Let's Play Some More Analogue: A Hate Story: *Mute's Story (now with 50% more harems!)

YES

Let's cheat our way to love and victory.

Yep, like a BFer changing their gender for trophy points, we're going to work this system. Now, some of you who have played the game before may have noticed this little box at the top of the log menu:

The text-input that allows us to talk to AIs or have them search for keywords may be broken, but that's just the language parser. We're still allowed to search for logs by their ID, and we can search for any log by ID, even logs that we haven't seen in game before. Logs like this one:

And, once we've searched for the log, we can show it to whatever AI is active right now, and get their reactions. Like this one:

Thank God. I was getting nervous about that whole "MEDIA WILL BE DESTROYED IN 24 HOURS" thing.

I do so. But you probably could've guessed that.

And, like, bring her here, so you're both--

...you're, uh, taller than I remembered.

Ahem. EEEEEE! Yay Mute! I like her 100% more knowing she does change her mind when presented with evidence that Hyun-ae.. is.. insane for a reason, I suppose.

...That's adorable.
I tried not to say it but.
IT IS. LOOKIT THEM.
EEEEEE~<3

*Hyun-ae. Why is marriage the only thing you can think of. Why is the concept of "just friends" so completely foreign to you. WHY.

Sure, why not.

Aaaand that's all folks! Play us off, Will Smith.

Oni!*Mute is the best thing. Wait, since it's Korean is it even still Oni? Is it another word? Oh well. Harem ending really is the best ending, wth. I guess because the other endings always leave someone behind.

Best ending is best.
Thank you Jacquelle :)

I never expected that it would actually be possible for this game to turn the mood around. Especially not for a harem ending, of all things.
But it did.

Well, if you look at it one way, you could say that the Harem ending is the joke ending (and it is) because a happy solution where you rescue both AIs and they learn to understand each other can't actually exist in the game's universe.

...I'll stop ruining the mood now.

On the other hand, the posibility of them even talking together is never explored besides this ending, so it's easy to use it to block away the bad feels.

Oh my god that was glorious.
... And then both of them outlive him

10/10 would harem again

Well, a harem ending is not difficult when dealing with AIs. If you find one that's not the jealous type, then just make more copies.

...That is a horrifying idea.

Depends on your tastes - I wouldn't mind being part of a harem made up of other versions of myself. Think of the possibilities for working together on projects or taking over the world!

"I-it's not like I w-want to be in a harem with you or anything, BAKA!"

Gotta love *Mute in this ending.
It's not exactly cheating... If you just played *Hyun-ae's route before and write down the code to this log, I don't see it like cheating.

Mute did not mention her programmed duty to stay on the ship?

I think cooperating with *Hyun-ae helped her circumvent that, being as *Hyun-ae is both important hardware and the last "survivor" on the ship.

Okay. That explanation works.

Ahahaha, I love it when *Mute goes from "RAR I hate you" to "protective older sister"...

(also your reactions were exactly the same as hers, heh.)

Seriously? Hyun-ae still fell in love with the player even when she had only heard bad things directly from him and her only evidence that he felt differently now was what Mute told her? I'm trying really hard to like you Hyun-ae, but you're making it very difficult. How quickly she fell in love with you and over how little would seem to suggest there's still some major emotional instability going on with her and it's kind of freaking me out.

The Harem ending is meant to be a joke; don't take it too seriously. Hyun-ae will always say the same thing regardless of how you treat her, it's just amusing commentary on how quickly she falls in love and her tsundere-like qualities. I'm pretty sure it's not at all canonical.

OH THANK GOODNESS. Now I can only be slightly creeped out by her falling in love with you in one day when you've never actually spoken to her and have only answered questions with one of two preset responses in her real route. (If you didn't already figure this out, love at first sight and fourth date marriage are two of my least favorite troupes, which is probably why I'm such a big fan of childhood friend romances. Granted, Hyun-ae is forced to get married to a guy she has never met, but even though I think what happened to her is awful and no one should have to go through it, it gives me less of a squicky feeling than when Hyun-ae falls in love with you because it was normal within the historical context, whereas Hyun-ae mentions going on dates with guys in the time she's originally from, which would suggest that it wasn't at all normal back then.)

I guess I kind of feel the same way about Hyun-ae's route that clethra felt about Mute's because there are quite a few things about her that make me twitch uncomfortably. I should like her more and I'm really trying because what happened to her is awful and she needs all sorts of hugs, but just... How she handles it, that she doesn't seem remorseful, how she couldn't manage to pity her "mother" at all or think that there might have been some good people that she killed even after she's had hundreds of years to think about it, the way she fell in love with the player, it all just kind of rubs me the wrong way and I have a hard time believing a loving relationship between the two of you is possible and that she isn't going to shut off the life support in your ship if you two have a fight or you disagree with her.

I enjoyed Mute though, especially in the harem route. It was cute to see her change her mind about Hyun-ae and for the two of them to become friends. Seriously, I wouldn't even want any sort of romance out of that harem ending, I just want the two of them to be like sisters to each other and for them to heal each other's wounds and make them forget all their bitterness.

Yeah, there's too much of a psychotic element in there for Hyun-ae to be entirely sympathetic. Mute may be horribly misogynistic, but at least she seems to have a capacity to care about someone other than herself and you and shows signs of being able to change in her ways/opinions. Hyun-ae needs a virtual therapist, not a precarious romance.

As hard as it is to squeeze the harem ending into canon - since it requires that the player know things that the character could not - the moment I saw it, I thought, "Christine Love had better let me import this savegame into the sequel." I am not leaving either of those girls to die alone on that wreck! They deserve better -- yes, even *Hyun.

You actually can save both if you talk to *Mute at the right point during the reactor sequence!

It's not an actual harem ending, necessarily, but neither die for good. And then there's the bit that happens if... I dunno if it happens if Mute's affection isn't high enough or if you're a married woman or what, but god DAMN it's depressing.

Do you mean copying the dormant *Hyun-ae over to *Mute's core, then playing *Mute's route normally? I did that too (after getting the harem ending, I reloaded to try to find a canonical way to save both), and I was slightly disappointed that this didn't even elicit a comment from *Mute. You're right, though -- it's better than leaving one of them to die!

Eek. :( No, I never saw that. Played the game as a man, got along just fine with *Mute, and saw the same dialogue as Jacquelle.

Also, did I mention that I love the credits image of *Mute haranguing *Hyun?

I think I remember that dialogue; I don't think I've ever played as a married woman so it might just be if you're female?

Woooo! I discovered this thread today, went to read through all of Jakuusan's LP of it and then just finished the last three pages here. So much plot and conflicted feelings in so little time.

The harem ending (Can you call two people a harem?) was probably the best way to end this.
It sucks to think that no matter how I wrap the headcanon in my mind, there doesn't seem to be a truly logical way to have a happy ending with nobody left behind... but this ending was a really nice mood-lifter regardless.

EDIT: My profile to the right currently addresses me as BERSERKER. Never seen that before o.o

I've rescued her as a lady before. Maybe you need to actively romance her to get her with you?

Oh, I know, I was just pondering what circumstances would lead to that dialogue.

Menage a troi, then? I don't know how to do the accent marks okay. I don't know if you'd call it happy, but seeing as the PC's job in this is apparently data retrieval I could see him/her finding a way to download both A.I.s, if only to fulfill the terms of his/her contract.

I always assumed that the protag's job was only to get the data logs, and that rescuing AIs was done on their own time. The intro says to get the logs and mentions *Mute but doesn't say to take her, too. "We asked for logs, not snitty AIs and psychopathic tsunderes!"

Mmm, true, but the Employer seems to be interested in all the information s/he can get, especially on what the hell happened to the ship. And where better to get that information than straight from the A.I.s that were there? More of the spirit of the contract than the letter.

True, but Hyun-ae isn't an official ship AI, and there's no proof she is what she says she is. For all the agency would know, she's a fake programmed by someone else, and therefore any testimony would be suspect. And *Mute doesn't know anything but what the logs say.