(You can leave hints about what happened in the game, but complete spoilers that happened way after where the anime is currently at is not welcomed [Not like I can stop you but please don't spoil the story of the game further than the current anime])

So it looks like in Episode 22 that Ash, and by extension Us as the player character, are the original ARKs that are basically biological weapons created to fight the Dark Falz. The comments of where I saw the episode also implies that Ash has tried to stop the bad future of Profound Darkness awakening but failed many times and only one of them ended up a Dark Falz.

I know Profound Darkness is a boss (I mean seriously the final boss of the original 4th game is here, how can it not be a boss?), but if I was in Ash's place I think I would tell Matoi about it reviving from her dying, or more specifically getting killed by a Falspawn or Dark Falz and then try to come up with a way to actually fight the Profound Darkness like the heroes of Phantasy Star IV did. Anyway it seems like the next episode we'll probably find out the true history between Ash and Matoi, or just Ash. What are your thoughts and theories from the latest episode of the anime so far? (people who haven't played or watched the game's story specifically. Although I've seen comments that the anime is only a little different from the game so everyone is still welcomed to theorize and then talk about the anime when it continues.)

Where are you watching the anime? I have dug into literally none of it - crunchy roll?

@Rantious It's on Funimation Now. If you have Discord Nitro, check your email. They gave away a free extended trial a few weeks ago.

The show's great, I'm watching around seven series, this season, and PSO2:E0 is basically tied for which one I have been most excited to watch. (The other being ID:Invaded) I'm thinking, since it's almost over, Ash will have to have his backstory gone into this week and next week will be a culmination of the battle inside Gemini and some Matoi exposition. So, I think you've hit the nail on the head with thinking that. Honestly, I think it's a great show, even if you don't care about the game.. It's a lot of fun. Just goes to prove that the story holds up.

@Rantious , it's on AnimeDao but you have to shuffle between the first, horrid, series and the new one to get to it.

@Rantious the only two places that have it up for streaming are Funimation and Hulu.

The anime (plus early access to episodes of Fate / Grand Order) is actually well worth spending about $8 on. It tells the story of the game far better than the game itself, and actually does a really good job of making someone care about the characters.

@Vicodin-Villian

Lolol funny. Because I don't... Well most of them anyway.