Arcturus - The Curse and Loss of Divinity

[ArcturusFan]

I hope you're enjoying the game

I can't speak for Lunairetic, but I'm enjoying this game a lot myself and I'm really grateful about the gargantuan translation work you handled 

It has a lot of charm and tons of interesting optional contents you have to find, even more than in Falcom's LoH games thanks to its beefy side quests you can easily mistake for main events and the game's lack of linearity. I've spent a lot of time exploring, talking to NPCs and grinding, not to mention the hellish mistake I made by trying to tackle the mines too early 

If anything, the only bad thing about Arcturus is that after the patch came out I immediately dropped Xenoblade 2, even if I was really enjoying that game too. After all, I waited for Arcturus for such a long time that very few games could compete with it in terms of hype 

[Helly_]

Thanks! It means a lot to know people other than me still love those old school rpgs
I've added the latest patch in my previous post, but for clarity's sake I'll put it here too since it solves a game-breaking bug:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/24i3ivd558fn772/Arcturus%2010012018.rar

[LunaireticOmega]

So the save before last is actually the one that has a text error and the last save has that unknown map name error, right?
I only have access to the last save, so I do have that crash indeed, but it seems like it happens whether or not the game is patched... Hummm...
Ah... It's the actual patched .exe that crashes the game...
Let's see...
Further remarks about the ArcExe file. The devs' exceptions for ingame errors include a 'fucking Error' and a 'Damn it Error'...
Ok, got it. And patch uploaded!
http://www.mediafire.com/file/24i3ivd558fn772/Arcturus%2010012018.rar
I didn't expect you to have gone this far already! I hope you're enjoying the game

Thanks again for another patch. The previous save I uploaded (without the index file) was before the text crash, but the latest one I did is after the text crash (having unpatched) but before the map crash.

I'm actually much farther now, since I'm in

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Eden, but holy cow the enemies are really strong, maybe I should go back a save and grind in the ark for a bit longer.

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I greatly appreciate everything you've done so far. Like ArcturusFan, I've been putting off other games and stuff to complete this one.

Edit: Apparently you can just walk around the battle trigger for the

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second Bjorn fight, which I did because I wanted to see if I could, since that fight is extremely annoying. >:C

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[Helly_]

When you finish the game, keep the credits rolling 'till the end if you can 

[LunaireticOmega]

When you finish the game, keep the credits rolling 'till the end if you can 

I'll be there in a bit, I need to grind some more. Speaking of grinding...

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Did the game seriously call me out for grinding before Elizabeth by giving me an amazing sword and disabling the save skeleton?

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[Helly_]

I'll be there in a bit, I need to grind some more. Speaking of grinding...

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Did the game seriously call me out for grinding before Elizabeth by giving me an amazing sword and disabling the save skeleton?

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Yes. Yes it did. 

[LunaireticOmega]

Yes. Yes it did. 

And yet, I still need to grind more because

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I apparently have terrible accuracy against Ahriman, and that's if I get lucky in beating Elizabeth if she doesn't cast Meteor Shower over and over. Funnily enough, status items like the tear-gas grenade work on all bosses, and are amazing in stalling for time to recuperate. Also, the disabled save means I had to go back and spend 15 minutes whipping that fat bastard in the forehead because direct HP damage is so good, I wish others had similar moves to that. :C

Is there any reason why my Lv46 Tenzi with no equipment whatsoever is taking 2 damage from Ahriman's lasers and lightning?

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Edit: Alright, I beat the game! All thanks to Elluard and the best skill in the game, Occipital Blast, of course. What an amazing experience that was! Also, the after-credits stuff was grand.

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Was Lee Jaesong (the character) simply named after the battle planner, or was that actually her in the game, save for the purplish hair?

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[Helly_]

And yet, I still need to grind more because

Spoiler

I apparently have terrible accuracy against Ahriman, and that's if I get lucky in beating Elizabeth if she doesn't cast Meteor Shower over and over. Funnily enough, status items like the tear-gas grenade work on all bosses, and are amazing in stalling for time to recuperate. Also, the disabled save means I had to go back and spend 15 minutes whipping that fat bastard in the forehead because direct HP damage is so good, I wish others had similar moves to that. :C

Is there any reason why my Lv46 Tenzi with no equipment whatsoever is taking 2 damage from Ahriman's lasers and lightning?

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Edit: Alright, I beat the game! All thanks to Elluard and the best skill in the game, Occipital Blast, of course. What an amazing experience that was! Also, the after-credits stuff was grand.

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Was Lee Jaesong (the character) simply named after the battle planner, or was that actually her in the game, save for the purplish hair?

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Congrats!
You're quite probably the first non-japanese/korean speaker to have ever finished Arcturus 
Thanks to you I've managed to put my hand on valuable saves all over the game, as well as correct some nasty bugs, so thank you for your hard work play!
And the answer is: I don't know, but it's quite possible 
 

[LunaireticOmega]

Congrats!
You're quite probably the first non-japanese/korean speaker to have ever finished Arcturus 
Thanks to you I've managed to put my hand on valuable saves all over the game, as well as correct some nasty bugs, so thank you for your hard work play!
And the answer is: I don't know, but it's quite possible 

Well, I have you to thank for that, don't I? Your work and the tools you've acquired have made this all possible.

I think most of the bugs left that aren't game-breaking, mostly just annoying, are the actor bugs, which I think I've detailed all of them (or most, if they're in side-quests I've missed) since they're somewhat sparse. They even happen during the

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N.G. segment, since it uses the Dome thieves scene, which already had actor issues of it's own.

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Edit: If you want, I can give you my final save for the after-credits sequence, if you need it to fix the errors. Also, after checking again, the game still crashes after the flashback in Philadelphia.

[Helly_]

Well, I have you to thank for that, don't I? Your work and the tools you've acquired have made this all possible.

I think most of the bugs left that aren't game-breaking, mostly just annoying, are the actor bugs, which I think I've detailed all of them (or most, if they're in side-quests I've missed) since they're somewhat sparse. They even happen during the

Spoiler

N.G. segment, since it uses the Dome thieves scene, which already had actor issues of it's own.

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Edit: If you want, I can give you my final save for the after-credits sequence, if you need it to fix the errors. Also, after checking again, the game still crashes after the flashback in Philadelphia.

Yeah, I do have to take care of those actor bugs, even if the game is still playable.
Anyway yes, i'd love your entire save folder! It should help me fix the bug in philadelphia

[LunaireticOmega]

Yeah, I do have to take care of those actor bugs, even if the game is still playable.
Anyway yes, i'd love your entire save folder! It should help me fix the bug in philadelphia

Sure thing, here's my save folder compressed and zipped:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/qp80f71dtzf63ok/lunaireticomegasaves.rar

There isn't a save for every place in the game, but I hope you can find some that are useful!

Edit: So I wanted to see what would happen if I chose

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to open the chest (take the blue pill) and live forever in a world of dreams instead of passing through the doorway to reality (take the red pill).

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I probably should've seen that coming. Well played, Hakkyu.

[ArcturusFan]

Ok, the end of Chapter 1 was among the longest cutscenes I have seen in a game so far 

Since it was a lot to take in and I would hate to miss some key story detail, I have some questions\rambling below and I would appreciate the veterans here to clarify those plot points:

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Thanks a lot Helly!

A few other questions:

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1) So the war is Molay faction vs Empire + Leigh faction + Kingdom? It seems the Kingdom is involved in the war judging by the NPCs dialogues in Baara, but I didn't see any clear reference as to the factions.

2) Why are the Gritt cultists obsessed with Ai's weapon, exactly? Also, is Ai's ancestor the Gritt founder? She calls herself the founder but it seems suspicious.

3) I didn't quite understand Bernham's role and why they are searching for him exactly.

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[Helly_]

Ok, the end of Chapter 1 was among the longest cutscenes I have seen in a game so far 

Since it was a lot to take in and I would hate to miss some key story detail, I have some questions\rambling below and I would appreciate the veterans here to clarify those plot points:

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1) Sizz was controlled by Empenza to kill Celine and take out her Dallant heart because Empenza couldn't do it himself or because he wanted to make him suffer? Judging from Empenza's last lines, it does seem the former rather than the latter.

2) Which town was destroyed by Elizabeth's Meteor, and why? Did Empenza trigger this by reuniting the Dallants?

3) The Republic is in civil war now between Leigh and Molay's factions, but are the Kingdom and Empire directly involved in the war? Who are the "Government" soldiers in Martunie, since they have a different uniform from the soldiers seen previously?

4) So Sizz holds both godly and devilish potential, we don't know as of yet who his real parents were but he was contended by two "human dolls" with different objectives, Empenza and Senkrad, and then went to live with the Flair family. As of the start of Chapter 2 we still don't know what human dolls are exactly or who their Father is, right?

5) Sizz's body, the godly part, was taken in by Baara's Cardinal, which is secretly plotting to use it to resurrect some kind of devil. Meanwhile, the Gritt faction led by Senkrad captured his evil soul, divided from his body by the accident's shock. Is it right?

6) Is the Gritt church the same as the Church in Baara? The Baara Church seems based on Christianity while the Gritt one seems based on Zoroastrianism, but maybe I missed something. I also don't understand Ai's role in the Church, how she met Senkrad and so on.

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Yeah, there's a lot of cutscenes, and they were a pain to translate Once I've done a full proofreading and bug squishing pass, I'll focus on improving the dialogue by replaying the whole game, talking to everybody and making the dialogues more relevant.
To answer your questions:

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1) Only those with 'black blood', as in Sizz, can do this. It'll be explained a bit more later on.
2) I don't remember :3
3) Yes, the Empire is directly backing the Republican coup d'état. Technically, the Kingdom is a de jure vassal of the Empire, so we could say the Kingdom is behind it too indirectly. It's detailed in some cutscenes and dialogues. Governmental troops are troops that work for the new government post coup d'etat, so they're technically republican troops.
4) Right. You'll hear more about all this later on.
5) That's it!
6) No, they are two different things entirely. You'll learn more about it later on, but you're right: one is based on Christianity and the other on Zoroastrianism.

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Sooner or later, I'll have the 'scraps' part of the encyclopedia working. It contains knowledge about every person, place & concept in the entire game that you need to unlock by looking them up in Dome's library.
More questions, more answers!

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1) Well, the Empire is funding the coup d'état with money and weapons, but they're not directly involved in the fighting, though.
2) The Holy Fire Bell is an old relic of the Grit religion that dates back to the Ancient ones. More details to come in the scraps
3) He's a higher-up of the Grit religion and one of Ai's father's protégés, along with Senkrad. Senkrad received the Holy Fire Bell and that guy received the Avesta scriptures, the two main artefacts of the Grit religion. They were supposed to work their difference together and make Ai the next founder, but Behrman decided that he would be a better founder than her and tried to take control of the sect.

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[LunaireticOmega]

I'm certain there's far more spell creation books than the one the game expects me to find, Salamander, a spell that seems like it would've helped me progress without relying on Fire Shower so much had I known how to use the catalysts before I beat the game. I just couldn't seem to find any others.

Edit: And a lot of questions for Helly_, when the ending reveals

Spoiler

Lee Jaesong suspended in a high-tech pod, I didn't quite follow the details as much as I wanted, maybe I'm just not good at picking up on certain things. Was Jaesong "playing" as Celine the whole time? Does that mean we were in the virtual world all along hence the binary rifts in the sky and the wireframe apostles? Or was this the virtual world in the virtual world? Was Sizz (Mitra)the eyes for Ahura Mazda, who might've been the eyes for Lee Jaesong if it was the virtual world? If Sizz was truly female all along, why did Ahura refer to him as her son? She could've said "my child" unless (going back to the Jaesong's eyes idea) Jaesong was not expecting Sizz to be female. On another note, wouldn't it have been such a cool reveal if it turned out that the virtual-virtual world was Ragnarok Online considering the death of major figures in this game and a cataclysm that shakes the world to its core?

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[Helly_]

I'm certain there's far more spell creation books than the one the game expects me to find, Salamander, a spell that seems like it would've helped me progress without relying on Fire Shower so much had I known how to use the catalysts before I beat the game. I just couldn't seem to find any others.

Edit: And a lot of questions for Helly_, when the ending reveals

Spoiler

Lee Jaesong suspended in a high-tech pod, I didn't quite follow the details as much as I wanted, maybe I'm just not good at picking up on certain things. Was Jaesong "playing" as Celine the whole time? Does that mean we were in the virtual world all along hence the binary rifts in the sky and the wireframe apostles? Or was this the virtual world in the virtual world? Was Sizz (Mitra)the eyes for Ahura Mazda, who might've been the eyes for Lee Jaesong if it was the virtual world? If Sizz was truly female all along, why did Ahura refer to him as her son? She could've said "my child" unless (going back to the Jaesong's eyes idea) Jaesong was not expecting Sizz to be female. On another note, wouldn't it have been such a cool reveal if it turned out that the virtual-virtual world was Ragnarok Online considering the death of major figures in this game and a cataclysm that shakes the world to its core?

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Yeah, spell creation was originally going to be something much more complex according to the devs, something akin to what you have in Morrowind for example.

Regarding your questions:

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There's no official answer. I think it's indeed that the world they live in is itself a simulation. Jaesong is Celine, but she didn't remember it until her memories were unlocked by Ai and Sizz. Regarding Sizz's sex, he's actually referred to as 'My son' by Ahura Mazda in the original version, so I think she is referring to his 'complete' being which is masculine. He became a woman because at the end, only his body of good remains. I'm not really sure why we see Celine/Jaesong in that pod, unless maybe she decided to seal herself away from the world somehow?
The whole mythos has remained quite a mystery, even for koreans and japanese...
Ragnarok Online came several years later, actually, so it might be possible that it's the same world! Maybe there are clues to be found in RO (apart from Sizz and Maria existing as shop NPCs, of course.
You know, I still don't know if Maria really deserves her ending. I mean, she was a true sadistic despot during the whole 1st chapter...

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[LunaireticOmega]

Yeah, spell creation was originally going to be something much more complex according to the devs, something akin to what you have in Morrowind for example.

Regarding your questions:

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There's no official answer. I think it's indeed that the world they live in is itself a simulation. Jaesong is Celine, but she didn't remember it until her memories were unlocked by Ai and Sizz. Regarding Sizz's sex, he's actually referred to as 'My son' by Ahura Mazda in the original version, so I think she is referring to his 'complete' being which is masculine. He became a woman because at the end, only his body of good remains. I'm not really sure why we see Celine/Jaesong in that pod, unless maybe she decided to seal herself away from the world somehow?
The whole mythos has remained quite a mystery, even for koreans and japanese...
Ragnarok Online came several years later, actually, so it might be possible that it's the same world! Maybe there are clues to be found in RO (apart from Sizz and Maria existing as shop NPCs, of course.
You know, I still don't know if Maria really deserves her ending. I mean, she was a true sadistic despot during the whole 1st chapter...

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Hmm...

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I know that Celine is Jaesong, but wasn't there some detail about Celine being a clone of Jaesong or something, or am I making that up in my head? She looks much younger as Celine, adolescent age, as opposed to Jaesong who looks to be in her 20s, but I'm not sure if the magi ritual involves de-aging along with immortality, and if it would be passed via cloning. It's not the twin sister thing (since that was Elizabeth). The whole thing about Jaesong in the pod leads me to believe that she had the Dallant transplanted, then was chosen as one of the 144,000 humans to be placed in stasis on the ark. If that's the case, and she was using Celine as her "avatar" to experience the virtual world that might be the world of Arcturus, then it would make sense that the Dallant is in Celine because it's in her body in the real world.

About Maria... I've never gone from disliking a character so much to feeling really sorry for them in the span of a single act change. I guess a lot happened in those two years, and that whole experience really got to her. If we're talking about people not deserving endings, Elluard shoved the business end of a knife into an old man not several days ago.

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[Helly_]

Hmm...

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I know that Celine is Jaesong, but wasn't there some detail about Celine being a clone of Jaesong or something, or am I making that up in my head? She looks much younger as Celine, adolescent age, as opposed to Jaesong who looks to be in her 20s, but I'm not sure if the magi ritual involves de-aging along with immortality, and if it would be passed via cloning. It's not the twin sister thing (since that was Elizabeth). The whole thing about Jaesong in the pod leads me to believe that she had the Dallant transplanted, then was chosen as one of the 144,000 humans to be placed in stasis on the ark. If that's the case, and she was using Celine as her "avatar" to experience the virtual world that might be the world of Arcturus, then it would make sense that the Dallant is in Celine because it's in her body in the real world.

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Well...

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A clone of Jaesong? No, as far as I remember, she and Celine really are the same being.
According to your theory, everything was a 'dream' and thus didn't matter at all? That's harsh! 
Also, who would then be Ahura Mazda? Celine/Jaesong too?
Regarding Maria, I actually do like her character arc, since she became a better person through helping Elluard despite everything. He himself is still as thuggish as ever, however.

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[LunaireticOmega]

Well...

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A clone of Jaesong? No, as far as I remember, she and Celine really are the same being.
According to your theory, everything was a 'dream' and thus didn't matter at all? That's harsh! 
Also, who would then be Ahura Mazda? Celine/Jaesong too?
Regarding Maria, I actually do like her character arc, since she became a better person through helping Elluard despite everything. He himself is still as thuggish as ever, however.

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True...

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I can probably perceive Jaesong as Ahura Mazda and Hyongi as Ahriman then. Both would be vying for the outcome of the Arcturus world if that's the case, and both are assumed to be connected to the virtual world, with Jaesong in the pod and Hyongi as part of the engine.

This may sound silly, but with the fact that the real world appears to be long ruined at that point, I would prefer to believe that the Arcturus world (if it's the virtual one) succeeds it as the real world. A neat twist would be instead of Sizz teleporting the party to safety from the crashing ark, they unexpectedly end up in the real world (Eden) directly because of Ahura Mazda giving Sizz her "power", since nothing really came of that scene aside from Sizz blocking an attack. With all the flickering spirits (digital holograms?) telling you about the outcome of their world, it could mean regrets from the past, or the real world warning the virtual one. Of course, that wouldn't exactly explain the ending, unless they decided to go back to the virtual world, but why would they do that?

For Elluard, I think he deeply regrets everything that happened. Hell, the whole playable party went through some serious shit.

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Edit: What is the code combination for

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the fifth floor of the ark that requires four inputs of 0/1/2/3? And what's the point of the login data?

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[Helly_]

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I can probably perceive Jaesong as Ahura Mazda and Hyongi as Ahriman then. Both would be vying for the outcome of the Arcturus world if that's the case, and both are assumed to be connected to the virtual world, with Jaesong in the pod and Hyongi as part of the engine.

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It's possible. But I'm pretty sure there is no official answer in any case - there has been many debates on the jap webosphere since 2000 about it

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Spoiler

This may sound silly, but with the fact that the real world appears to be long ruined at that point, I would prefer to believe that the Arcturus world (if it's the virtual one) succeeds it as the real world. A neat twist would be instead of Sizz teleporting the party to safety from the crashing ark, they unexpectedly end up in the real world (Eden) directly because of Ahura Mazda giving Sizz her "power", since nothing really came of that scene aside from Sizz blocking an attack. With all the flickering spirits (digital holograms?) telling you about the outcome of their world, it could mean regrets from the past, or the real world warning the virtual one. Of course, that wouldn't exactly explain the ending, unless they decided to go back to the virtual world, but why would they do that

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They might do that because the virtual one is still salvageable whilst the real world has been truly annihilated and nothing but those in the arch survived after launching in space?

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Edit: What is the code combination for

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the fifth floor of the ark that requires four inputs of 0/1/2/3? And what's the point of the login data?

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Hint: Check the computer on the 12th floor

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[LunaireticOmega]

Spoiler

Hint: Check the computer on the 12th floor

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I did check the computer (or well, a stone tablet) on the 12th floor, but I only got the login credentials that didn't seem to have a place to input them. I tried running the string of 0s and 1s through a binary converter, but I didn't get anything from that either. :C

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Edit: Nevermind, I must have

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used a terrible converter, because I just did it again and unlocked it. XD
Gaia Theory, huh? It's still in Japanese, but I see an ARC-TORUS at the bottom. 

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