Lurker > KCF0107

It's psyncing time, and we are back at the Sagan's. Okay, that's it, I am googling what Nya means because Date said something about a cat. It means meow. Fun. I'm not going to list every little thing that I do this time.

I seemingly picked mostly the right stuff at the beginning because the marker on the line kept moving and ultimately removing mental locks. I'm usually not an asshole to Aiba, but I had her lick the green stuff thinking that probably wasn't the right decision. It wasn't, and she liked what turned out to be wine. I guess that's karma for you. Where I started to mess up was when the kitchen opened up, and I had no idea what to do with the soup. I accidentally clicked the option for her to smell it, then I had wear the pot, not thinking that she would actually do it. She sure proved me wrong. It made it all the more funnier when this giant eye appeared outside of the room, and I told her to ignore it. She doesn't understand what ignore means. Ignoring it was one of those high time-consumption actions that totally bit me in the ass. I eventually ran out of time.

This time, I made it all the way back to where I was, but I had no idea what to do with Hitomi and the skull on the last mental lock. I did everything with Hitomi only to find out she was a pointless object. After throwing the skull, I had no idea what there was left to inspect, but I remembered the soup and had her drink it. That did the trick, so I guess that when I had Aiba wear the pot, I was screwed at that point. Anyway, the people who broke into the Sagan's was Rohan...and Boss? I suspected there was more to Boss since she was the only character whose name wasn't provided, which is usually a dead giveaway that it will become very important later. I wonder if she is a Kumakura then. I wonder if they are going to try to say that she was the one who murdered Renju (and maybe the others). I never considered her to be a suspect for that because there is no way she weighs 105 lbs.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

So I think that I was investigating/offering condolences, but Date can't do either well, so it was painful to watch. Hitomi did say that she saw Shoko at the prison where Falco is. Given there probably aren't many characters to be added to the game, I am going out on a limb and guessing Shoko too was visiting Falco. Mama gave a weakass motive link between Ota and the Kumakuras (I always forget if it is Kuma or Kama). I did find out that Ota died 10 minutes after Iris. After leaving the warehouse, Pewter stopped by to say that the Cyclops Killings were done by Rohan (post-mortem mutilator) and Falco (murderer). Pewter obviously isn't trustworthy, but I imagine there is at least a little truth to his claim (as in likely Rohan but not Falco).

At ABIS HQ, a random thought popped into my head. If those latest victims are having their eyes forcibly removed, then wouldn't that make Date the only person who could have taken Iris' at the end of her path. There was that part when he was looking at the manual for the psync machine at the chemical plant where he stopped what he was doing and got close to Iris before the screen went black. I assumed it was him putting the equipment on her, but maybe it was more than that.

Boss is MIA, which isn't good. She's probably out dying or killing somewhere. Falco was soon brought to HQ, but with Renju dead, I am hoping history won't be repeating itself. Falco "confirms" that Shoko came to visit him, and he believes it was for the sole purpose of meeting him. Falco also gave his condensed life story, which has a few interesting tidbits:

- He killed Person X who was part of a scheme to defraud the elderly out of their assets. That is what Renju talked about while he worked for the Kumakuras. Odds are Person X doesn't matter and is just a plot device, but perhaps this mystery person is an important figure in all of this.

- Someone is wrong in their account. Pewter, using info provided by the previous investigation, says that the murderer behind the Cyclops Killings was a complete psychopath who was incapable of feeling love the way that other humans do and only gets it from killing. Even if Falco isn't fully telling the truth here, his account of his life clearly suggests he is capable of love, and he doesn't take pleasure from killing.

- Falco's work with the Kumakuras appears to be a basic contract killing using basic methods There was even an instance of showing him in the act. It wasn't anything like what the Cyclops Killer would do, and it seemed as if Rohan would be at the scene with him, AND they would choose more remote locations. This feels like Falco taking the fall (un?)willingly to protect Iris/Hitomi or for some other reason.

- Just prior to the break-in, he called in a favor. Was the break-in then staged? It seemed as if Rohan wanted Hitomi dead without knowing the connection between Falco and Hitomi, so the odds of it being staged might be low, but it's a thought.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Dummies Big Day was such an incredible game mode. It was easily my favorite of the Soiree event.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

They might both be coming this season. I think S3 was the only one with one new character.

S1 had Caustic and Mirage
S2 had Octane and Wattson
S3 had Crypto
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Astra
Falcon
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Life is Strange 2
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Day 4: Monday jukkAI

Live feed of Iris with her left eye socket bleeding. She's still breathing, possibly tied down to table/gurney thing, and with a giant sawblade looming above her. She's apparently inside the warehouse where Date found her stabbed body in the previous path, but even considering the lighting differences, it doesn't look like it at all. Aiba says Date is far away from the warehouse, so I can tell where this is heading.

Uh, a person is in a polar bear costume and flipped the switch for the sawblade, so they are obviously not a good person. Ota later then "saved her" by flipping the switch back. I am instantly reminded to what he was doing on Twitter. He even had this line about not letting them harm Iris that seemed rehearsed, or at least not fully genuine. The polar bear came back again, flipped the switch, and oh fuck that was brutal.

Finally arriving at the scene, the person in the polar bear is also dead. Inside was Ota. Okay...Date and Boss' long conversation back at HQ didn't exactly shed any light or make me feel one way or another. I am biased against Ota, and I am not buying that he, and everybody else I know thus far, had no motive to kill Iris, Renju, and Shoko since:
A. Everybody is kind of a wacko in this game
B. Everybody is hiding something
C. Who is to say one person has murdered all three people?

I stopped before leaving to,..I actually have no idea what I am doing right now. Maybe still investigating?
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Day 3: Sunday gumAI

Hmm, my dumb theory might already be blown to smithereens. The original Cyclops Killer has "not been brought to justice" by Boss' account anyway. Perhaps she is someone who feels that being brought to justice means prison or a death sentence and no cruel or unusual punishment like this would qualify as. I guess I didn't even consider that the person's face from the glass shards was Date. I definitely don't know what I should be thinking or feeling from that conversation.

In the very long exposition about somniums and dreams, a different one from the other path, Date came to the conclusion that Iris must have witnessed all four crimes. Now the pessimist in me believes that this is just going to be dumb Japanese storytelling where Iris just had the worst luck stumbling upon all those murders. What are the chances!? Anyway, the optimist in me believes Hitomi is the missing link in this and could be how Iris witnessed all four. It isn't confirmed that Iris was a witness, obviously, and I am not inclined to believe in Date professionally.

Date is just now realizing the recurring "SIX YEARS AGO!" theme and thinks it can't be a coincidence. Duh of course it isn't. Well I guess I shouldn't say that since Uchikoshi has a habit, in the Zero Escape games anyway, to have like six recurring themes, only for five of them to be red herrings. Boss says of course it is just a coincidence, but she's obviously insane, so no dice pal! I will not be fooled!

"I didn't learn anything..." - Date
- Game in a nutshell

Date was supposed to take Iris home but acquised to her request to go to Mama's. This will of course go sideways, but I want to point out that Date really sucks at his job. He doesn't know how to be an authority figure, he can't follow orders, and he just makes some really dumb decisions on the job that other people would be fired, subject to lawsuits, and/or face criminal charges. I am starting to become convinced one of my dumb theories that I've had is partially correct.

Oh wow, shocker (no pun intended), Ota got the best of Date was hitting him with a stun gun. Ota even has this creepy grin on his face. Maybe he has crossed over the line from creppy obsessed fan to something far more sinister.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Well if this isn't the most ominous and depressing-looking somnium yet. Four mental locks again. Let's do this! Well shit, my first action decided the path I took. Here's hoping spinning the dial works out! On the TV, they showed three people. One was choking out another, and I believe that the person being choked was one of the Cyclops Killer's targets. That would make the choker the Cyclops Killer. The random person watching in the distance is a witness or accomplice.

The room changed some, and messing around with this new mirror led to nothing. I had Aiba choke the dummy, and the look she gave doing it was disturbing. It worked the first time, so I turned the dial on this new TV, and I got to see the lovely image of the Cyclops Killer repeated bashing in the face of another victim with what appeared to be a rock.

More objects keep appearing. I pushed in the shelf and against my better judgement, I did not ask Aiba to balance on the ball that fell down but threw it. This caused Date to "lose consciousness" again. The same thing happened when Aiba choked the dummy. If what happens to the dummy affects Date...okay, dumb theory here. Is Date possibly the Cyclops Killer? I did mention that earlier, but I was neither serious nor joking. If somehow the dummy represents the killer (it could very well be the victims, bystander, or absolutely nothing), then maybe what is done to it is done to Date for him to get a taste of his own medicine? I remember Boss saying it was impossible for the old Cyclops Killer to be the new one, and that the info was classified. Maybe he gets medication to subvert his memories or mental condition or whatever, and because he had an alibi for the time of the murders (don't know if any of that is true), and obviously it would be classified info he wouldn't be privy to. Dumb theory, but at least it is something.

Anyway, I had Aiba look at a nearby book after, and that caused me to run out of time. Knowing not to mess with the mirror this time, I made it back with a lot more time. I messed with the TV for the third or so time now, and the victim was shot in the head. I proceed to waste time doing a half a dozen or more actions before out of desperation with only time for one more action, I opened the locker. Of course a Rube Goldberg contraption was set up from doing so. I don't know what it did, but based on the previous stuff, I suppose it fired and shot the dummy.

I watched a murder unfold without the TV, and shards of broken glass showed allegedly the Cyclops Killer. It was maybe a man, but the person did have blonde hair. 5.07 seconds left, so that was nailbitter! That might be my favorite somnium thus far? I could do without all the woman pleading for their lives only to be brutally murdered, but I liked the compact size and fewer ways to mess up your time.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

I'm wondering if the auto accident never involved Renju. I don't think it was ever confirmed he was involved in the other path, just that it was the leading theory of Date/Boss/Aiba. At any rate, it is impossible he was involved in this path as the accident occurred at 6:10, and he apparently left Sunfish Pocket at 6:15. If he was involved in Iris' path, maybe it "saved his life" depending on the events that led to his death in this path.

Info dump of Iris' account of the evening Renju died:
- Received call at 5 to head to Sunfish
- Made it there at 6
- Turned down offer to emcee a private party to be held that night and left with Renju at 6:15
- Arrived home at 7
- Learned about Renju's death on news following day
- Hitomi arrived home following day!

Not that we've had a big pool of suspects in general, and especially so now that the culprit has to be around 105 lbs, but Hitomi was one I heavily considered given how she's mostly a mystery and has some odd connections in her life. Her right arm is the only red flag to that theory, but we are also taking her word for her condition. Obviously we have no true idea about it. If I had to bet right now though, I don't know who to choose between her and Iris. Ota is also a suspect, but he seems more like a creepy obsessed fan who probably wouldn't cross the line.

Well, interrogating Iris took an interesting turn that even has me suspecting Iris a little more. She was apparently texting Ota about some mystery thing, and I guess that in this dystopian Japan, that is grounds to losing all rights to your brain. It's somnium time!
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Renju and Sejima apparently met through events where the former brought "young entertainment office woman" to appease creepy men. If Iris is considered part of that wordy-but-vague classification, then maybe there is a connection there. It also sounds as if Sejima and Moma meet up semi-frequently "for business" with the former meeting Shoko that way.

lol Date calling Aiba Renju, and subsequently four other people. I guess that was the first time he saw Aiba outside of the somnium in that form. She brought up Date's "dosage" yet again. This is like the fifth time. What if the game's biggest inspiration was Inception, and all of this is taking place in a somnium, so we have dreams within dreams man. That and Date is either the Cyclops Killer, one of their victims who lived, or a witness of some sorts.

Aiba brought up Sejima made a fortune selling land in the Kabasaki district, only for its value plummet shortly after due to the chemical disaster. He later bought it all back for pennies on the dollar. Aiba had more to add, obviously something that will be super important later, but the conversation came to an inconvenient end when the call about Falco wanting to talk about Shoko's murderer came in on this path. I seriously hate that tired plot device. There's zero reason to not pick the conversation back up where we left off.

"Hey girl with the big tits!"
"Uh, excuse me?"
"I want to run away and never look back"
- Aiba has to be everyone's favorite yeah?

Clicking on Look at Ota has Date simply say, "It's Ota." Even Date has grown tired of him.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

I beat this about two months ago. This is what I wrote in the post games you beat topic:

At its best, it surpasses Oxenfree is most meaningful categories. However, there is so much emptiness in the game (running through same bland areas for seemingly half of the game and lack of world-building the most notable ones), as well frequent framerate drops, that not even the amazing cast and voice direction could ultimately have me view it as the superior Night School Games product.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Lighthouse

Uncut
Jojo
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Oh what the fuck
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Clearly being named Finn was detrimental to their cause
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Apex Legends
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

I have only watched half of one of the poll options (Rick and Morty S3)
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Knives
Ford

Neighborhood
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Well, Moma had a guess and the x-ray vision shows it is obviously Sejima. "My revolver can shoot him through the wall. I should shoot him!" Good to see Date recovering from his disastrous turn in Iris' path. One of those shooting QTEs popped up shortly after those lines, and I think that I have finally discovered something. All those instances of the screen losing color, sound deafening, etc... is NOT from Date. It's Aiba's doing. It's how she perceives things or time dilation is different between her and Date, or whatever. The main thing is that it is all about her.

After everything was taken care of Sejima came out, but I stopped before engaging in what will obviously be a one-sided conversation.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

I had considered the receptionist a potential suspect, but she hasn't even been given a name yet (probably won't at this point), and I feel like she weighs more than our culprit. Anyway, it's a good thing I thought about her because I decided to go to Lemnsicate first, and I actually had a full-blown conversation with her for the first time. I still wasn't given a name, but I found it curious that in this path, she is super forward with her newfound interest in Date.

I headed to Mama's next. On the radio was a refresher on the auto accident that was mentioned in Iris' path that Renju was allegedly involved in. It occurred at 6:10 PM, so if it is the same as in Iris' path, that means it happened less than two hours before Renju died. No idea if he checked into a hospital or emergency medical center this time.

The dumb bit of Date (probably seriously?) confusing Mama with the fridge hasn't gone stale yet! Mizuki is a bit apprehensive of Mama. If I know my Japanese games, kids are magically great judges of character, so is this FORESHADOWING!? Date is leaving Mizuki with Mama to head to the bathroom. Nothing's totally going to happen...oh, nothing did. Date just left Mizuki high and dry and presumably into the company of the police.

I headed to Moma's next. With this being my first trip here on this path and no true connection with Iris, I wonder how this will go down. Okay, I guess it begins the same as before. You know what, now that I think about it, how did Date not know that Rohan had died? At the very least, you would think Boss would have mentioned it.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Okay, so let me break this down. Aiba told me at Sunfish Pocket that there was one instance of the 2nd floor elevator door to Sunfish Pocket opening. 310 lbs were on the elevator at the time. This is one of the seemingly few Japanese games that doesn't give you measurements you didn't ask for of characters. I'm going to make a guess that Renju is between 150-175 lbs. Based on this info, I am pegging the culprit to be between 135-160.

Scratch that, my stream of consciousness provided me with now outdated info. Finding the watch that Pewter gave Renju has to mean Renju was already dead upon arrival and came in via an oil drum. Now that I think about it, I only remembered there being on oil drum before. Anyway, the oil drum weighs 44 lbs. That means, I am looking at a culprit between 90-120 lbs. Perhaps that fits Ota or several of the women. Hitomi is seeming pretty suspicious now...

Oh, they quickly gave me Renju's official weight. Hey, it was in my range (158 lbs)! Okay, so the math is 310 - 158 - 44 = 108 lbs. Let's not think about how someone would be able to carry an oil drum weighing over 200 lbs. Logic isn't exactly a priority in these games, so I have to try and keep those thoughts on the backburner. I am terrible at guessing a person's weight, but 108 lbs does sound like something Hitomi could weigh. Ota and Iris also crossed my mind. It could easily be a character I have yet to meet. It could easily not be a murder, but whatever, that's not my problem!

Renju's estimated TOD is 8 PM.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Day 3: Sunday syokubAI

So in the old incidents, it was the right eyeball that each victim lost. Hmm, I forgot about about Shoko losing her left eyeball while she was alive, but based on Iris' end, that doesn't necessarily mean anyone did anything to her since well, whatever happened to Iris' left eye is a complete mystery but may have something to do with her nutty illness + being in a psync machine (twice at that and in back-to-back days maybe). They didn't outright say it because of course they are being difficult, but it sounds as if the person who was convicted of all the old killings is now deceased.

Uh, the first thing that I noticed in the car was Mizuki in the back seat. Shouldn't Date or especially Aiba have seen her already? Between the two of them, neither looks at the rearview mirror? They might be unqualified for their jobs if they can't even be minimally observant.

I feel like I have been saying this a lot, but "while they didn't outright say this" in Iris' path, it sounds as if Shoko was fully aware of and the driving force behind her fraud-based career.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

lol, god is Mizuki such a little brat. Long story short, An SUV registered to Renju was likely the vehicle used to transport Shoko's body and the person who placed the body at Bloom Park was likely the blue person from the somnium.

Huh, Date brings up the text message Renju sent Mizuki, not to mention she admits to the claim quickly. The phrasing is basically word-for-word what Date said in Iris' path in I want to say Sunfish Pocket? That's probably due to lazy writing, but with him not being a particularly good detective, among other factors, is morphogenetic fields/collective consciousness transported here as well? Parallel worlds man, what can you do?

Going to Sunfish Pocket, it isn't a good sign that we are going after hours...OH HOLY FUCKING SHIT! Damn, that's brutal, and totally unexpected. Will I ever meet Renju alive? If there's solace to having to go through Iris' path, it's that it makes moments like this all the more better and surprising, in a good way.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

I didn't come in until the end, so all of my nominations were from characters I saw had two noms as of the most recent update.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

ZenOfThunder posted...

Let's nominate a bunch of trash mobile games so every match pic has a generic screaming man in it

Reminds of this list someone made on Letterboxd (film tracking website)
https://letterboxd.com/valdesbian/list/christmas-movie-posters-with-white-heterosexual/
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Marston was already in, as you mentioned, so he should not be among the Mythiot choices
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Barry Berkman (Barry)
Ben Wyatt (Parks and Recreation)
Bernard Lowe (Westworld)
Bob Belcher (Bob's Burgers)
Bojack Horseman (Bojack Horseman)
Boyd Crowder (Justified)
Cole Phelps (L.A. Noire)
Django (Django Unchained)
Edward Kenway (Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag)
Galina "Red" Reznikov (Orange is the New Black)
Hat Kid (A Hat in Time)
John Marston (Red Dead Redemption)
Kassandra (Assassin's Creed Odyssey)
Nikki Swango (Fargo)
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

I honestly can't tell who in this discussion is and isn't aware that Kurt Warner was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame a couple of years ago.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Tetris
But Fables
Outer Wilds
Disco Elysium
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Untitled Goose Game
Control
A Short Hike
The Outer Worlds
Life is Strange 2
Baba is You
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Or drab
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

LeonhartFour posted...

wow just get rid of Borderlands and it'll be a perfect final four

Mythiot posted...

And substitute FFXV for Witcher 3 and that's the perfect final four.

And then substitute Smash and BotW for Skyrim and Link Between Worlds, and that's the perfect final four...from what our original options were.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

I only had two places according to the flowchart to branch off from, and I doubt they would have secret branches that only show up on the flowchart if you trigger it. One was along the Iris route (I want to say Iris' first somnium), which I of course said I didn't want to go back to. That left only the Mizuki somnium.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Less than 24 hours!

It has raised more than $1.6 million!
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

I don't know where you got your info, but Fitzpatrick is still under contract
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

The Good Liar
Between Two Ferns
Deadwood
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Paddleton
Triple Frontier
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Remembering old solutions and in general time not being an issue in this somnium, I decided to play around and see what could make me laugh. LMAO at Date saying horses and pandas are similar and using the fact that both contained five letters as a defense. I also got a rise from asking Aiba to slap Mizuki at the end. Good times. Hmm, this mysterious blue figure at the end was new right? I believe the figure in Iris' somnium was purple.

Day 2: Saturday meikAI

Well, I already know that Renju sent Mizuki the message, so I'm not upset about Mizuki clamming up at this point. The blue figure likely represents the figure Mizuki saw that night. I am curious about the color though. Blue and purple could be the developers' way of denoting a gender difference. I am assuming they are different people, but if the figure represents a real person that the dreamer could not identify, that makes me curious about Sejima's somnium, especially since we have virtually no idea what his represented.

Mizuki and I went to Bloom Park, but I quit once I got there assuming that I will just be told again that we learned nothing from that trip.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

So, yeah, I am glad to get that route over with, and I am upset that what you all are making it sound like is going to be my least favorite route was the first one that I experienced. I hate how that will probably have an effect as to my overall feelings toward the game, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Suffice to say, I feel like that was kind of a dumpster fire not too long after the Bloom Park somnium.

I'm not going to bother listing all the main and sub mysteries thus far in the game as they have virtually all gone unsolved except Renju visiting Iris late at night and Pewter being responsible for the attack outside of the bar because Renju and him are lovers and Renju wants Iris. Maybe I will get over how this route went, but I currently don't really care about most of the mysteries. I am intrigued by the possibility of Date being Falco or at least sharing some of his memories as well as Hitomi and Sejima's connection.

Anyway, I got the fuck out of that route, which means I have to go all the way back to the Bloom Park somnium, and I guess read a walkthrough since that was how the flowchart was designed in this game. Oh, which bird cage you lifted up was the only factor. I should be upset about that right? Choosing between the left or right birdcage was the difference between experiencing what I just did and what should be a much better time in this new route. I will be so bitter if the rest of the game is at least comparatively good lol.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Day 6: Wednesday kekkAI

I can understand Date being otherwise preoccupied, but uh Iris' left eye socket is bleeding? It's also not opening, so is it...just gone. Is that what happened to Shoko and I guess these other "murder victims?" It has been so long since Shoko's autopsy report was revealed, but I wonder if her death was simply listed as due to blood loss and her body wounds postmortem? If not, no biggie I guess, but it seems that Shoko and Iris could have had similar conditions prior to their deaths.

Also, the game is all but suggesting that my theory of Date being Hitomi's boyfriend/Iris' father figure in the past has more than just merit. Spitballing a way they could rationalize this happening is that Date was forced to be subjected to some prison experiment that Sejima probably had enough clout to bypass basic human rights laws, and Renju, dead Kamakura guy, and whatever somehow sprinkled in there. Not saying this is what I believe, but I just wanted to come up with something on the fly.

Iris Route End
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

In the factory is presumably the stolen psync machine from SIX YEARS AGO, or at least I am assuming it. Well Date/Aiba brought that up as well. I could stop stop writing down my thoughts through a stream of consciousness, but it's too much work to do anything to the contrary. Plus everyone deserves the true KCF experience, whatever that entails.

Thinking about it more, I don't think this scene was meant anything, but I was especially mad at the time that they went the whole blank-screen-at-a-pivotal-moment. Date was reading the manual for the machine and paused to say something along the lines of, "Wait, that means...," and he approached Iris before the scene shifted to them both hooked up to the machine. I'm now guessing that he had a eureka moment on how to set things up when at first I was thinking something in that manual caused him to have an epiphany about something to do with Iris.

ShovelForge: Shrine Edition. I at least understand I need to acquire that tangerine/citrus-y fruit for Iris. Beyond that, I have no idea as the visual effects were funky when they revealed the mental locks. I kept investigating objects during the first two phases of the somnium, but the price to do so was minimal.

I had to (angrily) laugh when Aiba had the audacity to say that there was no time for trial-and-error, when:
A. I am being delusional in taking that as a self-aware joke at how they set this game up
B. Two objects were simultaneously shooting rapid-fire lasers at everything in sight that combined with the camera angle would not allow me to give this the focus they mistakenly assumed people would have

Somehow, I managed to do the correct combination of monument-to-pedestal placements, and of course the final act was the extremely reasonable assumption that a player would choose to dig up the shrine. 63.4 seconds left on the clock.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Life is Strange 2 (PS4, Xbox One, PC)

Baba is You (Switch, PC)

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair (PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC)

Ring Fit Adventure (Nintendo Switch)
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

And now to nominate movies nobody else has yet

1917
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Cold Pursuit
Fighting with My Family
The Two Popes
Under the Silver Lake
Velvet Buzzsaw
Waves
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

High Life
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Ad Astra
Alita
Ford v Ferrari
Honey Boy
Peanut Butter Falcon
Missing Link
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Dragon Quest Builders 2 (PS4, Switch)

Cadence of Hyrule (Nintendo Switch)

Apex Legends (PS4, Xbox One, PC)
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Drakeryn posted...

the ratty cake cutscene is the worst thing in the game, I hate kid Iris' voice

I am somehow not even done with my first route, but there are at least 50 worse things that I have experienced that are worse than the ratty cake stuff. I can't even remember the voice, so it obviously didn't bother me unlike Iris' voice actress singing in character.
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

I'm in
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu

Just a few days left
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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu