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Only way that has the desired narrative heft is if Mori is trying to pull some UBW shit--although the timelines are way worse, and the consequences are much larger (i.e.: Shirou grew up to be the Holy Grail instead of Archer, and then got summoned back in time to... do... something evil?) Otherwise it's a zero-sum game. "Noel Vermillion" as she exists throughout the series is a consequence of her being unfinished as a Murakumo Unit and subsequently adopted as a blank slate/raised as a human that would eventually grow into that identity. If the original is from another timeline then she's logically no closer to Noel than Saya, Lambda or Nu are. Mori can try and say "no but really it's the same Noel from the game" but we in turn would be completely justified in telling him that he's wrong and stupid. Which, disclaimer, I don't dismiss as a possibility. Basically, if there's any divergence here between the original and Noel, then this "twist" changes nothing outside of adding another layer to the clone hierarchy above Saya. If MetaAlpha-00 up in Amaterasu isn't the exact same annoying woobie blonde from the game, then it's not a clone of Noel--or, at least, isn't any more a clone of Noel than the other 13 clones-and-counting. At some point Mori would be asking us to divide by zero.

We could very well be over-complicating things, but we won't know until they more explicitly spell out who the crucified Murakumo lady is. I know that she gets referred to as the "real Noel," or somesuch, but that isn't strictly a wrong thing to say given that we're dealing with clones. Could just as easily say that Lambda is another Noel, or that the Amaterasu girl is the "real Lambda." It's safe to say that she's the progenitor, but I don't know if what we have is enough to believe anything beyond that. Then again, they've been dealing with multi-verses and time travel the whole time, so fuck it, maybe it's parallel-universe, far-future Noel Vermillion. Although I would suggest that the only way the girl in Amaterasu is actually a straight copy of Noel is if she also ends up being annoying and clumsy. She would have to be the same across the board in terms of memory/personality (to get around continuity issues identity-wise) in order for it to be any different than what they've already been doing with their cloning shenanigans; otherwise it's no different than if she were simply a standard progenitor that they made 14(?) copies out of, with Noel as we know her being one such result.

Noel is the 12th derivation of... whoever the original is inside Amaterasu (Es?). In the opening of CT the laboratory she was in got blown up and she was left among the ruins. I would assume the lab being blown up interrupted her test tube development and she somehow ended up the way she is now as opposed to ending up like Lambda/Nu. Just like the others, Noel is "fake" insofar as she is a replica of some original Jesus figure. Insert poorly handled ideas of the human rights/personal identity of clones here; i.e.: she's the "real" Noel because that's what she ended up becoming, even if she is just a copy.

Surprised that anyone is... surprised... that Noel is a clone. We've known she's #12 since Calamity Trigger's opening cut scene. I had always assumed that Mikado was the original, but I guess not.

It's probably telling you that you don't have any replays saved. Have you gone into network mode and downloaded one?

Shoutouts to placeholder 4 bar Ragna in the player list for getting my hopes up every time.

Although without trying too hard to sound characteristically cynical, the new models being easier to work with isn't necessarily conducive with maximizing profit. Ramlethal is obviously the lynchpin of whatever narrative they're spinning, and while it's still a little magnanimous on their part to make her playable right away, it's still reasonable enough for her to show up. But beyond her I'm not sure that there's anybody else critical enough to warrant being released now as opposed to being saved for a sequel. I'm expecting the iterative process of Xrd to be pretty close to the original series. Lets them release a few games where a portion of the work will just be Unreal Engine-ing the rest of their past characters.

Fedex dinged me a $15 border charge at my doorstep on top of that, too.

At first I thought I had just forgotten how to DP after all that Persona.

I haven't heard of any character doing more damage so far. Everybody seems to do less. Maybe it all got moved to the shadow versions.

If they add more characters/story I'd guess that whoever the big boss is ends up in the game.

Localization in general might be weird given the fact that Atlus is going to be under different ownership by the time a console release comes out. Hell, if somebody like Sega gets them we might all be equally fucked.

Liz also gets a counter that forces negative penalty and apparently gets bigger spells when she awakens. Air 2B is also good.

AMERIKAJIN ‏@jiyunaJP 6m Junpei's Baseball Gauge- Whiffing bat normals = strike lolll. Getting hit = out. 3 outs and the runners on base disappear. #p4u

Hopefully they change the lobby music so I stop getting Virtual Insanity stuck in my head.