|OT| Girls’ Frontline 2: Exilium | 1st Anniversary

[STHX]

Planned to roll Lenna first so in case I lost the 50/50 I would change to Leva and get her 100%
Instead I got Lenna on the first roll. And I mean first, I did a 10-roll and Lenna was the very first, the left most one. And that's when I knew the RNG gods were trying to tell me something. And boy they blessed me once again

With blessings 3 patches in a row I had no other choice but to leave a small monetary offer to the costume gacha so I can now safely recover my luck (and rolls/doritos) for when the strongest doll in the USSR gets in global

So, let's also talk about this update. It's been almost a day and I still didn't even start the actual story stages because of how many things changed and because of the crew deck
The text scrolling speed is finally fixed with auto. Holy shit it took a whole year for this, no more clicking like crazy to speed up that text
I knew about the upgradable keys, but I didn't expect to also get the dedicated affinity key slot (+ 9th affinity level). Even as someone who played since launch it's now impossible so fill every key slot on every doll, and with how scarce the key exp (and the remolding exp too) it's obvious the game wants you to focus on a specific party instead of spreading upgrades. Obviously nothing wrong with that, but this will make some dolls become "dormitory/crew deck only" because catching up to the actual top upgraded/buffed ones will become even harder
The Crew Deck is filled with things to do and find. First thing first make sure to change the dispatch production to Merkle Leaves, then just enjoy the ride. New short doll stories, new interactions (with some hidden ones too, try putting both Suomi and Papasha in the Rec Room), permanent minigames, a way to gain affinity passively, and it's obvious the devs set up ways to expand the explorable areas in the future. It was worth the wait. But it's also quite likely the most popular dolls will most likely hog all the content they'll create for this mode in the future. When selecting the dolls you want to appear on the deck you can also check which costumes they have available and oh boy after all this time seeing so many dolls with zero costumes really makes it obvious that, well, let's just say I don't think dolls like Littara will ever get an ASMR or a special costumed interaction in a future update
Well time to get on the story since I need to finish both of them before Ro's arrives

 

[Cacher]

Planned to roll Lenna first so in case I lost the 50/50 I would change to Leva and get her 100%
Instead I got Lenna on the first roll. And I mean first, I did a 10-roll and Lenna was the very first, the left most one. And that's when I knew the RNG gods were trying to tell me something. And boy they blessed me once again

With blessings 3 patches in a row I had no other choice but to leave a small monetary offer to the costume gacha so I can now safely recover my luck (and rolls/doritos) for when the strongest doll in the USSR gets in global

So, let's also talk about this update. It's been almost a day and I still didn't even start the actual story stages because of how many things changed and because of the crew deck
The text scrolling speed is finally fixed with auto. Holy shit it took a whole year for this, no more clicking like crazy to speed up that text
I knew about the upgradable keys, but I didn't expect to also get the dedicated affinity key slot (+ 9th affinity level). Even as someone who played since launch it's now impossible so fill every key slot on every doll, and with how scarce the key exp (and the remolding exp too) it's obvious the game wants you to focus on a specific party instead of spreading upgrades. Obviously nothing wrong with that, but this will make some dolls become "dormitory/crew deck only" because catching up to the actual top upgraded/buffed ones will become even harder
The Crew Deck is filled with things to do and find. First thing first make sure to change the dispatch production to Merkle Leaves, then just enjoy the ride. New short doll stories, new interactions (with some hidden ones too, try putting both Suomi and Papasha in the Rec Room), permanent minigames, a way to gain affinity passively, and it's obvious the devs set up ways to expand the explorable areas in the future. It was worth the wait. But it's also quite likely the most popular dolls will most likely hog all the content they'll create for this mode in the future. When selecting the dolls you want to appear on the deck you can also check which costumes they have available and oh boy after all this time seeing so many dolls with zero costumes really makes it obvious that, well, let's just say I don't think dolls like Littara will ever get an ASMR or a special costumed interaction in a future update
Well time to get on the story since I need to finish both of them before Ro's arrives

Saw your pull record. God of LUCK. I saved up 300 pulls but got spooked by QJ twice and Sabrina once. Now I have to settle on V0R0 Leva and V0 Lenna.

Regarding Crew Deck, I enjoy it a lot. Took many screenshots and I will probably post some of them here. Papasha and Suomi interaction in the Rec room was hilarious. I think Sabrina has special interaction in the lounge so make sure to put her there, too.

Still haven't messed with the key upgrade mechanics. I will dive in later today.

I also re-read the first node of Deep Oblivion, this time in English. It was great. Pretty annoyed by the fact that despite Lenna story taking place after DO, her event ends before DO part 2 starts. I think I might read Lenna story first before continuing Deep Oblivion, just to make things (relatively) more consistent.

 

[STHX]

 

[Cacher]

Leva's GFL2 VA might not be a big name, but her performance is excellent. Look forward to hearing her voice, many years to come. ASMR, please!!!

 

[Cacher]

Finally decided on the new menu screen. Also gave her the ring and managed to get her to V1.

Event story-wise, I gave up on Lenna story after finishing the first node. Too many info I don't know yet and it was a bit buggy. Now I am around 50% into Deep Oblivion. Reading everything slowly because this event is dense! Probably will finish it tomorrow / within the week.

Also posted a few shots in the screenshot thread:

Community Post in thread 'Gaming Screenshots 2025'

Saturday at 12:46 PM

Girls' Frontline 2: Exilium (PC)

• Cacher

• 
• 

 

[Kvik]

Pretty annoyed by the fact that despite Lenna story taking place after DO, her event ends before DO part 2 starts.

Yet another baffling decision from MICA. If they want to do it this way, why not lock the rest of the banner while keeping the story quest open? Now I had to speedrun the two events while potentially confuses myself because of the story gap.

 

[Cacher]

 

[STHX]

Finished both Deep Oblivion part 1 and Lenna's event
Oh boy
First let me echo how stupid the decision to force people to speedrun Lenna's event is, an event that spoils at least 2 twists from Deep Oblivion part 2 and who knows how many from part 1 too (but at least you can read/play part 1 before it)
Then, let me describe how it feels when you start reading the first nodes of each event: it's like they took 6 months of filler events, swapped them with real events, and condensed them into 3 story nodes. The amount of information and story progress the player is bombarded with is unseen in this game. Let's ignore Springfield's event since in the end that one is just a voiced side story created to banish the dumb "no Griffin dolls allowed on the Elmo" agreement, but even compared to Aphelion (and it's not like that one didn't have things behind it) Deep Oblivion feels like it's moving at supersonic speed, and the "text" parts aren't exactly short either, with lots of things happening basically every node: a new characters, a new twist, some new cospiracy in the shadows. And adding all of this with the crew deck isn't exactly helpful. I've been playing since launch and I still consider my memory to be good enough to remember most details from all events so far and yet I felt completely lost at the start with so many things happening. Luckily I managed to pull myself in the grove and the rest was smooth sailing. The full voice acting helps a lot with many expressions leaving a bigger impact on the dialogue thanks to it. A specific one I will highlight in a spoiler is when Robella speaks to Leva by imitating Mechty's voice, a reference to how they share the same VA. This type of joke only really works with full VA
Where to even start with these events? I'll pretend the part at the beginning where Leva swaps into her playable frame is there just to explain her playable design compared to her short hair look, because it's the only part that happens for absolutely no reason. From the start it's obvious these events are pure distilled fanservice for GF1 fans. Robella and Soppo appear without any hint of them ever being part of the planned story so far, and they both get lots of great moments. The commander makes no appearances in Deep Oblivion but the player gets to see what's actually happening behind the scenes with Girard, Paradeus and 3rd gen dolls. Lot's of threads left hanging finally start to find a place in the story. Obviously Leva gets to shine the most with many hacking or EW parts, but without making the rest feel too secondary, and she bounces surprisingly well with RO. The backdrop with the Odessa elections, Zurik and Zimmerman works quite well with the way the story is setting the mystery up. Reading the event you notice the story happens over various weeks, and this is also used as a way to have the cast move between different locales. Again, it feels like a story that proceeds much faster than other events and feels much closer to a proper spy movie. The ending of the first part concludes within a Resident Evil-like mansion including a hidden laboratory below it, and an unexpected meeting with Alva/DEFY setting up both part 2 and the future. The finale is full of surprises which actually turn the tables on a few things the player believed with the enemy factions. I couldn't stop reading/playing which is pretty good considering how boring some past events could be. A shame a mystery in the last part 1 scene gets spoiled by the last scene of Lenna's event (even if the suspicion was there). Also maid Mechty skin when
Lenna's event joins the Dayan and Centauressi ones in being a fully rewritten event turning a pointless side story into a main chapter, and it starts immediately after Aphelion's end, and just like Deep Oblivion it feels like it's finally connecting the dots between many past events (and technically some future ones which we got a bit earlier). Because it's a rewritten event we get to see "added" elements like Melanie, Dandelion and Mangi's Lentine again. Lenna is obviously the protagonist but all of 404 gets to shine at one point (yes, Vector's B team too). I also liked how Colphne, Krolic and Nemesis finally got something to do after almost being erased from the story post chapter 8. Lenna's event feels like it moves even faster than Deep Oblivion with almost every node introducing a new character, or a new place, and the Commander and Lenna always moving somewhere else. They did a great work with Lenna in this event compared to the other rewrites where Daiyan was basically a footnote and Centauressi being there just because all of Zucchero was there, and her struggle was well expressed by the dialogue and her VA. I also appreaciated the "book's end" with the final battle happening in the same pharmaceutical factory the story begins in: I should have noticed the name before but it completely eluded me in the early nodes. Lots of action, lots of answers, totally worth the binging, and the final stinger obviously hinting at the next main event with Alva and Voymastina ready to make their move. Also you can't trick my ears: I immediately noticed the event is filled with remixed GF1 music. Too bad about the very first node revealing who the final boss of Deep Oblivion part 2 is: I mean spoilers are everywhere since we're still multiple events behind compared to CN, but La Groza Nera would have been a great twist for our global innocent minds
Also I've been following the Yuzhong's wild ride for so long I could instantly predict how the new character in Lenna's event would end
Cute sweet human big boobed anime girl that wants to help people?
She is either going to die horribly
Or she is going to turn out to be a Mengele-like psychopath
... Goddammit Yuzhong

 

[Cacher]

I also finished reading Deep Oblivion Part 1. Oh boy it was a great read.

To begin with, it is impossible to overstated how superb the character interactions are. Leva and Robella's conversation at the Odessa chief's crime scene was full of dynamics and twists: two of the most intelligent dolls on our side are trying to reconcile and rebuild trust after a 10-year blank. The amount of back-and-forth and info-sharing was written really well. Apart from that particular scene, when Leva and Robella bumped into Alva outside the mansion, the coldness from Leva and the uneasiness from Robella made me sit on the edge of my chair. In addition, near the end of Part 1, the fight where Soppo, Robella and Alva facing Darture (in prototype frame) was another highlight. It was a well-coordinated fight scene where all the dolls need to work together and give everything they got. Dorky scenes from other less-serious events are funny to read, but damn it would be lying if I say I didn't miss all these tensed moments from a GFL game.

I'm a firm believer that voice-acting elevates every game, and in Deep Oblivion, like STHX said, it really helps a lot. Soppo's cute and franatic voice; Leva's tired voice after fighting off Cocoon; Robella's tone of speech in Mechty's (to be exact, G11) frame was hilarious; Leva and Kalina's performance in face of Rurik was also great. Another huge thing to note is that all the male NPCs appeared are voiced by big-named VAs in the industry (info from Japanese commanders): Nobuyuki Hiyama as Rurik, Hiroki Takahashi as Zimmerman, and Tsuda Kenjiro as Kryuger. Seriously, every line is a bliss to listen to.

Narrative-wise, I think Deep Oblivion is a turning point of GFL2's early story. I remember, shortly after Reissi event, I commented that the world in 2074 is relatively peaceful. The world is healing, and people are reclaiming land from collapse radiation. But both Leva and a NPC (ie. mysterious figure at the end) pointed out that the "frontline" has moved from the battlefield to somewhere else:

Story screenshots

Conflict between humans never ceases. The bloody wars were turned into something else, something deep under the water surface. Once the time has come, it will become open conflict all over again, which is exactly what happened at the end of Part 1.

Can't wait to read Deep Oblivion Part 2 and welcome Robella on board on Dec 18th. In the meantime, I am going to start reading Lenna story in a few days. Honestly I feel really conflicted: I kinda want to skip it now and wait for its inclusion into the main story tab (or watch it on youtube), but I know I wouldn't have the patient to wait. Damn you, Mica, why can't you be normal.