Thread's officially back.
Update 10: Ikebukuro Revisited
At the end of the previous update Ikebukuro got hit with a second serving of ITZ, courtesy of Hikawa. I'm sure you're eager to learn of what happened there in more detail, but there's shopping to be done first.
With the help of the riches plundered at the Assembly, we can afford to buy the Kamudo Magatama without going completely broke. It resists physical damage at the cost of making the main character weak to all ailments (suicidal in certain areas) and teaches 4 skills. The most useful of them is the second one, Focus, which is going to become a vital part of the basic boss fight strategy very soon indeed.
I'm sure that talking to locals will prove fruitful.
Demon: ...We didn't lose, did we?
Demon: Dammit! I'm screwed too! The Manikins won't turn against me, will they!?
It appears that Mantra isn't going to last long as a real contender for dominance.
The headquarters building is being drained of Magatsuhi.
Time for one of the game's more memorable scenes.
I heard about the trial by combat, and I thought it might be you who was the winner. Getting here was tough, to say the least... but I'm glad I made it.
I decided to play by the rules of this world. You know what the purpose of this new world is, right?
Did I mention that I absolutely love Chiaki? She's a very rare "strong" female video game character whose strength doesn't come from deep-seated feelings of inadequacy towards men, or some other nonsense like that. Better, the fact that she's a girl is almost never drawn overblown attention to. It's like a breath of fresh air in a medium where all women are either completely helpless weaklings whose only purpose in life is to be rescued by a dashing plumber, repeatedly, or insane feminazi bitches.
/rant
...that voice I heard when the world changed...
This is where it gets good. Turn on
Chiaki's theme for extra crazy.
Not just about what I have to do in this world, but why the world ended up like this. And then, I realized... that there were too many unnecessary things occupying the previous world.
But, nothing new was being made. Time passed, and nothing changed. What the world really needed... it was not getting.
But, I survived the Conception. I was chosen... That's what I'm going to believe, and now, I have to look forward.
but if I can swallow it down... endless possibilities await... The power of creation... will be mine.
The world doesn't need any more worthless things... That's why I want to create my ideal society, a paradise ruled by the strong, the chosen... The world of Yosuga. Reginald, you've fought your way this far. You know what I'm saying, don't you?
Yeah, I get it.
Don't worry, I didn't suddenly decide we'd be going for the Yosuga ending no matter what. However, to speed things up a bit, I'll only have you vote on Very Important Decisions that appear near the end of the game and seal the ending. Note that in order for a Very Important Decision to be offered at all, you have to be well-liked by the faction it's associated with, hence why I chose to agree with Chiaki.
...I'm happy to hear that. I knew you'd understand, Reginald. I might ask you to help me out, then.
Honestly, I don't know where to begin... But, since Yosuga is the Reason of the strong, I'll see what I can do on my own first. ...I'm glad we had the chance to talk today. We both survived the Conception... I'm sure we'll cross paths again. See you later, Reginald.
Well, that was quite trippy. But we have two more things to do in Ikebukuro.
The guards are dying a slow death.
Demon: ...Hey, the prisoners are escaping!
First, let's bust Isamu out of jail.
Doesn't look like there will be much resistance.
Ms. Takao isn't with you, is she...?
The Mantra's finished, Nihilo's gaining ground... and we still have no idea where our teacher is...
They say he can see the future... He actually predicted the fall of the Mantra. Maybe he can tell us about Ms. Takao... and what we should do from here.
I'm gonna head off to Kabukicho and look for him. There's no place where I can be safe... So, I'll take my chances.
I don't think Isamu could possibly be any more different from Chiaki even if he consciously tried.
Male Manikin: Please save Futomimi. I feel like I'm free, but our leader is still locked up. Futomimi, who leads us with prophecies, is still being held captive...
A Manikin in a nearby cell tells us the name of the prophet.
Jackpot. Beads of Life are as amazing as healing items can possibly get. Full recovery of health and mana to all demons in the party.
A Strength Incense can be found inside another Mystical Chest several floors above.
Reggie levels up. Choosing endurance over pure destructive power, we forget Force Boost to make room for Mana Drain. Costs 2MP to cast and recovers about 30, more if you debuff the target's defense first.
Our final stop will be Gozu-Tennoh's throne room.
It doesn't come across well on screenshots, but the flow of Magatsuhi reaching for the skies is a pretty cool visual effect.
Will you enter?
Yes.
Have you not seen it with your own eyes...? The stronghold of Nihilo was laid to waste by my army... Then, why...?
Magatsuhi escapes from my body, against my will... And I am not the only one! All the members of Mantra are being drained of their Magatsuhi...!
Manikin: ...What sort of devious trick did they use!? Oh, the humiliation! I can see... the Maiden... where the Magatsuhi is drawn to... But alas, we are utterly powerless... We have no choice but to wait for our doom... Woe to our leader! Gozu-Tennoh!!
Politics would be so much more entertaining if every world leader had a slave like this.
My body may perish, but my spirit will live on! In time, the one worthy of my power will come. It is then that I shall return!!
What good is a world without strength!? I will not forget this rage, this fire that burns my flesh and soul! My kingdom shall rise again...!! ...Gu...oh......
You might say Gozu-Tennoh... lost his head in his final moments.
Seriously though, a great scene. I love how the Nihilo and the Mantra are set up as blatant stand-ins for Law and Chaos from previous Shin Megami Tensei games, but just when you think you know where the plot is going, one of them is decisively swept off the board. Brilliant.
No... The Mantra has been utterly destroyed by Nihilo's attack.
We, on the other hand, did nothing more than enforce a reign of terror. ...That is the reason we lost. And all those that we called comrades have deserted us.
Both of you are free to do whatever you want... I have no business here anymore. There is no point in guarding an abandoned city. ...Farewell. I will go on a quest to realize my dream of a world where the strong thrive. If you are truly strong, then we shall meet again...
There's a girl you might wish to catch up to. Just sayin'.
Regardless, this is it for Ikebukuro. Our next goal is reaching the Kabukicho prison and freeing Futomimi, the prophetic leader of the Manikins. However, a formidable opponent awaits on the highway leading there. To defeat him, we'll have to fuse, fuse and fuse.
Sarasvati's weakness to Fire is going to get the entire party killed, so we'll have to replace her with something better. However, I'd also like to take this opportunity to make Mana Refill easily transferable to future demons. Bear with me, things are about to get very technical.
First of all, we recruit an Angel and a Pixie. They are fused into Uzume, who in turn is fused with Koppa (the one we got way back after the Matador battle) into Zouchou. Zouchou is going to be Sarasvati's replacement, but we'll have to upgrade him to a more powerful Kishin first. How, you ask? Watch.
Sarasvati is fused with a Shikigami into Taraka. By fusing Taraka with Datsue-Ba, another Femme demon, we get an Aquans, a water elemental.
Like I said before, demons of the Element race have a very interesting property: by fusing them with another demon, you can get another demon of the very same race, except it will be one rank more or less powerful. Due to the way Elements are fused, they are very useful for transferring skills from one demon to another.
The Aquans is used to downgrade a Hua Po to a Kodama (keeping Mana Refill, of course). Why would we want a level 3 demon?
The answer is to register him in the Demonic Compendium.
For a very modest fee of 2600 Macca we can now get a demon with Mana Refill any time we want. By fusing a Kodama with a Hua Po, we can obtain an Erthys who in turn can be used to upgrade various demons, no matter how high their level is, and give them Mana Refill in the process.
So we do just that. We fuse the Kodama with a Hua Po, and use the resulting Erthys to upgrade Zouchou to Koumoku.
Koumoku (or Koumokuten) is the Japanese name of Virupaksa, another Heavenly King. He guards the West, his symbol is a serpent, and his followers are the Naga.
Next, we buy an Aeros at Rag's. By the way, I don't think I linked to the jewelry music when we first got here. Here's the track:
Jewelry - RAG
We create another Erthys and fuse it with the Aeros. Fusion of two elementals always results in a Mitama.
In Shinto, Mitama are aspects of human soul. They come in four flavors, and Nigi Mitama embodies inner peace and kindness.
The funny thing about Mitama is that using them in fusion always gives you the exact same demon, but with 2 catches:
1. Stats are given a small boost, depending on the Mitama used.
2. If the other demon has less than 8 skills, he can learn several new skills from the Mitama.
We take advantage of this fact to give Eligor Mana Refill and Rakunda.
Now let's get going.
Gatekeeper: My partner's already left... I let that human kid go to Kabukicho Prison... I just don't care anymore...
The spirit of the gatekeepers of the Great Gate has been broken by the Nihilo counterattack, allowing us to pass.
Bring it on.
Soul: You should quit while you can! Something terrible's been seen around there lately... A ghost riding a motorcycle!! I don't think he's even licensed!!
No unlicensed driving on our watch.
Will you stay here?
Yes.
Are you sure?
Yes.
Hell Biker. Much more dangerous than Daisoujou, and although he doesn't quite match the annoyance factor of Matador, he can easily rip an unprepared party to shreds. Let's start with a rundown of his moves.
First of all, Hell Exhaust. An unholy lovechild of Mazanma and Dekaja, it deals moderate Force damage to everyone and removes all buffs from our party. Hell Biker uses it often, rendering buffs completely useless in this fight. The good news is the Koumoku repels Force, ending the Biker's turn immediately whenever he chooses to use this attack.
Second, Hell Spin. Physical damage to everyone. Easily the Biker's scariest attack. He always uses it to follow up a basic physical attack, and if the basic attack scored a critical, Hell Spin will usually be enough to finish the target off.
Third, Dekunda. This is what makes him difficult: he can remove all of your debuffs at will. Fortunately, he doesn't use it all the time like he does Hell Exhaust. You should exploit this and keep him under the effect of one War Cry all the time. Setting up anything else will make you quickly run out of MP, and you're dead if that happens. Without War Cry, Media simply isn't enough to heal the damage he is capable of dealing.
But, can you handle this!?
Halfway through the fight, he gets two new skills.
The first is Hell Throttle, which is the exact same thing as Daisoujou's Startle. Converts 1 AP into 3 half APs, increasing the Biker's damage output exponentially.
Bead Chains that fully recover the party's HP are a life savior here.
The second skill is Hell Burner (sorry, couldn't get a good picture of it). Flames burst out of the bike's exhaust pipe, dealing moderate Fire damage to everyone. Drained by the Valkyrie, so it's not a big deal.
It's a tough fight, but if you conserve MP carefully and don't get lazy about healing, you should win.
Next time, we're going to take a break from the main story and explore the Labyrinth of Amala for the first time.
