PSO2 Story Guide Episodes 4-5
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The story of PSO2 has many chapters & is very 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. This section is for Chapters 4 and 5 ONLY. For all the plot before this, see the Story Hub. Because the game is divided up over these sections, the plot will be as well. |
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Character Guide Planets/Areas Guide Special Quest Mission Write Ups |
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 Dates & Times (Story is time travel related) Purple Text |
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Story Guide HUB | ||||||||
This girl is wearing white ruffle top thigh high boots, 2 lace thigh garters, high heel black shoes & a short 1 piece skirt with long sleeves. It has the same pattern on it that Hagith's floating platform was made of. You do not get to see her hair or face, though. She looks up and sees her, so the girl says if you're crying because you're betrayed, and if you're said because you lost someone you should tighten your fists and strengthen your resolve instead. Bring your friend back with your own two hands. She claims to know what she wishes for and extends a hand to Kohri. The chapter ends. There's shoe-horning going on here: Why does Hagith summon what he does? Why can Hitsugi fight with a Katana? Enemy Explanation: Snake Helicopters. The Tank Type 15: The Steamroller: These will of course go way way way faster than any normal roller to try and squash people. They also rear up & slam down. They can manifest a backhoe claw/dig thing and will dig up a massive chunk of ground, then try to flip it over onto you. In all cases any 'window' in the device is flat metal sheeting with blueish unnatural bolts along seams. The Zombies: They're probably about 7 or 8 feet tall, give or take how tall the tallest character you can make normally is. There's a baton wielding guy, gun guy & sword guy. Being half formed and shambling about with weapons would make these a fright as well. These can also manifest, but it's uncommon. Like, gun guy can split in half at the waist and release a missile. Usually these will die before they can manifest a larger attack. Hagith in: Embodiment Without Limits If its not enough he'll create something stronger, even more amazing! Take in the Ether, o emerald tablet, your energy is unmatched show me power beyond money and construction without limit! The tablet now gathers and emits green dots of energy and sparkles all around. He gestures grandly as the thing escalates into....a man with glowing green eyes, and a green suit that looks military. He's wearing a cap, and has his hands on his hips. Hagith is pleased at this, but the guy kind of dematerializes and shoots away like a comet in a trail of squares across the city. Well that was odd. He got so worked up his tablet turned into a guy and flew away. Who knew? A Meeting with the ARKS Intel division On the bridge, Hitsugi and Aru teleport in but Hitsugi is gloomy so he asks her what's wrong. She's struggling hard not to cry, focusing on her breathing and says gimme a minute. (And he does) This is clearly ALSO right-right after the Hagith fight so she’s mourning Kohri’s loss of friendship because she is goonish and failed to explain that she feels Mother will kill Aru if she gets the chance. Although no one has directly said they'd hurt Aru, and 'just wanting to see him' was on the table until Hagith was prepared to (presumably) murder her to get at him. On the bridge are Casra and his 2nd in command girl. This is a new character that no one has yet seen. She is an anime tie-in character that GenericBoy meets. She is a younger person (so, like high school age looking) with blue beret, long yellow hair in 2 braids that fade to hot pink at their tips. She's in thigh high boots with ruffle tops & a 1 piece blue short ruffle skirt with long sleeves. The under-patterning on this is little geometric stars. What's notable about her is that her mag is visible & it's the Rappy mag. Nobody else’s’ mag is ever visible in these things unless it’s on the field so this is odd. Hitsugi feels the 2 new people look important & serious so she asks if she'll be interrogated like a prisoner of war?? Aru wants to know what a POW is. She tells him not to worry about that, she didn't come all the way to humiliate herself, she's prepared for this. Mentally though, she confesses that she has no idea what's going on, what are they going to do to her? It'll be embarrassing! Are they going to do a body search of her? Not in here, in public surely...Should she take what they say with a grain of salt? They did save her but that doesn't mean they can do what they want right? (Notice how her thoughts right away go to someone doing a physical-touch search or making her take off her clothes. She just has a bit of a dirty mind / is obsessed with bringing up molesters at every opportunity ---because she just was teleported into that room….the ship knows literally every molecule of herself and clothing and anything she's carrying like concealed bombs or weapons SO some ineffective hands on search is like cave-man thinking) Because she’s frozen in her pondering, Xiera says hello ARKS to Hitsugi whatever she's imagining no one's here to do anything to her. She's an important guest to them, we'd never treat you like a POW. The girl says she's the Earthling that's cooperating with us. Hitsugi asks who she is. She's Aika, the ARKS operative working in the Intelligence Division. She was performing an investigation on Earth. She briefly attended Earth school & learned a lot. Xiera asks Casra if he's got anything to say about the Unit keeping the ops quiet for so long. He says come now, she makes him sound cold...we're just here today to cooperate and share the info they have on the matter. She's skeptical, though about the matter of her being invited onboard. Xiera ferrets him out because Ulc would have leapt into the situation that didn't require YET our aid. He admits Xiao's successor (Xiera) was trained well, because she understood so quickly. To be honest whether we informed the Cmdr or not, the result would have been much the same. He looks at Aika until she says the people that live on Earth are not so different from us, she can't ignore them like that. This is meant to sound reassuring, but it smacks of xenophobia in that if the Earthlings weren't so similar looking to ARKS/ex-photoners then they wouldn't be worth saving. It also shows that Aika AND Casra are possibly missing the point that it's the ARKS who are being invaded by the Earthlings, it's not the other way around. Casra says his investigation came to the same conclusion as Ulc, thus we decided to come clean. Besides, if they'd continued in secret, your char would have ended up investigating them and it wouldn't end well. From now on, we'll share the intelligence regarding Earth environment, geography & the allies on Earth. Hitsugi is shocked at this, asking that there's really people on Earth who are aware that a whole ‘nother world is visiting? Casra says of course because on Earth there are those who know & understand the ARKS who are useful allies. No official agreement has yet been made though so we can't share any details but...That's where we stand on the issue of not disclosing intel. He'll send the rest to Xiera, so she can review & brief further. They then both leave. Xiera calls them selfish and storms off to her chair. She appears her glasses. There's too much to keep up with! It's a huge file! How much have they hidden! Is it incomplete? They're unorganized! She goes into an info frenzy, fretting and rubbing her floating screens all around. Hitsugi wants to ask her something, but she asks instead for more time to reorganize all this. Now, she begs you to give Hitsugi & Aru a tour of the ARKS ship. That way she'll be done by the time you get back. You nod at them, and they'll agree to follow you. Why do they need a tour of the ship though? Hasn't Hitsugi supposed to have been playing PSO2 for quite some time now? How many hours has she dropped in the game? The place should be like the back of her own hand at this point. A tour doesn't make sense unless something's changed. Meanwhile... The scene ends. Of course Casra is still hiding something. Aika: Aika 2: The ARKS just pin-pointed where the invasion is coming from (the planet Earth) and went there to investigate. Distance doesn't seem to matter to these guys. *Who wears thigh-highs? So What The Heck Is Aru: Now, you start Hitsugi & Aru’s ARKS ship tour. These next story boards all have to do with it. These are to introduce your character to the NPCs, if you have just joined the game and are ignoring all previous episodes, so the tour is for YOU not them. This was a developer stated goal for ‘new joiniers’. Hitsugi Meets Quna You can then say She is dressed differently than her usual 'civilian clothes', this time in a green stripy visor cap, green jacket & gray shirt with gray skirt. Of course, she still has the dip-dye pigtails. If you say You Seem Busy Yourself, she feels its good to have something to do. She feels annoyed that these jobs are coming from 'that wily 4-eyes' (meaning Casra) Hitsugi then recognizes her, the Idol of ARKS who does concerts. Upon being recognized Quna greets her, apologizing for not saying something earlier. Hitsugi greets back. She tells her she goes to all concerts and really likes it. Quna says its times like this that make her glad to be an idol. She then skeptically looks to you, saying you'll come occasionally but hardly gives your thoughts about it. Aru disrupts this mild jab by asking what's an idol & what's it do? Hitsugi has to think about this... Aika's Role She's been advised that trust and understanding are necessary for interactions with foreign cultures. So she's here as some experience with Earth while repping the Int. Unit. She hopes that she won't be an unnecessary burden under Xiera's care. Note that this whole exchange goes almost no-where, and she completely ducks Xiera's question. Io in: You're Too Forceful That's Not True. If you say I never thought of it as trouble, She says that's just who you are. We're always saying to rely on us (Io means the ARKS who know you), but you still try to sort it all yourself. Aru asks if it's wrong to do everything yourself? She's not saying it's wrong...she just doesn't want you to push yourself too hard, and she wants you to trust 'us' more. (Who's us? Io herself doesn't seem to have many friends probably because she's a bit prickly) Instead of trying to keep all to self, ask for help if you need it, that's what friends are for. But no-matter what, there's no changing your mind. So we have to use this attitude to consider how to provide backup. Hitsugi asks if you're always like that? Io says your-char never changes its mind, do you want to hear the story of how PD resurrected, and you went off to save Matoi by yourself? She then regales them with the story, but the scene ends. Pietro in: Pietro vs Katori at the beach Katori yells loudly at the beach that “while making a new class you must get the blessing of other classes first!” Using the allure and cuteness, of pets and endangering the Bouncer class, she won't forgive him. Of course, on the receiving end of this, is Pietro. He says even though you say that, there's still a problem because summoner is already approved by ARKS. Isn't that right Catherine? At this, the pet is startled and begins biting his hand multiple times. He tries to wrestle the arm away from her, but it is vicious and won't let go. He shouts in pain, which amuses Katori greatly at 'the cute display'. She says she must steel herself against the charm of pets in this case. When you arrive, Saga is there watching, and reassures you there's no issue here. She then asks him for something to say because this has to do with the honor of all bouncers. SU is a class of laziness! Saga tells her to stop spreading rumors. So she asks for your input. Pietro finally notices you at this, telling the pet to look, it is our friend, are your 'children' doing well also? Katori is offended at this, asking if you've fallen prey to his black magic. She runs up to you demanding the meaning of this, even if you could've chosen bouncer you chose SU?? Peitro, who has only moved to the side in all this, tells Catherine that Katori sure is energetic, despite her harsh critique. However, this causes the pet to level its horns at him, then begin charging his leg with flip/stabs, as he tells it he'd never give up on her, nor let her go. He then protests that she's too excited and gets hurt yelling ouch and to stop, begging the pet as it continues flipping at him to cut his legs with the sharp horns. You then leave him to his fate. Why does this continue? Pietro is an odd duck to be sure, but it's strange that every single character including yours seems to have zero empathy for his situation, and zero curiosity as to why his pets hate him while he so clearly loves his pets. Empathetic characters walk away, other people simply ignore him. Katori saying 'its cute' when the dog rips at his hands* is...mean spirited (borderline psycho) because she actively wants him to be hurt/in pain because she feels he's affronting her class/her hard work so that's not a big surprise...but the whole situation is oddly nonsensical. Especially because no one mentions anything about it. There was literally more sympathy for Gettemhart breaking lilipa robots in weird ways with his punching gloves than Pietro is getting here. (Scroll back and see, it’s documented here in the story write up) And remember, the robots on lilipa aren’t sentient / alive /aware, it’s like he’s punching already-broken toasters to bits inside of a garbage pile and the other characters are all like ‘boo hoo that’s scary how mean of him’ in a completely non-joking way. They are literally more upset that he breaks already-broken garbage and strews the bits around than they are of these animals repeatedly trying to eat a random stupid (but living) man. *It's not like the pets don't do real damage: this isn't like a hamster karate-chopping somebody's sneaker in a 'wacky attack that does nothing', you KNOW pets do big damage to monsters including the oodans and whatever has 'human like' strength/damage-take-ability. These things are really hurting him but everybody treats it like a joke. WHY. "If pets are so great, why are yours always attacking you?" If SU is so great, why do the pets barely follow commands?
She waves hello and comments that you've settled back in, and so has she, so she's getting a break. By the way have you seen predecessor? She woke up WAY before you, but she's been so busy though. Hitsugi thinks that Claris sounds like 'a stuck up kid, all right'. But, she only thinks this while she semi-scowls at Claris. Claris, who has become more astute, says haha hey you, you were just thinking to yourself... that this kid thinks she's SOOO important, right? Hitsugi startles and denies it, but Claris says that it's obvious from how her photons are reacting. It's fine to think it all she wants however, because she doesn't think she's important, she KNOWS it. Hitsugi asks what's with the sassy lost child? Claris intros herself as the 3rd Claris Claes, and manages to tack on 'short stuff' when addressing Hitsugi, which of course sets Hitsugi off. She shouts that she's the taller one and that the child's mannerisms concern her. Claris clarifies (not) that she can't help it, she was designed like this, having this body since she was born. (Well--doesn't EVERYbody be the same body they were born with? Who is frankensteining heads off/head switching? That’s the only way you could get a different body than you were born with.) Is this a poorly interoperated phrase here where she means she was 'never a baby' and she has always looked this way? If so, it'd be the first time something like that was addressed) This causes Hitsugi to pause in her flailing and go 'huh'? She laments that if only Sara would get a little taller, she could too. So blame her for that. Hitsugi asks about the 'designed' part. She says she's an artificial creation, a clone, so is that easy enough to take in? Hitsugi asks if we're in a comic. (She means a Manga though, not the funnies) Claris isn't sure what that means, but if she's trying to shower her with pity, then it's none of her business. She's accepted it, and so has everyone else, so that's that. She's herself, Claris Claes, and she'll put all her effort into what she can, herself, do. But, thanks for your concern. (She's genuine here) You've Gotten Stronger If you say You've Gotten Stronger She wouldn't say that exactly...but more like she doesn't have to act like she's strong any more. But by the way shortstuff and kiddo, she doesn't know their names yet. Hitsugi intros herself and Aru. Claris says nice to meet you. But oh no, she's going to be late for an important meeting! Time to catch up to Sara! The scene ends. Wow. Actual character development! Clones: History of ARKS: With Aru & Hitsugi Aru asks about Xion. He wants to know about her. Xiera admits Xion was incompetent at reading people's emotions, that's why she wanted to interact with the people she found, the Photoners. Xion taught them the ways of manipulating photons and their technology advanced explosively. She claims that they evolved way too much, built many unnecessary things, and eventually that became the source of all darkers, the PD. This bit, on the other hand, is very ill-explained. Hitsugi goes on that before PD, the photoners were doing other various things as well right, like taking advantage of Xions' activities and others...(What does this even mean? They couldn’t be any more vague if they tried.) This surprises Xiera, she's amazed Hitsugi knew, and then says that as a result those 'various things' ended up creating the PD. SO WHAT ARE THE VARIOUS THINGS. The Photoners tried to create a copy of Xion, failing numerous times during the process, in the end, their biggest failure gave birth to PD. To sum it all up, Aru says Xion was amazing, the photoners were the bad guys and today neither of them are here? Xiera says that if you leave the purpose of advancement aside, in a sense, there's no flaws with your understanding. But, that said, Xiera then confesses she's that 'amazing person's offspring, Xiao's child. In a sense, she'd be Xion's grandchild. Aru concludes Xiera is an amazing person? Hehe! Not perhaps, she IS amazing! You can admire her more now! This makes Hitsugi to dot-dot-dot. So you can ask Something on your mind? If you ask Something on Your Mind? Hitsugi at first denies, then says 'kind of'. She elaborates that amongst Mother intel, there was something about gathering data on Photoners. What could it be about? Xiera says that rather than looking at history of ARKS, it seems they're looking for the origin of ARKS instead...perhaps a different reason for an unrelated purpose? Hitsugi still can't figure it. The scene ends. Did Xion really know everything? False Moraltiy: Oh wow they got really techno-savvy right quick with her help none of this ever would have happened had they been good jungle dwelling cave men forever dyeing of disease orbiting a star till it goes supernova and kills them all. So saintly! No other life is good but that of the caves! Better never invent something or someone will abuse it and kill everyone, uh oh! SOME Photoners did SOME bad things and as a result of it they all died, even the good ones. MOTHER Clue: It has learned about the extinct Photoners, and wants to know what's up...but why? They're extinct. Hitsugi & Aru in: You are pretty popular Not Really... If you say Not Really...She says yes, from at least her perspective you are. Io waves in the background, so Hitsugi says it's nice to just be able to greet people wherever you go. At school she was free to do whatever she wanted, even though she was popular with the teachers, she couldn't get used to hanging around people in her own age group. (So, basically a teacher's pet type, or raised around too many adults, or a bit of a prodigy studies-wise where other kids appear 'too childish' to another child so she doesn't fit in.) Since she had Kohri with her it didn't matter so much, so that was more reason others didn't try to be her friend too. She admits she envies you because of the way other treat you. What's she saying, is she starting to become naive after coming to a different world? Aru walks up and holds her hand and says he thinks she's amazing too! He says it's because she saved him, just like you did, that means she's amazing too. She's happy now, and thanks him. |
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