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Hello, everybody! I've just come back from finishing Zain's route. It was... interesting, I suppose. I started it on Friday and then took a break from it for most of the weekend, so the first few chapters aren't that fresh in my mind anymore! The route summary I wrote down turned out to be a bit jumbled up and out of order because of this. Also, if there's a bit of a disconnect with the screenshots and what's written, it's because I'm writing the post first because I can't plug my PS Vita into my PC at the moment, and then adding the images later. Sorry about that.
Don't forget to beware of spoilers!
I was really interested to see how this route would work, since Zain's not exactly a real human. In most of the other routes he just gets taken over by Shiki, so I was wondering if that would happen here too.
Zain's route has the same common route branch as Radius, where Kazuha runs away from whatever monster Hiroya was battling for her. Then she manages to make her way into some field somewhere, where she finds some bishounen lying down in the grass. This is where we get probably one of the prettiest CGs in the entire game.
My memory's really hazy on this bit though, so I'll try my best to remember what happened. I think Kazuha approaches Zain and tells him about how she's looking for her brother and Hiroya, so I think he agrees to assist her with her quest. Kazuha notices how he acts really strange and doesn't really understand basic human emotions that well. After a while, it would probably be really obvious that Zain's just a computer program, but since he still speaks like a normal human and because Kazuha's not that knowledgeable about video games, I can understand why she doesn't really realise that he's an NPC until someone tells her. Zain has literally no memories about anything, either. I forgot to mention that until now.
Not long later, they're travelling in the forest when they run into somebody being attacked by Demento. This person is a side character called Alth. He has his own sprite and all that, but I've hardly ever seen him that much in the other routes. It's a shame because his design is quite pleasant. So Zain and Kazuha save this Alth person, and they accompany him on his journey for a few days so that he can find crafting materials, because he's a blacksmith.
One night when Kazuha's sitting with Zain by the campfire, the romance escalates super quickly. Zain states that he really wants to touch her and enter her and all that lovey-dovey stuff, but of course, our heroine's not feeling it yet so she declines. I suppose Zain doesn't understand human emotions that well so he probably didn't realise that you don't have sex with someone five minutes after you've met them. He dropped a lot of steamy lines there, and the voice acting made it sound so good.
Zain tries to touch Kazuha, but then he feels some intense pain, and loses a bit of control of his body. I think this was Shiki using his programming magic to tell him to get his hands off his sister. Eventually, the pain stops and everything's alright again though.
If my memory serves me correctly, they say goodbye to Alth and then go into Twilight Capital. There they meet Libera and she shows them into Domina's inn. A lot of men try it on with Kazuha outside, so Zain tries to fight them back but everybody's just like "Why is an NPC fighting back?". You would've thought Kazuha would pick up on that and realise that her new companion isn't exactly human, but I can't remember if she knew what an NPC was at this point or not. She finds out the truth anyways once she talks to Domina inside the inn.
In the inn, they also sleep together because Kazuha's too kind to let Zain sleep on the sofa, and he won't go on the bed without her. She thinks he's just being friendly and not romantic so she gets in there with him and he goes up really close to her.
Domina suggests that Kazuha and Libera go on a quest to level up. Zain's not invited because he doesn't have any attack skills or anything because he's just an NPC. This makes him sad because he wants to be by Kazuha at all times to protect her. They just go on the quest anyways, leaving him behind to sit there and worry.
At one point in the route, I dunno if this is before or after Kazuha goes on the quest, but they run into Demento again and he gets stabbed. This also stabs Zain at the same time, and they both die and get fused together. Kazuha's super sad but since he's an NPC, he's obviously gonna come back. My memory is super bad with this route today, I don't know why!
So after the quest, Kazuha gets sent back to the real world. She's wandering round the streets when she runs into a person with long black hair. She realises that it's actually Zain. Nobody has any idea how he got there since he's an NPC, but it'll be explained a bit later. Kazuha takes him over to Shiki's apartment and they spend a bit of time together until she gets whooshed back into World V.
One day Zain's sitting there pondering over how he wants to protect Kazuha or something and this voice pops up in his head and says something about helping him, I dunno what he said. At first, I thought it was Shiki (I was playing without the sound) but then I realised it's actually Demento. So now Zain has a crazy PKer stuck in his head. Wonderful.
Later on, Kazuha runs into Hiroya at one point and he just tells her that they've got to get moving for some reason, so she follows him out to go somewhere, I can't remember where. Hiroya goes off to look for something and leaves our heroine alone in the woods for a while. Guess who arrives after that? Zain. Zain's acting a bit weird. He says some stuff to her and there's this weird scene where they touch the insides of each other and she hears his inner thoughts. They're all a bit twisted, but then Kazuha notices this one thought that says "I'm lonely" and it makes her slightly sad.
This line is absolutely hilarious, with or without context.
Zain had started his descent into crazy yandere territory, which is a trope I like so I didn't really mind. So then I think he steals Kazuha off and they run into Astrum and his angel gang, who don't really seem to like him that much. Astrum tries to take Kazuha to help them conquer the Ark, but Zain won't allow it, so they compromise by entering the Ark together.
So then they go into the Ark and battle some monsters and stuff. Zain uses a knife to fight, which everybody thinks it's weird because NPCs can't battle, but apparently, he's evolved into more than just an AI now so it's normal. They run into the Period Cube and Zain uses it to create a nice world where he and Kazuha can live together happily ever after.
Kazuha wakes up in the real world, except it's not the real world but a copy created by Zain. Shiki and Hiroya pop up, and this really pisses off Zain because he doesn't want anybody else to steal Kazuha's attention. Shiki wanted to use the Period Cube to create a world just for his sister, but when somebody else does it, he doesn't really like it. Zain runs off somewhere and everybody offers to help stop him, including the IRL versions of Radius and Astrum. Everybody's using their magic swords and stuff to fight the Jaws of Death (which Zain had released to kill everybody except Kazuha), but since the IRL sprites don't have designs with weapons you don't get any of the cool battle effects, they just stand there normally whilst they're supposed to be in action poses. They also see Riku walking past at one point and Kazuha's like "Do I recognise that boy?" but there's no further elaboration. If I had played this route before the others, it would've spoiled some of the real identities of the others, so I'm glad I didn't do that. Natsu's also there, he protects Shiki from harm but loses his ghost body in the process.
Kazuha finds out that her brother also had an evil plan up his sleeve, but Shiki tells her that there's no time to dwell on it, because they've got a bigger situation on their hands. She wants to find Zain and talk to him, but I think Shiki didn't want her to go anywhere near him, but she went anyway. Zain's inside this copy of the place where they first met, so Kazuha comes in and they have a little chat. Apparently, Zain feels sad and sorry for what he's done, but he doesn't want anybody else to go near his love. Kazuha just tells him that it's alright if she talks to other people too, so they make-up and I think they put everything back to normal. I honestly can't remember if Shiki comes to do his business and then they defeat him. I literally just read this bit earlier this morning! Why can't I remember everything? I just remembered too, Demento comes up and uses Zain to tell Kazuha something, but I can't recall what it was either!!!
So the credits roll and we get the scene afterwards where everything's happy. Shiki wakes up, but of course, he loses his memories so nobody can punish him. Kazuha's waiting outside a convenience shop, and outside comes Zain! He doesn't have black hair like he did before IRL, it's just his regular style but cut a little bit. Hiroya comes up too and refers to him as "Karasuba-san". If you remember from before, Karasuba is Demento's last name.
What happened was that Demento fused with Zain, so for some reason he now gets to use his body IRL. So he gets his apartment, his name and his job. For some reason Karasuba's original face is gone and he just looks exactly like Zain. I don't think he went to have plastic surgery for that, I think it just changed like that.
I would've thought that Hiroya would be angrier at him for going crazy and almost killing everybody, but for some reason he just treats him like a friend, even going as far as to do the same job as him to help him out. I understand why Kazuha doesn't care about what he did, because she's in love with him, but why is nobody else angry with Zain? It seems like everybody who did bad shit back in World V either loses their memories when they get back to the other side or people just forgive them. I know it's like that in other otome games, but in some of them the MC has to wait for her LI to get out of jail if they do something like that!
So Kazuha just lives happily ever after with her boy Zain. The End. (Or Fin, as the game likes to say once a route's over.)
That route was a roller-coaster. I actually thought Zain was quite sweet at the beginning, but now I'm not really sure about him. Normally I like yandere stuff, but everything went so extreme that it made even Toma's cage seem tame. I don't really know what to say about this route, to be honest. Well, I was having fun, so it must mean that it was good, right? I have no idea how Zain managed to get into the real world, but really I have no idea how any of the World V stuff works. I know Sword Art Online was criticised for its plot holes, but at least that explained how the technology that trapped them inside the game actually worked.
I wish that maybe it had ended with Zain still remaining an NPC and Kazuha having to sacrifice everything to live in the digital world with him forever. That's probably how the bad end's going to work. It just felt a bit strange putting him in the real world when he's just an AI. I dunno why you would date an AI anyway. Yes, I know he "evolved" to get a real personality and feelings, but he's still just a few lines of code. He managed to cause so much damage and almost kill so many people, so I suppose this could be used as a lesson to not give artificial intelligence so much freedom.
People could say that Zain becomes obsessed with Kazuha way too quickly, but I think it's understandable. He is an NPC who has never really had any relationship with another person before, so it makes sense that he'd latch onto the first person who showed interest in him and get obsessed with them.
I don't think this is my favourite route. That would title would probably go to Astrum's.
I can't believe that I still have two more routes to go through. It feels like I should be done now. Not that I'm complaining though, because I am having fun with Period Cube. The plot's a bit crazy but it's still enjoyable to play.
That's all I have to say for now. I wish my plot remembering skills were better, but I don't think it really matters in the end. See you all later!
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Next time on Misty's Blog: The only route I have left to play before unlocking Poyo-Poyo's is Hiroya's. I'm quite excited for his since I actually like him a character. I felt a bit sorry for him in the other routes since it's so obvious that he's in love with her, but he can't do anything! Catch my review on that soon, only on Misty's Blog!
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