The Commanders (部隊長, Butaichō) are the leaders of the School Invaders that attack the Last Defense Academy over the course of 100 days, and are the bosses of the The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy-.
Description[]
"Powerful warriors that rule over the regular School Invaders. They are immune to conventional weaponry and can only be damaged with hemoanima. In addition to their formidable fighting prowess, each commander also possesses unique abilities." - Official Description [1]
The commanders rule over all the School Invaders are the ones calling the attacks on the Last Defense Academy and humanity itself, all of them having a monster and a humanoid form. Despite not sharing a language with the LDA students, they seem to have more of a distinct personality than their minions and possess a sense of self-preservation when defeated as the first one defeated in the demo becomes panicked and terrified, begging for mercy and despairing as the students advance on him for the final blow, implying human intelligence.
It is later shown that they have individual names and personalities as well. It's also quickly noted by Eito Aotsuki that their powers are similar to Hemoanima, with the one fought in the demo cutting his neck in a similar way to how the students stab themselves with Infusers to assume their Class Armor, leading him and other students to theorize they may be mutated humans or similar. Hiruko Shizuhara has no empathy for the first Commander after he seemed to pretend to surrender to unleash a sneak attack, leading her to kill him without mercy in a Finishing Blow. However, this turned out to be a misunderstanding, as he was performing needed gestures to activate his hemoanima form and didn't intend to deceive the group.
It is later revealed that the Commanders are powerful Futarans with a naturally high amount of cryptoglobin in their system, serving as a combination rulership and elite military caste for their species, and worshipped as "heroes". These commanders are called Paragons in the Futaran language, followed by a quality to their title like Order, Hope, or Nature, that a priest called an Oracle feels they understand and embody (this does not necessarily line up with human ideas of that quality - the Futuran idea of "Hope" is actually "that which makes the impossible possible" as opposed to any implication of inspiring others through example, as shown by how the Paragon of Hope is notoriously self-centered and contemptuous of others but displays incredible levels of determination and ability to adapt to a situation). They are convinced that the destruction of the LDA is a holy mission, but all have different personalities, from opinions to moral character beyond that. For instance, V'ehxness doesn't respect the lives of her followers or even their god, despite her status as the commander, and regularly sacrifices them in plans to destroy the Academy and attain power, even her sister, Eva. However, Eva herself is a pacifist and only fights to ensure the safety of her own daughter, Kamyuhn, and bares no ill-will towards the LDA, recognizing that they were likely forced into the fight as she was after being shown mercy. Later revelations reveal their antagonism stems from the Last Defense Academy being a spaceship set to decimate their home world and destroy their species to render it fit for human colonization in 100 days, with Project Exodus using home-grown Futarans made to believe they were humans conscripted into defending humanity from the "evil Invaders".
Unlike the students of the Special Defense Unit, who have to be put in the Revive O-Matic to use their Hemoanima to heal themselves of massive injuries, the commanders are seemingly able to heal from their injuries with no outside help, as shown after Eito cut off four of Murvrum's appendages. However, if they sustain enough damage, they will be forced to detransform from their monster forms. The students speculate that this is due to them using up all their power.
Appearance[]
In contrast to the school invaders, the commanders have much more detailed designs. Each one has a humanoid form and a giant monster form that varies from one Commander to another. They wear helmeted armor in humanoid form, underneath which they resemble humans.
Members[]
- V'ehxness (Supreme Commander): Paragon of Hope and leader of the Commanders. Monster form resembles an armored knight with wings and tentacles.
Murvrum[]
Murvrum, known as First Squadron Commander/Squad One Commander in the prologue, is the Paragon of Order. His transformed appearance resembles a massive skeletal wyvern with claws for wings. He has 80 HP, 2 Attack, and 10 Move.
Passive Skills[]
- Null Stun: User is immune to Stun.
- Flight: User's movement is not hindered by terrain or other units.
- Rapid Fire: User can act twice per turn in succession.
- Counter: Perform a counterattack when hit by an enemy.
Actions[]
- Details Unknown: -
- 2 Attack, 10 Move
- Affects a 3x3 square in front of Murvrum. He attacks using spikes coming up from the ground.
- Details Unknown: -
- 3 Attack, 10 Move
- Affects a 5x5 outline of a square around Murvrum. He attacks in a circular motion around himself.
Pakron[]
Known as Second Squadron Commander/Squad Two Commander in the prologue. Paragon of Virtue. Her transformed appearance resembles a massive monster wielding a trident that can separate into trio of serpentine monsters wielding spears. She has 70 HP, 5 Attack, and 2 Move.
Passive Skills[]
- Null Stun: User is immune to Stun.
Actions[]
- Details Unknown: -
- 5 Attack, 2 Move
- Affects a 2-space wide by 3-space long rectangle in front of Pakron.
- Details Unknown: -
- 8 Attack, 0 Move
- Affects four crosses (the same size as Darumi's) all around Pakron.
- Addamaque (Third Squadron Commander/Squad Three Commander): Paragon of Hatred. Monster form resembles a Wanyūdō who gets around using his sickles.
- Quenzelle (Fourth Squadron Commander/Squad Four Commander): Paragon of Repulsion. Monster form resembles a flying whale that drops eggs containing School Invaders.
- Parmith (Fifth Squadron Commander/Squad Five Commander): Paragon of Devotion. Monster form resembles a flying sphere with multiple faces that can also become a tower of tentacles.
- Eva (Sixth Squadron Commander/Squad Six Commander): Paragon of Nature. Monster form resembles a hunter with a cloak of darkness, using manifested fog to sneak attack enemies. Has the chance to be captured by the LDA and later joins through brainwashing or by her own will.
- Zen'ta (Seventh Squadron Commander/Squad Seven Commander): Paragon of Harmony. Monster form resembles a massive blob of eyes, but can shapeshift into anyone she so chooses, such as Moko or Eito. Her ability can even spawn clones of the student combatants.
- Valla-Garzo (Eight Squadron Commander/Squad Eight Commander): Paragon of Indomitability. Monster form resembles a gigantic head with a flowing mane and no arms, supported by two rather short legs. His ability takes the form of a cannon that appears on his forehead (giving the impression of a horn) which can fire off devastating long ranged attacks.
- Szanshin (Ninth Squadron Commander/Squad Nine Commander): Paragon of Salvation. Monster form resembles a worm/serpent that can burrow in the ground. Her main ability is to assimilate opponents and allies, such as Ima and Valla-Garzo (Valla-Garshin).
- Nyewgank (Tenth Squadron Commander/Squad Ten Commander): Paragon of Charity. Monster form resembles a horned monster with arms in a straightjacket, his lower body being a massive disco ball-like sphere. His main ability is to rewind things.
- Turamtammi (Eleventh Squadron Commander/Squad Eleven Commander): Paragon of Reverie. Monster form resembles that of a idol girl with twin tails and a skirt, wielding a massive microphone stand. Her main ability is using soundwaves to create illusions.
- Dahl' xia (Zeroth Squadron Commander): Paragon of Warfare. Monster form resembles Murvrum's dragon form as Murvrum is his son, but yellow instead of the other Commander's red.
Gameplay[]
During the combat mode of the game, the commanders act as enemies that needs to be fought. They will appear as a boss on the final wave and unlike the school invaders, commanders have much more HP and more powerful attacks. Although one can be seen in the game footage so far, they attack back if an attacking student attacks in their vicinity. Meaning mid range attackers have an advantage in attacking them while the near range attackers don't. When defeated, the player has an option for a party member to perform a Finishing Blow on them in their humanoid form to increase their Voltage gain rate, although in the first boss fight in the demo against Murvrum, Hiruko automatically does so herself.
Trivia[]
- The Commanders, on the first cycle through the 100 days, speak in untranslated Futuran, and their names are given in their language, similar to the Machine Lifeforms in Nier: Automata before 9S translates their dialogue.[1] After the first fight with V'ehxness, Takumi gains the ability to understand them, causing their dialogue and names to be translated.
- Through decipherment efforts, primarily relying on the instances of it appearing in the menu, Futaran in its written form appears to be a relex of Japanese (that is, Japanese written in a different script). This makes it possible to decipher what the commanders are saying.[2]
- According to these decipherments, the first commander uses 僕 (boku), a first person pronoun typically used by men. This revealed that the commander, Murvrum, is male ahead of the period where his dialogue is understood.
- Unlike the regular school invaders, the commanders bleed red instead of pink/black. This because they are normal Futurans as opposed to artificial combat organisms, and cryptoglobin is colored similarly to normal blood.
- The helmet Murvrum wears looks similar to a rat's skull. With the Western zodiacs written on the student's profiles, this might be a refine to the Eastern zodiacs, thus contrasting the two.[1]
- The Futuran, Kamyuhn, while not a Commander, possesses an ability known as Divine Wisdom. This implies that the Commander's version of Specialist Skills may follow a similar naming pattern.
- It it revealed soon after any route where Dahl'xia is encountered that Murvrum is his son, implying that the monster forms of Commanders may be partly genetic in nature given how similar Murvrum's alternate form looks to that of his father, as well as how V'ehxness and Eva (who are sisters) both have very humanoid alternate forms.