Gonna have to hold off reading day 3 stuff for now
Speaking of Kevin, I was howling when I saw a comparison video before and post patch of the scene where they show off all the known Dominion, and they fixed it by adding in Kevin. That's just pure poetry. Poor, forgotten Kevin...
Assuming I get to off anymore villains, I'm having second thoughts about killing them now. I kinda feel bad for Van having to make those kinds of calls! I do wonder if it'll change him at all versus leaving them alive. Probably a tricky thing to handle depending on how many people you get to make that choice for.
I'm really curious how this whole chapter plays out if you roll with the other groups. Like the encounter with Ouroboros. I can't help but wonder how many juicy tidbits you might pick up if you run through with every team, time consuming as that may be. Shizuna is a helluva lot of fun to use, I will say, and I didn't exactly have to think too hard when presented with the choice of who to go with!
Gonna have to hold off reading day 3 stuff for now
SpoilerDay 2The Stigma thing I was talking about was how they were glowing red and blue, I think? As I recall, the Stigmas in the past had a standard yellowish hue, but these look way more vibrant. Like compare how Gaius and Thomas manifest theirs and, shape of the Stigma aside, they look fairly similar. Kevin, too, as I recall. I may be just way overthinking this and Falcom just wanted to have them look visually distinct when stood next to each other!Speaking of Kevin, I was howling when I saw a comparison video before and post patch of the scene where they show off all the known Dominion, and they fixed it by adding in Kevin. That's just pure poetry. Poor, forgotten Kevin...
Assuming I get to off anymore villains, I'm having second thoughts about killing them now. I kinda feel bad for Van having to make those kinds of calls! I do wonder if it'll change him at all versus leaving them alive. Probably a tricky thing to handle depending on how many people you get to make that choice for.
I'm really curious how this whole chapter plays out if you roll with the other groups. Like the encounter with Ouroboros. I can't help but wonder how many juicy tidbits you might pick up if you run through with every team, time consuming as that may be. Shizuna is a helluva lot of fun to use, I will say, and I didn't exactly have to think too hard when presented with the choice of who to go with!
- They added him to the Dominion image? Eeeexcellent. I need to play it with that patch posthaste, but I was in the middle of something when I saw that it dropped and didn't want to quit the game at that point.
- Yeah, I had no trouble deciding I wanted to go with Ikaruga when I saw that I'd unlocked them and they've said some interesting things. I imagine there's quite a lot of variation since you'll run into different groups at different times, and consequently take them out of the running earlier or later. Plus how you can eliminate one of the two major jaeger groups early, so they won't be present later on. Which of the two did you side with?
Don't know if you saw, but Van's S-Craft looks a whole lot cooler now. I'm curious what was behind that decision. I know I was a little underwhelmed by it initially, so I wonder if they got feedback about that and decided to update it. Might have to go and check everyone else and see if anything changed. There was also an interesting bit on the patch notes about adding movies? Perhaps to a movie viewer you unlock at the end, or something.
I decided to side with Feri's old crew. I didn't really see how I could do anything else!
The visual updates seem to be mainly fine-tuning animations and camerawork. Given all the changes, the early-purchase DLC looks in retrospect like an unstated apology for the state of the game on release.
I guess they really rushed it out the door to hit that release date. Have they never delayed a game before?
Well, ok, there was clearly something going on just as Van ran Gerard through, so I'll hold off on declaring him dead dead, but I'm fairly stumped as to where things go from here. Clearly whatever it is, it's tied into Mare's strange reaction.
Gerard's S-Craft certainly raised an eyebrow for me. Maybe Falcom just really dig the eye motif, or could it mean something more?
Interesting reaction from Quatre upon the mention of the DG cult, but I wonder if they're gonna make us wait for the next game to get that reveal.
I feel like a dope asking this now, but is it all clear yet why Judith is able to transform as she does? She obviously can't be just an actress, but I don't remember there being a big expostion scene about her history.
I guess they really rushed it out the door to hit that release date. Have they never delayed a game before?
SpoilerChapter 5 endSo we seem to have no villains left, aside from Melchior (hard to imagine we deal with Ouroboros in what's left of this game).Well, ok, there was clearly something going on just as Van ran Gerard through, so I'll hold off on declaring him dead dead, but I'm fairly stumped as to where things go from here. Clearly whatever it is, it's tied into Mare's strange reaction.
Gerard's S-Craft certainly raised an eyebrow for me. Maybe Falcom just really dig the eye motif, or could it mean something more?
Interesting reaction from Quatre upon the mention of the DG cult, but I wonder if they're gonna make us wait for the next game to get that reveal.
I feel like a dope asking this now, but is it all clear yet why Judith is able to transform as she does? She obviously can't be just an actress, but I don't remember there being a big expostion scene about her history.
I don't think they have (Hajimari did have that big DLC but that felt more like bonus content.) It seems apparent that their traditional schedule does not suit AA development in the modern era and I hope executive management reconsiders. Setting aside all the technical issues, someone on Kamikouryaku took 900 screenshots just of typos and grammatical errors.
With all the Real Life stuff I finished up Chapter 5 on Saturday and didn't get a chance to do much more than start up Finale. But since the former's done I can go back to all those skipped posts. Damn, that ending was a rush.
Somewhat related, Falcom, don't think I didn't notice that Quatre reacted to the mention of DG as well as Van... and I'm going to enjoy using that on people who are bitching that Falcom/NISA should have prioritized this game and skipped Crossbell or released them later.
cleared chapter 5 last night and have some theory-related thoughts (as opposed to comments on the writing orz) so I thought I would write them up here instead of on fusetter.
SpoilerGiven that Dingo's camera survived and the science team didn't detect any radiation, I'm going to bet that the people in Creil were transferred to another dimension. rd technology is impressively versatile, and yet the Xipha is the first orbment model to use it. I wonder if the Epstein Institute was holding it back from orbments it supervised because of some sort of potential hazard? It's interesting that Gerard's s-craft, Pandemonium Ruler, uses the Evil Eyes like Weissman. I rewatched the Grandmaster episode of Hajimari recently and she quotes a line from the nursery rhyme Kagome Kagome: "Who is that right behind me?" The nursery rhyme seems to describe a bird in a cage or basket that eventually breaks free (there are a lot of interpretations).If you consider Zemuria the bird, the 'shackles' as the basket, and the eyes are entities from the Outside looking in, possibly the Evil Eyes are meant to indicate mental damage from being observed by Whatever is out there in a Cthulhu sort of way or, alternately, the shackles being broken. I'm pretty confident by now that Gray Arnold is Dingo's younger brother, since he's shown as trying very hard to get strong enough before it's too late, hiding the extent of his actual capabilities, and going on his own to Oracion. If I recall correctly he's from Ored or Leman and it sounds like he's from a good family. I get the impression Dingo left his real name behind to try to bring down Armata. Elaine is amazing in chapter 5 and shows incredible strength of will: leaving behind a comfortable life and becoming an A-rank Bracer just to investigate her own father, and then being willing to sacrifice even her new position to arrest him, and doing all this almost entirely alone. I see she learned from Van the bad habit of shouldering everything by herself... And with 2/3 of the set acting like that, it makes me worried what Rene is trying to handle alone. Elaine and Agnes both parallel each other in some ways: both have angelic/heavenly motifs in their Crafts, both are blond and from high-class backgrounds, both have issues with their dads, both are in love with Van... I am so not looking forward to the shipping wars. There are a few references to an S-rank Bracer out and about but they're very careful not to mention any details. Wonder if this guy is an Anguis. Most of Armata's captains win the "congratulations, I don't care" award previously won by the ILF. Ok you have a tragic backstory, that's no excuse. At least Arioch is funny. Gerard's sword is described as an Artifact but it seems closer to the Outside Law swords Loewe and McBurn received from the Grandmaster.
- I hadn't thought of Gray as being related to Dingo but that would actually make a good deal of sense. He's definitely something, as the Intermission quest makes clear.
- Elaine really shone in this Chapter, along with her and Van's interactions. Shame we didn't get to see her one-on-one with Arioch onscreen but with all the other eye candy fights we got, I think I can live with just imagining that one. And yeah, not only have Falcom been careful to not give details on the S-rank(s?) who came from the guild headquarters in Leman but they're basically trolling us with that lack of information, as it comes up again in early Finale. Possibly related, we still have those two bracers identified only by their titles from back in Zero; I'm waiting to find out that one or both of them are some of our unknown S-ranks.
- Yeah, Gerard's sword sounds almost like an Outside piece and the name is almost spot-on to the named weapons (it's the contradictory 'Holy Demonic Sword 'Apeiron') so I wonder about that. It's possible that it actually is from the Outside and Barkhorn just doesn't think the rest of us need to know that, or that Artifacts (some at least) have connections to the Outside that explains some of what they can do.
Speaking of which, having done the intro for each of the potential teamups (except Heiyue because I didn't have Gray 3 by then) I noticed that Lucrezia says that her 'dusk glaive' was given to her by the Grandmaster. Seeing the visual effects when she summons and uses that thing, I'm pretty certain it's an Outside Law weapon.
Oh Yotaka we may have a name for the islands to the south..
Spoilera character mentions the Morsia Archipelago around the Free Cities, so unless it's not-Japan or there's islands to the north...
So... who was it and where was it? I looked for it and found a few NPCs who might have discussed that sort of thing but I didn't catch any names being dropped. Given how much went on it's quite possible I missed talking to the right person at the right time.
The visual updates seem to be mainly fine-tuning animations and camerawork. Given all the changes, the early-purchase DLC looks in retrospect like an unstated apology for the state of the game on release.
SpoilerChapter 5 choicesI went with the Bracer Guild because I don't find Ikaruga particularly compelling as of yet (it would be fun if Shizuna were a red herring and it's actually Kurogane who has the plot-relevant background.) I chose to kill all the enemies (sorry, not risking injury to save mass murderers attempting suicide-by-cop). In the Bracer route Zin & co. intervene, though, so you get more LGC points that way. For the first enemy I handed them over to Heiyue because I didn't think the Bracers had the facilities to hold them and Elaine was a little upset. Sorry. The other two I handed over to the Bracers. And I sided with Feri's dad, too.
Related to that, while イスカ could be read as Iska like the tribe in Ys VII, it's also how the Japanese refer to a particular bird, which fits nicely with Ikaruga being named after another bird. Totally a coincidence, I'm sure...
Interesting that allying with the bracers prevents you from actually killing the Almata members, but it does make sense that they'd be opposed to that. I've also heard that it's possible for Elaine's father to be killed during the cutscene which suggests there's some combination of choices that determine that outcome. I wonder if it's just picking him as the culprit the first time you're asked, or if it's a combination of things.
Might as well give all my Chapter 5 choices then:
- Sided with the Khurga
- Killed Viola
- Killed Alexandre
- Spared Olympia and sent her to the Bracers
I guess they really rushed it out the door to hit that release date. Have they never delayed a game before?
SpoilerChapter 5 endSo we seem to have no villains left, aside from Melchior (hard to imagine we deal with Ouroboros in what's left of this game).Well, ok, there was clearly something going on just as Van ran Gerard through, so I'll hold off on declaring him dead dead, but I'm fairly stumped as to where things go from here. Clearly whatever it is, it's tied into Mare's strange reaction.
Gerard's S-Craft certainly raised an eyebrow for me. Maybe Falcom just really dig the eye motif, or could it mean something more?
Interesting reaction from Quatre upon the mention of the DG cult, but I wonder if they're gonna make us wait for the next game to get that reveal.
I feel like a dope asking this now, but is it all clear yet why Judith is able to transform as she does? She obviously can't be just an actress, but I don't remember there being a big expostion scene about her history.
They have, sort of. Ys VIII was originally planned for simultaneous release on Vita and PS4 but Falcom pushed the latter back because it wasn't ready yet and they eventually added all that extra content to it that made it the definitive version; the original plan was for the versions to be identical content-wise. But that's not quite delaying a game per se because they still had something to release on the planned date.
Still waiting for a future update to add in the enemy notes...
- I don't believe Judith's transformation has been explained and she doesn't seem to have a special Hollow Core like Van does that would explain it either (plus, she started working as Grimcats well before the RAMDA or the XIPHA were released) so we just have guesswork. Since she's the third Grimcats it's probably something the family knows how to do which they've passed down. Rapid disguising has been seen before with Bleublanc (another phantom thief) so it could be something similar to what he does. The closest we have to evidence for how it works is when she makes that little finger gesture before her hair changes color, like she's adjusting the settings on some device we can't see.
I checked my screenshot and I think it was actually in the last chapter
The spelling is probably Morgia モルジア. Now that I typed it out, I'm wondering if the name is from 'Morgiana' and if it and the neighboring Free Cities are part of the Middle East.
Speaking of which, having done the intro for each of the potential teamups (except Heiyue because I didn't have Gray 3 by then) I noticed that Lucrezia says that her 'dusk glaive' was given to her by the Grandmaster. Seeing the visual effects when she summons and uses that thing, I'm pretty certain it's an Outside Law weapon.
Oh boy just what we needed. I forgot when we learn this so spoilers just in case
Was wondering what you thought about a particular moment in chapter 5
SpoilerChoicesInteresting that allying with the bracers prevents you from actually killing the Almata members, but it does make sense that they'd be opposed to that. I've also heard that it's possible for Elaine's father to be killed during the cutscene which suggests there's some combination of choices that determine that outcome. I wonder if it's just picking him as the culprit the first time you're asked, or if it's a combination of things.
I didn't know that. That seems like a plot point that would be picked up in the next game, which makes me wonder how much this game's choices will carry over.
Anyway some things I hope will be discussed in Kuro 2
Incidentally,
Hope you enjoy the rest of the game!
The spelling is probably Morgia モルジア. Now that I typed it out, I'm wondering if the name is from 'Morgiana' and if it and the neighboring Free Cities are part of the Middle East
It really would not surprise me if that's where Falcom drew the name from. We already have the two kids in Tharbad taking about Middle Eastern folklore (that the boy visiting town hasn't heard before) which includes the 'Djinni in the Lamp' and Feri drops occasional references as well.
Was wondering what you thought about a particular moment in chapter 5
SpoilerThingEllroy admitting he was preparing to murder everyone participating in the Death Game with chemical weapons, and if not for the game rules, everyone in Oracion period. Ellroy did a good job of raising Ouroboros' threat level back up after so many have quit or turned out to be ready to chill with the main characters. I'm kind of wondering if McBurn gave him that scar on his face...
Yeah, definitely raising the threat level back again.
I joked on floofy's last stream that his scarring wasn't from a fight but instead was a tragic smoking accident. Though I suppose that's not mutually exclusive with McBurn causing it, if the former asked the latter for a light...
Hope you enjoy the rest of the game!
Oh, I plan to! xD
That's an interesting perspective.. I didn't think of that.
I can't imagine he got along very well with some of the other Anguis....
SpoilerElroyI don’t know if Falcom is actually doing the Seven Deadly Sins Anguis thing but damn if Elroy doesn’t fit sloth—both the common interpretation and Dante’s interpretation! “Oh I was going to kill everyone, but I think I’ll let you deal with it instead.” “ Oh I fused together two evil organization from the Middle Ages and just let them do whatever they want, oops.”
Irony of ironies, back before CS3 came out, when 'Lechter is the Fourth Anguis' was still a semi-viable theory, that was exactly the sin he got pegged with. The more things change... xD
So, the Sept Terrion for this arc has to be Time, right? I can't see it being anything else after all the temporal shenanigans going on here.
Placing my prediction now: Judith's actress friend (whose name eludes me) is a wandering witch. The way we catch her talking to whoever she was talking to, plus her shaky explanation were very reminiscent of catching Emma talking to Celine.
It was interesting hearing Renne say Cross' name when she was trapped. If she'd said Quatre that'd have to have sealed it, but I guess they're gonna string us along to the next game for that reveal. Damn them!
The whole set up for this final chapter, or the section where all hell breaks loose, gave me some heavy Tokyo Xanadu vibes. Right down to charging into the final dungeon in your car while your allies bust a way through for you. No Towa, though.
About Nina, have you seen her character episodes from watching movies with her/bond events?
FYI I don’t actually know Japanese and everything I write is visual or from reading other people comments and translations.
I’m going to take a stab and guess that Falcom actually is going for the Trimurti analogy with higher elements with Time being equivalent to Shiva the Destroyer. It fits with the whole nothingness of all thing (which considering how fast the timeline is moving, will be covered this arc) and the entropic nature of the Time element. The final dungeon’s interior also seems to be inspired by Shiva’s infinite pillar of light and the final boss refers to something as “the infinite” which fits both Shiva and my omnipresence theory about Time.
