MaximusMurkimus

Speaking of Story Mode, I wonder who is gonna be Nine's final opponent, since it's pretty obvious Ragna or Rachel will be Izanami's. Only person I can think of at the moment is Celica, but even then it was a half-hearted fight by both of them in Act 1. ......maybe an impromptu debut of Jubei?

*sigh* I feel like Jin hasn't learned anything throughout the entire series at this point, especially if him and Ragna are fighting once again. Sure, it could be over Noel, but even if everyone in the Embryo suddenly regains their memories, it feels like the character development from CS/CP was for nothing, based on the way some of them are still acting.

I'm curious as to where Izzy's sudden existencial crisis came from in Act 3. The entire time she's been going "grr I am death fear me" and finally got around to validating that in CF, so why does Relius suddenly start playing psychiatrist, especially after the way she left him high and dry in CP? My idea? It's actually Saya asking that question. We already know that there's some degree of cooperating/body sharing between them, so it wouldn't be too far for her to ask the question, especially after the bombshell that she's apparently the "drive" of the Master Unit. What if by "drive" Rachel literally means what's driving it to constantly reset time, since death is permanent and therefore counterproductive to Big Noel's plan of an ideal-as-possible world? I'm guessing her Act 3 arcade is gonna have her asking questions, possibly leading up to confronting Ragna again, this time with one of the or both of them having a better idea as to what should be done next.

Okay then. Regarding the connection between Izanami and Saya T., It's fairly obvious that aside from looks, they're not all that similar. One uses a big ass sword instead of magic and alsohas Soul Eater as a Drive, which works like Ragna's, so not quite sure where the Astral Heat naming came from of that. However, if Relius used Saya T. as a template for Izanami's vessel (hence the near-identical appearance), the failures could've ended up being Ragna, Jin, and Saya. Remember that he ended up kidnapping Saya T. in Bloodedge Experience (alongside Valkynhayn for some strange reason) and her fate was never revealed. Could've easily been trapped in the lab for who knows how long. Both Sayas were also noted to have high Ars Magus aptitudes and were constantly sickly because of it. However. Saya T. could use magic to artificially enhance herself, resulting in her being able to manhandle Naoto, but since Izanami already is super OP, she doesn't need it. And then the interaction with Naoto. He sees his Saya. Izzy thinks he's seeing things, but then has a hard time controlling herself. However, she also recognizes Ragna and doesn't run into any problems when he's around. This could mean that Naoto has some sort of seithr suppressor effect just like Celica with Dark War-era Bloodedge, or even more likely, there's some sort of subconscious of Saya T. shared within the other one that's responding to Naoto, and it only emerges when he's around, which is why she was wasting no time in trying to take him out. Oh boy. If Mori somehow manages to make Naoto very existence explainable then he can do whatever he wants tbh

Wouldn't this be more appropriate to say when Act 3 drops? I'm all for on-topic posting, but when Metal Gear is the closest thing we have to a comparison to form hypothesis out of, I don't see it as off-topic at the moment.

Does this mean Izanami is Solidus Noel? High ranking position, previously known identity (Imperator/President), currently unexpected identity (Izanami/Solidus), feuding with biological brothers (Snake/Ragna) Omg Mori if you wanted to make MGS all along all you had to do was ask (so that they could say no)

Nah, I was referring to Noel as Kusanagi, or rather, can transform into one via Mu-12. I was also referring to what she said in CP about having to take her serious that got me confused here, since she basically just went "lol you are a shadow, the true self" and Mu-12 just took it despite being the only one who could potentially end her. And I find it interesting that while Time Killer did absolutely nothing to Izanami in CP, her running through Ragna's sword was kinda messy, to put it lightly. And yet despite this, when Izayoi tried the same thing intentionally, she no-sold it and kinda just used it to prove her point. So it seems that she is in fact susceptible to some types of damage, but Time Killer was more of a OHK specialized move, and therefore was no good.

I hope there's a good reason why Izzy is relying on the rest of the cast to try and kill Noel when she can turn into the mufucking Kusanagi at will. ...okay maybe not, since it seems Mu-12 is her own person in the Embryo, but even still it seems kinda ridiculously tedious to wait around for someone to try and kill her when you can just do it yourself. Is that a typical supervillain thing or something? Is still she worried about getting rekt by Mu-12? Didn't seem that way from Mu-12's arcade ending.

Someone get Mr. Non-Subtle (me) hyped, because that pic is still cryptic to me

That picture is too confusing to discuss >_>

How about "Big Noel" for the Noel within the Master Unit and "Venom Noel" for the playable one :P

Speaking of which, did Rachel's Act 2 ending ever get translated? Was wondering if Izzy had anything to say on Rachel's increasing power loss/change of character. Like someone said, it seems like she's getting more and more like Ragna now and targeting Naoto seems like a very Ragnaish thing to.

I feel like the story ending will boil down to Ragna doing something to free True Noel and take her place in the Amaterasu unit, then have the story reset so early to a time where the Black Beast never happened and most of the characters end up living peaceful lives as a result, possibly including him, Jin and Saya. However, I remember in an interview a while back Mori said that the story will end with Noel having a happy ending, so since that kinda relies on her survival as well as her friends, I don't think anything's gonna happen to them and possibly even Ragna. Hell maybe we'll finally see that inevitable harem ending with Noel & Mu/Nu/Lambda/Saya.

Isn't True Noel completely seperate from the Noel we've been following this whole time? Mu-12 is more directly related to her own creation and development than True Noel.

I have this sinking feeling that we're not quite done with Nine and Izanami as threats just because Big Noel is apparently the cause of everything. Sure, they were "defeated" because their role as a boss calls for it, but only Terumi was genre savvy enough to realize Nine was holding back/using a phantom and Izanami had a nice chat with just about everyone who had "beat" her, only getting rekt by Relius, so she's also gonna be around for Act 3, I'm sure. I wonder if anyone will go "wait a minute, this is stupid", and go after them again instead?

Aw yeah, Ragna going the Wild Card route, Rachel freaking out in a fit of out-of-character moments, and Izanami having an existential crisis? Act 3's looking great already.

Chiming in on the whole timeline thing, Ragna says in CS that Jin has had his sword for at least two years before the church burned down and it's been 10 years since then (can't remember; it's either him having the sword which would make it 8 years, or 10 years since the church burned down) so there's at least 8-10 years of a gap, which would've been enough time for Noel to have been created using Saya. That means they all at to be at least 8-10 beforehand if they're all in their late teens-early twenties by the current story. Maybe it's just being possessed by Izzy, but if Saya's the youngest and she seems kinda grown as it is, Ragna and Jin have to be in the early twenties minimum, but that seems odd since if the church burning was 8-10 years prior, they would have to be at least preteens. Of course, being artificial humans could stunt their aging.

Yeah, having the same VA usually doesn't mean a whole lot. Tsubaki and Kokonoe share the same, so does Izanami and one of the Takamagahara entities and Mei and Homura, although that's probably meaningful only because they're from the same family.

Saya being in on Izanami's plan would certainly explain a lot, especially if you consider that just like Hazama/Terumi, Relius was responsible. Jin always refers to Izanami as "Saya", even though he likely already know who she is. L that misery with Tsubaki and friends In CP, who's to say that wasn't just all one big "suck it" to Jin, since they're fond of each other? She also holds Noel and the other Murokumos in contempt, despite having no reason to. This could easily be Saya having disdain for weaponized versions of herself running around. Still, the sudden resistance her body puts up when fighting Naoto is pretty weird, since it's Naoto and not Ragna which this happens. I still think Saya T. could be linked to this; according to Zed's translation, she identities herself as Izanami and not Saya, but what if that post-battle breakdown was an unconscious reaction to him?

I actually thought the Alter Memory moment where Ragna says "fuck it" was actually quite poignant and relevant to the story. Who's to say that version of the Black Beast wasn't the most deadly in the past? Since it was the only instance where he was a willing participant, the BB would be at its highest strength. Plus it was a nice little out of character moment for him, where he really felt that defeated and it was inevitable to happen, until Noel/flashback Saya convinced him otherwise and snapped him out of it, one of the few genuinely nice moments in that show.

So help me if the game ends with the Black Beast destroying anything and everything again. I'd say BlazBlue has a split chance of ending in a BS way like that.

I used to main Aigis exclusively in P4A before moving on to Teddie/Yukiko/Marie, and had no problem switching modes, so maybe I'll have an easier time than I'll expect playing as her.

So overall, would you guys say is she a intermediate/expert level character? Will probably go free/Stylish mode with her most of the time until I get comfy.

The last two games have been begging the question of when he's gonna disappear, as well as how. I'd be surprised if they didn't follow up with both in CF.

Well, you have the fact that Nine was leading everyone into thinking Izzy was the root of all their problems, even though that wouldn't apply for people like Taokaka. My theory was a lot more simpler than I initially realized. Remember how quick Izzy was to turn Ragna berserk when Noel turned into Mu "mofucking Godslayer" 12 at the end of CP? Maybe she still sees her as the biggest threat to her existence and therefore is trying to get everyone to take her out as Noel before she can actually try to live up to her name.