Immediately following our conversation with Fumi the clock hits 6:30PM and we get a call from Makoto, saying that a situation has arisen that Miyako wanted to keep from us. And no wonder, because it exposes her lie from before: Spica’s fifth and final body, the main one, has appeared in Tokyo Bay and is currently making its way towards the Skytree via the Sumida River, and we’re sent video footage showing a bigger and badder version of the buds from before motoring through the water, leaving a trail of broken ice floes and bergs in its wake, effortlessly plowing its way through the JP’s defenders on the Aqua-Line Bridge. Unlike her boss, Makoto wants our help, and tells us to head for the third and final defensive perimeter, the Kachidoki Bridge, for further instructions. There’s actually enough time for us to see one more free event, but it doesn’t really make sense to dawdle given what’s going on at the moment.
At the Kachidoki Bridge Makoto calls us again to explain her plan; since regular ol’ defenders have been able to do shit-all to stop Spica her idea is to fall back on the strategy that worked against Alioth, Mizar, and Benetnasch, that is summon something specifically suited to handling the situation. In order to stop Spica she wants us to enlist the help of the sea goddess Aramisaki, who’s sealed right here at the bridge. She sends us two codes as there are two terminal devices here, located next to the two opposing operator’s booths, and we have to choose who’s going to activate the second code alongside Hibiki. Why? Because after the span of the drawbridge lifts and Aramisaki appears it turns out that this incarnation of the demon is a Love Freak, who accuses Hibiki and whomever he choose of being an item and only unsealing her to make her jealous. The reactions are kinda amusing, ranging from Airi and Io objecting in the manner their character archetypes generally do, Joe taking everything in stride, and the point flying completely over Hinako’s, Jungo’s, and Keita’s heads. I also assume that whoever you picked gets some Fate points, so I chose Airi to make up for not seeing her event in the previous block of free time.
Anyways, Aramisaki eventually notices that Hibiki’s “fading in and out of existence” and finds that absolutely scintillating and decides that he’s her type, immediately starting to refer to him with a wide variety of diabetically-sweet pet names like “sugarlips” and such, completely dumbfounding the rest of the group. He’s still got that Hero Chick Magnet mojo. Makoto calls to report that Spica has made it through the second perimeter, destroying the Rainbow Bridge (aww, and Joe was so excited to cross it in the Septentrione Arc) and leaving us as the last line of defense. Fortunately for us Aramisaki sees Spica as a home-wrecker and decides to help us in order to prove her love, so...yay? After a bit of free battling to pick up some new skills like Anti-Physical and Drain Hit we return to the bridge to face off with the Triangulum and as it approaches Aramisaki erects a barrier that succeeds in blocking Spica, even as it tries to ram it repeatedly. Not even it trying to freeze the bridge solid can bring it down, but it does conveniently give us some solid ground to fight on. Let’s get to it.
Mission 8: Binary Star
- Spica must be defeated
- The whole party cannot die
As soon as the mission starts Hibiki starts briefly flickering again, but we’re quickly told to focus on the task at hand first. You’ll definitely want to avoid going in with demons that are weak to Ice and Fire since about half of the teams Spica summons onto the ice include Wendigos and Pyro Jacks. The way we fought the previous buds pretty much dictates the load-out we can bring to bear against the main body:
Spica (Lv. 38)
HP/MP
- ???/???
- Reflects Physical; Nulls Fire, Ice, and Elec
- Bufudyne - Deals heavy Ice damage to one target.
- Roche Lobe - Uses the last skill used by a human twice in a row.
- Multi-Hit - Deals multiple Physical hits to one target; number of hits dependent on user’s Agility.
- Beast Eye - Allows two actions per turn during battle.
- Swift Step - High chance of acting first.
- Spica Sign - Grants immunity to elements that defeated prior Spicas.
- Icicle of Goddess - Deals moderate Ice damage to all enemy parties within a five-panel-range and reduces their movement range to 1 for one turn.
So I can only hurt Spica with three elements: Force, Curse, and Almighty. Almighty isn’t viable at this point, and Curse isn’t really an offensive element, so it looks like I only have Force left, right? Wrong. The key spell here is the Curse-element Dance: Demon Dance. This deals percentage-based damage, so opening with it does a good job of swiftly cutting through its HP. Due to it being percentage-based it’s only really good for a single casting, but it’s enough to soften Spica up. Unfortunately it’s very likely that the only unit with Demon Dance you’ll have on hand is one of the humans since it’s a rather annoying skill to get on a demon (the SpotPass demon Roitschgatta is the only one I know of off the top of my head that comes with it naturally, so your only other option than a fusion chain is a Curse Set add-on, and those are still annoying as hell to grind for unless you buy the grinding DLC). Now Spica’s positioning is sort of like third-form Polaris is that there’s a small, enclosed path that leads up to it, and that gives it the ability to snipe us a few times with its extended attack range, and Icicle of Goddess is basically an AOE version of the buds’ Celestial Ray.
Between Bufudyne and Icicle of Goddess you need Ice protection, so I tried to fuse up as many demons as I could with Anti-Ice or better, like Yuki Jyorou, and Force Dance. Not much I could do about Multi-Hit, unfortunately, but Spica’s slow enough that it’ll only get two hits out of it. Annoying gimmick, Spica has, but it’s entirely possible to plan around it.
Completing the mission earns us 3500 EXP and 6500 macca.
Spica collapses to the icy ground when defeated, more of its buds tumbling out of its shattered body. Aramisaki urges for us to finish it off but when Hibiki takes out his phone for the final blow Miyako’s voice calls out for us to stop and the camera pans to show that she and Makoto have arrived. Miyako annihilates the buds with an honest-to-goodness Dragon Stream Kamehameha blast and then binds Spica with its energy just like she did Denebola. Aramisaki asks if she’s an “old flame” or something and without a word the JP’s chief dispatches her with a single crack of that whip she’s shown wielding in her official artwork. Then she turns to us and asks why we’ve disobeyed her orders four times now, and shrugs off Makoto’s and Airi’s objections in a very Yamato-like way, claiming that Spica would’ve been defeated before reaching the Skytree anyway. Yeah that’s rich, though in this instance I can kinda-sorta see why she would object, as all those resistances we added to it would’ve made things that much more difficult for whatever eleventh-hour miracle plan she had in mind. After telling us once again to stay out of Triangulum-related matters, as if repeating it enough times will make it come true, the Chief turns and leaves the area.
As the arriving JP’s agents us a crane to transport the bound Spica Airi continues to vent when Jungo mourns Aramisaki, under the innocent impression that she just wanted to be their friend. Io’s the only one to say anything in Miyako’s defense, insisting that she’s probably just worried for their safety, but Keita accuses her of being super-naive to even believe that. His opinion is that she just wanted Spica for the same reason she has Denebola locked up inside the secret lab, whatever that may be, and even Hinako admits that that’s more likely. And speaking of secret labs, just as the party starts to discuss Hibiki’s flickering again Fumi calls to let us know that she’s found the passcode for the one beneath the Skytree that she told us about.
That will be our next destination, but first we have time to watch one more scene since I didn’t put off fighting Spica, and at this time Aramisaki is unlocked for fusion, though the game doesn’t give us a notification like it normally does. Aramisaki is a Lv. 39 Omega, and is somewhat unusual for the race in that she’s a Magic-oriented demon rather than a Strength one. She’s also pretty good with defense since she comes with Shield-All, and like most of the demons new to Record Breaker she’s a special fusion, with her components being Lorelei and Makara. The one scene I’m gonna watch is Jungo’s by Osaka’s Festival Gate, where he and Hibiki encounter Airi trying and failing to get a crying little boy who can’t find his way to the shelter to calm down (one of you options to cheer him up includes delivering a “perfect impersonation” of Yamato, which hilariously causes the kid to start bawling on the spot and Jungo asking us to please never do that again). Jungo manages to get him to calm down with some chawanmushi (what else?) and follow Airi to the shelter, after which he remarks that he won’t be able to make chawanmushi for much longer given that food supplies will soon run down. We suggest he continue to make it out of whatever leftover ingredients he can scrounge up, and though the chef thinks he’s not creative enough he decides to give it a try nonetheless, boosting his Fate to Stage 3.
So at 8:30PM we meet up with Fumi in her lab at the Tokyo branch, where she reports that JP’s just got finished getting Spica all settled up in the secret lab below. As for the one beneath the Skytree, apparently it’s powered mainly by magic rather than electricity (she compares it to the Emerald Tablet, a hermetic text that’s supposedly the written source of the alchemic process, all while I’m having Hibiki just smile and nod in agreement with her theories so that I can hopefully get some Fate points out of her), and when Io brings up Hibiki’s flickering she says that Otome would be a better person to talk to regarding that since it has to do with the human body. So no progress there, but on the next event we’re finally heading to the Skytree. No doubt much to Keita’s disappointment we’re able to practically waltz right on in, and soon Airi notices a tank on a dais similar to what was being used to house Denebola, only rounder and much smaller. Daichi comments that there’s something inside, but when the group crowds around they see that it’s not “something”, rather it’s an unconscious Al Saiduq!
So that means the party’s been lied to once again, though we don’t have time to brazenly confront Miyako about it like we did with Yamato because she shows up almost immediately and does something similar to his “Dragon Ring” trick during his boss battle on Al Saiduq’s route by channeling the Dragon Stream to immobilize everyone on the dais. Now that we know too much she says she must detain us until the “right time” and everything goes black as the whole party drops one by one.
...
Now, you’d expect that to be the end of the day, since it’s a good stopping point, but the game quickly resumes with Hibiki waking up inside a JP’s cell, his cellphone gone and his hands cuffed. His captivity does not last long, however, for once it’s established that he cannot break out on his own a voice chides us for throwing caution to the wind and Otome opens his cell door and frees him. She explains that she and Makoto have been breaking the other members of the party out and everyone reunites in the infirmary. After we go around the horn with the expected reactions of anger and disbelief over what’s going on, Daichi wonders if this means that maybe JP’s has Yamato locked up somewhere too, for whatever foreboding plan Miyako seems to have in mind. Then someone knocks at the door, almost giving Daichi a panic attack, but it’s just Makoto, here to return our phones to us, and in further discussion the group decides that they’re going to have to split from JP’s, and Otome decides to join us too so that she can look after Hibiki’s condition. Makoto, on the other hand, decides to stay, but not due to loyalty conflicts like during the Septentrione Arc’s decision point, but rather so that someone can be on the inside, trying to figure out what Miyako’s true plan is, and if it’s not to save mankind, figure out a way to stop her. Everyone wishes each other well, and Makoto advises against using the Terminals to escape instead advocating that we take the special JP’s trains.
After all that Otome and Fumi officially join the party at Lv. 35, greatly boosting our magical power. Our only destination is SL Plaza at Shinbashi, where Fumi uses her phone to move the steam locomotive aside to expose the secret entrance to the train station below, and the decision is made to head to Nagoya, as it’s closer than Osaka. Once again we get there in a ludicrously short amount of time, though it’s at least handwaved now by Fumi pushing the train “way beyond” it’s usual limits. Buuut it turns out that we have a welcoming reception in the form of a group of JP’s agents who’ve been sent to head us off. They quickly cut the train’s power so that we can’t escape. Some of them are shocked to see Otome and Fumi defecting too, but the group’s leader remains resolute in his orders to apprehend us so the inevitable battle begins.
Mission 9: New Ally
- All JP’s agents must be defeated
- The whole party cannot die
Finally we get some more Auto Skills to crack - and I’m going for Weaken, Grimoire +, Shield All EX (Shield All + in Overclocked), and Kinetic Vision. Kinetic Vision is a little odd in that I can’t really figure out how it’s supposed to work exactly. The description claims that if you dodge an attack the other members of the team will gain a brief 50% stat buff, though I’ve never really seen a noticeable difference. Other than that, there’s not really anything special about the mission, aside from I guess there being female JP’s agents mixed up in the bunch since we never fought any of them during the Septentrione Arc. They and their demons all hover around Lv. 35, and my guys are mostly just past that thanks to the Spica battle so there’s not too much of a threat to be had here aside from some Ikusas juicing up their power with Agitate.
The mission title refers to the fact that about three-fourths of the way through Ronaldo will appear towards the station’s exit, having somehow found his way down here by following the sounds of battle. The (remaining) JP’s agents immediately turn on him so he vows to help us out, the music changing accordingly from “Confrontation” to the more serious “Challenging Fate”, accordingly. Only problem with that is is that there are only two agents left standing at this point, so Ronaldo’s presence is merely a formality. He’s got his old Baphomet with him, but instead of an Avian his other demon is the Kishin Hitokotonushi, which while isn’t a bad partner for a Vile, it won’t let him get to where the action is before we finish up. Oh well, it’s the thought that counts I suppose.
Completing the mission earns us 4000 EXP and 7500 macca.
After the JP’s agents retreat Joe asks Ronaldo what he’s doing all alone and he replies that he ended up turning in his badge because he felt that his duties as a cop were preventing him from helping people the best he could, so I guess he’s supposed to be a vigilante humanitarian now. Then he asks what’s up with us fighting JP’s all of a sudden and upon being filled in decides to join up as well (Lv. 36) because what happened to us was not due process and there’s no reason to imprison Al Saiduq as he’s not mankind’s enemy. No JP’s hateboner to be seen here! In the meantime we need to find some shelter for the night, and proving that old habits die hard he suggests we take over the Nagoya branch. Airi thinks he’s crazy for wanting to do that “again” and Daichi’s very apprehensive, but Fumi and Otome recognize the wisdom of it: not only will they have food and shelter, but they’ll be able to use the medical facilities there to look after Hibiki and Fumi can hack the mainframe to get everyone’s phones’ call function working again. So to the Nagoya branch we go, to take it over this time rather than save it. The irony is duly commented upon once we arrive, and yet another rumble in the branch’s command center gets underway.
Mission 10: Nagoya Strike
- All JP’s agents must be defeated
- The whole party cannot die
Aside from the clock at the head of the room being replaced by the giant pendulum the only change to this map is that the overturned desks and chairs have been arrayed to form larger barricades than the ones in its Septentrione Arc incarnation, complete with a chokepoint that the agents will try to hold. Since they don’t have any Avians or Genmas on hand they have to walk around the barricade in order to attack us, but there is one guy with a Baphomet who’ll just try sniping us through it.
So at first glance the mission is pretty simple, but once you start knocking off an agent or two another will fiddle around with their phone in order to activate several spawn points at the opposite end of the map so that we’ll be caught between them and the demons to our rear. This becomes problematic since they can very easily wear down our guys with the AOE elemental spells, and the Afancs and Ikusas that are summoned along with the Cait Siths and Yuki Jyorous pack some Physical power too. I won’t lie, Recarm got a fair bit of use here, though once I focused on removing the spawn points things got a lot easier. The final JP’s holdout was the guy with the Baphomet, since looking at his team it was actually pretty good for defending action: Baphomet to attack from a range, Lailah and Drain to restore MP, Weaken to, well, weaken attackers, and lots of resistances to make them harder to take down. Once he goes down he announces that JP’s is abandoning the branch, so while it was a surprisingly-arduous mission it was a successful one in the end.
Completing the mission earns us 4500 EXP and 8500 macca.
With the building clear Fumi leaves to start her hacking, saying that her first order of business is to change the Terminal’s access codes so that JP’s can’t get the drop on them, and Ronaldo suggests they organize patrols so that the agents still in the city won’t try to mount and counterattack. Otome says that she’d like Hibiki to stay in the infirmary tonight so that she can observe him, and then Joe wonders if they’ll have another dream of Arcturus tonight. That reminds the party that it’s supposed to show up tomorrow, ending what’s turned out to be a rather dismal day on a pretty ominous note.
Compendium
- Aramisaki
◊
- A violent, jealous, and impulsive sea goddess of Japanese myth who is also identified as a goddess of separation. Her most famous act is being designated by Amaterasu the guardian of the ship that the 3rd century Empress Jingu sailed on to reach Korea.
- Dominion◊
- In Christian tradition Dominions occupy the highest levels of the Second Sphere of Heaven. Dominions' roles are to mainly oversee and manage the lower-ranked angels, so they rarely reveal themselves to humans. Their rank is signified by the orbs of light attached to their scepters and swords.
- Lucifuge◊
- Lucifuge is a demon who serves as the prime minister of Hell and he presides over contracts, granting the wishes of conjurers in exchange for their souls. His name means "he who flees the light".
- Spica◊
- The blue giant Spica is the fifteenth brightest star in the night sky, the brightest star in the constellation Virgo, and one of the vertices of the Spring Triangle asterism. Spica and its binary companion orbit each other in only four days, and Spica is so bright that the only way to detect its companion is by observing the variability in Spica's luminosity. Its name comes from the phrase spica virginis which is Latin for "the virgin's ear of corn" and one of its Arabic names, Sumbalet, is drawn from the same imagery.
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