Our sordid little tale of conquest begins in the Forbidden Library, where Zetta voice credits has discovered the location of a book called the Sacred Tome, which contains all of the secrets of all of the Netherworlds in the Underworld. He's seeking it out because if he doesn't find it, the oracle Pram prophesizes that his Netherworld will be destroyed. As he Power Walks toward the book's lectern, he is stopped by the thunder god Raiden, whose master has ordered him to destroy Zetta. Zetta laughs off Raiden's threats, and the two of them begin fighting.
A battle tutorial ensues, but Zetta isn't fully interested in telling it, urging the player to check out the Help menu for any questions. The objective of each battle is to kill off every enemy with red life bars. There's no friendly fire immunity, so anyone caught in the targeting circle of any of the skills you use will be affected, like it or not.
The battle begins with me controlling a level 2000 Zetta, equipped with a Zetta Sword which makes him zetta powerful. His opponent is a level 1000 Raiden, who has a thunder drum, four level 100 Incubuses flanking him, and about half as much HP as Zetta. Zetta starts off by using a sword skill called Zodiac to get rid of Raiden's bodyguards. Raiden retaliates by beating on his drum and zapping Zetta with lightning, but even with all of that power on his side, he's no match for Zetta's otherworldly sword skills, and the battle winds up being completely one-sided.
Zetta, unimpressed, notes that Raiden's fighting style reminds him of someone. He doesn't take more than a few seconds to ponder it as he indulges in a bit of Evil Gloating. When he opens the book, he expects to hear good news about his overworld being saved, but instead finds an entry saying this:
"Lord Zetta is stupid. His foolishness has doomed the Netherworld to extinction."Zetta is not pleased to find that the tome is mocking him, so in anger, he sets the Sacred Tome on fire, which triggers "Final Attack: Divide by Zero" and blows everything up...just like the good book said. At the very last second, Zetta decides to confine himself to the book to save his own skin, but not in time to prevent everything he's ever owned from being burned into katamari stardust.
After the smoke clears, a little green-haired girl strolls by as Zetta monologues about his new predicament. The girl pulls a Jedi Mind Trick on him, saying that she doesn't have to worry about him, and then dashes off.
Out of nowhere, he senses a strong mana energy coming through. "Mmmph...it better not be Salome!" he thinks. It's actually Pram, who emerges from her own Netherworld to answer his call, and crack open a few book jokes at his expense. Zetta wants to know if he can get his body back. Pram says it's possible, and tells him that she brought along a friend in Star Overlord Valvoga to help him out. "Valvoga" is an overlord comprised of three beings: Micky, the head - a four-armed freak that does most of the speaking and has Ambiguously Gay written all over him; Ophelia, the body - a head who manipulates Micky into doing things he doesn't want to do; and Dryzen, the...dragon thing, who likes to scream and kill things.
Some narration from Overlord Zetta about the state of the Netherworld War, followed by Micky remarking about how Zetta hasn't lost much of his mana power since being turned into a book. Zetta gloats again, but Pram mocks his badassitude by saying that he can't do anything with it because he can't move around. She says that he can get his overlord back by simply wishing for it to return. However, he can't do that right now, because he, uh...kinda doesn't have limbs. Pram prepares to write something in the Sacred Tome. Zetta, reminding her of who he is, demands that she start out by giving him a new Overlord's Castle. Pram complies, but she makes his "castle" a doghouse, telling him that he has to start from the bottom again. Zetta, naturally, is not amused.
We finally get down to business and get a chance to create some new characters. In order to do this, you have to select an object to bind it to (just like in Phantom Brave; different objects affect a character's stat growth). Zetta starts by making his first new minion from an Allied Symbol, a pendant that raises all available stats by 20%. This character will be our Standardized Leader, and he shall be a male warrior named Steve.
Here are the classes you get to choose from at the start when creating characters:
- Male Warrior: A powerful melee class. Good with swords, morningstars, spears, and axes.
- Female Warrior: Same as the warrior, but her attacks favor speed over strength. Has proficiency in daggers, swords, rapiers, and spears.
- Healer: Basically, she heals stuff, both inside and outside of combat. Not powerful, but necessary if you want to survive in the underworld. She can use daggers, spears, books, and syringes.
- Male Magician: Old guy who can use elemental spells with devastating effect. Is able to use daggers, books, drums, and boxes.
- Female Magician: Like the male magician, only more girly and younger. Daggers, books, magic staves and magnets are her forte.
- Thief: Is good at stealing items from enemies. He also can hold more items than other characters for this purpose. He can use daggers, rapiers, UF Os, rifles, and fishing poles.
- Merchant: When outside of battle, she sells weapons and armor. At higher levels, her inventory grows, and sale prices decrease. She can use spears, nunchakus, bazookas, and hammers.
Zetta says that we'll need at least two new characters. We have the following objects at our disposal: two Palm Trees (which raise HP and SP slightly, but lower DEF and RES slightly), two Weeds (which raise SP and TEC, but lower ATK and DEF), two Rocks (which raise HP and DEF, but lowers INT and TEC), and two Flowers (which raise SP and INT, but lower HP and ATK).
Steve carries out Lord Zetta's wishes without question. He points to a palm tree and from it comes his Girl Friday, Meredith the female warrior. Shortly afterward, he brings a healer to life and names her Kashiwa. Steve reports his success to Zetta, who spawns a shop within the castle. He also gives Steve 500 Hell (HL) for buying weapons and other goodies. He gets himself a Saber (sword-type weapon), a Stone Knife for Meredith (a dagger-type weapon, obviously), and a Sai Spear for Kashiwa (she'll need to fight, too, eventually). The girls are more than happy to receive their new weapons.
