PRAGMATA Let's Play: Following the Lunar Boss Fights, Where You Juggle Hacking and Shooting at Once, Through to the Ending

The setting is the Moon in a near future where AI has become widespread. The player, as a member of an investigation team dispatched from Earth, heads to a facility that has gone silent. A collapse occurs at the facility, and the one who miraculously survives is the protagonist, Hugh. After the collapse, Hugh is rescued by a mysterious autonomous android, and he ends up traveling with this girl as he searches for a way home. For convenience, the girl is given the name "Diana."

The two visit a power plant to restore the facility's power, and thanks to Diana's efforts, a path back to Earth finally comes into view. Meanwhile, on the lunar surface, the AI "IDUS," which commands the bots, has begun to run amok and is trying to eliminate the two as foreign elements. This is where the first boss fight begins.

In the first boss fight, the commentator explains the basic mechanics of the game's combat. Hacking takes the form of a puzzle, and reaching the green goal opens the enemy's armor. The basic flow is to pump bullets into the enemy during that opening. After dealing a certain amount of damage, the boss goes down, and approaching it and pressing a button lets you deal heavy damage. This attack brought the boss's HP down to below half.

Once its HP drops below half, the boss's behavior pattern changes and it enters the next phase. Here Diana shows off a new technique, opening the enemy's armor while temporarily stopping it in its tracks. During that window, Hugh shoots the weak point on its back while also advancing the hack. What the commentator draws attention to is the yellow shield tile on the hacking board. Passing through this tile on the way to the green goal lowers the enemy's defense for a set period of time. With this debuff applied, the commentator landed a massive critical attack and defeated the Sector Guard. This demonstrates the mechanic whereby the route you trace during hacking directly affects the damage you deal.

The two head for the communications control tower to make contact with Earth. This is where they fight the Creator.

The commentator first fired a "Stasis Net" to stop the enemy's movement, then used hacking to open its armor while simultaneously applying a debuff that increases damage taken. Meanwhile, they racked up damage with the "Shockwave Gun." After emptying its four-round magazine, they activated Overdrive to keep the enemy pinned down, picked up a "Charge Piercer" lying nearby, and fired four shots with that as well. Around this point the enemy goes down, so they applied a defense-down debuff via hacking before landing a massive critical attack. The commentator cycles through a flow of immobilization, debuff, shooting, and a critical on the downed enemy, switching weapons along the way.

Once its HP drops below half, the second phase begins and the boss starts moving slowly. The commentator waited until it finished moving before dodging its attack. In this phase, the game's setting comes into play in combat. "Lunum," an ore mined on the Moon, can serve as the raw material for any substance, and when mixed with nanomachines it can be used to print any structure. Research using this technology was underway at the lunar facility, and in this boss fight, the enemy printed a building. The commentator climbed to the roof of that building and destroyed the four antennae sprouting from the enemy's back. Destroying all of them downs the enemy again, so as usual they lowered its defense through hacking and then defeated it with a final critical attack.

Next, the two receive an SOS from "Eight," one of Diana's kin, and head to an area overgrown with abnormally thick vegetation. It seems the plants' growth can be stopped by reaching a terminal, but IDUS sends an assassin here too.

The Garden Keeper fight introduces a new weapon, the "Photon Laser." The commentator started hacking while the enemy was immobilized, advancing the hack partway while hitting the weak point with the laser. Completing the hack at the moment the enemy starts moving again triggers the effect of the lightning-mark panel, stopping the enemy once more. It's a technique of pausing the hack midway and completing it when needed. Finally, they spent the gauge in the lower-left corner of the screen to activate Overdrive, and whittled the enemy's HP down to nothing while keeping it frozen.

To restore IDUS to normal, the two head for the control tower. There they fight the Luna Digger, which bursts out from underground.

The commentator targeted the enemy with the Stasis Net as it emerged from the ground, simultaneously launching a hack. This opened its armor and also applied the defense-down debuff. Once the armor was open, they aimed the Charge Piercer into its mouth, landing three shots in total to take a big chunk out of its health. When the enemy surfaced again, they hacked once more, opening its armor and reapplying the debuff. They then timed a charged attack to coincide with its downed animation.

What the commentator stresses as "extremely important" here is that the debuff's effect also applies to the critical attack on a downed enemy. For that reason, they explain, the hack performed before the enemy goes down should aim to apply the defense-down debuff. A subsequent hack can also down the enemy again, and the commentator demonstrated passing through the debuff node again this time as well, then finishing it off with a massive critical attack.

After defeating the Luna Digger, the two finally reach IDUS. Using Diana's power, they shut down the rampaging IDUS.

Another collapse follows, but the two survive, and the repair of Diana, who had been infected by "Dead Filament," is completed. Dead Filament is apparently a terrifying substance that corrodes even organic matter. At this point, Diana gains a new ability to purify the Dead Filament clinging to enemies.

In the Sentinel fight, this purification ability is added as a new step. While protecting themselves with a barrier, Diana charges up her power and then releases it to purify the enemy. Once purification is done, the commentator explains, the rest is the same as usual combat. Hack to open the armor and lower its defense, then keep attacking with the Charge Piercer. When the enemy starts moving, hack again to stop it, and finish it off while it's frozen.

Eight, who was supposed to be one of Diana's kin, was trying to transport Dead Filament to Earth. The commentator remarks that if something like that were brought there, it would be the end of Earth, and the two head to the launch site to stop Eight.

In the Idea fight, you first put up a barrier on the spot to block the opening attack, and during that time have Diana charge up her power to purify the enemy. Next, you hack while stopping its movement with the Stasis Net, and once the armor opens, attack with the Charge Piercer. Here the commentator explains that because Diana's and Hugh's actions can proceed in parallel, it's efficient to have one work on their task while the other is charging. This section also sums up, in a nutshell, the feature of the combat that the commentator praises throughout the entire video.

After landing around three shots and taking about half its HP, the enemy starts showing ominous movements. At this point they activated Diana's Overdrive, met several conditions to boost the power of the next attack to its maximum, and then fired the finishing blow to defeat Idea.

With the mastermind gone, the incident seemed to be resolved. Hugh tries to use a transport ship left at the launch site to take Diana to Earth. But just when all that's left is to go home, something goes wrong. Something terrifying erupts and closes in on the transport ship. This final fight against the rampaging Dead Filament is the Abyssios battle.

The final battle has a different format from the previous boss fights. Successfully completing a hack starts charging a laser, and once it's charged, you line up your aim and blast the enemy. The fight consists of repeating this procedure. The commentator lands the first and second shots, but even after the third hits, the enemy is still going strong; around the fourth hit, they appear to have it well and truly cornered. At this point, the transport ship they had originally planned to board is also approaching from behind.

The commentator says that the final hack succeeded just by tracing it, perhaps because the route had been optimized. In the end, Diana's power enhances the laser unit, and they fire the finishing blow to defeat Abyssios.

During the ending's staff roll, the commentator announces that they'll watch in silence for a while. What's explained as the conclusion of the story is that Hugh had already been infected by Dead Filament. Hugh used the last of the energy left in his suit to start up the transport ship and sent Diana off to Earth.

Reflecting after finishing the game, the commentator named the frantic, multitasking combat system as what left the strongest impression. They praised the way Hugh and Diana fighting in sync is skillfully translated into gameplay, calling it a game whose combat is simply fun. They also mentioned that, although the video couldn't cover them all, the casual exchanges between the two during rest breaks are charming as well, and that they felt those alone make it well worth experiencing, before bringing the video to a close.