Board 8 > So, I finally got Virtue's Last Reward! [playthrough] [rabbits]

(+) Yeah! (+)

I think you mean the best part

My favorite part of this path is (fairly minor spoiler) If you can't come up with the number you need later, Alice basically causes a game over out of sheer contempt

You mean Alice is the worst part of the trilogy.
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Not while Eric exists
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At least Eric is consistent in sticking with his guns. Alice's actions make absolutely no sense on more than one occasion.
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I still like him less
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MrSmartGuy posted...

At least Eric is consistent in sticking with his guns. Alice's actions make absolutely no sense on more than one occasion.

This. Eric sticks to his guns very consistently.
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Yeah, I'm gonna have to side with Para here. This game over is pretty great.
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OrangeCrush980 posted...

MrSmartGuy posted...

At least Eric is consistent in sticking with his guns. Alice's actions make absolutely no sense on more than one occasion.

This. Eric sticks to his guns very consistently.

Agreed. That aside, I'd argue that the worst part of the trilogy is in ZTD. I can't boil it down to one word. The reasons are complex.
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Eric is a doofus so, like, whatever.

Alice is supposed to be a police and the levelheaded senior to Clover, but she's this maniacal, hysterical paranoid who always gleefully betrays you every chance she gets (by the game design) then gets mad at you for betraying her.
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Eric is great but this is really obviously not the place to talk about him?

You guys are dumbasses

Not me

yeah I decided to take what you said and not mince words with it

Questionable discussion or not, thanks for keeping this alive! Updates should resume soon.
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Whatever trust we’d managed to build had fallen apart.

After saving Alice’s goddamn life, we jump back to the previous AB vote to betray her ungrateful ass. Luna feels betrayed, and Sigma can’t really justify his decision, feeling that some unconscious part of his brain compelled him to choose that way.

...Hi Sigma! I’m your useful brain.

Alice betrays me again. Thank Christ too; I can deal with appalling decision-making, but opponents changing their vote as I do is infuriating. Our votes are echoed by everyone in the whole game, which is pretty remarkable. Trust is at an all time high here.

Alice approaches, throwing out some contrived shit about her miraculously recovery being due to her resistance to antibiotics. She also bring up the hypocrisy of singling her out for voting betray - Phi and Dio literally voted betray and risked murdering people, and Clover and K lied to each other’s faces.

Realising the prospective infinite loop this distrust leaves them in, Sigma tries desperately to rouse everyone and bring them together, but he is roundly ignored and everyone wanders off alone. Only Luna retains faith. She conspires to reunite the team by uniting against a common foe - the person who set the bombs. Sigma shows her the memory card, and we rush to the infirmary to investigate its contents.

We meet Alice, Clover and Tenmyouji there, and proceed to check out the card. It brings up a code, which Alice recognises as Myrmidon but is unable to decode. Sigma then asks her what she does, and she refuses to answer. He then asks what the Myrmidons are, and she still refuses to answer. Then she runs away. Great.

Sigma eventually catches her up, and she eventually bears her soul. As souls go, it’s pretty profoundly irritating. But she does reveal some interesting info, primarily about her father who was a cloning researcher and was kidnapped when she was a child. We also learn that Brother’s brother (oh brother) Left is the “commander” of the Myrmidons. Didn’t we hear from Dio that Left had died? Hmm.

She then brings us up to the present day, where she connects the Myrmidons to the first Nonary Game and Cradle Pharmaceutical. This comforts me in some way - the thought of Aoi and Akane being Myrmidons makes me uneasy, largely because I much prefer 999 remaining a bittersweet and ambiguous moral story than the idea of those two as straight up villains.
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Such a beautiful world… may Brother live… in everlasting… glory...

Sigma then asks her - which of us is the Myrmidon? As she starts discussing the code, Sigma involuntarily regurgitates the code from Dio’s ending, and after an infuriatingly unintuitive code-entering sequence, he remembers everything else. Just as he’s trying to work out how exactly to explain this to Alice, Clover rushes in and tells us that a massive fight has broken out downstairs.

After emerging in a storm of bickering, Sigma thunders everyone silent. He then tricks Dio, using his knowledge to convince him that he is his Myrmidon superior, who indirectly acknowledges that he planted the bombs. As Alice leaps forward to attack him, he pulls out the detonator and threatens to blow up his four bombs - one, two, three, and bomb number zero.

Alice and Clover quickly double team Dio and wrestle the detonator from his grasp, only to learn that it automatically activates upon leaving Dio’s personal radius. He laughs at us, and tricks Clover into giving him his personal cyanide pill, which he promptly bites down upon.

Choking and spluttering in his final moments, Dio mocks us, giving us the password for only bomb number three (LXQ LHC NMR). He dies with a strange smile on our face, and the remaining team find themselves with 25 minutes to locate two hitherto undiscovered bombs and deactivate them all - an impossible task.

They sprint and harry, they search and dash, but to no avail. The countdown reaches zero, and a massive explosion erupts somewhere under the Arizona desert. For those in the blast radius, there remains only void.

ALICE END
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after all that, I had an aborted attempt at the Phi End timeline, but quickly dropped out upon realization of its progression. Should've guessed, really. I also don't think I have every bomb password written down, so a reminder as to where they're found for future reference might be appreciated.

will formulate some thoughts on new revelations throughout the day.
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At work, so I can't fulfill your request, but I noticed it's been a while since a post, and I get worried about purge, since I don't know exactly when it is.
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thanks a lot! back from my holiday now, so regular play / thoughts should resume this evening.
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just-in-case BUNP
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Tag
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I did a quick ctrl+f for password throughout the topic, and I believe you've gotten two of them that you haven't written down: bombs #0 and #1. You just got password #3, but it's already labeled in the topic. I guess I might as well include that in this post, though, so you only have to go back here to find all of them.

Bomb #0 password is obtained in the Dio End when you, Phi, and Dio got out. It is LXA QNS GDQ.
Bomb #1 password is obtained in the Tenmyouji end through the Zero hologram. It is BQZ RGJ DXR.
Bomb #3 password was obtained in the Alice end before he ate the cyanide capsule. It is LXQ LHC NMR.
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thanks a lot man, that's incredibly helpful!

can only apologize for the recent lapse, genuinely want to get back to this as soon as i can.
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Ally
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alright, definitely getting on this today. thanks for everyone's patience!
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Sigma, are you a robot? Have you always been here?

I jump back to the Sigma timeline (!!) which is primarily distinguished by the revelation of Sigma bleeding a mysterious white fluid. after a heartwarming AB round where everyone votes ally (aww, guys <3), Luna takes me aside and fairly logically questions Sigma's humanity. she proposes to test his nature in the ADAM, but before we can discuss how on earth that might work, Phi shows up and alerts us to the discovery of bomb #1.

we gather back in the Infirmary, where Sigma formally accuses Dio, and he pretty much readily admits not only what we know, but his identity as Left. which strikes me as super confusing, but whatever. (interesting aside: Tenmyouji has never heard of the Myrmidons? that strikes me as surprising.) he also says he was sent to “stop Zero’s AB plan from working,” and destroy the facility if it appeared to be moving that way. in the midst of all of this, he helpfully gives us our final bomb password (#2, EQD DYR NTK)

as we move in, Dio brandishes the detonator, and threatens to blow us all to smithereens. naturally, we back off. or rather, all of us except for Tenmyouji do. the old man goads Dio for his hesitation in condemning us all to a fiery death, and suddenly knocks the detonator from his hand.

not good.

this time, Sigma is the one to lunge at Dio, stopping him from taking his cyanide pill. Phi has Luna anaesthetise him, making the compelling argument that “every minute we spend wrestling with this prick is a minute we don’t have to deal with those bombs.” Phi is a pragmatic lady.

we knock Dio out, and come to terms with our spiralling fate - Sigma has all the passwords, but in this timeline we lack the input device. Phi commands everyone’s attention, and orders everyone downstairs to the floor B warehouse. Keeping Sigma with her, she makes for the crew quarters and bomb number three, and we confirm that the countdown is live. we split up to desperately search for the input device, and Sigma poetically returns to the infirmary.
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I hope we can meet again someday. I'll be waiting... I'll be waiting...

Luna is waiting for me there. convinced that Sigma, in the dying embers of his life, would seek ultimate, theological understanding of his nature, she offers her services in using our literal deus ex machina - the ADAM. Sigma, having visited the Infirmary for entirely unrelated reasons, is somewhat taken aback, but eventually acquiesces.

after a tense sequence, Luna reveals the results: Sigma is not a robot. he's human. but not entirely - his arms are cybernetic; intelligent prosthetics. Sigma, having real memories of breaking an arm as a child is bewildered and borderline hysterical at the news. recovering his thoughts, he manages to probe Luna as to whether he can remove his bracelet if his arms are robotic, and receives the firm answer that he can't, though Luna refuses to reveal how she knows this information.

just as Sigma begins to probe this potential bombshell, Luna reminds us of our time restrictions. we have one minute remaining.

she launches into a monologue, revealing her "very specific instructions." Sigma's inner thoughts mirror my own - this woman is terrifying. she gives me the first two-headed lion code (GTF-DM-L-016), then bids me a frighteningly temporary sounding farewell.

before Sigma can even respond, his world explodes. so the world falls.

SIGMA END
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Haha I love the Sigma end

underrated

I had the weirdest feeling when I realized this was Sigma's ending
I expected it to come way later
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Mayonesa posted...

What system are you playing on? If it's 3DS, don't ever save in the escape rooms. One of them has a glitch that will corrupt the save, and there's been a few reports of it happening in others as well.

this happened to me, hahahaha


...................I also did that route last.................
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so, where do we stand now? let's do a quick character rundown (from most to least understood) then return to the big questions.

largely understood:

Alice and Clover - well understood, I think. both seemingly frozen for a long-ass time, if Tenmyouji can be used for comparison.

Dio - largely established, but a weird inconsistency remains about who "Left" is. Dio claims to be him on multiple occasions, but I swear the Myrmidon mythology states that Left is dead. maybe it's a symbolic thing and therefore unimportant, but it's fairly puzzling.

partially understood:

Tenmyouji - HI THERE JUMPEI. you sure did get grumpy over the years. what an awesome twist. I like that I got fairly close to figuring it out but never once suspected the truth. assuming the old woman is Akane, that makes his whole story super tragic. he was probably invited to the game by Akane, which suggests he is at least partially a conspirator as far as the game's concerned. however, his ignorance of the Myrmidons suggests he's not all the way in plot-wise, which is consistent with Akane never telling him anything ever his whole damn life. poor guy.

K - Brother's son and heir. looked after by Akane for a long time, which increasingly seems like a long game on her part to foil his apocalyptic plans. looks exactly like Jumpei, which is undoubtedly incredibly important, but probably tells us more about Jumpei than K.

Quark - kid. likes root beer. probably a super strong morphogenetic field accessor, which would explain why Tenmyouji voluntarily brought a fucking kid to a Nonary Game what the fuck is wrong with you Jumpei. other than that, he's still fairly mysterious since he spends most of the game unconscious and his ending seems like one of the more heavily locked ones, which suggests it is fairly revelatory. watch this space.

Luna - dear me, what a scary scary lady. definite conspirator in the game's setup, and probably a robot too. her end being so specifically locked frightens me.

The old woman - HI THERE AKANE. you set this shit up, didn't you? you just can't help yourself. I can't help but assume that you somehow have good intentions again, since you appear to be working against literal omnicidal maniacs, but I love that you could somehow only stop them with a Nonary Game. it's probably too early to speculate as to exactly what's happened with you in the last 50 years, but I'm sure we'll learn soon.

not even close to understood:

Phi - we have learned nothing about Phi since last time. this is absolutely intentional. almost certainly a robot/clone if Sigma is; the Greek letter connection can't be a coincidence. other than that who knows.

Sigma - whew. where to start? I have learned so much about Sigma and I understand so little. he shares a face with K, meaning that at least one of them are clones. he bleeds artificial blood. the god machine says he's a cyborg, but ultimately human. these cannot all be true, which inclines me to disbelieve the ADAM reading. I'm not sure what Luna/Akane/Zero has to gain by convincing Sigma he's a human, but that makes more sense than the alternative. just as Jumpei was the real target of the 999 Nonary Game, it's increasingly clear that Sigma (possibly alongside Phi) is this time. but the threads to explain why aren't yet entirely connecting.
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fuck, i'm trying to formulate some thoughts on the time setting of this game, and it's making my head hurt. so many contradictions.
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Welcome to VLR.
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so, with all that in mind:

Who is Zero?

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say the old woman, who is Akane Kurashiki. just like last time, she has a handful of conspirators on board - Luna for sure, probably Tenmyouji, and maybe others too.

Why are we here?

*cracks knuckles*

okay, let's brainstorm here. according to Dio (and elliptically Phi), this Nonary Game has the power to influence the outside world, namely the Radical-6 pandemic wiping out humanity. it's therefore safe to assume that the game was set up to save humanity, in some weird way. since the bomb deactivation device was found within the game, Dio's bombs must either be part of the game, or his interference was expected. this suggests that Zero might have inner knowledge of the Myrmidon plan, while still seeking to stop it. this would seem to be consistent with Akane living in Brother's house to nanny K, but still isn't entirely clear.

furthermore, how this all ties in with Dio actually killing Akane upon his arrival in the game is hard to speculate. he could have killed any participant if he wanted to join the game; I don't think his choice was a coincidence.

When are we here?

though far from the only possibility, the most straightforward hypothesis is that the Radical-6 pandemic hit in 2028, and since Jumpei and Akane are old as hell, we can probably conclude that we are playing some time after this. however, this raises several questions:

1) how did Jumpei and Akane survive the pandemic and plan a damn Nonary Game?
2) why would a Nonary Game in any way help the situation?
3) what the hell is the deal with Dio? it makes absolutely no sense for him to infiltrate a Nonary Game taking place long after his team have "won," unless he's a Snape-style double agent or the game is going down a very similar path to 999 where this Nonary Game is actually a replication of an earlier one to which information will be passed through time.
4) this is seemingly completely inconsistent with K's upbringing, where Akane becomes his mother figure for several years prior to the pandemic striking.
5) Other than Alice and Clover, who is the third person who was frozen?

...my head hurts.
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Because this more-than-slightly bothers me, Junpei's name is spelt with an N, not an M.

Reg posted...

Because this more-than-slightly bothers me, Junpei's name is spelt with an N, not an M.

oh man, my bad! I know a Jumpei (with an M) in real life so it never occurred to me it might be different. will fix that for the future, thanks!

anyway, I appear to have four endings left: Phi, Quark and two from Luna's timeline. while there may be hidden locks around somewhere, I currently appear to be able to do these in any order. so, in which order should I play them?

also, if you have any other questions about the plot or my thoughts, let me know!
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You may or may not actually be able to do these in any order

But if you want to know which route would be the most expedient to do first, it's Quark

Luna - dear me, what a scary scary lady. definite conspirator in the game's setup, and probably a robot too. her end being so specifically locked frightens me.

that was my second thought
'wait this Isnt the Luna ending?'

I never looked at the tree to see which ending was which
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In five minutes I would be dead. What could I do in five minutes?

I jump back to the Quark timeline, where Sigma has just essentially sacrificed himself to save Quark. playing into Dio's blackmailing hands to secure the Axelavir, Sigma votes ally in the AB room and is betrayed, his BP falling to -1.

he wrenches his fading body over towards Dio, and secures the Axelavir. his final task complete, he slumps to the floor, but refuses to give in. there must be a way to save himself. there has to be!

Sigma's mind connects to the multiverse, and he recalls his white fluid incident, and with it, his cybernetic arms. [oh god, I really hope this isn't going where I think it's going.] he taunts Dio and K into activating the 9 door, and before anyone can stop him, the Myrmidon does just that. just as they're about to leave - Dio triumphant, K sombre and contrite, promising to bring help - Sigma launches himself at Dio and, in a decidedly Snake-like manner, grabs his leg in a vicegrip.

the door rapidly closing, Dio manages to crawl across the threshold and at the admonishment of everyone else, Sigma finally lets him go, his arm still under the closing door. the tannoy announcement sounds, and Sigma fades to darkness.
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...he awakens in the inventory, overjoyed companions standing over him. they remind a very groggy Sigma where he is and what has just happened, and he looks down thoughtfully at his stump. Quark bounds over, and thanks Sigma for saving his life. a rare all-round happy scene, for this series!

we begin to discuss the situation. and come to the conclusion that basically nothing makes sense. the timeline is wonky, Zero's motivations seem completely paradoxical, and even the basic sources of information we are relying upon contradict themselves on a regular basis. faced with this complete black hole of rationale, Sigma goes off on a fairly ridiculous tangent where he decides that staying here would be great because he's the only virile male capable of repopulating our potentially barren planet.

Tenmyouji breaks his fantasy off by stating that the game is over, so all of this is fairly pointless. which is an interesting point, actually - this is the first timeline to continue to yield interesting scenes after the end of the game. what's different here?

Quark, of all people, then drops a bombshell question: what if the old woman is Zero, and committed suicide due to Radical-6 infection? we decide to examine her body, and Phi finds a card in her sleeve.

KURASHIKI. YES!

there's a throwback "Pass = JUMPYDOLL" message scrawled on the back too, but before the characters can investigate or the player can smile wistfully, disaster strikes. Alice stands in an all-too-familiar slumped pose, scalpel in hand. she raises the scalpel high, and drives it purposefully towards her heart.

QUARK END

...what a ridiculous anticlimactic cocktease that was. really?
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Giggsalot posted...

Sigma goes off on a fairly ridiculous tangent where he decides that staying here would be great because he's the only virile male capable of repopulating our potentially barren planet.

Ridiculous, or genius?

...Yeah, ridiculous

BUT I LIKE HIS MOXY FOR THINKING OF IT

haha yeah, I should clarify that I actually enjoyed that. the narrative needed a touch of humour at that point, and that is exactly the kind of dumb shit that pretty much any twenty-something dude would at least contemplate in that situation. I'm team Sigma over here for sure!

matter of fact, there's still three women left there, right? why let a little public suicide get you down?
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http://img11.deviantart.net/5a28/i/2013/092/e/3/virtue_s_last_reward_is_the_booty_by_akuaoioni-d607ips.jpg
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the quark ending definitely feels like it should have been one of the first endings, aside from the arm trick

just imagine how bizarre it is to see Alice do that without having the Radical 6 context
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OrangeCrush980 posted...

http://img11.deviantart.net/5a28/i/2013/092/e/3/virtue_s_last_reward_is_the_booty_by_akuaoioni-d607ips.jpg

Jesus this whole thing winds up being funny for more than one reason

haha, deviantart really lives up to its name. i only remember that place exists a few times a year, which is almost certainly a good thing.

back on this tomorrow, probably to tackle the Luna timeline. unless that's not ideal?
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Phi timeline has to be last
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Paratroopa1 posted...

OrangeCrush980 posted...

http://img11.deviantart.net/5a28/i/2013/092/e/3/virtue_s_last_reward_is_the_booty_by_akuaoioni-d607ips.jpg

Jesus this whole thing winds up being funny for more than one reason

Especially after Zero Time Dilemma... -_-
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Thank you for explaining the joke and also there's a reason I spoiler barred that