• Add Review
  • Subscribe
  • Nominate
  • Submit Media
  • RSS
This remix of ABL contains upgraded graphics and sound and should be considered the definitive version; it has three to four hours of gameplay beyond the end of the previous release, which was entitled THE LINE NARROWS.

What was originally one game has been split into two due to the release of RMXP, so I'm marking ABL 2.1 as 'Complete.' Don't laugh! The second half of the game will be released in RMXP as LINE'S END, and will have a separate entry on RMN.

Okay, now you can laugh. ^_^

Latest Blog

No blog entries have been posted yet.

  • Completed
  • Lys86
  • RPG Tsukuru 2000
  • RPG
  • 06/29/2007 05:07 PM
  • 09/09/2022 12:50 AM
  • 06/29/2007
  • 488013
  • 90
  • 29408

Tags

Posts

For some reason, the hide tags don't really like quotes, which is weird, so sorry if this is a little hard to follow.

Talan's Trial:

My best guess is Talan's meeting with Emily on the overlook was his trial. Talan tried to save her, and demonstrated his good intentions to Pierson.

I think at one point Talan confronts Emily about being suicidal, and she casually brushes it off, later mentioning that her job in Paradise is being an actress.



Seren's Backstory

I think the flashback Serne has was just a test he took while training to be an Agency Guard, and wasn't supposed to have been in Paradise. Just a case of Lysander reusing assets.


Doctor Vago:

If memory serves, he shows up in Emily's flashback. I think Pierson blamed him for not being able to save Emily's mother. I don't necessarily think he was exiled, but I think he might have felt alienated from the community after this.


author=Igloo9
Man, years ago I had a whole list of questions but I forgot them. Maybe I should do a replay of the game one of these days.


author=Sidewinder
I wrote up an in-depth theory about what's in the package. Definitely wouldn't recommend reading it before playing the game (it'll spoil a lot of major plot points and also won't make any sense).

Can't say for sure if it's right or not, but I figured some folks here might still care about ABL, and might find it interesting to read. It's pretty long though. Sorry about that.

What’s in the package?

To begin with, I think the best starting off point is to look at the Catch Colony, since there’s seemingly a connection between Package and the Colony.

The Agency wanted it when the Catch Colony was initially constructed, but later decided that it was too dangerous for them to possess and the (at the time) Director was willing to sanction the creation of Paradise (a nation that the Agency wasn’t ever allowed to enter) in order to keep the Package from ever falling into government hands. Likewise, during the ‘present day’ of A Blurred Line, the Agency’s plan seemed to involve (at least, partially) increasing the output from the Catch Colony, and reclaiming the Package is important to their end goal.

But, what is the Catch Colony?

We’re told that it’s a space station that supplies most of the planet’s energy, though it requires the use of facilities on the surface to convert this energy into a form that’s actually usable; during his meeting with the Director, Talan is told that most of what the public knows about the construction of the Colony is a lie. The exact extent of the conspiracy is still unrevealed after all these years, but it involved launching nuclear missiles at Lashe and Prima City in order to provoke a war against the Kingdom of Surl, and the use of a facility disguised as an oil refinery.

Likewise, it’s unclear if the Catch Colony is harvesting solar energy, microwave energy, or something else entirely. The Delcentric facility created toxic waste that mutated local rats, which points to it being ‘something else’, though this could simply be artistic license on Lysander’s part, but for the sake of the theory we’ll assume it’s something exotic.

Being sent to the Catch Colony is considered prestigious. The Mayor of Yun Town was ‘promoted’ to a position there, which characters in Yun Town and Sorbe Village both express surprise at. In particular, one NPC found in Sorbe comments that the Yun Town mayor was far less loyal to the agency, and less qualified than the Sorbe Village mayor was, and speculates that Doctor Vago might be sent to the Catch Colony soon.

What’s interesting to note is that Doctor is not loyal to the agency – he says as much himself when Talan first meets him. A later scene in the game shows him being taken away by agents. I think this raises a very interesting possibility. Was this actually foreshadowing, and was the Agency deliberately sending disloyal citizens to the Catch Colony?

In the intro, Talan does claim that the Agency doesn’t care about the colonists, though given his mental state at the time, this might mean nothing at all.

Regardless of who you side with in the Lashe City arc, the Agency always captures the Neon Vipers and the Lazer Teeth (technically the scene where it’s revealed the Neon Vipers were taken by the Agency doesn’t play, but I think it’s reasonable to assume that this happens no matter what). Later on, in the dream sequence, Talan can have a ‘conversation’ with either Arden, or Saldra. Both claim that they’re with their respective gangs now, but that their are less of them, and that the Agency keeps leading them from their cells, one by one.

If the Agency was sending disloyal people to the Catch Colony, is it possible that, in preparation for the increased output, they began rounding up gang members and criminals?

This raises the question, if I’m right and the Catch Colony isn’t using some kind of conventional power source like solar or microwave power... could it be powered by people? To the best of my knowledge, there is no reference to anyone sent to the Catch Colony returning from it.

Earlier on I mentioned that the rats in Lashe city were being mutated by toxic waste from the factory. It’s possible that, much later on in the game we encounter something similar. The Devolving Humanoid, fought in the sloping tunnels dungeon. The tunnels themselves are stated to have been built by a now extinct civilization that once inhabited this part of the kingdom of Surl, and are presumably the same people who originally built Paradise.

We know that the Agency had an interest in the Kingdom of Surl before the nuclear attack – the fake oil refinery had a tram that led directly to Prima City. It’s likely that the refinery originally had some kind of scientific function, before being used by the military. When Talan goes through a security door, the Package starts glowing, the base declares it’s a ‘foreign object’, and tries to destroy it with laser, before activating containment doors.

My theory is that what was in the Package is some kind of biological entity that the Agency found in the sloping tunnels before the shortage hit (and was responsible for wiping out the Paradise-Builders). It was studied in the Refinery, and the scientists discovered that it could create a nearly unlimited energy (provided it was given a sufficient supply of victims). The Agency decided to use it to save human civilization from the Shortage, but realizing it was just too dangerous to leave on Earth (they were very worried about containment in the refinery after all), they chose to build the Catch Colony – Surl, which would have likely been cooperating with the Agency up to this point denounced the plan (Eisen says as much during his story), so the Agency launched a false flag nuclear attack against themselves in order to give them a reason to destroy the Kingdom (and keep the truth from getting out).

The Package was a part of this biological entity, and Pierson’s group stole it before it could be sent to the Catch Colony.

But assuming all of this is true, how does the Package convert humans into energy? I think the answer lies with Talan and his ability to absorb auras.

During his rooftop encounter with the Agency Captain, the Captain touches Talan, and there’s some kind of reaction – something that deeply terrifies the captain. Given the Agency Guards’ reputation as being the ‘best of the best’ I think it’s safe to say that Talan wasn’t just some random telepath, his abilities were something altogether different. Something that the Agency had fought in the past, and found to be extremely dangerous.

This could potentially explain the Director’s ability to survive dying, or how the Agency Captain hasn’t aged – they’ve been mutated somehow.

During his meeting with the Director, the Director does two things before the bullet hits him. He pats Talan on the shoulder, and then locks the door to the office. His reasons for locking the door are obviously to prevent the Agency Guards from immediately rushing into the room, but, him touching Talan’s shoulder is seemingly innocuous.

Except we later learn that Talan has a rash on his shoulder. Both Wick’s doctors, and Doctor Vago mention this, later on during the dream sequence in Paradise, Talan hallucinates that he’s talking to himself, and Dream Talan claims that he’s dying, before asking about his shoulder.

I think the Director injected Talan with... something. It was dormant in him at first, until his contact with the Agency Captain activated it somehow.

Obviously this is very speculative, but I do think it explains the Agency Captain’s behaviour on the rooftop (if some random assassin turned out to be injected with the G-Virus, wouldn’t YOU book it?), and potentially explains why the Agency Captain has no aura when you encounter him near Mnemosyne's home – he either knew exactly what you were, and had taken precautions, or had lost it years ago, in battle with the Entity.

But if this Entity exists, why haven’t we seen it before now? The game is (I think) roughly 2/3rds done, right?

Well... I think we have. Open up the A Blurred Line pictures folder, and go to a file named ‘Gtest.png’ created on July 22nd, 2002, as far as I can tell it’s derived from an HR Giger painting. I think it’s our Entity.

It’s shown (heavily distorted by a sine wave effect) in the Agency Captain’s dreams:

APPARITION
Anash'na go'rel amno Kersh!

And later, more clearly when the Agency Captain picks up the Package.

It seems to be trying to communicate with him – even as far back as when the Agency Captain first becomes the Keeper of Memories he seems to be struggling to say “Kersh” (Emily later assumes that’s his name, though in the intro he just calls “Kersh” an alias so I think it’s safe to say it’s just a random word in an alien language).

The Captain’s memories seem to recover somewhat just a few days afterwards, unlike Mnemosyne’s which never did, and are completely restored after touching the Package. It’s possible that memories can be restored if someone touches something very important to them in the past, though incredibly unlikely. Data-mining shows that Mnemosyne was Emily’s mother, and her original memories weren’t restored from seeing her daughter.

I guess my ultimate theory is that the Package contains the head of the Entity. The Agency has its body, and can feed it Auras, but if it would be considerably more powerful if its head were returned.


That's a pretty amazing theory. I wouldn't be surprised if the actual plot were something like that. I always wondered what the "Apparition" was that Kersh saw, I didn't know if it was a relevant plot point or just something he was seeing after blacking out.

Every few months I come here to see if there's any update on Line's End, but nothing. Back in 2015 Lysander still expressed interest in finishing it, so I'm still looking forward to it. If he's too busy that's totally okay, but I wish he could upload a script or even just write a few paragraphs explaining the rest of the story.

I have a few questions/theories of my own:


Passing the Paradise test:
After arriving at Paradise, Talan's trials were waived. But then later on when under attack by the Agency, Pearson said Talan had passed a trial nobody passed before. Talan was confused because the trials were waived, but Pearson said "No Talan, you passed with flying colors." I wonder what he meant by that?

What's even more interesting is, in Sern's flashback at Mnemosyne's place, there's a scene of him and the others from Paradise back when they worked for the Agency. My memory is a bit hazy, but I think they were taking some test and Sern mentioned the leader, which I guess was Pearson, told them they passed with flying colors. Maybe it's a coincidence that the same line was used, but I can't help but wonder if "passed with flying colors" is referring to something else.

The chase:
Originally, Talan was being chased for assassinating the Director. Once he arrived at Paradise, they no longer cared about Talan and just wanted the package. You could say that was their plan - to chase Talan to Paradise which would give them a reason to attack and retrieve the package. After all, Kersh knew Talan was innocent and the Director was still alive. But wouldn't that mean they have to let Talan get to Paradise? Surely they weren't faking it, or else they would have given him a much bigger head start to make it there safely. At one point they even burned down the forest he was in, so they clearly wanted to capture him. What gives?

The Director seemed to be on Talan's side the way he was rooting for him when nobody was around. But if this was part of the Director's plan to attack Paradise, they could have attacked at any moment. Why did Talan need to be there? The only explanation is that the Director had this all planned out. He wanted Talan to make it to Paradise because perhaps he knew Talan had a quality that would cause Pearson to give him the package to protect. As for why Kersh chased Talan but then decided to go after the package, I have no idea.

Dr. Vago
I remember him mentioning he left Paradise for "reasons"... I wonder what happened?

The Director
To Talan, the Director was shot through the window. The video footage showed Talan casting a spell and killing the Director, or something like that. Which is the real one? Was the footage doctored or was Talan just hallucinating or something? I have no idea, but the other question is how is the Director still alive?

The package
I have no idea what's inside it, but this is probably my most wanted answer. Is it something physical? Considering it affected Kersh by simply touching it, maybe it's something more abstract like a power. I'm really curious.


Man, years ago I had a whole list of questions but I forgot them. Maybe I should do a replay of the game one of these days.
I wrote up an in-depth theory about what's in the package. Definitely wouldn't recommend reading it before playing the game (it'll spoil a lot of major plot points and also won't make any sense).

Can't say for sure if it's right or not, but I figured some folks here might still care about ABL, and might find it interesting to read. It's pretty long though. Sorry about that.

What’s in the package?

To begin with, I think the best starting off point is to look at the Catch Colony, since there’s seemingly a connection between Package and the Colony.

The Agency wanted it when the Catch Colony was initially constructed, but later decided that it was too dangerous for them to possess and the (at the time) Director was willing to sanction the creation of Paradise (a nation that the Agency wasn’t ever allowed to enter) in order to keep the Package from ever falling into government hands. Likewise, during the ‘present day’ of A Blurred Line, the Agency’s plan seemed to involve (at least, partially) increasing the output from the Catch Colony, and reclaiming the Package is important to their end goal.

But, what is the Catch Colony?

We’re told that it’s a space station that supplies most of the planet’s energy, though it requires the use of facilities on the surface to convert this energy into a form that’s actually usable; during his meeting with the Director, Talan is told that most of what the public knows about the construction of the Colony is a lie. The exact extent of the conspiracy is still unrevealed after all these years, but it involved launching nuclear missiles at Lashe and Prima City in order to provoke a war against the Kingdom of Surl, and the use of a facility disguised as an oil refinery.

Likewise, it’s unclear if the Catch Colony is harvesting solar energy, microwave energy, or something else entirely. The Delcentric facility created toxic waste that mutated local rats, which points to it being ‘something else’, though this could simply be artistic license on Lysander’s part, but for the sake of the theory we’ll assume it’s something exotic.

Being sent to the Catch Colony is considered prestigious. The Mayor of Yun Town was ‘promoted’ to a position there, which characters in Yun Town and Sorbe Village both express surprise at. In particular, one NPC found in Sorbe comments that the Yun Town mayor was far less loyal to the agency, and less qualified than the Sorbe Village mayor was, and speculates that Doctor Vago might be sent to the Catch Colony soon.

What’s interesting to note is that Doctor is not loyal to the agency – he says as much himself when Talan first meets him. A later scene in the game shows him being taken away by agents. I think this raises a very interesting possibility. Was this actually foreshadowing, and was the Agency deliberately sending disloyal citizens to the Catch Colony?

In the intro, Talan does claim that the Agency doesn’t care about the colonists, though given his mental state at the time, this might mean nothing at all.

Regardless of who you side with in the Lashe City arc, the Agency always captures the Neon Vipers and the Lazer Teeth (technically the scene where it’s revealed the Neon Vipers were taken by the Agency doesn’t play, but I think it’s reasonable to assume that this happens no matter what). Later on, in the dream sequence, Talan can have a ‘conversation’ with either Arden, or Saldra. Both claim that they’re with their respective gangs now, but that their are less of them, and that the Agency keeps leading them from their cells, one by one.

If the Agency was sending disloyal people to the Catch Colony, is it possible that, in preparation for the increased output, they began rounding up gang members and criminals?

This raises the question, if I’m right and the Catch Colony isn’t using some kind of conventional power source like solar or microwave power... could it be powered by people? To the best of my knowledge, there is no reference to anyone sent to the Catch Colony returning from it.

Earlier on I mentioned that the rats in Lashe city were being mutated by toxic waste from the factory. It’s possible that, much later on in the game we encounter something similar. The Devolving Humanoid, fought in the sloping tunnels dungeon. The tunnels themselves are stated to have been built by a now extinct civilization that once inhabited this part of the kingdom of Surl, and are presumably the same people who originally built Paradise.

We know that the Agency had an interest in the Kingdom of Surl before the nuclear attack – the fake oil refinery had a tram that led directly to Prima City. It’s likely that the refinery originally had some kind of scientific function, before being used by the military. When Talan goes through a security door, the Package starts glowing, the base declares it’s a ‘foreign object’, and tries to destroy it with laser, before activating containment doors.

My theory is that what was in the Package is some kind of biological entity that the Agency found in the sloping tunnels before the shortage hit (and was responsible for wiping out the Paradise-Builders). It was studied in the Refinery, and the scientists discovered that it could create a nearly unlimited energy (provided it was given a sufficient supply of victims). The Agency decided to use it to save human civilization from the Shortage, but realizing it was just too dangerous to leave on Earth (they were very worried about containment in the refinery after all), they chose to build the Catch Colony – Surl, which would have likely been cooperating with the Agency up to this point denounced the plan (Eisen says as much during his story), so the Agency launched a false flag nuclear attack against themselves in order to give them a reason to destroy the Kingdom (and keep the truth from getting out).

The Package was a part of this biological entity, and Pierson’s group stole it before it could be sent to the Catch Colony.

But assuming all of this is true, how does the Package convert humans into energy? I think the answer lies with Talan and his ability to absorb auras.

During his rooftop encounter with the Agency Captain, the Captain touches Talan, and there’s some kind of reaction – something that deeply terrifies the captain. Given the Agency Guards’ reputation as being the ‘best of the best’ I think it’s safe to say that Talan wasn’t just some random telepath, his abilities were something altogether different. Something that the Agency had fought in the past, and found to be extremely dangerous.

This could potentially explain the Director’s ability to survive dying, or how the Agency Captain hasn’t aged – they’ve been mutated somehow.

During his meeting with the Director, the Director does two things before the bullet hits him. He pats Talan on the shoulder, and then locks the door to the office. His reasons for locking the door are obviously to prevent the Agency Guards from immediately rushing into the room, but, him touching Talan’s shoulder is seemingly innocuous.

Except we later learn that Talan has a rash on his shoulder. Both Wick’s doctors, and Doctor Vago mention this, later on during the dream sequence in Paradise, Talan hallucinates that he’s talking to himself, and Dream Talan claims that he’s dying, before asking about his shoulder.

I think the Director injected Talan with... something. It was dormant in him at first, until his contact with the Agency Captain activated it somehow.

Obviously this is very speculative, but I do think it explains the Agency Captain’s behaviour on the rooftop (if some random assassin turned out to be injected with the G-Virus, wouldn’t YOU book it?), and potentially explains why the Agency Captain has no aura when you encounter him near Mnemosyne's home – he either knew exactly what you were, and had taken precautions, or had lost it years ago, in battle with the Entity.

But if this Entity exists, why haven’t we seen it before now? The game is (I think) roughly 2/3rds done, right?

Well... I think we have. Open up the A Blurred Line pictures folder, and go to a file named ‘Gtest.png’ created on July 22nd, 2002, as far as I can tell it’s derived from an HR Giger painting. I think it’s our Entity.

It’s shown (heavily distorted by a sine wave effect) in the Agency Captain’s dreams:

APPARITION
Anash'na go'rel amno Kersh!

And later, more clearly when the Agency Captain picks up the Package.

It seems to be trying to communicate with him – even as far back as when the Agency Captain first becomes the Keeper of Memories he seems to be struggling to say “Kersh” (Emily later assumes that’s his name, though in the intro he just calls “Kersh” an alias so I think it’s safe to say it’s just a random word in an alien language).

The Captain’s memories seem to recover somewhat just a few days afterwards, unlike Mnemosyne’s which never did, and are completely restored after touching the Package. It’s possible that memories can be restored if someone touches something very important to them in the past, though incredibly unlikely. Data-mining shows that Mnemosyne was Emily’s mother, and her original memories weren’t restored from seeing her daughter.

I guess my ultimate theory is that the Package contains the head of the Entity. The Agency has its body, and can feed it Auras, but if it would be considerably more powerful if its head were returned.
If anyone using EasyRPG is having issues with missing graphics and the RTP from the main RPGmaker site isn't working then try downloading https://rpgmaker.net/engines/rt2k/utilities/199/

Extract the files into the games directory and then try launching from EasyRPG again and it should work.
Man this game was awesome minigames were a little tough but nothing i couldnt handle. Story was awesome friend and ive enjoyed your games very much!
author=eveynowandthen
So how do i run this game? The ReadMe file says this: "Create a folder in the Projects folder of your RM2K directory, name it ABL20, and unzip the contents of the zip file into it. Run the RPG_RT". But what Projects file? There is no Projects folder in RPGMaker 2000's directory. I am so confused, and it won't work at all without it. Could someone help me?

I don't know why that's in the ReadMe, it really doesn't matter where you upzip the folder.

You could try using EasyRPG? Should get the game to launch, at least.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
If there is no "Projects" folder, then... create a "Projects" folder?

Also be aware that the game was made with an older unofficial translation of RPG Maker 2K. I'm not 100% sure what the differences are between them, but, that might be a part of the issue?
So how do i run this game? The ReadMe file says this: "Create a folder in the Projects folder of your RM2K directory, name it ABL20, and unzip the contents of the zip file into it. Run the RPG_RT". But what Projects file? There is no Projects folder in RPGMaker 2000's directory. I am so confused, and it won't work at all without it. Could someone help me?
Am I the only one not able to download the game?
I get the message: "Your download should begin shortly, if it doesn't, click the button below."
But neither the download begins nor the button works...
author=Jacob31
author=Zydin
Hi guys,

curious to try this one, but it won't run as I do not have the RTP stuff. Could I ask the developer to include that and let me have a donwnload of the whole thing in one go?

:-)

If possible, I would appreciate that.

Thanks and Regards!
Hi,

for everyone who is struggling to run this game, here is what I did to make it work. I installed the RTP from both of the following links:

http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/6088/locker/rtp.exe
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/6088/locker/RTP132e.exe

I hope I helped someone to be able to experience this legendary game!


To anyone still having trouble, I did these steps and it still didn't work. However, I was recommended an emulator and that finally got the game to run. I used EasyRPG Player https://easyrpg.org/player/

Hope that helps!
author=Deckiller
Yearly comment that this game should be remade or finished xd


Seconded.
Decky
I'm a dog pirate
19645
Yearly comment that this game should be remade or finished xd
author=dethmetal
If Lys started a Kickstarter for Line's End, I would donate an obscene amount of money towards it.


Seconded. Very good idea. I wonder if he ever reads this site any more. He's pretty easy to find on Twitter.
If Lys started a Kickstarter for Line's End, I would donate an obscene amount of money towards it.
It sure sounds like a font problem to me. You should be able to find the RM2K default RTP and fonts etc. eslewhere on the interwebs (not sure we're allowed to link to them on this site anymore). Google is your friend.
author=Faenon
I think you just need the RM2K font patch. Try the forums, useful stuff thread. Sorry, don't have time to hunt it down right now. Also there may just be fonts in the game folder which you can copy over into the relevant folder on your computer.

i don't know what the f*** happened! After installing the files above, all my downloaded games made in RPG MAKER 2000 doesn't display the font anymore.
Anybody have the proper RTP or something to help me please?

Its not a font problem, i searched every game around till i found the rpg2000 font and reinstalled it, and nothing changed at all. Games have no letters at all now
I think you just need the RM2K font patch. Try the forums, useful stuff thread. Sorry, don't have time to hunt it down right now. Also there may just be fonts in the game folder which you can copy over into the relevant folder on your computer.
Hi, guys! I'm rediscovering the master works of the rpg maker. I played all ''The Way'' and it was pretty awesome. Now i want to play ''A Blurred Line'', first after downloading the zip, tha game close itself with a missing file warning. I come here looking for answers and
author=Jacob31
author=Zydin
Hi guys,

curious to try this one, but it won't run as I do not have the RTP stuff. Could I ask the developer to include that and let me have a donwnload of the whole thing in one go?

:-)

If possible, I would appreciate that.

Thanks and Regards!
Hi,

for everyone who is struggling to run this game, here is what I did to make it work. I installed the RTP from both of the following links:

http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/6088/locker/rtp.exe
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/6088/locker/RTP132e.exe

I hope I helped someone to be able to experience this legendary game!


Hi, guys! I'm rediscovering the master works of the rpg maker. I played all ''The Way'' and it was pretty awesome. Now i want to play ''A Blurred Line''; at first after downloading the zip, tha game close itself with a missing file warning. I come here looking for answers and saw the post above. Installed those files mentioned, and now i can play ''A Blurred Line''. But strangely, the game doesn't display any letter or font. This game uses a custom font? Where i can find it?
author=Zydin
Hi guys,

curious to try this one, but it won't run as I do not have the RTP stuff. Could I ask the developer to include that and let me have a donwnload of the whole thing in one go?

:-)

If possible, I would appreciate that.

Thanks and Regards!


Hi,

for everyone who is struggling to run this game, here is what I did to make it work. I installed the RTP from both of the following links:

http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/6088/locker/rtp.exe
http://rpgmaker.net/media/content/users/6088/locker/RTP132e.exe

I hope I helped someone to be able to experience this legendary game!
Hi guys,

curious to try this one, but it won't run as I do not have the RTP stuff. Could I ask the developer to include that and let me have a donwnload of the whole thing in one go?

:-)

If possible, I would appreciate that.

Thanks and Regards!