You promised me a pony... with missiles... Let's Play Iji

Whether Yukabacera intended it or not, anything Asha directs to Iji comes out as total garbage.



Anyway. To avoid fighting Asha, we need to create a Velocithor. But we don't have the stats to make one, nor can we get them.



This calls for a Nanofield Reboot.



And there. All of Iji's stats reset to 1, and the points are returned to distribute as we see fit.



We don't heal up from Health Cyborg stations anymore, though, but we've got what we need for right now.



But before we abandon him completely, let's go stop in on Asha with the Scrambler active.



I, um.



Iji reacts to him as though he's talking normally, but all we get is nonsense like this.



Emoticons and sound effects. I think I like him more like this.



Right, later. Shine on, you crazy diamond.



Fun fact: remember how you can crack Machinegun turrets while standing right in front of them? You can do so with any Turret if you have Nanovis up!



Maybe now I can get Nanomaster?



Whoa. Where did THAT come from?



Wait, the Massacre? As in, the gun that was used at Ciretako?



"...Don't worry about me, just do what you think is right. At any rate, if things go wrong and you need to put Tor in place, that Shotgun won't do you any good. I believe violence is a tool that should be used sparingly, but with utmost force. You understand this too, and as far as I've gathered, you have survived this far without killing a single one of your enemies, not even when the chance was right in front of you. I admire that in a person. Therefore I have left you a Massacre, a weapon that was once used on Ciretako. Look up the weapon info if you're interested. either way, this prototype is not as powerful as the real deal, and will drain your Armor when fired, but it should suffice to keep a Komato General in check. Good luck, Anomaly. /Ansaksie"

Ansaksie rewards our killcount of 0 with the Massacre. There's only one enemy in the game to test it out on, and it drains armor when used, but it is more than worth the trouble it takes to get.

"...But bringing peace at the cost of so many lives? I was reluctant, but when Iosa asked what I would tell High Command if this would surface in the future, I could not think of a reply. More fleets would in time come here, and more scout teams would be sent. The Tasens' extinction was inevitable, and so I made the transmission public, and added exactly what it implied. The roaring and cheering of our troops could be heard all the way to the command bridge. The burden never rested on me in the first place, but on my people."

Tor's justification for why the invasion isn't his fault changes if Iji doesn't call them down. Predictably, it changes to a blame of his people.



I like this ribbon dialogue too, for much the same reason I like the bit after Asha. Anyway, why's that door open now?



"That Security door to the right has a strange Nanofield lock on it. It says it will only open "if you've beaten the game at least once before". Well, whatever keeps people out."

What is this fourth wall of which you speak? Anyway, let's take a gander.



But what if they took away the warning labels in order to let the problem solve itself? WHAT THEN!?



"What's your deal, Zekailo? Always poking your nose in things. I suppose I'll tell you what I'm guarding here. You see, normally the "Eidolon" General exoskeletons take some time to achieve the full power of their weapon arrays after being first activated. If a General needs to do combat unprepared, the exoskeleton's weapons will start out weak and gradually increase in power as they are used. This is rarely the case as the Generals of the Imperial Army are not simply surprised by their enemies, and any battles with the Tasen are carefully planned. In case of an emergency, however, a mobile power core can be used to perform a "Maximum charge" of the exoskeleton, upgrading all of its weapons to their full potency as soon as it's activated. We actually have a power core dedicated to charging Tor's exoskeleton right here, but I doubt we'll have to use it. If you were to mess with that terminal over here, it means Tor will be FULLY charged for battle, absolutely no punches held."

Welcome to the closest thing this game has to an optional superboss (barring Yukabacera, but he's kind of a special case). If you Maximum Charge Tor's exoskeleton, things get a lot more exciting.



"Zekailo! Just in case you poke around up here after I leave, I must warn you again - DO NOT MESS WITH THAT TERMINAL, or once General Tor enters his exoskeleton, this power core will raise its weapons and defense shielding to maximum power! You'll get in trouble if you do that without permission!"

Sounds like fun, don't you think?



Don't go through with it unless you're confident you can fight Tor. Maximum Charge on the highest difficulty setting is a feat so difficult I've only managed it once in what must've been a hundred attempts.



Much more doable on Normal, but still.



Wait, Asha blew himself up?



"Anomaly... I had been waiting. Waiting to kill you or die trying, but no. NO. You wouldn't give me the pleasure... escaping life by your hands would be the only thing less shameful than returning without the bounty. My arm... my reputation... losing to a human... and now failing to kill you. I've become so stained, it's far too late to cleanse myself. Give my regards to the General, the General that will soon end your miserable, pathetic excuse for a life, snuffed out like the trillion others at the hands of the Komato. Do you understand, human? This planet will end. Everyone will die. Everyone. Death. DEATH!"

Oh. He was so insulted that we skipped his fight that he killed himself. What a nutcase. Anyway, Ansaksie's here too!



This is the only time a non-human has ever referred to Iji by name. Despite her attitude, Ansaksie really does have a good bit of respect for us.



Interesting philosophy.



Anyway, changes to the pre-fight dialogue. Iji tells Tor that she didn't kill Iosa, but he doesn't believe her.



She's a bit hurried to point out that there are no Tasen anywhere whatsoever, and certainly none in a defense base below Sector 9.



That's about it, though. Now, how hard is Maximum Charge Tor?

Pretty damn hard. No, that's not incorrect, Tor has eight full lifebars.



And, as mentioned, all his weapons start off at the highest potential. Each and every one of them (except maybe the Ultra Shotgun) now poses a very significant threat.



Learning how each weapon's pattern works is vital for defeating him. They all have safe spots individually, but Tor always fires them in pairs, making those safe spots harder, though not impossible, to identify and reach.



Anyhow, Tor's Superweapons. He needs three charged shots orbiting him to pull them off.



As soon as he lands with three of them, he begins charging up.



Just before firing, he uses a Heavy Stomp to launch Iji skyward. The stomp comes out fast, though it does no damage, but it's the big threat to avoid, because if he hits...



"Like a spark to the fire."

The Phantom Hammer doesn't just kill Iji. It completely disintegrates her and her Nanofield. If you don't believe me, take a look at her stat array.



Okay, we've seen the Phantom Hammer. Time for some Superweapons of our own. Not the Reflector, it just switches to that automatically if you die vs. Tor.



Massacre! If properly positioned, the damage from this can outpace even reflected charged shots, although the damage from it isn't modified by your attack stat.



If you really want to, you can follow up with reflected charge shots, but Tor doesn't use the Phantom Hammer after a certain amount of damage taken, so anyone who has the Massacre should use it to the exclusion of all else.



If Tor's health is too low when he has three charged shots, he'll instead use Nanostorm, seen here. Each of those little specks does a good chunk of armor damage, deals 3 Health damage once your armor depletes fully, and they'll home in on Iji to a degree. Not nearly as scary as a Phantom Hammer, but still worth avoiding.



I tried finishing off Tor with Retribution, but the resulting explosion was too awesome to screenshot.



A few things will change Tor's line after the fight. Having and using the Massacre is one of them.



This is the biggest shift in the ending dialogue, probably. Most of the rest remains the same.



He will make reference to your pacifism. And yeah, it should've gotten us killed, except Health is overpowered.

If Dan survives, he won't bring him up at all.



And, of course, Iji has someone waiting for her at the end of it all.



The aftermath is only a little lighter, but that little bit is all she needs.



Despite being pacifist, the deaths of every one of our antagonists still happened, though in different ways than before.



But holding true to peaceful beliefs did have an effect, regardless of what you might think. Some Tasen survived and might even live with humanity, even!



Not a much brighter future, but brighter all the same.



Argh! Even worse on my cracking! I need to step it up. And quite a lot, too, because I'll be showing off the secrets of the game now. Starting with one very notable secret in particular.

Next Time: Party Like It's 1999

That's two references to a thousand kills. What happens if Iji reaches that number?

I don't actually think the game has a thousand enemies in it, and even if it did, a third or so would be Tasen and therefore the Imperial Army really wouldn't give a damn. It'd be neat if that caused a non-standard game over by virtue of Alpha Strike.

It really does sound like the sort of thing Remar would've put into the game, but yeah, just not enough Komato to hit 1000.
Also, I want to see you beat Tor with Maximum Charge and on ReallyJoel'sDad difficulty. Fake spoilers are fun.

"Here's what we know about that damned teleporter. During the routine setup procedures, the teleporter destination was set at random, which usually means it won't connect to the other end because there's no matching pad. To everyone's surprise, however, the teleporter did find a working connection somewhere. We still don't have a clue where - or WHAT - that place actually is. The few who have returned report such strange findings, we believe they've simply gone mad. Some call it a bizarre trial, others believe it's someone's memories, while others still say it's a world beyond our own confines. One survivor claimed he managed to pass the whole ordeal, and wound up in an eerie place overlooking these worlds - he called it the "Orbital Dimension Haven". Out of determination to unlock the secrets of the world beyond this teleporter, and the naming convention used by the local humans, we have dubbed this strange and terrifying place "Sector Z". Due to the danger and secrecy involved, we have also placed an extremely powerful Nanofield lock on it - no-one will be able to use the teleporter without meeting the proper requirements."

Okay. We've seen most everything the main game has to offer normally. Now we start with the FUN stuff.



Starting with this teleporter, unavailable to players who lack every one of the ten posters.



OH HELL WHERE AM I



Welcome to Sector Z, the secret level of Iji.



Aside from the bizarre layout of the area, there's also chiptune-style music going on.



Each part of Sector Z has only a single enemy type in it. They're small and weak, but most of them can move vertically. These guys can even move through walls.



Even a glancing blow from the Shotgun is enough to kill them. Since your health drops to 1 as soon as you enter, the only stat that can really make a difference here is the Tasen stat, if you absolutely have to have a Machinegun, and frankly the Shotgun will serve you better.



The weird creatures in this area can travel through walls as well. Nothing here counts as a kill, though, so don't feel like you have to play pacifist. It's probably impossible anyway.



Oddly enough, it's very easy to die in here.



One useful quirk of the Nanofield Reboot comes in very handy here.



Since it restores all your armor, and everything here only does armor damage, it's useful in Sector Z alone as a way to heal yourself. It takes too long to do while under attack, of course, but it comes in very handy.



Poking the creatures here will get a brief reaction from Iji.



Wow. That's a lot of squishies.



We survive! Let us fall to our deaths!



No wait, we fall through the bottom of that weird vector sea and end up here. Where is here?

Oh no, we have teleported into Retrobattle!



We're in a spaceship infested with Fuzz! Thankfully, our gun is much better than Captain Good's weapon, and these remain just as killable as the squishies.



This area is a lot more cramped, though, and the Fuzz travel along the walls they're stuck to, meaning they have cover a lot of the time.



This last part is the trickiest. Ideally you shoot the Fuzz off of the right block and stand on it for safety, but in practice I'm bad at games today.



There we go.



So what's up next, then?



Castle of Elite, apparently.



Normally a puzzle game meant for characters with no offensive power and the same size as those Trappers, again made odd by Iji's size and Shotgun.



Just a trick of navigation, really.



This one's comparatively easy, because the Trappers are slow and predictable.



Next up, Hero!



Complete with Drones!



Iji, stop playing around and shoot the damn thing.



This area is very tricky due to the amount of vertical movement you have to do. Iji is not good at aiming up.



Ooh, logbook!

"Recently, strange things have been happening here. It's difficult enough reaching Tetron's throne room, but now some humanoid aliens have been dropping by, seemingly appearing from thin air. Most of them don't last long against the Drones. Could it be a dimensional wormhole, connected to an unknown point in space and time? This may be worth investigating in further detail. Destroying Tetron's current incarnation is still of utmost importance, of course. In the meantime, I'll edit one of the alien text logs and leave it here, with this message to whomever finds it: 'Stop warping carelessly through space. It's irritating.'"

You can't tell me what to do, man! I'm my own boss now!



Oh. Uh... let's be friends?



FRIENDS DO NOT VAPORIZE FRIENDS



Stupid robot hordes.



There were a lot of Drones guarding this room. It's got a poster, even!



I, uh... I'll take your word for it.



Moving right along.



That teleporter up there is reachable, but only after you've gotten everything else in the game.



There's still stuff over here!



Ah, the final area. The Orbital Dimension Haven.



If you fall, you'll have a long way to go...



But you'll warp harmlessly back up here after.



Make your way across the blocks to the end. What's down below though?



The game maker's initials. And we have to fall back down to warp back up.



Normally, gamma effects make the blocks warp in and out of sight, but those don't work in windowed mode.

Further on, we find... a shadowy clone of Iji?



Ah, just a mirror.



"I never thought anyone would make it this far. You are the most amazing Iji player, the most dedicated explorer and dominator of the game's ultimate secrets. You've achieved what extremely few players will likely ever come close to. Even though I probably won't know that you've found this place, you make me happier than you can believe. That someone would love my game so much as to explore its every corner is heartwarming. The years I spent on this project were long and full of doubt. Would Iji deliver? Would anyone even like it? How about anyone even finding more than three of the posters? But you, sir or madam, have made it all worth it. Pat yourself of the back, you've found the toughest secret in any of my games... or have you? Thank you for playing!"

Time was, this was the toughest secret in any of his games. Now that Hero Core is out, that's no longer true. But as far as Iji goes... well, there's still more to find.



But I'll play through a low-damage high-cracking run first. Just cuz.

Next Time: Known Like the Back of my Hand

Me too!

In fact, I hadn't even heard of Iji before stumbling upon that video, but the music and video description were enough to make me need to learn more about it. And learning more about it (specifically: that it was a highly-rated freeware platformer (just like Cave Story!)) is what drove me to play it.


Edit:

Oh hey look, there's a new page full of stuff after that post that I didn't notice. Good luck with the Immortal Nanomaster run Kalir. I've tried that before and they're not exactly complementary goals.

Hmm, you know what? I reckon the real reason the Komato hold off on Alpha Striking Origin is simply because seeing if humanity rebuilds itself is all a game to them too.

Sorry for the wait, I've been busy having fun. Warning you in advance: this update is kind of rambly and aimless. But whatever. It starts in the middle of the low-damage high-cracking run, where I am enjoying considerable success.



Remember this wall in Sector 7? It's just after Iji finishes destroying the Phantom Hammer, and just before fighting Proxima.



Now that we have beaten the game, the wall is destructible with a Rocket launcher. Where could that teleporter lead?



A mysterious dark place! We can use that teleporter behind us to go back, but like TRUE HEROES, we must press onward into the dark.



Doing so leads us to a hidden room, the Cracker's Hideout. This is intended as a kind of catalogue of secret stuff, and will basically spoil everything in the game to hell and back. Of course, I will be doing so now, so if you're reading this update before all the others in the thread, STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND READ FROM THE BEGINNING.

NO SERIOUSLY, GO DO THAT RIGHT THE HELL NOW.



Okay, let's move on. Spoilers, here we come!

"I'm going through OmnikrakR's notes on this place, and man is he ever one crazy guy. I wouldn't expect anything less from the person who figured out how to crack Nanoweapons using cascading errors. Here are some of his weirder notes:"

CHANGING FATE
In Sector 8, plant a Trapmine on the teleporter destination pad in the exit corridor. It may have some consequences.

ANOTHER FATE?
You know the Tasen who was stationed to defend the lift near the Exit in Sector 3? I think there's a connection between her and another Soldier who writes diaries.

DEEP SECTOR
Human bunker in sector 9. Raided by Ansaksie's Assassin squad as we landed, but it doesn't look like she was responsible for any kills herself.

These are all plot things we discovered in the pacifist playthrough (although saving the girlfriend and Dan isn't only possible in pacifist runs).

HERO 3D TERMINAL
Some Tasen cracker called Yukabacera wrote a game for standard terminals. A terminal in Sector 6 has a copy of the game.

That minigame we found in Sector 6. It's an unlockable extra you can play from the main menu if you wish.

MILKING NANO
Keep kicking a dead Tasen Soldier, Tasen Commander, Komato Trooper or Komato Berserker to juggle it before it disappears, it'll drop extra Nano. Only works five times per individual.

This I never got a chance to show off, partly because Strength is one of my lowest priorities for stats to upgrade, and partly because I'd totally forgotten about it.

ANNIHILATOR BETA
Remote-controlled Annihilator brought to Sector X. Looks like it was locked with a terminal in Sector 8.

HUMAN EGG-LIKE DECORATION?
There's a Tasen Turret in Sector 8. I recall it has some weird connection to the turret head painted on the wall a couple of floors below.

YUKABACERA
I know where he's hiding, at the top of Sector 6, but it's no use trying to fight him. All he's got on him is that failed translator he calls the "Scrambler". Worthless.

HAHA ASHA SUCKS
When we realized the Nuke Nanoweapon is so fast Assassins can't possibly avoid it, someone suggested Nuking Asha. It may not work after his latest bouts of training though.

POWER CORE LOOPHOLE
Mobile power cores are immune to the Nuke but not to the Velocithor V2-10. Damnit.

FEIGN DEATH
Just lie still on the ground and pretend you're dead. Works until someone steps on you or shoots you. If they see you fall over they'll know you're faking it unless you lie still for a while.

All stuff we've seen or heard of before.

SECRET PUSH-BUTTON CODE?
I saw someone playing a game and inputting a code on the title screen. They said it was related to "connami" or something like that.

Inputting the Konami code on the title screen prompts the game to mock you for relying on ancient memes.

CUSTOM ERROR MESSAGES
Assassin Ansaksie has one of these. Try cracking her - if you can keep up with her. Nothing special.

Mentioned before, but almost impossible to do, let alone screenshot.

FRAGILE SKYSMASHERS
Our Skysmashers can be destroyed with a single kick or Resonance detonator shot, just like the Tasen Turrets. Guess these models weren't that good after all.

MOVE CANCELING
I learnt this at the gym last starturn. I can jump and duck out of certain moves, but it took some experimentation to get it right.

A few engine quirks. Makes sense that Skysmashers would be vulnerable to kicks. Also, I forgot to mention, but when fighting Tor at Maximum Charge, he spawns two Skysmashers every time he lands. If using the Massacre, you really don't notice, but they become a huge threat on later difficulties.

VENDING MACHINES
The humans have something resembling vending machines in Sector 8. Maybe they still work if you try using them.

POINTLESS LEDGE
Near the entrance to Sector 7 there's a short ledge at the other end of a glass pane in the floor. Nothing at all seems to be on the other side.

More easter eggs.

SEALED ROOMS
Tasen Shredders are great for breaking super-high level Shield doors. The Resonance detonator and Hyper pulse can also destroy Shield doors, don't forget that.

A few tips for busting into areas that seem out of bounds.

GENERAL BANANA
I heard General Tor knows a cool balancing act. All you need to do is land the last hit on him with a Banana gun.

CREEPY CRAWLY
Yeah, I went to Sector Z, but I dunno how I got out of there. I tried poking all the creatures in there to see what would happen.

No, they don't really explain why the crackers know this. Does it really matter? Of course not.

I FIGURED OUT THE "RETRIBUTION" ACTIVATION POINT
With the right requirements, get knocked to the ground and quickly hold C while rising to your feet with 5 or less HP left. Too bad only the Anomaly can do it.

RIBBONS
It seems the Human Anomaly hallucinates about pink ribbons, and missing just one of them makes her forget all about them. Whatever boots up her Nanofield...

The ribbons are hallucinations!? Well, uh... huh. I guess that explains why we found ten of them.

WEIRD CONSTELLATION AND STUFF
Use the "Numpad" to move the view and take a look around the sky in Sector 7. Also look carefully at the huge stacks of boxes in Sector 1, and one of the human computers in Sector 5.

Mostly references to other games. And yeah, you can move the view of the screen with the Numpad, but as I'm on a laptop, I didn't bother.

CEILING LAMPS?
I tried hitting my head on as many ceiling lamps as possible in Sector 1. All I got was a reprimand from my Berserker though.

JUST SOME GOSSIP
I heard the only way to find out Annihilator Iosa's full name is connecting to her Personal Nanofield and attempting to crack it. Good luck man!

SUPERCHARGES
There's one in every Sector of this building? I know Sentinel Proxima drops one if you destroy it without ever electrocuting it.

HIGH SECURITY TASEN ROOM
I saw a heavily locked room in Sector 3 protected by a set of powerful Shield and Security doors. Nanofield Rebooting should do the trick.

MASSACRE
Assassin Ansaksie's got this weapon, I know it. She has weird morals. She's willing to give a copy to someone whose kill count is a perfect 0.

We've seen or soon will see most of these secrets.

INNER PREY
(See Craxmasta's log on "Null driver")

AAAAAH I CAN'T GO ON
There's a crapload of other things I haven't even begun to research. Find them yourself, Craxmasta.

And, of course, there's even more that hasn't been touched on or that remains to be discovered.



"OmnikrakR, I have NO idea what's going on in this intercepted message from Komato Informational Center:

The results are in! High Command has carefully selected the following entries for excellence in their respective category. The winners will receive a non-paid-for trip to nowhere starting now and ending ten cycles ago. Presenting the list of winners:
Winner of Castle of Elite Quote of the Year 2005:
"nice game but the next time i like it when you have more place to move bigger levels"
-cambesa, typed entirely in huge red text
Winner of Castle of Elite Quote of the Year 2007:
"The graphics look a bit dull."
-Prof. Mark Overmars
Winner of Castle of Elite Quote of the Year 2008:
"THIS GAME IS A DON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! nice music by the way" -lagarage
Runner-up Castle of Elite Quote of the Year 2008:
"yuck!" -zarley11
Winner of Garden Gnome Carnage Quote of the Year 2007:
"ok the game is point less you just knock of some elves out weird,,,,,,,,,,,,,, not fun for teens good for younger kids"
-ash007
Winner of Garden Gnome Carnage Quote of the Year 2008:
"it so much power. i love hard games nad power. it's fly santas evrywhere."
-piggekott
Winner of Garden Gnome Carnage Quote of the Year 2009:
"THE KITTY WIIL NOT DIE!!!!"
-recon940
Winners of Iji Quote of the Year 2008:
"YAY! Been waiting for this ever since it came out!" -Estin
"it's nice to have an entire stat dedicated to giving people a boot-to-the-head" -100thassasin
Winners of Iji Quote of the Year 2009:
"space weaponry seems to favor aliens with reverse-joint limbs."
-HYDRACORE
"NOBODY likes Iji." -Overman"

Selected favorite feedback on Remar's games. Where he got those quotes about Castle of Elite and Garden Gnome Carnage, I will never know.



"Damn it, we can't get it back. OmnikrakR was planting a message in it but accidentally pulled the trigger. The entire Nanogun just disappeared, after turning one of the walls to a huge face and the floor to liquid pencils. We know these "hallucinations" are just long-distance light redirections from the wormholes the weapon attempts to open, but they're giving me nightmares. Anyway, OmnikrakR tracked the gun into the space beyond that Tasen portal leading to "Sector Z". Guy's a genius, so he figured out that reality will shift in Sector Z according to who enters it - someone who has "achieved everything on the records screen except beating the Remar Games speedrun times" would be able to find and retrieve the Null driver. We don't know what that means, but I'm not going to try to understand this weapon anymore. I'm just counting myself lucky that it somehow gave me 99 Points when I tried firing it. Too bad it also turned my gun into what looks like carbon dioxide pudding."

The Null Driver is the last secret weapon in the game. As the logbook explains, we've got to do damn near everything in the game to get it. Thankfully, I've got a savefile with everything unlocked sitting on my hard drive, so you won't have to wait for me to do a bunch of Sudden Death Sector runs and complete every difficulty to see it.



"annihilate!"

They also have a tiny Annihilator plushie in their room. Because why not.



Well said, Iji. Let's start showing off specific Scrambler quotes for the rest of this file!



Dan doesn't have much lines from this point onwards, I kinda forgot to turn it on until Sector 9. But a lot of other characters do have lines.



Poking Vateilika enough in your last meeting with her will mostly just infuriate the hell out of her UNLESS you have the Scrambler equipped, in which case you get this story:

"Once, there was a pony - a mythical creature of Origin - who wanted to find his friends. He tried looking under the rocks, but he couldn't lift them. He tried looking in the sea, but he couldn't swim. He tried looking on the moon, but he couldn't get there. Just when he was about to give up, he had a moment of inspiration and invented the missile. The pony strapped several dozen on his back, and before long the rocks had been blasted away, but so had his friend who was sleeping underneath them. He had no sooner vaporized the oceans, than he found the remains of his friend who had been playing there. He rode a missile to the moon, but once there found that he was all alone."



Now you understand... nothing.



Iji trash-talks the most powerful Komato in the universe.



With utmost maturity.

This message comes up any time an ellipsis would display, with one exception.



This isn't a specific quote, it just amused me.



Who doesn't?



That's no reason to destroy the power core with a Velocithor.



Ansaksie reveals yet another secret! This will unlock a super-secret hidden difficulty, which I have to go show off now, don't I. BAH, time to stop writing this update, I suppose.



While I do that, have some of Tor's nonsense. Here's what he says rather than Dot Dot dot.



A ton of his quotes are styled after fighting game terminology for whatever reason.



Iji is paying attention.



You owe it to yourself to play through at least once with the Scrambler.



Oh, and sometimes if your computer isn't pro enough to handle the fight with Tor, the game will lower the detail level of Tor's attacks and Tor himself to compensate.



ONLY IF YOU GIVE ME MORE SCRAMBLER QUOTES.



SURRENDER TO ME YOUR MISSILE PONIES.



Haha yeah whatever.



Sure you are, son.



Actually, on the highest humanly possible difficulty level, Tor is actually really terrifying to fight, for many reasons.

Apparently this command to Kiron is a System Shock reference.



I've heard dumber.



If Asha killed Dan, that exchange here will be replaced with Tor explaining that Asha stole her socks instead. Complete with going "I was the same way once, never mind, your socks are still on your feet".



Anyway, I rule.



Two more unlockables for the pile! Weapon Info covers every weapon type available to Iji in the game, in as much detail as you care to know. Enemy Info, likewise, although it has a few interesting additions...



Not the least of which is Iji's stats, complete with last name!



As for that series of doors in Sector 3, that require more stats than you have available...



All it takes is some shuffling of your Nanofield. This I decided to show off during my Hard mode playthrough, also known as "can I use the Hyper Pulse to kill everything?" The answer, sadly, was no, due to ammo constraints.



That doesn't mean playing using it as your main weapon isn't fun, though!



"We're a small squad of people searching out all the "posters" in this military complex. So far, we've already found several, and we're pretty sure there's exactly one poster in each of the ten closest Sectors, for some reason. Anyway, it seems that Rocket jumping is a good way to reach some tricky areas, either by firing into a nearby wall or letting someone else shoot you in mid-air. Naturally, this is a bit difficult and dangerous to do, but anything goes in the name of posters. The MPFB Devastator is ideal for Rocket jumping, considering its enormous explosive knockback. We've also figured out how to cross small gaps with low ceilings, namely to blow yourself across with the knockback from the Nuke - if only it wasn't so difficult to get your hands on one. Similarly, if only we could find a Komato Hyper pulse we could break those out-of-reach Shield doors easily, and with a Velocithor V2-10 we could shoot troublesome obstacles through walls with great precision, unlike the Nuke which just destroys EVERYTHING nearby, including explosive barrels and most weak walls. We've even figured out that jumping off from a Shredder in mid-air will get you higher than usual, such as in Sector 4. Lastly, and this is just a theory, but with the large spread of the Komato Splintergun I'm sure you could destroy things like glass panes located diagonally above you. This would be useful when it's not appropriate to Nuke them, which would destroy a lot of nearby things which might be used as stepping stones to jump higher. Hey Naotgerai, are you writing this down? Because you should. Man, all of this would just be easier if we had some maps of this place to go by."

This is kind of a mini Cracker's Hideout, dedicated to giving hints about reaching the posters.



Yeah, we've unlocked maps of every Sector for beating the game. The poster, and Iji's position, are both displayed on the map unless she's gone out of bounds somehow (i.e. Deep Sector, the crackers' hideout).



"Of course, we have a reason for searching out all the posters. The wiseguys who accidentally stumbled over Sector Z decided to place the most arbitrary, bizarre Nanofield lock on the teleporter I've ever seen. Essentially is requires you to have seen 10 of these powers with your own eyes. Frankly the way they programmed this lock is more interesting than Sector Z itself, which is old news to us by now - we know the entrance is behind a sealed wall, at the top of the lift shaft next to the teleporter destination pad in Sector 1. It's just that without the posters, we still can't use the damn teleporter. Once we do get into that disturbing place, we're just going to keep going and find out what's at the end."

It also explains why you'd want to go through that trouble.



Why yes, I do love this game enough to play through it four times for the sake of an LP.



The more stuff you beat, the more stuff you unlock, though the best unlockables are usually the easiest to get, and harder to find or earn stuff is usually cosmetic or minor.



Among the things we have to handle to unlock the Null driver are the Sudden Death sectors. Like Dan says, everything here can only take 100 armor damage before dying, so play extremely carefully.

He's talking crazy. We're unlocking the Null driver if we beat all of these.



But whatever, let's go get my old savefile with everything unlocked.



Following Ansaksie's advice on the title screen unlocks a difficulty level after the highest one, called reallyjoel's dad.



If you remember, the poster in Sector Z was created by reallyjoel. The reallyjoel's dad difficulty thing is an injoke between him and Remar. Let's have a gander.



I think that game is called Umbrella Adventure. Kind of neatish I suppose, but I never bothered to finish it.



The intro cutscene is identical in terms of visuals, it's just the dialogue that changes.



If memory serves, this injoke was born when reallyjoel commented on a video of some bullet hell shooter at the highest difficulty and said "Bah, you're a noob. My dad can beat this on a much higher difficulty level, no sweat."



I'm pretty good at Iji. Maybe I can beat this difficulty?



Easily done, you're a cyborg supersoldier!



Are you pumped? I'm pumped!



Oh, right, I forgot to mention that there's a difficulty level info thing, it displays the differences between difficulty levels. What's reallyjoel's dad difficulty like?



Uh... what?



So, in Ultimortal difficulty, you can only upgrade Health and each Sector has a time limit like this, although a bit more generous than two minutes, I think. It doesn't change enemies quite like this, though.



Hey get out of here, we're still in the tutorial area!



SWEET MERCIFUL CHEIBRIADOS WHAT

Yeah, uh... there are even Elites later on. And if by some chance you do make it to the end of the Sector, there's a forcefield that bars your progress unless you have 100% of the kills in the sector. This is, of course, mathematically impossible, since an Elite on reallyjoel's dad difficulty has 200 armor and 30 health, and your Shotgun can't actually do that much damage in less than a minute and a half.

But that's not all. We've got one last secret to discover... maybe even more.

Next Time: Zentraidon

Oh wow, I never knew this at ALL actually.
This quote always struck me as being simultaneously hilarious and sad.
From what I've heard even if you cheat to kill all the enemies the lasers won't go away. You also cannot reboot on this difficulty making that trick not work to pass the lasers here, and with no strength bonuses you can't go to Sector Z

If you've unlocked everything, beaten the game on every difficulty, found all the posters, and cleared all the Sudden Death Sectors, this teleporter becomes accessible. The one in Sector Z, remember?



It takes us to a hidden area, with forcefields!



These are instant death if you touch them. We need a way to get through them.



Thankfully, Nanofield Rebooting lets us trigger mercy invincibility pretty much at will.



Hang on, what's that nanoweapon?



Aha, the secret weapon the crackers were playing with!



Psh. We killed someone who survived an Alpha Strike. Wormholes are easy.



Anyway, to best showcase it, I'm going into a single sector run of Sector X. With the alternate outfit because I've yet to showcase it.



Single Sector games, including Sudden Death, assume you haven't gone out of your way for any specific plot triggers, setting your kill count to 5 per prior sector, assuming you've taken each "mandatory" kill up to that point, and so forth.



Right, here's some targets. One Null driver shot, coming right up!



What



It killed that Trooper, and turned the Berserker into a Terminal.



A terminal that, of course, dispenses explosive bananas.



Not to mention all the hallucinations. We just got blasted onto ourselves onto a Shredder...



Turrets affected by the Null driver become corrupted, only able to fire Shocksplinter casings.

If you crack one, it drops a Shredder! But they retain the security they had prior to corruption.



Just be careful not to use it by any Cyborg Stations. It'll remove their functionality outright, and poking the space they used to be in drains your points. Not that it matters every shot of the Null driver awards 99 points.



This also goes for the core. We can't destroy it, so we're trapped.



But I'll try my best to continue onwards, damn it! But not with a map of Sector 9 in the way.



DANG IT MAP GO AWAY



Oh whoops, we tripped and fell into the Asha fight.



Asha can dodge the Null driver. Good for you, Asha.



I'm hoping that I can do something to continue if I hit both terminals.



Oh hey, a corrupted turret we can crack!



Yay, free Shredder!



Boo, being locked out!



Since restarting the sector keeps the graphical distortions, we may want to reboot the game outright for this.



There we go.



If you ever get the Null driver, don't use it too much, or navigation could become damn near impossible.



We made it to... the General's area? I think?

Ah, there he is, right by ourselves screaming in the sky.



There's a secret if you land the finishing blow on Tor with the Null driver. You can also warp which of his body parts goes where.



Oh balls, the Null driver's first shot erased his health bar.



AGAINST MY BETTER JUDGMENT I WILL SPAM IT UNTIL HE DIES



I... think I did it?



Oh, good, yes I did.



And now we get to see something new.



Right after Tor tells us this, we end up in Sector Y.



All the logbooks here are blank. Thankfully, it's almost possible to see where goes where, just follow the green blocks and stone walls.



But our Nanoweapon doesn't work... there's no enemies... it's dark. What's going on?



We're in Sector 1.



With two exceptions, every logbook here is totally wiped.

Personally, I consider this the secret bad ending to Iji. I mean, think about it: after beating Tor with the most dangerous Nanoweapon there is, you find yourself in a Sector you've already been in, nothing is alive, and your Nanoweapon and the logbooks don't work anymore. Why, you ask?

Because they Alpha Struck the Earth.

Iji failed to convince Tor, by either scaring or killing him with the Null driver, and the Komato carried out the planned Alpha Strike. But Iji survived, with a Nanofield bolstered by the Null driver. Not unlike Iosa, if you think about it.

But unlike Iosa, no one will come save her from the planet. She is alone on a dead world, the strongest being in the universe and yet doomed to starve or die from her Nanofield giving out, and while she lives, she has only a busted weapon and constant hallucinations as her only companions.



Right, enough depressing nonsense, now for silly nonsense! This logbook is by the place where the first ribbon was.

"Now it's you and me and a bag in between us, you don't stand a chance!" -Henrik

"It looks like puzzle pieces in space." -Henrik

"I come in peace, and you shoot lettuce at me!" -Ola

"I just got owned by myself." -Ola, fighting Asha

"I'm hiding behind a table!" -Oscar
"Yes, but it has legs!" -Annette

"It was a banana... or a slingshot..." -Oscar
"It was ammo." -Annette

"Look, someone's sending them a red button!" -Henrik

"You need more butts." -Annette to Oscar



It's a two-parter, too. Try fitting each quote to an in-game situation!

"CONTACT! INCOMING! WE'RE UNDER ATTAAACK! THEY'RE EVERYWHERE!" -Miguel

"A! B! C!!!" -Annette

"Hu! Huh! Hay! Wheat! Rye! I wonder what it would sound like if all the attacks were like... oats. Wheat? BARLEY!" -Annette

"Yeah, but they won't get to see a picture of me. Ever. Ever. Eveeer!" -Anna

"Maybe I need to get hit by a bus at full speed." -Anna on recording realistic screams

"It needs to be a surprise, usually when people say it, it's when they're chased by like an airplace or someone's shooting and they're like INCOMING! And everyone just BOOF! KRSH! PSHH! Throw themselves to the ground, that's how it is. Usually." -Miguel

"Do I sound like a child?" -Henrik

"COME HERE! GET OVER HERE!" -Monika

"MEH. No... waaiiaah! No. What the devil are they supposed to sound like?" -Johannes



The pathway to Sector Z still exists, and it's not blocked off.

We can find here the poster for Sector Y, but I wish we hadn't.



The last logbook has only a final secret left to it.



But we can't leave the Sector. We're trapped here.



Just us, a Nanogun, and our clown shoes.



And that's the last of it. I've shown you almost everything Iji has to offer. Played through it four and a half times for the sake of this LP, and enjoyed every bit of it. When I was younger, I'd have called this game my favorite game of all time, and even though it's got its flaws, it's well worth playing through at least once. Go give it a try.

Next Time: A Missile Pony

With how many secrets and easter eggs and random nonsense there is in Iji I'm never sure if there will actually be a next time or if this is your way of ending the thread.
Excellent job, either way!

The Null Driver is possibly the strangest weapon I've seen in a game.

Great job on the LP, Kalir! I'll be sure to give this game a try after I'm finished with my own LP (Which is to say, maybe two weeks from now? Soonish, anyway).

It reminds me of the Space-Time Beam from Super Metroid (which can be used for a similar bad ending), but somehow even worse. It's presumably inspired by memory-corruption glitches in other games, although it's a bit more comprehensive in how it works.

This is the most amazing LP and I am amazed

Haha, what a wacky scenario, am I right? Right out of April Fool's, that. Anyway, let's ignore that.

Iji recently updated to version 1.7, out of friggin' nowhere. Which hey, I'm always about more Iji. There's a pretty sizable load of changes to the game. First, some technical stuff. I'm not gonna hit the entire changelog, as it is pretty dang huge, but I'll tag the important bits.

• The stats have been slightly rebalanced. Ammo cap is now 5 per point of Assimilate instead of 10 (Assimilate 10 still sets the cap to 99) and Attack now ends up tripling damage instead of doubling it. Overall, I think this does a good job of making both of those stats more valuable to invest in over just shotgunning Tasen and Komato for all the gun's.
• Everyone walks slightly faster. This sounds minor until we get to a few changes down the road.
• Resonance Reflector now awards kills to Iji again. Man what, are pacifists not supposed to get any toys now?
• There's now only one type of Cyborg Station that lets you allocate to any stat. Not a real change, honestly, but enough of one to be nice.
• Screwing up a Nanoweapon combo now has an actual penalty: decrease ammo for both weapons involved by 5. Combined with the new Assimilate changes, that's pretty huge.
• You can't kill enemies by cracking them anymore, even Scouts or Beasts. Cracking Scouts jams their Machinegun (leading to them cowering in fear once they realize they have no gun) and cracking Beasts stuns them for 20 seconds. Also, cracking range is a bit better, which is nice.
• Passive weapons added. Wait, what?

YEAH BROTHER, WELCOME TO THE NEW HOUSE. Ignore the title bar, I'm still kind of new at IrfanView.

By far the biggest mechanical change to 1.7, Passive mode solves the age-old Iji dilemma: what if you wanted to play pacifist, but actually wanted to have fun at the same time? Worry no more! Every one of the eight basic nanoweapons now has a passive, nonlethal variant, accessible by hitting Enter at any time! Now you, too, can have THE WACKY GUNS.



First off, the good ol' Stun Gun. The Shotgun's passive variant fires at about the same range as its active one, but instead of dealing damage, it stuns enemies it hits. Stunned enemies stay in place flinching, and they don't deal contact damage. The stun length is very short, but increasing your Attack stat makes it last longer, and in most cases it's long enough to connect with a follow-up kick. Incidentally, your Attack score is very useful for passive weapons now, since they all have some additional parameter that gets better with more Attack investment.



The Impact Machinegun is just as ammo-efficient as its normal version, but each shot causes the enemy hit to flinch. You can also cause enemies to flinch if you try to kick them but lack enough Strength. On kicks, the effect is usually wasted, but with the Impact Machinegun, you can fire it repeatedly from long range (and more Attack means longer range). This one works best if you want to quickly interrupt enemies with dangerous attacks that have a long warmup, like Elites.



The Impulse Launcher is a nonlethal Rocket Launcher, simple as that. The advantage it has over a normal rocket is that it flies considerably faster, and only gets faster the higher your Attack. Aside from that, it can be used for anything a normal rocket would be used for in terms of knockback: disrupting enemies, launching yourself, blasting open walls, et cetera.



If the stun effect of the Stun Gun isn't enough for you, the MPFB Neutralizer has you covered. This weapon costs 3 MPFB ammo to fire each time, but blasts an area around Iji with a powerful stun effect, much stronger than the Stun Gun. Needless to say, the cost is expensive, but if you see a huge area you just don't want to try to bullet dodge through, this is definitely the way to go. As with the Stun Gun, the stun duration gets stronger with high Attack.



While the Tasen weapons are all about disrupting enemies, the Komato ones are more technical, suited well to someone who wants to play a more hackerly kind of Iji. The Resonance Disruptor uses the same close-range field as its cousins, but rather than reflecting projectiles, it simply causes them to wink out of existence harmlessly. No explosions, just a thank you. A higher Attack stat makes the field last longer.



Easily the jankiest of the new weapons, the Pulse Linker is INCREDIBLY ammo-hungry. Like, beyond what you'd expect from any other weapon in the game, with the POSSIBLE exception of the Buster Gun. However, it's worth it for pacifists. That blue trail is actually Iji draining Nano outright from the Annihilator! The beefier your target, the more nano you get as long as the Pulse Linker is on them! A higher Attack stat lets it reach even further. IJI: NOW WITH XP GUNS.



Straight out of Overwatch, the Shocksplinter instead becomes the Shock Barrier. For 2 Shocksplinter ammo, this thing deploys a barrier as tall as Iji is, which works much like the Resonance Disruptor. It also works on things like Pulse and Machinegun fire! This one I've found to be great for keeping me guarded while I try to crack into something secure. Do note that Plasma Cannons can break the barrier. Higher Attack lets the barrier last even longer.



Finally, if you REALLY want to get hackerly, you want the Chain Fractal Injection Shell. This weird thing consumes 3 CFIS ammo to make a crack attempt on whatever's in range, instantly. The range increases with Attack, but even at maximum Attack it's pretty short (about as far as a Pulse Cannon's reach).



Still, the fact that this can instantly crack things at range makes it incredibly valuable. No longer do you have to pray that Annihilator doesn't turn around and instantly chokeslam you: just CFIS it and be on your way! 3 CFIS ammo is expensive, though, and you still need to personally have enough Crack to be able to break through their security yourself.



Okay, now for the story stuff.

Two new endings were added to Iji, and I'm showcasing them both today. Do note that these endings are MEGA HELLA SPOILERS. If you're just now tottering into this thread for the first time all like "oh boy, missile ponies!", then

STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AND MAKE SURE YOU'VE READ THE THREAD OR PLAYED THE GAME FIRST.



Good? Good. Anyway, here we are fighting Iosa. This Iji has some kills since I'm using Single Sector play to show this, but really, the important part is that you get to this fight without either going berserk (the cutoff is 30 kills per Sector) or recruiting Ansaksie. Single Sector play, naturally, fulfills both of these easily. Do note the spinny spinny on the wall: Iosa now has those Crawlers to make the fight a little more interesting. They don't hurt that much, but you do have to mind them while jumping around like an idiot into ceiling lasers.



Next, Iosa's been defeated. At this point, provided the two qualifiers mentioned above are fulfilled, you get a choice as to whether or not to kill Iosa! Let's see what happens if we just...



BOOT TO THE HEAD



"It would have been as easy... as anyone else. Maybe... it's not too late. Maybe I can stop myself from turning into someone like her."

I missed the rest of it, but again, this being Single Sector play, this is from an Iji who's no stranger to combat, but doesn't actively seek it out. This changes if you're pacifist or not. But Iji's reasoning isn't the important part here.



The important part is that Iosa is still alive.



Scholar's note: GEN2 weapons, unlike all the GEN1 stuff everyone else is carrying around, have to be customized to house the Nanogun they're intended to fire. Ansaksie's Massacre is one such example. As this honest Berserker indicates, they are also ILLEGAL AS HELL to use, on account of the fact that the Tasen could, if they got their hands on one, very easily reverse-engineer it. Again, that's half the reason all the Komato troops carry self-destruct devices.



So uh... this bodes well.

Fast forward to Sector X. The fact that we didn't strictly kill Iosa doesn't matter to the Imperial Army: her mere defeat at the hands of a human is insult enough for them to keep trying to kill us dead. Once we reach Tor's outpost, we find a new logbook with a new story.



"During the Tasen's attack on my homeworld, my friend decided to hold his anti-air fire against a Tasen battlecruiser. Before it vaporised him, his platoon, and the planetary shield generator below his post with a Phantom Hammer shot, he told me that he couldn't kill another person - surely the crew aboard the ship would think the same when they witnessed his selfless gesture. After all, he said, true bravery is to risk your life to protect what you love."

Huh. I like his moxie, but maybe trying to take the moral high ground in the middle of a massively elongated conflict on a planetary scale isn't going to work out that well. And the fact that Iosa is telling us this story is not exactly reassuring.



One new thing was added. These Fleet 1089 reports track every kill that can be reasonably traced to Iji. And I do mean EVERY KILL.



I didn't feel like doing stupid garbage to avoid Asha's kill this run (and even if I did, Ansaksie wouldn't have granted us the Massacre with Iosa still standing). So here's an example of what kind of detail you can expect from this. More on that later.



At the rooftop, Tor's only now finding out about Iosa's shenanigans. Since we didn't, y'know, murder his lover, he's a LITTLE more levelheaded in the conversation, but the outcome remains the same.



To wit: no gun to our head from the word go!



Additionally, there's a bit more to the whole "I'll stop you if it takes my life!" thing here. Again, not getting most of this.



But you can see it's a bit different here and there.

And then we wrestled.

Tor's Ultra Shotgun, formerly a total waste of an attack, is now actually dangerous by virtue of being able to hit Iji on the ground. It covers an overall smaller area as a result.



Moving right along. Hey Tor, how's it going?



Huh, shouldn't we have transferred into slideshow mode around this point?



Oh, right. Iosa leaps in with her Vortex Cannon aimed right at us.



Now might be a good time to mention that part of the update involved having Iji's body remain when she dies instead of fizzling, complete with red human blood.



And yeah. Sparing Iosa doesn't mean you get out of that fight scot free. Ansaksie was right, Iosa is not the kind of person that can be spared.



So... now what happens?



Goes without saying that it's all out of Iji's hands now. But she did everything she could. Let's see what her true bravery is worth.



Sounds like Iosa's not going to give Iji's beliefs a chance to stick.



Remember, even though Tor didn't want to even announce the Tasen's position, he's gotten pretty good at washing his hands of it by claiming that someone else is at fault. And Iosa knows that.



Right, at around this time, Kiron chipped in during the other endings, too. Kiron, you may recall, is another General on one of the ships in Fleet 1089, currently orbiting Earth.



GET SCHOOLED AT



And yeah. This time, it's not because of the people, or Iosa, or even Iji. This time, Tor's deciding based solely on what he believes.



Now, you might recall that Tor and Iosa are in a relationship of some kind, yes? And how Tor said that he could sense what Iji's thoughts were, just like he could Iosa's? Looks like he's prepared for some true bravery himself.



But as things are, he's done everything he can to make a brighter future.



Moving to the ending slideshow, we have Iosa walking out of the research facility, Vortex Cannon still held.



In the end, Iji won the war of beliefs, even if she didn't win the battle.



Dan doesn't get to see his sister emerge from the building, but he does see the Komato ship fly in for a pickup, just before the fleet leaves Earth for good.



So yeah, that's the ending you get if you spare Iosa. This ain't no Undertale here: sometimes it's the steel-hard truth that people won't change their minds for anything.



All you can do is fight for what you believe in, whether it's with weapons, words, or your own life.



On a lighter note: they added a thing for if you get to the Tasen colony in pacifist mode!

So that's cool and all, but Daniel Remar added two endings this version. That was the ultra-pacifist ending (and I'm hesitant to strictly call it a bad ending, although it kind of feels like one).



Ignore this hoser, though. It's now time to see what happens when Iji REALLY fights back, tooth and nail. In order to qualify for this ending, you need to be berserk by the end. This means 30 or more kills per Sector.



Normally, if you're just fighting a few enemies here and there, you won't really notice much aside from Iji apologizing. But if you REALLY go ham on the murder, Iji will start doing things like bellowing "DIE!" and laughing coldly after kills here and there.



Additionally, once you meet up with Dan (Sector 5 is about as early as you can go berserk anyway) Iji's tendencies to Roadhog Solve things crop up even in cutscenes like this. I missed it since this is my first berserk run in 1.7, but Iji's first response to General Tor's existence is "so if we kill him they'll leave"?



Unrelated: now you need the CFIS to reach this poster. I still want to find out what those logbooks say. Maybe later. (Edit: that's where they moved the Ternary intro logbook. There's also now a listing of Proxima's ternary beeps!)

With the new changes to Attack and Assimilate, I'm worse than ever at getting Proxima's supercharge. Just not gonna happen for me, I guess.



Sector 9, just after saving Dan from Asha's ambush. I could've let him die here, but I think him living will be more... interesting.



Remember, if Iji's berserk, she doesn't even get the chance to spare Iosa. At this point she fears NOTHING.



Bye Iosa.



And then Sector X happened.

Remember these logbooks? The left one tracks your Tasen kills, the right one your Komato kills. And I do mean all of them.



Every single enemy you directly kill is logged here with their name, identification code, age, birthplace, and any method in which you killed them particularly creatively.



A particularly Flowey-minded sort could theoretically use this to look up exactly which characters wrote which logbooks, but I don't have that much raw evil in me.



I'm just going to highlight a few choice entries here and there.



Unsure what "extreme violence" indicates. Perhaps dealing overkill damage. Got a LOT of these in Sector 5.



A lot of Komato have self-destruct triggers.



The unique characters blend into the list as much as the rank and file, which is a really nice touch. And again, this Iji has over 300 kills, and these lists tracked every single person as their own page entry. These lists are HUGE.



Additionally, Beasts aren't listed with a birthplace, instead indicating the lab where they were "converted".



For real, this is kind of an intense thing to read. Next time you do a berserk run, just take the time to browse this entire list. It will take a long time, and it will feel HEAVY.



Right, that's all I'm gonna show for that.



The fact that Iji isn't just bringing this up, but instead saying it'd be "faster", literally right after trawling all those names, is telling. We're in the deep end now.



Yadda yadda yadda final boss. I played on Extreme to keep things interesting for me, but that's not of any real importance to the LP since it's just a playthrough with less stuff.



If Iji has 300 kills by this point, she is granted another kill prompt, like a non-berserk Iji gets with Iosa. And if she takes it...



Well... let's see.



Gruesome.



This is bad.



So yeah. Remember, this isn't just self-defense or anything like that. Iji might've started out with that justification, but after a point, she would be strong enough to walk through a pack of Annihilators without shooting and live. Iji had every possibility not to kill, especially not General Tor, and she passed it all up.



And as it happens, that mattered a lot to the people on the ships.



She heads outside and sees Dan. The look on her face says everything, and Dan doesn't have to say anything back at this point, either.



She doomed their entire planet, and even if Dan were to get angry at her about it, they don't have time for an argument.



All they have time for is to be with each other, as family, for less than a minute...

Before the world ends.



Now THAT is a bad ending. Sector Y might've been an ambiguous bad ending with weird garbage throughout it, but there's no way to read this one that isn't just depressing as hell.



Humanity doesn't survive. The Tasen don't survive. Nothing survives a full-powered Alpha Strike.



Fleet 1089 heads back to whatever world they came from, Tadezocora perhaps.



Kiron might be furious, and one of the lone voices of reason left in Komato society.



You'll never hear him above the cheers of the people.

...Okay, no, damn it. I don't want to revive this LP only to end it on this sad note. This was one of my favorite games back in college, and I want to send it off RIGHT! And that means HEY KIDS, THIS IS KALIR, AND I CAN RECORD IJI NOW.

Next Time: HARD MODE PACIFIST RUN THROUGH ON VIDEO. I CAN'T EVEN PUT AN APHORISM HERE THIS TIME, TOO HYPE.