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TKMobile posted:So wait, can random mooks band together and call themselves a new tribe? Do they need to conquer a piece of territory first, or...how exactly does that work if it's not spoilerage? No, if they were to try something so presumptuous the Karma Temple would order everyone to annihilate them.
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Aug 29, 2014 16:20
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TKMobile posted:So wait, can random mooks band together and call themselves a new tribe? Do they need to conquer a piece of territory first, or...how exactly does that work if it's not spoilerage? I don't think the game actually explains how tribes are formed, but the Embryon are stated as being relatively new, so I'd assume it's possible, despite Feinne's insistence that the Karma Temple would stamp it out. There is also a very strong, but simple argument that supports the formation of new tribes, but it's DDS2 spoilers, so I don't think I can talk about it... On the other hand, there are only 6 routes through Sahasrara to the Dissemination Machine, and before Serph ate Harley there were 6 tribes...
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Aug 29, 2014 17:40
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HiKaizer posted:DDS is also slightly unconventional with its portrayal and resolution of alignment conflicts so sit back and enjoy. It will definitely surprise you later on. The EU PSN version uses Danger for some weird reason. Confused the hell out of me. TKMobile posted:So wait, can random mooks band together and call themselves a new tribe? Do they need to conquer a piece of territory first, or...how exactly does that work if it's not spoilerage? This actually comes up later on, but, y'know, spoilers.
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Aug 29, 2014 18:21
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The Watercrown posted:I don't think the game actually explains how tribes are formed, but the Embryon are stated as being relatively new, so I'd assume it's possible, despite Feinne's insistence that the Karma Temple would stamp it out. There is also a very strong, but simple argument that supports the formation of new tribes, but it's DDS2 spoilers, so I don't think I can talk about it... It's hard to explain why I disagree with you without going into spoilers for this game and the sequel but the Karma Temple definitely formed the six tribes and forming a new one without the Karma Temple's blessing is not a thing that would happen normally. As I think about things it's actually much more possible now than it was earlier but again spoilers. I'll also admit to the last time I played this being a few years back, so I'll freely admit just not remembering some of what happens (hard not to since a LOT of poo poo happens in these games). Feinne fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Aug 29, 2014 |
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Aug 29, 2014 18:28
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I love this game and I'm coincidentally replaying it right now, I'll be following this. Huh, strange, in my version (PS2, european) the names of some tribes are mispelled in this shot. Maribel is spelled as "Marybell" and the Wolves are the "Hounds" for some reason. By the way, you probably know this but after the Karma Temple reunion you can "talk" to the dissemination machine and it'll give you an infodump about the tribes, demons and stuff, just found it weird you skipped it.
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Aug 30, 2014 00:32
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Petiso posted:I love this game and I'm coincidentally replaying it right now, I'll be following this. The European version probably uses the Japanese screen- they were the Hounds, Marybell, and one other tribe was something really loving goofy. Assignments? Anyway, I love this game and the plot and the setting; basically everything about it, even that goddamn cat. The only thing I don't like is an early dungeon in DDS2 (the one with the guy) and the end dungeon in DDS2 (mostly the penultimate boss. gently caress that guy).
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Aug 30, 2014 01:02
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Oh boy an LP of this game! I really enjoyed this series and I remember it being what got me into SMT. That being said I didn't really do any of the extra/bonus stuff because I was lazy and I didn't get most of the end-tier mantras since they really weren't needed (and because money grinding is something I'd rather not do). So it'll be interesting to see what I missed and the little trivia about some of the details. Also I figure this is sorta related, there is apparently a novel series that was written by Yu Godai who apparently(?) did the initial draft before someone at Atlus had to take over due to his health. I have no idea of their quality or what volume 1 covers, but it could be of interest to people who have already played the games simply to see what's different. (It is also probably filled with spoilers.)
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Aug 30, 2014 23:50
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DDS 1&2 are probably my favourite SMT games. Glad to see someone give them another try. As SMT games go, they are criminally underappreciated. PSA: If you're reading this LP, you need to watch the videos. Seriously. There is some really amazing voice work in this game. Angel in particular really gets into her role, the Karma Temple announcement is pure joy to listen to. She's in total control of the situation and she knows it, the self-satisfaction just oozes out of her voice. You really need to hear the way she tells the leaders "all that you desire shall be granted in Nirvana" to understand how much intensity she puts into it. Everything in these games is about hunger, one way or another, and she really drives that home. OP dropped the loving ball with the thread title, though. How could you not go with "Rend! Slaughter! Devour your enemies!" (or "I do not comprehend" as the comedy option)?
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Aug 31, 2014 09:52
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blankd posted:Oh boy an LP of this game! I really enjoyed this series and I remember it being what got me into SMT. That being said I didn't really do any of the extra/bonus stuff because I was lazy and I didn't get most of the end-tier mantras since they really weren't needed (and because money grinding is something I'd rather not do). So it'll be interesting to see what I missed and the little trivia about some of the details. I just started reading the book yesterday. If anyone's interested, I could put up a few comparisons. For starters, the rain in the Junkyard is supposedly a silvery metallic substance, described as being like mercury. The suits they wear are designed for combat and have such nifty features as internal temperature control. The Embryon apparently only boasts about 50 members total, with our five main characters forming the bulk of the tribe's fighting force. Funnily, for the first dozen or so pages, we're only told that Serph says things to other people. He doesn't actually speak til after his initial transformation, making you think that the book's going the silent protagonist route too. There's a few bits and pieces of worldbuilding, such as the existence of combat implants and weaponised prosthetics, but other than that, it's close to the intro, with a few expansions here and there.
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Aug 31, 2014 10:25
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poo poo, I kind of want to read that. Is it in English or only Japanese?
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Aug 31, 2014 14:39
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Drachir D Nalem posted:poo poo, I kind of want to read that. Is it in English or only Japanese? First volume is translated, I assume there would be plans for more. The first chapter is free to read on the site. Kaboom Dragoon posted:If anyone's interested, I could put up a few comparisons. Yeah, it'd be really cool to see some comparisons from someone who's read it and has knowledge of the events of both games. Sorta like when people posted comparisons from the Devil Survivor 2 anime in Dragonatrix's last thread. Really cool to see this LP'ed again as it's one of the MegaTens I'm most interested in playing. Trying to keep a distance since I wanna play it myself, but I'm weak so I'll probably spoil myself before playing it like an idiot.
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Aug 31, 2014 15:02
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Oh great, somebody's hijacked the Internet. I mean, the "Dissemination Machine".
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Aug 31, 2014 21:02
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 Sahasrara Before we go deal with Gale's scheme, we might as well get some information from the information distributing machine. Not much but hey it's something.  About demons.  Everything born of God holds the informational possibility of demons. The "Virus" is merely a trigger. Do you wish to know more? About Karma. The more demons hunted and devoured, the more Karma gained. Karma is the source of strength. Do you wish to know more? About devouring. All things contain traces of this information construct, but humans and demons require great energy. The only way to preserve the information of one's existence is to devour one's enemies. Do you wish to know more? About Solar Noise. Hunting is also affected by fluctuation of "Solar Noise." Do you wish to know more? Nothing. So, that's all the Karma Temple has for us. Some interesting bits in there, but nothing overly crucial. Nothing about the conflict itself, just more to do with the new demon powers. ...No, for the conflict, there's a random dude back at Muladhara who has some... very abridged information on it. Muladhara Again, might as well just go through the lot. About the Tribes.  "The Embryon" is one such group. We all follow you, sir. Anything else, sir? About the Junkyard. It is divided into seven areas: Muladhara, Svadhisthana, Manipura, Anahata, Vishudha, Anja, and Sahasrara. Anything else, sir? About the war. The triumphant group will be allowed into Nirvana. Anything else, sir? No. I see.Alright, that's enough of that. There's nothing else to do here or elsewhere, so let's head on out and put Gale's plan into motion.  Jinana and the Maribel SilenceSo this time around, we're visiting the Maribel at Manipura. The third primary tantric chakra, its name means the "City of Gems" and it primarily deals with a sense of belonging, personal power, success, will and the ego. Like all chakras, it has an animal associated with it (most of them are just Also This Is A Thing). In this case it's the ram which is only noteworthy because that is also Agni's personal vehicle.   Oh, and the regular ol' grunts from the Maribel are watching us the entire time we're here. I guess this is just so we don't try something but it's amazing they didn't try to gun us down on sight.  Oh well, let's just get this over with so we can focus on the important stuff.   How else could you have made it this far? So, then... You're the same as us. Sera Not just me. Nearly all of us have changed. Soon, everyone in the Junkyard will be this way.  What's "cursed?" Who is this "god?"  What is "sad?" I'm not sure... You just... seemed that way. Many of us have died due to this unexplained power. If my reaction is "sad," then yes, I am sad. Silence Okay, that's enough fun discussing these weird new emotion things. Let's get down to brass tax. One fade to black later... Interesting.  Wait, Jinana! The Tribe is hungry.   EndHonestly, this set up seems to benefit Jinana either way. Either we prove that we're stronger than her, so she gets temporary protection from someone better... or we get slaughtered by her weak flunkies and she gets to assimilate the remaining Embryons which now also includes the former Vanguards. ManipuraNow we can run around Manipura for real. Like with when we went to Svadhistana, this place is wonderfully light on cutscenes so we can focus on the important stuff.  We'll start off by running all the way to the far, far, far east. So far you'd have no reason to expect there to be anything over here.  It just leads to a small area with a Revival Gem in it. On all accounts, it does seem like this place should have random encounters in it but thankfully it doesn't.  Nothing else in the outer area of the base, so let's dive on in and go track down Jinana. Hunting Field To the surprise of probably no one, Manipura proper does count as our second dungeon.  Unlike with the Vanguard's Base, we get random fights from the very beginning. No free respites this time around. So, those two doors dead ahead? The one on the right leads to a Vendor (the one at Swadhisthana's more convenient still) and the left is a small area with our requisite Large Karma Terminal to make warping out easy.  There's... hm. There's also this door we can't open yet. Maybe it's a shortcut if we wanna backtrack later or something. Hunting ~ Compulsion Oh well, for now here's a tutorial that's given as a random encounter for some reason.  Micro Nova's a special skill we can only get in this specific way. We'll cover it in a minute, but for now "tutorials!"  First, we hit the Ghoul with a Tera or Agi. Doesn't matter which since its weak to both. Get lucky enough and those blue line circles will appear above its head indicating its terrified of us now.  Follow it up with a Devour, and we deal actual proper damage with it. Since this also finished it off, Serph eats the dude whole and gets more Atma out of it.  ...Well, he would were it not for this. When you eat an enemy demon, there is a chance of this happening. Stomachaches are a pain, for two reasons. 1. They have a chance of making you skip that character's turn. Always happens when you don't want it to. 2. Might just be my poo poo real luck, but these always seem to happen at the end of a fight where you can't heal them.  Finish a fight with a Stomachache still intact, and whoops. No AP for you! It's a balancing mechanic, but its a dumb and annoying one. It's even pointless when you start grinding AP for real but we'll get to that later.  For now, we do a rarity and head to the Vendor. This lets us buy a few Dis-Aches; more than enough for the rest of our stay at Manipura anyway.  Aside from the Ghouls that are tougher than the tutorial ones, the enemies here are mostly identical to Svadhisthana for now. No Myo-Ruous or Alps or the like, but the tougher stuff like this guy or Empusas are still hanging around.  That's better. Serph just got a giant boost to his AP from eating the giant chickenman. No fights between the tutorial one here and this one either. Hunting Field Alright, so we'll now go all the way north and see... a locked gate with a 05 on it. No way of opening it from here either. (The small alley behind us just has a couple Dis-Poisons in it.)  Backtrack a little, and this time we'll make note that there is a path we just ran straight past without much of a care. Hunting Y'know what? It's only a couple Pretas. They'll do.  So, combo attacks a bit more special. They require 2 or all 3 party members to have certain skills set. Mostly these are just ways of getting certain spells a bit earlier than usual (like with Mabufu). In a few, very specific, cases they give us unique spells we can't get elsewhere. Micro Nova is one of those. It takes 5 MP from everyone and uses all of our turns in one go.  Worth it, though, when we blast everything for pretty decent Almighty damage. It's only really useful in fights like this one or a bunch of Empusas, since the damage isn't stellar (that's Heat's fault for having crap Magic though). Hunting Field We'll head off towards that door in the distance now; on the way there, there's a turn that leads onwards.  Worth getting the optional stuff here though. Gold containers like this one are going to be even more commonplace at this point, since it contains...  A cell. Cells are special items with one use: we sell them, and after gaining certain amounts of Macca from them we can buy more things from the Vendor (to open up everything, you need to gain 1.99 million from selling Cells... so that's gonna take a while).  Speaking of which, on the way back there Serph mastered his Mantra. I know I said I wouldn't post these for the most part, but this one's a special case.   With that done, he now has mastered 3 Mantras of 1-star difficulty. This opens up two more further down the tree. Yaksa and Angel are the starts of the Death and Expel elemental lines, respectively. They're also where we get stat buffs and debuffs. Much more worthwhile for that.  So, Cells! We can sell the Error one for around a minimum of 3600. Oh, minimum? Right. We can get more for this but first we need to finally pay attention to something.  That gauge in the top-left corner measures the current amount of Solar Noise. It counts up from 0 to 8, and then cycles back down. Thing is, it doesn't move on its own accord; it changes as we move around. Which is why Svadhisthana's vendor is useful as hell. Area right by the entrance with no random encounters to deal with? Perfect for selling Cells and buying stuff.  At MAX noise (8), the Error Cell now sells for 4800 macca. 1200 more isn't much now, but it does add-up over time and even here it lets us pick up either a more expensive Mantra or more cheap ones than we could before. Solar Noise also does some other things that we'll cover as they come up.  So, back on the main path in Manipura now.  Very near where we doubled back, there's the first gate we can get through. And that "!" on the map?  Yeah, that's how we can get through the gate. Most of them are right next to it, which helps keep things moving.  No, we don't have Jinana right away. Be nice, but we're not that lucky.  ...Huh. They turned tail and ran before we got a fight with, uh, whoever it was.  So, we'll follow the path ahead the little way it goes and then make a detour. Up some stairs that are completely optional (skipping them brings us straight to Gate 2), we'll take this ladder up to the roofs.  This leads us to a new Cell which... I don't know why this one comes after the Error Cell. It sells for less macca.  Double back to the ladder, and head a little further north now. There's a pair of doors here, but we'll go through this one first.  It doesn't just lead to a new demon, but the Blob here is a mild nuisance.  We can deal with it without much issue, but its gimmick is weird. It starts with 9 MP, and loves to use MP Thief. This gives it enough MP to cast Teradyne. Thankfully, no one is weak to Earth and its Magic is so bad it can't even really hurt Heat much. On the other hand, it can cast Dormina which tries to put the entire party to sleep. Regardless of whether that succeeds or not, if it tries it first then it runs out of MP to use MP Thief with. Still a nuisance, though.  Anyway, the real reason to come here is because there's a Blue Wall here. We'd normally have to come back later, but we picked up the key at the very first opportunity so we can just waltz in.  This leads to a couple rooms where we can pick up some neat new items. First is the Wild Card. Holding onto this for a moment when we really need it, since it deals Almighty damage to every enemy. It's more effective than Micro Nova but we only have one of 'em.  Further in, we can find another new Noise. Not much else to this one.  Oh and there's a Yellow Wall that's easier to see on our way back out. Gonna be back for that one much later.  The other door also leads to an optional area, but its arguably one that's more useful right now.   Her rear end is delicious... I'm going to savor her legs. Like before, there's two areas. First one has a Brave Ration in it, which just heals 150 HP to one person. I say "just" but that's more than we have right now, and nearly a quarter of our absolute max possible.  Through a different door, there's this weird guy who thinks he can take us.  He's just a Cockatrice, but at least there's a bit of a twist with this one.  Namely, he is actually weaker than a regular random Cockatrice.  He very swiftly gets dealt with, and we can pick up a new bullet. It's a good thing this was here, because it will be very useful very soon.  It's four times more powerful than a normal bullet, has a chance of inflicting Freeze and is going on Serph for, um, thematic reasons.  So, we'll double back to go to Gate 02 now. Hit the switch next to it, do whatever we need to at the small Karma Terminal and move on.  Like before, we can "feel a presence" behind the door. I imagine it'll be a repeat of last time and thus be completely empty on the other side.  Naturally, then, it's not. Obviously, right? Hunting ~ Compulsion So, the Yaka in the middle is kind of a new demon but its more interested in buffs than anything else. Likes setting up Void Fires but that's more for its cohorts benefit than his own, since he's immune to Fire by default.  Naturally, then, they're also weak to Ice spells.  Good fodder for feasting on, though. Weak, relatively low HP but gives decent-ish Atma compared to what we're used to. Hunting Field With those down, we're about halfway through Manipura now.  There's still not too much to particularly worry about from the dungeon itself. More occasional detours that lead to nothing or nowhere, but not too many.  This one just leads to another Active Cell, though. Arguably not worth it, but hey free money.  Backtrack to that door we just ignored on the minimap. It leads to a small corridor with a door at the other end. We actually do need to come through here, but there's a Blue Wall we'll head past first.  On the way to our prize, Serph hits level 10 which gives a minor bonus. This lets Serph set two more skills; more than enough for what we need it for right now.  The main reward back here is a Great Chakra though. Since we can see Gate 03 from here, the opposite also holds true. If we didn't have the key, we'd be able to see the Chakra but not reach it yet.  Back on the main path again, we come to another ladder. We don't know it yet, but this detour is mandatory.  We can run into Nozuchis at this point. They're weak to Electricity, but we haven't got any of that at the moment.  Weirdly, they cast Matera and Tera on their own turns pretty often.  And yet they have no Earth resistance of their own. Instead, they drain Force.  This path just leads to the switch needed to open Gate 03. There's an item pot up here with some Chakra Drops too, but eh. We have plenty of 'em already.  Loop around to Gate 03 now, we get the same generic message as usual.  Like before, there IS a fight here. Unlike before, this fight is potentially a little tricky. Hunting ~ Surprise Raid This fight is sort of a tutorial too. This one just demonstrates that we can fight in our Human forms too. Most of the time this isn't that helpful. There are a handful of exceptions, but they're just that. Exceptions.  Thankfully, these guys are weak to Gun elemental attacks. Unsurprisingly, our guns all deal Gun elemental damage. Convenient!  Heat's gun is the only one that's particularly different right now since it hits every enemy at once. His bullets aren't as good as Serph's here, though, and he deals slightly less damage to compensate for his gun's ability to shoot everything too.  Argilla's are even more disappointing.  You might think, then, that having Argilla transform back to Prithivi is the right thing to do here. After all, it ups her damage potential right?  Um... no. Machas have the mid-level Force spell. This is quite a predicament.  Thankfully the game seems to have a hatecrush on Serph and just throws it at him. Still, 37 damage to neutral resistance says bad things for if it hits Argilla.  ...And now it gets worse. They have Makakaja, which is problematic.  It only buffs the entire enemy teams Magic stat. And can be stacked upto four times.  Two of them, and Zanma deals nearly half of Serph's max HP in one go. This would oneshot Argilla if it hit her. Hunting Field Other than that, they have no real tricks up their sleeves and its just essentially a slugfest. Thankfully, there's a Life Terminal immediately after them. Anyway, due east from the Life Terminal here we can head on up the stairs to advance or stick around on this floor a bit more.  Down here, we can find... a friggin' Devil Cell. These things are the worst Cells (but are few and far between); at their highest value they sell for 1200. Active Cells, the second worst, sell for 1600. At minimum. Mostly obtained as drops from Machas, but not worth the hassle.  Man, that's annoying now I feel the desire to run around slicing things to bits for a while. Good thing this door directly opposite the room we just came from has...  Just the thing. Field Hunts are special areas that are really, really good for grinding right now. But, appropriately enough, could prove hard to manage right now. Manipura Field Hunt Blade The way they work is pretty simple. We run around as Varuna and slice these weird purple balls of energy under a time limit. These things follow a pattern in each field hunt and aren't really that hard to manage.  Once we get through all of that, a Mitama appears at the end of the course and we get to fight that. Hunting ~ Rare Devil Each Mitama has fixed stats, and Ara Mitamas here are the easiest/weakest. They have 300 HP and are weak solely to Ice spells. Nullify most everything else.  ...They've also got a loving ton of magic defense.  Fortunately, they scare pretty easily so it's not hard to get Devour to deal proper damage to them. Even with 70+ damage a pop, they don't go down easy though. They can buff their physical defence, and their magic, which makes things quite annoying.  Plus if you don't kill them quick enough, they do this. Rare demons, regardless of the source, really love running away! So, yeah, we didn't get anything this time around. Mostly putting that down to me being a forgetful moron though. End Thankfully, the field hunts appear on the map in a different colour after you find them. This is a pretty great thing that makes repeating them convenient, and you can repeat them. After 5 full solar cycles while you're in the same area, they become reaccessible. Annoyingly, it counts them a bit different to how you think; a cycle for this case does not start until the Solar Noise hits minimum. It then carries on until it returns to minimum; so if you enter at 1/8 counting up, you've got a lot of runnning to do before it even starts to count. Either way, here's a tip: you don't get random battles inside the field hunt areas.  But, eh, can grind them out later if I really feel like it. For now, let's just carry on. We do have to find Jinana in this place after all.  There's a couple rooms right up the stairs but there's not much in here that's particularly worthwhile. Odd Morsels are a double-edged sword; they heal a fair bit of HP but in return inflict ailments. Not worth it.  The Revival Gem in the same room is very nice, though.  Little bit further ahead on the main path, we come to a ladder leading back down. On the roof opposite, we can see a golden item container that we can't get to just yet. I haven't missed anything, and there's no opportunity to double back for it either.  The path down here is very straight forward and leads to that guy around the corner. Good time to heal up, I think. Kinda wish Argilla'd already mastered her current Mantra but no dice. Big Battle ~ Prelude  She granted us permission to devour you, if possible. This is odd. How was I unable to devour you?Oh, and this guy's not alone.  No, we're already surrounded. This mostly just makes this take a bit longer. Mini-Boss: Demon Gyu-Ki Hunting ~ Compulsion First part of this fight is pretty simple. It's just three Yakas. Nothing particularly frightening.  Take them out, five more jump in. Again, still not really an issue. These eight are all exactly the same as the normal ones we can fight in random battles. They make for a good lunch break, though.  The real problem is this guy who comes after the 8th Yaka gets dropped.  He does all of one thing, but he does it every single turn in this fight. He's our first enemy that gets 2 actions and he uses one to Power Charge.  And then he hits you absurdly hard with a Body Rush. If he crits, and he can very easily crit these, you'll probably die. He then uses his third action to just continue the pattern, for all the difference it doesn't make.  Thankfully, he doesn't have that much HP and he has a weakness to Earth spells. Rather handy that. Although even with that, it is possible for things to go wrong here.  ...Like so. Heat, you just ruined everything jesus christ.  Um, never mind. Getting a crit immediately after missing isn't quite the same as getting two regular hits in a row, unfortunately. At least it functionally replenishes the turns we missed before.  Not worth much AP, but the Karma is nice and he even replenished the Dis-Ache we had to use on Argilla. How considerate! End Hunting Field Well, to be honest... I'm in danger, now... So, um... HEELP MEEE!! Moving on, we can get the switch to Gate 05. This isn't particularly useful for leaving from here (there's a small Karma terminal around the corner), but it is getting back quickly. It's actually kind of necessary especially compared to somewhere like Swadhisthana. This place is quite large, sprawling and windy in comparison.  Before we head to our real destination, though, we'll head a bit further west and head through this door a little out of the way.  It just leads to a Chakra Pot, but that's a 150MP restore and it functions basically identically to a Great Chakra right now. Only difference is that it can only be used on one person instead of the whole party.  Nothing else here worth doing, so let's flip that gate switch and... run back to the Vendor real quick to sell off these Cells before I forget.  In doing so, we can now buy two new items. Hurray!   Muscle Drinks are pretty cool. They heal you like normal healing items, but they also give you a minor boost to your max HP for that fight. Nothing overly amazing, and less useful later, but it could help for trickier fights. Spyglass is just Analyze but in item form. You buy it once, and you're done. Analyze is now permanently worthless because the Spyglass is infinite-use. Of course, if you can read this you don't need it. Just use the MegaTen wiki or GameFAQs or something. Gives you the same information, only better. Except for bosses where it gives you more information.  Money in-hand, new items available but unbought because I The Laziest Name Sonic Wave Hey, we found you. We didn't die either. I guess we win this little game!   Well, uh, we didn't come to fight her but I guess she doesn't mind fighting us. Or at least having her weird, silent lackey there do it.  His "thing" is meant to be that he's really good with knives. In a place that mostly used guns before, but now uses demons. I have no idea how he survived this long.  So, his name is Bat. He's our next boss fight. Guess what his Atma Avatar is. Go on. Guess.  I've been dying for a snack. Come here. Figured it out yet? Because you're about to find out.  ...Yeah, no surprises there. Let's just ruin his day and move on Boss: Asura Camazotz Big Battle Camazotz here is a Mayan deity, for a nice change of pace. They're monsters that were around in the underworld of Xibalba and plagued some twins. His name is K'iche' (yes, that's how its really spelt; it's a Mayan language) for... "death bat". I'm pretty sure this is peak laziness right here. Anyway, Camazotz in-game just has absurd Magic, so we don't hurt him much with spells. At least not yet. He doesn't actually resist any elements; he's just that resilient. It's totally possible to have an element-boost passive by now. That'd push this up from 6 to an amazing 8!  Physicals, in comparison, ruin his day pretty effectively. So, sticking to those then.  Oh, and he doesn't use his great Magic for anything but defense. He has no offensive spells, so we can cast Tarunda to neuter him somewhat.  All of his attacks are physicals, so this deals with them nicely. We can even cast this three more times to reduce it further and there is nothing he can do about it.  He's a very nice step-up from Hayagriva because we can't just sit here and nullify his only real means of attack. He's also kind of a bastard in comparison because...  He can inflict Panic. Panic is basically this game's version of a more standard Confusion ailment. There's a chance that Heat will now just do whatever he feels like. Try and run, attack other party members, revert to human...  Fortunately, Patra or Panacaeas will cure it up immediately.  108 damage on the second boss, as a crit, isn't too shabby. That's ~1/6th of his max HP in one go (he has 670 for what its worth).  Bat's main gimmick is that he quite likes to use Rage, which is an annoying move. It is one of an ilk that is known to make Nocturne players very, very angry. It gives him two more actions right now. For free. No questions asked. And there is no way to stop it. Thankfully, Bat doesn't use this to its full evil potential.  Instead, he just follows it up by using Spiral Edge which is not that fancy.  It hits everyone for middling physical damage. Whatever.  He also usually (but not quite always) follows it up with his gimmicky technique. It's basically a defensive action that gives him an absurd defence boost... and an Earth weakness.  We'll take advantage of that second bit, then. Hitting him with an Earth spell immediately breaks it too.  Oh and he sometimes casts HP Thief. It deals Almighty damage and, like the name implies...  Drains some HP. Not enough to warrant worrying about.  Sometimes when he uses Rage, he follows that Spiral Edge up with a regular physical attack but not very often. All in all, not too tough a fight either.  He's a good step-up from Hayagriva, but that's setting the bar rather low. At least Camazotz has the decency to have his main attacks not be straight up rendered worthless immediately. At least not without spending far too long grinding. He gives a lot of Karma though. No AP strangely...  Oh, Serph stops Agni from eating him. Okay, that explains that then.  Don't stop me. Heat! What's Your Name Why do you not kill Bat?  Why...? I don't want to.  Your name... tell me. Argilla.  SilenceOh, around now Bat gets thrown on the ground like the chump he is.  He's kinda right here, but only from sheer coincidence really.  If I had more power... I am the one in charge here. Go tend to your wounds. We thank you, Jinana. Follow me. EndSo, yeah. Bat's quite the sore loser. And is more'n a bit mad at us showing him up, and then getting told off by Jinana. Possibly the not being eaten thing too. Next time, we'll be checking out whatever it is Jinana's showing us and I guess doing something about the Solids? Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 20:56 on Jun 13, 2015 |
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Sep 1, 2014 00:07
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 Bat
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Sep 1, 2014 01:45
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theshim posted:
Oh yeah. Never got very far into this game, sad to say, but I got far enough that I echo the sentiment wholeheartedly. gently caress that gangly little son of a bitch.
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Sep 1, 2014 01:58
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I noticed the Solar Noise gauge a couple of screens in and sort of bookmarked it to ask later if we'd been given the lowdown, or if it'd come up later. Then thirty seconds later ... The Field Hunt thing feels oddly Sonic-y. Just a strange impression I got.
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Sep 1, 2014 02:33
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So, Bat. Bat's Atma is the Sonic Wave. It's hard to see but it's a bat flying out of a mouth with sound waves coming out of it. It's the Sonic Wave because he's a loving bat.
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Sep 1, 2014 02:48
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I like how he pulls out a knife and waves it around before turning into a bat. Really adds to the intimidation factor there.
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Sep 1, 2014 02:57
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It's not like he's at all dangerous in either form. One of the easiest bosses in the game.
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Sep 1, 2014 03:00
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Hunting Field is such a great track. Meguro at his peak.
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Sep 1, 2014 08:12
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Feinne posted:Bat's Atma is the Sonic Wave. It's hard to see but it's a bat flying out of a mouth with sound waves coming out of it. It's the Sonic Wave because he's a loving bat. Oh my gosh you guys I think Bat might be wolf themed. Given this is SMT, I assume they won't all be this obvious but really. Bat is just overdoing it.
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Sep 1, 2014 12:58
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Arcade Rabbit posted:Oh my gosh you guys I think Bat might be wolf themed. Bat is by FAR the most blatant of the Atma. By a huge margin.
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Sep 1, 2014 16:09
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So I guess Bat is going to be this game's Mid-Boss, or else just a running gag where Heat tries to eat him?
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Sep 2, 2014 22:12
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Is it at all strange that Bat reminds me a lot of Takaya from Persona 3? Because he does. Heat's... well, he's an interesting one to say the least. I'd say more but that would be spoilers... apart from the fact we're closing in on one of his best lines of dialog.
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Sep 3, 2014 01:28
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I like this game probably the most of the SMT games because it's more straightforward with what's going on. Considering how obtuse it can get in DDS2 that doesn't say great things about other SMT games. Dragonatrix posted:
I'll admit it, I laughed.
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Sep 3, 2014 04:37
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Sounds like BAT here is gonna be a BAThole to the party and in doing so, be a reoccurring boss battle across the entirety of this game before someone gets tired of his poo poo, rips his head off and shits down his neck! Or eat him, doesn't matter which. But it's just speculation on my part.
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Sep 3, 2014 04:42
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Anahata Entrance Jinana's willing to work with us now, so she's taken us directly to Anahata, the Solids' territory. Anahata itself is the fourth tantric chakra, and its name means "unhurt" hence why there are medical organisations named after it. The chakra focuses on no longer needing wordly pleasures, honors or humiliations. It's based purely on internal balance.  That is why even the Brutes cannot overtake them. All you gotta do kill the boss. Can't quite tell here, and it's still not wholly apparent in the video, but they are looking at Mick talking to one of the watchmen. He never set foot on the battlefield. That's no good. What do we do? The Maribel will create a diversion. End Anahata Anahata itself follows the usual pattern of "safe area in front of the dungeon to talk to our party."  The one thing that makes it a bit different is that there isn't a singular transition to get into the Citadel. We have to climb that ladder in the background first.  This puts us on the wall, which still counts as the outside area. We can also see Mick's sweet cannons. Little wonder he was able to fend off even the top tier tribes without much hassle.  But there's nothing else out here of note. Let's dive into the Citadel proper. Man's Tomb  They can't surround us, or attack us from behind. Defend the main gate. Roger. Let's go! They never learn, do they? Seems like our distraction was a rousing success, and we can blitz through this place after all.  Since we climbed in to get easy access, we'll be starting at the top and working our way down for once.  Of course, this being a giant citadel and all there's plenty of side rooms to explore. We'll hit up all of the important ones, naturally.  The first couple we come across are mini-barracks areas. More important is the loot here.  Dark Veils are pretty neat items. They try to inflict Death on every enemy. They don't have a particularly great proc-rate, but they're servicable.   Room immediately next door contains two more attack items. Shock Bombs and Blasts deal middling elemental damage. Shock Bombs are, uh, electricity and Blasts are force. Better than the ones we can straight up buy from the Vendors at least.  Little bit further ahead on the main path, and there's a small area with four rooms that contain a variety of stuff. The door to continue is, uh, directly on the main path so they're wholly optional.    Wind and Bolt Walls are just their respective Void Spells but in an item form. Nullifies Force and Electric damage. Mouldy Rolls are another of those healing items with a negative ailment inducing side-effect. There's also a couple Dis-Stuns, Dis-Mutes and Chakra Drops in other rooms. Nothing particularly stellar but it's still useful.  Door at the end of the corridor somewhat spoils that, no, the Maribel's diversion was not wholly perfect. They probably expected them to attack through more than just the front doors so they'd have naturally left guards posted throughout the citadel.  Like these chumps. Who cares? Food is food. Let's get rid of them. Hunting ~ Compulsion No video for these guys, because they're just regular generic Archangels. They're completely identical to the ones we'll fight as random encounters afterwards. They resist physicals so spellslinging it is, then.  They can kind of try to nerf that by inflicting Mute with this attack, but it's not really a big deal.  This is probably their biggest threat if only because it hits the entire party.  Damage is also pretty respectable for a random chump demon. And this is after a couple Tarundas too.  Naturally, they also have Expel spells. Thankfully these are not quite as threatening as you might expect.  In fact, most Expel spells actively cannot kill you. They merely deal proportional damage based on your current HP. This is mildly annoying but it's just that. An annoyance. Anyway, we hit them and they die. They're not really a challenging fight or anything. Man's Tomb Now that we've had our first fight here, we'll be getting random encounters after this point. Archangels ARE on the higher end of possible fights right now, but that's not saying much really. Anyway, there's two doors here. Southwest is progress, so we'll spin around to the southeast first and...  Immediately run into a fight with two Bicorns. Who got lucky as gently caress, jeez. Shocking Serph just means if they opted to hit him, much like with Freeze he would take a guaranteed crit. Unlike with Freeze, his resistances are still intact. And Heat got Panic'd too. Swell.  The best revenge is an instant crit that makes the enemy scared of us. Lunch has been well and truly served at this point. Oh, we can't poke Bicorns weakness yet. We'll do it soon enough though.  Room just has a cell in it. A new one that sells for more than the previous few, but it's still just a cell.  Nothing else back here, so let's head further onwards.  ...By immediately proceeding to ignore onwards progress. The stairs to the east are progress. Path to the south is where we're heading first.  Badb Cathas pop up and have a mildly inconvenient weakness.  Because its fire. No one has Zan yet, so I can't combo-Maragi and Heat is the only one with Agi at that.  Oh, and did I mention before that spells can miss? Because spells can miss. It normally doesn't happen often (barring buffs/debuffs throwing it off of course) but it totally can. And it's even more annoying than a physical skill missing.  There's a free Revival Gem on this path. I am glad, because this might come in handy later.  There's also a... yellow... wall here. Huh. I remembered this one being blue. Guess I got 'em mixed up.  Ah well, on the way back to where we want to be Serph gained another level and finally proc'd the last random level up bonus. There's a chance of a stat going up. Whether this is better or worse than the random full heal depends on your situation at the time, really.  'Nother new demon here. Ikusas are actually mildly annoying but they're also quite nice to run across. Not because of the Matera.  No, because they can call for Reinforcements on their turns.  This makes another Ikusa spawn in. If this sounds abusable for free EXP, you are right but it's not wholly reliable. There's easier things to grind off of anyway.  Doubling back and heading down the stairs we skipped and... here's the blue wall. Right around the corner from the yellow one. ...I'm sure you can see how that would be an easy mistake to make.  Surprisingly, this wall is probably the least lucrative one yet. It's just blocking two doors. The door to our right contains absolutely nothing.  The door on the left just had a Magic Noise in it. That's it.  At some point around now, Serph mastered his current mantra and gave him access to this beauty. Iron Stomach is like one of the best passive abilities in the game without exception, because it grants immunity to stomachaces. AP Divide also implicitly grants immunity to stomachaches to everyone else. Because you slap 'em both on one person, they eat everything and everyone else reaps the benefits too. It's great!  Downside? Holy Beast costs 50,000 macca. Not getting that one for a while then.  Back on the main path again, and we've come to yet another scenario where there are two doors to choose between. Door on our right leads onwards.  Door on the left leads nowhere. Yet. It's pretty transparently a backtracking convenience above all else, then.  Around about now, we start running into a couple new things again. This time it's Apis.  They're weak to Earth spells. This makes them quite easy to deal with.  They cast mid-level Fire spells. This would be a problem except for one thing...  Their magic stat sucks. 34 damage on a weakness? C'mon, son. Try harder.  The still rather linar path ends up bringing us face-to-face with this guy.  We can't avoid running onto the square in front of him.  This exists solely to show us that red eyed statues are trapped and drop us into Mick's creepy basement.  They add something to the charm of the impregnable citadel, don't you think? Not that it matters. Let's keep moving. So, Mick's weird dungeon-y basement area (that isn't actually in his basement) is kinda big but also mostly optional. If we want to just leave, we can follow the main path and do so basically immediately. Bugger that, there's some things to pick up down here. And lots of rooms with commotions in them.  The commotions are caused by Gyu-Kis unable to get out. These ones are both easier and harder than the one we fought at Manipura.  They don't always do a Power Charge and then a Body Rush. They also don't always do a Power Charge. But they can do a Power Charge and then a Mad Rush. Mad Rush hits "randomly" which means the enemy will always hit you a lot more than you hit them with it.  ...Like so. And yes, Argilla dropped from near full health to dead. Gyu-Kis don't gently caress around.  Well, sometimes. They don't hit that hard without Power Charge so it's mostly a non-issue.  We can also eat these ones. And they are super-delicious and worth it.  Each room with one in also has an item of some kind in there too. That also makes them worth it. Medical Kits are like Brave Rations but instead of healing one person for 150HP, they heal the entire party for 150HP. Could come in handy.  Oh, sometimes while running around down here this happens. It doesn't really actually do much of anything. Just a short fade to black and then you're facing another direction. Mildly inconvenient, but not really an issue.  Also, the basement is where Mick keeps his catgirls. Nekomatas have a weakness we normally can't exploit.  It's Electricity. We throw Shock Bombs at them. These things are actually kind of annoying to fight normally.  Because of this. They have like two different ways of inflicting Charm. It kinda sucks! Charm is the confusion ailment. Panic is random-confusion. Charm is straight up attacking your allies and healing your enemies. Quite annoying. Hunting ~ Suprise Raid Speaking of annoying, Ambushes in this game are worse than in most since they force you to start in Human form rather than let you switch to it later. We've already sort of seen this with the Macha fight in Manipura though; it has its advantages (no one is weak to anything in this form for instance), but its share of disadvantages too (no resistances, weaker attacks, have to waste a turn transforming).  Oh, and sometimes random fights can get reinforcements too. It's wholly random here as well, but it doesn't really make things any harder. At least not at this stage. Man's Tomb It's a bit late now, but once we're close to the exit of the basement we can find a couple members of the Maribel. They've each got a hint for us about the dungeon itself, but this one is redundant. We were railroaded to walk in front of a red-eyed statue which in itself taught us not to do that... for the purpose of then being actively told not to do that. So close.  Round the corner, there's also this guy. This is a hint for an actual sort-of puzzle we'll see later. Door past him actually leads to an optional side area. With nothing in it.  So we'll spin around and head through a door that leads onwards instead. The ladder is right there once we do so, which is our ticket out of here, but there's an entire area up here we haven't explored yet...  There's a couple more items through here. Again, each one of these is guarded by a Gyu-Ki.  This one sells for a decent chunk regardless. At Min noise, it outdoes the Error Cell at Max noise. Pretty great.  Not much else up here, though. Another side area to the south-east with nothing in it. And this door at the northern most point of this circular area. There is also nothing past it. Yet.  So we spin around, climb the ladder and come to an area with two red-eyed statues facing one another. Uh, we'll deal with this later.  Thankfully there's a side door right next to them.  This leads to our first Large Karma Terminal (at last!). We'll stop here for now, but first...  Serph and Argilla gain access to the Ancient God mantra. This one's pretty great, not for itself (which is just HP and MP Thief; sound useful but very situational) but what it lets you get later. It costs 15,000 macca so we'll skip it for now though. Hunting Here's some weaknesses we never exploited. Archangels are weak to instant death spells. So are Apises are that matter.  Bicorns are weak to Ailments. Like all ailments. MP Thief is handy for this since it deals Mute damage which does count as an ailment. Just putting this one to sleep, though. I do that quite a fair bit, since it raises your Crit rate (not guaranteed to happen, despite what you might think) as well as normally makes them skip their turns. In a nice change of pace hitting a sleeping enemy with a physical does not automatically wake them up; it has a chance to, but it's not something that happens all the time.  Lots of actual new skills this time around, so we'll start to do this now. Feed Frenzy and Devil Feast are new Hunt skills; Feed Frenzy hits every enemy unit rather than just one. Devil Feast hits just one enemy but has a small chance of proccing instant death in lieu of dealing damage... unless they're frightened; it always works then. Ingest Mana only works on a successful hunt but it gives Serph 10% of his MP back for every enemy devoured. Venom Fang, Death Spray and Vile Blade are all just new physical skills. Death Spray hits one enemy a bunch and can inflict Curse; mostly use it for the Bunch Of Hits aspect though. Mudo is straight up instant death if it procs without any gimmicks attached. Quick Escape makes it easier to run from fights; it also stacks with itself so stick it on everyone and you're virtually guaranteed to flee from a fight. It has its uses if you're running low on resources or something. Dream Haze and Foul Breath inflict Sleep and Poison on enemies. Void Charm/Panic are like the Void element spells but for the listed ailment instead. Taunt is the best of this lot, though (Ingest Mana being second). Taunt is the boss killing skill for quite a while. It reduces their defence - to both physical attacks/skills AND spells - by 2 stages but in return boosts their attack by 2 as well. If only we had ways to counter that second bit... Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 16:13 on Sep 3, 2014 |
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Sep 3, 2014 05:07
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Anahata and the Citadel's music themes are also great. I got the DQ avatar for the Maribel member and the MGS characters' for the Solids but unless this was just random, I didn't get the Moe one for the Embryon guy. EDIT: \/\/\/ Ooooooh Petiso fucked around with this message at 12:30 on Sep 3, 2014 |
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Sep 3, 2014 11:14
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Petiso posted:I got the DQ avatar for the Maribel member and the MGS characters' for the Solids but unless this was just random, I didn't get the Moe one for the Embryon guy. (M)ember (O)f (E)mbyron At least that's what I think it was...
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Sep 3, 2014 11:36
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Ayup, that's it. Original intent was to have something related to the actual tribe name itself... but since Embryon is just an archaic form of embryo that would be jarring and super-out of place. And not really in a good way. So M.O.E. it was then.
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Sep 3, 2014 15:17
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quote:The one thing that makes it a bit different is that there isn't a singular transition to get into the Citadel. We have to climb that latter in the background first.
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Sep 3, 2014 15:47
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So, who wants to learn more about the Junkyard? Quantum Devil Saga: Chapter 2(pt.1) Each chapter from this point is pretty lengthy (six chapters over 218 pages), so I'll break them up for these little recap things. We start off with the Embryon retreating from the weirdness back at that egg/cocoon/plant-thing with the girl (who we'll later find out is named Sera). The chapter is, again, a major expansion on the events we see in-game. First and foremost, there's an explanation of how tribes are founded: whenever people die in the Junkyard, we're told their bodies turn into the silvery rain that falls from the sky. Eventually, they are reborn and come stumbling out from the Karma Temple alone. At this point, they can either find their way to the nearest tribe and join up, or band together and try to take over another tribe's territory. This is essentially how Serph and co. took over their current base, killing the leader of the tribe there, then going to the Karma Temple to petition them to be allowed to form their own tribe. Interestingly, Gale wasn't part of Serph's crew to begin with, having been part of the defeated tribe. Once their leader died, he called a ceasefire and pledged his loyalty to Serph, as per the rules of the Junkyard. Most of the team has 'awakened' at this point and is struggling with new ideas and emotions, but strangely, Cielo seems to have woken up as well, something that, spoiler alert, doesn't happen for a while. Gale, of course, doesn't comprehend, so he's concentrating on his duties. Speaking of Gale, he has a lot going on, as the text repeatedly refers to him as the 'bishop'. At first, I thought this was just a reference to how stoic and aloof he was, but no, it's actually a tribal rank of sorts. Bishops are the tactical heads of each tribe. They're stuffed full of implants that allow them to record events and play them back (at one point, Gale plugs a cable into his head behind his ear and allows the team to see his perspective on the events at the start of the game), as well as analyse and process the best possible outcome for every event. His hood isn't just for show either, as it's loaded with surveillance gear that feeds into his ocular implants (basically an internal version of the eyepiece Serph and Argilla use in the intro). Finally, it's been mentioned in the thread once or twice, that each tribe seems to be loaded with identical minion enemies: turns out that, again, this is a thing. Gale mentions that he's had each member of the Embryon report as to whether or not they have a brand after the events at Ground Zero. While the main characters all have unique marks, the rank and file have 7-8 different marks between them. The plot is, as expected, exactly the same as the game, so I'll probably only point out the interesting stuff like this as I go along. The book covers up to about maybe a third or so of the way through the game, so I'll space them out for a while, especially as I have no idea when the next volume in the series will be out.
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Sep 3, 2014 22:05
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In demon form, Gale's head also splits like a bishop's mitre (although I believe it's rotated 90 degrees from the hat).
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Sep 3, 2014 22:14
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Dragonatrix posted:Ayup, that's it. Original intent was to have something related to the actual tribe name itself... but since Embryon is just an archaic form of embryo that would be jarring and super-out of place. And not really in a good way. Make it an anime girl next time tia
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Sep 3, 2014 22:33
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Without spoiling things that story does make Gale's presence make MUCH more sense.
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Sep 4, 2014 00:28
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Feinne posted:Without spoiling things that story does make Gale's presence make MUCH more sense. There's a few bits and pieces that are heavily foreshadowing future events, but for the sake of the LP, I've left them out. If you've played the game though, they'll leap out at you from a mile off.
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Sep 4, 2014 10:55
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Man's Tomb Alright, so before we deal with those statues from before, we'll explore this new area quite thoroughly. Because we sorta have to anyway. Might as well start in the top-left.  ...Sadly, that just leads to a short passageway and the room we were in before. This room is the one where we had to fall down a hole originally, but at least now we can explore it. That yellow-eyed statue dead ahead could be red eyed, or it could be blue-eyed.  We'll skip over that for now; just remember it for later. In the meantime, we'll head around clockwise and check out the area to the northeast of the Large Terminal.  While we're doing so, I remember that since Serph has Mudo and Heat has Death Spray I can cast Mamudo already.  I, uh, I cast it a lot when we're here. This is where ailments and instant death spells start to become super-useful.  Anyway, there's more to this area than "big room with statues" thankfully. Like this gold capsule by its entrance! So, remember how I said they contain 2 things? That's not entirely true, but they do only contain two good things.  Because they can also be trapped. This one just had a fight in it. Hunting ~ Rare Devil We get a pair of Nues this time; they're just regular enemies from later on. Nues aren't all that tough; they're even kind enough to use Taunt. This drops defense by two stages, but it boosts attack by two in return. It's also only able to used on your enemies, so we can exploit the hell outta that.  ...Since they don't remove the buff after applying it, we can use this opportunity to ruin their days.  Or we can just cast Zan, since they're weak to that. Using their own Taunts to kick rear end seems more fun though.  Sadly, they're not really worth going out of your way to fight. No neat drop, relatively low money (regular fights here give 1k+) and piss all Karma? Kinda lame! Man's Tomb The room's worth going to, though, since it has an easy to get Vital Noise tucked away next to the door.  Oh, and this area isn't without statues. They're more placed to catch you offguard than anything else though. You see it peeking next to the door? That's to force you to run around more than anything else.  Some of them are just needlessly cruel, though. That one is explicitly blocking us from proceeding down this corridor. Not just because its red-eyed; it could be blue and do the same thing. The location is the problem, but the eye colour is a visual shorthand.  Speaking of problems, you can't see it very well from here, but that is a statue just above Serph (its pedastal should be visible). Naturally it has red eyes. Just gotta run around basically the perimeter of the room to get to that gold capsule, but...  ...Okay, it's not wholly worth it. More money's nice but you'd expect like new bullets or something from this one. No dice.  Nothing else in that area, so we'll double back to the large terminal and head to the southeast.  The one saving grace with yellow eyed statues is that their eyes do change colour before you get within range for them to activate. Stops them being too mean, and makes it clear in advance that we're ducking through this northern door.  ...It immediately tries to spook you, though. Sticking a statue right ahead can be cruel even if it is blue eyed.  Naturally, the detour through that one small room is necessary to get here.  All it leads to, though, is a Soma Drop. Arguably not worth it, but I wouldn't turn my nose up at this.  It's also the only way to get it, since that's part of this room. We can't get to it otherwise. ...We'll come back here later as well.  Heading further south of that room, though, we come to another blue wall. This one's a bit more unlike the others we've seen though, because behind it... Anahata Field Hunt Lies this dungeon's field hunt. This one's a mite harder to manage than the one at Manipura, despite being one small room.  The actual Mitama fght itself though goes... a lot better. Mostly because I switched my skills around to purely deal with it.  They, uh, they can give some pretty great AP. Pretty much their sole purpose. End That done, we'll head to the southwest area and check out what's down there now. There is a side area we can get to, since its just past that blue-eyed statue.  There is nothing there, but a small corridor with only a red-eyed statue in it though. Mick's  Thankfully along the proper path down here, we can find a golden chest.  This one doesn't have demons in it! Instead, it has a Cell which is great. Could use this later on.  ...There is, however, another one not too far off which is trapped. I think I'd rather have the demons than have everyone just straight up lose health, though.  Now we've scoped out everywhere, in this area, we'll head on off back to the north-west and deal with the stuff there. There's two doors up here; the left one is where we want to go.  The right one is just the only way to get a Brave Ration in this room. Nothing too exciting over here.  Although, we do now run into a Succubus for the first time. These lovely ladies are weak to Expel of course. They can put up barriers to cover their weaknesses, but because of how this works out, that means that they can only ever cover one.  And their Electric weakness is one they neglect most often. Good thing too, since its the easiest to exploit for immediate gain. Like killing them.  They also happen to be weak to a lot of ailments. Most notable of which being Nerve, which right now amounts to "sleep." Sleep's pretty good, since unlike most RPGs just whacking a sleeping demon won't wake them up immediately. Nerve also basically boils down to Sleep in general, because Sleep is great.  Getting through the statues without falling is super easy, and leads to a small karma terminal. It also has a dead Maribel warning us about a woman ahead. Big Battle ~ Prelude Which means that it's time for a... not quite miniboss.  ...but this is some bitch in a long, ugly skirt. Either way, you have horrible taste, so you might as well die! Hunting ~ Compulsion No video for Valkyrie, since she's pretty easy all things considered. Biggest issues are she has no weaknesses except two ailments we don't have, and she's immune to fire. Can also cast Phys Repel, but she shouldn't usually get the chance.  Not resistant at all to ice, though, which means she can be frozen. And when that happens, she becomes super-easy to murder in one go. Man's Tomb Once she's down, we can pick up an item from her room. The statue key'll be useful later. That door you might've noticed when she was alive and talking is just a shortcut back to here from the roof area. And vice-versa.  But that's one key down, let's head back down to this giant area now and get what's through there.  This one's also mostly not a problem, but this statue is placed rather weirdly. Primarily because its facing...  A red-eyed statue! Although this doesn't even matter; the red is just to catch you offguard if you think you can cut across. The save point is on this side, and the fight on the other one.  Speaking of which, over there we have another dead Maribel and a yellow-but-really-blue statue facing him. The statue to Serph's left is facing up and has red eyes, so that yellow one has to be blue otherwise getting across is impossible.  Behind the statue is a door that leads to our next fight. This big fella's all that lies there, and he says nothing. Not worth a video either but for different reasons to the Valkyrie. Hunting ~ Compulsion The Tarrasque uses nothing but Electric spells which makes him hilariously worthless if you bring Void Elec into this fight.  He's also cripplingly weak to Fire spells.  Earth ones too. He resists Phys a bit, but not enough for Heat to care. Man's Tomb That guy down, we get the R Statue Key and can finally double back.  All the way back to these things, in fact. With the keys in hand, we can finally put that "left is right, right is left" clue to use.  Using the keys on the right statues, we can then turn it in the prescribed direction. Left key turns right, right key turns left.  Something's not right. I smell a rat... Let's be careful. And then as if it's proving Heat right, the next area is a pretty straight forward linear run. But it has no random encounters at all.  There is a Large Karma Terminal, for if we really need one or need to quickly get back here later though.  Not too far from there, is the one side area in this part of the citadel. Nothing in it but this Revival Gem though.  Back on the main path, at the end of it we come to an elevator which takes us all the way up.  And once there, we reach our destination at last. Mick's Room Don't quite find Mick, but Serph does notice... something... Solar Eclipse A whole lot of Ikusas.  Huh?! Mick has probably devoured the Maribel's leader by now. -- He what? That bastard! Shoud've devoured him when I had the chance. And yet, here we are. Sort of fallen into our own trap here.  Ah well, at least we get to take it out on this guy apparently.  Mini-Boss: Demon Turdak Hunting ~ Compulsion So, like the last time we had a fight in this kind of scenario we have to cut through the chaff first. Once again, it's two waves of the lesser demon. In this case, said demon is a bunch of Ikusas. We poke their Force weaknesses and they die.  Third wave has two more Ikusas along with Turdak.  Turdak's main weakness is Expel, which we could exploit but his alternative one is more fun.  It's Panic. Raving Slash counts as a regular physical, so we don't hit his weakness technically but its all but guaranteed to proc the Panic anyway.  Something enemy demons can do in this state is give us free items. Happens a lot more often than you'd think too.  In this case, Turdak pooped out a free Revival Gem. We then hit him and he dies. He can kind of maybe try to be a threat if he gets a chance to do stuff but eh. He's not tough really. Hunger  Oh, right, Heat kicks Turdak's skull across the room. Probably out of spite.  Heat! So what now? You wanna run away like sissies? Serph, we can't leave Jinana. Let's rescue her. Man's Tomb ~ Second Movement Well, Heat does have a point but you'd figure he'd like walking right into the fire.  Anyway, there's a second exit in Mick's room which has an elevator at the other side of it.  This one brings us back down to the ground floor and a room that might seem worrying at first. Thankfully, all the statues here are in storage and this is a good sign too.  Right around the corner from there is the Large Karma Terminal and Vendor. I think we've finally found the entrance.  And by "think" I mean that we definitely have. Confronting... Mick? Silence Well, poo poo. Looks like we're too late.  Asura And then just to drive it home, Mick throws Jinana like a football. Jeez.  No way! That stupid woman never devoured anyone!? I'm the same as you... I won't kill needless-- That doesn't look good... Jinana--? Who's ready for a sudden scene change! Pray -A Capella Version- Outta nowhere, cuts straight to Sera singing at Muladhara.  Oh, that cat's here too.  Gale of all people starts actually singing along. No, really.  Then he gets a flashback to a woman crying.   Needless to say, not even Gale knows what that was about. Weird. Silence And a weird omious symbol (it's Jinana's atma brand) cuts off even Sera's singing.  Everyone! Run...! Big Battle ~ Prelude Speaking of which, back at the Citadel...  Jinana has been forcibly transformed. Jinana... Heh... Ha ha! Mick is loving this though! So, she's turned all demon now, eh? It started happening to some a' my men... But, they sure stated good going down. Serves 'em right for trying to gang up on me. Have fun devouring each other. Sadly, there's only one thing to do in this situation...   But Argilla is awful reticent to do it, for obvious reasons.  At least she is up until Jinana tries murdering her with that head-whip thing. Silence Still doesn't want to, but it's the only way...  And with that, it's boss time. Boss: Asura Usas Hunting ~ Comrades Back to Hindu deities now, Usas being the daughter of the god of the sky. She's a beacon of enlightenment that allows people to see the truth. Here, she's the first boss that you might have troubles with. Naturally, then, the correct thing to do is embarass her. Heat's not selected Taunt there for nothing. We use it. Buffs her strength but debuffs her defense.  Oh wait, both Serph and Argilla have Tarunda now. They can cast that separately or I can have them team up and use Dekaja. Both works, but this looks fancier. We do this twice, suddenly her defense is in the shitter.  Mostly, Usas uses physical attacks. Whirlwind just hits a random amount of times, but hits more often than Mad Rush does.  It's also pretty poo poo damage on a per-hit basis but makes up for it with quantity.  She also has Hell Thrust herself.  It's pretty bleh. And this is with her strength at base, remember.  We can stack Tarundas along with the Taunts to cripple her offense too. Her main means of attack IS with physical skills, but she does have some spells.  With her defense crippled, a regular attack will deal around 100 damage. Yes, even from Argilla. Since Usas has 2000 HP, this makes things go by quite fast. To make things even quicker, as you might've seen in the video, Death Spray can potentially hitting 4 times dealing around 50 damage each if her defense is crippled. A crit ups that to around about 100. Heat has a passive that lets him crit more often than usual.   Spellwise, Usas seems like she might be a problem. Marin Karin does inflict Charm as per usual...  But between a good Magic stat and not-terrible Luck, it doesn't land anywhere often enough to matter. And if hits anyone but Serph it can be cured immediately too.  Her only other spell is Hama. It still can't kill you.  The biggest thing she might try and pull is bringing in a modified version of a demon.  In this case, she summons altered Unicorns. This is a bit of an issue if it happens.  They're weak to Death, but (unlike with the dudes inside the Citadel) Mudo'll miss fairly often here. Not overly often, and it is still worth using.  Unicorns are annoying because they cast friggin' Dekunda. The benefit from those Taunts has just been erased.  Plus with Unicorn out, you probably want to cast Void Expel every chance you get.  Because of this. We're not the only one to get combos!  Seraph Lore is a bit special, though. It's expel damage, so like Hama it can't quite kill you.  ...Unlike Hama, it hits for 80% of your current HP. It can't directly kill you, but it will make it easier to die.  But that's her only real major trick. Without it, she falls pretty fast and reverts back.  Gives a decent chunk of Karma and Macca. Like with Bat, though, we get no AP for this fight.  Since Serph hit level 20, he can set 8 skills now. How nice!  Aurora Jinana... There's a girl at our base who can help you control this power. It won't be like this anymore.  You and I get along don't we? I'm sure the others will like you as well. Come with us... Okay? Come and see Sera... Please...? Your eyes... Those are...  I... I don't know... why. They keep coming... I can't stop, Jinana. Finally... I have become... your comrade. Comrade? Saying it... feels right. Silence Devour her. Heat totally deserves this.  Nirvana's suppose to be paradise, right?  That's it... I'm tired of this place. What a waste...Directly above the party, watching it all unfold...  EndAnd to think, it's all this guy's fault in the first place. Looks like now we have to... follow Mick to Manipura, maybe? He did say he was going to eat Jinana's remaining soldiers so that sounds like as good a plan as any. In the meantime:  Basically all the skills learned in the second half of the Citadel. They're all pretty simple this time around, honestly. Heat also picked up Critical which increases the chance of him getting, well, a critical hit. Everything else is pretty standard.
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Sep 5, 2014 02:35
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So now we've fought Jinana, let's talk about her Atma, the Aurora. The Aurora looks like a burst of light over a horizon with the standard huge gaping maw in the middle of it. Jinana has a heavy Expel theme, what with her fun Seraph Lore trick, which fits with her having a light-themed Atma. Jinana's really cool and it's a shame she's not that important in the grand scheme of things, because it means we don't ever really get to find out much about her. Also that Hunting-Comrades track that this fight debuts is really loving strong, maybe second only to the music associated with the final boss. First movement superiority imo.
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Sep 5, 2014 03:18
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Hunt-Comrades is loving awesome.
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Sep 5, 2014 03:59
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Is... there any reason why Atlus decided to have new sound effects for demons in DDS instead of just reusing Nocturne's? I mean Nue getting stock seagull noises for no reason is pretty fantastic and all, but most of the new ones are fairly poo poo compared to the sounds Nocturne had. What caused the need for a complete overhaul instead of just making sound effects for the demons Nocturne lacked?
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Sep 5, 2014 04:07
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