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The third testament... KICKS ASS!!! - Let's Play SMT2

deuxhero

Arcane
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
11,328
Location
Flowery Land
I'd have to figure out how to do video capture from my TV first.
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,158
darth_vader_cat.jpg
I find your lack of updates disturbing.
 

Elzair

Cipher
Joined
Apr 7, 2009
Messages
2,254
Black Cat, since you are back, are you going to finish this?
 

Black Cat

Magister
Joined
Jun 1, 2009
Messages
1,997
Location
Skyrim .///.
Sure, i just thought no one cared any longer. I have all the screenshots and the savestates in my memory stick thingies, so as soon as the Emo Emo Neko Chan crisis of having to be a month or two or three with my boyfriend gone to the other side of the globe and without a permanent internet conection i'll go back writing updates for you bad and mean people, you.
 

Black Cat

Magister
Joined
Jun 1, 2009
Messages
1,997
Location
Skyrim .///.
Chapter the tenth, Odds and Ends.
In which our heroine finishes rebuilding Masakado, fuses herself some pretty OP demons for this point in the game, and leaves everything ready to crawl some dungeons later tonight and get this LP thingie on the way once more.







Ok. The bodyparts of Masakado we have been keeping in our backpack are starting to smell so it is time to finish this questy quest. We Transmit ourselves to Roppongi, and from there we go to this little Shinto Shrine.

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As soon as we arrive Hiruko's voice compels us to enter, and we do so without further delay. Sarutahiko Ökami, who as his name indicates is one from among the Great Kami but from whom i do not known nothing other than he is the patron Kami of martial arts and physical prowess or something, and that just because i had to check Wikipedia to have anything at all to say about him. Also, i don't know if this art is of this guy but whatever, we'll notice soon enough if it is not.

samuraiguy.jpg

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I'll never let anyone have it!

As you will see later he is talking about Masakado's left arm, and as I imagine the scene i can't help but think it is very, like, unique. Since we need hisss treasssure the battle is on. It begins with Kerberos bitting him for 28 damage, and in turn he attacks Koneko for 32 damage and Baphomet for 42. Eligor uses Heatwave for 21 damage, Mariah shoots and hits four times for a total of 58 damage, and Koneko does the same and also hits four times, one of those being a critical hit, scoring a total of 78 damage. Finally Ramiel casts Agirao against samurai guy but the spell is reflected and he causes 14 damage to himself, and Baphomet slaps Sarutahiko but does nothing at all. I hate those tank like bosses, ewww.

Second turn begins with Sarutahiko casting bloody Hanma, but as i'm a pretty lucky cat no one's hit by it, yay. Then Kerberos bites for 25 damage, Koneko shots for a total of 54 damage, Mariah does the same for a total of 69 damage even after Samurai Guy managed to dodge one of the hits, Ramiel attacks for 15 damage, Eligor uses Heatwave for two hits and a total of 41 damage, and a frustrated Baphomet focuses himself, or herself, or itself on playing a support role after what happened on the first turn, casting Medirama to keep the party on top form.

Third turn begins with Sarutahiko casting MahaAgion, ouchie. Baphomet gets hits for 12 damage, Kerberos absorves the hit aimed for him, Eligor receives 22 damage. In the second row Ramiel takes 23 damage, Koneko takes 15 damage, and Mariah takes 13 damage. Okay, that was not really an ouchie moment, this guy kind of sucks other than by being able to take a huge beating before going down. Koneko shoots him for a total of 65 damage, Kerberos bite for 28 damage, Eligor uses Heatwave for 103 damage (EPIC GOETIC DEMON LORD FOR TEH BLOODY WIN!!!11!), Ramiel uses his Winflap for 11 damage, Baphomet casts Medirama for lack of anything else to do, and Mariah fires her gun for a total of 69 damage.

Fourth turn begins with Sarutahiko taking a little rest. And no, i'm not kidding. Kerberos bites for 27 damage, Mariah fires her gun for a total of five hits, one of which is dogded and two of which are critical strikes, reaching a total of 101 damage. Then Koneko shoots for a total of 52 damage, Eligor uses Heatwave for 64 damage, Ramiel hits him for 13 damage, and Baphomet keeps casting Medirama.

Fifth turn begins with Kerberos bitting Sarutahiko for 24 damage, and then Samurai Guy uses some special attack that does 75 damage to big doggie. Mariah shoots him for 102 damage, Koneko for 71 damage, Eligor uses Heatwave for 45 damage, Ramiel attacks but misses (¬¬...), and Baphomet tried to Suck our opponent to no effect.

Sixth turn opens with Sarutahiko again using some kind of special attack against Kerberos, this time for 73 damage. Kerberos answers with a bite of his own, doing 27 damage to Samurai Guy. Koneko then shoots at Sarutahiko for 63 damage and Eligor finishes evil guy by means of a Heatwave that does 46 damage. About bleeping time, i say.

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I... Where am I? What have I been doing...?

Hugging Masakado's cut arm, you big pervert you.

I see. You want this, don't you? Take it then.

Hai Hai, go back to the closet and, like, stay there. We leave the shrine and go back to the civilized world, where the first thing i do is visiting the Jakyo Manor and fusing Kerberos with Ramiel to obtain none other than Shinjuu Anubis himself!

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This guy is simply amazing, given how this game's rules work. Pay attention, now.

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As you may be able to see his skills and stats are not bad, but they aren't the best thingie ever or anything. This guy's entire value comes from the combination of being Neutral while having Divine Intervention skill. This skill, as you can probably see in it requiring a whooping 80 MP to cast, is one of the most powerful skills in the entire game, as it does truly Massive damage to demons aligned with Chaos, if the caster is aligned to Law, or aligned with Law, if the Caster is aligned to Chaos. Anubis is one of the few demons, if not the only demon, that can use Divine Intervention against those of both alignments. Plan A is to inherit Divine Intervention to a high Magic late game demon also aligned with Neutrality. If that doesn't works, Plan B is just keep this guy around and use Koneko to replenish Anubis' MP with items during the late game boss battles, where Koneko can't really keep dealing enough damage to make a diference in battle and most of the late game bosses dogde bullets better than the Touhou girls, when they aren't simply immune to bullets.

I also fuse Nadja and Tsuchigumo into a Yakshini, and from now on my party becomes Yakshini, Anubis, and Eligor in the front row and Baphomet, Koneko, and Mariah in the second one. I don't remember if I did already show Yakshini's sheet so there you go.

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We return to the wasteland to try and reach another one of the Shinto Shrines, the one deepest among the ruins and stuff. Along the way we come across a mutant guy doing some sightseeing.

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the massive nine-headed dragon upon whose back the world is built. They just popped up there all of a sudden.

I wonder what this means. Not even the Shin Megami Tensei games would have the massive nine headed dragon upon whose back the world is built as a late game boss, right? Of course not, that's utterly ridiculous. This encounter is completely irrelevant to the plot, surely. Just some random references thrown around for the mythology geeks to have their fun.

[Echo.From.The.Future]

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[/Echo.From.The.Future]

:cry:

We'll worry about that later, though. For now we keep going deep into the wasteland and through the ruins until we finally come across the final shrine.

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As always, Hiruko tells us to enter and that's precisely what we do. What follows is another dungeon, in this case separated in several segments. Each segment has a kind of semicircular corridor surrounding an inner area with a smaller corridor an a room with three stalls inside, one of which will teleport to the next segment while the other ones teleport you back to the entrance or to the previous segment. Each semicircular corridor has one way doors comunicating with the semicircular corridor in the previous segment, and the last segment has also one way doors comunicating with two outer corridors that go all the way to the begining and to a couple of secret areas behind the first segment. All the doors in those side corridors are one way, so once you leave the corridor for one of the segments you need to go all the way back to the last segment to go back inside them.

As we map this dungeon and discover the sequence of teleporters that will take us all the way through by means of pure trial and error we come across a lot of pretty demons, like Ryuuou Nozuchi...

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... Youma Haokah...

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... Rakshasas...

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... Youki Turdaks, whom you already met and one of which we recruit as fusion fodder...

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... this Aracne girl, whom we already met and defeated in Shin Megami Tensei...

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... and Majuu Orthrus, Kerberos little brother and one of whom we also recruit as fusion fodder.

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And this is a screenshot of the map in which you can see what i mentioned before, even if it lacks the side corridors and the secret areas behind the first segment.

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And it is precisely in one of those two secret areas that we meet Sukunahikona, who is a really small kami who travels using a flower as a boat and dressed in the skin of a small bird. He is usually seen as an item with Önamuchi, with whom he is good friends and works alongside to develop the lands and invent alchemical and medicinal concoctions.

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The infamous Feline Messiah, nya! :3

Do you dare approach, knowing that I am Sukunahikona!?

What will you do, stab my toes? About as dangerous as a playful ferret you are, then, but not half as cute.

... Hmm. You do not appear to be evildoers. To tell the truth, I've been locked up in here, trapped.

... You'll help me!? Thank you!!

Soon afterwards we are back outside and the little guy can go back to live miniadventures and stuff.

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Thank you, I am in your debt! Let me give you this. With it you will be able to attain great power!

He leaves after giving us the left leg of Masakado, and the same do we. Before returning, though, we go a bit north, where we find a cave blocked by a really big rock. Not a long time separates us of exploring it's depths.

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Once back in the civilized world we do as always do and go straight to the Jakyo Mannor. We fuse Nekomata and Orthus to get a Flamies, and then Flamies and Baphomet to get a Datenshi Berith.

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Then we also fuse Eligor and Principality to get a Tenshi Power because, just like Ramiel showed us first and Power shows us now, Angels in this game are Teh Bloody Hotness and Teh Bleeping Smex and, like, stuff and this is one in particular can come purify my soul and body of all sin whenever he feels like it, being one very fine piece of... divine will, yes. That's what i meant, really. * Ahem *

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However, Tenshi Power will not be joining the party until a bit later since we have gone totally Chaos and we can't summon him. Our party is now Yakshini, Berith, and Anubis in the front row and Turdak, Koneko, and Mariah in the back row. We return to Holytown and pay a visit to that Stalker guy who before mentioned finding a head while looting.

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Yes, indeed.

Sell if for 20.000 macca I will.

Yes, okay. The things I do to align myself back with Neutrality, sigh.

Pay 20.000 macca you will!? Head to you I give. Thank you.

We now have Masakado's head. Also, we can now summon Power to our party, and so we have Power, Berith, and Anubis in the front row and Yakshini, Koneko, and Mariah in the back row. Yay, I love overpowered parties.

We go through The Center and into the tunnels leading to the void that once was Valhala, were we go back to the small and isolated stretch of wasteland that leads to The Factory's secret prison camp. In the Shrine here, the first one we visited, Kotoshironushi is waiting for us to return.

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Very well then, take this Torso of Masakado.

We have collected them all! We return to Holytown and from here we Transmit back to the Mutant Town, and then we walk all the bloody way back to Hiruko to anounce our victory. Nothing's ever easy for us, naturally.

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Now you must fuse the parts together to restore his body fully.

:evil:

We walk all the way back to the closest Jakyo Manor, and as soon as we enter the master of the manor notices the body of Prince Masakado, notices our intentions, and ask we let him be the one who fuses Masakado back to health, or something.

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Please, let me fuse them together! As Master of the Jakyo Manor, it would be an honor to be able to revive him through my fusion!

Please, I beg you!

Yes, sure, whatever. Just get it done super fasty fast, please.

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Naturally, though, things are never easy for the prettiest cat...

Master of the Manor

Hmm... Well, Prince Masakado's body is in one piece now, but there's still something missing.

D:!!! Kind of panicking we run all the way back to Hiruko's hideout, and find him to be expecting us.

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will need more than just his pieces. You will also need his soul, which I have been guarding here. By fusing his body with his soul, the Prince will be resurrected.

There's no bloody bleeping way i'm again running all the way to the Jakyo Manor, and then back here!

You have done more than I could have ever have possibly hoped for by gathering his pieces and restoring his body. Now, let me return his soul.

Sure, do so bloody now you little lazy creep. Fusion music starts, and then...

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All hail Prince Masakado! And stuff.

Masakado

Oh! I feel power flowing through every vein in my body!

... Hiruko, was it you? Were you the one who revived me?

Hiruko

Prince, it was to the efforts of Koneko here, not I.

Masakado

I see. Well then Koneko, you have my eternal thanks.

Oh, it was nothing, really. Nothing at al...

... Now Hiruko, I believe we need to hurry, no?

:evil:

Buy some bleeping dots in bloody Etiquette, you big jerk!

Hiruko

Indeed! Let us go to the sealed cave at once!

To the Hirukomobile! And so they leave us alone, with nothing but some Eternal Thanks for our efforts. With nothing better to do we decide to also go to the sealed cave, for whatever it may be worth. And so this update ends. Next time we meet we will join those two ungrateful jerks at the sealed cave were the Amatsukami has been imprisoned by the treason of the heavenly hosts, crawl some dungeons, free some really weird and surreal japanese gods, and stuff. And thingies, too.

'till next time!
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,158
*notices the thread reviving itself and crawling to life* OH FUCK!!! IT'S ALIVE!!!! *shoots it and buries it even deeper*

... Just kidding. Can you recruit this prince guy? What are his stats before and after he's complete? I no longer remember what you were suposed to do ingame to continue the story...
 

Cenobyte

Prophet
Joined
Feb 13, 2010
Messages
1,117
Location
Japan
[PER]So this LP is not dead yet?[/PER]

Go on, your LPs were always a good read.
 

Black Cat

Magister
Joined
Jun 1, 2009
Messages
1,997
Location
Skyrim .///.
@ Lightbane

You can't recruit Masakado, sadly. It's a shame since I really love his art, is cool and kind of classy and peaceful, and it somehow manages to make yellow look good, which kind of goes against both natural and divine law.

And, like, hey! This LP still has seven lives before needing another quarter, do not lose hope every time I happen to go Emo or get mad at the Codex. x3

@ Inugami-Kun

Nekomancy? :3

Clickity Clicky Click, Nya!

@ Cenobyte

Thank you, It's good to know someone actually reads all my bad jokes and my crash courses on hermetic qabalah. x3!!!
 

Black Cat

Magister
Joined
Jun 1, 2009
Messages
1,997
Location
Skyrim .///.
Chapter the eleventh; Jews, jews never change.
In which our heroine saves the Gods of Japan from the evil zionist overlords' clutches, place some planetary pillars around, discovers Andhaira was right all along, receives some life changing advice from a naked seer, uncovers the true extent of the evil zionist overlords' evil tyranny, and prepares to invade the abyss' loo.







We rejoin the Feline Messiah's party as it approaches the sealed cave we came across shortly before. There, as expected, they come across Hiruko and Prince Masakado, who are preparing themselves to unseal the entrance.

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Masakado

Understood, Sir Hiruko.

With a rumbling and a tremor the boulder moves aside by itself and the entrance is revealed.

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'Twas a bit difficult for me... Having just revived I have not the strenght i once did. But thanks to you i was able to reclaim my body.

Koneko, I would like to show my thanks to you again.

I can totally do without more eternal gratitudes, thank you. ¬_¬U

I shall give you these two treasures.

Awww, that changes everything. Who's a nice and cuddly Prince Masakado? *pets,pets* He gives us the Sun Pilar and his own Katana, though this time we can't actually equip it and works more like a key item.

Now, I shall rest for a while and recover my strength. Farewell!

Ciao, nya! *waves*

Hiruko

The Amatsukami are imprisoned inside the cave. Hurry up and save them!

Do you think I am, like, your bloody combat maid or something, you ugly little creepy thingie? Not even a please? And, like, Masakado did reward me but you still haven't, you know? This is what i get for being sociable and nice, hmpf. He would fit right in Fair Codexia, he would.

But into the cave we go, anyway, to free the Gods of Japan. The place works like this: First you have a bunch of floors made up of 4x4 one tile rooms. Each of those one tile rooms has doors conecting to all the other rooms directly next to it, but some rooms teleport you either to a room in the next level or to a room in one of the previous ones. Our objective here is to reach the deepest floor, the dungeon where the Amatsukami are imprisoned. Since the enemy lines here are made of Datenshi Eligors, Datenshi Baphomets, and Tenshi Principalities along with some new demons like Yama Lilims and Youjuu Gyuki we do not have any trouble in doing so. Nothing in this dungeon can survive more than a turn against my party, and some enemy bunches survive just the actions of one or two characters before turning into experience points.

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Along the way we recruit a Yama Lilim, who sure wanted to remind us the bloody main character is male and thus prey in more ways than one by sucking us bloody dry and taking a whole bloody cargo of both Macca and Magnetite before joining, as well as both a new Datenshi Eligor and a new Tenshi Principality. We do not even try to comunicate with the Youjuu Gyuki, though, as when going AUTO on their asses i notice they actually give a good bunch of Magnetite upon defeat, and as you may remember my party is always hungry for Magnetite so I just kept going AUTO on them until they decided to hide in some hole and don't come out again until a month or two after we had left.

After solving half a dozen or so of those four by four one tile rooms dungeons we finally arrive to the true dungeon, which is pretty big and full of traps. That would not be a trouble since i brought a lot of amulets...

Amulet

When: Dungeons.
Use On: Entire party.

Eliminates all damage from damage zones on the current floor. When yu go to another floor, the effect ends.

... but, like, those traps aren't damage dealing zones but status effect inflicting rooms, and somehow the amulets don't work protecting us from those. Instead we just suck the effects up and live with the small damage they cause every single step, meh.

Every now and then we come across one of the Amatsukami, whom we are given the option to free of his or her or its bondage by breaking the Shimenawa that seals their powers. A Shimenawa, for the uninitiated among you, are braided ropes made of rice straw and used in rituals of binding, protection, warding, and cleansing by shinto priests as well as shinto magicians, onmyöji (Let's go!), and one of Japan's favorite fetish, the shrine maidens or Mikos.

I will go about introducing them to you as we come across them.

The first one we meet is Tsukiyomi No Mikoto, who is the second from among the noble children born from Izanagi and Izanami. He's the Kami of the moon and the night and, in some accounts, the sea too. Some records make him the murderer of Ukemochi, a Kami of food and the like, and as so, and in relationship to his own nature as the Kami of the moon, is seen as the divine patron of Agriculture. His art is bloody amazing.

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Have you found and released my elder sister Amaterasu yet? If not, hurry and free her from hr bondage! I beg of you!

At least he knows how to ask for things, instead of trying to give us orders like a certain creepy mutant guy who is also a Japanese God. *ahem*

Second in line is Takemikazuchi, the Kami born from the blood that spilled all over Izanagi's blade during the killing of Kagutsuchi, the Kami of fire. He was one of the three Kami sent to the lands of Izumo as heavenly envoys to convince Ökuninushi to give his lands to the Amatsukami. As far as i know he's seen as a strong and powerful warrior, but since he's not my kind of Kami i do not know a lot about him. And in the game he's kind of a jerk, too.

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I'll make the rat that tricked me pay for this treachery! Out of my way!!

And off he goes. Good ridance.

Third in line is Amaterasu Öhirumeno Mikoto herself, first from among the three noble children born from Izanagi and Izanami, Kami of the Sun, and ruler of the plain of high heaven. Given her importance and power and primacy and many descendants to list the stories and myths concerning her would be totally ridiculous, so i will left it in pointing at how obviously superior and more enlightened the Japanese pantheon is since in it the heavens are ruled by a girl. Also, in the screenshot below you can see the Shimenawa, which is kind of cool since in the others i had already broke them free in the captures. I totally love her hair, too.

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became imprisoned in the first place.

Since ages past, the Kunitsukami have served us Amatsukami. However, they betrayed us, defecting to the gods of the Hebrew pantheon and helped them imprison us.

... But, as you may know, the Hebrew gods are not ones for sharing power, and as soon as we Amatsukami had been imprisoned they turned on the Kunitsukami and imprisoned them as well. Unbeknownst to the Kunitsukami, they were being used as tools all long.

Both we Amatsukami and the Kunitsukami are gods hailing from these once fertile isles of Japan... It was wrong for us to have such squabbles amongst ourselves.

... Truly, we were fools. We shall never make the same mistake again.

Xenophobia and Antisemitism in the same game, and both put in a good light to boot? This is why I love Japan when they aren't dreaming of tentacles and new weird fetishes to export, even if I don't really agree with that kind of shit.

Amaterasu

Will you break my bonds?

Who are you, human child, possessing such power? Truly, yours rivals that of my own younger brother, Susa-no-o.

Koneko, I give you my thanks.

Next comes Tajikarao, whose name means Power of the Heavenly Hand or something similar. That's all i have found about him. Not my kind of Kami anyway, but he seems kind of nice and stuff.

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I am so ashamed that i was not strong enough to help, getting sealed up in this cave along with everyone else!

And finally we get to the last one, Omoikane The Flying Tentacle Brain, also know as Yagokoro Omoikane No Kami or The Kami Who Thinks Together A Myriad Of Thoughts, and if by now you did not notice he's a Kami of intelligence and knowledge you are totally hopeless. He was the one who elucidated how to draw Amaterasu out of the stone cave and back to the world when she went hermit and the world was engulfed by darkness, among other things. He's a pretty cool guy, i think, if you forget he's kind of a flying brain with tentacles.

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with our Kunitsukami brethren like this... Thank you for breaking my bondage.

In thanks, let me give you some advice. The gods that you are now freeing are returning to the Kongokai to nurse their wounds, but will now be ready for you to create them through fusion any time. They will surely be happy to serve you, as will I.

Who's a super duper mega kawaii flying brain with tentacles? :3

After this we leave the dungeon the same way we came. Have a screenshot of the map screen as we leave, showing the entire map. Once outside we find Amaterasu waiting for us along with Hiruko.

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Hiruko

Oh, Amaterasu... You truly shine with holy light. Without that light, this world is nothing but darkness...

He may be an ugly as hell and deformed and totally ungentlemanly citizen of Fair Codexia wanabe but most of you loveable jerks could learn a thingie or two about how to treat a girl out of him, you know? :evil:

Amaterasu

Hiruko, you have suffered greatly... You have gone to great lengths to find help in these people to break our bonds. Koneko, Mariah, the two of you shine with an inner light yourselves. Let me give you my thanks once more.

Hiruko, come with me. Together we shall go to the Kongokai to heal our wounded bodies...

And with a flash of light they are *puff*, gone. Leaving aside what little experience we got killing enemies so very much under my party members' levels and the option to fuse ourselves some Japanese Gods later on the only other thing we got out of this was a Vital Lance dropped by a bunch of Eligors we AUTO'd. It's a better melee weapon for Koneko than what he's currently using, so we switch them and then start walking back to Roppongi. Along the way we decide to visit the stone altars that dot this part of the underworld, where the planetary pillars we have been collecting are to be placed. Always counting from the mouth of the cave we place the Saturn Pillar in the first one we visit, the Mars Pillar in the third one we visit, and the Mercury Pillar in the fourth one we visit.

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That's three out of six, we still have a long way to go before opening this one lock. Once back in Roppongi we Transmit ourselves to Holytown, because it's actually faster and saves more Magnetite than going all the way down to the mutant town, and once our journey through the Warp is complete i go visit the seer for some guidance.

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Yes, sure. Whatever. Next we go to the Bar for some more guidance. We talk to some shabby guy who, as you can surely imagine, had already seen beyond The Center's deception a long time ago...

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street? That Daniel guy's been dishing out the dirt on what goes on in the Center nonstop. I had a hunch that there was some nasty shit going down over there. Looks like I was right!

... some random warrior guy, acting like random warrior guys usually do...

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I'm on Daniel's side! If he needs me to fight, I'm with him all the way!

... and one of those shady guys who tries to give us hints about the game after going all surprise sex on the fourth wall. Let's be honest here, the game right now is asuming we are retards, and to make things worse it's going out of its way to do so since if by this point your Messiah's Intelligence is lower than ten you pretty much fail at playing Shin Megami Tensei.

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the factory. It's rumored that if your INT isn't at least 10, the radiation will warp your senses.

And there's also a random drunk.

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*hic* Th' guy used ta be workin' fer the Center himself... *hic* How can we truss' 'im?

Once we finish interviewing people in the local bar we have a pretty clear idea about what must be done, so we go straight outside to check out the screens and the message Daniel's broadcasting.

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but in reality it is nothing more than a concentration camp, where people are forced to work against their wills! Those brought there are brainwashed, and then forced to work until they die of exhaustion!

If we don't do something about this, then the number of innocent victims will only increase...

And now we go check on Daniel himself, since as you may remember his favorite preaching spot was not very far away from Holytown's mall.

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the Factory. I worry about all the laborers there... Let's rescue all the workers in the Factory before they die! Let's free the Factory from the bonds of the forced labor camp it has become!

... Koneko. Just as you've heard, I intend to go to the Factory and free the laborers there. If you agree with me, join me! Let's work together to rescue the people of the Factory!

Sure, i guess. Let's do that and stuff, but first I'll go back to the Jakyo Manor and fuse me some cool new demons. The first couple i send into the tubes is made up of Lilim and Yaskhini, resulting in a Cyclops. He's a pretty tough frontliner, he is. And since he kind of inherited Ricarm he is a pretty tough frontliner who can revive squishier characters, yay.

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Then we send Principality and Turdak into the tubes. The result...

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... truly exists! Andharia was right all along, and bad joke is bad and obvious but was too tempting to just ignore, etc. Having both Ricarm and Toraest he can come handy as on demand support, but with just below three hundred hit points there is no way i'm making him a permanent addition to my main party. So now i'm using Berith, Cyclops, and Anubis in the front row and Power, Koneko, and Mariah in the back one. Like this we Transmit to the factory, and after checking the watchtower's gate, and then around here and there and over there and under this rock and behind that tree and stuff and thingies for a while, we go to that door in the lower level we weren't able to go through before. Here we find Daniel waiting for us.

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If you had told me you would be there i would not had to, like, check the entire place to find you, and so i would had been there less of eventually.

Jerk.

Come one, let's free everyone imprisoned in the labor camp!

Meh, let's. Once inside we start checking the cells, just to discover only demon summoners, mages, witches, and main characters do not consider Intelligence to be their dump stat. We also discover that *shock* Jews lied and never really meant to let murerous sociopathic gladiators join the chosen few in the promised land. Gaspity gaspy gasp, etc.

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Leave me alone!

Indeed, Japan. Not wanting some random guy you never saw before and who claims to be the Messiah to take you somewhere is a dead giveaway of being a mind washed prisoner, mindlessly slaving away for your zionist overlords' gain. :roll:

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In a perfect world this dialogue would have continued like this...

Berith: Of course not, young sir! I'm deeply insulted, and profoundly hurt!

Power: Maybe I shouldn't be hanging with you people...

... but alas!

Just where do you think you're trying to take me!

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I killed many people in my battles. I am praying for their happiness in the next world here. It is all I can do to make it up to them...

Indeed, Japan. Having a consciousness and feeling guilt about killing people just because you were a greedy bastard is a dead giveaway of being a mind washed prisoner, mindlessly slaving away for your zionist overlords' gain. :roll:

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It is my job to be here, working for the good of the people!

Indeed, Japan. Being responsible and feeling obligued to duty is a dead giveaway of being a mind washed prisoner, mindlessly slaving away for your zionist overlords' gain. :roll:

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feels great!

Indeed, Japan. Feeling great because you have found the wellbeing of the many to be of greater importance than your own decadent pleasure is a dead giveaway of being a mind washed prisoner, mindlessly slaving away for your zionist overlords' gain. :roll:

A frustrated Daniel is waiting for us at the other end of the camp's first level, which to my Magnetite stores' dismay i discovered is also the only inhabited one.

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Indeed, Japan. It doesn't. :roll:

The conditions here are awful! Why doesn't anyone even try to leave!?

I see, it must be the watchtower! There's something not right about the top of the tower!

And so Daniel leaves for the watchtower, as do the Messiah, Mariah, and the others in turn. What horrors lurk there, among shadows waiting for those foolish enough to dare this place of evil jewish conspiracy and untold secrets? What sits atop this altar of hellish corruption, this wretched temple of sin, this acrid and charnel Babel? What violates, his bloted self to filthy throne prisoner, the minds of those honest and hard working individuals? What ancient and totally damned abomination invoques the use of so very much rococoish kitsch, never really justified nor forgiven?

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Are you making fun of me, foolish mortal girl?

Of course I am not, great lord. :3 I would never dare. *twitches ears, bows*

Does people really needs to ask and ponder and wonder why it is Demonology erodes the sanity of those wizards and witches brave or foolish enough to venture into its abyssal depths after seeing this kind of thing? Geez, i wonder why it is! :roll:

Before such an epic confrontation between our Nya Nya Savior and the legions of the corrupter takes place, though, our heroine will have to go farm some Magnetite, since going around with a kind of overpowered party isn't doing her purse any favors.

'till next time!



Edity Edit: Lord, my grammar and syntax and, like, stuff really sucks. Fixed it up a bit. :?
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,158
First... Mother Brain!!!???? Then, then... What the hell is supposed to be the last picture? Is this for real?

Also, I didn't know that being intelligent made you immune to radiation/mind-control. And how exactly your senses are warped?
 

Black Cat

Magister
Joined
Jun 1, 2009
Messages
1,997
Location
Skyrim .///.
Of course he's for real. That's Baalphegor, also know as Belphegor. As it also happens with most other demons from western demonology in Shin Megami Tensei, Belphegor's illustration is based on a previous drawing. In this particular case that drawing would be Belphegor's illustration on Collin De Plancy's Daemonographia. Almost all from among the Fallen Angels and most of the Infernal Kings on those earlier Shin Megami Tensei games drew inspiration from that one book.

Here, have the original for comparison purposes...

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And i don't really know how would having less than ten intelligence points affect us in the tower, to be honest. With such a low intelligence score it would be pretty hard to recruit and negotiate, so i never actually tried it. To recruit and negotiate always seemed the most important thingie to do in the Shin Megami Tensei games so in the old games i always focus the protagonist on intelligence, for recruitment and negotiation, and luck, for drops and advantages in the random encounters. The main character is suposed to be a, like, a summoner first, all other things i see as secondary.
 

Black Cat

Magister
Joined
Jun 1, 2009
Messages
1,997
Location
Skyrim .///.
Chapter the twelfth; little mermaids and demiurge wannabes.
In which our Heroine finally travels to Makai for the first time, in search of the lost lover of a sad siren. Also, Prisoners will be saved, Total Recall will be plagiarized, Old Ones will be shot and Matrix will be reminded it wasn't the first time someone thought Virtual Reality was a good idea in a story built around Gnosticism.







Once our heroine manages to go back to having around 30k Magnetite with her we are ready to assault the tower of evil evilness. First, though, we visit the virtual battler for another meeting with Stephen Hawkings, who has a new toy for us to play with.

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I see that you've grown substantially stronger than before.

Today I will give you a program that will turn on a formerly inactive part of your arm terminal. It is an identification system that will analyze any item or magic that you wish to learn about... But it will not make the Appraisal stores obsolete, as it cannot tell you everything.

We shall meet again.

And straight to the tower we go. Unlike before the gates are open, and we enter unimpeded. This dungeon is composed of twelve small square floors. All levels from the third and until the twelft have one square that will drop you two floors below, but most other rooms will have chests and the like, including many incenses. So you just grit your teeth and keep falling down. Above those twelft small levels is a somewhat bigger thirteenth level, and do not ask me how it is that works but it does.

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In the tower we fight against some new demons among all the old ones, like the Shiki Zombie Priest and Youju Arlaune.

The zombie priests are a pretty bothersome bunch as they are immune to bullets and having a save or die attack along with another one that sends a demon back to the COMP until you summon it again, so it's better to just evade them when it's not small groups of them or a pair of them along with some other thing, as in both cases your demons can kill them before they move. I really like their art.

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Arlaune or Alraune, whichever is right, is a german word for Mandrake and, in turn, the title of Hans Heinns Ewers' best known novel. My interest into the late gothic horror and the early modern horror was never enough for me to read the novel, so that's more or less all you are going to get from me until i decide to go and do so. As far as i know it goes about Nature versus Nurture and stuff, influences i can kind of notice in the game's plot, and the titular Arlaune is a girl created by a scientist using an alchemical process involving the seed of a hanged murderer to impregnate a prostitute. Ewwww.

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There's also Lilims, one of which i recruit, and Eligors, etc. There's also the ocassional Berith, showing the game's finally starting to catch up with me. Once we hit the thirteenth floor more demons come to the fray, the most notorious being the Yama Vampire. His sheet may not look like it, but being immune to bullets they are kind of annoying.

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I recruit one to have around for fusion and to save me the trouble and stuff, but he's not my kind of demon so he will not get any use. Also, as we explore this top floor we come across a magically sealed gate. Unable to go beyond we keep looking around until we come across Daniel, his shape being a testament to who's the real Messiah in here.

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Me neither. You were suposed to be the best warrior among us, Dani-Kun.

To think that they've got a demon as guardian of the Watchtower... What the hell is the Center thinking...!?

They got King Abaddon to eat Valhalla, Dani-Kun. It's not like The Center consorting with demons is news material.

Be careful in there. He's no pushover. I couldn't hold a candle to him on my own and barely made it out with my life...

You go write some more speeches and stuffies, Dani-Kun, and let the Pros handle this one, nya. We go to the watchtower's throne room to face off against...

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Belphie, Demon Lord of dark crevices and shadowy holes! *Standing Ovations*

And I wish I was joking, but I am not. Being a witch and all I kind of know those guys are really just symbols and riddles and stuff, representations and aspects of the forces and not the forces themselves, but Baalphegor is one of those cases i can't help but wonder, like, wasn't there a better way to pinpoint this one particular force, Rabbi? Or, like, why did you got overboard with the mushrooms beforehand, Goldstein? I guess that's a question that will never meet an answer, shame.

To be fair, though, Belphegor is also the demon of ingenious inventions and wonderful new discoveries, so i guess it may all come down to the Rabbi who first summoned him really believing the toilet was a neat development or something. His powers and offices include, also, to give great wealth and to take the shape of a little girl, and i'm totally not going there so make of it what you will. This is one of those few cases, though, were I'm unsure about the demon's true gender. I'll explain why...

Demons, naturally, do not have a sex. Being immaterial beings such things aren't really important, nor useful, to them. Demons, though, do have a gender, since nothing beneath the Crown of Atziluth can't help but be a victim of duality, Demons included. When a demon becomes manifest in some way or another they don't take a shape at random, though. Their shapes are symbolical, a manifestation of the will or nature of the demon as seen through the prism of the witch's own psychological structures, paradigms, and cosmological models. And while some symbols can get very unique and personal through being related to very unique and personal experiences most are simply taken from the cultural, social, religious, or philosophical context, and the more basic and primal and common and simple a concept is the most common and less unique it's symbols usually are as long as you are at least partially socialized, and in the case of really base things they will be the same even if you were raised by wolves in a carpathian valley lost to time.

So when a demon appears always, or most of the time, as a female it's kind of obvious we are talking to something that shouldn't be refered to as He. Take Marchosias, who we knew back in Shin Megami Tensei, as an example, whose shape is always that of a female wolf and only takes a male form if so asked by the summoner. This is even more obvious in the realm of natural elemental creatures, as most elemental spirits related to water are girls and most elemental spirits related to fire or earth are boys, and goes getting less and less obvious the most personal or particular we get. But then you have beings as Baalphegor, who are really hard to catalogue without first hand experience, and whom as the lore goes only a suicidal tasteless bitch would summon.

Now, as even a multiclassed low level Demonologist knows its name is said to come from the Moabites, who celebrated licentious and obscene and delirious orgies under its auspices in Mount Phegor, and refered to him Bel-phegor or Baalphegor. All other lore related to it is along those lines, too: Some say it can be offered homage while in the toilet, as the residues of mortal digestion are to its taste, or that offerings, as in live victims now, are to be offered to it by throwing them into the darkest pits to be found in the deepest caves or by eating their flesh while they are still awake and conscious and screaming as part of dark ceremonies in its honor. See why i do have my doubts about the Little Girl part? It is not that there aren't female demons who aren't totally not nice, as both the Sumerians and the Evil Jews both knew, but they are usually classier than this. This kind of gross crap is usually reserved for male demons, as style and class and good taste are abhorrent to guys. :3

So this smells like a case of either a really divergent prism, as in it got summoned by someone whose mind was really not working as intended, or a case of evil zionist overlords doing what evil zionist overlords usually do when they need to justify some past horror they visited upon their neighbours. Or maybe Belphie knew the best way to manipulate those creepy old jewish wizards was using the promise of some young... Ewww. Bad, bad rabbis. Back to the ovens you go, nao. D:

And I, like, totally forgot: It's time for a new Kuroi Neko teaches olde and darke magicks, nya! segment! Aren't you joyous and extatic? Of course you are! Etc, now let's rumble!

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Well, well, it looks like I have another visitor!

You seem pretty used to people walking in while you are, like, you know... Doing stuffies and thingies?

I have to admit, it's pretty impressive that you were able to see through the illusions guarding this tower.

However, the last guy who came here ran away with his tail between his legs! A smart thing to do, to tell the truth...

Aren't you the humble one? x3

Will you be as foresightful, I wonder?

Totally no, you don't need to worry. I'll free you from zionist chains and send you back home before you even notice, trust little kawaii me. :3

Boss music, activate!

Koneko begins the battle by shooting Belphie for 38 damage or so, and then Berith uses his Deathbound attack skill for a total of 109 damage. Anubis, in turn, falls to his knees and begins to pray for Divine Retribution: Power takes 44 damage, Berith takes 41 damage, and Belphegor takes 369. Mariah then shoots for 47 damage and Power does the same Anubis did, starting to pray for Divine Retribution, and in response Berith takes 35 damage and Belphegor takes 265 damage. Finally, Cyclops punches our enemy for 28 damage. For some reason whatever Belphie did was not among the screenshots.

As you may have noted, though, the spell is called Divine Retribution and not Divine Intervention, and i had to check to put my memory in order. Also, when the lightning and the explosions begins it hits anything of the target alignment present in the battle: All characters from both Law and Chaos if the caster's neutral, all characters from Law if the caster's Chaos, and all characters from Chaos if the caster's Law. The damage, also, is percentile: If Berith had had the same amount of Hit Points than Belphegor when Power casted Divine Retribution he would also have suffered 265 damage instead of just 35 damage. This makes Divine Retribution the kind of spell you want to go all out in the first turns, less so in the middle of the battle, and not at all in the end. Notice, though, that much of this knowledge will not be noticed as i play through this update and the next one. I had, like, kind of forgotten most of this, so i had to relearn it the hard way, and it is a testament to my overpowered party and amazing kawaiisa that i never died while doing so. Not even in the fight at the end of the next update, thought that was a pretty close call since i did not even remember to buff until the last three turns or so.

The second turn is again opened by Koneko going on a rampage and shooting at Belphegor for a total of 71 damage. Anubis then hits the big dude for 19 damage, and Berith uses his Deathbound skill for 111 damage. Belphegor's answer is casting Hapilma and enveloping in bliss both Cyclops and Berith. Mariah then goes with Media, healing the party as most of the skills my demons are using are fueled by Hit Points, and Power uses his Hellfan attack for 31 damage. Cyclops kicks for 29 damage.

The third turn begins, again, with Koneko going pew pew, this time for 47 damage, and in response Belphegor breathes a cold and icy breath, freezing all the characters but Koneko, who already did his thing so it doesn't really matters, Mariah, who again casts Media, and Berith, who doesn't really cares because he is too happy as to act this turn. Meh.

Fourth turn begins. Koneko goes pew pew for 37 damage and Anubis attacks for 24 damage, then Belphegor breathes coldness again, this time freezing both Power and Berith. Meh. Mariah casts Media and Cyclops uses his Rampage skill for 26 damage.

The fifth turn is opened by Anubis attacking and getting dodged by a guy sitting on the toilet, so those are some really amazing skillz on the middle eastern dood. Koneko shoots for 35 damage or so, Mariah casts Media, Berith uses Deathbound for just 45 damage this time, and Belphie breathes fire, doing 32 damage to Cyclops and 23 damage to Mariah. Power then goes Hellfan on his butt for 37 damage, and Cyclops does nothing because he is happy. :roll:

Sixth turn, now. Koneko pew pews for 50 damage, and in response Belphegor casts Plinpa, confusing both Cyclops and Power. Berith goes Deathbound for 57 damage, Anubis attacks for 21 damage, Mariah casts Media, Power attacks for 16 damage, and Cyclops attacks for 33 damage.

Seventh turn, yay. Koneko shoots for 57 damage and the battle ends. We rule, etc.

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A human, yet summoning and binding many demons to his will...

Who are you...?

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The name's Kitty, Soror Kitty... The Lord's last resort before open warfare and biblical revelation, nya! :3

Once Belphegor has gone to search for a more private place in where to, like, you know, that we go back to the gate we discovered before. Belphegor's defeat has dispelled the enchantment that kept it locked, and as such we are now able enter the heart of the Watchtower to discover the secret force behind The Center's psychological indoctrination of The Factory's workforce. What new horrors lurk ahead our heroine?

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Siren is singing on a sorrowful voice...

It's a sad siren! And now we have to discover what ails her heart so we can heal her sadness and stop her song. But she doesn't want to talk to us, so where can we go to ask around and discover the reason behind her pain? To where demons live, of course! But as we try to abandon the tower we discover The Center is no longer willing to sit idly while we go around doing as we please, and while most demons have retreated following Belphegor's defeat and the thirteenth level of the tower is completely safe, the lower levels are crawling with Temple Knights, Executors, and many other Mesian Troops, including some pretty unique military hardware known as the Lavi!

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They are no match for us, though, and before we have time to even notice we are back outside. We transmit back to Holytown, visit the seer for confirmation, and then start looking for a way to travel into the Abyss. It's still too early to try opening the main gate so we will be using the same method that crazy scientist from the prologue tried to use. But first we need to find the fifth doll, since as i believe we already discovered before one of his doll was the wrong one and thus the corridor to the Abyss wasn't working as intended.

Now you would be damned to spend a couple centuries walking around every single place we have visited so far while trying to find something that looks like a hint if it were not for the cutest Neko, who will go straight to Holytown's Great Church and, once there, straight to the second floor and to that guy we met before who was screaming in frustration but did not want to share with us his worries. Now he will want to since the frustation has been building up.

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Well, you see, my ambition is to see the halls of the Abyss for myself, so I've been trying to open a door there.

You are real lucky i'm no longer in JEWtopia's payroll, i have to say.

I know how to get there in theory, but not in practice. Do you want to hear how it's supposed to work?

Yes, sure. We both know the bane of witches and sorcerers everywhere is talking way to much about our research, so spill it out already.

All right, here's the deal. You need to find four magical dolls, each infused with special power. Then you need to place them in the right formation in a place where this world's energies are in synch with those of the Abyss. Then the portal to the Abyss will open.

The problem is, out of those four dolls, I only have one.

... So, do you want this Sleeping Doll I've got?

Haaaaaaaai. :3

All right then, here you go. I'm sick of trying and failing, so you find a way there for me. Good luck!

Geez, if wish some the evil black sorcerers i have met were as nice as this guy. Now, remember that room we find before in the third floor, with all the ceremonial stuff indicating someone had tried to open a gate to the Abyss on it? We go straight to that room, then we start placing the dolls but, when we are asked about the Dancing Doll we decide not to place it, and then we will be asked if we want to place the Sleeping Doll in its place. We do so, and voila!

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The gate to Makai has opened! We venture forth, and while there may be none of those totally kawaii Prinnies around right now and the place really needs better lightning the totally awesome music more than makes up for it. I could listen to that track all bloody day, i could.

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It is bloody hard to notice it on the screenshot but there is one of those raised tiles that indicate an encounter waiting to happen south of our position, so we go there once we decide we can keep listening to the song while exploring around. And in doing so we meet Petersen, who has an interesting story to tell.

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you know what happened to my lover?

I can totally see where this is going...

... My lover, Siren, was kidnapped by someone and brought to your world. They probably wanted to use her song to enthrall others.

:evil: Those Evil Zionist Overlords!

... To tell the truth, I, too, was enslaved by her song initially. But as we spent time together, we ended up falling in love.

Awww. :3

We were together for a long, long, time... My body grew old and weak, and so I cast it aside, so I could be with her forever.

Awwwwww. :3

I am nothing but a sould now, and in my state I'm powerless to save her...

That makes me so sad... so frustated... Please, bring me to her! I beg you!

Sure, yes, I will. He's pretty nice, I like the character. :3

I thank you for your kindness. I won't be any help in battle but I will come with you.

Welcome aboard! We now move north until we come across some strange building with a huge locked door on it. Unable to open it, then, we keep moving, now to the east, until we come across another encounter. A very weird one, to say the least. What's going on here?

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of the spell that holds the secret to eternal life. If i can find it, then we can make Arcadia into a truly ideal world...

Beyond this one encounter we come across a kind of red distortion in space. We will explore this later, though, and for now we go back to the building we passed before and this time we move north. There we come across another of those tower like structures, but we cannot get close to it as a huge void beyond makes it dangerous. Does this sound familiar? We will solve this problem later.

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We also come across our first Macha while so exploring. She is a war goddess of ancient Ireland or something, and the best way to known if someone plays Shin Megami Tensei Imagine is to show her the art for this demon. If she goes into an hysterical rampage, she does play enough as to have tried going solo to Cerulean Tower at least once, poor thing. Those damn birds are bloody hateful, i tell you. Lucky for me, though, in Shin Megami Tensei II they are nothing but fodder, so I take my chances to explain one or two things to them and, like, pay some debts.

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We also discover Makai not only has mountains, just like the human world, but that the mountains move. Does this reminds you of something else? In case it doesn't, though, a local is sightseeing not very far away with a bit of exposition to refresh our memories. Then a bit to the south and the west we come across a yellow building with a dangerous God sleeping inside, an elf with the soul and heart of a tourist guide, and the most populous settlement of the Abyss.

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moving. See, over there? You can see it too, right? I've heard that they're the body of the Kuzuryu, actually.

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Before we continue into the city of Tiphereth, though, it's that time, once more. What time, do you ask? The time in which Kuroi Neko teaches darke and olde magicks, nya! Or it should be, but it isn't really a good idea. Why, you ask? Because the Tree Of Life is hard enough to understand without trying to start in the middle. So i will delay this segment until our second visit to Tiphereth, which will be happening as part of the third act, when we will have to walk the entire Tree Of Life from Malkuth to Kether while killing stuffies and defeating bosses, because walking the path of flaming sword is all about slaughtering the hordes of hell. Also, we will walk through them almost in order so it will be easier to get the idea. For now we enter the city and start interviewing the locals, as usual. If i am not mistaken this is either the last time we'll have to talk this much, or the one before last. Once we hit the third act is almost non stop dungeon crawling and Youkai Elimination Service until the end, yay.

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only fitting that someone as hot as I am live here.

No, תפארת means beauty or adornment you... you... you! ¬_¬U

The game also manages to finally catch up with us, throwing the first enemies in a long while that could manage to be a challenge where we not ready for them. Meet the Old Ones. Yes, those Old Ones. And, fitting as it is, there's no diplomacy with them and if you want one you must fuse it. I don't remember the formula, though, so feel free to contribute it if you do. I want one soooo bad. *puppy eyes*

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They give good Experience, too, and a pack of them can hold two or three turns of Koneko and Mariah shooting them with nerve bullets while the rest of the party jumps on their heads. That's pretty amazing, and more than some bosses did.

We also meet a driad, find the local terminal even if we cannot activate it until we reach Tiphereth the right way, and visit the local healing temple, which is more like a healing spring tended by bunny girls. I wish i were making that up, i really do. The color indicates the alignment: Green for neutrality, red for chaos, and blue for law. They work in the same way the repair garages, gaian temples, and mesian churches do, respectively. This one's neutral, so anyone can use it but the prices are way higher than in the other two types.

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From there we visit the local weaponsmith, a kind of creepy guy. We buy two guns from him, a Gigasmasher for Koneko and a Golden Gun for Mariah. Both guns are way more powerful than what we were using but instead of having multiple single target attacks, and being thus able to either hit each enemy in a group once or a single enemy several times, they have a single attack that hit everyone once. This is good for random encounters, since it hits every single enemy even if they are divided in two packs or if they are way too many for one of the other guns to have enough attacks for all, but it kind of sucks against bosses, though the net damage is just slightly inferior than with our previous guns since the damage potential of the new ones is way higher. We also meet our first Yaka thingies, or meet again since we did meet them back in Shin Megami Tensei already.

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Then we find the local casino, but ignore it since i don't feel like playing minigames when every single step i take eats a whole lot of Magnetite, and the local seer, which I ignore since she will say either go to the Abyss or go to the Factory. Then we find the Disco!

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It must be said: To go clubbing to this bloody place would be, like, totally rad. To smooch some drinks out of Orobas, to get hit on by Eligos and Leonard, to talk girly things with Marchosias, or to hit the dance floor with Decarabia the flying starfish! A witch's life for me, yo ho ho. And stuff.

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and the Twelve Devas have taken up residence there.

This is kind of foreshadowing. We will have to break through Geburah later in a battle that's kind of like the twelve devas boss rushing you. It's also so bloody easy it hurts, and usually by that point my party is so totally overpowered i just AUTO the creeps to death.

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I don't understand all those guys going to Chesed for "salvation" are thinking... they should just enjoy themselves!

And this is foreshadowing for a kind of side quest we can do later, since you can win the game without ever visiting Chesed nor, if you go either Law or Chaos, Binah, which also has a pretty cool side quest to do if you don't mind fusing yourself some high level demon and then let him go away.

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This guy really gets around.

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I love playing around like a kid in a toystore!

D: !!!

After that little bit of clubbing and gossiping and fooling around we leave and go to the bar next door. Once inside the first thing we notice is that... *squeeeee*

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We keep bumping into each other, must be fate. :3

You've done well making it all the way here to the Abyss.

... But you came here by what's more or less a back door.

I don't know if this is a reference to the secret paths or just some random thing they made up for the game without holding more than an accidental relationship with them. The secret paths are, more or less, paths that connect every single Sephirot to each other one inside that one world, or even to each of the Sephira of all the four worlds. Some say there is not such thing, some say there is such a thing but that they do not play a part in the path of the flaming sword so you shouldn't care, some say there may be such thing but are not of any use to us so why bother, and some say there is such a thing and they can be actually used to move through the four worlds. In practice, though, most people is busy enough trying to understand the normal paths and not fall through the shells as to try to see if there are really secrets paths or are just the normal ones playing tricks on you for the lulz. I love how very little new age and politically correct both kinds of Qabalah are.

Try and figure out how to come in through the front door next time! Good luck!

We finish talking with Louis, then go to talk with the other two locals present. The first is a resident whose information comes a bit too late for it to be of any use...

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lover, but then someone came and kidnapped her.

... and the second one is a skeleton man whose information also comes too late for it to be of any use.

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I dunno where he came from though.

Meh. We go back to explore, finding the Armorer and taking the chance to buy a set of Jagd Armor for Koneko and a set of Panzer Armor for Mariah. We also meet the new incarnation of the Naga on the way to the Junk Shop, where we buy a lot of thingies. When i leave i have nine of each basic status cure, eighteen hiranyas, and nine Hyper Drops. On the way out we come across an Elf who tells us about Set next door.

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He's been sealed off there since before anyone can remember...

Soon he will be, like, unsealed, but now we leave for the vortex like thing we came across before, near the place where the Arcadian guy was wandering. As we prepare to explore beyond, though, we come across the original though girl you don't want to mess with, the one and only, the cool and fearsome and totally not submisive... Morrigan!

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Not that ugly bitch, no. I mean, like, Morrigan, man. The Morrigan, yes? The dark and dangerous and totally amazing and scary one that kills people and rules and kicks massive amounts of butt and doesn't affraid of anything?

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*facepaw*

What were we saying about how guys lack in class and style and taste and manners? I present you Evidence One and Evidence Two. But no, not that one either. Like, the Morrigan? The totally great and amazing phantom queen? Yes, that one. Yes, now show it and go away. Geez.

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And we proceed to recruit her. The negotiation goes bizarre pretty quick, though. Do I think she's alluring? Who do I think is better, then, she or Mariah? Etc. It's kind of funny, Mariah being about as alluring as a naked old bum covered in festering sores and hungry leeches, but anyway. Once Morrigan has joined us we get near the vortex and cross beyond.

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A pretty ugly place receives us on the other side. Our scanner indicates the area is safe, which is kind of weird when you have an open portal to the Abyss in your wardrobe. Everything looks dirty and untidy and kind of rotten, but we press forward, noticing how the pattern of corridors and rooms is kind of familiar. The first room we enter, then, explains why it is so.

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Arcadia is truly a utopian world!

Oh, my beloved Arcadia, you are so wonderful... This is truly an ideal world!

We are on Arcadia! Or in some kind of tower, each of its floors an aproximate reproduction of one of the arcadian houses, just with one or two more rooms and all but the first floor lacking a door to the exterior. Indeed, the first floor has two doors to the exterior, one leading to the true Arcadia Area, which we will see later, and the one leading back into Makai. Each floor also has one room containing a Luck Incense, and one room where the local arcadian and his life support system are located. We start going up, stoping only to explore each level throughly for Incenses.

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The accusations of Daniel are surely all lies!

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and put an end to the evil lies he spits out!

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It doesn't matter what Daniel says.

Some uneventful floors later we get to the Control Room for the Arcadia Area, and the man himself is waiting for us here. Lord Sarab's true form appears before us!

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You know the truth about my Arcadia Area...

... As I am sure you have witnessed for yourself, Arcadia is not a true utopian world. It is a fabrication, a virtual reality. But even if it is just a fabrication, is it so wrong to give the people the peaceful world they so desire? They are all none the wiser, and happy in their belief that what they experience is real. What is true is what people want to believe is true. That is all that matters.

He actually has a pretty good point, i think. This encounter points to some of the influences behind this game, though many of those would only become obvious if we were to follow the path of Law later on. Shin Megami Tensei II has truly a ridiculous number of Gnostic references and influences and stuff, and this one's a pretty cute one that's kind of wasted in such a small side quest.

I really like Gnosticism, though, and there's no way to be a witch or a wizard or an occultist or an alchemist without having some Gnostic in you even if you never met Gnosticism and thus you use a diferent set of, like, metaphors and symbols and things and stuff, so a quick introduction if you are not familiar with it will follow.

The Gnostic cosmology works like this, though if you take it literally something may be wrong with you... Reality, as we today know it, is a prison built by a hungry demon god who, after being raised in isolation, thinks himself to be the supreme divine lord and, by diferent motives in diferent tellings, builds the world as both a fortress to protect himself from the rest of the hierarchy, what in Qabalah is some times mentioned as The Outer Gods. To feed himself and power his creation, though, he imprisons with him a number of souls, which it then forces into material prison as to be for all time tortured by his agents, the Archons, who will visit diferent kinds of corruption, horror, and falsehood upon humanity to create diferent types of, like, food for themselves and the Demiurge. Meanwhile the war between the Demiurge and the Hierarchy still rages, and agents of the Outer Gods are constantly trying to either free someone who shows promise and potential or pull some old school sabotage in the pattern that holds reality together.

That's a very superficial and simple version but it will work as an introduction. Basicly Gnosticism is what happens when you take the philosophy behind most of the western mysteries and build a religion around it while keeping the meaning close to it's heart instead of becoming a political body, use a set of very catchy and cool and epic stories and symbols to embody the mysteries you want to transmit, and remind people no one should be telling them what to think or how to interpet that stuff and that the only way to understand the truth behind the lore is to experience it first hand. And it is a testament to it's totally cool and awesome and epic lore that a great number of very popular and very cool, and not so very cool or popular, works of art and entertainment, from Pathologic to Matrix to Shoujo Kakumei Utena to Dark City to Shin Megami Tensei to Mage The Ascencion to Warhammer 40k to a bazillion animes and mangas and urban fantasy novels and etc and etc and etc have been, as a bare minimun, very much influenced by Gnostic lore and stories. It is also the original the thing we call God is actually a jerk who's trying to fuck, torture, rape, and eat us all with a side of fries once his agents finish having their way with our butts cosmology, so modern literature has invented nothing at all. Meh.

However, as you have seen the reality behind Arcadia, the reality that must never be disclosed at any cost, I cannot let you leave here alive.

So it's The Messiah versus Demiurge Jr, yay. Koneko begins by shooting Sarab for 62 damage, then Anubis prays for Divine Retribution and does 43 damage to Power, 59 damage to Berith, and 405 damage to Sarab. Mariah goes pew pew for 47 damage, and Berith uses his Deathbound skill for 104 damage. Then, finally, Sarab attacks and does 35 damage to Berith. Cyclops, in response, punches him for 17 damage and Power tries to use Divine Retribution but only hurts Berith for 35 damage. Meh.

Second turn begins with Koneko shooting Sarab for 61 damage. Mariah then casts Diarama to heal Berith and Sarab attacks Cyclops for 36 damage. Berith goes Deathbound for 92 damage, Anubis attacks for 20 damage, Cyclops attacks but is dodged, and Power uses his Hellfan for 31 damage.

Third turn begins, again, with Koneko going dakka, this time for 108 damage, and Berith joins in the fun with his own Deathbound strike, for 91 damage. Anubis attacks 23 damage, Mariah casts Media, and Sarab attacks Cyclops for 37 damage, who then counter attacks for 19 damage. Finally, Power goes Hellfan for 37 damage.

Fourth turn, now. Koneko shoots for 52 damage, Mariah casts Media, Anubis attacks but is dodged, Berith goes Deathbound for 98 damage. Sarab casts Diarama to heal himself, Cyclops goes on a Rampage for a meager 10 damage and Power uses Hellfan for 35 damage.

Fifth turn. Koneko pew pews for 60 damage, Mariah casts Media, Anubis attacks for 18 damage, Berith goes Deathbound for 52 damage. Sarab attacks Berith for 35 damage, Cyclops casts MahaJionga for a pathetic 2 damage, and Power goes Hellfan for 32 damage.

Sixth turn, yay. Koneko shoots for 52 damage, Anubis attacks for 21 damage, Mariah casts Diarahan for Berith and then Berith uses Deathbound for 98 damage. Sarab attacks Cyclops for 32 damage, Cyclops attacks but is dodged, Power uses Hellfan for 34 damage.

Seventh turn now, sigh. Koneko does his thing for 63 damage, Mariah casts Media, Anubis attacks but is dodged, Berith uses Deathbound for 58 damage. Then Sarab casts Tetrakarn, a spell that reflects all physical damage done after it is cast and until the end of the turn back to who deal it. Cyclops then attacks and hurt himself for 20 damage, and the same happens with Power's Hellfan for 38 damage.

Eighth turn, and this battle is kind of boring because Sarab can take a lot of damage but there's no way to lose to him if you aren't, like, epic fail. Koneko goes pew pew for 54 damage, then Anubis attacks for the single Hit Point Sarab had. Mission accomplished!

As soon as Sarab dies, though, the system notifies us that with the death of Sarab a new saviour must be chosen, since Sarab was kind of the heart and soul of Arcadia and without him the thing can't function correctly. We must choose to either input our own name and become the new saviour, somehow substaining the ilusory world Sarab created, destroy Arcadia, bringing and end to the virtual Utopia and probably killing or at least badly maiming everyone in the process, or do nothing and leave, leaving them to live inside the now kind of guideless virtual world to sink or swim on their own. If you either crash the system or leave, though, Arcadia's integrity is compromised and demons can start pouring in through the gate we used to get there, so it's more or less killing everyone inside. The choice is, to put it simply, do we want to pull a Syndicate Wars with Old Ones, Tentacle Monsters, and Fallen Angels instead of guys with coats and guns, or do we want to be compasionate?

I don't really work as a villain so i do the nice thing an input myself as Saviour, thus preserving the virtual world's integrity and stuff. If you don't think that's the good thing to do you are jerk and your opinion doesn't matter so there, screw you. Nya.

We return to the first floor and leave through the front door. Outside we found Arcadia to be little more than a dome with some very basic building, and we also come across King Muscle, who isn't so pretty when seen from this side of the mirror.

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We leave Arcadia, then, and find ourselves back in the underground passage connecting Arcadia to the Center. Instead of walking all the way back to the Factory, though, we enter Arcadia from this side, now, and find ourselves in the virtual world. I go straight for the church, recover, and then Transmit to The Factory by means of the church's Terminal. Once there it's straight to the Tower and to the Siren, and along the way we get to see more of The Center's military hardware, the Golem. Once atop the tower we leave it to Petersen to make Siren happy and save The Factory.

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I thought for sure that I'd nver see you again...

Petersen:
Siren!

Siren:
My love!

Petersen:
......

Siren:
......

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The two of us will return to the Abyss. Never again will I leave her side!

... Thank you, and farewell! We will never forget you!

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That's totally my kind of ending, cheesy and cute. Have fun and good luck, you two! For our part, now, we go back to the prison and start freeing lazy people, no longer wanting to work for the good of the many.

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They make you work 26 hours a day here! I was just about to die of exhaustion when you came here.

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They've been making me work without pay here for a long, long time.

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They literally sucked all the Magnetite energy out of me as fuel. I won't last long. This is how they repay me for putting my life on the line in all those battles for them...

You mean in the arena? Well deserved you had it, then. Shoo shoo, smallest violin in the world for you.

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I beg you, I long to be free! I want to work for the good of the people, but under my own free will!
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They weren't going to let me out of here until I died from exhaustion!

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then it's just a blur... When i came to, I was caged up here in this little hole in the wall.

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then they just put me to work like a slave...

And with that we are done. Now that the workers are no longer under the effect of Siren's song, though, we go pay a visit to that miner guy who was working on the spot where we fought Betelgeuse's boss form. He's no longer as dedicated as he was.

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Here, take this Jupiter Pillar. Just looking at the damn thing makes me want to dig holes. It's weird as hell, I want to get rid of it!

Only two more to go, yay. Now we go back to The Factory's main settlement and, once there, to watch the big TV screen for a bit of guidance on what to do next. It seems the time has come for us to finally put and end to The Center's evil zionist machinations, once and for all! Though, truth be said, it seems those evil joos can't even stop stealing when it comes to being evil jerks, dood.

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Report immediately to the Center and turn yourself in. If you do not turn yourself in by the end of the day, we will cut off the air flow to Holytown. Everyone in Holytown will most likely die, but it will be an unavoidable consequence.

Repeat: Daniel, report to the Center at once...

Next time we meet will be, like, let's go slaughter evil zionist legions and kill their evil zionist overlords time for our Heroine and her merry band of demons, devils, and assorted supernatural creatures! We will kill many things, we will meet our old pal the quizzing stone door with a face on it, we will finally face the Elders of Millennium, Daniel will once more get his butt handed back to him by a boss just before we reach the scene, and the second act of Shin Megami Tensei II will end with an epic battle against four bosses in a row, each with a metric fuckton of Hit Points, while the most boring battle music, like, ever plays on and on and on, and on and on and on, and on and on and on, and on and on and on, and...!

Also, flying knights are cool.

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If someone uses that image for a Jesus needs YOU! poster i will be totally joyful. *second use of puppy eyes of the day*

'till next time!



@ Deniszi

"Hall of dicks?"

It is a testament to how very much time i have spent with you people that i first understood that as hail of dicks and saw nothing wrong with it. :? I need longer vacations.

Good catch, though. XD
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,158
YOu know, for being the Abbys, a place filled with chaotic, vicious demons everone looked pretty civilized.

I don't really work as a villain so i do the nice thing an input myself as Saviour, thus preserving the virtual world's integrity and stuff. If you don't think that's the good thing to do you are jerk and your opinion doesn't matter so there, screw you. Nya.

Bullshit, you should had destroy that illusion. Do you think it's the correct thing to allow these weaklings fags to hide under a rock and ignore reality as it is? In other words, would you pull a Shinji Ikari? I rather not.

Also, flying knights look like they were blathantly inspired on Gundam (not that I dislike anime-robots, but I haven't seen any Gundam anime yet).

PS: Are Nyalarotep, Chtulu and company recruitable?
 

Black Cat

Magister
Joined
Jun 1, 2009
Messages
1,997
Location
Skyrim .///.
@ Lightbane

"YOu know, for being the Abbys, a place filled with chaotic, vicious demons everone looked pretty civilized."

Yes, it's kind of cool and i always felt a bitch when just before the final battle on the Law path you go all purge the unclean on them. I think the idea is the Abyss is kind of a feudal society, where each Lord rules his realm as he wishes for as long as they do not go against the will of Lucifer or his court and are strong enough to keep the role.

"Do you think it's the correct thing to allow these weaklings fags to hide under a rock and ignore reality as it is? In other words, would you pull a Shinji Ikari? I rather not."

It depends on what do you think as correct. Most of the traditions are based on the concept that you can't force it and get anything good out of it, since only when someone makes the choice out of her own free will do they have a chance, slight as it is, to cross the Abyss or the Swamp or the Underworld or whatever it is called in the particular tradition, and even then most of those who try never get anywhere other than insanity or suicide or depression, so it's kind of being a bitch to just go around trying to kick people into the Abyss to sink or swim on their own when most people preparing themselves for that one journey can't make it sane, if at all, beyond the first floor, to keep the Dungeon Crawling language.

The most famous group of Gnostics from the catholic world, the Cathars, actually thought you could not even try to force, and in many cases convince, someone of renouncing the shells and that such a choice was to be made only by the individual, out of her own free will and deliberation. Gnosis, the word and concept from which Gnostic comes from, means Knowledge, but it is also used, at least usually, as direct knowledge of something, not theoretical and not even empirical. So to force someone to make a choice like that for reasons other than their personal knowledge, understanding, and beliefs is kind of totally against what most Gnostics in particular and occultists in general believe.

Also, many people need the illusion, having created all their lives and mental structures around that. To believe you can destroy the very same paradigm that supports someone's life without first being sure they can take it or want it at all is as jerkish and bitchy and evil as going around embrace Jesus or burn, heretic! and that's a posture most Gnostics in particular and occultists in general do not usually take, even the ones who follow the Left Hand path.

"Are Nyalarotep, Chtulu and company recruitable?"

Haaaaaai.
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Though they are obviously demons of the highest tier, appearing one in Kether Castle and the other in Megido Ark, the two last dungeons.
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,158
Black Cat said:
@ Lightbane


"Do you think it's the correct thing to allow these weaklings fags to hide under a rock and ignore reality as it is? In other words, would you pull a Shinji Ikari? I rather not."



Also, many people need the illusion, having created all their lives and mental structures around that. To believe you can destroy the very same paradigm that supports someone's life without first being sure they can take it or want it at all is as jerkish and bitchy and evil as going around embrace Jesus or burn, heretic! and that's a posture most Gnostics in particular and occultists in general do not usually take, even the ones who follow the Left Hand path.


I disagree. The weakest, spineless bunch would try to return and ignore everything. However, there are some minds that are just misguided, and even it's at first you're forcing them, the saying says that you cannot have an omelet without breaking an egg. What doesn't kill them makes them stronger, right? Consider it "tough love". And of course before kicking them out of their bliss they should be explained the truth and give them some days to ponder about it, but there is no time for that. Anyways, I hope you compensate your delay on updates by completing this lp before this month passes...
 

Black Cat

Magister
Joined
Jun 1, 2009
Messages
1,997
Location
Skyrim .///.
Chapter the thirteenth; Nyapostasy.
In which Daniel shows he's the strongest and our heroine answers a quiz. Then she will slaughter most of the Mesian army in an orgy of pew pew and dakka dakka, and then she'll face off against three of Millennium's Elders. Finally, Millennium's true mastermind will show itself and the most epic battle so far will take place, showing those crappy Next Gen developers what epic is really all about. Also, memes.







The last chapter came to an end as The Center's Bishop gave Daniel an ultimatum by means of a signal broadcasted to all of Millennium: If he was not to immediately turn himself in they would cut the air supply to Holytown, killing everyone inside along with him. Given Daniel is the only friend the Messiah has left, or one of the last two friends he has if you count Koinu among those, we decide the best thing we can do is is transmit to Holytown and see what plan he has to counter the evil zionist overlords' latest and most evil and most zionist machination. Once there, though, we first stop at the Jakyo Manor to fuse Djinn and Vampire into a sexy and cool and gentlemanly and knightly Chu Chu.

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He's a pretty cool warrior, having good HP and stats for a warrior of his level as well as a pretty good and varied spell selection and one of those beautiful combat techniques that we use so much when fighting bosses. Also, he's neutral so Anubis' Divine Retribution will not target him. And if you got that Chu Chu reference you better come out the closet, you person who not only secretly plays MMO games but also is pretty active on their online comunities, you.

Once outside we begin talking around with people. Most are not taking The Center's message well, it must be said. And after exchanging some words with three random civilians we finally find Daniel at his usual spot, giving another speech to the discontent masses of JEWtopia. For a guy supossed to be the best warrior ever this guy sure gives a lot of speeches and gets his butt handed back to him a lot.

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then that is what we must do.

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I can't believe the crap they're trying to pull!!

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In order to kill one person -me- they say they are going to kill everyone in the entire Area. I don't doubt they'd do it for a second, so i'm going to do what they say and go to The Center.

But not to turn myself in, but to fight them! The Thousand Year Kingdom Project has gone astray and become nothing more than a plan to let the Center dominate Millennium, and I am going to put an end to it...

Farewell, everyone...

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And so he leaves, followed by the ovations of the masses and stuff. Lucky for Daniel he is on a first name basis with the Messiah, as otherwise his adventure would hit, like, rock bottom. Heh. Before leaving for The Center, though, we go into Holytown's bar to hunt for gossip and... *squeeeee*

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They've been pushed into a corner, and will eventually have to show their true colors... The reign of the Elders controlling the Center will soon be at an end.

And by very my paw will this end be actualized, none the less! :3 Then we talk to the Shabby Man and the Warrior, but nothing of great interest comes from it.

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Fighting the Center head on is suicide!

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I'm a failure as a warrior.

You could, like, you know, kind of go with him to The Center and slaughter both the crusader armies and the heavenly hosts at his side until you fall, and then the spoony bards will sing catchy songs about you and stuffies, like in the movies. Isn't that what warriors actually do?

On the way back to the Terminal we come across two more worried locals. Or, well, more like one worried local and one local who still haven't come to terms with Abaddon eating her sister.

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cowardly shit there...

Daniel had no choice but to submit with the lives of all the residents of Holytown at stake...

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We Transmit to Roppongi to farm some Magnetite to be sure we will not be left empty halfway through the battle and then we Transmit back to Holytown. We start walking towards The Center as soon as we hit the Terminal, and becoming as used at using the Terminals only makes the path feel longer and more wasteful of precious Magnetite.

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And now the gates to that mixture of elevator and airlock that acts as The Center's main entrance have been unlocked for us. Once inside we do what any Messiah in our situation would do: We hit the Bar. On the way there, though, we come across a Mesian Priest suffering from a thinly veiled crisis of Faith.

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......

......

God is always right.

If you think that he is ever mistaken or wrong, then that is a sign that there is something wrong with you.

Once inside we found only the almost ever present Temple Knight and a random guy inside. The first one kind of lets the code to the next floor slip, totally accidentally of course, in case we did forget it...

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But he escaped our grasp, and since he knows that 5261 is the passcode to the 21st floor, he went up there to fight the Elders!

... and the shady guy some talks about stuff.

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damned Elders were throwing their weight around too much, doing whatever the hell they damn well please! Karma, y'know?

Before trying to catch up with Daniel, though, we go to the main elevator to first visit the bishop and see if he has something useful to say. Since i am here, though, i take the chance to take Mariah to visit her parents, who as you may remember we visited by ourselves just after the prologue. Mindfuck ensues.

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and even became a Temple Knight.

Mesian
Mariah was always such a good girl!

Why would she do something as awful as leaving the Center without permission!?

Mariah
Dad?
Mom?
Don't you recognize me?

What's the matter with you? Hey! Answer me!

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Have you forgotten me? How could that be... I can't believe it!

This is just a bit of foreshadowing for revelations to come halfway through the last act, but i always thought was a neat little detail to have her actually react to that. Now let's get serious, our next stop is the command center, and the Center Bishop.

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I'm no longer one to give you any orders. The Elders want to speak to you directly. Go to the 22nd floord... The passcode is 2784.

We return to the main hall and pick the side corridor. As soon as we reach the staircase we go up to the next floor, and now things get funny. The entire might of Millennium is between us and The Elders: Temple Knights, Mesian Adepts, Mesian Terminators, the weird Mesian PSI guys, all the Mesian combat mechs including a third model known as the Medusa, and a totally not small number of angels from the heavenly host, including Powers and Virtues. It's pretty fun, with lots of dakka and lots of pew pew and lots of kaboom and lots of nyahahahaha.

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As you may remember there were two places in this floor we could not enter before, one being a passcode protected door and the other being a security checkpoint. First, naturally, I try the door, but our codes can't do anything against it. Then we move to the checkpoint...

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Daniel went through here too.

The door at the far end of the corridor leads to a staircase, and once in the next floor we must use the passcode the Bishop gave us to proceed. More thingies get killed, and along the way I recruit my very own Virtue. As you will soon see this was one pretty smart move, yessir.

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We keep going, and the next thing deserving of mention that we find is none other than one of the Elders himself. He puts us up to speed about what's going on with the other Elders.

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They say that they want to establish God's Thousand Year Kingdom and bring about an eternal peace... But in reality, they built a world of domination and control, robbing humanity of its freedom!

This is not what God wants...

We move forward. First we find another door we don't have the code to, and then, as we are finally near the Elder's chambers, our old friend the stone door with a quizzing face carved on it! And he believes that this is a good time for a multiple choice personality test designed to help us make up our mind about to whom we want to offer our allegiance.

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We already went through all of this just before the end of the world, remember?

He who wishes to pass must hear my words!

Uh, sure. I'm all fluffy ears.

And answer!

I can do that, too. :3

Thy mother is possessed by a demon and is in great pain. She is asking thee to kill her and end her pain. Wilt thou finish off thy mother?

Yes, i guess.

Thou art a member of the city guard. Thou hast been given 100.000 makka to equip thyself. But on the way to the store, thou dost see a throng of starving people. Wilt thou use thy makka to feed the people instead?

Like, yes? I mean, i know that's the right thingie to do even if i am unsure i would actually do it.

Thou hast defeated thy hated enemy in battle. Thy enemy hast lost the will to fight and is begging for his life. However, thou knowest that if thou dost spare him, he is likely to target thee again. Wilt thou slay thy enemy?

This game designers really love this scenario, right? I mean, it happened in the previous game. It happened earlier on this game. And now they ask me what i would do if it were to hypothetically happen? :roll: No, slowpoke. I wouldn't.

Oh! Thy soul is truly with God! God wilt surely praise and reward thy soul!

No, he will not, unless he considers try to kick the pretty neko's butt straight to hell a reward. Were I neutral, this would have turned me into Law. Since our little adventure at Arcadia already turned me Law, though, this quiz has sent me so deeply into Law that it's lucky i get to choose later who I want to ally myself with. For now, though, we continue down the corridor until we come across the entrance to the Elder's antechamber. We go inside...

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... to once again find the aftermath of ⑨ himself getting way over his head and managing to pull nothing but an Icicle Fall -easy- on the local bosses. Meh, so we go through the antechamber and into the Elders' presence. As expected they have been waiting for us, and they are not in the mood for diplomatic solutions.

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He kind of grows on you.

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I kind of noticed, yes.

Such is the fate that awaits all traitors!

I don't really like where this seems to be going...

Now we shall destroy you as well!

I totally did not see that coming, really. :roll: The Elder in the red robe disappears as the other two start shining with bright and holy light, sparks dancing all around them. Then lightning strikes them both and everything becomes a white flash, and then...

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... It's the holy boy's band!!! :3

First and foremost, though, this game has a separate music track for Epic Bosses, and it truly sucks. You may take a small dose and think, like, it's not that bad, the cute kitty is totally exagerating, but all the epic bosses have truly ridiculous amounts of hitpoints and battles with them can easily go past fifteen minutes, and that's fifteen minutes of those utterly boring two minutes of music going on and on and on. And on and on and on, and on and on and on, and on and on and... Well, i'm sure you get it. And to make it even bleeping bloody worse right now we have four epic bosses divided in three battles, back to back and without rest in the middle, with that bloody song going on and on and on and on and on. And on. And on and on and on, etc.

There's no excuse for this, it's simply criminal. I love you guys, yes, but not that bloody much, sorry. So from now on each time we get to an epic boss battle know that the super duper kawaii neko is listening to this song instead. That's this LP's official Epic Boss battle theme from now on, and if you understand the reasoning behind the choice i'll hug you and give you funny pet names and place you among my favorite internet people.

But those Bishies aren't going to beat themselves so let's get this party rolling, nya!

The battle is opened by Raphael casting Deka-Ja. This is significant: Those guys have a really high initiative, so it's not uncommon to have them act first, at least when using spells. Right now we aren't buffed, though, so the spell is kind of wasted. Uriel goes second, using his Heaven Fu moves to kick Power for 25 damage. And yes, to imagine it is kind of amazing. Koneko goes pew pew, but his gun does nothing at all against them. Chu Chu uses his Deathbound technique against Raphael, on which we will be focusing our attacks at first, for 85 damage. Mariah also shoots, and for her it works about as much as it did for Koneko. Anubis then casts Divine Retribution, and since we are now all but two either Law or Chaos it hits a lot: Mariah gets 25 damage, Koneko gets 37 damage, Power gets 41 damage, Berith gets 59 damage, Raphael gets 367 damage, and Uriel gets 450 damage. Given it is percentile based this is going to be long, yay. Then Berith uses Deathbound for 37 damage and Power uses Hellfan for 33 damage.

Second turn begins as Raphael spread his wings. I don't know which skill that was but it did Chu Chu 33 damage and then paralyzed him. Koneko then uses a Hiranya for Anubis to recover some MP and Uriel attacks Chu Chu for 37 damage and Power for 28 damage and Berith for 40 damage. Mariah then casts Media, Berith goes Deathbound for 94 damage against Raphael, Power goes Hellfan for 37 damage.

The third turn begins with Raphael again using Deka-Ja without result. Koneko then uses a Hiranya to recover some of Anubis' MP, and then Mariah casts Media. Uriel casts Makajama, sealing Anubis and Power's magic. Berith does his Deathbound act for 87 damage and then Power goes Hellfan for 31, both against Raphael.

Uriel begins the fourth turn by attacking Mariah, who somehow manages to dodge. Koneko uses another Hiranya on Anubis and then Raphael attacks Berith for 38 damage and Anubis for 29 damage. Mariah casts Media and Anubis does his Divine Retribution act: Mariah takes 25 damage, Koneko takes 37 damage, Power takes 36 damage, Berith takes 22 damage, Raphael takes 196 damage, and Uriel takes 337 damage. Berith Deathbounds Raphale for 101 damage, then Power Hellfans the same Archangel for 30 damage.

The fifth turn is when things start going south. Raphael beat his wings, a force based attack that does 33 damage to Chu Chu, 39 damage to Berith, 24 damage to Power, 31 damage to Anubis, 16 damage to Koneko, and 23 damage to Mariah. Koneko then uses another Hiranya on Anubis and Uriel lets out a shockwave, hurting Chu Chu for 34 damage, killing Berith, and doing 31 damage to Power, 38 damage to Anubis, 28 damage to Koneko, and 29 damage to Mariah. Mariah then casts Diarahan to heal Berith, but it is a place in the initiative order too late. :cry: Anubis tries to attack but is dodged, then Power Hellfans Raphael for 33 damage.

The problem is that, as you may have noticed, Berith's Deathbound was my main damage skill for boss battles, doing somewhere between 80 and 110 damage each and every round. Now he's dead, and even after reviving him I will not be able to summon him back, given he's Chaos and we are, now, Law. Sobity Sob.

Sixth turn begins with Koneko summoning Virtue to Berith's place. Raphael again tries to debuff us with Deka-Ja, to no avail, and Uriel attacks Koneko but is dodged. Mariah casts Media, then Anubis slaps Raphael for 19 damage and Power Hellfans him for 35 damage.

Seventh turn begins with Raphael casting MahaBufula. Chu Chu gets 20 damage, Virtue gets 17 damage, Power gets 18 damage, Anubis dodges, Koneko dodges, and Mariah gets 9 damage. All the ones who were hit also get frozen solid, lossing the turn. The only one not affected by this is Chu Chu, being already paralyzed. Koneko now uses a Dis-Paralyze on him, though, curing the status effect, and Uriel casts MahaZanma: Chu Chu gets 5 damage, Virtue gets 9 damage, Power takes 10 damage, Anubis gets 7 damage, Koneko takes 5 damage, and Mariah takes 5 damage. Meh, useless spell. Anubis then slaps Raphael for some meager amount of damage i did not even screenshot, and all by himself Chu Chu decides to attack Raphael four times, one of those critical, for a total of 156 damage. Payback's a real bitch, Raphie-Kun.

Eight turn comes. Koneko uses a Hiranya to restore some of Anubis' MP, Raphael casts Diarama to heal his wounds, Chu Chu goes Deathbound on his butt for 39 damage, and then Uriel attacks Chu Chu for 31 damage and Mariah for 21 damage and Koneko, but he dodges. Then Mariah casts Diarahan to heal power, Anubis attacks Raphael for 22 damage, Virtue let's out a Shockwave that does 29 damage to Raphael and, since Uriel reflects Force, does also 18 damage to Koneko. Then Power hellfans Raphael for 38 damage.

Ninth turn now, and Uriel opens casting MahaZanma and does 5 damage to Chu Chu, 11 damage to Virtue, 12 damage to Power, 8 damage to Anubis, and nothing to Koneko and Mariah since both dodged. That's a really awesome spell, indeed. :roll: Koneko uses another Hiranya to raise Anubis' MP, then Raphael does that thing were he spread his wings and stuff happens, but it only affects Virtue for 24 damage. Mariah, now, also uses a Hiranya to raise Anubis' MP. Virtue attacks but both her attacks are dodged, Chu Chu does his Deathbound thing for 177 damage...

*squeeeee* Ganbatte, Chu Chu Chan!

... and then Anubis attacks for 20 damage and Power goes Hellfan on Raphael's butt for the last 15 damage. Yay, one down!

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The first turn of our battle against a solitary and already weakened Uriel begins with Koneko charging forward and slashing our foe for 22 damage, and then Chu Chu does his Deathbound thing for 30 damage. Uriel then casts Makajama, whatever that was, and Mariah casts Media. Anubis attacks for 19 damage, Virtue attacks for 42 damage, and Power goes Hellfan for 32 damage. As you may notice I shouldn't have depended so much in the Combat Techniques and at least try to use more normal attacks, but hindsight is 20/20 and all that.

Second turn, and Koneko slashes for 24 damage, Mariah casts Patra on Power to allow him to use magic again, and Uriel kicks Chu Chu for 32 damage. Chu Chu then attacks for a total of 31 damage, and he is using his basic attack here because he was in the red at the begining of the turn so using his Deathbound technique would have left him with 20 hit points, meaning he would have died to Uriel's kcik if he had acted first or he would have lost his turn not having enough HP to feed the attack if he had gone in the same spot. Virtue right now casts Diarahan, though, healing him of all damage sustained so far, yay. Power then goes Hellfan on Uriel for 26 damage.

Third turn again begins with Koneko slashing, now for 23 damage. Maria casts Media and Uriel MahaZanma, doing 5 damage to Chu Chu, 9 damage to Virtue, 9 damage to Power, 6 damage to Koneko, 4 damage to Mariah, and being dodged by Anubis. Then Chu Chu goes Deathbound on him for 62 damage, Anubis attacks for 21 damage, Virtue attacks for 43 damage, and Power uses Ricarm to revive Berith, because I had totally forgotten i would not be able to summon him. I try to while giving the orders for the next round, notice it, and go Duh!

The fourth turn is, again, opened by Koneko going melee for 27 damage. Anubis then does the same for 19 damage, Mariah casts Media, and Chu Chu goes Deathbound for 32 damage. Virtue attacks for 44 damage, reinforcing the point i made before about using more basic melee instead of cool named techniques, and Uriel gets serious attacking Power for 29 damage, Mariah for 21 damage, and Anubis for 31 damage. Then Power does his Hellfan thing for 33 damage.

Fifth turn, and Koneko uses a Hiranya to raise Anubis' MP. Chu Chu does his Deathbound stuff for 34 damage, Virtue attacks for 61 damage, and Uriel counterattacks doing 24 damage to Virtue. Mariah then casts Media and Anubis casts Divine Retribution, as i was still trying to see the rules behind its working. Mariah gets 25 damage, Koneko gets 37 damage, Power gets 37 damage, Virtue gets 57 damage, and Uriel takes 97 damage. What a waste of good Hiranyas, and then Power Hellfans our foe for 28 damage.

In the sixth turn both Koneko and Anubis attack, the first one i do not have the damage on any screenshot and the second one doing 21 damage. Then Chu Chu Deathbounds for 64 damage, Mariah casts Media, and Virtue lets out a Shockwave because I was retarded. It is reflected by Uriel and Virtue takes 14 damage, then Power goes Hellfan for 28 damage.

Of the seventh turn i do not have screenshots, sorry. I got distracted by something and kept playing was paying attention to that, and then i was, like, crappity crappy crap i totally forgot to screenshot the results! T_T My last save was in The Center's main hall so I was totally not going to restart from there just because of one turn.

In any case, it was in this turn that Uriel went down with Power's Hellfan, as by then I already had noticed I had gotten totally distracted and was screenshoting things again. After receiving our loot and our levels, though, the third Elder appears before us.

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Again the pretty holy lights, the danzing sparks, the lightning striking him, the bright flash. Then, as expected if we were going by each of their Cloak's colors...

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Let's pew pew! :3

Michael opens the battle casting Mahanma, a save or die spell that, lucky us, likes to miss a lot. Koneko then uses a Hiranya to recover Anubis' MP, Chu Chu goes Deathbound for 32 damage, Mariah casts Media, Anubis attacks for 19 damage, Virtue casts Diarahan on Chu Chu, and Power goes Hellfan for 33 damage.

Second turn begins with Michael... Casting Mahanma, and that's one dead Power. Koneko uses another Hiranya on Anubis, Virtue casts Diarahan were once Power stood but the spell does not want to work on big angel shaped bloodstains, Chu Chu does that Deathbound thing for 68 damage, Mariah also uses a Hiranya on Anubis, and he in turn tries to hit Michael but Heaven's Viceroy kind of dodges.

Third turn. Michael cries towards the sky! In response shit happens. Anubis is hit for 117 damage, Virtue is hit for 228 damage, Chu Chu is hit for 182 damage.
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Koneko then summons Cyclops to the spot before occupied by Power and Mariah shoots Michael for 26 damage. Chu Chu goes Deathbound on Mickey's butt for 68 damage, then Anubis summons some Divine Retribution! Mariah takes 25 damage, Koneko takes 38 damage, Virtue takes 28 damage, and Michael takes 625 damage. Virtue then let's out a Shockwave for 17 damage. Force, as i said before, is kind of crappy.

Koneko opens the fourth turn going pew pew for 31 damage, and then Michael attacks Cyclops for 60 damage and Virtue for 36 damage and Mariah for 30 damage. Anubis hits him for 18 damage, Mariah casts Media, Virtue casts Diarahan on a just barely alive Chu Chu, and Cyclops attacks but is unable to hit the Angry Archangel.

Fifth turn opens with Michael attacking Virtue for 32 damage, Cyclops for 60 damage, and Mariah, who dodges and then shoots back at him for 25 damage, and Koneko does the same for 32 damage. Then Chu Chu goes Deathbound for 37 damage, Virtue uses Diarahan to heal herself, Anubis attacks but is dodged and Cyclops kicks Michael for 19 damage.

To begin with the sixth turn Michael casts Agirao against Mariah, who dodges. Koneko uses another Hiranya to recover Anubis' MP, then Mariah casts Media, Chu Chu goes Deathbound for 62 damage, Virtue attacks for 45 damage, Anubis attacks for 17 damage, and Cyclops punch for 18 damage.

Seventh turn. Koneko uses a Hiranya on Anubis and then Michael cried towards heaven! Not again...
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Anubis takes 117 damage, Cyclops takes 221 damage, Virtue takes 231 damage, Chu Chu takes 157 damage. Then Mariah casts Media, Anubis attack for 16 damage, Chu Chu Deathbounds for 67 damage, Virtue attacks for 42 damage, and Cyclops casts Ricarm to revive Power.

The eight turn begins with Michael casting MahaAgion. Chu Chu takes 22 damage, Virtue dodges, Cyclops takes 22 damage, Anubis takes 16 damage, Koneko takes 14 damage, and Mariah dodges. Koneko then pew pews for 31 damage, Mariah casts Diarahan on Virtue, Chu Chu Deathbounds Michael for 62 damage and is left with 2HP, Anubis attacks for 18 damage, Virtue casts Diarahan on Chu Chu, and Cyclops attacks for 25 damage.

Ninth turn, and Michael attacks Cyclops for 52 damage, Virtue for 67 damage, Anubis for 42 damage, and Chu Chu for 45 damage. Koneko summons Power in place of Cyclops, then Virtue attacks for 41 damage and Chu Chu does that Deathbound thing for 58 damage. Mariah casts Media and Anubis attacks for 16 damage.

The tenth turn begins with Michael attacking Chu Chu for 87 damage, Anubis for 47 damage, Virtue for 28, Power for 20, and both Koneko and Mariah but they dodge and then Koneko shoots back for 31 damage. Chu Chu does his Deathbound thing for 37 damage, Mariah casts Diarahan to heal Power, Anubis attacks and surprises everyone with a totally unexpected 54 damage, and Virtue attacks for 42 damage. Power does nothing as having been just sumoned after a resurrection he had only a handful of HP upon being summoned so i put him on defense until Mariah could heal him.

The eleventh turn is kind of pathetic, as Michael opens it by casting Tetrakarn and so all the physical attacks against him are for this one turn reflected back to the attacker. So, like, Koneko shoots himself for 68 damage, Mariah casts Diarahan on Chu Chu, Chu Chu Deathbouns himself for 74 damage, Virtue slaps herself for 46 damage, Anubis is lucky as his attack is dodged, and Power Hellfans himself for 33 damage. Meh. Stupid archangel.

Twelfth turn now. Koneko shoots for 31 damage, then Michael casts Agirao against Mariah but she dodges and casts Media. Anubis attacks for 19 damage, Chu Chu Deathbounds for 31 damage, Virtue attacks bus is dodged, and Power Hellfans for 27.

Thirteenth turn and Michael attacks Virtue for 33 damage and Anubis but he dodges and Chu Chu for 44 damage. Koneko goes pew pew for 31 damage, then Chu Chu goes Deathbound for 64 damage and Anubis attacks for 17 damage. Mariah casts Media, then Virtue attacks for 41 and Power Hellfans for 30.

Okay, that's it. I'm stoping the bloody turn by turn boss battle reports right here since those bloody bleepers are starting to be of epic lenght and not only epic coolness. I just checked and this battle finished in turn nineteen, and the next one was at least three times as long. So you'll get the short version from now on, at least for the very long battles. Super duper mega sorry but writing those long battle reports with one and a half centimeters of nail from the tip of the fingers is bloody painful, not to mention bloody slow.

In turn fourteen they all go pew pew, and Michael starts using Megidolaon. In turn fifteen everyone goes pew pew, and in turn sixteen they go even more pew pew, and from there on is just the same for three more turns. Then the fucker is dead, geez.

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Bring your vengeance upon these sinners...

And so Heaven's Viceroy dies, and the Elder who spoke with us outside, the one in a blue cloak and whose identity I hope you don't need my help to discover, appears before us.

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But there was nothing that could have been done.

... Be careful! Your fight is not over yet!

He tells us. Then he heals us and restores our magic power, and then he disappears just as he came in the first place. At first it seems we are alone in the Elder's chambers, but then a presence becomes known to us. The true boss of the second act is here, and he is really pissed off.

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The Lord has a terafuckton of HP. He also has all the highest tier of party wide elemental spells, and He loves to use the Ice one and the Electricity one to make you lose entire turns, because He moves first almost every single time. He's immune to bullets, and He can let out His voice to bind one of your party members. Finally, every now and then The Lord goes berserker and starts kicking the crap out of your demons, mano a mano like. Every now and then he casts Megidoraon, too.

Since I am pretty much powergaming right now He never had a chance, though. The most dangerous part of this battle is Michael, and you already know how that went. God's main tactic is lasting more than you do. Amusingly, as you may have noticed that's also my tactic for Epic Bosses, chip away at their health while healing like crazy and not taking the slightest risk, so it turned into each side trying to last more than the other side. We won, naturally, but it would have been much quicker if I were not down to my last three Hiranyas. Anubis got to cast just two Divine Retributions before being sent back to the bench in stead of Morrigan, who then joins Virtue, Chu Chu, and Power in trying to kick the crap out of God before Mariah's MP go negative. Halfway through the battle I remember Chu Chu had attack buffs :facepaw: and use them in the last push, I was so put into the defensive let's outlast them, nya! mindset it was totally outside of my planning until i noticed without some emergency buffing it was going to be too close for comfort. And He was killed by Morrigan, yay for Girlpower!

Kind of pathetic, i made so many mistakes i would have died a horrible death if my party weren't still some levels beyond what the game expects us to be. But all's well what ends well, right? :3 The coolest thing in the battle, though, was Koneko pulling a massive Get Down on God, evading all but two turns of attacks, and since all of God's attacks are kind of party wide that's a bloody lot of graze bonuses. I knew all those japanese shooters would pay off someday.

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I shalt punish and torture thee and thy children, and thy children's children, throughout all eternity, until the end of time!

...

...

We now leave the Elders' chambers, just to find the fourth Elder waiting for us outside.

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Captain obvious? :3

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Captain obvious! x3

... Following the will of God, I worked together with Michael and the other Archangels to try and bring about the Thousand Year Kingdom.

... But Millennium ended up being nothing more than a method to control and enslave humanity. There is no place in such a city for a Saviour to lead the people...

... And so, no Savior ever came.

The Archangels could wait for a Savior no longer, and tried to create one themselves. By doing so they strayed from God and his will...

God abandoned the Archangels, and spoke to me directly. He told me to separate myself from the others and proceed along the true path...

I don't remember if the explanation of what just happened was even offered in all paths, or if it wasn't some totally avoidable conversation we may as well never see, so i'll try to explain it a bit and later expand it if we stumble about the game's own explanation. The God we just fought isn't the real one, explaining why it was so totally easy to defeat him. He was a creation of the Archangels desire to be back in God's love, since by straying from His holy plan they had been shunned by Him. The desire of the Archangels and their legions to be back in Him was so great, as was the faith of their followers, that being unable to get in touch with the true God that all that Faith and Belief kind of coalesced into a fake God that became the God of Millennium. So Millennium is kind of like a bigger and less obvious Arcadia.

So while the Archangels where either following their own delusions and trying to create an artificial Thousand Year Kingdom to be forgiven by God and be brought back unto Him, Gabriel was actually an agent of the true YHVH... And we were kind of manipulated into killing them all. Sadly we will not see much more of Gabriel outside the Law path, but he's kind of totally cool in that one.

Thanks to you, I was able to return Daniel back to normal. He is waiting for you in the Center COntrol Room...

And we are sent there without having any say on it, meh.

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Since you defeated Michael and the other angels, I was freed. With the Elders gone, there is no one to dominate the people any longer, but by the same token, there is no one to operate Millennium and keep it running any longer either.

I guess that trick we pulled on Arcadia is not going to work for Millennium, and that's a shame. Being the Savior is cool and everything but being Goddess Kitty is totally better. Nya is the new Amen! :3

I am worried about the fate of Millennium...

You should.

Voice
Emergency! Vast energy fluctuation detected in Holytown! Emergency! Vast energy fluctuation detected in Holytown!

Daniel
What on earth happened? My body is not completely healed, so i can't move about freely yet. Could you go to Holytown and see what happened there for me?

Please...

Sure, don't worry. We'll go there right away, Dani-Kun! What could be worse than what we just faced, anyway? This will surely be a walk in the park, nya! And so next time we meet we will begin the third and final act of Shin Megami Tensei II, in which our heroine will pick her allegiances and fight against so many weird stuff that what we faced so far will seem kind of normal. And if you thought this set of final battles were kind of ridiculous wait until you see what the last set has in reserve for us, yay.

This is also the last chance you guys have to change your minds on what path you want to follow for the ending. I like all of the Chaos characters a lot as you have seen already but the Chaos ending is kind of totally meh, plotwise. We won, cool. The Neutral path is the one that shows the most out of the game, and the endgame is kind of epic since it becomes a long series of totally ridiculous bosses punctuated by small dungeons full of high level demons, but plotwise is kind of similar to the Chaos one. We won, meh. The Law ending is kind of amazing plotwise and i really love it and can't help but believe it is the story's true ending, the one that really closes each character's arc and concept and stuff, but given the alignments the last battle is very hard and we will not fight against most of the endgame bosses, jumping straight from Kether Castle to the last boss instead of doing the Megido Ark and the one or two battles between the two of them.

So choices and consequences, doodz. I don't really mind doing one or the other, my favorite alignments change all the bloody time, anyway. In Imagine I started as a Somewhat Chaos Witch, then I went Neutral, then I went Full Chaos, then I went Full Law, then I went Full Chaos, then I went back to Neutral, and last time i logged I was halfway back to Chaos but almost convinced of going back to Law. My main demon has gone through forms of all alignments too, and it's kind of funny since I have the unique demons from the Law path since the Seraphs are all really hot and cool looking so i'm kind of a Chaos Witch that for Gold Run emergencies summons her very own Raphael and Uriel to kick butt. So, like i said, it is the same for me so pick the one you guys want the most.



@ Lightbane

"And of course before kicking them out of their bliss they should be explained the truth and give them some days to ponder about it, but there is no time for that."

Well, we could always argue that's what The Messiah did. Given the game's a Dungeon Crawler there's really no way for it to explore the social adventures and the many preaching puzzles solved by Neko Jesus to enlighten the faithful after making sure they would not be turned into snacks. One could even argue that's what happens in the Law ending, since...

... they judge God as guilty by His own Law, kill Him, and with no one else to try to dominate or enslave The Messiah disciples since they destroyed all unenlightened human society, the God of Law, the false God, the Abyss, the Infernal Court, and most of the Heavenly Host he guides the chosen ones to build a true and real Utopia on the ruins of the Old World instead of using the magical starship thingie to go to a new world were everything would begin anew...

... though that's kind of EXTREME Messianism, or something.

"Anyways, I hope you compensate your delay on updates by completing this lp before this month passes..."

It's the plan. We are really close to the end since most of what is left is just Dungeon Crawling and boss battles, and i do those pretty fasty fast. I'll have to pick what comes next, too. I'm divided between more Megami Tensei or something totally cute like the Rhapsody LP i promised to do a bit before ragequitting Codexia. :?
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,158
If you have to choose, choose the third option, that's showing all of the endings!!! Providing that's not possible, take the Neutral/lawful one.
 

spekkio

Arcane
Joined
Sep 16, 2009
Messages
8,278
That was a real update-spree, neko-chan...

As a true Codexer I vote for True Neutral ending...

:salute:
 

Cenobyte

Prophet
Joined
Feb 13, 2010
Messages
1,117
Location
Japan
Arlaune or Alraune, whichever is right, is a german word for Mandrake and, in turn, the title of Hans Heinns Ewers' best known novel

It's Alraune.

btw: The archangels look by no means like their religious counterparts. For example Gabriel:

Gabriel.jpg


And Old Ones in a game are always good... I hope Shoggoths and Mi-Go are in, too?
 

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