The Treehouse Live’s Battle Menu tells it all.
☆ NintendObs Weekly – Monday, July 14, 2014 – Sunday, July 20, 2014.
Update:
I called it. Source (picture): Cheesemeister on Twiiter. Source (translation): Cheesemeister on Twitter.
Here’s the Nintendo Direct footage (35:14):
Here is the Treehouse Live @ E3 footage (34:25:
As discussed and showcased on Treehouse Live, single player has a “Battle Menu,” activated with the “+ button,” which allows to give orders to NPCs.
However, on the Nintendo Direct footage, there was no Battle Menu.
Not only that, but you’ll notice during the fight against the big monster that players weren’t uniquely focused on the fight. AT ALL. Two of them left the Tester during the fight, and then came back when they realized he actually was in danger after the monster took the Tester’s machine’s left arm.
(You can even see the icons of the other players and their machines on the map in green in the upper-right corner HUD as they left and came back into the battlefield. And also, right when the monster hits the Tester and send his machine’s left arm in pieces, “Gatling Fire,” the powerful art the Tester used beforehand which required the use of both of the Doll’s arms, becomes unavailable.)
I noticed these strange actions for would-be NPCs a while back but with the Treehouse Live @ E3 footage and its Battle Menu explanation it now makes sense. The Tester in the Direct is the player with the highest level, boasting Lv. 45 while the others are Lv. 35, 32 and 26 in order. Only two of the players engaged the big monster: “Tester” and “Player2,” Lv. 45 and 35 respectively. As soon as the fight against the big monster (ブルーノ, “Buruuno” or Bruno) started, Player3 and Player4 left the battlefield. I believe they were confident in Tester and Player2’s abilities to defeat Bruno since the monster was but only Lv. 32. Yet Bruno ended up dealing severe damage to Tester, so Player3 and Player4, judging Bruno to be sufficiently hurt for them to help out at their lower levels of 32 and 26 respectively, came back in a flash to provide support.
Then Tester decided to drop the mecha and finish things off mano-a-mano.
You’ll find an English transcription of all the arts used in the Direct’s footage here.
You can also find a previous speculation in which I identified Neo Los Angeles’s American flag before E3’s reveal here.
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