KalosKagathos
Learned
The 24th Magatama is in the Tower of Kagutsuchi. There's no way I can enter the Shrine now.spekkio said:Except the Bando Shrine, my favourite dungeon in the game...
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Apocalypse: so fun it's worth repeating - Let's play SMT III
- Thread starter KalosKagathos
- Start date
KalosKagathos
Learned
Why would I? The last boss is a pain in the ass without
Masakados.
KalosKagathos
Learned
Update 29: The Tower of Kagutsuchi
The climb is gonna take a while, but the place really isn't as big as you may think at first.
We start near the very base of the Tower. The only thing we can do here is ride the red cube to gain some height.
Much better. Now we are in a huge square hall. The elevator leading to the upper levels is several floors higher, and there are four ways to it, but we will get cockblocked at the end of all but one of them by a locked door. There's no reason not to explore all of them, though: there are Incenses in it for us.
Soul: Noah is incredible! We don't need to join together like those other Reasons. ...We'll soon be able to create a world where we won't have to associate with anyone...
Soul: ...Nothing would really change. I'm doing what I want now, anyway. But, it would be nice if those annoying groups like Shijima and Yosuga disappeared.
The western side of the Tower is occupied by Musubi.
We're not Musubi, so we can't use this way, but right before the locked door a Float Ball and a Vitality Incense can be found.
Demon: Infiltrator of our stillness, begone!
Demon: ...Oh, please excuse my behavior. I became quite emotional, contrary to the belief of Shijima.
Shijima demons are ascending using the northern side. We aren't Shijima, either, but a Bead and an Agility Incense make this place worth a look.
Demon: She's not only noble, she's sharp!
Demon: This is discrimination against ex-Mantra demons!
The eastern side is the Yosuga territory. A Soma Droplet and a Strength Incense are here, but we can't access the elevator from here. This leaves the southern side.
Male Manikin: We've always been looking up. We've always wondered about Kagutsuchi.
Male Manikin: The final battle for creation is about to begin. ...With Futomimi gone, it doesn't matter to us which Reason wins.
Manikins are climbing the southern side. They have no illusions about their future, but even they can't afford to miss history being made.
No loot is here, but the way to the elevator is open.
No matter which way you ascend, you're going to bump into new enemies. The purple ghosts are called Shadows. The bird isn't actually a new enemy, it has been encountered before in the 4th and 5th Kalpa, but I haven't bothered mentioning it before for some reason.
It's called Gurr. Gurr to Garuda is what Girimehkala is to Ganesha: an evil Sri Lankan knock-off of a character from Hindu mythology.
Another "new" demon I forgot to mention before is Purski.
Purski is another name for Airavata, the white elephant who serves as a mount to Indra.
On level 81, Reggie replaces Mana Refill, which he doesn't really need anymore, with Void Expel. This skill will make the last boss fight of this update far less frustrating than it can be, and after that we'll replace it with something more universally useful.
BGM: Tower of Kagutsuchi
The elevator brings us to floor 175. Other than the large terminal you can see in the screenshot, there's not much to tell about this floor. You just run around getting into random encounters until you find the next elevator.
Thanks to all the XP, the Trumpeter learns Megidolaon. He's really, really good at dealing with random encounters now.
Soul: It's so strong, the higher levels aren't being formed properly.
The soul is right. Alas, it's only true for this section of the Tower and things will get back to normal shortly. It would be cool if the highest levels were just platforms floating in mid-air.
There's a small terminal in this part of the tower, as well as two Mystical Chests: one with a Chakra Pot and one with a Bead of Life.
Male Manikin: ...Is it still there?
Several floors higher, a warning. It's time for the first Reason fight.
Will you enter?
Yes.
It is you... You have great strength. Your ideals, however, stand at odds with my own. Vile deceiver! I shall destroy you, and erase your despicable greed!
Each of the Reason bosses has a gimmick going for it.
...If you do not heed my words, then I shall send you to hell. This is but a game...
Ahriman's is his ability to forbid certain actions.
He starts by banning physicals. Any demon who attempts a physical attack will be killed after executing it. No resistance will save you from it, so you should play along. As you damage him, he'll forbid the usage of different skills, ultimately culminating with a ban on healing. After a new ban is set, all the previous once are canceled.
For attacking, Ahriman has all -dyne spells, both single-target and AoE. Nothing too bad after you buff.
After you reduce his health by several thousands of HP (which can be done in 2-3 turns if you stand your ground at the beginning and apply buffs and debuffs instead), Ahriman gets bored of the game.
BGM: Reason Boss Battle
Against all sense, Ahriman's second form is easier than the first one. All buffs and debuffs carry over from the first half of the fight, so we're at an absurd advantage. He mostly attacks with his basic physical and Tentacle, a physical AoE that is routinely reflected by the Harlot for 500 points of damage.
The most noteworthy attack he has at this stage is Apocalypse, dealing Almighty damage to everyone in our party, but after Debilitate and Rakukaja the damage is limited to only 210-220 points.
No restriction on skills we can use applies now, so there's nothing preventing us from abusing Focused attacks.
One down, Two to go.
...I see, the stillness has come for me... Wielder of strength... Champion of want... Mold the world to your liking. It is no longer of my concern...
Have to give him credit, Hikawa's a graceful loser.
And this is the end of Shijima as a contender for creation.
The passage Ahriman was guarding leads to an elevator.
Floor 285 is fairly large and is covered with damage tiles. Have Liftoma ready.
We encounter a new enemy here: Yurlungur.
Yurlungur is a snake that... that... Look, I'll just copy and paste the Wikipedia entry:
Reggie reaches level 83. That's one level below 84, so we need to prepare. Surt is fused from Beiji-Weng (Fuu-Ki + Kikuri-Hime) and Mada (Flauros + Throne). We won't be using him, but a level later we'll be upgrading him to a demon we will be.
Soul: If you go the wrong way... You'll get a taste of gravity. Darkness awaits you.
Floor 302 is a fun one.
Most of the floor is connected together by phantom bridges like this one. An important thing to know about them is that they're one-way tickets: this particular bridge you can see at the screenshot, for example, can be crossed from north to south, but not from south to north. It just doesn't materialize when attempted to be accessed from the wrong side.
Another annoying thing about them is that they don't show up on the auto-map, unless they materialized. Since most of them aren't straight lines, this makes it difficult to tell which platforms are connected to which.
Some platforms have pitfalls that drop you several floors below, so there's a lot of backtracking you'll have to do if you don't know the way or simply get lucky.
All the random encounters we go through while mapping out the area propel Reggie towards level 84. Conveniently, he gets cursed, reversing elemental fusion.
Surt is upgraded to Beelzebub by fusing him with an Aeros.
Now we're playing with power.
Mitama fusion is used to complete his skill set. The end result is a flexible damage dealer who takes the Harlot's place in our party.
A fusion of Uriel with Dominion is a special fusion that results in Raphael.
Mitama fusion gives him two useful skills that got lost in fusion. This is our main support character.
The elevator on the other side of the phantom bridges brings us to the exterior of the Tower. Several floors above, we find an entrance leading back in.
Soul: Are you the Demi-fiend?
Yes.
Soul: ............I see...... Then, go in. Isamu is waiting...
We don't have to defeat Isamu right now. Instead, we could take another elevator at the exterior and deal with Chiaki first, but why postpone?
Will you enter?
Yes.
If you'd waited until the world of Musubi was finished, then you would've at least had the chance to be born again. No one's gonna mess with my plans... not even an old friend. Sorry, but it's time to say goodbye... forever.
He's almost asking for a beating. Guess we won't have to feel guilty about this.
At the very beginning, Noah is curiously weak. He only has his basic attack (I think it deals Almighty damage, but I'm not quite sure) and takes full damage from all attacks. It's the best time to hold your ground, avoid attacking and set up Rakukaja, Makakaja and Debilitate. We won't be needing Tarukaja in this fight.
After taking a bit of damage, Noah changes dramatically. From now on, he starts every turn by casting Aurora, which changes his resistances, then does a follow-up attack. Noah always repels physical attacks (not even Pierce can help us here), heavily resists Almighty damage (even with Makakaja and Debilitate Megidola's damage was in low double digits). He also repels three of the four basic elements, but is vulnerable (not weak, though) to the fourth one. Which one? You can tell by his follow-up attack. If he casts an Ice-based attack, hit him with Fire. Fire can be beaten with Ice, Force with Electricity, and Electricity with Force. Needless to say, the Trumpeter is very handy in this fight. Reggie can't damage Noah at all, but he can keep the MP levels of his demons high with Chakra Elexir.
If you pay close attention, you'll notice that Noah always shifts his resistances in a certain pattern: he does a Fire-based attack first, then switches to Ice, then to Electricity, then to Force, then he's back to Fire.
Finally, this happens.
I'm still undecided if this is incredibly stupid or incredibly cool, but I'm leaning towards cool. I think it's the hat that does it for me.
Noah's pattern stays the same, with one minor alteration: now he can substitute the elemental follow-up attack with his basic attack or Domination (a spell that drains a lot of HP an MP from a single target; its effectiveness is severely reduced by Rakukaja and Debilitate). If you haven't figured out the Fire->Ice->Electricity->Force->Fire thing you won't know what attacks to use on these turns, but you can easily win even in that case. Just don't attack on them, and wait for him to do an elemental attack, which is still a definite clue to his resistances.
MP management is the key to victory here, and with Chakra Elixir there's nothing hard about it.
Almost done now.
Nearby is an elevator leading to floor 402.
Female Manikin: We're all taking a rest now. We may be Manikins, but we're no dummies!
402F is a bloody town. There's a large terminal, a Junk Shop, a Cathedral of Shadows and a Fountain of Life here.
Kailash, the 24th Magatama, is sold here. No strengths, no weaknesses. Teaches Almighty attacks, Tetrakarn and Makarakarn. Oh, I promised to tell you about Lucky Tickets, didn't I?
Shopkeeper: Here, have this Lucky Ticket. Get ten of them, and I'll give you a special present!
Each time you make a sizable purchase, you're given a Lucky Ticket.
Shopkeeper: Oooh, you wrangled up ten Lucky Tickets for me! Alrighty then, choose a box. I'm sure you'll win something simply scrumptious!
If you have ten Tickets on you when you're given one, you're offered three boxes to choose from.
White box.
Shopkeeper: Ah, you got a Balm of Rising. Good job!
There's rarely anything useful there. I checked with save states.
Now, if you remember, we were promised something special if we bring 24 Magatama to a Cathedral of Shadows.
In this land, there exist certain things that hold demonic power. ...Yes, the Magatama in your body are what I am referring to.
He's not aware of the latest developments, is he?
We have long awaited such an individual. And then, along came you... You, a human with the strength of a demon, have succeeded in gathering all the Magatama.
You obtained the Lord's Sword.
He, who once protected Tokyo, shall surely help you with his awesome might.
The next update will be dedicated to this little item. For now, we have to deal with Yosuga.
Male Manikin: He might hit us with his hammer if we get near him. And I already have a pounding headache.
His hammer?
I like how the game tries to conceal his identity.
Neither did I imagine that you would become this strong... But in your case, I should have expected the unexpected. Do you remember me? I remember you...
No way!
As a follower of Yosuga, I must annihilate you!
Prepare to meet your doom!
In this rematch, Thor starts by using Electricity-based attacks and an occasional basic physical. Then he... uh... how do I put this...
You see, a single Focused Deathbound backed up by Tarukaja and Debilitate hits twice, crits both times, deals OVER NINE THOUSAND points of damage in total and kills Thor instantly.
So I'm not sure if he gets any new attacks if you damage him less dramatically.
My powers are no match for yours!? ...............Even so! Lady Chiaki will certainly build a strong world with the teachings of Yosuga as its basis. Even though I will die here, Yosuga is... Y-Yosuga is......
Next lies the most
-inducing part of the Tower, if not the entire game.
We're forcibly teleported while running towards the next elevator.
Demon: I'll never make it to Lady Chiaki's side at this rate! Let me check my map...
It's one of those teleporter mazes.
The in-game auto-map isn't of much use either: it shows where teleporters are, but it doesn't show their destinations. Unless your memory is Cleve-tier, you'll probably want a piece of graph paper.
A lot of leveling happens in the maze, as you can imagine. Beelzebub learns Elec Boost. 50% more power on his main offensive spell is nice to have.
Reggie's level gets high enough to perform a special fusion of Raphael with a Throne, resulting in Gabriel.
Mediarahan and Debilitate are given to her with Mitama fusion.
We finally find a teleporter leading to this red cube. Using it sinks it into the ground, creating a straight path between the Manikin town and the next elevator. No more teleporter mazes.
The next floor is floor 431. It's heavily interconnected with floor 444 by the means of elevators and fake floors. The map makes sense, so it's not difficult to navigate.
Reginald learns Freikugel. It's a single-target Almighty attack that costs HP to use, meaning it can be Focused and benefit from Pierce. I'm actually not sure if it's an improvement over Deathbound, as it only hits once, but whatever.
Male Manikin: There's an incredible treasure hidden in this tower that can manipulate life. After climbing steep paths, falling, scraping knees, finally...
We're literally steps away from Chiaki, but we'll take a small detour for now.
Phantom bridges are back to make our lives a little bit more miserable.
To make matters worse, now there are pitfalls right on them.
We make it to the other side eventually.
The room appears empty at first, but the two tiles in the middle are pitfalls, leading to a room full of more pitfalls. If you successfully dodge those pitfalls below (bless you, save states), you'll find a teleporter.
This is the incredible treasure the Manikin spoke of: a reusable item that casts Samrecarm, reviving any dead demon with full health.
Before confronting Chiaki, there's fusion to be done.
First, Michael. You get him by fusing together Uriel, Raphael and Gabriel. It doesn't matter who the sacrifice is.
Michael is the eldest archangel and the leader of the heavenly host, his military talent matched by no one. As good as he is, he lacks immunity to Curse. This will make him a liability in the Chiaki fight, so we'll have to fuse another demon just for that occasion.
Scathach is a good choice, possessing immunities to both Expel and Curse. However, her level is a bit too low, isn't it? That's what sacrifice fusion is for.
We fuse Titania with a Dominion and sacrifice the Pisaca. The end result is much more powerful than it would be otherwise.
Debilitate is also given to Scathach with Mitama fusion. Now she'll have something to do when everyone is at full health.
On the long way from the Cathedral of Shadows to Chiaki Michael gets enough XP to level up. He learns Victory Cry, a passive that restores all his health and mana when he wins a fight.
Better yet, Beelzebub evolves.
Is it just me, or does it look like the introductory lines of his two forms were swapped accidentally? Anyway, the broken just got more broken: in his fly form Beelzebub can learn Death Flies. That's instant death to a lot of random encounters, and it doesn't even cost any more than a regular Megidolaon.
Scathach also gains a level, despite taking no part in any battles (thank you, Watchful). Force Repel takes the place of Pester, and Wind Cutter replaces Life Drain. Morry importantly, she's ready to evolve.
Alas, she doesn't drain physical damage, like the boss version did.
Demon: I'm surprised you have the nerve to even see us! Lady Chiaki is up ahead. Yosuga shall take that stone you have in your hands. ...And your life.
Let's wrap this monster of a dungeon up.
Will you enter?
Yes.
Our party is Reggie with Djed equipped, Beelzebub, the Trumpeter and Skadi.
Therefore, I will do you the honor of fighting to my fullest ability.......
We are adversaries, each upholding our own Reason and contending for creation. As fate would have it, we are both beyond shedding tears. We need not hesitate to fight each other...
Baal Avatar is referring to her unique attack.
It's called Bael's Bane. What it does is turn any demon not immune to Curse into a fly. This status effect can't be cured without winning the fight first. It drastically reduces your stats (the skill set stays the same) and, most horrifyingly, overrides the original resistances. Among other things, it makes you vulnerable to Expel, and Baal uses them often. Because of this, these two immunities are essential in this fight.
Don't bother with buffs and debuffs at first. Just concentrate on damaging her and healing the little damage she does with Megidola.
After taking a little beating Baal summons angelic versions of Ose and Flauros for assistance.
Ose can heal Chiaki back to full health with Diarahan and generate extra actions with Dragon Eye. Flauros can cast Dekaja and use powerful physical attacks. These two have to die first.
Focused physicals are the best way to do the job quickly. Reggie has Gaea Rage, Beelzebub knows Hades Blast. We cast Debilitate first, then go to town with those AoEs.
Chiaki gains Beast Eye when she's the last one standing, but it's not of much use to her, as we null most of her attacks. Without assistance she's defenseless against the might of Focused Freikugel.
That's it for Reasons.
Why...? Why won't you accept Yosuga... when you possess such... strength?......
With the three stones claimed for ourselves, we've earned an audience with Kagutsuchi. But before we head for the final battle, we will make use of the present that was given to us by the clergy of the Cathedral of Shadows and explore a very small optional dungeon. Hang on, guys, only two updates left.
The climb is gonna take a while, but the place really isn't as big as you may think at first.
We start near the very base of the Tower. The only thing we can do here is ride the red cube to gain some height.
Much better. Now we are in a huge square hall. The elevator leading to the upper levels is several floors higher, and there are four ways to it, but we will get cockblocked at the end of all but one of them by a locked door. There's no reason not to explore all of them, though: there are Incenses in it for us.
Soul: Noah is incredible! We don't need to join together like those other Reasons. ...We'll soon be able to create a world where we won't have to associate with anyone...
Soul: ...Nothing would really change. I'm doing what I want now, anyway. But, it would be nice if those annoying groups like Shijima and Yosuga disappeared.
The western side of the Tower is occupied by Musubi.
We're not Musubi, so we can't use this way, but right before the locked door a Float Ball and a Vitality Incense can be found.
Demon: Infiltrator of our stillness, begone!
Demon: ...Oh, please excuse my behavior. I became quite emotional, contrary to the belief of Shijima.
Shijima demons are ascending using the northern side. We aren't Shijima, either, but a Bead and an Agility Incense make this place worth a look.
Demon: She's not only noble, she's sharp!
Demon: This is discrimination against ex-Mantra demons!
The eastern side is the Yosuga territory. A Soma Droplet and a Strength Incense are here, but we can't access the elevator from here. This leaves the southern side.
Male Manikin: We've always been looking up. We've always wondered about Kagutsuchi.
Male Manikin: The final battle for creation is about to begin. ...With Futomimi gone, it doesn't matter to us which Reason wins.
Manikins are climbing the southern side. They have no illusions about their future, but even they can't afford to miss history being made.
No loot is here, but the way to the elevator is open.
No matter which way you ascend, you're going to bump into new enemies. The purple ghosts are called Shadows. The bird isn't actually a new enemy, it has been encountered before in the 4th and 5th Kalpa, but I haven't bothered mentioning it before for some reason.
It's called Gurr. Gurr to Garuda is what Girimehkala is to Ganesha: an evil Sri Lankan knock-off of a character from Hindu mythology.
Another "new" demon I forgot to mention before is Purski.
Purski is another name for Airavata, the white elephant who serves as a mount to Indra.
On level 81, Reggie replaces Mana Refill, which he doesn't really need anymore, with Void Expel. This skill will make the last boss fight of this update far less frustrating than it can be, and after that we'll replace it with something more universally useful.
BGM: Tower of Kagutsuchi
The elevator brings us to floor 175. Other than the large terminal you can see in the screenshot, there's not much to tell about this floor. You just run around getting into random encounters until you find the next elevator.
Thanks to all the XP, the Trumpeter learns Megidolaon. He's really, really good at dealing with random encounters now.
Soul: It's so strong, the higher levels aren't being formed properly.
The soul is right. Alas, it's only true for this section of the Tower and things will get back to normal shortly. It would be cool if the highest levels were just platforms floating in mid-air.
There's a small terminal in this part of the tower, as well as two Mystical Chests: one with a Chakra Pot and one with a Bead of Life.
Male Manikin: ...Is it still there?
Several floors higher, a warning. It's time for the first Reason fight.
Will you enter?
Each of the Reason bosses has a gimmick going for it.
Ahriman's is his ability to forbid certain actions.
He starts by banning physicals. Any demon who attempts a physical attack will be killed after executing it. No resistance will save you from it, so you should play along. As you damage him, he'll forbid the usage of different skills, ultimately culminating with a ban on healing. After a new ban is set, all the previous once are canceled.
For attacking, Ahriman has all -dyne spells, both single-target and AoE. Nothing too bad after you buff.
After you reduce his health by several thousands of HP (which can be done in 2-3 turns if you stand your ground at the beginning and apply buffs and debuffs instead), Ahriman gets bored of the game.
BGM: Reason Boss Battle
Against all sense, Ahriman's second form is easier than the first one. All buffs and debuffs carry over from the first half of the fight, so we're at an absurd advantage. He mostly attacks with his basic physical and Tentacle, a physical AoE that is routinely reflected by the Harlot for 500 points of damage.
The most noteworthy attack he has at this stage is Apocalypse, dealing Almighty damage to everyone in our party, but after Debilitate and Rakukaja the damage is limited to only 210-220 points.
No restriction on skills we can use applies now, so there's nothing preventing us from abusing Focused attacks.
One down, Two to go.
Have to give him credit, Hikawa's a graceful loser.
And this is the end of Shijima as a contender for creation.
The passage Ahriman was guarding leads to an elevator.
Floor 285 is fairly large and is covered with damage tiles. Have Liftoma ready.
We encounter a new enemy here: Yurlungur.
Yurlungur is a snake that... that... Look, I'll just copy and paste the Wikipedia entry:
Reggie reaches level 83. That's one level below 84, so we need to prepare. Surt is fused from Beiji-Weng (Fuu-Ki + Kikuri-Hime) and Mada (Flauros + Throne). We won't be using him, but a level later we'll be upgrading him to a demon we will be.
Soul: If you go the wrong way... You'll get a taste of gravity. Darkness awaits you.
Floor 302 is a fun one.
Most of the floor is connected together by phantom bridges like this one. An important thing to know about them is that they're one-way tickets: this particular bridge you can see at the screenshot, for example, can be crossed from north to south, but not from south to north. It just doesn't materialize when attempted to be accessed from the wrong side.
Another annoying thing about them is that they don't show up on the auto-map, unless they materialized. Since most of them aren't straight lines, this makes it difficult to tell which platforms are connected to which.
Some platforms have pitfalls that drop you several floors below, so there's a lot of backtracking you'll have to do if you don't know the way or simply get lucky.
All the random encounters we go through while mapping out the area propel Reggie towards level 84. Conveniently, he gets cursed, reversing elemental fusion.
Surt is upgraded to Beelzebub by fusing him with an Aeros.
Now we're playing with power.
Mitama fusion is used to complete his skill set. The end result is a flexible damage dealer who takes the Harlot's place in our party.
A fusion of Uriel with Dominion is a special fusion that results in Raphael.
Mitama fusion gives him two useful skills that got lost in fusion. This is our main support character.
The elevator on the other side of the phantom bridges brings us to the exterior of the Tower. Several floors above, we find an entrance leading back in.
Soul: Are you the Demi-fiend?
Soul: ............I see...... Then, go in. Isamu is waiting...
We don't have to defeat Isamu right now. Instead, we could take another elevator at the exterior and deal with Chiaki first, but why postpone?
Will you enter?
He's almost asking for a beating. Guess we won't have to feel guilty about this.
At the very beginning, Noah is curiously weak. He only has his basic attack (I think it deals Almighty damage, but I'm not quite sure) and takes full damage from all attacks. It's the best time to hold your ground, avoid attacking and set up Rakukaja, Makakaja and Debilitate. We won't be needing Tarukaja in this fight.
After taking a bit of damage, Noah changes dramatically. From now on, he starts every turn by casting Aurora, which changes his resistances, then does a follow-up attack. Noah always repels physical attacks (not even Pierce can help us here), heavily resists Almighty damage (even with Makakaja and Debilitate Megidola's damage was in low double digits). He also repels three of the four basic elements, but is vulnerable (not weak, though) to the fourth one. Which one? You can tell by his follow-up attack. If he casts an Ice-based attack, hit him with Fire. Fire can be beaten with Ice, Force with Electricity, and Electricity with Force. Needless to say, the Trumpeter is very handy in this fight. Reggie can't damage Noah at all, but he can keep the MP levels of his demons high with Chakra Elexir.
If you pay close attention, you'll notice that Noah always shifts his resistances in a certain pattern: he does a Fire-based attack first, then switches to Ice, then to Electricity, then to Force, then he's back to Fire.
Finally, this happens.
I'm still undecided if this is incredibly stupid or incredibly cool, but I'm leaning towards cool. I think it's the hat that does it for me.
Noah's pattern stays the same, with one minor alteration: now he can substitute the elemental follow-up attack with his basic attack or Domination (a spell that drains a lot of HP an MP from a single target; its effectiveness is severely reduced by Rakukaja and Debilitate). If you haven't figured out the Fire->Ice->Electricity->Force->Fire thing you won't know what attacks to use on these turns, but you can easily win even in that case. Just don't attack on them, and wait for him to do an elemental attack, which is still a definite clue to his resistances.
MP management is the key to victory here, and with Chakra Elixir there's nothing hard about it.
Almost done now.
Nearby is an elevator leading to floor 402.
Female Manikin: We're all taking a rest now. We may be Manikins, but we're no dummies!
402F is a bloody town. There's a large terminal, a Junk Shop, a Cathedral of Shadows and a Fountain of Life here.
Kailash, the 24th Magatama, is sold here. No strengths, no weaknesses. Teaches Almighty attacks, Tetrakarn and Makarakarn. Oh, I promised to tell you about Lucky Tickets, didn't I?
Shopkeeper: Here, have this Lucky Ticket. Get ten of them, and I'll give you a special present!
Each time you make a sizable purchase, you're given a Lucky Ticket.
Shopkeeper: Oooh, you wrangled up ten Lucky Tickets for me! Alrighty then, choose a box. I'm sure you'll win something simply scrumptious!
If you have ten Tickets on you when you're given one, you're offered three boxes to choose from.
Shopkeeper: Ah, you got a Balm of Rising. Good job!
There's rarely anything useful there. I checked with save states.
Now, if you remember, we were promised something special if we bring 24 Magatama to a Cathedral of Shadows.
He's not aware of the latest developments, is he?
You obtained the Lord's Sword.
The next update will be dedicated to this little item. For now, we have to deal with Yosuga.
Male Manikin: He might hit us with his hammer if we get near him. And I already have a pounding headache.
His hammer?
I like how the game tries to conceal his identity.
No way!
In this rematch, Thor starts by using Electricity-based attacks and an occasional basic physical. Then he... uh... how do I put this...
You see, a single Focused Deathbound backed up by Tarukaja and Debilitate hits twice, crits both times, deals OVER NINE THOUSAND points of damage in total and kills Thor instantly.
So I'm not sure if he gets any new attacks if you damage him less dramatically.
Next lies the most
-inducing part of the Tower, if not the entire game.
We're forcibly teleported while running towards the next elevator.
Demon: I'll never make it to Lady Chiaki's side at this rate! Let me check my map...
It's one of those teleporter mazes.
The in-game auto-map isn't of much use either: it shows where teleporters are, but it doesn't show their destinations. Unless your memory is Cleve-tier, you'll probably want a piece of graph paper.
A lot of leveling happens in the maze, as you can imagine. Beelzebub learns Elec Boost. 50% more power on his main offensive spell is nice to have.
Reggie's level gets high enough to perform a special fusion of Raphael with a Throne, resulting in Gabriel.
Mediarahan and Debilitate are given to her with Mitama fusion.
We finally find a teleporter leading to this red cube. Using it sinks it into the ground, creating a straight path between the Manikin town and the next elevator. No more teleporter mazes.
The next floor is floor 431. It's heavily interconnected with floor 444 by the means of elevators and fake floors. The map makes sense, so it's not difficult to navigate.
Reginald learns Freikugel. It's a single-target Almighty attack that costs HP to use, meaning it can be Focused and benefit from Pierce. I'm actually not sure if it's an improvement over Deathbound, as it only hits once, but whatever.
Male Manikin: There's an incredible treasure hidden in this tower that can manipulate life. After climbing steep paths, falling, scraping knees, finally...
We're literally steps away from Chiaki, but we'll take a small detour for now.
Phantom bridges are back to make our lives a little bit more miserable.
To make matters worse, now there are pitfalls right on them.
We make it to the other side eventually.
The room appears empty at first, but the two tiles in the middle are pitfalls, leading to a room full of more pitfalls. If you successfully dodge those pitfalls below (bless you, save states), you'll find a teleporter.
This is the incredible treasure the Manikin spoke of: a reusable item that casts Samrecarm, reviving any dead demon with full health.
Before confronting Chiaki, there's fusion to be done.
First, Michael. You get him by fusing together Uriel, Raphael and Gabriel. It doesn't matter who the sacrifice is.
Michael is the eldest archangel and the leader of the heavenly host, his military talent matched by no one. As good as he is, he lacks immunity to Curse. This will make him a liability in the Chiaki fight, so we'll have to fuse another demon just for that occasion.
Scathach is a good choice, possessing immunities to both Expel and Curse. However, her level is a bit too low, isn't it? That's what sacrifice fusion is for.
We fuse Titania with a Dominion and sacrifice the Pisaca. The end result is much more powerful than it would be otherwise.
Debilitate is also given to Scathach with Mitama fusion. Now she'll have something to do when everyone is at full health.
On the long way from the Cathedral of Shadows to Chiaki Michael gets enough XP to level up. He learns Victory Cry, a passive that restores all his health and mana when he wins a fight.
Better yet, Beelzebub evolves.
Is it just me, or does it look like the introductory lines of his two forms were swapped accidentally? Anyway, the broken just got more broken: in his fly form Beelzebub can learn Death Flies. That's instant death to a lot of random encounters, and it doesn't even cost any more than a regular Megidolaon.
Scathach also gains a level, despite taking no part in any battles (thank you, Watchful). Force Repel takes the place of Pester, and Wind Cutter replaces Life Drain. Morry importantly, she's ready to evolve.
Alas, she doesn't drain physical damage, like the boss version did.
Demon: I'm surprised you have the nerve to even see us! Lady Chiaki is up ahead. Yosuga shall take that stone you have in your hands. ...And your life.
Let's wrap this monster of a dungeon up.
Will you enter?
Our party is Reggie with Djed equipped, Beelzebub, the Trumpeter and Skadi.
Baal Avatar is referring to her unique attack.
It's called Bael's Bane. What it does is turn any demon not immune to Curse into a fly. This status effect can't be cured without winning the fight first. It drastically reduces your stats (the skill set stays the same) and, most horrifyingly, overrides the original resistances. Among other things, it makes you vulnerable to Expel, and Baal uses them often. Because of this, these two immunities are essential in this fight.
Don't bother with buffs and debuffs at first. Just concentrate on damaging her and healing the little damage she does with Megidola.
After taking a little beating Baal summons angelic versions of Ose and Flauros for assistance.
Ose can heal Chiaki back to full health with Diarahan and generate extra actions with Dragon Eye. Flauros can cast Dekaja and use powerful physical attacks. These two have to die first.
Focused physicals are the best way to do the job quickly. Reggie has Gaea Rage, Beelzebub knows Hades Blast. We cast Debilitate first, then go to town with those AoEs.
Chiaki gains Beast Eye when she's the last one standing, but it's not of much use to her, as we null most of her attacks. Without assistance she's defenseless against the might of Focused Freikugel.
That's it for Reasons.
With the three stones claimed for ourselves, we've earned an audience with Kagutsuchi. But before we head for the final battle, we will make use of the present that was given to us by the clergy of the Cathedral of Shadows and explore a very small optional dungeon. Hang on, guys, only two updates left.
Ahriman: Play the game, everybody play the game ... of love!
It's ... incredibly fun!
:clap:
Nope, it's not just you.
Also,
KK said:
It's ... incredibly fun!
KK said:
KK said:
:clap:
KK said:
Nope, it's not just you.
Also,
This. :/spekkio said:KK said:
I will really miss this LP.
lightbane said:
Kalos will start an LP of Devil Survivor, of course.
KalosKagathos
Learned
Probably play Strange Journey. It's been lying on my HDD since forever. LP-wise, I won't be doing anything for several months. I'll have to work on my term paper, and there's a state exam of doom after that. I'm thinking of LPing the first Raidou Kuzunoha game this summer, though.lightbane said:
spekkio
Arcane
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2009
- Messages
- 8,295
AFAIR lightbane reserved a DS LP over 9000 post ago...Crooked Bee said:
So, the only thing left for L'Stat is SMT: DS - RKvtSA
*Fake edit:
L'Stat? 
I must've failed my lore check.
But anyway, whatever Kalos LPs,
I must've failed my lore check.But anyway, whatever Kalos LPs,
KalosKagathos
Learned
It's not the only thing. There's DDS, Persona games... DemiKids.spekkio said:So, the only thing left for L'Stat is SMT: DS - RKvtSA
Good.Crooked Bee said:L'Stat?
KalosKagathos said:Good.Crooked Bee said:L'Stat?
Oh-kay, I think I know now.
Bump for more.
Damned Registrations
Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2007
- Messages
- 15,024
Moar!
Was kind of wanting to see one of the faction endings, since I went for the True Demon one myself when I played, but it's an awesome path anyways so I can't really complain.
It's interesting seeing the way you fuse demons and how you fight the bosses. I generally hoard all my items even during boss fights and despise having to back off and rebuild my team so I made use of other methods. Among which, I think I was still abusing Daisouju till the very end of the game (If I remember correctly, Meditation has it's own special type that can't even be resisted by stuff that resists almighty, and it can be powered up with Makakaja, pretty sure I killed some boss with that because he was immune to everything else I had. I also used the physical/magical shield spells that cost an assload with him. I had my main character learn a lot of the buffing spells as I played, although he ended up as a physical/focus build like yours at the end. All those endgame skills he gets access to (Gaea Rage, Friekugel, Pierce) are just too powerful, especially since demons can't replace that role.
Anyways, go kick some ass.
Was kind of wanting to see one of the faction endings, since I went for the True Demon one myself when I played, but it's an awesome path anyways so I can't really complain.
It's interesting seeing the way you fuse demons and how you fight the bosses. I generally hoard all my items even during boss fights and despise having to back off and rebuild my team so I made use of other methods. Among which, I think I was still abusing Daisouju till the very end of the game (If I remember correctly, Meditation has it's own special type that can't even be resisted by stuff that resists almighty, and it can be powered up with Makakaja, pretty sure I killed some boss with that because he was immune to everything else I had. I also used the physical/magical shield spells that cost an assload with him. I had my main character learn a lot of the buffing spells as I played, although he ended up as a physical/focus build like yours at the end. All those endgame skills he gets access to (Gaea Rage, Friekugel, Pierce) are just too powerful, especially since demons can't replace that role.
Anyways, go kick some ass.
KalosKagathos
Learned
I guess you're going to learn something new from this LP.DamnedRegistrations said:
Will do.Anyways, go kick some ass.
A question to everyone. I think I came up with a combination of skills even more broken than the infamous Freikugel + Focus + Pierce. It's Magma Axis + Fire Boost + Focus + Pierce. Anyone tried it? I've already discarded Fire Boost on this playthrough.
Damned Registrations
Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2007
- Messages
- 15,024
The disadvantage there is that enemies can still repel fire attacks. Nothing repels Almighty. And hauling Fireboost and Focus both around until you get pierce would be kind of lame. Until then you're still screwed vs every boss and mook that even resists fire. And there's a lot. I guess you could put it off until the end.
I know other demons can get pierce, but they don't get Freikugel (Or tons of other awesome shit on the way there) and you can't max their strength out at level 30. They just lag behind for physical damage all game long. I guess the flip side is that demons can't use items so your main damage dealer will be out of the loop whenever you want to use some, but like I said, I never used items much myself. The only other annoying part is having the main character piss away half his hp every turn makes combat a lot more dicey unless you got some serious healing backup for him. Probably why I kept Daisoujou so long, Meditation + Prayer is hard to beat for that role.
The other annoying thing with making demons physical monsters is trying to wrestle good skills onto bodies with the right resistances. Weapon attacks tend to be the best but there may not be any decent weapon wielding demons at your level, at least not for the area you're in.
I know other demons can get pierce, but they don't get Freikugel (Or tons of other awesome shit on the way there) and you can't max their strength out at level 30. They just lag behind for physical damage all game long. I guess the flip side is that demons can't use items so your main damage dealer will be out of the loop whenever you want to use some, but like I said, I never used items much myself. The only other annoying part is having the main character piss away half his hp every turn makes combat a lot more dicey unless you got some serious healing backup for him. Probably why I kept Daisoujou so long, Meditation + Prayer is hard to beat for that role.
The other annoying thing with making demons physical monsters is trying to wrestle good skills onto bodies with the right resistances. Weapon attacks tend to be the best but there may not be any decent weapon wielding demons at your level, at least not for the area you're in.
KalosKagathos
Learned
Update 30: Bandou Shrine
The Shrine is a short optional dungeon you can enter by bringing the Lord's Blade to the grave of Masakado.
The Lord's Blade began to shine! You are surrounded by a bright light...
The Shrine is populated by demons of light-aligned races: Avatars, Deities, Megami, Ladies, Furies, Kishin. Random encounters are definitely easier than they are in the Tower of Kagutsuchi, which is kinda strange: in the original release of Nocturne that lacked the Labyrinth of Amala this was the optional dungeon meant to challenge experienced players. Maybe it's all those levels we've gained in the Labyrinth that makes the end-game content of the vanilla Nocturne so easy.
Soul: You must lower the four pillars and defeat the four Devas in order to see him. But, the four Devas are reeeeeeally strong, so be careful...
That's how this dungeon works: the owner of this place is in the building resting on top of four pillars. Lowering the pillars will lower the building. Each pillar is guarded by the boss version of one of the Heavenly Kings. The pillars can be lowered in any order.
The shrine is a very basic teleporter maze. It's made a bit more difficult by the auto-map being disabled, but it's still easy to memorize.
On the way to the first pillar Reggie levels up. With Chiaki defeated we no longer need immunity to Expel as a passive skill, so it gets replaced by Might, a passive that boosts critical hit rate. I'm not sure if it only works with the basic attack, or with physical skills as well, but whatever. No more alterations will be made to Reginald's skill set.
We'll start with the southern pillar.
Will you lower the pillar?
Yes.
We've already lowered it. You're standing on it, dumbass.
Zouchou: If you plan on entering the shrine, overcome my ordeal! Let us begin!
Zouchou is an Electricity user. He starts every single turn by converting his sole action point into 4 half-action points with Dragon Eye, casting Makakaja, then throwing Ziodynes and Bolt Storms around. He has no buffs other than Makakaja, no Dekaja, no Dekunda. This means he was dead before this fight even started. He also retains the weakness to Force that his playable version has, so the Trumpeter can get extra actions off him with Mazandyne. He starts doing Focused basic attacks when he almost runs out of HP, but it's nothing we haven't seen before.
Next is the western pillar.
Will you lower the pillar?
Yes.
Are they blind, or what?
Koumoku: Let us find out if this battle is an ordeal, or divine retribution! Prepare yourself!
Koumoku is a bit trickier than Zouchou. He has Rakunda and Rakukaja, so we'll have to dispel those once in a while. Fortunately, there's no shortage of action points in this fight: he's weak to Electricity, and 3 of our demons have Maziodyne. At the beginning he sticks to Force attacks like Mazandyne and Wind Cutter, but then he starts mixing in Focused Deathbounds. Those hurt if you let him Rakunda you freely, but other than that it's another easy win.
Michael learns Tarukaja on the way to the next pillar. Endure (automatically revives a killed demon with 1 HP once per battle) is forgotten to make room for it.
The eastern pillar is the third one we're going to sink into the ground.
Will you lower the pillar?
Yes.
They're doing it on purpose, aren't they?
Jikoku: If you plan on entering the shrine, you must defeat me! Now, let us fight!
Do they let anyone become a Heavenly King these days? As far as I can tell, Jikoku's cunning strategy starts and ends at casting Makakaja and throwing around Bufudynes, Mabufudynes and Glacial Blasts. I don't think I've ever seen him use a physical attack, let alone Focus. Oh, and he's weak to Fire.
Beelzebub learns Death Flies. No further comment is necessary, I believe.
The northern pillar is the last one left.
Will you lower the pillar?
Yes.
So, you're trying to get into the shrine? Then, you should already know that you must defeat me, or the path shall never be opened! Let us begin, Reginald!
Finally, a decent boss. He has two action points to work with. Bishamon's AI goes through two phases. In the first one, he can do three things:
1. Debilitate twice.
2. Cast Dragon Eye, Tarukaja four times, do a physical.
3. Cast Dragon Eye, Makakaja four times, drop a Megidolaon.
Bishamon also can work Dekaja into any course of attack available to him, in case you use any buffs. However, he doesn't have Dekunda, so the first thing to do here is to fully Debilitate him as fast as possible.
After that, the course of action is very straightforward: Reggie does Focused Freikugels, Beelzebub casts Dekunda if Debilitate was used and does Focused Hades Blasts otherwise, the Trumpeter casts Dekaja if Tarukaja or Makakaja was used and casts Mabufudyne otherwise (Bishamon is still weak to Ice), Michael heals.
In the second phase, Bishamon does less buffing (only 1 or 2 Tarukaja or Makakaja per turn) and more attacking. Having 3 Megidolaons or Tempests per turn come your way can be a bit terrifying at first, but if Bishamon's Debilitated then his accuracy rate is low, and he'll be missing all the time, running out of actions quickly. I guess you can also use Tetrakarn to turn the fight in your favor, but I didn't need to.
The flames look very inviting.
...So, thou art the demon who came from afar...? I am Masakado Taira, the guardian of Tokyo for the last thousand years.
A short history lesson: Masakado actually existed. He was a feudal lord who lived in the 10th century. He led a rebellion against the imperial government and got his head cut off. The head was buried at the place that would later become Tokyo, and popular belief holds that the city only flourishes if sufficient respect is paid to the grave. Masakado's probably the closest thing Japan has to a patron saint of a city.
...............Thou art Reginald, art thou not? The king of chaos, who hath gained the powers of demons, despite being human...
Why hast thou come this far to see me?
That's a good question. We had no idea who or what was in.
I wanted to say "hi".
I see... Thou hast defeated the four Devas out of sport... Outstanding... Let me ask thee a question... Wilt thou bring peace to Tokyo?
Yes.
Not even Shijima could bring this much peace.
Then, I shall lend thee my power.
You obtained the Magatama Masakados.
............Farewell. Be it a new world, it is still Tokyo... Thou art the new guardian of the land...
Pfft, a Magatama. We had 24 of those anyway. How much better can this one possibly be?
The Shrine is a short optional dungeon you can enter by bringing the Lord's Blade to the grave of Masakado.
The Lord's Blade began to shine! You are surrounded by a bright light...
The Shrine is populated by demons of light-aligned races: Avatars, Deities, Megami, Ladies, Furies, Kishin. Random encounters are definitely easier than they are in the Tower of Kagutsuchi, which is kinda strange: in the original release of Nocturne that lacked the Labyrinth of Amala this was the optional dungeon meant to challenge experienced players. Maybe it's all those levels we've gained in the Labyrinth that makes the end-game content of the vanilla Nocturne so easy.
Soul: You must lower the four pillars and defeat the four Devas in order to see him. But, the four Devas are reeeeeeally strong, so be careful...
That's how this dungeon works: the owner of this place is in the building resting on top of four pillars. Lowering the pillars will lower the building. Each pillar is guarded by the boss version of one of the Heavenly Kings. The pillars can be lowered in any order.
The shrine is a very basic teleporter maze. It's made a bit more difficult by the auto-map being disabled, but it's still easy to memorize.
On the way to the first pillar Reggie levels up. With Chiaki defeated we no longer need immunity to Expel as a passive skill, so it gets replaced by Might, a passive that boosts critical hit rate. I'm not sure if it only works with the basic attack, or with physical skills as well, but whatever. No more alterations will be made to Reginald's skill set.
We'll start with the southern pillar.
Will you lower the pillar?
We've already lowered it. You're standing on it, dumbass.
Zouchou: If you plan on entering the shrine, overcome my ordeal! Let us begin!
Zouchou is an Electricity user. He starts every single turn by converting his sole action point into 4 half-action points with Dragon Eye, casting Makakaja, then throwing Ziodynes and Bolt Storms around. He has no buffs other than Makakaja, no Dekaja, no Dekunda. This means he was dead before this fight even started. He also retains the weakness to Force that his playable version has, so the Trumpeter can get extra actions off him with Mazandyne. He starts doing Focused basic attacks when he almost runs out of HP, but it's nothing we haven't seen before.
Next is the western pillar.
Will you lower the pillar?
Are they blind, or what?
Koumoku: Let us find out if this battle is an ordeal, or divine retribution! Prepare yourself!
Koumoku is a bit trickier than Zouchou. He has Rakunda and Rakukaja, so we'll have to dispel those once in a while. Fortunately, there's no shortage of action points in this fight: he's weak to Electricity, and 3 of our demons have Maziodyne. At the beginning he sticks to Force attacks like Mazandyne and Wind Cutter, but then he starts mixing in Focused Deathbounds. Those hurt if you let him Rakunda you freely, but other than that it's another easy win.
Michael learns Tarukaja on the way to the next pillar. Endure (automatically revives a killed demon with 1 HP once per battle) is forgotten to make room for it.
The eastern pillar is the third one we're going to sink into the ground.
Will you lower the pillar?
They're doing it on purpose, aren't they?
Jikoku: If you plan on entering the shrine, you must defeat me! Now, let us fight!
Do they let anyone become a Heavenly King these days? As far as I can tell, Jikoku's cunning strategy starts and ends at casting Makakaja and throwing around Bufudynes, Mabufudynes and Glacial Blasts. I don't think I've ever seen him use a physical attack, let alone Focus. Oh, and he's weak to Fire.
Beelzebub learns Death Flies. No further comment is necessary, I believe.
The northern pillar is the last one left.
Will you lower the pillar?
Finally, a decent boss. He has two action points to work with. Bishamon's AI goes through two phases. In the first one, he can do three things:
1. Debilitate twice.
2. Cast Dragon Eye, Tarukaja four times, do a physical.
3. Cast Dragon Eye, Makakaja four times, drop a Megidolaon.
Bishamon also can work Dekaja into any course of attack available to him, in case you use any buffs. However, he doesn't have Dekunda, so the first thing to do here is to fully Debilitate him as fast as possible.
After that, the course of action is very straightforward: Reggie does Focused Freikugels, Beelzebub casts Dekunda if Debilitate was used and does Focused Hades Blasts otherwise, the Trumpeter casts Dekaja if Tarukaja or Makakaja was used and casts Mabufudyne otherwise (Bishamon is still weak to Ice), Michael heals.
In the second phase, Bishamon does less buffing (only 1 or 2 Tarukaja or Makakaja per turn) and more attacking. Having 3 Megidolaons or Tempests per turn come your way can be a bit terrifying at first, but if Bishamon's Debilitated then his accuracy rate is low, and he'll be missing all the time, running out of actions quickly. I guess you can also use Tetrakarn to turn the fight in your favor, but I didn't need to.
The flames look very inviting.
A short history lesson: Masakado actually existed. He was a feudal lord who lived in the 10th century. He led a rebellion against the imperial government and got his head cut off. The head was buried at the place that would later become Tokyo, and popular belief holds that the city only flourishes if sufficient respect is paid to the grave. Masakado's probably the closest thing Japan has to a patron saint of a city.
That's a good question. We had no idea who or what was in.
Not even Shijima could bring this much peace.
You obtained the Magatama Masakados.
Pfft, a Magatama. We had 24 of those anyway. How much better can this one possibly be?
Are you attempting to update this LP?
Anywayz, great update.
Also, I envy your ability to describe boss battles briefly and efficiently.
Anywayz, great update.
Also, I envy your ability to describe boss battles briefly and efficiently.
KalosKagathos
Learned
Update 31: The last one
We could fight the final boss with the current party. We would most likely win (I've done it on my previous playthrough with an even weaker party). However, the battle would take so long that I would probably fall asleep at some point. Thus, we'll need a way to accelerate things. First, Reggie grinds two more levels.
This allows us to fuse Metatron. Metatron is a special fusion. To get him you need to fuse Michael with any demon of the Divine race and sacrifice any Tyrant. We fuse Michael with a Throne and sacrifice Abaddon. Abaddon, in turn, is fused from Beiji-Weng (the Harlot + Decarabia) and Tao Tie (Decarabia + a Virtue).
Metatron is an excellent support demon. He has only three free skill slots for you to customize, but he has the most useful debuff and Tarukaja by default. Give him a healing spell, a way to replenish MP, and he's good to go.
Obviously, there are other demons who can perform the same combat duties just as well as Metatron. Why did we bother grinding until level 95? Because there's something only Metatron can do. Two demon doors in the Fifth Kalpa remain unopened.
Have Beelzebub step forward?
Yes.
Voice of the door: You have with you a mighty comrade... You may pass.
Only Beelzebub in the fly form can open this one. The humanoid Beelzebub doesn't cut it.
Inside are 10 bottles of Soma and 10 jars with Balm of Rising stashed in Mystical Chests. Balm is worthless, as we have an infinitely reusable resurrection item, but Soma is nice.
Have Metatron step forward?
Yes.
Voice of the door: You have with you a mighty comrade... You may pass.
This door asks for Metatron.
Inside is an empty room with a hole. We jump in it.
Below we see another demon door.
Voice of the door: We are the law here. We will only permit you to use us three times before you are forced to leave.
All rooms on this floor are connected with demon doors. After you open the fourth one you're teleported out. Don't worry, you can always try again.
Demon: But, now I'm lost. What to do...?
The Raja Naga tells us of the reward hidden in this small maze.
Shady Broker: ...I'll sell you something special. Interested? Here's what I'm selling... the strongest elephant you ever saw, with the power of a demon. In battle, he'll bust out attacks that'll crush any enemy! I'm asking 200000 Macca. I know it's kinda high, but it's well worth the price... So, you want it?
Alright, I'll buy it.
Shady Broker: Excellent choice!
You purchased a demon from the Shady Broker.
Excellent choice, indeed. This Girimehkala is the only way to give your demons the Pierce skill.
Time to get working on our final party. First, we transfer the Pierce skill to an elemental. This is accomplished by fusing Girimehkala with Long, then fusing the resulting Quetzalcoatl with a Nozuchi. The Aquans is registered in the Compendium.
Here's what we're going to need for the final battle:
1. A slow healer that will go last.
2. Two physical damage dealers with Pierce, Focus and a good attack skill.
All demons have to be immune to status effects, but other resistances don't matter much.
Metatron qualifies for the healer role, but the Trumpeter and Beelzebub don't fit the criteria I set for damage dealers and will have to be replaced. Fiends are the most obvious candidates for replacement, but only two of them can be fused on full Kagutsuchi (and get an XP boost from a sacrifice): Daisoujou and the Trumpeter. I failed to get Daisoujou to inherit any worthwhile physicals, and the Trumpeter starts with 5 skills, leaving almost no room for customization. With Fiends out of question, I settle on Futomimi and Mot. Laksmi and Sparna are also good options, and if you have easy access to passive skills that grant status effect immunities, you can use pretty much any demon you want, as long as it's boosted with sacrifice fusion and has the important skills.
We fuse the Aquans with an Aeros, making sure Pierce is inherited, fuse the Kusi Mitama we get with Mada, then fuse Mada with a Naga and sacrifice the Trumpeter. Because of the sacrifice, Futomimi is given a nice 22 levels boost.
I fail to get any buffs or Debilitate on him (got tired of re-rolling), which is unfortunate, but he will do.
Next is Mot. We get him by simply downgrading Beelzebub with an Aquans. His level is already pretty damn high, so no sacrifice is necessary. The last skill slot is occupied with Pierce by the means of Mitama fusion.
We still have around 400000 Macca left, and where we're going, we don't need Macca. Why not put it to good use and go nuts with Mitama fusion?
If you concentrate (moar liek Focus), you can hear the one who designed the fusion system quietly crying in a corner somewhere and cursing himself for what he's done.
Soul: If you want to see Kagutsuchi, you need to offer the three stones to it. The stones are proof of Reason, so each leader should be carrying them.
So the stones make the owner reason-proof? :rimshot:
We have the stones, so we should hurry to the highest floor.
Welcome to floor 666 (yes, really). Random encounters are disabled here, so you don't have to worry about reaching the final boss in a suboptimal shape. A small terminal is also here.
We must make use of the stones first.
Which stone will you offer?
Netherstone.
Which stone will you offer?
Earthstone.
You offered the Earthstone.
Which stone will you offer?
Heavenstone.
The last elevator is activated now.
Voice: Why have you been chosen...?
Voice: and those with Reasons came here to make their visions reality. Alas, their dreams were shattered, and the possibility of a new world has been crushed forever... by the hand of a demon.
Voice: With the cold heart of a demon, you rejected the possibility of evolution. By casting aside your humanity, you became the living incarnation of bane itself.
Voice: I shall never forgive you for causing the death of the world! My light, searing with anger, shall wipe you from existence!
BGM: Last Boss Battle ~Before Transformation~. Spoiler, lol.
The final opponent we'll face in this world is... a giant disco ball? Okaaay. Kagutsuchi has two action points, no Beast Eye, no Dragon. Let's have a short rundown of what it can do with them.
That's its basic attack. As far as I can tell, it deals Almighty damage and can't be dodged. Haven't seen it score a critical hit, but I'm not 100% sure that it can't.
Most of the time Kagutsuchi uses Ma-xxx-dyne spells. It has all four of them, which means that it can exploit Mot's weakness to Electricity. However, the Masakados Magatama nulls everything that isn't Almighty, so Kagutsuchi ends its turn whenever it thinks of using any AoE elemental attack. No extra actions for it.
I should point an important thing out now: the Kagutsuchi phase isn't static in this fight. It starts at new, regardless of when you took the elevator and changes by 2 points every turn. Kagutsuchi can also spend an action point on an ability called Phase Shift that changes the phase by 2 more points. This makes skills like Dark Might and Bright Might incredibly unreliable here. More importantly, when the phase is full, Kagutsuchi will unleash its most powerful attack: Vast Light.
Almighty damage to everyone, can't be dodged (at least I think it can't). It can be devastating if you haven't used Rakukaja and Debilitate previously, but it's rather harmless with those set up. Now we're getting to Kagutsuchi's most glaring weak point: it's a bloody idiot. It has both Dekaja and Dekunda, but it almost never bothers to actually use them.
It allows us to hit him for silly damage like this. Speaking of damage, Kagutsuchi has no resistances beyond the standard boss immunities. Both physical and magic damage work really well when improved with Tarukaja and Makakaja. Physical obviously works better because it can score critical hits.
Oh, and you may note that Futomimi's HP increased significantly. That's because he leveled up on the way here and got the Life Surge skill that boosted his health by 30%.
After taking around 20000 points of damage, which will be very, very quickly, Kagutsuchi transforms.
BGM: Last Boss Battle ~After Transformation~
Behold, Kagutsuchi's giant floating pixelated head form! Despite having about twice as much health as the disco ball did, this one dies even quicker, since all buffs and debuffs carry over from the previous stage, allowing you to hit it for loldamage from the very beginning.
Kagutsuchi starts by wasting its entire turn on saying this. This is a signal that doom is coming on the following turn.
The Almighty laser beam is called Infinite Light, and it does a ton of damage. If no defense buffs and damage debuffs are set, this is a total party kill, even on the normal difficulty. However, you're always given a turn to prepare for it, which makes the attack relatively harmless.
What happens next isn't how this fight is supposed to go at all. Kagutsuchi is supposed to start using Dragon Eye and get more aggressive with Dekaja, Dekunda and elemental attacks, only occasionally bringing out Infinite Light when its HP is reduced to specific thresholds. What happens in reality is that we damage it so fast that it sticks to Infinite Light exclusively, which translates to "Kagutsuchi wastes half of its turns on doing nothing but threatening". Debilitate and Rakukaja mean that it can't kill us in one turn, and Debilitate and Tarukaja mean that it's so busy spamming the worthless Infinite Light that it never gets to use Dekaja and Dekunda. Wonderful.
Kagutsuchi's second form is killed in 7 turns. 3 Infinite Lights is all it manages.
Voice: What good can come of this, when you are tainted black...? ...Be forewarned, demon who was once human. Though I may perish, your soul will never again be at ease.
Voice: You will not escape from the fire of judgment...
What, Fire of Sinai?
Voice: Let fear grip your heart! Because of your transgressions, you will be cursed for all eternity!
Mission accomplished.
Kagutsuchi remains fall from the skies, piercing the earth.
I wonder if destroying whatever is left of the world can be filed under collateral damage.
BGM: Power of Darkness
The world will never be born again. Creation is no longer possible.
grow, die, and be born again. That was the way of the world.
populated by mankind, and destroyed... This cycle is what maintains the flow of time; when the cycle stops, so does time. And now, time has met her death. In place of the creation of the new world, a new power of darkness emerged... reigning over chaos, heaping death upon death.
of where your strength will lead you.
and place a heavy burden of atonement on your shoulders, which you shall bear for all eternity.
for only by receiving that curse can you truly walk the path of conquest.
BGM: Last Battle
Exclusive to the true demon ending is a sparring match against our patron, Lucifer. Let's get this out of the way first: while Lucifer's HP pool is around 60000, just like Kagutsuchi's, he has something like 75% damage resistance to everything, including Almighty (bloody cheaters, Noah and him). You need Pierce to deal any serious damage to him. Regular Focused attacks will struggle to deal more than 1000 points of damage. That said, you don't really need Pierce on everyone. Just the main character will do. Frankly, you can do it without Pierce at all, but it will probably take roughly an hour of real time.
Note that the Kagutsuchi phase is "dead", meaning that neither Dark, nor Bright Might will work. At all.
Let's talk about Lucifer's attacks now. At first, he has Prominence, Glacial Blast and Megidola. These aren't a problem, as they'll miss all the time after Lucifer is debilitated and don't hurt all that much even if they do hit.
Perhaps the most dangerous is his... basic attack. It can't be dodged, deals loads Almighty damage and scores critical hits with disheartening frequency. Rakukaja and Debilitate as soon as possible.
Next is Evil Gleam. This attack is the first and main reason why you want your party to be immune to ailments. It has incredibly high chances of Charming everyone in the party. We don't want our overpowered demons slaughtering each other, do we?
That's all he has at first. Nothing too scary, and his slowness (2 action points, no Beast Eye, no Dragon Eye; critical hits are his only way to get extra actions) makes him even less dangerous.
He doesn't use Dekaja and Dekunda for now. We set up Tarukaja, Rakukaja and Debilitate, then follow this pattern. Reggie, Futomimi and Mot do Focused physicals, Metatron heals. Extra actions gained by critical hits (and with 3 physical attackers, there's no shortage of those) are spent on using Chakra Elixir and keeping Metatron full of MP.
Pierce, Tarukaja, Debilitate and Focus ensure that Lucifer takes quite a lot of damage.
Eventually his AI enters the second phase, in which Lucifer gains several new spells. First is High King, pictured above. Heavy Almighty damage to everyone, can't be dodged, can paralyze. This is the second, lesser reason why you want your party to be immune to status effects.
What's worse is that Lucifer will use Dekaja and Dekunda now. In fact, he does them so often that we stop using Tarukaja and stick to Rakukaja and Debilitate. Otherwise, we hardly get any hits in before the buffs are dispelled, and we have to start all over.
Finally, he enters the third phase. Here he gains Diarama (heals around 1000 points of damage, I think, but is rarely used), upgrades Megidola to Megidolaon and gets Root of Evil. What is Root of Evil?
This is Root of Evil. It targets all party members and can do one of the following:
1. Reduce HP by a random percentage (of the current HP, it can't kill).
2. Inflict a random status effect. That's what misses are. As it was the case with Samael's spell, Root of Evil is considered an Almighty attack, so ailments-immune demons never technically resist it. This is important because Lucifer doesn't lose an extra action when it fails to work on someone.
As you can tell, Root of Evil isn't dangerous by itself. What's dangerous is the follow-up attack. If Root of Evil reduces someone's HP by around 80%, Lucifer decides to do the basic attack on that demon, crits, then targets the same demon again and crits again, that demon is definitely dead. The good news is that he picks targets at random, so the probability of that is very low, but it's why you want to end this fight ASAP: the less opportunities he has, the better.
65535? Derp, I guess.
BGM: Supreme Ruler of the Dark
Glitchy hair and wings are glitchy. Sorry, PCSX2 doesn't handle rapid movement too well.
Uh, OK. By the way, what happened to Dante?
BGM: Staff Roll
And that's it.
We could fight the final boss with the current party. We would most likely win (I've done it on my previous playthrough with an even weaker party). However, the battle would take so long that I would probably fall asleep at some point. Thus, we'll need a way to accelerate things. First, Reggie grinds two more levels.
This allows us to fuse Metatron. Metatron is a special fusion. To get him you need to fuse Michael with any demon of the Divine race and sacrifice any Tyrant. We fuse Michael with a Throne and sacrifice Abaddon. Abaddon, in turn, is fused from Beiji-Weng (the Harlot + Decarabia) and Tao Tie (Decarabia + a Virtue).
Metatron is an excellent support demon. He has only three free skill slots for you to customize, but he has the most useful debuff and Tarukaja by default. Give him a healing spell, a way to replenish MP, and he's good to go.
Obviously, there are other demons who can perform the same combat duties just as well as Metatron. Why did we bother grinding until level 95? Because there's something only Metatron can do. Two demon doors in the Fifth Kalpa remain unopened.
Have Beelzebub step forward?
Voice of the door: You have with you a mighty comrade... You may pass.
Only Beelzebub in the fly form can open this one. The humanoid Beelzebub doesn't cut it.
Inside are 10 bottles of Soma and 10 jars with Balm of Rising stashed in Mystical Chests. Balm is worthless, as we have an infinitely reusable resurrection item, but Soma is nice.
Have Metatron step forward?
Voice of the door: You have with you a mighty comrade... You may pass.
This door asks for Metatron.
Inside is an empty room with a hole. We jump in it.
Below we see another demon door.
Voice of the door: We are the law here. We will only permit you to use us three times before you are forced to leave.
All rooms on this floor are connected with demon doors. After you open the fourth one you're teleported out. Don't worry, you can always try again.
Demon: But, now I'm lost. What to do...?
The Raja Naga tells us of the reward hidden in this small maze.
Shady Broker: ...I'll sell you something special. Interested? Here's what I'm selling... the strongest elephant you ever saw, with the power of a demon. In battle, he'll bust out attacks that'll crush any enemy! I'm asking 200000 Macca. I know it's kinda high, but it's well worth the price... So, you want it?
Shady Broker: Excellent choice!
You purchased a demon from the Shady Broker.
Excellent choice, indeed. This Girimehkala is the only way to give your demons the Pierce skill.
Time to get working on our final party. First, we transfer the Pierce skill to an elemental. This is accomplished by fusing Girimehkala with Long, then fusing the resulting Quetzalcoatl with a Nozuchi. The Aquans is registered in the Compendium.
Here's what we're going to need for the final battle:
1. A slow healer that will go last.
2. Two physical damage dealers with Pierce, Focus and a good attack skill.
All demons have to be immune to status effects, but other resistances don't matter much.
Metatron qualifies for the healer role, but the Trumpeter and Beelzebub don't fit the criteria I set for damage dealers and will have to be replaced. Fiends are the most obvious candidates for replacement, but only two of them can be fused on full Kagutsuchi (and get an XP boost from a sacrifice): Daisoujou and the Trumpeter. I failed to get Daisoujou to inherit any worthwhile physicals, and the Trumpeter starts with 5 skills, leaving almost no room for customization. With Fiends out of question, I settle on Futomimi and Mot. Laksmi and Sparna are also good options, and if you have easy access to passive skills that grant status effect immunities, you can use pretty much any demon you want, as long as it's boosted with sacrifice fusion and has the important skills.
We fuse the Aquans with an Aeros, making sure Pierce is inherited, fuse the Kusi Mitama we get with Mada, then fuse Mada with a Naga and sacrifice the Trumpeter. Because of the sacrifice, Futomimi is given a nice 22 levels boost.
I fail to get any buffs or Debilitate on him (got tired of re-rolling), which is unfortunate, but he will do.
Next is Mot. We get him by simply downgrading Beelzebub with an Aquans. His level is already pretty damn high, so no sacrifice is necessary. The last skill slot is occupied with Pierce by the means of Mitama fusion.
We still have around 400000 Macca left, and where we're going, we don't need Macca. Why not put it to good use and go nuts with Mitama fusion?
If you concentrate (moar liek Focus), you can hear the one who designed the fusion system quietly crying in a corner somewhere and cursing himself for what he's done.
Soul: If you want to see Kagutsuchi, you need to offer the three stones to it. The stones are proof of Reason, so each leader should be carrying them.
So the stones make the owner reason-proof? :rimshot:
We have the stones, so we should hurry to the highest floor.
Welcome to floor 666 (yes, really). Random encounters are disabled here, so you don't have to worry about reaching the final boss in a suboptimal shape. A small terminal is also here.
We must make use of the stones first.
Which stone will you offer?
Which stone will you offer?
You offered the Earthstone.
Which stone will you offer?
The last elevator is activated now.
Voice: Why have you been chosen...?
Voice: and those with Reasons came here to make their visions reality. Alas, their dreams were shattered, and the possibility of a new world has been crushed forever... by the hand of a demon.
Voice: With the cold heart of a demon, you rejected the possibility of evolution. By casting aside your humanity, you became the living incarnation of bane itself.
Voice: I shall never forgive you for causing the death of the world! My light, searing with anger, shall wipe you from existence!
BGM: Last Boss Battle ~Before Transformation~. Spoiler, lol.
The final opponent we'll face in this world is... a giant disco ball? Okaaay. Kagutsuchi has two action points, no Beast Eye, no Dragon. Let's have a short rundown of what it can do with them.
That's its basic attack. As far as I can tell, it deals Almighty damage and can't be dodged. Haven't seen it score a critical hit, but I'm not 100% sure that it can't.
Most of the time Kagutsuchi uses Ma-xxx-dyne spells. It has all four of them, which means that it can exploit Mot's weakness to Electricity. However, the Masakados Magatama nulls everything that isn't Almighty, so Kagutsuchi ends its turn whenever it thinks of using any AoE elemental attack. No extra actions for it.
I should point an important thing out now: the Kagutsuchi phase isn't static in this fight. It starts at new, regardless of when you took the elevator and changes by 2 points every turn. Kagutsuchi can also spend an action point on an ability called Phase Shift that changes the phase by 2 more points. This makes skills like Dark Might and Bright Might incredibly unreliable here. More importantly, when the phase is full, Kagutsuchi will unleash its most powerful attack: Vast Light.
Almighty damage to everyone, can't be dodged (at least I think it can't). It can be devastating if you haven't used Rakukaja and Debilitate previously, but it's rather harmless with those set up. Now we're getting to Kagutsuchi's most glaring weak point: it's a bloody idiot. It has both Dekaja and Dekunda, but it almost never bothers to actually use them.
It allows us to hit him for silly damage like this. Speaking of damage, Kagutsuchi has no resistances beyond the standard boss immunities. Both physical and magic damage work really well when improved with Tarukaja and Makakaja. Physical obviously works better because it can score critical hits.
Oh, and you may note that Futomimi's HP increased significantly. That's because he leveled up on the way here and got the Life Surge skill that boosted his health by 30%.
After taking around 20000 points of damage, which will be very, very quickly, Kagutsuchi transforms.
BGM: Last Boss Battle ~After Transformation~
Behold, Kagutsuchi's giant floating pixelated head form! Despite having about twice as much health as the disco ball did, this one dies even quicker, since all buffs and debuffs carry over from the previous stage, allowing you to hit it for loldamage from the very beginning.
Kagutsuchi starts by wasting its entire turn on saying this. This is a signal that doom is coming on the following turn.
The Almighty laser beam is called Infinite Light, and it does a ton of damage. If no defense buffs and damage debuffs are set, this is a total party kill, even on the normal difficulty. However, you're always given a turn to prepare for it, which makes the attack relatively harmless.
What happens next isn't how this fight is supposed to go at all. Kagutsuchi is supposed to start using Dragon Eye and get more aggressive with Dekaja, Dekunda and elemental attacks, only occasionally bringing out Infinite Light when its HP is reduced to specific thresholds. What happens in reality is that we damage it so fast that it sticks to Infinite Light exclusively, which translates to "Kagutsuchi wastes half of its turns on doing nothing but threatening". Debilitate and Rakukaja mean that it can't kill us in one turn, and Debilitate and Tarukaja mean that it's so busy spamming the worthless Infinite Light that it never gets to use Dekaja and Dekunda. Wonderful.
Kagutsuchi's second form is killed in 7 turns. 3 Infinite Lights is all it manages.
Voice: What good can come of this, when you are tainted black...? ...Be forewarned, demon who was once human. Though I may perish, your soul will never again be at ease.
Voice: You will not escape from the fire of judgment...
What, Fire of Sinai?
Voice: Let fear grip your heart! Because of your transgressions, you will be cursed for all eternity!
Mission accomplished.
Kagutsuchi remains fall from the skies, piercing the earth.
I wonder if destroying whatever is left of the world can be filed under collateral damage.
BGM: Power of Darkness
BGM: Last Battle
Exclusive to the true demon ending is a sparring match against our patron, Lucifer. Let's get this out of the way first: while Lucifer's HP pool is around 60000, just like Kagutsuchi's, he has something like 75% damage resistance to everything, including Almighty (bloody cheaters, Noah and him). You need Pierce to deal any serious damage to him. Regular Focused attacks will struggle to deal more than 1000 points of damage. That said, you don't really need Pierce on everyone. Just the main character will do. Frankly, you can do it without Pierce at all, but it will probably take roughly an hour of real time.
Note that the Kagutsuchi phase is "dead", meaning that neither Dark, nor Bright Might will work. At all.
Let's talk about Lucifer's attacks now. At first, he has Prominence, Glacial Blast and Megidola. These aren't a problem, as they'll miss all the time after Lucifer is debilitated and don't hurt all that much even if they do hit.
Perhaps the most dangerous is his... basic attack. It can't be dodged, deals loads Almighty damage and scores critical hits with disheartening frequency. Rakukaja and Debilitate as soon as possible.
Next is Evil Gleam. This attack is the first and main reason why you want your party to be immune to ailments. It has incredibly high chances of Charming everyone in the party. We don't want our overpowered demons slaughtering each other, do we?
That's all he has at first. Nothing too scary, and his slowness (2 action points, no Beast Eye, no Dragon Eye; critical hits are his only way to get extra actions) makes him even less dangerous.
He doesn't use Dekaja and Dekunda for now. We set up Tarukaja, Rakukaja and Debilitate, then follow this pattern. Reggie, Futomimi and Mot do Focused physicals, Metatron heals. Extra actions gained by critical hits (and with 3 physical attackers, there's no shortage of those) are spent on using Chakra Elixir and keeping Metatron full of MP.
Pierce, Tarukaja, Debilitate and Focus ensure that Lucifer takes quite a lot of damage.
Eventually his AI enters the second phase, in which Lucifer gains several new spells. First is High King, pictured above. Heavy Almighty damage to everyone, can't be dodged, can paralyze. This is the second, lesser reason why you want your party to be immune to status effects.
What's worse is that Lucifer will use Dekaja and Dekunda now. In fact, he does them so often that we stop using Tarukaja and stick to Rakukaja and Debilitate. Otherwise, we hardly get any hits in before the buffs are dispelled, and we have to start all over.
Finally, he enters the third phase. Here he gains Diarama (heals around 1000 points of damage, I think, but is rarely used), upgrades Megidola to Megidolaon and gets Root of Evil. What is Root of Evil?
This is Root of Evil. It targets all party members and can do one of the following:
1. Reduce HP by a random percentage (of the current HP, it can't kill).
2. Inflict a random status effect. That's what misses are. As it was the case with Samael's spell, Root of Evil is considered an Almighty attack, so ailments-immune demons never technically resist it. This is important because Lucifer doesn't lose an extra action when it fails to work on someone.
As you can tell, Root of Evil isn't dangerous by itself. What's dangerous is the follow-up attack. If Root of Evil reduces someone's HP by around 80%, Lucifer decides to do the basic attack on that demon, crits, then targets the same demon again and crits again, that demon is definitely dead. The good news is that he picks targets at random, so the probability of that is very low, but it's why you want to end this fight ASAP: the less opportunities he has, the better.
65535? Derp, I guess.
BGM: Supreme Ruler of the Dark
Glitchy hair and wings are glitchy. Sorry, PCSX2 doesn't handle rapid movement too well.
Uh, OK. By the way, what happened to Dante?
BGM: Staff Roll
And that's it.
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