Another Eden

I just spotted that they'd posted this report on the concert that took place the other week, so I thought it might be of interest to some of you. Not quite as good as being there, but if you boot up one of the OSTs and read along, you might almost feel like you were there :)

Note: This will be a title screen update, so will appear for in-game download at this time tomorrow. Banners, episode and codices will all be available immediately after updating. And if you plan to farm Toova's Ereshkigal codices, save those keys!

Update contents (in part shamelessly copied from Scott's slides):

• Episode "Wanderer in the Binding Night" releases!
• Gacha characters Sesta and ES Toova arrive!
• Sesta's Fenrir tomes will available from Industrial Ruins (Very Hard).
• Various fancy paid banners
• Star Dream Encounter, going right up the the current pool, available until 13th August.
• Extra log-in bonuses of 100 stones for 12 days (until 25th July)
• Start Episode "Wanderer in the Binding Night" to receive 1000 stones.

Also:

• Character Personalities added for Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Shade, Thunder, and Crystal Types

Next update (Bookshelf of the Stars and Pizzica AS) is expected to arrive on 25th July.

Good luck to anyone pulling on these banners!

Here is the trailer for Episode "Wanderer in the Binding Night."■StoryA cyclical story that began from a single whirlhas become a tempest that threatens all....

Note: Spoilers discussed in this thread.

(Non-spoiler section here)

Hi everyone, I recently finished Chapter 5 of Wanderer in the Vortex, I wanted to discuss it since I enjoyed it a lot. I added a WIP fanart for this discussion to bait you into reading this long post. (Btw, if you're on mobile, you can zoom in on pictures by opening in a new tab)

From what I read, this was the same writer as Melissa, Eva and Iphi's character quests, Mizuki Hiratani, whose writings take on a darker and heavier tone. I dislike stories with negativity for its own sake, but if there is meaning behind it, I can get behind it. I enjoyed Chapter 5. I think it's my favorite Wanderer in the Vortex chapter so far.

Some of the previous Wanderer in the Vortex chapters felt a little tedious and cliche, in particular Chapter 1 with Orleya. It felt very shounen-esque with an "overcome your fears!" hoo-rah kind of character development arc and a very weak villain in terms of writing. But I did enjoy Chapter 2 (Alma/Lele) the most among the previous chapters, followed by Chapter 4 (Alter Tsukiha).

(Spoiler section from here until end)

One of the draws of story for me was Marie. She's a very compelling character to me. There's a deep longing and something exceedingly sad in her words. I think her portrait art was done very well too to convey the depth of her emotions. When she talks to Aldo, she says:

Yes. You promised me a tale of your adventures, remember? Is the outside world very, very large?

Ordinary people laughing happily, singing affectionate songs, holding hands with the people they love...

Walking through the streets in the lamplight, wearing soft shoes.

People who speak about those things with such earnestness and purity talk like that because they've never known that kind of happiness.

When you see her lose it and explode at Mariel, it helps convey how she's more than just a cheerful loving saint-like mother. She's at her limit.

I want you to go home, but you're still here! I feel like I'm going mad!

He's killing himself! And on top of all that, you ignorant outsiders decided to intrude on our life!

In some ways, she reminds me of my own mother. One of my older siblings remembered our mother as someone who was once beautiful, dignified, and sincere. Most of my siblings and I don't talk to her anymore. Both of my parents were deeply sincere and devoted with all of their hearts to what turned out to be a cult that cast them out of the communities they spent the best years of their life building up. Everything that was full of love, hopes and dreams, turned into a crushing disappointment and wounds that I don't think they ever quite fully recovered from (or ever got therapy for).

Not to derail this post into some personal life story, but what I'm saying is based on my experiences, this story feels very real. The dynamic of Marie's religious community, her life, her bitterness and resentment, feels like it was written by someone who experienced it firsthand. It's hard to write that kind of story convincingly. It's a sign of a good writer.

One of the themes I liked in this story was the relationship between knowledge and innocence. When Aldo and company meet Marie and the children, we find out that although they are very happy and loved, none of them know how to read or write.

As they explore the island, they find an abandoned home with diaries from Marie's adoptive father:

Is merely feeding them enough to make you a parent? Does protecting an immature body make you an adult? And what about children? The potential behaviors that the immature have toward adults, or their parents... They only receive. With food... No, perhaps with everything passive... When they are young and lack the knowledge, they can't make decisions. They can't even refuse. Worrying, hating, deciding. What brings them joy? What brings them down? Without knowledge, there is nowhere to go. Without experience, no decisions can be made. My heart aches when I look at her because she shines so bright. Acquiring knowledge without limitation, thinking freely, truly living like a human.

Then... what about the children of the island? I couldn't save them that day, those children whose innocence was forced upon them. Forced innocence is a tragedy in itself. Obedience when there is no other choice is basically distortion.

Marie intentionally keeps these children ignorant, innocent and dependent on her as a sort of revenge on the community who brought about all her suffering in the first place. Ironically, one of her children mistakes her for an imposter and kills her because of the lack of depth of their understanding about their mother as a human being. All their life, they had only known the saint-like side of their mother.

This reminds me of Plato's allegory of the cave. Basically if people are imprisoned in a cave and can only see shadows on the wall cast by fire, then that is their only understanding of reality. They lack exposure to the true reality of things because of their limited knowledge.

In the Undiscovered Babylon, life on the island and its curse of inedible food and animals represents Plato's cave. On the surface, Marie and the children all live in happiness and love. But they have nowhere to go, and it's a matter of time before their lives end in tragedy. The beliefs of Marie's religious community casts a shadow over their whole lives. Although Marie doesn't share their beliefs, she's still is bound by the limitation of only knowing life on this island. Even if you want something better, you can't do anything about it. There is a sense of utter hopeless futility with Marie and Ivan as they try to chart a course forward for their future. When you turn back time and return to the island to bring about the "true ending", Ivan is furious and exasperated because after hundreds of attempts, the children surviving as mutated plants and Marie living without Ivan, who she loved, was the best outcome that he could see possible. (By the way, the kids being mutated into those plant-like creatures was a truly shocking, horrifying and profane scene, like something from the Twilight Zone or the Outer Limits). Marie can also only conceive of solutions that are predicated on staying on the island, which are mostly gruesome and harsh.

In Plato's cave analogy, people who cannot overcome the difficulties of facing the light turn back to the imprisonment of the cave, because it seems too risky to face the terror of the unknown and retreat instead to the familiar, whether or not that is a better life.

But in the end, Marie decides to try to try to cast a double Pure Cradle with Mariel to purify all of the island so that it's no longer poisonous for them. That was a very emotional scene. Although it doesn't fulfill their initial goal, the light from the Pure Cradle draws explorers to the island, allowing Marie and the children to escape from the island. If I understood correctly, even Ivan survives in the true ending because Marie returns to the clock tower and says, "Ivan, I'm home. I was thinking... Let's talk. Let's look at one another." as she smiles. The minute hand on the clock tower turns, but time doesn't turn back. This time, a future exists for all of them. In a sense, they've left the cave and its shadows, with its distorted representation of happiness, with all the former ways of futility, and found a more true form of happiness outside. Marie (I think) also decides to teach the kids to read and write and no longer keep them in ignorance.

I feel there's other themes which I didn't touch on, but that one stood out to me.

Another piece of writing I liked was where Aldo convinces Ivan to trust them to try something new instead of Ivan sacrificing himself, saying:

I realized, by giving up on yourself, the ones you care about most will be the ones who suffer.

In some love dramas, you see someone sacrificing themselves, but in a grand and senseless way that elevates an ideal of selfless sacrificial love. Although love can be sacrificial, their portrayal of it is executed in away that irritates me because it lacks a sort of understanding about relationships between two people who love each other. To be honest, I was annoyed in Chapter 2 how Alma's mother insisted on sacrificing herself to save Alma, and Alma's father was like well, "if you insist..." I guess you can say that shows that parents love their children so much, but what about how your spouse feels when you something like that? The agony Marie felt when Ivan sacrificed himself to help the kids survive showed that sacrifice can be more complex than just the naivete of only focusing on the nobility of the act. I think those types of commentaries in this story conveys a depth of understanding in these types of themes and relationships of the characters and their choices. (By the way, I had to laugh when you choose between Mariel or Aldo to talk to Marie. It doesn't matter! She'll try to kill you no matter what.)

At first, I was put off by the happy endings in Another Eden's stories and found it to be sometimes too optimistic, thinking "this is isn't how it is in real life." But I don't think fiction has to follow real life all the time, especially if it wants to convey a specific theme or idea. I think one of the purposes of fiction or art in general is to create something beautiful to inspire people to hope in the possibility of a better reality than the one they see in front of them. (This is why you'll see that intellectuals, philosophers and artists are usually the first to go when a dictatorship takes over a society.) Or if not hope, then at least bring a sense of closure or catharsis to something traumatic by a retelling of that event. A doctor who researches trauma, Dr. Van Der Kolk, wrote a book called "The Body Keeps the Score", where he noticed that theater and roleplaying had a powerful transformative effect on people affected by long-lasting trauma. Trauma leaves people stuck in the past, with the traumatic event playing over and over in their mind, as if they were in a recurrent time loop of their own. Even if they try to move on, any events in the present are interpreted as if the traumatic event of the past were happening again. Resolving the trauma allows them to see that the event has passed and to move on with their lives and allow time to proceed for the future to come. This is why you see some people who are into acting come from difficult backgrounds. Frances Hodgson Burnett lost one of her sons to tuberculosis, but later wrote a book called "The Secret Garden," where the healing power of a garden and nature brings life back to two children abandoned by the world. The boy in story is based on her own son, I think. I think Chapter 5 was a story that was personally meaningful for me as well, since it reminds me a lot of my own mother and family.

Anyway, this went on kind of long, but I hope you enjoyed Chapter 5. Though you're free to have a different opinion. What did you think?

By the way, does anyone know what happened to the other people on the island? Like the tower defenders or the parents of the children. Or Marie's adoptive father.

Also, I didn't catch the significance of the sword that Ivan gives to Marie. Why does he have it? Is it supposed to be related to the song that Marie sings?

Out of curiosity, what teams are you all currently running for general use? So not for superbosses, etc, but what do you have set up for running around maps, or running keys?

And on that note, which dungeons are you currently throwing your keys at?

My red keys are currently going to Sapient Complex (until the next red key dungeon arrives, at least), since I need books to burn so I can keep making TVCs for people. That party's probably a lot like a lot of parties out there. AS Hardy, AS Tsubame, Flamme, Curio, and in the back I have Strawboy and a random knight to level because why not.

For green keys, I just moved across to Omegapolis, having finally finished Azami's light, and I've had a go at building a party around AS Cerrine for this one. So she's joined by AS Biaka, AS Tsubame, Parallel Hismena, Ashtear and Claude (ES, but doesn't really matter, he's mostly there for his light).

Most of the time I use my red key party for running around the world, and I have a specific party of cute and cat-like people for white keys as well.

I'm glad the AE artists are getting work. At least, I hope that's the case.

Image is from a new anime, Metallic Rouge.

Amy 5* for reference.

Big update today, since it presumably has data for the coming Episode, so make sure you have enough storage and data for the download.

Lokido True Manifest and Lovely's Lovebird treatises should be available immediately. AS Lovely banner will appear a little over an hour after the time of this post. NS Lovely should also have her fancy new bash stance capability right away.

Good luck to anyone pulling, or looking to upgrade her quickly!

Edit: And yes, the compensation Luring Shadow (Bow) should be in your inbox immediately. I got 4, which is... less than I'd have expected, but I guess I haven't run the dungeons that much. Just enough to fully upgrade all the gear so far.

Extra edit: Separated Armor and Badge buttons have now been added to the Character Details screen, along with ability info for the armor, finally! Blessed QoLs. For anyone wondering about the random Japanese, it says "Activate Effect".

What's new

Ver 3.1.200 Update

■Whisper of Time Available
・Free encounter once per day! Do 10 free encounters for a guaranteed 5★ character! Until 7/31 14:59 (UTC) (The existing one, not an additional one)

◆Encounters
・Another Style Lovebird... Lovely's Another Style is available
・Fateful Encounter (Paid, 2 Times Max) is available.

◆Manifestation
Added new events for the characters and classes listed below for "Manifestation: True Weapon Discovery."
・Lokido (Titan)

Go click the buttons that make Scott happy! Livestream coming up next week, 11am 11th July UTC (click link to find out what that is in your timezone).

I don't think I got around to upload this video version to accompany my first post on AE sub. But anyways here it is :)

I don't think I got around to upload this video version to accompany my first post on AE sub. But anyways here it is :)

Note that this is a version update (3.1.200), so make sure to update the app in order to access the update. And of course save up your keys for those Lovebird treatises!

• Lovely Another Style (Lovebird) will be added, and her skill All-You-Can-Smack will add "Deploy Roaring Bash Stance"
• Lokido NS (Titan) true manifest will be available (whoops, thanks for the correction!)
• Super cute Lele set of cat equipment!
• Compensation for the Nona shadow issue will be performed in this version - possibly not immediately, but look out for shadow in your gift box.
• Stone sale running up to 13th July, making the next projected update 14th July (which should be the episode). The JP catch-up begins!

After the idea is living in my head for so long finally I get to make this comic!!

Hopefully someone here got a nice surprise!

I think the most useable thing from mine was 3* Sevyn.

My guaranteed gold door got me AS Mariel dupe, taking her to 24 light.

For the benefit of those who've parted ways with Reddit, sharing the playlist u/vaiduakhu has speedily compiled of the tracks from OST 5.

Break out the headphones and enjoy!

EDIT: alternate link - https://pxlfd.plus/c/579376064188059763
Because pixelfed only lets you post 10 images at a time and this comic is 17 pages, the pixelfed link will show you 2 posts. So you need to view them separately. It's a little convenient, but then you won't need to login to pixiv for the other link.

I made an Another Eden comic for Pride Month.

Its really frustrating to not finish when there's a time limit (i started on this kind of late during June, so it was only 2-3 weeks). I guess it was unrealistic and too ambitious to expect to finish in that much time.

I'll try to work on it more over the year and hope to have something more presentable by next year that can convey what I wanted to make..

Honestly, I'm pretty excited about this. My favourite gaming experiences have been when I've been genuinely surprised by release news, so it'll be fun to be back in that situation.

I'd expect the catch-up timeline would be similar to before we hit that 2 month gap from Japan, so my guess is that we can probably expect to catch up by the end of the year, in time for hopefully another collab!

Also, 500 stones - make sure to log in from tomorrow to collect them!

A lot of the most foundational stuff for this game is lacking on the English wiki, b/c people feel less inclined to make it again when it already exists elsewhere (I know I do at least).

And aside from the Altema tier list that has an English translation on the wiki (Altema list), a lot of people do not seem to know about the other resources that exists. For instance Altema has a ton of maps that are super helpful - one recent example is that unmarked quest in Dust City where the blacksmith asks you to return marked display items, and the map to find that is on altema, recently added to the Loot section of the Mysterious Vortex page.

Another REALLY useful website is the anothereden.game-info.wiki, that contributes a bunch of great content to the English wiki like the Superbosses ranking. Props to the people who helped make that a reality - like on the English side that's almost all Bluezero's work, but also whoever made it on anothereden.game-info.wiki deserves the lion's share of the credit to begin with.:-)

There are also several newer pages on anothereden.game-info.wiki that I wanted to help make people aware of as well, but first note that these by definition contain spoilers b/c they are on the JP server whereas for us here on Global certain characters may not have been released yet:

1. SDE list - in the past this has fallen horribly out of date, but lately this page seems to be kept updated. It lists at the top all of my favorite Meta characters, both those that I have and those that I do not, but which I would like to aim for in the very near future.:-D Best of all, unlike Altema there is actually an explanation as to why the characters were selected, and sometimes they suggest things such as "pairings" e.g. ES Miyu + Orleya. Eva is noticeably missing - but nothing is perfect and anyway it's an interesting list.

2. On the very same page further down there's a 2nd list aimed more at beginners and people who don't want to do AF pianoing or reading complex skill sets or swapping out parties, so here characters such as Pizzica (named Pichica there) and Flammelapis come more to the foreground.

3. Perhaps best of all, at the top is a link to role-specific Meta chars - e.g. the "general purpose tank" section predictably has AS Radias & AS Soira, though ignores Iphi's non-tanking defensive support.

4. And then at the bottom of that page is an endgame-weapon-and-armor guide, which doesn't seem as comprehensive as the one linked from the wiki but occasionally is updated more quickly.

Each list has its own aims & goals, like the wiki tier list as it says is more of a guide than a specific list, and shows mono-themed teams as examples but then leaves things like collecting together multi-hitters or general-purpose utility roles that span across zones as an exercise for the reader; whereas Altema showcases more general-purpose utility but then does not explain why e.g. both Pizzica & AS Mistrare are labelled with the current top score of 99 even though both are singers and you would be unlikely to want to have both in a party at the same time. Therefore I'm enamored of these new lists at anothereden.game-info.wiki, b/c it seems to be trying to fill the gaps in the existing resources, and while we all know that the real solution to this game is simply "get Eva = be happy":-D, just in case someone wants to know more, these seem like excellent lists to at least point people in the right direction to read on their own?

(title)

• Cerrine AS and "Beautiful Stranger" Shannon added
• Wanderer's Diary: Ch 6 encounter will feature Yakumo and BS Shannon at 1% rate each
• Whisper of Time + Whisper of Time Drop starts
• albene should come post this so I don't have to!

Happy Friday! This is a post to test out Pixelfed integration, so hopefully you can see the pictures. I promise I'l post newer art later!

This work is from July 2021. At the time, I was getting used to digital art and really wanted to prove to myself I could make a polished work. Nowadays, I don't tend to have as much time to make these types of illustrations, but I learned a lot from the experience.

Welcome to the unofficial Another Eden magazine.

Things are still getting setup so your patience is very much appreciated. If you want to help out, consider adding content or becoming a mod.

Thanks for coming!

While there isn't a <spoiler> function (that I know of), the NSFW toggle will blur images. By default, a profile setting hides NSFW content; you can change it under settings (see image).

A few other helpful tips:

• Make articles not posts.
• Turn on Notifications in your Settings; they're off by default.

Here's a few new-to-kbin links:
https://kbin.social/m/kbinMeta/t/11493/A-small-FAQ-to-hopefully-help-new-users-to-kbin

https://www.reddit.com/r/KbinMigration/comments/145bwof/the_redditors_guide_to_how_kbin_works_your/