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Also, technology is always further along than we think it is. The Germans used [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8WQTtYyn6E robots] in WWII. We can currently create hover technology using [[wp:Magnetic_levitation|magnets]] and [[Superdiamagnetism|extreme cold]]. And there’s always someone trying to push the envelope, even if history forgets them: da Vinci and his [[wp:Leonardo%27s_robot|robot knight]], Zadoc Dederick’s [[wp:Zadoc_Dederick|Daniel Lambert]], etc. | Also, technology is always further along than we think it is. The Germans used [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8WQTtYyn6E robots] in WWII. We can currently create hover technology using [[wp:Magnetic_levitation|magnets]] and [[Superdiamagnetism|extreme cold]]. And there’s always someone trying to push the envelope, even if history forgets them: da Vinci and his [[wp:Leonardo%27s_robot|robot knight]], Zadoc Dederick’s [[wp:Zadoc_Dederick|Daniel Lambert]], etc. | ||
==Developing powers== | |||
Mai might be gaining sharper senses. This could be demonstrated in a room where she has to fight in the dark, by showing the footsteps of the enemies as puddles of light, and maybe silhouetting them a little as they attack to show the sounds they are making. | |||
==Imago Transformations== | |||
Muro’s transformation cutscene in Oni really dropped the ball. We can do much better than that. For one thing, if transformations are irreversible, we need to make a big deal of them. A dedicated cutscene with selected music. Mai’s transformation could take place when she is finally hit by something too strong to survive as-is, and her Chrysalis takes over. Inspired by [https://youtu.be/s3OmgeYRV4I?t=707 this moment] from the ED of the unrelated animé “Touma Kishinden Oni”, let’s say that she’s hit by a napalm bomb, and in the middle of the firestorm, she transforms while in agony, wreathed by flames like a phoenix. That’s how you do a badass transformation. | |||
==Ludonarrative== | |||
Some games make the gameplay a large part of the narrative. Look at: System Shock, Thief, Deus Ex, Half-Life, Portal, The Witcher and To The Moon. | |||
==Psychology== | |||
If we are going to explore Konoko’s mind, Evangelion-style, look at the Buddhist concept of [[wp:Bardo|bardo]]. | |||
Konoko may also be tormented by visions of what she might become, at least as projected fears from her subconscious, based on myths like the Hannya, and ancestral species like colugos and tree shrews which the Daodan can sense DNA from inside of her. | |||
"Why do people fight?" (Touma Kishinden Oni ED). Animé often asks this question. One possible answer is, “Because they hurt. They receive pain and wish to pass this pain onto others in order to lessen its burden. When life ceases to have pain, it will cease to injure.” It’s good for bad guys to have some kind of philosophy to explain their actions. | |||
==Environments== | |||
Remember that not all environments should be new and clean, or recently dirtied. Sometimes the most powerful environments are ones that have a lot of history. Perhaps an area is declining that once was beautiful or powerful; perhaps its eventual demise is fated (this fate can also be established in Oni 2 and then depicted in a later sequel), like the supposed example of the [[wp:Sideroxylon_grandiflorum|dodo tree]]. The sense of something irreplaceable being lost can be very poignant. | |||
==Wilderness== | |||
The Wilderness should be a frightening place, perhaps even for Daodan symbiotes. Maybe there are some advanced Imagoes making their homes out there, in trees, or huts with chicken legs. Various locales and moods and colors. Maybe more alien life lives there than just plants. | |||
Might Daodan symbiotes’ powers involve or be based on the genes of Wilderness life? This would mean that the Chrysalis is “downloading” data from the Wilderness to meet each new need (see Neo-Biology's [[Oni2:Slaves_of_War/Neo-Biology#Strange_life_forms|Strange life forms]] section for inspiration). Perhaps some scientist is puzzling over the energy that is being sent through a phase portal from the Wilderness to a symbiote, wondering why there are complex patterns to it, when he recognizes the similarity to DNA information. | |||
What would have happened during the Bio-Crisis to the indigenous peoples still living in certain places in South America and Africa? One would expect that, without ACCs, they were wiped out, but what if they’ve adapted to the Wilderness somehow? | |||
==Daomen== | |||
Who might have made the Daodan (see below for speculation on a natural Daodan)? Is the Wilderness indicative of their biosphere? What might they look like? Could they be evolved from another path of life — say, saurian, avian, or cetacean? Even if such an alien is bigger than us, it could still be a child; our normal assumptions are unfounded when dealing with alien life. We don’t know how they reason, or if they comprehend emotions like ours. | |||
Are the Daomen living in Earth’s own future? Perhaps Mai thinks so at first, only to be laughed at by the Daomen for thinking that something could come from a future that doesn’t exist yet. They might be a dead evolutionary offshoot from Earth’s past. That being said, either direction implies that the present can interact with the future (even if we’re the “future”), which is scientifically problematic. Some important things to research before deciding on a time period: Which organisms would exist in both our time and theirs? Which would be totally alien? Which pre-modern atmosphere would they have existed in? What was the climate of the continental arrangement (land or sea)? | |||
The main obstacle to a theoretical pre-human civilization is not the absence of archaeological evidence (Pangea was in existence at the P-Tr period discussed below, and later continental upheaval would probably deeply bury everything) but rather the fact that, if you go back far enough that archaeological evidence would be unlikely, we see only fossils of simpler life forms that showed no evidence of large brains. However, ocean life is often boneless and leaves more potential for surprises. Also, we know almost nothing about what’s buried on the ocean floor. Finally, it seems that no ocean floor is older than 170 [[wikt:Ma|Ma]] due to plate tectonics. | |||
See the [[wp:Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extinction_event|Permian-Triassic (P-Tr) extinction event]], AKA the Great Dying, for a possibility. The P-Tr event happened about 252 [[wikt:Mya#English|Mya]], before the dinosaurs. Life was simpler, but there were large organisms on land and in the sea; insects, “sea scorpions”, and herbivores were all giant at the time (mammals and giant reptiles came in the following Mesozoic era). Further interesting points about the P-Tr event: the mysterious absence of coal in that layer, the staggering increase in atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> (and methane?), a great increase in acidity both on land (acid rain) and in sea that would dissolve fossils, the “reset” in body size, the beginning of the breakup of Pangea, the eruption of the Siberian Traps, and the unexplained marine extinction pattern that favored some life forms. | |||
Whatever form the Daomen take, it could turn out to be very anticlimactic to reveal them in entirety and then have them become regular actors later in the story, as if they are merely alien-looking human characters. Some sci-fi stories make this mistake. This would retroactively ruin the mystery or sense of danger from earlier in the story before their reveal (and images and footage from the later story where they interact normally with humans would become spoilers for newcomers by forestalling any suspense about what they look like and their ultimate disposition as allies/enemies). The best option might be to end the story with them trying to enter our “dimension” through a phase portal and being shut out. Maybe the only part of a Daoman that we see clearly is an enormous alien hand reaching through the veil, and perhaps causing chaos on this side before being shut out. Perhaps also a silhouette of a head with glowing eyes (how many?) on the other side. | |||
It may turn out that the Daomen are aquatic, which would go along with the character of the P-Tr extinction event (see consumption of coal and massive spike in methanogens… for energy?). Perhaps when a portal is opened between our worlds at the game’s end, the area first fills with water. This would raise the question of how they can be fought, but perhaps the fight is not directly with the Daomen but with whatever is powering the portal. | |||
The Daomen (or Dao''man'', if there's a sole survivor) may have to use an assistant in our world, someone “possessed” by the Chrysalis or something similar, in order to accomplish his will. Perhaps a child, because they are easier to control and to alter with the Daodan. I’m picturing a dark-haired girl, but not sure whether her personality should be easy-going or perhaps impetuous and foul-tempered. She should be young enough that she can be revealed as [[Oni2:Slaves_of_War/Impressions#Muro.27s_downfall|Muro’s daughter]] by some Fury. | |||
Another possibility is that a Daoman mentally takes Mai to the future of the Earth (or their own world) if the Daodan is allowed to continue to have its way with life, speeding up its evolutionary arms race: we see a world that was beautiful but is dying and still. Mai sadly realizes that the Daodan is a threat, not a hope. | |||
[[Category:Oni 2]] | [[Category:Oni 2]] | ||