Part 23: Episode XXII: Urban Violence

Episode XXII: Urban Violence



Alright, let’s try that again. Since the last time I saved was roughly two minutes ago because I diligently save every time I’m near a Terminal as it takes all of 0.57 seconds. If at any point in the game, DC Douglas Adams Pod pipes in with “maybe get back to the mission area” while shit is clearly popping off, it’s almost certain to trigger a bad ending if we ignore him. In this case, going to the Amusement Park (by the one in Pascal’s Village or the initial one), heading to the Desert or wandering over to the Factory will trigger that ending.



Though to be frank, that one is kinda rude since the game doesn’t actually point out the shortcut back to the City Ruins and it’s kinda easy to miss given the wonky fixed camera angle views. I had enough Survival Horror training to push against any obscured camera angle. But I can see people missing it. Especially if they’ve not turned on the fixed mini-map.



2B! Command is deploying new flight units for us! They just set the coordinates, so let’s get going.
On it.


Music: Grandma (Destruction)



Things are going poorly back in the City Ruins. Even the mighty moose are fleeing for the hills. As is the general color in the area. It’s probably OK... World desaturation isn’t a big deal. There’s only one color in space and the Operators seem to be getting along err... fine...ish.

More pressingly, missiles are randomly raining down in our android’s paths. That’s what those circular marks on the ground indicate. I’ve never gotten hit with a missile here and had to wait around for about 15 seconds for one to show up. In that time 2B can run half the distance of the city.



Our destination on the map indicates we’re to return to the roof of the building where we first landed in the City Ruins. That’s a couple blocks over. Let’s see if we can’t cut through a few back alleys to shorten the distance here.



Feet...? The hell are you going on abo—



SWEET FANCY BEEPY! 9S, I thought you were some kind of Scanner model. You’ve gotta tell me if your special eyes Detective Eagle vision, or however that works, picked up that there’s a five story dude the next block over. That would be helpful information to possess!



OK. Let’s maybe head a few blocks south of the rampaging Engels unit and try that again...



It’ll be dangerous, but we’re not going anywhere unless we pass through that Goliath’s legs. We should be careful.





Alright, got it. Don’t get stepped on by the walking oil rig. We’ll try to keep that in mind. Thankfully, this Engels seems to be extremely mad at the building ruins ahead of it for some reason and won’t pay our androids much mind.







On the downside, that’s the same building we have to climb to reach our flight units. Maybe if we’re very quiet we can sneak past that Engels Goliath and active the flight units before it takes noti—



Aaaah!
Dammit!


New Music: Grandma (Destruction - Vocal) (It’s the full version of a Nier 1 remix track. Of course you should listen to it!)



NOOOOOPE! This is happening now! The means of production is back and it’s PISSED! Thankfully, it’s only at Level 3. On the other hand, it’s still 100 times bigger than us and hits like a truck accordingly.



Displaying data on central wiring hub!



9S, please cool it with the techno-babble. None of those words mean anything. You just copied that from an old Star Trek episode involving the Borg. You can’t fool me, 9Steve. I’m onto your game.



I’m also onto Engels game. This fight isn’t hugely different from our Prologue encounter with this type of enemy. Indeed, it has less tools at its disposal. This one doesn’t seem to have equipped its mouth laser cannon or its AA missile batteries. Instead, it just vomits a stream of energy orbs in random directions or in very basic patterns.





It’s also more of a puncher than its predecessor. It has a series of one-two punches with both arms that can almost entirely be evaded by just standing directly in the middle of the battleground and scooting accordingly slightly to the right or left. It follows this up by punching with BOTH arms, which is entirely avoided by simply standing still in the middle of the area.





As far as our offensive capabilities go, Pod 042’s Gatling is our bread and butter with the small post-punching opportunities to slash the arms with our melee weapons. Its patterns are all very simple and there’s no threat of it destroying the platform as there was when fighting the original Engels.



The Laser Pod Program can periodically be tagged in (and charged up to Level 2 now!) Both the Hammer Pod Program and the Missiles Pod are pretty damn worthless. Hammer is too slow unless charged up beforehand in response to one of Engel’s punches. Missiles will lock onto the closest available target. Which is fine when Engels is just shooting orbs or cooling it for a minute with attacking. But its arms (do they still count as Marx units?) are also valid targets, so missiles will attempt to steer towards them if Engels is attacking. And they do NOT possess the speed to keep up and hit moving targets reliably.





In any case, that’s one Goliath class machine down. We still have that other one to deal with in the center of the city. The property value is already tanking in this neighborhood. We don’t need it to sink any lower.



Operator 6O rings in again.



Make sure to approach at low altitude.
Copy that.





Off we go! Huh... that dead Engels is just going to sit there taking up space, huh? That’s really going to put a damper on the ruined skyline. Maybe we can put, I dunno... A big tarp over it? Maybe paint “Androids Rule!” on the side. That’ll show the machines.







Time for Round 2. Guys, let’s try not to nuke ourselves this time around. I cannot image the Resistance will appreciate our leveling a quarter of the city. That’s just rude as heck to do to allies’ neighborhood.





Unlike the first Engels, the second unit DID manage to install a face laser and back missiles like a diligent death bot. Two levels make all the difference with machine lifeforms.





But two can play that game! Fun fact: in the flight units we can switch Pods just like on the ground and use missiles. Both Pods also have the Missile Burst on different cooldown times, so we can use two in a row. Missiles are complete garbage in shmup sequences. Missile damage output is like maybe 25% of what Gatling can accomplish in the same span. That’s not even taking into consideration it does dick to deal with orb fire too. Missiles are really bad for this segment and fall off dramatically in the rest of the game soon. Shame.





Anyway, this fight is virtually identically to when we took on Engels from a flight unit earlier, just from an overhead perspective. I think we might make it out of this one without having to suicide bomb the area.

Music: ENDS







Oh man... we’re gonna need SUCH a huge tarp to put over this ugly thing. Hmph... Maybe we could enlist our new friends in the Machine Village to do some knitting... Can machines knit? That’s som—







RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!





Back at the Bunker, they’re already prepping to fire up one of the 3D Printer terminals to build a new 9S and 2B.





Hey, remember that chapter title, The Excavated Land. Yeah well, several entire buildings just fell into a sink hole. That’s probably not correlated, right? Just a weird coincidence.



It’s resonating in tandem with the area beneath the combat zone!



RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAARRRRRRRRRRR!!!





...This is totally not our fault! The factory bridge was one thing. We’re not taking the blame for this one, 9S. You’ve gotta have 2B’s back on reporting this one.





“Missiles are within an air defense sector and in immediate vicinity’s air defense sector with high robability of entering the region.”

Yeah, I know 9S. I can’t believe they typoed probability. The hell are YoRHa R&D doing with their time if this gets overlooked in beta testing. Shameful.



Oh yeah, also the Aliens are back.

...

...Is that good? That doesn't seem good.



...were hiding underground?



Tune in next time when 2B and 9S go meet some illegal aliens hiding in an underground base. What’s the worst that can happen, right? ...Right?






Video: Episode 22 Highlight Reel (There’s a boss fight. You should probably watch it.)





Flight Unit Concept Art – Glad with have detailed info on how 2B’s thighs figure into the flight configuration.