Tatiana Qwartz (2024)

"Okay listen, honey. You think you can just walk in here to drag us all into your silly little fantasy? You are so naïve to think that rock is still relevant. Stop living in the past! There is only one music in demand right now, and that is...E-D-M! The age of rock is over. EDM rules this city!"

―Tatiana, to Mayday

Tatiana Qwartz, formerly known as her stage name, Kul Fyra, is the CEO and founder of NSR and the prime charter of Vinyl City. She is portrayed as the main antagonist and final traditional boss of No Straight Roads.

Overview

TBA

Appearance

Tatiana is a tall woman with grey skin that appears like stone with magenta eyes. She wears red rectangular earrings, small circular glasses that match her eyes, a vest with gold patterning that's worn over a long black dress (resembling a road or street), as well as black fingerless gloves.

After the final standoff with Kliff, Tatiana embraces her rock origins and stars a new, red, gem-like hair style. Additionally her eyes put on a more reddish hue as opposed to her original magenta. Her glasses are no longer present on her face.

Personality

Tatiana is a snooty perfectionist that heads NSR and rules Vinyl City. She is a stern, authoritarian figure: professional, political, and almost unwavering. Her main motif is keeping 'Order' in the city. She has proven to be adept in debates as well, sometimes even cornering people with her words. She's surprisingly patient and shown to be well-restrained with her emotions, and will only erupt when truly pushed to her limits. She's also very blunt and is not afraid to be harsh with her words at all. She's not one for cliches or "theatrics"; a no-nonsense attitude.

Back when she was the lead guitarist of the Goolings, Tatiana was a much nicer and more relaxed person. However, her organization of the band was not born out of a genuine sense of trust in the band, but out of a lack of self-confidence or ability to coordinate them. As a result, the band's disagreements eventually drove them apart, causing her to swing far too much in the other direction and become an obsessive micromanager with a personal grudge against rock as a genre, viewing the chaotic, anarchic culture as having caused her nothing but grief. By the end of the game, she realizes that she was being too caught up in her own past and decides to let independent bands return to Vinyl City.

Relationships

Bunk Bed Junction

Throughout the majority of the story, Tatiana is resentful towards Mayday and Zuke. She felt disdain for them almost immediately upon their first meeting at the lights up audition, simply because they chose to play rock. She sees them as a threat to the perceived order and prosperity she'd worked so hard to build. When Mayday and Zuke get to NSR Tower, she attempts to put a stop to the revolution by killing them then and there. After Kliff sets the NSR satellite to crash into NSR Tower, however, Bunk Bed Junction becomes an ally to her, and they work together to save NSR Tower. Tatiana has a change of heart and decides that Mayday and Zuke were right; the system needs to change. She even offers them a position in the new NSR party, though Mayday declines.

Kliff

Kliff was the Goolings' #1 fan before infighting led the band to dissolve. Kliff continued to support Tatiana even after the band was dissolved, encouraging her to remain a rock performer. Out of frustration for permitting infighting, Tatiana left rock to become the president of an EDM record label: NSR. Kliff, feeling like Tatiana owed him for his support, felt betrayed by Tatiana's decision, leading him to support Bunk Bed Junction. When Tatiana is defeated, Kliff arrives to confront her about leaving rock, but Tatiana disagreed with Kliff's outlook. Kliff proceeds to attack Tatiana by sending the NSR satellite to destroy NSR Tower, their last interaction was her breaking his nose. Tatiana evacuates the tower before going to the Grand Qwasa to help Bunk Bed Junction get past Kliff.

NSR

TBA

Possessions

• NSR Tower - A glass building with a lighthouse on top that is the home base of CEO Tatiana.
• NSR Post - A postal service
• NSR Bank - A bank own by the NSR record label. Unknown purposes.
• Tatiana Cruises - A line of cruises. Unknown purposes.
• Tatiana Hotels - A line of hotels. Unknown purposes.
• EDMart - A market

Boss Battle

DISCLAIMER: Metronome names are not official; just placeholders.

As of the initial release, there's currently a bug regarding the final phase where Tatiana has the crown spinning around her when she's at high ground. It is advised you don't use any long-ranged attacks, as it will target Tatiana instead of the crown, causing a blocker bug (crash, freeze, etc.). Metronomik is currently investigating this issue and will patch this out eventually.

With the release of Encore Edition the above bug has been patched.

Phase 1

Tatiana begins the battle out of reach, only occasionally firing 4 projectiles to Mayday and Zuke’s locations while a brightly glowing fixture rotates around the battlefield, known as the Crown.

Only some versions of the game specify this, but the only way to progress the fight is to provoke Tatiana into direct combat by attacking the Crown, which will cause her to summon a clock hand-shaped sword to attack with.

If you fail to hit the crown enough times, the phase starts over.

Phase 2

Once Tatiana jumps down, the second phase begins. Tatiana will attack with several slashes with her sword (two of which are in succession, the third after a slight delay) while simultaneously moving towards Mayday and Zuke, and by creating and shooting fireballs at the duo’s current location.

The fireballs each take a moment to grow in size before they shoot, but Tatiana can fire them in a great variety of speeds and formations, ranging from extremely slow to fast, or she may create 4 pink fireballs that can be parried back at her. She can also teleport, which she will do rapidly around the arena to get a sword attack in or to gain distance for her fireball moves.

Once enough damage is done to her by Bunk Bed Junction’s attacks, it will create a floating golden key that must be shot at her to end the phase.

The key hits her square in the chest, and as Tatiana reels from the impact, the windows depicting the Megastars shatter. Tatiana reacts with a “What? No!” in disbelief before jumping back up to her location in phase 1, and beginning phase 3.

If you fail to hit the crown enough times, the phase starts over.

Phase 3

Tatiana behaves exactly as she did in phase 1, however there is now a new stipulation to contend with: a time limit. While attacking Bunk Bed Junction, Tatiana will attempt to rewind time, which she will successfully do if the Crown isn’t attacked enough before it’s too late. If she does so, the battle will be reset back to phase 2, and it must be done all over again from the start, Tatiana regaining all the health she had lost.

The end of the time limit will be signaled by the Crown beginning to flash faster and faster, and the background music building up. Once the player manages to do enough damage to the Crown, phase 4 begins.

Phase 4

Tatiana jumps down to fight like in phase 2, but will summon a second sword and begin dual-wielding. This causes her normal sword attack to have twice the amount of slashes, as well as increased range. Otherwise, this phase isn’t much different from phase 2, however Tatiana may shoot more fireballs than she did previously.

Once enough damage is dealt and a new key shot into her, an image of a Goolings concert stage will appear in the background and the fight transitions to phase 5.

Phase 5

Phase 5 is exactly the same as phase 3. Once enough damage is dealt to the Crown, Tatiana will become so angry that she bursts into flames as her skin becomes glowing hot magma, before jumping down for phase 6.

Phase 6

Tatiana fights similarly to previous phases, but gains more fireball attacks, including one that can create up to 9 fireballs at once to attack Bunk Bed Junction with.

After enough damage is dealt to her, another key is shot into her. The concert lights up in a blaze of glory, and posters of Kul Fyra are revealed as ‘The Goolings’ appears on giant video screens, and she jumps back up for phase 7.

Phase 7

Tatiana rips the Crown off of the arena, leaving it to float around her where it cannot be attacked. She will attack with the same projectiles as before, but can also create spherical time rifts which will freeze Bunk Bed Junction in place if they get trapped inside one.

Tatiana cannot be damaged in this phase, and it will end automatically after a set period of time, wherein she will jump back down for the 8th and final phase.

Phase 8

Tatiana attacks much more aggressively than in previous phases, and her frequent teleporting can often keep her out of reach if the player is unlucky. In addition, she gains a new attack where she may drop her swords and begin charging in place. Once she’s done, she’ll burst into flames, inflicting huge damage if Mayday or Zuke happen to be too close to her while she’s doing so.

Once enough damage is inflicted to her, Mayday and Zuke finally get their chance to use the Showstopper, and the battle finally ends.

Story

Past

The Goolings

Tatiana used to go by the name "Kul Fyra", and was formerly the lead guitarist for the band, The Goolings. She grew disillusioned with the band because she "gave them too much support over their ideas" which lead to conflicts within the band, causing rifts internally and leading Tatiana to want to leave the band.

Once she had left the band she changed her appearance and started NSR with the philosophy that strength is the only way to rule, and ORDER should come over all else. The dismantling of the band also left Tatiana with a disdain for Rock in any form.

Lights Up Auditions

Tatiana and the NSR artists hold the Lights Up Auditions every year to find new musical talent for powering electricity all over the city.

Much later, they have disqualified Mayday and Zuke for playing rock, because this music genre is no longer prominent in Vinyl City. After Tatiana experienced the duo's absurd performance, and Mayday’s extremely rude reaction to their failure, she gave an announcement to the civilians that the Lights Up Auditions prohibit rock music, and only allow EDM.

DJ Subatomic Supernova

Tatiana appears just after Bunk Bed Junction defeat DJ Subatomic Supernova, requesting a report on his status with the NSR Satellite. Mayday takes the opportunity to declare war on NSR, and Tatiana recognizes them from the Lights Up Audition and stares dumbfounded at Mayday’s attempts to make a hand sign with Zuke.

She later appears on a news broadcast to discuss the successful launch of the NSR Satellite, but it’s interrupted by Mayday punching the TV.

Sayu and DK West

After Sayu’s defeat, Tatiana interrupts a news broadcast of Mayday and Zuke by punching the TV in anger, only to reveal that it was Eve’s TV, which was in Tatiana’s office for some reason. Seeing that the Megastars might not be able to handle this on their own, she uses the Horn of Mending to summon DK West, who is initially uninterested in the conflict until Tatiana brings up Zuke’s name. DK West arrived only to accept an apology from Tatiana, not to help her.

Tatiana and the Finale

As Bunk Bed Junction break into her office, Tatiana and Mayday get into an argument, with Mayday criticizing her bias against Rock music while Tatiana criticizes Bunk Bed Junction for their actions and methods in reshaping the city’s politics, pointing out how their poor example would likely lead to future riots by people who simply don’t like the system, including actual EDM fans, and asking how they plan to even run the city with those circ*mstances. When Mayday can’t provide an answer, Tatiana attacks the duo. However, she loses, and the Crown breaks apart to reveal Kul Fyra’s guitar.

Irritated that Mayday and Zuke haven’t gotten the hint, Tatiana informs them that she was Kul Fyra the whole time, and that the Goolings disbanded due to creative differences that she blamed herself for not controlling. After it’s revealed that the energy output of Rock and EDM are both the same, Tatiana sarcastically congratulates them before Kliff shows up.

Kliff explains how he felt about Kul Fyra’s disappearance, apparently having known Tatiana’s true identity the whole time, and asks if the support he gave her as her fan meant anything, to which Tatiana only replies that she doesn’t owe him anything. Kliff, in a rage, sets the NSR Satellite to collide with the NSR Tower in order to end the company and have Rock become the new dominant genre in Vinyl City. Mayday and Zuke decide to stop the satellite after realizing they’d become like NSR, and so Tatiana informs them that they have to give back the Districts to the Megastars in order to stop the satellite. Before they leave up the lift to the roof, Kliff calls out telling they shouldn't do this, prompting Tatiana to come back down and punch Kliff in the face, breaking his nose. As Mayday and Zuke finish their task, they’re stopped by Kliff with an army of robots on their way to the Grand Qwasa, but Tatiana appears and destroys them with a wave of fire and Rock with her guitar.

After the satellite is destroyed by the final Showstopper, Mayday’s guitar is destroyed as well, and after regretting all her actions, nearly decides to give up performing. After encouraging Mayday to share some words with the crowd, Tatiana officially admits her mistakes and announces that NSR will be allowing all genres of music for the sake of a brighter future for the city, offering Bunk Bed Junction positions among the Megastars. Confused about what to do next, Mayday refuses. Tatiana gives Mayday her guitar, telling her that she’s still a performer and that Tatiana’s performing days are long behind her. Mayday accepts it in tears, and Tatiana remarks that the city is heading towards a brighter future than ever before.

Gallery

See Tatiana Qwartz/Gallery.

Trivia

• Each character has an underlying trope that corresponds with their music genre. Tatiana represents how her past has affected herself and her views of music and the aftermath of a band break-up.
• According to the wayang kulit performance at the Level UP 2019 event by No Straight Roads, the shadow puppet design of Tatiana is seen carrying a string instrument, most likely her guitar.
  • This is a walking spoiler towards Tatiana's boss battle and her reveal as Kul Fyra.
• Before the game's official release, Vs. TATIANA and its artist, Masahiro Aoki, were revealed on Spotify; until the song was taken down due to spoilers.
• In the TGS trailer with English subtitles, the name of Tatiana's Japanese voice actress was written as Hiroko Yamash*ta, instead of Yuuko Yamash*ta.
• Tatiana's last name, Qwartz (revealed in one of the magazine covers), may be a reference to quartz clocks that use crystal oscillators to keep time. It also may be a reference to geodes and crystals in general, given her magma-like final form.
  • Her first name, Tatiana, was also the name of the second daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, Tatiana Romanov.
• Tatiana's ability to manipulate time during her boss battle may be a reference to how, as the head of NSR and of Vinyl City, she controls all music of the city, similar to how time dictates all music. She also wields the hands of time, showing her using time as a dangerous weapon rather than embracing it.
  • Her boss fight also has symbolism of her past. When entering the second phase, all murals shattered, symbolizing the disbanding of the Goolings. It also has a lot of fire references, slowly revealing Tatiana's past identity in the battle.

References