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 Look at this thing. Look at it. It's really simple but effective. It's almost a movie poster in how its framed. It's almost as if it's trying to go "Doesn't it look really cool? Doesn't it seem like this game is going to be awesome?" Whoo boy, do I have some bad news for you...  Strange Journey is the fourth game in the mainline Shin Megami Tensei series except when it isn't. Just think of it as 3.5 and move on, because that's what I do. It was released in 2010 for the DS and is not very good. It's not BAD either, mind you. It's just... kind of mediocre overall. It has some things to like, some things to dislike but on the whole it's really nothing to get fired up about one way or the other. Also it's really, really easy which is like the biggest sin it could commit. Welcome to Antarctica Aboard The Red Sprite Sector Antlia Rescue Jimenez Engine Restoration Antlia B1F Master Morax Antlia Clean Up Sector Bootes Emergency Signal Inquiry Rescue Zelenin Morality Pet Bootes Rosetta Search Master Mitra Bootes Clean Up Sector Carina Mastema's Request Graviton Radio Recovery Master Horkos Carina Clean Up Sector Delphinus Treatment Development Delphinus Parasite Treatment Delphinus Rosetta Search Master Asura Delphinus Clean Up Sector Eridanus Find the Vanishing Point Signal Investigation Mother Ouroboros Maia Eridanus Clean Up Sector Fornax Defeat The Three Demons Jack's Squad HQ Mother Tiamat Fornax Clean Up Sector Grus Pacify Jack's Squad A Decision Eliminate Jack's Squad Mother Maya Grus Clean Up Commander Gore Find The Four Cosmic Eggs Jimenez Sector Horologium Horologium Clean Up The World of Law Intermission: New Game+ The Mother Goddess' Gravestone Chaos-mic Eggs & Mastema The World of Chaos Bomb Materials Retrieval False God in Chains The World of Man Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Mar 30, 2017 |
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Aug 29, 2016 20:30
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EX Missions! Like, all of them. Whether they are completed or not. In order of acceptance, rather than the in-game order (which puts them in a weird order that makes no sense anyway). There's a lot of these things, so I'll keep them on the test poster for convenience. If you really care enough to check 'em out, you can find them here:  EX Missions Note that these only apply to what occurred in the first cycle so keep that in mind before you feel like complaining about something. Records Better known as "achievements." There's zero point to caring about these, but they're a fun way to track progress... even though some of them are not remotely doable during a normal playthrough. These'll be in the same order as in-game rather than order done, because keeping track of that is kind of ridiculously hard. And pointless. There are a lot of these things, so I'll keep them on the test poster for convenience. If you really care enough to check 'em out, you can find them here: Records Note that these only apply to what occurred in the first cycle so keep that in mind before you feel like complaining about something. Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 23:26 on Mar 30, 2017 |
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Aug 29, 2016 20:31
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 I have... very, very mixed feelings on Strange Journey. We'll get to that in time, though. I mean I'm sure the OP made that clear but I know not everyone reads that. I even made it short for once!  Opening Expositionokay for real here whenever you see a video link just watch it if you can it's much easier for everyone (it also won't happen very often)  You may have noticed by now that a lot of Atlus games begin with this. Yeah, that's just a thing that they do for some reason.  Eternal Throne          End...I see what you did there, game. It's not very funny nor clever! Chaos Theme They are talking amongst themselves while staring at a large monitor...   The civilian populace is still unaware. Our information control program is going smoothly. Ah, we're just in time for the broadcast... The news should be reporting exactly what we want.  We're here to discuss the newly received data. This... This is what it looks like inside that thing? But that's ridiculous! How could there be a battlefield THERE!?  This is a shopping mall, for God's sake! Someone must have gotten the signals crossed.  What is this, some sort of red-light district? Wrong data or no, I find this in very poor taste.  Waste material, sludge... nonsense. We still don't know what that land in the South Pole looks like...  All nations with nearby bases have been reviewing their options in light of its tremendous force... A joint decision was reached and carried out today to temporarily withdraw from the bases. If word of that got out, there'd be a panic. And if they knew it was growing... I shudder to think. Horrifying to think of them going in there, isn't it? Be that as it may, our decision cannot be overturned. We have no other way but to send humans in to investigate... Our only choice... is to go into the Schwarzwelt. The South Pole The Beginning of the End  So, about that "them"?  It's these four APCs. That's it.   Naturally, we will be focusing more on one of these than the others...   And there's our destination, looming ominously... End Silence  We at the Schwarzwelt Joint Project will be praying for you on behalf of all of humanity. It's in your hands now, Commander Gore. Be safe, and make sure you complete your mission. Morale Then I look forward to good news from you upon your arrival. Excuse me... ...... We will arrive at our destination, the Schwarzwelt, in thirty minutes. Our mission as the Schwarzwelt Investigation Team is about to get underway. But it's only going to be harder from here on out, so get used to it. If we all lend each other our support and work as a team, this mission will go smoothly. Enough pep talk, though. It's time for our last formal briefing before entry. First, to tell us about the land we're about to enter, the Schwarzwelt... I'd like to introduce to you First Lieutenant Zelenin.   I will now explain what observed data we have on the Schwarzwelt's inner structure. Oh, right, uh, you will very quickly notice that everyone with an actual name and face has exactly one sprite. Also the opening half hour is basically one giant, extended cutscene. But this phenomenon is one of a kind. We have nothing of its like to compare it to. It is an unknown spatial anomaly that destroys and absorbs its surroundings as it enlarges. When it first appeared, it was a cylinder only one meter in diameter that stretched to the sky. Since then, it has spread radially, swallowing surrounding observation bases and any investigators whole. Today, it occupies a sizable footprint with a radius of several hundred kilometers. As we speak, the Schwarzwelt continues to expand... If we cannot engineer a reversal of the process, then it will inevitably swallow the Earth. There is a several thousand meter wall surrounding the Schwarzwelt's outer rim. This barrier is a plasma cloud that dismantles all approaching objects at a molecular level. Unfolding within the anomaly is a bizarre landscape we've had a hard time getting readings on. This is due to some sort of property the interior has that repels foreign bodies... Whatever this property is, it's destroyed each and every unmanned probe we sent in. It paints a bleak picture for our mission, no matter how one interprets it... But as many of you know, we have effective ways of dealing with each of those obstacles. The Joint Project assembles its team and equipment based on the data we've collected so far. I am certain that if we all work as one, we can carry out our duties safely and efficiently. This concludes my report. Thank you for that clear and concise explanation, Lieutenant Zelenin. Now, Arthur will confirm our mission. He'll be the one managing the assignments and duty roster.  I will support you by coordinating our systems with those of the other ships to devise a strategy. It may feel strange to take orders from him at first, but you'll quickly get used to it. Please continue, Arthur. This team's mission is to conduct a detailed investigation of the Schwarzwelt's inner structure. The Schwarzwelt Joint Project is currently reviewing plans to destroy the anomaly. However, due to a lack of data, no sound plan for its definitive elimination has been submitted. If your investigation sheds new light on the Schwarzwelt... Lieutenant Zelenin's briefing may have caused some pessimism. To investigate the Schwarzwelt's interior may seem an impossible feat at first. But with the amphibious assault ship we are all currently aboard, our mission becomes feasible. It can also go airborne for brief intervals. So the plasma cloud barrier destroys things at a molecular level... but is a non-issue because you can just fly over it? Then why make a big deal out of the barrier?  Our ship, which is in command of the overall mission, is Ship 1, the Red Sprite. Ship 3, the Elve, houses many scientists who will be pivotal in our research. Ships 2 and 4, the Blue Jet and Gigantic, will serve as combat support should emergencies arise. Okay, so Red Sprite, Blue Jet and Elve are all named after weather phenomena involving electricty and lightning within the upper atmosphere:  It's not super clear from this diagram for Elve or Gigantic though. Elve is most likely referring to ELVES: Emissions of Light and Very low frequency pertubations due to Electromagnetic pulse Sources. ...That's still not the dumbest acronym we will be seeing in this very update. Maybe. It's super close though! Gigantic is almost certainly referring to Gigantic jets, which are just the points of a thundercloud where lightning can originate from up to 70km in the atmosphere. Now, that's a lot of information to take in at once (and not only do I expect you to not remember it, I also expect that I remembered something wrong). A detailed survey of the anomaly, previously impossible with the unmanned probes: this is our duty. I look forward to all of your support. With all the ships working in tandem, investigating that place is far from impossible. Our mission may be to challenge the unknown... But we can make of it a unique experience of saving manking, and go home proud of what we've done! Yes, Sir! Yes, Sir! Yes, Sir! Let's see here... We have a few visiting team members handpicked by the UN for this investigation... Welcome. Another American, eh? Why don't you get up in front of the group and introduce yourself? Sure, okay. Being an SMT game, this has multiple routes and endings to contend with. We'll be doing all of them and I'll switch names between runs. For the first, I'll be going with the closest thing there is to a canon name... and it basically just means "some guy." There ARE alternatives in the US manual, and I'll be using them in the future. Good? Good.  You will serve on this ship, the Red Sprite, under my command. You've been assigned to be part of the strike team. I realise I'm showing lots of screenshots of things that basically boil down to "the folks here are the best of the best of the best." It's because I want you to remember this. The game wants you to remember this. I'll expect you and your teammates to act according to the code of conduct. It's also worth bearing in mind that basically every single dialogue option is important. Handshake Simulator 2009 is among them. I've heard a lot about your service record. I expect much from you. We're shaking all the hands, obviously. Strike team members, your briefing isn't quite through yet. Meet me at the deck. Those assigned to other duties, take your places aboard your respective ships. Prayer Alright, and now we have some degree of control. The start of the game is not really all that slow, but it can feel like it if you're not just holding X to skip through dialogue.  Speaking of dialogue, we can talk to these three fine individuals. One of them you should have recognised even before I brought up the options.  General crew dialogue, like this, updates fairly often and I will try to get as much of it as I can. The crew are cool and likable people, and are actual characters. It's shocking, I know. An American, eh? This team really is international. We have all kinds here, but every one of them is the best of the best from the world's soldiers. There won't be any trouble here, that's for sure, eh? I'm going to presume he means learning the ropes with regards to how things will work about the Red Sprite, because they are very different and unique. The alternative is the game contradicting itself in less than 5 minutes. Well, I'm sure if we stick together, we'll get through this just fine, eh? Huh...? You don't know what the Demonica is? Oh, you joined later... Guess you wouldn't have heard yet, huh? Well, no matter. Commander Gore will explain it all soon enough. For now, better go on over to the deck. A soldier always moves double-time! ...Or so they say, haha.I'm beginning to notice... something, but it could be coincidence. Let's just talk to  In my office's view, there is no doubt the Schwarzwelt poses a serious threat to mankind. But what is man if not resourceful? Through cooperation, there are no problems we cannot overcome. I am eager to do my part here for the future of mankind. We must shake all the hands. This is basically the sole reason why I didn't just go right to the deck. Maximum handshakes will be important! Oh, my apologies! How rude of me. I very much look forward to working with you, Hitonari. It's nice to meet a military man with such manners. You and I will make a good team, Hitonari. With soldiers like you supporting us, how can we fail? Okay, NOW we can leave the command room. We could go to the deck, but first there are two other places to check out!  Unfortunately, the sickbay is unavailable right now.  As is the, uh, lab. Welp, the deck it is I guess! Malevolence and Benevolence This is a scientific mission to investigate the Schwarzwelt. Despite that, we must make allowances for the unpredictable. That is your role. The strike team will patrol outside the ships to keep the area secure. I know it sounds dangerous, but you've been given special equipment to help you in your task. Developed as next-generation weaponry, the Demonica suit lets you function in harsh conditions. Our early tests show that they're viable here in the Schwarzwelt. I'll now give the floor to Crewman Jimenez to explain how the Demonica works. He's already been specially trained in its use in order to pass it along to the rest of you. Why don't you come up and show us, Crewman Jimenez?  Back in my outfit, I was a warrant officer, but I guess here I'm just one of the crew. We're all part of the Schwarzwelt Investigation Team, so obviously, we're here to investigate. Could be the science types might not even need us around. So pay attention to what I'm about to tell you, even if it's just to dig your own grave. But they weren't just talking about its ability to resist harsh conditions. It's loaded with high-tech features. To start with, you've got the fundamental AI system that supports your movements... It boosts your existing strength and protects from harm according to your style in battle. This is both not entirely true and also the worst thing about the Demonica! But we'll get to that shortly. Very, very shortly.  It's extensible, so you can add features to your HUD by installing applications... Enhanced vision, map markers, even battle data... You can adjust it to show you all kinds of things. So that's point two. The Demonica is smart, it evolves along with your battle performance. But I'm under orders not to waste supplies. This op's expensive, y'see. If you're smart, like the Demonica is, you should have no problems out in the field. Just cross your fingers the brass doesn't value the inhuman resources more than the human ones. ...... Hey man, you pay me, and I'll do any mission you put me on... Long as it doesn't get me killed. Thank you, Crewman Jimenez. Your personal philosophy aside, we'll all be relying on your skills. If you put in the work, I'm sure you'll get everything you want. You may even get the crew's gratitude as a bonus... but perhaps you don't much care for that. Pff... Whatever. All right, now that you've been briefed, you should begin initializing your Demonicas. The End So now we have most of our HUD already. Handy, that. Yes, most. Just take a look at that obvious gap in the top-left.  And here... HERE, we have the stupidest acronym of the update. Maybe. Maybe you think ELVES is stupider. I give it to this one because it has bonus Engrish. Welcome to the Demonica settings. Before proceeding, there will be a personality test to best match this Demonica to your needs. Please respond to the following scenarios naturally, honestly, and without deliberation. Scenario One: You are the sole survivor on a battlefield. You are hidden, with no ammunition in your pistol. You detect a single enemy approaching.  Now these questions are important for the, uh, second worst mechanic in the game. I am going to grab a very specific outcome in each instance we go through this too. Scenario Two: While infiltrating enemy territory, you spot the man who killed your comrade and closest friend. You can kill him easily, but the gunshot will expose you and your infiltration will be compromised.  Remember, we are not answering these with what fits correct military procedure. Scenario Three: You have been in a remote area on a mission and your relief has not arrived on schedule. You can abort the mission and go home now, but you have enough supplies to stay here longer.  Scenario Four: You are piloting a helicopter to refuel. En route, an ally under attack requests help. You can help him, but it will take your remaining fuel, and it will be difficult to leave afterward. Other pilots have also received the distress signal, but you are closest to his position.  Scenario Five: On a mission in occupied territory, you are asked whether to capture a religious leader who may be a spy. Catching a spy would be a great achievement, but the people may riot if this leader is captured.  This is the final question. Scenario Six: You have benen sent to the Schwarzwelt, where conditions are expected to be harsh. Yet you have advanced equipment, a strong ship, the latest tech, and dependable comrades.  Now this question is different. We'll answer the middle option again, as we did the past five times.  Yeah, so in this case you have to pick the first option. This choice is a non-choice so it doesn't affect anything. There are no more questions. Thank you for your cooperation.  Okay, so! This quiz determines your chances of gaining specific stat gains at level up. Yes, rather than pick ourselves - like in uh every other SMT game ever - we get random level gains. Jimenez told us this, but implied that your actions affected it. They don't. This does. Luck support is the (debatably) best option because it gives you the following odds of the stat getting any given stat point. Strength: 19% Magic: 19% Vitality: 19% Agility: 19% Luck: 24% In the very, very, VERY long term you can ignore this entirely but until then you have no further control over level gains. In-game, at least. There are no bad stats for the MC in this game which is why this is arguably the best support type to get. Ultimately, they're all random so it's fundamentally irrelevant which type you go for. The game does seem to also try to weight the odds so a stat doesn't fall too far behind, but it's hard to say for sure when it has such inherent random chance.  But do not let that daunt you. You have your Demonicas, and what's more, you have iron wills! Yes, Sir! You're all relieved until we reach the Schwarzwelt. Prayer Alright, now we have a bit of a respite before the next scene. Like before, we'll take advantage of this to talk to folks.  I feel like there's no mission I can't accomplish with this thing on. Hah, listen to me. I better look over the briefing notes before I get too lovestruck with the thing. I can view those in the Documents folder in the Mission Log, right? Isn't this your first time using the Demonica, too? You really should check this stuff out.If you care about Documents, uh, don't. They're mostly just tutorial things that, bizarrely enough, are way too hand-holdy, so if you read them they make the game infinitely easier. And it's easy enough as it is. Also they're irrelevant for an LP anyway. Which is way more important I think.  So you volunteered, I hear? Heh... Me, I only signed on to this gig for the money. That's all. For all we know, the brass at the Joint Project are sending us out as meat shields. And I'm sure you have no idea what I'm talkig about. Semper fi, right? Heh... We shall never escape Handshake Simulator 2009. At least not while we're meeting new people, anyway. A new person is a new hand to shake! ...... I have this thing about not getting too friendly with people before a risky mission. When the crunch comes, you may need to leave a comrade behind for the sake of the mission.So, we didn't actually shake Jimenez' hand but that's fine. We tried at least and that's what counts!  We have noticably less options overall in the Deck compared to the Command Room. We could try the Sickbay or Lab again, but the result would be the same as last time.  So we'll just head back to the Command Room and talk to this random guy.  The drones we sent in ahead of us were destroyed "in a manner inconsistent with accidents." ...Well, it's just a rumour. Our job is to find out the truth.More important and required to advance the game is talking to Zelenin.  ..."Schwarzwelt" is a term from a 1933 theory of Hammerschmidt's a German professor.Just so we're absolutely clear, this is something that is not real. I do feel the need to point that out, yes. I'll explain... When human activity exceeds the world's natural capacity, and the balance of energy topples... A corrective reaction occurs. It's simplest to think of it as Earth's antibodies attacking humanity. Dr. Hammerschmidt's theory involved a prediction... Now the Schwarzwelt has appeared, proving the existence of other dimensions... And the destruction of the drones implies the possibility of intelligent life inside... Or so some are saying. I'm still wondering if it's actually true... Do you think they're out there? I don't know. ...Not committing one way or the other yet, mm? Quibbling over evidence and proof is everything for us scientists. You haven't been trained for it. I am sorry to have imposed on you with such a strange question.Alright, now we can go to any spot on the ship. It does not matter where we go. Silence We will soon be entering the Schwarzwelt. Take your assigned posts. Commander Gore, you are needed at the command room. First Lieutenant Zelenin, Crewman Jimenez, I thank you for your participation in the briefing. Everyone, return to your ships and prepare for entry. Well everyone, it looks as though we must part ways for a while. We scientists in Ship 3 are all looking forward to your support. Let's work together for the sake of humanity! Remember... you're on your own out there in the field. You gotta be strong, or you're toast. If you're not confident in yourself, I suggest you get off now, while you still can. But if you ARE... Well, I'll see you in the field. The future of the world hangs in the balance! Never forget that! Entering the Schwarzwelt  So, as we approach the Schwarzwelt at last our shield is raised and we prepare for entry.  Which involves being propelled upwards by thrusters. A whole four of them. Sure.  Plasma Shielding ready for in case its needed, I see.   The giant barrier around the Schwarzwelt is actually very tall, and also happens to draw in electrical storms? Huh.   And so we get up and over...  Which is not necessarily a good thing!  Just because the top is open, does not mean it is an easy entryway.  The Red Sprite immediately goes into alert status.  For very understandable reasons, as you can imagine.  Meanwhile a different ship just explodes immediately.  We still have our shield though, and are now descending. Despite the thrusters still being on. And pushing us up. Y'know what? Okay. Fine. We get into the Schwarzwelt and that's all that matters. Whether or not we landed in one piece is a different story though... End
Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 07:52 on Feb 13, 2017 |
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Aug 29, 2016 20:31
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tithin posted:will this have the post game stuff / new game stuff in it I am going to do every side quest at the earliest available opportunity, technically, yes. I'm not going to claim my order for that is ideal, mind you, because it probably almost certainly isn't.
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Aug 30, 2016 20:13
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Crisis   They're changing course, Sir... They're getting separated from the formation!  Our ship's being pulled in by an unknown gravitational force! Control system alert! The nav systems have been compromised! ...I'm picking up a problem with the shield as well, Sir! The plasma shield's output has dropped! It can't withstand the impacts from outside! We'll be sitting ducks at this rate! Arthur! Analysis and report! It may have clashed with the organic defense system. Details at this time are unknown. Analysis in progress... ..."Pursuing"!? Am I to understand the Schwarzwelt is attacking our ship!? This is ludicrous...! That's enough of that! Cool it! The drones we sent ahead got in fine, and the Red Sprite will too! This turbulence'll stop soon! Man, I dunno... I don't think this is any kinda normal turbulence.  We're fighting men. This sort of danger comes with the territory. ...Here, you seem composed enough, Hitonari. Feeling relaxed, are we? Deep down, I'm praying. Ah, more devout than you look, eh? Well, give me a humble man any day over those whose bravado reaches nigh toxic levels... Picking up an SOS from the Blue Jet! No response from the Elve or Gigantic! The engine reactor is down! The thrusters have stopped! We've lost navigation entirely! drat! Get me Engineering! Arthur, where is that analysis!? The cause of the interference has yet to be determined. Priority One is a soft landing. We will use our remaining energy reserves to control the ship. ...We're in for a crash landing!? We're going down, Commander! ...Stay in there! Maintain evasive maneuvers! It's us or nothing! We can't afford to be sunk here!And thus the Red Sprite fell with a deafening roar... Fear There are three gentlemen sitting here with you...   Do they know who it is they are dealing with? They cannot. If they did, they would not attempt this... 'Tis true. After all, there is no stopping the world's end... Leave him. He is but a soul that will soon crumble. No... no, this man... he may prove interesting. Now that you mention it... he does look like a hardy one. His soul will not be devoured so easily. If the two of you say so, I will let your opinion sway me... Up, yound man. We shall send you back. But first, tell us your name. Tadano Hitonari, yes. We shall remember that. Now then, Tadano Hitonari. Here in this blasted land of ruin, what will you find...? But first, you must fall. Fall and struggle. If a glimmmer of hope exists within you... show it to us. Hey... ...Hey...!You hear a voice calling from outside the room. ...Hey! Hitonari, can you me!? Dammit, he's out cold! Hitonari! Hitonari...! Tell no one of what you saw here. Silence Alright, he's breathing again! We can rest easy now! Are you okay, Hitonari!? Are you lucid? Do you know who you are? You were in cardiopulmonary arrest! What was that...? It hit me like a ton of bricks... Is everyone okay? ...Well, I guess he's still breathing. Hitonari! Can you move? This might hurt, so sorry about that. Doesn't look like you'll get a rest in this situation. The electricity is shot. It's... Well, it's bad. The ship has suffered a system crash of unknown causes while entering the Schwarzwelt. As a result, we lost control of the ship and made a crash landing. All the ship's engines have stopped, and Arthur, our command unit, is also out of commission. We have yet to regain proper control of the ship. All strike team members who hear this message must report to the command room immediately! You'll receive further orders through the Demonica's comm. Keep it on at all times! You may be exposed to the outside atmosphere at a moment's notice. Do NOT remove your Demonica suit! I say again: Strike team members must report to the command room! That is all. But without electricity, we can't even check to see what it's like out there! That was a rougher landing than I expected. Guess the Demonica's our only lifeline for now... Alright, Hitonari, let's move it and groove it to the command room! In The Master's Name We were sucked into a gravitational field, and now we're shipwrecked inside the Schwarzwelt. Ship 2, the Blue Jet; Ship 3, the Elve; and Ship 4, the Gigantic... All three are unresponsive. We're on our own, ladies and gentlemen. But we are not sitting here and watiting for help to come. We have to get ourselves out of this jam. Right now, we're trapped inside a powerless ship. But if everyone works together, we can get out of here and on to the next step! First order of business: the restoration of the Red Sprite's power. We seem to be having trouble resetting the main reactor at the moment... But the emergency sub-reactor should be bootable. Once we get some energy flowing, consult Arthur for your next orders. Engineering, do you read? Report! Reading you loud and clear, Sir. Over! Copy that, Terry. Glad you're all right. I want you to start up the sub-reactor ASAP. Can you do it? We need to get the ship's power up and running for Arthur. The plasma armor, too, sir? That, I'm afraid, will take awhile. Then get started. We need it. We don't want to end up like the drones that got wrecked by "artificial causes," now do we? There's no telling WHAT'S out there at present, but we should prepare ourselves while we can. If we can keep the outside world at bay with our plasma armor, then whatever's waiting... Silence What's going on? Talk to me! Why in God's name are you opening the hatch? Belay that right now! I... I can't! There's no power to work the mechanisms! Is someone... opening it!? ...Huh? I don't see anything... Crisis M-Man down! We're under attack! One officer down! Unknown assailant! Terry! What's going on!? ...I can't see him! I can't tell who's attacking us...! Wh-What do we do? Commander, your orders, please! ......! Another man down! Wha--! Arrrrrrrrgh! ...Ahhh... ...ugh.... No, not Terry!  Get to the deck, on the double! Secure Terry's safety and the rest of the deck crew's at once! We can't die here! Am I understood? We'll be seeing a lot of main missions throughout the game. They are all "here's the next main plot event." We're counting on you, Hitonari! Prayer Alright, so now that we've gotten a plot change, that means available dialogue has changed. This is going to happen a lot. The Red Sprite crew are honestly really great so we'll get to talk to them a bunch!  Well, whoever it is, it's an invader of some kind! Never mind us, go provide backup! You head to the deck and help them fend off the enemy there. But you mustn't forget, everyone here is the elite of the elite. There's nothing a force like that can't accomplish. Now get to repelling those infiltrators! Go to the deck, soldier!Well, you heard the Commander. Let's move on out!  Sadly, the Sickbay and Lab are still completely deserted so we really only have the one option right now. Silence Strong winds, huh? Gonna keep that one in mind.  Looks like we were too late to save Terry. Dammit, and he was my favorite too!  Oh...! You're one of us! Did you come to save me? I know what you're thinking at this point. There's no way to identify any specific one person from their Demonica alone, right? You're mostly right, yes. Hitonari here is a bit... different though. His Demonica is unique:  If it's not really super-obvious what makes it different, just compare it to every other Demonica we've seen. Or look at the image in the music videos sometime, or check the OP. It's more obvious in them. Either way, there's one feature that should stand out. I'm Terry, with Engineering!Oh and Terry's okay!  Be careful... Whatever attacked us should still be in the area. We have to restart the sub-reactor and get the deck and armor up and running again! So if you're on the strike team, you must have weapons on you, right? I'm going into the reactor room from the side of the deck to restart the sub-reactor. I need you to stop any attacks from coming into the reactor room! I'm counting on you!> Terry went into the reactor room... Okay, great. Our first mission is guard duty. Sure, whatever. Hard to mess up, at least. ...Hitonari. Hitonari... Hey, backup! Sweet! Now we can fulfil the ultimate guard duty cliché and just take a nap. I heard your Situation. We just have to stand guard here, right? Alright, keep quiet, men. What ARE those guys, anyway...? ...Terry? How you doin'? Got that reactor restarted yet? Roget that. Speed it up, if you can... ...Everything okay, Hitonari? C'mon... We're almost there... Stay away just a little longer, you bastards... Hey...! Alright, I got it! Starting the sub-reactor now! Alright! Mission clear too, sweet. If I know my D&D rules as well as I think I do, we just nailed an easy 50 EXP out of this. Good one, Terry! The power's back on! Now get back to the deck! Now that hatch can-- I guess that counts as animation...? Kind of? Maybe? If you squint I mean. Anyway, oh no Strike Team B has died! Somehow!  You can't discern who the attacker is! Crisis Where!? Where is it!?The strike team member fired wildly around! This doesn't even get half-hearted fauxnimation. *pant* ...!And then Strike Team A died as well. Man they're bad at this, but at least we still have Te--  TERRY, NO! The enemy... I can't see it! What am I supposed to do!?You feel something approach you... A program has been sent to your Demonica!  Sure is convenient we got this just in time to prevent the MC dying horrifically to a cutscene fight, huh? You received a program on your Demonica through the ship's control system! You check the program name displayed on the Demonica...  You already knew that this was the case. This IS an SMT game after all; it was inevitable.  The enemy! I can see them! Hitonari! They're right on top of you! ...poo poo, we're being attacked by pixels. What's the best defence against an awful even-for-an-Adam-Sandler-movie movie? First Encounter An Honor Befitting That Name sj has a couple really sweet themes here and there this is one of them  So, welcome to our requisite Tutorial Fight. It implicitly teaches us a bunch of things at once. First, combat is dirt simple because it's a turn-based RPG. Second, whenever you encounter a thing for the first time you do not know what it is. There ARE exceptions, but they're just that. Exceptions.  Being a soldier, we have a Sword which is just a basic physical attack with your melee weapon and nothing else.  Being a soldier, we also have a Gun. This is basically the MC's spell-equivalents. We can make a basic attack with our ranged weapon or spend MP to do extra things. In this case it's "hit a dude with Fire and not Gun elemental damage."  There is a bit more to it than that but we'll get more into it later. For now, we'll check out that Fire Shot in part because I know what these things actually are and in part because it costs MP so it's gotta be good, right?  Well, uh, no. Our Unknown enemy here is weak to Fire but that just means these things take 25% more damage. You might also notice that this doesn't actually give us any benefit other than this minor damage increase. It will later, but right now it sure doesn't.  Since we're fighting piss-weak enemies, we're not in any risk of actually dying here. Note that our basic Sword attack outdamages Fire Shot, but either will two-shot these things right now. The Gun's basic attack hits everything but deals slightly less damage than Fire Shot. Thus, the Gun's basic attack wins here since its 3 hits max to take them both out as opposed to 4 with anything else. Guns being the best option is going to be kind of a trend! The End We don't quite get enough EXP to level up from these two Slimes unfortunately. Analyze is kind of a simple system that we'll cover more when it matters more. All that's relevant right now is that a demon is only Unknown until you kill one. End Silence  ...What do you mean "we"? Wait... they were visible at the end there... Is that because of the program we just got? "Demon Summoning Program"...!? What the hell is this!? But we mustn't let them go any further into the ship! Close the hatch at once! Well, with the reactor running again, that shouldn't be a problem. Leave the hatch controls to me, Hitonari!   We'll be clearing a lot of Main Missions, of course. I'll mostly gloss over this part from now on because it's kind of redunant. Also, sadly, we don't actually get any Quest EXP or anything. Lame!  The next mission is in the planning stages. Strike team, report back to the command room immediately! We need to find out who's attacking us... and we should know more about that program we received. But be careful, Hitonari. There may still be some left in the ship.We then get auto-transitioned to the Command Room to continue the scene, rather than get a bit of a break. Malevolence and Benevolence  Kato, hurry and reboot Arthur. Williams, get the plasma armor back online. Roger that, Sir. I'll make restoring Arthur my top priority. I'll coordinate with the strike team to restart the plasma armor. Strike team, I want to commend you for a job well done in repelling the enemy force. Excellent work out there, Hitonari. But I want to know what this program is that lets us see our invisible enemies... But Commander, do you think it's okay for us to use? The "Demon Summoning Program," huh? Strange name. A program that controls demons... I take that to mean it was demons that attacked us? Once we get Arthur back online, we'll have him analyze it. He's been a little haywire since the crash. There might be some structural damage to the CPU... It'll get a little rough, but I'm going to try hacking in. ...Hm? What the...? Looks like the program got distributed by overriding Arthur's administrative systems. There's a log...? Kato, can you identify the sender? But beyond that, it's impossible to say. There's a message here, though... let me play it back.Kato displayed the message from the log on the main monitor. Silence You have arrived here in this Land ruled by Demons due to the Karma of Mankind. But Despair is not all that remains. There is still Hope nestled within your Fear. The Demons you will encounter are your Enemies as well as your Allies. Will you stand against them? Will you make of them your Demon Allies? That will be decided by the Demon Summoning Program.  As your fellow Bearers of Karma, we assure you of this. We existed before... and soon...  So the enemy WERE demons... Preposterous. This situation has become absolutely preposterous, but... Our fate's in the hands of this Demon Summoning Program now. ...... Attention, all hands. Should you encounter any problems or malfunctions with the program, call them in immediately. Crisis Help us... Someone, help us! Calm down, soldier! What's going on there!? The enemy... We're under attack from the enemy! I... I've never seen anything like it! Please! Send help...! How were there still any left inside the ship!? Sickbay, do you read? We're sending immediate backup! Hide until they arrive--do not engage! Strike team, move out! Get your asses to sickbay! Prayer We now have a new objective (complete with a new main mission that really doesn't matter), and things have changed a bit. Which means the Red Sprite crew have new things to say! Probably.  But all that can wait! Let's mop up the rest of the demons inside the ship! I don't see how we have a choice other than to rely on the Demon Summoning Program for survival. If you're hurt, though, it's better not to fight while injured. Pick up some medical supplies at the lab and prepare yourself for engaging the enemy. Don't mind if I do!   Also, uh, we actually do have to. We don't need to use any of them; just collect them. But either way Medicine is the most basic of healing items. It won't remain super useful for very long and even then it's only really helpful in two situations - one of which we're still a bit away from.  And, of course, if we try and head to the Deck right now, we just get booted right back out. Crisis I was just attacked by these... these THINGS! ...There! They're right there! Lady, just because Slimes are mistakes made manifest and abominations not meant to walk this Earth does not make them any less human than you or me!  Kill! Kiiiiillillll! An Honor Befitting That Name Two more slimes, completely identical to last time except now we can see them. That's it. The End The good news here is that this time we do get to level up.  Or, rather, our Demonica does? Sure, whatever. No damage output increase isn't that big a deal right now, honestly. Anyway, yes briefly: Strength affects damage done by Sword and Gun attacks. Magic affects damage done by attack items (yes, really) and received by magic. For demons replace attack items with, y'know, magic. Vitality is HP and physical defense. Very standard. Agility is accuracy, evasion and turn order. You'd think Gun damage but you'd be wrong. Luck is a lot of things; ailment chance, drop rates, accuracy, evasion, escape rate and critical hits. Also note that because we leveled up, we regained all of our HP and MP. This is, bar none, the best way to get a full heal. Silence Okay... okay... I can't lose it now. Gotta calm down... There'll be injured to treat... I need to get this place ready to receive them! Great work! It seems our demon analysis reports become more detailed the more we fight them... I guess it's one of the perks of the Demon Summoning Program. Crisis They weren't just going after sickbay! You've been hit...? The demons!? What happened!? We're still trying to sort out the details now... But we believe some of them have been taken outside of the ship!Who gets kidnapped by SLIMES?! I mean, really now. Understood. We'll devise a response plan immediately. All strike team members not engaged in active duty, return immediately to the command room!Like before, we don't get much of a choice in the matter.  It's at times like this when we must keep our cool to make the right decisions and act on them. We must get our men back. All indicates show that there aren't any demons left inside. All right. Maintain the current alert status and keep those men patrolling. Ops, give me a report on the missing crewmen. One from comms, one from monitors, one from maintenance... I'm sure this Irving guy isn't going to be very important. I mean, just look at Terry! Irving too!? This gets worse and worse... Without him, we have no way to restock supplies and munitions! Monitors! Give me a feasibility on a field excursion. What's the atmosphere like out there? As our earlier report mentioned, we should be unaffected so long as we wear our Demonicas. ...All right. Then let's hustle. Strike team, I hvae new mission orders for you. For lack of hard data on our surroundings... We'll designate each battlefield we come across as a sector, followed by a codename.  Commander, we've managed to get the plasma armor online! Excellent work, men! Now we can secure the ship's safety. Srike team, your orders stand: focus on rescuing those missing crewmen! I know it's a rough situation, but we can't afford to lose you too. Stay focused out there! The fate of the Earth rests with us. We cannot fall here! Draw medical kits at the lab before heading out. Prayer Don't worry, it seems like there's a lot of talking in general but it's pretty much over and done with now. Even the crew's dialogue won't be updated this much this quickly ever again.  I'm counting on you, Hitonari. Bring 'em back alive, okay? So... is whoever sent it telling us to communicate with demons...? Is that even possible...? Begin the search and secure the crew's safety at once.So now we'll head on over to the lab for those free med kits. Could come in handy at some point.   It'd be nice if I could replenish your supplies or strengthen your weapons, but... Oh, hey! I CAN get you medicine if you need it. Just let me run and fetch some from in back!This nets us 10 more Medicine. Sure, whatever. Right... if you're hurt, please go rest up in sickbay. Well, good luck!Before we head on over to the deck, we'll take a small detour to the sickbay.   Now, hold still...Right now, Zoe gives us a full heal for free. How generous but completely unneeded. When you're wounded in battle, come see me and I'll fix you up.So that just leaves the Deck. Let's go then!  Yes. Okay, you're clear to go outside! Good luck! Antlia is named after the constellation in the southern hemisphere. It is comprised of 53 stars in total, but only has 3 main ones.  Its name means "pump" as in the air pump. When it was discovered in 1751(ish; the book I have says 1751 flatout but it could be anywhere from 1750-1754), by French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, it was originally named Antlia Pneumatica. Which you can surmise from Antlia being Latin for "pump" means it was named after the French invention of the pneumatic pump. Needless to say, it's not an old-school classical myth constellation but it was only made one of the modern 88 Constellations in 1922.  But that's actual Antlia. Sector A is... different. We'll go check it out shortly, but first let's talk to Dent!  But I guess I'm not cut out for this job if I let things like that faze me. I'm counting on you, Hitonari. Save those crewmen. Our Antlia appears to be a frozen cave and contains demons. We have folks to save so let's go! Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 14:39 on Jan 27, 2017 |
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Aug 31, 2016 07:55
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A Scorched Nation Welcome to Antarctica. Here's your requisite Ice level, so be thankful we're getting it out of the way now.  Inexplicably, this needs to happen the first time we enter any sector. It's kind of pointless and redundant because all it does is enable the HUD. That we already had enabled.  So we ARE in Antarctica... though I've never seen a place like this. Good thing I have m Demonica here to help me get around! No, it's still inside the Schwarzwelt... and we're...(A) Hey this is no time to panic! Get it together!(A) Let's move double-time and rescue those crewmates!So now we actually have full control and can explore Antlia at our leisure. Kind of. There's not many places to go right now, so we'll just walk forward two whole steps...  And get forced to talk to this guy. He doesn't do much, and we can ignore him forever afterwards at least.  He's just here to give us tutorials on the Mission Log (irrelevant), the Demon Proximity Indicator and the Automap. The DP Indicator is that blue bar that's at the top of the screen. The one in the middle. It changes color as you walk and once its red, you're about to get into a fight. It's a very Etrian Odyssey way of handling random encounters. The map is entirely automatic and on the bottom screen. It updates itself automatically and there's no way to make notes that you'd want to or anything. If the developers deign it worth mentioning, it'll get added as/when you find it. If not, you gotta remember it yourself. The Fear of God The instant we step through the door, we run into this thing. It's our third fight so it can't be too difficult, right?  Well, that's different... Malevolence and Benevolence  So c'mon, let's play! Encounter So... let's talk!We'll just gloss over this, because it's the only time in the series where we explicitly get what this is. It's a tutorial. For talking to demons.  All that's actually relevant from this is that Pixie forcibly joins us at the end of this.  It's so bizarre that this is the only way they could figure out how to force a Pixie into your stock right away. It's not like it was even a thing that they had to do either. A Scorched Nation Regardless, now that we're done with that CAN actually begin to explore Antlia. We'll just immediately hang a right, and then head south at the first opportunity.  This immediately has something ping up on our Demonica. Let's just run down here and see what it found.    I tell ya, they came mighty quick, so I ran outta there without so much as a gun. Demons, huh...? We're sure up against some tough varmints. Critters like that, you gotta treat 'em like we treated coyotes back home... a faceful o' shot! Promise me you'll stop by my lab when ya get back to the Red Sprite, y'hear?And with that, Irving heads back to the Red Sprite. That's one found, three go to! Encounter As we head back to where the Demonica found Irving, we get into a fight with a Pixie and an Unknown. We could easily end this fight in any number of ways but let's try talking to the Unknown.  .....That wasn't supposed to happen. This almost never works and that's by design. I skipped over the dialogue options here for two reasons by the way. They're complete jibberish, and it doesn't matter which one you pick. Conversations are semi-random, as per usual, but there's a few things that are a bit different. We'll cover those later though, so as to avoid too many game mechanics infodumps in rapid succession.  Instead of anything bad happening, we immediately get a free Revival Bead. Okay then, sure.  Oh right and while I remember, here's Pixie's initial stats. She's surprisingly... okay well no, she isn't good or anything but she's functional. Easily the best thing we could've just been handed for free at least. Can heal, hit a single thing with light Fire damage and has no weakness. Except weaknesses on your demons don't really matter much. You'll see! The Fear of God hey this is the random encounter music it has an insanely metal name and is pretty good  These guy'll do nicely as test dummies. We know they're weak to Fire so they're perfect.  First, Pixie can hit one with her Agi. The damage increase from hitting a weakness is semi-variable and almost always underwhelming. Fortunately, the main mechanic related to weaknesses makes up for it!  Demon Co-Op is a strange system. It's poorly thought out at best, and seemingly untested at worst. It hits every enemy who's weakness was hit with unblockable, undodgable Untyped damage. This is done by everyone in the active party except the initial attacker. The only things that can participate in Co-Op is whoever shares the attacker's alignment, because making that gameplay based is not going to cause balance problems. I mean, it's not like there's an obvious objective right choice for alignment now or anything. That'd be silly. Demon Co-Op's damage is stat dependant so it can be increased/reduced based around that at least. You can use or ignore this system as you wish, but you're simultaneously expected to be using it and yet nothing is statted on that presumption. You'll see. You'll see! A Scorched Nation Anyway, directly north of where we found Irving is a door that's currently locked. We'll be able to open this a short while in the future.  Directly opposite, is an open door that we... run into another fixed Unknown right outside of. Sure, why not. The Fear of God This fight is here exclusively to... tutorialise Demon Co-Op. Oops.  Anyway, that Unknown is also weak to Fire. Convenient, really. The End So now we know that Slime is weak to everything but Physical, Gun and Dark. For Fire, Ice, Electric and... Wind (yes, really) this amounts to taking 125% damage. For Light, this means Slime has a 300% chance of being hit. Also the Unknown was a Knocker, huh? We know he's weak to Fire. This means he takes.. 110% normal damage. Yes, really. I told you weakness damage was unimpressive. A Scorched Nation A little ways south of the in-game Co-Op tutorial fight, we can find a random floaty cube that contains a Chakra Drop.  While heading back to that door from before, Pixie got fully analyzed. Right now this doesn't mean too much but each stage of analysis does let us know something new about demons. First stage is their race, name, level, max HP and max MP. Second stage is their abilities and elemental weaknesses/resistances. Third stage is their drops. If you go menu-diving. Thankfully the third stage does also have something else special to it... but we can't access it yet so we'll get to that later.  Every random encounter demon has 3 drops that almost all follow this simple pattern. Their common drop is something we can't use right now, but it's almost always unique to each demon. Their uncommon/semi-rare is... a Life Stone. That's not just Pixie. That's not just Antlia. That's almost every demon. Why? I'unno. Their rare drop is virtually guaranteed to be a consumable item of better use; in Antlia, it's a Chakra Drop or Revival Bead. Not only are rare drops not that rare, but this is two-fold useful. They're good consumables in general but also they sell for 500 Macca a piece. This is a great way to earn money early game. Or you can just not bother because Strange Journey quickly decides that it wants to shower you with tens of thousands of Macca. Constantly.   Beyond the door, we run into this guy who hands us a datalog note on Analyzing and Unknown Demons. There's some new stuff in there, but it's kinda irrelevant right now. Cliff notes of the important stuff is that your demons analyze quicker from longer fights. Enemy demons analyze quicker from being hit with Co-Ops.  Just past that guy is someone else, huh? In The Master's Name A demon is looking this way... Th-These demons... They're going to kill us all! Forced fight against another Knocker and Slime. It's functionally identical to before in every way; use Fire, win fight. Malevolence and Benevolence I'm MacCleary, on the monitor team. You just bought me a little more time to live. Real demons... what kind of place is this...? I'm not so sure anymore I'll be able to do what I'm supposed to... I'll send a writeup over to your Demonica. I gotta get back to the Red Sprite and check in... Thanks!Rough summary of moon stuff that matters right now: can't talk to demons on a full moon. There's more moon related things (it does get its own part of the HUD after all) but they're not relevant right now. A Scorched Nation Anyway, there's another locked door in this room. We'll have to come back here later as well, I suppose.  There's also another floaty cube that lets us snag a Revival Bead. This seems to be a dead-end, so we're gonna have to head on back to the first open room again. The Fear of God ...And get surprised en route. This just means the enemy gets in a free shot first. Normally here it wouldn't be too dangerous, but I'm running low on HP and Pixie's got enough MP for one more spell.  So instead I'm gonna talk to the Knocker. Slime's Dark-Chaos so he can't be negotiated with at present. Knocker's negotiation is mostly boring save for when he does this. Sometimes, demons randomly ask for exorbitant amounts of Macca. More than you will potentially have at that point in time, but very quickly your earnings outstrip their scaling. You can tell it's not meant to be serious from the third option being there.  Anyway, it goes off without a hitch, because negotiations here are dirt simple, and we get a Knocker. He's.. okay, I guess. And because we have one now, his Analyze gauge shoots up to the second rank by default. Prayer We'll take this opportunity to head back to the Red Sprite and get a free heal from Zoe. Irving's chilling in the lab now and forever. This means that he has dialogue now and Chen's has been updated.  I'm trained to make supplies, not war. But if we leave the fighting to you guys, everything should turn out just fine! Though believe you me, I'm stronger'n I look. That won't faze me none. So never mind me, and go tend to the others who need yer help. Go on! Git! The other change that Irving being back makes is that we don't get free Medicine from Chen any more. Instead, we have to buy it at 50 Macca a piece. It's the only thing we CAN buy right now so there's that at least. Oh that thing at the bottom left? Ignore it for now. It doesn't mean much of anything at present. A Scorched Nation Anyway, back to Antlia we go and we'll head to the far north of the first chamber this time. There's a door there we just glossed over before.  Immediately after stepping through it, we get forced into a conversation. Oh, thank God you're not a demon! Whew... I'm Muccino, on the Comms team. I saw the demons chase her a bit farther away from here! I'm not armed, but you... you can save her! I'm going back to the Red Sprite. Help her, please!Muccino makes three. There's exactly one path I can see that leads further in, so first we'll head over to the left.  This just lets us grab a couple hundred macca, but that's never a bad thing to have.  If we head a little bit further north from where Muccino was, we can see this thing. That's another locked door AND it's a different color to the previous two as well!  So we'll head head over to the right and follow the wall. Yep, looks like Maebe is over here.  In The Master's Name  I'm Maebe, in Maintenance! Help me... Help me...! Same as before, except Knocker can use Bufu on the Slime to take advantage of its Ice weakness. Doesn't help against the Knocker itself because he resists it, and resists are insanely good here. On paper that means he takes 50% damage. In practice however... Malevolence and Benevolence Look at this boulder, though... The demons were climbing over this rock to get here. Could be their nest is beydon the boulder... ...Yeah, I'm thinking I don't want to stay here any longer than I have to. I'm going back to the ship. Don't worry about me, and good luck with your mission... A Scorched Nation The crewman you rescued just now seems to be the last one who was unaccounted for. Well done, soldier. Your mission is complete. I'll deliver further briefing at the Red Sprite. Come back ASAP. We do, of course, have to manually walk back to the Red Sprite but it's not that big of a deal. It's not too far and it lets us examine this "boulder". This marks it on our map as something important. That done, we'll just head on back to the Red Sprite. Malevolence and Benevolence But the mission has also taken its toll in lives. A moment of silence for your fallen comrades, please. ...... Now, on to the next order of business. Comms has got the radar working again, and they've performed a scan of our surroundings. I think we can safely assume it's one of the ships we lost contact with before. Though there's been no sign of the other two yet... But as for the ship we just found, worst-case scenario, we'll have to send reinforcements. ...Commander, as stated in my report earlier, the casualties have left us short-handed. So I'm aware, and I've already devised contingency measures. In our emergency state, I have little choice. Strike team, I look forward to working with you. Silence What!? Patch it through to our Demonicas! Copy that, Sir! Patching it through now! The Fear of God Hey, is anyone out there...? Any survivors...? Someone... Anyone...! Arrrrrrrrrrgh! Someone answer me, goddammit! This is Commander Gore of the Red Sprite! We have picked up your signal! Do you copy? Are you a member ofthe Blue Jet crew? State your name and team! What's the status of the Blue Jet? I don't give a drat who you are, just hurry and send help! Jimenez...? Did I hear you right!? Calm down, soldier! We'll confirm your location and dispatch reinforcements! What's the status of the Blue Jet? Is it still in one piece!? It was those monsters...! Gyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh! We lost contact, Sir! There's no time to waste! Have you got a read on his position yet? Well now, that's both convenient and tells us that the ship found by Comms was most likely the Blue Jet.  Not only is he one of us, he's a witness to what happened aboard Ship 2. The fate of the earth rests on your shoulders. Never forget it!Gore is kind of awesome, jeez. He's not a Strike Team member but he's still more than willing to go out there just to rescue Jimenez. His original reason might be superfluous now, but he's still got a job to do, goddamnit! So I suppose that just means that next time we're going to head on over to the general area of what is almost certianly the Blue Jet and see if we can't help out Jimenez.
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Sep 3, 2016 00:58
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Prayer.png) Before we step on out to go rescue Jimenez, we should talk to everyone. Because we can, you see. .png) I still think it's too dangerous for him to be on the front line. It's against regulations. Should I stop him? There are exceptions. You're right... extraordinary situations demand extraordinary action. If this is his decision, I'll go along with it..png) It's set up like a communication module, but there's a custom protocol to connect to demons... Sorry, in layman's terms I guess that would be "summoning" them. You can summon demons as allies and carry them around. And of course, they can fight with you. It's looking like the best way to expand our forces will be to ally ourselves with more demons. This program, though... It's full of black boxes. It's so hard to get a handle on... When I remember we're going to be using this, entrusting it with our very lives... Sends a chill down my spine..png) I was seriously on those demons' menu back there... Hm...? What's with the face? You don't believe me? Here, you pretend you're a demon, and take a good look at me. Don't I look plump and delicious? Uh... not really... hahahahaha! It is a joke, only a joke! But in truth, you shouldn't underestimate hunger on the battlefield. Remember that. Of course, I'll protect our food supply with my life, so there's no need to worry about that!.png) Oh right, I didn't mention it before but Maebe is going to be chilling in the Sickbay for the most part from now on. She's only here about half the time or so, though. .png) I had imagined them to be more violent and animalistic, so this is very interesting. I'd like to talk to them sometime myself. If you need healing, come anytime. I'll give you proper care.Oh right, much like how returning Irving to the Lab stops freebies there, Maebe being back to the Sickbay stops freebies here. It's not too big of a cost .png) This sure is turning out different than what we heard. We're supposed to be investigating... How much use can a recruit like me be in conditions where we're struggling just to survive? I... I don't really have that much confidence in myself...Requisite reminder that everyone here was selected or accepted as volunteers from amongst the best of the best in their respective fields. .png) I think in the future, I'll skip this part in the Lab since it's always going to be Irving and Chen. Never more, less nor different in any way. .png) You can count on good ol' Irving for everythin' from weapons to items to apps! Or, that's how it used to be... but the dang material fusion equipment don't work without Arthur. Real shame, ain't it?.png) I was asked along for this mission to support Irving and everyone else in Supplies..png) That just leaves the Deck which has someone new in it! Blair is a pretty tall dude, jeez. .png) If you can save them, I know it'll do a lot for our morale. Whether or not we succeed this time could turn the tide of the whole mission. I think so, anyway..png)  Based on how he was acting then, I'm not surprised he's still alive. Though he won't last long against the demons... ...Let's go. I don't want to lose a valuable fighting man.Alright, let's head back into Antlia and see if we can't rescue Jimenez! A Scorched Nation  Usefully, where Jimenez sent his distress signal from is now placed on our map. At first glance, it's somewhere we can't get to right now though... (A) Those demons took us by surprise once, but it won't happen again!(B) Now that Irving is back, we can deploy some C4.(B) We only have enough for one blast, but if we need to, we can blow a path open! All right. It's up to you, team. Move out! Let's find that man Jimenez! Yes, Sir!We could blunder around pointlessly for a while. Silence Or we could just skip right to the "boulder" where we found Maebe before. All right, men, we have to get through here. The only way to the Blue Jet is through this blocked path... We have to get past this boulder! Let's give those demons a little taste of human technology... We'll show 'em there's nothing man can't do! Alright, the charge is set... Everyone get clear!The C4 exploded! The boulder blocking the path has been destroyed. I'm sure you'll be surprised to learn that there is no animation for this. It's just a fade to white and suddenly the different texture is removed.  (B) Screw the Schwarzwelt, and screw the demons!(B) Human power all the way, baby! ......! Who's there!? Watch yourselves! Fall back! In The Master's Name The demon attacked the crew!   Pshrrrrrrrr!The demon roared and ran deeper into the field.  That thing... it knocked everyone back like they were stuffed toys... What are we supposed to do against that thing...? Stay calm! Call sickbay and get a med team on it! But to do that, it may be necessary to clear the area of demons. Keep that in mind! I'm going in. The fate of the Earth is on our shoulders... Strike team, on me!Commander Gore traveled deeper into the field... A Scorched Nation So, uh, Gore is kind of a badass. He just ran off ahead solo after a thing that appeared in a cutscene to chump dudes. That was savvy enough to know to not trigger an actual fight! Well, might as well follow to see what cool poo poo Gore does.  Oh, it's you, Tadano... Sorry for pointing my gun at you. I... *sigh* Look, I've seen my shares of bodies during my own tours of duty. There's no reason why tis mission should be any different than all the rest... ...No reason, but still, I can't stop shaking. What if... what if the demons come after me next? I keep thinking... ...... We're gonna have to fight it if we want to save the Blue Jet's crew. Let's stay focused. ...I see... When I die, tell my wife I loved her...Don't worry, that guy is never going to move from that spot so he's safe. Whether we go left or straight forward here doesn't matter because...  They lead to the exact same spot anyway. The only difference is that heading south lets us know that this is where the first locked door leads. I'm sure you can guess now the entire reason why that door exists. Speaking of doors, that one ahead has a weird green symbol on it. Let's see where it leads!   Analyzing... Information on its use found in the Demon Summong Program libraries. Accessing data... Translating data to known language...  Pretty sure most people reading this at least know what a Terminal in general is. These ones aren't much different.  They're save points that can also warp you places. In this case, all Terminals we find can only warp us to the start of the sector. This is good for leaving quickly, but not much else.  Anyway, we'll worry about that if/when we need it. We'll just head north from the Terminal and then hang a right at the next intersection.  This leads us to another fork. One side is blocked off by yet another locked door.  The other side leads to a downed ship. It seems to be the Blue Jet. You can hear the sound of battle from the other side... So we found the Blue Jet. But the wrong side of the Blue Jet. No, we can't just climb over it or go through its ruined hull or something. Stop being silly. We gotta go around.  Which means returning to the terminal and going south instead. There's two obvious places we can go from here. The door round that pool of green liquid or an open corridor slightly to its left (from this perspective). The Fear of God Dybbuks are, like Slimes, Dark-Chaos so our only options here are to fight or flee. As per expectations, they're weak to Fire (125% damage; this is the average result so I'll only point it out when that's not the case from now on). But they also have a couple interesting quirks that makes 3 of them Dangerous right now.  For starters, this is their basic physical attack. It can inflict Sleep.  Sleep is dangerous for a couple reasons. It prevents dodging (most of the time!), taking actions, etc. etc. but at least they're woken up if they ever get hit. You don't want that to happen though unless you're the one using Sleep. Not just because it grants a percentile HP/MP recovery.  Oh and they can cast Dormina as well. So they have two ways of inflicting Sleep on a single target. At least this one doesn't damage on top of inflicting its ailment. Nah, all Dormina does is inflict Sleep on one target. It has a 80% chance to do that before factoring in resistance. It costs a whole 4MP as well. Remember these numbers. They will be important later.  Sleep is good and powerful because it straightup doubles all damage received. You can do some insanely wacky things by having your own dudes be put to sleep if you're set up for it. The hardest part of that, though, is being asleep in the first place. You'll see. Eventually! A Scorched Nation Past that door, we come to a giant open area with nothing in it but this random bird. This demon does not belong in Antlia! What the hell?!   You'll be gobbled up for sure if you wander around a place like this.Yes, that was definitely worth its own side area.   So we'll leave totally unknown old-man faced bird demon to hang out all on its own and take the other real path from the area. This lets us find something else new and another turn in the path. We'll ignore that for just one moment.  Verifying age... Carbon dating indicates that it is over 100,000 years old. Analyzing... Information on its use found in the Demon Summong Program libraries.  Accessing data... Translating data to known language... ...Translation complete. This structure is known as a heal spot.  Heal spots basically work like Zoe but with marginally less convenience, because there's no Irving for other stuff. 99% of the time they're just as good though. Healing costs are super simple and very cheap; 1 Macca per point of HP and 3 Macca per point of MP. We'll heal up here and head around the corner. The Fear of God It seems to be the Blue Jet.  Hey, I know you... You're Tadano, from the Red Sprite! ...Whoa, careful there! There was a nasty sonofabitch here just a minute ago... We're sitting ducks. Let's get moving and-- poo poo! It's him! Run, or he'll kill us all! You won't escape! Wrrrraahhh! I'll kill all the humans! Commander Gore took on the demon! An Honor Befitting That Name So, Gore is going to solo Orias here. This is going to be awesome.  It's not super-obvious since this is almost certainly going to be the first time you've seen it, but that icon means Gore is using a Gun elemental attack. In this case, he's just casually shooting Orias. It deals way more damage than our gun can deal. Go Gore! Fwoohhhhhhhhh! Die, humans! It's a good thing Gore is clearly a higher level than we are, because he takes 45 damage which is just shy of 1/3rd his max HP! How dare you do this to my men! You won't live to regret it! Grrr... gaaahhhh! You... See what a human can do to you! Gah... grrrr...! Why, you...! I'll leave here... for now... So with Orias having fled, we're probably gonna have to hunt him down later. But that's fine; we're not here for him right now anyway. Silence Why... Why was that monster here!? They're demons! Get that into your head! Yo, Commander! Behind you! ...Dammit! Crisis Commander Gore was caught off guard! Grrr... Wrrrrrrrrrraaaaaahhh! Human pests... You will dieeeeee!The demon attacked!  Fallen Orias An Honor Befitting That Name So, because Strange Journey (and, really, more modern MegaTen games in general) finds it hard to have unique ideas our first "boss" is Orias. Though he's really more of a miniboss. You might think of it as a cute reference to Shin Megami Tensei 1 on the SNES/Super Famicom but I'm going to disagree for reasons that will make sense later. ...And, honestly, despite my griping he has better build-up here and a better fight too. He's not a complete walk-over this time.   Even if his redesign IS loving terrible. Seriously, the original Orias design is way better! It's even more fitting of his actual description from the Ars Goetia: quote:The Fifty-ninth Spirit is Oriax, or Orias. He is a Great Marquis, and appeareth in the Form of a Lion, riding upon a Horse Mighty and Strong, with a Serpent's Tail; and he holdeth in his Right Hand two Great Serpents hissing. His Office is to teach the Virtues of the Stars, and to know the Mansions of the Planets, and how to understand their Virtues. He also transformeth Men, and he giveth Dignities, Prelacies, and Confirmation thereof; also Favour with Friends and with Foes.  Regardless, he's weak to Fire so we can take advantage of that with both Hitonari AND Pixie... but only in the first turn.  Thankfully, Orias does not resist Ice so Knocker can still contribute actual damage outside of Co-Ops.  The reason why we only hit him twice with Fire attacks in the first turn is because Orias is powerful. He's, in my opinion, one of the hardest fights in the game. Purely because if he hits someone twice, they will die. He can only do basic attacks but with that kind of damage that's all he needs to do. Thankfully, even if he crits Pixie she should survive.  You might be thinking that Pixie has Dia so she can be our healer since her Agi was outdamaged by Fire Shot right? Wrong. There's an important reason why we use Medicine here and not Dia. Several important reasons, even. First is that Agi costs less MP than Fire Shot. Half the cost, in fact. Second is that Agi+Co-Op with Hitonari in it outdamages the Fire Shot+Co-Op without him in it.  Third is that actions have hidden priorities. Items functionally always go first. They're actually (tied) second on the priority list with Guarding being the only thing to ever go before an item. This means that... the MC's best role here is to be our healer. Regardless of his Demonica and stat distribution. Pixie's Dia can go before Orias' attacks, but she's slow. Very slow. More often than not she will go afterwards instead. The End So, just heal whoever gets hit and Orias cannot win. Unless you someone how run out of Medicine or Pixie runs out of MP before wearing down his 250HP. Neither of these should happen at this point, unless you're doing something fundamentally wrong. Being a mini-boss, Orias gives a decent chunk of EXP and some adequate scratch money. We can earn more than twice that from any given random encounter though...  At random, on level up, demons can do a couple things. Their stat distributions are based on a percent change of that stat going up as well... though their stat percents usually add up to 74-76% for no reason whatsoever. For fun reference, Knocker's stats chances are St: 12% Ma: 17% Vi: 17% Ag: 06% Lu: 23% So taking that at face value, there is a 25% chance of a stat not going up. Which is impossible. I'unno, I don't get this one.  But hey, they also have a chance of giving you an item, and what item that is... depends on the moon phase. Knocker has a 17% chance of giving us an item at every level, and a Mabufu Stone (low ice damage to every enemy; damage dependant on MC's Magic stat) is the one thing he can give us regardless of moon phase. On a Full Moon like this one, or a New Moon, he could've given us a Bead instead. End Silence  ...Okay now I'll concede that this is pretty clever. Well done, game. That Ars Goetia I quoted before? It's the first book of a grimoire called The Lesser Key of King Solomon. It's more commonly/casually referred to as the Lemegeton. Though because he left a big ol' Citation Needed on his work, it can be argued that Johann Weyer first wrote the Ars Goetia as part of his Pseudomonica Daemonum before it got added to the Lemegeton (but he had Orias as the fourty-ninth demon and not fifty-ninth, and he had less demons in general too). His book WAS written and published about a century earlier than the first collected version of the Lemegeton...  Oh right, uh, we have more pressing things to worry about though! It's no use... he's not gonna...! Hitonari... Hitonari... Our investigation of the Schwarzwelt... is vital to the fate of mankind... of the Earth... We must complete our mission... at any cost... I'm entrusting you... with that duty... Their fate... is on our... no... your... shoulders... ......  Congratulations on completing the quest! Though he met his end, the brave and noble Gore has returned in high honor! Sorrow  I can't... do what you asked... He was too brave... too kind... for a Commander... Without a leader, what's going to happen to us...? The Red Sprite was still in danger itself! We were in no condition to provide aid to the Blue Jet! ...... Hey... Hey. Oh... you're Jimenez from the Blue Jet, right? What're you gonna do with the Commander's body? Do with it...? ...Good to hear it. Be a shame if the man who saved me got buried outside for the demons to dig him up for a snack. H-How could you...!?   Commander Gore, return to the command room. Hey... Arthur's back... Accessing strategy matrix for contingency plans in the event of the Commander's loss. Your feelings are noted. However, I cannot respons to assumptions. It is vital in hazardous situatons such as this to discard decisions stemming from heightened emotion. Let us rationally discuss methods of raising our chances of returning to Earth. It's scary how composed you can keep yourself. If that was a compliment, I am grateful. I will devise the optimum strategy for the successful completion of your mission. ...The entire reason we're in the Schwarzwelt? What's this thing talking about!? I dunno what the hell it thinks we're gonna accomplish! I mean, we got demons hunting us down and killing us! You listen to me, you hunk of junk--find us an escape route! I know you heard him, Hitonari. We all did. It'll be a long time before I can forget what he said... ...... Look, Jimenez, everyone on the Red Sprite probably feels the way you do, deep down. But as long as I wear a Demonica, I'll follow Commander Gore's final orders. How 'bout it? The rest of you happy charging into a swarm of demons, if that's the mission!?Hell yeah!  So you wanna run, then? Or you want us to give you a nice funeral with whatever's left of you? I mean, that's if the demons don't make a tasty meal of you, suckin' on them bones of yours and all! What do you think, Tadano? You think we should just go on with the mission? You gonna waste that second chance you were given? We can always load up on stuff, come back prepared, man. Tell me, what's it gonna be? I'm sticking with it. Maybe it was because of Gore's sacrifice and helping weaken him beforehand, but I got the kill on Orias. No matter how tough the demon is, we can take it down and move on. Or we could just negotiate. Not everything has to come down to violence. I saw 'em smash the Blue Jet to pieces, and y'know what that taught me? C'mon, man, let's all talk this out like reasonable people. We can come up with a plan... Silence What!? "Where are we?" Our coordinates are unknown. "How did we get here?" There is no navigational log of the course we took to reach here. "How can we get out?" You are strangers here in this Schwarzwelt... There is no way out. No! No way...! I've had it with this place! I'm getting my rear end outta here! Malevolence and Benevolence There may come a time when you must make such a decision... But now is not that time. At present, you have no choice but to continue the investigation. If you want to survive, you'll have to follow orders. This here's the lab. I hear right that Tadano got his hands on some rare stuff? Y'think he got it from that demon he just smoked? That's it. That, er... Lemegetonite. Just thought I'd mention it to Arthur... Understoof, Crewman Irving. Receipt of the item acknowledged. Crewman Irving, I look forward to the breakthroughs that will undoubtedly come out of your lab. Thanks, Arthur. Heh... no pressure, right? I'll need a li'l time to myself to run some tests on it. I'll call y'all when I'm done. But if you find anything else, it'll be up to you to bring it to the lab yourself. Chen left for the lab. Let us review the data. We must get the engine working in order to regain mobility. Once it starts up, it'll stay active indefinitely... but it takes a lot of power to get going. A Tokamak Motor is one of the more impossible things we've seen in this game so far which is impressive. A tokamak reactor produces energy via nuclear fusion (and there are dozens of them in use right this very moment). It primarily uses deuterium and tritium - a couple isotopes of Hydrogen basically - and needs to keep a plasma confined via either a magnetic torus or inertial confinement using laser or ion beams. Anything past that and I get confused because I am a dummy but the short version is that a Tokamak engine of any kind would need to be a perpetual energy device (which I think would make restarting it at this point kind of impossible on its own) and thus is relegated exclusively to thought experiments and things like this. The engineer's report is accurate. We cannot move the ship without a Tokamak Motor. Since ours is nonfunctional at present... The best solution would be to obtain a Tokamak Motor with the help of another ship. ...Of course! If we use the Blue Jet's booster, then...! ...Scavening corpses. Boy, you can just feel the excitement. Crewman Jimenez, you are not technically a part of this ship's crew. However, you have an important role to play in leading the Red Sprite to safety. Was that a compliment? Well, thaaaaaanks. If you consent, you will receive the same treatment as the other crew members... I'll... get to use demons to fight...? If you are to join this crew, certain obligations and duties will be expected of you. One of these duties is to cooperate with the other crew members. ...Ah, what the hell. If I'm gonna survive long enough to get the hell outta here, I'll need power like that. Thank you, Crewman Jimenez. We welcome you to the Red Sprite. ...It'll be good workin' with you, Tadano. Let's you and me make it outta here alive. Even if it'll take using demons... Crewman Hitonari, allow me to report. This program has proven very useful to us, but please exercise caution when using it. I look forward to the successful completion of your mission.Ah good, so no pressure. Back to the Blue Jet we go, then. Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:19 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Sep 6, 2016 07:54
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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 |
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Sep 12, 2016 22:13
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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.
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Sep 19, 2016 20:02
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Apologies for the delay here; I should be able to update a bit more consistently from now on. Speaking of which!
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Oct 8, 2016 17:40
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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  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.  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  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!  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 |
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¿
Oct 8, 2016 17:41
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BlazeEmblem posted:
Nope, never. 
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Oct 10, 2016 21:16
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You better take that back. SMT4 was far better than this game.
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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.  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 |
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Oct 10, 2016 21:16
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BlackPersona posted:...I didn't expect you to beat Lorelai so early. That's... huh. Good job. 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...
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Oct 12, 2016 12:03
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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!
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Oct 15, 2016 17:36
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 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 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 NationWe'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...
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Oct 24, 2016 02:57
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Palace of Pleasure So, this is clearly that "palace" that Itsumade mentioned before. Fortunately for us, there's a Macabre to talk to just next to the Terminal. ...And the game tells us he's a Macabre instead of a non-specific Demon?  Welcome to the palace of Master Mitra, lover of all the worldly pleasures! Enjoy these stunning halls filled with uninhibited conversation and peals of laughter. And if you're very lucky, you may witness a grand dance... Forget your painful, humdrum life... and step onto the dance floor! Above all, enjoy yourself! You will surely find satisfaction with a new life, a new body! All under Master Mitra's guidance! Until then... Dance, dance, dance! There's a pair of doors in the entrance hall, that lead to similar locations. We'll go through the right-hand side first, though. And right off the bat, we're met with lots of damage tiles. We're going to have to carefully navigate around these. The Fear of God Inside the Palace, we've got plenty of new demons to deal with. First, we've just got creepy upside-down baby head spiders called Ubu to deal with. Mudo is inherently risky since if it hits Hitonari we game over on the spot.  Goblins are Goblins. Nothing of interest that we didn't already know or can't see clear as day here. Acheri is a little more interesting. Not for her Fire weakness or Curse resistance, but her innate skills include Life Drain which is fun (and does exactly what it sounds like). Also she VERY heavily resists Poison! As in its only a 25% chance of being inflicted.  Next up is Naga, which is a bit less exciting. He's weak to Wind and resists Electricity... purely because he has Resist Elec as a skill. Remove that for some bizarre reason and he's Neutral to it. His source has my favourite skill name in it but we'll get to that later. Palace of Pleasure That's all for now though, so we'll keep making our way through the palace. There's lots of damage tiles in here. I did mention that before, right?  Because while I navigated a safe path to the stairs, you can see a large swathe of the map has been ignored. Almost entirely because of damage tiles. We're not going upstairs just yet, though!  Directly opposite the stairs is a long corridor that leads to an elevator. Unsurprisingly, this doesn't work right now.  So, we'll head down the left-hand side of the first floor of the palace now. Just so you're not thinking I went crazy, this side is also riddled with damage tiles.  Thankfully, the left passage has a Heal Spot in it which is very useful! So now Hitonari can hurt himself for the sake of the map being worthwhile.  While heading out from the Heal Spot, Hitonari hit level 14 so we can take this opportunity to make some new things. Itsumade+Jack Frost+Hua Po Source for this Shan Xiao since he's weak to Fire. Normally, I wouldn't worry about patching weaknesses but when it's the only one and this makes him useful in general? No point in not doing so.  Buyin' back that Jack Frost to fuse with a Vodyanik to make a Principality. Adding Koppa Tengu's source to give more variety in her magical capabilities.  Over in the right-hand corner that mirrors the Heal Spot, you'd expect the Terminal normally. Since that's right at the entrance, instead we get a fixed Forma behind some damage tiles. Just 'cause.  Oh and, no, I really wasn't kidding about this area being riddled by damage tiles. There are so many of them! Thankfully, you can avoid every last one if you really want to.  On the second floor, we have something a bit different. We're in the middle of an open square and can examine something?  It's a message on the floor telling to meander and take longer to get somewhere? That's stupid. What's the worst that could happe--   ...Oh. There are pit traps as well. I kinda despise that pit traps exist on principal just because there's no indication of where they are and generally used to confuse the poo poo out of you. Thankfully, the latter half of that doesn't apply here because of the animation and all.  That forma we could see before is right behind the hole in the floor. It gives us some new Base Forma which has a very obvious use right out the gate.  There's also a terminal on this floor, which makes sense I suppose. Aside from the sudden addition of pits to navigate around, this floor is very linear.  So linear, that we're nearly done by the time we pick up this box of Dis-Charms.  And right around the corner from there are 2 Revival Beads. Sure, they're useful I guess. The Fear of God Hey, a new demon turned up on this floor. Ippon-Datara we've seen and used before, and we know he's kind of a major threat in theory. There's nothing here we haven't seen before. Oh I guess I didn't mention before that his basic attack has a 5% chance to inflict Mute. But it does, so there's that I guess?  Anyway, there's also Bifrons here. He's weak to Ice and Expel and only resists Curse. You'd think he'd resist fire as well, but nope! Skillwise, he has Maragi and nothing else... when we use one. Enemy Bifrons also have Tetraja (multi-target barrier that grants one-shot immunity to Expel and Curse) just because.  Oh and we got... the weirdest level up from that fight. I normally don't bother with level up screens because they're redundant but c'mon. Palace of Pleasure More important is a new level means a new demon! Principality and Harpy give us Suparna. Sticking an Itsumade source on there, which seems weird but it's the only available way to get Mega Claw (ST Medium Phys) until we reach level 22 so uh...  Oh! Just for convenience, I throw together a random Lilim for the moment. We're not going to be using her, but she's important to make all the same.  This gives us access to a new Special Fusion! Special fusions are a bit different to normal, of course. There are plenty of these things, that require a number of specific demons.  That number varies wildly from 2 to 8 depending exclusively on the end-result. Most of them are 3, or 4, demons though. High Pixie is an unusual choice for one of these, because she's kind of not that big a deal usually.  We also need a random Melchom to make a different one, so we'll grab this one. He's also not going to be used.  But, hey, now we can make Morax sometime ever which is something I guess? He's kind of honestly better than the boss version we fought against, just with less HP and a lack of Horned Rampage. Bobasma is an ST spell that inflicts Fear. It turns out that when you use it, Fear is kind of ridiculously good and I love it. ...I'm still probably not going to use Morax for that, though.  Anyway, this is the entirety of 2F of Bootes that we currently have access to. As the Records screen will gladly spoil, there IS more to this floor, but we need to enter from somewhere else to get there...  3F starts with yet another pit trap warning.  And, well, it's hardly lying about it. Shame that these warnings aren't going to be around for very long.  Though that one dropped us into a tiny 2 square corridor that also drops us back down to the first floor. How annoying.  At least we can grab the AC Bootite forma, while en route back to the 3rd floor.  Thankfully, it's really easy to do that. We can take either path around the hole here, but the side that doesn't have damage tiles is probably the better option. Call it a hunch. Anyway, as we get through that door... Silence  I've been so busy today, I can't show 'em aaaaaaaaaaall around!  You don't have to do thaaaat! You look stuuuuuupid already! After all, I'm riiiiiiight here! Crisis > You can't move! I'm gonna take yoooooooooooou! To a fun, fun plaaaaaace! Hyahahaaaa! Silence Well, we got to skip the rest of the 3rd floor so I think we can call this an overall neutral result. We're heeeeeeeere! Now sit there and waaaaait! Palace of Pleasure So, now we get to explore this one tiny room. There's an obvious door but we can't open it with our current Main Apps. Laaaaame.  Thankfully, there's a hidden door in the wall right to the north so we can probably leave whenever we want still.  Directly next to that, there's something else in the wall we can examine? That's weird and new.  Oh, we can just hear some nonspecific groaning from whatever is past that hidden door. We'll open that later, because... Silence There's someone in the middle of this room that has been kind enough to not interrupt our random bumbling. Better keep a low profile, or there's no telling what they'll do to you... Malevolence and Benevolence It's me! Zelenin! That's right, I was on Ship 3, the Elve... Is the Red Sprite intact!? Then at least one of our ships can still move...! The Elve, unfortunately, was shipwrecked. We were attacked by demons. Before I knew it... I was caught and brought here. Hm? You received the signal? You came to save me...!? Mmmm... but there's little point now that you've been caught too. Still, it was very noble of you, barging into a demon's lair... A Demon Summoning Program...!? You've been using such a thing in your investigations? Oh... how awful...! The demons here are monstrous! They've been torturing the other crewmen to death. You must put a stop to that at once! There's no way a demon would genuinely help us humans! ...You're right. We won't find a way back to Earth without relying on demons... It makes perfect sense, logically. But emotionally, it's... less simple. Anyway, let's put our heads together and think of a way out of our situation. What can we do with what we have? Palace of PleasureHmm... Good question.  Thankfully, we've got just the thing! There's a hidden door in here and we can pop that sucker right open. Let's head on ou--   You found the hidden door, didn't you!? But I haven't been given the order to experiment on you yet! Wait in your own cell!And then we get kicked back through the door. Well, poo poo.  The only thing left around to check is that weird non-specific voice. In... Inside my head! Someone! Someone's therrrrre! Ugh... Urrgh... Kill... Kill... me... Just get it... over with... Kill me... Kill everyone... It... It's over... It's over...! Argh... Ooh... Ugh... Rarrrrrr... I wanna live... I wanna live... Hyahaha! Hyahahahaha! Well, that's different from before. And totally self-contradictory! Nothing else we can do 'cept for talk to Zelenin again.  We're at the mercy of the demons. There's nothing we can do to fight back... Me...? Use the Demon Summoning Program...!? Ridiculous! I could never! You may say I might not need to use it, but it's better to have for an emergency... But I tell you if that emergency happens, I'd sooner die! ......I'm sorry for snapping at you. It's the stress talking. All right. I'll take it... in case of emergency. Though I hold out hope that I won't have to use it...> You gave Zelenin the Demon Summoning Program. I'm sure I won't ever use it, but... ......! They're here! Crisis We might not be able to open the door, but someone sure can huh...  Oh, it's Bifrons. And he left the door open. And we've killed several Bifrons on the way here. That weren't alone.   Hope ya ready to die! I only pointed that out because there are zero reasons this should happen outside of Cutscene Stupidity. It effects everyone, it seems... Stop it! What are you doing to him!? Shaddap and stay still! If ya wanna live to tomorrow, if ya wanna make the pain stop, don't ya think of doin' nothin'! Now walk! Get movin'! Hitonari...! Silence We haven't exactly been in Bootes for very long, and if Antlia was any indication then we're already at the boss fight huh...? Sure, I'm okay with that. Palace of Pleasure So now we have control and can wander around a tiny bit. We could go into Mitra's room already or we could turn right around...  And get blocked by Bifrons. We can't kick the poo poo out of this chumpass and explore the... 7th floor... unfortunately.  There's a door leading to a room nearby but we can't open that door yet either! In The Master's Name Nothing else we can do in the hallway (aside from fish for end-of-sector random encounters and that's boring), so into Mitra's room we go. Don't you dare do anything rude to Master Mitra!  Oh, Mitra is probably an intentional rename of the Roman god Mithras. I can't complain about that because it's an understandable change, given how common the unrelated Zoroastrian god Mithra is.  A good omen before our attack... Tell me, human, what is your name? What are you called? Hitonari Tadano. So, you are called Hitonari. I like your honesty. I am very interested in the strange creatures known as humans. Such oddities... You promise love greater than the stars, but when rejected, you curse their name. It is as if fate itself compels you to kill those you love. Simply putting such mysterious creatures to death would be a terrible waste. Looking at your past, you were but plains apes... In those days, you came to us for power. And now you have grown in number sufficient to eat the planet into ruin, as though you owned it. What has driven you that far? If you know, I'm very eager to learn. How have humans come to rule Earth? By evolution.This dialogue choice has no alignment points attached to it. So, I just went with this because it gives the best reaction. Urgh... The human body... That is where the secret lies...? I've tried so hard to study humans from the inside out, but... I cannot understand, I can never comprehend... Urrrrrrrrgh! We will change it! It will change! We will rise forth! The world will change... Isn't that so, men!? Humans originally worshipped and feared us. That is why we extended our protection to the humans. Why were those days lost...? Master Mitra... What should we do with the contract in question? Mmmm... It is fine. The transaction shall go on as scheduled. ...Hitonari? Do you fear us, our shape? Why, depending on your attitude, I may well recruit you. As I did with these men...> Mitra looked at the crewmen in the room. > The crewmen didn't move. And it's not only your answer I'm after. I put the question to all of you on board that wondrous ship....Wait, hang on. What? Master Mitra knows all! Those are the choices. Discuss amongst yourselves and return with your answer. If you join me, realize that you won't be treated badly. In fact... Men! Release this human! Hear that!? I'll send you back to your ship! Ring this when you want to come back here and we'll come for you! Alright, you're going home! Now get walking! ...Wait. There was one more thing I would ask of you. Hitonari. What is of greater value to a human: one's friends, or oneself? You or your comrades? Tell me. My friends. Hrmhrmhrmhrm... I assumed you'd say as much. A Frivolous Nation You better think reeeal hard about what you're gonna say to Master Mitra!Yeah, yeah, I'm sure I already know what our answer is going to be. Nothing else to do beyond returning to the Red Sprite at this point so we'll do just that.  You're okay! Where've you been all this time!? When we couldn't raise you on the radio, we all thought you were a goner... Everyone was worried, man! C'mon, let's get back to the Red Sprite. Malevolence and Benevolence We must devise a strategy to deal with it and save the captured crewmen. Got yourself into some crazy poo poo, huh? Be more careful next time. Our only intelligence on the enemy's stronghold comes from Crewman Hitonari. We have no choice but to base our strategy on this information. Norris might be there, too... We need to get them out of there! We will of course aim to rescue as many crewmen as possible. However, I cannot list crewmen whose presence is unconfirmed in the official mission objectives. For the time being, the mission objective is to rescue crewmen who have been positively identified. Hey, cool it, Jimenez! They were probably forced into it! I didn't say I blame 'em! It makes perfect sense to me. I mean, if the demons are giving 'em the choice to join up... What, so you'd work under the demons!? That's ridiculous! I know, I know! Man, don't you know sarcasm when you hear it!? You don't need to tell me the demons aren't on the up and up! But you're in for hell whether you follow them or reject them... There's no right answer here. What are we supposed to do? A more probable outcome is that he will enslave or attack you. There is also a danger to the life of any mediator we send. I have a different plan. Well... we do have systems made to infiltrate places like that, but... Do you think we can make it in? We will require a diversionary force supporting the infiltration team. They will cause an uprising outside of the palace while the infilration team sneaks inside. As far as the composition of the infiltration team... We're counting on you, man. You're the only one for the job. But y'know, you get caught again and you're up poo poo creek. I am issuing a new official mission, designated "Rescue Zelenin." I look forward to the successful completion of your mission.
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Oct 26, 2016 18:22
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Prayer Back again on the Red Sprite means we're back to talk with everyone. What do you think they were trying to find out...? Will it work...? We'll just have to try it and see. But then, modern medicine relies heavily on animal experimentation. So I can't call it totally evil... We've just switched places. You know, humans were always the ones doing it... and now the shoe is on the other foot. Tch... this is so frustrating...! Well, it took long enough but we finally have enough things to make stuff in the lab! Maybe there'll be something legitimately worthwhile in this batch.  I wonder... do demons see us the way I see a new forma...? ...Brrr! I'll have to whip up some stronger equipment if we want a chance at beatin' these guys... Are they researching the "human" academically, or... is it something else they're after? ...The demons might have a more complex scheme than we had first imagined. We'll move onto the deck and out into Bootes again shortly, but first we have some new things to look over and maybe buy.  The Alabaster is a nice upgrade to our gun. It's not the most powerful one available nor does it technically have the best skills (that's the ??? one above it), but it can hit things twice and Wind is a good element to have easy access to. As an added bonus, all it needs is a single Night Tail (Lilim) and Brute Fishbone (Azumi) and both can be theoretically acquired during, or even before finishing, the Signal Beacon mission at the very beginning.  In terms of armor, the Gold Vest is technically the best thing we can get right now. It's 2 points of defense over the Dark Vest and grants two resistances for only one weakness which is not exactly a common trade-off right now. Ice is a bad thing to be weak to though. Not like it's hard to make, at least; 3 Haunt Balls (Preta) and 1 Fairy Pouch (Goblin) takes no time at all, though it does require going into the Palace to make so it's not a first entry thing.  Personally, I vastly prefer the Dark Vest in basically every single way mind. It's weakness to Elec isn't as big a deal, it grants immunity to Curse so Hitonari cannot be instantly killed* and it only requires 1 Wilder Fur (Jueyuang) and 1 Beast Hoof (Katakirauwa)? Sure it's 2 whole points of defense below the Gold Vest but it's kind of better period.  Available accessories are still thoroughly "eh". Rather than being a flat increase to HP or MP, though, they increase a single stat by 2! And this is how you can tell that Strength, not Agility, is what affects Gun damage by the way. Note that the Brawn Ring increases both Sword and Gun Attack. Still not particularly inclined to bother with any of these things, though!  Items are mostly just new recovery stuff. Me Patra Stone is full party version of Patra Stone which would've been nicer earlier but whatever. Dis-Charm and Dis-Strain cure Charm and Strain respectively. What's Strain? MP Poison, basically. Very low worry, honestly. Oh and we can start to get actual attack items now too. These actually use your MC's Magic stat which is a rarity and makes stocking up on them for Magic type Demonica a probably good idea. Mabufu Stones require Fairy Ice from Jack Frost, naturally; Maragi Stones require being on the higher Palace floors, so you can get them from that small area outside Mitra's room if you want.  Lastly! Remember what I said before about SJ constantly showering you with money? Yeah, it's from the Forma. They sell for a surprisingly decent amount considering how absurdly common they are and how many you will inevitably get. I wouldn't sell most of these though. Not as a "just in case" thing, but because you can get ones that sell for at minimum 10x their value. And are guaranteed. And repeatable. Forever.  Anyway, getting ahead of myself there. We'll deal with that later. For now, we gotta speak to Blair. You've already returned from their lair alive once... With your skill, I'm sure you can pull it off a second time.Nothing left on the ship, so it's out to Bootes we return! A Frivolous Nation First, those of us participating in the feint operation will move toward Mitra's palace. The rest of you, stay here on standby. Once we get to our waypoint, I'll give the signal to begin, and we'll lure the demons out. Oh yeah, Tadano... You got a Luxury Bell from Mitra, right? Give it here. It'll be perfect to call the demons. Heheheh... I already see the look on their faces. Alright, let's move out! Hitonari, stay put until our signal!> The strike force disappeared into the field...  Locked and loaded, man!(B) Hitonari, as soon as we begin our part of the operation, you get moving! Hurry into Mitra's palace while the demons have their hands full with us!(A) On my mark, men. Raaaaaaahhhhhh! Let's do this! C'mon! Here they come! Dumbasses... Alright, Tadano, it's your show now! Good luck!So, there's not much to do in Bootes right now. There's nothing new or different around the outside area, so we'll just skip to the palace. Palace of Pleasure So, this isn't just random flavour text or anything.  Macabre isn't here anymore, and he's not the only one that's missing. In fact, for the next long while random encounters inside the Palace are disabled entirely!  So we'll just skip all the way up to the 3rd floor. The invisible man from before isn't around any more either, so we can continue on up in peace.  To the immediate left of the door, on the way in, we can find a Muscle Drink for free. This restores HP by what I would hope is a probably okay amount but it also inflicts a random ailment so I've never used it.  There's nothing else over there, so we'll continue further on in. We didn't see an elevator on the 2nd floor, but there's one here. When we get it working, it'll make a nice shortcut to skip parts of the palace. For now, we can't do anything with it, so forward we go.  It doesn't take long to come to a door next to some damage tiles. We're thorough, so I'll remember the door and continue on further past the dama--  It just leads to a dead-end that doesn't even have a fixed Forma spawn. Door it is then.  The vast majority of the 3rd floor here is a giant linear corridor without much variation. Things like the pit at the start are the exception here, it seems. Following a long stretch of nothing past the door, we can grab a Bead Chain which is still a 100% HP heal to the whole party; everyone fielded in combat or everyone period out of combat.  Immediately after that, we have the stairs up. Absolutely no point at all in waiting around here so up we go!  There's an immediate Terminal and we can see stuff to our left, huh? Looks like we've made it to the weird not-jail cells we were in before.  Also there's a dead crew member next to the Terminal. That's something I guess? This dead guy we don't need to remember is here though. Silence Continue along the corridor, making sidesteps because why not, until we come to the door here.   Thank you for coming back for me... I really need to get out of here. Can you open the door from the outside? The Fear of God > Something enveloped you!  Ah, this again. Who's there!? What's happening!? Hitonari!? Oh...! It's that invisible demon! You will noooooooot be forgiven! You will noooooooot be forgiven! You will faaaaaaace a horrible deeeeeath! Noooooow! Experiment tiiiiiiime! Hyahahaaaaa...! Palace of Pleasure We could wait around here, but we'd be unable to do much of anything. It's also really boring. There's no invisible timer here that makes a thing happen once enough time has passed.  Instead, in each corner of the room there is a dead body. We'll examine them all.  Our conclusion is that humans need something called "oxygen." But when you think about it... he's been reborn into a form that can no longer lie. We did a good thing! Look what a good thing we demons did!  Our conclusion is that humans need something called "blood." But when you think about it... he's been reborn into a form that can no longer grow impatient. We did a good thing! Look what a good thing we demons did!  Our conclusion is that humans need something called a "brain." But when you think about it... he's been reborn into a form that can no longer feel anxiety. We did a good thing! Look what a good thing we demons did!  Our conclusion is that humans have weak stomachs. But when you think about it... he's been reborn into a form that can never complain again. We did a good thing! Look what a good thing we demons did! Only thing of note placement-wise is that by being in the corners, that last one prevents us from leaving the room at all. We don't have the Unlock required to open the normal door and we have to examine the body in the bottom-right corner. It's not a toggleable option, so we have no choice. Anyway, let's return to the center of the room now. Silence Today's theme is... "Can humans live like us?" What will happen when we strip them of their weird clothes!? Master Mitra is very eager to find out! Now, human: presenting our lab!  Hey Norris! We found Norris! It looks like the quest is going well! I just... wanna have fun... Forget... everything...> The missing crewman, Norris, is standing in front of you. Noooooooooow! Let the experiment... beeeeeegin! > Norris was stripped of his Demonica! In the Master's Name > Norris is letting out a silent scream. So at this point we can just sit back and watch whatever happens here. Or we can not be dicks and actually try to save Norris. A difficult decision for sure. Let's not be a dickhead, yeah? Don't get in our way! > You were thrown back!  Unfortunately, the not-dick route is immediately punished with flat damage. Fortunately, it's not that much and doesn't matter too much! You will not disrupt our great experiment! Now, devilish gentlemen... If we leave him be, this human will soon stop moving! But, but, but!  What will happen!? What will happen!? > Crewman Norris was doused with something! ......! ...Urgh... Urggh... Urgaaaaahhhh! The Fear of God Oh no, Norris! You got some green on you! ...No, no, no! This isn't it! This isn't it! This isn't what Master Mitra wants at all! ...Grrrrr... Urgh... Urghrrr!? Urgh... Raaaaaaaaaaaarrrr!> Norris attacked you! Foul Norris An Honor Befitting That Name So, Norris is... well, he's really, really easy. His damage output isn't particularly threatening, he can't do much else other than "hit you" and his one point of interest is that he has no weaknesses. Other than being weak in general.  Attack-wise, he has a decentish variation of physical stuff I guess? Rampage is probably the most dangerous purely because it's kinda random.  Stun Claw is fairly interesting, and is the only thing he has that does something other than damage. It does deal fairly okay damage and has a 35% chance to Paralyse.  Giant Slice is light damage on everyone. It also happens to be the weakest Physical skill in the game. 2nd place isn't much stronger, but everything else is leagues ahead. Good job, Norris.  That's about it. Norris doesn't last long, has relatively little health (around 650) and doesn't even give you any Macca when you're done. Poor EXP as well. End Silence ...Hm? Hmmmmmmm? This... What is this? A rare forma probably. It dropped from a miniboss (pffffft) after all! This is an unexpected result! I must give it to Master Mitra! Something unexpected has come out of this!  > The demon left... Hey what no! That's mine! Get back here! > You checked the Demonica certification number.  I'm pretty sure we knew that without checking the Demonica number. Call it a hunch. Palace of Pleasure Not much we can do in here, so we'll head on over to the adjacent room. There's nowhere else to go after all.   > You told Zelenin what you saw. No... another comrade... ...There's nothing you could have done. If you hadn't fought back, he'd have killed you. Besides, it sounds like he had already become a demon... You did what you had to for his sake. A moment of silence for him... ...... All right, we can't wallow in self-pity forever. We need to find a way out of here. The demons are fickle. If we take too long, we'll be the next test subjects. We've already been everywhere in both rooms. There aren't any new hidden doors to find, but when looking to make sure we'll find something new in the bottom-right corner. Silence Zelenin had a new cellmate and she never told us! Hello... ...Who are you!? Hitonari, did you come here with anyone!? No? Then who is this....!? The demons are gone. I've no need for this ruse anymore. Excuse me. Law Theme  I am the angel Mastema. I am a herald of the kingdom of light. Completely real talk here, Mastema is awesome. However, my powers are limited in this land ruled by evil. ...Is this another experiment? You're in league with the demons, aren't you? All your forms are the same from a human's perspective. I leave it to you as to whether or not to believe me. But whatever you think of me, I swear that I am an enemy to the demons. If you have come to fight the demons, I would like to help. ......I'd like to believe you. Perhaps you could tell us a few things? What's going on here? What should we do? Once bitten, twice shy, is it? What you should do is escape this place... And what I should do is assist you in this. Let us find an escape route together. I could prove useful. Silence We just have to walk around the room to this corner. That's it. Moving on! Please stay back. ......? What are you doing...? Law Theme> Mastema put his hand on the floor.  ...In His name, I cast out evil!> Mastema stuck his hand through the floor...!  I love all the pomp and circumstance around this undercut by the immediate mental image of Mastema just digging like a dog. But that must be painful...! I am given hands that I might wipe away evil. I must use them here. The demons' barrier is weak in places. This is one such spot... Hmm... Urgh... Ha! There! I may have dirtied my hands a bit, but it worked. You should be able to escape. Now, let us be swift! O-Oh... all right. Such power... ...Let's go, Hitonari...We could sit around here and do nothing. Let's jump into the hole instead to actually get to do things. Palace of Pleasure > You don't see Mastema... Still don't have any random encounters, and...  We have a small area in which we just drop into a hole to keep hitting the next floor down.  The 2nd floor's all of one step, yet again, before we hit the hole. Law Theme On the first floor, we run back into Mastema. And we're dropped very close to the Heal Spot. ...Ah yes, and I have a parting gift. It's something I have no use for. The man who wore that suit had it. It belonged to your comrade, and now it is yours. He worked very hard to find this. Please take it... Let us part ways here. Be safe. U-Um...! I... er... I wanted to show my gratitude. But there isn't much we can do... Our situation is shared. It is natural that we help each other. ...Good and evil are still at war in the spirit world. So long as you recognize that demons are the enemy, I will ever be your ally. Palace of Pleasure Alright, back to business as usual. Gotta move over the damage tiles to get anywhere, but we have cheap healing right there so it works out. Anyway, for no reason at all I'm taking a random Melchom and fusing it with an Apsaras to make a Shiisaa. Adding Angel to give it Media and Hama, but mainly after the War Cry since it reduces enemy attack by 2 stages and has no downsides.  Once we get back into the entrance hall... Crisis You'll become one of Master Mitra's puppets... Your fate is sealed! It is unfortunate that you will become a puppet no longer able to dance, but... I am duty-bound to put you to death! Spirit Macabre An Honor Befitting That Name Okay, so Macabre is harder than Norris. For whatever that matters. He's also just a regular, normal Macabre (spoilers I guess), with boss fight immunities. So his normal weakness to Expel is an immunity here. Boring.  Since this game doesn't have Makakaja/Makanda, Taru-affecting spells increase/decrease all types of damage. It doesn't help with ID stuff like Hama/Mudo of course.  Being a normal Macabre with More HP (~775), his moveset isn't even as varied as Norris' was. I know, it's amazing. He'll normally do either a basic hit, cast Mudo or use Blight. Blight is the only interesting one, being a Moderate Phys skill that hits everyone and has a 60% chance to inflict Poison.  Oh and, you might think you could skip this by going up to 2F and warping out. You'll trigger it in the room where the stairs heading up are instead. End Palace of Pleasure Still no random encounters inside the Palace, and nothing else to do here. We could walk back to the Red Sprite but there's a terminal right here so... Malevolence and Benevolence Welcome to the Red Sprite. You have my admiration for enduring your unfortunate imprisonment. Thank you, Arthur. I'm sure it'll be a pleasure working under you. I will require a detailed debriefing from you at some point... But perhaps not now. I have no wish to overtax you in your weakened state. Still, one question must be answered: are there others of your crew who need rescuing? They did pull others from the ship besides me, but one by one, they were taken away... In the end, there was no one left to respond to my calls. ...... When the Elve failed during entry, the deck's hatch suddenly opened an the demons poured in. Before I realized it... I found myself here... ...... Thank you, Firest Lieutenant Zelenin. That will be all for now. You need to rest. We will treat you as one of our own crew. Once you have recovered, you will join the others in our mission. Only too happy to help, Arthur. Returning to Earth is important, but we can't lose sight of our original goal... The Schwarzwelt's erosion of the Earth could be intensifying as we speak. Well, I'd sure appreciate it if you could tell us how to get outta this hellhole. ......I'll do what I can. We have yet to confirm the whereabouts of your ship, the Elve. The search for the Elve will be put on hold pending the retrieval of any information regarding it. A medical capsule will be waiting for you there. ...Excuse me, everyone. Strike team, prepare to receive new orders. This is most likely the energy synchronized with, and emitted by, the demon Mitra.   Just come out and say it... Mitra itself is the Rosetta, so we need to go get him, right? Bring back the enemy general's head, huh? Now we're sounding like soldiers! But look, Arthur, how long can we go on like this? You said before there are a few other sectors like this... We just gonna keep doing this over and over until we make it back to Earth? This information will point the way toward our escape route. I assure you all that your efforts will not be in vain. But until we have concrete data, on the layout of the Schwartzwelt, your mission will not end. Yeah, yeah... I get it already. The mission, the mission... you don't have to keep telling me. You will be assisted by a new system developed by the lab. Please put it to use in your missions from this point on. I am distributing the update now. Please accept it. Enemy Search is a fun little thing that I really like in theory.  Basically, now along with Forma there will be random demons visible on the map. Sort of like FOEs in Etrian Odyssey but you only fight them if you want to, and they're never in fixed locations. They can spawn in the same spots as random Forma, and it's completely random what you encounter and when. It draws from a pool based on the Sector, what Enemy Search function you have and nothing else. With this puppy installed, there's no way that demon'll catch you again! I look forward to the successful completion of your mission.
Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:26 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Nov 14, 2016 14:34
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Prayer Back on the ship again, so we can take this chance to see what the crew has to say about Zelenin et al. "Hey, at least we managed to save one life," or "We were only able to save one life"? Dammit... The more I think about it, the less sure I am...!Kato, please. Don't be such a pessimist!  Think of the predicament she was in... It was definitely a narrow escape for her. She's been through a lot. Her brainwaves are unstable, as are her REM cycles. Not that I blame her... they put her through hell out there. I mean... when this ship crashed, I got kidnapped by demons too. I thought that was it for me. When I saw your face, you were like a knight in a shining Demonica. I can't say that he feels the same way I do, though. I mean... she's so experienced. It's probably different for her than for a recruit like me...Requisite reminder that everyone on this ship is the best of the best in their personal field. The game wants you to forget that at this point, despite reminding you repeatedly at the start. Unfortunately for it, I didn't forget!  Oh and we don't have anything new in the Lab right now. This shouldn't be a surprise, really. The only thing it could've realistically been is the Enemy Search and we already got that. Go bring me some drat forma! I'm gonna sink everything I got into development... That's the only way I can get payback! Keep your successes in mind as you go about your missions, not your failures. That'll help bring your confidence up, which might mean the difference in saving others. Well, it was Norris' weakness, a gun and three demons. Also magic. Lots of magic. Besides... grieving won't bring him back. We have our own necks to worry about. Palace of Pleasure Right back into the Palace we go. Random encounters are back now as well. Probably should've gone to Antlia for its Enemy Search stuff first, but for some reason I got it in my head that I needed to do something else before ES Demons would even spawn.  The 2nd floor proves me wrong pretty promptly, but we're already here so let's keep going.  They work pretty much exactly like Forma. They pop-up on the map as a pink circle when our giant cross that searches for things passes over an appropriate square.  They also work like normal demons in that most of them are Unknown when we first encounter them. Most Enemy Search demons also have to be beaten at least once before we can fuse them, so we can't get around that the easy way.  Both Antlia and Bootes only have 2 ES Demons, and they share one of them. This thing we ran into first hits really hard with its basic attack, so I know from that alone what this thing is and that this is the one in both Antlia and Bootes.  So, before we run into another one (now that he's no longer Unknown)? I'm taking a random Melchom and Lilim and fusing them to make Azumi. Adding Harpy's source exclusively for Marin Karin. Azumi is a weird choice for this, yes, but that 112 damage from a basic attack on Hitonari was on Neutral resistance. It also was a basic attack. He can hit much, much harder. But only with physical attacks. An Honor Befitting That Name So, hey, say hello to Take-Minakata. From Enemy Search A, he has a 50% chance of spawning in Bootes. That's combined from a 30% chance of spawning solo or a 20% chance of spawning with an Ippon-Datara ally. He also appears in Antlia with a 25% spawn-rate, but there he's always solo. He's also really strong and probably the most dangerous thing we've fought so far. Low bar to cross, yes.  So we're going to do this. He's neutral to all ailments but Charm is Charm, and Charm is the best that we can use. He's also weak to Electric damage, but resists... a lot. He resists Phys, Ice, Wind, Expel and Curse. Yeesh. Skill-wise, he has Garula which isn't that great for him personally (and his Source has Garudyne!) and Zan-Ei which is insanely scary. For reference, it has a base power of 200 which makes it the tied 4th strongest Phys skill and it increases to 300 on a New Moon. 300 is a very big number, yes; it's not quite the biggest base power, but it's the biggest you can get for a long, long time. Combining this, his wonderful resistance loadout, that he has a base 23 Strength (and an 18% chance of it increasing on level up) and Preparedness makes him a VERY GOOD demon for a Chaos MC. Preparedness is a passive skill that makes Co-Ops that he's part of deal increased damage. Preparedness is only on 3 demons by default and only one Source. Sadly, that Source is not Takeminakata's.  Oh and finally, look at those drops. Look at them twice for good measure. Dis-Charm is his "uncommon" drop. ES Demons have a few quirks when it comes to battle rewards. First, they have a modified drop-table so they don't drop Life Stones. Instead they drop a variety of either recovery or offensive items. Second their Forma and (for some ES Demons) uncommon items are guaranteed drops and sell for at minimum 2000 Macca. Third, most ES Demons give zero EXP and none of the ones that do are in Antlia or Bootes. The allies they can appear with still give EXP, though. So, uh, yes. Now that we have Enemy Search we have easy, infinite money without getting overlevelled in the process. There is zero excuse for having money problems from this point onwards.  The only other normal ES Demon in Bootes is Chupacabra (ES A gives a 25% chance to appear solo or a 25% chance to have a Pyro Jack partner). Being a UMA, Chupacabra is Neutral-Neutral but being an ES Demon we cannot negotiate with him. Also UMA is a race added to SJ from the Devil Summoner spinoffs (not the Raidou games, the Devil Summoner games) and then renamed to Food in IV because IV is confusing and stupid. Anyway, here we can only see enemy UMAs as part of Enemy Searches. We also cannot fuse any right now, regardless of whether we kick the poo poo out of them or not. ...Oh and Chupacabra is much, much worse than Takeminakata. He's weak to Fire and Mute - not ailments, just a 300% modifier to Mute. He resists Expel and Curse and that's it. For skills, he has Giant Slice (ugh), Fog Breath (double Sukunda and thus ugh) and Life Drain (it's okay but not great). Palace of Pleasure En route back towards where we can probably make some progress, gonna make a Moh Shuvuu. Normally, she's kind of eh but I think she's pretty great for this stage, really. Adding the Principality source just gives better healing and Zionga. Mainly wanting that Zionga.  Back on the fourth floor, pure luck nets a random DF Bootite II. Sure, I'm okay with that.  And then as we get to the experiment rooms we were in before, for the third time...  Nooow... Go ahead... I'll graaab you from behind! You probably noticed the ES Demon on the map. We're gonna scan that one immediately.    Even if you caaaaaaaan see me, it doesn't matterrrrrrrrrr! You can't beat meeeee! Nooooow! Time to experimennnnnnt! Hyahahaaaa...! An Honor Befitting That Name Okay, real quick Fomorians are a race of Irish-Celtic giants. They were the second to live in Ireland and some even married into the Tuatha de Danann. It might seem weird how Fomor is a general demon that looks nothing like the named ones that also appear in the series (Balor being the easiest go-to example) but, y'know. Whatever.  Here, our formerly invisible goatman is weak to Wind. Like Macabre, he's a slightly hardier version of a normal, random demon. Unlike Macabre, you can fight Fomorians before the miniboss version. The only real difference is that he has way more HP and he's immune to Expel and Curse. Normal Fomors have no resistances at all. He might have a lot of HP (in the region of 750-755), but he still gets trashed in like 2 rounds. Honestly, even Norris is technically more of a threat. Good job, Fomor. Palace of Pleasure I don't get it! Whyyyyyy!? Arrrrrrgh!!Well, now we can finally make progress on the 4th floor and beyond!  Immediately to the right, this thing stands out. It's apparently a switch, somehow. I'm not sure how, but there's no reason to ignore it so let's flip it!  ...Yeah, that was definitely the right move to make. Now we can shortcut back up if/when we need to.  Meanwhile, over on the left-hand side we get a hole dammit.  This one doesn't even lead anywhere! It's just a stupid trap designed to make you waste time walking back over those damage tiles. This alcove exists solely for this. Augh.  Walking back to the 4th floor, since it's not that far, we'll go back to the switch and follow the tiny linear path. This brings us to stairs leading... down? Guess we gotta go down to go up.  At first glance, this brings us to a dead-end... but we have a gate search right here! Gonna use that then.  And it brings us to a wide-open area. We have a single path leading forward we can take without issue but the rest of it is gated off. Not by any gates or anything, but by a pond of damage tiles.  We'll ignore that part of the floor for now. Instead, let's talk to this lady.  I've stopped dining on humans, so I have no business with you. Farewell, my past self, who drowned in the joy of gluttony... ...Hohoh.Yeah, see, this is actually really clever. Hariti's here to reference her actual myth, rather than just being weird. But, hey, we also know that demons get really aggressive during a full moon and it's nearly one now. Just gotta walk a few steps... Crisis M... meat... I want meat... Human meat...! ......! *pant* *pant* You have the most dreadful luck, passing by at such an inopportune moment... I... I am Lady Hariti. I apologize for being so abrupt, but you must leave this place. I grow violent when the moon is full... and I cannot control urges when I see a human. If you stay, I will most assuredly eat you... Hariti is a Buddhist Rakshasa. She had hundreds of children and fed herself and them with human children. Needless to say, the mothers of said children got super pissed off and asked Buddha himself to do something about it. He kidnapped Hariti's youngest son (or daughter, in some versions) and hid them under his rice bowl. Hariti searched the entire universe, couldn't find her child and asked Buddha for help. He pointed out her hypocrisy in this matter and she admitted that the parents of the children she kidnapped must be suffering worse than she did. As a result of this, she became a protector deity of children and childbirth. She then decided to feed herself and her children on pomegranates instead of the flesh of children. If I feed on that instead, my hunger for humans should be abated. Please... won't you? Yes. What a dear! Thank you ever so. I shall entrust you with this.Now we just need to find a Pomegranate... Palace of Pleasure Not going to do very many skill changes, but Azumi doesn't need Charmdi so I took the risk. Fang Breaker is definitely an interesting trade-off. It's fairly ehh for an ST Phys skill but it also functions as an ST Tarunda at the same time. It's pretty nice for fights against minibosses or bosses, since it's cheaper than Tarunda (by 2MP, which doesn't sound like much but for Phys demons it matters a lot!) AND deals damage at the same time. It won't be seeing much use on my end, though.  Over the damage tile pond, we have a random Hamsa just chillin' out. Let's see what he has to say.  I welcome you... as my dinner! Eh? Hariti told you to bring a Pomegranate to her? I see. Pomegranate does have a bit of a human flavor, it's true. It's a shame I haven't any on me. She's on one of the floors above, though I've never met her myself... She's always hiding.A demon on the higher floor might have a Pomegranate. Well, at least it's a start. Thanks, Hamsa. We'll go up the stairs here back to the fourth floor in just a moment. Just gotta finish mapping out this area now so I never have to come back here again, save for giving the thing to Hari--  god loving dammit  And now we're in a new section of the 2nd floor. I swear, if this ends up dropping us down to the first!  It's a pretty straight-forward area, thankfully. It only has 2 spots of note; an easy to miss fixed Forma that gives 2 AC Bootite.  But the Sleep Harpe is the real reason to bother with this area. It's a new weapon; a harpe is a type of sword, that has a small sickle-esque protrusion coming off the blade.  It's a decent upgrade for damage, but it's only a single-hit on a single foe... but it also has a chance to inflict Sleep. Sleep isn't Charm so it's not the best, but Sleep is probably the 2nd best (or maybe 3rd) so I'm definitely going to be using this.  And once we go through the one-way door that drops us off by the terminal, we're done with the 2nd floor entirely! Yep, that's the entire floor mapped out now.  This also puts us close to the elevator regardless of which way we go. So, we'll just take it back up to the 4th floor. Should get us back where we were pretty quickly. Silence ...Oh wait, hang on right. The elevator wasn't over there. This is an entirely new part of the Palace. You...! You...!  Hey, Tadano! You hear it too!? Sounds like someone's taking a beating! Where though!? ...I'm picking up a reading from over here! Let's help him out, Tadano! Follow me in! Crisis Oh, hi Bifrons. He's a different Bifrons to the one from earlier, though. Thought you could escape? Thought you could get away from me, huh!? I'll make it so you never... eh? Who're you!? It's go time, Tadano! An Honor Befitting That Name Okay, so Miniboss Bifrons gets the first strike and... is fought by Jimenez?! Hey wait...  Bring it on, you bastard! So, now Jimenez is stepping up to do what Gore did before with Orias. The fight is part of the cutscene but it lets us know that Jimenez is Chaos aligned and is at least level 12. ...Why yes, I care about these things. Sadly, Jimenez is not as good at this as Gore was. Which is weird when you remember Jimenez is explicitly a soldier and is on the Strike team. Gore was not; he was an engineer. Ghh... you're pretty good, heh! ( ) ...This isn't fair! There's so many of you! You think you can kill me with that!? Quit babbling! You gotta be better at fighitng than that! Get real! Hah! Say goodnight, ugly! Silence  Hmm... Buh!? What the hell!? Fear   Booooooooooo...! Tch... What the hell is this? That's a demon! What a waste of time! Although... how come he was getting smacked around by another demon?> The demon is wary of you...  Once again, this is just "do you be a giant dick for no reason or not." Once again, we're going to pick the Reasonable Option. > You tried talking to the demon. Boooooooooo...! Boo...? Boo... Booooo...! ...Whoa. He's a nervous little guy. Hey, man! We saved you! Yeah, uh... what kinda demon is he, anyway? .....Jimenez, how come you can just do that but I have to murder or fuse things first? Hmmm... interesting. Take a look, Tadano. I've never seen a guy like this.> Jimenez sent you the results of the analysis. Which we cannot actually see.  That one-quarter of him is non-demon material. Which means... He's not a pure demon. ...... These facilities with their tortures and experiments... I dunno what it is, Tadano, but this "Bugaboo" fascinates my rear end... ...Buga...boo...? Buga...boo... Bugaboo! Buga! Boo! Bugaboo!In case it wasn't already obvious, Bugaboo works on Pokemon communication rules. Great...  What, you can't talk? Man, you're a pain in the rear end! But I don't care. It's crazy enough that the other demons can talk... You seein' me, bro? I want to make you my ally... We're both crazy rejects in this world. Let's be friends... Boo... Booo...? C'mon, just look me in the eye. Talk without talking. You stay here, and you're dead for sure. You run, you'll get caught and killed that way too. ...Buga, boo! Bugaboo!> Bugaboo smiled. ...I'd say it's a done deal. C'mere, you! So Jimenez successfully used the Talk option. ...Wait hang on, that didn't cost him anything! What the gently caress, Bugaboo?! Phew! That went well. So is this guy gonna be a li'l angel or a li'l devil...? Time will tell, I guess. ...Alright, let's go, Tadano.Right. Now we can get back to looking for the path to the 8th floor so we can kick the poo poo outta Mitra.
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Nov 16, 2016 19:41
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neongrey posted:UMA wasn't renamed to Food to SMT 4, it took an assortment of demons from across the board, like Katakiruwa. There are 2 Food race demons in both IV and Apocalypse that aren't UMAs in SJ. They are Onmoraki and Katakirauwa. The rest of the race is the entirety of the UMA race here. For all intents and purposes, Food is just renamed UMA. Nothing in the Food race makes a lick of sense; Onmoraki is a death bird and Katakirauwa is a demon spirit that steals your soul.
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Nov 16, 2016 20:34
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Palace of Pleasure Since we're here, we'll continue exploring north of the room where we found Bugaboo.  There's only another locked room we can't get into and stairs up. Let's go then.  This is our first foray onto the 5th floor, and we already get kind of an annoying path split.  We'll head on down the left-path first just because it was closer.  There is another branch immediately to the right which leads to a T junction. Great.  So it just loops in on itself over there. There's a locked door here that we also cannot open. Oh and I missed a path to the left en-route...? Let's see then.  Have to cross almost half-a-dozen damage tiles, but it gets us...  A dead-end with nothing in it. ...Moving swiftly on! The Fear of God Pyro Jack is, well, Pyro Jack. You can look back a few updates, find what I said about Jack Frost and just flip Ice and Fire. That is exactly how Pyro Jack is.  Hey, Apsaras is here. That's something, I guess? She's still weak to Fire and has no resistances. Except Sleep. A 20% modifier on Sleep. Nothing else though! Palace of Pleasure Anyway, that gap over on the far right of the floor is a set of stairs leading up.  And the 6th floor gives us an aesthetic change that looks a lot like the area outside Mitra's room. So this is clearly the right way, and I will have none of that.  So let's head on back to the elevator and take it to the 5th floor since we haven't done that yet.  There's... a different elevator right next to where we left. Well, alright then. We'll see where it leads when we're done over here!  Glad you got the elevator back up and running. I owe you one. But there's another elevator here, and it doesn't look like it's on. Is there a switch for this one somewhere too...?...It's not working...?  Well, drat. It isn't! But we turned the elevators on bef-- we're gonna need another switch for this one, aren't we? Great.  Nothing else on that part of the 5th floor save for an empty dead-end, so we'll head back to the 3rd floor and then walk back to where Hamsa and Hariti are.  The stairs here were right there and that hole made us have to wait until now. Well, not quite but you know what I mean.  Also the stairs were the only thing missing from the map. Maybe probably should've done this first in hindsight. But I forgot what was up here.  4th floor over here has a fork in the road that leads to the same place. It's just a branching path around that central column.  Although maybe take the path that's on the left side of the map. That's probably a good idea.  If you can avoid the pitfall, then you'll come to another set of stairs leading to the 5th floor.  Which is just a tiny path leading to a hole.  So this entire area is just there so you can get 5 AC Bootite. That's it. ...Taking a trip back to the Red Sprite now. The crew doesn't have anything new to say despite the Bugaboo scene, though. Prayer Instead, we're gonna grab a new toy or two from Irving.  He has a few new things for sale. Might as well see what they all are at the very least.  The Desonberi is bery nice. Airstrike is just Light MT damage. Armshot is Hitonari's equivalent of Fang Breaker, so it's pretty handy. Randy Shot's the main reason to care though, since it can inflict Charm.  Accessories are still, well, accessories. Our new ones are primarily ailment resistance based. They're still not worth using for the most part. There IS one that I care about, but we can't make it for a while. The Antidote Ring makes Hitonari immune to Poison. The Yggdrasil Ring we got for free also does that on top of the (minor) HP increase.  And the item we can make is a Frag Grenade, which is kind of interesting I guess. We don't really need it though and it uses Kishin Horns which we can sell for 3000 Macca a piece. Palace of Pleasure Anyway, new gun in hand back to the palace we go. Taking the elevator back to the 4th floor so we can get back to the 6th.  But first, gonna make something useful. Not so much the Sudama, but he could be useful with that Marin Karin inherit.  What I was mostly after is this Karasu Tengu. I have no idea why I decided to let Wind Breath stick around (if I had a reason, I've forgotten it since I did this back in like July) because it's loving terrible.  Adding Karasu Tengu to our compendium gives the ability to make Kurama Tengu via a Special Fusion sometime in the future maybe. He's definitely not a bad demon to make by any means.  Anyway, 6th floor stuff. We've got a terminal right away that's pretty useful if you need it.  Right around the corner from that, we have another staircase leading up to the 7th floor. Mitra must be pretty drat close, huh...?  And right around the corner from THAT we have this guy. I was looking around this area and found some stuff that should come in handy during the mission. I'll split it with you. 3 Chakra Drops...? Oh thanks, nameless guy. This'll help so much.  Anyway, seventh floor! Starts with a Healing Spot that I decided I would just ignore entirely because I'm crazy like that. The Fear of God It's also when the last demon of the sector turns up and boy oh boy is she kind of awful! Mana Drain is a nice skill, as is Rakunda, but that's like all she has going for her. No ailment weaknesses at least, flat neutral there, but her source is a special kind of poo poo: Sukunda and Dia? Really, Gu Huo Niao? How disappointly terrible.  And because technically we've never seen either a Vodyanik or Fomorian in a fight here yet (I guess I forgot the Vodyanik somehow and Fomor's disappointing). Vodyanik has nothing fancy that you can't already see, so this is a good enemy team to just Magarus at I guess. Palace of Pleasure And that is it for demons we can encounter in Bootes. Well, there is still one but I'm ignoring it until we get the Rosetta. Anyway, seventh floor is pretty linear until this fork here. We can keep going left which...  Brings us to a Gate Search door. We'll go through this shortly, but I'll open it right now before doubling back.  The southern path leads us to this dead crewman. Much like the one in Antlia, remember this one for later. You DID remember the one in Antlia, right?  Also there's a pit here, goddamnit.  It leads us to a Goblin. He wants to talk at us.  This world's appearance changes from place to place. It's because this place is formed of the power that collects here to destroy humans. Depending on the nature of that power, this place's form changes. Demons are incredible, eh? Anyway, the entire reason this sidepath exists is for this bit right here. That "safe" tile in the middle is obviously a pit trap so if we go around it eating the damage...  We get 2 AT Bootite IIs for free. That's... not too bad, I guess. Now, we have to take that pit because there's no other way out of here.  It drops us onto the damage tile hallway on the 5th floor. Thanks Bootes, I love you too.  Also around about now is when I get Bifrons and Fomor's Sources, so I combine them into Monunofu. He's pretty okay, and I'm not giving him a source because I'm not using him much. Tyranny is random 1-3 hits and each hit has a 60% chance to inflict Fear. Tyranny is insanely good, because Fear is ridiculous. True Lobotomy is pure damage on a single target. It's a cool name but I prefer the literal translation of its Japanese name, which is Hyper Skull Crush.  I also briefly do something silly and make a Gu Huo Niao. We're immediately getting rid of her for something I'll actually use.  By adding a Bifrons and an Azumi source, we get a Power that I'm going to be keeping for a little while. Powers aren't great, but he's good enough for what he'll be doing.  Back on the 7th, we continue beyond the formerly hidden door and find a Naga and a fork in the road. Someday I hope to be recognized by Master Mitra and climb in status! But how do you get into Master Mitra's room...? How I crave success...Anyway, we're going south first.  It lets us turn the other elevator on and that's it.  The north path is a linear one that leads to some stairs that bring us down to the 6th floor again.  It opens up a little here, but it's not as wide-open as that implies.  Mainly because the two pillars in the room are the cause of the branches and are superfluous and unnecessary. Also a terminal on the far left if you need it.  The path north (from the center) leads to these. They could be useful, I guess. Strain isn't super-common, there are like maybe 5 moves that can inflict it, and it's a less-threatening Poison so...  Over in the far southern end of the floor, we have an elevator that we just got working and another locked door. This one is even red so it needs a different key to all the other locked doors we've seen! That gap north of here are stairs leading down to the 5th floor. We'll deal with them later.  The elevator can bring us back down to 5F which makes this a good shortcut back up if we need it for whatever reason. It can also lead us to 7F and directly to 8F.  We know Mitra's waiting for us on 8, so we'll go to 7 first.  This bring us to a very linear area that seemingly leads nowhere if you don't find this hidden door. It is potentially easy to miss if you're not checking every wall for them at this point I guess.  Past it we get to a very open area and a terminal. That makes 3 in 2 floors, technically. I guess they're generous with them here because this place can take a while to navigate?  Only other thing in this area are some stairs leading up to the 8th floor. There's nothing else here, so let's see where they lead.  ...Oh. This is how we get back to Mitra. Sure, alright then. This could've been avoided if Hitonari took notes on where Bifrons led him before!
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Nov 18, 2016 20:00
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Palace of Pleasure Before we go deal with Mitra, there's still a few parts of the palace to check out first.  There's the entire rest of the 8th floor for starters, though that's kind of an obvious one.  Doesn't seem like it's going to be a particularly large area, since I can clearly see where the Unlock door by Mitra's room leads to.  Around the corner to the north of there, we find another Gate Search door we can't open. Great.  Then we've got a Vodyanik around the corner from there. Nothing past this guy though.  Why isn't the door here? I thought this was where the hidden door was supposed to be... Ohhh, of course. I'm thinking of the floor below!He's just here as a hint for how to find Mitra, basically. We've already done that though so we'll just head back south towards the elevator.  There was one sidepath I skipped, that leads to this guy.  Hm? What business hast thou here? Ho, a human? Thou shalt meet thine end in this place... Humans appear to be untroubled by fear. 'Tis why thou art capable of wracking a planet, I suppose. > The demon is looking at your weapon. I will admit this... thy blade is finely crafted, truly. I ask thee: art thou strong?Well, my Strength isn't exactly my highest stat. In fact right now it might be either 2nd lowest or tied at the bottom with Magic. Yes. Thou hath no small measure of confidence in thy skill... So be it. Wilt thou tarry a while with me? I have yet to introduce myself. I am called Halphas. I have wanted for stimulus in these recent days; pure battle is lacking in grace for my tastes. I thought to enjoy a hunt, the sport of a gentleman, but alas, I have no rival. Wilt thou accept my challenge? I accept. Then I shall release the game. Now, let us begin the hunt! We shall begin at one full moon and end at the next. Prithee wait a while until the next full moon. Ready... Begin! When on this quest, a few new Enemy Searches just appear. This is the only one that's super obvious, since we passed here moments earlier.  Mamedanuki in this context are the first ES Demon we've seen that is not Unknown at first. It's also somewhat special, in that several appear in fixed locations throughout the palace.  We'll kill this one for its tissue and move immediately on. We'll deal with the actual quest, and Mamedanukis in general, later.  But during this, we'll head on down to the 5th floor from the lefthand side of the 6th.  It's a fairly simple and linear area, that has a couple doors we can't open. Also a Magic Incense. Increases Hitonari's Magic by 1 and fully restores HP and MP. Specifically Hitonari's; you can't use an Incense on demons. We won't be using it for a while, if ever, though. If you care enough, you CAN get an infinite number of these eventually.  And whenever the moon cycle is complete, Halphas yells really loudly and we hear him from wherever we are. It doesn't teleport us back to him, though; that's all on us to deal with.  We'll do it later. Back on 5th, this guy is happy that the 2nd elevator is also functional. There's a lot of Bootes left to explore... but we can't get to any of it.  So instead, it's back to the 8th floor we go. No special extra prep for Mitra. He's not worth the effort. In the Master's Name But to point your blade at me, of all things...! I was mistaken to show you mercy! The result proves what all my experiments have shown! In every way, shape, and form, humans are pointless creatures! Now that our efforts in reshaping you humans have failed.. We must reshape this entire world that we might inhabit it again! I shall carve a reminder of this vow from your skull and wear it with pride! Tyrant Mitra Vehement Rage Mitra... may in fact be easier than Morax was. He has a larger variety of moves but the only one that's anything resembling a threat isn't used unless the fight drags on and on.  But, well, he's weak to Wind and we have a lot of that. And Rakundas.  Attack-wise, Mitra is actually a Physical oriented demon in practice.  Rampage and Explosive Fist can be potent but aren't major threats, thankfully.  On paper, this is a terrifying thing to see. Mabufudyne is a pretty powerful move, and is kind of unusual to see at this stage. But, uh, Mitra's magic is kind of awful so...  While it does deal a relatively large amount of damage, it's still not a threat.  Much like with Morax, Mitra has a bit of a special ability unique to him (as a boss in particular). In fact, he has two but Waking Dream is the more common one to see by far. It's fairly weak, multi-target Almighty damage but what makes it worth caring about is that it has a ~60% chance of inflicting Strain. But, uh, it's Strain which is only a big deal if it hits something like Moh Shuvuu. Except we can cure it.  Light of Order is way more threatening, because it's just an instant kill. It cannot ever work on Hitonari (it only affects demons) but balances this out by being Almighty elemental and having a base 100% chance of working. Yikes. Most things online claim it is only ever performed a non-specific number of turns after Waking Dream, and that he runs on a flat pattern whenever he's not doing that, but uh... no, that's wrong. He does only do Light of Order if he's already used Waking Dream, but there is no set number of turns he has to wait. It could be dozens, it could be immediate. The End Resistance wise, Mitra is also immune to Ice and that's basically it of note. You CAN reduce him to -4 in anything if you want. That's not something that upsets anyone right now.  EXP isn't too bad and the Chakra Pot is a nice drop as well. Full MP to a single target? Don't mind if I do. End Silence These... broken creatures... without a future... ......  Rare Forma just like the Brass Horn from before. We'll be waiting a while to see what this gives us.  But this is what we were after. Later, Bootes! Prayer The energy mass you retrieved must be sent to analysis immediately. Proceed directly to the command room. Malevolence and Benevolence Mission "Bootes Rosetta" is confirmed complete. With the data extracted from the Roseta, we should be able to break through the quantum tunnel above. Preparations for the plane shift are already underway. And you say the quantum fields limiting traffic are unlcoked with certain information? Which is held by demons... It's hard to believe, but we mustn't blink in the face of the truth. The common factors between Morax's case and Mitra's case only support the theory. It's unclear whether they created the sectors or occupied them after their creation... Whichever it is, our goal is the same: we must take their Rosettas to move on to the next sector. Those are the very demons we are fighting now. The professor believed these life forms would appear as antipodes to human society. The more burden humans place on the Earth by multiplying and consuming natural resources... The more energy flows into the Schwarzwelt as a reaction. This energy has an intelligence and a will, modeled after human behavior. Of course, we can't rely solely on his theory for guidance... Dr. Hammerschmidt never predicted that we would have to fight the demons, as we must continue to do. Wasn't this Rosetta poo poo supposed to show us the way home!? We're yanked around like a monkey on a string, and all we get in return is one lousy step forward!? Arthur! Are you really looking for a way outta here!?Jimenez, we went through this at the end of Antlia. It's not that easy...  Wh-What...!? I am aware that the strike team is under a great deal of stress, but you must control yourself. First Lieutenant Zelenin. You are on the monitor team, correct? Observing the demons is closely tied to observing the Schwarzwelt. Yes... I'm prepared. I'll do all that I can. Except one thing... Too bad, sister... You're throwing a great way of making new friends down the tubes. Well, to each his own. Just don't get in our way, 'kay? ...... I'll gladly work with you, but not with demons. I'm Zelenin. Nice to meet you. Alright... Name's Jimenez. Nice meeting you. Yes, I'm in the same situation. The Elve is still missing, after all. I'd like to hope it's safe, but... Just give the order and we'll go, Command! Acknowledged. Thank you, Terry. We will make the plane shift once all hands are ready. All hands, please take positions to plane shift. Later Bootes. We'll be back later, I'm sure...   Carina is technically a super-old constellation, being part of the Argo Navis - named after the ship that Jason and the Argonauts rode during the search for the Golden Fleece.  Carina itself is the Keel of a ship and became a separate constellation (along with Puppis (poopdeck) and Vela (sails)) in 1763. If that year sounds familiar, it certainly should. The Argo was broken up like this by none other than Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille who you may remember (but probably not) as the discoverer of Antlia. Monitors, please begin your atmospheric surveys. You'll be part of the mission from this sector forward, so best of luck to you. Thank you. I'll do what I can to make myself useful. Where should I start? Pinpointing the quantum tunnel's location, maybe? Finding the next fresh hell is fine and all, but don't forget to look for our way home, okay? I know it's important to explore and all, but I worry we're just getting ourselves in deeper. Crewman Jimenez. My neural network contains no unnecessary functions such as faith. I am programmed only to provide guidance based on the information collected. Geez Louise, man, you don't have to argue every smartass remark! Maybe you don't have faith, but you sure know how to take offense like a flesh-and-blood human. Christ... I kind of have to agree here.  Wha--!? Um, how about if I save time and send the feed right to your viewscreen... Take a look at this. Fear Brightly-lit stores and shelves full of products!? Can anyone tell me why there's a shopping mall in an alternate dimension in Antarctica!? Look at the variety of stuff on display... It gives me the creeps. This shopping mall... This was in the pictures the drones sent, too. We all assumed it was a mistake, but... here it is. Direct-feed images from the Schwarzwelt...So this makes 3/4ths of the things we saw in the intro match perfectly. And everytime people are surprised. You'd think by this point, they wouldn't be.  The atmospheric conditions are fine, anyway. We shouldn't have any trouble operating outside. So this sector shows signs of the human world, too... Looks like Dr. Hammerschmidt's theories were correct once more. He posited a causal relationship between the Schwarzwelt and human behavior. Well, us goons on the strike team might not know much about your theories... But it's looking to me like the demons built the Schwarzwelt as a way of studying their enemy. Still... this place is nuts. Lots of good stuff here, though! Hope I don't end up maxing out my card's limit. Arthur, we have radar contact at 4 o'clock! It's a giant ship! A giant ship!? Is it one of ours!? Acknowledged. Please attempt to establish contact. Roger that! Transmission sent! The Blue Jet's been scrapped, and the Elve was attacked by demons... ...... That's a good guess, but... Hmmm? That's strange... Arthur, the ship's still unidentified and I'm not getting much of an answer. The Elve!? You're sure about this!? Oh, thank goodness it's still intact!...If the Elve is here, how did Zelenin get into the middle of Bootes? This is indeed a stroke of luck. However, our inability to contact them suggests a high probability that they are having difficulties. Hey, Kato... You said there was a "strange response"? What's that mean, exactly? It doesn't seem that way... They are answering our signal, but it's not a proper response. Could be that the Elve's Command Unit is malfunctioning. The Elve was attacked by demons, and its present signal cannoy be confirmed as that of the crew. It would be premature at this stage to launch a rescue mission. No... You'd abandon them? Our course of action should be based on the Elve's usefulness. Let us consider the situation from this perspective. The Elve's radio is functional. We may assume that the ship is also in working condition. From there, we can anticipate that other equipment onboard is also viable. By equipment, you mean the graviton radio, yes? That is correct. If we retrieve the Elve's graviton radio, it may become possible to communicate with Earth.  Now you're talking! There can be no guarantees, but it will improve our chances significantly. The likelihood is strong enough that it is worth issuing an official directive. Hopefully there will also be survivors onboard to rescue... I understand your concerns, First Lieutenant Zelenin. However, it would be best if you proceed as part of the team. I am assigning you to observe this sector. Select a support crew and investigate on site. Understood. As a point of interest... We have used the Rosetta Manifold from Mitra to enhance the Demon Summoning Program. Strike force team, prepare to receive the patch. Heyyy, looks like we can beef ourselves up even more, Tadano.  ...Hey! What are you doing summoning demons inside teh ship!? Stop that! Stop it right now! Don't be so uptight. You gotta keep in touch with your underlings, y'know? It's 'cause him and me are so tight that he fights for me... See? ...Buga! You guys are such sticklers for the rules... Oh well. C'mon back, Bugaboo. Buga! Boo! You say you want to escape, but you're making nice with demons... An odd contradiction, I'd say. Hey, how about I carry out the missions, and you worry about your end, all right? I look forward to the successful completion of your mission.We'll get to that eventually, but it doesn't seem too important. So, we're going to head back to Bootes to finish up a whole buncha sidequests. And optional bosses. But mainly sidequests. Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Nov 22, 2016 01:07
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Heads up that today's update is gonna be pretty lengthy, so it's a good thing we're very close to a new page already. Probably gonna be a good idea to push it over sooner rather than later, though.
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Nov 23, 2016 19:08
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Prayer Before we head on out, doin' the usual. I didn't pay them much heed. I still don't get it, though... What's it doing in here...? It's only a possibility, mind you... It might not work. But what choice do we have than to cross our fingers and fire it up? We have to do SOMETHING. For a demon to be so friendly with a human... is its psychic makeup different than normal? Or... is it a more animalistic instinct? It's very interesting. I wish I could examine it more... Oh well... No one's better than me when it comes to indoor combat in a wide arena. They say I can go back to the battlefield soon, so I'm ready to raise some hell! We'll talk to Irving and Chen in a bit, of course, but first we gotta know what this gives us.  Four new SubApps from the Stone Fragment. Enemy Begone is kinda ehhh but it has its uses I suppose. The default encounter rate isn't all that high, and this doesn't reduce it all that much either. HP Regen I restores the full team's HP by 1% every few steps. Not too awful so I'll be equipping that one just for convenience. Gambler increases odds of skill changes on level up. Might use that for something really silly later. Really silly.  Fracastoro is very useful and important. Size of 0 and prevents fusion accidents? No reason to remove this unless you are explicitly after something that can only be gotten via an accident.  Tsk, what'm I sayin'!? I musta gone loco for a minute there... Findin' forma buried outta the way in dark corners... That's where the romance is! The mall is a copy of one on Earth, so are the products copies, too? Or... something worse? I'm a materials analyst, so I really get off on this stuff. This is the most of Carina we'll be seeing today. Gonna be spending the vast majority of time in Bootes still, just to finish it off.  Our awful location, lousy selection, and terrible customer service make us #1 in shopper mortality! I was only joking around, but... I'm sure that's the demon's plan. Never let your guard down. Dent doesn't have anything new to talk about, but asking about sidequests specifically... There are two missions I was saving for you. Here's the first one... This request is from Mia. Well, now I have. It seems like the work of a demon, but something's strange about it. The crew refuses to use the head until it's sorted out. Could you do something about it? No.We'll be back to do this one later, for sure. Not doing it now because then we're locked into doing that and nothing else. Rather finish up some other stuff first! You won't take it...? What a shame. Well, talk to me if you change your mind about that. Oh, here's the mission I wanted you to do. This is a mission from Gekko. It's Gekko's job to collect that data. Could you give him a hand? You can get more details directly from him. Will you grant Gekko's request? Yes.  My name is Gekko. I belong to the monitor team. Can I bother you for a moment? I need somebody to talk to... It's about the data our Demonica suits are constantly accumulating. That data is streamed to the command unit, but there've been a few anomalies lately. My job is to collect that data from any destroyed Demonicas. If I succeed, what we learn may help us add more functions to the Demonica. I'll understand if you're not comfortable looting corpses, but I could really use the help. I'll do it. Really? You have no idea how helpful that'd be. There's a lot of anomalous data, but most of it has teh same contents. That's good, because there is only one piece of data per sector. Well, I wish you luck. We can't actually finish off the black box thing yet, but we have some business in Antlia anyway. Might as well do as much as we can for now. A Scorched Nation Mamedanuki is the only Enemy Search demon in Antlia that we haven't really seen. They appear 75% of the time and always come solo. Takeminakata is the other 25% and he also appears solo here.  Mamedanuki on paper is kind of clever and theoretically strong. He resists Fire, Ice, Elec and Wind but all are only 75% instead of the usual 50%. His only weakness is to Sleep specifically which has a 200% inflict rate. In terms of skills, he is the only demon to naturally have Sleepwalker and his source is the only one that gives it as well. Sleepwalker lets you dodge everything while asleep, you see (...something about that sounds familiar). He also has Getsu-Ei and Needle Rush.  Except, uh, Mamedanuki is kind of weak as poo poo and crumples if you look at it funny. He's also a bizarrely weird demon in that he does not have any Forma! His forma is technically that UMA Tissue we only get as part of a sidequest (and it sells for a whole 1 Macca anyway as a result). Oh, and as the portrait in the bottom screen tells you, the blue thing on top of it is not its head. It's just there for intimidation which is kind of adorable.  Anyway, I told you to remember where this dead body was. It's for Gekko's information thing.  We can choose to not read the report here if we really wanted. There's no bonus for choosing no, so...  My observations so far follow:  Crumpled buildings, smoky sky, that strange tower in the distance... It feels like an occupied city. The sector's main characteristic is the way it confronts you with death and destruction...  There is something else to do in Antlia, but for the sake of convenience we'll leave and go to Bootes for now. A Frivolous Nation We do need more than these two to finish the quest, so we'll be getting a report in Carina as well when we find it.  My observations so far follow:  It's a kind of tacky, rococo palace with clasing color schemes and terrible taste. Everything, from the large jars to the smoke to the torture devices, makes me think of decadence... That's all we can do with this for now. Back to Antlia we go... A Scorched Nation Let's deal with this one now. It's relatively lengthy...  Can I help you, SIR? Oh, him. Yeah, I'm practically his slave. That drat Karasu acts like he's the boss but he doesn't do a drat thing himself. I'm killin' time like this 'cause I can't take it no more. ...I don't want nothin' to do with that dumb Karasu anymore. Yeah, enough is enough. I'm through with that guy. Here y'go. That's what the stupid Karasu wanted to deliver to him. Well, eff that. Sorry about this, man, but could you give it to him? Thanks. A Frivolous Nation Hey, what's this? Aren't you gonna tell me about... Huh...? This box... this is the thing I asked him to get... Don't tell me he's tryin' to cut ties with me! Tch... I always thought he was an obedient follower... Now that I think about it, I don't even know where the dude hangs... How can I call myself a leader if I don't know that?Antlia, back end of B1F and all over B2F. Pretty sure I mentioned that already. A braggart tengu... pretty funny stuff, huh? Sorry, man, but can I ask you another favor? Give this to Koppa. You'll do it, right?  And now we have to go back to Antlia. And wait for Koppa Tengu to turn up in a random encounter. And because I just got insanely unlucky, this took around 15 minutes. Augh. A Scorched Nation  Tch... why now, after all that bossin' me around? He can play nice all he wans, but I ain't changing my mind that easy. I'm gonna go off and do stuff for a while. But if I get bored of that... Well... maybe I'll think it over.> The demon left. And back to Bootes... A Frivolous Nation  Oh well. Guess I gotta wait. Sorry, man, I didn't mean to stick you with messenger duty. But yeah, it's just like you heard. It's between the two of us now. Seems like you got your own demon underlings... Make sure you don't get to be a slave driver like I did. And after doing all that back and forth all we get is the exact same amount of macca we get from selling either Chupacabra's skin or Takeminakata's horns. Even if you do this the moment you step foot into Bootes, it's still not worth it. Really just skip this one if you're not gunning for 100% completion or something. Palace of Pleasure Now, let's finish off feeding Hariti. We gotta find this bifuricated heterochromatic lady hanging out over in this dead-end on the part of the 5th floor that's worth your time. This is the entire reason this spot exists, yes.   I'm Persephone. What did you come for?> You explained the details...  Are you dense? These are hard to come by. I'm not going to simply hand it over. Well, why didn't you say so in the first place! She's a great friend of mine. Here you go. Oh, and can you pass along a message while you're at it? Make sure you ask her!All the way back to Hariti we go...  Th-Thank you! Whew... I came dreadfully close to breaking my fast on humans. Here, take this... it's a little memento of my appreciation. This is both way better than 3000 Macca and significantly less of a hassle to get.  It's basically the Dark Vest but without an Electric weakness. Very nice to have if you care about that at all.  Before doing the next couple things, gonna make a few demons. This Leanan Sidhe is just an intermediary step, so she doesn't get a Source.  Adding a Suparna to Leanan Sidhe to make Fortuna. Fortuna's pretty good but this time I used Power's Source to add the Rakukaja and Arrow Rain. In The Master's Name Well, that's new...  So is that. Good thing we just got someone new ourse--  ...Oh. A Frivolous Nation This way, and quickly, if you don't want to die!  (2) Yeah! How petty can you get? W-Well, come on...(1) We need to figure out a way out of this jam. ...Still, it was touch and go when I saw you show up. Hey... you're Hitonari... (2) If this is her remembering us, I think I'd rather she forgot. ...Yes, there is someone here named Mike and someone else named Dawson. Couldn't make that one up if I tried. C'mon, let's just get outta here! The drat demons keep on coming. Why are there so many of them!? It's like an ant's nest! Save your breath, Dawson. We have to move, Hitonari, so I'll make the introductions quick.   I do like how even if the third person here was never named, and their names all said Strike Team still you'd be able to differentiate them from the way their standing and holding their rifle. I'd introduce you to the others, but we need to get to business. Our squad was part of the feint operation here in sector Bootes. We lured a bunch of demons out, just like we planned... Plus, we did our work a little too well. All teh demons we lured in cut off our escape route. Without any way back to the ship or to call for help... Figure we've probably been moved to KIA status by now. The worst thing is, this place is full of one-way roads. One false step and you're toast. So I have a favor to ask. Can you navigate this squad to safety? Your equipment works. Shouldn't be too hard for you. Are you up for it? Yes. Thanks.Well, there's only one way out at this point so there's no reason for us to be a dick about it. Holy...! In The Master's Name poo poo, they found us! Fall back! Fall back! We're not gonna die here! Can't run, can't kill 'em all... We're stuck! Game over, man!Dude, it's just one Legion. How can you not handle this?  Quit bitching! Are you on the strike team or aren't you!? Hey, Hitonari! Your automap still works, right? Which was do we go!? So, yeah, this is the reason I bothered to map this area out earlier. The only thing that might make this a little trick by doing that is that the answer is based on your perspective on the top-screen and not just simply on the map. Which is really, really obvious and there's no excuse for getting it wrong even without mapping it out properly. Our aim is to go away from this area and get out, so... The right door. Roger! A Frivolous Nation Geez, Dawson. Quit blanching like that. You really are a coward, huh? Can you blame me!? We're dealing with real live demons here! This is the kinda stuff our parents used to scare us with when we were kids. And now here they are! Dammit, I can't think straight... Sorry, Hitonari. You lead the way. Which way this time? The left door. Roger! Chaos Theme Wait! There's something strange about this. It can't be... Is that demon here!?  Your leader was very brave. He hadn't a prayer of defeat me alone, and still he fought. His cries as he died still ring in my ears... Ahhh... those sublime tones. I'm sure your screams will make an equally beautiful melody. My heart dances at the thought! A Frivolous Nation I don't believe this... I can't take it! That demon's nuts! We have to get out of here, NOW! That must've been the boss of those demons. If we have to go up against him, I'd say we're boned. So... a door in the front, and one in the back... Stop moaning for a second and make yourself useful! Sh-Shut up! I remember, I swear... Just give me a minute. ...I THINK the door in back leads further away from the demon horde. But that demon showing up makes me wonder... Ugh! Make up your mind, why don't you! If you think it's the rear one, just say so! We're not going to get anywhere if we cringe at every little thing! Hitonari! Which would you go for? The back door. Roger! *sigh* This is really bad on the heart, man. How much longer do we have to go through this?Just this corridor then we're home-free.  Man, I just want to get out of here already... I've had it... If one more thing happens, I'm gonna lose it...! Hold together! We're almost there. Remember, you were chosen to go into the Schwarzwelt. You're one of the best, same as us. On your feet, soldier! Hitonari... Any ideas where to go now? The right door. Roger! L-Let's keep moving before he comes back.Hm, this sounds like a good idea.  And I'm switching to the Iperitta now. Might help with something or other...  Chaos Theme  You've done quite well for yourselves, coming this far. All you need is to get past this door and your ship will be right before your eyes. You came this far in desperation, with only a faint glimmer of hope to cling to. I count myself entertained! I'm telling you this as a token of my gratitude. I enjoyed it greatly, especially when you struggled most... You don't plan to let us through either way, do you? Not the way you were talking before about wanting to hear us scream... You're one sick puppy. I'm glad you understand. This opera of despair is now in its final act. They're waiting for your curtain call in the land of the dead! Fiend David Vehement Rage Ah, David. You've heard of the Danse Macabre, I'm sure; David is based, at least design-wise, on the personification of death within that poem.  He might not be harder than Mitra, or even Morax for that matter, but he's also way more annoying. Also, as you probably gathered from switching guns (and how Moh Shuvuu has a Zionga cued up), he's weak to Electricity.  His normal physical attack isn't super-impressive, but his only spells are Staredown and maybe a variant of Mudo. He doesn't exactly have the longevity to try out anything else if so.  He's also dumb enough to use Blight when the entire party got hit by Staredown. You can inflict an ailment on something that is already affected by one. They don't stack or anything; the new replaces the old. So if Blight's poison procs (which it does on Moh Shuvuu AND Power) it clears the Fear automatically. Thanks, David!  Meh EXP, decentish Macca for a fight's reward and no actual drop. Moving swiftly on... End A Frivolous Nation Alright, the demon horde's still a ways away. Let's make our escape! It's because of you that we were able to keep casualties to a minimum. This is for you. It's the forma the Captain gave his life to get. I'd say you deserve it more than anyone. W-We did it... we survived... So as soon as we're safe, you turn right back into a coward? Weak, man. Thanks, Hitonari. If it wasn't for you, we'd all be KIA for real. We're gonna go back to the Red Sprite now. See you later, Hitonari. Thanks again.> The strike team headed towards the Red Sprite. And we'll never see any of those guys ever again. As funny as it would be to presume they died on the way back to the Red Sprite, I like to be a smidge more optimistic than that.  Speaking of the Red Sprite, we'll head on over there for a moment to give Irving the Death Omen and check out our reward. It's an interesting one but it does let us make David and exactly nothing else right now. Every Fiend has to be unlocked before it can be made, so any and every combination will give David until then. Sadly, the usable version of David is loving terrible and doesn't even have the one thing that makes Fiend secretly the best race so we're going to ignore him entirely. Palace of Pleasure Not much left to do now, so it's back to Halphas we go. I sold the one UMA Tissue I got before so I've got nothing for Halphas. 1 Macca well earned, that. Surely mine eeyes deceive me? Didst thou not hunt even one...? Thou hast lost. I shall give thee a gift shouldst thou best me in a second attempt. Speak to me when thou art prepared.Or a first, or a third or a hundredth... Anyway, yeah, not gonna mess around this time. Let's solve this easily and grab the reward.  And I will, don't you worry. Anyway, this is really simple as a result and can be beaten via good ol' trial and error. A Sport for GentlemenSince the Mamedanuki all spawn in the same spots, if you just follow this path (minus the extra detours) you'll win every single time.  The Mamedanuki ARE tougher than the normal Mamedanuki in Antlia but not by much.  You can effortlessly autobattle them to death and each fight took between like 9 and 12 seconds. Combine that with this being an event and so you're given the Tissue without needing to hope the RNG is being nice.  Oh, and I didn't mention it before but fighting Enemy Search demons DOES reset the encounter rate. It makes sense and means that aside from maybe once you'll never fight anything but Mamedanuki while doing this sidequest if you actually do it it. How nice.  Once the moon phase ticks back up to a Full Moon, we're done and have to walk back to Halphas. Fortunately, you'll be on the 7th floor and by the elevator at this point so...! End Let us tally the results... Halphas' result is random and can vary between like 4 and I think 8 at most? It's not like it matters, since that route guarantees a win because...  You get 9 Tissues. Even if you somehow gently caress up and don't get 9, so long as you get something that Halphas cannot have more than you'll win; Halphas decides to be a good sport and lets you win on a draw. So really, your goal isn't to win. It's simply to not lose. ...Thy tally exceeds mine own. It seems thou hath won. 'Twas not bad sport... I enjoyed that greatly. I've not been thus stimulated in some time. I present thee this as a reward. It's a Rare Forma. You can probably hazard a guess what SubApp we're going to get from this one.  Before we go see Irving though, we'll deal with Dent's other job. Well, good luck. You know where the restroom is, I'm sure. Malevolence and Benevolence What is WITH that bathroom? I'm not using this one ever again! (♀) An evil spirit...!? A demon...? Or...?  You probably heard us shouting about it, but there might be something... alive in there. It doesn't seem to be ademon, either. It calls itself "God"... I highly, HIGHLY doubt that God would appear in a toilet... That has to be an evil spirit... It's just gotta be! What do you think, Hitonari? God can be in a toilet. What!? Why would God be in the bathroom!? Well... standing around here won't do anything. We'll just have to check it out.(♂) We're counting on you, Hitonari. Show us what the strike team's made of! Go! And, uh, good luck!> The crewmen pressured you into entering the restrooms... Silence > A bizarre figure leapt out of the toilet! In The Master's Name  (♀) Wh--aaaahhh! Something's there!  Young people these days don't even know how to use them! All I was doing was keeping those young folks who don't use this thig properly in their places. You seem like a law-abiding fella, but I can't just let this go. It's just your bad luck... you're the same as them! Have at you! Enigma Kanbari Vehement Rage Kanbari is a goofy Japanese god of toilets. He can bless 'em for a year, with a prayer at New Year's.  Oh and he's weak to Physical attacks. Yes, really. He counters this by casting Tetrakarn. This is clever and also kind of dangerous! See, I haven't mentioned it yet but Reflect here works in a simple way that makes it irritating to deal with and also broken as gently caress. It calculates damage as normal then reflects that onto the attacker instead of reflecting the attack itself. Why yes, I will be ignoring this mechanic almost entirely as a result. ...Kanbari resists Gun. Moh Shuvuu is pretty fast, in comparison to Power and Fortuna, so that's a wasted Tetrakarn as she takes about maybe 5 damage or so. Sorry, Kanbari. You tried!  Whenever he's not trying to be fancy, Kanbari uses Needle Assault which deals meh Gun damage on everyone.  That's basically it, honestly. He's not a big deal at all, and should go down VERY fast. End Silence You're pretty tough for a young'un. I'll let everyone go, for your sake. Just don't forget the importance of keeping the privy clean. The Ten Commandments, the Tao te Ching, I got nothin' against 'em... But the little things count too!> Kanbari left. An Honor Befitting That Name You really helped us out! Thanks!(♀) I knew the strike team would come in handy in a pinch! Like the boy on the football team I liked in high school... We weren't doing a very good job taking care of things. I think we should try harder about that. Some cultures believe that there's a god within everything. Well, nonetheless, the problem's solved thanks to you. That god left this behind... I think you should take it. Alright, let's set up a duty roster for cleaning the restrooms! Oh, Hitonari! Before I forget... You did just fight the god of the toilets. Strange Journey might take itself overly seriously most of the time, but it can have a sense of humor when it really wants to. It's just a shame it's not very often. Prayer The UMA Ball nets us the UMA Converter, of course...  And the Secret Report gets us access to Enigmas. Kanbari is the only Enigma we've seen so far and I genuinely don't expect either of these to see any use what-so-ever. Neither race is particularly flowing with good demons.  Buying them unlocks their respective races demons for fusion, which is something I guess.  I also made A LOT of demons while trying to get forma for Irving. Daphne is one that will definitely see some use, outside of Source grinding, so I'll include her here.  Dwarf is mostly just for that Taunt. -2 Def/+2 Atk to all enemy demons seems risky but uh... War Cry neutralises it and we can do fun things with that Attack increase.  Apis is a pit-stop to something that I'm going to use. As like an actual demon, and not just fusion fodder.  Combining Apis with a random Heqet I had in my compendium to make Gnome. Gnome is the first of the upper-tier Elements, so he can increase Rank by 2 in some cases. I'm exclusively after HIS source though, since it is the first one that has Ziodyne.  Also while spending about 3 hours in the Palace trying to get a goddamn AT Bootite II to appear again, I noticed that I missed this door.  It's just guarding 2 AC Bootite. The epitome of meh.  Eventually, I managed to find enough to make everything. An Athame Dagger is a ceremonial dagger that's like double-edged and is used in like Wiccan rituals and stuff. Here, it's used to hit a dude upto 3 times at once and that's it. It takes 2 AT Bootite II, 3 Nymph Swimsuits (Apsaras) and 9 UMA Skins (Chupacabra). It is not worth the effort in the slightest, honestly.  In terms of armor, the Green Vest might be nice for Mitra if you're scared of his Mabufudyne for some unfathomable reason. It's also much easier to get seeing as how it's only 2 DF Bootite II, 2 Fairy Pouches (Goblins) and a "mere" 5 UMA Skins.  Lastly, we have the Gazamazutsu which is a... thoroughly "eh" Gun. Especially in comparison to the much easier to make Desonberi. The Gazamazutsu requires 2 AT Bootite II, 3 Brute Fishbones (Azumi) and 7 Kishin Horns (Takeminakata). It's definitely a much better use of those horns to just sell them for 21,000 Macca. Everything else Irving has for sale, we ended up unlocking kind of by accident this time around. That won't be the case very often, and shortly in the future it won't happen. Like, at all. Ah well, next time we're going to a very different store. Carina's been kept waiting long enough, hasn't it? Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:28 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Nov 23, 2016 21:38
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 Time for Carina. Whew boy... A Squandered Nation Feels funny to waltz into a place like this in full combat gear. I did a little urban warfare training, but I never went through a killing house or anything. (B) You really need an answer to that question? C'mon, the demons prepared all this stuff. That you, Zelenin? Hey, tell me something. You ever max out your credit cards? All this fine-looking stuff does make you want to stop and take a closer look... No, I plan my purchases carefully. I'm not the type to shop on an empty stomach. Though from what I hear, some of our crewmen have looser wallets... People like that should take extra care in this sector, don't you think? ...Ooh, harshed. She told me. The monitor team will begin their investigation once you've secured a safe zone.Alright, so now we can look around Carina. We're not going to be going very far right now though...  There's an Apsaras right in front of the entrance after all.  Here in this shopping mall, we work hard to provide you with all the amenities for an easy life. We hope you enjoy shopping here until the Earth runs out of resources. In fact, there's a lot of folks to talk to and interact with in Carina right now. We'll mostly be doing that right now, since it's also a good way of tracking our bearings throughout this part of the mall. It's a relief to see stuff I remember from back home, but it IS a pretty strange sight... There's just too much stuff. Oh, yeah. You been putting that Demon Fusion function to good use? It's really cool. I'm so into it, I feel like I've been messing with the system for 20 years. If you're having any trouble with it, talk to me and I'll try to help.Note that if you DO talk to him again, he just repeats this so this nameless guy is full of poo poo.  Anyway, there's a lot of paths from the initial area that all lead to the far-right of the floor. Some of them are closed off for now, so we'll see where they lead later I guess.  There's also more stuff over here as is obvious from the gaps on the map. It's exactly like the brand I eat for breakfast. I see this box every single day.> The crewman opened the box... Blech! What is this, mud? Or is this what demons eat? ...Maybe it's an acquired taste. Meanwhile, wow, Kanbari REALLY quickly went from kind-of-miniboss to just a random schmuck. Garuda and Jatayu did that in Digital Devil Saga too, but they were also mandatory so this is kind of somehow weirder?? He's not even really any different here, except he has less HP. He does have one skill he might not have had before but I'll point that out if/when he survives long enough to use it.  Over the northern area of where we start, we can find some Knockout Gas which would probably be useful if I ever remembered to use it. The Fear of God So, let's look at some of Carina's actual demons now. Momunofu's something we've seen before and he's kind of tedious to fight. Unless you throw instant death at him. That works. I don't think I mentioned this before but he's also SUPER weak to almost every single ailment. 300% modifier to the lot. Except Sleep which is only 150%, and one other we haven't seen yet that's neutral. That's... a special one we'll get back to way, way later though.  Karasu Tengu's an old friend we've seen and utilised recently so there's nothing to say there. Inferno is a naked woman on fir so of course she's weak to Ice. She's "only" immune to Fire though, but also cannot ever be Paralysed. Every other ailment works fine though. ....Also her Source is the earliest way to get Agidyne. Gonna grab that when we can, then.  Macabre also turns up here as a regular ol' demon now. Unlike last time we saw him, he has basically no health AND is weak to Expel.  And finally, for now, we have these two. We've had Raiju before, and there's nothing strange or fancy about enemy ones. Inugami is weak to Wind, immune to Curse and his only ailment weakness is Mute which is a 300% modifier. His natural skillset includes Rakunda, but his source doesn't outside of being added as a Bonus Skill. A Squandered Nation That's it for normal enemies, we'll deal with Enemy Searches later, so back to the dungeon part.  Humans are so mysterious... Like, what do you eat? Each other? He'll snarf down anything! No one can beat him in an eating contest.Horkos, huh...? And he's titled as Master, so I think we know the ruler of Carina already. Though his name doesn't begin with an "M," so it's kind of a 50-50 shot right now.  Oh and new demons! Caladrius is a cool, tiny white bird with a mohawk and a stethoscope! He's mostly not super-exciting but his source gives Amrita which is cool and useful, and is one of the very few things that gives access to Recovery Boost as well. Also he's immune to ailments. Like all of them. It's pretty great! He's also not normally weak to Wind or anything; that's just on Karasu's source and Resist skills are honestly absurd so why not.  Mandrake isn't quite as excitingly good as Caladrius could be. By default, it IS weak to Fire so I just got rid of that to prevent extra damage I guess. Binding Cry is the multi-target Paralysis spell; it costs 13MP and has a base 45% chance of working. Not exactly stellar odds, that. Also Mandrake is immune to Paralysis, Poison and Stone. That's kind of cool I guess.  And last we have Myrmecolion who I don't like very much! He's kind of boring, and being a Vermin he's emphatically not that great in general. Shooting Spree is completely unique to him, bizarrely, and it is the ONLY skill you can get that can even potentially inflict Strain on enemy demons. And remember, Strain is MP poison. And the things you want to use it on have infinite MP. In case I haven't made this abundantly clear before: Strain is not very good, no. Shooting Spree has a 60% chance of proccing the Strain effect at least. Speaking of which, Myremecolion has a 300% weakness to Strain and Mute. Yes, he's weak to his own gimmick and the easiest way around it. Good job, Myrmecolion.  No more new demons, so let's get a new Forma! Miracle Cores can be used to make a few things but the most interesting and exciting ones are Soma Drops... and Beads. Yes, Beads!  Anyway, the middle-most path just leads to these stairs. We'll go up them later.  Gotta get this random Muscle Drink first to flip for easy Macca. Because it's a Muscle Drink and not very useful!  And the last "path" leads quickly to our Black Box for the sector. That was nice and easy.  My observations so far follow:  They go on for miles, with more and more luxurious stuff on display as you go... > The data is corrupted, preventing you from reading further.  Nothing left over on the left-side of the floor so let's head on over to the right at last.  He's going to clear out all our reserves in the basement. At this rate, the underground storage will be empty... Our production lines simply can't keep up.Hmm... Horkos is in the basement, huh? That might be pretty nearby, because we're on the first floor and all. In practice, I'm sure it's definitely not even close to being that simple. We're going to go up and around and all sorts. Just you watch!  There's also another locked door on this side too. I wouldn't be surprised if we had to get the Unlock upgrade to get through here to the first part of the basement or something.  ...Or maybe there'll be a basement entrance RIGHT THERE. Huh, okay then. This obviously isn't going to lead to Horkos quite so easily though.  Directly opposite, there are stairs leading up to the 2nd floor over here as well. So I guess the upper floors are split into segments based on where you enter as well or something.  Anyway, heading back on up we'll pass another door we can't open and find this Shan Xiao.  Huh? No, man, I ain't mean you. I'm talkin' about the smell of angels. Where's that reek comin' from? *sniff* *sniff*...That might still totally be me. My alignment is still Law right now. Alignment still doesn't matter at all for anything other than Co-Ops so I've not really got any reason to care about changing it yet.  Huh? What was it? I can't tell you. Trust me, though--it was incredible.Uh-huh... whatever you say, Knocker. There's a door just to the south there that I'm going to ignore for a moment longer.  There's a healing spot up here if you really need it, that has a good rate of giving Forma and Enemy Searches right in front of it too. This will be important and useful later. There's also an elevator right here which leads to the 4th floor only, huh...? There's not much we can do there right now unfortunately.  But we can grab the sector's first form Attack forma. That's still on the first floor, mind you.  Anyway, that door I skipped past like four times... ...You are a human from that iron ship, are you not? Law Theme Hm? You are... You are doing good works, human. I have not seen you since the land of leisure... How have you been? Do you recognize me now as different from those demons? I trust you. I am gladdened to hear that. It is difficult to find those of like mind, after all. I have some time to spare, and this is a good opportunity... You surely know now that the demons who have been silent for so long have begun an invasion of Earth. What you may not know is the nature of this world. Unfortunately, it has long been occluded from human view, and there are no human words to describe it. Let us call it the hidden world of spirits, though that loses some of the nuance. I have come here to learn that truth... The actions of the demons mirror the actions of humans. It must have begun once Adam's spirit, the spirit of humanity, was defiled. ...It is cause for serious lament. Be assured that the Lord will not allow the world to fall into the hands of the demons. However, the power to prevent it must again come from humans. I have every intention of helping you overcome the trials of this world as much as I am able. But there is only so much I can do. It also falls to me to prepare for the demons' invasion of Earth... I intend to investigate this area thoroughly. If you need help, please seek me out. ...drat it, Mastema. Just use the word "woman," please? It sounds better and less like you have a chip on your shoulder! Ah... so she, too, is investigating this world. That cheers me. I am interested to see what she can discover of this world... I would like to meet her again. Now, let us fight together until the evil ones are no more. A Squandered Nation Okay, so meeting Mastema DOES somehow give us progress towards finding the Graviton Radio. That he's willing to help us out is something we're going to need to keep in mind, clearly. It's going to be relevant sometime in the future now.  Anyway, up the stairs by the entrance we have this... weird purple thing. I checked it out earlier, but I couldn't make heads or tails of what it was supposed to do. Maybe my Demonica doesn't have the right app yet? I did get some kinda weird reading off it, though... We can't get through this thing yet either. We do know that it can somehow manipulate space, though... that's weird but I'm interested.  Back down to the first floor, we go I guess. As we head back on over to the right-hand side of the floor, we luck into the first Defense forma of the sector as well. Handy!  So, we might as well check out the 4th floor while we're here. There's some new things we can find here at least... The Fear of God Like so. It's a Power. Hi Power! We've used you pretty thoroughly before, so we're going to gloss over your description beyond "is here, but not on the 1st floor."  Shan Xiao we've also used before, somewhat. He's somehow better in the players hands, than the AIs because he has Spring of Life then. Nozuchi is actually new. He resists Phys and Gun at the usual 50% rate, but in return he's weak to Fire, Ice, Elec and Wind. Despite that, he's kind of a decent Phys demon but those weaknesses make him annoying to deal with because that's a lot of extra damage from almost everything.  Next up, we have Nekomata. Elemental-wise, Nekomata's weak only to Ice, but resists Fire, Elec and Curse. In terms of ailments, she's somewhat weak to Sleep (150%) and very weak to Charm (300%). Note that she DOES have Retaliate, so she has a higher chance to counter physical/gun skills than anything before. If you didn't get Mega Claw from Itsumade's source, she's the 2nd place to get it and she even starts with it. ...Just use Itsumade's source. It's much less hassle and Mega Claw is really good that early!  Somehow, I didn't quiiiite get Zhu Tun She or Sudama on the first floor. They're nothing new though, we've used both in the past. A Squandered Nation So, the fourth floor is where our first terminal is. That's it. There's a door here nearby, but we can't open it yet.  Back down to the first floor we go, then. There's this other staircase up to the 2nd floor here still, so we might as well see where this leads.  Stairs heading up to the 3rd floor immediately, huh...? That door to the right? Just leads to a dead-end, so we'll head up to the third floor.  Which is the same as the 2nd, but the door is on the left now...??  Oh and it has an actual door in the dead-end but we can't open it yet. This Gate Search really isn't helping us much, huh...  Mentioned it before, but Inferno is REALLY SECRET GOOD and her Source has the earliest and most convenient Agidyne so let's make one.  The 4th floor isn't just a tiny corridor this time. Well, like is IS but uh...  It has a bit of a purpose this time, and it's quick and easy to grab these Amrita Soda.  But now we've been everywhere we can get to, except the basement. I'm sure it's going to be lengthy and expansive because Horkos is down there somewhere and all. Malevolence and Benevolence ....So is the Elve, huh? I'm not sure I like where this going. I will transmit the coordinates for you to verify on the automap. It oughtta be right in front of my nose, in... fact... Huh!? Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. The actual bad thing... it's here... Careful, Tadano. You can't see jack in here. I'll feel my way ahead... you catch up!So, Jimenez is right over by the Elve. He's basically right on top of it and he's just now encountering dark rooms. A Squandered Nation gently caress you Jimenez, you goddamn liar! also yay dark rooms my least favourite smt dungeon aspect thanks carina at least they aren't as bad as they were in Megami Tensei Also, as you would expect, dark rooms are not mapped on the automap so I'll do that part manually (like here) where it's relevant courtesy of my magical ability to do that. The Fear of God Oh right, and dark rooms give a few new random demons as well. Myremecolion turns up here to pretend to be a threat but accomplish nothing and Dwarf is here to try and be terrifying with that there Taunt. Except it lets you kill him easier so whoops!  Oh boy, and we got Gnome's Source as well for good measure. I'm sure this mentioned this already but:  Hello Ziodyne. This is good, and very useful. It's still not the most "wait, you're giving me this NOW?!" skill out there, though. We won't be getting to that one for a little while sadly... A Squandered Nation Anyway, back in the basement, we can follow a the early (and mercifully easy) path around to this spot. This is kind of vaguely hard to miss, to be fair, and I can sort of understand why. No, it's not the AC Carite. That's more there to know this place exists in the first place.  It just gives you two Beads, straight up. How... worryingly nice.  Further up in the area, we have a fixed forma of 2 AT Carite. This also exists just to let you get here, sort of. It's not got any reason to do that than make it easier to map out the basement I guess. Also, yeah, terminal right there. I went there first for convenience.  There's, of course, more south of it so let's see where it leads. This is probably where Jimenez was when we learned about the Elve.  This dark room is at least a bit tricky, because it's so small and the path to the left is really easy to miss wholesale. It's not required, so that makes sense. That forma down there doesn't help as much as you'd think this time, even.  Naturally, then, we're heading over there first. This part is at least super-linear, which is nice.  Down here, there's... 2 Mental Drinks. Wow, lame. Fortunately, that's not why getting here is a bit of a potential pain.  No, this li'l cutie is why!  A hee-human? How rare, ho! This is my first time seeing one! My ame's Jack Frost, hee-ho! Nice to meet you, ho! To tell the truth, I've been down in the dumps, ho. This is a dog-eat-dog world. I know that, hee-ho.But the fourth Jack Brother isn't in this game??? But I can't just forget it. I'm gonna beat that demon, ho! If I had that, I could hee-come stronger, ho! In this crazy world, I need power to survive, hee-ho! Please, ho! Yes.Yes! Yes, I will do this sooner rather than later! Hee-ho! Thank you! I'm glad I asked, ho. I hee-know you can do it, ho!So, in a rare moment this IS a sidequest we're going to clear before we clear Carina! I know, I'm shocked too. The reward is super worth it, is the reason why. I want it. It's really good. Also it's a Jack Frost. I am obligated to help them out ASAP. It's the hee-ho law!  But first, we're already here so let's go to the Elve. Silence ...BUONO.  Buono could mean a lot of things. It's most likely the Italian word meaning "good" in this case, but this voice might be a really big obscure J-Pop fan, enjoy eating at one restaurant in Ginza or have a thing for a Pizzeria in San Francisco. In The Master's Name And the award for Biggest Understatement goes to... > The air flowing toward the Elve is speeding up...!   I AM HORKOS! GLUTTON OF HELL!Wow, how nice of Horkos to tell us outright that Carina is meant to be an analogue for gluttony. Mostly, yes, gluttony is the overconsumption of food or drink to excess. Sin because it wastes things best used for those that need them, etc. etc. but it functionally comes down to hoarding. Gluttony is just taking anything in excess quantities to the point of squandering it, and letting it go to waste. This is pretty obvious when it comes to food, but really anything can be gluttonous if not done in moderation. There is a reason that Proverbs explicitly says that "the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty," (23:21) after all. I EAT AND EAT, AND NEVER GET FULL! BUONO!   ...Jimenez? How did it take you so long to get here?! We managed to find Horkos first, somehow! ...Horkos!? A demon!? You're saying a demon absorbed the Elve!? ...Carina being gluttony, even without it being explicitly spelt out, is the most obvious one, yes. BLOOD! FLESH! LIFE! ENERGY! BUONO! BUONO! That's one strong mother... We can't get near him! Huh? Hey, wait a sec... Holy poo poo, how'd he manage that!? Our demons'll just bounce right off... or get sucked in! ...H-Hey! Bugaboo! What're you doing, guy!? Don't get near him, you moron! Gyah...! ......! Booo!   H-Hey! Bugaboo! Bugaboo! That Horkos... what the hell's he doin' to my buddy!? Argh... dammit! How'm I supposed to get my revenge!?We could leave, but we can also try and stick around. Maybe we'll be able to figure out to beat Horkos?  You wanna get eaten too? C'mon! Let's go already! That Horkos made a big mistake when he swallowed Bugaboo... Hope the li'l guy's okay.
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Dec 21, 2016 21:59
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Prayer Really quick before we move on, Horkos' room in the basement was the last area there. We've already mapped all of that floor out, which is not something we'll get to say overly often about Carina. ...You'll see.  Anyway, progress is made much easier by teleporting to the entrance of Carina so we'll take this chance to stop by Irving and see what he has to sell.  Boy isn't that convenient! Not only is this required for what is arguably the relative best sidequest reward, it's also just a drat good piece of armor in general. Bit of a shame about that Fire weakness in a place where we know there are Infernos and all, but beyond that it seems pretty solid. ...Making the Ice Vest requires Forma from a demon we didn't see last update, so I'll point out what that one is when we get there. Aside from that, it needs just the 1 DF Carite and 2 Enigma Clay (Kanbari).  I told ya you could just casually buy Beads now. And they're REALLY cheap too! Plus super easy to make (2 Miracle Core and 2 Recovery Core), and yet this fact has surprisingly little to do with how Insanely Easy this game is. Reflect abuse also has little to do with it; that just makes it Zero Effort Don't Even Have To Look easy ...No, I'm never going to buy the Muscle or Mental Drinks. Both need 1 Miracle Core but the Mental Drink also needs a Calm Core.  Oh, and Carina is where we get the other 2 basic elemental attacking stones. Still better for a Magical Demonica MC than us.  The Blaster isn't a bad Gun by any means. Mostly because Heat Shot inflicts Fear which is arguably one of the best ailments in your hands. I'm mainly going to get it just to have it for if I ever need it though. It's not like it's that hard to make. It's just 1 AT Carite, 1 Brute Boards (Momunofu) and 1 Snake Snout (Nozuchi).  Plasma Knife is a boring weapon that falls into the category we've seen a lot: deals a single bigger number and does absolutely nothing else. Yawn. It's even one of the hardest things to make in early Carina by sheer virtue of requiring 2 AT Carite. It also needs 1 Beast Seal (Inugami) and 1 Drake Stripes (Zhu Tun She). Anyway, for actual progress we need to go see a man about his offer to help. Law Theme I knew Horkos to be a glutton, but this ability to absorb energy is new and worrisome. Left as is, he could become a significant evil that threatens the Lord's world. We must stop him... We must not disappoint... our Lord... I have ways of vanquishing evil spirits, but for them to work on its mechanized body... Shall we try an experiment, Tadano? I will create a divine artifact abhorrent to Horkos with the power the Lord has given me... A crystal charged with energy. I can think of no other way to carry out the task. I shall need your help to make the crystal... Are you willing? Yes.We could say no, but that's stupid and we have to agree to progress anyway. Not like there's any other way to deal with Horkos. I thought you'd say that. To make the crystal abhorrent to Horkos, I need two demons.  With these two, I should be able to obtain the holy artifact that defeated the swine king. I will wait here. Return when you have gathered both demons... A Squandered Nation Well, this is easy. We just need a Wilder and a Megami, so of course we're going to grab Jueyuan and Hathor. Jueyan we'll just buy out of the compendium.  ...Turns out I somehow didn't have a Hathor before now. I just skipped right to Fortuna apparently. Oh well; Sandman and Angel aren't that expensive anyway and this might very well be cheaper than buying a Hathor if I had one anyway. Okay, we're done with this main mission now. Yes, really. Law Theme It... It's been less than half a minute. I'm sure he has been, but it's not going to have been that much unless his storage power is exponential. Did you bring the demons I asked? Yes.> You handed over Hathor. > You handed over Jueyuan. Then I shall take them both. But... Hmm? You are... Zelenin, the woman I met in the cell, correct? You are much livelier than the last time I saw you. You're worried about me. Why...? But yes, I've recovered very well after my rescue. Thank you. Of course, it's only thanks to my comrades that I can take these few cautious steps out of the ship... Do you not use demons, as Tadano does? I have the Demon Summoning Program, but only for show. Hmm... I see. Perhaps it has to do with your unique spiritual sense... ...Ahh, Tadano. Allow us to proceed with the ceremony. However... Sons of man may not see thei fire; it brings great calamity. Tadano... and you as well, Zelenin... Close your eyes when I tell you to, and do not open them again until I give the word. ...It sounds a bit scary, but I understand. Now then... Please close your eyes. ...It is done. You may now open your eyes.   The Shibboleth...? I've never heard of that before.I don't believe you, Zelenin. I'unno, I just get that impression for some reason. Yes, the Shibboleth... You pronounce it well, Zelenin. I shall leave this in your care, Tadano. Here, take it. Now it is your turn to display your power... the power of human technology. I look forward to it. And... Zelenin. ...Is there something you want from me? A gift for you. I believe he will provide excellent protection... This is... an angel? Perhaps you do not trust demons enough to fight alongside them, but what about my kind? Yes... I think I can use this. > Power became Zelenin's ally. Thank you for accepting my gift. May the Lord protect you. Until then... We'll make it home, won't we, Hitonari? And we'll wipe out all the demons... I'd best get back to my duties. There's more I need to investigate. Malevolence and Benevolence About the Shibboleth that Mastema made... I don't think we can just use it as is.Yes. Mastema already said as much. Repeatedly. But Irving at the lab might be able to make something from it. Why don't you go see him? That's really all I came to say. Well, back to my post.Zelenin's just gonna hang out in the room that Mastema was in. Sure, okay. En route back to the Red Sprite, we'll deal with something that we ignored before. An Honor Befitting That Name So, Carina has 4 Enemy Search demons! One of them is Kanbari so he doesn't count. He is very common though; 33% chance of appearing (18% chance solo; 15% with a Momunofu) and the fourth... is very, very rare (...as in only has a 2% chance of spawning). We'll deal with that one separately whenever it turns up. Tam Lin has a 32% chance of appearing and always appears solo. He's the weakest Genma here and is kind of cleverly designed, because he primarily uses Charm Strike right? He CAN also use Heat Wave. His third skill is Charmdi which sounds weird because he's always solo but he's immune to Charm. He's also got a 300% Paralysis modifier which is kind of painful. He also resists Phys and Gun. ....But none of this even matters.  Because he's weak to Curse. Oh well, at least he tried.  Kuda is just as common as Kanbari (33%) with the exact same breakdown. 18% solo and 15% with a Karasu Tengu. Kuda is really boring as an enemy demon. He's immune to Elec and weak to Wind. Neutral to all ailments and his only skills of note are Mazionga and Tetraja. Yawn.  Oh and enemy Kuda has Strainoma. It inflicts Strain. It does nothing else. That's it. Usable Kuda does not have Strainoma but he CAN use his passive skill. It's a special one called Preparedness which does nothing for enemy demons. It increases Co-Op damage. Also his source has Ziodyne which is cool. His Forma is the UMA Muzzle. We need 3 of these for the Ice Vest, and 2 per Mazio Stone. Prayer A demon with a plasma shield... Sounds like one tough varmint! Attackin' a plasma shield with a sword is like tryin' to cut up the sunlight. 'Bout the only thing I can think of that'd make a scratch in a plasma shield... Well, ya can probably guess what I'm gettin' at. Ya gotta fight plasma with plasma. But anyhoo... Lemme take a crack at that doohickey you got from the angel! > Irving started working... Hmmm... I ain't sure how to feel 'bout this. Well, comes a time in every fella's life whne he's gotta put up or shut up. Go git 'em! Horkos Buster is kind of a cool name, I'm not gonna lie.  And, of course, just for the sake of completion we can make Magaru Stones with Genma Spears too. How exciting. A Squandered Nation Since we're off back to the basement now, let's pay a visit to our adorable little friend here. Please, hee-ho! Let me hee-have it, ho! Yes. Thanks, hee-ho! Now I just need to make a few alterations, and... Burn! Frost Ace  Yesssssssssss!  I must beat the burden of avenging my family or letting demons live... hee-ho. That's a dark hee-ro's destiny, ho! Oh yeah, ho... I might be the dark hee-ro of this chaotic world, but... I'd be willing to hee-help you out in a pinch, ho. Call me using a special fusion, hee-ho! I'm looking forward to seeing you again, hee-ho.> Frost Ace ran off at tremendous speed. A Squandered Nation So long, dark hee-ro of a chaotic world...  ....So what's this about a cannon?  Yeah, so the Frost Cannon is sort of ridiculous. It just casually gives you the MC's equivalent to Bufudyne, Garudyne and... Mazionga all at once. Also it's way, WAY stronger than any gun we're getting for the foreseeable future, and even if it wasn't it'd be worth using for that elemental spread alone! In the Master's Name So, anyway, how 'bout that Horkos? THIS IRON SHIP WAS GOOD! IT WAS FILLED WITH HUMANS! IF I GET TO EARTH, I CAN EAT MORE! I CAN EAT HUMANS UNTIL I'M FULL! I'LL EAT YOU ALL. TO EARTH! TO EARTH! TO EARTH! BUOOOOOOONO! ......! Hey there, Tadano. Whatcha got there? HMM? MORE TASTY HUMANS ARE HERE... Heheheh...! ...Only 3-stars? He'll feed you plenty of his specialty dish... Chef Tadano! Why don't you serve our guest the main course?  BUOOOOOOOOOOONO! BUOOOOOOOOOOONO! I'M... LOSING... MY APPETITE... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Bingo! Eat to your heart's content, fat boy, and fall into a food coma! Silence Human technology is impressive indeed. Who said that!? Law Theme ...So you're the traveling preacher, huh? Quite a greeting. I don't believe we've met. What is your name? ...... Yours first. Hahaha... ...Does that satisfy you? ...I'm Jimenez. It's a pleasure to meet you, Jimenez. I think you and I can get along splendidly. ...rear end in a top hat. So, Tadano. It seems you have brought Horkos to heel with our Lord's protection. Now shoot Horkos once again to fill this land with the Holy Spirit. Our own weapons should be enough to take Horkos now. Hah! Hahaha... ...Show me, Jimenez! You sure run your mouth a lot, you shady seraph... ...... Open wide, fat boy!> Jimenez ran towards Horkos.  BUONO! BUONO! I WON'T LET HUMANS TAKE THIS USEFUL BODY AWAY! No way! ...Urgh!  ...It seems Horkos took the opporunity we gave him to escape. Are you all right, Jimenez? Here, take my hand. Keep your hand to yourself, man! I'll get up on my own... ...... We have driven it into a corner with the Horkos Buster. So long as humans follow the word of the Lord, nothing is beyond their grasp! ...Please, do your best. May the Lord's protection be with you... Silence> Mastema left.  I knew... I knew we had to use the Horkos Buster! If only... I was stronger... Tch...! Let's go after Horkos! Malevolence and Benevolence  Horkos has appeared here! Hurry to the floor above! I'm transmitting the location to your automap! Please hurry to those coordinates! He sure moves quick... Let's hustle, Tadano! A Squandered Nation Sure thing, but first let's make an Incubus for no real reason. He doesn't have any great skills, his source's best skill is Acid Breath (-2 Defence is pretty darn nice...) and his resistances are "eh" at best.  But he's all that we were missing from a Really Good Special Fusion that lets us get a dark hee-vil... in 7 levels. Let's just head right on back upstairs. Nothing else to do in the interim. In the Master's Name > But it isn't sucking in as much as it was...  NOT YOU AGAIN! I have the situation under control! Quickly, Hitonari, fire the Horkos Buster...! Tch...! I WON'T LET YOU! I WON'T LET YOU! Ugh...! Whoa...! ...Just you wait, you tub of lard. If you want more, oh, we'll give you more! Listen, Tadano. I'll act as a decoy... When he's not looking, blast him! Zelenin! Cover me! It's too dangerous! With my own power! Here goes...!> Jimenez approached Horkos.  There is something... unexpectedly nice about this. I dunno, Jimenez and Zelenin might not exactly be the most interesting or compelling or multi-faceted characters in the series (Devil Survivor 2 is thataway) but there's just enough there to make this scene work and not feel hamfistedly arbitrary and trite. I guess? > Horkos is distracted! > You fired the Horkos Buster. BUOOOOOONO! BUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONO! BUONO! BUONO!  ...And Jimenez echoes my sentiments exactly. God dammit Horkos! Hm...? Look at this... I think Horkos dropped it. He was definitely weakening. The Horkos Buster really works, yes? ...... While this is very nice, it's not exactly an earthshatteringly useful thing.  Same with this. This is an item that's appeared throughout the series with varying names but it always does the same thing. If Hitonari gets his by an Expel or Curse spell and would die, he's fine and this gets consumed instead. It's very situational but it's automatic so you never have to worry about it.  Gonna go give this to Irving though. It'll be useful in some way. Pattern recognition is kicking in big time. A rare forma, eh? Talk about casting pearls before swine... geez. Let's hurry, Hitonari. We should challenge Horkos while our luck holds! Malevolence and Benevolence Hmm... He might have gone somewhere we can't get to. Luckily for us that we happen to have a rare forma here... (sic) Maybe we'll get something useful if we take it to the lab.Let's find out. Once again, nothing else we CAN do right now...  Awright! The Demonica's gonna take one step further toward manhood with this baby!> Irving started working... > ...... Yep, just like I thought. Another win for the supply team! Yer Unlock function's been upgraded. Take it. Now we can open doors keyed to Unlock B. I'm sure there'll be plenty of these in Antlia, Bootes AND Carina... whew boy, okay let's see where this particular rabbithole leads.
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Dec 27, 2016 18:48
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 We have Unlock B. This opens at least one door in every Sector we've been to. Let's open them all! A Scorched Nation The one in Antlia's pretty memorable, if only because it's been taunting us since our first excursion. It also leads to the only place in Antlia we couldn't get to before now.  The place where it leads is... interesting. This green pillar stands out by already looking different to its surroundings, but it looks different to almost everything we've seen. It seems similar to the Terminal in a way.  It does absolutely nothing right now though! Just remember that it's here. We'll be back to see what it does much, much later.  Behind the pillar there is a door we can't open. Swell.  Also behind the pillar is another door we can't open. This one is white so we need at least two more Unlock upgrades to get the rest of the first floor of Antlia mapped.  And south of the white door is... a hidden door we can't open yet. Fortunately, there IS something here that gives this purpose beyond being a gigantic cocktease! And, no, it's not the random demons. They're unchanged from the rest of the floor.   Long time no see. Has it been so long you don't recognize me? After we split, I got stronger and became a High Pixie....Evolution isn't in this game. She's just sort-of winkingly referencing Nocturne because there Pixie DOES evolve into High Pixie. What do you think of this place? Not bad, huh? I'd like to bring more faeries here and start a village. Could you help me out by bringing faeries here? Okay. Thanks. Most humans can't be trusted, but you can! I'm counting on you.This isn't a hard sidequest chain, but it has some really good rewards in it and secretly guards the best one of all. At points here and there, she'll ask for more Fairy race demons until she's asked for one of almost all of them. The ones she doesn't/won't ask for should be pretty obvious, really.  This is just a Goblin so we'll do it now, why not? Just buy one from the Compendium. After this, we'll deal with them whenever's most convenient - most likely between Sectors with other stuff or whenever we get an upgrade that lets us do more back here.  Not bad. You really are different from the other humans. Take this as thanks. Thanks to you, I'm one step closer to building a village of faeries. Naturally if we hadn't handed the High Pixie a Goblin before, this room would be empty. I like it here. It's comfortable. I need to decide where my home's gonna be. But before I start digging... I want to take my time and pick the best spot. Hmm... just gonna file this away in the back of my head for now.  The village itself seems to have room for 7 Faeries, huh? High Pixie's accounted for that first chamber, and the Goblin's positioned already so that leaves 5 more to go. This won't be so bad at all. Prayer Anyway, we got a rare forma out of just giving away a Goblin so let's see what it gets us.  Enemy Lullaby is... kind of nice if you don't want random encounters for whatever reason, actually. You cannot stack Begone and Lullaby, whichever one you put in second auto-removed the first one, and that's fine. Lullaby is just a flat upgrade but also slightly bigger. Begone barely reduces the encounter rate. Lullaby almost entirely removes it. It's kind of insane, but makes it REALLY useful for Forma farming without having to care about pesky randoms all the time. I wouldn't use it otherwise, mind, but I'm the kind of person who would put on a SubApp that increases the encounter rate and not give a poo poo.  Anyway, Antlia was a lot of nothing and an easy sidequest. What about Bootes? A Frivolous Nation Bootes has a lot of Unlock B doors scattered all over the place. We'll deal with the two outside the Palace first, as is a sensible order to do things. Conveniently enough, one is north of the eastern Terminal and one is south of it.  The northern door is kind of a disappointing wet fart, really.  1 Bead and 1500 Macca? Really? This is what was so valuable it couldn't be gotten immediately?  The southern door is a bit more than that. It leads to another cross-shaped room wherein we find another demon to talk to...   You must have heard my name even in the human world. Do you know what god I'm of?I... think you got a couple words backwards there. Wine. That's right. You're quite knowledgeable, aren't you? But enough introductions. Let us move on to the meat of the matter. I would like to ask a favor of you. You humans have been lovers of wine for millennia... Why, then, do you not work for the god of wine's sake? Okay. Hohoho... a wise choice. Now, allow me to explain. Have you heard the tales of the poison wine? In other words, it's the feather that contains the deadly poison... And by mixing the feather into wine, it becomes a poisonous wine that can kill a man in one sip. As the god of wine, I must know how this wine tastes. I would have you obtain one of this Zhen's feathers. However... it cannot be plucked from a corpse. The scuffle would damage and dirty it, affecting the wine's bouquet. Hm? Why so quiet? You seem baffled. Do you have any questions? Are you going to drink it? Hohoho... A reasonable question. Allow me to answer. I am a god, you see, and the poison of a Zhen is no poison to me. Now then... What will this poison wine bring...? Smoothness, savoriness or dryness...? Hohoho.... I'm eager to find out. I look forward to hearing from you.Jeez, Dionysus talks a lot. So we have to find a Zhen, talk to it and then come back here. It's just like that one we did for Karasu Tengu but hopefully quicker and easier... except definitely not quicker. We can't even pretend to do this one yet. I mean, I haven't seen a Zhen anywhere so it's mandatory to make this one wait 'til later. Palace of Pleasure Inside the palace, we're going to open every door we can. Even the ones to the "cells" we were in before. There's no reason to do this one other than because you can. ......And I guess other than that it's mandatory if you care about getting 100% map completion.  Meanwhile, there's an actual thing that's genuinely new on the opposite side. It's directly north of where we met Bugaboo originally.  It just lets us get a Summon Stone, but that's pretty nice. It's a full revive of a single demon AND immediately summons it into the active party mid-fight all at once. Naturally, these things are pretty darn rare as a result.  But that room was the only thing left on the 4th floor so now we have that completley mapped out as well. Bootes' palace floors seem to all be secretly much smaller than they feel, huh...?  Oh well, 5th floor. There's the one door in the main path section that we glossed over somewhat. South of where we found Persephone and west of the stairs up to the 6th.  Stepping through the door leads to the most devious trap to date! God dammit, why?  The entire room (aside from like 3 squares) is COVERED IN DAMAGE TILES. It's so needlessly rude! At least we get a second Sacrifice out of it. These things are honestly pretty useful, so I'm not complaining about that.  The last two doors on this floor are the ones we have to go through the 6th to reach. The layout of this place is so needlessly complicated.  Each room has exactly one item in it, and they're both pretty useful.  Well, for a given definition of useful. The Bead Chain is legit, but the Agility Incense could go either way. It sure saves some time later at least.  On the bright side, hey, that's the 5th floor down as well for good measure! (The ES dot is Persephone's location.)  There is a door on the 6th floor, but we can't open this one yet either. This one is also red, so I imagine we'll get through this and at least one in Antlia at the same time.  And finally the doors on the 8th can be opened now too. So we could... take this shortcut(??) that doesn't need to be here and existed only to be an annoying bait and switch during the scene when we first met Mitra.  ...Let's just go back to Carina and see if we can find Horkos. A Squandered Nation So, we can open the doors down here now. That's nice, but not quite as helpful as it seems.  The fixed forma in this corridor is just 2 DF Carite. There isn't even any other paths in this corridor or anything.  It's just a quick path towards this part of the floor. We did need a path on the bottom after all.  Fixed forma over here is just a bunch of Recovery Core. Not very exciting, no.  Anyway, there's a terminal over here and also a cute li'l piggy to talk to.  Geez. He's clearing shelves left and right. The manufacturing department can't keep up. 'S what you call conspicuous consumption, am I right?It's a tiny bit more literal than normal, but yeah. It definitely works as an example of that.  This part of the floor is pretty big but we don't need to worry about much of that. We'll take a left here and follow that path around ignoring all branches off of it.  Your world is like this all over, right? Goodness... I think you humans deserve to have us annihilate you. But first, I need to put this on the shelf...It's not just for Katakirauwa, although she helps.  Nah, there's a just a lot of loot over here. Some Drops aren't quite as good here as they are in other games. Rather than a full heal for one person, it just heals 100HP and 100MP. As a number, not a percentage.  But it's by far the most useful and best item in this batch.  Given my opinion of most items, though, that's not setting a particularly high bar by any means.  Anyway, the other path just loops in on itself and leads to the stairs that take us up.  Once we climb these, we've fully mapped the 1st floor of Carina as well. There's an interesting dot in Mastema's room but that's not actually available yet. We'll get to that very soon, though.  This part of the second floor is a bit small and cramped. It's secrety linear, and has a healing spot in case you needed one I guess.  > You can hear loud noises from the wall next to you... ...And the path leads to a dead-end with nothing in it? Ummm... guess we need to look into that noi--  Oh, found it. That was easy. In the Master's Name > But its energy sucking abilities have become very weak... We found him! Man, he's every bit as fast as he is hungry. BUONO! BUONO! WHY ARE YOU GETTING IN THE WAY OF MY MEAL!? WHY DO YOU TRY TO HOG ALL THE FOOD!? BUOOOOOOOOOONO! I'LL GOBBLE UP THE FUTURE OF THOSE WHO WANT THE PLANET BACK HOW IT WAS! I'LL EAT UNTIL I'M FULL! EVEN IF I DISAPPEAR, I WON'T BE GONE FOREVER! Huh? Sounds like fat boy's gone a little loco... So whatcha gonna do, Tadano? BUOOOOOONO! B... B... BUOOOOOOOONO!> Horkos's bond with the Elve has grown even weaker!  BUONO! BUONO!> Horkos ran away... What!? Was that still not enough!? ......!> There's something on the floor.  Well now, this is something worth keeping a hold of for sure. Bead Chains are very nice indeed. Probably not gonna use it any time soon, mind...  This will gather dust and pretend to matter. Not because it's Vitality but because it's an Incense.  Listen up, guys, this is important. We've picked up a signal we believe to be the Elve's. It's coming from the center of Carina. I'll transmit the coordinates to your Demonicas. Watch yourself, Hitonari. You're right on top of it. The signal we picked up comes and goes in waves. We think the Elve might be in very unstable condition. So... that means Horkos is getting weaker? It seems our technology combined with the angel's protection is guiding us to victory. ...Perhaps it's time you stopped acting so tough and faced facts, Crewman Jimenez. ......! Now, Hitonari, go and check those coordinates!It's right next door, and there's nothing else to do right now so...  BUON... BUON... MY BODY IS HEAVY... I CAN'T FLY FAR... AT THIS RATE... THIS NICE BODY WILL ROT... BUT I'LL EAT... AND EAT... AND GET BETTER... I WILL NOT... LOSE TO HUMANS...! ...BUONO! Alright, we got him cornered! Now's your chance, Tadano! Give this fatso the coup de grace! BUOOOOOOOOO...! NO... I CAN'T... TAKE IT ANYMORE...! I MUST... ABANDON THIS BODY...! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT...! I LOST TO HUMANS IN A FIGHT! I LOST TO HUMANS IN GLUTTONY! CURSE YOU... CURSE YOU, CURSE YOU, CURSE YOU! BUOOOOONO! Woo-ha! We did it! Serves you right, fatass! Er... were you able to get the Rosetta from Horkos? The Elve's outer hull has been damaged. The inside may require inspection. Proceed to investigate. Our backup should be on the way. The investigation can wait until they get here... Man, though... he didn't look like much, but that was one scary pig... Malevolence and Benevolence  A lot of those guys were taken out and tortured like Zelenin... The lord of all creation doesn't seem to count for much here.> You can hear the voices of the crewmen searching the Elve...  We'll have to salvage what we can! What about that radio thingy we're looking for? We're ready to carry it out! Gotcha. Sit tight, I'm headed your way. ...Sucks that we couldn't get the Rosetta from Horkos. We'll have to chase his rear end down again. Right now, we'd better cross our fingers and hope this radio can get us a line back to Earth... Alright, you ready for some heavy lifting, Tadano?> You went inside the Elve...  Think this piece of junk'll get us anywhere? It better, man... Alright, Tadano. You take that... Wait... Is that...!? Sorry, Tadano! Hold on a sec!> Jimenez ran to a corner of the room...  Friggin' A! Hahahaha! Y'know, Bugaboo! He got sucked in by Horkos! He... became a rare forma...? There's nothing left but a Demon Source, but it's definitely him! It's Bugaboo! That is not a Source, and that is not at all how that works. Did... did you just forget to register him in your Compendium and you're too ashamed to admit it? Oh, geez... I'm gonna have to teach that dope how to talk again! Hahahaha...! Alright, Tadano! Let's hurry back... Oh yeah, the radio! Okay, so strap in. We got a loooong cutscene ahead of us now. And partially behind us. But mostly ahead. Whew boy...   Once the supply crew finishes the Graviton Radio, we will attempt to contact Earth. Until then, all hands should remain on standby. We should now be able to contact Earth. Mission "Graviton Radio Recovery" is confirmed complete. We'll get about 10 minutes' worth of charge at a time. We can recharge it once that's up, but it'll take several days worth of time and effort. Therefore, we must use the device sparingly and keep correspondences brief. Be careful. ...... ...... ... Silence Are we talking to the investigative team? This is the Red Sprite, calling Joint Project Headquarters. We have an estimated 10 minutes to exchange as much information as possible. You're alive! You survived! This is the bureau chief of the Joint Project speaking. I can hardly believe this...! Where are you!? What's going on!? Tell us your situation! Fear Of the four ships, we are the only one active on the mission.  That's terrible... it sounds like it's practically a miracle we're corresponding at all.That would be because it is. What's going on in there!? Have you had any positive results at all!? The Schwarzwelt is a discontinuous closed space. We are likely no longer in the world we know. As regards the conditions of the atmosphere, gravitational pressure, air quality, and so forth... These values are all in line with those reported by the drones. From what I'm hearing, it sounds like you're able to proceed... We have learned some things about the appearance and disposition of the Schwarzwelt. Though we dismissed the imagery retrieved by the drones as a malfunction... Everything we have seen so far in the Schwarzwelt is consistent with their transmissions. We have three space-time sectors thus far... Ira, luxuria, gula... Those pictures were real...!? Even with your report, I have a hard time believing that! The intelligent life forms theorized before we entered teh Schwarzwelt have been confirmed. We believe them to be "demons," creatures of folklore and myth.Well, they themselves admit to being demons and I'd imagine it's the other way around. They've been aroud longer than humanity, and so rather than being based on the stories, the stories are based on them.   Also, this confirms there is an exit. Excellent. Well not excellent-excellent, but it's good news for our predicament all the same. We don't know what they're after, but they're definitely here! So they've actually made it to Earth...!? There's more, too... The Schwarzwelt is continuing to expand. Can you receive pictures? We're transmitting some now. All Antarctic bases were overrun with demons. After that, they moved north. The southern regions of Africa, Australia, and South America are under attack. The Schwarzwelt... Has it grown that much already...? Ay Dios mio... Even if we make it out in one piece, the Earth is flooded with demons... Can you put together an escape plan and send in reinforcements!? ...... Unfortunately, neither of those things are possible. You already have our most advanced technology created on our theories on the Schwarzwelt. There's nothing we can do for you. So we get poo poo-all for help...!? We'll get nothing from Earth... But on the other hand... Yes... there are steps we may be able to take.  If the Red Sprite can catch it, your position in space-time should become clearer. We haven't abandoned you. We'll fire the graviton beam now. Put it to good use. Arthur, you should use the time we have left to transmit your observational data. Acknowledged. Transmitting data. Thank you, Arthur.  Best of luck to both of us, eh? This is the Joint Project, signing out... We work our asses off to get that Graviton Radio, finally get ahold of the folks on Earth... It does seem to be bad news on top of bad news, doesn't it? We, uh, but there's a... if demons can get out, so can we! But it's too soon yet to abandon all hope. Whatever, sister. I'm a realist, y'know? I play the cards I'm dealt. You'd rather fill my head with dreams, Miss First Lieutenant? ...You've gotten better at speaking my languge, y'know that?And apparently worse at speaking mine. Hell, I don't care if it's you or Zelenin, I just wish someone could pull me outta this funk. I must explain the importance of the space-time coordinates. Even if we could increase our movement capabilities, without a proper grasp of our position... With the graviton beam sent by the Joint Project, we can at last learn our present whereabouts. Eliminating the uncertain, eh? So far, we've been having a hard time navigating under a starless sky... ...Tadano, do you understand a word coming out of her mouth? With the support provided by the outside world, we will be able to determine our position. Hence, we will not be forced to proceed by being carried further in by the quantum tunnels... ......! You serious!? At present, we are simply moving from tunnel to tunnel based on data gleaned from ruling demons. If this works, we should be capable of reaching unknown space-time sectors. You should perform your duties with more hope now. Y'know, you may not be the greatest at comforting a guy... But if you say so, my hopes're up! C'mon, let's find that pig and get the next Rosetta! It seems there's still danger awaiting us even if we manage to return to Earth...Eh, they're only demons. We can take 'em! Even so, better than wandering around here, mm? Strike team, I suggest you use this time to rest. Silence Chaos Theme  My, my... this is a grand ship. Even the ark that withstod the flood couldn't compare. Hm...? Your name is known to them, Tadano Hitonari. ...Ha. I get it.  But I am only putting into words the destiny you've carried since you were created. There is no cause for concern. Yet you are still allowed a bit of power... Where do you belong? A steadfast soldier of the law, or an agent of chaos? Hm...? It seems you have guests again. I had hoped to sit and talk with you longer, but I am left with little choice. Excuse me, please.> The girl disappeared...  Abnormal conditions may result. All crewmen, be on alert! Crisis I've located the source! 3 o'clock! Turn on the cameras facing that direction. Oh, it's Horkos. Convenient! Also a little touch is that he's not speaking in all-caps any more because he's in his normal demon form, instead of that weird half-Elve hybrid thing. It's an incredibly strong energy signal! We think it's a demon, but we can't catch it...! Horkos will not relent! I attack, steal, and devour! The demon's heading this way! We can't get the plane shift going in time! I will eat again! The soul of the iron ship! Buono! Buono! I'll eat with gusto! I'll eat it in one gulp! Accessing the engine reactor directly... Contact in 10... 9... 8... 7... 6... Bu! On! A! Pe! Tito! 0. Activating armor. The enemy demon has been damaged! We drove it off!  It is a dangerous mission, but I must order the strike team to give chase. I didn't think it'd come after us... Talk about a fat pig! All available strike team members, please report to the deck. In the Master's Name It seems to have fled after being wounded. We realize the risks, but you must track and defeat it. Use this signature as your guide when tracking the demon.
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Dec 29, 2016 23:06
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Prayer Well, we just had a (relatively) big ol' plot dump in that last scene. Let's see how the crew are doing! What should we do now? Won't anything we do just show how powerless we really are? Anyway, all we can do is our best. Just what our "best" is... we'll have to go give serious thought to it. But... if we don't do what we came here for, how is that different from running away...? ...I'm sorry. I know the strike team is always serious about this stuff. Let's just take down Horkos... it's all we can do right now. Personally... I think we should go back, but I can't say that too loud. I mean... Commander Gore's body is resting here. I couldn't let him hear something like that. He'd say, "We can't run awa here! We're humanity's hope... we can't give up until the very end!" Yeah, something inspiring like that to give us all a push. Commander... why'd you have to go and die? We need you most now... That's why we gotta work harder'n ever now. All that nasty stuff's comin' outta here, after all. Right, Tadano? I think we should worry about ourselves before we can worry about the Earth.There is absolutely nothing new in the Lab this time, so we'll just move on outta here.  Oh, well... Even if he does, we've got more than enough bullets to feed him. If we pile it on, he'll quiet down eventually and spit out that Rosetta.Dent, as always, just talks about sidequests but has nothing so... to Carina! A Squandered Nation Thankfully, the instant we step outside of the first little room we see Horkos on the map. He's running towards those nearby stairs, huh?  He's by the stairs over there. Let's get after him, Tadano!We've literally just got here, so...  In The Master's Name I was careless... Trying to eat them raw...! I must go to the hideout and... Urgh! Urrrrrgh!> Something fell from Horkos's body... Quickly! Quickly! I must run! Buo! Buo! Buono! What're we gonna do, Tadano!? We can't follow him!> You searched the spot where Horkos dropped something.  What's that thing? Horkos dropped it, right? That fatass drops a lot of stuff, doesn't he? He get food poisoning or something? Food poisoning... Urp... ...... F... Forget that! Anyways, let's take that to the lab, see what they make of it. Time to pay Irving a visit!Sounds like a plan to me! Malevolence and Benevolence I can't tell if that porker's scary or just plumb stupid... Well, give it here. Mebbe I can make somethin' that'll track him down... Silence> Irving started working... ...... ... > A new function was added to your Demonica.  But listen to this. If there's one of them there "sanctums," this'll let the Demonica access it. I call it the Phase Shifter! Betcha this'll come in handy when yer chasin' down that porker! Take it! The End  Prayer Believe it or not, from a couple random Forma we can make a new gun! It's... kind of terrible! Snipe is thoroughly okay, because it can't miss ever and deals Medium damage. It's easy to get the Miracle Gun at least - AT Carite x1, Brute Boards x1 (Momunofu), Snake Snout x1 (Nozuchi) - and that it took this long was a little bit amazing. A Squandered Nation Back in Carina, let's try out this Phase Shifter! It has no use at all in Antlia or Bootes, that we've seen, so all we can do with this is chase Horkos.  This creates a whole new second map for part of the floor of Carina. Why yes, for the fully mapped record stuff you do need to get the entirety of the Phase Shift sanctums AND the base form all done before it counts. Sanctums, plural, because this is Phase Shifter A. There's obviously gonna be more than one.  Fork in the path immediately. We'll go right for now, since that could lead to the stairs at the bottom and give us our bearings.  Or it could just give us a Mental Drink and absolutely nothing else.  Going back and following the newest part just leads back to normal Carina rather quickly.  Pretty quickly come to a cross intersection but it's kind of irrelevant.  Left and up from there just lead into each other and back to the centre. Right is progress, so...  There's more to the 2nd floor, of course, but we could honestly finish Carina REALLY quickly if we wanted to.  ....Or maybe not. God dammit, Carina!  We'll start off by heading over here, then. It's one of like three places we CAN get to and there's a Forma here.  Granted, there is ONLY that one Forma here. But, hey, a fixed 2 DF Carite II isn't that bad. Hopefully.  The left-most door just leads to a single Strength Incense. This is kind of nice and useful because it's Strength. Alas, it's let down as far as things are going to go here by being an Incense.  Just leaves this one path down at the bottom, I guess. Well, let's see where this leads then.  ...Oh, a terminal? That's kind of useful, as always. Around the corner, we-- In The Master's Name  Hurry! Hurry! I must run! To my hiding place...! Buo! Buo! Buono!> You can't hear the voice anymore... A Squandered Nation This path is linear and comes to a dead-end. That we can already get through. What is the point of this...?  There's a turn in that linear path down here, don't worry. Ignoring that just leads to a bunch of Chakra Drops which is something, I guess.  Another hidden door that we can already open. Still don't know why this is here. It's redundant and pointless.  It gives us another Sanctum on the 3rd floor, which we can use.  Okay, going right last time we got this kind of break lead to a waste of time. So we'll go left!  Y'know, we have so many Beads. 2 more is nice but it's also just more for the pile. We'll head up at that break in the path and follow the old dark rooms around back to where we found the terminal before.  There's nothing here but a Magic Mirror which is a useful item except not in the least. Being an item it goes first, and sets up a Reflect barrier on the entire party that affects a Fire/Ice/Wind/Elec/Expel/Curse spell. It only lasts for 1 turn, it can easily be ignored and skipped past, it has no effect on ailments, anything you would want to use it on has a fixed internal counter for if you try and do it...  Fortunately, the path that used to lead to a fixed Forma doesn't do that now. It leads to a path and... a terminal in the exact same spot as before? Huh.  Also there's a one-way door here. Well, poo poo.  Well, while we're here we might as well take advantage of this and check out the right-hand path. A few more Miracle Cores are never a bad thing and they're this path's version of the Beads, appropriately enough.  There's also a door here and a path leading back down, huh? We'll check this out in a minute but it occurs to me now that I haven't said anything about the Sanctum's fights, have I? Yeah, it has a few new demons. The Fear of God For starters, Halphas turns up here sometimes. Hey Halphas, how's it goin'? Sadly, Halphas is kind of boring. He's weak to being shot with normal bullets, he resists Expel and Curse and can cast Tarukaja and Rakukaja. No ailment resistances or weaknesses and his Source paradoxically gives Gun Boost which is neat and useful and is a skill that I'm going to abuse in at least one case with something else later.  Silky is honestly even more boring than Halphas. Everything you can see here is all you need to know. Her Source does give Recovery Boost which boosts y'know Dia, Media, Diarama, Mediarama and nothing else. It's also completely irrelevant because items are flatout better because of priority.  Lastly, we have Doppelganger and his Mou-Ryo buddies. We sort of used the latter but without any mention or fanfare. Mou-Ryo is at least a bit interesting by sheer default of having Kamikaze, because that kills him dead and deals Almighty physical damage to a single target. Doppelganger is weird. He's both one of the worst and one of the best demons we'll ever see. He is the second, and final, Foul and his natural resistances are.. interesting. He Reflects Phys and Gun (remember this) and has a 300% weakness to Expel and Curse. No ailment weaknesses or resistances, but he comes with Makarakarn which if he gets off already makes him almost invincible. He'll be seeing a lot of use in non-canon sidestuff because he makes a really good base for Shenanigans but we won't be using him often in "real" fights. Also Ally Call is an enemy only skill that lets him spawn in like Mou-Ryo and Macabre. A Squandered Nation Anyway, where were we? Ah, right. That door just leads to 5 Detox Cores. Boring!  The other path leads to stairs up to the 4th floor and a door further south.  ...Alright, fine. More dark sooms it is, I guess!  Well, almost. Kind of. They're at least mercifully short and brief this time around.  Nothing else that-a-way so we'll head on over this way and see where this leads.  First we're gonna make a whole buncha new demons. Phoenix is pretty okay. That he's immune to instant-death is kind of clever and I like that. No ailment resistances, is internally weak to Fire so he drains extra damage and his source gives... Maragion? Really..? Man, Phoenix, Inferno does this better. Added Raijuu's source to give elemental coverage.  Making a Sylph just so I can get actual Garudyne out of this. She's pretty straight-froward and I just like Sylph in general. Not so much in this game specifically, but I can't complain.  And Virtue's gonna let us walk through the randoms that Mudoon doesn't help much with. Nothing super fancy here.  Anyway, this path leads around to a different set of stairs leading up and another path south.  This happens when we go up those stairs. Well, okay then. Time to head back down because this was just for putting the stairs on the map anyway.  Around the corner back on the 3F, we can find a single Summon Stone. Sure, okay, whatever.  We'll double-back briefly to the top stairs leading to the 4th floor and... wow. This just leads to a dead-end. Well, this was pointless. Figures.  Alright, fine. Back to the 2nd floor we go. There's a reason, yes.  The door by the stairs now leads to a Sanctum area. We'll be heading through this for a special reason.  It's only a small Sanctum area, but it has a Phase Shifter in it? We'll look at that in a moment. There's also a normal base Carina area over here.  It's not that exciting or anything but it does let us get a couple more things.  Namely this. Luck is the best stat for Hitonari, of course, so this one might just see some use. Might. Probably not though.  The other gap lets us grab these. Tetraja Stones are neat and useful for preventing Expel or Curse but I'll likely forget that I have them. Unlike the mirrors they don't just last for one turn either! Throw one up at the start of the fight and it lasts until its used.  Anyway, we passed a Phase Shifter on the way through this part of the floor. Let's see what that does for us.  It lets us get a VERY GOOD weapon for Hitonari.  Sure it's weaker than the Plasma Knife but it inflicts Fear. Fear is insanely good and broken and I love it. It's annoying in the enemy's hands, but it's arguably the best ailment in our hands! No really, it works on almost everything and it makes them skip their turns. What's not to like? .....and yes, this is something where I have to grit my teeth and admit that IV almost did it better. It had a Chainsaw weapon as well. It inflicted instant death. More useful for randoms but way less useful for bosses.  Oh and I somehow missed this hidden door on the 2nd floor earlier.  I'm not sure how, since it lets us get some hopefully useful new Forma.  It also gives us our first Soma. Full HP and MP on a single target? Don't mind if I do. Yes, a single target and not the full party. You may have noticed that Soma Drops were not this. SJ inexplicably downgrades what these do because reasons.  Anyway, the main goal part of the 4th floor!  It's not super-big or anything, but it has some stuff in it. Like this door over here. We can't get through it yet. Lame.  Both of the other paths up lead around to this terminal. We'll just duck out of Carina for a second... Prayer Just to see what we can get from Irving. We don't need anything new or anything, but we can sure see what we can get anyway. The Dynamic ring is +15 MP. That's loving awful. At least it's easy to get now since it's just AC Carite x1, Fallen Feather x1 (Halphas) and Jirae Seal x3 (Sudama) for some reason. And that's it. That's the only new thing we unlocked during our trip through Carina. Lame.  Oh well. I'm gonna take this out on Virtue and just throw him in the trash. His job is done, so he can get outta here!  ...So that we can make a whole new one just outside Horkos' room. Either Gnome or Inferno's sources are good for this one. Inferno is better because it gives Agidyne and Fire Boost but Gnome gives Ziodyne and Rakunda. I'm gonna go with Gnome for expediency. In The Master's Name Anyway, Horkos! Even beasts know their keep... You are less than they. And do not compare yourselves to we noble demons... You humans, who have forgotten your great debt to the earth, are fated to die. Devouring all your pointless goods is a sign of my love! You disagree? You dare claim humans, who covered the earth with products of their desire, can handle this matter? How will you deal with such excess? We'll learn to control it. So overconfident. Humans lack the means to control themselves. Finding joy in order... Only those foolish angels can do that! > You aimed the Horkos Buster.   What!? It's not working!? Your weapon cannot affect this body! Buono! But humans upset that rhythm and have joined the ranks of the eaten, the consumed. I, Horkos, am the proof! First, I will eat you! Then I will eat that iron ship! And for the finale, I will devour all the humans of the Earth! Tyrant Horkos Vehement Rage Horkos is a weird awful spelling of Orcus. Orcus is a Roman god of the dead and his name also means the land of the dead. In a way, he's basically the Roman equivalent to Hades or Hel.  Here, he's a fat pig man with 1800HP and a weakness to barbecue (Elec and Fire). He resists Phys and Gun, and of course is immune to Instant Death. He's also a weird paradox in that his boss form is immune to every ailment. And yet you can inflict him with any and every ailment (except maybe 3 at the absolute most) with 100% success. You'll see...  Skill-wise, he's all Physical so if you have one bringing Doppelganger isn't a bad idea by any means. Taunt Horkos and have Doppelganger contribute by existing. But that's boring, so I won't do that.  I will however just casually turn Beads into my go-to healing item. This is going to be a trend from now on. We have an infinite number (thanks Irving!) so there's no point in being frugal and it's just a flatout better Diarahan.  Oh and Horkos is clever. Bosses are finally learning. Don't debuff him to -4 in anything otherwise he'll wipe it. -3 is perfectly fine though.  Same with buffing yourself. +3 is fine; +4 is anathema.  Horkos does have a gimmick and it's a special one. He'll summon a mook!  It's always a Katakirauwa. She's levelled up a bunch for this fight but that's irrelevant.  She'll try and cast Mudo a lot and do basic attacks and just otherwise be there pretending to matter. I have to say "pretending" because, well...  Her resistances are completely and totally unchanged. This means she is susceptible to every ailment, yes.  Oh and Horkos has a couple more unique things. Hit him even a little bit and he'll start using Air Dive. It's...  It's something, I guess. It hits everyone, but deals less damage than Stun Claw and doesn't inflict ailments or anything. Also a non-SA friend of mine described this attack as him imagining Horkos just falling over and landing on everyone. I can't not picture that as well now.  He can also kind of try and heal while damaging you at the same time, I guess? Taking A Bite deals Phys damage and he heals half the damage dealt.  His main reasoning for summoning the Katakirauwa is to do the same thing to her. The difference here is that Binge Eating deals 100% her current HP and he then heals half of that.  Oh, and no. I wasn't kidding at all when I said she's susceptible to every ailment still.  ....But so is Horkos. Guaranteed. When Katakirauwa has an ailment and he eats her, he gets that ailment.  Paralysis? Works fine. That's a good one because it doesn't wear off and makes him take extra damage.  Fear? Sure, why not! This one DOES wear off but he can just sit there doing nothing for a while.  Poison is the obvious one and Jimenez told us to do it but uhh...  Poison is kind of super underwhelming. It actually deals calculated damage so it's not super-useful against bosses, tragically. But point here is, yes, you can use this to inflict say Mute and completely shut him down wholesale. The End Or you can just kill the gently caress outta him and not care. It's a clever mechanic and one the game actually hints at in advance, but it's not necessary at all. In fact, it might be actively detrimental to try and use it.  At least he gives decent EXP when he goes down. Less macca than we'd get from, say, Kanbari though. Attack Mirror is the Phys/Gun equivalent to the Magic Mirror. This is infinitely more useful, yes. End In The Master's Name  No... One day... flow... disappear... ......> A strange energy cluster is sitting where Horkos was!   Silence The energy mass you retrieved must be sent to analysis immediately. Proceed directly to the command room... Malevolence and Benevolence Uh, Arthur... you... I... no. This concludes the mission. Mission "Carina's Rosetta" is confirmed complete. We are now equipped to plane shift to the next sector. As I mentioned during our correspondence with the Joint Project... It's been easy enough to do that in the three sectors we've seen so far... I wonder if it will be as simple in this new sector. Alas, our scant data so far makes it difficult to verify a region through which we can escape. Let us hope we will learn something in the fourth sector.  "Vanishing Point"...? That's... We will need your help in this, First Lieutenant Zelenin, as well as the Joint Project's help. I look forward to the result of your work, First Lieutenant Zelenin. Thanks to the supply and comms teams, we expect to be able to contact the Joint Project again. Our course of action will become clear then. Please rest until we launch for the new sector... There's no one on the crew by that name... Started seein' things, eh? Wait...! Could it have been a demon...!? ...Nah. Other people would've seen it then, and it would've left some kind of trace behind. What about you, Bugaboo? Did you sense anything? Demo... Demon..? ...No... No... Hahah, that's a neg, he says. Man, I can't believe he's back! Irving was really surprised that we managed to revive him, too! And I was wondering how much longer he'd live when I saved him at Bootes... It's against regulations to summon demons unles absolutely necessary. And this isn't the first time I've seen you do it. You don't respect authority much, do you, Jimenez? Spending time together like this makes a difference when it comes time for actual combat, y'know. Besides, Bugaboo needs some rehab. He's been treated as a "thing" for all this time. That's a dangerous philosophy. Demons only obey humans because of the summoning program... Hitonari, you really must speak up when he does this. It's all to prevent any accidents from happening. Excuse me, please...> Zelenin left.  I don't think that woman's ever gonna come around on the whole demon thing. Sheesh, it's not like having such a hate on for 'em will make them go away. It's too bad... Preparations to plane shift into the new sector are complete! We'll begin the plane shift as soon as we get the okay from Ops! Guess we should get ready. Right? Hey, Tadano...? If--I mean, WHEN we get back to the surface... Ahhh, I ask like we'd get a choice. They'll just take it away along with our Demonicas. We're just grunts, after all... And then we plane shift ever onwards...  You're in, what, the fourth sector now...? We're all hoping to see an end to the investigation soon. The structure of the quantum tunnel was extrapolated from the theory of the Schwarzwelt. Our data thus far has confirmed this theory. You've probably forgotten but Zelenin DID mention this guy before we entered the Schwarzwelt forever ago. Correct, First Lieutenant Zelenin. Dr. Hammerschmidt predicted the presence of quantum tunnels within the Schwarzwelt. He also theorized the Vanishing Point at which the Schwarzwelt connects to our world. If this theory of the Vanishing Point is also correct... The monitor team is ready with their report on the atmospheric conditions. Bringing up environmental imagery on the main display... Silence Fear To think there'd be a world of waste in the Schwarzwelt like there is in our world... I mean, we had some idea from the drone photos, but... It's hard to believe, even seeing it with my own eyes. We have noted this tendency in the three previous sectors as well. True, true... The professor said the Schwarzwelt is a "spiegel," a mirror to our own world... I didn't realize this is what he meant by that. To look at it, you wouldn't think the Schwarzwelt was any different from Earth... To the human eye, perhaps not. It's a literal hell on Earth... I don't envy you having to go around and investigate the place. Psh, don't sweat it. Real work always takes a little elbow grease. I get a real big charge outta wondering what'll hit us next! Am I right, guys? Could you please tone down the sarcasm, Jimenez? They honestly are sorry to have to send us here. There's no need to antagonize the like that. Am I alone in sensing some sort of will at work here...? The Schwarzwelt is undoubtedly influenced by the human world. It shouldn't be long now before we understand how this influence works.  We're all depending on you succeeding in there. May God be with you. Sorry, IF we make it back. Let us resume the task at hand. The first order of business is to designate this sector. Ah right!  Delphinus the do--  Do you want to do my job now Zelenin? Go for it. In keeping with the mission objective as outlined by the Joint Project... We will proceed with our analysis of the Schwarzwelt's structure using the equipment on this ship. Monitor team... Please proceed to Delphinus and begin your search for the quantum tunnel's location. Understood, Arthur. I'm getting used to going into the field... I'm sure we'll be successful. Strike team... You are tasked with searching for the Rosetta. Please stay alert during your search of the sector. It now has a wider range and greater sensitivity. Use it well in your search for the Rosetta. Uh... what do you want us to do about the demon we find? Bring it home, introduce it to the family? ...I tell you, Tadano, some folks can't appreciate sarcasm. But look, you and me should come up with a plan for when we do find the big ugly. I am issuing a new official mission, designated "Delphinus's Rosetta." Alright, cool. So as per usual we'll put this on hold and head back to Ca-- Crisis An, um... i-important article has gone missing. I'd like to call for an inspection. Arthur, c-can I have backup from the s-strike team? Your request is acknolwedged.
Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Dec 31, 2016 22:03
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And with that, see y'all next year when I swear I will update more often and hopefully finish (at least the first run) before August! ...No promises though.  no this totally definitely isnt a filler post to help get to the next page quicker why would you think that
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Dec 31, 2016 22:06
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Yeah, we'll probably start Delphinus on Monday. If not this Monday then the one after, at the latest. In the meantime, there is a bit to do before we get to that. Olé!
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Jan 4, 2017 18:53
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Prayer As always, a new sector means we get new dialogue from the crew! What's so important that we were keeping in sickbay? think you'd better get over there and take stock of the situation.I agree, but we'll skip over it for now and go right to the lab instead.  Mostly because, hey, we got a new Rare Forma from a boss which means new sub-apps. A lot of them, even!  HP Recover II is nice but only affects Hitonari so we're probably not gonna use it much. Edit: Whoops, turns out no I'm a moron and I remembered this wrong entirely. You can use 1 Recover and 1 Regen SubApp simultaneously if you have the space. In my defense, for everything else with this kind of overlap you cannot do that! MP Recover I is a downgrade to a thing we've had since entering Bootes. You're really not expected to fight Lorelei until later despite how easy she is.  Nurse would've been nice earli-- wait, "odds of status ailment?" Suddenly I'm feeling all sorts of trepidation about this Delphinus place.  Zealots are an annoying race of mostly "eh" demons that I've only ever used one of. The only way to get them is via a Fusion Accident and this description is confusing and misleading. It guarantees you get a Zealot if the fusion formula for calculating result is within 3 of the Zealot's level. If not, it's still completely random what you get from the valid list at that level. Fusion Accidents are stupid as hell. ...Oh, right. Fusion formula if you care is: code:The lowest level Zealot is level 24, for reference, so for this to work you need a Fusion Accident to happen on a result anywhere between 21 and 27. Accidents are rare inherently - 1/16 is the best chance given if it's a New/Full Moon AND you use a Source, and by default it's 1/64. Fishing for Accidents is misery so be glad you'll never have to do it. I know I am.  Anyway, the last set of 3 given by the Stomach Acid (yes it gives a lot) are interesting and useful in their own way. Friend Item/Macca are really useful for getting Forma and achievement grinding respectively, whereas Friend Heal is nice for obvious reasons. Normally when you have a demon and talk to that same demon in a random battle, what happens is randomised but this limits it to just the one you have equipped. Friend Item + Extra Item is probably how I'm going to Forma grind for Irving in the future because it's so efficient and prevents getting overlevelled.  They're all in a lather over in sickbay. You gotta go see what's got 'em so riled. What would they be safekeeping over in sickbay? Silence And then this guy immediately interrupts us if we try to go to to the deck. Jerk. Strike team, make sure you take care of the situation there before heading out.We don't exactly have a choice, so... Crisis I--but I swear--I kept it in the stasis capsule--but...! ...You're awfully flustered. Take it easy.  What!? Commander Gore's body is... gone!? OUR Commander...!? It's impossible... there was no reason for anyone to touch it, but then suddenly it was gone... Are... are you sure no one moved it without your knowledge? No, nothing like that could be done without me signing off on it!Just because a bureaucratic process should be followed, doesn't mean it WILL be followed. ...Yes, okay, in this situation this probably is an actual requirement because only Zoe can open the stasis capsules or something but hey. Oh, poo poo... Have there been any signs of demons invading the ship? If that's what happened, we have a serious security breach! Whoa, let's not jump the gun there. You know how unlikely it is that a demon's wandering around, right? And there are't any demons who could escape from the summoning program, either. Sure, I summon Bugaboo sometimes for training, but he never leaves my sight the whole time. ...No, that's impossible. It was already too late to resuscitate him when we got him in here. Hmm... this is very weird. But we are in the Schwarzwelt. I guess nothing's that weird in this place... The disappearance of Commander Gore's body cannot be ignored. Investigation of this matter will be a high priority. However, it is likely that human error is the cause here. The Commander can't be at peace like this. He may just be a corpse, but I'd like to bury him on Earth. We have to find him. But... how...?I'm sure we'll think of something later. For now, we'll just do what we do best. Prayer Talk to Zoe now that we can! I think we should assume somebody took him. ...What? You think he might have disappeared on his own? ...I think you've seen too many horror movies. From a medical standpoint, this is just strange. And y'know... Yeah, I actually did feel a little uncomfortable, like there was a mysterious presence. ...Wait, I'm making it sound like the Commander came back to life. Wow, have I gotten so desperate to start hoping he'd come back to life in the middle of battle...? Oh, and of course this was kind of a big deal. So everyone else's dialogue has already updated again! Did someone steal it? Did it somehow get up and start walking around? Either way, there must be some explanation. We have to find out what it is... Arthur said it was due to human error, but how do you misplace a corpse? You should probably look into it when you have any spare time. ...What'm I supposed to think, that somethin' in the Schwarzwelt did it? Hmm... Mighty peculiar. This one's outta my league... But if the Commander getting up and walking out is in keeping with the natural law of this world... Maybe it's worth considering. Science is the explanation of superstition, after all. As per usual, this is as much of Delphinus as we're seeing right now. It kind of looks like an awful and miserable place anyway, so I don't think this is going to be a big loss.  "Rest In Peace." I even inscribed it on the Commander's stasis tank. And now someone's gone and disturbed his rest. Ridiculous... And for the first time in a while, we can actually get something out of Dent. He doesn't care about the plot as per usual, but his Talk option finally gives us something new. Want to help liven things up a bit again? I won't go easy on you this time! Well? Wanna? Yes. Good! Then let's go. Should I explain the rules? Yes. Okay, here's how to play 10 Rocks. You'll need these to play. You get 3 cards and 5 rocks. I get the same. Each of the cards has something written on it: Each of us chooses one card without the other seeing and puts it down. If you play "Add a rock," you add one rock to your total. If you play "Take two rocks," you take two of your opponent's rocks and add them to your total. However, if I had played the "Counter" card... You wouldn't get my rocks, and I'd get two of YOUR rocks. So there you go, the rules. Need me to go over them again? No. The Fear of God Then let's go! I'm sure there's some kind of top-tier optimal strat for "real" play but Dent does not require that kind of effort or care. He does the same stuff in the same order every time. So we add 1 rock.  He decides to try and Counter so we already have an edge.  This happens twice in a row, even.  He tries to flip that here, but we're a step ahead so...  We're at 9 and he's at 3.  Literally doesn't matter what he does here, because Adding 1 can't be stopped and gives us a win. Uugghhhh! You got me... You win. You're pretty good at this stuff, Hitonari... That was probably the most long-winded and difficult way to earn 2500 Macca in a while. You can instant kill Tam Lin for more than that consistently and effortlessly. That was a great way to kill time. Thanks a lot! Prayer We can talk to Dent normally again after beating him. I've been pretty busy lately. Still, every now and then I miss the games we used to play. Wanna play again? I think it's important to take five here and there. No. What? This is no time for games? Sheesh, when'd you get so strict? Alright, fine... I'll concentrate more on my duties.You can play again if you really, really want. There is absolutely no reason to do so and you get nothing more from it. This is all his Talk option will give for... a very, very long time, I'm pretty sure.  But sidequests? Like, real ones? Nah, those are fine. He's been preoccupied lately... Could you find out what it is and help him with it? Will you grant Anthony's request? Yes. ...You can tell this guy is going to be really important even within his own sidequest because has the Generic Srike Team Man sprite.  I'm Anthony, with the strike team. Nice to finally meet you. You know, I'm actually a pretty famous guy within the strike team. When I ask why, they just laugh... What's the deal with that? But thats beside the point right now, I guess... I also hear you're a pro when it comes to demon negotiation. Hell, you talk more to those demons than you do to your crewmates. C'mon, man, we're your buddies! Demons are fine and all, but you gotta pay attention to us every now and then too.Well, I DO pay attention to the people that are both worth it and that I can so... You get me, man? I get you. Heh, glad you're quick on the uptake. Not that I would have expected anything less. I'm talking about listening to my problems... See, I got a favor to ask. Okay. Hey, thanks! All right, I'm not gonna beat around the bush here... Silence  gently caress it, give me the trash pit. It'll be better than this. Prayer O-Oh... I get it... You think I'm joking, huh? No way, man. I'm deadly serious. Isn't it natural to fall for one? No. No, it isn't. Alright, alright... I understand. There's no accounting for taste... But anyways, let's get back to my problems. But here's the problem. Because of my current assignment, I can't move from this spot. So I can't even look for her, let alone talk to her. So here's the favor I need... If you run into that demon chick, tell her I'm looking for her. That's right. All I need you to do is talk with her. Easy, right? ....Well then. This might actually be funny. But I can describe her for you! Oh, I know who that is. I'm counting on you, bro! Before we get to see just how badly this blows up in that guy's face, let's make a few new demons. Baphomet's pretty okay but without adding a Source I've already given him more utility. Mamudo is good for randoms at least; Fog Breath is double Sukunda and thus doesn't count for anything. Nothing special resistance wise that you can't already see.  Also Dis. Her inheritance is only geared towards Wind and Ailments. This is... weird, for sure, but we can use that to make her really good at Wind at least. In hindsight, I should've kept Makakaja over either Recarm or Mediarama (healing skills do not matter at all on demons) but it's really not that big a deal.  So, let's just... ignore our current sidequest for a minute. There's one we want to start first that we'll finish last. It's gonna take a long while... A Squandered Nation In the room where we found Mastema, we can find this Dwarf now. He's been hanging out here since Horkos attacked the Red Sprite.  I'm Dwarf. I work as a blacksmith here. You came at just the right time, boy. I got a favor to ask you. This place has nearly all the materials I need. It's the perfect spot to make weapons. But it seems I'm missing some things here and there. I want you to go get 'em for me. Willya do it for me? Yes. Glad to hear it! You bring me all that and I'll forge you my best weapon. I'm countin' on you, boy. Well, that was so easy it tells us we're already done when we leave the room. ...We've been able to buy a Cursed Lance for a long, long while in case you forgot. It's that thing what's a Pixie Knife but way shitter.  Not bad, not bad! I'll make you the best weapon these hands know how! It'll take me some time. Mind waiting 'til I'm done?"Some time" is a giant understatement. It takes 10 full moon cycles before he finishes. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah, gonna let that cycle in the background while we do everything else and still have to waste some time before he finishes.  So, Anthony's terrible, terrible life choices lead us to go into Bootes. A Frivolous Nation We're going to continue ignoring Anthony's thing for a moment longer. Melchom's still here and now that we've beaten Horkos has something new! Care to take it on? Yes. I'm glad you know how to follow orders. All I ask is that you get results. As fortune would have it, we have exactly enough to complete this now. I think you can get a max of 3 by now somehow but I don't remember entirely - 1 from the Sandman sidequest in Antlia, 1 as a guaranteed drop from Mitra and 1 from another sidequest maybe?   I can't say I was planning on using them anytime soon anyway, and this gives us more than we'd get from selling them to Irving. How fortuitous. I look forward to working with you again....Well, now we need to kill time and we're in Bootes. Let's find that totally mysterious demon that Anthony wants us to talk to. Encounter  Uhhh... refresh my memory? I mean, yeah, sometimes I charm men, but... Hmm... Oh well. I wasn't that interested anyway. Tell that An-whatever guy, won't you? Tell him I don't remember him in the slightest. Besides, you look way more fun to talk to, handsome. If you want to chat sometime, I'm game. See you!...Let's just tell Anthony that, no, Leanan Sidhe is not interested in him unsurprisingly. Prayer > You reported to Anthony... O-Oh... okay... Alright. That's cool. I'm okay with that. Maybe I struck out this time but you did good, man. Thanks. Mechanically, sure this was simple and an easy way to get 2 Incenses. Honestly, I'm possibly more surprised Anthony is the only one to go this kind of weird.  ...And he's got another sidequest already. Hopefully it'll be different sort of thing now. He's been spacing out again, though I don't know why. Help the guy out. Will you grant Anthony's request? Y-Yes. Hey, we're both still alive, huh? ...Actually, there's something else I need from you. Are you up for it?Oh, it IS something else. Okay, cool. Yes. You're the man! I'll just cut right to the chase... Silence Prayer Aww... not more of this silent treatment, man. We've been through this once already, man. Don't act like this now. ...Anyways, back to business. Cute demon chick, wanna talk to her, can't move from here, yadda yadda. I need you to tell her that I gotta talk to her, man.   Oh, good. Anthony is one of Those People. This is going to end Super Badly, and we all know that so let's just get this over with. Encounter I honestly don't remember if I mentioned Moh Shuvuu's are around as randoms in Carina or not. I don't think I did because there's nothing remotely relevant about it until now. So yeah, she's here on the 2nd floor and higher.  Also, thankfully, this quest is not all that weird and mostly just exists to take the piss out of people who really do that whole "she looks 8 but she's a 1000 year old demon so it's totally okay" thing. > Moh Shuvuu has a complicated expression on her face...  ...Actually, I like sucking on humans' brains... But I don't think I want any of this Anthony guy's. I bet they taste disgusting, and they'll make me dumb! Hyahahaha! Failure as a human! Failure as a human!Let's just get this one completely over now. We've got something else special in Carina but it can wait a few minutes longer. It'll probably take an hour to do knowing my luck anyway. Prayer > You reported to Anthony... Wh-What...? That makes me sound like some kinda...! Dammit! She's hundreds of years old, right? Not at all how that works. Argh... forget it, okay!? This is grief I don't need! You too! Forget any of this ever happened! DOn't tell ANYONE, got it!? Okay!? If there's anything worthwhile to take from this, it's that the game does not play nicely with Anthony despite this being a fairly lengthy quest chain, all things considered.  We can at least make a bit of a dent now. ...No pun intended. He's been spacing out again, though I don't know why. Help the guy out. Will you grant Anthony's request? N-Yes... I guess I'm still sucking down air too somehow. ...Actually, I have another favor for you. You up for it? ....Yes. You're the man! I'll just cut right to the case... Silence Prayer Aaaaand... more silence. Well, get used to it, buddy! That REALLY would've been nice, yes. Well, too bad! This time, she's a real cool girl! But once I saw her, my freezing heart was on fire! I tried making a pass at her, but all that howling wind sorta drowned out my voice. And once the blizzard was over, I couldn't find her again... So there you have it. Think you can find her for me?  Not a big gaudy one like a geisha would have, something simpler.Well, that's... um... er... we haven't actually ran into anything matching that description, huh? Guess we're gonna have to leave this one for later or something. Oh how tragic.  So, let's head to Antlia instead for a minute. There's something here we can do now. A Scorched Nation She's good with household chores, so she'd keep the place clean. Could you bring Silky here? Pretty please? Yes. I knew you'd do it! I'm counting on you.I grabbed one off-screen earlier. They're not exactly rare in Carina and pretty easy to fuse as well, so...  Take this as thanks. Thanks to you, I'm one step closer to building a village of faeries. Wait 'til you see it when it's all finished! Goblin has nothing new to say right now.  This is a fairly large town... Which makes it all the more delightful!'Nother new rare forma, so let's go take this to Irving.  Enemy Challenge is... very specific in its use. It raises the encounter rate. It does it a lot. A lot. It varies somewhat by sector, but in some places this thing can give you a fight every 4 steps. I kinda like it. It makes it so much easier to grind Forma and just grind in general, if you're into that; I am but I'm not doing it here. Oh and now we're done with sidequests we can finish at the moment. Except that Dwarf, but he's working on that still. The Fear of God So, let's go to Carina to get that Forma we need. Yamawaro is in the dark rooms and in the Sanctums but he just... never turned up during the normal run through. I don't know, he's not even rare so I just got RNG trolled I guess. He's terrible. He's weak to Expel and Curse, and has a 300% weakness to Mute. He has no resistances. His default skills are Bobasma, Rampage and Garu. His source gives his normal moveset except it sensibly replaces Garu. It drops it for Magaru. Also he's a Strength demon but his inheritances are the same as Dis: Wind and Ailments. gently caress Yamawaro. But now that he's turned up, we can get every Forma in Carina. Except one. There's one special little guy that has yet to appear. I mentioned this before, but the Enemy Search here has a fight that has a 2% spawn rate.  This guy never appears as an Unknown. But, don't worry; I swear, by my sword and capote, that I will once again prove victorious! Fiend Matador An Honor Befitting That Name Okay, so Matador. Having had plenty of time to prepare for this guy, he's kind of defanged a lot at this point. But that's fine, he's still a Fiend and notably does have an Analyse gauge here. Which means that, yes, in this fight he is treated internally as a (mini)boss.  He's also Matador. So, of course he's all about dealing a lot of Phys damage in as little a time as possible.  He's weak to Elec, and nothing else, but uh... Hitonari has a Bufudyne gun and just got buffed by the enemy. Thanks, Matador. He resists Phys and Gun and all Matadors are immune to Curse. Enemy Search Matador is immune to Expel as well, but usable ones only resist it.  No Andalucia here, instead he just uses Deathbound. This is standard Moderate Phys damage on all foes. It could be better. His only other skill is a passive that doesn't do anything for an enemy Matador. The End He also doesn't have a lot of health here - 500 which is less than half of what David had. So he drops fairly quickly, yes. Incidentally, he's immune to all ailments in this fight, but when we get one he'll very heavily resist all of them except one, which we haven't seen yet. And by "heavily" I mean heavily. He has a 25% modifier.  Fiends are the only Enemy Search demons that give EXP. There is one Fiend in every Sector from Carina onwards and they all have a 2% chance of appearing. I could be wrong here, but I think they all guarantee all of their drops as well. The Forma and middle one are definitely guaranteed across the board at least, so if he wasn't so rare we could get infinite Soma Drops from Matador. End A Squandered Nation We'll get a Matador of our own as soon as we reach level 30, yes. For now, we'll just make a Doppelganger. Not for wacky Shenanigans (that comes later, and is more specialised than this).  No, just because he's an ingredient in making Horkos along with Momunofu and Macabre. Usable Horkos is... kind of okay, I guess. He can inherit a lot of things, Mana Drain is good for a Phys demon and good in general (until later when we get a better version) and his default skills are fairly solid. Really his Source and that he can beinstakilled are the biggest disappointments here. His Source is Life Surge (+30% max HP) and nothing else. This is kind of a mixed blessing in a way. On the one hand, yes, Life Surge is terrible and a waste of a slot on anything ever. On the other hand, it is REALLY good if a demon ever wants to skill change that thing.  But we'll get to that another day. For now, while I was midway through grinding Forma, this finally happened.  Here y'go. One of my best works, if I do say so myself. I might ask you to fetch some materials for me if I run out again, so don't fail me, boy.Translation: he'll have a new quest for us later.  The Hawthorn Spear is pretty okay. It's a decently strong weapon that can inflict Mute. It's good for shutting down some demons for sure, but I prefer the Chainsaw overall because Mute resistance is more ubiquitous. For now, we're done with everything except filling out the remainder of the Lab's stock so let's go see what Irving has for us. Prayer The Nihil is an... interesting weapon. It's a single, adequately strong attack on a target chosen entirely at random that has a decent chance of Paralyzing them. It's mostly okay for that Paralyze but not as useful for randoms because of the inability to target being a liability. It is super time-consuming to make, though: it takes AT Carite II x2, Genma Spear x6 (Tam Lin) and Enigma Clay x5 (Kanbari).  The Phozon Knife is super-boring and straight forward. It's not even that strong, but you're most likely expected to luck into getting this much, much earlier. Except it's worse than the Plasma Knife fundamentally (it's a whole 5 points of attack stronger), and you realistically get it later. It takes AT Carite II x2, Wilder Volt x3 (Raiju) and Divine Shield x2 (Power) to make.  I... know basically nothing about the Cat's Punch gun, to be honest. I've never used it because you probably won't get it in any reasonable timeframe. It hits 1 random target or it hits random targets for more damage. So what makes it hard to make? It takes AT Carite II x2, Beast Hairball x4 (Nekomata) and Red Capote x1.  In terms of armor, the Recycle Vest is inexplicably the "best" we can get. It's got the 2nd highest Defense out of the lot we can pick up and it resists Phys (and Gun)! ...Except it makes you weak to Fire, Ice, Elec AND Wind. Ouch. Yeah, I'll pass on that one thanks. Takes DF Carite II x2, Vermin Abdomen x2 (Myrmecolion) and Raptor Dress x2 (Moh Shuvuu).  The Gustible Vest is honestly even worse. It gives less downsides, but it's also really not that great. A Gun resistance isn't super-great, it's probably the least useful on average, and it's less defense than the Recycle Vest. Fortunately, it's a quick and easy thing to get. DF Carite x1, Wood Gourd x2 (Shan Xiao) and Spirit Blaze x1 (Inferno). Think I'll just go with the Ice Vest. Nullifies Ice and has the highest Defense stat to date? Don't mind if I do.  And lastly, the accessories. Oh god the accessories... The Stoic Ring is... actually not that good. It makes Hitonari immune to Charm, but if he gets Charmed that less of a big deal than it sounds. It just means he attacks dudes, with his sword. Most of his swords are kind of terrible so this doesn't matter too much. If you care about that for one reason or another - it IS the best alternative to the Yggdrasil Ring right now - then its AC Carite x2, Spirit Scythe x2 (Macabre) and Fairy Kerchief x2 (Silky) to make.  Stamina Ring is +15 HP and nothing else. Save your AC Carite x1, Jirae Tools x2 (Dwarf) and Brute Pelt x1 (Yamawaro) for literally anything else.  Might Ring is +4 Strength. That's kind of okay, I guess? Except, eh, not really. 4 stat points really do not make that big of a difference in practice. AC Carite x1, Wood Gourd x2, Drake Stripes x2 (Zhu Tun She) if you want it. We don't get any other +4 stat boost accessories here though.  Counter Ring is very niche and kind of maybe sometimes useful, but I'm not gonna bother with this one either. It's a 30% chance to counter any Phys/Gun attacks, just like the Counter skill if you care. AC Carite x3, Foul Clay x2 (Doppelganger) and Red Capote x1 to make it. That's sure why I wouldn't make it at least. Anyway, we've done everything we CAN do right now. Into what looks like a cesspit of misery and trash we go... Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:31 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Jan 4, 2017 18:54
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Delphinus is apparently the sector of three things: misery, Conquest and almost assuredly causing this page to throttle the poo poo out of my internet (UK internet is superterrible and I hate it). Fortunately, Baldurk is a cool dude who lets us do a sensible thing: Update 21. Sector Delphinus
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Jan 9, 2017 21:31
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GimmickMan posted:I missed that this was supposed to be despair rather than sloth. Yeah, it being despair is really, really subtle... and not necessarily just in comparison to everything else so far. I would be genuinely surprised if anyone figured it out on their first time seeing the place, because I sure didn't. As for White Rider, I feel like Fear is kind of a microcosm of the game as a whole in that way. When the game uses it, it's kind of annoying but really just exists to waste your time. When you use it, it's significantly better and actually effective. Kind of like Hare of Inaba except the difference is that Hare of Inaba is genuine trash even when you understand that it's not quite as bad as it seems.
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Jan 10, 2017 18:07
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Malevolence and Benevolence Alright, let's go meet Zelenin now. She had a nonspecific plan that we can only do here... Since we haven't been able to catch the Rosetta's signal so far, I'll try amplifying the detection. Right now, your Demonica is searching for the Rosetta from a single point. I'll connect my Demonica to your and form a powerful antenna. Don't worry if you don't understand the process. It's not hard, just follow my directions. The left and right sides of this area are big enough to try it, so let's go inside. Which one do you want? I'll take the right side.Actively does not matter. This is the top/default option, so... All right. I'll set up opposite your position. I'll call you when you reach your mark. Only thing of note regarding this is that the room you pick is based on what would be your perspective upon entering. So the right room is left on the map and vice versa. First, let's make sure the automap sensor is active... All right, that checks out. Next, can you up the radio output while maintaining your connection with me? ...All right, that's good. Keep it at those levels. And here we go... There'll be a short hiccup in communications. ... ...... ......... All done, thank you. You can go ahead and restore your suit's normal settings. How do the results look...? ...Hmm? Hm... Hmmmm...  No Rosetta... even with that? I thought it might work, but... I guess it's back to the drawing board for us. Sorry I couldn't be of more use, Hitonari. Looks like it'll be up to the strike team's hard work to find it.So basically nothing new here, then. 'Sunfortunate. At this point, I wouldn't even mind if Jimenez got results. Oh, right... there was something I wanted to give you, Hitonari. I also want to talk about our next move, so let's meet by the stairs we just came up from. But I don't understand why the Rosetta search is having such problems. Is there no chief demon in this sector? Oh, that's right, I wanted to give you something. Can you take a look at this? It's a forma I found while collecting samples. Strange, isn't it? I think the strike team would get more use out of it than me. Maybe it'll open new doors... Or maybe I'm expecting too much from it. We'll just have to keep looking for areas we haven't checked yet... Silence Yes, Zelenin just got scared by Bugaboo wandering over from like 4 feet way. Really observant, huh. A demon...!? Oh, this is... Jimenez's demon? Buga, boo! Jimenez! Buga, boo! Jimenez! Gooooo! Gooooo! I think... it's calling us? Let's follow it, Hitonari! Crisis Is... Is that... Jimenez...!? ...... What happened, Jimenez? Did you find the Rosetta demon!? Jimenez...!? Urrrrrrrrrrrrraaaaaah!> Jimenez attacked! An Honor Befitting That Name So, Jimenez is level... 1...? And he's Neutral now, huh? I'm not sure how he levelled down, but I am curious to learn so I can min-max like this is Final Fantasy Tactics.  I won't let you! I'll kill you first! Gahh...!? Waaahhhhhh...! Agghh... ugh... Crisis He hit himself in his confusion?  Buga! Bugga...! Jimenez! Jimenez! You too, Bugaboo! I'm already... Argh...! Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh...! Boooooooooooo! Hitonari! He's gone crazy! In his current state, it's kill or be killed...! I have detected abnormalities in several crewmen. It is an unknown pathological status. We must secure the safety of the healthy crewmen... As well as avoid harming any who have become infected. All crewmen who can understand this order, return to the ship. Crewman Hitonari, First Lieutenant Zelenin. Crewman Jimenez is one of the infected. Step away from him. Hitonari... I think we should do as Arthur says. I'm worried about Jimenez, but we have no choice right now!> You returned to the Red Sprite... Surprising probably no one at this point, we're just thrown back onto the ship so the scene can get Really Long.  Multiple cases of abnormal behavior in the field crew have been reported at once. They have become violently deranged. This... this is horrible...! Everyone's gone nuts... they're kiling each other out there! Putting it up on the main display. Boy if only this game could ever be bothered to animate, basically anything. This might actually be interesting and intense. A still frame gets the idea across, sure, but it's just... missing like actual punch. Oh my God... they're like animals! Hey! Stop it! For the love of God, you're not the enemy! Jesus Christ, they're killing each other! Arthur, isn't there any way we can stop them!? Is that how I'm going to end up!? I can't take this! All right, everyone, calm down! Arthur, please, give us a solution or the panic will only get worse! At present, we are focused on diagnosing this illness. The injured crewmen are in sickbay, where we have run tests... The results of those tests are now in. Er, well, sort of... Whatever the disease is, it's undetectable by medical science. In other words, we don't know what's causing it. We've tried everything, but with no measurable effects. As a doctor, I hate to say this... but it's like they've been cursed.We have a diagnosis: we don't have a diagnosis, it's probably demon magic or some poo poo. So you were unable to identify the cause using your existing medical resources. It may be caused by some sort of intangible entity. When one considers this possibility... A mental parasite...? Yes, one that affects a human not physically, but mentally. Such a hypothesis would be considered ludicrous on Earth... Are you saying... they're being possessed...? Okay, but even then, how do we cure them? We don't exactly have exorcists standing by.  Umm... what... why do we have... What. If all goes well, it may be an effective tool to rid the crewmen of the mental parasite. We've got a way to fight diseases no one's ever seen...? Wow. We're so prepared, it's scary.No, we're not prepared for that. That's a potentially accidental bonus from having a "gun" that can... change people's consciousness. Seriously, loving WHAT. Unfortunately, this measure will take some more preparations to use effectively. The MK Gun must operate on a specific wavelength. Hold on... We don't even know if these "mental parasites" really exist, do we? How can we get a sample of a creature that might not exist? Well, Arthur!?  That is as far as I can suggest. This is awful! All we can do is wait for people to catch the disease!? And not only that, but it's not even a sure thing...? No... Isn't there another way, Arthur!? Some other treatment... Anything...! Hitonari. Perhaps it's occurred to you too, but... Does this remind you of anything?Hmm.... Hmm. Oh! It does. Thank goodness. So I'm not the only one... You remember that sector, right? It was Bootes. That's right, it was in Bootes. I see we've come to the same conclusions. The experimentees lost control of themselves and grew violent, like demons.Oh, see, I was reminded by how someone mentioned getting blood from "the blighted lands": quote:Unless there's like an actual swamp later or whatever, Delphinus seems to be the best fit so far.  If we search the palace in sector Bootes, maybe we'll find a clue to a cure.  Acknowledged. We will designate the mission for the cure "Delphinus Parasite" as well. As regards the crewmen we were unable to take into custody... The risk of outbreak would make it unwise to keep them on board. The same holds true for unnecessary contact. It is a necessary precaution. Please understand. We cannot risk the possibility of the entire crew becoming unable to carry on the mission. Our best course of action is to calbirate the MK Gun for treatment purposes. I look forward to the successful completion of your mission. Let's hurry. The faster we act, the more we can keep the casualties to a minimum. Hitonari, why don't you take that rare forma I picked up to Irving? Prayer Whew, that was... a very long scene for something that said so little. Demon magic cursed dudes with maybe a parasite. Go to Bootes to find a thing that might help cure them. Simple. Anyway, this is a pretty big event so naturally crew dialogue has been updated! Ops is mostly desk work. I never saw combat during the wars. It might sound pathetic for a military officer to say, but... I definitely felt fear back there. It wasn't like when the demons get one of us. It was something worse, something writing under my skin... We could all end up at each other's throats at this rate... Our first assumption was PTSD, or possibly mass hysteria... But upon further research, we found a mental parasite, a completely different pathologic explanation.Wow, Zoe rude. Arthur came up with that theory after you were all "i'unno, cursed I guess." What on earth do these symptoms indicate...? But a mental parasite? Does that mean there's no way to resist it? I mean... is there any possibility that Zoe and Wolf will suddenly turn on me...? I'm so scared... I wish I could just scream... Please... you have to figure out what's going on and come up with a viable treatment. If there's anything I can do, just give a whistle. ...Oh, looks like I have work to do already.> Irving started working... ... ... All done! The Gate Search feature's been beefed up. You'll be finding even more hidden doors now. There are honestly kind of less Gate Search B doors around right now than you'd expect. We'll get to them shortly, though.  But seein' it up close like this... I dunno who's behind these shenanigans, but I don't like it. If I ever find 'em, they better watch their backs. But the strike team will find a way out of this, right? Right, Tadano...? While we're here, we might as well check out the new stock. The Manshonyaga is an... interesting and debatably useful Gun. It's basic attack hits everyone but its super weak and its only skill has a chance to Petrify dudes. It's arguably fairly useful for most randoms at least. Making it requires AT Delpite x1, Jaki Pelt x1 (Wendigo) and Fallen Rattle x2 (Orias).  Ironman Vest is pretty good armor, for sure. Fire weakness isn't that big of a liability right now and resisting Phys is never a bad thing. Doubly so with it giving the highest defense thus far. Definitely gonna be usin' this one; it only requires DF Delphite x2, Fallen Rattle x1 and Night Horn x2 (Incubus).  Nerve Gas does nothing but attempting to Paralyze a single target. This has its uses for sure, yes. I'd probably grab some at some point if I ever bothered to use the stuff. AC Delphite x1 and Wood Roots x1 (Mandrake) is all it takes to make a single canister.  Thanks to picking up those White Cores earlier, we can make 3 new status cures as we-- "Bomb?" What? We definitely haven't seen that one yet... weird how we get its cure before running into ANYTHING that can do it.  I've been to a lot of those places, tasting the bitterness of human strife with my own tongue. ...I thought I'd be able to forget it on this mission, but that hope died quickly.Okay, so there are no Gate Search B doors in Antlia, at all. There's a tiny, tiny number in Carina but we'll deal with those later. So, let's just go to Bootes and get this plot beat over with. Silence Hitonari...? Who are you talking to? ......! You're... Law Theme  I mystself witnessed your comrades lose their sanity in that land of blight... You know about that? But why are you here...? Perhaps for the same reason that you are, Zelenin. It is my duty to help the troubled and guide the lost. Meaning... you can save the crewmen who've lost their minds...!? That is the news I have come here to deliver. ...... I lament to see humans behaving like demons. Of course, it is futile to wish for that now. It is more important to discover the cause of this malady. ...I see you came to deliver a reprimand, as well. I understand. Regardless, we came to this sector to find something that may be related to the parasites. If we have that, we might be able to use our technology to cure them. But I cannot help but be concerned of the hazards of overconfidence. You believe yourself to be the master of your technology, but it may in fact be yours. Technology and demons... both carry the risk of deceiving their human masters. How to handle such power...? You just have to be careful. You do seem cautious. But take care that you do not become overconfident... ...You evidently know a great deal. You mentioned you thought there was a clue here? Mitra, the former ruler of this land... There was some sort of trade going on between Delphinus and Bootes...? Yes. They were in league, though to what extent, I know not. I believe it possible that it has ties to your comrades' malady. We reached a similar conclusion. Mitra's palace is technologically sophisticated. There may be hidden areas you have yet to find... It will not be easy to find what you seek, but I wish you luck. We'll be on our way now, Mastema. Thank you for the tip. Of course. If you'll excuse me...> Mastema left...  Well, let's see. There were a couple doors outside the palace we couldn't open before... A Frivolous Nation A good start! The door over by the Red Sprite can be opened.  Well, this is... something I guess. A couple Incenses are never really a bad thing if you care about 'em, even if they're technically the worst ones we could've gotten.  The only other thing over here is a tiny corridor inside the palace that... is completely empty and leads to nothing. Why does this even... why is this here?!  The search door over on by the terminal is openable as well. Handy, that.  Two more Incenses over here. That makes 4... wonder if there's a Luck one somewhere nearby too.  There's a completely random dead-end over here as well. These aren't even hidden themselves or anything. They're just... there. And empty. No demons to talk to, no items, no fixed Forma. So random and pointless.  But at least it's all we needed to finish mapping out the first floor of Bootes at last. Palace of Pleasure And because I have no reason to care about this poo poo, I'm just gonna rush over the damage tiles to get through this quicker. Could use Nurse to reduce this damage but ehh, rather just use Enemy Lullaby for once since the enemies here are now trash and worthless.  Itsumade from outside has also moved to over by the elevator. Eh? You want to know if he was experiment with a disease to make humans violent? Which reminds me, I have to clean the 8th floor.I feel like this is really bad placement because he's clearly useful as a clue but if you're just scouring for hidden doors you could just as easily head up the stairs. It's really weird and bizarre.  Oh well, we know the 8th floor has a hidden door we couldn't open before AND Itsumade just mentioned it so we'll check it out now. ...That it's the last hidden door we know about helps.  There's 3 item containers over here. The macca is tiny and inconsequential; the Soma Drop is nice but not too big a deal in and of itself. The 3 Bead Chains are the real prize here. Malevolence and Benevolence This must be where Mitra kept his things! We should have a look around, Hitonari.> Zelenin began investigating...  ...... ......! What's this!? Hitonari! Could you take a look at this? He seems to have valued it highly. Is it something important to demons? What's this...? There's something written on the pedestal, but I can't read it... That voice...! Law Theme It seems you've found it... Congratulations, Zelenin. But... is this not the very stone that was taken from the comrade you fought, Tadano?....No? Wasn't that the Chisato Mirror?  This would seem to be it... Is Asura a demon in Delphinus...? ......We don't have any assurances that this will save everyone... Of course, I pray for your success. So, even demons are applying their knowledge to scientific pursuits... Troubling times indeed. Zelenin, Tadano. Please remember that. Please... let us have found the key to saving everyone... Quickly, Hitonari! Before we're too late... Again, thank you, Mastema! I shall be on my way then. Nothing left to do here right now, so we'll head on back to the Red Sprite. We gotta go to the Lab to give this to Irving like a Rare Forma. Prayer I don't mind shootin' any kinda weapon into the enemy, but our own men...? I ain't too sure... But hell, I ain't got any better ideas, so let's do this. I'm not sure exactly what an MK type weapon is, so I guess we'll have to chance it. Well, the MK program was all about usin' plasma technology to access a specific frequency... Made a man's will more docile, and so more controllable. Oh, so it's the Mind Kontrol Gun okay.  loving what?! Whoa there, little lady! It wasn't my idea to bring it along! This stuff was on the manifest since the start. No idea what they thought they'd need it for. Perhaps it was necessary in a place with no enemy combatants. But what kind of situations were they imagining? There's so much... that makes it hard to trust your fellow man... There's no call for the long face, Zelenin. We're all helpin' each other out right now. Alright, you just sit tight. I'll have it done in two shakes.> ... Silence You know how to fire a gun, right? You aim, you pull the trigger. Why don't ya try testin' it on the crew that got sent to sickbay? Here's hopin'. Prayer With the MK Gun in hand, the available crew's dialogue has updated. Might as well see what they have to say. Don't you dare tell me you ain't got no trust in the device...! Now git goin'! Actions speak louder'n words! There's no way it can fail! The crew's waiting for you in sickbay. Go treat them. Silence Aren't there crewmen waiting for treatment in sickbay? Test it out on them first.Alright, fiiiine. I guess we'll go cure the crewmen we're keeping on the ship despite Arthur explicitly stating we'll be leaving everyone in Delphinus so that this doesn't spread and render the crew completely useless. Malevolence and Benevolence We will now begin the experimental treatments for the Delphinus Parasite.  Umm... what's that thing? ......! Ugh...! Whoahh... Uuugh...! Ow! Where... is... this... Owwwww! He's coming around! The treatment is working!  We can save them all! Hold up, I'll be there soon! Good old human know-how... is there anything it can't overcome? Begin treatment of the rest of the crew immediately. I will lend the MK Gun fabricated by Supplies to the strike team. Use it to treat infected crewmen still in the field. It is used as you would any other firearm.Nah, it is used as the Horkos Buster was. It's just a thing that sits in our key items and is used with a Yes/No dialogue prompt.  Jimenez is still safe, isn't he, Hitonari? Please attend to him as soon as you can.
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Jan 11, 2017 22:01
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Prayer With the MKUltra Gun now proven to work for what we need it for, everyone's dialogue has updated yet again. This is a secretly talky sector, huh. But... a brainwashing device...? What were the brass thinking when they had this developed...? Is that a cruel twist of fate, or something that's too good to be true? I can hardly tell anymore... I still have a lot of questions about why we had brainwashing devices aboard to begin with... But right now, I'm just grateful for the stroke of luck. And it's you guys on the strike team who are going around healing people... Everyone's doing something to help... Everyone but me. I need to... work harder... But we can stew over that later. Let's focus on gettin' those people cured. Of course, your team worked hard, and I contributed a little to the treatment... We make a good team, don't we? I hope it lasts. Even so, looking at the real thing like this, I'm a little disappointed... That machine destroys any notion of trust or camaraderie...I do appreciate that Blair has a unique perspective instead of everyone being generically outraged over the MK Gun existing. Like it's ultimately just a different color of paint, but disappointment and resignation about it is at least new. A Rotten Nation Anyway, back into Delphinus we go at last. This is our first time we've been "in" a Sector and had to actively leave and go elsewhere for an extended period to make any progress. Odd, that.  Looks like several of the infected crewmen are killing each other... The casualties are slowly building. We need to cure them, quick! We do know of 3 people around Delphinus that are infected with this thing. Obviously, Jimenez is the only mandatory one but we might as well cure all of 'em. Kill...! I'm gonna kill you...!> The crewman is infected with the parasite...  ... Ugh... > You explained the situation to him. That really happened...? Sounds like I owe you one. I know... I'll give you this password. This is my strongest demon. Is password is in that Demonica code. Put it to good use for me, okay? I think I'll take a breather here before I get treatment at the Red Sprite... Sorry, but I'll have to leave the rest of the mission to you. Okay, so back at the end of Antlia when a guy first told us about passwords I said I wouldn't be using them. That's mostly true, but there are a few times I will be. This is mainly for ones that the game hands out as rewards for things (sidequests) because they're generally the only way to access those demons. There are a few others I will be passwording in but with passwords that are all external from the game. There are a small number of demons that are only available via passwords that Atlus themselves released after the game was out. And there are a tinier number of passwords that I will be using for Wacky Shenanigans and Ridiculously Stupid things but those are very very special.  Anyway, you password in a demon by registering it. This is very simple.  So this is the password we were given. It's very short for a password for this game - ones you generate from your compendium fully use both lines.  ...Anyway, this thing is terrible! Red numbers are below what they are in their currently registered state. We're not a high enough level to have a Mishaguji-sama, so this is weaker than the base version. But wait! That password was a math problem. This is not his strongest demon.  If you solve it exactly as it is written like your friends on Facebook do everytime something like this is posted, because they forget how maths work, you get an answer of 17980. So this is from adding 1 to 19 then multiply 21 by 20 for 420 and so on and so forth.  To the surprise of probably no one, this password is invalid because  If you solve it using order operations, like a sensible person, you get an answer of 2000.  This gives you a base Mishaguji but with Mediarama! Gasp! This is not very good still, no. I will almost certainly not touch this again.  Oh and we'll make a Parvati. Comes with Megido, has no weakness, is immune to Expel and if you're wrong and care then her Source gives Recovery Amp which is... something.  Alright, so there's a couple doors on this floor as well. We'll see where they lead, because we can do that now.   That outfit... You appear to be some sort of soldier. I have lived a long life as Kresnik. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. To tell the truth, I was once a human myself. Until I was bound by a certain destiny, I too lived in your world. ...Though that was over a century past. In those days, the entire world was consumed in war. Those were awful days... Is the world at peace now? I'm trying to restore peace. You are, eh? I see... So that is why you've come... You're a very brave man. Oh, excuse me... Hmmm. Come to that, there's a favor I'd like to ask of you. Nope, never heard of it.  Okay, weird thing here that I'm only pointing out because barely no one reading this will know it (if you do, good job I guess). Kresnik is a Slavic god of the sun, summer solstice, fire, storms and sometimes fertility. He lives on a sacred mountain at the top of the world, which represents the axis mundi. He has absolutely nothing to do with vampires. A Krsnik, of which this guy is one, is Croatian; they're shapeshifting shamans that learn magic from fairies and hunt vampires in general - hence the bat on his jacket - but prioritise Kudlaks which are not a specific entity but rather their evil vampire antithesis. Krsniks' souls eventually leaves their bodies to fight evil and help with good harvests and good health. Very different, but an understandable mistake right? Well, it's not a mistake. Krsnik has two alternative spellings because things are never easy. Kresnik is one of them. This leads to completely unimportant problems in some very specific niche situations that no one here will ever get into, myself include, so it's just a fun trivia thing. The Belmonts, from Castlevania, are good examples of things you probably know about that are based on Krsniks! Without it, I am unable to deliver a killing strike, and his power grows by the day... If only I had that weapon, I could put an end to our struggle. I must defeat him... it is my destiny as a Kresnik. I would like you to help me find the Hawthorn Spear. Okay. Excellent. Remember, I seek the Hawthorn Spear. Let us share in the glory of our bright victory.We, uh... we'll totally find a Hawthorn Spear later because we definitely don't have one yet why would you think that.  Meanwhile through the left door, we have this Unlock door we can't open yet. Sounds about right at this point.  Also a container for 2 Revival Beads. Hard to complain about that, I guess.  Oh and a room with this guy in it.  Interesting. You investigating this place or something? Did humans finally wake up to the danger their sins put them in and take some action? Real competent, there. You don't call yourselves lords of creation for nothin', huh? Heheh... Good luck with your investigation. ...Hey, kid. You wanna do me a favor? I don't wanna kill him; too boring. I was thinkin' of making him suffer slowly... a disease or something. Now this one we legitimately don't have yet and haven't seen at all. You bring me that weapon, kid, and there'll be something in it for you. That's right, a reward... Music to your ears, huh? Yes. You're a sensible guy, I see. I'm really counting on you to bring me that Pest Crop.We'll get a Pest Crop sooner or later, I'm sure, so we'll park this until then.  Heading on up to the 2nd floor now. Second guy is here as well, conveniently. Humans are no different from the trash of corpses... Grrrr...> You fired the MK Gun. ...Ugh... Hitonari? What happened to me?> You explained the situation to him. What? We were infected by a parasite...!? Looks like you saved me, though. Sorry if I caused you any trouble. Here, my way of saying "thanks." Take it. Well, it's better than a base version of a demon but with a terrible spell added I guess.  Probably not much of a surprise, but the door behind the terminal is a convenient shortcut. That second terminal over here is now completely stupid and superfluous. Silence > It's Jimenez. He doesn't seem to have noticed you yet...  Crisis  > Bugaboo got in the way! Hey! He's trying to save your master! Don't interfere! The enemy... You're the enemy! It's hopeless, Hitonari! Shoot them both!> You fired the MK Gun.  Mboooooooooo! How's Jimenez!? ...... Malevolence and Benevolence I believe the Delphinus Parasite has been cured. Take him into protective custody. Tadano...? You're taking me to the Red Sprite...? ......! You're here too, Bugaboo!? Hold on, Tadano! Let me get him back in my Demonica first!> Jimenez returned Bugaboo to his Demonica.  Thanks... ...Are you sure you're thanking the right person? Well, of course I'm grateful to you guys too... Ugh! Man... what happened? I'm aching all over...> You took Jimenez back...  Mission "Delphinus Parasite Treatment" is confirmed complete. It was all because of that drat disease. No one here's at fault... You either. Despite the setback, we can now return to the mission. Let us resume out efforts to find a way out.  Jimenez will be convalescing for a while. I hope he stays put in bed... We have a cure, but we still need to watch for any signs of symptoms in the crew. It should be fine so long as we stay alert. I wonder if the medical team will discover the cause... ...I guess it must have been a hallucination from the disease. Nah, it couldn't have been. That was one bad hallucination... Prayer Unsurprisingly, curing the Delphinus Parasite was a big enough deal to make dialogue update again. But I'm not going to pretend it doesn't bother me. What did the higher-ups have in mind when they included one in the ship's equipment...? With the body missing, there's no evidence to the contrary, but... I wonder. We'll need to find that body and get to the bottom of this. The joke's in poor taste if you ask me, with the body missing and all... Plus, he's dead. It must have been a hallucination from the disease, or possibly memory loss from the treatment. I'm going to stay here and watch over everyone who's been treated. You continue the investigation. ...Here's hoping they don't start getting violent again. Well... I'm sure there's all kindsa questions and issues all over this whole thing... But me, I'm just happy everyone's back to normal now. They called it a "mental parasite," but that sounds so dumb, like some hokey sci-fi thing. But I'm not one to talk, since it's not my specialty. We'll wait for the results, I suppose. I haven't heard you talk about it much, but I'm sure you feel the same way. Humans in conflict with each other, and now a mental parasite... it's too coincidental for "bad luck." But if somebody is pulling strings behind the scenes, I guess it's up to us to find out who...Well, with Jimenez out of the way we can go back to the 3rd floor of Delphinus and make some progress again. Malevolence and Benevolence   Odd that they're so weak, and that there's so many of them, but... something must be there! I suspect there's some reason why the Demonicas started detecting them so suddenly, but... You should investigate, Hitonari!It's a Rosetta signal and it's very close by, so! Silence Well, I see something new here at least.  Who's that!? Huh...? That voice... it didn't come from the radio! In The Master's Name A demon...! Why isn't the Demonica getting a reading on it!? Hitonari... it's attacking! Spirit Formless An Honor Befitting That Name Formless is an interesting... demon...? It's kind of terrible in a vacuum having absolutely no real offense whatsoever:  ...Granted, this is a basic attack after a War Cry to a Resist but still! That's effectively all they can do for damage right now.  Defensively, they're neutral to Phys/Gun, Ice, Wind and Elec. Naturally, they're immune to Expel and Curse.  And, yeah, they're weak to Fire if you have something that can use that effectively. I don't at the moment, hence why this damage is really bad despite being post Acid Breath.  In terms of actual skills, the Formless are fairly limited. They just cast a small handful of ailment spells.  Like, a very small handful. I don't think I caught all of them but when I back to check they didn't use anything else and, surprising no-one, there is exactly no information about Formless online anywhere. ...Those resistances I listed earlier? Not documented anywhere.  Even the Megaten Wiki doesn't have a page for this. It's not like it has a minimum info requirement, given the number of demons it has that are unique to one game and don't even have a bio or anything other than an image and statblock. Sometimes that can be too much. My personal favourite, for its name alone, is Crispy Dead.  And if you leave one alive with sub-125HP (because it has 500 max, you see), it'll use Last Resort. This is just a Physical Almighty skill that hits every enemy in return for killing the user. It claims to deal Heavy damage but it's base power is 150. Agilao/Bufula/etc. have the same power, so uhhh. Strange Journey is really bad at describing what it's skills do. End In The Master's Name  WE SHALL... MEET AGAIN...  > The Demonica no longer shows the weak Rosetta reading... The demon disappeared...!? But... we didn't get the Rosetta! I have analyzed the entity believed to have contacted you through your Demonicas. "Believed"...? That is correct. I confirmed the weak Rosetta reading. A demon undetectable by machines... Judging by the chain of events and the inability of sensors to detect it, the entity you encountered... Also the fact that one of them came outta that Generic Strike Team guy we tested the MK Gun on. The Delphinus Parasite... Yes. However, I can draw no firm conclusions at present. I have taken the precaution of checking your Demonica's bio-monitor. Now then, Hitonari, Zelenin....Huh, I believe this is the first time Arthur has just used someone's name... You were unable to obtain the Rosetta on this excursion. However... You must resume the investigation. ...Hold on! Are we going to have to fight a demon we don't even understand?Officially, we've done that almost constantly so...  Obtaining the Rosetta must be our highest priority. No need to worry...? Well... I suppose we can't escape here without the Rosetta, yes? A Rotten Nation Alright, so there are two more events on 3F as far as we can see. Let's check what it is this time... Silence > The Demonica is showing a weak Rosetta reading... Hopefully we can get the Rosetta this time. Do you think the Delphinus Parasite demon is here, too...? In The Master's Name It's here!   What... I...! Have we been under surveillance this whole time!?YES, ZELENIN. I AM WITHIN... ......! So you ARE the Delphinus Parasite!I HAVE SEEN THE MINDS OF HUMANS.  THUS, I CARED FOR THEM! You peeping tom!  Well, uh... maybe should've seen that coming? No... It's not working!?THAT CANNOT AFFECT ME!  > The mysterious demon attacked! An Honor Befitting That Name Just more Formless. They're the same as the ones we fought before.  Well, except these ones are weak to Ice and neutral to Fire. In The Master's Name WE SHALL... MEET AGAIN... > The demon and the giant hive disappeared. > The Demonica no longer shows the weak Rosetta reading...  I see that you were unable to obtain the Rosetta this time, either. However, there are still other active Rosetta readings. Continue your investigation. Arthur! Do you read me? The weak Rosetta reading WAS the Delphinus Parasite!  It is not designed to kill a free-floating parasite. Meaning...? Should you enctouner the mental parasite and engage it... ...You mean the Demon Summoning Program. I don't want to use... that... Continue the investigation. There are still other Rosetta readings. ...... Gonna jump right on over to the next one. This one just appears and IMMEDIATELY attacks. An Honor Befitting That Name Same as before, again, except this one is weak to Electricity. Hmmm... In The Master's Name ENTERTAIN ME... LIKE... THAT... I guess, we... just did...?   I see that you were unable to obtain the Rosetta this time, either. However, there are still other active Rosetta readings. Continue your investigation.Why yes, the game just copied and pasted that from immediately before. Anyway, it's time to finally go somewhere NEW in Del--      This body is telling me that. Who... are you?> You talked to Gore.  He is dead... No, reborn... Yes, reborn. I have become all. My consciousness is one with this planet's...   The Earth is being destroyed at the hands of humans, You despoil the earth, grow in numbers, and leave poison behind. Humans have become a disease. The human disease will be expunged by the demon antibodies. It is the only way for the Earth to survive.> Gore edged near you... Silence  Hey, hey, do you... do you maybe get it yet? The Schwarzwelt is based on sins. Hey! Hey! Have we told you that enough times yet? No? How about one more? A destiny of destruction is in mankind's character. The man who inhabited this body would have lamented that fact... ...... Do you not want to revert the tide? Won't you end man's rule on Earth? I can't let that happen. Then why don't you cease this invasion of the Schwarzwelt? I can't. Seriously, he's trying to trick you into getting a ton of Chaos points. No, really. Each of those questions has 2 answers; only the first one has a Neutral answer and only the second has a Law answer (as shown here). They both have a Chaos answer that is... agreeing with him. Gore, man, you used to be cool. I know I normally don't point that out but in this case it's interesting because it's so blatant. The game hasn't even pretended to care about Chaos as a perspective outside of Jimenez until now, so this is really late to the party. Maybe now that's going to change and we'll get some kind of balanced perspectives to make an informed decision when it matters? ...You cannot decide. In The Master's Name Though no one wished it, the Earth's will has been awakened from its slumber. Now that it is awake... events will no longer be dictated by human desire. An Honor Befitting That Name ....Much like Jimenez before, Gore is level 1 and Neutral. Also he's Meta here which is interesting given that's generally an alternative translation of Human (which IS in use here; see: Jimenez) and he's, uh, been dead since we met Orias at the start of Antlia...  But... I don't feel that you're that bad... Not yet, at least... An Honor Befitting That Name  Either you can be ripped to shreds by the demons... So, as no doubt expected after getting the Madman's Stone, the Delphinus Parasite has something to do with Asura after all.  But never mind that. Suddenly a BLUE flash! Gasp! ......!  I must... immediately...!> Gore disappeared...  Mission "Inquiry into Commander Gore's Body" is confirmed complete. Calm yourself, Hitonari, and listen to my orders. It is unlikely that he could survive without a Demonica. It is possible that he has been possessed by a demon, or perhaps revived as a ghost. Glad to see Arthur is focussed here on what really matters. Commander Gore is no more. He is an extraneous factor in your mission. To focus on the Gore anomaly will result in losing critical time in our mission. All hands listening to this transmission, understand that. Now return to your duties. Silence Put it out of your mind and resume your duties.
Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:34 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Jan 13, 2017 21:46
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Prayer Gonna take a quick trip back to the Red Sprite now that we've found Gore's Animate Corpse. Kind of a Big Deal, yes. He was so... talkative. More persuasive than I'm used to... Well... I get what Arthur is trying to say. Dwelling on Commander Gore right now is only going to make us more confused, after all. "Clear your heads and do your duty." That's what he meant. But that's beside the point now. What's important is how he doesn't seem to be on our side anymore. Might be time we rethink our stance towards him. Commander Gore as the enemy... A nice piece of irony, huh? He's... not human anymore. His death was normal, but this new "life" of his is not... Seeing him move around without a Demonica is proof enough. Tch... not only did the demons kill him, but now he's come back to life as a monster... I tell you, I'm THIS close to really hating this world. Or... Well, guess I better call him the "Ex-Commander" in earshot of Arthur. I don't like this situation one bit, though... Leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Other crewmen have died and not come back. What makes the Commander special? Hmm... It's a mystery. Maybe Arthur's right. Maybe it's better if I don't dwell on it.Chen raises a pretty good point. Why Gore? I'm sure we'll get an answer eventually.  Right now, we just get a smidge more stock to peruse. The Luna Knife is the requisite boring and ineffective weapon. It was ineffective before, now it's just a flat downgrade to what we could have for less actual work. AT Delphite x2, Haunt Dry Skin x1 (Churel) and Femme Snow x1 (Yuki Jyorou) if you really want it and it's an upgrade somehow.  And for our only other new gun we have the Randall which... loving christ that's awful. I genuinely cannot imagine any situation where you would willingly and intentionally use this thing. It's weak as hell, can't be targeted, deals a random NoH and it's only skill is the gun Agilao. AT Delphite x1, Vile Long Horn x1 (Baphomet) and Wood Roots x2 (Mandrake) if you somehow can fathom a use for this thing that isn't done better by basically anything and everything else.  But to my mind, that's ignoring the more important and troubling issue. Did he awaken of his own will...? Or was his rest disturbed? I think how we approach him will depend a lot on which it is. A Rotten Nation Alright, so NOW we can make progress in Delphi-- Wait, we CAN right? Nothing is going to appear when I take a step forward and stop that? Finally!  Now that we can finally advance somewhere, we'll take the obvious door on the left of the map which leads to a dead-end. Which hosts a Search B door. ...Why? This is so pointless.  Anyway, the area over here is kind of semi-sprawling so we'll grab this Chakra Drop set first. It doesn't do much for helping with navigation but it's something.  Fortunately, it turns out that everything just leads to the same place anyway. There's also A Man to talk to here. How nice! Oh... It's just you, Hitonari. Don't scare me like that. I thought you were a demon about to attack... I was ready to pull the trigger.  Ungh...! Oh... sorry. I got hurt when I was attacked from behind a little while back. That's... not entirely true. Doppelganger exists, after all. But, overall, yeah it's easy to tell if its genuine or fake and what team they're with. I alluded to it forever ago in update 2 and completely forgot to bring it back up again later, but you can tell by the color of the band on the arms: Red is Strike Team; Yellow is like Engineering and anything to do with maintaining the ships; Blue is support staff like scientists and nurses White is Hitonari because he's the protagonist. Whoever it was, I could tell there was something wrong... The guy probably wasn't treated enough with the MK Gun. I saw him head upstairs. Could you go find and cure that crewman, whoever it is? Me, I'm hurt... I shouldn't move for a while. Will you do it? Yes. Be careful. I didn't see who the crewman was. Could be anyone. There is a way to tell, though. It's possible that whoever it is can still reason on some level. It might be hard to tell just by talking to 'em, so be careful. There ARE stairs over near here, which means this is probably just here for the sake of this sidequest.  Welp, let's explore this then.  There's a fixed Forma down here, which is just a dead-end outside of this, huh? Disappointing. Malevolence and Benevolence In the northern part of the area, there's a dead-end where 3 dudes are just hangin' out. Well, not quite hanging out per se...  (A) Alright, which one of you guys is infected? (B) Isn't it you? I mean, you're the one who brought it up. You're the least rational out of all of us here. That's suspicious, I'd say. (C) There's no point in arguing like this. Let's all head back to the Red Sprite and...(A) Aha! It's you! You're the one that's infected! I'm right, aren't I? You don't fool me!(C) Wh-What are you talking about!? You're a strike team member! You need to get a grip, man! I think you're the infected one! Isn't that right, Hitonari? Show me your right hands. What? You want to see our right hands? Why would you want to do that? All right. If you're not infected, you should have no problem showing it. Let's see everyone's hands. (A) Er, okay. What about you, Hitonari? (B) Hitonari's clean, too. Which leaves...> You checked the remaining crewman's hand.  (C) W-Wait! You got it all wrong! Yeah, my right hand is hurt. ...Wait, what? He hit me from behind... I got this defending myself. Didn't I just finish explaining this to you two!?(B) That's true, but... Silence Hey...! Let me ask you this, Hitonari. Could it be that he was...?  Well, well, the gang's all here! Thanks for finding them. Following you made it much easier than doing it myself. Crisis  Oh no, not 20 damage. Whatever will I do...? (B) So it WAS you...! ...Grrrrr! You're all dead...!> Crewman McClane summoned demons and attacked! An Honor Befitting That Name Okay, so McClane is just-- wait, hold on a minute. Those Nues have analyze bars.  Okay, that's better. Now, McClane is just a dude so he's immune to Expel by default. He's also immune to Curse because that'd be too easy otherwise.  This is his damage output. Granted this is after a War Cry, but it's still quite frankly ridiculously bad. It's the one so he's at -2 and he can't even hurt me.  That's all he can do, and he's neutral to every other ailment. Because he's just A Dude. A Rotten Nation > The crewman staggered back... > You used the MK Gun. ...Ugh... > You explained the situation. No way... I did that...? Sounds like you saved me. Thanks. (B) Problem solved, I guess. This "brainwashing ray"... Thanks, Hitonari. We owe you one. Now, let's go back to base. Man, the Abba Dingo is pretty drat bad! That's only partially because we have the Frost Cannon too. All it can do skill wise is Garula which is ehh, its damage output is thoroughly okay at best and I feel like that may be being generous overall. The Fear of God Anyway, now that we've gotten to actually explore the 3F and beyond, there's a whole slew of new* demons to discover! * Probably not actually new. Caladrius we've seen before, and he's really not a threatening enemy demon. Just keep that Makarakarn in mind and he's not a threat at all. Ame no Uzume meanwhile is probably the most boring demon we've seen yet. She has Hitonari's natural resistances (neutral to everything, immune to Expel, 100% ailment rate) and has bad a version of what he can do as well. It's not Silent Prayer; that just wipes all buffs and debuffs from everyone. It's not your party gets Dekunda'd and the enemy gets Dekaja'd. It's everything gone from everyone. Usable Ame no Uzume swaps Ally Call out for our version of it which is Sabbatma. It costs 20MP to summon a demon from the stock. Just.. just use the actual Summon ability instead; it gets priority like items do and it doesn't cost anything to use!  Zhens are hanging out here too, that's cool. I think I covered their resistances before (what you can see plus immune to Paralyse and Poison if I forgot). Encounter  Oh, my feathers, huh? Yeah, they're poisonous. If you mixed them in with wine, you'd fall over dead with one sip. But he wants to drink it...? I don't understand gods... Don't worry about paying me back. It's not like I'm gonna run out or anything. Oh, but be careful not to swallow it or put it in your mouth. Maybe you should shout, "Warning! Poison feathers!" as you walk around! Useful, that. We'll take this back to Dionysus... at some point. I, uh, I'll get around to it eventually. The Fear of God Hey Virtue. We ain't seen you in a while, huh! ...This is probably just me, but I vastle prefer Virtue's OG design over the weird floaty water man we've had since Devil Summoner (the first one on the Saturn).  Camazotz is just hangin' out in the dark rooms, huh. Strange Ray is an enemy only skill that's basically a free turn. Kanbari CAN do it as well, but Camazotz is more likely to survive long enough to get to use it. It's an attack that damages one target's MP. That's it.  Dis is here. I didn't say much about her before because there is nothing TO say. She's simple, you shoot her and then she dies.  Skogsra has a cool design and hangs out here with Zhen, sometimes. That's about it. Everything I said about her applies to now too. Oh wait, uh, she has Resist Wind here? That's weird and confusing. That's only on her enemy version because she resists Wind by default. Strange Journey what are you even doing?  And finally, we have the beautiful duwang - Pisaca. He's fairly boring overall, especially when you're using him, since he's just weak to Fire and neutral to all elements. Bites the Dust is a new thing, even though it's totally named wrong.  It inflicts Bomb on a single target (80% base chance). Pisaca has already touched the Parvati... Oh, uh, Bomb is a contact ailment; if someone hits whoever is inflicted with it, they die immediately. This can only be prevented by Guarding. Bomb is the objective best ailment in the game in the player's hands, because enemies do not Guard, and that's why you never get to use it normally. It'd be too broken, which is saying something for this game. it should totally be Killer Queen and not Bites The Dust because it's a reference to the main antagonist of Diamond is Not Crash; the fourth part of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. Bites the Dust kills OTHER PEOPLE and sends whoever it's attached to back in time 1 hour. A Rotten Nation Gonna make a Vouivre while I can, because even though she's fairly eh her Source is relatively okay I guess. She's weak to Ice and immune to Poison and that's all that she has going on there. Her Source gives Agidyne and Ziodyne which is cool. Also she's only called Vouivre in English (well, French technically but y'know, whatever). In the Japanese versions of the series, she's called Wyvern instead. Transliterated things online always leave it as Wyvern, and the game files do that here too. Actually speaking of the game files, they have some fuckin' WEIRD names for things.  We'll head on over to the right hand side of 3F for now. There's not much in the bottom corner since it's just a bit of Macca.  Up north of the cashmoney, we get... 4 Dis-Paras. While that's not bad, per se, it's not exactly good either!  Fortunately, right here we have stairs leading on up to the next floor.   I might be a monster, but even we can be afraid of the dark... I heard there's a treasure here that's like a night-light, but... I can't take another step in the darkness! I wanna go home!Honestly, that a Poltergeist is randomly here at all is kind of impressive. Good job, li'l buddy!  Meanwhile, we have a corridor to navigate. It's just a single linear path. This is only a dark room to be a mild annoyance. The most "meh" of all of them thus far. Even Carina's first one in the basement was a bigger deal than this.  When we return to the light world, we can get this thing from a forma.  Being a thing for Irving, it's probably required to progress at some point. Might as well see where that point is before doubling back.  The terminal being right here does that make that rather tempting though. Hrm... No, no. Focus.  Another dark room ahead, though. Hmm...  Well, we've already come this far. It's not like it'd help much with this anyway. No, the thing that makes these bearable doesn't exist until New Game+. Goin' for the left door first.  There's a Sacrifice here and either a super obvious pit or another blatant hidden door. In either case, I'm just going to ignore it out of spite at this point! Well that and I just really wanted the Sacrifice. I'unno, I like having these guys. They let me be stupid and reckless!  The other door in the Dark Room just drops us onto an automove section. First one in a while, really, huh...  That kicks us into a hole which drops us onto THIS conveyer belt on 3F.  Which just drops us into a hole that points us to the Bead Chains here.  I somehow just blew right past this area on 3F before, so we'll see where this hidden door leads us. It's not exactly a subtle one, bu--  Oh, okay. I see what the deal is now. I'm onto you, Delphinus.  But at least this one is kind enough to let us get this fixed 5 AC Delphite if you needed it. The only way out of here is a conveyer belt that drops us back to the top of 1F. I'll see you in a moment...  This does at least give us the entire map for 2F. This is really all we were missing for so long, yes.  So, back to the Sacrifice room and this is in the alcove. To the surprise of, hopefully, no one when they first saw this.  This drops us onto this stretch of land here. The conveyer belt there is what the hole on 4F dropped us onto before. Amrita Shower cures all ailments on the entire party at once. It's pretty good, but there are very, VERY few fights that make something like this even remotely worth it. And by "very few" I mean one.  In all seriousness when it comes to the dark rooms for a moment, Delphinus really feels more like the introduction of them than Carina did. Sure, Carina did them first but it only had like 2 in the basement. There are more in Delphinus, and they feel more basic and simple for the most part. I really wonder what happened there...  Anyway, the left door leads to a small area with this in it and nothing else. Kamudo was one of the relative best Magatama in Nocturne, IMO. Not for what it did on its own, but rather because it teaches you Focus (2.5x Phys boost) really, REALLY early. Here?  It's the Hawthorn Spear but worse. Now, ailment base proc rates for your weapons are a thing I don't have the data for but I sure hope this makes up for being deficient by having a higher base chance. Ailment proc rates for demon attacks? Yeah, no, I have that for all of them. All of them.  Anyway, that hole on the 4th floor by the Sacrifice was required to make progress. Yes, really. It leads you to the stairs here, after all.  Oh and there's a shortcut behind the stairs here. This didn't appear at all before, because some hidden doors only appear at first on one side of a wall. We gotta open it up from the back before we can use it as a shortcut? Hmm, now where have I heard that before...  Anyway, that's the entirety of 3F mapped out now. Unlike Carina, Delphinus is REALLY easy to fully map out on average. I'unno, I think so at least. Silence Anyway, this part of 4F has a terminal and healing spot for our use.  > The statue looks fearsome, but it doesn't seem to be dangerous... So this is just behind the stairs leading down to the 3rd floor here. It, uh, it sure is a thing I guess? Prayer Anyway, fiiiine, we'll go and give this forma to Irving now. That's right... you ain't gettin' one over on me. Just hand 'er over and no one gets hurt, heheh.> You handed Irving the Keisetsu Stone. ...Alright, time for a challenge! Time to break out the science and unveil the secrets o' the universe! You better keep up, Chen! ...Sorry, it's always like this, Hitonari. COuld you give us a little more time?> Irving and Chen started working. ...... ...... ...  I'm gonna need to borrow yer Demonica for a bit, Tadano.  Holy poo poo, yes! So now we can actually, y'know, see in those dark rooms! It doesn't add them to our map (I've still gotta do that manually) but it means we can see where we're going at least. A Rotten Nation It puts this cool retro VR/Tron style grid up instead of looking like the normal sector. I'm kind of okay with this.  But I didn't grab it for this floor, oh no. Oh no, no no.  And not just because we've mapped out the entire thing now. That definitely helps, though.  The 5th floor starts us off in a tiny corridor that immediately leads into two doors. One to the left and one to the right. We'll go left first I suppose.  This just leads us into a small dark room corridor. Very linear, very simple.  Next we come to a dark room with... an automove tile that pushes us back here. Guess we can't go this way after all.  It's hard to see on the top screen here, but there IS a conveyer belt to the right there that pushes us back up here as well.  .......Oh, okay. I get it. I get it. This is a maze, huh? It's dark so it doesn't get automapped making it super simple and it's automove so you need spacial awareness to keep track of it. In theory.  Now, it's important to note that the Visualiser is completely optional. It just shows you dark rooms after all, so you can technically just ignore the Keisetsu Stone and never get it.  That WOULD make this kind of insanely irritating and difficult but you'd have no one to blame but yourself. The Keisetsu Stone IS just lying there as a fixed forma, but it's right in the critical path to this point so you have no excuse.  Not taking it back to Irving requires more intent for sure, but there are 2 terminals between there and here so you still have to actively not do that. Three if you include this one.  Now, if you DO have the Visualiser? This becomes much, much easier. See, this area is pretty well designed like that. It's almost worryingly generous with the way the path is laid out.  Because I'm purposefully mapping the entire thing out, it highlights the obvious little tricks with the way the area is designed. You'll realistically never end up going back down here if you're not intentionally doing so, for example. The layout of the level itself, even without manually mapping it, makes it obvious you're just going in a circle.  And if you ARE having trouble with the Visualiser because the game doesn't automap for you? Then just map it yourself. Get some paper and draw it. It's not that big of an area and you don't need to do 100% of it to understand the layout.  There's a few times you might make a mistake looking for the critical path at first, but all the biggest "you won't do this intentionally" spots where you could make a mistake? Still helpful. This path here seems like it might be the right one because of the forma but it's just an easy way to get DF II guaranteed.  Beyond that, the actual goal is simple: get to the centre. Personally, I didn't map this one out by hand because it's so small and there's only a tiny number of spaces you can go. I find it really easy to just remember which path I'd already taken but not everyone can do that.  I realise I spent a lot of time on this spot, relative to like everywhere else so far, but this is the first major spot that I can see someone complaining about. I can definitely understand the complaints but at the same time, I kind of can't? If it was a bigger area and you couldn't have the Visualiser to help with any spacial problems then yeah, it'd be stupid and bullshit. But it's just one small area with no real mean tricks to it.  Now, if there was say holes (or spinners like this is some old school Wizardry nonsense) then it'd be much, much worse.  And if you really got annoyed by it, there's a terminal immediately afterwards as well. ....I realise we haven't done this since Antlia, but this seems like a good place to take a break, huh? Let's do that for now then. Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:36 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Jan 16, 2017 07:41
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Prism posted:Don't make me break out the Wiz4 maps for a taste of terror. I will. Wizardry IV is straight up, from top-to-bottom, in every single facet of its design the most ridiculous bullshit I have ever seen and I can't but love it for that. Mainly because I do not have the balls to actually play it. If I did, I imagine my opinion would change very quickly. Nah, Shining in the Darkness might be the oldest proper first person dungeon crawler I've bothered with (well, outside of the Ultima series I mean) and the meanest thing I remember from that was something that is unique insofar as I can recall right now. Damage floors are pretty cruel, but Shining in the Darkness had MP damage tiles. In terms of fuckin' with dudes, that'd be up there for that alone just because MP is a much more valuable resource. Honestly kinda surprised I haven't seen that crop up anywhere near as often as it feels like it should.
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Jan 17, 2017 17:44
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A Rotten Nation After the dark maze that was the entirety of 5F, the 6th floor is much, much simpler. It's still kind of a conveyer belt maze, if you want to stretch the definition, but it's all outside.  You kind of get railroaded here and can't leave.  Fortunately, the wall-mounted D-Pad is a switch of some kind.  A very magical switch, because it somehow reverses the flow of... water...? Basically the automove directions are the opposite direction now. Formerly up goes down and vice versa, same with left/right.  This lets us actually explore the area a bit more. There's the occasional hole down to 5F but they all drop you by the stairs back up.  It's really no big deal. In this case, it even helps as an alternative way of getting where we want to go.  ...Granted there ARE a lot of holes (kinda) and most of them are at the end of conveyer belts. If you're not intentionally jumping down them I can see this being really annoying. The Fear of God 6F adds a tiny, tiny number of new demons. As in just these two. This means Ghouls finally turn up here. Hi, Ghouls! They're weak to Fire, Expel and Mute. They like to use Mudo. If they basic attack you, it has a 30% chance to poison. Hsing-Hsing are cool drinkin' monkeys. They have no resistances at all and are weak to Fire. They have Life Aid which is kind of okay (10% HP recovery at the end of a fight) but it can skill change into some fairly nice things. A Rotten Nation Anyway, the real trick to 6F is that it's really simple and very small. If you just go where you can, the main path becomes very hard to miss.  The one spot where you might go where progress isn't, is this alcove here. There's just a couple fixed forma but it's good for getting AT II and just in general if you missed the DF on the 5th floor.  But, uh, that's the floor. Go left, flip switch, and now you can leave. The entire right-side of the floor is just an optional "puzzle" for getting the forma.  7F now, and we can see two new signals on the map at last. Odds are good they're more Formless, but they could theoretically not be.  6F was super simple because it was basically a tutorial for this floor. We have a slightly more difficult version of the same puzzle going on now.  Gotta navigate our way to the switches to reverse the conveyer belts. Can't make progress of any kind otherwise.  We COULD immediately just leave and go to the 8th floor apparently. We're not going to do that though! Just remember that this is an option.  Now, when I said this is slightly more difficult than 6F the emphasis was on the slightly.  You're still ultimately just railroaded to the switch if you opt to not take the stairs, so it's just a matter of following the super-linear path. It's just slightly longer so you fight more things.  We do have to flip both switches to make it to either signal it looks like. This one seems marginally more annoying to get to, so we'll do it first. In The Master's Name ZELENIN... DO YOU KNOW HOW THOSE AROUND YOU SAW YOU? What...? ALL HAD BLACK DESIRES SMOLDERING DEEP WITHIN THEM... Wh-What are you saying...!?THE CREW OF THE ELVE SAW YOU WITH LUSTFUL EYES... Stop it...! What do you want!?...HMHMHM.  Unnecessary contact with that demon is dangerous. Eliminate it. STARE DEEP INTO THE TRUTH... Ahhh! Huh, I guess she gets to handle this one. Makes sense to me.  TCH... STAY OUT OF MY WAY...! IT WAS GOING SO WELL... WHAT A STUBBORN WOMAN... AH! BUT WHAT ABOUT THE MAN? An Honor Befitting That Name These guys are still ultimately identical to the past 3 times we fought them. But, yes, what about the man?  Well, he has the Frost Cannon which lets him fire powerful Wind bullets that tear into their weakness. So that makes Fire, Ice, Elec and Wind in that order huh? I wonder if the next one will be weak to Expel... In The Master's Name This is proving to be quite the difficult mission...Eh, I'm not sure I'd say difficult. Time consuming, certainly, but at least it doesn't feel as padded as chasing Horkos could. A Rotten Nation Only way out of this area is to head into a dead-end. If you pay attention to your map, you'll know this is a hole that drops you down to the 6th floor's one missing tile.  And I really wasn't kidding when I said one missing tile:   The 6th floor is tiny. Really, really tiny.  Oh and it's around here I realised I hit level 34 which means that A Dark Hee-ro Emerges! He gets Skogsra's source for the Rakunda and Arrow Rain. Frost Ace is cool and good.  Anyway, 7F's super linear and we just hit the 2 switches again and then we're at the other door. Silence I say again, unnecessary contact with the demon there is dangerous. Jimenez and the other crewmen serve as reminders. Defeat it immediately. You're right, Arthur. I'm sorry to have worried you. ......! The demon is here! In The Master's Name ZELENIN... Sorry, but I can't be bothered to listen to your nonsense!WHY DO YOU GIVE WORTHLESS HUMANS THE RIGHT TO LIVE...? WHY DO YOU ALLOW THE BEAUTIFUL SPIRITS TO BE TRAMPLED ON?  ...Hitonari! Hurry and defeat it!IF YOU DARE INTERFERE WITH MY PLANS... YOU WILL DIE! This'd be more intimidating by default if we hadn't beaten this thing four times over already.  Same as before except back to being weak to Fire, huh? I guess it just wraps around. Next one'll be Ice again, then!  THEN... I SHALL... RETURN... EVERYTHING.  Hm...? The readings... they're all disappearing!> The Rosetta readings on the automap all disappeared...  The Rosetta readings have gone... What happened? They disappeared when you defeated the demon!? You didn't get the Rosetta, did you!? poo poo! Our only lead is gone...!? Attention, all hands. We lost the Rosetta readings, but the demon is likely proceeding to the next stage of its plan. All crewmen are advised to carry out their duties with caution. "I shall show you my true form..." That's what he said. He must be here somewhere! But... Where? A Rotten Nation I'm gonna go and guess the 8th floor, or higher maybe, since we haven't been there yet.   Definitely not on the 7th since we've explored all of that now as well. I guess 1F is a technical possibility but the only place we haven't been there is somewhere we CAN'T get to...  8F has a pair of hidden doors right by its entrance.  Only noteworthy because they lead to already deflated cocoons and empty chambers. I guess there used to be Formless here before we killed 5 and they all buggered off somewhere?  There's a terminal up here as well, but we don't have a Strong Demon Detected yet so it can't be for that. It's probably to aid with backtracking.  There's also a 3rd empty chamber over here that isn't hidden. There was 8 Formless originaly and after we beat 5 they were like "okay gently caress this we gotta Get Serious" and went somewhere else.  Wherever it is, it's not on the 8th either since this is the entire floor done. Delphinus' upper levels get REALLY small, really fast huh? Prayer Strangely noteworthy here is that Kato's dialogue is updated. But only Kato's. Everyone else repeats their post-Gore meeting stuff. But now that he's shown up again... It's hard not to think about him. I hope the next time we meet him, it's in better circumstances. And while we're here, let's see what new things we can get from Irving. The Rock Vest is pretty nice; resists Fire and gives us a decent Defense boost too. Gonna pop this one on, but it can prove slightly tricky to make since it requires DF Delphite II x2, Beast Flask x2 (Hsing-Hsing and he's probably the rarest non-Fiend in the sector) and Vermin Antenna x1 (Mothman).  The accessories are, uh, still accessories. Resolve Ring requires AC Deplhite x3, Wood Bark x2 (Skogsra) and UMA Foot x2 (Hare of Inaba) to grant Hitonari immunity to Strain...? Blech, pass.  Not like the Boundless Ring is much better. AC Delphite x3, Divine Heart x2 (Virtue) and Genma Conch x1 (Kurama Tengu) for Mute nullification. It's definitely better but that's a very, very low bar.  The items are all exactly what you think they are. And that makes them pretty nice if you can be bothered to farm 'em: Tetraja Stone takes DF Delphite II x1, Nymph Fan x1 (Ame no Uzume) and Enigma Himorogi x1 (Futotama). Dekaja Stone takes DF Delphite II x1, Flight Feather x1 (Caladrius) and Genma Conch x1. Dekunda Stone takes DF Delphite II x1, Flight Feather x1 and UMA Foot x1. Notably not worth it because Hare of Inaba drops Dekunda Stones with a 100% drop rate in the first place. That's that for the store for now. Back to Delphinus we go, and I suppose we'll just go up until we get the Demonica's alert. A Rotten Nation Surprisingly, that works really well. It's very quick to get back to the 4th floor because of the many shortcuts we unlocked earlier. Also this is the only really obvious place to check anyway thanks to that super conspicuous statue. Silence > The statue is giving off a powerful energy reading... What's this statue...? Chaos Theme That demon! Look, it's...! As you'd expect, this is not at all animated. Just shows the Formless, shows the statue, then this. Boring.  This happens again and again... The demons are gathering...!   Behold... So you're the cause of the Delphinus Parasite! Tell me, humans... Why do you do nothing but try to escape this world? What...!? Your spirits have lost their once-beautiful shape! You covet your material goods and do injury to your planet. You are vile, vulgar spirits! Therefore, this Schwarzwelt has appeared to test you. And still, you humans can think of nothing but escape. Why will you not polish your spirits!? Why do you not seek to become beautiful? "Testing"? "Polishing"? That's barbaric and insane! I know full well there is evil in the world... Humanity won't better itself by fighting! It's wrong! "Order"? Nonsense! I have observed this world for thousands of years, since what you would call ancient times... The human spirit was once beautiful. It was because of the chaos in that ancient world that the spirits of humans were made beautiful! But the foolish notion of "order" has caused the human spirit to wither and decay. "Order" is nothing but comfort for the weak! The weak deserve only the comfort of death! We must bring chaos back into the world and halt the decay of the human spirit! No... You can't! That is why we were sent here! It was the Earth's will that we bring back chaos! Bring back power! It is not wrong... it is beautiful! Do you still not understand...? Will you stand by and watch the Earth decay? And with it, your spirit...? That's all a lie. ...It seems a rotten spirit cannot be told that it is rotten! Unfortunately, your spirits are not yet in a beautiful shape. I will use my power to reshape them thus![/i] Tyrant Asura Vehement Rage Asura isn't a specific one deity. It's a class of lords that are either benevolent deva in Zoroastrian mythology or malevolent in Hindu myth. In Buddhism, they are the lowest rank of demigods and have 3 heads, each with 3 faces. Asura's designs are all based on the Buddhist version, naturally.  So, Asura has a... few very special skills. Asura Roga is his favourite and he usually, but not quite always, uses it in the first time. If you buff/debuff to +/- 4, then he spams it even harder before getting rid of buffs/debuffs. 3 is fine, as per usual, of course.  ...Well, that's not meant to happen.  Ahem, Asura Roga inflicts a whole new ailment! Rage doubles your Physical damage output and forces whoever has it to only make basic attacks against either a random enemy or ally. Notable is that they cannot attack themselves. It is essentially A Worse Charm. Rage is a special ailment. Every demon in the game, regardless of what it is, has a flat 100% resistance so functionally neutral. Except two. There are two demons that have a different modifier. Oni and one other demon we haven't seen yet have a 300% weakness instead. That's it. Nothing has a normal 200% weakness. Nothing has an arbitrary and weird intermediary value. Nothing resists it in any way. It doesn't even have a cure; it just wears off over time. You can use Amrita items to remove it, but that's a waste. Rage, like Bomb, is usable normally by enemy demons only. Rage, unlike Bomb, is kind of terrible so that doesn't matter.  He CAN cast Maragidyne, but against this party in particular that doesn't help him much.  He'll also gladly cast Concentrate. He will in fact cast Concentrate a lot. He will Concentrate to Concentrate to Concentrate. This does absolutely nothing, of course, so it's kind of a gimme.  Did I mention he casts Asura Roga a lot? Because he does.  He has two other unique skills though. One of them he adamantly refused to do. Black Flame is random target heavy Fire damage.  This can go rather badly for him, yes, especially with this party in particular.  Oh and, yes, he IS weak to Ice. He Reflects Fire and Wind so maybe don't use them. He also resists Gun for all the nothing that matters. The End Honestly, in terms of actual proper bosses, Asura is a very stong contender for the overall easiest. He has a whole 2 things he can do and while Rage might be scary if you have no idea what it does, it becomes very apparent very quickly that his gimmick is to make you stronger so you kill him faster.  So, uh, good job there, Asura! At least he gives decent EXP and... adequate Macca, I suppose. The Magic Mirror is a bit of a piss-take though! End Chaos Theme Do not think... this is... the end... It is too late... to stop the Earth... from being filled... with chaos! Hahahahahaha... Hahahahahahahahahahaha...! The victory rings a little hollow, but... Hm? Look...!What, did he drop a Rare Forma and the Rosetta?   Yes, yes he did. Color me surprised.  The Rosetta reading in this sector is none other than the manifold before you. Secure the Rosetta and return to the ship. So ends our mission in this sector, eh? I'm so tired... But I'm sure you have it worse than I do. You've been fighting this entire time... Physically and mentally, your time in the Schwarzwelt is making you stronger... Whereas I'm only still standing by the grace of the angels. Silence Return to the command room after you deliver the Rosetta to Engineering. Malevolence and Benevolence Mission "Delphinus's Rosetta" is confirmed complete. I would like to let the recovering crewmen rest, but we are short-handed. They must return to duty. Our main objective in sector Delpinus is complete. We will now proceed to the next step. The crew has worked diligently in analyzing the Schwarzwelt's structure. This has allowed us to successfully navigate several quantum tunnels. Moreover, we have cooperated with the Joint Project on Earth to calculate our space-time location. We have amassed a vast store of data about the Schwarzwelt. This data is nearly sufficient to pinpoint our final destination: The Vanishing Point!? We've finally found it!? We are in the final stages. We must verify that, along with our method of navigation. Good thing we never gave up! Devising a plan for our entry into the new sector will take time. All crewmen not in Operations should remain on standby. ...... I know that's what we've been trying so desperately to do, but... No. I don't think we can accomplish anything here except to escape and report our findings. It's just... ...... We can't guarantee that anything we've learned will help to save the Earth, can we? I have the sick feeling there may soon come a time when we'll say to each other... What do you think, Hitonari? Can you go back with no regrets? First let's find a way out. The hard work isn't over yet... ...Oh, Jimenez. Back on your feet already, huh? Feeling better? Besides, this is no time to lay back and relax, right? Hey, Tadano. Sorry to give you a scare... Thanks to that aim of yours, I'm back in action. ...... There are no lingering problems, Jimenez? You can move around? Sure, no problem. I mean... well... okay, there is one weird thing. It's a real kick, getting possessed. You should try it sometime. Jimenez...! I can't believe you! Why must you be so childish!? We cured you when you were nothing but a demon, and you claim to have enjoyed it!? Listen to yourself! How can you say these things!? ...... You wouldn't understand. ...... You might wanna think twice about putting too much trust in humans, Zelenin. Hell, maybe that was the real me back there. Maybe that's what we're all really like. Could be all us humans oughtta be snapping and snarling at each other... Human beings don't live to fight each other. Quit that, both of you! Why are you being so hostile!? Back me up here, Hitonari! I'm gonna hit the showers and then head over to sickbay... See you later, Tadano. ......  You mean we're going in circles? The simple explanation goes like this... We thought the Schwarzwelt was a multilayered structure connected by quantum tunnels. The thing is... How's that for absolute despair? The entire Schwarzwelt is built to give you hope of being able to leave, but it just keeps looping back on itself. It might not even be immediately obvious because of it being a seperate space/time location, so you'd just shrug at it looking similar and move on. The eventual reality would sink in and with no other way to progress, you'd most likely surrender and sink into despair and misery. In other words... No matter how far up we climb, we can't reach the top. Before we know it, we're back at the start. Indeed. Our normal methods of navigation will not allow us to reach the new sector. However, if we chart our own course towards the coordinates of the Vanishing Point... We have informed Engineering and they are readying the engine. I know there's a risk, but... I have confidence in Arthur's calculations. Question is, will it just let us escape...? The Schwarzwelt... Let us move on to the next sector.  Get ready, everyone! We're almost home! Swiftly moving on to the next sector... hopefully.  Comparing space-time coordinates... Our current location is verified as our intended destination. Bringing up the camera feed... Fear It looks pretty nice, actually. Huh. So this is the new sector... It feels very different from the others. They were all showing the dark side of humanity, but this... You know, I think we might be the first to set foot in this sector. At last! We're getting closer to Earth! However, the Schwarzwelt is thought to contain many similar dimensions within it. Technically spekaing, it is not appropriate to call this the "final" sector. Hey, man, there's no reason to rain on our parade here. You really put the "artificial" in "AI." Very optimistic of you... I remind you that we don't yet know for sure that we can make it home. Hitonari? Make sure you don't let your guard down. Yes! Eridanus!  Ahem.... Eridanus is a river, it is named after the River of Hades, Eriadnos, from Greek Mythology. It's the 6th largest constellation and was first discovered and named by Ptolemy. So, y'know, pretty old. There's even a river in northern Italy, the Po River, that is named after it. Anyway, that's our Eridanus. The Schwarzwelt's Eridanus is the best sector. If you disagree, sorry, you're wrong. If you think it's the worst, you're double wrong. Our chief objective here is to find the Vanishing Point. Our means of escape is within our grasp. I am certain that you will succeed. We've established a connection to the Joint Project. But I'm sure there are demons lying in wait here, too. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes... We will deploy our forces into the sector shortly to begin an investigation. All right. I hear you. But before you do, we need to inform you of a decision we've made. Listen carefully... A decision? Whaddaya mean? We owe everyone on the crew a great deal. Thanks to you, we've learned a lot about the Schwarzwelt. Which brings me to the point... We call it "Operation: Schwarzwelt Elimination." Operation... Schwarzwelt Elimination!? Is that possible!? The surface of the Schwarzwelt is composed of incredibly unstable fluidizing particle bonds. It's one of the Schwarzwelt's general properties. I'll outline the stages of the plan for you... We'll set nuclear warheads around the Schwarzwelt and set them off in a chain reaction. Its heat will break the fluidizing particle bonds, causing them to collapse... Thus destroying the Schwarzwelt. The only thing left to do now is to wait to execute it. When will the plan be executed? Oh, as soon as possible. Every tick of the clock brings the Earth closer to danger, after all. It's getting close to the southern regions of Australia, Africa, and South America. We can't afford to waste time... Operation: Schwarzwelt Elimination must be carried out as soon as possible! Please, hurry and escape! ...... We'll commence the operation the instant you escape the Schwarzwelt. Operation: Schwarzwelt Elimination is acknowledged. We will perform our task with that in mind. Silence We're counting on you... Humanity is in the throes of a nightmare. You're our lone ray of hope. We'll be praying for your safe return and a return to peace. Godspeed, gentlemen. Malevolence and Benevolence We're all gonna be saved! Now we can focus on getting outta here! Get psyched, people! Prepare to disembark! The guys back on Earth aren't half bad after all... Well, anyone'd get desperate when they're back into a corner. Operation: Schwarzwelt Elimination... It is possible, in theory... Attention, all hands. ...thereby return to Earth. I call on you all to put forth your full effort in your duties. I look forward to the successful completion of your mission.But wait, there's more! Tyrant Asura v Human Hitonari Vehement Rage Asura's gimmick is that he inflicts Rage. Rage means you hit anyone EXCEPT YOURSELF. You hit them harder than normal. If you're having trouble with Asura? Just buy the Rock Vest and rock up solo.  Asura Roga happens a lot. We can secretly deal ~150 damage a round with a non-Strength based Hitonari under Rage (you'll see). The Frost Cannon's Frost Shot deals slightly less and costs 20MP. That's balanced out by being more effective when not under Rage, yes.  The only thing that makes Asura not a guaranteed win, and instead only very likely, with this setup is this. Ashura is his last move and it's what he never used against my full party because he's a rude jerk.  It's just random heavy Phys damage. He only has Concentrate not Charge, so he can't make this stronger. The caveat is you can't realistically mitigate it AND Black Flame either. You can use Tarunda/War Cry for sure and in this case Armshot if you don't want to have the Frost Cannon equipped for some unfathomable reason, though. Or I guess if you don't have it. But you have the Visualiser now, so go back and get it! Frost Ace is also really, really good!  So, yeah, if you're having trouble with Asura solo him and he will gladly help you murder him effortlessly. Go figure! Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:37 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Jan 18, 2017 07:46
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Okay, so this is a Very Long Update and I'd genuinely be hesitant to post it in thread even if it was on a new page and not the bottom of this one. So I won't do that. 26. Delphinus Clean Up Also even if you don't care about EX Missions/sweet new gear for some reason, there's still something in there that you might find interesting.
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Jan 20, 2017 07:53
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freshlybaked posted:How many demons like Mayahuel are there whose stat screens show the completely opposite information? Because that boggles my mind. Mayahuel isn't the first we've seen where the game outright lies (Hare of Inaba earlier did the same thing in a different way) but she is one of the most noteworthy because of how wrong that "weakness" is in practice. There are a few others that do that, and some of them are really weird and dumb. As for the Unknown, it's just that. An Unknown: One of these things. They're not meant to exist as their own separate thing so the game just gets super-confused if one exists as an independent entity. Problem is, it exists in battle so it can be passworded in. Everything that has a battle scene can be, which is why Gore is there (from what we've seen so far, Jimenez would also be doable but I think just one of them works fine for an example), since that has separate hex data in the game files and so a password can be generated for it even though it really shouldn't be. It's data that technically exists in a format in which it shouldn't, so I think the game just gets confused and throws it hand up if its anywhere in its memory. So, yeah, MissingNo is probably a pretty good comparison except the Unknowns don't even have a benefit.
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Jan 20, 2017 18:09
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