence of an Anguis and an Enforcer in town is not the most troubling thing.
- On Arusa, I'm feeling more confident in my pre-release guess that the name is derived from the Avestan word for 'White' (and an epithet for one of the lesser Zoroastrian divinities) based on Van's comment that Verethragna is a servant of the goddess, and he specifically says Arusa and not Aidios or 'the Goddess' generically. That also suggests there might be some regional variation in the stories about the goddess. The name of Sharid's airship (Haurvatat) is also Zoroastrian.
- Now that we've seen all three of the monsters from the OP, we have very little idea what to expect next, which is both worrying and kinda cool at the same time. Okay, we do see Grendel fighting a mecha that we can assume is probably a boss fight, especially since it now looks like he's ripped off a Genesis from the thing and is holding it in his hand. Remember the days before Kuro came out and we only thought there was one of the things? xD
I have to hand it to Falcom; they totally played us showing the monster trio in the opening making you think they were far more relevant then they were (mostly). Now that they're gone, I feel like it's time for the game to change things up, formula-wise. It's funny, structurally this game is almost beat for beat like CS1&3: Hub town with side quests and bonding, followed by a field trip complete with showing your journey on the map and then the town you spend the chapter in where big stuff goes down. Chapter 4 in CS3 is where things, at least on the field trip, felt a bit different, so I hope the same holds true here in some regard.
Thinking about it, Kuro almost feels like a Greatest Hits of Kiseki in some ways. We've got the CS structure, a "threatening message being sent to performers" plot and the Genesis stuff is essentially the Gospel business from SC down to the experiments each chapter. Something from every arc!
I will say, I wasn't too thrilled with seeing Shahina don a mask towards the end. It was one thing when Hajimari brought them up again, but after that game I was well and truly ready to never see one of those things ever again. And, I'm sorry Falcom, but I just can't take dance offs seriously in a context like this. The poor guy stuck doing the running man certainly didn't help it look any less goofy. Maybe having a better grasp of what was going on would ease my opinion on it...but I kinda doubt it.
Cool to see our Anguis for the arc finally show his face and it's so strange to me every time he talks, because all I hear is a rather laid back Kiryu, from the Yakuza games, and it's weirding me out, lol.
One thing has my noggin' joggin': we seem to have all our villains assembled and not a one of them hiding their identity, down to the Anguis. Which begs the question, who's the secret asshole? There's always one hiding somewhere and I can't believe there isn't here. I'm currently side eyeing Dingo something fierce. He's around way too much, is voiced and just a bit too helpful. Plus he seems to have to some combat skills after he helped save reporter-chan from the hentai slime beast with a flying kick. Look at me questioning the character and morals of a helpful dude who's got your back; what has this series turned me into...
Oh yeah, speaking of Gaspar, we're just one magi name away from having the full trio in a single game. We got a Balthasar waaaaay back in Cagesong of the Ocean but come on Falcom, give us the trifecta here. Also speaking of cheesy, the impact of seeing the message written in Gaspar's blood loses a little something when you notice that it's a flat texture even though the surface it's written on has dips... and more importantly, that Melchior managed to spell his own name wrong. 😋
- Yeah, I noticed that the broad structure is very CS1/3-esque too, though the fact that our hub is a huge city instead of a small town adds a bit of spice because we get to see new parts of it in each Chapter. I imagine that if we'd been based out of Heimdallr instead of Trista/Leeves we'd have gotten something similar in Cold Steel. Meanwhile Crossbell gave us most of the city at once and it was outlying regions that slowly opened up. I did wonder if Gerard's line about the 'golden sun' was meant to be a nod to the Arc en Ciel piece, especially when combined with the mask explicitly being connected to the happenings with Ilya. And then the Chapter ends with talk of a collaboration between the sisters and Arc en Ciel. A couple of running jokes have come out of floofy's streams so far. One is that Van Knows Everybody (except for Kevin/Olivier/whoever else would be funny) and another is that like The 3rd, Hajimari is a totally skippable game that n-e-v-e-r gets referenced again... xD
- You know, I thought I had that figured out for a minute when you brought up that picture of the mystery Church member who first showed up in Cao's company. I thought that maybe it was Dingo, since at a quick glance there are some vague similarities. Except that we do see the former's arms and they don't look dark enough considering Dingo's skin tone. Busted idea aside, my Kiseki Senses were tingling with that first quest of his; something just feels off about it and I can't quite put my finger on what.
There's definitely gonna be a secret asshole (if it doesn't turn out to be like Azure and CS4 where it's everyone) and I'm sure Falcom is giving us so many obvious agents (Ellroy operating publicly, the whole Judith and Barkhorn deals) as some kind of misdirection. Now here's an interesting thought: What if it's Van? He has someone or something speaking to him when he transforms into Grendel without Mare's aid earlier in the Chapter, the flashbacks are blurred but make it look like Van was experimented on at a young age and we really don't know anything about his past aside from what we can glean secondhand from people who've known him. For all we know he's got one hell of a skeleton hidden in his closet that Falcom's waiting to spring on us, maybe one that he doesn't even remember all the details of himself.
SpoilerThe sameYeah, given what just happened with Gaspar I thought that the next thing we'd see is her body being discovered the next morning or something like that. The fact that she was entirely fine was actually worse in a way, because you know that something had to happen and you're waiting to find out what. It turned out to be less terrible than I was thinking (given Beyond the Beginning, I was expecting her to pull a knife and start attacking people or something) and the dance-off was pretty cheesy, but I think I'm okay with that as an alternative to more bloodshed just this once...Oh yeah, speaking of Gaspar, we're just one magi name away from having the full trio in a single game. We got a Balthasar waaaaay back in Cagesong of the Ocean but come on Falcom, give us the trifecta here. Also speaking of cheesy, the impact of seeing the message written in Gaspar's blood loses a little something when you notice that it's a flat texture even though the surface it's written on has dips... and more importantly, that Melchior managed to spell his own name wrong. 😋
- Yeah, I noticed that the broad structure is very CS1/3-esque too, though the fact that our hub is a huge city instead of a small town adds a bit of spice because we get to see new parts of it in each Chapter. I imagine that if we'd been based out of Heimdallr instead of Trista/Leeves we'd have gotten something similar in Cold Steel. Meanwhile Crossbell gave us most of the city at once and it was outlying regions that slowly opened up. I did wonder if Gerard's line about the 'golden sun' was meant to be a nod to the Arc en Ciel piece, especially when combined with the mask explicitly being connected to the happenings with Ilya. And then the Chapter ends with talk of a collaboration between the sisters and Arc en Ciel. A couple of running jokes have come out of floofy's streams so far. One is that Van Knows Everybody (except for Kevin/Olivier/whoever else would be funny) and another is that like The 3rd, Hajimari is a totally skippable game that n-e-v-e-r gets referenced again... xD
- You know, I thought I had that figured out for a minute when you brought up that picture of the mystery Church member who first showed up in Cao's company. I thought that maybe it was Dingo, since at a quick glance there are some vague similarities. Except that we do see the former's arms and they don't look dark enough considering Dingo's skin tone. Busted idea aside, my Kiseki Senses were tingling with that first quest of his; something just feels off about it and I can't quite put my finger on what.
There's definitely gonna be a secret asshole (if it doesn't turn out to be like Azure and CS4 where it's everyone) and I'm sure Falcom is giving us so many obvious agents (Ellroy operating publicly, the whole Judith and Barkhorn deals) as some kind of misdirection. Now here's an interesting thought: What if it's Van? He has someone or something speaking to him when he transforms into Grendel without Mare's aid earlier in the Chapter, the flashbacks are blurred but make it look like Van was experimented on at a young age and we really don't know anything about his past aside from what we can glean secondhand from people who've known him. For all we know he's got one hell of a skeleton hidden in his closet that Falcom's waiting to spring on us, maybe one that he doesn't even remember all the details of himself.
Yup, that spelling error was pretty funny. It does make me wonder what the conversations with whichever localization partner they're working with are like. "Good effort guys, buuuut we're gonna need you to fix that Engrish real quick!"
Finally, the introduction of the church folk, but I can't say I have a clue as to who the mystery man could be. I'd been thinking Kevin prior to release, but the voice is all wrong.
A little disappointed in Zin's S-Craft; it has a cool build up, but the payoff doesn't quite deliver. His regular crafts are cool at least!
Every time I see that large device in Risette's room, I keep thinking it's a charging station for her (yeah, yeah battle sim, ok fine). Hell, she even brings it with her on the trip. Also, didn't the person she was reporting in to tell her to send in reports about her own perforance as well, or something to that effect? The android evidence just keeps piling up.
SpoilerThe opening definitely seems to imply that something bad's coming for Van, somewhere down the pike, but I hadn't considered a swerve like that. Has he made no mention of his youth or anything like that? I feel like we knew more about Rean at this point in CS1 and his past was fairly shrouded in mystery, too.
I think that NISA (presumably) might be able to make the changes to the textures themselves. Most of these things seem to be individual files which can be modified without needing Falcom's help and it's probably easier for them to just make little changes like that than have to explain to Falcom that they Engrished it up.
My best guess at the timeline right now is: Something happened to Van ten years ago and it looks Bad, he meets Elaine and Rene, the three attend school together and seem happy, then something else happens about five or six years ago that leads to the one flashback of Van apparently walking away, Rene arguing with somebody and Elaine holding a letter while looking crushed. The last time Van sees Elaine and Rene is three years before the game begins.
My guess on the 'separation' flashback occurring 5-6 years ago is based on his comments that he's been doing Spriggan work for a while now and first met Renne five years ago (~1203 on one side or another of the events of The 3rd).
So yeah, we've got a lot of hints so far but very little solid information.
SpoilerChapter 4 Day 1 endThe return of the High Bloods! I was wondering when they'd finally rear their heads again. I could be remembering this wrong, but I feel like their crew got bigger since Azure.
Finally, the introduction of the church folk, but I can't say I have a clue as to who the mystery man could be. I'd been thinking Kevin prior to release, but the voice is all wrong.
A little disappointed in Zin's S-Craft; it has a cool build up, but the payoff doesn't quite deliver. His regular crafts are cool at least!
Every time I see that large device in Risette's room, I keep thinking it's a charging station for her (yeah, yeah battle sim, ok fine). Hell, she even brings it with her on the trip. Also, didn't the person she was reporting in to tell her to send in reports about her own perforance as well, or something to that effect? The android evidence just keeps piling up.
- Yeah, I was scratching my head on that for a while. He does get referred to by a rank (副兵長) but it's not one with a real-world equivalent. Heichou is an NCO rank in the former Imperial Japanese Navy, equivalent to 'Leading Seaman' in the US and UK navies but there's no equivalent rank of 'Vice Leading Seaman' so I don't think it's meant to be read in the typical way here. My guess is that he's supposed to be the deputy commander of the Papal Guard, since if you split the characters out you get literally 'Deputy Commander of Soldiers' and that unit is written as 僧兵庁. We know the Papal Guard aren't in the same chain of command as the Gralsritter so I could see them being independently interested in the goings-on and wanting to have someone investigating matters without having to go through the Gralsritter.
By the way, that comment I just made before about wondering if we were getting our trifecta of magi names? And what did Mystery Man call the totally not a Dominion? Oh right, 'Sir Bathazar'. xD
- I'm just glad Zin contributed more to that fight than Judi- Grimcats! did at the end of the last Chapter. Though I notice that like Fie, he has a singularly awful Hollow Core for his fighting style. Of course, if they let us change it to something better equipped for raising STR or DEF he'd probably break the game since he's already insanely tanky...
- I noticed that too and want to know why it's necessary to bring along on a little field trip. Though she didn't seem to be lugging anything similar around in Tharbad, that we saw. Then again, she's not staying with us there so who knows what she was carrying in her luggage. Oh, speaking of that thing, the first time I tried using the simulator, Risette spawned inside the desk afterwards. It was hilarious. I also had Aaron manage to start one of the battles in the hotel outside the room the fight was happening in and not having enough MOV to actually reach the door to contribute to the fight. Wish I'd grabbed a clip of that because it was pretty funny too. I can just imagine Aaron being all 'Yeah, you kids have fun in there, I'll just hang out here until you're done'.
And one little comment on early Day 2.
I don't think I've come across any real bugs like that, (un)fortunately. There've been a few patches here and there recently, have they said anything about what they did? I assume it's just stability or text fixes.
Interesting to hear about that scientist working on prosthetic limbs in that one sidequest and the not-so-subtle reference to Victor. As if the man could get even more badass.
One thing I find myself asking quite often now: where on earth is Shizuna? Between the episode in Hajimari and the promo material, I assumed she'd play a much larger role. I don't imagine there're too many chapters left, either. It feels like this story has a lot more moving parts than usual; we've got , whatever Ouroboros are up to, the church who've finally shown up, Shizuna's crew...Garden, maybe? Hard to imagine they're all going to come into focus in the last few chapters, so I can only assume we're going to have a lot of dangling threads by the end when we, presumably, put the kibosh on .
SpoilerChapter 4 day 3Interesting to hear about that scientist working on prosthetic limbs in that one sidequest and the not-so-subtle reference to Victor. As if the man could get even more badass.
SpoilerHajimariThere is a post-battle scene between Victor, George and Toval in the postgame True Reverie Corridor that mentions orbal prosthetics with Victor telling George to help with the development of them as a means of atonement. Here is a video with English subtitles and part of a larger playlist.So as we see, Hajimari is totally skippable.
I don't think I've come across any real bugs like that, (un)fortunately. There've been a few patches here and there recently, have they said anything about what they did? I assume it's just stability or text fixes.
SpoilerChapter 4 day 1One thing I forgot; that was totally the demonic flute that showed up in the weird cult/religion side quest right? Alas, poor L. Ron Hubbard ended up getting flattened by rubble as a result of my choice. Kinda curious what the other outcome would've been!
Still on Day 2 so I'll skip over the one for now. The update reports haven't been very specific on what they're doing, usually it will say something like 'various bug fixes' or specifically 'bugs that can impede progression in [circumstance] have been corrected'. So yeah, it's mostly been stability and bug fixes but they don't generally specify them.
SpoilerChapter 4 day 1One thing I forgot; that was totally the demonic flute that showed up in the weird cult/religion side quest right? Alas, poor L. Ron Hubbard ended up getting flattened by rubble as a result of my choice. Kinda curious what the other outcome would've been!
The loss of books you can read on bookshelves or being able to look up data on computers is very frustrating. I really get the sense that the scope of Kiseki games is becoming too much for Falcom to handle...
Anyway I like chapter 4 significantly better than 3. It's a bit ironic that for all the talk of Kuro being more mature, the chapter that hews more closely to traditional Kiseki games features more mature writing than the one that ventures into taboo territory.
There's also mercifully much less of the male gaze/fanservice. The two chapters are clearly by different people... And I kind of hope that the writer of chapter 3 doesn't handle any more.
On a different note. I think I figured out who Hermes is.
Finished Chapter 4 and... yeah, that was something indeed.
SpoilerChapter 4 day 3This chapter should've been called "so, you think Hajimari is skippable, do you?" Curious about what this thought experiment weapon is all about. At least I think that's what they were talking about?Interesting to hear about that scientist working on prosthetic limbs in that one sidequest and the not-so-subtle reference to Victor. As if the man could get even more badass.
One thing I find myself asking quite often now: where on earth is Shizuna? Between the episode in Hajimari and the promo material, I assumed she'd play a much larger role. I don't imagine there're too many chapters left, either. It feels like this story has a lot more moving parts than usual; we've got , whatever Ouroboros are up to, the church who've finally shown up, Shizuna's crew...Garden, maybe? Hard to imagine they're all going to come into focus in the last few chapters, so I can only assume we're going to have a lot of dangling threads by the end when we, presumably, put the kibosh on .
The 'thought experiment' weapon is called a Reactor Weapon by Quatre and it's written with the same underlying kanji as the Reaction Weapons from the Macross franchise, which act kind of like nuclear weapons (with attendant strict limitations on their deployment) but later sources clarify that they're functionally antimatter explosives made using super-advanced technology. Presumably Callaghan's weapon is something along those lines. And MTSC might be trying to make it a reality. But they're totally not suspicious...
Amusingly enough, I saw his name (and the specific romanization Falcom gave) and immediately thought of a certain professor from a film with the same name who dies early in the movie, then turns out to have faked their death and is the real antagonist. I wonder if that's intentional or just a hilarious coincidence.
On a different note. I think I figured out who Hermes is.
So that probably answers that question.SpoilerI was thinking it had to be Angelica or Kirika, but Kirika is busy and Hermes is actually well-behaved, but in chapter 4 you can buy Hermes a book about the bikers of the RF Group. Granted Kirika is Angelica's teacher, but Van has met her and would recognize her ki or her movements or whatever.
I was originally thinking the latter myself.
At this point though I'm leaning towards 'new character and Falcom just wants us to think it might be Kilika' because as you say, Kilika's really busy and while she could have done a quick change to show up as Hermes after the little get-together (Crow did something similar in CS1 when he ditched his C getup in a hurry) I just don't think it's all that likely that she's pulling double-duty as a bike courier with a side job of helping us school some punks at street racing.
