Part 20: Spring/Summer 1992

    




            Try jumping. Skeleton, but hole.
                    -- An anonymous Dark Souls player


                                                Yes, we have no bananas!
                                                               -- An old Beastian song


Welcome back to Scenario C! In short: Ken slipped on a banana peel and hit his head, rendering him somewhat incapacitated for about a year. Waking up after about a year, he was apparently saved due to a blood transfusion from his long lost twin Nek, who is apparently a very rich man. Oh, and also, it seems that Ken is now married to Linda somehow!



So, what's one to do in such a situation?

After the explosive finish of Scenario B, and the explosive start of Scenario C, today we'll taking things a little easier.

So, let's hunt down some animals for the ark, of course. I mean, what else?

But first... we need to get some better equipment, specifically a pair of swallow cutters! Because, yes! this time Linda is in our party from the start and Ken doesn't need to go on his own any more!

So, we'll do the same as in scenario B...



Visit the animal dealer in Ozport...



...and buy some female rats from him, leaving enough money for the Bird Line ticket to Minago.



Then go to the animal disassembler in Minago and disassemble all of them. This will of course net us several of those swords and also a golden nugget worth a further 6400 G. I will also do another round of 99 rats to earn a bit of money to start with.

Once that's all done, we can sell all the extra swords to the animal dealer and end up here:



As you can see, I didn't go too overboard with money this time!



Equipping the sword for Ken...



...and Linda, raises our attack power slightly, but more importantly allows us to hit all enemies in front of us at once which is crazy overpowered.

Next, we go over to the item shop in Ozport shopping mall...



Here, first...



...we can sell that golden nugget for a bit more money.



And then of course, we can also buy the "Air Free Pass" allowing us free travel on regular Bird Line routes.

Allrighty, so now we can head out for some hunting.

As usual, in the immediate area around the ark, we can find some relatively low level species...



...such as pigs...



...ostriches...



...squirrels.



(Definitely try not to get attacked by a pack of dogs as we're way too low level to stand a chance against them!)

Anyway, we continue our animal gathering...



...with some rats...



...squid...



...and finally dragonflies. They are a bit annoying to get to spawn, as usual. We'll do a bit more hunting later, but for now let's explore a bit.

Also: yes, I totally forgot to buy another dog! That's ok, it's not critical right now and I do remember it later on!

So, then, first...



...of course, let's hand everything in at the ark.



This of course gets us up to 6 out of needed full 120.



While we're outside, let's shortly make camp with Linda for some important dialogue.

Ken... our first child is going to be a girl! I'm sure of it! So I want to give her a pretty name!
How about... Maria?
It's a bit plain... / It's kinda old-fashioned? / [ It's a good name! ]
Yeah... it's pretty good, isn't it!
But now that we've decided on a name, I want to meet Maria as soon as possible! Let's give it a go!

In case you are wondering... if you select any of the other two options in the dialogue, then the game lets you type in the name yourself that you want! There is a bit more to this, but it will take a while to get to it.



All right, let's go and get ourselves a second dog that I forgot to do before!



Continuing with our tradition of naming our dogs after all the seasons of the year except Summer, I name this dog Fuyu (=winter). Isn't it convenient that the names of all four seasons in Japanese can be written with just two characters? Maybe later we'll give it a try to earn the right to use kanji!

Allrighty then. Seeing as there is really nothing to do but explore, let's head first over to Ozport and see how things are going there. I will generally try to avoid repeated dialogue as much as I can, but I will keep some as it will be more relevant to us finally in this scenario.

Anyway, on to Ozport!



Ah, yes, the familiar "WELCOME NEOKENYA" flower bed. The second part of the last scenario was more focused on the southern area so it's been a while since we've been here.

The guy in white shirt has something to say...

WELCOME NEOKENYA... Everyone who arrives on the planet is first greeted by these flowers. And it's also their last goodbye before leaving. I guess that's just how things are here, huh?



Let's head inside. (Also, yes, we can still get the dog sword in the little passage--we don't need it for now, however. Also also, yes, you can still capture the catfish down in the basement here--we're nowhere near strong enough to be able to survive that at present.)



This lady here has a bit of a tutorial, although nothing we don't already know.

If you hear the name of a location mentioned by someone, and you don't know where it is, first try going there on the Bird Line. But sometimes, it's also good to check out the satnav and just walk.

Places like caves etc. only appear on your satnav after you visit them for the first time. Towns and settlements are visible there from the start, although not all of them will have a Bird Line station, as we've also seen in the previous scenario.



We'll head upstairs to the airport area.



First, this largish fellow here.

Hey there! How's the ark thing progressing? I have faith that you guys will pull it off! Good luck!



And then this lady here sitting at the desk.

You see that guy standing in the back, who doesn't look like much. Actually he's the commander of this airport. And, well this is a bit of a secret, but he was also a member of the ark crew selection committee... but since there was only one male and one female applicant, there was nothing to select!

So he didn't get murdered in this version of events and also it seems Sachiko didn't apply as crewmember either. Don't worry, she's around and we'll meet her soon! The other people here are saying the same stuff as before, so...



...let's head further up the stairs!



Hi Lady. You have something to say, don't you?

As things progress, the exodus of the planet's residents will continue and the number of people will decrease. But don't worry about rushing to gather all the information from them. Nobody on this planet says much of import anyway.

Yeah, I beg to differ on that one.

But it is true that as time progresses the number of people we can talk to will be decreasing, even down to stuff like shops closing gradually as their owners leave the planet and so on. We didn't get to see this in Scenario A and B because there you can finish everything in a couple of years. But this time, as mentioned, we're staying until the bitter end in 1999 so we'll experience more of this.



Anyway, let's talk to other people working here, like this lady at the desk.

Hey, is it ok a bit of "spicy" talk?
[ Just say it quickly! ] / I'm not so good at that... / Just talk?
Personally, I think the top of this building looks like a big phallus projecting into the universe. And it shoots human beings into all directions, like bits of sperm. I'm sure the humanity will do this all over again at some point and spread all over the universe!

A bit silly, but also a bit surprisingly deep. Like a lot of this game. One can definitely say that the writing quality overall is pretty high (and genuinely funny too).



Before stepping on the teleporter, let's talk to this technician lady here.

Don't worry, we're making sure that the Escape Project is proceeding as planned. You guys just focus on your work and keep it up! Good work!



We take the teleporter up to Ozsat orbital satellite.



The only person of interest for now, is this lady here working at a computer.

Ken! A person that left through here left you a message. Would you like to see it?
[ Yes. ] / No.
Cult Quiz advanced level question: What is commander Ben's last name? The answer can be found in Garex!

Well, we know that already since we found that old news bulletin there in Scenario B. Also, "Cult Quiz" or "CultQ" is a Japanese TV game show from early 1990s. So it's just a little joke.

In any case over the course of the game you can get here different messages. Sometimes they are just silly jokes like this one, but sometimes they're a bit more useful.

That's all we came here for, so now we'll take the teleporter back down and exit all the way out on the building terrace.



Here we can talk to this guy in blue.

From the third floor of the blue building to the left, you can get to Ozsat. There you can get on an escape shuttle, and whether laughing or crying, you will say goodbye to Neo-Kenya forever.



Over to the right is another person.

Hey, hey! Are you two by any chance Beastians?
Yes. / No. / What's a Beastian?

All three options give different answers, but all three are interesting so I will put them together in one convenient package:

Beastians, you know, the primitive humans discovered by a Federation expedition. It's still unknown how they ended up on this planet. One of the seven wonders of Neo-Kenya, Beastians are on every page of the every tourist guide. I wonder if I can go to a place like Minago or Koshikata and see the Beastians like the tourist guide says. I guess having dinner and watching the battle dance show is still the usual thing here, right? But I guess you're not, you don't have any tattoos or grass skirts or anything like that...

Lady, they are people, not animals in a zoo, ok?

Next, we'll head over into the hotel entrance.



Inside, there's this guy in his room, whom we can harras.

Ever since the incident at Garex, the Federation government is devoting much more time and money to archaeological reserach than to the study of animals. The Escape project can only come a distant third to both of those.

Right, the explosion that happened at Garex for unknown reasons. Also, we have definitely seen glimpses of archaeological digs on our journeys so far.



Over here in the big room is a kid we can also talk to.

Just about this time of the year, you can see flocks of swallows flying of the coast at G-07. Not a bad place to go on a sightseeing date in spring. I'm a bit bored with it though.

Location G-07 is around where Battle Park is in the West Area:



So it's basically on the coast of that big lake. Obviously in scenario B we could not go there, but in this one we'll definitely need to catch a pair of swallows. This however is one of the slightly more "complicated" captures, but we'll make a start on it today.

One last thing in Ozport today, though...



...is to go and visit the wedding shop!



As always, here we can buy Linda the 2G ring.



All right, as promised, let's make a start on obtaining some swallows. As mentioned they seem to be mostly found in northern areas (and I will never get used to the fact that the game calls is the "west" area--just why?).

For this we need to head over to that place called G-Factory. You might recall that this is a factory town now mostly inhabited by robots.



After arriving at G-Factory, we can talk to the Bird Line employee.

Hre at the factory, the employees only come around every six months or so to do maintenance on the robots. So I have a loooooot of free time!



Downstairs, the guy who works at the "left luggage" counter...

It's only the Grim Reaper who will finally give some rest to the robots out here. Until then they continue to work tirelessly... for the humans who have basically abandoned them.

Incindentally, in this scenario probably we will really have to make use of this left luggage service. The reason is that the game has a bit of a restricted inventory capacity. You can only carry with you a maximum of 32 items and they do not stack. So that means if you have five health potions, that takes five slots in your inventory! It was more or less fine before when the scenario would only last a year or two, but this time we may have to do some inventory management from time to time, unfortunately. Or, as Aloy would say: "I'll put that into my stash." (and then repeat that sentence about a million times!).

Anyway, we didn't come here for the town itself, so...



...we'll head outside into the snow! Just a few steps to the west is a cave which we haven't yet visited on our previous travels.



This place is called Swallowm. Do you think it has something to do with swallows perhaps?



After a short walk, we reach a couple of tents and a person in front of them!

This cave used to be a major nesting place for swallows until just a few years ago. But since then, the population of rats has exploded and they've been stealing swallows' eggs. The swallows became afraid and stopped coming here, and we lost a lot of business.

And what exactly is your business? Do you sell tickets for swallow-watching on the lake coast? I guess.



In the tent, there's another person to talk to.

I think that if the rat population would be reduced by at least 20 groups... then the swallows might think it's safer and come back this way in the Summer.

Ah-ha! How interesting. Ok, let's head further down into the cave. We'll take that staircase just behind the tents.



Going downstairs...



...and checking out the handy map, it seems like an impossible task to find all 20 groups of rats in this huge cavern.

However, as it turns out, this place uses the same animal spawning mechanism as anywhere else in the game. This means that the animals spawn as you "scroll into" the screen. So you can simply walk back and forth in the same area until you've caused 20 groups of rats to spawn and defeated them!



It's probably a bit hard to see, but here is one such rat trying to run away from Ken. You will have to use the sprint button here as they are way too quick.

Incidentally that shiny object on the screen is in fact an egg, which we too can pick up. But for now I will leave it there.



Anyway, you fight a bunch of rats, defeat them and then repeat this 19 more times.

Afterwards, when we are done, we can head back up to the tents.



Oh! Look at them over there! The older female is chasing the younger male so persistently!

So I guess they've started to come back then already, huh?



Also the person in the tent...

Thanks to both of you, swallows have started to come back to their nests! Maybe I should try going back to my own nest again one time...

All right, that's all we can do here for now. As mentioned, now that we've done this, we should be able to catch some swallows in the future.



That's some pretty bad weather... let's head back to warmer climates!



We're not heading all the way down south, though. Just as far as Minago!

Here we have a hunter loitering about the entrance, but he has a bit of a tutorial we haven't seen so far!

Sometimes a group of animals will have a leader. If you see one that stands out because it's a higher level than the rest, then you know it's them. Sometimes they might have a special attack that the others will not use, so be careful.

True, although it doesn't make a huge difference in practice. On my species "info cards" I haven't really been indicating these skills especially, for this reason.



Inside, we can talk to this older gentleman here.

Ken. I saw your father in the church shortly before he went missing... He was praying at the well, but he isn't even Beastian!

Right, we need to solve also the mystery of Ken's father's disappearance, I almost forgot! Not today, though.



Hope you haven't forgotten about this dude here.

Hey there! I am Dr. Oid, an enthnologist! I have a hunch that there might be something big somewhere in Minago. I will let you guys know when I find out more and in return I would like you to help me out, ok? Promise!

I wonder if it has something to do with the well in the church? In any case, let's hope Minago doesn't get minago-ed this time (Japanese "minagoroshi" = annihilation/massacre) so we can actually find out where this story goes! Also this guy's name bothers me something fierce.



Ok, let's head inside the church.



So here's the well that the old gentleman was talking about. Were this a FromSoftware game, there would certainly be a "try jumping" message in front of it.

But, when you think about it, maybe we really should, you know... try jumping? Oh, Ken, you don't have the right.



Oh, hey, someone is sending us a message! But who? And why?



On the upper floor, we can talk to the priest a bit...

People are still talking about your wedding! It was the first time that the bride brought the groom in in a wheelchair. And also the first time that she answered his vows for him, too!

Ok, that explains a lot.



Upstairs, there is another priest...

A long time ago, this town used to be terrorised by a pack of wild dogs. My friend's husband and child were killed by them. After that, we decided to close the gates at nightfall.

This is kind of interesting, because back in Scenario A, when we met Nek in the abandoned town of Koshikata, there were also some issues with wild dogs and wolves there too. Hmm.

Anyway, we can exit the church...



...and head over to Linda's house!



Inside are, as expected, Hume and Ann.



God would surely feel happy... but I feel a little lonely to send her off like this...

As always, we can pick up some duck meat from the fridge. This is pretty convenient because by Summer it will rot and then we can use the rotten meat to catch some hyenas!

Also...



Please, Kenny! No matter what happens, please protect Linda! I beg you!

Back outside...



Those two... they will only be separated in death.

So we get three different variations on Ann and Hume's relationship. In scenario A, they are divorced, in B they are divorced and remarried and here just happy together.

Before we leave...



...let's remember also this shack here.



It contains the animal expert guy.

If you're a ranger, you must be carrying an illustrated guide to animals with you. I've made it for you to use, but it's definitely got a few flaws. But I'm sure you'll be able to fill those in yourself. And also... but let's talk about that next time if you want. Just visit me when you're free.

Sure thing... if the town doesn't get annihilated this time. I also would like to know what is it that you have to tell us!



With this, we're done with Minago for the moment. To finish off, let's find a few more species here in the immediate area.



In spring, sometimes the area around Hospico will flood. This is a bit of a problem as you stand a greater chance to get attacked by stonefish, and they are pretty strong in water!



You know, like this. Nevertheless, we manage to scrape by somehow!



As I make camp to recover some health, suddenly it becomes Summer 1992!



We also catch some moles.



Also we find some monkeys.



And rabbits.



And crabs.

After this...



...we head back into the Ark to hand these in.



Finally, we are informed by the robot that this makes 11 out of 120 that we will be collecting.

So, that's all for today. It was kind of a bit of a breather episode where not that much happened, but not to worry. Next time we'll be exploring at least one new town we've never been to before, and also catching at least one new species!




Today we have here a couple of "model sheets" for Linda: