Amare

Replies ^17: That does make a lot of sense. I have to wonder, how big is the Dreamscape in total? Between the twins and Nova, they populated it with a ton of people. IIRC, Nova said that all of the inhabitants of the Dreamscape are people like her and the twins, dreamers who Darkrai discarded, but can there really be that many people in Ayrith with dream powers? I know we've seen a few people around stuck in the dream, and Rosetta mentioned that she'd heard of people who'd been in Odis and woke up, but if everyone in the Dreamscape is a dreamer, shouldn't half of Ayrith be in a coma? Is it possible that at least some of the Dreamscape residents are actually figments/created by Darkrai, like Tristan was? Assuming that we'll be seeing at least one more settlement, it just doesn't add up. I feel like it would make a lot of sense for Cresselia to have some kind of vital role in the endgame. For all we know, maybe there's another church/cult/whatever who worship her. Or maybe Darkrai had his agents lock her away, who knows? Maybe Lilith's looking for her? Knowing the devs, they're going to make it extra painful. Like giving us a gauntlet battle where everyone has a new Mega or something. Those are all really good ideas. I wonder what Perfection Cresselia would look like? ...maybe, if we're a settler, is Perfection Cresselia our Pokemon? For all we know, she thinks we're dead? Or something along those lines? Maybe Darkrai chased her out of Ayrith... Holy shit, I never thought of that. Now I'm wondering something- Crescent's original goal was to put everyone in an awesome dream world, but why would anyone go to Darkrai for that, given that Darkrai's entire schtick is nightmares? It's not like that's a secret, either- everyone knows that Darkrai causes nightmares. So I'm wondering, what if Crescent's original goal was to try to get Cresselia to put everyone into the dream, but they got taken over by Nova, and Darkrai got them to change the goal a little or something? And Cresselia being in the Wildwoods would definitely make everything a lot more interesting. You're right, I don't think regular Cresselia would have the power to take out Darkrai. But if the player winds up getting Cresselia and she attains Perfection, that'd be a whole other thing entirely. Maybe we'll be alongside Cresselia, Perfection Darkrai and their trainer bearing down on us, and then boom, time to get nasty. I mean, I've been writing a fanfic that revolves around Reeve/Garret, Garret/Rosetta and Rosetta/Reeve, and that's just the start of it. Otherwise, I feel like Emily/Rosetta has potential. And I think a big part of the fandom ships MC/Tristan. Have you got anything in mind? I know we've been asking what Perfection really is, but now I think we need to be asking what darkness really is. Because while 'the absence of light' is obviously part of it, it seems to be wound up in emotions and lots of other things. It's surprisingly complex. It also seems to be wound up with Perfection, so for all we know there's an extensive mythos around all of it. ...or we've been way overthinking things.¯\_(ツ)_/¯ It's true, with the Wildwood we could be getting anything from somewhere populated by evil faeries, to haunted by ghosts, to haunted by ghost trees, and so on. It'll be really interesting to find out what's in there. I definitely think design traits between Perfection Pokemon is something to look out for. I swear, if turns out that the Dreamscape was like the inverse reality of Ayrith all along, I'm going to throw something. Delica or whatever her name is could be a lot of things, but I'l go with Poison or Bug as well. Kairo, I'm inclined to say Ground (I would have said Rock but that's Azura.)

1: Damn Atlases. Holding the weight of our frustration on their shoulders. But yeah, it's going to be really interesting when we finally meet the Elite Four/Three/π, unless they all turn out to be holograms or something. I feel like with this game, you *could* have them having the kind of personalities you'd expect from their reputations- Azura as an ice queen/stately noblewoman, Atlas as a noble hero, Damon as a bad boy- or maybe they'll all turn out to be frat kids or something. Replies ^15: I'd put Amelia in her twenties. Maybe somewhere between 22-28? Yeah, I feel like Mesprit showing up is definitely going to lead into something bigger. And with the whole Dreamscape plot in E6, we're not done by any means. Maybe Azelf or Uxie will show up in the Dark Zone, who knows? We definitely need all hands on deck, and I bet Reeve will enter the fray at the most appropriate moment, aka whenever he'd look the most stylish and/or save all our asses. I suppose the question is, if Lilith *isn't* at Astraciel, where would she go and what's her intentions? Does she want to bring down Amelia and reclaim the Foxes? Does she want to destroy the Foxes? Does she want to join us? Is she building a Darkrai Death Ray? I do not know. Oh God, not another gauntlet. Or hypnotised battle. But you're right, Deso has been pretty nice to us so far, which probably means it's going to stop being nice to us shortly. Or maybe I'm just paranoid. I just realised something. Darkrai and darkness are a major part of this game, but nobody ever mentioned Cresselia. You'd think Darkrai's counterpart would be something everyone would be all over, but I don't think there's even been a line about her in the game. So where is she, and what happened to her? Did Darkrai lock her away somewhere, or try to wipe her from everyone's memories? Is Cresselia what Lilith's looking for? Do all the Pieces summon her if you put them together? Yeah, we've kind of spiralled a bit. Hopefully we're an enjoyable read at any rate. We could start speculating on various characters' relationships if we want the devs to have more fun? That's definitely true. Does darkness feed off emotions? Does emotional turmoil lead to darkness? We know Perfection allegedly stems from being in an unwinnable situation with impossible odds, but there must have been a bunch of people in situations like that whose Pokemon didn't attain Perfection, so what makes Lilith different? Was it that she was in the presence of someone who was under the influence/affected by a Legendary? Was it that she was feeling the right cocktail of emotions to attain Perfection? I feel like there's an interesting line of thought there... It's probably full of Oricorio, or militant Flabebe, or Vileplume or something. Or maybe the field's actually haunted. Who knows? The new Megas and Perfection forms are really good. I can't wait to see what Perfection Darkrai looks like. I wonder how Perfection forms for the other Eeveelutions would look? There's also the fact that Darkrai's spent a ton of time in the Dreamscape, which screws with your mind at the best of times. It's entirely possible that Darkrai has some problems telling the Dreamscape apart from reality. I definitely agree that those four NPCs have some kind of importance. I'm not sure what, but they're suspicious. We should probably keep an eye on them. I guess the difference is that we had every reason to believe that Tristan was the Leader, while we've been explicitly told that Jarred is no longer the leader. But it's possible that we might fight him for a badge anyway, I guess. I'm guessing the Astraciel leader is next, then Ava, then Vera, then Kairo. This is a long shot and I'm probably not remembering properly, but I recall there being a mention of someone who I think was called Delia in Astraciel Town who Reeve is on good terms with, I think she's the Astraciel leader. And no, we haven't been told much about Vera except that she's the Dragon-type leader and only appeared on TV once.

I've also been quite busy, sorry. 1. Ah, that makes sense. (Now that you mention it, the Atlas mechs in Mass Effect were a bit of a bitch to fight, generally.) But I do look forward to meeting the Elite Four... three... three plus Ditto... in person. Replies ^13: Yeah, she says 'the boy, Hardy', so he's definitely under 20 (although as someone who is also 30, anyone younger than about 28 is a child to me). I'm definitely looking forward to learning more about Ayrith and the lore. It also occurs to me that the Serenity/Kanzen Temple plot might somehow tie into the Dreamscape's plot with the temples and the weird shit in there. Not sure how, but it's a possibility. I'm also hoping that Reeve joins us for a few reasons- for one, I want him to be like Radomus from Reborn and be able to change outfits to whatever fits the situation. For two, I feel like a bunch of strong Psychic Pokemon could really be helpful. For three, throwing Reeve against Waldenhall would add a really interesting dynamic to the whole thing. And for four, I don't know how much Reeve can do for the team back at his lab. He'd probably be a lot more help out in the field. Good point with the scene of Lilith in the field. It occurs to me, we've (including the characters) all been assuming that we'll find Lilith on Arcanius, but with that clip of her in the field, who's to say that she hasn't been and gone already? For all we know, we'll have to track her all over Ayrith. (Maybe the Pieces are going to form some kind of Lilith-detector?) And it would be pretty poetic if the key to defeating Darkrai was to use Perfection against him. God, if we wind up having to do another Reborn where completing a quest requires ending a battle on a certain stage of the field, I'm leaving. I'm not doing that shit again. Honestly, if Connor does have to battle on the Darkness Field, he deserves it. But yeah, it feels like Darkness as a whole holds a lot of significance, so maybe that's what we should be looking at. I feel like there's a non-zero chance that the devs read this thread and either laugh at what we come up with, take notes, update each other on how many rabbit holes we've fallen down, or pick bits to add into the game. In which case we should probably prepare for an agonising Elite Four lineup where they all turn out to be Dittos working for the Foxes. That's definitely a good catch. I wonder, would any match against someone Darkrai is controlling be on the Darkness Field by default? I noticed that too. Maybe Shiv's secretly into the protagonist? /jk The only thing we really know about the field is that it's full of flowers and presumably wasn't on Amaria Island (and probably couldn't be on Cellia). I feel like Astraciel Forest is the most likely place, given all the stuff we've heard about it. God, yes. Especially since we've got all the new Mega Evolutions, and AFAIK, no two Trainers have used the same one. So I imagine everyone's either going to be packing a Perfection mon or a new Mega mon. Yeah, that would make sense if Darkrai just figured the protagonist must be dead. I suppose there's also the question of how long it's been- maybe Darkrai forgot the particulars? That's an excellent question. Maybe we'll discover 'our' old Pokemon is still alive somewhere. That would be awesome! IIRC, Ava has Cradily, Meganium and I think Tropius (if that hasn't been changed), but any of those would be a good choice for a new Mega.

1. OK, I gotta ask. Why are you skeptic of people named Atlas in video games? Replies ^11: I think the protagonist is meant to be in their late teens... well, at the very least, they *look* like they could be in their late teens, maybe early twenties at the most. But yeah, given that this is a Pokemon fan game, they could be 100 years old, or reincarnated, or an android. You never know. And yeah, between the wiki and what was put on the tumblr, it's a bit hard to find concrete information. (But yeah, Hardy being inspired by Azura would be adorable, even if they turn out to not be related.) I remember Lilith calling Hardy a boy- I think Lilith's meant to be about thirty, so I'm guessing Hardy's somewhere between 15-17, definitely not over 19. I feel like Lilith is a really interesting case of... I'm having trouble thinking of the word, but like... ambiguous morality? Like, yeah, she's nice and reasonable and opposed to the villain and has a sympathetic backstory, but she's also the leader of a crime gang who does terrible things. She supposedly did terrible things in the past, but we don't know if any of that actually happened, but she's still responsible for terrible things in the present. She's a good demonstration of how it's not all black and white. We had a lot of Shiv trying to fight off Darkrai's orders during e6. I'm guessing that by this point, he's either thrown off Darkrai's control or succumbed fully, but as to which one... no clue. We'll have to find out the hard way. Yeah, I'm guessing that the Serenity subplot is going to become a lot more important in e7, now that we're on Arcanius and heading to the Temple. It might even integrate with the main plot, who knows. I agree that there's probably something else Reeve can do. As to what... no clue. Get a message to Lilith, or the Elite Four? Distract Waldenhall? Turn up on Arcanius as the world's most fashionable explorer? Who knows? Technically, I guess we don't actually know *what* Lilith is looking for. IIRC, all she said is something like 'Where all this started' and that it's somewhere on Arcanius. Maybe it's where she met Nova, or maybe it's where she met Waldenhall, or maybe it's something else entirely. I went back and checked. When you fight Lilith, you start on... I think it's stage 3 of the Darkness Field, and the intro text is something like 'In an endless sea of darkness, any glimmer of hope fades away'. That's pretty... flowery? Esoteric? for field text. But at the same time, it *does* seem to tie into the whole Perfection thing- the only known Perfection Pokemon are all Dark-types, the whole needing to face unbeatable odds to attain Perfection, and so on. But it also works with Last Resort, tying into it- being in a situation so bad that there's no hope and you literally have to go back to the last resort. (I have no idea if this actually leads up to anything, if it's just a cool Easter egg, or if we're coming up with stuff the devs never thought of, but it is pretty fun.) Yeah, thanks, Connor. God. But that is a good point- maybe it's the Darkness Field, or maybe it's the literal field. If we assume Umbreon attaining Perfection happened somewhere on Arcanius, that could have something to do with it, since there's supposed to be mystical energies and stuff. Or maybe it's that the field is where Lilith caught her Eevee? Shhh, don't give the devs ideas! Oh, who am I kidding, like the Elite Four *won't* be agonising. Even if one of them's a Ditto. Maybe everyone's related somehow. We're all cousins. In all seriousness, I agree that Darkrai didn't seem to recognise us, but it's possible that he was playing dumb in front of the twins or something. Or maybe being an amnesiac and possibly going by a different name made him think we had to be someone else who just looked like the original person?

1. You know what, yes. Absolutely. Atlas is now the Black Fox. I realise everything indicates that Hendrick the Ditto is the actual weak link, but no, it's Atlas. Replies ^ 10: 1. Due to narrative conventions, I now declare that Azura is either Hardy's sister or his mother, given that we don't know how old she is. Or, come to think of it, how old *he* is. Yeah, I feel like that's something we all need to remember- Lilith may seem really reasonable and apparently be on the side of good, but she still runs a crime gang, allegedly made people who crossed her disappear, and is apparently a cop killer. I realise we don't have any solid evidence on those last two, but she's still responsible for a lot of bad shit. Even if she didn't directly order it, I don't recall her doing anything to stop Amelia from bombing the cruise ship, for instance. And God knows how many people/Pokemon have died because of Waldenhall's experiments. You know what, that's actually a really interesting theory. Hardy's Zorua seemed fine when we first met them, then suddenly he's sick with a disease nobody can cure. Lilith seemed to have an eye on Hardy from the start- I vaguely recall Amelia saying that Hardy was always Lilith's protege, not hers. Hardy said once that the Foxes had already helped his Zoroark more than the Pokemon Centers had, and maybe that's because Waldenhall's experiments gave them a head start. I'll throw in one of the above theories and say that even if she isn't a Fox herself, Azura might have mentioned Hardy to Atlas/Hendrick/whoever the Fox is and that's how Lilith found out about him. It's actually really interesting, now that you mention it. Shiv's spent a long time going between the Dreamscape and reality, and having to deal with readjusting to what he thinks is real and what's fake each time- and now he's got Darkrai controlling him too. I wouldn't be surprised if the poor guy was dealing with some serious psychosis on top of all of this. 2. LMAO, a future episode has a prank ending where it's just suddenly Explorers of Sky and it's revealed that Ayrith is where the protagonist lived before that, and then it's just five minutes of the devs laughing at us. That would make a lot of sense, actually. I mean, we're probably not going full Insurgence, but I can see that there could easily have been other cults around. For all we know, there could still be cults around, in Arcanius or other parts of Ayrith. Guess we'll have to wait and see. I do think that Reeve is on our side, I just think he might be compromised by stuff like getting blackmailed by Lilith (hypothetically). But him sending us to Lilith is a good idea. Whoops, I completely missed the 'some time ago' part. But it does beg the question of when- after all, Reeve only found out about that just before sending everyone on the boat, so either he met with Waldenhall after our match and lied to us/guessed at where Waldenhall was going, he met with Waldenhall before the match and somehow already knew what he and the player found, or... something. I don't know. I just generally assume that Shiv knows everything, he usually does. That's actually a good point. The game suggested that Amelia simply took advantage of Lilith vanishing to take over as the leader, but I can buy Amelia 'vanishing' Lilith herself. On the other hand, Lilith does seem to have some kind of goal/quest in mind. Yeah, there's definitely something weird going on with Cedric. Maybe he's her long-lost brother or something. *crack theory* Oh, I *hate* the Darkness Field, it was the bane of my existence when I fought Lilith and Aurora. But that part about the Last Resort is incredibly interesting. (Also, what was the stray comment from Shiv?) That's a really, really interesting theory. I wonder, when we eventually face Damon, will he have a Perfection Pokemon too? Oooh, great question. I think when I played that part the first time, I assumed the entity was screwing with him, but there's more possibilities- I know people have theorised that the player is one of the original settlers with amnesia. If there were pictures or descriptions that Waldenhall's research found, maybe that's where he recognised us from? Or maybe *we're* his long-lost relative. Or, y'know, it was the Ditto. We can always blame the Ditto.

1. Well, to return to an earlier theory, it's possible that we're dealing with a Malva situation- that one of the Elite Four is a Fox. If they were, I imagine it'd be quite simple to either subvert whoever runs the League or get them replaced by another Fox. Replies ^8: 1. So he does, I forgot that. Yeah, given how we were basically shown that the flashbacks had been altered when we first saw them, I dare say that it wouldn't be too much of a stretch for that not to have been the *only* alterations, or maybe we just weren't shown the relevant bits. After all, this is Desolation, where a rather large part of the game involves us being lied to or just having the truth concealed in other ways, so why would they stop there? Well, with Shiv, I'm guessing that at least part of it is that unlike everyone else, he can go back to Ayrith, so he hasn't really 'lost' anything, as such. Not to mention, he has godlike powers and hardly anyone else does, so I imagine that's a bit of a morale booster for him. 2. All of these are excellent questions, and I don't really have any answers, though I am most curious about the fate of the trainer as you mentioned (assuming they didn't get trapped in the mirror, sent into the future by Darkrai, spontaneously thrown into the Pokemon world as an amnesiac or anything along those lines). However, I do have a... well, I could say 'theory', but it's more 'crazy idea', and it runs as follows: 1. The only way we know of for Perfection to occur naturally is for a trainer and their Pokemon to be facing impossible odds with no way out. 2. Perfection has also been referred to as 'Divine Light', and Waldenhall apparently thinks it can be fragmented or broken up. 3. The thing he thought was a fragment of Perfection was clearly sapient and had some kind of otherworldly power. 4. The priests at Kanzen Temple have something to do with Perfection. 5. In this 'verse, the only religion we've seen involves worshipping Arceus. 6. Arceus allegedly has 1000 arms, even if we can't see them. In essence, my theory/crazy idea is that what the game calls 'Perfection' is Arceus directly granting the trainer/Pokemon pair his blessing, possibly by sacrificing/implanting one of his arms in them, and it's the exposure to his power that changes them. (Kinda like Exalted, a bit.) If that or anything like it is the case, then it's possible that people who attained Perfection alongside their Pokemon become immortal, so the trainer may well still be out there. Well, that's a very valid point, but there's always option 3, which is that Reeve is lying for some reason (or mistaken/his calculations are off). If he really is working for/stuck with the Foxes, he may be trying to throw us off, lead us astray, or even just keep the player safe, given that we're supposedly/allegedly dying and all. Edit: I went back and watched the last part of E6, and realised something- Reeve *does* straight up lie to us then. He says that Waldenhall is heading for Darkroot, but the subtitle just before the cutscene conversation with Reeve and Waldenhall doesn't have anything about 'in the past' or anything, it just says it's happening in Cellia East. I mean, it's possible that Waldenhall headed for Darkroot after that conversation and Reeve made an educated guess as to where he'd go, but it's very suspicious. Yeah, that makes sense. I always assumed that Lilith teleported it in or something, but Hardy could well have left it too. Speaking of, something just hit me. From what we saw in E6, Hardy genuinely doesn't seem to have any idea where Lilith is. She seems to have just up and vanished, either because she had to/someone kidnapped her/she's dead (I really doubt that last one, but we can't count it out as an option), or because she decided she didn't need the Foxes anymore- as I recall, the Fox defector in the quest on Arcanius says that Lilith used to act like she could just dissolve the Foxes any time she wanted and that'd be the end of it, which was an attitude that a lot of people didn't like. Assuming Lilith didn't get abducted or something, I feel like it'd be out of character for her to not have *someone* telling her what's going on with the Foxes. Lilith may be a lot of things, but stupid isn't one of them, and I really doubt that she never realised how much of a loose cannon/potential liability Amelia was (not to mention, she'd probably want to make damn sure that she knew what Waldenhall was up to). So I'm guessing that unless she can spy on them somehow, she's got at least one person in the Foxes reporting to her. Hardy is the most obvious option- for all we know, he's a damn good actor- but I feel like the other options would be Reeve (assuming the theory about him is correct) or Cedric, who seemed weirdly concerned about Lilith during the Arcanius sidequest. Just a thought.

(Sorry for the late reply, I didn't have my computer for a while.) 2. I mean, there's always option 3, where it turns out that the Ayrith League is run by some guy who's just sick of his job and either went on vacation or is permanently stoned, and we get a whole episode where the protagonist deals with bureaucracy and recruits people to take over. But I'll assume it's probably nefarious. Maybe the Black Foxes were the real admins the whole time. Replies ^6: 1. Yeah, I think Aaron seems most likely. As for Aderyn, I'm surprised she hasn't yet got involved with the Elliot clusterfuck yet, that's a nightmare and a half. Also, I don't recall Hardy being from Celeste, when was that mentioned? I noticed the gravestones as well. It does seem like the game is implying that there's a connection, but I don't know what it could be. Unless the flashback was lying, they first met when Nova tried to recruit/kidnap Lilith, but we don't know what happened after that, so there's a big interval that they could have spent becoming best buds/rivals/conspirators/whatever. As for the Dreamscape, I think at least a lot of it is people reacting to the news that (or so they think) their entire life has been a lie and they're now in the 'real' world, which frankly sucks compared to the 'fake' world. That'd do a number on anyone's psyche, honestly. That being said, the Dreamscape is weird enough that I imagine at least some of it could have been induced. I suppose it makes sense that Jarred's doppelgänger would be completely lucid, at least... 2. ...well, shit. Excuse me, I think I need to go get an Umbreon. I'm assuming that by 'Perfection Gem' you mean the Fragment that Waldenhall was looking for. I thought the entity was the so-called Fragment, or that Waldenhall's whatever he was using to sense Perfection energy picked up the entity and he mistakenly concluded that it was what he wanted it to be. (I mean, he's an arrogant prick, but to be fair, I don't think anyone expected the entity.) Remind me, when was Lilith using Hardy to leave breadcrumbs for the protagonist? The only thing I remember along those lines is when she asks the player to meet her on Route 1. That would actually make sense if the priests knew about more/other kinds of Perfection. So far we've mostly heard scientific theories and old folk tales, so maybe there's other ways to look at it. Episode 7's going to be awesome.

1. I feel like if we high-fived Jarred and got a flashback, it'd just break the protagonist's brain and lead to a bad ending. 2. Yeah, either there's some intentional fuckery going on, or Ayrith really, really needs some better management regarding its Elite Four and Gyms, especially since it seems like nobody bothered to find a replacement for Tristan for five years. I'd say 'this is why Ayrith needs an Ame or Amanda', but considering what happened to them both... maybe not. ...or maybe whoever was in charge of management got taken out as well, who knows? Replies ^4: 1. Connor definitely seems like he's either upset about something or just needs to chill the hell out already. I'm hoping we can call in Aaron, Rosetta and maybe Aderyn for help. (Or we could just throw Jarred at Waldenhall and see what happens). Of course, it'd also be the perfect time for Lilith to return and reveal that she and Nova were working together all along and unbeknownst even to their members, the Black Foxes and Crescent are two halves of the same organisation. /s (That being said, Lilith and Nova *did* seem pretty cozy in that one cutscene, though it might have just been solidarity between ex-Darkrai pawns.) 2. Wait, what Black Piece? I went back and checked the lab near Fairbale, but there was no Black Piece there, just a book. I feel like there's another possible explanation- maybe there's something they needed in the Canyon itself. After all, we never got any real reason as to why they went there, of all places. The new dev blog says that 'The history of the canyon is well storied... but despite that, there are still missing pieces of the puzzle, and a large mystery that only a small, unfortunate handful are privy to...' So I'll bet that the twins and Darkrai are in that handful. Regarding the possible Reeve/Waldenhall conversation, it's basically all but confirmed in-universe, but it hasn't really been openly said in the game: Reeve and Waldenhall obviously did a ton of research during their time working for the Council, but I don't know how many accounts of past attempts to make artificial Perfection even exist, let alone how many they found. Reeve says he studied what happens when both people and Pokemon reach Perfection artificially, and the way he and Waldenhall talked about it at the end confirmed it for me- they don't reference past accounts or anything, they talk about it like it happened in front of them. That is, I think Reeve and Waldenhall were experimenting not only on Pokemon, but on humans- and as we know, all their test subjects died. I'm guessing that the only part that those outside the Council know is that they experimented on Pokemon who died, otherwise they both would probably be in jail, and even if they escaped prison, I doubt Reeve would have become a Gym Leader. So I think the dialogue in question is from the following scenario: they tested on Pokemon who died, Waldenhall thinks he's got everything perfect for the test on humans, and Reeve is understandably wary. Now, regarding my Reeve theory, I agree that he's likely not an actual member. It especially makes sense when you recall that Waldenhall was suspecting that Reeve was keeping things from him; given that Lilith would have wanted as much information and people working on her Perfection research as possible, I doubt that she would have overlooked that Waldenhall had a very talented student. It seems obvious that Reeve wouldn't have agreed to join- especially since I really doubt that the Black Foxes care about whether or not anyone they test artificial Perfection on would die, as long as the cops didn't find out and it wasn't anybody likely to be missed- but yeah, I can see Lilith either blackmailing, buying or recruiting Reeve- but for herself, not for the Foxes. And Reeve mentioned that Arcanius has a long history with Perfection. We'll probably learn more about the people behind the ruins in Fairbale, too. I went back and reread that dialogue, and it made me think: it seems evident that the unknown speaker was either trying to save Darkrai or elevate it to Perfection artificially (or, save Darkrai from dying because it reached Perfection artificially). But now I'm wondering: the unknown speaker seemed to be lamenting an impossible situation. What if Darkrai reached Perfection because of that, but it combined with artificial Perfection and something went amiss? I don't know if that's even possible, but it's an intriguing thought. Maybe that's why Darkrai reached Perfection, but then lost it at some point. That's actually a really fascinating point, and it makes a lot of sense. When you consider that natural Perfection seems to come from impossible circumstances, I can see why people might think that Perfection is a divine gift. Waldenhall talks about the priests like they're nothing but fanatics, but I wonder, do they worship Perfection, or something like it?

1. It's never too late to come up with crazy theories. And yeah, now that I think about it, you're right- we really know nothing about Nova. Hopefully we'll learn more about her in future episodes. 2. Come to think of it, in the Cellia Library, there's an NPC who brings up that nobody seems to know anything about Shiv, and even says that it makes no sense considering that he's a champion, if not *the* champion. And you're right, despite knowing a bunch of Gym Leaders, nobody's ever mentioned the champion. Ava mentioned that the Elite Four never respond to her messages, but it's almost like there is no champion. Replies squared: 1. I agree that the situation does seem primed for a team-up with Crescent. At the end of the day, the good guys don't really have enough firepower for this (especially since there's at least two Gym Leaders who could be recruited into the fight but haven't been for some reason) and even after Garret wiped out like thirty Foxes by himself, they've got the numbers and between the Foxes and Darkrai, things are escalating rapidly. 2. It's off-topic, but the Chryseum Canyon thing feels a bit weird to me because it's coming in the seventh of ten episodes, but it feels like end-game territory. We've got all three bad guy teams in or heading for the same place at the same time, and the good guys are chasing them. IDK what's going to happen, but it feels like something's going to explode. ...come to think about it, what exactly were Darkrai and the twins doing for all of E6? I know it probably wasn't more than a few days, but were they really just twiddling their thumbs on top of the canyon, waiting for Darkrai to spontaneously re-attain Perfection? Or maybe... Tristan and Hendrick are the same person! *dun dun dun* He faked his death and ran off to be the Normal-type Elite Four guy, and then after the cruise ship happened, he was possessed by Darkrai and made to befriend us! ...yeah, probably not. Fuck it, maybe they were both Dittos. I went back and looked at the dev blog again, and here's what we're told about Artem: 'While being a significant part of Team Crescent, Artem is equally ambitious to his own causes, that is, his research on the Grid, a mysterious and poorly understood plane of existence outside of Ayrith, and Perfection, a state of being that is currently understood to be related to evolution. Prior to E6, Artem has been in the deeper regions of the Grid, researching the area and trying to better understand it.' So I'm guessing he's been wandering around the Grid, getting really sick of the colour purple for a few months, if he hasn't been rescuing lost children in the process. I agree that it's likely Reeve. It occurs to me that he could be talking about their Perfection experiments, saying that they can't fuck it up again. But given that their experiments ended with the test subjects dying, it seems an awfully callous way to talk about it, and Reeve doesn't seem that callous. Your idea that 'she' refers to Lilith did give me an idea, though. Here's what we know: -Reeve and Waldenhall worked together on Perfection for years, some time ago. -Their experiments had a 100% fatality rate. Reeve told the Council, which got them fired; Waldenhall saw this as an unforgivable betrayal. -Some years later, Reeve publicly hasn't touched Perfection in years, but privately, he has a lab in the nightclub he owns and is still carrying out research. -Despite presumably having not seen or talked to Waldenhall since they got fired (going by the dialogue in the end cutscene), Reeve was able to contact him and set up a meeting. -Garret says Reeve came from nothing and at one point was on the streets; I can't remember when, but I think at one point a Crescent grunt says Reeve spent some time on the wrong side of the law. -Despite that, Reeve somehow became the city's top fashion designer and Cellia East's Gym Leader. -Reeve says that he made the serum he and Waldenhall used in their experiments from energy he found below the city, but the Foxes were long gone. -Except, we know for a fact that the Foxes were still using their Undercity base up until the player stormed it. -We only get to East after Amelia pulled the Foxes out of Cellia and went to Arcanius, but nobody in East ever mentions having a problem with the Foxes, IIRC. And Reeve doesn't mention them as being a problem, just Crescent. So, here's my theory: I think that Reeve is either a Black Fox or that the Black Foxes have some kind of hold over him, probably the latter. It's possible that they've been funding his pursuits in exchange for his continued work on Perfection- I imagine they didn't tell him that Waldenhall was working for them as well, but given that Reeve managed to discover and make things that he kept secret from Waldenhall, I can see the Foxes wanting Reeve on their side. It's possible that they either stayed out of East or made sure not to make any problems in East so Reeve wouldn't have a reason to stomp them down. And it's possible that he made a connection with Lilith and that's how he got the energy from Umbreon- after all, he was just a researcher at the time, not an enemy, and that would have given Lilith a connection to Waldenhall for later. (It also supports my theory that Reeve is an alcoholic who drinks because of all the myriad fuckups in his past, one of which would be his ties to the Foxes.) I don't think that Reeve is actively working against the good guys- he may now be working for Lilith as a double agent- but he's definitely got more secrets that he hasn't told us. I actually like that theory a lot! It's true that there's some weird stuff going on with Arcanius- Chryseum's got some weird stuff as well, as I recall, and Astraciel Forest supposedly feels enchanted or sapient. We'll probably find out more in episode 7.

OK... Reeve has to be wearing contacts, right? Like, that eye colour cannot be natural. If it is, what kind of divine being/mythical creature is represented in his parentage, and is it his mother or father?

1. I'd also considered Eden being older. I guess we could go for the crazy theories like 'Eden is actually Nova, she got aged up and then sent back in time', etc. 2. I went back and reread the dev blog posts (more on that a bit later), and I found this bit about the Elite Four: 'While only three members exist on the walls of buildings and promotions, a fourth exists purely by word of mouth... the fate of this other member, however, is unclear. ' So... is Hendrick a real person? Is he a fabrication? Was he made up to fill out the Elite Four? Is he a Ditto? Who knows? But I feel like that leads into another question: what the hell is going on with the Championship and the Elite Four? Like, we're told that Shiv is the Champion, but is he *still* the Champion? He doesn't seem to have any actual interest in being the Champion. Why is nobody trying to find out what the fuck is going on with the Elite Four, or whether Hendrick actually exists? Is this one of those cases like in Reborn, where people undertake the Gym Challenge all the time but nobody ever completes it because half the Leaders are travelling, absent, dead or just don't feel like doing their jobs? Has *nobody* reached the Elite Four lately? Other replies (to the replies, to the replies): 1. One thing that's bugged me about Crescent for a while is that we don't really have any idea what their goal is now. Before, their goal was explicitly to summon Darkrai and put everyone into the dream. After Blackview, they sort of just fell off the map. The team didn't collapse, they're still trying to do *something*, but we have no idea what their goals are now. They seem to have abandoned going after Darkrai, so what do they want? A guy in the lab on Bountilia Island was studying Perfection too- why is Crescent interested in it? What gives? 4. Yeah, I somehow doubt that Hardy's getting a happy ending. It feels like the only 'good' ending is his Zoroark ascending to Perfection, but I doubt Hardy would get there with it. It's a really irritating mystery, because Ava never actually tells us what she knows (and neither does anyone in Addenfall). I really hope we get to find out soon. Like I said up above, I went back and reread the dev blog, and I found a couple of weird bits of dialogue that don't seem to relate to anything else. The first says: %&*$&#$*#*# > It's time for you to return... I suspect I am almost out of time. %&*$&#$*#*# > Is that so? You wish for me to leave my work, despite my progress? I am closer than you think. %&*$&%&*$&#$*#*# > The grid can wait... with what they have discovered, it would seem that we are looking in the wrong direction. $$%%#%&*$&%&*$&#$*#*# > Meaning? %&*$&%&*$&#$*#*# > It's not what lies beneath that matters... but what HE has discovered above. $$%%#%&*$&%&*$&#$*#*# > Are his intentions so maleficent as you believe? Or is it simply the unknown that you fear? %&*$&%&*$&#$*#*# > We don't have time to find out. %&*$&%&*$&#$*#*# I'm going to guess that this is between Baron and Artem, and takes place before Artem came back from the Grid (aka Bountilia Island). But it leads to the obvious question- who is 'he', and what did he discover? Waldenhall and the Ruins? Shiv, having located the lab and wanting to find Nova? Who knows? The second is as follows: > Are you sure, really sure? We can't afford to mess this up again.> I have never been more so. This is our destiny, after all. > And can we control it? > Of course. Why would you ever doubt me?> Something that powerful can't come for free. At the very least, she taught me that.> I don't play with chance, not anymore. You have nothing to fear.> And if you're wrong?> Hmph... when have I ever been wrong? I have no idea who this is. The second speaker's arrogance and talking about destiny makes me think it could be Waldenhall, but I don't know who the first speaker would be. Waldenhall doesn't really consider anyone on his level- the only theory I can come up with is that the first speaker is Reeve and this took place back when he was Waldenhall's student, but then who is 'she'?

Hey, if it helps, I completely forgot about this thread, so I'm just as late. First, a few comments on your comments: 1. I absolutely want to see Eden and Garret teaming up together. I guess there's also another question there- Waldenhall said something about Eden having some kind of Grid-related power, so what can she do? Can she teleport? Is it possible that she's already managed to escape? 3. It feels like there's some weird shit going on with the Elite Four. Azura used to make visits to Celeste City, but then she just stopped. Has she really abandoned her roots, or is someone or something stopping her from going back? Why is Hendrick the only member who doesn't specialise in two Types, and why has he vanished? And some replies to your replies: 1. Also, if you choose not to team up with Shiv against Baron at Bountilia Island, Baron says something about how 'knowing what you are, you two should hate each other'. So obviously Baron and Crescent know something about the player that we don't. And the player should be opposed to Shiv, which is interesting. 2. I suppose there's a third option: maybe Ava's sister wasn't Amelia, but they could be cousins or something who haven't seen each other in a while. Or, maybe Amelia had something to do with Ava's sister dying or disappearing. 3. Honestly, Jarred is so frigging bizarre that I think there's a fairly strong possibility that we're completely off the mark and whatever he is, we'll never guess. 4. I think you might be on the money with the theory that Lilith's Umbreon being sick is because Lilith didn't attain Perfection with it. As to why she didn't... no clue. And as to your questions... 1. I have a theory that since it's called 'Majira's Rest', Majira himself is behind those doors. He might be dead- IIRC, nobody seems to know where he is or what happened to him- so it could be a tomb, or maybe he's frozen in time or in an artificial coma or something. 2. Holy shit, I never even noticed that. Good question. I wonder if we'll get answers in the 'Dark Zone' in the Dreamscape? 3. The obvious answer would be that it's some kind of Perfection fuckup, but I have another theory. Assuming that the entity in the mirror is the same person who wrote all the diaries in the ruins, they wrote about having enemies who were looking for them and trying to stop them. It's possible that those enemies hunted them down, and either trapped them in the mirror or they bound themself to the mirror to escape them. 4. No clue, but the Waterscape is seriously weird and there's some very intriguing stuff going on there (for a dream, I mean). 5. I completely missed that all the gravestones are of people who were being manipulated by Darkrai, great catch. I'm not sure who 'Si--' is, honestly. Shiv said they were a friend, but that might have been a lie. 6. See 4. Although, it's possible that the entity can reach into the Dreamscape. I actually thought up one more question while I was writing this: what happened to the original Tristan, the one who died? From his grandfather's diaries, the only theory I have is a murder-suicide, but that feels way too dark even for Desolation.

[Warning: this thread will be discussing major plot points and developments for E6 and I haven't spoilered them.] It's been a few months since E6's release, so I figured we could do with a thread to discuss certain plot points and where we think they might be heading in the future, as well as our own theories regarding the plot. I'll start off with a couple: 1: We know the Black Foxes threw Eden into the Grid, but I don't think she's there anymore. I think there's a fairly decent chance that Artem stumbled upon her in his travels and either brought her into Crescent or took her out of the Grid and left her somewhere safe. 2. The end cutscene seemed to be implying that the entity in the mirror is Darkrai's trainer. I'm not sure whether they're the same person who wrote all the journals in the underground base or not, but I do have a different theory: whoever and whatever they are, they were somehow stuck in/bound to the mirror, and they were specifically antagonising Waldenhall so he'd smash the mirror and free them. 3. The Elite Four are either part of the gangs (hell, maybe they've formed their own villain team) or are being held prisoner so they can't intervene. Aside from that, I have some questions to discuss/theorise about: 1. Who is the player, really? 2. Are Ava and Amelia sisters? If yes, why didn't they recognise each other on the cruise ship? If no, what's Amelia's connection to Darkroot? 3. What the hell is Jarred? 4. If Lilith's Umbreon obtained Perfection naturally, how come she wrote that it seems to always be sick and moody? In fact, why didn't Lilith attain Perfection alongside her Umbreon? 5. What will all the Pieces of the islands do when collected?

Hi, got a couple of questions.

Also, the exact same thing happened when I tried to start the storyline where Clarke becomes a Ranger yesterday.

I don't know if it's different for Mac users, but I've looked and there doesn't seem to be a file called Game.rxdata on my Mac. And I'm pretty sure I did put the map file in the correct folder.

I'm starting to think that I somehow really fucked something up, because I can't find anything called 'Game.rxdata'. I've found 'Game.exe' and 'Game.ini' but not rxdata.

Sorry, I'm really not good with technology- how do I do that?

I just tried it and it didn't work. And my save isn't older, is the thing- I downloaded the game after E6 came out, around the time patch 4 was released.

I did that, I think. I downloaded the patch, but I don't know if I installed it correctly because I wasn't sure how to.

Whenever I try to start the quest with Boss in Blackview, I get all the way through the dialogue and then the screen fills up with this box that starts with 'Exception: NoMethodError' and then has a whole list of stuff, like seven lines starting with 'Interpreter', and then 'Scene_Map' and 'Main' and '(eval)'. The game freezes and I have to restart it.

Hi, I have two questions regarding the patches for Desolation. 1: I just downloaded the latest patch, but I don't know how to actually patch the game (I'm on a Mac). Can someone ELI5? 2: Does the latest patch include the stuff that previous patches had?

Just wanted to say that I love the game, it's fantastic and I'm really enjoying it. Got a couple of questions (for now): 1. You've used music from other games, like Danganronpa 2. What made you decide to bring music from other franchises into the game, and how do you decide which songs to use? 2. Why is Reeve so hot?

To the best of my knowledge, yes. And I've just added the patch, hopefully it works. Thank you.

I'm on a Mac?