So last time we became the goofiest-looking Messiah ever. This time we shall embark on the 8th day of Amane’s path to find out what happened next.
The story picks up from the scene where Babel’s finally defeated and does the assimilation thing with the room below. The post-battle scene plays out the same way it did in the original ending until the part where Amane says the new world will be one of order and without sin, after which she continues to speak instead of the scene shifting to the SDF announcement outside. She asks Akira to return all the demons to the demon world to secure the safeties of everyone inside the lockdown, so he does by uh, closing his eyes and generating a flash of light it seems. Outside we see the giant portal over Tokyo vanish, replaced by the natural blue sky. We also see scenes of the angels descending to the earth and telling crowds of people all over the lockdown that we’ve averted catastrophe and that the lockdown is lifted. They also explain how things will work from now on: the Messiah and his fellows, meaning the rest of the crew, and the Shomonkai are to be treated with the same sort of veneration and respect one would give to the Lord (wait, weren’t the Shomonkai anti-God? Is the whole organization OK now in Heaven’s eyes just because Amane’s now technically their leader?) and that they are the only ones who are allowed to use demons. Everyone else must give up their COMPs and go forth and lead righteous lives, love thy neighbor and all that.
After we listen to a bit of the angel’s hilarious choral “singing” the crew emerges from the Mori Tower and marvels at the sky finally being blue again. Atsuro asks, just to be on the safe side, what the death clock reads, but we no longer have to worry about that; the death clocks are no longer being displayed. Now that Akira’s become the Messiah, Amane’s become quite chatty as she starts explaining that it will be our duty to convey to the world the message that we are now in the earthly domain of God, and as such must urge people to live righteously as the angels said while punishing transgressions. This is the part that Keisuke seems the most excited about, still showing some traces of his Knight Templar phase, while Atsuro becomes a bit concerned, remembering how dogmatic the angels were during the lockdown. Amane tells him not to worry, saying that most people should have no problem as only those who consciously make the decision to commit immoral deeds will have to fear God’s judgement. Hearing this makes Atsuro figure that as long as people use their common sense they’ll be fine and starts to feel better about it, as does Midori since she’s excited about doing more hero of justice stuff. You may notice that Mari’s pretty much had nothing to say since she joined the party. It’s a bit of a shame, but I guess since she’s a rather peripheral character once the Kresnik/Kudlak subplot is concluded and her joining is optional, the writers didn’t want to write extensive dialogue for her. As a result she’s pretty much reduced to making peanut gallery-type comments during battle while only occasionally having a token line outside of it.
After Amane finishes outlining the utopian future that’s ahead (apparently God plans for even demons to be cleansed of sin and live in His kingdom along with humans and angels) she says that their work will begin tomorrow. So, even though it’s only like one in the afternoon we’re turning in early for the day. We still get an and-of-day email, and it’s from Metatron (as M). It’s pretty much just a slightly extended version of the congratulatory message he had for us in the original ending. Now, after seven days of survival, what could be in store for our heroes next...
8th Day - God vs. Hero
No Laplace Mail this morning, but Amane’s already up to inform us on the current state of things. She says that the lockdown was lifted a little while ago, and right now people are slowly being processed through checkpoints and let out of the Yamanote circle. Those with COMPs must give them up, and Atsuro asks what the point of that is with all the demons gone. Well actually, funny thing. Apparently there’s a loophole; despite all the emphasis on having Akira use his overlord powers to send all the demons away in the main game, apparently he can’t do anything about demons already under contracts, meaning demon tamers still have control over their’s, and he can’t overrule them either. It’s a bit of a contrivance, but I guess it would be a very boring day if we had no one to fight. So that will be the first order of business today: patrol the streets, find people who are still resisting, and figure out what to do about them. Yuzu mutters that Amane’s acting like she’s Akira’s secretary or something.
Once we’re on our way if we check out the various locations’ flavor texts we can see that the mood around the Yamanote circle is much brighter and optimistic than it’s been all week. We can still do free battles, and in jiving with what Amane just told us all the adversaries are belligerent demon tamers, giving a good chance to snag some Auto Skills that may have been missed. Their demons are in the low-to-mid 60s level-wise, so they give out a lot of experience and it’s definitely a prime opportunity to get some levels in. Now that he’s gained the power of Bel Akira’s race has been changed from Human to Bel like the other Bel demons, and his Speed’s been given another small boost (now it’s at 56) and his movement range has been increased to five panels.
Well, starting things off, if we head to the Shomonkai HQ in Shinagawa the crew encounters Fushimi directing the Shomonkai in the disposal of the altered COMPs. Not all demon tamers are belligerent, a lot are willingly handing their devices over after hearing the angels’ proclamation. Yuzu asks him how things are going outside of the lockdown, and he admits that there’s a fair amount of confusion over what’s happened, but the government released an official statement so for now things are in hand, as much as they can be. While Japan and the world will change as a result of the lockdown, it won’t happen overnight. He gives a heartfelt thanks for what we’ve done and excuses himself, saying that he has a full schedule. Amane says that they should finish things up inside the lockdown quickly so that they can start tending to the outside.
The next character event is about Amane at Hibiya Park. Yuzu tells Akira that Amane’s become really upbeat, much different from how hard to read she was earlier in the game. The maiden overhears this and admits to being at something of a loss, as her father had taught her to suppress her emotions in presenting herself as the Shomonkai’s maiden. She goes on to admit to sometimes wondering what it would be like to live a regular high school life, then quickly and bashfully says that helping the Messiah is her calling now. Just some last bits of character development for the road.
Next is a very important scene at the Sunshine Boulevard map at Ikebukuro, where the crew witnesses a woman screaming for help after just being robbed by a thug. Curiously enough, there’s some sort of emblem next to the thug’s head, but it’s distinctly different from the death clock readout, instead being of a heart bound by chains. Amane commands the thug to return the stolen wallet, making me wonder if next we’re supposed to help old ladies cross the street or get cats down from trees in our official capacity as the Messiah and his agents. The guy, to no surprise, thinks we’re full of shit, and just as the crew are noticing the weird mark four angels appear. They explain that the mark is called the Brand of Death, and anyone with it is marked as an irredeemable sinner. Since we’re hesitating to pass judgement on him, they do what angels in the Megami Tensei games do best and smite the guy on the spot, the Brand turning gray and fading as he dies. They tell the woman to take her stolen belongings and leave, which she does in record time.
Midori says in disbelief that the punishment for simply stealing is death, but the angels say that that is not so - the man they just killed was guilty of far more crimes committed in the past, hence the Brand of Death, and this case of purse-snatching was simply the tipping point. The power to see the Brand, to identify those who are damned, is the power they have given the Messiah and his agents. Atsuro insists that even so, simply killing them is just tyranny but the angels stonewall him with the argument that if left unchecked they will harm the lives of the righteous who seek to do others no harm. Keisuke continues his minute backslide by comparing it to quarantining sick people so they don’t infect the healthy, and then says that unlike sick people, those with the Brand are to blame for their condition and thus deserve their fates.
Instead of elimination, we can have Akira and Yuzu suggest rehabilitation instead, an idea that the angels are almost affronted by. Yeah, it’s not like repentance is one of the cornerstones of the faith or anything, right? Basically they expose themselves as being really, really lazy, preferring to simply kill sinners than putting in the effort to rehabilitate them, but they’re all too happy to pass the buck on to us in recognition of our “pure heart”. Atsuro’s still concerned over the idea of them having to kill someone, even a black-hearted criminal (and to his credit Keisuke’s not as enthusiastic about actually killing either) but the angels will not be swayed: if we cannot decrease the number of people with the Brand of Death over time, then the choice will be taken from us,and they will continue to mete out punishment in our stead. After the angels leave Amane tries raising the crew’s morale by assuring them that God’s ideal world is one not where sin is punished, but where it doesn’t exist. That cheers up Atsuro a bit, who says that they’ve got work to do then.
After all this talking it’s time for some story-related battling at last. There are two events at the Shibuya barricade, the first is of a fight almost breaking out among the people lined up (though they resolve things peacefully on their own, which Amane takes as a sign that people are taking the angels’ words to heart) while the second involves demon tamers. The lockdown is over, but even so Honda is still trying to break out so that he can deliver his COMP to his employer. He’s got a veritable mob with him, and the barricade’s defenders only number three: two SDF soldier teams and a Kazfiel. Make that two, since as soon as the angel sees the crew he leaves to let us handle things. Lazy bastard.
Amane Mission 8
- All demon tamers must be defeated
- The whole party cannot die
- No demon tamers can escape
This map looks familiar - in fact it’s actually the Elec Museum one from the tutorial during the prologue! The place hasn’t fared too well during the past week though; there’s a network of sandbags and barbwire fencing towards the bottom where the SDF soldiers are, the pavement’s cracked, a telephone pole’s been toppled over, and it looks like a water main’s burst.
The single escape panel is located at the very bottom of the map, and as soon as his turn comes up one of the SDF soldiers will hurry over to camp it. That’s good, but because neither he nor his comrade have demons they’re not going to be able to put up much of a fight against the first demon tamer that engages them. Since two reinforcements arrive as you defeat the tamers it’s easy to get bogged down at the top of the map and be unable to aid them in time. So what I did on that hard free battle before is grind up to Lv. 71 so that I could fuse Garuda and Behemoth, the top Avian and Wilder respectively, and use their Racial Skills to quickly get to that end of the map. You definitely need some way of jumping over all the obstructions towards the map’s bottom, as walking around them takes way too much time.
As for Honda:
Honda (Lv. 66)
HP/MP
- 922/312
- Resists Fire, Ice, Elec, Force, and Mystic
- Maragidyne - Deals heavy Fire damage to entire enemy party.
- Megido - Deals moderate Almighty damage to entire enemy party.
- Diarahan - Fully restores one party member’s HP.
- Fire Amp - Fire attacks powered up by 50%.
- Life Lift - Recovers 20% max HP at the end of battle.
- Anti-Most - Grants resistance to all elements other than Physical and Almighty
- Healing - Automatically restores some HP to entire party if any are injured at the start of battle.
- Arioch, Black Maria
That Arioch of his is roughly ten levels higher than the ones we fought yesterday, and it’s packing both Deathbound and Multi-Strike, along with Pierce and Attack All. That thing needs to die, immediately. Honda’s still carrying around support demons in the form of Black Maria and aside from healing it packs a mean Mabufudyne, but its HP is lowish so as long as you don’t accidentally hit it with Ice it’ll go down quickly. When defeated Honda gasps that we’re strong and that he needs stronger demons to fight, he’d even give his life for one! Uh oh...
Right on cue the ground starts shaking and a demonic voice says that his “raging heart and dark anger” have resonated with him. A mystical wind blows, and amongst the swirling leaves a crouching, shichishito sword-wielding demon appears before Honda: the hero-god Susano’o. Honda wants to use him to crush anyone who’d stop him from getting out, but the demon says that he is not yet ready for that trial. So, just like Pazuzu did to he and Kaido several days ago, Susano’o whisks the two of them away from the battlefield. Well nuts.
With Honda gone all that’s left is to mop up (amusingly, one guy has a Physical-oriented team yet is equipped with Ban Physical) the stragglers.
Completing the mission earns us 2700 EXP and 1900 macca.
Afterward Atsuro asks Amane why Susano’o wasn’t bound by Akira’s control and she explains that most demons are grouped together as courts, but even demons outside of the courts the overlord has control over would obey him because we’re the King of Bel. She theorizes that Susano’o is still independent because of his status as being one of Japan’s guardian deities. Or to put it in the simply way Keisuke describes it, we’ve ended up creating a turf war between Heaven and the Japanese pantheon. In a subsequent event in Roppongi we can have Amane explain the lore behind Susano’o, and apparently there’s a part of the myth where he was exiled by his father Izanagi for wanting to see his mother (Midori finds the idea of the god being a momma’s boy cute), so the crew speculates that he showed himself to Honda due to his strong desire to see is son. They feel sorry for Honda, but they still have to stop him.
Well, no one said being a Messiah was going to be easy.
Compendium
- Jahi
◊
- In Zoroastrian lore Jahi is a witch that personifies the negative qualities of the female. From looseness to temper to menstruation, it's all there. She's the consort of Ahriman, the Zoroastrian counterpart to the Devil, and her basic epithet is "the Whore".
- Cabracan◊
- Son of the bird demon Vucub Caquix, Cabracan is a Mayan monsters whose domain is over mountains and earthquakes. Ironically his rule of the Earth came to an end when he was buried alive by two Mayan heroes, Hunahpu and Xbalanque.
- Behemoth◊
- While generally used as short-hand for an especially large and powerful beast, in the Book of Job the Behemoth was used as an allegory to illustrate the futility of questioning God. In other traditions Behemoth is a part of apocalyptic imagery, being the land-based counterpart of the sea monster Leviathan.
- Garuda◊
- A holy bird in Hindu lore, sometimes known as "Suparna". Garuda became the carrier of Vishnu after he attacked the heavens in search of an elixir that would grant his mother eternal life. Due to their great size they generate hurricane-force winds with a single flap of his wings.
- Susano'o◊
- Susano'o is one of the three gods born from Izanagi, and is known as the summer storm. After his enraged rampages caused his mother Amaterasu to hide herself, thus dimming the world, he was banished from the heavens. During his travels in earthly Izumo he slew the eight-headed serpent Yamata no Orochi and saved the maiden Kushinada-hime from being offered up to it. He later wed her and presented the sword made from the serpent's tail, the Ama no Murakumo, to Amaterasu as a reconciliation.
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