Nanashi: What... is this?
Pale Rider: Kehehehheh... \'tis the Torus of Eternity!
Nanashi: Didn\'t that guy at the entrance to you Fiend\'s place say something about \"Eternity?\"
David: Indeed. It seems you have received an invitation from the one at the bottom.
Nanashi: O...kay?
Matador: It is said there is a Boddhisatva at the deepest point of Twisted Tokyo, so devoted to his asceticism that he resides at the deepest, darkest point of the absolute worst universe... even we\'ve never actually seen him, but it seems he wishes to challenge you.
Nanashi: Wow... that seems like kind of an honor...
Itsumade: MORE side trips? How long will this take?
Time to challenge the second-to-last superboss. This one requires the DLC \"Depths of Twisted Tokyo.\" All the DLC itself does is give us the Eternal Torus item, but if we take this to the Pale Man, he will grant us access to the last TEN floors of Twisted Tokyo - the Farthest Reaches. Our superboss is, naturally, at the bottom.
Metatron: GREETINGS, CHILD.
Nanashi: Whoa, hey there dude.
Metatron: THE CHARIOT HAS REQUESTED I ACCOMPANY YOU TO INVESTIGATE WHETHER YOU SPEAK THE TRUTH ABOUT THE LORD. AS ONE OF THE LORD\'S INNER GUARDSMEN, IT SEEMS DIFFICULT FOR ME TO BELIEVE.
Nanashi: You angels have been saying that a lot. Why don\'t you just use your eyes.
Trumpeter: Kweheheheheh... something in me feels I have known all along. I am a Fiend, but an angel as well.
Nanashi: And you put up a really hard fight. Welcome aboard!
Most of the encounters down here are fairly manageable to an endgame party... with the exception of the Mots. They\'ve got Makakaja, Antichthon, and Guardian\'s Eye - in other words, the infamously obnoxious Mot from Nocturne got a buff and was turned into a Mook. Sometimes they\'re paired with Samaels as well, to turn our party into dead weight while the Mots unload on them.
Mot: T-twisted Tokyo me scares me!
Anat: What doesn\'t scare you?
Nergal: Did you know that when people die they typically defecate and urinate due to muscle spasms?
Finally, at Floor 57, we come face to face with Twisted Tokyo\'s last inhabitant.
ULTIMATE BOSS: FIEND EN NO OZUNO
Level 100. Weak Phys, Resist Gun, Repel Fire, Repel Elec, Resist Light, Resist Dark
The first thing to note about our super-strong monk here is that he has about 130,000 HP, the highest of anything in the game, literally. Expect to have to leave and come back several times (it took me four tries). The second thing to note, well, is that he\'s got a big fat weakness to basic Physical attacks, so that HP\'s not gonna save him for long. In truth, he\'s not particularly hard, just time-consuming.
Skill-wise, he has Trisagion, Maragidyne, Thunder Gods and Thunder Reign, and Will of Flame and Thunder to go with them. He has several unique moves as well - Zenki\'s Axe is essentially a souped-up version of Minotaur\'s Labrys Strike from IV Vanilla (heavy Phys damage to random foes) that pierces resistances. His most devious trick, however, is Peacock Incantation, which the game tells us makes him \"ready for all attacks.\" What this actually does, however, is the next attack dealt to him is also dealt back to our entire party. We obviously don\'t want this to happen on a Smirked Akasha Arts, for instance, so there\'s a very simple solution - when you see this, next attack should just be a cherry-tap. The reflected attack can also miss by the way.
Mara: Meheheheh... always wanted to RAM one of those persnickety Bodhisattvas HARD.
Nanashi: Eew.
Mara\'s Hell Thrust and Shiva\'s akasha Arts are obviously helpful here. Below half health he adds Goki\'s water Wall to his repertoire, which buffs his defense and hit/evade to max. He\'ll use this every time they drop below base, but it\'s still obviously worth de-buffing them. It\'s here another of his weaknesses become apparent, too - as he has no Luster Candy, Tarukaja, or Dekunda (though he does have Dekaja), he actually has no way of canceling de-buffs to his attack stat, meaning it\'s easy to make him very weak indeed.
At very low health, he adds Tetrakarn. So it\'d be good to have some way to deal with that (I used my Matador to make my Mara, so he has Phys Pierce). Like I said, as long as you know the Peacock incantation trick, he\'s not hard, just time consuming.
After defeating him, we\'re brought to the entrance again. The Pale Man says the Fiends have now respawned even stronger, and we can challenge them again. This happens every time En no Ozunu is defeated, and here\'s the thing - it carries over into your New Game Plus cycle. The Fiends also now drop high-level equipment. We\'re still not going to fight them again.
Itsumade: Thank you.
(Suddenly, NANASHI\'S ORIGINAL PARTY, CENTAUR, DECARABIA, GOBLIN and so on, pull up to the coastline in a speedboat. DECARABIA is wearing a silly captain\'s hat)
Centaur: Ahoy there, Nanashi!
Nanashi: Oh hey it\'s my original party. Sorry I don\'t talk to you guys much anymore. What\'s up?
Goblin: Oh, just having awesome parties in your phone that you\'re not invited to \'cuz you can\'t go in your own phone. Listen, remember that Dormarth that stole your money from back then? Well we tracked her down, bet her up and got it back.
Nanashi: Great. Can... I have it back?
Goblin: Well then we took it to Ginza and bought a speedboat. HA-HA.
(They speed off)
Nanashi: WHY DO I STILL HANG OUT WITH YOU PEOPLE!? Oh huh, a call from Stephen...
Yes, it\'s time for the game\'s final DLC quest - \"Messiahs in the Diamond Realm,\" sort of the equivalent of Masakado\'s quest from Vanilla. Accept it to be transported to a higher plane of existence - perhaps the highest of all. En no Ozunu is here again (if you already beat him he\'ll actually remark on it), and he tells us that we need to meet with Stephen in the next room. En\'s two demon companions, Zenki and Goki, can also be returned to to either transport us back to Tokyo or heal us.
Nanashi: There\'s just something so serene about this place... it\'s the exact opposite of Tokyo...
Mother Harlot: Kuwahahah... it is said this place is the pinnacle of existence, existing outside and above the eternal conflicts or order and chaos. A being from the depths such as we Fiends would ordinarily never be allowed here...
Enter the next room to find Stephen. He explains that he\'s called us here to help the heroes of other worlds, great Messiahs, who have failed in their quests. He holds the soul of one of the in the palm of his hand, a young man who died when a nuclear missile struck Tokyo. The others are fighting throughout the Diamond Realm; it seems only by fighting great battles can they return to their normal bodies. Yes, it\'s time to meet the heroes of the previous SMT games!
Mastema: If there is anyone who could have foreseen things more than my master, Akira, it would seem to be this old scientist. I feel like he might well be...
The Diamond Realm has six sections. The center area we\'re in now, that has a branching passage to the south leading to the other areas, a larger \"ring\" area around the center, and sections to the southeast, southwest, northeast, and northwest. We need to enter the southern sections first; they transport us to the northern sections. It might also be worth mentioning that the random encounters around here are all souped-up Elemental demons, and I... never got around to properly introducing them, did I?
In any case, the northwest section has Aleph, the northeast has Demi-Fiend, and the \"ring\" section has Flynn, who... doesn\'t seem to recognize us. Each one if fighting a powerful Horde - Aleph against a Lawful Horde, Demi-Fiend against a Chaotic one, and Flynn against a Neutral one. I... wish I knew the exact resistances and movesets of these Hordes, but I don\'t, sadly. In any case, they\'re very strong and I do know the Lawful one is weak to Dark, as is the Neutral one, while the Chaotic one is weak to Light. Always save before confronting them; losing here boots us out of the Diamond Realm and we need to start over from the beginning.
Nanashi: These guys seem so interesting. I feel like I\'m connected to them somehow.
Upon defeating the Hordes, they all remark that their quests have met with a bad ends - Aleph was destroyed when something called the \"Megiddo Ark\" was used on Earth, Demi-Fiend was slain by Lucifer after challenging him, and Flynn was slain by Merkabah while gathering hope for the Chalice to revive Masakado.
Sphinx: Why do I not want to be them?\'
Cleopatra: Should think the answer would be obvious, Pet.
After defeating the Law and Chaos Hordes in particular, they drop a Blue And Red Key, respectively. After helping all the heroes, take these back to En, who will use them to unlock the door on the east wall of the \"ring\" section.
Nanashi: I feel like this will take everything I have... and I seem to have one more demon I can fuse. Merkabah? Lucifer?
Merkabah: Affirmative.
Lucifer: Oh, alright; if that man is what I think he is we\'ll need all the power we can get...
(NANASHI presses the fusion button. MERKABAH and LUCIFER vanish and in their place appears a majestic form)
Satan: I am Satan. The Ancient Angel. The Arbiter.
Kazfiel: I have SO many things I want to ask you.
Satan: It can wait. We have one more foe before us...
Proceed to the end of the hall. It might be worth doing some... special preparations beforehand. Remember those gems that we can get from the small Wraithwall things? It\'s about time I explain what their purpose is. They can be traded to a mysterious figure named the Count of Saint Germain, who appears in Kinshicho, Tokyo Station, and Minami Sunamachi, for the game\'s most powerful healing items. Five Emeralds can be traded for a Bead Chain, five Garnets for a Great Chakra, and five of the ultra-rare Diamonds for a unique item at each location. At Kinshicho, he sells Complete Restoration Gems, which fully heal HP and MP for the entire party (with the nerf to Chakra Pots and Great Chakras, this is actually the only way to fully heal MP). at Minami, we can get Dimensional Hourglasses, which give us an extra Press Turn for one battle. Most powerful of all, however, is the Evil of Revival, which he sells at the Station. This item instantly revives our party if it\'s wiped, with double Press Turns. There actually aren\'t enough Diamonds in the entire game to get even one of these without the Gem-grinding DLC, by the way.
Regardless, the battle ahead is long, so at least a few Restoration Gems are a good investment. When ready, enter the door at the end of the hall to find Stephen... and you may notice he\'s moving his foot...
Norn: There\'s a bizarre power in here... practically unlike anything I\'ve felt before...
Stephen explains that to restore the hero who has become but a soul, a ritual is necessary, and there\'s only one way to do that...
ULTIMATE BOSS: META STEPHEN
Level 128. No weaknesses or resistances.
Finally, the truth about the mysterious Doctor comes out. He\'s no mere Genius Cripple - he\'s an incredibly powerful being in his own right. He\'s got a large number of moves with which to wreck us - Energy Compression is a single-strike tier-four Phys move, Singularity Brand is a third-tier Phys move that inflicts, well, Brand, and Singularity Flames, Hail, Lightning, and Vortex are identical to the Archangels\' elemental Piercing moves from IV Vanilla. Black Body Radiation is identical to Lucifer\'s Morning Star, dropping all our health by half, Calamity Code is a weak Almighty move that can inflict Panic, Bind, and Charm all at once, and Reboot Code wipes out all or buffs and Smirks (he tends to use this when someone\'s Smirking at the end of the turn and hasn\'t attacked yet. Rounding out his abilities are Luster Candy, Debilitate, Dekunda, and Smile Charge.
So how do we beat this guy? Well, one weakness he has is readily apparent - he can\'t cancel buffs to our stats without Reboot Code, only de-buff them back down again. Thus, buffing ourselves is a lot more important the de-buffing him, since he can cancel those with Dekunda anytime. Apart from that he\'s got no weaknesses, so the only way to gain Press Turns is via critical hits. Extremely powerful moves are necessary here to do adequate damage - Shiva\'s Akasha Arts, Satan\'s Megiddo Ark, and fully whispered tier four moves from Nanashi are all great here. Slug it out and eventually Stephen is satisfied with our performance; he has about 26,000 HP.
And we\'re not even close to done.
Suddenly, the other heroes burts into the room, and Stephen responds to this by... getting up from his chair. Pure, raw Magnetite courses through his body.
Satan: Hmph, thought so.
Melchom: Thought what now!? Just being near that guy makes me feel like I\'m being flattened!
Satan: Naturally. He\'s an Ascended Master.
Melchom: GAAAAAAAAHHHHH HE\'S WHAT!? I\'ve never been within three universes of an Ascended Master before!
Nanashi: He\'s... certainly giving off some impressive energy but... wheat\'s an ascended Master?
Satan: A being who has transcended the very cycle of the universe itself. Order, chaos, neutrality... but infinitesimal specks to one that has ascended that high. No one knows precisely what triggers this transcendence; it may be different for each person. The odds of it happening are one in quintillions. Throughout all the multiverse there are said to be fewer than ten Ascended Masters, and alone amongst all beings, only one of each of them exists in the entire multiverse. Their names are the stuff of legend... Count Saint Germain, the One Outside Time. Master Sanat Kumara, the Eternal Youth. And now, it seems, this Doctor Stephen... the power of an Ascended Master is said to be on par with a Creator God... perhaps even greater.
The ritual was a success, and the soul Stephen carried with his is revived. It\'s the SMTI Hero! But returning all the Messiahs to their proper universes requires One. Last. Test.
ULTIMATE BOSS: META STEPHEN
Level 128. Resists everything
Welcome to the game\'s ultimate ultimate boss. Stephen is fighting at the full power of an Ascended Master now and the kid gloves are off. Stephen now has all the moves from his previous form, though he\'s swapped Luster Candy and Debilitate for Pair Production and Particle Annihilation. The former cranks all his stats up to maximum and gives him a free Smirk. The latter drops our stats to minimum and inflicts Mute. Obviously we don\'t want to see these. He\'s also picked up Wave Function, a tier four Almighty attack to everyone, and Black Hole, which leeches a ton of MP.
Nanashi: Jgg... I can barely do anything to him! And he might be even STRONGER than the Creator!?
Fortunately, we\'ve got help. The other Messiahs have formed a party of their own, and we can now control them, too. In order, the SMTI Hero, simply called \"The Hero,\" has Lightspeed Slash, which weakens one of Stephen\'s resistances and inflicts Phys damage; Crescent Slice, which hits for Phys damage twice and drops hit/evade by two; Mist Rush, Charge, and Morale Boots, which is identical to Luster Candy.
Aleph, meanwhile, has Gideon Bullet, which is a Gun version of Lightspeed Slash; Sonis Shot, which is two Gun hits that removes Smirk, Myriad Arrows, Critical Eye, and Warrior\'s Spirit (identical to Debilitate).
Demi-Fiend, meanwhile, has Freikugel, a tier-four Almighty attack that doubles in power with a Smirk, Deadly Fury, a Phys attack that almost always crits and is thus good for setting up Freikugel, Magma Axis, a tier four Fire move, and the infamous Gaea Rage, tier four Almighty and drops defense by two, as well as Samarecarm.
Lastly, Flynn has all the tier four elemental moves, Mediarahan, Samarecarm, Antichthon, Smile Charge, and Enduring Soul. Naturally, he\'s mainly a support character.
So how do we beat this transcendent being? Obviously, we want to weaken those resistances with Lightspeed Slash and Gideon Bullet. Two hits to a resistance will drop it down to a weakness, but which resistance is reduced is completely random. We could get lucky and hit the same one twice in one turn, or have to wait forever to get even one. If you\'re lucky enough to make him weak to Phys, Press Turns will fall from the sky like rain.
Apart from that, there\'s a couple more tricks that can be used to make the fight significantly less difficult, such that I\'d actually categorize this fight as slightly easier than Explosive Epidemic. For starters? Going above +2/-2 buffs and de-buffs makes him mad. Don\'t know why, but if you do that, he\'l liable to cancel them all with Production/Annihilation, and start dropping the fourth tier elemental moves on you. Keep them at 2, however, and you\'ll mostly see his Phys moves and weaker Almighty ones. This makes this the one battle where Cleo\'s Alluring Banter is actually a hindrance.
Cleopatra: Well, I never.
Another trick is that you should always attack him every turn, even if it\'s just a cherry tap. On a round when he doesn\'t take any damage, he\'ll retaliate with Singularity Wave, the games one and only tier five attack. This actually isn\'t an instant kill, but I\'m pretty sure it\'s completely non-survivable without pouring literal days into HP Incense grinding; it hits around 7000 damage.
Stephen has 100,000 HP, and that\'s actually going to work against him in the long run. The battle will go so long long that by the end he\'ll be weak to almost everything due to Lightspeed Slash and Gideon Bullet, so after that point it\'s just a matter of waiting out the clock and healing when necessary. At low health he gains his last unique move, though - Crack Code, which removes three of our Press Turns!
Once the final blow is dealt (The Hero did it on my run; poetic!), Stephen congratulates us on our triumph.
Mara: Why does he... barely seem hurt.
Satan: Because even we can\'t truly drop an Ascended Master...
We receive many thanks from Stephen and the other heroes, who depart back to their universes to make things right.
Nanashi: And that\'s our cue to do that, too. We\'ve got an appointment with the boss!
(NANASHI\'S DEMONS all bellow a battle cry!)
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