Immediately following that abortive effort at fighting Benetnasch we get a short scene on the overworld where a punk who’s part of Ronaldo’s insurgency runs up in a panic, babbling about how the Osaka faction has launched an attack on the Nagoya JP’s branch while we were away. That’s the next scene we’re railroaded into, and when we arrive on the map we see that Fumi, Makoto, Keita, and some demons under their control, have moved in. Keita’s busy beating up one of the remaining insurgents, only begrudgingly letting him go when Makoto orders him to stop. This act incenses Ronaldo, who shouts that his justice is crying for them to pay, but Fumi isn’t fazed one bit by his posturing and summons a few more demon teams to the field. She and Makoto are up on the balcony that lies just below the clock device at the head of the room, and she’s working away on her giant computer rig. Much to her teammates’ chagrin, in the interest of having a fair fight Makoto tells us that Fumi’s working on hacking into our phones to wipe our summoning apps. So with no time to waste we start tangling with the final active faction.
Ronaldo Mission 4: Vs. Osaka
- Fumi must be defeated within 15 turns
- The whole party cannot die
The time limit is a bit more pressing now, but you’re more likely to get a game over by having all your guys being defeated than running out the clock. Throughout the battle Fumi will naturally remain on the balcony, and the only proactive action she’ll take is to summon more demon teams as you knock them off. She doesn’t have an unlimited supply though, after about five or six summonings she’ll remark that her stock is empty. The demons she summons can be pretty nasty since most of them are Physical bruisers like Yaksas and Rakshasas which can also use Evil Bind to keep you from running away. There are also some Pythons and Abaddons in the mix too for range, so you gotta be careful where you step. Keita is the team’s frontline fighter, and boy oh boy is he a piece of work.
Keita (Lv. 59)
HP/MP
- 803/96
- None
- Deathbound - Deals several random hits of heavy Physical damage to multiple targets; damage depends on user’s current HP.
- Piercing Hit - Deals moderate Physical damage to one target while ignoring Physical resistance, absorption, and nullification.
- Physical Amp - Physical attacks powered up by 50%.
- Attack All - Normal Physical attacks hit the entire enemy party.
- Life Lift - Recovers 20% max HP at the end of battle.
- Rage Soul - Doubles team’s attack power at the cost of only being able to use normal Physical attacks.
- Zouchouten, Tzitzimitl
Keita’s setup is downright vicious. The end result of Physical Amp + Attack All + Rage Soul is that he can easily wipe out entire teams in a single attack, and if you somehow manage to survive, Zouchouten lets him attack again! The one relief is that he is a Glass Cannon par excellence. He’s got absolutely no defensive capabilities. You still have to specifically plan to beat him though, and this is how I do it:
I decided to take him on with Ronaldo, and his team consisted of Decarabia and Sleipnir. Decarabia, as you may recall from my Devil Survivor 1 griping, specializes in using Shield All. It and Keita have equal Agility, so before I took him on I had Sleipnir use Devil Flash, which in addition to doubling movement range it gives the team a nice initiative boost, making it much more likely that you’ll start the battle with extra turns and attack priority. With this, Decarabia can out-speed Keita and successfully shield the party, and Keita can’t do anything about it (thankfully the developers weren’t spiteful enough to give him Dual Shadow in place of Life Lift). Sleipnir already out-speeds Keita’s team, so with a Multi-Strike from it and a Deathbound from Ronaldo we can take Keita out without being on the receiving end of a party-crushing KO-punch.
With Keita retired, our next boss is Makoto. If Fumi is the “queen” than Matoko’s the “knight”. She will stay up on the balcony alongside Fumi, only moving to attack once we come into her range.
Makoto (Lv. 58)
HP/MP
- 999/197
- Reflects Force
- Hassohappa - Deals heavy Physical damage to entire enemy team.
- Mazandyne - Deals heavy Force damage to entire enemy team.
- Mediarahan - Fully restores entire party’s HP.
- Life Stream - HP raised by 50%.
- Force Amp - Force attacks powered up by 50%.
- Repel Force - Grants reflection of Force attacks.
- Barrier - Protects each team member with a barrier that reflects the next non-Almighty magic attack.
- Laksmi, Baihu
Compared to her performance yesterday, Makoto’s not too bad. Her setup compliments her nature as a mixed attacker, and with Barrier, Laksmi, Mediarahan, and Life Stream buffing her HP to the max she is surprisingly tanky. Barrier’s a major hindrance, so what I prefer to do is challenge her with a mixed team - one spellcaster demon with an Almighty spell like Holy Dance and/or Drain and a physical demon that can simply ignore Barrier. When when Makoto is alone I have my leader open up with a Dance skill with the appropriate Null Element skill equipped so that I’m not hurt by the initial reflection. Since she doesn’t have a huge amount of MP, Drain is especially useful here to prevent Barrier’s activation. Once she’s down we can finally move on to Fumi, who’s literally only a step away.
Fumi (Lv. 54)
HP/MP
- 679/238
- Resists Fire, Ice, Elec, Force, and Curse; Reflects Physical
- Judgement - A Curse-based attack that halves the entire enemy party’s HP.
- Makarakarn - Protects each team member with a barrier that reflects the next non-Almighty magic attack.
- Megido - Deals moderate Almighty damage to entire enemy party.
- Physical Repel - Grants reflection of Physical attacks.
- Anti-Most - Grants resistance to all elements other than Physical and Almighty.
- Drain Hit - Absorbs HP when using Physical attacks.
- Wall - Protects each team member with a barrier that reflects the next Physical attack.
- Laksmi, Arioch
And then there was one. Welp, Arioch’s back to cause problems. Like for example, this time around it doesn’t provide Fumi with an attack range of three panels, oh no, this time it’s four thanks to having the upgraded Vile Racial Skill, Chaos Breath. The good news with Fumi is that, while her team does pack an offensive punch, her spells are rather expensive, so if she does spend some time sniping your guys when you’re able to fight her face-to-face she won’t be able to attack for very long. Just for the love of Polaris take out that Arioch ASAP, because those Deathbounds hurt!
Completing the mission earns us 3900 EXP and 9500 macca.
With the Nagoya branch secured Ronaldo has some choice words for Yamato hanging back while his subordinates do his dirty work, but then catches himself and apologizes for forcing his opinions on the others. Joe says that that’s okay - everyone should be free to have an opinion, and then the subject of trying to recruit the people we just defeated comes up. So, going down the list we start with Keita at his America Town Osaka hangout. Talking to him, he comes to the conclusion that he didn’t lose to Hibiki, he lost to his team collectively. He says that he still likes the idea of a meritocracy, but that he’ll stick around to see if we can actually beat Polaris and get stronger along the way. He rejoins the party (where he’ll probably go right back to warming the bench) and since I guess I chose all the right dialogue options during this scene he achieves Fate Stage 5, unlocking Susano’o, who in this game is much more fittingly classified as an Omega.
Next is Fumi in Nagoya’s Crystal Court underground shopping center. The meeting’s fairly amicable given what just transpired, with her saying that one of her primary reasons for siding with Yamato was so that she could continue her research into all things science, as it seems he pretty much gave her a blank check to work with. The power of For Science! convinces her to rejoin our side since going up against Polaris will give her opportunities to study the unstudyable, and besides, she can do research no matter what world she’s in.
Finally, Makoto’s at the museum’s planetarium. Unfortunately she’s still locked in the exact same martyr mindset she was during the “Ronaldo Rises” event as she repeats her demand to kill her. Once again we have to talk her out of this mindset and convince her that yes, it’s okay for her to listen to her heart. She finally realizes that even if Yamato’s actions are rational, they’re not necessarily just, and she pledges her allegiance to our team. Glad that’s finally out of the way.
We finally have a block of free time, so time to start working on some more Fates. First, let’s see how Joe’s holding up in Nagoya. The answer is, okay. He says that he just got back from his girlfriend’s funeral, really a small, collective service at a local community center for those who’ve died. He wonders for a while how a girl like her fell for a guy like him and jokes that Hibiki should write a book about the mysteries of love before wondering if, when he eventually dies, if he’ll be a man truly worthy for her. Anyway, he thanks Hibiki for his support and starts heading back to the community center to help with the cleanup, vowing to never be late for anything again. His Fate maxes out, unlocking Ukano Mitama for fusion.
Next is Io, and her event in Shinjuku has her spy a depressed-looking boy gazing up at a tall building and fearing that he’s going to throw himself off of it. Here’s where we urge Io to talk him out of it, but she’s afraid that she’ll mess up and only make him more depressed. We have to tell her to just say what she honestly feels for once, so she works up the courage to confront the boy, who’s suicidal because, like Io, his whole family is dead. Io argues that he can’t kill himself because there must still be someone out there who’s still around to support him, like how her friends were there for her when she discovered that her own parents died. The boy admits that he still has his teacher and some of his classmates, so he decides to embrace them and step away from the metaphorical edge. He does comment though, that Io’s rather pushy, and that her “boyfriend” must have his hands full. Io does take some delight in actually being called “pushy” realizing that there are indeed moments where it’s okay to speak your mind. Her Fate maxes out, unlocking the penultimate Fairy, Titania. Titania’s interesting in that she’s naturally immune to Fire, Ice, Elec, and Force, is weak to Physical and neutral to Curse, so if you have the appropriate add-ons through some finagling during the fusion process you can effectively make her immune to all damage but Almighty since there’s only one offensive Curse spell in the game.
Time for two more events before the plot kicks in again, and I’ll do both of Hinako’s since she needs those two to max out her Fate. They’re pretty simple, with the first just her gushing over how now she realizes how dancing can make the world a better place (and suggesting that Hibiki should take up pole dancing...), while the second is pretty much just comic relief due to Airi losing a bet and being forced to go through a dance lesson, complaining all the while. Maxing out Hinako’s Fate unlocks the Megami Isis.
Grinding out Fate Stages has taken us up to 4:30 in the afternoon, which is when the game decides that we have to get on with the plot. So we’re forced now to watch a scene at JP’s Nagoya with Fumi called “Anti-Jamming”, and this scene will play out the same regardless if Fumi has been recruited or not. The only difference is that if she isn’t, we’ll simply be speaking with her outside of the Akasaka Tunnel entrance. She figures that we’re talking with her because we want her to do something, and naturally the topic of conversation is how we’re going to deal with Benetnasch’s Revoke Demons ability. Applying the Magic from Technology nature of the franchise, she speculates that Benetnasch (or “Benny” as she calls it) is emitting some sort of energy wave that cancels out the waves emitted by the party’s phones when casting spells or using the summoning app. Physics 101 taught us all that any frequency can be nulled by a counter-wave, but given the Septentrione’s supernatural nature she doubts that any piece of man-made technology can counter it (BTW, while Fumi’s explaining all this you can see Otome cycling through her concerned/distressed character portraits to indicate that the exposition’s going over her head). Good thing we’ve established a precedent of using demons’ special abilities as counters to the invaders’ gimmicks. At Hibiki’s prodding, Fumi suggests, after making some snide comments on Otome’s singing abilities, that they might succeed in jamming Benetnasch’s jamming by taking advantage of a demon that utilizes waves, such as the Fiend Trumpeter, the angel whose trumpet heralds the seven plagues in Revelation.
Unfortunately, this time Yamato’s apparently kept all information on this demon under wraps, so she can’t tell us where Trumpeter’s sealed. This necessitates a trip to the JP’s HQ in Osaka, where Hibiki finds Ronaldo and Joe rooting through a treasure trove of abandoned documents. Eventually they find the one concerning Trumpeter (Joe had blown his nose with it and tossed it away) and discover that it’s sealed in Hibiya Park back in Tokyo, on the concert stage naturally. Before we do the unsealing though, Ronaldo notes that since the waves emitted by Trumpeter effect a wide range (they are sound waves, after all) it means that once he starts to play, the party will be unable to summon demons from their phones. That concerns the characters a bit, but honestly I’ve never found it to be something to worry about, since I very rarely dismiss and resummon demons during missions, even when I probably should. A bad habit from when I first started playing the series and hadn’t really fully grasped the mechanics yet.
Anyway, once Fumi activates the terminal on the stage, the skeletal angel appears in all his glory, proclaiming himself to be a servant of the Lord. Otome and Airi ask if he can blow his trumpet for them, but the demon refuses to help. Instead, he goes on a little rant where he objects to being summoned and used in the service of human greed, stating that man attempting to direct divine punishment is arrogance most blatant. The screen darkens and begins to shake as he prepares to smite us...but is quickly cut off by a laptop thrown by Fumi, who during his rank has climbed up onto the stage’s roof. Trumpeter’s posturing utterly fails to intimidate her and her unflappable disposition leaves him at a stumbling loss for words. Satisfied that she has his undivided attention, Fumi says “Now, back to whether you’ll help us...” and begins pulling out more laptops from hammerspace and chucking them all at the Fiend until he’s obscured by a Big Ball of Violence.
When the dust settles, Trumpeter reluctantly agrees to help us after all, commenting to himself as he vanishes that humans have truly become such a frightful species. Fumi just utterly pummeled and cowed the harbinger of the apocalypse like it was absolutely no big deal. Eat your heart out, Demi-Fiend.
So then, the countermeasure for Benetnasch is taken care of, but before we can do that there’s one more loose end to tie up first in Osaka...
Compendium
- Rakshasa
◊
- Cannibalistic demons from Buddhist and Hindu myth. One theory as to their origin is that they were created from Brahma's foot; another states that they are the reincarnations of wicked humans. The epic Ramayama does however tell of a good Rakshasa by the name of Vibhishana who aided the hero Rama in his battle against his mortal foe Ravana.
- 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 Amaterasu to hide herself in fright, 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.
- Ukano Mitama◊
- A Japanese rice spirit who is either the son of Izanagi or the hero Susano'o depending on what source you read. He is sometimes split into two deities: the masculine Uka no Mitama and the feminine Uga no Mitama no Kami.
- Titania◊
- The queen of the fairies in William Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream, whose name has since been co-opted for other fictional fairy queens. In the play Titania and her husband Oberon wind up in numerous disputes and arguments concerning their plans for how to raise a human child, culminating in Oberon's servant Puck tricking her into falling in love with a common laborer whose head has been magically switched with a donkey's.
- Nata Taishi◊
- The Japanese name for Zhongtan Yuanshuai, a Chinese god who appears in Journey to the West to do battle with Son Wu Kong. He is known for committing suicide in atonement for killing the son of the Sea Dragon King, but was brought back to life as acknowledgement for his piety. Afterwards he became a sage upon a mountain.
- Rangda◊
- A Balinese demon queen who is locked in eternal struggle with the holy beast Barong. Despite being a demon she is sometimes seen as a guardian spirit, and some of her iconography is the same as the Hindu figure Kali.
- Remiel◊
- One of the fallen Grigori angels. He is the angel of hope who governs both divine visions as well as guides souls into Heaven. All around a mostly-decent angel, whose name even means "mercy of God" or "compassion of God".
- Parvati◊
- The wife of Shiva in Hindu mythology. Despite nominally being the goddess of love and fertility in some myths she is presented as having wild, demonic aspects, such as Durga, a ferocious fighting form, or Shakti, an embodiment of pure chaos. Other aspects are more benign, such as Akhilandeshwari, the goddess of water.
- Isis◊
- The Egyptian mother goddess, the sister and wife of Osiris, whom she reassembled after his dismemberment by Seth. During the New Kingdom period her influence in the pantheon gradually grew until she eclipsed numerous other gods, and she is still worshipped even today by certain neopagan cults.
- Trumpeter◊
- The demon Trumpeter is derived from the seven trumpets that appear in the Book of Revelation. After the calamities wrought by the Four Horsemen pass, seven angels will sound the trumpets one by one, each one heralding a new plague that will torment mankind. Once all seven trumpets are sounded, the seven bowls will be emptied, devastating the Earth with natural disasters.
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