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 Alright, let's step into Eridanus. I'd say we put it off for long enough, but no that's really not true. I almost put off those sidequests but I have a system and it works so...   A Land Controlling Roads   I wanna just get back and get paid.  It's here in the home stretch that we most need to stay alert. Overconfidence is the greatest enemy, huh? Yeah, you're right. I can't fault your enthusiasm, but let's stay focused. Right! Let's find that Vanishing Point and-- Did you hear that, Tadano? Zelenin made a joke!I know, it's amazing! But anyway, Eridanus.  Right out the gate, it's different to everything we've seen before. Antlia, Bootes, Carina and Delphinus all started you off in a tiny corridor (in varying ways). Eridanus starts you out in the open.  It's doors are just normal, simple doors. Carina sort of had that as well to be fair. But it's not just this that immediately sets it apart from the otherwise. Everything is green and looks like its actually living plant life rather than a facsimile of life. The area is referred to as a "Land" and not a "Nation" in the music name and it sounds way less oppressive too. We're definitely on the cusp of freedom from this place, and everything about the area is signaling that already.   My wife's a great cook.Not much from this guy, just appreciating the finer things in life I see.  Also there's a... Thoth, and not Demon again??, just next to the entrance.  The wind told me about you... About the humans that came to this extreme world of spacelike conditions... Still... to think you've come this far... I must say, I didn't believe you could do it. Is that the power of human wisdom? That's right. Hoh hoh hoh...! Pretty confident in ourselves, aren't we?Considering what I could do with this Mayahuel I'm carrying around, I have good reason to be confident... By the way... Do you know who I am? I'm not as special as all that, though... I just know a little more than your average god. Now then... As the god of books and knowledge, tell me this... Do you like riddles? Y'see, it's my duty as that kind of god to test whoever I meet. Those who pass gain more knowledge. It's a little pastime of mine. So? How about it? Want to take a stab at my riddles and earn some new wisdom? Yes. Hoh hoh hoh... I thought you'd agree, my boy. But first, let me explain how this is going to work. I predicted this would happen and gave a certain demon one of my books in advance. You job is to find some book and bring it to me. Here's where the riddle comes in: I'll give you a hint as to who this "certain demon" is. Whether or not you earn your new wisdom depends on if you can solve the riddle. And now, the first riddle. Alrght, my boy, now show me what you can do!So this is basically just a way, way less creepy coat of paint on the sidequests we've been getting from Anthony. Go to place, talk to demon, come back. We obviously haven't just gotten them from him but it's the easiest comparison.  Anyway, the thing about Eridanus is that it has A LOT of sudden dead-ends. This one has a hidden door that we can't even open yet.  But there's a lot more that have absolutely nothing in them. It's kind of ridiculous, really.  ...Okay, this one isn't exactly the best example either, but you can see several on the map.  Anyway, the other major thing about Eridanus is that it's kind of big and sprawling. It's not exactly a maze or anything, but it can take a while to navigate at first.  Also next to that Bead is a hidden door we can only open from this side. That's... kind of weird really. It's not like this is any quicker than the other door we could take to get here.  Presumably from there, some of these other dead ends have something similar. Otherwise stuff like that empty one square past that door are just... irrelevant and dumb.  It also keeps up the trend of having Fixed Forma to lead towards general locations. Except this doesn't help now. It's more of a "hey there might be a thing here!" and then there isn't and you have 5 Recovery Cores when you probably already had 99. It mainly just exists to lead you into more fights. Speaking of which... The Fear of God Toufei is, uh, pretty much exactly as he looks. So, not very good at all. At least his Source gives Garudyne if you really need that still. It also gives Diarama and Giant Slice so even that is kind of terrible! Kin-Ki resists Phys, is weak to Wind and is immune to Elec and Curse. His base skills are a weird mesh (he has Fang Breaker! And Zionga...????) and his source is even weirder but consistent. It gives Ziodyne AND Elec Boost! It's basically Electric Inferno and I am kind of very okay with that.  Vouivre is here and she also has Bai Suzhen is awful. She only resists Ice, and she is weak to Fire. And has a 300% weakness to Paralysis and Charm. And her best skill is Bufula. Her source gives Ice Boost... and Mutudi and Recovery Boost? Bai Suzhen what are you even doing?!  Titan turns up here as well. Which I'm only pointing out in case he ends up relevant in the future in a way that I forgot. An Honor Befitting that Name Let's do the Enemy Searches now as well. There IS a Fiend, because this is a Sector that is not named Antlia, but they have a 2% chance of spawning so that might take some work. Anyway, Tlaloc has a 49% chance of spawning. 20% chance of appearing solo and a 29% chance of appearing with a couple Toufei. He's weak to Ice and resists Fire, Electric and Curse. He has no ailment resistances or weaknesses. His skills are Maragion and Zionga. I shoot him and he becomes a statue. Hitonari with a Luck build is disgusting because Rock Bullet works almost every single time you use it. It's great. Get the Jackal. Do it.  King Frost always rocks up solo and he has a 49% chance of appearing. Yes, there are only 3 enemy search demons here. King Frost is also notable for being the first Tyrant that isn't a Sector boss! Anyway, he's weak to Fire, drains Ice and immune to Expel. He has Mediarahan which is cute and irrelevant, because he does not resist Petrification. Or any ailment really.  He's a special fusion when we hit level 40. He requires both Frost Ace and Black Frost and is strictly worse than both of them. Cold World is kind of a unique skill; it's only on him by default but he doesn't give it as a Source skill (only as a Bonus). Two demons DO give it as a Source skill but they're level 70+ and neither has it by default. Cold World is good but not great. It's got a base power of 150 (same as Bufula) and hits everything. It costs slightly more MP than Mabufudyne and is only worth using because it inflicts instant death. At a 15% base rate. If he had a good Luck stat this might be worth something. Malevolence and Benevolence Anyway, once we blunder into what I can only presume is progress, Arthur chimes in.  An abnormality has just occurred in a crewman's radio on the field. There were no major problems, but all hands should be aware of radio conditions while investigating. Maybe our Demonicas are finally starting to break down. We're looking into the problem, but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the Demonicas. The magnetic field was disturbed by a large energy source...? Could it be...? Has the Joint Project begun the destruction of the Schwarzwelt!? That is not a possibility. There is still time before the operation commences. They will not begin without our signal. I wonder if it's possible that the energy source is moving on its own. I just hope it's not another demon out to cause trouble for us. Anything is possible. We cannot allow ourselves to be distracted by unverified data. Strike team, focus on searching for the Vanishing Point. Fear itself is usually worse than what you're afraid of. Let's keep our priorities straight, guys. I'm not sure that quite applies to our situation, but... I'll agree that we do need to find the Vanishing Point now. Work quickly, Hitonari. A Land Controlling Roads There's a terminal over here in case you want to, I'unno, have to make that long trek again for no reason or something.  There's also this guy over here, but he's not got anything exciting or interesting to say.  There is a set of stairs over here, but you probably noticed the other set on the map didn't you? The one in the bottom left. Gonna use the terminal to warp over there real quick and take off Medic since it's clearly irrelevant here.  The stairs in the bottom left lead over to this open area that has nothing in it.  There IS a hidden door here, but we can't open it yet.  Oh and I guess one by the stairs as well that we can open.  It's kind of a shame and a major annoyance that I can't open this one yet either.  Because surprise this entire path is nothing but damage tiles. I may have been a mite too hasty to declare Medic irrelevant.  Oh but wait, there's more! There are also ailment tiles here. And they put you to sleep.  Being asleep on the map regens HP at a much better rate than it does in combat but doesn't affect MP. Hitonari being asleep on the map means that we can't do poo poo and every clock tick the DP Indicator steadily advances towards combat.  This path of danger and tutorials leads to a Summon Stone and nothing else. If we could open those hidden doors, it'd probably make for a minimal effort way to this spot and/or back again. Still eat the one damage tile but that's not as big a deal. I'm really glad it's so easy to have a ridiculous surplus of Life Stones, because they heal 25% HP and all.  Anyway, what about this tile? I sort of forgot to map it huh. My bad, let's fix tha--  Oh, this is new. This is very new.  It teleported us to some very different looking area. Still on the second floor though, according to the map.  There's a terminal AND a healing spot here, at least. The terminal makes sense, but the heal spot is weirder since we are, or at least were, so close to the entrance.  But aside from that one door we can't open, there's nothing else here so we'll take this warp panel in the top-right back to that tiny chamber in the 2nd floor from before.  As for the actual main part of the floor, there's just a door immediately. And, huh, that weird white techno room is pretty close by according to the map. That's kind of interesting and cool.  ...Okay, Eridanus does this and I don't like this. This is just a really bad decision and is honestly just flat-out not defendable IMO. It has a second tier of Dark Rooms because you just got the Visualiser so you're not allowed to use it any more. It was basically there for Delphinus 5F and that's it. Back to blindly wandering for you. It wouldn't be a big deal but this one dark room is pretty big and has one hell of a complicated layout compared to all those simple corridors we got used to before.  There's those four rooms in the corners and two arbitrary and ridiculous ones over on the left. We'll start here I think.  Well, this ain't such a bad place to live. If you get lost, just trust your instincts and walk straight ahead. You might see somethin' then...Okay, so the top-left is probably the exit then. Gonna save that one for last. The Fear of God Pellaidh is pretty boring and bad. Resists ice, weak to Fire and Elec. His best stat is magic and his only spell is Diarama. Just... augh why is everything in Eridanus so underwhelming? A Land Controlling Roads The bottom left just gives us a fixed forma to help alleviate minor ailments. Although with the sleep tiles, this may help.  Man, I can't get anywhere in this darkness... I've just been walking forward. Hm? Just walking forward... Maybe it's not as complicated as I thought...Yeah, so that next door up is an empty corridor. The forma there is, uh...  At least it's potentially nice and useful. The last door in the top left is clearly where we want to go so...   I'm going ahead for another try. See you later! Gotta keep trying until we get the hell outta this drat world, after all. Just past Jimenez, there's probably progress. We just have a set of stairs leading back down.  And now Zelenin interrupts immediately. Sure. How's the investigation going? I called because I wanted you to help me out with something. You're not far from my position, right? Could you come here and give me your opinion? Just go on straight ahead from where you are now.Alright, so that's exactly what we're not going to do then.  There's a door right to the left there and it... leads to a white room with a set of stairs? Huh.  Of course, the brings us up to just adjacent to the teleport-y area.  There's also an Ame-no-Uzume-no-mikoto just round the corner.   Hm? What do you want? Ah, worse and worse... to run into a human at a time like this. No matter! I must bring back the Lady Amaterasu! Hmm... a thought comes to mind... You humans can find hidden demons with those unearthly machines of yours, no...? I am Ame no Uzume, attendant to the Lady Amaterasu, the goddess of a foreign land far from here. Then I might be able to rejoin the Lady Amaterasu... Very well! I have a request for you, human. Yes. Thank you. Oh yes, it nearly slipped my mind... Should you cross paths, tell him what happened. His is the power to tell fortunes through Futomani, so he would be no small help... My hopes are placed on you.I suppose we'll be going back to Delphinus sooner or later. Later. It's going to be later.  At least we can open a door on this side that gives us a convenient shortcut back here.  Maybe it's time I upgraded my Forma Search function too.I'm not at all sure how he plans on doing that, but this does raise a good point. There really hasn't been much Forma at all in Eridanus.   Speaking of which, just around the corner from that guy we find this rare Forma. Seems weird that they'd have this (obviously named after the Ars Goetia) and the Lemegetonite at the same time but... hmm, wait hang on. I wonder, then... Malevolence and Benevolence And here's the thing that Zelenin was talking about. At least I hope it is.  Thank you for coming. What do you suppose this is...? From the look of it, I don't think it's merely decorative... On examination, I found a weak energy reading. The waveform is... similar to those of the terminals. Oh yes, and here... Some kind of mechanism is in this recession. Have you found anything that might fit that description? Any possible keys to the device? Yes.We DID just pick up that Goetite around the corner. That's all I can think of. Really?! Let me see! ... I'm fairly sure what we're looking for is in the Schwarzwelt... I wonder if we can find it with our Main App. Well... I'll examine this for a little while longer. You keep up the hunt for something that might be used with this. A Land Controlling Roads So now we need to find... something, I guess. Well, let's get looking then.  The one thing you'll inevitably notice around here is that there are a lot of sleep tiles that... just exist to troll you. Like those down there that lead to a one-way door back in a loop. I'unno, I kinda think that's pretty funny.   There's also just kind of a lot of sleep tiles in general around here, jeez. If you don't have Medic equipped, why not? Go fix that! The Fear of God This part of the floors brings us some new demons to deal with. Let's see what we've got. Spriggan's an unusual one. She's a Fairy but she's also a Physical demon. Her Magic is even her lowest stat and has the lowest chance of increasing. Fancy. She's weak to Expel/Curse and resists Phys and Elec. Dantalian meanwhile would explode if she ever looked in his direction. He's immune to Wind and Curse, resists Fire, Ice and Expel and is weak to Elec. He's also extra weak to Phys because he takes 150% damage from it. Also 300% Charm weakness. At least he knows Tetrakarn...?  Shiwanna is much simpler. You can see his skills and resistances here. His source is nice because it gives Resist Phys AND Resist Gun! Sui-Ki is basically an Ice version of Kin-Ki. He's weak to Fire and is immune to Ice and Curse. His source gives Bufudyne and Ice Boost.  Basilisks are weak to Ice and Wind. Null Curse. Has an obvious gimmick being a Basilisk in that it really digs Petrifying dudes to the point where its basic attack has a 3% chance to Petrify. A Land Controlling Roads Right, so where were we?  > A crew member that looks like Jimenez is on the ground. Malevolence and Benevolence This is an absurdly stupid thing to care about, but I do appreciate that this IS a sleep tile. It could've been so easy to just not do that. > You shook Jimenez... > But Jimenez did not wake up.  > You punched Jimenez! > But Jimenez still won't wake up... > Try kicking Jimenez?   For some reason, I'm aching all over. Yo, Bugaboo, you know what happened while I was asleep? B-Boobooo! ...Yeahhh. I guess asking him won't get me anywhere. Anyway, here's something to thank you for saving my rear end again. > Jimenez left with Bugaboo. This is kind of a deeply ironic reward you got there, Jimenez. Like, very ironic. A Land Controlling Roads Strictly speaking, we could've just ignored Jimenez wholesale and not gotten those 5 Patra Stones but what kind of friend would we be if we did that?  Those purple tiles you saw ARE poison, yes. But you know what makes this actually amazing? This is just an empty dead-end!  Progress itself is probably over by where Jimenez was, but looping back from there was the easiest way to get to some places, so.  Okay, yeah, there's a terminal here. This is definitely the path to progress.  And stairs leading up to the 2nd floor. Again.  This part of the floor is fairly sprawling and sort of open but not really? I'unno, you'll see.  Like there are a lot of turns and intersections but not really any directly open-open areas.  There's also a lot of hidden doors. This is kind of Eridanus' MO in general as you may have noticed by now.  But this takes it a step further. This door leads to a corridor that has nothing in it. At all.  I thought this was the main path... No, wait. I've seen something like this before. Is this like that place in sector Carina? Do we need to switch spaces? Or maybe there's a hidden door somewhere... I'll look around a little more. Speaking of hidden doors, this one here might be my favourite. Clearly leads to a small room, right?  And it sure does, but there's nothing in it! This really does just feel like, I dunno, a D&D map designed by an overly eager child or something. A lot of the "traps" and things like this just give off that vibe and it's pretty great.  But this one is different. This one actually leads to something. I know, I'm shocked too.  Turns out that guy was right and there's a phase shifter right here. Good guess, guy!  The sanctum is pretty small and simple, honestly. It doesn't do much, but it doesn't need to do much.  The one thing of note inside the sanctum itself is that there is a hidden door leading to an open area. That is empty. No items, nothing to talk to...  But the area is super linear and leads to stairs back down to the first floor. I'm beginning to see a trend here.  Alright, so this part of the floor has a fair few doors that are all visible and none of them are locked.  I have to get home... My daughter's waiting for me! There IS a hidden door here as well, but we won't be opening this one just yet. You'll see.  Thanks for the... vote of confidence...? there Itsumade. Appreciate it.  Oh and the top-left door leads to a 2x2 room of sleep tiles. And nothing else. This is so ridiculous that I can't even pretend to get mad at it.  Speking of sleep tiles, the last visible door drops us on one as well. Anyway, let's just wake this guy up.  Thanks, man, you saved me. Here, this is for you. Well, it could be better but this might prove more useful later? At least we can use this one if/when the ailment tiles affect everyone or something.  Oh and for what it's worth? That hidden door seems like it's designed exclusively to let you skip these sleep tiles.  But there's a Soma here so you probably don't want to do that, at least at first.  After that though? Feel free to crack it open and ignore those tiles if you care that much about it.  A couple of Agilao stones is fairly underwhelming at this point, to be honest. It wouldn't be too bad for a Magic MC in theory but he would be falling far, far behind in damage output at this point anyway so.  South of there is a shortcut to let us get back here quickly if/when we need to. Eridanus is really beginning to feel a lot like, I dunno, an Etrian Odyssey stratum rather than a usual sector and I am super okay with that.  Door to the left there leads us back to a white area with stairs heading on up.  This brings us back to the large open spot on the second floor but... now we've been everywhere we CAN and we just basically went in a giant circle. We didn't even find a thing that could be used as a key for that spider not-terminal. I suppose the Goetite will help with that after all.
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Prayer So, what is it that the Goetite gives us in the end?  You're probably not at all surprised by this. It was right by a guy who teased it, its name was virtually identical to what gave us Search A...   Guess we're almost outta here, huh? It's all ridin' on you. This material fusion equipment can make all kindsa stuff, but it can't make Mom's meat pies... ...Say, Tadano. I hear tell there's all sortsa booby traps in Eridanus. You havin' any trouble out there? That's what we make them Sub Apps for, ya know. I'll fix ya up anything ya want! We're for y'all! Anythin' to help get back to Earth!Or, in other words, use Medic! The game hands you it for minimal effort for a reason.  But anyway, yeah, with the Forma Search B we can now find Silver Forma! This generally just lets us find upgraded versions of Sector specific Forma...  But Antlia has this thing. 1 of them isn't enough to do anything with though; we need 3.  Each Sector only adds a tiny handful of new Forma with this, but they're potentially worth our time to deal with.  Bootes also has a unique Core, but this one is Magic huh? Hmm..  It's also the only one that gave me this. Rising Cores are a bit different, in that they CAN appear in every Sector but this one is the only one that spawned.  In terms of upgrades on old Forma, two is the most we'll find in any given Sector right now.  But they seem to each have a unique Core that is named after a stat. Odd, that one...  So, if you discount the Rising Core, each sector gives 2 or 3 new Forma and I use the word "new" generously.  In practice, it's just the one. If this pattern holds out, then we should be able to find a Luck Core in Eridanus. Or maybe there isn't one of those just out of spite. Who knows.  Anyway, we got some new stuff so let's see what we can get out of it. Oh, it's just this. Chakra Pots are all we can get with one Rising Core, since its 1 of those and 3 Chakra Cores. Totally worth it, considering what it does. We need more Rising Cores or way more of the stat cores before they'll even appear as mystery items. A Land Controlling Roads Not gonna worry about that for now, though. We have stuff to do in Eridanus and hopefully we can find a thing for progress now. We can also find the basic Defense forma with the Search B so that's something.  The normal area around here had a bunch of empty dead-ends past hidden doors. I'm sure they'll have at least something we can use. It'd be a weird and dumb area otherwise!  The hidden door inside the sanctum at least gives us this.  And while it sure is a rare forma, it gives us a different message. Hmm...  The material detection pattern is unlike anything else we've seen. Can you bring that forma to the device? We may be able to get it online. Let's test it out. We'll do that in a bit. First, we need to make sure that there's nothing else around.... here... There still isn't. Huh, how about that.  Oh and Irving has NOTHING to say about the Asteria Stone at all. Not even a comment about him being unable to use it.  But hey now we can make Agilao Stones for the low-low price of AC Eridite II x1 and Genma Jar x2 (Tlaloc). Yeah, uh, I'm probably not going to bother!  We couldn't do anything with the DF right now, but maybe we'll be able to get something out of the AT. We'll see later.  Oh and if you do loop around with the normal area being active, this is just an empty dead-end as well. At least this one makes marginally more sense...? Malevolence and Benevolence Nothing else to do right now, so let's go back to Zelenin. Let me see it! ...... Let's try it, Hitonari! It's the same size as the recessed area... This could be it.> Zelenin inserted the Asteria Stone.  And I was right--it IS a teleportation device! We can finally make some progress! Let's go and see what's out there. Wow, that was a very short teleport, huh... But this teleportation device... Why was it set there? To test any infiltrators...? Well, at any rate, I'll go and report the device to Arthur. The rest of the crew should be informed so they can use it too. All right, Hitonari. Good luck with the investigation. A Land Controlling Roads So, immediately after stepping through the teleporter we come to a branch in the path. Judging from the map, and our relative location on 2F, south just brings us to a shortcut back to the hub so this teleporter ahead is progress.   And this one's already on... In The Master's Name ...Aaah! A demon!?  Begone.> The demon is guarding the teleporter...  It's just a Ghoul. Let's upgrade it into a Cripsy Dead... Fool... Did you not... hear what I said...?  Begone. Do not... cause trouble... I will let none pass... who do not have permission... I can't pick him up on Enemy Search either... It seems he's here on someone else's orders. We may abe to leave this teleportation device be for the moment... Let's keep looking around for areas we haven't searched yet. A Land Controlling Roads Alright, fine. I guess we need to head on somewhere else after all then. We can't get past the Ghoul because it's a plot barrier and thus we can't just kick its rear end.  Even though it IS a Ghoul. And the game gave us that choice and then went "nuh-uh."  Anyway, aside from the shortcut back to the odd central hub like place, there are... stairs up to the... 3rd floor...?  And it's a white room-esque area but with an open sky. Huh, how about that. Also there's a healing spot right by the stairs for some reason I don't understand.  This floor is big and open, and there's a door over on the left that we can find at least.  It has a guy in it.  We Four Devas have come in response to the restoration of a world full of energy. If you as well desirest energy within... Even should thy goals diverge from our own... ...... First, thou must defeat me. However, pure battle will avail thee little. There are rules thou shalt observe. Skills, specifically. Items are understandably fine, because that's a lot to expect someone to just toss out arbitrarily for a sidequest. Lay these demons aside when thou wouldst challenge me. As well, thou canst not summon new demons in the midst of our combat. If thou dost accept these terms, let us begin. Wilt thou train? Yes. When you art prepared, returned thou to me.When he says recovery and resurrection, he means EVERYTHING that can be described in those terms. Even if its illogical and makes no sense. Oh one of your demons by default has Posumudi and you didn't bother to Source it off? Try again, loser. One quick party shuffle to ensure that he doesn't lolnope later...  Then let us begin thy trial! Kishin Zouchouten Vehement Ragehaha are you serious game oh you are thats depressing  So, Zouchouten is... a colossal joke, to put it nicely.  He's weak to Ice. Which means Frost Cannon time! ...He resists Phys and reflects Fire. Normally resists Expel and Curse but here he's immune for obvious reasons.  Does a bunch of basic Physical attacks. He might - MIGHT - cast like Agidyne at some point maybe? I'unno, he dies too fast for me to notice or care. If he does, well, that's what Frost Ace is for anyway.  Gives awful EXP and far, far below acceptable Macca. The ES Forma here sells for quadruple that. Zouchouten please stop being terrible?? Oh and he is unlocked from this, if you're ever going to use him. His Source gives Fire Amp so it's honestly worth it for getting that as early as you can at least. The next opportunity isn't until level 46, so...  End A Land Controlling Roads Not bad.The gently caress do you mean "not bad"? But I can tell that thou art not satisfied. Keep up thy training that thou might amass more power. This seems like a random reward, but it's a rare forma. We're not taking it back to Irving just yet, though.  Anyway, this loser trashed we'll take on the second De-- oh. I guess we won't. Because we can't. Fine. Be that way.  The floor is kind of mirrored, so there's a hidden door over on the right as well.  A heavenly king on one side and an angel on the other? Hmm. Nope, this doesn't seem symbolic of anything at all to me.  I am Kazfiel. Forgive the brevity of my introduction; it is truly a pleasure to meet you. We have infiltrated this land and are moving to reclaim a world of order. I see that you, too, are conducting an investigation here. May both of our journeys be blessed. ......> The angel is thinking.  We are looking for strong men, in body and in mind. Why not test your strength against me? Should you win, you shall earn greater power... But a simple battle is unworthy of us. We shall fight under special rules. Okay, now THIS one is meaner than "no healing spells!" Fortunately, I have just the setup in mind... Needlessly to say, switching demons during battle is prohibited. If you assent to these conditions, then let us have a match. Will you undergo my trial? Then please prepare yourself and then talk to me again.This is just a question of "can you math" while also being an implicit hard level cap on what you can bring. After a while, you're limiting yourself to one demon but I can bring 3 and technically one of them is unnecessary for this.  Then, here I come... Herald Kazfiel Vehement Rage...Again? Really just give this out to anything these days, huh?  Okay, in all seriousness Kazfiel IS harder than Zouchouten, but that's setting a low bar.  He IS weak to Elec, but unless you have a good Magic demon (or Strength MC) there's not much point to capitalising on it. The Frost Shot from the cannon actually outdamages the Bolt Spray + Co-Op with this setup and since you've probably just thrown together random crap anyway... Oh an he's immune to Wind, Expel and Curse. No other resistances. Except ailments. At best, he's at a 50% rate for everything... except Bomb and Rage which we can't do so welp.  He'll spend some time attacking normally like a loser then actually sort of try and hurl Garudynes constantly. Don't be actually weak to Wind and you'll be fine.  He gives better EXP than Zouchouten, but no macca. We also don't unlock him from this, so I guess he's just usable right out the box. Weird. End A Land Controlling Roads Y'know, I probably could've put more effort into demolishing him but this was already a re-recording done months after the original run for... reasons, so I just focused on getting it done rather than showing off. ...Yes, the same is true for Zouchouten. Dude is made of paper. If you wish to ascend to even greater strength, continue past the hidden door. Your potential is great. I have high expectations. Because this floor is a mirror, we can't open that hidden door yet. Kazfiel being a big ol' lying liar. Who lies. Which if you know anything about Kazfiel is actually pretty accurate. His name should end "biel" but thanks to Japanese quirks it ends "fiel" instead but either way it means "he who lies to God" after all! Because Kazfiel is a fallen angel. The games never make him one and instead make him Biqa (his pre-fall version) but never call him that. Because reasons.  But we have two rare forma. Let's take them BOTH to Irving at once!  Because of this. They each give 3 of these; the Abacus gives Double Down, Hercules and Orion whereas the Paper Sheet gives Orpheus, Achilles and Theseus. It's a weird pair because 5 of these make a set. Double Down is good for skill change abuse and you get it not too long after you can realistically get a Mayahuel. This is ridiculous. I'll explain one of these days, I swear. It's just really long and not a lot of people probably care that much.  Orpheus is Magic; Orion is Vitality; Achilles is Agility; Theseus is Luck. The other 5 all give a potential 4th stat point to a demon. Except you can equip all of them at once (in lieu of any other SubApp) so you can theoretically get 3-8 stat points per level for a demon. It's... not really worth losing All Your SubApps for, but if there was a way around that it might be worth something.   Your world will soon be annihilated. Your actions from this point on are futile.Ah well, back into the sector we go. There's a door down here with a random Titan to talk to.  That door is an elevator that only leads to the... TOP floor? I sure hope that's where we'll find the Vanishing Point. Malevolence and Benevolence  ...What maze? Nothing has been particularly maze like, I wouldn't say. So, you find the Vanishing Point? Our objective may be near. Another non-answer. I hope you're right... Anyway, be careful, Hitonari.Right, so real quick before we do anything else here...  Got a couple demons to make. Dominion gives a source I really want for... reasons and is kind of decentish I guess? They have Megido at least which is something.  But Rakshasa. Whew boy, Rakshasa. His initial skills are awful (why does he have Agilao and two of the worst Phys skills???) but he's easy to make really good. No ailment resistances, mind. And, yeah, his Poison basic attack is a neat surprise. It has a 10% chance too, which is cool.  Anyway, a thing you may have noticed but probably not from the alert about a powerful demon was a white line on the edge of the map. We have a section of this area mapped out already. Hmm...  See, you're all just finite. That's no match for the infinite power and eternal life of Ouroboros!Hey, there's another Kin-Ki up here. And he tells us who the final boss is gonna be. The Master here is Ouroboros, huh? I can see that totally making some sense.  Anyway, there's no door on that wall, so it's either hidden or more likely around the back. This is a big ol' open area, after all and it wouldn't be THAT simple...  Not getting much luck thus far, but there's an outer ring apparently and that item container is something we can see briefly while turning in this one spot. You might fleetingly notice it, get annoyed and move on. 'Swhat I did.  No doors, hidden or otherwise, round the back... but we did get some Defense II out of it so it's not all bad.  Not seeing any doors at all, here. Hidden, locked or normal. Just more new forma, sort of. Can't really complain but... Malevolence and Benevolence > But you can see no spot that leads to the other side...  I'm linked with your Demonica and I see you've detected an intense energy pattern! The Vanishing Point must be ahead! Now we can go back home! Way to go, Hitonari! You got me pumped for the mission again! One last push and we're through!  Huh...? You can't get past there? Oh, don't worry about that! We're on our way to help! If we all look around, I'm sure we can find the Vanishing Point! I'll get in touch with Arthur! He'll be able to assess whether that's the Vanishing Point or not! The phenomenon you have detected is most likely the Vanishing Point. Uhhh.... Silence What...!? Arthur, what's going on!? Attention, all crew. Fear Wait, what? Why?! What!? NOW!? What's going on? What is this emergency!? I demand an explanation! This mission is urgent. Further briefing will be provided upon your return to the ship. Crewman Hitonari, I have examined the equipment of all the Red Sprite's crew. There is no reason to maintain a presence there now. All crew, return to the ship. What could be so urgent that it might affect our escape...? Hey! Hey!! What am I supposed to do, just grin and bear it! Huh!? A Land Controlling Roads Sure enough, it's a hidden door we can't open yet. Great. Well, just out of spite we'll stick around a bit longer and see what we missed. There's that ring around the edge here, that we oughta be able to get to.  There's a hidden door on the right of the lift, but we can't open THAT ONE either.  But there's one over to the left that we can!  ...Oh. It leads to a healing spot, a terminal and nothing else. Fine, have it your way, Arthur. Malevolence and Benevolence Prepare the plane shift to begin our new mission. But we're so close to escaping... Where are we going, Arthur? Its origin, a large object moving within the sector, is currently stationary. Judging from its size, it may be a large ship. A... large ship? Is that the energy signature you were talking about on the comm!? Fear Could it be the Gigantic...? They're alive!? But why Carina...? Were you able to get in touch with them?  But we haven't gotten a response. Could be it's not reaching them. ...It's not a ghost ship, is it? *sigh* If we'd just hauled rear end outta here earlier, we wouldn't have had to deal with this... Given this situation, I have decided to make investigating the signal from Carina our priority. The Schwarzwelt Joint Project concurs with this assessment. We're back to investigating now!? Why!? I'll tell you what we need to do is get the hell outta here! The man said there's no response! B-But... what if there are some survivors...? You'd just leave them stranged in the Schwarzwelt!? I agree with Arthur. ...Pretty easy to be so self-righteous now that you know we can escape, huh? Why we gotta stick our heads back into the lion's mouth? Not my idea of a good time...  Shouldn't you be thinking about their feelings? Wow, what a nice thing to say. Now look me in the eye and tell me it's what you really think. Jimenez! Enough! ...Yeah, yeah,I'll go. Better that than stick around here to argue some more. Why, you...! Rrrrgh! I realize everyone will have their own opinion, but please remain calm and rational. Remain cautious as you carry out the mission. Now begin preparing for the plane shift to Carina. Don't know why they bother with this scene here. It's not even really padding. It's just so... pointless. Malevolence and Benevolence  That's around the helipad, near where we started the Cu Chulainn quest. We've hailed them, but there's no response. I highly doubt they wouldn't be able to pick up our signal from here... I am issuing a new official mission, designated "Signal Investigation." At present, our only method is to get within viewing distance. What, they can't drop us a note? They running into trouble? Let's stay alert. This could be the work of demons... First Lieutenant Zelenin is correct. You should be prepared for any situation. Do not let your assumptions lead you astray. I look forward to the successful completion of your mission.
Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Jan 25, 2017 07:46
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theshim posted:Think you mixed up a couple screenshots here (check the filenames, etc). Not so much mixed up as somehow managed to miss one wholesale. Really not sure how that happened, but it's fixed now as is that weird pesky mini-drift. ...It would've been fixed much earlier but I only just got the chance.
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Jan 25, 2017 18:03
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Prayer There's probably a ship in Carina. We don't actually know what it is yet. The optimism is helpful, though. It doesn't feel right, then... I'm sure I don't need to remind you what happened with Horkos. Let's be careful.  Everyone says that's the Gigantic, but... is it really? Based on what we've seen, I don't think it's an ally at all.  If they were alive, I'd expect them to be overjoyed. They'd be all too happy to communicate with us. But we've heard nothing. Not even when you called... I don't feel good about this... Be careful.  But I guess no matter what you do in the Schwarzwelt, there'll always be something that's not right... Man... is this karma? Irving, Chen and Blair don't have updated dialogue right now, oddly. We'll still totally check out the store though. The Revolver is a fancy and cool gun. It's pretty weak, but does a minimum of 4 hits that you can target! That's kind of ludicrous. It also has Cripple which is Rakunda with damage and Rock Bullet making it sort of a better Jackal. It's also much easier to get than the Jackal as it only requires AT Antlite III x2, Jaki Bolt x6 (Gremlin) and Kishin Horns x6 (Take-Minakata).  The Mage Ring can gently caress off though. +20 MP and does nothing else? Requiring AC Eridite x2, Snake Runes x2 (Vouivre) and Fallen Tome x3 (Dantalian) is some right bullshit. Just like by default.  Balm of Rising is good and useful. "Only" need Rising Core x3, White Core x4 and Revival Core x3 for each one you make. Not like that's hard or anything but the White Cores especially limit how many you can make in bulk. A Squandered Nation So we're just gonna head into Carina right away. This Momunofu is added here when we're investigating that strange signal. I don't really know why either. Fear Nothing else in Carina itself either, so we'll skip on over to the helipad.  It's just sitting there. Looks like an easy mission for a change. So long as that hog doesn't pop back out, right? This is Ops. We see you've reached the destination without incident. Good work. From what we can see of the Gigantic on our end, there's no damage to it... Hm...? Hold on, that identifying code's... Looks a lot like the Red Sprite actually. That's not it? I have deduced the identity of the ship from its ID code and the pictures we have received. This ship is not the Gigantic. It is a prototype model of the Red Sprite. Ah, so we're about to see what happens when the Lightning finally returns. The Lightning...? You mean... another ship went into the Schwarzwelt!? We weren't informed of this! No one mentioned another ship going in! Who are they? Are they here to rescue us!? From that perspective, it is outside the jurisdiction of the Schwarzwelt Joint Project. Its purposes for entering the Schwarzwelt are unknown. Investigation is necessary. This is starting to smell funny... I'm not quite getting the vibe that they're here to save the day, y'know...? So, what do you want us to do? Barge in and fire a few warning shots into the air!? Silence > Someone radioed in. In The Master's Name  We haven't come to fight, I assure you. Best you refrain from such uncouth assumptions, mm? I presume you are a member of the Lightning's crew. This is the Red Sprite, of the Schwarzwelt investigative team. We're quite aware. I am speaking to the command unit Arthur, yes? Gentlemen, let me get straight to the point. We would rather not have our system infiltrated. And may I just say... We are sympathetic to your situation. At least, as much as the Joint Project is. Relax, and enter. How should we proceed, Arthur? They claim not to be hostile, but we should remain cautious. We will attempt to contact the Lightning using crew trained to handle high-risk situations. Crewman Hitonari, Crewman Jimenez. Board the Lightning and make contact with its crew. They don't seem like enemies... In fact, they don't seem to care much about us one way or the other. Well, c'mon, Tadano. Let's go hear their story. Malevolence and Benevolence  Captain! I've brought two of the Red Sprite crew! > You were taken to a man wearing a black Demonica...  Welcome to the Lightning. For us to meet in this hellish place, so far from home... Perhaps we knew each other in a past life. ...You the boss here? You're certainly blunt for a man sent to negotiate... though my men are the same way. It's all right.  Pleasure meetin' you, Jack. I, uh... thanks for inviting us in. I'm Jimenez, and this here's Tadano. We came on behalf of the investigative team. No one asked you, Bugaboo! You don't need to introduce yourself! Just stay quiet! Excuse the li'l guy. He's a demon I use in combat. He won't hurt you, and he's housebroken too. Don't worry. To fight demons... you use demons. Very well, then. And when you're so close to escaping, at that... ...How much do you know? Fear You should assume we know as much as the Joint Project you stay in contact with does. Your crew being stranded, using demon to fight demons, your progress in the Schwarzwelt... You won't take offense if we pluck what information there is to be had from the ether, I hope?Just in case it wasn't super obvious by now, Jack is absurdly smug for no good reason. Jeez.   So on that point, you have my sincerest gratitude. But as to whether we form a united front... Well, you may as well know that is what you are here to discuss. Okay. While we're following your lead, why don't you tel us what you want? So you've come to this hellish place on a mission to save mankind! Wonderful! Bravo! Just the sort of selflessness that warrants praise! We, though... differ somewhat. I regret to say that we were simply dispatched by our patrons. Our role here is as... businessmen, of sorts. Our priorities: profit and wealth. So long as we retrieve items that prove profitable to our patrons, we may do as we wish. You're here to save mankind, whereas we're here with an eye toward development. Our foting is, shall we say, somewhat inequal. However...  I'd like us to be good neighbors, the sort who help each other in times of need. What say you? Ah, but of course... You regularly make contracts with demons. An agreement with a human should be child's play for you. Can we establish cordial relations? Humans should help each other. Well, I'd rather not rile the only other humans we've met so far... But just to be sure, I want your whole squad's consent. Let's hold off on a firm answer just yet. Though I gotta say, it's refreshing to see a guy who's so honest about his job. In it for the money, huh? I'm not judging or anything, but... isn't that kinda dicey with mankind on the brink of destruction? It may not be easy for ones so noble to hear, but... Earth has nothing more to believe in. We and our patrons are quite comfortable siding with wealth. Uhhhh.... sure. That is definitely how that works. Yep. We believe our greatest chance at that wealth is the power lying within the Schwarzwelt. Hah... In layman's terms, yes. Wealth is what supports people, keeps them off the streets and in their healthy, happy homes. Human society would simply collapse without it. As I said, I would like our two camps to be good neighbors. And as far as I know... both us neighbors have our own problems. If we can solve these problems by cooperating, I belive there may be harmony between us. For our part, we will support your escape efforts. Though of course, we benefit from finding it as well, haha. And what do you want in return, good neighbor? While you've already been an excellent source of useful information... If your Forma Search routine is superior to ours, perhaps we could have a look...? Heh... I think this deal's gonna go pretty smooth. Well, the sticky part is that we can't tell whether ir's superior just by examining it. So I'd like you to deliver a forma that's been beyond our grasp, as proof of its capabilities. As plainly as I can... Forgive my brazenness, but... Needless to say, you will be handsomely compensated. Well, aren't you quite the hneogitator...? Your demands are steep, but it's hard to argue. Very well. Regarding the forma we hope you'll retrieve for us... Ryan! What was it we're missing?   Those are the three the lab's requested, sir! Only those three, then? All right. Those are the three items we'll require from you. If you can retrieve them, we'll assist in your search for the Vanishing Point. I hope that tidbit of information proves useful.Not... really? Sort of already been everywhere we can. Didn't find any of them.  But I'll relieve him of his duty. You should have no trouble passing through. Well, we have your terms, so what we'll do now is go back to our ship and discuss them with our crew. Should we give you a ring once we have an answer? We're keeping our radio use to an absolute minimum. Someone was trying to hack our system earlier. Oh, I don't suspect you, perish the thought. You didn't even know we were here, but... There may be a demon capable of infiltrating the radio waves. No radio, huh? Alright, I'll let our guys know. Then I'll look forward to your answer. We've risked our lives to come here. I'd hate to go home empty-handed. New life... resources... peace... accomplishment... friends... truth... Well, on your way, then. Here's to good relations, eh neighbor? Malevolence and Benevolence Mission "Signal Investigation" is confirmed complete. Those guys are shady like an oak tree, but... at least it looks like they're not hostile. So where do we go from here? The first thing they demanded was a "mutual non-aggression" pact. Just so you guys know, if it comes down to a fight, we don't stand a chance. Their ship's capabilities are miles beyond ours.Well, duh. Arthur did say it was the prototype after all, and I know my anime cliches! The Red Sprite's that different from the Lightning...? Ours was outfitted with investigation in mind. Theirs was made for combat. We'd lose hands down in a fight. Then we must accept the terms of their mutual non-aggression pact. However, it is highly likely that they will refuse to accept it. So... what about these "gifts" they're asking for? Their level of technology indicates that they will prove effective in finding the Vanishing Point. There is no reason not to supply the materials and Forma Search they have requested. Assuming this "cooperation" Jack talked about wasn't a lie... If there are no strong objections, I will incorporate Jack's request into our mission. Strange mission we've got lined up for us, huh, Tadano? I really can't disagree with Jimenez here. Like, at all. Jack himself was absurdly slimy and overly smug and sardonic about, uh, everything which just immediately gives off a bad impression. Sure hope these guys aren't meant to be our proper Neutral faction... A Squandered Nation Just outside the helipad, there are a couple members of Jack's Squad we can talk to now. But don't go acting all superior just because you got to the Schwarzwelt first. Our equipment, technology and facilities are all more advanced than yours. It's only a matter of time before our Demonicas are too. You get results, and no one complains. There's not even any reprimands for hardly anything. The money's good, too. Best job I ever had, man.I can't really say they're doing much to endear me to Jack's crew though. Prayer But this is a pretty big deal, so of course everyone comments on it. I'm grateful they're helping us find the Vanishing Point, of course... Still, though... they have a powerful ship, and we really don't know anything about them. I hope this doesn't turn ugly... But let's be careful about it. They're not part of the Joint Project... The phrase "mutual non-aggression" always sets off warning bells in my mind. That's a phrase that's just begging to be broken... Ironic, huh? The demons are practically more trustworthy than the humans... I wouldn't call him a mercenary so much as a man who's been blinded by the promise of money. ...Though maybe greedy people taste better to demons... Heheheh...  We get to escape, and after that, they can do whatever they want. What's the downside here? But those guys... They're a little twisted, ain't they? They only see forma as products, like they're businessmen or somethin'. ...Just rubs me the wrong way, is all.  How about you, Hitonari? Same. Hmm... You're strict, just like I'd expect from a professional soldier. But personally, I think it's a little too early to call. I mean... he IS a bit fishy, but you can't be prejudiced or even his good side looks bad. Look on the bright side instead: We've gained a powerful ally!  I'm a mercenary myself back on Earth. I know his type when I see it. ...By the way, do you know the story of Jack the Ripper? No? It's a story from a long time ago. He was a serial killer who plunged the city of London into fear. ...I hope our heads aren't chopped off by our own "Jack"...I suppose Blair asking about JTR and then giving a terrible non-explanation makes up for earlier. Let's just go see that Ghoul friend of Jack's. In The Master's Name You may pass. I am no longer needed... my new orders... are to leave... Farewell.> The demon disappeared. A Land Controlling Roads Whew, okay. I think we're finally done with all the talky bits of this sector for at least a little while. You can already see on the hedge there that the visuals here are gonna be a bit... different.  First though, we have a hidden door here that technically serves a purpose. It might as well not for all the minimal difference it makes. You'll see.  There's also this, at long last. Took a while to get for once, huh?  The hedge mazes that surround the control rooms put me in mind of Alice in Wonderland. As for the central control room itself, it's a simple rectangular building. The walls are covered in monitors and control panels. as well as depictions of human history... > The data is corrupted, preventing you from reading further. Right, so that one last path from the teleporter?  Leads to a room that looks very different. That bit of green corruption from that one hedge is now everywhere. It makes it clear that Eridanus' living environment is just a much better facsimile in its original area; this is where its all broken and run down.  Before we actually touch this area though, look! It's a better Mishaguji-sama than the one that guy gave us! His best demon ain't poo poo. Alright, so let' see where we can g--  Heh. Alright, cool. Makes sense. We've had hidden doors and teleporters the entire time. We've been eased in, now let's put it to use!  Okay, now I'm gonna be honest with you here. This part of the Sector? It's short, it's simple, it doesn't pull any nasty tricks. There are barely even any traps. If you know where to go, it takes about 3 minutes to get through all of it.  It also starts off by tutorialising you very heavily on what you're going to be doing. Each room is a small chamber with 4 spots and at most 3 of them are teleporters. The initial area has 1 that brings you back to itself and 2 that put you in the Chakra Pot room. You then have a 50-50 chance of progressing to here, or returning to the start. Making progress is heavily weighted in your favour right now.  I'm not going to cover every single step of this place, because there are more teleporters than there are places you can be teleported to. In terms of SMT teleport mazes, this doesn't even remotely compare to ones that have come before it. The final dungeons of both halves of Digital Devil Saga, for example, are both way meaner. And comprise two of the three dugeons that have teleporting at all across both games, so y'know.  There's an optional terminal about halfway through (yes, really) if you need it for anything. No heal spot, but this is already more generous that I would be if I was designing this place.  Just south of it is some stairs leading up that we will take. The spot behind us is obviously a teleporter back into the maze area.  The stairs just lead up to our first Anubis Stone and a bunch of poison tiles. There's a terminal RIGHT THERE so if you don't have Medic equipped, you can fix that immediately.  Let's see... I went right before, so this time it's left... Or is it? I don't even trust myself anymore...The teleporter on 1F by the terminal brings us to a room with this guy. I'm going to use him as a reference point. That's why he exists after all. Going right from him is a way to get to the terminal if you need it. It's not the fastest or best way, but it's the easiest one to remember. Going up from him?  Leads to what looks scary for all of half a second. If you have Medic equipped (and if you've been paying the slightest bit of attention to Eridanus before now you do), there's nothing to worry about.  Not that it stops this guy from complaining about it, mind.  The spot the right there sends you to the terminal. It is very hard to get lost, because many places do this. They send you to the best place to reorient yourself. It's ridiculously generous in that way.  The teleport at the top of that previous poison area sends you to another one. This the second and last poison tile section of the maze. They're also both completely optional, by the way. Two of the teleporters in this section put you back to the terminal, again. The one that doesn't? Puts you in a one square alcove with a teleporter right in front of it. That teleporter sends you back to the terminal.  So, we'll go back to the left/right guy in the middle here and take this opportunity to talk about the demons in this area. Yes, fights still happen and they are against new things. If this is too much for you to handle, you have Medic. This means you have Enemy Lullaby. There are two conveniently placed Terminals to equip that if you really want (one right by the entrance and one right here). The Fear of God We already have a Mishaguji and he's not that big of a threat to fight against really. Neither is Senri, but she at least has something of note in that she is immune to Charm. Everything else is stock cookie cutter 100% ailment resistance, 125% weak to Elec etc. etc. Very boring! But at least her Source gives Magarudyne so that's something you could maybe care about at some point. ...Except the ma-dynes are awful. Never mind!  Dominion is a thing we have and is more of a "turns up here" thing than anything of actual note. Yurlungur is notable for being level 28, first turns up here, is the Snake BELOW Vouivre and is really awful! Ice Breath is sort of noteworthy for being a skill that is awful. It has a base power of 60 and costs 19MP. It is weaker than Mabufu, costs more than Mabufula and makes up for this deficiency by hitting 1d4 times against random targets. So it doesn't outdamage the ST mid-tier, never mind those dynes you definitely have by now.  Rakshasa is Rakshasa. He would be good if only his base skillset wasn't abysmally terrible! Arachne is new at least. She's immune to Paralyze and Poison; everything else is stock and what you'd expect. Except her base attack. That's Physical and has a 10% chance to Charm. That's pretty darn good for a basic attack from a random demon! Plus her Magic is her worst stat and has a 12% growth rate, so you're double-incentivised to use her properly. A Land Controlling RoadsRight, so back to the left/right guy, we'll go left here like he actually suggests.  This brings us to the Caladbolg, which is right on the critical path (as is the Chakra Pot).  The Celtic sword that can cleave hills in twain here is relegated to simply cleaving a things nerves' instead. Pretty useful and its a stronger, controllable Nihil to boot. Personally, I'm gonna stick with the Gae Bolg but this one is worth using instead if you want.  From the Caladbolg, up gives you a potentially quick way out (it sends you back to the 3rd chamber) and right puts you back at the terminal.  The only other path gives you the Hydro Apple. That's one done, already.  We'll just go dead ahead from there, because that puts you - you guessed it! - back at the terminal so you can save and checkpoint yourself if you need to. Seriously, this place is really generously designed.  South from the Apple might be the meanest spot of the area.  There's a long path that you have to weave between two teleports. One is terminal, the other sticks you in one square between two teleports that send you to either the terminal or the poison tiles that ultimately send you to the terminal.  The stairs lead to an area that gives you a hidden door. The first one in this part of the area, so it's gotta be good!  Haha, nope! It just gives you Spriggan's forma drop as a fixed forma. That's it.  Navigating around to the right brings you to a teleporter here. This one...  Puts you back in the central hub. This is probably the only maybe sort of mean spot and even then it's just a quick exit, getting back to the Hydro Apple chamber takes maybe a minute plus it's so funny that I just have to like it.  The top alcove in the Hydro Apple room brings you to the part of this room that you can do something other than go to the terminal in.  It just drops you on the Kurt Vonnegut reference. ...Yes, really. After the Hydro Apple, the second one is about 30 seconds away.  From here, we have stairs leading back up the hub.  There's a hidden door here, but we can't open it for a while. This is a good time to remove Medic if you haven't already.  Just south of the stairs leading up to the central hub, there's a hidden door.  This leads to a more open area and signifies that we're done with the teleporters.  There's a couple doors in this area, and this is the one we'll be going through first.  Because it gives us these stairs, and they're what we want.  Because they give us a bunch of cold rocks. That's totally all we came up here for.  Oh and I guess because instead of teleporters, we have pit drops.  And one-way doors. Y'know, on paper I should hate this section more than the maze. I don't though. It's still ridiculously small, very generous, there's minimal guesswork involved with which hole drops you where...  It's just way more tedious for me because I am jumping into every last one of these suckers. I gotta get my map completion!  That upper hole makes you go through the one way door back to the teleporter section. It doesn't, but it does. You'll see. This also forces us to take the last teleporter.  That puts us back at the start of the area. If you opened the shortcut in the hub, you just turn around and take the stairs. If not, you have a 2 minute trip instead.  But now that we've done that, this is the entire teleporter maze. All of it. This is how big it is. There are 35 teleporters (I counted), and only like 20 spots they can drop at. Out of those 35, by the way, about half of them send you to the terminal directly or put you on tiny fixed paths leading to the terminal anyway. Even in the remaining small pool, there is still a significant amount of overlap in places. It's really not hard to just remember which one leads where. And if you can't, for any reason, you can just map it out. On paper. It's really not difficult; I don't have a super-good memory and I can memorise this entire area.   The shortest route may be to search for what can't be seen...Anyway, back in the hole-y land, Bifrons here is just clearly telling us about the holes. Seems like we might have to navigate a path of dropping down in the right areas or something.  And given the number of one way doors littering the place, it may also be really easy to screw yourself over.  There's plenty of stairs leading between the two floors at least. The Fear of God But let's take a minute to talk about new demons again. The pit drop section adds a few new ones for good measure! Legion is... kinda crap. He's weak to Fire and Expel, resists Gun, Ice, Elec, Wind and nulls Curse. His skills are Last Resort, which we saw on the Formless and Shock which is electric Ice Breath. He's also 300% weak to Mute and has Dantalian's 150% Phys weakness for good measure. Vivian meanwhile is unfairly good, to be honest. She resists Ice, Expel and Curse. Has no ailment resistances but has no weaknesses either. She has Spring of Life which gives her survivability and Frolic which is multi-target charm at a base 70% rate. Her only attacking spell is Mabufula which is bad but fixable and it's the only one of the three she puts on her Source as well. Spring of Life is replaced with Diarama which is loving terrible. Frolic is replaced with Luster Candy. +1 to all stats (because it's RaSuTa). Yes. This is a thing that happens now.  Orthrus is simple but effective. He drains fire and is weak to Ice. That's it, very ho-hum. He has Fire Breath (lame) and Fire Boost at least. He also has Mega Claw which is something. Mainly only want an Orthrus to Friend Item/Extra Item his forma easily though; it is required for one of the few store bought accessories that isn't completely dogshit terrible. Fuu-Ki is to wind what his brothers are to Electric and Ice. He's weak to Elec, Nulls Curse and Reflects Wind. His source gives Garudyne and Wind Boost. Very simple, but very effective. A Land Controlling Roads Those four are all we have that's new to deal with, combat-wise. The holes over here are kind of way meaner than anything else in the area though. If we fall in any of them, we have to take the one way door back to the teleporter.  Well, like, we don't HAVE to. But we have to.  You are trapped in this area, those stairs lead to holes that drop you back in this area, until you take that door and leave. It being one-way and forcing you onto a teleporter is kind of a weird mercy. If it it didn't, then you could stumble into this area earlier, think it was progress and then get frustrated by how you're just stuck in one small section.  We'll head over here for a minute though. I thought there was a Gate Search reading around here...There is! It's what Bifrons was actually referring to, even.  Just gonna grab this real quick first, though.  See, the dark secret of this entire area? All of it is optional.  That door there is a gate search door that leads to these stairs. This is not a shortcut to these stairs. This is the only way to get to here. They lead to progress. You HAVE to find that Gate Search door to get anywhere. Doing anything at all with the holes is entirely on you.  ...But there's also more to the south, so we'll go through that door first. There might be more things to find!  There's more stairs over here, along with one way doors that loop back onto the upper area and also this area for some reason.  More important though is that those lower stairs lead to a wide-open area with many holes and also these Zionga Stones.  If I don't know where the deadfalls are, there's no point in worrying about it!And also a delusional crewmate.  See, I DO know where the holes are. The holes in this room are the only holes that potentially lead to the progress stairs. The stairs you pass to get to the stairs that lead here. I'm just gonna run around and jump into all of them.  This hole here drops you into the corridor with the right stairs in it, by the way. It's kind of pointless, but it's here so.  This is the only hole that leads anywhere different or interesting.  It sticks you in a tiny corridor with a one-way door and some stairs.  It lets you get 10,000 Macca which I'm sure is going to be ever-so-useful. And there's a one-way door here back to the open area. The only way to get through to that money and the door leading to the open area is to go through it, though, so you can't skip the gate search door this way either.  I knew demons were a pain in the rear end, but I didn't think I'd get so stressed over these little traps.The last hole over on the right open area drops you near a one-way door. That leads to this entrapment here. Poor guy is stuck and doesn't even know it yet. That said, this area is kind of my favourite spot to grind out the Fiend spawn/sector Forma. There's a good spot in every sector and this is the best I found for it here.  loving aaaaa not prepared for this guy and he just jumped me on the way back to the shortcut Fiend Red Rider An Honor Befitting that Name Whew boy, Red Rider is a pretty strong boy in theory. He's probably less threatening than White though.  Much like White Rider, or Hare of Inaba or Mayahuel his weakness is misleading. He's weak to Ice, but he's really just neutral to it; it's just there so we can get through his 1400HP at a reasonable speed with Co-Ops.  Acid Breath also helps a lot with that, though.  I don't know why I gave Sukunda a chance to try and redeem itself. It sure didn't.  What makes Red Rider less threatening than White by the by is that his biggest moves are all single target.  But Hyper Skull Crush lives up to its name in his hands, jeez. I really should've switched Rakshasa in to both resist this better and also to like use War Cry twice to gutter his Strength. The End He CAN also use Maragidyne sometimes, but that's it. His third skill is Retaliate, which is an upgraded Counter. Also, yeah, both this version and the usable one are both immune to all ailments (except Rage which is amazing).  He drops Bead Chains which is nice at least. Shame about that whole 2% spawn rate thing. End A Land Controlling Roads Not much else left to the actual area itself, either, to be honest. Got this to luckily spawn I guess? It could be useful, I suppose.  We'll just take the progress stairs because they complete the mid-tier Elemental stones. We don't get Agilao here, since we got them before giving Irving the Goetite.  There's a heal spot and terminal here if you need them, but there's a long path over here that's a straight line from the stairs.  It leads to the most obvious hole of the bunch.  This in turn leads to an obvious one-way door out and another door to the south. We'll take the latter, of course.  Leads to stairs heading on up and another terminal immediately after the last. That's so weird.  The stairs up lead to this, and the path continues around to another hole. The Luck Incense is pretty nice, since Luck is the only stat that really matters for Hitonari.  That hole drops us by a gate search to return quickly to the entire hole area. It also lets us grab the final rare forma for Jack.  There's a gate search door over here as well, that lets you get to the stairs to the hub. It's kind of redundant, though.  Because there's one over here that puts you right next to the entrance of the sector. Well, that was a good way to stretch our legs. Let's go take this stuff back to Jack... Well, uh, one last thing before we go: You in Wonderland
Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Jan 27, 2017 14:14
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Prayer Before we go back to Jack and hand him that rare Forma, we'll check out a few new things we can make. And it is but a few. The Pinlight is kind of eh, gives Magarula and Earthlight Ray deals more damage at New Moon (so Gun elemental Zan-Ei). It's AT Eridite x2, Wilder Mask x2 (Pellaidh) and Tyrant Glacier x2 (King Frost) to make, but ehh, I personally wouldn't bother.  It's better than the Brionac at least (...wait, why is Lugh's spear a gun?!) In basically every way. Crossfire is just straight Gun damage against every enemy. The Brionac is pretty boring as far as guns go! AT Eridite x2, Yoma Cloud x3 (Shiwanna) and Fallen Tome x3 (Dantalian) to make but definitely don't bother.  The Vengeance Ring gives Hitonari the Retaliate skill, basically. Counters Gun/Phys skills at a 50% rate for 150% base power. Boring. AC Bootite II x2, UMA Skin x6 (Chupacabra) and Tyrant Glacier x6. Augh, no thanks.  And lastly we have 3/4s of the elemental stones, but I'll include Bufula in here as well because it's convenient. Agilao is AC Eridite II x1, Genma Jar x2 (Tlaloc); Bufula is AC Eridite II x1, Brute Garment x1 (Sui-Ki); Zionga is AC Eridite II x1, Brute Gold x1 (Kin-Ki); Garula is AC Eridite II x1, Brute Clothes x1 (Fuu-Ki). At least they're consistent and follow the expected pattern. Except the Agilao Stones which is the most annoying one to get because it just is. Be worth grabbing a few if we had a Magic that wasn't our randomly determined dump stat but alas. Fear Now then, what brings you here? Did you bring the items we asked? Yes. Ahhh, splendid! If you'll just allow me to confirm that... And these are for us to keep, yes? Ahh, very kind of you. Get these to the lab! Sir, yes sir! I'll take those. Hand 'em over. You did well... You'll go far in life. If memory serves, there was one other component to the trade, yes? I'll take that now as well. Transmit it to my Demonica, won't you?> You opened a link to Jack's Demonica and uploaded the Forma Search B program.  ...We are? Jack, bud, I think you mean that YOU'RE paid here. We have what we asked for, so it's time we upheld our end. I've ordered my men to coordinate with yours in the search for the Vanishing Point. What was it you called the place? Sector Eridanus...? I'll notify my men there. Best of luck, gentlemen. Mission "Jack's Bargain" is confirmed complete. Jack's Squad has indicated that they will participate in our search for the Vanishing Point. The extent of their support is unknown, but any help would be appreciated. They want us gone so they can have the Schwarzwelt's resources all to themselves, I assume. Rather shameless of them, at a time when the world may be ending... I dunno how far we can trust those vatos, but... We'll put 'em to work, never fear. Right, Tadano?Right, so back to Eridanus we go. But as soon as we enter the Red Sprite... Prayer We will now begin the plane shift. All hands, take your positions. And this plays again. It's really pointless, but whatever.  Let's get prepped for the mission. Our goal is to gain the cooperation of Jack's agent in this sector. I will switch all crewmen to a communications channel that will allow us to speak with them. I'm worried that when push comes to shove... Well, to us, this place is hell. But they seem to treat it more like a gold mine. Huh...!? Is this real!? We're picking up an immense energy pattern! Look at this oscillation... it's off the scale! The situation may have changed since we last searched for the Vanishing Point. Please stay alert and resume the mission. Another hurdle in the way... but if we can get past this one, we're home free. Let's do it, Tadano! But is it right for us to return home and leave Jack and his men here...? Ey! No need to sleep over it, Miss Honor Student. Forget 'em. We use them, they use us... so it goes, y'know? Or are you gonna give them a little polite heads-up on Operation: Schwarzwelt Elimination? The way things have been going, I'm sure they knew before we did! Could you try not picking a fight over everything I say, Jimenez? But you've made yourself clear. Let's just hurry and get out of here. Strike team, proceed to the floor where we found the abnormal energy pattern last time. I look forward to the successful completion of your mission.Despite it seeming like it should, the Red Sprite crew's dialogue does NOT update here! I know, I'm amazed too. A Land Controlling Roads So, it's back to the Top floor of Eridanus we go! drat... I don't know what I'd do with all that cash if i had it! Fear Well, this is different. Very different. It's pretty obvious who this is, but we'll worry about that later. So you have joined forces with those of the evil planet, Hitonari... But you will not escape from this land by that path.  To serve you justice... I will be watching over the end of the virus known as mankind... > The call ended. Malevolence and Benevolence And then we get accosted AGAIN as soon as we step through the door to the open central ring.  This place absolutely reeks of danger. You guys are nuts. Me... I just want to strike oil, or whatever they got here instead of oil, and get rich. Here. You can use this to find doors you couldn't see before. It's got the seal of approval from the boys in our lab.  I dunno if you found your way out or not, but either way, have fun. Oh yeah... they asked me to pick up some materials while I was out here. I gotta get going. Later, Hitonari.> Ryan left.  So, Tadano, looks like you can get to the Vanishing Point. I'm on my way there now. Just in case it's dangerous, be careful. And smile, man! We're almost home! A Land Controlling Roads Hopefully that door IS a Search C door otherwise, we're still very trapped. What do you think, Jack's Squad Member? Keep getting in my way and I'll pull this trigger, I swear to God.Real friendly bunch, these guys...  Fortunately, it IS a type C door so we can head on in and hopefully meet Ouroboros, kick his rear end and win the game. I mean, sure, we could go back and open every other type C door but eh. That's what New Game+ is for. In The Master's Name  There is a price for distubring my heart... You must pay it. Prisoners of matter cannot reach it! After all, the empty infinity cannot be undone... Humans, of limited life and limited power... Do you believe you can rule over we demons? Can you overcome our endless power? Our power is also endless. That changes nothing... humans see the infinite dream from their cradles... Awaken from that dream and behind your frail, children's bodies. I shall return you to the particles that flow through empty space. Break apart, you sinful clumps of matter! Snake Ouroboros Vehement Rage Alright, final boss let's go! Ouroboros is... notably not a Tyrant. That's interesting but expected. That they're just a normal Snake is weirder but I suppose not unheard of.  Resistance-wise, Ouroboros resists Phys and Gun, is weak to Fire and Drains 125% Elec damage. Unlike Asura before, no reflects though.  Attack-wise, it's a big ol' list. Mahama is basically a gimme, especially with a competently put together team.  Wild Lightning is a pretty powerful Elec attack. It just hits everyone, but it doesn't need to do much else.  As per usual, at +/- 4 on stats, she'll Dekunda or Dekaja as appropriate. 3 is totally fine though. You'd think the final boss would just stick these into normal rotation, but considering they're ultimately wasted turns...  You know what's not a wasted turn though? This Almighty dick punch. Not so much for its damage, although if Ouroboros WASN'T debuffed a bunch that would be impressive as well. It just rolls to try and inflict any ailment at random on everyone. It can inflict any and every ailment, except Rage unfortunately. If it Petrifies Hitonari, that's an instant game over. Anything else can be dealt with, but that's just a "you lose, try again" and it's really dumb.  Oh and of course they regen. It's 7% of their HP at the end of every round (they have 2300 for reference). This is kind of cool, since it sort of changes the way you have to focus on this fight. You can't just turtle through it and plink away until you win.  So, there's Ouroboros. A sort of different fight with a wide array of things they can do, and a gimmick that isn't "I beat myself half of the time." Disaster Cycle isn't the most fun thing to have to contend with, but it's ultimately not that big a deal and it being an instant lose isn't overly common or likely anyway. End In The Master's Name The beginning... and end... are one... As long as you fail to understand that, human...> Ouroboros disappeared...  The reinforcements were a moment too late, but all's well in the end, yes? Still... that Ouroboros... She said something odd at the end there. Congratulations, Crewman Hitonari. The Red Sprite can now land at the Vanishing Point. So, how do we escape from here? ......!? Arthur! Something's wrong! What's happening!? That... is the limit of humans. Careful, Tadano! Something's near your position! Hey Gore. Nice of you to turn up this time, after just ranting at us over the radio before we kicked Ouroboros' rear end.  In the end... they are trapped souls... of finite matter... They have no means of resisting Ouroboros Maia. They may as well try to slice the air or pummel the seas. ...The Commander!? Commander Gore!? How is he here!? To punish you... To punish humanity... ...Well, I mean I guess it makes sense that Ouroboros has a second form. She IS the final boss and all. Weird that it's just a bigger/zoomed in version of the first one though. Now, human... you have brought upon yourself the torment of infinity... I will resurrect as many times as it takes... and fight you... There is only one escape: > Ouroboros shot a powerful wave of energy!  Well, this fixed damage can't kill you at least. It's not that big a deal as a result. Ouroboros can come back from the friggin' dead!? Great! Now what, Tadano!? Do we fight her again!? No! You just finished the first battle, you'll wear yourself out! Just run, Hitonari! Hurry! This is an order. Fall back immediately. I can currently calculate no effective means of subjugating Ouroboros. Fall back immediately. The exit was right in front of our faces... Goddammit! Let's get outta here, Tadano!> You fled from Ouroboros... Malevolence and Benevolence Hey, Jack. Remember when you said like 25 minutes ago you didn't want us to radio you because it was potentially unsafe? Because I do. I don't forget these things, Jack. You fought masterfully, but it seems your opponent had the upper hand. My sympathies. I expected that the monsters of this world would make our egress difficult. We must be on guard. Now then, a word of warning about Ouroboros. Perhaps you should try using the Main App we presented you with. Very sorry that I can't be of more assistance, but... well, it seems worth a try, no? There is in fact energy flowing into the Vanishing Point from various points around Eridanus. It's most likely this very energy that's resurrecting Ouroboros. So... as long as those things keep feeding her energy, she's unstoppable... Calling all crew. This energy beam information will likely be useful in overcoming our present situation. Find the sources of this energy and remove them. Doesn't he have any idea how huge this place is!? Tch... I'm sure he knows, and just as sure he doesn't care. Let's split up, it'll go faster. I'll see you later, Tadano. We're done here. Hitonari, Jimenez, wait! I'll send you the data if you'd like to investigate them. Better than stumbling around blindly, yes? The energy sources appear to be spread out around this floor. Okay. I'll go knock out a few of 'em. See ya, Tadano.
Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:42 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Jan 30, 2017 07:52
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Yeah, like for all the Contrary Opinions I have about SMT in general, Disaster Cycle is just plain bad. I even forgot to mention the 2nd worst thing about it: Guarding reduces the chance of being inflicted by an ailment and usually reduces damage somewhat. Disaster Cycle deals more damage when you're Guarding from what I can tell. It's based on 100% anecdotal stuff but it was consistent and ugh.
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Jan 30, 2017 18:04
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A Land Controlling Roads Alright, so we'll now deal with that big ol' outer ring.  There ARE other Gate Search C doors that exist, but we don't need to worry about them right now.  We just have a bunch of things to deal with that are more important is all.  These here Mandrakes are just the same as the normal Mandrakes from Delphinus but levelled up to 43 and made to act like minibosses. It's as exciting and difficult as it sounds.  So, not very.  There's a few side-rooms along the outer room that let us get things like this Bead Chain that we saw previously.  Gui Xian is a new demon and the only one up here. He's immune to Ice and Expel. Oddly enough, this is because the enemy Gui Xian has Void Ice as a passive equipped. Usable Gui Xian has Void Fire instead and so only resists Ice. That's... something, I guess. I don't know why that's a thing but it is.  Anyway, that's that for the regular random demons.  The fixed random demons are just more of the same, in basically every way. Just with like more HP and somehow less interesting.  Moving swiftly along, because Kwancha is still Kwancha, we can get 3 AT II if we really needed it. This is a nice fixed Forma, but not the best.  We can go through this door to see what the deal is with this part of the area being mapped. I'm just going to go through it to get the door added to the map for completion; the actual content can wait.  Dzelarhons is really breaking the obvious pattern that was going on. She's totally thinking of platypi here anyway.  She's not even levelled up to 43, presumably because there aren't any random Dzelarhons before now. Which, if it is the entire reason why, is really dumb. She's weak to Ice, resists Fire and Wind and can cast Mamudo sometimes. That's it.  Ooh this is new. Fixed Luck Core in the next room, and that gives a Core for every stat now. Maybe we'll be able to find out what they're used for sooner, rather than later.  Meanwhile, we have these guys. They're not Dragons, though, but it still works better than "frog."  See, they're Drakes! This one is so dumb; they're just the normal Basilisk from this very Sector but with a miniboss template attached (kind of; Macabre back in Bootes had more HP than these guys). At least this should be the last one.  There has been a change in the energy pattern near the Vanishing Point. Go there and assess the situation. I'd say it's around 100%, with the only reason it's not exactly 100 being that she might have just left for some reason. I adivse that you prepare yourself before going. Anyway, the last fixed Forma in this area is a Sword Shard. As in the Forma that Red Rider drops. Yes. What?! This is absurdly generous, it's a Fixed forma so it won't spawn again and Enemy Search Forma cannot appear in the area Forma spawns usually... In The Master's Name Anyway, yeah, let's go beat up Ouroboros now. Hopefully for real this time. The torus of eternity has been severed...! I cannot fall at the hands of humans! Snake Ouroboros (2) Vehement Rage So, Ouroboros is a bit more powerful in this fight. She's gained a few levels and has a small number of new skills. I do mean small, unfortunately.  She's dropped both Dekaja and Dekunda and opted instead to go with Silent Prayer if buffs/debuffs go to 4. This just clears everything on everyone, resetting everything to its base value. This removes her own buffs and debuffs on you if she could do them, but instead it just makes it so you can't Taunt her to +4 attack.  Her only other new skill is this. Wave of Death is what she totally used in the cutscene before, and it's just a very powerful MT Phys skill. Yes, Phys. Not Almighty Phys. Just straight Phys.  Her resistances are completely unchanged, so she's still weak to Fire and drains Elec. The only other changes are that she doesn't regen now, she has 3200HP instead of 2300 and because she's a higher level she takes slightly less damage and deals more.  Also she gives ludicrous EXP, a decent chunk of Macca and drops a Bead Chain. End In The Master's Name No... Humans cannot... pass here... ......> Ouroboros disappeared. > There is something on the ground where Ouroboros was.  Oh, that's clever. A Klein bottle is like a closed Mobius Loop that is a nonorientable surface. It's a bit like one of those impossible triangle illusion things, except... sort of not? This is something I can somehow explain less the impossible imaginary engine the Red Sprite uses.  Silence  Am... Am I supposed to defeat the humans...? Or... is the fate of the world beginning to change...? I don't know... Even with the knowledge you gave me... I don't know... What... What am I supposed to be looking for...?> Gore disappeared somewhere...  Now that his puppet master's gone, he's as imposing as a weak kitten. Poor guy might just have to rot here in the Scwarzwelt... Was it the Commander deep down inside of him that stopped Gore from going all the way...? So long, Gore... Commander... Looks like we can finally ditch this dump. Hey, see that? The Vanishing Point is wide open... Morale Congratulations on defeating Ouroboros. The Vanishing Point has returned to its normal functionality. Mission "Find the Vanishing Point" is confirmed complete. Calling all crew. All crewmen must return to the ship or gather at the Vanishing Point. Look alive, people! Don't fool around or you'll get left behind! I better get going myself! We're finally here, Hitonari! It won't be long before we're back home! It is "bleeding out" to the Earth through here. What we're trying to do is hitch a ride on the energy bleed, though that's oversimplifying a little. We will need to adjust our course constantly during the attempt. Engineering, stay alert and take care with the engine's control. A once-in-a-lifetime job for Space-Time Navigator Terry... Wait 'til my daughter hears! So's that weird thing we got from Ouroboros gonna be the only souvenir we take home, Tadano? Maybe it'll at least be a good-luck charm for the trip home. Hahaha... Listen, friend, that's hardly all we got! Supplies has a whole closet full of goodies to take back home! New materials, new equipment... The boys on Earth'll be swooning over this stuff! It's true... we have much to show for all our hard work. But there were so many casualties, and we never did figure out the truth behind the Schwarzwelt... I dunno... Do we really need to know it that bad? What do you think, Tadano? We owe it to mankind. You just don't learn, do you, man? Don't tell me you wanna stay here... I don't need to hear that poo poo. Guess that's what makes you the team's golden boy.  We'd like to toast the end of your mission... but that'd be a little premature at this point. Yes... we still have the final leg of the journey to complete. ...Good point. We'll raise a glass to your luck and mankind's future once you're back. Now then, gentlemen, let's go over the plan one more time. Once you enter the Vanishing Point to begin your escape... We'll be feeding you navigation data that'll lead you home. Follow those coordinates to arrive back on Earth. As soon as we've confirmed you're clear of the Schwarzwelt... The next time we meet, it'll be on Earth. Looking forward to it. Godspeed, gentlemen. All hands, to your positions... We're finaly going home! Back to Earth at last! Somebody pinch me! Yeah, so long to this hellhole, and good riddance! Silence Still not worth making a video of this, but at least its a different animation now.  There's these cubes floating around in the background and the purple aura void that is the Vanishing Point.  We fly into it, the end.  We are currently on course. According to our calculations, it should take approximately 20 minutes. Crisis An unidentified energy signature is approaching from the rear! It's moving at a faster rate than the ship! We only have a few minutes before it catches up! What is it!? Who could be chasing us here...!? Is another demon after us!? What's wrong!? We hit!? Arthur, on its current course, it's going to ram us! We will take evasive action with short plane shifts. Engineering, prepare the reactor. The reactor's malfunctioned. We can't use the plane shift! It's almost here...! Waaaaaaaaaagh!> The Red Sprite lost control... Silence Well, if it isn't these guys again. We haven't seen them since the intro... when Hitonari died... umm...  In the end, humans have proved themse;ves to be little more than apes. And apes riding in an iron vessel cannot control the providence of the universe. Fear Jimenez...! Zelenin...! Hitonari...! It was to prevent you from becoming arrogant, and believing that you rule the world from on high. The wisdom of humans? The power of science? What did you hope to accomplish with these...? You will learn your boundaries. You will learn your boundaries. You will learn your boundaries. We're begin sucked in...!? Hitonari... Hitonari!? Who are these guys!? Demons!? Dammit, get out of my mind! Let go! Let go of me! We have to fight them, Tadano! ...Well, well. It seems another fruitless struggle has begun. They fail to grasp the depths of the universe's providence. Hmm... and lo, they detonate their "thunder"... But behold: they will be swallowed. I-Is this a vision...!? Is that... the Schwarzwelt being struck with nuclear weapons!? poo poo! The tricked us! We're not out yet, dammit...! Ay Dios mio... it's not working! It didn't even make a scratch! The operation failed! It is no longer given to humans to choose their own way. You and all your kind will live in the cursed lands...! But no... hold... But no... hold... But no... hold...  ...And so I see you have one already, Hitonari. The path may yet open. Foolish descendants who no longer know the voices of the spirits, or the truth of the world...  Silence And so for Ouroboros, the Joint Project and the (important members of the) Red Sprite... Pride came before one hell of a fall. So this is how it ends for us, huh? I can't believe the crew of the Red Sprite are fuckin' dead. Malevolence and Benevolence Where... are we...? Dammit, why isn't he answering!? What's going on!? Did we make it out!? Is this Earth!? Or are we at the ends of space and time!? Monitor team, get the camera feeds up and running! I get banged up, I lose my memory... I have no idea what's going on. Did something happen while we were escaping...? It wasn't just me, right? You guys saw them too, huh!? Did they interfere with the Red Sprite's escape!? Were those demons? Or illusions...? All right, let's get back on the job! C'mon, Arthur, what're you doing...? Self-repair? Hurry it up already...! The main infrastructure seems to be intact. We took a heavy impact, but there doesn't seem to be any major damage to the hull. Now if only Arthur would reboot... Silence Patching it through to all onboard viewscreens! Fear We ended up in another unidentified space-time sector! I don't believe this... we're still stranded out here...? We didn't accomplish a drat thing... Our big escape attempt just dumped us here. There's nothing us humans can do out here, is there...? We've just got in some atmospheric data... Doesn't seem like there's anything out there that'd stop us from operating outside. Oh, right! I'll set up a line... Wh... what!? What the hell is this!? But... how did this happen!? The graviton radio was destroyed? Believe me, I'm wondering the same thing! I'm looking at it right now, though, and it's smashed flat. There's no fixing this... I don't understand... how does a machine break like this...? Correspondence with the Earth... The way it broke... Well, whatever happened, we've lost our only way to contact the Joint Project. We're on our own again... There's no one out there to help us. ......! Well, it's about goddamn time! Arthur is rebooting! Auto-recovery from system crash is complete. All functions normal. Integrating new important data. System update complete. Resuming normal functions. My apologies for worrying you. I have now fully recovered. I will assess the situation and begin devising a plan immediately. Arthur, I just don't get this! What happened? Where are we? What should we do? Can you explain it to us? Do you even know the answers? All hands, please listen to my report. The Red Sprite's escape attempt ended in failure. As well as the interference of the three unknown life forms. In short, we were unprepared to attempt the escape. Haha... hahahahaha! This is hilarious! What a laughingstock we are! What's so goddamned funny!? This is serious! I'm sure it knows what it's talking about. What about the plan to destroy the Schwarzwelt!? They went through with it back on Earth, right!? What we saw when we were escaping... Were those the nukes...!? There is no sign that the Schwarzwelt has been destroyed. ...... So that's where we stand... We must revise our plans. To do so, we must assess the situation. First, we must ascertain the Red Sprite's location. Judging from the available data... So the Schwarzwelt has been expanding infinitely...? I'm surprised we made it here in one piece... Is that all right to say? Just trying to provide some comfort... Hitonari, it seems the Formless Mass you hold is not merely decorative. It was this Exotic Matter that led us here. So this weird stuff decides where we end up? According to my new information... This will expand our navigational options from the Vanishing Point. ...Wait, Arthur. something's not right about this. This "new information" you just referred to... You mentioned some "new important data" when you rebooted, too. Where did you get this information? It was transmitted to me from outside the ship. Could that have been...? Judging by the information's contents and timestamp... Wait, it came from THEM!? Arthur, you're basing our whole plan on information from those monsters!? Yeah, can we trust them!? They're the same ones who just stopped us from escaping! This is unbelievable... Arthur, you're-- Any doubts you harbor are perfectly understandable. It is consistent with our findings and does much to explain the Schwarzwelt phenomenon. I can come to no other conclusion than that their information is legitimate. They simply know more about the Schwarzwelt than we do. Strange though it may sound, the three unknown life forms both helped and hindered us. It appears as though they desire our continued progress.  Mem is the 13th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and Aleph is of course the first. Mem Aleph...? The center of the Schwarzwelt... It's obviously a trap! Mem Aleph is just something they made up to trick us! They're just having fun watching us squirm! But even if it is a trap... what other way is there? I don't like it, but there it is. Can you believe this poo poo, Tadano? You gonna just salute and say, "Yes, Sir!" to that? Arthur, I understand that you're trying to make the best of a bad situation, but... Moreover, given the circumstances, I must question your judgement. However, I understand yours and the rest of the crew's concern that I am malfunctioning. Silence What do you think, Hitonari? Can you proceed with the mission with such concerns? Can you carry out your duties? I can. Malevolence and Benevolence But I'm in... even if I have to do it all myself! Anyone who's tired of it all, go sleep in the engine room! I'll take you home! We can worry all we want, but it won't solve our situation. We're only alive now because we seized every chance we had. I can't say I'm thrilled, but... At least until we find out whether or not there's Exotic Matter here. If there is only one option available to use, I see no point in argument. In that case, let us proceed to the assignment. Fornax is Latin for furnace, it's named afer a Roman personification of... an oven, and you probably even noticed it earlier.  It's adjacent to Eridanus, partially encirlced by the river even. This is in part because Fornax as a constellation also used to be part of Eridanus. Our objective here is to find the Exotic Matter that will expand our options from the Vanishing Point. I am issuing a new official mission, designated "Fornax's Exotic Matter." Our working theory is that the Exotic Matter guided our journey to this sector. It remains possible for us to return to previously explored sectors... I regret that we are no longer able to contact the Joint Project, but please remain calm. I look forward to the successful completion of your mission. ...Okay Fine Here's A Normal Ouroboros (2) Fight
Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:43 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Feb 1, 2017 07:47
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GimmickMan posted:And a frog person? What? And she's supposed to be referencing a platypus? What am I missing here? The frog thing, yeah, I dunno. I did try to find out what that was supposed to be referencing, but it just got me Super Mario RPG stuff and Zeno's Paradox on halves reskinned to be a frog crossing a pond. And other things, but they were somehow even less relevant. the platypus thing is a joke because i had nothing else and she said it was "burned for eternity" 
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Feb 1, 2017 23:02
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Prayer Alright, so as per our normal routine we'll gather the crew's thoughts before proceeding to do... something or other. The Joint Project was so sure... all of mankind was! This is imposible! What else don't we know about the Schwarzwelt...!? It's like there's literally some higher power ruling over us... toying with us... Can we break free from its rule? We'll just keep doing what we can... It's the only thing we have left... If you keep stewing inside over this failure, it may trip you up on future missions. Keep a clear head. I do my best to care for the crew's mental health, too. "Is this really the end? Did we maybe overlook something?" And then boom, this happens. I have such good intuition, it makes me wanna cry. Well... nothing will come of me rambling on here. Let's go back out and hope for another chance. Of course, the Klein Bottle is a rare forma that we can turn into a few more SubApps.  The Klein Bottle nets us a couple of useful, restorative SubApps. HP Regen II is pretty nice as an upgrade to Regen I, but the Regens/Recovers are sort of unique in that the base and upgraded versions can both be equipped for HP and they will stack. You'll have like 2 spaces left afterwards for other stuff, but at least you can stack these.  The other thing that the Klein Bottle gives you is the Green, Green Grass of Home. It's okay I guess. At the start of a fight, demons sometimes ask you if they can join your party straight up. Sometimes it's a trick, sometimes it's not. I guess this just makes that event happen more often. It's... not worth wasting half your SubApp space on.  Ahh, but my heart ain't in it this time. I'm feelin' lower'n a rattlesnake's belly. But I can't stay down. It's times like these that we gotta collect forma to turn things around! If they went ahead with it, they must have had enough data to believe it'd work... But is anything ever "enough" when it comes to the Schwarzwelt? Anyway, I think we all need to rethink our assumptions about this place. This whole situation just proves how little we know about the Schwarzwelt. Fornax is... on a second page of sectors, huh? Judging from the bottom screen I mean; kinda figured it would go in that gap in the top-left of Eridanus. Guess not.  I don't know what they want, but they've got some nerve treating us like pawns... I guess talking it over won't solve anything. We have to go. That's the only way we can fight back. A Land Controlling Roads Alright, so back to Eridanus we go for many things. We have a few doors we can open with the Search C so we'll start there.  ...The gently caress is this? This... what. Why are there 4 Dis-Paras as the only thing behind a hidden door? What.  On the plus side, we have the entire first floor mapped out now. Well, that's a plus side to me anyway.  A bigger plus is that these doors around the path of damage and sleep tiles can be opened now.  This exists solely to let us get these... two... Anubis Stones easily. Wow, that's weird. I was expecting it to be 3 fixed ones that give one each. Not one bronze that gives one and one silver that gives the other 2.  Oh and the door to the nort of the teleporter gives a fixed Luck Core. How bizarrely generous!  Gonna take a quick detour to hand these materials over to the Dwarf at Carina before we continue.  You're good at this, boy! I'll make you a mighty fine weapon! It'll take me some time. Mind waiting 'til I'm done?Got another 10 moon cycles to kill, so we'll probably finish this last. Or, uh, thereabouts anyway. I think the materials for shop stock will be very definitely last...  But that's for me to worry about later. Right now, we've got this one door on 2F to open. That other one still can't be opened.  There's a... whatever this thing is just chilling out here. Uhh....  It's not even hostile. It just says whatever this is supposed to mean and that's it. There's nothing else in this room either. Weird.  3rd floor has two more doors for us to crack open. You know where they are, and we know for a fact what's behind one of them. We'll do that one second.  There's an actual Unlock door here, too. But we can't open this one yet, unfortunately. Kinda odd that the only Unlock doors in Eridanus are in sidequest paths.   We Four Devas have come in response to the restoration of a world full of energy. Thou, as we, dost move according to thy beliefs. If thou desirest the strength to carry out thy will... I am willing to train thee. Even should thy way divergeth from our own. Then thou shalt fight me. But this shall not be any ordinary battle. Before our duel, thy spirit shall be limited to the barest minimum. ...Is... is that all? Huh. Yeah, I can deal with this. 'Tis under these conditions that thou must defeat me. Naturally, thou canst not change demons in battle, either. If thou dost accept these terms, let us begin. Wilt thou train? Yes. > Koumokuten raised his hand... Now thy MP hath been reduced to 1. Attack me in whatever manner thou canst! Kishin Koumokuten Vehement RageStill really don't think this belongs anywhere near here...  So, Koumokuten? Well, yeah, he definitely set our MP to 1. Can't deny that.  Can promptly fix that, though. It's really kind of a weird and pointless gimmick in practice.  I guess he hits hard and it makes healing more difficu-- Wait, no, you heal with items as well. Preventing the Item command from being used would be the biggest threat anything could do in a sense. Bowyer would be a tricky boss from that angle alone.  Koumokuten resists Physical but not Gun (cough, cough) is weak to Wind and reflects Electric. He has a whole 1300HP, for all the good that does him. That's it.  His Source gives Elec Amp so it's a good idea to get that; you saw against Ouroboros before what stacking Boosts and Amps can do to a thing. End A Land Controlling Roads But thou must aim for even higher peaks. As far as rewards go, this is the... worst one for our current situation.  It's a crap weapon anyway, but it can only be equipped if your alignment is Chaos. Ours currently isn't, so this is just going to gather dust. Forever.  We already knew this guy was over on the right, at least.  To think that a human could come so far... It is clear that your power should not be taken lightly. What is less clear is how you shall use that power. It is this factor that will determine whether I am your friend or your foe.> The angel is thinking... Well? Won't you try to gain greater power here? Perhaps you could fight me? With certain conditions, of course. If you cannot, then even if you eventually emerge victorious, you will fail the trial. One thing besides... I will not allow you to change demons once the trial has begun. If you have no objections to my terms, then by all means, let us battle one another. Will you accept this trial? Yes.If you can beat Koumokuten, you can beat Aniel is less than 7 turns easy.  Then, here I go! Herald Aniel Vehement Rage Okay, so Aniel is stronger than Koumokuten but that's about it.  He can and will throw out Ziodynes to make you waste time healing or whatever, but since you throw that to Hitonari to deal with it doesn't matter.  Speaking of healing, he can totally do that just to be annoying but it heals sub-100HP anyway so whatever.  He's weak to Wind and only nullifies Elec, so in that regard he's a worse Koumokuten. He only has 1700HP, so 7 turns isn't exactly a high bar to cross a this point. Notably we do not unlock him for fusion either... End A Land Controlling Roads The battle was decided in only 3 turns... Victory is yours. Well done. Aha... it seems you have conquered Kazfiel's trial. Then both Kazfiel and I together shall be your next opponent... Son of man. If you can enter the door in the back, then do so.Yeah, we can't. It's locked for real, like the one on the left. So we'll be back when we can deal with them I guess.  As you probably expected, the Plasma Sword is a Law weapon. It's... really not good though. It's worse than the Vajra (not by much but that's not the point) but we can actually use it. Not going to, though.  Gonna jump on up to the Top floor next. Inside the room that was already on our map before, we can find Yggdrasil just... hanging out. Silence And then this happens when we try and leave.    With Yggdrasil again stabilized, we were able to recover our true power. This is the true nature of the three sisters you met. And I see you, too, have grown a great deal in power. We scarcely recognized you... But it is this moment we have waited for. Listen, and remember. You wandered the border between life and death here in the past. But you survived. That was due to the aid of a certain man... Have you guessed it? That man... was you yourself. We know you can do it; we have seen it happen. Change our fate. Will you go to the past? Yes. Thank you very much. We shall now journey to the past. Are you ready? Yes. Then we shall go... to the time of your battle... In The Master's Name  I was right to wrest for myself this power to control time! Thou canst not comprehend what I have done!> Your past self is facing off with Yggdrasil... Silence > It was then that the Dis noticed you...  Thou again!? Thou art certainly persistent! But 'twill be no different this time. I shall stop time and smite thee! ＺＡ ＷＡＲＵＤＯ！ ...Thou art from another time, art thou not? Accursed human!> Yggdrasil attacked! Tree Yggdrasil Vehement Rage Alright, so Yggdrasil is honestly one of the smarter bosses we've seen. Not like it matters though; he can and will Dekaja whenever he wants. I don't think he has Dekunda at all though, so uh...m  Attack-wise, he goes all in on Gun attacks.  And even then he doesn't go for the actual scary good ones so it's only a big threat to someone like Gurr.  He has 1800HP, is weak to Fire and nulls Gun. Honestly, he's way better when we get to use him. In 20 levels. Yeesh.  Gives semi-decent EXP and piss poor macca, as we're used to at this point. End Silence Wh-Who art thou!? How dost thou hold such power...!? Arrrrrrgh...!> Yggdrasil became tame.   We send you to this moment when we regain our power, don't we? Still... I didn't think you would return with such strength. The deeds of humans which show faintly in their fading power. The prophecy was true. Thank you so much for saving us. Let us meet again in the future. We will wait for you until then... A Land Controlling Roads Never for a moment since did I forget that battle... You fought well. Thank you ever so. I shall return to Asgard and monitor Yggdrasil's main trunk. But should you need me, I will not hesistate to come to your aid. Then, it will be my turn to help you. Until that day... I shall look forward to it.> Norn and Yggdrasil left.  Norn is, uh, level 72. We might not even get to use her; we'll see.  The Nornir Ring is... eh. It's thoroughly not bad; it increases every Stat by 1. It doesn't do anything else, so it's not exactly good either. Flat stat boosts are pretty boring and uninteresting.  And the last thing on the Top floor is a Dantalian. He's in the same room as the Sword Shard was, which makes him quite hard to miss really.  My store of knowledge grows vaster and vaster. I see the fate of this world as through polished crystal. Hm...? You are human, are you not? I am Dantalian. Do not mistake me for those other foolish demons. Knowledge is my joy. It was thanks to my wisdom that humans, of all beings on Earth, evolved thus... You seem to have an understanding of this world, however unsure. Ah... you store your knowledge in this device, rather than grimoires. Permit me to take a look... Most interesting. Why, some of this information, even I had no inkling of. I propose a task for you, sir. I see you divide your knowledge of this world into "sectors"... Oh, is that all? I've kinda been doing that already. If you can map for me 3 areas, I shall reward you handsomely. Have you any interest in the task? Yes. Then, I shall send you to three different lands. You should know them all well. I'd not request you to explore completely virgin territory.  What...!? Can it be!? You've already explored that land from stem to stern. Marvelous! Then I shall choose another land to explore by proxy.  There appears to be a hidden space within its boundaries, but such a place does not interest me.Basically we just have to map the entirety of the normal floor; anything inside the Phase Shifter sanctums isn't counted but only for Dantalian. What...!? Can it be!? You've already explored that land from stem to stern. Marvelous! Then I shall choose another land to explore by proxy.  What...!? But this is miraculous... You have already completeted this map, too? Such skill, such diligence... I feel as though I know this place like the back of my hand. Here, a reward from me. Thus does my store of knowledge increase ever more... If you like, you may come to me at any time. I shall pay in good coin for your information on other lands. I look forward to future dealings with you...So if we talk to Dantalian again, he'll send us to every other floor of every sector in the game one at a time for their maps. This isn't an EX Mission or anything, but it does have a reward for doing all of them.   We, uh, we can't even do the first yet though. We can skip ones that are currently impossible but I'm just gonna wait until we have every map done and then hand them in in bulk.  Quick fusion before we continue. Scathach's pretty great; she's normally weak to Elec so we'll remove that just 'cause. She has no ailment weaknesses or anything, so that's fine. She's a Phys demon with a high focus on spells for some reason? But her basic attack has a 10% chance to Fear so that more than makes up for her weird skills. We're nearly done with everything we can finish at this point, so let's see... what's next...Oh, I know. Encounter  ...How can I tell? Because Grandpa Thoth told me! He said a human would talk to me, and when he did, to give him this book! So this is for you guys. Okay! Have fun! > The demon left... Nice and easy. Back to Thoth we go, then. A Land Controlling Roads Hoh hohhh... Well done. I knew you could do it. I can prepare another riddle for you if you want. I'm sure it would lead you to more wisdom. We'll get to that in a minute. First, we have the Odin Passage here that clearly exists for a password and nothing else.  But it doesn't work. Alright, fine. I suppose "Passage" isn't just the name of the item; it's just a fragment of the password.  So, let's see if we can get the rest. I already gave volume 2 of the Books of Thoth to another demon... You know the game, my boy. Find that demon and get the book. Now this sounds all too familiar, at this point... Let's see how well you do with that one. Encounter We've seen many a Bifrons, so it's pretty easy to figure this one out. The Book of Thoth, volume two, penned by the god knowledge and wisdom himself. ...By all means, takest thou the book. ...This god doth indeed possess remarkable prophetic powers. He foresaw thy coming, as though it had happened already. I doubt very much that even I could accomplish such a feat... But I'd never have thought that a son of man could challenge that supremely wise god... Ohohoho... I shall be most interested to learn the outcome. A Land Controlling Roads Hoh hohhh... Well done. I knew you could do it. Odin and then Tyr, huh? I'm beginning to see a pattern here.  And sure enough, the Tyr Passage makes it apparent that the password has something to do with the days of the week. Which makes sense, given the names of the passages. The modern days of the week ARE named after common deities after all; Tyr/Mars is Tuesday and Odin/Mercury is Wednesday. Sunday/Monday are... exactly what you think they are.  If this pattern keeps up, we should have 3 more passages to go. Hurm... It seems you've fallen for the charms of knowledge. If I could see beneath that mechanical mask, would your eyes be shining ferociously...? Ahhh... you'll probably lose interest if I ask too much. But I thought you might be back for more. I already took the liberty of setting up the next riddle. Well, uh, we haven't run into anyone with scissors in any capacity yet. Between this and the camel-rider, we're swiftly hitting walls on these chains, huh? A Frivolous Nation Melchom's got a new quest for us and he wants... a full party full MP restorative. It's actively impossible to have one at this point. Thanks Melchom. A Squandered Nation Was about to go to Antlia, but this got done first somehow so... Here, take it. 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. The Cursed Sarai is a cool weapon for sure. It's the strongest we can get easily ("easily"), is a single random strike and it can Charm whatever it hits. Definitely gonna use this. A Scorched Nation That just leaves the Fairy Village as per usual.   I'd like them to be posted as the village guards here. Things have been dangerous around here lately, so I'd feel reassured having strong demons protecting us. So please...! Can you bring Vivian and Spriggan here?Next two fairies are, uh, the next two fairies. Useful and convenient. It's super-easy to do as well, so whatever the amazing new subapp is we'll snag it immediately.  Here's a little something to say "thank you." Go on, take it! ...Th-That's not a Rare Forma?  It's a terrible, boring weapon! What the hell? Weaker than the Cursed Sarai, doesn't do anything fancy but it can be targetted! Which doesn't matter all that much in practice. Man, I hope the next Fairy Village reward isn't a colossal letdown. Prayer Oh right, the Bookmark! I nearly forgot about that already.  That's what gives us MP Regen II. Which is good but has a size of 7 so we can't stack the MP Regens because there's not enough space.  But anyway, speaking of letdown weapons, let's see what we can get from Irving before we head off to Fornax. Though, uh, for reasons that'll make sense later there will be some left locked when we're done here. The Snake Knife is bland and boring; AT Eridite x2, Snake Runes x3 (Yurlungur and Vouivre) and Drake Scale x3 (Bai Suzhen and Basilisk) to make.  The Caliburn Knife is just a worse Answerer Knife. Disappointing and boring in ever way. AT Eridite II x2, Divine Chain x1 (Dominion) and Fairy Water x2 (Vivian) but don't go out of your way for this one.  The Onimaru is kind of okay, albeit a giant pain to get. Minimum of 2 hits, you pick which enemy it hits, and it can inflict Fear. AT Eridite II x2, Brute Garment x7 (Sui-Ki) and Brute Clothes x6 (Fuu-Ki) to get but uh that might take a while.  Not as long as the Hawthorn Spear from this though. It's quicker and easier to get from the Dwarf in Carina. AT Eridite II x2, Genma Jar x9 (Tlaloc) and Spirit Acid x8 (Legion) is really tedious and time-consuming to get. The Acid is the harder of the two by far just by default.  Speaking of tedious and time-consuming, that sums up the Yoshiyuki very nicely. It's an okay weapon, nothing super fancy but Sleep is a nice ailment. Just a shame it takes AT Carite III x2, UMA Muzzle x7 (Kuda) and Genma Spear x7 (Tam Lin) to make.  And the Gankou Sword is the last one of these things. It's... honestly really bad. Fixed 3 hits is nice, but it hits everythig and that could have some nasty repercussions. AT Antlite III x2, Divine Wings x9 (Angel and Archangel) and Genma Conch x5 (Kurama Tengu) if you disagree for some reason.  Hey look, you can just buy an Abba Dingo. After it's already questionable period of being maybe useful has long since passed! Good job, Abba Dingo. It's also a hilariously cruel joke in making it because it requires AT Eridite II x2, Snake Shell x6 (Gui Xian) and... Sword Shard x2 (Red Rider) for some insane reason. What the gently caress?  The Scouter is a weird, niche weapon that I dislike. Soul Scanner is a weird ability; it deals more damage if you've fully analyzed the thing you're fighting. It's really not a good weapon the best of time so I don't get it. It's more reasonable than the Abba Dingo to make but it's still AT Carite III x2, UMA Foot x6 (Hare of Inaba) and Beast Hairball x8 (Nekomata). Just.... just don't bother with any gun here except the Revolver.  Next up is armor. Tsukikage Vest's curse resistance is nice in theory but it's less durable then the Belobog Vest and makes you weak to Gun. Normally not a big deal, but in Eridanus of all places that might not be a good thing. DF Eridite x2, Drake Scale x3 and Yoma Cloud x2 (Shiwanna) if you're not bothered by that.  The Armor Vest would be absolutely worth using without issue. The Elec weakness is only a big deal for Ouroboros (and then you just use the Belobog Vest anyway) and it makes you resist Phys, Gun AND Curse. Shame it's not quite as durable as we already have in raw defense but it's still a pretty good piece of armor and makes a good replacement if you don't have a Hawthorn Spear to give to Kresnik. DF Eridite x2, Jirae Plate x1 (Titan) and Fairy Shroud x5 (Spriggan) are what you need here andthat's relatively sensible all told.  The Thiotimo Vest is a piece of armor I see recommended a lot for things. I'm gonna disagree by sheer virtue of being weak to two of the most common elements, while having no physical defense whatsoever. It's got a bigger defense value than anything else but thats all it has going for it and that's not much of a backup. DF Eridite II x2, Vile Veins x2 (Mishaguji) and Tyrant Glacier x2 (King Frost) if you want it though.  God, the Jet Vest is so bad. It's got no resistances, a low Defense Value and it gives you 10 MP and +5 Agility. The one stat that matters the least for the MC. And then it has the audacity to require DF Bootite III x2, Jaki Hammer x5 (Ippon-Datara) and Enigma Himorogi x6 (Futotama)? Well, at least it's not making you go hunt Fiends for this one.  Keeping up the underwhelming parade, we have the Daruma Vest which crosses the ever-so-low bar of being better than the Jet Vest. And kind of just giving up after that. It's got really high defense, and boosts Vitality by 5 (which means it adds 10 HP! Yay!) but that's all it does. DF Delphite III x2, Genma Jar x4 and Beast Flask x3 (Hsing-Hsing) are what you need here, so at least it's relatively easy to make all things considered.  AC Eridite x2, Brute Gold x2 (Kin-Ki) and Flight Talon x5 (Toufei) for a ring that does a whole +20 HP. And nothing else. gently caress this entire line of accessories. Who thought they were a good idea?  Especially with THIS thing right here. The Supple Ring is frankly unfairly good for how easy it is to get. It makes you immune to petrification. That's all it does. That's all it needs to do. If Hitonari gets petrified, that's a game over and we have no mulligans for that one. There are no do-overs, there are no saving graces. It's an immediate one and done. The Supple Ring is flatout either the 2nd or 3rd best accessory period for wiping out the chance of an errant immediate bullshit game over no questiosn asked. Grab that AC Eridite II x2, Beast Mane x3 (Orthrus) and Vermind Thread x2 (Arachne) as soon as you can and never look back.  The Life Ring is... really bad, surprise surprise. +10 HP and the equivalent to HP Recover I. AC Delphite II x2, Enigma Clay x5 (Kanbari) and Vile Veins x6. Augh, no.  The Cohesion Ring is kind of maybe nice. Bomb is not that big of a deal though; there are so many ways to get around it, and the only things that we've seen that CAN capitalise on it are pissweak baby losers anyway. Bosses that can inflict Bomb (like Ouroboros randomly can) are even less of a threat because everything gets 1 action and no more. AC Eridite x2, Nymph Hat x1 (Senri) and Jaki Hair x4 (Rakshasa) are needed here, but not something I'd go out of my way for.  Dauntless Ring is even less impressive. Paralyze is potentially dangerous due to that whole 1.5x damage thing and all but it's really easy to cure, and I don't understand why this makes you wait longer to get: AC Eridite II x2, Nymph Hat x2 (Senri) and Tyrant Glacier x3. So, that just leaves items. In particular that leaves 5 items. It is actively impossible right now to unlock all 5, so I just did the one:  Those stat cores are half of what you need to make the Incenses. Each Incense takes 3 of their relevant Core and, umm...  3 of a Fiends forma. Except Matador. Matador gets no respect. And just in case this wasn't already tedious enough, the Core and the Fiend are from different sectors entirely. Strength Cores are in Antlia and the Sword Shard is from Eridanus. There is no reason to bother with actually ever buying these things, because they're super expensive and ridiculously tedious to get but they're there if you really, really want them I guess. Well, eventually they are but that's not for a long, LONG time. That's for me to worry about though. For now, we have Fornax to go and check out. Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:44 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Feb 3, 2017 07:53
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 Well, uh, Fornax sure is the next Sector. Let's give it a look-see. The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buriedjeez that track name sure is a mouthful  Sad to say, but this definitely isn't Earth. We sure got dumped into one crazy place, huh?(B) It feels almost mystical... How was this place made? How far does it go...? Why is it here...?(A) All we know is that it's full of mysteries. The weird atmosphere spooking you or something? Nah, man... I'm not scared. (B) Hmm, unflappable, huh? Wish I could say the same.(A) You too, huh, Hitonari? Stay cool out there. Alright, let's go! So, Fornax starts off by being... an open corridor. I guess that's something.  Got a couple doors at the end, and we'll head through the right side first.  No real rhyme or reason to picking one over the other, though in the top-right there's a... healing spot? Already? That's pretty weird.  A couple Amrita Sodas just adjacent, so you can cure any and all ailments on a single target.  Fornax is not exactly a bustling hub of content, after how dense Eridanus could be. It has this weird feeling of emptiness, really.  I get that it's totally by design, so it can at least start off as a bit of a breather but it's just... so weirdly barren in basically every way. The Fear of God But it has some rad-rear end random demons. Emphasis on some in that sentence, unfortunately. Reapers are new, and that's a sensible localisation; their Japanese name is Hel. So, yes, she is Hel Hel. Speaking of which, yes, the lady encased in ice IS weak to Fire! And Elec for good measure. She resists Expel and is immune to Ice and Curse. She can cast Mamudoon and the usable version gets Sabbatma. Balor has much less going on, but see? He looks NOTHING like Fomor despite being one! Anyway, the first random Tyrant is immune to Fire and Curse. But weak to Expel and 300% weak to Mute.  Kaiwan is keeping up the apparent trend round here and is immune to Curse. He's weak to Ice though, and nothing else. The usable version is naturally neutral to Expel but has Void Expel as a skill which is something I guess. He also has Tetraja which is hella redunant. What are you even doing Kaiwan? ...There ARE more things on this floor, but they only turned up once as Unknowns and then never again. Weird. The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried So, anyway, over on the left-hand side now, there's this one square corridor that has broken panels lying in it. It's actually visually interesting, so of course it's just here and nowhere else nearby.  I don't know what it is about Fornax but it almost feels like it's trying to go out of its way to be as boring as possible.  Like, that might just be me but what you see here IS what you get. There's no locked doors, no hidden doors, no Phase Shifters, no dark rooms...  But there IS a terminal in the top-left corner which is very close to the entrance. What, why is this even here? What's the point?  There's even a shortcut you can open right here. Can only open from this side of course. I dunno, I don't get it. It's not like it's even nece--  In The Master's Name  It's been a while, foolish adventurers! The time I spent licking my wounds was quite disgraceful! But surely you have not forgotten me. I am Morax... Though in this world, I have another name.   In this land of seeds, I can express my true form! See how I overflow with energy to such an extent that my sanity is fleeting! This time, I will show you who is worthy to rule! Learn the greatness of demons! Demons should die. Gah! Arrogant humans! Do you think yourself to be a saint!? No more! I shall reduce you to ash! Tyrant Moloch Vehement Rage It's understandable why Pride and Vainglory were combined into one thing by Pope Gregory I. The two are very similar but vanity originally emerged from a delusion of grandeur whereas pride in oneself usually is excessive arrogance. Vanagloria, the original Latin name for the sin, literally translates as "vain boasting" as opposed to the somewhat more inherently positive concept of glory.  Anyway, Moloch is uh.... Morax. He's just Morax but with more HP and Maragidyne instead of Maragi.  He still has loving Lunge for God's sake! The one tangible difference between the two is that Moloch resists Electricity. Good for you, Moloch.  They totally went with this design because he looks like a giant furnace and this is Fornax and all. I bet you that's the entire reason why. End In The Master's Name Our... revenge... will not... end here... And give birth... to demons...> Moloch disappeared. Yeah, yeah, good riddance you fuckin' loser. Silence Oh, Jimenez. Did you see what happened to Ouroboros? Moloch got off easy. He's not worth any actual effort. ...This sector seems a little different from the others. Let's both stay on our toes and make sure we don't end up letting out screams like those!I will give him this; it's a good thing he smashed that wall. There's no other way to progress!  > You can hear voices echoing from behind the doors... In The Master's Name   Oh, what a surprise. The other three Masters are here as well.  So I guess this is Fornax's gimmick. Boss refights but they evolve first.   And regained the glory of our true forms......I wonder if Asura is even going to do anything then. That one was explicitly listed called out as his true form already.  The defiled spirit of Hitonari! Of the humans! All shall be slaughtered! All shall be slaughtered! All shall be slaughtered! Silence > You felt a sudden presence behind you! Chaos Theme  You might call this sector a different playing field than the others you've investigated. Here, the demons you refer to as Rosettas are able to maintain their true forms. They're very eager to see you again, I think. I will be watching...> Louisa Ferre disappeared.  I have verified strong energy signatures, those of demons, through Hitonari's Demonica. There are three energy signatures. These demons pose a threat to the investigation. Your mission is to defeat them. Note that they do not have Rosetta readings, making it impossible to pinpoint their locations. Stay alert as you go about the mission. The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried If Morax/Moloch was any indication, they don't pose much of a threat. We'll go through the left-hand door first and just go in order from there I guess.  There IS an elevator over here, but we'll ignore it for now.  This area is also really, really bland and uninteresting. It has a whole 4 one-way doors. How exciting.  There is a pair of Dekunda Stones in the bottom right corner. Just in case Hare of Inaba didn't you give you more than enough than you'd need for everything ever, I guess. The Fear of God But hey, new demons already. Yes, really. Zaccoum is probably one of the more interesting things we'll see; his main stat is Vitality of all things. He's immune to Stone, Paralysis, Poison, Charm, Mute and Fear. Everything else is as it looks. Clotho is marginally less exciting. She's immune to Sleep and yes Dream Needle is her only offense. The usable version has Recarm as a third skill. Her source upgrades that to Samarecarm (100% HP revive; Balm of Life but worse then) and drops Diarahan for Recovery Amp. Clotho is baaaaaaaaad. I rag on healing spells in this game a lot because they're almost all worthless; there is ONE exception to that and even then it's very niche in its use. Items are just flatout better 99.9999% of the time.  Gurr is also on the first floor. We used one for a while to, like, zero fanfare. He's really not that interesting beyond being a very quick Magic demon who slotted into our party fine last sector. Manticore is immune to Poison, resists Electricity and Curse and is weak to Wind. He has Ziodyne by default and his source gives Maziodyne. The Ma-Dyne spells are honestly super underwhelming; the MT spells in general are pretty eh since they're way weaker than the STs of the same tier and are barely stronger than the STs of the tier below. And that only applies to the Dynes. Like, Maragion has a base power of 110. So does Agi. Agilao has a base power of 150; Maragidyne is 160. This holds true across all elements. MT spells are bad, yo.  Rukh is also encounterable on 1F. Resists gun, Weak to Fire and 300% weak to Mute. His source gives Mabufudyne (meh) and Void Gun. Oh my!  Malevolence and Benevolence  Wow, a human! Hey, um, mister? I sorta have this problem... I was playing with a cute bunny and trying to chase him. But I can't catch him... Well, a little girl lost her bunny that she was playing with. What kind of monster do you have to be to refuse to help? Yes. Yay! Thanks, mister. I'm so happy! We'll be the best of friends! Okay, ready... Go! The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried Alice is like the only thing worth caring about on this part of the floor. I really didn't gloss over anything here.   : I have to hurry, or she'll come. And then...: Ohhh... How terrifying...> Hare of Inaba noticed you.  > Hare of Inaba ran away further in.  ...Y'know, I'll give the second floor this. It has a few pit drops that are all signalled really blatantly. We'll just go with the top-left one for now.  : Are you doing this for Alice...? Are you here to catch me? Yes.: Eep! I knew it! I don't want to play with Alice!> Hare of Inaba ran away further in.  I am genuinely trying to think of nice things to say about Fornax, in between the steps of this sidequest. The quest itself is functional and works and serves as a good tutorial of the area. Sort of. If you don't know that there's hidden doors here, for example, then you'll hit a hole and be unable to beat the quest in time.  Because the 3rd floor is just a bunch of tiny corridors with a single hole. The corridors are paired by hidden doors. This only matters for this sidequest but it is nice to know anyway; makes it easier to progress on the whole.  > Hare of Inaba ran away further in.  Honestly, Fornax is like... okay, the Morax thing as a concept was really cool, right? Well, it was a neat idea and it had Actual Animation for once and everything. Just a shame it was, uh, Morax.  Oh, finally! Something vaguely interesting! Damage tiles! And here I am without Medic equipped, so this IS the best option here. ...I do have like a lot of Life Stones, so it's not actually a big deal.  : Ahhh...! N-No escape now...> The Hare of Inaba is looking behind you.  Yay! Didja really catch the bunny for me, mister? Hee hee hee! Mr. Bunny, Alice won the game. Since you lost, we need to play a punishment game now. What should we play? Well, that escalated quickly... > Alice is moving to skin the rabbit... Anyway, we CAN intervene but I think we'll just see where this is going. I'm sure the Hare can still escape.  : Ow ow ow! Stop it, stop it! Ahaha! You look cold, Mr. Bunny. How funny! Hmmm... but just doing this is too boring. > Alice rubbed salt water on the rabbit... : Gyaaaaaaaah! It hurts! It hurts!> The Hare of Inaba is rolling around in pain... *sigh* I'm bored of this. This game isn't fun anymore, so I'm going to kill and eat you. Bunny stew tonight!> Alice is walking towards the rabbit...   That's... pretty impressive. Huh. Ahaha! Mr. Bunny died. He looks delicious! Hey... Mister, can I ask you a favor before I eat? Ummm... Fiend Alice Vehement Rage Man, at face value Alice is way harder than Ouroboros. She's a significantly higher level, she reflects Gun and resists Phys, is a Fiend and thus immune to all ailments...  Except, well, her best stat is her Magic by a mile. And she doesn't use it.  Ever. She'll gladly punch you or shoot you with that needle that she just used on the rabbit but she won't cast any magic.  ...Well, okay, except That One but that's a Curse elemental instant kill so Tetraja nullifies it. And if you don't do that, it has a base 80% chance to work. So, uh, nullify it.  The usable Alice is a much lower level than she should be, but she makes up for it by having one of the best Sources in general. As an actual demon, she's fairly eh at first outside of that whole reflecting Gun thing... except her Magic is ludicrous and has a 21% growth rate which is VERY HIGH. End Sorrow The mean old man hit me!> Alice disappeared...  > The dead rabbit resurrected. > All of his wounds are now healed... : Geez. That was excruciating. If we did, we'd get a Bead Chain here. We just sat back, so we get no bonus extras. : That Alice has been doing the same thing to me over and over...: To tell you the truth, Alice is actually some sort of illusion. : It seems she was given form in this world of memories. I'm just part of the memory, too.: I was manifested so Alice could chase and torture me. Memories of that innocent prank have been repeated... eternally.: But this time there was something different: you. Maybe we've finally been able to replace that memory.: ...Thank you. I want you to have this. : It seems Alice's memories have changed... Looks like there's no need for me to be here anymore.: Thank you so much. I'm finally free...! That Hexagram is honestly super-important. It's a sidequest reward, but the game immediately presumes you grabbed it and gates everything worthwhile after this point behind what it gives you. That's why we did this now. The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried But we'll just sit on it for the time being. Poison was the alternative path we could've taken over the raw damage. It was definitely the lesser of the two evils, yes, but I'd rather just eat the damage since that only costs Life Stones. Poison eats both that AND Dis-Poisons. I will gladly jump trough these ludicrous mental hoops to justify bad decisions.  The only other thing over in this area is a Strength Incense. We'll put it with all the others, I guess.  Leaving that area thrusts us through a one-way door. We'll ignore that path to the right just below that one for now. The path we will take just forces us towards the elevator. This is why we didn't use it before; it's just a shortcut back to B1F.  Though we will take a brief trip to B2F here, since that's the only way to get to these Beads. Now we'll go back up.  And then walk back to the main part of B2F. There's a few holes here, but we only need to use 3 to explore all the lower areas due to the hidden doors.  There's also a heal spot here as well. No, I don't know why there's another one already, but it is inherently more worthwhile than the other one.  ...Just because we don't NEED to jump down all the holes, doesn't mean I won't. It makes it easier to keep track of where we've been if we just pretend the hidden doors on 3F don't exist. Well, except the one we used for the Alice quest. We'll use that one to explore where the first hole WOULD take us instead. The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried  This place is full of holes... Though if you ask me, I prefer that to a pitch-black path.Yeah, I gotta agree with this Zaccoum. Holes are annoying but managable. Dark Rooms are just plain bad and my least favourite mechanic.  ...That said, the hole behind Zaccoum is loving worthless. Great. Thanks!  Back to B2F's main "hub" and, sure enough, there's a terminal here as well. This one makes more sense than the one by Moloch at least.  Hole 3 drops us by a bunch of sleeping tiles. Guess what I forgot to re-equip! We were just given a chance and I sort of ignored it, because I'm a dumbass. Fornax is probably the sector I remember the least, honestly. The Fear of God So, look, a distraction! New demons! And by demons, I mean Strigoii. And nothing else. He's, uh, exactly as how he looks. His skills are fairly eh, his resistances aren't lying, he has no ailment resistances, his Strength is his best skill and he wastes it on Getsu-Ei, his source just gives Resist Elec/Wind and Life Drain... Boy, Strigoii might be genuinely the most boring demon in Fornax thus far. Weird, huh. An Honor Befitting that Name So, uh, funny thing about Fornax. It has a Fiend that isn't Alice, sure, but... aside from that it only has one Enemy Search demon. Kinmamon here has a 50% chance of appearing solo and a 48% chance of appearing with a Balor friend. He's immune to Fire, Expel and Curse. He's technically neutral to every ailment but has the Void Mind passive which grants immunity to Charm, Fear... and Mute, Sleep and Strain. Sure, okay. Strain I can sort of buy, but Mute and Sleep? Weird. Anyway, you see what's not on that list? Yep, that's right. Petrify! Oh and he has Megido and his source gives Megidola. That's nice but Kinmamon is an Enigma and so I will never, ever remember to use him. The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried Oh, right and we COULD explore to the right here as well but we're not going to. It's something we'll get to soon enough, don't worry.  So, hole number four then.  Aside from having an obvious hole over to the left, it also gives us a Bead Chain. I guess that makes up for the one I skipped over from the Hare but not really. So, about that hole down to B5F...  As soon as we land, we get warned about a boss fight nearby. I wonder which of the three it's going to be.  But there's a terminal right behind us, so we'll take advantage of this.  Not for what you would first think. No, we're going back to B2F to see where the next holes lead.  We can deal with whatever the boss is after we've finished exploring the left-hand side of Fornax fully.  ...Though I wish I hadn't bothered. Boy was that one a waste of my time!  So, what about the last hole? You'd probably initially expect this one to lead to the inevitable fight.  Instead, it just lets us snag a couple Attack Mirrors. That's oh-so-generous I'm sure. I dunno, they're good but using them ever is kind of a bad idea when you would want to.  Also, one-way door that makes us take damage tiles. This is why I didn't walk over here originally, yes. ...And yet I somehow still forgot to equip Medic. Still. I dunno, I think my brain just kind of checked out here.  So, anyway, back on B5F by the terminal we can see more destroyed panels. I feel like this visual cue would work way better than just having the game scream HEY A BOSS IS NEARBY as bluntly as possible. It's sort of subtle, but after Morax/Moloch you're kind of now expecting it, y'know?  Also there's a rare Forma here. Neat. We'll see what Irving can do with this in a bit.  Just below the Sun Mirror, there's a Heal Spot so I guess the fight is a little bit further south of here.  A couple Somas is definitely a nice thing to get, but I don't think I'm ever going to really use them? I mean, sure, I might because they're good but Beads do the job more'n well enough in almost every situation.  Fixed Rising Core forma nearby and... that's it. There's nothing here. Weird. Guess the Demonica was wrong, then; it makes sense since we're not picking up Rosetta or Exotic Matter signals from those guys. Let's see what Irving can do with the Sun Mirro--  In The Master's Name Hrrrrmmmm! We meet for the last time, human! I, Mitra shall have my vengeance! Or rather...  "Mitra" is my tame aspect for the humans! You have not forgotten me, I trust? That is right! We were not made to serve humans! Humans were made to serve us! We should rule over humans! That way is wrong. Evil? You claim it is we who are the impure ones!? Do you foolish humans not remember who made this planet!? And you... you will not escape my curse! No more experiments! The time for research is over! Now is the time for atonement and death, human! Fallen Mithras Vehement Rage So, if Vanagloria is thoroughly unjustified and borne of delusion how does that differ from Superbia? Pride is generally regarded as negative because it leads to hubris and overlooking ones flaws. Vanity can do the same, but it generally originated from ones own mindset. Pride is made manifest by the environment, hence why I said before that it has a basis in reality. One gains pride by having your own skill or knowledge or capability recognised by an external source. It is the result of an initial praise and then an internal corruption of ones self-worth to an inflated status.  Okay, so Mithras IS notably different from Mitra in a few ways. For one thing, he's actually a downgrade. Seriously. Mitra is a special one-of-a-kind demon with a unique internal mechanic. Mithras does not have that. Skill-wise, he's mostly identical to before but with one change.  He dropped Mabufudyne for Ice Breath. Mithras, what the gently caress? No, really. He kicked out one of the better ice spells (which is more damning of Ice as an element) for the worst it has?  He makes up for that by being able to just drop a Light of Order whenever he wants now. He doesn't need to prime it with a Waking Dream first. So if he wants, he can just kill a demon at any time. No save.  He CAN still use Waking Dream, of course, and it's just as underwhelming as ever. It didn't even inflict Strain on anyone. At all.  Mithras is a joke. Like Moloch before, his resistances are the same as Mitra's. Except, unlike Moloch, while he does get a Fire resistance added, this gets counter balanced by having something that the game never tells you about removed. End In The Master's Name This is the first and last time I will ever say this about literally anything, but this true form thing? Morax did it better. Not just once, but twice... No, counting my form, three times...!> Mithras disappeared. Silence Ugh... That certainly brings back some painful memories... If he couldn't better himself outside of battle, he deserves to die as a mockery! ...I'm sorry for that outburst. Good luck with the rest of the expedition! Crisis All crewmen are to halt their activities and return to the Red Sprite. A new mission has arisen which requires us to change sectors. ...Wait, again? Didn't we... just do this plot beat? Like, it was a bit different but... Halt all activites and return to the Red Sprite immediately. ...Man, what now? He really is a slave driver... Let him leave me behind, see if I care. Oh well. Guess it's time to go back, Tadano.Fine, let me just check out the area where Mitra came from and I'll be right the-- wait, why is there a fadeout?  What, you thought you'd get to actually manually go back again? Ahaha, sucker! I have detected suspicious activity from Jack's squad. This may affect out investigation. We must confirm their intentions. Please set a course to their coordinates in order for us to question them directly.Like, seriously. Didn't we JUST do this in Eridanus? It's been like an hour since we first went to the Lightning and we're already reusing that plot beat? An emergency? Did Jack's men do something? I thought we promised not to get in each other's way... Do they have anything to gain from coming after us? They looked like they were serious when we were talking about each other's interests. However, it is important that we reconfirm their goals in the Schwarzwelt. So... back to Carina? No. Carina is not our destination. ...Wait, what? How? Why can't we do that? I have so many questions! They are using it as a base camp to plan their operations. That is our destination. They... made... a space-time location!? They have such technology!? I can only theorize that it is technology obtained after we entered the Schwarzwelt. Perhaps they tapped into our communications and intercepted the data we sent to the Joint Project. That's incredible... Am I the only one a little afraid of Jack's squad right now? I'd feel better if they were on our side, that's for sure... Like, okay, sure, Jack's Squad has the advantage of having an Anime Prototype ship so it's automatically better than ours. In terms of crew, they lose handily. We're the best of the best. There is no reason to be scared of anything Jack's Squad can do outside of whatever weapons are on the Lightning. ...I am way overthinking this, aren't I? They were a buncha jackasses when I met 'em inside the Lightning... I definitely don't trust 'em now. Know what I mean, Tadano? We cannot rely on assumptions with regards to Jack's squad. We must confirm their reasons for creating their own space-time location and remaining there. I have finished calculating the space-time coordinates of Jack's squad. We will travel there immediately. All hands, prepare to plane shift.
Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Feb 6, 2017 07:40
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Prism posted:Moloch and Mithras are pretty long-standing SMT designs, so for someone like me who's seen them before, it's a nice touch. Speaking of Moloch's design, let's talk about a different game for a second since I'm reminded of it now. So, I have a game dump of most of the (demon) images from SMTIV, right? It's what I'm using here to make most of the demon portraits since IV is lazy and just dumped all of SJ's demons in it wholesale and then added about 100 or so more because SJ only has 314 and that's not way too many enough as it is.  Like so. Hi, Moloch, how's it goin'? This image is his portrait for dialogue in IV, by the by*. I know this for a fact because the images I have are the busts for the regular demons and all bosses (even some DLC ones surprising no-one). Except, whoops, if you actually look through the files guess what's also in there.  Hi, Other Moloch Design that's generally used in the 3d games (like NINE or IMAGINE or Devil Survivor 2... what? I said generally). This image is also his portrait for dialogue in IV. Why are you here? Why are you both here? *IV does not use Moloch. It has Morax as an early game Tyrant, sure, because actually changing things from Strange Journey was too hard, but these are just... here. In the game files, unused. Makes me wonder if Moloch's other design is ALSO in SJ but I haven't checked that one. I'm presuming so, because IV was so lazily and sloppily designed that I doubt it was just added there only to go unused, but I don't know for sure.
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Feb 6, 2017 23:38
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Prayer Jack's Squad have this really cool thing. They presumably made it with the stuff we collected. We cannot also have really cool thing because reasons. Just... don't question it. ...yes okay it DOES get explained later but still Someone hired them to come here, right? Who do you think could be capable of going over the Joint Project's head like that...? But they're acting strange without notifying us and I can't blame anyone for being suspicious... I hate to say it, but it's seeming like our relationship of trust had a pretty shaky foundation. Be careful, now. Don't do anything to provoke them. It must feel good for them, having power like that. But there is nothing more dangerous than an overconfident human. Yes... they can be uglier and more frightening even than demons at times... I'd completely forgotten he was even here, to be honest. ...What on earth are they up to at a time like this? Meanwhile, we have a lot of new things to give to Irving. And only two of them are Rare forma. ...Hm? Is that...? Give that forma here... Mind if I take a gander at that for a second? Don't worry, I won't make ya do the work. Help me out here, Chen. Sure. ...Hmm... Looks like the forma ya got can enhance yer Main App. Tell ya what, Tadano... Could you come see us again when you get another forma? Ya get other forma that works with what we got and put 'em together, then we'll be talkin'!So we can't do anything with the Sun Mirror right now. That's annoying but something that should resolve itself over time.  The Hexagram, meanwhile, has no such problems and we can trade this in for an upgrade right now.  Forma Search C nets you the toppest of top-tier random Forma. I really cannot complain about that. It's also required to get some very useful and important Rare Forma, so y'know. Definitely don't want to miss it.  Speaking of sidequests, and new gear, we can have Irving make an Answerer Knife immediately after it becomes available from the Fairy Village. The sidequest doesn't even really save time in this instance; it's AT Forite x2, Flight Tail x3 (Rukh) and Tyrant Eye x1 (Balor) so it's really easy to make. And it's still terrible, so gently caress it.  Hey look, it's the Abba Dingo but for Ice instead of Wind. And even later. Thankfully it's piss easy to unlock but not at this stage; AT Forite x1, Reaper Rime x1 (Hel) and Fallen Star x2. We won't get to see what drops that last one for a little while. So we got this early thanks to Bronze Forma. You normally have to wait even longer to get to make this terrible gun easily. Why is this a thing that keeps happening?  The Hardwired is... potentially a useful piece of armor for Fornax. I know, I'm shocked too. The Ice resistance is generally useful for a variety of reasons, the defense is higher than the Belobog Vest (yes I'm still using that) and its Elec weakness isn't THAT detrimental. Good job, Hardwired. DF Forite x2, Femme Spool x2 (Clotho) and Raptor Ulna x1 (Gurr) are all you need to make this so it's also pretty simple to get.  No new accessories, but we can get stones that kill things. Mamudo Stones are actually pretty good; guaranteed to go first and a base 30% chance to inflict instant death. As much as I would love to complain about this, I can't. Not really. It's just AC Forite x1 and Enigma Sphere x2 (Kinmamon) to make as well so there's no difficulty in getting a ton of these things quickly and effortlessly. I mean, I'm not going to but I could.  A man's gotta have character, class, and passion! Ya think Jack's squad has any o' that? Hell no! ...They ain't worthy of all that fancy-pants technology they got. If they gave it to me, I'd use it for the good of the world... for the people, ya know? I mean, he's as human as the rest of us. I think we should all be cooperating. Odds are, demons are pulling our strings, hoping us humans will kill each other off! Malevolence and Benevolence I think this is the first time we've seen Terry outside of his Demonica helmet. He sort of looks like someone took Dent's character model and just changed his posture slightly. Boring. You ready, Hitonari? Yes.> Terry used the ship-wide intercom Ops to all crew! The ship will be plane shifting momentarily! There will be two shifts. Commencing the plane shift now! Just in case you thought they decided to not just play this scene whenever it's redundant and pointless, nope. They just delayed it this time. Thankfully they only play the original stock version and not one involving the Vanishing Point as well. Silence Plane shift safely completed. We have successfully entered their space-time location. Patching the camera feed through to the viewscreen. Fear Well, there's nothing in these atmospheric scans that indicates any danger. It's no use. I'm not getting any response at all. Looks like they have no intentions of answering our hails. Hope they're not putting together a little welcoming party for us... We may be required to contact them directly this time as well. Therefore, I advise we disembark and approach them. The team should be composed of crewmen they are familiar with to make proceedings go smoothly. Please establish communications with Jack's squad. Be friendly and take care not to cause any unnecessary trouble. A Scorched Nation Now I'm REALLY curious what they're doing here... Nice place they got here, though... I's air-conditioned, climate controlled... Looks like we don't need our Demonicas here.> Jimenez removed his helmet.  They've practically built themselves a resort... Jimenez, something wrong... What's up, Bugaboo? Hahah, you're just nervous 'cause you've never been here before. Calm down, li'l guy. Alright, Tadano. Let's go have a chat with Jack.I dunno, I think I'd rather leave for a minute since we got railroaded into this without getting a chance to fini--  Alright, fine. Let's go into the HQ and speak to Jack then. Bleh. Malevolence and Benevolence  Go home if you don't wanna get shot down like a demon! Why? This your campsite for demon hunting? Can't say I approve of your taste. We came to see Jack. We want to talk. He's a busy man, y'know. So are we. I'm sure you have plenty of questions about this base, but you're better off walking away. This ain't Earth. Alright, I get what you're saying, but... You're not even gonna let us drop in and say hi? Having cushy digs like this without saying a word is kinda... Don't worry, we won't get in your way. As long as you don't get in ours, of course. But you step out of line... Well, you know what happens then. You're badly outgunned. Don't even think of trying anything. There, that should be all the info you need! You wouldn't get any more out of the Captain, either! ...Fair enough. Let's go back to the ship, Tadano.  ...Boo, boooooo! Jimenez, him, lie! What the...? You need to keep your demons in line, man. If I was his owner, he'd get a pop in the... Huh? That sure is a weird demon... Where'd you find him? ...He's kinda special. I don't think you could find another one. Sorry, but no sale. Sorry to bother you. Later. Well... if you change your mind, the offer stands. And don't get any stupid ideas...Yeah, yeah, back to the Red Sprite... Although, I do wanna try to enter again just in case.  If you weren't a human--hell, if you weren't the investigative team, I'd put a bullet in your head! We got no business with you. Now beat it!Hmm, okay. Jack's Squad are a lovely bunch of people and definitely make Chaos seem like a very reasonable and sensible alignment path.  They do not appear to have any intention of disrupting our investigations. However, their highly advanced technology alone should be cause for concern. I can't say I'm not worried about what they're after, but... Whatever they're planning, if we escape the Schwarzwelt, it's not our problem... right? We have our own business to take care of. Let's get back to Fornax. Stay behind...? What for? I'm just saying we could leave someone here to keep an eye on them. Hmmm... Well, maybe so, but... Whoever we choose for a spy would be here on their own, without backup. It's a dangerous assignment. I don't know if we could spare anyone, even if someone was willing to volunteer. Jimenez...!? You're not... C'mon. If no one else is up to it, I'm more than willing to step up to the plate. Unless you wanna do it, Tadano? Feel like staying here as our spy? Sure. Um, well... I don't really know what to say to that... It's just this hunch I have... I don't think we should leave Jack's squad to themselves. Bugaboo thinks so, too... And I agree. Plus, I thought it might be nice to kick back here instead of running around a new sector, haha. I mean, technically, I'm Blue Jet crew anyway. I'm not even part of the Red Sprite. You're okay with me doing my thing, right Arthur? If the crew as a whole approves, you have my permission. You know... I had the wrong idea about you, Jimenez. Frankly, I thought you were a selfish, hot-headed rear end. But you're willing to make sacrifices too, eh? ...Hey, hey, don't get me wrong. I don't know if you're telling the whole truth or not, but... I'm behind you. It'll be tough, but I know you can do it. We will keep in regular contact, Jimenez. If anything out of the ordinary occurs, send us a rescue signal. ...... I'm not so sure it's best that we send you out like this, Jimenez. I think we should come up with another way... If you got a better idea, I'm all ears, First Lieutenant Zelenin. ...Hasta luego, Tadano. I'll see you later. Alright, c'mon, Bugaboo! Buga! Boo!> Jimenez disembarked for Jack's Squad HQ... Prayer Well, that was a bust. Annoying but at least it was also something happening. Back on the ship, some people have updated dialogue courtesy of Jimenez's plan. I mean, I'm sure he has his own agenda, but... It's still a big sacrifice for the team. Although... knowing him, he wouldn't stand for letting anyone else be assigned anyway. I'll continue to monitor Captain Jack's actions. Zoe's dialogue isn't updated, but Maebe has been replaced by Wolf so this is kind of obviously new by default. Well, if he didn't volunteer, I would have! ...I mean, I wish I could, but if something happened, I'm nowhere near good enough to take them on. So I'll just keep my mouth shut and go about my regular duties... Oh, so THAT'S what goes in that corner, huh? I suppose that makes sense.  And if anything does happen, Arthur and the Ops team will come up with something. Let's focus our best effors into the mission at Fornax.We'll focus on Fornax in a bit. First, let's go back to Jack's Squad HQ since we can do that whenever we want now. Malevolence and Benevolence I'm trying to lay low, so I'd like to avoid any unnecessary contact with your guys, but... Meh, they probably know already. But look, you can leave this place to me. Go back to Fornax.I have a better idea. How about we instead go everywhere EXCEPT Fornax? A Scorched Nation We DID get that Forma Search C so let's see what it gets us. Well, not a lot honestly. It lets us see and collect Gold forma which is a very small list of new additions. Nectar Core X is the only one we can even do anything with, it's a component of making Bead Chains(!), and it's also in every single sector. It also sells for 2000 Macca a piece so there's that if you have excess somehow.  More important is that each sector has one X piece of equipment Forma.  It's either AT or DF; there is nothing that has both.  There IS an AC X but that's exclusive to one Sector.  We won't actually be able to use the equipment Forma to make anything for a long, long time. It's used to make equipment for the end of the end-game.  Thankfully, the X stuff is not what makes any of that difficult or annoying. They're fairly common if you can find a good place to search and you only need a maximum of 3 to unlock anything. They're almost all used for exactly one thing each, that is usually pretty good. As you'd expect and makes sense. Usually. There is one in particular that is a giant disappointment but we'll get to that when we get to that. The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried But for now we have Fornax to go back to and deal with. Let's see what's down the middle path then.  A lot of corridors. Each floor here is just a corridor that has maybe one thing differentiating it from any other floor.   You can't see him, but hoo boy is he ever angry.This floor's thing is this one Rukh who tells us that Horkos is super-mad. Sure, whatever. He did get rather pissy when we outdid him several times.  B2F gives us a single Soma Drop. Exciting.  Who? Dude, the ancient gods who've regained their powers, that's who. Heheheh... There ain't no turnin' back now.There's this Kin-Ki who tells us that we have boss refights with a slight twist coming up. Which we already knew about. There's also an Amrita Soda just off to the left.  B4F has... nothing. I'm pretty sure this AT X is NOT fixed, since all Gold fixed forma is either Rare stuff for Demonica upgrades or behind hidden/locked doors. I'll take it anyway, though.  B5F does not give us a demon warning, but it DOES give us a healing spot and a terminal. I guess this is either like midway to Horkos or we'll get the memo as soo--  Silence > You can hear a voice from somewhere...  So, this is a dead-end then. There's an invisible thing here, it's not on the map as an Enemy Search demon and it hurts us if we try and pass. Horkos has some clever defences. I DID notice that I missed part of the left-side's map earlier, at this point. It was all from the rabbit chase so that's easy to fix. Gonna go do that real qui--  well i cant say i was expecting this but at least its saving me time later Fiend Black Rider An Honor Befitting that Name Okay, so Black Rider is "weak" to Fire (exists for Co-Op only, yes). He drains Ice, null to all ailments etc. etc. All very standard Fiend stuff at this point. He has 1600 HP, so this'll take a bit of doing.  He can use both Luster Candy AND Debilitate - debuffs all stats by 1 stage on every enemy. Thankfully he does not have Dekaja or Dekunda and he seems to prefer to buff himself a lot more than debuffing you.  Since he can't clear, you can mitigate his damage output. This is a basic attack. After one War Cry. (And one Luster Candy on his party but shush.)  His third skill is a special enemy only skill. Black Rider is one of two things to have Dry Sea. It's a multi-target ailment skill. It's Strain. At least he tries.  In a diabolical swerve, Black Rider is the first non-Boss to have more than three moves! And one of them is Megidola! It's nothing fancy, it's just a base power 300 multi-target Almighty spell. And he has 49 Magic. So, uh, yeah. That one hurts a fair bit if you don't debuffed, and doubly so if you don't get rid of his buffs!  Glacial Blast is one of the better Ice spells. Its damage per hit isn't anything super fancy (it has 80 power) but it hits 1d4 times on random targets. Kind of better in our hands as a result, yes.  So, yeah, despite how I have a tendency of making it look, because the Fiends are so rare and can jump you from any ES point, they CAN prove difficult. Or at least Black Rider can, because he does new things and one of them is buff a lot and then hit you with the most powerful attack we've seen to date. Tied with Zan/Getsu-Ei during their appropriate moon phase, at least.  His restorative is an Amrita Soda. Cute, but we can already buy 'em if we really want them. The Megido Stone is very nice for Magic MCs (except again 2% spawn rate) and Judgment Scales are used in a lot of things. A lot of things. One of those things is Luck Incense. End The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried The other reason I came this way, was to get to the part of the map that Mitra was guarding. It was a one-way door leading to a fixed Forma.  It's not too bad, I suppose. I don't think I got AT II here yet. I don't remember; Fornax just keeps removing itself from my memory.  Oh wait, correction. Mitra was guarding a one-way door. How did he even get the... y'know what, it doesn't matter. Don't care.  Just gonna casually finish the first floor map as we begin our descent down the last path.  So, yeah, how about that right hand side? The Fear of God New demons, hurray! Lachesis is simple and we have one even. Her source gives Luster Candy (and Phys Boost for some reason) so that's why I'm using her. She's also immune to Sleep and you can see everything else of note right here. I'm just disappointed there are no demon noises in SJ so she can't sound like an angry duck. Gryphon is a bird dude, so he's weak to Guns. I know he's a Beast but he has wings so it totally counts shut up. He resists Fire, Ice, Elec and Wind. He's pretty fast, but having Agility be your main stat is dumb. The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried That's it for now. We'll see more new demons later, I'm sure. Even if it just Asura's truer true form. Remember when he explicitly told us before that Asura WAS his true form? Good times. bloody liar gonna put him so deep underground  Oh and this part of the floor? Is a big, not-maze that aside from that one Chakra Pot is completely empty!  Fornax just does this. It just has big rooms with nothing in them and I'm already sick of that.  So have a Cu Chulainn who can instant +4 of his stats with Blood Ritual and then drop Concentrated Floral Gusts. Charge to go with that Grand Tack would be better but whatever. Floral Gust is honestly REALLY BAD. It costs 65 MP for a spell that's exactly as strong as Garula but Multi-Target, so its slightly weaker than Magarudyne for more than twice the cost. And that extra 35 MP? Comes from it having a chance to inflict Mute. A base 35% chance. To Mute. 1MP per 1% to Mute. This is not a good ratio!  Tonatiuh is a simple guy who I want purely for his source. Not for what it gives by default but because look at his skills. He has an innate Repel Fire (which if you remove for some reason drops his resistance to Null). He can Bonus Skill that. and he bloody well better  Second floor has a dead man with our requisite sidequest box.  The main motif seems to be equilateral and reverse triangles. It looks like a giant storage facility for data. There's memories of everything stored here... absolutely everything. > The data is corrupted, preventing you from reading further. You noticed how the Black Boxes have gotten less useful for deciphering what the Sector is supposed to represent? Yeah, I think whoever wrote them kinda forgot that's what they were clearly supposed to be for, as well. Anyway, there's a door near this guy that's the only way we can g...  for gently caress sake At least Fornax has the decency to sequester these off to their own corners of the area. Left-hand room gets the most boring pit-drop non-maze, and the right-hand room gets dark rooms. This is not a fair trade!  Fortunately, Fornax has the decency to at least START off by being sensible and easy. Which is weird considering yet again this is NOT the first time we've seen these and the first time was way harder for no reason.  Two Magic Mirrors sounds very nice, and in theory it really is. Just a shame that in practice it makes things mad and then they just smack you with things that can't be reflected, huh?  Smallest of mercies here, but we're done with this area now.  And as a result, B2F as a whole. At least I can't complain about this; Fornax is kind enough to let us clear it out entirely as we go. Thanks, Fornax.  B3F starts us off with this. Well, alright then. There's just a Heal Spot here though; no terminal.  .....instead we get a fairly vicious dark room Not because of any traps or extra tricks or anything. But because it's a big, wide open area. The mini-map is only a small mercy since, as a reminder, it does NOT map the dark room tiles. The Fear of God So, as a break from that, let's look at the dark room's enemies. Tlaltecuhtli is pretty boring. She's weak to Ice, resists Phys and Fire. Her skills are boring, and her Source gives Life Surge. And nothing else.  Grendel is a bit of a bad, weird mess. He resists Phys and Gun but he's weak to Expel. And he's 300% weak to Stone, Paralysis, Bomb, Strain, Poison, Charm, Mute and Fear. He makes up for this by being only 200% weak to Sleep. He's neither Oni nor Ares so he's still neutral to Rage. Ose is good and fun though! He's immune to Curse, resists Expel, has Dekunda as a default skill, he's 50% resistant to Strain (thanks...?), Charm and Fear! He's annoyingly 300% weak to Paralysis and Poison. Also his basic attack is a flat two hits but with no added effects. Oh and he drops Fallen Stars if you really want that Blizzard gun (you don't). The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried ......ughhhhhhh this is a dead end 3 tile dark room behind an easily missed door in a giant open dark room why does this exist what does this add  Thankfully, there's some fixed form in the bottom right corner but getting to it can be a mite bit of a pain because there's no way of knowing it's there. Irritatingly, it's even one space outside of the search radius so doing the middle path first does NOT add it to the map.  Same thing applies to the one in the top corner. Thankfully, this one is right by the stairs down.  Well, I say stairs but they're more like weird diamond shaped tubes? Kind of? Seems more like a slide or something to me.  But that's another floor done and dusted. Can't complain about that one.  B4F starts us off with a terminal dead ahead, and a door to the north and another door to the south.  why yes i am already sick of these constant dark rooms this one even has a half-dozen doors so finding progress is somehow even more annoying  What doesn't help is that each door leads to a small room. That has a staircase leading down to B5F. And, why yes, only one of them IS the right way to go.   You really pissed him off... Better prepare yourself for death, because your days are numbered.So, in other words, this area exists solely to tell us that we need to brace ourselves for Asura's wrath.  Well, that was a colossal waste of our time. What about this one then?  Well, there are broken tiles here so that's a good sign.  ...Except whoops, it's a dead-end with just 3 Rising Cores in it. Nice, but that's it. We're done over here now.  So that leaves this one. I'm sure this one will be at least somewhat useful, right?  ...I wish. It just leads to stairs back up that bring us to that conspicuous gap you probably immediately noticed on the map.  The one over here. That's stairs now. That's just a normal passage under the dark room for no reason. Well, maybe a sensible-ish reason in that you can skip part of the dark room but... it does nothing.  Well, at least there's slightly less doors down here? Doesn't mean I have to like it mind.  We'll start off with the right most descent and go left from there I suppose.  It doesn't start off particularly exciting, but at least a Magic Incense is something different. Well, no it isn't. It just feels like it at this point.  So, how about this one, then? I'm sure this'll give us something worthwhile.  ...Oh. I guess not. Just more AC II fixed forma. I suppose this isn't all that bad since it lets us make Mamudo St-- no wait that's base AC Forite, never mind.  So, this is the last staircase. This HAS to be the right way to go. Unless I somehow missed a hidden door. But this is Fornax and that's not this part of the sector's gimmick so I highly doubt it!  Also, uh, we have the entire floor mapped out now so I definitely haven't.  Plus as soon as we go down that staircase, this happens. You'd think it'd happen when we entered the floor, regardless of where it was. But at least it's being consistent with itself rather than, uh, every other sector.  Just to make it really blatant, there is a healing spot and a terminal right away too.  Past a one-way door, we get a Moon Mirror. This is a Rare Forma of course, and it's a mirror with a celestial body name. This is definitely what we were missing earlier. That door's one-way so we can't just warp out right now. Guess we gotta walk all the way around and then we'll eventua--  In The Master's Name ...Wait, why is Horkos here? Buoooooono! I found you, human! You haven't forgotten the day you slayed me, have you!? I, Horkos, will return the favor in my true form!  You will be the next sent to the land of the dead! I can see it now! The way you squirm as you face your fate! You humans drowned in civilization and came to enjoy yourselves too much. That is why you fear death so! You cry that you may not lose your pleasures! Humans breathe their last, unable to gracefully accept death like their ancestors! Fools... Muahaha! Tremble in the face of death! I'm not afraid to die. You put on a brave face, but is that what you really think...? Now comes the time to unleash the power I collected as Horkos! I will not stop until I have sipped on a chalice of your blood! Reaper Orcus Vehement Rage Eridanus was the representation of Pride due to the belief that we could escape, the Schwarzwelt could be destroyed, that Ouroboros was an unbreakable cycle. Hubris bit hard and all came crashing down in rapid succession: Ouroboros' revival was easily stopped by killing a few trash demons, the Schwarzwelt did not let us even come close to leaving, the computer simulations were wrong and nuclear warheads could not destroy the Schwarzwelt...  As far as the refights go, Orcus may be the least interesting so far. And, yes, I am including Moloch who has the novelty of coming almost literally out of nowhere and being a surprise. He's still weak to both Fire AND Elec, he barely has more HP than he did before (2400 now vs 1800 previously), his only resistance change is adding Ice. I don't think he has any new moves or anything either.  Oh, but he HAS gained some degree of intelligence and will Dekunda or Dekaja whenever he wants. If he wants to waste a turn getting rid of a -1 then good for him. Keep doing that, Orcus.  He's aligned to the right of the screen because he spawns in Katakirauwa, of course. She's level 44 now, for all the nothing that matters. Still completely normal otherwise.  Orcus CAN still do like Air Dive when low on HP and all, but that's it.  He... gives a surprisingly decent amount of Macca and EXP, though I'm sure the Katakirauwa spawns affect this some as well. End In The Master's Name I will wait for you... in Hell... I'll have your coffin waiting!> Orcus disappeared. Crisis All hands are to return to the Red Sprite. They caught Jimenez!? No...! Oh, I knew it would be dangerous for him to keep watch by himself! We are leaving this sector for Jack's Squad HQ to rescue Crewman Jimenez. I say again: all hands, return to the Red Sprite.
Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:47 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Feb 8, 2017 07:54
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Crisis They used us while they could, and the instant we become useless to them, they turn on us! You're being a little hasty there. We need to calm down. What's the situation, Arthur? We have received a signal from Crewman Jimenez. It seems he left his watch position without explanation. They captured him to shut him up! The likelihood of his capture by Jack's squad is high. If we could communicate with them, we could easily settle this, but as usual our hails are unanswered. We must investigate directly. If only he'd thought it through a little more carefully... A bit harsh, isn't it, Zelenin!? Jimenez was right all along! We couldn't ignore what Jack's squad was doing! On the other hand... there's no denying we're in a worse situation as a result. Hey! We're getting a communique! It's from the Lightning! Jack's squad has contacted us! What!? Really!? Put it though to the main viewscreen. I thought we had an understanding not to interfere with one another. But you've gone back on your word. You've infringed on the agreement; violated our contract. Hey, wait! We don't even know what happened! What did you do with Jimenez!? Playing dumb, eh? If you insist... I'll spell it out for you. Your crewman, Jimenez... It's difficult to classify this undermining of our operations as anything other than a hostile act. Jimenez! Sabotage!? He was acting on his own! Whatever his motives, it was unquestionably sabotage. We were quick to regain control of the situation, so there were no unrecoverable losses... But if we had noticed it only minutes later, the damage would have been severe. He was even using his own demons to help! If they'd started a riot, who can say what might've happened!? Your "experimental materials" were... demons!? You were using demons in experiments!?It's like a mirror-Bootes or something. Isn't it Ironic? No. No, it's not. What did you hope to accomplish!? We're simply doing our utmost to effect our business plan. There's certainly no reason you should interfere. That dumbass Jimenez... He put all our lives in danger, and believe you me, he's gonna pay. You're going to use Jimenez in an experiment!? You can't be serious! He's a human! You can't experiment on humans! I have no intention of forgiving him for what he's done. Our research team is top-hole. I'm sure he'll be put to good use.Oh. THAT'S why Jack always comes off as condescending and sarcastic. He's probably meant to be British; I can tell because top-hole is semi-antiquated British slang. god loving dammit Stop it! Give Jimenez back! What do you want from us!? Nothing, save for thorough severance of relations. I believe you've underestimated us. Did you think the Schwarzwelt was safe enough that you could enter half prepared? Remember that, and say goodbye to your friend. I can't raise them again...! Humans, demons, it's all the same to them! What's going to happen to Jimenez!? What I want to know is why the hell Jimenez snuck in! Maybe he found out about the experiments and tried to put a stop to them...? If that's what happened, he should have contacted us first! ...What should we do, Arthur? Are we going to have to abandon Jimenez? It is not entirely impossible to infiltrate the Lightning. The Lightning would most likely have to use most of its energy to support this space-time location. There should be little preventing the Red Sprite from landing at their base. If there's a chance... we could give it a shot... The question is, can we beat them? What makes you think they'll stop with Jimenez? Their actions are beginning to pose a threat to our team. In that light, it would be dangerous to ignore the situation. They're using demons not because they have to, but for business purposes... Have they no shame...? Same co-ordinates as last time, Arthur? Acknowledged. We should always be alert. Begin the journey to Jack's Squad HQ... This time it just happens, unceremoniously. No FMV or anything. Not complaining. Definitely not complaining! The Red Sprite has landed safely. Our infilration into Jack's Squad HQ is complete. Well, they're not attacking yet... Guess they're waiting to see what we do first. Okay, so far we were right on the mark with our predictions. Now to figure out how we get into their base...Through their easily accessible, barely guarded front door?   Exercise every available method to save Crewman Jimenez. I am issuing a new official mission, designated "Save Crewman Jimenez." Keep in mind the possibility that Jack's squad is carrying advanced technology. Should you deem it necessary, destroy any equipment you find....Why destroy and not procure? I look forward to the successful completion of your mission. Prayer We'll dive into Jack's Squad HQ in a moment, but first we have to do the usual. The Joint Project, meaning us, are here for the sake of mankind. They're just opportunists out to make a quick buck. And we always knew that! I was a fool to believe them even for a second! Well, there's no going back now. Just do your best out there. Seeing humans fight each other in a place like this makes me ill... It's all about money, deep down, isn't it? Humans at war over money... Hasn't there been enough of that kind of thing in our world? Bringing that nonsense into the Schwarzwelt... The demons must be laughing at our stupidity. But Jimenez isn't stupid. He's a professional mercenary. He'd never do something like that. There must have been some sort of accident... I don't see any other explanation. Since we have the Moon Mirror now, we can give both mirrors to Irving and Chen. This should net us what we're getting from this  ...Or not. Great. I guess the last forma is past that invisible rear end in a top hat and will trigger Asura's fight. I have basic pattern recognition!  I also have some new things in the store. They're mostly awful! The Alacrity Ring is +4 Agility. Agility is the worst of the 5 stats because its the least important and relevant and that makes this the third worst stat boosting ring type (HP and MP edge it out of course). AC Forite x2, Haunt Jacket x2 (Strigoii) and Raptor Ulna x2 (Gurr) can be used better elsewhere.  This technically counts, but only just. Fitness is +4 Vitality. AC Forite x2, Fallen Star x2 (Ose) and Femme Ruler x2 (Lachesis) for this one.  Actual items are better. Like Bead Chains. Bead Chains are great! Nectar Core X x1 and Miracle Core x4 per Chain, and it's really worth it. 10,000 Macca a piece isn't even that much in practice, since Genma Jars from Eridanus sell for 8000 each and Enigma Spheres off of Kinmamon are 9000, for example...  And, yeah, we now have unlocked both Amritas. I thought I had the Soda already but apparently not. Soda is Nectar Core X x1 and Rising Core x3. Shower is Nectar Core X x2, Rising Core x2 and Recovery Core x5. Personally I don't stock up on these too often, but that's mostly because I'm a reckless weirdo. It seems to work out well, so I don't see any reason to change now.  Grr... That's... That's just no way for a man to act! He's spittin' in the face o' technology itself! I wish I could go in and sock 'em all in the kisser! ...But I guess that's a job for the strike team. Go on, boys... Raise some hell for ol' Irving. Though what with being cooped up in this lab all the time, I don't know much about negotiation. So I'll just leave it to you. I know you'll pull us out of all this, Hitonari. I can't believe that smell I found so odious on Earth is present here in the Schwarzwelt, too... I can't let this go on. Let's go quash it at the source. Well, let's go see if we can't bail Jimenez out of this fresh mess. This is only the second time we've had to rescue him now; one more and we win a brand new doormat. Crisis > The soldier pointed his gun at you! I was getting tired of shooting demons! But killing humans... My trigger finger's getting itchy! Hm...? Hmmm... Do I have permission to kill...? I remember the Captain telling me to avoid conflict... Nah, I'm overthinking this! I just gotta tell him it was in self-defense!I've been waiting for this! An Honor Befitting that Name So, Jack's Squad is really unimpressive! They're normal people, so they don't have any interesting or unique resistances. They're just immune to Expel and Curse and neutral to everything else.  They don't even have any skills or anything. Not really. They can do a basic attack that... is Physical elemental. Despite how they're, y'know, wielding guns. Just go with it.  Also they give dick all EXP, no Macca and don't drop anything (we can't loot their pockets? really?). Crisis Though it was unforseen, you have engaged Jack's squad. Continue the mission with caution. A Rotten Nation Yeah, yeah, so we can actually enter and explore Jack's Squad HQ now. There's a terminal right by the entrance for some reason; there's a healing spot at the opposite side of the door, naturally.  Next to the terminal, there's a room that's mostly empty. It has this dude in it though. I don't know what you're doing here, but it stops now! An Honor Befitting that Name Sergeants are completely identical to Soldiers save for having more HP, dealing slightly more/taking slightly less damage and being 3 levels higher.  Since everyone here lacks skills at all in any meaningful way, these guys are good ones to pop Mirrors for. They can't exactly do anything about it, which is a rarity. A Rotten Nation But you're no threat, not with those pathetic powers. I'm done with this demon. I'll let it free...> The squad member fell to the ground.  Y'know, if they actually used demons, Jack's Squad would be way bigger threats just by default. As is, they're boring voids of anything particularly noteworthy.  So let's kick it up a notch and bring one of the Four Horsemen who's getting Shiwanna's source purely so he can resist Phys and Gun. Remember, that Wind weakness is actually a Neutral for all intents and purposes now. And he's immune to all ailments ('cept Rage), which would be nice but uh you've seen Jack's Squad. That's not a concern here. The Fear of God So, what about the randoms? Uhh... I, uh, they sure are a thing. The random demons here pull a selection from every Sector (presumably because that's literally what the squad did in the first place). They get paired in ways that don't even begin to make sense, but at least its consistent with what little we could ascertain about what's the squad have been up to.  There is technically some new things here, I guess? They're from later in Fornax though. Catoblepas is basically Grendel again, but simultaneously better and worse. He only resists Phys, he's weak to Expel, is 300% weak to every ailment except Rage and Sleep and the latter is a normal 200% weakness. Every ailment, yes. Even Petrify. The one he throws around the most. The one his source gives both skills for. The one that's half his default skill list (Staredown is the other half for Fear). His basic attack even has a 3% chance to Petrify. And he's weak to his own gimmick. Good job, Catoblepas. Sorrow  > Mutilated demons are yelling from inside the tanks... ...You want my power that much? You want it so much you don't mind cutting me up...? This pain... This humiliation! I should have killed you on the spot when I met you! Give them back... Give them back... My hands... My feet... Give them back to me... ...I'm angry, but I see now... Why God cursed the humans... They're unsalvageable! Their wretched souls are stuck deep inside their bodies!  That rage will power our new weapon! The useful demons will become stronger, and the ones who aren't will become spare parts! Now THIS is science! The fusion of technology and demons! What is security doing, letting you in here!? Dammit! You'll be the first test of our new weapon! An Honor Befitting that Name Spoiler alert: they do nothing new. They're the same as they are in every other possible encounter.  Oh and when I said they're neutral to everything except Expel and Curse, yeah. I mean it. Everything. Sorrow Kill each other! Kill each other! Kill each other without end... Until you die, we shall be at your heels... > It's the switch to the cultivation tanks.  Honestly, I think turning them off will be doing the shattered, broken remnants of demons a huge favour.  > The demons in the cultivation tanks fell silent. A Rotten Nation So, above that room there's an empty room here with this hidden door.  It's guarding this Rare Forma. This forma would be very nice if it came, oh I don't know, about 35 minutes earlier.  Following the path around, we can find the Lightning just hanging out here. We can't get into it though, but it's marked on our map now at least.  ...Thanks, Jack. It IS 125% HP restoration so I'm not exactly knocking it, but...  And last, right by the entrance, we have stairs going down. This is the entire first floor of the HQ done and dusted. Yes, really.  Really. There isn't much to this place in terms of dungeon, as you may have noticed.  On B1F, there is only one immediately visible door and it doesn't open. We need a password. Hrm. If you missed something on 1F, you might think its there.  Naturally, it isn't; there's a hidden door over here.  I don't think I mentioned it before, and this should be obvious anyway but... Frag Grenades key off Strength and not Magic to do their damage. They're honestly way better than they seem, considering how early you can buy them and all.  Chaos Theme I find human conflict to be most interesting. It makes no concessions to time or place. You place your fragile life and your desperate mission o the scales... It impresses me to watch you fight as your heart wavers between the two ends of that scale. It's a show very much worth directing. You should be there to see it transpire. As his friend. We shall meet again, I think. Oh, and I had something else to tell you. It is most likely for that purpose that humans exist... So, that just happened. Anyway, where exactly were we? A Rotten Nation ...Oh, right. Jack's Squad HQ has one dark room. It's a corridor. It has one random alcove because gently caress you for trying to map this before the backend of an NG+ playthrough. Although it's really bad at that, considering Jack's Squad HQ is the most blatantly obvious perfectly symmetrical area we've seen to date.  Easy to miss pair of Beads here. Doesn't really matter too much if you're not after the map stuff though; we've been able to buy 'em for a while and all.  The bottom-most door over on the left nets some Nerve Gas. This is also honestly pretty good. Could buy a ton, I guess, but ehh this'll do.  I'm just a scientist! I'm not looking for a fight...! I'll tell you anything you want. Please don't hurt me! Where's Jimenez? I-I don't know the code, though. C'mon, I told you all this. Please let me go! The lab is a red herring. It doesn't give us anything of interest or worthwhile. Huh? If I'm a scientist, I should know the passcode? Oh...! ...... All right, I lied! Forgive me! Well, that was easy enough.  So, what's behind this locked door, then? We can tell that it's not much, but... Sorrow   You'd figure it'd work with a human and demon whose souls are on the same wavelength... Putos! You better hope this experiment kills me, 'cause if it doesn't, you're dead men! B... Boo... Buga b... boo... *sigh* That demon looks like it's on its last legs already. C'mon, you're a demon! You were only hit with the magnetic field five or six times. Get angry! Get worked up! Geez... Ngbu...! Boooooooooo...! Stop it! You stop that NOW! I'll toss you one by one into a crowd of hungry demons! Geez, do you never shut up? Did you already forget how much I can make you suffer? Yell your lungs out if you want, but once this experiment succeeds, you belong to us! You'll be a perfect demon soldier who obeys any order without a second thought! You came for me... That Demonica...! You're with the Red Sprite, aren't you!? Is security asleep or something, letting you get all the way here!? You're ruining my fun! Ugh... I'm in some deep poo poo here... I don't have anything to fight back with... Then... Then... Aha...! I'll just do this!   B... Boo... If this goes like it should, have fun killing your friend! Now it's time I got outta here...! Well, that was easy. Now to just free Jimenez and Bugaboo and then we can leave. The Squad have all fled before our unstoppable might! Wait! You... Urgh! Urrrrrgh...!  Well, let's be honest here. We can let this weird thing keep going until folks actually die for real... or we can just turn it off. Hmm, this is a difficult decision.  I can't let that happen... He saved my life! Do me a favor, Tadano! This stupid machine isn't gonna work, they tried over and over! Listen, you gotta use our--Aaargh! Ugghhhh. That way he doesn't have to die... Don't worry, Tadano! Believe me, I'm cursing them right now! I'm cursing 'em like a demon! Before that hatred cools... Hurry and send me to the Demonica! Thanks, Tadano... So tonight on the Great Schwarzwelt Bake Off, we're going to try an experimental new recipe.  Take two cups of Jimenez...  Add a tablespoon of Bugaboo, with some light Agidyne for seasoning.  Mix well, and leave in the HereticManor.exe for about 30 seconds. FusionPSA, do not add a Source and definitely don't attempt this during a Full Moon...  ...Otherwise it'll all go horrifically wrong! End Silence  Chaos Theme  You're still alive...  Like I said, don't you worry about me. I did this of my own will. I feel strong... with no pain. There's nothing wrong with me. Now c'mon... let's go crush those vatos. Those punks who like to play with the lives of demons! Alright, cool. We'll follow Jimenez to the Lightning in just a few moments. Gotta finish that map fir--  Oh, we've actually done it already. Guess we're off back to the Lightning, then!  Just you wait, Jack. I'm coming for you... Stand back, Tadano.> Jimenez walked toward the deck...  Rrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!  Just because we've had animation recently, doesn't mean it was sticking around. I know, it sucks. *pant*... *pant*... I... did it... Silence ...Let's go, Tadano. Right through here... That's where we'll find the enemies of the investigative team... and of the demons...> You infiltrated the Lightning alongside Jimenez... In The Master's Name Our base is devastated, we've sustained losses in equipment and manpower... And to top of it all, our weapon development program has been thoroughly destroyed. If our patrons learn how badly our plans were disrupted, I should think they'd be rather cross. To back down here would blacken my squad's name as a business concern. With everything you have... The grudge engraved on my body...! The grudge of the demons you have screwed with...! That's the only payback you're getting! It seems we still have a few kinks to work out in our fusion process. To leave this defective product alive could endanger our reputation. I shall dispose of you! These are my finest custom demons... They'll suck the marrow from your bones! Rrrrraaaaaaagh! Let 'em try!> Jimenez began fighting the demons!  There's the matter of revenge for my men you slaughtered, of course... But in the end, a breakdown of business is war. Nations or corporations, there is little difference. A vast array of armaments becomes a grand business asset. There's no liability in having one. With this in my possession... I can crush what needs to be crushed and take what needs to be taken.> Jack set his Demonica to battle mode.  A quick demonstration is in order! Captain Jack An Honor Befitting That Name So, Jack is... way harder than all of his nameless goons. He's a lower level than some of them but he can kind of put up a fight! To you, personally, the person playing the game. Jack himself has a small pool of moves but, uh...  Rain Strike is what he does for like all of his attacks. It's not his only attack, mind you, but it IS the best one he has and he spams it like crazy. Rain Strike is a very powerful random NoH skill. It's 1-3 hits that are Gun elemental (hmmm...).  His only other attack is Sunset Melody. It's a fairly decent Almighty elemental attack that has a baked in Tarunda, but that's all. It would be more impressive if he didn't decide to finally use this when at -2 Attack (and White Rider and Cu Chulainn are at +4 defense...).  That there are two Pisaca makes this one of the rare few times that Bites the Dust CAN be theoretically dangerous.  Jack's AI seems to be pretty weird. If he's ever debuffed at all, regardless of stage, he has a chance to cast this. It's guaranteed at -4, of course.  Oddly enough, Pure Blue is a self-heal. That's a combination of Dekunda and Diarahan. It's possible to lock his AI down for a little while by casting, say, Debilitate and he'll respond pretty frequently with Pure Blue regardless of how much he'll heal. Jack is not very bright, no, but it's better than getting him low on HP and then whoops he heals 1999 out of his 2000!  Jack is not a demon, so we don't unlock him for fusion sadly. The plus side to this is that by being Human, he's neutral to like every ailment so you don't even really have to try to do fun things if you really want. He does give okay EXP and a non-zero amount of Macca though. Better than his goons in every way, this Jack fellow. End In The Master's Name I've... lost...!? I'm sure your demons would rather die than protect scum like you... Can't we... come to terms... isn't there... something I can do...? You're learning, Jack. Wh... What are you...? But y'see, Jack, that's the thing...  It's over for you! Jimenez, enough! Stay outta this, Tadano! Arrrrrrrrrrgh!  Nah... There was no stopping it. The moment I took this form... Hee... Hee hee hee! Wh... What's going to happen to us...!? Well... With your commander dead... You'll need a new commander. Would that be you...? Don't worry. Until there's no one to replace your commander... What...!? Wait, wait...! I'm not like the Captain... I'm more flexible... I'll help you! Y-Yeah! That's right! I know you guys are looking for Exotic Matter, right!? Well, I'll help you! I-I mean... if you'll let me...! P-Please, spare me...! What a sad sack... There's not a single thing you believe in, huh? Why don't you try learning from the demons? So long, Captain Ryan...! Silence Huh...!? What!? Malevolence and Benevolence That's just slaughter for its own sake. ...That an order? I'm just doing what's right as a member of the investigative team. I'll serve under you... It would be an honor! Just spare my life... We won't kill you. But you must cooperate with our investigation. ...Getting in my way...  You go get some rest. We can take it from here. Jimenez! Report to sickbay and get yourself examined! I dunno what for. I feel perfectly fine, man. But... if you say so... ......Tadano. You did well on the mission. One quick fade to black later...  Mission "Save Crewman Jimenez" is confirmed complete. Gaining control of Jack's squad was an unexpected but ultimately favorable result. We will keep them under close watch to control them. However, given the situation... Our human resources would be better allocated to our main objective. They were real pains in the rear end, but we can't just kill them... What should we do? The simplest way to handle this is by disabling some of the Lightning's key systems. We will strip Jack's squad of their ability to travel. ...I guess that's the best we can do. Even so, a skeleton crew will remain to supervise Jack's squad. Hey, Arthur, were we able to nab any of their tech? We have made significant progress in that respect. Your Demonicas will be updated to better support your search for the Exotic Matter. So Ryan wasn't just lying to save his rear end! I have one other item to report. We have received a rare forma from them. Crewman Hitonari, please take this forma to the lab. I don't think we need any reports to know that this is part of the set. It's a mirror, and its named after a celestial body. Sun/Moon/Star is a very common triad of things with that pattern, so this should be the last.  Now may be the best time to discuss this, since he's not here at the moment... We may have rescued him from Jack's squad, but... he's not normal anymore. Physically, he's on the verge of becoming a demon. But he's one of us. I don't agree that we should treat him like a demon. Maybe he went too far when he killed Jack, but that in the heat of battle. Any of us might've done the same thing in his shoes. And he's still lucid. Sure, he's got an attitude problem, but what else is new, right? He seems so different than before! It's like... he's enjoying himself here now... I told him to get some rest, but he looked like he was eager to go out and fight some more. He's got a taste for blood... It gives me the chills. But maybe we should let him rest and see what happens. Us guys on the strike team use demons as allies, and I'd like to toss in my two cents. Without the demons' power, we never would have made it this far. Just because he's fused with a demon doesn't necessarily make him dangerous. Whatever we decide, it should come from a human perspective. You're the one who's worked the most closely with Jimenez. You understand him best, yes? Should Jimenez be relieved? Probably so. I agree wholeheartedly. If we pretend nothing is wrong with Jimenez, the team morale could go straight down the drain. We will suspend any decisions until we gather sufficient data. I would like to state for the record that I am not satisfied by this decision, but... Understood. Once again, this just happens with no scene or anything. Once again, very appreciated.  Our current position is in sector Fornax. So now we're back to where we were before the battle with Jack's squad. Supposedly. But of course, no one knows where it'll take us... Personally, I'd prefer a plan that would lead us back to Earth. You already know how hard it is to get around this place! We're doing everything we can! Why don't YOU quit bitching and finish YOUR mission!? We're already late as it is! What'd you say...!? If we can't cooperate, we're sunk! Stress is already running high. I ask that all hands take care not to disturb the peace. Make use of the upgraded Demonica to carry out your mission. Signs show that the demons who interfered with our search are lying in wait as well. Do not let them catch you unawares as you proceed. I look forward to the successful completion of your mission.
Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:48 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Feb 10, 2017 07:52
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Prayer Jimenez is at least half-demon, Jack is never coming back, generally awkward times all around. Hopefully folks are still holding up. But what shocks me is the very possibility that humans and demons can fuse to begin with... I don't get it...! This is way beyond what I thought possible...! How do we even classify a fusion of the two races...? Humans are supposed to fuse demons together... Not themselves... Strange twist of fate. So! We have a non-human on staff. Great. WHat's going to happen now...? But I'm more interested in his new morphology, and how compatible his human and demon parts are... Sad, isn't it? I'm a doctor to the core. So... what's his body like, now that he's a demon...? I wish I could get a good hands-on examination... EEGs, CAT scans, PET scans, real up close... Heheheheheh... Was he really just looking out for his demon, or did he want the power of demons for himself? ...It's not my place to speculate, but one thing's for sure. Jimenez became a demon because he chose to. He made his decision. Unlike me, who talks big, but never does anything... Well, thid time's the charm, or so they say. I think we can upgrade yer Demonica. Alright, Tadano. Give those forma here. Ready to roll up yer sleeves, Chen? We got more ingredients than usual, but the procedure's the same. Nice and slow... Let's do this right.> Irving and Chen started working. > ... > ......  Here, lemme install it on yer Demonica for ya. This does change a few things around in every Sector. It doesn't replace ES A though; it stacks with it. When generating an ES demon it has a 50% chance to draw from the ES A pool and a 50% chance to draw from the ES B pool. Antlia gets the second best deal from this, really; it gets Fornax's ES demons added to its pool which is pretty cool. Bootes gets King Frost and Futotama added, both turning up solo. Carina, Delphinus and Eridanus just get modified spawn rates for everything. The best thing that happens with ES B is that Fiend rates across the board are now a 5% chance in total which is a massive boost really.  But hey, we grabbed this from the HQ and it's nice but... would've been nicer if we didn't need to have done more than half of Fornax just to get to it.  Because it lets you have the VR overlay thing for the Red Dark Rooms now. Sure would have been useful if we didn't need to go though the dark room hell just to get part of the way to it!  Anyway, yeah, JSHQ didn't give us anything new in the shop. Are you surprised? Yes? No, you're not stop lying. I thought I was tough, but if someone told me to do the same thing... I dunno if I could. Well, anyhoo... I'm glad the fusion went off okay. Going through an experiment like that without any idea of the proper procedures... That's not science! And yet... given that it was a success despite that, it may in fact be a great achievement. Although I can't imagine who but Jimenez would be reckless enough to try it a second time. But there's no doubt that he made his decision to become more powerful. Rather than be the demons' master, he chose to be closer to them... to be one of them. And there's no telling what that choice might lead to... The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried Alright, so back to Fornax we go. Gonna drill down that middle path until we get back to the 5th floor. There's a rude jerk of an invisible demon here and we just got Enemy Search B, so...  In The Master's Name You found me! Then I'll beat you by force...! An Honor Befitting that Name So the Formless' palette swap big brother is.... kinda really boring, not gonna lie. Not even strong or noteworthy enough to warrant a video. Just... think about that for a second.  I mean, sure, it can use Asura Roga which is a nice surprise and something I forgot entirely. It's only a very minor inconvenience because I have the Cursed Sarai equipped.  Also it casts Maragion. Good job, dude. Keep on trying. It's immune to Expel and Curse and has no other weakness or resistance of note. It almost certainly resists ailments in some way but it's weak as hell so totally irrelevant. In The Master's Name I shall return to my body... Tadano. Do not let this brief moment of victory go to your head! "Brief moment"? Anyway, yes, good advice. Don't fall to Pride that you already conquered. That'd just be embarassing! The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried Just past there, we can get to a door that leads to the stairs down. Weird that it tells us this here and not actually on B6F, huh?  So, let's take a minute to finally drop in how I've been doing Wacky Effortless Things for a while. If you take two Don't ever use a Source on a Mitama. Just... don't. It's not worth it.  They're exclusively designed for Fusion material (their Sources are even all kind of awful but Base Kusi has the best because he'll Bonus skill either Charge or Concentrate). Using them does not give you a new demon. It gives you the other demon you fused it with but with a stat boost of +2 in one stat and +1 in another; these boosts cap at +8 in total. Most of the time, this fusion won't change skills because there'll be no empty slots. The real reason to bother with doing this is to add a Source to give new skills and change things around. The stat boost is honestly not a big deal at all. The skill swap is what makes this a Very Important Thing To Remember. Just... keep it in mind. We'll get back to this twice in the future. For now, it's just a thing I do off-screen. A lot. Silence I'll not let you reach the Goddess Tiamat who birthed us! In The Master's Name Asura is really boring here. He just warps in during a screen flash. No breaking walls or cool entrances or anything. Laaaaaaame. The true power of Asura...  We demons are journeying to the Earth yearning for itself. To annihilate the humans, those defilers of soil and destroyers of lives. The power of demons, of destruction, is necessary to restore power to the land. And not only demons... If there are those within your brood who carry that noble seed within them... It is the beautiful power of destruction we need to restore the Earth! Demons and the chosen humans shall reclaim the Earth's true nature! Destruction will rejuvenate Earth! I won't let you. Unsightly power... unsightly spirit.. You spit words that change nothing. Your mere eistence is anathema. You shall not escape. In this land ruled by the Goddess Tiamat... You shall return to a mere seed! Lady Asherah Vehement Rage So, Asherah is... not going to buck the trend of the pseudo-refights being disappointing and simple.  Surprising hopefully no one, she opens the fight by using Asura Roga.  In terms of changes, she drops Maragidyne. For Maragion. Asherah what are you doing? That's arguably worse than what Mithra did!  She kind of tries and fails to make up for it by casting Ashura and Black Flame whenever she wants instead of when low on HP but uhh... that's it. She's still weak to Ice, still resists Gun, still reflects Wind and Fire. Her added resistance is for Electricity. I guess just to round those out even though it's kind of irrelevant.  As a complement to Eridanus's Superbia, Fornax is the inevitable Vanagloria. Moloch, Mithras, Orcus and Asherah were deluded. They believe that because they're wreathed in a different guise things would go differently. They were under the misguided impression that their own weakness was the result of their environment when it was their own lack of skill and strength in the first place. Their "true" states of being are essentially completely identical to their previous form save for one minor change and are in some ways actively worse than when they were being "held back". End In The Master's Name Tiamat... Mother... A fearsome human... draws near... Silence   Your destiny is now fixed... To be punished by me... Your body, your spirit... I shall crush you... > You can no longer hear the voice. The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried I have verified your victory over the demon Asherah. Mission "Defeat the Three Demons" is confirmed complete. She will be powerful. Remember to prepare yourself before you engage her. Yeah, yeah, we'll be fine. Anyway, immediate crossroad so we'll take the left path and get to a wonderful deadend. I could have sworn there was a hidden door here but there isn't. Thanks, Fornax.  Also real quick, now that we've hit level 51 let's talk about a password that Atlus gave out. This is the first one we'll be seeing in this run, though there are some... very special ones for low-level demons.  This one gives Ishtar. Ishtar can only be gotten via this password. She's... kind of not very good at face value. Amrita is okay, Silent Prayer is very nice but a double-edged sword and Invitation is a Summon Stone. Normally Invitation isn't obtainable until level 73 so, uh, yeah. Resistances are exactly how they look, boringly enough. Although her Source is an insanely early way to get Drain Wind (the only other Source with it is Norn's...) so there's that?  Because we can't do anything special with her by default, there's only one way to make her actually good and that is by Mitamaing her. I'm not stopping here, of course; I'm gonna add a few more things and then spend Way Too Much macca so I can keep these sources when I'm done. The Fear of God The area past the spot where the Strange Demon was guarding has some new demons. After Asherah, they become much more common so we'll deal with them here. Throne I can't complain too much about. He's a pretty solid Divine, and spent a while on our roster. Nothing secret under the hood here, but he's pretty decent in general. Taotie is REALLY ABSURDLY GOOD. Like, holy poo poo. Those Weaknesses are all base damage, so they're secretly just Neutrals so they're exclusively for co-ops, so feel free to ignore them. Immune to Phys, Gun and Expel. Comes with Tyranny and Void Nerve (immunity to Petrification, Paralysis, Bomb and Poison). Bomb Knuckle is an ST phys skill that has a chance to inflict Bomb of course; Taotie might just be the single most deadly Bomb user because the enemy version almost exclusively uses Bomb Knuckle and absolutely nothing else.  Alraune is really, thoroughly eh. She has no resistances. Like, at all. Her ailment resists are 100% across the board... except Charm. Charm is a 300% weakness. The one thing she can do is the one thing that cripples her the most. Good job, Alraune. The usable version has Watchful and her source gives Vigilant which is... something, I guess.  And there's a Nocturne boss fight just hanging out as a regular ol' normal random encounter. Atropos is pretty good at doing the whole cutting your string of fate, thing. She has 3 ways of kiling you dead. As an added bonus, she's immune to Sleep because Eternal Rest exists so she can't be instant killed outside of things like Waking Dream. Ad, uh, you can guess how often that one's going to come up again. The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried Following the other path brings us to this dark room. The last one in Fornax and one that's teeny tiny! Because of course it is. Red dark rooms are apparently antifun. Now that we CAN see in them, it gives us such a softball that it might as well not even matter.  Da Peng is the only new enemy in the dark room down here. He has Magarudyne, nulls Wind in kind and is only weak to Guns. No ailment resistances or weaknesses. Has a tendency to come in packs of 3. That's about it.  The other two doors up top are ones we'll come to later, don't worry. The door on the right leads to an empty dead end and bottom brings us to a phase shifter. Fornax: it uses every single dungeon gimmick exactly once. Well, except teleporters. Haven't had any of those, huh.  So, the Sanctum is kind of small but also very, very important. The three doors up-top just all lead to the same area this time so that's disapointing but whatever.  There's a pair of Megido Stones over to the side which might prove useful sometime I guess, maybe.  Over on the right we have this Gate Search door. This door is Very Important, so I made extra-special double sure to open it!  New demons? Eh, there's two. Well, just Decarabia now but Catoblepas kind of technically counts as well sort of I guess. Decarabia's immune to Curse, weak to Gun, has a flat 100% resist for all ailments and can only cast Megido and Tetrakarn. He likes the latter a lot, yes.  South of the gate search door, and a very short walk from the Phase Shifter we have a return to the normal area of Fornax. The Phase Shift area is really not that big, no.  Over on the left side, there's a hidden door here. This one is also quite important though not for the same reasons as the other one.  Right now, it just lets us get DF II for the first time somehow, in a fixed spawn. That's nice of it.  We could go down the stairs now, but there were a few areas that we can do something else with first...  Returning back to the Original Space and heading through the top-left door lets us look around back to the stairs.  This is solely just there to let you get these 3 AT IIs and for map complexion, of course.  The other hidden door we opened lets you get this. Full MP to everyone. This is the earliest you can get one, and we won't get others easily for a little while. NOW we can head on down to the 7th floor.  Immediately get told about a boss up ahead. Gee, I wonder who that is... Anyway, there's an Enemy Search right by the entrance and the ES B does give A new thing to Fornax. Hopefully this'll be i--  Oh. I mean, I guess that works but it's not what I wanted. I will gladly take those scales again but that's it. An Honor Befitting that Name Going up and down the stairs a bunch got Hanuman to spawn at last. Kinmamon is the only thing from ES A outside of Black Rider, and the same applies to Hanuman for B. He has a 60% chance of spawning solo, and a 32% chance of appearing with a Da Peng buddy. This isn't taking into account the 50/50 split of what Enemy Search gets used in the first place of course. He's resist to Phys (but not Gun) and Curse, and immune to Expel and weak to Wind. He has Retaliate just to deter you from shooting him and he has Endure so he survives with 1HP when he should otherwise die. He has no ailment resist though, and Endure can't do poo poo about Petrify so uh whoops. The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried The 7th floor is, bringing us back to Fornax's MO of being boring as dirt, mostly a straight line right to the boss. There's a terminal and a heal spot by the stairs, and this Chimera hangs out here but that's it.  Nothing else here at all. How... Fornax of it. So, let's just head on into that big room at the end where the "!" on the in-game map is. In The Master's Name  Destruction... to the cursed humans who defeated my demons... And then... give us shape once more...! Ahh... Patience... Your wish will soon be granted...Tiamat! Goddess! Death to the humans...! We demons have slept as seeds in this land unknown to humans... Over time, we lay dormant. The dark thoughts of humanity flowed to this land, giving us shape... giving us power... We are the seeds who slept below the soil of this land. But we were not meant to sleep eternally... Now, our buds begin to open...!Death to the humans! May demons reign! Faster than the humans can fill the land... Faster than the humans can destroy the planet... I shall give birth to demons to keep them in check! So long as this land is abundant with seeds, I will birth an endless orchard of demons!Suddenly, boss fight starts! Yeah, no alignment dialogue choice this time. Drake Tiamat Vehement Rage Tiamat is a Mesopotamian goddess of the ocean. She does indeed give birth to a bunch of other gods, as one of her main roles which is a really weird thing to carry over here and make plot relevant.  I can kind of see Tiamat being a bit of a difficulty spike, in a way. Ouroboros' main difficulty came from randomly giving you a game over with there being very little you can do about it and then Fornax is so simple that it's harder to not faceroll. Then Tiamat actually kind of, like, does things. Black Rider is still the biggest threat we've fought though.  Mother Earth is probably her most special attack but if you use the Hardwired it's not that big of a threat. What makes it marginally more annoying than "some Ice damage" is that she heals about half the damage it does. Kind of like Horkus/Orcus but multitarget so it's less poo poo about it.  Like Jack, she can also cast Pure Blue. Unlike Jack, there are three things that make her do this: 1. You debuff her to -4 in anything; 2. You cast/queue up Silent Prayer; 3. She just feels like it. Somewhere in the region of Everything On The Internet says that 1 is the only thing that makes it happen. They're wrong. On the flip side, if you buff to +4 there is dickall she can do about it. Well, there is one thing.  She can cast Sunset Melody, also like Jack did. That's it. That's all she can do to debuff you in any way. Good job, Tiamat.  Anyway, Tiamat likes Ice spells. A lot.  This is why the Hardwired is a good armor for this sector. She drains Ice at 200% its normal rate, so don't do it! Immune to Fire, resists Gun but she's weak to Elec, at least.  Since she uses almost nothing but spells, popping a Magic Mirror might be a good idea right? Ahahahahaha. Ahahahahahaha.  She responds by dropping all pretenses and immediately casting Diarahan. Not Pure Blue, just flat Diarahan to really rub it in your face. She is not the first boss to just throw a gently caress you out there if you try this; she won't be the last either.  My first playthrough, she's also the boss where I learned that Fear is ludicrously good. I got a Tyranny proc in turn 1 and she just proceeded to sit there the entire fight and do nothing. That was fun, albeit bizarrely lucky considering she has 4500HP to cut through.  ...Oh and she gives bonkers EXP. Decent macca for one fight, as well. Balm of Rising is nice I suppose. End In The Master's Name It will not be... just me... Soon... your life... your spirit... ...will... per...ish....   I see you have recovered the Exotic Matter from Tiamat. Mission "Fornax's Exotic Matter" is confirmed complete. Return to the ship immediately. ...... There must be an innumerable amount of demons sleeping here. Some of them would no doubt be beyond our comprehension... We can't just leave this be...> You can feel a presence... Silence  Now... The flow of air shall shift... as will my destination... Ahh, who am I...? And what awaits me...? ...> Gore disappeared somehere...  No purpose, no destination... I feel sorry for him, but there's nothing we can do... Malevolence and Benevolence Well done, Crewman Hitonari. I will send this to Engineering. We will begin preparations to travel to the next sector immediately. So this is the second Exotic Matter... It's just like Arthur said. We're making progress, and that's a good thing, but... We may have some hope, but on the other hand... those monsters might just be toying with us. Who knows how long it'll take us to get there... Well, there you go, Arthur. It's all up to you. Some situation... Is moving into the unknown all we can do...? So, Arthur, how do we get to the next sector? We will enter the new sector using a continuous jump. I hope those three life forms don't get in the way this time. Drive safely, now. Fornax was teeming with all kinds of demons... I suppose the next sector will have even more powerful demons, yes? Before we move to the next sector, I have two items to report. First, about Crewman Jimenez... If it is deemed necessary, we will put him in cold sleep. Jimenez has been begging to return to his duties, but... We can't have him run in and get captured again like he did at Jack's Squad HQ... About that... He didn't just up and decide to go in himself. Of course, that's all spilled milk now... Fate dealt him a funny hand, I guess. As a result, we may gain some sort of technological advance from them in the near future. We receive regular reports on the materials and demons they collect. That concludes the report. Let us begin preparations to move to the next sector. We must begin searching for more Exotic Matter. All hands, to your designated positions... Now we get a repeat of the Vanishing Point cutscene. Yay...  The new Exotic Matter has led us through the Vanishing Point to a previously unreachable area. We have safely landed in a new sector. All hands, prepare to begin this sector's mission. Monitors, report on field conditions.  Grus is, of course, named after a bird; if you've ever played Zelda: Skyward Sword you sure didn't me to tell you that one. It actually means crane, though; the latin name for the common Crane is even Grus Grus. The constellation itself is in the southern hemisphere and is one of the Southern Birds as a result. As an added bonus, it used to be called the Flamingo (albeit in latin still, yes). ...The Schwarzwelt's Grus is either my least favourite or second least favourite sector, depending on how well it stacks up to Fornax this time. Monitors here! Setting up the outside camera feed! Fear Hey... I recognize this place...! Can't be. It's too blue and there's not enough planes bombing things in the background. It does look like it, but... It's not quite the same as Antlia, is it? Wasn't Antlia burning more? There's no way this can be Antlia. Our space-time coordinates are nowhere near there. We've just confirmed some strange readings. It's bad enough this place looks like Antlia, but there's more... You mean just like Literally Every Sector before now? Grus will have things that aren't just lazy palette swapped reused assets? Be still, my beating heart. So basically, while there'll be pockets that look like Antlia... There'll also be areas that look completely different. The whole thing's like a giant mosaic... Take caution while carrying out your duties.  The materialization progression is relatively advanced at our LZ. This sector smells all kinds of suspicious, but not much would surprise me anymore. We have a job to do, same as ever. Have we confirmed our target? Is there Exotic Matter here? It's as if we're marionettes on a string. Perhaps we were crazy to think we could escape... Everyone knows already. Please don't say anything to stir up anxiety, Zelenin. ...I'm sorry. I spoke out of turn. But I wasn't simply voicing my frustration... I'm thinking there must be some other way... As the Command Unit, I propose that the search for Exotic Matter remains our chief priority.  I posit a theory: Mem Aleph is believed to be the core of the Schwarzwelt. Destroy the Schwarzwelt...? Is that possible? We've already failed once... The attack from outside failed... But what about an attack from the inside? Either way, it's nice to have some good news for a change, Arthur. It'll be the most dangerous thing we've ever tried here. Everything's up in the air... But even a slim hope is a hope. And without that Exotic Matter, it's out of our reach. So I'm ready to go on investigating. You've gotten good at handling the crew, Arthur. That fairy tale about being able to destroy the Schwarzwelt sure lifted everyone's spirits... Hey, don't use that as an excuse to slack off. Put your feelings aside and focus on the mission. But if we destroy the Schwarzwelt... Will we be able to return to Earth!? What'll happen to us inside!? Calm down. No use worrying yourself sick over something that may or may not happen. We can't even nail down our own hopes... Human crewmen are expected to be in control of their emotions. Stay calm, assess the situation, and carry out your duties. I look forward to the successful completion of your mission.
Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:49 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Feb 13, 2017 07:47
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Prayer Grus used to straight up be my least-favourite Sector, but given that Fornax managed to absolutely plummet in my opinion (and that started REALLY low to begin with)... Anyway, time t'speak with the crew again! But when you think about it, isn't it not far off to say that this is a "central" area? Might be a sign we're getting close to the core. Let's stay focused and keep making progress. He's become a demon... he's outside the boundaries of humanity now. He doesn't have a human's self-control anymore. How are we supposed to come to terms with each other...? I'm just not comfortable around him. ...I shouldn't let it get to me. Let's go on with the mission. With the equipment here, we can treat nearly any physical problem, but mental ones? They're harder. Of course, that brainwashing equipment is out of the question. ...Anyway, for now we can only wait for a resolution to this prolonged situation. Man, that new body of his is something else. Is that what all demon bodies are like? They're so out of our league... Humans don't stand a chance. So, what did Tiamat's Rare Forma drop give us, I wonder? Probably not gonna be super great, but we'll see I suppose.  Laplace, uh, does not do what it says. Like, it DOES but it doesn't. The only thing that has a chance to happen are Fusion Accidents and Fracastoro turns them off entirely so... Laplace just changes the formula used for calculating fusion results. Normally, it's: code:If that number matches a demon's level exactly, you get that demon. If not, even if its just over it by 1, then it looks upwards towards the next demon of the relevant race if there is one. Laplace does not change that aspect, but it makes the calculation formula: code: Long Birthday is probably good, because you can get some Really Good Rare Items via gifts from higher level demons. Sadly, it's not that good because it takes 40% of your SubApp space and it's not worth that much at all.  Tea Amity is, uh.... I've never used this. When negotiating with a demon, it can sometimes just take your money or whatever and run, right? I can only presume that this gives you a chance to make that not happen.  Maybe I'll be more fired up if I think of this sector as a treasure chest with new forma in it. Don'tcha think we can expect to find rare and unique forma in a place like this? But I'm puttin' the cart before the horse. There's investigatin' to be done... The forma'll keep. Maybe I'm jut worn down by this prolonged crisis. *sigh* This is bad...quote:
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 As you no doubt expected by this point, this is as much of  ...It changes its form and nature from one floor to the next, to welcome us. Let's go. Don't let it get you down. This whole mission scarcely has any hope of ending, anyway.Alright, so we have a couple of sidequests that are in a progress limbo. Let's see if we can't get them finished up before we move on. The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried You may or may not remember, but in Eridanus an Ame-no-Uzume wanted us to go talk to a Futotama. He's just hanging out here near the entrace of Fornax for... some reason.  I am Futotama. Some do not give me the proper shrift, but I am in truth quite a high-ranking god. Hm? What is the matter? Is there something on my face?> You explained the situation.  Son of man, I thank thee for thine aid. I, too, have come here in search of the Lady Amaterasu, but... Even my divinations cannot locate her. Not a real thing, sorry. Not a real world mythology thing, either. 'Twill make her quite difficult to find... Ah, but of course. I shall lend thee the Tamashiro Mirror, human. ...Also not a real thing or referencing any real thing. Not even that mirror what Futotama is holding in his design right here. The mirror reflecteth only the truth. Even the Marebito Robe cannot hide from it. Use it in thy search for the Lady Amaterasu. Now then, I shall return to Ame no Uzume. I feel that area to be the most suspicious, in the end...> Futotama left... Something suspicious in the area near Ame-no-Uzume, huh...? Let's think... A Land Controlling Roadsquote:
Ah, that'll do it.  > A beatiful woman was visible in the mirror...   So, I am found out.  I followed the Tamashiro Mirror's light and have found you, Lady Amaterasu! Futotama. Had you joined the search for me, then? It was Ame no Uzume who enlisted the human's help. He and I then met, and I granted him the Tamashiro Mirror. I see now... I have worried all of you. I cannot give an accounting of myself. It was as if a part of me simply had to do it. This does make sense, but the reason why it could be justified is... not necessarily clear right now. ...I am sorry. I was being selfish. I can't bear to worry you all any longer. Let us return to Takamagahara.> As Amaterasu was leaving, you heard a voice... Silence I-I have found you at last, Lady Amaterasu! I thought you were close at hand, and so I started searching... Have you any notion of how worried we were!? I feared you were going someplace far away... I was... so worried... Sorrow My sincerest apologies. Truly, I can offer no excuse. My intention was never to leave you all behind. Please believe me. ...I believe you. This land is unsettling to we demons. Now, do let's go home. Oh, but first... I must express my gratitude to this human. Thank you for finding her. You may have this. We will return to Takamagahara now.  This is the only way to get Amaterasu unlocked, but Kinmamon is a weird one for this. He can be obtained in Fornax by just capping one there, of course. He's only unlocked here because of Amaterasu's... disguise that wasn't intentional except it was but she didn't know and Y'know what? Let's just take this Sound Jewel to Irving.  It's a very special Rare Forma and one which is semi-important and useful but you can easily miss it and have it not matter too much right.  Note that we don't have Gate Search D yet. This does matter; the letter for the MainApps are not direct upgrades or anything. They just affect things directly tied to them. We'll put this to use soon, but first let's go find a deathseamstress of destiny for a monkey. Encounter  Woooooow... it's just like Grandpa Thoth said...! Oh yeah... I'm supposed to give you this. Here you go! It's the Book of Thoth, volume three! This is what you're looking for, right? I heard that if a human talks to me, I should give him this! Although it made me kinda nervous to carry this book around... I mean... what if I accidentally sliced it with scissors!? Brrr! But it's okay! I was careful! Well, say hi to Grandpa for me! Ahahahahaha!> The demon left. A Land Controlling Roads Hoh hohhh... Well done. I knew you could do it. Thor/Jupiter are where the name for Thursday comes from. That's 3 down... I can prepare another riddle for you if you want... I'm sure it would lead you to more wisdom. Come again, my boy.Absolutely no reason to not pick it up at least. We ARE here right now and all...  So here's my riddle that'll point you to the demon who holds the Book of Thoth... The fourth volume is part of the treasurer's collection. Who is this treasurer who keeps my book? And I thought you might get bored with the same old, same old, so it's a bit different this time. How's it different, you may ask? Ahh, look again to the riddle. If you need a hint... keep the flow of a demon negotiation in mind. Now, let's see if you can manage to crack this one.The treasurer, huh... Only one demon comes to mind easily for this one. Encounter Hey Melchom! So, this one IS different because you need a successful negotiation first. Yep, being able to complete this EX Mission is entirely at the mercy of the RNG. For both getting a conversation path you CAN complete, for not pissing him off AND for him letting you get the option and not just giving you a thing with no prompt.  It's real dumb, so thankfully it's with a semi-common very low level demon otherwise this would be way more annoying. Just gotta request nothing at all.  Heheheh... Selflessness is a virtue... so you say. Very good. I believe this is yours. It is proof of the wisdom that this god Thoth bestows on you. This is what the god said to me: The human would desire the book, but I was to pretend I didn't know what he was talking about... I was to give it to him only when he demonstrated selflessness in negotiation. A rather interesting hobby, don't you think? Here you are, preaching the virtue of selflessness in a world of unerringly selfish humans... Yet... I... cannot help but dream. If humans could understand this idea and put it into practice... Well, no use dreaming, not when we've come this far down the road.> The demon left... Aside from that potentially annoying bit of random chance to even succeed, this one isn't too big of a deal at least. Let's give Thoth this volume as well, then. A Land Controlling Roads Hoh hohhhh... So you got it, eh? I thought this one might be too much for you. What you reach for, you will lose. The emptiness of attainment and the joy of an unearned gift... You've done well in showing that to me. ...No, we didn't? I mean, yes, we did but Friday is not Frey. This one is just flatout wrong. Every romance language, that doesn't just go First Day/Second Day/etc., uses Venus for Friday. This should be either Freyja or Frigg, depending on who you ask... and they might even be interchangable, also depending on who you ask! I can prepare another riddle for you if you want... I'm sure it would lead you to more wisdom. Come again, my boy.Once again, we're already here so...  This is... the fifth time, no? I'm running out of ideas. I think this'll have to be the last riddle. Care to give it a try? Yes. One thing, though. I've changed the way this last riddle works again. It'd be boring for the finale to be just another riddle, right? So, here's the riddle hinting at the demons who hold the last of the Books of Thoth...   Now let's see if you can pass my final test...Well, one of these we can do right away so let's go and meet a lady on a floating lake. Encounter  Wow... you really came. Maybe the god of knowledge is a prophet, too? Oh, right. Here, I'm supposed to give this to you. It's half of some book... But how did you know it was me just by hearing about Excalibur? Sure, the legends say it was me King Arthur gave the sword to. But there are lots of other theories out there. How can you be sure I'm the one? What do you think...? It's you for sure. Hmm... interesting. Well, I don't care which it is. It's really interesting, though... Humans tell whatever stories they want and get themselves confused. Well... maybe if I'm ever in the mood some day, I'll tell you. Will it be in ten years, or a hundred? I dunno. Well, good luck.> The demon left... That's half of the final book done, but I dunno about this Laevateinn thing. I guess we'll see if we can find that thing in the future somewhere. Next up is, uh.... I really don't want to do this one but... alright, fine. A Frivolous Nation ...There goes a thing we can't get easily for a while.  Hrm... yes... yes, they're all accounted for. Here's your pay. Not worth it! But wait, there's more... Every job I had for you is done. And as a special bonus from me... Here, have this. Really not worth it! You served me well, for a human. Oh goody. The Melchom Ring is +20 MP and immunity to Strain. The least threatening ailment of them all. What joy! Just ignore Melchom entirely, or only do them if you really want a bunch of easy macca and can't be bothered farming Forma off of enemy searches. Hrmm... now what? Everything left outstanding can't be finished yet, so I guess we need to find something new. Oh! A Scorched Nation The King and Queen of the faeries have said they want to see the place for themselves. It's a tremendous honor! Yes. Thank you so much...! I wonder if the King and Queen will like it here. I'm counting on you!...Oh. We can't do this one either!  We can get Oberon easy but Titania is level 60. Umm... Umm.... There's nothing else in Fornax, since the Alice sidequest is the only side content in there. Umm... Oh we just got Gate Search E and there's a place to use it right here. Let's do that next!  It's that hidden door right by the entrance of the Fairy Village, conveniently enough.  It's only used to let you get a fixed AT X though. Great. So, where else can we use this? Nowhere in Bootes, nowhere in Carina, nowhere in Delphinus, nowhere in Fornax... A Land Controlling Roads But there is this one spot in Eridanus we can pop open with it, at least.   RAR...! RARRRR...! NOT HERE, IT NOT HERE! YOU NO KNOW? YOU NO KNOW WHERE ME MEAT IS!? Meat? GRRRRR...! NICE QUESTION...! THIS IS A STORY OF ME MEAT...! STORY VERY JUICY...! ME PUT MEAT HERE! TOP CLASS SPECIAL DINNER! RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRR! ...ME KNOW WHO EAT MEAT. HE SAID HE WANTED MEAT... ME HAVE FAVOR! GIVE YOU MISSION! ME CAN'T... ME NOT GOOD AT TALKING... BUT YOU CAN DO IT! YOU GOOD AT DEMON TALKING! ME COUNTING ON YOU!Well, that's pretty easy and convenient. We can actually do this one! Orthrus isn't too far away at all. Don't even have to leave Eridanus.  > Hitonari told Orthrus about Cerberus.  GRRRRRRR...! THAT SERIOUS ACCUSATION! ME NO EAT IT! WHATEVER HE SAY, ME NO EAT IT! ME MIGHT EAT OTHER PEOPLE'S MEAT, BUT NOT FAMILY'S! HMM... WAIT! I KNOW! I KNOW STUPID DEMON WHO EAT THE MEAT... OTHER DAY, ME GO TO BROTHER'S. THERE, ME SEE ONI! HE WALKING AROUND, EATING MEAT. ME NOT THINK, BITE INTO IT... ALMOST. BUT ME NOT EAT THE MEAT! YOU TELL BROTHER!> The demon left... Well, that was convenient and easy. Back to Cerberus, I guess. 'Snot too far to travel.  IT NOT ORTHRUS...? ONI ATE THE MEATY MEAT...? HMMMMM... ME TRY REMEMBER... HRMM... THINKING ABOUT IT... THERE WAS AN ONI... HMMMMMMMM... THIS IS... I guess we're off right back to Antlia, then...  > Hitonari told Oni about Cerberus's meat...  Meat...? Oh, yeah, I ate it! I got seriously lost, and on top of that, I was really hungry. ...I completely forgot that Oni just randomly references Shiren the Wanderer. Sure, why not. That's what I was thinkin' when I saw this delicious-lookin' hunk of meat... I didn't hesitate, man! They say hunger makes everything taste good, but that stuff woulda been amazing anyway! So what do you care, anyway? Like I coulda known that! And besides, think about how this world works! It ain't strange to see any crazy thing dropped on the ground! I know for a fact YOU'VE been pickin' stuff up left and right! So why're ya so on my case about pickin' up the meat, man? It's natural! Completely, 100% natural! ...Anyway, that's what happened! I ate it 'cause I was hungry, and I ain't sorry at all! You tell Cerberus that!> The demon left... Well, mystery solved! Back to Cerberus we go to see what neat reward we get for this.  HRM... SO ONI EAT ME MEAT... IT OKAY. SAME AS WILD. ME FAULT FOR NOT GUARDING MEAT... NO POINT GET ANGRY... ME NOT MAD.. HMM... ME BLAMED ORTHRUS... ME HAVE NO BEEF WITH ORTHRUS. HE NOT EAT MEAT. OKAY! YOU DEMON TALKING AGAIN! APOLOGIZE ORTHRUS FOR ME! ME CAN'T DO IT... ME NO GOOD WITH TALKING... BUT YOU CAN DO IT! ME KNOW! ME COUNTING ON YOU!Ughhh alright fine, back to find another Orthrus we go...  > Hitonari told Orthrus about Cerberus. HMMM... ME SEE. BUT ME NOT CARE... IN WILD, FIGHTING OVER MEAT HAPPEN ALL THE TIME. ...TELL CERBERUS. ME NO REMEMBER TIME WHEN CERBERUS APOLOGIZE FOR ANYTHING... CERBERUS SHOULD BE CERBERUS. ACT BIG ALL THE TIME.> The demon left... Okay NOW we should be done. After talking to Cerberus one last time.  ME SEE. HE GOOD BROTHER... HMMM... IT IN PAST. ME FORGET IT NOW. YOU DO GOOD JOB. HELPED ME. BUT... IT LIKE BROTHER SAID... ME CERBERUS! NEXT TIME ME MIGHT BE ENEMY AND EAT YOU WHOLE! ME SEE YOU AGAIN!> Cerberus left...  ...Holy gently caress. That is a TERRIBLE reward! What a goddamn waste of time. Definitely worth gating this quest behind both the 100% optional and easily missed Gate Search E AND what is essentially a tedious back-and-forth fetch quest.  Fortunately, this area is much bigger than this. There's a teleporter over in the top-right corner that brings us to a whole new area!  That Sanctum in the bottom of this area is completely empty, but that means that we'll need to return the Phase Shifter to the Original Space and come back later.  After that, we get an area with Lots Of Poison Tiles but you can just not touch them and use that safe tile next to them all. That warps you to the end.  But then you can't get these 5 AC II in a fixed forma. Gotta take your chances with at least 2 poison tiles if you want that...  Regardless of which path you take, it'll bring you to this guy by a one-way door leading to... where we found Amaterasu. Huh. I wonder if that Gate Search C door can be opened from the inside as well then. It'd have to be, surely...  It takes after its presenter in its love for pranks. Hm...? A human warrior? Oho... you seem a seasoned soldier. You'd make a fine prize for the valkyries. I am the Allfather Odin. Though you stand in my presence, there is no need for humility. Be at ease. In truth, this works out perfectly. Could you help find my steed Sleipnir? That horse loves pranks and runs off at any opportunity. Will you accept my request? Yes. I thank you. Use whatever method you see fit to make Sleipnir your ally and return it to me. I have high expectations of you.Translation: fuse or password in a Sleipnir. We can't do either right now, since he's level 56. I guess we'll be back later, then... Oh and before we leave for other stuff, let's flip that phase shifter around.  The Vitality Incense is nice, but the real prize is the Megidola Stone! Especially if you have a very high Magic stat. And that's all we can do here, so... time to grind a bunch of forma off-screen and go pay a visit to Irving. And thanks to getting Forma Search C, we can't even remove all ???s any more! Prayer Semi-high attack, 1 hit, no bonus. Yawn. Except, this is meant to be a later-in-Fornax weapon. Yes, really! It requires AT Forite II x2, Wood Face x3 (Zaccoum) and Jirae Magma x1 (Tlaltecuhtli).  The Headhunter is basically the same but an actual upgrade over the Cursed Sarai I guess? Stronger, random target, 1 hit... but no add, so the Sarai wins. It's also less tedious to get than the Headhunter since you need to be past Jack's Squad HQ to even begin and try for this one; AT Forite II x2, Genma Helmet x6 (Hanuman) and Femme Shears x3 (Atropos).  The Buffalo Gun is... the loving Abba Dingo but for Electricity. Goddammit, stop doing that! They're never even good or anything! AT Forite x1, Beast Talons x3 (Gryphon) and Wilder Eye x2 (Manticore/Catoblepas), so at least it's easy to get I guess.  If you want to get rid of a demon... The Man with the Golden Gun... Ahem, anyway. It's Bufula and Zionga. That's it. That's what it lets you do. This might not seem too bad if you could get it in, oh I don't know, Bootes or Carina? Except, uhh... whoops it's a goddamn pain and a half to get! AT Forite II x3, Wood Thorn x6 (Alraune) and Judgement Scale x3 (Black Rider) are what you need for a thing that has piss-poor skills and is banking on its semi-high...ish inate power to be useful. So not worth the hassle at all. ...Still gonna use it for something, though. You'll see.  The Life Vest is pretty thoroughly "eh" and a really bad idea to use in Fornax. Lots of Ice in there, especially when dealing with Tiamat. Also it's just kind of not very good anyway; aside from like Da Peng there's nothing around right now that uses Wind and is worth worrying over. It does make up for that by being very easy to make: DF Forite x2, Jaki Hide x1 (Grendel) and Night Mustache x2 (Kaiwan).  So, what if you don't want to use the Hardwired but you want an upgrade over the Belobog Vest at last anyway? The Metal Vest is what you want. Keeps the Phys resist, ups Defense and the Elec weakness isn't too big of a deal and easily work-aroundable for the most part. DF Forite II x2, Vile Wool x1 (Taotie) and Divine Wheel x1 (Throne) so it's nice and easy to make as well.  The accessories here are, well, they're very simple.  But, hey, if you have a high Strength (for Guns)...  (why is this the Force ring you dropped that element here game!) Or a high Magic (for items) then they're probably worth sticking in that there one accessory slot you have.  Especially this one. They all give Hitonari the Boost for their respective element, of course. Flame: AC Forite II x2, Enigma Sphere x2 (Kinmamon), Divine Wheel x2 Frost: AC Forite II x2, Genma Helmet x2, Reaper Rime x2 (Hel) Thunder: AC Forite II x2, Enigma Sphere x2, Wilder Eye x5 Force: AC Forite II x2, Genma Helmet x2, Flight Scale x4 (Da Peng) I like how they knew that Thunder was the best at the immediate moment and so it's technically the hardest to make. ...No, I'm being sincere. That show some degree of actual though.  Last item we can grab is a Mahama Stone or two. Expel elemental instant death, 30% base chance etc. etc. same as the Mamudo Stone but way harder to get for some reason. AC Forite II x1, Genma Helmet x2 for each one you want. Oh and we CAN get Luck Incenses from Black Rider's Forma. I think I mentioned that already, though. Don't think I mentioned White Rider's, but that's Agility so gently caress that noise. Speaking of which, nothing left out here for us, so into Grus we go... Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Feb 17, 2017 |
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Feb 15, 2017 07:30
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SweaterGear posted:Since you mentioned incenses at the end there, have you still not used any of the ones you've found? How many do you have in your inventory at this point? Good question, let's see! Before stepping foot into Grus, it's...  I thought I had less Vitality Incense than that. I probably wasn't counting the one we just got at Eridanus for whatever reason. As for the first question, I haven't and I probably won't ever (even for the actual real "hard" fights of which there are maybe like 3 in total if I'm being generous) so that number in the stock is just going to keep on rising.
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Feb 15, 2017 18:03
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SweaterGear posted:Any particular reason why not? I used to hoard that kind of stuff in videogames, but at some point my brain chemistry switched and now I use those sorts of items almost immediately. Because why save it for later when I can have the power now? Mostly if I do ever use one it'll be because of the full heal if I really really need it, am out of battle and I have nothing else that I can use. With how common Life Stones and Beads are, that's not very likely; plus you can just buy base versions of demons from the Compendium anyway and they're all cheap as dirt especially when you add that Max Analyse gives you a 50% discount for that demon. To make matters worse, a single stat point doesn't make any real tangible difference, and if you want enough for it to be worthwhile you're either willingly farming Fiends (and thus will end up overlevelled for whatever you wanted them for in the first place) or are on NG+ onwards at which point you have better things to use that benefit from lower stats. If you could use them on demons, that'd be a different matter sort of maybe kind of and I might care enough to use them for their "real" effect eventually. As it stands, they're just Somas you can't use in combat and can only use on the person who needs the stat boost the most but gets the least out of.
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Feb 15, 2017 19:51
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 Welp, time for Grus. Are you excited? Palace of Pleasureno, thats not a mistake this is really what plays here  This is confusing. They're toying with us.(B) This place gives me the creeps... I hate this color scheme. And once we're past here, it'll be completely different, right? (C) Hey, despair is the enemy just as much as the demons. Stay focused on the mission. He's a pain to have around, but it feels strange without him. We'll have to pick up his slack, but just hang in there. And don't you get lost either, First Lieutenant Zelenin! We have no choice but to press on. Whether it's to find a way home or to find another route... The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buriedonce again yes really this is what plays here  Right away, there's a phase shifter but we can't access it because this Dominion is in the way. Sure.  Oh... A human... Hmm. You are among those who ride the iron ship Master Mastema has spoken of. I cannot allow anyone to pass without Master Mastema's permission. Please leave. Is he here? Master Mastema is investigating this land. We must uncover the scheme of those accursed demons. So Mastema is here in Grus!? But I have questions for him, too, so it works out perfectly. Let's find Mastema, Hitonari!Alright, so onwards we go. It's a nice straight line right now... Fear Oh goddammit. This is just a palette swap of the palace in Bootes!   You will not be forgiven, you race of traitors, who infected the Earth with your black dreams... You will pay the price for twisting the future to no purpose in this land...! I am really not impressed by your power of "boring asset reuse." I shall slowly inflict pain on those bodies of yours. Be mystified, cry in sorrow, grow weak, and die...Right, so, anyway we have a branch in the path here and we'll take the right-hand one (from our perspective) first.  no joke this is the first fight of the sector what the gently caress Fiend Pale Rider An Honor Befitting that Name So, Pale Rider. Pale motherfucking Rider just jumped us RIGHT OUT THE GATE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.  This is his basic attack with no buffs or debuffs. Since he has 53 Strength, this hurts a bunch AND he has 54 Agility so we're never outspeeding him beyond priority skills.  He's "weak" to Electricity. Except he isn't. He is, but that's just so you can get co-ops to cut through his 1800HP. The Electricity part does little though and that's with the Golden Gun and buffs/debuffs stacked a bunch (this number isn't though). Why? He resists Electricity. Yeah, just like with Mayahuel's Phys "weakness" this one is just the game outright lying wholesale. He resists Ice and that deals equivalent damage but without the Co-Op to compensate. Also he reflects Wind.  His skills are weirdly less threatening than Black Rider's, but he can do them more often and he has 52 Luck so Blight's Poison effect will proc more often than it feels like it should. Pale Rider being mostly Phys skills is part of why Taotie is here to no-sell everything, yes.  This is the other part. His Mamudoon is lethal as all hell (base 55% chance) because of that 52 Luck.  Pale Rider only has 3 skills, but his last is Killing Wind. It's just a More Powerful Garudyne; base 250 power, 1 hit, single target. Costs 20MP so it's debatable how useful it is... Except that damage is after 4 Debilitates and Taotie is functionally Neutral as far as we care. And Magic is Pale Rider's worse stat here at 49. Yikes!  But since he only has 3 skills, it's very possible to keep up with his damage output if Hitonari's on healing duty. Mamudoon getting as lucky as it did in the video is unlikely, but Sacrifices stop it being a game over anyway.  Also he drops Megido Stones and, far more importantly, Great Chakra. Very nice if he turns up a lot and you can get through his ridiculous defences reasonably quickly. Cold Scythes are used for Magic Incense and a couple other things. End Palace of Pleasure So, down the other path we have this weird purple thing that's just a wall. You may have noticed it behind Pale Rider earlier along that side as well, but don't worry.  That one's a fake wall. This is probably the closest Grus comes to having its own gimmick and is the biggest thing that can be counted as an "illusion". Shame then that they disappear just from being a few squares away if they're fake and your map even tells you which ones are real walls and which ones aren't. Can I give negative points for Not Even Trying? Because I want to.  Anyway, there's an Archangel just around the corner that's impossible to miss. You could just not talk to him if you want, though.  Her illusion blocks the path, preventing us from invading. I must hurry to the place where my cohorts are gathering. �...... I-I assure you, I am not lost!I don't know how you could get lost on what is essentially a straight line!  Moving along this line, there is a branch here that has a fixed 2 AT Grusite forma. How... nice?  This one is just pure chance, though. I'm sure not gonna complain since we want to go up this corridor anyway.  It lets us put that Gate Search E to use, yet again. This one is the most worth it out of the 3 uses we've found so far.  Because it gives a Bead of Life. Beads of Life here are what Somas usually are: a 100% HP/MP recover to everyone. Given enough time and resources, I'm sure we can find a way to get these in bulk too but I dunno. This is actually very good.  Back inside, we carry along the path and get the X Gold forma for this sector. I'm sure Grus will give us some really good armor when we can actually use this. It'd be silly for it not to, huh?  And just because we didn't get everything new yet, here's the Accessory forma for good measure. This one was also pure chance.  Down from there, we have this door we can't open yet for many reasons. That Gold forma you see there is a Very Special fixed forma. You'll see.  And up in the top left we have a Black Box. That makes 3 for the second quest...  In some places, we can see traces of civilizations other than the ones we know on Earth... > The data is corrupted, preventing you from reading further. Okay, uh, I know what this is referring to and we can't even get there yet. Stop sequencing breaking and then ending up in a place where you had to backtrack to, Black Box Guy.  But, hey, one space below his corpse we have another Gate Search E door. Its use has already gone up by 100% how about that!  This one is guarding this Rare Forma and nothing else. We'll be taking this to Irving later; it's very important. Very. Important. Silence Anyway, back on the One Path we didn't take...  If it isn't Tadano. Law Theme Oh, hey Mastema. How's it goin'? We haven't seen you since, what, Delphinus?  This is a world of interwoven hallucinations. They seem to originate from the power of illusion employed by the demon controlling this land. Be careful not to succumb to its illusions. I caught up just in time, I see. Were you already talking to him about something? My, my. You too, Zelenin...? Still, you must use caution around the demons of this land. But there was something I wished to ask of you two... By using the illusions as camouflage, we have erected our sacred fortress. It is all in preparation for the upcoming decisive battle with the demons. To prevent the demons' invasion of the Earth, we must cooperate with each other. If there is anything you require, I will do my best. Let us vanquish the demon horde together. Thank you, Mastema. That will be a great help to us. But... may I ask you something? ...I sensed this was coming, Zelenin. It is clear that something trouble you... Was it? Well... yes. I wanted to ask your opinion... Well, it's not really a question. Just hear me out... I would be delighted.> Mastema smiled.  We've come this far, but... Since our failed attempt to escape to Earth, we've been in danger. Crew morale is falling sharply. There's constant bickering and some of the crew have been looking out only for themselves. So, you humans in your iron ship are coming apart...? In a word, yes. But there's more. I... I've become doubtful... of the team... I thought that might be why instead of helping each other, we've begun to fight so much...  "Atttacked"? Y'know, I don't think I've noticed overly many typos until now... However... You may be encountering the problem man has always faced. And that is...? You see, daughter of man, humans are creatures I cannot understand. Why do you rely so on "trust"? Why are you not more hesitant to rely on such an uncertain thing? Trust comes from the freedom of the heart... In times of hardship, human trust is easily broken, leading to betrayal. So... you think human trust cannot be the basis for a firm bond. Then you're saying the discord causing such a problem can't be avoided? Do not allow my words to cause you despair. They are but signposts for the path you must take. Of course... A way to guide their hearts...? Is there such a thing? So that's a "yes." Right now, you should let your heart dictate your actions toward your colleagues. Should you become lost again... That will be the time you must come see me. Goodbye, Tadano, Zelenin. May we one day defeat the evil hordes, side by side.> Mastema left.   I do feel better now, though. It's not easy to talk about with the others on the Red Sprite... Silence  Oh, for gently caress sake! Return to the Red Sprite and wait for new orders. I say again... Calling all crew stationed in sector Grus. Return to the Red Sprite and wait for new orders. This is rather sudden. I wonder what happened? We utterly disarmed them... Let's do as he says and return to the Red Sprite. Malevolence and Benevolence We have received a communique from the crewmen monitoring Jack's squad. It appears they put the Lightning's functions to use in continuing their experiments on demons. This isn't good... This can't go ignored. The demon analysis technology aboard the Lightning far outstrips our own. Well, he did somehow manage to get Enemy Only Skills so that's pretty impressive. Not sure about "threat" though. The crewmen assigned to monitor them are in serious danger. Eh? Is this...? We're getting a transmission! It's from the Lightning! Has something happened to the crew!? Patch it through to the main viewscreen. In The Master's Name I really got no reason to contact you goons, but I decided to tell you how pissed off I am! Geez, am I a nice guy or what? They must have my harp and robe all picked out in Heaven. I know you... you're Ryan! Does this mean you've taken back the Lightning!? Hey, check out this smart rear end in a top hat! Y'know, just in case you still had some degree of sympathy for Jack's Squad somehow. Jack himself was obviously the nicest guy in the crew because he just didn't care about this kind of petty bollocks. Everyone else is completely unlikable, unmitigated shite. That'll cut down on your payroll costs, huh? You oughtta thank me. Jack left us some good tech. Pretty well hidden, too. If he wasn't such an honest guy, maybe he coulda lived a little longer. Sucks to be him. But I ain't like that. I know human nature. I got big plans. Just wait and see! Those bastards... They killed our men! That's it! I'm gonna kill 'em! They'll come for us next!  Jimenez... Chaos Theme It's kill or be killed. There ain't a third way. Now let's get our counterattack going. Hell, I'd be down for doing it myself. Yo, Arthur! Issue the revenge mission already! That's why you called everyone back, isn't it? ...Hey, Tadano. You're ready to rock, right? Let's lock and load.gently caress it, let's just get rid of 'em before they can interfere and ruin everything. Before they get to four needless interruptions.  The casualties will only continue to mount! Ha! How far are you gonna take this goody two-shoes act? What's the point in holding back from a guy who just said in plain English that he's gonna kill us!? They broke the agreement, they developed demons as weapons... There's no one here who can say otherwise. Ryan said he'll attack us as soon as he's ready! We can't afford to lose the initiative. We should attack now! This is self-defense. I don't see any alternative. But...! But WHAT!? Look, just answer me this: do you have an actual plan to settle this non-violently?  Could you... Crewmen of the Red Sprite, I request more time. A way without bloodshed... You're gonna rely on that angel again? Geez... ...I'm sorry, Hitonari, but I have a favor to ask. Please, Hitonari... All right. Thank you. I suspected you'd be open to the idea. Arthur, will you authorize an excursion to see Mastema? It does have a bearing on our problem, I assure you.  Any method of resolving the situation will be accepted. First Lieutenant Zelenin's proposed plan cannot be ignored, given past events. You will have authorization for your journey and time to carry out your plan. You are advised to produce a result as soon as possible. Thank you, Arthur. There is little time, Hitonari. Let's hurry to Mastema. I look forward to the successful completion of your mission.
Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Feb 17, 2017 23:57
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Prayer Before we go speak with Mastema, we're gonna do the usual and see what folks reactions to Jack/Ryan's Squad somehow getting even worse is. So I'm hoping Zelenin comes up with a good fix for the situation. If that makes me a failure as a soldier, then oh well. That's just how I feel. We've taken some casualties. I think it's only appropriate that we respond in kind. I understand what Zelenin's trying to do, but can she really pull it off...? I know that as a doctor I shouldn't be saying this, but I really am fed up with them. Well... I'm not high-ranking enough to veto Zelenin's plan, so I'll go along for now. But if they're going to carry it out, they should do it quick! I'd go kill him right now if I could! So, the Cornucopia is a very important rare forma! It doesn't seem it, but it is.  Unlock E is going to prove very important. It won't seem like it at first, but just remember this for much, much later!  But he started this dang mess, and there ain't no gettin' around that. So yeah... I can't argue he needs to be punished somehow. He may have the technology, but if he tries to fight us, it'll only wear him down. I almost miss Captain Jack--at least he acted like a friend, even if it was only an empty gesture. Not Ryan, though... His greed has gotten to his head, and what once was a squad is now merely a gang. I heard Zelenin stopped Jimenez when he tried to kill Ryan... I think that was a mistake. A Scorched Nation Let's put this Unlock E through its paces now. Because it's this one door. And a second one immediately after it because obviously, right.  This leads to a giant empty corridor that has 3 Gate Search Es along it.  Each one gates off a fixed Gold Forma.  That's it. That's all that's here.  Though if you do get a random encounter in this particular area, it has some... interesting demon team compositions. The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried You may enter our sanctuary. Farewell... We'll use the Phase Shifter in a minute, but first there's something left to do here. The Fear of God A couple Original Space demons, of course. Valyrie is pretty simple all things considered. Nothing here that you can't see already except the usable version comes with Blood Ritual by default. You saw how good that is against Jack, so that the enemy version doesn't have that is probably a mercy if you just run into one having never seen it before. Oberon is... even simpler, though. He's EXACTLY how he looks, in every single way. Ally Call is of course enemy only but that's it.  Gogmagog can be fairly dangerous as an Unknown but once he gets to the stage where he's a known quantity, he's easier to deal with. That Ice/Elec pairing makes him potentially Annoying to deal with once you know it (and if you don't know it, you'll learn that the hard way) but that's all. Also he's 300% weak to Mute for all the nothing that really matters. Incidentally, the gently caress is with those moves? Rakunda is outdated as gently caress, Counter is mediocre and the only skill that uses his best stat and Shock is terribad and his Magic sucks balls. There is one more demon in here but we'll save it for later and that's definitely not just because it didn't turn up right now. The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried Just gonna dive right on in to the Sanctuary now, I guess. Gotta find Mastema eventually, after all.  Master Mastema is beyond here. Be aware that we have set snares to prevent our foes from easily infiltrating. I pray that you make it to Master Mastema safely...Yeah, so, the Sanctuary starts of pretty linear so we'll just skip ahead to when that cha--  oh hello again Pale Rider thats twice in rapid succession  But I definitely am not complaining about getting another Great Chakra and Kresnik's secret real reason for being here is achieved.  Hello, earliest guaranteed Riot Gun (the second/last is level... 86)! And, oh my, he bonus skilled Charge?! Bwahahahaha, yes. This is good. This is very good. It is not quite the best Source possible, but it is definitely up there. Anyway, hello, Riot Gun is the best skill in the game (there is technically one better but you get it so late that it might as well not exist). It has a base 500 Power which is the highest of every attack bar none, costs a mere 30 MP, has 130% base Accuracy and will loving murder the poo poo out of whatever you hit with it. Charge makes it ludicrously overpowered. Its one drawback is that it is Gun elemental so while it doesn't work on Everything, it can also exploit the poo poo out of weaknesses. Remember this. This is an important detail. You CAN get Riot Gun earlier than this, of course, via Skill Changes. The easiest way is to get Mana Aid from something since that has a very good chance of changing into Riot Gun if/when it does skill change. The Fear of God Speaking of which, here's a good example of both sides of that. Anzu is a weird, bad demon who decides that he wants to main Agility. The stat that is the least useful. Good job, Anzu. Everything else is visible and boring, though his Source does give Void Elec which is... something I guess. Xiuhtecuhtli is a little more interesting because by default he cannot hurt himself. At all. His basic attack is Gun elemental (don't question it), his only skills are Fire and Gun... He also decides that, yes, Agility is the stat he wants the most but at least his Str and Mag are kind of decent as well to balance that out somewhat. And his Source gives Void Fire which is also something.  Sarasvati is kind of simple but also kind of... not? Her best stat is Luck, bizarrely, though her Magic is a very close second. The usable version has Samarecarm by default as well as Mabufudyne and Mediarama which is definitely A Thing. Her source is two-thirds a waste of time and one-third Void Ice. Pachacamac is easily better in your own hands than the AIs because then he doesn't have Strainoma. A bad worthless skill that inflicts Strain on one target. Also Pachacamac is immune to Strain for all the nothing that matters. Also also Pachacamac's source gives Debilitate and Void Curse. Also also also I know that he's an Incan god but Pachacamac just sounds like an actual name for an actual Pokemon more tha anything else. Probably doesn't hurt that it's fun to say a lot in succession. An Honor Befitting that Name And hey, let's throw in the Enemy Searches for good measure. Garuda is weak to Gun and Ice, resists Expel, nullifies Wind and reflects Fire. He doesn't reflect extra damage unlike, say, Pyro Jack though. No ailment resistances so he gets turned into a rock. His source gives Repel Fire so, uh, that's something that might be nice if/when you hit level 71.  Heimdall is the actual enemy search demon here; Peri is just a friend he invites sometimes. Speaking of Peri, she's weak to Ice, nullifies Expel and Drains Fire. Plus she has a beautifully high magic stat, but has no offensive magic. She has Diarahan and Paraladi and that's it. Peri, what are you doing? Heimdall is a bit weird and gimmicky. He has two skills that are pretty niche and uncommon, which we'll see later I'm sure. He's weak to Fire, resists Ice and Curse and immune to Expel but his only ailment resistance is to nullify Sleep so he goes down like everyone else. Both Heimdall and Garuda have a 27.5% chance to turn up solo and a 20% chance to turn up with their buddy. How convenient. Pale Rider accounts for that missing 5% of course. The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried Right so, anyway, there's a terminal and healing spot near the entrance. For once I understand the reasoning behind this being so close to the entrance. Or at least I think I do.  Those who cannot sublimate their wills to a higher calling should leave this place.  Amidst this illusion, I cannot even find the path forward...  There are humans who capture and torture demons... Humans truly are cruel beings... It is not too late; serve us and we shall show you the correct path.Right so, we're definitely in the right spot for sure and even these guys are clearly sick of Jack's Squad at this point. Even if it is for different reasons than why anyone else is.  But, uh, yeah. The reason that Terminal and Heal Spot are there is because this is a small teleport section. Most of them just drop you back over in front of the Terminal.  There is only one path further in and the number of teleports is very few and far between. It's really, REALLY easy to get through this spot as a result.  Progress in that previous section is just a straightline, for example. It's so weird.  But if we take the path around the side, it brings us to a door that is locked. It's not an Unlock door but an Alignment locked door! If your alignment is not Law, it won't open.  The only thing inside is a Magic Incense anyway. It's not worth fretting about, so it's not too big a deal.  Doubling back to the one line of progress, we can get to another alignment locked door which... gives 2 Mahama Stones. That's... okay, and saves time and money so I can't complain about that.  Following the main path, we can get to this room. There's a special door right here; it's that thing on the opposite wall.  Unfortunately, it is currently obstructed by this guy.  I have heard the void of our Lord. It was faint, but I heard it very clearly.   When that time comes, you will no longer find me here.Or to put it simply: everything past this door is locked off until New Game+. This is fairly annoying but also vaguely kind of understandable but not really. It's really annoying to me right now because this means we cannot complete the maps of any floor of Grus until then!  As long as your spirit is pure, Heaven shall welcome you. You will become beings wrapped in light, as we are. Stability gives man peace and composure. All those living yearn for stability. Now, let us create a world that values stability and balance.The NG+ door is located very close to these guys who just... generically proselytize. More important is that there is only one teleporter past this room which brings us nicely to... Law Theme What do you think of our holy fortress? We are consolidating our power. And it seems you have business with me again today. We have another severe problem. Not with demons... with humans.> You explained the struggle between the investigative team and Ryan's squad. I see... The desire to make all others your own...   Mastema sure is acting an awful lot different since the first half of the game, huh...? ...Very well. It is possible to have them see the errors of their ways and turn to the Lord. How...? An... angel's hymn? The songs of the angels have guided the sons of man since ancient times. The guidance of the messengers surpasses any worldly temptations. So you're going to save everyone with your voice, Mastema? Sadly, my voice has no more power to affect the hearts of man. The times have changed, and the hearts of man have changed with it... THe same is true for the angels here. Man's heart is hardened against their guidance, too. But be not afraid. Though the power of my song is lost, I have other powers. To bestow power upon humans by transfiguring them and welcoming them into the heavenly host... That is given unto me, Mastema, leader of His armies. Under this power's protection... You may become angels yourself, sons of man. We can... become angels...? In many cases, humans have been given greater power than the other angels. The song of humans pleases Him and has the power to repel evil. To ascend to angelhood is the ultimate bliss man can achieve. Inextinguisable sadness, never-ending doubts... All of man's suffering can thus cease. The power of angels... It can take away my sadness...? Not everyone can withstand the transfiguration, mind. If the heretical, the blasphemous, the impious attempt to undergo the process.. Then, too, he who becomes an angel will walk a different road than that of mankind. If, for instance, your crew should be able to return to Earth, you yourself... Please consider it seriously before you make your decision.> Mastema stepped forward. Then may I ask for your answer? I'll do it. Oho! Remember, once you have been transfigured, your destiny is forever sealed... Do you have such a steely will? Are you truly certain? I'm prepared. Wait, Hitonari. Hohohh! Both of you volunteering... What a marvelous surprise. But one will suffice. When I consider both of you...  I understand. I am grateful to be chosen. Don't worry, Hitonari. It's just that I'm powerless right now. So... I had my doubts about the Schwarzwelt investigation after a while. Even if we did find a way to return to Earth... Morever, even if we did find a way to destroy the Schwarzwelt... Even without the Schwarzwelt, humans could destroy themselves... Our species would die out. Now... I have a chance to attain the power to fix our mistake and guide the people. Zelenin. I have seen your resolve. Ahh, my Lord... my judgement was correct. The soul of Zelenin is about to be reborn as an angel of salvation! Now, Zelenin. Come to me. ...Hitonari. And what's sad is that they didn't need to lie. They only showed us our true faces. The disaster the demons hope to unleash is something born of none other than humanity. None of which is to say that I believe humans are beyond salvation. We still have it within us, if we choose, to climb to higher peaks. I'm going, Hitonari. Silence> Zelenin walked toward Mastema.  > Zelenin died of asphyxiation! Now, Zelenin. Close your eyes and place my finger on your brow.> Mastema began chanting... > A bright light enveloped the area...  Law Theme  How do you feel? ...Wow, that suit looks so dumb. From the ridiculous ruffle-y rectangles on the sleeve to the giant popped collar. To the realisation that the collar is just a HEART that's been folded to look like a taco and I just... wow. What a lazy, low-effort "angel" design.  I shall become a corrective light for these corrupted lands, as well as for mankind. Our Lord must be quite pleased to witness the birth of an angel like yourself. ...Well, Hitonari? What do you think of my rebirth? It's awe-inspiring. I am no longer human... I am sure it is difficult for you to think of anything else. Perhaps it is because I know I am under His protection... Now, let us go to where Jack's squad dwells.Welp, back to the Red Sprite we go with Zelenin's awful new design to... help? Silence Is that... Zelenin...? Law Theme Though you may be startled and confused to see me as I am now... Be not afraid. I am, as ever, a member of the team. Zelenin has this kind of aura that wasn't there before... I have been saved by a righteous power, becoming more righteous and more powerful in kind. I can... do more for you all than I could before. Do not worry about Jack's squad... She's... trying to save us by sacrificing herself... How noble... Chaos Theme Is she doing this for our sake, or hers...? Jimenez... if only I had the power to restore you to your proper form. Unfortunately, it seems I do not. I will subdue Jack's squad. You should rest. Could you not talk to me unless you absolutely have to? Go ahead and handle Jack's squad... if you can. Though your physical makeup has changed, you may proceed with the mission as planned. We will now travel to Jack's Squad HQ. All hands, take your positions. Silence I know we're in the depths of Hell itself, but... Where is this all going...?Didn't you hear Arthur? Jack's Squad HQ. Prayer Before we go see how we're going to deal with Jack's Squad, we'll see what everyone else thinks about Zelenin's new clothes. I hope this doesn't affect the rest of the crew... Or... is it those two who are right in this case? Did they evolve into forms suited to this world and get a leg up on the rest of humanity..? I just don't know anymore. What's right, what's wrong... Then again... she and Jimenez both have gotten stronger by giving up their humanity. When you look at it that way... We're weak... the weakest creatures in this world... Well, then again... Are humans really that weak...? I wonder how long we can keep our sanity in this nightmare... I wouldn't mind having the chance to examine Zelenin's angelic form, either... Every inch of her body, a thorough medical inquiry from head to toe... Heheheh... You don't think that sounds blasphemous, do you? You're not a little jealous? Not really. Yeah... someone as strong as you would have no reason to be. I'll be frank: I'm very, very jealous of them. I mean, they made the choice to become superhuman, and then acted on it! I wish... I could be like that... She's a beaut, but... somethin' about her don't quite si right with me. ...She doesn't feel human at all. I get the shivers lookin' at her, and not in a good way. ...But I think it's okay. We just believe in different things. As a scientist, I believe in the scientific method over all. And those two had their own beliefs. That's how I see it, at least. It's simple, really. On the battlefield, angels of mercy and angels of death are the same. They both come for you. I hope Zelenin hasn't become our very own angel of death.Right, so Jack's Squad HQ... again... Hopefully this'll be the last time. I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't, but I will still be annoyed! A Rotten Nation I must purify them... Tadano... will you bear witness to my newborn power? I shall make these rebels repent of their deeds. Fear not and trust in the power I have received from the Lord...> Zelenin headed deeper into the field... Well, we already know where the Lightning is and there is absolutely nothing new in the HQ, surprise, surprise. Let's just go pay Ryan a visit. Silence  Listen now to the grand hymn of guidance! Law Theme > Something is happening behind the hatch...   We have killed humans we were meant to help! We were wrong... How sinful we have been... O Lord, we repend our sins! Please... Forgive us...! Repent your sins, sons of man, and cast away your demons. The voice of Zelenin! Hallelujah! Zelenin! Hallelujah!> The members of Jack's squad are praising Zelenin... Remember back in Delphinus when Zelenin was the first person to shittalk the MK Gun existing and how brainwashing is kind of sort of Super loving Evil? Because I sure do. And yet. And yet!  Though the contribution is small, I am sure He is pleased to have more believers.> Jimenez appeared... Fear Zelenin! Did... did you do this!? This is my power. The power of the Lord... They have received guidance... They see now the correct path in life. "Correct path"...? Looks more like they all went nuts to me!  I dunno, I think in this case Jimenez is completely in the right here. She just made Jack's squad surrender to us without a single loss on either side. Thanks, Zelenin... Glad there won't be any needless bloodshed today. Now, let's go make a survey of what's inside the Lightning. Tch... so who's next, Zelenin...?  Especially the demons they were using... Hey... Ryan! Where all the demons!? ...O Lord... Forgive me... Forgive... my sins... Hey, I'm talking to you, man! Answer me! ...Ryan. Take us to where you store the demons you captured. ......! Of course, Zelenin. The demons are this way... Now then, Hitonari. Let us visit the captive demons... They were using the medical equipment? What bastards... Release the demons. Yes. As you command...> Ryan and the other members of Jack's squad released the demons.      I'll kill you all! Stop. I will not allow you to harm these people. They have heard my song and faced their foolishness. I understand your anger over the selfish actions of these sons of man... Leave this place.  Fine. We'll leave... Just don't sing anymore. That song is dangeorus. It's too much for us.   I'm thinking of looking for a place we can take the victims of these experiments to recuperate.  If we talk to her about our situation, I'm sure she'll treat us with kindness. Anyone who wishes to go there, come with me. Where are they going...?Grus; Grendel made that fairly clear! > The demon turned to you and spoke.  You saved us... but it was from a situation caused by your own kind. I offer no thanks. It is true, though, that we have underestimated humans thus far. Goodbye.> The demon left...   Thanks a lot!  Oh no, now whatever will we do? Slime's gonna hold a grudge!   Thanks for what you did.> The demons left, following their leader.  I'm gonna chase after them. I'm a victim of the same experiments... ...Don't worry. I'll be back. Laters. And hey... be careful of Zelenin.> Jimenez followed after the demons...  Hitonari. We have utterly pacified Jack's squad. You should return to the Red Sprite to make your own report. The situation has been resolved.> Zelenin left.  All crewmen who have completed their assigned duties, return to the Red Sprite. I have approved the independent missions of First Lieutenant Zelenin and Crewman Jimenez. Gonna make a Sleipnir real quick. He's not great but he's needed later for Odin so we'll do it now. Like, jeez, look at those stats. Sleipnir, please. The real messed up thing here is that Sleipnir is the earliest demon that comes with Luster Candy by default. His Source does not give Luster Candy. It also doesn't give anything good other than War Cry. Malevolence and Benevolence Now to resume our main objective of investigating the Schwarzwelt. She really has been reborn as an angel... Besides, you call that a miracle? Looked more like brainwashing to me... I analyzed the range of frequencies emanating from First Lieutenant Zelenin's vocal cords. It was inconsistent with that of a human, and I could find no match in my libraries. I can only say with certainty that it is some sort of resonating signal that directly affects brain waves. I observed some similarities in their wavelengths, but her power is vastly more intense. There are many unknown factors, but one might see it as First Lieutenant Zelenin's unique ability. Well, that's one hell of an understatement. A secondary observed effect of causing harm to demons has also been reported. These two data points suggest that she can be extraordinarily useful. ...Alright, Arthur, I get ya. I'm satisifed for now that Zelenin isn't our enemy. Now for the data we have collected on sector Grus. It is possible that this may be a hint as to the whereabouts of the Exotic Matter. Any other details? Like, maybe where we can find it? The position of Maya and the energy signature we believe it to be are still unknown. The illusory nature of this sector is proving to be a hindrance to our investigational efforts. We must extract information from him by whatever methods prove effective. Carry out your duties as you see fit.  The "Sanctum"? There's a band of demons hiding out there. If Maya's hideout is connected to the Sanctum... You'll have to go through there before you can get to it. But don't worry.  If you use this forma and download it to the Main App... Then you should be able to get into the Sanctum too. In the shape I'm in, I don't really give a rip about escaping anymore, but... Tadano's always helped me out. I don't need it. I can go in and outta there anytime I want, thanks to my new form. Crewman Jimenez, thank you for finding this forma. I cannot officially encourage your tendency to act independently. Tch... spoilsport. Crewman Hitonari, take this forma to Irving in the lab. Once your Main App is upgraded, resume your duties.
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Feb 20, 2017 07:28
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freshlybaked posted:Wait, who are you talking about? I thought it was the 'Law' equivalent who mostly everyone seemed to hate for being kind of terrible and hypocritical. Devil Survivor 2 is a bit weird in that out of its 5 endings, 2 are Neutral (True/Bad), 2 are Law (Yamato/Ronaldo) and 1 is Chaos. And Hibiki himself is the route leader of the Chaos path and it is awesome. e; Since it's been brought up already, Nocturne is even weirder though because it has like 7 endings; 1 Law (Shijima), 1 Chaos (Yosuga) and the rest are all Neutral. Remember, alignment is not a flat binary; it's based on context. And within the context of the Vortex World, the True Demon Ending is very much a Neutral path. Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 02:15 on Feb 21, 2017 |
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Feb 21, 2017 02:12
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 There's no updated crew dialogue right now, oddly. You'd think they'd have something to say with the Super MKUltra effect of Zelenin, but nope.  As you'd expect from the scene before, the Giant's Fang lets us get Phase Shifter B (this is the second and last of its ilk, yeah). Now, what to do next..  Ah, of course. We'll go back to Carina and map out as much of it as we can. Should be all of it at this point. A Squandered Nation Gonna use the easier to access point on the 2nd floor.  There's not much of a difference visually, but that should be expected. It's just a nice shade of yellow, which I am okay with.  There isn't anything new in the B Sanctum; there either the usual Carina stuff, some things from Eridanus or some things from Fornax and that's it. How disappointing.  That section is a tiny hallway though, so we gotta take the normal stairs to get to this Bead Chain and the rest of the area kinda. If we used the secondary shifter this step could've been avoided but eh.  Aside from the Bead Chain, there isn't much here though. Fixed AT III is kind of a weird decision.  Plus side is that we can get an easy Great Chakra from right next to the alternative Phase Shifter point.  Only other thing here is... a locked door we can't open. Weird. Guess we'll be back to finish this floor off later. Probably like a Bead of Life or something, to justify this.  So, the third floor then. This one is a bit... different? Kind of?  It's a bunch of 3x3 square rooms and almost all the doors are Gate Search C doors. That's a thing, I suppose.  A nice thing about this little diversion is that we're going to end up getting a relatively decent amount of Beads of Life from this. I'm gonna hold onto all of 'em for now; they will prove important.  The only other thing we get from this area is a set of 2 Amrita Showers. That's it; we're done here now. There IS another room but it's empty.  Plus side is that gives us this floor done. We just need 2F and that one room on 4F and we're hopefully done with all of Carina! A Land Controlling Roads Since we're heading back to Eridanus for a moment anyway, let's see what we get from Odin for having a Sleipnir. As promised, I present to you this. You have been most helpful. Still, Sleipnir can be quite a handful at times. I must thank you again. A warrior of your caliber is welcome in Valhalla anytime. When you breathe your last, keep me in mind. Hohoho...!> Odin left...  The Odin Ring is pretty good. It gives Hitonari Chakra Walk which has its uses, especially since the MP Recover/Regen SubApps take up so much space. Because of how expensive Hitonari's skills are, I'm basically just gonna be gluing this on for the forseeable future.  Anyway, the Phase Shifter is on the 2nd floor so, let's see what this spot is about.  It's... mostly a big, empty area but it has a free Sacrifice that we can get pretty easily.  And also a Bead of Life! These are going to be very useful, for sure.    That's it for Eridanus. Just gotta open those doors on 3F in the Deva/Herald sidequest paths and then we're done with Eridanus entirely. Et finalment... The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried Fornax, being Fornax, does not do much with its B Sanctum. At least it's kind enough to give us a Sacrifice.  A Summon Stone is nice, and will serve a purpose eventually I'm sure. I think I'd rather just have another Bead of Life though.  On the plus side, with that we have 100%'d all of Fornax. Barring unlikely future sidequest reasons, we will never need to come here (onscreen) again. Hurray! ...So, uh, Grus. Phase Shifter is right by the entrance, so let's see what its B Sanctum is like.   You are not planning to experiment on us again, are you...?Poor Take-Minakata. First he lost his arms, then he lost his pride.  So, anyway, there's this thing at the end of a big ol' corridor. It looks like one of them illusory walls from the Original Space, but its super conspicuous...  So of course we can't do anything with it right now. Guess we gotta find a way to remove that purple from the door.  Those angels are holed up nearby. Humans, angels... Both of 'em come crashin' our joint like they own the place... Oh, well. Anyone's free to come. Just like I'm free to stomp anyone I don't like, y'know? My buddies took a real nasty beating from 'em... Those humans're on my list, man!   SO ME WANT POWER. TO GET FREEDOM. SO ME SUFFER THIS SHAME NO MORE... ...Okay, so as you probably expected, this is a bit of a teleport-y areas as well. It's fairly linear and simple though.  If you're expecting this to kind of be a mirror of the previous Sanctum, you'd go in a straight line here. That is a sensible presumption, all things considered.  It does lead you somewhere, and let you open this hidden door.  As with the Mahama Stones before, this is a very useful thing to have. Would be doubly so if I remembered to use them, honestly. That's all on me, though. That's as far as this path goes though. Next teleporter sends up back to the big corridor so we gotta go around in the previous area! The Fear of God So while en-route back there, let's fight some demons. Succubus is a fun one. She resists Fire and Ice, is immune to Curse but weak to Elec and Expel. Her basic attack has a 10% chance to inflict Sleep and her skills are Dormina, Marin Karin and Energy Drain. Energy Drain is on Alice's source before now but that's all; it's HP and MP draining rolled into one and also not poo poo. How nice! Wild Hunt is much more boring, sadly. He's yet another demon that decides that "Agility is my main stat" is a good idea. I don't know why. He's immune to Curse and weak to Expel and that's it.  Kudlak is a mix of the two above; his highest default Stat is Agility but its tied wit his... Vitality for highest growth. Augh why. He's immune to Curse (of course) and weak to... Fire. Huh. His source gives Energy Drain even though he only has Mana Drain. Good job there I guess, Kudlak. Kingu is almost exactly how he looks, but he's also 300% weak to Mute. His source gives Diarama (whyyyyy), Rakukaja (meh at this point) and War Cry (...well thats acceptable-ish).  Loki is kind of different, and not wholly terrible but not great either. He has no weaknesses, resists Ice, Wind and Curse and nullifies Gun and Mute. His skills are Mabufudyne, Taunt and Tricky Dance (MT 70% Mute skill! Took long enough) and his source gives Void Ice. The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried So, let's keep on keepin' on and get further through the actual Sanctum now, shall we?  Aside from that one branch below, there's basically no sidepath teleports or anything so it's not like this is a difficult section.  And, of course, there ARE alignment lock doors here as well. Can only open them if we're Chaos aligned, which we're not right now so maybe we'll be back for these later. Chaos Theme > You explained the situation... You want to meet Maya? You want to know where she is? What are you going to do when you meet her...? But I pity you... Maya could never be defeated by the likes of humans. If you somehow manage to overthrow her, I'd be perfectly willing to deal with you humans. Even if it's the king of a ruined nation. ......> The demon is thinking. Hmm. Why don't we make a deal? I'm thinking of that squad that captured us... Plenty of demons still carry a grudge, and their anger is reaching its peak. Yes... kill the humans known as Jack's squad. Those are the conditions. Only then will I open the seal to Maya. Sound good? Let me think. I understand if you're reluctant to murder a fellow human. But listen to me first, and make your decision afterward. Or didn't you realize it? Those humans who have been reduced to submissive puppets...  Someday, we'll go to war with those angels for control over the Earth. It has to happen. Do you understand, human? Whether I think you're worth trusting or not depends on this. Don't disappoint me.Alright, so the onyl way out at this point is a singular teleport back to the corridor... Silence  How'd it go? You get good info?> You explained the events so far. Chaos Theme I say take the deal. And I got my doubts about those angels, too. ...Listen, Tadano. I'm sure you know, being on the strike team and using demons all the time... Look at me, who has the power of demons now. Hell, look at you and all those demons you lead. I see all the potential power us humans have, and I think to myself... Then us and the demons would be like peas in a pod, right? ...That's all I wanted to say. I'll be around... See you later, Tadano.> Jimenez left. Well, that was weird. Now all we need to do is use the terminal to warp out and we can see what Arthur has to say. Silence Stop it! > You turned to see where the voice was coming from. Malevolence and Benevolence No... I believed in you! Stop it!> Zelenin is acting strange... Zelenin! Hitonari...? Then... this must be an illusion! Curse you, wicked phantasm! Begone!> Zelenin yelled out in a clear voice...! Silence > Zelenin seems to have regained her composure. Law Theme  My family and friends... They become demons and attacked me. They were rebuking and persecuting the old me... The illusion made me lose my composure. It could have been dangerous. You should be careful, Hitonari. By the way, how is the mission? Are you making progress?> You explained the events so far.  Do not let them fool you, Hitonari, with their tempting promises of coexistence. Once they escape the Schwarzwelt, millions of humans will be their prey. It will be a world where the weak are purged entirely... That is what demons have in mind when they talk of "coexistence." But there is no need to worry. My hymn affects demons as well; Mastema has told me so. I need only raise the output of my song and the demons shall become harmless. What do you think of this idea? Let me think. I am all too glad to be of service... If you need my voice, I would be happy to sing for you. I will wait here. Come talk to me should you ever need my help....I'm beginning to see where this is going, and I thought this was part of the event we did before. Even my memory of Grus isn't perfect it seems! Malevolence and Benevolence It seems we must make a decision in order to obtain the Exotic Matter of sector Grus. A crew meeting to discuss the matter is in order. Crewman Hitonari. They seem willing to cooperate with you. However... All signs point to a high likelihood that they will both abandon their duties. Keep that possibility in mind when approaching them. Now, let us gather the crew and decide our course of action.One quick fade to black later...  And here I thought I was getting used to demons... This is a real wake-up call. This is the kind of demonic temptation you expect, y'know? It's like they're lulling us until we're manipulated into doing what they want. Free lunches tend to have a steep price, you know. There's no telling when the effect of the brainwashing will wear off. Besides, we're not even monitoring the right now. We're just letting the angels' control do the work. That's a volatile situation if I ever heard of one. Jack's men betrayed us twice, and we don't have any room for error now. That's why I think we should defeat those demons, whether it's with our bare hands or the angels' song. Don't get fooled by the demons' promises, however tempting they might be. However, we do not need one. Crewman Hitonari. We have the option to cooperate with the demons. However, our cooperation requires that we sacrifice Jack's squad. Should we accept the demons' terms? We shouldn't. Then we shall move on to the next available plan. We have the option to request that First Lieutenant Zelenin subdue the demons with her voice. Should we request her assistance? We shouldn't. Well, we could try negotiating with the demons again, but... Knowing them, they might just lose their patience and attack. The situation is changing rapidly. Should the strike team deem it necessary to act counter to the crew's decision, I will allow it. It is a difficult situation, and I hope that this problem can be resolved swiftly. I look forward to the successful completion of your mission.So, in summary our options are: 1. Do a murder on Ryan and the rest of Jack's Squad 2. Make the demons docile like a winter catfish The question is pretty simple: Which one do we do?
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Feb 21, 2017 07:48
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Haven't properly counted yet or anything, but it sure looks likely that come Monday morning, Ryan and the unnamed mooks from Jack's Squad are gonna get got. Can't say I'm too surprised by that.
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Feb 24, 2017 09:03
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Prayer We do have a very important decision ahead of us, so let's put it off just a little bit longer. Not much; just gonna talk to the crew as per normal. But I'm not here to argue over what's right or wrong. I'm fine leaving that up to you, Hitonari. Do whatever you think is best. But everyone here does. It's not up to us to make that kind of decision. We trust you, whatever you decide. You've seen everything up to now up close. Let's go on with the mission like we always have. "What if I had done this?" "What if that had happened?" I'm too caught up in rehashing the past... I feel like that a lot, actually. What about you? Not me. ...You seem so sure. I'm a little envious of that. It's okay, though... I know you'll be able to choose a path that you won't regret. ...What? No, we only have two ways of dealing with this, Wolf. Were you just not paying attention? I'm the kind of guy who likes to attack a problem head on. Thinking things through isn't my style. So I'll leave all that up to you, Hitonari. It's okay. I have faith that you'll make the best decision. Me, I like to keep it simple. I trust my gut when it comes to decisions like these. But hey, what you decide is yer business. Just be confident, whatever ya go with. Stand tall, cowboy! Irving's right, though. I think you should have confidence in yourself. If you're the one making the decision, Hitonari, then I'll support it wholeheartedly. "The Queen commands and we obey," and such. They handle the political end so we can do the real work. ...In that regard, you've drawn the short straw. Don't worry about it. Just think how much the owe you now. No one will raise a furore over your judgement.Alright, so let's check those votes shall we? code: Accept Zelenin's offer for a song, of course. You didn't think that whole thing was seri-- Malevolence and Benevolence .yltfiws devloser eb nac melborp siht taht epoh I dna ,noitautis tluciffid a si tI .tiwollalliwI,noisiceds'wercehtotretnuoctcaotyrassecentimeedmaetekirtsehtdluohS  However, our cooperation requires that we sacrifice Jack's squad. Should we accept the demons' terms? We should. Put the demons on one end of a scale and Jack's squad on the other, and I know which way it tips. They need to be judged! You are authorized to carry out your duties according to this decision. The situation is changing rapidly. In that light, I authorize the strike team to act at their own discretion. It is a difficult situation, and I hope that this problem can be resolved swiftly. I look forward to the successful completion of your mission.Okay, so now that we've made our decision informally it... doesn't really do much of anything right now. We aren't on any given path through this event right now, so we should probably head on back to Grus and talk to Grendel. ...But Zelenin's on the way, so let's make it official that she ain't gonna sing. No. I will wait here. Come talk to me should you ever need my help.I do wonder if Jimenez will be around in the middle of the sanctum or something, then.  Nope, nothing happens up until we get back to Grendel. If you agree to the deal, then go kill those humans. Once you do, I'll unseal the gate to Maya. Hm? Is something wrong? No. Hurry and kill them. I look forward to hearing of their deaths... Okay, fine, so I guess we gotta go through Jack's Squad HQ. It's Jack's Squad HQ. We've seen it before, we know where the Lightning is. There's not even any random fights here or anything; encounters are turned off entirely. Fear > Ryan is chanting while staring off into space...  Welp, let's get our murder on. ......! We are... the sacred squad... who serve the Lord... ...Blasphemer against the Lord! You shall die! An Honor Befitting That Name Ryan honestly doesn't deserve a video. He doesn't even really count as a midboss.  He's... he's literally just Jack again. But relatively worse, and without the Pisacas to maybe get an instant kill in.  He does like using Pure Blue a lot more than Jack or Tiamat ever did, though.  Like, A LOT more. He didn't even remove any debuffs with this one! I don't know, either.  Just to cap off Ryan being a poo poo Clone of Jack, he gives (relatively) less EXP, no Macca, has no drops and he only has 1800 HP as opposed to Jack's 2000. In The Master's Name  > ...... > ...... > ......  ...What have you done!? What audacity is this!? This shall lead only to ruin! Ahhh... You must repent, or you will soon be...! ...Nice one, Tadano. Now you'll get some respect from those demons. So what'll it be today? You here to sing a requiem? Well, take it somewhere else. Your songs are like nails on a chalkboard... It seems that the evil within your newfound form has devoured your soul as well, Jimenez! ...Don't go thinking everyone's gonna bow down to you, Zelenin. I'm sure Jack's squad is much happier with their souls free. You refuse to acknowledge your sin, Jimenez! Have you now fallen so far as to be incapable of recognizing it...? ...I must prepare, Hitonari.  > Zelenin left...  We're gonna be destroyed, huh? Says her... We'll see which side is gonna say hello to oblivion. ...I gotta go give the demons the good news here. Let's go, Tadano.> Jimenez left... Whew, that was... actually fairly simple, huh? Didn't really have to do much in practice. I suppose we should report back to Grendel now. Prayer But first we'll see what the crew thinks about what just happened. Let's move on and pray for no more surprises. Then again, it probably would've ended up like this no matter what you chose. Don't worry about it. Let's go on with the mission like we always have. That may have consequences down the line... But what's done is done. For now, just concentrate on your main mission. We've been putting things off for too long. Doctor Zoe was saying that for everyone's mental health, we shouldn't prolong the mission. So there it is. Let's find the Exotic Matter soon and get to the next sector. Time we got back to rustlin' up those Exotic Materials! And don't forget to pick up some forma, y'hear!? I assumed we woukdn't be able to get along because we're so different... But it seems a lot of the crew are pretty taken with them. Is that because we're adapting to our situation, or because we're losing our humanity? ...It's a tough one. I don't like this political give and take with everyone's ulterior motives all tangled up. Now I can concentrate on the mission at hand. It's quite exhilarating, really.Alright, NOW we can go and report back to Grendel and see what's gonna happen next. Chaos Theme A promise is a promise. I have already undone the seal. You may come and go as you please. Now then, let us see what happens. Will things go as you planned...? Hmhmhm. Good luck... You'll need it.Nice and simple, there. It's not even a particularly long path to the purple door. Silence  Suit yourselves... continue forward... to my corridor of illusions... Come to me... if you can... I think it's safe to say that we can, so moving swiftly on through here. This should get us somewhe--       Mankind cannot defeat demons such as these! We have no means of preventing the Schwarzwelt from swallowing the Earth! We can do nothing but await the annihilation of mankind... ...Now take up your firearms! Let us choose to die at the barrel of a comrade's gun than at the hands of a demon! Ready! Aim! Show your bravery, men... Death before dishonor! > You tried to protest, but no words came out... > You hear a voice coming from somewhere...  ...For once, I genuinely have no idea what this voice is supposed to be. It's not from that one weird demon who keeps talking at us at doors (the text is too quick for that, and it's a Voice not a Strange Demon!), it's obviously not Gore, there's no reason for it to be any other normal demon... You can end your painful battle... It's okay... You can end your harsh journey... > You hear another voice.  This one by contrast is much easier; it is a random person from the Red Sprite (most likely a Monitor Team person) who just... stops existing as soon as this part of the scene is over. Might even be intended to be Arthur, but that doesn't work. ...Who... are you... ...Who are you fighting, Crewman Hitonari? ...Commander Gore? Snap out of it, Hitonari! That's an order!  This is represented by... no audio at all. Good job there.   My name is... Gore!? That's right, I'm Gore! Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Palace of Pleasure  But Hitonari... That shout of yours from deep down broke the spell... ...And awakened my sleeping consciousness. Thank you, Hitonari. ...... The Ubergestalt is most likely meant to be a reference to the Nietzschean concept of the Ubermensch. A kind of superhuman-esque figure that is the epitome of humanity itself. Except he's not human, hence the gestalt; he's a being in a form in which it no longer belongs and is greater than the sum of its parts. It also might just because it lets you make a really awful pun. I see... That explains why I know so much... They tried to use me as their puppet. And it was you who pulled me back into the land of the living after I was fated to rot away here. My body is still the ubergestalt, but... > Gore is deep in thought...  Just in case you forgot, here's Gore telling you this for... what, the fourth time now? Yes, we get it. The Schwarzwelt is the deadly sins. We got it FOURTY HOURS AGO. loving christ. It's appeared on Earth many times now to wipe out declining civilizations. And now... It's us who's staring down the barrel of annihilation. I also understand the gravity of mankind's sins and that, frankly, we brought this on ourselves.> Gore took a step back... However... We are a species that has the power to adapt to any situation. Even at this very moment... The power to change our destiny is at work. Hitonari, I must travel the Schwarzwelt again. This time, to prepare to alter our fate. Now, go. Defeat Maya. The "Mothers" that awakened in the Schwarzwelt number four in total. Two have been defeated. Two are still seeking our destruction. In order to save the Earth... The Mothers must be eliminated. The fate of the Earth rests on us two...> Gore disappeared somewhere... Alright, so THAT was one giant plot-dump. Sort of. On the plus side, we learned that provided nothing goes awry (...again...) Grus is going to be the penultimate sector. The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried  The location of where I heard the voices of the Mothers is in sector Grus. That must be where Maya is. I'll send you the coordinates. Only 3 floors between us and Maya, huh? That doesn't seem too bad at all... Maya is one of the Mothers... Be careful. Plus side, the stairs down to B1F are right here so this might be even brisker than expected. We also need to leave the B Sanctum as the active area here, because we can't get anywhere otherwise.  The Sanctum might be simple but at least its consistent with itself. This kind of is as well, I guess, but it just FEELS worse. 1F was Antlia and Bootes, so B1F is just a purple/blue... Delphinus? Sure, sure why not.  Thankfully there is a terminal right here. Since we actually get to explore Grus for real now, we'll take a wee bit of a rest here before actually dealing with this.
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Feb 27, 2017 07:16
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neongrey posted:Ah ha ha... ha ha... ha... "Oh, 3 floors? That doesn't sound too bad. Seems like the plot's finished so this should be easy enough now." ~ Me, as of about 2 years ago. "...Oh gently caress I gotta actually play Grus now. Yay.  " ~ Me, as of about 2 months ago.
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Feb 27, 2017 17:40
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A Rotten Nation So, Grus is... gonna start off with a bunch of paths but one of them leads to a locked door. Welp, that's one written off.  Since this IS a lazy Delphinus recolor, there're conveyor belts here. Lots and lots of conveyer belts. We'll go left here, because sure why not.  Also, SURPRISE! The entirety of the actual exploration part of Grus is one gigantic teleport maze!  And I loving hate it. It's not that it's difficult per se... though there are A LOT of teleports and keeping track of all of them is misery...  But that it's constantly broken up with conveyer belts that drop you on teleports, conveyer belts that drop you next to teleports... Thankfully there aren't any teleports onto conveyer belts.  There's also a bunch of hidden doors, just in case it wasn't quite tedious enough. Thankfully none of them are mandatory.  They just let you get to some extra items here and there. ...So, remember how a while ago forums poster Petiso posted his map of Eridanus' teleport "maze"? Y'know, this thing: Petiso posted:Good old Eridanus, I made sure to scan this for future reference and still shiver every time I look at it: Yeah, good times. Grus makes this look tame. So, I'm gonna distract you from how little of that I'm showing because there are like 30 teleport destinations on this floor alone and it's REALLY stupid. The Fear of God We used Anzu before, and I think that basically sums him up. Nothing here you can't already see. Titania meanwhile is fun and wacky. She's weak to Gun but resists Fire, Ice, Elec and Wind. She's 300% weak to Charm, and her physical attack can also do a charm. At a 10% base chance. And Luck is her second best stat. And her Source gives Thunder Reign. And her Magic is a base 47 with a 19% Growth Rate. Really, the worst thing about Titania here is that it uses her poo poo Devil Summoner design.  Ammut is a solid, good demon. She's a competent enough Strength demon even though she's as simple as he looks. Her Source gives Tyranny...  And the earliest Victory Cry. As you'd expect, it only affects whoever has it rather than everyone which is a shame but understandable. The next demon with Victory Cry at all is level... 78 and the second source that guarantees it? Level 92. Ammut punching WAY above her weightclass with this one.  Girimehkala is potentially a dangerous big boy alright. He's, well, he's an SMT Girimehkala. Reflects Phys, doesn't Reflect Gun but Drains it. Those weaknesses ARE all weaknesses, by the by. He DOES in fact take 125% normal damage from Fire/Ice/Elec/Wind.  Persephone and Guedhe are a bit more interesting. Persephone we saw as a random NPC forever ago in Bootes (remember that? Probably not!) but here she turns up with a predilection for casting Binding Cry. She's weak to Elec and immune to Wind, Expel, Curse and Charm. Guedhe is simultaneously more fun and more annoying and boring. His main stat is Agility (boo), and he has a 10% chance to inflict Sleep with his basic attack. Resistance wise, he's got no weaknesses, resists Expel and nullifies Curse and every ailment. Except Rage but that really doesn't matter at this point. A Rotten Nation Okay, but for real let's actually kind of talk about Grus' design here. Eridanus was really honestly kinda clever with that; it had 2 really big sprawling areas that didn't really feel all that large until you actually stepped back and looked at them. They weren't the tightest designed or anything (I could've easily accepted about 75% less pointless Sleep tiles, for example) but they were functional enough.  Grus is a giant goddamn mess. It's considerate enough to give you plenty of terminals for when you inevitably get sick of its drab color scheme, the walls being literally made of garbage and the hellscape of one hundred teleports.  Like, there is one thing both this and Eridanus' teleport maze has in common; the actual chambers were just empty crosses that had a designated landing point or two and anywhere between 1 and 3 teleporters at the other ends.  Somehow, though, Grus manages to just completely mess up something so simple. Like, just think about that for a second. There is basically nothing to making this work. If you're going for a minimalist thing, this should be really simple and effective and easy to achieve.  Thankfully, Grus has a dark secret. These stairs leading down are all you need; stumble across any stairs leading down to B3F and you're done with the entire sector for all intents and purposes. ...Complete aside, but that enemy search right there?  Pale Rider again, obviously. You have a 5% spawn chance. Leave me alone, goddammi-- wait i just unlocked the magic incense without having to grind for it so i wont need to track his arse down later okay we're even  This also totally reminds me, hey Red Rider. You're going to contribute here by having no real weaknesses, being immune to ailments and just Helping in general. Should definitely get rid of that Void Curse though.  So, anyway, B3F real quick. This is a single giant room. That's it. That's all it is.  There are damage tiles in the bottom left corner just because. Oh, and you see how those two doors there are one-way doors?  Funny story about that. B3F is a one-way door maze. It also has a couple sections with sleep tiles just because.  I don't even get that one here, since you have to cross it to get to a healing spot anyway. Notably missing down here is a Terminal, by the way. Odd decision that.  There's 5 staircases down here, and while this one is the most important later, it's not progress.  But it does let you open up a... shortcut...? Kind of? Back there if you need it.  Hey there's another thing Eridanus got right. It was a giant area, that checkpointed you reasonably well. It could get a little ridiculous at times, sure, but at least you always felt like you were making progress and getting somewhere. And during the countless trips back and forth, getting back to where you needed to was always quick and painless.  Grus on the other hand is a giant teleport maze that only lets you doubleback at two points: when you're finished, and when you're finished.  That's not even a coy clever wordtrap or anything. Remember, we get to Maya by going to B3F. Which is a single giant room. Then using the correct staircase to go up. Which is in the center of the giant room.  We get the first shortcut by using exactly one of the wrong staircases back up to B2F. We get the second shortcut by reaching the end of Grus.  This is just a kind of bafflingly terrible decision. As much as I ragged on Fornax for being boring and empty at least it broke up its bad ideas by interspacing them with Jack's Squad loving things up.  Grus just frontloads its plot then throws you in teleport hell and waits for you to be done. ...Anyway, we finally found the Carina palette swap. That means we get a couple new random demons to talk about. Thank God, because I'm running out of ways to say basically the same thing but pretend like I'm not. The Fear of God Gemori here is kind of an unusually bafflingly bad idea. She has Lullaby, but her source doesn't give it. Her source gives Eternal Rest but nothing that can inflict Sleep. She has a special skill when you use her called Laplace Curse. Laplace Curse is a free Debilitate on all enemies you have fully analyzed. This is as useless as it sounds. Like, it's great that you can get Auto-Debilitate for 0MP in a niche situation; it might very well have its uses. Except the things you'd want to Debilitate don't have Analyze gauges in their fights so its a wasted skill. Enemy Gemori doesn't have it for obvious reasons; instead, she opts to go with Baitsa Dasuto. Almost feels like a stepback after Taotie in a way. Anyway, she's resistant to Expel and Nullifies Curse, Strain, Charm, Mute and Sleep. No weaknesses in any way.  Erlkonig is a cool demon that is real and my friend and I like him.He is a treeman so he is weak to being burned by Fire. He's also resistant to Expel, Nullifies Curse (...man, even the resistances are laze here) and Reflects Gun. His source gives Drain Elec. A Rotten Nation That's it; that's all the interesting stuff in the Carina section. The only thing over there right now is a... teleport back to the start of B1F. loving christ.  Anyway, yeah, like I said before, the obviously correct stairs lead to B2F in an Antlia area. That's different. It even has a terminal AND a heal spot so it's clear that it's where we want to be.  ...Which is why we're immediately leaving to go anywhere and everywhere else. There's still a lot of Grus to try and find something useful or relevant in.  I'm not quite sure if we're succeeding or not, since even though the changed graphics for the area here SHOULD signify progress they just mean you can get jumped by a man what is a tree and a woman on a camel.  Meanwhile if we really want to make ""progress"" with pretending Grus still matters, there's still about half the teleporting to deal with.  At least they fully expected you to get constantly lost, hence why there are so many terminals in this area. This makes 3 in this part of the sector alone.  It's an odd mercy that I am definitely not complaining about.  Really, the biggest problem with about... 60-70% of this place is that there's minimal incentive to bother. Like, sure, they expect you to get lost a fair bit, but once you get to B3F you know you're almost done anyway so...  It might not even be so bad if it just, I don't know, actually placed the items around the floor reasonably rather than dropping almost all of them in this one spot? Just a thought.  Oh and the Criticker is a really bad Sword. Fixed 2 strikes is nice but it's added effect is Poison. Which is second only to Strain for ailments that are not worth it.  The good news about this, is that the "main" path has now been properly done and dusted. What about this way, then?  It sure has a lot more conveyer belts and a few more teleports for good measure. Nowhere near as many of them, though.  It even has exactly one terminal just to trick you into thinking that it is progress, I guess.  There's three more items down this path and that's all. There are four you can see during the conveyer belt stuff but only 3 can be obtained right now.  Thankfully, the first two that you see are good and an actual non-super-hidden Bead of Life is a nice surprise as well.  The other two are down a different starting point, and the one on the left here (right on the map) we can't get at the moment.  It's still good, but it's not A Bunch of Beads and Also A Bead of Life good.  But that's... finally... just about everything in Grus done and dusted. It's probably a good indicator of how much of Grus as an area just blurs together that I'm still mentally sometimes going "okay but where's the Black Box guy" even though we found that one right at the start of the sector!  I dunno, that's something that is like such a small and simple thing but I just keep forgetting it. Is that just me? That might just be me. For all I know, you don't even care that much about the actual boxes themselves.  ...Oh, uh, there's a rare forma somewhere in here apparently. We missed it. Um, where is it... where...  Oh. Right here. By the stairs leading directly to where it becomes mandatory. HEY SPEAKING OF RARE FORMA! Notice how Grus never had a single dark room? Now I'm not saying I actually want one or anything, but thus far Visualiser B has been completely useless. A+ idea right there. Prayer Sloth is really blatant about being that whole "idle hands are the Devil's tool" thing. Acedia itself is more of an apathy kind of thing than actually just being a lazy piece of poo poo, though. It's a very thin like separating them, but acedia means "without care." It is also kind of a sluggish mental process that even if you can bring yourself to care about something, still not actually do it necessarily and therefore very similar to tristitia in that regard.  Sloth being a sin is that way is kind of hosed up if you really think about it. It's a thing that is based on considering someone as one of the most evil things they can be based on their physical, mental and emotional state. So, uh, yeah. There's that.  So, new things! Reaper Colt is a pretty drat good weapon, honestly. Garudyne, Agidyne or a straight Gun attack what can instakill a dude. AT Grusite x2, Reaper Fruit x1 (Persephone) and Yoma Mask x3 (Xiuhtecuhtli) needed for this, so it's quite easy to make.  The Cromwell isn't a very good gun, really. It's basic attack is fine and interesting-ish, but its sole skill is Gun Getsu-Ei. Weak. AT Grusite II x1, Reaper Tux x3 (Guedhe) and Haunt Skin x3 (Kudlak) to make this thing so it's worse than the Colt AND harder to make.  Hey, it's a neat piece of armor! The Scanner Vest is on-paper not very great but it's quite handy for Grus. No weakness makes it nice, and it's super easy to get: DF Grusite x2, Vile Goggles x1 (Pachacamac) and Beast Scales x1 (Ammut).  Four incense down, and only Vitality to go. I really don't get the unlock order here. You START by getting access to Strength (and Agility...), which is amazingly useful and handy. Then you get Luck which is the best. Then you get Magic here which is very nice itself. And then you get Vitality. At least it's not pretending Agility is worth a drat, I guess. ...Anyway, we just got Unlock C so before we use it in Grus we'll see what it opens elsewhere.  Like this door in Carina. It's been taunting us for a while, so I'm sure it's going to lead to something useful and worth our ti--  the hell is this poo poo?? gently caress it, never mind, back to Grus! A Rotten Nation Second and last shortcut in Grus is opened now. Yes, really. Can I just copy/paste what I said before about how bad this is?  ...What? If Grus gets to be lazy as poo poo and just reuse things from earlier, why shouldn't I?  Free Dekunda Stones are nice, but uhh... this isn't gonna be helpful for what lies ahead.  Also that Gold forma off to the side that we can see? That's a fixed forma. That is only obtainable in NG+. I don't even know either.  Last regular ol' item we can get in Grus is just a single Amrita Shower. At least we didn't actually NEED Unlock C for this one.  Coulda just walked around to the stairs from the center of Grus. Not really much point to doing so before getting Unlock C though.  Thankfully, it's really obvious what lies beyond this Unlock C even if I hadn't unsubtly mentioned it several times.  It's Maya. Hi, Maya!  Oh and this makes the heal spot and terminal in B2F's center irrelevant. The heal spot was also kind of irrelevant anyway, but the terminal is at least useful for leaving quick with the Remedium. Silence ...Not gonna lie, I kinda like this background. It's pretty cool.  In The Master's Name ...I also really kinda like Maya's design here. She's pretty neat a gigantic eye-less woman who's also like half-series required Tower or skyscraper or something. I'unno, I think it looks pretty neat. ...Except the hair. I don't like the weird slicked back combed hair that she has. That just looks... so wrong and off.   Have you acquired a taste for matricide and now turn to me? What a filthy, foolish species yours is... I, too, once had a dream. A dream where humans had a prosperous future... This land of illusions is also the birthplace of the future. But what do the humans show me now...? Dreams of decay. Rot. Destruction! Humans have lost the power in their dreams and can no longer build a beautiful future! ...Now come, one without a future. You will fall and die at the hands of my dreams and illusions! Night Maya Vehement Rage So, Maya! Maya's a... simple and straightforward fight, really.  She's weak to Guns but she isn't (it's base 100%/Neutral damage). This exists just so she can get Co-Op'd. She DOES have an actual weakness though. You'll see...  But first, Maya has a boring gimmick! She "doubles" her Agility, which means she just gets two Sukukajas that... don't count as Sukukajas. So you can't formally dispell them, but you CAN just buff yourself or debuff her two stages to completely negate it. So, technically, yeah this means that Maya might very well be the only fight in which Fog Breath is kind of maybe usef... No wait, Debilitate does this but better. Never mind!  Ultraviolence is a pretty simple skill, depsite its kind of awesome name. It's just straight forward "hit everyone once for some decent Phys damage" and that's it.  Evil Vortex is a little bit more interesting, at least. It's pretty weak Almighty elemental damage but it has a sneaky added effect: it can Petrify you. It's like a worse Disaster Cycle, while also being a more terrifying Disaster Cycle. ...Fortunately, it's really easy to just never give Maya a chance to use this one. She can only do it at low HP and that's a stage of the fight that is very skippable.  She has all the Dynes. Just their single-target versions though!  She also has these weird spells. Agi/Bufu/Zio/Garu Gate SOUND from their name that they should do something fancy or special, right? Especially when you know the OTHER gimmick in this fight. But nope. They're just "Dyne but stronger" and that's it. What a goddamn missed opportunity!  So, resistance wise, yeah she's weak-but-neutral to Guns as mentioned above. And that is, in fact, it. Her only other resistances are the usual boss immunities to potent/all ailments and Expel and Curse. Bu she's Neutral to Fire, Ice, Elec and Wind. This means she takes 200% damage from them. This is half of her other gimmick. She is super weak to elemental damage.  If you use any skill that isn't an ailment, support, healing, Phys or Gun? She auto-counters with an undodgable, unblockable instant kill. This is such an awful idea; I don't even understand the logic here. Why give her a major real weakness and punish you for using it? Oh, THAT I can answer! Because that weakness applies to the usable version as well. Remember, boss vulnerabilities are almost always a 1:1 with the usable version.  But the actual "oh you did a Spell? Game over" is just such a shockingly awful idea that I don't even understand it. ...I thought for a while this was what the Gate spells was for, by the way. If you matched the one she just used, then she WOULDN'T do this. Or maybe the one that's its weakness or whatever. But nope, that doesn't happen. That'd be kind of clever. Oh and Maya has 6000HP which is a decent step-up from before. She might take a while if you decide to, I don't know, not buff and use Charged Grand Tacks (for ~1000) or Riot Guns (for ~2500-3000). End In The Master's Name But even I am merely one of that Mother's children... Mother Mem Aleph will surely... > The distortion of the landscape stopped. Like, the cool Dali painting aesthetic was obviously an illusion, fair. But remember how the game explicitly told us that the reused assets WERE the illusion?   Alright, now strap in. The post-sector scene here gets looooong... Malevolence and Benevolence With the Exotic Matter we obtained from Maya, we... should... we... shoul....... What the...? Arthur, what's wrong!? Answer me! ...... Silence What's going on!? There weren't any signs of a malfunction! Fear What's that...? Is someone on the viewscreen? Look! Something's coming up!> Three silhouettes are displayed on the viewscreen...  Maya has fallen, and the false visions of this land have been dissolved... The time to reveal everything to you humans has come. Behold now the vision of the path that all humans... nay, all life on Earth should take...> One of the crew interrupted.  Careful, everyone! They're... going t...> The crewman's voice faded into silence...  The reincarnation of cultures beyond salvation. There was a time, long ago, when this land was populated with creatures other than humans... A time when those creatures prospered, their civilization covering the earth. They, too, were a race who spoiled the earth. Little realizing that their actions brought about their doom... They remained set in their ways, transfixed by their civilization. All of them disappeared into the Schwarzwelt. We are here to build a just civilization spiritually. We have no wish to see this cycle of ruin repeated. Law Theme ...is to bury the evil soul, leaving only the holy spirit... ...and make of this earth a single, unified, holy spirit. While the fallen humans whose wills are weak shall be eliminated. With the power of the Scwarzwelt, and the power of that song... the project will reach its goal. Humanity's charge of uniting all life on earth as one will at last be fulfilled. If the holy spirits are in harmony with each other, there will be no desire... And the absence of acrimony or hostility will prevent the Earth from ever again being put at risk. Humanity's spirit shall sing His praises daily, as they are directed, and shall nourish the Earth. That is the song under which humanity will become as one. In doing so, they will exist as a solemn creation for the rest of eternity...> The Three Wise Men were interrupted by another voice...  Chaos Theme How can a planet that doesn't even blink be said to have any "life"? Is this the salvation He has promised you? I'll tell you what these humans who threaten the life of the Earth need...  A time of death and birth, destruction and creation... Bring back to the land that spirit of freedom. Quite unlike humans as they are now... living off the fat of the land, alienated from nature. I say let the Schwarzwelt loose! That's the way to regain your freedom, your harmony with the earth... Your days will be beautiful ones, where you polish your souls in a world led by free gods. And if a spirit among you in that world becomes depraved, may you bid him adieu. Right now, you are bent on earning a chance to escape certain death so you might change the future. But what form should that future take...? Do not neglect that... Malevolence and Benevolence  It seems they were trying to tell us something... something about a vision... A civilization on the brink of destruction... their vision of a new world... And it's up to us to decide what we should do...? The ancient days, filled with freedom... She wants us to go back to that? I could kinda see what she was getting at, but... What are we here for? To save mankind from the Schwarzwelt! Or have you forgotten!? ...... ...... This crew's being pushed to its absolute limits... Do we have an update on Arthur yet!? Is he still down!? He'll need more time, though. Let's tell the others to wait...One fade to black later... Law Theme > It seems she has returned to the Red Sprite...  Just as the Wise Men said... The question of how we should lead humanity has been put to us. I am here now to tell you my feelings on the matter. Not my feelings, precisely... More like my calling. The time of judgement is near, and I cannot remain idle. Hitonari... thank you for all that you have done for me. If He wills it, we will meet again. I pray that everyone on the Red Sprite awakens to His guidance...> Zelenin prayed for you and left...  I'll help you! I know you can save me--I know you will! I understand now what I should do for my sake... for all mankind's! Teach us how to free ourselves of suffering! Zelenin... your song... When I heard it, I felt like I was one step closer to Heaven.It was a nonspecific fancy song, not 14 words of power... I want to see the highest of highs! The real light of salvation! Please let me join you!> A few of the crewmen followed after Zelenin and left the Red Sprite... Chaos Theme  > It seems he has returned to the Red Sprite... Gee, I wonder where this is going.  Those ancient assholes and their stuck-up lecturing pissed me off, but I'll tell you what... What the chick after that said really hit home. A free life, where if you die it's your own fault... That's not too bad. So it's time I said adios to the Red Sprite. From now on, I'm a free man. But hey, don't you worry about me. The Schwarzwelt's probably better for a man in my condition anyway. I thought I wanted to kill you all for what you did to those demons, but... I guess I shouldn't expect much more from a bunch of humans. You guys are scarier than demons. But you're always welcome if you decide to live with the demons. I'm doing it... You can too. Later, Tadano. We'll meet again if Fate would have it...> Jimenez left with a casual wave goodbye...  I know now... humans can't do anything on their own! The world we knew is never coming back! It's time we turned toward the power of the demons! The gods of old! I want that freedom we've lost! I always did envy you, Jimenez... I wished I could be true to myself like you are. I can't stand being tied down. It's not like there's any guarantee of salvation! I'm going with you!> A few of the crewmen followed after Jimenez and left the Red Sprite... Silence  I will now assess the situation and devise a course of action. Malevolence and Benevolence It didn't take much for them to hack in and shut you down, Arthur. You don't really stand a chance against them, huh? Maya's defeat has evidently made it easier for them to act. The Three Wise Men seem to possess powerful information manipulation abilities. Maya's disappearance has allowed them to put these powers to full use. You have seen the effects with my shutdown and the visions you saw. ...Looks like we'll have to sleep with one eye open for a while. The situation should change once we depart this sector. Crewman Hitonari, you have yet to turn over the Exotic Matter, correct? I will take receipt of it now. We will send this to Engineering and begin preparations to move to the next sector. Now, as to the treatment of Jimenez and Zelenin. Both have abandoned the mission and left the Red Sprite. I was trying to think if there was any way to stop them... But the way they acted... Never mind them being part of the crew, I'm not sure they're even human. Well, we're down a lot of crewmen. Though if we tried to stop them, it probably would've gotten bloody. I hope there aren't any other crew members on the fence... Yeah... However, I will continue to suggest what I consider to be the best course of action. Hitonari, judging by the report of your encounter with Gore... Mem Aleph... The core of the Schwarzwelt, right!? Yes. The next sector may indeed be the core of the Schwarzwelt. Let us hope it is the final area we must investigate. We might be able to make it back home if we get the next sector's Exotic Matter, but... Hitonari, do you think that's all we're meant to do? That kind of thinking might be a sign you were brainwashed by that vision, y'know? We've done enough investigation of the Schwarzwelt. The fate of the Earth is on our shoulders... It's too big for us... That concludes the briefing. Begin preparations to plane shift to the next sector. We will again go by performing a continuous jump through the Vanishing Point at Eridanus. All hands, to your positions. Hopefully the last time we get this filler scene...  All hands, prepare to begin field investigations. Our workload will increase with the AWOL crewmen, huh? Wonder how many we'll lose here... That's what Arthur says. I give him a 50-50 chance of being right. I mean, either it is or it isn't. Roger that. Patching the camera feed through to the main display. Fear  This must have been what it was like when the earth was new... So why are we seeing it here, in this sector? Speaking as a strike team member, I'm wonder if we'll be able to operate in a place like this. Arthur, can we really go out there!? There is nothing intrinsic about this sector that would hinder our operations. So not everything is as it seems... Fornax, Grus, now this place... That's how every sector past the Vanshing Point has felt. Places where you can't tell what's real and what isn't... Horologium, the grandfather/pendulum clock...  Horologium is a fairly small constellation discovered in the 1700s by... Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. That guy again, yeah. It's located adjacent to Eridanus, once again. It's even part of the same family of constellations as Fornax and... Antlia. Unlike every other constellation used as a sector, Horologium is seemingly some kind of a go-to for things that aren't the Zodiac? I mean, it gets used in Fairy Tail and that's not exactly a beacon of the most imaginative ideas. still think its pretty great though Our main objective is to obtain the Exotic Matter we believe to be in this sector. I am issuing a new official mission, designated "Horologium's Exotic Matter." Your mission orders haven't been very detailed lately. It'd be nice if you could dig up any info on Mem Aleph. ...Maybe we should reevaluate this mission before we start investigating. I know we're all hoping this will be the last sector we visit, but... With our reduced crew, we should probably avoid wasting time. Well... Shouldn't we leave that up to each one of us? ...It's probably because we're in such dire straights that people followed Jimenez and Zelenin. As we commence the investigation of Horologium, I must caution you. I know that your resolve is being tested by the demons and this new, unexpected information. Do not allow it to interfere with your mission. That makes sense intellectually, and it's what I've been trained to do... But I feel like I can't help getting distracted if I don't have something to believe in. What is it we're missing...? Silence It seems to be a transmission from someone! Crisis What!? Did someone get here before us!? I'm getting errors in the administrative system! We're... We're being hacked! poo poo... No! No! Arthur...!  "Your" crew, huh? Hmm... nope, I have no idea who this could be. You've done well in clearing a path here with your own hands. This is where your... rather, our investigation will bear fruit. Leave your ship, and come. I will speak of the things I have been witness to. And mankind's intended path will be made clear... Arthur's still offline! What do we do...!? It's only Arthur that's down. The rest of the Red Sprite's systems are fully functional! I know it sounds dangerous, but see if you can get close to him! It seems like Gore's trying to tell us something.. Think it's safe to approach? Are you sure he won't attack us!? We're not having any luck yet pinpointing the source of Gore's transmission! I don't think it's nearby! Get ready, Hitonari! We're scrambling!
Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:55 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Mar 1, 2017 02:12
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Petiso posted:Ammut is a she You'd think I'd remember this, given all the Egyptian mythology stuff I've been reading over the past several months. And yet! (thanks, fixed)
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Mar 2, 2017 22:34
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Prayer Time to take a break before we step into Horologium. Gonna use this opportunity to talk to the crew first though. The truth behind the Schwarzwelt, our course of action, the future of Earth and humanity itself...! It's like he knew it all... ...But I'm convinced. Call it a gut feeling, woman's intuition, whatever... But that really was Gore, and he's trying to tell us something. Please... go meet him. Find out what his true intentions are. ...Huh, there's no Maebe or Wolf here. That's pretty weird! But when I heard his call, I realized... that's not the issue here. ...Go to him. We have an obligation to hear what he has to say--even in death. Alright, so let's see what SubApps we're going to get from having trashed Maya with minimal effort.  A very strong start with an inexplicable Beatles reference, I see. More EXP is never a bad thing, and it might prove useful later. There is a non-zero chance that I'm just gonna leave this equipped.  Shusendo is, uh, not a good SubApp since it gives you more Macca from fights. How boring. It's name is clever though, since "shusendo" is Japanese for... "miser." That's pretty clever, I like that.  What I don't like are the Garnishes.  They require you to either do a negotiation for a demon to join in OR for one to try and join willingly at the start of combat.  That's it; that's the only time they proc. They are straight up the Friend SubApps but flatout worse.  C'mon! Commander Gore's waitin' for us out there somewhere! Now git, Tadano. I'll leave it up to you how much forma ya wanna collect on this trip. So whatever information he has is also not of this world. We have no way of finding it ourselves... But what does that mean for us? Should we be hopeful, or...? I think whatever he knows really might swing the balance. Oh, sure, we COULD go into Horologium which... takes up almost the entirety of the bottom screen... but we're of course not going to right now.  Instead, we're going to talk to Dent I guess? Since Blair is also not around. Bizarre. We've almost reached out main objective... Like I told you before, we can do anything! And I'll be supporting you to the very end. Good luck! Real quick before we deal with anything else is that we've got Abaddon in Grus B3F semi-rarely I guess? He never turned up last time for some reason which isn't helpful. On top of what you can see here, he's 300% weak to Mute. Crushing Wave is an enemy-only skill that I'm PRETTY sure is meant to be Madness Crush instead. 1-4 random NoHs nothing super fancy here. A Squandered Nation Gonna start off the sidequests by picking up a new one for sensible reasons. You put that weapon I made to good use? A nice bit of business, eh? But I ain't satisfied with that... I'm aiming to forge a real work of art. Willya do it for me? Yes. That's the spirit! I'll make the greatest weapon there ever was! That oughtta light a fire under you, eh, boy?You're probably wondering why we'd bother to pick this up right now, right? Pattern recognition says that the Onogoro Stones are gonna be in Horologium in fixed spots, right? Wrong. They don't appear in fixed spots anywhere at all. They only spawn via pure chance in Silver forma. They CAN appear in Horologium (and there is technically the easiest spot for it in there anyway) but they CAN also appear elsewhere. I don't know everywhere they can spawn but there is at least one other...  But first, let's make that Murakumo Clone. This is a loving pain in the rear end to get despite being a slightly worse Cursed Sarai. Weaker but controllable at least. It requires... AT Grusite II x3, Wood Sceptre x8 (Erlkonig) and Genma Bugle x8 (Heimdall) because who wants it to be quick and easy? Now for the most important thing:  The Onogoro Stone CAN spawn in Grus which is all that matters. This spot right here, on B3F next to the heal spot? It has a 100% Forma spawn rate and will never give you an Enemy Search. The one catch is that you have to use those stairs in the bottom-right next to the sleep tiles. So, use Medic and then walk a simple pattern from those stairs to here and back again. It takes a bit of a while because Onogoro Stones are rare, but it's the second easiest way to get Onogoro Stones.  What!? You got 'em all already!? You're amazing for a boy your age, sonny! Well, you deserve it... I'll make you the ultimate weapon! It'll take a long time, though. Mind waiting until I'm done?And by "a while" he means that it's 10 full moon cycles. Again. We'll be back for this later... So in the meantime, we're gonna go and clear out a whole bunch of sidequests! Encounter Gonna do this in some kind of vague order that makes a degree of sense, I guess? Starting with this since it's been waiting for way, way too long.  I'm willing to listen... Tell me.> Hitonari told Gemori about Anthony... I... see. Now I know why I heard a voice. Amidst the sharp, metallic tang of the wills possessed by the humans here on a mission... I had felt a different, unfitting will; one strangely pure and innocent. That's most likely him... This man called Anthony. Yes, that is my mission. Though he seems to desire not love itself but an answer to a certain hesitation he had... Though in truth, this is not much different than my usual practice. In either case, I am a teacher. I must go, then, to this man I am to love...> The demon left... And back to Anthony we go. He's only been waiting since... Delphinus? Prayer > You reported to Anthony...  ...What? Are you kidding me? Th-Then... Just now... That was...!  It was just so sudden, and she talked like a normal girl, so... She gave me a lot of good advice. I thanked her, and she said, "You're welcome." And then before I knew it, she was gone. Man, what a waste, huh? Well... I wouldn't hit on her. Definitely out of my league.Character... development...? Almost??? Ohhhh, yeah. I almost forgot. That goddess actually gave me a message to pass on to you.  But the stuff she wrote don here doesn't make any sense. It's just a bunch of letters. Or is this what that stuff looks like in the divine realms?...And there we go, again. Improvement to backslide in less than 30 seconds. Well, well... looks like a goddess has taken a liking to you... Maybe you're the luckiest guy around, huh? Oh yeah, while I'm at it... Hey, Hitonari. I figure I might as well ask... No! C'mon, man, you heard what that goddess said... share the love...! I'm counting on you!So, great news about all this: we never have to see Anthony ever again!  Oh and as you probably expected, that note is just a password.  The password here is part of this incantation of the names of God: quote:I (N.N.) do Conjure thee (O Spirit N.N.) by the virtue of the Great and Holy Names of God, that immediately and without delay thou art to appear unto me under an agreeable form, and without noise, nor injury unto my person, to make answer unto all that I shall command thee; and I do conjure thee herein by In particular, it's an extract from The Grimoire of Armadel. It's a tome from the 17th century that, like many of its ilk, was translated into English by Samuel Lidell MacGregor Mathers.  It... just gives us a Gemori who's 3 levels higher than normal. And has the same stats and skills as a base Gemori. What the everloving gently caress is this? That's not a reward. That's a goddamn punishment. Anyway, let's see... Next should be that Laevateinn demon, but we still haven't met them and they're not in Grus. So, hmm... A Scorched Nation This is next on the list, I suppose. It's the one remaining one we haven't finished yet outside of Thoth's thing. Thank you so much! I'll have Goblin show them around.    Fare thee well.> Oberon and Titania left.  Thank you... Without you, this village would never have been established. You helped make a home for us... We'll welcome you here anytime. It sure is a good thing this is a decoy fake reward otherwise finishing the Faerie Village would not be worth it. There are two more things you get from this that are far more worth your time.  The first one is in the back here; gotta talk to Oberon for it.  I have heard some say you played a central role in this village's founding. In praise of your work, you shall receive our kingdom's traditional armor. You have done well, very well. This is some semi-decent armor for sure, but...  It's biggest issue isn't so much that Elec weakness as it is that there's no Phys/Gun resistance. It's a big ol' defense upgrade, immunity to both Expel and Curse, resists Wind for good measure.. Hard to not use this for a little while at least, really. We'll get to the second reward, that makes the Faerie Village the most worthwhile sidequest chain later on. It's very special. But first we gotta start some new ones, so let's see... Prayer Just because we have nothing left to do for Anthony, at long last, doesn't mean Dent can't hook us up with someone else. I'd encourage you to get more details from him. Will you grant Tanaka's request? Yes.  I'm Tanaka, on the supply team. ...I realize I'm kind of an odd duck for a Supply man... To tell you the truth, I find the forma here more interesting than the fate of mankind.Not that weird; you'd definitely get along well with Irving. Hahaha... I probably shouldn't go around admitting tha,t huh? But enough about that. Let me get right to my request. It's a tough job, and probably only someone who's survived so many battles could do it... Yes. I'm glad you're willing. Allow me to explain. ...Can't say that we do actually, huh. It's categorized under the Drake family, but I have my own private race for it... Yeah, you heard right. Fafnir is a draconic demon with a mechanical body. Doesn't that set your mind reeling? Just think... what kind of parts is he composed of? That's my first interest, the parts themselves and how they work. After that, I'm interested in the possibilities. I mean, just think of the kind of equipment we could develop using that stuff... So, Hitonari, you heard my story, right? I bet you're ready to run right out and find Fafnir! Good luck with the hunt. I'll start prepping the analysis for when you get back. Oh, and one more thing! Every component from his body is precious research material. I don't want to see any scratches or dirt. Don't worry, if anyone can do it, it's you!Gonna have to put this one on the backburner for now, I suppose. So, what's next... Oh, right! Of course! To Eridanus! A Land Controlling Roads We have Gate Search C, so we can get to the 3rd rooms on the outer edges here at long live last.  Oddly enough, the door after that one isn't locked or hidden or anything. It just... doesn't open.   As before, there are laws governing this match. This is a relatively difficult one to deal with. Not because it's super-mean or anything but because it basically makes it slightly harder to prepare for. Not by much, though. The trial will be harsh, make no mistake, but you shall gain an even greater power. Will you take the trial? Yes. Then we shall begin. En garde...! Herald Kazfiel and Herald Aniel Vehement Rage So, in practice, Kaz and Aniel aren't really that much different from before. They have more HP, hit harder, etc. etc. but there's no resistance changes or anything.  I don't remember if Kazfiel could do this before, but he can slightly increase defense. That's... something, I guess?  Aside from that, they're basically identical to before in movesets as well. Pretty simple, pretty ho-hum.  They both have 2500HP in this fight, for reference.  And we unlock both of them at once from this fight, oh my.  I sure hope they're worth using after jumping through that many hoops. It'd be a weird decision if they weren't, huh? End A Land Controlling Roads That we two could be so defeated... And by a son of man, no less... We yield to you. We have waited for someone to grow so strong. Though we expected that your spirit would emulate more closely the Holy Spirit... There's a secret-not-secret alignment check here. If your alignment isn't Law then you can't continue this quest chain. Therefore, we shall issue you a final challenge. The trial given to the saints since days long since passed into myth... Getting into some biblical apocrypha with this one, I see. What's next after that, the Harrowing of Hell? You have seen the drastic changes in this world for yourself... We have managed to capture one of the demons who wrought these changes. You shall defeat it for us.  Will you accept this trial? Yes. I have unlocked the door. Now go... We'll go through that door in a moment. First, though, gonna use another special password for a unique demon. ALCARMOR gives us a demon at level 61(+) who is...  Completely loving awful! Alciel is quite possibly the worst demon in SJ, excepting like I dunno... Maya? His Phys and Gun weaknesses are only 125% as per normal thankfully, his resistances to Ice and Wind are... but that Expel weakness? That's one of those rare 300% ones. Y'know, the ones that thus far have only been on Slime and Doppelganger? Yeah, those. Oh and he's weak to Almighty. Like, he's not weak-weak but every demon in the game takes 100% flat neutral damage to Almighty. Alciel doesn't. He takes 110%. Oh and his source is Retaliate and Life Surge. God, just gently caress right off Alciel. You're lucky I'm going to use you against this here dragon.  ...Oh, right. The Cleric Robes. These are very nice, honestly. That Curse weakness is really annoying and obnoxious though. I did consider using this in our dragon fight at least. Really, they might be more worthwhile if they weren't alignment locked. Silence In The Master's Name A seven-headed beast, with ten horns raised from its head, huh...  O grand warrior, sent by the angels... You were told to slay my dear dragons, were you not? To look down upon me so and yet contriving to use me toward their own ends... What a selfish and self-righteous justice theirs is.  Human... I bear no grudge against you. But if you turn your blade against me, I will respond in kind. Rise, my dear dragons... It is time to feed. Devour the poor lamb being used as God's pawn! Fiend Mother Harlot Vehement Rage So, our denouement boss fight for this quest chain is the Whore of Babylon and oh my. Level 93, huh? How exciting! ...On paper.  In practice she has a grand total of 3 moves she can do. That is including her basic attack. Yes.  Resistance-wise, she's weak-but-neutral to Wind, immune to Phys (but does not resist Gun...), and she drains Electricity.  In terms of skills, she has Maziodyne which is why you might want to bother with the Cleric Robes here.  Her second and final skill is at least a unique one. Babylon Goblet deals Almighty damage (hence why Alciel takes more than everyone else by a noticable margin!); it has a base 300 power like Megidola, costs more MP than Megidolaon and compensates for that by inflicting Charm. With a base 25% rate. Why yes, it does cost 25MP more than Megidola, why do you ask?  OH and incidentally, Mother Harlot? Does not have anything to remove buffs or debuffs. At all. Not even Sunset Melody or anything similar. She has 3500HP, which is on the higher end of things for an optional boss but pretty low for a fight where the gimmick is that it has no gimmick.  ...Also she is the second worst Fiend we will get. Yes, really. She is only better than David. That is loving shameful. End A Land Controlling Roads Hohoho... The angels have chosen a frightening champion. And now, the finishing blow... Worry not. I trust that you will carry out your own justice. Well, let's think... Mother Harlot... is ironically not a Mother as far as we care. Maia Ouroboros, Tiamat, Maya, Mem Aleph is literally just MA... Do you mean that I am free to go? You know this, and yet you spare my life... Humans are peculiar creatures. Son of man... Rather than give you my thanks, I will give you a piece of advice. But if your spirit is aligned with those hated by God... The "Mothers" shall look upon you with affection. The decision is yours. Whatever you choose, I shall bear witness to it... No reward immediately, huh? Guess we gotta go back and see what Aniel and Kazfiel have to say about this.  You have vanquished the dragon! It is regrettable that you let the demon escape, but your deeds are none the less praiseworthy. But so long as you remain, the future need not be a bleak one. We pray for the Holy Spirit to live within you... Alright, so the Amanomi Sword... might just be the best sword in general.  Like, sure, it's a really boring weapon. Single really powerful hit, but targettable and no added effects or anything. On paper, very ho hum and not something that I'd normally use but it's absurdly powerful so it makes up for it by having the highest base attack of all swords.  So, what about the other side of the floor?  We Four Devas have come in response to the restoration of a world full of energy. Thou, too, hast come to this land prepared for death. If thou dost desire power to reinforce thy resolve... I am willing to train thee. Even if thy spirit matcheth not our stance. Thou must fight and defeat me, son of man. But this be no ordinary battle. There are conditions. This is basically a level cap, rather than anything else. Fortunately, I have the perfect setup for this... Thou mayst under no circumstances change demons once te battle has begun. If thou dost accept these terms, let us begin. Wilt thou train? Yes. Now, let the battle begin! Kishin Jikokuten Vehement Rage So, Jikokuten... is a Deva fight, alright. He really likes to punch dudes really hard. Really, really hard. Sometimes he uses Berserker God and sometimes he remembers he can cast Garudyne.  That's it. He's a Deva fight. The HP limit isn't an issue because you can just casually use Matador and Doppelganger to Taunt > Reflect Phys for an easy win. Taunt twice to make it slightly quicker though, it's really down to how often he hits Doppelganger. Girimehkala's HP is way too high, unfortunately! End A Land Controlling Roads Shouldst thou desire even more strengh, open thou the door behind me and enter. This door can only be opened by one who hath bested the trials of we three pillars. The last of the Four Devas awaiteth thou within. Honestly, I really kind of like the Monarch Vest. Sort of.  It has a giant weakness in that its a rare thing that removes our natural immunity to Expel and only resists Gun but it's a very high defense and there IS a way around that Expel weakness. But it's Chaos only so we can't use it and I probably wouldn't seriously use it anyway.  With all three Devas beaten, we can open this door. No alignment lock here, huh?  And once we're through this door, we've mapped out all of Eridanus. We might just never be back (on-screen) after this, huh...   Thou hast done well in coming, you who defeated the three pillars. I would like to begin the final trial, but... 'Tis a shame that thy spirit's flow is different from our own... Alack, I had hoped to entust thee with that sword, but... So long as our paths diverge, the trial endeth here. ...Thou mayst leave.Well, that's a shame. We can get into the room but Bishamonten doesn't give us the time of day if we're not Chaos aligned... A Scorched Nation So let's go back to the Faerie Village. Now that we've finished the village, at random the Goblin here can have something obstructing his digging.  We can choose to help out with getting through this quicker or we can just... leave it to the Goblin to deal with.  Regardless of which happens, he finds a low-tier recovery item (either Medicine, a Life Stone or a Chakra Drop) and then we can either let him have it or take it for ourselves.  Regardless of context, these are both alignment affecting decisions: Watch: Chaos Help: Law Let Goblin keep the item: Law Take it: Chaos  And this event is repeatable infinitely. It's just random on whether or not it happens. As a result, this is how we can make our alignment change when by all accounts its not really going to any more.  Alright, now that we've spent about 5 minutes here we've gone from a blue name to a red name. This means we CAN go back to Bishamonten, but first... A Land Controlling Roads Back to Grus real quick! There are two Chaos alignment locked doors in here. Let's see what we get out of this, shall we?  The Strength Incense at least makes sense, but I really think that at this point the Megido Stone should be a Megidola Stone.  Alright, so let's go back to Bishamonten and this is a marginally annoying limit but I once again have A Plan. To change demons in the midst of battle is, of course, out of the question. Now... if thou dost accept these terms... let us fight. Wilt thou take the final trial? Yes. Let the battle begin! I, Bishamonten, shall bear witness to thy final trial! Kishin Bishamonten Vehement Rage Oh, Bishamonten... how are you the easiest boss fight we've had to date? Out of like, all of them?  He's weak (neutral) to Fire, resists Phys and immune to Ice.  Attack-wise he sometimes uses Glacial Blast, I think? Maybe? I dunno, he doesn't really live long enough to get to do much of anything. He has somewhere between 1250-1300HP. Yes. This makes me question the data I have for boss HP since it lists his HP as 2000 which is still ludicrously low but also visibly and provably wrong. End A Land Controlling Roads Thou hast bested me, a god of war. The trials of the Four Devas are at an end. But so long as thou livest, thine own trials shall never cease. I look forward to our next meeting. Honestly, the Kurikara Blade is pretty good for how hilariously, absurdly simple it is to get!  It's let down somewhat by its seemingly low attack power. It's random NoH from 1-4 doesn't help it much unfortunately. It does have the opportunity to outdamage the Amanomi Sword (and thus everything else) but it's really inconsistent about it. Now there's just one last thing... A Squandered Nation I finally finished it! Here, boy... it's yours. I never thought I'd live long enough to make a beauty like this. Longevity has its perks. But I owe it all to you, boy. Thanks for giving me the chance. Prayer The Ame-no-Murakumo-no-Tsurugi is basically just the Amanomi Sword except kind of worse. It makes up for it by not being alignment locked, at least. And with that, we're done here. Let's just take a trip to Irving for the last time before we get into Horologium...  The Mortal Knife is a crap ol' weapon that I'm kind of amazed we never got at the very beginning of Grus. When you're expected to have it; AT Grusite x2, Fairy Helmet x1 (Oberon) and Jirae Mud x2 (Gogmagog).  The Azathoth Knife is just the Mortal Knife but with More Power. Neither are very good, yes. AT Grusite II x1, Drake Board x2 (Kingu) and Fairy Dust x3 (Titania).  Jestcost's all that's left for the guns. It's... okay, I guess? Only has an instant kill skill which is nice and it's basic attack is a multitarget chance to Fear which is fancy. Probably wouldn't bother though, because its's AT Grusite II x2, Tyrant Tongue x3 (Abaddon) and Cold Scythe x1 (Pale Rider).  Tenma Vest exists solely to out me as a dirty hypocrite because it's the Monarch Vest, right? But it has poo poo defense, so it's awful and worthless. It's also functionally way harder to get because it doesn't require beating up exactly one guy by... having him beat himself up: DF Grusite II x2, Avian Wing x3 (Garuda) and Fallen Crown x3 (Gemori).  Oh boy another one of these loving things! +25max HP. That's it. gently caress this. AC Grusite x2, Raptor Jar x3 (Anzu) and Yoma Bridle x2 (Valkyrie).  The Wizard Ring is the best of a bad lot by a loving mile. It's only +25MP as per the above but it also grants an immunity to Expel. Normally that is completely worthless, but since there is a tiny handful of armor that makes that a weakness instead... still not worth it though AC Grusite x2, Night Choker x3 (Succubus) and Nymph Robe x2 (Peri/Sarasvati).  Et finalment, the items what aren't the Magic Incense. Both Mirrors are a bit tedious to get and aren't really worth it for the most part since they usually just make bosses angry. Ironically, Attack Mirrors are REALLY REALLY good for a fight in the future. Since you're more likely than not to do that in NG+ though, they aren't worth farming for. Attack Mirror: DF Grusite II x2, Jaki Tusk x5 (Girimehkala) and Genma Bugle x5 (Heimdallr). Magic Mirror: DF Grusite II x2, Fairy Dust x5 and Avian Wing x5.  Now this is nicer in general. And it's relatively easier to make to boot: AC Grusite x1, Reaper Tux x3 (Guedhe) and Tyrant Tongue x1. And with that, we've made everything we can make. There are unknown items in every category still, but they're all special. And the Vitality Incense. And pffft Vitality Incense is maybe the worst incense, so who cares? Anyway, yes, Horologium. Hopefully the denouement is approaching! Are you excited?
Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:56 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Mar 3, 2017 07:22
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 Horologium... is a sector I am very torn on. On the one hand, it's probably my 2nd favourite sector. On the other hand, it's pretty darn terrible. A Scorched Nation There's some kind of magma-like substance flowing, too... Is this a preview of how Mem Aleph plans to rebuild the Earth? Can we get there in the first place...? I wonder what happened to the guys who left with Jimenez and Zelenin... Maybe at times like this, I should be looking at your will of steel as a role model. Alright, so let's check out Horologium, shall we?  There's a very big, wide-open area at the start with two doors in it. One leads to this that we can't do anything with at the moment. Disappointing, really.  The other leads through a linear path that ends with an elevator, huh...  Which takes us... to B9F. Jesus christ, 10 floors?? Horologium, please. Silence  My journey through the Schwarzwelt... ends here. Morale Can you sense it? She is beyond this door... We are upon the root of the Scwarzwelt... You must burn the figure of the final enemy attempting to destroy mankind into your eyes. Now, let us go...  > A huge, unknown entity is sitting here... So you cannot see her true form... Mem Aleph's fluctuating energies prevent those without power from seeing her.  ...It's dangerous to loiter here. She will notice. ...Y'know, for once I really cannot disagree. We should leave. Mem Aleph's rage can only be calmed with the sacrifice of the billions of humans on Earth... You have grown much during your trials in the Schwarzwelt, Hitonari. But... your power has bent too far in the direction of those who would bind the souls of humans. Just like Zelenin, your crewmate who shed her humanity to become an angel... It does not come from one person alone. Those who came before, those who have yet to be born... We gained that potential when history became a spiral of chained spirits.Infinite energy... and a spiral, huh... I sure hope Horologium is going to get as awesome as this implies.  We have the infinite potential... to learn from the past and pass our knowledge to the future. Take me to Arthur, Hitonari. I'll go into the details of my plan there. Malevolence and Benevolence  The Commander's back on the Red Sprite...! It's me, Gore... Commander Gore of the investigative team.> Gore held his hand over the console...  Beginning normal system restart...> It seems Arthur has regained functionality. ...Arthur restarted? Is Gore doing this!? I'm sorry for that, Arthur. I was a bit rough on you. I'll share everything I know... ...Welcome back, Gore. As ordered, I will establish a data link through the specified channel. Thank you... Arthur's... receiving data...! What the... are these from the Commander's brainwaves!? Is this right...!? The Commander, he's... well, he's dead! He's a freakin' zombie!  Tyler... you showed me a photo once. I remember your daughter's face. Maebe! I haven't forgotten your love for your father. That love will be rewarded. ......! The Commander's back... He's reclaimed his humanity...! And apparently... he knows our future... Men, I must ask that you trust me. I am... still Commander Gore of the investigative team. Silence With all you've seen and learned about the Schwarzwelt... I have to know whether you're up to the job of risking your life to save mankind. The End So, at this point? This is the alignment split. Except, whoops, you don't get a choice (except when you're Neutral then you kind of do). That one decision midway through Grus? That's it. That's the one actual alignment route decision you get. Your actual route is determined less by consistent play, actual decision making and a denouement but rather how much time you have to bother a single Goblin. This is so dumb. Added bonus: you can bug the Goblin to shift alignment after this as well. Your heart already belongs to the god of law, who'll brook no human independence. In The Master's Name Because you have become the true threat to mankind... I have returned to the world of the living... to put a stop to you!> Gore attacked! Meta UberGorestalt Vehement Rage ...I really do not like the Gore fight. It's not a difficult fight, or anything. It's actually really boring and simple. It's just absurdly stupidly long.  Resistance wise, Gore is weak to Wind, reflects Phys and Gun and is also weak to... Poison and Paralysis. Odd choice that. The wiki also says he drains Almighty which is hilariously wrong.  He has an absurd number of skills, starting with Jack's Rain Strike. I feel the need to point out at this point that a lot of things call Rain Strike, Pure Blue and Sunset Melody skills that are unique to Jack. I have no clue.  Heaven Strike is, uh, it is Rain Strike. But it does Phys damage instead of Gun.  E.N.D. is a powerful Phys skill and also it has a chance to inflict Fear. E.N.D. does not stand for anything. It's just like the skill F.A.I.R.Y. in IMAGINE in which its just going for the acronym more than actually BEING an acronym.  If buffs or debuffs are at +/-4, he'll sometimes cast Silent Prayer. Not very often, but it's added to his rotation at least.  This is a bad sign in isolation, since he usually follows it up with one of two things:  This fuckin' thing which exists solely to oneshot Hitonari, because it's powerful Phys, single target and only ever used on him. And this damage is through a Guard AND at +4 Def. Granted he only ever does this after a Charge and never any other time, but still. Or if he doesn't do this, he does Silent Prayer. I've had him primarily use Silent Prayer at this point more than any other, helpfully.  Gore's penultimate skill is a bit of a letdown here, all things considered. It's Diarama+Tarukaja wrapped into one mildly inconvenient package. Now, I haven't mentioned this before but he has 7500HP. With the world's biggest asterisk because:  Gore's last skill is Power Overflow which is just Enduring Soul but way, way worse. It's Enduring Soul + Amrita + Dekunda. loving christ. So, yeah, major boss HP, for a brief comparison: Morax: 700 Mitra: 1200 Horkus: 1800 Asura: 2000 Ouroboros: 2300; 3200 Jack: 2016 Tiamat: 4500 Maya: 6000 Gore: 15000 what the everloving gently caress  And he doesn't even change after that full heal or anything. He just goes back to full HP so the fight takes twice as long. No new moves, no resistance changes, no new gimmick, nothing. It's just DO EVERYTHING AGAIN. At least he's one of the fights that I do know the exact EXP amount he gives - it's 507,000. This is the total split across everyone, for reference. Oh, and you may have noticed that all of his attacks are Phys and Gun. All of them. Even Adaptation. Funny thing about that... End ...I do like this, though. In theory that fight was so awesome that we trashed the Red Sprite. In practice, uhh.... Sorrow  Either way... mankind's time... is finished... ......  At this rate, all functions of the Red Sprite will be unrecoverable. All hands. Good... bye. I wish you all. Good luuuuuck... ...... ...  It's her... Zelenin's attacking the Red Sprite! ...... ...Hitonari!? What's with that cold look on your face!? Law Theme  ...will... wi... ...... Dammit! Stop her! Stop Zelenin from sing... ing... Ugh... ...... Zelenin, Messenger of God... Lead us... To the side... of the light... Come... Let us greet her... let us greet Zelenin... I come to share with you the will of the Lord... They have been made perfect. Now they will attend to the way of the Light. Hitonari... Gore came to you with a method of saving mankind, did he not? The two of us, working together, can make this world a perfect one which glorifies Him. Listen to me, Hitonari. I must tell you about our benefactors. Those three gentle spirits... Thankfully, they never DO get named beyond this. Namely because Balthazar, Melchior and Gaspar (which you may remember more from Chrono Trigger anyway) are NOT the names of the biblical Three Wise Men. In fact, they don't even have known names. Or an exact known number. Three gifts is a known quantity; number of Magi is not. Ah...! They're... they're here... > The light envelops you...!  We are the Three Wise Men, who have watched over the growth of the Earth's spirit. We are the Three Wise Men, who have watched over the growth of the Earth's spirit. We are the Three Wise Men, who have watched over the growth of the Earth's spirit. The foolish Mem Aleph wishes to release the Schwarzwelt's power on Earth and overrun it with demons... We must do our utmost to stop the world's destruction. To deliver Earth into their hands would result in destruction as surely as it would in Mem Aleph's. It is fortunate for us that the Schwarzwelt contains an infinite amount of energy. Hitonari. Collect the artifacts we tell you of now. Once this is done, the Earth may finally be illuminated with the purifying light... The Cosmic Eggs contain power enough to create and swallow an entire space-time continuum. This power that Mem Aleph hopes to use to create a world of demons... We will harness it to create a world of order and light. With our guidance, that power shall become the power of light, and reshape a better Earth.  Now go, and begin your journey to create a world of light. We will also need the final Exotic Matter to open the Vanishing Point. If you feel you have the strength, then go and defeat the crazed mother goddess Mem Aleph. ...We shall give you this to aid your journey. Clear the path to the new world. All rests with you, Zelenin and Hitonari. All rests with you, Zelenin and Hitonari. All rests with you, Zelenin and Hitonari. We shall show ourselves again when everything is in hand... We shall show ourselves again when everything is in hand... We shall show ourselves again when everything is in hand... The final battle to bring about a world of order and light is beginning now. We have been given two orders.  We must act immediately, but let us start with the simpler of the two tasks. And even before that... we must research the forma the Three Wise Men have endowed to us. Please take the forma to the lab. You will help me, and I will help you... Together, we will succeed. We must.
Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:57 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Mar 6, 2017 02:01
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Mraagvpeine posted:Wait, is that game still running? The official servers have been shut down for a long, long while now; almost been a year since they went down. There is a fan server up and running, kind of; it's very outdated in terms of content provided though. A more up-to-date version (made by more competent people at that) is in progress, at least.
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Mar 6, 2017 13:28
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neongrey posted:I would play Strange Journey over PQ any day of the week, no question, no contest. Yeah, I would definitely play SJ again after this over PQ, SMTIV, Devil Children Light/Dark amongst others but that's damning with faint praise in a way. When compared to the worst games released officially in English it sure looks a heck of a lot better but that's setting a low bar. NikkolasKing posted:Never played PQ, does it at least have good music? Obnoxiously, it was the best in the subseries for that (I suppose it had to make up for it being the only good thing about it somehow) until 5 actually existed and ran circles around it.
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Mar 7, 2017 09:27
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Prayer Now that we've made no decision on our final route, and have to begin our post-split voyage... let's see what everyone else has to say. Some things don't change at least. We must now gather our hearts around her and strive to create a new world. Good luck, and may the Lord be with you. It is a shame we were unable to harness his power, but... there is little use in regretting it now. Let us carry out our tasks under Lady Zelenin's authority in memory of our late Commander. Come to me, and I will heal you. I have no strength of arms, but I can still fight our sacred battle. This is my strength. We received a Rare Forma from the Three Wise Men, and Irving does have different dialogue for this part as well. ...Oh? I see you've brought a new forma. We relish the challenge of developin' new equipment with our lab's refined processes.  As far as doors go, looks like we just need Gate Search D to go and we can get anywhere and everywhere. Our trials continue, but one day, we shall receive our reward. I will hone my skills. You will wage a holy battle. Let us support one another's efforts...Well, everywhere except half of Grus. loving Grus, dammit.  To emerge victorious in this holy battle, you will need much high-caliber equipment. Direct us as you please, as you always have. We shall work tirelessly to meet yer demands. Everything is for the new world... Yet with Zelenin's touch, these unclean, muddy thoughts were purified into clear water. Henceforth, I will use all the skill at my command for the new world and its Lord. This is my joy. Silence  It is barring our progress to B9. We request backup from maintenance that they might investigate the elevator and restart it. We will send a supply team to make repairs, but Mem Aleph is likely beyond our reach for now. Review your other mission objectives and prioritize them first...Welp, so... Cosmic Eggs it is, then! Prayer But first, Dent is still around. Everyone seems to have... awakened... Well, whether or not we change too, we've already come this far. I'll go along with you to the end. Oh, and that's just a thing Dent says the first time you try and talk to him. We still have to actually use his Talk option here.  Hitonari is the man to lead us...! Heheh... I guess I embarrassed myself a little saying that. But it's important you know how grateful we all are. A Scorched Nation Y'know, I nearly forgot about this one. It's minor and doesn't matter too much but let's do it now real quick like, since we won't be coming back until way later otherwise. Just gotta set it back to the Original Space and we can get that Gold forma.  It's so special a forma, it's not even from Grus! ...wait what the gently caress how is this here? Hell, WHY is this here?! This is predetermined so its always AC Horolite X. For some reason. lets just go to Antlia now  So, yeah, with Unlock D we can finally get through all these doors that have been sitting around locked the entire time.   ME NOT TELL YOU WHAT HERE! ME PRETEND NO KNOW! GO HOME!Welp, thanks for that Mushussu. Now we know for sure that the Cosmic Egg is here.   This is Mistress Mem Aleph and her minions' turf. The likes of you aren't welcome here. Stay if you want, but don't blame me if you get hurt.At least Berserker is nicer about this, I guess.  Oh and we have dark rooms here. But they're... blue...? What?  This one is just a path to get... 3 Strength Cores...? That's almost a Strength Incense. Weird choice, but I guess I can't complain too much? I guess.  And, don't worry, there's more than just the one that is a Blue dark room for some reason.  That blue room brings us around to a simple linear area that leads us into... Red dark rooms! A use for the Visualiser B at last!  Oh and this is why I never bothered going further south than the second door on the left here.  Oh and the randoms here are... very eclectic. There's still the weird ones from before with, like, Hel and stuff sure, but how about Nidhoggr? Who's from bits of Horologium that we haven't gotten to yet! Anyway, Nidhoggr resists Gun and Electric, is weak to Wind and Expel and Reflects Ice. And his source gives Repel Ice. Oh my.  Nidhoggr's the only new one 'round these parts, so let's just move on to yet another spot we can use the Visualiser B. How very generous, even if it is mostly unnecessary again.  What are you doing here...? I wish you'd died when you were lost in the dark area... I'd have been happier if Jimenez came instead of you...!Wow, rude Gemori! Last time we spoke to you, you were pretty cool. Moving swiftly on, th--  DARK. ROOMS. 3RD STRIKE. YELLOW EDITION. There's some fuckin' mean poo poo with these ones. Mercifully, this isn't one of them.  Thankfully, that's all we've got here. Terminal here, but no heal spot is a mite annoying but we've got ways and means to deal with that honestly. Silence ...Y'know, I have no idea what the heck this white cube-y thing here is. At all. It's just here so this screen isn't blank, I think, maybe? Chaos Theme  I got news for you, buddy: this Cosmic Egg #1 is for Jimenez and no one else! I'm not gonna let you stand in the way of our demon world! Die! An Honor Befitting That Name Wu Kong is a complete chump, honestly. He's not worth videoing for similar reasons to Ryan. In this case, he's weak to Ice and Elec, resists Fire and immune to Phys and Gun. He doesn't even have any interesting skills. Oh wait, he has 1300HP and Taunt. Taunt. Taunt. loving hell son wu kong wants to die so bad we dont even reach the 2nd round Silence Well, regardless, that's our first Cosmic Egg obtained. The pattern on it is kind of a Rorschach test, even. Kind of. It's probably meant to explicitly look like one thing but I can see a few possibilities.  Oh and we're done with the map here now forever and ever too. We will inevitably be back on-screen because of that weird green patterned pillar if nothing else. Palace of Pleasure Let's just keep this train a-rollin' and head on in to Bootes, shall we?  Rest of the 6th floor is just this one corridor that we couldn't access until now. At least it's finally done.  Bootes is very simple and straight-forward in comparison to Antlia. Almost boringly so, even.  Really, the most interesting thing about it, is this room. Because it has 9 fixed Forma in it of all varities.  They're mostly same ol', same ol' at this point. This is as well, but there are three Magic Cores here too so that's something I guess.   If only we could hear Mistress Zelenin's song here in this land we have conquered... Ahh, how splendid it would be!  This land is rampant with demons of destruction, but we wrested a few such places from them. By all means, have a look. Aside from the big ol' buncha forma, only other thing left here of note is the terminal by the stairs down to the 7th floor.  Which is, uh, even smaller left than it seems.  To the point where we're done with the map now. Silence Ohhh, so here's where that ended up. Probably didn't even remember at this point that we still hadn't found this. It obviously wasn't going to be in Horologium, afer all. > There is no sign of its crew and it doesn't seem to be running. Law Theme  My brothers and I have obtained the Cosmic Egg Mem Aleph seeks so desperately. It was no mean feat, but... I hoped to be of service to you. I came to offer you this, that you might create a world driven by the Holy Spirit. Please take it... There will be demons after the Egg, no doubt. But I have had a vision... I see you marching on, striking down their evil... You will use this to create a perfect world, between your power and Mistress Zelenin's...> Yatagarasu left... That's two eggs down, and two to go. Not gonna complain about this one being handed to us for free. A Squandered Nation So, how about Carina? There's two possible spots for where we can look here. This one's been taunting us for, uh, way too long. Doubly so after the end of Grus so let's start here.  ...oh Well, the Amrita Shower is nice at least?  Well, at least we're done with this floor now. Now, where could the Egg be?  Oddly enough, this Angel is important for helping find it. Eh? Your face is quite handsome, for a human's... I'll let you in on a secret, you handsome man. A demon called Horkos once dwelled here, but you haven't seen him in public lately, correct? There must be something there, no?So, in short, the Egg is where Horkos left the Elve behind. Let's head on over there, then!  A curious crew has been at work here of late. I saw them carting around the remains of a ship. Oh. So, the Elve remnants have been carted off to the Sanctum on 2F I suppose. That IS where the locked door was, at least.   So we hid it real good. Hahaha...> The demon left...  It's not really that well hidden, silly Kamapua'a. We know exactly where to look at this point.  Only 2 of the stat Core in this one, though. Gotta put some effort into getting that there Vitality Incense I guess!   Come to wreck this place, huh!? Well, you won't get out of here in one piece! Sooner or later, one of us will make you breathe your last!  WE NO GIVE YOU POWER. NO LET YOU GET IN WAY OF MISTRESS MEM ALEPH. YOU GET CURSED. YOU GET IN WAY OF DEMON WORLD, YOU GET CURSED...  A pity that thou shouldst lose they will. Thou shalt end thy days in slavery. 'Twill be no salvation for thee; only Death's cold embrace. Technically, the area here is even tinier and less interesting than even Bootes was.  I suppose it's kind of impressive that there's that many things to talk to in this tiny section? But not really. Silence Huh, the Elve has actually been taken apart since we last saw it. That's at least different and more visually interesting, I suppose. Chaos Theme  Who is deserve to have? Solely who will retrun a world to true life. That is different. That is not you. Cosmic Egg will be out of hands. Who defy Mistress Mem Aleph, those, by my power, die. An Honor Befitting That Name So, Zhu Yin IS harder than Wu Kong. And by harder I mean he lasts more than 40 seconds.  And by harder, I mean marginally more tedious because he spams the poo poo out of Silent Prayer. He has 1400 HP, no weaknesses, resists Gun and is immune to Charm and Sleep. Silence And just like that, we're almost done with this already. That just leaves Delphinus. A Rotten Nation This is pretty obvious that the Egg is right here. There's a big ol' empty area in the middle of the floor after all.  We have claimed it through battle with the demons of darkness, but... Nay, I shan't complain. It it perhaps not one's first choice for rest and relaxation, but please, make yourself at home. (sic)Alright, so, anyway, this is obvious where it's going right?  Which is why it's wrong. There's still actual dungeon here to deal with. Which is more like Antlia than anything else, how weird.  A whole bunch of conveyer belts, hidden doors that can only be opened from the right (this is important yes), a switch required to get anywhere else...  It's like a mini-Delphinus inside Delphinus. But it's somehow better done than Grus' attempts at replicating it. I dunno.  Anyway, this hidden door here is the most important and actually mandatory. It's how you get back over here after reflipping the switch.  Oh and there ARE teleporters here that put you inside this area.  Thankfully, they're neither mandatory nor obnoxious.  Probably for the best, because this area is a little more involved than Antlia's mini-dungeon crawl was. Albeit preferable because it's not, y'know, a bunch of dark rooms.   The demons of darkness were in a tizzy searching for it, but we fended them off. I'd not thought I would ever have to do battle here. Oddly enough, but arguably mercifully, there IS a shortcut door here. Just in case you want to come back but don't want to deal with the belts I guess.  ...But why would you be coming back if not to finish the map on 1F?  Which, uh, we don't need to do. Handy, that.   Not only are we smiting the demons, but we bear witness to the rebirth of the world... Our future is truly one filled with light. I'll give this area credit for one thing: it gives us an easy Great Chakra. No complaining about this one.  Especially since that's the only thing of note on the entire floor. Silence Well that, and this open, creepy-rear end alien plant seed thing. It REALLY reminds me of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors. I think it's the shape and them hosed up teeth. What doesn't hurt is that Audrey IS in the series! No, really. Just a shame he ain't been around in forever. Law Theme  It shall be given unto the chosen one... The chosen one, the one who shall bring about the world the Lord wishes, is known to me. You are... Tadano. Take this Cosmic Egg. Now go, you who carry out the Lord's will. Your suffering shall end and a wonderous new world will be born. I await that day...> Cherub left...  Return now to the Red Sprite. Let us receive the Three Wise Men's next commands...With all four Eggs now obtained, we're technically halfway done with what we need to do to already. The emphasis is on that technically for what I hope is obvious though. We have to go through like 10 floors of Horologium next... Law Theme In the name of the Three Wise Men, the mission has been completed. As for the elevator leading to Mem Aleph... Oh, I guess I can take back that part about it requiring a long rear end dungeon crawl. Let us thank the Lord that our path has been cleared. With our knowledge and technology, coupled with Zelenin's guidance and the gentle spirits... None may stop us now. The last obstacle in the way of our ideal world is the Exotic Matter Mem Aleph holds. Take the repaired elevator to the bottom floor where Mem Aleph awaits. There, we will devise a plan for the final battle with Mem Aleph.And so, next time... we're absolutely definitely going to beat up Mem Aleph, get her Exotic Matter and make the Millenium Kingdom (which they dance around calling the Millenium Kingdom for some reason). How hard could it be? Judging by the past 100% of the game, I'm going with "not very."
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Mar 8, 2017 02:10
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Prayer Unless I'm forgetting something, this is the last time this route we're going to get a real chance to talk to the crew. We can come back whenever, sure, but... Mem Aleph, the cause of it all deep within the Schwarzwelt, must be destroyed. Good luck, and may the Lord be with you. But we have been touched by the Great Will now. He has corrected our path and led us thus far. Let us defeat Mem Aleph, purify the Earth, and create a paradise together. If you can return to me, I can heal you, but if you fall in your task, nothing can be done... Guard your life with care. You and Zelenin are our only hope... Our wills rest in the weapons to defeat the demons, and in the armor to protect you from their evil. We stand beside you at all times. Yet if they transformed into a shape that can be used in our holy battle... The demons' filth will be purified and become the foundation of our new world. The talent our Lord has given to us will bring salvation even to demons. Hmhmhmhm...Dent's dialogue hasn't been updated, so we'll take a look at something slightly different...  Yggdrasil is okay but not very fancy. If he didn't have his own natural Drain Gun passive, he'd just nullify it instead. He DOES start with Grand Tack as well, but Riot Gun is better so. Except, I really don't want to just give up Kresnik's source anytime ever. But we're still gonna fuse this.  Then gonna go straight to the compendium. Output Password is a VERY important option, for sensible reasons.  Writing the password down and then resetting the game. Immediately, no save.  Then like with Ishtar/Alciel, gonna input that password except this one isn't a phrase or word.  And then we have the Yggdrasil we just made AND we keep Kresnik's source, because it's important. This is a thing I have been doing a lot since like the end of Eridanus, and will continue to do so. Mainly for special sources or top-tier ones (like Kresnik's or, say, Ammut's). Silence   Chaos Theme   No matter how many times you try to reach Mistress Mem Aleph... I will crush you! The Earth... The human world... It will not fall into the hands of the light. We demons are going to save the filthy, rotting Earth. Do not interfere, capricious guest. You are an ignorant piece of flesh, duped by those angels. He saw through the angels' ruses and walked through the gate of power. He will be the standard-bearer of our new workd! If I bring him your carcass, it will be cause for celebration! An Honor Befitting That Name Surt sure is a guy, I guess. He's pretty much on par with Zhu Yin rather than anything else of note.  Naturally, the big fire dude with a sword on fire is weak to Ice, drains Fire...  And does a lot of Fire attacks. He has 1500HP and jobs out pretty quickly all things considered.  Yggdrasil drat near oneshots the guy with a Charged Riot Gun as is.  He's basically just a glorified random encounter. He even drops a regular Assist forma with the usual base 25% chance or a Life Stone with a 10% rate! Silence  > Light is shining in from somewhere... > The light enveloped you...! Law Theme But with your power, there is nothing to fear. Nothing save for Mem Aleph... and your friend. Now that you have the Cosmic Eggs, your next task... ...if to prepare the Vanishing Point to release their energy onto the Earth. Deep in this sector, the Mother rages and curses, fearful of your arrival. She fears the end of all demons. Now go. The final hour is at hand... Now go. The final hour is at hand... Now go. The final hour is at hand... The hour when you march in triumph to a reborn Earth. The hour when you march in triumph to a reborn Earth. The hour when you march in triumph to a reborn Earth. Alas... the elevator has been broken... Can you fix it? It seems we must look for an alternative route to Mem Aleph. I believe there should be another path somewhere in this sector... ...That is an unusual forma you have obtained. Why not return to the Red Sprite and research it further? We can't do anything else in Horologium without doing this, so this has to be useful and important, right?  Thankfully, it keeps up the pattern of giving us the exact thing we need to continue. At this point, there aren't any hidden/locked doors that we can't open. How nice! A Scorched Nation And so now we can enter and explore Horologium for real. Okay, let's do this then.  i have made a huge mistake Well, at least this is a fairly small area all things considered. Still a pain to deal with, though.  We are under the Lord's protection; we cannot fail. Proceed to Mem Aleph, and do not falter. With the enhancements to our suits and our love for one another, we will carve a path. Let us go forth until we stand in the world of the Lord...! The Fear of God A buncha new demons to take a look at, so let's do that right now. Cabracan is pretty bad. Sure, it resists Fire... but it's weak to Wind, and has a 300% modifier for Paralyze, Poison and Mute. Preeeeetty bad.  Cherub is exactly how he looks, though his source is a bit... weird. It teaches Megidola, Repel Wind (this is important!) and.. Hama. Base Hama. What the heck?  Inside the dark rooms, we have Nidhoggr (of course) and a few others. Mushussu is simple and effective-ish. On the one hand, weak to Wind and nothing else. On the other hand, Reflects Elec and has no other resistances either. Yamata-no-Orochi is at least a bit more varied. Resists Fire, is immune to Ice and Poison, weak to Elec, 300% modifier for Charm and a 150% modifier for Sleep. Also, he's a Strength demon of course but his only attack skill is Bufudyne. Good job Orochi.  Ananta has one trick: he casts Dormina. Not even Lullaby. At least his base attack is 1-3 hits on a single target. Reistance-wise, he's weak to Wind and nothing else and is immune to Ice, Elec AND Expel. But his source is ABYSMALLY bad. It teaches Diarahan, Mediarahan and Vigilant. loving hell. A Scorched Nation That's it for new demons for now, so we'll carry on proper-like. There's a few more dark rooms in this area along with a bunch of Unlock/Gate Search D doors but they might as well be normal doors at this point for all the difference it doesn't make.  This section is more annoying for sheer virtue of there being so many different dark rooms that are all segregated from each other. That dumb 3 tile one in the middle is the most dumb, though.  And after all that, we get to a new elevator. Hopefully this one'll be more useful or helpful or something.  On the one hand, it's more than one floor we can go to. On the other hand, none of them are B9F. Welp, in that case we'll start with B1F and go from there.  If this keeps up, we might get to see a bit of a pattern. Also loving poo poo I don't have Medic equipped. It takes up so much space and its not perpetually useful any more so it's on rotation! Blargh.  At least we can just walk around that particular set. Except, those paths to the left from here are another set of Poison tiles or...  A set of Sleep tiles. On the one hand, I could absolutely turn back and get Medic. But I'm arrogant, stupid and don't want to deal with those dark rooms again so...  Kazfiel! We can use this guy now. He's pretty okay, I guess. By default, he's immune to Wind (and neutral to Fire). Ailments are a 50% rate across the board save for Rage and Bomb, which are 100% each. His source is all about the wind too; Garudyne, Wind Amp and... Resist Wind? Sure, okay. The Fear of God While I deal with All The Ailments, let's take a look at the new demons around here. Dakini is weak to Ice and nothing else, and resists Fire, Expel and Curse and nothing else. She uses Agidyne, Mamudo and Frolic, irritatingly enough. Berserker could totally have appeared on the 1st floor but here he is, instead. He's weak to Fire, resists Phys and Ice, he has Tyranny by default and his source gives Luster Candy AND Phys Amp.  Huoniao is exactly how he looks. His source is better than he is, since it drops Fire Breath for Agidyne, Mutudi for Amrita and Kamikaze for, uh, Last Resort. Well, they can't all be winners. A Scorched Nation Having navigated past so, so many poison tiles (and that's not even all of them) we get to an Unlock E door. Huh.  And it gates off a singular AC X. Why. Why bother with an Unlock E for that. Augh.  ...Probably should've come to this terminal BEFORE going for the Unlock E door. Whoops.  At least now we have Medic equipped just in time for these damage tiles also gating off an AC X Forma.  And a regular AC Horolite over on the far left. That's everything we can access right now on this floor, but we are FAR from done with the map here.  So, B2F next then. At first glance, there's a single (relatively) giant room that's empty and... that's it.  But there's a Gate Search D door here. And we HAVE to find this sooner or later. It's not exactly hard to get to at least.  Also hey look what's right here. Nice to get this out of the way early.  Divine light shines in like the morning sun and the glow of magma seeps from the cracked ground... > The data is corrupted, preventing you from reading further. > You recevied a call over the radio.   It seems you've picked up some data from a black box. I've been compiling all the data we collect. Could you please return to the deck?We'll do that later; for now, we'll keep trying to get... somewhere.  Like this. I'm only pointing out that this is a locked door for a simple reason.  ...It leads to a 3x3 poison tile room. That has nothing in it.  That is so insanely dumb and petty and ridiculous that I can't get mad at it. Like, why would you ever do that? Because gently caress you, that's why.  Only other thing on this floor that we care about right now is a second elevator. Sure, okay. Maybe this one will take us to B3F.  Or not. It's just a different part of B4F. We were off there next anyway, so might as well use this one first.  Well, this proves that it's not giving each floor its own gimmick. Not sure if that's a good thing or not, really.  Gonna ignore the straight damage tiles for now. Don't wanna have to deal with that right away.  ...Well, that's mildly annoying. And by mildly, I mean that now we have to go back through B2F's poison mire later to see what's behind those damage tiles. The Fear of God New demon 'round these parts. Vetala has exactly one thing of note that isn't visible right now. His basic attack has a chance to inflict Poison. With a 30% base rate. An Honor Befitting That Name Nothing else new on the floor itself, so let's take a look at the Enemy Search demons now. Nergal is pretty simple on paper; he's weak to Ice, resists Fire, is immune to Expel, Curse, Paralyze and Poison. Skill-wise, he has Mudoon, Hamaon and Heaven's Bow which is the MT Heavy Gun skill. I somehow got in my head for a while that he reflects Gun, so I ended up fighting him legit a few times. It's not difficult but he takes a while compared to most things. Then I stopped being stupid and starting Rock Bullet-ing him. Nergal has a 20% chance to appear solo, and a 27.5% chance to appear with a Nidhoggr buddy.  Kama's more simple but also kind of annoying. He's weak to Fire, resists Physical and is immune to Gun and Expel. No ailment resistances. But he's immune to Gun so I can't turn him into a statue. He ALSO has Heaven's Bow, but more annoyingly he has Charm Strike to boot. And Luck is his best stat, yes. It's very appropriate because Kama, but it's also really annoying because Charm. Spawn rates are the same as Nergal, but repace Nidhoggr with Ananta. A Scorched Nation So, B4F is similar to B2F in that it is riddled with tiles but they're more flat-damage than B2F's semi-sneaky Poison stuff. Except B4F has a Heal Spot so whoops. No longer an issue. Gonna go back through B2F to the left-side elevator to see what lies beyond the damage tiles over yonder now.  A Summon Stone is actually genuinely more nice now than it normally would be.  More important is that there's another elevator down here as well. This is the only way to get to somewhere we haven't been yet, so this has to be progress. Plus, look B3F! It exists!  But first we'll head on back to 1F. There's stairs down here, apparently, but I don't see anything like that in here. Might make more sense if/when we see stairs going up. We COULD use these to get to something special, but we're gonna avoid the gently caress outta B1F for a long while.  The real reason we're back here is that there's a hidden door here. It can only be opened from this side, yeah, so we just unlocked our first proper useful shortcut since Eridanus. Thank loving God.  Also, level 66! Let's make Ongyo-Ki now, sice he's kind of awesome. He's a special fusion of the three other guys.  This is a good Ongyo-Ki base, but...  Yeah, this is better (albeit still not the best!). If for whatever reason you remove that Reflect Gun passive, he nulls it instead. Expel being his only weakness is both annoying and not a big deal. Sadly, his Source does NOT give Repel Gun fixed but it could be a Bonus Skill which would be very, very good.  Anyway, B3F! Let's see where this leads, shall we?  It's a bit out of a walk to get to these, but the Bead Chain is still very nice. If anything, it's a bit more surprising that there's just one.  And then through that Gate Search door, we can grab a Great Chakra. That's also very, very nice.  And 2 Somas. Two! Well then, don't mind if I do.  Can open a... shortcut(?) from this side between another Heal Spot and Terminal. At least now we can see that the stairs ARE in fact actual stairs.  One-way door from the stairs that sticks us with these ominous green spots. That really looks like some kind of gross waste or, like, bile or something.  But it isn't. It's a conveyer belt. This part of B2F is a giant tedious, ridiculous conveyer belt maze. Whew boy.  Oh and there's a few holes around here. ...Oh gently caress, I forgot. Holes didn't appear in Grus either! Thankfully.  There aren't too many holes here or anything, but there are so many ways of getting stuck needing to use the one over on the right. No other way out of that area. The Fear of God A couple new demons around here as well. Let's take a look at them now, shall we? Aside from what you can see here, Cerberus has a 300% Charm modifier and a 150% Sleep modifier. His basic attack has a 10% chance to inflict Poison and outside of very special Password demons, he's the only source that guarantees Preparedness.  Ganesha is a wee bit more/less intereting. The usable version has these skills but adds Endure to it as well (it is such a giant relief that the enemy version does not have that...). If we make one and remove the Repel Wind passive, he still nulls it at least.  So many conveyer belts. So, so many... There's also the world's most obvious hole here if we were to beeline for those stairs. Remember what the notes in Bootes said! "Take the long road" always applies.  So we're gonna do just that, and after about 30 minutes of tediously navigating through all these conveyer belts for the sake of the map, we get to another heal spot.  And more importantly, another terminal. This is much more useful when playing, considering how close it is on paper to the previous one. But it's a godsend from my perspective.  Stairs are just here around the corner from the terminal.  They lead through a small, super linear series of mini-corridors that lead to B3F in the end.  I heard you'd collected all the Cosmic Eggs, but... You won't have your way with the Earth or Mistress Mem Aleph!  He's solid. I know he won't betray us demons.  But in truth, they can do nothing without a command from on high. There is nothing to fear. And humans? Incoherent creatures who believeth different things from morning to evening. A pack of fools who drive themselves to ruin and seek the cause elsewhere. We must correct these errors. Yes... we must take back the Earth by the power of Mistress Mem Aleph...! For some reason, there's another Heal Spot right here as well. It's not like it takes very long to get here from the previous one.  There's even a terminal as well. I dunno, I don't get this.  Ah well, at least there's stairs here that lead down to B4F again.  Gate Search E's getting a decent use here, on par with Grus. Makes sense.  ...Not been used for anything worth a poo poo so far, mind you, but it's there.  And then there's ANOTHER Heal Spot and Terminal right here as well! This one I do understand the logic of, at least.  Nothing else over in that area, so we've gotta go over here. That one way door isn't a big deal, thankfully.  I suppose teleports here were inevitable. Welp, let's deal with this then. This is ALMOST better than Grus. Almost. The Fear of God We'll worry about that in just a moment, though. Last two new demons are around now. Lilith here is semi-unexpected as a random encounter demon (though not unprecedented). Regardless,she's weak to Gun, resists Fire, Ice, Wind and Curse, drains Elec AND is immune to Charm. Her skills of note include Marin Karin and Charming Bolt. Which is INFINITELY WORSE than you think it is. It is Mazionga with a 25% chance to Charm. It costs 65 MP. Maziodyne costs 30; Mazionga costs 18. what the everloving gently caress  Rangda is, well, Rangda. She reflects Phys and Gun and is weak to Elec. She has Debilitate by default, even in her enemy demon form. And she really likes to use it to set up Magarudynes. A Scorched Nation Speaking of Rangda, and all the teleports, we stumbled upon a Rangda here who tells us something important.  I wasn't teleported here last time, I don't reckon... Maybe the warp I'm thinkin' on was the next one over. This is a very big, very important hint. Very important.  Better be careful, Hitonari, or you'll be teleported in circles. Is there some other trick to this...? I keep ending up here... There is, in fact. And it's really, really dumb! So, this teleporter here in the top-right corner? It drops you in the bottom-left room. Except on a full moon. That puts this weird red glow on the wall.  Taking that one teleporter on a full moon makes it send you somewhere completely different. Why? Because gently caress you, that's why! The difference between this and the funny dumb poison room is that this one is both mandatory and actively bullshit. Sure, Rangda tells you about it. Sure, that one guy hints at it, but that's it. And Rangda herself is gated behind a teleporter!  The biggest good thing about that dumb idea is that we only need to deal with it the once. And that really is not exactly much of a real high point or anything.  And then over here there's just 3 one way doors that each lead to teleporters. Sure, okay, so long as they don't have a dumb extra gimmick attached.  Mercy of mercies, they don't. The middle teleporter over on the left is the only one we need to take and that brings us to an area that lets us open another shortcut to skip further past this.  This field where Mem Aleph makes her lair is proving to be quite a challenge. But the Lord, His followers and Zelenin are all on our side. We must surely be more than halfway to Mem Aleph. Our resolve shall clear a path! That item container you probably noticed contains 2 Balms of Rising. Not too shabby, can't really complain too much about that. Crisis Hitonari, demons await you further in. Please proceed with caution. A Scorched Nation So, I guess B5F is gonna be dangerous or something. Fortunately, there's an elevator right here as well that only lets us go to 1F...  Which is kind enough to give us a perfect shortcut from the entrance back to those stairs down to B5F. Which explains nicely why that third heal spot/terminal in quick succession was there. Prayer Also gonna take a quick jog back to Irving to see what new things we have, in case we got something useful. Alas, the Monopole is not that. It's boring, it's basic and its only skill has a super misleading name. Weakshot is just heavy Gun damage on a single target (base power of 150). AT Horolite x2, Brute Fur Coat x2 (Berserker) and Divine Column x1 (Cherub).  Gigasmash is kind of worse and also kind of not. Shock Shot is Weakshot but it does Elec damage instead. AC Horolite x2, Drake Eyeball x2 (Mushussu) and Drake Kaina x2 (Nidhoggr). A Land Bringing About Life So, yeah, anyway, Horologium B5F is... very different to what came before, huh? If this is like with Asherah, whatever waits is going to jump if we take a step ahead. Silence And, sure enough! There's no need to hold back. C'mon over.  Now me, on the other hand... Chaos Theme I don't know how/why Jimenez can go Super Demon here, but I'm not gonna complain too much about it. It's a fairly simple design, but it's also really cool.  I like it too. Hahaha... But man... I never thought I'd have to beat you. I beat tons of demons, and now I'm fighting humans... No... It's rude to all the folks back on Earth to call weak-asses who gave up life on their own "human." But I guess those're your true colors, huh? Well, guns, swords, choose your poison... It ain't gonna stop my claws. Now c'mon, Tadano. Let's finish this. I'll stomp you and carry out my real duty... The duty to save those poor schmucks who had the bad luck to be born human! Soil Jimenez Take The Shield, Raise The Spear  So, Jimenez is actually a pretty tricky fight on paper. He can be a right bastard depending on what moves he decides to use.  Hellfire is on the lower-side of things he can do, since it is just a more powerful Maragidyne. A much, MUCH more powerful Maragidyne but still.  Left Hand is a very simple skill, but don't let him do it a lot!  It's just Luster Candy with a different name but if he gets to +4 then that's one of three triggers for Bad Times.  Shuffler is just multi-target Bites the Dust. It's more annoying than it sounds, because his basic attack is a single hit on everyone. Fortunately by the time he really starts adding this to his repertoire, his basic attack is phased out entirely.  Chaos Tack is a very, VERY powerful Gun skill. It deals a ton of damage to random targets but it has a nasty secret bonus: it deals a lot more damage to anyone that isn't Chaos aligned! Yikes!  Dark Matter is his final skill and it's a bit of a bastard, mostly because it's Almighty of course, but there are only three scenarios in which he uses it: 1. He gets to buff to +4 2. His HP dips into the Critical (sub-25%) range 3. You use a Reflect skill/item Note that despite whatever you read on GameFAQs, number 1 of those does not guarantee it every turn. It doesn't even make it likely; it's just A Possibility.  So, Jimenez's stats are pretty simple. He has 8000HP, infinite MP, 53 Strength, 53 Magic, 53 Vitality, 50 Agility and 53 Luck (he's slightly worse at being an SMTIV demon than your average SMTIV demon basically). Resistance wise, he drains Fire, resists Gun, is immune to Expel and Curse (but notably not all ailments) and he's weak to Ice. Except he just drained Ice. Jimenez is NOT a barrier change boss. Well, not really. Once his HP dips below 25%, at the start of the next round his Ice weakness just changes into a Drain with no fanfare or mention or anything. It does NOT change back at any point. The End Aside from that one wrinkle, the biggest issue by far is how often he uses Chaos Tack and who gets hit by it. Dark Matter is also very nasty if (big if) it ever happens. No items, piss-all Macca but 592,000 EXP. That's not too shabby I guess? Surprised/annoyed that he doesn't drop anything though. End Silence No... We still have... Mother... Mem Aleph... This time... as a demon... from the start... Law Theme The power of light cannot fall to the forces of darkness. ...You are all right, yes? I hope you are not being needlessly sentimental about it... ...I knew well his like on Earth. Now, let us hurry to create a new world of light.
Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Mar 10, 2017 01:25
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A Land Bringing About Life it was very brief before but now im gonna HIGHLY RECOMMEND listening to this  Alright, so now we have a lot more Horologium left to go.  So, fun fact about Horologium. It introduces several new dungeon gimmicks. Yes, really.  Yes, there is more than that one stupid Full Moon thing. And here's the second and it's arguably worse:  Invisible floors. Whenever these things are involved your map is useless until you reveal them.  Yes, your map in parts of Horologium - and only Horologium - actively lies to you.  This is so, so awful. I personally think the Full Moon teleport is actively worse because that's a one-and-done thing, so this you can eventually get used to. Sort of.  But the Full Moon thing DOES have stuff that helps you figure out what you're supposed to do outside of pure luck. Because your map lies to you here, you could easily miss that these exist for the longest time. The Fear of God Since there's even less in the map to see than normal, let's take this opportunity to talk about these here new demons. Hecatoncheir is really, really, REALLY boring for a level 70 demon. He resists Phys and is weak to Ice. That's it. His basic attack can hit 1-3 times on a single thing but that's all. He is so, so boring.  Hresvelgr, meanwhile, is relatively quite terrifying! She's weak to Gun and Fire, but she compensates for it by reflecting both Ice and Wind! Sadly, her Strength is her dumpstat and her Magic is mediocre. Her best stat is that she has 51 Agility, which is so, so not good. Also her source is the earliest guaranteed Cold World source. It's worth even less now than it was when King Frost had it, to be honest.  Fenrir isn't quite Hresvelgr, but he is fairly varied. He's weak to Wind, resists Fire and Ice, is immune to Curse, Petrification and Paralysis and he drains Electricity for good measure. His default skills are Charge, Madness Crush and Retaliate. His source is ALMOST identical, but it drops Charge for... Ice Breath...? What. A Land Bringing About Life Okay, so, we have these stairs in the bottom-right corner of the map. These are pretty important so it's a fairly good idea to not miss these.  At least not if you want what this gives, and you very well might! It's a very handy rare forma...  And also doubles as letting us finish our first Horologium floor altogether!  We're going to immediately turn that Rare Forma into whatever it gives us from Irving.  Enemy Search C adds a whole 5 demons to Enemy Searches. These 5 are identical in all Sectors but the formation for the fight can vary depending on the Sector. Appearance rates are also identical, save for how Antlia/Bootes are 20% each because no Fiends.  Speaking of which, getting this has no effect on Fiend spawn rates at all. It was a total of 5% before; it's a total of 5% now.  We'll look at what Enemy Search C gives later on, because it's very important. Very, very important.  We've been able to kind of see some of the equipment this lets us make since, uh, the start of Fornax really. Just keep that one in mind for later.  But we'll get to that when we get to that. We've got B5F over and done with now.  Like, actually completely done with. I do like how the map here is mirrored, but that's not really all that helpful because it's not super-obvious for a while.  B6F looks an awful lot like B9F did in the brief moments we saw that before. Except it ALSO introduces a new dungeon gimmick!  Grus had illusory walls that were sometimes real. B6F of Horologium has walls that aren't walls until you're approaching. They don't get marked as walls on the map though.  They're just left as unexplored squares on the map, which is one of the most irritating things imaginable. At least it is if you're me. I dunno, I just hate having these gaps on my map!  Mercifully, that only takes up a small area but every gap in that map is a pillar of lava.  Surt turns up on B6F, but only on B6F for some reason? I dunno, he might turn up elsewhere but he's pretty rare. Probably because he's level 77 and therefore the highest level of all random demons unless I'm forgetting something. He's basically identical to lovely miniboss Surt except he has way, way less HP. That's it.  So, the outside is a minefield of teleports that all dump you on this one square. This is almost a bizarre mercy but you never really know at first blush if you're done or not, because it's an invisible floor section as well.  So we're going to ignore the gently caress out of that for now, and check out what's over here instead.  ...Well this was worth a Gate Search E door.  Y'know, I genuinely thought this and the Gumonji Mirror were Gold Formas but I guess I remembered wrong. My bad!  But, yeah, the Raven Stone is our final rare forma and so you know exactly what it's going to give us:  This is a giant godsend, even though it's not used for any mandatory sections. There is an entire area that might as well be loving impossible without this. It's such bullshit and I hate it.  But that's also something we'll worry about later. For now, we have one of the possible avenues of progress to deal with.  Sadly, this brings us back inside to an area riddled ever-more with rising lava pillars. Far, far too many of them. It's just annoying, really.  At least there's a heal spot and terminal here if you need them. How bizarrely generous. Prayer Gonna use that Terminal to hand over all these things we've got to make some new gear with Irving. I'm not promising it's all good or worthwhile, mind. Sol Knife speaks for itself on that front really; AT Horolite x2, Brute Fur Coat x2 (Berserker) and Raptor Sun x2 (Huoniao).  Masamune should by all accounts be really good rather than a middling trash tier sword. AT Horolite II x2, Femme Necklace x5 (Dakini) and Haunt Ribs x4 (Vetala).  Earth Mail is on paper really good, right? It has a great defense upgrade, grants an immunity and only one weakness. But having a weakness at all now is a very bad thing! DF Horolite x2, Drake Kaina x2 (Nidhoggr) and Wilder Earth x1 (Cabracan) if you really want to take that risk.  Different weakness, slightly higher defense version of the Earth Mail. Just look up ever so slightly. DF Horolite II x2, Night Snake x5 (Lilith) and Snake Hoods x3 (Ananta).  Alice has a Really Good source; Black Rider is pretty okay. Remember, he's not really weak to Fire at all. If I could be bothered to swap Resist Wind for Concentrate, he'd be really really hard to kill. As is, he's just semi-hard to kill. A Scorched Nation Alright, so back to Horologium we go! On the way back in, I noticed that I missed stuff over here.  It's not really a shortcut over here or anything, but it is helpful anyway? Kind of?  I did also miss these Chakra Pots in the bottom corner. They're definitely worth not missing. I mean, sure, we CAN buy them from Irving but this is way easier.  Oh and there's an easily missed hidden door here.  It conveyer belts us into a hole. That's my favourite.  And thankfully helps us finish off the floor altogether.  This is the only way to access the upper half of B3F but thankfully there's nothing here that necessitates running back to B2F and dropping down a lot.  There's just a four-way intersection at the center and 3 give you things at the end. This is the only one that is an item container though; the other 2 are just crappy fixed Gold forma.  The fourth path gives us the rest of the floor's map, and our way back to the main path. A Land Bringing About Life Speaking of our way back to the main path... after navigating the maelstorm of annoyance that is the teleporter minefield, we get to this elevator. At long last.  And it only takes us to B9F, huh? Something about this seems too easy...  Well, at least we can see Mem Aleph's chamber from here? Oh and speaking of too easy, B9F has no random encounters. I don't mean no new ones, I mean none. Period. At all.  There's a couple teleports here as well, but this one just lets you go where you need to. The other one brings you back here.  Gonna head on up to B6F, since we're on the opposite side altogether now.  Ignore the giant open area in the top-right for now. That's barren and empty at the moment.  At first glance it just dicks you over by giving you a tiny corridor with two lava pillars. Fortunately, there's a hidden door here.  This leads us nicely to the stairs down to B7F.  ...Which is a tiny linear corridor leading to this switch. Uh, sure?  The switch doesn't do anything other than move the... pillar? it was on. And there's more obstructing this spot still anyway.  I see what the deal is here, so we'll head on back to B6F and see if we can find the rest of it.  This might get a little bit difficult to follow so just bear with me for a moment and enjoy this Megidola Stone.  We'll ignore the rest of this area for now and open this door instead. This door is important.  There's a switch here that does NOT move a pillar. It does something more important...  I sure hope this is true, because if so this is a goddamn godsend.  And sure enough! We can actually get to places again now.  This door was actively adjacent to a lava pillar, so it must lead to something really good right?  Haha, funny story about that!  Anyway NOW we'll head back to the area where we got the Megidola Stone and find a new elevator.  This lets us go to B7F, of course, but it also lets us go to 1F, huh?  Which is important because it lets us open the last shortcut. Handy, that!  No point in taking the elevator to B7F though. It puts you in a 2 square corridor that... has nothing in it. Odd.  Oh well, now that we've turned the magma off on B6F we can access the stairs by the terminal. I guess that will have to do instead.  As an added bonus, we're done with the floor('s map) now to boot.   To inspire me, one who is not human... Zelenin is incredible! Tadano, let us soundly defeat Mem Aleph! Because the second half of Horologium apparently has to have a new gimmick on every floor, B7F has one as well.  It's not so much an invisible floor this time, at least. You CAN see the floor itself properlike. It's just invisible walls instead. The map thing from before still applies though.  There IS more to this gimmick than you'd think from that at least. For now, we've just gotta go through here.  It's where the second switch here is. But there's still at least one more to go. Now we need to figure out how to get there.  There's nothing else we can do here, so we'll head on over here to where there's a Phase Shifter. We're gonna be going to Sanctum B.  It's a big ol' area in comparison to before, and it lets us get to this Great Chakra, helpfully.  It also lets us open a door here. The doors are constant through all spaces, as you might recall. This IS important, yes.   Splendid work. They say he was once your dear friend, but in his new state, he was only an enemy. You were not wrong in the least. If the demons of darkness were, for argument's sake, able to remake the Earth... It would be a world filled with souls like his... How ghastly. You definitely noticed that terminal behind Azrael. Don't even pretend you didn't. There's a heal spot just here for good measure.  And this. It's still very nice to just get given one of these no questions asked, y'know?  They are therefore beyond our salvation. ...In truth, the humans have gone a long way toward a similar state. In order to establish love and order on Earth... we may have to employ harsh methods...  Not to mention the evil energy that fills this place... Even I, who no longer know fear, am trembling. Also Ganesha, and it's actually behind you. Because you can't get here from the other path. Yeah, I dunno. How did they manage that without the enemy noticing? There must be some path that leads directly here... Well, we can open this hidden door from here at least. Now the final shortcut back here IS open for realsies. This might be useful later, I guess.  But first we'll switch on over to the Sanctum A. We need this one to get anywhere else now.  Like this. This GS E door is only accessible here.  It lets us get this and a single AC X! That's it. Boy I remember when I thought that the E doors would be, uh, good. And that was validated for a while, thanks to Beads of Life. The Fear of God So, how about these here new demons, eh? There's one for each sanctum and one more in the original space for good measure. Pales is semi-boring and exactly how he looks, though his enemy version is the second and last demon to have Dry Sea. Which is something, I guess? Usable Pales drops it for Vigilant instead. That's cool with me. Also his source gives Repel Ice. Since we got Drain Wind earlier, you might think that it's nice seeing an actual SMT game that finally acknowledges that Repel is better than Drain in, uh, every way. It kind of both does and doesn't; it's weird and dumb. It basically gives them both around about the same time for some bizarre reason.  Fafnir is pretty solidly decent Strength demon. He's not that exciting but he's pretty okay. He resists Phys and Gun and is weak to Elec and Wind. Also 300% Mute modifier.  And lastly, somewhat rarely we have Tzitzimitl. She's immune to Expel and Curse and that's it. No other weaknesses or resistances by default. She DOES have Drain Elec as a passive but is neutral if you remove it. Her source does not give it by default. Welp. A Land Bringing About Life So, we've got a door over here that we couldn't get to before.  It lets us get to yet another switch. Sure not gonna complain here.  'Specially because it lets us continue onwards now.  There's another terminal and heal spot up here for good measure, and the stairs down to B8F.  Okay, so real quick: the map for this floor is a loving tedious pain in the rear end. Gotta phase shift for each area and then head on up and back here from various angles and there isn't even any extra items or anything. It's just about 4 whole tiles that can only be mapped this way. gently caress this map, jeez.  Moving onwards, B8F doesn't really introduce a new gimmick per se. At least not in the same way. This happens thrice as we walk from one side to the other. It does this every single time you enter the floor. Every time. Despite that, this floor is the best place to grind stuff like Onogoro Stones just because there's so many Forma spots.  O Lord, give your children strength to fight. ...Had you not ended his life, both he and the world would have been on a course to destruction. You are the warrior of salvation. Go to Mem Aleph with that honor in your heart. So, we're here at long last, huh?  A set of stairs leading down to B9F... It's not our first time getting to B9F, but it's the first time we've walked there.  Random encounters are still disabled down here, so we get a nice reprieve.  Also a fair few item containers just to collect a few things, that we may or may not need.  Well, this one leans much closer towards "may not." Probably.  A hidden door right here, next to one last terminal and heal spot.  And that's all we were missing to complete the map...  Sadly, we can't reactivate the elevator or anything. It's just permanently broken; shame too, it'd make a really good final shortcut.  Oh well, that's not important any more. What matters is that through this door, Mem Aleph awaits...
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Mar 12, 2017 18:02
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I'd call this a special bonus update but really if you think about it, that was yesterday.
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Mar 13, 2017 07:47
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Bit of a heads up right off the bat here that this update maaaaay just be a little bit NWS. I don't know why you would be reading SMT stuff at work but, uh... ANYWAY! Prayer So, before we go and deal with Mem Aleph we've got a few loose ends left dangling. We should tie them all up nicely now that we've got a chance. Please give me the data you found. This data might be very helpful in enhancing the Demonica's functions. Wait here, please.> Gekko took the data he received from you and took it to the lab. > ......... > Gekko returned from the lab.   Copernicus is super-niche and arguably comes too late to be really useful. It guarantees that any fusion will be an Accident. This DOES have very niche uses yes - why hello there easy Zealot fusions - but it's ultimately just here to make completing the Compendium easier. That's the last of the black boxes we needed to collect. Thanks for all your hard work out there, Crewman Hitonari.Let's see, so if we're going to do this in a sensible order, what's been waiting the longest now? Why, Thoth of course! We need to leave the Sprite again for Horologium regardless, so let's get the harder one done first. Encounter Huh? What am I talking about? Don't act like you don't know! You came for this--the other half of that tough book! Here, man! Take it! > The right and left halves of the Book of Thoth suddenly drew together! > The two turned into one book!  Man... that was an awful lot of work, though. As you can see, I'm a fiery guy. If I hadn't been careful, I coulda ended up handing you a lump of charcoal. Though I guess in the end, I didn't need to worry about that... See, that book doesn't burn. Man... the god of books sure does some strange things. Oh... uh, I'm done here, huh? Well, I gave you what I was supposed to. Do whatever you're going to with it.> The demon left... Let's take this on over to Thoth now, shall we? A Land Controlling Roads Hurm... excellent, my boy! I knew you could do it. Huh, so we got Monday instead of Saturn(us) for Saturday? Can't say I expected that one. Feels weird to leave Saturn and the Sun out, but weekend so I guess it makes sense. Kind of. And with that, I'm fresh out of riddles. I could, of course, make it much more difficult than this... Y'know, I'm pretty sure that Thoth is just trying to save face here. You felt it, didn't you? In those riddles of moderate difficulty... The splendid sensation of searching for and finding the riddle's answer on your own. That itself is wisdom. Knowledge takes shape in this world by the agency of action. Hurm... I think I can trust a wise man like you with this sword. Take it, my boy. This is our "real" reward for this sidequest chain and it is very worth it! Because of its unparalleled power, I've made sure people missing a few screws don't swing it around... But I don't think I have to worry about that with you. Oh, so it's a Law-aligned weapon, huh? Makes sense. Hopefully we're gonna put this to great use!  Or maybe it's Neutral-specific instead? This is less clear than it should be. If you believe you are equal to the lord of the heavens, take up this sword. ...My role ends here. From now on, I'll play the part of an old man watching the stage from his comfy seat. Show me, my boy!> Thoth left...  So, the Divine Sword IS Neutral only and while it is weaker than the Amanomi Sword, it's only 2 points of Attack lower.  Really, the three top alignment weapons are all very good but Vajra is technically the worst and the best simultaneously.  Notably, the passages do not give us the password in the order we received them.  It's actually kind of a mini-riddle in its own right, in theory.  In practice, the solution is VERY obvious.  Moon-Tyr-Odin-Thor-Frey. Or, Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday.  The password itself is just the week as well. I guess according to this Sunday is the first day of the week. Huh.  ...Well, this is pretty darn good! Set here is very special; his level is lower than his base but his stats are higher. He has a very different set of skills as well, huh? Hey, dumb Anthony sidequest: this is how you do this right! Resistances are identical to how they look here. That base attack DOES petrify - its a base 5% rate. His source gives War Cry, Void Wind AND Void Elec! Pretty nice, indeed. Can't actually buy him until we're level 83 though (spoilers: not happening). A Scorched Nation Alright, so into Horologium we go yet again. We need to find Fafnir and these stairs are one of two ideal ways to get to one. We could go right instead, but B1F here has something very important.  ...So, the rest of B1F is a gigantic dark room maze and it loving sucks. A lot. It starts off being relatively nice and generous, though. Yes, really. Encounter But first, here's Fafnir. Nice and quick.  ...Though I could guess, from thine odd behavior... 'Tis something thou desirest. That's right. Ah! Honesty becomest thou. And? What be thy wish? Give me part of your body. 'Tis understandable that thou couldst scarcely pass up a mechanickal dragon... ...Very well, thou mayst have it. But first, a question... Wherefore dost thou want it?For some reason, the word "wherefore" just trips people up in like every context ever? It means why. That's it. Mere curiosity. Thy will is pure and plain... A line drawn in the depths of a shallow world. ...Then I shall tell thee the secret of the mechanickal dragon. Thou mayst select one of these. Now... choose.Honestly, the screws are the only wrong answer. Scales are probably the best one to collect here, in my opinion, but circuit is maybe the best for general play. You'll see. I can't have them all? The secrets of a mechanickal dragon be generally too far advanced for any human... Give me the circuit. 'Tis thine. Son of man, where wilt thou go with these secrets of the mechnickal dragon in hand? What doth thy will reflect 'gainst the wavering bonds of this world? ...Show me.> The demon left... A Scorched Nation ...Y'know, that door being a one-way door makes a lot of sense but I still dislike it on principle. Back to 1F via the elevator and we'll take a brief moment... Prayer > You hand Fafnir's parts over to Tanaka... Ooh...! So this is Fafnir's...! What am I doing just standing here!? I've got materials to analyze!One fade to black later...  And let me tell you... these parts are INCREDIBLE. The readings I got off these puppies surpassed my expectations in every respect. But you won't see me moping about it. Nope! I'm happy, in fact. Now I have a challenge! Oh, that's right... I also succeeded in extracting some energy from the parts. It looks like it can be used to boost our equipment. I made a little something as a test. It's yours, as a reward for helping me. Not to brag or anything, but that should be pretty high quality. We're coming up to the end of our mission... If this makes a difference in the last battle, well, there'd be no higher honor than that. It would be one of the proudest moments of my life... Alright, I'm going to spend some time researching this thing. You work for the present--I'll work toward the future. We can do it.We'll see what the Dragon Ring can do in a moment, but first...  You completed all the odd jobs I gave you... You're the best, man. ......> Dent's attitude suddenly changed...  You are indeed the one who will lead us. Please excuse my previous coarse behaviour. They are all thankful, and blessed your name. We all pray... that you will stand victorious before the Mother. So, the Dragon Ring? It gives the main character Endure. Welp, that's going on right away. Sorry, Odin Ring! Your time is up. We'll get the rest of Fafnir's possible gear before we're done, don't worry. You'll understand then why I recommend getting the scales instead but this is Very Good as an alternative! A Scorched Nation ...Okay, so, there's one more thing in here that is gated off by the dark room hellmaze.  Thankfully, for the Most Important Thing we just go south here.  That brings us around to these stairs... back up to 1F...?  And a Barong to talk to, huh...?  NAME RANGDA... SHE EVIL WITCH... ME FEEL RANGDA ENERGY. SOMEWHERE IN THIS WORLD... BUT ME NO KNOW WHERE. RANGDA... WHERE SHE? HOW ABOUT IT...? CAN YOU FIND RANGDA...? Yes. HMM...! ME THANK YOU...! YOU TAKE THIS. THE SACRED MIRROR ME CARRY. GIVE TO RANGDA. SIGN OF DUEL... ...ME COUNT ON YOU.Well, we know where Rangda is at least. We'll go through that one-way door right behind Barong here.  That lets us finish the map for the area, and only leave... B1F unmapped... Then we'll take the elevator to B4F where Rangda is most prevalent. Encounter Wait a moment... what is that you have in your hands...? No... you don't have to tell me... This... this wave...! Barong! It's from Barong! Here, give me that! Hmph... the designs on this are so flashy and irritating... I hate seeing this thing thrown around carelessly. So, then... do you know the story of myself and Barong? No. Then I'll tell you. Listen with both ears open, okay, dearie? How long, you ask? Hmm... Why don't you take a guess? Ten years? A hundred years? Maybe a thousand? From a human perspective, you might even think ten thousand years was an awfully long time. But not so for Barong and I... He is my archnemesis forever. That's how long we've been reincarnating and fighting. Heeheehee... How interesting...! I thought the edge of the world would be a quiet place, but... Barong has come! The cycle of our karma will continue here, too! ...Then I suppose I'd best send a response to Barong. Here, take this. ...We'll be with each other for eternity. What's the use in hurrying to the showdown? Let me relax a bit and see the sights of this godforsaken land.> The demon left... Alright, so back to Barong we go... A Scorched Nation Yes.> You handed Barong Rangda's Claw... RANGDA GIVE CLAW... ME AND RANGDA SEE WHAT HAPPEN TO THIS WORLD...> Barong left...  A single Great Chakra is nice and all, but it feels underwhelming-ish for this. At least it was a very quick quest all things considered and it's way better than getting a loving Dauntless Ring.  So, anyway, B1F. Pay very close attention to the map here. This second half is only doable because we have Visualiser C. You could bruteforce through to Barong without it, but past here is pure, unadulterated misery.  Honestly, I'd recommend skipping it wholesale until NG+ anyway for reasons that should make sense later.  Are you beginning to spot why this area loving sucks yet? It's going to get worse before it gets better, don't worry.  At least it's kind enough to trick you into thinking it's a way to proceed with both a terminal AND a heal spot here! The terminal is nice for giving you a way to say gently caress this noise, though.  And the worst part is that all those dark rooms are just a path to these stairs down to B2F. It's a loving miserable time just to get an alternative route to the conveyer belt maze. Real talk here: The dark rooms leading to Barong are annoying but managable. Everything AFTER that could be excised and nothing woukd be missing or need to be changed. What does this add exactly? Absolutely nothing.  ...Let's just go beat up all 5 Enemy Search C demons now. An Honor Befitting That Name Mentioned it before, but in Carina-Horologium all Enemy Search demons have a 19% spawn rate. In Antlia/Bootes, it's 20% each. This isn't taking into account the 20% chance of Enemy Search C being selected, mind (A and B are 40% each). Seth we've technically seen before though. In Bootes, Carina, Fonax and Grus he appears with a Nidhoggr friend.  ...Well, this took long enough. Hello there, final Fiend! Fiend Trumpeter So, hello there Trumpeter. Kind of an anticlimax of the random fiends, but he IS technically more of a threat than Mother Harlot was!  This is part of why for sure. Base power 400, costs 60MP, hits everyone, very nasty. Definitely don't bring Alciel, if you're still using him for some silly reason!  He also has this. Heimdallr could do this as well, but he never gets a chance. Trumpeter does, because he has 2000HP and is a Fiend that isn't David, Matador or Mother Harlot and so he's immune to ailments. Horn of Fate is a weird instant-kill attack. It has a 50% chance to be Expel, a 50% chance to be Curse and it also has a 10% chance to target the user's party instead. It's REALLY bad!  Trumpeter is honestly worse than Pale Rider in practice, for you at least, but at least he's way better than Mother Harlot. He resists Fire, Ice, Wind and Elec, is immune to Expel and Curse and of course is immune to every ailment except Rage.  But hey he drops Beads of Life! And he's super susceptible to being Riot Gunned down! Whoops, how unfortunate for you Trumpeter. End Kangiten is... really, realy uninteresting honestly. They're a Luck demon, have no ailments to use, neutral to everything except Expel and Curse which they're immune to. Skill-wise, usable Kangiten has Samarecarm AND Invitation for some insanely stupid unfathomable reason. Their source gives both as well! Third skil is Fleeting Rain... which is not on the source, and is replaced with Mana Surge instead. So dumb. Enemy-Kangiten of course does not have Samarecarm or Invitation instead being the sole demon to have Wastrel Beam. It's Macca Beam but worse because it straight-up halves your money. Kangiten always appears solo.  Mot! Sadly, this Mot is not a theatre student. Understandable because it's mechanically not doable here anyway. He's weak to Elec, resists Fire, is immune to Curse and Drains Wind. He has Magarudyne and Megidolaon, oh my. He also happens to be the only demon to have Drain Wind as a passive; remove it. Remove it with no hesitation! He innately Reflects Wind. His basic attack has a 10% chance to inflict Mute but he's vulnerable to all ailments unfortunately for him. Also his base magic is 62. His second highest stat is Luck at 56. His magic has a 17% growth rate. Mot is Pretty Good, in theory! Mot has those two Mushussu buddies in Antlia, Delphinus, Eridanus and Horologium.  Samael is so, so bad. He's a Strength demon but his only attack skill is Megidola. He's immune to Curse, weak to Expel and has no more resistances or weaknesses. At least his source gives both Void Expel AND Curse. That's... something, at least. Always appears solo.  Thor is the most interesting of a bad bunch, I suppose. You can see his resistances there, though he also is 300% weak to Paralysis (uhh) and Poison. As an added bonus, those Fire and Elec drains are for 125% of the base damage. Weird that his best skill in this setup is Ziodyne but Magic is his second lowest stat. Mortal Jihad at least does play to his Strength. Also his base attack hits 1-2 times. Like Kangiten and Samael, he appears solo in every sector. Prayer Since each Enemy Search C demon has a whole 4% chance to appear (3.98% in Carina onwards!), and I want at least 6 of each of their forma, we ended up with a lot of materials. We have in fact unlocked almost everything at this point, but the only one we care about at the moment is the Meteor Dragoon. This little badboy right here is the 2nd best gun in terms of the bigger picture, but since the only one better is alignment specific... Freischutz is a multi-target Almighty attack with a base power of 200. Moan Bullet is a random 1-3 hits of Almighty damage with a base power of 150. Freischutz costs 50MP and Moan Bullet costs 45, for reference. Moan Bullet is Hitonari's best skill by a mile and a half and its on like 3 guns which is pretty absurd if you think about it. I highly recommend attempting to get this as soon as its realistically possible, which does take a long time. It's been sat in the shop for ages but we've only recently been able to come close to making it. It requires AT Delphite X x3, Vile Bone x2 (Set(h)) and Reaper Tablet x2 (Mot).  And now I'm gonna make a couple demons that'll help us deal with the last sidequest and then the finale. Laksmi is a demon that I just generally like; here she IS weak to Elec but she's also immune to Charm. By default she has Invitation but Invitation is bad so whatever.  Might as well use Norn! She's not amazing but we'll make her more than usable all the same.  This is most of the way there already. Just need to drop that top line of skills, honestly. Laplace Curse is not helpful any more, Eternal Rest is too niche now and Diarahan is a healing spell.  This'll do for now, I guess. Probably replace Laplace Curse with Fire Amp while you're not looking though. Norn has no ailment resistances or weaknesses and her Charm thing has a 10% chance. The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried So, let's head on over to... Grus... for a moment. This is required, yes. Gotta go to the Phase Shift A Sanctum. Law Theme Gotta head all the way back to where we spoke to Mastema that one time. You know the one. I'd heard you had chosen to walk with us... an wise decision. (sic) We must now make preparations for the holy battle that is to come. To begin with, I am thinking of welcoming a new messenger. Our comrades who have chosen to become the new light have already left for the ritual grounds. It is sector Horologium where we shall carry out the ritual....Uh? Horologium is a convenient name devised to make talking about this place easier for people. It's not its actual name. ...Or is it? Hmm. If it pleases you, come and bear witness to the birth of new light and give it your blessing. Silence  Look to your machine. We'll head on allllll the way over back to that point in Horologium. Having the shortcut elevators helps a bunch with that, at least. A Land Bringing About Life   This ritual is the first step toward that end.  The miracle that shall be the foundation of a beautiful world...   Let us begin the ritual. Ahh, Tadano, you have come too? A new angel is on the verge of being born. Let us rejoice and sing! We will fill the world with the Holy Spirit! Law Theme quote:Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth. Pleni sunt caeli et terra gloria tua. Hosanna in excelsis. Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Hosanna in excelsis. The Sanctus, of course, is part of traditional Mass and has been since the first century so, uh, yeah. It's actually relevant and appropriate here. Sensible!        I am the nameless angel, born in readiness for the holy war. I have no name. Also my name is Seraph. ...I know Seraph is a class of angels, shut up. Tadano... I have seen thy deeds through the eyes of many an angel. Despite thy power to control demons, a power too great for the sons of man... Our Lord must be very pleased. Now then... I have come to this land to smite the cursed Mother... But first, I would give thee greater power. The sacred flames that burn evil... Tel Megiddo (The Tell of the Governor) is a location in Jerusalem. It's where the Book of Revelations predicts that at the end of the world Satan and Jesus will do a good ol' slobberknocker. This 100% applies for Megido, the spell, as well of course. But before I entrust it to theee, thou hast a task to carry out. All saints are tempted by evil and lured to the path of disgrace. Just as our Messiah bore 40 days and 40 nights of temptation... However, we have not such time. I wish that thou woulds go to the source and disperse the mists of temptation. That shall be thy trial to gain the Lord's flame. A new demon of illusion is being born there. Thou must smite it.So much back and forth... Alright, fine, back to the end of Grus we go. At least we have a shortcut to skip 90% of it. Silence  Gwahahaha! Chaos Theme  So you have come, human... You didn't have to, you know. I might've melted you with my charms. ...Bold indeed. How many times do I have to say that we're made of different stuff than humans!? Well, I'll repeat it as many times as it takes! As long as you see me shining, the stunted humans will fall and do themselves in!...I really don't want to think of Mara shining. Augh.  Tyrant Mara Vehement RageAlthough, since Mara is our final optional boss, I'd rather listen to something.... different Mara Battle (JP)much better and i swear that first link IS in english!!  So, Mara! Mara is a Buddhist demon of - among other things - death and temptation (...yes, really) that attempted to tempt the Buddha (yes, really) into giving up on his path to enlightment with sex. With Mara's daughters, not Mara himself. Kind of disappointing, really. This is a super-super oversimplification but whatever. The in-game compendium info gets roughly 100% of its info on Mara completely wrong, upto and including using female pronouns for Mara. Yes. Because he's Mara, you see. Mother Mara. Don't think about it. (his name is also japanese colloquial slang for a penis hence the design)  Here, he's a bit less exciting. He doesn't even have Charm Strike or Hell Thrust!  He does at least have decent Phys attacks and will use them on the full party.  And grow to deal extra damage just to be on the safe side.  Only got 2000HP, so he doesn't take long to beat at all. Inexplicably, Mara is more of a Magic demon than a Phys one. Barely, but still. He has 61 Magic and 59 Strength. Genuinely weak to Fire, resists Phys, Ice, Elec, Wind and immune to Expel and Curse. His basic attack even has a 10% chance to Paralyse. End  Law Theme Thy deeds are wonderful. As promised, thou shalt be honored as a saint. If the world were more full of those like thee, 'twould truly be at peace. Thou hast earned the right to hold the flames of judgment. Take this. Megido Fire is... not very good, honestly. The machine created with the knowledge of men, the Demonica... and the Demon Summoning Program. They represent power beyond the means of man. ...However, our Lord shall surely permit thou to wield it. Wilt thy sign with me? This is only a choice because we're Law aligned right now. If we weren't, he'd just leave instead. Yes. So be it. In His name, I sign with thee.  So, we have a Seraph now and we can use him... even though we can't. Also he'd be unlocked for fusion regardless at this point.  The Megido Fire is so bad. It's weaker than the Meteor Dragoon, has gun Agidyne and gun Maragidyne (Gun Maragidyne has a base power of 100; the same as gun Agi), and Riot Gun Copy is inexplicably arguably the relatively worst gun skill. It's not THE worst but... It costs 80MP. It deals Almighty damage to a single target. It's base power? 200. It is more expensive than Riot Gun... hell, it is more expensive than Freischutz. And it's worse. Much, much worse. The difference between RGC and Freischutz is that RGC is single target and Freischutz isn't. Riot Gun Copy is so, so, SO bad.  Seraph comes in his base frorm and we can't do anything about that. Like, we CAN Mitama him but I'd have to grind 15 levels and gently caress that noise. Big Bang is a more powerful Megidolaon. It has a base power of 450 (Megidolaon is 400) and costs 70MP to Megidolaon's 60. Big Bang's most interesting thing is that it is unique to Seraph. Holy Wrath is a Megido that costs 45MP but becomes a Megidolaon that costs 45MP when used on Chaos enemies. That sounds nice, but notice how it says it "all" and not "all enemies" or whatever. Yes, Holy Wrath hits you as well. It hits everyone. Salvation is a healing spell. In a rare twist, it is the only healing spell worth using outside of very, very rare niche scenarios! It's Mediarahan and multi-target Amrita. This gets a pass to usable because there is no item that duplicates its effect. It'd be more useful if we got it earlier, but its worth could still come up in the future.  As you'd expect, Seraph is a special fusion that mimics the cutscene in which he was made. His Source is Big Bang, Drain Fire and Void Expel. If he levels up on a full moon, he can give us any Incense. That's... something? Prayer And now all that remains is to go see Irving and see what he has for us. Whew boy... Unless I say otherwise, presume that the weapons are either bad or just outdated at this point. The Daimaen is a pain to make to boot; AT Horolite x2, Reaper Knife x8 (Nergal) and Wilder Flame x8 (Fenrir).  The Laevateinn is arguably still worth using for that Fear effect. Notably the bottom screen DOES tell you what element weapons basic attacks are but this isn't Fire. I don't know why that's there because it's never not Physical for swords and Gun for uh Guns. AT Horolite II x2, Eerie Coronet x1 (Trumpeter) and Tyrant Lignite x3 (Surt). Hey that makes sense, kind of. Well done.  We could've gotten this from the Fafnir quest as well. It's the worst reward by a mile and a half. Don't do it! It's still a pain to make though. AT Antlite X x2, Reaper Knife x8, Drake Heart x6 (Fafnir).  Like with the Laevateinn this is maybe worth using for the Charm effect rather than anything else. Its also got the highest Attack of all swords we can get from Irving, unless I'm forgetting something. AT Bootite X x3, Sword Shard x2 (Red Rider) and Enigma Tusk x2 (Kangiten).  For the "final" sword off of Irving, the Dies Irae is an anticlimax. Muramasa is the real capstone here, I think. Dies Irae is also inexplicably really hard to make too, hence why its at the top here. AT Forite X x3, Cold Scythe x2 (Pale Rider) and Kishin Hammer x2 (Thor).  Now for the final 3 guns we can get from Irving! The Pinaka has nothing to do with Shiva here, sadly. Grateful One is the strongest pure Gun elemental attack for Hitonari; base power of 175 and it costs 35MP. Desperado is the MT equivalent costing 45MP with a base power of 165. Storm Spray is Gun Magarudyne. See Inferno Spray above. Replace Agi with Garu. AT Horolite II x2, Enigma Lotus x8 (Kama) and Jaki Chain x8 (Hecatoncheir).  Shock Spray is Maziodyne. You get the idea here. It'd be nicer if this thing had any single target attacks at all. It still wouldn't be good, mind you. AT Horolite II x2, Tyrant Orb x8 (Tzitzimitl) and Yoma Ivory x8 (Ganesha).  The Ebony Tear is kind of a worse Meteor Dragoon in a way. Its minimum 3 hits means its functional attack is either 99 or 132 at least. That's pretty good for a basic gun attack; shame it doesn't help Moan Bullet. Just use the Meteor Dragoon instead, though this IS technically easier to get but only just. AT Antlite X x3, Victor's Bow x2 (White Rider) and Vile Prehnite x2 (Samael).  Slightly more armor than we can see here, for once.  Fire, Ice and Wind Guards are, uhhh...  Well, they're not good. Go back, see what I said about Earth Mail and Thunder Guard. Same thing applies here. Fire: DF Horolite II x2, Raptor Sun x6 (Huonaio) and Beast Flame x6 (Cerberus) Ice: DF Horolite II x2, Vile Skeleton x2 (Pales) and Haunt Ribs x4 (Vetala) Wind: DF Horolite II x2, Raptor Molt x2 (Hresvelgr) and Femme Claws x3 (Rangda)  The Fimbul Vest is straight up one of the best pieces of armor. It's not quite the best, but it's up there. 2 immunities, 3 if you include Expel, and no weakness? Don't mind if I do! DF Eridite X x3, Judgment Scale x2 (Black Rider) and Kishin Hammer x2.  Mesotes Vest is not really all that great. It does have more defense than the Fimbul Vest (by 2 whole points!) but just nulling Curse is not very good at this stage. DF Grusite X x3, Reaper Tablet x2 (Mot) and Enigma Tusk x2.  The Dragon Vest is the armor we could get from Fafnir. See what I said about the Fimbul Vest but for different elements. I'd grab this one over the Dragon Ring because making this is a loving pain in the rear end: DF Carite X x2, Drake Heart x6 and... Onogoro Stone x3.  The Absolute Vest is the best armor in the game. It sure doesn't look like it now with only nulling Gun, but it is. Highest defense, no weakness and we can do A Special Thing with this. DF Carite X x3, Vile Prehnite x2 and Vile Bone x2 (Seth).  It gives Hitonari Laplace Curse. Really not worth it. AC Horolite x3, Tyrant Lignite x2 and Wilder Flame x5.  The Dragon Ring is pretty easy to make all things considered, which is another reason why grabbing it from Fafnir is not necessarily the best option. AC Horolite X x2, Snake Scales x8 (Yamata-no-Orochi) and Jaki Chain x6.  Well, I needed to get enough Coronets to unlock this anyway.  And finally, the Megidola Stone. AC Horolite x2, Tyrant Orb x3 and Enigma Lotus x3. That means we've made all swords, all guns, all armor, all items... but not all accessories...? That's pretty weird, that. Wonder what's going on there. Eh, probably nothing. I'm sure whatever's missing isn't that great anyway. So, uh, how about that Mem Aleph? Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 21:59 on Mar 15, 2017 |
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Mar 13, 2017 07:48
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He's a boss fight. That's basically it, really! I don't know why it's such incomprehensible gibberish though (but I can understand MOST of the more comprehensible parts; "big and meaty" indeed...) or why it has a death metal breakdown that also samples Amazing Grace. I can, however, make a very reasonable guess why it was remixed for the 2014 Valentines Day event battle theme.
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Mar 13, 2017 11:29
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A Land Bringing About Life Alright, so this is what our loadout is going to be for Mem Aleph. I normally don't bother with this, but for Mem Aleph it's pretty important to have no weaknesses where possible. Very, very important. You could arguably swap the Fimbul/Dragon Vest for the Faerie Armor because of its Curse immunity but that's too risky. ABSOLUTELY HAVE THE DRAGON RING. This one is not negotiable at all. yet  Remember this thing? We got it after Delphinus for getting the first four Black Boxes. This is not mandatory for Mem Aleph, it's just a very, very good idea to use this! Mem Aleph is one of like three fights where it is genuinely useful.  So, let's do this.  We must give our all to defeat Mem Aleph, holder of our vast energies. I thank you, Hitonari. I would have been unable to come this far without you. Had you not saved me so long ago, I could not have brought this body's destiny to fruition... ...Beyond victory lies the world of the Lord. Now, let us go.> You passed through the door with Zelenin. Eternal Throne   Hitonari... As things stand, you cannot see Mem Aleph. But with my hymn... Law Theme Eternal Throne I really don't know how to feel about Mem Aleph's design. It's certainly memorable and all but I dunno. After Maya and Jimenez's third style, she just... is kind of a disappointment I guess?   This power... This is the work of the Three Wise Men!? Those cursed beings! How dare they forget their obligation! Do they think to prevent us demons from reclaiming the Earth at any cost!? Hitonari... You must defeat Mem Aleph! Now is your chance! And we desire a world shackled by the God of order's hand even less! You would connect the world's spirits to seal away we demons, we gods of old! Human who we once walked with... You have chosen not the path of revival, but the path of death! But I shall stand against you!  Mother Mem Aleph Take The Shield, Raise The Spear  Okay so, Mem Aleph? In a rare moment for this game: she's not a complete cakewalk! In fact, if you fight her legit she will probably kick your rear end at least once. Probably. There IS some degree of luck to it, but that's because she has so, SO many moves that are straight-up lethal.  She has exactly zero single target skills, so uh that's fun. Things like Ice are, well, exactly what they sound like.  A very, very, VERY powerful multi-target skill that blasts the gently caress out of everyone once.  Stronger than the dynes, stronger than Maya's Gates, they Just Hurt. Their attack names are even just the element - she's just using the primordial element itself to attack you. That is kind of terrifying AND kind of awesome!  In a rare moment, Mem Aleph is possibly the only fight where having demons with a healing spell (that is not Salvation) is helpful. Kind of. Hitonari alone CAN deal with it if you have enough Bead Chains.  But it's not just the regular ol' attack elements she has, oh no. She has Expel and Curse as well for good measure.  Except, as you would expect, they're both loving terrifying on paper. Die For Me!, reminder, has an 80% chance to work at base. Light and Dark are 100%. So, yeah, leaving that open at all is a TERRIBLE idea! You might be thinking "oh but what about Sacrifices?" They do help, sure, but they only proc if the Dragon Ring's Endure has already been used. You don't want to waste the Dragon Ring on these.  Oh right, but she doesn't just have her own unique skills (of which she has more). She just so happens to also have this from Asura and Asherah real casual like.  Also Disaster Cycle. It might be tempting upon seeing this to ignore the Dragon Ring for the Supple Ring to avoid that random chance of Hitonari getting Petrified but DON'T DO IT. NO. BAD. Also bad? Buffing and debuffing.  You can kind of maybe get away with it for a little while, but it's really not worth the hassle. With any buffs or debuffs in play at all, she can throw out a Nocturne reference to do a Silent Prayer. And also heal for less than 9% of her max HP. I don't know why it's 607 but it's always 607 for some bizarre reason. She has 7000HP so I really don't get it.  Great Flood is also a casual reference, albeit this one is Biblical thetruegentleman posted:In fairness about the Great Flood attack, it's actually not exclusive to the bible: for China, there's the myth "Great Yu Controls the Waters", India's Manu (who escaped the flood courtesy of Vishnu), Greece's Zeus killing everyone who didn't hide in a chest at some point, and Hawaii has the goddess Pele, which is a strange case of the flood helping to create the Hawaiian islands (by making them habitable) on top of also being an uncontrollable flood. Oh and it's multi-target Almighty damage with a baked in Sukunda. It could be worse, I suppose. OH WAIT IT IS.  Mother's Kiss is the most dangerous attack she has by a mile and a half. It's random number of hits that also randomly target. The amount of times it can hit? 3 to 8. loving hell. do you maybe see now why you want the dragon ring? yes its for this The one small mercy to Mother's Kiss is that it is just good ol' Phys damage and not Almighty for some bizarre reason. I dunno, but at least that means its resistable.  So, yeah, that's Mem Aleph. A fight with actual teeth for once. Odd how she has exactly one skill for every element except Gun, huh... Hmm, I wonder... Oh, resistances? Uh, she's immune to Gun, Expel, Curse and all ailments. That's it. End Chaos Theme I suppose in the end that wasn't TOO bad, really... No... I... still... Did you defeat her, Hitonari!? Mem Aleph is...> You can hear a voice from somewhere...    > The space around you began to distort!  ...Mem Aleph is a Mother Brain foetus? Uhhh...   MY SOLE DESIRE IS TO CRUSH YOUR SPIRITS INTO ATOMS... ...AND DISAPPEAR INTO THE AIR.  Empty Mem Aleph Take The Shield, Raise The Spear  Of course she has a second form. At least this IS a separate fight so the Dragon Ring is refreshed if it needs to be. And it's even more important than ever here. MUCH MORE IMPORTANT. Not JUST because she's a lot more happy to use Mother's Kiss without issue or care here.  Empty Mem Aleph has all the exact same moves as Mother Mem Aleph, but that's somewhat expected. She also has 9000 HP and her resistances are a bit different here: she reflects Phys and Gun, is immune to Expel, Curse and all ailments and... is Weak to Fire...? What?  So, this is what Gibo Eyes looks like in combat. It doesn't tell you if something IS a good idea, but it tells you what is nullified, drained or reflected.  Like s-- wait, WHAT? She's not immune or anything to Wind what's... Empty Mem Aleph is a barrier change boss. gently caress. She reflects two elements and makes up for it by being weak to a third. And it IS an actual genuine weakness. It's also really obvious what her weakness is from the reflects. If you look at the element order on the bottom screen/status bar/etc, she is always weak to the one to the right of her reflects: Reflects Elec and Wind = Weak to Phys Reflects Phys and Wind = Weak to Gun (hello best-case scenario) Reflects Phys and Gun = Weak to Fire Reflects Gun and Fire = Weak to Ice Reflects Fire and Ice = Weak to Elec Reflects Ice and Elec = Weak to Wind There are two things floating around about when she changes: every turn and whenever she uses a special skill. These are both wrong. She changes every I think 6 turns (obviously the first turn doesn't count towards this). That's it.  This is the skill that some people claim makes her do a barrier change. You can see for yourself how wrong that is, so I don't know how this became a commonly claimed thing! Anyway, Mem Aleph is a pain of a skill. It picks one of the three alignments and autoforces all demons of that alighment back into your stock. How very annoying. It's not a big respite despite seeming like it, because this leaves you VERY vulnerable. Very, very vulnerable.  Mainly to this. MA is insanely dangerous and there is shitall you can to prevent it or anything. It's her ONLY single-target skill across both fights. It has no element and does proportional damage. It deals 100% of the target's current HP. It then HEALS Mem Aleph for the exact same amount done. The only real saving grace here is that it CAN miss, at least. It also happens to be both a thing she can do whenever AND also her counter to using a Mirror. So, uh, don't do that.  And unlike, say, Waking Dream she can target anyone with this. Mother's Kiss is dangerous and can gently caress you up but that's survivable. This isn't. If you don't have the Dragon Ring('s Endure left) and this targets Hitonari? You lose, game over, try again.  But that's all she has that's new here. A barrier change gimmick, two new moves and the decency to add a weakness albeit a revolving one. MA adds an implicit timer, even moreso than Disaster Cycle existing does, which is kind of annoying especially since she can just decide that you lose whenever she wants. Beyond that, if you don't get oneshot, you can probably survive. Probably. Or you can just do what I'm going to do later and NOT give her a fair fight. That also works. You'll see... End Silence WITHOUT ME... THE EARTH WILL... HAAAAH... BE STOLEN BY THAT ARROGANT GOD...    Morale Thank you, Hitonari. Now we can create a beautiful Earth...> Light is shining in from somewhere... > The light enveloped you...!  You have finally fallen. You have at last atoned for the sins of that body. Tadano, Zelenin. You have done excellent work in breaking the eternal curse. How beautifully your spirits shine! The fear of the demons' invasion... The destruction of the foolish humans... It shall all vanish. By law and order shall the spirits play... By law and order shall the spirits play... By law and order shall the spirits play... Let us go now... to the start of our next journey.  It's really weird how for the back half of the game, even on the Law route no less, Mastema was completely MIA save for that one bit in Grus and the actual ending. What the heck, man? We now possess all the keys to the new world. The Exotic Matter, the Cosmic Eggs... And you, Zelenin, who knows the Lord's hymn. The threat of demons shall be no more and humans shall truly be saved, to reach a new zenith... I shall go and inform the Lord of this glorious moment. Farewell... May we meet again in the new world. We entered the Schwarzwelt as an investigative team, and through the trials we endured... We received the guiance of the Holy Spirit to save mankind.  Now, Hitonari. Unleash the power you hold. The new... eternal earth filled with light shall be wrought. The World of Law  So, now we use the Vanishing Point for one last time. Hopefully this time it'll actually work properly. The World of Law It starts off mostly the same as before save for one minor difference...  Hitonari and Zelenin are stood outside what remains the Red Sprite... and Hitonari has taken his helmet off? Uhh, what?  Man, the Cosmic Eggs are about the size of a Cadbury's Cream Egg at a generous estimate.  I figured they'd be bigger than that considering they're a key to creating an entire world.  But regardless, the four float on over to the Vanishing Point...  And zoom on in.  The weird purpley stuff vanishes and is replaced with this rapdily expanding aura of light. Silence It begins to leak out of the Schwarzwelt itself.  ...And then the Schwarzwelt begins to rapidly expand?!  Fortunately it's not as bad as it seems as as the Schwarzwelt is then ungulfed by the blue aura which then continues to spread ever onwards.  Before it overtakes the entire world and now the blue marble is a very accurate moniker... Scepter of Justicerecommend proclick  Cue the credits...? Um, that was rather sudden and out of nowhere, huh. The credits just go on for a while showing us 1 part of each sector (the Blue Jet for Antlia, Mitra's throne room for Bootes etc.) and then a few shots from the ending we just saw.  More important is that after the credits are done, we get the rest of the ending.  > The sacred power annihilated the invading demons and erased the Schwarzwelt... > From there, it continued to engulf human civilization.    All has become as our Lord on high wishes it. Humans will no longer fight and snarl at each other... And my body, reborn like this world... It shall stand in the center of the people and live on eternally in the world of our Lord on high. Law Theme > The skyscrapers became altars to commune with God. > Zelenin stands in the center of these altars...   Silence And with that, we've finished Strange Journey, hurray! It wasn't really all that strange a journey in the end. One frought with interesting decisions, bad ideas and an attempt to cram in too many themes and just neglect and ignore them beyond the most token of efforts but it was something.  But wait, there's more!  We do have New Game+ to contend with, and it's going to make that as painless as possible at least. Good thing too, because it has some unique content including half of loving Grus god dammit.  It took a long while to get through the first time, but on a second cycle onwards? Well, with this many unfair advantages (that I shall proceed to ignore for any new content) it goes by much, MUCH quicker.  One ending down, two to go... Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 17:55 on Mar 14, 2017 |
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Mar 14, 2017 07:54
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They almost certainly did, honestly. Some of it I did as well, but I'm just a big ol' dumb and really like looking at this one particular tree rather than checking out the entire forest. (Just gonna casually edit that in if you dont mind) Blaze Dragon posted:"Not" indeed. Somehow missed that in the like four passes this update took for Various Reasons. Fixed no Lotus Aura fucked around with this message at 17:56 on Mar 14, 2017 |
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Mar 14, 2017 17:54
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 Alright, we're gonna load up this bad boy and see what New Game+ gives us. Not much, but most of it is special, that's for sure.  ...Could always just skip through cutscenes by holding down  Except for this one tiny bit near the beginning. Our previously entered name is here by default, rather than being left blank. Hitonari's story is done and over though...  Daredevil extraordinaire Lance Murdock is on the job! Lance here is one of the names used in the screenshots in the US manual so it's arguably more canon as far we should care than Some Guy McHero Man. yes its a simpsons reference  Lance is a bit of a naughty boy though, and he doesn't participate in Handshake Simulator 2009. Only one hand will be shook during the course of this run!  Lance is also a very, very lazy man. He just mashes the A button here and picks the top option for the Demonica Q&A.  He ends up getting the 2nd/3rd best Demonica (depending on how much Forma grind you want to deal with). This gives more varied but still semi-focussed growth rates than the Luck Demonica did: St: 24% Ma: 18% Vi: 19% Ag: 20% Lu: 19%  Initial stats. I don't think I showed this for the Luck suit but it's not really a big deal.  Lance is also a bit of a Cheater since he stole and smuggled in all the endgame ludicrous gear. But it's still not enough!  Lance doesn't deal with Unknowns (outside of scripted sequences) though. The Slimes in the first fight are already fully analyzed.  Lance's big weakness: he forgot to steal Hitonari's maps. Gotta remap everything when that comes up again.  Compendium is also exactly as it was left, very ho hum here. Should've maxed Seraph's analyze to half that cost really. Ah well, he'll make do with these three Horsemen.  HP/Energy Drain, by the way, if it deals a killing blow does 100% of the current HP for sensible reasons. Can't drain what doesn't exist after all. This is the easier way to know weird values like Jack's 2016 (the alternative is to just datamine).  Even though having Irving DOES let you buy stuff from the store, gotta get this first. The material creation thing isn't available until now.  This means we can buy some special new accessories!  ...Oh, I forgot one? That's unfortunate. Sorry God Ring, you're kinda shite anyway. Solomon Ring is the best accessory. Reflect Fire, Ice, Wind, Elec, immue to Expel and Curse? Yes, yes please. Pair this with the Absolute Vest and the only things that can hurt the MC are Physical and Almighty attacks. Ideally, you'd use a Phys immune armor instead (Mem Aleph doesn't have a Gun skill after all!) but that doesn't exist unfortunately. AC Horolite X x3, Vile Prehite x4 (Samael), Vile Bone x4 (Seth) and Clear Data required to unlock this beauty.  But the Solomon Ring isn't infallible. That's why the Gaia Ring exists. It's not AS good, but it reflects Phys and Gun. Why yes, I do want the MC to be a Doppelganger but even better. A very firm second place overall but better than the Solomon Ring in a few fights (coughgorecough). AC Horolite X x3, Reaper Tablet x4 (Mot), Enigma Tusk x4 (Kangiten) and Clear Data for this one. We'll unlock the God Ring later; it's not as good as either of these nor the Dragon/Supple Ring really.  New SubApps are available once we get to buy them as well. 7-Card Hand mostly fixes the SubApp system being inherently poo poo. It reduces you max capacity to 7 but changes the size of everything to 1. Everything. If it costs more than 1? Reduced to 1. If it costs 0? Increased to 1.  This is a special thing. That's all I have to say about that.  No random encounters. Do I need to say anything else?  This is also a special thing, but a better special thing.  7-Card Hand in action. The increase of 0 to 1 is the worst thing about this for sure.  New MegaTen is a joke SubApp, really.  When you install it, it just picks one of four messages.  Three of them are generic errors. No, this isn't Atlus suddenly deciding to softlock you or whatever if you're emulating.  But it also semi-rarer does this. That's it. That's all this does.  And the Frost Icon turns your map cursor into a Jack Frost head half the time! It's a normal cursor occasionally but when the green 3 square radar is visible, it switches. That's it for this intermission. Actual proper content coming up is in... Well, technically we CAN do a thing in Antlia now. Saving that for when we can finish it though. That means the next thing we're going to see is in, uh... Grus. Good thing getting there now takes about 4 hours if you go slow!
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Mar 20, 2017 01:59
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The Land Where The Seed's Memories Lie Buried > The crewmen are examining the door.  But how do we open it? It doesn't look like our equipment will make a dent in this thing.Oh, right, I totally forgot.  Gotta grab this first, otherwise that guy won't let us open the door.  I just heard from an angel about some amazing treasure. It's just past here... I think it is, anyway. I'll let you have a share. Wanna see what's on the other side of this door? Why don't you return here after we are finished...? Oh, you're here too? Sorry, forget what I said. We should focus on the mission. Well, maybe you can come back when you have some time....Augh, goddammit. I just wanna open the New Game+ door! Why does this require jumping through even more hoops? Gotta skip ahead to after Ryan et al have been sung at.  I just heard from an angel about this amazing treasure. Apparently you can reach it from this door, but it's not that easy. That's what this is. There's a strong demon who'll escort anyone out for the treasure to hell. So, Mr. Ace Demon-Killer, that's where you come in. Wanna explore this place with me? Yes. Though the path to the treasure is apparently a long one...Understatement. It might be tough, but I just know that treasure's worth it. Let's give it all we got! ...... Well that's weird...  Anyway, where were we? Gotta use Unlock E to open this door, since it's required for the scene in the first place. So, yeah, gotta do the sidequest for Ame-no-Uzume in Eridanus to get the Sound Jewel for Gate Search E. This lets you get the Copernicus for Unlock E. Before you can even accept the sidequest here. A Rotten Nation Okay, so the second half of Grus is a gigantic loving slog. It's not difficult, per se, it's just tedious and long.  There isn't much in the way of forma here; we've kind of seen everything there is in that regard though, so it doesn't matter.  We'll just see where this leads, shall we?  So, this part of Grus is in a way a gigantic empty area with fuckall in it of note.  But there's some stairs back up to B1F here so we'll see. I'm sure it's for a reas--  Oh, I see. It's a pithole trapmaze, huh? Explains why B2F is so gigantic and empty, I guess. this is gonna suck  There's several terminals dotted around anyway. And, yeah, uh, there's no new random demons in here. At all. Just gonna use Red Carpet to avoid dealing with that poo poo.  There's stairs over here as well, so this might be nicer as a starting point.  Ha, I wish. It lets you snag a Sacrifice and... that's it. Only other thing here is a pit drop back down.  ...Oh. Ohhh. It's... it's a teleport-maze but the wrong teleports might sometimes be pits??  Ha, no, there's no maze to be had here. Each teleport room does the usual thing of place to drop you (usually in the center this time!), a right teleport and the rest are wrong spots. They're all pits.  All of them. This is a linear path that makes you THINK it's a teleport maze but it punishes you with dropping you back down to B2F. Sometimes it lets you open doors that aren't actually even shortcuts.  But that was a hidden door that could only be opened from the side of these stairs. It HAS to be useful, right?!  Hahahaha, no. This is a small room with nothing in it (except some Miracle Cores). No hidden doors, no map tricks, nothing. That's definitely not ominous.  I'm honestly kind of trying to not just whine incessently about this area, but it's really tedious and poo poo.  It gets better though. See, B2F is broken into these giant segments that are kind of internal mini-checkpoints. They have hidden doors that let you get to B3F and amount to nothing.  Logically, then, they have hidden doors connecting the segments so you DO get shortcuts to make it more of an actual checkpoint?  Hahahaha, no. Look right here, that alcove on the left. The one above the original stairs. That LOOKS like the perfect spot for a shortcut back here, doesn't it?  Which is why it doesn't have one. There aren't any actual shortcuts back at any point in this section. None. At all.  Even when it really looks and feels like there should be. There aren't any. Why? Because gently caress you, that's why. It's not like getting back is difficult; there's no actual maze to deal with after all. It's just... long.  Oh and B3F is a one-way door maze, as you probably guessed. Added bonus: you can only start it from this one spot. At least initially.  Don't worry; I didn't skip over any treasure during the Infinite Walk of Bland. There's the one Sacrifice at the start and nothing until the Sacrifice now. That's definitely not ominous either.  This. This door right here. This is your only shortcut. Even that's being overly generous. It's the stairs leading down from the third giant open space. That IS the third of four, yes. This does technically have an actual use but it doesn't really matter.  Anyway, this staircase back up IS our way to progress, yes.  ...Y'know, I forgot. This area has four Gate Search D doors. Just because. These ones gate off treasure which is at least something. The other 2 gate off getting to finish off maps. And nothing else. Why yes I will complain about that again when we get it done. Because it's loving stupid.  Oh and there's poison tiles in this corner of B3F. Why? Why not. If it was sleep tiles it'd at least be maybe semi-dangerous.  Just to make the one-way door maze even dumber, it has phase shifters. Plural. One of them is redundant and stupid. This one is mandatory for getting to something special.  ...Not this. Though this IS nice. Maybe.  Shoulda grabbed this first, but I sort of forgot. It's required to continue when we set the shifter to the B Sanctum.  This hidden door is ALSO required. It lets us finish the one-way door maze... when we return to the original space.  That also has the bonus of letting us get to the second phase shifter. Gonna ignore that for now.  Vitality Incense is still the worst incense. We've got our pile from the first run still sitting here. This can join them.  This elevator. Remember this elevator. We'll be needing it later. It is important.  Oh and there's more poison tiles in the top-left, just cause.  So that second sanctum? It just affects that one room. There's nothing hidden in it in either sanctum. Why does thie exist? What is the point?!  Let's just make real progress, then. Gonna head back to the central stairs in B3F which lets us get to here.  And immediately after that, we have a spot that mirrors the location where we found Maya. I think we found where we need to go. ...I realise that from your perspective that didn't seem to bad, but even with the Red Carpet getting through that took about an hour. That's absurd.  Are you ready? Careful now.We do get one last chance here to switch gear etc. Just because I'm paranoid and it's Always Helpful, gonna be using the Dragon Ring for this one. Silence It's a little too quiet...Generic flash of white, but it does it twice! Wh-What the...!? In The Master's Name   Thou art... a human? A human!? I see... I know not who hath sent thee, but... I cannot allow the seal to be broken by anyone. Atone for thy transgression with death! Geist Alilat Vehement Rageoh back to this again  So, Alilat has no weaknesses. Hurray! She also has almost no offense. gently caress.  She can do a basic attack. Which hits one person. She's already doing this wrong, I think.  In terms of offense, she has exactly one trick. Well, one and a half when she remembers to do this.  Her only actual attack is Megidolaon. She has no buffs, no debuffs, no way to clear any of them, no elemental attacks, only Megidolaon and her basic attack. This IS semi-threatening because Megidolaon is Almighty so Guarding does NOT reduce its damage output, and that damage IS with us at +4 and her at -4.  It's only semi-threatening because she doesn't Concentrate for each casting. And not doing that completely tanks its damage output.  Resistance-wise, she's strong to Phys, immune to Gun, Expel, Curse and all ailments. Oh and she has 3500HP and will rarely cast Diarahan. Yawn. End In The Master's Name But the restoration of the primal Earth neareth its end... He can do nothing, even should the seal be broken... The ancient world I crave... Palace of Pleasure I can now recover a lost aspect of myself. The time has come for me to reveal myself to you. As you have surely realized... I am no human. I borrowed the form of your crew to search for one capable of defeating that demon.> Light is gathering around the crewman...   Hey Metatron, how's it goin'? It feels really weird to have you relegated to sidequests like this, but at least that's still more than he got in SMT2 where has was... a random encounter.  But... Even this form is temporary. By freeing the Holy Spirits sealed away all across the lands, I shall regain my true form. To assume my true brilliance... That is the goal I seek. I am sorry to have deceived you. You tricked me. No. I did not lie when I made my promise to you. I brought you here with a tale of treasure guarded by a demon. That demon's skull is precisely the rare forma that will prove useful in your mission... You should have it as a trophy. Please, take it. Like he said, this is a rare forma. It's also a special one and in part the reason why I beelined for this at the earliest opportunity. ...Lance. Will you indulge me in hearing me speak of ancient times? Law Theme The place you humans know as the Schwarzwelt... It reflects the anger of the mother goddesses... and of Mother Earth itself, you might say. But the earth understood that it would be difficult to carry out. As long as He protected the humans, the situation we find ourselves in now could not have occurred. But this equilibrium was eroded over time. Worship of Him faltered, and the Earth did not fail to seize the moment once His power weakened. The mother goddesses subdued Him as they were once subdued.Wow, so I guess He was a chumpy loser.  I believe a part of me is sealed deep in this land. It is a power that calls out to me... I can feel it. Your spirit is not in harmony with our own... But even so, I must rely on you. Gotta admit, I do like how that thing that sets itself up for a moment as an alignment check isn't. You can do this at any alignment and Metatron doesn't get pissy or anything. No. I see. If that is your will... I shall remain here until I become accustomed to this body. Should you decide to help me, return to this place.But, uh, gently caress it. We'll deal with this later. We can't even do it right now anyway. Not because it's too difficult or anything. It's actually impossible right now.  So, usable Alilat is just the boss fight Alilat but with less HP. Same skills, same easy MO, same immunity to all ailments (barring Rage of course). She's even still a Geist race, which is weird because Alilat is the only Geist. I dunno. Oh and her source is straight up the objective best in the game AND the only guaranteed spot for 2 special skills (straight up the only way to get one, and the other is... well, getting Alilat is a prerequisite). I am 99% sure it's the sole reason she's relegated to being NG+ only as a usable demon. It sure isn't because she herself is overpowered and good; her best stat is loving Vitality for godsake.  The Nabatea Stone lets you get this. Scanning Zero is kind of amazingly good and what I would recommend actually getting before mapping out things like Horologium B1F. Y'know, if you still care about maps at this point. But, uh, anyway, how about plot differences? Let's see what we get on a road that is not Law...
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Mar 20, 2017 02:00
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