Oni2:Slaves of War/Polylectiloquy

A proposal for an Oni 2

Not so much of a story as a setting, at this point at least.

Framed as a Q&A with multiple possible answers to some Qs, when I can't make up my mind or want to see how a certain idea sounds when I write it out.

(bold indicates an answer has been decided upon)

How far after Oni should Oni 2 be?

A. Starting right after Oni (days or months later) would be interesting. There would be a lot more energy at this time period than any other point we could place the sequel at.

B. Long enough that the "new world" is shaping up (a few to several years), so we get an answer to Konoko's question at the end of Oni as to how society will turn out, or what the intermediate stage will be, anyway.

C. So far after Oni that Konoko is gone and a new generation of characters can be introduced. It would be hard to pull people into a sequel without one familiar face (not that we couldn't work out something with clones or what-have-you), but this would free us from worrying about Konoko being too powerful for a sequel.

What happened to the WCG?

It falls apart when member nations fight each other to annex land with working ACCs.

What happened to the TCTF?

Also fragmented. The regional branches are now working for their own nations like National Guard forces.

If Griffin's still kicking when Oni 2 takes place, what's he up to?

A. He could be the head of his country's police (what country is that, now?)

B. He might have disliked the new national thing and is heading his own "rogue" organization. What would it do?

1. Work on getting Chrysalises to people.

2. Work on keeping Chrysalises from people. Those things are dangerous! If Mai is promoting the use of Chrysalises, this would make them enemies again.

I favor the notion of B2, which keeps Griffin as the enemy, but this time an enemy with a solid motivation, not just being a jerk (Oni 1's Griffin) or just a maniac (Oni 1's Muro). He knows that humanity can benefit from the Chrysalis in the short run but also feels strongly that giving everyone the Chrysalis will be opening Pandora's Box as the things develop inside people, so he fights to keep them out of the public's hands. This also places him in the anti-authoritarian* position, as a rogue or guerilla, which is quite interesting to imagine.

• When I say anti-authoritarian, that's only if the governments are giving Chrysalises to people. If the gov'ts decide that it's too dangerous to go the Daodan route, then Griffin won't have to fight the gov't, only the black market Chrysalis peddlers. That simply makes him anti-Syndicate, as he has always been. Then again, even though the gov'ts would probably refuse to give them to ordinary citizens because of the risks of having a revolt by an Imago-stage populace, they might give Chrysalises to key officials to guarantee their health if the situation is dire enough that using ACCs and breathing masks won't suffice to keep someone healthy. In that case, we're indeed back to a situation where Griffin has to fight to keep the Chrysalises out of the hands of politicians.

What happened to the Syndicate?

A. Broken into pieces by infighting and panic over Cataclysm; supplying arms to groups fighting to take over neigboring countries with working ACCs.

B. Broken into pieces. One piece (Muro's surviving cronies) has the data on Daodans and is trying to sell it to nations or corporations. This might even give them the edge they need to become the main branch of the Oni2:Neo-Syndicate. They might have control over a whole nation or two. Heh. Syndicastan.

How many ACCs were there, and how many broken?

There's absolutely no facts to go on (is that true? I thought I saw a number in some manual or something), so we have to arbitrate. Let's say that a Europe-sized nation has 3-5 on average. They don't cover the whole country, so only parts are inhabited. So if half of a country's ACCs goes offline, and the neighbor country has some working ACCs, and they were never that friendly with their neighbors, they will probably try to win over that territory. Thus starts World War III, but in an every-man-for-himself way, not Allies vs. Axis or something similar.

How bad is the pollution?

Well, the tragedy of Jamie Kerr tells us that if those plants start spreading (probably they will, once the bad air spreads to encompass the areas that were protected by now-defunct ACCs), it's guaranteed death to live there. Some may try to burn back the growth a la Nausicaa, and eke out an existence. Many others will flee the areas that are no longer protected by ACCs. They would of course migrate to areas with working ACCs, and there would be a crush of immigrants; lots of fighting and ugliness.

How did the public get their Chrysalises? How did society change?

It seems unlikely, as noted above under "What is Griffin doing?", that the governments would be okay with the general public having alien (as in, strange, not necessarily extraterrestrial) lifeforms in them, especially since the best-known Daodan host would be the anarchist Muro. So, if anything, only higher-ups and the rich will obtain Chrysalises, either legally or illegally.

Besides the occasional purchase of a Chrysalis on the black market, the main solution for the BioCrisis will be the building of new ACCs. And that process is not going to be quick, that's for darn sure. Inevitably large areas where nations are poorer will get neglected. Most of Africa would die for sure; they may have originally received support from the U.S. and Europe to build the first bunch of ACCs, but when each nation has to look out for itself, Africa will be on its own (this is assuming that Africa's governments don't stabilize and gain wealth in the next couple decades). The overpopulated nations like India and China would suffer the greatest losses in population, but then again, they're probably going to be seriously industrialized well before then, and will have plenty of labor to build new ACCs with. Smaller and less-developed nations will definitely take it on the chin, assuming they didn't already when the original crisis started.

So if Africa is left out to dry by the wealthy countries, then black people would be rare in Oni 2? Interesting thought. It would make a black character all the more unusual.

Where do the Chrysalises come from?
This is the elephant in the room, isn't it? Oni never tells us. But one option seems so likely that it blots out all others in my mind:

The Wilderness. Normally the Daodan lifeform is nonsentient and lethal, like the plant that killed Jamie, but when grown with human DNA in them, they become accustomed to it and can eventually be safely implanted in a human.

But what do they look like, and what do they do out there? They could just be some flower or something, but it would be more interesting if they were more significant to the altered Wilderness, like the tree in Nausicaa (not to beat a parallel into the ground).

When I say "like the plant that killed Jamie", I'm not necessarily saying that very plant was the Daodan, but if it was, it sure would explain how Hasegawa discovered the Chrysalis. He was a logical man. Even in his grief, he might have thought to take a sample of the plant with him back to a lab, where he could analyze it and find an antidote so no one would ever die again. He would have found that the plant resisted all hostile pathogens, developing immunity almost instantly. This would have started his Daodan Project.

Can Chrysalises make a new human on their own without being implanted?

Kerr says that the Daodan organism is a "hyper-evolved clone". Clones are independent -- not part of another lifeform, but a separate copy of it. Also, we're told that the Daodan gets implanted with a donor's DNA, and the implanting of the Daodan into a human was another step that was not originally intended to be taken, but was, at Griffin's order. This indicates that a Daodan clone is very possible. Additionally, it's odd that Kerr and Hasegawa knew this could be done, but would never have actually done it. Was there a Daodan clone out there, made by Mai's dad and/or Kerr?

See "Who was Mukade?" below for speculation on this.

What ever happened to Dr. Hasegawa?

It's lame to say he died somewhere along the way when Oni doesn't say he's dead, but then where is he, and why does everyone act like he's gone in Oni?

Perhaps after seeing his technology abused by the Syndicate, he retired from the public, even hid. Now an old man, he lives with a little blonde-haired girl who looks strangely familiar…. (I would love this angle, but I hope no one accuses me of ripping off Gendo Ikari.) But the question remains, Who side is he on?

Did Muro actually die?

If not, then he almost automatically would be the villain in Oni 2. He seems past redeeming. At the least, if there's a new big bad dude in town, he will join up with this new guy, all the while planning to overthrow him. But if he doesn't succeed in overthrowing the boss by the end of the game, it makes him seem weak compared to his old self.

If that's the case, we may want him out of the way so we can tread new ground. There seems to be little depth that could be built into his character without retconning and making him out to be somehow well-meaning, which seems lame.

Did Barabas or Mukade die? Either could simply have been KOed. We're not told.

A. "Yes" to Barabas, "No" to Mukade could explain the major Daodan spike after beating Barabas but none after beating Mukade. (Assuming killing leads to a Daodan spike, which Mukade himself indicated it did. This hypothesis would also mean that Muro is definitely dead.)

B. "Yes" to both, and the difference in reaction was that Barabas was semi-Imago and Mukade was not.

But Mukade would have to be semi-Imago to have those powers. So this is not an option.

C. "No" to Barabas and "Yes" to Mukade isn't desirable simply because Mukade is so much more interesting than Barabas that it is unfair to give us more Barabas and no Mukade in a sequel.

D. "No" to both. The difference in reaction could also be that Barabas was a Daodan host and Mukade was an experiment of Navarre's (but then why does Mukade indicate he and Mai are the same and they both are being replaced by something inside them?). I just don't know what to do with Barabas, but I would love to see Mukade out of armor, as a new man. Whoever he is….

E. "Don't know" to both. The difference may have nothing to do with who dies and who doesn't. After all, does the (presumably non-sentient) Daodan organism inside Mai know when someone is killed? Perhaps it would, if there was a release of some energy when another Daodan host died, but let's assume that it doesn't know, and see where that leads us. If it doesn't know, then the occurrence of a major spike has more to do with Mai's mental/physical state at the time. It could be pointed out that all three of the "triggers" for the major spikes are the defeat of someone who has something to do with Shinatama. Barabas has just kidnapped her when Mai defeats him, the room of baddies at the end of Chapter 7 are guarding Shinatama/keeping her from Mai, and Muro was the one who tortured Shinatama personally.

I made some interesting points with E above, but I still favor A, because it sets me up for the kind of Oni 2 that I want to write, one where Muro and Barabas are gone and Mukade still lives, and the explanation is a simple one (using E's back-pedaling disclaimer that the Daodan, even if non-sentient, could still detect and react to the death of a host by sensing a release of energy, or a cessation of life of another Daodan organism nearby, therefore, no reaction to Mukade's defeat means he still lives).

Who really was/is Mukade?

A. Straight, boring answer is that he was a ninja, experimentally modified by a Chrysalis. This isn't necessarily a bad answer, as if we want him to live, he can still be alive in Oni 2 and we can build on his character. It's only really boring if he died in Oni.

B. More interesting answer is that he's related to Mai somehow. Since we don't know what happened to her dad, he could be Daddy.

1. But that seems kind of clichéd, and since when did he turn from professor to master ninja?

2. What if he is a genetic clone of dear old dad, but one gone horribly wrong? The clone was made to serve as a body for a Chrysalis, but was unstable. This would explain Mukade's fatalistic ready-to-die-when-the-Chrysalis-takes-over attitude in Oni.

3. He could be a Daodan clone, a product of Hasegawa! Being raised as part of the Syndicate would have twisted him.

4. He might be Bertram Navarre. One can still ask how a scientist becomes a ninja, but we don't know Navarre at all, so if we want to write him as an athletic guy, or say that he built a suit to help him fight, we can. This would also explain why he doesn't give Konoko a Daodan surge when he is defeated, if he was Navarre or a product of Navarre's own non-Daodan experiments. But he indicates to Konoko in their encounter that they are both Daodan hosts, so this is probably a no-go.

C. He could be an artificial being. Hasn't anybody noticed? Of course, this raises whether he's an SLD and who built him...

1. He's a robot built by the Syndicate. Easy answer, but doesn't explain his cryptic talk.

2. He's a robot built by the TCTF as either a plant in the Syndicate or a precaution against Konoko. How he managed to hire Ninjas is a mystery, although he could have simply evaded them as enemies.

3. He's an SLD based off Muro's mind and modified for combat. Again, simple, straightforward, and would explain a whole lot.

4. He's an SLD based off Hasegawa's mind. This provides a logical explanation for his actions, although attacking his daughter would seem a bit off-base.

5. He's an SLD based off Konoko's mind. Who has access to those engrams? Griffin. And he would want a quick-acting, fast termination in case Mai ever went rogue. Shinatama as a defense module would only go so far, after all, so he made and constantly updated a fighter SLD behind the backs of everyone. Of course, this again brings up the whole "How'd he get past the ninjas?" but it could be assumed that if the ninjas were artificial, as some speculate, he could have just hacked into their minds and made himself invisible to them.

If still alive, what is Mukade doing?

A. He might still be evil, but it seems like he would have self-destructed by now. That kind of personality couldn't last for years without mellowing. If still evil, he probably is running a branch of the disjointed Syndicate.

B. He might have totally turned around after being broken at Konoko's hands. He doesn't even hold a grudge against her. He has resigned himself to serving the people by alternating Daodan harvesting and experimenting with Oni2:Neo-Agriculture. He is likely to want to avoid fighting so it doesn't bring back his 'bad tendencies'.

What would Mai be doing as the Cataclysm happened?

She and Griffin are the only ones we know of with the knowledge to work with Chrysalises. Well, the Syndicate might have Muro's data. Anyway, if we assume her views remain the same from the ending of Oni, Mai would be helping people get them, but not in a Florence Nightingale way; she's no doting nurse. She'd be wherever there's a fight over collecting Daodans from the Wilderness or quelling international issues one hotspot at a time.

She might also have issues about her choices at the end of Oni.

She definitely won't go by the name "Konoko" anymore, I think everyone can agree on that.

Does Mai end up going Imago, at least by the time of Oni 2?

A. Option 1 is that for some reason she doesn't, but the only way I can think of that it wouldn't happen is if she stopped fighting, and that seems unlikely.

B. Option 2 is that she does, but she can un-transform too, so normally she resembles the Mai we knew. This is definitely the option that is most in line with animé tradition.

C. Option 3 is that she is permanently transformed. So how does this affect her? It depends on what she looks like, right?

1. Either she's hideous and she hides her visage like Mukade…

2. Or she's not that different-looking, and goes around like normal. If she transforms like my sketch indicates (need to upload), then she could mask that transformation with sunglasses and a facial mask, like synthetic skin, that makes it look normal-colored.

This option, C2, sets us up for a traditional animé-style revelation. At first we're told that she never transformed, for some unknown reason. Then, somewhere (probably early) in the game, Mai meets an adversary who's too strong for her -- or so it seems. Maybe he smashes her in the face, hard, and she hits a wall, and slumps to the ground. Her sunglasses fall off, and clatter on the ground. Meanwhile, your health is getting critical. Then she slowly stands up, face lowered, and says, "That hurt." She reaches up to her face, which seems to have torn skin hanging from it, and pulls it all off, then looks up, and we see her true, transformed face, with its real skin and her altered eyes. Suddenly she starts to glow with a Daodan overpower aura, and her health is fully restored, and now the bad guy is no match for her. She then can use this form (perhaps sparingly) throughout the rest of the game, now that it's revealed that she transformed a while ago and normally holds back in a fight, to keep her secret.

Isn't a fully-developed Mai going to be too powerful to make the game challenging?

A. Play ZOE 2 before you ask that question. You're massively more powerful at the end than you were at the start of ZOE, wasting dozens of enemies with each attack. But the game's still challenging. The key is just having tons of enemies or one very strong enemy.

B. She might not always be transformed or able to transform.

C. There's the amnesia option proposed elsewhere, but amnesia wouldn't remove her strength, only her skill. Still, having to re-learn fighting would make the game more challenging. But I am not a fan of a contrived "restart" that wants to drag a character back to where they were.

What would Oni 2 be about?

A. Well, it could be about more than one thing. I would like to see Mai trying to find her father. It should be for more than sentimental reasons, because those would seem trivial when the world is on fire. Perhaps she needs data only he has.

Certainly if she's looking for him, she has to find him. It would be a total tease not to reveal what he's been up to all this time. Maybe finding him is just the start of Act Two, as his work (assuming he's still doing any) sets a new plot in motion.

B. It could also be about a new development in the Wilderness….

C. Perhaps Man is trying to burn away the mutated Wilderness to re-establish a normal ecosphere and Mai feels this is not the right path.

D. Maybe the Neo-Syndicate is selling Chrysalises, and Mai and company are trying to prevent it.

E. Maybe someone has released a virus that can kill the Chrysalis. Particularly if the Chrysalises being sold are based on one set of genes to speed up production, this puts the entire implanted population at risk of death, or at least the removal of their protection from the Bio-Crisis.

Maybe, instead of killing the Chrysalis, it makes those implantees change somehow….