(Originally posted to Let's Play Sacntuary)
#41, originally posted Apr 6 2016, 09:08 AM
Route B—Session 09, part 5: Drugs vs. Holograms
Kosuke arrives on the scene, allowing the others to fight a drugged-up Andras remotely and Ishtar to read his mind and give him a... shall we say, "present", in his biocomputer. He's allowed to escape, but Criminal has caused a bit of property damage.
Notes:
Spoiler: click to toggle
exploit
This so-called "IP address" looks nothing like a real IP address, at least not for IPv4 or IPv6. It's hard to imagine a new version would be out by 2032, considering (1) IPv6 is supposed to allow an astronomical number of addresses, enough for a long time to come; and (2) IPv6 took many years to become widely adopted, and even now, its predecessor is still widely used even though it's high time for it to die. Also, why is it in decimal, when IPv6 addresses are written in a hex format?
Well, whatever. I don't know if it's important, but let's file away this number: 194734-2828-27934. Seems less than random, if that matters.
Reading Andras' bio, I sense the influence of Babylon on his behavior. It said he's reckless on the Net but docile in real life. His behavior in this real-life scene is anything but docile, so he may have passed the point of no longer know what's real and what isn't. Well, that or the drugs doing their work.
This Sin guy has a strange idea of "mak[ing] a girl yours". It's certainly not working out for Andras here. But, uh... when it says he "tried it out on [Magdalene]", what does that mean, exactly? He talked to her while under the influence? Or he drugged her?
And getting him out of prison... Did Sin have to get the people in charge of the prison to release him? Or was this some automated facility, like the parking garage? If the latter, I think (once again) that this society is relying a bit too much on automation.
spyware
Did Ishtar manage to add the LEM art to her spyware in the short time after reading Andras' biocomputer data, or did she assume that's what he's obsessed with?
So, wait! If they can hijack the other cars, why can't they hijack the one Andras is driving?! The only thing I can think of is that they deliberately avoided that. They're making him think he got away despite their efforts, when in reality, they only needed to keep him there long enough for Ishtar to finish her work on his biocomputer.
This so-called "IP address" looks nothing like a real IP address, at least not for IPv4 or IPv6. It's hard to imagine a new version would be out by 2032, considering (1) IPv6 is supposed to allow an astronomical number of addresses, enough for a long time to come; and (2) IPv6 took many years to become widely adopted, and even now, its predecessor is still widely used even though it's high time for it to die. Also, why is it in decimal, when IPv6 addresses are written in a hex format?
Well, whatever. I don't know if it's important, but let's file away this number: 194734-2828-27934. Seems less than random, if that matters.
Reading Andras' bio, I sense the influence of Babylon on his behavior. It said he's reckless on the Net but docile in real life. His behavior in this real-life scene is anything but docile, so he may have passed the point of no longer know what's real and what isn't. Well, that or the drugs doing their work.
This Sin guy has a strange idea of "mak[ing] a girl yours". It's certainly not working out for Andras here. But, uh... when it says he "tried it out on [Magdalene]", what does that mean, exactly? He talked to her while under the influence? Or he drugged her?
And getting him out of prison... Did Sin have to get the people in charge of the prison to release him? Or was this some automated facility, like the parking garage? If the latter, I think (once again) that this society is relying a bit too much on automation.
spyware
Did Ishtar manage to add the LEM art to her spyware in the short time after reading Andras' biocomputer data, or did she assume that's what he's obsessed with?
So, wait! If they can hijack the other cars, why can't they hijack the one Andras is driving?! The only thing I can think of is that they deliberately avoided that. They're making him think he got away despite their efforts, when in reality, they only needed to keep him there long enough for Ishtar to finish her work on his biocomputer.
Route B—Session 09 (full)
#42, originally posted Apr 8 2016, 07:56 AM
Route B—Session 10, part 1: Repair Job
To celebrate their victory, Criminal goes out to eat, then stops by a bookstore. After Ishtar returns home alone, a beat-up Kosuke arrives and asks to stay the night, due to his father finding out what he did. Next morning, she takes Sami to have Nergal repair her biocomputer. Everything apparently went fine, but Sami had a strange experience during the procedure. She is humbled by the thought of there being many hackers better than her.
Notes:
Spoiler: click to toggle
recovery
Only a couple of "noteworthy" things in this part.
What does Nergal mean when he says Sami has a high affinity for cyberware? This doesn't make sense to me. It's not just the fact that the body doesn't like foreign objects in its tissue. Having places where harmful microbes can potentially grow or through which they can invade the body is a danger with an implant. Even if the immune system will ignore the object, it can't afford to ignore the microbes. In order to make something like this a reality, there has to be some way of dealing with the problem, preferably by making it not a problem anymore (who wants to be dependent on drugs to stay alive?), but we have to take what we can get, I suppose.
Who was this woman? Who/what is in the tank, and why? Did "she" talk to Sami in a dream? If so, how, exactly? Sami said her biocomputer "healed" in the dream. So, did she have that dream before the repair was complete (which would be weird, because she shouldn't have had a functioning biocomputer that would have made such communication possible), or did it just seem that way? I hope we find out more about Nergal's lab. I have a feeling that what Sami experienced is similar to what Hinata was experiencing throughout his route regarding Mutsuki.
Only a couple of "noteworthy" things in this part.
What does Nergal mean when he says Sami has a high affinity for cyberware? This doesn't make sense to me. It's not just the fact that the body doesn't like foreign objects in its tissue. Having places where harmful microbes can potentially grow or through which they can invade the body is a danger with an implant. Even if the immune system will ignore the object, it can't afford to ignore the microbes. In order to make something like this a reality, there has to be some way of dealing with the problem, preferably by making it not a problem anymore (who wants to be dependent on drugs to stay alive?), but we have to take what we can get, I suppose.
Who was this woman? Who/what is in the tank, and why? Did "she" talk to Sami in a dream? If so, how, exactly? Sami said her biocomputer "healed" in the dream. So, did she have that dream before the repair was complete (which would be weird, because she shouldn't have had a functioning biocomputer that would have made such communication possible), or did it just seem that way? I hope we find out more about Nergal's lab. I have a feeling that what Sami experienced is similar to what Hinata was experiencing throughout his route regarding Mutsuki.
#43, originally posted Apr 9 2016, 07:29 AM
Route B—Session 10, part 2: Cold Friend
When Sami returns from having her biocomputer fixed, she immediately goes online, and Yumi, who looks like she was going to say something about HE, drops it as a result. Next day, Ishtar goes asking around in Babylon, and runs into an old friend, but something is clearly wrong. The twins arrive, and Yumi relates her clumsiness. Then Ishtar realizes a connection between Yumi's new friend and someone else.
Notes:
Spoiler: click to toggle
extraction/compression
Yumi starts to talk about something she apparently found out about HE on the Net, but is interrupted by Sami. What was she going to tell the others? Hopefully, Ishtar will ask her later, like she thought she would. Maybe not this time through the route, though.
The mysterious eye's comment here is a little hard to understand. I think it's about Yumi. But "back then", and "things would have never turned out the way they did" suggest something that happened a long time ago, rather than just a minute ago.
virtual
Ishtar does a check to see if Enlil is online. Would this really work? Have they never heard of invisible mode? I guess it goes by different names, but it's where someone can be online without revealing they're online. For instance, some instant messaging applications, including Skype, have it. Some Web forums have it, or something similar to it (like anonymous mode, where you're not shown as online but are still counted among anonymous viewers). Babylon could have such a mode, and even if it's not usable by regular players, admins like Enlil would certainly have access.
Ea is obviously acting very strange. It might just be that she changed significantly over the 2 years since Ishtar last saw her. But, as I hypothesized in the video, this might be just a Shadow, maybe even a Shadow Null. I'm certainly not convinced that Shadows match their players' behaviors that well. Her refusal to meet anyone outside Babylon (could we say, "do anything in the real world"?) is quite suspicious in this regard.
Another thing I thought of is that Ea might still be playing, and she's been changed by her Shadow this much. If so, this would be the dark side of the AIO system. But this is pure speculation, for which there isn't much evidence.
Yumi tells about an incident where she fell on her face after talking to Hinata. What's going on here? I don't remember that happening in route A. Is she lying, or did that really happen? If it happened, did Hinata not notice it? Did the story just skip over the event? Did it happen in a different version of the route we haven't seen yet? But hitting the same spot on her forehead twice in a row is a strange thing even for someone as clumsy as Yumi to do.
Yumi starts to talk about something she apparently found out about HE on the Net, but is interrupted by Sami. What was she going to tell the others? Hopefully, Ishtar will ask her later, like she thought she would. Maybe not this time through the route, though.
The mysterious eye's comment here is a little hard to understand. I think it's about Yumi. But "back then", and "things would have never turned out the way they did" suggest something that happened a long time ago, rather than just a minute ago.
virtual
Ishtar does a check to see if Enlil is online. Would this really work? Have they never heard of invisible mode? I guess it goes by different names, but it's where someone can be online without revealing they're online. For instance, some instant messaging applications, including Skype, have it. Some Web forums have it, or something similar to it (like anonymous mode, where you're not shown as online but are still counted among anonymous viewers). Babylon could have such a mode, and even if it's not usable by regular players, admins like Enlil would certainly have access.
Ea is obviously acting very strange. It might just be that she changed significantly over the 2 years since Ishtar last saw her. But, as I hypothesized in the video, this might be just a Shadow, maybe even a Shadow Null. I'm certainly not convinced that Shadows match their players' behaviors that well. Her refusal to meet anyone outside Babylon (could we say, "do anything in the real world"?) is quite suspicious in this regard.
Another thing I thought of is that Ea might still be playing, and she's been changed by her Shadow this much. If so, this would be the dark side of the AIO system. But this is pure speculation, for which there isn't much evidence.
Yumi tells about an incident where she fell on her face after talking to Hinata. What's going on here? I don't remember that happening in route A. Is she lying, or did that really happen? If it happened, did Hinata not notice it? Did the story just skip over the event? Did it happen in a different version of the route we haven't seen yet? But hitting the same spot on her forehead twice in a row is a strange thing even for someone as clumsy as Yumi to do.
#44, originally posted Apr 10 2016, 06:52 AM
Route B—Session 10, part 3: Secret Meeting
Fast forward two weeks. Bad things happened related to Kyouka Academy, and a certain someone has been made a scapegoat. Then, the Andras spyware yields results, revealing a huge secret meeting and a conspiracy, and Ishtar knows some of the people there. But when one of them discovers the spyware, the group finds itself in deep trouble. All of Ishtar's friends insist on standing together, but she is torn.
Notes:
Spoiler: click to toggle
zero-day
I hadn't noticed before; it's one of those subtle details. It looks like the system menu shows a picture of the current phase of the moon up in the corner. That's a really nice touch!
For anyone who happens not to know, "antiparallel" is a fancy term for when two vectors are pointed in opposite directions. (The term comes from the fact that, in a Euclidean vector space, such vectors can be lined up on parallel lines, but with opposite directions.) To be exact, it means one is a negative multiple of the other, but simply put, this could just say, "opposite".
When they realize the spyware has been found out, Criminal crashes the computers used in transmitting their surveillance. But would this fully cover their tracks? It seems to me that might look suspicious in itself.
At the point where they start discussing how Ishtar knows some of the people in that meeting, the music changes to some odd drum beat. What is that? The system menu shows it as "----------"; in other words it's technically not a BGM track.
I hadn't noticed before; it's one of those subtle details. It looks like the system menu shows a picture of the current phase of the moon up in the corner. That's a really nice touch!
For anyone who happens not to know, "antiparallel" is a fancy term for when two vectors are pointed in opposite directions. (The term comes from the fact that, in a Euclidean vector space, such vectors can be lined up on parallel lines, but with opposite directions.) To be exact, it means one is a negative multiple of the other, but simply put, this could just say, "opposite".
When they realize the spyware has been found out, Criminal crashes the computers used in transmitting their surveillance. But would this fully cover their tracks? It seems to me that might look suspicious in itself.
At the point where they start discussing how Ishtar knows some of the people in that meeting, the music changes to some odd drum beat. What is that? The system menu shows it as "----------"; in other words it's technically not a BGM track.
Route B—Session 10 (full)
#45, originally posted Apr 12 2016, 07:10 AM
Route B—Session 11, part 1: Defending eXarch
Ishtar decides to go ahead and try to stop Code's plan. She first tries to contact someone she knows inside eXarch, but that fails. A small accident pushes tensions to the breaking point, but Ishtar patches things up. Later, she has another vision, this time involving her sister. The next day, Code attacks as planned, and Criminal does its best to hold them off. But just as it looks like their defense will succeed, a distress call comes in.
Notes:
Spoiler: click to toggle
zero-day
I know we won't get answers for a while, but why the full moon, anyway? What does it have to do with anything? Is it really just symbolic to Code, or is there some other reason? Still not much information to go on, though.
bootstrap
Hmm. So Ishtar's sister was blind? I wonder if they're implying it has some connection to congenital heterochromia. I searched around to see if there is such a connection. Although there are apparently other problems in some cases, I couldn't find anything reliable about associated blindness, at least not in humans. (In any case, even if there is such a disease, I think it's more likely only the abnormal eye would be blind.)
The Exabyte Crystal was classified, huh? Well, I suppose an exabyte might be a bit much to reach consumer use even by 2030.
Also, this sister really did go by the name "Eresh". I guess I didn't put it together because I hadn't realized that her sister was the one she thought might be sending the emails.
So, is there something really important stored on the crystal? It seems odd to me that someone would just give someone else an extremely expensive and classified storage device for safekeeping, and say the things Nergal did, if it were blank. Well, I suppose he might have been saying there would be some sort of dire emergency at some point, and they'd need something to put a gargantuan amount of data on in a hurry. ...Okay, I don't know, actually.
I know we won't get answers for a while, but why the full moon, anyway? What does it have to do with anything? Is it really just symbolic to Code, or is there some other reason? Still not much information to go on, though.
bootstrap
Hmm. So Ishtar's sister was blind? I wonder if they're implying it has some connection to congenital heterochromia. I searched around to see if there is such a connection. Although there are apparently other problems in some cases, I couldn't find anything reliable about associated blindness, at least not in humans. (In any case, even if there is such a disease, I think it's more likely only the abnormal eye would be blind.)
The Exabyte Crystal was classified, huh? Well, I suppose an exabyte might be a bit much to reach consumer use even by 2030.
Also, this sister really did go by the name "Eresh". I guess I didn't put it together because I hadn't realized that her sister was the one she thought might be sending the emails.
So, is there something really important stored on the crystal? It seems odd to me that someone would just give someone else an extremely expensive and classified storage device for safekeeping, and say the things Nergal did, if it were blank. Well, I suppose he might have been saying there would be some sort of dire emergency at some point, and they'd need something to put a gargantuan amount of data on in a hurry. ...Okay, I don't know, actually.
#46, originally posted Apr 13 2016, 07:51 AM
Route B—Session 11, part 2: Split Rescue
The team splits up, with Kosuke and Mika going to the office building to get Nabu et al out, while the rest work remotely. Reluctantly, they take various guns and ammo. Despite some resistance, they make it in. But soon, they find themselves chased and then cornered, and Mika encounters an old enemy.
Notes, such as they are:
Spoiler: click to toggle
black-virus
Well, I don't have much to say about this part, other than the "downloading" thing and viruses "eating away" the data, which I found ludicrous. Downloads never go backwards like that. Ever. And you can't "eat away" data after it's already been downloaded. Well, most of the cyberspace portions in this story are more or less like this. You just can't take them too seriously. If you remember that (or you don't actually know much about the subject), then I think you can still enjoy this.
Well, I don't have much to say about this part, other than the "downloading" thing and viruses "eating away" the data, which I found ludicrous. Downloads never go backwards like that. Ever. And you can't "eat away" data after it's already been downloaded. Well, most of the cyberspace portions in this story are more or less like this. You just can't take them too seriously. If you remember that (or you don't actually know much about the subject), then I think you can still enjoy this.
#47, originally posted Apr 14 2016, 07:33 AM
Route B—Session 11, part 3: Berserk
Mika does something entirely unexpected of her, and saves herself and Kosuke in the process. Then she goes after her enemy, her friends' pleas unable to stop her. But then the true enemy appears, and everything goes to hell.
Notes:
Spoiler: click to toggle
black-virus
Mika's light show induces symptoms of epilepsy in the Code members. She also warns her friends beforehand. The thing is, to my knowledge most people are not very susceptible to such stimuli, although certain things may increase sensitivity. The question is, what would cause these people to be more susceptible? Is it part of the IC condition? Is it consumption of those drugs?
I see. So Andras did indeed drug Mika before. That clarifies the vague statement in his memories that we read earlier.
delete
Well, that ending seemed a bit abrupt.
Mika's light show induces symptoms of epilepsy in the Code members. She also warns her friends beforehand. The thing is, to my knowledge most people are not very susceptible to such stimuli, although certain things may increase sensitivity. The question is, what would cause these people to be more susceptible? Is it part of the IC condition? Is it consumption of those drugs?
I see. So Andras did indeed drug Mika before. That clarifies the vague statement in his memories that we read earlier.
delete
Well, that ending seemed a bit abrupt.
#48, originally posted Apr 15 2016, 07:40 AM
Route B—Session 11, part 4: Stick Together
After the bad ending, I try the other choice. The bad news: things still go badly. The good news: not as bad. Everyone takes along real guns, but so far only one member uses one.
Notes:
Spoiler: click to toggle
black-virus (2)
Well, how (in)convenient, plot-wise, that the same shutter shuts at the same point, so Kosuke and Mika are still on their own when Andras appears, despite the rest of the team being physically present.
Well, how (in)convenient, plot-wise, that the same shutter shuts at the same point, so Kosuke and Mika are still on their own when Andras appears, despite the rest of the team being physically present.
#49, originally posted Apr 16 2016, 09:03 AM
Route B—Session 11, part 5: Why is She Here?
After a frantic and circuitous detour, aided by Nabu and company, the team reaches the surveillance room. There, they meet Nabu, along with his daughter and his colleague, who are both guilt-ridden over the death of the Criminal member. Together, they head out, intent on escape, leading to our second good ending. After that, I find two other bad endings (3 and 2).
Lots of notes this time:
Spoiler: click to toggle
backfire
It occurs to me: security is important and all, but what about safety? Like, if there's a fire, can the design of the system ensure that people are able to get out of the building? From these events, it seems as though someone in control of security could, in theory, engage a set of barriers that would trap some people in the building. Is the eXarch building's security system legal, then?
Now, what would Sakuya be doing here? Could she have come looking for her father? Or maybe there was some reason she had to investigate eXarch's role in these events? Also, where is Hinata?
I get that Sakuya must be, among other things, precious to Nabu as a daughter. But there seems to be more to this. Mitsuhiko said that if it were just him, there would be no value in a rescue operation. The implication is that, for some reason, Nabu and/or Sakuya need to stay alive, for some reason. Nabu (I guess we can call him Mr. Kawahara now) is largely an unknown; I'm going to assume that it's not about him either. But as for Sakuya, there were already hints in route A that there is something special about her: (1) her father being seemingly overprotective, (2) that letter from Mitsuhiko saying there's something unnatural about her existence, and (3) the fact that she never gets sick. What Mitsuhiko says in this scene is yet another hint toward it. His letter made it clear that he didn't know what it is, but perhaps he found out before this point.
Bonus illustration
For convenience, here is the bonus illustration that got unlocked after that ending:
Not sure what this picture is representing, but I'll try at least a little analysis. First of all, who is that shining figure in front of the eclipsed moon? Could it be Mutsuki? It does look like her, with that face, including the hair. Her eyes are closed, so we can't see whether or not they're red. Anyway, the fact that she's surrounded by bright light goes along with her being in the unusual state she said was headed to in her diary.
Second, what's up with Ishtar's arm? It's covered in blood, which seems to be coming from somewhere around the shoulder. But whether it's from fighting Enlil or someone else, I'm not sure.
And the one on the left, I think that's Hinata. Actually, the composition hints that maybe they're either working together or in conflict with each other. Which one it is, again, I'm not sure.
zero-day (2)
So, in this bad end #2, Criminal apparently runs away to some island paradise, three days after receiving the death threats. It's a bizarre ending, but there's something else notable before that. The text in this part is in the cyberspace font*, normally reserved for the menus, titles, and text for parts that occur in cyberspace. The fact that it appears here is quite telling. Ostensibly, they've run away to a part of the world without the extensive net access found in Tokyo. But the interface is subtly telling us that they are in cyberspace right now, though they don't seem to realize it.
* Side note: the name of the font is DF SoGei or something close to that.
What exactly happened? Were they hooked up secretly while they slept during the three-day gap (well, actually, I don't know if they ran away as fast as possible, or spent the three days preparing, and they've just arrived)? Or did Code find a way to hack their biocomputers while they were on the beach?
What happens after Enlil's little speech... I.... can't really understand it, so I'm not even going to try analyzing it. Suffice it to say, Enlil gets to play God with people's biocomputers, and that's almost certainly very, very bad.
Lastly, why is this the only ending (in this route, at least) that explicitly tells you it's an ending? And what is the noise heard during that line of text (I didn't expect there to be just that one line, so I didn't let it play long enough to tell for sure; all I can make out is a loud crash with breaking glass and something beeping)?
It occurs to me: security is important and all, but what about safety? Like, if there's a fire, can the design of the system ensure that people are able to get out of the building? From these events, it seems as though someone in control of security could, in theory, engage a set of barriers that would trap some people in the building. Is the eXarch building's security system legal, then?
Now, what would Sakuya be doing here? Could she have come looking for her father? Or maybe there was some reason she had to investigate eXarch's role in these events? Also, where is Hinata?
I get that Sakuya must be, among other things, precious to Nabu as a daughter. But there seems to be more to this. Mitsuhiko said that if it were just him, there would be no value in a rescue operation. The implication is that, for some reason, Nabu and/or Sakuya need to stay alive, for some reason. Nabu (I guess we can call him Mr. Kawahara now) is largely an unknown; I'm going to assume that it's not about him either. But as for Sakuya, there were already hints in route A that there is something special about her: (1) her father being seemingly overprotective, (2) that letter from Mitsuhiko saying there's something unnatural about her existence, and (3) the fact that she never gets sick. What Mitsuhiko says in this scene is yet another hint toward it. His letter made it clear that he didn't know what it is, but perhaps he found out before this point.
Bonus illustration
For convenience, here is the bonus illustration that got unlocked after that ending:
Not sure what this picture is representing, but I'll try at least a little analysis. First of all, who is that shining figure in front of the eclipsed moon? Could it be Mutsuki? It does look like her, with that face, including the hair. Her eyes are closed, so we can't see whether or not they're red. Anyway, the fact that she's surrounded by bright light goes along with her being in the unusual state she said was headed to in her diary.
Second, what's up with Ishtar's arm? It's covered in blood, which seems to be coming from somewhere around the shoulder. But whether it's from fighting Enlil or someone else, I'm not sure.
And the one on the left, I think that's Hinata. Actually, the composition hints that maybe they're either working together or in conflict with each other. Which one it is, again, I'm not sure.
zero-day (2)
So, in this bad end #2, Criminal apparently runs away to some island paradise, three days after receiving the death threats. It's a bizarre ending, but there's something else notable before that. The text in this part is in the cyberspace font*, normally reserved for the menus, titles, and text for parts that occur in cyberspace. The fact that it appears here is quite telling. Ostensibly, they've run away to a part of the world without the extensive net access found in Tokyo. But the interface is subtly telling us that they are in cyberspace right now, though they don't seem to realize it.
* Side note: the name of the font is DF SoGei or something close to that.
What exactly happened? Were they hooked up secretly while they slept during the three-day gap (well, actually, I don't know if they ran away as fast as possible, or spent the three days preparing, and they've just arrived)? Or did Code find a way to hack their biocomputers while they were on the beach?
What happens after Enlil's little speech... I.... can't really understand it, so I'm not even going to try analyzing it. Suffice it to say, Enlil gets to play God with people's biocomputers, and that's almost certainly very, very bad.
Lastly, why is this the only ending (in this route, at least) that explicitly tells you it's an ending? And what is the noise heard during that line of text (I didn't expect there to be just that one line, so I didn't let it play long enough to tell for sure; all I can make out is a loud crash with breaking glass and something beeping)?
#50, originally posted Apr 17 2016, 07:04 AM
Route B—Session 11, part 6: Fragments
I find an alternate path by asking, "What happens if we don't confront Mika about her absentmindedness that one day?" The answer is not as bad as I thought it would be. Also, we get some of those "fragmented individual route episodes" mentioned in the good endings. They give more information. They might also have something to do with altering the course of events. I don't know this, though; I only suspect it.
Notes:
Spoiler: click to toggle
codebreak (2)
Here I choose to have Kosuke accompany Mika home instead of Ishtar doing so herself. Surprisingly, I'm given another chance to work out the problem. I like that there's an alternate path here. A good VN certainly shouldn't be designed so that every choice you make has to be the one correct choice. That said, I feel that having Ishtar go with Mika is better. It's better to have someone tell you what's wrong themselves, if possible, than to go behind their back to find it out. Plus, it's a little less stressful for Mika when she goes to the meeting, knowing her friends will do what they can to keep her safe. It is interesting to see what she and Andras wrote to each other, though.
invisible-files (2)
Here, one of several additional scenes shows up, since I got a good ending. It's confirmed that Kosuke likes Yumi, and wants to pursue a closer relationship. I don't think I need to comment on this subplot. The interesting thing here is the fact that these extra scenes show up. I guess this is what it meant by "fragmented individual route episodes". We can glean a couple of things from that phrase: (1) although they're clearly referencing the term as it's used in regards to computer filesystems, the meaning of "fragmented" is not the same, but rather something closer to "lost", "misplaced", "deleted", or what have you (defragmentation, in reality, won't restore deleted files, and in fact is likely to render them unrecoverable, by overwriting their data that otherwise might have remained); (2) these are apparently things that belong to each route individually, and this, in turn, suggests there will be fragmented episodes that belong to more than one route (it even suggests that the inevitable fifth route may combine events of all of the routes, a little (or a lot) like it happens in Ever17).
I can't wait to find out why these episodes are happening. No doubt, it won't be for quite a while.
extraction/compression (2)
And here, Yumi talks more about something that happened with Hinata. Still something that didn't happen in route A (at least, I haven't seen it yet). I'm assuming this is the story's way of gradually revealing the truth.
Something I neglected to point out in the last bunch of notes: we now know Ishtar's legal name: Akatsuki Akari. I shouldn't have missed that, because it's a very interesting name. For starters, the surname, "Akatsuki", is, I think, normally written as 暁 "dawn", but could also be written as 赤月 "red moon". (Lunar eclipse, anyone?) The given name is also interesting. Akari is written as 明 "bright"; the interesting thing here is the kanji, which appears to be a compound of 日 "sun" and 月 "moon".
Ha! I called it, didn't I? Confirmed: the Ea in Babylon is just a Shadow. Specifically, the real-world person is dead. I wonder how many other people in Babylon are just Shadows. There was a question about Midori for a while. Apparently, she survived, but I don't know what happened to her after that. Did she ever log into Babylon again? Did she even go on living, or did she commit suicide like a lot of other Kyouka students? Of course, I may have just forgotten something.
Here I choose to have Kosuke accompany Mika home instead of Ishtar doing so herself. Surprisingly, I'm given another chance to work out the problem. I like that there's an alternate path here. A good VN certainly shouldn't be designed so that every choice you make has to be the one correct choice. That said, I feel that having Ishtar go with Mika is better. It's better to have someone tell you what's wrong themselves, if possible, than to go behind their back to find it out. Plus, it's a little less stressful for Mika when she goes to the meeting, knowing her friends will do what they can to keep her safe. It is interesting to see what she and Andras wrote to each other, though.
invisible-files (2)
Here, one of several additional scenes shows up, since I got a good ending. It's confirmed that Kosuke likes Yumi, and wants to pursue a closer relationship. I don't think I need to comment on this subplot. The interesting thing here is the fact that these extra scenes show up. I guess this is what it meant by "fragmented individual route episodes". We can glean a couple of things from that phrase: (1) although they're clearly referencing the term as it's used in regards to computer filesystems, the meaning of "fragmented" is not the same, but rather something closer to "lost", "misplaced", "deleted", or what have you (defragmentation, in reality, won't restore deleted files, and in fact is likely to render them unrecoverable, by overwriting their data that otherwise might have remained); (2) these are apparently things that belong to each route individually, and this, in turn, suggests there will be fragmented episodes that belong to more than one route (it even suggests that the inevitable fifth route may combine events of all of the routes, a little (or a lot) like it happens in Ever17).
I can't wait to find out why these episodes are happening. No doubt, it won't be for quite a while.
extraction/compression (2)
And here, Yumi talks more about something that happened with Hinata. Still something that didn't happen in route A (at least, I haven't seen it yet). I'm assuming this is the story's way of gradually revealing the truth.
Something I neglected to point out in the last bunch of notes: we now know Ishtar's legal name: Akatsuki Akari. I shouldn't have missed that, because it's a very interesting name. For starters, the surname, "Akatsuki", is, I think, normally written as 暁 "dawn", but could also be written as 赤月 "red moon". (Lunar eclipse, anyone?) The given name is also interesting. Akari is written as 明 "bright"; the interesting thing here is the kanji, which appears to be a compound of 日 "sun" and 月 "moon".
Ha! I called it, didn't I? Confirmed: the Ea in Babylon is just a Shadow. Specifically, the real-world person is dead. I wonder how many other people in Babylon are just Shadows. There was a question about Midori for a while. Apparently, she survived, but I don't know what happened to her after that. Did she ever log into Babylon again? Did she even go on living, or did she commit suicide like a lot of other Kyouka students? Of course, I may have just forgotten something.
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