Volt

And in the link posted above, we can see Mori lying in his natural habitat. ... I'm a man of my word. Thanks, too bad it's in Japanese though.

You mean that the whole part of the game that started the deal about everyone's dreams, made character interactions that developed a lot of characters like Bang and set the rest of the plot in motion was a waste of time? While I'd rather have it a bit shorter since the Arcade already covers it, It needed a streamlining because having events only happen in the Arcade mode usually ends up bad. To me the main problem was that they tried to compress it a bit too much because the core of the story was following Ragna. If they did it like CP and let other characters take the spotlight, character development wouldn't be an issue. I really wish you posted the link to that interview just so I could point it out and say "And in the link posted above, we can see Mori lying in his natural habitat." Seriously, if (or when) we have a BB sequel, I'm sure Jin will find Yukianesa and just go wreck stuff with the Power of Order. Regarding the whole Jin's body situation, the trade-off wasn't exactly "You won't be able to fight" it was more like "Your body will go poof like Celica's." Besides, I don't think Ragna the Shipedge would tell Jin to stay in the NOL and be Tsubaki's boss if Jin would have kept a messed up body. And I'm pretty sure Kagura wasn't packing his sword in that ending too, so Jin being unarmed is more a symbol of peace than inability to fight.

Not really. But without a dedicated route you don't get 50 minutes of trolling. Also, this is derailing the thread. So, back on topic, What happened to the whole "Hibiki's actually a psycho" stuff the Arcade hyped? Dude was pretty much gone during the main story, but I haven't seen the sub sections yet.

Well, since she's completely unreleased yet, nope. No fighting. She does show up though and have a few CGs. Thing is, you really should watch CP's Story Mode before hanging around in this thread, otherwise you won't understand anything and spoilers for CF are already flying around here. The Main CP Story is divided in three routes, the main being "Chrono Phantasma" (Creative Name ). CF has only one and a few Sub Scenarios. So if you watch at least the main CP route and the "Six Heroes" route you should be able to understand the change in format. It actually turned out a lot better than CSEX's style in my opinion, despite a few losses like the dedicated Hazama route where he trolls everyone. At least we still got the gag reels.

No, it doesn't work that way. The Story Mode was already released, the only difference is that she may be playable for a few fights, but I think that's unlikely. I don't really remember Kokonoe or Celica being playable in CPEX's Story Mode, so Mai may not get even that.

Apparently 3. Not counting whatever parts of Saya Nu and Lambda could have since they got their own soul now and anything beyond that is speculation. The three confirmed parts of Saya are in Noel, Izanami and The Origin. Thing is, Noel also had Mu-12, who was also a part of The Origin. (I think?) Noel absorbed all those parts, but the ending indicates she messed up while getting The Origin back, since Saya (As in The Origin/CP Girl with the Book) spoke to Ragna when he took over Amaterasu and he's chilling with her now. Despite all this nonsense, Noel pretty much identifies herself as Saya, but still wants to be called Noel. Hope this somewhat cleared it up. Only saw a Twitch Stream with the English Subs, but the dude hasn't done the Sub Scenarios yet. Speaking of Sub Scenarios, I figure Carl, Litchi and Arakune's endings are there, but what happened? Looks like Carl's following Relius' path, but what about Ada? I heard Ada was gone, but I couldn't find anything confirming it.

Not at all. In fact, due to the obnoxious CP -> CF gap, we can definitely rule out the possibility of the 3 Acts starting the story. I'd say those happen around the 20%->50% marks of the story. Then we get to move on to the huge plot twists (Like Izanami was Linhua all along ) Certain events have overlapping Arcade Stages. (Tsubaki's ending is pretty much the same event as Izayoi and Jin's Stage 3.) So in a sense, the player might feel that things happen at different times, but it's the same event told from different points of view. Obviously, due to the nature of Arcade Stories, there are some inconsistencies that make building a hard timeline pretty much impossible. However, as long as you focus on the common events (Eg: Tsubaki, as Izayoi finds out that Hakumen is Jin.) and then the things that doesn't cause inconsistencies, (Eg: Carl is pretty much Relius Jr. and is one of the people who chased Noel.) you can make a rough timeline of what events happened when and which order the Arcade endings appear. For example, Ragna is one of the earliest (Amane may or may not come first, but I can't check it now.) because in all of the other endings, he already had decided on what he wanted to do. Likewise, Tsubaki definitely comes before Jin and Izayoi's because their 3rd stage is pretty much the same as her 8th. The main issue in building a timeline is that it's a huge piece of work to look at everything and try and see where it fits in the puzzle. (For Example: Tao's might happen after Hazama's because he ends his going to greet Ragna and Tao saves him in one of her stages. That is, if this was the same fight Hazama was preparing for in his ending.) It gets worse when you look at Berserk Mu and Noel. They are separate beings now, so why do they fill the same role in a lot of different endings? This is an example of a source of inconsistency that disrupts a timeline. You can't figure a lot of the endings' placements because you can't know who calmed Noel or Mu down.

*Sees current Prime Field confusion* ...Goddamnit Mori. We don't really know a lot about this 1st PFD. (Or the 0th for that matter.) We should try to hold back the theorizing right now and try to find out where these 2 PFD's appear so we can have some concrete information before we start theorizing. Otherwise Alpha-01 might pop up.

Material Collections that most people outside Japan probably don't have access I assume. Figures. Is this one translated at least? I know CTMC is, but I didn't even know there were more than one. I keep bringing Rachel up because if she was completely Time Loop Proof, she would've stayed in her current age forever. Not younger, not older. Same goes to Clavis. Dude even died before the actual point of the time loops, so why couldn't the events that resulted in his existence happen again in a new loop? Also, I didn't tell to throw the entire Tao Arcade out of the window. Just the inconsistent parts. And Ragna could very well do dynamic entries twice. The events were completely different. Also, did you notice the blue pulse with the heartbeat sound in Hakumen's arcade when Izayoi realizes he's Jin? That's where she got her flash during her Arcade ending. Things aren't black and white. The very reason CP changed the story mode was to eliminate these inconsistencies, but in Arcade mode this is impossible. And if it's not much trouble, if the post gets too long to quote, could you please not quote it entirely? It kinda gets messy to view in a phone. Edit: Just remembered something. Revelator will have Story DLC. Could it be the case in CF?

I don't really want to see the spoilers, but I'm kinda curious. Does Potemkin appear for more than an irrelevant scene this time?

Yep. That's what I said. Wait, did you just say 1? As in Alpha-1? Seriously though, what's that about a PFD getting Azure Eyes again? When did that happen?

The OPFD kinda fits in that... Isn't that why Prime Field Devices started to get sent to the Boundary armed to the teeth? The problem is that it was said in a confusing way, so we're in a "Bullet's Captain" situation here.

Not exactly. Hihiirokane was the sword Jubei's brother used to body Terumi after he fused with Hazama. It dealt a bleep ton of damage to Terumi because it could also cut his soul, leading to the ending of Phase Shift 1 and his capture by Valkenhayn because he was too weak after killing Tomonori. That means he could've used it to weaken Hazama and forcibly hijack him so he could have a vessel if he wanted. Terumi was freakin' exhausted after fighting his copy in his ending, right before getting Hihiirokane. Where did Hazama found him? Exhausted in a place that kinda looks like a portal and was represented by the Sealed Space stage. What does this mean? Hazama got him right after Terumi got Hihiirokane. On his way back to get a vessel. That led to Terumi getting bodied and Hazama preparing to use him as a vessel. (Why? It can't be just for the power.) I didn't mean that Hazama was Terumi. In a gameplay sense and up to CP, Hazama was Terumi's vessel, so it doesn't make sense gameplay-wise for Terumi to have another playable vessel that isn't Hazama or himself. We're talking about a whole new character design based on a character that already has a playable form and a suitable replacement in a cast full of well designed characters that could get the playable treatment and add more to the plot. Regarding Noel, Mu and "The Origin", most times a character actually stopped to talk to Mu, she either explained that Noel wasn't with her or she was actively searching for her. At worst, Rachel and Kokonoe know they split, not to mention Izanami, Nine and probably Relius. And as bonkers as Nu is, she still got her systems working right. She should've noticed that there were two "Noel signals" in her radar or at least a "Noel signal" showing that the real Noel wasn't Mu when she was standing in front of her. It's hardly a secret at that point. "The Origin" is a bit more complicated. We can't tell for sure if Nine was talking about the OPFD or if she was alluding to a separate event. Therefore, it's safer to refer to the Girl Inside Amaterasu as "The Origin" just in case she's not talking about the OPFD. Amane didn't replace Rachel. What we know is that the world needs an Observer. As far as we know, he was an Observer in CP like Rachel or at least could Observe. That doesn't directly mean he got his powers to replace Rachel. Not to mention Kokonoe, Hazama, Relius and possibly Izanami can Observe as well. In fact, the term is pretty vague. And again, why exactly couldn't Clavis be reborn in the Time Loops. Rachel didn't freaking de-age in the Phase Novels. In fact, the playable Rachel actually goes to Phase 0 to talk to Ragna near the end. Ragna was probably going to use Soul Eater to eat Lambda's desire. He originally planned to do this to Rettenjou in the Lynchpin to get some answers from Tenjou after all. Also, disregarding the obvious differences, like scenarios and who got which Nox, it's actually easy to build a timeline of Act 3. How did Tsubaki learn Hakumen is Jin? Izayoi fought Hakumen to protect Noel, then she saw a flash of Hakumen's memory of her death and figured out Hakumen is Jin. See? It's kinda easy. It's not like Xrd, which had contradictions but no explanations (How many times did Babylon got Cradle'd again? ) And just to play it safe, as cool as Tao's Arcade was, judging how relevant she is to the overall plot, I'm tempted to say that her mode was kinda Gaiden at best, and partly non-canon at worst. Tao had already fought Noel at Stage 3, so she couldn't be her Arcade Boss in a gameplay sense. Considering how Mu was acting exactly like berserk Noel in most of the other Acts where Noel's like "You tryin' to kill me!!" I can say that Tao fought Noel at her Act 3 Ending, not Mu. That is, if that actually happened in the first place. Also, we can't rule out parallel events. (Like Zato's first fight in Sign's Arcade being Millia's last.) For example: I think Tsubaki's last fight is Jin's Stage 3, where they fight each other. That's what kinda messes up the timeline, because we get things like: Tsubaki Fights Jin (Tsubaki's Ending | Jin and Izayoi's Stage 3) Tsubaki decides to protect Noel and searches for her. (Izayoi's Act 3) Hakumen wants to kill Noel using Izayoi and they fight. After the battle, Tsubaki learns that Hakumen is Jin. (Izayoi and Hakumen's Ending) So yeah, organizing things might get complicated.

Well, we kinda know what's going on, Noel got rekt by a Black Beast, saw a gate when she was swallowed, stopped doing drugs, and kicked Mu out with her memories. The catch is that apparently we got an "Origin" who at this point may or may not be the OPFD and Noel is her vessel who hijacked Mu. So at this point we don't know personality-wise who is "The Origin", Noel, Mu or CF Noel. Sometimes Mu talks like Noel, sometimes Noel talk like Noel, sometimes Mu talk different than Noel, sometimes Noel talk like "The Origin", sometimes repetition gets annoying, sometimes Noel talks like Mu and in the end Tsubaki and Izayoi pop up and we go full Terumi. At least the Act 3 parts involving Tsubaki are kinda coherent, Acts 1 and 2 we're just crazy. Izayoi in Act 1: "Izayoi helped me to restore my memories." Then Tsubaki shows up in Act 2 like "Jin Nii-sama, what's Seigi?"

It's just the Japanese shoving Shinto mythology up our noses again like they do in every game that has a plot and is not made by Nintendo. Nothing to see here, let's move along. Now that we have all the Act 3 endings (or at least their summaries) how about we try to do a timeline of the events so far? Just to get a flamewar some discussion going until the Console release.

Probably the Dark Susano'o. Looks like Terumi liked his time as the Susano'o wielder, since he references it a bunch of times, like his astral or when he activates his Azure Grimoire as Hazama.

What. What? Whaaaaaatttt!!!???? I'm so hype right now.

Yeah. That's pretty much it.

This barely makes any sense. At his current state, Terumi would get roflstomped by Hakumen even with Hihiirokane. If he really wanted a vessel, he could've busted it out against Hazama and just ditch him later after beating Hakumen. My guess is that he wants a specific vessel, possibly even a new one like him. (The game wouldn't be able to handle 3 playable versions of "Terumi", so it would have to be identical or a way to sustain his form.) It's also weird that Hazama would want to hijack Terumi. Unless somehow that managed to stabilize his existence, there's no reason for Hazama to want to switch to a body that barely has any time left and is in no fighting condition, so it would need time to rest. There's a scheme here, but I can't figure it out. What would Hihiirokane do to help them at this situation? Celica's ending is also pretty interesting. I think Nine will wind up helping her. But what really freaked me out was Nu's ending. Why did she fought Mu as if she was Noel with even Ragna recognizing her as Noel? Nu should've noticed something off about Mu and she found her because Noel "acknowledged/observed" Nu fighting with Rachel. Could it be foreshadowing?

Just finished watching everything. Great job as always. I noticed Carl now desummons Nirvana and walks away just like Relius does with Ignis, dude's going full Clover. Also, the Black Beast roars in Noel's ending. Freaky, but kinda underwhelming. Really curious to know what exactly happened after CPEX, it's getting hard to work on a timeline here, how did anyone even manage to get in the Embryo in the first place? I mean, CPEX's ending shows an amnesiac Ragna falling out of the Embryo, without any memories, in the middle of what looked like a desert. How did he even get back, he just jumped really high?

Dunno about Jin's heat gain, but as far as I tested, no character had health buffs. Whoever ripped the sprites from the console versions should be able to get the movesets as well, but I can't even find the sprites thread anymore. Also, oddly enough, I couldn't replace the Unlimited versions with the Extend characters at all. Just crashed the game when I tried to use the character in training mode. Thing's really picky.

The events I mentioned were examples of times Clavis intervened, not the events that led to his downfall. And why exactly couldn't Clavis be "reborn" in another loop? The Rachel from the Phase Shift Novels is younger than CT Rachel, meaning Rachel wasn't just sent to the beginning of the timeline when the loop reseted. Your theory might hold some merit though. I can't think of anything that reinforces or shots it down, but where does Raquel fit in it?

Not really. Clavis decayed really fast and died afterwards. He also interfered with the world doing stuff like handing Jin the Susano'o unit and sealing Terumi. Sounds familiar? Must run in the family. He was an Observer and messed up just like Rachel and died as a result. He was also hinted to be an observer by multiple people, including himself in Phase 0.

Bleep. I always forget the Phase Shift Timeline. So yeah. It was Naoto.

Could be Ragna too if Clavis is lying to Jin so he doesn't get in Niisan mode. But we've seen Mori pull the craziest pieces of foreshadowing if we look back. For example. pretty much every single scene with Noel in CT, especially the Story Opening (Shows Noel's Lux Sanctus and hints she's not human) and her mirror scene (I think it's her arcade ending, shows that mirror Nu uses to make Noel observe her as the Sucessor to the Azure.)