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Stuff from the current stream: -Apparently the game is a spiritual sequel, not a direct one -There seems to be some kind of in-battle item usage, the guy playing accidentally switched to an item tab in the battle menu (it was empty at this point of the game, though) -Some equipment has level requirements -Some arts are melee only or ranged only, arts recharge only when you're using a compatible weapon -You can dig through dino dung for items! -You can customize which actions trigger Soul Voice and what effects it gives you Doc V fucked around with this message at 21:18 on Jun 12, 2014 |
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Jun 12, 2014 21:13
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Some stuff I haven't seen mentioned: The planet is called Mira. The first trailer shows the player controlling Elma directly, though since that was over a year ago it doesn't necessarily mean you can do it in the finished game. Battle commands: -Use your own judgment -Focus fire -Use melee attacks -Use ranged attacks -Try to coordinate/cooperate (not entirely sure about this one) -Leave the catch to me (I guess you can capture monsters?) -Get in your Doll (mech) -Exit your Doll -Gather (around the player, presumably) -Activate "Gear" Doc V fucked around with this message at 22:04 on Jun 12, 2014 |
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Jun 12, 2014 22:00
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The official site updated with a new music track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP0B-DyfEB0
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Dec 25, 2014 11:30
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New trailer for anyone who missed the Direct: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvpNXhzscjQ April 29th in Japan, eShop version can be preloaded. Later this year for the rest of the world. Also, Xenoblade 3D coming worldwide in April.
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Jan 14, 2015 18:15
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Bunch of updates on the official site: http://xenobladex.jp/
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Jan 15, 2015 09:44
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Quick translations of the stuff they added to the site:Pre-story posted:Year 2054, July. Elma posted:Female commander guiding "Blade" Lyn posted:Girl genius working in Doll development Tatsu posted:Proud Nopon living on the planet Mira Doc V fucked around with this message at 10:29 on Jan 22, 2015 |
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Jan 15, 2015 11:21
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Irina posted:Blade trooper with a strong sense of duty Van Damme posted:Blade's sharp-tongued commanding officer
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Jan 22, 2015 11:21
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So, the latest issue of Famitsu has a 10 page feature on Xenoblade X. I haven't seen scans yet, but there's a bunch of tidbits on Japanese blogs already: -You can pick one of several different voice actors for the main character -Map on the gamepad shows player location and quest goal areas, also allows fast travel to already visited areas. -Unlike its predecessor, the game is an open-world RPG that allows you to advance to plot in multiple different areas at the same time. -Lots of vocal songs on the soundtrack -The X ("cross") in the title symbolizes several players playing together online. The game isn't an MMO, but rather a "loosely connected online game", whatever that means. -The soundtrack has around 90 tracks -The game world is around 400 square kilometers in size. -Combat is based on Xenoblade's, but made to feel faster and more "action-y". -No dedicated healer, healing is done through the Soul Voice system. -4 character parties -Way more unique monsters and equipment -Takahashi replayed the game to give it a final inspection and it took him over 300 hours
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Jan 28, 2015 17:56
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More stuff: -Near the start of the game, you join one of 8 different unions and do quests for them. The different unions are all in charge of different stuff like eliminating dangerous life forms, securing resources or developing weaponry. You can switch to a different union later on. -The game pad map is made out of hexes. Touching a hex shows any events in the area and allows you to fast travel to the location. -Dolls are extremely powerful, but aren't accurate enough to target enemies' individual body parts. Targeting body parts allows you to weaken enemies and obtain bonus items, so sometimes it pays off to fight outside your mech. -Takahashi's 300 hour playthrough was not a 100% run.
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Jan 28, 2015 18:35
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Scans are up here: http://nintendoeverything.com/scans-roundup-xenoblade-chronicles-x-zelda-majoras-mask-3d-and-more/?pid=76155 I'd start translating stuff, but it's getting late here and I need to actually be awake at some point tomorrow.
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Jan 28, 2015 22:58
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Regy Rusty posted:"Interceptor - In charge of exterminating protists." Mistranslation. They're in charge of exterminating primitive life forms i.e. all the different monsters that are native to Mira.
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Jan 29, 2015 08:16
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Quick translations of the new character profiles from the website:Guin posted:Honest soldier with an unusually strong sense of justice Nagi posted:Chivalrous former captain of the "White Whale"
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Jan 29, 2015 09:00
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Finally had time to sit down and read the Famitsu article, so here's a some more stuff: -New LA is split into four districts: Blade area, commercial area, residential area and industrial area. -Blade's most important task is searching for the stasis pods (referred to as "Life") that scattered all over Mira when the White Whale fell apart. -Finding the pods requires expanding the "Frontier Net" that provides information about the planet's various areas. -Glowing pillars of light are used to denote locations where you can deploy a Data Probe. Deploying the probe adds the information of the surrounding area to the Frontier Net, which can be viewed on the game pad. -The game supports off-TV play. -The game world is seamless and made of 5 distinct locations/continents. -There are still some loading screens before stuff like cutscenes. The download version of the game loads faster, but they're looking into ways to speed up loading on the disk version. -The game originally had healing arts, but Takahashi didn't like having to stop attacking to heal. That's why they implemented the Soul Voice system, which rewards you with healing for performing well in combat and allows the player to concentrate solely on defeating the enemy. -4 character parties were chosen to allow a balanced mix of different classes and builds. -You can choose which character you control, you aren't limited to the main character.
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Jan 29, 2015 20:04
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Maurice posted:Stubborn and rationalistic acting Chief Executive of the NLA government
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Feb 5, 2015 10:17
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My notes from the video: NLA: -Industrial area: in the west side of NLA, is where the city entrance is located. Produces food, weapons and other goods and contains Doll development facilities. -Commercial area: contains restaurants and various stores, many residents gather here. -Residential area: contains homes, parks, a church and a water filtering plant. -Blade area: contains the Blade HQ, residences of Blade members as well as weapon and equipment shops and a Doll maintenance area. Blade: -Blade's most important objective is recovering the life pods from the White Whale. -Most of the passengers on the White Whale were cryogenically frozen; most of the people who were awake at the time of the crash were either piloting crew or soldiers. -The cryogenic pods were scattered all over the planet when the White Whale crashed. -Blade's second priority is investigating the planet using the Frontier Net. -Installing a Data Probe in an area adds its surrounding hexes to the Frontier Net. -The marks on the map show different tasks in the area, like hunting monsters or finding treasure. -Normal citizens also have access to Frontier Net, meaning that as you explore more you start getting new NPC dialogue -Data probes can be upgraded to, for example, mine for materials or to boost your combat stats while you're in their vicinity -The effectiveness of the upgrades changes depending on location -Simple "get x materials" or "kill x enemies" -type quests can be found on the quest board. -Quests relating to named NPCs will change the affinity chart, just like in the original Xenoblade. The Planet Mira: -The first area is named roughly "Primeval Wilderness". -To its northwest is the "Forest of Nocturnal Luminescence", which contains lots of giant glowing plantlife. -The southeastern continent is the "Forgotten Canyon", a desert/savannah area. -To the north of the initial continent is "The Continent of White Trees", a pretty alien looking area. -Beyond that is "The Continent of Black Steel", a volcanic area. -All the continents have various landmarks, secret areas and outlook points. -You can dash jump and teleport to areas via the Frontier Net to move faster. -The Navigation Ball is a nopon-made item that allows you to release a glowing ball that shows the path to your current quest target. -The Hopper Camera launches a floating camera that allows you to view your current location from the air. -Dolls are faster than walking and can transform to Chariot Form, which is even faster. -Flying with your Doll lets you find otherwise inaccessible areas. -Dolls can only be used by selected Blade personnel. Lifeforms: -Nopon are traders who live in caravans. -The blue guy with the horns is called Lu Sylphe. He sells the Nopon his artwork and is interested in history. -The little guys with the big floppy ears are Ma Non. They are a pacifistic and technologically advanced species that isn't native to Mira. The huge spaceship at 21:34 is one of theirs. They love pizza. -The guys with the masks and the big guns are a violent non-native race called the Baias. They intend to kill all humans. -There's also an announcement for a Xenoblade X Wii U bundle and an ad for Xenoblade 3D, "the story of a heroic nopon and his friends".
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Feb 6, 2015 16:03
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Farg posted:So is the 5 areas that they showed supposed to be all/the bulk of the areas in the game? Thats a bit underwhelming if true, even though the areas look pretty nice Keep in mind that if those are all the areas, then each of them is roughly the same size as the entirety of Xenoblade.
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Feb 10, 2015 09:10
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A lot of new pages this week. -New illustration featuring the confirmed party members and Lu. -A page explaining Blade's duties and unions. -When you join a union, you receive "Union Support" from them. If you do tasks related to the union's field of expertise (for example, Pathfinder sets data probes, Avalanche kills unique monsters and Land Bank collects supplies and raw materials for the colony), you get "Union Points" which can raise your rank in the union. Belonging to a union doesn't restrict which activities you can do. -A page on doing quests. -Four types of quests: story quests advance the storyline, affinity quests strengthen the affinities of party members and allow you to meet new characters, normal quests are received from NLA citizens and simple quests are received from the quest board. -The page has a video of the quest board: each quest has a name, a category (the three shown in the video are "talk", "exterminate" and "collect") and a difficulty of 1-3 stars. The quest details have the quest giver, quest location, description and reward. -The video shows the player getting an achievement for taking his first simple quest. -The video also shows the main menu, which has a bunch of stuff: a list of "weather effects" which shows clear skies, a list of "battle probe effects", an indicator for your current union, experience gauges for your level, union rank and Blade level the amount of Miranium and reward tickets you have, field skill levels, guest characters and money. -The bottom of the page has an image of the quest indicator and a video of the Navigation Ball we saw in last week's video. -A page on the districts of NLA. No new information here, really, but there's a video showing the city at night. -A world map with screenshots of various locations. -A video of character creation and voice samples for the player character (10 for both sexes) -A gallery of characters created by the staff Doc V fucked around with this message at 10:28 on Feb 14, 2015 |
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Feb 12, 2015 13:42
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Interestingly, Shulk, Reyn and Melia's Japanese voice actors are all providing voice sets for the player character in X. Fingers crossed for Jay Taylor in the English version.
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Feb 12, 2015 19:18
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Eponymous posted:Boy I wish there was more news stuff to talk about. Any translations of those magazine articles out there? Anything is preferable to internet slapfights about anime, so I translated the whole goddamn Famitsu interview myself. quote:Monolith Soft's challenge, indicated by the X in the title
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Feb 14, 2015 21:44
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Small tidbit from the official twitter: equipment slots are mostly the same as the previous game (head, torso, arms, legs and feet), except the arms slot has been split into left arm and right arm. Just like the previous game, the stuff you have equipped will appear in cutscenes.
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Feb 16, 2015 11:06
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SatansBestBuddy posted:Do we also have feathery tribal gear and bathing suits? I need to know how silly I can make cutscenes. Swimsuits are already confirmed. I dunno about tribal gear in particular, but considering that you can dress up as a juggalo ninja, I'm guessing that you can make things very, very silly.
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Feb 16, 2015 18:00
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Yeah, those are faceplates. Anyway, this week's website update: -A page about Frontier Net and Data Probes. Data probes will automatically mine for the all-purpose mineral Miranium and "rare resources". -Data probes can be upgraded with higher efficiency versions obtained from quests and treasure boxes. -Data probe icons: quote:-mining probe: increases the rate of obtaining Miranium -A page about the Segment Map. -Segment icons: quote:-Contains Frontier Net Spot quote:-Contains unique monster Ru posted:Inventor on the planet Mira Also, Amazon.co.jp put up the download sizes for both games: "up to 3.6 GB" for Xenoblade 3D and "over 22.7 GB" for Xenoblade X.
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Feb 19, 2015 09:20
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SatansBestBuddy posted:Hmm, does it say anything about being able to change what type of data probe is in an area? It sounds like you choose what type it is when you first put it down, but that raises the question of what if the type of probe you picked is ill suited for an area? Like, what if you put a Research Probe down in a region that has no hidden areas, would you be able to change it to another type or are you stuck with your bad decision? The site doesn't specify either way, but the UI shots in the pseudo-Direct seem to imply that you can change the locations afterwards (namely, the probe list shows both how many of each probe you have at hand and how many of that probe type you have total, both in your inventory and deployed, which doesn't seem like it would be useful to know if you can't rearrange them). Upgrading does cost money, though, so you probably don't want to move your probes around after every quest or anything.
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Feb 19, 2015 11:47
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It's Thursday, so we've got another website update: First off, some minor stuff from Twitter: -Like in Xenoblade, the enemies that show up will change depending on the time of the day. -In X, weather isn't just a visual effect, it also causes effects that impact battles. There's a new page on time and weather, complete with video. -The people of NLA do different stuff at different times and more powerful monsters show up at night. -The time can be changed at rest spots like Blade camps. New illustration showing the two new characters introduced in this update. Doug posted:Blade trooper who excels in every aspect of combat Lao posted:Blade team leader There's also part 1 of a short story about the creation of Blade, but I'm not going to translate it right now because that thing's like five pages long. Doc V fucked around with this message at 11:03 on Feb 26, 2015 |
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Feb 26, 2015 10:19
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The Black Stones posted:Takahasi is probably wanted to throw work to someone he worked with before. I'm assuming they're probably friends or something. Yeah, Kunihiko Tanaka did the character designs for Xenogears and the Xenosaga games, so it's not really surprising to see him do the character designs for Xenoblade X.
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Feb 26, 2015 23:19
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The Birth of BLADE A Xenoblade Chronicles X short story by Takeda Yuuichirou (script writer for Xenosaga and Xenoblade) PART.1 - The Planet Had No Name It was because the majority of the species inhabiting it had not reached the level of knowledge required to understand the structure of their world. In their tongue, what their feet tread on was a flat plane called "land", not a globe called "planet". To be more exact, some individual who had grasped the concept of a planet might have been hiding somewhere, but he or she - or perhaps they - had not chosen to share that realization with others. Therefore, it was not yet "the planet Mira". It was just "land that is big and big and so big it be annoying". "Aaahh, it really so big and big that it be annoying", muttered the walking potato. No, while it did bear a resemblance to the potatoes native to the area, it was no potato. It was a boy from a race called Nopon. His name was Tatsu. "No complain! It Tatsu's fault for taking us so far!" The one who replied was likewise a potato-like thing that was not a potato. Although, with his green skin he rather more resembled a melon - Lon, a Nopon boy. The two were both Nopon from the Dodonga caravan. As a race of traders, the Nopon had, with a few exceptions, no permanent settlements. They formed caravans of many, many, tens of families and lived life one journey at a time. They dealt in all sorts of goods: animals and plants, hand-crafted items and works of art. Nopon secret items were also important trade goods. Business had its ups and downs. Sometimes they mooched on friendly races using their adorable appearance, sometimes they were swindled by the less scrupulous races. Nevertheless, they usually earned enough to continue their travels at a leisurely pace. Their journey had no end. They wandered whichever way they fancied, stayed a while where they could make a profit and sometimes freeloaded in the cities of other races. Among them were also rumored to be caravans that continued to aimlessly search for the holy land of Nopon legend. But the Dodonga caravan was just an ordinary caravan. No-one knew anymore how many generations had passed since Dodonga the founder, but the current leader was level-headed to an unnoponlike degree. Heading across lands bearing abundant fruit, depending on friendly races to eliminate hostile monsters, the journey of the Dodonga caravan continued. But, to a boy brimming with curiosity, such a carefree journey was "Boring and boring and Tatsu can't stand it!". Tatsu, the most inquisitive boy in the caravan, dragged along his friend Lon and went scouting. The purpose of scouts was to obtain food and trade goods, and they were also burdened with the vital task of finding trade partners. Scouting was a task even small boys had to carry out diligently. However, in contrast to Tatsu, the self-titled Master of Scouting, Lon had never performed such duties. "Lon's special skill, guarding own home!", he always insisted, shutting himself in the tent he called home. "Lon never become adult like that! Tatsu teach Lon how to scout!" "Lon refuse! Lon live his life as own home security guard!", Lon said, resisting Tatsu's attempts to drag him into the outside world. Nevertheless, his resistance was in vain and he had to leave his home tent - or rather, he was kicked out. "How long you plan to mooch on mamapon!? Mamapon can't feed Lon forever! Become adult already, give mamapon a rest!" She had a point. Nopon legends tell of the Hom Hom race who taught the Nopon valuable words of wisdom: "If one does not work, one does not eat". Words that crystallized Lon's situation. "...No use. This way Lon get chosen Legendary Heropon. Lon at least want to avoid that" Saying that, Lon, now driven out of his dear home, agreed to go along with Tatsu. Reluctantly, unwillingly, begrudgingly. However nonconsensual, it was nevertheless a precious first step. "No worry. Leave all to Tatsu. Complete scouting duty together, give mamapon peace of mind" "Y-yeah, Lon understand!" And thus, the two Nopon boys went scouting, still unaware that it would be the first step towards a cruel fate. At first, scouting went swimmingly. They ate the plants growing along the way and they ate bugs. If something tasted bad they would spit it out, if it tasted good they stashed it in their Nopon bags. What you can't fit in your belly, bring home to sell. "Mmm, this delicious!" Both Tatsu and Lon seemed satisfied. The little bugs living in the forest - as their race loves naming things, they would later give it the name Full Belly Forest - had a soft lump of fat under their hard shell and were quite the treat for a Nopon. Unfortunately, the only law in the forest was the survival of the fittest. Most things in the world have to obey the food chain: while there were things that Nopon would eat, there were also things that would eat Nopon. While chasing after the delicious offerings of Full Belly Forest, Tatsu and Lon had gone astray and caught the eye of a gigantic carnivore. "Ta, Ta-ta-ta, Tatsu! That thing, looking this way!" The creature, which would later be named Tapenta, had plants and flowers growing on its carapace and was lurking burrowed into the ground. Thus, the Nopon had walked right up to it without noticing its presence. The Tapenta rose up, staring at Tatsu and Lon ferociously. It was eyeing the two in the exact same way they had eyed Full Belly Forest. "No look away! It attack if show weakness!" "G-got it!" The two backed away from the Tapenta without breaking eye contact. Nopon aren't very smart, after all. To the Tapenta, they were nothing more than potatoes that had sprouted limbs and gone for a walk. Without sparing a thought to whether the two were showing weakness or not, it pounced right at them. In a panic, Tatsu and Lon ran off in separate directions. "Aaahh, me not tasty! If eat someone, eat Tatsu!" "Just like Lon says! Tatsu very juicy and make for great feast - wait, huh?" Perhaps the beast understood their words perfectly, or perhaps it simply preferred potatoes to melons - the Tapenta came chasing after Tatsu. "Uaaahh, not good to trust Nopon words so easilyyyy!" Sensing that the danger had passed, Lon came to a stand-still. Then, taking the lesson his friend had taught him to heart, he turned to face the direction of the bloodcurdling screams and whispered to himself: "...Tatsu, Lon never forget your sacrifice. Lon take lesson you taught to heart, and live whole life as own home security guard. Outside world very scary." Then, Lon began to walk, but as a Nopon with no sense of direction and thanks to having been chased around by a monster, finding the way back to the caravan was nigh impossible. He ended up wandering in the opposite direction of the caravan and finally, after several days, collapsed. Fortunately, he was later discovered by a member of a friendly species passing through the area and spent the rest of his life as the alien's pet-turned-home-security-guard - but that's another story. "Aaahh, you persistent! Give up already!", Tatsu screamed while fleeing, but the Tapenta had no intention of giving up. "I-i-i-it understandable! You attracted by allure of Tatsu's bodyyy! Aaahh, beautiful body full of fat, with perfect balance of soft and firm. Smell great if cook on open fire. Tatsu drool just thinking of - wait, why Tatsu drooling over own meat!?" Getting lost in thought while running is not recommended, as it may cause you to fail to watch your step. Right then, Tatsu's foot caught in a metal object that had been cleverly hidden in the underbrush. "Uwaaagghhh!" Tatsu tripped and rolled away like a potato that had fallen from a basket. At that moment, however, it was very fortunate, because right before his tumble the Tapenta's jaws had been about to snap shut around him. Furthermore, the very next moment, the Tapenta that had failed to chomp down on its delicious prey was lit up by concentrated laser fire from all directions. The metal object that Tatsu had tripped on was a trap someone unknown had laid. The four laser cannons set in the forest roasted the Tapenta until it was well-done and delicious. "Wheeew, tasty tasty" Tatsu finished eating the Tapenta whole roast and lay down in front of the leftover carapace, stretching out his limbs. Well, his limbs were so stubby that the word "stretch" is hardly appropriate, but this is a story, so please overlook that. Anyway, Tatsu finished eating a monster that was several times his size. How he fit all of that in his tiny body, that was a great enigma, one of the ninety-nine mysteries of the Nopon. Anyhow, Tatsu had overcome a crisis that would forever be recorded in the annals of Nopon history. But there was something he should have considered instead of getting absorbed in his meal: the trap that had saved his life - who could possibly have set it? "THIS THING ATE OUR PREY!" "ARE YOU KIDDIN' ME!?" The voices were what woke Tatsu from his comfortable and satisfied after-meal nap. It might have just been because their translators weren't very advanced, but their words sounded grating and harsh on the ears. As Tatsu sat up, he witnessed a sight of two aliens aiming guns at him. They spoke and carried weapons, so they were unmistakably sentient, but looking at them, he couldn't help but see wild beasts that had mistakenly stood up on their hind legs. They were of a species called Byas. They had arrived in the region only very recently, and Tatsu had neither seen them nor heard of them ever before. "Y-you two, what you want from Tatsu!?" "YOU STOLE THE PREY CAUGHT IN OUR TRAP. SO, WE'LL JUST MAKE YOU OUR PREY INSTEAD!", uttered the Byas before lunging to grab Tatsu. Tatsu fled in a panic. On the run once again. It was the same thing all over again, just the Tapenta had been replaced with a pair of Byas. If I live through this, I'll never again let my guard down in a dangerous place just because I avoided danger once - that is a lesson Tatsu should've learned from all this. But then again, Nopon have very small brains, so it's doubtful that they have spare memory capacity to spend on such things. "Aaahh, it seem fate of pretty boys like Tatsu to get hunted by beastly savages. If so, Tatsu not want these guys, Tatsu want a pretty girl who prepare ingredients neatly and cook Tatsu up with caaaare!" That's what Tatsu thought of as he kept running. Luckily, Byas aren't a very agile species and in a maze-like forest the nimble Nopon has the advantage. "Mmm-hmm, seems like Tatsu lost them somehow!" Though the Byas had chased him tirelessly, Tatsu had managed to pull ahead and found himself in an area close to the Dodonga caravan encampment. "Huh, Tatsu know this place somehow!" He recognized the landscape from when he had been walking in the forest. Certainly, if he went this way, there would be a cliff from where he would be able to see the caravan. Pushing his tiny brain to its limit, he let his memories guide him. Then, he finally arrived atop the cliff. ...But that was nothing but the opening act to another cruel fate. As he approached the cliff, the first thing he saw were several pillars of black smoke, rising up to the sky. And then, standing on the edge of the cliff, the sight of the camp, burnt to cinders without mercy, entered his vision. The tents of the Dodonga caravan had been all been burned and trampled to the ground, but the bodies of his family and the rest of the Nopon were nowhere to be seen. "This...!" Had the Nopon of Dodonga caravan escaped somewhere or had they been taken captive? Tatsu didn't see any corpses, so he didn't believe they had all been slaughtered. He didn't want to believe. Not to mention the gun-toting Byas. Had they voraciously - he didn't want to think such thoughts. "Everyone...definitely safe, right...?", Tatsu muttered, remembering the faces of all of his friends and family one by one. And then, something hard pressed against the back of his head. Turning around, Tatsu saw the barrels of the two Byas' guns pointed at him. Ferocious, beastly eyes narrowed. "FINALLY CAUGHT UP TO YOU. YOU SURE GAVE US A CHASE." He had no strength left in his body nor his soul. The Byas tied up Tatsu, who had no intention of resisting, and tossed him into a cage. The two Byas set off, one in front, one in the back, with the cage in between them, hanging from a pole hoisted on their shoulders. Of course, inside the cage huddled their delicious prey. Tears came streaming from under the round glasses. Tatsu the prisoner was crying. Soon to be devoured, he should have cursed his own fate, but he didn't, because he would likely never again be able to meet the scattered people of his caravan. He had imagined that he would leave from the caravan on his own journey someday. He had dreamed that he would gather sidekicks and head off to defeat an evil god. "But, Tatsu never imagined he no can go back home like this..." From the gap between the bars, Tatsu looked up at the sky. It was blurred by tears, but today's big, big sky was blue. The fact that on its other side was a vacuum called space was yet unknown to the Nopon. A shooting star streaked across the blue sky. "Oh starpon, please listen to Tatsu's wish! At least let these guys have a pretty lady companion, who neatly make Tatsu into delicious meal! Tatsu sense of beauty not allow being eaten whole by these savage brutes! Tatsu refuse being eaten alive and will never do funny wiggle in mouth! And-" Tatsu's wish went on and on, because the shooting star did not fade away. It was no tiny meteorite burning into nothing in the upper layers of the atmosphere. It was an enormous man-made object, breaking apart as it fell. "Uwaahh-" Tatsu forgot what he was wishing for and stared at the giant mass falling down on the other side of the mountains. The fact that the disc-shaped object was the residential block of a massive interstellar colony vessel was beyond the limits of a Nopon's comprehension. As for the fact that it marked the appearance of the ones who would give "land that is big and big and so big it annoying" the name "planet Mira", that was something Tatsu would come to know in a little while... To be continued...
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Feb 27, 2015 22:05
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Louisgod posted:Next time please source where on fanfiction.net you found that It's from the official site, but if you'd prefer that I stop translating poo poo for this thread, I can do that.
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Feb 28, 2015 09:26
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 Another video presentation coming next Friday, 22:00 Japan timeThis time they're talking about the combat system.
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Mar 2, 2015 10:04
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Whew, just barely got this done before the stream: 24 Hour Happy People A Xenoblade Chronicles X short story by Kazuho Hyoudou PART.1 - "Do people really eat to live, or do they live to eat?" "Do people really eat to live, or do they live to eat?" "That's very philosophical of you, oh great teacher Lynlee Coo" "It's not a hard question. I'm worried about lunch tomorrow" I retorted, trying on purpose to sound prickly, and heard a chuckle from Elma's throat. On her brown face, pale blue eyes narrowed with a smile. It brought to mind a scene from an old fantasy movie I'd seen at the library. Ah, she really is wonderful... Faced with her mysterious smile, my heart filled with happiness. It was obvious she was teasing me with the "great teacher" and all, so I tried to get back at her by getting snippy and- I give up. I didn't care about that any more, Elma was wonderful. I'm not religious, but when people are near something holy and get the feeling they can't lie, I'm sure it feels exactly like this. It's weird; just thinking about it made even this grease-reeking corner of the maintenance dock feel clean and refreshing. "If this is about our food supplies being in critical condition, I don't want to hear it" "That's- we've got enough stale lettuce and bland porridge to last all eternity. But isn't there more to eating than that? It's vital to conserve food aboard a space ship, but being able to look forward to your meals has to be just as important" "Seems you were really unsatisfied with the menu this morning" "Ughh, that rice bran bread, if I could just- this isn't about that! What are you making me say!? The point I'm trying to make here is that, especially in the army, a repetitive menu has a huge impact on troop morale!" It would soon be two years since the interstellar colony vessel "White Whale" left Earth. With no clear destination, their journey through space demanded somewhat ascetic lifestyles, proportionate to the shard of metropolis formed within the colony ship's hull. Even so, going to the city section would put some amount of variety on your menu, and the situation was far from stressful as long as you didn't pretend to be a gourmet. The food production system had been completed and food synthesizing technology had advanced considerably in the last two years, so even if my remark about lettuce and porridge was a bit exaggerated, it didn't seem like the food situation on the colony ship would require any drastic regulations for the next few generations. But... I'm sure it's because the person in charge of the provisional meals was the type who had been fine with just eating fries every day back on Earth, but in the army, the meals had no diversity to speak of. Every morning was a repeat of cereal and bread and lunch was the exact same, only with the addition of either Chinese tea or dandelion coffee, whichever you preferred. Thrice a week, deep-fried meat of unknown origin showed up at supper. Even old army rations must've placed a higher importance on pleasure. "Elma, what if you really felt like eating ice cream late at night?" "I've never felt anything like that" "Then imagine it!" "Let's see... Having a personal stash is forbidden in the army, but nevertheless heading into the city is out of the question. Anyway, it's not recommended to eat outside regulated hours" "That's right. You've got no choice but to endure it" "Yes" "What if an attack comes right then?" "What about it?" "The thought of ice cream is going to keep popping in your head while you're moving out, right?" "No. I'll be focusing on my duties" "But you really wanted to eat it. Won't you regret it?" "I don't think so, although... Yes, that's right, if I push my imagination to the limit, I can see how I could use that as a source of motivation to devote myself to my duties. Because I'd be able to eat ice cream the next time I get a day off" "Auughhh..." drat it, I made a mistake. I made a massive mistake. I wanted her to understand how much military performance could be affected by unsatisfying food, but to Elma, who was so thoroughly stoic it must have been built into her at a genetic level, the ice cream parable seemed to have been utterly unrealistic. But I won't give up. "But even on your next day off you won't get permission to go out, that feeling of despair is what the state of provisions in the army is like right now!" "I see. I understand what you're trying to say" Expressionless, Elma nodded. I already knew it was a sign of her silent agreement rather than apathy, so a sigh of relief escaped my lips. "I knew I could count on you to understand" Well, it took a bit more work than I expected... "You plan to break the repetition" "Yes. Even if it's just once a week- no, once a month, I want to get a chance to cook for everyone! I'm gonna show that I can make something that makes people happy!" "...And you want me to clear that with the person in charge of the provisional meals?" "That's because... If I asked them, they'd just call me a selfish kid and turn me down" I remembered the faces of the men running the mess hall who'd repeat "We ain't got milk for kids, it's valuable" like broken records whenever I went there, and turned away from Elma. I didn't want her to see my face twist in anger. "Understood. Frankly, your request doesn't seem to have any negative consequences, so I'll ask" Holding a high rank in the army and this colony ship, Elma rarely showed emotion in normal conversation. Having just turned thirteen, even my meager amount of social experience was enough for me to understand that that was part of being an adult. But lately, I'd started thinking it might just be her personality after all. Elma was a person who was tacit by nature - and the person who, in the end, gave me a smile just this once when I asked her to help, that was Elma as well. It wasn't that she was holding back her emotions because she was an adult; on the contrary, she was an awkward person who didn't know how to properly express them. "Elma, thank you so much!" "What are you thinking of putting on the menu? It'll be hard to get the current manager to co-operate and even getting ingredients won't be easy" "I know, I've thought it all through!" I puffed up with with pride and enjoyed the surprised look on Elma's face. "I've actually got some connections. Powerful connections, who can get me ice cream if I feel like it in the middle of the night..." The military facilities and the urban section were not that far apart. The insides of the colony ship, so massive it could've swallowed a large city whole, were split into sections that were arranged according to the tasks they carried out, and the pathways between them were well maintained. But once you entered the urban section, it was a whole different story. The landscape here was the polar opposite of functional. There were obviously no skyscrapers, but even then, the rows of buildings, holding the daily lives of a myriad of humans within them, looked almost like a dense forest. Innumerable roads ran between them as if stitching them together, used to accommodate cars bought by enthusiasts for exorbitant amounts of money. There was talk of stray cats in the messy back alleys - though that may have just been an urban legend - and there were trees in the park, there were even places where holographic projections were used to mimic Earth's sky, changing to reflect the passage of time. It was a place where you could almost forget you were inside a vessel sailing through deep space - and of course, the "city" was designed with that exact goal in mind, built upon a deliberate illusion. It was nostalgic, and to the newly nomadic humans it was consolation given physical form. It was a facility. It might just have been an façade, but if people could live as they had lived before, perhaps they would dwell less on the past, and perhaps they could distract themselves from the loneliness of wandering through the void of space. I left the main road, retraced my steps when I noticed I had been unconsciously heading towards the junk shop, and entered an alleyway. Speaking of the junk shop, I remembered hearing that a really good deal had come in and hesitated quite a bit, but today I didn't come here as a mechanic, I came here as a cook who wants to pitch in and help everyone. Uplifted by my modest sense of duty, I made my way towards my original goal. The alley, cluttered as if someone had spilled the contents of a warehouse all over it, was brimming with cheerful energy. Most people called it Fisherman's Alley, and many stalls were lined up there. You could buy food and ingredients that you would never see in the ship-management-endorsed supermarkets at the so-called market, and it was always filled with quite a bustle. Despite the name, there was obviously no fish for sale, and most of the foods on exhibit were synthetic compounds that each stall's owner had obtained through their own personal channels. There were also home-grown vegetables and self-raised crustaceans, but they were expensive and generally nothing more than display goods for attracting customers. There were also wannabe chemists who dealt in foodstuffs they had synthesized with their own techniques. It was strictly speaking illegal, but the authorities were willing to overlook it as part of the bustle of the city's social life, a stance for which all of the colony ship's inhabitants were silently thankful. I slipped through the crowd, exchanging greetings with familiar shopkeepers, and a gloomy storefront came to view. The store I was heading for was located within the even twistier depths of the alley. It was run by a man who used to be a famous university professor back on Earth, so it wasn't hard to guess that he sold various types of meat he had synthesized himself. They were guaranteed to be safe and tasted good, so I had decided to use them for the food I'd cook on my special day. I arrived in front of the store and, gripping the doorknob I knew very well from coming here countless times, opened the door. Expecting a cheerful voice going "Oh hey, it's you again", I was prepared to return the greeting with a smile. But the voice never came. Instead, the inside of the store was dark and the glass cases were empty. The various foodstuffs, so gleaming with freshness you'd never believe they were synthesized, were gone without a trace. "...Welcome" Inside the shop I had presumed empty, I heard a voice so faint I wasn't sure I hadn't imagined it. I flinched with surprise, but it wasn't enough to make me yelp. With maximum vigilance, I stared at the back of the shop. "Umm..." "Sorry, but we aren't open. As you can see, we've go nothing to sell, and the management has changed, too" A man was sitting wedged between two glass cases, as if he'd gotten himself stuck. He looked a little younger than Jean, the shop owner I knew, but with his skinny body and the wrinkled clothes wrapped around it, he gave off the air of a grieving old man weighed down by his years. "What happened to Jean?" "Who knows... I don't know. I don't know anything. All I know is absolutely nothing" He must've been responding to me, but the way he spoke seemed more like he was muttering to himself. It was extremely rude - but also really creepy. "Well..." "Tony" "Huh?" "Tony Neues. It's my name" "Oh... I'm Lynlee Coo" "Lynlee... Coo..." "Anyway, Tony. I can't buy meat here any more?" "Yeah. I don't have synthesis skills like Jean. Yeah... I don't. I've got nothing at all..." "I see... Ah, no! When I said 'I see', I didn't mean you, I meant the thing about not being able to buy meat-" "It's okay. Thank you..." He probably thanked me because I was kind and worried about his feelings, but his voice was so flat that it just sounded really creepy. drat it, this conversation is going nowhere. I wanted ask about Jean's whereabouts, but for some reason the words got caught in my throat. Sighing inaudibly, I started to leave with a "Well, then". However, when I turned around, several men had appeared out of nowhere and were standing in the doorway. A gaudy t-shirt, a worn suit, a skin-tight tank top... Those were the uniforms of the so-called thugs of the city. "We were lookin' for ya, Tony" The man in the worn suit raised his voice, looking past me as if I wasn't there. "Why would you be... looking for me... Some of the people you hang out with must've heard the story" "Sure, but the rights to this shop weren't that easy to get. What a shame" The man in the worn suit laughed. With no clue about what was happening, I looked back at Tony and saw him standing up, bracing himself on the glass cases for support. He looked awfully flustered. "Lyn- Get out!" How rude! But I forgot my criticism when I heard a chilling sound from behind me. An outdated yet terrifying metallic click. The muzzle of a gun, illegally manufactured in a city overrun by nostalgia... that is what I saw over my shoulder. Tony roared like a beast and I sensed him charging towards me. Turning back towards him, I instinctively started running. The next moment, the sound of a gunshot filled the shop. To be continued...
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Mar 6, 2015 13:36
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Also yeah, the stream is starting in around 20 minutes, seems like it'll be 29 minutes long: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcXifz5HaNw
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Mar 6, 2015 13:39
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My notes from the new video: -Tatsu follows you around so that he can gather information from the locals for you, but he doesn't actually participate in combat -As we've seen before, you can switch between melee and ranged attacks Arts: -Four types of arts: melee arts, ranged arts, support arts and weakening arts -Melee and ranged arts do what you'd expect -Support arts heal allies and apply buffs -Weakening arts stun and debuff enemies -Like in the previous game, arts have cooldowns Some of the art descriptions shown in the video: -Battle Cry: draws aggro, can be cast repeatedly if overcharged -Rising Blade: extra 25% damage if your target is targeting you, overcharging increases damage -Power Drive: gives you "palette charge" and allows you to dodge all attacks while active. Overcharging increases the effect and duration. -Burst Grenade: costs 1000 TP to use; deals heat damage, inflicts burn and deals triple damage to toppled enemies. Deals extra damage if overcharged. -Razing Blast: double damage during a combo, overcharging makes it generate tension on hit -Aggressive mode: costs 1000 TP, increases accuracy, attack and sustained damage. Overcharging increases aura level and duration -Protection mode: costs 1000 TP, reduces close range attack and sustained damage, gives regeneration, overcharging increases aura level and duration -Blade Cyclone: generates 50 TP if you have an aura, overcharging increases damage Soul Voice: -Your party members will tell you to use certain arts in battle; if you do, you activate soul voice -Soul voice restores HP and has other effects like increasing damage -Sometimes you'll get a prompt to press B - this allows you to initiate soul voice yourself -There are 16 conditions that can trigger the B prompt, like first art of the battle, low HP, aura activation or enemy knocked down. -For each condition, you can pick one of 3 different lines, which all tell your allies to do different things and give you different buffs Battle strategies: -Certain arts can be combo'd: they will do extra damage if you use them right after using certain other arts -Break and topple work like in the previous game -Attacking enemies from behind or from high ground increases accuracy and crit rate -Certain arts like Slit Edge have extra effects depending on your position -You can destroy enemy body parts to inflict debuffs and get extra loot -Arts can be overcharged ("Double recast") by not using them after they've finished cooling down -Autoattacking increases tension (TP, green gauge next to your HP) -You can spend TP to revive fallen allies -Overclock Gear: not available at the start of the game, massively shortens art cooldowns when activated -Use arts with the same color in succession to increse the number on the Overclock Gear, which increases the damage you deal -While the Overclock Gear is active, arts can be overcharged even further ("Triple recast"), which makes them even more powerful -Enemies with eye icon aggro on sight -Enemies with lighting icon aggro if they hear you -Enemies with a circle around the eye/lightning will join the battle if you attack other nearby enemies Equipment: -Melee and ranged weapons can be equipped separately -Melee weapons: knife, sword, shield, javelin -Ranged weapons: rifle, "gun" (more like a cannon), launcher -Armor types: head, torso, left arm, right arm, legs -The Arms Company is a group of companies in charge of weapons development -Different companies deal in different equipment -When you wear a company's equipment, you're giving them free advertisement, which allows them to generate the funds to develop new products -New arms companies run by aliens selling alien equipment open up as you progress through the story -You can insert devices (basically gems from the first game) into slots in your equipment Characters: -Your character has an "inner level" and a "rank" -As your inner level rises, you can equip better equipment -You can earn experience through combat, looting treasure boxes, finding new areas etc. -Your rank is your class level. You get new arts as your rank goes up and once you hit rank 10 in a class you get access to more specialized classes (capstone classes instead give you permanent bonuses at rank 10) -Irina, Guin, Doug, Lao and Ru are all playable -New playable characters: Madres, Fry, Celica -More playable characters become available as you complete various quests Next time: Dolls
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Mar 6, 2015 16:56
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ImpAtom posted:Try playing Namco x Capcom someday. That'll solve that belief. The people who made Xenoblade had absolutely nothing to do with Namco x Capcom.
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Mar 7, 2015 19:46
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ImpAtom posted:You're right. Monolith Soft has nothing to do with Monolith Soft. Despite the fact that if you look in the credits you can see that development team members worked on both the Xeno games and NxC/Project X Zone games. They have different directors and obviously not all of the team members are the same but "the people who made Xenoblade had absolutely nothing to do with Namco x Capcom" is straight-up wrong. Monolith Soft is a company consisting of three separate development studios. One of them made Xenoblade. Another made NxC. The design and programming teams of the two games had no overlap whatsoever, which you would have known if you had actually looked at the credits instead of just acting like a sarcastic rear end in a top hat.
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Mar 7, 2015 23:01
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ImpAtom posted:Monolith has separate development studios but the various studios have overlap. Yasuyuki Honne for example did work for the Xeno games and Project X Zone despite also being the project lead for things like Baiten Kaitos or that Dragonball game they made. Who the hell are you arguing with? You claimed that the people responsible for Xenoblade were also responsible for NxC, which is untrue. I never said there was no staff overlap between their other projects and I definitely never claimed the Xenoblade team was "a magical group of pixies who sprung fully formed from the ether". Literally the only thing I have argued is that Xenoblade and NxC were made by different people, because I have absolutely no interest in speculating about whether or not a game is going to suck based on the resumes of people who may or may not be involved with it. gently caress this, I'm going to bed.
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Mar 8, 2015 00:08
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jesus loving christ Motto posted:The party member stuff is pretty interesting. I'm guessing MC/Lyn/Elma/Tatsu are the ones who are always around in cutscenes and stuff, and then there are secondary party members who matter in the plot but aren't always around/cutscene relevant, and then optional minor members you get through guilds/quests who have their own sidestories, but are just warm bodies if they appear in main story scenes. That's pretty much what I was thinking too. Silvain posted:This is going to be like Chrono Cross where no one matters except the four you listed I'm not sure I'd go that far. The ones you get from side quests probably aren't going to be relevant, yeah, but the party members who got proper introductions seem to have at least some presence in the main plot. For instance, Irina shows up at the start of the cutscene with the tentacle thong alien despite not actually being in the party when the battle starts, and there was a scene in the E3 trailer that showed all the confirmed playable characters except Madres/Fry/Celica flying in Dolls together.
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Mar 8, 2015 10:38
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This week's website update: First, we've got a page on combat:. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeBLW7jMLb0 -Melee attacks deal more damage per hit, ranged attacks hit multiple times. -Melee weapons: knife, longsword, shield, dual sword, javelin, photon saber etc. -Ranged weapons: assault rifle, gatling gun, sniper rifle, ray gun, psycho launcher etc. -(note the etc., it seems there's more weapon types they haven't revealed) -basic battle controls: quote:-Target enemy: choose an enemy to attack Second, there's a new page on aliens: -Nopon: native inhabitants of Mira who lead trade caravans -Ma Non: technologically advanced peaceful aliens -Byas: one of a group of warlike alien species hostile toward humans Next up, a page about Arms Company: -Arms companies are businesses that develop equipment for characters and Dolls -Companies include Sakuraba Heavy Industries, Granada Galaxy Group and Meredes & Co. -You can support companies by providing them with Miranium or by defeating enemies with their weapons, which provides commercial points. As a company levels up, new equipment becomes available. -You can use materials found around Mira to upgrade your equipment -You can also use materials found around Mira to craft devices which can be slotted into equipment to power them up. -Rare materials can be used to develop special equipment. Finally, there's concept art for a sniper rifle There's also part 2 of the Birth of BLADE short story, I'll probably post a translated version sometime tomorrow. Edit: Also, there's new music on the main page and new header images. This one in particular got my attention:  That's Celica, one of the three new playable characters that were briefly shown in the last stream. If they gave her a whole header image, I guess she might have a bigger role in the story than I initially thought. Also, is that thing on the side of her head what I think it is? Doc V fucked around with this message at 10:57 on Mar 12, 2015 |
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Mar 12, 2015 09:28
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Junkie Disease posted:the lack of a book on this game makes me think there isnt a book. This has me worried. You want to read a book? Well, you're in luck: The Birth of BLADE A Xenoblade Chronicles X short story by Takeda Yuuichirou PART.2 - A sphere of water floating in empty space. Blue and beautiful, our homeland - Earth It was like a single jewel shining in the abyss. Like a signpost to the future suspended in the darkness. It captured our hearts, shook them vigorously, and won't let go. When was the last time I saw it? Was it during the DM engine training examination, when we rose to geostationary orbit? Or was it when we visited the Moon base for the inspection? Or maybe- At any rate, it was not when the "White Whale" set sail. Of that, at least, I'm certain. Back then we only looked ahead. We saw a gap, an unexplored abyss, between the great alien fleets blocking our path. We had our eyes on nothing else when we embarked on our journey and had no time to look back at our beautiful homeland floating behind us. And we will never again see it with our own eyes, because the Earth was annihilated in that battle... Kentarou Nagi was dreaming. He dreamt of the homeland he had lost two years ago. Perhaps dreams are like fleeting wind-wrought patterns in the sands of memory. Against the winds of awakening, they cannot hold their shapes and fade away. Waking up surrounded by darkness, Nagi felt as if the Earth had just disappeared before his eyes, and the feeling of loss brought him to tears. (Yes, I- we, we lost it. We lost Earth...) And then he remembered. He hadn't just woken up from slumber, he had regained his consciousness after passing out from a violent impact. His name was Kentarou Nagi, and he was a commodore in the United Earth Government Army as well as the captain of the "White Whale", an enormous colony ship that bore part of the burden in the plan to relocate all species on Earth. The plan to relocate all species on Earth - it was a plan to move the species that had originated on Earth to other heavenly bodies in the event that their homeworld was destroyed. It had been created by humankind to ensure that the destruction of their living environment would not lead to the extinction of all terrestrial life-forms. The destruction of Earth itself was something the United Earth Government had predicted over thirty years before. No, rather, that prediction had caused the formation of the United Government in the first place. It was back then that humanity found out the truth - that we weren't orphans of the cosmos, that neighboring species lived all over in the galaxy. At the same time, we became aware of an existential risk to our species. Based on the characteristics of the substances that made up their bodies, countless races had divided into two superpowers that were waging an endless war, and there was a possibility that the focal point of that war would shift towards our Earth. From that point on, humankind amassed the majority of its resources together to prepare for what was to come. We formed the United Earth Government and split our people, wealth and resources between plans for defense and survival. Of course, there were plenty of those who refused to ally with the people who would form the main faction of the United Government, but there was a global understanding that petty squabbling would lead to the total annihilation of their futures. For that purpose, the many closed their eyes and ears from the unhappiness and indignation of the few. And so, the United Government developed their two pillars: the technology to stand up against the alien powers and the technology to escape Earth and survive. Among their innovations were humanoid mobile weapons - Dolls. They were a trump card created to counter the aliens, based on extraterrestrial technologies. They were all-purpose weapons powered by energy transmitted from a mothership rather than an internal combustion engine. This allowed their frames to be miniaturized, and in a little under a decade a considerable number of them were produced, securing Earth's defense. ...Or so we thought. (Maybe we... were too naive) Nagi didn't embellish his memories. Thanks to the Dolls and the DM engines powering them, Earth's military strength grew rapidly, becoming several, even tens of times more powerful than it had been. And yet, humanity couldn't do anything. The two alien superpowers clashed in the vicinity of Earth. Caught between one enormous force colliding with another, the strength that humans wielded was far too diminutive. When the dragon battles the tiger, it's impossible for the single ant at their feet to protect its nest, even if it is tens of times stronger than usual. The only thing left for humanity to do was to entrust everything to a fleet of colony ships. Escape, survive and prosper somewhere else. Bearing the weight of that wish, Nagi and his crew escaped Earth, never looking back. They averted their eyes from the bright flash behind them - from the sight of the planet that had nurtured them being engulfed in a massive explosion. And thus, captained by Nagi, the colony ship "White Whale" left on its journey. However, after a two-year voyage its pursuers finally caught up. One of the two alien powers had come to dispose of them and assaulted them with a squad of biomechanical weapons. The terrifying living weapons phased through the walls of the residential district and invaded the ship's interior. Even worse, each of them carried an antimatter core at the center its body. The White Whale faced grave danger, infiltrated by biological war machines that could not be attacked recklessly. It was one young man who saved the White Whale from the invaders. His heroic acts drove the living weapons out of the ship, but both he and the Doll he was piloting went missing in the process. Unfortunately, the White Whale's crisis was far from over: an unknown planet stood right in their path, despite not being recorded in any of the star charts they had obtained before departure. "Why didn't anyone notice the planet until now? Were we so preoccupied with the pursuers? Or maybe..." Having sustained severe damage to its hull, the White Whale had no means of escaping the planet's gravity. Nagi took control on the bridge and, knowing that an emergency landing was unavoidable, took every measure to minimize the damage while piloting the ship. Then came the impact, and then blackness. While he was unconscious, he saw a pleasant dream of Earth - and then he woke up. "Wh, where...?" "Yo, Nagi, you awake?" A voice that was very familiar to him responded. It was commander Van Damme, the chief engineer of the White Whale who had been Nagi's friend for decades. Even though they were now a superior and an underling, they continued to ignore each other's ranks. "Van Damme, situation report..." "It ain't good... but I'd say we got pretty lucky" Van Damme briefly explained the situation. The White Whale had broken apart in the upper layers of the planet's atmosphere and the pieces had scattered on the surface. Their piece only contained the bridge and a few of the attached sections, and he hadn't seen any of the other pieces in the surrounding area. "Then- what about the planet's environment? Is it habitable?" Van Damme stayed silent and pointed with his right hand. Nagi turned his head and was dumbstruck. A large fissure ran across the outer wall and he could see the night sky through it. "The air... is breathable?" "There's more. The temperature is twenty degrees Celsius, the gravity is 0.94 Gs and radiation levels are within safety limits... Seems like we can live here without any protection at all" "That's- an unknown planet just coincidentally-" "Maybe it ain't a coincidence, maybe someone planned it this way - we should send them a thank-you-card" It was just like Van Damme said. It was very unfortunate that the ship had broken apart - it meant that humanity's journey towards a new home could no longer continue. However, the environment at their last stop was habitable without any terraforming at all, and it would've been an understatement to call that miraculous. Nagi couldn't help but feel that someone, whether it was God or the Devil, had been guiding them with an invisible hand. "Where's the rest of the bridge crew?" "All working. Scouting, restoring power, gathering usable supplies - there's lots to do around here. The only one still passed out is..." A young female operator lay collapsed on her console near Nagi. If memory served, she was a rookie named ensign Mei. "I'm second to last, huh? Getting old sucks" "The hell you talkin' about!?" Van Damme forcefully slapped Nagi's back. It was a rough way of showing praise, but the praise was deserved. On the bridge that shook as they pierced into the atmosphere, Nagi had withstood the impacts while piloting the ship to the last. The rest of the crew had assumed brace positions, but he didn't have that luxury. It was no wonder it had taken him so long to wake up. Even so, the first one to wake up had been the chief engineer, even though he had continued to operate the auxiliary DM engine instead of preparing for the impact. It seemed his tenacious body was on a whole different level from the others. "Uh, ugghhh..." A faint voice announced the awakening of the last crew member. Mei sat up and looked around. It seemed that somehow, the bridge crew were all uninjured. "Captain, chief engineer-!" Mei hurriedly stood at attention and saluted. Nagi forced a smile. "There's no need to observe etiquette in a situation like this" "Knock it off, we're all stranded here together like some kinda Robinson Crusoes" "R-roger!" Mei raised her hand to salute again, but stopped halfway and nodded instead. It seemed the youth had a very diligent personality. Nagi smiled, reminded of the other youth who had disappeared into the void of space. Nagi had known him since he was young, and the White Whale had been saved thanks to him. (No, it's too early to think we've been saved. Right now, we need to save ourselves. Sorry, but I'll have to forget about you for now...) Nagi quickly began issuing instructions on whatever came to mind. One by one, the bridge crew that had scattered into the surrounding area assembled and requested his orders. Indeed, they had to save themselves, because unlike Robinson Crusoe, they had no homeland waiting for their return beyond the sea... If they were to thank the designers of the White Whale, the first person they'd have thanked was whoever had had the foresight to fit every section with artificial gravity generators. Originally, the colony ship had been expected to travel for a long time, so the devices had been installed to prevent the crew from adapting to a zero gravity environment. Artificial gravity generators consume a lot of energy, so there had been heavy opposition, but in addition to spreading and preserving Earth's species their colony also had the important goal of preserving their lifestyles. To that end, an Earth city had been reproduced inside the residential block, so that it could later be relocated to the surface of the planet they settled. Its structure placed a burden on the resources of the ship, but the new technology known as the DM engine could endure it. In any case, the artificial gravity absorbed most of the impact of crashing on the surface of the roughly 1G planet and the bridge avoided critical damage thanks to its independent gravity generators. The other scattered blocks should've been mostly safe as well. "First, we'll have to find the other sections. Our main priority is the residential block, then the DM engine section and third... the Lifes" Nagi explained to the bridge crew who were silently waiting for his orders. The residential section would become the headquarters they'd need to survive on the planet. The main DM engine had sustained heavy damage, but the auxiliary engine still worked. To lead civilized lives, a base and an energy source were indispensable. And then... "Lifes, huh? We need to find 'em fast" Van Damme muttered, arms folded and a serious look on his face. The Lifes were, in a sense, the most precious cargo of the colony ship. Most of the colonists who had left Earth were sleeping within the stasis pods. "My big brother and parents are in stasis, so..." Mei muttered, looking uneasy. The only people who had been awake within the White Whale were the piloting crew, essential military personnel and the Life maintenance staff. It wasn't uncommon to have family among the sleepers. But even if they had endured the crash, the Lifes' systems would shut down if they ran out of energy. To save the sleepers inside, they had to find the Lifes before that, whatever the cost. The time they had left wasn't short, but it certainly wasn't long, either. "Well then, we'll start looking for the other pieces. First-" Nagi started issuing orders and then suddenly fell silent. "Hey, Nagi..." "Yeah, I noticed" It seemed Van Damme, too, had realized that they weren't alone. It was a night in a strange land, only illuminated by scant starlight just like the nights on Earth. In the darkness, something was breathing heavily. Ragged breathing and the sound of the ground being stomped. It did not seem to care about hiding its presence, so it probably wasn't a sentient life-form. If it wasn't one of the pursuing aliens, it must've been a native inhabitant. But whether it was an alien coming to exterminate humans or an indigenous predator approaching its prey, it posed a risk regardless. In an unknown world, they had to use their own strength to defend themselves from imminent threats. "...Does everyone have a firearm?" Everyone nodded to Nagi's question. "Good, we'll intercept them here. We would be at a disadvantage outside where there's no cover" The approaching enemies were likely nocturnal creatures and the crew had no chance if the fight devolved into a brawl. To avoid raising a panic, Nagi made an effort to sound calm as he announced: "Everyone, put your backs together and form a circle. Shoot the foes in front of you, leave your flanks and rear to the others - here they come!" A shadow, close in size to a human, jumped in from the crack in the bridge's outer wall. It was an indigenous creature that would later be named "Silnea". During the day, they're docile creatures found hanging from trees, but at night they become ferocious. They would've been no threat if the crew had mobile weapons, but the only weapons stored on the bridge were Battle Assault and Attack Assault type small caliber portable firearms. It was only natural, as you wouldn't expect the battles that take place on the bridge of a space ship to involve more than suppressing insurrections or close-quarters-combat. It was thought that using high output weaponry would cause a serious risk of hull breach. However, this battle had broken out in a situation where maintaining airtightness wasn't an issue. Nevertheless, the bridge crew fought back valiantly. Nagi's commands proved wise and they were able to stay calm while counterattacking, to great effect. They also no doubt found solace in the figure of Van Damme, facing the large crevice and looking formidable with a powerful Strike Assault in hand. He was the chief engineer, but he also had the air of a veteran soldier and with each pull of the trigger he blasted away the unknown creatures in the darkness. (Looks like we'll make it...) It would be too harsh to chalk up Nagi's optimism to carelessness, as they were still severely lacking in their knowledge of the unexplored planet. Perhaps due to some kind of a genetic prank, mutations are common among the various creatures of this planet. There are individuals that far surpass others of their kind in physical strength and intelligence, sometimes even in body size. The thing that appeared right outside the White Whale's bridge at that moment was one of those transcendent individuals - Overeds. When the huge - far too huge - native life-form appeared on the other side of the opening, Nagi and his crew felt no fear. It was like their sense of reality was hindered or the processing power of their brains had suddenly declined. Maybe their danger-sensing nerves had become numb, because the group was hypnotized by the enormous beast. Or maybe they mistook it for one of the race of the gods. The giant beast raised what appeared to be its forelegs into the air - and until it brought them crashing down, the group didn't move a single step. To be continued...
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Mar 14, 2015 13:37
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MechaCrash posted:One minor thing that I saw later on, at about 22 minutes when you're being told about Devices (which as stated elsewhere, are basically Gems from the prior game), one of the menu options was "Change Fashion." Does this mean you can get cosmetic armor slots? So you can look like you're wearing the sweet-rear end robot arm parts but get the stats from something else? Or maybe it's just a color change. I'm also curious what "check common" means, but I guess we'll have to wait and see on that one. I checked the original video and the literal translations for those are "change fashion equipment" and "verify (standard/usual/normal) equipment". I'm guessing that the former lets you use cosmetic slots like you said and the latter lets you see what your equipment looks like without the cosmetic customizations.
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Mar 17, 2015 09:37
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Okay, so on this page, we've got a bunch of monsters from the area around NLA (names may not be quite correct since we don't have the official romanizations): -Brass Femina Zoos: "A boar-like life-form with hard bumps on its head. The male (Brass Zoos) and the female differ in coloration and where they grow hair." -Stone Hippo: "Sharp fangs grow from its lower jaw. It has a gentle nature and is often found idle near watering holes." -Wood Fontela: "A herbivorous life-form that is over 6 meters tall. It extends its neck like a giraffe to eat leaves from trees." -Everlast Millezauro: "Huge life-form that resembles a dinosaur. It doesn't attack unless provoked and prefers to spend its time quietly relaxing." -Lake Rutol: "A mammal-like life-form that lives near water. Sometimes it idly lies on its back like a cat or a dog." -Quick Strut: "A bipedal life-form resembling a bird. It has wings but it's flightless. It lives in flocks and eats insects from the ground." -Junior Simius: "An ape-like life-form with four arms and two legs. They often move around in groups and their gigantic parents are usually not far away." -Young Lupus: "A ferocious carnivore. When hunting, in addition to preying on other native life-forms, it will boldly assault any humans it finds." -Docile Owis: "A small herbivore with a pompom on its tail. It loves sprouts and often inhabits verdant grasslands." -Youth Vasalt: "A six-legged, insect-like life-form; its front legs are shaped like sickles. It sometimes uses the sickles to burrow into the ground." -Welkin Lukiora: "A giant flying life-form gently floating through the air. It flies around its territory in fixed cycles." The video seems to be the in-game introduction to the concept of Overeds (unique monsters). According to Elma, a single Simius can usually take on three or four Vasalts, but on the contrary, "Pursuing Bolkampf" has killed several Simius despite looking like a normal Vasalt. Also, this week the little comedy skit thing they do with the Nopon plushes (which I haven't been translating since there hasn't really been any new info in it and Nopons are kind of a pain to localize) actually has a bunch of new screenshots: http://xenobladex.jp/special/sp-welcome20150319.html
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Mar 19, 2015 08:28
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24 Hour Happy People A Xenoblade Chronicles X short story by Kazuho Hyoudou PART.2 - "My film reel had nothing but food, just like the sushi-go-round I saw when I was little" The phenomenon you experience when you're about to die - I think I read about it in some novel. It painted a really emotional scene of a person weeping as they see their entire life flashing before their eyes in a single moment. When I think of what I saw when it happened to me, I'm deeply troubled. Because what I actually saw was a sushi-go-round, a stream of food going past on a conveyor belt. Face to face with death, I only thought of eating. I'm sorry, I'm so very, very sorry. I suddenly felt like I had to bow my head down and apologize to my life over and over again. "Keep your head down and run!" I heard Tony's voice in the midst of the gunfire. It was partly drowned out, but I understood the meaning clearly; it was the kind of voice that came with being forced to keep moving with your head down. I did as I was told and ran crouched between the tables and the shelves, and I could feel Tony following behind. Perhaps the gun-toting thugs weren't actually aiming at Tony, let alone myself, because instead of giving chase they just wasted bullets by firing wildly. Warning shots? Instead of trying to take our lives, were they telling us to surrender? In any case, since it seemed like I wouldn't be immediately shot and killed, I stopped the film reel in my heart. "Lyn, I don't want to get you involved in this, just get out of here!" "I feel like I'm plenty involved already" "If they catch you, you'll never be able to go back to your old life! That's the kind of people we're dealing with!" What had happened to the lethargy he had a moment ago? Tony was shouting like a father who firmly believed in strictness and discipline. "Oh Tooonyyy, don't tell me you're tryin' to run?" For a moment, the gunfire stopped and I heard the voice of one of the thugs, a teasing voice mixed with laughter. "Clinging onto life ain't like you, you know? We've got some buds waiting outside too. Don't go tirin' yourself out for nothin'" However, Tony paid them no mind and, still keeping his head down, kept urging me to move forward. Before I knew it, a door that looked like the rear entrance appeared a few steps ahead. "Get outside, I'll distract them" "No thanks" "What are you saying!? At least you'll-" "Thinking logically, your distraction wouldn't buy me that much time. They also have friends outside, and they aren't just going to ignore me when leave. In other words, your plan would likely prove completely pointless under current conditions" Having blurted all that out in one breath, I reached for the back door while urging Tony to follow. "Therefore, we should escape together. And then you can tell what caused this ruckus in the first place" I didn't wait for him to respond before hurling myself through the door. Leaving through the back door, we entered a weather-worn storage area with large wooden crates and steel drums. The sounds of gunfire started up again inside the shop, but the thugs didn't seem to be putting much effort in chasing us, almost as if we were now someone else's problem. As I was about to cautiously leave the shadow of a drum, a bullet came whizzing by, but not from the direction of the shop. It seemed to have been fired from a low-accuracy gun like the ones the thugs in the store had, as it hit a spot nowhere near me and bounced off. I pressed myself to the ground, looked around and saw several men running towards us from the direction of the shop's entrance. "This plan's not going so well, huh? Do these guys really want to catch us that bad?" I accidentally said what I was thinking out loud. Even though I was assigned to maintenance staff, I'd spent some time with the military and had at least a general understanding of my current tactical situation. That is, I was unarmed, and as things stood the thugs still had the initiative. "Let's head to the main street. You'll follow me, right?" "Y-yeah" It wasn't like I could guide Tony by the hand or anything, so I just gave him a signal and bolted out from behind the steel drum. The shooters had come from the direction of the entrance, so I couldn't head towards the booth-lined alleyway. Dodging their inaccurate fire didn't ultimately require that much caution as I rushed straight into a gap between two buildings, a maze of pipes and debris. I checked to make sure that Tony was still following obediently and made my way through the narrow space as quickly as I could. Moments later, the pursuers rushed into the gap as well, but they didn't open fire right away, perhaps afraid of being hit by their own ricochets. I continued to advance through the obstacle course, reminded of an amusement park attraction I had loved back on Earth. At this rate, it shouldn't take long to reach the main street. There, it should be much easier to escape than in an alleyway filled with dead ends. However, behind me, Tony's speed was dropping by the moment. "D-don't worry about me, just save yourself..." Out of breath, Tony blurted out a line that sounded like it belonged to some minor character in a comic book. I realized that the distance between him and the pursuers was decreasing rapidly. "It's not like you've got any reason to save me!" "I'm angry at those guys who just wave their guns around and don't listen to reason! I'm helping you escape out of pure spite, not because I want to do the right thing or whatever, so nothing you say is going to change my mind!" I screamed back at the exhausted Tony in order to get him fired up, but my anger was genuine. I was furious at how completely irrational the situation was and at the fact that I had been dragged into it. "Please pull yourself together! Just a little bit more!" I didn't think words alone were sufficient any more, so I grabbed his hand. It slowed down my escape remarkably, but Tony looked like he might stop moving altogether if I didn't. As the gap between us and them narrowed, the pursuers got a clear line of fire and started using their guns again. The chase had given them some practice and improved their aim. A bullet bounced off of a pipe, striking sparks and grazing my cheek. This could be bad... I was finally starting to lose my calm. It was only natural to feel fear so close to the unyielding threat of the gunfire. Pulling on Tony's arm so hard I nearly tore it off, I broke into a run again, aiming to escape the narrow space. The sharp sound of a ricochet echoed right next to me again, but I couldn't watch out for each bullet. Though Tony's stumbling was slow, he somehow managed to not trip and fall, and for that I silently praised him as we kept running. And then, finally, we managed to reach the wide open main street. It had about as much pedestrian traffic as you'd expect to see on a large street. A few people turned to stare at us as we suddenly burst out from the gap, but in a city forcibly crammed into a residential block that wasn't that large in the first place, there were more than a few people who got lost taking unconventional routes. Thinking that had happened to us, most people one the main street just walked past with little interest. What next? We could split up, or we could try to blend into the crowd together. Should we scream for help? No, no, even if we managed to get police protection, Tony's situation would probably make things complicated. While I was thinking things through, the pursuers were quickly catching up. Still holding on to Tony's arm, I chose to mix in with the crowd and started running. However, more thugs rushed out from behind the group I was heading for. Their leader spotted us and raised his arm to point, so I knew that they too would join the chase. I might have underestimated them a bit. The thugs had a reputation to maintain, so when things didn't go according to plan they'd get serious. Furthermore, since our escape might have hurt their pride, they might use pretty violent measures to let off steam if they caught us now. I shuddered at just the thought. "It's all over..." The pitiful voice was, of course, Tony's. I held back my urge to scream at him and used my anger to power my next move instead. Beyond the main street's sidewalk, I saw the road, congested all day long. Instead of trying to push through the crowd, I figured we'd have a better chance of escape if we turned the chase into yet another obstacle course by dodging through the traffic. I broke into a run. I didn't know how many times I had done that today. Even as I leaned forward I dragged Tony along by his arm. The chasers coming out from between the buildings joined up with the ones coming from beyond the crowd, doubling the number of people we had to shake off. In other words, the difficulty of our escape act had just doubled. It was no wonder that I, too, was running out of breath and started to feel like crying. I arrived at the guard rail and raised my leg to climb over it. When I was about to dash recklessly onto the road, a large motorbike pulled to a halt as though the driver thought I was going to start playing in the traffic. It hadn't been going fast, but if I had jumped onto the road just a little bit more quickly I might have caused quite a traffic accident. "Hey, what do you think you're doing!? That's dangerous!" I heard a voice, probably the biker's. It was a woman's voice. Wait... I think I've heard it before- "Lyn?" Hearing my own name, I looked up and saw a familiar face. My anxiety was gone in an instant and my whole body felt weak. I barely avoided collapsing where I stood, and my voice cracked like a broken ultrasonic weapon as I uttered: "Aahhh, Irina! Please help us!" The Irish bar was named Finnegans Wake. I was drinking sweet black tea and eating a (synthetic) scone at the subdued counter. Irina, who had come to the city to spend a day off, had saved us by successfully shaking off the the people pursuing myself and Tony. Even with the handicap of having three people on her bike, she had easily slipped through the traffic at high speeds - I was simply astonished by her skill as a driver. Afterwards, she wanted to ask about the situation and led us to take shelter in this bar. "So, in summary: you lost your home because you owed money to a gang, and you were in that shop to stand in for the owner, who had fled because he had a similar debt. But then it got attacked by yet another gang. Is that right?" "Yes... That's about it" Next to me, Tony was being interrogated by Irina. She had to be significantly younger than him, but Tony, huddled on his seat, looked a lot like a student being scolded by his schoolteacher. "They went out of their way to get a temporary manager for some run-down shop... With the limited residential space on the ship, I guess even something like that could be valuable real estate" "They said they'd go collect all the loan money I'd spent and in exchange, I'd have to be the shop owner on paper..." "But they never intended to get your money back. The debtors came barging in and now you're on the run too" Irina sighed with exasperation and Tony could only respond with a meek, forced smile. As I had thought, Tony's situation seemed complicated. They went on about debts, the shop's ownership and other such uninteresting topics, so I concentrated solely on my tea and scone. In contrast, I found them very interesting, and I decided to order a second scone in order to find the truth behind their flavors. "Umm, excuse me" "Hey, drat it, Lyn, you're involved too and yet you're sipping afternoon tea like some aristocrat" "But this scone tastes so good..." Irina hanged her head in an exaggerated gesture of frustration. "You deliberately went and got yourself involved in this, don't you have any sense of self-preservation?" "That's why I was about to burst into tears when I was being chased on the main street, you know? But then a hero showed up to save me, so now I'm all calmed down, it's that sort of thing" "Wait a sec. 'Hero'? Does that mean me?" "You were really cool. I thought you looked just as awesome as a Doll!" "I'm as cool as a Doll? You really have no interest in anything except machines and food, huh?" "Yeah, is there something wrong with that? Dolls and meals are both important things that are vital to humanity! ...Huh? Important... important..." "Lyn?" "...I forgot something really important!" My memory returned in a flash and I reflexively stood up. Irina and Tony looked very surprised at my abrupt reaction. "Meat! I went into that store to buy meat! But it was all gone!" High quality synthetic meat you couldn't get anywhere else. The owner had run off somewhere - does this mean I can't obtain that meat anymore...? This is bad! "Tony, do you have any idea where the original owner is?" "There's no way I'd know that, I just got dragged into all that" "But wasn't the owner up to his neck in debt? You're destitute too, so can't you imagine someplace where someone like you would end up - how do I put this, like an end of the line?" "End of the-" "Lyn. You're saying some pretty awful things there" Feeling for the grimacing Tony, Irina looked at me and forced a laugh. Maybe I had said something really impolite, but right now the meat was what mattered, I could apologize later. "Well, it's just a rumor, but I can't say I have no idea where I'd flee. There's no way the gang isn't already on their way there, though" "Then we have to hurry! The meat is slipping away! The owner's synthesis techniques have secrets within secrets that no one else knows!" Still standing, I gulped down the rest of my tea without even pausing to repent for violating dining etiquette. I grabbed my belongings and straightened my simple outfit. "Tony, please take me there!" "Huh?" "Hey, hey, you just managed to escape and now you're rushing right back into danger?" "Of course!" I puffed out my chest as I turned to face the bewildered Tony and the astonished Irina. "For the sake of meat, I'd even jump into a black hole!" To be continued...
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Mar 21, 2015 15:39
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