I haven't played the original (mostly because I'm not a big fan of mobile-only games or tower defense), but I've run across a few of the characters on danbooru over the years. We talked about one of them briefly in another thread, IIRC.

However, one Takanashi Kiara is a huge fan of same and has been looking forward to Endfield for her entire existence*, played the brief beta a few months ago, and started playing the game For Reals pretty much the instant it dropped. And it looked fun, so I picked it up.

I'm not very far into it and have acquired nothing/no one of note yet, but yeah, it's pretty fun so far. The main game plays a bit like ZZZ, but with different enough combat mechanics that I'm pretty sure I'm going to fumble a lot switching between them, but hopefully my high-function-button-masher approach will see me through either way. Also, unlike ZZZ the main character can actually fight and is therefore eligible to be part of the squad, which is an interesting difference.

Mind you, the Endministrator (what a strange title) is more of a cipher than Wise/Belle, and that's on purpose, since they played the "your character can't remember anything" card to explain why you don't know anything about the gameplay or lore going in. This is a common tactic, and adjacent to the way every Elder Scrolls game starts with the PC in some kind of penal situation to explain why you start with no equipment. It annoys me a little, but at the same time, I get why they do it.

One thing that is very different is what appears to be the main gameplay mechanic that isn't on-foot exploration/tactical combat. It appears that Hypergryph (no relation) looked at the feedback from Arknights and said, "We hear you! Some of you aren't really fond of tower defense. In that case, how about Satisfactory?" When you're not out stabbing bad guys, your main job seems to be building an automated factory to build... well, I'm not clear yet on what it builds, having just reached the tutorial phase of that part. Maybe everything? The characters keep talking about how the new automatic factory machine they've developed will enable them to rebuild the world. I guess that's what Endfield Industries is actually for, and the fighting-snurglies part is just because they keep getting in your way and/or breaking stuff you're trying to fix.

Pretty neat so far. Confusingly complicated substructure, like all gacha games, but I'm sure I'll get used to it in time. It took me a couple of months to really get a handle on what the hell all the currencies and stuff do in ZZZ.

The first six-star character banner is for Laevatain (I Can't Believe It's Not Surtr), and I cannot afford to seek her. Sadness.

--G.
* seriously, they started hyping the game in 2020, so...
-><-
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Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>The main game plays a bit like ZZZ,
>but with different enough combat mechanics that I'm pretty sure I'm
>going to fumble a lot switching between them, but hopefully my
>high-function-button-masher approach will see me through either way.

I need to rebind a few keys to match ZZZ, my dodging and firing off alts keeps getting replaced with jumping and swapping characters.

>
>Mind you, the Endministrator (what a strange title) is more of a
>cipher than Wise/Belle, and that's on purpose, since they played the
>"your character can't remember anything" card to explain why
>you don't know anything about the gameplay or lore going in.
>This is a common tactic, and adjacent to the way every Elder
>Scrolls game starts with the PC in some kind of penal situation to
>explain why you start with no equipment. It annoys me a little, but
>at the same time, I get why they do it.

The part that interests a lot of old arknight players is that the Doctor had the same thing, through similar yet suspiciously different conditions, and it turned out their backstory and old personality was VERY important to the ongoing plot there. What this means for Endmin has already spawned a host of theories.

>When you're not out stabbing bad guys, your
>main job seems to be building an automated factory to build... well,
>I'm not clear yet on what it builds, having just reached the
>tutorial phase of that part. Maybe everything? The characters keep
>talking about how the new automatic factory machine they've developed
>will enable them to rebuild the world. I guess that's what Endfield
>Industries is actually for, and the fighting-snurglies part is
>just because they keep getting in your way and/or breaking stuff
>you're trying to fix.

As near as I can tell, that's pretty much it. The initial colonization effort of Talos II was seriously messed up when they lost contact with Terra about 150 years ago, leaving all sorts of gaps in their technology and resource base, and the systems past-Endmin developed are intended as a universal development system to try and expand the civilization band again.

>The first six-star character banner is for Laevatain (I Can't Believe
>It's Not Surtr),

Well, technically it's not. It's her clone.

>and I cannot afford to seek her. Sadness.

Much like zenless and other gachas, the early campaign is very generous with materials. I've managed about 50 pulls on her banner in two days.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

On the rare occasions I do play a gacha game, I rarely get so into it that I play it incessantly. That said, if Perlica was signaling any harder that she was Endmin's lover before the amnesia thing, I think she'd have jumped the poor girl's bones before she got all the way out of the crystal.

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge

>On the rare occasions I do play a gacha game, I rarely get so into it
>that I play it incessantly. That said, if Perlica was signaling any
>harder that she was Endmin's lover before the amnesia thing, I think
>she'd have jumped the poor girl's bones before she got all the way out
>of the crystal.
>

I'm... 90% sure that isn't the case, given the bits of backstory text I've unlocked so far, but I would not at all be surprised if Perlica is hoping to get that fire lit now.

	-={(Astynax)}=- "Steak, medium rare, no bees please."

Hm! Interesting. I haven't gotten very far at all, in all fairness.

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge

I've a theory that Hypergryph's scheduling guys are secretly sadists, as they chose to drop Endfield right in the middle of the parent game's 6th anniversary event and the week before they opened the next round of Contingency Contract. Or perhaps I'm just a masochist because I'd already frayed my sanity with the Trainer Aptitude Tests over on Umamusume and Manjuu dropped a mini-event over on Azur Lane. Combine those with the shitshow going on at work and...yeah, let's just say this one's been on my backburner.

My initial impression is colored by my past experience playing Genshin ages ago before my patience was frayed by the grind and I walked away, but 6+ years invested in the parent game means I've enough interest in the story itself to stick around and see what happens. Though that led to the scraping of sandpaper on wounds from the beginning, especially if you're a fan still holding out hope that a certain white-haired bunny might one day return (*sigh*). That the game goes all Factorio and part of the farming experience is getting materials to expand that was part of the advertising but still just...weird. For the moment I'm intrigued enough to keep going, but Wallet-kun is giving me weary looks...

I love it to death but I liked Arknights a lot and played for awhile (before I felt the event pacing eventually stopped respecting the players time) and I loved Satisfactory so it was a natural fit. I have a full casual livestream playlist on my channel for CBT1 and didn't opt to go into CBT2 so I wouldn't have to play the same content three times over.

My biggest impediment has merely been time, as I didn't drop Uma for this and I've been chipping away at Hades so I haven't been able to put in nearly as much time as I'd have liked.

>I'm not very far into it and have acquired nothing/no one of note yet,
>but yeah, it's pretty fun so far. The main game plays a bit like ZZZ,
>but with different enough combat mechanics that I'm pretty sure I'm
>going to fumble a lot switching between them, but hopefully my
>high-function-button-masher approach will see me through either way.
>Also, unlike ZZZ the main character can actually fight and is
>therefore eligible to be part of the squad, which is an interesting
>difference.
>
>Mind you, the Endministrator (what a strange title) is more of a
>cipher than Wise/Belle, and that's on purpose, since they played the
>"your character can't remember anything" card to explain why
>you don't know anything about the gameplay or lore going in.
>This is a common tactic, and adjacent to the way every Elder
>Scrolls game starts with the PC in some kind of penal situation to
>explain why you start with no equipment. It annoys me a little, but
>at the same time, I get why they do it.
>

Endmin seems to be of the same mold as WuWa's Rover and HSR's Trailblazer, though I haven't gotten deep enough (and the game may not yet -be- deep enough) to know if the memory loss is deliberate for Endmin as well. Like the other two, Endmin seems to be a competent playable unit, though it remains to be seen how long that will last.

>One thing that is very different is what appears to be the main
>gameplay mechanic that isn't on-foot exploration/tactical
>combat. It appears that Hypergryph (no relation) looked at the
>feedback from Arknights and said, "We hear you! Some of you
>aren't really fond of tower defense. In that case, how about
>Satisfactory?" When you're not out stabbing bad guys, your
>main job seems to be building an automated factory to build... well,
>I'm not clear yet on what it builds, having just reached the
>tutorial phase of that part. Maybe everything? The characters keep
>talking about how the new automatic factory machine they've developed
>will enable them to rebuild the world. I guess that's what Endfield
>Industries is actually for, and the fighting-snurglies part is
>just because they keep getting in your way and/or breaking stuff
>you're trying to fix.
>

So far, the factory seems to only not be involved in making weapons. It does make gear components, consumable health and buff items, -bombs-, defensive emplacements (there is a brief segue into tower defense-ish land, and you can also set up turrets to spawn camp some baddies if you're so inclined,) and various other things that it will then consume in a time devouring feedback loop.

>Pretty neat so far. Confusingly complicated substructure, like all
>gacha games, but I'm sure I'll get used to it in time. It took me a
>couple of months to really get a handle on what the hell all the
>currencies and stuff do in ZZZ.
>

They've had 2 surveys since launch, and I definitely used my free answer for one of them to lay into the devs for having a more convoluted UI and set of currencies -at launch- than a number of games managed to accumulate in over a decade of operation.

	-={(Astynax)}=- "Steak, medium rare, no bees, please."

EXT. DAY. The ENDMINISTRATOR, CHEN, and PERLICA stand at the edge of a snow-swept bluff, staring up at the shattered pyramid in the sky above them. In the background, LAEVATAIN stands with arms folded, looking pensive. A circle of clear ground around her steams where the snow has melted.

ENDMIN
Perlica, pretend for a moment that I don't know anything about metallurgy, engineering, or physics, and just tell me what the hell is going on.

PERLICA
(resignedly)
You never studied.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>EXT. DAY. The ENDMINISTRATOR, CHEN, and PERLICA stand at the edge of
>a snow-swept bluff, staring up at the shattered pyramid in the sky
>above them. In the background, LAEVATAIN stands with arms folded,
>looking pensive. A circle of clear ground around her steams where the
>snow has melted.
>
>ENDMIN
>Perlica, pretend for a moment that I don't know anything about
>metallurgy, engineering, or physics, and just tell me what the hell is
>going on.
>
>PERLICA
>(resignedly)
>You never studied.

Pengmin: Hey, amnesia! I have no idea if I studied or not!
Laevatain: Oh, I like that one.

(I remember the reference, obviously, just couldn't resist a followup)

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

CHEEEEEENwait. Wrong Chen.

>CHEEEEEENwait. Wrong Chen.

It's even more jarring if you're a veteran of the original game, where the resident Ch'en has a chip on her shoulder the size of the Dijiang.

>>CHEEEEEENwait. Wrong Chen.
>
>It's even more jarring if you're a veteran of the original game, where
>the resident Ch'en has a chip on her shoulder the size of the Dijiang.

Imagine the design meeting where the idea for the Endfield incarnation came up. "OK, so, hear me out. Ch'en? Except she's really cute and friendly." "You are demented. Run with it!"

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>Imagine the design meeting where the idea for the Endfield
>incarnation came up. "OK, so, hear me out. Ch'en? Except she's
>really cute and friendly." "You are demented. Run with it!"

"We want some familiar faces in this game to draw long-time fans in."

"So we got Surtur, Angelina, and Eyja."

"Good, good. Anybody else?"

"We're also adding Hellagur, but we're making him bishi for the fangirls."

"Nice, nice. What else?"

"Well, we got this idea, hear us out: Ch'en's granddaughter is a genki comic relief girl."

"...I LOVE IT!"

>>It's even more jarring if you're a veteran of the original game, where
>>the resident Ch'en has a chip on her shoulder the size of the Dijiang.
>
>Imagine the design meeting where the idea for the Endfield
>incarnation came up. "OK, so, hear me out. Ch'en? Except she's
>really cute and friendly." "You are demented. Run with it!"

The best bit is, Ch'en had Oriopathy, so it's not impossible for a Reconvener of her to show up here. I want one to so bad for the comedy of them meeting. Although given the idiots she used to deal with, Ch'en could handle Chen.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

Why do you girls keep saying "Angeloi"? There's clearly no N in it.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

As I get deeper into the game, I am more and more convinced that the Endmin selected Endfield Industries' logo...

... to represent the fact that she is screwed.

--G.
a bit bizarrely, that's a wood screw. Endfield Industries makes high-tech automation, not carpentry products...
-><-
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Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>... to represent the fact that she is screwed.

Perlica and Zhuang Fangyi in particular would like to make sure of tha- *Gets shot*

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

>>... to represent the fact that she is screwed.
>
>Perlica and Zhuang Fangyi in particular would like to make sure of
>tha- *Gets shot*

Perly might have a better shot if she would bother to explain any of the 10 million things I know she knows that would be really helpful for the Endmin to know in advance rather than wait to stumble across them in the wild.

(I mean, I know that much up-front exposition would change the game from an action RPG into a visual novel, but I mean jeez. Narratively it's so frustrating. Everyone around the Endmin clearly knows wtf is going on and is just... not telling her. For Reasons™.)

--G.
-><-
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>(I mean, I know that much up-front exposition would change the game
>from an action RPG into a visual novel, but I mean jeez. Narratively
>it's so frustrating. Everyone around the Endmin clearly knows wtf is
>going on and is just... not telling her. For Reasons™.)

Look, Perlica, the original Arknights was a Visual Novel, it's fine!

Mind you, knowing the original game as I do, I suspect there's going to be a semi-valid reason. I'm hoping it's not like the Doctor, and we didn't do something horrible/used to be an asshole before our mind got wiped.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

>Mind you, knowing the original game as I do, I suspect there's going
>to be a semi-valid reason. I'm hoping it's not like the Doctor, and we
>didn't do something horrible/used to be an asshole before our mind got
>wiped.

Quite a few people seem to be very attached to her from the Before Times, which gives me some hope that such isn't the case, although the whole "legendary hero from the beginning of time, or at least of the Terran presence on Talos II" thing does kinda give Cult of Personality vibes. And little miss If Evil Why Hot? did call her a tyrant.

Then again, in archaic Greece there was nothing inherently wrong with the title of tyrannos. It simply meant an absolute ruler, for good or ill. It wasn't until the classical era, and specifically Plato, that the idea of absolute power inevitably corrupting its wielder came to be assumed as an axiom.

Speculation containing spoilers for the end of Part 1 below:

[ Right now my impression, based on the climactic battle of Part 1 and the conversation between Perlica and M3 that Endmin overhears afterward, is that it's more a "saving the day is so hard on the Chosen One that we put her in stasis to recover when it doesn't need saving" thing. And that every time they wake her up she's recovered less well than the time before, such that Perly reckons this is the last time they're going to get away with it. ]

--G.
-><-
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Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

LAST EDITED ON Feb-21-26 AT 09:40 PM (EST)
 
> And little miss If Evil Why Hot? did call her a tyrant.

Yeah, I don't really take her viewpoint seriously. People that unleash crazed bandits, killer monsters, and reality-unraveling floods on civilian targets aren't allowed to complain about other people being tyrants.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

I don't care about her boos. I've seen what makes her cheer.

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge

Regarding the whole spoilery part...

...at least they haven't sent the Endmin to Tahiti.

Peter Eng
--
It is not a magical place.

>Look, Perlica, the original Arknights was a Visual Novel, it's fine!
>
>Mind you, knowing the original game as I do, I suspect there's going
>to be a semi-valid reason. I'm hoping it's not like the Doctor, and we
>didn't do something horrible/used to be an asshole before our mind got
>wiped.

BABEL DOCTOR
What I did, I did without choice.

RI DOCTOR
(remorsefully)
I know.

BABEL DOCTOR
In the name of peace and sanity.

RI DOCTOR
(with barely contained fury)
But not in the name of "The Doctor!"

LAST EDITED ON Feb-21-26 AT 10:30 PM (EST)
 
This exactly! Perlica is obviously hiding a ton of stuff.

Frankly, this was the biggest reason I've pretty much concluded the Endmin was an arse in her previous life, and essentially everyone in Endfield is wanting her to stay as nice as possible to maybe change that if and when her memories return.

Edit: Ugh, I had my edit screen open for hours and the conversation passed me by before I submitted my reply. And I'd delete and repost but I don't seem to see a delete button. Ah, well.

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge

>Edit: Ugh, I had my edit screen open for hours and the conversation
>passed me by before I submitted my reply. And I'd delete and repost
>but I don't seem to see a delete button. Ah, well.

Do you see "Remove" in tiny print in the lower left corner of the post box, or is that an admin-user-only thing? I've never actually checked to see whether regular users have perms to delete their own posts.

Either way, I can delete the old one (and this) for you if you want, though I'd recommend making your new post first and then tipping me off to do it...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>Do you see "Remove" in tiny print in the lower left corner of the post
>box, or is that an admin-user-only thing? I've never actually checked
>to see whether regular users have perms to delete their own posts.

I do not, and a browser text search for the word with the edit window open confirms it's not there.

>
>Either way, I can delete the old one (and this) for you if you want,
>though I'd recommend making your new post first and then tipping me
>off to do it...

Eh, it's fine, it's not offensive or anything, just in the wrong place. Not to worry. But I appreciate the offer!

------
Authors of our fates
Orchestrate our fall from grace
Poorest players on the stage
Our defiance drives us straight to the edge

LAST EDITED ON Feb-22-26 AT 01:15 AM (EST)
 
>As I get deeper into the game, I am more and more convinced that the
>Endmin selected Endfield Industries' logo...
>
>
>
>... to represent the fact that she is screwed.

Found myself wondering "Where have I seen that logo before?," since the Rhodes Island logo is a rook to go along with the description of The Doctor (especially the "War Doctor") as a chess master who treats operatives like pieces on a chessboard.

And then it hit me:

>Found myself wondering "Where have I seen that logo before?," since
>the Rhodes Island logo is a rook to go along with the description of
>The Doctor (especially the "War Doctor") as a chess master who treats
>operatives like pieces on a chessboard.
>
>And then it hit me:

Eyup. Lore nerds in the fandom are going nuts trying to figure out what this means for both games, especially given where Arknights is right now...

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

>

Cognitohazard trivia re: Endfield logo, read at your own risk -
[The screw is not centered in the triangle.]

	-={(Astynax)}=- "Steak, medium rare, no bees, please."

LAST EDITED ON Feb-25-26 AT 01:51 AM (EST)
 
>a bit bizarrely, that's a wood screw. Endfield
>Industries makes high-tech automation, not carpentry
>products...

I've been mulling this over for a while, and I think it's because of the background. Not only does it look kinda like wood grain (hence the wood screw), but it also looks like a topographic map with contour lines on it. The implication there - to me at least - is that Endfield isn't just about screwing the Endministrator, it's about screwing planets and ecosystems.

Is this a bleaker interpretation? Sure. But Endfield Industries is a space factory company that goes to uninhabited planets (or at least planets where the inhabitants don't matter to the galaxy at large) for explicit resource extraction purposes. I don't think they're necessarily the good guys here.

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

is there a connection i could draw between the rapacious resource extraction of endfield industries and the immense amounts of energy burned to produce pictures of pretty anime ladies in a gacha game? i've already brought the mood down more than enough tbh. =]

>Is this a bleaker interpretation? Sure. But Endfield Industries is a
>space factory company that goes to uninhabited planets (or at least
>planets where the inhabitants don't matter to the galaxy at large) for
>explicit resource extraction purposes. I don't think they're
>necessarily the good guys here.

Well, that's one way to describe 'Founded on Talos-2 after the cosmic gate linking them to their homeworld was overrun by monsters and a reality-unraveling flood, leaving the survivors in a century long struggle for survival'

The galaxy at large isn't populated in the Arknights universe. There are reasons for that.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

>Endfield Industries is a
>space factory company that goes to uninhabited planets (or at least
>planets where the inhabitants don't matter to the galaxy at large) for
>explicit resource extraction purposes. I don't think they're
>necessarily the good guys here.

I don't think that's the case, though. Endfield is a tech and construction company, and it does some resource extraction (e.g., mining the various marked mineral deposits for things like originium and iron, excuse me, ferrium), but the scale is quite small and the operations are stunningly clean by real-world standards. The mining machines are tiny and Their automatic factories exploit no workers, produce exactly zero waste products, emit nothing but useful products, and have vanishingly small footprints for industrial facilities, "the factory must grow" memes notwithstanding. The company's entire ethos appears to be about helping to make Talos-II more inhabitable and increase the global standard of living.

(They also appear to exist only on Talos-II, but I'm not really au courant with the extraplanetary lore, other than knowing that the original colonists came from Earth and then lost contact with same in the relatively distant past.)

TLDR: I think you may need to rewrite significant sections of A Marxist Interpretation of Arknights Endfield before you submit it to journals. :)

--G.
-><-
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Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>(They also appear to exist only on Talos-II, but I'm not really au
>courant with the extraplanetary lore, other than knowing that the
>original colonists came from Earth and then lost contact with same in
>the relatively distant past.)

Basically, a long time ago, several survivors of a race of Precursors used the world of Terra as a science experiment in a desperate attempt to find a way to stop/escape/survive something that had wiped out most life in the universe. This made Terra something of a chaotic mix, with a number of species, both native and introduced, a mixture of scientific advancements alongside actual magic and at least one family of Gods, the entire planet being encased in a shell to hide it from the rest of the universe, things in the ocean that would make Lovecraft admit he needed to try harder, the occasional dimensional rift that led to things from other realities falling through, including a Rathalos and the stars of Delicious in Dungeon, and worse.

That's around the time of the Arknights game. Sometime after that, the cosmic gates to the north of the continent are finally secured and the various reality eating things there driven out, and they're used to connect to Talos-2. Other than that, all signs point to the galaxy at large, and possibly beyond, having no sapient life left.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

LAST EDITED ON Feb-28-26 AT 05:16 PM (EST)
 
>Basically, a long time ago, several survivors of a race of Precursors
>used the world of Terra as a science experiment in a desperate attempt
>to find a way to stop/escape/survive something that had wiped out most
>life in the universe. This made Terra something of a chaotic mix, with
>a number of species, both native and introduced, a mixture of
>scientific advancements alongside actual magic and at least one family
>of Gods, the entire planet being encased in a shell to hide it from
>the rest of the universe, things in the ocean that would make
>Lovecraft admit he needed to try harder, the occasional dimensional
>rift that led to things from other realities falling through,
>including a Rathalos and the stars of Delicious in Dungeon, and worse.

Oh. So when people in Endfield talk about Terra, they're not actually talking about Earth, as such. People in future-scifi settings usually are, going all the way back to at least Heinlein, maybe earlier, so that threw me off a little.

Or at the very least, they're talking about a very weird parallel Earth. Like, almost Earth-616 weird. :)

Fun side fact: way back in like 1992, Zoner, ReRob, and I decided that Earth would always be called Earth in the UF setting, just to buck that trend. In fact, I think we included a throwaway reference somewhere in UF3 to another planet named Terra, which isn't advanced enough to be contacted yet.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
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Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>Oh. So when people in Endfield talk about Terra, they're not
>actually talking about Earth, as such. People in future-scifi
>settings usually are, going all the way back to at least Heinlein,
>maybe earlier, so that threw me off a little.
>
>Or at the very least, they're talking about a very weird
>parallel Earth. Like, almost Earth-616 weird. :)

Yeah, Terra explicitly isn't Earth and doesn't have Earths history. In fact, the entire game mostly takes place on one continent because they don't have air travel and sailing out of sight of land will get you eaten at best.

At least Talos-2 doesn't need mobile cities to keep moving out of the way of calamities.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

LAST EDITED ON Feb-22-26 AT 01:13 AM (EST)
 
https://endfield.gryphline.com/en-us/news/0753

Featuring Endmin-M because of victory in rock paper scissors, an adorable chibi-Perlica, a younger Andre and a suspiciously not-younger M3...

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

Yvonne previews for I guess the people really behind in the story
Combat Demo
Operator Story

>Yvonne previews for I guess the people really behind in the story

Well, she drops as a playable operator tomorrow, so...

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>>Yvonne previews for I guess the people really behind in the story
>
>Well, she drops as a playable operator tomorrow, so...

I had to go to hard pity on Gil, so I actually already got a Yvonne already. On the one hand, it was frustrating at the time, on the other, I don't need to focus on this banner and can save a bit for when Rossi, Tangtang and co show up.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

>I had to go to hard pity on Gil, so I actually already got a Yvonne
>already. On the one hand, it was frustrating at the time, on the
>other, I don't need to focus on this banner and can save a bit for
>when Rossi, Tangtang and co show up.

That's kind of where I am in ZZZ right now. By chance, the current new character (Sunna) turned up almost immediately after her patch went live, and I already had Yixuan, so since I don't deliberately pull for S-tier dupes and I never bother pulling on the W-engine-only banners, I've been able to just stack encrypted tapes since the last act of Part 2.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Laevatain's operator story: Existential Dread: The Movie. It's kind of like how every agent in ZZZ has a tragic backstory, no matter how zany they are. Although now that I think about it. Laevatain is many things, but "zany" is not one of them.

As an aside: If they do our girl Endmin dirty, I feel like Laevatain would riot just as much as the rest of us.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>Laevatain's operator story: Existential Dread: The Movie. It's
>kind of like how every agent in ZZZ has a tragic backstory, no matter
>how zany they are. Although now that I think about it. Laevatain is
>many things, but "zany" is not one of them.

Particularly amusing, given that despite being a launch character, Surtr never got much focus in Arknights, so her Reconvever exploring her past is, in many ways, the most attention she's ever gotten :P

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

>Particularly amusing, given that despite being a launch character,
>Surtr never got much focus in Arknights, so her Reconvever exploring
>her past is, in many ways, the most attention she's ever gotten :P

I gather from context that Surtr's own memory was already unreliable, so a character with a fragmented version of her past trying to figure it out is really playing on hard mode.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

LAST EDITED ON Feb-26-26 AT 00:43 AM (EST)
 
>I gather from context that Surtr's own memory was already unreliable,
>so a character with a fragmented version of her past trying to figure
>it out is really playing on hard mode.

Believe it or not, Laevatain actually received more characterization in Enfield than Surtr ever has in Arknights. She's been in the game for six years and the sum total of her backstory and character development is a handful of bread crumbs.

>>I gather from context that Surtr's own memory was already unreliable,
>>so a character with a fragmented version of her past trying to figure
>>it out is really playing on hard mode.
>
>Believe it or not, Laevatain actually received more characterization
>in Enfield than Surtr ever has in Arknights. She's been
>in the game for six years and the sum total of her backstory and
>character development is a handful of bread crumbs.

That might be one of the reasons why she knows so little about her own predecessor--they didn't want to reveal more about Surtr in a game she's not technically in than exists in the game she's actually in.

Then again, I don't know yet how much Reconveners generally do know about their templates. The game hasn't really explained what the deal is with them yet. Laevatain's operator story seems to kind of assume you already know what they are.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>That might be one of the reasons why she knows so little about her own
>predecessor--they didn't want to reveal more about Surtr in a game
>she's not technically in than exists in the game she's actually in.
>
>Then again, I don't know yet how much Reconveners generally do know
>about their templates. The game hasn't really explained what the deal
>is with them yet. Laevatain's operator story seems to kind of assume
>you already know what they are.

Yeah, that's been Hypergryph's M.O. forever: Bring in new character/operator, drip-feed puzzle pieces to add to the mystery, before using side-stories/anniversary events to drop large chunks of lore. It's like being an X-Files fan in the 90s, you keep getting teased with no real promise of there ever being a pay-off.

Surtr is just one of the worst cases of teasing in the game because she (so far) doesn't figure into any of the major storylines and has only appeared as a bit character in side-stories. Which is pretty amazing for an operator who started the "Just Throw X At Them" strategy of solving the game's tougher stages by using her like a tactical nuke.

Ah. I... seem to have run out of story.

Understandable, I mean, the game's only been out for a month. I just wasn't expecting it in what feels like the middle of a storyline. The only similar game I've played for any length of time is ZZZ, and its story chunks are a lot more episodic than this break point feels.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Apparently, the next version preview will be going up sometime today or tomorrow.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

Next version Dev log
Version Trailer

Looks like Plot is happening to Tangtang. She might not enjoy the experience.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter