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Bagger 288 rules. Always the first place my mind goes when I see a ridiculously huge machine. Dunno what happened to Baggers 1 through 287 though  White Coke posted:People keep calling Adam dickless Sephiroth, but does the original Sephiroth have a dick? well he's missing his entire lower half later on but I guess it's somewhere
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Apr 28, 2017 18:36
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McDragon posted:Dunno what happened to Baggers 1 through 287 though  Everything that lives is designed to end. We are perpetually trapped... in a never-ending spiral of life and death. Is this a curse? Or some kind of punishment? I often think about the god who blessed us with this cryptic puzzle... and wonder if we’ll ever have the chance to kill him.
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Apr 28, 2017 19:41
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Episode XIX: A Beautiful Performance New Music: A Beautiful Song (You should listen to this. It only plays here!) .jpg)  What the hell? Our records don’t say anything about a machine like this! Hahahahahaha!.jpg) Meet the Mad Songstress, Simone. Simone is named after the French existentialist philosopher and feminist activist Simone de Beauvoir. Indeed, her Japanese name is Beauvoir. They had to change it for western audiences because as it turns out, her estate is still rather litigious regarding referencing her person. She and another character’s name both had to have their titles altered for this reason. If you’re wondering why they didn’t have to bother with that and similar unsanctioned blatant references made in Japanese media (I’m watching JoJo Part 4 with a friend right now and BOY do those official subtitles alterations get dumb) it’s due to Japanese copyright law regarding names being umm... well. Here’s how it basically works over there: Are you a Japanese corporation? No? Are you at least a Japanese citizen? No? Welp. Go eat a dick. You lose in court. Don’t even bother trying. You will NOT win. So that’s why it’s no holds barred there and stuff needs to be changed in the west, which is much more sue happy and enabling. Now you know why you’re stuck with Worse Company or Simone. .jpg) .jpg) This is one battle where having our Pod firing at all times is an ace idea because Simone is extremely dangerous up close. Her tell for attacks is lifting the bottom of her metal “skirt”. But the attack about to be unleashed isn’t immediately clear. Much like Adam doing glowing particle effects mess in the earlier battle, it is best just to immediately back off as soon as the boss enters an attack phase. .jpg) .jpg) Like any good machine lifeform (or advanced level Shade in days of yore), Simone comes packing orbs. These are a bit different than the usual stock. They fly in an arc towards the ground where they violently explode like a landmine. They’re also accompanied by bells in tune with the music. So that’s fun while frantically running from explosions. .jpg) .jpg) Also underneath Simone’s skirt is an array of powerful laser beams that rotate around the room counter-clockwise as she continues her opera performance for the androids. They move about 2B’s jogging speed. So it’s a matter of playing jump rope or following along continue to fire at Simone. .jpg) .jpg) Also under the Cyber Intoner’s belt is a volley of heat-seeking missiles. 9S tends to be a touch more proactive in running up on Simone if 2B backs off. So he’s nice enough to become the targeted android and eat a half dozen rockets to the face in 2B’s stead. Sidekicks have infinite health. He’ll be fine. At least he’s making himself useful. .jpg) .jpg) One of the more dangerous attacks is blades appearing beneath Simone. Getting remotely near her at ground level is a good way to get 2B’s health grinded to a pulp since the blades will hit multiple times. Simone also opts to rocket around the arena at high speeds targeting the androids. 2B’s perfect dodge spamming can get her out of a tight spot. But it’s a bad scene if ya beef it. .jpg) .jpg) Also in her wide arsenal, Simone’s song produces rings out from her body which both produce massive explosions as they strike the ground and trigger a PTSD response to Drakengard 1 and 3’s final ending. That’s a real hosed up thing to pull out of nowhere in the middle of a boss fight, game. .jpg) Finally, outside of exploding orbs we get a standard bullet hell pattern of normal orbs. Sometimes this will cause the camera to shift to an overhead position for a half minute and that’s REALLY annoying since it does NOT help dodge ‘em. It seems to be random whether she goes for that or not. .jpg) After dropping down to around 80-75% health, Simone will retreat back to the stage and ready herself for Act 2 of the performance. What does that entail...? Well... .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) New Music: A Beautiful Song (Chiptune) .jpg) Sooooo... this is happening now. Do you feel like playing an overhead shmup? Nope. Tough poo poo! That’s what’s going down now! If you’re wondering the controls, it’s exactly like a dual-stick shooter. Left stick moves. Right stick aims. Everything else shoots. .jpg) Welcome to the Hacking mini-game. We’re being hacked by Simone and need to escape this digital mind prison. The little cursor thing there is our avatar. It can shoot laser blasts. For this unexplained tutorial, we need to blast all the black boxes in the area. .jpg) .jpg) Once all the black boxes have been zapped into oblivion, the shield guarding the black orb in the center is destroyed, allowing our spaceship dealie to blast it as well. Destroying the black orb is the objective of the Hacking mini-game. With it neutralized... .jpg) Music: A Beautiful Song .jpg) If we take hacking damage, it’ll affect our bodies as well! Ugh..jpg) *grunts and pants*.jpg) .jpg) Hey, 9S. She’s fine. You can stop feeling her back up. Don’t make us report you to the YoRHa HR department. But more pressingly, though briefly stunned by the failed hacking attempt. Simone seems to be still operational. .jpg) Take note that the thing’s actual head is below the body’s “neck” there. See? There’s a little round machine lifeform head. And it looks pissed. .jpg) .jpg) I dunno. A fifteen foot opera singing death bot is a bit mundane for my tastes. Let’s spice it up a notch... .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) What if we added an audience of crucified flayed android corpses to the mix? That’d kick it up a notch, right? An opera performance is nothing without an audience, after all? .jpg) Oh, did I say corpses? Oh well... About that... .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) Are we seriously being attacked with dead androids? Wait. I don’t think... 2B! I’m detecting black box signals! They aren’t dead—they’ve been turned into weapons! All right. This ends now!.jpg) .jpg) We now have to contend with enslaved androids falling from the rafters and causing a ruckus on the battlefield. Having their skin peeled off and bound to rusted girders has reduced all of them to Level 1 and as such, they go down with a couple sword swipes or a few seconds of gunfire. .jpg) .jpg) Offensively, the undead androids have two attacks. A series of ringed projectiles that lazily float and expand in a single direction. And a shockwave type attack that engulfs the entire battlefield. The former can be avoided and the latter can be jumped over. But should they hit 2B... New Music: A Beautiful Song (Chiptune) .jpg) .jpg) Welcome back to Hacking! For real now! .jpg) There’s no shield this time and the black orb is firing back. 2B’s avatar can take three hits before being destroyed and dealing a chunk of damage to our android. There’s also a ten second time limit which will instant fail the hack if it expires. .jpg) .jpg) The objective is still just to destroy the black orb, which only can withstand about a second of continuous fire before exploding. We might see more of the hacking mini-game in the future. A WHOLE FRIKKIN’ LOT MORE! Music: A Beautiful Song .jpg) After enduring a couple minutes of the enslaved androids’ attacks boy a lot of these boss fights are secretly on scripted timers, Simone decides she’s ready for the final act... .jpg) I’m going to try to hack it back. Keep it busy! You got it..jpg) More...beautiful... I must...become...more...beautiful... More... More... MORE... Alert: Saturation attack triggered by enemy consciousness data. Failure to destroy it quickly may lead to serious damage in memory regions..jpg) .jpg) Simone is now rather pissed and cranks all of her previous attacks up several notches. Instead of an organized volley of explosive orbs, it’s a chaotic mess peppering the area. Instead of a slow lazy swirl of standard orbs, it’s a slushing whirlwind flooding everything. You might also notice she’s down to 50% HP. A failed hacking attempt damages the one making said attempt. Usually to the tune of around a quarter of their maximum HP. Guess that extends to scripted hacks too. Be careful who you cross on the internet. .jpg) The bound androids from earlier are still occasionally dropping in the area and shooting off Hack Beams in 2B’s direction. They’re limited to hanging in the outskirts of the arena. But since the camera is focused on Simone and she’s really going off, it’s easy to accidentally take an off-camera hack by mistake. Best to put those androids out of their misery as soon as they’re spotted. .jpg) .jpg) After taking Simone down to around 33% health, her outer dress, for lack of a better term, erupts into flames. Funnily enough, she doesn’t seem particularly keen on being set on fire. .jpg) AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!! Someone... someone help! GAAAAH! Uuuuurrrrhhhhgggg....jpg) After frantically attempting to put herself out and screaming in agony a bit, Simone will collapse in a heap and reveal a glowing yellow weak point on the top of her head. I think you can imagine what 2B and 9S ought to do when presented with a pulsating weak spot. .jpg) The Mad Songstress is not out of the fight yet. After a good 10-15 seconds of walloping, Simone recovers her senses and begins unleashing bouncy-ball explosive orbs across the battlefield. These are kind of a mess to avoid since they don’t dissipate for a ten seconds and their trajectory is all kinds of random. .jpg) Adding to the bounce ball pit, the machine lifeform opera star will saturate the area with random volleys of hacking signals. It’s best just to pull back and let this run its course. .jpg) All that aside, there’s also one final trick up Simone’s skirt. And it is err... .jpg) A giant Xenomorph dick! Sure, why not? That’s happening now. We should PROBABLY stay the hell away from the snarling butt worm and finish this boss off from afar. Not just because it’s a freaky teethed cybernetic horror coming from under a robotic opera singer’s butt. But because...  It has a one-shot grab attack! Fun fact: While this game doesn’t have auto-save, it does have boss battle checkpoints. In this case, if 2B takes a dirt nap she’d have to start from the point the crucified androids were introduced. No thanks! .jpg) .jpg) If we keep our distance, Simone and her... friend... will be content to just do a shockwave producing butt slam while we rain Pod Programs and gunfire on it from afar. .jpg) Every once in a while, Simone Jr. will get antsy and perform a series of lunging bites in 2B’s direction. If they connect, it does hurt quite a bit. But it is just a standard damaging blow. It is NOT the one-shot grab attack. She only does that while stationary. And the bites can be perfect-dodged away from fairly easily. .jpg) In any case, that’s a wrap for Simone the Mad Songstress. .jpg) .jpg) Now that we’re in the safety of the Cutscene Zone™ it’s time to bring this fight to a close. Pod 042, time to show your stuff!  Music: ENDS .jpg) .jpg) .jpg) ...drat Pod. Why didn’t you do that in the first place? .jpg) In any case, that concludes the battle against Simone the Mad Songstress. That went pretty well. Other than all the dead tortured androids... I mean... At least there was no rhythm battles!    Video: Episode 19 Highlight Reel (This is a really rad boss battle. You ought to view it!)   Simone Concept Art – I suppose a 15 foot tall cybernetic opera singer with a belt and headdress adorned with flayed android corpses is one way to top a Dickless Sephiroth. The Dark Id fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Apr 28, 2017 |
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Apr 28, 2017 20:31
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You know I never took note of how Pod has almost like little eyes under the boxy part. It's cute!
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Apr 28, 2017 20:53
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Mundetiam posted:I'm in the middle of attempting to platinum and 100% this game, and I love it to bits, but there's one goddamn fish I haven't gotten after 200+ plus attempts in the span of 36 hours. Somewhere in Japanese forums, I've seen a tip that a fish may depend on the pod you are using. Not confirmed
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Apr 28, 2017 20:53
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I never noticed that her crown is made out of arms. Eww. Edit: Actually I think the reason I never noticed is that it isn't true. Those are probably just some metal pipes. cant cook creole bream fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Apr 28, 2017 |
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Apr 28, 2017 20:55
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didnt even have the decency to mercykill her flayed victims also I love the song, love the battle, love the effect her attacks have on the music (the bells, wish there was a way to replicate that in soundtrack form)
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Apr 28, 2017 20:56
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Beauvoir is a kick rear end boss battle and utterly jawdropping the first time you get hacked.
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Apr 28, 2017 20:57
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This is a really neat fight. Except for all the stuff shooting at you from off-camera.
Sindai fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Apr 28, 2017 |
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Apr 28, 2017 21:00
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The chiptune music when you get hacked in this fight is such a nice touch. I had a big, stupid grin on my face when it happened to me.
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Apr 28, 2017 21:06
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(Un)fun fact: The hacking circles being shot out willy nilly in the later part of the fight are all one shot kills instead of even entering a hacking session on Hard.
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Apr 28, 2017 21:10
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.jpg) There goes my theory of clothing just being part of the android's projected appearances That shot of the machine's...childhood?... basically guarantees we're getting some kind of Shade-esque twist beyond that they're developing sentience.
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Apr 28, 2017 21:13
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I love the implied backstory of Beauvoir. I wonder if the Robot she holds hands with in the little cut in when you kill her is named Jean-Paul.Qrr posted:The OST isn't too bad on spoilers, though they're definitely there. It doesn't have a track named "6O is secretly Mikhail in a dress" or anything like that, just character names we haven't seen yet and one of the ending names. Of course 6O isn't Mikhail in a dress, that would be silly. Mikhail doesn't have the patience to be an operator. It's clearly Angelus.
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Apr 28, 2017 21:16
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The Dark Id posted:
NIER! AUTOMATA!  As an aside, I dig how this is a continued theme - components have little bitty heads controlling them. Even the giant xenomorph dick. Especially the giant xenomorph dick. Rainuwastaken posted:The chiptune music when you get hacked in this fight is such a nice touch. I had a big, stupid grin on my face when it happened to me. I absolutely love how the music segues almost cleanly from orchestral to chiptune and back as you're forcibly switched between gameplay segments like that. It's just gorgeous.
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Apr 28, 2017 21:21
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Man, I never even saw the xenomorph dick on my playthrough but that's probably because of my difficulty settings/so much is happening at once!
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Apr 28, 2017 21:30
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Oh hey, it's the song from the trailer. Probably my favourite out of all that we've heard so far (I'm reding this completely blind). I still haven't found anything that would worm itself into my ears like Hills of Radiant Winds did, man, that was a great song.
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Apr 28, 2017 21:39
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This right here is my favorite boss fight in the game. Amazing music, varied attack patterns and decent challenge.
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Apr 28, 2017 21:45
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Simone is my favorite boss in the entire game in every possible way. Her fight is intense and awesome, her music is great, and her design is fantastic.
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Apr 28, 2017 21:44
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Huh, I don't think I've seen the phase where she starts walking around. I think I must have killed her too quickly or something, either that or I just don't remember it. Strange.
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Apr 28, 2017 22:00
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Nina posted:(Un)fun fact: The hacking circles being shot out willy nilly in the later part of the fight are all one shot kills instead of even entering a hacking session on Hard. Not true when I did it. Beauvoir's floor circles are but the hacking ones always launched hacking.
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Apr 28, 2017 22:04
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Aumanor posted:Oh hey, it's the song from the trailer. Probably my favourite out of all that we've heard so far (I'm reding this completely blind). I still haven't found anything that would worm itself into my ears like Hills of Radiant Winds did, man, that was a great song. yeah this was the boss from the E3 footage great choice for a preview though you can tell a few differences, there's no voice acting yet (simone doesnt laugh) and the orbs/rings dont have musical bell effects
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Apr 28, 2017 22:04
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Simone is definitely my favorite boss in this game. She had so many different asks its ridiculous. I never even saw the one-hit-kill grab. Also, Japan has more harsh restrictions about likeness rights, but names are generally no big deal to use (thus all the names in JoJo).
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Apr 28, 2017 22:07
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That was one hell of a boss fight. I can see how the sudden camera angle shifts to top-down views could be annoying, especially for someone like me who is horrible at shmup games. Pod being able to pop those orbs before they hit 2B does look like a small mercy, at least.
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Apr 28, 2017 22:15
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Yeah, everything about Simone is rad as hell. Her theme is among the best tracks in an incredible OST.
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Apr 28, 2017 22:27
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Symbolism! 
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Apr 28, 2017 22:57
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Spiritus Nox posted:Yeah, everything about Simone is rad as hell. Her theme is among the best tracks in an incredible OST. It feels properly operatic. Like, you can almost imagine that it's telling a story, even though the words are just nonsense.
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Apr 28, 2017 23:28
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Yeah this is an amazing boss fight, and I'm pretty sure her preview convinced a ton more people into buying the game.  How they scripted it to follow the music (at least for the first part of the battle) really makes it - the drum and decending choir as she lands, the bells in tempo with the music, and the lasers accompaning the choir. And the shock when it switches seamlessly to the 8-bit chip tune version and back. And yeah, of course the addition of bells and magic killer shockwave rings, just to traumatise longterm Drakenier players. It's so good. That it combines all the vocal talents of Emi Evans, Nami Nakagawa and J'Nique Nicole - just love it. And I love the filter they apply to Simone's voice it's so loving cool. Her laugh or her crazy scream: Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! *beaten the poo poo out off* No-No-No-No-NOOOOooo!Yeah, it's a drat cool boss.
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Apr 28, 2017 23:50
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Pesky Splinter posted:And yeah, of course the addition of bells and magic killer shockwave rings, just to traumatise longterm Drakenier players. It's so good. Video games have forever tainted my reaction to the sound of bells.
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Apr 29, 2017 00:41
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For all that 9S has a murderboner for the machines, he's appropriately shocked when he discovers his fellow androids are still alive and being forced into attacking your party. 2B doesn't even pause.
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Apr 29, 2017 00:42
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FredMSloniker posted:For all that 9S has a murderboner for the machines, he's appropriately shocked when he discovers his fellow androids are still alive and being forced into attacking your party. 2B saw her whole squad die in the first five minutes of the game, and didn't even pause to go "shucks." I have a feeling she's pretty numb to the horrors of war.
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Apr 29, 2017 00:48
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The scream at the beginning into the drop is such an amazing way to kick the fight off, I love it.
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Apr 29, 2017 00:56
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Man, being deaf really robs me of a lot of the experience of playing this game, doesn't it 
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Apr 29, 2017 01:03
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Malachite_Dragon posted:Man, being deaf really robs me of a lot of the experience of playing this game, doesn't it Sorry man. The Nier games might have the best sound design I've heard in gaming so it's natural that people would talk about it. If you're in this thread though, you probably enjoyed it enough regardless, so hey.
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Apr 29, 2017 01:04
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FredMSloniker posted:For all that 9S has a murderboner for the machines, he's appropriately shocked when he discovers his fellow androids are still alive and being forced into attacking your party. Emotions like those are forbidden. We learned something important here. Androids and Machines can both hack. Also, the enemy "Consciousness Data" being what makes them step up their game and also potentially fucks with your memory has my eyebrow quirked. After this thread is over, I'm definitely going to have to read the other NieR and Drakengard LPs. I'd never touched them before; they looked like the sort of thing that was exactly Not My Style. But this has me curious.
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Apr 29, 2017 01:05
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Valgaav posted:Also, the enemy "Consciousness Data" being what makes them step up their game and also potentially fucks with your memory has my eyebrow quirked. That reminds me. Usually in a game or anime, this: .jpg) ...would just be an image full of symbolism, not something that happens in-world. The way the image was presented, though, makes me wonder if the boss tried to escape into the protagonists' heads...
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Apr 29, 2017 01:09
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Machine emotions can overwhelm android emotions, so it's better just to deny emotion flat-out than let it end you? Maybe?
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Apr 29, 2017 01:16
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KamikazePotato posted:Sorry man. The Nier games might have the best sound design I've heard in gaming so it's natural that people would talk about it. If you're in this thread though, you probably enjoyed it enough regardless, so hey. I can still play the game via reading the subtitles, and I love it to pieces, I'm just sad that I miss all these little nuances. Glazius posted:Machine emotions can overwhelm android emotions, so it's better just to deny emotion flat-out than let it end you? Maybe? Which further raises the question of "what is, in fact, the difference between androids and machine" " "
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Apr 29, 2017 01:18
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Junpei posted:Okay, so Actually Theorizing: In the desert, the machines were imitating human love (both martially with them trying and failing with sex, and parental with the cradle-rocking machine). Here, they're emulating family relationships (the father, mother and child group) and the kind of idealized Disney vacation that all kids dream of. If they're trying to become human, they're doing a real lovely job at it. On the one hand, imitating sex. Totally believable no questioning things there. But on the other one they're trying to imitate working at a Theme Park.
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Apr 29, 2017 01:26
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"But Disneyland is the happiest place on earth!", said no one who has actually worked there
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Apr 29, 2017 01:30
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I feel like naming your song literally as "A Beautiful Song" might be a bit on the nose, but here they can walk the walk so I'll let it pass.
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Apr 29, 2017 01:59
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