Update 17: Third Kalpa
It is time to concentrate on the candelabra subplot again. If you kept track, we're still one candelabrum short for entering the next Kalpa. The third Horseman appears at the Shinjuku hospital after Aradia enters the Vortex World.
Soul: Now, there's a demon living in the annex even more frightening than Forneus! He looks like one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse! When will I ever feel at ease...?
To be more specific, he's in the room 204B.
No reason to panic. It's nothing we haven't seen before.
Will you stay here?
Yes.
Are you sure?
Yes.
When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!"
We exist... to watch o'er the candelabra...
I... the Black Rider... shall judge thee...
Instead of angels, Famine can call upon up to two Legions.
Legion is based on a New Testament story, in which Jesus exorcises multiple demons, all of whom were possessing the same man. Once exorcised, the demons possessed a herd of pigs, then drowned themselves. No, I don't really get it, either.
Anyhow, Legions can cast Makakaja, but they rarely do it, and it does little in this fight for reasons explain a bit later. Most of the time they use AoE physical attacks, like Tempest and Berserk. They also have Hell Gaze, a Death-based spell that can instantly kill any demon not immune to it. As far as I can tell, what makes it different from the Mudo line of spells is that its success depends on the target's evasion rate, rather than being a flat percentage. Tetraja still blocks it.
Legions are immune to Death, so the Stone Bite trick won't work here. Instead, Reggie can exploit their weakness to Electricity and use Shock to milk them for extra actions.
Here we have Soul Divide, a spell exclusive to the Black Rider and one that he likes to use quite a lot. It's a Curse-based attack that halves the HP of all enemies and has a chance of Muting them. The chances of Mute are quite low, by the way, the reason that both Reggie and Baihu got hit with it is that the dice hated me.
Things to note about Soul Divide:
1. Its damage unaffected by buffs and debuffs, it's always half of the current HP.
2. It can't kill anyone.
3. Daisoujou drains it, ending the Rider's turn.
4. Daisoujou can immediately use Prayer to remove everything it's done: both damage and the status effect.
As you can tell, it's far less scary than it may appear to be at first, which is why we didn't bother equipping the Curse-nulling Djed Magatama on Reggie and instead went for Ice-immune Miasma. You see, the Rider's other favorite spell is Glacial Blast. This can kill you, and if you get lazy and stop removing Makakaja with Hell Exhaust or don't bother casting War Cry at the beginning, it probably will.
Final note: Neither Famine, nor Legions have Dekunda or Dekaja.
So here's the plan: over the first several turns, War Cry, Fog Breath, Rakunda, Rakukaja and Makakaja are set up. When needed, the Biker removes the enemy's Makakaja, and Reggie keeps Tetraja running: we don't want to get a game over just because the protagonist is killed by a stray Hell Gaze. After that's done, the Hell Biker and Baihu do Focused physicals, Reggie spams Shock, Daisoujou drains the Rider's MP with Meditation and spends it on Prayers. Much easier than the previous two Riders.
The last one we need.
Reggie hits level 52. Tornado that has served us so well for more than 30 levels is replaced with Glacial Blast. Same damage, but it also can freeze enemies. Level 52 is great for another reason as well: now we can fuse the White Rider.
To get the White Rider you have to fuse any Yoma on new Kagutsuchi. First, we fuse Kushinada from Daisoujou and a Fomor, then fuse her with a Kelpie.
Haha! I am the Fiend White Rider! Behold my overflowing power!
God's Bow is all the reason you need to want this demon in your party: if it's not immune to Expel, it's dead. Can't be dodged. The cost is 20MP, which is high for a single target spell, but its extreme reliability makes it worth it.
We fuse an Aquans from Isora and a Karasu Tengu, then fuse it with an Erthys we grab at Rag's. We get Ara Mitama.
Ara Mitama is another aspect of the human soul. It embodies feelings and emotions like courage, anger and
BURNING PASSION of shonen protagonists.
We use it to transfer a couple of buffs to the White Rider.
We get another Erthys from Rag's, use it to upgrade an Oni, then fuse the resulting Ikusa with Baihu.
The name Dakini can refer to two types of mythological beings. In Hinduism, they're vampiric servants of Kali who can turn people insane, drain babies of their blood and generally make your life hell. In Buddhism, they embody female intuition and wisdom. Quite a jump, I know. The Nocturne version has touches of both: the skill set is based on the Hindu version, but the look has a lot of Tibetan motifs.
Of skills of note, they have Dismal Tune, which is Soul Divide's little brother: it deals moderate Curse damage to all enemies and can Mute them. The Dakini's Magic score is poor, preventing her from dealing any major damage with this spell, but few demons resist Curse, so it's a reliable option.
The Dakini is further improved with a Nigi Mitama we get by buying an Aeros at Rag's, then fusing it with Erthys born of a fusion of a Kodama summoned from the Compendium and a Hua Po.
Well, that certainly was a lot of fusion. Now that we're prepared, the Labyrinth of Amala awaits.
We make our way through the entire Second Kalpa again to the place where we first met the Riders.
Will you light the Candelabrum of Compassion?
Yes.
Will you light the Candelabrum of Wisdom?
Yes.
Will you light the Candelabrum of Insight?
Yes.
Unlocking the Third Kalpa gives us another shortcut back to the Labyrinth's entrance.
This is the first thing you see after entering the Kalpa proper. The look of the Third Kalpa always reminded me of tombs, and those twisty shadows you can see on the walls look a bit like blood vessels, which creeps me out a little. The Third Kalpa is one of my favorites, as it has three separate routes, all leading to the final confrontation. Yes, you read that right, this Kalpa and all that will follow after have a boss at the end. There are several rooms before the branching point, though, so let's cover them first.
Soul: Life or death... You must choose... even if choice defies reason. I can see it. Your inclination is taking form... Would you like to know why your soul wavers?
Tell me.
Soul: Imagine that you're in a desert... A turtle walks up to you. You flip the turtle over, leaving it on its back. It struggles to right itself, but to no avail. For what reason did you flip the turtle? You did so because of the distress in your heart. The helpless turtle is you! If you look at things upside-down, of course they will appear inverted. Forget your worries and move on.
I was mistaken.
This must be the key to understanding RPGCodex.
Soul: where death conquers death, and fire lights the darkness... The words of the beginning shall be spoken. ...We all await those words." ............I heard that from a demon in the Labyrinth. I wonder what it means...
At least this has something to do with the plot.
Demons encountered near the entrance to the the Kalpa include Beriths, Virtues, Trolls and Setantas. We have two newcomers as well.
The glowing humanoid is Amaterasu, the head of the Shinto pantheon and a sun goddess. The Japanese imperial lineage was said to go back to her. I won't be posting any concept art of her, as she's just a reskin of Okuninushi, minus the sword, put on fire. When we encounter one, you'll get the art.
The three-legged raven is Yatagarasu, a heavenly herald in the Shinto mythology.
This is where the Kalpa branches.
Demon: Dude, forget it. Only someone strong like me can go in there! A puny wimp like you won't be able to get in. There are more doors like it inside... Even I can't get through some of them! If you wanna get in, you better build some muscle. Right now, you're just a little girlie-man.
As Hanuman, the heroic ape king from Ramayana, tells us, golden doors like the one in the screenshot can only be opened if your stats are high enough. Doors on the western side of the Kalpa require Strength, which isn't one of our character's best points. Bonuses granted by Magatama count, but even they aren't enough to gain entry. We'll have to return here several updates later.
Soul: The door up ahead will test your luck. If you're unlucky, you won't even be able to set foot inside the room. Even if you do manage to get in, there's no telling where you'll end up... So, tell me... Are you feelin' lucky?
A Dirty Harry reference? Anyway, we do. The doors on the northern side require high Luck, and we have no problems with that. Before we go through, let's also try the eastern side.
Soul: You need a certain amount of strength, luck or magic to enter each door. The door up ahead is one of them. If you're going in, you better be prepared.
It can be figured out that the eastern doors require Magic. Like Strength, ours just isn't good enough, so we'll have to return here later as well. Sorry if the update feels incomplete as a result, but stat points aren't infinite.
We equip Nirvana because of its hefty +8 bonus to Luck to help us with the northern doors.
Will you try to open it?
Yes.
Voice of the door: Your luck is worthy of praise! You may pass.
Just like that, we're in. There are more stat-locked doors in this section, but our Luck is high enough to open all of them, so I won't be paying them much attention from now on. What I'd like to point out is that this place can be a bit confusing to navigate: there are teleporters, doors that can only be opened from one side and Luck doors that act like teleporters, rather than actual doors.
This one, for example, leads...
...here. Yeah. As a result, you can't just blindly rely on the auto-map, but it's not something you can't get used to.
A lot of really nice loot is spread around. In addition to this Deathstone, there are 3 Mystical Chests with a Strength Incense, a Magic Incense and a Great Chakra inside.
A Burial Chamber is also here, but the only tomb working currently is Ongyo-ki's.
Enemy demons encountered around vary greatly and range from lowly Pretas to Loki. In between we have Kaiwans, Momunofu, Kelpies, Pisaca, Nagas, Fomors, Arahabaki and Decarabia.
Loa make their first appearance.
In Voodoo, Loa are spirits who facilitate communication between humans and gods.
Here we have Sparna.
Sparna is another name for Garuda, Vishnu's mount in Hinduism. In fact, you can evolve Garuda out of it, but we won't be doing that in this LP.
A ladder is behind one of the Luck doors.
Below we have this door, which refuses to open. I guess it's time to explain alignments.
You can see Magatama of 3 colors. Dark blue Magatama are dark-aligned, light blue Magatama are light-aligned, green Magatama are neutral-aligned. Circled Magatama are the ones that have no more skills to teach. These mastered Magatama are the ones that determine the main character's alignment. Reggie mastered 2 light Magatama and 1 neutral Magatama, which makes him light-aligned, hence the door's refusal to let him pass.
There are 2 more doors like this in the Third Kalpa. The one in the Strength area only yields to dark-aligned characters, and the one in the Magic area can only be opened by light-aligned characters. Because of Reggie's stats, we won't be opening any in this update. Again, sorry.
Alignment also determines Reggie's race, visible left to his name. He starts out as a Fiend, then it changes as he masters Magatama.
Other than the protagonist's title and these 3 doors, alignment has absolutely no effect on the game, which is why I haven't bothered mentioning it until now.
The tunnels on the B1 floor lead us to this hall. This is where all 3 routes come together. One of the rooms in the middle has a ladder leading back to the entrance to the Kalpa, the other has a ladder leading further down.
Further south is this door. The key to it can't be obtained until we finish the Fourth Kalpa.
Another new demon can be encountered on this floor.
It's Oberon, the fairy king, familiar to most thanks to A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Demon: I saw an awesome dude with guns and a great sword mowing down demons, hee ho! It was terrifying!
No prizes for guessing who the awesome dude is. He awaits us a floor below, but before we face him, I'd like to summon the Red Rider, which means grinding a couple of levels. We wouldn't have to do this if we could explore the other parts of this Kalpa, but alas.
On level 54, Mana Drain can finally be discarded in favor of Mana Refill.
This also marks the third light-aligned Magatama Reggie mastered, changing his title to Zealot.
On level 55, Rakunda is replaced with Tarukaja. The Red Rider can be summoned now.
To summon him you have to fuse a Fairy on new Kagutsuchi.
We fuse a Unicorn from a Nekomata and an Angel, fuse it with a Pyro Jack into Sarasvati, then fuse Sarasvati with the Dakini. The whole point of it was to get him to inherit Unicorn's Rakukaja, but after 30 minutes of re-rolls, I settle for Rakunda.
I am the Fiend Red Rider. Time for another war, eh?
Well, not quite. We buy a Kusi Mitama at Rag's.
Kusi Mitama embodies wisdom and insight.
It's used to teach War Sukukaja.
We fuse the Hell Biker with a Mizuchi into an Ikusa, which in turn is upgraded with an Erthys summoned from the Compendium to a Shiki-Ouji. This time around, Rakukaja stays.
A Shiki-Ouji is a more powerful and badass version of a Shikigami. They're so hard that they are immune to physical damage. Not bad for animated paper, huh?
We then get a Flaemis at Rag's, summon another Erthys, fuse them into another Kusi Mitama and upgrade the Shiki-Ouji with it. Sukukaja and Mana Refill are always handy.
With all this firepower we return to the Third Kalpa.
It's definitely him.
White hair.
Walk of a fashion model.
Dramatic pose.
Nonchalant attitude.
I had a feeling that I'd see you again.
Cocky smile.
That old geezer intends for the Fiends to kill each other off...
Vocabulary of a teenager.
Why? Who knows...? But, you're not dumb enough to play into his hand, are you? Then, get out of here. ...And don't look back. That's your only option. ...Am I right, kid?
It's Dante, everyone's favorite walking action movie cliche.
And I hate to admit it, but his words make sense. The old gentleman is obviously up to no good, doesn't tell us everything, and there's absolutely no in-character reason for Reginald to waste time on him when there's all that crap going on back home. With that said...
No way.
I promised to show as much content as possible, didn't I?
Okay. Take one step beyond this point, and...
To prevent "lol, Dante cannot into aiming!" jokes, he raises the handgun when he says "Bang!" to mimic a gunshot.
Let's rock!
Hell yeah, a boss fight!
Wait, what? How did he get past us? Whatever, the next Kalpa should be behind that door.
Trust us, we won't.
Where's he? Where should we...
WHAT?! He's attacking without entering the combat mode? Screw this, we're running away from this cheater.
The column to the left of the entrance can be used to circle around Dante and get to the tunnel from which he came without bumping into him. He'll follow you around the column and leave the way open.
A door is just around the corner. By the way, if Dante reaches us, we fight. After several turns he runs away, and Reggie is booted back at the beginning of the current section. Yes, current section. There are 3 of them.
To get past here, you need to turn on all the switches first. Alright, I'm gonna count to three. That's how long you've got to come up with a plan.
Time for round 2.
Dante gives you a little time before he follows you through the door. How nice of him.
This part is difficult to reflect with screenshots, so I'll explain it using the auto-map.
The exit is at the north. Before it opens we have to activate 2 switches. They're shown with 2 exclamation marks near the center. Exclamation marks at the south-western and the north-eastern corners are teleporters, connected to each other, that Dante can't use for some reason. We start at the south-eastern door. First thing we do, we run forward, open the door to the right, then run inside the room with the southern switch. We activate it. As we leave the small room, Dante enters through the northern door, so we can't activate the northern switch immediately without starting a fight with him. Instead we run out of the southern door, use the south-western teleporter, enter the northern door, activate the second switch.
After both switches are activated, Dante will guard the exit. We approach him, get his attention, then run all the way to the south-western teleporter again. Since he can't use it, we have more time to reach the exit from the north-eastern teleporter than he does from the south-western one.
Phew.
This part is even easier because Dante isn't following you all the time. The exit is at the center. The switches are in 3 rooms, one to the west, one to the north, one to the east. When you activate a switch, Dante will attempt to catch you on your way out of the room by entering it from the opposite side. You have to use columns found in those rooms to run around him, much like we did in the first part of this encounter with Dante. The only trick is that some parts of the rooms are blocked with glass that doesn't show up on the auto-map, but it's still the same puzzle at heart, and as long as you don't hit a switch, you have all the time in the world to study the room it's located in. Dante won't chase you until you activate a switch. He will deactivate all activated switches if he catches you this time, though. After all 3 are turned on, he'll be guarding the exit again, and you'll have to use the exact same teleporter trick to get past him.
Double phew. The B4 floor is completely safe. No Dante chasing you around, no random encounters, Dr. Dark for healing, if you need it.
Soul: If you are, you better be ready. I saw a guy with guns and a huge sword walk in not long ago.
WHAT?! How did he get past us again? How did he get inside the Third Kalpa in the first place, anyway? Last I checked you needed candelabra for it.
It's quiet. Too quiet.
...You're wrong, pal. Checkmate!
Kick your smug ass as hard as possible, now that the game allows us. And love every single moment of it.
To start with, Dante has a new attack: Bullet-Time.
Dante fires Ebony and Ivory in all directions...
...not all of which have our demons in them...
...then strikes an improbable action hero pose. It deals moderate physical damage to everyone and can cause Panic. The Shiki-Ouji nulls it, gods bless it, allowing us to heal the damage immediately. Dante still has his old attacks, like E&I and Rebellion, but Bullet-Time is the one he uses the most.
The important thing to realize is that Dante still hasn't bothered to learn Dekaja, so setting up Tarukaja, Sukukaja and especially Rakukaja should take priority. The Holy Star trick still works, to an extent: he doesn't always remove debuffs immediately, but it's still high on his priority list. There's not much point to it this time, though: he only has 2 action points, and both are lost when the Shiki-Ouji nulls his attack.
When buffs are running, you can start doing Focused attacks on him.
Terrorblade is especially effective, as it often hits twice, dealing more than 2000 points of damage in total.
I'm glad. Otherwise, it wouldn't be any fun!
A third of his HP later, he gets serious and starts using elemental attacks.
This is Whirlwind; heavy Force damage to everyone. Nulled by the Red Rider. He can also use Roundtrip here, AFAIK, which deals heavy Electricity damage to everyone, but he doesn't get to use it on us because over the next turn we reduce his HP by another third. It would be nulled by War, anyway.
But, playtime's over. Let me show you how grown-ups fight!
His confident stance makes it sound like a real threat.
Anyway, this is the last card he has up his sleeve: Showtime.
He does a launcher with Rebellion (that fails to launch anyone but him)...
...fires Ebony and Ivory in mid-air...
...then does a downward slash with Rebellion. The result is heavy Almighty damage to all enemies, except it's not all that heavy after 4 Rakukaja spells.
Should have done the Killer Bee loop instead, noob.
BGM:
Parting
Uh-oh, he's smiling.
Sorry for the emulation glitch.
And for this one.
We forgot the most important thing about Dante: when a cut scene starts, he becomes invincible.
Well, it's been a pleasure, guys. I'm thinking of LPing DDS or Raidou games next...
Just messing with you.
then I'll be giving my client exactly what he wants. And that just won't do.
I thought that if I kept on collecting stuff like this, eventually I'd hit the jackpot.
Half the time, I have no idea what he's saying.
But, plans change. Maybe you'll have better luck than I did trying to get to the bottom of all this. It'd be a shame for you to die now, so I'll give you a little help...
At this point, all I care about is what that old geezer has up his sleeve. Here, take it.
You obtained the Candelabrum of Knowledge.
The way's finally clear.
A floor below, a welcome sight.
Will you look through it?
Yes.
The demon inside you will continue to be your source of strength during your quest.
They pray, wishing for greater power...
Let me tell you about that god...
She is from a Vortex World beyond the boundaries of this world.
there exist countless Vortex Worlds. One of these worlds is where Aradia originated.
this Vortex World was made by the true power of creation.
and that is the Vortex World where Aradia once resided. Those who dwell there wish for one thing: for their existence to become real... To find the means they depart into the ocean of Amala and seek out worlds that hold the power of creation.
She emerged in response to the cries of witches who were persecuted for their beliefs. The witches prayed to Aradia for power and freedom... They also prayed for people to be saved from the hardships of life. However, Aradia never showed herself on earth, nor did she save anyone. She was a god who could only give hope to her believers.
Anything is possible in the vast ocean of Amala.
There is little that she can do in a Vortex World where her existence is forbidden. She is merely the god of forsaken freedom...
You have heard the voice of the Absolute One, too. But, please know this... In the everlasting flow of Amala, we have long waited for you... for this time to come.
the new demon of chaos, whom all are waiting for in anticipation, and the final moment that my master awaits...
...You must be overwhelmed by it all. Reginald... If you can restore the candelabra to their original places and come here once again, then at that time... I will tell you the answers to all of your questions.
Only two left.
Jump in?
Yes.
One mini-game later...
4 candelabra are needed to enter the Third Kalpa, three if you don't count the one Dante gave us.
In the next update, we'll do our first special fusion and be introduced to the third and last Reason. Several optional bosses should be appearing around now, but I'm not sure if they'll make it in.