Out of curiosity, what with the latest event in GFL focusing on Ouroboros and some of her past, do you have any intention of integrating some of that into this quest proper?
I was going to need to explain my position vis-a-vis
My Devil's Frontline: Dropkick on my PMC at some point. Might as well do it now.
Firstly, I'll explain my personal relationship with the Jashin-chan collaboration event. This was all the way back in
August of last year. I had spent about a month making notes for Closed Circle - what it was supposed to be, what themes it would touch on, the possible directions it could go based on voter input, any mechanics, etc.
And then, out of the blue, the official GFL discord server dropped a fan translation of a CN collab event in which Ouroboros was the star.
I read it. I was surprised about how thematically similar it was to what I had in mind for Closed Circle. An examination of Ouroboros as a person, an investigation of her origins, and a posing of the question of whether and how Ouroboros could change and grow. But I took some issue with how it went about it.
For one thing, the entire premise is Ouro and three GK dolls being
isekai portaled into the setting of a gag-a-day comic strip. This raises the issue of whether the events of the collab are canon to the main story proper, and whether it will be acknowledged in any way. So far, the only collab event that has ben acknowledged by other material is the DJMax event ("Glory Day") - I think it was Calico/M950's mod story that mentioned El Clear and El Fail. But that story was much easier to reconcile with the GFL setting, since it involved the GK dolls stumbling into an old server bank filled with AIs. The fact that
My Devil's Frontline has the S09 commander find out where Ouro and the GD dolls have gone because he
watches the Jashin-chan anime and they show up there seems one among many signals we're not supposed to take the collab too seriously.
But...well...if the events of the Jashin-chan collab "never happened," then that means there is setup for Ouroboros regarding her origins, but no payoff. Unless future, non-silly events/chapters mention Ouro, she simply remains forever in Persica's computer, forced to run battle simulations again and again, as seen in Cube+.
(Also, regarding what My Devil's Frontline is crossing GFL with - I read just enough of the actual Jashin-chan manga to know that I didn't care for the kind of humour it's going for at all.)
There's another very big issue I have. Namely, the Jashin-chan collab retcons the nature of the battle simulations that made Ouroboros into the neurotic fruitcake we know and love. In Operation Cube, Ouro bragged to Hunter about defeating other AIs in "thousands of chess matches." Now, the chess thing is actually thematically important to Ouro's negative character arc in Operation Cube. It ties right in with the fact that Ouroboros
thinks of and treats Hunter and Executioner as things, as resources to be expended. Which ultimately proves to be her downfall.
The Jashin-chan collab, despite pitching itself as something of a sequel to Cube and Cube Plus, and referencing both (it explicitly refers to Hunter's protestations that
"War is not chess!"), it completely retcons the nature of Ouro's simulations. Instead of chess, it's now...
PUBG.
Like, literally a PUBG-style Battle Royale game. 1000-AI Battle Royale game in which the AIs club (and possibly shoot) each other to death in a video game environment. Ouro's final battle in there is a purely melee affair.
And I'm sitting here with my notes for Closed Circle in hand and I'm thinking:
really?
On another note:
While I think the writers got Ouroboros mostly correct personality-wise (though I think they might have softened her somewhat for the sake of the story), it's worth nothing that the Ouroboros of
My Devil's Frontline and
Closed Circle are in quite different places, emotionally speaking. Closed Circle Ouroboros just got out her hell-simulation and is feeling ready to take on the entire world. Devil's Frontline Ouroboros is years ahead in the timeline and, as anyone who has played the games knows, some stuff has happened in the meantime. Jashin-chan collab Ouro does seem...a bit more depressive. Just an aside.
Now, finally to actually get to your question:
Out of curiosity, what with the latest event in GFL focusing on Ouroboros and some of her past, do you have any intention of integrating some of that into this quest proper?
...maybe.
Obviously I'm not retconning Ouro's hell-simulation, even if MICA did. Ouro was made to play chess - that's important to me and it's important to Closed Circle, so it's not changing.
But let's be real. We both know you're asking about Jormungandr, and whether she will show up in Closed Circle. And my answer to that is a solid...
...maybe.
Like I said, my plans for Closed Circle's identity and possible paths was made before that particular character ever existed to me.
So, when I finished reading the fan translation of My Devil's Frontline, I simply went ahead and posted the first chapter of Closed Circle as planned a few days later. My Devil's Frontline released on the GFL EN server about a month later.
For me, one thing that really made me want to write Closed Circle is getting to see Ouroboros interact with and bounce off
other SF ringleaders. As well as a general exploration of Sangvis Ferri's inner workings and what they do when they're not getting blown to pieces by the AR team and S09 commander. I won't make any definitive statements, but I'd have to find a place for Jormungandr in the quest's story before including her. Which isn't impossible - stories grow and evolve in the telling, especially quests - but I won't make any promises.
So...yeah!
