5th Day - Revelations
Something’s odd today, namely the fact that a strange, pinkish tint is painted over the landscape. Atsuro’s the first one up, and he confides with Akira his concerns regarding Belial and one thing that he can’t figure out in particular: how to prevent the coming calamity that’ll wipe everyone out. He’s worried that there’s no proof that anything they do will return normality to the lockdown. We suggest trying to speak with Izuna again, and he agrees that that’s worth a shot. The girls wake up and Atsuro shows Midori their Laplace Mails when she asks about them. She notes that the letters are starting to get all jumbled up and Atsuro says that it shouldn’t be a problem as long as they can still make out what it’s saying, but it’s definitely something to be concerned about. Anyway, here’s today’s:
GoOD M[][][]ing. Her[] is tt[][][][]’s N[]EWs.
1. 12:00 [] Kudanshita Stttion a body will [][] found drained of all blood. Victim identified as Mari Mochizuki. Evid[]nce of struggle
2. 1:00PM Minato-ku Shiba by Tokyo Tower. More violence against demon tamers.
- Victim (dead): Keisuke Takagi
- Suspect: Tadashi Nikaido
3. All day everywhere:
- Riots intensify
- []emon tamers become more ac[]ive
- Ob[]ec[]ives vary
h?ve A nice Deat[]!
Thanks Laplace’s Demon, that was just what I needed to start the day. Atsuro exclaims that this is the worst possible scenario: not only are Keisuke and Mari slated to die, but their deaths are only an hour apart! We can suggest trying to keep Kaido and Keisuke apart but Atsuro shoots that down on the grounds that if they don’t stop Keisuke for sure this whole mess could just play out again on another day. Like they went over yesterday, the best course of action seems to be distracting Kaido somehow until they can convince Keisuke to stop. Atsuro also remembers that they have to make sure to pick up Naoya’s materials from the Shomonkai. Midori pointing out the reddish sky at this point doesn’t help the mood either. We’ve got to get going, the clock is ticking.
There are a lot of scenes available right off the bat, with Midori getting an extra two if you responded to her email last night in a certain way where she explains why she’s so eager to be a hero. Normally I’d just ignore them ‘cause we have more important things to do, but thanks to saving and resetting that’s no problem. The gist is basically that her father was a stuntman on some sort of sentai show, so she never really grew out of the superhero phase that kids go through. “Was” because, as is depressingly common in fiction, her father’s now dead. Come to think of it, I think the only character who has their parents (or spouse in Honda’s case) mentioned in a context that doesn’t involve death or dysfunction is Atsuro, and even then they live abroad. When will the tyranny of dead parents cease?
On to more serious stuff. Let’s start with the easier things that we have to do: namely picking up Naoya’s material. There are actually two scenes available in front of the Shomonkai headquarters at Shinagawa, one with the Founder and Amane and the other with Azuma. Azuma’s the one that we want for now. He’s put all of the relevant material onto a COMP, and once he’s gone Atsuro goes ahead and takes a look at it. He exclaims that he was right: the Shomonkai thought the files left behind were simply nonsense, but they actually contain the data library for the server. It’s all encrypted so outsiders couldn’t access it, but he’s confident he can do it, being Naoya’s apprentice and all. Finally, some good news!
Next there’s a Keisuke event in Akihabara, so might as well see what he’s doing. He’s seemingly in the middle of hunting down some thugs, and when he sees us he greets us and assures us that Yama won’t harm us. Atsuro demands that he explain what he’s doing and his friend insists that he’s doing what’s right and that he’d never stoop to bullying. He explains that he leaves all of his judgments up to Yama, thus he’s unprejudiced. He goes on about how people have weak hearts for a bit until Midori says that that doesn’t mean they still deserve to die. Keisuke tries to prove her wrong by explaining that the people he was just after beat an old woman to death in order to steal her food, and he starts losing his composure again as he declares that scum like that do deserve to die. He tells us that if we’re willing to lend him our strength and “return people’s hearts to normal” then he’ll be willing to have us any time. He departs, leaving a somewhat shaken Midori to wonder if that’s how far you have to go to be truly just, but Yuzu assures her that he’s gone way too far and that there are other ways.
So now that the stage is set, it’s time to see about saving both him and Mari. This is a catch-22, as the necessary events have a very small time-frame. If you go and give Mari back her bag (and why wouldn’t you?) she’ll survive her upcoming battle with Kudlak, but we’ll miss our opportunity to head off Kaido, who’ll make good on his threats and actually kill Keisuke which’ll lock us out of an ending route. If you warn Kaido about Mari’s situation he’ll hurry up and come to her aid and thus spare Keisuke...but we won’t be able to give Mari her bag, so she’ll die anyway.
The solution to this conundrum requires a little out-of-the-box thinking. What we’ve got to do is not only warn Kaido about Mari, but to also give the bag to him. Thus events will unfold so that he won’t get around to confronting Keisuke and Mari gets to live. And Kaido gets his revenge on the one who killed his brother, so it’s a win-win as far as he’s concerned since he’s only bothering to go after Keisuke to save face in front of his gang - he says he wouldn’t care otherwise.
So now that we have some breathing room we can kick back until the next mandatory event. I’m going to watch that other scene at Shinagawa with Amane and the Founder. She’s telling him that the angel has told her that the lockdown is indeed the next ordeal from God, and he says that if that’s the case, they need to summon His Majesty at once. Amane addresses him as “father” and asks if they really need to rely on His Majesty to survive the ordeal and he insists that that is the Shomonkai way and that he must remember her duties. Once he leaves Amane asks herself that isn’t the Shomonkai’s true mission not simply to survive the ordeal, can’t they save people without bringing suffering? Seems like there’s a schism developing here.
Next, uh...I think I’ll go with an Atsuro event at Akihabara, as it’s a follow-up to the material-gathering one. He’s managed to crack Naoya’s security, but he’s having a really hard time fathoming the notes themselves. He explains what he knows so far is that the Demon Summoning Program works by essentially copying an ancient summoning ritual. The aspect that he’s having trouble with is the “strong desires” part, as the COMP allows them to casually summon demons without the need for an especially strong will. Apparently, Naoya substituted that step by drawing on...wait for it...the Internet. The Internet, you say? What does he mean by that? Yuzu calls that ridiculous but Atsuro says to think about it: the Internet is like a big ocean of thoughts supplied by people typing up and posting all of their thoughts, feelings, and frustrations. I’m sure tumblr alone would be enough! Naoya’s program converts those thoughts into energy (the game more-or-less says through Atsuro “don’t bother thinking how that works”) and uses them to fulfill the missing step.
There’s more, Atsuro says, and reads off some notes along the lines of “SND00 - type:summon effect:low”, “SND01 - type:summon effect:none” and so forth. He says they look like experiment results, and that he’ll look into it further later, and that there’s one phrase in the notes that keeps popping up: “music is the primal common tongue.” Akira points out that “SND” likely stands for “sound”, and his friend says that he’ll do his best to decipher them. Then, to Akira privately, he shares his hopes that if they talk to Naoya they’ll be able to gain complete control over the demons without having to send them away like he’s been hoping. I have to say, I’m pretty sure this game was the first in the Megami Tensei franchise to delve this deeply into the mechanics behind the Demon Summoning Program since the original Digital Devil Story novel.
Well, next up is a mandatory battle outside of the Ikebukuro concourse on Sunshine Boulevard that we keep coming back to. Here we’re stopped by an SDF squad, who apparently plan to kill us because we’re demon tamers. The captain explains that they happened to turn on some COMPs they took from demon tamers who attacked the barricades and thus ended up being thrown in the lockdown themselves. Now they believe that their only hope of survival is to kill all other tamers so the lockdown’s lifted. Yuzu says that she can’t believe SDF soldiers would act that like, and after the guy shouts for her to shut up (in the classic “three-shut ups” tsundere pattern, no less) we’re forced to square off against the entire six-man squad.
Mission 24
- All demon tamers must be defeated
- The whole party cannot die
Atsuro’s not too useful during this mission at first, as most of the SDF Tamers have Anti-Physical along with their Hanumans. However, they do have a very important skill to crack: Pierce, the Passive Skill that allows Physical attacks to bypass all forms of Physical defense other than reflection. Definitely get that and stick it on Atsuro so that he’ll be back to face-crunching form in no time. The fact that we can only have one leader with Pierce on at a time coupled with the dearth of Physical skills really hampers the viability of using more than one Physical-specialist on the team at a time, but the situation’s a little better in Overclocked for a reason I’ll get to in a while.
Apart from that there are a couple other aspects that make this mission a little annoying. A couple of the demon teams have Yms which in addition to buffing attack range thanks to their Dragon’s Racial Skill, they’re the first demons that come with Holy Dance. Holy Dance can be an especially deadly Dance skill since it doles out Almighty damage so we can’t defend against it at all. Two of the other SDF Tamers have Healing as an Auto Skill, which acts as an automatic casting of Media if any of their party is injured. Once we defeat the majority of the squad the remainders try to flee, so we need to take them down before they reach the two escape panels that appear. The SDF squad’s pretty sturdy, all things considered.
Completing the mission earns us 1050 EXP and 680 macca.
Not a bad reward. After the battle Atsuro ponders how the SDF seems to have no mercy for their own, and Yuzu says that they must be really scared of demons to go so far. Midori comments on how demons have no problem going up against guys with guns and he says that if you look at it that way, you kinda do see why the lockdown had to happen.
It’s twelve o’clock now, so time to see about Mari’s battle. Even though we ensured that Kaido would come to her aid, we still have to actually show up if we want her to live, and unlike some other missions this one will disappear if not chosen within its small time-frame. When we reach the outside of the Bugeikan all the players are already there: Mari/Kresnik, Kaido, and Kudlak. Kresnik tells us that the white amnion powder can only work at this very moment, and that he must be the one to deal the final blow.
Mission 25
- All demons must be defeated
- The whole party cannot die
- Mari and Kaido cannot die
Since I beat him yesterday despite Kresnik’s protests Kudlak is indeed stronger now:
Kudlak (Lv. 53)
HP/MP
- 490/147
- Weak to Fire; Resists Physical; Reflects Ice
- Bufudyne - Deals heavy Ice damage to one target.
- Petra Eyes - Attempts to petrify enemy party.
- Mabufu - Deals Ice damage to entire enemy party.
- Ice Amp - Ice attacks are powered up by 50%.
- Beast Eye - Allows two actions per turn during battle.
- Ice Repel - Grants reflection of Ice attacks.
- Bind - Targets a team within a three-panel-range, sacrificing some HP to reduce their movement range to 1 for one turn.
In all fairness though, he’s not quite the monster his level and stats make him out to be, though obviously you don't want to bring something with a weakness to Ice into battle against him. We can soften him up, but Mari/Kresnik is the only one who can actually defeat him. Well, we can, but that’s not the favorable outcome and we’ll miss out on some stuff at the end of the mission. Note how the objectives state that we must defeat all of the demons, but curiously that stipulation does not apply to Kudlak. That is because as soon as he realizes that Kresnik can harm him he’ll immediately attempt to flee towards a set of escape panels at the other end of the map, making him the game’s first example of a "Get Back Here!" Boss. Even if he escapes we don’t fail the mission, but again it’s not the favorable outcome.
So what we need to do is to find a way so stop him from going anywhere so that Kresnik can finish him. The way I like to accomplish this is to utilize Drone Jam to forcibly bar his way. You want an Avian (Badb Catha works fine) and a Wilder or two on the team like Mothman so that you can use their Racial Skills to jump ahead of him, because once you let him break away from the characters, it’s hard to catch up otherwise as he’ll spam Bind to keep you away. Another strategy, one that works well in conjunction with the above, is to try petrifying him with Petra Eyes so that Kresnik’s Physical attacks have a higher chance of finishing him off quickly. Kresnik’s much more well-equipped for battle this time around, sporting Diarahan for full heals and the powerful Deathbound.
Kaido, meanwhile, doesn’t really contribute much other than drawing the attention of the other demons on the map. Pazuzu really slows him down, but he’s got enough healing available that you should be able to safely ignore him until Kudlak is defeated.
Completing the mission earns us 1200 EXP and 800 macca.
The spoils seem to be ramping up. Very appreciated. When the commotion settles Mari’s death clock goes up to 2 and Kresnik thanks us for our assistance in vanquishing the vampire and tells us to summon him anytime we need his powers on our journey. Thus we receive a notification that we can now fuse both Kresnik and Kudlak (though not until Akira’s reached their levels, of course), something that we wouldn't have gotten had Kudlak either escaped or been defeated by someone other than Kresnik. He leaves Mari’s body and Kaido comments that well, looks like he finally got his revenge. He shouts at Mari for putting herself in danger, stammers that she’s more important to him than she realizes, gives the crew a genuine-sounding thanks, and goes on his way, presumably too preoccupied now to resume his hunt for Keisuke. When he’s gone Mari thanks us too and explains that she felt that she had to get revenge on Kudlak herself because she in some way blamed herself for Kaido’s brother’s death. It becomes clear during the conversation that it was a Sibling Triangle situation that was so putting Kaido out. Everything’s all right now, and Midori’s in high enough spirits to suggest that they give themselves a name like the “Summon Rangers”, but Yuzu says not to encourage her.
Okay. Now, to see about Keisuke...
Compendium
- Mothman
◊
- A cryptid sighted in West Virginia from late 1966 thru 1967, named as such for its large, reflective eyes and bug-like wings. Mothman was popularized by the 1975 book The Mothman Prophecies by John Keel, who posited that Mothman was one of numerous supernatural events in the region that heralded the collapse of the Silver Bridge at the end of 1967.
- Quetzalcoatl◊
- A god of the Aztecs, Quetzalcoatl was often depicted as a feathered serpent who was one of the chief creators of mankind. It is said that when Hernan Cortez made contact with the Aztecs they mistook him for the god, a mistake that the Spaniards took advantage of that ultimately led to the Aztecs' downfall.
- Lucifuge◊
- Lucifuge is a demon who serves as the prime minister of Hell and he presides over contracts, granting the wishes of conjurers in exchange for their souls. His name means "he who flees the light".
- Hanuman◊
- A Hindu god who is one of the central figures in the epic Ramayana. He is the son of the wind god Vayu, and thus has numerous powers, such as that of flight, shapeshifting, and super-strength. He's most famous for aiding the hero Rama in defeating the demon king Ravana.
- Orobas◊
- One of the princes of Hell, and a surprisingly noble figure as he will never deceive, lie to, or otherwise mislead whoever summons him. It is speculated that his name is derived from the Latin word for a kind of incense.
- Brigid◊
- An Irish goddess of the hearth. She presides over such things as craftsmanship and peotry, and it is speculated that Christianity transplanted her iconography and functions to Brigit of Kildare, also known as Saint Bridget.
- Lailah◊
- The angel of conception in Jewish lore. She duty is to watch over unborn children, give them the knowledge of the Torah, and act as midwives when the time comes for them to be born. Sometimes she is seen as the good counterpart to Lilith, who was known for stealing children away from their mothers.
- Badb Catha◊
- An Irish war goddess who visits battlefields to soak up the bloodlust and death and drive soldiers into a furious rage. Her name literally means "battle crow".
- Orthrus◊
- The two-headed brother of Cerberus in Greek myth. He guarded the giant Geryon's red cattle, but was slain along with his master by Heracles as part of his famous twelve labors, the tenth being to steal the cattle.
- Kresnik◊
- A traveling Croatian shaman who is eternally locked in combat with his rival, the black vampire Kudlak. Like Kudlak Kresnik can transform into an animal at night, always identifiable by its white color. Interestingly, if you look back at Mari's official art you can see that she was designed to be evocative of Kresnik, right down to his not-Batman symbol being a charm hanging from her bag.
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