No, the other game called The New Order where the Nazis won

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Moon Slayer: Jun 19, 2007

Epilogue, Part 1: March - April, 1972

quote:

World News
GUANGDONG RIOTS SUBSIDE

March 1, 1972
Kōshu, State of Guangdong

In yet another sign of a return to relative calm after the instability wrought by the Oil Crisis, the Guangdong Riots have at last subsided.

Tense negotiations with the government and the threat of a harsh crackdown have finally yielded relative stability on the streets of Guangzhou and other major cities in the corporate state. In a televised address, Chief Executive Akio Morita has declared �total success� and vowed to return to business one way or another.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo issued a statement of congratulations; as of press time no comment was forthcoming from Nanjing.

The bribes we had to pay to get that final deal over the finish line will cause problems for months to come. And despite what the foreign media reports, our relationship with China is in far, far better shape than our relationship with Tokyo, who were not impressed with the deals we struck with the protest organizers.

But with stability restored at last, their options are limited.

quote:

The Displaced Family

As Lee Chun walked in Kōshu on a weekend night with his two younger siblings he realized that it had been ten years after his family's traumatic arrival in Guangdong. Things had changed very much since then. When they had arrived, the place had been a hellhole filled with misery and instability; the people they saw were IJA and Kempeitai men, police officers, and beaten-down fellow residents trying to survive until their next meal.

Now, with order more-or-less restored, the government seemed eager to return to normal as soon as possible. The Riot-era checkpoints were dismantled and the remaining patrolmen weren't all that vigilant. The city was crowded, loud, and full of life � and funnily enough, Chun thought, those last two words described his younger siblings well enough, too. He tuned back into their conversation.

Hei and Wai, by now, were nearly finished school; as a result, they were talking about the future. Wai was thinking about work: "I think being a clerk or taking a clerical position over at Cheung Kong would be great."

Hei scoffed. "D'you want to sell your soul to the Chief Executive?"

Wai rolled her eyes, firing back: "Says the guy that took a Sony engineering scholarship and a place in their dormitories!" Ooh, this wasn't good, Chun thought. He made to interrupt them before they started fighting for real.

"Look, you two, I'm proud of you�" All of a sudden, Chun noticed something in front of him and was able to shove his siblings and himself just out of the way of a Cheung Kong motorcade barreling down the street under police escort.

"Was that a...?" Hei asked his siblings, who nodded in shock. What the hell? The Japanese would run them over at any time, but Cheung Kong...?

quote:

The Displaced Family

If nearly getting flattened by a corporate motorcade earlier that morning hadn't already left a bad taste in Lee Chun's mouth, his meeting with the Guangdong Federation of Tradesmen's representative was utterly nauseating.

�It's over.� The representative's words were terse, even as he stared Chun down with a steely glare. "We've gotten as much as we can. And now we need to disperse."

"What about the Committee of Chinese Labor?" Chun had argued back, digging in his heels. "We bled in the streets with them for months, and now we're leaving them?"

"It's too late to worry about them. We all made our choices." The representative didn't mince his words, clearly reciting a prearranged script before signaling for Chun to leave.

After being �escorted� out by two men, their implacable build matched with inscrutable expressions, Chun found himself gazing listlessly at the passing traffic on the road home. To anyone unfamiliar with Guangdong, it seemed as if the Riots had never occurred at all. The cluttered debris and acrid smoke had, seemingly overnight, been replaced with the reassuring hum of business as usual, an endless stream of vehicles and passersby.

He thought back to a moment, years ago, where he had once suggested a change in a factory to a Zhujin boss, only for said boss to take the credit. He thought then that he could make a difference, that things would be different.

Chun's eye stopped at a bar, filling up with the evening's clientele, looking for solace and company through the bottoms of empty bottles. Maybe it was time to join them. Better start somewhere now than never.

He was shown to a table, saw a couple already present there, and chuckled. They were strangers, except for the time and place they shared.

quote:

The Struggling Founder

It was a pleasant day in Guangdong that, at long last, had finally begun to recover from the hell that was the Oil Crisis and attendant Riots. In celebration of all these facts, Yamauchi Hiroshi was attending a dinner event with businessmen and representatives of Cheung Kong and Sony, engaging in pleasantries and mild drinking.

Stanley Ho, the �legitimate businessman� (not that Yamauchi really cared about what his business actually was) and Financial Secretary, was in attendance, his usual conviviality and jocular nature on full display. While Ho went through the motions of a brief speech about the prosperity of the state and the boons which the gambling industry has brought upon Guangdong, praising the efforts of the contracted businesses � such as Nintendo � which allowed for its success, Yamauchi went into a reverie contemplating his words. They sounded familiar for some reason.

"Ah, that's it, it reminds me of Morita's promises way back at the start," Yamauchi murmured. He would not have been in this relatively prosperous position if not for the Morita administration, and it moved him to a certain sense of gratitude �

Someone tapped him on the shoulder. It seemed a toast was being made.

After lifting his glass and drinking from it, Yamauchi excused himself from the event, bidding farewell to Stanley Ho and the others. When Ho, curious as to why he was leaving, asked the reason, Yamauchi merely shrugged.

"There's always more work to be done, Mr Ho."

At that, those listening laughed uproariously and slapped him on the back in approval.

quote:

The Good Cop

Lam Haau-cyun was out on a night beat in plainclothes for the first time in what felt like an eternity. The order had come from the Commissioner to stand down the reserves, but that did not mean vacation from the Police's duties. Thus, work carried on as it had beforehand.

Lam had to admit, being in his usual plainclothes felt better than being in uniform. His orders were, of course, to �be normal,� and he could do that quite well. But that wasn't enough to shake the feeling of people eyeing him warily in the streets, thinking that they knew him from someplace. And even he, veteran officer that he was, couldn't but feel more at edge around people in uniform.

It was the Riots' aftereffects, Lam supposed. But if the Riots themselves hadn't managed to stop him doing his job, what could the residual paranoia do to stop him? People would come around, eventually. They would understand, as he had already, that normalcy was ... fine, at a minimum. The Chief Executive would provide �

Lam's reverie was interrupted by a fight breaking out at a bar ahead. Men spilled out of the store, tumbling to the streets; a bundle of cash fell to the ground, and a separate bag fell near it. As it burst apart on the floor, syringes rolled out.

The man on the losing end of the fight was in a worn, dirty suit with a torn necktie. As Lam rushed to break up the fight, getting his badge and weapons ready, he wondered what made someone that ought to have been working in a good job turn to drugs. Clearly, he had lost the game of life in Guangdong.

Because even after all Morita had done, desperation still wore a familiar face.

quote:

The Modern Princess

"Ms. Yasukawa, of the Kanton Fujin Koron? Of course. Right this way."

The hotel waiter didn't seem to recognize Yoshiko, which was only to be expected. It'd been years since she'd made her way to one of the gilded ballrooms in Kōshu's premier hotels, the exclusive haunt of the Japanese executives and officers who still called Guangdong their �temporary posting.�

It had once been her preferred haunt, as well, and so she found herself mimicking the motions and courtesies of high society out of long-dormant habit, a series of anodyne bows, how-do-you-do's, and hushed gossip about earnings, personnel decisions, or sordid family affairs.

And that was all there was, she found. Even if she heard more Cantonese amidst the vast majority of Japanese - Chief Executive Morita and Li Ka-shing's clique of Zhujin executives, now coming into their own - she found herself without much to contribute. She could glean any number of useful leads from a conversational fragment (the hallmark of a good reporter) but it was clear she had ceased to be a decent socialite long ago.

After thirty minutes of ghost-like gliding between the standing tables and the hors d'oeuvres, rarely acknowledged and barely seen, she found herself standing alone near the exit, a lone figure cradling an empty flute of champagne. The few meters of carpet separating her from the glittering scene ahead - a company of men and women dressed in their finest, celebrating their survival against the odds - felt vaster than an ocean.

They were living a dream, a fantasy, basking above the clouds with no certain footing on the material world below. A familiar, nostalgic dream for Yoshiko - but a dream nonetheless.

# ? Oct 6, 2023 03:42

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# ? May 9, 2024 06:43

Ms Adequate: Oct 30, 2011; Baby even when I'm dead and gone
You will always be my only one, my only one
When the night is calling
No matter who I become
You will always be my only one, my only one, my only one
When the night is calling

Well, we got through the riots without Morita's head on a pike, and without the IJA just shooting everyone. Komei has been totally isolated and we're not losing sight of the threat he poses. Ibuka has to eat a whole plate of poo poo. Matsushita ended up evolving into a pretty useful team player. Sony-CK are putting more products in more homes than ever and we stand to make a killing even as we make some not-completely-token reforms.

Honestly, as far as dystopian corporation-states go this is probably about as good an outcome we could have hoped for. Good work in game, and excellent work with the LP!

# ? Oct 6, 2023 07:03

Countzer: May 27, 2022

Survival has been achieved, everything else is a bonus.

# ? Oct 6, 2023 11:31

Moon Slayer: Jun 19, 2007

This is the second worst* ending for Komai, and I know that nobody get a truly happy ending in Guangdong but man I wish there was an option to get Stanley Ho's "legitimate" friends to make him disappear or commit suicide by shooting himself ten times in the back or something.

*worst is where his coup succeeds and then he fails to contain the riots, so he gets dragged from his panic room and shot in the loving face by Lee Chun.

# ? Oct 6, 2023 15:44

habeasdorkus: Nov 3, 2013; Royalty is a continuous shitposting motion.

I get the sense that Komai's not long for this world and that his handlers in Hsingking are gonna call him home where he'll be buried in an unmarked grave.

Honestly, shitlibbing it up worked out decently for Guangdong. It's not a particularly great place, but it's certainly better than most of the rest of the Co-Prosperity Sphere and didn't get brutally subjugated by Japan for being too radical. At least, not yet.

# ? Oct 6, 2023 17:05

Kurgarra Queen: Jun 11, 2008; GIVE ME MORE
SUPER BOWL
WINS

Moon Slayer posted:

This is the second worst* ending for Komai, and I know that nobody get a truly happy ending in Guangdong but man I wish there was an option to get Stanley Ho's "legitimate" friends to make him disappear or commit suicide by shooting himself ten times in the back or something.

*worst is where his coup succeeds and then he fails to contain the riots, so he gets dragged from his panic room and shot in the loving face by Lee Chun.

Well, at least Komai and to a lesser extent Ibuka are eating poo poo. We did right there!

# ? Oct 6, 2023 17:19

cock hero flux: Apr 17, 2011

Moon Slayer posted:

I wish there was an option to get Stanley Ho's "legitimate" friends to make him disappear or commit suicide by shooting himself ten times in the back or something.[/spoiler]

There's a Fujitsu route outcome where Stanley ends up in forever jail and the Yakuza get gradually squeezed out by Ibuka's all-consuming techbro dictatorship for the least crime-y outcome, but that's much worse in general and life under zero compromise Ibuka sounds legitimately worse than the Yakuza or Triads being in charge

# ? Oct 6, 2023 17:27

CommissarMega: Nov 18, 2008; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Moon Slayer posted:

This is the second worst* ending for Komai, and I know that nobody get a truly happy ending in Guangdong but man I wish there was an option to get Stanley Ho's "legitimate" friends to make him disappear or commit suicide by shooting himself ten times in the back or something.

*worst is where his coup succeeds and then he fails to contain the riots, so he gets dragged from his panic room and shot in the loving face by Lee Chun.

Yeah, I was definitely hoping Komai found himself at the wrong end of an Arisaka rifle. That said, why is he such an absolute dick? I can understand various Nazis being assholes in this timeline, but I couldn't really find anything on him from a quick Google, other than TNO wiki stuff. 'Cos goddamn, what a slimy son of a bitch. Seriously, if this was some kind of corpo propaganda to inspire people to buy Sony shares and divest themselves of Hitachi's, it's kind of working :v:

# ? Oct 6, 2023 20:17

Negostrike: Aug 15, 2015

CommissarMega posted:

Yeah, I was definitely hoping Komai found himself at the wrong end of an Arisaka rifle. That said, why is he such an absolute dick? I can understand various Nazis being assholes in this timeline, but I couldn't really find anything on him from a quick Google, other than TNO wiki stuff. 'Cos goddamn, what a slimy son of a bitch. Seriously, if this was some kind of corpo propaganda to inspire people to buy Sony shares and divest themselves of Hitachi's, it's kind of working

From what I googled so far, he's getting more famous because of TNO than whatever he did OTL

# ? Oct 6, 2023 20:22

Moon Slayer: Jun 19, 2007

I assumed that he was made up for the story, since my cursory wiki and google searches didn't turn up anything, and he's portrayed as especially vile.

# ? Oct 6, 2023 21:04

wedgekree: Feb 20, 2013

Well, we won here! Prevented a collapse, got a series of reforms through, and are slowly bringing prosperity back without a total crackdown of the locals. I'll call that a success

# ? Oct 7, 2023 00:08

CommissarMega: Nov 18, 2008; THUNDERDOME LOSER

Moon Slayer posted:

I assumed that he was made up for the story, since my cursory wiki and google searches didn't turn up anything, and he's portrayed as especially vile.

Yeah, that makes sense. Considering Li Ka-Shing is still alive and Stanley Ho only passed in 2020, it's entirely possible that if Komai was a real person either he or his estate would have no trouble suing the modders for defamation :v:

# ? Oct 7, 2023 00:11

LJN92: Mar 5, 2014

Well I found this webpage, so assuming it isn't an elaborate fake, he was a real person, and the 3rd President of Hitachi.

LJN92 fucked around with this message at 00:22 on Oct 7, 2023

# ? Oct 7, 2023 00:19

Moon Slayer: Jun 19, 2007

Well ... huh.

# ? Oct 7, 2023 00:23

RubricMarine: Feb 14, 2012

Apparently, it has to do with Hitachi's connection to Nissan. Nissan used a lot of slave labor and did a lot of bad things in Manchuria, and Hitachi was a subsidiary of them. OTL they separated after the war ended, but in TNO they stayed together and presumably Hitachi stayed involved with all the horrible poo poo going on up in the north. So, Komai's made slimy by association, I think.

# ? Oct 7, 2023 06:24

Moon Slayer: Jun 19, 2007

Epilogue, Part 2: May 1972

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_Rock_Spirit

With their respective situations back home secure, Morita and Li head abroad.

Unfortunately, they each return more concerned than when they left.

quote:

World News
SOVIET UNION REBORN

May 1, 1972
Arkhangelsk, USSR

Once again, the Red Army has proven itself the strongest force in Russia, rising above all challengers to reunify the motherland. Despite being trapped in the city of Arkhangelsk following the disastrous ending of the West Russian War, the so-called West Russian Revolutionary Front has reconstituted itself as the reborn Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

Led by Grand Marshal Mikhail Tukhachevsky, a purported strategic genius and proponent of deep battle warfare, many international experts assume that the reborn USSR will turn its gaze to the west. Some even question if Tukhachevsky�s ambitions end there, however, and the fresh wave of reported partisan activity throughout eastern Europe has only bolstered these claims.

The news from further north is concerning, but pales in comparison to the picture that begins to emerge when the two exchange notes.

quote:

The Good Cop and the Modern Princess

"In the end, the only thing that's changed is that everyone wears Sony or Cheung Kong lapel pins," Yoshiko scoffed as she finished retelling the day's events, seated comfortably at a back table in a Kōshu bar.

"And I'm still chasing vagrants, addicts, and petty criminals on the streets," Lam groaned into his beer, having shed his uniform. "And the occasional riot-related follow-up."

"I'm sure that makes you popular," Yoshiko said.

"As popular as I've ever been," Lam replied. "Which means not at all."

The two sat quietly for a few minutes, looking out at the bar's patrons. There was little talk of politics. Caught between the now-exhausted mercy of the government, the floating world of the Japanese, and the daily slights that came with being Chinese, a Zhujin settled for what they could get. Material advancement, after all, was still within their control.

"And where does that leave us?" Yoshiko asked. "I'm out of place in the salons, and you're drinking with me. Can't imagine that does wonders for either of our images."

"To hell with it," Lam muttered. "Life's not that simple. If it were, this place wouldn't be full night after night."

The night went on, with the air suffused with the raucous melange of Cantonese and Japanese - the two languages of necessity and convenience that the Zhujin shared in common. Birds of a feather did indeed tend to flock together, if only because they belonged nowhere else. That was their Guangdong, in 1972.

"I have a story for you," Lam finally said. "It's outside the city."

�

Four hours south of Kōshu, Lam Haau-cyun and Yasukawa Yoshiko watched over a village being transformed. A maze of bamboo scaffolding hid the old town and its fishing wharf, while a belt of Sony factories belched smoke over container ships anchored further off the coast.

"Wasn't Shenzhen a fishing village?" Yoshiko was crestfallen, her blue blouse stark against the concrete landscape. "Why come here?"

"I left a long time ago." Lam's voice was pained, with both of his hands tucked deep into his nylon jacket's pockets. "Back when I ran a business, before the police. But this is where I'm from. Who I am without the badge. And I thought you should know that."

quote:

The Displaced Family

"I've stopped getting excited over my paycheck. I�m going to be in the dorms forever, so what's the point?"

Lee Chun laughed nervously, staring at his noodles as Zhang, the new man, complained over lunch. The sides of brisket and choi sum were ample distractions, compared to the thin congee of years past.

How could Chun tell Zhang about his family's good fortune? That their hovel had been molded into something like a home, no matter how crowded it felt with Wai and Hei. And if fortune willed it, they too might have places of their own.

quote:

As day fades in Guangdong, a million office workers, factory men, housewives, and executives work and play in the lengthening shadow of Sony and Cheung Kong. Their lives - always fleeting, but never so vivid - glitter along the banks of the Pearl River, a million lights momentarily holding back the unstoppable march of time.

Tomorrow, it could all be gone.

Thanks for reading!

# ? Oct 9, 2023 02:32

Bloody Pom: Jun 5, 2011

As if we needed reminding that for all our efforts, TNO's world is an awful, hosed-up place. :sigh:

Thanks for your hard work!

# ? Oct 9, 2023 04:51

Ms Adequate: Oct 30, 2011; Baby even when I'm dead and gone
You will always be my only one, my only one
When the night is calling
No matter who I become
You will always be my only one, my only one, my only one
When the night is calling

The Great Asian War is going to be a nightmare on a scale undreamed of, and that's assuming nobody drops nukes.

What was our GDP at the end?

# ? Oct 9, 2023 09:33

NewMars: Mar 10, 2013

Guangdong stuff is great! Real good ending reminding us that you can make a corporate hellhole better, but you can't make it not a corporate hellhole.

# ? Oct 9, 2023 11:18

wedgekree: Feb 20, 2013

Yay! We pulled through!

# ? Oct 10, 2023 00:06

Chatrapati: Nov 6, 2012

NewMars posted:

Guangdong stuff is great! Real good ending reminding us that you can make a corporate hellhole better, but you can't make it not a corporate hellhole.

Honestly, I wanted a more explosive ending, like maybe a revolution or, the state imploding or something. It's very much a 'congratulations for surviving, here's the following day' kind of ending.
It was a cool story though, almost makes me want to play the game!

# ? Oct 10, 2023 11:20

Negostrike: Aug 15, 2015

Holy poo poo you could make a whole rear end book with all that

# ? Oct 10, 2023 14:16

ChaseSP: Mar 25, 2013

The state imploding is if you gently caress up, but there's also the fact the IJA would always enforce order no matter how brutal it would be if the riots were to get out of control. I can't really see an option to make Core Japan give up on a massive economic center on top of being lovely fascists who would never allow the insult anyway.

But it's also important to state that it shows there's always some hope of things actually getting better, even if it's done purely for the most cynical or jaded reasons even if it's still a corpo state. After all, it can always get much worse as Manchuria shows.

ChaseSP fucked around with this message at 17:51 on Oct 10, 2023

# ? Oct 10, 2023 17:44

Morrow: Oct 31, 2010

China has spent the course of the game modernizing and secretly militarizing. Part of the tragedy is that no matter what happens, Guangdong is the front line in a Third Sino-Japanese War.

# ? Oct 10, 2023 18:04

Moon Slayer: Jun 19, 2007

Chatrapati posted:

Honestly, I wanted a more explosive ending, like maybe a revolution or, the state imploding or something. It's very much a 'congratulations for surviving, here's the following day' kind of ending.
It was a cool story though, almost makes me want to play the game!

Yeah, this ain't that kind of story, I'm afraid. We got essentially the "best" Guangdong ending, and they get progressively worse from here. Morita and Li do actually care about the people and bettering their lives while also making huge profits for their companies. Without going into too many details because I would encourage anybody curious to play through yourself, but: Matsushita is pretty much just the status quo, Ibuka is real bad for the people of Guangdong, Komai is extremely bad, and anybody who fails to keep the Japanese appeased during the riots and triggers the IJA intervention, well ... everybody dies, basically.

Ms Adequate posted:

What was our GDP at the end?

I forgot to get a screenshot of the actual number, but I will say that all of the resources we threw at the Oil Crises and Riots meant that our growth was basically flat for 1971.

# ? Oct 10, 2023 18:23

alex314: Nov 22, 2007

Thank you for doing that LP. As someone that tried to play TNO and bounced back hard its fun to read about. But would rather play something actually fun..

# ? Oct 11, 2023 10:49

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# ? May 9, 2024 06:43

Arbite: Nov 4, 2009

alex314 posted:

Thank you for doing that LP. As someone that tried to play TNO and bounced back hard its fun to read about. But would rather play something actually fun..

You should try mercenary Magadan.

# ? Oct 12, 2023 21:22

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > No, the other game called The New Order where the Nazis won

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