LogFAQs > #972659586

Whether we retain our memories or not, we're never the same as our past selves.

Ei Sekigahara
I'm glad I left this route late, because Ei crosses paths with pretty much every other story at some point here. But unlike some other characters, there's a strong focus on Ei himself and his arc continues to progress as we go. I like this guy a lot!

Continuing to reluctantly follow orders from the mysterious voice (Would Ida make sense? You usually can't go wrong guessing Izumi. Or it could be Ei himself? The phone has a short range... who knows!), we wander around interrupting everyone else's plots and getting some juicy flashes of Ei's past. First a curious Tomi has us remembering an encounter in Ida's lab. Thanks to the voice work here we can instantly tell this is Izumi, who creates the drugs that will later be used on Ryoko, Iori, and Shu to counter DD-426. I don't know why I didn't notice DD-426 has 426 in its name until now >_>

Then we learn Morimura and Ei share authorisation over the fancy motorbike, and head to Okino's lab. In flashbacks, Okino reveals that he is sort of an AI construct. A year prior, 426 had created DD-426 (I keep forgetting how close together a lot of this timeline really is) and Okino used it on himself to try and detach the D-code from his brain. I wonder, did Izumi know what he was making here in an attempt to kill all the compatible nanomachines to stop the apocalypse, or was it an accidental result while he was trying to upgrade them? Either way, Okino got infected and transferred his memories into his nanomachines to create a simulated personality that then attached to his brain. He considers himself 'the true Tsukasa Okino' now, which raises some very interesting questions.

The meaning of identity and the 'self' is a rather crucial theme of the game- maybe the central basis for the story given all the clones, amnesia, repetition and looping we've seen. Every one of our protags shares some similarities with their 2188 originals, but they all deviate in their own way, too. Juro for instance has a bond with Megumi in one life, and Morimura in another. Amiguchi and Ida, BJ!Miura and current Miura, Iori and the Morimuras, everyone is distinct but shares certain qualities across their various lives. Beyond nature v nurture there's stuff like Ida wanting to reset the world to recreate his muse in perfect form, the matter of memory loss changing who a person is, and I guess this all connects to the idea of reality and artifice, and if the two can overlap (yes!). Okino himself obviously believes in self-determination, and he's a good character to give that lesson. Sekigahara chooses not to create a backup simulated personality, partially because he hates himself ( :( ), and this choice is accepted too. I'm clearly not well versed on these topics but I enjoy how the game is exploring these themes.

Okino's memory backups appear to have failed Ei, and our next clue sends us to Keitaro, via Megumi and a legitimately hilarious Fluffy cameo ("Well, I guess we're doing this whole thing now"). Before BJ was BJ, he was Ei's friend. I really like this relationship! We don't see their history but the connection here is believable, Ei sees the person in Miura and not the AI, and Miura hides incriminating data to help his pal out. It's a very wholesome bond and I am now VERY sad that BJ dies later on. Iori seems to believe her and Ei are bound to be a couple, but his strongest pairing is clearly with AI Miura!

While we're here, Miura suggests that AI Tamao is the pilot of Sentinel 18, and I forget who actually pilots Sentinel 18 in the present. I should have those names down by now, jeez. He also believes Morimura quarantined important data logs that he has created backups of in his sentinel, surely the same logs that are key in Natsuno and Keitaro's routes. Morimura looks more suspicious than ever, but I won't jump to conclusions. The voice on the phone wants BJ destroyed, could it be coming from Morimura herself? Or Gouto? I rewatch the scene with Gouto and Chihiro in 2025 and Gouto isn't certain the adult Morimura has been hijacked, but he is very clear that there's something majorly off about her decision making. Hm.

Natsuno and Yuki lead Ei to the least abandoned Abandoned Building in history, for BJ to show Ei another 2188 log. I love you for all these logs, BJ, but you're such a tease eking them out one by one instead of blasting them all at once. We see 2188 Sekigahara for the first time, an assassin ordered by Renya Gouto to kill Chihiro Morimura in the still-under-construction Sector 4. Purely for the sake of hiding his own corruption, smh Gouto. Very interesting that both of them wind up inside the enclosures and that our Gouto works with Morimura in here. What really happened at the start of these cycles?!

Our last flashback of the day brings the grand return of the villainous bespectacled Mr Ida. Hooray! He orders Ei to deceive Miura in order to extract the most vital log, and we get more info on how the looping works. I wonder, did Ryoko really kill Ida? He's escaped death before and talks here like he's in it for the long haul, but we already know his plan failed... I'm bouncing back and forth wondering if he'll return for the final act or not.

There's one more section for Ei that requires 10 characters at 80% completion, and as luck would have it we reached that marker tonight! But I'm tired and want to be fully alert for his finale, so I'm forcing myself to leave it til tomorrow. Great stuff so far, though.

Cleared:
Shu Amiguchi
Ryoko Shinonome
Tomi Kisaragi
Yuki Takamiya
Natsuno Minami
Nenji Ogata
Juro Kurabe
Megumi Yakushiji

Uncleared:
Keitaro Miura- 87%
Ei Sekigahara- 85%
Iori Fuyusaka- prologue done
Takatoshi Hijiyama- prologue done
Renya Gouto- prologue done