The hallway splits on the other side of the formerly closed shutters: going left takes you to a winding hallway in the underground that doesn’t have much to it other than a couple rooms with people in them, one of who talks about the cocoon we heard mention of before and another guy who says that he was almost killed by angels once. There’s a vent you can crawl through to reach a chest containing a Light Grimoire but that’s about it. Right is where we want to go, bringing us to the western half of Shinjuku.
Western Shinjuku is a bit smaller than the east side at only three areas as opposed to four and also it’s significantly less seedy. Many of the storefronts that yield relics appear to be electronic shops so you can possibly find some of the relics needed for the Monastery’s quests (I found a second Power Cable here). The West Entrance connects to a generic city street called simply West Shinjuku Buildings and that in turn connects to our destination: the Tokyo Metropolitan Building. You can’t go straight for the building though, you gotta jump off the pedestrian path and navigate your way through the lower levels of the vast public plaza that lies before it first, chopping down wormwood to clear the way. There are a lot of little nooks and corners here that you might wanna have Flynn scout out since there’re chests with an Agility Incense and a Chainsaw (bludgeon weapon that might instantly kill) squirreled away. A notable thing about this whole section of Shinjuku is that there are a lot of Jirae demons here with them showing up exclusively by the time you reach the Metropolitan Building. There’s even a whole Jirae Horde that you may encounter.
The cause, naturally, is the Jirae demon we were told had taken over the place. Once you find the entrance to the Metropolitan Building on the plaza’s lowest level we find that it’s covered by a Domain and that an Ashura-kai member and a few frightened Hunters are entreating with Kuebiko, an agricultural deity from Japanese myth who here resembles a large figure made from the earth itself (fitting given that that term Jirae is derived from the Japanese for “earth spirit”) with a rather nasty-looking toothy maw that he’s apparently been putting to use devouring people. The Ashura-kai member’s trying to get Kuebiko to agree to relocate in the manner of a used car salesman but the demon remains unmoved. His position is that he finds it incredibly rich that a human, a race which he feels is helpless on its own, should force an entity like him who has lived on this land for eons to depart and insinuate that they’d be doing him a favor if he complied on top of it. The gangster suggests throwing in some Reds too in order to sweeten the deal since they give a good buzz but Kuebiko thunders that he’d never eat something so unnatural - especially when the group of humans present would suffice nicely.
At this point the two terrified Hunters run off screaming and the Ashura-kai gangster gets fed up and, recognizing Flynn’s group as the ones who’ve volunteered for this quest, orders us to kill Kuebiko for the sake of Shinjuku. We do actually get the option to turn him down whereupon he’ll get pissed and attack us with a horde of Harpies, but we’re after the Big Kahuna so instead we turn our blade on Kuebiko who roars that he will devour us all.
Kuebiko
HP
- 1991
- Weak to Fire; Absorbs Force; Nulls Light
- Axel Claw - Deals up to three hits of moderate Physical damage to random enemies.
- Wind Breath - Deals up to four hits of Force damage to random enemies.
- Rakunda - Lowers enemy party’s Defense.
- Dekunda - Removes debuffs.
- Retaliate - Moderate chance of countering Physical and Gun damage.
Eh, he needs more HP. The basic second-tier spells have been trickling in and I already have a couple demons with Agilao that can tear through him pretty quickly. He could definitely use a more powerful offense - get out of here with that Wind Breath nonsense and replace it with Mazanma or something and then we’ll be talking. At the very least his design translates very well into an animated battle sprite.
Winning earns us a Dekunda Stone.
With Kuebiko defeated the Domain covering the interior of the Metropolitan Building dissipates once we leave but before we go the Ashura-kai dude congratulates us by throwing some four-thousand macca our way. He’s condescending about it, but our wallet appreciates it all the same. He says that he has to start planning the party to celebrate taking back Shinjuku and saunters away in a good mood, bring The Seat of Government to a close and awarding us with the Jirae Talisman as promised. Here it was looted from Kuebiko’s remains but if you chose to fight the Ashura-kai guy Kuebiko would give it to you himself. He’d still end up leaving Shinjuku anyway though as he’d say that the land has become tainted. He doesn’t need to be unlocked for fusion nor does he require a special combination. I think he might be the earliest you can get access to Berserker God, the heavy-level single-target Physical attack. It’s a must for any Strength/Dexterity specialist.
With Kuebiko slain/relocated all the Jirae demons hanging around this part of Shinjuku disappear and with the Jirae Talisman sitting pretty in our inventory we can move on to the next region of Tokyo but first we’ll do some cleanup. There are some new challenge quests and some Domains that we can hit up:
Shinjuku Quest 4 - Her Memories
This is another challenge quest that must be triggered by speaking to someone outside of a Hunter Association. Just past those formerly-closed shutters in the Shinjuku underground is another set of ‘em that’re part of the scenery. Go through them and you’ll meet an old woman who explains that she used to work in a bar in the Golden Gai when she was younger and wants to get one last look at it before she dies. No escorting though, a photograph will do. There’s only one door we can enter in the Golden Gai and it just so happens to be her bar. Snap a picture, return, and the woman reminisces on running it with her daughter before rewarding us with five Agility Incenses.
Shinjuku Quest 5 - Phantom of Madness
Clearing out the Corpses wasn’t the end of the east side’s troubles, for now a bunch of hordes made up of “those who failed to protect this country” have shown up all over. Look for the red humanoid apparitions.
Insane Horde
HP
- 1169
- Weak to Fire; Resists Gun; Nulls Dark
- Stun Needle - Deals Gun damage and may bind one enemy.
- Madness Needle - Deals Gun damage and may panic one enemy.
- Poison Breath - Attempts to poison all enemies.
- Pandemic Bomb - Attempts to sicken all enemies.
The hordes are made up of Zombie Cops and, more importantly, Mad Gassers. Status ailment specialists basically. As such you’ll likely kill them long before they’re anywhere near close to killing you unless they spam their Gun attacks and you can just pop some Posumudis or Dis-Poisons after battle.
Counting the first one encountered there are four Insane Hordes total spread around the East Entrance, Kabuki-cho, Ni-cho, and the Golden Gai. Burroughs will mark them on your map, though they do move around. It can be pretty annoying to enter an area, close in on the apparition, only for them to wink out of existence as soon as you’re about to round the corner. Try to keep your HP up during the fourth battle though for that one turns out to be a survival battle.
Chernobog
HP
- 1398
- Nulls Dark
- Fatal Sword - Deals moderate Physical damage to one enemy.
- Blight - Deals Physical damage and may poison all enemies.
- Mamudo - A Dark-based attack that attempts to instantly-kill all enemies.
Ugh this is rough, especially if the prior horde leaves you in less than optimal condition. Mainly because Blight is the worst. Even after eating two Sukundas and even a War Cry Blight was still doing ridonkulous damage and landing with unerring accuracy. No weaknesses either so all you can do is just hit him with your strongest attacks and try to outlast the poison.
Winning earns us a Bead.
And completing the quest earns us four Magic Incenses. Might as well use them right away for their healing capabilities if nothing else.
Shinjuku Quest 6 - Cu Chulainn’s Training
This is our…third?…demon-issued quest. The client whose behalf we’re acting on is the Celtic deity Scathach who wishes to rein in the recklessness of her apprentice Cu Chulainn. She’s knocked him back down to the form of his younger self, known as Setanta, and wishes for us to do battle with him at the Bugeikan, just north of Kasumigaseki near the ferry to Shinjuku. We head there and it turns out that Setanta is game.
Setanta
HP
- 1668
- Reflects Force
- Fatal Sword - Deals moderate Physical damage to one enemy.
- Javelin Rain - Deals moderate Physical damage to all enemies.
- Charge - Greatly raises the power of the user’s next Physical or Gun attack.
Thankfully there are no status ailments to be had here. I just saw him use Fatal Sword for the most part; it wasn’t until I hit him with War Cry that he started to use Javelin Rain (and frequently at that) so maybe having multiple stats debuffed is what triggers it. Or it was just the luck of the A.I. Roulette. Charge only starts showing up once the battle’s half-over so I’d just defend after seeing it in case he goes for Javelin Rain.
Upon losing to us it dawns on Setanta that what Scathach was trying to teach him is to always have a cool head in battle, just like Flynn. Scathach herself appears to confirm this and Setanta is restored to his older form of Cu Chulainn, humbled by the battle. We’re awarded with the Brionac spear for completing the quest. It’s a little stronger than the Hawthorn Spear we found back at Shinobazu Pond, but not by much and it can’t put enemies to sleep. Cu Chulainn is also unlocked for special fusion (Lv. 50 Genma; Setanta + Dormarth + Scathach).
That’s it for all the challenge quests that I’m going to take on at the moment, technically. Returning to the Shinjuku overworld there are three different Domains that I’m going to swing on by, and as a special note we can now enter the west side of Shinjuku National Park, entrance located north of the Shinjuku skyscrapers. It’s a single area by itself containing a big fountain and plaza but there’s no plot relevance to it. It’s just a place containing some chests and more Food demons (plus the Tyrant Horkos who drops Expanse Meat which can be either consumed for some healing or sold for some decent scratch). I don’t think there are any challenge quests associated with it either off the top of my head, but there will be something optional lurking here during endgame…
Now about those Domains. The first two are actually pretty close to each other, just north of the skyscrapers in that sea of poison that we initially visited. The first is set over the Yoroi Shrine and waiting at the end is…
Erlkonig
HP
- 3126
- Weak to Fire; Resists Elec and Light; Reflects Gun; Nulls Dark
- Myriad Arrows - Deals up to four hits of Gun damage to random enemies.
- Stun Needles - Deals up to three hits of moderate Gun damage and may bind random enemies.
- Maziodyne - Deals heavy Elec damage to all enemies.
That’s quite a bit of HP and those are some pretty high-level attacks, what’s this guy’s level… SEVENTY-FIVE??!!
So this Domain boss, as well as the next one, are actually associated with a challenge quest that you’re not supposed to start until endgame, yet there’s absolutely nothing stopping players from stumbling on them as soon as they each Shinjuku for the first time. The demons within the Domain are the usual Shinjuku commons like the Jack Brothers and Tattooed Man so there’s nothing warning you that you’re going to be thrown up against an endgame-level demon at the end. As the phrase goes, that’s a dick move.
However he can actually be cheesed fairly easily if you happen to have two certain demons that I’ve been holding on to for just this battle: Raiju and Quicksilver. They are Erlkonig’s kryptonite as they’re both immune to Gun and Raiju absorbs Elec while Quicksilver reflects it. With these two you can mitigate a lot of Erlkonig’s damage and get a lot of extra press-turns for more damage and buffing/debuffing and he’ll eventually go down.
Once the Domain collapses we retrieve not a regular relic but the Yata no Kagami mirror, one of Japan’s three sacred treasures that was used to lure out Amaterasu when she darkened the world by hiding from Susano’o. We’ll just stick that in our pocket and head on over to the second Domain visible just to the east, over the Kiou Shrine.
Hresvelgr
HP
- 3126
- Weak to Gun and Fire; Reflects Force; Nulls Ice
- Nihil Claw - Deals up to three hits of heavy Physical damage to one enemy.
- Glacial Blast - Deals up to four hits of moderate Ice damage to random enemies.
Hresvelgr’s also Lv. 75 and has some pretty strong moves but it’s a bit easier to deal with it compared to Erlkonig. I had Baldur and Black Frost with me for this battle, and between the two Baldur resists both Physical and Ice while Black Frost resists Physical and absorbs Ice so not too bad there since both knew Agilao. I wish I had thought to bring someone in with Sukunda or Sukukaja though, since due to the level discrepancy I kept whiffing far more than I would like otherwise (which is not at all).
This Domain grants us the second of the sacred treasures, that being the Yasakani no Magatama. Again we’ll be putting that in our back pocket. If you’re familiar with the three treasures you’d know that the Ame no Murakumo/Kusanagi no Tsurugi sword is next on the list but the shrine housing it isn’t accessible yet. We’ve still saved ourselves some work when it comes time to complete the challenge quest associated with this artifacts for real.
Finally, to reach the last Domain for today we have to head south, basically as far south as we can go in the Shinjuku region until we reach a little niche in the western edge of the map right next to the border that’s identified as the Sangenjaya neighborhood (mis-romanized as “Sangen Chaya” on the UI). Fun fact: this is actually where Ren Amamiya lived during Persona 5 - Atlus just raised the “three” (san) in the name to “four” resulting in “Yongenjaya”. The third and final Domain is set over what the game calls the Cameron Building but I’m positive is actually the Carrot Tower in real life, home to, among other things, the developers of another \'mon franchise known as “Pokemon” (at the time of this writing). Maybe you’ve heard of it?
Taowu
HP
- 1692
- Weak to Force; Reflects Elec; Nulls Light
- Nihil Claw - Deals up to three hits of heavy Physical damage to one enemy.
- Madness Needle - Deals Gun damage and may panic one enemy.
- Ziodyne - Deals heavy Elec damage to one enemy.
This creature’s at Lv. 36 so it’s a lot more manageable right off the bat than Hresvelgr and Erlkonig were. Still not wise to let your guard down though since he’s still around four-five levels higher than all my current demons, and two above Flynn. Oh, and this time it was Isabeau providing the Artificial Stupidity instead of Walter for once, getting a Zionga bounced right back at her then my Black Frost getting one-shot by a smirk-powered Ziodyne. I can’t take these people anywhere.
Our final prize is a Small Server. Good thing it specified “small” because now I have the mental image of Flynn trying to wrestle with a full-size server tower. Again, we’re just saving time for a future challenge quest.
And that’ll be a wrap for now. Right next to us is Sangenjaya’s local train station but there’s an Ashura-kai goon standing guard, saying that anyone looking to head through to Shibuya can beat it. Just as well, because there’s another subway entrance that we ought to be checking out right about now…
Compendium
- Black Frost
- A Jack Frost that has grown much more powerful and evil, according to Atlus\'s own lore. It\'s Japanese name, Evil Frost, is actually a pun: the word used for \"evil\" is jaaku, the same phonetic spelling for \"jack\" in Japanese.
- Sylph
- A sylph is an air spirit that originated with the Greek alchemist and philosopher Paracelsus. He described them as being \"taller\", \"rougher\", \"stronger\" and \"coarser\" than humans, yet compared to the other elemental spirits they were the most similar to humans since they moved through air in the same way. It\'s possible that he derived their name from silva, the Latin word for \"forest\".
- Nata Taishi
- The Japanese name for Zhongtan Yuanshuai, a Chinese god who appears in Journey to the West to do battle with Son Wu Kong. He is known for committing suicide in atonement for killing the son of the Sea Dragon King, but was brought back to life as acknowledgement for his piety. Afterwards he became a sage upon a mountain.
- Kanbari
- Kanbari Nyudo is a type of \"toilet god\" yokai thought to have originated in a fear of toilets as they were often constructed unsafely back in the old days. While they occasionally spied on and surprised the toilet\'s occupants, one could recite a quick mantra at each New Years so that Kanbari would keep the toilet safe and free of monsters.
- Itsumade
- These skeletal birds\' names is derived from the Japanese translation of the phrase \"How long?\" They were said to appear where the abandoned corpses of plague victims were dumped.
- Sudama
- Sudama are mountain spirits that are born from especially large, old boulders and trees in forests where few humans have tread. Hikers and mountaineers often feel like they\'re being watched by Sudama, but the spirits never mean any harm.
- Titan
- Titans are the predecessors of the Olympian gods, the first generation being born from the earth Gaia and the sky Uranus. The Titan Cronus became king by overthrowing his father Uranus but was in turn overthrown by his own son Zeus and the other Olympian gods in a decade-long war known as the Titanomachy. Upon their victory the Olympians imprisoned their parents within Tartarus, the deep abyss far below the underworld, with a few such as Atlas and Prometheus being spared.
- Narcissus
- In Greek mythology Narcissus was a hunter of great beauty and pride. One day when he bent down to have a drink from a river he became enraptured by his own reflection and could not bear to tear himself away. Most versions of the myth result in him wasting away and turning into the narcissus flower, but some have him committing suicide instead over being faced with an \"unobtainable\" beauty. His name is where the word \"narcissist\" and its derivations come from.
- Kwancha
- One of Shiva\'s and Kali\'s personal attendants according to Nepali folklore. Though a being of disease, if one encounters Kwancha at a crossroads and recites a specific mantra he will protect you from ill health.
- Mad Gasser
- The Mad Gasser is an urban legend stemming from a number of alleged gas attacks in Mattoon, Illinois during the 1940s. Victims would claim to be in their homes when they would smell gas and find themselves paralyzed or suffering other ill effects. No concrete evidence was ever found and the police eventually chalked the reports up to mass hysteria and mundane explanations.
- Chernobog
- An ancient Slavic god whose name means \"black god\". Aside from that not much is known about him, as historical accounts regarding him are mostly Christian and paint him as an evil pagan god and little else.
- Setanta
- Setanta is the birth name of the Celtic hero Cu Chulainn. When Cu Chulainn was young he accidentally killed the blacksmith Culann\'s guard dog and he offered to become the man\'s new bodyguard in recompense. \"Cu Chulainn\" means \"Culann\'s Hound\".
- Scathach
- A warrior woman from Scotland who trained the legendary Celtic hero Cu Chulainn and gave him his famous spear, the Gae Bolg. Her name means \"Shadow\", and she was sister to the warrior-woman Aife, whom Cu Chulainn killed when she invaded Scathach\'s territory.
- Cu Chulainn
- The hero and son of the Celtic son god Lugh. Cu Chulainn was a fearsome monster in battle, only dying upon his own spear thanks to a curse from the war goddess Morrigan.
- Dormarth
- Dormarth is a kind of hunting hound owned by the legendary Welsh King Gwyn. Some writings put Darmarth into a Cerberus-like role - guarding the gate to the underworld and escorting the souls of the dead.
- Baldur
- The Norse god of light. Baldur was immortal thanks to his mother making every living thing swear to never harm him, but she overlooked mistletoe, which Loki took advantage of to trick Baldur\'s blind brother Hod into killing him with a mistletoe-tipped spear. The goddess Hel promised to restore Baldur to life if every living being wept for him, however one giantess refused to do so, and Baldur remained dead. The giantess was later discovered to be Loki, and the gods imprisoned him as punishment. With Loki imprisoned and the light of the world gone, the stage was set for Ragnarok...
- Erlkonig
- Erlkonig means both \"alder-king\" and \"elf-king\" depending on the derivation. It appears in various pieces of Germanic folklore as a malevolent tree-spirit or goblin who leads people off to their deaths. In some versions he targets children exclusively, in others he carries out these deeds to appease his jealous and wicked daughter.
- Hresvelgr
- Hresvelgr is a giant eagle who lives within the World Tree Yggdrasil and is in a constant rivalry with the dragon Nidhoggr that gnaws the tree\'s roots. Hresvelgr\'s name means \"corpse-swallower\" as one of its role was to swallow the souls of the dead. Beating its wings would generate hurricane-force winds.
- Skogsra
- A Scandinavian \"Lady of the Forest\" who appeared stunningly beautiful from the front while bark and tree branches covered her back. Skogsra look after hunters and colliers, but some of the more bloodthirsty regional variants lure men into having sex with them and kill them if their performance isn\'t satisfactory.
- Dis
- The Disir were general low-ranking goddesses in Norse mythology whose domains tended to be areas like fate and fertility. The most basic meaning of their names, in fact, is simply \"goddess\".
- Taowu
- A member of the Chinese Si-Xiong Four Fiends, Taown is a creature made of a mishmash of human, pig, and tiger body parts. It represents ignorance, never listening to advice and pushing people towards apathy and away from enlightenment.
- Kuebiko
- Kuebiko is a Japanese god of agriculture and knowledge. In the Kojiki he is depicted as an immobile-yet-all-knowing god who was the first to identify Sukuna Hikona when he arrived in Izumo. While his most common name of Kuebiko means \"crumbling prince\" he is also sometimes known as Yamada no Sohodo which translates to something along the lines of \"drenched mountain rice paddy guard\". It\'s an old euphemism for \"scarecrow\", hence the reason he\'s usually depicted as such.
