Zeckrom Path Bug

[Feng Lei 52]

Ok, here it goes. It has been since about January since I made any of the decisions I did for E17 content. However, I am confident that I'm not delusional and in fact played on the Zeckrom path in this save file. Going into spoilers for E18...

 

Spoiler

First off, I have indeed used some mods for this game, mostly weather mods and a couple of others courtesy of Wynault. But I find it odd if the mods affect this specific instance.

 

Ok, so I know from this thread

Spoiler

 

That the differences in the Zeckrom Path vs. Reshiram Path are as follows:

 

Reshiram Path: Initiates by not fighting Taka in the Water Treatment Center. Titania goes to fight in Agate, and hits it up with Shelly for an interesting dynamic. Sirius mocks Solaris into essentially abandoning a team no longer his own, and specifically mentions the Player witnessing Taka's final moments.

 

Zeckrom Path: Initiates by fighting Taka in the Water Treatment Center. Taka is of course not slain inadvertently by Titania through Lin's machinations. As such, he cannot be the catalyst that leads to Amaria's attempted drowning of the main character and Titania's resolution to finally scuttle their relationship. She therefore goes on to Amaria's gym, where everything goes entirely normal and Amaria doesn't turn into jetsam, but remains floatsom for some later calamity in E19, hopefully...

 

That said, Titania remains in the mansion with unstable Amaria, unable to leave it up to Julia to stand guard, for obvious reasons. Thus, when the Player arrives in Calcenon, it is without Titania and events play a bit differently. Specifically, upon the completion of the Glass Factory events and the return to the city, Serra hits it up with Shelly and the two converse about Men's feelings and such. Saphira also learns about her sister's departure with Bennett, unlike in Reshiram, where Charlotte still apparently has this kept under wraps still.

 

In Agate, in place of Titania, it is Serra and Froslass battling grunts near the pokemon center.

 

Here is where my problem lies: supposedly, in the Zeckrom Path, the confrontation with Solaris and Sirius goes differently. Taka, still alive, arrives and confronts Team Meteor and his father. Sirius is also less abrasive to Solaris.

 

There apparently are also some rather... odd differences depending on specific choices or events carried out earlier, namely: if the Ruby Ring is or is not given to Blake, either Samson or Ciel is taken by Gardevoir. And depending on whether or not Garchomp is defeated on Pyrous Mountain, Anna's sleeping dialogue changes, going from bright and typically optimistic, to ominously apologetic, referencing "the boy with the broken wing wasn't supposed to die... I am so sorry," which should probably be Taka, I presume-This part may or may not be important to my problem.

 

This is my problem: Taka never shows in Agate during my Zeckrom Path.

 

A lot people indicate the Zeckrom Path has Taka arrive to intervene in some way. But in my version, he never shows. Instead, the same dialogue plays between Sirius and Solaris about Taka, and then Solaris runs off as before after fighting me.

 

There is another oddity. I had noticed this before, if I am remember correctly, that people said that if you do fight Taka in the WTC, he won't appear again until Agate City. Is this true?

 

Because, when I first played E17 in the Community Release, Taka appears at Tourmaline "Station" inthemiddleofnowhere and battles me anyway. I don't rightly recall what happened here, but if I am not mistaken, he never asks to come with me, and just goes to stand by the palm tree waiting for... whatever. Lin to find him I guessed, at the time.

 

The above incident, from what I gathered from others, is not supposed to take place in the Zeckrom Path. Taka never fights me in Tourmaline if I chose to fight him in the WTC, correct? Or is there a mix of four choices available? I.e: battle Taka in the WTC, refuse to let him travel with you, refuse to battle Taka in WTC, refuse travel with him, battle Taka in the WTC, let him travel with you, refuse battle in the WTC, let him travel with you.

 

In my game, I recall specifically doing things differently than my original playthrough, which I played first and chose Reshiram by my own personal preferences, before even realizing these choices were important. In my second playthrough, I tended to make different choices. Then my first game was deleted, so I played a third, which is the game I defeated Garchomp on. I also played this third game identically to the first game, so it became my Reshiram Game for E18.

 

The important game is the second one, which is my Zeckrom Path game. I chose to battle Taka in the WTC, fought him again in Tourmaline, and then refused his request to travel with him.

 

Now, I know  this game is the Zeck path. The scenes all play out different from Reshi, specifically the lack of any drowning incidences with Amaria and Serra replacing Titania. All these events I experience, but not Taka. He is absent and apologetically proclaimed dead by Anna, with Sirrius indicating I was witness to his final moments, as in the Reshi path.

 

But this cannot be true, as I was on Zeckrom, and did not witness Taka dying by any means. Yet, when I used heal Bell on Anna in the Glassworks, she apologizes to me about how "the boy with the broken wing wasn't supposed to die." I was confused here, for obvious reasons, but then just assumed it was just the way Ame ended up telling the story, by hiding even more from the Zeckrom path than I first thought there'd be.

 

It appears this is not everyone else' experience.

 

Also, in my Reshiram Path game, I failed to use Heal Bell on Anna, simply forgetting all about that function, and at the time was under the impression they were about to become hosts for Eve and Lumi. *Sweatdrops* Also, Aster was not present to fight me. I did not see him again until I returned to Eclipse's house after the Glassworks incident.

 

In my wayward Zeckrom playthrough, I used Heal Bell, but not before battling Aster and watching him take Eclipse away, a scene void from Reshiram. Here, Anna apologizes profusely about Taka's demise. I have been told she has this grimmer dialogue because I failed to defeat Solaris' Garchomp on Pyrous Mountain. But that if I defeated it, the dialogue is different and she says it is supposed to be this way, or something. All according to what Nostra says?

 

I notice that the grimmer dialogue reportedly initiated by losing to Garchomp requires Taka to have fallen. Because of this, did my Zeckrom Path game actually retconn his death and switch me over to Reshiram's Path to remove Taka's actions in it? Is this some kind of weird plothole story glitch that fixed itself? I feel that's rather unlikely, so is this intentional?

 

Do players, if they are on Zeckrom, as I clearly was, in order to clear the Path, have to defeat Garchomp? Or was it another choice I made that brought this about? My confusion is great, and I'd really appreciate getting to the bottom of this. Taka's life depends on it! Nostra says so, and Nomos too!

 

Below is an attachment of my save file. But it is post-Agate battles by this point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Game.rxdata