Why would I be shocked? I've seen you dabble more than once or twice. Hell, I even mentioned to try those 3D arcade games, if you could. I am glad that you're having fun with this new game you're playing.
What are you currently playing?
- Thread starter Nick Calandra
- Start date
So having finished Sonic Frontiers, I've got some remaining time on my Xbox Gold subscription. To fill in what's left of that time, I've started playing...sigh, Bolt, the videogame. Yeah, I own this through some quirk of Game Pass, and I figured it wouldn't take me long to beat it. By my count, I'm nearly 50% through the game, but I'm already bored.
Not that I was expecting much, but fine, whatever. This is basically a brawler/platformer/stealth game hybrid. When you're playing as Bolt (which is about 80% of the time), you're fighting through enemies using your powers and whatnot. I'll give the game some credit, you can't button mash your way to victory, and the gameplay steadily gets tougher. But it just isn't enough to keep me interested. The other 20% is with Penny with stealth sections, using the most generous definition of "stealth," that is. Metal Gear Solid, this ain't, and despite similar goggles, it isn't Splinter Cell either.
Not that I was expecting much from the story, but basically, the premise is that we're playing episodes of the Bolt TV series (apparently there's over 900 of them? Christ...) where Penny and Bolt have to rescue the former's dad from the evil Dr. Calico, who's using Penny's dad to build a weapon for world lobotomization (sorry, domination), because, I dunno, he's evil I guess. I bring this up because Calico is actually a rare gem of a character given that he's voiced by Malcolm McDowell, who tends to be excellent in whatever he's in. But I know this is a kid's game, but still, zzz...
Look, maybe I'm being too harsh, but basically, just want to get through this nonsense. If you're wondering why I watched Bolt in the first place (see the movies thread), this is the reason why. Considering this was made in the late 2000s, it's kind of a weird time capsule to when tie-in games were still a dime a dozen.
Not that I was expecting much, but fine, whatever. This is basically a brawler/platformer/stealth game hybrid. When you're playing as Bolt (which is about 80% of the time), you're fighting through enemies using your powers and whatnot. I'll give the game some credit, you can't button mash your way to victory, and the gameplay steadily gets tougher. But it just isn't enough to keep me interested. The other 20% is with Penny with stealth sections, using the most generous definition of "stealth," that is. Metal Gear Solid, this ain't, and despite similar goggles, it isn't Splinter Cell either.
Not that I was expecting much from the story, but basically, the premise is that we're playing episodes of the Bolt TV series (apparently there's over 900 of them? Christ...) where Penny and Bolt have to rescue the former's dad from the evil Dr. Calico, who's using Penny's dad to build a weapon for world lobotomization (sorry, domination), because, I dunno, he's evil I guess. I bring this up because Calico is actually a rare gem of a character given that he's voiced by Malcolm McDowell, who tends to be excellent in whatever he's in. But I know this is a kid's game, but still, zzz...
Look, maybe I'm being too harsh, but basically, just want to get through this nonsense. If you're wondering why I watched Bolt in the first place (see the movies thread), this is the reason why. Considering this was made in the late 2000s, it's kind of a weird time capsule to when tie-in games were still a dime a dozen.
Played more Virtue's Last Reward. Several storylines, several revelations, it's possible I will forget something.
I am less lost but still lost.
One cliff hanger had been unlocked: the one where it turned out both Alice and Quark had Radical-6 but we only had enough medicine for one of them. Now however Sigma remembered that there was machine in the lab that could make a copy of the medicine so we did and gave both a dose. Came time for the vote and my voting partner Alice was still out of commission, so I could safely vote Ally... or so I thought, since her agent training allowed her to slip into the voting chamber at the last moment and Betray me, killing me. Everyone else voted betray and I got a Game Over. I reloaded and chose Betray, and now everybody voted Betray. This put Luna in a bad mood since without trust noone would ever be able to escape this situation. She suggested we'd need a common goal, and maybe the bomb placer could be focused on. That made Sigma remember there was a track on one of the bombs in the form of a memory card, which when read revealed coded text. Alice identified it as such, but claimed it impossible to translate without a key.
After that I got Alice' backstory. She had earlier been stated to be out to get her father's killer, and now she revealed that the terrorist organization they had intended to strike had been behind his murder... and that his body had provided the clues to guide them towards their real HQ. Then I got a to be continued.
I then went back to a Enter-a-room-node that I somehow had missed were not a you-chose-Betray-node In it I got to learn K's backstory, in conjunction with lots of other things.
We explored the corpse of the dead old woman and discovered that she had markings that indicated that she had worn a bracelet that had been covered in blood. Some Luminol later and the woman's killer had been discovered: Dio! He claimed to have entered the game for a hefty reward, and people reasoned that the old woman had been the true 9th nonary game participant, not Dio. Simultaneously Tenmyouji and Clover was lost but Quark could be found in the medical bay pod without his bracelet.
Time was ticking down to find the others and K told his backstory, which had come back to him somewhat. Apparently he grew up with a distant father always doing science, which only improved somewhat when a woman entered their lives and practically acted as a mother to him. He got closer to his father by getting in on the genetic research the father was doing.
Afterwards Phi and Sigma found that Dio had been murdered via asphyxiation and later that his bracelet had been destroyed. At this point nobody would be able to enter the next chamber, but due to my earlier routes Sigma ran to find the thing that counteracted the poison that would kill us, gave to Phi, and as he lied dying figured what had happened: K had killed Dio. Upon confrontation he admitted, and said that the old woman was his not-mother, and he did the research at this facility. Sigma then managed to remove K's mask and found out that he looked just like Sigma.
---
Finding out that K was the killer did not require any unlocks so I could've found that out ages ago. So we have now two mysteries explained: The old woman was killed by Dio and Alice was killed by Radical-6, in the routes where such events occurred. And Clover killed people as revenge.
If K and Sigma look exactly alike and K worked in genetic research I'm thinking that one or the other is a clone. Maybe I actually am playing Sigma of 2028 experiencing the clone of the far off future where Radical-6 had had their cure found, via the homomorphic/telepathic field? I also wonder if there's a connection between Alice' father and K since they were both researchers.
Since Dio could be revealed as a killer at the beginning of the game I do not think he is Zero. He is intended as a red herring, someone everyone suspects because of disagreeable actions but not the greater scope villain. Apart from that, I've been told the backstory of Tenmyouji&Quark, Clover, Luna, Alice, K, Sigma, but not Dio or Phi. My head theory was that if someone does not get their backstory explained they are likely to be guilty since we are not meant to sympathize with them, but I could also imagine that they leave the backstories with enough blanks that it can be revealed that they actually did it. e.g. Luna: "I grew up alone; I believe that joy can just slip out of your fingers... in other words I am depressed and care about noone so I might as well take others down with me; Nonary Games it is!".
K is probably not Zero since he would've taken the precautions necessary to not die in the ending I just saw... then again, it is possible that he did survive it via precautions. Otherwise, ex-Nonary game participants Tenmyouji and Clover were still not confirmed dead and Phi got the opportunity to survive only via my dose; sounds like sloppy planning if she were Zero... but she can transfer her consciousness through time and in this timeline she DID get the dose required to live. If this arrangement is for the greater good, it makes sense that she'd be motivated by "Hey, there are still mysteries to uncover" which she did several posts ago, in the node where she Betrayed me for a Betrayal I had never performed.
I wonder if my earlier assumption that this is to send medicine back in time via Nonary-induced telepathy is true. The fact that Alice seemed to be genuinely taken out when she was about to strike the terrorists make me think they are somewhat in control of the situation, otherwise SOIS field agent Alice would know that there was a Nonary Games arranged before their assault.
I also had a random thought: flashbacks are in general shown as drawings whereas regular conversation and in-game cinematics are done via 3d-models. I prefer the drawings, but I wonder if this is indicative of something, like those are the only parts of the story that are not in some way artificial. I speculate since my YouTube feed keeps recommending a video called "Virtue's Last Reward - Hiding in plain sight" which makes me try to look for something so obvious that you don't even reflect on it.
At this point I wonder if Zero even is among them, the more important aspect being who performs what actions and why.
After that I got Alice' backstory. She had earlier been stated to be out to get her father's killer, and now she revealed that the terrorist organization they had intended to strike had been behind his murder... and that his body had provided the clues to guide them towards their real HQ. Then I got a to be continued.
I then went back to a Enter-a-room-node that I somehow had missed were not a you-chose-Betray-node In it I got to learn K's backstory, in conjunction with lots of other things.
We explored the corpse of the dead old woman and discovered that she had markings that indicated that she had worn a bracelet that had been covered in blood. Some Luminol later and the woman's killer had been discovered: Dio! He claimed to have entered the game for a hefty reward, and people reasoned that the old woman had been the true 9th nonary game participant, not Dio. Simultaneously Tenmyouji and Clover was lost but Quark could be found in the medical bay pod without his bracelet.
Time was ticking down to find the others and K told his backstory, which had come back to him somewhat. Apparently he grew up with a distant father always doing science, which only improved somewhat when a woman entered their lives and practically acted as a mother to him. He got closer to his father by getting in on the genetic research the father was doing.
Afterwards Phi and Sigma found that Dio had been murdered via asphyxiation and later that his bracelet had been destroyed. At this point nobody would be able to enter the next chamber, but due to my earlier routes Sigma ran to find the thing that counteracted the poison that would kill us, gave to Phi, and as he lied dying figured what had happened: K had killed Dio. Upon confrontation he admitted, and said that the old woman was his not-mother, and he did the research at this facility. Sigma then managed to remove K's mask and found out that he looked just like Sigma.
---
Finding out that K was the killer did not require any unlocks so I could've found that out ages ago. So we have now two mysteries explained: The old woman was killed by Dio and Alice was killed by Radical-6, in the routes where such events occurred. And Clover killed people as revenge.
If K and Sigma look exactly alike and K worked in genetic research I'm thinking that one or the other is a clone. Maybe I actually am playing Sigma of 2028 experiencing the clone of the far off future where Radical-6 had had their cure found, via the homomorphic/telepathic field? I also wonder if there's a connection between Alice' father and K since they were both researchers.
Since Dio could be revealed as a killer at the beginning of the game I do not think he is Zero. He is intended as a red herring, someone everyone suspects because of disagreeable actions but not the greater scope villain. Apart from that, I've been told the backstory of Tenmyouji&Quark, Clover, Luna, Alice, K, Sigma, but not Dio or Phi. My head theory was that if someone does not get their backstory explained they are likely to be guilty since we are not meant to sympathize with them, but I could also imagine that they leave the backstories with enough blanks that it can be revealed that they actually did it. e.g. Luna: "I grew up alone; I believe that joy can just slip out of your fingers... in other words I am depressed and care about noone so I might as well take others down with me; Nonary Games it is!".
K is probably not Zero since he would've taken the precautions necessary to not die in the ending I just saw... then again, it is possible that he did survive it via precautions. Otherwise, ex-Nonary game participants Tenmyouji and Clover were still not confirmed dead and Phi got the opportunity to survive only via my dose; sounds like sloppy planning if she were Zero... but she can transfer her consciousness through time and in this timeline she DID get the dose required to live. If this arrangement is for the greater good, it makes sense that she'd be motivated by "Hey, there are still mysteries to uncover" which she did several posts ago, in the node where she Betrayed me for a Betrayal I had never performed.
I wonder if my earlier assumption that this is to send medicine back in time via Nonary-induced telepathy is true. The fact that Alice seemed to be genuinely taken out when she was about to strike the terrorists make me think they are somewhat in control of the situation, otherwise SOIS field agent Alice would know that there was a Nonary Games arranged before their assault.
I also had a random thought: flashbacks are in general shown as drawings whereas regular conversation and in-game cinematics are done via 3d-models. I prefer the drawings, but I wonder if this is indicative of something, like those are the only parts of the story that are not in some way artificial. I speculate since my YouTube feed keeps recommending a video called "Virtue's Last Reward - Hiding in plain sight" which makes me try to look for something so obvious that you don't even reflect on it.
At this point I wonder if Zero even is among them, the more important aspect being who performs what actions and why.
I am less lost but still lost.
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So pretty big update for Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous, I'm at around 70 hours in, middle of the third chapter. Things are going crazy. I have started down the path of becoming an Azata, which is like a chaotic good type of divine spirit from the elysium field, it has a feel of brightly colored fairytale heroism and goofiness that contrasts with the grim and dark events of the game, it feels like a respite that is sorely needed. Also you get a pet havoc dragon. Might sound cool but it's actually basically a baby fairy dragon, and she talks. If you've read the Stormlight Archive books, think of Syl, but more dragony. Extremely endearing and funny. You also get to be freaking Amaterasu from Okami and cure the blighted lands, you literally sing a song or do a dance and transform hellspikes and lava into lush fields full of green and trees and ponds.
Mechanically the class gives you a lot of buff and summon abilities with some superpower style energy attacks, which combined with my tanky DPS bloodrager build has kinda made my char able to do whatever he wants, he even can heal a bit now. Basically the abilities are a lot of "oh shit" buttons that you hit during an especially hard fight to make it manageable, more so than something you spam all day. You could I guess rest after every fight and spam everything but that's lame and also I don't wanna let time pass too far cause who knows what could happen if you dally.
Around the start of the third chapter you get to your main meat of the game where you become the leader of the crusade so it opens up a lot of political dialogue, it's kinda like those bits in dragon age inquisition where you sit on your throne and pass judgement, but it's a lot more varied and intricate and you do a whole lot more of it too, it's like a fully realized form of that system basically, and you can have party members advising you too so it's more involved.
Then you have the crusade which is basically like an old school heroes of might and magic strategy game, or a modern day phone game. Basically you either get blown up or you blow them up and it's not worth it to go into fights that will be close cause you will lose units that are valuable to replace, but after every battle there's a very interesting lore tidbit you find out about the history of the world and the lands, so while mechanically it is nothing special, it still adds to the cohesion and worldbuilding.
So yeah, there was this one fight against a giant demonic insect enemy in a cave where I had 4 demonic gargoyles , a mammoth, a triceratops, my baby dragon, a magical harpist and a velociraptor all helping my party fight this damn insect, and I was so absorbed that it felt normal, but then I sat back and looked at was I was watching around the part where my giant mammoth was killed by the insect (it's a really freaking huge mammoth, like 20 feet tall) and how epic it was. I think that's kinda the feel of this game. Just immensely epic and makes you feel powerful. The encounter itself was super difficult which is why I summoned my entire arsenal as mentioned above, but seeing it unfold you can't help but smile.
Mechanically the class gives you a lot of buff and summon abilities with some superpower style energy attacks, which combined with my tanky DPS bloodrager build has kinda made my char able to do whatever he wants, he even can heal a bit now. Basically the abilities are a lot of "oh shit" buttons that you hit during an especially hard fight to make it manageable, more so than something you spam all day. You could I guess rest after every fight and spam everything but that's lame and also I don't wanna let time pass too far cause who knows what could happen if you dally.
Around the start of the third chapter you get to your main meat of the game where you become the leader of the crusade so it opens up a lot of political dialogue, it's kinda like those bits in dragon age inquisition where you sit on your throne and pass judgement, but it's a lot more varied and intricate and you do a whole lot more of it too, it's like a fully realized form of that system basically, and you can have party members advising you too so it's more involved.
Then you have the crusade which is basically like an old school heroes of might and magic strategy game, or a modern day phone game. Basically you either get blown up or you blow them up and it's not worth it to go into fights that will be close cause you will lose units that are valuable to replace, but after every battle there's a very interesting lore tidbit you find out about the history of the world and the lands, so while mechanically it is nothing special, it still adds to the cohesion and worldbuilding.
So yeah, there was this one fight against a giant demonic insect enemy in a cave where I had 4 demonic gargoyles , a mammoth, a triceratops, my baby dragon, a magical harpist and a velociraptor all helping my party fight this damn insect, and I was so absorbed that it felt normal, but then I sat back and looked at was I was watching around the part where my giant mammoth was killed by the insect (it's a really freaking huge mammoth, like 20 feet tall) and how epic it was. I think that's kinda the feel of this game. Just immensely epic and makes you feel powerful. The encounter itself was super difficult which is why I summoned my entire arsenal as mentioned above, but seeing it unfold you can't help but smile.
Right now, I've been playing quite a bit of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart. Yeah, it's a great little platformer. Not sure it's necessarily enough on its own to justify a PS5 unless you were already planning to upgrade, but a fantastic exclusive nonetheless.
More Virtue's Last Reward...
I went down the route where after the first round I betray Luna, and then tried both Ally and Betray. As things turned out, Allying meant Dio and Phi had 9 points each and they therefore escaped to a Game Over screen. Allying meant enough points for me to escape with them. But the plot did not stop! I finally got a look on the outside word, and got Dio's backstory.
Dio is a member of the terrorists Alice was chasing, an organization that wishes to reduce mankind's greed and take it back to its original form. I then got the backstory of its founder and found out he had done genetic cloning, and Dio is a clone of the founder's brother, fourth generation. Dio was apparently in the facility to "save the world". He also mentioned that lots of people are dead, probably due to Radical-6.
The entry to the facility was in a desert, and the red moon from a lunar eclipse hang over the sky.
So as things turned out, the self-serving, smug, guy who tends to Betray and is okay with murder is actually a bad guy. Who'd have thought?
I still think this is set in the far off future, after 4 generations of clones could've been brought up. Since they left the facility wearing Hazmat-suits on the grounds that they don't want the virus to get them I think this is actually one of the moons of Mars, the suits are there to keep the air in.
Since Dio was an infiltrator, I'm thinking the intention was to transfer the cure back to 2028 via the Nonary game, something the terrorists did not wish so they therefore sent Dio to stop them from changing the past. I now wonder if I am playing the real Sigma from 2028 who directs the protagonist in the future of what to do, since the protagonist often wonders why the heck he did a course of action that he did.
Earlier we noted that three (3) people had used pods recently, meaning only 3 people should have gotten here via suspended animation. The fact that there are two people with the same appearance, K and Sigma, makes me think they are from the future year, K having grown up in the facility leads credence to this. Tenmyouji aka Junpei aged naturally to that age. Dio is a fourth generation clone so he's from the future year. Clover was put in suspended animation to connect with Snake in 2028. Quark hooked up with Tenmyouji when the latter was old so he is from the future year. Phi is aware of different timelines so she's probably an agent, could be from either time. Alice was probably put in suspended animation. Luna is the only question mark. The fact that the future year is a post apocalypse probably mean that the level of technology has remained relatively static and looking at their backstory reveals little.
I wonder if Sigma is also a clone of any terrorist founders.
The question of who Zero is remain unanswered. If my speculation is correct then Zero is technically a nice guy, trying to stop the apocalypse from ever having occurred.At which point it is anybody's guess.
Dio is a member of the terrorists Alice was chasing, an organization that wishes to reduce mankind's greed and take it back to its original form. I then got the backstory of its founder and found out he had done genetic cloning, and Dio is a clone of the founder's brother, fourth generation. Dio was apparently in the facility to "save the world". He also mentioned that lots of people are dead, probably due to Radical-6.
The entry to the facility was in a desert, and the red moon from a lunar eclipse hang over the sky.
So as things turned out, the self-serving, smug, guy who tends to Betray and is okay with murder is actually a bad guy. Who'd have thought?
I still think this is set in the far off future, after 4 generations of clones could've been brought up. Since they left the facility wearing Hazmat-suits on the grounds that they don't want the virus to get them I think this is actually one of the moons of Mars, the suits are there to keep the air in.
Since Dio was an infiltrator, I'm thinking the intention was to transfer the cure back to 2028 via the Nonary game, something the terrorists did not wish so they therefore sent Dio to stop them from changing the past. I now wonder if I am playing the real Sigma from 2028 who directs the protagonist in the future of what to do, since the protagonist often wonders why the heck he did a course of action that he did.
Earlier we noted that three (3) people had used pods recently, meaning only 3 people should have gotten here via suspended animation. The fact that there are two people with the same appearance, K and Sigma, makes me think they are from the future year, K having grown up in the facility leads credence to this. Tenmyouji aka Junpei aged naturally to that age. Dio is a fourth generation clone so he's from the future year. Clover was put in suspended animation to connect with Snake in 2028. Quark hooked up with Tenmyouji when the latter was old so he is from the future year. Phi is aware of different timelines so she's probably an agent, could be from either time. Alice was probably put in suspended animation. Luna is the only question mark. The fact that the future year is a post apocalypse probably mean that the level of technology has remained relatively static and looking at their backstory reveals little.
I wonder if Sigma is also a clone of any terrorist founders.
The question of who Zero is remain unanswered. If my speculation is correct then Zero is technically a nice guy, trying to stop the apocalypse from ever having occurred.At which point it is anybody's guess.
Still working on Elden Ring, and am REALLY struggling with Red Wolf of Radagon. Outside of the marionette enemies that lose their shit after you hit them once, he's got to be the most frenetic enemy I've faced yet. Given his speed, maneuverability, and the fact that he has ranged attacks he can set off on the fly, I just can't seem to find an opening that isn't a near-death sentence. I even use summons to distract him (the 5 demi-humans have worked in other fights in that regard,) but they do nothing to take the aggro off me this time; I'm the only being in the room he wants to murder.
Oh, and the run back to his fog wall can eat a dick too.
EDIT: I just fucking beat him!!! My heart is racing and my hands are shaking; I need a drink and cigarette.
Oh, and the run back to his fog wall can eat a dick too.
EDIT: I just fucking beat him!!! My heart is racing and my hands are shaking; I need a drink and cigarette.
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I can't wait to see your post 60 hours/played from now
I'm sure it'll be smooth sailing form here on out; pretty sure the difficulty has peaked, right?
Oh yeah for sure, you're golden bro. Fuck that dog.
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Well done. So, you’re probably warmed up enough to give the outdoor ones a proper beating now too!
Well done. So, you’re probably warmed up enough to give the outdoor ones a proper beating now too!
Went old school for a bit. Gotta agree with this guy. Battlefield: Bad Company 2, 11 years old and still a hoot. Great 5.1 surround sound and visuals that work well enough.
Finished Virtue's Last Reward.
Without giving too much away it had a rather clockwork-like plot at the end of the day, and they were really happy about plot twists, so the last hours were scene after scene where they explained plot point after plot point to make sure the player knew how much thought they had put into the plot logically. And I I will admit, it is an impressive piece of machinery even though I feel some parts were a bit weak, as if those parts were made of fool's gold instead of invar. It made the ending drag though, and I did not think of it much in terms of emotional resonance. This in combination with there being parts in the middle of the story where it felt like I just repeated the same events again and again without having much of an idea of what was going on makes it so I do not recommend this game. Also, one of the central gimmicks present in the story was one where you participate in a Prisoner's Dilemma style voting which made me reluctant to go down certain paths since I do not want to be a jerk/experience the game calling me out for being a jerk.
Maybe if you played 999 and REALLY loved it.
Anyway, onto the spoilers, I've had a bit of a serial in this thread where I've shared my thoughts as I discover plot points; this spoiler contains the final key plot points together with a tally on what my earlier thoughts were.
Without giving too much away it had a rather clockwork-like plot at the end of the day, and they were really happy about plot twists, so the last hours were scene after scene where they explained plot point after plot point to make sure the player knew how much thought they had put into the plot logically. And I I will admit, it is an impressive piece of machinery even though I feel some parts were a bit weak, as if those parts were made of fool's gold instead of invar. It made the ending drag though, and I did not think of it much in terms of emotional resonance. This in combination with there being parts in the middle of the story where it felt like I just repeated the same events again and again without having much of an idea of what was going on makes it so I do not recommend this game. Also, one of the central gimmicks present in the story was one where you participate in a Prisoner's Dilemma style voting which made me reluctant to go down certain paths since I do not want to be a jerk/experience the game calling me out for being a jerk.
Maybe if you played 999 and REALLY loved it.
Anyway, onto the spoilers, I've had a bit of a serial in this thread where I've shared my thoughts as I discover plot points; this spoiler contains the final key plot points together with a tally on what my earlier thoughts were.
So the routes were the protagonist could point out who placed the bombs had been unlocked: he mentioned the terrorists and revealed that Dio is the bad guy. He activated bombs, and only by reloading various point in the story I could gather the instances where he had revealed the deactivation codes. This eventually led to the proper ending, I don't remember why I had to switch to another timeline.
In the other timeline I entered the third chamber, for the third time with Luna on my side, and then chose Ally. In the chamber I found out that Luna is a robot. Afterwards Phi, Quark and I (the survivors apart from Luna) could escape, and we did but Sigma changed his mind in the doorway and went to talk to Luna. As things turned out, in this storyline Alice had died from Radical-6, Luna had battled Clover and pretended to die, as per her master's instructions, and Dio had killed the rest of the people. Then I got an emotional discussion about that Sigma meant a lot to Luna, and it meant a lot that I trusted her. Aww.
In the storyline where all the bombs were deactivated, it was eventually revealed that the old woman who we found dead in some timelines but did not find in others was saved by us, Sigma and Phi, transferring our consciousnesses to the past to just before Dio killed her. We save her, and got a tiny key. We then all played enough prisoner's dilemma games for everyone to have the required points to leave (except Dio, who was left behind) where Tenmyouji explained that we were not in a desert looking at the Lunar Eclipse, we are on the moon looking at Earth made red by nuclear war, in the year 2074. We entered the facility again (apparently you could just go down an additional floor in what I felt undermined the whole story) and using the key we unlocked a pod where someone was in suspended animation.
K in the robot suit then revealed a whole lot of the plot and it turns out that in the timelines where the old woman was not killed she took the role of K, in storylines where she did not the guy in the pod took that role, hence revealing why they were different people in this storyline and in K's ending. The old woman was Akane, the person that arranged the last nonary game and she revealed that this one was set up by Zero so that Sigma and Phi had enough training to go back in time and stop the initial spread of Radical-6. Zero, as things turn out is, the player character Sigma aged 67. Or rather he will be once he has naturally aged to the current age; at the start of the game his 22-year-old self's consciousness and his 67-year-old's consciousness switched bodies, and the game has conveniently not shown his face up until now: he is an old man with a bionic eye. Then they laid out a plan of what he should do to hopefully avert the apocalypse.
---
Some highlights from my previous speculation:
"I suspect [the old woman Akane] was [Tenmyouji]'s wife. And that Quark is his grandchild."
Wrong on both counts. While she was his long lost love, they were not married, and if anything Quark should be considered his child, since he more or less adopted him.
"I don't think the old man Tenmyoty[sic] is the bad guy though. "
Correct.
"I suspect Phi is going through the game again and again since some comment she made alludes to this and we found a book on Schrödinger's cat."
I give myself a half point but that was a question the teacher only put on the test so that everyone could feel like they understood something.
"I also think the player character has gone through it again and again since exploding moon base dreams could be the bomb that was found in the Alice route."
The bomb did indeed cause the explosion on the moon base, and another friendly teacher half point.
"The game here presented the question of who I thought had killed Luna. I said Clover. "
I was correct in as much that Luna pretended to be dead from the attack from Clover. I don't know how the game would have reacted if I had picked something differently.
"[my explanation for the string of murders] falls down on the rather boring 'Quark did it in a fit of Radical-6 induced madness', but that does not explain how he was able to kill Dios and K. I think the authorial intent is that I am supposed to feel incredibly lost. Clover had apparently written 016 on her thigh before dying; I have no idea what that means. "
I was wrong about this. Also: Clover actually wrote "dio", on her thigh, but it was transferred to her other thigh mirrored and they never checked the first thigh.
"
Who do I think Zero is? At this point, I don't know.
[---]
Finally: am I Zero? That is one of those far out twists that I imagine the author giddy, jumping up and down with excitement on the prospect of pulling it off, but I don't see it happening, unless it's some sort of self inflicted amnesia where the events are set up to happen in advance, but that sounds ridiculously improbable.
"
This reasoning was the last in a series of each candidate and I mostly threw it in for sake of completeness. With that said: that was QUITE accurate.
"The sights Sigma has seen has led me to believe that this is set on the Moon... though one with artificially increased gravitational pull, but the broadcast made me think that either this is set on Mars or in a Nevada copy of the Mars base."
It was set on the moon as I speculated, though I deserve no points for this since I went with another theory.
I have not mentioned this before but: they had an explanation for the gravitational pull thing. EVERYONE in the facility had been infected with Radical-6, which makes your brain experience time differently and therefore thinking the gravitational forces were normal. I never wrote it but I wondered if I would eventually discover what Quark did to get the infection that latter spread to Alice, and get the opportunity to prevent him from catching it in the first place.
"New theory: we're in a scenario everyone tries to avoid: one in which Radical-6 spread and caused a worldwide pandemic causing a total of 6 billion deaths. These Nonary games are repeated in some way to make sure the disease never spreads. How this all sticks together and how this information could be passed through time I don't know. In that case our mysterious Zero might actually be a good guy, trying to save 6 billion people, by putting people in the sort of circumstances that activates the time-travel-communication. Though the "Scientific theory" has not yet been brought up by the plot so new players would be lost if that is the case."
This theory turned out to be mostly correct, it wasn't conversation with the past that was the key aspect. High 5, fellas!
"Tenmyouji also seemed to suddenly show a greater deal of care since he voted Ally "because Clover was on he other team". Is he also playing this visual novel?"
Yes and no. He is also an esper, I don't know if he did any consciousness transfers but his reasoning for caring for Clover is because he recognizes her from his past.
"I also think it is obvious that Tenmyouji is Quark's grandpa."
Wrong. My certainty does not do me any favors.
"Given that he knew about the Mars mission and seemed to think all is lost once Quark got Radical-6 I suspect he's a key figure in this arrangement, no matter if he's Q or not. Since his grandchild is named Quark I therefore suspect him of having brought the bombs in."
He was a key figure in this arrangement; if Akane is to go by all but Quark was, but I meant more in terms of knowing what goes on behind the scenes or being an assistant to Zero. This was wrong. He also did not bring any bombs in.
"HOLY MACARONI THE PROTAGONIST IS A ROBOT! Most likely. Since I've never seen Phi bleed and she can perform super human feats in leaping into the air and, most importantly, she retains memories from different routes, it would sense that she is also a robot. That both Sigma and Phi are Greek letters also indicate a connection between them. Hu-bot model φ and model σ or what have you. "
Sigma was not a robot, he was an old man. Neither was Phi.
"I'm currently leaning towards Phi planting those bombs."
Incorrect.
"Random idea: in some routes we find the device that could deactivate the bombs. I'm thinking the bombs only appear when Zero has access to that device, and analyzing what safe it came from might be fruitful, and whom went to that chamber."
Incorrect. Zero did not place the bombs, and he who did it always had access to the bombs.
"What I think happened is that the room I spoke with Clover in was a sort of pressure chamber to keep Radical-6 from entering the facility, but in her eagerness to get to Alice she did not do the proper precautions and everyone got infected."
Incorrect.
"I was earlier going to say that since Phi was able to vote differently depending on your vote in the Prisoner's Dilemma then maybe that was indicative that Alice also had the ability to transfer consciousness between nodes, but since Tenmyouji did the same it sounds like it would be a stretch to have that many people changing the past."
It was not a stretch if you ask the game's writers.
"I have had the thought that this is in the future, the people that are robots did not require suspended animation to get here and Tenmyouji is old so he actually took the slow route, which would make him the architect behind it all. If Phi and Sigma are robots that would still mean that three more people are robots, but they still bleed, so I think that's crazy talk."
It was indeed crazy talk.
"Though now that I think about it: in this ending Sigma committed suicide by slitting his throat and the graphics showed a splash of red on screen. Does that mean his arm is robotic but his torso is not? That could imply that a lethal injection from the bracelet would not affect him."
A lethal infection would kill him, even though his arm was cybernetic.
"What I think happened is that [Tenmyouji] also triggered the hologram (which might have had a different message for him) and from this figured out who Zero was."
He did. He saw Sigma speaking claiming to be Zero.
"So K, Sigma, Tenmyouji, Quark or Dio? Or a third party? I'm lost. "
I want to claim victory on the grounds that I even mentioned the protagonist here.
"For the overall plot, my current idea is this: ahead of SOIS' raid on the terrorist HQ SOIS figured that if the Radical-6 virus was as devastating as their intel suggested, they would need to have a way to get a cure quickly. Researching medicine takes time (decades, if that journal is anything to go by), so what they did was to play a Nonary game in 2028 with the intention of using the time travel powers, once a cure had been found, to play a Nonary game anew and transfer the necessary information back to 2028. That is the Nonary game I'm playing. I wonder if many participants had been in suspended animation since then."
SOIS were not the chief architect behind this nonary game. And only three people had been in suspended animation.
"If K and Sigma look exactly alike and K worked in genetic research I'm thinking that one or the other is a clone."
Correct
"Maybe I actually am playing Sigma of 2028 experiencing the clone of the far off future where Radical-6 had had their cure found, via the homomorphic/telepathic field?"
I am 2028-Sigma in 2078-Sigma, no clones involved.
"I also wonder if there's a connection between Alice' father and K since they were both researchers."
Nothing of the sort found.
"Since Dio could be revealed as a killer at the beginning of the game I do not think he is Zero. He is intended as a red herring, someone everyone suspects because of disagreeable actions but not the greater scope villain."
I was dead wrong. He was the only character I can safely call a villain.
"I also had a random thought: flashbacks are in general shown as drawings whereas regular conversation and in-game cinematics are done via 3d-models. I prefer the drawings, but I wonder if this is indicative of something, like those are the only parts of the story that are not in some way artificial. I speculate since my YouTube feed keeps recommending a video called "Virtue's Last Reward - Hiding in plain sight" which makes me try to look for something so obvious that you don't even reflect on it."
That was not a clue.
"At this point I wonder if Zero even is among them, the more important aspect being who performs what actions and why."
Zero was among them, but the more important aspect as a player was not that.
"Since Dio was an infiltrator, I'm thinking the intention was to transfer the cure back to 2028 via the Nonary game, something the terrorists did not wish so they therefore sent Dio to stop them from changing the past. I now wonder if I am playing the real Sigma from 2028 who directs the protagonist in the future of what to do, since the protagonist often wonders why the heck he did a course of action that he did."
The first part correct, the last part incorrect.
"Earlier we noted that three (3) people had used pods recently, meaning only 3 people should have gotten here via suspended animation. The fact that there are two people with the same appearance, K and Sigma, makes me think they are from the future year, K having grown up in the facility leads credence to this. Tenmyouji aka Junpei aged naturally to that age. Dio is a fourth generation clone so he's from the future year. Clover was put in suspended animation to connect with Snake in 2028. Quark hooked up with Tenmyouji when the latter was old so he is from the future year. Phi is aware of different timelines so she's probably an agent, could be from either time. Alice was probably put in suspended animation. Luna is the only question mark. The fact that the future year is a post apocalypse probably mean that the level of technology has remained relatively static and looking at their backstory reveals little."
Got this mostly right.
In the other timeline I entered the third chamber, for the third time with Luna on my side, and then chose Ally. In the chamber I found out that Luna is a robot. Afterwards Phi, Quark and I (the survivors apart from Luna) could escape, and we did but Sigma changed his mind in the doorway and went to talk to Luna. As things turned out, in this storyline Alice had died from Radical-6, Luna had battled Clover and pretended to die, as per her master's instructions, and Dio had killed the rest of the people. Then I got an emotional discussion about that Sigma meant a lot to Luna, and it meant a lot that I trusted her. Aww.
In the storyline where all the bombs were deactivated, it was eventually revealed that the old woman who we found dead in some timelines but did not find in others was saved by us, Sigma and Phi, transferring our consciousnesses to the past to just before Dio killed her. We save her, and got a tiny key. We then all played enough prisoner's dilemma games for everyone to have the required points to leave (except Dio, who was left behind) where Tenmyouji explained that we were not in a desert looking at the Lunar Eclipse, we are on the moon looking at Earth made red by nuclear war, in the year 2074. We entered the facility again (apparently you could just go down an additional floor in what I felt undermined the whole story) and using the key we unlocked a pod where someone was in suspended animation.
K in the robot suit then revealed a whole lot of the plot and it turns out that in the timelines where the old woman was not killed she took the role of K, in storylines where she did not the guy in the pod took that role, hence revealing why they were different people in this storyline and in K's ending. The old woman was Akane, the person that arranged the last nonary game and she revealed that this one was set up by Zero so that Sigma and Phi had enough training to go back in time and stop the initial spread of Radical-6. Zero, as things turn out is, the player character Sigma aged 67. Or rather he will be once he has naturally aged to the current age; at the start of the game his 22-year-old self's consciousness and his 67-year-old's consciousness switched bodies, and the game has conveniently not shown his face up until now: he is an old man with a bionic eye. Then they laid out a plan of what he should do to hopefully avert the apocalypse.
---
Some highlights from my previous speculation:
"I suspect [the old woman Akane] was [Tenmyouji]'s wife. And that Quark is his grandchild."
Wrong on both counts. While she was his long lost love, they were not married, and if anything Quark should be considered his child, since he more or less adopted him.
"I don't think the old man Tenmyoty[sic] is the bad guy though. "
Correct.
"I suspect Phi is going through the game again and again since some comment she made alludes to this and we found a book on Schrödinger's cat."
I give myself a half point but that was a question the teacher only put on the test so that everyone could feel like they understood something.
"I also think the player character has gone through it again and again since exploding moon base dreams could be the bomb that was found in the Alice route."
The bomb did indeed cause the explosion on the moon base, and another friendly teacher half point.
"The game here presented the question of who I thought had killed Luna. I said Clover. "
I was correct in as much that Luna pretended to be dead from the attack from Clover. I don't know how the game would have reacted if I had picked something differently.
"[my explanation for the string of murders] falls down on the rather boring 'Quark did it in a fit of Radical-6 induced madness', but that does not explain how he was able to kill Dios and K. I think the authorial intent is that I am supposed to feel incredibly lost. Clover had apparently written 016 on her thigh before dying; I have no idea what that means. "
I was wrong about this. Also: Clover actually wrote "dio", on her thigh, but it was transferred to her other thigh mirrored and they never checked the first thigh.
"
Who do I think Zero is? At this point, I don't know.
[---]
Finally: am I Zero? That is one of those far out twists that I imagine the author giddy, jumping up and down with excitement on the prospect of pulling it off, but I don't see it happening, unless it's some sort of self inflicted amnesia where the events are set up to happen in advance, but that sounds ridiculously improbable.
"
This reasoning was the last in a series of each candidate and I mostly threw it in for sake of completeness. With that said: that was QUITE accurate.
"The sights Sigma has seen has led me to believe that this is set on the Moon... though one with artificially increased gravitational pull, but the broadcast made me think that either this is set on Mars or in a Nevada copy of the Mars base."
It was set on the moon as I speculated, though I deserve no points for this since I went with another theory.
I have not mentioned this before but: they had an explanation for the gravitational pull thing. EVERYONE in the facility had been infected with Radical-6, which makes your brain experience time differently and therefore thinking the gravitational forces were normal. I never wrote it but I wondered if I would eventually discover what Quark did to get the infection that latter spread to Alice, and get the opportunity to prevent him from catching it in the first place.
"New theory: we're in a scenario everyone tries to avoid: one in which Radical-6 spread and caused a worldwide pandemic causing a total of 6 billion deaths. These Nonary games are repeated in some way to make sure the disease never spreads. How this all sticks together and how this information could be passed through time I don't know. In that case our mysterious Zero might actually be a good guy, trying to save 6 billion people, by putting people in the sort of circumstances that activates the time-travel-communication. Though the "Scientific theory" has not yet been brought up by the plot so new players would be lost if that is the case."
This theory turned out to be mostly correct, it wasn't conversation with the past that was the key aspect. High 5, fellas!
"Tenmyouji also seemed to suddenly show a greater deal of care since he voted Ally "because Clover was on he other team". Is he also playing this visual novel?"
Yes and no. He is also an esper, I don't know if he did any consciousness transfers but his reasoning for caring for Clover is because he recognizes her from his past.
"I also think it is obvious that Tenmyouji is Quark's grandpa."
Wrong. My certainty does not do me any favors.
"Given that he knew about the Mars mission and seemed to think all is lost once Quark got Radical-6 I suspect he's a key figure in this arrangement, no matter if he's Q or not. Since his grandchild is named Quark I therefore suspect him of having brought the bombs in."
He was a key figure in this arrangement; if Akane is to go by all but Quark was, but I meant more in terms of knowing what goes on behind the scenes or being an assistant to Zero. This was wrong. He also did not bring any bombs in.
"HOLY MACARONI THE PROTAGONIST IS A ROBOT! Most likely. Since I've never seen Phi bleed and she can perform super human feats in leaping into the air and, most importantly, she retains memories from different routes, it would sense that she is also a robot. That both Sigma and Phi are Greek letters also indicate a connection between them. Hu-bot model φ and model σ or what have you. "
Sigma was not a robot, he was an old man. Neither was Phi.
"I'm currently leaning towards Phi planting those bombs."
Incorrect.
"Random idea: in some routes we find the device that could deactivate the bombs. I'm thinking the bombs only appear when Zero has access to that device, and analyzing what safe it came from might be fruitful, and whom went to that chamber."
Incorrect. Zero did not place the bombs, and he who did it always had access to the bombs.
"What I think happened is that the room I spoke with Clover in was a sort of pressure chamber to keep Radical-6 from entering the facility, but in her eagerness to get to Alice she did not do the proper precautions and everyone got infected."
Incorrect.
"I was earlier going to say that since Phi was able to vote differently depending on your vote in the Prisoner's Dilemma then maybe that was indicative that Alice also had the ability to transfer consciousness between nodes, but since Tenmyouji did the same it sounds like it would be a stretch to have that many people changing the past."
It was not a stretch if you ask the game's writers.
"I have had the thought that this is in the future, the people that are robots did not require suspended animation to get here and Tenmyouji is old so he actually took the slow route, which would make him the architect behind it all. If Phi and Sigma are robots that would still mean that three more people are robots, but they still bleed, so I think that's crazy talk."
It was indeed crazy talk.
"Though now that I think about it: in this ending Sigma committed suicide by slitting his throat and the graphics showed a splash of red on screen. Does that mean his arm is robotic but his torso is not? That could imply that a lethal injection from the bracelet would not affect him."
A lethal infection would kill him, even though his arm was cybernetic.
"What I think happened is that [Tenmyouji] also triggered the hologram (which might have had a different message for him) and from this figured out who Zero was."
He did. He saw Sigma speaking claiming to be Zero.
"So K, Sigma, Tenmyouji, Quark or Dio? Or a third party? I'm lost. "
I want to claim victory on the grounds that I even mentioned the protagonist here.
"For the overall plot, my current idea is this: ahead of SOIS' raid on the terrorist HQ SOIS figured that if the Radical-6 virus was as devastating as their intel suggested, they would need to have a way to get a cure quickly. Researching medicine takes time (decades, if that journal is anything to go by), so what they did was to play a Nonary game in 2028 with the intention of using the time travel powers, once a cure had been found, to play a Nonary game anew and transfer the necessary information back to 2028. That is the Nonary game I'm playing. I wonder if many participants had been in suspended animation since then."
SOIS were not the chief architect behind this nonary game. And only three people had been in suspended animation.
"If K and Sigma look exactly alike and K worked in genetic research I'm thinking that one or the other is a clone."
Correct
"Maybe I actually am playing Sigma of 2028 experiencing the clone of the far off future where Radical-6 had had their cure found, via the homomorphic/telepathic field?"
I am 2028-Sigma in 2078-Sigma, no clones involved.
"I also wonder if there's a connection between Alice' father and K since they were both researchers."
Nothing of the sort found.
"Since Dio could be revealed as a killer at the beginning of the game I do not think he is Zero. He is intended as a red herring, someone everyone suspects because of disagreeable actions but not the greater scope villain."
I was dead wrong. He was the only character I can safely call a villain.
"I also had a random thought: flashbacks are in general shown as drawings whereas regular conversation and in-game cinematics are done via 3d-models. I prefer the drawings, but I wonder if this is indicative of something, like those are the only parts of the story that are not in some way artificial. I speculate since my YouTube feed keeps recommending a video called "Virtue's Last Reward - Hiding in plain sight" which makes me try to look for something so obvious that you don't even reflect on it."
That was not a clue.
"At this point I wonder if Zero even is among them, the more important aspect being who performs what actions and why."
Zero was among them, but the more important aspect as a player was not that.
"Since Dio was an infiltrator, I'm thinking the intention was to transfer the cure back to 2028 via the Nonary game, something the terrorists did not wish so they therefore sent Dio to stop them from changing the past. I now wonder if I am playing the real Sigma from 2028 who directs the protagonist in the future of what to do, since the protagonist often wonders why the heck he did a course of action that he did."
The first part correct, the last part incorrect.
"Earlier we noted that three (3) people had used pods recently, meaning only 3 people should have gotten here via suspended animation. The fact that there are two people with the same appearance, K and Sigma, makes me think they are from the future year, K having grown up in the facility leads credence to this. Tenmyouji aka Junpei aged naturally to that age. Dio is a fourth generation clone so he's from the future year. Clover was put in suspended animation to connect with Snake in 2028. Quark hooked up with Tenmyouji when the latter was old so he is from the future year. Phi is aware of different timelines so she's probably an agent, could be from either time. Alice was probably put in suspended animation. Luna is the only question mark. The fact that the future year is a post apocalypse probably mean that the level of technology has remained relatively static and looking at their backstory reveals little."
Got this mostly right.
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- Apr 1, 2009
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Cool to know that game is still going. I played a ton of it back in the day. Is the multi still going or are you talking about the single player?
I'm now 45 hours into Elden Ring. In terms of progression I'm level 69 and have beaten all three of the shardbearer bosses available before going up to the Altus plateau and am currently in the underground as part of ||Ranni's|| questline. I'm having a massive amount of fun with it, a couple of issues with balance notwithstanding, and there's always somehow still more interesting stuff to find and explore.
More specific thoughts that include spoilers
I'm playing a sorcery focused build and got pretty stuck on Rennala for a while. Her magic resistance meant my arsenal of spells wasn't much use, and despite my best efforts (and the assistance of a levelled Carian Knight's Sword) I couldn't beat her second phase with melee. I gave up, went to Caelid, beat Radahn using summon cheese and chipping him with spells, and also found the Rock Sling spell. The thing about Rock Sling is that unlike other spells it deals physical damage, so the next time I went up against Rennala and got to her second phase I just cast Rock Sling about seven or eight times and she just fell over. I would have preferred to have the fight to have found more of a happy medium between "very hard for sorcerers for sorcerers without rock sling" and "trivial for sorcerers with rock sling" but I understand that not everything in an open world can be perfectly balanced.
I was playing single player campaign. I tried multiplayer just now and saw no servers on line. Dang it.
EDIT: Guy says he sees 300 people still playing it a year ago. Not sure how he sees them. But me, I'm playing the campaign. I just won a level 11 years later! So I got that going for me.
2nd EDIT: I tried again on my PS3. There were some players in there. I got killed a number of times. It felt like there were only 2 other people in there besides me. But I did get into a multiplayer with it.
I wonder if Mass Effect Servers are still out there for the PS3. Doesn't work for me on EA PC but allows me to play campaign without signing in.
EDIT: Guy says he sees 300 people still playing it a year ago. Not sure how he sees them. But me, I'm playing the campaign. I just won a level 11 years later! So I got that going for me.
2nd EDIT: I tried again on my PS3. There were some players in there. I got killed a number of times. It felt like there were only 2 other people in there besides me. But I did get into a multiplayer with it.
I wonder if Mass Effect Servers are still out there for the PS3. Doesn't work for me on EA PC but allows me to play campaign without signing in.
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Fun game, though it felt like they were trying a little too hard to take the piss out of MW2(the original, with the Invading Russians).
MW2 may be my all time favorite FPS. It did come out a year before Battlefield: Bad Company 2. But Battlefield: Bad Company (1) took place, modern age war between USA and Russia, came out a year before MW2. COD: MW1 (COD4) a year before that though!
Might be like when movie studios came out with movies like Armageddon and Deep Impact within months of each other.