Central Fiction Arcade Plot Discussion (spoilers)

[Hero19]

40 minutes ago, Vanagandr said:

Oh yeah, it was suppose to be a one-way-soul-disintegrating-portal-to-hell. But after Ragna, Hakumen, Trinity, Nine, Nu, Terumi, Relius, Makoto, Jin, Arakune (some of him at least) and god know who else I'm starting to think it's just a place for everyone to chill until the plot need them again.

The boundary seems more like a plot-device for Mori to put very ideas he wants into the story then anything serious now. People that should be dead by entering it don't die or it can be conveniently be used to bring people from alternate realities that have nothing to do with the current plot or who should already be dead because of the timeline into current plot if Mori feels like it.  How Mori setup his story gives him a lot of leeway to do whatever he wants without it breaking the universe he made.

[Hero19]

52 minutes ago, Vanagandr said:

Oh yeah, it was suppose to be a one-way-soul-disintegrating-portal-to-hell. But after Ragna, Hakumen, Trinity, Nine, Nu, Terumi, Relius, Makoto, Jin, Arakune (some of him at least) and god know who else I'm starting to think it's just a place for everyone to chill until the plot need them again.

*Sorry for the double post some reason my computer makes it so that the  post goes through twice despite me clicking on the send button once.

Edited April 26, 2016 by Hero19
double post

[Kenji Harima]

2 hours ago, Vanagandr said:

But after Ragna, Hakumen, Trinity, Nine, Nu, Terumi, Relius, Makoto, Jin, Arakune (some of him at least) and god know who else I'm starting to think it's just a place for everyone to chill until the plot need them again.

At least their survive was explained much or less: Makoto, Jin and Relius have strong soul, Ragna was protected by Tsukuyomi in the travel through the Boundary, Terumi has an ability to live in soul form, Nu it's a Murakumo Unit and both Nine and Trinity are magic users, Hakumen was protecded by Susano'o Unit but lost a lot of power.

Of course it's giving an idea that some of them might be even immortal if their soul won't be destroyed permanently.

 

It's always happens when you bring both "mutliverse theory" and "time travel" in the one universe -> a possibility of never-ending story.

[churchblue]

Lot of people says Yuki Terumi is Freaks

[Luminos564]

2 hours ago, BlazGearRegalia said:

Where did he originate from?

No clue. We do not even know exactly what he is right, let alone his origins. We have a rough idea, but nothing concrete. However, there was something of a nod to it in CP where Jin asks Haku-men if "Yuki Terumi" existed in the latter's timeline. We don't hear Haku-men's answer mind you, but given the tone and secrecy, it might imply that "Yuki Terumi" only started showing up after that loop.

For the longest time, I myself thought him as something akin to being a Mu-12 / Izanami to Ragna, a part of him that Ragna at some point cast away and it took shape (and formed self-awareness) until it became what it is today. I based it primarily on how knowledgeable he is about the Azure Grimoires, his animosity towards Rachel, Jin / Haku-men and especially Ragna. If he were once part of him and represented his overall negative aspects, then it is very much likely he would hate those 3 more than anyone else. Or how he at one point wanted to be a Black Beast (though upon reflection that might have been strictly Hazama).

But Naoto's connection to Ragna puts more or less a lid on that theory of mine, so I doubt it was ever the case.

2 hours ago, BlazGearRegalia said:

Why is he hell bent on dragging everything down to hell with him?

That's simple enough to explain. Think of him as you would the Joker from Batman, in the sense that both have an extremely warped idea about the nature of their worlds. The difference is that Terumi trades "big, happy smiles during the times of chaos" for "despair during the times of chaos" instead. He ultimately believes the world rotten and full of lies, something which he loathes, and strives to bring the world to its proper course through causing untold amount of grief, sadness and despair. Ironically, for a guy who claims to not tolerate lies, he's not the most honest of individuals, but considering his actions, I'd imagine hypocrisy is on the lower end of his crimes.

2 hours ago, BlazGearRegalia said:

Did he lose something so important to him? 

Entirely possible. Depending on what his origins actually are and if he was indeed human at some point, something had to have happened to him to fall off 100 trillion feet off his rocker. But again, we know effectively squat on his origins.

2 hours ago, BlazGearRegalia said:

Did he accidentally stumble into the Boundary?

I'd say he was more tossed in there at some point as opposed to stumbling into it, given that he seems to have no intention of ever going back there. And indeed he does seem to fear being trapped in there, judging by his reaction to when Jubei switched places with him and he realised their plan.

[1337 H@x0r]

Well...

We have to remember that normal humans go batshit insane if they fall into the boundary, Relius Clover was like CT Carl before falling into that place, Konoe became a Terumi in skirts with a massive siscon complex overriding even maternal instincts and Lotte Carmine became a panda and a blob.

Jin has SEIGI, Makoto's species was engineered to resist Seithr and the Black Beast, PFDs have their emotions sealed to ignore mind rape, Ragna was shielded by a Sanskishin and Trinity outright sealed her own soul in her Nox only to come back with other two people in a loli/trap body.

To say that falling into the boundary doesn't involve some crazy shit who would kill anyone besides plot shielded playable characters is a massive understatement.

[Ogiga99]

1337 H@x0r: Sorry I can't quote you're response from the last page.

I’m sorry you feel that I’m being conceited. I am far from the most knowledgeable person about BlazBlue, there are several people on this website with more information than me (VermillionBird and Zedar90 in particular) and I have no access to Japanese-only material that is not provided by one of our awesome translators so all the information I have is available if you look for it. Conceiving theories based on your information is fine but it is possible to conceive a theory that contradicts information you weren’t aware of and learning of it will change your perspective. I’ve been wrong plenty of times before and had my ideas debunked.

1- Yeah, Amane’s ending only mentions putting someone else inside the Master Unit, nothing about Rachel. The only mentions of new bodies I can think of in Act 3 are Jin creating a body for Trinity and Terumi getting that strange cube to use as a new vessel.

3- All of this is a major assumption. We have no idea what happens after BE2 or what happened in the main timeline after Clavis killed Naoto so you have no confirmation for any of this.

4- What do mean by Sankishin Units have “repeatedly“ shown to produce new beings? The only example of that is Amaterasu creating Izanami. We have no idea exactly what the connection between the OPFD and Noel is except that her soul is inside Noel right now so we can’t say how she was created. And both of those examples have been limited to one Sankishin Unit. The three Units all have complete different abilities and properties, so only Amaterasu has shown creation and only Susanoo has shown that it can be inhabited by spirits but those don’t apply to all of them, otherwise all of them would be capable of insanely powerful Phenomenon Intervention.

You’re forgetting that Naoto existed in the main BlazBlue timeline. He therefore can’t be simply a different parallel version of Ragna if they both exist in the same world. Also, Raquel almost certainly existed in the main timeline since the split between normal events and BE events is the appearance of Hazama at the end of Act 3. We don’t know what happened to her, but they can’t be the same soul if they both existed in one world. Also, what Raquel is doing to Rachel seems more like how Trinity takes control of Luna and Sena’s body than the same type of existence erasing Naoto is doing to Ragna.

I think it’s safe to say that Saya Terumi never acted as a vessel for Izanami. We know this because Izanami did not recognize Naoto in Act 2. There is only one Izanami, who is the manifestation of the one Amaterasu's Drive so she couldn't experienced the events of Bloodedge Experience.

You're mixing up events regarding the Azure Shrine Maiden. She did not take part in an original Dark War, all that happened is that she immediately lured the Black Beast back into the Boundary as soon as it emerged. Their was no fight. What you are thinking of are the two hidden wars (one hundreds of years ago and one in the Age of Origin) against a "something" that existed outside of the Logic (implied to be mini-Black Beasts). Sealed Weapon Izayoi and Hihiirokane were created in each war respectively to fight against it. The Sankishin have never been confirmed to have been made by human hands and all information points to them having been their since the very beginning of the world itself, before humanity first created Causality Weapons in the Age of Origin (the furthest point back in the timeline we know of and way before the Azure Shrine Maiden). It's actually incredibly unclear whether or not Nine made Take-Mikazuchi or found it since her wording is vague. The only thing she specifically mentions finding is Izayoi, which led to her learning about Causality Weapons and the war in the Age of Origin, but her words about "reviving it" are said in a way that could mean either finding and reviving Take-Mikazuchi itself or reviving the concept of Causality Weapons by creating Take-Mikazuchi.

 

Hero19: In response to your idea about Ragna and Naoto, that situation is unlikely because we know Naoto is one of the Entitled who is not going to claim the Azure (like Rachel, Tao and Bang). Raquel told him not to do it in Act 2 so it's pretty clear that the Azure will not be able to save his world (in fact creating a new world is probably what is the cause of his "possibility" being erased). He has to restore the world to its pre-Embryo state to return to his world.

 

3 hours ago, Luminos564 said:

No clue. We do not even know exactly what he is right, let alone his origins. We have a rough idea, but nothing concrete. However, there was something of a nod to it in CP where Jin asks Haku-men if "Yuki Terumi" existed in the latter's timeline. We don't hear Haku-men's answer mind you, but given the tone and secrecy, it might imply that "Yuki Terumi" only started showing up after that loop.

Actually what Jin asks is whether the Hazama in Hakumen's timeline was just Yuuki Terumi and if so who is Hazama. We know for a fact that Yuuki Terumi existed in Hakumen's timeline because we explicitly see him (Hakumen comes from the world of the Wheel of Fortune Drama CD and Terumi is in it). Furthermore, we know Terumi existed before the beginning of the first time loop since he was involved in the experiment with Relius and Shuichiro that unleashed the Black Beast in the first place. The question is more about if Hazama existed as well as Terumi, not the other way around. It still doesn't make sense and I'm pretty sure the line was just meant to foreshadow that Hazama and Terumi were two different people.

 

3 hours ago, churchblue said:

Lot of people says Yuki Terumi is Freaks

Then these "lots of people" clearly never actually played XBlaze and have no idea what they're talking about. Terumi is not not not not not not not not not not NOT Freaks! Freaks is super dead. His soul was contained in his Crystal, which Touya and Es destroyed and Kiri took control of his body again. Since Kiri is actually nice this means that the body will not become evil. The reason Ripper's soul survived the first time was because he died through normal means and the Magic Guild revived him. However, the unique situation of his revival means that his very soul was destroyed and cannot become anyone else. Not to mention that Freaks doesn't even exist in the main timeline! If by some impossible bullshit Freaks's spirit survived and became Terumi, he would be trapped in the XBlaze world which is cut off from the Boundary by the World of the Tsukuyomi, meaning he couldn't even get to the main world. I fully admit to having no idea who Terumi he is but I can say with 100% accuracy that he is NOT someone from XBlaze, and almost certainly not a version of any character we've actually seen up to this point.

Sorry for the rant but I will continue to beat the "Terumi is *insert XBlaze character here*) theories into the ground until they are permanently buried and forgotten like they deserve to be.

[Fenris]

6 hours ago, BlazGearRegalia said:

Speaking of the unholy sadist, I wonder if we'll get to learn his origins. For one, if I remember correctly, "Yūki Terumi" is not even his real name, and aside from his goals and what he's done throughout the games, there's still some lingering questions I have. Where did he originate from? Why is he hell bent on dragging everything down to hell with him? Did he lose something so important to him? Did he accidentally stumble into the Boundary? Oh Mori, please tell me what made my favorite villain the insane sadist he is...

This question has been floating around for quite a while now. Nothing is concrete, but given that he was once the wielder of the Sankishin unit Susano'o at some point, I've theorized that his existence goes a long ways back, probably since the 'very beginning' (take from that what you wish). And given his former status as the "black Susano'o," something tells me that he has dealt with Amaterasu before, and for some reason or another, 'she' appears to have pissed him off. If Shinto myth--from which much of the series plot elements are believed to derive--is any indication, I think it is likely that his [former] role loosely mirrored that of the Susano'o of legend. The legend says that Susano'o (the storm god) and his sister Amaterasu (the sun goddess) were often at odds with one another. Susano'o was said to have behaved poorly, and he destroyed Amaterasu's precious rice fields and killed one of her attendants in a fit of rage.This caused Amaterasu to retreat into a cave, from which she was later drawn out from by Amane Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto. Although, given what has been revealed, the same parallels could be drawn from Jin/Hakumen and Saya/clones/the girl, so heh.

If the former parallels prove even remotely true, though, then a lot of things would make sense, such as Terumi's (I'm comparing him with Susano'o of legend again) belief that the world is "all lies," almost as if he knew all along that it's all just a fabricated mess created by Amaterasu. This would hint at more similarities to the strained brother-sister relationship Susano'o and Amaterasu of legend shared.

[Volt]

6 hours ago, churchblue said:

Lot of people says Yuki Terumi is Freaks

Just want to reinforce that this is absolutely impossible for the reasons Ogiga mentioned.

 

By the way, what's this Age of Origin again? Which game/novel/whatever covered it? I know Izayoi and Hihiirokane were made before the Dark War, but not exactly when. Considering Ogiga was talking about some hidden wars and stuff, I think I'm missing something.

Also, I heard Kuon was packing Izayoi in Code: Embryo, is it the same Izayoi we know from the Yayoi family or is it another of those XBlaze plot points where there is something with a similar name but a lot of differences just to piss everyone off?

[Ogiga99]

20 hours ago, Volt said:

By the way, what's this Age of Origin again? Which game/novel/whatever covered it? I know Izayoi and Hihiirokane were made before the Dark War, but not exactly when. Considering Ogiga was talking about some hidden wars and stuff, I think I'm missing something.

Also, I heard Kuon was packing Izayoi in Code: Embryo, is it the same Izayoi we know from the Yayoi family or is it another of those XBlaze plot points where there is something with a similar name but a lot of differences just to piss everyone off?

It's mentioned in Phase Shift 3 Chapter 1 (might be in other places as well but that's the only one I know of that's translated). The two wars were also explained here, when Nine explains to the other Six Heroes what Take-Mikazuchi is. Here are some tidbits with a few things missing in between.

Nine: "Long time ago... during the era that's called as the beginning, humanity was in a war with something. And so, I've found the records regarding it. The opponent seems a nuisance since common weapons couldn't hurt it. Then, although the scale is smaller than the previous one... Although the scale is smaller than the war in the beginning, there was a same kind of war between humanity and something several hundred years ago. It resembles our current battle with the Black Beast."

Trinity: "That war existed? ...But I've never heard anything about it until now, even within the Mage's Guild."

Nine: "Yes. It wasn't something that's written in your everyday history of Mage's Guild. I found the description inside the books which are stored in the Cathedral."

Trinity: "Then, it must be something that's hidden from the world."

NIne: "That seems to be the case. But in addition to the book's description, I found the legacy of the war. I've found the weapon that had been used to fight that something in Ishana. Your village has the same kind of weapon, doesn't it?"

Jubei: "Hihi'irokane..."

Description: "The ancient weapon itself originated from the age of beginning and had been handed down within Jubei's family."

Nine: "The one I found in Ishana was more recently made. According to the few remains of record, its name is..."

Hakumen: "...The Sealed Weapon Izayoi."

There are probably more mentions of it that I can't remember and I'm sure Zedar90 could fill in the gaps.

 

The Izayoi Kuon uses is the Sealed Spear: Izayoi. It is a Legacy Weapon that is different from the Sealed Weapon Izayoi of BlazBlue. Kuon's Izayoi works a bit differently, the spear is able to seal the magic of the target, rendering them a normal human and trappng them in a barrier. Like all Legacy Weapons (supposedly, we don't know what Murakumo's is) Izayoi has a cost, in this case blindness. Unlike Tsubaki's Izayoi which drains light from the wielder over time, Kuon's Izayoi blinded her after a single use (which only happened in her route). We don't know where the Legacy Weapons come from but unlike the Sealed Weapon Izayoi, the XBlaze one seems to have been fairly well known in the Magic Guild so they can't be the same.

Edited April 27, 2016 by Ogiga99
Phase Shift 3, not 2. Major typo.

[Volt]

5 minutes ago, Ogiga99 said:

It's mentioned in Phase Shift 2 Chapter 1 (might be in other places as well but that's the only one I know of that's translated). The two wars were also explained here, when Nine explains to the other Six Heroes what Take-Mikazuchi is. Here are some tidbits with a few things missing in between.

Nine: "Long time ago... during the era that's called as the beginning, humanity was in a war with something. And so, I've found the records regarding it. The opponent seems a nuisance since common weapons couldn't hurt it. Then, although the scale is smaller than the previous one... Although the scale is smaller than the war in the beginning, there was a same kind of war between humanity and something several hundred years ago. It resembles our current battle with the Black Beast."

Trinity: "That war existed? ...But I've never heard anything about it until now, even within the Mage's Guild."

Nine: "Yes. It wasn't something that's written in your everyday history of Mage's Guild. I found the description inside the books which are stored in the Cathedral."

Trinity: "Then, it must be something that's hidden from the world."

NIne: "That seems to be the case. But in addition to the book's description, I found the legacy of the war. I've found the weapon that had been used to fight that something in Ishana. Your village has the same kind of weapon, doesn't it?"

Jubei: "Hihi'irokane..."

Description: "The ancient weapon itself originated from the age of beginning and had been handed down within Jubei's family."

Nine: "The one I found in Ishana was more recently made. According to the few remains of record, its name is..."

Hakumen: "...The Sealed Weapon Izayoi."

There are probably more mentions of it that I can't remember and I'm sure Zedar90 could fill in the gaps.

 

The Izayoi Kuon uses is the Sealed Spear: Izayoi. It is a Legacy Weapon that is different from the Sealed Weapon Izayoi of BlazBlue. Kuon's Izayoi works a bit differently, the spear is able to seal the magic of the target, rendering them a normal human and trappng them in a barrier. Like all Legacy Weapons (supposedly, we don't know what Murakumo's is) Izayoi has a cost, in this case blindness. Unlike Tsubaki's Izayoi which drains light from the wielder over time, Kuon's Izayoi blinded her after a single use (which only happened in her route). We don't know where the Legacy Weapons come from but unlike the Sealed Weapon Izayoi, the XBlaze one seems to have been fairly well known in the Magic Guild so they can't be the same.

Ugh, annoying plot points. XBlaze's Izayoi isn't even the same as Blazblue's why give it the same name?

Anyway, thanks for the reminder of Phase Shift 2, completely forgot that single translated chapter.

 

Decided to check Jin and Hakumen's dialogue about Hazama in CP. From the looks of it, Jin might've figured out that Terumi was inside the Susano'o Unit before Hakumen. However, he calls attention to where exactly was Hazama since Terumi should've been inside Susano'o. Looks like this should've been covered in Wheel of Fortune or the Calamity Trigger novel that shows Hakumen's Original CT Loop. But I don't think they were translated.

[1337 H@x0r]

Ogiga

When I say that Naoto and Ragna are parallel existences, I mean that their roles in causality are similar for the purpose of Amaterasu's story.

Each instance of the Blaz Blue multiverse, be it X Blaze, Bloodege Experience or whatever, were at some point observed by the girl inside Amaterasu to try and figure out if they brought her desired outcome.

Naoto's story has so many parallels and similar character's to Ragna's because that's what attracted the Master Unit to consider his possibility for observation.

In the canon timeline of BB, Naoto dies fighting Clavis and since neither Raquel or Saya Terumi are mentioned in the present we can assume that they both died aswell.

This is a major time fork regarding how history develops due to Naoto's existence and it's influence on those involved with him.

If Naoto survives, then his survival enables the possibility of both Rachel and Saya Terumi surviving any events which his absense would otherwise lead to their deaths.

If Raquel survives then Clavis has no need to create Rachel as her replacement and if Saya Terumi survives then she remains a potential early host for Izanami which in turn eliminates the need for Relius to kidnap Jin and Saya Kisaragi and experiment on them.

Without siblings to originate his tragedy, without Rachel to save his life and possibly without being created if Relius was involved with it somehow, Ragna's chances of existing as he is in any timeline which had Naoto surviving drops significantly.

The two distinct timelines are practically impossible to merge within Amaterasu's observed quantum of possibilities so for as long as her focus is on Ragna and not Naoto then the latter's reality goes to the reciclying bin. With that said, his very existence outside logic in the embryo can turn the situation upside down if he gets too close to Ragna.

If Amaterasu, even for a moment, observes Naoto as the "hero" of her story instead of Ragna then she might accidentaly erase all of the BB timeline and canonize BEE as the "real" one. This means that Rachel gets replaced by Raquel, Saya Kisaragi gets replaced by Saya Terumi and god knows what replaces the Dark War if Ragna never comes to exist to cause the timeloop paradox.

In a nutshell, BEE is a parallel timeline whose main actors surviving removes the possibility of several BB actors taking their roles or even existing in the first place hence Naoto being Ragna's alternative in the multiverse.

 

When I talk about the Sanskishin Units materializing parts of their wielder's soul, I am speculating about the fact that each of them is related to seemingly supernatural beings whose origins are mostly unknown.

Since Izami is the personalized drive of the girl inside Amaterasu, this opens the precedent that both Rachel and Terumi could be similar beings who were born from soul fragments of wielders of Tsukuyomi and Susanoo.

Rachel/Raquel being manifestations of a piece of Clavis's soul make sense because they share several characteristics with him despite their artificial origins, if Tsukuyomi could create a new being out of a piece of it's wielder's soul then it would explain why a goddamn embryo decided to take the form of a vampire for no other reason than being around another vampire.

Terumi being born from someone else's soul fragment would explain why he is so goddamn hard to kill, his whole existence began outside of time and then invaded it like a virus with no beggining or end.

[BlazGearRegalia]

6 hours ago, Fenris said:

This question has been floating around for quite a while now. Nothing is concrete, but given that he was once the wielder of the Sankishin unit Susano'o at some point, I've theorized that his existence goes a long ways back, probably since the 'very beginning' (take from that what you wish). And given his former status as the "black Susano'o," something tells me that he has dealt with Amaterasu before, and for some reason or another, 'she' appears to have pissed him off. If Shinto myth--from which much of the series plot elements are believed to derive--is any indication, I think it is likely that his [former] role loosely mirrored that of the Susano'o of legend. The legend says that Susano'o (the storm god) and his sister Amaterasu (the sun goddess) were often at odds with one another. Susano'o was said to have behaved poorly, and he destroyed Amaterasu's precious rice fields and killed one of her attendants in a fit of rage.This caused Amaterasu to retreat into a cave, from which she was later drawn out from by Amane Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto. Although, given what has been revealed, the same parallels could be drawn from Jin/Hakumen and Saya/clones/the girl, so heh.

If the former parallels prove even remotely true, though, then a lot of things would make sense, such as Terumi's (I'm comparing him with Susano'o of legend again) belief that the world is "all lies," almost as if he knew all along that it's all just a fabricated mess created by Amaterasu. This would hint at more similarities to the strained brother-sister relationship Susano'o and Amaterasu of legend shared.

 

It's about as close as we can get for now, and knowing Mori, either he has a backstory to explain what lead Terumi up to the point of his desire to destroy everything, or he'll be left as some sort of enigma.

 

Alright, this next one, I have been racking my brain over for a few hours now:

 

Spoiler

 

"The devil take the hindmost."

 

I have a sudden grave feeling this is foreshadowing a death or worse...

[BlazGearRegalia]

4 minutes ago, BlazGearRegalia said:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

"The devil take the hindmost."

 

I have a sudden grave feeling this is foreshadowing a death or worse...

And let me clarify that I'm talking about the description for the stage.

[Vanagandr]

That stage is called "Judgement Day" so ... yeah ...

[MaximusMurkimus]

A final boss stage if I ever saw it.

What bothers me about the current story is that we now no longer have a proper main villain to focus all of our attention on. For CT and CS it was Terumi, for CP and most of CF it was Izanami, and now its a fatal four way between those two, Relius, and Nine. Not to mention all the other characters turning into enemies in order to fufill their wishes.

So then, who does Ragna (and to that extent, the player) need to beat the stuffing out of in order to secure a better future? At first I thought it was the Ammy Unit, but its clear we're supposed to go "oh poor Noel" again. Black Beast is only teased at this point, but even if it wasn't, no one is beating it single handedly. Even if you somehow manage to lay out all Four Horsemen  and lay them out in a nice pile, you've only taken care of people who would take advantage of the terrible state of the world, not the cause of everything to begin with.

[Luminos564]

13 minutes ago, MaximusMurkimus said:

A final boss stage if I ever saw it.

I'd be inclined to agree. Either this one or Es' stage, depicting a rampaging Black Beast.

16 minutes ago, MaximusMurkimus said:

What bothers me about the current story is that we now no longer have a proper main villain to focus all of our attention on. For CT and CS it was Terumi, for CP and most of CF it was Izanami, and now its a fatal four way between those two, Relius, and Nine. Not to mention all the other characters turning into enemies in order to fufill their wishes.

So then, who does Ragna (and to that extent, the player) need to beat the stuffing out of in order to secure a better future? At first I thought it was the Ammy Unit, but its clear we're supposed to go "oh poor Noel" again. Black Beast is only teased at this point, but even if it wasn't, no one is beating it single handedly. Even if you somehow manage to lay out all Four Horsemen  and lay them out in a nice pile, you've only taken care of people who would take advantage of the terrible state of the world, not the cause of everything to begin with.

This is the kind of this Story Mode was made for in the console release. Fun as they are, arcade runs can only cover bits and pieces of CF. I would not be surprised if the eventual Final Boss is exclusive to the console version, whenever that hits. My money is more on Izanami herself, unless Mori's drug induced fever dream decides to pull a fast one on us, if only for consistency and general badassitude from the walking dead (hurr durr see whut I did thar?) imouto.

Alternatively, considering Ragna's plan and the fact that the Azure wishes to at least meet with him, it is entirely possible this whole chaotic mess comes to a halt not from defeating a singular target, but instead having a single individual put the kibosh on this whole situation with the Entitled. Like you said, dealing with the 4 horsemen (Izanami, Nine, Terumi and Relius) will only stop with their grand plans. It does not ultimately fix the broken BB world. So something or someone needs to provide a solution and incidentally, it seems Amane's got the most (fabulous) one for the occasion.

*incidentally, I really like the idea of depicting the 4 as the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Izanami is obviously Death and Terumi is a shoe-in for War. Nine could be Conquest and Relius as Famine. It kinda fits.

[Vanagandr]

But now that Hazama and Terumi are back together with Hazama in charge, I have a feeling that they're a bit of a wild card right now. Since according to Relius's extend gag reel (non-canon of course) Hazama can actually be a decent guy if he want to. But alas, it could be all just wishful thinking on my part.

[oh no, he said]

3 hours ago, BlazGearRegalia said:

 

  Hide contents

 

"The devil take the hindmost."

 

What interests me about this, is that we've had stage quotes about the devil before, and all of those are stages Hazama can be found on. In Kagutsuchi port (At night) the quote is "The Devil can cite scriptures for his purpose." and while Altar is not Hazama's stage, most story modes lead to you having to fight him on Altar, where the Quote is  "· The devil is not so black as he is painted." In both instances, it works as forshadowing. Hazama's trademark lies of omission is exactly like a devil citing scripture for his own purposes, telling you the "truth", but it's an edited version of the truth made to cater to their wants. Hazama not being black as he is painted also works, as it foreshadows that he is not the real big bad, when going into BBCS it really did look like Terumi/Hazama was the ringleader of the whole operation.

One might argue that this tend doesn't hold up in BBCP, because the devil isn't mentioned in either Hazama or Terumi's stage quotes, but I will say au contraire, mon ami, because that actually adds to the point I'm trying to make. In CS, Hazama and Terumi were one incredibly nasty package, while in CP and CF, they have different stages for each of them. I propose that the "Devil" is Hazama and Terumi together, and as of Hazama's Act 3, they are an item again. Assuming that is the case, "The Devil take the hindmost." could be read with some scary implications of what the terrible twosome might be planning.

[Tokkan]

You're thinking of the raining version of Kagutsuchi Port, that was the stage held by Hazama.  

Kagutsuchi Port at Night was Ragna... well, currently in BBCF is one of Ragna's and Makoto's stages. (Characters have more than 1 stage in CF except for Nine and Izanami. Oh, and Naoto also had only 1 stage until Act 3 gave him Last Train.)

[Toxin45]

Um Hazama and Terumi didn't fuse back together dude Hazama is using the power of the vessel terumi currently has which is obviously implies that hazama's act iii takes place after terumi's

[Tokkan]

That's not what he said. He said they were an item. While they haven't fused, they are working with each other again, this time with Hazama being in charge, so you could say they are an item.

[churchblue]

Even though Terumi is not Freaks (according the previous posts), we still have no clue who he really is?

[Volt]

1 hour ago, churchblue said:

Even though Terumi is not Freaks (according the previous posts), we still have no clue who he really is?

Nope. We know Terumi created the Azure Grimoire, was inside the Susano'o Unit for a while, had a ghost form until Trinity pulled out some Muchorin shenanigans in CP, was directly involved with Relius and Souichirou Ayatsuki in the Black Beast Experiment back in Phase 0, was forced to work with the Six Heroes because of Nine's Mind Eater and he backstabbed them as soon as he could.

That's pretty much all we know from Terumi's backstory, not counting untranslated stuff for obvious reasons.

[JustaMaskedFreak]

6 minutes ago, Volt said:

Nope. We know Terumi created the Azure Grimoire, was inside the Susano'o Unit for a while, had a ghost form until Trinity pulled out some Muchorin shenanigans in CP, was directly involved with Relius and Souichirou Ayatsuki in the Black Beast Experiment back in Phase 0, was forced to work with the Six Heroes because of Nine's Mind Eater and he backstabbed them as soon as he could.

That's pretty much all we know from Terumi's backstory, not counting untranslated stuff for obvious reasons.

Wasn't he who created the Sector Seven AND the NOL too, or this is Hazama's doing? I may be worng, but I think I've heard this somewhere...