With Jungo having rejoined the team our offensive power has increased dramatically, and for the time being Hinako’s being benched so he can partake in the festivities. Good thing out next event at 10:30’s a battle! This one takes us to Center Park in Nagoya’s Hisaya Odori park, where it is again mentioned that things seem unusually cold. But then a young man runs up yelling about monsters and another guy in a suit and flat cap fighting them with his own, so forward we go to the map where our friend Yuzuru “Joe” Akie is indeed fighting demons...and then drags Daichi off by the scarf once again, ostensibly claiming that he’s saved his life. The he pauses and exclaims that he recognizes our group from his dream, and one memory collage later (dragging Daichi off the first time, his death clip battle on Day 4, and dithering indecisively in front of the hospital) he’s back to his old self, cheerfully greeting the party before some miasmas pop up, spawning more demons, some of which surround him. He asks for our help in keeping the demons away from a hospital just over yonder, so in we go.
Mission 5: Reunion with Joe
- All demons must be defeated
- The whole party cannot die
- Joe cannot die
A rather unremarkable mission, this one. The demon selection hasn’t really changed much since the later stages of Tuesday, so the highest-leveled demons here are Pyro Jacks and Shiisaas, neither of which crack Lv. 30. Joe can’t die, but in the one engagement he was in he acquitted himself admirably as he has a bulky Nozuchi and the Strength powerhouse Thor, so that’s not an issue either. The layout of the Center Park map conspires to prevent you from reaching all the demons or miasma spawn points quickly, but just using an Avian or Genma allows you to jump right down to the lower depression, trivializing that aspect too. The biggest challenge was simply deciding which skills to crack.
Completing the mission earns us 950 EXP and 3200 macca.
After a carefree “all’s well that ends well” from Joe we do the usual info dump session and he says that just like in the previous world his girlfriend’s sick and in the hospital, so he’s a bit reluctant at first to join up with the rest of the party and leave her side. “At first”, because he figures that letting the world end would be failing her, so back in the fold he comes. After discussing the dream for a bit he suggests they find Keita next since Ronaldo’s exact location is still unknown, and once we hit the overworld again (after Joe achieves Fate Stage 1 and regains his Force resistance of course; like Jungo he’s also at Lv. 30) Miyako calls Hibiki to relay two important pieces of information. The first is that Keita has been sighted near Umeda Station in Osaka, the second is that the second Triangulum, Spica, has just been sighted. She sends a picture of it, a small pale green hemisphere that resembles fancy dishware
◊, and says that it’s been sighted in multiple locations simultaneously, pointing towards it consisting of multiple, autonomous bodies. As Hinako soon points out, this is a reference to the fact that the star Spica is not actually a single star - it’s a binary star as a matter of fact, though she says that it’s actually five stars. My research turns up absolutely no corroboration on it being quintuple, so...I dunno if the finding is just really, really obscure or if it’s just a technicality that the game’s running with. Anyway, Joe says that it’s like Megrez’s triple-bodied nature, and again Miyako stresses that we are not to fight it, just leave things to JP’s. Yeah, that’ll be the day, won’t it?
Io wonders why Miyako’s trying to keep them from fighting after the call ends and goes on to assume that she just wants the whole party reunited first. Which means that we’re railroaded into choosing to meet up with either Keita or Ronaldo. Might as well start with Keita in Osaka, as his event is higher on the list. So the party arrives at the Umeda Station concourse, the location of the BIG MAN sign, and we find that now the whole area is covered by a thin layer of frost. At the top of the stairs is Keita and one of the Spica bodies, and the first thing we see him do is punch it right in its nonexistent face...only for it to extend some kind of appendage and knock him right down the stairs. But before (an alternate) history can repeat, Jungo’s there to catch him on the way down, and Daichi and Hibiki (with the former being on the bottom of the pile, naturally) cushion his own fall. Despite being saved Keita’s his usual self, asking us who the hell we are and how we know his name, and without even a word of thanks he runs off after Spica and the others follow, emerging outside near the Tsuutenkaku, where the street has also been iced over. Two JP’s agents stand in its way but, well, yeah, they immediately get frozen solid by a hail of icicles, useless as always (plus one of them attacks an obviously ice-theme enemy with a Jack Frost, that’s just asking for it). Keita shouts that he’s gonna crush Spica and takes out his phone, forcing the others to step up as well. Sure, Miyako said not to fight it, but really, who else is going to?
Mission 6: Pursuing Keita
- Spica must be defeated
- The whole party cannot die
- Keita cannot die
- The Tsuutenkaku cannot be destroyed
Defending the Tsuutenkaku from an ice-themed enemy, just like old times!
Spica (Lv. 33)
HP/MP
- ???/???
- None
- Mabufu - Deals Ice damage to entire enemy party.
- Roche Lobe - Uses the last skill used by a human twice in a row.
- Paral Eyes - Attempts to paralyze enemy party.
- Ice Boost - Ice attacks powered up by 20%.
- Spica Sign - Grants immunity to elements that defeated prior Spicas.
- Celestial Spear - Deals Ice damage to one enemy party within a three-panel-range and reduces their movement range to 1 for one turn.
One look at this thing should tell you that we’re facing Spica’s equivalent of a Megrez Bud and not the real deal. The incomplete skill list is one thing, the low-ish stats are another. Roche Lobe (which FYI is a region around a binary star system where gravitationally-bound objects orbit it) is sort of like Alcor’s Chaos Stir, but since the attacks are running off of its much-lower Strength and Magic they aren’t too much of a threat in comparison.
No, instead of fighting us Spica will spend most of its actions running away, trying to reach the two escape panels before the Tsuutenkaku at the far end of the map. This is where Celestial Ray’s binding effect comes into play, so you might wanna have a Genma like Tlaloc or an Avian like Suparna or whatever the up-to-date Wilder is to get to Spica quickly. When its defeated and explodes a ray of light flies out of it, and then all of a sudden a second Spica bud will appear on the map to receive the ray and summon a few more demons. The party goes “oh right, multiple bodies” and Keita declares that he doesn’t care how many there are, he’ll smash them all!
Spica (Lv. 33)
HP/MP
- ???/???
- Nulls Elec
- Berserk - Deals several random hits of Physical damage to multiple targets.
- Roche Lobe - Uses the last skill used by a human twice in a row.
- Nigayomogi - Attempts to poison enemy party.
- Grimoire - Greater chance of inflicting ailments.
- Spica Sign - Grants immunity to elements that defeated prior Spicas.
- Celestial Spear - Deals Ice damage to one enemy party within a three-panel-range and reduces their movement range to 1 for one turn.
Here is where the trouble starts to begin. Spica’s Racial Skill is an Adaptive Ability that makes each successive bud completely immune to whichever element defeated a prior one, and since I beat the first with an Elec Dance, Elec will no longer work. And before you ask, yes this does apply to Almighty as well in case you were getting any funny ideas about cheesing it on New Game+. What’s more, this second Spica starts out much closer to the Tsuutenkaku than the first one did, so it’s entirely possible that you might not be able to catch up to it in time if your guys are positioned poorly. The two demon teams it summons include a Wendigo and Kumbhanda who’ll use Bind and Ghost Wounds to further limit your movement if you let them. Try and take them out ASAP.
Completing the mission earns us 2700 EXP and 5500 macca.
Keita gets the ghola treatment as well after the battle, and fortunately the scene isn’t dragged out for too long as Keita, pissed at turn of events in the new world, rejoins the party at Lv. 30 and regains his Fate Fire resistance. Io’s a little worried that they fought Spica in violation of Miyako’s orders even though they had no choice, and Joe adds that they’ll have to report this to her after they find Ronaldo.
To the Nagoya TV Tower, which is also under a bit of a chill. When the party arrives they see that Ronaldo is present, trying to defend some civilians from some demons and another Spica. Two JP’s agents are already trying to fight it, but I don’t really need to tell you what happens to them, do I? With them gone Ronaldo expresses his frustration by slamming his fist against the ground and quickly evacuates with the civilians and another police officer just as a second Spica arrives, bringing the grand total up to four. So once again we must defend a tower from the Triangulum.
Mission 7: Detective Ronaldo
- Both Spicas must be defeated
- The whole party cannot die
- The TV Tower cannot be destroyed
On the defensive front this mission is considerably easier than the last because this time we start out at the top of the map right near the panels we have to defend while the Spicas are all the way at the bottom. Since I defeated the second Spica body in the previous mission with Jungo these two are now immune to both Elec and Physical attacks.
Spica (Lv. 35)
HP/MP
- ???/???
- Reflects Physical; Nulls Elec
- Power Hit - Deals heavy Physical damage to one target.
- Roche Lobe - Uses the last skill used by a human twice in a row.
- Assassinate - Deals heavy Physical damage if used on enemy team leader and ignores defense bonus from allies.
- Physical Boost - Physical attacks powered up by 20%.
- Spica Sign - Grants immunity to all elements that defeated prior Spicas.
- Celestial Spear - Deals Ice damage to one enemy party within a three-panel-range and reduces their movement range to 1 for one turn.
Spica (Lv. 35)
HP/MP
- ???/???
- Reflects Physical; Nulls Elec
- Ice Dance - Deals several random hits of Ice damage to multiple targets.
- Roche Lobe - Uses the last skill used by a human twice in a row.
- Mow Down - Deals Physical damage to entire enemy party.
- + Forget - Physical attacks may make enemies forget.
- Spica Sign - Grants immunity to all elements that defeated prior Spicas.
- Celestial Spear - Deals Ice damage to one enemy party within a three-panel-range and reduces their movement range to 1 for one turn.
You really start to see the nefariousness of Spica Sign here as our viable methods of attack really start to shrink; by the end of the mission only Force, Curse, and Almighty remain open to me, and the only Almighty attack available at the moment is Drain, which isn’t quite that powerful at this point. The rest of the demons aren’t anything to write home about.
Completing the mission earns us 3100 EXP and 6500 macca.
While Daichi’s getting all overwhelmed and wondering how they managed to beat the two Spicas Hibiki’s odd flickering effect from yesterday briefly returns. Only Io notices at first however, then when Airi asks why she’s looking distracted she mentions it to the others, but that topic of conversation is put on hold when Ronaldo returns to the scene. Seeing the party puts him in a very good mood, as he describes having the nightmare too and is relived to see that the people he saw in it are alive and safe in reality. After telling him that we fought together in the old world he remembers his insurgency and we do the same old dance and routine of filling him in as to what’s happened since but he says that he won’t join us just yet as he’s busy assisting the police force right now. He leaves the scene with the police officer from earlier, though he does suggest that he wouldn’t completely trust Miyako if he were us. Naturally he hits Fate Stage 1 here and regains his Fire resistance.
Keita asks what’s next now that they’ve found everyone they know how to and Hinako says that they might as well return to JP’s and face the music. It turns out though that Miyako is currently out, as we’re greeting by Makoto at the Tokyo branch instead. She’s glad the party’s back together mostly and is quite understanding when Airi admits that they killed four of the Spicas, though she says that she can’t say for sure whether Miyako will be angry or not, telling us to return at around 1:00PM if we want to see her. The party splits up to go their separate ways until then, with only Io and Daichi remaining behind with Hibiki, as the former wants to talk about the strange flickering phenomena she saw just now. She tries to downplay her worry, but since she’s also concerned about the fact that Hibiki wasn’t in the dream he should go talk to Otome at the Osaka HQ, and Daichi agrees, just in case Spica had some kind of special ability that’s affecting him now. That scene’s pretty quick, just with Otome concluding, after some flirtatious trolling, that there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong with him, physically or spiritually. However, she does want Hibiki to check back in with her later for more testing just in case.
So back to the Tokyo branch to meet with Miyako at the appointed time, and while she’s not angry in the shouting, red-faced sense, she’s certainly disappointed and barely contains her annoyance at us disobeying her (FYI: her “annoyed/angry” character portraits depict her in the exact same cross-armed/scowling pose that Yamato had for those same emotions). So she makes it an official order: from now on we are to leave any Triangulum-related business to JP’s exclusively, otherwise she’ll have to “limit our freedoms”. At least now though, all four of Spica’s bodies are dead, so the threat has passed for the day. Wait just a sec...
Not even Hinako picks up on that, and once Miyako leaves there’s some low-key fuming over her attitude, with Jungo pointing out that Yamato wouldn’t have been angry with them for defeating a Septentrione. Airi wonders why Miyako seems so insistent on keeping them out of action, and Hinako chalks it up to stress (though suggesting that maybe it’s just because she wanted to be the one to defeat Spica has Airi go “What is she, Keita?”, something he amusingly takes exception to). Anyway, Joe says that they should now concern themselves with Arcturus, and the party once again splits up to go their separate ways. No, really, wait a sec guys...
Aw, forget it.
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