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theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!

Dr. Fetus posted:

How does this even work? Like depending on how damage is handled, everything is gonna have to have tons of HP, or battles are basically rocket tag, and might come down to who moves first.
Much more rocket tag. Rakukaja (defense boost spell) and Tarunda (attack down) both exist, but you had to spend turns buffing or debuffing. Other than that, resistances were the only way of mitigating damage, which is what the main character's armor did (and all it did).

Oh, and every armor but one came with a weakness on it. :atlus:

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Kemix
Dec 1, 2013

Because change

theshim posted:

Much more rocket tag. Rakukaja (defense boost spell) and Tarunda (attack down) both exist, but you had to spend turns buffing or debuffing. Other than that, resistances were the only way of mitigating damage, which is what the main character's armor did (and all it did).

Oh, and every armor but one came with a weakness on it. :atlus:

Well. All armor increased HP, Head and Leg pieces increased certain stats and the Chest pieces are what determine your weaknesses and resistences. (And if you bought DLC armor? Congrats, you win the first quarter of the game for the most part. gently caress, the Deity Scales chest piece RESISTED PHYS AND GUNS. That's pretty much EVERY boss move up towards the end of Naraku the first time you climb down it, all for the "steep" cost of 10 Life Stones at K's Tavern and all of the second wave DLC pieces were viable towards the loving endgame.). And your protagonist, barring certain Chest pieces, was always nulling Hama spells.

theshim posted:

Except that dexterity boosted your damage twice as effective as strength for both physical and gun skills. The only thing that strength boosted more than dexterity was using the basic Attack command. (Agility affected turn order but did nothing for damage.)

Like I said, a much longer discussion.

Sorry, I meant Dexterity. I have this tendency to get the two confused when I don't have the game open in front of me. But I didn't know Dexterity was better for skills. Though, I have this tendency to use Physical attacks if I want to conserve MP (Though by a certain point you can buy MP restoration en masse, so that mitigates it somewhat) and I like to lean towards the weaker, multi-hit weapons that can also proc status ailments *coughboneswordcough*

Kemix fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Sep 12, 2016

Lotus Aura
Aug 16, 2009

KNEEL BEFORE THE WICKED KING!
Prayer



We did sort of end with a long cutscene last time, that included... Gore's death... so I would expect that everyone else has something to say about that.

That Jimenez guy's only alive because the commander sacrificed himself!
Who does he think he is, slacking off on his duties?
It's not right, the commander having to die for that rear end in a top hat!



How can we go on with the mission like this...?
We're out of options... all we can do is listen to Arthur.



...So, when Maebe isn't in the Sickbay this other guy is in her place. His name is Wolf, which is hilarious, and he's definitely new. We'll see his deal in a bit.



And every time we see the capsule, it's another reminder that he's gone...
The man who encouraged, supported, and led us isn't with us anymore.
Honestly, I think we should turn back and go home.
The mission's impossible to complete under these conditions.
What do you think?
We should press on.
You're willing to follow the code of conduct right to your death? A military man to the core...
In any case, since we don't know HOW to go back, there's nothing to do but go forward.
I guess the sickbay will be going at full blast for a while.

So, how about this new Wolf fella?



Pathetic, huh? Commander Gore would be disappointed in me...

Not much, but at least he lets us know he's incompetent enough to get destroyed by Slimes. And is still smart enough to realise that's awful.

Nothing else here, so over to the lab we go!




We're going to have ourselves a real blast at Commander Gore's memorial battle!

Material fusion is important and we'll see it in practice later. We can't do anything with it right now though.



But I'm sure we'll be fine, with you guys here. I mean, you ARE the elite of the elite.
I believe in you, Hitonari.



Commander Gore's dead, and that Jimenez guy he died saving is bringing everyone else down.
I always felt like it was my job to keep everyone on an even keel... But this is too much.



But we're supposed to be the best of the best. We don't get the luxury of taking breaks.
So get your gear in order and pay your respects to the man by doing your duty.

A Scorched Nation



Alright, so we're just gonna quickly wrap up this main mission. There's not much else we can do right now after all.



The obvious side of the Blue Jet that you'd think to check first dosn't give us much though. It's empty, there's no actual way in from here and it's an outright dead-end.


The Fear of God



En route to the other side of the Blue Jet, we run into a couple more demons. Tangata Manu are Neutral-Law because they're Flight demons, and we could've recruited one before fighting Orias if we really wanted. It's not too bad an idea in theory but he doesn't increase damage much.

Okiku-Mushi is a Vermin, so she's Dark-Neutral. We can't negotiate with her at all right now.



But we can talk to Tangata Manu and that's all that matters.



Aside from his weird speech pattern, which is very obvious and involves mixing tenses a lot, he doesn't say much of interest.



Speaking of talking, since we're not gonna get much else done right now, let's talk to a Pixie.



Because we already have a Pixie in our Stock and it's not a full moon, the conversation auto-succeeds which can have three things happen. She just ups and leaves, she gives us a small amount of Macca or...



She hands us one of her three drops. She picked her common one here, but it's something new at least.



This'll be more useful later when we officially learn what Forma even are. Almost every demon drops one (I can think of exactly one exception offhand) and they're nearly all unique too.


Silence



Nothing else of interest happens en route to the Blue Jet so we'll just skip over there.



This is kind of a weird and pointless option, really.




A Scorched Nation



Even if your Demonica's got the right shielding, you could get exposed.
We should split the work.
You wait here 'til I give you the signal.

Jimenez went into the engine room.

...

...

...Alright,come on in!



Now, let's carry it out.

You entered the engine room with Jimenez.





Wish I could give them a proper burial, but... the mission comes first and all.
Hm...? You hear someone... crying...!?
No... it can't be... no one could be alive after what happened...
This is...

The control terminal inside the engine room is emitting a weak alarm...

What do you think that's about? Let's check it out, Tadano.

You approached the control terminal.



It should be pretty obvious from this that Verne is named after Jules Verne who was kind enough to give us the thread title as well. Arthur most likely is named after Arthur C. Clarke, though it's harder to be certain there.

Due to the emergency aboard this ship, I have taken shelter by dispersing my data.
I can no longer function as a command unit.
However, I still contain data regarding the investigation.



Please remove this terminal and take it to another ship.
The consent of the surviving crew is requested.
...So there was a survivor, Tadano. Tough hombre.
Well, you asked for it, so I'll take you with me.

Jimenez removed the terminal.

Looks like we found ourselves a nice bonus, Tadano.
Now, let's carry out the main dish.





Oh, and the terminal too. Arthur should know what to do with it.
I'm counting on you, Tadano.
It's up to you to keep the crew happy.

Jimenez left.





So now we have to manually return to the Red Sprite. This seems a bit like an issue until you remember that there's a terminal right around the corner.



There's no reason to not use it immediately. So we'll just warp right back to the Red Sprite for the moment.


Malevolence and Benevolence



Let us immediately send this Tokamak Motor to Engineering.
If the maintenance operations are successful, we should regain our full functionality.





They'll wear out their fingers pinning 'em all on!

The reactions to the boulder may have seemed absurd, but that was good for morale at the very least. This just seems like needless hyperbole.

You also collected a terminal from the Blue Jet, correct?
I will analyze the information Command Unit Verne had gathered.



That would seem to be the best way to express my gratitude.
Now, let us wait for the results of Engineering's work.



Engineering will begin the process of rebooting the engine reactor shortly.
All crewman involved are to cooperate with engineering and perform the final verifications.
Note that the rebooting process will take some time. Carry out your duties with that in mind.



But where are we intending to go? We haven't found a way out...
I'd rather not see us get shipwrecked again.





Our research into the Lemegetonite is all sewn up...
And wouldn't you know but it looks like we can power our Demonicas with it!
That is good news indeed, Crewman Irving. Congratulations.
Please send me the details.
Ten-four, Arthur. Yer better'n me at explainin' this mumbo-jumbo.

Arthur obtained the research data from Irving.

According to Crewman Irving's report...



The Lemegetonite is but one of many forma.
In this case, the Lemegetonite seems capable of improving the Demonica's Main App.
Forma is pretty dern strange stuff, but we can get tech the likes o' which you've never seen from 'em.
Not only can we juice up our Demonicas, we can use 'em to make new goods and gear!
If any o' y'all are interested, git yerself down to the lab and see me toot sweet!
The Demonica's Main App is the mechanism that handles your visor output.
I am sure that enhancing your Main App will allow you to search the Schwarzwelt more easily.



Y'all on the strike team'll be out inthe field a lot, so make sure ya fix up yer Demonicas.

Prayer



We're just gonna head on over to the lab right away. The crew dialogue hasn't updated yet, so they're all still lamenting Gore's passing.



So git your Demonica out, boy!

Irving began upgrading your Demonica.

Whoo! Got 'r done!



That means you can detect forma that you couldn't before while yer out there in the field.

The End



...Oops, sorry I mighta gone a hair too fast for ya there.
"Forma" is our name for the solid energy ya can find in the Schwarzwelt.
We run that stuff through the "material fusion equipment" we're all so dang proud of here...



There's more, too...
But I ain't of a mind to get into all the nitty-gritty. Just read the documents I send ya.

It's pretty simple really; get drops, make things. It's a very Etrian Odyssey way to handle things but it works well. Don't have the Forma, can't make what you want. There's nothing that's just make it once, be able to buy infinitely but it doesn't even matter.



The Main App is the constantly active software that aids you in your investigations. Each time the Main App is enhanced, you will be able to accomplish more while in the field.

The new "forma search" function adds the functionality to find hidden forma to your Main App. A detection range will appear on the automap on the lower screen. Forma within that range will be automatically displayed on the automap.



It's an excitin; time for us in the lab, what with this new forma research and all.
We're pumpin' out new equipment and supplies left an' right.

Not yet you're not.

Anyhoo, I wanna test drive our fancy materail fusion equipment as much as we can.
Sooooo...
Think ya can investigate sector Antlia, collect some forma, and bring 'em to me?
Should be like shootin' fish in a barrel now that ya got that forma search...



Everyone wins with forma research. You, me, Chen here, the whole dern crew.
So if you could treat this as a new mission, well, that'd be mighty fine!
...Ya get all that? It's a lot to take in at once... Check yer notes later if ya get confuddled.
Forma's gonna be important stuff for our investigation here in the Schwarzwelt.



I'll let Chen fill ya in on the rest, so make sure ya listen to what the little lady has to say.
Don't forget, y'hear?



Ask me whenever you're ready. I also have documents to send to your suit.

Prayer



We still can't actually make/buy anything other than the Medicine because that's the only thing available right now that's Macca only.



On the bright side, Irving and Chen's dialogue updates now.


I'm showin' her how to get her hands dirty, and she's showin' me how she teaches.
Hey, why not stick around and listen to my li'l lecture? This tutorial's for you and Chen both.



But I'm really good at teaching! Just ask any of the apprentices at my lab back home!
Do you want to hear my tutorial?
No.
You can come by anytime you want to know more about something.

We could just sit here for another like five minutes for tutorials that are not at all necessary... but that's dull and boring. We'll just head back out to Antlia now.

A Scorched Nation



Irving sure does good work. This Forma Search works wonders!
I've found forma after forma just walking around... I feel like I'm forgetting the mission! Hahah...
I'll give you the documentation, if you want to read it.
Ooh.. Looks like I'm getting a reading over there. See you...!



So the Forma Search gives us a 3 square radius that is going to be on the map forever more now. Whenever a square within that radius contains hidden forma, it gets added to the map and the notifier on the top-screen lights up for good measure.



Hidden Forma appears semi-randomly whenever you enter a floor and has finite spots it can appear. Semi-random Forma disappears whenever you leave, which is going to be useful later.

Some Forma is fixed and only appears once ever. The one on the bottom-left corner is a one-time appearance. These Forma stay spawned until they're collected, which is useful at least.



Speaking of the bottom left Forma, we'll go grab that one first.



Whenever we scan a hidden Forma, we could sit through this. Thankfully, these are skippable and so it doesn't matter.



Hidden Forma can be many things depending on the Sector and the Forma Search level. Because we have A, we can find Bronze Forma which gives us a few basic things as well as the chance of just finding random drops. The drops and a few other things are considered Assist Forma so just having them doesn't reveal anything new.

AT Antlite is a Base Forma. AT is short for "Attack" and is used for creating new swords and guns. One of these is more relevant than the other, yes.



The other forma we can grab by the entrance is a bunch of Recovery Cores. These are used for healing items, of course.



More important is that once we head through the door up top, we can see another one-time forma.



This one has a specific name, so that means this has a slightly different use.






Thought I was detectin' a rare forma signal from yer Demonica. Reckoned I should give you a call!
Be a darlin' and bring that to the lab, willya?
I'll be waitin'!

We'll be getting a lot of Rare Forma which we can do a variety of things with. As a general rule, if we just find it lying around it's going to be mandatory to progress.



And on the way back to the Red Sprite, a Knocker is kind enough to hand over his forma drop too. This'll be handy.


Prayer



Way to rustle up somethin' good fer the prepatory analysis! Mebbe I can beef up yer Main App now!
Awright, I'll git right on it!



...Sorry, maybe this ain't a good time to jump fer joy like that. That's a scientist fer ya!



I reckon it's got the power to open locked doors in the field.
Now ya can go further out, I reckon. Gotta remember to pass it out to the other crew, too...

The End



I'm sure you can guess what this does.



Preparations for restarting the engine reactor are complete.
Report to the command room for a briefing.
Good results, and good news. Good stuff's happenin' all over!



We've started developing Sub Apps.
Oh, I nearly plumb forgot!
Us guys on the Supplies team are advancin' science by the minute with these strange "forma" things!
"Sub Apps" are what we're calling a type of functon that will help you when you're in the field.
The main thing to now is that you're free to mix and match different Sub Apps.

Sub Apps are... not what you would expect. Unless you expect them to be badly implemented. Then you're right!

I'll send you a white paper on it. Check it out later.



Hawhawhawhawhaw...
There's a lot more to cover concerning Sub Apps, actually.
I'm going to prepare some documentation on the subject. Ask me for it later.
No need to thank us! Now git on down to the command room!

This happens automatically, so we don't get a choice.

Silence



Once the Tokamak is running, we'll open up the output capacity to 100%!
Counting down...
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4...
3...
2...
1...
Here we go!



Malevolence and Benevolence



This will give us an important advantage in planning our strategy.
However, we cannot go airborne without being certain of our next destination.
I have important data to report.
It concerns the information from Verne of the Blue Jet, which I have analyzed.
...Their AI's last message, huh?
The data transfer from Verne, the Blue Jet's Command Unit, is complete.





We can ditch this place...!?
The Blue Jet appears to have managed to enter the Schwarzwelt without Verne powering down.



Please look at this.



It appears to be affected by the moon, making it easy to overlook the gravitational field...
But according to my calculations, a quantum tunnel has formed at those coordinates.
It seems to be a path leading outside local space-time.



Then unless I miss my guess...
We can return to Earth anytime we want...!



What? What's the problem!?



They were unable to penetrate the quantum field blocking entrance to the tunnel.
In the current condition of the tunnel, we cannot leave the sector.
...You serious!? I didn't know the Blue Jet tried to escape...
There is an additional problem in the layout of the Schwarzwelt.
Please look at this.



It is thought to be constructed of multiple space-time planes layered atop each other.
Sector Antlia is only one of these layers.
In order to return to Earth, we would have to traverse multiple layers.



I think I'm going to be ill...



There are still too many unknown factors right now.
Remember, this whole discussion is moot if we can't even get out of Antlia...



It's not as though we're without any hints. And we can keep looking for more...
...Ah, Arthur, the secondary analysis of the radar contact has come up the same as the first.
Secondary analysis acknowledged.
Attention, all hands.



So we might be able to escape soon? That's great!



A new radar contact has been detected within the sector.



It is possible this contact is the result of some sort of material's energy signature...
But I must note that there seems to be a connection between this contact and the tunnel.



I don't know how that energy signature is affecting the tunnel, but...
If nothing else, it'll give us a clue on how to get out of here.
This energy source may be heavily involved with the formation of this sector.
It falls to the strike team to investigate it.





I thought we covered all that ground, but... I guess I'll use the Demonica Irving modded.



It's always something, ain't it, Tadano?
Crewman Jimenez. Crewman Hitonari.
There is another benefit to the Verne unit you brought aboard.
I must inform you of this as well.
Heh... a human corpse isn't worth a drat, but you can always salvage a broken machine, eh?



We have successfully unlocked the current program's hidden function.
A new function?
Yes. This function is known as...

Fear



Oh good, finally!

"Demon Fusion"!?
This gets shadier and shadier, man! Fusing demons... I mean, what the hell's going on here?



It is, as you might put it, technology beyond imagining.
It is possible that there is a risk of the Demon Summoning Program losing control.
However, it will most likely be an invaluable tool in the field.



The new demons ain't gonna attack us, are they!?



I recommend that you make use of it to overcome the ordeals ahead.



...I gotta say, Tadano, this'll be trouble for me. It seems dangerous, but I'm pumped anyway.
Think you'll have fun with fusion?
I'll use it if I need to.
You're a real by-the-book type, huh? Well... if you find any cool fusions, let me know.



I look forward to the successful completion of your mission.

Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 01:04 on Sep 13, 2016

Mraagvpeine
Nov 4, 2014

I won this avatar on a technicality this thick.

Dragonatrix posted:

The Blue Jet appears to have managed to enter the Schwarzwelt without Verne powering down.

I think this is suppose to be Arthur speaking.

BlackPersona
Oct 21, 2012



Gotta admit, Strange Journey has some decent humor in it at times. Just when it's not crushing your soul, haha.

Hunt11
Jul 24, 2013

Grimey Drawer
Strange Journey has one of the best soundtracks in the series.

Kemix
Dec 1, 2013

Because change

Hunt11 posted:

Strange Journey has one of the best soundtracks in the series.

I'm meh on it myself. SJ has great ambiance with it's music, but the actual pieces aren't something I'm big on. Gimmie Persona's soundtrack (still regularly listen to 4's here and there) and SMT4's (still angry my Atlus Tax on the pre-order/First Run CD only had tracks up to Tokyo...and no that's not really an SMT 4 spoiler, look at the e-manual/promotional material and you'll see some of the screen shots of the protag and friends in Tokyo)

darealkooky
Sep 15, 2011

You sayin' I like dubs?!?
Most of my beef with this game boils down to how it doesn't seem to know what it wants.

There was a vocal number of people that disliked nocturne and DDS for radically changing the setting and mechanics from the previous SMT games on the snes and ps1. Ok, fair enough. So with this game they try to take things back to that, only they don't at all really outside of the most superficial ways (why can't you have a party of 6? Doesn't this game run on the etrian oddsey engine, which itself has six character slots?)

So what you're left with is a game that threw all the great innovation the series had into the dumpster so it could be a throwback to the old school rough-around the edges dungeon crawlers of the past. But then it guts most of the mechanics from that era so all you're really left with is the obnixious dungeon design and bland combat but with less options and grinding for materials

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

darealkooky posted:

Most of my beef with this game boils down to how it doesn't seem to know what it wants.

There was a vocal number of people that disliked nocturne and DDS for radically changing the setting and mechanics from the previous SMT games on the snes and ps1. Ok, fair enough. So with this game they try to take things back to that, only they don't at all really outside of the most superficial ways (why can't you have a party of 6? Doesn't this game run on the etrian oddsey engine, which itself has six character slots?)

So what you're left with is a game that threw all the great innovation the series had into the dumpster so it could be a throwback to the old school rough-around the edges dungeon crawlers of the past. But then it guts most of the mechanics from that era so all you're really left with is the obnixious dungeon design and bland combat but with less options and grinding for materials

From what I heard, it's a modified version of EO1's engine. There technically are 6 slots, but only 5 of them can be filled in that game.

Speaking of which, there really is no way to mark the map yourself in any way, shape, or form?

Gwen
Aug 17, 2011

Dr. Fetus posted:

Speaking of which, there really is no way to mark the map yourself in any way, shape, or form?
Nope but it's really not necessary except one time but even that isn't so bad without it

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!

Hunt11 posted:

Strange Journey has one of the best soundtracks in the series.
Whoa, whoa, let's not say anything we'll regret here. I mean, SJ does have a few very good pieces, but it's not even close to DDS or Nocturne.

Dr. Fetus posted:

Speaking of which, there really is no way to mark the map yourself in any way, shape, or form?
It's alllllll automap!

TheOneAndOnlyT
Dec 18, 2005

Well well, mister fancy-pants, I hope you're wearing your matching sweater today, or you'll be cut down like the ugly tree you are.

theshim posted:

It's alllllll automap!
And better yet, it's an automap that will only automatically map the tiles you step on! Including damage floors! :suicide:

Neurion
Jun 3, 2013

The musical fruit
The more you eat
The more you hoot

theshim posted:

Whoa, whoa, let's not say anything we'll regret here. I mean, SJ does have a few very good pieces, but it's not even close to DDS or Nocturne.

Devil Summoner 2's also got some sweet jams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI8qjMGfdYU

I should replay that game, so fuckin' fun. I'd love to see an active battle system like that show up again.

Kitala
Sep 2, 2012

Not Some Opera Floozy

Neurion posted:

Devil Summoner 2's also got some sweet jams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lI8qjMGfdYU

I should replay that game, so fuckin' fun. I'd love to see an active battle system like that show up again.

Persona 3 and 4 are also great. Battle Hymn of the Soul is an amazing boss theme.

Lotus Aura
Aug 16, 2009

KNEEL BEFORE THE WICKED KING!
Prayer



As seems to be becoming a bit of a pattern at this point, we'll be starting off by checking in on the rest of the crew.

I'd say we were damned lucky to have found that out when we did.
Your team should go investigate the energy signature. We'll do what we can to prepare here.
Now, if you don't mind, this job does take some concentration...



Arthur's okayed it, so I doubt it carries a virus or anything, but I'll keep up my own analysis.
Who knows? Maybe we'll learn something useful about Demon Fusion...
If I find anything, I'll let you know.



Listen. Don't be in too much of a rush to get things done.
I mean, you'd know that, being an elite soldier...
But you won't get much done if you're dead.

Tadano Hitonari... jakuten wa nai.



Hopefully there'll be a situation in the future where I can be of more use...
...Anyway, let's focus now on getting out of this sector.



Analyzin' the forma you bring in, then analyzin' this world itself... It all leads to a great harvest!
Demonica Sub Apps are ready for mass production!



Sub Aps have some giant flaws with their implementation but thankfully they don't come up for a while, so all that matters right now is just how useful they can be.

Also whenever we return to the lab at this point, there's a good chance of having some more/new Forma on hand which means Irving has a thing or two to say in relation to that. It just boils down to either "need more things" or "got enough to sell a new thing!" though.



So, let's check out the store right now. We can't make any new Swords or Guns with what we have, but we have enough Base Forma to see what else we need for some things.



The Sub Apps we can get are pretty handy though. Their names are... not always the most helpful in determining their actual effects. Also Size is very important but it doesn't affect anything right now so whatever.



We'll buy Lunatic because it's useful. It's also VERY MISLEADING! It does not allow you to converse normally during a full moon at all; it allows you to converse with most regular demons during a full moon. It does this by internally treating them as Unknowns. The good news is, this is how you can negotiate with Dark tendency demons! The bad news is, well, good loving luck.

HP Recover I restores 1% of Hitonari's HP every ~10 steps out in the Schwartzwelt which can be useful but it's still not that great. We started with it equipped, which is why you've never seen it anywhere before now. Before too long, it'll also probably be removed and never touched again.



In the new items, Recovery Cores are used with a small bit of macca to make Life Stones. 1 Recovery Core = 1 Life Stone, and since you always find Recovery Cores in groups of 3 (barring one-time fixed forma spawns, which break all the normal rules)....



We'll be back to see what else is new in the Lab later I'm sure. We're not going to worry about the Sub Apps we can't afford yet for obvious reasons.


I've noticed things getting pretty dismal since the briefing. Good to see that starting to change.
Let's hope we can ride this wave all the way to the mission's completion.



Which is exactly why we have to go.
Opening doors and paving the way in the face of death... that's a soldier's lot.

A Scorched Nation



They just keep coming one after the other.
Well, let's try 'em out one at a time and head for the underground.

This seems like a good plan. We've finally got the chance to do some real dungeon diving!



We'll just start by opening up that shortcut over to the right.



Much like with Forma, we get a short scene that we'll skip in the future. We can even see it turn the door into an actual door, which is nice.



More important is this door directly opposite, over on the left. It leads us to new things after all!



Immediately, we get a fork in the path. Going right from here just lets us snag that random Forma we just found.



It's just more AT Antlite, which is nice at least.



Heading to a way that isn't just a dead-end brings us to a more open area.



Despite that, it's only got three things of note. First is this new forma, which is clearly used to create some ailment curing items.




You really shouldn't... Even the demons around here rarely go down there.
There;s a lot of tough demons. You could get wiped out in one shot...
I'll bet you 50 Macca you don't last 10 minutes.
Er, well, not that I have 50 Macca on me...

In a corner of the area, a Knocker just hanging out lets us know that B1F actually does indeed exist and judging from how he's talking, it's nearby.



Wouldn't you know it, a few steps away there's another door.



But there's nothing here to indicate any actual progress. Just a single Agilao Stone in a floating cube. Having easy access to mid-tier ST Fire magic seems like it's going to be useful here, doesn't it? I mean, Orias was weak to Fire and most demons hanging out are as well...

Nothing else here though, so we'll head on back to the entrance and head over to the next locked door now.



On the way there, a Slime drops its Mucous. Gross, but definitely going to be useful.



A Dybbuk also hands over some of its broken handcuffs. I'm sure we'll put these to good use too.



Our next door is one in the top-left corner of the map. This one isn't quite so useful but it's needed for like map completion progress (for achievements, you see) and there are some things here.



Granted, not very many. Just some Recovery Cores in a one-time fixed Forma (you can tell because it's 5 and not 3!) and this non-descript guy.


There might be some forma in spots we've already covered.
Let's turn over every last rock and take 'em back to Irving.



Hm, now this is different. Behind that guy is this door, but it's not on the map and from the other side there's a wall.

...This is obviously a one-way door. On the first floor of the Schwartzwelt. This is a good sign, I am sure.



Of note is that the door at the top still cannot be opened, because it's not an Unlock A door. You can tell which ones are and aren't from their color at least. Unlock As are blue!



Random forma en route to the last locked door gives us this. DF, of course, stands for Defence and is used as Base to make new armor.



We've past the final door a few times now, but as a refresher it's the one over in the top-right.



Past it is a straight line that ends with stairs leading down.



A few steps away from the start we can grab new forma. It's clearly assist given that it starts with with a race!



One step past that, just before we can decide to take that turn or not...


You can hear a voice ahead.



Why's there a human here...?
Well, that's not important now.
Hi there. I'm Pixie.



I managed to fend them off, but I used up all my magic doing it. I'm beat.
I'm hurt pretty bad, too... I can't even move.



I think you should be kind to girls! Especially faeries!



EX Missions are just sidequests. There are lots of them. We'll be doing every single one at one point or another. Getting a Bead at this stage can either be really easy (Unknowns love throwing them at you via negotiation, for example) or really tedious but either way you should still be done before finishing up with Antlia.



Anyway, we'll leave her be for now and come back when we get a Bead. Round the corner there's just another door leading to the next chamber.



It's a fairly big one with three possible exits that are all locked. For no reason, because they're all Unlock A doors. There's also a new terminal and healing spot here just in case we need them.

The blue dot in the top left is the Pixie; she's on our map until we finish her quest.

We'll start off by going through the door on the right here, I think.



Oddly enough, when the door opens instead of getting to see what lies behind it, we just get inky blackness...



Within the passions of the human spirit, none are inherently forces of good or bad. Anger is a passion. It seems negative by default, but it can be beneficial. It becomes Wrath when directed towards an innocent soul. The malice aforethought to inflict pain, or even kill, another is when is when it becomes a negative state of being.




Tell me something... am I cracking under the pressure?
An ice cave in Antarctica, sure, but... am I really seeing this right?
Have I gone crazy?
No, I see it too.
Haha...! Well, that's a relief.
...I tell you, the Schwarzwelt's just full of surprises.



It's hard to believe.. it was really true...
Huh? What was?



Oh right, you may recognise this general map design from that opening conference.

It seemed so strange that we all assumed it was a mistake.
None of us imagined they could be real... What should we make of this?
We're dealing with demons here. There's no telling what they might be thinking.
Is this their way of declaring war on humanity, or are they just making fun of us?
Either way... we gotta get out of here.
I feel like I'm taking my life in my hands every time I follow that drat Arthur thing's orders...



Alright, so this is the real Antlia basically. A new visual design gives us a whole slew of new demons (all of which are Unknown right now though, of course). If we follow the path around to that one Forma we can get too...



It's 2 of a demon's drop? Because it's 2 this has to be a fixed forma... Weird.



Anyway, if we pull a 180 from here and follow the path a little further along that way we can get to a door that actually looks like a door.


The Fear of God



This seems like a good opportunity to take a look at what's chilling out here. Poltergeists are weak to Fire, Ice and Elec (ouch), have no resistances and can cast Sukunda (Accuracy/Evasion debuff) which is fun but secretly not very useful here. I know, I know, but Suku just isn't good or useful here!



Kasos are not very powerful either. Weak to Ice, of course, but resist Fire so they might as well be immune. All they can do skill-wise is cast Agi so whatever. Oh and being Beasts, they're Neutral-Neutral.

Melchoms are a bit more interesting. Their only skill is Maragi, so they can hit everyone at once. Their basic attack can hit someone once or twice. Their only weakness is to Electric damage, and they... reflect Fire. This is dangerous enough the best of times, but Strange Journey handles reflect in a way that I both think is really clever and really stupid at the same time. You'll see.



Three more? Oh game, you shouldn't have!

Onmoraki are Dark-Law, because Raptor, and this isn't the first time one has appeared in a non-Unknown form (his analyze bar spoils that) but it's definitely the first time it's happened on-camera. They can appear on 1F as well.

Koppa Tengu are Neutral-Law, have no resistances and are weak to being shot with Guns. Their skills are a bit more fun in that they have Garu and Tarukaja (attack/magic damage buff).

Hua Po are pretty useful with both Agi and Maragi for free, and her Source even gives Resist Fire! Oh and she's weak to Ice and Wind. Also her base Vitality is 2 and it has a whole 5% chance of getting a stat point at level up which is... not very good.


A Scorched Nation



As soon as we're done with that, Pixie levels up and gives us 2 new mechanics when I was only expecting one.



At level up, a demon can of course want to change one of its skills into a different one. This has a relatively low chance of happening, though it does vary somewhat from demon-to-demon. Pixie here has a whole 4% chance of this ever happening, for example. The mechanics behind how skill changes work and what a skill can turn into are a little bit more involved but it's generally... a bad idea to accept, in my experience. If you like your odds, go for it I guess.



The mechanic I was expecting to come up though is this one. Sources are the big new thing about Fusion and are actually a neat thing that I like. It gives you some degree of control over demon fusion and lets you play around with creating fun demons without it being too boring. It also lets you get some wacky skills really, really early. This is basically why I like it. You'll see! We didn't get this before, because we couldn't get Sources until Arthur gave us the Demon Fusion Program.

You get a Source guaranteed at a demons level up provided its Analyze bar is maxed. Each demon has a unique source with 1-3 fixed skills on it, and it also adds 1 of its currently learned skills at semi-random as a bonus. Pixie's fixed skill is Media, naturally, and the chance of any give skill being added as a bonus is based on skill ranks. Skill ranks are simple, but a gigantic table (that also plays into skill changes...). All that matters is the lower the rank is, the more likely the skill is to be added as a bonus.

You can only hold one copy of any Demon's source at any time, but once you use it you can get another. It's just at a variable chance that's determined by the simple formula of ([current level]-[base level])*2% though. So if we used Pixie's source right now and levelled her up again, we'd have an 8% chance of getting a new one.

...Whew, that's a lot of words and it barely scratches the surface. If anyone cares, I can write up a more comprehensive explanation later when it becomes more relevant/appropriate/I'm in dire need of quick content.



Anyway, uh, the entire reason for coming out this way is for a fixed 2 AC Antlite. AC stands for Accessory, of course, and it used for... accessories. And items.



Nothing else over there, so we'll head on over through the one-way door that makes getting out quicker and head over to the left.



Taking the first turn we can, and then heading as far left as possible lets us snag 2 Patra Stones. These cure Fear or Sleep on one target, of course.



That's two, and Knocker's source gives Mabufu by default and Bufu as its bonus skill like 99% of the time at worst.



Heading back further left, there's a door just ahead and a turn to the left. That's gonna let us grab both of those Forma...



One of 'em lets us snag Hua Po's forma drop at least. The other's just more of something we already had.



Of course, if we go past the door to the far left we can grab 2 more AC Antlite. Just so that you're guaranteed it regardless of which way you go I guess.



Now with all that done, we'll head on out through the bottom door. We're quickly locked into this route via a one-way door though.

We'll take that left turn...



Which immediately gives us another fork in the path. If we go left again, then we get something interesting.



And by interesting I mean we find a one-way door that lets us out. Well, that was quickly a non-issue I guess.



Ignoring that for now, we'll head on over to the far right and grab a free Revival Bead from a floaty cube. We'll snag that regular ol' forma from the path above and then...


Prayer



Take a quick break as we head on back to the Red Sprite. We've gathered a bunch of forma now so Irving can make some neat new stuff for us!



Patra Stones and Dis-Poisons both just require 1 Detox Core and a small amount of Macca to make.

Poison Gas is an "attack" item that doesn't attack. It just tries to Poison a single target. It's not very good overall but it sort of has its uses because of item priority! We need 1 AC Antlite and 1 Foul Mucous for each canister of the stuff.



Armor is very important and of course we want some. Most armour changes your resistances, and usually adds a weakness as well; barring a tiny number of exceptions, none mess with our innate immunity to Expel though.

I'm not buying the Survivor Vest right now, because even though it adds Phys resistance, it comes with a Fire weakness.

As you may have gathered from the large amounts of Fire using dudes, that's not something we really want. Having a weakness (that isn't Expel or Curse) isn't super-crippling here compared to most other SMT games, but if Hitonari dies it's a game over so we want to minimise the chance of that.



New gun! We WILL be grabbing the Iperitta because of the skills it adds. With it equipped, Hitonari can no longer use Fire Shot but instead BC Shot (single target, light Gun; 70% chance to Poison) and Elec Shot. One of these is way more useful than the other.

Note that it also changes the basic gun attack from hitting every enemy once to hitting a single target once. Guns have more variants for their free attack than Swords do.



Lastly, we have the Heat Knife. It's a good damage increase for basic Physical attacks but we can get an outright better weapon not too much later. Heck, we could've gotten it before now (based somewhat on luck).



And while we've got the funds (from selling a few Chakra Drops and Revival Beads which are really good for money in Antlia!), we'll grab Hiroemon. It's not a significant drop-rate increase but it all but it's more than enough to pay for itself in no time.



Oh, right uh while I remember we'll take a look at Fusions.



It's pretty simple; pick one demon, it tells you what your results are from fusing that demon with everything else in your stock. The formula for that is pretty simple and not at all important right now.

Note that while some skills are potentially transferred over at this stage, these skills are semi-fixed! They're randomly generated from what skills are available based on inheritance rules (I'll explain later), however you can never reroll them. Cancel the fusion, retry it, same result. Leave the menu, retry it, same result. Reset the game, retry it, same result.

You CAN technically reroll skills by adding sources but we're not adding one right now.



Instead we'll ditch Pixie and Tangata Manu to make that Angel. Angel's not super-great but she'll do for now.

There's a reason it says success on the bottom there, and that reason is fusion accidents! Yes, they exist and they're both a major annoyance and completely irrelevant simultaneously. The chances of getting one is variable but it's adjusted by two other things: the current moon phase and are you adding a source? By default, you have a 1/64 chance of getting an accident. If you fuse on a New or Full Moon and add a Source (any Source) it jumps way up to 1/16.

I'm mentioning this now because until I actively want an accident, we'll be ignoring the fact that they exist. I won't want one for another... like 40 hours or so.



Instead, we'll just take this opportunity to look at new fusion options and be amazed by how absurd some skill distribution is. You can get Dekaja at level 9 if you make a Hamsa. There is no reason to care about Dekaja at level 9, but you can. We're not going to be bothering with Hamsa though.

...We'll be seeing weirder and stupider sooner, rather than later.


A Scorched Nation



Until then, we'll head on back to Antlia and continue along the main path south-east.



Wha?? Hey, rude!


Oh... sorry about that. I was just wondering what demons you're using.
Have your demons gotten stronger? They may be demons, but they grow more and more as they fight.
Looks like us humans are the ones getting left behind, evolutionarily speaking. Hahaha...
Oh, uh, sorry. I probably shouldn't have said that.
Anyway, go ahead and power your demons up all you can. They're working for you, you know.



Way ahead of you, mate.

Oh, sorry... I shouldn't be talking so much in the middle of a battlefield, huh?



Anyway, that guy then hands us a file on demon sources and walks off. You probably noticed the turn just behind him to the right here, but there's also a door in view straight ahead.



We'll check out the door first, naturally. It brings us to another open area, but there's something at the other side for once.



Got a chance to recruit a Hua Po while we're here. She's not super-great for the area but I want her Source!



That done, we can see that the new thing is the stairs leading to B2? We'll give it a quick gander I suppose.



On B2, we immediately come to a branch in the path yet again. We'll ignore the turn for the moment.



Heading straight on leads us to this dead guy. There's nothing else over here, so just remember that he exists for now.



Heading around to where we went before brings us to another dead end open area?



It does indeed. But we came here for this anyway. AT Antlite II just lets you make Better Things (in theory) than AT Antlite.



Nothing else down in that part of B2, so we'll head back up and head along the path we skipped past. Turning right here, since left is an empty dead-end.



Very quickly gotta choose between two doors. I'm gonna go through the one to the right. I just feel like it's got a better chance of being useful.



Or, uh, maybe not? It lets us get to a shortcut back out to the terminal and healing spot at least.



Taking the turn left from there lets us snag this forma that's apparently fixed. It never disappeared from the map which random forma do... weird.



If we take the southern path that you can see on the map before, it lets us grab 2 more Chakra Drop for free. Alternatively it gives us 1000 macca. Depends on how you look at it.



Back on the bottom-most main path, I moonwalked into this guy by accident. Oops.


The Schwarzwelt's a real pain... The deeper we go, the stronger the demons get. Let's be careful, okay?
Oh, yeah, have you tried out Demon Fusion yet? I can explain it if you need me to.

No, that's quite alright. I can explain it in way more needless detail than you could ever imagine, nameless soldier!



But we'll worry about that later. When we're facing the right way again, we can see another terminal just past him. This seems like a good time to take a break, since we've been running around down here without any real interruptions for a while now.

theshim
May 1, 2012

You think you can defeat ME, Ephraimcopter?!?

You couldn't even beat Assassincopter!!!
I like Sources. They let you do some really, really stupid things with fusion. :getin:

Also, I think one of the main reasons the game sticks lovely fixed formas around places is to give you a little bit of an idea of where you can go. It's surprisingly helpful, sometimes, and almost suspiciously so for an SMT game.

Section Z
Oct 1, 2008

Wait, this is the Moon.
How did I even get here?

Pillbug
I know it's RPG mechanics, but I can't help but smile at "Weak to being shot with guns"

Kemix
Dec 1, 2013

Because change

Section Z posted:

I know it's RPG mechanics, but I can't help but smile at "Weak to being shot with guns"

I like to imagine that copper and steel, while can be honed to a sharpness unsurpassed by all, the protagonist(s) don't understand the idea of, y'know, STABBING with their weapon (when said weapon is meant to be stabbing into the soft thing). The bullet is that stabbing motion (Honed to perfection with lead and gunpowder) that just gets into those nooks and crannies that slashing at the problem just won't solve. Or they're just allergic to gunpowder and lead and it results in lots and lots more damage when it rips through their flesh and bone.

RazzleDazzleHour
Mar 31, 2016

Oh thank god, I always feel like I'm the only one who doesn't really like Strange Journey. It's good to be in a safe space.

Anyways, various comments about things I've read so far. I haven't played SMT1/2 extensively, but from every other SMT game I've played (which is all of them), a purely offensive strategy/build always felt like the "right" way to play. All you need is a single party member with the proper resistances who can use a Media-variant skill to fuel your three other party members through pretty much any given boss fight. The reason certain notable bosses in the series are so hard are because you have a limited access to skills, but even that boss in Nocturne can be killed in like two turns if you just bring the three right demons. Some games, namely SMT4 and Devil Survivor, are very accommodating to an all-out build (Doping and Luster Candy in 4, and then the Drain/Holy Dance/Grace max magic build in DS), while other games are mostly damage races anyways. As long as two party members have buffs/debuffs of the same type, like Rakunda and Rakukaja, you can hit both caps in a turn and a half, crippling most bosses who don't have Dekunda or Dekaja. Defense was such a non-issue in SMT4 that I used the Black Samurai uniform you get in the beginning of the game for my entire neutral route playthrough just because it looked cool.

Mundetiam
Apr 28, 2015
I'm really glad to see another Strange Journey LP, especially since Apocalypse is here and P5 is on the horizon but, if I could get a little off topic for a second, was there ever a reason why Luisfe's LP was never archived? He did just about all the PS2 era games and he finished Strange Journey over a year ago, but his thread never seemed to pop up again.

Lotus Aura
Aug 16, 2009

KNEEL BEFORE THE WICKED KING!
Apologies for the delay here; I should be able to update a bit more consistently from now on.

Speaking of which!

Lotus Aura
Aug 16, 2009

KNEEL BEFORE THE WICKED KING!
A Scorched Nation



Alright, so just around the corner from the terminal we can find stairs leading to an alternative entrance to B2F. As an added bonus...



We've now seen the entirety of B1F! If you really wanted to, you could skip through it very quickly but that's boring and not exactly fun.



Anyway, B2F! We've been here ever-so-briefly earlier but now we get to actually explore it properly.



Just through the door, we can pick up a new Forma (we haven't fought what drops this one yet) that will prove very useful and important later.



This area is pretty straightforward but gives us two doors pretty quickly. We'll go through the one to the left first.



It doesn't really lead much of anywhere. Just a single 2-tile width corridor that ends up being a dead end very quickly.



But! In the bottm left corner, directly opposite the door, we can find a single Sandman to talk to.


Only good manners for me to introduce myself, eh?



H-how lewd!

...Say, sonny, can you do me a favor?
Yes.
Hmmm... I've heard my share about humans, but you're a friendly one.
All righty, let's get right down to business.

I'm sure it only bugs me but boy it would be nice for this Sandman to keep a straight characterisation for one conversation.

It's like I told ya before, this here bag is us Sandmen's signature.
It's more important than you can prob'ly imagine, sonny.
Me, I say you can never be too careful, so I carry a buncha spares.
But ya see... A pal o' mine got a hole in his bag...
I let him borrow my spare for now.
But it doesn't look like that son of a gun plans to return it...
I'm not keen on reminding him, and anyway I don't know where he's got to.
That's where you come in.



I'm countin' on ya.

So that's a 2nd EX Mission. This one we can do very easily, very quickly. The reward is very nice but not super crucial, mind.



I did briefly consider doing it right now. Sandmen are easily found in B1F but first I picked up a Kaso.



And then decided that, eh, it can wait until later. So we'll shelf that one for now. Instead, we'll head through that door to the right and move on.



Not too far in, we get forced into dialogue with this guy.

Also, Master Morax? Now, I'm sure I've seen that name somewhere before...


When the time comes, we'll storm the earth and massacre the humans!

An Honor Befitting that Name



Rather unceremoniously, we're thrown into a fight against a single Oni. Now this should be a problem, because this Oni is kind of a mini-miniboss in a way. He's stronger than a normal Oni but has the same skills and resistances. That last part is very important because it's a universal constant.



Because this Oni is weak to Elec, every Oni we run into later will also be weak to Elec. This includes ones we can use. This fact also applies to every single demon in the game. If a usable version ha a weakness, fixed fights/boss versions (as applicable) do as well.



The sole exception to this is Expel (Light) and Curse (Dark) because that'd make things too easy. Ailments are also varied, somewhat.



Oh and Oni doesn't resist Fire but he does resist Physicals. This isn't particularly major, but it's worth keeping in mnd.

Oh and every single ailment is also a weakness and has a 300% modifier to its proc rate.



Oni have a couple nasty tricks but this one only gets to pull off a Fang Breaker. Light tier Phys damage but it also debuffs Attack by 1 stage! Single target Tarunda with added damage can be pretty nice to have sometimes.


The End



Naturally, Oni are what drop the Brute Horns and this one is pretty handy to get now. It gives us a 2nd which leaves an actual decision to make soon.

A Scorched Nation



Argh...

> The demon disappeared.



The demons are getting stronger...
Plus, it seems like some of them are working together. We can't let our guard down.
Oh, yeah... I found some forma lying around. You can have a few.

> Hitonari obtained DF Antlite x1.



These are both kind of nice for differing reasons. We can put the DF to use making very important armor, and the Jaki Bolts are new.

Listen, if it gets too much for you, go back to Irving and have him tune up your equipment.
That's what the forma are there for... might as well use 'em.

Fair, but we'll do that later. We don't have much of a reason to right now. Instead, we'll head on further in.

The Fear of God



But this is a good time to see a couple new things in the area. Itsumade are the 2nd Raptor so they already make Onmoraki completely outdated. Poor onion-chicken death bird. Itsumade isn't very good mind, being weak to bullets and Ice. No resistances either. His source is kind of nice I guess?

Koppa Tengu is also weak to Guns and has no resistances. He's not very good in general but he does have innate Tarukaja. So do better things at this stage, but he's the earliest one to give you it at all and Yoma is Neutral-Law so he CAN be recruited.

That in-built Tarukaja is mostly noteworthy for when it does things like this:


(this is taken from a different playthrough and did not happen here, sorry)



2 Yoma Leaf's not bad, I suppose. Getting all 3 sources here at once though. Aww yeah. (Hua Po's has Resist Fire; it is the best by default.)



A couple Angels and a Gremlin now, huh? Sure. We know Angel really well from having used one for a while but Gremlin's new. Of course, he's where we get the Jaki Bolts and will prove Very Important later! You'll see. He's weak to Fire and Wind but resists Electric. He has Sukukaja which sounds nice but kind of isn't.



Also run into a single Archangel. Second Divine, of course. Weak to Curse and Electric but immune to Expel. Kind of strong, and tied highest level for random things in the area. Not exactly super-dangerous alone, but I wouldn't just take him super-lightly either.


A Scorched Nation



Anyway, moving on. Beyond that fixed Oni, there's a single one-way door which leads us here. This door is the only way to go anywhere from in here. As soon as we approach it...



I can see why it's so hard for you guys to resist.
That's it... I'm gonna kill you all and reap the bliss!



This time Oni comes with a Melchom. Who's a level lower than normal Melchoms. Remember what I said before about resistances? Well, we already know Melchom is weak to Elec and Oni is as well....



So this happens a lot this time. Later, shitlords.



And we steal Melchom's money as well. Sure, okay.



So now we can continue beyond this door.



We can see a door around the other side of this obstruction but, if we turn left, we can get to a different door first!



That lets us grab this. It'd be nicer if Hitonari had a decent Magic stat but it's worth getting anyway.



While we're here, I grab an Archangel to make navigation easier and less tedious. I then leave immediately.


Prayer



We've got some new things to make now, after all.



The Andersen is kind of a gun downgrade in terms of raw power. It's basic attack is 2 guaranteed shots at random targets, but that makes it pretty darn good! Its only skill gives Hitonari a Bufu equivalent which is important, indeed. The only "hard" part about making it is that it requires 2 Brute Horns.



Meanwhile for armor, we can grab the Ancient Vest which has a Fire resistance. Resistances here are Really Good and in this case takes Fire damage from ~30 or so to ~5. Yes, really.

We'll grab this immediately, because obviously. The Gun weakness isn't a big deal at all, honestly. Problem is this takes a Brute Horn to make! So now we can't grab the Andersen just yet.



We can also make 2 new accessories. The Body Ring is +10HP and the Mind Ring is +10MP. Both are poo poo and Bad and should never be used.



On the way back in, I'm going to take this opportunity to grab a couple easy Sources while I can. We'll start by fusing an Onmoraki out of a Knocker and Tangata Manu. Onmoraki is kind of awful so we won't be sincerely using him.



We'll also take a second Knocker and fuse it with a Pixie to make a Sandman. His Elec null is nice, I guess, but we also won't be using him for very long. The Dormina is also kind of nice but there are better things to use it with.

Now, because I am Psychic and can totally Read Your Mind, you're wondering what the hell I'm wasting my time on these things for. It's simple!


The Fear of God



We're going to stick around on 1F of Antlia. This is an important area for many things and this little technique is one of them. We're going to kill that Dybbuk first because we want a fight against a single enemy with limited offense. Dybbuk's ability to inflict Sleep with its basic makes this more annoying.



Pixie now isolated, we Defend. We do absolutely nothing else.



A couple dozen turns later, Pixie dies and all 3 demons are now fully analyzed!

Wait, what? This is pretty simple but annoying. See, your demons gain analyze points the quickest just through being present for a turn in combat. There is no upper ceiling to how many points they can gain in a single fight. As a result, the fastest way to grind analyze is to just go to 1F of Antlia and Defend. Over and over and over again. For a demon that you've just gotten fresh for the first time, it takes 40 turns to get it to max Analyze.

Note that if you're fighting something that isn't fully analyzed yet, this does not work for grinding enemy analyze. That goes up much quicker by hitting Demon Co-Ops.

Why yes, this can get very tedious but even now there's no risk of anything going wrong so it's mundane but safe. Having something fully analyzed quickly is a godsend later on, because the real benefit is that it halves the Compendium cost!


A Scorched Nation



We'll head back towards B2F to let them actually give their sources in a reasonable timeframe. That done, we're going to get a wee bit more serious again.

It's rather tempting to add a source to Goblin (Hua Po+Sandman) to make him more useful in general but we just want him for his Tarukaja. We also want him for something special later but his own skills do not matter for that.


The Fear of God



The last Unknown for Antlia finally decides to make its appearance, and it's something we've fought before. Twice before, even. It's an Oni!



And this one uses his other skill. Rampage hits random targets 1-4 times for Light damage. It's actually pretty drat good for an earlygame skill. Really, random NoH things are upper-tier for their timeframe in general.



And the random/usable Oni are level 8. All the fixed ones have been level 7. Strange that.


A Scorched Nation



Speaking of, as we return to the main path we run into a 3rd talkative Oni.

But even if you understand each other... in the end, only one can remain.
Now, show me what kind of a man you are.



This might very well be one of the hardest fights in Antlia. Not because it's actually hard, but because 3/4s of it resist Fire and the Pixies have no weakness.



Granted without the Oni there, there's no risk of dying either.



As a nice bonus, we got a Bead out of this. Holding onto that for later though!



Now we can get through that door he was blocking at last.



Not much past there at first, but we've got a one-way door in the bottom corner here which lets us back out. Kind of.



...I think the game's mocking me. I'm not going to complain about a free Bead (thanks Archangel) but this would've been nice about 40 minutes earlier!



Only place to make any actual progress is through this door up top. Let's head on through then...



That's... very close. Man, it sure would've been nice to be informed of that sooner. Thanks, Demonica!



Ah well, we'll grab that forma for the free Itsumade drop.



Over to the far left and far right of this room there's a locked door. Just because we haven't seen what that looks like in true form Antlia before, I guess.



The door to the right hands us 1000 Macca. Cool, thanks I guess.



The door to the left also hands us 1000 Macca gives a couple of free Revival Beads. We should have plenty of these already but a few more is never a bad thing.



As we approach the signal, this guy stops us. I can see the Heal Spot behind that wall and I saw the terminal door earlier as well.


Alright, let's do this!
You ready, Tadano? You can use my demon if you need to. Here, let me give you the password.

This gives us a text document about passwords. You can register upto 3 demons via passwords in your compendium. Feel free to post as many passwords in-thread as you want.

Mostly because I won't be using them. :v:



Anyway, that done we can heal right by the door and...


Prayer



Leave to go back to Irving! I really, REALLY want the Andersen okay?



And then we'll spend some time fusing exactly one thing. We'll start by taking the Goblin from earlier and fusing it with Sandman to make an Oni of our own.



Immediately buy the Sandman back to fuse with the Oni to make Poltergeist.



And then fuse the Poltergeist with a Knocker to give us Gremlin. It's not a complicated chain, but it's the easiest way I found to make Gremlin with my available materials. I'll probably end up doing this later on so just for the sake of consistency, here's a diagram:



Anyway, what we're doing with Gremlin isn't important but it's a timesaver. Kind of. Probably takes more time than it saves, really.



First, we need to get him fully analyzed. Fortunately, that's doable on the way back in.



Then we just run through the rest of Antlia, again. This gives time and opportunity for Gremlin to level up and give us his Source.

Gremlin's source has all of one fixed skill.



We'll take an Oni and Tangata Manu to make a Katakirauwa. We'll also give her Gremlin's Source:



The game does not expect you to have this yet. It is not balanced for this. This is ultimately a minor thing compared to what we'll be doing later. Strange Journey gives you sources but does not expect you to actually ever use them. Remember this. This is important!

It also applies to most of its mechanics, really.


Silence



So with our new Katakirauwa, we'll head on in to the danger room. It has a cool meteor in the background that sort of looks like a giant brain. Thankfully, it's not a little rock of horrors...

In The Master's Name



Instead, we have a giant bull man to deal with?

...So that makes both Orias and now this guy two things in succession that are totally-definitely-references. Yup.


We march toward the human world! And we will not be stopped!
Sealed in the depths of the netherworld, our revenge has begun!



You see the energy source...? ......!
What the hell is that!?



Nothing is more efficient at slaying humans than humans themselves!
We need only mimic you to slaughter humans on a grand scale!
I smell the odor on you... The odor of a human trained to kill!
You humans oft blame us...



Have you no response?
Then we will obliterate your bloodthirsty race...
So tell me. Aren't demons the real heroes?
Both races are wrong.



It's your sort of human I hate most of all!

Tyrant Morax

Vehement Rage :siren: :siren:



Morax, much like Orias, is a demon from the Ars Goetia:

quote:

The Twenty-first Spirit is Marax. He is a Great Earl and President. He appeareth like a great Bull with a Man's face. His office is to make Men very knowing in Astronomy, and all other Liberal Sciences; also he can give good Familiars, and wise, knowing the virtues of Herbs and Stones which be precious. He governeth 30 Legions of Spirits, and his Seal is this, which must be made and worn as aforesaid, etc.

Also like Orias, he's totally intended to come off as a reference to an earlier game. Unlike Orias, he feels less lazy about it.

You see, the very first boss of Megami Tensei was Minotaur (if this sounds more recently familiar, it's because SMT4 did that as well. Because SMT4 wishes it was even half as good as Strange Journey). Minotaur was a right bastard of a boss all things considered, because he resisted almost everything, was immune to a couple things... and reflected Fire. At a time where your best damage was going to come from Fire spells.

Morax isn't quite as unfair as that, but he still reflects Fire.



As you probably gathered from my little bit of superfluous prep, Morax is weak to Ice. It helps cut through his 700HP very, very quickly.



Especially with Goblin spending the first 3 turns casting Tarukaja. If he had the MP/I had the interest to Chakra Drop him, he could get to +4 without issue or worry. Morax doesn't have an inbuilt counter for it after all.



Gremlin's going to spend his first few turns casting Sukunda. This isn't a great help but it miiiiight make him miss once or twice. Maybe. Probably not.



And, of course, Katakirauwa is going to cast Bufula every turn.



As things stand, Hitonari is going to outdamage her whenever he gets to attack. His Ice Shot deals more raw damage and the Co-Op that he's not in also deals more than the one he IS in.



But what can Morax actually do? A basic attack that deals less damage a Medicine, for starters. Single target Phys, no added traps. Ho hum.



His overall main skill is this, though. Gehenna is an Enemy-Only skill that probably costs no MP. Bosses have infinite MP (because obviously) so it doesn't really matter though. We CAN get an equivalent to Gehenna later on at least.



Gehenna isn't super-dangerous in a vacuum because it doesn't deal damage. Problem is, it's multi-target Fear (base 70% chance).

Now, we haven't seen Fear before so what makes this annoying is all new! Fear does all of 3 things. It does nothing, it makes you do nothing or if a demon is inflicted with Fear it can return itself to the stock. That last one is the most annoying because it wastes 2 turns instead of just one! Thankfully, we have a few Patra Stones already and Fear isn't a super big deal.



Morax also has Lunge which is a very "eh" Phys skill.



It barely outdoes a regular, basic attack. Good job, Morax.

He can also cast Maragi but that's not really a big deal most of the time.



When low on health, he gains access to Horned Rampage - his special skill. It's not a super-unique thing, since it's just Rampage But Stronger (doesn't look like it here but I had to Defend a lot to let him use it).


The End



But, yeah, Morax is the first actual boss and thus not at all a threat. The hardest part I found was not killing him before he can show what he can really do.



He gives decent EXP and some alright Macca I suppose. Guaranteed Bead is nice if we really needed it, and is pretty sweet in general.


End

Silence



You... beckoned us...

> A strange energy cluster is sitting where Morax was.







I don't know what would've happened to me if I got there first...



Return to the Red Sprite with the energy cluster.



The energy mass you retrieved must be sent to analysis immediately.
Proceed directly to the command room.

Malevolence and Benevolence



Mission "Energy Signature Investigation" is confirmed complete.
Crewman Hitonari...
The energy source you retrieved will likely solve the problem of the quantum tunnel at the zenith.





Despite its size, this Rosetta Manifold is extremely dense with information.



The Schwarzwelt has been full of surprises, but this takes the cake!
It's scientific significance aside...



We have discovered information pertaining to the quantum field blocking our escape.
...I don't think I get it.
The Blue Jet couldn't break through. What makes you think that's gonna change things?
The Red Sprite is a foreign object that the quantum field repels.
However, by altering our plasma armor's parameters to synchronize with the quantum field...



So the quantum field is like oil, and the Red Sprite's like water... It won't let us through.
But we can pass if we coat the plasma with some "oil" of our own...



What, so we can escape!? We can go back home!?
We did it, Tadano! Hahahaha! In your face, Schwarzwelt!
...I cannot confirm at present.



Without comprehensive knowledge of the Schwarzwelt's layout, it is impossible to judge.
Haha...? What!? We're not going the right way!?
I cannot confirm that we are returning to Earth. We may be headed into further danger.
But unless we press forward, our chances of escaping will remain scarce...



Our goal at present...
Should be to travel through the quantum tunnel and "plane shift" to the next space-time plane.
So we need to move on to the next layer of the Schwarzwelt, huh?
Something tells me it won't be a fun trip, but... Our chances are better than they are sitting here.
Well, speaking as a member of the strike team...
What's got me spooked are the demons we'll probably run into over there. Right, Tadano?

Nah. We'll be fine.



Arthur... I don't want to see a repeat of that stunt you pulled when we got here, okay?
My information regarding the Schwarzwelt is much more complete now than it was before our entry.



We will engage the plane shift once all crewmen are prepared.
All hands, prepare to plane shift.

Silence



This one scene plays a lot, and thankfully it's skippable in the future. It's not worth videoing either.



We finally lift off having prepared...



Activate our modified plasma armor to let us continue on through to a new area.



And then fly through a weird blue-green tunnel. Simple.


Malevolence and Benevolence



The jump to a new sector is complete.
The plane shift was successful.



Of course, right now we can only go through the tunnel between here and Antlia...
Hopefully we can find the next quantum tunnel before long.
So we're stuck on the local line? Eh, figures.



Infierno at first glance appears to be a weird typo, right? Well, if it was anyone else saying it then sure. Maybe. But because this is coming from Jimenez it's intentional. It's gratuitous Spanish, because obviously right?

Probably super obvious but infierno means Hell.


That is unfortunately impossible.



We must determine each sector's properties one by one.
Our next task is to investigate this sector as well.
Man, you don't waste time... you got your argument for working us to the bone all set.
Crewman Jimenez. If you wish to return to Earth, this misson is necessary.
...Ice cold, man. Even the demons are friendlier than that.



The atmosphere's pretty close to Sector Antlia's. We think it'll be possible to explore.
We've got the outside environment on visual, but it's proving a little tough to analyze...
Well, I'll transmit it to your viewscreen so you can see for yourself.

Fear



What is this...? Are there demons in there, too?



I was expecting something... I dunno, fantasic, but this is just like home. What's the deal?
You got all the answers, Arthur. Mind explainin' it to us!?



It seems the Schwarzwelt contains structures that bear a resemblance to human society.
I believe the aesthetic is related to the fact that it is a region where demons appear...
But with our current data, any further analysis would be premature.
This "red-light district"... Antlia's battlefield...





But here we are, finding cultures not too far removed from our own... And they're hostile.
Humans killing humans... No, demons killing humans...
Why does this world exist?
I think I'm cracking up...
Don't dwell on it too much, Norris. You'll lose all perspective.



We can be certain that by gathering information on the Schwarzwelt, you are on the path back to Earth.
Keep that in mind and remain calm while performing your duties.
Jesus, Arthur... I need to get the hell outta here before I get as cold as you.



Your first mission in Sector Bootes will begin shortly.
It will be hazardous, but we will employ observational instruments in this sector.

Boötes, of course, is also a constellation. Its name contains a diaeresis because of course it does. It contains... uh, Arcturus. Y'know, the brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere and the 4th brightest star period. Kind of cool, really.



Boötes is a Greek-derived name that means the herdsman, or maybe the plowman. As a constellation, it was first discovered by.... Ptolemy in the 2nd century.




A certain amount of space is required to launch the beacons.
Your task is to find a suitable staging area and launch the reconnaisance beacons.



The intelligence gained from this mission will also help pinpoint the next quantum tunnel.
It is vital that we succeed.
The more we discover about the Schwarzwelt, the better our chances of escaping it.
Furthermore, the intelligence we gather will undoubtedly be key to solving the crisis on Earth.
You must continue the mission.
To those of you on the strike team who are making use of the Demon Summoning Program...
The Rosetta Manifold we obtained in Sector Antlia yielded further insights into the program.
We were successful in using it to enhance the Demon Summoning Program's capacity.



Hurray, stock upgrade! :toot:

I will distribute the patch now. Please accept it.



Don't worry Arthur, so do I. But it's going to wait a while. Sure, we could head on over to Boötes now but we're not going to! Instead, we've got some unfinished business in Antlia. We have a few Beads now so we can give one to that Pixie; we need to find a Sandman to get that sack back... and there's something else available now. Probably best to do it right away; after all, it would be ever so rude to keep a lady waiting.

Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:22 on Mar 15, 2017

BlackPersona
Oct 21, 2012


...That Analysis trick would've made the game so much easier if I'd known it. Still just grinding, but less... level grinding... Which I ended up doing a lot for those Formas. :sigh:

At least we're in Bootes now :toot:

Gideon020
Apr 23, 2011
Out of curiosity, is this going to be a Law, Chaos or Neutral ending run?

BlazeEmblem
Jun 8, 2013

Uh oh. Do I use Ariadne thread or Goho-M?

Dragonatrix posted:

Because SMT4 wishes it was even half as good as Strange Journey

:argh: You better take that back. SMT4 was far better than this game.

Tallgeese
May 11, 2008

MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR


Gideon020 posted:

Out of curiosity, is this going to be a Law, Chaos or Neutral ending run?

I'm pretty sure every single LP has ended up at Neutral. It actually kind of defeats the point of holding a vote.

Also, SMT4 was somehow more of a slog than this game. Though it could be that it is so because I played this first.

Gideon020
Apr 23, 2011

Tallgeese posted:

I'm pretty sure every single LP has ended up at Neutral. It actually kind of defeats the point of holding a vote.

Considering what the Chaos and Law options always end up being, it's no wonder that they go Neutral every time. I think it might be an Asian something concerning balance or somesuch mumbo.

Junpei
Oct 4, 2015

Although next time, you would be wise to heed the ancient Japanese proverb... phone first!

BlazeEmblem posted:

:argh: You better take that back. SMT4 was far better than this game.

Speaking of which, :) SMT4: Apocalyse is out! Yay!

Kemix
Dec 1, 2013

Because change

Tallgeese posted:

I'm pretty sure every single LP has ended up at Neutral. It actually kind of defeats the point of holding a vote.

Also, SMT4 was somehow more of a slog than this game. Though it could be that it is so because I played this first.

Luisfe did all three routes on his (Not Archived) LP of this game...just starting the game from a certain point two more times over, grinding to 99 with an XP code and then showing the routes off.

Also SMT4's neutral ending was a loving slog. You HAD to do almost all, if not ALL of the loving side-quests in the game for it. I wound up losing interest and stopped playing all together for it. And I probably won't return to it because SMT4:Final/Apocalypse is a better game in pretty much all respects (I still have yet to complete it, I'm sitting on 5/8th moon I think, because Work is a bitch)

Lotus Aura
Aug 16, 2009

KNEEL BEFORE THE WICKED KING!

BlazeEmblem posted:

:argh: You better take that back. SMT4 was far better than this game.

Nope, never. :colbert:

Lotus Aura
Aug 16, 2009

KNEEL BEFORE THE WICKED KING!
Prayer



Now that we're in Bootes (the game doesn't include the diaeresis so I won't either!), we'll take a breather to talk to the crew again. It's been a while since we last did that after all.

But it's also a little creepy...
They're trying to show us something... I can feel their hostile intent...



We've learned a few things about Demon Fusion by analyzing the data we receive.
You might have heard from another crewman already, but you can ask me anytime if you want to know.

So from now on, Williams gives us a Fusion tutorial because getting that after the first boss is sensible.



But is this a step forward or just starting the battle all over again?
Either way... good luck. As long as you're alive, I'll be here to treat your wounds.



They say I can walk around the ship now too, but as big as it looks, this ship is just too small!



I dunno where ya found that, but you better give it here before ya lose it!



It's probably not super obvious, and you have no reason to ever check the relevant menu, but that Brass Horn we got? That's a Rare Forma. Unlike the Feather Flock from before, this one does something a bit different:



We'll take a look at what we got outta this soon, but first we're here to talk to people. So we're gonna talk to people!




I can't raise too much of a fuss about it, but between you and me, I'm 'bout beside myself.



But it follows that if someone is seeking the truth, they have to go deep to find it.
So from any angle, I think we're on the right track.



Alright, while we're here I'm going to pick this up before we leave. It's going to be useful later.



The Brass Horn gave us four new Sub Apps. Two of them are Negotiation upgrades; whenever we get an item, or macca, the Extra [x] app means you get it twice. You don't get the same item, or amount of macca, mind you. But you get two sets of it.



Light in Hell procs pretty often in my experience. Very, very rarely if there's a single enemy demon left, they'll start begging for mercy. Tell 'em no, and they'll give you an item and run away. Tell 'em yes and they'll run away. This makes it happen more often. Pretty simple, pretty nice.



Presenter is kind of nice I guess? Those random item gains at level up become more likely. I can't say I've used it much personally though. I don't know exactly what the modifier on it is either. But it's cheap.

Really, these 4 are all pretty good in their own way and pay for themselves quickly enough at least. I'll mainly be using Extra Item for a little while, despite it being stupidly large (5/10 capacity immediately gone...).



Nothing else in the Lab right now, so we'll head on over to the Deck.




I just like raising them. When one of mine gains a level, I get a certain sense of satisfaction.
Now that you've got me going, I wouldn't mind teaching you the ins and outs of raising demons.

So, Blair's tutorials have been expanded to include item gifts, skill changes and sources. Still feels a bit late and thoroughly unnecessary.



Oh yeah...
You wouldn't happen to have any spare time, would you?
Well, I hear stories about other crewmen's troubles and anxieties when we're betting on stuff.
Think you could lend a sympathetic ear too? Only when you have time, I mean.



I'll introduce you to some of the crew. Talk to me when you feel up to it.



Dent gives us a further menu when we talk to him now. One of these is a "hey do you have sidequests?" option, so...

Anything I can help with?
Wow! Getting your help is quite a welcome surprise.
Bad timing, though...
The crewmen who had requests for you are all gone right now.
Come see me again later.



I heard they're providing backup for the supply team... but man, they were out in force.
Whatever they're up against must be pretty tough.

Well, that's a super-obvious quest hook anyway. We'll be seeing what the deal here is later on.

For now, we'll just talk to Dent and then choose the Talk option.




Rest is good, but exercising your body and mind is important, too... Right?
Hmm... Can yoou help stave off the boredom? Let's stretch our brains!
Okay.
Great! Then let's begin.



Need me to explain the rules?
Yes.
In this game, you and I advance a count, back and forth.
You can add up to three to the tally, but you always have to add at least one.



You first, then.



This is a pretty simple mini-game, but it can still trip people up. It's not complicated or anything and it comes up in all sorts of weird situations.



Of course, going first means we cannot lose. We just advance once number first, then whatever comes next is irrelevant. Because Dent advances it 3 numbers here, we advance it to 5.



Because here he advances from 9 to 11, we advance from 11 to 13.

If we advances to 14 from there, we advance to 17. In summary, so long as the first player ensures an advance of 4 numbers from their last, they will never lose. We end turn 1 on 1, so we end turn 2 on 5. Then we end turn 3 on 9, turn 4 on 13, turn 5 on 17 etc. etc.



You can count it out with every valid combination and it will never end above 28 for the second player. This makes it impossible for them to win.




You win. You know... you're pretty good at this, Hitonari.



We don't get much of a reward for this one, but it was intended as a bit of a break. It's pretty understandable and not much of a problem here.

Well, that was a nice way to kill time. Thanks a bunch.

A Scorched Nation



Oh right, before we deal with the remaining EX Quests we completed the map for Antlia B2F before as well. So that's 2/3rds of Antlia fully mapped out already. 1F isn't doable for a long, looooong time unfortunately.



We only need to go to B1F for now, though.




Humans aren't all bad, huh?
Oh, this is for you, as thanks!



Well, this is very good. Very, very good...



Although, is anywhere safe around here?
It's kind of a free-for-all...



Oh well. I'll see you later!



Okay, so the Pixie Knife isn't quite the best Sword but it's honestly up there. That's mostly because it's a minimum of 2 hits and sometimes inflicts Charm, yes. Charm is really, really good (things attack themselves, their allies and/or heal their enemies as applicable). The 2-4 hits is important because each hit has a chance of proccing the Charm effect. You could tell me you used this for some seemingly absurdly long length of time and I would probably believe you.

Mostly because Charm is very good and it's not like you make basic attacks often anyway, so the low power isn't a big liability.



Anyway, we've got another sidequest to deal with here. We just need to find a random Sandman and then Talk to him.




> Hitonari told Sandman about the spare bag...

A spare Sandman bag...? I borrowed it from a friend, y'say...?
Hm... hang on a moment... I'm tryin' to recollect...
Ohh! Sure, I remember now!
I tore a hole in my bag, so I borrowed an extra.
'Course, I fixed the original tear, so now it's good as new...



Sure, take the bag, and give it to him with my regards.
Huah huah huah...!



This whole "find a random demon and talk to them once" thing is just a glorified fetch quest, sure, but it's also semi-common...ish? It's not the kinda thing we get all the time but it crops up a decent number of times.



Good job there, sonny.
I wish more humans were friendly like you...
It's a dadgum shame.



There's not many of these available for a while. It's a full MP restore to one target. Very handy!



And for our final little event, we're going to go check out those guys that Dent told us about. Normally you wouldn't do this for a while but I prefer to do things as soon as I can. I can do this now, so...


You came at a good time. Got a minute to talk?
I'm on a mission to escort some of the supply team to the Blue Jet to salvage parts.
There's no telling what we'll find, but the more parts, the better.
We've hit a snag, though...
There's a demon hiding in the Blue Jet. Or living there, I should say.
The team's regrouping right now to get ready to take on that demon.



I've already got authorization from Arthur.
Join the elimination team?
Yes.
Glad to hear it. It's good to have you on the team.
It's just on an ad hoc basis, but you'll be under my command.
Now go take your positions at the Blue Jet.



Okay, so this is not something we're prepared for as-is. We're going to make a lot of demons and then ultimately ignore the most on-paper useful one. That's Apsaras here (Goblin+Angel); hi Apsaras! Giving her Kaso's source so she can do semi-useful things in general. More of a long-term investment.



Now we're going to make the real things we're going to us! First we're going to take a Pixie and Gremlin to make Preta. Preta has a horrible slew of weaknesses (and he's weak to Mute as well though you don't get to see that) and is up-there with Poltergeist for sheer awfulness.



We only want him for his Tarunda though. Fusing him with Hua Po gives us an Ippon-Datara who is very useful and very important. His weaknesses are kind of bad but manageable and his innate skills are insanely good for a level 10 demon! You'll see. If I had an Itsumade source, I'd add that as well because it's the only way to get a powerful Physical skill until level 22.



Angel+Koppa Tengu is going to give us Harpy who isn't all that great. We're not going to add a Source here because it'd be a waste; her damage output is awful, she opts for Sukukaja over something useful and she's weak to her own normal attack.

We're more interested in using her to heal and stay alive.



Now for our final demon we're going to take a needlessly long route. I could use a Poltergeist for this but I want to make an Erthys first. Elements "Prime" demons are made by combining two demons of the same race. Level here doesn't matter. Two Jiraes (how convenient!) give us Erthys. What element we use here is irrelevant but Erthys is the lowest level so he'll do.



We're making a Dybbuk here. We could fish for getting one via Lunatic but that's a giant stretch and this is easier. Spirits are all ranked down via Element fusion.

...Okay, so Elements change the way fusion works. Combine one with another demon and you get a demon of the same race as the other demon. Simply put, Element+Spirit=Spirit. Depending on the combination, it will give you either the next demon up/down in terms of level or the one after that.

Poltergeist is the second lowest Spirit, and all Spirits are ranked down 1 stage so it will always give Dybbuk who is the lowest level. Unlike older games, there is no wrap-around so you cannot rank down Dybbuk into the highest level Spirit; instead, it's an invalid combination.

Incidentally, if you want to fuse demons like Dybbuk or Slime or even Okiku-Mushi then the only way to do so is to take the 2nd lowest of their race and then rank them down.



We want Dybbuk to fuse with an Onmoraki to make Jueyuan. We could also use Poltergeist for this but Dybbuk is the only easy way to pass Rakukaja along right now.

I'm also going to add an Oni source to this (for Tarukaja) but I don't have one here yet so I'll grind that off-screen.


In The Master's Name



> A large crowd of demons has gathered...

When we're ready, we're going to head over to where we fought Orias before.



Hmhmhm... You needn't worry about them getting lonely. They're here with me, after all.
Now... Today, we shall sing a song...

> The demon is playing with the corpses around the Blue Jet...



> The crew moved into position.

Men, prepare to engage...
Ready... aim...
Fire!
Tadano! There's a big one headed your way!



You're the most experienced one on the team!
Can you handle it?
Leave it to me.
Copy that!
We'll hold back the rest of the demons to give you some space!



I assure you, my dear, you won't be lonely with me at your side.
Come and join your human brethren for eternity...!

Fairy Lorelei

Vehement Rage



Alright, so our first optional boss... is level 31... sure, whatever. Lorelei are siren-like water spirits which comes up in roughly zero ways here, for once. She also happens to be one of my personal favourite demons in the series because I'm weird like that.



I considered bringing Apsaras to capitalise on her Fire weakness, but the damage output is reduced most because Lorelei is level 31.



Tarukaja helps a decent chunk with pushing that up to something more sensible, but at this stage it'll still take a little while to best Lorelei. She "only" has 455HP for reference.



Well, that would be the case if we didn't bring Ippon-Datara. He's crucial here because he has Charge. Charge boosts the next Physical/Gun attack/skill to 2.5x normal damage.



Combining that and Tarukaja, leads to his Explosive Fist obliterating Lorelei very quickly.



And because of the sheer level difference between Lorelei and everything we can throw at her at this stage, you might think it's a good idea to debuff her attack and buff our defense right?



Well, yes and no. This is her damage output as-is on neutral resistance while guarding. This is all she can do to deal damage. But that's the least dangerous thing about her!



Her actual moveset includes four key spells. Marin Karin is insanely dangerous because it's single target Charm (5MP; 80% chance to hit). If she targets a Pixie Knife wielding Hitonari, which I removed because of this fight, or something like Harpy which can Charm with their attack... then it can spread really quickly.



Fortunately, I brought Harpy almost exclusively for Charmdi which mitigates this risk but does not make it a non-issue.



Her only other normal spell is Dormina. Single target Sleep, seen it before, doubles damage received... but that's not what makes this very dangerous! If she casts Dormina and it hits the MC, you've already lost. If she casts Dormina and it hits anyone else, cure it with a Patra Stone immediately!



If anyone is asleep at the start of the turn, she will cast Eternal Rest. Eternal Rest targets every single unit and it's an instant kill to anyone asleep. Lorelei is more than fast enough to always go first (at this stage) so you want item priority to cure sleep. That's why if Hitonari gets hit by Dormina we've lost and can't do anything about it.

Later on that's not an issue at all but we're doing this now so I'm tempering my advice for that.



When low on health, she begins to cast Media as well. I don't know why it's Media and not something that would be more useful like Diarama. I'm guessing this is flavor over substance.



It always heals 45HP to her and people have big problems outpacing this for some reason? If she starts spamming it, that's a good thing! It means you can go on the offensive and will easily be able to deal much more damage than she can heal even if she casts it every turn.


The End



Being an (optional) boss fight, now that we've beaten Lorelei we can fuse her once we get to a high enough level. That'll take quite a while though...



Thanks to the level difference, combined with some degree of EXP scaling, you might think that we're going to get relatively overlevelled from this right? Well, no. Lorelei only gives enough EXP to push Hitonari from level 10 to 12.


End

A Scorched Nation



You won't be lonely here... Why...?

> The demon disappeared...
> It seems the squad has eliminated all of the demons.



We kept the casualties to a minimum. It was a well-executed operation.
Regroup at the starting point.

> After he signed off, your personal channel switched on.



Thanks to you, this operation was a cakewalk.
I want to thank you on the rest of the team's behalf.

Just gonna take a quick walk over to where we officially started the EX Quest.



Mission accomplished, men. There shouldn't be any trouble salvaging those parts now.
You did good work out there today.
Supplies prepared a little reward for us. It's all yours, men.



This is our primary reward for this quest, and we can use it immediately rather than in about 20 levels. It's a Rare Forma, so...



We'll immediately head back to the Red Sprite and hand it to Irving and Chen.



This only gives us the one Sub App but MP Recover II is very good. It's also only 12500 Macca so we'll be able to grab this pretty quick. It recovers 5 MP to Hitonari, and only Hitonari, every 10-15 steps. We're not even gonna get MP Recover I until quite a ways later.

Oh, and finally before we carry on, let's take a look at everything (that we haven't really seen yet) Irving and Chen can make in the lab right now. Remember that almost all of this requires Forma as well as Macca at all times! The only thing that doesn't is common ol' Medicine.



Neither of the currently available weapons are particularly stellar but I do quite like the Cursed Lance. It's not as objectively amazing as the Pixie Knife but it's a flat 2 hits on a single target at semi-decent power so it's a good alternative. At least to me; feel free to disagree if you want. I'm still gonna use it though.

Requires 1 AT Antlite II, 3 Raptor Tissue (Onmoraki and Itsumade both drop/give this) and 3 Jirae Dress (Hua Po).



The Heat Knife is a generic alternative that I have never used and probably never will. It's got the highest base power but it's a single hit on one target with no added benefits. It's the boring "safe" option, really.

Requires 2 AT Antlite, 1 Fairy Wings (Pixie) and 1 Spirit Cuffs (Dybbuk).



The Caloric is the only Gun we haven't used yet and probably won't at all to be honest. It's the worst for raw power, discounting the starting gun, and it's free hit attacks every enemy once which is cool. It's only ability is a single target Sukunda with some Light tier damage. If it was any other debuff I'd probably grab it as an alternative for some fights, but Sukunda is the least useful so the Caloric just kind of falls by the wayside.

Requires 1 AT Antlite, 1 Fairy Wings and 1 Vermin Rope (Okiku-Mushi; the least common Forma of the sector in my personal experience).



I sort of glossed over the Survivor Vest before, but it's what we used for Lorelei (even if it doesn't look it here). It's not as good for raw defense as the Ancient Vest but it's defenses are better in general. The Fire weakness would've been a problem before but now not-so-much. That it resists Physicals is amazing and great since, y'know, physical damage is very common and Resist is flatout amazing.

Requires 1 DF Antlite and 1 Jirae Rags (Knocker). Absolute steal, and a good example of how Strange Journey does not understand how to balance things.



Briefly mentioned the Body and Mind Rings before. They add a whole 10 points to HP and MP respectively. That's it. Don't use them. They suck. We can get better versions for basically free really easily.

Body Ring requires 2 AC Antlite, 1 Fallen Purse (Melchom) and 2 Beast Fire Fur (Kaso).

Mind Ring requires 2 AC Antlite, 1 Divine Wings (Angel and Archangel) and 1 Night Sand (Sandman).



Patra Stone and Dis-Poison are things we've seen before but completely ignored from Irving. They're just status cures but that makes them kind of important unless you want to waste demon skill slots on their respective spells (you don't).

They both need only 1 Detox Core, which you'll have lots of just by playing casually so there's no real excuse to not keep stocked on them really.



Poison Gas is the only attack item available right now. That's kind of misleading as it doesn't deal damage; it's just a single target attempt to inflict Poison. There are some really good ailment items later, and while Poison is decent we'll get better ones fairly quickly. Grab it if you want, but don't worry too much about it.

Requires 1 AC Antlite and 1 Foul Mucous (Slime).

But, for now we've done all we can in Antlia. So next time, we'll be stepping into Bootes for the first time.

Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:23 on Mar 15, 2017

Junpei
Oct 4, 2015

Although next time, you would be wise to heed the ancient Japanese proverb... phone first!
Bootes: AKA A very moderate "Screw you" from Atlus.

BlackPersona
Oct 21, 2012


...I didn't expect you to beat Lorelai so early. That's... huh. Good job. :golfclap:

SweaterGear
Jan 4, 2010

There's a Monopenguin! :swoon:
Nice to see a less...frustrated playthrough of this game, I had to stop following the last one because the tone was unpleasant. This looks like an interesting entry in the SMT franchise, and I look forward to your LP!

Lotus Aura
Aug 16, 2009

KNEEL BEFORE THE WICKED KING!

BlackPersona posted:

...I didn't expect you to beat Lorelai so early. That's... huh. Good job. :golfclap:

Well, it's not like it's any harder than doing it later. It just takes slightly longer due to relatively lower damage output.

Sure, I could've waited until later so as to make it take less than a minute but that's going to happen with some Other Things anyway so... :v:

Petiso
Apr 30, 2012



Seeing LPers using unconventional methods to take on optional content as soon as possible is one of my favorite things in RPG LPs, hope we keep seeing it.

Lotus Aura
Aug 16, 2009

KNEEL BEFORE THE WICKED KING!
Considered putting this at the start of the next update before deciding that it makes more sense at the end of the sidequest stuff, since it pertains exclusively to Antlia. Gonna edit it in, but for convenience just gonna leave it here as well:

quote:

Oh, and finally before we carry on, let's take a look at everything (that we haven't really seen yet) Irving and Chen can make in the lab right now. Remember that almost all of this requires Forma as well as Macca at all times!



Neither of the currently available weapons are particularly stellar but I do quite like the Cursed Lance. It's not as objectively amazing as the Pixie Knife but it's a flat 2 hits on a single target at semi-decent power so it's a good alternative. At least to me; feel free to disagree if you want. I'm still gonna use it though.

Requires 1 AT Antlite II, 3 Raptor Tissue (Onmoraki and Itsumade both drop/give this) and 3 Jirae Dress (Hua Po).



The Heat Knife is a generic alternative that I have never used and probably never will. It's got the highest base power but it's a single hit on one target with no added benefits. It's the boring "safe" option, really.

Requires 2 AT Antlite, 1 Fairy Wings (Pixie) and 1 Spirit Cuffs (Dybbuk).



The Caloric is the only Gun we haven't used yet and probably won't at all to be honest. It's the worst for raw power, discounting the starting gun, and it's free hit attacks every enemy once which is cool. It's only ability is a single target Sukunda with some Light tier damage. If it was any other debuff I'd probably grab it as an alternative for some fights, but Sukunda is the least useful so the Caloric just kind of falls by the wayside.

Requires 1 AT Antlite, 1 Fairy Wings and 1 Vermin Rope (Okiku-Mushi; the least common Forma of the sector in my personal experience).



I sort of glossed over the Survivor Vest before, but it's what we used for Lorelei (even if it doesn't look it here). It's not as good for raw defense as the Ancient Vest but it's defenses are better in general. The Fire weakness would've been a problem before but now not-so-much. That it resists Physicals is amazing and great since, y'know, physical damage is very common and Resist is flatout amazing.

Requires 1 DF Antlite and 1 Jirae Rags (Knocker). Absolute steal, and a good example of how Strange Journey does not understand how to balance things.



Briefly mentioned the Body and Mind Rings before. They add a whole 10 points to HP and MP respectively. That's it. Don't use them. They suck. We can get better versions for basically free really easily.

Body Ring requires 2 AC Antlite, 1 Fallen Purse (Melchom) and 2 Beast Fire Fur (Kaso).

Mind Ring requires 2 AC Antlite, 1 Divine Wings (Angel and Archangel) and 1 Night Sand (Sandman).



Patra Stone and Dis-Poison are things we've seen before but completely ignored from Irving. They're just status cures but that makes them kind of important unless you want to waste demon skill slots on their respective spells (you don't).

They both need only 1 Detox Core, which you'll have lots of just by playing casually so there's no real excuse to not keep stocked on them really.



Poison Gas is the only attack item available right now. That's kind of misleading as it doesn't deal damage; it's just a single target attempt to inflict Poison. There are some really good ailment items later, and while Poison is decent we'll get better ones fairly quickly. Grab it if you want, but don't worry too much about it.

Requires 1 AC Antlite and 1 Foul Mucous (Slime).

Lotus Aura
Aug 16, 2009

KNEEL BEFORE THE WICKED KING!


Nothing left to do outside of Bootes, so let's head on in.

A Frivolous Nation



How would you describe it? Creepy? Tacky? Whatever it is, it sucks.



(A) ...Then again, I've known my share of humans who love places like this, too.
(B) You'd almost expect to see humans living here, but... there aren't any, huh?
That's right. The only things here are those goddamned demons.
(C) This must all be a trap they set. Careful, guys!
It's time we got to it! Begin the mission!



Right out the gate, Bootes is showing us how its different to what came before. Not only do we have the obvious stuff, but there's also this creepy red-ish pink floor tiles. That we're going to ignore for now.

...Oh right, and while I remember, you may have noticed during the Antlia clean-up that Hitonari's name changed to having a light blue color just like it does here. Morax kind of serves as the plot gate that lets you change your own alignment, based on dialogue choices and such. They follow the same color scheme as the normal demons we can pick up; red is Chaos, white is Neutral and blue is Law. I wouldn't take this as a sign of anything at this stage, really. It has minimal impact outside of Co-Op stuff until much, much, MUCH later. Besides, we can adjust and manipulate our alignment with minimal hassle and fuss later on too.



Anyway, if we look directly left of those strange tiles there's a wall we can examine. Bootes is VERY different to what we've seen before...




Portal inaccessible with installed applications!

There's a "portal" (door) in the wall, huh? But we can't open it yet so this is something we need to deal with later I guess. Once we tried to open it, it got added to the map which is useful.



We're gonna follow the path around to the south for now. This lets us grab this easy Assist Forma and we can continue to ignore those weird lookin' floor tiles for now.



The path is pretty thoroughly linear for a little while but we'll quickly get to a few branching options. We'll go left here first.



This beings us around to a Melchom waiting, hidden in an alcove.


They say humans are a lazy race, but I suppose I have no choice other than to ask...
Ah, pardon me for not introducing myself sooner. I am Melchom, the paymaster of Hell.
I provide demons with various tasks to complete, but we're short on demons and I have jobs undone.
Would you be a gentleman and hear my request?



Yes.
I'm glad you know how to follow orders.
I expect results.

Well, the good news is this is doable at just about any moment because of how ubiquitous Chakra Drops are.

...And we already have a few on-hand, so!






I look forward to working with you again.

Since we only got a couple thousand Macca out of this, I didn't see much of a need to put it off until later. Also we had it done already, that helps too.

The dot will remain on our minimap though. We've finished the quest and don't have a new one active. How odd...

Anyway, we'll turn left on our way out which leads further on into Bootes. We'll immediately hit another branching path and turn right to go south.



From there, we can continue on further south or we can check out this new door first.



It's not super obvious at first, but that weird gem-shaped thing in the center is our visual shorthand for Unlock required here. As you might remember from before, Blue means Unlock A!



The actual doors here are weird and creepy. They stare into your soul...



Beyond the door, we can go west quite a ways but we've got a door that leads back up north. We'll check that out firs--




Oh, it's you, Hitonari. Don't scare me like that...
Hm? Ah, it's nothing. I was just checking one of the Demonica's functions...
Have you messed around much with the Records function?



They're achievements. We almost certainly won't get all of them (the 100% Compendium and 100% Analyzed ones are insanely tedious), but most of them are easy and don't require much extra effort at least. I'll keep a log of them in the 2nd post, in the order they appear in-game, for those that care.

Guess the Joint Project figures a little competition between the men will get us motivated, huh?
Man, they got it all figured out. They know us grunts too well...

> The strike force member left while looking at his Demonica...

Okay, NOW we can go through that door.



Your present location is believed to be sufficient for purposes of observation.
You may launch the Signal Beacon.



This is Arthur. Beginning the capturing of the beacon's signal.
Continue to search for suitable locations for observation.

The Fear of God



Since the door that led towards our first plot token was a one-way door, we need to walk the long way around. That gives us chance to actually see the demons here, instead of random unknowns.

Disapppointingly, our first batch consists of Harpy and Katakirauwa. This'll happen more and more as we go along, for obvious reasons. Harpy's weak to Gun and Elec which makes her easy to take down and has no resistances. I mentioned before her base attack CAN inflict Charm but it's not too big a risk since it's only a base 5% chance.

Katakirauwa is only weak to Expel and is flatout immune to Curse. So, don't Mudo her but do definitely drop a Hama.



Boy, it's a good thing Preta's are actually objectively awful because that first skill sure wasn't there on the ones we had! This'll happen with many demons, where enemy versions have extra skills; usually, these are Enemy Only skills that make no sense for you to get, or Enemy Only skills that Atlus is aware are good and thus you're not allowed them. Sometimes, they're normal skills you will get just not until way later because shut up.

Anyway, Macca Beam is firmly in that first criteria. It's a very good skill... but it's one that allowing the player to use would not make any sense. It doesn't deal damage to anyone's HP or anything. It doesn't inflict an ailment. It just deals damage to you, yes you reading this. It hurts your pride as it targets your wallet and just destroys a couple hundred macca.

Yes, this turns up again later. Yes, it's more annoying then.



Azumi is kind of like an Oni, I guess? It's definitely a relatively smaller threat though. Azumi's weak to Fire and Elec but resists Phys of course. Only has Rampage as his one default skill.

He's also slightly, and I do mean slightly, weak to Sleep. Normally being weak to an ailment gives it 300% chance of being inflicted (so a 3x chance). Azumi's Sleep modifier is a whole... 150%. Thanks Azumi!



Yaaaaaaaay Jack Frost! Jack Frost's of course an adorable little snowman who's also a series mascot. You've seen him. You've seen him a lot. He even has semi-unique Talk dialogue with a unique response! We'll see it later, I'm sure.

Being a snow man, he's weak to Fire and reflects Ice. But! Unlike the previous reflects, Jack Frost reflects Ice as if he was weak to it! Tricksy that, clever Jack. For skills, he has Bufu, Mabufu and a new Phys skill called Dream Fist. It costs 7MP (more on that awful idea later), deals Moderate phys damage and has a 60% chance to inflict Sleep.

Leanan Sidhe is less interesting. Her only offensive skill is Marin Karin which is honestly threatening enough. Worse still, she has no weaknesses! But she only resists Elec and Sleep, so it's mostly a non-issue.



And finally, for now, we have Lilim. Lilim's weak to Ice and resists Elec. All ho hum there, but everything else is a bit more interesting. Her basic attack is Physical elemental and has a 10% chance to inflict Sleep. Skill-wise, she's similar to Jack Frost as she has Zio, Mazio and Charm Strike. Charm Strike costs 9MP for Moderate Gun damage and has a 60% chance to inflict Charm, of course. Lilim herself ironically has no ailment resistances or weaknesses.


A Frivolous Nation



Whew, that's a lot of demons. We'll get to see more later. For now, we'll just follow the path we were on past the door and come to... this. No way around these tiles, so we have to finally deal with them for the first time.



You probably could tell immediately, but they're damage tiles. Thankfully, they deal damage proportional to max HP (it's around, but not quite exactly, 10%) and cannot drop you below 1HP at any time.



In this instance, it gets us to a dead-end with only this one fixed Forma in it. On the one hand, I can't complain about working towards upgrades. On the other hand, not worth it...



Not much to find south of the door that led here though, huh. I remembered this path being longer for some reason.



And, huh, if we took the damage tiles in a straight shot from the Red Sprite before, we sort of could've skipped all that for a while.



North of there is a turn to the right and a door leading north. Door comes first to keep consistency.



Which quickly leads to a turn left and then a T junction.



Taking the turn leads to more fixed Forma. Nothing else though.



The western-most part just leads to another hidden door we can't go through. So that leaves exactly one path.



And this one's really weird. A long stretch of tiles alternating damage-normal-damage-etc. (okay fine, it's like 8 steps) just because.



After that, we get to a door and a stretch leading further north. We'll skip the door for a brief moment.



....Oh. Well then, Unlock A door it is!



Once we get a take a few steps, this scene just suddenly interrupts.


What's so funny? Stop laughing...!
Is that you, Hitonari...? Are you the one who's laughing?



You don't hear anything, do you, Tadano? Yeah, nope.
Huh? No one's laughing...?
Well what was it, then? Someone was laughing like they were having a blast...
If it wasn't over the radio, it must've been coming from the field...
Hey man, keep it together. You getting tired?
Sheesh, don't start acting up now.

Right, uh, moving on? You may have noticed that scene popped up at an intersection. We'll go further east instead of taking the northern turn.



This... quickly leads to another branch in the path. We'll go right from here, then.



Test subject?



Master... Mitra?




You humans ain't got a hope in hell of finding it. Hwahahahaha...

Palace? Itsumade, slow down. What? You... explained things about this Sector, kind of?

I think the answers themselves became more questions, though.



Anyway, we'll leave Itsumade in his little alcove and head on over to the east. We'll skip this door for now as well.



By doing that, we can find an Unlock door we can't open yet! And a normal door we can.



The normal door was a (not very) deadly trap! It was a one-way door that led to a tiny hallway with no exits save for another one-way door that drops you on damage tiles!



After we get past that inconvenience, we get to a cross junction. We'll turn left here (when you see the map it'll make sense).



This brings us to another door that we'll ignore for a few brief seconds.



Because this hidden door directly south of it? I always forget that this one is here, so I'm tagging it right now before that happens!



Anyway, in the door that isn't an obvious one-way door we find... a small cross-shaped room.



In each alcove we find a different copy of the same demon.


(N) We must suppress it at all costs...
(W) Oh dear... oh dear... How could this happen...?
(S) If this continues, it will be our fate to disappear...

After talking to each one separately, we get pushed into an actual scene.



(W) He seems to be a human... Could he be...?
(S) He appears to be a warrior... Meaning...
(N) The hope I glimpsed with the last of my faded power...
(W) Are we all then agreed that we will ask this man?



We face a grave dilemma.



We suspect the problem lies with the evil energies caused by the disaster in this world.
(S) The better part of our power has bee drained by Yggdrasil...
(N) But can a human stand a chance against Yggdrasil...?
I freely acknowledge that he has the soul of a proud warrior, but...

I keep it in my other Demonica?



(W) A strange warrior in command of demons... He shall provide a thread to our future.
We have told you our story.
Please. Stop Yggdrasil!
Will you accept our task?
Yes.
You will? We are very grateful.
A portion of Yggdrasil's trunk is in this world.
We shall take you there.
Are you ready?

Well, honestly, no, but I think I can handle Yggdrasil. He's made of wood so he probably burns pretty good...

Yes.
Then let us go...!

Silence





Yggdrasil lies ahead. We are certain that you can defeat him.
Please be careful, Tadano...

In The Master's Name



Rooaaaaahhhhhhh!
A human! A human!
Thou parasite who devourest all, thou darest gnaw at my body!?
Begone!

Vehement Rage



Okay, so Yggdrasil is level 44. That's sort of a problem? Maybe? Eh, not really. I mean, we did just beat Lorelei who was 31 so we'll do the sa-



So, uh, yeah, this wasn't a real fight. Just part of a cutscene!


In The Master's Name



As part of kicking us out of combat, Yggdrasil just straight up halves our HP. Oh okay, he's way more takable than I thought. He can't even kill us!

Muhahahaha!



Thou canst not comprehend what I have done!



And then he kicks us back a space and drops our HP to 1. Stupid unwinnable boss fights on invisible timers...



Oh no... Is a human no match for his strength...?

> You started to black out...

But I still have usable Pokémon demons???

Silence



Oh...! You're...!?
Thou again!? Thou art certainly persistent!
But 'twill be no different this time.



 ZA WARUDO!

What? The power of time hath failed me!?



Looks like Yggdrasil got dragged into a True Man's world...

Accursed human!
Rrraaagh...!
Wh-Who art thou!? How dost thou hold such power...!?
Arrrrrrgh...!





My heart is gladdened to see you safe...



It is all your doing. Thank you.
One day, you will come again to this place.
Please come here when you do.



Now, let us return...

A Frivolous Nation



We are in your debt.



We hope to meet you again some day.

> The Disir left...

Yeah, so, the real reason I bothered doing that is that one (fairly lengthy) scene is the entire sidequest. Since it required no work, I opted to get it done now as well.



Also the Yggdrasil Ring is a great example of what I mentioned before! The Body Ring is +10HP for 1000 Macca and some Forma.

The Yggdrasil Ring is +15HP, immunity to Poison and just requires coming to this one room.



That done, we'll just follow the path around south while we're already here.


One of the humans they say came to this world to snoop around...
That it?
Exactly.
Knew it! Can't fool these eyes.
But look, you been around, right?
I gotta favor to ask, just for you.
Will you do it? I mean, there's somethin' in it for you, of course.
Yes.
Alright, let's get down to it. I don't wanna be turned down later.



And I'll tell you why.
I had him go get me some stuff, and he hasn't come back yet.
I'd go look for him myself, but I dunno where he'd go.

Antlia, B2F.

That's where you come in.
You get around, so odds are you'll run into him sometime, right?
So there it is. You don't have to find him now, you can look in your spare time for all I care.

This one requires some right proper legwork to get done, so we'll put it on the backburner for now.



Back toward the actual main part of Bootes, we'll go through the door at the far right first. This is useful since it shows us upfront where a Terminal is.



At the nortern part of that stretch is a semi-open area, but it's only a 2x3 rectangle so we can't use it for the Signal Beacon. Past there, we get another door that we're gonna skip for the time being.



Just past there is another Unlock door we cannot open and a normal door at the end of the corridor. We'll go through that one, then.



It circles around back to the other branch we could've started on. It also leads nicely to where Arthur will cut in again.


Your present location is believed to be sufficient for purposes of observation.
You may launch the Signal Beacon.



> All the Signal Beacons have been launched.

Depending on the order you do things, you may have to launch 3 Beacons instead of 2!

This is Arthur. Beginning the capturing of the Signal Beacon's signal.
This ends the beacon observation.
Crewman Hitonari, return to the Red Sprite.

We'll do that in a minute, but first we'll check out that one door we skipped over before.



It's a small area with another hidden door that we can't open.

But that Bronze Forma is one we can get right here.



It's a random Rare Forma just lying around. We'll hand this off to Irving once we're done hearing the next update from Arthur.



Speaking of which, the Terminal is conveniently nearby and we need to return to the Red Sprite to do anything of substance...


Malevolence and Benevolence



The beacones are returning very useful data. We have located this sector's quantum tunnel.
Just as in Antlia, it has been observed at the zenith of this sector.
I would like to begin the search for the tunnel's corresponding Rosetta immediately. However...



First, please listen to this.



...Some...one... help me...

...ip 3... I... captured...

...Unknown... life for...

Someone...







The situation dictates that we administer assistance. Please understand.
The signal was too diffuse to pinpoint its precise location.
However, triangulation suggests that it originated in the 2 o'clock direction.
It may be difficult, but I ask that you locate the source of the signal.
I am issuing a new official mission, designated "Emergency Signal Inquiry."



Do we really have manpower to spare on this poo poo?
Intelligence on the Elve and its disappearance is important to us and the investigation.
We may be able to cooperate with them and find an escape route with our combined forces.



Alright, alright... I hear you. Guess I'll be heading out now.
The chances that the one who sent the signal is still alive are favorable.
Let us pool all of our efforts for the rescue mission.
I look forward to the successful completion of the mission.

Prayer



Before we move on back to Bootes, we'll take advantage of this and chat to everyone again.



Of course, we don't know anything yet about their situation.
If you're going out to help them, better be careful you don't end up in the same boat.



But let's hold off on celebrating until the rescue operation's over.
Those poor guys are literally stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea.

I feel like if they were going to use an alternate idiom here, sure "between Scylla and Charybdis" would've been the more appropriate one.

....But SMT doesn't like to acknowledge Charybdis (she's never been in any game in any way) so I shouldn't be surprised.




I'm curious as to what condition any survivors would be in...



Tch... I wish I could go!





Hey! That there's a new forma! Hmm... I get the feelin' this is gonna be a juicy one!
Sit tight for a sec!

> Irving and Chen started working...

...Awright! I'm gonna need to borrow yer Demonica for a bit, Tadano.



Don't it make her heart jump fer joy to see somethin' new made, Tadano?
Keep bringin' me them mountains o' forma!



Well, no. We can find hidden doors regardless. This lets us open some of them.

Irving and Chen's dialogue doesn't update here so we'll just move on.




But don't celebrate just yet. It's much more difficult to save their skins than your own...
It's at times like that when you need to be positive of the strength of your forces.



I'm up for another battle of wits, but first I gotta think of a game that'll really get you thinking.

If we choose the regular ol' Talk option for Dent we get this. Asking about sidequests mid-Sector just has him tell us he's got nothing.

A Frivolous Nation



So, let's open all these doors in Bootes. One of them is obvious but we'll do this one here first.





Inside is a... 3x3 square room with this in as a fixed forma. Revival Cores are new Base forma but you can probably guess what their main use is.

Oh and, yeah, this is what I was referring to earlier. If you grab the Gate Search forma and come here before using all Signal Beacons, you have to come to this room as well.


The Fear of God



Now is when Jueyuan and Principality both turn up, huh? Principality is way, way more common later in the sector so it's a nice surprise to see her already.

Jueyuan we've seen and know semi-well already. Only thing worth pointing out is that while he DOES resist Phys and Guns, his resistance is lower than normal. Most things calculate at 50% base power on a resist; Jueyuan takes 75% instead.

Principality is the third Divine, can see her resistances here already, very simple. That she has mid-tier Elec already is nice though, I guess. Her source gives Diarama which isn't too shabby either.


Silence



No other demons are in this part of the Sector, so we'll head to the northern door now. While en route, this happens.

He's tempting me... Telling me to leave all this behind...
Go do something fun, he says...
Get yourself to sickbay.
What are you saying...? Hahah... Nothing wrong with me. Why would I need to see a medic?
C'mon now... back to work... work... work...

> Something about Crewman Norris seems strange...

I'm sure it's nothing and he'll be just fine.

A Frivolous Nation



Just before we make it to this door, we can grab these by pure chance. They're used for a fair few items, so we'll see them crop up semi-frequently for status restoratives.



....And we still can't open the door here, huh? Guess we'll be coming back later.



Heading all the way back down south to open the obvious shortcut. This is easily one of the most useful doors because it lets you skip 6 damage tiles singlehandedly.

We'll open the door south of here..



And I'll map it all out right now. It's a small one-way door maze which is weird and out of place at the moment. It'll make more sense much later, but for now all that matters is fully mapping it. It's a very good idea to do that, even.

Now, back to the central corridor we go...


Silence





It... it looks so fun... Everyone at the palace... is smiling...
Yeah... I'm gonna go... Hmhmhm...



I'm going... Hahaha... To the voice...
Hahahaha...!

Crisis



He appears to be in a delusional state, given the nature of his last recorded transmission.
He must be apprehended on charges of abandonment of his post.
I am issuing a new official mission, designated "Search for Norris."
Remote identification of Crewman Norris's whereabouts will be difficult.
You must search the sector on foot.



This is the last thing we needed! Ah, whatever...
Hey Tadano, don't you go crazy on me too!

A Frivolous Nation

We'll just head for the door at the top of this corridor, since it's the closest by far.



The door it spawns looks... pretty weirdly different, huh?

Oh and the only door over on the right? We can't open that one yet, either.



Though it is common to conflate lust with nothing but raw sexual desire, it applies to other things as well. Consider the lust for knowledge or the lust for power. Philosophers such as Saint Thomas Aquinas ignore this aspect entirely and purely consider the sexual aspect. Ultimately, all it is is a strong desire towards, or for, something...

Tallgeese
May 11, 2008

MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR


Well, you can also lust for food, which in most formulations qualifies as Gluttony.

Lust got pidgeonholed into sex because if you try hard enough you can call any of the other Deadly Sins a form of lust.

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Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

The actual battles and fusions are okay if hilariously unbalanced, but it's the map layouts in the latter part of the game that really kills off the goodwill one has for the game, they're just awful to slog through even when you know what you're doing.

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