Five years ago, the 'Urban Modernisation Project' turned Amami city from a sleepy country town into an all new cyber-metropolis, a city connected with it's own online network. Every home has been provided with a free PC and access to the net, public terminals dot the streets, and as vice-minister Nishi puts it, the people of this city are the most technologically advanced in the world.
Now, the populace are eagerly anticipating the launch of Paradigm X, a virtual city developed by Algon Soft. So highly anticipated is the launch that the company serves have been flooded with beta entry requests, to such a degree that Algon Soft can't disable them. The odds of getting selected for the beta is about the chance of finding a needle in a hay stack.
Fortunately, I'm not just anyone. I'm a member of the great hacker group, the Spookies, and I'm getting into Paradigm X. Partly because I want to, partly because my girlfriend, Hitomi, goaded me into it. But mostly the first part.
I'm Saul Ackerman. Handle: Hackerman. And this is a Soul Hackers Let's Play.
Let's hack the planet.
===
Wow, if you guys sat through the above, then you're really committed to this, huh? Guess there really is no accounting for taste.
Hey there! I've kinda wanted to do a Let' Play style thing for a while now, and after considering my options, I decided to go with this one; it'll probably crash and burn quickly enough that I can bury it and move on with my life, but hopefully you guy's will enjoy the car crash while it happens in real-time. Don't expect frequent updates; I tend to be fairly sporadic in activity, and pretty slow at typing.
I'm doing a fantastic job at selling myself, aren't I?
Anyway, what is this exactly? Well, this is a text-based Let's Play of Soul Hackers for the 3DS. As you're probably aware, the Nintendo 3DS store recently closed it's shutters for good. Well, I happened to have enough credits left over that I could squeeze one more game out of that rock, and I decided to go with Soul Hackers. Was my decision motivated by the fact it was one of the few games that were on sale and which I could therefore afford?
Yes. Yes, it was.
But it was also motivated a little by the fact it's a part of the greater Shin Megami Tensei series. The extent of my history with that series is "I have a friend who likes Persona" but I've been kinda curious about it for a while, so I thought a blind LP of a different part of the franchise might be entertaining for long-time fans.
Now, as for Soul Hackers itself... as I understand it, the 3DS game is actually a port of a game that was made for the Sega Saturn. And, while I referenced SMT above, I believe this is actually a sequel to SMT's spin-off franchise, Devil Summoners (hence the full game title being 'Devil Summoners: Soul Hackers).
So, I'm playing a port of a sequel of a sub-series of a franchise I'm aware of through the proxy of "I know a guy".
Did I say car crash before? This is gonna be a train wreck.
After the title menu, we get an introduction which I abridged at the start of this; a short text crawl explaining how Amami City (which it turns out is a real place!) has been turned into the shiny cyber-city of the future, followed by a news report hyping up Paradigm X. Given the background behind the broadcaster says 'Paradigm News X', I suspect this might be less of a news outlet, and more of a propaganda tool masquerading as news to hype up the populace to buy the latest product. If so, they've done their job too well, since the number of people signing up for the beta test of Paradigm X means that Algon Soft (the company responsible for Paradigm X, and probably secretly-evil) can't shut the site down. The public launch is an indeterminate amount of time in the future, but honestly, if the company is struggling with beta test registrations, I'm not convinced they'll be able to handle it when the game/city goes live.
Still, that's a them problem. The me problem is figuring out how to get myself onto the VIP list. Luckily, my partner in crime and girlfriend, Hitomi is here to help.
Well. I say "help". What she actually does in lead us to a terminal, which seems to be a computer equivalent of a phone booth in the middle of the street, and say that, as a member of the great hacker group the Spookies, I should at least be able to get into Algon Soft's server using the information our boss has given us and overwrite one of the winning names and entries with my own. In other words, this is almost entirely her plan, and I just happen to be the one doing the actual work.
She's right, by the way. I am totally able to get into the winners server list, pull a name out at random, and swap that entry for my own name and handle. While I wait for a message to drop into my inbox congratulating me on having won the draw and legitimately-getting-into Paradigm X, however, Hitomi notices something... on the screen?
She says it's on the screen, but the dialogue is voiced. So, I'm not sure if this is meant to be video chat, or if the game just didn't want to hide this characters identity for later. Either way, the disembodied voice that may or may not be floating out of the computer screen is only marginally more concerning than the fact that they describe me as the "Bearer of a strong soul" and declares that "We meet at last". According to computer voice, they are called Kinap. Also, I'm in danger, the authorities are on their way, and I should bail before they get here. Having delivered his warning of the incoming swat, Kinap disappears, promising that we'll meet again in the future.
Well, as a 1337 hacker, I'm pretty used to people warning me that the cops are going to show up any second now because I broke into something I shouldn't have. Panic-Backwards knowing my name (as in, my name, not my handle) was a little weird, but before we can ponder the situation, I get a call on my phone from my little sister, who asks me to come home because some super exciting happened. Hitomi wonders whether "your hack has taken effect" which... first off, Hitomi, I don't think that's how it works? I went in and changed stuff. You were there, you saw it happen, there's no time delay on it. Second, considering we were expecting an email to go to my home computer (but also that it wouldn't have been sent to the winners already for some reason?)... yeah, I'm pretty sure I can figure out what news Tomoko has for me.
Let the record show I'm going home so I can play video games, and not because I'm scared of the cops showing up at any second, okay?
Anyway, back to my place, where we get to meet the rest of the Ackerman family. There's Dad (a hard wording salaryman who is interested in new things) Mom (a kind, yet stern woman who doesn't understand modern technology) and Tomoko (our little sister). Tomoko Ackerman.
... You know, I picked the name 'Saul Ackerman' as a joke, cause it sounded kinda like Soul Hackers while still being a name, but 'Tomoko Ackerman' might be a little immersion breaking. Until I get evidence to the contrary, I'm going to assume this is dad's second marriage, and that's why the siblings are Saul and Tomoko.
Oh, and this is where we're introduced to the games first major plot twist: Tomoko looks like a human being. This is a JRPG where the character design has an anime aesthetic, and her dialogue paints her as being highly excitable and low-key irresponsible by playing video games instead of studying, so I figured there was a decent chance she'd be about three feet tail, pigtails and really ramping up the moe factor. Instead, she... looks fairly realistic. I'm actually kind of impressed, game.
This is a pretty generic family dynamic, but honestly, it matches my real life family dynamics enough that I'm cool with it. One tidnit of information we get concerns Hitomi's father, who is currently out of the country. Mom makes it sound like this is a regular occurence, and Hitomi mentions that this time he's off researching the Pyramids. This raises so many questions about what Hitomi's family life is like and what her dad does, and I hope we get answers, but I suspect it's just convenience to get him out of the plot so we don't have to worry about her parents on top of our own. Either way, I'm gonna assume that Hitomi is a distant relative of the Moto family, and that after Soul Hackers, she goes on to become the Queen of Games.
Our family likes Hitomi, though. Mom offers to let her eat dinner with us any time she wants, and when she suggests we go to my room to play Paradigm X, no one bats an eyelash that that might be code for something else and just let us go.
In my room, we completely ignore Kinap's warning and instead focus on the fact we hacked a major corporation to get access to a digital marketspace, with Hitomi saying that we probably shouldn't have done that but we quickly brush that aside and get ready to play Paradigm X instead.
Also, Hitomi? It was your idea to hack Algon Soft, so for the record, if I'm going down, I'm taking you with me. You don't get to plead innocence at this point, we're in this together.
Anyway, let's play Paradigm X!... is what we would say, except we've got another email on our computer. This one is a random garbage string of numbers and symbols, but Hitomi points out what it's from the leader of the Spookies, Spooky. (His real name, as we'll discover is Masahiro Sakurai, but everyone also calls him Leader.) We run the email through the decryption tool, and the garbage email decodes to a message saying that he's moved the base to South Parking Garage in Shibahama, and everyone has to gather there. So, Paradigm X has to wait, as we leave to mee tup with our boss.
Leaving our home causes the world map to open up, and I mean map pretty literally. We're given an overview of the area, with a number of dots wandering around. Green dots are NPC's, who we can interact with, while the blue dot is us; we wander along the roads to get to certain buildings that we can enter on the map, or we exit the map to move to another area. At the moment, basically none of the buildings are usable, and the NPC's just give us some filler dialogue... though we do run into one guy who complains that he was supposed to get into the beta test of Paradigm X but he still hasn't been sent the invite. That's actually led to his girlfriend breaking up with him because they can't hang out together in the virtual city, and honestly, I don't feel at all bad for breaking this couple up. If she dumped him for that petty a reason, I'm pretty sure she was just looking for an excuse to break-up with him.
As opposed to Hitomi and myself, who are tied together through trust, love, and having dirt on one another's criminal enterprises.
We exit the opening area (Akanedai) and head to Shibahama, which has slightly more things to do... or, it will when we get access to them. Right now, there are a number of shops (who decline our patronage for various reasons), and a cruise ship. If we try to board the cruise ship, a maid tells us where to go and we have to leave. There are a couple more NPC',s but again, it's mostly just extra dialogue right now; people talking about Paradigm X, about how many people tried to get in and didn't, how amazing Amami City is... general, world building stuff.
So, with no other options available to us, we follow the rails and arrive at the South Parking Garage. In fact, we're the first to arrive at the Parking Garage, since none of the other Spookies have arrived yet. More importantly, despite sending the email and telling us to assemble like a cyber Steve Rogers, Spooky himself hasn't even shown up, which I personally think is kinda rude. I dropped shit to be here, man, where the heck are you?
Well... to be fair, I guess we only just beat him here, since Spooky then arrives. Now, when he said he was moving the secret base, I assumed he meant he was going to be moving where we were meeting at, or taking equipment that hackers use (servers, I guess?) and loading them into something and setting them up at a new location. And I guess I was half-right? But also half-wrong, because Spooky apparently decided that rather than just haul equipment around and set it up wherever, the secret base should be mobile, because he shows up in a van. Also it has our group logo stamped on the side of it wait what.
SPOOKY. WHAT. THIS IS A SECRET BASE, WHY ARE YOU DRIVING AROUND WITH OUR HACKER LOGO ON THE SIDE OF A BUS.
ALSO, WHY DID YOU MAKE IT SOUND LIKE IT WAS A BIG IDEA YOU WERE MOVING THE BUS, IT'S A BUS. IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE MOVED.
I suspect Spooky might have his position based upon how cool he looks. Anyway, even though Hitomi and I are the only one's who showed up (and honestly, I'm not sure if Hitomi is *really* a member of this group, so it might just be me and my girlfriend who showed), Spooky decides to get straight to the point about why he moved the base and summoned us, and just fill the others in later. Taking us inside the Spookmobile, he shows us a weird bit of tech he recently came into possession of. Upon seeing it, Hitomi is shocked since it looks like a gun. Spooky unlatches part of it, causing the sides to flip up; on the right hand side is a screen, and on the left is... a keyboard, but one with what appear to be norse runes rather than the alphabet. Since it looks like a gun, and he has no other leads, Spooky has decided to call this contraption a "gun-type PC", a turn of phrase which really does show that this game was made in the 90's.
Ever since coming into possession of the gun-type PC, Spooky has had a feeling that suspicious folks have been following him, so he decided to move the base, just in case. He's going to head to the junk store he got it from and get some information about it, so he can figure out what this gun is and why people are following him, so he wants us to stay and keep an eye on things.
Hitomi put's it as "he called us just so we could babysit the trailer for him", but that's not true. He also wants us to babysit a gun. After he leaves, we poke around it a little bit, and... well, it's broken, so we can't do anything with it.
So, since two teenagers have been left alone and unsupervised in a high-tech hacker base, they do what any boy- and girlfriend would do.
Paradigm X, here we come.
===
So, aside from sarcasm and jokes, what do I think? I like it do far, but then, it's hard to form any kind of meaningful opinion; this whole section is esentially a giant cut scene, where my interaction as a player is limited to choosing my name(s), and some dialogue choices which don't seem to actually change of effect anything; I can describe Hitomi and calm, upbeat or sexy to Spooky, but it doesn't seem to have adjusted anything narratively. I know most SMT games have an alignment system, but I don't (think?) that was included in Soul Hackers, so so far as I know, picking other choices is just a flavor thing, rather than locking endings.
Aesthetically, I do like it so far. I dig the art style, which feels like a late 80's/90's anime, without the gloss that I find anime from the 2000's has; there is a bit of grit and grain to the art, if that makes sense. And honestly, my immediate reaction was to joke about how the super advanced sci-fi future is depicted as 'everyone has the internet'... but honestly, that would be kind of cool. It's advanced in a very low-key, actually-sorta-obtainable sense, and given how important internet infrastructure is to modern life, is the kind of thing I can see happening and that would actually be a benefit to society. Also, I had a moment of self-realisation when I was about to joke about that being unimpressive before I realized that it was still something that we don't have in the real world.
So, yeah, nice opening to the game, but next time will be diving into some actual gameplay. Sort of. There's another cut-scene esque section to get through, but THEN. Gameplay.
Man, I didn't know that all this time we already had the next evolution of the gunblade. That way, the next time authorities are closing in on your hacking, you won't have to run away and instead can just drive them off by revealing that for your neutral special, you wield a gun. I should have expected nothing else from Masahiro Sakurai.
Hm, didn't know that. To pull back the curtain on kayfabe, since I was... indisposed for a while, I have played a bit further ahead than this. That being said, this is also my first playthrough, so I'm going to say up-front that I will totally miss all that kind of stuff - feel free to chime in with anything that I miss.
Anyway, my extended hiatus behind me, Galaxia-sama has logged into Sufficent Velocity, so it's time for Saul Ackerman to log into Paradigm X.
When we do, we're brought to a reception area, and greeted by a video of a... receptionist/secretary/woman/AI? This is going to be a recurring trend in Paradigm X, where I'm not sure if the canned dialogue of the NPC characters is supposed to indicate that they are AI interfaces for the services they provide, or if they are real people doing a job. In this case, given the vaguely stilted nature of Non-Name Receptionist's dialogue and delivery, I'm leaning towards her being an AI construct. Since this is our first time logging into Paradigm X, she directs us towards an instructional video, being presented by... All-Might, if he was a corporate shill?
I mean, apparently his name is Captain Paradigm, and he is, quote "this world's defender of justice!", but the world in question was built by a multinational corporation, so I'm pretty sure being it's defender makes you The Man. Or at least, The Hype Man, since he proceeds to give us a run-down on the features of Paradigm X, most of which revolves around the fact that it's... the internet? Basically, he bigs up the fact that you can log into Paradigm X anywhere, anywhen, and access all of it's services with your friends at any time. I'm going to run through the shops anyway, so no point repeating them here, but this is kind of main selling point: that Paradigm X is a virtual city that never sleeps.
So, having gotten the corporate line, it's time to check out Paradigm X itself. Technically, this would be the first place we get actual gameplay (since we have to move around the map), but I'll save that for a section later in this recap. Instead, let's hit the town!
The... rustic, country-style, Japanese town? The game obviously has some graphical limitations, but that seems to be the aesthetic they are aiming for. During their intro, the Receptionist mentions that Algon Soft has gone for a nostalgic aesthetic for Paradigm X, which is pretty interesting given that Amami City itself is specifically a more scientifically advanced locale; one of the NPC's we could speak to on the overworld even mentions that she had been a little upset when the town was overhauled into this science-fiction setting, even if she came to prefer this one. I'm not sure how much the tension between past and future is going to play out (though I assume it will feature somewhat given the presence of demons modelled after folklore and myth), but it seems like the kind of theme that suits a cyberpunk world either way.
Anyhow, shopping! First off, we have the Boutique, where the very fashionable owner explains that we can buy clothes in the digital world and have them delivered to the real world. Speaking of appearances, as we wander around Paradigm X, we run into a character who mentions that people in the virtual space don't necessarily look like themselves, so let's tag identity as another cyberpunky theme. Spoilers: we're going to be coming back to identity as a theme heavily during this segment. Anyway, I'm not sure if shopteller here is an NPC or a real person, so we're gonna call that a wash.
Next up is the bank, with a teller whose Irish accent is so thick that I'm inclined to say that he has to be real; something that over the top can only be the result of someone trying to evoke an accent on purpose and overshooting it. As Captain Paradigm explained, we have access to 24/7 banking, as we can deposit money which, according to Irish Moneybags, will then appreciate in value according to their interest rates. He suspiciously chooses not to mention any of bankings other practices, not that it matters; we can't actually deposit anything right now until our account is authorised/confirmed/something.
The movie theatre is run by a woman dressed as a snowball.
I didn't stutter. It's a Japanese woman dressed as a snowball, who greets us with a hearty 'Hee-ho!'. I know just enough about the franchise to recognise this as technically being cosplay of Jack Frost, Atlus' non-mascot, but on a human, it looks like a snowball. Anyway, the threatre acts as a mini-hub to a number of other areas:
First is the virtual park, though it's currently under construction so there isn't very much to see. A gardener mentions that to commemorate the opening of Paradigm X, they have planted an Omphalos Tree in the centre of the garden. This tree will grow bigger by absorbing the wishes of visitors to the park. If we speak to said visitors, one of them mentions that he wants to stay here forever.
I'm sure this is fine.
Next is the Love Club. It's a short quiz that is supposed to pair you up with your ideal romantic partner. Given Hitomi, our girlfriend, is sitting over our shoulder while we play Paradigm X, it's probably ill-advised to do this... but fuck it. I ended up with a Goth Maid, so I can confirm this games accuracy. Take notes, Hitomi.
There's a Haunted Manion, which we currently can't get into at all, so whatevs. Probably won't be relevant later on or something.
At Club Q, we can run a virtual quiz: five questions, and if you get all five correct, you can be entered into a draw to be named Quiz King. The questions are a mix of real life general knowledge (like if a femtosecond if faster than a nanosecond), general trivia (if a certain person was the first non-caucasian to play for a baseball team) and in game knowledge (how many social forums are there). I haven't gotten Quiz King status yet, so update on that when I do.
And last up, we have the VR Art Museum. As the name suggests, it's an art museum, but in the virtual space of Paradigm X. According to the tour guide (probably an AI), we'll be able to go inside the paintings and experience them that way... but that feature isn't ready yet. Right now, we can just walk around, look at the images on the map, and talk to some art patrons. The most important of these is a girl standing in front of a picture of a dolphin, who complains about the fact that she has to spend a lot of time studying in the real world and prefers escaping to this one.
This character is going to be important later, so try and remember her for when I get back to it months from now.
Next door to the theatre is the Casino, which works the way you would expect any casino too; you take your real money, exchange it for Paradigm X's fake coin currency that only be spent inside the park, and then gamble it on various games. None of the games are running yet, so the only other thing to mention here is that the Casino is run by the same woman who runs the theatre, except her snowball has green highlights instead of blue.
I'm calling this pair as AI, because the alternative is that Algon Soft hired a pair of twins to work in their virtual reality world and gave them to dumbest costumes ever.
Anyway, off to the social forums. They seem to be pretty much the same as your standard internet forum, going as far as to be broken into a number of different sub-forums:
The beach forum is a virtual recreation of a beach front, complete with some noveau rich woman who mention that they spent their last vacation overseas, but that this JPEG of a beach is also pretty good.
The sunset forum is pitched as a nostalgic place to relive your youth, so it shouldn't be a surprise that the characters there (two kids and a high-school student) are all adults using younger avatars. Identity, major theme, especially since the little girl says she wants to take the opportunity to curse and generally act out in ways which she wouldn't be able to in the real world.
The social forum seems to be a generic meeting area, similar to the starting reception desk. As well as being able to meet and greet CAPTAIN PARADIGM, we also have a quick (but interesting) conversation with a woman in a suit. She remarks that a lot of men come up and talk to her because she's using a female avatar, wonders if that's how it is in the real world, and remarks that it's scary if that is the case.
So, this was actually what prompted my 'Real or AI' game, because this dialogue suggests that this is someone who hasn't experienced this kind of catcalling before. Given that people can adjust their avatars in the virtual world, the question then is whether this is an AI in the form of a woman who is experiencing this kind of online-interaction for the first time... or if this is a guy who used a female avatar and is now kind of realising the kind of stuff that women have to go through online and in the real world. I don't know if there is a correct answer here, but it's a moment that works into the blurring identity we're going to see in the game, and it's a surprisingly forward-thinking attitude for a 90's video game.
Also there's a Japanese bathhouse but whatever. They didn't include any female characters here, which I'm pleasantly surprised by, but it's a bath house. Not much else to say.
Head down the nearby alleyway, and we hit a fortune teller (my lucky colour is silver, apparently?) and the last shop on our bucket list - the pet shop. But first, let me set the scene:
Outside the pet shop is an NPC who mentions that he got a pet from the shop. He tells us how adorable it is, and how much he loves it. Intrigued, we enter the store. Inside, the business owner explains what he does; he sells digital pets, called Nemechi. "Aren't they so cute," he coos, as the moe digital blobs swing from the tree branches around him. Unfortunately, every single one of them - yes, every one! - has been reserved, so he can't sell us any right now, and we'll just have to return at another time.
So, to recap: this businessowner has someone standing outside his shop talking up his product. Inside, the owner tells you how popular these things are since he's all out of stock - despite this being a close beta, meaning he should know how many he needed, and also they are digital, so how hard could it be to copy-paste these things? - but tells you to come back another time. He's artificially inflating the importance and demand of his product which, I would remind you, are basically just digimon.
This guy is real, because only a real person would be this much of an asshole.
Well, now that Ihave this bad taste in my mouth, Hitomi points out something at the end of the alleyway. It opens into a square, above which is a blimp. Screens on the blimp are broadcasting a section from Paradigm X News, covering a press conference delivered a few days ago to commemorate the opening of Paradigm X.
First up is Vice-Minister Nishi. He delivers a speech about how the innovation of Paradigm X means that Amami City is the most technologically advanced city in the world, the envy of all others, and that this project will usher in a period of light and convenience for all. Even if the phrase "light and conveniance" didn't cue you in that this kind of kind of sketchy, his character art should, because he basically looks like the devil.
And yet. President Satan isn't the least trustworthy guy at this press conference.
Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone inbetween or outside... meet Kadokura, president of Algon Soft and the biggest asshole in the game. Maybe there will be a contender for the title later on, or maybe he'll turn out to be a real swell guy, but given his attitude comes across as 'shittier Elon Musk', I rather doubt it.
The guy showed up to a press conference in reflective sunglasses, wearing a prepetual smirk, humblebragging that the Paradigm X project is perfect and, worst of all, he did it all with that hair. The only person I maybe want to punch more is that pet shop owner.
Look, I don't know what to tell you guys, we're ending the Paradigm X experience on a real sour note. As Elon Musk is in the process of finding out, nothing drives people away from your platform more than... well, being Elon Musk, and Kadokura has nailed that experience. I think it's just time to get back to babysitting the gun.
...Or, at least, that was the plan? But when I go back to the reception area to log out, things start to go a bit... wonky. Instead of the receptionist's stilted yet calming tones, there is a monstrous roar, as a voice bellows out that it "WANTS... SOULS..." A light emanates from the room. As the light (and convenience) start to consume the area, we're suddenly rescued by a coyote, which drives the light away.
The coyote introduces himself as Kinap. He explains that, as he suspected, it's impossible for humans to escape that light today, and warns of an oncoming catastrophy, one which he is unable to avert himself. As the bearer of a strong soul, however, he invites us on a vision quest, so that we might discover the truth as to what is going on and avert calamity.
Now, it should be noted that "invite" is in heavy air quotes. Even if this wasn't a video game plot line, Kinap is a railroading GM who doesn't even provide a 'But thou must!' moment; he instantly whisks us to the movie theatre for the vision quest to begin. But that's cool, I'm down with this; I'm kind of attached to my soul, and I'm fairly certain this light was a feature rather than a bug so far as Algon Soft was concerned, so I'm willing to fuck back at them.
I know I should quit, but so many already want me dead that I doubt this'll hurt. I exhale, and watch the cigarette smoke wind and coil it's way until it gets lost in the fog. My contact called a little while ago, someone by the name of Kinap. It's not that I don't know if that's their real name or a handle - it's that I don't care. Kinap wants me to break into the server room of a particular company, and download a particular programme.
Considering the company is Algon Soft, I was more than willing to play ball with such an odd request.
I drop the cigarette to the ground, crush it beneath a heel, and make my way inside. I'm barely in through the door when I hear a sound, a rattle of wind, and a demon appears in front of me. As it approaches, I reach for my waist and draw my COMP. The wings of the gun unfold, pentagrams and arcane symbols flashing across the screen.
Bes, Puts, Leanen Sidhe. Let's get to work.
Alright, now we're getting proper gameplay!
So, the game takes place in a first-person, dungeon crawling perspective. The player can move one square at a time, mapping out the area/dungeon as they go. As you travel through the dungeon, you can encounter and have conversations with NPC's... though annoying, these aren't represented by sprites or marks on my map; you have to be occupying the same square as them on the map to know they even exist.
Aside from NPC's, there are also random encounters, when the game swaps to combat mode.
First, your party; your party consists of the protagonist(s) and a number of demons. You can store a set amount of demons on the COMP (a limit that increases as you play the game and unlock upgrades) but in the field of battle, you can only have six active characters. Characters are divided across two rows of three; characters on the back row take a bit less damage, but attacks may not reach the enemy targets.
Speaking of attacks, what are our options? Well, aside from letting our team run on AUTOpilot, we have a few choices. SWORD is a melee attack, probably named as such because a lot of the melee weapons in this game seem to be knives and blades. GUN is a ranged attack, one which consume ammunition. MAGIC is straightforward, being... well, magic (which may be healing spells, attack spells, buffs or debuffs). EXTRA seems to be an odd bonus category, with skills that... don't seem to fit the other categories? They seem to basically be special attacks. GUARD is self-explanatory, in that you block and take less damage.
There is also a TALK option which is used for demon negotiation, but that one isn't relevant right now.
I make my way up the building. Shit, the first floor wasn't just a guard dog; the place is swarming with demons. What are they thinking, letting them roam wild like this? On my way up, I strong-armed directions out of a security guard. A little while later, I heard him scream.
I make my way into the server room, find the terminal, and look for the programme Kinap told me about. Nemissa...
Damn! This thing is huge, what the hell even is this? This is a real problem; my plan was to download it onto my COMP and get out of here, but I don't have enough memory for it. Not unless...
I already regret this, but I release my demons. That frees up enough space for me to get the job and get this Nemissa Programme downloaded to the COMP. The problem is that it leaves me defenceless to enemies. I'm going to need to get out of here before --
"I didn't think you'd have the spine to come waltzing back in here... Now, what's a traitor like you doing here? You've eluded the Society's grasp up 'til now... And it all ends with such disappointment."
Finnegan. He walks into the room with an easy swagger, barely even looking at me. He cracks his knuckles as he speaks, but casually, as if I wasn't even in the room.
"Your name used to strike fear in your enemies, and look at you now. What happened to you? I don't know why you betrayed us, but it's a bad joke. You're nothing now."
Finnegan. Shit. His timing couldn't be worse. I make my way around the room, careful to keep our distance as he continues to speak. "I see the Society is still using the power of summoners for evil."
Finnegan smirks. "You're in no position to talk." There's a click as he flips his lighter open. "Has the... tragedy that took your family finally scared you?"
He's goading me, but damnit, I can't stop myself. "Don't you dare talk about my family!"
"Are those fighting words? You want to challenge me? You, of all people, should know my abilities..."
He's right. I do. If this was a fair fight, a one-on-one, with everything at my disposal... I'm not sure I could take him. But when the only thing I have is a GUMP filled with a computer program and no demons? That would be a death sentence, and I can't die here. I need to get this data to Kinap...
I reach behind me, open the server room, and start running. I crash through doors into the main hallways. We're five floors up, so I race towards the stairs, only to be met with one of Finnegan's mutts. I don't really recognise him, which means he probably isn't too strong... except I might as well be carrying an actual computer for all the good it'd do me in a fight right now. However weak he is, I can't take him on... and of course, he's blocking the way down.
Which means the only way to go is up.
By the time I reach the roof, I'm starting to come down from the adrenaline... or, maybe the situation is just starting to sink in. There're high fences all around me, and even if there wasn't, what's my plan? Climb the slick sides of the building until I reach the ground floor? Jump and hope that I somehow crash into another rooftop and don't break all my bones, rupture my organs and die on impact? If those are my options, I'd almost consider surrendering to Finnegan.
Almost. But I'm not that suicidal.
I open my COMP again. I don't know what Kinap wants this data for - and now I'll never know - but if the Society had it, that's reason enough to keep it away from them. I change the password, and throw the COMP over the railings. It's durable, so it'll be fine... probably. Better than I'm going to be in a minute, because I hear a creak of the rootop door opening, and heavy bootsteps.
"Are you done with your pointless struggling, Urabe," Finnegan asks. I stare at him from beneath my hat, barely able to contain myself, so he continues. "What were you doing in that room?"
He phrases it casually, as if remarking on the quality of the night sky... but the fact that he has to ask at all causes a sense of vindication to swell in my chest. I shove a hand into my pocket, the other on the brim of my hat.
"I figured I'd get one last shot in against your scumbags," I say.
"As if the actions of a worm could influence our organisation in the slightest. Pathetic." He raises a cold piece of steel that gleams in the starlight. "When you meet your disappointed family in the afterlife, be sure to say hi for me. They'll know who I am."
I close my eyes. My ears ring with gunfire. I fall to the ground, as a warmth spread across my chest, and across my face. The feeling in my chest is blood, but my cheeks?
Those are tears. My eyes are hot and wet. How pathetic. Because of my choices, my family died, and I lost myself in it. For a long time, I wanted only to die, but now that the moment has come, I only want to live.
My vision blurs and darkens, and I hear Finnegans sneer as he walks away.
"Keep hell warm for me, Urabe..."
=== End of Vision ===
Life is just a string that pulls lasting will along. That is how will transcends lives and endures through time. At least, that's what Kinap tells us; he is one who talks with souls, who guides souls, and he bids us to awaken with newfound resolution and purpose. We'll have vision quests in the future, but for right now, we log out of Paradigm X.
... And we must have been the only one experiencing the above, because Hitomi is left completely confused. Apparently, we were staring into space and weren't responding to anything. We let her know we're fine, and we turn to the Gun-type PC.
Spoilers, it's Urabes gun. It was locked with a password before, but obviously, we saw him change it, so we open it up and enter the code. As soon as we do, lights and symbols flash across the screen. More importantly, a ball of light floats out of the right hand screen, an orb which starts to bounce around the room, before striking Hitomi.
After it does, Hitomi... changes. Her hair turns blue, her expression hardens to a smirk. She looks at us.
"Hehe, I'm finally out. It was cramped in there" Her tone is harder than before, but there's something else there too, a distinct electronic modulation to her voice. "I'm Nemissa. Nemissa the demon."
I just got my girlfriend possessed by a demon?
I might have fucked up.
I had to endure a speech by someone who makes Elon Musk look humble, nearly got my soul devoured by a vortex of light, had to experience the dying moments of a noir detective, and capped it off by having my girlfriend be possessed by a demon. This is all the result of me hacking into a social media service. So far as anti-piracy PSA's go, this is kind of hardcore.
And speaking of things that are hardcore... Nemissa. She's not happy enough having been trapped in a computer for... however-long-she-was-there, and is eager for a bit of pay-back, so she's going to go kick the ass of whoever it was that genie-bottled her. Presumably she means whoever put her into the computer at Algon Soft (since Urabe has already bit the big one), but that's a side-note to the fact that she can't just run-off and start getting into fights when she's wearing Hitomi's body.
I'm not alone in thinking that, either, since Hitomi briefly manages to wrest control and ask for help. When she does, her voice goes back to normal and her hair flashes back to brown, but I'm not sure if that's actually happening in-universe, or if it's just shorthand for the player to be able to distinguish between the two characters, since no-one else seems to recognise Hitomi's hair and voice changing colours/tone mid-conversation.
Oh right, the elses. Well, while Nemissa, Hitomi and I were arguing, two more members of the Spookies finally arrive. Shingo Saki, aka Six, comments on Hitomis dye-job, resulting in Nemissa snapping at him to shut up. Meanwhile, Juunosuke Kitagawa (or Lunch) gets to work disassembling one of the groups computers.
Ya know, as a Dragonball fan, it's kinda amusing to me that we have a character whose hair changes to switch between a kind-hearted character and someone who is more trigger-happy, and we have someone called Lunch, and they aren't the same character. This isn't really apropos of anything; I just really liked Lunch/Launch.
Anyway, the Soul Hackers version of Lunch has more of a punk vibe than Dragonballs did, and seems to be the member of the group most committed to the hacker life-style. As has been mentioned, The Government has provided every home in Amami city with computers, which have all been built to specific code and specs. They've also apparently warned against modding them (as Six reminds us), but Lunch is like "Screw the man, I'm a hacker, not a number," so he's swapping out some of the hardware, a piece of equipment called a Krypto chip. I'm assuming it's a processor or something? I'm not a hacker, so I have no idea; the point is, by removing this and putting in something else, it apparently will make the computers work faster.
I have to point out that Lunch is specifically doing this to his bosses computer, rather than his own, so maybe this is just a trial run so he doesn't ruin his own stuff in case it doesn't work.
Discussions about whether Six will get mad about unauthorised modification to the Hackerbus is cut short by a call from the man himself:
H-hello? Is that you, Hackerman?
I'm at the Algon NS building right now, but something's gone wrong. Th-this place is full of m-monsters...
The line cut's off, leaving the team to wonder what's going on. They assume that 'monsters' was Spooky's code for cops or security, since he's roaming the Algon NS building; considering our vision quest, we know better, and we know that Lunch is right when he say's that Spooky sounds like he's in danger and we can't ignore it. Nemissa actually agrees, saying that it sounds like fun, and that she's aching for a fight. When Hitomi tries to object, she's told she can't tell Nemissa what to do and "This is my body now, forever! You should just get used to it!"
Lunch and Six missed the argument between Hitomi and Nemissa, but does pick up on their excitement. Since we can't run empty-handed into AlgonSoft, Six loans up some his collection and gives us weapons and armor. Specifically, he gives us a gun.
... Wait, he gives us a gun?! Six brags about his collection being badass, but to reiterate, this is a real-ass gun, not some airsoft prop. This punk-ass, Sasuke looking mother fucker apparently collects firearms - despite Japan having a notoriously strict gun control law - and carries enough of them around with him that he just hands them out to Nemissa and me (and probably Lunch, and probably keeps at least one for himself).
I am suddenly rather concerned about my association with Six.
A-anyway, Algon NS building is at the north side of Nikamimon, so in the words of Lunch, let's roll. By which we mean, let's walk, rather than take the Hackerbus, which will remain in the parking garage of Shibahama. But before we move out... time to level up!
After battles, the Protagonist and Nemissa gain experience, and in classic RPG style, when they gain enough experience, they level up. Each character has six stats (STRENGTH, INTELLIGENCE, MAGIC, ENDURANCE, AGILITY and LUCK) which start at 3; when you level up, you gain a point which can be added to one of those. We actually level up to level six, so this time, we get to distribute five points however we want.
Each stat influences a series of attributes. What each stat affects is outlined in the game manual, but conveniently enough there is a table on the same screen, which shows how your choices will affect your various skills; for example, increasing STRENGTH will cause your SWORD ATTACK value to increase.
I'm not actually going to go into too much detail here since... I'm bad at game builds. In fact, I actually restarted my game because I had distributed stats so badly that I was dying constantly, so I am not a source of information here; if you're interested in that stuff, check a guide, I'm mostly doing a plot recap.
After levelling up, we get a message on the COMP, advising us that it's been hacked and some new programs have been added. As far as I can tell, these seem to be things added to the 3DS remake; we get ourselves one of the Nemecchi digital pets, and by tapping the screen we can activate COMP hacking to adjust some game settings (such as lowering game difficulty).
We proceed to Nikamimon, a district of the city which is dominated by a massive building. This is the Amami Monolith, the tallest building in the city, which a businesswoman NPC tells us has the best night view in the city... but also that every couple that goes up there ends up breaking up, so we should probably avoid it. Considering it's a marked location on the map, I'm pretty sure we'll be required to go there at some point to fight a boss.
Right now, though, we have to head to AlgonNS Main Building, the same building that Urabe infiltrated during the vision quest. It's also the same building he died at, so, uh, here's hoping history doesn't repeat itself? Nemissa decides to just head on in, rather than sit around and waiting, and Lunch agrees that splitting up to investigate such a huge building would be a good idea. Saul and Nemissa head in (Team Protagonist) while Lunch and Six (Team Side characters)... also head in, but somewhere else, I guess?
Anyway, we're now in proper gameplay mode, entering the building the same way Urabe did. Almost immediately, we run into a cleaner wo tells us that she was speaking to a young man in the reference room below, when another man in a leather jacket entered and started fighting him. It's the best lead we get, so that's where we're going!
Just like Urabe did, we end up running into some demons, one of whom recognises that we're pretty new to the whole Demon Summoner thing, so he gives us a run-down on demon negotiation.
We start off with the Protagonist and Nemissa, but that's only two slots of a six-man party; the other four spaces are filled with demons. There are a couple of ways to get demons, but the first we're introduced to here is demon negotiation.
By selecting the TALK combat option, we can select an enemy demon and start a conversation, trying to persuade it to join our side. Each demon has a different personality type, and they like to get different responses to questions; sometimes they'll just ask your opinion on things, sometimes they'll ask for ideas, money or magnetite. When you've finished, they might join your party... or they might take your stuff and run off, or attack you if you answered wrong, in which case you lose your whole turn.
Also, there are certain situations where negotiation just isn't possible; sometimes a demon will refuse to join you because you have certain demons in your team, sometimes you're too low a level, sometimes you just can't talk to them period. There seems to be a degree of randomness involved in what the right responses to questions are, which does stop this from being a win stick you can use to shot circuit fights; given that answering wrong means you might not get to give any orders to your team, it adds a degree of tension to negotiations.
As the obsessive compulsive that I am - and since I'm not crazy enough to do an SMT nuzelocke run - I smooze my way into recruiting as many demons as I can while we make our way through the building. As we do, we run into Lunch, who hacks an elevator for us so that we can skip having to go through the same stairwells we already got to experience as Urabe. We make our way to the fifth floor, where Lunch notices that the security for the emergency exits have already been disabled, concluding it must have been Spooky. After exploring the floor and finding nothing aside from demons and loot, we make our way to floor four.
There isn't really a smooth segue way for this, so I'm just dropping it between floors. In the top corner of the dungeon crawler view, there are two symbols. The first is for Yen, and shows how much currency we have. The more important number looks like an M, and represents how much magnetite (or mag) we have.
See, there's a mag cost associated with every demon. Whenever the demon is summoned, you have to pay it. Also, you have to pay that cost with every step you take in a dungeon. If you don't have any mag, then the demon starts to lose health instead, eventually dying. Luckily, you can gain mag by winning fights against enemies, and truthfully, I've haven't gotten to a point where I've really had to worry about it, but I'd be remiss in not mentioning it. So, I guess this is a mini hee-ho.
On the fourth floor, one of the buildings employees starts freaking out about the fact that there are monsters roaming the hallways - not an unreasonable reaction tbh - and runs away screaming in terror. So, he was useless. Still, as we wander aimlessly across floor four, we get a phone call from Lunch (who is really putting in the work to be this posts MVP, I gotta say) saying he's found some floors leading to the basement and he's heading there. A little while after, we get a call from Six, saying pretty much the same thing, though he also wants us to make sure that we know he's Totally Not Scared and if we hear him screaming, we're totally not.
As Nemissa puts it, "Wow. He's even more of a coward than I thought."
We make our way on through the building, and I know I'm glossing over a lot, but it just amounts to dungeon crawling and battles. We reach the basement of the building - which has a conspicuous lack of Lunch, actually - and hear some voices from behind a heavy door. We open it, and enter a reference room, full of archived materials. It also contains... uh...
Well, a picture is worth a thousand words. This is Carol J. We piece together that he was the guy who attacked Spooky when he called us... which, as Carol J points out, means we've saved him the trouble of having to come find us himself. Everything's goin' Carol J's way today! He asks who we are, since Saul seems like a demon summoner but he's never seen us around the Phantom Society. Apparently, having a COMP means we must be summoners.
You might notice that Carol J is not carrying a Gun-Type PC. That's because he's rocking out on a Guitar-type PC! Which is awesome! Unfortunately, since we're summoners and aren't members of the society, that means he has to kill us. Which is less awesome. Still, Nemissa has been raring for a fight, and we've clocked up a couple of levels making our way this far, so we enter our first boss fight.
The boss fight... actually, it just plays out the same as any other fight, with the only difference being that Guitar Hero is one of the enemy targets now as well as demons. Still, it goes easily enough and we quickly put an end to Carol J's solo act, with the man himself shocked that Nemissa is, in his words, "so rockin'!" He runs away, promising to get us next time, dropping a scrap of paper and a card behind him when he does.
Hitomi doesn't know what the card is for, and as for the paper... well, it's just a random series of letters, symbols and numbers that might be a code, but heck if we can decode it. We decide to save it to show to the others later.
It's at this point that a wild Spooky appears. Apparently he was hiding here from C.J. He's surprised to see us getting the GUMP working, but we agree we should probably high-tail it out of dodge before we get into details. We rendezvous with the others outside the building and make our way back to the HQ, ignoring Six's claims that he was taking down monsters left and right. Sure ya were, buddy.
Back at the Hackerbus, we start to piece things together. After Spooky left Hitomi and I, he went to the junk dealer to ask where he got the gun from. Apparently, the guy just found it by the side of the Algon building, so Spooky thought it had fallen from there. He snuck into the building to investigate it, when he got ambushed by Carol J. The whole group is still somewhat in disbelief about demons, demon summoners and the Phantom Society, which is when the final member of the Spookies finally decides to arrive.
Yuichi Haga goes the handle Yu-Ichi, but I'm pretty sure he might just be the first Pikachu gajinka. The game tells us that Six often yells at it, then follows it up by showing us Six yelling at him for showing up after all the work is over. While Yu-Ichi is fanboying over the gun, Lunch has finished decoding the code on the paper we found. The code turns out to be a web address for something called 'Summoner Net'. It's a web forum, with a series of posts on it:
To all the glorious Summoners gathered within the auspices of the Phantom Society:
Our project is finally underway. We must hurry to collect souls for the coming moment of triumph. As we continue to gather souls, more and more demons will come to dwell within Amami City.
In regards to our day-to-day activities, our actions must be kept secret from the public. Should you encounter any non-members while carrying out your Society duties, quickly dispose of them. The completion of our mission and maintaining secrecy are of top priority.
Urgent Notice: We have learned that the Kuzunoha have begun to make their move. We cannot underestimate how much of a threat they pose to us. Make yourselves aware of their movement. The demon that appeared at Amami Bay has been placed under our control. However, do not grow lax. Never forget the failure at Amami Airport. It is currently unknown if the recent reports of a strange disease in Amami City are linked to us.
The most recent post is an update advising that Urabe has been killed, and they are investigating why he at the Algon Soft building.
Naturally, everyone is a little stunned by what we've just uncovered. "Hitomi" points out that if we chase after the Phantom Society, we might be able to get some more information out of them, and the group decides that that is what we're going to do. We've just unearthed a huge secret beneath our seeming utopia, the gleaming city of tomorrow, and we can't just ignore it.
Our resolve is then broken by the GUMP making a series of weird noises. Damn it, PikacYu-Ichi! We take the gun back, which stops the beeping (Lunch assumes it has some kind of a finger print scanner coded to Saul), but that doesn't actually clear the error message; one of the screens is showing the Orange Screen Of Death, with a message on it: GO TO GOUMADEN.
The Goumaden is actually a luxury cruise liner/hotel, currently docked in the harbour of Amami city; when we were walking about Shibahama, we could speak to an NPC couple who talked about going on a cruise on it. It's not clear what the connection could be between the Goumaden and the COMP, but considering how we're going to need a COMP that actually works, we don't really have any other choice than to check it out. Nemissa agrees to go with Saul to the Goumaden, because the Hackerbus is, quote, "boring as hell," and we head off for the Goumaden.
The harbour is in Shibahama, so its pretty quick to get to it. The Goumaden cruise ship is huge, but it's all dialogue only so we don't need to worry about a map. We enter what looks like a main hall, a stairway leading to another floor and a floor dominated by a giant pillar. There are no demons; instead we have something much better.
Goth Maid. This is Mary. We try to introduce ourselves, but she immediately cuts us off, insisting that she can't allow us to enter the ship without a reservation, asking us to leave. Nemissa finally snaps, telling her that we're hear because the COMP told us to come, prompting a voice from off-screen to remake "Ho-ho... you wield a COMP. Pardon our impoliteness."
Mary refers to the new arrival as Master Victor. Given the spiffy hat, his ownership of the Goumaden, and what we're about to find out, I prefer to think of him as Doctor Captain Alucard.
According to Victor, he isn't a summoner, but the Goumaden's doors and services are open to anyone who has a COMP. Ours has been damaged, but he can repair it easily. The stairway behind Mary starts to fall downwards, forming a new set of stairs deep into the engine room of the Goumaden, and we descend.
In the workshop, Victor gives us a brief explanation as to what's going on. He isn't a summoner, but rather he works with demon fusion, the art by which two or more demons can be combined to form a new, stronger demon, a service that he's offering to us as well. Nemissa points out that we didn't come here for demon fusion, which he concedes, but he wanted to give us a quick primer so he can cut a deal with us: he'll fix our COMP, and in exchange, he wants us to go the cold storage warehouse at the Warehouse District of Amami Bay and bring him back "a bloodless lump of earth that holds the breath of life within it, a grotesque doll".
Apparently, he needs [INSERT PUBLIC FIGURE YOU WANT TO INSULT HERE] because he can use it to complete his research, promising that it will also be of use to us. Even if that wasn't the case, though, he's the only person who can repair our COMP's damage and we kinda need that to fight demons so we don't really have a choice, no matter how much Nemissa hates giving in to Victors demands.
Victor fixes the COMP, and gives us a brief run-down of it. He's installed five blocks of memory, which can be used at Phonebooth Terminals to install programs. Programs can be located and obtained at various points throughout the game, including right now when he gives us 'Da Vinci', a program which enables fusion searches. He also points out to us that the COMP has a function to enable demon fusion, though he remarks that it's an unstable prototype that we shouldn't rely on too much.
Basically, if we're in the field and in a tight-pinch, we can fuse on the fly, but it's more reliable to come back to the Goumaden to conduct demon fusion when possible.
Demon fusion is the other method of obtaining new, more powerful demons. Demon fusion can be conducted in the workshop at the Goumaden, or through the COMP, and involves fusing two (Binary Fusion) or three (Tertiary Fusion) demons into a new demon. Obviously, the old one's are lost, and the new demon is (or should be) a higher level and overall stronger than the component parts.
There is also Mystic Fusion, which can be performed on demons which have a maxed out loyalty. Mystic fusion can convert a demon into an item, or cash... or, as it's done any time I've tried it, can fail entirely and lose the demon altogether.
Any demon you collect, whether than be by fusion or negotiation, is logged in a compendium. Demons can be summoned from the compendium for a certain cost of magnetite. New demons are automatically logged, but you can overwrite a compendium entry if you happen to have a stronger version of a certain demon (usually through having fused it).
Fusion seems to be the only way to increase a demons stats, since they don't gain experience points and I haven't (yet) found any items that increase their stats besides this.
There are a lot of rules governing demon fusion, and I'm going to straight up admit that I can't follow the majority of them. I'm sure there is probably some kind of mathematical equations to work out exactly which demon you want to get when... but I don't get it. I mostly stick to just selecting demons and searching what the result from the fusion would be in the menu screen. So, if you were expecting me to go into details about this section of the game... what about anything up t this point made you think I would?
Anyway, Victor wants us to complete our errand and return to him as soon as possible, but he does recognise that we're fresh-faced summoners who don't really have a lot of experience, so he recommends we head to the Shibahama Core. It's a series of shops, also located on the Shibahama map; he tells us that there are people there who will help us if we show them the COMP.
With that advice, we holster our COMP and exit the Goumaden. Don't worry, Mary; I won't be away very long.
I'm not gonna lie, I didn't expect him to stick to the theme so hard to literally constantly have food on him. I have to respect his dedication to the bit.
Huh. Okay, so I was expecting you to get the ability to shoot your enemies, because that's actually fairly common in the SMT franchise as a whole, but I was kinda expecting that to be a feature of the gun type PC, rather than you being given an entirely different gun.
That's actually a fairly big name for the franchise at large. Not to go into anything that might be considered a spoiler for this game, but there's actually another pair of games where the player character is a Kuzunoha.
Huh. Okay, so I was expecting you to get the ability to shoot your enemies, because that's actually fairly common in the SMT franchise as a whole, but I was kinda expecting that to be a feature of the gun type PC, rather than you being given an entirely different gun.
Yeah, same. As soon as I saw the SHOOT option, my assumption was that we're shooting bullets from the GUMP because... why would you make a PC-shaped like a gun if you didn't want to use it as a gun?
I'm going to go from the Goumaden to the item shops, one of which is a weapons shop selling various knives and firearms, which I think explains why the Protagonist is running guns akimbo; the gun Six provides us with is the most basic weapon, and you want players to get stronger equipment throughout the game. One way around that might have been to have players upgrade the gun instead of just buying new ones, but they didn't go for that route.
My headcanon is that the 'Gun' part of the Gun-type PC is an empty casing that that gun itself slots into, meaning we aren't festooned with firearms, but this might just be one of those points where we have to waive reality and just accept what we see.
Though, in all honesty, I haven't gotten very much use out of the guns thus far. There are a few enemy types which are listed as being weak to gun-based attacks, but I've been getting by just fine by having Nemissa turn them to a crisp while I whack them with a sword. Is it optimal? Hell no, but it gets the job done.
That's actually a fairly big name for the franchise at large. Not to go into anything that might be considered a spoiler for this game, but there's actually another pair of games where the player character is a Kuzunoha.
I'm aware it's... a thing, and I think the Devil Summoner games prior to this featured the Kuzunoha? That's about all that I know though. That being said, due to the long updates between posts, I have been playing ahead and can confirm that we run into members of the Kuzunoha clan, so take that as a tease for the future.
The Thrilling Adventure of Captain Doctor Alucards Errand Boy
Shibahama Core was accessible to us this entire time, but if we tried to enter it before, the various shopkeepers turned us away. When we arrive this time, however, they spot the COMP we're carrying, realise we're associates of Doctor Victor, and wave us on through to their wares.
There isn't really a whole lot to talk about for this section, since it's... just the item shops for this game. I had expected to be doing my shopping via Paradigm X, but considering these guys are selling me knives, firearms, bullets, body armor and booze, it's probably for the best that we're doing the transactions IRL and not setting off any kind of flags with Algon Soft.
As for the shopkeeps themselves? Well, most of them are just people, who somehow have a connection to Victor and therefore are willing to show us their stuff. We've got a video store owner, an art dealer, a withered crone in a Victorian dress surrounded by creepy dolls... you know, normal folk who just so happen to have a connection to the non-normal world.
The store that really stands out to me, though, is the O.E.A. When we enter the room, a man who looks like Victors little brother asks us if we'd be interested in joining the Organic Energy Association while organ music plays.
Despite seeming like a cult run by a vampire, the "Organic Energy" in question isn't soylant green, but magnetite. We can trade MAG for Yen (or vice-versa) but I'm mentioning it mostly because this is maybe the biggest overture towards religion the game has made thus far, and because I'm kind of surprised at how... honestly sinister they seem, compared to the fact that they are actually genuinely helpful. It's almost the opposite of every religion in a game before now.
Having loaded up with my gear, I figure I should give Spooky and the... uh, Spookies, an update on the situation, and as it turns out, my timing is impeccable. A post just appeared on Summoner Net, alerting everyone that the 'Sea Ark' has finished construction. The post goes on to describe it as an ideal training ground, beseeching summoners train hard and become better soldiers for the Phantom Society.
Leader sends Six out to scout the city for information. He also sends Yu-Ichi with him, because it would be funny. We give Spooky the low-down on Victor - Nemissa helpfully describes him as a creep - but we conclude that since he only deals with COMP-users, Saul and Nemissa are gonna have to be the points of contact with him.
Well, Six and Yu-Ichi have their mission, and I have mine and conveniently enough, they are both located as Amami Bay. Yu-Ichi is in full-on tagalong kid mode, with Six trying to shoo him away as a hindrance. While they enter a building on the map, we check in with a couple of NPC's. One of them is a dock-worker who says that drinking while being online is the one highlight of his life, a situation he describes as sad and which I call 'a super-effective attack directed solely at me'. Meanwhile, a police officer mentions that the Bay is pretty barren because Amami Airport is still under construction "because of that explosion a while back".
This will be plot relevant later.
The only other feature of the Bay Area is the Amami Float, a material storage site floating in the middle of the... lake? Ocean? It's off-shore from the Bay with no roads leading to it (one NPC comments it would make a great place for a rave if they could figure out how to get to there).
At the warehouses, we're stopped by a guy who gives us a heads-up. There are three refrigerated warehouses in the area, but the middle one is locked. There are dock-staff hanging around nearby, so we can bug them for the code if we need access, but he warns us that the middle warehouse also has this one weird guy whose always picking fights with random people, so we should probably avoid him. This being a JRPG, we are not going to avoid him.
Getting the keycode is pretty easy, honestly; Nmeissa and I investigate both warehouses, and run into a dock worker in each, who we fleece for their stuff. One of them warns us that the refrigeration unit in the middle-unit is broken, so if we're going to be spending any time in there we'll need insulated clothing. We tell him we're part-time staff - or, well, we don't tell him otherwise when he assumes - and we get our parkas.
The second worker is... less co-operative, and unwilling to believe we're supposed to be there. Nemissa starts trying to put a curse on him, which has no effect on him. He then notices our gun, which has a lot of effect on him, with the dude immediately begging for his life and running from the room. The end result is that Nemissa and I both have a set of insulated clothing and the keycode to enter the middle-building.
(As a side note, on the topic of clothes, one of the punk NPC's hanging around the warehouse comments on Hitomi's clothes. They are not a fan. Hitomi blames Nemissa.)
Inside the middle-warehouse... and yeah, those guys weren't kidding. Inside, the building is covered in ice, and mist drifts through the air. Nemissa actually doesn't have any problem with the presumably-sub-zero-degree temperature. Hitomi says that it's because she's a demon, but I suspect it might be because of Nemissa's spell load-out.
So, I got a little curious after @cosmicspear mentioned that picking how to describe Hitomi had an effect. As it turns out, that decision actually decides which one of three spell-trees Nemissa has access to. In my playthrough, I told Spooky that Hitomi was "cheerful".
That gave her access to fire spells.
I also decided to grind out a couple levels, fuse a few demons with Agi and Maragi abilities... end result is that I'm making my way through this refrigerator with the demonic equivalent of multiple flamethrowers on hand.
So yeah, this dungeon? Not a problem really, at least not when it came to combat. Nemissa and I quickly find a marked as 'Thrill Lab'. Nemissa has the same feeling from it that she got from the Goumaden, so we're sure this is where we're supposed to go... which is when we run into this dungeons gimmick.
Some of the doors are frozen shut. Worse, according to Nemissa, this isn't normal ice which we can just melt - in fact, this unit might not be refrigerated at all. Nemissa concludes that there must be a demon which is cooling the warehouse, causing ice to form. Nemissa can sense the demon somewhere below us, so we set to work making our way circuitously through the warehouse. Along the way, we meet a dock worker who comments that there was a blackout a couple of days beforehand, after which he started hearing noises from the lower levels, which gives us a bit of a timeframe as to when our demon pal set-up shop.
We make our way the third basement floor, and find a door. On the other side, we meet the gasping, wheezing demon responsible for this, and we decide to take the diplomatic approach: Nemissa tells it to fuck off.
Demon said:
*wheeze* Who are you... ?
I belong in the cold. The cold...
It is where Gargan Zero belongs...
Diplomatic efforts have failed. Time for violence.
Gargan Zero totally called it through, since there was no mercy. As I said, I've got multiple flame throwers to hand, and this is a demon that generates ice and is wearing a very flammable looking dress. The issue doesn't take very long to resolve itself.
With Gargan Zero reduced to a scorch mark, the building starts to heat up, and the doors which were frozen before are now open. We check a few of the doors which had previously been closed to us - letting us loot a few items in the process - but eventually we find ourselves back outside the Thrill Lab. With the ice gone, we can easily pull the door open and are face to face with... uh...
Edna Mode?
Apparently not, actually. This is the glorious Doctor Thrill, and he's not happy to see a pair of vagabonds just wander into his laboratory without permission, especially since Zero was supposed to be guarding the place. His tune changes when he notices out COMP... but unlike the shop keeps, not in a good way. He asks if we're a summoner, which he is very unhappy about. He's apparently suffered humiliations from summoners before, so he doesn't want to get involved with us (though he totally wants to beat us up). He runs away, abandoning his lab and swearing vengeance upon us.
'Kay.
Anyway, we now have the run of a literal mad scientists lab. We poke around a little bit, and Hitomi finds a container labelled 'Dolly Sample: 18'. We take off the plastic sheeting and... Ewwwwww.
Actually, in game it's worse, because it's in a container which I assume is filled with some kind of liquid, so looking at it's poorly rendered, mid-90's graphics makes me feel kind of sick. Hey, Nemissa, just so you know, chivalry is dead, so I'm not going to touch this thing.
This thing definitely matches the description of a 'bloodless lump of earth', so we head back to the Goumaden with it. Once we bring it back to him, Victor takes us to his workshop, where he reveals why he wanted this monstrosity in the first place: as this is "the Dolly Kadmon, the one tat breaks God's laws of life" (can confirm), he can use it to create a new type of demon, called a Zoma. According to Victor, the Zoma will be loyal to it's master, and be a powerful ally for me.
Yes, me. He's giving me the Zoma. I'm not sure why, exactly, but I'll not look a demonic horse in the mouth.
Normally, when demons fuse, you get a third, completely new demon with higher stats, and a mix of some skills from the component parts. Zoma fusion is basically the same, except the end result is always a Zoma. The Zoma will always have total loyalty to the user, and it costs 0 CP to summon and walk around with, meaning that if you fuse it up with the right mix of skills and get high enough stats, you can probably break the game.
Honestly, there seems to be an entire sub-section of mechanics entirely based around how to fuse the Zoma, and I haven't figured that out yet. Sorry.
This is maybe as good a time as any to mention about skills. Each demon has skills it can pass along to the fusion... but there is nothing indicating which skills are transferable. The only way I've found to check what skills the result demon will get is to check the result after fusion, which is a bit annoying since it tends to involve a lot of clicking through menus to see if anything can give me a mix of skills I want. The alternative would be using a guide though, and I'm lazy.
So, we fire up the engines, combine the Dolly Kadmon with one of my demons, and out pops the Zoma.
While we were trekking to the Goumaden, we got a call from Spooky, asking us to come by so he can relay some new information to us. Apparently, there has been another post added to the Summoner Net, this time by someone we're acquainted with:
Summoner Net said:
Man, this blows. I've been hearing people talking crap about me! Me, Carol J! Can you believe it!? I just underestimated that guy at Algon NS! If I'd been serious, I wouldn't have lost to that kid or his airhead girl. For all you non-believers, come on down to the Astrology Museum and I'll give you a special live performance.
Spooky says that this is the perfect chance for us to try and get some information about the Phantom Society by confronting Carol J, but honestly, I'm not even paying attention at this point. I'm just waiting for...
Nemissa said:
He just called me an airhead! Who does he think he is!? He's the one that ran away! That does it! I'll make sure he never talks again!
Spooky keeps talking, and says he wants me to investigate this and take care of it, but at this point, I'm pretty sure I'm tagging along to make sure Nemissa doesn't cause an apocalypse.
The tension is broken a little by ca call from Six and Yu-Ichi, whose investigations have borne fruit. They've identified the 'Sea Ark' as the hotel that's under construction at Amami Bay. According to Six, it's officially still under construction, despite looking completed, and he speculates that we might be able to get access to the building with the licence cards the Phantom Society were talking about. Spooky suspects that the card we picked up from Carol J is a licence, so he asks us to check the Sea Ark out as well.
Anyway, Nemissa is chomping at the bit, so time for us to go mess up a rockstar.
Carol J has no idea what he's in for.
Well, after a bit of a delay on my part, it's time for us to kill Elvis. He's waiting for us at the Astro Museum in Akanedai, which happens to be more-or-less next door to our apartment block so... hey, let's call in and see the folks!
Honestly, I was hoping that Hitomi's dye job and attitude realignment might get some kind of a reaction out of the family, but it goes entirely unnoticed; Dad isn't home, and Tomoko spends her time gushing over Paradigm X. She's been using our account to log in - probably while we were, uh, fighting a demon conspiracy - and is firmly on the hype train. Her only complaint is that she wishes it was expanded to more than just a city, like being able to explore an ocean and make friends with the local sea life rather than the ultimate VR experience being confined to ""realism"".
Mom remains resolutely unimpressed, and reminds Tomoko that she has a test she needs to start studying for, while Tomoko insists she was toooootally about to start doing but now she doesn't want to because she is being nagged to do it. Yeah, that's a conversation I've had before, and I don't really want to get caught in the crossfire of the impending argument so, uh, I'm just... gonna... leeeave...
When we reach the Astro Museum, it's completely deserted, though it turns out that's less because of the public's growing apathy for education and more because the museum is closing early. One of the workers tells us that she was told to lock-up early, and she doesn't know why, but guess that's what she's doing. She also seems to be a firm believer in only working strictly to contract, because she doesn't make any effort to stop Nemissa and I from heading up the escalator towards the museum.
Hey, more power to her, it's not her job to escort us off the premises.
Just outside the entrance to the exhibit proper, we find a kid who is busy bawling his eyes out, and Nemissa points and laughs at hi- actually, uh, she comforts him? Honestly, she shows a degree of empathy and compassion I really wasn't expecting out of her by this point, asking why he's so scared and promising not to do anything to him. Anyway, turns out this kid was wandering around the Planetarium when "a man with a guitar" told him to fuck off 'cause he was gettin' ready to rock out. We promise the kid that Nemissa is going to... handle, the situation, and manage to send him off with a smile.
So, just so we're clear, at this point, Carol J has beat up our boss, insulted our demon/girlfriend, and terrorised a child for the sake of his ego. The dude was racking up the reasons for us to kick his ass, but the most damning is yet to come, because when we enter the next room, a voice over welcomes us to the museum and to hell.
Announcement said:
Welcome to the Astro Museum! We have a special opening exhibit on this floor: The Ecliptic Constellations! If you walk near a sculpture of a constellation, you can hear a description of that constellation.
I've played a bit further ahead - one of the reasons I keep going so long before updates - and this is probably the most frustrating section of the game for me to date. Because I am an idiot. Le sigh.
The next room is the actual Planetarium and the boss room; this area is the usual dungeon crawling with some monsters and an NPC or two. One of them is a woman who wonders where the constellation sculptures are, while the other seems to be a besuited member of the Society who mentions that Carol J was talking about summoning something called Kokabel which, as he puts it, "would not be good". Dude even tells us we should get outta here before we get devoured by a demon, so... damn. Some of the grunts of the Phantom Society seem like okay dudes.
Anyway, we try to enter the Planetarium, and this is where my nightmare begins. When we enter the room, we hear another guide intercom:
Guide said:
Thank you for visiting the Amami Astro Museum. To coincide with our new exhibit on the Zodiac, we are holding a "Star Quiz". There are five questions than you have ten seconds to answer. If you can answer all five questions correctly, you will be allowed to enter the Planetarium absolutely free!
Naturally, I wanted to get in for free, so I took the quiz. This was a mistake, but not one I could avoid, because despite what the above quote suggests, you can't pay your way into the Planetarium. You have to answer the quiz. And the questions... well, here's a sampling of them:
The questions that get asked are randomised each time, so that's just a random trio. Now, despite my avatar, I actually know Jack and Shit about astronomy, meaning I failed the first quiz pretty hard, and when that happens, the game boots you outside the room and back to a random part of the dungeon. So you have to trek back to the control room, take the quiz again, and again, and again, until you get the answers right.
... if you're me. Because, as stated... I am an idiot.
See, one of the NPC's in the room mentioned she couldn't see the sculptures, so I took that to mean they weren't actually present. There are alcoves on the map, but honestly, I usually end up holding the side-step button to move faster and I didn't any of the boxes that usually hold treasure, so I didn't bother interacting with the alcoves.
This was a mistake. If you push forward at an alcove, you get a description of the zodiac it's exhibiting; it's name, what it is, what it's east and west of, etcetera. When the game "randomly" dumped you back in the dungeon, it was throwing you to the zodiac which was the answer to the question you got wrong.
I did not realize that. I'd argue that even if I did realize it, it would still require memorizing up to a dozen different constellations and their orientation in relation to one another... but that's my bad for being too lazy to write it down. So, instead of answering the quiz the way I was meant to, I was brute forcing my way through the questions and memorising the correct answers.
Also, each question had four possible answers, and it didn't tell you which was the right answer if you got it wrong so yeah. This part of the game really bothered me... but it's entirely a misery of my own making. At least it meant that when I did get the correct answers and bust the door down, I was in the mood for blood.
C.J doesn't seem to pick up on my anger though, since he's too busy being pissed for his own reasons. Apparently he's become the laughingstock of the Phantom Society thanks to us, so he wants his revenge. He starts to shred on his guitar, and calls out to the great angel Kokabel to descend and kick our asses!
...
Then, after a moment, he tries again, and once again, nothing happens. I can practically hear Nemissa smirking and cracking her knuckles, when a low rumble fills the room.
Carol J objects that he summoned Kokabel, which is pretty much a moot point, because a ball of light descends from off-screen and absorbs him. The light fades away, and reconfigures into the form of Moowis.
Nemissa isn't one to not kick someone when they're down, so she starts laughing about what kind of a loser let's themselves get possessed by the demon they summoned... but the tenor changes when Moowis starts to speak:
Moowis said:
SOUL... I SENSE... A STRONG SOUL... I WANT... I WANT...
Nemissa is a fighty girl. Maybe that's why the battle goes so well, I didn't really have any problems with it. After the battle, Moowis complains that he needs a stronger body... like, say, Hitomi's.
Moowis abandons Carol J, whose body crumples to the floor, and flies towards Nemissa and us, filling the screen with light. We hear Nemissa argue with something, but when the light fades, Hitomi has vanished, and we're left alone with Carol J in the Planetarium.
Did my girlfriend just get possessed again?!
Come on! Once is bad luck, but twice is starting to seem like a god damn pattern! Is it my fault, what am I doing wrong? Why does no one want to hijack my body?!
Urgh. Anyway, while I struggle to figure out what it is that Hitomi and Carol J have that I don't, the rockstar picks himself back off his feet. I'm down one Nemissa, but I still have a veritable arsenal of demons, so I'm ready to throw down... but he just throws in the towel.
Carol J said:
... I'm done, man. My flames burned out. You beat me, buddy. I've never met a Summoner as rockin' as you. Guess it's time I retired...
He actually apologises, saying he's never seen a demon like Moowis before which great. Fucking great. My girlfriend has been double-possessed by demons that defy classification, this day get's better and better. Carol J leaves to busk on street corners for change, apparently ignoring the fact that his secret society is more likely than not gonna slap a big ole target on his head, but I don't have time to worry about that because, again, I am missing Hitomi.
I can not stress this enough: Nemissa was my secret weapon when it came to the battlefield. Not having her is actually a major handicap, doubly so if she's been possessed. God, I don't even know where she went, and when I do find her, I'm probably gonna have to beat the Moowis out of her gaaaaah...
They hang up, just saying to meet them at the headquarters. When I get back to the hackerbus, it's deserted. The computers are still running, though, and on the main screen of Paradigm X? Is a digitised form of Nemissa.
There's a flash of light, and suddenly, Nemissa appears in the middle of the Hackerbus and wait what!
So yeah, apparently, Nemissa can enter Paradigm X now. Okay.
She think's she picked up from Moowis when he tried to possess her, which probably failed. I'm not sure if Hitomi has a one-demon occupancy limit or if Nemissa managed to just fight him off - as has been established, she is a punchy demon - but hey, at least that's one less problem to worry about. The fact that Hitomi's body can be converted to digital information and enter the internet at will is, uh... well, that's a different problem, but Hitomi herself seems to be okay. Moowis vanished as soon as they materialized in Paradigm X which probably isn't a good thing, but that's Future Spookies problem.
Nemissa decides to show off her new trick and decides to take us to Paradigm X together.
Yeah, we don't have to manually log in anymore. When we try to connect to Paradigm X, Nemissa tells us to hold on tight, a cutscene triggers and we are transported inside the computer.
To break in-character Kayfabe for a second... I think this is a moment that the game falls down on. The main characters being transported inside cyberspace seems like it should be a big deal, but it actually doesn't really amount to anything we haven't seen before. We still move around Paradigm X the way we did before, the user interface remains unchanged, we can still do everything we could do before despite now occupying a physical space inside the world... what this means is a big thing, but it actually doesn't feel important, because it doesn't feel any different.
Anyway, back to in-character, Nemissa decides that she's finally going to change out of her clothes, because she hates Hitomi's style. There's a clothing boutique on the main street of Paradigm X, so she decides to head in there to, quote, "get her fash on", which, uh.
I'm going to assume she's trying to use lingo, and not that she's been radicalized after spending twenty minutes inside anime twitter.
Anyway, there's a short scene of dialogue as Nemissa and HItomi argue over what to wear, because apparently Nemissa...
She and Hitomi have very different opinions on outfits.
In the end, Nemissa picks something over Hitomi's objections, and this is where we finally get the box art of the game.
I skipped on posting a picture of Nemissa when she first appeared because, right now? This is Nemissa. Her running around up until now was the superhero equivalent of the home made costume; this is the costume that get's the movie poster and the box art, and she's pretty cool looking.
With that sorted, she walks out of the store, ignoring the clerk's objections that clothes she's wearing are just 0's and 1's and aren't actually real and she has to pay for them so they can be delivered in the real world. Which, considering how she is going to just dematerialising back to the real world and get the clothes for free, I guess makes this... shop lifting?
Well, whatever. If it's a crime, it's a victim-less one.
As we wander through Paradigm X, a rabbit suddenly appears floating in front of us. Yeah, it's a sudden segue way, but really, how do you make something like that run smoothly?
Yep, it's our old friend Kinap, now adopting the form of a bunny rabbit. He greets the pair of us, which Nemissa picks up on, but he tells us he doesn't have time to explain how he knows her. Instead, he's hear to ask us for a favour. He asks us to head to the movie theatre so that we can experience another Vision Quest oh no.
Looks like Saul's day can get worse after all. And mine, since following the format I established with the last one, that means I'm going to have to write up another semi-fan fic to cover our second Vision Quest.
My day was so much simpler when Hitomi was double-possessed.
