Part 2: I see a man at the back as a matter of fact; His eyes are as red as the sun

~Update 2: I see a man at the back as a matter of fact; His eyes are as red as the sun

So last time we were introduced to our hero, his best friend friend acquaintance hanger-on, and one of the main heroines. We also got dumped with a bunch of side characters and a big ass helping of exposition. We left off with Wake and Fuuko making their way on over to the Church to make some star kids together. Fuuko was... less than enthused about that.


-Downtown-

...

Hey Fuuko, you doing okay? You've been awfully quiet.

Come to think of it, you're not the only one either.

...



You haven't said much since Mark mentioned Classmating.

That's not true!

I did some moping too!

Hey, she turned bright red. Looks like I'm right.

Hrgh... Are they really going to make me Classmate now...?

When a Disciple with a high Ether Count Classmates with a girl with Star Energy there's an increased chance of a Star Conception, right? Then you'll definitely be given a lot of chances to do Classmating.



*sigh* Well, since apparently I'm not needed, I guess we'll go our separate ways here.

I'll see you guys again at the Academy.


-Church of Aterra-



Welcome back, the two of you.

...

[Priest A]: Ah, so this is the God's Gift.

[Priest B]: The Star God has finally graced us with a God's Gift!

[Priest C]: He looks so stoic and determined. We are truly blessed.

Wake and Fuuko. We would like you to immediately try to Classmate with each other.

Huh...? R-Right now?

I can understand your anxiety at the current situation.

I really don't think you do!



The male's Ether and the female's Star Energy are entwined with bonds... Pouring this energy into the Star Womb Matryoshka creates these holy children.

AGAIN ignoring the 'as you know', this suggests that Male Disciples have Ether and Females have Star Energy. It's a little unclear whether or not Male Disciples have any Star Energy at all, or if it's just significantly less than Females. Wake doesn't use any magic from what I recall, while the heroines definitely do. I'm leaning more towards each gender having one or the other. There is another aspect to all of this that may clarify things later though. It's all just background fluff either way.

I do understand that the ritual is necessary for us to win peace in the world. But my heart isn't ready yet... I'm sorry, but please give me some time.

I see... I understand.

You have sixty seconds.

What!?

Then, while you are thinking, I will go over the details of Classmating. Wake, is there anything you'd like to review about the Classmating ritual?

...

Uh... Wake? God's Gift? Is something the matter?

Hm? Sorry, I was working on something in my head. What's going on now?

Wait, when did we get back to the Church?

Please focus, Wake. Is there anything you need to know about the Classmating ritual before we begin? This is important.



I was completely zoned out. Just... start telling me about whatever this is and I'll piece it together as you go.

Very well.

Star Children are not human. They are warrior spirits created to fight monsters. They are born through the Classmating of a male and female Disciple. They get their powers through the Star Energy of the female who made them. That Energy is what they use to put their powers to their full use. When taking Star Children into battle, it is standard for a female to accompany them.

The Star Children need a momma around (any momma, doesn't have to be theirs), which is why Disciples that honestly have no business being in combat yet (like Fuuko) will be tagging along in Dusk Circles.

Okay, I think I'm catching up.

"Star Conception" refers to the act of Classmation, creating Star Children. The female takes the male's Ether into a Star Womb during this ritual. Now, as to the viability of the Star Conception Rate... That is, the probability of conceiving a Star Child as a result of Classmating. The rate is highest between males with high Ether Counts and highly ranked females.

According to the statistical data gathered until now...



Are we breeding a gold Chocobo or something? How the hell is that a reliable way to fight the monsters?

I'm getting to that. Calm yourself.

But we can expect a high Conception Rate with an S Rank girl and a God's Gift male. We would definitely like to see some good results from you.

Are you trying to give me performance anxiety or something? Putting a lot of weight on me there old man.

...


-Ritual Hall-

Are you prepared, Fuuko?

Yes... I'm ready now.

We will now begin the Classmating.



Whoah whoah whoah. Nobody said anything about a bunch of old guys watching us. I can't... perform like that.

You'll be fine. It is perfectly normal to be a little anxious. Just relax.

Well... I guess if I focus and--

Now, proceed as I taught you earlier!

Okay! Okay! Wait, how does this work again?

I think we had to hold hands to start? Right?

What? You mean like this mayb--

Time to start pumping out Star Children. Whenever you go to the Church you get the option to select the heroine you want to Classmate with. Each class of Star Child has minimum stat requirements that have to be met in order to create one, so you'll be able to get a wider variety of classes if you focus on multiple girls. BP stands for Bond Points. BP can be raised a few different ways and it gets easier to do as the game goes on, so there's no need to be especially conservative with it (outside of the dungeons anyway. Inside is an different story entirely).

The game sums this up fairly well with these tutorial cards, so take it away game!



Pressing the left and right shoulder buttons (if using a controller), or E and Q if using a keyboard, let's you cycle through the heroines data. You can see stuff that you have learned about the heroines, such as Likes, Dislikes, little factoids, that kind of thing. These can come in handy for giving gifts and picking dialog options to increase your bond level.





You can also view a little profile on the girl in one of the tabs. Fuuko here likes to swim and hopes that this will somehow help her use guns to fight nightmare creatures. These can be seen in the Database as well.



Also worth highlighting here: If Wake royally fucks up with one of the heroines then they'll outright tell him to piss off with the Classmating garbage. I actually haven't seen what happens when the mood is at its lowest, although it most likely just results in the heroine not being select-able. I doubt there is a special scene or anything where the girl tells Wake to shove the Matryoshka up his ass.



Speaking of the Matryoshkas, after selecting the heroine you will have a choice of which Matryoshka to use. These are the 'Star Wombs' Mattero was yammering about that the Star Kids will pop out of. You have an infinite supply of the normal variety, but you can pick up others that have various effects such as giving the SC a certain element or upping particular stats.



Do not 'try them out to see what they do'. The game tells you what the effect is before you use it and some Matryoshkas are rare drops. If you have one with a good effect, you'll want to hang on to it until you're ready to make a Star Child when all the variables are sitting at their highest points.



This is still tutorial town, so we only have the basic type of doll. Let's go ahead and see what--


~OooOoooOooOoo, touch my heaaaarrt. Just wanna make love to you~

~NooooOoooOOOooo, skip this sceeeeene. Just gonna cut these screenshots~

DON'T BE A CREEP WARNING
The video with the song shows (part of) the little cutscene that plays when you select a Heroine for Classmating. The screenshot you see above is the only one I could get that I would consider totally SFW. Again, there is no nudity, but there is some 3D model barbie-doll anatomy going on. They get longer as the bond level rises as well, adding in new poses.
Music: Close to You


Music: Congratulations!
(This is annoyingly catchy despite the Engrish, and you'll be hearing it A LOT. Well, you won't I guess, but I sure as hell will.)

...Moving on. The classes you meet the requirements for will be highlighted. If you don't meet the stat requirements, you can see what you're lacking on the right hand side, as indicated by the red.





The yellow spread shows you what kind of stats the Star Child will wind up with, while the red (orange?) shows you the stat requirement to create them. Not every class has pure stat requirements though. There are some that need other class types to be leveled up past a certain threshold first, and others that need special item drops on top of that.



The game has 30 available classes. Some of those are base classes and some are promoted versions of the base classes. There are a few specialty classes as well. We can only choose Gunslinger at the moment though. Normally the Class is obscured until you create it, but we'll go ahead and pull from the Database to see what we are about to make.



Like Pokemon, there isn't a big variation in stats at this level. We can still see that Gunslinger trends towards accuracy(TEC) and Luck(LUC) though. So let's go ahead and welcome our little cowgirl into the world (you can tell if it's a boy or a girl based on the portrait. Boys will be blue and have different art).



You can enter a name yourself or just mash 'Random' until you see one you like. I'll go with the first option this time, but you guys can shout out name suggestions if you want (although you might want to save them for when I start looking to the thread for the Goon Team).



Alright, here comes Esther the Gunslinger.



Whenever you create a Star Child, they will come bearing gifts. Esther here is knocking 25% off the BP cost. Sometimes this bonus is money, sometimes it will be Bond Points, and sometimes it will increase the heroine's mood.



There is also a rare chance our precious baby will be born some kind of mutant abomination. They might have two elements as opposed to one or they might level up faster than normal. This is all randomized shit that I have to put up with during the coming hours and hours of grinding. You guys don't need to worry about the details. I'll open up a team later, show you guys what classes we have, and then you just tell me what you think would be cool.



Hm? What do we have here?



Looks like Fuuko had triplets. As far as I can tell this only happens in the tutorial. It is possible to get twins, although it's rare, but I've never seen triples happen through regular gameplay. This is likely just a handwave in order to set us up with one full team out of the gate. Well, let's welcome Jacob and Elly I suppose. They're knocking 25% each off of the BP cost as well.



Jacob, pictured above is a Swordis. Pretty much just the starter Hero class for any JRPG. Elly, pictured below, is our Cleric.



Preist A: *gasp* Is this true...?

Preist B: This... This is unbelievable.

Preist C: Do it again! I wasn't looking!



That's an unbelievable success!

The amount of Ether produced guarantees a Star Child with an S Rank female Disciple.

Ruby!? When did you get here?

I had an interest in this experiment, too. I decided to observe and take readings.

Hot.

What!? You dare call this holy rite an "experiment"!?

Ah, forgive me. But don't these results satisfy you, too?

Well... it was pretty hot, I'll give you that.

...Indeed, I am extremely pleased. O Star God, we are truly thankful for your Gift.

We will now be able to exterminate the monsters within the Dusk Circles!

I'm... uhhh... what the hell was that? There's some weird stuff happening down in me right now...



You doing okay? Here, grab on to my arm before you keel over.

Th-Thanks...

I think you may have been a bit too... eager, Wake...

Well done, you two. If your bond becomes stronger, even stronger Star Children will be born. Keep this up and get along with each other.

Cool your test tubes Chief.

Oh, um... Yes...

You are free to use this shrine if you need to perform Classmating from here on.

Yaaayyy... so excited about that...

Disciples with high Conception Rates are given priority to use this holy place.

Are you going to be watching us every time?

Well someone needs to preside over the ritual.

Well, you two. Considering where we are, I'll guide you to the Fort City's defensive line now. Oh... You'll need to change before that. You're in the Standard-class uniforms. Here are your Elite-class uniforms. Once you've changed, let's regroup.

Is there a shower room around here somewhere? Or maybe an open window overlooking the ocean that I can jump out of?

What happened to all that bravado from earlier?

Don't start with me. I'm grappling with feelings unrelated to killing monsters at the moment. It's really strange.

*Wake, Fuuko, and Ruby all leave*

Still, I am truly envious of youth.



Priest B: Uh-huh, uh-huh... right... Huh? What was that noise?... Oooohhh... Alright, I'll let him know. *beep* Excuse me High Priest Mattero?

Hm? Yes?

Priest B: Remember that leak we had in the residence hall? Yeah... I was just on a call with maintenance when a pipe suddenly burst. He said your room is currently flooding.

...

(Come on, your holiness. I'm old. Just let me have this!)

Pandora Labyrinth - Check out the cutscene



Welcome to... a rooftop? Balcony maybe? We're outdoors.



Goodness. Don't you two look smart in your new uniforms.



Ugh, stupid tie...

Aw, thanks Chief Ruby.

Much better. I was starting to choke.

If it was too tight then why did you wait until just now to loosen it?

Because, I...

Huh... That's actually a fair point...

Yes... Well now that we're here, let me give you the grand tour. This is the top of the Fort City. We're at the defensive line here. It's been nicknamed the 'Original Core'.



Look down from here.

What you see in the water is the world's first and largest Dusk Circle.



Of course they do. They have a clear love of making things sound ominous.

Giving it a name makes it easy to remember, so go ahead and call it that as well.

Not happening. I'm not putting up with this interchangeable terminology garbage. You call it by one name and that's it.

Fine. For the sake of brevity, just call it Pandora.

It's decided then. Good.

How frightening... So this is the first Dusk Circle that appeared twenty years ago...

There are eight Dusk Circles in the world right now, including this one. Of those, two have become active. That is, they've full materialized as Labyrinths.

This one has remained dormant, however. This one is still what's nicknamed a Circle Seed... an inactive Dusk Circle. Still, because of its powerful energy, monsters are slowly pouring out of it.

Hold up. We can see the Dusk Circle right there and it's spitting out monsters. The Church calls it the Pandora Labyrinth. How is that not considered 'active'?

There is a reason why you can already see it so clearly... The Dusk Energy here is extremely powerful compared to other Dusk Circles.

That didn't answer the question at all. Well whatever, you're the scientist. More importantly, what kind of defenses do you have protecting Fort City from the monsters?

You really are all about killing monsters, aren't you?



We are fully equipped with a system to intercept any monsters, as well.

Fun fact: The magic wall Ruby talks about is called the Star Wall. It's a barrier created from Star Energy to prevent monsters from escaping Pandora (the Original Core). The Star Wall is powered by a dedicated group called 'The Watch'. I don't know if the game ever calls them that, but that is what they are listed as in the database. Despite their fancy name, The Watch is actually made up mostly of Standard class Disciples. They have an important job, but it's still kind of funny to me that someone gave this bunch of teenagers, one step removed from being a meat shield, the ominous title of 'The Watch'.

Even then, some monsters occasionally do get past that.

Yeah, we've experienced that first hand.

So the monsters that attacked us when we got off the boat must have been some of those.

You were attacked by monsters?

Fuuko and Chlotz were attacked by monsters. I wiped the floor with them. Just want to clarify that.

That's odd. We haven't received any reports that monsters escaped the defensive line... Could they have come from one of the Nests on the island?

Wait, so you know there are monster nests on the island that are outside this little kill zone?

The active Circles on the continent shoot out pods filled with monsters called Nests. They sometimes make it all the way to the island, but it's very rare.

So this CAN happen, and yet new Disciples don't warrant any kind of escort to the Academy from the port? You don't have anyone patrolling that important roadway running straight through a dense forest?

We don't exactly have an excess supply of manpower that we can devote to guarding local roads in the rare event that a monster Nest hits.

I just want to point out that if I had gone to get breakfast before heading to the Academy, a B Rank Elite and an S Rank Elite would have been dead before even getting here. Hell, if I had a split-second lapse in concentration then you would have lost a God's Gift on top of that.

It was a calculated risk... That just so happens to have almost backfired.

Monster Pods - Check out the cutscene



Speaking of monsters.





*Ride of the Valkyries *











That's probably a bad thing. Maybe? Do we even know where in the world this is going on?



Ah, here you are. Let me introduce you. This is another S Rank in the second-year.

That means we'll be in the same class. I'm Fuuko. It's nice to meet you.

(Wow...)

I'm Alec. Another S Rank, huh?

We're introduced to Alec. There isn't much to him at the moment. He's just 'stop having fun, guys' enough to be a dick, but he also has a pretty important job with a weighty responsibility. He'll come around as the game goes on though. I actually really like his character.

So I'm told... I'm a little worried if I'll be of any use, though.

You shouldn't be so naive. Such thoughts on the battlefield will only lead to death.

Y-You're right, ahaha...

(He's sooo hot...)

It's not funny.

Oh... Right.

Well aren't you just a bag of fun.

So, you're God's Gift...

So I'm told. What of it?

No... It's nothing.

Why don't you have Alec guide you from here on?

Get to know each other a little more... intimately.

What are you planning...?

I'm not doing any planning. It's more like... laying some groundwork.

...

I may not look it, but I'm rather busy. See you later.

*Ruby leaves*

You need a tour, huh? Okay, come with me. Is there anything you'd like to know about the Fort City while we're here?



I'm getting a little sick of question time. Both questions just tell us stuff we already know by this point. Ruby just finished explaining to us that the Circle over there isn't active yet, but it still has the Dusk Energy to spew out monsters. Alec just repeats that and adds that whenever this Circle does become active, it's going to be a real bad scene. Asking about the Academy does offer up a bit of new info though, so let's look into that.

So what exactly are we going to be doing in this place? The vague talk of 'training' isn't quite the answer I've been looking for.

The Aterra Academy gathers those who have received the Star God's Brand. It's where we're trained to be Disciples. Aside from certain individuals who are given special assignment from the Church... Everyone who exhibits a Brand must transfer to the Academy the moment it appears. And then, there are the Disciples like us, who are shown to be Elites.

We know that already. I want details, man.

Very well...

While we're training, we get assigned to combat units to eliminate monsters. And, obviously, higher-ranked students are assigned to more important missions.

That's that juicy stuff I wanted to hear. Now we're talking.

Is he normally this...

Focused? Only when it comes to monsters I think. We only met a few hours ago, so I haven't gotten to know him very well yet.

I was going to say 'single-minded' actually. Nevertheless...

I'll show you the firing control for the Dusk Screener first.



Announcement: All staff on duty, intercept them immediately! We have an incursion!

What's going on!?

...It seems monsters have broken through the magic barrier.

A: Zheeee!

There's quite a number of them... God's Gift, can you fight?

Yeeessss...

That is a... mildly concerning combination of response and expression.

I'll hold these ones off! You go defeat the ones up ahead.

I could help out here and then go kill--

I'll be fine. Now, go!



E: Bwaaaaaah!

F: Blaaah!

Whoa! There's a ton of monsters up here, too!

This is it. It's now or never.

Right!

It's Morphin' Time!

Yea-Wait, what?

Wake Transforms



Verto!











Wake transforms and gains... tonfa swords? It has to cramp like a bastard trying to grip those tight enough that they won't flop around. Kinda looks like he could combine them to form that sword from Halo.

Fuuko Transforms
Possible NSFW Warning
It should be noted that these are all Sailor Moon style transformations. All the bodies are covered in light, but they pull closeups on... places. Keep that in mind if you want to watch these somewhere with prying eyes.











And Fuuko just has her Dusk Breakers, which we've already seen. Although they now have energy daggers under the barrels. Also cat ears?... Okay.



Time for another 'barely battle', against these flying nightmares.



Here's another brief look at the battle screen that shows where our ally units are able to move. We've got a trip into the first dungeon coming up that will explain the entire battle system in neat little screenshots better than my overly-wordy ass could ever do.



Wake and Fuuko take out the bat in front of us while Esther, Jacob, and Ally of Team A pop over to another part of the field and take out a second bat with a shot to its weak point.



The battle ends in two attacks and we get a little bit of Exp, Enemy Search and Star Bomb items, as well as some Glow. You can probably deduce that Glow is our currency for the game, but there's a little more to it that will be explained further down the update.


-Original Core Pandora-



That was terrible. I'll admit that Morphin' Time has some potential, but Verto is just stupid. Better try on a few more.

Hey... What are you mumbling about?

You're going to need some work as well. You really couldn't think of anything to shout?

Wh-What are you talking about? Why would I shout something at the monsters?

*sigh* You just don't get it... We'll work on that though.

Looks like you're done over here.

Alec! I'm glad you're okay!

Could we maybe continue that tour?

Sorry, but I have to take part in dealing with the aftermath here. My tour is over.

(Darn it...)

I'll take you to the dorms, at least.




-Men's Dorms-



S Rank Disciples are given different lodging than other Disciples. Since you're a God's Gift, you'll get the same treatment as an S Rank Disciple.

Sweet. I was honestly fine with just getting that awesome transforming ability, but I won't pass up premium digs.

(I cannot get a read on this guy...)

Well then, if you'll excuse me.

Well, looks like this is our life now. At least for a few years. I could get used to it.

Things are so much different here... I have to do my best for world peace.

That's right. The monsters must be exterminated.

I'm... going to head over to the girl's dorm now. You, uh... You have a good night, Wake.

And we stop there for today. We're through the worst of the intro portion of the game now. In the next update we get to meet three more main heroines, have a gander at Wake's sweet bachelor pad, and get our bearings in Fort City. Chlotz will also make his return and completely eat shit while trying to talk to a cute girl.