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Post by DarknessLink7 on Dec 8, 2015 14:33:09 GMT -5
I figured it would be cool to share our thoughts on the story up to a certain point somewhere. I love to read what people think. Keep in mind, no spoilers for anything other than chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12. Anyway, to kick things off; Here are the main mysteries in my opinion: 1. Why did the alien races battle two years ago? Answer: ?2. Who was the mysterious defender of the White Whale? Answer: Elma?3. Why are the Ganglion so passionate about killing humans? Answer: ?4. Who is Goetia and what is her motivation? Answer: A Ganglion working for Luxaar, intent on exterminating all humans.5. Why does the number on the BLADE tower decrease? Answer: To signify the amount of mim fuel left.6. How are the humans able to understand the languages? Answer: ?7. What is the Great One that Luxaar is talking about? Answer: ?8. What is the giant black Mech that we found? Answer: The vessel of The Great One called the Vita.9. What was that thing than Vandham wanted to bring up about Elma in the hangar? Answer: ?10. Why did the huge flying monster save us from the Tainted? Answer: ?11. What's up with Lao? Answer: He sided with the ganglion since he detested the whole project. 12. Why are the Ganglion afraid of our real bodies? Answer: The humans are a failsafe to destroy the artificial race "Ganglion".13. Where the heck IS the lifehold? Answer: Out in the ocean. 14. Will H.B. EVER stop succeeding? Answer: Damn sequel bait!!!Do you have any cool questions or ponderings?
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Post by heroponriki on Dec 24, 2015 16:53:30 GMT -5
Okay story you lost me a bit at the end there...
First things first: The final boss battle was tough. I curbstomped the first phase with my OP skell, and beat the second phase with some difficulty but clutched it out. The third phase is just some scrub enemies; I knocked out half of them with a powerful AoE skell weapon. And then there's Lao. He starts off the battle with an attack that depletes all of your skell fuel forcing you to fight him on foot, and he has an insane amount of HP to boot. I lost the first fight while wandering around in confusion of what happened to my skell. I tried again on foot, but it didn't go well. Partway through the fight he summons another enemy to fight with him, and a third enemy a bit after that. I just couldn't keep up, and the enemies have too much HP to even be worth trying to take down. Ultimately I had to lower the difficulty to be able to beat him, and even then it was only by abusing overdrive. I didn't quite have a setup capable of infinite overdrive, but I was able to keep it going for a good while and usually get right back into it shortly after it ran out. My party members were underlevelled and died pretty shortly, so it was really all on me to power through him. Eventually I won, but it didn't feel like a true victory to me since I took the scrub's way out.
Now onto the story. From what I gather, the ganglion were created by another alien race whose name escapes me, and the humans were created as a failsafe that would destroy the ganglion if they ever rebelled. The ganglion did rebel, leading to the battle that kicked off the start of the game, and had to chase down and destroy humanity because otherwise their DNA would destroy the ganglion or... something? I think I'm close enough on that aspect even if the details are a bit sketchy. I still don't get who the great one is and how he fits into this however.
The humans aren't actually in stasis at all, but their memories and DNA were uploaded into the lifehold core along with some protoplasmic science goo that can create new humans. At the end they learn that the lifehold databanks had in fact been destroyed during the crash however, which begs the question of how their mimeosomes still functioned, as well as how Lao survived. Something about planet Mira itself is off, but "this story is never ending." As far as I can tell either the ending was intentionally left open ended and not given a proper conclusion, or it's being left for the sequel that will probably never happen because this game sold poorly. Either way, it's a bit of a letdown.
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Post by ancientrune on Dec 25, 2015 0:47:22 GMT -5
Actually it only bombed in the UK, France Germany and other European counries did quite well France for example sold 40k in the first two weeks
Also the race is the Samaarians and are likely the other race we see at the beginning of the game or Elma could be a samarrian as well.
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Post by Primulus on Dec 25, 2015 12:11:24 GMT -5
Okay story you lost me a bit at the end there... First things first: The final boss battle was tough. I curbstomped the first phase with my OP skell, and beat the second phase with some difficulty but clutched it out. The third phase is just some scrub enemies; I knocked out half of them with a powerful AoE skell weapon. And then there's Lao. He starts off the battle with an attack that depletes all of your skell fuel forcing you to fight him on foot, and he has an insane amount of HP to boot. I lost the first fight while wandering around in confusion of what happened to my skell. I tried again on foot, but it didn't go well. Partway through the fight he summons another enemy to fight with him, and a third enemy a bit after that. I just couldn't keep up, and the enemies have too much HP to even be worth trying to take down. Ultimately I had to lower the difficulty to be able to beat him, and even then it was only by abusing overdrive. I didn't quite have a setup capable of infinite overdrive, but I was able to keep it going for a good while and usually get right back into it shortly after it ran out. My party members were underlevelled and died pretty shortly, so it was really all on me to power through him. Eventually I won, but it didn't feel like a true victory to me since I took the scrub's way out. Now onto the story. From what I gather, the ganglion were created by another alien race whose name escapes me, and the humans were created as a failsafe that would destroy the ganglion if they ever rebelled. The ganglion did rebel, leading to the battle that kicked off the start of the game, and had to chase down and destroy humanity because otherwise their DNA would destroy the ganglion or... something? I think I'm close enough on that aspect even if the details are a bit sketchy. I still don't get who the great one is and how he fits into this however. The humans aren't actually in stasis at all, but their memories and DNA were uploaded into the lifehold core along with some protoplasmic science goo that can create new humans. At the end they learn that the lifehold databanks had in fact been destroyed during the crash however, which begs the question of how their mimeosomes still functioned, as well as how Lao survived. Something about planet Mira itself is off, but "this story is never ending." As far as I can tell either the ending was intentionally left open ended and not given a proper conclusion, or it's being left for the sequel that will probably never happen because this game sold poorly. Either way, it's a bit of a letdown. I'll try to break this down paragraph by paragraph, since it was confusing. 1. I don't think Overdrive is a scrub's way out. Overdrive is part of the system just as much as chain attacks are. You're supposed to use it, as nearly all endgame enemies (above 60) are balanced for it. This isn't an explanation of the plot, but I legitimately don't see what's wrong with using a major system the game gives you. On the contrary, by that logic using chain attacks to do anything in Xenoblade Chronicles is the "scrub's way out" and that's just silly. Though you can beat things without Overdrive, it just takes a ton of grinding and focusing on pure defense over all else. 2. The Ganglion were a servitor race of the Samaar Empire. The Samaarians also seeded life across many planets in its empire, Earth included, with "descendants" to carry on their legacy. Humans are a particularly potent descendant race of the Samaarians, and that's what attracted both the Ganglion and the purple aliens to Earth in the first place. During the battle over Earth by the Ganglion and the unnamed purple alien race, someone was piloting the Vita, on the side of the Ganglion forces. After the White Whale's escape, there is a flash of light, and the Earth is utterly destroyed. Two years later, the Vita appears charred on the surface of Mira. Either in the same flash of light or in some other span of time, the Ganglion forces (or at least one Ganglion battleship) also stumbled into the flash of light, and ended up in Mira's system, mysteriously. It can be extrapolated from this that Mira's physical location is a pocket of space that is disconnected from common space within the galaxy, and can be entered into at multiple points. Or otherwise, wormholes. In any case, any further information about the Great One is currently unknown, but Luxaar's stressing about his title seems to indicate it's a new title, as in he just recently ascended to leadership of the Ganglion, possibly due to the fact that the Vita disappeared while in the battle over Earth with the purple aliens. The purple aliens' reasons for wanting to attack humans are currently unknown, but I don't think humans are just a failsafe against the Ganglion. I think they're meant to succeed the Samaarians in the event the Samaar Empire was destroyed or fell for some reason. Which it apparently did! The purple aliens are probably not the Samaar Empire at all. The Samaarians are gone now, and the purple aliens and Ganglion were fighting over the remnants of their empire. 3. The protoplasmic goo was just the means with which the humans would be reconstructed, with a massive computer system storing their minds and memories, through brain mapping. Theoretically, this is technically no different than using a transporter on Star Trek (since it literally kills you by taking you apart molecule by molecule, atom by atom, and then reassembling you elsewhere) but is a cruder version of it. It does prompt one to ask, "What is consciousness?" Something even science isn't exactly certain on, yet. In any case, you have it mostly right, although... What's with this about it not getting a sequel? Takahashi pretty much said "We have another project lined up, it expands on the story set up in this game" in this article: time.com/4149809/xenoblade-chronicles-x-director-tetsuya-takahashi/It sold better than Xenoblade in its opening weeks, but had worse lifetime sales due to less of an install base on the Wii U. Whether or not we'll see a sequel in the west is another question, but Japan is most probably getting a direct story sequel that actually focuses on the story. Also, it had to have sold at least 180,000 copies across NA and EU, which isn't necessarily a bomb, but certainly an underperformance. And that's not counting the people who have bought the game but didn't get so far as killing the first tyrant in the game (which is part of a story mission). Either from not having played it yet, or other reasons.
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Post by heroponriki on Dec 25, 2015 14:57:48 GMT -5
^By scrubs way out I was referring to lowering the difficulty, not overdrive.
Anyway, thanks for the story clarification, but that article doesn't actually confirm a sequel, only that they are working on future projects. The way he says it will look and feel very different from this game makes it sound to me like it will be a brand new world like what this game did compared to Xenoblade Wii, but only time will tell.
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Post by ancientrune on Dec 25, 2015 15:04:18 GMT -5
Actually Primulus the Vita is not part of the Ganglion in fact its fighting on the human side, rewatch the first cutscene of the game. If im correct you actually see the Vita attack one of the purple aliens inside the NLA sphere in fact it seems that the ganglion are not present at all when the White Whale was shot down above Mira and it was the purple aliens that did it.
I still have some story left to see and im really interested in L because of how he talks and I have a hunch that he is lying about being a native to Mira, in fact I am pretty sure that he is in fact the Vita pilot. At first i though it was Lao because he was the only one beside the ganglion that even knew anything about it, but if it was defending NLA durning the attack above Mira why would he be helping the humans. The vita is also what Luxxar considers to be the vessel to the great one which is what he was looking for so it would likely means at the time of earths destruction he didnt have it and was hoping to get it in the battle or soemthing. he also expresses that he isnt quite strong enough to pilot it at 100% but does so anyway which could be a reason that the humans were able to take down what he claims was a near invincible skell.
I also dont think the Vita is the vessel to the great one for the fact that Luxxar is able to use it and shouldnt be of use to someone like him. My guess is that the vessel of which he unkowingly speaks is actually L, with all of the stuff above and the fact that L talks as if he is more than one person which means that the other person is The great one himself.
also this, not going to embed it
vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/xenoblade/images/0/01/XCX-Ru-Concept-Artwork-04.png/revision/latest?cb=20150830123007
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Post by Primulus on Dec 25, 2015 18:09:12 GMT -5
^By scrubs way out I was referring to lowering the difficulty, not overdrive. Anyway, thanks for the story clarification, but that article doesn't actually confirm a sequel, only that they are working on future projects. The way he says it will look and feel very different from this game makes it sound to me like it will be a brand new world like what this game did compared to Xenoblade Wii, but only time will tell. There's a few different ways to interpret it. "Looking like" Xenoblade Chronicles X may not necessarily mean not looking like the same world design or character design, but could easily mean the style of the game, the flow of the combat and story, etc., and I'm not sure how you can interpret "expand on the story and themes" any other way than set in the same universe. ancientrune : That's not the Vita in NLA's sphere, that is the original Ares that the Prog Ares was based off of. Interestingly, the original Ares has the same dark matter stuff all around its armor as the Vita does. They're two different skells entirely, though.
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Post by ancientrune on Dec 25, 2015 22:38:12 GMT -5
OK that makes more sense primulus, also to make things easier the purple aliens are called Ghosts
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Post by DarknessLink7 on Dec 28, 2015 21:44:19 GMT -5
I just finished chapter 12, and updated the first post. So many things left for us to figure out! I'm gonna write a longer post on the ending later, right now I need to sleep. I very much enjoyed it though! I can say one thing: I was 99% sure that Elma was (original Xenoblade Chronicles spoilers?) Shulk. 99% sure. I thought her personality was kinda similar to his and she said that we'd be shocked when we saw her real body. It would also tie the two stories together in some weird way. Dunno how this would've been possible, but I'm sure they could've figured it out. I mean, the games share the name Xenoblade, so I figured they would be connected somehow, no matter how ridiculous the connection would be. Also, I just realized... XENO-BLADE. As in a Xenoform BLADE. As in Elma. It was there in the title all along!
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Post by Wolfe on Jan 1, 2016 3:10:27 GMT -5
Since I was concerned about being overlevelled for this fight, I scraped through it after entering the core at L48. Elma and Lin were L45 and L43. I brought my three L30 skells, while Lin was still piloting the L20 freebie. My extra companion was L, since he was the only other character in the L40s. On the first attempt I thought I might need a L50 skell for this, but after adding a few levels to my characters and polishing their setups, I gave it one last try before resorting to that bump. I ended up saving the skells for the second phase of the Vita fight, where the papier mâché Urban and my Lailah sacrificed themselves to allow my Mastema and Elma's Verus to pass on to the next checkpoint, getting my foot in the door. Figuring out the best use of my limited skell firepower was the trick, and then it was a matter of keeping the party alive long enough to knock out Lao's life bar before the chimeras overwhelmed us in the final stretch.
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Post by ancientrune on Jan 6, 2016 12:47:00 GMT -5
so something i did not know, i just found out the the hooded figure that approaches lao not only has a name (the black Knight) but also has official artwork in the Xenoblade X the secret file
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Post by Primulus on Jan 6, 2016 15:11:07 GMT -5
so something i did not know, i just found out the the hooded figure that approaches lao not only has a name (the black Knight) but also has official artwork in the Xenoblade X the secret file A certain mutual friend of ours off-board was idly wondering if the Neilnail units have anything to do with him recently. They're called Furvus and Albus. Turns out Furvus means "black" (loose translation, a closer translation is actually "dusk" or "dark") while Albus means "white." I joked, not knowing about The Black Knight thing, that it would be neat if The Black Knight and Lao showed up piloting them in a sequel. Now I'm not so sure...
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Post by ancientrune on Jan 12, 2016 11:29:16 GMT -5
So yea someone posted this on gamefaqs and it excites me to no end 3 things that stand out 1 it looks like only a portion of mira is used in X 2 are those other cities i see 3 is the planet made of dark matter oh and the dark knight posted earlier has a freaking skell
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Post by SirMouse on Jan 18, 2016 11:22:50 GMT -5
I had a pretty interesting chapter 12 experience.
Silly me never saved after starting the chapter, so when I lost my only skell to the Vita boss, I figured it would be next to impossible to win and almost called it quits.
However, by my third attempt, I realized his shield bubble phase seemed to be on a timer, and on my fourth attempt (without lowering the difficulty), I was able to take him out on-foot before he became shielded!
Then came the Chimeras...those ones honestly had me certain I'd have to just quit and try again the next day, seeing as how they killed me and the rest of my team within 15 seconds and I'd no real way to counter it on account of Afterburner being my only real attack art and having no TP to use it.
But then, I decided to try something crazy. Irina was in my party, and she had the Last Stand art (raises party TP by 2000). I figured if I could keep her alive long enough to be able to use that art (with the help of the Ramjet Rifle, she builds TP quick), I might have a chance, and several tries and one lowering of the difficulty later (honestly, considering the cheese I'm about to share with you, lowering the difficulty was the least cheap thing I did), Irina finally used the art before she, Elma and Lin fell once more.
But now...now I had a chance. And so, taking aim, I unleashed Afterburner...and took out only 5/10 Chimeras.
I then proceeded to run around the room, waiting for Afterburner to charge once more before using it again and...taking out only three more, leaving me with two very angry Chimeras and a couple hundred TP.
What happened over the course of the next 15-20 minutes can only be described as a pitiful act of desperation done only to avoid having to reset the entire chapter.
I ran in circles once more, firing off a round of my rifle every 20 seconds or so for a measly 40ish TP each time while using my knife art to heal the damage I was taking between my stop-and-go's.
Eventually I built up 1000TP once more, and thankfully I positioned myself correctly so both Chimeras would be in the line of fire. Part of me felt pathetic, while another part of me felt proud for thinking up such a nonconventional method, but I mostly just felt relieved.
The final boss wasn't all that challenging on-foot - mostly just taking some time due to its health pool - but it was still a fun experience.
But yeah, on the story side of things, I'm pretty happy with all of the reveals, cutscene direction, and production value. So long as we get a proper sequel, that is...
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Post by DarknessLink7 on Jan 18, 2016 13:32:40 GMT -5
I had a pretty interesting chapter 12 experience. Silly me never saved after starting the chapter, so when I lost my only skell to the Vita boss, I figured it would be next to impossible to win and almost called it quits. However, by my third attempt, I realized his shield bubble phase seemed to be on a timer, and on my fourth attempt (without lowering the difficulty), I was able to take him out on-foot before he became shielded! Then came the Chimeras...those ones honestly had me certain I'd have to just quit and try again the next day, seeing as how they killed me and the rest of my team within 15 seconds and I'd no real way to counter it on account of Afterburner being my only real attack art and having no TP to use it. But then, I decided to try something crazy. Irina was in my party, and she had the Last Stand art (raises party TP by 2000). I figured if I could keep her alive long enough to be able to use that art (with the help of the Ramjet Rifle, she builds TP quick), I might have a chance, and several tries and one lowering of the difficulty later (honestly, considering the cheese I'm about to share with you, lowering the difficulty was the least cheap thing I did), Irina finally used the art before she, Elma and Lin fell once more. But now...now I had a chance. And so, taking aim, I unleashed Afterburner...and took out only 5/10 Chimeras. I then proceeded to run around the room, waiting for Afterburner to charge once more before using it again and...taking out only three more, leaving me with two very angry Chimeras and a couple hundred TP. What happened over the course of the next 15-20 minutes can only be described as a pitiful act of desperation done only to avoid having to reset the entire chapter. I ran in circles once more, firing off a round of my rifle every 20 seconds or so for a measly 40ish TP each time while using my knife art to heal the damage I was taking between my stop-and-go's. Eventually I built up 1000TP once more, and thankfully I positioned myself correctly so both Chimeras would be in the line of fire. Part of me felt pathetic, while another part of me felt proud for thinking up such a nonconventional method, but I mostly just felt relieved. The final boss wasn't all that challenging on-foot - mostly just taking some time due to its health pool - but it was still a fun experience. But yeah, on the story side of things, I'm pretty happy with all of the reveals, cutscene direction, and production value. So long as we get a proper sequel, that is... That's pretty amazing. I applaud your patience, sir. XD I had a lot of trouble with the Chimeras too, and I didn't wanna reset and do the Vita all over again, so I just kept going for it over and over and OVER again. Eventually I got lucky and managed to go True Stream Edge (gain TP) > Offensive Stance (aura that boosts attack) > Tornado Blade (gain TP if you have an aura) > Overdrive > True Stream Edge again to take out all ten at once. This whole thing happened in the span of fifteen seconds after losing horribly for over two hours. O____O BTW, you were spoiled on the Lao thing by the guide, right? I tried to un-spoil you a bit in the chapter 8 topic a while back by saying that spoiler wasn't a big deal so you'd stop thinking about it for a bit. Un-spoiling is hard. >.<
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Post by SirMouse on Jan 18, 2016 15:43:49 GMT -5
I had a pretty interesting chapter 12 experience. Silly me never saved after starting the chapter, so when I lost my only skell to the Vita boss, I figured it would be next to impossible to win and almost called it quits. However, by my third attempt, I realized his shield bubble phase seemed to be on a timer, and on my fourth attempt (without lowering the difficulty), I was able to take him out on-foot before he became shielded! Then came the Chimeras...those ones honestly had me certain I'd have to just quit and try again the next day, seeing as how they killed me and the rest of my team within 15 seconds and I'd no real way to counter it on account of Afterburner being my only real attack art and having no TP to use it. But then, I decided to try something crazy. Irina was in my party, and she had the Last Stand art (raises party TP by 2000). I figured if I could keep her alive long enough to be able to use that art (with the help of the Ramjet Rifle, she builds TP quick), I might have a chance, and several tries and one lowering of the difficulty later (honestly, considering the cheese I'm about to share with you, lowering the difficulty was the least cheap thing I did), Irina finally used the art before she, Elma and Lin fell once more. But now...now I had a chance. And so, taking aim, I unleashed Afterburner...and took out only 5/10 Chimeras. I then proceeded to run around the room, waiting for Afterburner to charge once more before using it again and...taking out only three more, leaving me with two very angry Chimeras and a couple hundred TP. What happened over the course of the next 15-20 minutes can only be described as a pitiful act of desperation done only to avoid having to reset the entire chapter. I ran in circles once more, firing off a round of my rifle every 20 seconds or so for a measly 40ish TP each time while using my knife art to heal the damage I was taking between my stop-and-go's. Eventually I built up 1000TP once more, and thankfully I positioned myself correctly so both Chimeras would be in the line of fire. Part of me felt pathetic, while another part of me felt proud for thinking up such a nonconventional method, but I mostly just felt relieved. The final boss wasn't all that challenging on-foot - mostly just taking some time due to its health pool - but it was still a fun experience. But yeah, on the story side of things, I'm pretty happy with all of the reveals, cutscene direction, and production value. So long as we get a proper sequel, that is... That's pretty amazing. I applaud your patience, sir. XD I had a lot of trouble with the Chimeras too, and I didn't wanna reset and do the Vita all over again, so I just kept going for it over and over and OVER again. Eventually I got lucky and managed to go True Stream Edge (gain TP) > Offensive Stance (aura that boosts attack) > Tornado Blade (gain TP if you have an aura) > Overdrive > True Stream Edge again to take out all ten at once. This whole thing happened in the span of fifteen seconds after losing horribly for over two hours. O____O BTW, you were spoiled on the Lao thing by the guide, right? I tried to un-spoil you a bit in the chapter 8 topic a while back by saying that spoiler wasn't a big deal so you'd stop thinking about it for a bit. Un-spoiling is hard. >.< I was spoiled in that I knew he was one of the final bosses, yes. His form, though? THAT was completely unexpected! Honestly, the only thing I was ever truly spoiled about was chapter 5. The other things (Lao's betrayal and Elma's secret identity) were both heavily hinted at throughout the game, so it was never really a "spoiler" for me. In the end, I didn't know about most of the twists and reveals until they actually happened, which I'm happy about. I guess I actually got really lucky with the Prima guide, seeing as how both the enemy index and story spoiler I saw in the walkthrough only showed Lao's mim and NOT his "final form."
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Post by Wolfe on Jan 18, 2016 20:37:42 GMT -5
Damn, guys. In the final phase I assumed the chimeras would spawn endlessly, so I split my party, allowing two characters to aggro on the chimeras and distract them while the other helped me wail on Lao. After getting overwhelmed the first two times, I didn't bother trying to take on all of them. On the subject of spoilers, I knew last summer that Lao would be turned into some kind of chimera monster and face you as the final boss, which also indirectly outed him as the traitor. I got it from a nasty front-page Google result with an excerpt from TVTropes -- just searching "Xenoblade Chronicles X Lao" to bring up his page on the Xenoblade wiki!! -- which was then confirmed by granting context to the "Rao Kimera" title from the soundtrack. That was my worst spoiler for how unfair it was. Google's algorithms also served up Elma's true form on image searches and the thumbnail for someone's JP playthrough on YouTube, but I would not have known what I saw if not for people teasing it relentlessly in the months leading up to release. Now I want to run around with true Elma, but I can't whenever the wife is around.
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Post by ancientrune on Feb 2, 2016 7:55:31 GMT -5
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Post by DarknessLink7 on Feb 2, 2016 8:28:20 GMT -5
Spooky... This was actually one of my theories before I finished the game. (I didn't know about this one specifically though! This actually makes that theory more plausible...)
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Post by heroponriki on Feb 4, 2016 14:59:47 GMT -5
Spooky... This was actually one of my theories before I finished the game. (I didn't know about this one specifically though! This actually makes that theory more plausible...) Sorry but the short story confirms that Mira was named after a scientist or something (don't remember exactly) from the ECP.
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