https://www.paradisehotel51.com/sin/202 ... -book-tsc/
I updated the Complete Book page to include your translations and a better description of the book's content, let me know if I got anything wrong.
It doesn't really give you the answers that you want but I think it just helps you put some of the game's mysteries into perspective. I was hoping for more to be honest, but probably wasn't gonna happen.
It actually did help me piece together some things. For example, I did not really think about the fact that time moves linearly for Toriko and Christina, as if their sections were taking place one after the other, as opposed to Sumio's time loop. (Which I don't think is actually a time loop at all)
It actually ties together with something I've been thinking for a while, that is to say, that Toriko is the equivalent of what the 25th ward describes as an "Observer" (which is actually a misnomer taken from the Regional Adjustment Bureau chain of command. Observers actually are just employees tasked with overseeing postman operations. Kurumizawa uses the term to indicate his own situation where he ascended humanity as a digital man that exists as information, and is thus an "observer that cannot be observed".
Toriko seems to be the same exact type of entity as Kurumizawa, which is why she can interact directly with Sundance Shot (whom she calls Kamui Uehara, but he doesen't recognize that name, because Kamui Uehara is a name that the TRO/CCO alliance came up with after his death lol.)
Kurumizawa also claims to be in contact with an ancestral Kamui Uehara that exists beyond humanity, and possibly predates humanity.
The fact that both Toriko & Kurumizawa perceive time differently seems to indicate as much. As in that they're fourth dimensional beings. What we see of them in the tridimensional world is the equivalent of a shadow, like the shadow of a man appears two-dimensional on a wall.
It also confirmed what I was thinking since forever, that Sundance Shot exists within the Sumio collective but he doesen't actually have a physical form. (Which is why Toriko calls him Kamui. Kamui Uehara is also an external personality which goes on to overwrite your original one.)
Why does Toriko appear to be Tetsugoro's daughter? I got no fucking clue lol. Reading the in-game guidebook, you might think that Toriko is actually the maiden who prayed for the Island to be saved, guiding the Japanese stranger to the monument, but there is also a possibility that that passage is referring to Catherine/Katharine. (Whom the new version of TSC seems to confirm is actually a spirit.) Granted it's also possible that Toriko and Catherine are one and the same, with Christina being Sumio (both their portraits are pink, their "voices" sound the same whenever Christina speaks.)
There is a chance that the real-life Toriko inherited the will of the Lospass maiden (who could be Catherine) much like Sumio (and eventually Step) would eventually inherit the will of the Sundance people, but it's also possible that Toriko just appears that way to Sumio, since we play as him.
The TSC timeline does seem to indicate that at some point Tetsugoro did travel to Lospass with his daughter.
https://thesilvercase.com/en/history.html
●“Mondo & Land”――Scheduled for the next game. Kusabi takes his daughter Toriko on vacation to a summer resort. There, he meets a man named Sumio Mondo. “Sumio”... That reminds him of a certain someone.
I just prefer to bring up this stuff in the actual analysis instead of posting it without context in the book page. I don't think there's any way to reach an absolute concrete answer though, much like you can't fully explain spirituality as a human being in the real world.
For each game, it seems to be just general info and then a few of Suda's comments which are the interesting stuff. There are a bunch of long interviews and then the short story/draft stuff. Red/blue/green out, killer is dead (birkin) and SotD plot are done, which would leave the Killer is dead plot and there's also a draft proposal thing for Moonlight Syndrome (pg 97-105).
There's also two unused scripts within the Moonlight Syndrome game files themselves. There's a bunch of side stories based on scrapped chapters which I wonder how similar they are to the draft proposal. (I know you haven't played those games yet, I'm just wondering)
Resonance of Fate is one. I think it has a really interesting story that I don't think anyone has really gotten into, at least not back when I played it. I searched countless used book stores in Japan trying to track down the guidebooks for that game.
Another one would be Zanki Zero. This game was mostly ignored due to a censorship thing
LOL I actually have both games and I never played either. Resonance of Fate I always thought looked interesting, and I even bought a used copy for cheap, but I never ended up playing it. I think Jack has played it but I might be misremembering. The same thing happened to me with Folklore. I should just try running both on RPCS3.
Zank Zero I never ended up playing because I was going to play it with a certain person and chance never arose, so I just forgot about it until you brought it up. I wasn't too worried about the censorship considering it has a pc version and I'm sure it was fixed at some point.
I could wax poetic about this game all day, but no one will give a shit.
I would personally care about it, but I see your point. Most fans of "niche" games don't actually play them at all, or care about them. They're only interested in the label of "being into niche games" so they can put it on their twitter bio or something lol. (Which is partially why I'm not really part of any online community. Other than my, let's say "colorful" personality and opinions, which somehow always boil down to nuking the united states.)
It actually speaks to a higher problem in society, that is to say that most people only ever use their capability for language, to elevate their self esteem and (supposed) popularity. Which is how large groups are made to change their mind on a whim by televised & internet propaganda, just to fit in with the popular consensus.
Granted it's not their fault, that's what they've been mindbroken to think in school where you learn to only speak, to repeat your superior's words, and you are given high grades for mnemonically absorbing the information as it is given to you. If you refuse to they just waste even more years of your life, like you're in jail.
In other words, you spend all of your early life being taught to only speak in order to replicate someone else's speech, like a parrot, LOL!
In short, if you want to open a thread to talk about Zanki Zero or whatever's on your mind I wouldn't mind at all, and I'd probably be interested in reading it, but don't expect to ever get the type of attention you'd get in a 4chan thread or something. Although I do think that Krixxz played Zanki Zero; I think he brought up the censorship on the old forums, but I can't be bothered to check right now