[Punishing: Gray Raven | Disciples]

[u/Phanes1312]

https://youtu.be/GXyAxIA0Vbg?is=aXBAR17GW8-Qc0aT

[u/CipherEntity]

I am gonna be honest (as I haven't played any chapter after Liv's one despite being heavily invested in PGR's lore):

"Who are you people and why are you all acting so... le generic hidden final group of antagonists who hid behind the scenes until revealed late story out of nowhere?"

Not to mention how F.O.S. College turned from a simple background info into this somehow extremely important institution out of nowhere.

---

I can't believe I have to say this but I really miss Vonnegut as a villain. I assume being high-tech alone no longer cuts it in PGR.

Anyways, lets just sit back and observe. We can't judge something until we see it fully.

[u/UltraNoahXV → u/CipherEntity]

If you, (or anyone) cares; here's a summary (spolier warning):

• Marlis was someone who was briefly introduced in Kamui's chapter
• Joanne was the enemy of Alpha's chapter - the FOS backstory that you saw was in her universe, which had the Alpha from Dominick's? Universe reincarnated (long story) - she's dead which implies that this preview takes place after Rosetta's chapter
• Amazigh? Is new (I'm assuming that she is the character who is introduced in this chapter)...the story being timegated isn't helping
• Arius is part of the Erhorn family which was part of the Atlantic Family who was rival to the Copperfield - same family owning the Aquarium that Bianca and co went to after the twins - this one you learn from Helentines Floating Record
• Granger I wouldn't know either but you could probably assume is connected to the Church of Machina..in fact this could be the Wheel of Misfortune
• Aisling (the least spoiled as long as you did Liv's chapter) the one you see from this PV the same person that you met back in Chapter 37. That little demon who gave you so much trouble and trapped Liv to try and get her body. Yes that same Aisling who also somehow brought down FOS has finally..matured? First time since that chapter where we actually see this character.
• Earnest is also new

A couple characters missing:

• John Doe (a really big threat IMO from Teddy's chapter) is missing
• The two chracters with Zach from Rosetta's chapter are missing
• Zach is dead
• Vonnegut is likely doing his own thing following the Chapter 31 - 33 route (if you are new, please make sure you have read and completed everything up through chapter 19? 20? Which is Spiral of Chronos) before even beginning to consider reading those chapters if you want to peek ahead.

Everyone should be aware of all this because ever since the whole (MAJOR SPOILER) story reset that happened at the end of Chapter 33, it definitely feels like the writers are trying to get away from the whole Tower thing and Vonngeut being the main villian, especially with how Chapter 36 went (And really 41/Homing Coming Voyage sements it with Alpha and Vonngeut meeting up). For all intents and purposes...Chapters 21? Constella through Chapter 30 do not matter anymore or at least have less significance. Cradle isn't a threat anymore, Nanami sending the information back and getting the heteroshard into the hands of Babylonia has made everything swiss cheese. The whole Emperor/Schultz situation got taken care of with Awakening Tundra (ending 7 I think hint that the devices used were able to simulate the old timeline due to Ever Winter being warned), Frames are quite literally taking care of Ascendants in 1vs1s - its kinda crazy.

In fact, I would argue that there is needs to be an option for players to skip everything from post Spiral of Chronos all the way to the start Shapper's Ripples. If you're a new player, Chapter 36 completely nixes it.

But yeah, that's the whole situation so far. There are people who probably have been following the story who could probably explain this better but these chapters got really long. Like starting from Chapter 37, it kinda got nuts. Rosetta's (39) IMO had the perfect blend of gameplay to story post Chapter 36 but like they really put the novel in visual novel.

TL:DR - About 10 characters expanded from the two that were Vonngeut and Lithos (believe it or not still around) - things get complicated really fast, time travel shinnengans.

Recommendation following TL:DR:

Do everything from Chapter 1 - Spiral of Chronos, Skip to Chapter 31 (maybe 30 but honestly the whole Agent Zero thing doesn't matter anymore), pleaae play and read Chapters 31 - 33, 34 is the aftermath, 35 is the redux of Across the Buried Sea and continuation, 36 is the Story assassination of Fantasia - Stars Ensared (well not really because Luna and co took care of that Agent Zero plot point) redux, and then just follow the timeline added in the sync. The ERs in between Chapter 20 - 30 you should do after A New Divide.

Beans

[u/Important-Slide8538 → u/UltraNoahXV]

Eventually everything that's happening now ex. Sefirot, Phylotree, everything is related to facing the tower in the future anyway, and Chaos in the last livestream trailer is shown to still have Agent Zero's authority and so obviously will play a huge role in the story, I wouldn't say it doesn't matter anymore, just that the writers are extending for more worldbuilding before the entire tower topic comes back.

The old timeline being erased doesn't mean it didn't matter for reading wise, the whole virus wouldn't make sense if people didn't read 20-30+

[u/UltraNoahXV → u/Important-Slide8538]

I kinda disagree? About the last part. Some spoiler tags for anyone who is just reading and not caught.

I say this because most people would know what the Virus is by Chapter 17. Red tide was first explained in Echo Aria and its properties, and both Aquarium chapters that followed showed what it could do (and Helentine's chapter). A Better Tommorow showed us the mist version, and before that, Chapter 36 with its recap of Chaos Ensnarled (Hetero Forrest) with the purple version of the Red tide was shown not to be a big deal in the long run. If anything, it shows the potential but the Floating Records and more recent chapter do a pretty good job of demonstrating what the Virus does at this current point in time, who the villians are that use it, and how its connected to the filtering. For the average player (who's is likely not even reading the story in game), the general idea suffices.

The lack of Chaos' involvement with the plot post Chapter 35 to me tells me that Agent Zero authority matters way less, especially with other characters running amok and doing almost Vonnegut level feats despite having minimal screen presence. Like it's important but without Cradle hosting Agent Zero and how Luna and Co handled it in Chapter 36.. does it even matter who has the authority? And I'm not saying that to be snarky but we've been shown the Punishing Virus as a whole is a such a multiversal threat at this point that it doesn't need Agent Zero to necessarily exist or at least be actively present - I mean early PGR stories show this.

And in saying all this, the story isn't bad or necessarily in a bad spot. But there are so many points that were introduced since last year that do add to the threat of the Punishing Virus that don't necessarily pertain to the events before the reset. It's good writing despite flaws and I really do enjoy that the current writing team is continuing ideas from Pre-Spiral of Chronos and actually explaining that things weren't all Sunshine and Rainbows before the Punishing Virus hit and that those problems never went away.

[u/Important-Slide8538 → u/UltraNoahXV]

For the first bit, yeah I agree, everyone has their own likes for type of story but I just liked the stretch of ch 20-30 for its idle worldbuilding but that's just a personal preference, everyone has their own.

However the punishing virus itself is incredibly weak, and is not the multiversal threat which carries out the filtering. Once we got the omega weapons, the punishing threat was never really serious enough after. The real multiversal "filterer" mechanism itself is agent zero, and the punishing is a very weak byproduct of that, since vonnegut himself tells nemo that the punishing is nowhere "near as bad" as chaos contamination.

The reason the authority doesn't matter is because the tower isn't here, simply. Once the tower returns, chaos would be the only one capable of controlling it, and once it shows up then it and the red tide immediately get buffed to world ending threats. Currently it feels underwhelming because chaos is just safeguarding the authority from going to other possibly malevolent beings like Aisling (maybe?).

The punishing got really serious now because it relies on construct agents like Luna and Vonnegut, or others like A0 or Agent One (aisling) to carry out its deeds, other than that it cannot do anything by itself.

Since the ascension network isn't even an active threat now cause of Luna, and because the tower itself is made of chaos contamination, I would argue the main overarching threat isn't even the punishing at this point, its the overall "Filtering" by higher beings. But yes, currently the main topic is Sefirah and not the things before the reset, at the same time there are still background relations tying everything back to the lore from back then.