The timing of the Xth-Form Change

[Mia The Renafan]

It reminds me of Kite's change to his orange/reddish costume back in the days of IMOQ. Only, I like the timing of the change much more than I do the first games. Kite was already this ne'er do bad person trying to fight to save his friend, but Haseo was more of anti-hero at first. I like how he had to go through all these events and earn his Xth-Form, fighting the 'ultimate' foe afterwards.

Xth form represents everything that Haseo learned and went through as an Epitaph User and player of The World, all melded into him as lessons learned that led to him being the hero he is now. You think the transformation was too late or was it perfect timing as far as the plot goes? Discuss.

[The .hack newbie]

wow that is the best description of the x-th form ive heard before i think that it was chosen at the best time aswell

[Sol]

I was under the same impression with the transformation to the Xth Form, and I think that's what the creators of the game were trying to communicate.

I never thought much of Kite's color change because I was happy that he was red instead of green. However, looking back it's probably just to signify the fact that Kite is no longer working within system paramaters, both literally and figuratively.

[Dragoon2044]

Not to mention the color red is very attractive to the eyes. it stands out a lot. especially where seeing red is 'rare' on a players characters in 'the world'. i've heard someone from the .hack series mention that.

X-Form timing was PERFECT. Kites transformation wasn't perfect. Lets just say that it was NEEDED to advance the plot. They should have waited until near the end of Infection or perhaps even through mutation. it wouldn't have been that hard to change the plot from thier original script.

1. Orca introduces Kite to 'the world'.
2. Green Kite meets BlackRose.
3. They could have 'encountered' Skeith a number of times. in thier eyes it would be a mysterious monster chasing a white haired girl.
4. We don't hear anything of Balmung until Mutation. Orca refers to him as 'a friend i've been working with to debunk some rumors'.
5. Green Kite, Orca, Blackrose investigate various areas...
6. They meet Aura. Aura lends Orca the book of twilight. Then Skeith appears and data drains Aura. The party defeats Skeith, Cubia appears. Since the group is distracted Maha appears fairly transparent(since being data drained herself by guardians from SIGN) Proteck Breaks and drain hearts Orca. (NOT data drain). (We hear him SCREAMING like hell). Maha then meows and fades to nothing. Helba appears behind Kite and Blackrose. She teleports them out of the area to get them away from Cubia.
7. Kite recieves book from Orca. That would be the last movie cutscene.

Then in Mutation we'd meet Orca's friend, Balmung. Then you'd go investigate about a cat and that big purple monster. The whole admin/helba scenario would begin. Lios wants to delete Kite and Blackrose because of thier involvement with Skeith/Cubia/Cat/white haired girl. "THey are asking too many questions". So before Lios can do anything, Kites book activates by itself making him red. Lios tries anyway but all his colleagues behind him get pk'ed (thier pc bodies turn gray and they wither-- meaning they were just normally pk'ed. It was like they were being warned). Lios is all that is left. Kite is like WTF, this bracelet!? Blackrose: you're RED!! <3 then... Helba appears and Lios backs off.

I know its all sketchy, but they could have worked out how Kite obtained his enhancements into the gameplay. as for adding the book of twilight to change kite in the storyline as it exists is great timing. However, they could have adjusted Infection a bit differently to avoid the situation of being stagnant... well what i mean is playing with RED Kite all the whole IMOQ series. They could have even gave him small upgrades (color changes in his character avatar for example). After each time he defeats a phase. It would end up being red in the end anyway?

of course, like Kuukai says, ''HASEO ISN't MEGAMAN!!"
well... niether is Kite!!

edit: instead of that upgrade deal i was just talking about, they could have added a feature/shop in the game to change Kites avatar... like make small changes. oh well.

[Azure crow]

How do you figure they could defeat Skeith without the Braclet?

[lukan]

unfortunately, the bracelet was what kept them from going into comas from the fights with the phases.
what if skeith is really kept as final boss, but they get the bracelet at the last moment after carrying the book for a while. then, they're able to to defeat skeith.

my $0.02
Toszi

[Dragoon2044]

i did say it was sketchy didn't i? well anyways it would have been like Orca had the book, it would have activated by by itself so the party would be safe. ok the part with orca being victim of drain heart. i just figured that since the big climax of quarentine had Kite and company running like hell to avoid drain heart; i could imagine that drain heart could have defeated a person even if they had the bracelet installed. edit: what i meant by encounters with skeith was simply anything like 'that monster with the red staff is chasing the white haired girl' type thing. at the end, Skeith would protect break Orca; he'd be up in the air, but then the book would activate installing into Orca's character knocking Skeith backwards and out of his data drain. they would then be able to damage skeith. thats how i believe it could have worked anyway.

anyways that whole thing was just to make a point about how the game could have played out different (not the storyline). so that we wouldn't have had to play with the RED Kite for four games. besides the way i was writing that alternate reality above they'd might have made IMOQ 3 games instead of 4 games.

Haseo doesn't have that problem and hes always changing through G.U.. Being adept rogue; a class that can job extend is brilliant because it will keep the players dressware from becoming stagnant. for instance look at xenosaga episode 1. jr wears a long black cape. in episode 2 he wears a red sweater. the same with shion, etc...

lets keep to the topic! i know talking about alnerate realities is fun, but thats for another thread and the creative writing board!