Part 19: The End of the Junkyard

Spider's String ~ The Second Movement



After speaking to Gale and coming through to here, we can no longer turn back. We have only one way to go now, and it's further up.

The Top Floor

Silence



And when we do so, we're attacked by a rogue penultimate cutscene.



Angel might not have been around when Sera reached the top of the temple, but she is about to pop in...



Her method of travel is identical to when we first/last saw her too.



Well, except for the giant light pillar. That's a bit different.



It's also way too bright for Sera to look at. The Rakshasa back there gives no fucks though.



...Huh, that doesn't look like Angel. Too human.

Maelstrom

You caused me quite a bit of trouble.



Is it just me, or does she look... familiar?

If I go back, will you leave the Junkyard alone?
I do not like wasting time. Do you really think I'd agree to that, knowing what I plan to do through you?





Rakshasa is very clearly not amused here...



And Sera's even ballsy enough to use him to threaten her own life to get Angel to leave!





However...





...yes, that is sanskrit floating around that little virus ball

...no, i do not know what it says!



And it's a pretty powerful virus ball, since it makes Rakshasa freak the fuck out and start to vibrate.



Because he's disintegrating! Jesus christ.

Since you show no signs of regret, I'll make this simple for you...





Angel has the better hand by far here and she knows it. Goddamn.

Silence

Meanwhile, just a little lower in the temple...





Before we can ponder the hexagon cloud things, the Karma Temple... no, the entire Junkyard begins to shake. Violently.



The actual clouds higher up begin to part ways...

What the hell?



And the ENTIRE JUNKYARD is being disintegrated rather quickly in the exact same manner Rakshasa was.



Everything is disappearing. Nothing is safe and none shall remain.



Regardless of whether it was the best place for defence...



Or the best place for offence.

Whoaa! Dis don't -- dis don't look good!

End

Spider's String ~ The Second Movement



Our comrades are still down there!

Since this is the last time we can, we'll see what everyone else thinks about the world literally ending before their eyes!



If we don't hurry, den we'll be erased too!



It... can't be. I trust Sera.
Who else has such power? What could have happened to Sera...? ...Or, are you suggesting someone as powerful as Sera is responsible?



Can't you tell!?

Ah, Heat. Ever the one-track mind.

And basically right past him is our absolute very last time to heal, switch skills and use all those Noises I've been hoardi- pffft ahahaha yeah right. Let's just go do this thing.

End of the Junkyard
just watch this instead if you can - its pretty long because its like 3 cutscenes, the final boss and the credits!!

Silence





...How does one "delete" a person?



And as if to just put that off for longer, the gang turn up right at this exact moment.



Angel is in no way bothered by this, though. But now that she's here...



Gale sees the enigmatic crying lady again. Fortunately, this time it has purpose beyong being weird and foreshadowy.



Namely, it helps Gale realise that he straight up lied to us before and that he DOES know Angel!

Thank you for coming. I intended on bringing you back but plans have changed. This matter no longer concerns you, so why dont you be good little children and leave?





Stop them.



And just from that one little sort-of command...



All five of the Embryon are frozen in place. Try as they might, they can no longer move...



Watercrown



Don't... you can't...



Despite being frozen in place, both Serph and Heat push against it and do slowly begin to move forwards. Very, VERY slowly.

Please stay back... Stay where you are, Serph.



But, it's in vain because just from blinking Sera adds extra pressure...



And forces them both to the ground.



Despite this, Angel is surprised by something...



Serph has too much protagonist in him to be stopped here. He pushes forward regardless, and in doing so his Atma is slowly being utilised.

Please stop, I beg you...







A demon epitomizes Karma in its simplest form. That should not be wasted. But, your hopes and beliefs are utterly worthless.

Silence



Well, there's a mistake if I ever saw one...



Because the gloves come off and Serph immediately goes full Varuna.



But, of course, it's not like he's the only one here who can transform.



Angel can too apparently and she has more control over it, only morphing one arm.



It's enough to parry Serph for the time being and force him to back off slightly.



did i mention before that mary elizabeth mcglynn is fucking fantastic as angel

because she is



Anyway! Now the rest of the Embryon can move freely too.



And because they can, that means it is time...



Time to fight Angel after she's fully transformed!

Boss: Onmyo Harihara

Hari-Hara
hey look its one of the best three four tracks in the first game click it click it click it



So, Harihara gets her own unique race and its just for this one fight. Onmyo means that she is the God of Yin and Yang (its short for Onmyōdō which means "the way of yin and yang") and that makes perfect sense here. Harihara is the unity between Shiva and Vishnu who are the functional antithesis of one another. It's also derived from their names, as Hari is one of the many, many names of Vishnu and Hara is an early name for Shiva.

This is actually replicated in this fight with Harihara switching between two forms throughout the battle. She starts in a slightly more timid stage that functions as the Vishnu form. Before we see what it does...



We'll immediately send her packing to the Shiva form instead. Each form has 1000 HP but with a catch. She doesn't transform immediately; instead its done as a free action at the start of her turn. This is actually clever and prevents you from steamrolling her paltry 4000 HP in a single turn or two.



also the initial/vishnu form has dekaja and dekunda just so you cant do that too

the shiva one inexplicably doesnt so i guess you could blitz the remaining 3000 here



But I wouldn't recommend it! The second form is all about the offense; Genocide is nowhere near as impressive here as you would expect.



Its damage is based on her HP and she only has 1000 for all it cares so its actually pretty crap!



And since that's all that form gets to do, we'll switch back to Vishnu and... well, huh. Vanity is actually pretty bad potentially. It's like Celestial Ray but without dealing Almighty damage, so you might think it can trigger Cielo's weakness. It can't.



It does, however, still throw around the chance of any and every ailment. Same conditions as Celestial Ray, so no stone/curse/instant death here.

This is probably one of the more threatening things that could happen in this part of the fight.



Speaking of, here's a quick rundown of everything else she never got to do. Shiva-form can use all 5 elemental Ma-dynes. Only the Ma-s though; none of the single target variants.



She can also drop an Executioner which sounds like it's going to be seriously lethal and deadly.



But, y'know, this is after 2 Rakukajas so it's not that threatening. Also she doesn't charge up or anything.



...wait what

Vishnu form can use Hunger Wave. That's a bad thing!

it means ravana was completely worthless and not unique at all poor guy



Also, y'know, it's only done here because Sera's here too. Song of Grace is still the only way to cure it.



Now, of course, where'd the fun be if they didn't have unique skills? These are also how where the Shiva or Vishnu form ideas come from; Vaikunta here is short for Vaikuntha-loka which is the eternal home of Vishnu (and Lakshmi as his consort).



Here, it just deals a crap amount of Almighty damage and has a chance to petrify dudes.



Bhairava is a form of Shiva associated with absolute annihilation. It was created when Shiva got pissy with Brahma for stepping all up in his territory and wanted to kill him. It worked.

(i realise i am over-simplifying some of these a lot)



Here, it deals a fucking ton and a half of Almighty damage. It's probably going to slaughter the shit out of whoever it hits... unless that little survival thing there happens.



There is a VERY small chance of this happening from any attack that would kill you. Instead, whoever was meant to die endures it and survives with 1hp. This also has the drawback of forcing them to revert to human. There is a passive called Close Call which claims to make this happen. It doesn't; it just makes it more likely.

its never ever ever worth using



You shall not escape this purgatory!

Anyway, Harihara here is super underwhelming. Has 4000 HP (functionally), and alternates between forms every 1000. After beating Shiva the second time, this stage of the fight ends.



But, of course, this IS the final boss we're talking about here. Ravana got two forms and he was basically some chump who was overhyped by the game to hell and back.



So, of course Harihara has an actual full on second form as well and unlike Ravana's it doesnt make her easier.



...Well, not directly. She IS laughably simple but for different reasons than Ravana.



It also does away with the "switching between two forms" thing and just mixes the two.

Final Boss: Onmyo Harihara (and 6 Cores)

Hari-Hara ~ The Second Movement
not as good as the first phase but its not too shabby either



So, Harihara here is a bit different to almost every other boss we've fought. Like Huang Long, her resistances kind of shift around during the fight but there's a catch.



First off, your buffs from the first part of the fight carry over to this part. Debuffs presumably do as well, but I always leave them to til now just in case.



So, Harihara at present reflects almost everything. Physical, Fire, Ice, Elec, Earth and Force are all repelled.



Harihara and her 6 cores here also massively resist Almighty.



Speaking of the cores, their offense is none-too-impressive. They use single target Dynes of their relevant element, or multi-target... mid tiers. So the one here that casts Bufudyne can alternatively cast Mabufula. Exciting.



See, the cores are an intrinsic part of the fight whether you like it or not. Each one is associated with an element, it repels that one by default and is neutral to the others. So long as one is alive, Harihara also repels that element. Getting rid of the Red Core makes Harihara vulnerable to Fire, for example.



The ideal way to handle this fight only requires TWO attacks. A single target of one element to get rid of a core, and a multi-target of the other element. So, if you want to prioritise Fire here, bring, i'unno, Bufudyne and Maragidyne. You win on the spot.

Defensively? Pffft, ahahaha. Get rid of the cores, and you can bring in anyone with any weakness uncovered. It does not matter one iota. There is no reason whatsoever to worry about having multi-element coverage here.

Since Serph is punchyman, I went for Revelation for my multi-target hitter.



Needless to say, it is quite effective!

...Each core has 450HP for reference. Harihara's is around 12,000.



Now, Harihara herself only gets 1 action. There is a maximum of seven possible actions in the enemy turn phase, since each Core gets one too. Harihara also happens to spawn in a core at the start of her turn if there is any dead.

This counts as a free action, so it doesn't use her turns up. Which is fair enough; if it didn't, she'd be even easier than she is already or she'd get 2 actions even if none were dead and that'd be too much to reasonably deal with.



When I said "a" core, I meant it by the way. She just spawns the one. And this is why you only need 2 attacks to win. Your ST attack now is used only if she spawns the core you need out of the way. Anything else, and your MT attack both removes the newly summoned core AND hurts Harihara in the process.



Attack-wise, she's not particularly impressive for the most part. She has the usual Dekunda/Dekaja affair which she'll use somewhat randomly whenever theres a single buff or debuff in play.



She also keeps Hunger Wave from the first phase of the fight. It's more of an annoyance here that drags things out than anything actually threatening though.



Her regular attack seems fancy...



But it just pokes everyone for minimal damage. Whatever.



Of course, she also kept Vanity. Needs something semi-threatening I guess.

...Oh and she DOES have a combo attack if theres two or more cores alive at the start of her turn. It just deals Almighty damage to everyone; its a little stronger than Megidolaon but not by much. She just never, ever wanted to do it for me this time though. I even went back and sat around for over half an hour trying to get her to do it and... nope. Even with all 6 cores there, she was more interested in failing to be effective with her regular attack than anything else.



Not really a hard fight, just a long one. For the final boss (...of the first half), Harihara is PRETTY underwhelming! Even if I didn't go out and trash the Si Xiang and Metatron, she'd be pretty simple and not worth worrying about.

Silence



so how about that ending



Fortunately, Angel was more concerned with beating us in a straight fight before (pfft she wishes) to use that virus-y ball thing. Now she remembers she has it and could use it whenever.



Instead, she just keeps it held out of the way up until Serph tries to kill her again.



Rather than block by parrying his attack again, she uses that thing instead.



It... doesn't quite end as she'd like, though. It does create a small explosion, but....



It sends Angel flying right into the side of that staircase.



Serph too, and it even has the added effect of demorphing him...



Only, uh, it also did that. And that don't look good!



Now... Everything will disappear... Nothing will stop it!





The temple itself is now breaking apart, and its not a slow thing either.



Everything around is tearing itself asunder.





I guess Gale trying to save Angel here makes sense, what with constantly seeing her in very brief flashback bits and all.

Speaking of which, when Angel looks at Gale...



She gets one too.



And then does accept his help, because she's actually confused by this. Huh.





Serph!







...well, shit



Serph!!



And from Sera yelling that, either as a quirk of the timing or her own doing, what remains of the temple just... explodes.

Surely Again...



The Junkyard is now gone.



What remained had just been destroyed, so now the Embryon, and Sera and Angel are just...



Floating in nothingness.



But, c'mon, you think that's going to stop Sera and Serph from trying to finish what they just started?



They get close. Very close, even.



Close enough to barely touch...



But, we're not exactly here for a perfectly happy ending now, are we?



...that doesnt mean it has to be super kingdom heartsy though



The Rain Stopped


if you watched the video you mightve stopped here there is a bit more post-credits!!

And so, that's (the main part of) Digital Devil Saga 1. You no doubt have some ideas of what just went on, but are probably very, VERY confused and have a ton of questions right now. Just about everything ever IS going to be explained in DDS2 when we get there...



But for now, how about something that looks very familiar. Just... in a weird and new setting.



And, like before, a naked Sera comes out from within. Only this time covered in some sort of tubing and liquid.

Meanwhile, somewhere else...



Serph's found his way to... somewhere and is wearing a very, very makeshift robe of sorts.



He's also having flashbacks to something we just saw mere minutes ago.



Needless to say, he's not happy about that at all. Gonna have to do something about being separated from Sera.

and the other embryon apparently but mainly sera



Wherever Serph is though, uh... to put it as scientifically as I can: shit be fucked, yo.



also the sun is a giant black sphere

thats pretty obviously bad!!
















First we have something else to do. There's some stuff I missed before because of being an idiot or skipped over it for convenience. Theres some special mantras I never unlocked that let you do... very, very wacky and stupid things. There's also one - and exactly one - thing that is only available in New Game+ here.



Technically the only thing across both that is absolutely mandatorily New Game+ only. It brings with it a different question to answer. Some fight for law, some fight for justice, some fight for freedom. But why do you fight?

What is your Reason?