[Yaaay! The plot's falling apart, yaaay!! (Too much I want to write)]
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Eight: "Oh! Hannya-san and Face-Hider-san have encountered each other! With Valkyrie in the mix, it's a three-way fight right from the opening!"
Kei: "Yeah, I never thought they'd run into each other right out of the gate. That said, this isn't exactly a favorable board state for either Dust or Display."
Eight and Kei provide commentary while looking up at the AR-projected view of Chaos City, with Eight already beginning to settle comfortably into the role of play-by-play commentator.
Kei: "Display's kit is kind of halfway between a Seeker Type and a Fixer Type, so getting into a straight one-on-one fight is a disadvantage for her in itself. Well, Ame—ahem! Hannya-san's player skill might be enough to make up for that... but there's no question that getting dragged into a melee with Valkyrie involved is bad for her."
Eight: "And Dust wants to avoid a chaotic fight that burns through a lot of bullets too... is that about right?"
Kei: "Mm, this is taking it to an extreme, but Dust can actually keep fighting for quite a while just by attacking NPCs while beating on villains. The problem is that his melee attacks are weak in exchange for how powerful his bullets are, and it's hard for him to stock Evil Bullets, which are effective against Valkyrie and Display."
Because Dust is a character with two Gauges, and because he has bullet-replenishment methods corresponding to each of them, he has to perform both good and evil deeds.
Conversely, you could also say that means he's capable of both good and evil... but at the very least, with Face-Hider's Dust currently fighting two opponents aligned as villains, he has very few ways to replenish Evil Bullets.
Kei: "Dust was only added in a really recent update, so the most efficient ways to build his Gauges haven't been fully figured out yet. And in the source material, he's more the type who disregards everyone around him in order to punish evil. It's not like he actively goes around committing evil deeds..."
Eight: "Oh, things are moving! ...Wait, where did Silver Mask-san go...?"
Kei: "Looks like she's getting lectured backstage."
Eight: "Ah..."
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Dust's basic strategy can be summed up in one phrase:
"Farm as many bullets as possible and keep shooting."
If replenishing his bullets depended on his Gauges, he'd unquestionably be a trash character, so I'm grateful they're handled as a separate resource. Even so, it's impossible to keep fighting forever without thinking about what you're doing.
Ms. Play Display: "What's wrong, what's wrong!? You can't fight with anything except Cursed Prison!?"
Dust: "You never let up, do you...!"
But despite that rough way of talking, her actions are calm—and troublesome.
In WΔ, a lineup of three attackers—the so-called "All Fighter" composition—treats each individual character as combat power in their own right. Lose one, and by simple arithmetic you've lost one-third of your fighting strength.
Amelia Sullivan's composition, however, is "Top Display": she puts that damn TV, Ms. Play Display, in front to seize an advantageous board state.
Her real threats are the other two characters waiting behind it.
In other words, she can afford to treat that damn TV as an expendable pawn.
Even as I respond to an offense that doesn't care whether it takes hits, I click my tongue beneath the mask.
In terms of strategic value, Dust and that damn TV are actually equal.
But when it comes to mental breathing room, the damn TV already completed its job and can fight without holding anything back.
Knowing that doesn't magically give me a solution.
And more importantly, there's a pro gamer inside this damn TV, so it's ridiculously strong!!
Ms. Play Display: "What's that gun of yours, a toy!? If it's jammed, throw the damn thing away!!"
Dust: "Keep talking."
Ms. Play Display: "Guh!?"
I'll serve you some bullets, just like you asked.
Shatter along with your screen, you damn TV.
I'm not hoarding them.
I've already made up my mind to fire whenever I need to—I'm just conserving ammunition.
Two bullets fly.
The first punches through her Guard and strikes the damn TV in the torso, but the second is blocked by her arm.
Dust: "Give me your turn. I'll punch you nice and gently."
Ms. Play Display: "With those pathetic, shit-DPS punches of yours?"
Dust: "A bullet-like one-two!"
Ms. Play Display: "Those are bullets!!"
I think hard for several seconds and change the game plan.
I abandon my original "meathead fighter strategy" and shift straight into an all-out offensive.
Thinking about what comes later, I now absolutely have to take that damn TV down here.
Frugality is a virtue.
So get blown away by the virtuous savings I've built up through my frugality, you damn TV.
Apparently she wasn't expecting me to unload a full burst just because she taunted me a little.
Instead of dodging, the damn TV weathers the black-and-white barrage of Good and Evil Bullets by guarding.
But more than the fact that you're fighting me, standing still in this situation is a sin.
Dust: "A missile-like crashing uppercut!"
Ms. Play Display: "That's a missile... dammiiit!!"
Take it up with Valkyrie.
The missile comes screaming in as though to bury both Amelia Sullivan and me together, strikes, and explodes.
The damn TV had its Guard up, but it still took the hit dead-on and goes flying.
I get knocked back by the blast wave too, but there's no way I took as much damage as she did.
Dust: "Good 3, Evil 0... Tch. Guess I've gotta make every last round count."
That's far too little ammunition to call a proper weapon supply for an extended fight.
The Evil Bullets are building even more slowly than I'd expected.
Still, Dust isn't the kind of character who becomes useless the instant he runs dry.
Dust: "Oh, perfect timing!"
Hiiii, policemeeen!
I'm a little short on explosions and firearms for dispensing justice, so spot me some.
Using the cloud of dust kicked up by Valkyrie's missile attack, I disengage from the fight.
While Valkyrie follows up on the damn TV, I dive into the cluster of police cars.
Police Officer: "W-who the hell are you!?"
Dust: "A concerned citizen worried about this city's public safety. You think you're gonna win with peashooters like these? Confiscated, confiscated!"
I grab the officer by the collar and headbutt him.
Police Officer: "Gwah!"
He conveniently passes out, so I borrow the handgun he'd been carrying.
Dust: "Get lost. If you wanna join this shitty party, a handgun like this doesn't even qualify as a tip. Bring a rocket launcher, at least."
Oh, one Evil Bullet charged.
Maybe I'll knock another five of them out to get things rolling?
Oh.
Guess I'm not getting that much free time.
A visible sonic attack slams into the taxi I'm hiding behind, and its metal body begins to buckle with an ugly groan.
There's no need to explain what's going to happen a few seconds from now.
I roughly toss aside the police officers I knocked unconscious myself and move to get out of there...
But I'm just a little too slow, and the explosion catches me in another blast of knockback.
Ms. Play Display: "Come out here, No Face!!"
Dust: "Impatient, aren't you... Fine. Let's do this."
Four guns.
First condition cleared.
Valkyrie's in the way, but... can I pull this off?
No.
No—what the hell is there to be afraid of?
Right now I'm in a Mix Accel Joint state.
With the blessing of the Great Caffeine Deity, even acrobatic stunts feel like something I can somehow pull off!!
Dust: "Hey, Hawk-Eye! I'll tell you this up front—I don't hunger for victory as much as you do."
Ms. Play Display: "Huh?"
Am I screwing around?
I won't say yes, but I can't exactly say no either.
But I'm only standing here because circumstances dragged me into this in the first place, and I'm getting myself hyped up in my own way.
You don't get to complain about that.
Dust: "I'm just going to do everything I want to do..."
So don't die on me halfway through.
Dust: "Have you ever seen Dance Guns Duel?"
Ms. Play Display: "What the hell's that...?"
Figures.
It's a Japanese game, after all.
Dust: "Then... enjoy your first look."
Taking my movement cues from Dance Guns Duel—a gunfighting game where every playable character carries some kind of firearm!
I'll show you the four-pistol combat art—
Quad Bullet Dance!!