Part 39: NG+ Update 11: The Benefit of Experience

NG+ Update 11: The Benefit of Experience

Music: BioCorp





The rest of BioCorp is pretty uneventful. The only real obstacles left are a couple of Patrollers and the horde of Bouncers they summon.





With our NG+ loadout they’re pretty much free XP.



A bluish hue in the air signals that we’re approaching the Frozen Road.

Music: Waste Shaft





The Frozen Road is so short I’m going to skip it almost entirely. The only event of note is an SOL Scene that plays after clearing the Danger Room on the third elevation.

Music: A Small Journey



: Are you tired? Let’s stop and get some rest.







Nina chases a ball of light across the ice.







Lin looks on fondly, until she glances over and sees the look on Ryu’s face.











Lin is clearly conflicted.



: That the world we live in…is broken.







:…the sky?



:…if such a thing really exists?







I really like the SOL Scenes with Ryu and Lin. They do a good job of showing the gradual shift in Lin’s attitude. I think the game would have been better served if some of them had been included in the base story rather than gated behind NG+.



Music: Harbinger





Once again the party is ambushed in the Storage unit.





This time however the fight is significantly easier thanks to our endgame-level gear and skills. There’s simply no need for creative use of traps when you can simply blast everything with Inferno / Shatter / Deathbringer.





The same goes for Asimov. Terabreak in particular can slice him open like a can-opener.

Music: Maddening Heart









Even the mighty Zeno fails to do more than scratch the party before getting Shattered to death.





In the following cutscene Bosch flees and the party set Trinity HQ as their next goal.



You might not think to pick up Zeno’s sword on a second playthrough since you already have it, but there’s actually an advantage to doing so.



The reason being that the Violet Blade is another thing affected by New Game+. Every new run adds a +1 modifier to the sword, maxing out at +9 for nine consecutive playthroughs.



With that done, all that’s left is to climb up to the Industrial Sector - but not before witnessing another SOL Scene.

Music: Controllers of the World





: The High Regent Origin’s Seal…









: Our great leader needs us…and he says we can do what we like!



This is another scene that I think might have been a bit more effective if it had played during the first playthrough. Giving the player a glimpse of the Dark Rangers could have upped the tension and made traversing the Industrial Sector a bit more foreboding.

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Bonus Art: Fantasy Building


I’m pretty sure this picture is from very early in development before they switched to a Sci-Fi setting.