And I start once more.
- Pressing Select on the map screen, which is basically just a low-poly landscape of Manhattan, goes into a cinematic view of the city and various parts involved. For now, the camera seems to be obsessed with one of the helicopters flying around the city...
- Day 5 is, so far, the only chapter in the game that seems to start without any story set-up. You go straight to the map menu, and that's it.
- Day 5 is also interesting in the fact that you're given multiple objectives, and you have to pick between Chinatown and a Warehouse area. Pretty sure the Warehouse is utterly optional, or maybe you only have to do one or the other and you're good, but today, we're heading to both. They seem fairly short. Chinatown first.
- This starts happening when you first meet Maeda, but at the beginning of every "dungeon," so far, he gives you a charm that he claims wards off evil spirits. The thing is, they're utterly useless. You can't do jack with 'em. They just take up space in your inventory. I have the belief that this game REALLY likes to screw with you whenever it can...
- The designers must have run out of either ideas or resources for this area. Chinatown takes place almost entirely in a sewer system, and much of the screens are repeated ad nauseum. It's a non-linear area, sort of like a maze with very few walls. Luckily, there's some really cool equipment to pick up, but it's just annoying to see the same screen over and over again.
- This area is also home to one of the most annoying enemies in the game: The bats. The secret to this area is to have a quick gun, and spend very little of your time standing still, largely because these guys can inflict the Blind status on you, which, in this game, means there is pretty much ZERO chance of inflicting damage. Luckily, the status does NOT stack or refresh if you're hit with it multiple times, but if you, like me, have been sticking with the grenade launcher up til now, you'll find yourself really annoyed really quickly.
- One of the cool points about this game is the abilities attached to your various weapons. The abilities dictate how many bullets you can fire in one round, what kind of damage it will do, whether or not it will attack random opponents for higher damage... Heck, with the customization option, you can actually transfer abilities from one gun to another. It's pretty damn fun. Now, I bring that up to tell you this: This is the first area where you'll come across a shotgun [a weapon that is disturbingly sparse in this game] with the Spray ability, which allows you to hit multiple opponents. I don't know about you, but I immediately threw the Spray option right on my Grenade Launcher. Here's hoping it works.
- You enter an area of the sewers where all the tunnels lead, and you find a very familiar ooze here, the same kind you saw at Central Park, covering a lot of the piping. In sort of a Ghostbusters 2 move, it's now moving deeper into the water in order to infect the city. Sadly, no Bill Murray is to be found.
- Success! The spray works! Though by the time I got it, I didn't find any more flocks of bats, so... Well, crap.
- ... Wait, disc change? This is one of the most abrupt changes I've seen in years. You pick up the gate key, you see the ooze has decided to head for the museum [though it's impossible to tell from where you and Aya are], you run back to the sewer-- DISC CHANGE.
- Oh man, it's not even a story sequence after. You just show up where you left off. Most disappointing disc change ever. Remember Final Fantasy's usual disc change points? They were at moments where you HAD TO CHANGE THE DISC OMG WHAT HAPPENED?! FFVIII's change to disc 2 is always one of my favorites, since you're literally wondering whether or not one of your characters is even alive.
- Now it's time to head to the Warehouse.
- Aaaaand Warehouse is done! Wait, what? This is an incredibly short area, but its boss battle is pretty much gonna work you over. The crustacean has a nasty grab attack that knocks you down to 1 HP, eye lasers that knock half your total HP off, and a wide bubble spread that is near impossible to avoid. Luckily, that spray grenade launcher I have? Hits all three parts of this boss at once, doing short work of those nasty claws. Luckily, you get a ridiculously awesome ROCKIT LAWNCHAIR. Er. Rocket launcher. Sorry, I've been craving Metal Slug lately.
- You finally get to see the entirety of the museum, despite it being considerably overrun by monsters now. This is a horrifically complicated area, or so it seems. It actually leads you along fairly well, despite having a very intimidating layout. There're a lot of weapons and items here, and if you didn't make that trip to the PD and store a bunch of stuff with Wayne [like I forgot to do], you're going to be in for quite the struggle.
- A cutscene involving the ooze taking over and animating the skeleton of a T. Rex. Awesome points attributed, right there.
- So Klamp has been developing artificial sperm that is without the mitochondria, and instead just has the nucleus, intending to use it alongside Eve to artificially inseminate any volunteers. As it turns out, those people on that HLA list, the one with Daniel's son and ex-wife's names, are all part of this. Klamp intended for them to essentially be sacrificed to Eve. The plot thickens...
- The big reveal! The Ultimate Being, they call it. Referencing to the Parasite Eve incident in Japan. One of the few references they make to the source material. THAT being, however, is referred to by Klamp as Eve's "sister," and claims that creature failed because "the father's side of the mitochondria caused a rebellion." Ooookay... He explains further, stating he created that artificial sperm with just the nucleus, in order to get around the original incident's little problem of the father's side.
- Uh-oh. Eve is now pregnant with Melissa's body. Melissa had gone in for a lot of medical treatment years ago, under Dr. Klamp, and it appears the purpose has finally been revealed.
- Aaaand Klamp is a crispy human piece of toast. Aya, for some reason, STILL insists on saving this guy, but fails in the end. Moving along, then... Maeda and Daniel [both of whom were wandering the museum as well, helping Aya] narrowly escaped. Aya now gets Klamp's special key and Maeda's Gun, which seems to have some sort of Anti-Eve properties, despite it being an absolutely horrible gun [1 attack point?!].
- I just fought a Triceratops and a T-Rex back to back. Ouch.
- After crawling your way back to the top, there's an earthquake. Not much else to add there. However, this is also right at the point where you finally reach the top floor. Things are extra gooey here, and Aya detects Eve but good.
- Holy crap she's pregnant. And in a VERY maternal posture right now, hands over her belly in a motherly way. Even shushing Aya to be quiet. This is... An incredibly interesting scene to watch, since it's also the most non-violent in the whole of the game, as far as CG sequences are concerned. And yet... Absolutely frightening.
- Another CG sequence already? Well, not unlikely. Shit hits the fan right about this point... Mitochondrial creatures are appearing in the city, one very large humanoid one in particular... Oh waitthat'stheboss. Or is it? Eve uses it as a transport out of the museum, and Aya gives chase.
- Aya meets up with Daniel and Maeda. Turns out, Melissa was on immunosuppressants. Melissa got a kidney donation from Aya's sister, Maya, who had passed away in an accident. Aya JUST now finds out her mother and sister were organ donors. We then realize what Aya thought was a younger version of herself was actually Melissa [wait, what?]. The kidney, during the operation, got hot. Just like Aya always got near Eve. Hm... The immunosuppressants act as a catalyst for Eve to grow. Turns out, this is exactly how the Eve in Japan managed things, same organ transfer situation... And, of course, Klamp was involved in it all, concerning Melissa and Maya. The suppressants were to keep everything from being rejected, thus allowing for no problems in Eve's manifestation. Melissa overdosed on her drugs, thus making her body so incredibly weak that Eve had absolutely no problems finally taking over.
... Headache, ow...
Maya is the original Mitochondria Eve, it seems. That sort of explains why Aya is such a special case, being of such close relation. Eve is, theoretically, Aya's sister.
- And now fighter jets are going after the... Statue of... Liberty. Huh? Well, either way, the guys behind all the military action, stationed offseas on a carrier, finally have permission for a full-on attack. Which is real smart, considering their first attack was so successful. Yeah. A bunch of jets versus a Mitochondria monster... So, naturally, what happens? The-- Wait, did the monster just turn into a plasmic egg?!
- So I was actually right. Weird. It's creating a barrier for the Ultimate Being to be born. An-- Okay, NOW it destroys all the helicopters surrounding it. Impervious to missiles [they just bounce right off]. And... There go the fighter jets.
- Now aboard the carrier, Aya has been asked by the Admiral of the Nimitz to nuke the creature from a helicopter on autopilot.
Okay, seeing as how this is the thickest the plot is going to get, and we're nearing the ending, I'm just gonna save my words til I see those credits, except for key areas.
- And... Endgame! The boss was freakin' murder, but that wasn't the annoying part. There's a nasty little chase scene afterwards, where if you don'tgo aftera little control panel, you can pretty much guarantee you're going to die, thus reverting back to your last save point, before the final boss.
The plot has officially destroyed my brain, but I think I walked away with SOME kind of understanding of what's going on. Fun stuff. Hopefully, the next playthrough will be a good deal more entertaining, thanks to the Chrystler Building.
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