Alright, let’s take care of Gabby’s mission and save some folks. She told us that the VIPs were being held in Shinjuku National Park so we have to return to the Pond Garden section that’s just south of the station entrance on the overworld. When we stuck our heads in here last time I mentioned that there was a magic barrier blocking the way forward but now that we have the Hexagram Rosary we can lift it and reach the exit beyond. But before we can pass through we have to deal with an Ashura-kai goon who’s standing guard. What’s behind him is a pretty important place to some big-shot demons he says so he’s not going to just let any ol’ kid waltz on through.
Balor
HP
- 1112
- Resists Force and Light; Nulls Fire and Dark
- Megaton Press - Deals inaccurate moderate Physical damage to all enemies with increased crit rate.
- Maragion - Deals moderate Fire damage to all enemies.
- Mudoon - A Dark-based attack with a high chance of instantly-killing one enemy.
Aside from him getting a bit lucky with Megaton Press there’s not much of interest in this battle since that’s pretty much all he did. The goon who summoned Balor decides that it would be smarter to escape than fight on once his demon’s defeated and peaces out without any fuss.
Winning earns us a Balm of Rising.
Heading through the exit brings us to our destination of that strange tower in the middle of the park that can be seen from the overworld. The Gauntlet’s HUD identifies it as the Kagome Tower and it serves as the first proper dungeon since like Kiccigiorgi Forest…kinda. This red, blocky crystalline structure certainly looks at first blush like it’ll be a proper dungeon but it’s really just two very short, very linear floors. There are some genuine dungeons coming up later in the game, but Kagome Tower ain’t one of ‘em. The only real dungeon hazard here is that there seem to be a somewhat high concentration of demon ambush points, of both the “suddenly being surrounded” variety and of the “lone wolf lunging at Flynn’s head from above” variety. We’ll be encountering some Baphomets with Mamudo, hopeless-outgunned Halphases, and a new Tyrant in the Grigori Samyaza alongside Oriases and Okiku-Mushi from Shinjuku National Park’s normal encounter pool. The two other most notable enemies are the Babylon Hordes which have no weaknesses, Megaton Press and Carol Hit (Physical damage and may blow the target away - enemy-only move), and the Ashura Woman who dual-wields handguns and a katana and drops 500 macca apiece.
Our objectives as we ascend the simple layout of the tower are a series of doors branching off the main hallway. Head through the first one and we enter a room with a pyramidal birdcage suspended off the ground. The narration notes that there appears to be a naked masked man inside but before we can approach any further a voice calls for us to halt and the cage’s guardian appears.
Murmur
HP
- 1372
- Weak to Fire and Ice; Repels Elec and Force; Nulls Light and Dark
- Axel Claw - Deals up to three hits of moderate Physical damage to random enemies.
- Mazionga - Deals moderate Elec damage to all enemies.
- Mazanma - Deals moderate Force damage to all enemies.
He only used Axel Claw on me so I suppose things could’ve been worse given I had half my team weak to Force. I rectified that real quick in light of Mazanma being here and on the Dantalians that are wandering around.
Winning earns us a Chakra Pot.
Once Murmur’s defeated Jonathan gets the captive out of the cage and asks if he’s okay. The man appears emaciated but otherwise intact, though apparently his mask is giving him amnesia so he can’t tell us who he is. Jonathan offers to remove it for him but apparently that’s a no-go for it can only be removed by a “kindred spirit” and the man has no idea who that could be. Puzzled, Jonathan offers to take the man back to the Monastery and leaves the party.
Onward to the second and final floor. There are two doors here with the first sporting another birdcage that’s being guarded by another Goetia demon, the camel-riding Gemori. She tells Flynn to forget about the birdcage and make love to her instead. Uh, thanks for the offer I guess but that feels like it would be a real bad move on Flynn’s part. Plus very awkward given that Walter and Isabeau are right there.
Gemori
HP
- 952
- Weak to Ice; Absorbs Fire; Nulls Light and Dark
- Maragion - Deals moderate Fire damage to all enemies.
- Lullaby - Attempts to put all enemies to sleep.
That HP’s kinda sad not gonna lie. By sheer serendipity my whole current team could no-sell Fire so you can imagine how this fight went.
Winning earns us a Chakra Pot.
Walter frees this man but like the first one he can’t remember anything thanks to his immovable mask. He does seem to recognize Gabby’s name though, very vaguely. Walter departs with him telling Flynn and Isabeau that the rest is up to them and we head to the end of the hall to where the third and final captive is being held. The guard to confront us this time is a hulking red demon who looks like he stepped right out of a satanic death metal album cover. He introduces himself as the Tyrant Asmodeus and rumbles that he will not allow us to free this prisoner and bring doom upon the world. He refuses to even answer Isabeau’s query of who he is, saying that that is not for humans to know and that if he even uttered the prisoner’s true name he would come to his senses. He gives us a chance to turn around and leave the room and when we of course refuse he breaks into a peal of laughter and declares that in that case he’ll crush Flynn and take Isabeau as his bride. That’s a mental image I don’t need, so how about no?
Asmodeus
HP
- 2640
- Weak to Force; Resists Light; Absorbs Fire; Nulls Gun and Dark
- Toxic Sting - Deals Gun damage and may poison one enemy.
- Fire Breath - Deals up to four hits of Fire damage to random enemies.
- Hell’s Torment - An Almighty-based attack that cuts all enemies’ HP by two-thirds.
- Spirit Drain - An Almighty-based attack that absorbs some MP from one enemy.
- Tarukaja - Raises Attack.
Oof, Hell’s Torment, that’s rough. Because of that spell you really, really need to have Mediarama in this fight to make up for the massive HP loss that it results in. Asmodeus gets a fair number of press-turns at three and he always makes sure to use Spirit Drain at least once every round to dry up your stores. But you know, he has the same problem that Kuebiko did in that he has no business possessing Fire Breath at this stage. Agilao or Maragion sure or even Agidyne if we’re feeling ballsy but not Fire Breath. That attack is too weak to be very effective most of the time plus as I said my current team (Flynn w. Fire Guard, Medusa, Salamander, and Zouchouten) are all immune to Fire one way or another. Since Hell’s Torment can’t actually kill you he has to rely on Toxic Sting and normals to take people out in this scenario and his AI isn’t set up to work around immunities like a number of future bosses are.
Winning earns us a Magic Mirror.
We go through the usual routine with the prisoner for a third and final time but the mission isn’t marked complete yet as an addendum is added to the description telling us to come back to the Monastery. There we’re reunited with the other apprentices and Gabby showers us with some praise and Rescue the VIPs is marked complete as we’re paid another 4000 macca. Walter inquires as to who those masked men were but Gabby sidesteps the question by merely saying that they are people who are “inconvenient” to the demons but at the same time cannot be killed by them. Once they recover Mikado will have no more need to fear demons. We’ll eventually learn who these people are, but it won’t be for another few hours still.
In the meantime Gabby reports that there’s been quite an alarming incident while the group was away. The Black Samurai’s body has vanished and it’s not a case of someone making off with it; according to one of the guards posted at the scene she actually came back to life as she had promised at the execution site and made her escape. The news of her resurrection shocks the party as the nun tells them that this information must be kept secret lest it cause an uproar in the kingdom. As Hope is busy continuing to be Put on a Bus by currently scouring the kingdom for her, Gabby wants Flynn and his friends to return to Tokyo - not to capture, but this time to kill. Because that worked out so well the first time, right?
Regardless, Kill the Black Samurai is accepted and the group repairs back over to the now empty Obelisk Plaza to mull over what they’ve just learned. Walter finds the whole thing a little eerie, Isabeau’s upset that they as Samurai, ones who are supposed to protect people, are explicitly being sent on a mission of murder, while Jonathan’s grimly determined to go through with this to prevent the kingdom from being thrown into a panic. That’s when a generic Samurai approaches the group saying that he just got back from Tokyo and has a message to pass on to Flynn from the Hunter Association. Around this point you’ll be seeing more Samurai NPCs in Tokyo if you look plus their names will start popping up on the various leaderboards scattered around. The message is simple: Tayama, the leader of the Ashura-kai, would like to speak with the group in the district of Shibuya. Jonathan thinks that this might be a good chance to get some info on their target, and so we receive the additional quest of Onward to Shibuya.
Off we go, back to Tokyo!
Compendium
- Balor
- In Celtic mythology Balor is a giant who can kill living things simply by looking at them with his one eye. A prophecy foretold his death at the hands of his grandson, and despite his attempts to prevent it he was indeed killed by his grandson, the sun god Lugh. When he died, his eye burned a hole in the ground, forming a lake known today as the Loch na Suil.
- Mushussu
- Mushussu is a beast from ancient Babylonian mythology. The beast is predominantly reptilian in appearance and form and its name can even translate to \"fierce snake\". It was held as the sacred beast of Marduk, the head of the Babylonian pantheon and is thought to later become the inspiration for the Greek hydra.
- Kingu
- Kingu was the son of the primordial Babylonian goddess Tiamat who wished for him to become the leader of all the gods in existence. To this end he was granted the Tablet of Destinies, a clay tablet that served as official documentation to this end, that gave him great power but he was ultimately slain by the head god Marduk who used his blood to create humans.
- Tiamat
- Tiamat is the primordial mother goddess of Babylonian mythology; she is the goddess of the ocean and is often depicted as some sort of sea serpent or sea dragon. She gave birth to many of the lesser Babylonian gods but later plotted to kill them all and install her son and lover Kingu as the supreme god. In the following war both Tiamat and Kingu were slain by the god either Anu the god of heaven, Enlil the god of wind and storms, or Marduk son of the god of water Enki depending on which version of the myth is read. Tiamat\'s tear became the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and her tail became the Mily Way.
- Samyaza
- In the Book of Enoch Samyaza is one of the Grigori \"watcher\" angels who were cast out of Heaven and branded as \"fallen\" after they descended to Earth in order to have sex with human women and teach humanity forbidden and dark knowledge. Samyaza was one of the ringleaders of the Watchers\' plot to abandon Heaven and indulge their carnal desires and convinced the other two-hundred Watchers to swear an unbreakable oath to carry out the enterprise with him. His name means \"I have seen\".
- Murmur
- The fifty-fourth demon of the Goetia. He practices necromancy and leads thirty armies of Hell as a Grand Duke from atop either a griffin or vulture.
- Gemori
- Gemori is the fifty-sixth demon of the Goetia and appears as a noblewomen riding a camel. Gemori\'s role is to speak of hidden treasure, temporal truths, and the secrets of love. Despite appearing as a noblewoman Gemori is consistently referred to with male pronouns and his in-game design is taken directly from Collin de Plancy\'s Dictionnaire Infernal.
- Asmodeus
- Though appearing as the thirty-second demon of the Goetia Asmodeus has a much older history in Judeo-Islamic writings where he existed as a demon that possibly punished carnal desires and had a particular enmity with the Archangel Raphael. He was possibly derived from the Zoroastrian demon Aeshma and in the 15th century became popularized as the Demon Prince that embodies the deadly sin of Lust. According to the Ars Goetia anyone who summons him must both be standing at attention or Asmodeus will air all of their dirty laundry and doings to others.
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