Ulrich: The Awakened Ferroliquid is actually based on the research and findings of Alan Turing, the man know for the early concept of the internet and computer.
This will be an analysis of how Ulrich is inspired by Alan Turing, and theorise exactly what Ulrich is planning to do in 2.8 (so this is a discussion on CN patch 2.8 not global friendly)
Alr: the immediate though that came to Ulrich since his appearance in 1.9 was that he was an Awakened from the invention of the ferroliquid, until now this was largely accepted/ considered since we did not know much outside of his job as the Lead Cryptographer.
That was until 2.8 and the reveal as the free 6* in the new gamemode!
Why isn't he based exactly on the invention of the Ferroliquid? That's because the ferroliquid was formerly invented and discovered in its state in 1963 by Steve Papell of Nasa, and yet Ulrich's Era is stated to be 2 decades before.
So why Alan Turing?
Looking at Ulrich's birthday 30th May around the 1940s one of the significant events related to Cryptography was during WW2 Alan Turing alongside Gordon Welchman designated the British Bombes to help decrypt the Wehrmacht Engima machine signals (and yes Engima is based on this cipher machine). Ulrich's character story in 2.4 with him deciphering oscioscope with Engima by the end of the character story could be a reference to this.
One of Turing's inventions was the Turing Pattern, a concept that described which describes how patterns in nature, such as stripes and spots, can arise naturally and autonomously from a homogeneous, uniform state. This can be seen in 1.9 when Ulrich told Ms Radio to "groove to the incantation" in order to transmit the Storm Immunity Incantation to team TK on Aperion without the consquences of the incantation affecting the transmitter and the reciever.
These patterns can be seen in Ulrich's signature and in his ult:
The best way to test Turing's pattern is using ferrofluid, hence why Ulrich is an Awakened Ferrofluid.
Ulrich's role in 2.8
What is Ulrich planning to do in Antractica, and how does it relate to Alan Turing's work?
2.4 and to some extent 2.7 have been alluding to Ulrich's experiments involving Storm Immunity, as in 2.4 he attempts to test if the properties of the Regulus Disk that enabled the Satellite to resist the Storm before it crashed into Regulus' era if it can be replicated by making copies of the disk, down to the same ink and manufacturing of the disk. However the original disk remained perfectly unharmed and the multiple copies were destroyed in the process.
With little information most of us were asking why was Ulrich testing Storm Immunity again even though since 1.9 the Foundation had the Umbrellas? The CN website teasing aspects of 2.8 (credit to Merui for the translations) have revealed exactly what Ulrich hopes to do:
This reveals exactly how the Satellite: (1) remained in orbit following the First Storm since we get told in Ulrich's story the satellite had been put up prior to the First Storm, and (2) made the satellite 'resistant' to the Storm since 2.8 revealed that even space to a degree was affected by the Storm. Its crash likely the result of lack of maintenance and that it wasn't 'immune' but 'resistant', crashing into the 1960s era of Regulus.
(Also this explains why just his head made it out, the disk gave him enough time to ensure his survival via saving is Awakened form)
So therefore: Ulrich plans to replicate the disk's properities over a wider range of area outside just a ship, so I spectulate this is his role in 2.8.
The poster teaser alludes to a big battle between Foundation and Manus forces, and we know since 2.2 Sophia intends to create a Storm rather than accelerate a pre-existing one. From the PV its clear the Foundation loses and Arcana is revived, a Storm is very likely to happen however it is unknown this will happen after or during Arcana's revival.
So Ulrich's role is a trail by fire, test if the disk or its properties can affect a large enough area when the Storm hits to buy Foundation/ others time to evacute from the incoming Storm.
I think we can look at Alan Turing again for what Ulrich is planning to test:
In other words, keeping a certain radius in its intial state prior to the Storm hitting it = putting a pause on the Storm in an area for a brief moment.
Summary: Ulrich is an Awakened based on the Turing Pattern, which is best shown through Ferrofluids. Ulrich's role in 2.8 is likely to create a method to briefly pause the Storm's effect in a radius and ensure more people survive the evacuation of the Storm, that in the inevitable event that Arcana is revived and/ or the Manus is finally able to create their own Storms the Foundation have at least two countermeasures in the from of a Storm delayer and the Equilibrium Umbrella to combat it.
The dichotomy of Greenlake and Highway 77: rambling.
(Just general thoughts on both horror patches - I will be discussing spoilers for 2.1 here, and uh 1.2's as well if anyone is worried about spoilers for a almost year old patch)
I will give credit to Bluepoch here, having the next horror patch take a darker tone in the form of the Western Horror in comparison to 1.2's slasher horror genre was very cool.
You can see the impression of 1.2 effect people's inital perception of 2.1 from the first trailer and poster.
"Oh maybe its gonna be like Jessica and this is an illusion and no one dies!" 🙃
The signs of this patch taking a more serious and darker turn did become obvious in the pv, a literal body, actual red blood, the music and framing of scenes in the pv aimed at this darker tone, having Kimberely here, after the impression she left in 2.0 as such a terrifying and powerful character to be absolutely terrified here also adds to the theme. Then you have Tuesday's character trailer, maybe by this point you think, "shes a little creepy like Isolde but not that bad. right?"
Then you play the actual story and I think Tuesday's character really does shine in "how crazy is she?" question slowly becoming more and more apparent until it becomes "how fucked up is she?".
Case and point:
With Jessica, the scary part about her was the extent she fully tended to keep Blonney, and rhe Greenlake gang there; plus her misunderstanding that "maybe people do not like to be subject to slasher horror style scenarios outside of the film screen". Jessica is very much harmless and really desires companionship after being isolated to the campsite for so long.
Tuesday? She is partially influenced by the tragdey that befell her prior to 2.1 (Ill finish her character story later), there is this active enjoyment and thrill she gets from her victims and fear, either from others or even herself when Argus threatens to shoot her.
Tuesday is scary how she actively enjoys the fears she instills in others, this balance between a gentle and caring maid vs the terrifying fear enjoying person we fully see by the end. Part of it comes down to the va, who as of this post is unknown but the way her voice balances between caring and sinister is amazing.
Even genre wise is fascinating: in terms of Slasher Horror 1.2 plays on the satirical and overused aspect of the genre, literally Horrorpedia embodies this overused tropes and predictability the genre has come be known for. Alot of the patch was about noticing these tropes and attempting to avoid them.
In contrast I think its safe to say Western Horror is much more scarier and arguably less well known horror: fear of the mysteries of open roads, small towns, cult activity, the strange motel in the middle of nowhere - the fear of the unknown is a stable of the Western Horror.
Summary - the contrast between the 1.2 and 2.1 patches is very fun, I like seeing a horror genre that got me into horror initially getting the spotlight here.
Non-spoilery summary: This one was really good, I enjoyed all the playbles and they used the returning cast very well. Honestly I wish we got a full 30 chapters like 1.9, but this patch was able to tell a very good story with the amount it has, much better than 2.8.
Ill be more explicit below, but I do think the way they handle Merel was also so good.
This will mostly be commenting on story and less on theorisng so yay, it won't be everything, mostly key bits I want to ramble about, so if somethings not here, I might talk about it later (i hope lol)
The attack on Foundation
I really like how the attack by the Manus was interwined with challenges to the Foundation's very ethos, especially on their policy of refugees. Having a greater focus on the problems of how the Foundation selects who survives to the next era does alot for the story as a whole. Spiritually, 3.7 has alot of the themes and plotlines that hark back to chapters 3-4 that are awesome. Having the Manus oppose not only an immediate attack but having them overwhelm the Foundation was also very good with the upgraded enemies and the new artifical soldiers seen from the pv.
Arcana
Her portrayal in this patch was crazy, I think its the best one so far. The patch does so well in showing how scary she is, both with the animated cgs and the constant reminder of "you can't fight her just run", it steps up the threat of her presence and leans into the unknowable horror of her just waltzing into the Foundation just to chat with the President. Also what do you mean she can control the flow of pnuema?? Control the flow of arcanum and essentially stop it?? That scene was so scary, knowing she can shut down arcane abilities, shut down Awakeneds and even artifical life like Recoleta gets affected. A perfect buildoff from her Afflatus changing powers in her boss fight in 1.9. Its also so scary her power over Naukita, making her lose control of her lower half since she was originally human. Overall love her keep tormenting the narrative queen.
Short mention on Lopera and Igor
While I did wish Lopera and Igor and the rest of the squad got time in this patch to fully deal with the ramifications of 2.2-2.8, I think its good none of it was rushed in this story, but we at least see glimpses of how the confrontation will likely go, with Lopera conflicted on her thoughts on Moldir and being put in the worst position of having to shelter with the Gyphfon legion and be potentially labelled as a traitor is an interesting angle I hope we see more of later.
Returning Cast and Cameos
DRUVIS GOT OUT OF THE BASEMENT. Its very nice to have her play a role in the story as the voice of reason, diplomacy and as one of the strongest combatants in Vertin's team. Additionally having her talk with Ms Stranger was also really good, building off Druvis' resolve from Chapter 3-4 and question the state of the Foundation and its hypocrisy. Its awesome we get to see the likes of Naukita, J, Recoleta, Logger, Lorentz and Marsha play a role in the story as well in that large cg interacting. Lorentz is always fun to see her get under people's skin, excited to see her in Global.
Ms Stranger
This patch does alot for Stranger, explaining the link between Vessel Ensoulment and Phototaxis and highlighting her conflict over having done alot of bad things to the cast in prior patches (I want a Nala or Argus scene with her eventually). Its also cool seeing their in action, infiltrating enemy lines with her i1 garment and taking on Prima (wdym Animus had kids). She also let us see another angle of the mask trial and acting as one of the first to properly reject it.
Okay the main one: Merel
I probably want to do a more indepth analysis but I think the story did extremely well in handling her reversal and the impact of it, but right now I think we need more of Rhainnon to truly flesh her out proper if Bluepoch wants to hammer home that shes her own person.
Reflecting on the 3.x patch series its all been out "you can never be the same person who were before", "become the person you want to be, not what people want you to be" and I think very playable highlights these themes. Its been established as early as the Prologue reversed people never return to the way they are, then in 2.2 introduced properly Duncan'd people, reversed people can come back but are never the same. Honestly, the case of Merel was going to happen at some point, and Im glad its her.
3.7 is able to make her progression from 2.8 to now devastating, having everyone grow attached to the person she slowly becomes and grows into over the course of her appearances. By the very end of the current self Merel became someone who didn't run away and saved everyone, even if it was at the cost of herself. (Hey that scene was so tragic I borderline cried at it, ngl hits so much harder knowing her last words was begging not to disappear).
I think having so much time dedicated to seeing her grow and it to be robbed of it, then having Rhiannon appear soon after was ABSOLUTELY intentional. The whole tragdey of the Storm is that it doesn't outright kill people, it robs the current self and introduces them in different light, face and context. The special animation released alongside the patch drop shows this, we can't return to the person before and the Storm rubs it in our faces that yes, in essence and deep down this WAS the person we knew, but no longer. We have characters like Verity, Hummingbird and Ivan showing us no matter what at the current point in time reversed individuals cannot come back fully in the current moment. We have to sit with the knowledge of the past and are unable to do anything about it.
Merel argubly is the first character we get to know indepth prior to their reversal and return as Rhainnon, its no longer a second hand account by some like Verity who rides the Danube Dawn to say goodbye to the last traces of the Corvus she knew, its someone we get to know intimately before they get reversed.
I think the best thing Reverse does here is the absence of any closure, not for us, or any of the characters over Merel's reversal. Marsha nor Charon get to have their last goodbyes with her, and especially the latter since theres no body for Charon to bury. Matilda, Sonetto and Vertin only get to know the true Merel moments before shes reversed, and the last moment Merel experiences is the fruits of her labour and the knowledge she was just out of reach. Rhainnon is both the light at the end of the tunnel and the twist of the knife, her existence creates this lack of closure for the player; knowing its her in the suitcase and not Merel. And I think thats the beauty of it.
What I want at least is that Rhainnon appears more in 4.x, flesh her out more at the very least, I think her reveal could have benefitted from a similar situation to Kakania. Speaking in terms of CN, her fate at the end of 1.7 was ambiguious, it wouldn't be clear until 1.9 if she would survive. Maybe if Rhiannon was revealed in a patch after Merel's reversal it could hit even harder. Nevertheless I enjoyed what we got.
Other bits
Z becoming Acting Head of SPDM is such a nice progression of her character and means through actual change in the school, the full reveal of the President was something (I can't take the voice and face seriously), the leader of Pax House being called the philospher king is something I want to pick apart, the whole smoltin and smoletto section was crazy and the whole vertin going blind for a bit is so fascinating.
God the animated scenes with Arcana, Merel and Stranger are so good, love seeing them move around and stuff.
(I wanna know the lady with closed eyes with busted down the door, wanna know her deal)
Also the boss, THE BOSS GOING 3D is crazy, the perspective shifting with it really sells the scale of its stature.
Yeah thats mostly it.
Ye
(Reversing Merel and the next era starting on 1st April 1935 is so cruel oh my god)
(ALSO REVERSED SCHNEIDER IN SWAN LAKE OH MY GOD IM NOT DELULU)
I have a previous post discussing her fear, but I figured as stuff in CN come out in Global I can revamp the older analysis and such
Sooo, Global safe analysis of Vertin's fear as seen in 2.1! (SPOILERS for 2.1 event story, idk its self-explanatory, amazing event, eep sheep, go play or watch a streamer play)
In short - Tuesday was correct about Vertin's fear, however lacked the true context to why she feared the Storm, and was seemingly haunted by the voices of children. It seems the extent of her influence/ the baby's is to provoke images and sounds of these fears, a type of mimcry of those fears and through the person's own reaction to them does she figure out that person's fear and further exploit it.
One way to think about it would be Tuesday pointing towards the lighter and the gas tank, that person lights it themselves and sets everything blaze, while Tuesday simply watches/ enables the action without lifting a finger.
Alright. Whats Vertin's fear?
The fear of giving false hope, a false salvation to those she promised to save and fear that she cause another incident like the Breakaway to happen again. That helplessness in knowing you brought a promise you could never bring to that person, no matter how hard you tried.Not exactly one to one, rather making someone believe in salvation, only for it to be wiped away at the last second.
Sound familiar?
🍊
Back in Book 3, even if exaggerated Vertin probably did have a flashback to the Breakaway after Schneider was reversed. Remember, Regulus was the first person Vertin had saved from the Storm, the first successful test. Vertin believed that she could also save Druvis, Sotheby and Schnieder. We know that only two of them would make it. Why didn't Schnieder appear in some form? She was always the trigger to that trauma of the Breakaway Incident, never the cause.
I find this interesting when Vertin talks to the illusions, a familiarity. She has the tendency to brush away, repress and ignore pain: either the classic "im fine", the hat completely obscuring her face or back in Breakaway completely dissociating from her surroundings entirely.
Vertin has never been an expressive person, even more after becoming the Timekeeper so shes already become guarded against that memory of failing those she cares about, the SPDM kids must have been the first, but as we have seen since will not be the last. Maybe shes often haunted by The Ring and Isabella and the rest of the kids back in the Breakaway, while shes clearly better at overcoming these small moments they linger.
Notice in this line Vertin's voice breaks a little here, its quite subtle but noticeable.
The Umbrella is the reason why Vertin recovers so quickly, her fear was based on that inability to save everyone, the suitcase would only save arcanist. The Umbrella could ensure both humans and arcanists could brave the Storm with her. Had Tuesday or had Vertin visited the motel before 1.9, maybe things would have been different.
The fear that Tuesday enjoys so much is the ones that linger, remain embedded in one's psyche that can truly never be overcome. Vertin probably will never truly get over the guilt of failing countless many, even if events were outside of her control. At the very least now she has means to combat that fear, to be shielded from the Storm.
(i might talk about the tone shift between Jessica and Tuesday later, but have this more refined version of the CN analysis)
(I've been holding this back since CN release because I hoped Global would change my mind, but with translations out little has done to change it)
This will be a critique of 2.6's execution of story, its character writing and narrative structure, how it is largely style and literary references over substance, and finally how the nature of the patch as a main story serves as its detriment for the 2.0 series. I do think the premise and concept for the patch are interesting, especially themes around madness and literature, in general replaying the patch in Global did make me like Recoleta a little bit. However I think the way characters, pacing and story have been written ultimately are a disservice to said themes, and alot of my critique is based on treating 2.6 as an arc in an overarching story of the 2.0 series.
(Disclaimer: this is my thoughts over the patch, and I am not pry to all the literary references present inside the story, however I believe a strength of Bluepoch has been to approach complex topics in a way that someone with or without context to references can grasp overarching themes and characters in a story, something that is not present here in Chapter 9, but are present in Chapters 5 and 6).
Main issues with 2.6's story for me
Pacing and Structure
I would argue the patch suffers from terrible pacing, not only does this patch have a shortened length ---, pacing often feels clunky and often comes to a complete stop at some times. We spend a large section of the patch staring at two characters speak conjecture and jargon for extended periods of time with few and far inbetween battle sections to break it up. Pacing is especially suffering in the Urd sections; not only are they unvoiced for some reason, but pacing comes to a complete stop or interrupts the flow of the A Plot with Vertin.
The patch's story is organised like this - the A plot with Vertin and Sonetto alongside Recoleta exploring the] Prison, with the B plot following Urd's experiences in the Prison in 'The Weaving of the Shadows'. The execution of the parallel narratives for me felt like the story would grind to a complete stop, moment your following Vertin in the prison with Recoleta, then pulled back to Urd's section acting as exposition and greater context of the Prison. It feels as if Urd's sections could have been their own section, an anecdote or even a similar case to 2.4 with Ulrich's character story - however structurality it feels like Urd's sections are used to keep the chapter count low and provide context of the prison that really should be present in the A plot.
The patch is the shortest post-release main story chapter at only 20 parts, (Im not counting Prologue to Chapter 4 since once released all at once) it spends from p1 to p12 entering the prison, exploring how it works and how fundmentally this was another means of oppressing arcanists - writers and artists locked up under the guise of being 'criminals'. However the moment the story shifts to the central tower and towards solely Aleph and Recoleta, it feels the story built around the prisoners and how their are exploited and mistreated by the world around them becomes pointless. Aleph and Recoleta's joint story ultimately downplays the suffering of these people so much that until Garcia appears in Aleph's room, you likely forgot about these characters entirely.
Style over Substance - tell than show
Which leads to another major issue of this story - this style over substence feels like TELL over showing. How is this done? The numerous literary references the story hangs over the players that they HAVE to understand to 'get' the story; the implication that the story feels vague and messy because "oh you were not aware of viseral realism? Foucalt or Borges? Too bad you won't understand the story!".
Recoleta suffers from this issue of TELL than SHOW that for me, quickly diminished my interest in her as a character: constantly she makes literary references to character tropes and conventions in storytelling that feel forced and clunky. Her character as a writer is communicated by TELLING you over and over "oh hey thats foreshadowing! Yk, because Im writing a novel you see?", alot of her dialogue feels like her citings definitions and tropes and stories that don't explore her character beyond the archtype of a 'ambious writer who often doesn't listen to others'. And this isn't to argue that Recoleta needed to have a drastic breakdown or 180 of her personality, its instead that her character from point A to point B, start and end of the patch does not learn, change or progress in any meaningful way. The plot reveal with she is a ghost, a construct from an unfinished novel then feels hollow, and the quick recovery from her near 'death' experience is over so quickly the impact is not there. The story has to TELL you she made friends with Sonetto and Vertin, rather than showing any genuine connection, often times you constantly watch Sonetto and Recoleta disagree and argue.
Her 'friendship' to Sonetto and Vertin is extremely weak and arguably non-existent, the dynamic between them feels extremely unatural especially since Sonetto and Vertin in this patch become walking signposts of expostion and lore; their lack of reaction to the events of Comala and much of their screentime is spent reminding you this is a main story. This can be highlighted in the part where Recoleta explains her novel 'The Rise and Fall of Sanity' - here characters talk AT each other than WITH each other, Vertin flips between either extremely apprehensive to weirdly accepting of Recoleta's novel throughout the patch. Her responses and reactions are reduced to simply accknowledging what Recoleta says, before promptly shifting the conversation to something else entirely. This is the dynamic of the three for the whole patch written as 'friendship'.
Moreover, Bluepoch have shown in the past they can tell compelling narratives with complex concepts - see 1.4 and 1.7: those patches were completely understandable and equally enjoyable to anyone not similar to mathematics or operas/ the play of Tosca. These patches organically introduced the audience to see these ideas in tandem with its characters in a way that the characters shine first and foremost: you don't need to understand Freud or his concepts to grasp Kakania, or have an indepth understanding of Tosca. The story is able to stand on its own with the references serving to enhance the story. In the case of 2.6, the entire backbone and forefront of its story is entirely based on these literary references and jargon that characters ultimately fall flat without them. Recoleta's character cannot stand without the inspirations to her character and the literary references - she embodies the "ghost that can only exist the story" to a detrimental degree.
Any time the story gets remotely close to explaining the ideas it presents, either another completely different idea is introduced, or especially in the case of the Idealist proceed to bombard you with even more literary jargon. In the case of 1.5, the mathematics explored ties into the system of Aperion, but equally is used to explore 37, Sophia and 6's connection to each other and crucially ties to the Storm Immunity Ritual - however in 2.6 retaining anything the Idealist, Octavia or really anyone in the prison is meaningless and its quickly discarded by the end of the patch.
In general, 2.6 presents ideas around Viseral Realism and the Latin American Literary Movement but does not attempt to explore them in greater depth or explain to the player - I believe the confusion many players have been feeling in not understanding the story stems from a central issue this patch has putting knowledge of context and reference foremost than the actual story and characters. Once again, I have no issue with the ideas presented, I have in issue in HOW they were and the LACK of diagetically explaining these ideas.
This is a main story chapter
Argubly, this patch being a main story feels like an afterthought: the inclusion of Urd's sections as not an anecdote but intercut unvoiced cutscenes, the the gimicky and ultimately useless inclusion of the Comala Die as one of the five objects mentioned in 2.5 and the boat at the end leads to me seeing the patch as originally a event patch, but changed to a main story (speculation this part, but it feels it should have been 2.4 as the main story patch and not this one).
In isolation, if this was an event story I wouldn't be as critical of the writing and characters: however the fact that this is the progression of the 2.0 main story and the prelude to 2.8 the finale of 2.0 series makes this patch worse. In what way you ask? The fact that so little impact and information provided by this patch means it is easy to just skip this patch with the most vital information provided being from 2.4 especially. The patch provides little to no critcial information about the ritual happening in Antarctica, anything on Urd that couldn't be guessed by the player already or anything on the Manus activities. Rather the patch invalidates its own reason to be a main story patch - it doesn't take you long for the story to tell you there is not reason for Vertin or Sonetto to be there. Urd had already left for Antractica, the Manus sans Diggers have abandoned the prison because the Die of Komala no longer was important - leaving the sole plot of the patch resolving around Recoleta and Aleph being penpals and the eventual burning of the Prison.
Vertin and Sonetto are non existent in the patch as well, there relevance to the plot fades almost to npcs and bystanders to Recoleta and Aleph despite once again being a main story patch focused on Vertin finding Urd - already this is the second insistence of the two being sidelined in the plot by patch characters. While the focus playables should be given the forefront of screen time of focus in a patch, the problem with 2.6 is that Vertin and Sonetto almost COMPLETELY disappear into the background so much that hearing a single line from them reminds you oh yeah this is a main story patch.
Their characters also suffer as well, despite the earlier connection Sonetto and Recoleta share before entering the Prison over poetry, this connection is never expanded upon or even addressed again because the story shifts gears and becomes purely focused on telling and reminding you Recoleta is a writer and her penpal Aleph is somewhere in the Prison. Alot of points, especially in the cell when Recoleta tells Vertin and Sonetto about her novel the dialogue feels forced, character are talking AT each other and WITH each other. It rarely feels like the trio have any chemistry outside of being a method of exposition of Recoleta's novel.
Alot of my interest in Vertin as MC has not her agency in the story and motivations that carry through each patch, however this is not the case here. Vertin barely speaks unless it is to provide exposition and to move the plot from point A to point B - you would effect a character who spent their childhood treated as an outcast by her peers, often sent into the guardhouse and constantly told to conform would have any opinion on the state of the Prison's systems, but no. Vertin becomes reduced to an NPC in the background pushing the plot forward. Chapter 9 could have easily been used similar to 2.1 Tuesday's motel exploring Vertin's fears, here it could have explored the ramifications of her being a black sheep of SPDM that could mirror treatment of the arcanists in the Prison. Instead over time in the patch Vertin starts to feel like a movement from Point A to Point B.
Urd's sections had the potential to explore her character and potentially give vital lore information about her - instead her sections become extremely pace breaking with the lack of voicing. In a patch that already spends much of its time in the same rooms and hallways with characters purely talking to each other, her sections drag out the runtime to only confirm to the players that Urd had already leave the prison for Antarctica. Despite being sections seemingly dedicated to her, Urd feels like an afterthough in these sections, more designated to flesh out the characters and community in Comala and to some degree this works in exploring Octavia's change and eventual opposition to the Idealist.
Moment in the final volume of Urd's the culminates in the fracturing between Octavia and Idealist, and Urd challenging the perverse nature of the Die as fate was so fascinating ... and then it ends. This patch has a trend of introducing concepts but ultimately stops itself from exploring it further once again, reinforcing that feeling of an afterthought. This is more apparent because these sections feel connected but so removed at the same time as we the players once Urd's section is over, understand and may sympathise with Octavia, but ultimately this goes nowhere since Vertin and Sonetto have no way of knowing what happened between Urd and Octavia .
I don't like the idea that because viseral realism does have the central concept of "taking life as it is" therefore everything should be taken almost at surface value and not beyond, this must extend to everything in this patch as well. Telling us ultimately us not exploring the prisoners, the Jailer, Aleph and Recoleta is intentional feels like shallow writing because this is a MAIN story patch, meant to be an arc in a larger overarching story that progresses the plot. All this patch has done over and over tell you the player that nothing can be gleaned from it.
The ending revelation that Recoleta's conversation with Urd wasn't Urd going to Comala, but instead it was her leaving to Antractica - communicating to the player had Vertin not run into Recoleta, the whole plot of the patch likely would not have happened. Even worse when you realise the only importance of the patch was Aleph's boat in all seriousness.
The situation looks worse if you consider the experience of a newcomer, it will take a year for the 2.0 event patches to be archived and rerun so only 2.2 and 2.6 and 2.8 might be their only exposure to the 2.0 series, and that is alot of missing context and lore that 2.6 simply does not provide.
I argue that the concept and premise of the story is fascinating: exploring the nature of literature to madness, the premise giving the potential to explore the suffering, oppression and mistreatment of arcanists and overall mental health. However I feel this story struggles between reconciling it being a main story patch and not an event, juggling concepts around viseral realism and Latin American literary movements that it fails to explain to players by using to simply throw them into the deep end that the narrative and characters feel less in quality.
Extra thoughts
What about the character stories? You have to read them to understand Recoleta and Aleph! - I disagree with this take, character stories just like the references serve to enhance the narrative of the patch, be places to provide and explore more context to a character's wants and needs already present in the main story but give a separate or new angle to view the character, 2.5 Noire's and Liang's stories highlight this. Back to 1.6 - Isolde's character story for example is argubly not vital to understanding her character, the main story of Chapter 6 explores her extremely well. Her character story therefore serves to enhance that understanding through the context of her family already alluded to in main story. It should be a place introducing new contexts and not an attempt to salvage their character.
I also take issue with how Aleph's actions as the overseer of Comala are not addressed for the implications and sufferings they caused the prisoners of Comala: the story's central conflict argues how the prisoners are all arcanist ostracized and cast out by society unjustly into this prison and labelled as insane and as criminals. The story establishes how Aleph, via The Idealist and The Physician effectively exploited the population, conducted experiments including lobotomies yet the story ultimately brushes everything under the rug because of course nothing matters but the boat and his friendship with Recoleta.
I'd argue the blame is constantly shifted towards the arcanists instead of Aleph the human: "Its the Manus interference", "its the Idealist and Merlin", "Its Octavia's fault (she constantly is antagonised by the story as being the only one early on speaking out against the Idealist) and landing on "its Recoleta's fault and her novel". The patch seemingly tries to create sympathy for Aleph by suggesting his desire to seek the "transcendental truth" went out of his control alongside external factors caused what happened in Comala; avoiding any and all acknowledgement that he was to the highest degree responsible for most of the suffering but this is immediately swept away to focus on Recoleta and his' friendship and suddenly "I have a boat", we leave a burning Comala and barely indication is given that his actions are address thereafter.
Conclusion
In conclusion - I don't like 2.6. I gave it a second shot in Global because of how much unvoiced dialogue was present in CN, and I will argue Global made me dislike Recoleta less, for me, interesting concept and really fascinating reveal that ultimately fell flat because of how exactly she was in the story. But I do think the story, even if it was event or main story overall is one of the weakest in the game for me so far.
(Im feel free to ask me about patch, I am curious about how people see this patch if you want to discuss)
Consider this a revised version from my og post from CN, with full context and translation. YAY
We learn ALOT so I'll also include theories below the lore dump as well.
I would like later to do a character analysis on Igor and Lilya later if I don't get swamped with uni work.
(This might not be everything, I'm mostly just including the main story lore bits in here, so excluding character specfic ones mostly)
Currently the key battle is being fought in the East, along the Black Sea and Baltic Sea, we likely might see Vertin and co progress further to the Eastern Front, or: The XIII (plus Senti), maybe Zeno or new characters since its unlikely they probably would send the timekeeper into the heart of the war effort.
The Cube or 'Boon' given to Igor in 2.8 is made of the some material as the Eye of Comala (the Dice Aleph has in 2.6) - it only grants a singular person Storm Immunity.
The Amber Room Experiments:
The was a collaboration between Foundation Committee and Zeno to experiment on Duncan'd people via 'Vessel Ensoulment. These tests began after the Second Storm once the Foundation realised that people who got Stormed returned slightly different, that certain people no longer matched their offical records.
(Note that this project took place some time after the Changling/ Greenlake experiments)
Igor was tasked to bring in reversed people to the facility to the Amber Room
He then reveals that by the Sixth Storm they actually already found Urd by this time, however by the order of the Pax House this info remained classified to everyone. During the 7th and 8th Storms (the prologue and chapter 2 ones) something happened to Urd and she escaped. Due to the secrecy of the project they were able to locate her.
Igor calls the Amber Room the "Pax House's Arrogance"
(this bit is weird to describe specfically but) Vertin walks into the white room and meets with Urd. Not Dores or any of the other iterations, but Pre-Storm Urd: it seems the 13th test on her for this 'Vessel Ensoulment' as far as I could understand 'synced' the times the experiment started and Vertin entered, creating a small temporal space that not only allowed Vertin to meet Urd in a period after the 6th Storm, but temporarily restore Urd to her original self (in future I will call this one 'Prime Urd' for clarification).
The test is trigged by the fuckass marble chair (though I have no idea why the white chair is also found in Sao Paulo)
The Amber Room basically got sent to the 'future' (current 3.0 1920) and it was a few minutes for Urd, it was actually hours for Vertin.
There were around 44 people who were tested on in this facility, and Igor is directly responsible for abducting these people and sending them here. Afterwards they were "longer themselves" and became little more than a husk.
The Battle of 1999
The final battle before the First Storm took place in Kazakhstan, where Igor and Urd were working together, and she stopped the space-time ritual the Manus tried to conduct, leading to the First Flood and Storm. Vertin at this time was already sent to SPDM. Again the mentioning of blurry memories is also present as Igor is also unable to fully recall the aftermath
Zeno and Foundation collaborations:
Igor tells us that the connections between the Foundation and Zeno runs deep, including alot of morally questionable experiments like the Changling and Amber Room. That exposing these connections may result in fracturing their relationship entirely, preventing any arrest on Igor by either fraction.
Ok those are the two main lore dumps so the rest below will be theorising from this info:
3.3 Explains why after Chapter 4 Vertin is tasked to find Urd: I think its very concidental that Urd escapes around the 7 and 8th Storms, which are the Prologue and Chapter 2 ones respectively. Igor also notes that due to the secrecy of the project they lack manpower to hunt Urd down. So Vertin is now tasked to find her, with the knowledge that the Foundation may still want to test on her, which is probably why she lies about finding any info on Urd at the end of the patch.
Immortality, Revival and Vessel Ensoulment: Ensoulment refers in religious and philosphical terms when a human or being receives a soul, and its usually believed to happen when an embryo becomes a fetus for example. In certain religious the soul is considered a part of reincarnation and is pre-existing. I think one way to interpret 'Vessel Ensoulment' as the Amber Room tests wanted is the aim to imbue the 'Vessel' (the reversed person) with the 'Soul' (the original person pre-Storm). The patch series overall has been placing greater emphasis on immortality and duncan'd people, and my current theory is that by the end of the patch series we get actually get to see someone reverted to their Pre-Stormed self.
Other speculations:
Vertin is now stuck in a position that even if she wants to find her mother, the fear that the Foundation might do something to her put Vertin between located her or hiding her from the Foundations eyes.
Igor likely appearing to aid in the future: His playability is on the lines of 'allied to the Timekeeper' and not necessarily joining her team for obvious reasons. Either end of the patch series or the next main story patch we might see him again.
Possibility of meeting Prime Urd: I kinda hope we get more flashbacks or even meet her in the future, currently she hasn't made an appearance since 2.8 so I'm excited to see whatever new iteration of her's will look like.
The Hawks getting greater importance: the political situation in the Foundation is in the background currently but I think the eventual climax of this subplot might led to another Chapter 3-4
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