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PSO2 NGS Story Guide
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The story of PSO2 NGS will likely be complex and long. This isn't meant to be a substitute for the game, or as a transcript of the entire script/plot, but rather a way to understand, read-up-on, speculate, analyze & get a really good idea of what's going on in the game. It has some game-play hints & will point out ways of approaching story aspects, but it's not really a gameplay guide to get anyone unstuck either. For online-only games like this, it is important to preserve their plot and characters somewhere that's infinitely stable (unlike youtube or something where the videos get taken away randomly or whatever) |
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Color key Green Text: Speculation or opinions What You Do/The official "Party Line" appears in RED TEXT Bold Text: Important information Choice Options: Blue Text |
NGS Hub Page NGS Story Guide Page 1 NGS Story Guide Page 2 NGS Story Guide Page 3 NGS Story Guide Page 4 NGS Story Guide Page 5 |
NGS Story Guide Page 6 NGS Story Guide Page 8 NGS Story Guide Page 9 |
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The obvious end of the road has a big glass like wall with a shadowy form inside it that could well be the Falz that attacked central earlier although it is not exactly the same. Getting close enough causes a cut scene to begin where the rest of Glens’ team shows up and you can stare upward at it along with everyone else. Aina gets terrified because she’s faced it before, and slaps herself a bit to come off it. This time, her facial expressions are well done and seem appropriate for the situation. Kanui senses no movement, so if we attack now maybe we can crush it once and for all? But fiery spikes erupt from the floor to interrupt everyone because it is the return of the thing Glen hates the most: the Nils Stia. It is the long neck, long tail/blades covered giraffe like dino DOLLS, back for revenge since it had been fought briefly in the Dreisen plant earlier. Now it’s Glens’ turn to look somewhat shook up by it, and everyone is nearly ambushed by Gazzas (Who appear behind the group) Nils Stia is a very tall thing, but you can leap up to get over its back and whack on it to avoid it’s doltz-like stomp/AOE effects. It can summon falling energy beams, but they take a while to track. These do break any combo though. It has a super laser in the face, but it has to target and charge for a second first. The neck and tail can shoot blades, it can spin/swirl itself to attack, and more. The first goal is to break the glowing orange armor plating off of all four of the legs. The NPCs will discuss this, and also that “if you can freeze the rocks that it pulls from the environment you can throw them”. This works like the Crocodylus, including the odd spiked bomb that it can also summon. Each thrown item does huge damage to any part of it by default. You can hit it with frozen rocks, but it charges up power midway thru the fight and becomes invincible. Everyone else fights the gazzas but the Nils starts laser targeting Manon, so one of Glen’s people gets in the way (A young looking middle-beige newman guy with short pointed ears and upturned hair) The Nils Stia is able to shoot the Newman Man, he gets hit instead of Manon., Manon goes to help him while Glen and Kanui rush it, but the guy dies anyway as Manon yells why to sacrifice himself for her. Oddly, the guy looks completely unscathed by the laser hit, though he does say he is much relieved that she’s lived through the attack before he dies. Manon can’t get up so Aina rushes to her side, telling you to help Glen to beat this thing. Now it’s Manon’s turn to be afraid of it like Aina was DF. She looks super sad as she motions Aina out of the way, summons her black staff which has a large power of ice crystal that actually freezes the Nils Stia, allowing you, Glen, and Kanui to bash and smash it with a huge triple attack. But Crawford is there too, and he jumps in! No one has seen this weapon of Manon’s before, and she has never revealed that she had a lot of force/techer type power before now. He says keep the focus because it’s not over yet (they did break its face off tho) It has now healed back the leg armors so you have to break it again. If you can do this, the cut scene shows it roars as it goes down in a hail of everyone’s bullets, and attempts head slams. Crawford reveals he can fly, and uses his staff to boost Glen so he can shoot it, then uses it to remotely set off a huge ice that freezes it solid. Everyone then attacks at once with bladed weapons, and the Nils Stia is defeated at last. All the while, the Falz behind the glass hasn’t moved. Glen asks why leave it now, so Crawford says the cannon is ready, and he believed in everyone here finding Falz, so he should lend his friend a hand right now. Glen says we can mourn her properly once this is all over. They both nod. He’s the one who is already dead/ it is the man who died trying to save her from the Nils Stia Big laser head blast. The DF rises through the chamber it is in. Everyone is shown running and passing debris to exit the volcano as it begins erupting. Crawford calls far enough, and now everyone hacks at falling rocks/lava-bombs from the volcano. The DF does exit it’s water area/whatever that was, and rises out over the top of the erupting volcano. Crawford calls for Dozer to fire the cannon, which hits it directly from central. This causes it to be blue, not red any more and then it vanishes in a ball of light. Crawford asks you to stop by to see him for the next steps, and the scene ends. Once you go back to Central to talk to Crawford, Aina is already there asking if DF got away again. (Because when the cannon hit it, it did that ‘a dolls ‘dies’ thing where it turns red and condenses into an explosive point of light/etc) He’ll explain why not to worry because this time it went into ‘spacetime’ but is ‘on the ropes’. It has limited regen abilities, and to become fully restored, it has to get itself back into that tank in the Stia Nerve Center. Ok so. Manon seems skeptical, so she asks him how he figured all this out. He just comes out and says that it’s mostly Laisas records, and his/ilma’s data, and the Kvaris battle 100 years ago. (But mostly it’s Laisas) It was very clear, and he wrote a lot about DF patterns and activity cycles and how Kvaris had a hard time. They describe how it ‘disappeared’ after their big attack at Kvaris, and it came back later ‘somehow repaired’. At that time, Kvaris (and Laisas) didn’t know that it was just heading off to Stia to get fixed in that bubble water tank. Manon is impressed, and even Crawford wasn’t sure till he saw the Nerve Center with his own eyes. Everyone always thought it was from outside Halpha, an alien…but it makes you wonder who built it and when…but that’s not important now. The objective is simple. They’ve got the emergence points, and central cannon can blast it. Crawford tells you there’s a limited number of places it can appear, however, we’ve still got another one up on it, which is that we know where it needs and wants to go. (So it will be infinitely more blastable because the continents are so small that there is no curvature of the planet to deal with and thus the Central Cannon beam can reach anywhere that’s over land/including Stia Volcano) There’s a problem. We can’t be certain it’ll be the same, or completely different…fairly likely to be very different. (He means what it looks like and how it attacks, so this is the plot coming through for why a boss acts/looks different the next time it is seen, and it makes sense here too, which is nice) There’s backup plans but it’s the strength of the ARKS defenders, so we’ll be at the forefront as usual. There is something he wants Aina to do, but he’ll contact her later. He knows its been rough, but we can keep going. Aina assures everyone too, and you agree. The scene ends. This was a handy one. The “Who built it and why” The spacetime thing is the only sorta plot hole it opens up but just because it’s a huge macguffin like “photons” are the main MacGuffin of the whole PS series. Investigating the Neusen Plant: In the Halpha Mediola Area Manon in Carrying the Torch Do You Mean in Other Regions? Either one is an ok guess--however is this MEANT to be her reminiscing about something she did with the other meteorn that she's not supposed to remember? Everyone in Central’s pretty like that too with their roles and keeping up the place. Your character would be the only one not to know that about Aelio town (because its stay there was so brief) if you say Aelio Town, she agrees and says about how it defended all outlaying areas by itself (confirms what Dozer said) and it was also responsible for the whole other side of the mountains away from Central, all done with very few ARKS. It was hard enough to just patrol, let alone maintain equipment and prep the food. Now she crosses her arms and looks gloomy about this, while saying they gave it their all every day, while also not knowing when a DOLLS attack would come. They’d be up all night fending off an assault, but no one ever complained or felt sorry. They all seemed like they were really enjoying life…she didn’t realize it but they were all focused on playing their respective parts and that’s why they did so well. This smells a little like Manon has PSTD of some sort. Aina in: My Own Fighting Style Definitely If you don’t bother her and say Definitely, she says it means a lot (it is true though) she’s been reading Manon’s journals a lot, especially what she writes about the enemies. She confesses she’d just skim them in the past for general ideas, but now she drills in on it to find ways to put it into practice, which has let her understand more things. Like…what would Manon do in various situations, and what scenarios she’d have problems with…which causes her to think “Well what would I do there”, which feels like starting to find her own fighting style. It’s All about The Basics and Building From There Well, here are 2 interesting-ish options. Aina is actually doing both though: she observes Manon and her repots, as well as using the basics she always talked about from Aelio town. If you say It's All About The Basics, she’s trying lots of different stuff because there’s always more than 1 way to do things. She learned this from Manon, so she hopes she can repay her some day…and you too of course! She’ll keep working hard to keep up with you 2. You nod, and she says break time is over so she’ll go try out a new tactic and the scene ends. Ilma in: An Ancient Mystery They found a huge container under Retem City the other day. It had Central Cannon parts, and they were nearly identical to Aelio & Kvaris parts. This makes him wonder if the original paln was to make it like Central too? He gets excited about this. But Who Could’ve Made It? NOW the lad gets interesting. It’s a ‘no duh’ that the ‘pre-freeze’ people were more advanced somehow and had all gotten together to build all this cities and things but a new discovery in Retem is actually interesting. If you say But Who Could’ve Made It? He agrees that that’s the big question…someone other than the current inhabitants of Halpha. Someone who vanished, leaving massive structures all over…there’s no doubt the people existed but nobody’s been in a place to try and solve the mystery until now. But with this discovery the time is now to get serious about figuring it out. What were they doing here? And what happened to them? We’ll need to know going forward. There’s no guarantee that something worse than DF won’t show up in the future, after all…we need to know as much as we can to handle all the possibilities. He recognizes he went on a monologue though…he’ll figure more out and come with a clearer explanation. But, now to try and find some leads, he’ll work with Crawford and the Aelio team, but he wants to include Retem. Talking to you helps him clear his head so thanks so much for listening…but time to go to the lodge and put some ideas on paper. He heads back and the scene ends. So he looks for minerals when he’s frustrated and cooped up in the lodge. This builds more character for him, which is nice, and he proposes 'worse than the Falz' which it seems no one ever thought of before. Is this foreshadowing or is he just being pessimistic a bit there? Impossible to tell. Whoever did all this was probably behind the speakers in Retem, whatever Retem City is built inside of, and Meri in: Kvaris Today No Problem! Hm. These are actually opposite answers, which is kind of rare. If you say No Problem, she’s glad to hear it, she was worried since she hadn’t heard anything for a while, but if you need anything, count on us. I’ll Be Counting on You If you assure her I’ll Let The Others Know she’s happy and wants to talk to them as well. She wanted to tell you about what’s going on here. Ilma’s made progress, as Aelio’s ARKS pitch in. Retem people have showed up here too, they help fight and research. Grandpa used to say that Retem only cared about fighting power, but things must have changed. Ilma is in the study organizing the data…despite how throrough he is there’s been no more messages from Grandpa. (She is disappointed) They were hoping for more clues in LC, but…. I’m Sure You Will. You can try to assure her with I’m Sure You Will, she agrees and won’t give up hope. We’ll go slow and stead to renew Kvaris and find Grandpa’s clues so she’ll contact you if she finds anything, and there’d be something in it for you if we end up asking for your help. She then goes back to the lodge and the scene ends. Kanui in: Glen’s Gratitude I Didn’t Know You Were In Central It doesn’t matter that it’s just them two because who else was there supposed to be? If you say Didn’t Know, they were looking to get help treating their wounded, and to resupply. Once it’s done, we’ll wait for everyone’s recovery. But, wasn’t there something you wanted to discuss, commander? She asks of Glen, who looks at her with a bit of the side eye. Glen is a dark gray (slightly brownish leaning) Duman with shorter pale gray hair. It’s a bit above his ears, longer on top. He has a single forehead horn (as all men do) and his right eye is silver-gray while the left is a dull orange-ish with the duman pattern in it. He wears a black plastic/metal edge mask that goes to his nose-bridge/you can’t see his lower face at all. He has a big scar above the left eyethat goes up into his hair line (and is probably also under his mask) He’s dressed in the Stia-common silver/reflective material suit with red and gold accents. This has the carbon fiber-looking accents. Notice that the chest area of his suit (under the jacket) is open/exposed and you can see his lighter gray duman skinmark (it’s not a tattoo…it’s something else) (its sometimes difficult to tell if a duman has exposed skin because their skin is an exotic color or it is very similar to their clothing color. ) He’ll say uh yeah there was and it is hard to tell you that you really helped out the other day. Kanui will … at him, and ask if there was more. So he’ll ‘uh’ and then confess that there were a lot of ups and downs during the campaign, because they were wounded and lacking supplies but after years of fighting they didn’t get into the interior of Stia. (remember, it has unique challenges there such as patrolling ‘gigantix’ type regular enemies, weird bases, and it is the hub of the bubble water that is somehow mfr. Dolls) Before you arrived, he’d considered withdrawing from the region. (he looks dismayed at this) This is a shocker! But, his troop morale was still high, he’d planned 1 last offensive before everyone would get burnout, but then the Trio showed up. He’d heard rumors of helping Retem and surviving a direct DF attack, after which paving the way to start reconstructing Kvaris. He was skeptical but out of options, so he’d try his luck with the trio and we all know how that turned out. It’s not over but he needs to say this: Thank You. Kanui agrees and says TY too. Are You Going Back? Once she got him started, Glen really rolled with the whole ‘being a normal person in a conversation’ thing. So Glen is confirmed rather dysfunctional, and it must kind of be a bit blah to be Kanui because he always is bossing her around and never saying thanks. She says he can ‘express gratitude’ but that’s clearly something you have to either read into him or know him really well like she does. Dozer And The 3 Friends I Was Helping Glen’s Crew Out Well, the 2nd one is a lie, so why did they add it? Crawford showed up at the very end, and he didn’t figure out anything that Manon was there to do, he didn’t save Manon from a blast like the dead guy, and he didn’t battle his way thru the plant to get to that point, either. Very odd choice. So if you choose I Was Helping Glen, he says they were the best but numbers weren’t on their side so your support was a huge help. It was something to see Crawford act so decisively (is he usually not? Nils Stia was both of their (Glen/Crawford) hated enemy. At first Crawford had said he’d let Glen handle it but..he wanted to settle the score by Glen’s side. Aelio dolls activity was minimal so it was an opp that may not come again. He didn’t hesitate to give his blessing to the decision and the 3 could close that chapter of their battle. (He clarifies with all 3 names, including Hibana, who is the dead woman) Kanui Told Me About Hibana If you try to prompt him for more info and say The Nils Stia Battle, he says you knew about her? They were close for a long time, she wore her heart on her sleeve…they’re not the same but her straightforwardness was a lot like Aina’s. Glen & Hibana worked together first, then they met Crawford and it was a trio. Crawford & Glen’s relationship is more or less the same as it always was because they still get into it over differences of opinions, but Hibana would mediate things. She’d find a compromise and get them to shake on it…which was helped by her great intuition. She’d throw plans together and they almost always worked out. (So, the opposite of Crawford’s rationalitybut they always got along anyway) All 3 were so different, but they just seemed to mesh on the team, forming an impressive battle teamwork too. Glen at front, Crawford the rear guard and Hibana floating between. They chwed through all dolls that way. Everyone thought it a foregone conclusion that all 3 would lead Aelio, but Hibana’s death created a big void: setting the other 2 off on sepearte paths. But now that the score is settled maybe the void can be filled too. Dozer gets a call to trouble and he has to get going to help the people, but he wants to finish talking later. The scene ends. This clarifies only that Hibana is neither of their relative. Nadereh in Plant Investigation I Haven’t Done Anything That Great The first one is being humble, because the people really have done great. If you say Thanks To Everyone’s Efforts, she agrees and remembers that the Retem victory was only after joining forces. No one can take on DOLLS alone, so…is it true that Dolls facilities were discovered there? You can nod at this. She heard that there’s a plant that was similar to Lower Maquead, and it had dolls mfr equip inside. She thought Dolls were born naturally like other living things, but that is proven to not be the case now. Who created them, when and why? She’s got so many questions but she’s a warrior not a researcher so she feels she has to leave it to Crawford. But, she orders Retems’ ARKS to prep for a new battle because the Renus Retem wounds are healed and now we can reorganize. She doesn’t want to focus only on defense in light of the new unknown so they’re mobilizing for war. She wants to coordinate with the other areas too. The Quintuplets Work Is Amazing Equal choices, it just depends on who you want to promote. If you say The Quintuplets she’s amazed by what Kvaris does with so few people. She also notices that Kvaris people thinking here is changing too, they’re more open to joining forces, but still honoring the treasured Retem traditions. So lets not fear the change, and welcome all talent without prejudice. Her experience shows her it’s necisary, and there’s many battles ahead if we want peace that’s the only way. She hopes you’ll continue to fight by their side too, and she leaves. Crawford’s Recap: Later, outside, Aina says this is really it, and Manon responds that for the sake of Halpha, we have to…must win. She seems a bit…exhausted over this? Aina agrees with her, and the scene ends. This is the introduction to Battle of Halphia Lake, which is where you use special equipment to fight DF Aegis and protect central. Enemies appear during the quest and drop points, as do destroying parts of the boss. This lets you use “Delivery Device” and Mobile Cannon M2. This recap part is all voiced, and it’s good to have around. Manon in Hold Your Head Up You Look A Little Down If you ask her Are You Feeling Unwell? (This sure isn’t the place to do it) She says she’s fine, but … a you. She is reminded every time she comes here of the Nils Stia battle. She keeps thinking about the guy who sacrificed himself during the battle. Protecting someone like her, it isn’t fair It’s Not Your Fault Well…he was and he wasn’t, no one goes in looking to get killed by a thing, everyone is doing their job but his went horribly wrong. Of course it is Not Your Fault, but he had his own life too, his dreams and hopes were like all the rest of us and she took all of that away from him forever. (She didn’t really take it away, it was Nils Stia that did it. It was going to shoot SOME-one no matter who it was or where they were, it was going to shoot. The murderer takes the blame for the murder) Your character is about to say something when Kanui comes upon the conversation and says Excuse Me I can’t get behind that line of thinking, which surprises Manon. She apologizes for overhearing, and asks to explains things about Stia people: the simple rule of never leaving anyone behind. In a battle it’s not the enemy to fear most, it’s the loss of trust between a squadmate. It’s wondering if you get left behind or cut off in a battle, that is a fear that hangs over your head and the rule is meant to eliminate that fear. We all know we’ve got each other’s backs, which allows us to perform all duties free of (that specific) worry. The defender who died protecting you was only following that rule because he refused to leave you behind. And because of that, more lives were saved as the result, it is what he believed. And, it’s how things really did turn out. Manon insists that it was only because she was overcome by rage at the time, but Kanui says that what counts in battle is the result, and while protocol is important how many enemies we kill and how many of us survive is what really counts at the end of the day. If the losses are heavy it is Glen who shoulders the responsibility, as well as her the adjutant. So remember it was him only doing his duty, so please hold your head up. And that’s all she’ll say about that. Manon thanks her, and Kanui hopes it wasn’t presumptuous…but she’s got to return to her duty, and she leaves. Manon admits working thru her feelings isn’t easy but Kanui is right, she has to try to hold her own head up so she can move forward. She’ll carry the torch for the guy who died also. Now, why do they not name this guy? The Neusen Plant These include Skyhopper / Skychargers Rings/platforms that appear in the air. If you can 'land' on one while gliding, it's supposed to let you do extra damage with a 'slam down' attack if you don't touch the ground first before activating it Hydrome is the Drome/Hovac of this area, it works the same way but seems smaller and perhaps more aggressive. Kanui in: Glen’s Hidden Charisma He Is Strong Why is there not a third option? He started off rather miserable (authorizing the attack on the known Aelio response team to Stia) but he improved as the plot progressed. If you go generic, and say He Is Strong, she sounds surprised (but why?) and supposes he is, then she believes there’s no stronger ARKS than he. She wasn’t quite expecting that answer. (Well why not? If he’s even with our guy Crawford, he’d have to be, and it’s not like she doesn’t know Crawford or didn’t hear about him at all and his feats over in Aelio area.) He’s of few words and that’s often misinterperated, that condition becomes more pronounced when he’s focused on an operation but the truth is that he takes very good care of all under his command. He takes point in enemy territory and he rear guards during retreats. He says that is the best way to reduce casualties. That’s why everyone trusts him implicitly and it’s that trust that allows everyone to put their lives on the line for missions. I Have A Feeling I Know Who it Was Remember that not everything here is logical and the plot does any random things so even if you think you can guess, it’s probably better to pick Who Was It? She’ll say it was Xitre. So if you know her, do reassure her. Kanui says that he’s not actually scary he just looks stern and doesn’t speak much. You’re one of the few ARKS he trusts, so she hopes you’ll be someone he can continue to count on and thanks for everything. The scene ends. Did you guess it was Xitre? WHY is it so unexpected that someone’s opinion of Glen is that he’s strong? Bet: The tips of Kanui’s fingers are red with a gold band at the knuckle of last digit. This is a very creative way to imply nail polish on someone who has no finger nails. The balljoints to her fingers are all black, and the palm/other joints are silver. |
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