 For most of this disc you'd be forgiven for wondering who Tsukasa was -
it's the end of the final episode before he really gets back into the
meat of the story. The thing is, you barely miss him...
20 - Tempest
Life goes on for the players of The World... Mimiru & Bear are
questing, with Tsukasa having pretty much dropped off the radar for
them & the search for the Key of the Twilight on hold. Silver
Knight's having to get used to life without the Crimson Knights, BT
& Sora are scheming about how to make best use of him, and Subaru's
spending most of her online time just sitting with Tsukasa. So much for
grand plans to solve Tsukasa's logout problem - but after letting
things drift for a while, Bear finally decides to relaunch the search
for the Key & calls the gang back together again. Meanwhile,
Tsukasa decides to show Subaru his hiding place, but when they get
there the mysterious girl is gone, and someone's really not happy at him having brought Subaru there...
21 - Despair
Subara hasn't seen Tsukasa since her visit to his hiding place & is
worried enough to be searching for him. She'll have a hard time finding
him in his current state, though - he's back in his hiding place (now a
wasteland) and he's in no condition to do anything. There's much
talking about what's happened to Tsukasa & concern for Subaru, as
she leaves herself weakened as a result of her worry... Meanwhile,
Bear's been doing some thinking about the ramblings of the upside-down
man, and has come up with an explantion...
22 - Phantom
Bear, Mimiru & Subaru search for another instance of the
upside-down man - a computerised reproduction of Harald Hoerwick,
creator of The World. Seems he may have left something personal in the
game that has to do with the Key of the Twilight. Making use of some
help given by mysterious hacker Helba, they manage to track him down
& get some sense out of him. Meanwhile, Tsukasa sits alone in his
hiding place, still unable to do anything, while Sora & the Silver
Knight investigate another angle...
23 - The Eve
A series of mysterious messages, and the gang are summoned together -
although for all that the first half of the episode is various parings
discussing whether they're going to answer the summons or not. Tsukasa
finally makes an appearance in the game world, but he's traumatised by
his recent experience and is terrified of being hurt again. Crim tries
to ease Tsukasa's fears by sharing some of his knowledge of
'real-world' Subaru. Eventually they all come together, to be
confronted by another of Helba's gates leading to an unknown location.
Meanwhile, Sora's closer to the Key than anyone else thanks to a
fortunate run-in with the Neko PC...
So now our mysterious girl has a name - Aura - and there's a lot
more detail given about what's going on. It seems some of the
subroutines created by Harald have taken on a llife of their own &
are working towards gaining control of the in-game world. By the end of
this disc everyone seems to have renewed sense of purpose, as they
finally know pretty much what they're looking for. Progress!
Still not much in the way of action to keep hack & slash fans
happy, but I guess that crowd will have given up by now. :) For the
rest of us, the end is in sight & may just be worthwhile... |
