After you beat Pragmata, you get an option to start a new save file that basically backs you up to before the final boss fight, with all the upgrades an unlocks that you've got, and a new area appears on the map. It's not a full zone, but instead is basically another Shelter-like space that has ten simulation beds like the one you use for your Training Missions.
When I showed up, several of them were already open. I believe this is because, in the course of the main game, I had collected all the items, boxes, etc., in each zone - I suspect that these open training pods would have been closed if I had not yet completed that element of the game. Four others can be unlocked by going back and fighting upgraded versions of each of the four major bosses from the zones (prior to the central tower).
Maybe because of my thoroughness and upgrades I'd already gotten, I didn't find these bosses terribly challenging. I don't think I died to any of them (in fairness, I think the only bosses I died to in the initial run of the game were the one in the Terra Dome and the final boss). Still, it was fun to come back to them (and I hope that you can just re-fight them as much as you like, though I haven't tried to).
Each opens up another simulated mission, which are all somewhat similar to the challenges in the Training Mode from the base game, but none had time limits or bonus objectives, so while there were some tough combat challenges, it wasn't anything to break your controller over (the final challenge is a gauntlet of fights, eventually pitting you against two of those Dead Filament-corrupted kind of Ninja-like robot minibosses, the first of which you have to fend off while Diana is being repaired at the Cradle, though there's an incinerator you can lure them into, and I was able to wipe out one very quickly).
I've completed all the challenges in the hidden room, which opens up a vault containing new costumes for Hugh and Diana, a new weapon that lets you shoot Lunafilament (yes, you can turn what is essentially your XP/money into ammo,) and a Mod that I believe doesn't actually do anything for you mechanically, but notably seems to help people infected with Dead Filament survive.
UPDATE: I beat the game again - there are few enough changes that I'm just going to add to this post instead of making a whole new one.
Uh, spoilers:
Given how the game ends initially, this suggests that Hugh might get a chance to survive - whereas initially, he seemed doomed to die the moment Eight hit him with a spike of Dead Filament, giving us that tearjerker ending.
(And I called it wrong. Pretty early on I was reminded of an old Penny Arcade comic about The Last Guardian. I had guessed Diana was going to be the one to have to sacrifice herself, but I think the game does truly want us to think of her as an innocent little kid, so the natural parent/child dynamic makes Hugh's demise the more narratively conventional choice, and a little more palatable to most audiences, I'd guess.)
I know there are people already buzzing about this game becoming a franchise. I'm... honestly a little skeptical of that (I don't know if Capcom has already made statements about that being the case, to be fair). I think it works really well as a self-contained game, but I think you'd need to add a ton of new elements to make a sequel make any sense. I have yet to see the secondary ending (I will need to re-beat Eight with that Mod equipped, I imagine) but I also feel like the gameplay mechanics are really specific to the particular crisis that is happening on that base.
I also really think that the fact that Hugh is not some gruff space-marine who has tons of combat experience before the game starts is part of what makes it so endearing. In a way, the fact that our main characters were not at all built (in Diana's case literally) for this makes sense now, but if we get a sequel, why are these two the ones who have to deal with it?
Now, sure, maybe there's more of a spiritual sequel - the same world, or even just the same mechanics, but new characters. That could work. But we shall see. Again, I need to get the other ending to know where our characters are at the end of all of this.
Update:
So, having now gone and beaten Eight (/"Idea,") again with the "Black Box" mod, I got the secondary ending for the game. The cutscenes play out identically (though given that Diana had a different costume, her footprints on the beach were different, which is a fun detail) but we both get some fun hand-drawn art over the credits of Hugh and Diana being adorable together, and then, when it cuts to black, we hear Cabin welcome someone (presumably Hugh) back, and comment that it's unusual he's come back alone.
While there's plenty of plausible deniability, I think this more or less implies that the Mod has slowed or maybe even stopped Hugh's Dead Filament infection, and he was somehow able to safely return to the Shelter even without a battery in his suit. While he and Diana are now on separate celestial bodies, and Hugh's also still stuck on an abandoned moon base (which might still have hostile bots swarming it that he can no longer hack) he's still (probably) technically alive.
I've praised the game several times before at how likable Hugh is as a character, and so naturally it's a great relief to think that he survives, though it creates a real hurdle for him to get to safety. Given the glowing reviews (though I don't actually know how well it has sold) I wouldn't be shocked if we got a sequel, and getting Hugh off the moon could be the crux of that story - though how Diana gets back is an interesting question (we have no idea where she is on Earth, other than probably somewhere in the tropics. What will people think of this lifelike childish android? And will she blow the lid off of the malfeasance of the Delphi corporation? Is that kind of plot an appropriate follow-up to a game like this?
I didn't get full 100% completion - I hadn't gotten some of the Training Missions completed, and of course some that I had finished I hadn't gotten all the rewards from them. There were also I think two Mini-Cabins I never found. Still, I feel like I got a pretty solid meal out of this game, and this feels like a reasonable time to set it aside.
No comments:
Post a Comment