Pixie: Whee! It's Mister Drake! I knew we'd meet again eventually! I thought I'd be stuck here not knowing why I seem to be stuck in this time-loopy thingy forever! Umm, I still don't know why this happened. But I'm pretty sure I have to help Mister Drake again! I think all of us have to, or we'll be stuck here forever!
Taking your first steps into the Schwartzwelt, you will, as you may have guessed, meet a friendly Pixie demon, who invites herself into your party. She makes it plain that you can't just fight your way through the Schwartzwelt's inhabitants if you want to survive; you have to make alliances with them too. This is, obviously, the Mon aspect of the game. So, with that in mind, let's familiarize ourselves with the locals, of which there are six main species in this area.
The ones that can be recruited here are Pixies, Knockers (the Cornish fairy; get your mind out of the gutter!), and Tanagata Manu, of which the first two are the most useful, as they will be your first fire (Agi) and ice (Bufu) mages respectively. The Tanagata Manu is also a Bufu user, but less useful than the Knocker because he's a Fragile Speedster, sacrificing power and defense for speed, which isn't really a necessity at this point, and the difference isn't that big. Also around here are Slimes, Dybbuks, and Okiku-Mushi, which cannot be recruited directly due to being DARK-aligned demons and therefore evil... or something. These are a pain to get, too; apart from having them invite themselves in your party (which seems to be really rare for these three demons) the only way to get them, since they're the lowest-ranked demons in their families, is to get the next rank up and "demote" them using a Prime demon. By that point, though, you'll (obviously) have better demons, so these three really just exist to fill up your Compedium.
Drake: Compendium, huh? Wait a minute... AH!
Kresnik: Drake! You finally noticed us!
Spriggan: See! I told you guys he'd check!
Vetala: DRAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKE!
Drake: You guys are still here? This can't have been a dream, then. I have been to the Schwartzwelt before.
Dybbuk: My brothers up there are such fuddy-duddies, huh?
Okiku-Mushi: But you can call me up anytime you want, cutie!
Drake: Eh, you're not really my type. Sorry. A bit too... half-caterpillar. Nothing personal.
Cerberus: WE STUCK IN TIME LOOP. WE STUCK WITH YOU. GET US OUT OR ME EAT YOU.
Shiva: Drake, my man, I request you summon me. We can take anything in this blasted Schwartzwelt like nothing.
Drake: I don't think we've quite crossed that threshold yet. It's great to see you all again, though. We're all going to have to work together to find out why we're stuck here, and hopefully, fix everything went wrong last time.
Mishaguji: I just wanna say on behalf of all of us that it means a lot to hear you say that, young'un. Why dontcha summon me an' I'll give yer a nice big... pat on the back.
Drake: Yeah, I'm cutting your feed.
Sorry about that, but that was basically a long introduction to the fact on a New Game Plus, you keep your entire Compendium, and level restrictions on demon-summoning are removed. While only twelve demons can be in the active party at a time, every demon you've ever befriended in stored in the DEMONICA and can be called up at any time. So Shiva was right when he said I could just ring him up (he's stronger than even the Final Boss) and blast through everything. But I'm going to try not to do that too much.
With that mechanic out of the way, it's time to save the crew. This is a simple task, as you'll just be up against the same easy types of demons I described above, but you are introduced to some interesting supporting characters through this mission: MacCleary, the Monitor chief; Maebe, the Shrinking Violet deputy of the Medical department; Muccino, the portly Italian Communications chief; and the character who'll be your best friend-
Sui-ki: HEY!
Sorry, best non-demonic friend in the game, the flamboyantly Texan head scientist, Irving, who functions as the game's "item shop."
With the important people rescued, a distress call is received: it's Jimenez, who confirms he's the last survivor of the Blue Jet. Commander Gore himself leads the team, including Drake, to recover him from his ship's wreckage; along the way, a powerful demon called an Orias is encountered, who (of course) massacres the Red Shirts. Gore and Drake pursue the Orias to the wreckage of the Blue Jet, where the Commander manages to seriously wound the demon. However, it mortally wounds him when his back is momentarily turned.
Drake: NO! I was supposed to fix these things! I should have told him! I should have told them all everything!
Poor Drake. This leaves him to defeat the weakened Orias (at full power it would've destroyed you, seriously) in the game's first mini-boss battle. There's no special tricks here; just shoot it until it dies. Upon its defeat, it releases Jimenez and drops a strange mineral called a "Lemegetonite." Commander Gore's body is returned to the Red Sprite and placed in stasis, as a decidedly ungrateful Jimenez sees this incident as the final proof that nobody on this mission is expected to survive...
Orias: HEY! That was my cousin!
Drake: Really? I'm so sorry, it was self defense, I swear-
Orias: No it wasn't, silly. I've never seen him before. I just like messing with you!
Drake: Demons... Man do I want to punch Jimenez right now, but I won't, because I have to save him, too. But I couldn't save the Commander... Is that not what I'm here for after all?
What is Drake here to do? Can he save anyone? Is this really the end for the valiant Commander? Is Vetala secretly a Mensa-level genius? Stay tuned for the answers to some of these questions!
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