Can somebody explain the ng++ ending, please?

[C1REX]

So what exactly did Coral do to humans?

Did it evolve them?
Did it take over their minds?
Did it kill most of them, with a few survivors serving as hosts for a parasite?
Or was it a beneficial symbiosis for both?

It's quite interesting that we're fighting a powerful AI that wants to release the Coral. We kill the AI, and after doing so, we release the Coral, just as the villain wanted to do from the beginning.

(meme place holder: Are we the baddies?)

[Norm Macdonald's Ghost]

Originally posted by C1REX-PL:

So what exactly did Coral do to humans?

Influence/brainwash them.

Did it evolve them?

It enhanced them, at least the ones who went through the augmentation program.

Did it take over their minds?

I suppose you could read it like that.

Did it kill most of them, with a few survivors serving as hosts for a parasite?

Not yet. Cliffhanger...

Or was it a beneficial symbiosis for both?

It is until the red ghosts feel the time is right to take over.


Disclaimer: this explanation is endorsed by the Yamamura and Hamatani Foundation.

[Kain]

No one is sure, I guess that's the meaning of 'alea jacta est' in that ending, did all of mankind dissolve like in evangelion and turned into ghosts inhabiting ACs?

Did the coral spread and infected all ACs and now are at war wit every single living sentient race in the universe?

Is Ayris and 621 controlling all of the coral and can spread their conscience around the entire known and unknown universe?

Did Ayris turned into a neo Stalin stabilishing a new form of infectious communism spreading their red army infection everywhere and enslaving all that lives?

Who knows...

[Frozenstep]

Most of it is up to interpretation. The main thing is it's a point of no return, for all of humanity, and no one seems sure what lies on the other side. Many of the characters try to stop the coral release from happening because they don't want to take the chance.

It's likely all humans in the universe got hit by coral. It could be that the data-transferring power of Coral has turned them into a hivemind. Perhaps everyone now sentient coral like Ayre, and they can control AC's to be their new bodies. Maybe everyone is an immortal energy being now. Or maybe it's like coral augmentation that some of the AC pilots went through, with incredibly low survival rates.

What's important is it's a major change. Maybe, even with a low survival chance, it was a good one. Rubicon is the river Julius Caesar crossed when he went to take over Rome, crossing that (with an army) was a point of no return. But depending on who you ask, Rome was in a decline at that point, and his actions forever changed it and allowed it to live as something different. Good? Bad? Up to interpretation. Just like this ending.

[D. Flame]

Originally posted by C1REX-PL:

So what exactly did Coral do to humans?

Did it evolve them?
Did it take over their minds?
Did it kill most of them, with a few survivors serving as hosts for a parasite?
Or was it a beneficial symbiosis for both?

It's quite interesting that we're fighting a powerful AI that wants to release the Coral. We kill the AI, and after doing so, we release the Coral, just as the villain wanted to do from the beginning.

(meme place holder: Are we the baddies?)

Humans become like Ayre and fuse their minds with Coral. They are now energy based beings and can travel the universe. They instantly spread across the universe via the artificial black hole you saw at the end of the game.

[魔装機神 Psybuster]

Did ALL humans fuse with the Coral? My interpretation was that only 621/Raven and Ea fused, and now they were controlling an infinite horde of abandoned ACs using the Coral as a medium to carry their own consciousness.

[Kain]

Originally posted by 魔装機神 Psybuster:

Did ALL humans fuse with the Coral? My interpretation was that only 621/Raven and Ea fused, and now they were controlling an infinite horde of abandoned ACs using the Coral as a medium to carry their own consciousness.

That's the thing, no one knows.

[Blackmage]

It's up to you to decide. The NG++ ending is vague by design. Japanese writers love that ♥♥♥♥, probably a little too much.
"You're going to use THAT?"
"Yes! THAT!"

It's possible humans fused with coral.
It's possible coral fused with machines.
It's possible coral will replace humanity as the next step in human evolution.
It's possible coral will coexist with humanity, and Ayre is now your official robot waifu.

[Fenix]

Alea Iacta Est. The Die is Cast, meaning there is no going back, whatever we just did, can't be undone.
Good or Bad... only time will tell.

[D. Flame]

Originally posted by 魔装機神 Psybuster:

Did ALL humans fuse with the Coral? My interpretation was that only 621/Raven and Ea fused, and now they were controlling an infinite horde of abandoned ACs using the Coral as a medium to carry their own consciousness.

No, maybe all humans on Rubicon, but not all humans in general.

[zarthemad]

AC6 FoR Ending 3 = Parasite Eve 1 Ending ... Nanites = NRNA = frendship.. and fires

[Frozenstep]

Originally posted by 魔装機神 Psybuster:

Did ALL humans fuse with the Coral? My interpretation was that only 621/Raven and Ea fused, and now they were controlling an infinite horde of abandoned ACs using the Coral as a medium to carry their own consciousness.

Originally posted by D. Flame:

No, maybe all humans on Rubicon, but not all humans in general.

So I got the impression that whatever happened is something that affected all humans, because the whole point of Coral getting to space was it multiplying exponentially and spreading across the galaxy, which we seem to see happen in the final ng++ cutscene with all the red lights shining from other planets.

[C1REX]

Originally posted by Frozenstep:

Originally posted by 魔装機神 Psybuster:

Did ALL humans fuse with the Coral? My interpretation was that only 621/Raven and Ea fused, and now they were controlling an infinite horde of abandoned ACs using the Coral as a medium to carry their own consciousness.

Originally posted by D. Flame:

So I got the impression that whatever happened is something that affected all humans, because the whole point of Coral getting to space was it multiplying exponentially and spreading across the galaxy, which we seem to see happen in the final ng++ cutscene with all the red lights shining from other planets.

I agree that Coral spread across the universe as it was predicted within the game. This is what many was afraid off and why Walter wanted to burn the planet rather than release the Coral and let it spread and affect the whole cosmos.

[soulgamer31br]

My interpretation is that nothing happened to the humans themselves, but now the Coral has spread trough the stars taken over certain pieces of Machinery. The ACs we see at the end were probably discarded but have now been reactivated and occupied by Coral minds like Ayre. Though its also possible Ayre and the Coral are a hivemind now, though i doubt that. Regardless, its the beggining of a new age

[[OTS]EchoZenLogos]

It's hard to know for sure.

Potentially, humanity was basically was made extinct with Coral beings being able to take over and spread throughout the stars. In this scenario, either you as 621 were able to transform into a coral being yourself, and maybe certain others, but not all humans.

I don't think that's what happened though, considering All Mind and Ayre both seemed to think of this change as a positive thing for humanity's progress.

Although there is a point in the favor of that happening. When 621 wakes up, he is in a completely random armored core in the ending cutscene rather than in your own. They could have rendered the cutscene showing the player in their own armored core after somehow being spread across the stars - the fact they did not implies you have been transformed into being a coral entity and are now possessing an armored core elsewhere. Or maybe I'm overthinking it and that is meant to be your AC.

I think what most likely happened is that either humanity was transformed into Coral entities and simultaneously spread throughout the stars, or that only "coral sensitive" beings like 621 transformed and the Coral beings themselves are now just about everywhere with remaining humans surviving as normal. The former interpretation would be horrifying but also still fits as finding a way to "coexist" between humanity and the Coral in a sense. The latter interpretation simply gives 621 and Ayre a happy ending (as 621 was in a dying and ruined body anyway), but leaves a lot open for what could happen to humanity moving forward.

[魔装機神 Psybuster]

Ea specifically states that "the Coral carried us" to where they find themselves in the final scene, so my interpretation is that the Coral has become a medium for the combined 621/Ea entity to spread themselves all across the universe. It makes even more sense when you consider they are enacting Allmind's plan, which was almost certainly intended to end with Allmind controlling the Coral using 621/Ea as a medium to achieve this, so doing the same plan without Allmind would leave 621/Ea as the dominant consciousness.