Update 4: Yoyogi Park and Shibuya
Black Cat said:
Where's my update?
Right here.
My little master has pitied you. The least you could do is survive such a trivial thing as this. ...Come to think of it, this is your first time seeing the new Tokyo, is it not? Allow me to tell you one thing, if you don't mind... Look above you.
Now, do you see something shining in the center of this world? That is Kagutsuchi. That is what created this Vortex World, and that is also what provides power to the inhabitants of this world.
It's kinda like Sigil, except Tokyo is on the inner side of the surface of a sphere, rather than a torus.
Oh, my little master, are we leaving already?
You can create a new world, or you can destroy this one. The choice is yours...
After a dramatic fade to black...
BGM:
Checkmate
Mysterious man: This doesn't seem like the kind of place you'd find sushi.
Mysterious man: ...Oh well. Time to get to work.
Who can this
mysterious man possibly be?
BGM:
Large Map
That's Nocturne's world map. Works like every other RPG world map ever and serves to connect various locations.
Soul: Then, let me tell you something. This is Shinjuku, and if you go south from here... Well, Tokyo's round, so I'm talking relatively here... If you go south, you'll see Yoyogi Park and Shibuya. Speaking of which, I saw a human head toward Shibuya.
Soul: ...Have you heard of the Tokyo rumor?
No.
Soul: A guy with a strong will is going to change this chaotic world... That's a good one, huh? Tokyo's forever in chaos! Hahahahahahaha!!
Who can this
guy possibly be?
If you remember, we promised the Pixie a lift to Yoyogi Park. That's our next stop.
BGM:
Mystery
We made it to Yoyogi Park, so I guess we can part ways now. Or... do I get the sense you want us to stay together? Hmmm???
I need you.
Mmmm... I like the way that sounds. *flirt* You win! I'll stay with you a while longer!
And stay she did. Releasing the Pixie would give us the Ankh Magatama quite a bit earlier than usual, but keeping the Pixie until the late game carries a different reward. The lack of Ankh will hurt at Ginza where we'll be getting in a lot of fights with Angels who love to throw instakill Hama spells around without any means of protecting the main character from them, but it'll work out.
Soul: They locked the door, so we can't get in...
The overwhelming majority of the park is off limits right now, as fairies have barricaded themselves inside for an unknown reason. The reason will remain unknown for tens of hours of game time.
Soul: Seems that she came from some hospital.
Huh. Chiaki seems to be safe, but what happened to Isamu? Souls at the hospitals saw him sneaking out, so where did he disappear to?
Incubi are... Oh, come on, you know who they are. If you don't, ask your mom.
Demon: Then, hurry up and go to the Fountain of Life up ahead. ...She's hot!
BGM:
Recovery Spring
Lady of the Fount: Your name has reached my humble ears... I will assist you to the best of my ability.
Fountains of Life are where you heal, cure status effects, raise the dead and, most importantly, recover MP - all of it for you hard-earned cash. When you hit 30s it becomes very much possible to give all your demons the Mana Refill passive, which does exactly what you'd expect it to do. Until then, Fountains remain the most efficient way to recover MP and a lot of Macca will be spent here.
That covers everything the park has to offer for now. Time to leave and head for Shibuya.
Soul: It's just like I said... The world's all round! But even now, no one believes me! I hear prophecies from Jupiter! You believe me, don'tcha? *hic*
Of course I do.
Soul: Oh! You believe me!? Then, I'll tell you somethin' good! The 'Demi-fiend' is the one that's going to create the new world... By gum! You wouldn't be... Naw! *hic*
Who can this
Demi-fiend possibly be?
Somewhere around here we get to level 7 and obtain the first Wadatsumi spell, Ice Breath. This one is interesting. It's an AoE Ice skill, but unlike Mabufu, which deals Ice damage to all enemy targets, this one deals damage to random targets. It may seem inferior at first, but then you realize that it can target
the same enemy multiple times.
Another thing to note. As they level up, demons will sometimes express a desire to speak to you. Agreeing causes them to give you an item (and they can be pretty damn good items, up to and including incenses that boost your stats permanently). Declining does nothing, so I'm unsure why you'd want to decline.
BGM:
Normal Battle -Large Map-
And we have a new enemy.
This is a Zhen, a highly poisonous legendary bird from the mountains of southern China. It belongs to the Wilder race, so we won't be recruiting this one.
BGM:
Shibuya
Soul: The other cities battle it out because of disagreements, but everyone here's laid-back.
Soul: There's one with shops, and one with a club. For shops, I recommend the Cathedral of Shadows. They have creepy ceremonies there.
Demon: Where's that Forneus!?
Decarabia is another Goetian demon. :summonblackcat: Unlike Forneus, herbs are his forte, but since they share the seafood motif, them being buddies is a minor running gag in SMT, to the point that they have a fusion spell called Best Friends in Persona 3.
Let's check out the first underground mall the soul mentioned.
BGM:
Normal Battle -Town-
Datsue-ba is a meaner Buddhist Charon who meets souls of the dead near the Sanzu river, but instead of helping them cross, she does nasty things to them, with the nastiness being directly proportional to how much of a bastard they were when they were alive. Naturally, we recruit one.
Needle Rush is a physical skill that works the way Lunge does. Shibaboo is the interesting one. What it does is Bind one enemy. I think it's time to explain status effects.
There are 12 of them in total.
1. Shock. Can be caused by any spell that deals Electricity damage and results in the target taking critical damage from all physical attacks until its next turn.
2. Freeze. Same thing as Shock, but triggered by Ice attacks.
3. Stone. Prevents the target from moving and causes them to die in one hit. Associated with the Death damage type.
4. Sleep. The target can't move, but recovers a bit of HP and MP every turn it skips and awakens when attacked. Mind damage type.
5. Panic. The target will do weird crap, ranging from skipping turns to throwing money away. Mind damage type.
6. Charm. The target will attack allies, heal enemies or just skip turns. Mind damage type.
7. Stun. Increases the chances of missing. Nerve damage type.
8. Bind. Nastier version of Shock/Freeze. In addition to being more likely to suffer from criticals, the target can't move. Nerve damage type.
9. Mute. The target can't cast spells. Physical skills still work, I think. Curse damage type.
10. Poison. The target will constantly take damage, both in battle and out of it. Curse damage type.
11. Fly. Turns the target into a fly. The skill set remains the same, but all stats go way down, and resistances are overridden with crap. Curse damage type. Only one boss is capable of inflicting this one. I hate that boss.
12. Curse. Magatamas can curse the main character when they go wild on level ups. Essentially a combination of Poison and Charm, as it makes you take damage and attack allies. However, it changes the fusion table, potentially making it very useful.
Resistances-wise, status effects work the same way as other attacks. Exploiting a weakness to ailments costs less APs, casting them on immune enemies costs more.
Red Will o' Wisps are called Mou-Ryo. In Japanese mythology they are souls of the dead who for some reason failed to reach heaven and now wander around the world.
As we beat the crap out of them, one gets scared and offers to join us.
Meh. Can poison and inflict panic, but elemental spells are more efficient at this point of the game.
Slimes are the result of a failed summoning or fusion attempt. Another Foul.
We discover the first Mystical Chest in the game. Their contents are randomized and may range from a Life Stone to gems and Soma. Opening them when Kagutsuchi is full always gives you the best possible item, this time a gem. Gems are used as currency at a certain shop.
Speaking of shops, there are four establishments in this mall. The cross icon marks a Fountain of Life, the cylinder a terminal, the diamond a junk shop and the circles a Cathedral of Shadows.
BGM:
Junk Shop
Jack Frost. The one responsible for beautiful patterns you can find on your windows in winter. Highly marketable and is used by Atlus as a mascot.
Heeho: My goal is to become a super-cool and super-strong demon, like the great King. So I'm thinking of going on a journey to train myself, but I need money, hee ho... Can you help me out by buying lots of stuff, hee ho?
King Frost, everyone's favorite boss from SMT II, appears to be this guy's role model.
Magatamas are the best thing junk shops have to offer. This one has two: Iyomante (gives immunity to Mind and teaches debuffs) and Shiranui (immunity to Fire at the cost of weakness to Force, teaches Fire skills). Since I'm playing on Hard, all prices are tripled, putting both of them out of our reach for now.
BGM:
Heretic Mansion
We hope that our secret art will be of help to you, master of demons. There are Cathedrals elsewhere; feel free to drop by.
Welcome to the Cathedral of Shadows, where demons come together. Fusion is a recurring feature in Shin Megami Tensei games that effectively allows you to exchange two (or more) demons for one that is hopefully more powerful than either of the original demons. Both the race and the level of the resulting demon is defined by the race and the level of the original demons. For example, fusing a Fairy with a Jirae always gives you a Yoma. Exactly which Yoma you're going to get depends on the level of the Fairy and the Jirae you used in fusion. Only the original level of demons is taken into account, by the way. You can level up a Pixie all the way to 99, but for the purposes of fusion she will always remain a level 2 demon. A lot of demons can
only be obtained by fusing other demons, so it's an important feature to master.
The information that can be learned from ministers is mostly technical, and I'll explain it myself as the thread progresses. They have interesting things to say about Magatamas, though.
With the power they have sealed inside, Magatama can change humans into demons. Each Magatama's powers are unique, giving their host new skills. There are Magatama that can give techniques that no other demon has ever seen or used. When will it give out new techniques? Ask the Magatama itself. You can tell when the time is near by its movement. We help those who use Magatama in order to fulfill our duty. When you have collected all the Magatama... That will be the time to carry out our mission. Come back to the Cathedral of Shadows once you have collected all the Magatama.
So what did we learn?
1. The plural is "Magatama", not "Magatamas". Sorry for all the embarrassing misspelling.
2. Some skills can be learned by the main character.
3. If you see a Magatama shake at the selection screen then your level is high enough to learn the next skill it has to teach (I didn't notice this on my first playthrough).
4. Gathering 24 Magatama will result in... something.
Now let's try fusion. The level of the resulting demon can't exceed the level of the main character, which considerably limits what we can fuse at this point.
By fusing a Kodama and a Shikigami we can get a Jack Frost. Dark Might is a passive that makes the basic attack crit automatically on new Kagutsuchi (highly useful in boss fights). Skills with their names shown in green are skills inherited from parent demons. Not all skills can be inherited by all demons (only beasts can inherit claw and bite skills, while only humanoids can inherit weapon skills), but the restrictions are pretty loose, and most of the bread-and-butter stuff that you'd want all your demons to have can be inherited by everyone.
Mall number 2.
Soul: Welcome to Kick-Ass Deli, punk! Try my knuckle sandwich!!
One Will o' Wisp? Seriously?
Soul: I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I'll offer you some juicy information, so please forgive me... There's a human girl at the club downstairs.
More gems.
One room has a forced battle inside it.
Hi-res goodness is hi-res. :3 A Nekomata is a malicious cat spirit from Japanese folklore. They usually wreck general havoc around the household, but some can eat the owner of the house and take her place, nya.
A Nekomata is a dangerous opponent to our low-level party, and her criticals can kill demons with low HP pool outright. She can charm them as well, but her accuracy rate with that spell isn't high.
Pixie hits level 6, learns the last skill that she can learn and is finally ready to evolve.
Her stats increase, and she can learn new skills now.
Finally, the club.
BGM:
Chiaki
...How should I act at a time like this? ...Should I be happy? Like, "I'm glad we're both okay."? It's you, Reginald, right? ...I can tell.
I realized...
I'm... a little tired. Reginald... Do you know what happened to the world?
The Conception occurred.
You mean... What was written in that magazine actually happened?
...I see. ...I feel sick to my stomach.
I couldn't even tell where my house used to be... I seriously thought that I was the only person still alive. ...I'm so glad to see you, Reginald. Maybe... there's still hope.
Ms. Takao and Isamu might be around somewhere, too.
...I'm not ready to give up entirely. They must be alive. Fate can't be that cruel.
It's generally a good idea to drop by the club once in a while. Sometimes new content becomes available in previously visited areas, and the patrons here will point it out.
Soul on the right: There's an organization in Ginza saying that it'll "create a new world".
Soul on the left: Huh? "Create a new world"?? I'm scared!
Demon: Meow! I have an idea! If you do something naughty with me, I'll tell you the name!
Let's dancin'!
Demon: Meow, wonderful!
Not-the-actual-BGM-but-it-totally-should-have-been:
Disco
Another Nekomata fight. Still lethal.
After you meet Chiaki a new demon appears in Shibuya.
Demon: He's still snooping around there yelling, "I've got it!" every so often. What's he got?
This is Setanta. Setanta is the given name of Cu Chulainn, Culann's Hound, probably the most well-known Irish hero.
...I don't know what to say. You came here all by yourself, on foot!? You must've gained some incredible power!
...using this. Remember? You saw one just like it at the hospital. This isn't an ordinary piece of artwork. It's a truly amazing device.
These are connected to each other by a strange passageway. Using that passageway - the Amala Network - you can send anything to a distant location instantly. So basically, I transported myself here from the hospital. I'm guessing that there are more of these devices in different locations, and that they form a huge transportation network. ...And most likely that network is connected to where Hikawa is.
If we're gonna have any hope of getting out of this mess, then we've got to find Hikawa. I heard there's a group in Ginza that's vying for control of shaping this infant world, and its leader is a human.
So... I want you to try and find any information you can about that group. I'll use this device to send you to Ginza.
It's definitely risky, but it's better than wandering around on your own. ...I'm gonna stay here for a while. Let me know when you decide what you want to do. But, keep this in mind. I have no idea what things will be like in Ginza now. If you do decide to go there, make sure you prepare yourself, alright?
I take Hijiri's advice to heart and do some preparations.
First, I buy Iyomante.
Second, I grind a level and learn Tarunda from my shiny new Magatama. Tarunda reduces the damage dealt by all enemies, stacks with itself up to four times and lasts until it's dispelled. Never enter a boss fight without it. During this time, I also recruit a Pixie and a Shikigami.
Third, I fuse. Pixie is fused with Hua Po into an Apsaras.
An Apsaras (or an Apsara) is a heavenly maiden in Hinduism who entertains gods and heroes with her dancing.
Jack Frost and Shikigami give me a Lilim.
In Hebrew lore, Lilim (or Lilin) are the progeny of Lilith and Samael, an archangel associated with death and poison.
Once I send you, I'll head over to Ginza too. Until then... stay alive. Good luck!!
There's no better way to end an update than with a white screen.
