4th Day - Crumbling Reason
Well that’s not a very reassuring title. When everyone wakes up and starts to go over what they’re going to do today Atsuro speaks up with an idea of his. It has to do with his email last night - he proposes that what if they were able to find a way to access the server running the Demon Summoning Program and take control of it, therefore taking control of all the summoned demons and rendering them as harmless to others as the ones they summon from their COMPs? That way they could end the lockdown without necessarily having to remove the demons from the equation. The biggest problem is that they don’t know where the server is located, so he suggests they ask the Shomonkai, who ordered it, as Naoya still has yet to show up.
At this moment the day’s Laplace Mail arrives and it seems that Akira, Atsuro, and Yuzu are the only ones receiving it for Keisuke claims to know nothing about such a thing. Hm. Anyway, let’s check it out:
GoOOOd MMorrrrorning. Herre is today[]s NNNN
1. At 11:00 in the Toyoshima-ku Ikebukuro underground walkway, a homicide will take place following public persecution against demon tamers. The victim will be Midori Komaki.
2. At 5:00PM outside the Shibuya Station, the Self-Defense Force will fatally shoot a popular rock singer. It is suspected that this is a suicide.
3. Throughout the day, riots will increase in intensity as relations between demon tamers and civilians become increasingly strained.
4.The number of suicides increases rapidly as all social order breaks down.
Have a n#oiaseg;oj%
Huh, well, not to understate the situation, but that’s not good at all. Atsuro tries to assure Keisuke that what’s in the mail can be prevented, but his words don’t do anything. Keisuke suddenly explodes in anger at the idea that Midori’s going to be killed not by demons but by humans, going from his usual stoic and inexpressive character portraits to red-faced angry (the force of his anger is apparently so great that it causes his shirt collar to pop itself - both of them). Akira and Atsuro try to again assure him that they can save her, but he exclaims that that’s not the point. Even though she’s been reckless about it Midori’s still been trying to help people, he argues, and he just can’t wrap his head around the fact that they’ll turn on her and actually kill her. He jumps to the conclusion that it won’t be just Midori, but other friendly demon tamers who’ll suffer when people look for a scapegoat to blame for the lockdown. He declares that he can’t let these bastards who won’t do anything for themselves to get away with this, and no amount of reasoning will defuse him. He thanks us for what we’ve done for him and leaves the party, dropping his death clock from 2 to 1.
Atsuro and Yuzu worry that Keisuke’s gone off to do vigilante stuff, but there’s still the other item in the Laplace Mail to worry about, the singer committing suicide, which they all figure to be Haru. Yeah, here’s where one of the big gimmicks of the game comes in: if you don’t save them, some characters will indeed die, preventing them from joining the party obviously as well as locking you out of certain ending routes. Aside from one particular instance, it’s not actually difficult to save the characters as long as you keep an eye on their events throughout the day, though if you do overlook them and miss the window of time, obviously you don’t get to try again. We can have Yuzu remind us when it’s 5:00PM, as it’s very important that Haru lives as we’ll see later on. For now we need to focus on finding Midori, and Atsuro hopes that saving her will somehow help Keisuke come back around. We’re down to three characters again, but thankfully Keisuke didn’t steal any skills or demons when he left us.
We can start by seeing a timeless event in Roppongi that’s similar to the one with the man from the other day who believed that humanity will only betray God’s hopes. This time it’s a woman who thinks the government and a certain “Remiel” are being too lenient... Anyway, we start off the day for real by watching another Midori event in Ikebukuro where it’s become clear that people are starting to see her as a witch who only entices demons into a frenzy. And again she’s completely ignorant of that.
Next in Shinjuku the crew encounters another SDF supply drop, only this one is located in the midst of a full-scale riot as people try strong-arming each other out of the way for food. Akira and Atsuro manage to fight their way through the mob to get some food of their own, but with this and stores starting to be looted, they echo Mari’s concerns about the weak not being able to make it through the lockdown. Next, if you saw the scene with Honda and his radio yesterday we can confront him about it today to learn what his story is. He admits that he was sent into the Yamanote circle by the corporation he works for to retrieve a COMP but ended up getting trapped in the lockdown along with everyone else. The part about his son though is still true, and he’s still committed to finding a way out. Once he leaves Atsuro wonders how an outside corporation learned of the altered COMPs and worries over what’ll happen if someone got their hands on one and tried to start a war with their demons or something like that.
Next in Akihabara it’s an Atsuro scene where he gets to examining 10BIT’s COMP. The password’s four digits, and after the crew rules out it being his company ID number or insurance code, Atsuro guesses that maybe it’s his name - his online name, that is. He explains binary code and bits for a bit and comes to the conclusion that the password’s 1023, which is what the numerical value of ten “bits” would be in programming-speak. He remarks that it’s a good password because normal people would have no clue how to crack it even with the hint. He does his thing and reads through the unlocked COMP until he finds something on the PSE Law.
The PSE Law, which is short for Product Safety Electrical FYI, he explains, was a measure passed by the government back in 2001 and delayed until 2006 that stipulated that electronic product lines had to be inspected by a government agency before they could be sold, which apparently raised a huge outcry at the time from retailers and second-hand dealers. 10BIT and his disappeared journalist friend, however, discovered a sinister, ulterior motive behind the law: ordinary household appliances that passed inspection were secretly outfitted with a certain microchip that was programmed to emit a microwave upon receiving a certain signal. When all the devices did that, especially in an area choked with them like downtown Tokyo, physics would take over and all the waves would form an Ultra Electromagnetic Field. This UEM Field would consist of EM waves strong enough to transform the city into a microwave oven, frying any living being caught in its radius. Huh, quite a darker take on Star Force’s Wave World, huh?
Yuzu starts to lose her nerve at this information and hastily reminds everyone that they have to focus on finding a way out and rescue Midori. Before they get underway again, Atsuro hopes that the lockdown, blackout, and UEM Field have nothing to do with each other.
Oh, and by the way, the PSE Law? It’s real.
On to Shiba Park next, which fortunately has yet to be affected by the growing unrest in other parts of the city. The Shomonkai are still here preaching that once this ordeal has passed mankind will be closer to God, and eventually Amane comes over to the crew to ask what our thoughts are on the question of why would God create demons if He is a perfect being? The answer she’s looking for is pretty easy, given what we’ve heard from the Shomonkai so far: to test humanity and the pure of heart. She talks a little more about how the Shomonkai are using demons to overcome God’s ordeal and we can ask her about the summoning server, but she implies that it isn’t exactly something that can be found, at least not in an office like an ordinary server. The rest of her monologue is essentially “this game will have multiple ending routes, so keep in mind the people around you.” After she leaves Atsuro thinks she was trying to entice them into finding the server.
If we stay in Shiba Park we can see an important Gin scene. Akira’s left alone while the others go off on their own for a bit and he encounters the bartender gazing at the crowd of refugees who’re occupying the place. He asks us if seeing these people, so carefree and ignorant of everything that’s going on around them, makes us angry. Akira doesn’t answer by virtue of having no dialogue options to choose from and Gin goes on to say that he used to be like that until he met and fell in love with Aya, the lead singer for D-Va Haru told us about. But uh, then he goes on to say that she vanished six months ago rather than go overseas to study, so they’ve got their stories crossed. Gin says his only clue is that someone saw her with the Shomonkai on the day she vanished, and that he’s certain they know something because the members tend to act rather skittish around him. We can offer to help investigate and promise to pass another anything we may discover on our own. He thanks us and says that’ll be a big help. So that’s another plot line opened.
So let’s head down to Shinagawa and pay them a visit. Outside the Shomonkai headquarters the crew spots the man named Azuma and decide to ask him about the server and Naoya. On the subject of Naoya Azuma says that they’ve lost contact with him after he completed his work on the Demon Summoning Program and left, and that they’ll be disposing of his work material soon. On the subject of the server he immediately clams up, but does give us what he says is a “less problematic” answer by saying that it is no longer in human hands, but in God’s.
We can then ask about the whole Bel business, and rather than ask us how we know of that or perhaps let out an exclamation of disbelief he says that he is not permitted to speak of that. However he still helpfully goes to fetch someone who can: the Shomonkai Founder himself. Surprisingly the guy’s pretty cooperative, as he’s glad to meet people who are interested in the Shomonkai’s teachings. He explains that the being they call “His Majesty” has the power to protect people from God’s ordeal, and apparently he needs prayer badly. Ask about Belial, and he describes him as a mighty demon that incinerates all, and in the past was the one who brought decadence and destruction to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He thanks us for listening and says that he’ll be on his way. Atsuro says it’ll be a good idea to come up with a plan for facing a demon like that (one of Akira’s dialogue options is “Bring on the ice.” which I’ve always found amusing since he’s always been my dedicated Ice-user) and we’re off once again to look for Midori.
Uh, guys? I think you forgot to investigate something...
Compendium
- Loa
◊
- Haitian voodoo spirits that act as intermediaries between humans and Bondye, the Creator. There are many different types of Loa and many different summon rituals and modes of interaction with them.
- Tokebi◊
- Mischievous Korean spirits that wrestle people and attempt to humiliate the foolish and greedy. Their in-game design resembles Korean psychopomps.
- Peri◊
- In Persian mythology Peri are fallen angels who are barred from Heaven until they repent. Despite their "fallen" status they are not malevolent and will often come to the aid of people or heroes with their magical abilities.
- Thor◊
- The most celebrated of the Norse gods, Thor is most-closely associated with lightning and thunder. His signature weapon is the hammer Mjolnir, which is said to cause lightning whenever it was thrown. There are many tales of his travels and heroic exploits, with the most famous tending to be his battles with giants.
.jpg){kind=small}
Comments
