Quite a few of the characters we meet in God Eater 3 are Adaptive God Eaters, and Lulu Baran is one of them. She’s a fierce warrior who can sometimes seem more like an animal than a human, all because of the way she was treated growing up. (She even tends to shy away from human contact initially and hide in the shadows, rather than engage the group after joining the ship.) She has the potential to be a heavy hitter for the party. Her AI has her chasing down foes if they try to escape her, and she’s exceptionally quick. But her great damage output isn’t just what makes her great. The way she is introduced and how she interacts with the party also makes her wonderful.
It is even possible to consider the player character and Lulu opposite sides of the same coin in God Eater 3. Both are AGEs who have been experimented on by their respective ports. Both were used and abused. Each one is exceptionally powerful. Both start out using Biting Edges, one of this installment’s newest weapons. While our avatar has a knack for resonance, Lulu is the first person we meet who is able to use the Acceleration Trigger system. Each one experienced a similar situation in their formative years, but the environment they were in and people they interacted with helped shape their personality and experiences. The people at Baran port were abusive, sure. But while the Pennywort port folks were just as bad, our avatar was never alone.
Once Lulu becomes a part of the crew, we get to see the fellow AGEs and other members of the Chrysanthemum having the same positive effect on her that people like Huge, Zeke, and Keith had on our avatar. During small talk with her at the hub, we see that she comes out of her shell more and more as people talk to her and welcome her into their lives. We learn that she enjoys playing cards with the other people onboard the ship. Lil looks up to her and wants to be like her, the more time she spends around her. She even begins to use her survival skills that kept herself alive to make the lives of people around her better, as she begins cooking for people onboard the ship.
It’s getting to see her open up that may make her accepted by players, in the same way the crew does too. After all, we meet her when she’s trying to fight and kill all of our party members. Once we get back to the base, we learn why she is so hostile. She was so abused that she knows nothing else. She was a tool that was thrown away, with everything hinting at her existence thrown away. We see her prove herself by becoming a valuable ally. We watch as she trusts us after having her Acceleration Trigger fixed by Keith so it isn’t killing her. Hilda and the crew offers her a position, helping her realize that her entire past being erased is more of a positive than a negative. There’s no need to buy a contract or jump through hoops for her to become a part of the Chrysanthemum.
She’s also the sort of character that pairs well in any sort of group. While having someone like Claire or Phym around is handy and necessary, due to their healing bullets and tendencies to sometimes take the time to aid others, Lulu offers the same sort of brute force your avatar could. She is a little frail, something that is odd considering how she was able to survive on her own in the Ashlands in the story, but having such a great DPS unit that will make a point of going after Aragami and helping draw its aggression so it isn’t always chasing after you is a great thing in a balanced party.
Lulu is a great God Eater 3 character. She is incredibly useful in a fight, due to her strength and ability to quickly go after and stick to an Aragami opponent. She’s a good counterpart to the avatar, since the two characters grew up in similar situations. We also get to see her grow throughout the game into an amazing individual who understands she is free and there are people out there who will appreciate her and be kind to her.
God Eater 3 is available for the PlayStation 4 and PC.
