It’s now 7:00PM and Yamato calls up Hibiki with some news, something he hasn’t done since the Septentrione Arc (which we can promptly lampshade). It seems that some of those Canopus Shard creatures have been spotted at the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, so everyone’s hurrying over there, and with Miyako and Al Saiduq now on our side Yamato thinks that maybe we can learn something new about Canopus. We don’t have to go there immediately, but I think it’s a good idea to do so.
Hibiki’s the first to arrive at the scene no matter when you choose to go there, and while we don’t see any Canopus Shards at first we do see two civilians stuck on the upper level of the map, surrounded by demons and the void. He runs in and has his Big Damn Heroes moment by blasting a couple of the demons but more show up to replace them. We can still totally handle this ourselves (probably...) but the cavalry arrives anyway in the form of Daichi, Io, Miyako, Fumi, and Al Saiduq. However, five Canopus Shards suddenly appear in Citizen’s Plaza to firmly outnumber us but Yamato arrives to once again tip the balance somewhat. He blasts one of the Shards and deactivates it but it revives in short order, and even though she was created by Canopus Miyako doesn’t know any secret to beating them. But then, once the Shards take in both of the Hotsuin siblings they suddenly turn red and veiny
◊ and begin to tremble as if suffering a seizure. There’s no time for any questions, we need to dive right in!
Mission 21: My Error
- All enemies must be defeated
- The whole party cannot die
- No civilian can die
Hibiki must be placed on the upper level of the map, amidst the demons, while everyone else must start in Citizen’s Plaza below. So I find it best to give a Wilder to one of the bottom teams, like Catoblepas for example, so that we can use Devil Flash to zip on up in order to take the pressure off of him and the civilians. We can talk to a civilian in order to direct them towards the escape panels at either the right or left side of the map. As for the demons menacing them, the Rakshasa are probably the most dangerous since while they don’t have Attack All like they usually do, they do have the move Final Hit, an Almighty attack where they reduce their HP to 1 and all enemies get hit with damage equal to the difference. They’ll use it as soon as they get injured so you need to use multi-hitting attacks to take them out before they can. Ice Dance works best since that’s their weakness. And being Jakis they will of course use Evil Bind to slow us and the civvies down.
The Shards, meanwhile, are not as dangerous as they were during Yamato’s rescue mission since we’re stronger now while they aren’t and each and every one of them now sport an Ice weakness. Instead of falling inactive when beaten they’ll instead spazz out and then collapse in on themselves, leading to some confusion from the party as to why they’re dying all of a sudden. They still have their three-panel attack range though, as well as Extra One and Dual Shadow, so getting to them and attacking first is a good idea just in case they get lucky. Most of the party members starting in Citizen’s Plaza are positioned near enough to get the first move though.
Completing the mission earns us 11100 EXP and 20000 macca.
After the battle Miyako is amazed that they actually managed to kill a part of Canopus but Fumi has a theory. Since the Shards started to act up once both of the Hotsuins were present she puts forth the hypothesis that since Miyako was created in order to fill in for Yamato, the Shards were unable to comprehend the paradox of the two being together and essentially began to glitch out. She provides an aid by comparing it to having two separate copies of the same data on a disc drive, where instead of one being overwritten or corrupted as normal they occupy the same space instead. Al Saiduq suggests that they can use this quirk to their advantage when fighting Canopus itself, but there’s still the problem of the four Prime Factors to consider. Hibiki’s got an idea for that though: steal the Factors for themselves!
Miyako thinks that’s crazy, but our hero wasn’t pulling things out of his butt, for Yamato and Al Saiduq pick up on what he’s talking about, that they can try using the summoning app’s Skill Crack function to copy the Factors just like they’ve been doing for regular skills. Al Saiduq says that he thinks that that may actually work, and promises to start modifying the app to give it that ability. He promises to complete the upgrade before the void swallows the world, and everyone leaves, a concrete ray of hope finally shining.
There’s not a whole lot of time or events left in the day at this point. If you did that mission as soon as it became available there’s enough time for seven more events. That’s enough that I can complete a few more Fates, but I’m not going to be able to get to all of them, having missed or ignored certain events earlier in the day to focus on the important ones. For the sake of completeness I’ll briefly summarize the ones that’ll be left out on this playthrough:
Since Otome’s hangup is that she’s been working herself tired out of loneliness without Koharu, the end of her subplot has Makoto and Fumi coming to her aid (yes, I’m as shocked by Fumi displaying genuine empathy as you probably are) and her realizing that even if she’s not Koharu’s adoptive parent in this world, she still has a home and friends in JP’s. Her final event of the game is of her listening to a message Koharu left on her cellphone that she’s saved. Even though she’s not Koharu’s mother the little girl still seems to think of her as one in a sense, since she originally sent it on Mother’s Day.
Hinako’s last event is called “A Dancer’s Distress” and while it starts off with her feeling glum again it’s not over a perceived lack of worth this time. Upon being convinced to spill her guts to us she says that since she was raised in a very strict household she was always taught to suppress negative and improper emotions, so essentially she’s been a Stepford Smiler for the majority of the story in regards to her fears concerning the calamities that we’ve been facing, and trying to appear cheerful for the sake of Airi all the time is finally starting to wear her down. Airi puts in an appearance and is revealed to be upset that Hinako’s sharing her worries with Hibiki but not her, her partner, so in the end Hinako resolves to lean on her friends a little more when it comes to her weaknesses. Along with the requisite flirty teasing with/from Hibiki since I guess the writers realized that she was the only girl in the cast who hadn’t had much of that and wanted to fix that before the game ended.
The first of Airi’s two remaining scenes concerns how she and Hinako met in this world (Hinako was in Nagoya for a dance recital, but blew it off to listen to Airi’s music instead and suggested they form a duo) while the second has the two practice a new song they’ve been working on at the ruins of the Karamachi Plaza stage, which appears to be a derivative of the main theme from the DS game as “Beyond the Firmament” serves as the BGM. By the time they finish a large, entertained crowd of AiHina Stars fans have gathered in the ruined plaza, prompting Airi to urge us to come see them perform the song again in the new world since the performance will be even better.
Fumi’s subplot about trying to separate memory from the brain comes to an end when she runs into storage problems (the human brain after all has an estimated capacity of around 2.5 petabytes, or a million gigabytes) and is convinced to build something more practical. That ends up being another health-monitoring device like the one she built at the end of her Septentrione Arc Fate subplot, but this one still seems to have some kinks to it given the effects it has on the personalities of her guinea pigs, Daichi and Jungo...
Finally, Keita, the only guy who’s being left behind. The actual plot-plot of his Fate chain involves him and Hibiki witnessing a mob of thugs attempting to loot some Osakan stores and being driven off by the shopkeepers, including a girl who actually figured in to the “good” version of his Septentrione Arc Fate events (the one you see if Jungo’s dead) and was the one to tell him what happened to his father. I missed that first event, but the one available now is about the mob coming back for revenge with larger numbers and the intent to burn the stores down. Despite this the storekeeps stand their ground, and after expressing his incredulity Keita insists to Hibiki that he still thinks the weak should die, but these guys are standing up for themselves, so he’s not going to save them...he’s going to back them up! The arrival of the “Raging Wolf of Minami” causes the thugs to scatter in fright, and Keita’s final event is him reluctantly giving boxing lessons to a boy who kept begging him to after seeing him come to the rescue. Though he’s a bit of a Drill Sergeant Nasty as an instructor, Keita does show some maturity when talking to Hibiki in that he admits that it doesn’t matter if you’re weak as long as you try to become stronger. Calling him “tsundere boxer” again elicits a smile from him and the admission that he’s starting to like that title after being called it so many times. Heh.
As for the subplots that I can complete, first it’s Miyako’s penultimate event in Karamachi Plaza. It’s actually very similar to that scene with Yamato during Daichi’s route in the Septentrione Arc if you failed to recruit him, the one where the dying man gives him a piece of candy. Here Miyako is given a piece of candy by a kid as thanks for saving his family from demons, and once he leaves Miyako, like her brother, is unsure if she can accept it, since she could’ve easily signed his death warrant by following her philosophy. She blames ability to easily make such coldhearted decisions on her lack of humanity, even when we try telling her that worrying like she is now is a very human thing. Since she already achieved Fate Stage 4 she doesn’t here, and honestly that does make sense since she didn’t really take a step towards solving her problems here.
So next we’ll go see Al Saiduq’s final event, “Who We Are Right Now”, where he finally takes the initiative to speak with Miyako about their past disagreements. Miyako puts on a rather sour attitude towards him, making the claim that his apology won’t change the fact that they parted ways and he agrees, but says that they can still change their futures which is why he’s trying now to make up. Miyako adopts a bit of her smarmy, trolly tone that she used against Yamato, asks if he’s trying to be cute, and suggests she tie him up again. Even though he still doesn’t have normal human interaction down pat Al Saiduq does seem to recognize the typical tsundere routine and engages in a bit of unexpected teasing of his own by claiming that this “new” Miyako Hotsuin is “cute” as well. She stalks off in an embarrassed snit and Al Saiduq tells Hibiki that he’s glad that his words seem to have reached her and that being anguished isn’t so bad after all if it can lead to learning new things. He’s confident now that the fourteen lights before him can defeat Canopus and illuminate even more unknown potential for mankind, and Hibiki reminds him to include himself among that number. Flattered, Al Saiduq thanks us deeply for the kind words and as he so often does, vanishes into thin air.
He achieves Fate Stage 5 and he is the “kinda-sorta” exception I mentioned in regards to the cast retaining their Fate demons from the Septentrione Arc. The demon he unlocks at max Fate is still Lv. 99 and still called Lucifer, but the change lies in the appearance. Perhaps because the developers felt that the big ol’ blue demon lord didn’t fit Al Saiduq’s character and/or they wanted to match up more closely with the anime, Lucifer instead is depicted with his alternate angelic design that’s normally differentiated in the localization with the name “Helel”. He’s the exact same demon otherwise, stats, resistances, everything.
Speaking of that though, the other Lv. 99 demon of the game, Satan, has been promoted from a regular demon to a special fusion one. Now he can only be created by fusing together Nebiros and Zaou Gongen, the two demons Yamato used to create him in the anime. Which means that now Satan and by extension Beelzebub (as all of Beelzebub's fusion combinations require Satan) are now locked behind the Alice battle in the Septentrione Arc.
Now that we’ve completed Al Saiduq’s subplot, it’s time to take care of Miyako’s. Like many of these recent events she’s at the Terminal, and is now at a distraught loss as she admits that thanks to all of her interactions with the party today she’s come to value our lives and her own as well, and is terrified by the thought of losing anyone in the battle with Canopus. Add in her earlier angst over not being entirely human, and you get one big trembling ball of dysfunction. So how do we snap her out of it? By engaging in intimate physical contact, whether it be by taking her hand or showing the typical Hero boldness by reaching out and embracing her. The Cooldown Hug mojo takes its effect and Miyako realizes that she has her own heart, and since Hibiki can’t talk narrates her spark of character development by stating that she’s realized it doesn’t matter anymore if her feelings and desires were originally artificially created - they’re still hers, and she is now in control of them. The scene ends with her smiling more openly than she has before along with her Fate maxing itself out. Her final Fate demon is Kohryu, the Yellow Dragon that’s sometimes counted as the fifth animal of the Si Xiang and the ultimate Snake of the game. The localization team must’ve been confused though because the unlock message refers to Lucifer instead, however. Though, apparently all of Kohryu’s fusion combinations involve Lucifer. The Cathedral of Shadows email has it right, at least.
Since the Si Xiang came up just now, I’m going to quickly get up on my soapbox to rant a bit about a peeve I have concerning those fellows. I’ve never understood why, for a company that clearly shows their work when it comes to its subject matter, Atlus, or at least Atlus USA, always seems to be thrown for a loop by these guys. The games always insist that they’re the same as the Su Ling when they’re emphatically not (there is no “White Tiger” among the Su Ling; they have the Qilin instead) and when the names are translated from Japanese to Chinese Huang Long and Baihu are the only ones they can get right (as I’ve noted in their entries, “Feng Huang” is supposed to be Zhu Que, a different bird, Seiryuu should be "Qing Long" instead of simply "Long", and I have no idea where “Gui Xian” came from outside of an out-and-out mistranslation). Then there’s the matter of only rendering a few of their names in Chinese while the others remain Japanese as you can see in this game. The inconsistency bugs me. Atlus has had this problem ever since the PS2 era and I have no idea why it’s persisted for a decade now. Yes, they are similar concepts, but even the barest bit of research is enough to show that they aren’t supposed to be interchangeable. It just baffles me that they still have a problem with this.
Okay, I’m getting off of the soapbox now. Since Miyako has finally realized that she has a heart I think it’s only appropriate that the next and final free event of the day be the conclusion to Io’s subplot about forming a friendship with the JP’s chief. Returning to the Terminal for “Reaching Heart” we see the two girls meeting face-to-face. Io states her purpose straight-out: she wants to be Miyako’s friend. Miyako, for her part, regards Io with her familiar aloof and businesslike manner and says that this isn’t the proper time or place for such a joke. Io however, does not give up and surprises Miyako by grabbing her hand as shown by the little illustration insert window. As you might imagine Miyako is a little taken aback by this display of forwardness from the usually-timid girl, but decides that it’s amusing, and so, wearing that smug smirk once again, frees herself from her grip and takes her hand instead, saying that she accepts her offer of friendship. Friendship comes with terms though, namely that they are to refer to one another as “Io-chan” and “Miyako-chan” rather than “Miss Nitta” and “Miss Miyako” as they have been, though apparently Io thinks even using honorifics are a bit overwhelming and they should just stick to plain old First-Name Basis instead for now. Miyako agrees and says that she’ll learn how to be a good friend from her, though being a perfect friend will be no trouble at all for a Hotsuin (shoulda guessed that the Hotsuins are basically the universal equivalent of the von Karmas).
Miyako leaves with the promise of emailing Io later, and once Hibiki steps out from his eavesdropping spot Io says that she just gathered up all the courage she’s gained ever since the very first day down in the subway station and does the usual routine of thanking him for being her emotional pillar. It even ends with another Un-Confession, especially since if you respond to it with the typical “We’ll always be friends!” rather than the more suggestive “I’ll be at your side.” her tone for her next line screams “oh no! Not the friendzone!” Regardless, Io becomes the final character for this playthrough to achieve Fate Stage 5. And this time I was able to make a Titania that truly was immune to everything save Almighty.
We’ve done all we can, so now at 11:00PM we must return to the Tokyo branch for the final event of the day. Miyako and Al Saiduq report that they’re both almost done with their roles, so it’s time to discuss what we shall do about the Administrator System. Joe comments that this is a lot like the meeting we had before everyone split up into factions before in the original world, only now everyone is truly prepared to hear each other out and come to an agreement. So Ronaldo goes first and proposes his plan to simply defeat every single Administrator and Sword out there that tries to attack Earth, which prompts Miyako to gasp that he must be crazy, for the Administrators and Swords are as numerous as the stars themselves (obviously, since they’re named after them and all) and insist that trying to destroy them all would be impossible, not to mention if any one of them or Al Saiduq died they’d lose the Authority and be unable to use the Astrolabe to repair the world, a catastrophe that would sign the death warrant for all of humanity. Ronaldo’s counter to that is basically “oh, we’ll just need to be very careful then!” and then he launches into the second stage of his sales’ pitch, that once all the Administrators are no more they’ll be free to use the Astrolabe as they wish. With its power they could do all sorts of things, such as improving the world by restoring the environment, putting science and medicine through quantum leaps, ending all suffering and pover - wait just a second, this is sounding rather familiar! I guess someone still hasn’t given up on the egalitarian dream, huh?
Predictably Keita and to a much lesser extent Makoto are really the only other ones who’re enthusiastic about Ronaldo’s plan, and we move on by asking Al Saiduq what his thoughts are. He brings up the idea of making a human the new Administrator, an idea that startles and amazes the others. Much of their enthusiasm for that idea is drained away though when he mentions that the human who does so will be forever removed from the human world, never again able to interact with their fellows other than as an observer. “That sounds really lonely...” laments Jungo, while the more articulate characters view it more like death. Yamato says that that is indeed another option, then brings up his own: to break free of the Administrator System by recreating the world not through the Akashic Record, but through the will of all mankind. The party’s much more enthusiastic towards this plan once the mechanics behind the split of the Administrative Authority is detailed, but the caveat is that since the new world will reflect the wills of all humans, that will include evil people as well. If it turns out that humans really are bastards at heart, then we’ll get a world that will reflect that, and there would be no chance to recreate it again. But then again, Miyako says, if it turns out that humans aren’t inherently evil, then they’ll have nothing to worry about, and may even get a world that’s even better than the one they have now. Yamato says that he believes that one must take calculated risks in order to strive for success, and ultimately Hibiki is designated as the one who’ll make the decision, as no one will dispute his choice.
So once again we are at the decision point. We’ve got three options on the table: Ronaldo’s and Al Saiduq’s are always given to you, while the third is only available if you’ve followed the “Professor Yamato” lectures to their end and helped him in his brainstorming instead of goofing off. As before, let’s look at what we’ve got:
Al Saiduq’s idea. The main knock against it is that it kinda goes and throws away the whole “we can save the world without sacrificing anyone!” thing we’ve been trying to work towards. Oh sure, we’re not literally sacrificing anyone, but the characters do feel like going through with it would be like consigning someone to death. On the other hand it is a pretty sound plan that does close a number of loopholes in order to safeguard humanity’s future and hey, it’s not often that the Hero (because let’s be real it’s going to be Hibiki who’ll go through with this if we take this path) actually does succeed in becoming God with a capital G.
Then we have Ronaldo’s genius plan. Yeah... Um, this
◊ is what we’ll be up against. Assuming the Administrators and Swords are restricted only to stars with proper names, then at a minimum we’ll be up against just about five-hundred-and-thirty opponents. If they include all the stars in the night sky that number balloons up to around ten-thousand, and if they include all of the stars in the entire Milky Way, then we’re looking at hundreds of billions of adversaries! An eternal battle indeed! What’s more, while Ronaldo does have confidence in the team, and he has very good reason to, we’ve already seen how the Triangulum and later Septentriones started going for the throat much more quickly and viciously than earlier invaders, and if the trend keeps up and the gimmicks get more tricky and lethal the odds against us are literally astronomical. Sure, the prize is unrestricted use of the Astrolabe, but is it really worth it when we have other options on the table?
And finally we have Yamato’s plan, which is essentially the Kingmaker ending with the bonus of maintaining a modern standard of living as opposed to the party having to repopulate the world or whatever. Oh, well I guess there’s the possibility that the new world may get twisted by ill wishes, but that’s not going to be something we’ll have to worry about, right? Right?
The scenario’s different but the choice remains the same: which is the best path for humanity?
...
But before we move on, you might be wondering what would happen if you decided to agree to Miyako’s plan at the start of the day. Well in that case Daichi immediately goes all “What, what?!” while Yamato growls that he didn’t expect us to roll over so easily (which is exactly what he himself proceeds to do) and Miyako practically starts glowing as she showers us with praise for making this decision. The scene moves to beneath the Skytree where that device we saw on the map for the “Being Human” missions is. Al Saiduq’s already inside the little beaker tank, and I guess he’s okay with the plan now despite his misgivings since Hibiki and the others have decided to go along with it. Miyako tells the assembled party that what we are about to do is the most noble and selfless act any human has ever committed, and then one by one, in a sort of grim reprisal of the bit in the Restorer/Triumphant ending where each party member says their bit to Hibiki during the world’s restoration, each party member comments on what they’re about to do whether it be a note of resignation, reassurance that we did the right thing, or a refusal to be scared. They each get into one of the capsules that surround the tank, and once everyone’s inside Miyako tells Al Saiduq that she’s leaving the rest to him as she powers up the device’s control lever, flooding the room with light.
Following that we’re shown the restored Shibuya Scramble Crossing, full of people heading to and fro just like on any other day. However, the melancholy BGM indicates that not all is well, as does the snippets of conversation we hear, including a guy panhandling on a street corner while another complains about not being able to get find a job and, more tellingly, sighing that there’s nothing that he feels passionate about. Al Saiduq is shown watching all this from the air and addresses the absent Shining One and his friends, lamenting that with their sacrifice the world has lost a great potential. However, it is still the world they saved, so he promises to watch over it for as long as he exists.
And then we go directly to the regular game over sequence as mankind presumably continues to stagnate over the next thousand years until Errai comes along and wipes the slate clean. So it’s a good thing we didn’t choose that path, wasn’t it!
Compendium
- Helel
◊
- Helel is Hebrew for "shining one" and in the Megami Tensei games is used to differentiate between Lucifer's pre-and-post Fall personae. The epithet, along with others such as "morning star" and "lightbringer" refer back to the planet Venus and the motif of the star being cast down for attempting to be as God stretches back to the time of Ancient Canaan. Those myths were incorporated by Jewish and later Christian tradition to form the tale of Lucifer being cast out of Heaven by the Archangel Michael after a failed attempt to elevate his station to one equal to or greater than God's.
- Kohryu◊
- The Japanese name for Huang Long, the Yellow Dragon sometimes counted as the fifth member of the Si Xiang. The motif of the Yellow Dragon stems from the legendary Yellow Emperor Huang Di who ruled over China during the 27th century BC, and thus for later emperors the Yellow Dragon became a symbol of imperial power. As part of the Si Xiang it represents earth and the changing of seasons, though in Japanese myth it is missing entirely since their fifth element is void, which therefore cannot be represented by anything.
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