Unfortunately I'm realizing how strongly influential at the very least vaguely evil characters with long hair and glasses were to me as a teenager, which is why I'm like this as an adult :^/
important RAD deeplore from the manual. yui dresses like that because she's a weeb. wiltz is fucking broke but he stuck around just for the love of the game. tomoe fucks. everyone knew that grandpa was Like That and hired him anyway
A Look at the Gigantic Drive (Robot Alchemic Drive) Strategy Guide
My copy of the GD strategy guide finally got here and goddamn it's a tragedy that this never got an English release. For one because it's a genuinely comprehensive guide to the game but also because it contains a lot of background info and lore that didn't make it into the game itself. I'm gonna go into some of the interesting stuff in it now but you can take a look at it for yourself here.
Obligatory disclaimer that i do not speak Japanese and the rest of this post is using machine translation, which should not be taken as 100% undisputed fact. We're just getting the gist of things here.
First: Character Bios. Most of it is pretty similar to the English Manual Bios so i won't cover them, but there's a few fun details in the MC Bios
Naoto is also a fuckin nerd, Ryo is a motorcycle riding loner, and Yui...?
If anyone who actually knows Japanese wants to translate any part of the guidebook let it be Yui's bio, because "Yui likes to destroy property for the sake of being dramatic" is such a fun detail i want to know how real it is
Next thing that caught my eye is these charts showing details on the optional cutscenes, something that I haven't seen covered comprehensively in any English sources. Kinda tempted to properly format this into a real usable guide, but i'd want to actually fact check the translations by actually playtesting it before sharing anything and i ain't got time for that so instead you get This
There's a full three pages dedicated to talking about different ways to terrorize NPCs and civilians. I have nothing else to say about that i just think it's fun
The "Special Information" section near the end of the book is where a lot of lore stuff is expanded upon. No pictures because it'd just be walls of poorly translated text, but some points of interest:
The origins/history of the Volgara are expanded upon, and different varieties of Volgara are described in further detail
The creation of the Meganites was originally started by the Japanese government, but the project was cancelled after failing to get results. Tsukioka took over the project from there.
The Volgara collect DNA samples of any lifeforms they find that could be used as weapons. Dantarion was synthesized from this DNA.
There's more but i really suggest you check it out for yourself if you're interested.
The other half of the special info section is a bunch of character design sketches, presented for your viewing pleasure. The text is mostly about design decisions, not character info.
The last three entries are the most interesting IMO; You got the E.G.G. captain, who seems to have had a bigger role planned that got cut from the final game, a sketch of the non-BNN reporter (the "This is Not a Movie!" lady) who is heard but not seen in the final game, and two Foundation employees who were cut completely. The translation for their text was a bit odd, but i think it's being intentionally vague about whether they were earlier designs for Keiko, or were characters that Keiko was meant to interact with.
Also any aspiring Wiltz cosplayers, peep that sketch of his ID card
Last thing of note is this really cute art of Yui and Nanao on the back cover. Unfortunately it's an incredibly small image that isn't printed very clearly, rip
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