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+--- Thread: * cracks knuckles * - MSQ Playthrough (/showthread.php?tid=20)
RE: * cracks knuckles * - MSQ Playthrough - Coldsaturn - 06-08-2025
Welcome baaaaaaaack!!!
I kept things tidy here and dusted off surfaces, everything's just as you left it.
- "I, for one, feel like we're getting screwed a little"
YES you feel my pain.
It pisses me off professionally. Like, the difference between the official translation and even just the fan translation you're watching on youtube is cosmically wide and for what? I feel like the official translation only makes sense if you think of the translators getting the script, completely devoid of context, and them changing things to make the dialogues sound as natural as possible in English. All those inconsistencies? They're 90% lore-related, not grammar-related. So the translators wouldn't know they're making things even more confusing for the players because I feel like they aren't personally invested in keeping the lost-in-translation as small as possible.
And yes, the chapters you've been playing get close to losing the reason they're there at all in the English version. Which ties back to that player on reddit innocently asking why Caleb was getting all angsty about being with MC since they're childhood friends. His dynamic doesn't make sense if you take out that conflict!
I understand the need to change the step-brother dynamic, okay, but then you need to replace the element of taboo/conflict with something else, not erase it entirely! I don't know, make MC friend-zone him hard, something! In English it just sounds like he's a yandere blue-balling himself for the fun of it!
- "MUCH more clear in the CN translation was Caleb's dynamic with the girlfriend"
Can't remember if it was in the translation you're watching or another card, but there was a translator's note about how MC was also struggling because she's supposed to obey Caleb since he's 1) and older person, and 2) her older brother. Her struggle to be seen as an independent adult was so much clearer with it. It's not just MC struggling against Caleb's possessive and protective vibes, she's struggling to get out of the socially-required position she's supposed to have with him, a position that comes instinctively natural to her because that's how she's lived all her life.
- Caleb is a gorgeous choice for your main! He's absolutely in my top 3.
(what follows is not LI-comparison meant to bring down one LI compared to another, but to enhance their differences and individual charms)
I feel like Sylus is also that kind of villainesque character who would let the world burn so it's just the two of you in there, but the difference with Caleb is that Sylus feels like he's already in a position where he could do it any moment. His stakes are all internal, it doesn't feel like he's ever in any danger. Caleb, instead, even when you consider his overpowered evol, feels like a character who could very well lose everything - his life included - in his desperate attempt at burning everything for you. And that's so much more desperate.
- "there's really not even a nod to empathy"
Love that for him.
Your points on mood stabilizers and the chip will get more context with your next required watch "Lucid Dream" (it's both in the timeline for Caleb's story and in the playlist you're using for the translations, down in position...23? I think?) and in some World Underneath texts.
- Tunnel exploration as more than just scientific curiosity/discovery is something we're still finding out about, so it's not just you missing the complete picture.
- I do believe they use motion capture. Micro-expressions is something LaDS excels at. They lag slightly behind with laughing expressions because the face-models are a bit too rigid for it, but with everything else it's really a masterclass show in how much you can convey with the smallest muscle movement.
RE: * cracks knuckles * - MSQ Playthrough - ChicletPrime - 06-08-2025
i don't know if i'd go so far as to say Caleb is my "main" because honestly, the love interest i love most is the one that's currently on screen, but his particular brand of unhinged SPEAKS to me.
very good point about the contrast between Sylus and Caleb in their respective.. maturity is the wrong word, really, but comfort level? confidence? Sylus is settled in his power, in his skin. he's tested it, molded it, built on it, used it to shape the world around him and now he's just waiting for us to fall into our rightful place beside him. he knows it going to happen, he can afford to wait and he can also simply enjoy the process, as it were, even if (i assume) he's going to do what he needs to do to speed it along.
Caleb is, I think, just as strong but raw with it. he doesn't have a confirmed place, he has no faith that he'll be accepted where he wants to be, even as he works to make it happen. he comes across not as inexperienced necessarily, but definitely on more shaky ground and he's aware of it even as he ignores it. the difference between the raw brilliance of the apprentice versus the sure and steady hand of the master, i guess would be a way to put it.
i like that the bigger motivations are still cloaked. the shape of it has really come together as more details have come up, but the grand plot is still missing some rather lovely holes. if they're stripping this!earth for future!philos, why? is it what it is, because time is immutable and it has already happened, so it must always happen?
but if so, why is Xavier fighting his former crew, who would have launched their ship with the same goal, only to fragment into factions on landing? or was Xavier against the mission, but used it to get to where he wanted to be to try and affect it? Zayne and Rafayel seems tangential to the main plot so far - Zayne might have been the catalyst for EVER's research, Rafayel may have been captured by them as well, but neither seem to be involved and Sylus is completely outside of it as best i can tell.
i mean, my fevered brain has come up with WILD suppositions.
RE: * cracks knuckles * - MSQ Playthrough - Coldsaturn - 06-08-2025
"the love interest i love most is the one that's currently on screen"
Very relatable.
My "ranking" is entirely based on "you only have 20 dollars in your wallet. Who's the one you'll go 'oh bummer' for if you don't get him"
I actually got the game because of Sylus, but when I had to decide who to spend my budget for, I had to admit I needed to get Raf. That was a very honest moment for my heart lol
That's definitely the vibe Sylus gives me as well. He's not in a hurry and he's not worried in the real sense of the word because he can join or leave the game with MC whenever he wants, he already knows how things will end. He's possibly just waiting for MC to catch up and choose him. Once she's all in, he'll close the circus.
Meanwhile Caleb is fighting for his life, deep in the trenches lol
Whether Ever is intentionally killing the planet or if it's an accidental result of their experiments is not clear. Just like it isn't clear whether Philos is Earth or another planet where humanity will move once Earth is dead.
As usual, some of these doubts will be solved with Myths and World Underneath and Anecdotes.
But let's look at each LI's involvement:
- Caleb = deeply involved. It isn't explicitly clear what the Fleet or Ever is getting from him, but he's definitely getting something from them. Could be insider info to keep MC safe, or something else.
- Xavier = comes from the future. At least one of his past crewmates turned to Ever. Xavier himself has a collar with their logo. Why and how he's involved with them isn't clear.
- Zayne = was doing research on protocores and hearts, something Ever became interested in thanks to the promising results. They keep on trying to recruit him to no avail. He seems to be aware of the experiments done on MC by her grandma and others when she was a child. Ever keeps on trying to recruit him.
- Rafayel = for now what you know is that since Lemuria was rediscovered, Ever has been researching lemurians.
- Sylus = from the slideshow during the release of the new section Death&Rebirth, we know that the guy just arrived at the right place at the wrong time lmao. Dude just plopped down on Earth during an apocalypse. Both Ever and Onychinus work with Protocores, so we can presume they're business rivals. Also, I remember at least one guy Sylus killed in his main story section who was from Ever.
RE: * cracks knuckles * - MSQ Playthrough - ChicletPrime - 06-09-2025
For the record, I think Xavier and Zayne have kind of gotten the story-shaft, as the other three have gotten (quite frankly) high octane storylines that we as players can really sink our teeth into.
I know, I know, read the cards and the myths and the World Down Under (:D) to get more context, but I am calling it as I see it at this stage. Xavier has gotten some pretty good singular chapters inside the main story (I am specifically thinking of the segment you get just before the N109 when you meet Jeremiah and then again with Voyage of the Outcast), that at least spell out where the mysteries are, even if they are left unanswered, but Zayne's backstory is very, very vague even at this late date.
I am still a little cheesed at the North American pricing model, its just... egregious. I have purchased collector's edition boxes for MMOs which are evergreen content, hundreds if not thousands of hours of content, for half to a third of the price of a single card in this gatcha game. I know I am preaching to the choir and I don't really mind throwing money at entertainment since they're sure not burying me with my bank account, but is all kinds of fucked up out there for value in the video game market.
Once she's all in, he'll close the circus -- bingo. Yeah, that's bang on, the man is just kicking back and marking time with Onychinus because if he has to wait around for awhile, he might as well collect a pile and sit on top of it.
Re/Ever(lasting) and Xavier -- I am currently operating on the theory that EVER is the Traceback I mission, and that was likely comprised of whatever individuals on Philos that benefited most from longevity/immortality, trying to keep the status quo going or set it up so that the status quo happens. I have a hazy notion of some sort of hierarchical nobility, mostly because of the Shining Traces card I got earlier where Xavier's language to the girlfriend was "my Lady" and overall 'guard and protect' vibe. True? No idea. Feels right though and darlin', that's what counts.
Sylus = from the slideshow during the release of the new section Death&Rebirth, we know that the guy just arrived at the right place at the wrong time lmao. Dude just plopped down on Earth during an apocalypse. I did not get that at ALL from the trailer, but I am obviously still missing story chunks and inferences. The Anecdote I read for Sylus some weeks back gave backdrop of star spanning civilizations of which Sylus was a known Scourge of the Galaxy, established his power level (Off The Charts ie Devastation class), indicated where he got his aether core and then finished with him coming to Earth/Linkon specifically because he tracked the girlfriend there.
There's a LOT in that just in implication alone (starships? space government spanning star systems that seems somewhat of a feudal model? space jails?) but I didn't see any references to his "arrival" here in the trailer - just a cool car and a fantastic personal interaction with our girl before we saw Dawnbreaker kicking ass and being problematic. Did I miss something? I missed something, didn't I.
RE: * cracks knuckles * - MSQ Playthrough - Coldsaturn - 06-09-2025
Which is interesting! Because if I have to think about the LIs in terms of main-story presence, Xavier is high up there with the co-worker excuse he pops out quite frequently; he's followed by Zayne; then Raf who turns up only three times; Sylus was near the bottom before the latest main story update, and of course Caleb but he's the latest addition to the game so it's understandable (he still got an entire section dedicated to him, like Sylus, whereas the other LIs are sharing space and only once got the individual spotlight).
Then on top of presence you have how much you get of their backstory from the main chapters, as you said. Xavier again on top, he gives you lots of puzzle pieces to work with. Zayne, too, especially with Death&Rebirth but also just with the story coming before that (you know about his research, connections to Dr.Noah - Ever - and Xander Sciences - again Ever - the suspicious promise to MC's grandma, his problems with controlling evol, his nightmares). Sylus doesn't have a lot of info outside of his trope - hot mafia boss - but that is also corrected with Death&Rebirth. Caleb was the one written in the most efficient way, imo. Homecoming Wings is packed FULL of plot and backstory for him. And then you get Raf... I swear I'm not trying to be biased but the player learns very little about him from just the Main story lol A mention of him possibly killing at least one person (but if you don't read his anecdotes and other texts you might just miss it or think it's a coincidence), canon info that he's a merman and that he does shady deals at the Nest. The end. Everything else is in cards and Bonds, which means you either pay for him or you already main him enough to unlock those bonds.
Yeah, the price is truly something. I was looking at a few reddit posts earlier, and stumbled upon this one counting how much it would cost to main 1 LI or more in a year. This game is no joke. But I'm also a the sims player, and that's even more pain lol.
re: Xav
"trying to keep the status quo going or set it up so that the status quo happens"
That's something I come back to time and time again. Whether intentional or not, I think the time travel fucked everyone over big time. I wouldn't be surprised if Ever was founded by some of the backtrackers so they would ensure their own existence in the future. The only issue is that as of now they don't look like people who already have a clear goal in mind and are just waiting for technology to catch up so they can do what they want to do. They discover, they experiment, they fail and try again. But they get insider info from the future thanks to the backtracker/s who defected, that's for sure.
re: Sylus
No it comes from the Timelock event that accompanied Death&Rebirth. You were collecting the background images, and unless you were getting them from the internet you went through the text that accompanied each image. In case I misunderstood and you actually didn't read the text that accompanied them, the relevant part is just the first image for Sylus: "Ruins groan in the wind, and screams tear through the silence. A long journey reaches a new destination. He arrives at the most inopportune moment. Buildings collapse and order crumbles, yet this brings him a newfound pleasure."
The inopportune moment is, of course, the Chronorift. The background image of the building crumbling upward toward the hole in the sky is the drawn version of what is played during the cutscene of the chronorift.
RE: * cracks knuckles * - MSQ Playthrough - ChicletPrime - 06-11-2025
see, i read that text on the cards and I did not retain that tidbit about him arriving during the Chronorift - I mean, I would have understood it when I read it, but then i failed to retain it as a part of All-Things-Sylus.
this is is why i really need to dedicate to a mind map flow charty thing at some point because some of this stuff is a single sentence buried in some side thing and i want to remember and yet... i don't.
/holds vigil for terrible memory
also, those card backgrounds were so, so good.
the spend-y chart was actually not quite as bad as I thought it was going to be (although its still bad). I could potentially keep two or three boyfriends going to a reasonable level as I am not interested in R3'ing anything and the comparison on spending on cheap wishes vs using your diamonds was an eye-opener. i think i'll link that chart on the main page as well just as a reference.
RE: * cracks knuckles * - MSQ Playthrough - Coldsaturn - 06-11-2025
In your defense, it's easier to catch all these references on your second or third run through the content, because at that point you know what to look for. There are many, many instances of foreshadowing that completely fly over our heads until later when we go back to them and realize what was actually being said.
I'm here precisely to redirect your gaze when you're about to miss something big that you need for the later parts of the story so the process becomes a little bit easier for you. It also helps that at some point if you start looking up theories and analysis and meta videos, the main points will be mentioned constantly and you almost learn them by memory.
I've wanted to do a proper summary of the main story chapters for a while, because I realized when I was preparing the timeline for Zayne that I couldn't orient myself between the individual chapters even when I knew what was going to happen in that part of the section. I might pick up obsidian and see what I can get done there. Maybe you'll find it useful.
That reddit user has so many useful posts! I'd suggest checking them out and see if you find something else you'd consider reference-worthy.
RE: * cracks knuckles * - MSQ Playthrough - Coldsaturn - 06-11-2025
LOL this is just what comes to mind if I try to think of the puzzle pieces in place in the main story up to where you're playing. And I'm still missing some big background characters like the grandma, dr.noah, the onychinus defector etc. + all the other subplots.
![[Image: Untitled.png]](https://i.postimg.cc/5jv3x06s/Untitled.png)
RE: * cracks knuckles * - MSQ Playthrough - ChicletPrime - 06-12-2025
i love me some juicy mind-maps, because i dunno about you but i don't have an actual corkboard OR any twine. i might have a pack of index cards somewhere though!
/admires that layout some more.
now you just gotta jam every single reference into it somehow without collapsing the space-time continuum.
RE: * cracks knuckles * - MSQ Playthrough - Coldsaturn - 06-13-2025
I haven't used obsidian enough to know how fancy these mindmaps can get. I might just do it the old-fashioned way and open a second one where I can write a card for each chapter and the main points that happen in it. A project for the weekend, maybe!
If Raf's new myth trailer doesn't come out. If it does, consider me out of commission for the next 2 business days.