LogFAQs > #972066159

Hemborger

Keitaro Miura
We're in 1985 now, and it's cool watching Keitaro slowly realise where he is. I like that this chapter starts off like this with quiet character beats, I feel for the poor guy. The atomic bombs realisation still hits hard. After an encounter with Okata and Amiguchi, we meet up with Natsuno and she helps us get settled by throwing us on an unsuspecting Juro, triggering a flashback with Tamao and Chihiro. The 1985 version of this house doesn't bear the scars it should (also it's not ashes), so it seems this is a different dimension.

Suddenly, it's time for some more seismic whatthefuckery as we are in THE FUTURE again. It's 2188 and Miura talks to Professor Tamao, who is Professor Morimura's mentor and an expert in the field of AI. Oh no. Please tune in to this topic over the next two weeks, where I will theorise about each and every character in this game being a robot and somehow miss the one character who actually is.

Future Miura discusses 'producing' future Tamao's parents' house, which leads me to my new theory (that I think the game is pointing me towards): there is no time travelling or dimension hopping at all. In the 2180s, future Miura and friends create several separate recreations of Earth (likely just this one part of Japan), based on the world as it was in time periods 40 years apart. I recall F!Miura mentioning 'sectors' in his prologue, and I noted down BJ mentioning sectors in Natsuno's prologue- he called 2065 Sector 2, and 1945 Sector 5. Presumably 1985 and 2025 are two more sectors, and I guess the other one is likely 2105 as Natsuno says 1945 is the furthest back they can 'shift'. Of course, this theory has two major flaws. First, how in the world would they pull this off, and more importantly, why the fuck would they do this. How could these fake worlds help ward off the alien invasion? Why would everyone involved in the creation of this have their own memories wiped upon entering these artificial worlds/simulation? Morimura seemed distraught at the idea of one of the dimensions falling to the aliens, why would she be so worried if it's all fake? This theory clearly needs a lot of refining, but I think there's something there. Maybe.

Back in the 80s, Miura finds child Chihiro but is shooed away by, of course, Gouto. I should be keeping tally of who appears in shady situations more between Gouto and Morimura. I guess they'd both get a point here! I'm a big fan of Keitaro's 'fish out of temporal water' scenes, both the serious sad ones and the ones where he delights in the joys of hemborger meat. His crush on Natsuno is sweet, too, it's all good characterisation and reminds me these people are mostly all children caught up in an incomprehensible sci fi mess.

But we're not done with the bombshells yet. BJ, becoming more interesting by the second, shows Miura and Minami one of these future logs we've been seeing between chapters! So this isn't a framing device being saved for later revelations. In this one, we learn Professor Yuki Takamiya is F!Natsuno's mother. Is anyone not a professor in the future? She mentions Natsuno and Miura being in sector 4 already, and that she herself will meet them in sector 3. Maybe the sectors are just dimensions and my theory is way off.

In 1945, Keitaro finds a dying Tamao and Gouto kidnaps Chihiro. I know he'll have his reasons and he's probably not a bad guy, but does Gouto have to be such a cryptic asshole all the time >_> However real or fake this all winds up being, he's causing severe distress to those around him instead of just being honest about whatever is going on. Tamao does not in fact die, according to BJ (and the mystery logs) she's been shifted by Universal Control. That's one point for 'this is all taking place in the future'.

Zipping back to 1985, Keitaro hands his little sister her stuffed bunny, and she responds kindly before revealing she has the full memories of adult Morimura and isn't his sister at all, although she acknowledges some of their life here has implanted itself into her personality. Poor Keitaro is left in the dark once again as another connection he has in this world is severed. Cut the guy some slack, game! I don't know why Morimura was in the body of a child in the 40s disguised as Miura's sister, perhaps to protect her from her assassin Ei, but as always she and Gouto bugger off instead of explaining things clearly. Our cadet remembers meeting Ei in 1944, where Sekigahara is assumed to be a spy and claims that F!Miura's consciousness is in the body of a drone robot. BJ? Or is there another? And if the person we're playing isn't the true Miura, then who is he? An AI? There, one guess down. Maybe everybody is a robot and they all have very very faulty memory banks.

That's where I leave things today. Many of these scenes felt like they could be major late game reveals, so it's cool to see them this early on. I'm so very invested in this story of Miura and Minami, it has set a high bar that I hope the other storylines can match. Miura is locked off for now and I'm tempted to go to Gouto next to try and stay within this storyline's orbit, but we'll see.

Current progress:
Keitaro Miura- 75%
Juro Kurabe- 55%
Natsuno Minami- 37%
Ei Sekigahara- 28%
Iori Fuyusaka- prologue done
Takatoshi Hijiyama- prologue done
Megumi Yakushiji- prologue done
Shu Amiguchi- prologue done
Yuki Takamiya- prologue available
Renya Gouto- prologue available