DD# 292 A Fight Worthy of Ending Chapter 3

Hi, everyone! Welcome to the diary that ends everything on the North Peak!

Yes, this week, the rest of the North Peak stories have been finished.
Continuing from last week's 3 of 4 unfinished branches, the remaining 4 branches of your choice have been completed. Wait, a second, the math doesn't seem correct. OK, we will get there in a moment.

First finished branch: Save Zhang Yin

Just like the "turn around and leave" branch, there is no boss fight here.
You decide to save Zhang Yin and let someone else, hopefully, save the world.
This is a very human choice. The game will not judge you.

Harold will even thank you. Many other teammates who care about people close to them than the rest of the world will also support your decision.

Second finished branch: Stop the Mastermind

Really? You'd try to save millions of people you may never meet in the rest of your life and sacrifice someone close to you? So be it, the final real boss fight shall start!

This will be a fight worthy of ending Chapter 3!
Thus, the main effort of this week is to make this fight especially unique.

The goal is not to defeat the mastermind behind the whole plot. Your goal is to destroy the machine behind him that is transmitting the Black Signal. Thus, you may plan accordingly.

The fight has two stages.
At the first stage, the mastermind will try to defeat you in a war of attrition by using his bioweapons to cause negative effects upon you. Meanwhile, the Black Signal from the machine has no real impact on the battle.

However, once you get the mastermind's HP down to 50% or the machine's HP down to 75%.
Likely the most magnificent transformation you can find in all RPG Maker games shall happen!

The entire cutscene <<This Is the End of Your History!>> serves the transition right in the battle, right at the moment it triggers.
Here comes the second stage, a lot more chaotic; the mastermind will be in the mech, trying to defeat you with brutal force. And the Black Signal from the machine is causing various types of shade creatures to blend into this reality.
You will be challenged to maintain battlefield control to avoid getting overrun by shade creatures.
You will be challenged to counter some close physical attacks from the mech that may one-shot you. (But, by far, I think you already know how to counter that. Hints: Light/Mirror/Guardian spells.)
You will be challenged to cause a lot of damage to actually shut down that machine.

But you will also be rewarded if you succeed.

You can gain the fragments of the power source of the entire facility. They will be quite useful to recreate an ancient weapon once it returns to this world. (Yes, this is North Peak, so players from old times know which weapon it is. In previous worlds, iternations was basically what you could get at the end of the entire game. But now we are just in the middle of the entire new story.)

A lot of unique system changes and code are just made for this battle. The experimentation and data will help create more unique fights like this in the future. After all, this is not the end. It's just the beginning of the end.

Now, if you want something more challenging, here is the third branch:

You can order Harold to save Zhang Yin while you fight the mastermind.
A Merovingian (the dynasty of the first king of France) once said that choice is merely an illusion between those who have power and those who lack it.
Thus, if you consider yourself mighty, you don't need to choose between saving the world and saving a friend. This is the path you can attempt to save both. The problem is that since Harold is busy saving Zhang Yin, you will start the battle with the mastermind with a group of at most three characters. That will make the fight significantly harder, especially if you don't use something like the Pocket Pet Store to summon new teammates in the middle of the battle. Good luck!

In addition to the one we already had last week, those are the four choices you can make when you enter the final stage on the void island. But, hey, in many Japanese anime, there are always five people among a group of four. So, naturally, there is a fifth option.
It's not an option you can pick during dialogue. Instead, it's a bit tricky.
You can get to this path if you first trigger the real final boss fight, and then...
You decide to run away!

That means two of the previous four choices may lead you to this path instead.
But why?
You want to save the world or even try to save both your friend and the world. But you failed!
Oh, well, at least you tried. People will not blame you that much. They may even try to comfort you, telling you it's OK. It's not like you chose to just walk away and let the world burn and let your friend die. Or, is it? Consequently, there is no difference between just walking away or just saving Zhang Yin, depending on how the battle started in the first place. You may have even planned the whole thing just to put on a show of attempting to save the world!
After all...
"Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are." --- Niccolò Machiavelli
Only you know the truth.

That concludes everything that happened on the North Peak. The next step will be back to the Safehouse. Captain Nameless will summarize the entire event of Chapter 3 based on all the choices you made along the way. And Chapter 4 will start from there. Everything shall be finished within the updates next week.

The full update log of this week:
20260817
English
##########Content###############
【The Anomalous Nation】The story continueth: The Save Zhang Yin path is now finished. Harold, Alicia, and Genzou shall support thy decision. There is no boss fight upon this path.
【The Anomalous Nation】Consequence: If Harold doth not die, his dialog shall change after the event according to whether thou hast saved Zhang Yin or not.
【Wiki】The page of 【The Anomalous Nation】 hath been updated.
##########Debug#################
【The Anomalous Nation】It hath been fixed that in some dialogs the mastermind’s real name still appeared as question marks even after it was revealed.
简体中文
##########Content###############
【异常国度】剧情继续：【拯救张银】路线完毕。哈罗德、艾莉西亚、原藏会支持你的选择。这条路径上没有Boss战。
【异常国度】影响：如果哈罗德没有死在北方之顶，此后他的对话会有变化，取决于你是否在北方之顶救了张银。
【维基】更新了【异常国度】页面。
##########Debug#################
【异常国度】修复了幕后黑手的真名在揭示后依然有时会用问号表示的Bug。

20260821
English
##########Content###############
【The Anomalous Nation】At the end of the first part of the final confrontation upon North Peak 4F – The Seal, an autosave shall now be triggered.
【Skill】A new Enemy Skill hath been revealed: The Black Signal. (Depending upon the story, it may have different effects.)
【The Anomalous Nation】A new boss fight hath been added if thou decidest to stop the mastermind. If thou canst reach the second stage of the fight, the cutscene “This Is the End of Your History!” shall be unlocked.
【Item】A new Item hath been revealed: Fragment of Fallen Angel
【The Anomalous Nation】The story continueth. The “Stop the Mastermind” branch is now complete. (Harold’s relationship points decrease by 5 if he be in thy group. Not so severe as when thou simply walkest away and lettest the world burn.)
【The Anomalous Nation】The story continueth. The “Save Both” branch is now complete. (This is the hardest branch.)
【Wiki】The “The Anomalous Nation” page hath been updated.
【Wiki】A new section “The Real Final Battle” hath been added upon the “The Anomalous Nation” page to document its complex mechanics. It also containeth a tactical tip regarding how to win, based upon my testing.
【Wiki】The Mission page hath been updated. Chapter numbers have been added for all main quests. The location of the prologue hath been updated to be in China.
【The Anomalous Nation】A new hidden branch “You Tried But Failed” hath been added. (It happeneth when thou startest the Real Final Battle but then decidest to escape. At least Harold shall not die upon this path.)
【BGM】A new BGM hath been revealed: <<Urban Exploration: Istanbul>>
【Boombox】Thou canst now hearken unto <<Urban Exploration: Istanbul>> from thy boombox.
【Relationship】<<Urban Exploration: Istanbul>> is now the background music of Kerim Karaduman Pasha in the Relationship UI.
##########System################
【Enemy Group】Enemy Groups can now have scripted event page trigger conditions. The optional second-part boss fight of the North Peak is the first to use such a new system.
【Battle】Cutscenes can now play during a battle.
【Enemy AI】A new function hath been added: enemysetaction, which can set enemy finite state machine conditions with greater flexibility.
【Enemy AI】Some previous limitations upon enemy AI chance settings have been removed.
##########Debug#################
【Enemy AI】An issue hath been fixed which caused certain enemies never to use some of their low-probability actions in battle.
简体中文
##########Content###############
【异常国度】在北方之顶封印区域的最后决战的第一部分结束后，现在会触发一次自动存档。
【技能】新敌方技能：黑色信号（基于剧情，可以产生不同的效果。）
【异常国度】加入了一场新的Boss战，会在你选择试图阻止幕后黑手的分支时触发。如果你能进入第二阶段的战斗，过场动画【汝之青史，至此终矣！】会解锁。
【物品】新物品：堕天使的碎片
【异常国度】剧情继续，【阻止幕后黑手】分支完成。(哈罗德在队伍中的话关系度-5。没有【转身离开】分支的关系度降低程度那么高。)
【异常国度】剧情继续，【两个都救】分支完成。（这是难度最大的分支。）
【维基】更新了【异常国度】页面。
【维基】在【异常国度】加入了一个专门的【真正的最后决战】章节用来记录其复杂的机制。同时包含了基于我测试制定的一个取胜策略。
【维基】更新了任务页面。加入了主线剧情各个任务的所属章节。更新了序章发生地点为中国。
【异常国度】新隐藏分支路线：【你试过了但是失败了】（触发条件是你开始了【真正的最后决战】但是最终决定逃跑。至少这条路线上哈罗德不会死。）
【BGM】新BGM：《都市探险：伊斯坦布尔》
【音乐播放器】你现在可以在音乐播放器中听《都市探险：伊斯坦布尔》
【关系】《都市探险：伊斯坦布尔》现在是克里姆·卡拉杜曼·巴夏在关系界面中的背景音乐。
##########System################
【敌方队伍】敌方队伍现在可以有自定义脚本作为触发条件的事件页。北方之顶最终决战的可选的第二部Boss战是首个使用这个新系统的战斗。
【战斗】过场动画现在可以在战斗中播放。
【敌人AI】新函数：enemysetaction 可以更灵活设定敌方AI的有限状态机条件。
【敌人AI】破除了此前的一些AI行为概率限制。
##########Debug#################
【敌人AI】修复了一个造成敌人AI有时从来不会选择某些低概率行为进行行动的BUG