September 27, 2024 (Originally posted on Neocities)
Starfield Play Journal #24 – I reject your universe and substitute another at random.
This is it, the final ending quest stuff, so ending level spoilers here this time.
As a quick anecdote before diving into the ending quest stuff, one of the random side activities I did was get genetic samples from random lifeforms on a random planet. There was the supposed option to sneak up on them and collect the samples without murdering the creatures, but it turned out the creatures I was assigned were flying pancake-looking ray-type things that I could not sneak up on and instead had to fly around with my boost pack and rain down hell with my omega shotgun and also happened to shoot down a bunch of other creatures for the EXP.
Now the actual endgame quest. I went to the planet I was told to go to and had to fight both named Starborn ships plus some random stragglers. It went fairly well once I figured out how to actually aim at them, then I was directed to land on the planet itself. Then the boss gauntlet started, and I was having to fight someone who cloned themselves, someone who tried to defeat me by raising a bunch of dead Ecliptic people who went down as easily as they probably did the first time, and then someone who I guess was going to throw every physics object in the room around, but I blew them up since the ball they collected had a bunch of explosive tanks in it, so that wasn’t much of an issue. Also one of the bosses was just in a room full of turrets and such that I pretty much flew past.
There were also moments jumping through different places and times like the starting mine where the first artifact in the story was found, as well as some timeline where my character got murdered on the Eye and I had to awkwardly talk to Vlad how I was a different one of that guy. And then, following a big cache of ammo and health packs and the usual “a major boss is about to happen” pile of stuff as seen in games, there was a boss who cloned my character a bunch of times, complete with the omega shotgun. Long story short there were lots of explosions and lots of spamming health pack hotkeys to get through that.
Finally, in the super temple castle in the center of the base, there were the Emissary and the Hunter. I did try to talk them down to see if it’d work. It didn’t, naturally, so as humans we had to resort to violence. The battle teleported through different locations seen on the main quest, which kept happening pretty quickly because I managed to do a ton of damage to one or both of the opponents with one or two blasts and I guess that was the trigger to switch maps. They were also using the same kinds of powers from the earlier boss gauntlet, which meant it was a boss rush following a previous one which seemed a bit redundant, but I guess the challenge was meant to be that there were two of them at once this time, except for when one of them was cloning themselves a bunch of times. Toward the end they cloned me again with my superweapon as well, but after finding where the actual targets where hiding and sending shotgun missiles in their general directions while avoiding my unfriendly fire, it was over fairly quickly in each round.
This time the two not-aliens left corpses for me to grab all their artifacts as well as some special weapons, and the last artifact was for the taking, which I was confused why I couldn’t grab it at first and was being tossed around by the rings in the center but then it turned out I just had to wait for the animation to finish. I was instructed to put the artifacts in my ship’s drive, but also to have one last chat with all the surviving Constellation members. Long story short, the companion characters were eager to go through the Unity engine but the non-companion ones, aside from Cora who goes anywhere Sam does, were staying. Vasco was also uncertain he could come with as we didn’t knowingly encounter any robot Starborn as it was. There was also the question of if the group would enter the same next universe together or be scattered around.
However, before finishing up the main quest, a bunch of sidequests popped up regarding finding the powers related to the new artifacts, so I went to a bunch of space castles once again. They’re much easier to find on barren moons than forested areas, especially when the latter is foggy or at night. This includes navigating around the trees or tree-like plant-like objects or whatever.
After going through all those and filling out the remaining powers in the screen I hardly look at, I had to put the artifacts on my ship. However, it told me I already had them somewhere else, that is, the random base I stuck them at. So I brought the ship there, dumped the artifacts in the thingy there, and it told me my ship was ready with all the artifacts and would trigger the ending the moment I powered up the grav drive, even though they were at the base still. Sure, we’ll just go with that.
I went into the Unity engine and found myself, or some clone of myself, this time not shooting at me with an explosive shotgun, but speaking in a weird voice that didn’t quite match the gruff green space trucker look I had going on. There were vague answers to things, including hinting at the Creators of the artifacts that I couldn’t meet yet, and some dioramas were set up around the very important orb in the center of the space room to explain the future of the universe I messed around in, more particularly the galaxy of the universe I was around.
Long story short, prospects for things were mostly good, with taking the Deathwish option meaning people were free to do their own thing without being attacked by Starborn, as well as the flappy space giraffes taking care of the Terrormorphs and the space cowboys upholding justice through their systems, but of course also the space pirates were empowered to raise hell across the galaxy and the mind control implants were going to ensure there’d be a dystopia to battle in the future. All in all, pretty good I guess. Also Vasco was there anyway because I still had him as my companion.
Jumping into the orb triggered a final cutscene of space stuff, and then the credits which I scrolled through for a bit. Then the game goes right into New Game Plus mode, including returning to the character creation screen, except without the option to pick a background that I could find, but I could reassign traits. This time I exchanged Introvert for Kid Stuff, because the idea of having alternate universe parents seemed weird, plus I’d heard it was an interesting trait. I left Alien DNA and Hero Worshipped on just because.
A New Game Plus character starts with a Starborn ship and suit as well, and not much else. The ship doesn’t have a bed so one would have to be added through the decorate menu. It also has fixed stats and only two weapons, but ones specific to the ship. It also can’t be modified any further. I feel like the old Stargle had better stats overall. Jumping to New Atlantis prompts the guard ships there to ask to scan the ship as usual, but they’re clearly weirded out by it. Also the technicians on the ground aren’t sure how to handle it.
After being directed to go to the Lodge with everyone back there, they recognized my character as someone who got lost on the way over in terms of this universe, and there was the option to either repeat the whole main quest or take an alternate path to grab a bunch of artifacts from random planets to speed through the loop, plus get a starter pack of a leveled weapon and some credits and not much else. Also my Mystery Gravis Suit was back in my room, and it was still more powerful than my starting suit. I grabbed this universe’s Vasco and set out for a moment.
I also visited my new alternate universe parents, and, yes, as I’d heard, they were pretty much as I anticipated, being those sorts of loving embarrassing parents that are just enjoying retirement while also depending on having a bit of cash thrown their way every so often, as well as planning some big galaxy-spanning vacation. They even looked a bit weird due to the usual Bethesda parental genetics derivative system or whatever, as seen in previous Fallout games they did which featured playable parents and/or offspring, taking a few traits on either side from my character minus the dark green facial complexion. I could even vaguely hint to them that I was from a different universe but that was kinda played off as well to not weird them out too much.
After that, I pretty much called it a night, as I didn’t feel like going through everything once again right then, even the abridged version. Perhaps a later time if I want to continue that universe path.
I guess in the end I still have control over the universes available through save files, either the one before I left and still have all my stuff and quest progress, or the new one with funny parents and which involves finding what I need for my super shotgun once again and whatever else that entails, provided I’d want to grind through getting all that again, at least as far as materials and cash for the materials as needed, though I’m not entirely sure about the benefits of constant universe hopping anyway.
On the chance I end up getting this game for cheap through Steam so I can mess with mods more, or at least whatever becomes of those since a number of modders weren’t the most enthusiastic about the game after it’d been out a while, I’ll see what I feel like doing. But for now, between having played through what I figure is most of what the game has to offer right before they release a new DLC thingy for it, as well as my Game Pass having run out, I think I’m good here. If the urge strikes, I’ve got many versions of Skyrim to play instead. But more likely other unrelated stuff first.