What does that mean?
Yamada Masaharu's eyes darted, as if time had begun to flow.
Is the game over?
What's the final ending?
The five-person team finally goes to a distant place, then finds a spot to commit suicide?
What kind of devil ending is this?
Is only Lena left?
The problem is that Lena and Shin haven't even met yet.
Originally, Yamada Masaharu was really looking forward to it; when he saw their mechs meet at the Iron Curtain, his heart almost burst, wishing they could meet.
They had talked on the phone for so long, discussed so much.
The two had already entered each other's hearts, and they still couldn't meet?
That's too much, isn't it?
Furuhara Tsubaki?!
Although the final ending in the game seemed natural—
After the rebellion, the Second Corps had already been sentenced to extreme punishment, and at this point, if the five-person Vanguard team returned to their country, they would inevitably suffer the same fate.
But, they shouldn't have to go to their deaths, right?
This feeling is too unbearable.
Although the game didn't explicitly state that the characters ultimately died, the hints were clear enough that Yamada Masaharu couldn't think otherwise.
Such a game ending is too torturous, isn't it?
Anyway, it always gave him the impression that the game wasn't over.
Ayumi Hamasaki's singing still lingered in his ears, leaving Yamada Masaharu's heart unable to calm down for a long time.
To be honest, this song is too tear-jerking.
As soon as it played, various scenes, past experiences, those who sacrificed.
And the five guys who were finally preparing to end their lives in their own way...
Like a revolving lantern, they flashed rapidly in Yamada Masaharu's mind, making his breathing hurt.
The credits appeared on the TV:
[Director: Furuhara Tsubaki]
Old Thief Furuhara! west!!
west west west west west!
[Producer: Ishino Mika]
Ishino Lao Zei! west!!
west west west west west!
[Script: Maeda Jun]
Maeda Jun! west!!
west west west west west!
...
The game was released on June 6th, and by the evening of June 7th, a large wave of players had already flooded into the Pokeni's official forum.
"Oh, come on, this ending is too torturous, isn't it?"
"Exactly, why? Why couldn't they have a complete, good ending even at the very end?
The 86s sacrificed so much for Saint Magnolia, and this is how they're treated in the end?
Already treated as drones and squandered, dying on the front lines, I finally saw a glimmer of hope.
I thought from now on the people of Saint Magnolia would unite and fight together.
Is this how they treat the Vanguard team, the Second Corps, and the fallen heroes?"
"So, you're still too young. It seems like 86 is a game for young players, telling stories of mechs, beautiful girls, boys and girls in love, war, and so on.
But, in reality, we've all been deceived.
This is a thorough realist game.
In the game, it tells of very realistic and hard-to-accept war cruelties, as well as the baseness and kindness of human nature...
For those high-ranking officials, they have already chosen not to let the citizens know the identity of the 86s, and to create war achievements through fake news like [no casualties].
Do you think they would truly willingly acknowledge the contributions of the Second Corps and the Vanguard team?
Forget about whether these guys can survive.
Once they survive on the battlefield, with the prestige, contributions, and sacrifices of the Second Corps, the Vanguard team, and the 86s, the very foundation of the entire country will be shaken.
They will become the most influential people.
Moreover, the 'forced palace' actions taken by the Second Corps and the 86s completely humiliated the Prime Minister and the Commander, and within Saint Magnolia, all upper classes would not allow such behavior to exist.
They can already feel a strong, terrifying sense of being threatened. What kind of choice do you think they can make?
Under such circumstances, the 86s going to their deaths is simply an inevitable outcome.
The only consolation is that from now on, they will no longer die as drones, but as dignified humans, as heroes of Saint Magnolia.
That's probably all there is to it."
"Thinking about it, it really seems that way, but—the 86 game is too despairing, isn't it?
The war at the beginning was very despairing; it got a little better in the middle because you could see the team constantly expanding.
According to the general inertia of strategy game, as long as the size of the members continues to expand, victory will eventually be achieved.
This is the case in fire emblem.
Even if there are only two or three main characters at first, in the end, this force will inevitably stir up a terrifying storm.
But I didn't expect that, just when the situation was looking good, I thought it would be the 86s' turn to push back against the Empire.
As a result, the members died one by one.
Old Thief Furuhara's blade is truly too sharp and too terrifying.
It cut me so much I doubted life itself.
Is this really a strategy game?
Have you ever seen a strategy game where characters die like this?
First, your team constantly expands, characters join one by one, and then they die one by one in order.
I can no longer imagine what kind of tragic life Furuhara must have experienced to create such a game.
It's like turning off the lights in the darkness; not a single glimmer of light can be seen."
"Exactly!! Damn it, damn it! I thought the final five members of the Vanguard team would survive. I never expected that,
Old Thief Furuhara is truly heartless, extinguishing even these last few sparks.
To this day, the male and female protagonists haven't even met in reality, haven't even seen each other, and Old Thief Furuhara just makes them part forever like this?
I'm not convinced, I'm not resigned, I'm going to send blade pieces to Furuhara Tsubaki!"
"Send blade pieces +1, I'm going too. Old Thief Furuhara, that bad guy, he needs to taste what he's done; if we let him continue, who knows what kind of game he'll make in the future!"
"Ah ah ah, my poor Kei, such a cute girl, died so tragically, and after dying, she was made into a Black Sheep, and then killed again. To be honest, when I played to the second to last chapter,'Summoning the Undead,' I was completely broken.
Can you imagine, teammates who once fought side by side, such a lovely group of people, who were just laughing and talking, were suddenly gone.
When I reunited with them again, these people stood on the opposite side as [undead].
I had already suffered a huge emotional impact from not being able to save them before, and this time I had to be 'bladed' again.
Absolutely infuriating!!!
To come up with such a game plot, Furuhara Tsubaki, Maeda Jun, they are simply a bunch of perverts!!!"
"Me too, I cried my eyes out.
One by one, former good companions, lovely guys, were 'bladed' in different ways; that feeling is truly heartbreaking.
To 'blade' them again, with Shin and the others, is truly unbearable.
Furuhara Tsubaki and his team are truly ruthless."
"I initially anticipated that this game would be very 'blading'. Because the overall tone was set from the beginning; from the moment the PV came out, I could already feel that this was a war-themed game.
It seemed to have mechs, future technology, etc., but in reality, it was very realistic.
This made the impact that 86 brought us even stronger.
The PV already hinted that the game might not have a happy ending.
Coupled with my understanding of Furuhara Tsubaki and Ishino Mika, I had already prepared myself mentally to be 'bladed'.
But!
Furuhara Tsubaki, this devil!
Yes, he is a devil; I completely don't know what words to use to describe the evil he has done!
Even though I was mentally prepared, I still underestimated Furuhara Tsubaki's 'blading' level.
Four friendly forces died at the very beginning, which was just an appetizer.
"Okay, it doesn't matter, because the game just started, and this is considered a plot kill, used to lay the groundwork and set the mood for later plot developments, and many strategy games are like this.
At the beginning, the prince fled with the princess, and then the guys who stayed behind to cover their retreat would sacrifice themselves; it's already a common trope.
So, even though it was visually impactful, my heart remained calm.
However, later on, I can only say that Furuhara Tsubaki is truly not human, and Maeda Jun is also a devil.
He made companions die one by one, in various ways, and they died so tragically.
I have come to hate Old Thief Furuhara and Maeda Jun to the bone.
Finally, another blow, this one even more ruthless, directly pulling out the dead and killing them again…
At that time, I burst into tears; every time I fought against my former comrades, my heart was twisted.
This is Furuhara Tsubaki!
Absolutely despicable!!!"
…
In short, the discussion online was particularly heated.
After the game's release, the polarization in the comment section became increasingly severe.
Some players believed that overall, the game was a good game, but it wasn't as excellent as they had imagined, especially in terms of story, which was not only despair-inducing but also left people feeling lost with its strategy game settings.
"Overall, the game is definitely a good game; this time, in the strategy game settings, Pokeni was really super thoughtful.
Not to mention the UI, which is ahead of all games on the market,
They also created a hate-line, so when I play, I can accurately judge the opponent's movements and know how to attack, how to combine…
It's actually quite good.
However, what's very headache-inducing is that the plot presentation method adopted by Pokeni, with cutscenes and character animations, the entire world-setting and the progression of the plot story, greatly reduced the fun of the strategy game.
This is a strategy game, not a galgame, okay?!
The strategy game I hoped for should be like fire emblem; the story certainly needs to progress, but during the game, at least you have to see the offense, right?
You should let us see hope, but instead, we were suppressed by The Empire Legion the entire time.
Even without looking at the plot, I felt a bit depressed.
I didn't expect the final outcome to still be suppressed by the Empire.
Although from Shin's personal perspective, he found his brother's head and let him rest, and also dealt with the Shepherd commander in the Empire's eastern theater.
However, this is definitely far from enough.
Ending here, it's impossible for anyone to be happy.
What's more, the final outcome is still under the terrifying destructive power of The Empire Legion; advancing is death, retreating is death, and the remaining 5 people can only choose the way they want to die.
It seems romantic, but it's actually terrible.
I don't like such an ending, nor do I like this combat mode that serves the plot.
It's very frustrating to play."
"I agree, and the design of the mechs in the game is also a point to complain about; I know Pokeni really wanted to make them more realistic and, at the same time, reflect the brutality of war through this realism.
For example, The Empire Legion possesses powerful mechs because they have long completed artificial intelligence, while on the 86 side, the mechs were blindly rushed to completion and had no artificial intelligence at all, so they could only be filled with human lives.
Using human lives to exchange for the opponent's machines, such a loss ratio, there is no glory whatsoever.
What's more terrifying is that, in order to conform to this setting, the game designed the mechs on Saint Magnolia's side to be generally ugly; they are really too ugly.
They feel like a pile of insects to me, spiders, cockroaches, crawling insects, etc.; even when the mechs were strengthened and upgraded at the end, they still didn't look any better.
If the action design wasn't so cool, I probably would have given up on this game immediately."
"The 3D performance, cutscenes, character avatars and illustrations, and character design are all big pluses, fully demonstrating that Pokeni is indeed a true technology company.
In terms of 3D and animation effects, it is one of the best.
No, it should be said to be the best in the world.
So far, I have not seen any company that can reach Pokeni's level in terms of technology.
However, the overly depressing plot, the meaningless levels that serve the plot, the lack of drive, and the lack of too many conflicts and plot twists, I'm referring to the middle parts…
These are actually the shortcomings of this game."
"I cannot understand the resistance of these guys in the game at all.
Bad people are inherently bad people; they used to capture different-colored races to fight on the front lines, and then they still had to whitewash them, making it seem like only a few of the white-haired race were bad guys.
In my opinion, they are all bad things, not a single good one.
They are not worth pitying at all, much less worth the 86s protecting them.
When I saw in the plot that Leiden and Shin said they had received favors from the white-haired race and that there were good people among the white-haired race, I already felt a bit unable to hold back.
There will be good people in any race.
But you have to look at their collective will.
Think about it, although Shin was adopted and raised by a white-haired race priest, who caused them to fall into this predicament?
Was it the Empire?
It was the Empire.
However, besides The Empire Legion, there were also those shameless and hateful white-haired race.
And yet, they still had to fight on the front lines to protect those white-haired race who had saved them and been kind to them; this is very difficult to accept.
Later, Hazawa, the Corps Commander of the Second Corps, led the 86s in resistance, but they didn't resist completely.
Why do they think that just gaining [human identity] and letting the entire white-haired race know of their existence is enough?
No!
Not enough at all!
Incomplete resistance means no resistance at all!
According to my idea, the Empire's armies should be allowed to come in completely and kill all these white-haired race; these guys are too bad.
Such bad seeds should not be left behind.
As long as they are left, they will never treat the 86s kindly; why must they rely on these white-haired race?
The 86s could clearly establish their own country, or even directly eliminate the white-haired race and seize power.
Whether it's your army or your weapons, they are all in the hands of the 86s; without the 86s, Saint Magnolia is nothing at all.
Hazawa and Shin completely failed to understand this point.
Still too young.
I can understand, because in the setting, these guys are just a group of people not even 20 years old, most of them still around 16 or 17.
At this stage, they are somewhat naive, and it is difficult for them to come up with better ways of resistance, nor is it possible for them to have such a strong will to overthrow the white-haired race.
This should be considered a reasonable setting by Furuhara Tsubaki, realistic, which is the tone of 86.
So the final outcome is also very realistic.
Hazawa and his group were executed for 'treason,' and the 86s began a life of escape.
To be precise, a life of suicide.
Very good, this is the real world; from the very beginning, the 86 game was very realistic, so realistic that it made people grit their teeth.
In short, I understand the characters' actions in the game, but I don't agree with them.
The game's setting is a failure in terms of plot; if it were me, I would definitely completely destroy the white-haired race.
Bad people are bad people, and there's a reason why bad people stay bad.
If bad people are not completely purged, there will be no beautiful tomorrow."
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