As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
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Story Events
- Neera's encounter with Askal at Diamond Point is one long Shut Up, Hannibal! speech towards him; he who betrayed Shang Tu to Merga, attacked the Magister, aided Merga in operations on Parusa and somehow - somehow - still thinks Neera will turn against her home like he did. She has the one person, short of Merga herself, most responsible for her grief right in front of her, and she does not waste the opportunity to vent her frustrations to him in full.Neera: TRAITOR!
Askal: Hey, I said I would explain when I had the chance! And now here we are.
Neera: And what, exactly, were you planning to tell me? That the Magister is evil? That Merga is somehow going to make the world a better place? I've gone through every explanation you could possibly give me, and every one of them is idiotic and FOOLISH!
Askal: The Magister was a tool, Neera! Wielded by his ancestors to keep an immoral peace through lies and coverups! (approaches Neera) Your loyalty was to a weak man who made you feel lonely and isolated. (affixes a tuft of grass to the end of Neera's ice staff for an impromptu flower to propose with) But it doesn't have to be that way any more.
Neera: Excuse me? (swats the flower away) I am no winter flower waiting to be plucked! I stand alone because I choose to! You may find fault with the Magister, but it was he who gave our people their strength. I would not be who I am today without his guidance... ...and I will not abandon my values, or my people, for a derelict like you!
Askal: (raises a rock wall to box Neera in) There was a connection between us, Neera! I felt it!
Neera: That "connection" was called "trust", and you broke it. (points ice staff at Askal) There is nothing now.
Askal: .........! RRRRAAAAAAAGH!! - Milla finally throwing off her trauma from confronting Brevon, and fear of being blackmailed by Serpentine, by blasting the smug snake off the Bakunawa.Serpentine: Curse you! Well, no matter. With Code Black installed, I can simply flood this chamber with my robots! Then we'll see who has the last l- (cue Bakunawa rollback and removal of Code Black) No! NOOOOOO! What happened?!
Merga: A bold move, General, but the will of Bakunawa has been restored. You have ten seconds to leave.
Serpentine: ...Gotta go! (runs one way, almost gets face-skewered by Neera's ice staff; runs the other way, takes six rapid-fire murder cubes from Milla) BUT I HAD ALL THE CAAAAAAAAAAAAAARDS-!
Milla: That... that felt good. That felt really good. Look out, world! There's a new Milla in town! (laughs wickedly)- It gets even better in Milla's story. For all the raw horror Milla had to endure from Brevon in the first game and Serpentine in this one, one can't help but cheer at the end of the Inversion Dynamo, where she - in order - reveals that she was using Serpentine to board Bakunawa and had no intention of killing her friends, blasts Syntax hard enough to suspend the resonance link, takes out Serpentine's mecha single-handedly to break the link entirely, and then blasts him off the Bakunawa. While her friends did cheer her up after he dumped her origins in front of them, it doesn't change the fact that this was her moment. She left Bakunawa a much stronger girl, and both Lilac and Neera say as much.Serpentine: (while Milla's friends are caged and her mind in a haze) You will be reborn into a proper war dog; completely subservient to the will of Lord Brevon! You'll be a mindless weapon, just like mommy and daddy! And the very first thing you're going to do... is KILL YOUR FRIENDS!
Milla: (erupts into righteous fury) NEVER!! (prepares and fires murder cubes directly at Syntax one at a time)
Serpentine: (while Milla is firing) What? NO! Stop it! Bad dog! BAD DOG! Sit down and take your mutation like a good puppy! (exit Syntax)
Milla: (falls once Syntax leaves; points up at Serpentine) Or... I beat you up and take out the resonance link.
Serpentine: Syntax, protect me!!
(after the fight, Serpentine's ejection and Milla's laughter)
Lilac: Milla, that was amazing! We saw the whole thing! You kicked butt, girl!
Neera: Indeed. I have never seen you fight as fiercely as you did today. You have both our gratitude and my deepest respect.
- It gets even better in Milla's story. For all the raw horror Milla had to endure from Brevon in the first game and Serpentine in this one, one can't help but cheer at the end of the Inversion Dynamo, where she - in order - reveals that she was using Serpentine to board Bakunawa and had no intention of killing her friends, blasts Syntax hard enough to suspend the resonance link, takes out Serpentine's mecha single-handedly to break the link entirely, and then blasts him off the Bakunawa. While her friends did cheer her up after he dumped her origins in front of them, it doesn't change the fact that this was her moment. She left Bakunawa a much stronger girl, and both Lilac and Neera say as much.
- King Dail Took a Level in Badass, going from brainwashed minion in the first game (who is implied to have had the brainwashing thrashed out of him by his brother Spade) to a fair and just ruler who, upon learning that his brother made off with Syntax as "payment for his services" and had lied to the heroes about being sent by Dail, proceeds to "bust him up good".
- A player, especially one new to the series, would be forgiven for believing Zao is nothing but an affiable, cowardly buffoon who cares about nothing so long as he can draw some kind of benefit, be it for his image, wealth, or business ventures. Yet, while it borders on Deus ex Machina, there’s something awesome about how, as soon as the team emerges from Gravity Bubble, and Bakunawa Rises, he’s IMMEDIATELY on the scene with an airship armed to the teeth, ready to pull the team to safety, expecting nothing in return. Doubly impressive if the last arc the player completed was the Volcano, which begins with the airship used to travel to Parusa being shot down; he must have been pissed enough to have the cannons re-installed to exact his vengeance upon Corazon and Merga for all they wronged him.Mayor Zao: "Welcome aboard Mayor Zao's Luxurious Sky FORTRESS! Now with extra cannons! HOLD ON!!"
Stages and Gameplay
- Shade Armory, the last stage in the Mystery of the Frozen North story arc, is an adrenaline-pumping romp through a run-down facility. Your character pushes their way past factory hazards, the seeming remnants of Brevon's army, and the vengeful Syntax all to a catchy tune that uses the leitmotif of Thermal Base from the first game. As you progress through the level, you're backed up by Askal, who shows off his impressive strength as he busts through barriers and smashes down platforms for you to progress.
- You fight several robot bosses while navigating the Globe Opera, culminating in a fight where said robots combine into a massive bunny robot called BFF-2000 that you then have to fight on foot. It gets better: you get to pilot the BFF-2000 during Nalao Lake later on in the game, with Serpentine as the target of your wrath.
- The story hypes Merga up to be a complete badass, and the gameplay around her does not disappoint.
- For the first fight, you're joined by General Gong as he and the girls confront Merga. She responds by casually dismissing her minions and answering the challenge by herself. As soon as the fight starts, she delivers a thrashing that wipes out the heroes in seconds. It is possible for the player to survive and beat her for an achievement, but as this is meant to be a Hopeless Boss Fight, nothing is otherwise changed by winning. Merga still wins, and the heroes are still forced to flee Shang Tu with their lives.
- Her final battle has a total of SIX phases: five of which has her wearing power armor and are based on the phases of the moon (Blue Moon, Blood Moon, Super Moon, Eclipse, and Lilith), and a final unarmored phase where she's even faster and more aggressive than before. And she's not even (technically) the final boss!
- The Rise of Bakunawa is listed here for the Gameplay and Story Integration. So after all Parusa arcs are completed, Merga requests Lilac come alone to a determined location. She obliges, with the party following. Unfazed by a sneak attack by Serpentine and the fact that Lilac did not come alone, the party is caught off guard by a small quake as it turns out a previous mission to destroy 3 beacons was All for Nothing, as she simply had more all over Parusa. Cue the Bakunawa, revealed to be RIGHT THERE UNDERWATER, reactivating and taking off, leaving the player to scramble for dear life to the surface lest the massive laser Merga repeatedly fires incinerate them. Even Mayor Zao’s arrival with an armed airship comes off less as a relief and more of an Evacuation effort as you blast through a swarm of robots in the resident Shoot ‘Em up level in a desperate bid to catch up.
