LogFAQs > #972281930

I still find it odd that labcoat Ida looks like Shu with glasses, but suited he looks entirely different!

We just need to reset things. It'll all be better that way...

Destruction
I've now made my way through the second area. Armour piercing skills are paramount here, and I'm curious what boosts the enemies will get in area 3... I probably rely on the melee sentinels the most at this point. Ogata's wide-range Demolition Blade is too good! I like that within the classes each character has their own niche to make them stand out. The flight supports are the ones I've found the least use for, I use Yuki and Shu more than Megumi and Gouto.

There's some pieces of relevant plot info here but several of the pre and post-battle scenes are empty talk about the new enemies. There's also one odd skit of Iori getting a crush on Yuki lol. The final wave of Area 2 has impressive presentation, with Miyuki Inaba singing us on before her ship drifts out of range. I didn't expect the music to actually stop mid-battle, that was a downer. I wonder how the dialogue changes if you speed through that battle before she leaves us behind? Or maybe it's scripted so she stops singing before you end.

Shu Amiguchi
I'm itching to get back to story content, and I've unlocked Shu's last segment so go straight in with him. Turns out Miyuki Inaba is actually the AI Tomi whose body was stolen by AI Izumi, I had not figured that one out. Ida is aware of her now and wants to erase her and reset Project Ark again, and women being in trouble is all Shu needs as motivation to help out. Ryoko decides to join us after a brief mix-up, and we're soon at the Outer Wall. I like Shu commenting about Ryoko 'not finding out about that part' regarding the spaceship lol, he's pretty self aware that we're all only getting tiny pieces of the puzzle.

We shift into Sector 3 and soon find Ida and Yuki. What follows is a long confrontation where Ida's motives are laid out: he wants to reset the world for his love, Tomi (I like Ryoko's non-verbal reaction to that). As heartless as he can be, even Ida does not want to erase AI Tomi. Instead he silences her via the sentinels, which I guess connect to her in space? We learn Shu and Ida share identical genetic code, and I wonder why Shu exists. Ida placed him into Amiguchi custody himself, but did he create the clone? Maybe just so he'd have continued access to 'compatibility' through Shu's ID, or maybe it was Morimura or the system itself. At one point Ida mentions that 'she' is still transplanting memories into Shu, and the archives later tell me the she being referred to is Morimura. In any case, it's interesting how identical genetics can produce two completely disparate personalities. Did all the kids get to grow up without any interference, or did Morimura/Gouto/Ida/Inaba/Okino/whoever else interfere to nudge them where they wanted them to go, I wonder.

Inaba tries to warn Ida against hitting the reset button. He ignores her, but Ryoko winds up forcibly shifting the two of them and Yuki somewhere. Shu is left behind with the surprisingly friendly men in black, stumbling around until Natsuno (and BJ) unexpectedly shows up. End of story! Not really much in the way of resolution for Shu, but then these aren't self contained arcs and I have to expect more will come afterwards. Lots of fun important information in this story with Ida and Inaba. Ida sure seems like the main antagonist at this point!

Ryoko Shinonome
I'm tempted to head to Natsuno, but decide on Ryoko in the hopes that we'll see a continuation of the events of Shu's story here. The poor girl isn't doing very well, and neither is my head trying to figure out the order of things and who knows what when with her. We meet Yuki in the cafeteria and- I swear I chose this path out of coincidence- our very next scene shows the result of Ryoko's shift earlier! Aw yeah. It sure is climactic, as Ryoko seemingly shoots her love dead point blank. ...RIP big bad Ida? He's escaped death before but it would be cool if his end is here, at the hands of one he hurt so much and disregarded entirely. It's sad that the reason she kills him is his love of Tomi, and she doesn't care about him using her the whole time. We've gotta teach you some self-respect, Ryoko!

Of course, amnesiac Ryoko doesn't take well to this memory. After some prodding she reluctantly recalls another one, this time further back in 2104. She seems perfectly cognisant in all these flashbacks, I wonder when exactly the pills and memory deterioration started. I thought these were all post-infection, but I could have my timeline wrong. Anyway, Ryoko fends off a couple of skinless androids (intriguing!) and discovers that Ida's logs from the past 3 years have been deleted. Potentially by Ida himself, or Morimura or Gouto? We watch the last log, and as luck would have it this is a perfect companion piece to Amiguchi's story.

Tetsuya and AI Tomi have a conversation where we learn that Hijiyama, as well as Miura, has a consciousness without a human body. Tomi rejects Ida's plan and has the audacity to think for herself. We then watch Ida come up with his plan in real time, and hearing it justified in his own words just enforces how sick it is. Shu was right to call him out on it, this is not some tragic love story but merely an egomaniac wanting to erase thousands/millions of lives so he can shape the object of his affection to be more agreeable.

The last path for Ryoko takes an unexpected turn. Instead of a culmination of all the secrets and conspiracies she's been exposed to and lied about, the truth is much more mundane and sad. She herself administered the DD-426 infection out of ignorance and adoration of Ida. There's been no plot to erase her by Gouto and Morimura, her nanomachines are simply disconnecting from her real memories and the duo hve been trying without success to find a way to slow them down as the pills become less and less effective. Ryoko collapses and eventually her nanomachines separate entirely, leaving her without any memories at all.

This is... super depressing!! For the obvious reason- Ryoko no longer exists in a meaningful way, she's a mindless weapon whose only purpose now is to fight someone else's war. But also, and this might be worse, because she's been used as no more than a tool her entire life, and her shell carries on the same way even after she's not around anymore. Morimura and Gouto may not have been plotting some sinister plan for her, but the reason they did what they did was to try and get the password out of her, not out of any real concern for her wellbeing. Then there's Ida, obviously, and the rest of her life is a non-linear blur. As far as I can see it, the only person who ever cared about Ryoko as a human being was Ei, and she didn't even seem to know that.

Ryoko's last scene is her, alone, entering her sentinel because that's all she knows to do. I've gotta hope there's something better around the corner for her, because this is too sad. What was all this for? She deserves better. Great story.

Current progress:
Shu Amiguchi- CLEARED
Ryoko Shinonome- CLEARED
Yuki Takamiya- 85%
Keitaro Miura- 75%
Natsuno Minami- 62%
Juro Kurabe- 55%
Ei Sekigahara- 28%
Iori Fuyusaka- prologue done
Takatoshi Hijiyama- prologue done
Megumi Yakushiji- prologue done
Renya Gouto- prologue done
Tomi Kisaragi- prologue available
Nenji Ogata- prologue available

Next I'm thinking of picking Tomi, to complete the trifecta of 'lives ruined by Tetsuya Ida'.