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I'd remembered Thorman was Thor, but I'd forgotten you fought him. It seems weird he went down like such a punk.
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Aug 18, 2015 03:39
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And, children, is why we give the finger to the angels. DEMONS DON'T CAUSE THE NUCLEAR APOCALYPSE!
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Aug 18, 2015 03:39
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Leavemywife posted:It seems weird he went down like such a punk. As the OP mentioned, charm is stupid broken in this game. Hopefully he'll minimize its use in future boss battles, at least so we can see what they're capable of.
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Aug 18, 2015 03:45
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Choco1980 posted:Apparently in the first Megami Tensei from what I've seen, Loki was in league with Lucifer, so Thor being with God checks out. It makes sense in a weird way. Norse myth was Christianized so early that we actually don't have any examples of it in earlier forms. The Eddas date to the 13th century, while Christian peoples started interacting with Norse warriors around the 8th century. This is why Loki will swing from an ally (if a deceitful one that likely caused the problem) in lots of stories to Direct Cause of the Apocalypse in the Ragnarok myth. Loki was Devil-ized, hence his being a high ranked subordinate of Lucifer in SMT is perfectly logical. Consequently, his compatriot Thor, who remained on Odin's side, being opposite him under Jehovah is a natural move (even if the Norse god most associated with Christian mythos is Balder).
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Aug 18, 2015 05:51
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This is why I think that siding Law in the first section makes for the most interesting story. Gotoh is the more obvious villain and his demon minions kidnapped your neighbor and left you an orphan. He's an obvious maniac who doesn't deserve to live. Thorman has a threat over your head, but he seems more sensible... and then he stabs you in the back and runs away before you can avenge yourself upon them. The scene ends with our hero resolute to take both Law and Chaos down...
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Aug 18, 2015 06:03
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Also weirdly enough, Thor isn't resistant to electricity in any way shape or form, so you can stunlock him with Mazio, which you always have thanks to Yuka Which is why AGI is kidna important for her since it lets her go before the bosses
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Aug 18, 2015 07:47
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MightyPretenders posted:This is why I think that siding Law in the first section makes for the most interesting story. The thing is, Thorman goes and reveals that Gotoh was telling you the truth about nuking Tokyo and all the other crazy bullshit before he asks you to join him. If you bought into his initial "So, uh... demons. No idea what's going on here. Help" story in any way, he just announced in all caps that he is not to be trusted. Pretty sensible decision to kick his rear end, is what I'm getting at here.
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Aug 18, 2015 08:16
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At the same time, I imagine if you side with Gotoh, you kick Thor's rear end only to find the the ANCIENT GODS' forcefield is absolutely poo poo at stopping American nuclear missiles.
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Aug 18, 2015 08:21
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I forget precisely how it goes, but I think he drops the forcefield either because he was powering it, or as a final gently caress you for killing him. Pretty sure it's the latter, but it's been so long, so don't quote me.
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Aug 18, 2015 09:38
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Kaboom Dragoon posted:I forget precisely how it goes, but I think he drops the forcefield either because he was powering it, or as a final gently caress you for killing him. Pretty sure it's the latter, but it's been so long, so don't quote me. He has nothing to do with the forcefield. The guys powering it are very firmly on the Neutral side of the Law vs Chaos debate, though I may be mistaking them with the other guy associated with them. GilliamYaeger fucked around with this message at 09:47 on Aug 18, 2015 |
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Aug 18, 2015 09:40
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Yeah, what the hell happened to that forcefield, anyway? You'd think Gotoh would notice it going down.
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Aug 24, 2015 02:16
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Glazius posted:Yeah, what the hell happened to that forcefield, anyway? You'd think Gotoh would notice it going down. Its still up, its just not made to stop nukes. For reference, its exactly as powerful as Gotoh was hyping it up to be. When its turned off in the endgame, everyone in Japan but a handful of people are instantly killed when God takes the opportunity to cause a second Great Flood. The forcefield is the only reason why God just didn't kill everyone with that poo poo right off the bat.
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Aug 24, 2015 02:22
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So, uh, sorry about no updates for over a month.  Just been too busy with new work and the like. Should be able to work getting back into this sometime soon, but no idea when it'll be exactly. Hopefully sometime soonish though!
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Sep 23, 2015 22:59
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Dragonatrix posted:So, uh, sorry about no updates for over a month. drat those work angels! Hope everything gets less hectic for ya soon dood. Kemix fucked around with this message at 04:28 on Sep 24, 2015 |
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Sep 24, 2015 02:45
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So, uh, Thor just nuked Japan. This is a thing that happened. To avoid instant and/or radiation death we got teleported out by plot powers. Where'd we end up...? Neutral  En-no-Ozuno is a real guy who really lived. Not so much in this kinda place, but y'know. Pretty cool. ...Sadly, he doesn't actually have any official art (that I'm aware of) which sucks.  Let's see now, there are two more who have found their way here as well. You know them both quite well. Find them and return. When all thre of you are here, I shall fill you in on the details. If you are injured or want to rest, my minions Zenki and Goki will take of everything for you. You can find both of them in the rooms next to me. Castle of the Four Gods So this place, wherever it is, is very reminiscent of our dreamscape from the first few days. The middle door here leads back to Ozuno...  Goki is on the left, and she gives us a free full heal no questions asked everytime we enter her room. Very useful and can't complain here.  Zenki, therefore, is on the right and just asks as a save point.  As for the actual layout of this place... it's quite a large dungeon. It does also introduce a new gimmick but that's much later. The orange and cyan bars here are doors that are currently thoroughly closed. Limits our wandering somewhat.  Also kind of some new demons to contend with. And we're currently very isolated and alone. A single Gandharva is awful and takable even like this.  A single Tan-Ki, for example, is not at least not with Kaz's current setup. Just has too much health and damage output to be managable.  As you may have noticed, there is a Cathedral of Shadows here. Not much use for it right now though.  The little green numbers I wrote out are important to get to whenever we can.  Could also just grab new demons, but they each have one that we had before.  They DO appear in a specific order based on the rooms but I don't remember the exact mechanics specifically. I think it's stock order, but it doesn't really matter. Anyway, right now we want to go to the blue and red question marks that we CAN reach. Law I'm sure you already saw this coming.   What is this place... I was searching for Yuka, when all of a sudden this blinding white light engulfed me. The next thing I knew, I was here. Anyhow, that doesn't matter now, let's try and find a way out of here! I'm sure you can see where this going from here, so we'll skip ahead somewhat... Chaos  Kazuya!? Is that you!? Thank God! poo poo, this just isn't my day!! In any case, the demons here are pretty tough, and I'm really asking for it if I try to take them on by myself. So, I'm coming along with you! Since we're in the area, we'll take this opportunity to recollect Rusalka. Now we can just go back to Ozuno and see what the deal here is. Neutral Very well. Let me start by telling you where you are. The Kongokai is an aspect of a very specific aspect of Buddhism. It's the Japanese name for the Diamond Realm which I personally don't know much about. Also as a brief reminder, the Abyss is the demon's realm. As for the world that you were formerly in, it is no more. The destruction of Tokyo has sparked worldwide nuclear holocaust. Civilization as you know it is gone.Oh, so Thor nuking Japan ended up causing a chain reaction that ended the world. So, uh, that happened. How did this happen? What is the earth like now? Is it destroyed? There is no reason to worry. Despite the scale of the destruction, humanity has somehow managed to survive. Then please, send us back! Are you sure that's such a good idea? The world is not like it used to be. That only makes me want to go back even more, to defeat the demons and bring peace back to the world! If you insist, it is possible to return to your world. If that is what you wish, then will you hear my plea first? Yes. Very well. There is a spring within the Kongokai. If you don't hurry, the spring will dry up, and you will have to wait for it to start flowing again. I have opened the south gate. I'm counting on you. Castle of the Four GodsDisclaimer: there is, in fact, no actual time limit. Anyway, this removes the orange bar from our map so we can now explore the outer perimeter of the Kongokai.  In each of the four corners here, there is two sets of doors. The left leads back to the main path and the right leads to either a ghost of Ozuno or the Soma.  The ghosts just exist to give Alignment tutorials so we'll ignore them. But that they do so will be important shortly! Also, the new gimmick I mentioned earlier? One-way doors. Not easy to represent through the maps I can make unfortunately* but they're the more faded lines. (*I could probably steal some off of GameFAQs if I needed to but I dunno if it even has any.)  Oh and in some random dead-end rooms, there are ghosts of other NPCs too.  We want the S in the north-east corner, which lets us get the Soma. Back to Ozuno we go... Neutral We just hand it over to him immediately and he drinks it... ...Hmm, that's still not enough. Could you go back and get some more for me?...Why yes, we are being asked to mandatorily run off to the same place twice in a row. Thankfully it's not difficult or anything. But it IS annoying in principle. When we return the second time:  By the way, there are two phantasms that live here in the Kongokai. I hear they carry rather powerful weapons. Go and find them, and bring them back here. I have other tasks that I would like Yuji and Takeshi to do.Now this removes the cyan bar from the map and we can reach the middle section of the Kongokai. This lets us reach the more outward question marks.  There's not really much else to gather out here, so we'll just skip right to their rooms. Law So, here's a weird quirk. Despite being red, the colour of Chaos, this guy IS Law aligned. In the Sega CD version, at least, the robes are the right way around.  It seems your alignment differs from mine! I cannot allow you to live!Also if we were Law aligned, he'd just hand us his weapon without needing to kick his rear end. But we're not, so he wants us to fight him (and yes, it is a "he" - again in later versions, he straight up has Yuji's face). So, uh, yeah. Much like Gotou or Thorman you could skip these fights if you wanted to. But that's dumb so we won't.  Boss: Human (Red) Phantom Boss Battle So, the Red Phantom is deceptive in that he quite likes physical attacks which hurt. So now you're thinking that he's actually Chaos and I'm crazy, right?  His spell-loadout is similar to Yuji's.  He's Law through and through. Also he can Diarama if he gets low on health and you let him. This is a Bad Thing obviously. Not actually a hard fight, but a possibly lengthy one as he has 320HP and resists everything to one degree or another.  The Kodachi of Light is an okay weapon. It can only be equipped if you are Law aligned though, so we'll hold onto this for later. End Castle of the Four Gods Not really much in the way of treasure in this place, understandably. But 1400 Magnetite is kinda nice and cool all the same. Chaos Yeah, the Chaos guy has blue robes. You probably saw this coming. We're not Chaos aligned either, so we gotta fight him too! Boss: Human (Blue) Phantom Boss Battle Unlike his brother, the Blue Phantom only uses the first tier for his multi-target spell. So we don't get Maragioned constantly which is nice, I guess.  Agilao is still Agilao, though.  And, of course, his last spell is Shibaboo so he can bind us.  So, here's a weird thing. Despite them blatantly being based on Yuji and Takeshi in concept, spells etc. their stats are very different to what you'd expect. Red (Law) is more physically strong and resilient, whereas Blue (Chaos) has more Int and thus throws stronger spells. ...I also feel like Blue is the more difficult one in general, despite his HP being "only" 310 and their resistances being identical, but that may just be because things are weak to fire more.  The Guillotine Axe is, uh, very strong and powerful but gotta be Chaos to use it. So into the bag it goes and back to Ozuno we go! End Neutral I'm glad to see you made it back all right! Geez, you took forever! Glad to see you're in one piece though. Good job, everyone. Kazuya, this is for you. Much like the other two, this is an alignment restricted weapon. Naturally, it's for Neutral characters. You are now ready. It is time for you to return to your world, if you so choose. I have opened the east gate. You may return whenever you wish. Castle of the Four GodsSo, yeah. Now we can head over to the exit whenever we want. If we went there earlier, we'd just run into a locked door and that's it. We also kinda want to leave if for no reason other than Zenki and Goki are gone so we can't get infinite free healing or save now.  Also, the Tachi is a quite nice upgrade over even the Chainsaw. The only real downside right now is that it requires a specific alignment to use. Not much of a downside all things considered.  And, yeah, the reason Zenki and Goki aren't in their rooms is because they're standing by the exit.  ...But first, you must defeat us! If you cannot, we will not let you pass!No, instead they will murder you dead. Boss: Touki Zenki, Touki Goki Also of note is that this is the first boss fight against two demons. No, the trash before Gotou does not count. Boss Battle So, this fight is actually kind of the hardest one we've had to date. Not saying much, I'm well aware, but it gets points for trying.  Zenki is the biggest threat by far, mind you. That kind of makes sense but is funny since he was a save point until moments ago.  This is probably the weakest thing in his repertoire since he merely has 10 Magic. That's not the only reason it's sort of ideal for our lineup...  Apsaras reflects Electric attacks, so he'll slowly just plink away at himself.  But if he wants to actively hurt us, he can smash someone's face in with Critical strike. Since he has 340HP, he'll stick around a while.  Goki meanwhile is more about utility than an actual threat on her own. She can't heal particularly well ironically enough (but it is a Media so its multi-target) but she CAN spam Tarukaja which makes Zenki even more threatening. So, uh, taking down her first then. Since she has 290HP, that is a little bit easier than Zenki.  Did I mention before that EXP is given based on the recipients level rather than the average for the party? Because it does and it is amazing. It's not scaling per se, since it isn't necessarily different from one or two levels but based on specific ranges which vary depending on the demon(s) in the fight. Also, on later versions there is an item drop from this fight. We can get one of Goki's claws which is not a weapon. I'm sure you can guess what this is for. End Neutral ...But don't be shocked when you see how much it's changed...  Neutral > 666 A.D., Mt. Ikomayama...  Hm? Who goes there? I take it you're the living incarnation of the Bodhisattva. I am still practicing asceticism. Perhaps you are mistaken? I may look like an oni, but I'm still one of Tajikarao's descendants. I've cut all ties with man without losing my divine powers. Oh...? Indeed... Now, what brings you to me? I have my wife here with me. We've long sought a place to serve. Tajikarao appeared to us in a dream and said the Bodhisattva would be here today... He told us we should go with him. Please... Oh...? Very interesting. We are both ready to serve you for all eternity. I see... So this is the will of an ancient god. What do you call yourselves? We have had no human interaction, and so we have no names. Very well. You, I name Zendouki, that you may perform good deeds... And your wife shall be known as Myodouki, that her deeds may be excellent. Zendouki shall walk before me, and Myodouki shall walk behind me. With our powers, we will go where man's strength cannot reach.   Protagonist's original artwork. Outfit is a bit different huh... Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 18:58 on Oct 11, 2015 |
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Oct 10, 2015 21:35
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So did the nuke kill everyone and send them to the afterlife, and then they can come back? And also destroyed the world in a nuclear war? Jesus christ Thor, you might've gone a bit overboard. Also the Zenki and Goki video cuts before the fight actually ends.
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Oct 11, 2015 00:42
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Huh, weird. Gonna reupload that then to try and fix it, since it's definitely fine on the actual video. E; Now it should be fixed. Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 01:30 on Oct 11, 2015 |
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Oct 11, 2015 01:02
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Blaze Dragon posted:So did the nuke kill everyone and send them to the afterlife, and then they can come back? And also destroyed the world in a nuclear war? Jesus christ Thor, you might've gone a bit overboard. 'Kill 'em all and let God sort it out' is a bit more literal in this case than usual.
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Oct 11, 2015 01:38
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And it's arguably one of the worst things that can happen to you.
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Oct 11, 2015 01:41
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Blaze Dragon posted:So did the nuke kill everyone and send them to the afterlife, and then they can come back? And also destroyed the world in a nuclear war? Jesus christ Thor, you might've gone a bit overboard. Okay, there's been a lot of complaints over the years about how Thor is portrayed in the SMT games, but that part? That part feels on point.
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Oct 11, 2015 04:07
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Blaze Dragon posted:So did the nuke kill everyone and send them to the afterlife, and then they can come back? And also destroyed the world in a nuclear war? Jesus christ Thor, you might've gone a bit overboard. If I remember correctly, your party/demons are teleported away from an outside source before the blast touches ground. And why yes, Thor DID just nuke the loving planet! This is just one of many rear end in a top hat things the LAW faction will do. Granted, CHAOS does plenty of atrocities as well.
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Oct 11, 2015 05:19
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More specifically, the nukes dropped on Japan touched off a whole nuclear war, rather than just Thor blowing up the whole planet. But yeah, Yuka warps the party off to another dimension before the nukes hit, so they're fine, sort of.
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Oct 11, 2015 07:32
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Geizt posted:More specifically, the nukes dropped on Japan touched off a whole nuclear war I don't think they ever explain why though
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Oct 11, 2015 08:24
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I'd guess they're basically going for Mutually Assured Destruction playing out, except USUALLY that only works if the country being targeted has nukes. To my knowledge Japan does not. Unless SMT Japan does. Actually it probably does. If it doesn't, I guess the Chinese took exception to a nuke going off so close to them and fired back despite not really liking Japan or something? Not terribly well thought out there.
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Oct 11, 2015 08:59
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CmdrKing posted:I'd guess they're basically going for Mutually Assured Destruction playing out, except USUALLY that only works if the country being targeted has nukes. To my knowledge Japan does not. Unless SMT Japan does. Actually it probably does. Well considering how powerful the Law and Chaos factions are, I reckon they have something to do with it. Chaos-controlled states retaliated against Law-controlled states etc etc
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Oct 11, 2015 09:16
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More likely, nuclear states freaked the gently caress out when the US dropped a bomb on Japan out of the blue. Panic would set in, and all it would take would be one to fire. This is, unfortunately, a horribly realistic scenario, and one we've been on the brink of before. Regardless of how much, say, China disliked Japan, no one would be able to ignore the US firing seemingly unprovoked.
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Oct 11, 2015 14:45
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Ruins So, uh, at least we're back on Earth now. It looks a bit more... barren and destroyed than before, though.  As soon as we try and leave that small enclosed square, we run into this guy.  I haven't eaten anything in days! Come on, please! Ok. Don't waste your money! He's probably just a bottom-feeder too lazy to get a job, and will just spend it on booze or drugs!On the other hand, we have like 40k lying around and therefore may very well be the richest man on the planet. We can spare a couple hundred yen. > Kazuya handed some money out to the man.  What's a "Macca?"  You cheapass son of a bitch! I hope you get turned into one of Ozawa's Shinjuku slaves! ...What, you don't know about Shinjuku? Go north of here, then head west. Get the hell out of here, you jerk!So, uh, all the money we had is now useless and we're poor again. On the other hand we get our exact amount of Yen in Macca now instead so there's no real difference beyond prices, what we get from selling things and a new icon for currency. Upon taking like two more steps...  > Kazuya heard a woman's scream. Hey, Kazuya, are you all right? What? A scream? I didn't hear anything... ...Help me... Kazuya... Help me...> A woman's voice echoed within the recesses of Kazuya's mind...  So this is now a thing that happens whenever we run around the overworld. It's just a short scene that deals a small amount of damage to Kazuya as a reminder of "hey you should go do this." There's also other things we could go do instead, mind you. The game gets a bit open ended here, not overly so but enough for there to be some variety in order. Between this and something about Ozawa and Shinjuku, I think we should do the latter first. Battle Now that the world's been, uh, revamped we get a bit of a change to the random encounters. Bucca-Boo here is a dude from the Kongokai and not really a threat.  There are also now killer robots that aren't mannequins running around. So, y'know, there's that.  And the repeat versions of this scene happen like random encounters too. They are also completely unchanged from the first time it happens.  Three buildings here in a layout that seems familiar... meh, probably just imagining it. Let's check out the one on the left first. Arcade Y'know, I was just kidding but this really does look new.  Now, it sorta doesn't. Go figure. Why yes, Jack Frost is quite out of place here and goes down in about 4 seconds.  So, let's take this one staircase we can and end up downstairs.  Which, of course, puts us in Shinjuku mall. It's entire layout is unchanged but there are a few differences from before. There's no Yuriko hanging out in a bar, for example, and there's no random encounters either!  Fortunately, there are still many NPCs around to talk to. Which is a good thing, since we need all the help we can get to figure out what we're doing.  Power is everything! In order to conquer and overcome in this harsh new world, it is of the utmost necessity! But God does not have that kind of power! The only one with both that kind of power and the courage to use it fairly is Lord Lucifer!Well, that wasn't quite what we're looking for right now. Let's...  This'll do. The old Knives store (and Survival... and Drugs...) has been replaced.  Hello, new upgrades. The SPAS12 is the strongest gun available thus far, of course, so I buy one. It can only hit 2-4 enemies though so I buy two M16s as well which are a bit weaker but can hit 2-8 things to make up for it. I also buy 3 Nerve Bullets because they're the strongest ammo and can inflict Sleep. Poisoned Bullets poison, of course, but are weaker than Shotgun Shells. They also don't render an enemy useless so they're not even considered.  The SPAS12 with Nerve rounds is really, really good geez.  The M16 isn't faring that much worse either.  The armor stores new lineup is a bit more than is implied here, but there's only two things on the second page that matter. The neat thing about this place is that the full lineup you can get here is considered Kaz's canon appearance from this point until the end of the game (and thus whenever its relevant he'll have a new portrait now). The Fire and Thunder Guards are both body pieces though. Fire is the weaker of the two and grants resitance to Fire; Thunder naturally does the same for Elec.  Needless to say, we buy 1 of everything we can use immediately. Yuji and Takeshi don't really need new armor despite still wearing what they brought with them, heh.  So, uh, now we'll just wander around and see if we can get some direction. This seems promising.  That building is teeming with them, and those foolish enough to venture inside couldn't take two steps before falling to the hordes within. Not only that, but I feel an incredibly strong presence from the top of each of its two towers. I wonder who, or what, could be up there?So, uh, fun fact. Despite being yellow on the map signalling its enterable, there is no way for us to enter the Tokyo Government Building. How curious...  Geez, of course there's a privatised police force. The, uh, underground brainwashing prisons is a bit of a repeat. Orias was more about the body mods, though, so it's at least somewhat different.  But, hey, speaking of the underground, let's go see what's chilling in the old Resistance HQ beneath the mall. Wonder if Yuka's waiting there for us again. Shibuya  Or did Ozawa send you here? Yes. Well, I don't care if he did! You're still not passing! The only one I'll let by is Ozawa himself! Battle Wow, rude. I think Kaz rolled a nat 1 on that bluff check, jeez.  Anyway, Wendigo's more of a miniboss than anything else we've fought thus far. So we need to buff to prepare for this. When he hits us, it's going to hurt so we need to mitigate it as best as we ca-  ....oh. Um, well, he never got a turn and is actually just a colossal chump. Moving on! Chaos   When he learned of my psychic power, he more or less made me his slave. Day after day, he forces me to enter the minds of people and twist them to his will. When I'm not doing that, I'm sitting here, caged up like an animal. But I can't say no, or else the demons Ozawa's all buddy-buddy with will kill me. Ah... God, I can't take this any more......! Heheh. Sorry to subject you to whining, kid. I complain, but it's better than being dead. ...Eh? Kazuya...? I'm sure you're just dying to know what the hell is going on, so I'll clue you in.Yes, please, keep expositing at me. It's very useful. Your spirit is inseparably tied with that of another... your "destined partner" so to speak. And that partner is in some deep, deep trouble right now. While approximately none of that is new at this point, it does clear up a few things. It also makes it really clear that Ozawa's literally all evil since he's using a man like a tool to brainwash people who disagree with him. Yeeeesh. So, remember how there was this side area next to this room before?  In there, we can find this Goblin in a different room. It's nothing special, but remember this exists for much, much later. You'll see...  Stepping back out into the overworld for a moment, since there's some stuff to see out here still. On the way to the nearest one, we run into the second tier of Gaian enemies; dudes with shotguns popping sick wheelies. They're really easy to negotiate with, but hard to recruit.  Law Amazingly enough, the giant TV screen still works! > The image of a Messian fills the screen of the Aurora vision viewer. ...Have faith in God! Only those who have not forgotten their love for God will be allowed to go there! Oh please, spare me from this bullshit! I see that intolerant proselytizing is still alive and well. This is a waste of time. Come on, let's get out of here. Wait, maybe we can get some good information out of this. Lord knows we could use some help in getting our bearings here anyway. Let's hear what they have to say. ...Our job is to live faithful lives in dedication to God and do his will. What th... Did you hear that...!? Thirty years!? Nope, I heard it all right! Is this really 30 years in the future? Did we spend that much time in the Kongokai? The destruction 30 years ago was a test for humanity, sent by God himself. Through the efforts of those that show that they can withstand the trial, yet still not lose their faith in God, Belief in God is of the utmost importance, faith is everything...> The sermon continues. So, uh, yeah. Turns out not only did the world get nuked to poo poo, we also spent 30 years chilling out in a different dimension. So while we haven't aged a day, the world kept on turnin'...  Oh, and of course we can run into Messian enemies too (Neutral-Law aligned, naturally). Only, uh, since Messian and Gaian are demon races, despite being people, they're also affected by the full moon. Don't think too hard about that.  Meanwhile, if we wanted to go check out say Gotou or Thor's old digs, we sorta can't. Being near ground zero wiped that entire section off the map and it hasn't recovered.  Actual ground zero is clearly meant to be that giant gently caress off crater in the ground. SNES perspective being wonky and weird I kept seeing it as, um, a sort of raised platform for ages. Somehow. Arcade Hey, so, let's go back to the one safe place we know and try and get more info. Time for a good ol' pub crawl! Let's start with the Resistance's.   Trying a stunt like that is risky though. If you get caught trying to skip town, the police will shoot you on sight!We could totally have gone to either Shibuya or Roppongi first, by the way. We could go to either right now in fact. We won't until we finish up here, but it's on the table for later. Next stop, uh, the old American Army hang out.  So maybe he's abusing his power a bit, but who am I to complain? After all, it's better than being dead. I guess it's, uh, helpful to see that the private police are only private in terms of being hired dudes. Feels like it would be worse if they were also secret or something. Anyway, last up is the old SDF haunt.   But recently I haven't heard a thing about her or what she's doing. I wonder what's up? Was it just a rumor? If we didn't already stumble across him, this'd be where we find out about the Psychodiver existing. Finding him is just a matter of remembering where things were originally which isn't too hard to do at least.  Our holy land, the Cathedral, is on the verge of being completed. It shall serve as the throne of God himself when he descends to Earth from the heavens!Speaking of remembering where things are, there is still the Disco to check out. Might be something new of use to learn there.  People say it's a nice place to live, but it's just a city of the dead, teeming with zombies!Well, uh, that's new if nothing else. What about its basement where that soldier was hiding, after having deserted Thorman? Shibuya Have you heard about Ozawa? He's the one that's running this town. Did you know how he keeps his stranglehold on power here? It's not through upright and virtuous ways, that's for certain! Essentially, Ozawa struck a deal with the demons, and is using their power in order to keep the town under his control. In exchange for protection from the demons, the townspeople are forced to follow Ozawa's orders and not oppose his will. If anyone DOES try to disobey him, Ozawa's privately hired police force will cart them off and have them brainwashed. Well, actually, while they call themselves a privately hired police force, Ozawa pretty much leaves the town to them, so behind his back they do whatever they want... ...extorting the townspeople and causing disturbances themselves. ......Oh poo poo! One of them's coming now! I gotta get out of here! If we're both still alive, I'll see you later! Well, that guy liked to talk a lot but it was all sort of old news at this point. Some of it was vaguely new but easy to infer. Still, it makes it clear at this point that despite very few of them being able to outwardly show it, Ozawa's clearly not well liked despite the protestations of the minority. But where the hell could he be? We've been everywhere of note in this place... Arcade On the way out, we might as well talk to the Bartender here too.  It's rumored because it's safe there, but I wonder. There was one guy who actually came back here after going there. The guy was white as a sheet and looked like he'd been to hell and back. He'd just escaped with his life, apparently. Dunno what the heck it means, he may have just been driven totally insane. But I wonder what's going down over there, you know?Clearly this Count dude really hates weed. Like, a lot. Kind of a shame the Yakuza don't exist any more otherwise we might've been able to swing something with tha-- ...Wait, the Yakuza.  You probably don't remember it, but upstairs in the mall there was this random office that had no purpose. All that was there was this old dude claiming to be the head of the Yakuza. That's the one room we haven't been back to yet.  Sure enough, it's now been repurposed into Ozawa's office. Let's go say hi. Chaos Disappointingly, old "businessman" Ozawa does not have official art. Ozawa! You haven't changed a bit! You're as corrupt as you always were! You dominate and claim your power by suppressing the weak, just like you did 30 years ago! Ho ho, what kind of nonsense are you talking about, boy? Are you saying you don't like the way I do things? Think! Those who obey me can survive in this dog-eat-dog world without worry. What's the harm? Shut up! I'm not going to let you get away with this!! Foolish child, why won't you listen to reason?  Battle Alright, so Take-Minakata is the first Kishin we've seen but not even close to the weakest of them. Kishin are Light-Chaos so we can't recruit any, but that's cool since I am very sure none are random encounters anyway. Anyway, this guy's obviously electric oriented so it's a good thing we have Apsa-  Oh, well I guess he gets the first hit. Sure, whatever. We only heard a brief rumour once that he existed so that's fair. Still, Apsar-  Well, um. Never mind then. He just hit us once and it crippled everyone instantly. Yeesh. It's no good! He's too strong! We can't beat him, let's run! drat it all! And after finally making it this far... So, uh, we need to go and... figure out a way to deal with this. Now, does anyone have any bright ideas?   The Chaos Hero's updated artwork, and Ozawa of 30 years ago.
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Oct 13, 2015 00:15
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SMT is like Pokemon but darker, right? Well, Take-minakata is an electric demon, so clearly you should get a ground demon to beat it! 
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Oct 13, 2015 06:43
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Blaze Dragon posted:SMT is like Pokemon but darker, right? Well, Take-minakata is an electric demon, so clearly you should get a ground demon to beat it! Well, in Strange Journey Jimenez's demon form is Soil Jimenez, so considering how we get through this, maybe you're onto something there.
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Oct 13, 2015 14:00
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Are we acting under the assumption that Ozawa's got our opposite number? I mean, it seems reasonable, but Ozawa's captive didn't bring up exactly where she was.
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Oct 13, 2015 18:42
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Argh! The fluttering of his eyelids is too powerful!
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Oct 13, 2015 19:16
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Arcade Okay, so my plan for this is to just Grind A Lot. It's not the most exciting but I hear it works for everything else. No, I'm not serious.  Good God, are you insane, Takeshi!? If you fuse with a demon, you'll no longer be human! What good will defeating him do if you have to throw away your humanity to do it? Yuji! You wouldn't understand... If you'd have gone through what I have, maybe you'd see my point of view. Oh, uh, despite the majority of the mall being demon-free there are a few wandering around upstairs though. They're almost exclusively various ranks of Gaians (like three different types) and an assortment of undeads. Nothing too exciting though.  Also, I remembered the infinite free end-game weapons but forgot you couldn't do it until post-Kongokai. Getting free Ame-no-Murakumos forever sounds nice and amazing, and it is, but it's super boring so we won't.  What we will do, is grab a couple random trash demons and then head to a Cathedral of Shadows. We do kinda need to make some more new things after all. Heretic Mansion I need more strength to defeat Ozawa... No... To fight and survive in this dog-eat-dog world! I'm going to fuse myself with a demon to achieve that end! Nobody will pick on me again.. or defeat me any more!! So, uh, yeah. Takeshi steals a demon at semi-random from our stock at this point and forcibly fuses himself with it. Naturally he prioritises demons with Chaos alignments, and in this case went for the Gaian for that exact reason. Were it not for having that, he'd have taken Forneus instead.  In return for losing a demon I grabbed solely to not lose something maybe later useful, Takeshi gained 10 levels and got a sweet new design. Now we can go back to Ozawa, and hopefully get somewhere with this particular plot beat. Chaos You kids remind me of a group of troublemakers I dealt with a long time ago... and you look like them to boot! Ozawa! You won't beat me this time! Why do you insist on opposing me? Master Take-Minakata, please capture these upstarts! Hah! I've got what it takes to take this sucker on now! Boss: Kishin Take-Minakata Boss BattleThis time, we were expecting it so we get the upperhand.  Mostly we'll use this to eke out as much damage as we can with no risk of retaliation. Apsaras is using it to start stacking Rakukajas though, since Take-Minakata can and potentially will drop someone if we don't.  Even with two, one of the tankiest demons available loses almost half his max HP. Yuji would probably not survive.  I can actually guarantee he wouldn't if I didn't also upgrade his armor when you weren't looking. Just to be safe, since he needed it. Oh, right. Uh, Take-Minakata is not at all difficult. He just mostly tries to hit you really hard.  Sometimes he'll cast Shibaboo, Bufula or Mazionga but he'll almost never get the chance. His 560HP lasts no time at all really. Bonus: Swords, Fire and Force are three of the four things he doesn't resist. Also Yuji knows all of his spells so he's becoming tanky now. End Demon Appears Please, I'm sorry, I was wrong! D-don't kill me... Please! Okay. Hey, are you serious!? You're actually going to look the other way and spare him? Do you honestly think he's going to reform his ways after what he's done? Yes. Well, we tried at least?  Kazuya! Yuji! Listen, you guys are great but let's face it. The world has changed, and you have to fight for your very survival. Your soft-hearted approach is at best going to slow me down, at worst get us all killed! With the power I've gotten through fusing with that demon, I don't really need to rely on you to survive any more either... I think it's probably best for me to go it alone from here on. See ya! If we're all still alive, I hope to see you again!> Takeshi left. ArcadeSo, uh, yeah that also just happened. We're back down to just two characters and only being able to field three demons. Gonna have to fix that one of these days.  Since Ozawa's died now, there's been a few dialogue changes around the mall. Some haven't, some aren't worth our time.  Between all of our actions, demons used, demons beaten up and now trying to spare Ozawa, our alignment has actually tipped into Law. We can promptly fix this by being bastards... or donating a couple thousand Macca to this guy. I pick the latter.  Also with Ozawa now dead, the demons don't stay upstairs and are wandering around the entire mall again. I think we may have actually hosed up a little here.  Lastly before talking to people, buying one of these. The game will not tell us it's needed for a little while, but it absolutely is.  Now we can blunder around getting a few new lines of dialogue.  The people are divided on Ozawa's passing, but the one thing they seem to agree on is that they can give the former private police officers their just desserts. Naturally, most of them have scrapped the uniform and are just regular folk again.  Honestly, this is a good point and we can't stick around to eradicate all the demons. Can't even come close, really. On the whole, yeah, getting rid of Ozawa wasn't a bad thing by any means but it doesn't seem to have had any net gain on average life for those that weren't trying to fight against him.  And evidence suggests the people actually still opposed to him was just us. Everyone else resigned themselves to it, got brainwashed ages ago or didn't really mind since at least they got to survive.  We didn't even really open up an escape route, since the world outside was teeming with demons already. Now they have to contend with the demons inside as well.  Small brightside: at least we can let this guy out of his prison cell. Wooo-hah! Man, I wanted a nice cold drink of some hard liquor for so long, it was driving me crazy! First stop: the bar! Time to go get smashed out of my mind!I think we're pretty much done here, so we should leave very soon. I'm thinking Shibuya for our next destination. It's that or zombies, and I think we can park the zombies for when we're out of options.  In the mean time, we'll run around and grab a few more visionary items. There's a small room directly behind the old revolutionary bar which now contains a Cloudy Shaker.  Kicking Take-Minakata's rear end again lets us grab Ozawa's old Balisong. Y'know, that butterfly knife he had and never used.  And after freeing the Psychodiver, we can go west from his cell and find a random Black Mask. Let's go through 'em in this same order. Arcade I'm sorry, Miss, but we don't-  Don't try to hide it. I know. This place is... Whoa...! Keep it down. Of course I know about you... I believe in your magic and your gift of prophecy. Still, though... it hasn't been long since we started taking action. We don't even really have a leader to speak of. We're just a bunch of folks who don't like the way Gotou and the Americans do things. Yes. That's why I'd like to offer my powers... I think I can help you. No, no... Joining the Resistance could end up putting your life at risk. We'd love your powers, of course, but we can't accept them in exchange for a girl's life. Then please believe me when I say something dreadful will happen soon. There's... something I must do before that. Please... Maybe you can be the leader who brings us all together... Still, though. Pascal's Theme > Immediately after the Great Cataclysm... Oww... poo poo. What WAS that just now...? Looks like that Gotou screwed up somewhere along the line. Huh? What's this? Hm... Looks like it's much better than my Demon Summoning Program. Well... a dead man's got no use for it, so it's mine now. I'll put it to better use anyway. Heh... Heheheh. Now I can summon a ton more demons! Heh...! Heheh! Heheheheh!> 10 years after the Great Cataclysm. In a certain office building...   Who the hell are you!? G-Gaaaaaah! What's going on here? What's with the commotion...? Hey there, chief. Name's Ozawa. Oh...? So you're that Ozawa. I hear you've been causin' a big mess on my turf. Yeah, but that's gonna end today. Oh yeah? What, you came to say goodbye? Heh heh heh... Sorry, but starting today, this is MY turf. What!? Okay, I'm done takin' your poo poo. Deal with him, boys. Heh. You're not the only one who can call for backup. Come on out, demons! Y-You can summon demons!? G-Gaaaaaaaah...! Heheh... Heh. Shinjuku's mine now. And I won't let anyone take it from me. Its wealth and people are all mine! Hahahaha!Since the divide here isn't quite as clear, from this point is the Black Mask. Chaos  Mr. Ozawa, sir? We've brought him. Ah, well done. So this is the man they call the Psychodiver...... All right, you're dismissed. Yes, sir. Wh-What do you want with me? I've heard you can tamper in people's minds. That makes you a dangerous individual. N-No... my power is for treating people... Be that as it may... leaving you to do as you please is a hazard to security. ...... I could execute you here... but might there be a better way? ...Fine... I'll do whatever you ask. What would you have me do? You can enter people's minds, right? Then show me. Make me feel good. Hm...? Let's see here... How about a dream? Dive into my mind and give me a dream that'll make me feel good. Wha...!? But that's...! Are you saying you can't do it? No, that's not what I meant... It's just, messing with dreams is a tough business. Exhausting, too. So long as it's possible, who cares? Do it. And if you try anything funny, my Enforcers will kill you. Let's see here... We'll begin with me taking full control of Tokyo. Soon after that, I take over the whole country. Eventually, the whole world bows before me. That's the kind of dream I'd like to see. Everyone the world over will obey me... Let's get that dream going, starting today! Haaahahahaha! ...... Chaos Hero post fusion. It's a pretty cool design, I think.
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Oct 16, 2015 00:28
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...wait, what happened to the update halfway through?
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Oct 16, 2015 01:23
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You know, after the Strange Journey LP, I can appreciate Takeshi a lot here. Sure, he left the team, but not out of anger or anything, he just thought it'd be best that way. Hell, he was pretty nice all the way through. He's still a bro, demon or not. Much unlike Jimenez who's just an rear end, Takeshi keeps being friendly even when he decides that the team dynamic just isn't working.
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Oct 16, 2015 04:29
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Thinking about it, the gaian type 'demons' are actually just regular dudes, to the point they have a bunch of special rules in SMT2 (and maybe this game, but I don`t really remember) so human + human = demon power human. it`s like the fusion version of dividing by zero
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Oct 16, 2015 05:45
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FredMSloniker posted:...wait, what happened to the update halfway through? I'm guessing this is from the A-Mode DDS of the remakes where we get side cinemas we weren't a part of before, like when we saw mom get killed off earlier in the LP.
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Oct 16, 2015 07:11
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It makes me wonder, were those fusion booths set up to tempt people into fusing with demons?
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Oct 17, 2015 17:59
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When I played, the chaos hero would insist on fusing with my Rusalka or whatever it's called. The Rusalka was at that point my main healer. After some reloadings, I just gave up and then after a few battles, encountered and replaced my Rusalka. That was a bunch of unnecessary reloadings. Anyway, anyone remember the dog? It's been 30 years, so he should be dead if we left him as a normal dog. As Cerberus, who knows how long he may live? A level 40 demon also seems more likely to survive in this world than a dog.
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Oct 17, 2015 22:28
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Ruins Now that we've "rescued" Shinjuku from the tyranny of not getting mauled by demons, we're heading on out towards Shibuya I suppose. It's closer than Roppongi and doesn't have zombie rumors.  It's not all that far south of where we arrived after we finished the Kongokai, honestly. On the way there, though, there is this tempting red building. You may enter it thinking it's a small place with a free Cathedral of Shadows. It is neither of these things. We'll be back to see its deal later. For now, we'll keep going south.  Along the way there, there is yet another building off to the side that stands out. This time, it stands out because there is no way to get to it. At all. Weird.  Anyway, this less interesting seeming place is our actual destination. Shibuya So, uh, this is Shibuya at long last. We've been hearing its music since the first dungeon and it... really took the brunt of that whole world ending thing.  It has no Gaian or Messian healing places. It's void of all things Gaian period, for that matter. To the right of the entrance there's a neutral healer and junk store at least.  A little forward and left of the entrance we can find our first new terminal for a long while. It's not that useful right now, since the only place we can travel to is Shinjuku which is a short walk away. Law To the right of the terminal, there is a Messian room... but it's not for healing.  To tell the truth, it's mostly because of a rumor floating around that our Messiah has become possessed by demons. It is a lie, of course, but because of it, trust in us has decreased and donations have been really low as a result. Please, in the name of God and those that seek his salvation, give us a small donation... Say, 1000 Macca? Yes. Oh, what dedication! God surely looks down on you with his divine favor! Thank you! We have taken one small step towards completing our church! May God's blessing be upon you...Like with the Gaian dude before, this is entirely for getting a few alignment points to try and even things out. We're still pretty undecided even after this though. It's not a significant amount but it can help if you've been too Chaotic for your own liking. Shibuya Now we'll go to the left of the Terminal. There's another immediate turn here which we'll ignore for the moment, the first door leads to an empty room, the second door leads further inside and the turn left...  Leads to a sort of out of the way Cathedral of Shadows. Has its uses though.  Especially since there's really very few new demons in this place. Elf is the only good one of them, and we could've had one already if I bothered ranking up any of the fairies we currently have. Which I didn't, because Elf does not have Marin Karin.  Dwarf is bad though. Not even ever gonna fight the things. Just always going to Threaten him and then take a couple hundred Magnetite since he's so easy to intimidate into giving us the stuff.  So that little passageway we ignored before... it has a lot of people in it.  When it is completed, God himself will descend from the heavens there and bring an era of peace to the world... Long Live the Messian Church! Where is it? I can't tell any unbelieving heathens that. Like, okay there's only 4 of them but they're all in a straight line right here. How on Earth do they plan to do it, and where is that energy going to come from... It makes it feel like there's more than there actually are is the point here.  If only I had that, I wouldn't need to fear them... It's not like there's really much exciting back here either. What with that forcefield surrounding Roppongi, I can't even get close. Law Well, okay there is that.  Ozawa's tyranny has finally been brought to an end! Witness! This is an act of God! God has brought this miracle to show his worshippers that he has not forgotten them! He is always watching us from on high! Shibuya Right so, anyway, now that we're done with the more inhabited area, let's explore the rest of this place proper. Don't worry about the orange numbers right now, they'll make sense later.  The two chests are both incenses.  The first one we can come across is the Luck, with the second one being Intelligence. They'll join the rest collecting dust for the moment. I might remember to one day use them, maybe.  As an added bonus, one of the Messian "demons" just handed me his sword after I lied to him. The Plasma Sword requires a Law alignment to use, so it's going in Yuji's hands since it is just the Kodachi of Light but better.  So, at this turn we'll actually go right first. Left leads to the stairs up...  And at the orange 1 we can find this forced encounter against a single Rusalka. Nothing else special about it, but just getting rid of it while I remember.  NOW we can go upstairs.  2nd floor is more of the same at first, but who's ready for the worst gimmick? I know I never will be, but I'm the only one who has to put up with it. We'll step inside that second door on the left...  And we get fog rooms now. Fog rooms are the worst. They look exactly like this for every single square. You can see nothing, and the only way to know you're getting nowhere is via sound. These ones aren't too bad but later ones are actual proper mazes. With hidden treasure and everything.  These bad boys are the sole reason I am making these maps (as I'm sure some of you figured out rather quickly). Because the in-game map is useless for them. It tells you its a fog room, but that's all it tells you. Right now, that information is roughly enough at least. (The curves are one-way doors; can enter from the open side of course.)  After we get past the first fog area, we get gabbed at by an Old Man. His sole purpose is to let us know the Psychodiver exists at Shinjuku if we haven't been there yet. I'm sure this will not be important.  Also now that Yuji's getting Vitality his HP skyrockets from like 50 to a real value. How nice!  So, that chest by this orange 2 contains a Garnet. This is important for much, much later. You'll see.  The two itself... is a pit trap. It drops us down to the first floor. Fantastic.  So, uh, as nice as this retranslation is (and it is infinitely better than Aeon Genesis' in places)... it's not perfect by any means. Case in point, this.  We'll head to totally not Yuka, honest, in a moment. For now, we'll go the other way towards the 1. On the way there, we get some info most likely on that building we can't get to.  The chest over there contains a... Diamond. This will also be very, very useful later. I think we're just missing one part of it now, even.  The orange 1 is of course another pit trap, but we're basically stuck rerunning this entire floor anyway. The chest by not-at-all-Yuka contains another incense.  Right in front of the room is a lone Messian. This has to be the work of the Gaian church... it couldn't be anything else! Please! Save our Messiah!Sure, whatever. Let's go see who's in this room, shall we? Chaos  Well, uh, I guess there's nothing here we can do after all. What a waste of time, let's just go to Roppongi then.  And by Roppongi I totally meant back to Shinjuku, yeah. Arcade It's at this point in this particular plot line we'd NEED to overthrow Ozawa just to free Psychodiver if nothing else. Since we already did that, he's just chilling at a bar instead. It's thanks to you that I can even be here too! So you say that there's been this voice that's been calling to you in your mind whenever the moon is full...Kind of, but mostly no. It's only whenever we're outside and there's a full moon.  At any rate, because of your connection, whatever is messing with her mind is affecting yours as well. Let's have a look-see. ............ Looks like the voice you've been hearing is a girl in Shibuya. You rescued me, now it's my turn to help you. Perhaps there's something I can do about this. Yeah, we'll just skip all the way back to the cell on the second floor of Shibuya. Chaos Someone, or something, has burrowed into the deepest recesses of her spirit. In order to free her, whatever it is has got to go. In thanks for saving me, I'll use my psychic powers to astrally project us into her mind. Let's go on in! Protagonist post-Kongokai updated artwork.
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Oct 18, 2015 22:25
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Ah, additional brain dungeons. We've actually notched a decent number of those, for a game not named "Persona" and all.
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Oct 19, 2015 00:37
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