Part 53: Episode LII: Scanning Doubles

Episode LII: Scanning Doubles



So maybe we lost the Resistance carrier... and another set of Flight Units... and an entire YoRHa squadron and THEIR entire fleet of Flight Units. And we used the missile we were supposed to hand off. But hey, we did take out that giant robot so... Let’s call it a draw in the record book, eh?





Nnngh...



At least 2B is still alive. Even if she’s having a rough day. I cannot imagine being flung several miles and face planting on concrete is very pleasant. We’ll have to have some words with 9S about danger close fire missions...



But having a much worse day is Grün, whose corpse will remain a landmark on the Flooded City horizon for the rest of the game. Yep. That was it. That was less a boss and more of a mid-boss rush with a fancy background. One of these days we’ll actually have another boss battle that isn’t a gimmick nor a timed sequence or in a shmup segment. There’s like one. Kinda... I mean at least a final phase of it is a straight battle, no bullshit. Vastly improved combat aside, I thought this game’s bosses were way lamer than the first NieR’s overall.



In any case, we should probably phone up the Bunker and say we’re alright. And perhaps find out where the heck 9S is now so we can yell at him for the five seconds until impact missile warning.



Running system diagnostics... Core functionality appears intact.
Thank goodness!
Never mind that—I need a status report.
Roger that. In regards to the giant machine that attacked the shore, it ceased its resistance eight hours ago following your missile strike.
Eight... hours?
However, its EMP strikes knocked out comms all across the region. We’re having trouble getting them back online. Which means data uploading is currently unavailable in some areas.
Where’s 9S?
Um... yeah. About that. We picked up a faint black box reading, but it wasn’t strong enough to lock down his position.
If you found something, that means he must be alive. Put in a request to the Commander for immediate approval to begin a search.
Actually, the Commander has already ordered us to prioritize tracking down surviving YoRHa members. If you find 9S... let me know. Okay?
Will do. 2B out.
<disconnects>


New Music: City Ruins (Shade - Dynamic) (You should probably listen to this. It’s the City Ruins hub’s theme for much of the remainder of the game.)



...
......
Scanning complete. No signals detected. However, a dynamic scanner is required for detection of weaker signals.
Never heard of it.
Said dynamic scanner may be located in the Resistance camp. Proposal: Further information should be obtained from the Resistance leader.
Let’s go.



So eight hours have passed since the previous battle and 9S is now MIA. He won’t be joining us for this chapter. The real reason Grün’s boss battle was the point of no return on a mess of sidequests is due to this fact. If hadn’t been paying close attention to sidequests, 2B may as well be a silent protagonist half the time. 9S does 90% of the quest initiation dialogue and actually moving things along. 2B mostly just kinda goes “meh whatever...” and kills machines until the quest is done.



That aside, the Flooded City has changed a little bit since our last visit. Aside from Grün’s corpse on the horizon, the area is also littered with YoRHa android corpses. Well, mostly corpses...



No response.
Limited functionality detected in black box.
So she’s still alive. Contact the Bunker.
Affirmative.



There are a few only mostly dead androids in the area. But only two are along our path. We need that scanner that Pod 042 mentioned if we want to get anywhere. But I suppose we can help out with the few on our way through the area along the obvious route.



No anomalies detected in black box signal. However, her language core seems to have been damaged.
Poor thing... You’re going to be fine, don’t worry.
Ah...
Pod, send a rescue signal to the Bunker.
Affirmative.
Eh... Oh...





Operator 6O mentioned Grün’s EMP attacks knocked out some of the Access Points in the area. That just means a new group of Stubbies beating on ‘em has appeared and we need to sort them all out again to reactivate the terminal.



C’mon guys. We need to use that. You tubby little dudes wouldn’t even fit inside that thing! Be reasonable.





Upon entering the Access Point we’re given notice a few other terminals are out of commission. Most notably, the one back the Resistance Camp.



As a result we’re going to have to take an uneventful 40 second hike back through the sewer pipe to the City Ruins. As soon as we emerge, Operator 6O contacts us again.



2B here.
We’ve got a number of broken-down access points on the field. The cause appears to be an EMP attack from a gigantic machine lifeform. If you encounter any offline access points, please repair them for us.
Understood.
<disconnects>



The only other Access Point unavailable at the moment is the one on the path leading to the Abandoned Factory zone. That’s only a short trek out of our way. We can knock it out in short order. Apparently it’s randomized as to which Access Points are disabled at this point. I’ve got another save file where the City Center Access Point (the one close to where Father Servo hangs out training) was offline.



Either way, it’s sorted out. Let’s get back on track and head for the Resistance Camp to pick-up this scanner. Or get sent on some wild goose chase to find the thing. You know how these things go...


Music: Peaceful Sleep (Vocal)



Upon entering the camp, we can check on the Access Point to find that it’s just kinda busted at the moment according to this unnamed Resistance rando. What do you even care, guy? That’s for YoRHa model androids. Not some discontinued Dirty Pants Barry or whatever Z-tier 13th Machine War generation classification you were.



Oh well, whatever. Let’s just head over to Anemone and see if she knows what Pod 042 is yammering about...



I’m looking for something called a dynamic scanner that can detect black-box signals.
A dynamic...? Oh, you must mean the one the twins built. I think they’re just back from an expedition, actually. You should see some red-haired androids over there. Try talking to them.
......
2B. Those twins, they...
Yes?
Actually, never mind.



Red-haired twin androids, huh? That’s not altogether unfamiliar for this series. Let’s go chat...



Easy, Devola. There’s no need to be so confrontational.
And you don’t have to trust every idiot that wanders by!
*sigh* ...I’m sorry about that. Can we help you?



So these are two returning characters from the original NieR. Kinda... There were redhead twins named Devola and Popola who turned out to be androids. They were tasked with overseeing that whole Project Gestalt business. They were also basically Replicant Papa Nier and his Gestalt the Shadowlord’s caseworker handlers.

The original Devola and Popola were INCREDIBLY bad at their jobs resulting in the aforementioned Papa Nier being a rampaging murder dad they couldn’t slow down once he got started. Nor could they keep the Shadowlord from kidnapping his daughter’s sentient clone body and then shoving her soul into it and hoping that worked to make her normal again. It did not. Just about EVERYONE involved died. Including the original Devola and Popola. Devola got stabbed to death by Papa Nier & friends then bled out in her sister’s arms. Popola flipped her fucking shit at this and had to be stopped by Emil magic nuking himself in order to save his friends.

So again, technically these are old characters. But not really since they’re not the same old characters, even if they look and sound identical. You don’t have to worry much about their backstory. They’re just kinda here now hanging out. It’s fine. (They were standing in the background out back in the rear of the Resistance Camp since the very moment 2B and 9S enter here the first time.)



Ah. Yeah, I was tinkering with something like that a little while back. Here. If you want it, it’s all yours.
That chip should help with your search, once you install it. It can detect black-box signals, quest objects... all manner of things. You’ll hear a sound whenever it finds something.
And if it ever bugs you too much, you can always pop it back out.
Let us know if there’s anything else you need from us, okay?
And don’t think this makes us friends.
Oh, Devola...





So we gain the Pod Program A170: Scanner. We’ll play with this kinda obnoxious new mechanic in a minute. We’re not quite done with Devola and Popola yet.



Devola is just kinda cranky at the moment and doesn’t have much to say beyond how to use the Scanner. Popola, on the other hand, is now running a new shop. For once, it’s one that’s almost entirely full of new goodies. Let’s take a look...



Popola is selling two new weapons for our ever growing collection. Both are obsolete YoRHa issue weapons. In addition, she’s selling some unique chips. One of which is extremely important. Let’s take a quick look:

• Evasion System - Causes time to slow down when 2B is near an energy orb projectile, in case dodging or slashing orbs is too taxing. I got zero use for that. Your mileage may vary.
  
• Continuous Combo – Makes it so combos don’t reset when 2B evades. There’s no combo system in NieR: Automata for score or anything. It means the animation of attacks. Considering the longest attack string is like... six or seven hits, I cannot see much use in this.
  
• Bullet Detonation – Swinging 2B’s sword (or a Flight Units) will cause energy orbs to explode, damaging any nearby enemies. This can definitely have its uses in certain battles and just about every shmup sequence. But it’s very situational.
  

The last chip here, Auto-collect Items, is extremely important. It makes it so the player no longer has to tap B/O/any button to collect items dropped from enemies or from material harvest point. Just by being in their vicinity, 2B hoovers ‘em up just like she does with money drops. It’s definitely worth sacrificing 6 Chip slots considering just in this first playthrough up until this point, I’ve likely hit a button to pick up items over 500+ times. Easily.

Fuck THAT! So we’ll be grabbing and equipping that item collection chip and heck, let’s pick up one of the weapons on sale while we’re here.



The Type-3 Sword adds Endurance Up (Increased Defense.) At maximum level, it gains Finishing Blast which causes and explosion if an entire attack combo animation is completed. I guess that would well in tandem with that Continuous Combo chip. But ehh... it’s not the greatest of swords overall. Let’s see its history...




Man from Cold Steel infomercials is dissatisfied with just cutting pigs with his wares. Desecrates a few unburied battlefield corpses. Incidentally he gets murdered by a bandit. The end. No moral.


New Music: City Ruins (Shade) (The mellower, more common version of this theme.)



Oh well. The death of the weird uncle from Cold Steel infomercials aside, we’re done with Devola and Popola. We may see more of them in the future. The twins definitely get more of a main plot relevant role than Emil, who we could literally have gone the entire rest of the game without seeing again. But that’s not for a very long time.

Anyway, about this Scanner...





Holding the Pod Program button will make Pod 042 raise a sonar scanner of sorts. It beeps periodically. It will ping faster if 2B is close to a hidden object. So it’s just a matter of playing hot and cold with a beep. Pointing the Pod in certain directions doesn’t have any results. It’s entirely dictated by 2B’s distance from an object.





Once 2B gets to the source of the increasingly rapid ping, Pod 042 will narrow in on the source which results in an otherwise invisible object appearing. Outside of this main plot quest, like two hidden weapons and maybe one or two sidequests... the only thing the Scanner results in semi-rare weapon upgrade material drops (this was a Gold Ore.) At the cost of having an offensive Pod program equipped. Also no gliding while scanning! It’s prohibited!

This mechanic kinda sucks! It’d be nice if it was tied to a button instead of taking up a Pod Program slot. There’s an achievement tied to finding 10 objects with the Scanner. But for the most part, after we find 9S, this thing is collecting dust until we need it for the handful of very specific instances.



Search target 9S was caught in a large explosion over the water. Proposal: The search for 9S should commence in the flooded region.
Got it.
......
It’s funny. You’re oddly chatty today.
Affirmative. As a support unit, I am capable of engaging in conversation as necessary. Proposal: 2B should initiate conversation more frequently.
...Proposal denied.



Hmph. I have a feeling 2B is going to be extra grumpy until we sort out the missing in action 9S’s whereabouts. So tune in next time as we return to the Flooded City and begin the search for 9S. His current location might surprise you...






Video: Episode 52 Highlight Reel







Devola and Popola Official Art – Thanks for spoiling these two were back, Steam Cards. Literally the first drop I got after booting up the game for 15 minutes to confirm it ran alright.