Some of the story confuses me.... *SPOILER ALERT*

[DiaborMagics]

Alright, so... I've seen all three endings. And I was hoping to get a more detailed explanation about what happened to Uzume all game long, but there are 3 options here: I missed it (don't know how that could be possible...), I'm dumb enough to not understand it, or..... they really don't tell us?

First off, the game opens with the cutscene in which Uzume speaks of delusion and willingly putting herself into that mealstrom, while also asking others to save her. Then in Zero Dimension it is made clear she woke up one day and the world/Zero Dimension just was like this - so she did not willingly do this to herself?
Also, speaking of the delusion, it would make more sense if Kurome (Blue Haired Uzume) had spoken there in the opening, but she would not have asked to be saved, nor would she have endangered herself with the 4 giants we can see in that scene.

Then there are the scraps of history we find along the way in Zero Dimension... from those I started to think that Uzume had somehow started rampaging everywhere, destroying what was formerly Planeptune. I thought maybe, because of her powers to make dreams come true, maybe her nightmares had come to life, also erasing her memory in the long run.

Then there's Arfoire, she summons Dark Purple first (but since more than one can be summoned, after defeating that first one, it's strange no other one was immediately summmoned after that, although that's a game for ya). While Kurome actually holds that power - this could be due to the fact that Kurome met Arfoire BEFORE Arfoire started using the Dark CPU and BEFORE she first showed herelf to Uzume and the others. So this may not be very complicated, if Arfoire already worked for Kurome at that point.

Anyway, fast forwarding.... Kurome wanted revenge because she was hated, betrayed, etc. But Uzume regained her memories and they weren't 'all that bad'. And upon speaking to some citizens whom magically remembered her (records about her had also re-surfaced), they remembered Uzume fondly and some even wished they could go back to that era.

What I'm struggling to understand is which is true: was Uzume disliked and betrayed by the majority of people (what Kurome says), or was it not like that at all (what was explained in the True/Revival Ending)?
Also, I know Zero Dimension wasn't exactly real. However, the scraps of history found were remainders of what was once written. So they have to be true - what then, is the true meaning of those? What story do they ACTUALLY tell - which details we cannot already fill in for ourselves are missing and what really made things spin out of control?

I really feel like they failed to explain some things here. The entire game have I been waiting for these things to be answered, but I never got any clear answers. Only what seemed to be contradictions. So have I missed something? Or do you guys have any real details? Or maybe only even theories (though I'm more interested in what the actual story has to be, as opposed to theories. I can make up my own theories, too, after all)?

Maybe I'm overthinking this, as its Neptunia and we've had unanswered things in the past, but I felt like this was the exact topic of the game's story... and it was never concluded to a satisfactory level, with a clear non-contradictory answer.

[Ztarman]

tldr: Kurome is the original Uzume

[DiaborMagics]

I know that much, but i wanted to make a clear distinction so Thats why i called her kurome

[Tsushima Yoshiko]

Uzume and Kurome are like the Yin and Yang of the real Uzume. The real Uzume is already dead, and her source of existence is that golden share crystal that Nepgear shot. Kurome is more like "Hate" feeling of the real Uzume. And Uzume that Neptune met is the fragment that seperated from Kurome when certain anomally occured.

[DiaborMagics]

Thanks, but that still doesn't answer my questions about what happened to her and the planeptune of old, which contradictions are truths and what exactly the scraps of history found in zero dimension actually mean. In this topic I think my questions cannot possibly be answered without reading the OP

[Ryukrieger]

Here's a little history of Uzume's "story":
Note that Uzume Tennouboshi, "Tennouboshi" literally means "Uranus", an unused Sega Console codename. (Uranus appeared before, I'll talk about that later)

The CPU her was most likely Saturn (Sega Saturn is before Saga Dreamcast for the console's release order, and I'll temporarily calls her that instead of "Previous CPU"), S-a-t-u-r-n fits one of the blank space in one of the notes.

Uzume was born with some sort of abilities which make her daydreams come true. Her rampages most likely could be her nightmares, or some daydreams that proved to be very troublesome. The notes said that the Basillicom, Histoire and Saturn tried stopping Uzume but they couldn't. Eventually Saturn is gone (we still don't know how CPUs "retire", an entry in Nepedia said that past Lowee CPUs could be living amongs normal people, however).

The tension in Planeptune was high, there are assassination attempts on Uzume (which all failed). Now for the parts which people loved her, this is because beside of her dreams, she was hardworking and in the memories in True Ending, it clearly showed that Uzume (and the Grassroots Youth, presumptive Umio's past life) worked very hard to make the country as prosperous as possible. Now we can infer that Uzume's daydreams aren't always destructive.

The notes mentioned a certain rampage that ultimately depressed Uzume. This most likely happened after Grassroots Youth died, the damages were so great that it traumatised Uzume, she asked Histoire to kil lher (kill fits the blank for this, and also same with Histoire's explanations). Histoire couldn't do it so she decided to seal Uzume inside a Console (Dreamcast-lookalike) instead, waiting for the time when she could find a way to neutralise Uzume's powers.

Now Kurome... is a name the two Neptunes gave her, she never called herself that, nor ever admitted to it. You can safely disregard the name Kurome because that's just Neptune's pun on Uzume Tennouboshi (Kuro = Black, Ankokuboshi= Dark Star).

Kurome is the Original Uzume (I'll still refer to her as Kurome). Now Kurome's trauma affected her and her last days before being sealed twisted her perception, especially after a new CPU called Uranus was born to "replace" her, thinking that everyone despised her, hated her and betrayed her, sealing her deep away forever. She eventually went crazy about revenge, so with a lot of time on her hands, she learned how to use her powers and "erased" (not really) people's memories of her, seeking a way to escape.

Now, pause for a bit and let's talk about how Heart Dimension and Zero Dimension were born. They were born from Kurome's nightmares while she was sealed away, I believed it was Histoire that mentioned that those two dimensions could be what Kurome's nightmares of a destroyed Gamindustri would look like (before she went nuts, most likely). And they are linked directly to her existence. And because Zero Dimension was based on Kurome's vision of a destroyed Planeptune, so things from the real-world Planeptune (at the time) bled through (as Histoire thought)

Now, continue to Uzume, as Histoired theorised, Uzume is most likely Kurome's conscience, the "good", not crazy part of Kurome, splitting off after she felt that "she" was going insane. This would also explain why she had incomplete memories and also her original personalities, because she wasn't the "original" but just a "copy" of the original.

The opening Cutscene could correlate with a certain cutscene when Nepgear found a journal, where "Uzume" popped up (looking like Uzume with orange-white outfit), however she spoke like Kurome. Nepgear then woke up and the actual Uzume came over, this is most likely a part of Kurome's soul bleeding in Zero Dimension. She was talking about Nepgear perhaps being the one who could save and release her from the "cage". I would assume that if the Intro was canon and not just an opening cinematics (it most likely is just an opening cinematics with little relations to the story). If we take it as canon, it's safe to assume that there was still some good in Kurome.

As for Arfoire and Dark CPUs, Uzume created both of them, the original Arfoire the Underling etiher died before the game's story or when you killed her in Zero Dimension. As for why she couldn't summon another Dark CPU, it was most likely because Kurome supplied Arfoire with Dark CPUs, but Kurome remained hidden for most of Zero Dimension (except for the conversation with Nepgear above) and never showed her face in Hyperdimension G.

As for Memories, how people remembered Uzume was similar to how they remembered the current CPUs despite Kurome's delusion powers to "erase" those memories. What I'm understanding from what the game told us is that strong emotions can help unlocking or retaining the "erased" memories. And also the presence of the "forgotten" person also greatly helped. In this context, Kurome didn't "erase" the memories, but rather simply "sealing" them away (Kurome herself, from the game's context, didn't think it wasn't permanent)

And then once Uzume got "revived", she and Kurome fought to decide who would be the dominant in the new body. Since Uzume won, her good side became dominant while Kurome... who knows if she still existed in there somewhere, but that would be rather normal for people to have a good side and a bad side.

To me the Neptunia's story (as far as I remember, anyway) had been rather tight, a lot of things are really subtle and some story threads are opened right at the beginning of the game and then mentioned at the end. For example Nepgear's conversation with a Kurome-sounding Uzume made me suspicious of Uzume the entire Hyperdimension G storyline. Or the whole memories things in Hyperdimension G explained how people remembered Uzume in Heart Dimension.

If you have further questions, though, feel free to discuss, since I tried covering so many bases at once, I could have missed something.

[DiaborMagics]

Thanks for this! It was really clear. Actually, most of the things you mention were things I had thought or figured out myself already, but you made it one good, complete picture, by filling in some missing pieces. You made it a good timeline and now it makes more sense. What I did not fully understand is indeed that she got traumatized - the explanation about that part of the story and how she misinterpreted Uranus' appearance really cleared things up.
And I also hadnt thought of the memories being 'sealed' as opposed to 'erased', so that also makes a lot more sense now.

However, how do you know Uzume created Arfoire? That wasnt stated in the game, was it? That actually makes me question something else - how did the Hyperdimension's Deity of Sin come to be? Not by Kurome. I thought she just kind of existed, as she enbodies evil - and where theyre's good, theres also evil. Until the Neps Nep the evil :P - but mabe the Deity of Sin (Arfoire) was also created in the past.

And indeed, the conversation with Nepgear made me suspicious as well, but while typing the OP I had completely forgotten about it :S

[Ryukrieger]

Originally posted by DiaborMagics:

However, how do you know Uzume created Arfoire? That wasnt stated in the game, was it? That actually makes me question something else - how did the Hyperdimension's Deity of Sin come to be? Not by Kurome. I thought she just kind of existed, as she enbodies evil - and where theyre's good, theres also evil. Until the Neps Nep the evil :P - but mabe the Deity of Sin (Arfoire) was also created in the past.

For Arfoire, Kurome said that it's because she knew Arfoirce, she could create as many copies of her as she liked using her powers.

And I think the Deity of Sin is separate from Kurome's Arfoire. As Arfoire in Ultradimension (Re;birth3) has practically the same forms as the Deity of Sin, we can safely assume that Arfoire in other dimension are able to have the same forms. As far as we know, I believe we can consider Deity of Sin and Megadimension Destructor Arfoire different entities.

And I think the DoS just "exists" is the correct answer, because Gamindustri's history considers that it always exists. We can just call it Hyperdimension's Arfoire (though never called that)
(4th wall breaking the story reason would be because at that time, they haven't come up with Kurome yet at the time!)

[DiaborMagics]

Originally posted by Ryukrieger:

Originally posted by DiaborMagics:

However, how do you know Uzume created Arfoire? That wasnt stated in the game, was it? That actually makes me question something else - how did the Hyperdimension's Deity of Sin come to be? Not by Kurome. I thought she just kind of existed, as she enbodies evil - and where theyre's good, theres also evil. Until the Neps Nep the evil :P - but mabe the Deity of Sin (Arfoire) was also created in the past.

For Arfoire, Kurome said that it's because she knew Arfoirce, she could create as many copies of her as she liked using her powers.

And I think the Deity of Sin is separate from Kurome's Arfoire. As Arfoire in Ultradimension (Re;birth3) has practically the same forms as the Deity of Sin, we can safely assume that Arfoire in other dimension are able to have the same forms. As far as we know, I believe we can consider Deity of Sin and Megadimension Destructor Arfoire different entities.

And I think the DoS just "exists" is the correct answer, because Gamindustri's history considers that it always exists. We can just call it Hyperdimension's Arfoire (though never called that)
(4th wall breaking the story reason would be because at that time, they haven't come up with Kurome yet at the time!)

Yeah I see them separately, after all Kurome hadnt created her yet before she was sealed. So the one created, the one we see in this game, must be different (as is the case with every dimension). But I know she was able to create more Arfoires later. But the one we 'killed' in Zero Dimension. I wonder if she was created by Kurome, working for Kurome, or something else. After all its pretty clear the Arfoire copies were created by her. But the original? I dunno

[Ryukrieger]

Originally posted by DiaborMagics:

Yeah I see them separately, after all Kurome hadnt created her yet before she was sealed. So the one created, the one we see in this game, must be different (as is the case with every dimension). But I know she was able to create more Arfoires later. But the one we 'killed' in Zero Dimension. I wonder if she was created by Kurome, working for Kurome, or something else. After all its pretty clear the Arfoire copies were created by her. But the original? I dunno

Yep, pretty much, I can't quite remember the details but I believed Kurome said that we killed the original somewhere in the game (It could be that the original survived all the way until the Big Nep scene and how she survived was just Kurome saving her)

[DiaborMagics]

Originally posted by Ryukrieger:

Yep, pretty much, I can't quite remember the details but I believed Kurome said that we killed the original somewhere in the game (It could be that the original survived all the way until the Big Nep scene and how she survived was just Kurome saving her)

I think thats indeed possible

[Hito]

I just went through these comments and saw that Uzume is dead. I feel awful knowing that.

[DiaborMagics]

Originally posted by ☆SA☆Hito:

I just went through these comments and saw that Uzume is dead. I feel awful knowing that.

I'm sorry you found out like this, but the title did say spoiler alert (though I do regret the one who wrote that did not use spoiler tags)

[DarthRutsula]

Based on my memory of my playthrough back when the game came out on the PS4 (So I could be mistaken in some places): I would think that the successor to Uzume would be Neptune. Uzume is supposed to be the Dreamcast (which would be the generation prior to our lovely main cast), and based on how we know CPUs are created from the first rebirth, it is possible that the moment they are "born" that is when the now-last generation "retires". Definitely so in the case of the Sega systems where they dropped support of their consoles almost immediately after the release of the new ones. Which, in my opinion, would be why no one really knows Uzume. The history of Gamindustri is kind of vague.

The dealio on Arfoire I think is pretty much, as long as there is one CPU there will always be an Arfoire, similarly to the Jedi and Sith in Star Wars. You can't truly kill Arfoire in the sense that you can't truly kill all the Jedi or the Sith, another will take up the mantle again.

And going back to what the Dreamcast was like, I think that what Kurome says (that everyone hated her) was wrong. Some people did like her, we see throughout the story (I think throughout) that there were people who played some of her games and liked it (Jet Set Radio being one) but just forgot due to the passage of time. She was still getting energy (belief of the people) during her life so we know that not everyone hated her, it is possible she didn't know how share energy worked.

I think that understanding these games would be much better when you think in terms of symbolism, and knowing a bit about the history of video games and have familiarity with the various consoles.

Or you like how meta the game can be and like all the references and get the game based on how they make fun of video games. I personally find this series to be pretty funny and i've gotten some good laughs. But the serious moments have their time to shine, like when they reach their NEXT forms.