Part 9: Update VII

♪ BGM: We Can't Change The World ♫

Alright, time for some proper gameplay. First of all, let's check out the menu.



We have a few things to check out here. First, we get a map, which gives us a small overview of where we are right now as far as the "level" is concerned. So here, we're on the rooftop of a hospital, and our goal will probably be to go down to the bottom floor and exit. I don't use the map at all for this segment because it's pretty linear, but from then on, it's very useful to find out whether a door you can enter leads to a room that is a dead end (and therefore must be searched for stuff) or leads to the way forward (and therefore must be ignored until all the dead ends are explored).

The screen also shows Komaru's level, which will become relevant for skills, and our Monocoin count, which will become relevant when we can buy stuff later.

As an aside, there's a fair amount of these little chibi renditions of Komaru and Toko in the menus, and I think they're totally adorable and I love them.



Our skills menu is pretty barren right now. We have exactly one skill, which automatically focuses on the nearest enemy when we ready the megaphone, and we have exactly one skill point to use the skill with, so we might as well assign it. We will pick up more skills later that do all kinds of stuff.



Our truth bullets menu could also take some more stuff. For now, we have nothing to do here, but we can already see that we seem to have some ability to "bling up" our truth bullets, which probably makes them shoot faster, harder, more often, that kind of deal.



Move can't be upgraded, which makes sense, since it just hits objects and makes them do context-sensitive things. You can't exactly make that more "effective".



Our files menu will list all the different collectibles. These will come up throughout the first chapter, so we'll go over the different types then. To note: I have a list of collectibles, but will not be consulting it during gameplay for my first run through to keep the gameplay videos from entirely grinding to a halt. I'll make a second pass later and pick up the rest.



The people menu gives us some profiles for the main characters we've met. Let's transcribe these.











I'll be putting those into the second post of the thread as things go along.



Finally, we have some regular system options. Nothing too special here, though "retry" is going to become interesting down the line. We'll get to that later. Anyway, let's get back to gameplay.



On the roof, we find one more thing.



Well, hehe, if it isn't your little buddy! Maybe you should try riding on it!
Hey, who are you calling a baby!?



...Ah, this is surprisingly relaxing...
S-Seriously!?





♪ Jingle: Saving on a Potty ♫

So yeah, these training potties are going to be spread around throughout the game, and they're going to be our save points.



Now, let's head down inside the hospital.





So here's the first of the gameplay videos. Just so you know, these are going to be unedited, just the straight shot of how I played the particular segment.

Dark and depressing... Just like me.
Yeah, right...
"Right"!? Why didn't you deny it!?
That means you agree, don't you!? Just as I thought, humans cannot be trusted...
Humans...? You're having delusions.
I prefer to call it imagination!



This wasn't here when I was on the roof before! What's going on?
You can't open it?
It's impossible, there's no power.
Then...what should we do?
Oh, don't worry, there's a mystical spell that magically opens the door! Let's chant it together!
What!? Seriously?
Of course not! Obviously we just have to look for the switch and turn on the power!



Aw, she's so disappointed there wasn't a magic spell to open the door.



♪ BGM: Alice in the Children's Land ♫

Well, let's take a closer look.



W-Well obviously! You can't tell just by looking!? What are you, dense?
Wh-What're you doing...?
I-I'm trying not to look at the body! I... I have a fear of blood!
Oh... You with a fear of blood... Didn't expect that...
What? I'm not allowed to have a girly side just because my other personality is a serial killer?
I-I wasn't trying to be insulting!
But if you're afraid, shouldn't you just stay away from it?
I can't just keep saying I'm afraid. I need to overcome my fear of blood.
After all, you gain meaning in life through personal growth.
Th-That's a surprisingly positive outlook...
Surprisingly? I thought you said you didn't want to be insulting. But I was just repeating Master.
Ah, I just can't stand it! Just the *smell* of blood is enough to make me faint! If Master wants, I'll give up on that whole personal growth thing!



Moving on, we fairly quickly find the power supply room.



I think I have a solution for that.





There we go!





♪ BGM: We Can't Change The World ♫

U-Um, Toko?
About this gun... Wouldn't it be better if you used it?
... I'm...allergic. To machines.
O-Oh. Well, if you have allergies, then... I guess it can't be helped...



♪ BGM: Alice in the Children's Land ♫

We see a little light on the floor. This indicates a collectible of some type.





This is the first type of collectible - called a "note". This is just a little bit of text, either a note written by somebody or a brochure of some kind. It gives us a bit of information about the city we find ourselves in or the world in general, and it's not further discussed by Komaru and Toko. From this, we can glean that the riots in Towa City broke out near instantaneously, which I guess we already could figure from what Byakuya and others have said. We head back out to the hallway, but suddenly...



Gah! Hurry up and shoot it!



...well, that was easy.



Shooting that Monokuma got us enough EXP to level up. That basically just gets us another skill point, and since we don't have any skills, that's not really relevant right now.



Monokuma blasting continues. I won't show every single enemy we kill from this point on - just imagine the occasional Monokuma sprinkled in for now.



Now, with the power restored, we can head down to the next lower floor.





This area comes with some chasms that force us into certain rooms.



It's at this point that I turn the camera from auto to manual. Turns out that I was subconsciously trying to control the camera and getting annoyed it wasn't working. Next, we enter the room the chasm is making us enter.



I've seen this kid before!
No, it's probably just another one. Those brats are all wearing helmets like this.
Huh? Really?
Tee hee...
But why are they...wearing helmets?
I-I don't know! These kids only ever talk to each other! Even at a time like this, they're playing around like a bunch of idiots! S-Stupid brats...
But isn't it dangerous? What if they get attacked by Monokumas?
No, you don't get it. These brats are working with the Monokumas to kill all the adults.
They‘re what!?
Kids killing adults...it's completely insane! But we can't just *attack* these brats... It's so...frustrating!
Tee hee...
Anyway, Toko... What's that box next to that kid?
Who knows? Maybe you should open it.
...



I'm sure a smart gamer like you already knows, but Truth Bullets are a limited resource. But, there are exceptions like Move. But worrying about exceptions is no way to live. Truth Bullets are replenished with item boxes, or by picking up the ones dropped by Monokumas. Other than bullets, you might find hearts to heal HP, or batteries for Genocide Jack. Resupply yourself skillfully so you don't find yourself full of one item but empty of another!

OK, so basically "collect items", gotcha.



We get a restock of our Break ammo in this present box.



And after picking that up, the Monokuma kid just bails.

Is that kid...giving this to us? Why help us like this?
M-My guess is...they're carrying out someone's order.
Huh? Order?
Wh-Who cares, anyway...? No point wasting our time worrying about mentally damaged kids...
Well, that might be true, but...
It's fine! Jeez, you're slow, hurry up already!
O-Okay...



We get to see a little Monokuma image on the x-ray display.



Another thing I notice here again is that Toko automatically ducks when you ready the megaphone.



More blasting Monokumas.



Mikan cameo on the hospital bulletin board!



We enter the diagnosis room and find two things to look at.



The first one is this note here. "Evidence points to the involvement of the Remnants of Despair"? Well, I think we've already spotted one of them.





The second one is our first of a new collectible type - "literature". The difference between literature and notes is...



♪ BGM: DSO_Beautiful Dead ♫

...that Komaru and Toko discuss the literature they find.

Really? I thought it looked pretty good...
I'm sure an idiot like you would enjoy it, but I only acknowledge pure literature.
I mean, look at this! He's using dissociative identity disorder as a plot point, the hack! Poking fun at his subject without even considering how they feel... This is *not* professional!
I'm sure he's not writing about you, specifically...
Oh, and speaking of dissociative identities, I wanted to ask you something... Genocide Jack isn't gonna kill me...right? I'm totally safe, right?
No, she won't. She has a special thing about killing cute men. When it comes to Monokumas, I think she sees it as "breaking" them, not really "killing" them...
But she threatened me and told me she'd kill me...
Maybe it was just a threat... Or maybe you're actually a cute guy.
I-I'm a girl!
Oh? I'm not so sure. You could be lying to me. There's no proof you're *not* a guy...
Wh-Why would I lie like that for no reason!? What, you want me to show you!? Proof that I'm a girl!?
Wh-What'd you get all serious for!? I was kidding!
Well sorry! We just met, I'm not used to your brand of humor yet!

So these literature bits give a bit of an opportunity for Komaru and Toko to converse about assorted topics. As a side note, the title of this book is a reference to The Minds of Billy Milligan, a book about the real case of Billy Milligan, the first man acquitted of major crimes in the US because of his dissociative identity disorder, which exhibited itself in the form of 24 different personalites. Or it could just be a straight reference to Billy Milligan without the book being involved. Regardless, let's move on.



♪ BGM: Alice in the Children's Land ♫

Next, we head to the monitoring room, which has some swanky doors.



♪ BGM: It's a Monokuma World ♫

Looks like a playground for those little b-brats. I've seen them playing around with that arcade machine before...





That arcade machine those kids just left ain't no normal arcade machine. It actually displays the surveillance camera in the next room! The kids use the controls to work the Monokumas in that room. Just like a video game! Oh, the horror! This is the life of a game brain! Anyways, there's always a strategy for rooms with a nearby arcade machine.



But if you use a certain route, you can get past without getting caught. Now then, try shooting Move at the arcade machine, then check next door!

Alright, sounds good. Let's do it.





♪ Jingle: Monoku-Man Activate ♫





Now, this is one of the major gameplay components. Basically, every once in a while, we're going to find these Monoku-Man arcade machines, and they will display a surveillance camera video of the room after that. In this one, we just have to escape without getting caught by the Monokumas, but future rooms are going to be more complex than that. These puzzles have the job of mixing up the gameplay by forcing you to not just go in and shoot everything, but rather adapt a certain strategy and using enemy behaviors in order to make a certain outcome happen.



By pressing the F1 Key, you can see the arcade machine's video again. But, this will leave you vulnerable, so be very careful!



So, we enter from the bottom right of the surveillance video...



...walk behind the desk with the three computers...



...and head to the exit!





♪ Jingle: Monoku-Man Success ♫

So, that was pretty easy, but like I said, the later ones will become more intricate. Anyway, that'll do it for this update. Next time, we head outside the hospital and start exploring Towa City.