Overview
This is the sequel to Marfusha, which I platinumed two years ago.
Once again, it was great. I'll provide a summary and my thoughts.
Summary
The story once again takes place in the dystopian nation of Kazormia.
Marfusha, the brilliant older sister, has joined the elite force “Molten Steel” and has not returned since. Her younger half-sister, Snezhinka, joins the private military company Blue Peacock and heads to the battlefield to find her sister.
Kazormia is currently divided into two factions: the "We’re going to win the war!" faction and the "Kazormia is done for, let’s defect to the neighboring country!" faction. Given how dystopian Kazormia is, the defector faction seems more rational. Snezhinka joins the defector faction—essentially the revolutionaries—and sets out to rescue her sister and escape to the neighboring country.
However, Marfusha has fallen into despair. She is convinced that the only way to restore the honor of her fallen comrades from the previous game is by winning the war, and she is determined to fight for the government forces until her death.
Snezhinka, while trying to rescue Marfusha, accidentally kills her. Overcome with despair, Snezhinka is glorified by the revolutionaries as a tragic hero who killed her sister for the salvation of the nation.
(However, in the secret ending, it’s revealed that Marfusha actually survived, along with the comrades from the previous game!)
Impressions
What a grim story, yet again! But for fans of the series like us, this is exactly what we want—right? The endings are always the worst, but the journey to get there is heartwarming. That balance is what makes it so good.
Blue Peacock
- What is it?: The name of a British nuclear landmine project from the 1950s.
- Location: The Rhine River area in Germany.
- Purpose: To stop the Soviet ground forces from advancing.
- Technical Issue: The device would get too cold to function properly during the winter.
- Solution: They proposed placing chickens inside the landmine with a week’s worth of food to keep the device warm using the chickens' body heat.
- Was it ever used?: No, the project was canceled because the risk of hiding nuclear weapons in allied territory was deemed too high.
- Why is it called Peacock when chickens were involved?: The name “Peacock” (meaning peacock) has nothing to do with the chicken solution—it was just the name of the project.
Evolution from the Previous Game
In the previous game, the branching between the true ending and the comrades' ending was determined by whether or not you made mistakes during the journey. This meant that to platinum the game, you had to intentionally make mistakes, which felt like busywork and tarnished the gameplay experience.
So how about this game? This time, the branching between the true ending and the comrades' ending is selectable based on whether or not you made mistakes during the journey. What a fantastic improvement!
Other Notable Improvements
Here’s the base in this game. Games with a base are always great, aren’t they?
Here’s the senior in this game. She’s from a potato-farming family. The character design is amazing, isn’t it?
Here’s the battlefield this time. I don’t quite remember how it was in the previous game, but the background is nice. Not that you have much time to look at it during the hectic battles.
Dachika-senpaiii! My pleasure! I hope Dachika-senpai, like Marfusha’s comrades, will survive in the next game...
Still, I can kind of see where the next game is headed. Marfusha on the government side, Snezhinka on the revolutionary side—they’ve ended up on opposing sides due to circumstance, but both have gained good comrades. Since the loss of her comrades was the cause of Marfusha’s madness, now that they are revealed to have survived, Marfusha should be able to regain her composure. If that’s the case, maybe this war can be wrapped up nicely after all?
