Iji - Will raocow be aggressive or passive? Pfft... that's easy to answer

[Voltgloss]

So how exactly does one do a pacifist run of this? Just watched episode 13 and I really wanna play it now, and may as well see what's different when you're not murdering everyone.

One of the most important general gameplay points is to rely heavily on the Resonance Reflector. Bouncing an enemy's projectiles back in their face doesn't count as a kill.

[Grounder]

Sector Z: To access, kick the nearby Tasen Soldier (you need a Strength of 4) closer to the 2nd lift, and have her shoot a Rocket towards the wall. Walk through the opened passage, and you will find a teleporter. However, you need to find all 10 posters to use it.

A bizzare interdimensional place, it always reduces your HP to 1. You only have your kick, shotgun, and maybe the Machinegun to keep you alive. Enemies here deal armour damage on contact, but they all have 1HP. They do not go toward your kill count. Beating Sector Z leads straight into Sector 2, and Dan will ask Iji where the heck was she. Sector Z will also be available in Single Sector Play.
The 1st section is based on Norfair in Metroid. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th sections are based on Remar's past games: RetroBattle, Castle of Elite, and Hero.

As an easter egg, you'll get messages if you try to Crack the enemies found here:
White sphere: "Eww, squishy!"
Blue fuzz: "Eww, creepy!"
Trapper: "Eww, weird!"
Drone: "Incompatible technology for cracking"
(on a related note, trying to Crack a Turret that was knocked off its base also gives an error message)

To reach the blocked off Teleporter in the 4th section, you need 100% (Unlock all 12 Extras; find all Posters, Ribbons, Hidden Skills; beat all Sudden Death Sectors).


I've also started 2 new sections on the first page: Unlockable and Secrets, and Lore, but they may still be unfinished.

What is in the portal?

[tirakai]

the blue spiky thing place's music is not particularly pleasant when sped up

granted it's not meant to be sped up though

[Sebby19]

Fun fact about Sector Z's music track: 1/2fabrikate. This track is made of various sound effects played in real-time, depending on the area you are in. It even changes based on where in the pause menu you are. Thus, there is no .mp3 for it.

Yo Sebby, can you tell what the hell am I missing in the game?

From what I can tell the only thing I haven't done is beat the game in Ultimortal/

Unlocking Turbo Mode

, which as far as I know doesn't count towards opening the Sector Z teleporter. Hard to tell what I'm missing since most of what I did was back in 2011 :v

You are wrong.

What is in the portal?

We will see if raocow decides to take my 100% save. PM him if you want to see where it goes!

[Piter Lauchy]

My original intention was to have you play Sector Z twice, [...]

Who would have thought that all this time, Sebby was the one with the real power? :o

[Sebby19]

Oh yeah, I had an entire schedule (and a few optional things) for the post game. Then all the plans got derailed when he said he didn't want to play through Sectors 8, 9, and X through Pacifism.

Oh well. He ain't no Chuggaaconroy.

[raocow]

what can I say, with all due respect I'm not big on being told what to do, haha ~

[Willhart]

Tomorrow will likely be final then. I hope you go to a level with actually challenging enemies to test the special end level guns out.

[Sebby19]

I have been a bit bossy.

Level with challenging enemies? Check.
Test awesome weapons? Check.
Do it at the same time? ehh...... maybe?

[Piter Lauchy]

Oh well. He ain't no Chuggaaconroy.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

[Sebby19]

I wrote that more to remind myself in the future: rao does not do walkthroughs.

One more Sector Z trivia fact:
This 11th poster cannot be unlocked. It was drawn by Remar's good friend, reallyjoel, during the game's production. It's supposed to be a rabbit and the Swedish words "senast 2001!", the true meaning of which not even reallyjoel can remember.

There is also a secret 12th poster. That cannot be unlocked for the sake of mankind.

[Sebby19]

Aw shoot! I hit the 60000 character limit on the first post!

I guess I'll need to cut the Lore section, and just leave the 12 main Unlockables.

Well, here is what I got for Lore now:
Lore:

The games backstory and some trivia about the world
A quick summary of the backstory
The Komato came from the planet Origin (Earth). After developing space travel, they left Origin and never looked back, except with the occasional probe. They deemed us not a threat, and left us alone. They continued to expand and conquer their way across the galaxy, become very militarised, and genetically modifying themselves to serve combat. A faction of Komato, later called the Tasen, objected to the direction the Komato were headed, and genetically modified themselves closer to how the looked like on Origin. The Komato saw them as outcasts, but did help and supply them, initially. Over time, the general populace of the Komato's hate grew more and more, and the leaders in High Command trying to work out a solution to stop this. High Command was powerless when their army declared war. Their goal: exterminate the Tasen.
While on the run, the Tasen would Alpha Strike any planet they wished to colonize, nearly obliterating the original people on that planet. This atrocity only gave more justification to the Komato to go to war. The Komato would then route out the Tasen on that planet, and then Alpha Strike the planet again as standard procedure. This was to make sure there were none left, and was seen as a mercy kill for the original planet's inhabitants.
To me, the Komato are similar to the Nazis, even with the plans to create 'organized termination' camps, as you read in one logbook. The only difference is that instead of a single leader (Hitler) 'inspiring' the population, the Komato leaders tried to stop the conflict. But High Command had to go against a population of several 100 billion.

For more lore, read Yukabacera's logs here: http://www.remar.se/daniel/yuka/index.php. I would include them here, but you can't put spoiler tags inside spoiler tags.

The Ciretako Incident: The Ciretako was a Tasen ship that was raided a the Komato raid party. However, when other Komato went to check up on them, they found no survivors, Tasen or Komato. The inside of the ship was ripped to shreds, as if everybody turned their guns on everyone. It was rumoured that the Ciretako mission was supposed feature the Army's new addition. While the army tried to cover it up, it was eventually revealed that the new Annihilator unit, a massive heavily armed exoskeleton, was the one who went crazy and killed everyone on the Ciretako ship, in order to raise it's kill count (visible on their visors). The Annihilator wasn't what Imperial Research tried to cover up. It was actually the weapon the Annihilator was wielding, that made him go blood crazy, that they didn't want getting out. However, this controversy did halt production of the Annihilators for some time. No news on the secret weapon, as it never showed up again...

Zentraidon: A word coined by a third, extinct alien race. The word essentially means 'self-destruction through rapid technological advancement and arrogance'. Ultimately, this alien race indeed met Zentraidon. The Komato has since come across the remains of their civilization, and have tried to study their technology. The results so far being the last regular weapon, and the weapon the Annihilator used on Ciretako, among other stuff. Zentraidon is an incredibly taboo word, any Komato who suggests they are heading for the same fate faces punishment akin to treason.

Komato Sports
Rocket Jumping: Inspired by Tasen that are sent flying by explosives, this games rules are relative simple. First, a Komato wears special Triple-Alloy Composite Armour, equip an explosive weapon, and stand by a wall. They then fire at the wall at near point blank distance, blasting themselves across the scoring field. Thanks to the armour, the Komato survives with only minor injuries.
A variation exists where a 2nd participant tries to shoot the 1st player in the air. They then fly so far and high, they usually die from hitting the ground.
Hyper Turret Game: Inspired by a spontaneous game of pseudo soccer on a raided Tasen ship, the game is relatively simple. Just like soccer, 2 teams try to kick a Turret head into the other team's goal for points. Weapons are also allowed, and other Turret heads are tossed into play when the fragile thing is destroyed. Banned on 36 planets.
Ultra Minefiels Seek-and-Run: The most dangerous of all the sports. A group gets together, and decide on a Judge and Seeker (usually by brawl). The Seeker then stands in a middle of a minefield, blindfolded, while the others run around in it. When a mine goes off, the Seeker must guess how far away it was, within a margin-of-error, for a point. At the end of the game, the Judge then counts the survivors against the Seeker's points. Win or lose, there is usually another brawl, because the other's didn't get to be Seeker or Judge.

Iji's Family: None of this is found in the game, but is from Daniel Remar's mouth
Ron Kataiser: The family's father. Had two wives, both leaving him. Apparently, others didn't really like him either. Dies in the intro.
Mia Kataiser: Daughter of Ron's 2nd wife. After she left, Iji took a motherly role towards her. Dies in the intro, but you can find her ribbons(?) in each Sector. But if you miss one, Iji will forget about her.
Dan Kataiser: From Ron's 1st wife, younger brother to Iji. Your mission control. Was the first to crack the Tasen's technology, shaming the surviving scientists into action.
Iji Kataiser: From Ron's 1st wife, the oldest child, around 20 years old. Your player character. Cybernetically enhanced by nanotechnology.

[Money]

Am I seriously the only one who found the writing kinda... Bad?

Haha, different tastes I suppose...

Nope. I found it very hamfisted. I could tell they were trying to make it ~deep~ and ~meaningful~, but I never felt it, personally. Maybe the pacifist route is better written?

I really like Iji's story, but its dialogue leaves a bit to be desired. The things that really stuck out to me (edit: in a good way) were the bits where gameplay and story intersected (Sector 5 is probably my favorite sector because of this, and I really liked the Phantom Hammer coming out of nowhere in Sector 8 and the bit near the end of Sector 9), but yeah I wont deny I feel the story in general could have been done with a bit more finesse. It's really good at its core, it just has some extraneous stuff that could stand to be cut to make it a bit more focused (long winded dialogue esp).

[Sebby19]

The 12 Main Unlockables: These are kept in Extras on the Main Menu.
1) Posters: Find the hidden Posters in each of the 10 Sectors, and you can view them here.
2) Single Sector Play: Allows you to jump to any Sector, play it on Normal difficulty, and then return to the main menu. You only start with the Shotgun, and all your 7 main Stats are level 1. Your Level and Skill Points are set to 5X the # of previous Sectors, kill count is 10X the # of previous Sectors, and your Jump and Armour stats are set to the earliest possible moment you should have one. Beat the game on Normal or Higher to unlock.
3) Sector Z: A bizzare interdimensional place, it always reduces your HP to 1. You only have your kick, Shotgun, and maybe the Machinegun to keep you alive. Enemies here deal armour damage on contact, but they all have 1HP. They do not go toward your kill count. Beating Sector Z leads straight into Sector 2, and Dan will ask Iji where the heck was she.
The 1st section is based on Norfair in Metroid. The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th sections are based on Remar's past games: RetroBattle, Castle of Elite, and Hero.
To access, kick the nearby Tasen Soldier (you need a Strength of 4) closer to the 2nd lift, and have her shoot a Rocket towards the wall. Walk through the opened passage, and you will find a teleporter. However, you need to find all 10 posters to use it. Reaching Sector Z unlocks it for Single Sector Play.
4) Hero 3D: A game made by the Tasen hacker Yukabacera. Playable on a Terminal in Sector 6, after the nearby Assassin has retreated. To play it from the main menu, beat the game on Hard or higher.
How to play: Find the core, shoot it, lower the barriers, and go to the exit, across 9 levels. Everytime you beat the game, the difficulty is raised, and you restart at level 1. The difficulty can be raised 242 times. Losing all your lives sends you back one level. Nothing is unlocked playing this game.
5) Alternate Outfit: Iji's in game sprite will wear the sweater she was wearing in the intro cutscene. Can be turned on or off. Beat the game on Extreme to unlock.
6) Weapon Information: Weapon info, but more detailed than what you can find in the Help/Info menu. Get Nanomaster rank (100+ Cracks, minus fails) when beating the game to unlock. Doesn't contain info on the ???.
7) Enemy information: Enemy info, but more detailed than what you can find in the Help/Info menu. Get Immortal rank (less than 100 HP damage) when beating the game to unlock. Also has info on Special Characters, like Iji herself.
8) Sector Maps: View the maps for Sector 1 through X. They can also be viewed from the Pause Menu from now on. Beat the game on Normal or higher to unlock.
9) Sudden Death Sector: Like Single Sector Play, except everyone has 100 Armour and 1HP, including bosses (except Yukabacera, who still has 50HP). Beat the game on Hard or higher to unlock. Beating a Sudden Death Sector is marked with a check mark. Sector Z is not included.
10) Turbo Mode: Makes the game run twice as fast. Can be turned on and off here. Beat the game on Ultimortal to unlock.
11) Scrambler: A broken Human translator, made by Yukabacera. Kill him to retrieve it. Can be turned on and off here, or from the Help/Info menu in game.
12) Sound Test: Listen to all the games sound effects, music, and voices (with subtitles!), except for the ones associated with 1/2fabrikat. Beat the game on Normal or higher to unlock.

[Grounder]

-FINAL TRANSMISSION -

[Octagon]

The banana gun is so expensive - while not all that strong - because being able to hit enemies from above was seen as unfair and bypassing normal gameplay. I don't see the point because the nuke does it better.

reallyjoel is a friend of Daniel Remar's, and went on to found the game studio Ludosity where they now work. reallyjoel's dad mode was prompted by reallyjoel leaving a comment in the lines of "My dad can beat your times blindfolded" on Remar's Ultimortal Iji speedrun video.
The hidden difficulty setting exists in at least two other Remar games. In both of these cases, it's technically beatable - unlike the Iji one, where the exit of sector 1 is locked.

Krotera's as excited about kicking as raocow was in this playthrough.

The null driver does quite a few things, as listed at the bottom of this page.
The highlights include:

-For all enemies that are not bosses, there's a 10% chance they will shapeshift into the following: paper, a computer screen, a crackbox (with a Skysmasher, Shredder, Blit or Dan randomly inside), a banana-dispensing terminal, or shell casings.
-Turn Blits into Nano.
-Turn Turrets into Corrupted Turrets which fire Shocksplinter shell casings. Hack a Corrupted Turret and it will drop a Shredder.
-Rotate the assigned bone of each of General Tor's polygons by one. Bone 1 will still "look" at Iji as if it were Tor's head.

I like how even the ridiculous joke weapons tie into the story, driving home what it means to approach Zentraidon.

[Ozzy Ment]

Okay, so the Null Driver is basically the Vinesauce corrupter in weapon form.

[Sebby19]

Finally back from work. And I'm kinda sad this topic only got three more posts :( . Anyways, the 3 secret weapons, then 3 more entries into the enemy section, a few more secrets tomorrow, and I'm DONE this guide.

Banana Gun

Damage: 3 HP
Reload time: 4 seconds
DPS: 0.75 HP
Muzzle velocity: 9 m/s
Requirements: All 8 basic Nanoweapons
Uses: 1 of each type of ammunition
Function: fires an explosive banana
No one know why this gun was made, as after finishing it, the creator died from a fit of hysterical laughter. Found at the top of Sector 9, you need to blast yourself with the MPFB Devastator to climb the tall shaft. Which also means you need Tasen, Komato, and Strength all at 10, and lots of HP. The only weapon affected by gravity, which then explodes in a MPFB explosion. Think of it like a bouncing grenade, that gives you an unfair advantage from high ground. I believe its also too slow to be reflected. However, the damage output makes it an incredibly inefficient weapon. Cannot be combined with the other weapons, for the sake of mankind. Trying killing Tor with it for an easter egg.
-No one uses this weapon.

Massacre

Damage: 96 HP (30 rocket explosions, 12 MPFB explosions)
Reload time: 2.5 seconds
DPS: 38.4 HP
Muzzle velocity: 90 m/s
Requirements: 0 kills by the time you reach Tor
Uses: 50 armour points
Function: fires six non-mass wall-penetrating projectiles each exploding five times in flight and ending in double MPFB explosions.
This is actually a toned down version of the weapon used on Ciretako. Hands down the most powerful gun in the game, shame Ansaksie only gives it to you right before the final battle (and who knows how, or why, she obtained it). Unaffected by your Attack stat, and HP damage done to you will not be counted against your rank. I recommend using it sparingly, especially on the higher difficulties. Best times to use it is right after Tor hurts you. Tor will also freak out it you use it.
-Only Ansaksie uses this weapon. Keep your distance from her to increase the chance she'll use it on Iosa.

Null Driver

Damage: 2 HP, or instant death by morphing
Reload time: 1 second
DPS: 2 HP
Muzzle velocity: speed of gravity
Requirements: 100% (Unlock all 12 Extras; find all Posters, Ribbons, Hidden Skills; beat all Sudden Death Sectors).
Uses: no ammunition
Function: random
This glitched prototype is the first step toward the Star Strike. Its failure in opening wormholes results in randomly damaging enemies, light-bending mirages and morphing objects into others. In the game, it mostly messes with the graphics and objects, but it can make some Sectors unwinnable. This weapon is permanent, and usable across all save files... until you quit the game. Then you have to get it from Sector Z again.
A list of what is does, all at the same time:
-Beep.
-Set the current time to 59:59 to avoid the player doing a speedrun with this weapon.
-Give 99 points, which will be stored if you save the game.
-Give maximum ammo for all weapons, depending on your Assimilate stat.
-Turn Blits into Nano.
-Blow up every Tasen and Komato with a Shocksplinter explosion belonging to Iji, dealing 2 HP damage modified by your Attack stat. This doesn't count towards your kill count.
-OR, there's a 10% chance enemies that are not bosses will shapeshift into the following: paper, a computer screen, a Crackbox (with a Skysmasher, Shredder, Blit or Dan randomly inside), a banana-dispensing terminal, or shell casings.
-Turn Turrets into Corrupted Turrets which fire Shocksplinter shell casings. Hack a Corrupted Turret and it will drop a Shredder.
-Delete all warpback instances, letting Iji leave the game borders without being warped back, unless she falls below the bottom of the Sector.
-With all visible objects that are not Iji nor enemies, there's a 60% chance its sprite is replaced by any of the first 920 sprites defined in the game, and the subimage may change.
-Done 50 times: two of the first 150 backgrounds (including cutscene images and tilesets) defined in the game are randomly picked, and the second is repointed to the first.
-Rotate the assigned bone of each of General Tor's polygons by one. Bone 1 will still "look" at Iji as if it were Tor's head.
-If Tor is finished off by the Shocksplinter explosion spawned by the Null driver, except in Sudden Death or Single Sector Play, you travel to Sector Y.

-Another weapon Ansaksie acquired, before giving it to OmnikrakR. It then disappeared into Sector Z when he accidently pulled the trigger.

[Sebby19]

*Yukabacera*

Armour: 100 HP: 50
Weight: 15 Security: 25
Drops:
-2 Large Shocksplinter Shell
-Large CFIS Cell
-10 Red Nanofields
-Scrambler
Weapon 1: Plasma Cannon
Weapon 2: Cyclic Fusion Ignition System
Other: Does not flinch.
The toughest nerd around. While normally a playful hacker, he's pumped up his stats for battle should anyone find him, while also giving himself a deeper voice. Creator of the broken Human translator, the Scrambler; a computer game named Hero 3D; and dated Vateilika, until his shoulder poking caused her to break up with him.
The game's only optional mini-boss, he hiding at the top of Sector 6. You need the Velocithor V2-10 to open the path toward him. While he's incredibly tough in an enclosed space, you have the best weapon available to you. Lay waste to him!

Ansaksie(Ally)

Armour: 200 HP: 5
Weight: 1 Security: 12
Weapons/Melee: Everything is the same as regular Assassins
Superweapon: Massacre (keep your distance to increase your chances of seeing it)
A pacifistic Assassin, who's kill count is only 42, though she will kill anyone who doesn't agree with her. She also wants to stop the production of the GEN3 weapons, despite owning some prototypes. To meet her, you must be Pacifistic yourself (under 45 kills by Sector 9), do not kill PAIE's girlfriend in Sector 3, and grab the Supercharge in Deep Sector. She will then fight alongside you against Iosa, damaging and distracting her, while dishing out much need trash talk (she has 3 voice actors!). She also takes the kill once you deactivate Iosa's nanofield.
Her dodging ability is extremely good, I have never seen her get hit. I don't know if it's possible to get hit with friendly crossfire from her, it seems she actively avoids trying to shoot you. Trying to Crack gives a custom error message.

[Whimsical Calamari]

That was a nice little bonus episode. Nice to see that Iji could destroy everything without direct help from the Tasen or Komato after all.

[Zummorr]

Am I seriously the only one who found the writing kinda... Bad?

Haha, different tastes I suppose...

Le Neveu de Rameau Sums it up really well imo

I don't think it is bad. It really does hammer home the point that war really sucks and does hit the right spot for being depressing. But I think the writing has got problems.
The logbooks are a bit too lengthy especially for an game that is pretty jam packed with action and there a few more on pacifist runs. One other big problem is that the logbooks are designed to generate sympathy for the enemies. But the gameplay for the enemies shows that they are merciless and usually really dumb. Like if we saw the first scout enemies shake in their boots and call for mercy or call for help Iji we'd be more inclined to sympathize with them, even if we saw them doing casual things in inaccessible rooms we'd feel more sympathetic.
Theres a distinct lack of little touches to make the Tasen seem more believable than simple enemies.

The Komato though really lack anything that strikes me as sympathetic and while they are entertaining with their turret-ball games or their betting on skysmashers they really lack a concrete direction, like are they just a civilization of psychopaths, or are they just overly wrathful and glory seeking, there are hints that they treat this extermination of the Tassen as more sport for the Komato than war, but there are also hints that they are guilty and tired of the war. One of the critical problems is that there is no future illuminated for the Komato once the war is over, they mention Zentradion but at the same time some soldiers just worry that they will stare at the walls for the rest of time once the war is over.

I think some of the weaker points of Komato plot that could've been strengthened was Asha and Tor, besides showing us that the Komato have some super powerful psychos, which we already know from Iosa, Asha really doesn't enlighten us about the nature of the Komato.

Meeting with Tor is also pretty strange. He's a character who is leads the attack and who is ultimately able to spare humanity. He's a big tired hero of the Komato and all eyes are on him to end the war with a bang. He's not exactly sympathetic to Iji or humans and Iji is responsible for killing his crazy girlfriend Iosa. He fights Iji in his Mech suit mostly because he asserts that he'd have a clear conscious if no dissenters are still alive, not blatantly supporting Komato purity, but tired of conflict. But it's a really weird reverse guilt situation: 'If I kill everyone who makes me feel guilty, then I won't feel guilty anymore!'
*Dramatic Pause* "I am Top-tier." Are still the best lines.

Graphically I think the game works, I think that some of the designs like explosions and the turrets are a bit stand-outish. Theres a lot of room for improvement and detail, but I think it works. I like the throwback to old vectorized graphics like they had in Out of This World.

Problems aside. It's still super good, like it's definitely an amazing free game. I should probably play through it again soon.
Good play through raocow, I honestly wasn't sure that you'd enjoy this game very much because of how much reading it has. I'm glad you had a good time and ended it the best way possible. by melting the world with this game's equivalent to the Super Metroid Var Beam.

[Leet]

i thought the writing did a good job of really getting across just how hopeless things were. definitely gave me a much more depressing atmosphere than any of those animes that people tout as super sad.

[Octagon]

Found at the top of Sector 9, you need to blast yourself with the MPFB Devastator to climb the tall shaft. Which also means you need Tasen, Komato, and Strength all at 10, and lots of HP.

What is strength 10 for? Does the pre-10 MPFB recoil keep you from receiving knockback from the explosion?
Game Maker games and their physics...

But the gameplay for the enemies shows that they are merciless and usually really dumb. Like if we saw the first scout enemies shake in their boots and call for mercy or call for help Iji we'd be more inclined to sympathize with them, even if we saw them doing casual things in inaccessible rooms we'd feel more sympathetic.
Theres a distinct lack of little touches to make the Tasen seem more believable than simple enemies.

This would help immensely and I really really wish it was there. The reason it isn't is probably effort, given that Daniel Remar gave "I already had to animate more than I liked" as a reason for not being able to fire while jumping.
If the enemies weren't separate from their thoughts, and you could overhear conversations instead of just reading logs, that might change something too.

One of the critical problems is that there is no future illuminated for the Komato once the war is over, they mention Zentradion but at the same time some soldiers just worry that they will stare at the walls for the rest of time once the war is over.

They were already so warlike before the Tasen segregated - combat being the purpose of the very augmentations the Tasen rejected - so I suspect they either encounter other species frequently or do a lot of fighting among each other.

I think some of the weaker points of Komato plot that could've been strengthened was Asha and Tor, besides showing us that the Komato have some super powerful psychos, which we already know from Iosa, Asha really doesn't enlighten us about the nature of the Komato.

I enjoyed Asha a lot just as a personal nemesis. The pacifist story fleshes him out a bit more, with

Ansaksie serving as a foil

and

him committing suicide

.

[Ditocoaf]

Re: the writing

I'd say the story was quite good despite the writing being hit-and-miss, with the dialogue specifically being the weak part. Characters came through well in their motivations and reactions and choices (i.e. what they said), but the way they spoke and wrote didn't always sound like people talking and writing.

[Zummorr]

One of the critical problems is that there is no future illuminated for the Komato once the war is over, they mention Zentradion but at the same time some soldiers just worry that they will stare at the walls for the rest of time once the war is over.

They were already so warlike before the Tasen segregated - combat being the purpose of the very augmentations the Tasen rejected - so I suspect they either encounter other species frequently or do a lot of fighting among each other.

I think some of the weaker points of Komato plot that could've been strengthened was Asha and Tor, besides showing us that the Komato have some super powerful psychos, which we already know from Iosa, Asha really doesn't enlighten us about the nature of the Komato.

I enjoyed Asha a lot just as a personal nemesis. The pacifist story fleshes him out a bit more, with

Ansaksie serving as a foil

and

him committing suicide

.

Yeah I would think that with such a warlike society it'd only be a matter or time until they disintegrate into civil war or superweapon themselves. Maybe

Ansakie

is someone who might put some light on the the issue. Unfortunately we don't get any references about the Komato if they have fought other alien races.
As far as Asha I'd have to play through it. But I would think that Asha

if nothing else, should show the Komato desire for glory and drive to become a legendary warrior a pinnacle of their stories. He should want to become what Tor and Iosa already are. Iosa is a legend for surviving a planetary strike and Tor is a legend for killing Hel Sarie and for being a badass. Asha is that really angry assassin who lost his arm by being an idiot. I would think that the character is thinking that this war on Origin is the last war ever. His last chance to ever become a legend, and the best way for him to do that is to bring in the most dangerous and unexpected enemy to the Komato. To him not being a legend is basically death.

Basically to me and the way I consider the way character "Should work" is that Asha is the ultimate case of wanting to be noticed by everybody but he's just a big jerk and nobody will ever tell him he is good at his job.

1.) I need to replay this game. 2.) thinking about what is basically fanfiction might be a waste of brain power.