Warning: 1.3 spoilers below.

Finally I'm making a post with this title! I thought I had more time, but they made this "found family" theme THAT obvious in 1.3's Story Quest. Let's take things one by one.

They are giving us information about anomaly lore in small portions in each update, so here's everything we know at the moment.

In 1.1's "Dreamwalk Corridor" we were shown that, actually, anomalies are part of the ecosystem? Like, there are different kinds of aquatic bio anomalies. This raises so many questions for me. Why do they exist in the first place? Are they edible, or will they disappear after "death"?

And this time we got a brief boss fight with the giant serpent, who at first, and still now, feels out of place, as if he would never be mentioned again. But what makes me curious about him is that we have seen another snake's dead corpse. And now that I think about it, it would be too strange if bio anomalies didn't consist of meat and bones. Seems like they do?

We [already know](https://youtu.be/0T_BOZztEFw) that they're likely cooking something with the fact that the existence of anomalies was disclosed only 40 years ago. However, Inanna's story seems unrelated to the said catastrophe. If only she could be interrogated... I can speculate that from now on we will see a lot more 60–200-year-old characters like Inanna, Thyme and Renee. Wouldn't be far-fetched to say that even Zero could be capable of immortality, judging by one of the illusions.

Now about the Fogden Game. NTE's plot is still jumping from "okay" to "peak fiction" and back. But I couldn't imagine a better finale for the Scarlet Letter arc, and in the end I got my dose of entertainment. The arc follows a three-act structure: we got introduced to Poinsette and Zankou in 1.0, and in 1.1 they gave us a personal motive to stop the villains by threatening Eibon's peaceful life, and finally, the Fogden Game itself.

As much as I wanted the game to let the player actually kill when the choice is given, I still hope that red-haired sweeper girl will make an appearance again in the future. I know that Chinese games aren't really allowed to have bloody and brutal kill scenes, but I can see a lot of work going into trying to depict implied deaths. Sadly, at the end Poinsette rescued all the guests, and no number of deceased has been shared. At least we got a brutal opening for Zero's sequence of the quest, huh? Hotta has been making sure Zero gets personality. Keeping his off-screen actions ambiguous feels intentional.

Speaking of my favorite moments... The boss fight with Monte was hilarious! I would love him to return as an episodic comic villain in some of the spinoffs. Funny designs like this should not be wasted. My other favorite scene already has a [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/NevernessToNTE/s/TncB4eogbZ) of its own. How can I make my love for Poinsette any more obvious?

In general, I appreciated the vibes of battle royale and quiet moments, especially in Linko's sequence. And man, Adler was the last character I expected to receive character development like this! Makes me curious what happened in Adler and Hotori's past.

Okay, time to say a few things about Eibon. And again, the writers proved that they are still competent enough. They had one thing they couldn't afford to fail at, and they nailed it. Yeah, I'm talking about Zero's ending lines:

>They're saying "sorry"... but I know what they really want to say, the words that follow...  
>  
>"Sorry, I love you all. We, the people of Eibon, will stay together."

Obviously, they have been trying hard to make Eibon grow on Zero — us — since 1.0. Like how after "Let's Go, Delicious Investigations!" Adler simply invited Zero to dinner at Eibon, as if the game was trying to say, "In your saddest moments, you will always have a home to return to."

And there are plenty of other examples that come to mind. Taygedo's drawings that made me almost shed a single tear. How can one hate him after this? Also Sakiri's deep feeling of loneliness and strong desire to belong somewhere, as has been shown in "Pawn Moonlight". Daffodill has been stating since the prologue that defending Eibon, her family, is her personal duty. And [Nanally](https://www.reddit.com/r/NevernessToNTE/s/0s84uVk6QW) got a whole main quest all about her backstory.

I'm saying this as someone who isn't really a fan of the "found family" trope: all of this buildup would have gone to waste for me if not for the final sincere declaration of love, even if only in their minds for now. I wouldn't bring myself to believe in such a strong family bond as depicted if they had stupidly shied away from hugging, crying, and whispering simple words of love. For that, for not avoiding adding the most important missing ingredient to the mix, I am deeply grateful to the writers.

Phew, I hope that's all and I didn't miss anything! That was a really long quest and arc. It took me three days to complete each of the sequences of the quest... Makes me wonder how soon we'll jump into another long arc. Well, we will find out sooner or later. See ya in 1.4.

Would you ever want to leave Eibon?