Part 4

The plot thickens. Slightly.

-Major characters-

- Hank Johnson

As I've already said, the level with his background was cut before release. There should have been a section between this and the last video, where Hank would drive and talk while Sanjuro fends off enemies.

Hank is a citizen of Cronus who assists Sanjuro through much of the game. He had always wished to enter the U.C.A military as a pilot and be a "hero", however he never got past the physical tests. This was due to an untreated genetic condition that robbed him of much of his endurance. Instead he married and worked as a geologic researcher (particularly geothermal studies) outside of Avernus for the Armacham Technology Corporation. He is a friend of Kura and helps Sanjuro under her directions as this is an opportunity for him to fulfill his desire to be a hero.

An older Shogo design document elaborates on how he found Kura and how he got involved in the Cronian Revolution. While working as a geological researcher he found the wrecked M.C.A's of a U.C.A strike team and found Kura unconscious in her M.C.A. Hank took her to the base where he was stationed and he and his wife attempted to nurse Kura back to health, where she suffered weird psychological afflictions. While Hank and his wife where discussing who to tell to get her help, she regained consciousness and told them to reveal her continued life to no one. Over the next few months Kura recovered and made various unexplained trips into Avernus, upon questioning Kura admitted that she was spying on the Fallen, to which Hank replied by demanding the she let him help her. There is no evidence against this information in the final product, though no mention of it per say.

-Minor characters-

-Maurice and Toshi

Two friends of Hank that assist Sanjuro inside M.C.A's when he enters Maritropa. They are an early example of squad artificial intelligence in first-person shooters but suffer from the problem of somewhat limited responsiveness that plagued this technique during the nineties. This is shown by the player being able to easily outrun and lose them or, more notably in this case, them dying almost immediately after the level begins. In addition, they have been known to actually shoot Sanjuro if he happens to be in their line of fire. It should be noted however that the squad mates shown earlier in the game function better. If they do manage to survive long enough, they will also be eventually unable to follow Sanjuro due to level obstructions.

-Haddam Family

Sanjuro is stopped by an electric fence in the slums of Maritropa which is controlled by the Haddam family. Sanjuro talks to Mrs. Haddam and she offers to let him through if he finds her lost cat. If the player does this he has to go through an extra section, while the other option is to kill her and then defeat her husband before either forcefully destroying the electrical generator, or turning it off.

-Human weapons-

Kato grenade launcher

Fires a slow moving energy ball that bounces and will eventually explode. I personally think that this gun is a piece of shit and should never be used. You may notice that it looks very similar to the assault rifle, just with different colors. This is no coincidence as the devs planned it to be a secondary function of the assault rifle. But they couldn't get it to work, due to reasons which will get more obvious later.

-Mobile combat armor weapons-

Shredder

Pretty much the Juggernaut on cocaine. It fires very fast, is pixel accurate and has as much damage as the Juggernaut. It uses its own ammo type though. Despite being my favorite weapon, this piece becomes very useful in the late stages of the game.

-Important elements-

Maritropa

Another major city on Cronus. It became more populated after the Avernus earthquakes. The city has a strong class division, leading to large slums.