LogFAQs > #972410853

I'm enjoying blitzing through certain stories instead of keeping them all level, it makes me feel like I'm cheating the game and getting sneak peeks of things I shouldn't discover until later on. I hope it all hangs together just as well in retrospect once I'm done.

Megumi Yakushiji
Not much to update today, I run through Megumi's story until it's locked off. Much like Ogata, I wasn't expecting very much with this story based on the bits I'd seen of the character beforehand. Unlike Ogata, Megumi's story hasn't risen above those expectations, at least so far. In short, Megumi wanders around shooting 'witches' to satisfy the desires of a talking cat, with whom she has entered into a Faustian bargain. Somehow, this isn't half as compelling as that sounds!

I think my problem here is that there isn't much attracting me to Megumi as a character. She's pretty one note, doesn't have many connections to the rest of the gang, and her lovelorn story with Izumi isn't something I find appealing. Maybe that's because this love story happens almost entirely offscreen, or maybe it's because we already have a love-obsessed jealous girl knowingly being used for the man she loves in Ryoko, and that story was done better. That's not to say I dlslike Megumi, I just don't really feel much towards her at all.

I think I'm coming across too harsh, I'm still enjoying myself. My fav bits here may be the glimpses of our other protagonists living their regular day-to-day lives. There's some good character beats with Ei reaffirming what a stand-up guy he is, and with Tomi and Megumi chatting as two friends who have drifted apart would do (and Megumi's reluctance to shoot her). The game could explore the contrasts between Tomi and Megumi more here, with how Tomi has fully embraced this era while Megumi is clinging to her past with both hands, but still it's something. For Megumi herself, I like the confrontation with Iori where she admits to herself that she's acting selfishly. And, of course, there's Fluffy. Let's talk about Fluffy.

Fluffy is... a huge pain in the ass. He's abrasive, whiny, selfish, demanding, and straight up cruel to Megumi for no reason. I came into this story assuming him to be 426, and I haven't wavered too much on that, but it's pretty strange how mean he is. I know that, if he is 426, he's not the same Izumi that fell in love with Megumi, but he's not acting in line with the cool calm Izumi we've seen in flashbacks, as Aiba, and in Ogata's dreamworld. We have also just learned that Megumi is the only one who can see Fluffy- very similar to Juro with Shiba (and both Shiba and Fluffy alter Juro's memories), so maybe he's Inaba? That doesn't seem to track with her character either though, maybe I have it backwards and Shiba is 426 as well. Or Fluffy could be someone else entirely, but if so it's very coincidental that Megumi showed up to help Ogata when she did. And at one point he indicates that he's been shot before, which I took as a reference to Morimura killing Izumi.

Whether he's AIzumi or not, Fluffy's motive for doing all this is unclear to me. He's having everyone shot to force them into the sentinels when the kaiju attack comes, but I'm still not sure why. Haven't they already been selected as compatible pilots long ago? It is probably connected to when Morimura shot Ogata (and maybe the others?) as a child. I wonder why he is doing this now, so close to Deimos-Day, instead of... at any point prior. And why he's manifesting this through a talking cat when he clearly has other methods of manipulation at his disposal. It's too early to speculate on all this, as said this story isn't done yet.

To make it clear where exactly we are, Megumi has shot Gouto (lol), failed to shoot Ei, presumably shot Hijiyama and Ogata during the lab breakout, shot Miura, Shu, Tomi, and Iori. Then we're locked off after Miwako reveals nobody else can see Fluffy. Out of our protagonists, this leaves Juro, Natsuno, Yuki, Ryoko, Ei, and Megumi herself yet to be shot. I think things are starting to kick into gear, so I hope this story finishes strong. Maybe Fluffy will ask her to shoot Juro and that will be the breaking point. We'll see!

Cleared:
Shu Amiguchi
Ryoko Shinonome
Tomi Kisaragi
Yuki Takamiya
Natsuno Minami
Nenji Ogata

Uncleared:
Keitaro Miura- 87%
Megumi Yakushiji- 71%
Juro Kurabe- 55%
Ei Sekigahara- 28%
Iori Fuyusaka- prologue done
Takatoshi Hijiyama- prologue done
Renya Gouto- prologue done

NEXT: Juro has finally opened up again, I plan to head straight there.