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Danny Dudekisser · Jun 23, 2012

Aeana said:
The power plant dungeon in DDS2 makes me rage. Rage.

I broke my game disc over that boss fight.

Fortunately, it was still cheap to buy at that point... the price skyrocketed shortly thereafter. Of course, that was the pre-"Atlus reprints everything" era.

Aeana · Jun 23, 2012

I'm just talking about the dungeon, with the colored door switches and the detours. I can imagine the developers cackling maniacally as they rerouted the player all the way around these areas just to hit a damn terminal and walk alllllll the way back to the doors.

Aeana · Jun 23, 2012

I think the

airport

dungeon is actually my favorite in DDS2. In general, the music in DDS2 reminds me a lot of Meguro's circa-Persona 1 style, with the wispy sci-fi synths and stuff, and this dungeon gives me vibes from that era as well.

SatelliteOfLove · Jun 23, 2012

Aeana said:
I think the

airport

dungeon is actually my favorite in DDS2. In general, the music in DDS2 reminds me a lot of Meguro's circa-Persona 1 style, with the wispy sci-fi synths and stuff, and this dungeon gives me vibes from that era as well.

My favorite dungeon theme from there was

EGG Facility

I think it was the combination of the sparse high-pitched trance mixing with the endless corridors of sterile white cubicles, labs, and walls. Unnerving after a while like the Forest Temple of OoT.

cj_iwakura · Jun 23, 2012

My favorite area in DDS2 was probably the very last one, just because of how out there it was. Literally.

perfect free · Jun 23, 2012

SatelliteOfLove said:
My favorite dungeon theme from there was

EGG Facility

I think it was the combination of the sparse high-pitched trance mixing with the endless corridors of sterile white cubicles, labs, and walls. Unnerving after a while like the Forest Temple of OoT.

This is my pick too. Damn, I've really gotta play the DDSs again.

Deleted member 13876 · Jun 23, 2012

Oh help. 2 magatama left...I don't want to feel obligated to play that puzzle nightmare. I have a very poor sense of direction and even with the video next to me it'll take ages.

cj_iwakura · Jun 23, 2012

The Doublejump guide laid out solutions nicely. I can help you if needbe, since I own it.

Finalow · Jun 23, 2012

Chacranajxy said:
I broke my game disc over that boss fight.

it isn't easy and I thought to spend a lot of time grinding but I just took a couple of levels to beat them. guess you need to be lucky with vanity.

Finalow · Jun 23, 2012

Nils said:
Oh help. 2 magatama left...I don't want to feel obligated to play that puzzle nightmare. I have a very poor sense of direction and even with the video next to me it'll take ages.

nah, 20 mins and you're done. I took that for mediarama, not even for the last magatama.

Jucksalbe · Jun 23, 2012

Found some time to take the screenshots of my last play sessions. There were about 12 hours of video I haven't posted about yet.

This time: Samsara Tunnels.

Samsara Tunnels is not a destination you can choose on the map, though. You have to go through Svadhisthana (again). Looking at the map, you have to get to the easternmost exit. At least they take the time to tell you about this, so you don't have to wander around aimlessly through an old dungeon with weak enemies.

At the exit we meet Lupa (haha), leader of the Wolves. He aks for assistance to defeat Varin and the Brutes. In exchange the we take his position.

There we are. Samsara Tunnels! It's going to be a looong trip.

So, the tunnels connect directly the Brutes' base. But we're not alone.

Lupa will go ahead and clear the way. And he will do so quite thoroughly. You can see the result of that all along the way.

A look at the map halfway through the first area. This dungeon is pretty long with a lot of branching pathes. Coupled with the usual high encounter rate, this can become quite a pain. It took me around 4-5 hours going by the videos. Also: there's a red wall close to the beginning. I don't have the Red Key yet, so this will have to wait until later.

The same map a while later. Took longer than it looks.

One of the bodies you can find along the way. Lupa doesn't devour his victims, which is not good, you should always finish your meal. And, of course, it's a strong hint what might happen.

First (optional) mini boss fight. Very "mini". They don't have many HP and it's pretty easy to guess their weaknesses. But you should remember them, there might be another fight.

Sometimes you come across this special segments. You only have limited time to find your way around a labyrinthine water pump. If you're too slow you will be pushed back to the entrance and have to start over again. At least you retain your map, that also notes the directions of the streams.

This one's pretty straightforward, though, so I made it through on my first try.

Now we finally reached the northern part of the tunnels. Can't be too long now, right? Also, we get another hint that Lupa didn't clean his plate.

And then there's that....

Now that I read it again, I wonder if this is just about Lupa going crazy or a hint about the optional bosses that are supposedly in this dungeon? Oh, and look how I've come!

Told you they'd be back. And they even brought reinforcements. Well, to be exact, those are not the same people we killed before, not that there's any difference.

And now for the big labyrinth. Behind the waterfall is another water pump segment (protected by a yellow wall). This one's a lot more complex than the first one, but it's also optional.

This time you also have to turn a valve to reverse the currents before you can reach the end. All in limited time, of course. The time limit is one cycle from Min noise to Min again. Every team you use a stream one segment is used.

And when you take too long, you're thrown out and have to start over.

It's not hard to find the right way, but it will probably take a few tries (I think I needed four tries). There are random encounters down there, too, so it takes some time.

And the reward for all the trouble is........the Red Key! The nice thing is, you have to go back by yourself.

Right in front of the last Large Terminal there are two additional colored walls. So before we can go on, there're three walls to take care of.

First off, back to the red wall from the beginning of the dungeon. Behind it is another Field Hunt. I failed, so nothing there to brag about. The other two walls have nothing especially important behind them.

Back to the terminal and on to the boss fight. To everyone's surprise it's Lupa who has now gone completely crazy from hunger. Time to take him down and take his position.

He has three heads which you can attack in any order. I started with the right head (so the left one from your perspective), then center, then left. I don't really know if this is the best way to do it, but the left head mostly uses Diarama and Mahama, so he's not really dangerous, so I'd leave him be until the end. You should also really bring "Void Fire" or something similar since he can use a very strong fire attack. Believe me, I didn't have it and it was pretty close for me several times during the fight.

So we won. Lupa utters some last wishes I didn't want to spoiler here. Also, this scene is a great example how a game can use blood effectively if it's not splattered all the time.

And that's it. We reached the Brutes' base. Another confusing dungeon in its own way. But that will have to wait until the next update.

Deleted member 13876 · Jun 23, 2012

Kalpas down. Level 73. MVP of the entire game so far has been my dude Wu Kong. Physcial block, Attack all, attack drain, life surge, avege, might, tarukaja, rakukaja makes him so versatile and useful in both regualar and boss battles. Except against physical resisters but those are rare.

Urban Scholar · Jun 23, 2012

I really liked the Lupa fight for the story stuff with Gale. Really cool if you ask me

cj_iwakura · Jun 23, 2012

Yaraiginza Arcade District Part 2 and to the First Dungeon

Anyways, so now I enter the weapon store.

Inside, I see this man holding a cat. A woman then exits the room and like five shelves loaded with guns and swords pop out of nowhere. Awesome? Definitely.

Make sure to buy the best weapon you can right now. Also, make sure you can equip it. You can tell if you can equip it, if your name to the right lights up yellow. If it does that, then you can equip the weapon. After buying a weapon, make sure to buy several bullets. At least 10-15. In SMT: DS guns work differently than in SMT 1/2. You now actually have to buy quantities of bullets. Needless to say, this makes guns a lot less efficient than they were in the previous SMT games. Either way, make sure to definitely buy some bullets. They only cost 10 yen each. You'll need it for the first dungeon.

Once you have bought them, there's only really two more stores of sorts that you need to go buy. A item store and another place where you can later exchange MAG for Yen. First I'm going by the item store. The item store is located right by the weapon store at:

Here you can buy some items if you want. I personally would suggest buying the Potions. Which are the first item on the menu. They cost 200 Yen each. Buy like 2-3. Once you're done here, there's one more location you should know about in town. I don't know the name of the place, but let's just call it the exchange place.

Here you can exchange MAG(Magnetite. Won from battles. When demons are in your party, they consume magnetite every step you take in town or at a dungeon.) for Yen. If not, you can do the opposite and also exchange Yen for MAG. Either way, you have no MAG right now, but it'll be a good place to come back to later. Last, I suggest you check around town for trashbins. They are usually in the corners. Searching through one of them, I found 1000 Yen. Definitely something you don't want to miss out on.

Now we're ready to get going to the first dungeon. Leave town and head to the section of the world map where the bar place was at. Here, go to the public library. It's the huge three building place. You can't miss it!

Enter and...Welcome to the first dungeon of the game.

Otherworld Dungeon 1: Public Library

This is the first dungeon of the game. It basically looks like a haunted library kind of place. Either way, it's extremely linear and very straightforward.

Before I get onto how to get through the dungeon, I would like to talk about the enemies you encounter here and some of the battle mechanics in SMT: DS. First off, here is one enemy of importance to look out for here:

Ba:

Lv: 7
HP: 36
MP: 15
ATK: 24
DEF: 20

These are the first enemies to look out for. You'll easily recognize them as they have a pretty weird design. Anyways though, these enemies are incredibly annoying because melee physical attacks with swords and stuff do next to no damage to them. You'll need your gun to do significant damage to them. Using the gun, you'll do 20-30 damage per turn to them. This is why I said you should buy bullets back in town. Fortunately, they give a lot of EXP and MAG when defeated. So they are well worth the trouble to fight.

Back to talking about the first dungeon of the game and enemies you need to look out for. There's one other enemy I want to talk about. The first being this flamingo enemy. This enemy's name is Baibo.

Bibao:

HP: 30
MP: 16
ATK: 18
DEF: 18

Anyways Bibaos are annoying enemies to deal with because they are similar to Bas. They take like 3-4 damage from sword attacks with the strongest buy able weapon at this point of the game. Similar to Ba's though, they are incredibly weak to gun shots. So you'll need your bullets to handle these enemies too. Fortunately, they give pretty decent EXP and MAG too. You won't encounter these enemies until you start taking the elevator on the fourth floor down some floors. So don't worry about running into them early on in the dungeon.

With that out of the way, it's pretty much time to proceed through the first dungeon of the game. Some things you should know are that there is one chest on the third floor of the first dungeon and another treasure chest on the fourth floor. Your goal is to make it to B1. Basement 1 essentially. In order to get there, you're gonna need to ride the elevator down there. The elevator is located on the fourth floor. Getting to the fourth floor is incredibly easy because this place is so linear and straightforward. Once you arrive at the fourth floor you literally just go forward and you'll reach the elevator.

Eventually, you will get there. Now you can take the elevator down to floors 4-B1. I think there was a chest on the 2F or 3F, but I can't quite remember. Right now, I would focus on just leveling.

The first boss of the game is pretty easy, but you wanna be prepared just in case if you are someone like me who cannot read Japanese for the most part. Personally, I trained in the area that taking the elevator to the 1F gets you to. It's a really nice long hallway where you can get several steps in at a time walking back and forth. Making it incredibly easy to get into encounters. I personally leveled all the way to level 17. Why? I did that because there was a really strong demon that I could get 17. As you can obviously figure out, that's pretty overkill for this point of the game. Especially when you consider that the first boss of the game is level 12. Still, I would suggest getting to at least level 13 if you want to be safe. 15 is definitely better though because you can get some pretty good demons. Another important thing to do is to talk to demons and recruit them.

That may sound impossible if you don't know Japanese like me, but it isn't. Just use save states. I would like to say I do normally consider save states cheating in games, but I think it's only fair in this game. Without it, demon negotiation would be ridiculously hard to do due to not knowing Japanese. Either way, you should be able to recruit a whole lot of demons. I was able to get around 5-6 recruited in this dungeon. Eventually I hit level 17 and went back to the Goumaden at the Yaraiginza Arcade District. There I did some demon fusing and I got that Lv.17 demon I wanted to fuse. Name of the demon is Yomotsu-Shikome In order to get the Lv.17 demon I had to fuse a Ba and Bogle together. Both of whom are recruitable in the first dungeon.

Aside from that demon, I also fused another demon. Named Yamakiki. A lv.16 demon. Unfortunately, I was foolish and forgot to memorize what I used to fuse the demon. However, I eventually got the demon and realized I couldn't use with Yomotsu-Shikome in my party. Because they had conflicting alignments. Shikome was chaos and Yamakiki was not.

To be continued Part 3

Urban Scholar · Jun 23, 2012

May I ask are you guys using capturing footage stuff to take those screens? Er, this question is directed more so to those playing console SMT.

cj_iwakura · Jun 23, 2012

I used to record using Pinnacle's capture device, then I'd screencap from the recordings.

Obviously much easier if you can just capture images while playing, though it does make the actual playing more tedious.

Jucksalbe · Jun 23, 2012

Pretty much the same here. I play on my PS2 but split the signal to my Hauppauge capture device. So I record on my PC while I play on the TV and later on I take the screenshots from the video. That's why my last posts are so far behind my actual progress.

Urban Scholar · Jun 23, 2012

cj_iwakura said:
I used to record using Pinnacle's capture device, then I'd screencap from the recordings.

Obviously much easier if you can just capture images while playing, though it does make the actual playing more tedious.

Oh! Raidou videos on youtube I may or may not have uploaded was done with the above a few years back.

cj_iwakura · Jun 23, 2012

Editor's note on OG Devil Summoner: some of those awesome shopkeepers appear in Soul Hackers too.

Same 'guns pop out of concealed cabinet' wickedness, too.

SatelliteOfLove · Jun 23, 2012

Nils said:
Kalpas down. Level 73. MVP of the entire game so far has been my dude Wu Kong. Physcial block, Attack all, attack drain, life surge, avege, might, tarukaja, rakukaja makes him so versatile and useful in both regualar and boss battles. Except against physical resisters but those are rare.

Yup. Mine had Bright Might, the only weakness is Avenge doesn't trigger since he's immune to Phsyical. It's legacy, so that's OK.

charlequin · Jun 23, 2012

Aeana said:
I think the

airport

dungeon is actually my favorite in DDS2

It's definitely the most fun (in terms of dungeon design, enemies, and music) IMO.

cj_iwakura said:
My favorite area in DDS2 was probably the very last one, just because of how out there it was. Literally.

I fucking hate the final dungeon of DDS2, omg.

Jucksalbe · Jun 23, 2012

So, now that we've reached the compound of the base of the Brutes, everyone seems to be talking about the building. Something seems to be special about it. Too bad we won't find out in this post.

It looks like a big mansion from the inside. No zombies here, but a lot of locked doors. Those pillars with the colored orbs in their center all rearrange the building's structure and each lead to a different boss.

There's a Large Terminal upstairs, so you have a chance to heal after each segment or whenever you come back. There're also a lot of paintings on the walls. They seem to be "real" art, but with my limited knowledge the only painting I could actually identify is the one by Vermeer shown in the screenshot.

So, I used the red pillar first. Which means I get to explore the west side of the mansion. After a couple of corridors, I found:

The first boss! Doesn't he look cute with his puppy dog eyes?

You should use Void Death every round since he can petrify (and then instant kill) your characters. And he can use my favorite skill in this game: Psycho Rage! I'm not sure if that means he is enraged or I am.

But the good thing is, he is weak to fire attacks. It takes a while, but it's not that hard to win.

Something you will encounter this blue fields which warp you all over the place. Makes it kinda hard to predict which door will get you where because you can't see them on the map. Oh, and I died again.

Next up: the green pillar. Time to head through the eastern doors.

This time the boss wants to teach you a valuable lesson.

Which means: Everything you throw at her might come back. Or: she will use any one of the attacks you used against her in her turn. She also calls for reinforcements. So you will have to fight three of her. They can do a combo for an even stronger version of your attack. I guess this fight would be very easy if you just use the same attack with all three characters and have one of them use a shield of that element. But I don't have two characters that have the same spells, so I had to endure her spells or sometimes use "Pass" to have the same character attack and use a shield.

Victory!

All that's left (for now) is the blue pillar. This leads you to the northwestern section of the mansion.

I guess this is the part where the developers thought it would be a good time do die again. First you will be poisened by a chest and then inside the next room you get a nasty enemy encounter from the next chest. The enemies here (as always) will return as normal random encounters in the next dungeon. Oh, how you should look forward to that.

Next boss! This time you have to fight against five small dragons. Some good advice: Don't start of like I did and cast Mabufula. That's a good round for nothing. When you kill one of them, they can call reinforcements. So try to kill as many of them in one round as possible.

One of the dragons seems to be special. He has a lot more HP than anyone else and he can eat his companions to grow. I'm not really sure if there's a limit to how much he grows, he did it three or four times in the fight.

Byebye.

With all bosses gone, the white pillar in the middle is now accessible. So I headed back and activated it. It says to look in the northern part of the mansion, which is a bit strange since there's no door in the north that you can open. So you have to try the other doors to find the right path. There is a strange fight on the way:

What the hell is happening here? Is this unique to one area? I only ever had it happen once, I was kinda surprised and still don't quite know what is up with it. Is it supposed to be a joke or is there any deeper meaning behind it? Can I be strong enough for him to acknowledge me?

Anyway, further on, there's another a bit out of place segment. You can go to the basement into this horror game environment and it's the only place I ever saw it. It's optional, though, and right before the boss fight.

So, we arrive at a place that looks exactly like the entrance, but is somewhat different. Everyone gets attacked by some invisible person who turns out to be Varin.

The boss fight has two stages. In the first stage you have to fight against his invisible form. Which means you get to choose six different places to attack. If you're right, you deal damage, if not it counts as a miss and you lose an additional turn.

Luckily, after a few misses Sera steps in to help and gives you (a bit vague) hints about his locations. His attacks aren't very strong, so this stage is not hard. I guess it can be a bit frustrating and slow.

For the next fight he hides in some kind of armor (or whatever). It looks nice, because he opens it for every attack he does.

There are two big problems in this fight: Hunger Wave and Infinite Wind. Hunger Wave afflicts a unique status where everyone becomes mad because of their hunger. This means they will either take damage or attack their team mates. You can't control your characters in this state and it seems there are no items or spells that can cure it. Infinite Wind is just a very strong wind attack. Which isn't a problem as long as you can cast "Force Drain" or something similar. It becomes a big problem once your character that can cast "Force Drain" is hit by Hunger Wave (and maybe on top of that your strongest healer, too).

Sera steps in again. With her song she can heal you from this hunger status, but she only does it once per round and only on one character (who seems to be chosen randomly). There's a bit of luck involved in this fight and I was pretty close to a Game Over from time to time.

But in the end I managed to beat him.

*SCENE MISSING*

You get another choice in the following scene which may or may not have some kind of effect. Also, I noticed on my way out that there seems to be a "chest" on the balcony above me. Either I missed that or they just want to tease me.

So, now that ours is the only tribe that's left, it's time to head to the temple and reach Nirvana. The temple doesn't seem to share this opinion and the guards try to stop us.

There's another scene here that seems to have some kind of relevance. Maybe in the next game?

Now that we're inside the temple, it's time for a break.

Danny Dudekisser · Jun 23, 2012

charlequin said:
I fucking hate the final dungeon of DDS2, omg.

I didn't mind the last dungeon too much. It's just that goddamned Meganada. Worst fucking thing in the fucking world.

Deleted member 13876 · Jun 23, 2012

MechaX said:
... Or, the "Deja Vu Boy" who appears to be the same Tatsuya Suou mentioned earlier in the game who is taking on Tatsuya Sudou. Sudou is spouting words, but Jun is more confused more than anything else. Jun states that he can't actually remember what Sudou wants him to remember. But then Maya and company actually arrive on the scene...

You just reminded me how much those names confused me when I was playing the game. Tatsuya Suou, Tatsuya Sudou, Katsuya Suou. Eternal Punishment is actually the first SMT game I ever played but I never finished it. Think I hit the 70-75% mark before a dungeon with an irritating layout made me stop playing for a while before losing my save shortly after.

cj_iwakura · Jun 23, 2012

Girimehkala's an optional boss if memory serves. Only challenges you at a certain level.

Deleted member 13876 · Jun 23, 2012

SatelliteOfLove said:
Yup. Mine had Bright Might, the only weakness is Avenge doesn't trigger since he's immune to Phsyical. It's legacy, so that's OK.

Haha why didn't I catch that? I think I even discarded Tetrakarn for it, figuring the Avenge would be an occasional built-in attack reflector. It's probably because I love Avenge so much on my other characters I felt I had to have it. Hope it randomly skill changes later on.

Finalow · Jun 23, 2012

Jucksalbe said:
What the hell is happening here? Is this unique to one area? I only ever had it happen once, I was kinda surprised and still don't quite know what is up with it. Is it supposed to be a joke or is there any deeper meaning behind it? Can I be strong enough for him to acknowledge me?

I found him like 15 times when I was grinding in that area, I think you can fight him only at high level or something. couldn't find anything on gamefaqs so I didn't really bother too much.

cj_iwakura · Jun 23, 2012

finalozzo said:
I found him like 15 times when I was grinding in that area, I think you can fight him only at high level or something. couldn't find anything on gamefaqs so I didn't really bother too much.

He's required if you want to fight the major optional bosses.

Jucksalbe · Jun 23, 2012

finalozzo said:
I found him like 15 times when I was grinding in that area, I think you can fight him only at high level or something.

What's a good level to be at at the end of the game? I'm currently at 52 right before the fight against Garuda.

Deleted member 13876 · Jun 23, 2012

Jucksalbe said:
What's a good level to be at at the end of the game? I'm currently at 52 right before the fight against Garuda.

I think I was around that level too and had no trouble beating it.

SatelliteOfLove · Jun 23, 2012

Nils said:
Haha why didn't I catch that? I think I even discarded Tetrakarn for it, figuring the Avenge would be an occasional built-in attack reflector. It's probably because I love Avenge so much on my other characters I felt I had to have it. Hope it randomly skill changes later on.

I fused him with something I forgot to get a rockin' Thor then resummoned him for more Wu FUCKING Kong red-ass beatdown action.

Danny Dudekisser · Jun 23, 2012

Alright, so The Last Story is apparently delayed till the end of July, which means I have tons of time for other RPGs.

So I decided I want to actually try Devil Summoner 2 (Raidou Kuzonoha vs. Dat Abbaddon Bitch)... but I also have Radiant Historia... do I play DS2 first to support the cause, or go with the other one? Life is so difficult.

cj_iwakura · Jun 23, 2012

Chacranajxy said:
Alright, so The Last Story is apparently delayed till the end of July, which means I have tons of time for other RPGs.

So I decided I want to actually try Devil Summoner 2 (Raidou Kuzonoha vs. Dat Abbaddon Bitch)... but I also have Radiant Historia... do I play DS2 first to support the cause, or go with the other one? Life is so difficult.

Raidou 2 at home, RH on the go, of course.

Danny Dudekisser · Jun 23, 2012

cj_iwakura said:
Raidou 2 at home, RH on the go, of course.

I never play games outside the house. I ain't no nerd, son!

Aeana · Jun 23, 2012

DO IT

Danny Dudekisser · Jun 23, 2012

Aeana said:
DO IT

What, you want me to play the Nocturne rerelease with the much less cool Raidou involved?

Feh!

No, I reckon you're saying to play Devil Summoner. I think I will, if only because it's on a console instead of a handheld. Not sure how I'm gonna go about taking pics of my progress. Maybe just shitty iphone pictures.

Edit: But man, it's clearly tough to motivate myself to play the game. I'm expecting the same drudgery I suffered through in the first Devil Summoner, cuz the second game reuses a lot of setpieces, music, etc. That first game was so terribly miserable.

7threst · Jun 23, 2012

Man, I didn't keep up with this thread

But anyways, still playing SMT III: Lucifer's Call/Nocturne...

I finished Ikebukuro, and also the first Kalpa. I also finishin up the second Kalpa. Got the visor now, so I am trying to get a good score on all the bosses. I have no idea if that is gonna get me something but who cares, it's fun in between the story!

Right now, I arrived at Kabukicho prison. That whole mirage thing, I remember it being a pain and this playthrough is not different. Still, I keep pushing on, I hope to finish it up soon.

Aeana · Jun 23, 2012

Chacranajxy said:
What, you want me to play the Nocturne rerelease with the much less cool Raidou involved?

Feh!

No, I reckon you're saying to play Devil Summoner. I think I will, if only because it's on a console instead of a handheld. Not sure how I'm gonna go about taking pics of my progress. Maybe just shitty iphone pictures.

Edit: But man, it's clearly tough to motivate myself to play the game. I'm expecting the same drudgery I suffered through in the first Devil Summoner, cuz the second game reuses a lot of setpieces, music, etc. That first game was so terribly miserable.

It reuses a lot of the same environments, yes. But the combat is completely different. The fusion is different, too.

Danny Dudekisser · Jun 24, 2012

Aeana said:
It reuses a lot of the same environments, yes. But the combat is completely different. The fusion is different, too.

Does it still have the nonsense where it's like "YOU NEED A FIRE POKEMON TO GET THRU THIS PART OF THE ENVIRONMENT - GO MAKE ONE, RAIDAWG, CUZ OTHERWISE YOU CAN'T PROGRESS AND SHOULD JUST TURN THIS PIECE OF SHIT OFF!!"?

Because I didn't like that very much in the first game.

Aeana · Jun 24, 2012

Chacranajxy said:
Does it still have the nonsense where it's like "YOU NEED A FIRE POKEMON TO GET THRU THIS PART OF THE ENVIRONMENT - GO MAKE ONE, RAIDOU, CUZ OTHERWISE YOU CAN'T PROGRESS AND SHOULD JUST TURN THIS PIECE OF SHIT OFF!!"?

Because I didn't like that very much in the first game.

It does, but the investigation elements are actually much less prominent, and you need fewer types of demons to get through the stuff.
But honestly, keeping one demon of each race is not a hardship or anything like that.

You'll also want to keep a diverse spread of demons just because their negotiation skills are so useful.

TurnipFritters · Jun 24, 2012

Also since you don't need to max out a demon's loyalty to use it in fusion (and even if you did you can have two in battle at a time instead of just one), so "Go get a fire pokemon" isn't quite the barrier it was in the first game.

Aeana · Jun 24, 2012

It has just occurred to me that DDS2 is basically FF4.
How weird.

Danny Dudekisser · Jun 24, 2012

Aeana said:
It does, but the investigation elements are actually much less prominent, and you need fewer types of demons to get through the stuff.
But honestly, keeping one demon of each race is not a hardship or anything like that.

You'll also want to keep a diverse spread of demons just because their negotiation skills are so useful.

TurnipFritters said:
Also since you don't need to max out a demon's loyalty to use it in fusion (and even if you did you can have two in battle at a time instead of just one), so "Go get a fire pokemon" isn't quite the barrier it was in the first game.

Excellent. Thanks, guys. I'll dig into that as soon as I finish up Ocarina of Time 3DS.

Aeana said:
It has just occurred to me that DDS2 is basically FF4.
How weird.

Holy crap... you're right. Wow.

Deleted member 13876 · Jun 24, 2012

All Magatama are in my possession, currently level 79. Should be on track to get the true demon ending. Ended up copying every single move in that puzzle game from that video.

Aeana · Jun 24, 2012

Fin!
I find it interesting that DDS1 actually took me longer than 2 this go around, since that hasn't been the case in the past, but I also think DDS2 is a lot easier than 1, particularly if you know the dungeons. The most time-consuming part of the game is navigating the dungeons, which are much more monstrous than in DDS1. Unlocking mantras is much quicker if you know where what you want is, relative to DDS1, as well.

It was nice to revisit these games, but I feel like I probably won't want to play them again for a good long while. I also think this is where I'm going to step away from further playing for the anniversary, at least for now. I had it in my mind to bookend with Raidou 2, but I'm kinda itching to play some other things, so perhaps later.

Finalow · Jun 24, 2012

cj_iwakura said:
He's required if you want to fight the major optional bosses.

mh I think I only killed Beelzebub and another optional boss, then I just finished the game.

Deleted member 13876 · Jun 24, 2012

finalozzo said:
mh I think I only killed Beelzebub and another optional boss, then I just finished the game.

I only did Beelzebub, but decided not to go for the other ones. Because I had zero space on the PS2 memory card I had to delete my save for a cleared data file to import so I didn't have the chance to backtrack later but I wasn't really inclined to do so. They probably shouldn't have cordoned off virtually all optional bosses until the endgame. If they put the Amala Labyrinth at the very end of Nocturne I wouldn't have bothered either.

Finalow · Jun 24, 2012

Aeana said:
It has just occurred to me that DDS2 is basically FF4.
How weird.

what?

also, wow, you finshed DDS a lot faster than SMTI and II. but well, I guess that's 'cause you knew those games pretty well.

Jucksalbe · Jun 24, 2012

Short update, to finally get in line with my actual progress again.

Right away we have to fight another set of guards. It's the same exact fight as before. Since there's a hard boss fight coming up, I'd recommend going back to the terminal after defeating the guards. I didn't and had to fight them again....two times.

Behind them we reach a familiar room. This time we can use the elevator that should bring us to the top. But it's not that easy. The elevator goes down instead and we have to fight our way to the top.

As soon as we try to use another elevator, this nice fellow attacks. Seems I'm not supposed to leave here. I had a hard time with this fight. His main attack is "Hima Alaya" which is a strong ice attack that hits your whole party. Of course, "Ice Drain" seems the most obvious counter. The problem is, this boss doesn't seem to be as stupid as other enemies. When you put up an ice barrier he simply doesn't use this spell anymore, but instead switches to Maziodyne. As I'm using Gale this means the choice between a strong ice spell which noone is weak to and Maziodyne which is a bit weaker but hits Gale's weakness. So for the rest of my first fight, I decided to just let him do his Hima Alaya and heal as much as I can.

As you can see, it didn't work out. It was pretty close, though. Another big problem is, that he can confuse all your characters, so with a little bit of bad luck your healer is out of commission. On my second try, I switched the strategy to using Ice Drain, which turned out to be even worse. The extra turn he'd gain because of Maziodyne ended the fight pretty quickly. On my third (and final try) I decided to switch out Gale for Heat and keep using Ice Drain. Only problem (which I only noticed in the fight) was that Heat's "strongest" spell was Agi. At least it gave me another turn. In the end I took him down, but it was quite a lot of work.

We start our way upwards at -492ft.

This was one random fight I really hated. So much even, that I decided to run away everytime it came. I still had "Quick Escape" set for Gale, it finally came in handy.

There are some "puzzle" segments in this dungeon. The first one has those glowing floors, that either make you fall through the floor (and you have to walk all the way back) or make you fly through the wall. The solution is pretty straightforward and easy to see. There are also some walls that only appear or disappear right in front of you, but I forgot to take some screenshots of that.

Progess: Reached 1902ft.

This place is especially mean. The elevator is right in front of you, but you can't avoid the glowing floor. Of course it makes you fall down and it takes you about half an hour to come back here (on the other side).

Progress: 4198ft. Also here you can find the first(?) enemy that's only weak to guns. I started this fight in human form, don't know if this was on purpose or just luck.

After that we reach the outside. There are some conspicuous birds flying around the tower. But for now we have to find the way up. This means using switches, that generate this pillar of light, which you have to touch to raise the platform you're own. And you have to do this three or four times. Maybe they wanted you to relax a little bit.

When you reach the door those two birds attack. One after the other, luckily. First up is Jatayu. He's not very hard, but he can cast a variety of debuffs.

He went down quickly. Of course, every time a boss fight seems to be too easy there has to something else.

And he hits very hard. Mostly because he can use both Mind Charge and Power Charge and also has three turns per round. With one attack he finished off two of my characters (who were fully healed). Which inevitably led to:

This is where I stopped. I haven't yet tried it again, some people here already gave some good advice, so I hope this will end different next time. The only thing that really bothers me is that they didn't put a terminal right before the fight, you have to start at the beginning of this outdoor area instead.

Danny Dudekisser · Jun 24, 2012

I remember Garuda being a complete twat. Fuck him!

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