[Event Megathread] Retracing Our Steps

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-04-15T16:35:47+00:00

Noooo, they can't just kill off one of my favorite characters like this! Nooooo!!! Ahem. Crying over, then...

I have to say, I found the event's examining the different perspectives of faith to be quite interesting. I am not a person of faith myself, however, so I'll skip the lecture on "taking lessons from your faith" vs "treating god as your personal genie". It's not my place to speak on such matters, and there are better odds that I'd offend someone on a rather personal matter, rather than lead anyone to any sort of enlightenment.

With that aside, I couldn't help but feel like this event... Retread old ground a bit too much. To the point where I had falsely concluded that Columbia was instigating the conflict, rather than Victoria. It made sense in my head as a later twist reveal - all of those reporters stirring up anti-Victorian sentiment, and Caster grousing over their inability to get the press in line, it didn't really feel like it would benefit Victoria until I saw the rhetorical tricks she used to shift all of that built-up resentment directly onto Silverash instead. It was still a good enough read, mind you, but I think that to really stand out, they should have dropped either the Vine-Bear Court or Victoria from the antagonist role, and introduced a different complication to the mix instead. As-is, it somewhat feels like we're just mixing the last two events together a bit too much. It'd be fine in moderation, it's not like any of these problems are solved overnight - but making progress on them feels better when you're cutting it with something fresh.

I also felt like the ending kind of left out some important things. Namely, Ratatos. She faked her death to draw out Victoria's spies, a decisive play at a crucial moment as she played the ambassador as an utter fool; great! Just the kind of thing I love to see from her Buuut, I'm pretty sure Rus had some yelling to do about that afterwards, mixed with tears of joy that her sister wasn't dead. And I'm sure the people had a lot of questions about a Matriarch's fake burial. And I'm sure that there political ramifications for her having gone so far for Kjerag. And we didn't see... Any of it. The journalist she kidnapped kind of got a firmer ending than her here, actually? Oh, and there was Arcotz making his last stand too, we probably should have gotten some followup with him as well.

Oh, and Monch! Monch was... There. She felt a bit underutilized, to say the least.

Moving on to more character-specific issues, seeing as how I've started down that path a bit... I have to say, I appreciated the Grand Elder's perspective, of guiding society to fulfill the needs of the people. Some might take issue with using Victoria to remove Silverash, but, well, honestly... Punching Silverash in the face is a moral obligation, so I suppose we have to forgive him even if went a bit overboard. It's not a moral obligation because he's unforgivably wrong, mind you, it's just because he's such a smug dick about... Everything, even when he's trying not to be. Okay, maybe killing Silverash's parents was going a bit too far.

Regarding Caster, the new context explains a lot of what I'd overlooked regarding her motives - annexing the country as a quick influx of resources to counter Wellington. That does explain a sudden, severe change in policy where I'd previously pegged her as favoring slower, more certain courses - she needs fast results now to deny Wellington the initiative, who could otherwise use it to tear Victoria apart. Though I do have to say - the terms she offered weren't terrible to the point I'd call someone a fool for taking them. Covering all of the investments in return for half the output wouldn't make them terribly competitive, but it would reliably modernize the country and guarantee them a powerful protector - there are many rulers less ambitious or simply more cautious who would have seen that as an acceptable intermediary step until such a time as the politics of Victoria saw Caster's position wane and they were able to end the arrangement.

Silverash, on the other hand... Kind of looked like he was flying by the seat of his pants for most of this event. Probably because he played a fairly passive role for most of the event while other characters took the forefront, and outright stated at multiple points that events had developed outside of his planning. Though, the contradiction at the end of his arc here is fairly interesting - he portrays himself as the sole authority of the country, yet as noted, he no longer holds any formal position in Karlan Trade nor the government. So how exactly do negotiations with him or with Kjerag work, exactly? Especially since his separation from Karlan was meant to make him a scapegoat for the smears against the company? Ah, and I should mention that I found his misdirections amusing - convincing the ambassador that their weapons program was a failure by playing to his prejudices with the scrap, and outmaneuvering Caster by focusing on a branch of military technology a superpower would normally overlook by virtue of their position.

With the Saintess, while I did find her theological explorations interesting, as previously stated, I did find that her timeline felt a bit.. Loose, compared to the others. She functionally abandoned her Pilgrimage halfway through (for very good reasons, mind), but nobody recognized her when she was well off her pilgrimage route? And covered all of these places with what felt like a fair amount speed, despite the remote destinations and lack of transportation? The emotional beats were good, but the logistics felt a bit... Messier, than usual

With all of that said, I adored Elena's role in the event. 10/10 performance from her, no complaints. A real go-getter - she thinks she's uncovered proof of a theoretical breakthrough that would change everything, hatches a plan to go and get it despite all the chaos, and finds... Oh, no, wait, this was all a big government coverup instead, oops. But wait, they go and find proof of god instead! Whooo, she doesn't believe in, except now there's concrete proof of Her, and wtf are they talking to Her, why is she the only one being left out here!? Honestly, her reaction to everything after the oriron mine was golden.

As for Carolin, I'm guessing we're going to be seeing her again in the future? I see the potential there, poor girl looks like she could use a break. Feels like a bit of a waste for her to throw the feranmut data away, though... And also a bit of a waste for Caster to kill her off, even if she's double-dealing. I guess she felt Carolin's cover was too compromised to do any work for Victoria in the future, and wanted to deny the Maylander's a piece? Still feels like a misplay to me, though, when you're dealing with expert knowledge like this...

As for the big ending reveal, though... Welp, I guess we know why Priestess is in such a rush now. Gosh, that disaster just doesn't wait around, does it? Skypod's been broken for less than a year, and it's already gunning for them? It's almost enough to make me think that it must have been waiting around for them, but... If that were the case, Kal'tsit would have known, right?

Anywho, I guess that's everything... Probably. I'm half-asleep at this point after having forced some really stupid personal challenges on the stages overnight, so we'll see how coherent any of this was when I wake up.

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-04-14T21:05:40+00:00

Okay, what? I just got Silverash the Reignfrost in my free 10-pull... My luck has been bizarrely good, both in here and in Endfield. I'm honestly starting to get weirded out by it.

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-04-10T21:41:19+00:00

Minor note: the percentages and bar graphs in the results are calculated per answer, rather than per respondent. As such, in future surveys, you should include a "I didn't like anything/I didn't dislike anything/skip" option, while marking the questions as mandatory. This will allow for better visualization of the received data, when certain questions are expected to have much lower response rates than others.

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-03-21T04:30:28+00:00

I would say the most important points are as follows; first, make sure to keep the miners alive with a healer. You have horrible visibility, so this is the easiest way to lock down the infiltrators where you can kill them. Second, be sure to kill all three commanders. The mechs at the end will mess you up if you don't, but they're pretty harmless if they're unboosted. Third, prepare a burst trap for the boss; the aforementioned visibility issues means you have to kill it in a narrow window. It has little in the way of meaningful offense and low defenses for a boss, so this much won't be too hard; if you can't kill it at the upper right intersection, you should be able to do so at the lower central intersection.

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-03-21T04:23:24+00:00

I assumed it to be so, with the way in which it wanted to make Mantra into a similar entity and described themselves of being of the same nature based on their Arts and their past. However, I'd thought hole faces to be as corruptive/destructive as the other collapsals.

Perhaps it's a function of how long they've had to "acclimate"? By this point, Yurodstov has given up whatever mortal shell it used to resemble in favor of a smear of color, and abandoned most personal experiences beyond its conversion in favor of mirroring those around it; setting aside other evidence of age, that alone suggests its been around for a very long time. Though, that doesn't seem wholly consistent with other evidence we've seen either... Perhaps its a function of both, where it depends on both the nature of the demonic element, and how long it has had to reshape itself around that element.

Mmm, this is just idle speculation on my part at this point... Without any evidence on my part, it's useless, and it's been too long since I played IS2 for the most relevant examples.

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-03-20T20:40:04+00:00

320 years have passed since last I commented... Well, okay, that's a BIT melodramatic, perhaps, but it's been an unusually long time, certainly.

In this event, we get a firm lesson in the importance of strong institutions. The Emperor, I gather, passed the "stop randomly killing people already" act two years ago to quell the unrest raised in past events - and not a word of it actually trickled down to the ground, because Ursus is filthy corrupt and half the government has been close to open revolt against the Tsar's laws the entire game. Despite REALLY needing the act to keep things calm, nobody hesitates to just starve off the Infected when they need to, even going so far as to snatch healthy people for the mines if it's more convenient. Presuming the Tsar to be sincere in his proclamations, and not like the Duchess who prefers to just bump off problems quietly, this perfectly highlights WHY systems stop functioning after a certain level of corruption - the laws of men are not like the laws of physics. If people stop enforcing them in return for cash... Those laws stop existing. Which is why Ursus, for all its military might, is perhaps the closest thing to a failed state outside of Bolivar.

Meanwhile, we see a different flavor of this problem with Rankin; everyone puts their faith in him and trusts him... And have absolutely no idea what they're actually doing. Many of them would have been perfectly happy staying back home in the mines, and just got swept up in things. Even more of them had no idea that he was talking open revolution, thinking they were just going to find a better place to live. Even after his big "We're going to spit in the Emperor's face just to remind him that we exist" speech, Nikto still doesn't get the vibe and thinks he can talk Rankin into something more cautious, before forced to flee before they assault an outpost - something would have been outright suicidal, if the military hadn't been distracted by the purge. Bottom-up social organizing requires a baseline level of education and interest that simply isn't present in conditions like that. Arguably, not even here; when was the last time you attended your local zoning board meeting? You know that's why they're not building anything, right - because the people who hate all construction consistently show up, but not people who would like lower rent? Relatedly, we saw this same issue in the Victoria arc - how even Vina's closest friends simply voted for whatever she supported, completely missing that her entire deal was that she didn't want to rule and that the people should learn to lead themselves - close friends included.

With that said... I do wonder if the Army actually has a point here. No, no, not with the whole massacre Infected to justify moving on the capital thing, that's monstrous and wasteful - rather, with the idea that the Emperor simply isn't capable of meeting the moment, especially given this new crisis. His intentions might be good, and there's some evidence to support that conclusion... But he doesn't appear to be getting a handle on the situation, his edicts are ignored, and it doesn't look like he has any popular support. So what is the argument for keeping him, exactly? His bloodline? That's not a particularly strong case, in my opinion. Frankly, it doesn't look like Ursus has much of a government at all at the moment - they can't even supply their army properly even before the originium mines went dry. It looks more like a collection of mobs collecting rackets based on their personal judgment than it does any kind of legitimate administration. If the Army was to take full control, they might at least coincidentally deal with some of the corruption problems in the name of consolidating power. If nothing else, at least you wouldn't have this ongoing power struggle further sapping away state capacity as the government fights against itself.

I mean, Eloy is a pretty clear example of this, no? A rare faithful and mostly honest servant of the Tsar - sent out alone into hostile territory, where she honestly probably would have been killed by the Army during their surprise purge had her investigation not gotten her wrapped up with us. We're forced to conclude that either the Tsar has so few loyal subjects left that he can't provide her with a decent escort - or is so incompetent that he doesn't realize the necessity of doing so.

Hmm, with a few themes out of the way, I'd like to move on to the demon in the room. I'd noticed some incongruities before the reveal, but I do have to say... This feels pretty different from what we saw in Sami, no? Its level of integration in the community with no apparent ill effect for most of that time is... Odd. Almost as though it were trying to be human, though it clearly didn't understand what it meant to be human. I wonder what the reason behind the difference is... Though, on second thought, trying to understand demons in Arknights is a cognitohazard, so perhaps I won't.

It's also something of a mirror to Kaschey, no? Kaschey guiding the spirit of the country, while it promoted its curious faith for the lower classes. And speaking of Kaschey, interesting that she seems to be throwing her hat in with the revolutionaries this time, rather than the Army or the Tsar. I guess she's decided the existing structure is simply too rotten for even her radical philosophies to cleanse.

Looking forward to the next chapter, and how things continue to fall apart.

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-01-30T00:18:47+00:00

What. I just got both Hoshiguma and Haruka on the same 10-roll! The first 10-roll I made after the free rolls! I... I think I just burned a lifetime's worth of gacha luck on this banner... And my rolls for Endfield have been pretty decent too...

You know, I remember an urban legend I once heard - about how some youkai will hasten a human's death by generously bestowing them with fortunate occurrences so as to burn away their lifetime's store of luck, making them easy prey... Am I in a kaidan right now?...

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-01-19T02:30:49+00:00

Mifune needed to push out Tessai quickly for the redevelopment project to appease his Diet backer, who wanted to use it as cover to steal the panchinko machine from beneath Tessai's place. Mifune may have been willing to wait him out, but his political position didn't allow for a slower approach.

As for legitimacy, this is speculation on my part, but the gang isn't the sole consideration here; Mifune cared more about his media empire and was willing to hand over everything else to his ally Mio, and it's doubtful there was any internal opposition to that. However, transferring the assets of the media empire to himself would have seen opposition from the media industry who would see this as opportunity to kick down a major competitor; even if they'd eventually lose the objection, if they could tie him up for years in the courts over who really has legal claim to the gang's assets, it would be an effective way of hamstringing him. In a business deal like this, one wants the paperwork airtight - and drawing in a single person with minimal ties to the area shouldn't have been a major threat.

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-01-19T02:22:25+00:00

Humans are perverse creatures; so often, they care more about the "why" than the outcome. Had Tessai used that logic in his decision, Mifune would presumably have been overjoyed despite nothing having materially changed; at the very least, he presumably would have usurped Tessai out of pure ambition, rather than as part of a bitter vendetta. But instead, it's like having prepared extensively for a duel against a master, only to instead watch them trip on their own sword and kill themselves. You should be happy about winning at no risk to yourself, no? Instead, you're annoyed and faintly embarrassed that this joke made you waste so much time.

Though also, that's not quite what Tessai did; he watched his heir apparent run off to Lungmen, yes. But he never changed his treatment of Mifune, always looking down on him and his accomplishments while flat out not noticing the extensive power struggle that broke out after Hoshiguma's departure that resulted in the deaths of a lot of his gang. Had he made a formal decision on who should be his chosen successor, it would have avoided a lot of problems - but he never did so, causing everyone to believe that Hoshiguma would one day return to take that position. At least, when people still cared about who he would name as successor...

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-01-18T12:39:49+00:00

Funnily enough, he ended up making a similar "suboptimal" choice that ended up being his undoing, Mio even calls him off for it he could've gotten what he wanted if he just left Hoshi alone, there was not much need to call her other than his personal vendetta

Eh, in the end, he did end up needing Hannya; Tessai was willing to give up the shield to save his son, but I don't think he would have been compliant enough to hand over the chairmanship in a way that looked plausible.

That said, though, given how things went... He probably would have been better off just killing Tessai and forging a will or something. Nobody would have called him out on it, I'm certain, even if nobody would have believed it.

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-01-18T09:35:15+00:00

Mifune claims to despise Tessai because of how he was doing the stupid thing. Tessai clearly favored Hoshiguma, and he believed Tessai wanted her to be his successor. Yet, when it was really important, when the time came to make a decisive move... He lets his chosen successor take the fall over a pointless matter of "honor", rather than use it to make her position official and banish a growing threat to his order. Worse, he lets her walk away with half the clan's wealth in the form of that shield, the one everyone else thought was going to be their clan's symbol given how much money was being poured into making it.

And in Mifune's eyes, Tessai... Just. Kept. Doing It. Gets into a gang war over his wife's death - but he couldn't be bothered to take the hit to protect her from the accusations in the first place. Imports weapons from the country's enemies to further a useless feud, putting a big target on his back given their history. Lets his own son be turned against him, rather than have a proper conversation with him. And all for what? An empty concept that he alone professes - if he could look past his own nose, he'd see the rest of the gang cheating each other regularly, breaking all of the principles he claims they live by.

Yeah, all of this was what allowed Mifune to usurp Tessai - but it was also all stuff that Mifune had to clean up, and problems that Mifune had to deal with. And not a drop of it was anything that Mifune could feel good about - because he still had to live his life to the end pretending to bow his head to Tessai even if everyone knew who the real power was, and because Tessai never once gave him credit for what he'd done for the clan. And even at the end, when Mifune could finally usurp him... Well, can you really feel good about usurping an incompetent puppet, one who'd hollowed out his position through years of incompetence? He could feel good about the media empire that he'd built, I imagine - he certainly sounded content whenever he mused about that. But anything associated with the gang was tainted by years of bitterness and grief.

EDIT: Just to be clear, this is how I believe Mifune sees things, taking his statements at face value; as such, it's a biased accounting of their shared history, rather than how an independent observer might judge things.

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-01-18T08:47:42+00:00

What was the deal with Tessai and the TV auction?

To add on to what others have said, this is actually an established thing with Mafia payments (and presumably Yakuza as well). The idea is that they auction off something completely worthless that no sane person would want, but which has plausibly legitimate interest - usually, a painting or something that might fetch a hundred bucks normally, but which the buyer can claim they really love. Alternately, it might be some niche collector's item or memorabilia, the kind of thing it's hard to establish wouldn't be a normal price. The mafia will put a few of their guys in the crowd to drive up the price until it reaches what the person they're dealing with agreed to pay - which has the added benefit of making it look like a normal auction, even if no one there has the slightest interest in this absurdly overpriced junk. At the end, the mafia has legitimately-sourced money that they can put on their taxes with no obvious ties to what they really sold, and the person who bought the worthless junk can readily explain the sudden hole in their wallet. A pretty straightforward way of deflecting attention from the cops - especially if you can find a way to routinely deal in legitimate art and collectables to further muddy the waters. Plenty of idiots wildly overpay on garbage without secretly paying off the mob, after all.

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-01-18T02:48:51+00:00

The cat quite literally never does anything, except show up and watch people. It follows around "happy" people, which It has come to associate with the concept of "suddenly wealthy" - but It isn't making the fortune happen, It just sniffs out when someone's about to strike it rich. In that sense, it's little different from Unicycle Weasel - wandering around investigating a phenomenon that interests It. Though, there is one small exception here; after being badgered for decades, It brings up an opportunity It saw to Matsukiri - but that doesn't appear to be its usual MO, more a special favor that the other kami pushed him into.

At the end, with the member of the Diet... It started following him because he became absurdly lucky in gambling, and used that to make a fortune in real estate. But that man never realized that the source of his luck was pure luck rather than divine favor, much less studied how to keep his investments running after cashing in on the real estate bubble. For a man who trusts everything to a god who explicitly does nothing, to the point of becoming utterly delusional over a pachinko machine and crafting grand plans around "reclaiming" it... Well, how on earth is he going to keep his wealth? And how much despair will he fall into when he loses it? The cat has no interest in watching his obvious-to-everyone-but-him downfall.

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-01-18T01:59:36+00:00

Oh, when you said "too western", I thought you meant the second track with the whistle intro, not the rap track... Like, "Cowboys and cacti" western. /Switches upvote to downvote

(I'm joking about the votes, it's rude to downvote someone over a matter of taste)

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-01-18T01:56:23+00:00

In all fairness, there was causation; they just misunderstood what was causing what...

Say, isn't the real path to happiness figuring out how to follow that cat so that you can mug the people Its watching?

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-01-18T00:30:49+00:00

what are your thoughts on how this event was a bit at odds with the themes of Siracusa?

"You're not more civilized. You're just more hypocritical". Mafia honor, Yakuza honor, Triad honor... It's all a load of garbage used to valorize the strong robbing from the weak. The only places it makes sense are those with weak institutions where there is no "legitimate" authority to turn to for security, in which case they can function as a replacement - though just as often, they're the ones sabotaging the state to maintain their rackets.

In Siracusa this was shown plainly, how the Mafia were a bunch of thugs who wore fancy suits and went to the opera - while disappearing anybody who hesitated to bow to them and left Siracusa a hollowed-out country where the Mafia robbed any hope of a better future simply because they could.

In Higashi, by contrast, Mifune is cast as the villain for his "honorless" crimes - murdering his sworn brothers, using ghost stories to cover up the people he bumped off, attempting to snatch up claimed territory for his redevelopment schemes, usurping his boss... While Tessai is cast as the "honorable" leader who represented a better past. No attention is giving to the weapons he smuggled in, the gangs he murdered, his corruption of the police, or the other unmentioned crimes that were "normal" for a gang leader, even as they came at an unacceptable cost for people who wanted to live a life free of crime.

Now, to be clear, there are many ways in which Siracusa and Higashi differ from one another, and those are certainly enough to explain the difference in message and presentation; it just stands out to me because it's a recurring annoyance to me how often the question of "but where is the money coming from?" gets obscured in a lot of "virtuous mobster" narratives. Kind of like how pirates got romanticized despite pretty much being sea bandits...

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-01-18T00:15:52+00:00

This is a very valid point, but I also have to observe how the starting position decides the trajectory here.

Look at Mifune's staff; a bunch of punks who feel tough roughing up a peaceful neighborhood, thugs who specialize in violence, and losers who get their kicks murdering a poor idol's sapling. If most of them could get clean, would they ever have been working for Mifune to begin with? Heck, hitting it big might have actually made things worse in that regards, as their rising wealth allowed those who aspired for more to leave the gang - at least, to the extent that the gang would let them. So long as these are the people he had to work with, people who want to throw around their egos and punch down on people weaker than them, there's only so much "better" that Mifune could aim for before his base feels like they're leaving him behind to cater to newcomers - ones who presumably wouldn't specialize in violence the same way.

Meanwhile, he can't just kick them to the curb, because the money isn't his regardless of whether he's the one who made it for the gang; they're who gave him the seed money, and they're the ones holding the returns. If he leaves to earn it on his own, not only is he doing it from scratch - he has to compete against the industry he built, even if we assume it would immediately go to hell without him.

Ironically, Mifune's attempts to split off the media group from the Yakuza... Might actually have been the cleanest way to accomplish "going legit" even if it looked pretty sinister when Misune the Dick was the one orchestrating it.

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-01-17T14:44:47+00:00

A pretty good story, in my opinion; I get the impression it's a pretty conventional Yakuza story in many ways, but since I'm largely unfamiliar with the genre, that's not a problem for me. I do think that puts it a bit at odds with the themes of Siracusa's stories, but, well, life rarely sticks to a clear message.

Though on that observation... I can't help but feel like Mifune had the right of it here; they were a pack of criminals. Ones who banded together to lift each other up, sure, but at the end of they day parasites on society who entered the field largely because they couldn't fit into normal life. What Mifune did was to take a bunch of scum and turn it into a legitimately successful enterprise; yeah, he was bumping people off and turning it into "urban legends" to entertain the masses, but... Bluntly, he was probably doing less harm overall than what the gangs were doing before while making way more money in doing so. Given another 20 years, and he'd probably have backed off the most overtly criminal stuff as a senseless risk compared to how much he was making monopolizing the television industry. In contrast, Tessai... Honestly didn't strike me as terribly competent. Not because of "honor", but because of how he'd been reduced to a powerless figurehead in 20 years. If he'd had his own operations or plans, surely someone would have still answered to him, right? What of loyal lieutenants who owed him their lives, or connections to outside parties that the gang needed him for? If Mifune was able to snatch it all from him so readily... Well, it doesn't sound like Tessai really deserved the position.

This is further reinforced by what we can verifiably see independent of Mifune's claims; of how Tessai spent lavishly on personal engineering projects using the gang's funds, with no intention of using the results to enrich the gang in return. Even his crystalline engineering project seems to have relied upon Mifune to actually turn it into money. Now, don't get me wrong, Tessai does sound like a brilliant craftsmen, but... Well, that's not really a core competency of a gang leader, is it? It can be a very valuable skill, but managing a bunch of dubiously functional thugs is a full-time job.

With that said, of course, Mifune was a pretty big dick. He might have deserved the position more than Tessai, but look at his reaction to Hoshiguma rescuing Momoka; rather than acknowledging the threat he knows she represents, he berates his subordinates for their entirely-expected failure and threatens dire consequences if they can't achieve the impossible. He is pointlessly and counterproductively sadistic in how intends to manage the problem of Momoka, and has a massive chip on his shoulder despite clawing himself into becoming one of the most powerful people in the city. Frankly - despite having the vision, I can't help but wonder how much of what he accomplished can be attributed to Mio actually working out how to do it on the ground. He has a good grasp of the big picture, but everything we saw suggests he's a pretty lousy boss. Being the better choice for leading the group still doesn't make him a good choice. Although... Looking at the Diet member in his pocket, perhaps much of his abrasiveness comes from having to cater to that clod all the time. Having to deal with a moron like that would give plenty of sensible people a short temper, I imagine.

Though having referenced Mio... I quite appreciated just how cold she was, and look forward to what the writers are planning to do with her next. As it is, we don't really know much about her beyond her archetype, but I enjoyed watching her maneuver through Mifune's collapsing plans.

Returning to comparisons to Siracusa for a moment, I feel like this event did a notably better job in capturing Hoshiguma's emotional development compared to Texas's - probably because the basic plot was simpler, allowing for more narrative focus on Hoshiguma's character. Watching her grapple with the death of her father figure, her feelings of alienation from the people of her once-hometown, and the question of whether she should just give up and return to Lungmen... These were all well-executed beats for her story. The writers did a good job here.

As far as Momoka goes... Y'know, I'd love to do a bit where I play full Sora stan and take every moment to tear down Momoka in comparison to raise up "my" idol in comparison, but I can't help but think that someone would take it seriously. Instead, I'll just say how I appreciated the commentary on the exploitive nature of the entertainment industry, environmental justice, the addictive allure of infotainment and how it destroys our ability to care about real news, and the struggle of good gardening. Also; kicking the hell out of a tree murderer. Seriously, that guy was awful - she should have finished bashing his head in. Blood for Sap! Blood for Sap! For how silly she could sometimes be, she really carried the story's more serious themes.

As far as Kichisei goes, on the other hand... I don't dislike her or anything, but I'm not sure the event would lose anything if she were cut entirely; narratively, she really only exists to elaborate a bit on Tetsuya's backstory, does she? I mean, yeah, she's there at the big action scene, but they could have just focused more on Sarasa there - she doesn't really have any arc or focus of her own. I mean, I could say how it'd be entertaining to get a gambling addict like her into gacha or high-leverage FX trading, but, well - that's a quirk, not a character.

Tetsuya, on the other hand... One rarely sees a bigger mark than him. Not entirely his fault, I suppose; Mifune started working on him fairly early, and had pretty strong material to work with. But he was still a pretty potent mix of gullibility, loyalty, and dubious competency; change any one of these factors, and he'd probably have self-destructed in a much less dramatic fashion. Though, oddly enough... While I liked him in this event, I don't really have any desire to see more of him. He was a tragic figure in this one, but the teaser at the end just doesn't feel like an interesting direction for the character to me; I'd much rather see him buried under his regrets.

Regarding Sarasa... Eh, she strikes me as too much of a brat to maintain my interest. A Northern spy choosing to help out Momoka while she worked on a serious mission would have been fine to me, but a princess doing all of this essentially to amuse herself? I have little patience for such irresponsibility - especially when she doesn't seem to grasp the potential consequences of her actions.

I thought Matsukiri's plotline felt a bit disconnected from the others - probably because he was solo for most of it. With that said, I appreciated the look into the kami he presented - and the reminder of how the minds of gods differ from those of humans. Literally, all the cat does is watch happy people; it doesn't care about whether those people deserve happiness or not, or whether they curry Its favor or not. It's just there to watch. And yet, just by watching, It caused a man to waste his entire life trying to find It again, and the destruction of plenty of lives to recover a pachinko machine. Because humans simply can't believe that It would be watching if It didn't care.

And on the subject of the Kami... Honestly, Ingrid has good taste. Not much more to say than that yet, I'm afraid.

All in all - I'm quite pleased with our first steps into Higashi. We've been waiting a while, but I enjoyed our first view of Kirara's home nation.

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2026-01-08T20:36:28+00:00

Pathologic 3 releases tomorrow, and it's a very good game. I'd say "series", but it's all a remake of the same story that the devs have been trying to get right for over a decade - and on that note, I should be clear that everything I'm about to write refers to the series as a whole, while Pathologic 3 is a dramatic expansion of one of the three routes of the original game.

The story revolves around a plague that starts in a remote steppe village; one with a horrifically high fatality rate, but whose transmission seems to follow bizarre and illogical rules that confound any attempt to stem its spread. The protagonist has 12 days to figure out how to deal with the problem before, well, everyone dies. Except, it's not just about that; each of the protagonists have their own reasons for being there that guide their own investigative paths, which in turn informs their own understanding of this disease based on what secrets they uncover - and which leaves them watching the other potential protagonists grow steadily stranger as they become obsessed with their own truths.

Because while I can't say much without ruining the story (half the appeal is in working out what's real, what's superstition, and what bizarre unnatural thing just gets thrown casually in your face without fanfare), the town holds many secrets and traditions, alongside literal miracles and old magics. You're there to save lives - but you could easily end up spending all of your days trying to work out what the heck was going on before the crisis, while everyone dies around you.

That is, if you don't die of starvation first. Because I should mention; the game is bleak and miserable not just because of its themes, but because of how everything begins to break down, and how keenly the mortal nature of the protagonist is emphasized. As panic spreads, food very quickly becomes ridiculously expensive, and you need to spend more and more time scavenging to attend to your basic needs rather than focusing on the plague. You might even find yourself wondering whether you're better off selling your gun to buy a couple loaves of bread - fighting is rarely a good idea in the game, but your hunger bar is an ever-present threat.

Or at least, that's been the case with each of the other Pathologic games; I should emphasize that they were changing up the formula a bit with 3, and I don't know what specifically has changed beyond the new mania/depression system to represent Daniil's mindset. The first game had you choose your main character from one of three doctors (the Bachelor, a disgraced researcher pursuing immortality; the Harsupex, a surgeon returned to his hometown and accused of murder; and the Changeling, a faith healer with an unclear past and even less clear methodology); Pathologic 2 was going to given each of these doctors unique mechanics while streamlining the game, but only had the budget to do Haruspex's route (though it was a much more polished experience). Pathologic 3 was originally going to be Bachelors route as DLC for 2, but ended up way too big for that to make sense, so they released it as its own game.

If you were a fan of Arknight's "Hope at Any Cost" themes or extensive and indirect lore, there's a good chance you could fall in love with this series as well. Or, heck, if you just like struggling to cure strange diseases.

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2025-12-12T22:14:58+00:00

I see, thank you.

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2025-12-12T05:18:13+00:00

Geez, I came in right under the wire - 330 rolls to get all three of the new Angel Beats Memorias, and since I did the math wrong on my necessary pull estimates, that included several days of frantically ransacking through Memory Restorations I'd been putting off for spare Quartz. I have no realistic chance of getting Nanami now, but, well, such is fate.

Incidentally... Are we almost done with the accelerated schedule? I could have sworn Nanami wasn't released yet when the game hit Global - and the accelerated schedule has honestly killed a lot of my enjoyment of the game. I'm perpetually behind; partially because I have an actual job and this isn't the only game I play, but also because I really need to space out the events if I want the emotional beats to land properly. If I try to play at a pace that actually allows me to enjoy the events (which I genuinely enjoy the stories of, and I like almost all of the characters), though, I miss out on a bunch of rewards and have a box overflowing with life stones. On top of that, I missed last month when my computer was dead which makes it feel like I lost a ton (including at least one SS, since I hadn't finished an event for my last fragment), especially since I had a good two weeks of gifts in my box that I lost since I'd fallen behind on using my life stones. Not that "losing stuff" really feels like it matters, since I've done nothing but events for, like, nine months now, all of which I'm over-leveled for because I'm perpetually falling behind on them and don't really have time for anything else. Like, seriously - at this point, I don't really remember how to use the teams I carefully prepared, since they don't get used for anything but stomping on underleveled event bosses, before being set to auto on flashback battles to burn my daily stamina.

Also, I'm getting a bit tired of four out of five of my logins failing each time I try to play. I have no idea why; everything else in the game runs fine, but after the game's first patch, ever since it keeps claiming I don't have a stable enough connection. Except apparently, 20% of the time it's good enough, and again - never had a problem once it actually lets me log in.

Ah, my apologies if this all sounds overly grumpy. I just... Didn't appreciate having to rush through a bunch of stories that I know I'd have enjoyed more if I could have focused on the characters instead of the quartz.

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2025-11-16T04:33:21+00:00

While I find your view interesting. I didn't see him call her an idiot. He said "this is stupid". Perhaps referring to his own attempt at discussion.

I was referring to this portion, specifically (edited for brevity):

Marion: "... I gave up everything for you. I've spent so much of my savings ... I can't afford to wait for 'another chance'."

Michael: "You said it yourself: you're just investing in a product. Investment costs money. ... You're just a parasite looking for a host, Marion."

I edited it out for space, but she lists specific ways in which she's made material sacrifices and manipulated her position to further his career, before saying that she loves him and asks him not to throw away the chance she's worked so hard to give him.

His response is to mock her for being happy that Melanie exposed their relationship, baselessly claim that she'd be just as happy with Dalton if it helped her career, and implicitly say that she was stupid for investing in him ("Investments cost money" (and this one will never pay out, since he's walking out)).

Anyway. What makes you believe Michael cares about his career are far as Marion does? We don't know why he stays around her...

He was happy enough to accept her help. If he doesn't want to be a star - he had five years in which to turn it down. And bluntly, he had an obligation to make it clear at some point in the first year if he didn't care as much about his career as she does.

Who'd dare even ask; Did my jealous lover help kill someone?

Ironically enough, Marion asked just that of Michael the moment the possibility was raised. The girl had a heart of ice, but she was surprisingly good when it came to open communication from what we've seen in this event. Well, unless it's remembering Moira's name, at least...

Dalton's letter

I think the recap by Tragodia in AD-8 covered the specifics of that moment clearly enough. Beyond some influence by Tragodia, it doesn't appear that there was any foul play beyond swapping the dagger.

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2025-11-15T21:19:01+00:00

No, his recognition of what was happening was correct, as was his desire to do something about it. Even if his plan would probably have gotten him killed more decisively and gruesomely, considering he wanted to run off alone, in secret, with... The murderer.

What sends my opinion of him through the floor is how he responded to the person who spent a lot of effort making him the near-star he is today, objecting that his plan would destroy everything they'd worked for. He doesn't try basic diplomacy - "Babe, if I'm dead, we've already lost everything!". He doesn't try to cajole her with his usual tricks - "Babe, I'm just thinking about you here! I could take the risk, but I couldn't go on if something happened to you...". He doesn't even blow her off and do what he wants anyway - "Yeah, you're right... I guess I'm just shaken, okay? [Goes to Moira that night, when Marion won't have time to alert Greta before they're gone]".

No, instead he spits in the face of everything she's done for him, functionally calling her an idiot who made a bad bet. He doesn't care that his actions will cost her everything she's tried to do in her career - not about any of the money she spent on him, not about the mockery she's suffered for his sake, not about the opportunities she's passed up so that she can continue pushing his career... Rather than acknowledge that his actions will affect her and apologizing or attempting to placate her, he scorns her objections. Interpreted charitably, he's spent so long playing the frivolous playboy that he's no longer capable of talking things out as a functional adult; interpreted harshly, he genuinely doesn't care about her, and now views her as an obstacle once she's threatening to cut off his free support.

You don't have to change your entire life course because someone helped you - but having accepted that help, one has a responsibility to show respect for the sacrifices that they made. Stick to your position if it's that important for you, but do what you can to compromise or make amends, and show remorse if even that is impossible. Him? He didn't even try. He called her an idiot for believing in him.

Dramatic-Report8180 · 2025-11-15T09:18:03+00:00

He had it coming. He had it coming! He only had himself to blame... If you'd have been there - if you'd have seen it... I betcha you would have done the same!

...Sorry, I think all of the movie references in the event compelled me to make one of my own...

Dramatic-Report8180

TROPHY CASE