All Comments

Gee, a SMT game with demons in it. Who would have thought it possible? </sarcasm>

And on shops being useless, this compensates for the fact that it's next to impossible to make enough money to make armor and weapon purchases on a regular basis without (ab)using the Underworld Money Maker quest.

Nice to see that you're doing another liveblog; the Strange Journey one was a great read and I look forward to seeing what you do with this one.

So far, so good.

Two things for players to note here: First, once you get access to the Scout (recruit) command, try using it on a Slime. Slimes are "unintelligible" demons, but Burroughs has an app for that. It will come in handy later.

Second, although it isn't an issue yet, they did some slight weakening of Ma- spells; the net effect is that the equivalent single target spell will do slightly more damage to a single target. Why is this important, especially given the Press Turn System's emphasis on hitting weaknesses? Because Hordes, despite being a single enemy, and as such a single target, are treated as three targets for multi-target spells. You can do the math.

Actually, Hunter1, hordes are treated as five targets, not three.

So far, so good. Can't wait for the Fundraise, Plead, and Trade Apps.

They show as five targets on the target select panel, but I've hit them with Ma- spells before. They only do three hits.

I find myself being quite curious about Flynn's demons' opinions on his 'fundraising.'

I'm really liking the Funny Backround Event s the demons are partaking in. It would be interesting to see more of those.

Otherwise, good work so far. You've also done a good job of making Flynn distinct from Drake.

It's actually a rule I made for myself when writing this story: the demons must provide all of the comedy. Flynn can be funny, but only in response to a demon being funny first (such as his reaction to Slime's personality completely changing when the App was turned on, which was also more or less my reaction).

Oh, so those Funny Background Events aren't actually in the game? I've never played one of this series before.

I'm enjoying your writing, entertaining and informative!

There are a couple FB Es in the actually story, but they are few and far between.

Also, Slime is a master of understatement. Ingame, Slimes are weak to Phys, Fire, Ice, Force, Elec, and Light. That's 6 out of the 8 main elements, and the other two are neutrals! "Not that tough", indeed.

Most of the in-game FEBs involve Walter making silly faces.

As for Slime, I find him pretty underrated, actually. To compensate for his defensive frailty he seems to hit rather hard for an early-game demon, and mine learned Maragi via skill changeover; that plus his immunity to poison made him a valuable asset against... well, stay tuned!

Poison...? Oh yes, that part. I hated that part.

Ah yes, poison; poison is never fun, but in Shin Megami Tensei IV it can be incredibly horrifying, especially in the beginning.

I love how this is playing out; keep up the good work.

Of course, Stephen's appearance makes me try to make sense of the timeline, given his absence in Nocturne and Strange Journey. My running theory is that the world somehow got rebooted after the events of SMT 2, creating the world Nocturne takes place in. The Demi-Fiend then chooses the "remake the old world" option, letting Strange Journey play out in the remade world. The hero from SJ went with the neutral ending, leading up to spoilers for SMT 4.

(What? If you really want to know what happened that badly, there are a few websites that can recap it for you. Or you could just wait; it is kinda a major plot point.)

You really have to wonder how Navarre managed to get the Gauntlet to shine for him...

Ah yes, the X in Kiccigiorgi Forest; good times. I look forward to seeing when Flynn runs into the amazing thing there.

By the way, I love how you write out Flynn's thoughts; sounds quite like what I'd expect from someone like him.

Flynn at the moment I'm writing closer to Jonathan that Walter; he hasn't drank the Kool-aid to the extent Jonathan has, but I get the impression that East Mikado citizens who think East Mikado isn't all that hot stuff, like Walter, are the exception rather than the rule. This'll change when he goes to Tokyo and sees its good points, too; unlike Jonathan, he'll begin to think that Tokyo is worth preserving, too.

Gee, with all these Gun attacks and demons who have a weakness/resistance to them, you'd think we would get an actual gun sooner or later...

And yes, I too look forward to Flynn finding the amazing secret of the X.

Who was you AI partner during the Minotaur fight? Since Walter adds a new dimension of difficulty if he's present for that battle.

Fun Fact: Minotaur being the first "real" boss seems to be a reference to the first Megami Tensei on the Famicom, where he is likewise the first boss. This may seem like a coincidence, but the two games also share their second boss as well...

I got lucky; my partner was Jonathan, enabling me to beat him in one try. My first, Bad Ending playthrough, I actually DID beat him with Walter as my partner.

And what is currently my favorite part of the game is coming up shortly...

Also, a note on Wicker Man: Like Slime, it's an unintelligible demon. Not an issue if you're fusing it, but if you haven't gotten the Demonlingual app yet...

Out of curiosity, are you going to be detailing the challenge quests?

Agathion? What Agathion? I just heard a jar. Yep. Jar.

Also, pretty sure Fortuna is female?

Fixed.

Looks like Medusa's been blown off.

...Did you miss the terminal in this update? Since I recall finding my first one on the same floor as the Bruce Gun.

Also, if you want total game breakage, grind out enough Grimoires to get a level 30-ish party, and then do the Death Has It's Applications DLC. Getting enough App Points to get every app you can at the moment is, as I implied a sentence ago, rather game breaking. Ironically enough, the second DLC grind mission, Underworld Moneymaker is currently mostly useless until... Well, it's a spoiler until the next update.

GAH! Sorry. I'll get that next time. Which should be tonight or tomorrow.

Actually, if I remember correctly, you can fuse Food demons, but only through Elemental fusion, which means you first need to recruit one the normal way.

(And a quick double check of the SMT wiki shows you can actually fuse them outside of Elemental fusion, but only as a random result of a Fusion Accident, so it isn't something you can hope to count on.)

It must really suck to be a demon stuck with the 'Food' label, though I guess it fits for Katarikauwa considering Strange Journey.

On an interesting note, the wrist-comp on the DEMONICA seen in art for Strange Journey looks a lot like the Gauntlet in art for SMT 4. That and the existence of the DEMONICA suits in the CDF are what I take as evidence that 4 takes place post-SJ.

I think they're in different universes, myself, which I went with in the SJ epilogue, with Thoth finding Flynn's story in his Great Big Book of Everything, and also here where Morax mentions may have he ruled a world of endless war "in another life." At the very least, I think they're both in a different universe than the first two, as II seems way more futuristic than SJ and IV.

By the way, completely unrelated, but if you want a voice for the demons, I can tell you Strix sounds like Bea Arthur.

I think I stated this in a previous part, but my head canon is 1 followed by 2, with the universe getting rebooted and leading to the events of Nocturne, which leads to Strange Journey and then to 4.

And you're right about SMT 2 being more high tech than any other main series game; it takes place around a century after the events of 1, so about 2125 or so. 1 starts around 1995, but there's a 30 year timeskip that 3 of your 4 player characters bypass by virtue of being outside the normal flow of time (and Tokyo after the timeskip is in about as bad a shape as Tokyo in 4).

(And don't try to shoehorn If... into this timeline; If... actually leads into the Persona timeline.)

And of course Stephen stays exactly the same through all this... What IS he?

Well, he was human in 1, by 2 he's taken to hiding in pocket dimensions or similar and has somehow figured out how to appear in the Virtual Battlers, he's absent in Nocturne and Strange Journey...

Really, by this point he's either gained the kind of "appear anywhere" ability seen on Ben 10's Paradox, fanon Sailor Pluto, fanon Yukari Yakumo (and more I can't be bothered to remember), or he's no longer human.

Given that all the DLC is out with no answer... I think we'll have to wait for 5 to get an answer to this question.

(Oh, and assuming the world did get reset after 2, he somehow survived the universe ending, and that's usually a good excuse for sudden weird powers showing up out of nowhere, as Marvel proves. I can excuse his non-appearance in Nocturne since you don't use a DSP or a Comp, and for SJ... Not wanting to confuse non-Japanese fans? He also gets mentioned in If... where he sends you an email with the DSP attached, a la SMT 1.)

I find myself hoping that Flynn finds a DEMONICA with the name 'Drake Sinclair' on it.

There won't be any indications Drake actually lived here, as I think they're in different universes. However, I do think some of the more prominent demons can cross universes, so you may very well hear references to him, particularly once a certain Great Raven joins the team far from now...

The Undead race is in pretty poor shape in this game. There's only 8 demons belonging to it, and 4 of those you can't get period. It was bad enough that they moved Alice from being a Fiend to an Undead just to fill out the ranks some (she's also the only one you get in a "normal" manner, being a Lvl 49 Special Fusion).

For those who went "Oh Crap" when David showed up, was it because the last battle with the Horde left them near death, was it because they saw the skull and realized a Fiend had appeared, or was it because of the music?

Speaking of the Undead, did you manage to fuse Corpse? I remember that one was a bit of a pain to get.

Got Corpse on my Law playthrough, thus saving him to the Compendium. He'll show up.

Is it really cannibalism if the one eating humans is not human himself?

Really, there are only three special hoops for getting demons on your side in this game, and we've already run into all three of them: Beat it to fuse it; recruit with Scout+; or get lucky with a fusion accident.

There's also the you-know-whos; on paper they're "beat it to fuse it" but the luck factor may count as a fourth "hoop."

...?

Oh, THEM! Yeah, if we count the almost pure luck involved in getting what you want through fusion accidents as a hoop, then we can count them being just as hard to find as a fourth hoop.

Of course it's not over; we haven't had the alignment lock yet.

Besides, this is a SMT game and we haven't had the required number of plot twists yet.

Also, I finally added information about Terminals to ch. 7, so if you're confused as to why I suddenly started mentioning them, go there. Totally my fault.

I always liked the demons that belong to the Clan of Death. Flynn is wise to be so careful around them.

While this one seems shorter than usual, the funny background events definitely got a chuckle out of me.

Momunofu and the angels get along so well, don't they?

Told you it wasn't over.

(Says the guy who's played the game.)

Quiet, you.

I thought Asmodeus was a little overdesigned...and then I got a good look at some of the DLC demons...

I have no idea why, but the advertising seemed to want us to think Asmodeus was a major character, as he appears as the "face" of the Chaos side in most of the promotions and is even more prominent than... a certain femme fatale on the box art. In reality, this is his only appearance in the game unless you bring him into your team later on.

I think the reason Asmodeus is on the cover is because the designers wanted to show off the artwork from the guest artists.

Yeah, Astaroth's on there too and he only shows up as a Challenge Quest boss on New Game+.

In order (keep in mind the three questions in italics):

It's a Main Quest; you're doing wether you like it or not. This is a SMT game, you just know you won't like the secrets in question. I honestly have no idea.

If Flynn's demons ever need work, they can form a sitcom. I'd totally watch it.

This chapter was a bit of a filler chapter composed largely of demon introductions, because I think Shibuya has the largest population of "new" demons in the game.

As for the demons, there were actually two rules I made for myself when I set out to write this. First, only Flynn and his demons may speak, apart from certain Wham Lines that I'll transcribe verbatim. I decided this because, hey, trying to write the characters that have already been written seems much less fun than giving the silent Flynn and his scads of demons a voice. Second, the demons must provide all the comedy. Flynn may participate in a comic situation, but that situation must have been initiated by a demon.

A few notes again on demon personalities, this time, Samyaza: if you can't tell, he's supposed to be a Nice Guy/White Knight, a person who pretends to be decent to women but who is really an insecure misogynist trawling for tail. This is because in mythology he and Azazel were kicked out of Heaven for leading angels to seduce mortal women.

I think I missed something, what is "miso"?

It's a type of Japanese soup. Apparently, those possessed by Kudas are obsessed with eating it.

Glad to see the references to Devil Survivor; too bad for Baldur that his invulnerability isn't quite as hot (though his weakness to Gun damage makes me chuckle a bit).

By the way, can the DEMONICA still do anything?

No. In this game, the Gauntlet is the Noire wannabe.

(Why yes, I did just make a reference to a one-off joke from one of the Neptunia games. May not perfectly work, but my desire to make it outweighed my desire for accuracy.)

It seems to be implied the Gauntlet came from a DEMONICA, which makes me wonder if the Gauntlet held all the DEMONICA's magical mojo in SJ, too. Of course, given that SJ is first-person, we never do see what part of it Drake/Mehreen/Whatever his name is accesses the interface with.

Once again, my answers to the last three questions, in order:

If I've got the order of events correct, a flashback to SMT 2.

Neither.

Um, Youkai University?

Also, at this point you have officially gotten further then I have, so now I have to start running off of spoilers I've read.

Demon personality notes: Ogre is based on Oog the super-genius caveman from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, whom he looks a bit like. He has an IQ of 300 and still talks like a caveman. Kuebiko sounds like Sean Connery.

...Sometimes, I hate being right.

One could almost forget that demons have been known to eat humans when looking at the crowd Flynn hangs out with.

I tried to write them as basically this big, dysfunctional family, a la the Straw Hats from One Piece which is a major influence on my writing style. I just think Flynn sees them even more often that he does his three friends, probably, so he's bound to have some kinship with them.

Though Horkos still wants to eat humans, as you can see.

Oh, and if anyone's worried about Drake, he's fine. That really was Sutcliffe Banks who got his face melted.

White shadow eh? How fascinating...

Things are getting interesting here...

I am trying to imagine the angels making 'that' particular face when Flynn sides with Walter. It's definitely an amusing image.

Also looking forward to seeing Nebiros's niece.

Ah, that's an interesting way to handle the demonization of gods from other cultures.

You seem to have gotten Minakata and Mikazuchi confused with that boss header and write up.

...Yamato-Takeru has a move called Cross Dressing? I wonder. Does it give him a hat?

Kinda a nice touch on Nebiros calling Flynn out. Doesn't the game itself call the player out for trying to take Neutral dialouge options? It all fits in, at least to me.

Nebiros's laugh is glorious; I would love to see that part animated and voice-acted.

Is it strange that I'm not sure if I intended Nebiros to have a point or not? While writing the scene I couldn't decide whether I wanted him to or if he should just be a dick. I suppose I'll leave it up to you, then. If you think he has a point, that's fine; if not, that's fine too.

And of course, I forgot to do most of these quests. Will they still be avaliable once I'm past the alignment lock?

So, just how many demons do you have at this point? Are you actually using them? Are players expected to miss most of them without Guide Dang It?

Not having played this series, I guess I don't understand...I've been thinking of demons as Final Fantasy summons, but you seem to pick up another dozen or so every chapter...

Obviously Garrote is into auto-erotic asphyxiation.

Demons are actually mons, and most are easy to get. I use the vast majority of them, though some, like Garrote in this chapter, can't really fight all that well. The reason I get so many at once is that unlike Pokemon demons don't last very long at all; once they learn all their skills, which usually happens in 1-3 levels, you should fuse them.

You can have 24 (I think) demons in the active party at a time, provided you get all 16 "Expand Stock" apps; any demons that you have recruited but aren't in the active party at the time are stored in the Compendium, which is like the Box from Pokemon, except you have to pay a small fee to retrieve a demon, though the tradeoff is you can access it at any time.

Actually, the Compendium is less like the Storage Boxes from Pokemon and more like save data for your demons; the way it works is simple:

When you first recruit or fuse a demon, that demon's movelist, stats, and level are recorded in the Compendium. If you then level it up 5 levels, get rid of it, and resummon it from the Compendium, you would get the demon as you first got it, not the leveled version you had later. You can, however, "update" (read: overwrite) the record in the Compendium, meaning that when you resummon it, you get that leveled up version instead of the "basic" version you had at first. This is why it costs money to summon from the Compendium: you're not pulling out the exact same demon, you're pulling out an exact copy of that record.

SMT 4 is actually rather nice about the Compendium and fusion; in older games if you were going on a fusion spree you would have to clear out a space in your stock to get fusion fodder out of the Compendium, whereas in this one, you just check a box and you can fuse straight from the Compendium. Also, the removal of the Moon Phase System... Yeah, fewer crazy demons and more predictable Dustin results.

We all know what Nadja's real purpose here is: to be as annoying as possible with that one certain move...

I guess the reason they made Ixtab a miniboss was so they could have one more unlockable demon.

Ah yes, there's that sense of everybody being screwed that every previous numbered main series SMT has...

(Yeah, in SJ you get the sense that everybody will be screwed, but in 1, 2, and 3 you get the sense that they've already been screwed.)

I find it funny how Pluto is an in-universe example of Everybody Hates Hades. Of all the names to call the Tormentor, they had to pick the one that belonged to the god of the underworld.

I'm surprised that none of the more lewd demons (I'm looking at you, Incumbus) made any joked regarding Kin-Ki's name. Then again, since the brothers are famous, I guess they were too scared to provoke them.

Jueyuan made that joke back in chapter 9, when we fought the boss version.

Some demon personality notes: Xuihtecuhtli is supposed to sound like the Cybernetic Ghost of Christmas Past from the Future. Kazfiel I wrote as a stereotypical "youth pastor;" you know, the type of guy churches send to high schools to teach about the dangers of drugs and STDs who tries desperately to be "down with the kids" and ends up phenomenally uncool due to that? That guy. And though she's only had one line thus far, Dakini, is supposed to sound like a Mrs. Robinson character.

I thought Ammut was supposed to be female...

Nice to see that you've updated this; congratulations on getting the Neutral Route.

Started reading this after I stopped for abit due to lack of internet. It's likely that Issachar is Issachar, as they embody man's despair, and he had plenty of it during his battle and when he failed to become a Samurai. So he likely is Issachar's despair.

Also the Chaos bit is futile to the White not because it destroys itself, but because it is futile. The world will just repair itself and go back to serving Order and God. That is why they view it as a mistake.

Reviving Aeris? That's easy, just get Chisame to hack the game with her pactio. Heck, you can even make it so she doesn't die in the first place and hooks up with Cloud and Tifa. Of course, given Chisame's personality, getting her to do this in the first place is rather difficult, as Eva found out...

Yeah, I do think that sticking to the demon voice gimmicks does kinda ruin the intended message you are trying to send here, since it just makes the dialouge obnoxious to read and in several places out and out confusing to make out.

I'd cut back on it, even if just for this post.

Some author's notes: Yeah, I know this was mostly non-game character stuff; apologies in advance for any disappointment, but I wanted to do the whole "Quest to become Champion" thing in one shot so this is basically a prologue to that. The title, by the way, is a reference to A Series of Unfortunate Events, where "The Last Safe Place" is one of many, many Arc Words. The scene where all the demons pledge their loyalty is a Fire Emblem reference, which I threw in because the SMT and FE communities on this site seem to have a lot of overlap. It's supposed to call to mind the thing where each of your units you bring to the final chapter says something unique; there's even a direct paraphrase in there, see if you can spot it!

FE reference in an SMT game, eh? Well, the two franchises ARE getting a crossover game, after all.

The paraphrase was Ogre quoting Canas's pre-final battle quote.

Well, this has been pretty interesting to watch so far.

I think the proper answer to that last question would be...a bad dresser?

Oh! Also, you may have noticed Flynn's speech is becoming more modern. That was also intentional; it's meant to show how he's fallen in love with Tokyo as he becomes a Neutral champion.

I remember beating Alciel much earlier in the game purely by virtue of having a demon that reflected Physical. Dumb luck wins like that are rather satisfying.

Historical note for SMT: Back when Megami Tensei was the subtitle and not the main title, it referred to Yumiko, the heroine of the Digital Devil Story novels and the first MT game for the Famicom. She was, as the name implies, the reincarnation of Izanami.

What isn't as well known is that Nakajima, the idiot who created the original Demon Summoning Program in the novels and first game and as such is kinda responsible for all the crap in the MT timeline (he's also the Player Character in MT 1), was also a reincarnation, this time of Izanagi.

(Yeah, not sure when it changed exactly, but it occurred sometime around SMT 3, they had it set up so that you had two main characters, a guy with no magic and the DSP, and a girl with magic but no DSP. Also back in those days you had a party size of 6, but you also had to pay to summon and maintain demons on the field. Play Soul Hackers for the 3DS if you want to know what it's like exactly.)

Actually the "man who summoned demons, girl who used magic" format was around from the first game(with Nakajima having the COMP and Yumiko casting of course), and every main series game (plus the two Devil Summoners) followed that set up. Nocturne was actually the game that changed it, as the only "human" character was the Demifiend, and while there was a Heroine character, she never fought in any capacity.

Also, Nakajima also came to regret his decision once Yumiko (someone he cared about, even if he didn't know why at the time) being threatened gave him some perspective onto just how awful demons like Loki are, and spend the rest of his short life trying to fix the damage his Demon Summoning Program caused, all while struggling with the guilt over all the people who died because of him. But no, call him an idiot and blame him for everything, that's fine. Character growth? What's that?

Never said he didn't grow as a character, just said he was an idiot for creating and using the DSP in the first place. We may have the entire franchise to know that summoning demons always, ALWAYS, ALWAYS leads to trouble, but given that he made it in the first place, Nakajima really should have read enough stories and warnings to at least suggest that it was a bad idea.

Plus, one of his first summons was Loki, Norse God of Lies and Deceit; not exactly someone I would call trustworthy. His other major summon was Cerberus, explaining SMT's obsession with Cerberus.

I see Flynn is popular with the canines.

I really hope that guy in Minami Suchimi is properly prepared for his hunt.

Author's note: Yes, I'm finally back. Sorry, got hooked on Fiend-hunting; got 'em all in four days, woo! This chapter sees the debut of Mastema, who seemed rather popular in Sinclair Drake Vs., so hopefully you like him here, as well. Also, there's some tidbits for mythology fans in here; see if you can spot them!

Uh...I seem to remember SMT!Mara being a she, funnily enough.

This game is contradictory. He has a male personality and the Terminal Guardian calls him a "he," but the Compendium says "she." I just went with the "majority," so to speak.

Of course Mara is weak to Ice, do ho ho.

You have my unending smoldering jealousy for finding all the Fiends so quickly.

I always found it funnier when Mara is portrayed as female. That bit in Strange Journey when Mara appears in the Chaos Route is one of the funniest parts of the game to me.

Can't wait for the next part. Couple of chuckle-worthy moments in this bit, such as "STOP MAKING SENSE!" and "I'm sorry, Jonathan; you're just not very scary." (On another note, I got a 3DS for my birthday [along with Pokemon X! WOOT!], and this is one of the games I plan to get for it. Not sure which route I'll take first up, though... guess I'll just see where my choices take me, then aim for Neutral on my next playthrough. Or... something. Yeah. xD)

I find myself wondering, given certain DLC episodes, if God has multiple personalities...or if there is actually more than one God in the setting. Both possibilities would actually make a lot of sense for me.

I've just assumed he's slightly different in each world of The Multiverse. It seems to differ from game to game whether something drove him to evil, whether he was Evil All Along, and even whether he was the original Creator or not. So I just extrapolated this to think that maybe he's eviler in the Blasted Tokyo universe or something. Even then, note how you always show up to save the day whenever Kiyoharu prays for that to happen...

In Megami Tensei II it is stated (and vaguely implied Shin Megami Tensei II) that YHVH is just one of many divine beings who make up the Great Will that controls the universe. It is very possible that the different incarnations of YHVH are actually just different parts of the Great Will.

Or something. I dunno. The more recent games dropped all of that and treat YHVH and the Great Will interchangeably.

...Question: Are we at or past the corresponding point in a law or chaos playthrough where K mentions that the Samurai code has a bit that says "If you commit to a thing, see it through to the end"? (And yes, I copied everything in that sentence after "that" from the SMT wiki.)

Hmm... Now that I think about it, that sounds like a less formal combination of "I chooseth this fate of mine own free will" and "Accept responsibility for the consequences of your actions". Heh, wonder if any of the Persona staff worked on this game...?

That's at the first split, where you go with Jonathan or Walter to confront Lilith or Tayama.

Looking forward to Flynn's meeting with David's seniors. Those Clan of Death members often leave a trail of broken bodies, all made of the poor suckers who went in without preparation.

Sooo hyped for the next part!

Don't worry, it's coming; I've just been a bit distracted.

Ah, distractions. I know all about those. *cough*Spyro*cough*

I kinda wish Navarre was less of a jerk like he is in the manga's. There he's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.

Author's note: Whew, that was a long time. Sorry. New semester, all sorts of stuff going on, you know the drill. In the interim, I've actually beaten the game, so, yes, this is no longer strictly a live blog; sorry. So, yeah, Fiends! Part 2 will be up by tomorrow. Also, Hresvelgr's insult is something I pulled out of a book of Shakespearean insults I have. Seriously.

I've been looking forward to this part; Fiend-hunting hurts like hell, but boy is it satisfying when you manage to overcome a Fiend.

By the way, I would love to see Merkabah explain to God how a being made from a fusion of all four cardinal archangels got it ass kicked by a skeletal matador...actually, I would love to see Lucifer explain himself as well.

No longer strictly a live blog, you say? Doesn't matter, still watching ^_^

Quick note for readers playing along, the Fiends (and any other bosses using similar AI) only check for Null, Repel, and Drain when determining if they should go into "Almighty spam mode" (yes, the wiki has a term for it) ; they do not check for mere Resists.

Also, interesting tidbits: Flynn has an innate immunity to... Light, I think it is, and quite a few thing grant Dark immunity. This can be overridden by armor, however. Also, the Secret Shop has the best purchasable gear in the game, including the "classic" DEMONICA Suit (contrast the weaker Black Samurai armor you got at the CDF Base way back when as part of the story).

Author's note: So, there you have it: how to fight Fiends. I'm amazed at how lucky I was in getting them all so fast (four days). I also tried to give some closure to Ares and Gurr/Garuda's stories, as they'd been semi-recurring characters who I thought were pretty fun to write, and we never do learn who Ares' master was in the game. Also I hope the demons waxing nostalgic for their destroyed homelands has made you at least a little sad.

I find myself wishing they got Liam O'Brien to voice the Red Rider; would've made a great allusion to [[Video Game/Darksiders]].

I wonder how Flynn will be introduced to Mother Harlot in this?

^ Slight markup error there, buddy.

Anyway, good to see you still going with this! Can't wait for the next update.

^ Yeah, I know. Still trying to figure out how to handle names that are just one word.

I can't wait for the DLC bosses to get the spotlight. I remember the Anciet of Days was a particular pain in the ass for the liveblogger.

^ You use these things.

Oops. You use {{ these }}.

I don't understand why it won't let me edit my posts on this thing... o_o

OoooOOOOOooooooh! The plot thickens~ *totes hyped for the fight with Lucifer*

Well, given that the LP seems to wrapping up at this point, this is likely the best place to ask: Should we expect to see any of the DLC here?

Reiko, in answer to your question, if I want to edit a comment I have to click, on the main liveblog page, the number of comments for a particular blog, then scroll to find mine. Can't do it from the actual blog.

^ Ahh, okay. I feel stupid now. xD

Theeere we go. Now we got somethin'. XDDD Anywho! Again, totes hyped for the fight with Lucifer! ...whenever that may be. *cough*Schedule Slip*cough* (I kid, I kid. I know real life gets in the way at times.)

Author's note: Another pretty short one, I know; mostly plot points and introductions for endgame demons. It's just that this dungeon isn't very hard, seriously. I like Guedhe's design and his mythical counterpart even though he's not all that long-term useful in this game so I gave him something to do, and you may also notice Flynn's speech is almost totally modern now. Entirely intentional.

^ I gathered that, yes. With the, uh, almost totally modern speech thing. And stuff. I should shut up now. XDD And two new quests, eh? This'll be fun...

Interesting...

If I remember correctly, all the other DLC bonus bosses are meant for post game, right?

^ Yep. Lucifer is next, and there are three chapters and an epilogue after that.

Also, some demon personality notes: Seth is supposed to be a stereotypical slacker, moocher relative who won't leave; the kind of guy who asks if he can crash on his brother's (in this case, Osiris) couch for a weak and is still there after a year. Also, the Fiends' laughter is supposed to sound like bones rattling.

I found that once you overcome Gabriel's Lamentation, she goes down relatively quickly (maybe since she's he squishy wizard of the four archangels). Hell, the hardest thing about Clipped Wings 2 is that you have to fight Michael right after Gabriel; fight them alone, and the two of them aren't that bad.

Now, the bonus bosses that come later, on the other hand...

I do like the implication that Asmodeus is the "grown up" Aeshma, as obvious as that connection is to make considering their mythological origins and the fact that one is just the other but in white.

I always saw Asmodeus as rather sympathetic, because despite how much of a dick he is to you in his boss fight he's just trying to stop the Four from getting loose and destroying the world again. Nice Job Breaking It, Hero. Is he the same guy as Aeshma? I don't know, but their shared mythical origins and both being associated with the imprisonment of the Four makes it a personal WMG of mine.

Lucifer next up... can't wait.

Well, that's Lucifer done with. What's next, I wonder?

The ending, some rather nasty post-game DLC bosses (the worst of which puts you under a strict 10 turn limit facing a boss that nulls everything), and the wrap up for the LP's story.

I plan to do the re-visits to the alternate Tokyos next, then the Law and Chaos superbosses, and finally the Neutral superboss and the ending, in that order.

Wait, how does Lucifer give you an evil stare if his second form doesn't even have any eyes? Or is it the Walter-arm doing the staring?

Anyways, I'm looking forward to the superbosses.

It's actually possible to pick up the Kartikeya mission right before leaving Infernal Tokyo and into the mission lock, though I remember taking a while to find a demon to give me that quest.

I wonder how many people thought that the Four Riders quest unlocked the Riders for fusion, only to realize that they would have seek each Rider out individually...

Author's note: But one more chapter to go! Apologies for any and all Schedule Slips. I'd been planning on two scenes in this installment, the argument between Lilith and Gabriel and Mastema's Reason You Suck Speech to Raphael, for quite some time; let me know what you think of them! Also, who do you think made the best point between Lilith and Gabriel? I tried to make it balanced, so you can draw your own interpretations.

"As they say in Tokyo: piss off."

EPIC WIN.

Oh, I cannot wait to see your opinion on the last DLC boss...

You know, the White may be very interesting antagonists, but I'm not sure I can handle their emo bullshit for more than one game.

I suppose the difficulty of the Ancient of Days made up for the lackluster final bosses of this game?

Final chapter coming tomorrow!

So... An epilouge, and... Then what? You pull out Soul Hackers, one of the Devil Survivors, an Etrian Odyssey, or something else?

I'll announce my next project at the end of the epilogue. I'll tell you it will likely be a short one.

And a few author's notes: I hope I was able to make the Archangels at least a little sympathetic. Uriel and Michael I portrayed as the nicest, since they regard Flynn as a Worthy Opponent in their fights, but I wanted to make you like Mike and Gabby at least a little bit.

Speaking of, I'd also intended a scene between the Four and Mastema where they talk about the latter's Face Turn and reference the events of SJ, but I couldn't find a good place for it.

Lastly, in case you didn't know, all but the first three reactions to the dome lifting are "flavor," added by mois.

Whoo! Well, this was an epic journey indeed! (I still wonder if I can find it anywhere... us Australians always get the short end of the stick. T_T) Wonder what's next?

Well, that was a great conclusion to a great liveblog. As Burroughs would put it, "Congratulations on completing the quest."

Last author's note: Well, that was a long, awesome trip, wasn't it? I must say I'm much prouder of this one than I am of Sinclair Drake Vs. Thank you all so much for supporting it! This epilogue was inspired by two things: first, the Medley Exits of the crime drama Cold Case, one of my favorite shows (they play a hit song over a montage of what everyone is doing now that the case is solved at the end of every episode), and the end credits for the film WALL•E, which show the humans rebuilding the ruined Earth with the help of the robots. Here, the demons substitute for the robots. The song in question, by the way, is Bob Dylan's "Shelter from the Storm," which I thought was apropos, as the plot of this game was, after all, kicked off by Tokyo seeking "shelter from the storm."

Again, thank you all for supporting this story, and I also hope you'll support my upcoming strange journey into a more orderly Schwartzwelt''.