After another failed attempt to find an exit at Ikebukuro we get another pair of emails from Naoya and the COMP system, introducing a very important new gameplay mechanic: Skill Cracks. This is a feature that allows us, at the start of a mission, to choose an enemy Command or Passive Skill and “set” it to one of our guys. Then, when the demon with that skill is defeated by the team the “crack” that is set to the skill will be added to our own list of skills and we'll be able to equip them to our team leaders whenever we wish. Being our only way of increasing the skill selection, Skill Cracks are thus very, very important things to keep on top of, and it's important to prioritize which skills to go for depending on your needs since you can't change cracks mid-battle. There are a lot of skills to crack, enough so that it takes multiple playthroughs to get all of them so always keep an eye out for ones you don't have. Get cracking on skill cracking!
After some grinding on the free battle spot and gaining skills our next mandatory scene finds the group outside the Tokyo Dome at Bunkyo City, exhausted from all of their walking. I wonder if it’s actually feasible in real life to trek around the Yamanote circle in half-hour increments like the party's been doing. The area seems to be about seven miles long and most of the locations we've been visiting so far are relatively close together, so maybe it is possible if you really hustled. Of course, that will become impossible once more locations are added, so Take Your Time is in full effect. Since there's a theme park near the Dome Yuzu and Akira apparently talk about their favorite amusement park rides for a bit until Atsuro notes that it feels a little bit cool...and it can't be air conditioning because there's no point in trying to cool down outdoor air and there's no power anyway.
He shrugs it off...but then suddenly remembers the contents of the Laplace Mail and literally goes Oh, Crap!. This is the exact time the mail mentioned three people getting killed in Bunkyo and there are three of them, and sure enough we switch to the area’s battle map to see some demons arrive and Wendigo dropping down from above, snarling that this time he’ll kill us. Atsuro and Yuzu bemoan inadvertently making the Laplace Mail reality so it’s up to Akira to step up and urge them to fight, because this time if they don’t, they’re dead.
Mission 4
- All demons must be defeated
- The whole party cannot die
The objective is simple: survive. Unfortunately Amane’s not around to bail us out so we’ve got a proper boss to contend with:
Wendigo (Lv. 17)
HP/MP
- 202/44
- Weak to Fire; Reflects Ice; Nulls Mystic
- Bufu - Deals Ice damage to one target.
- Ice Dance - Deals several random hits of Ice damage to multiple targets.
- Anti-Ice - Grants resistance to Ice attacks.
- Bind - Targets a team within a three-panel-range, sacrificing some HP to reduce their movement range to 1 for one turn.
- Moh Shuvuu x2
Amane’s attack seems to have weakened him slightly, but Wendigo picked up some Command Skills to make up for his stat nerf. Bufu isn’t really much to worry about, but Ice Dance certainly is. The various Dance skills are pretty powerful thanks to their multi-hitting nature, and being on the receiving end of it this early in the game can easily spell your end. What’s worse, it seems to have a high chance of freezing its targets (a frozen team member cannot attack and Physical attacks are guaranteed criticals; Elec attacks can inflict the shock status that does the same thing). Thankfully he doesn’t have the MP to spam it (but even so it seems to cost less MP for him than it does for the player...), but because of it he should be taken out first before heading off to tangle with the other demon teams on the field. I still have some active Kabusos, and their built-in arsenal of Agi and Zan is key to destroying Wendigo and his two Moh Shuvuu allies. You definitely want to crack Ice Dance here - and I like sticking it on Akira, where it will remain for the rest of the game.
Once Wendigo is defeated (by...turning into an ice crystal and shattering) Akira can intimidate one of the other demon teams into fleeing through a dialogue option and then all that’s left is to mop up the other demons, which aren’t quite as threatening.
Completing the mission earns us 100 EXP and 70 macca.
The group exults in the knowledge that they beat fate and cheated death. Their death clocks go up to 2, which isn’t perfect but at least they’ve bought some more time to find a way out. But suddenly Atsuro realizes that they have a more immediate problem still, one that’s very mundane but crucial: they need to find a way to recharge their COMPs’ batteries or risk being left without means to fight. They decide that their next stop will be Akihabara to see if they can’t find some sort of charger at one of the stores.
A whole bunch of new locations have been added to the east side of the Yamanote circle, including our destination: Akihabara’s famous Electric Town which as you can imagine is not very electrifying with the power out. Once again there’s no way out of the lockdown here, and predictably all of the stores are closed. However, Atsuro spots Keisuke again, and when they meet up he sees that Keisuke has on him a COMP-compatible charger, the kind where you have to turn a crank to get the electricity going (Battle Network 1’s Power Plant Computer...twitch). Keisuke leads the group to a back alley shop that’s still open where they obtain a charger of their own, and when they try to thank him for his help he says it’s no big deal because they have to watch out for one another in times like this. Keisuke then marvels a bit over how we managed to change out death clocks and admits that he has a modded COMP just like ours.
As way of apology for running away before he says that, other than the SDF soldiers, he’s yet to see anyone with a death clock reading higher than six, and shares his suspicions that something really bad is going to happen six days from now that will kill everyone within the lockdown. The group’s in disbelief and Keisuke says that it’s up to us to believe him or not. Since his own death clock only reads one, he leaves saying that he doesn’t want to drag us into whatever’s going to happen to him. The group stews over this new, unsettling information, and Yuzu says that if they do find a way out, they shouldn’t keep it to themselves.
Enough bad news, how about some good news for a change? We’re now sent another email notification for yet another COMP feature being made available: the Cathedral of Shadows. This is the real meat-and-potatoes of the Megami Tensei franchise’s demon management: demon fusion. For like the, maybe two people reading this who’ve never played a game in this series before, most demons have a pretty short shelf-life, and once demon fusion is unlocked we can fuse two demons together to create a more powerful one. What the fusion will result in depends on the levels and races of the component demons, and you can use the Cathedral of Shadows option on the main menu to see what you can make out of your current stock. However, we cannot fuse demons that are higher than Akira’s current level.
Fused demons can inherit the Command and Passive Skills of their component demons as long as they have available slots (you cannot overwrite their innate skills). Unlike past Megami Tensei games Devil Survivor allowed the player to manually pick which skills to transfer over instead of randomizing the process. This seems to have become the new franchise standard going by Persona 4 Golden and Shin Megami Tensei IV, to the relief of gamers everywhere. Fused demons may also receive a slight stat boost depending on their components. Incidentally, the fusion animation (two cards merging together in a flashy light show) is the only sequence in the game outside of the Soul Survive opening that takes advantage of the 3DS’s 3D effect. It’s turned off all other times which isn’t much of a loss because I can’t imagine the novelty of stereoscopic 3D menus lasting for very long.
So, time for a fusion break. Next time, maybe we’ll actually have an update that has more than one mission in it!
Compendium
- Bilwis
◊
- Bilwis is a figure whose depiction has changed a lot over time. Originally portrayed as a follower of the Norse personification of the Moon, by the 13th century "Bil" had become known as the Germanic spirit Bilwis who may either bring wealth to farmers or cut down their grain fields with the scythes attached to its feet.
- Ogun◊
- The Nigerian god of iron, after receiving his knowledge from the supreme god Olorun he used an axe to cut down a forest in order to provide the first humans with space to live in. He is also known as an imparter of knowledge but also has a temper and will turn on those he looks after if enraged.
Soundtrack
- Achievement - Jingle
- Can be thought of as a full victory theme, as opposed to just the end-of-mission jingle.
- Demonic Fusion
- You wouldn't expect anything less than an ominous pipe organ piece for something called the Cathedral of Shadows, would you?
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