Raising the Empress (2)
…I had no idea how something like that was even possible. Between commanders whose characters were hardwired for absolute loyalty and commanders currently starring in real-time yandere psychological horror, the community was a circus. And now, on top of everything else, I had to manage affinity and favorability meters. I found myself shaking my head before I even realized I was doing it.
"So in the end, I have to treat everyone equally while simultaneously skyrocketing Mary's affinity and giving her special treatment."
"That's no easy task. If just anyone could pull it off… incidents like the one we just saw wouldn't keep happening."
Jessica, reading the community posts beside me, readily agreed that what I had to do was brutal. I was staring down an affinity gauge with no idea how much I'd already banked or how much more I needed to hit Stage One — and the realization of just how hard it would be to ride that all the way to a late-game power spike settled over me like a weight.
Ah. So that's why they hand out quest rewards for this.
Nothing in this world came easy. Massive rewards demanded massive labor. That was just reality.
Anyway. After making a complete spectacle of myself, I brought Mary along and started grinding through the problem of how best to use her going forward. That particular brand of fretting didn't last long, though.
Oh.
True to her status as a named NPC, a proper curriculum had already been laid out for her. I let out a genuine sigh of relief.
Raising the Empress (2)
Our Mary Ann… Marianne…
Calling her something different every time felt weird, so I decided to just refer to her as Marianne in my head. And contrary to my expectations, I quickly discovered that the curriculum for turning Pirate Empress (proto) into Pirate Empress (the real deal) was thorough beyond anything I'd imagined.
"Uwaah— hah, training's done!"
The moment Marianne reported that she'd finished her drills—
Watching the event pop up with that cheerful little chime, I nodded and issued the order.
"Good work. Go get some rest for now."
"Ah— yes, sir…"
Marianne made a truly complicated face at that, then left. Once she was fully gone and only Jessica and I remained in the command post, I let out a long sigh and started venting my sheer disbelief in her direction.
"Okay, so the game hands you a full curriculum through individual quests like this — then what the hell were all those people who got the bad ending even doing?"
"…W-well. Good question."
The veterans were always spamming comments like [90% go straight to the bad ending lmaoooo], so I'd assumed the training difficulty was completely unhinged. I'd been thrashing around trying to plan every angle of how to raise her properly. And then I actually start, and there's a rock-solid manual and curriculum just sitting there waiting for me.
Were the people who couldn't even follow something this basic the same ones strutting around calling themselves "veterans"? I couldn't hide my disappointment.
Looking to soothe that disappointment by gawking at some idiots, I started scrolling through the community window I'd left open.
[Pirate Empress Image]
Saw her floating around the gallery and I really wanna recruit and raise her fr
Apparently you can get her early with pure luck? How do I do that?
Reading that newbie's post and the comments underneath, I couldn't help snorting.
Training difficulty is hard? Looking at a curriculum this clearly structured, how could anyone say that with a straight face?
But then a new post went up, and the moment I read it, any composure I had evaporated.
[Bald eagle staring dead ahead against an American flag background], [Proof images of completing Pirate Empress-related Events 1, 2, and 3], [Screenshot of receiving a 5% mercenary discount from the Pirate Empress]
Credentials first, then we talk.
Cutting to the chase — so you managed to recruit the Empress right now, yeah?
More precisely: you figured out that the one you recruited is the Empress?
Then a flood of quests starts popping up like a curriculum, telling you to train her this way and that way—
That's a trap. fr.
I stopped right there and sat in pure confusion for a second.
Wait, for real?
In a game, if a quest tells you to do something, you do it. That was basic. What kind of nonsense was this? Still, better to finish reading before forming an opinion. I grabbed hold of my sanity and kept going.
I know that sounds crazy, so let me be crystal clear.
If you do everything the quests tell you to do? The Empress character's mental state completely collapses and she defects lmaooo
Which means straight to the bad ending. lmaoooooooo
A few people got so pissed about this they tried every trick in the book to dig into the source code.
Turns out it got tangled up with the game's base code into pure spaghetti, so the devs can't even roll it back. lol
Originally, just recognizing she was the Empress was supposed to let you progress smoothly — but these idiots twisted the code so badly they can't fix it. That's the situation. fr
Anyway. Following the quests gets you screwed. So then, can you just ignore the quests and do your own thing?
That has its own problems — high chance of building up bad blood with the Pirate Empress or tanking her affinity.
Because in a game where the affinity gauge is invisible, you're basically managing both a character's favorability and her performance on pure "feel" alone—