Surprise answer incoming : D
So, if it's supposed to be a challenge, why not make whole game more challenging with limited save spots? And if not, why not make the beginning easier to not frustrate people needlessly? Rather confusing but oh well.
It's a bit like Asako pointed out I think, the writer likes doing really weird and incomprehensible stuff at times. Ofc you might as well just consider this a bad design choice, but all of his games have at least one ridiculous part. (though to be fair, I don't find the beginning THAT hard. The only troll move here is that you have to do the whole thing again if you die)
I guess they were successful with that, though all they'd need to do is lower the chance of dying/game over while in this state. Crawling and getting punched around, stumbling around, til you reach a place? Ok. But if you're unlucky with enemy attacks or dare to crawl in a different path, and you're gonna die and be sent back(first time even sent back to beginning of Route C because I didn't save in the Flooded City).
Just don't see why it's extra frustrating, like first time I got punched into that hole in the middle, and despite there being a ladder 2B cannot use it due to her issues. Impossible to exit, so you gotta reload or wait until she dies. No recovering.
But nvm my rambling, I did it in like 3 tries, just felt needlessly frustrating by design.
Basically see what I wrote above. Ofc it doesn't always work out as intended, for this one I'm not quite sure if it's intentional or not lol. You probably had some bad luck they didn't really account for, bc I don't remember struggling with this part at all.
This makes good sense yes. I just wonder why what they did was sometimes borderline... psychotic? Evolution ok, but some actions really seem like they have no gain whatsoever for a logical machine and are only driven by a mind looking to torture others for fun. I mean you could say they were trying to see how 2B reacts when they use her hacked operator to say weird things, for example, but welp. Just seemed to me like there's a conscious human-esque mind at work behind it all there due to the nature of it all. Even that boyish voice of the final tower sounds like it's mocking 9S at all times.
One theory I had while playing was, when you uncover some documents regarding a "Gestalt" project meant to transfer human conscious, that they were all transferred to the machines. Tho that seems to have been wrong, still think it'd have been interesting to connect the machine's origins to humans rather than to aliens.
Weeeell, you would need to play Replicant first to properly discuss this. But yes, the machine network is somewhat "corrupted" or whatever you want to call it right from the start, beginning with their creation (hence their often evil/psychotic actions). As for the why, I can't really talk about that yet, would involve spoilers from Replicant (the remaster thankfully adds some more definite connection to Automata).
Yes I liked it. I was overall a huge fan of the shooting-minigame to the point I was hacking all the time with 9S. If you hack A2 in the final battle it'll even have very unique hacking sections, take a look if you've not seen it. The last one looks like the menu screen.
Shooting-minigame aside, I was frustrated that I kept failing before other people helped. I wondered if that was intentional, ie. it is absolutely impossible to do it alone, or whether I just failed so often that the game showed me pity.
Oh yeah, the shooting minigame was really fun! Did that a lot as well haha. Hacking every enemy would tire me out eventually, but it was a cool mechanic for sure. Think I've actually done the hacking on A2 once as well, like how creative that was.
About the last segment, I think you're not supposed to clear it on your own. It's probably not 100% impossible, but your memory getting wiped to help others is a vital part of this ending. If it was relatively easy to do, it would defeat the point in my eyes. Never really looked into it lol, kinda curious if someone managed to clear it on his own.
I took care of most sidequests by that time I believe, so I didn't mind it deleting everything. Though I also honestly thought they were not serious, like who does that LOL. What if Mario was like "you beat the game, Imma delete your save file if you want the best ending".
Reminds me, did you do all of the endings? Like everything from A-Z. There's some good stuff in there, though at least one is more enjoyable if you play Replicant first.
And lol I get you, it's a pretty unique concept no one else really does. But I think that makes it all the better.
A2 was my favorite yes. Followed up by Pascal, then 9S and then finally 2Be. Feels like they didn't flesh out 2B enough for me to care about her, which they did a lot better with A2 who, despite a rather similar personality to 2B, I liked a lot more.
Hmmm it's been a while, but yeah, I think 2B's development was more subtle. The game gives you enough insight and hints about her feelings etc. though, in my eyes. It just can be more easily missed. A2 was more obvious on that front, probably mostly thanks to her being a lot more outspoken and aggressive. I like them both, but as you know, I prefer 2B by a lot
Pascal was just so peaceful and reasonable, hard to dislike. I just don't get why the children killed themselves, when Pascal assured them they'd be fine and he would protect them. I suspect they were hacked and forced to suicide instead, not the "fear" thing they used as an explanation to make Pascal despair. Of course I just wiped the memories, though the result was hardly still the same Pascal. But who is to say that he can't go back to his old path?
Yeah definitely, very likeable character. And he had to suffer for it
As for why the machines started going mad, I think that's obviously because they were infected. I believe it gets mentioned that the village got attacked? That's probably when some of the machines attacking spread their madness. We never get a concrete answer though, so it's up to what you personally want to think.
And yes I also wiped the memory. As you say, I think he will go back to his old path eventually, and he doesn't deserve all the suffering he had to endure.
9S was my favorite for a long time until he lost his mind completely. Idk for all the "advancedness" of the scanner models, I'd have thought he could regain his composure. I was feeling they were setting up a fight between 9S and A2 ever since early in route C, and Pompom and me were like "he better straighten up by then", he didn't so we easily both wanted to support A2 at the end.
Agreed about 9S going a bit too crazy, which destroyed a good part of his character. I believe his actions are mostly caused by the logic virus though, as you could see by the end he clearly was infected and slowly went mad, so that's why he never regained his composure. He can be as advanced as he wants, there's nothing YorHa units can do against that virus.
Not denying it's a bit unfortunate in terms of character development and whatnot, but kind characters drawing the short stick is a pretty common thing in Yoko games... I think had 9S be sane, a lot in the end there would've went differently. Then again, in the end it turned out somewhat fine, for 9S and 2B at least.
Otherwise, 2B's pod was great and fun in many scenes, especially with A2. Have no thoughts on the Commander woman and Devola and Popola were interesting but feels like they're remnants of a different game so hard to get too much into them here.
True, the pod's were really cool xD (especially 2B's) The commander didn't leave that much of an impression on me, either. It's actually one of the few flaws of the game in my eyes, namely that not enough characters get fleshed out, or more of a spotlight. Most of the Yorha units remain relatively bland, which is a shame.
About Devola and Popola, yeah, you definitely need to play Replicant to get the whole picture. They never get a big amount of focus, but I like them quite a bit. "Devola and Popola did nothing wrong" is a bit of a meme in the fanbase, for various reasons.
You don't have to respond to everything here dw
Just giving some more thoughts. You playing Replicant yet? I'll let it wait for a bit til I'm done with some other things, like the recent Mass Effect remaster.
Haha I had to answer all of it anyway, even though I'm way too late. Sorry for that
And yes, already played the remaster by the time you asked lol. Think overall it was done really well, though it's age and design flaws still show. Don't expect something on the same level as Automata, but it is a good game and very important to the overall story, so I hope you'll check it out eventually. Or maybe you already have?
Also I will try get more active con Discord.
That didn't really work out, now did it?
(also even if we're currently on the Jujutsu train hype lately, I have been re-reading Chainsaw Man and some parts are also so good, we should come back to that hype soon as well).
We will get back to it with the anime, I'm sure. Read the author's new oneshot too, and that was pretty good as well! Here's hoping he'll launch Part 2 of Chainsaw Man in the not too distant future.
It's it's a yoko taro game, is simply the best answer.... He known for doing it
Yoko is a such a weirdo haha, but that's why we love him. Btw Asa, how are you doing? We haven't talked in a while.
I know this one...
A bit ambivalent about it. It's funny, and I like the guy, but he's basically riding the "Fate is complicated lul hahaha" meme for laughs again. Good video to have some fun, but as a honest and comprehensive explanation for the Fate franchise it's kind of useless, and makes it look worse than it actually is. Doesn't help that he gets a lot of facts wrong. He added that "Badly" to the video title later on, after he got a lot of shit for his video lol.
(Leorio being a teen really is hilarious 
