Cardgame muses (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ineverwantedthis) wrote2017-03-14 12:17 am
ineverwantedthis) wrote2017-03-14 12:17 am
Paper Yu-Gi-Oh. An AU by Gale and Pinch, Gale's summary recorded by Pyra.
What started it all
Full Planning here
- six legend cards have awakened in response to the darkness, and are moving to seal this threat. you must find them and bring them to this seal here in town to fully neutralize the threat
one seems to have settled here in this town, perhaps if you find it, you might [OH GOD, FIRE]
-a strange man stands in the Junk Shop and doesn't say anything if you talk to him before you fight Atem. Another worker notes he's been there for a while and works well, but is strange, keeps to himself, and almost seems to be permanently sad, Talk to him after the Atem fight, and he'll ask you if you're the one who "opened the door."
- A negative or a confrontational answer nets more silence and unnerving disbelief, but a positive answer only gets the cryptic question "Do you understand what you have done?"
- There's another young man by the orphanage that wasn't there before, but he seems to busy to talk to you...Maybe another time.
> Tutorial level teaching you game mechanics, Atem get, Dark Magician Get, Shadow Realm Flipping, get
- Putting Dark Magician on the seal unlocks the way to Heartland , also it unlocks some of its abilities for you so you can fight
- bakura shows up, apparently an apprentice to Shaadi
- hey, have this magic pot. it'll help you hold onto the cards. they're very powerful, you know, you don't want that going out of control! i mean. look what happened to that spirt that's with you now, Atem!
- (it's implied that the dark magician's power is what drove him insane, because it was corrupted by the darkness)
- putting the legend card on a [duel disk/seal] in the center of town opens up a portal
> Heartland time, yuma time - Yuma is excitable orphan boy who wants to find out more about his deceased parents, also can Jump Good because Kattobing
- after hearing yugi's story, yuma thinks he has an idea about where the legendary XYZ card might be. he's heard stories from hsi dad, and this key around his neck has been said to unlock an ultimate power for the ultimate price!
- opening the door ends up fuckng stuff up, because darkness corrupted the door
- Hope is forcibly split into two overlay units and scattered, astral joins the party. Astral's Tattle ability get, Yuma's High Five the Sky ability, get
- Overlay units are on the astral and barial worlds. defeating the two minibosses, Elphias and Nasch, will get the two overlay units back under your control, and overlaying them will reunite them. To get to elphias, you gotta go through a mini WDC drama with the Tenjos and the Arclights
- with Nasch you have to deal with the Barians
- Heartland serves as a quick and dirty intro to the basic bones of the plot: collect legend cards, legend cards are split because DARKNESS, reforge legend cards, fix seal, win game
- After Heartland, the intimidating young man in the hub world seems to have made his own stall at the junk shop. He'll sell weapons and items, but so far his stock is minimal.
- (He also seems to be able to do more if you collect pieces of Junk and give them to him, but he seems reluctant to offer you this service. Maybe if you get him to trust you a little more...)
- The young man by the orphanage seems friendly enough, but oddly enough also seems somewhat sad. He talks like he's missing someone dearly.
- Hope opens the way to the Dark World, where the Fusion card presumably lies.
- However, talking to the inhabitants quickly dismisses the idea of it being easy. A few characters talk to you about the cruel fate that has recently befallen the prince of the realm. He had apparently been the wielder of the Fusion card at one point in time.
- However, Darkness came and tore the card in two, reducing it to its fusion materials. One of those Fusion Materials was reduced to a possessive, protective state, beginning to obsess over the prince that it was created to protect, and reduced said prince to an empty shell in its obsession. It was thought that perhaps the prince's very soul was taken away
- presumably, to protect it better. But to where, no one is sure. The other Fusion Material also vanished to parts unknown. What is left is an empty conqueror that craves nothing but destruction and seeks to become evil in its quest to conquer it, fueled by the obsession of its ever-loyal retainer.
- If you want even a chance at stopping them, you'll have to find that Fusion Material. But no one knows who it is...and as things are, no one is willing to help you out, anyway.
- And is way too strong for Yugi at level 10. You can absolutely fucking walk up to Haou+Yubel and try and fight them with level ten Yugi, Atem, Yuma and Astral and fail
- Instead, what happens is that Yugi and co. find a specter. A strange specter that only identifies itself as Judai, and seems to cause more trouble than it's worth.
- After all, it likes to splash ink around and blow things up more than any specter should.
- But, such skills are useful when trying to navigate the war-torn landscape, and it's willing to help out-hell, it's the only one willing. So they might as well.
- Travelling through the Dark World nets them several points of interest:
1) There are multiple places they Just Cannot Access. Judai's bombs aren't strong enough, Yuma can't jump high enough, it just won't work.
2) Strange mirror shards are hidden around this place. They seem important to Judai. When he absorbs one, memories come back to him- apparently, he doesn't remember much of anything other than his name.
3) WHICH PROVES TO BE EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING WHEN IT TAKES THEM COLLECTING SEVERAL SHARDS FOR JUUDAI TO REMEMBER THAT HE'S CARRYING A CARD.
4) All hopes die when seeing it, though. It's a Normal card, Neos. Not a Fusion like they need. Collecting all the shards they can find does nothing else for his memory, though, so they have to try it.
- Taking Judai to the others in the Fusion dimension has other residents seeming to recognize him. However, on closer inspection, he doesn't look like their friend at all...How disheartening.
- Neos actually seems to manage to do something. The seal doesn't increase in power, but another doorway opens. This should work, right?
- The junk salesman seems to have warmed up to you more, now that you're collecting friends. "Working hard, I see?" he asks, when coming to buy from him. On being told that they're all working hard to try and reseal the Darkness, the salesman seems mollified.
- Unfortunately, Neos not being quite the right type of card has consequences. Doorways being opened without a proper seal in place leaves Darkness' minions rooms to come through, and one such boss monster shows up.
- It's a metal behemoth of some sort. Shadow Realm flipping doesn't allow any room around it, it's too big. A metal giant doesn't care much for ink being splatted on it
- and it doesn't seem to be affected by the power level of Juudai's explosions, either
- Yuma can jump high, but doesn't have enough power in his kicks to deal damage
- and astral is just there to describe how strong this thing is and possibly stroking its ego.
- one by one, it inevitably snatches them up, until all fo them are out of the fight. then suddenly from the audience
- dAIJOUBU KA? ?? ??
- it's the junk salesman! wielding a weapon that he sold but nobody else could equip: a wrench?
- well, dont' laugh, at least. it works. puzzle boss fight ensues, involving the guest star party member both freeing the others from its traps while also removing the behemoth's armor, allowing other members of the party to hit its inner workings properly. Between the group of them, it goes down.
- gratitude is expressed. they didn't expect him to help them! they thought he hated them! hated them? goodness, no. he couldn't hate you. not when you're all trying so hard
- but god, he can't leave you kids by yourselves to get murdered now.
- "I can't do much to save anyone, but I couldn't stand by and watch as someone gets hurt." [Yuusei joined the team!]
- Minibosses are now rematchable at the Gate
- because they made do with a shitty half done seal
- Yusei's junk shop is now run by Jounouchi and Honda. They don't seem to holding the store as well as Yuusei does, but they can still do modwork! Just bring 'em the Junk!
- "Oh-! Yuusei, you were here this whole time?" Walking by the orphanage with Yuusei in your party nets this conversation with the young man there. They seem to know each other? The conversation seems vague and yet detailed, with so many details they can't quite translate.
- Talking to Crow afterwards only results in a request to look out for Yuusei. "He's a nice guy, but he gets wrapped up so much in the problems of others he forgets to look out for himself!" Strange.
- okay yuusei party member unlocked, Yuusei's Door Hacker ability ge
- idk if he gets a dash ability too because of his D-Wheel
- ANYWAYS neos-as-is unlocks the door to the Standard jigen
> Going there and talking to the locals nets you the information that this place used to be the Pendulum Dimension, but it was split into four by the ~Darkness~
- so you're gonna have to do some island hopping
-which is difficult, considering you've got nothing to hop with. yuuma jumps high, not far
-Then you find the Egg.
- Juudai wants to eat egg but egg hatches
- "slSKLG- YOU CAN'T EAT ME" "i dunno you still look pretty tasty . . . "
- everyone side-eyes juudai because what came out of the egg is a human lookin kid
- Yuusei voice: [sigh] yamero :T
- this is why yusei is here
- yusei is there to hold the kid so juudai doesn't eat him
- yuusei: glorified babysitter
- yuusei is a terrible dad figure, he doesn't take care of himself or takes baths he's bad
- anyways you take the kid with you to the crevice and it turns out he can hover! he's surprisingly strong for a kid...derg...thing
- not strong enough to go far but it's far enough to get across the crevice to the next island
- and since he doesn't know anyone else and if you'll keep that shadow from eating him he'll help you out!
- [Yuuya joined the party!]
- [Yuuya's glide ability get!]
- [Yuuya names himself Yuuya!]
- anyway it turns out there are other little derg-kids around like yuya and apparently they are drawn to FIGHT
- there is one on each of the other islands and each one yuya defeats makes him STRONGER
- because they assimilate
- [FIGHT FOR DOMINANCE QUEST]
- each time he beats a derg-kid and absorbs them he gets older
- and then he's able to get to the next island which progressively gets farther and farther away
- also there's probably puzzles/sidequests to get to each one
- i dunno if they'd be bracelet girl relevant or miniplot rehash releveant
- 'm inclined to say bracelet girl relevant
- like doing something for yuzu is what nets you yuya's egg in the first place, etc
- anwyays as you keep aging up yuya the remaining derg kids age up and get more powerful too so [BABY FIGHTS.GIF] gets harder every tiem'
- Yuri is a fucking tool of course
- but when you finally defeat final derg kid Yuri, Yuya's Odd-Eyes Dragon becomes Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon
- and is revealed as the Pendulum Card needed for the seal
- [SURPRISE]
- "It's great and all I'm stronger, and I'm glad I'll be able to carry my own weight around here... but I'm actually going to miss you having carry me around and look after me, Yusei-san."
- "Our bonds haven't broken because of this. I'll always be here for you." because dad
- oh yeah the standard jigen pieces all reform back into pendulum jigen too, that happens
- so back to the hub world
> activating the seal nets you the road to Synchro World
- going there is Not Fun because
1) everything is bleak, grey, and destroyed
2) no enemies anywhere to speak of
3) BGM is minimalistic and almost desolate sounding
4) no NPCs to talk to
5) Progressing through the area is unusually slow. Using Astral's Tattle reveals it's because Yuusei has gone completely quiet and seems to be lingering around areas more than he should.
- Putting him at the forefront of the party doesn't help things either, he doesn't have anything to say.
- eventually you find a building that has a strange machine labled only as "Momentum." it's completely dilapidated, but momentum itself is still running.
- it's probably the first spot of color you will ever see in this world and yet for some reason it is not comforting at all.
- the steady hum of the machine in the background only makes the area more unnerving
- when you try and leave the room through the other exit, though, you can't seem to be able to.
- [...It seems that Yuusei doesn't want to leave.]
- at this point, Yuusei leaves the party and just stands in the room. Talking to him at this point only nets you the following dialogue.
"...Sorry. You should go on without me."
"...There's something I need to do here."
[...]
"...I'll catch up with you later when I'm done."
[...]
[...It doesn't seem like he's going to finish any time soon...]
[Yuusei has left the party.]
- at this point he'll start walking around the Old Momentum room and if you talk to him, you won't get any answer.
- [...Yuusei doesn't seem to be listening to you.]
- [...Better leave him to work.]
- at this point, you can leave the old momentum room'
- here, you'll find out that the synchro world has been torn in half by something, a crevice splits the path ahead. Yuya can cross it, but...
- [...Yuya doesn't want to seem to cross the gap without Yusei.]
- so you're forced to take a detour.
- this leads you to a broken down stadium where you finally find somebody
- unfortunately, that Somebody is actually rather hostile
- he seems rather insistent on declaring this area his "territory," that he's King of all of it, and that you're trespassing and he's not going to let you take anything from the King.
- Confronting him about this ridiculousness nets you a boss fight which can go two ways.
- One, you beat up Trash King Jack Atlas the normal way and get the items he drops normally. Said item is a key to the "Fudou residence," a locked house near the stadium that no one could get into before.
- Two: use Astral's "Tattle" on a mystery card Jack is holding but doesn't seem to be using in battle.
- Using that will reveal the card is called "Black Feather-" with the rest of the words cut off, but where have you seen that before?
- Revealing that is supposed to be a hint as to what you're actually supposed to do: realize that Jack is connected to Crow and steal the item off of him, turning a Beatdown Boss battle into a Puzzle Boss battle.
- Stealing Crow's card off of him ends the battle early.
- Whether you beat Jack up or not, both end up with the party finding out that Jack has been holding onto these items related to Yusei and Crow out of sentimentality, and them informing him that both of them are actually alive, which causes Jack to willingly surrender the key to Yuusei's home.
- if you chose the beatdown boss path, however, Jack immediately faints after this, and his broken down penthouse home ends up functioning as a restore/save point.
- Ending the battle early, however, causes Jack to storm off to where Yusei is while you go over to the Fudo Residence.
- Looking aroudn Jack's penthouse home will net you more backstory on the Synchro Dimension: the machine Momentum was meant to be a new source of infinite power for the dimension, but it was starting to act strangely. However, the ones in charge refused to stop this, instead continuing to run tests. Then one day, it abruptly turned in reverse.
- this caused the synchro world to be split in half, and most, if not all, of its citizens to die in the ensuing destruction, explaining the current desolation of the world. if Yuusei and Crow were indeed from this place, it would explain why they seemed so sad when arriving in the hub world.
- It's also not hard to imagine that the encroaching Darkness was what messed up Momentum in the first place, and that if those in charge had stopped working on it, Synchro World might have been spared its current state of destruction.
- If you go back to see Yuusei at this point and ask him about being from the world, he admits to having been thrown out of Synchro World thanks to the explosion, and he woke up in the hub world with a new scar on his face and no knowledge of how he survived.
- He also says it's why he can't leave Momentum now: his parents were the ones in charge of the project, and he feels responsible for trying to fix it, somehow...
- Both you and him know that it's futile at this point, but Yuusei won't leave.
- If you spared Jack, however, you learn all this by listening in on a heated argument between him and Yuusei instead.
- [...They seem to really be fighting viscously...]
- [...It's probably best to stay out of it for now.]
- Unlocking the Fudo residence nets you Professor Fudo's Diary.
- Reading it reveals that: 1) he had been in charge of the project, as Yuusei said, 2) he had planned on shutting it down the day before it exploded, 3) his assistants didn't seem fond of the idea and 4) apparently he was intent on celebrating his son's 18th birthday the next day. Huh.
- Bringing the diary to Yuusei is what gets him to finally relent and come with you, once he realizes that his father hadn't tried to continue the project. If Jack is there, the fight with him has also increased Yuusei's stats as well.
- [Yuusei joined the party!]
- The note about Yuusei's birthday is actually a hint: if you return to the Fudo house with Yuusei in the party, you can find his birthday present hidden in his parent's room. It's a special tool/weapon for Yuusei.
- when Yuusei joined your party, he had a Tuner Monster with him, Junk Synchron
- turns out there are three cards scattered across synchro dimension that he can tune with Junk Synchron to recreate Stardust Dragon, not that he knows that
- Speed Warrior, Sonic Chick, Quillbolt Hedgehog.
- One is on the initial side of the chasm you end up on-you regain it not long after Yuusei rejoins the party
- the other is on the "Satellite" side of the chasm, that you can cross now that Yuya and Yusei are both in the party.
- And the last is at the bottom of the chasm, where all the angry ghosties from momentum going berserk are.
- the godwin bros are probably down there too. for boss fight funtimes
- beat godwin bros, collect cards, recreate stardust dragon, yay
- and then after that you get to use stardust to open the path to vrains world/ Link world which we don't know shit about yet so that's a big [Shrug.jpg]
- the important stuff is that you get Yusaku and he has the classic [flight] ability which covers things you can't get with Yuma's high jump or Yuya's hover. Because hoverboards.
- he probably starts out with Decode Talker and you have to find some way to upgrade it to Firewall Dragon
- Hoverboards are like you need to glide across the ground which makes it different from yuyas fly
- but its unlimited and you dont tire a baby derg out
- After that you have pretty much all the cards except for the Fusion one, but you've gotten enough glass shards by this point thanks to story railroading that Judai will have recovered enough memories to remember that he's the prince who originally owned the Fusion card
- You can try and rematch Haou + Yubel at this point, but if you haven't collected all the glass shards you'll be stuck in a Puzzle Boss Battle without the right pieces
- You get this hint if you don't have all the shards: It's pretty obvious
- at this point, Judai is very much BSOD thanks to regaining his memories, partially because his body/soul is off rampaging and destroying things, partially because he remembers the events that led to Yubel shredding his soul in the first place, and it largely came to pass because he was rather
- negligent
- in his duties
- and the darkness took advantage of that
- anyways, when you do have all the mirror shards, it allows neos to separate yubel from haou, which lets you target them seperately
- and from then on it becomes a double boss battle instead of an unwinnable one
- the key to winning the battle is actually beating yubel first, which lets judai reclaim the identity of haou
- then the mirror shards all reform into super fusion, which he can then use to merge yubel and neos back together, welcoming yubel back into his soul
- if you try and take out haou first, yubel will just revive him :T
- afterwards you get the newly reformed Judai back into your team, with enhanced ink + bomb blasting powers
- and he generally seems a lot happier and a bit more composed now that he's back to his former self + character development
- he needs to restore his kingdom, but he also wants to keep helping you-if he doesn't do that, then obviously he can't rebuild his kingdom without the threat of darkness looming over it!
- plus he owes you guys anyway
- and even if he didn't, he'd still go so why is he bothering to justify himself to uuu
- anyways NOW YOU HAVE ALL THE SIX LEGEND CARDS NOW THINGS CAN'T GO WROOOOOO- what is that pot of greed doing
- surprise, it tricked you
- bakura was a shitty liar all along
- the cards didn't scatter and split because the darkness cut them in half, they split in self-defense because they sensed the formation of the pot of greed and if they ended up in that pot, their powers would be sealed from reaching out through the worlds as they were meant to
- the pot of greed was never meant to be in the hands of the cards' chosen wielders (it's a banned card, see)
- so by giving the pot to them, bakura all but bypassed that little safety measure
- WHOOPS
- and if the darkness mananged to worm its way through influencing things after the cards split WELL
- THAT WAS A NICE SIDE BENEFIT
- and now THE POT OF GREED WILL IMPLODE, TAKING THE SIX CARDS WITH IT FOREVER, SUCKS FOR YOU
- NOW DARKNESS IS FREE TO REIGN SUPREEEEEEEME
- AND ASSIMILATE ALL INTO ITS GRASP
> cue 7th world which is basically the final boss area that [DARKNESS] created for itself and is basically the beginning point of its merged world
- the protags were thrown in there to die in their moment of helplessness but they miraculously [SURVIVED] they're just separated
- so it's 7th world where you have to regain your party members and remotivate them and then their true heartfelt feelings of [FRIENDSHIP] or something will revive a small portion of the cards' powers within them which justifies why you can still use their powers when you regain them in the party shut up
- why do you think the cards reformed when the characters went through their worlds i mean their character development narrative
- anyways the final boss is like
- an amalglam of all the weird power entitites the special cards would have gotten their power from and/or are the antithesis of
- zorc + darkness goat + crimson dragon + numeron dragon + zarc + idefk who vrains' big bad is
- BUT YOU CAN CALL IT DARKNESS DRAGON
- anyways, beating darkness dragon seals it back up/destroys it with the vague ominous pronouncemetn that AS LONG AS LIGHT EXISTS I TOO DARKNESS WILL ARISE AGAIN etc but who cares about that
- the worlds are slowly recovering
- the other protags are going back to their repaired worlds to fix things up, etc while yugi/yami stays behind to repair/protect the hub world
- even though they're separating they will all still be friends and never forget the bonds they shared, yadda yadda ya!
- yaaay happy ending friendship and rainbows and
- The end!
- At least until the post game/sequel
- after hearing yugi's story, yuma thinks he has an idea about where the legendary XYZ card might be. he's heard stories from hsi dad, and this key around his neck has been said to unlock an ultimate power for the ultimate price!
- opening the door ends up fuckng stuff up, because darkness corrupted the door
- Hope is forcibly split into two overlay units and scattered, astral joins the party. Astral's Tattle ability get, Yuma's High Five the Sky ability, get
- Overlay units are on the astral and barial worlds. defeating the two minibosses, Elphias and Nasch, will get the two overlay units back under your control, and overlaying them will reunite them. To get to elphias, you gotta go through a mini WDC drama with the Tenjos and the Arclights
- with Nasch you have to deal with the Barians
- Heartland serves as a quick and dirty intro to the basic bones of the plot: collect legend cards, legend cards are split because DARKNESS, reforge legend cards, fix seal, win game
- After Heartland, the intimidating young man in the hub world seems to have made his own stall at the junk shop. He'll sell weapons and items, but so far his stock is minimal.
- (He also seems to be able to do more if you collect pieces of Junk and give them to him, but he seems reluctant to offer you this service. Maybe if you get him to trust you a little more...)
- The young man by the orphanage seems friendly enough, but oddly enough also seems somewhat sad. He talks like he's missing someone dearly.
- Hope opens the way to the Dark World, where the Fusion card presumably lies.
- However, talking to the inhabitants quickly dismisses the idea of it being easy. A few characters talk to you about the cruel fate that has recently befallen the prince of the realm. He had apparently been the wielder of the Fusion card at one point in time.
- However, Darkness came and tore the card in two, reducing it to its fusion materials. One of those Fusion Materials was reduced to a possessive, protective state, beginning to obsess over the prince that it was created to protect, and reduced said prince to an empty shell in its obsession. It was thought that perhaps the prince's very soul was taken away
- presumably, to protect it better. But to where, no one is sure. The other Fusion Material also vanished to parts unknown. What is left is an empty conqueror that craves nothing but destruction and seeks to become evil in its quest to conquer it, fueled by the obsession of its ever-loyal retainer.
- If you want even a chance at stopping them, you'll have to find that Fusion Material. But no one knows who it is...and as things are, no one is willing to help you out, anyway.
- And is way too strong for Yugi at level 10. You can absolutely fucking walk up to Haou+Yubel and try and fight them with level ten Yugi, Atem, Yuma and Astral and fail
- Instead, what happens is that Yugi and co. find a specter. A strange specter that only identifies itself as Judai, and seems to cause more trouble than it's worth.
- After all, it likes to splash ink around and blow things up more than any specter should.
- But, such skills are useful when trying to navigate the war-torn landscape, and it's willing to help out-hell, it's the only one willing. So they might as well.
- Travelling through the Dark World nets them several points of interest:
1) There are multiple places they Just Cannot Access. Judai's bombs aren't strong enough, Yuma can't jump high enough, it just won't work.
2) Strange mirror shards are hidden around this place. They seem important to Judai. When he absorbs one, memories come back to him- apparently, he doesn't remember much of anything other than his name.
3) WHICH PROVES TO BE EXTREMELY FRUSTRATING WHEN IT TAKES THEM COLLECTING SEVERAL SHARDS FOR JUUDAI TO REMEMBER THAT HE'S CARRYING A CARD.
4) All hopes die when seeing it, though. It's a Normal card, Neos. Not a Fusion like they need. Collecting all the shards they can find does nothing else for his memory, though, so they have to try it.
- Taking Judai to the others in the Fusion dimension has other residents seeming to recognize him. However, on closer inspection, he doesn't look like their friend at all...How disheartening.
- Neos actually seems to manage to do something. The seal doesn't increase in power, but another doorway opens. This should work, right?
- The junk salesman seems to have warmed up to you more, now that you're collecting friends. "Working hard, I see?" he asks, when coming to buy from him. On being told that they're all working hard to try and reseal the Darkness, the salesman seems mollified.
- Unfortunately, Neos not being quite the right type of card has consequences. Doorways being opened without a proper seal in place leaves Darkness' minions rooms to come through, and one such boss monster shows up.
- It's a metal behemoth of some sort. Shadow Realm flipping doesn't allow any room around it, it's too big. A metal giant doesn't care much for ink being splatted on it
- and it doesn't seem to be affected by the power level of Juudai's explosions, either
- Yuma can jump high, but doesn't have enough power in his kicks to deal damage
- and astral is just there to describe how strong this thing is and possibly stroking its ego.
- one by one, it inevitably snatches them up, until all fo them are out of the fight. then suddenly from the audience
- dAIJOUBU KA? ?? ??
- it's the junk salesman! wielding a weapon that he sold but nobody else could equip: a wrench?
- well, dont' laugh, at least. it works. puzzle boss fight ensues, involving the guest star party member both freeing the others from its traps while also removing the behemoth's armor, allowing other members of the party to hit its inner workings properly. Between the group of them, it goes down.
- gratitude is expressed. they didn't expect him to help them! they thought he hated them! hated them? goodness, no. he couldn't hate you. not when you're all trying so hard
- but god, he can't leave you kids by yourselves to get murdered now.
- "I can't do much to save anyone, but I couldn't stand by and watch as someone gets hurt." [Yuusei joined the team!]
- Minibosses are now rematchable at the Gate
- because they made do with a shitty half done seal
- Yusei's junk shop is now run by Jounouchi and Honda. They don't seem to holding the store as well as Yuusei does, but they can still do modwork! Just bring 'em the Junk!
- "Oh-! Yuusei, you were here this whole time?" Walking by the orphanage with Yuusei in your party nets this conversation with the young man there. They seem to know each other? The conversation seems vague and yet detailed, with so many details they can't quite translate.
- Talking to Crow afterwards only results in a request to look out for Yuusei. "He's a nice guy, but he gets wrapped up so much in the problems of others he forgets to look out for himself!" Strange.
- okay yuusei party member unlocked, Yuusei's Door Hacker ability ge
- idk if he gets a dash ability too because of his D-Wheel
- ANYWAYS neos-as-is unlocks the door to the Standard jigen
> Going there and talking to the locals nets you the information that this place used to be the Pendulum Dimension, but it was split into four by the ~Darkness~
- so you're gonna have to do some island hopping
-which is difficult, considering you've got nothing to hop with. yuuma jumps high, not far
-Then you find the Egg.
- Juudai wants to eat egg but egg hatches
- "slSKLG- YOU CAN'T EAT ME" "i dunno you still look pretty tasty . . . "
- everyone side-eyes juudai because what came out of the egg is a human lookin kid
- Yuusei voice: [sigh] yamero :T
- this is why yusei is here
- yusei is there to hold the kid so juudai doesn't eat him
- yuusei: glorified babysitter
- yuusei is a terrible dad figure, he doesn't take care of himself or takes baths he's bad
- anyways you take the kid with you to the crevice and it turns out he can hover! he's surprisingly strong for a kid...derg...thing
- not strong enough to go far but it's far enough to get across the crevice to the next island
- and since he doesn't know anyone else and if you'll keep that shadow from eating him he'll help you out!
- [Yuuya joined the party!]
- [Yuuya's glide ability get!]
- [Yuuya names himself Yuuya!]
- anyway it turns out there are other little derg-kids around like yuya and apparently they are drawn to FIGHT
- there is one on each of the other islands and each one yuya defeats makes him STRONGER
- because they assimilate
- [FIGHT FOR DOMINANCE QUEST]
- each time he beats a derg-kid and absorbs them he gets older
- and then he's able to get to the next island which progressively gets farther and farther away
- also there's probably puzzles/sidequests to get to each one
- i dunno if they'd be bracelet girl relevant or miniplot rehash releveant
- 'm inclined to say bracelet girl relevant
- like doing something for yuzu is what nets you yuya's egg in the first place, etc
- anwyays as you keep aging up yuya the remaining derg kids age up and get more powerful too so [BABY FIGHTS.GIF] gets harder every tiem'
- Yuri is a fucking tool of course
- but when you finally defeat final derg kid Yuri, Yuya's Odd-Eyes Dragon becomes Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon
- and is revealed as the Pendulum Card needed for the seal
- [SURPRISE]
- "It's great and all I'm stronger, and I'm glad I'll be able to carry my own weight around here... but I'm actually going to miss you having carry me around and look after me, Yusei-san."
- "Our bonds haven't broken because of this. I'll always be here for you." because dad
- oh yeah the standard jigen pieces all reform back into pendulum jigen too, that happens
- so back to the hub world
> activating the seal nets you the road to Synchro World
- going there is Not Fun because
1) everything is bleak, grey, and destroyed
2) no enemies anywhere to speak of
3) BGM is minimalistic and almost desolate sounding
4) no NPCs to talk to
5) Progressing through the area is unusually slow. Using Astral's Tattle reveals it's because Yuusei has gone completely quiet and seems to be lingering around areas more than he should.
- Putting him at the forefront of the party doesn't help things either, he doesn't have anything to say.
- eventually you find a building that has a strange machine labled only as "Momentum." it's completely dilapidated, but momentum itself is still running.
- it's probably the first spot of color you will ever see in this world and yet for some reason it is not comforting at all.
- the steady hum of the machine in the background only makes the area more unnerving
- when you try and leave the room through the other exit, though, you can't seem to be able to.
- [...It seems that Yuusei doesn't want to leave.]
- at this point, Yuusei leaves the party and just stands in the room. Talking to him at this point only nets you the following dialogue.
"...Sorry. You should go on without me."
"...There's something I need to do here."
[...]
"...I'll catch up with you later when I'm done."
[...]
[...It doesn't seem like he's going to finish any time soon...]
[Yuusei has left the party.]
- at this point he'll start walking around the Old Momentum room and if you talk to him, you won't get any answer.
- [...Yuusei doesn't seem to be listening to you.]
- [...Better leave him to work.]
- at this point, you can leave the old momentum room'
- here, you'll find out that the synchro world has been torn in half by something, a crevice splits the path ahead. Yuya can cross it, but...
- [...Yuya doesn't want to seem to cross the gap without Yusei.]
- so you're forced to take a detour.
- this leads you to a broken down stadium where you finally find somebody
- unfortunately, that Somebody is actually rather hostile
- he seems rather insistent on declaring this area his "territory," that he's King of all of it, and that you're trespassing and he's not going to let you take anything from the King.
- Confronting him about this ridiculousness nets you a boss fight which can go two ways.
- One, you beat up Trash King Jack Atlas the normal way and get the items he drops normally. Said item is a key to the "Fudou residence," a locked house near the stadium that no one could get into before.
- Two: use Astral's "Tattle" on a mystery card Jack is holding but doesn't seem to be using in battle.
- Using that will reveal the card is called "Black Feather-" with the rest of the words cut off, but where have you seen that before?
- Revealing that is supposed to be a hint as to what you're actually supposed to do: realize that Jack is connected to Crow and steal the item off of him, turning a Beatdown Boss battle into a Puzzle Boss battle.
- Stealing Crow's card off of him ends the battle early.
- Whether you beat Jack up or not, both end up with the party finding out that Jack has been holding onto these items related to Yusei and Crow out of sentimentality, and them informing him that both of them are actually alive, which causes Jack to willingly surrender the key to Yuusei's home.
- if you chose the beatdown boss path, however, Jack immediately faints after this, and his broken down penthouse home ends up functioning as a restore/save point.
- Ending the battle early, however, causes Jack to storm off to where Yusei is while you go over to the Fudo Residence.
- Looking aroudn Jack's penthouse home will net you more backstory on the Synchro Dimension: the machine Momentum was meant to be a new source of infinite power for the dimension, but it was starting to act strangely. However, the ones in charge refused to stop this, instead continuing to run tests. Then one day, it abruptly turned in reverse.
- this caused the synchro world to be split in half, and most, if not all, of its citizens to die in the ensuing destruction, explaining the current desolation of the world. if Yuusei and Crow were indeed from this place, it would explain why they seemed so sad when arriving in the hub world.
- It's also not hard to imagine that the encroaching Darkness was what messed up Momentum in the first place, and that if those in charge had stopped working on it, Synchro World might have been spared its current state of destruction.
- If you go back to see Yuusei at this point and ask him about being from the world, he admits to having been thrown out of Synchro World thanks to the explosion, and he woke up in the hub world with a new scar on his face and no knowledge of how he survived.
- He also says it's why he can't leave Momentum now: his parents were the ones in charge of the project, and he feels responsible for trying to fix it, somehow...
- Both you and him know that it's futile at this point, but Yuusei won't leave.
- If you spared Jack, however, you learn all this by listening in on a heated argument between him and Yuusei instead.
- [...They seem to really be fighting viscously...]
- [...It's probably best to stay out of it for now.]
- Unlocking the Fudo residence nets you Professor Fudo's Diary.
- Reading it reveals that: 1) he had been in charge of the project, as Yuusei said, 2) he had planned on shutting it down the day before it exploded, 3) his assistants didn't seem fond of the idea and 4) apparently he was intent on celebrating his son's 18th birthday the next day. Huh.
- Bringing the diary to Yuusei is what gets him to finally relent and come with you, once he realizes that his father hadn't tried to continue the project. If Jack is there, the fight with him has also increased Yuusei's stats as well.
- [Yuusei joined the party!]
- The note about Yuusei's birthday is actually a hint: if you return to the Fudo house with Yuusei in the party, you can find his birthday present hidden in his parent's room. It's a special tool/weapon for Yuusei.
- when Yuusei joined your party, he had a Tuner Monster with him, Junk Synchron
- turns out there are three cards scattered across synchro dimension that he can tune with Junk Synchron to recreate Stardust Dragon, not that he knows that
- Speed Warrior, Sonic Chick, Quillbolt Hedgehog.
- One is on the initial side of the chasm you end up on-you regain it not long after Yuusei rejoins the party
- the other is on the "Satellite" side of the chasm, that you can cross now that Yuya and Yusei are both in the party.
- And the last is at the bottom of the chasm, where all the angry ghosties from momentum going berserk are.
- the godwin bros are probably down there too. for boss fight funtimes
- beat godwin bros, collect cards, recreate stardust dragon, yay
- and then after that you get to use stardust to open the path to vrains world/ Link world which we don't know shit about yet so that's a big [Shrug.jpg]
- the important stuff is that you get Yusaku and he has the classic [flight] ability which covers things you can't get with Yuma's high jump or Yuya's hover. Because hoverboards.
- he probably starts out with Decode Talker and you have to find some way to upgrade it to Firewall Dragon
- Hoverboards are like you need to glide across the ground which makes it different from yuyas fly
- but its unlimited and you dont tire a baby derg out
- After that you have pretty much all the cards except for the Fusion one, but you've gotten enough glass shards by this point thanks to story railroading that Judai will have recovered enough memories to remember that he's the prince who originally owned the Fusion card
- You can try and rematch Haou + Yubel at this point, but if you haven't collected all the glass shards you'll be stuck in a Puzzle Boss Battle without the right pieces
- You get this hint if you don't have all the shards: It's pretty obvious
- at this point, Judai is very much BSOD thanks to regaining his memories, partially because his body/soul is off rampaging and destroying things, partially because he remembers the events that led to Yubel shredding his soul in the first place, and it largely came to pass because he was rather
- negligent
- in his duties
- and the darkness took advantage of that
- anyways, when you do have all the mirror shards, it allows neos to separate yubel from haou, which lets you target them seperately
- and from then on it becomes a double boss battle instead of an unwinnable one
- the key to winning the battle is actually beating yubel first, which lets judai reclaim the identity of haou
- then the mirror shards all reform into super fusion, which he can then use to merge yubel and neos back together, welcoming yubel back into his soul
- if you try and take out haou first, yubel will just revive him :T
- afterwards you get the newly reformed Judai back into your team, with enhanced ink + bomb blasting powers
- and he generally seems a lot happier and a bit more composed now that he's back to his former self + character development
- he needs to restore his kingdom, but he also wants to keep helping you-if he doesn't do that, then obviously he can't rebuild his kingdom without the threat of darkness looming over it!
- plus he owes you guys anyway
- and even if he didn't, he'd still go so why is he bothering to justify himself to uuu
- anyways NOW YOU HAVE ALL THE SIX LEGEND CARDS NOW THINGS CAN'T GO WROOOOOO- what is that pot of greed doing
- surprise, it tricked you
- bakura was a shitty liar all along
- the cards didn't scatter and split because the darkness cut them in half, they split in self-defense because they sensed the formation of the pot of greed and if they ended up in that pot, their powers would be sealed from reaching out through the worlds as they were meant to
- the pot of greed was never meant to be in the hands of the cards' chosen wielders (it's a banned card, see)
- so by giving the pot to them, bakura all but bypassed that little safety measure
- WHOOPS
- and if the darkness mananged to worm its way through influencing things after the cards split WELL
- THAT WAS A NICE SIDE BENEFIT
- and now THE POT OF GREED WILL IMPLODE, TAKING THE SIX CARDS WITH IT FOREVER, SUCKS FOR YOU
- NOW DARKNESS IS FREE TO REIGN SUPREEEEEEEME
- AND ASSIMILATE ALL INTO ITS GRASP
> cue 7th world which is basically the final boss area that [DARKNESS] created for itself and is basically the beginning point of its merged world
- the protags were thrown in there to die in their moment of helplessness but they miraculously [SURVIVED] they're just separated
- so it's 7th world where you have to regain your party members and remotivate them and then their true heartfelt feelings of [FRIENDSHIP] or something will revive a small portion of the cards' powers within them which justifies why you can still use their powers when you regain them in the party shut up
- why do you think the cards reformed when the characters went through their worlds i mean their character development narrative
- anyways the final boss is like
- an amalglam of all the weird power entitites the special cards would have gotten their power from and/or are the antithesis of
- zorc + darkness goat + crimson dragon + numeron dragon + zarc + idefk who vrains' big bad is
- BUT YOU CAN CALL IT DARKNESS DRAGON
- anyways, beating darkness dragon seals it back up/destroys it with the vague ominous pronouncemetn that AS LONG AS LIGHT EXISTS I TOO DARKNESS WILL ARISE AGAIN etc but who cares about that
- the worlds are slowly recovering
- the other protags are going back to their repaired worlds to fix things up, etc while yugi/yami stays behind to repair/protect the hub world
- even though they're separating they will all still be friends and never forget the bonds they shared, yadda yadda ya!
- yaaay happy ending friendship and rainbows and
- The end!
- At least until the post game/sequel