Time for this route’s True Final Boss. Before we head out to meet Okuninushi we need to do some preparation. In most of his other appearances, Okuninushi is a mid-level demon, which will certainly not be the case in this game. In order to stand a fighting chance the whole party needs to be in the 70s level-wise. Lv. 77 was about the highest I could manage to get before the Anti-Grinding measures made anything further absolutely mind-numbing to get to. The only free battle that’s available right now is at the Diet Building, and if you’re lucky one of the demon tamers in it will have a Shiva on their team that you can crack Victory Cry off of, the last Passive Skill in the game I needed to get. It recovers about a third of your maximum HP and MP at the end of battle, so put it on the member who’ll benefit the most from it.
Okuninushi is at akasaka Sacas, at the base of the Akasaka Blitz music venue (bland-named to “Plitz”) in particular, which means a brand new map. Since we failed to redeem Naoya, he says that he will keep his word and destroy Japan to build it anew, his first step being the destruction of Tokyo, which he says has been poisoned by the Bels. When the crew protests he demonstrates his power by...turning the plaza’s trees into flowering cherry blossoms. Uh, okay. Then he summons demons. Now we’re speaking the same language! The crew declares that they won’t let their home be destroyed, and the real final battle begins.
Amane Mission 12
- Okuninushi must be defeated
- The whole party cannot die
Okuninushi’s not at the far end of the map, he’s actually pretty close to where we start being just inside the building’s plaza that opens out onto the city street. Since he’s one of those bosses with an extended attack range for this phase of the battle (spoiler alert: there are three phases) I prefer to make as little movement as possible and instead just wait for the demons to come to me so that I can take them out without having to worry about Okuninushi sniping us. In addition to the expected endgame stuff like Ganeshas and Fafnirs we also have to deal with super-powered Rangdas and Yaksas. The Yaksas are real pains in the ass with their piercing Deathbounds and buffed critical rate thanks to their Racial Skill, so those guys need to be wiped out ASAP. There needs to be some way to group heal on every one of your teams, especially when you take Okuninushi into account:
Okuninushi (Lv. 80)
HP/MP
- ???/???
- Resists Ice, Elec, and Force; Reflects Fire; Nulls Physical and Mystic
- Holy Strike - A Strength-based attack that deals heavy Almighty damage to one target.
- Deathbound - Deals several random hits of heavy Physical damage to multiple targets; damage depends on user’s current HP.
- Maragidyne - Deals heavy Fire damage to entire enemy party.
- Anti-All - Grants resistance to all elements other than Almighty.
- Pierce - Physical attacks bypass Physical resistance, nullification, and absorption.
- Beast Eye - Allows two actions per turn during battle.
- Creator - Has an attack range of 6 panels and grants usage of Arbor Whip.
- Arbor Whip - Deals Almighty damage to all enemy parties.
Even if you’re in the late 70s, piercing Deathbounds from a Lv. 80 boss really, really hurts. Physical defense is what we need, and the only way to defend against something like that is reflection. Getting Physical Repel on demons is pretty difficult to do, but we also have options like Tetrakarn or the Auto Skill Wall. Shield All and Shield All + also work, and are less MP-intensive than Tetrakarn. This was another scenario where Atsuro came in handy - with his own Deathbounds and Bishamon’s Double Up he was able to take Okuninushi out in two battles.
However, that’s not the end of things. Just like the myth Okuninushi is revived thanks to his mother’s power and reappears at the east-most corner of the map, HP fully restored and Arbor Whip having been upgraded to Holy Whip, which deals moderate Almighty damage rather than normal. He summons more demons, but since he’s well out of range we have an opportunity to catch our breath and replenish our own HP before heading off to fight him again. Despite the improved Field Skill Okuninushi’s moveset and stats remain the same, so the exact same defensive measures continue to work.
Once we beat him again he revives a third time and moves over to the north-most side of the map and Holy Whip gets upgraded further to Godly Whip, which deals heavy Almighty damage. Okuninushi complements us on surviving thus far but is confident that we’ll fall eventually. Which we will if he revives any more and that Field Skill of his gets any stronger.
It’s at this point that, of all people, Naoya arrives on the map to lend us aid. He calls our battered state unseemly and Okuninushi asks what he plans to do alone. Naoya replies that it is not him but Akira who will slay the god, and declares “I am Cain. And I have come to give aid to my brother Abel!” Atsuro exclaims that he came, then wonders why, and is told by his teacher that he doesn’t have to explain himself and to just concentrate on fighting Okuninushi. So now Naoya’s survival is added to the mission requirements, but he doesn’t need much babysitting at all. He must have admin privileges over the COMPs for both his HP and MP are at 999 without buffing, and his skillset load-out is Holy Dance, Mediarahan, Dream Feast, Victory Cry, Anti-All, Endure, and Shield All +. And his demons, while not totally broken in the same way, also have Samarecarm and Mediarahan, so he’s not going anywhere.
When his turn comes up he engages Okuninushi in a war of words, accusing him of not being fit to rule Japan after having fled his murderous brothers rather than face his death with dignity like Abel apparently did. Declaring that he won’t let Okuninushi harm his brother, he does something that sets up a barrier that cuts the god off from the healing energies of his mother, preventing him from resurrecting any more. Now we can make the final push and finish Okuninushi off, and while Naoya will quickly get swarmed by the demons, he won’t fall.
Once we deplete his health a third time Okuninushi says that he will not change his mind just because he was beaten, and asks Naoya why he came here. Naoya just kinda shrugs and says that even he doesn’t know, but he does repeat that he won’t let his brother be killed. Okuninushi laughs and says that he has seen a “droplet of water in the thousand-year-old ice” and so, while we didn’t really redeem Naoya like we were supposed to, he recognizes our efforts and agrees to abdicate Japan to the Messiah. Mission complete.
Having abdicated, Okuninushi withdraws all the demons he lent to the remaining demon tamers and we’re treated to a couple scenes of characters across the city, including Izuna and Kaido, commenting on the change in air as the death clocks vanish again, this time for good. Back at akasaka Sacas Naoya says that we made a nuisance of ourselves before leaving with a simple “Now go spread God’s order around the world.” The crew’s a little confused over how Okuninushi changed his mind, but Amane says that he detected a change, however small, in Naoya and appreciated that. She also speculates that Naoya’s unlikely display of brotherhood resonated with him, as after founding Japan he lost his own blood-brother, Sukuna Hikona. Whether that droplet of water will freeze over again or continue to thaw, they can’t know, but she’s confident that they made an impact and that one day his punishment will end.
The ending narration kicks in while the game shows a sea of busted COMPs, saying that once all the remaining demon tamers surrendered the crew and the Shomonkai disposed of their own COMPs, thus finally bringing an end to the demon threat. Naoya’s seen in front of the Diet Building, saying that he’ll be watching to see just how far the Messiah’s ideal can reach. Then we jump ahead in time by like a month or so, where Atsuro, Yuzu, Amane, Midori, and Keisuke are meeting up together in the Scramble Crossing. Atsuro says that it’s hard to believe how much Japan has changed in only a month, as the crime rate is already down to only two percent. It seems people have truly taken God’s and the Messiah’s words to heart, and Midori that a world that doesn’t need a hero is truly the best sort of world. Akira is seemingly off in other countries around the world in order to spread the Word, and while it will be difficult, Amane says to herself that Abel, God’s chosen child, is surely the one who can do it.
See Atlus? You can make a Law ending that doesn’t involve the total loss of free will and becoming mindless prayerbots!
And that is the end of the first of several cycles of Devil Survivor Overclocked! For completing Amane’s 8th day her character portrait is fully filled in on the save menu and Okuninushi is unlocked for fusion, being Lv. 87 and the ultimate Kishin. The next ending path I’m going to shoot for is Yuzu’s, so I’ll be playing through the whole game again to get to that point. So the next update will cover the New Game+ features and the majority of the game’s bonus bosses. Until then!
Compendium
- Nyarlathotep
◊
- One of the Outer Gods from HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos who bears the epithet of "Crawling Chaos." Unlike the other Outer Gods who reside among the stars, Nyarlathotep dwells on Earth where he enacts the will of the Outer Gods to bring chaos and madness by stirring up his and the other Outer Gods' followers. He has thousands of forms, but his true one according to Lovecraft is more horrible than anything that can be imagined. In the Megami Tensei franchise he's famous as the Big Bad of the Persona 2 duology.
Soundtrack
- Confusion
- The first of two (not counting Soul Survive) new tracks added to the Overclocked release. It's the map theme for each of the three 8th day final bosses, and it certainly lives up to its name.
- High Touch
- And this is the battle music for the bosses themselves. Compared to the rest of this riff-heavy soundtrack I do like it because it's so much more energetic and upbeat than most of the other songs.
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