Lurker > Giggsalot

put me in line for this should someone drop out

p. s. @Seginustemple you need to check out that full Hop Along album (Painted Shut), it's a top three indie rock record of the decade for me.
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yup this is really good

not sure if the songwriting is on par with their best, but the atmosphere here is something else. already better than TWFM for me; if this settles around boxer/high violet level i'd be very happy with that
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listened to this for the first time tonight, despite all reports of its "differentness" it still kinda took me by surprise. not too much stood out on first listen, but I'm intrigued to see how that develops.

P. S. return to the moon is super overlooked, i'd take that album over TWFM without a second thought
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catch-up time!

Kendrick Lamar - good kid maad city
Radiohead - kid a
Björk - vespertine
Metallica- ride the lightning
Kanye West - my beautiful dark twisted fantasy
Eminem - the eminem show
Pink Floyd - wish you were here
Lady Gaga - the fame monster
Mastodon - crack the skye
Jay-Z - reasonable doubt
Beyonce - lemonade
David Bowie - station to station
Nas- illmatic
Animal Collective - spirit they've gone, spirit they've vanished
OutKast - aquemini
Beatles - abbey road
Grimes - art angels
Nine Inch Nails - the downward spiral
Lupe Fiasco - tetsuo and youth
Arcade Fire - funeral
Opeth - blackwater park
Wu-Tang - 36 chambers
Gorillaz - plastic beach
Daft Punk - random access memories
Agalloch - the mantle
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I kinda agree with muffin on Breaking Bad - it's a good show, borderline great in seasons 3-4, but it really is a draining watch and suffers from having a relatively small and uniformally unlikeable cast. it's kinda like The Sopranos or House of Cards in that way, all of these shows really struggle getting me emotionally invested in characters I have so little sympathy for.

that said the cinematography is beautiful and clever without ever being obtuse about it. probably the best thing about the show, for me.
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music
literature
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TV
video games
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film
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comics

this was actually super easy for me, TV vs. games was really the only one that was questionable at all
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sounds good! I'll start playing around soon and let you know if either month looks at all feasible.

(maybe my 2018 will be quieter? who am i kidding)
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iiicon posted...

by all means!

awesome! I'll refrain from nominating anything for now, or else things will get confusing. any feeling for a timeframe on compiling / actualizing this?
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oh man

I actually made a provisional top 50 list of my own back when I was talking to SephG about this idea months ago. I don't wanna commit to anything yet, but would you be open to the possibility of me doing this alongside you? if you'd rather do it yourself I genuinely don't mind - it's questionable whether I'll have the time to do this properly anyway. but I figured I'd ask!

p.s. nice random selection. I spot two potential top ten candidates of mine there!
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*phew*

all that said, I think there were some stunningly rendered plot moments in the game, even on the seemingly minor paths. every major character, even those who retain a certain mystery, felt exceptionally well developed, and on that front the game arguably surpasses 999. on the other hand, I felt like the more minor characters suffered from a slight shift in storytelling format; VLR seemed to feature significantly less escape room banter than 999, which resulted in a higher proportion of plot mythology coming out in big isolated dumps. this didn't work badly, but it restricted the minor characters to more specific roles: Alice undoubtedly contributed more to her game's overall narrative than Lotus did, for example, but Lotus felt much more like a real person because she chatted about stuff outside of her prescribed role too. it's also bizarre to me that we've spent two full games with Clover, and she's lived an outrageous life, but we have almost no idea how she feels about any of it.

gameplay-wise, VLR was pretty obviously a massive step up from 999 - I don't think the gameplay will ever be the draw for these games, but this really was a joy to play. the flowchart was a god-send, and I largely liked the way they incorporated it into the plot (though the stuff at the end was a bit handwavey). the puzzles also seemed like a step up from 999 overall, though all the dice-based puzzles and anything involving tilting can go straight to hell.

overall, despite my negativity, I really liked this game! definite 8/10 stuff. I'd probably give 999 the edge because its overall story was more to my taste, but this was a worthy sequel that improved on it in many important ways. in some ways, this must have been nearly an impossible game to make, too - when you've made a game with a sting-in-the-tail plot, and reveal everything at the end, how do you then make a sequel with the same surprise factor? it's a pretty thankless task, and the coherence and thematic consistency of VLR is an impressive achievement regardless of my thoughts.

I was thinking of doing more retrospective stuff here, like character and/or ending rankings, but I think that might be more fun to do for the series as a whole once I complete the trilogy. any objections to that?

finally, huge thanks to everyone who followed this topic. it's been a fantastic experience documenting everything here, and the degree of interaction and fun probing questions has been brilliant. I will most likely tackle ZTD sometime this summer, and I'll definitely try to do it in the same way. look out for a topic!

...'til then, have a nice trap!
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Paratroopa1 posted...

There are so many little hints hiding out in plain sight. For instance, there's one time where Tenmyouji pulls Clover aside to have a chat, and after that, Clover is just like "I totally trust Tenmyouji, we have to ally with him" and it's just like, what's up with that? It's not the only weird moment he has with her either.

Also, the game FREQUENTLY makes reference to Sigma's age or appearance. In the Quark end Dio literally just calls Sigma a 'senile old fuck.' It's great how easily a line like that slips past you.

I noticed all the Tenmyouji clues in retrospect, but it was only after reading this morning that I really caught the Sigma foreshadowing. it really is exceptionally cleverly done, even if I have slightly mixed feelings about the plot point itself.

which brings me, I suppose, to my overall thoughts!

at the risk of starting on a negative note, the plot resolution didn't capture me to the same extent 999's did. I loved the reveal of Sigma as Zero (I remember saying even from the start of this topic that it would be a cool premise), and it certainly deepened his character, but my instinct feels that it might have deepened it in a way that was to the detriment of his relationships with the other characters. Akane and Aoi still felt and acted like human beings (albeit weird ones) in 999, but by the end of VLR most of the main players felt like emotionally detached demigods. Sigma's relationship with characters like Luna and Phi, for example, completely turned on its head with the final reveal, which was in one sense cool but also kinda undermined what the game had built up to that point. I also find it off-putting that all the old men in this game are in some fashion totally creepy, regardless of their underlying moral character. maybe it's a Japanese thing, who knows.

the massive expansion of the scope of the plot kinda fell flat for me too - the homespun, low key motives for Akane and Aoi's 999 Nonary Game felt strikingly original and hit a bittersweet chord with me, so the incorporation in VLR of time-travelling superheroes and nuclear winters and saving the entirety of humankind through Nonary Games made it feel kind of impersonal and cliched. I'm also not a fan of when time travel gets too convoluted, so everything surrounding the diagram and the crazy timelines at the end left me fairly unmoved.
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MrSmartGuy posted...

So a lot of things make sense all of a sudden. Remember how Junpei saw the hologram with Zero and then very suddenly turned on Sigma, betraying him so he could leave with Quark, stating that he was making sure the bastard behind all this got what was coming to him and how you were really upset that he would do something like that?

ha, cool. I'm sure there's a lot of other stuff like this. who else was in the room when the Zero hologram activated?

Paratroopa1 posted...

Your Zero rankings amused me. Whenever someone guesses these in VLR, I basically give them credit according to the following:

Gold: Sigma. You win!
Silver: Akane/"someone else". Not incorrect, but not the "best" answer.
Bronze: Luna or K. Both conspirators, Luna has full access to the facility and is hooked up to the same mainframe as Zero III, so it's technically right - K is Akane in some timelines, so also technically right.

You originally had Sigma at 7 (hey, could have been worse), "someone else" at 3, Luna at 10 and K at 6. Nice! You did key into Luna, K, and the old woman being involved later (before it was revealed) and never quite ruled out Sigma (especially heading into the end), so not terrible.

5. Who is that old woman?
uh, search me. my initial crackpot theory was that she is Akane, and we've heard nothing to support or deny that since. so, hey, why not!

Nice! (Seems like you clued in that Tenmyouji is Junpei pretty early too)

2. Where are we? [answered]
I know this one! We're in a hole in the middle of the desert. In a facility that was almost certainly used to rear an army of clones.

"Answered" (this was probably the line that made me giggle the most in the whole topic)

I'm trying to remember other funny/on-point stuff you said

haha, this is pretty fair! I think I did alright overall - definitely proud of my Akane deduction, though my secondary conclusion that Tenmyouji was Aoi didn't quite work out. my biggest issue in the endgame was assuming that "Zero Sr." didn't really matter once Akane was revealed; I think if I'd really logically thought it through at that stage (as TRE tried to push me to), I could probably have nailed Sigma. but yeah, lots of missteps along the way. I imagine that's pretty standard!

might post some retrospective thoughts tomorrow after sleeping on all this. if anyone has any questions or topics they'd like me to answer / discuss, then suggest away!
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The world will be reshaped into the one you imagine!

I jump for a final final time into Another Time, where I awaken in the infirmary as Kyle with Luna standing over me. Kyle rushes to the mirror, verifies his identity, then surprises Luna with his knowledge, which should have been suppressed by the amnesia. he looks down to find Dio still handcuffed at the sink, and Luna explains that we are after Akane's garden explanation and crisis induction. Sigma's consciousness is now age-appropriate again, and the others have been treated for their Radical-6.

Kyle wanders to the PEC where he finds Tenmyouji and Quark, who tell him of their plans to return to Earth. Tenmyouji laments the lack of consideration given to his own life in the wake of Sigma's time-turning efforts, and mourns the death of the soul of the woman he loved.

Alice and Clover discuss their strange fate as unwilling but understanding puppets of a greater scheme - stuck in a dark timeline for the rest of their existence. they claim that Akane has found a way for them to return to their lives, but leave it elliptically there.

I find Phi in the Director's Office. she turns on a hologram, where Dr. Klim says that Phi knows everything and can answer everyone's questions. everyone, of course, except Kyle. Kyle then goes on to theorize about Phi's identity, a line of questioning which culminates in a conversation with Akane where it transpires that the consciousness of the player has entered Kyle's mind, and Kyle has returned to 2028 to help Sigma and Phi save the world.

Akane entrusts us, alongside Sigma and Phi, to do just that. maybe in another topic, hmm?

END... or BEGINNING?
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Team Rocket Elite posted...

Have you collected all of the Gold files? Beaten every puzzle room under Hard?

was vaguely aware that this might be important, so I tidied up the last one (the very first AB room, somehow) before I started. did that give me any new ending scenes or something?

and, uh, wow. not sure where to even start with this! any questions?
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I had to change history. We could save the world.

I jump, for possibly the final time, to April 13th 2029, the day of the Radical-6 outbreak. we open with the sounds of screams and industrial clanging, and witness a newscaster - friends, family and co-workers dead - blow out her brains on live TV.

we stare stunned at the screen, and turn around to find Akane, looking beautiful and tragic in her Zero garb, standing behind us. she explains our setting: we are about to depart for the moon, alongside three treatment pods bearing frozen Alice, Clover and Phi - a volunteer esper. they will still look young in 45 years, but Sigma cannot; he must spend the time mastering genetic engineering, and planning the Nonary Game that will save the world. when he finishes the preparations, his younger consciousness will push him out of his body and into that of his younger self, whereupon he can proceed to save the world.

Sigma then asks how to do so, and Akane can only tell him to infiltrate the test site where Radical-6 broke out. she can't help me any more than that. it will be perilous, without question - Old Sigma told her that it was full of traps, and that he lost his arms and an eye in the process.

Sigma looks down in panic and disbelief at his crippled cybernetic body (actually, should it be crippled at this point? I get lost in these timelines), but a low rumble cuts off his crisis and fills the room. Sigma looks out of the window to see a mushroom cloud erupting in the distance.

he could change history. he had to.

END... or BEGINNING?
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DeathChicken posted...

And suddenly all of the women being skeeved out by Sigma's flirting (besides Luna) takes a different meaning

haha christ, so it does. I like that this series has turned both of their principled, moral main characters into creepy old men. hurray for Japan.
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Tu fui, ego eris.

Akane explains that Sigma became a pioneer of genetic engineering, and created K as his clone to take his place in the event of something untoward. she further explains that the elaborated goal of the AB Project is to bring Sigma's past consciousness into his future body, and propel his future consciousness into his past. this makes about as little sense to Sigma as it does to me, so she explains further by way of an exceptionally complicated diagram that only serves to muddy my brain further.

in essence, Sigma's future mind must return to the past in the four month period between his abduction and the outbreak of Radical-6, and to do so he must be placed in a crisis. just as Sigma is about to inquire what that might involve, Akane grabs Dio's knife and plunges it toward Phi's chest.

Sigma screams and launches himself towards Phi in protection, but he blacks out. he awakens with Akane's body pinning him down, and doesn't recognise his surroundings. he looks to his left to see a gravestone bearing a Latin inscription.

how fitting.

PHI END
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Zero, the mastermind of the AB Project, is you.

Sigma stares at the man with his face, and remembers seeing him inside K's suit of armor. which begs the question: unless there are several identical clones running around, who the hell is K now?

Akane steps out from K's suit. she explains that, after being saved by Sigma and Phi and setting up the future we now live in, she stepped into K's armour. if she is not saved, the man in front of our eyes is the K we know.

so who is the man in front of us? Akane asks if anyone recognises him, and receives blank looks and no recognition from anyone. Sigma begins to go mad, and frantically looks around at his companions, searching for a punchline that will never come. Akane reminds him that he has jumped around time for forty-five years. he runs to look at his reflection in the pond, and looking back at him is an old man with a cybernetic eye.

looking back at him is the face of Zero.
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The man on the moon rules the infinite time.

Tenmyouji paints the scene. after the accident in his Mars mission in 2029, Radical-6 escaped and took over the globe. a near-apocalyptic hellscape results, and the few survivors (or, indeed, a few particularly deranged infected individuals) decide on a literal scorched earth strategy. nuclear reactors were activated, resulting in such devastation that the sun was blotted out for seven whole years. even now, the Earth appears red because it's the only colour which can escape the clouds of debris surrounding the planet.

Phi theorizes to Sigma what I had suspected - that we were trained in order to avert this catastrophe from occurring. she also says that we need to find Akane, and she knows where to find her. Tu fui, ego eris. Sigma and Phi run back into the facility, and are gradually joined by everyone. K reveals that he knows Akane, Tenmyouji and Quark are naturally interested, and Clover and Alice, shellshocked by the mention of their old associate, join in pursuit too.

re-entering through the unlabelled door on Floor B, we return to the facility. we reach the Garden in all its tranquility, and unlock Akane's treatment pod from its subterranean locale. while we wait for her to thaw, K tells his story.

Sigma and Phi are here to save humanity. Clover and Tenmyouji are here because espers amplify each others powers. Alice was needed for her mathematical genius. K and Luna are heavily aligned with Akane and Zero Sr. Quark is here because of root beer or something. (he's probably going to save us all somehow, I know.)

after this exposition, the pod is ready to open. we open it, and Sigma once again stares into his own eyes, his own face, his own soul.
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Then again, this isn't a lunar eclipse. It's a solar eclipse.

we awaken in the future in the Infirmary, having reportedly passed out in front of the AB rooms. we recieve several shocks - not only have Alice and Quark awoken in our absence, but everyone has played three AB rounds, allying every time, and we all have at least 9 BP. whoa.

with this stunning development, we head for the 9 door as a team, leaving the unconscious, chained and untrustworthy Dio behind to collect later. Sigma opens the door, and everyone runs through. the door closes behind them, and the lift ascends. we reach the PEC, and Sigma explains its purpose. Alice and Clover are shocked at the apparent success of the Myrmidon plan, but we can do nothing else but don the suits and venture outside.

we find ourselves in the desert under the light of a total lunar eclipse. Alice and Clover begin to theorize about what this means for the time, but Tenmyouji decides to speak up: what we see above us is not a lunar eclipse. it's a solar eclipse. we're on the moon. this explains Phi's superhuman feats of strength, but not a lot else so far.

it's also 2074.
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I've died. So has Phi. So have you.

After, ironically, choosing to do a quick rerun of the initial AB Room escape to complete my gold folder collection, I jump back to a different AB Room - one in another time completely.

Sigma's memory flares back into action, and Phi informs him that we are back in the AB Room from the beginning, but awakened one hour earlier than before. this time, we can save Akane! I re-solve the room immediately using the safe code in Sigma's memory, and we escape to find Dio in the moments before he kills the defenseless Akane.

Phi launches herself through the air, and dropkicks him cold before he can do a thing. Akane proceeds to thank them in the most enigmatic way possible, and explains that she had to place herself in danger because danger activates an esper's mind, and she didn't want anyone else to die. she also confirms that we're involved in the Nonary Game and infected with Radical-6 all to essentially train Sigma and Phi as espers - but, of course, she can't tell us why yet, because that would screw up the timelines.

Akane takes off her bracelet, gives it to Dio, and instructs Sigma and Phi to return to the AB rooms. finally, she gives Sigma a key inscribed with the same Latin phrase as the grave from the Garden. everything is now in place.

...TO BE CONTINUED
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OrangeCrush980 posted...

If Akane is still alive, where do you think she is?

this is a hell of a question. in the timelines where we find Akane, she has participated in the game personally, and been murdered and had her bracelet stolen by Dio upon escaping the AB Room. if she's still alive, I don't really know how to explain Dio having her bracelet, never mind what actions she must have taken instead. from Luna's perspective it looked like she intended to die, so I frankly have no idea what's going on in this timeline.

I vaguely recall that some timelines have one of the treatment pods locked and inaccessible, so I guess she could be in there? that's the only place within the main facility that anyone has been "hidden" thus far. there are certainly other places she could be, but nothing that's borne out by any evidence whatsoever.

gonna start this up soon. hype!
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final thought of the evening:

this game probably takes place well in the future. three people from the "present" time of 999 were frozen. two of these, logically, must be Alice and Clover. by process of elimination (Tenmyoldy and Quark are out, Luna is a robot, K is an amnesiac/conspirator and Dio is a future clone terrorist), the other one must be Sigma or Phi, and I think Sigma remembers 2028. being in cold sleep for 50 years would also explain when he got cybernetic arms, though why is an entirely different matter.

all of this suggests that Phi is a "future" person. if she isn't a robot, could she be related to Sigma / Jumpei / some other 999-era character we know? her history has been intentionally elliptical so far, I hope it will be a big part of the final chapter of the story.
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so, uh... would it be crazy to leave it there for the night?

it's 1:30am already and I feel there is at least another hour of this (including writing time) to go.
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Come and find me. I'll be waiting.

the purpose of the Nonary Game - the entire AB Project - was to transport the minds of Sigma and Phi into the past. we alone will decide whether Schrodinger's cat, locked in its box, is alive or dead. Akane promises that she will see us all again soon, Tenmyouji included, an odd statement for a person who seemed to plan her own murder. the hologram fades, and Tenmyouji crumples to the floor, balling his fists through his emotional maelstrom.

without further comment, we leave this strange quantum land and return to the Infirmary to cure Alice and Quark. we handcuff Dio's unconscious body to the sink, and proceed to the AB rooms. the atmosphere of trust is palpable, and Luna points out that only three more rounds will allow us all to escape! we activate the doors, and return to the infirmary.

Phi stops Sigma, and asks him about the conundrum of Akane - in this timeline, we haven't found her body yet. she herself may be Schrodinger's cat, dead and alive, unobserved, awaiting our decision.

where could she be? in which space; in which time; in which dimension?

...TO BE CONTINUED.
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I imagine you have a great many questions.

near simultaneously, Sigma and Phi recall Dio boasting about the #0 bomb. we have the code, but we've never found this bomb at all. four minutes remain. Sigma has relied upon his memory so far, but this time Phi pleads with Sigma to think, and he does.

where would Dio hide a bomb? I can think of a few great places (if he hid it in his favourite AB room, or beyond the 9 door before he came in, we'd all be totally fucked), but luckily he chooses a fairly mediocre one. we find the bomb between two AB rooms, where he previously hid the knife, and Sigma deactivates it successfully.

Sigma and Phi crumple into a heap, energy completely spent. but before they can even think of what to do next, the Nonary Game does it for them: the tertiary Chromatic Doors have opened, and we need to get there stat. when we arrive, we quickly split into our teams, and arguably the pivotal trio of all, Tenmyouji, Sigma and Phi, run into the middle of the three doors.

we turn left down a hallway, and find a door marked simply Q. beyond the door lies an expanse of white void, with seemingly no walls or ceiling. the only things within eyesight are the door we came in, and the locked door we must leave.

what on earth do we do now?

just as we contemplate that very thought, the room around us solidifies into a grid pattern, and a similarly-patterned cube rises from the floor to float in front of our eyes. it soon becomes clear that, just as 999 culminated in a comically simple sudoku puzzle, VLR is going to climax with a game of minesweeper. I methodically open up the room in this way, and after a few puzzles and one particularly torturous dice one, we reach the final puzzle: a Nonary Game inside the Nonary Game. I like it.

ignoring the ominous holograph projector sitting silently in the corner, we open the safe to find two bottles of Axelavir - enough for both Quark and Alice. wow, maybe no one at all will die in this ending!

as we're about to leave, the projector clicks into gear, and a previously blank monitor turns on, revealing the 9th Lion passcode entry screen. I enter Akane's username and password, and the projector shows Akane's figure, and she proceeds to explain herself in great detail.
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...So let's open the lid.

We jump, for possibly the final time, into the Phi timeline, where Sigma, having been betrayed by Phi in the second AB round, convinces her to stay and investigate Zero and his motives. after some interesting talk about multiverses, Schrodinger's cat, and her parents (who would be easier to speculate over if we had any idea when this game was taking place), Clover reports that all the bombs have been located, and we rush back to the Infirmary to confront Dio. or it seems like we do, but for a small, intriguing piece of dialogue that I missed first time through:

Sigma: "She's right, you know. We need to get going."
Phi: "Hold on. I need to check something really quick."
Sigma: "Uh... what?"
...
...

we arrive back at the Infirmary without further comment, where Dio admits to placing the bombs, and Tenmyouji inadvertently activates them. after anaesthetizing Dio, Phi takes charge, and runs off with Sigma on a bomb deactivation mission.

we deactivate bomb #3 in the Crew Quarters.
we deactivate bomb #2 in the Control Room.
we deactivate bomb #1 in the Garden.

Sigma celebrates, thrilled with his own mind, fantasizing of his great life to come, with Phi in a swimsuit and everything. he almost wishes there was another bomb, just so he could show off.

be careful what you wish for, Sigma.
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Luna said that the old woman was giving her orders, and that the old woman and a man planned this all together. that doesn't sound entirely different from 999 to me, where I think you could reasonably consider Akane and Aoi to be both (or collectively) Zero.

that said, you're right that she did indeed say that. strange indeed.
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Altimadark posted...

The obvious question (questions?):

Who Is Zero and who is conspiring with them?

Gog I cannot WAIT for the reveal

Zero is Akane is the dead old woman. Unless there's a total bait-and-switch and the game just wants me to think that, I think that's set in stone. As for the other Zero, I can only assume it's Aoi. I don't think we've been given any clues to implicate anyone else.

inside the game, Luna and K and probably unknowingly Tenmyouji are conspiring with them. Quark too, maybe?

(decided against looking at that spoiler, just in case)

...game starting imminently!

EDIT: now that I think about it, it's worrying that I feel I understand so much. would I have felt confident stating who Zero was prior to the true ending of 999? maybe there is something big coming. the chronology of the game being completely unknown at this point is a massive massive hole.
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OrangeCrush980 posted...

What do you think Zero's general goal is?

oh shit. here's how I see it:

none of the 999 endings actually lied to us, so I kind of have to assume that Dio's ending is indeed consistent with the world of the game. with that in mind, it's hard to see any way that Zero's motives are not rooted in stopping this Myrmidon pandemic apocalypse. it would be patently absurd to have an apocalyptic event hanging around in the background of the game's plot without being a driving force in anyone's actions.

on the other hand, how a Nonary Game can possibly solve this issue is an entirely separate thing. 999 did use a game to change the past, but it would be weird to use that trick again verbatim. that said, Tenmyouji's Mars mission where Radical-6 was purported to have originated from stands out as a particularly weird and poorly explained hanging thread - could Zero be trying to send information back to the people there, so that Radical-6 is never created? that would certainly explain why Tenmyouji was essentially blackmailed into joining the game.

I actually like being put on the spot like that! I only thought of that idea just now. if it's halfway right I will feel so smug.
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tonight's the night! almost certainly.

any final questions/theories you would like me to answer before I face THE TRUTH?
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won't be able to finish things off tonight; realistically, will probably be Friday before I have enough time to dedicate to this.

in the meantime, a few stray ruminations:

- it's interesting that Luna didn't seem at all surprised to see Sigma again after the 9 door was opened. sure, she's tapped into the facility system so I'm sure she saw him coming, but she doesn't even question why he came back - sacrificing his freedom forever for a a few answers and a moment of connection with a robot.
- the question of Sigma's humanity still hasn't been entirely answered; the ADAM may have claimed that everything but his arms are flesh and blood, but that raises more questions than answers considering Sigma has no memory of his arms being replaced in the first place.
- with that in mind, why did Luna raise the issue of Sigma's humanity (or lack thereof) in the first place? her entire character arc is defined by rigorously following the rules so that the game proceeds as planned. unless it was specifically part of the plan, surely that constitutes gross interference? and if placing doubt in Sigma's mind was part of the plan, then the Sigma Turing Test theory comes back into focus.

p.s. if Sigma and Phi don't turn out to be robots, they better address the blatant misdirection that their names are both greek letters. this doesn't happen in real life!
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two of my favourite endings, there! that said, we actually learned surprisingly little new in those two endings, though a shit-ton of my suspicions were confirmed. seems like all the real underlying questions - namely, what the fuck kind of nonsense plan involves setting up a Nonary Game in which you inject all the participants with a deadly virus and personally get murdered, Akane, and how the hell can you plausibly do all this and still be the "good guy" in the story? - will be saved for the true ending. as to be expected, I suppose.

the message of the game over ending was actually a good prelude to what will be my final charge through this narrative, too. all will be revealed.

tomorrow? no promises, but let's aim for that.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

I'm guessing somebody's hoping for an explanation about what the diddly-o just happened!

we have no choice, no choice at all, but to vote betray. what can Sigma do? he votes with his head, and he votes BETRAY.

just as with last time, Luna is nowhere to be found, and we discover Luna's bracelet outside our chamber, just where we left it. Phi's face turns to stunned horror - without it, she couldn't possibly have voted. the results appear with a knife-like twist:

CLOVER/QUARK - PENALTY
TENMYOUJI - PENALTY
K/DIO - PENALTY
ALICE - PENALTY
SIGMA - 10
PHI - 10
LUNA - 5

we can only speculate as to Luna's motives, but there's no question what we need to do next. we search for Quark all throughout the facility, but none of the available doors yield anything. just as we start to question our next move, deep on the lower floor, the tannoy sounds.

"The number nine door has been opened. It will remain open for nine seconds."

we look at one another, but there's nothing we can do. the tannoy sounds again, and the door is closed. we return to the initial warehouse, and stare at the door. how can we possibly tell if it opened?

Phi looks at the wall.

-STATUS-
game: finished

-RESULT-
escape complete
participants successful: luna, quark

just as we're contemplating how this is even remotely possible, an old friend appears. Zero! I missed you, buddy. shame about the circumstances. he lectures us on being stupid selfish humans, drops some dope bars, then moves on with his life.

Sigma turns to Phi, asking what on earth they should do now? she responds with a purpose rarely seen in the other game over endings: she will give the dead the meager funerals they can, and start searching. even if they never leave, they will figure out why they are here in the first place. eyes full of fire, she walks slowly into the middle of the warehouse.

there's plenty food in the pantry. the game has only just begun.

GAME OVER
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

Thank you, Doctor...

we have no choice, no choice at all, but to vote betray. but somehow, someway, Sigma still trusts Luna. how could she betray us? he votes with his heart, and he votes ALLY.

Phi is a picture of terror as we leave the AB room. but Luna is nowhere to be found, and we discover Luna's bracelet outside our chamber, just where we left it - without it, she couldn't possibly have voted. the results appear with horrible finality:

CLOVER/QUARK - PENALTY
TENMYOUJI - PENALTY
K/DIO - PENALTY
ALICE - PENALTY
SIGMA - 9
PHI - 9
LUNA - 9

9... 9... 9.

Phi asks Sigma what he plans to do, and we decide that we can't leave without Quark. we search everywhere in silence, turning up nothing. Phi finally speaks up at the triad of cyan doors, where we discover ominously that they have all been opened. we immediately head to the Treatment Center, where we open a pod and find Quark.

we rush back to the 9 door, Quark's unconscious body in tow, where Sigma suddenly has pause. can we really leave Luna behind? Phi, apoplectic, explains all the evidence against Luna. she might literally have killed everyone. plus she's a robot! why would we ever wait for her? a terrible weight lingers in Sigma's heart, but he can't deny the situation.

Sigma acquiesces, and Phi opens the 9 door. Sigma steps onto the lift platform, and hands Quark's limp body to Phi, before rushing back through the door. Phi is absolutely stunned, but can do nothing to stop him. Sigma traverses over the threshold, the door closes, and the game ends.

Sigma can't help but feel pride. Phi and Quark safely escaped, and he made a brave decision with conviction and strength. he walks to the Garden, where he finds Luna. in the oasis of calm, she asks if he wants to know why she killed everyone, but instead he carefully explains why she didn't.

Dio killed the old woman. Alice killed herself. Dio killed Clover and Tenmyouji, then he and K killed each other.

but then, as Luna points out, these are just theories. how can he believe them, how can he trust in her so deeply?

Luna, moved to near tears by Sigma's faith, proceeds to embark on a serious plot dump. she discusses Dio's planned entry into the game, her orders to move the old woman's body, our infection with Radical-6, and her role as overseer of the game in motion. she reveals that the old woman is not Zero. or at least not alone, and that she "died" when injected with the turbocarine simply to maintain the illusion that she was a human. she explains the timeline of her accidental "murder," Dio's sociopathic killing of Tenmyouji and Clover, and everything else she saw through her security system eyes during the game.

Sigma also learns that Luna placed Quark in the pod and Quark's bracelet by simply using aluminium foil to interfere with the electrical impulses of his heart. but it's only when he asks her about the very nature of the project that she breaks down. she blames herself for all the deaths, claiming she could have stopped them if only she had disobeyed her orders, but Sigma emphatically blames the old woman and Zero, absolving her of responsibility. she hugs Sigma, and reveals one final thing - that she was not in fact revived by Zero but hacked into the system herself, meaning her time is limited. her hair starts falling out, her skin starts to peel, and she thanks Sigma tearfully as she breathes her final robot breaths in his arms. The doctor's arms.

LUNA END
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

Looks like a person, acts like a person, and talks like a person, then it's probably a person.

The computer clicks into gear, and Sigma calls Phi over. faced with Sigma's impossible knowledge, she gets absolutely apoplectic, but eventually calms down, and we start to search.

the first thing we find are specifications for a GAULEM with the ID code we used to log in - specifications for Luna. who is not only listed as "currently operational," but "executing special mission." Phi speculates that this might be, in fact, Luna's Voight-Kampff test, but before we get too into the philosophy of artificial intelligence, two things become very clear.

Luna can't be as dead as we thought, and the AB rooms close in ten minutes.

we rush back to the first warehouse via the Crew Quarters, where we find her body has conspicuously disappeared. we move on to the AB Rooms, where, just as the doors close, we catch a terrifying glimpse of a very alive-looking Luna. Phi postulates that she is about to participate in the game, and there is no reason for her to do so other than purely to stop us (both with 7 BP) from escaping.

we have no choice, no choice at all, but to vote betray.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

There is no tenth person. The only people alive are me, you and Quark.

I jump back into Luna's timeline, which probably doesn't qualify as the darkest on offer (Dio's apocalypse is hard to beat), but is certainly the most rampantly chaotic. A full prelude can be found in posts #67-93, but to summarize:

- basically everyone is fucking dead
- Alice dies, likely by Radical-6-induced suicide
- Luna dies next to her, in a possible "revenge" attack by Clover. Dio and K are also plausible suspects. considering this is her timeline, this is spooky as all hell.
- Clover and Tenmyouji are found dead by wrist injection, handcuffed to a pipe in the infirmary. Quark's 9 BP bracelet lies next to them.
- Dio and K are found impaled by goddamn spears in the Rec Room.
- in among this chaos, we also discover the AB rooms have been moved, possibly to cover up Akane's death. but Dio did that (we assume?) and he was never a suspect on the basis of her point of discovery - we have no idea how, when or why he moved her body. all of this makes Dio's presumed guilt far from clear.
- oh, and Sigma is showing intermittent Radical-6 symptoms.

...jesus.

we re-enter as Phi is searching Dio and K's bodies. Dio carries a bloodstained Myrmidons-branded knife, which we can infer he ditched after stabbing Akane, and was subsequently used by Alice to kill herself. finding her dead after Clover's attack, he reclaimed it, possibly using it to wound Tenmyouji. K, meanwhile, has the luminol, which shows up on Dio's wrist - probably meaning that he discovered Dio murdered Akane and killed him in return.

which begs the question, who the hell killed K? ...Quark?

*bing!* "An Ambidex Gate has been opened."

we rush back to the warehouse to find no-one, and ponder the improbability of Quark opening a Gate. as far as we know, he didn't even enter a tertiary Chromatic Door. we begin to look for him, starting in the Director's Office, where Dio and K searched earlier in this timeline.

we immediately gravitate to the locked computer, and this time, Sigma remembers. he remembers death.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

haha, deviantart really lives up to its name. i only remember that place exists a few times a year, which is almost certainly a good thing.

back on this tomorrow, probably to tackle the Luna timeline. unless that's not ideal?
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

haha yeah, I should clarify that I actually enjoyed that. the narrative needed a touch of humour at that point, and that is exactly the kind of dumb shit that pretty much any twenty-something dude would at least contemplate in that situation. I'm team Sigma over here for sure!

matter of fact, there's still three women left there, right? why let a little public suicide get you down?
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

...he awakens in the inventory, overjoyed companions standing over him. they remind a very groggy Sigma where he is and what has just happened, and he looks down thoughtfully at his stump. Quark bounds over, and thanks Sigma for saving his life. a rare all-round happy scene, for this series!

we begin to discuss the situation. and come to the conclusion that basically nothing makes sense. the timeline is wonky, Zero's motivations seem completely paradoxical, and even the basic sources of information we are relying upon contradict themselves on a regular basis. faced with this complete black hole of rationale, Sigma goes off on a fairly ridiculous tangent where he decides that staying here would be great because he's the only virile male capable of repopulating our potentially barren planet.

Tenmyouji breaks his fantasy off by stating that the game is over, so all of this is fairly pointless. which is an interesting point, actually - this is the first timeline to continue to yield interesting scenes after the end of the game. what's different here?

Quark, of all people, then drops a bombshell question: what if the old woman is Zero, and committed suicide due to Radical-6 infection? we decide to examine her body, and Phi finds a card in her sleeve.

KURASHIKI. YES!

there's a throwback "Pass = JUMPYDOLL" message scrawled on the back too, but before the characters can investigate or the player can smile wistfully, disaster strikes. Alice stands in an all-too-familiar slumped pose, scalpel in hand. she raises the scalpel high, and drives it purposefully towards her heart.

QUARK END

...what a ridiculous anticlimactic cocktease that was. really?
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

In five minutes I would be dead. What could I do in five minutes?

I jump back to the Quark timeline, where Sigma has just essentially sacrificed himself to save Quark. playing into Dio's blackmailing hands to secure the Axelavir, Sigma votes ally in the AB room and is betrayed, his BP falling to -1.

he wrenches his fading body over towards Dio, and secures the Axelavir. his final task complete, he slumps to the floor, but refuses to give in. there must be a way to save himself. there has to be!

Sigma's mind connects to the multiverse, and he recalls his white fluid incident, and with it, his cybernetic arms. [oh god, I really hope this isn't going where I think it's going.] he taunts Dio and K into activating the 9 door, and before anyone can stop him, the Myrmidon does just that. just as they're about to leave - Dio triumphant, K sombre and contrite, promising to bring help - Sigma launches himself at Dio and, in a decidedly Snake-like manner, grabs his leg in a vicegrip.

the door rapidly closing, Dio manages to crawl across the threshold and at the admonishment of everyone else, Sigma finally lets him go, his arm still under the closing door. the tannoy announcement sounds, and Sigma fades to darkness.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

Reg posted...

Because this more-than-slightly bothers me, Junpei's name is spelt with an N, not an M.

oh man, my bad! I know a Jumpei (with an M) in real life so it never occurred to me it might be different. will fix that for the future, thanks!

anyway, I appear to have four endings left: Phi, Quark and two from Luna's timeline. while there may be hidden locks around somewhere, I currently appear to be able to do these in any order. so, in which order should I play them?

also, if you have any other questions about the plot or my thoughts, let me know!
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

so, with all that in mind:

Who is Zero?

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say the old woman, who is Akane Kurashiki. just like last time, she has a handful of conspirators on board - Luna for sure, probably Tenmyouji, and maybe others too.

Why are we here?

*cracks knuckles*

okay, let's brainstorm here. according to Dio (and elliptically Phi), this Nonary Game has the power to influence the outside world, namely the Radical-6 pandemic wiping out humanity. it's therefore safe to assume that the game was set up to save humanity, in some weird way. since the bomb deactivation device was found within the game, Dio's bombs must either be part of the game, or his interference was expected. this suggests that Zero might have inner knowledge of the Myrmidon plan, while still seeking to stop it. this would seem to be consistent with Akane living in Brother's house to nanny K, but still isn't entirely clear.

furthermore, how this all ties in with Dio actually killing Akane upon his arrival in the game is hard to speculate. he could have killed any participant if he wanted to join the game; I don't think his choice was a coincidence.

When are we here?

though far from the only possibility, the most straightforward hypothesis is that the Radical-6 pandemic hit in 2028, and since Jumpei and Akane are old as hell, we can probably conclude that we are playing some time after this. however, this raises several questions:

1) how did Jumpei and Akane survive the pandemic and plan a damn Nonary Game?
2) why would a Nonary Game in any way help the situation?
3) what the hell is the deal with Dio? it makes absolutely no sense for him to infiltrate a Nonary Game taking place long after his team have "won," unless he's a Snape-style double agent or the game is going down a very similar path to 999 where this Nonary Game is actually a replication of an earlier one to which information will be passed through time.
4) this is seemingly completely inconsistent with K's upbringing, where Akane becomes his mother figure for several years prior to the pandemic striking.
5) Other than Alice and Clover, who is the third person who was frozen?

...my head hurts.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

fuck, i'm trying to formulate some thoughts on the time setting of this game, and it's making my head hurt. so many contradictions.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

so, where do we stand now? let's do a quick character rundown (from most to least understood) then return to the big questions.

largely understood:

Alice and Clover - well understood, I think. both seemingly frozen for a long-ass time, if Tenmyouji can be used for comparison.

Dio - largely established, but a weird inconsistency remains about who "Left" is. Dio claims to be him on multiple occasions, but I swear the Myrmidon mythology states that Left is dead. maybe it's a symbolic thing and therefore unimportant, but it's fairly puzzling.

partially understood:

Tenmyouji - HI THERE JUMPEI. you sure did get grumpy over the years. what an awesome twist. I like that I got fairly close to figuring it out but never once suspected the truth. assuming the old woman is Akane, that makes his whole story super tragic. he was probably invited to the game by Akane, which suggests he is at least partially a conspirator as far as the game's concerned. however, his ignorance of the Myrmidons suggests he's not all the way in plot-wise, which is consistent with Akane never telling him anything ever his whole damn life. poor guy.

K - Brother's son and heir. looked after by Akane for a long time, which increasingly seems like a long game on her part to foil his apocalyptic plans. looks exactly like Jumpei, which is undoubtedly incredibly important, but probably tells us more about Jumpei than K.

Quark - kid. likes root beer. probably a super strong morphogenetic field accessor, which would explain why Tenmyouji voluntarily brought a fucking kid to a Nonary Game what the fuck is wrong with you Jumpei. other than that, he's still fairly mysterious since he spends most of the game unconscious and his ending seems like one of the more heavily locked ones, which suggests it is fairly revelatory. watch this space.

Luna - dear me, what a scary scary lady. definite conspirator in the game's setup, and probably a robot too. her end being so specifically locked frightens me.

The old woman - HI THERE AKANE. you set this shit up, didn't you? you just can't help yourself. I can't help but assume that you somehow have good intentions again, since you appear to be working against literal omnicidal maniacs, but I love that you could somehow only stop them with a Nonary Game. it's probably too early to speculate as to exactly what's happened with you in the last 50 years, but I'm sure we'll learn soon.

not even close to understood:

Phi - we have learned nothing about Phi since last time. this is absolutely intentional. almost certainly a robot/clone if Sigma is; the Greek letter connection can't be a coincidence. other than that who knows.

Sigma - whew. where to start? I have learned so much about Sigma and I understand so little. he shares a face with K, meaning that at least one of them are clones. he bleeds artificial blood. the god machine says he's a cyborg, but ultimately human. these cannot all be true, which inclines me to disbelieve the ADAM reading. I'm not sure what Luna/Akane/Zero has to gain by convincing Sigma he's a human, but that makes more sense than the alternative. just as Jumpei was the real target of the 999 Nonary Game, it's increasingly clear that Sigma (possibly alongside Phi) is this time. but the threads to explain why aren't yet entirely connecting.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

I hope we can meet again someday. I'll be waiting... I'll be waiting...

Luna is waiting for me there. convinced that Sigma, in the dying embers of his life, would seek ultimate, theological understanding of his nature, she offers her services in using our literal deus ex machina - the ADAM. Sigma, having visited the Infirmary for entirely unrelated reasons, is somewhat taken aback, but eventually acquiesces.

after a tense sequence, Luna reveals the results: Sigma is not a robot. he's human. but not entirely - his arms are cybernetic; intelligent prosthetics. Sigma, having real memories of breaking an arm as a child is bewildered and borderline hysterical at the news. recovering his thoughts, he manages to probe Luna as to whether he can remove his bracelet if his arms are robotic, and receives the firm answer that he can't, though Luna refuses to reveal how she knows this information.

just as Sigma begins to probe this potential bombshell, Luna reminds us of our time restrictions. we have one minute remaining.

she launches into a monologue, revealing her "very specific instructions." Sigma's inner thoughts mirror my own - this woman is terrifying. she gives me the first two-headed lion code (GTF-DM-L-016), then bids me a frighteningly temporary sounding farewell.

before Sigma can even respond, his world explodes. so the world falls.

SIGMA END
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

Sigma, are you a robot? Have you always been here?

I jump back to the Sigma timeline (!!) which is primarily distinguished by the revelation of Sigma bleeding a mysterious white fluid. after a heartwarming AB round where everyone votes ally (aww, guys <3), Luna takes me aside and fairly logically questions Sigma's humanity. she proposes to test his nature in the ADAM, but before we can discuss how on earth that might work, Phi shows up and alerts us to the discovery of bomb #1.

we gather back in the Infirmary, where Sigma formally accuses Dio, and he pretty much readily admits not only what we know, but his identity as Left. which strikes me as super confusing, but whatever. (interesting aside: Tenmyouji has never heard of the Myrmidons? that strikes me as surprising.) he also says he was sent to “stop Zero’s AB plan from working,” and destroy the facility if it appeared to be moving that way. in the midst of all of this, he helpfully gives us our final bomb password (#2, EQD DYR NTK)

as we move in, Dio brandishes the detonator, and threatens to blow us all to smithereens. naturally, we back off. or rather, all of us except for Tenmyouji do. the old man goads Dio for his hesitation in condemning us all to a fiery death, and suddenly knocks the detonator from his hand.

not good.

this time, Sigma is the one to lunge at Dio, stopping him from taking his cyanide pill. Phi has Luna anaesthetise him, making the compelling argument that “every minute we spend wrestling with this prick is a minute we don’t have to deal with those bombs.” Phi is a pragmatic lady.

we knock Dio out, and come to terms with our spiralling fate - Sigma has all the passwords, but in this timeline we lack the input device. Phi commands everyone’s attention, and orders everyone downstairs to the floor B warehouse. Keeping Sigma with her, she makes for the crew quarters and bomb number three, and we confirm that the countdown is live. we split up to desperately search for the input device, and Sigma poetically returns to the infirmary.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

alright, definitely getting on this today. thanks for everyone's patience!
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

thanks a lot man, that's incredibly helpful!

can only apologize for the recent lapse, genuinely want to get back to this as soon as i can.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.

thanks a lot! back from my holiday now, so regular play / thoughts should resume this evening.
---

And if you don't know, now you know.