Viper M5 description

[Rai]

Could someone explain what Viper M5 is supposed to be about? I've played all the games from that big torrent posted a while ago and this one is by far the most bizarre and confusing. The other games at least had enough of a recognizable story archetype, or else there was just enough being said about them here that I could figure it all out despite not knowing Japanese very well.

M5 seemed like a normal enough setting at first, like it was going to be a plain old high school romantic comedy sort of thing. But then there was Tsubasa's hair-growing and flying, Dokuro's stretchy neck, more seemingly magic powers and demonic characters that nobody seems at all disturbed or frightened by...and when Tsubasa suddenly began sporting a tiny bat-winged fairy in a maid's outfit on his shoulder I said "Enough's enough! I need to know what the fuck is going on." Does this take place in a world where magic powers are common? Are the people in that school X-Men-ish mutants? Is this just inane anime style where nonsense like shoulder fairies don't need explanations? Do I really want to know?

And also, how linear is the story? I haven't been able to lose in the first few battles and the choices so far don't seem to make a difference. Are there any particular alt. endings I should look out for?

[JG]

I agree, M5 is long walk off the plank, even for VIPER.

I'm pretty sure its an alternate reality or make-believe world, with all the weirdness going on.  Apparently several of the characters have unique abilities.  Tsubasa and Miena can both fly; Tsubasa is apparently a good fighter, too.  Mayu has a demon inhabiting her kidney or something.  Meg is the bat girl and I think only Tsubasa can see her at first.  Saori doesnt seem to have any special abilities but her two cats, Kuro and Shiro (literally translates to Black and White) are smarter than your average felines.  Some of the teachers are evil superhumans, too.  I'm sure you saw that Ryouko is half-spider.  And Kuroda is some kind of mastermind who has a thing for Saori apparently he's behind the whole plot of the teachers taking over students souls.

Tsubasa is not aregualr student at that school, so the powers are obviously not relagated to just that school.  His grandma has the same powers he does, so its not a freak accident thing either - its inherited.

Stretchy-neck's name is Rokurou, not Dokuro.

Story is pretty linear from everything I've seen so far.  In early chapters I don't think its possible to lose but in later chapters I beleive there are bad ends in some places.  It seems to play most like F50.  You can't make a wrong choice other than losing fights, no matter where you try to go in the school or apartment building.  I know of no alternate endings and the graphics rip seems to indicate there is none.  Just the normal one where Miena saves Kazuhiko and Tsubasa saves Saori and the eternal winter is ended.


More confused now?

[Rai]

Well, the "taking over students' souls" part helps, it makes the bad guys' actions seem less random anyway.

Are you sure about those names though? The way the voices say them sound different. Like Kazuhiko sounds more like "Kazeiko" or "Kaseiku" or something. I've been using this site to decipher what I can, and I do know a little bit of Japanese (like enough to know what Kuro and Shiro mean, thanks anyway) and I saw that the second Kanji in tar-lung's name looks like the one for "hiko", but it just doesn't sound like that at all when they say it.

I didn't check the Kanji, but I think I heard the characters refer to Kuroda's alter-ego as "Karasu Tengu", and I know what a Tengu is through the Megaman enemy Tenguman. So I eventually figured M5's theme was supposed to be Japanese folklore (I noticed towards the end Tsubasa said they were in Japan, too.) So all the characters' powers are probably based on Japanese myth or something. That doesn't make it much less confusing though.

The last scenes were a bit more understandable. There was some kind of small fire at the school caused by Kuroda's cigarette from when he attacked Meg, Kazuhiko got blamed by the principal because he's the one that's perpetually smoking, so he gets thrown in the store-room as some kind of detention and dies because they took his cigarettes away, and when Tsubasa and the others get to him it looks like they call him a "Tsurubebi", which as far as I can tell from that dictionary site means "fire bucket" and he probably needs the flame from the smokes to stay alive...but then why Miena causes an ice-age and flies him into a volcano or something I have no clue.

Also I think Saori's other "super-power" is to "speak cat". She shouts at Kuro and Shiro in 'nya's when they're trying to get the keys to her cell.

Any clue why the potion that removes Mayu's curse got the mosaic pixel censorship? The only other thing besides genitalia I saw censored like that in the Viper games was the gore on Maranero's victims in RSR. What are Japan's censorship rules anyway? Privates, spilled guts, and witch's brew? I don't get it.

I guess pending a full translation I'll just have to accept the story as it is for now. The game wasn't all that interesting compared to the others anyway.

I hadn't finished when I made my first post, and now that I see the gallery mode, it doesn't look like it's designed to hold any extra scenes, so I'm sure this game was just as linear as it felt.

[JG]

Are you sure about those names though?

Yep.  Kazu and hiko are proper pronunciations (though not the only ones) for those kanji.  Kaze/kase is not valid pronunciations for 和, nor is iko or iku for 彦.  Likewise, the 六 in Rokurou can not be pronounced as doku.
I don't care what it sounds like to your ears - those are the proper pronunciations.

I didn't check the Kanji, but I think I heard the characters refer to Kuroda's alter-ego as "Karasu Tengu"

Kurasu = class, as in classroom.  Again, your ears have failed you.

I guess pending a full translation I'll just have to accept the story as it is for now.

You're welcome to help script the game if you're interested.  See the Tools thread for more info.

[Hyperguy]

Kurasu = class, as in classroom.  Again, your ears have failed you.

That's got to be a pun.  Karasu Tengu is the crow form of tengu.  In this case, he must also double as the "class Tengu".

[Rai]

It's definitely Karasu Tengu, not Kurasu. This time I checked the Kanji too. I even got a screenshot, so see for yourself.

Viper M5 description

One more question: What's Tsubasa's and Saori's relationship? They act like siblings most of the time, except whenever Tsubasa's trying to see her naked, and she's always getting jealous about the concept of him with other girls. I'd hope they're just close friends from wherever they lived before coming to the big city, but I wouldn't put implied incest past Sogna either...

[JG]

Hyperguy's right.  My dictionary says "karasu tengu" is a "crow-billed goblin"


Tsubasa and Saori are cousins.  Tsubasa is visiting his mother's hometown.  You don't have to play more than about 10 clicks worth into the game to discover both facts.

[Rai]

Ah, thanks.

[YeldellGW]

Speaking of M5,

I seem to have problems with the game when I near the the last couple of episodes.

While battling the multiple-eyed monster in Ep 6, the sound effects during the fight disappear.  After losing to the monster, the next scene appears and there's no music.  Sometimes the voices are mising as well.

In the case of the latter, I'm unable to to access the options on top of the screne (If playing with full screen display.) and I can't quit the game unles I do ctrl-alt-delete.

Anyone else experienced these problems and is there a patch to fix these problems?

I just finished the game last night but lost the replay mode due to having to ctrl-alt-delete to quit the game instead of the quitting the normal method.

[JG]

Sogna released patches to most of their games after they were released.  Sadly, with their website gone most of these patches are probably lost to history now.  You can try archive site searches but they usually dont save zip or lzh formats.

[Rai]

I had the exact same problem whenever fighting the eye monster. I solved the problem on my own somehow...but I forget how exactly. Crud. Maybe it'll come back to me if I play it again.

Edit: I THINK the trick had something to do with NOT clicking or pressing anything until all the animations were done. Like it was trying to cut-short the sound effects that cause the bug. Try that maybe.

[YeldellGW]

I had the exact same problem whenever fighting the eye monster. I solved the problem on my own somehow...but I forget how exactly. Crud. Maybe it'll come back to me if I play it again.

Edit: I THINK the trick had something to do with NOT clicking or pressing anything until all the animations were done. Like it was trying to cut-short the sound effects that cause the bug. Try that maybe.

Still no luck, but thanks anyway.

[Ryuusei]

I've only played a couple minutes of M5, but from the dialogue I've already figured out one reason its so weird. Tsubasa, Saori, and probably countless other characters are youkai, which is sort of like Japanese demons. (I make the distinction between youkai and demons because youkai are not necessarily malevolent)
So yes, its definitely patterned after Japanese mythology. I'll see if I can explain more after I've played for longer.

Edit: Spoilers below.

Well, as it turns out Tsubasa is part human but with youkai blood, specifically a bird type, hence why he can fly in his 'true' form. Saori is his cousin, so she's likely part human too, and her youkai race is related to cats. Both have familiars. Meg in Tsubasa's case, Kuro and Shiro in Saori's. Rokuro is a youkai, though whether he's full or half is not explained. The villains so far are both full youkai. Miina is apparently human, although she can see Tsubasa's familiar (most people can't), and didn't seem particularly surprised when Tsubasa told her he was a youkai. Mayu is absolutely human, but has a curse cast on her that created the weird face on her stomach. We later find out Karasu Tengu was the one who cast it, and also set the kamaitachi (weasel youkai) on anyone who saw it.

The villains motivations seem a little poorly defined, but basically they're trying to make the human world more suitable for youkai to live in. Because humans fear them no matter what, they're matching their expectations and doing bad things, I guess so humans will fear them enough that they can go around in their true forms without being harassed. I dunno.

I also figured out how to work past the sound glitch in chapter 6. The sound didn't glitch when I charged (right option) through the whole battle (using one super attack when it was available) so it may be a bug in the hit animation. Of course, you'll lose the fight, but that happens anyway. I recommend saving as soon as the battle ends in case it crops up again though.

[Rai]

Hey, that helps a lot. It actually sounds like M5 has a plot to me now.

[Ryuusei]

Indeed it does. Just one thats hard to understand without knowledge of both the language and the mythology. @_@ An edit on the sound glitch, its apparently the hit animation that causes it, so while I lucked out the first time, the second time I fought the eyeball monster I found that a more reliable way to prevent the glitch is to just turn the voices off until the fight is over, since it would take quite a few hits even using super moves to end the fight.

Some more clarifications. Tsubasa and Saori apparently make a career out of stopping youkai who abuse their powers, hence why they take an interest in Rokuro's peeping early in the game. The face on Mayu's stomach is called a 'Jinmensou' or something, and its a living creature, but never attaches itself to humans of its own accord.

Rai's above interpretation of what happened with Kazuhiko is pretty accurate. He is a 'tsurubebi', and needs a fire close to his body like humans need air. So, when the vice-principal confiscated his smokes, he died. Miina unsurprisingly flipped out (having just confessed her feelings for him the night before.. yeesh) and revealed her true identity as a yuki-onna (snow woman, also called yuki-hime or koorime in some stories). In response to the vice-principal saying that if he needed something dangerous like fire to live, he should have never come to the human world, she stated that if fire was that much of a problem, they can all live in a world without fire.
She comes to her senses not long afterwards, but out of grief for Kazuhiko and thinking there was no place in the human world for youkai to live, she throws herself into the volcano along with Kazuhiko's body.
*sigh* Another heavy ending for what initially seemed to be a light-hearted game. Le sigh. Any questions?