The no-doubt-long-awaited meeting in Osaka is mostly glossed over aside from Yamato saying that so far JP's has concluded that the buds are basically immature Dubhes and that Megrez's main body is somewhere offshore in the Pacific Ocean. In the meantime he delegates bud removal duty to Makoto, Otome, and Fumi while he takes Hibiki aside afterwards and tells us that our new task is to look into the rioting incidents, which are beginning to spread, and “deal” with them in whatever manner we feel is appropriate. Also, he'd like to speak with us about something else later. Before we're free to leave, Fumi calls up to let us know that the Terminal network has been fully restored, meaning that we can now freely travel (IE pick scenes) between the three cities however we wish. We can't go to East Timor though, so it was a bit of a letdown for Joe.
Now that we have access to Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya all at once the event list greatly expands, and now we have access to more than one free battle site at a time. So after doing some of that and seeing Io's version of the “Job Request” scene for Fate points (not enough for her to level up though) I'm going to meet with the Anguished One in Shiba Park, as out of all the current plot threads that's probably the one that needs the most illumination at the moment. Plus his music's cool. Anyway, during this bit he confirms that yes, he was the one who created Nicaea and the summoning app so that we would stand a chance against the Septentriones, though he admits that he wasn't very confident that we'd be able to defeat them like we have. He says that they are but tools of a greater will, but since this is still early-ish in the game he's not about to tell us who or what this “great will” is. Instead he vanishes into thin air after telling Hibiki to continue walking the path he believes in.
Oh right, we were supposed to be patrolling for rioters, weren't we? Well, after seeing that scene in Tokyo we're railroaded into a battle in Osaka's Umeda Station concourse, beneath the Big Man screen. There some civilians are futilely begging some JP's personnel for relief aid, and things quickly turn ugly as the JP's personnel tell off the people in the most assholish way possible and demons start getting summoned. That's when Hibiki and his group arrive, and we're given the option of siding with the civilians, the JP's members, or taking both of them on. Eh, while the JP's guys are being douchebags here (and don't seem to recognize us) at this point in the story it's probably more natural for the group to side with them, so it can't be helped, I suppose.
Mission 19: Confrontation
- All rioters must be defeated
- The whole party cannot die
- All JP's members cannot die
Hm, looking at the setup here it seems that was the “easy” choice; as in “only n00bs go easy”. Out of the four rioters only two actually possess demons and the other half just have teams filled out with normal human units so all they can do is attack. There are only two JP’s personnel (I think there are more if you choose to fight them) here but they can easily mow down the competition, especially since the demonless teams like to go full YOLO and heedless attack them. One of the rioters will provide healing with his two Kikuri-himes but it’s a useless gesture. These guys are toast.
Completing the mission earns us 950 EXP and 3600 macca.
That’s soon over and done with, and since I’m here in Osaka I might as well watch the other two events available here. The first one’s a quick event with Keita that’s actually left over from Day 2 that’s largely redundant after seeing the one with him in front of the Bugeikan in the last update: it’s him merely saying that he’s a boxer, joined JP’s so that he can fight as much as he likes, then he pretty much tells us to scram. The only good thing to come out of this event is that it pushes his Fate to Stage 2. The other event in at JP’s HQ with Yamato regarding his request to speak with us earlier. The topic of conversation concerns the Anguished One, with Yamato warning us not to listen to him lest we’re led astray, yet refuses to disclose who he is exactly, claiming that’s not important which is something that I’d most definitely argue against. Then he says that he thinks highly of Hibiki due to his ability to lead others, but that comes off a bit hollow after what he just said, or refused to say, to us.
It being 3:00PM right now, a nice round number, I’m going to go ahead and do the next available mission, which is the one those two “Job Request” scenes were building up to. In Asakusa back in Tokyo we see that Io and Daichi have decided to clandestinely distribute some of the food they were tasked with delivering to some of the needy civilians. As it turns out their humanitarian efforts drew a larger crowd than they were prepared to deal with until, in a textbook example of why we can’t have nice things, some thugs try to make off with the supplies and Io runs off in pursuit, leaving Daichi to moan that he thought passing out supplies would be something to do instead of fighting. They corner the thieves at Asakusa Temple where they naturally have backup waiting.
Mission 20: Apps and Muggers
- All demon tamers must be defeated
- The whole party cannot die
- Both thieves cannot escape
- Io and Daichi must be dispatched
The starting placement for this mission is a little unusual compared to all the others. The required members, Io and Daichi, are allowed to be placed more or less in the center of the map. Hibiki and whoever else you decided to drag along (in my case Airi) are stuck in the far corners, so Daichi and Io need to have some degree of self-sufficiency to keep them alive.
The good thing about this arrangement at least, is that it puts those two within striking distance of the two thieves, who need to be taken out ASAP before they reach the escape panel at the map’s northern vertex. The demon tamers have some annoying Auto Skills, like Debilitate’s little brother Weaken and the returning Battle Aura for funsies, and I actually ended up losing Airi to a Petra Eyes + physical attack combo (and naturally she had the only demon of mine capable of reviving) so these guys aren’t to be taken lightly even though weakness hitting will get you through this.
Completing the mission earns us 1000 EXP and 3600 macca.
Though Daichi’s glad they got the food back and beat the thieves he’s starting to come to realization that his humanitarian efforts, while noble, won’t be enough to restore order or soothe the growing anti-JP’s sentiment. He does get boosted up to Fate Stage 4 though, which is nice. What is much less nice is that immediately afterward Hibiki’s group gets another death clip from Nicaea. This one features Joe and Ronaldo in Nagoya’s Hisaya Odori Park, and while the latter’s fighting off demons a Pyro Jack hits the former with a burst of flame, turning his body to ash (which then blows away like something you’d see in a cartoon). Daichi immediately tries calling Joe’s cell, but for some reason can’t get through. Luckily the location’s pretty obvious.
Take Your Time was already a notable thing in the first game, and it’s even more apparent now that the characters have to hike to the local JP’s branch, enter the Terminal, leave the building, then head out to their next destination in only thirty minutes. Anyway, like Jungo’s death clip Joe’s has a prerequisite scene to watch if you want to save him. It’s an event called the misleading “Joe Lost”, where Jungo’s helping Hibiki’s group search Hisaya Odori for their lackadaisical salaryman friend. They don’t find him, but they do encounter a domestic dispute between a woman and her cowardly boyfriend. Daichi doesn’t want to get involved, but listening in is the right path to take, as the furious woman’s yelling at her boyfriend for trying to save his own skin, unlike that “guy in the flat cap”. That opens up an event in the same location called “Joe Still Lost”, but we don’t need to see it. Instead I’m going to quickly zip back to Osaka to watch a scene at JP’s HQ between Makoto and Yamato, where the former’s finally making that report about letting Ronaldo go yesterday. Her boss calls it a mistake, but a mistake he expected her to make but he’s still unconcerned, using more animal-based metaphors to illustrate just how little he thinks of the detective. When Makoto admits that she feels that there’s some truth in Ronaldo’s views (and we’ve just seen that for ourselves as well) Yamato implies that she’s free to leave and she quickly backpedals, saying that she won’t leave JP’s. After Yamato leaves we can ask her why she feels she owes the organization, and after a silence Makoto gives her backstory: she used to be a swimmer but had to quit and fell into depression after being hit by a car. JP’s gave her a new purpose in life, so that’s why she’s so dedicated to it. This bit of hit-and-run exposition ends with her achieving Fate Stage 2.
Now at 4:30PM the mission to save Joe at Hisaya Odori pops up, and if you neglected to see “Joe Lost” or simply waited too long it’ll turn into a regular event with the Exactly What It Says on the Tin title of “RIP Joe”. The non-fatal version has the party emerge onto the map hearing screams and witnessing Joe trying to lead some civilians to safety. Their numbers are swiftly cut down by the pursuing demons and Joe claims his phone isn’t working, but luckily we’re here as is Ronaldo, who declares that he’ll save everybody.
Mission 21: Power Outage
- All demons must be defeated
- The whole party cannot die
- Joe and Ronaldo cannot die
- No civilian can die
To start with, we have the option of telling the people to either head towards us or towards Ronaldo where a set of escape panels will appear. Sending them towards Ronaldo’s the safer choice since he’s still pretty strong and can really move since he no longer has a Vile slowing him down. ‘course he ended up killing a demon I wanted to get a crack off of, but c’est la vie.
Though reinforcement demon teams will arrive at the opposite end of the map, beyond the giant depression in its center, they shouldn’t be able to reach the civilians before they’ve escaped, so it’s important to not stress out about them too much and just focus on the ones that’re right in front of them. Most of the teams share Fire and Ice weaknesses, so packing the appropriate spells will clear them out in no time.
Completing the mission earns us 300 EXP and 2000 macca.
Afterwards it turns out that the reason Joe’s phone wasn’t working was because he wasn’t paying attention and let his battery die. Despite that bit of almost-fatal carelessness Ronaldo praises his bravery in trying to save the civilians regardless, and immediately gets saddled with the nickname of “Clicky”. The detective thanks us too despite that we’re still with JP’s and Joe wanders off saying he’s hungry, leaving the others exasperated at the man treating his near-death experience so flippantly. But he achieves Fate Stage 3 and unlocks Kamapua’a for fusion so it’s all good.
I’m going to close out this update with another event involving our mysterious fedora man since he’s still in Osu and we’re already here in Nagoya anyway. We find him watching a crowd trying to futilely revive an injured man, observing that he had assumed his job would’ve conditioned him to seeing dead bodies. We can ask if he’s a doctor or something more ugly like an assassin or yakuza and no matter what you pick he says that it’s close, but not it. He mentions finding some clues on his kid’s whereabouts at the evacuation sites before giving Hibiki another pat on the back with a new sport-related metaphor (life’s like soccer, you need to run for the ball of opportunity) and going on his way once more.
Compendium
- 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.
- Tlaloc◊
- The Aztec god of rain and fertility, though he was also known and feared for lightning and hail and also happened to serve as the sun for over three-hundred years. People who died from water or lightning strikes would go to his domain in the afterlife, Tlalocan.
- Pendragon◊
- Welsh for "dragon chief", this is a symbol of a king's authority and several Briton kings, including the legendary King Arthur, took "Pendragon" as a surname.
- Basilisk◊
- A legendary king of serpents (though it's not always depicted as a snake) that can kill its prey merely by looking at them. Traditionally its gaze petrifies its victims.
- Loa◊
- Haitian voodoo spirits that act as intermediaries between humans and Bondye, the Creator. There are many different types of Loa and many different summoning rituals and modes of interaction with them.
- Kamapua'a◊
- Meaning "hog child", Kamapua'a is a figure from Hawaiian mythology associated with the god of agriculture Lono and the island of Maui. His most famous tales involve his relationship - sometimes romantic, sometimes hostile - with the volcano goddess Pele. It is thanks to Kamapua'a's powers that the island's volcanic rock became fertile soil.
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