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 So, today the very first thing we're going to do is give the Pyro Jack $50,000 for one Impel Stone. This one stone is going to be put through its paces before we're done here.  Anyway, let's go back to the EGG and talk to this guy.  Well, y-you're not going back in! I'm w-w-warning you! 'Cause inside... Inside, there's...! And, hell, while we're here, we might as well talk to the others and all.  Varin was correct... but in a way, also mistaken.  I created friends using the images of people who I knew and cared about. They told me to erase everyone when I created the Junkyard... But, I couldn't do it. I'm sorry Heat... I'm sorry Argilla... ...everyone... It's cruel, isn't it...? You can blame me...  It might have started out like dat, but now we're just ourselves, ja? Heat and Argilla chose deir own paths... Just like us. I can't believe you were modeled after such a sleaze bag... But, Sera was just a kid then -- well, she's still a kid, right? It just proves that you can't trust adults... Right inside, by the elevator there's this guy just off to the side a little. Johnny and the man freaking out in front of said elevator are gone, though.  Let's see what his deal is, shall we?  Serph, if there's a chance she's involved, we cannot ignore it. Will you allow me to interrogate him? Okay, it's up to you. This should be a good warm-up for my bet against Cielo. N-Nothing... I just stopped by... R-Really, that's all! I don't... I don't know a-anything! If you're trying to protect yourself, there is no point. Wh-What...!? The world ends in the morning. If you're hiding something, now is the time to spit it out. Hm... Your logic is contradictory. You claimed to have just stopped by, but then you said that your orders brought you here. Did you not? ...Sure, I came here because the Director ordered it... But, I was told to wait here! It doesn't change the fact that I don't know anything! What is it you're waiting for? How am I supposed to know!? The researchers inside are your friends, are they not? Why won't you help them? Psh... No way! Hmph... There is a flaw in your story. You were ordered to wait here, and claim not to know what happened inside, but in fact do you realize that you essentially told us you'd gone inside the EGG? ...Very careless. ...poo poo. Wait... What? Tell me what Jenna wanted you to do here. You know the Director's name... How are you two related? She's... an old friend. I see... There's something... you should know. Their minds have eroded to a point where they don't remember anything about this world. ...They're going to destroy us all. The Director knew this -- that's why they were sealed in the first place. She's... different from before. Lately, it feels like there's darkness all around her. Please... Defeat the angels, if you can. Where are they? I was in such a hurry to get out of there, I'm not sure... Or in other words: there is one inside still, somewhere. And by "somewhere" I mean right at the end, because obviously, right? Just gotta run all the way back there first. Well, let's get moving.  First though, unlocked a new Esoteric mantra almost immediately. It's not really worth the hassle; Level Gift just makes it more likely than you get a random event from the person with it when they level up. Really not worth wasting a slot on.  Also now the layout is a mix of the two from before. It has the aesthetics, damage areas and shut off segments as before... but we can run around freely like normal now. The warp points are gone which makes things nicer.  We're gonna skip way, way ahead to near the end of the EGG Facility already. At the start of B12 there's this room we just skipped past last time.  It lets us pick up two Medical Gears which is pretty damned amazing. Let's be real, te Graven Image is more than sufficient right now, but free Medical Gears is nice all the same.  Over to the east of the life terminal, there's the one room I sorta shouldn't have skipped over before.  It's not gotten anything major in it, but a new ring is not something to ignore either. This one just makes it so the wearer gets more HP back when healed. On its own, its meh but there's still a reason to get it.  And right by the end of the dungeon, everyone gets +3 Magic for good measure. Inside the room where we fought Abaddon...  Epic Battle ~ Prelude  These stone dolls... I have seen them before. Yes, we took the betrayers and turned them to stone. No, this is not the same. I thirst... I must find a way to rid myself of this thirst! Optional Boss: Herald UrielThe game calls it "Light" but its still Daitenshi (Archangel) which is almost always translated as "Herald." I'm inclined to call "Light" an error, because there IS an actual translation error with a later one... Hunting ~ BetrayalThere's no Betrayal here, but we sure as poo poo are goin' huntin'!  Being an angel and all, Uriel is quite inclined to cast (Ma)Hamaon fairly often but also not really.  He IS the angel of fire and all, so he's weak to ice. Ugh.  He can cast Agidyne, but basically never does. So instead he prioritises Ziodyne as his main attack. Which he does not resist at all.  Naturally, he drains Fire but also voids Earth and resists Physicals. That's it.  So, the big thing with the angels here is that they reference SMT2. Very, very heavily. I will cast you down to hell! Once he loses ~1500HP of his 3500, he adds a couple new skills to his repertoire. Judgement is the only interesting one though.  It's heavy Fire damage and a Rakunda rolled into one. Pretty much the single biggest reason why you don't want both Serph and Sera in this fight together.  Although if you watched the video, you won't see even half of this poo poo because Uriel is a gigantic loving pushover. He gets obliterated in what is effectively three hits by Sera. Anyway, the Karma is mediocre, the money isn't great, the drop is meh (+4 Vit gem) and... no AP? Weird that one. End Well, that's one down. Our next one is over at the processing dome. It's in the room where we collected the can after turning a dead slime into food for Kumbhanda. Epic Battle ~ Prelude  Who... am I? I thirst... I must quench this thirst... Optional Boss: Herald Raphael Hunting ~ Betrayal Raphael's already been more of a threat then Uriel ever could be, just by using something other than a spell. It hits everyone for middling physical damage and can inflict poison maybe. That's it.  His name makes him the angel of healing and helping the sick, so of course he inflicts one meh ailment and tries to hit you with force spells.  The force one is more important though, since that means he's weak to electricity.  Logically then, he uses Ziodyne himself. Because of course he bloody well does.  No... I'm Raphael... My duty is to build the Millennial Kingdom by God's authority! Witness the fury of the heavens! Much like Uriel, he has 3500HP and once he loses ~1500 he adds a couple new skills. Again, Winged Fury is the only one that matters.  Heavy Force damage and a Sukunda rolled in one. Judgement was more threatening because it's possible to hit a weakness and makes itself hit harder.  Again, Raphael is a total jobber and we just obliterate him in basically no time at all. Same EXP/money as Uriel, but somehow an even worse gem drop (+4 Agility). Still no AP though. End Number three is over by Karma Tower. But first, since we're in the area we might as well get a little bit of extra information and all.  Argilla was a kind nurse, who treated me like a little sister. And... The chief doctor was very gentle. ...I loved him. But, it was all just a dream... That was just how I saw those people in my mind. A lot of talented children went mad... ...and died. I remember this one really bright kid from South America or the Caribbean or something... I think that sounds vaguely familiar, but I just can't think of what. Epic Battle ~ Prelude Anyway, our next opponent is up on the helipad.  Where is the savior? Where is the millenium? I thirst... I must quench this thirst! Optional Boss: Herald Gabriel Hunting ~ Betrayal Gabriel is simultaneously the hardest and easiest of the three angels we've fought to date. She runs on a very, very strict pattern that is never deviated from. Tentarafoo is always her first move.  And it is from this that you will probably learn that, no, despite what the internet wants you to think, Cielo's weakness is NOT just Nerve (he even had Null Nerve equipped in this fight!).  Speaking of weaknesses, Gabriel's is Force. For what its worth, this is a Mind Charged Zanma after 3 Makakajas. Without Zandyne, it's just not worth the hassle.  Anyway, Gabriels third move is Silent Howl. We've seen that plenty by now though.  Next is Neural Shock, which IS Nerve elemental. After that is a charm, then curse but she never gets that far.  I... I am Gabriel... My duty is to build the Millennial Kingdom according to God's will. May God bless us all... Heavenly Smile is one of Gabriel's new moves in the second half of the fight. She breaks her pattern here, kind of, and opts instead to use ailments randomly.  Speaking of which, Heavenly Smile is the nastiest main new move of all 3 angels. It's almighty elemental and attempts to inflict Panic and Charm. Nothing else, but that's nasty enough with just that it sort of doesn't need anything else.  She normally follows it up with Tentarafoo (at least at first) but sometimes she does this instead. And this is infinitely the more dangerous option.  Because then she will do this. And this will actually kind of hurt.  Relatively, it's way tougher than everything else we've eaten to date. Even hitting Sera as hard as Judgment did.  ..Admittedly, the Mind Charge helped but hey.  She also throws around instant death spells. And by spells I mean just this one.  For reference, she drains Elec and is immune to Earth. That's it. So, any non-Zio/Teradyne will just destroy her right and proper quick even if its not Zan.  Same old stuff as before, but the reward is actually better for once. The Star Sapphire is a very rare item because its straight up +5 to a random stat. EndIf we beat 600,000 points in the Cielo shmup minigame, we can get 2 of them. Apparently. Never done it myself and probably never will.  Speaking of which, let's go back to the Lokapala's base and...  Cap off the Mad Mart's rank. Actually quite surprised by how easy that was to do for once. It's normally not done until the final dungeon.  Anyway, this lets us get the Revival Orb. Which is hella expensive, oh my god. Gonna get that later, then.  It also opens up our third and last special box. Too expensive and time consuming to grind the shite ring it gives us right now, but...  Even without that, they're worth buying up anyway. The best results we could get, by far. All Data is available from them (still not the best way to grab that though), best healing and even Somas.  Max rank also lets us get the last two SP rings which we'll buy right away. Now we've gotten every ring we can get from here, save for the last box one. We can also buy like two new bullets but ahahahaha nah.   Good business means doing whatever it takes to support your customers. I'm sure my husband would agree. But anyway, our real reason for coming here is to head to the Occupied Sector.  This is where our final optional boss is waiting, out on the Surface area about halfway through. There's no point coming here until Uriel, Raphael and Gabriel are beaten though... Epic Battle ~ Prelude Also this is why we never get AP from the first three.  We are not like this twisted black sun... But, as we have arrived here, it's our duty to establish a thousand-year kingdom.  Repent of your sins! Optional Boss: Herald Michael (et al) Hunting ~ Betrayal So, this fight is a bit tedious but also really fun. It starts off against Uriel who is completely identical to when we last fought him in every way.  I will cast you down to hell!Same level (35 for all the nothing that means), same health, same skills, resistances... the works.  So, we'll just blitz the first three while taking advantage of their existance to prep for Michael.  Sadly, we fight the angels all on their own. Nothing as cool as fighting 3 at once a la Nocturne. Enough! I'll show you the glory of God's design! Lord, give me strength!^ dialogue what we accidentally skipped ^  Witness the fury of the heavens! And next up is Gabriel who, like the others, is completely identical to before. Right down to the same pattern and everything.  Though this is not our world, I cannot forsake Michael and the others.  May God bless us all... But she too falls in no time. And then we get Michael.  Michael has 5,000HP and no weakness (loving finally). Unfortunately aside from the requisite boss resistances, his only resistance is... being immune to Electric. That's it. It also makes Bufu/Zandyne really stupid good in this fight. Either one decimates 3/4ths of these guys (and one gal).  I shall avenge their deaths! Michael is the first dude that actually does something if you buff to +3 or debuff him to -3. He responds to either by opening with a Rage.  He then straight up dispells them on the spot. He won't touch either Dekunda or Dekaja if you push them to +/-2 though. At least he tries?  He can then do either Mind or Power Charge. Which one is, I believe, completely random.  Mind is preferable though, because he follows that with Megidolaon.  It hits harder than Gabriel's did, sure, but that's still preferable. Power Charge gets followed by a Ragnarok. Yeah.  Whenever he's not getting pissed the gently caress off, he just uses a Heavy random phys skill rarely.  He also can cast the ST Dynes. Like, all of 'em. This fact is why you might consider switching Gale out for Serph at this point; that way he can only potentially hit one weakness so its easy to cover.  Meh, not bothering here. Serph is not setup for this fight at all and we might as well put this Impel Stone to good use right now. This is the "canonical" use of that one we bought right at the start, for what its worth.  Michael's main "element" in isolation is Physical, so Enervate to cripple that right away.  Much like the others, Michael changes things up after losing some health. In this case, it's after 2,000. He drops the Dynes now and replaces them with...  The random medium damage spells. This is technically more effctive, but in some ways its a step back.  Spare them not your divine judgement... Die, false messiah!He also adds his unique powerful skill when he hits... critical HP. Welp.  Omnipotence sounds big and threatening and amazing, doesn't it? Like it's going to be pretty potent Almighty damage or something.  Pfffft, nah. It's Mega Physical damage and nothing else. He'll also add Bloodbath at this stage, so Attack Mirrors/Phys Repel ruin him at the end.  And so, that's that. Get a meh amount of Karma for what we just did, a wonderful amount of money though and the Gospel. Gospel is the third best bullet in the game and we can actually get two of 'em. One from this and another one later. This is also where we get AP from all this. And it's a surprisingly low amount for the End Their remaining data returns to the Sun and becomes one with God.  Michael's our first "real" optional boss and the first that gives us a new Mantra for our troubles too.  Unrelatedly, we also got Esoteric 8 and Null Sleep is just as good as before. With the ring that draws attacks to the wearer, we can put it to a bit better use this time around. At least in theory. Not as good as it sounds in practice though.  Anyway, Dragonslayer costs $1.5million; its description is a goddamn lie, because it contains NO skills Michael had or could ever use; one comes close but our version is straight up better. Sadly, we need the mantra with Samarecarm to even see what it contains (but spoiler alert its Fire of Sinai and a really good Phys skill). Regardless! Next time: we'll be going to the airport. Let's commandeer us an airplane. Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 07:30 on Mar 5, 2015 |
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Mar 5, 2015 05:27
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Dragonatrix posted:Regardless! Next time: we'll be going to the airport. Let's commandeer us an airplane.
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Mar 5, 2015 05:38
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AradoBalanga posted:Given this game is sort of the United States, I'm hoping it's not O'Hare or LaGuardia that we have to suffer through for the next dungeon. Well we're going to HAARP which means we're probably on the west coast. I spoiler it because I don't think they've mentioned it by name yet, and they definitely didn't just steal the name because the facility itself looks pretty much accurate.
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Mar 5, 2015 06:33
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So, LAX. Truly we left Hell only to enter another Hell.
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Mar 5, 2015 06:35
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Feinne posted:Well we're going to HAARP which means we're probably on the west coast. I think they mention the facility name once during the cutscene showing God getting mad and starting the data consumption.
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Mar 5, 2015 07:00
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So the thing that just occurred to me. Sera is basically a magical Serph right? And starting off at the stats Serph was at when he leaves the party. So is the reason that magical Serph is a bad idea because Sera basically builds that?
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Mar 5, 2015 11:48
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There's a bit more to it but that's one of the things. While I enjoy the original SMT throwbacks, for some reason I've never been a fan of Michael's design.
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Mar 5, 2015 12:10
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SMT2 is the raddest SMT game, so the angels are the raddest minibosses.  It's kinda sad that that's all the backstory you get on Cielo, but he does make up for it by being A, the most awesome party member, and B, God.
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Mar 5, 2015 13:10
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Well it's not the design really. I just think he's a really gaudy shade of red, ever since SMT1 when he and the other three were the final bosses(and probably just as pathetic if not more so than in this game). Green angels, purple angels, blue angels, eh, no problem. Red? Booo. Kinda petty, I know. Although on closer inspection he looks orange this time around and I'm ok with that! For some reason. HGH fucked around with this message at 13:46 on Mar 5, 2015 |
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Mar 5, 2015 13:41
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vilkacis posted:SMT2 is the raddest SMT game, so the angels are the raddest minibosses. SMT2 is the most tedious SMT to play but drat that story is cool. The archangels are pretty tight too.
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Mar 5, 2015 15:21
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HGH posted:Well it's not the design really. I just think he's a really gaudy shade of red, ever since SMT1 when he and the other three were the final bosses(and probably just as pathetic if not more so than in this game). Green angels, purple angels, blue angels, eh, no problem. Red? Booo. Kinda petty, I know. Probably because red brings the classic devil to mind.
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Mar 5, 2015 17:22
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Keldulas posted:So the thing that just occurred to me. Sera is basically a magical Serph right? And starting off at the stats Serph was at when he leaves the party. So is the reason that magical Serph is a bad idea because Sera basically builds that? That's...one reason to do it. Another reason is that without Heat we really don't have a physical character. There is a third reason which will make sense later and is actually the most important reason.
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Mar 5, 2015 18:36
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So, I feel like bringing this up since we've gotten so far but... what exactly is the purpose of elemental bullet combos? I've never used them and stuff that's weak to gun isn't usually weak to another element (and if it is then why go to the trouble of being human?). Do they have good base power or something?
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Mar 5, 2015 22:35
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CmdrKing posted:So, LAX.
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Mar 5, 2015 22:47
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HGH posted:So, I feel like bringing this up since we've gotten so far but... what exactly is the purpose of elemental bullet combos? I've never used them and stuff that's weak to gun isn't usually weak to another element (and if it is then why go to the trouble of being human?). Do they have good base power or something? The same reason 90% of combos exist: because it's cool.
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Mar 5, 2015 23:04
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AradoBalanga posted:Then let us be glad that Atlus decided to be kind and spare us the monumental clusterfuck that is The Los Angeles Highway Experience. The constant random encounters are going to encapsulate the hour long waiting experience in traffic.
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Mar 5, 2015 23:35
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Nondevor posted:The constant random encounters are going to encapsulate the hour long waiting experience in traffic. Yes the final dungeon may as WELL be the freeway.
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Mar 5, 2015 23:36
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If you're emulating this, couldn't you just slow down the game to get a high score in the SHMUP? gently caress playing those legit if you have to. Yakuza series!!! 
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Mar 6, 2015 01:37
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Way to make chumps of the four archangels, now we've REALLY pissed god off...I think...it's hard to tell with YHVH's three facial expressions.
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Mar 6, 2015 19:17
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Those are some interesting optional bosses. What skills are actually in Dragonslayer? Victory Cry?
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Mar 7, 2015 06:15
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Glazius posted:Those are some interesting optional bosses. What skills are actually in Dragonslayer? Victory Cry? It's a couple of nice offensive skills that are questionably worth the expense of actually learning the mantra as I recall.
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Mar 7, 2015 06:29
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Feinne posted:It's a couple of nice offensive skills that are questionably worth the expense of actually learning the mantra as I recall. Isn't that the case for like...90% of the end-game mantras though? I mean come on. these mantras are a money sink and a half.
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Mar 7, 2015 16:16
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Kemix posted:Isn't that the case for like...90% of the end-game mantras though? I mean come on. these mantras are a money sink and a half. Some of them have some busted passive effects as well.
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Mar 7, 2015 18:06
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"Want to buy the Everyone is Immune to Everything Forever Mantra?"
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Mar 7, 2015 18:09
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Don't most people grind for the expensive mantras on new game+?
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Mar 7, 2015 18:13
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Mraagvpeine posted:Don't most people grind for the expensive mantras on new game+? I never got them in the second, but in the first game, I ground out everyone's Mantras and got everyone to level 99. Then again, we had a wait for the second game in the UK, so it was basically killing time.
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Mar 7, 2015 18:19
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Glazius posted:Those are some interesting optional bosses. What skills are actually in Dragonslayer? Victory Cry? Fire of Sinai and Divine Light, which is essentially what Michael's Omnipotence is - a powerful phys attack with a debilitate effect, random targets, can double-hit an enemy. If it double-hits it is the single strongest attack in the game, bar none. On the other hand the mantra takes forever to master and it costs 45% HP to use Divine Light, plus it's phys rather than Almighty, so yeah...
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Mar 8, 2015 20:01
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Kinda amusing that the skill named Omnipotence isn't Almighty. 
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Mar 8, 2015 20:08
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So I was just thinking, why DID Sera appear in the Junkyard, and why was Jenna Angel so keen on her being recovered? Couldn't they have just killed her in the real world and tried the next Sera clone?
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Mar 10, 2015 05:41
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I'd speculate (I don't think the game ever really gets into this) that they needed to retrieve Sera because the Junkyard itself was basically her little domain. If she were lost at that point, it'd have been erased and they'd have to start all over. Given the highly apocalyptic state of the world, a setback of five or ten years would probably be the final nail in humanity's coffin. e: alternatively, considering that the last time Sera got too worked up she triggered the apocalypse, they might just be afraid to kill her. CmdrKing fucked around with this message at 05:54 on Mar 10, 2015 |
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Mar 10, 2015 05:50
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Also Angel is not necessarily as awful a person as she generally acts, and might not have wanted to kill her own daughter unless it was 100% necessary. I'm sure she thought recovering her from the Junkyard would be straightforward, then it turned out not so much.
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Mar 10, 2015 07:55
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Another possibility is that they have no more way to create a new cyber shaman (that's what they called her, right?), Angel did call her the last one.
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Mar 10, 2015 10:54
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 The Gospel's pretty good on paper, and it is way better than every other bullet we have. At least its not like Expel elemental or anything, which you might have thought from its name. At The Airport Nothing else to do right now other than farm Golden Boxes but that can wait until later.   What? Why!?    I love nonchalant Cielo here. There is one other thing.           End Before we step inside the airport proper, we can take this opportunity to talk with everyone again.  In one case, it's our last chance to do so. So... I'll see you guys around. So Sera created us before de Junkyard was made, ja? How would you explain dat!? Have you forgotten what Karma means? It always sounded sad... One-Way Stairs The Airport is both a really quite short dungeon, and yet a lot longer than you would think.  It also starts us off with a small terminal and a golden container just past a tiny barrier.  Obviously, going further east here is progress so we'll go south first.  That lets us loop around back to the entrance and get the Jasmine right there.  Back on the main path...  Tell the others, immediately! Alright, let's move! We'll capture her. Serph, listen to me. They mustn't have Sera. Kill anyone who gets in our way. Them, us -- we're all Asuras. There isn't time to take chances now. I understand. Of course. You're the leader, after all. Let's go. From this point onwards, we actually can get into fights and we'll start off by going east. Battle for Survival Well, we'll actually start things off by kicking the poo poo out of Gurr. He's become a fair bit more of a threat since we last saw him. Setting the bar pretty low, I realise, but he could maybe kill us now. ...If he ambushes us and spends the first turn spamming buffs at least.  No, if we want a threat, we look to Rangda. Mostly. She's as predictable as ever; seen one Rangda, seen 'em all to be honest. Still, her inclusion here means we can't just casually auto if/shen she gets in critical HP and not scared enough to be eatable.  Nyx turning up at all is always an oddity, because she's actually been in a lot less games than you would expect. But the personification of the night has at some point become equatable with the cold. So we burn her and she dies.  And last we have Nandi. He's kind of annoying, but mostly because of that Mediarahan more than anything else. Good thing we grabbed the Al Azif in order to snag store points earlier, since it makes this guy a joke. One-Way Stairs Anyway, there's these two clowns.  They don't get to jump us immediately, so we electrocute them and they die.  If we go down these stairs, we'll be at the spot where the soldiers were a little while ago. So that's progress, and we won't be doing that right now.  First, we'll run all the way to the eastern corridor and grab this Pink Crystal I should've grabbed first. Nothing else over here, so back downstairs now we go.  Man, it's a good thing there's that giant gap in the fence that couldn't be more blatant if it tried. We'd be buggered otherwise.  There's absolutely nothing further east (unless a dead-end really counts) so we'll go through the door to the south. From there, we'll turn to the right and pick up a Great Chakra. Ever since we unlocked Golden Boxes, these become a mite underwhelming in comparison to normal but it still saves us a ton of money so I find it hard to complain.  From there, we just turn back and carry on further east instead of heading north. There, we'll take this turn and head on to the terminal and further onwards. There's nothing past that door to the north on the map, by the way.  I think the only one of the +3 hidden stat boosts we're missing now is the Luck one, but I could be misremembering. They kinda blur together, and you can't recheck which one gives what after you unlock them.  You may have noticed another turn past the terminal, and the right branch leads to a door that is blatantly for making backtracking easier later. Epic Battle ~ Prelude So, we'll go the otherway instead and fight some more of Angel's goons. Roger. It will be done. What the hell do you think you can do, huh? You're nothing but AI! Angel is going to save us! Mini-Boss: Yaksa Kali; Yaksa Dakini Heroic Battle So, Kali has a silly gimmick that ultimately does not matter. See, she repels Fire, Ice, Force, Elec and Earth.  The Dakini will sometimes cast Phys Repel, but mostly waste turns with poo poo like Makakaja. Aside from buffs/shields, Dakini has no spells. Kali has all of one spell. And it's an ailment. Also Dakini is weak to Ice. Oops.  So, we can destroy the Dakini before she ever gets a turn. Naturally, Kali can only really be hit with physical skills.  Or Almighty ones, I guess. Only reason we have Megido as a single person skill right now though, is because I wanted Mind Charge and this was a mandatory component.  So, Kali's skills? Pretty much entirely physical.  She repels all normal spell elements but is completely neutral to physicals. I'll give you a second to stop laughing at how stupid this is.  Okay, but seriously, you could easily beat Kali without ever actually attacking her if you had Phys Repel which is, uh, very possible without doing any grinding!  We don't though, so the only thing we can do is buff, debuff her and then auto for Gale and Sera's turns while Serph contributes effectively.  At about half health, she summons a second Dakini. This is the only time she summons in a new one by the way. It, uh, lasts as long as the first one.  Kali's only other skill is Blood Curse. Only matters if it hits Serph, and he has the Skull Ring equipped just because.  So, uh, would you believe me if I said that Kali somehow isn't even the easiest of the three mini-bosses we get to fight in this place? Because she isn't. It's a pretty drat close race to the bottom, though! End One-Way Stairs So, there's the obvious staircases that lead to a higher floor, but we'll ignore them for the moment. The obvious chest to the left just contains some Dis-Curses...  But there's also a Medical Gear hidden off to the rightside of the area.  Going up now, and there's the sole large terminal in this place right there. Kinda been a surprisingly small number of these this time around, now that I think about it. And they're all pretty shittily placed in one way or another.  We'll go off to the west side, first. There's an entrance over there what'll take us back to where we just sort of came from.  More importantly, it lets us grab the Dual Ring. In a rare moment, this ring is Pretty Good. I know, I'm shocked too.  After all, it lets you attack twi- ...Why is there two gaps above this? There should be only one. Did I miss something? I know its not That because that doesn't take up a slot... oh son of a bitch  Good thing there's the large terminal very nearby, since its gonna make skipping back here easier. And lets us see that we have access to a new meh Esoteric mantra. There are good ones other than the Mutual Karma one, honest. And I say this is meh, but getting more drops is kinda nice. Especially since it does stack if you have it on the full active party. Problem is there's always something more worth using that slot on.  Anyway, we missed an important room in the EGG Facility.  Its on B11 directly south of the terminal. Don't know how I missed it.  Probably because I'm an idiot. The other gold box is a fight against a single Hresvelgr. Whatever.  The Follow-Up Ring isn't even that good in practice. But we still can't just ignore it. I mean, we can now but we need to have it.  After that stupid detour is over, we can head back to the Airport, take the eastern path from the terminal and continue on. South of this entranceway is a box with some Wind Walls in it by the way.  Well, that door looks suspicious so we'll ignore it for the moment.  The giant entryway that's more obvious and eyecatching lets us snag some free Luck Data. Still probably not gonna use any of this but we'll see.  The actual door lets us go back downstairs to the ground floor again.  Man, I hate choices. Let's see... south it is.  Hello, new bullet. The Charm Shot does exactly what it says on the tin.  It's also a very nice upgrade for anyone who didn't get the Gospel. Y'know, unless you spent money on bullets for some reason. Don't do that. It's unnecessary!  Another decision, but this one is easier at least. North leads us to an empty room, so we'll go south.  More of these guys? Alright, fine. Let's get our devour on. Heroic Battlejust to highlight how pathetic kali was, she gets the same music as these guys. i'd even say they're technically harder.  Fortunately, for us and unfortunately for them, the last DDS1 ring does not change resistances around.  that we will retrieve the Cyber Shaman... even if we become fiends ourselves! I'd say with just this, Flauros has already proven to be more of a threat than Kali.  They also have no elemental weaknesses. Inexplicably they don't resist fire either. They do HAVE weaknesses, but its to low-tier ailments like Poison. So they might as well have none.  Also they can do this. Y'know how we whave Dark Mirage which does 2 Sukundas or Enervate which does 2 Tarundas? Yeah, you guessed it. This is 2 Makandas. One-Way Stairs So, the Amala Ring. This is the reward for beating the Demi-Fiend in DDS1.  It gives +10 to everything which sounds very impressive on paper. It's also going to be very nice for cutting through randoms quite fast but, wouldn't you know it? It's not even worth a fraction of the loving effort. The other DDS1 rings at least have unique effects.  Anyway, that done, we can continue further onwards. The door here lets us backtrack to the terminal just before Kali and the like. Again, it's good for backtracking but not really right now.  Right up the stairs to the side, there's a small terminal. Immediately. Good to open the door just in case though.  Just past that door is even more generic goons. Sure, why not. This isn't even a mini-boss like Kali. Not really.  This is just precious. We hit them and they die.  A minor inconvenience. Nidhoggr this time around has less than half the health of his random encounter incarnation from DDS1 and is now weak to Expel and Panic.  I don't even know why they'd bother. It doesn't even have threatening moves or anything. Anyway, we kill it and take the stairs back down.  Much like before, there's an obvious door that's probably progress.  We'll go right first, and enter a giant entranceway picking up two Attack Mirrors in the process. Battle for Survival Hey look, it's Flauros. Told ya he didn't resist Fire which is bloody weird for the guy who kills people via immolation. Having all 3 counters is kind of redundant, but also kind of not. They have different proc rates and deal different damage. It's still silly though.  Hey, Mot. Kinda didn't expect to run into you here. No Rage, huh? That's probably a good thing. Heh.  Still, does make it kinda underwhelming when you run into 3 of 'em, hit a Ziodyne and one drops instantly. Can't really do much to stop you clearing them out effortlessly afterwards. Oh well. One-Way Stairs Obvious progress right here, but we'll ignore it for the time being and instead keep going south.  That brings us to a room with our monster-in-a-box fight.  ...It's just even more Flauros though. Kinda hoped for something a bit more imaginative.  Continuing on the main path again, we get another detour.  Taking the turn just before the terminal is nice for the Data, I guess.  Are you ready? Yes. Epic Battle ~ Prelude  I'll watch as you're torn to shreds by your own shadows! Now, die!! Mini-Boss: Yaksa Chernobog Heroic Battle So, Chernobog is the hardest of the trio of mini-bosses we have to contend with. Setting the bar very drat low but it's... something.  It's also mostly because of his gimmick. He gets the first move (probably for the best), and opens with Rage.  He then follows up with a pretty cool idea. It's not as nice in practice though.  See, on his first turn he uses this skill twice.  He stabs himself through the chest and summons shadow clones of 2 random party members.   In the name of the dark god, I call forth forbidden power... I shall become a sword and rend your corpse asunder! He then uses Dark Slumber for the first and last time. This turns him into a sword which has no effect on his press turns but prevents him from attacking. Somehow.  It also prevents him from being hit by anything. And when I say anything, I mean anything. Attacks, spells, debuffs... nope.  One thing you may hvae noticed is that the clones, uh, are that in every sense of the word except HP/MP. They have the exact same weaknesses, resistances, skills etc. of their original.  Now if your character has attack skills/spells, the shadow clones will mercilessly exploit that and try to ruin you. In such a case, they will never use their regular attack because it sucks and is bad. ...However, if they only have buffs/debuffs/healing spells etc. they will not be used. Ever. We could also abuse their AI in ways like just giving them Maragion and casting Fire Drain or something but nah.  We kill the clones and then Chernobog is kind enough to leave his sword on his next turn. This does take one of his actions, at least.  Now that he's left it, he won't summon new clones or anything. How boring.  Also he's weak to Fire. Makes sense, but its still disappointing.  His actual attacks kinda leave something to be desired.  Now, this might sound very familiar but... he only uses physical skills.  It's like they're not even trying to stop us or anything.  So we burn him and he dies. If he didn't have that opening shadow gimmick, all 3 fights would be contenders for most underwhelming. As is, Chernobog is the biggest threat which is hilariously depressing. End One-Way Stairs Before we continue onward, we can finally run into Johnny. In, uh, the same room that soldier was in. Johnny is a brave, brave merchant.  That's how serious business works; I've been watching you -- this is definitely serious business. Now, you might have gotten me a little mixed up with it... but if there's one thing I know how to handle, it's serious business. That applies to... both business and relationships. Remember that. ...Huh? Am I... okay? Heh... Don't be silly... The customer... doesn't worry about the shop... Now go, fly... Fly high...That's a lot of ellipses...  I hope the only thing we can do for Johnny will help that. And the only thing we can do is throw money at him. Really should have about 4 or 5 Light Balls but I'm sure 3 will be enough.  He's talking brave, but... He'll be okay, ja? I mean... He owns de shop. Dere's plenty of medicine, if he really needs it... right?Cielo, once again, being the only one to talk sense. Johnny's gonna be just fine. He has all the healing items. Even has a Graven Shard if he really needs it.  ...Meanwhile, we have to dive back into the dark. Swell.
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Mar 11, 2015 03:00
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Look. The apocalypse didn't kill him. Angel couldn't kill him. Solid Snake couldn't kill him. I doubt mere internal bleeding will do more than slow Johnny down. Heck, maybe the ellipses were just from his IBS.
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Mar 11, 2015 05:41
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I like Johnny.
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Mar 11, 2015 06:28
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Another dungeon theme I really really like. It's driving yet haunting in a way. also, yeah, Johnny is cool.
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Mar 11, 2015 07:50
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Well, at least Chernobog looks cool. As I recall, they actually have long concourses in this airport, don't they?
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Mar 11, 2015 16:55
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So, we're back in the dark. Have a few Light Balls to help make it doable but, well, let's just get moving. Battle for Survival Beiji-Weng (Hokuto Seikun) is a weird crystal man with a red/blue yin-yang symbol for his right eye. Also his sword has the big dipper on it. More importantly, the Skull and/or Divine Rings pretty much make him worthless. Skull especially since 3/5ths of his moves are Death elemental.  Ganesha is a pain as before, but at least now he's a pain that doesn't have Ragnarok. Does quite like to spam his Expel spells a lot more than you would expct, which is.... something useful, I guess. Gale doesn't take too kindly to those Maziongas but they're mostly infrequent enough to not be too big of a deal. One-Way Stairs Oh, right. This dark area is kind of most of the rest of the dungeon. We'll start by going south and ignoring that room to the north. It has nothing in it.  Granted, this just lets us get a single Soma Drop so you would be justified in thinking its a waste of time.  Turning back and going futher north than that empty room, we come to these two dudes. I think their dialogue DOES change if you don't have a light ball active for some reason, but it doesn't matter.  The dudes are a couple of Ganeshas, who let us find out they can combo a Xanadu. Shame that I have the Divine Ring, huh?  They get eaten and we move on. Going right first.  Hey, it's the Follow-Up Ring but better.  I realise I'm setting the bar quite low, but this has its uses in some spots. Not overly many when you know what to use and what not, but it's good for when you're figuring things out.  Going back, and continuing on the main path now. Going north from here, since the southern path leads to an empty room. Then get another split and go east; west leads to another empty room!  This brings us to a small terminal and lets Gale reveal the Evil God mantra at the end of the buffs path. Using that term loosely, since it changed to the better debuff spells really fast.  ...As the Evil God mantra itself demonstrates quite nicely. Not getting this though, because it costs $800k which is just shy of twice as much as we currently have!  fffffffffffffffffffffffff knew i shoulda bought more! Anyway, just gonna push through until we get to the end. You can see we're currently at a fork in the road, so we'll go to the left first.  This lets us pick up our newest flower; one that, in Buddhism, is the only flower that grows on the other side of the river betwixt life and death.  From there, we'll head back to the split and carry on to the east. That'll bring us around to this fork and we'll take the right path this time.  This brings us to some stairs, but we'll stay down here for now.  Heading west from the fork we just passed, and we'll come to this turn to the south.  I'd say its worth taking, wouldn't you?  Now that we can see better for a little while longer, we'll finish clearing out this area before we carry on. This means we go further west from the light balls, and come to another split. The path west here leads to an empty room, so we'll go south.  This brings us to another set of stairs leading up which we will, again, ignore until later.  The path south from there leads to a meagre +3 Vitality gem. We'll double back now to the first staircase we ignored.  This brings us to the end of those locked doors, which lets us get easy access to a couple karma terminals.  This lets us get the +3 Luck mantra now if nothing else. I think that's all the +3 ones but knowing me I'm forgetting something. So, what about that door to the south from the top of the stairs?  Airport Field Hunt Sicily So, if you're one of the maybe seven people that actually watch the field hunts, you may have picked up on how I had no bloody clue where to go.  Yeah, this was my first time actually doing this one. I kinda expected it to be stupid unfun after the EGG's ludicrous one. Turns out it wasn't actually all that terrible. Go figure.  If you've been paying attention though, you'll have noticed this is actually the fourth field hunt and that each one had a different mitama.  Yeah, it's just the one for each this time. I'm kinda okay with that to be honest. One-Way Stairs As an added bonus, the field hunt lets us get access to Esoteric 7. A Good Mantra that I should have opened earlier. Cocytus here is the same as it was before, so it's quite good. Auto Chakra is exactly what it sounds like. Recovers MP at the end of a fight. This would've been nice to get much earlier. And now I can't afford it because I blew $400k getting Serph both Insatiable and Atma Premium. totally worth it though  We've already seen the entire dark area that makes up the basement, so we'll skip past there to the other staircase. That room to the south is very useful because...  It has a life terminal in it. Nothing else, but this is probably a good thing.  Around the corner is a small terminal. Now this is suspicious as all hell. Epic Battle ~ Prelude  You broke free of Angel's control and made it all the way here. But, don't think I'm just another one of those grunts.Okay, I won't. Boss (pfft): Yaksa Kartikeya Epic Battle Despite the game's protests, Kartikeya is a complete loving chump oh my god. How do you do this. How do you gently caress up and make the GOD OF WAR and SON OF SHIVA into such a colossal pushover.  The dude has a frigging pattern. He always does the same moves in the same order. Without variation.  It's not even subtle or anything! And he resists exactly none of it. Oh and he has a weakness. It's loving guns. What is even the point.  Sorry, sorry. I just... I had to actively try to not kill him before he could finish this first cycle and reveal his true gimmick.   I can be seen, yet I do not exist. Try as you might, you will never touch me! In a gimmick that will go on to be reused in Strange Journey, Kartikeya has a unique spell that does nothing but boost his evasion. Unlike Maya, he can only cast it once.  ...The only change this has is that it makes him switch his spells for the random mid-tiers instead.  You cannot dodge reflected spells, even with his stupid gimmick spell. The only reason he gets a turn after this is so...  He can use his best skill. Myriad Spears is what his physical attack gets switched for when he is in critical HP.  And it is still just a physical skill. So it can be reflected. And because of how low his HP has to be to use it, he will kill himself with it.  I just... go away Kartikeya. You were the easiest fight in this place. You didn't even get a successful hit in at all. At least Kali can maybe Curse people. You can't even do that. One-Way Stairs Like with Chernobog, the room we're in now gives us a breather to talk with the others. Unlike with Chernobog, there's no Johnny in this one.  I'll do my best... I'm going to fight... I can still... ...do it. There's no turning back once we take off. Are you ready?He's not kidding. This is the point of no return; the only sidequest(s) missable though are the archangels and the shmup minigame. ...this makes kartikeya somehow even more of a giant disappointment. Let's go. Understood. Gale... You're a good man, Serph. I'm proud to have met you. Now... What are your orders, leader? Let's end it. I will make sure you take flight. Let us go. A Fallen Angel's Regretvery definitely should watch this one. like seriously. Silence We're so close to the hangar right now, I can practically taste it. We've beaten everything in the area. There's nothing that can stop us now.  Maelstrom   You will die no matter what. Wouldn't you rather die here...   But... Silence We'll postpone it.    She's only bluffing!  ...Well, maybe not now when you factor in all those people we just killed. Who were probably carrying out her orders. This has gone on long enough. What does that mean?    Hey, I recognise that glowy man.  And here he is, dying and singing an acaplla version of Pray. While poo poo is going bananas everywhere.   Regret      Silence         He was content. Stop it!         End One-Way Stairs And then there were three...  There's no point to rearranging the party or changing skills or anything, since there's no more fights to be had here.  Just a linear path that leads us to our final destination.  But, even after all of this... I can't bring myself to hate her. Help her, Gale... Sure is a good thing that there's no one left alive but us at this point. Well, not such a good thing when you remember what it took to get here, but I mean... Never mind. Let's just go. Fly Awaydefinitely watch this one too. Silence Now we have a nice and relaxing flight to our destination, and nothing bad could possibly happen.  Well, except some of Angel's loyalists having fighter jets and being totally willing to die if it means killing us for... some reason...???  'ey bro.      C'mon, smile!     Cielo gets to be a badass one last time...   And barrel through three jets despite the second one wrecking him pretty bad.     End We finally arrive at the HAARP facility... but will this really work?  It took a lot of sacrifices to get here. Jinana, Lupa, Adil, Roland, Argilla, Heat, Gale, Cielo...  It's been a long journey, but we finally made it... We're the only two left, and soon... Don't worry, we'll always be together. Serph... I won't be afraid, as long as you're here.
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Mar 12, 2015 03:47
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The writers are so drat cruel.
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Mar 12, 2015 04:10
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And to think, they wanted this game to be even darker.
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Mar 12, 2015 04:16
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