Part 94: Episode XCI: This Sure Is Sad

Episode XCI: This Sure Is Sad



Yes, 9S. Get with the program. You’ve talked with Pascal multiple times and he’s basically the mayor of the Ewok Machine Village. What is it going to take to get you to st—







His Majesty. He’s... dead.
The king who gave all for us...
So benevolent and kind... And now he’s dead.
......
This sure is sad.
It sure is.
But we Royal Knights still have a mission.



We placed His Majesty’s memory—his final memento—into this tiny child. And now we must raise this child so he might one day be our new king.



He deserves a royal upbringing...
He deserves... protection...




Music: Forest Kingdom (Dynamic)





Onward we go to the castle proper to go sort out the Forest King Immanuel, who has been trapped in a baby’s body for 128 years. You think they would have eventually sorted that out. But what do I know of machine growth cycles?



Before we rush into assault the castle for no particular reason, there’s another electronically locked chest just around the corner to the left of the entrance. This contains a Rotten Info Sheet. Would you like to know more...?



I hope Leonard III wasn’t into the same sort of extracurricular activities Leonard of Drakengard was into... I have no idea what Schwanstein Castle is meant to allude toward. There is a Neuschwanstein in German constructed in the late 1800’s that is the inspiration for Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle. I went there on a tour once. It’s a really cool looking castle.



In any case, don’t ask me how a giant European style castle ended up in the forest outside post-apocalyptic Tokyo. Maybe it was a cultural exchange with medieval Drakengard’s universe getting the modern Japanese style Cathedral City in Notspain. I dunno... Magic did it. There. Done! Moving on...


Music: Alien Manifestation (Vocal)







The assault on Schwanstein Castle goes exactly the same as 2B’s run through the area. The Forest Kingdom machines are not happy to see us invading their home for no real reason and respond accordingly. 9S tries unsuccessfully to make his bad nickname catch on. A lot of machines die in the process. The usual. At least until we get towards the top flo—



Music: ENDS





His Majesty hasn’t grown at all.
No. Not in the slightest.
How can we make him bigger?
I don’t know...
We’re too dumb to figure that out.



Sure is a cutie, though!
Yeeeeeah! So tiny and cuuute!
We better keep him safe.
Right. Can’t let anyone into the forest kingdom...
D-Danger! Danger!



<rushes in> Everyone get out now! Intruders in the kingdom!
Don’t let them in here!




Music: Alien Manifestation (Vocal)



Well, at least they know they might have screwed up royally by sticking their king’s memories into a robot baby and nobody has the ability to figure out how to fix it since they’re too busy caught in a cycle of thinking the baby is cute and rushing off to defend him from anyone. Don’t worry, that’ll get sorted out soon enough. In the meantime, we’ve got another locked chest in need of cracking by the Hackerman. This one is located on the top floor of the giant library on the eastern side of the castle.



Beastcurse is another weapon returning from the original NieR. In that game it was found in the bowels of the Junk Heap during the second half of the game. It wasn’t a particularly noteworthy weapon there and it isn’t much better here. Upgrades increase the wielder’s Endurance Up (read: better defense.) At maximum upgrade it gains Beast’s Roar, which adds claw swipe effects copied straight from Drakengard 3 Zero’s Intoner mode and a slightly wider hitbox for attacks. Sure, I guess...


That completes the Beast-trio of weapons. So the three princesses were stuffed and mounted, converted into a bio-computer overseeing military production of a hostile nation and died destitute in a back alley respectively. Pleasant tales, all. Fun for the whole family.





Before we continue onward to go have a rematch with A2 up in the king’s chambers, let’s take a detour to hit up Masamune the blacksmith. We haven’t seen him since our last run through the region.



Between updates I’ve been steadily upgrading weapons. We now have both the money and materials necessary to top off a number of weapons to Level 4. Spear of the Usurper and Virtuous Grief have been my two primary arms for 9S and they can both get fully upgraded now for 10k G a pop. You can see Spear of the Usurper’s requirements. Virtuous Grief requires 2 Memory Alloy, 5 Severed Cables, 3 Pristine Cables, 2 Machine Heads and a Moldavite slab. Hell if I remember where we got most of this junk. It’s mostly from the assorted sidequests we’ve done.



Since we’ve already completed the largest money sink sidequest in the game, the Half-wit Inventor, almost all of our remaining funds will be going towards either upgrading weapons to their maximum level or purchasing materials to upgrade weapons to Level 4. It’s not just for OCD completionism sake. There is an endgame sidequest that requires every single weapon be collected and upgraded fully. So that’ll be fun for me to have to do all over again...

For now, we managed to get the following to Level 4:

• Virtuous Contract
  
• Cruel Oath
  
• Virtuous Grief
  
• Engine Blade
  
• Type-3 Lance
  
• Spear of the Usurper
  
• Iron Will
  
• Fang of the Twins
  

Almost everything else is at least Level 2 with quite a few being Level 3 with a few exceptions from weapons that either have harvest point only drops at the moment (Phoenix Dagger/Lance and Pearls only found in Flooded City right now) and Cruel Blood Oath (needs Beast Hide x5 which means grinding boars and moose like a jerk.)

There’s a secondary reason we went and fully upgraded a few of our weapons. If Masamune is spoken to again after having upgraded any weapon to Level 4, then...



This is one of the weapons I was telling you about. It was passed down through the generations until it came to me, and I can’t bring myself to seal it away. But I know you will give it the respect it craves.



So Masamune hands over the Cruel Lament, the final weapon we’ll be picking up in Route B, bringing our total weapon acquisition rate to 84%. Let’s take a closer look...



Cruel Lament is straight up identical stat-wise to the Virtuous Grief combat bracer weapon. The only difference is that its final upgrade grants it the much shittier Dark Impulse, which grants increased attack when below 30% HP (Virtuous Grief grants increased attack power at full health.) Maybe its weapon story will make up for it being a lame palette swap.


A companion set of decapitations with the twin samurai head weapons. Lighthearted stuff in the weapon history corner this go around.





But enough weapons chat. Let’s get back on track by murdering our way through the last of the king’s guard and storming his chambers to... yeah, no real justification for why we’re invading this castle in Route B either...

Music: ENDS







Everything goes down here just as it did in Route A. RIP King Immanuel, the 128 year old baby.





Alert: The YoRHa cops are after this android. Annihilation recommended.
The cops?! But why!?
Cybercrimes.
Cybercrimes?! 2B, this android has done cybercrimes!
Affirmative. Cybercrimes.
Let’s go, 9S.
2B! CYBER crime...

The Commander phones up on the communicator.



We’ve picked up a signal from the black box of a cybercriminal known as A2.
A2? Why is her letter and number designation backwards?
That’s classified. What you see in front of you... is your enemy.
......
But she’s—
If you can’t do the cyber time, don’t do the cybercrime. Eliminate her. That’s an order. Kill her before she kills you! <disconnects>




Music: Bipolar Nightmare (Calm)





Hey, remember how this fight lasted about 90 seconds the first time around? Well, now she can be hacked with 9S to make it last err... well, still about 90 seconds. Honestly, it probably takes longer to do the hacking mini-game than the hacking with 9S and 2B’s swords.



There’s no additional moves or techniques in A2’s arsenal. In fact, we out level her more this time than we did in the initial fight, so if anything she’s weaker this go around. Again, this is basically a glorified cutscene battle. One which A2 still bails on once she drops to 33% HP.



Why!? Why did you betray us!?
I don’t even know who you are.
Ergh... By “us” I meant “YoRHa.”
Command is the one that betrayed you.
What!? How...? Care to explain?
Nope.
But...
I’m out.



And with that, A2 bails out of Route B. Nope, we’re not gonna see her again before the second credits roll. Without spoiling too much, I can vouch that A2 might be a touch more relevant in Route C.




Music: Forest Kingdom (Quiet)



Yep.
Guess we should call this in?
<shrug>
<opens communications> Operator, patch me through to the Commander.
Roger that, 9S.



I see.
<leans off-screen briefly> _{14O, cancel that KIA report for units 2B and 9S. Yeah, they made it. I’m surprised too.}
......
Ahem. Well, at least you’re both safe. That’s an incredibly powerful unit you just faced. You should probably keep your distance in the future.
Commander, why did A2 desert the force? What were her cybercrimes?
That’s above your pay-grade, soldier.
...But I don’t get paid.
Tch. Look, it’s classified. Now stop asking and get back to... whatever assignment I had you on last. Over and out. <disconnects>
...2B.
Yeah?
Let’s go ask Pascal if he knows A2’s deal. He might know something.
All right.
Just going to go along with that?
Well... <looks back at machine corpse filled castle>
I think we’re done here.
Right...



Music: ENDS




































Whether in wind or rain... thunder or snow... or even amidst the rising flames of war...



They were always together. They never understood why. And yet, they spent their lives nestled together.



Forever. Forever and ever...






Video: Episode 91 Highlight Reel (You should probably watch this.)





Immanuel Concept Art – D’aww. He sure is cute... At least, before he got stabbed in the face after a 128 year horrific existence as an immobile baby robot.