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Shinjuku Medical Center (Vortex World)

So, now that we've awoken in the morgue, we can do a few things before even leaving the room.



We can see that our base stats are 2 across the board, and we have a few extras from somewhere. Nocturne, even as a HD remaster, shows its age in a few spots and this is one of them. We cannot see anything relevant to skill sets here beyond names; not even when we learn the next skill.



Regardless, we'll head on out and see what changes there are. I see one new thing already.



For the most part, generic NPCs don't really exist. Kind of. Like, they do but they're souls that appear as floating blue spheres. It's weird but just roll with it.

Since we're back in the basement, we have an idea of what to expect. Except for that door to the west. Perhaps we can see what lies beyond now.



Hm. Never mind. Off to the elevator we go, then.

Terminal

Silence

End

Shinjuku Medical Center (Vortex World)

So, this strange mysterious device is where we can save our game. Auto-saves have not been added to the remaster, so manually saving is very important.



And, uh, for... for reasons I am definitely going to do that right now. There's no fights in the immediate area but...



Anyway, the old weird surgical room has become a "Healing Room" now. There's even a soul here.



Keeping this guy in mind, since he fully heals us for free.



One last soul over by the gate right before the lift outta here.

, about before we're done. It is quite important.



The elevator is giving us this ominous message. We can opt to not go through, but there's no point to that. Gotta go though here to get anywhere else.



Ordinarily, this is just a warning to heal up and prepare for something but... things get a bit different here.

The Depths of Amala

We're on a thoroughly linear path here, so we'll just follow on ahead. That alcove to the right...



Has the first cube! Cubes contain treasure, mostly, so we'll want to find as many as we can.



This big cube, made of many smaller cubes, contains two Medicines. They're basic healing items that restore a fixed 50 HP. Very good right now, at least.



Little further ahead we have our first fight!

Forced Battle

For all intents and purposes, this area is basically a miniature tutorial of sorts. We're not told anything at any point though.



It also happens to be, without exception, the most difficult stretch of the game on Hard.



It kinda makes sense if you think about it, but also it is very, very silly.



Not so much this fight, specifically, but it is a good microcosm of the big problem here.



Will o' Wisps aren't really dangerous ever again, but this fight makes them seem more threatening.



Also, you cannot tell immediately but... making the first fight against two enemies that take half-damage from Physical attacks when that is literally your only option? That is so mean.



It leads to the unfortunate position that if we ever miss, or get critted, we're almost certainly going to die. In the first fight.



That holds true for, well, the entire area honestly. Sometimes it can be salvaged but not right now it can't! At least we get a guaranteed level here.

Level Up

The Depths of Amala

Being low on HP reveals that those cool tattoos... aren't. They've gone from green to red and we start to limp while Naoki is actively holding himself up. It's purely aesthetic, but it's a nice touch.



The one regular NPC here fully heals us for free. Gonna take full advantage of that while we can.



We have more fights to go...

Forced Battle

So, the... the second fight is off to a bad start.



Especially since this Preta absolutely loves to spam this attack skill.



...Though it basically ended up making the first turn a wash. Huh.



Technically simpler, since we can do actual damage and there's only one of them. Not any less dangerous, though.

Again, just on Hard.

The Depths of Amala

Heading on from there, we hit a branching path but the Old Man and Old Lady in Black show us which way to go.



We'll go in the exact opposite direction first, of course.

Forced Battle

Oh dear, a Kodama! This is perhaps the biggest threat thus far...



It hits reasonably hard and has a Will o' Wisp ally for good measure.



This is the one fight that makes me have to heal before we're done.



Kodama also has a Force elemental spell, which is more important later.



Right now, it hits about as hard as his regular attack but with an MP cost.



Still, things go just wrong enough to end this run...



Achievement unlocked: ate shit and died!

Game Over

Just gotta redo the first two fights again...



And throw enough Demi-Fiends at it to eventually win by sheer real-life attrition. Hardest fight in the game, right there.

The Depths of Amala

We don't get a level for beating that one, but we do get this. We won't be holding onto it for very long though.



For, you see, if we go to where the Old Man beckoned us we come across the ultimate challenge.

Forced Battle

Now, let's see how you fare... against two Kodama!



Immediately using that Maragi Rock to use a multi-target Fire attack to exploit Kodama's weakness. In true tutorial fashion, this was paced so that we'd learn that doing so gets us an extra turn!



That lets us immediately take out one Kodama and then the next on our next action. Problem solved.

Also, it is never going to come up organically so: you get an achievement for hitting 100 weaknesses in total. This should happen effortlessly really early.



That gets us to level 3, which is when we learn our first actual skill for good measure. Lunge costs 10% max HP to use, but does single target Phys damage (base power 41) and has an increased chance to Crit but reduced accuracy.

The Depths of Amala

Shinjuku Medical Center (Vortex World)

After all that, we're just dumped back in front of the lift.

...Gonna take a second to go back and save again. Don't wanna do that again, thanks.



Off back to the hospital proper, and we're trying to leave so the first floor it is.



Couple souls here to chat with, so we'll see what's what.

Pfft, I'm sure it's fine. How bad could it be?



Oh. Uh... maybe the annex is a good alternative then. Maybe we'd be able to get through here eventually but it'd take a lot longer.



We'll take the stairs up, but only on the west side. There's a cube over here, you see, but nothing on the east wing.



It's only one Medicine, but that's still plenty for now. Makes sense that we'd get medicine in a hospital too.



While we're up on the second floor, we'll check out the rooms up here as well. We could just skip 'em to get to the annex but nah. We're safe at the moment so we'll take our time.

We'll ignore the two doors opposite the elevator and beeline straight for the vending machines. They don't work any more so we can't get any Jackfrost Coffee.

Heading around to the east side's two rooms...



201A has a bit for us, huh.

I can only imagine that they're talking about some combination of Hikawa, Takao, Chiaki and Isamu. Nothing else really makes sense.

Hijiri's still in the basement after all.

That's basically just a reiteration of what we already know, but at least it gives us a rough idea of exactly where the annex is.



It makes it sound like of the two doors by the elevator, it's the one on the south but...



That just has two Life Stones for us. Right now, they're worth less than Medicine since they restore 25% HP but that just means they scale and are more worthwhile later.

Also we'll need a lot of them spare, in general, honestly.



Heading through the one doorway left and we... have a problem. We don't have an Annex Gate Pass!



Fortunately, there's a Pixie right here who might be able to help out.

So Pixie's not too shabby for our first ally, and one we mandatorily get for free. Her main stat being Luck is a bit unfortunate, but her Magic is enough to make up for it. No weakness is pretty nice right now, and she can even deal Elec damage (Zio) and heal in a pinch (Dia). There's a couple very nice skills in her learn set as well, for good measure.



She said Preta has the pass, and there's a group of them in room 203A so...

Forced Battle

This time around, we have three Preta to deal with but it's easier than the fights we've just done.

And yet in the original, original release? This WAS the first fight.



Part of what makes this easier is that these Preta do not spam Feral Claw (6% HP, base 34 power), sure. But also having Pixie here takes heat off the Demi-Fiend which helps too.



Mostly, though, it's because she has Zio.



Preta's have a lot (a lot) of weaknesses, of which Elec is one. That on its own gives us more breathing room.



Added bonus: her first cast of it and it inflicted Shock!

Shock makes attacks always hit and phys attacks always crit. It's kind of unnecessary here, since one hit and one Zio is enough to take out a Preta. Looks good though.

Shinjuku Medical Center (Vortex World)

Now that we have the Annex Pass, we can go the annex sure. But also, the color in the compass has changed somewhat. It used to be a static blue but now it changes shade to yellow and red as random encounters can happen now.



Though sometimes it just skips the red, because there's no real cooldown between fights.

Normal Battle

So, the hospital has five possible demons we can encounter. Three of them are from the weird red hallway place, so technically Will o' Wisp, Preta and Kodama are known quantities.



Of those, Kodama is the one we probably want most. It's one we can do something with other than "punch it" at least. Kinda.



Though this one took the initiative and did it before we had a chance!



See, we can use our turns to talk to enemy demons. Demi-Fiend can do it always, but demons can do it too!

...If they have an applicable skill. That "Seduce" on Pixie's stat screen is one of them, for example.



But in this case, Kodama spoke to us. This is pretty rare to happen at all, but it feels more likely to end with the demon joining us when it does happen.



Regardless of who initiates it, if the negotiation ends with the demon joining us the fight ends then and there.



In such a case, you get the EXP/macca/drops for whatever you killed first.



Kodama's... okay, I guess. Pretty well balanced so can fit into any role right now.

Kinspeak is a negotiation skill, but it does not allow Kodama to talk normally. It's a passive skill that helps if we're talking to another Jirae race demon. Very niche.



Demi-Fiend exclusive is the ability to summon specific demons from our stock midfight. This can be in an empty slot, or to instantly swap out something that we don't want in the fight. This does take a full press turn to use, so it's a bit situational.



Speaking of situational, at level 4 the Demi-Fiend learns Analyze. This would be way better as an infinitely reusable item but that's not around for a long while.



It's not super-useful, since it has limits, but it's handy enough. It also shows that Will o' Wisp is both really good and really bad at the same time. Resist Phys and being immune to Death Dark elemental stuff is great!

Shame that he's weak to literally everything else.



And one them even wants to talk to us. Which is not something I would ever bank on.



As a Foul race demon, we normally cannot negotiate with them. Doing so just wastes a turn.



There are exceptions to that, one of which we will take advantage of later, but it requires a bit of luck in how long it takes to line it up right.



So, here's a thing. You see how ours just has Needle Rush (10% HP, Phys damage, base power 41), but the enemy version has Deathtouch (5MP, Almighty elemental damage, base power 30; user drains 100% damage dealt) and Makakaja instead? Ours will eventually learn those skills. Makakaja is its last skill at level 6, even! It will also ultimately be better because of what else it learns in the interim.

Makakaja, by the way, is a buff that increases our party's magic damage at the cost of a mere 12MP. Will o' Wisp is the earliest source of it, by far, and it is worth getting for that alone. Also buffs/debuffs can be stacked. They can be stacked up to four times.



Also with Zan (3MP, Force damage, base power 37)? It's officially already better than random Will o' Wisps since it can do real things.



Anyway, last thing before we move on. When things level up, random stuff can happen! In the Demi-Fiend's case, it's just an effect of his magatama.



Marogareh can do a variety of positive effects, such as healing him/our entire party fully. Or sometimes just giving you a random +1 stat boost. That's very good whenever it happens. Even if its Luck! It's just less whelming then. Luck doesn't do literally nothing, but level up points are better suited for lierally every other stat.



Demons have more variety of their random events, but the most common one is talking to the Demi-Fiend.



Getting random free items is always good. The pool they draw for is varied based on the demon (roughly), with a general rule of higher base level gives better items.

Also, not going to come up in any organic way: another achievement for this happening 100 times total. Just level up demons and it'll happen eventually.

Shinjuku Medical Center (Vortex World)

Presumably this giant manta ray lad with a crown is that strong demon that's gonna shred us in no time. We'll see about that.



Gotta go into the annex proper, though, and there's something different here.



Datsue-Ba (this demon) isn't in the hospital beyond this one to talk to. It's kinda weird, but I sorta get it I suppose.

We'll head west from there, and see what's this way first. The door near Datsue-ba...



...leads to a dead-end hallway. With nothing in it. Well okay then.



The west-side of the annex proper has two rooms on it, of course, but no way down from here.



We'll check out room 204B first, since it's the furthest away.

Revival Bead brings back one demon that's been killed, but with a tiny sliver of health. Not worth using in-combat usually.

So, there's a vicious demon in 203B eh? Let's go take a look!



...Oh.

Shiisaa is a good friend. Ain't gonna eat nobody.



We'll head over to the other side, then. Couple rooms here and stairs down for good measure.

I would, but gotta encounter something we CAN talk to first!



Meanwhile, next door, we find some more Life Stones. The real main use for these, by the way, is in negotiations since basically everything wants them.

Nothing left on the second floor, so we'll head down the stairs back to the first floor.



Gonna take the right-turn here first, I suppose.



...Oh, I can see that door ain't opening from here.

So, we're stuck going the other way. That leads us further down.



Bringing us back to the basement. Before long, we'll hopefully have a way to loop back to where we started...



But first, we've got another room to duck into.



There's three souls here, but they're mostly not worth talking to.



They're basically a way of tutorialising Talk even more. But also they're mumbly losers, who I bet are looking at their soul shoes.



This one is maybe the most relevant. Sometimes when we try to talk to demons, another one intervenes immediately stopping us and automatically ending our entire turn.



This is technically true, I guess. There are ways around it for those, which we'll see before too long. Hopefully.



Around the corner from there, we've got a locked door that we can open. That can only mean one thing...



It's a shortcut back to a healing room and place to save!



At level 3, Will o' Wisp learns an interesting niche skill. I imagine a lot of folks don't necessarily like or use it, though.



For 8MP, it increases our encounter rate until New Kagutsuchi. What does that mean?



See that counter in the top-left corner? The one that says 3/8? That's the Kagutsuchi phase. What that exactly means will be explained later, don't worry, but it counts up and down from a range of 0 (New) to 8 (Full) in full cycles. This affects a variety of things, but the duration of several skills/item equivalents is always "until it ticks to New Kagutsuchi". What that means in practice is that their duration is kinda inconsistent, since it depends on what the phase is, and whether it's waxing or waning, when used. Mostly you just hold off until it's already at New for maximum potential.

That will be more relevant much later, of course.

Of the two doors around here, we'll head north first which brings us to another corridor with a few side doors. Head on into both as we pass them along this stretch...



First one gives us two MP restorative items. Right now these are basically just for our demons, but we'll be able to get the Demi-Fiend some spells later.



The other room is just one soul to talk to.

At the end of the corridor, is a ladder leading us up to... somewhere.



It's a nice little outdoor garden area, which is a dead-end but has 3 cubes!



A couple of attack items (multi-target Elec and Ice) and a free bit of money. Nothing here to complain at, though these rocks might not see use for a bit.



So, we'll just head back and take the west door at the branching point. This is mostly a straight line, but with one side room to take a quick step into.



I would absolutely recommend it, since Beads are a 100% HP restorative. Definitely could do with that later.



After that, it's just a straight shot to these stairs leading back up to the first floor.

Normal Battle

Of the two actually new demons in this area, Shikigami waited until now to turn up. He can appear earlier, but decided not to for whatever reason. The other new one didn't show up at all. She was being very rude.

Anyway, yes, Shikigami is a very utility demon. Tarukaja (12MP) is a buff that increases full party physical attack damage, Tarunda (20MP) is a debuff that decreases the entire enemy party's physical and magical attack damage, and Sukunda (12MP) is a debuff that decreases the entre enemy party's accuracy and evasion.

Also, he's level 4 and he repels Elec. Any Elec spell cast on him will bounce right back to the user, instantly ending their turn. Damage calculation is then done as normal, though, so the attack is reflected but (unlike certain other games) the damage is not.



Anyway, being a Brute that means Shikigami is Neutral-Chaos aligned. That means we can talk to him.



Since we initiated the conversation, it takes a bit more to get him to consider joining us. Just a Life Stone and Medicine so far...



And that's it! He's in.

29 more to go and we get an achievement for that! Possibly 27 if Kodama and Will o' Wisp talking first counts. I don't know, haven't checked and honestly won't. Just talk to things and you'll get that one too.



Since we beat up a buncha other demons first, Pixie leveled up and Demi-Fiend is already a high enough level now to see this. This is basically letting us know something can happen when she learns her final skill in two levels.

Shinjuku Medical Center (Vortex World)

Gonna take a bit for him to get to the same skillset as he had before, though. Tarukaja is his capstone, though it's a bit more common than Makakaja is so it's not as necessary to marathon for.

Beseech is a negotiation skill that tries to recruit other demons. Skills like that have situations where they work better and more where they work much worse. It's variable based on the skill, and even the user to some extent. I'll cover them as/when they come up.



Back to the first floor, and there's a door immediately in front of us. We'll ignore it for a second, though, and take that turn left.



You can see the symbol on the door at the end of the corridor. There's a save point here!

There's one other room here, and it's a healing room again. Much like the one in the basement, this lets us heal for free.



The save room here only has an S-Terminal. This doesn't mean too much right now, but that distinction will matter later.



After healing up, we'll head over to the final door and get this message... Guess it's time to swap Will o' Wisp out for Shikigami!

Forneus

Boss Appearance

Fallen Forneus

Boss Battle

So, as our first boss Forneus is... a bit of a joke, really. Most SMT first bosses are kind of trivial, though, since they basically just serve as a test to make sure you understand the combat system.



His biggest problem is that he is weak to Elec and gets Shocked surprisingly often. You are guaranteed to have Pixie, so you can always take advantage of it. Shikigami is fairly common and comes with it as standard too.



Attack-wise, he's all about ice and nothing else. This is why we benched Will o' Wisp. He, Preta and the last demon in the area who no-showed are all weak to Ice, so that's a nasty trick.

He only has one Press Turn normally, so he needs to hit a weakness to really take advantage of anything.



He's strong enough to do decent damage, but we can keep up with it no problem.



By the way, bosses? Can't be Analyzed. That's one of the big problems with it.



Once he loses a decent chunk of health, Forneus is taken aback that we're not just rolling over and dying for him.



He now uses Mabufu! It's Bufu, but even Ma.

I say "now" but he could do it before. Just like he literally did it now and all.



It's just multi-target ice, but with a catch. Ma- spells cost more MP than their single target variants and are weaker to compensate. For comparison, Bufu costs 3 MP and has a base power of 30 but Mabufu costs 8 MP and has a power of 20.

These numbers are the same for Zio/Mazio but NOT for Agi/Maragi or Zan/Mazan though. Agi/Zan have a power of 37 and Maragi/Mazan have a power of 30. Bufu/Zio can both inflict unique ailments, so I guess it's a balance thing.



At level 4, Pixie snagged this very useful spell. If you noticed the pattern with spell names, you'll have cottoned onto to Rakunda being a debuff.



In this case, it's defense. Both physical and magical, for good measure. It's kinda unnecessary here; I'm just using it so I don't kill him quickly.

Yes, that's as paradoxical as it sounds.



When in critical health, Forneus sounds super panicky and nervous.



His last skill is Icy Death! How ominous a name.



It.. it's Mabufu again. Almost literally, even. It's just as strong, costs the same amount of MP, is unique to this Forneus specifically and the one thing that differentiates it from Mabufu is their chances of inflicting Freeze.

Mabufu has a Freeze proc rate of 10%.

Icy Death? 5%.

Yes, it's worse.



Good EXP and macca for a jobber. Turquoise is kinda nice too. We'll be able to use that later. If I get enough gems in general and also remember.

In this fight, Forneus has 500 HP, 200 MP, 9 Strength, 9 Magic, 6 Vitality, 2 Agility and 2 Luck. He drains Ice and is immune to Dark. Oddly not Expel Light or ailments, though.

End

Shinjuku Medical Center (Vortex World)

For beating Forneus, we get our second magatama! Wadatsumi is named after Owatatsumi-no-Kami, the great god of the sea in Shinto mythology. Between that and it coming from Forneus, its skillset should be fairly guessable.



Nocturne doesn't have equipment, per se. We cannot get new weapons or armor or anything like that. Magatama fill that role in their stead. Each one grants stat boosts, weaknesses/resistances and even change what skills the Demi-Fiend can learn.



Wadatsumi is more focused towards spellcasting, as would make sense for something that gives spells.



Each skill on each magatama has a minimum level requirement. It can be learned on that level or later. Lunge at level 3 is not the earliest, technically, but we'll cover that way down the line. Ice Breath, the first on Wadatsumi, has a minimum level requirement of 7. We got this timed out perfectly.



Looking back at this screen for a second, you see how the Wadatsumi magatama is glowing and pulsing making it larger than Marogareh? That means when we level up, we will get a skill from it. If you don't want to look up exact level requirements, you can just check this screen and switch around as things you want become available.



Now that we have access to Wadatsumi, we're suddenly faced with a choice in how to build our Demi-Fiend.



And by "we" I mean "me." And I already know exactly what I'm going to do.

A New Tokyo

Tokyo After Conception

And yet, just as they leave... someone else arrives...



Two someones, in fact. A small black cat, and his human friend...



Gouto's voiced by Ray Chase. You might know him from such roles as post-timeskip Brother Nier in the Nier remaster, Eve in Nier: Automata, Bruno Buccciarati in Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Vento Aureo, Cadis Etrama di Raizel in Noblesse, Noctis in Final Fantasy XV and Mara in Persona 5.

End

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