Tasque Manager

Order, order!

Tasque Manager, Chapter 2

Tasque Manager (JP: タスクマネージャー) is a Darkner from the Cyber World that is a miniboss in Queen's Mansion. She is based on and named after task manager programs.

Profile

Appearance

Tasque Manager is a cybernetic Darkner who resembles a cat. She has a white, diamond-shaped head, big yellow eyes with two long eyelashes, and a crescent-shaped mouth, which shows that the interior of her head is blue. From the back of her head a tuft of blue hair sticks out, and on the top of her head a pair of pointed blue protrusions resembling cat ears stick out. From her backside a plug with a long blue cord sticks out, resembling a cat's tail.

She wears a white outfit sliting on both sides of the thighs, with a collar, shoulder pads, and a blue band around her waist. Under the clothes she wears black leggings which end in white boots with blue toes. In Chapter 4, she is shown in a darker blue strapless dress with a cyan brooch resembling her main color scheme, wearing black shoes.

She is completely armless, with disembodied hands: the palms are white, while her fingers are blue. In her left hand she holds a blue whip that ends in a ball with four yellow spikes sticking out of it, like that of a morning star. Her torso can detach from her legs.

Personality

As Queen's maid and the Tasques' handler, Tasque Manager does her best to keep order in Queen's Mansion. She is fond of her Tasques, taking pride in their good behavior. Additionally, she also may serve as some form of pest control in the mansion, given how she helps the party spare Mauswheel, if recruited. She despises clowns, likely because they represent disorder and unruliness.

Main story

Chapter 2

Tasque Manager remains still in the Tasques' portraits room. Once interacted with, she asks the party if they are willing to do some managing. Refusing starts the battle immediately, but accepting prompts her to ask three questions:

• "Which painting's name is first alphabetically?" (Answer: Left)
• "Which painting's name is third alphabetically?" (Answer: Bottom)
• "Which painting is fourth?" (Answer: Left)

If all three questions are answered correctly, she has a unique quote voicing her happiness, but the battle still starts. In this battle, however, she starts with a full mercy gauge and is able to be spared on the very first turn. If the party confuses her last question to mean alphabetically (and answers Right), she starts with half of her MERCY gauge filled.

If Tasque Manager is recruited during her encounter, she appears at the end of the Mauswheel encounter to spare it on the party's behalf. She also contributes to the Thrash Machine during the GIGA Queen battle.

She can later be found at the Cafe in Castle Town, alongside one of her Tasques. When talked to, she calls the Cafe boring and unrefined, and suggests turning it into an animal cafe.

On the Weird Route, she is on Floor 3 of the mansion, waiting on the bridge blocking the access to the rest of the mansion, making the battle with her unavoidable.

Chapter 4

Tasque Manager can still be found at Castle Town's Cafe. The establishment is now a cat cafe, much to Swatch's chagrin. She performs on the stage along with Sweet, K_K, and a Shadowguy, singing into a microphone while sporting a blue dress.

Relationships

Queen

Queen is Tasque Manager's boss. If the party does not recruit anybody in the mansion, Queen wonders where Tasque Manager had gone due to her absence when going back to the Castle Town, implying she might care or worry about her.

Tasque, Poppup, and Maus

If the party does not recruit Tasque Manager but has Tasque, Poppup, and Maus recruited, the enemies wander around in circles at the east side of Castle Town. The flavor text implies that they become stray without Tasque Manager to keep them in line. This implies some sort of relationship between the animal Darkners and Tasque Manager, whether as a pest controller or owner.

Jevil

Tasque Manager knows of Jevil and despises him for his predilection for chaos, to the point where she asks the party to put away the items associated with him (the Devilsknife and Jevilstail) if they have them equipped.

Tasque Manager may be intended to serve as an opposite of Jevil: while the latter is short, pudgy, darkly-colored, and loves causing chaos, the former is tall, skinny, lightly-colored, and intent on keeping order. She also frequently says "Order, order!", which contrasts with "Chaos, chaos!", Jevil's signature phrase.

Rouxls Kaard

When talking to Swatch about Rouxls Kaard, he says that Tasque Manager encountered and defeated Rouxls after the latter attempted to woo her by thrusting a vase of flowers at her.

Creation and development

Official concept art of Tasque Manager by Nelnal

Tasque Manager was originally named Tasque, a lion tamer who commanded the lion-like Tusques. Her whip is a remnant of that idea. Around the time of her conceptualization, Toby mentioned that he had no idea on what she looked like. She was later given a proper character design by the guest artist Nelnal. Toby himself was also responsible for voicing Tasque Manager.

In battle

Appears with

• Tasque (x2)

Attacks

• While alone, Tasque Manager throws her whip, which releases three waves of projectiles that fly outwards in all directions.
• When still accompanied by Tasques, Tasque Manager throws her whip with either a cardinal directional marker or diagonal directional marker. Projectiles fire from that spot in the directions specified.
• Tasque Manager divides the bullet board into four sections labelled with the letters A, B, C, and D. Tasque Manager dictates a letter, shocking every section that isn't said letter with her whip. There seems to be a safe point in this attack, near the center of the bullet board, which can make a no hit without moving possible (not considering the Tasques who attack with her). It is unknown this a glitch or intentional.

Strategy

• Sparing Tasque Manager ends the battle, regardless of the Tasques' MERCY progress.
• If the party answers all of Tasque Manager's questions correctly, she starts the battle with her MERCY at 100%.
• If the questions are not answered correctly, several conditions allow Tasque Manager to be spared anyway:
  • Tasque Manager is assisted by two Tasques. Sparing either of them increases her MERCY by 35%.
  • Using the "SoftVoice" ACT command on a Tasque increases Tasque Manager's MERCY by 5%.
  • Using the "Order" ACT command increases her MERCY by 10% and causes her to use her letter game attack.
  • Using the "OrderX" ACT command increases her MERCY by 25% and causes her to use her letter game attack. This uses up the entire party's turn.
  • Using S-Action or R-Action increases her MERCY by 6%.
• If one of the Tasques accompanying her is defeated through violence, all ACTs (including S-Action and R-Action) have no effect. If this happens, it is still possible to recruit Tasque Manager by repeatedly using the Spare command, as using it while her name is not yellow increases her MERCY by 5%.

Quotes

Pre-battle

• Just in time for your appointment.
• Would you assist in organizing these paintings?
• [No]
  • How disobedient.
  • Someone ought to whip you into shape!
• [Yes]
  • How refined.
  • Then, the first question.
  • Which painting's name is first alphabetically?
  • [Top, Right or Bottom]
    • Incorrect. It seems your organization is lacking.
    • Someone ought to whip you into shape!
  • [Left]
    • How refined.
    • Then, the next question.
    • Which painting's name is third alphabetically?
    • [Top, Left or Right]
      • Incorrect. It seems your organization is lacking.
      • Someone ought to whip you into shape!
    • [Bottom]
      • How refined.
      • Then, the next question.
      • Which painting is fourth?
      • [Top or Bottom]
        • Incorrect. It seems your organization is lacking.
        • Someone ought to whip you into shape!
      • [Right]
        • Hm? That's the number 2, not the number 4...
        • Have you gotten disorganized? Someone ought to whip you into shape!
      • [Left]
        • That's correct!
        • I'm so happy I could whip something!

Battle

• Processes! Services! Performance! Details! [Neutral]
• Slouched back? Let me whip it into shape! [Neutral]
• Untied shoelaces? Let me whip it into shape! [Neutral]
• Wrinkly clothing? Let me whip it into shape! [Neutral]
• Delinquent tendencies? Let me whip it into shape! [Neutral]
• Aren't my kitties so well behaved? Watch! [Neutral]
• Kitties!! [Replaces any consecutive occurrence of the above quote]
• Order, order! [Neutral]
• Hors d'oeuvre, Hors d'oeuvre... I mean, order, order! [Replaces the second occurrence of the above quote]
• How dare you touch my pretty kitty! [After violently defeating one of her Tasques]
• How dare you! [After violently defeating one of her Tasques]
• You've been a bad dog... [After violently defeating one of her Tasques]
• Chaos, chaos!? No, no! Order, order! Now get rid of that silly Devilsknife/tail! [Devilsknife/Jevilstail equipped]
• Oh, what a perfect little puppy you are! [Order; unused]
• Hush, puppy! No growling... [Order; unused]
• [S-Action; unused]
  • [Susie] Play dead!? I'll teach YOU to play dead!!
    • [Ralsei] A treat!! Somebody give her a treat!!
  • What a wonderfully crafted signpost! I'm giving it an obedience medal!
• [R-Action; unused]
  • [Susie] Why the hell do YOU get one of those!!
  • He really loves to do what he's told, doesn't he?

Flavor text

Cyber World

• Obsessed with order, and abhors Chaos. Whip it good! [Check]
• Tasque Manager blocks the way! [Encounter with other Tasques]
• Tasque Manager makes a list of her outfits for the next year. She only has one outfit. [Neutral]
• Tasque Manager is writing "manage tasks" next to every entry in her daily planner. [Neutral]
• Tasque Manager is straightening her whip with a hair straightener. [Neutral]
• Tasque Manager is making herself take priority over everything. [Neutral]
• Smells like live wiring. [Neutral]
• (You asked Tasque Manager to show you order. She obliges!) [Order]
  • (You asked for order!) [Shortened]
    • (Your act failed...) [If cripple Tasque]
• (Everyone asked Tasque Manager to show you order. She obliges!) [OrderX]
  • (You talked to Tasque Manager, but no effect...) [If cripple Tasque]
• Susie barked madly! [S-Action]
• Susie's mouth froths! [S-Action]
• Ralsei fell in line! [R-Action]
• Ralsei listened closely! [R-Action]
• S-Action/R-Action failed! [S-Action/R-Action, if cripple Tasque]
• Kris/Susie/Ralsei got managed! [Order/S-Action/R-Action, shortened; unused]
• [Order; unused]
  • Kris got trained like an animal!!
  • Tasque Manager seemed slightly pleased at the Order!!
• Susie was trained like an animal... [S-Action; unused]
• [R-Action; unused]
  • Ralsei got trained like an animal!!
  • Due to good behavior, he received an obedience badge.
• Tasque Manager has reached her meticulously scheduled bedtime. [Tired]
• Tasque Manager has found things to be sufficiently organized. [Spare conditions met]

Tasque Manager Says

• Graze! [Encounter; unused]

Gallery

• 
  Tasque Manager singing in Castle Town

Trivia

• The line "Processes! Services! Performance! Details!" is a reference to four of the tabs on the Windows Task Manager from Windows 8 onward. The line "Tasque Manager is making herself take priority over everything." is also a reference to Windows Task Manager, as there is an option in said program to appear on top of all other windows.
• Tasque Manager's Check text features the line "Whip it good!", a reference to American band Devo's 1980 song "Whip It". Her RECRUIT claiming she likes "new wave synth pop" furthers the reference to the band.
• The "Tasque Manager Says" challenge at the Party Dojo references Kirby's Dream Land 3's Heart Star sub-games, with sound effects and Tasque Manager's expressions being identical to those used in the game, and the noughts and crosses scoring system visually referencing the sub-game user interface.
• Her description claiming that she "loves to coordinate outfits" seems to reference the Swatchlings, whose spare mechanic requires color-coordinating their suits.