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The whole thing was a hoax cooked up by Saki’s uncle to get her hooked up with a guy. Provide a buffet of bachelors, put everybody under stress to encourage rapid bonding, but have five star accommodations during down time so they can have fun together too. That such a stupid theory explains so much is worrying.
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Nov 17, 2020 08:05
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BurningStone posted:The whole thing was a hoax cooked up by Saki’s uncle to get her hooked up with a guy. Provide a buffet of bachelors, put everybody under stress to encourage rapid bonding, but have five star accommodations during down time so they can have fun together too. The more worrying part of that theory is that Keiji thinks his niece is so hopeless that he needs to engineer a fake terrorist plot in order to snag her a man. Seriously though, I won't discount your theory. We've seen Hogstein use a body double to fool Saki and Ryuji. The only time Keiji has been seen with Hogstein is during the initial takeover and during the meeting with the heroes near the start. Meanwhile, Keiji has apparently been able to freely text Saki despite being held hostage. Add to that the fact that there was apparently no police presence outside of the park despite a terrorist group taking it over and setting off two bombs. Of course, I still don't think we'll get a "Hogstein was actually/working with Keiji Inafune" reveal. He's a self insert, there's no way he'd sign off on himself being made the villain. That said, there are enough plot holes or unanswered questions that mean the possibility still exists.
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Nov 17, 2020 15:17
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All of this was an elaborate plot to delay Mighty N°9 because it was still not ready to release.
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Nov 17, 2020 16:27
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Psycho Knight posted:The more worrying part of that theory is that Keiji thinks his niece is so hopeless that he needs to engineer a fake terrorist plot in order to snag her a man. Anime has taught me every family inJapan has one person with an incurable disease. He probably wants to hear the pitter-patter of little grandniece and nephew feet before he dies and Saki’s biological clock isn’t ticking fast enough for him. I don’t believe any of this; it’s just an amusing way to fill in the gaps. If it’s actually right then I’m channeling a Japanese dating sim writer, which would be very scary.
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Nov 18, 2020 06:17
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Blaze Dragon posted:All of this was an elaborate plot to delay Mighty N°9 because it was still not ready to release. Maybe Hogstein is just a Kickstarter backer that got pissed off when Keiji decided to promote a second Kickstarter for an amusement park while MN9 was still stewing in development hell. It's on brand for Inafune. BurningStone posted:I don’t believe any of this; it’s just an amusing way to fill in the gaps. If it’s actually right then I’m channeling a Japanese dating sim writer, which would be very scary. It's not hard to channel a Japanese dating sim writer. There's a set of templates for whatever game you're going for. We're basically looking at the anime equivalent of the Harlequin Romance industry. In update news, I have recording done for the first part of Towa's route. Judging by what I have, it looks like each remaining character will get 1 mini-update before we get started on their actual route. The only major moments in Stages 1 through 3 (outside of the Break Time moments) where the group splits up are the restaurant scene at the end of Stage 1 (we didn't get to see this in Mitarashi's route because Saki was busy bandaging him up in a dark warehouse) and the Bloodstained Hospital. Towa gets a CG during each of those moments for a total of 4 (2 for those segments I mentioned, plus 2 for Break Time events). Altogether, I think it should be able to fit into one update. After that, I assume that Stages 4, 5, 6, and 7 will have the same number of updates as Mitarashi's route. I'll get to work on Towa's mini-update as soon as I can and then we can look forward to 4 or 5 full updates where we continue to learn nothing about the plot itself before moving on to Meoshi... who will also apparently tell us nothing about the plot.
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Nov 21, 2020 16:12
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I know one thing:
none of the other guys are going to have as smooth a line as this.
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Nov 23, 2020 04:19
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Update XVII: Déjà vu We’re back! Back for what is about to somehow, through some machinations of the devil, be the start of what could be my longest LP to date. It’ll be hard to top Conception Plus (sitting at 67 updates), but Sweet Fuse is sure as hell going to make a run for it.  Here’s the deal: Ryuji’s route, for as cute/hot/sweet/etc. as it was, provided basically no answers to any of our burning questions about the plot. We found out nothing about the flashback family, we didn’t find out Hogstein’s identity, we didn’t learn about Hogstein’s motivations or the reasons for this entire revenge game, we didn’t learn anything about Urabe and why he supposedly betrayed the group, and we learned nothing about what happened to Ayumu and Mai’s broken family relationship. The only thing we did learn is the deal with the piglets, which was stupid as sin. Seriously, mass hypnotism. That’s what we’re going with. Anyway, I discovered that Sweet Fuse has a recommended route order. Mitarashi, Wakasa, and Meoshi’s routes are pretty much devoid of plot answers. Those routes are almost entirely centered on the characters themselves. Urabe, Shidou, and Shirabe’s routes are where the good stuff is supposedly hidden.  So guess what we’re doing! No, we’re not skipping straight to the good routes. The thread didn’t want summaries, so that means we have to claw our way through Towa and Kouta’s routes first. That means going all the way back to Stage 1.  Thankfully, I can set the game to speed through all dialogue that’s already been seen. I would have preferred a simple “Skip to choice” option instead, but I can still work with this. Just a matter of hitting the AXBY controller equivalent of the Triangle button and pissing off to watch YouTube videos until I notice everything stop out of the corner of my eye. So yes, we will be going through Towa and Kouta’s routes before doing the actual plot relevant routes. That said, I won’t be subjecting the thread (and more importantly, myself) to retreading the first 3 stages just for minor changes in dialogue. What will happen instead is that we’ll get 1 summary update for each of the remaining guys. This update will cover two solo events and two break events that take place between Stages 1 and 4. After that, we’ll go back to regular updates because the individual character routes diverge (from what I’ve been told) significantly.  First up on Towa’s route, although technically it’s not unique to his, is this choice at the end of Stage 1. All of these choices lead to a solo scene with whatever guy you happen to be pursuing. Wakasa, Shidou, and Urabe have a little intermission scene before their solo ones though.   (Mitarashi said he’d come find us later anyway…) I felt bad that he’d gotten hurt because of me, but I didn’t want to make it worse by butting into his business. There is one thing, though… What’s that? Well, the pig said none of the attractions are operating. So… does that include restaurants? Yes, I was curious about that as well. Well, we won’t know if we don’t go have a look. Heck, even if it’s not working there should be some food there. True. Perhaps we can just borrow the kitchen and cook ourselves some food. Shidou… can you cook? I confess I was a little surprised. Sounds good to me.  No. No way. You are banned from the kitchen. (I-Instincts…? What the heck was he planning to cook on instinct?) The thought of Shidou frowning in furious concentration over a stove made me want to burst out in laughter.The thing is, he probably wouldn’t be that bad at it if you had a recipe book nearby. He seems like a very procedural and by-the-book kind of cop. If he had a “rulebook” to follow, he’d probably be the best cook out of our current batch of bachelors. You know drat well that Towa doesn’t cook for himself. Kouta is a NEET, so he probably subsists entirely on instant ramen and other cheap pre-made foods. I guess Kimimaro could secretly be a good cook, but he looks more like the kind of guy that dines out a lot.  (…Although all the employees are piglets…)Remember: The piglets are allegedly regular people that have been hypnotized. I guess Hogstein managed to round up a bunch of 5-Star Chefs to brainwash without anyone noticing. Either that or the hypnotism process can impart advanced knowledge of cooking into people. It was oddly unsettling to watch the flock of people in black unitards and weird masks wait tables, cook food, and run the register. Are we gonna be… okay? They do look strange, but I think we should be fine. Perhaps to reassure us, Shidou headed deeper into the restaurant. Ah, well, there he goes.It feels weird seeing you on screen again. He doesn’t mess around, does he? Wakasa shrugged and frowned. There didn’t seem to be any other customers, although I hadn’t really expected any. Let’s go. Okay… I smiled at him, and then followed Shidou in. This looks more like a food court than a restaurant.Well, it’s in an amusement park, so… yeah. I glanced around, and saw Shidou beckoning us over to some seats he’d taken.  Whoa… They’ve got a lot of stuff here.No, I did not accidentally place that screenshot out of order. Shidou says his “Agreed” line first and then Towa responds with his line.  You visit the counter to get your food, then come back here to eat it. That reminds me, I pointed out that restaurant in the background during update five or six, I think. I mentioned that it translates to “A Delicious Heart Restaurant” and that “restaurant” was missing the “t” for some reason. At the time, I didn’t connect the dots and simply chalked that up to a translation error. Looking at it a second time, however, I think I realize where this came from. Who’s ready for a weird language lesson?! …Too bad, I’m going to do it anyway because I hate Towa. ”Restaurant” is a French word that was incorporated into English (as English loves to do). It is spelled with the “t” in French, but “t” is silent when it is the last letter in a word (except in certain cases, because of course there are exceptions). So, what you wind up with is the word “Restaurant” being spelled the same in both languages but pronounced by English speakers with an audible “t” sound at the end, and by French speakers without that “t” sound. Being a loanword which is technically French and not English, the Japanese write it in Katakana as “レストラン“ (re-su-to-ra-n) because that’s roughly the way it sounds in French. That said, apparently some places will use the English sound version “レストラント” (re-su-to-ra-n-to) in order to seem classier… somehow. What we wind up with in the case of Sweet Fuse here is a sign that looks correctly translated to English/French from a Japanese perspective but isn’t actually. At the very least, I can’t find any use of the word “Restauran” in English or French. If anyone knows of some obscure literary history that does confirm that usage, then let me know and I will amend this. I might be Canadian, but (despite what Quebec may desperately want) we are not all fluent in French. There’s a chance that I’m way off base on the French stuff.  This wasn't an English localization thing, by the way. The Japanese version of Sweet Fuse also has the sign read "restauran" in English letters. Anyway, what were we doing? His earlier fear apparently forgotten, Wakasa trotted briskly away.Oh, right. Everyone is debating what take-out they should order. I could really go for some Chinese. It’s been a long day, and I could use something with a strong flavor.The “strong flavor” is called MSG, Subaru. Alternatively, it is an assload of salt. Then we will all split up, it seems. I always eat Japanese when dining away from home.…So then what do you eat when you are dining at home? Then they were gone. Whatever. So, that’s it for that scene. We won’t be seeing it in any future routes because this is the only part where it diverges. There’s another moment like this (during the go-kart game) that we’ll be skipping sometimes for weird reasons. We’ll get to that when we get to it though. For now, we’re on the Wakasa route, so let’s get some Western grub. (I think I feel like Western food today.) I decided to follow Wakasa. I just felt like something a little different. What’d you order? Beef stroganoff. I figured a stew was probably a safe bet.Is that Western? I guess Russia is more closely aligned with Europe than Asia (in a cultural and historical view anyway), but still. “Stroga…” Wow, that’s a mouthful. Is it good?It is a delicious mouthful, Saki. Well, usually yeah, but with these guys making it… Just don’t get your expectations up too high is what I’m saying. All right, I’ll have one of those, then. One of the piglets bowed, presumably to acknowledge that it had received my order, and disappeared into the back. … … With nothing more to talk about, an awkward silence fell between us.Man, the sparks are really flying in this route. (I feel like I should talk about something, but… what?) He’s in a band that’s famous… I guess? But I really don’t know anything about them.Here’s another reason why the whole “police had to be called” thing from the ending is stupid. Can you imagine if a member of… *looks up current hottest boy band* BTS went to Disneyland and didn’t turn up for a few days after the park was evacuated because of terrorist bombers locking it down? Even if the police had decided to keep their distance/ignore it, I guarantee you that an army of screaming fan girls would immediately have the place staked out with high powered binoculars looking for any sign of him. Police would not have to be called by someone who escaped. The person would be immediately set upon by ravenous teenaged girls desperate for news about their precious hormone receptacle. So, uh… I was thinking about how I was really pretty uncool back there. Pretty embarrassing… Huh? While I was still trying to figure out what to say, he’d spoken up. Guess I’m not real good at keeping up the pop star illusion, huh? Pretty lame… It kills me to do this, but we need the affection points for the route. N-No, um… I don’t think you’re, uh, lame. I mean, I didn’t even know who you were or anything. S-Sorry! I just don’t really know about… that kind of stuff. Even my friends are kind of surprised by it. It’s not just you, I don’t know anything about popular music. Huh… You know, you’re actually the first girl I’ve met like that since I started doing this. Wh-What?! Really…? Yeah… I had to admit that came as a shock. Was I really that ignorant and alone in the world? What do you mean? Just, you know… I think things could turn out all right.*Affection up* R-Really…? He gave me a cheerful smile, and I found myself surprised as [sic] just how… dazzling it was. (Wh-Whoa… Why’s my face feel warm all of a sudden?) I struggled to find the right words. Um, Wakasa, I— Stop. Mm! Break his finger, Saki!  You don’t know where that’s been! He pressed a finger against my lips with a smile. Call me Towa. “Wakasa” makes it sound like we’re… co-workers or something. Oh. Okay… My heart tapped a little harder at the inside of my chest. (Oh man… I guess he really does know how to turn on the charm…) I let out a small sigh. (I dunno, it still feels kinda weird to call him by his first name… I mean, we don’t even really know each other.)Yeah, Towa has not done enough legwork to earn this in the same way that Ryuji did. A few minutes later the piglet returned with our stew, and Wakasa and I walked back to the others in silence. Man, I’m starving! Let’s dig in! Wakasa was already stuffing food into his mouth by the time the rest of us had sat down.  Yes, it does. I’m impressed. They were right— the food was delicious. Apparently the piglets had a few master chefs.  Food is the source of all life. They say that the morale of an army is more dependent on the quality of its food that [sic] any other factor. I can definitely understand why. With that we shut up, and got to the pressing task of shoveling food into our mouths. After a while the people who had gone off elsewhere returned, and by the end all seven of us were eating together.And at this point the storylines all converge again. Let’s skip ahead to the next split.  Which in this case is the first Break Time event at the end of Stage 1. (Huh?) I was up on the roof, looking for Wakasa, when I heard something. (Is he… singing…?) I figured I probably shouldn’t bother him, so I hid and kept listening. Yaaaah… ya da-da daaaa… I couldn’t really tell what he was singing, but he was pretty into it. (Wow, is he still practicing? That’s dedication…) Then, just as I turned to leave… Aah! Suddenly he was right next to me. You think I haven’t learned how to spot paparazzi? S-Sorry. Ah, I don’t really mind if you hear me anyway. Did you need something? Well… no, not really. Oh ho… so you came up here to see me, huh?I wish that wasn’t the case, but yeah. Um… uh… no? We can at least agree on that. Saki is pretty bad at that. …Okay, fine. Yes, I came here to see you. He he. There, was that so hard? You should have just said that in the first place. Go ahead, I don’t mind if you hang out. …Thanks. He grinned, sat down on the terrace steps, and beckoned me over. I walked over and sat down.  I always feel better if I go sing outside. Huh? I’m guessing you can’t sleep, right? Me either. Really? Yeah, not exactly proud of it, but… there you go. Yeah… I mean, I’m a star! I’m supposed to be cool! Cool guys don’t scream and freak out whenever something bad happens.You will never be cool, Towa. You could be the most composed character in this entire game and you’d still be a dork. Well so what if you’re some famous guy? Some stuff is scary! There’s nothing wrong with being scared of it. You really think so? Yeah. He gave me a wide, friendly smile. (Wow, even at night his smile is amazing…) Hey, you wanna sing with me a bit? Wh-What?! Yeah, you and me. Sing a song or two. Add “singing” to the list of things that Saki is not good at. We’ll be needing a fresh page to write on soon. That’s all for Break Time 1. Time to skip ahead once more. This time we’re jumping to…  The part during Alice Kart where the groups are split up and Saki’s group is about to be crushed by the ceiling spike trap. In Mitarashi’s route, we just screamed at Towa to solve the drat puzzle, but this time around we reassure him and tell him to do his best. There’s not really any big difference in this scene, I just wanted an excuse to pause here for a separate reason. The group technically splits up during Alice Kart, but if you recall, we weren’t allowed to pick Towa or Mitarashi as our kart partner during the race portion. The only solo scenes during Alice Kart are for Shirabe, Shidou, and Meoshi. We already saw Shidou’s (since we picked it during Mitarashi’s route), so the only times we’ll be back for Alice Kart in the future are for Shirabe and Meoshi’s routes. Urabe claims to be easily car sick, so he doesn’t have a solo scene during this moment either.  So, moving on to Break Time 2, which is at the end of Stage 2. Is something wrong? He was up on the terrace, but his face looked dark and depressed. As I hurried over toward him, he lifted his head. …How’re you so happy? What? We’re trapped here. We’ve almost died a bunch of times. Aren’t you scared? Yeah, I guess you’re right about that. But… do you think they’re even trying to rescue us?According to Mitarashi’s ending? No. No they are not. Well, yeah, of course. When I start thinking about what might happen tomorrow, I get so scared I can’t sleep. What am I going to do? Well… have you tried singing? Hmm… Well, let’s see… Oh, how about shouting as loud as you can?Isn’t that a very bad thing for a singer to do? Shredding your vocal chords doesn’t seem like a good plan unless you want that gravelly death metal sound.  Huh? I bet it’ll make you feel better. And you never know— maybe someone on the other side of the river will hear us. You really think so? You never know until you try! Ready? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! No, your technique’s all wrong. You have to bring your voice up from your stomach. Saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaave uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuus! Whoa! That’s amazing! Well come on, it’s kind of my job. Right, yeah. Guess I forgot. Do you feel better? …I feel kinda stupid admitting it, but… yeah. I do. Thanks. We kept shouting for a while, pretending we were doing voice training, then said good night and headed back to our rooms. (That was actually pretty fun.) Even though I’d been trying to cheer him up, I felt quite a bit better myself.End of Break Time 2. Let’s wrap this summary post up.  This is the last moment where the group breaks off during the Common Route. Once again, we will only be seeing this full scene during certain routes. By the time we get to Shirabe, Urabe, and Shidou we’ll have seen all three variations of it. (Wakasa looks pretty scared, but I also want to keep an eye on Shirabe…)Right. In case you’ve forgotten, Saki was suspicious of Ayumu at this point because she had caught him secretly talking to Hogstein during the second night… I think. It was either the first or second. Either way, that’s the reason for the “keep an eye on Shirabe” line. Is it okay if I go with you? Sure, little lady. And that was that.After grabbing the heartbeat monitors and flashlight (and watching Towa figuratively piss his pants at the idea of going into Racoon City Hospital), we head towards a new scene. The only new detail to note in this scene is that Saki notices the door that she/Wakasa/Ayumu are going for is already open a little bit. They all attribute it to one of the piglets forgetting to close it all the way after setting things up, but since we’ve already been through this game once before, we know that the door is open because Mai entered the hospital ahead of us. It’s a small detail, but it’s a nice bit of foreshadowing. Granted, it also raises the question as to how Mai managed to wander in through the front door without Hogstein or the piglets noticing. It was suggested in Mitarashi’s ending that there are some piglets standing guard by all the attractions, even ones that the group has already completed and therefore wouldn’t have reason to return to (there was a piglet outside of Samurai Fantasy VII, for example). The only explanation I can think of is that the piglets clear the area of the next game just before it starts (in case, you know, the group fails and the building explodes), which allowed Mai to slip in.  He flicked the flashlight on, illuminating a small part of the hallway. Smells kinda… damp, doesn’t it? Yeah, it is a little strange… That’s definitely what I look forward to the most when I go to the hospital. I don’t think they really needed to be this… authentic. He was still mumbling to himself when—[Announcer]: Listen… this labyrinth of the dead devours the souls of the living. Listen for the footsteps of the creeping death…! C-Couldn’t they have, like… led into that somehow? It’s just like “BLAM here’s some creepy voice!” Scared the pants off me…That’s the entire drat point, Towa. You don’t hit up Resident Evil land for a scenic stroll. You go there to get scared.  The labyrinth of the dead… the footsteps of the creeping death… What does that mean? Not sure yet. Let’s keep moving. Walking through the thick, oppressive darkness made it feel as if we were walking into the mouth of Hell itself. …Doesn’t look like there’s anything here. I was hoping for a hint or… Something. He frowned, and moved the light across the walls and floor, searching for anything of interest. There were signs of neglect and decay everywhere, from peeling wallpaper and mildew on the walls to chunks of concrete strewn across the floor. Shut up, Towa!  I doubt it’ll be that simple, but yes, I suppose we should be moving on. We headed forward into the darkness again.*After a slight change in scenery*  (It’s so cold… Would it kill them to turn up the heat a bit?) As I lifted my hands up to my mouth to warm them, I heard a crackling noise echo through the hallway. Aah! I’d just stepped on a piece of concrete, but Wakasa leapt about a foot in the air, and then crouched down on the floor, shaking. Unsurprisingly, his alarm began to sound. S-Sorry! That was just me… I walked over toward him slowly. Calm down there, kid. You’re okay. Guh… Shirabe gave Wakasa’s shoulder a reassuring squeeze, and the younger man looked up at him, surprised. Sorry for making that noise. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. A few moments later, his alarm slowed and stopped. All right, let’s keep going. I think this is some sort of maze. We’ve already lost a lot of time. I don’t think we can afford to go slow…It truly doesn’t matter. You will always escape these games just before the 7pm deadline regardless of what you do. You could go take an 8 hour nap on that gurney over there and still end up getting out of here at 6:45pm. We’ve established that the flow of time in this place is complete nonsense. Agreed on all accounts. You doing okay, Wakasa? Yeah, I think I’m all right now. I should be good. Let’s go. We pushed forward down the dark hallway. It did definitely seem to be a sort of maze, with new hallways branching off to the left and right…*After a fade-to-black transition* (I can’t even remember how many turns we’ve made… I hope we’re gonna be okay.) I let out a quiet sigh that I thought no one else would hear, but Shirabe looked back at me. Huh? You’re worried we might get lost, right? Y-Yeah, how’d you know…? Wait, you’re telling me you remember it? It’s hard to trust you or otherwise feel comfortable with you when we know that you are minutes away from trying to beat your child. I’m sure your route will attempt to redeem you for that, but as of right now, it’s a big ask that we forget that little tidbit. Also, does it really matter if he remembers our route through the maze? What are we going to do, go back to the start? Either we complete this game or we die (or we bail on this whole thing and let the hostages die instead). Reliable as always. (I do want to trust him, but…) If only I had some proof he wasn’t a traitor…[???]: Aiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeee! W-Was that a… scream?! Who was that? I looked over at Wakasa and our eyes met. I swallowed. Was that… a girl’s voice? I think so. Hm. We should head toward it. Might be a clue… We-We’re going toward it?! It might. You don’t know. I… I think it was coming from somewhere to the right, up ahead. Then that’s our heading. Wakasa was still reluctant, but he didn’t refuse, so we headed off toward where the voice had come from. Unfortunately, the maze didn’t get any simpler, and just moving in a single direction proved to be very difficult. It’s hard to get anywhere in here… Agreed, but at least we don’t seem to be retracing our steps yet. Then we have to be— …Wakasa? Are you all right? He’s finally broken. Nothing to do but leave him. Can’t you hear that? Hear what? There! What… what is that…? I don’t know… It sounds like something… dragging… We stopped to listen. It was coming from the right side of the intersection ahead, and it was getting closer. We should hide. R-Right! ! Wakasa had frozen in terror, so I grabbed his arm and pulled him behind a nearby pillar with us.[???]: …  Hey, it’s our zombie friend! (Wh-what the heck is that?!) I’d never seen anything I would have called a “monster” before, but this thing definitely fit the bill. Although it was vaguely person-shaped, its body was lumpy and misshapen, with peeling skin and open wounds. Against all logic, it appeared to be carrying a gun. Guh…! I felt someone grab my hand and spun arounds to see Wakasa holding on to it. I dislike this CG. His alarm was going off, and I could feel his hand shaking in mine. (He’s shaking so hard I think he might break something, but he’s still worried about me…)I think it’s more likely that he’s terrified and simply trying to act tough as a means of calming his own nerves. Wakasa’s face was as white as a sheet, but he somehow managed to force a wavering smile onto it and squeeze my hand. I felt myself relax a little bit. I hope it’s not a piglet in a suit, because they won’t be surviving what’s about to happen. S-Sure, it’s a p-pretty good costume, but it’s not real. It’s just a costume, right? C-Costumes aren’t s-scary…The main concern is not with whether or not the zombie is real. The main concern is the loving Uzi he’s carrying. Yeah, you’re right. It… doesn’t really seem so scary now, huh…? N-No… After a few moments his alarm slowed and stopped. (That was really nice of him…) Any guy can comfort you, but it takes a special kind of guy to try when he’s scared out of his mind. After a few more tense moments, the monster shuffled off down another hallway, and we let out a collective sigh of relief. drat… That was close. I-I thought we were dead… I agreed, but I had questions. What was that thing? Well, it looked like a zombie, right? I guess now we know who the “dead” that announcement was talking about are. The gun, though… That could be a problem. Y-Yeah… It looked pretty real to me… We keep getting told we’re risking our lives in these games. Dollars to donuts it is real. Guh… So if he catches us, we’re toast. W-Well, we’ll just have to be extra careful from now on… Right. At the top was another pitch-black hallway, just like on the first floor. So far, so good… hm? Huh? We all seemed to sense… something… further down the hallway, and Shirabe brought the flashlight up. It’s the gremlin again! …I mean, Mai. It was Mai. [Clearly Mai]: Aiiiieeeeeeee! What?! I saw what looked like a child dash out of the light, but before I could get a good look it was gone. W-Was that a girl?! Yeah, but… why? Suddenly I remembered the small figure I’d seen on the way to the attraction. (Wait… was that…?) But then Shirabe spoke. What is it? Do you know something? …No. Nothing. (Sure doesn’t look like nothing to me, buddy. What is he thinking…?) Uh… guys? Shouldn’t we go after her? You’re right. If one of the zombies catches her, that would be… bad. Come on! Okay! We took off after the sound of her footsteps. Unfortunately, it was only seconds before we lost her— the echoes bouncing down each hallway made it impossible to tell which direction she’d gone. What should we do? She could be anywhere… Guh…[Very cleary Mai]: Aiiiiiieeeeeeeeeeee! Another scream echoed through the darkness. The echoes hadn’t even faded when Shirabe’s alarm went off. I knew it. Damnit, what’s she doing here?! Um… Shirabe…? Hurry up! Wh-What…? Wait! Shirabe shoved the flashlight into my hands and ran off into the darkness, leaving Wakasa and myself staring after him. What the heck’s going on here? Does Shirabe know that kid? I’m… not sure… But he looked pretty pale. Hm… We should go after him… Get him! Grab Towa! (Oh no…!)Of course not. No, we’re on Towa’s route so that means we need to save his rear end. Actually, the choice we’re given here saves him either way, but “Come on, this way!” involves physically dragging him out of the frying pan. The other option is just to shout, “Behind you!” We need affection points though, so… C’mere! Whoa! I grabbed Wakasa by the arm and hauled him behind a nearby pillar. Shhh! There’s a zombie out there! What?! Eeeee…!Towa! For god’s sake, shut your pie hole! See? We exchanged wide-eyed looks, and he nodded vigorously, his face white as a sheet. Thanks for saving me there. No problem. With the zombie gone, we ran out from behind the pillar and took off after Shirabe. It wasn’t long before we’d caught up with him. Are you all right? Did you find that girl? I’m… not sure. I thought I heard footsteps coming from over here, but… L-Look! Wait, those lights… That’s an exit! I hope she made it out… Let’s go! Right! And from here we head back to the rest of the Hospital game. The only other change is that, during the explosion, Towa is the one that grabs Saki’s hand when she falls behind. That said, Towa is kind of a wimp, so he gets knocked back and Ryuji has to grab Saki anyway. Oh well, at least Towa tried. There, now we can turn our attention back to regular updates. Next time, we start Stage 4. In the last playthrough we were stuck on board the ship with Mitarashi for like 2 stages, but that (presumably) won’t be the case this time. Let’s find out what kind of fun stuff we missed out on.
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Nov 24, 2020 14:40
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Towa has no chill, he wanted to jump into first name basis immediately. That's not how it works, man.
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Nov 24, 2020 18:25
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Blaze Dragon posted:Towa has no chill, he wanted to jump into first name basis immediately. That's not how it works, man. Right? It took 14 updates or so for Saki and Ryuji to get to that point and Ryuji nearly killed himself several times in the process. Towa doesn't get to just walk up and go "Shhhh... Call me Towa. It's more... intimate." In other news, I finally found a Japanese playthrough of this game online. Seems like someone recently did one. Unfortunately it only seems to be Subaru's route, but at the very least I have a reference point for checking some possible translation quirks we may run into.
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Nov 24, 2020 19:12
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Psycho Knight posted:Right? It took 14 updates or so for Saki and Ryuji to get to that point and Ryuji nearly killed himself several times in the process. Towa doesn't get to just walk up and go "Shhhh... Call me Towa. It's more... intimate." I wonder what "dollars to dounts" was in Japanese.
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Nov 24, 2020 20:44
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Psycho Knight posted:In other news, I finally found a Japanese playthrough of this game online. Seems like someone recently did one. Unfortunately it only seems to be Subaru's route, but at the very least I have a reference point for checking some possible translation quirks we may run into. Nice, good find. CannonFodder posted:I wonder what "dollars to dounts" was in Japanese. He just says 'It probably is [real]', unfortunately. Maybe a little verbosely but it's pretty plain wording.
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Nov 25, 2020 00:17
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CannonFodder posted:I wonder what "dollars to dounts" was in Japanese. still "dollars to donuts" but the picture shows onigiri
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Nov 25, 2020 00:37
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CannonFodder posted:I wonder what "dollars to dounts" was in Japanese. Polsy posted:He just says 'It probably is [real]', unfortunately. Maybe a little verbosely but it's pretty plain wording. Yeah, usually when you see euphemisms or turn of phrases like that then it's a result of the English localizers trying to translate dialogue "in-character". It can be a tricky situation. "It probably is real" is a strangely mundane and plain way of speaking for a character like Ayumu, so I can see why they would punch it up with "dollars to donuts". On the other hand, punching things up can easily backfire. We saw an example of this in the Conception PLUS LP where a saying was changed in translation. Polsy found that the original saying was decidedly Japanese, but straightforward in its meaning (It was something like "Giving a metal rod to a demon" >=Meaning=> Making the main character stronger through support). But the translators decided to turn the saying into "Fortune is the rod of the weak", which is a half-quote from a 19th-century American poet that has a different meaning from the original Japanese and is also coming from the mouth of a character that was previously established as being terrible in English class. Hwurmp posted:still "dollars to donuts" but the picture shows onigiri Jelly-filled are my favourite.  Seriously though, this is a good response. Polsy posted:Nice, good find. It was apparently uploaded while I was on hiatus, between August and September. I'm also possibly the only person that's seen it, since the videos all have like 3 views. So yeah, shoutout to Uncle Miser/nekocamera uploading those gameplay videos into neat playlists every two days and snagging 5 or 6 views on each. No sarcasm, that's essentially what I do except with screenshots. I didn't find anything for anyone else, but at the very least I now have Japanese footage from Stages Prologue-3 and Subaru's whole route. Not sure if that will give us anything interesting, but at least it's on hand. Weird that it was on DailyMotion though. I thought Niconico was the go-to thing for Japanese video sharing. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 15:06 on Nov 26, 2020 |
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Nov 26, 2020 15:02
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Psycho Knight posted:I didn't find anything for anyone else, but at the very least I now have Japanese footage from Stages Prologue-3 and Subaru's whole route. Not sure if that will give us anything interesting, but at least it's on hand. Weird that it was on DailyMotion though. I thought Niconico was the go-to thing for Japanese video sharing. My mental model of dailymotion users is South Americans and people trying to avoid YouTube content ID, neither of which (presumably) apply here, so that is curious. Though I think I'm outdated on at least the first point, judging by what dailymotion looks like these days, it's been years since I visited. I think nico nico douga doesn't hold the position it once did, YouTube has (generally speaking...) improved sufficiently in the last 5-10 years that Japanese people are equally likely to post their videos on there, probably more so if they're already in the Google ecosystem. To name a specific example, almost all the Japanese Conception Plus videos I looked up were on YouTube, and contrarily almost all the Conception videos were on niconico. It's kind of a shame because niconico's tagging system is really good (or more importantly, things are tagged accurately) so you can actually find things without The Algorithm getting in the way. (none of this really explains why they or anyone would go to dailymotion particularly, though)
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Nov 26, 2020 19:51
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Update XVIII: Pity Party Okay, we’re now back on track. We’re officially in Towa’s route now, where things will go much differently (kinda) than Ryuji’s. Ryuji is still going to be out of action, but at the very least we won’t be stuck on the ship with him staring at the same background CG for two stages.  (I guess I’m still worn out from yesterday…) I watched the sun rise through the window as I thought about everything that happened. We’d failed to complete Bloodstained Hospital… It blew up like Hogstein promised… And… Urabe betrayed us…Once again, I feel that it’s important to point out that we still have no idea in what way Urabe supposedly betrayed us. If Mitarashi hadn’t protected me back there, I probably would have died.Oh yeah. In case you missed my little remark at the end of the last update: Towa attempts to save Saki from the explosion when she falls behind, but one of the blasts knocks him down and Ryuji has to come over and drag both of them out anyway. Good stuff. (But… now he’s injured again. I’m starting to feel like all I do is get him hurt.)I promise you that this is actually Towa’s route. I didn’t accidentally reload Ryuji’s. While I lay wrestling with my guilt, Mai shifted next to me. Saki…? Oh, did I wake you? Mmm… Morning. Good morning to you too. You can go back to bed if you want. There was a knock on the door. (It’s probably a piglet with our breakfast.) You’re not food! Wakasa! Instead of a piglet, Wakasa stood on the other side of the door. He gave me a friendly smile. Thought I’d stop by and see if you’re okay… I’m fine, thanks. That’s great! I’m, well, thinking about checking on Mitarashi since… Wanna come with me? Yeah! I’ve been worried… Okay, let’s go. Oh, Christ… Is this going to be what I think it is? Mai suddenly appeared at my elbow and squealed happily. It’s Towa from Junior Jr. Boys!Yeah, that figures. Of course Mai is a fan. I was kinda hoping that we’d get through the whole game with everyone just collectively going “Wait, you’re famous? For what?” Huh? Oh, that’s right. You didn’t realize who he was yesterday? …I didn’t really look at anyone then…I could have sworn that Towa makes an appearance around Mai in Ryuji’s route. Am I wrong? Didn’t everybody show up in Ryuji’s room both before and after that day’s game? Kinda weird that Mai made no mention of Towa until now. Oh yeah… It was kind of crazy back there. …It’s really Towa…! Mai stared at him, her eyes wide, bouncing on her toes and grinning with excitement. Wakasa got down at her level and smiled brightly at her. You know who I am? That makes me happy. Yes! I love the Junior Jr. Boys! You’re my favorite! That’s sweet. Thanks, Mai! Hearing him say her name seemed to make her even happier. She suddenly started to fidget. What is it? Do you want to ask him something? …I would love to hear you sing…! Sing? …Pleeeease? It was rather sudden, but he nodded, not put out in the least. Can I just take a moment to say how much VLC is pissing me the gently caress off during this LP? I had no issues like this during Conception II, World of Final Fantasy, or Conception PLUS. My Sweet Fuse recordings, however, have been a nightmare. I need to go up and click the timeline bar every so often in order to clear these weird graphical glitches from the recording, which really slows down my transcription. I don’t know why VLC is being so fussy with me pausing and unpausing this game in particular. Sure, but only one song, okay? Mai grinned. Wakasa jumped onto the bed and posed dramatically. He smiled as he launched into a catchy pop tune, dancing to the beat right in front of us. It must have been one of Junior Jr. Boys’ most popular songs. Even I had heard it on TV before. His voice was clear and strong, and he didn’t miss a beat dancing while singing. (Wow… He’s really good!)As he should be. Towa’s VA, Yūki Kaji, was in a J-Pop band called G.Addict around the time of this game. He’s also done a bunch of character, opening, and insert songs for various anime and video games. That said, I don’t recognize 90% of the stuff listed in his discography. When the song ended, Wakasa turned and gave a wink to Mai. I’d like to thank my biggest fan for listening! …You’re so awesome! She had watched the performance in rapt attention. Now she nearly glowed with happiness, a huge smile across her face. It’s been a while since I could do that. That was fun! You have no idea how much this eats away at me inside. You’re an amazing singer!*Affection up* Well, yeah… It’s my job. I have to be. But I thought performers just lip-sync? Some do, but my group always sings live.I highly doubt that statement. Japanese idol groups are normally about the experience and (I use this term very loosely) personal connection between fans and the idols. Idol fans want to live their personal fantasy and stuff like loving up live on stage can really throw a bucket of cold water on that. This is partially the reason you hear about idols having their entire career destroyed overnight at the mere suggestion that they secretly have a boyfriend/girlfriend. It destroys the illusion of a personal connection (and the idea of "obtainability") that keeps the fans so devoted. To their fans, idols are the physical embodiment of perfection. So lip-syncing isn’t as big a deal in that industry as it is in the west (where singers will get ridiculed when they are discovered to be lip-syncing). Idol concerts are supposed to be perfectly executed spectacles, so lip-syncing is fairly common in order to avoid any potential mistakes during performances. Not that I’m saying everyone does it. There are groups that make it a point to sing live. I’m just casting doubt on Towa here. If Towa’s group is really as popular as he says then I doubt that his managers are letting them sing live every time. The last thing they want is for a member of Junior Jr. Boys to have a brain fart or off-day and screw up the vocals while trying to follow their painstakingly crafted dance moves and talking segments. Why go halfway when the stage, lights, and crowd are all for you?They are not there for you. They’re there for the fantasy of you that has been meticulously crafted by your handlers and publicity team. When he’s confident about himself, his smile is pretty charming. (I never thought about it before. He really is a pop star…) It’s kind of awesome. What’s that? Look at Mai. She’s over the moon! I think it’s great that you’re able to make someone smile like that.She’s a child. That’s not an impressive feat, Saki. Wakasa nodded. That’s Ryuji’s thing, Towa. Don’t you try and swipe that. …But… He trailed off, his expression clouded. (Hmm…? That was strange…) Oh, hey let’s go to Mitarashi’s room now. That’s, like, why I came here in the first place. Right. Do you want to come with us, Mai? …Yeah! Cool. Then we’ll all go together. Oh, can you wait a couple minutes? We need to get ready. Sure, no problem. I’ll wait outside. I can have them send our breakfast to the other room. Good idea! Thanks.*After Towa leaves* Let’s go get dressed now, all right? Okay! (I hope Mitarashi isn’t hurt too bad…)*After a transition to Mitarashi’s room* Morning, Mitarashi. Good morning! …Hi, Ryusei! Haha, I’m glad you stopped by.*Knock knock* Huh? Who is it now? Oh, it’s probably a piglet with our breakfast. Is it okay that we eat here with you? Food’s boring if you eat alone. Hey you out there! Come on in! …! The piglet entered the room, placed our food around the table, and quickly left. Time to eat! Yay! As I dug into my breakfast, I snuck a look at Mitarashi.Yep, we’re still in Towa’s route. He definitely still had an appetite, judging by the way he wolfed down everything in front of him. Um… Thanks for saving me yesterday, by the way. Did you get hurt badly? Eh, the piglets looked me over and it wasn’t much. I’ll be fine. Oh good. Get better soon, okay? Of course. I turned to grin at Wakasa when I noticed he’d stopped eating, an unusually serious look on his face. What is it? Something wrong?Yeah, Wakasa. What is it? Not too stoked about playing a side character in your own route? He abruptly looked over to the bed. Mitarashi… I’m sorry. What? That came out of nowhere… If I’d only done something! Then you wouldn’t be hurt now…Pretty sure he’d still be hurt. Regardless of what route you take in this game, Ryuji gets a crossbow to the shoulder and a bullet to the chest. His face tightened as he looked down at his plate. Wakasa… Mitarashi lightly cuffed him on the head. That’s crazy. You’re taking this too seriously, bro. No, I’m not. You had to jump in because I’m such a coward. Wait a sec… Is that what you think? I’m tired of being so weak. Hey now… How can I get to be more like you? Wakasa was practically pleading with him, his eyes hopeful. Like me…? You know, I wasn’t always like this. I was weak, too. I don’t believe you. It’s true, man. We all start out that way. Then someone comes along… and you want to try your damnedest to keep them smiling. To me, that’s what a man’s strength is for. And, that’s what makes you strong?That and crunches. Yup. You have someone like that, right? You got someone you’d die for? Hmm… I guess I’m not really sure. How about you? Huh? Me? Well, I suppose it’d be all my clients at the club. Everything I do is for them. Uh… Mitarashi! What are you saying?! It was hard to tell if he was joking, or totally serious.What does it matter, Saki? Listen, I know you’ve still got a huge lady-boner for him. Many people in the thread can sympathize. But as much as it must kill you to do so, you need to shift your focus away from Ryuji. We’re doing Towa’s route now.  Way to go. Change is rough, but I know you can do it, Towa. Wakasa grinned at the use of his first name. Thanks… Ryusei. I hope you find someone you want to make happy.”God willing it won’t be me.”  Good luck, Towa! Thanks you two. Just then, Shidou, Shirabe, and Meoshi entered the room. I wasn’t expecting everyone else to be here already. We figured we’d have breakfast with Ryusei this morning. It was nothing. No big deal, see? …Ow. Don’t put your back out of joint. You can’t do more than stand right now, can you? Pushing yourself isn’t going to help us at all. Now wait a minute— Don’t start. We can’t have you injuring yourself further by going out before you’re ready. Just rest today, all right? We’ll manage the game on our own. There’s no way. I’ll be fine… …Okay. She gave him a tiny nod, nervous at being given an order by her father. That right? This lovely lady’s gonna be my nurse? I think I may just stay here after all.Saying that with the expression you’re currently giving us makes it hard to not be suspicious of you. Maybe Ryuji will pull a prison break in this route as well. You definitely are. I’ll pick up the slack, so leave it to me!Spoiler Alert: Towa will most definitely not be picking up the slack. Wakasa sounded like he was trying to convince himself. Mitarashi shrugged, and leaned back with a wry grin. Looks like you guys are all set, then. Towa’ll take on my share. Totally! Right! I will do it! He clenched his fist, as if he was making himself a promise. Yay! We’ll get to see another game instead of being trapped on the boat for two stages!  Oooh? Is something wrong? You seem to be… missing a few people. His tone made me want to punch something, but instead I just ground my teeth and kept quiet. *The screen then wobbles a bit and flickers black for a second* …Oh! Suddenly the sky darkened and the ground appeared to tilt. Arms reached to hold me up, and I turned to see Wakasa. Whoa, hey, are you okay? Oh… Sorry. I just got lightheaded… (What’s going on?) A lot happened yesterday. You’re probably still a little out of it. Maybe you’re right… Thanks. No sweat. Gotta keep that smile on your face!Stop trying to be Ryuji! Yeah… I stumbled to a bench nearby to sit down.*And then the screen slowly fades to black for a bit* I could hear the others talking, but not what they were saying. (I wonder what’s going on…)*Another fade-to-black wipe* Phew… I think sitting helped. I hurried back to join the group. Sorry about that… He’s completely nuts! What kind of rule is that?! Do human lives mean anything to him…?…No? Have you not been paying attention to the situation he’s forced you into? Everyone was yelling angrily at the screen. (Oh gosh, what did I miss?) Hey, you feel any better? Yeah, I’m good now. …Uh, what just happened? Hogstein was cool with Ryusei not playing, but… What!?Okay. What’s the issue there? You guys do realise that failing a game will likely get you all killed anyway, right? Surviving Bloodstained Hospital was only because Kimimaro had insider info on an escape route. You won’t get that lucky again. We tried to get him to change his mind, but he ignored us. That jerk was never going to listen in the first place! We must remain calm. This doesn’t change what we need to do. We can no longer afford to fail. Y-Yeah! If we just beat the games, then nothing will happen! R-Right…! I agreed with them both, but I couldn’t stop myself from worrying. Before long we arrived at our destination: Shooting Colony.Okay, so it won’t be a game we haven’t seen before, but we already knew that. We need to get through this one before we can find out what the other two games were all about. So, what’s the deal with this one…? Oh, yeah, Mitarashi’s not here this time.And? Pretty sure that Meoshi is the one you should be asking, not Ryuji.  Don’t worry. I asked him about it.Did I miss something? Kouta is the gamer here. Sure, Ryuji secretly loves amusement parks, but he’s also specifically stated to be new to gaming. There was a whole thing where Ryuji spent all night chatting Meoshi up about it over the phone. Good work. Let’s hear it. The attraction we’ll be going through here is called “Moonlight OX.” Wakasa spoke directly to me while Meoshi explained the attraction. Huh? I-I am? I feel fine, mostly… Hmm. If you start feeling bad again, just let me know, okay? I will, thanks. (That was rather sweet of him.) Meoshi finished talking and I realized I’d missed the whole thing. (Urabe gave us this chance. We have to do our best.) We looked around at each other and nodded. Welcome to Moonlight OX! You and your partner can escape this destroyed colony with your overflowing LOVE POWER! …! …! A piglet appeared, gesturing wildly at us. I have no clue what he’s saying. Uhh… Maybe he wants us to get on those spaceships? Off to the side were several spaceships, just like the ones I’d seen in movies. …! Seems we need to be in pairs. But… there’s an odd number of us, though. Someone will have to ride solo. Well, let’s get to it then. For some reason, Wakasa looked straight at me.Yeah, yeah. Calm your junk, Wakasa. We’re on your route, so of course we’re teaming up with you. Hey, could we go together? What? Why me? Before… I was too weak to help. I wanna show you I’ve got what it takes. (Oh that’s right. Mitarashi told him to try looking out for someone…) He was taking that advice to heart, and it made me happy to see him so determined. You know the deal. Ryuji tended to be a little tricky sometimes, but the correct responses for Towa are going to be a lot more obvious. Okay, I’m counting on you. A tiny, shy smile appeared on his face.*Affection up* Definitely! I’ll watch out for you! All right! Guess that means you two are set. How do the rest of us want to break off? Is that so? Why thanks for thinking about us. Suppose that leaves me and Meoshi. Fine with me. Doesn’t matter who I’m with. …! …! Maybe he wants us to hurry? Then let’s go! We’ll do this together! We climbed on board three ships, each pair in one and Shidou alone. (Here we go…!) Oh… The paths are splitting up. (I thought we were all going to be together…)That would sort of defeat the purpose of breaking you all up into pairs. We’ll be fine, I promise. I’ll watch out for you. O-Okay. Nopw that he’d set a goal for himself, he seemed really fired up. So, how do we control this thing? Maybe… Eek! Wakasa spun the steering wheel, and the whole spaceship turned in response. Whoops! Ha ha ha, sorry. I guess this changes the direction we face. Let me see. I fiddled with the wheel and discovered we could turn the ship 360 degrees. What about this gun-looking thing…?*The screen flashes various colors for a split second*  Don’t make that face anymore, Towa. [Announcer]: Structural damage to colony at 56%. Crew members should proceed immediately to the emergency exit. You think that’s the goal of this game? To get out? Probably. The moment the announcement finished, the cockpit display began to flicker to life. Let’s go! I’m gonna take the gun, okay?I would much prefer Saki to do the shooting. Leave the steering to me then! A big grin split his face as he eagerly grabbed the handle of the gun. (He’s acting like a kid in a candy store.)That’s generally not the reaction you want from someone being trusted with a weapon. (He’s obviously having a blast. Wish I could say the same.) I was happy to see him having fun, even if it was in the middle of a dangerous situation.*The screen flickers black for a split second* Suddenly my sight turned blurry for a second. (…What? …I feel kind of dizzy… This happened before, too… What’s going on…?)It appears that Saki is also more injured than she realises. I guess the day of rest she got with Ryuji allowed her body to heal up during that route.  Oh? Oh, it’s nothing. I was just thinking you look like you’re enjoying this. He nodded vigorously. Ever since I was little, my life’s revolved around one gig, then the next, and then the one after that. I’ve been so busy… I’ve only ever gone to a theme park to film something. Really? So this is your first time doing something like this? Yeah! It’s pretty cool! Whoa?! Its eyes glowed, and a similar light came from a jewel in its forehead. Watch out! Okay… Eat this!*A brief flash and—* I-I missed! Shoot it again! L-Let me just… move a little to the right…*The screen flashes green and shakes* Aah! The alien shot at our ship, rocking it violently. Gaah! I’m gonna knock it out… now!*The alien shakes a little bit* All right! Shoot the blue jewel on its forehead! What…? Meoshi’s voice came from speakers in the cockpit. We could hear the others! The jewel? We can’t let them beat us! Wakasa, shoot at that jewel! Yeah! Take this!*The screen flashes blue and the jewel turns red* The laser struck its forehead and the jewel turned red. I got it! Hurray! Accompanied by the sound of an explosion, the alien toppled to the ground. O-One down… We did it…! Relieved, we grinned at each other. (But we can’t let our guard down yet…)*Another fade-to-black wipe*  Which way should we go? Hm? Oh, either is fine with me. Huh? (He wants me to make the decision?) Um, we should probably choose together since we’re a team. …Oh, right! My manager always decided things for me, so… What? Yeah… Never really got to do anything on my own. Like, ever. You’re kidding!? I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.Saki, I know you aren’t big on popular music, but are you seriously unaware that singers/idols basically get no control over their own lives? I guess no one’s here to do that for me now, huh… This one could be a little tricky, but “Do it yourself” is kind of aggressive, so that’s not going to be the correct choice. Towa might be trying to be more of a tough guy, but he still needs to be coddled. Let’s choose a path as a team and escape together! You’re totally right. We can do this!*Affection up* The smile he gave me then was so dazzling I stopped breathing for a second.Nah, that’s not because of Towa. That’s the concussion kicking in again. (He’s starting to do things on his own. I’m glad.) Ha ha, I’m gonna try my best. I must have been staring, because the tips of his ears turned pink and he looked away quickly. It looks like there are more lights down that way. I think we should go that direction, too. Our choices in agreement, we turned to go down the path on the right. It’s, uh, pretty scary… Making your own decisions, I mean. You think so? I never thought about it myself. You’re probably just not used to taking chances. Maybe… My whole life I’ve thought big decisions had to be made by someone else. But it doesn’t work that way, does it. What have I been doing…? I don’t think it’s your fault. No one ever let you do anything on your own, so of course you think that way. I just let them do it thought. It’s not too late to try! He was smiling again. It was so infectious, I couldn’t help but smile back.*After another fade*  Aah! Shoot it… now! I quickly spun the ship to the left. Y-Yeah!*Pew pew* This time his shot was a bulls-eye, striking the jewel dead center. All right! I totally got it in one! You did it! We grabbed onto each other and did a little dance of glee. (If we keep working together like this… We can beat this game!)*The screen wobbles again* …Huh? I didn’t know if it was all the spinning earlier, but I suddenly felt nauseous. What’s wrong? Uh… I feel… What is it?! Are you okay?! Wakasa peered at my face closely, and gasped. You’re sweating! I’m just going to… The palm of his hand touched my forehead. (His hand’s cold… Feels good…) I… I am…? You didn’t even know? I could tell you looked off from the start, but… Arg, how’d I miss this?!Forget you, how did everyone else miss this? She got knocked out by an explosion. You generally don’t just pop back from that after a quick night’s sleep. I’m okay, really. Just a little dizzy… Look out! I scrambled to cover him.*The screen flashes green, then flashes red about a second afterward* Aaaaahhh! The bullet struck me hard in the back. Saki!I guess Saki will be taking over Ryuji’s role as punching bag of the group. Uh… ugh… Intense pain radiated out from the spot I was hit. The world flickered, dimmed. Damnit…! He dove for the gun, but the alien was faster.*Another green/red flash* Whoa! It’s aim was true, and the bullet hit the jewel on our spaceship. …Urgh…!Making up for lost time, huh universe? I respect that. [Announcer]: The shield has been damaged. Your game is now over. The cruel announcement ended, and our ship slowed to a stop on the track. No… A game over…? We failed…? The alien that attacked us was gone. It was suddenly dead silent. No way… …Ah! Pain skittered across my back and I couldn’t hold back a moan. Everything all right over there? What’s going on? The radio crackled, but couldn’t disguise the concern in Shirabe’s voice. He must’ve realized something was wrong. Shirabe! Sh-She… It’s really bad! She’s burning up, and… And she’s hurt! What?! Slow down! What do you mean— Hello?! Are you there?! The connection cut off as the line went dead. (Don’t worry… It’s not your fault…) I wanted to speak, but couldn’t seem to get my voice to work. Oh, my. Looks like you’re nearly bacon! Oink! C-Count Hogstein! Don’t you feel rather useless, little Towa Wakasa? Hey, get us outta here! She needs a doctor, like, right now! Non! Leaving the game is a serious faux pas! Seriously, does everyone forget what Hogstein’s whole deal is every time they go to sleep? This isn’t some joke, you moron. He’s hoping that you all die. No…! Tears threatened to fall as he desperately begged. Hogstein ignored them. Please! I-I’ll do anything you want! Just help her!And there’s the magic phrase. …Hmmm? Did you just say ”anything” I want? Yes! Anything! Please! Most intriguing! Fine, fine. S-So you will?! Nothing could go wrong with this. Whatever he used to communicate cut off. (…What is he going to make Wakasa do…?) Hang in there, okay? Y-You’ll be fine! (Don’t worry…) Two piglets came running over out of the darkness. …! They gently lifted me out of the ship, and secured me in the stretcher they’d brought.Didn’t you say that you were thrown to the ground and slammed into a wall? How are you back in the ship? Ugh…! Where the gently caress do you think it hurts?! She was shot in the back! I… I’m… okay… … Am I supposed to go with you too? … Let’s get going then. Hurry! The piglets carried my out of the attraction, Wakasa close behind.
Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 13:37 on Nov 30, 2020 |
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Nov 29, 2020 20:05
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 Hey! I think this is the first time we’ve left one of these games and it’s still been light outside! Does something hurt? Tell me if I can help you, okay? Anything at all. He hovered close to my shoulder as I was carried across the park.Man, that’s going to be a tough ride for Saki. That’s like a three hour journey according to Ryuji’s route. Apparently. (It’s kinda sweet of him to be so concerned…) …Hey… Wakasa… Hm? What’s wrong? Not it’s not! I was an idiot and wasn’t paying attention even though I knew… I am so, so sorry… I promised to show you I could be strong, and then… I screwed up. Ugh, I’m hopeless. I couldn’t do anything. He looked down, fist clenched and mouth a narrow line. It seemed like he was more upset about me getting hurt than he was about losing the game.  Of course, all I could see for a while was the huge chandelier dangling from the ceiling, until the piglets took me off the stretcher. Thank you… …! They waved as if to say I shouldn’t worry, and left. You all right? Can you stand? I think so… Don’t push yourself. I’ll help… He supported me as I slowly struggled to get up. …Ah! It’s okay. You don’t have to. …Thanks. At the other end of the room, on the throne, sat Hogstein. Welcome to Castle Hogstein! Oink! He cackled darkly, his belly jiggling. I could see Wakasa shaking next to me. (He looks really scared…) Wh-Why did you bring us here? The only reason you are here is because I want to ask you a favor. Uh… A favor? Knowing him, It’s probably just a trap… Be careful, okay…? Even groggy, I didn’t trust him further than I could throw him. Wakasa nodded in agreement and turned resolutely back to Hogstein. So uh… What’s this favor you want? Ah, a Kimimaro replacement. I guess that should have been expected. Huh?! (He wouldn’t!) Wh-What the heck?! So I guess Kimimaro is just totally gone in this route? Unless Hogstein is just saying that to keep the fact that he’s a hostage a secret. If you fill his shoes, so to speak, I’d be happy to get her wounds taken care of. Fair deal, eh? The Count’s beady eyes bored into Wakasa. He was obviously enjoying himself. She’ll be okay…? So, what do you think? You want her to get better, right? What? Duh, of course I do! But… I can’t betray them! There’s no way! U-Uh… N-No, wait! Don’t do that! Oh my! It looks like not only does she have a fever, somehow she got hit by an alien! Is she going to be okay? … That particular point brought an agonized look to his face. (Don’t… Don’t do what he says!) I struggled to speak, to warn him, but my voice felt stuck in my throat. …Ugh…! The only thing that came out was a painful sounding moan. Wakasa’s head whipped around, his eyes wide. Hogstein’s own eyes glittered with amusement. Wakasa’s shoulders slumped. It was obvious he was starting to collapse under the strain. Oh, not much. Just make some comments leading to wrong answers, mess up on a couple things… You know, spice it up!Is that what Kimimaro was supposed to be doing? Because he didn’t really do it. What…? You don’t need to actually make them fail, of course. That’s reasonable, right? Not too bad? He was phrasing it to downplay the worst parts, so Wakasa wouldn’t feel as guilty. Just a few… mistakes… They wouldn’t blame me, right? If this was all to help her get better…? (No! Don’t let him get to you… Say “no”!) I tried to will him to look at me, to hear what I was shouting to him in my head. But he was completely focused on Hogstein. Time’s ticking. You need to decide: Do you turn traitor, or will both of you go back to the game… His expression was partially hidden from me, but judging by the tone in his voice… (Argh! He’s enjoying this…! What a jerk!) Wakasa looked like he had been debating with himself, agonizing over his choice. He suddenly straightened with a determined expression.  We have a new traitor! Oink oink oink! (Oh no…) (Don’t… You can’t do it… Wakasa…) The pain dragged me down into unconsciousness.So that happened! Not exactly the direction I expected Towa’s route to take. …Okay, so I did expect him to be a massive fuckup, but I didn’t expect Saki to get the poo poo kicked out of her and be used as leverage against Towa. If you’re curious, the stage ends with another flashback thingy. It doesn’t differ from the one in Ryuji’s route, though. I think we may have learned everything we’re going to from those flashbacks. At least until we hit the point where they do the big reveal about it.
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Nov 29, 2020 20:05
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I thought Towa seemed quite charming in the scene where he sang for Mai. The route is doing a reasonable job of fleshing him out a bit.
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Nov 29, 2020 22:19
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cardinale posted:I thought Towa seemed quite charming in the scene where he sang for Mai. The route is doing a reasonable job of fleshing him out a bit. I just dislike Towa, so I'm predisposed to rip into him. There's always at least one character that I latch on to and Towa is it for this game, so it pains me to be complimenting him. I fully understand that there are people that like him. This will be a difficult route for those people to read through. At least when it comes to my chiming in with snark.
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Nov 29, 2020 22:45
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I can't believe Ryuji got to first name base with Towa before the actual protagonist. Is Ryuji the real protagonist? This is the second time in a row this happened, the same thing happened with Shidou.
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Nov 30, 2020 16:10
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Blaze Dragon posted:I can't believe Ryuji got to first name base with Towa before the actual protagonist. This instance is a little more understandable, since it's two guys. Ryuji is also a fair bit older than Towa (6-8 years, I think?) so he may be taking on the role of an older brother figure. First name basis is not quite as strange when it's between an adult and a kid, which is why everyone just calls "Mai" by her name and she does the same to everyone else. Saki is a different case though. First name basis between a girl and a guy can totally be a platonic close friendship thing, but it's far more likely to be interpreted by others as something deeper. Everyone (except Towa) immediately catches on to what's happening between Saki and Ryuji when they see them both being on a first name basis with each other. Also, did this happen with Shidou? I know that I call him Subaru all the time, but I don't remember if someone else has called him that yet.
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Nov 30, 2020 18:11
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Psycho Knight posted:Also, did this happen with Shidou? I know that I call him Subaru all the time, but I don't remember if someone else has called him that yet. Ryuji also called him Subaru. Ryuji just keeps getting into first name basis with everyone. He's showing his experience here.
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Nov 30, 2020 20:52
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The traitor is supposed to make mistakes? Then everybody’s a traitor. I love the name Junior Jr Boys. It explains why nobody over the age of 12 knows who they are.
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Dec 2, 2020 07:00
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Blaze Dragon posted:Ryuji also called him Subaru. Ryuji just keeps getting into first name basis with everyone. Oh, right. It's been a while since we've had Subaru and Ryuji talking with each other for any length of time. I forgot about that. My reasoning for that is likely that Ryuji started doing it as a disrespect thing (because they were at each other's throats for a while) and later on it became a genuine sign of respect/friendship. Either way, you are correct that Ryuji is basically the shounen hero of this game. Even leaving aside the trickiness with Saki using first names because of the whole boy/girl social interaction, a lot of the guys have been ignoring her or sort of leaving her on the sidelines until the routes actually get started. She's not the Mary Sue that typical VN protagonists are. Meanwhile, Ryuji is over here making blood brother oaths with basically everyone. BurningStone posted:The traitor is supposed to make mistakes? Then everybody’s a traitor. Yeah, I don't get the Hogstein traitor thing. I keep saying it, but it bears repeating, Kimimaro was supposed to be a traitor but I cannot for the life of me recall a moment where he seemingly misled the group. Samurai Fantasy VII was basically carried by Meoshi (excluding the Insight moments from Saki of course). He had a little more input during Alice Kart, but they either benefitted the group or were otherwise pointless. -He bailed during the Go Kart race and insisted on being the only single rider, but that helped the others because it meant everyone else would be paired off (not to mention it meant that the 3 double karts would all have an "adult" at the wheel, two of which would almost certainly know how to drive). It left Kimimaro incapable of sabotaging anyone but himself. -He did give some slightly misleading information during the card portion (I pointed out how he related playing cards to Tarot cards but was wrong about how the suits match up), but the problem there is that (as far as he and Hogstein knew) Kimimaro's spitballing was worthless. They were locked in a room and cut off from communicating with Ryuji/Towa, so nothing that Kimimaro could say or do would have changed the outcome anyway. -Kimimaro also helped, not harmed, during Bloodstained Hospital, as he guided Saki/Ryuji through the maze portion and recognized Aqua Regia during the operating room puzzle. Of course, this could have just been him having his second thoughts and working against Hogstein. So despite supposedly being a traitor, nothing that Kimimaro said or did actually hindered the group in any way. I was going to make the same argument about Towa by asking what good he could possibly due for Hogstein. Towa isn't assertive or confident (at least when it comes to dealing with the rest of the group). He doesn't have the gaming knowledge that Meoshi has, or the general intelligence that Ayumu and Subaru have. Who would seriously consider any suggestions or ideas that Towa might put forth? Whatever he throws out is likely to be shot down by smarter characters like Ayumu and Subaru. But then I remembered this:  Unlike Kimimaro, Hogstein does seem to have the right idea with this gambit. If this is a singing related game, then Towa could really gently caress up the group's chances since singing is kind of his whole world. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 14:32 on Dec 2, 2020 |
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Dec 2, 2020 14:22
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...I'm really hoping that turns out to be like Animal Crossing mixed with Rockband.
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Dec 3, 2020 16:32
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Update XIX: Slowly Making Sense Yes, we’re already on Stage 5. Towa’s route seems a lot shorter than Ryuji’s so far. Although maybe that’s just because I keep forcing these Stages into 1 update instead of splitting them into 2. Man, this is going to create some headaches for me when I eventually try and get the LP ready for Archival. Ugh…Whatever, that’s future PK’s problem. Present PK is busy enjoying the end of term and looking forward to the 2 or 3 weeks he gets without having to stress himself to death about essays on theory and Restoration Drama and poo poo. I blinked slowly as it dawned on me that I was awake. Anyway, the last update had Saki suffering from a fever and possible concussion; getting shot in the back; and getting bucked from the spaceship ride so hard that she hit the floor, then hit the wall, then apparently bounced off that wall in order to land back inside the spaceship. With Ryuji canonically out of action after Bloodstained Hospital, the world of Sweet Fuse has to look for a new punching bag. In Towa’s route, that punching bag will be Saki. After being beaten senseless, Towa made a deal with the devil and agreed to turn traitor in order to get Saki some medical attention. Then Saki passed out from excruciating pain when she tried to object to that deal. The ceiling looked familiar. (I’m… back at the hotel…?) There was a damp towel on my forehead. It didn’t feel very cold, so it must have been there for a while. I turned my head to the side and saw Mai sitting in a chair near my elbow. …Oh! You woke up?! Yeah… Have you been taking care of me? I’m sure it did. I’m sorry I made you worry. Do you feel better? She looked at me anxiously. I felt my forehead. It wasn’t burning, so it looked like my fever had broken. …Hey, do you know where everyone is right now? They all left already. Except Ryusei. Huh? …Already? (Don’t tell me it’s tomorrow?!)It’s not, it’s today. I scrambled to get out of bed, but pain radiated across my back. Ow…! …Ah! Oh no! It’s okay. I’m all right! (Oh yeah… I got hit by that alien…) I carefully reached around to my back, and felt a large bandage under my shirt. (Someone looked at my injury…)*There’s a very brief flashback here to Hogstein proposing his deal to Towa, but I’m not going to type that out because it just happened at the very end of the previous update.*  (Wakasa… Are you really going to do it…?!) I grabbed my phone to check the time. Gosh, it’s after noon! The game’s already started! There was an unread text message, but I didn’t have time to deal with it. I carefully maneuvered myself out of bed so as to not strain my back. …Does it hurt? I’m okay. Hey, do you want to go with me to visit Mitarashi? Sure! (I hope he can tell me what happened after I got back to the hotel last night.) A scene transition technically happened just now, but it’s the same CG so it’s hard to tell. Is he asleep…? I tried the doorknob. It turned easily in my hand. Oh, it’s not locked… Hello? I’m coming in… The room was completely empty. He’s not here…Thanks eagle eye. Sorry, that’s probably a lovely thing to say to a child. Looks like it. But he’s still hurt… Where did he go? (He must have gone after the others…!) Urabe had left and then both Mitarashi and I were injured so we had to stay here. Knowing him, he probably felt he couldn’t rest when it left the team with so few players.Still in Towa’s route, by the way. (And Wakasa could be trying to betray them, too… This is bad!) I tried to reach Wakasa on his cell.*Sounds of “Haha, nope. Nice try.”* No answer… Oh, wait! Hogstein added the rule that said we can’t contact each other anymore! I wouldn’t be able to reach anyone until the game was over. (What should I do? He might really trick them!)Unless today’s game is that weird Animal music place we briefly saw in Ryuji’s ending, then I doubt anyone will give Towa’s opinions any merit. What’s the other game? Tekken land? Do you think guys like Ayumu or Subaru would follow Towa’s advice on that? Now if it is Animal music land, then yeah, they will probably get screwed. The others haven’t really mentioned anything about having any kind of musical talent or skill. The Count had convinced Wakasa that his betrayal wouldn’t make much of a difference in the end… But when there were lives on the line… Who knew what could happen. (What if they get in trouble…? They better not get hurt because of that deal he made to save me!) My back was still a mass of pain, but I couldn’t just wait and do nothing. (I have to find them!) If Wakasa really was going to betray everyone for me, I had to stop him. Hey, Mai. Yeah? I like how there appears to be a pattern forming of us ditching Mai on the boat. I know a lot of people in the thread really like Mai, but I still have a strong dislike of kids, so I’m totally on board with leaving her behind whenever possible. But… Are you going to be okay? Daddy said you were hurt really bad. Yeah, my fever went down, and my back doesn’t hurt much anymore. I’ll be all right.Spoiler Alert: Saki’s back is totally not okay now. You don’t sleep off a bullet to your back. Mitarashi managed to sleep off a crossbow bolt to the shoulder, but he’s like three times the size of Saki and it also still caught up to him eventually. So could you wait here with the piglets? O-Okay. I can stay here by myself just fine. She looked at me, a little frown creasing her forehead, but nodded. Thank you! I promise I’ll be back soon!Saki will not be back soon. …Please be careful! I will!She won’t. (I should check the lobby first!)She… actually no, she will do that one.  Excuse me! …! It looked surprised to see me. It began gesturing, and my best guess was that it was asking how I was feeling. I’m good now. Thanks for asking. … It seemed relieved. Yeah, that’s weird. Reminder: The piglets are regular people who have been hypnotised en masse. That’s some good-rear end hypnotism if it can make people mindless slaves while still allowing them to process human emotions like compassion and concern for others. Who am I kidding? We’ve already seen way worse examples of this stupid hypnotism plot point being dumb as poo poo. Let’s not forget that there’s another group of hypnotised people over in the restaurant cooking up beef stroganoff and Chow Mein. Not to mention the other group of piglets that apparently performed minor surgery on Saki’s back. loving hypnotism. Honest to god. Um, is the hotel still at the dock? …! … …! It gestured wildly some more, trying to communicate. (I’m not sure I’m getting this right, but…) Uh… Are you saying it’s about to depart? …!That’s convenient. The piglet gave a big nod. Oh, thank you! (I might make it if I hurry!) Halfway out the door I skidded to a stop as I remembered. Everyone please once again say your goodbyes to Mai, who I am fairly sure is about to completely disappear from the plot for the second route in a row. …! The piglet nodded agreement. I felt better now I knew she’d be taken care of.Would you like to try that sentence again, Sweet Fuse? I have to get off this ship before it leaves! I reached the ramp right as the ship started pulling away, so I ran down it quickly. I’d been in such a hurry, I’d forgotten to ask where the game was happening.To be fair, if you had stopped to ask where the game was then you probably would have gotten stuck on the ship. You would have spent a minimum of 2 minutes standing around trying to decipher what the piglet was pantomiming. (Oh jeez, what should I do now…? Maybe I’ll try going to the plaza first. Oh… Wow…) My route took my past the site where the Bloodstained Hospital used to be. The explosion had been so huge, the entire building was destroyed. Only a large crater was left. I still dispute this, by the way. At least one of those zombies/people in costumes should have been caught in that explosion. If Wakasa’s betrayal causes something like this… The words echoed in the empty space and I shivered. (I need to find them fast…!)*The screen then shakes in a circular motion* …Ow! My back twinged when I tried to speed up. I was still rather wobbly on my feet, too. I didn’t have time to be concerned. (Oh, that’s right. I had a new text message.)”There’s no time to worry about the bullet wound in my back! I have to power through it! …Riiight after I check my texts.” I checked my phone as I kept walking. (It’s from my uncle!)You mean famous game designer KEIJI INAFUNE?!  I know there are times when your body and mind are at their limit. You’re not sure if you can go on. By working together with those you trust, you can accomplish great things. I wish you luck. Know that I support you 100%. Oh! His words made my heart feel light. I chanted them over and over like a prayer as I rushed toward the plaza.With the perfectly timed and weirdly specific advice of force-ghost Keiji Inafune, Saki makes her way to the plaza.  Now one’s here… I knew it. I looked at the map of the park to see if I could figure out where everyone may have gone. We’ve already gone through Samurai Fantasy and Alice Kart. Then there was Bloodstained Hospital and Moonlight OX. There’s only three places left.There’s Animal Crossing Rock Band and Mortal Soul Tekken Fighter Alpha Turbo Championship Edition. What’s the third one? Is it that weird mushroom house village that we still haven’t seen? It’s up there between Alice Kart and the Warehouse, but I’m not sure if it’s a separate attraction or if it’s supposed to be part of Alice Kart. I can’t see any other locations on the map that might be the seventh. I studied the remaining attractions. Wait, hold on. Bazaar Planet is an attraction? I thought that was just a strip mall. What the hell kind of theme park attraction is that? Do you complete it by throwing the most money at overpriced tchotchkes? (Which one is it? If I pick the wrong one… I’ll have to backtrack. I don’t have a lot of energy right now… Shoot. I should have asked that piglet in the lobby.) I ran out so fast, I only remembered to make sure Mai was looked after. (He probably knew something… I should have asked!)Repeating that over and over is not going to make him magically appear in front of you Saki. You should have asked but you didn’t, so forget about it. Just… hurry up and do the thing. (Hm? The piglets…? Wait a second…) (Where could everyone be…? The wouldn’t be at the restaurant, so they must be in the middle of a game. I just don’t know… I might have to check every attraction we haven’t completed. But I might run out of time that way. I wish there was a clue somewhere… If only we were allowed to call each other during the game. I really should have asked the piglet in the lobby of the hotel. Where should I go…?)This one is a little vague. You might be thinking “We just need to go find a piglet, that’s what the game is hinting at”, but there are piglets at every attraction.  The supposed answer is to go to the restaurant and bother the cook piglets, except that they likely wouldn’t be in the loop as to which game the heroes are tackling today (the group already ate on the cruise ship, so they wouldn’t have stopped at the food court before the game. Meanwhile, Hogstein wouldn’t have any reason to inform the restaurant staff about the game). That’s right… There should be some piglets in the restaurant! (Maybe one of them knows! I’ll get an answer quicker there than if I just guess myself.) I need to hurry!The actual reason why the restaurant is the correct choice has nothing to do with the piglets. Saki just gets extremely lucky. Luckily the restaurant was actually open. I eagerly stepped inside.Not actually what I meant with the “luck” thing. Give it another few seconds. Huh…?! Someone was already there, wolfing down food at a table at the far end. There we go. Whoa, hey! Why are you here? You’re supposed to be sick in bed right now. Not one to stand on manners, he continued to devour the pile of food on his plate. I could say the same to you! Why are you here, eating all that by yourself, when you should be on the ship…!? (Everyone else is out risking their lives in the game… Does he not realize that?)  I can’t do much like this. I’d be in the way. Least I could do is look for Urabe. Do you know where he might be?! Oh, right, you were asleep when it happened. Shidou found his player beads in the plaza last night. He’s probably been taken hostage. (Ah, I did sleep a long time…) I understood why he left the hotel now, but one thing still bugged me. So, uh, then… why are you eating here? Man… Recharging, of course! What else? Can’t make it far on “empty,” you know. His chest puffed out, and he gave a cocky grin. Oh… I see… (I shouldn’t have expected anything different from him.) I think my fever broke, so I’m doing better. Do you know where the others are? They’re over at Bazaar Planet. Really?! Yeah, I caught up with them when they were leaving the plaza. We split up after I told them I’d search for Urabe instead. Thank you! I hadn’t expected to find out so much when I came here. I spun around toward the exit. H-Hey! What’s the rush? I’m sorry! I’ll explain later! I ran out the door without a backward glance. I had to hurry.So… yeah. The restaurant was the right place to go, but it was only correct because Ryuji was there by complete chance. Saki was also lucky enough that Ryuji had happened to run into the others while they were on the way to the game. If you take a look at the park map, the giant building in the south is where Bazaar Planet is located. Ryuji would have approached the plaza from the west as the others were about to go south. That means Ryuji managed to intercept the others in the 5-10 minute window between them being told what today’s game is and them leaving the plaza for it.  Whatever, that’s just typical plot convenience. I only harp on it because the Insight Moment didn’t follow through on its logic. It was just a lucky coincidence. I went as fast as I could, but I was still weak. It had taken longer than I’d hoped to get to Bazaar Planet.Also worth pointing out: Saki had to pass by Animal Band Kingdom or whatever it was in order to get to the plaza. If she had checked that one along the way then she could have passed through the large entrance area through the west entrance, checked Bazaar Planet, then exited through the east and gone straight for the last attraction if needed. Instead, she went to the plaza, stood around for a bit to think, headed back west to the restaurant, chewed the fat with Ryuji for a while, and now needs to retrace her steps to the plaza before heading to Bazaar Planet. Each step jarred my back and the pain got more intense. (I… I have to find them as soon as possible!) Wakasa had agreed to be a traitor so that Hogstein would give me treatment. Horrible scenarios tumbled through my head. (I need to hurry…!) I quickly glanced in every store I passed. They all seemed closed, and no one was around. (Where are they…?) I spotted one standing guard in front of a store down ahead. (They must be there!) I hurried over to it. Hi, uh… Is the game going on inside? …! …! It shook its head, and spread its arms wide in an attempt to block the door. Please… Please let me in! …! It made a hushing motion with its hand. I need to be quiet? … It nodded, and pointed inside. There they are…! Excuse me? What exactly were you right about? Ryuji told you were they were. Do you mean right about them being in the only shop with a piglet standing nearby? Because that’s not worthy of patting yourself on the back about. I strained to hear what they were saying. We managed to narrow it down to these two. This one! It’s definitely this one! (He sounds excited…) You seem pretty sure about that… But you have no idea anyway, right? I’m really the only one who knows how much girly things cost.Are they seriously playing a game of “The Price is Right”? That’s not a theme park attraction, Keiji! “The Price is Right” is not a prolific video game series or even genre. What video game or video game genre is Bazaar Planet even supposed to be referencing? Top Shop?  …Because that would be pretty cool, actually. Wakasa kept pushing them to agree with him. It seemed like they needed to guess the correct price of a certain item to win the game. I’m… not too sure that’s it. O-Of course it is. You don’t have a clue what you’re talking about. I’m totally positive this one’s 10,000! He picked up the item he’d chosen. Huh…?! The object he held in his hand was a small pouch with an image of Hogstein on the front. For anyone that might be confused, they are talking in Yen. The localizers just decided not to point that out or change it to western currency. Towa is arguing that a little fanny-pack with Hogstein’s face on it totally sells for 70-120 CAD/EUR/USD (varies based on whichever exchange rate you personally use). Saki is saying that there’s no way in hell it sells for more than 15 or 35 bucks. (No one can tell that he’s lying?!) I tried to duck past the piglet at the door. …! But it firmly grabbed my arm as I moved forward. Let me go! I need to be in there! …! …! All I got was a shaking head in reply. I’m gonna put this on the tray, okay? If no one stepped him, they’d fail the game…   Choice time! Unlike other “Saki can get mad” moments, this one is tied to a game over instead of an affection point. We need Saki to blow her top in order to save everyone.  What’s wrong with you?!  We get a twofer this time, with both the Piglet and Towa being taken aback. He jerked, dropping the pouch. Everyone inside swiftly turned my direction. …Wh-Why are you here?! You’re sick… And hurt… I had to tell you something! I stepped through the doorway, barely looking at the startled piglet who’d fallen over in surprise. …I didn’t want to… but I had to save you… His shoulders slumped and he looked down at the floor. …What is going on here? We were getting blank looks all around. No one but us knew what was going on. That’s, uh… Oops. Looks like Hogstein’s security team has arrived. Several piglets rushed into the store before I could explain. Wakasa and I were surrounded and cut off from the others.*The screen shakes as Hogstein freaks the gently caress out*  You broke our promise! Hogstein! His voice was so loud it bounced off the walls. Capture those two miscreants for interrupting the game! I demand an explanation! This brat promised me that he’d become a traitor, but look how that turned out! Betraying me is just as bad as a rule violation! Oink!Yeah, you’ve got a bad track record with recruiting traitors. What…?! Shidou looked stunned. Glancing around, everyone else seemed to be the same. Er… U-uh… (He didn’t want to!)We get a choice here between “He did it for me” and “Please forgive him.” The affection point choice is “He did it for me.” He was doing it because of me! Saki…*Affection up* What are you talking about? What? I did think it odd that you two had no problem exiting the game… That explains it. There were nods all around. They all seemed to understand. But I was the one who decided to do it. It’s all my fault. Don’t blame yourself! ”Instead you just endangered our lives and the lives of all the hostages!” He placed his hand on Wakasa’s shoulder, squeezing it reassuringly. Violating the rules is not tolerated! Bring them to me immediately! …! The piglets quickly closed in and dove at us. Whoa! Aah! Before we even had a chance to blink, they’d lifted us up onto their shoulders. Hey! What do you think you’re doing?! Shidou tried to go after us. Ah-ah, hold on there. The game’s still going on. You remember what’ll happen to those hostages if you leave, right? Ugh…! drat it…! Aaaah!Wasn’t Kouta in this scene as well? Has he just been standing around, dead silent, during all of this? P-Put us down!  Please… Please let us go! … Put us down at least! We won’t run! He flailed his arms and legs, trying to loosen the hold they had on him, but they quickly restrained him. In perfect step, they steadfastly ignored our pleas. Our final destination was Castle Hogstein. Ugh! Ow… The piglets practically dropped us at the base of the stairs before quickly disappearing. I raised my head to find Hogstein upon the throne. He was visibly quivering with suppressed rage. Hogstein… Wait! D-Do what you want with me because, well, I was the one who did it… But please don’t do anything to her!Hey, a deal’s a deal, am I right? Let’s get this done. Maybe there’s still time to shift onto Meoshi’s route. No…! I betrayed everyone to save her… And it something happens to her now… What was the point?! Oink! I think you’re a bit late for that. I distinctly remember warning you when we made our deal. Excuse me? When did that little detail come up? Huh? My breath hitched. (Wait… He had to agree to that..?) But… First you told me I only had to mess up a couple things. “Spice it up,” right? Then, just before the game today you said I had to screw up the final decision… Why did you change your order at the last second?!BECAUSE THAT’S HIS WHOLE loving DEAL! ”Satan, Prince of Lies, why did you change our deal after I sold my soul to you? What happened to your principles?”  The innocent, confused expression on the Count’s face didn’t fool me. (Man, what a sneak! He tricked Wakasa!) You stay away! I’m not gonna let you touch her! Oink oink! Seems I need to get rid of you first…! His eyes narrowed and he slowly stood up from the throne. (I have to do something or he’s going to kill him!) Without thinking I grabbed onto Wakasa, determined to hold on. I glared as hard as I could. I won’t let you hurt her either!…Okay? Then I guess he’ll just have to kill you both? Which was what he was going to do anyway.  His arms went around me just as tightly. Our hearts racing, we clung to each other, fiercely staring the Count down. … He seemed to look back and forth at us for a bit, before suddenly collapsing back on the throne. Huh? This cutesy stuff… Guh, it’s grossing me out. I can’t straight up kill you after you forced me to see that…! (What does that mean? What’s he going to do?!)Probably something that will prove to be totally ineffective.  With the snap of his fingers, the piglets from earlier appeared and surrounded us. They wrapped a piece of fabric over our eyes, and we were plunged into darkness. What are you doing to us?! No! As soon as they finished, they hefted us on their shoulders again. Wh-Where are we going?! Th-This is crazy! (Where are they taking us now…?!)*There’s some kind of time skip scene change, but it’s hard to describe because the screen has been black ever since Saki said “What are you doing to us?!”* Whoa! The world shifted, and we were dumped onto a hard, cold floor.
Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 17:36 on Dec 5, 2020 |
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Dec 5, 2020 16:49
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 Hey, this is a new one. Haven’t seen this background CG before. Wait! Where are you going?! None of them acted like they’d heard me. Geez, they’re ignoring me… Where… do you think we are? In the center of the stage was a large, blank screen. I have no idea… What’s Hogstein gonna do with us? Do you think the others are okay…? I hope so. We haven’t heard an explosion, so maybe they’re still playing. Oh, good. At least they’re safe for now. What’ll happen to us though? Hmm… I didn’t have an answer. Neither of us could guess what the Count had in mind. …Oh yeah. He seemed to realize something. What is it? We’ve been stuck in here for five days so far, right? Yeah. This is probably big news. Nothing like this has ever happened before. (Plus…) I glanced at Wakasa’s profile. (He’s a super popular singer… Everyone must be panicking…)Yeah, about that. Turns out nobody gives a poo poo. Keiji actually had to call 911 when he escaped. I wonder if they cancelled all my TV appearances… I bet this is causing problems for the other guys in my group… I feel really bad. His voice dropped to a mumble, and he sighed.Wow, already hitting the “Boy band breaks up and everyone goes solo” phase, huh? I think the Backstreet Boys were together for close to 10 years before Carter broke off and they were all well into their 20’s when that happened. Oh, right. We have a choice to make here. It’s another affection choice though, so we have to be nice and Um, did something happen?The other choice was “That sounds rough.” I shifted closer, watching his face carefully. Oh, are you worried about me? He he he. I’m kinda glad to hear that.*Affection up* Of course I am. I don’t like seeing you look so lonely… …That’s sweet of you, but I just… Feeling the… what are you talking about? Like what, you’re… bad at smiling? Is that even a thing?I can tell you from personal experience that it most certainly is a thing. Sure it is. People like me, we always gotta be smiling. You learn that pretty early on. Huh… Yeah, you’re right. I never thought about it before. Yup. I used to be able to smile pretty easily, and mean it, but… You don’t now? Now it’s like, I have to smile. All the time. Even when I don’t want to. No one smiled all the time, it was stupid to think someone could. Pretending to smile… The other guys tell me to just do it because it’s part of our job.They would be correct. Sounds like the other guys understand the industry they work in. But it feels wrong, you know? I became a singer to make people smile, and now I can’t even do it myself…Yeah, yeah, yeah, Pagliacci goes to the doctor and the doctor tells him to go and see Pagliacci to make himself feel better. Side note: Have any of you actually heard Pagliacci? It’s pretty hosed up. I mean, the joke is kind of dark in its own way, but the opera involves his wife cheating on him and him murdering her and her lover at the end. Crazy stuff. What were we talking about again? Every time I fake a smile, the harder it gets to do it the next time… Right, Towa’s boy band stuff. He’d brought this topic up before. Why was he so driven? Uh, Wakasa…? Yeah? Oh, great. Everyone settle in, we’re about to get Towa’s life story. I turned toward him with a puzzled glance. Hmm… I guess it started back when I was a kid. What do you mean? Well… He considered for a moment before responding. When I was little, someone saved my life. Really?! I was really young at the time so I didn’t remember, but my mom told me the story a few years ago… It’s just me and my mom, no one else. She had to take care of me on her own. She’d always say, “Nothing like seeing a kid smile, you know?” Of course it was. (Her… last words…) So, uh, what happened? Mom never gave me the details. She’d only say that it was why I didn’t have a dad. The woman died protecting me, too. I had no clue. She’d quote it all the time, too. I was totally shocked. Smiles started meaning something else to me after that.Okay, pause time. So here is our first case of the puzzle pieces coming together in this game. Towa is the child that Ryuji’s mother died to protect during the bus accident. Ryuji’s dad and Towa’s dad also both died in the same accident. This is the reason why it's been seeming like Towa has been swiping Ryuji's shtick. Then, that’s why you started singing, right? You wanted to make people smile. He nodded. Now I’m screwing it all up by pretending. Then I thought, I bet she’s watching me and shaking her head… It made it even harder for me to smile.Kind of feel like she has better things to do than watch over you… like maybe watching over her own child. I could feel it slipping every time we performed. The guys would get really angry about it. drat. Two shows? The tabloids must be having a field day with you. Now they’ve also got this whole amusement park thing to work with. He looked down, hugging his knees. This was probably why he felt unable to continue. If you can’t perform in front of people… If you can’t smile… His career must be suffering. So basically Towa is realizing the truth behind the make-believe industry he’s part of, which is screwing with the group’s feng shui, so they decided to put him out to pasture. His agency then made a token effort at getting a solo career going in the hopes that he could still make them money. …Are we absolutely sure that Hogstein gathered these specific people together? Because if Towa being here and being part of this game was Hogstein’s plan, then holy poo poo, that dude knows how to play the long game. Everyone else just needed a simple trick to get them here. Towa apparently needed to be hit with depression while convincing his fellow boy band members to be lovely people who are completely unsupportive of the trouble he is going through. He turned to me with a helpless smile that only lifted one side of his mouth. (I had no idea he was going through so much…) His admission had caught me by surprise. He was always so cheerful, though he did scream like a girl when he was scared, which was often.I appreciate the fact that Saki continues to rag on Towa even during his own route. He seemed so carefree, like a kid. Somehow he’d hid his sad past, and kept a positive attitude on life… But now I saw he was struggling, trying to live up to the standards he set for himself. Yeah… You know the correct choice for this one. I just want to go on record by saying that what he’s doing isn’t a sign of maturity. Towa has not “dealt” with these issues. He’s been stuffing them into an increasingly rickety closet. Now it’s to the point that it’s affecting his career and the careers of his bandmates because he’s no longer able to suppress it like he used. Of course Saki is only 17/18, so her idea of maturity is still rooted in teenager land. You’re pretty mature. Huh? Y-You think so?I’m just saying that you shouldn’t be complimenting this behaviour. This comment makes Towa happy, so now he’ll be under the impression that bottling everything up is the right way to handle these feelings because it’s what mature people do. Not that I’ve got any room to talk. I’ve got a full wine cellar of finely aged issues and soul decaying emotions. Only difference is I know drat well I’m not mature. *Affection up* His cheeks were pink.Oh, right. We’re talking about Towa. Yeah. You’ve been through so much more than me. You’re so driven, while I still don’t know what I’m doing.Yes, but that’s not the fault of you. You can blame that on your nature as a self-insert protagonist character. No one’s ever called me that before. I’m kind of embarrassed… You’re so easy to talk to. I don’t normally share this much, with anyone really.That’s the power of the self-insert, baby. The lost art of “listening”. My eyes widened, and I leaned toward him. Yeah! We don’t have anything in common with them either.It’s still way too early to make that call, bro. We’ve got another You read my mind! We looked at each other, then burst into giggles. Hogstein’s voice reverberated through the empty room. Huh?! My God, what are you two doing, flirting with each other behind my back… Eh… uh… That’s not… We weren’t…! My face was on fire. I could see Wakasa out of the corner of my eye, as flushed as I felt. Eh, whatever, I don’t care. Seems today’s game has been completed… Really?! Hooray! But… They won’t have it quite so easy tomorrow. I’ve got a little surprise! You mean… You’re gonna use us as hostages?! (Big one…? Wait, that would be…!) You mean Mitarashi, don’t you?! Gold star! The piglets informed me that he was snooping around, trying to find our dear Mr. Urabe. He’s now been moved, obviously. Couldn’t let that happen so easily. That does sound like something he’d do. He even risked his life several times! I was feeling generous, so as a reward I let Mr. Urabe go. A hostage swap, if you will.That also sounds like something he’d do. You just captured him?! While he was by himself?! You’re such a coward! Think so, huh? Regardless, Ryusei Mitarashi will be my pawn tomorrow. I can’t wait to see if he dies! That’s just… Don’t human lives mean anything to you…?The answer to that question is, as it always has been, ->“NO”<-.  Oh my god, are they going to be competing in that Coliseum place? This route just got interesting again. My money will be on Saki. Wh-What are you making us do?! See that screen? I’m simply going to make it look like you two are piglets. They won’t know the difference! C-Can you do that? I could hear the grin in his voice. That meant the others would be fighting to win, with no idea their opponents were actually us… The stakes’ll be high in the next few days! Who will live? Who will die? I wonder if you’re up for it? Oink oink! Leaving us with that horrible thought, the PA shut off. Silence filled the room. Arg, what does he want…?!Unfortunately we may not find out the answer to that until Ayumu’s route. I can’t believe Mitarashi’s been captured! And Urabe was released… Right! I’m going to call Shidou… Ah?! What? My phone… It’s gone! Did I drop it? Maybe when they blindfolded us…? Huh!? You’re kidding! He quickly searched his pockets, but his own phone appeared to be missing too. Nothing… Hogstein must’ve taken them…About time he got on that.  … Wakasa turned to me, grim and determined. Let’s get out of here. We’re gonna find Ryusei on our own! What? Well, everyone’s probably at the hotel now. Even if we do get ahold of them, they can’t get off the ship. The only ones who can search the park are us! He was right. Mitarashi was going to be used as a hostage tomorrow. He had to be rescued tonight. Okay, let’s do it! We gotta get out of here somehow. Maybe there’s a way we can use. We stood up, and started searching everywhere. Hmm… I think the piglets went over here… Examining the spot where I thought the piglets left through, I found a door hidden in the dark. Oh no… I rattled the knob, but it was definitely locked. (I better look around some more.) I was suddenly reminded of yesterday morning. He’d said then that he wanted to prove himself, that he could be like Mitarashi. (And now here he is, trying to save him…) He’d changed himself so much already. I wasn’t sure he knew how strong he was.And that’s where we stop. Yes, it is kind of abrupt. Usually Saki gets knocked out or falls asleep or something. Oh well, we get another locket flashback. This one is the “poo poo happens” flashback. That one where the mom and dad are driving along and notice how empty the road seems to be right before BLAM! Car out of nowhere! Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 17:33 on Dec 5, 2020 |
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Dec 5, 2020 16:50
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Hmm, “Uncle did it” is doing well. Is there a heart shaped bed and jazz playing in that dimly lit room they’re held in?
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Dec 8, 2020 16:16
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BurningStone posted:Hmm, “Uncle did it” is doing well. Is there a heart shaped bed and jazz playing in that dimly lit room they’re held in? I like that "Keiji Inafune is an insane uncle that is desperately trying to get his niece laid" has caught on as a theory. What makes it believable when it otherwise wouldn't be is the fact the Saki is clearly hopeless on her own. Well, that and the fact that real life Keiji Inafune may also be insane.
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Dec 11, 2020 14:58
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Sorry this took longer than usual. December is a busy month since it's end of term. ------------------------ Update XX: Metal Gear Saki: Tactical Otome Action  We’re burning through Towa’s route like nobody’s business, which I’m personally psyched about. The quicker we get done with him the quicker we move on to Kouta and the quicker we can blow through him so that actual plot mystery stuff will start getting answered. We scoured the whole room, searching for even the smallest thing that could help, until we tired ourselves out. Hmm, I didn’t see anything… You most certainly have not looked ‘literally’ everywhere, as we will soon learn. We’re never going to get out of here, are we…? Wakasa rolled his neck and shoulders, and sighed heavily. Man, I am so tired. Break? Okay. We plopped down on the stage, rolling over on our backs, and tried to catch our breath. I wish I knew what time it was. Was the sun still up? Or maybe the day’s game was over already. We’d totally lost track of time.…Didn’t Hogstein tell us that the others had won today’s game? Did I imagine that? Or do you guys really think you’ve been in this room for over 24 hours? The only ‘light’ in the room was coming from the ceiling, the spotlight too bright to look at for long. I squinted against the glare. …Hm, wait… Ah! My voice came out much louder than I intended. What is it? Look up there! Huh? It really bothers me how much our heroes ignore checking the ceiling. The only time they bothered was in Alice Kart when there was a trap up there. I pointed off to the side of the light, at a large hole in the ceiling. Maybe we can get out through there? Yeah! It’s gotta connect to the outside! We nodded to each other excitedly. But… How do we get up there…? Wakasa’s face lit up and he rushed off. I bet we can climb up! Come on! What? I followed him around to the back side of the screen that stood in the middle of the stage. Why is there a rock climbing wall on the backside of a screen? The back of the screen definitely wasn’t smooth. Pieces jutted out all the way to the top. Give me a sec. I’m gonna see… Nearly before my mind could process it, he’d smoothly climbed to the top. Wow! He leaned over and stretched out an arm. R-Right! Whoa… This is scary… You’ve almost got it… Just a bit more! Okay… Grab tight to my hand. One, two, three…! He pulled, and somehow I scrambled up to the top with him. Ah, thanks. Nothing to it. All right, let’s see if we can reach that duct now! Right! We climbed through the duct only to find ourselves in some sort of passage. It was pitch black inside. We might fall if we’re not careful… Yeah. Why don’t we hold hands then? I heard some shuffling as he reached out blindly, but he managed to grab my hand. (Oh…!)There’s a choice here between “I’m embarrassed” and “You’re scared, aren’t you?” We’re not dealing with Ryuji anymore, so the correct choice here is for Saki to be shy and meek so that Towa can pretend to be the big manly man. I’m a little… embarrassed. Now all I could think about was his hand, and how warm it was holding mine. I was glad he couldn’t see my face right then, as I was sure it had to be bright red. His quiet laugh, nearly in my ear, sounded nervous. *Affection up* S-Sorry. But… I feel safer now, doing this. We… don’t have to stop. I won’t let go. Promise. Thank you… We walked together for quite a while, until a speck of light finally appeared in front of us. That’s gotta be the exit! Come on! He tugged on my hand, and we hurried toward the light. Oh man, this place looks awesome at night. Ahh… We made it out! Stars shone down on us as we stumbled outside. I turned to look back at the attraction we’d escaped from. The lights made it look kind of creepy in the dark. The huge sign above the entrance displayed its name. “Round Table Colosseum Knights IV”… Huh. Sounds pretty epic.For those curious, because this attraction shows up the Japanese playthrough I have, the sign in the Japanese version is also a mix of kanji and English. “円卓” (えんたく- entaku) is “Round Table”. Why is part of the sign in Kanji and the rest in English? But the other attractions have weird signage too:-Samurai Fantasy VII and Round Table Colosseum Knights IV are a mix of Kanji/English (in both Japanese and English versions of the game). -Animal Band Family is a mix of Katakana and English, even though “Family” and “Animal” aren’t loanwords and could have easily just been written with Kanji or Hiragana. -Meanwhile, Alice Kart: Grand Prix and Moonlight OX are entirely in English (even in the Japanese version). -Bloody Hospital is a mix of Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana with no English. -Bazaar Planet is in English with “Bazaar Planet” written in a Kanji/Katakana mix underneath it. At least I think so. There’s definitely some Katakana in there, but the resolution isn’t good enough for me to see what the first part of the undertext says. I wonder where Mitarashi’s being held…I assumed he was going to be held here. This seems like the most appropriate game to involve Ryuji “I’ll punch the terrorist threatening to kill the hostages” Mitarashi. Hm. Well, he’s definitely not here. Right. Hogstein said this one was the setting for the last game… (I pictured the theme park’s map in my mind, ticking off the attraction names one by one.) “Round Table Colosseum Knights,” “Band Animal Family,” and “Alice Kart”… Oh, and “Bazaar Planet.” Which one has Mitarashi…?I know what you think this is leading to and the answer is yes, we really are going to “Insight Moment” this, for some loving reason. (I think I have an idea…!)I cannot believe this was made into an Explosive Insight segment. There are only two games that haven’t been completed! You are standing right outside one of them! PROCESS OF ELIMINATION! (Okay, think Saki! Where could they be holding him? Hogstein told us he would use Mitarashi as tomorrow’s hostage. It’s likely that he’s stuck in one of the attractions, like we were. We know that all the attractions we completed won’t be used for other games. I found Wakasa at Bazaar Planet, so that leaves me with… Colosseum Knights, where we were trapped, and one other. So, where is he?!) You get three choices to solve these Explosive Insight moments, but you don’t have to choose three clues. This is one of those times where the answer is so head-bangingly obvious that there is no need to choose more than one clue. Seriously, Saki. Even Mai could piece this together quicker than you and I doubt she can even pronounce the names of some of those attractions.  Uh, what about it? That’s gotta be where he’s being held! Yeah? How are you so sure?!Because it’s the only option left! It’s not that hard… You know, this moment really hits home the understanding of how this group only just scrapes by under their very generous time limits. We’ve already completed five attractions, so only two are left. Round Table Colosseum Knights and… Band Animal Family. Hogstein told us this one would be used for the game on the last day, so… The only one left is Band Animal Family! He has to be there! You’re right! That’s it! We need to get there fast [sic] as we can! Ugghhh… Well, at least we’re finally on the move again. (I hear someone…!) Lights were bobbing, and footsteps approached from around a corner. We froze in place.*A piglet appears on screen for a second before fading away* It’s some piglets! We better hide! R-Right! Two piglets came into the plaza, flashlights in their hands. Do you think they’re looking for us? You can tell that? Word probably hadn’t reached them yet.I assume she means word of their escape. Given how quickly Hogstein caught on in Ryuji’s route, he probably already knows they got away and is just baiting them into something. The only real reason for Hogstein quickly mobilizing all the piglets in the last route is because the other hostages had been freed at that point and Hogstein only had those two left as leverage. Saki and Towa, on the other hand, can’t escape the park because the civilian hostages are still in danger, so there’s no need for Hogstein to scramble. Basically, I don’t think this is a case of “word hasn’t reached the piglets”, I think this is a case of “word is deliberately not reaching the piglets”. Not that that will change anything, of course. Even if Saki and Towa did recognize this obvious trap, they’d still run headlong into it. This place is going to get crazy soon. I don’t know if we can avoid them all, but we have to try! He gave my hand a squeeze as he nodded. He then turned to me, his eyes scanning my face seriously. Hm? What is it? He looked so determined. He really was going to try to put my safety before his. My heart warmed at the thought, and an ache started in my chest. I smiled. You don’t have to change yourself. You’re fine as you are. …I believe in you, Towa.Brace yourselves, Towa fans. It’s about to happen. Well, sort of. At the very least we’ll be making a big step forward in terms of progress. His eyes widened and his eyebrows shot up into his hair. Of course. He worried his lip as his eyes darted quickly back and forth, deep in thought.No, I didn’t make a mistake. The text does say that he “worried” his lip. I’m going to assume the original text was “bit”. Edits ~from the fuuuuuture~: User Polsy tells me that "worried my/his/her/their lip" is an actual phrase, albeit an uncommon one, meaning to nervously bite. I have never heard this phrase in my life and I'm still not sure why you wouldn't just use "bite/bit" instead since biting ones lip is typically a sign of nervousness or anxiety. Oh well, language is weird like that. Especially the English language. … Oh… I get it now! He nearly shouted before he remembered we were in hiding. Wh-What? If I was strong like Ryusei… But I had it backward! What do you mean…? I was… frustrated… because he was the one who saved you. I didn’t want to be like him… I wanted him to be me. His ears turned a little pink as he scratched his head. He glanced shyly at me. (Um… Did he say… “love”…?) You mean… …Oh! Ryusei said… Strength comes from wanting to protect someone’s smile. …Well, I… I really want to try to protect yours. (I’m special to him…? Me…?)There’s a choice here between “Hold on” and “But…” Not exactly a confident reply either way. H-Hold on. Um… Wh-What are you saying…? I was stuttering and tripping over my words. My heart thundered in my chest, and I couldn’t think. He grinned at my totally obvious flailing.*Affection up* So, do you, maybe, like me at all? (D-Do I like him…?! He feels that way about me…? I guess we have gotten close…) I did see how hard he was working to change himself. He’s deeper than people gave him credit for. He had to deal with so much in his life… So many experiences shaped him.Speaking of biting lips, I’m currently chowing down on mine. I just want Towa fans to understand that I’m trying real hard not to completely destroy this moment for them. After all we’ve been through, I’ve come to care for him a lot. That said, good on Saki for resisting the urge to cave to the “Romance born from danger” trope. I mean, she’s going to cave to it eventually because duh, but at the very least she’s not immediately going “Yes, of course I love you!” while being surrounded by roaming guards that could find them at any second. …You’re not sure?Now isn’t the greatest time to be dropping this, champ. Maybe back off for a bit. Um… Well… It’s okay. It’s totally bad timing, I know. Plus, I kinda sprung this on you out of nowhere. But could you maybe think about it, and give me an answer if we do save Ryusei?That’s better, but maybe you could hold off until, I dunno, we’re out of the terrorist death game? All right. I promise. My nod was a little wobbly, but he smiled happily in response. Oh, right. I guess that also happened. Huh?! (Oh… I did! I totally called him Towa…!) It had felt so natural before, but now that he brought it up, I was embarrassed. I don’t know why I said it… It just… came out. I’m sorry. No, it’s okay. It makes me happy, hearing you say my name. Please don’t stop. …All right. My cheeks warm, I nodded. We should probably get going now… Ready… Towa? Let’s do this!I hope this doesn’t become a constant thing for the rest of the routes. I mean, I know it will because Japan, but the whole “Call me by my first name” moment is definitely losing a significant amount of impact at this point.   Somehow we made it to Band Animal Family without being spotted. (If my hunch is right, Mitarashi has to be here!)It wasn’t a hunch! You used deductive reasoning! As I studied the entrance, I noticed the sky was getting lighter. The sun’s coming up… We gotta hurry and get him out of there quick. I couldn’t agree with him more. … Because they’re everywhere? It stood in front of the door, blocking it, and was looking around. Maybe we can distract it…? Oh! I know! What are you doing? Watch this! He leaned over, picking up a small rock. He wound up and threw it over into a group of trees a distance away. …! …!It worked! Now sneak up and choke him out while his vision cone is facing the other way. The piglet rushed over to the suspicious noise. Now! Let’s go! He grabbed my hand. (The piglet’s not watching the door now… Nice job!) We ran as fast as we could through the entrance. Oh boy! Rock Band! …The giant cartoon 10 ton weights are a tad concerning though. At the end of a dark hallway there was a large room. Chairs and instruments littered the whole area, and a big screen hung in the back. Our breathing was loud in the silence. There was no one else there. It looks just like a studio. Really? He glanced around absentmindedly, not really looking at anything. Um… I want to show my loyal fans a real simile. They’ve waited so long. … My heart lurched painfully. (Oh yeah, I forgot he’s a famous singer… He must have thousands of adoring fans… Is he even allowed to love someone like me? Our worlds are so different…)Almost certainly not. Japanese Idols typically have stipulations in their contracts which outright ban relationships, no matter how private they are. Guys tend to get away with it more than girls (because of course they do), but I’d imagine Towa is already on thin ice with management because of him missing shows and dragging down the group. Hooking up with a girl would probably be the straw that broke the camel’s back even if it somehow wasn’t against the terms of his contract. A leaden weight settled in my stomach. My happy mood faded. (No… This isn’t important right now. Finding Mitarashi is!) …I don’t see anything that could help us in here. Maybe the next room has something? Yeah. Cross your fingers that he’s in there… We opened the door and went deeper into the attraction. The next room had several large costumes hanging up, and I could see some fitting rooms in the back.There are seven animal costumes. Please, for the love of god, tell me that we will eventually see everyone being forced to dress up in one of those. This has gotta be a dressing room. We split up and searched some more, but Mitarashi wasn’t there. Still nothing… Where could he be…? …Huh?! What’s wrong? He put his finger up to his mouth. Shh, I hear something. What? …It’s coming from over there. Towa quietly approached the door in the back and pressed his ear up against it. Let’s check it out. Right! He grabbed the doorknob, turning it silently… A flight of stairs led outside, to an area with a round stage. Is this… the roof? I think so. Over on the stage… Hey, there’s Ryuji! Ryusei! Tied up to the support beam for the large screen on the stage was Mitarashi. There he is! Let’s hurry! We bolted over to him, his eyes widening when he spotted us. We’re gonna rescue you, of course! Scrambling behind him, we attempted to untie the ropes. I owe you one. Never thought you’d be the ones saving me. All riiiight, fresh meat! What?! Hogstein?! Guess who ran headlong into a trap! That actually worked… You did exactly what I hoped you would! Don’t resist this time! Oink oink! We were surrounded. They started closing in. Argh! (We didn’t have time to free Mitarashi…! Are we going to get captured… again?)Is this where we get a random segment where Towa is electro-tortured while naked before he breaks free and has to run around doing cartwheel flips while covering his junk with his hands? In case you don’t get that reference, that’s a thing that happens in Metal Gear Solid 2. Well, the torture thing happens in most Metal Gear Solid games, but running around naked afterward is unique to Raiden. Wait just a drat moment! His voice was very commanding. …?! The piglets were so surprised, they froze in place. Why not raise the stakes and bet my life on a game? Hogstein scoffed. Hmm, interesting… What exactly did you have in mind? Come on, man. That’s your deal. Think of one yourself, porker! Way to blow it, Ryuji. (What’s wrong with him…? Maybe he was a little rude, but… To get that mad when someone talks back to him…?) What’s wrong with you?! I hope we get some explanation as to why Saki’s outbursts always make Hogstein back down. I don’t want this to just be a case of “the game does it because it thinks it’s funny.” My current theory is that Hogstein is actually a kid or young teenager and instinctively backs down when Saki yells because it reminds him of his mother telling him off. You want to have fun at our expense, right? Why is one more game such a problem? Yeah! Biting our heads off isn’t going to get us anywhere! (Towa…) F-Fine! Gah, I’ll come up with something! Happy now?! That’s all I wanted. Get on with it, we’re waiting. Hm… Um… You’re on a concert stage… And we have a singer here… Oh! I’m a genius! Did you think of a game? Support for my theory that Hogstein is a kid. I happen to have, in my possession, an instrumental track of one of their songs. How ‘bout we have Towa Wakasa perform for us?!*Music time* A Junior Jr. Boys song started playing out of nowhere. Whoa, right now? He scrambled to the center of the stage and grabbed a microphone. And then he started to sing… Wow…! For the next couple of minutes I was totally stunned. Booo! Play “Freebird”! His performance and singing were completely captivating. He was definitely famous for a reason. When he finished, I couldn’t help clapping until my hands hurt. Oh, wow! That was so amazing! Way to get the ladies, bro! Mitarashi seemed pretty impressed. Bravo! Just what I’d expect from you! It really was perfect! But of course. It’s my job… So, does that mean I won? What are you talking about? We haven’t even started! Screen on! Is that… a real-rear end picture of a crowd? The resolution isn’t great, but it doesn’t look drawn to me. I wish there wasn’t glare coming from it so that I could try a reverse image search. What…?! His eyes widened impossibly. On the screen were more people than I could count. We just hacked into a live concert feed!Is the concert being held in the parking lot of a WcDonald’s or something? That doesn’t look like much of a concert venue. A live feed?! Why would he do that..? His eyes narrowed in confusion, he stared at the live image in front of him. The audience suddenly recognized who they were seeing, and the roar that came from the screen was overwhelming.So, there are two possibilities stemming from what Saki just said… or narrated, I guess. 1) Hogstein cut into a live feed of a Junior Jr. Boys concert, meaning that the rest of the band has apparently accepted that Towa is as good as dead and just decided to keep doing shows without him. Or 2) Hogstein cut into some unrelated band’s concert and they are so godawful that the crowd immediately goes batshit for one member of a JPOP boy band showing up on the Jumbotron mid-performance because it means a reprieve from whatever garbage is currently playing on stage. You must perform for aaalll these people with a smile on your face! What…?! Towa froze, his face going blank. Mitarashi just looked confused. Oh…! (Had he been listening in on our conversation…?!)*There’s a flashback to last update when Towa was telling Saki about how he has been having trouble faking a smile during performances and yada yada.*  That said, the flashback briefly confused me during this shot because I was sure that there was no lowercase “i” in the original scene. I didn’t reflexively correct the mistake during the last update, though. The lowercase “i” really does only happen in this flashback version of the scene. *Anyway, we come back from flashback land* (Does that mean that he knows…?) Hey, does this make sense to you? Towa told me some of it before… He’s had to back out of two concerts already… What? That drat bastard knows he’s torturing him…?!Of course he does! That’s the point! Why won’t any of you acknowledge the situation you’re in? His body shook with barely contained rage. Towa didn’t even notice; he was frozen in place on the stage, his face pale. The audience in front of him was excited, but the pressure had to be overwhelming. Three strikes and you’re out. You must be smiling the whole time, and you can’t miss a note. Just sing like you did before! That was perfect! You do that, you’ll be able to free Ryusei Mitarashi! This should go well. The song started up immediately. You can do it! … The smile he was giving the crowd was stiff and awkward. The difference in performances was startling. It was as if he’d forgotten how to follow the beat, and which step came next. Uh… He opened his mouth, but his voice was so weak, by the end of the first line it had faded to nothing.*Strike 1* Hmmm? What’s wrong?! You should have started there! Shake it off, bro! You got this! Sing! … Nothing seemed to get through to him. (He’s not snapping out of it… He’s only got two more tries! How can I help him…?) Let’s try that again, with a big smile this time! Attempt number two! Got for it…! He heard my voice and turned. …Oh! I was surprised to see tears had gathered in his eyes. My heart felt like it was breaking, seeing him like that. It was almost a physical ache.Fun fact, this is schadenfreude (getting enjoyment from other people's misfortunes) for me because I don’t like Towa, but for those of you that do like him, then you and Saki are probably feeling fremdscham. Fremdscham is the word for that feeling you get when you are embarrassed or ashamed for someone else blowing it or (unintentionally) making an rear end out of themselves. It’s a combination of the German words “fremd” (Strange, foreign) and “scham” (shame). You have no idea how much that used to bother me whenever people would try and drag me into “peppy” stuff, like those stupid team cheer morning meetings that Walmart loves to force employees into to as if any one of them gives a single flying gently caress about Walmart’s sales targets or “achievements” or why they should be cheerleading for their corporate overlord who would gleefully throw them under the bus the second some dipshit wanders in complaining—  Towa, siiing!Right, sorry, I got way off topic there. There’s some lingering trauma from my days in retail. Point is, there’s a sort-of antonym for schadenfreude. The song played again, but he was clearly unable to sing a single note. Aw, just one more chance left! Is he going to disappoint all of his admiring fans?! He didn’t even bother to hide the glee in his voice. But what must he do to be able to smile? Earlier, before the screen turned on, he was a pro. His performance was perfect. (How to smile… Not a fake one, but real. A true smile…) I desperately wracked my brain. (Wait… Back at the hotel, he put on that little show for Mai…) (He sang and danced for someone both times. So why can’t he do it now?) That’s literally all there is for this flashback. It’s just that one screenshot. Did we really have to go to flashback land for that? (If he felt that way earlier…) …Oh, I know! I dashed up to the screen and caught his eye.There’s a choice here between “Just have fun!” and “Sing for me!” This is a tricky choice, because the typical dating-sim response would be “Sing for me!” That’s not the correct choice in this instance though. My guess would be because Saki saying that in front of a live audience would immediately tank Towa’s idol career. Try to have fun with it! Huh…? Don’t worry about everyone watching, just sing because you love it! Remember what you told me? I love… singing…? Enjoy yourself and your smile will come on its own!*Affection up* …Oh! His eyes widened. I leaned forward to whisper in his ear. What…?! Good luck. I believe in you, Towa. I stepped back and away, off the stage. (The song restarted…!)Sure was nice of Hogstein to wait that whole time for Saki to give a pep talk. Have… fun, huh… He closed his eyes and took a deep, slow breath. (Remember…!) The moment his eyes opened, his expression completely changed. The cheerful, fun-loving guy I knew was there in front of me…Hasn’t he been alternating between pissing his pants in fear and moping about his lot in life for most of this game? Not sure we’ve seen a whole lot of “fun-loving cheerful” Towa. (All right!) Completely immersed in his singing, his voice relaxed, his steps never missing a beat… he was smiling. A huge scream came from the audience. They were going nuts over his performance. (He has them all in the palm of his hand! Amazing!) I felt like I was on the edge of a cliff. I couldn’t ignore my attraction anymore.Jesus, Saki. Calm your shorts. (This… This must be…) I cut myself off before I could finish that thought. (You’re everyone’s ‘Towa’… You belong to all of them…) His blinding smile was just for me, taking my breath away. (I… I can’t fight this feeling…!)”And then the screen flicked over to an REO Speedwagon concert and Hogstein was so moved that he let everyone go. The End.”  Hooray! I did it! Congrats! I quickly ran up and hugged him tightly. You were perfect! You couldn’t have done it better! His hug was just as fierce. All because of you. You helped me see… I just had to have fun… …Hehe, yeah, I’ll be fine. I’m glad…! He leaned even closer, and softly whispered in my ear. …So Saki… Can I get that answer now? (Oh… That’s right. We’ve rescued Mitarashi…!) I already knew my reply. My heart was set. I looked straight into his eyes.Now I’m curious to know what the bad ending is for Towa. It doesn’t seem like there’s much wiggle room for a “Once we got out, he felt like our worlds were too far apart” style ending like there was for Mitarashi. I… I’d love to be with you, Towa. Having a famous boyfriend wasn’t going to be easy, but I definitely wanted to try. My feelings were too strong not to.Well hey, good news! Once word of this relationship gets out, Towa won’t be famous anymore! Everything will work out just fine, Saki. Juuust fine. His smile reached from ear to ear. He gently touched foreheads with mine. I’m glad… So, so glad. You totally have my heart. Oh, come on! Listen, I don’t care for Towa, but that CG’s a total tease for anyone that does. Mitarashi’s never really delivered a full-on kiss either, but at least his CG shows their lips touching. Psycho Knight fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Dec 18, 2020 |
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Dec 17, 2020 18:59
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(These feelings… I love him so much…) *Whistle* Get a room you two! Oh, come on! Break it up! Ah! Hogstein’s grumpy voice caused us to jump apart. O-Oh, whoops! We haven’t untied Ryusei yet! R-Right! We rushed up and freed him, a little guiltily. Aahh… Thanks. That was such a pain. He rolled his shoulders a few times to stretch the stiff muscles. Not so fast! What? If you go now, how am I going to have a surprise for the others later?! Not our problem. What are you talking about? We beat your game. You can’t stop us. …! What he said. See ya! W-Wait! O-Okay, I did let you rescue him like I promised. I mean… He’s got a point there. What are you babbling about? You call yourself a man?! Shut up! You’re lucky that I even let you play a game like that! What…? He was so selfish. It made my blood boil, and my voice came out louder and higher than I expected. It’s all right. I’ve got this. A hard, black object suddenly appeared in his hand. I think I have the upper hand now…! Yep. He pointed it toward the piglets. Borrowed it from Shidou to save Urabe. I’m sure he won’t mind me using it here to shoot anyone in our way.Shidou is awful lax with his police-issue firearm. It’s hard to believe that he would turn that over to Ryuji in a game where all the hostages die if the piglets or Hogstein are harmed. The piglets shuffled back in fear. You dare?! You threaten me with an illegal weapon?! Nothing in the rules, rear end in a top hat! Now if you don’t mind…See, while Ryuji is correct in that threatening isn’t against the rules, a threat only carries any weight if you are capable of acting on it. Hogstein could easily just tell the piglets to capture them all and if Ryuji shot anyone then that’s a breaking of the rules and all the hostages die immediately. What I’m getting at is: I think everyone (including the writers) have forgotten about the hostages in this route. Remember, the hostages do not get rescued in the common route. That only happened near the tail end of Ryuji’s route. Towa didn’t secure the hostages freedom through his deal with Hogstein; that was only for treating Saki’s wounds. Argh! Let’s get the hell out of here. Right! Okay! Hogstein’s voice chased after us as we ran for the stairs. Ominous. Whew… We stopped for breath after finally making it outside. He looked at me, concerned. He hadn’t let go of my hand once the entire time we were escaping. Yeah. We were together, so I wasn’t scared. I’m glad. I’ll be damned. Look at you, man. All grown up. Mitarashi gave me a sly grin out of the corner of his eye. So, I take it you found a smile to protect? The best! (He didn’t even hesitate.) My heart fluttered, and I couldn’t help smiling. Good job. Don’t let go of her hand, okay? Keep her close. Don’t have to tell me twice! I’ll hold on forever! Gun in hand, Mitarashi led us away from the attraction. We stopped in front of Alice Kart. The sun was high in the sky. Today’s game was due to start soon.So dawn was just about to break when they went into Animal Band Family and now it’s almost noon. 4-7 hours have passed. This game and it’s total nonsense time structure… Huh. No one’s after us yet. He scanned the surroundings for signs of a chase, but must not have found any. What are we gonna do now? Should we meet everyone at the dock when the hotel arrives? Towa shook his head. Hogstein’ll definitely try to stop us from joining them.Of course he would. He explicitly promised to do that as you were running away. Yeah, he’d expect us to go there… That’s true. So, what, we stay running until the last game is done tomorrow? No. Do you have an idea? How about we go and save the hostages? What? He’ll probably fall back on using them if he can’t catch us in time. He’d totally be all “I’ll kill them off if you fail!” just to make it more fun for himself.You do realize he’ll also kill them if he finds you attempting to free them, right?  Sounds right. He is a dick… If we free the hostages, it’s less pressure on the guys to win. We’ll still be helping, sort of. Mitarashi stared at him, looking rather stunned. He blinked a few times. Towa… You… Hm? What? I should point out that this is an incredibly reckless idea. There’s better odds that you all wind up caught in the final game and used as leverage against the others. He raised his fist. Laughing, Towa bumped it with his own. (I think…) It seemed they had a bond now, where they considered each other equals. (I’m kind of jealous.) The game’ll start soon. Better let them all know what’s up. He pulled out a cellphone. Huh? They didn’t take it when they captured you? He grinned. (I-Is that how they do things at his club?)Obviously. You think he’s giving out his private number to ladies at the host club? That’s a definite work phone situation. Yo, Shidou. It’s me. The others were filled in pretty quickly. So, that’s why we’re gonna go rescue them. …Yeah, we’ll be fine. There’s three of us. No way we’ll let Hogstein do whatever he wants. …I know, I know. We’ll be careful. …Hm? …Ah, got it. Thanks. We’ll see you guys later. What’d he say? …Why does only Urabe know about it? drat it, I hate that we won’t find that out until we finish this route and also get through Kouta’s. He’s awake? I’m really glad he’s okay! A secret way in will definitely help us! Towa’s eyes widened. Wow, I had no idea you knew that phrase. What the hell’s that supposed to mean?! Ha ha ha, don’t hurt me. It was just so totally out of character for you. Mitarashi grumbled, but I could tell they were just goofing around. It was so cute. He does have a point, though. *Yawn* We’d formed a plan and contacted the others. Now it seemed everything was finally catching up to me. Tired? Oh… Sorry! I’m pretty pooped. Oh man, me too… We were up all night. Well, we’re not sneaking into the castle until midnight. Plenty of time to get a nap in. Yeah. And that’s all! Next time, we will hopefully finish this route so that we can get one step closer to actually getting answers about the plot.
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Dec 17, 2020 19:00
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Reckless love confessions shortly followed by reckless plans. I guess they're not always going to have convenient downtime for the big moment(s), but still.Psycho Knight posted:-Bazaar Planet is in English with “Bazaar Planet” written in a Kanji/Katakana mix underneath it. At least I think so. There’s definitely some Katakana in there, but the resolution isn’t good enough for me to see what the first part of the undertext says. There's a slightly sharper (not to mention more contrasty) version on the website, it's just katakana.  Psycho Knight posted:No, I didn’t make a mistake. The text does say that he “worried” his lip. I’m going to assume the original text was “bit”. Not the most common phrase but it just means nervous biting, usually lip or fingernail. But yeah most likely it was just bit originally.
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Dec 17, 2020 22:49
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Polsy posted:Not the most common phrase but it just means nervous biting, usually lip or fingernail. But yeah most likely it was just bit originally. That's an actual saying? Never in my life have I ever heard or seen the phrase "worry my/his/her/their lip." That's news to me. I know "worry" can be used to refer to picking at or being badgered into something, but I've never heard it used when referring to biting a lip. Biting your lip is already a sign of nervousness/anxiety, so why wouldn't you just use that shorter word? Weird. I suppose I should go in to the update and address that, though.
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Dec 18, 2020 14:09
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It's also used for like, a dog chomping down on something and shaking it side to side.
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Dec 18, 2020 16:01
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Psycho Knight posted:
This seems like it should be a Saki bombs portrait, not Towa's.
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Dec 18, 2020 17:33
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Blaze Dragon posted:This seems like it should be a Saki bombs portrait, not Towa's. Thanks. Fixed it. I'll check the other part of this segment later. Looking at it now, I have a feeling that the "One, two, three" line is supposed to be Towa's. malkav11 posted:It's also used for like, a dog chomping down on something and shaking it side to side. I've never heard it used to refer to that either. Is this some kind of regional thing? The only context I've ever heard or seen "worry" being used in is in reference to concern. I know it has that dictionary usage, but I haven't seen anyone actually use it that way in human conversation.
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Dec 18, 2020 20:26
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Psycho Knight posted:I've never heard it used to refer to that either. Is this some kind of regional thing? The only context I've ever heard or seen "worry" being used in is in reference to concern. I know it has that dictionary usage, but I haven't seen anyone actually use it that way in human conversation. I don't think it's regional, no. I think maybe it just doesn't come up that often, but I've seen it in plenty of books. And it's a perfectly legitimate (and more specific) term to use in context, although I don't know that there would be an equivalent expression in Japanese so it could still easily be an artifact of translation.
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Dec 18, 2020 20:34
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Psycho Knight posted:Thanks. Fixed it. I'll check the other part of this segment later. Looking at it now, I have a feeling that the "One, two, three" line is supposed to be Towa's. I’ve seen it written plenty of times and I’ve heard it spoken occasionally, but my mother and sister both have English degrees, so I didn’t grow up in a normal house. Not many kids get teased if they misuse “who” and “whom”....
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Dec 19, 2020 01:43
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malkav11 posted:I don't think it's regional, no. I think maybe it just doesn't come up that often, but I've seen it in plenty of books. And it's a perfectly legitimate (and more specific) term to use in context, although I don't know that there would be an equivalent expression in Japanese so it could still easily be an artifact of translation. I know it is a legimate use of the word, but I've just never experienced it used in that way. Based on the fact that apparently everyone else in this thread has run into it constantly, I can only assume that I have for my entire life only consumed media which lacked anxious or nervous characters. I'd assume the Japanese equivalent is "biting my lip". I don’t have a Towa route though, unfortunately. Unless this phrase pops up in Subaru's route then I guess we'll never know what the Japanese dialogue actually said. BurningStone posted:I’ve seen it written plenty of times and I’ve heard it spoken occasionally, but my mother and sister both have English degrees, so I didn’t grow up in a normal house. Not many kids get teased if they misuse “who” and “whom”.... For what it's worth, I'm about two semesters away from an English degree and this phrase is news to me. As for your family situation, if they find "who" and "whom" teaseworthy then do not direct them to this thread. My habit of using punctuation outside of quotation marks and lackadaisical approach to proofreading are far more worthy of ridicule.
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Dec 19, 2020 02:21
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m-w.com alleges it's "chiefly British" but I'm also chiefly British so that would add up. But yeah I'm similarly not sure I've ever seen it outside of a book.
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Dec 19, 2020 02:52
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| # ? Jun 8, 2024 22:02 |
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Mitarashi has gotten a lot of screentime in this route. Wonder if he plays as big a part in the other routes because so far he seems like the developers' favorite. Also on the subject of English my biggest pet peeve is people asking if I can "borrow them something" instead of "lending them something."
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Dec 19, 2020 15:33
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