Part 21: Nirvana?
AliveSo, before we begin and move onto DDS2 permanently, we'll take a very brief look at the attract video linked above.
See, the game sort of presumes you did watch it since the game itself starts in media res from where it wants to go from, but the attract video...
Starts right from the end of DDS1. It does bounce around a bit, but some of it is pretty important and worth a relatively brief examination here.
So, anyway as Serph wanders around... wherever he ended up, there's no people. Just a bunch of statues. Lots and lots of them.
One of them with a very real gun in its hands. How morbid!
Also it was a trap I guess? I mean, it's five-on-one and all but that's pretty unfair.
Just, uh, not quite in the way Serph's armoured new buddies would like.
Gotta respect the balls on them for trying to attack though. Does seem viable from their perspective...
Alive
Also that gun was still quite conveniently loaded. Good thing Serph's pretty well experienced with them, otherwise this wouldn't help anywhere near as much!
...Well, okay, maybe it would. These guys are hella incompetent. This guy gets taken out by having Serph's cloak thrown on his face.
and uh serph jumping on his head mario style for some reason but he was flailing with the cloak something fierce
Two buddies by the now broken statue at least get shot to death. Shieldguy manages to survive though thanks to the power of, uh, a shield.
And... transforms into a demon...
wait hang on what
Anyway! Conveniently, Serph can still do the same. And I like Varuna's chances against this guy all things considered!
Meanwhile, at a different spot and maybe a different time, two more of these guys in white were heckling someone else. Now it's just one because the other already got beaten offscreen.
Gale managed to take down one of two before deciding this was too much effort, I guess. Easier to just transform and be done with it.
That doesn't look like Vayu. Before we can see what Gale is doing here, it cuts to another scene again.
This time some random guy who's been cornered in an alleyway somewhere.
Which is relevant because Argilla is there to save him at the last second. She doesn't even need to consider Prithivi for this one.
End
So, Digital Devil Saga 2! No point beating around the bush any more. Let's dive in--
After getting setup. Since we've done plenty in the first game, we will get rewards doled out over time through here.
Exactly what we get is based on the save data used, of course. And I have plenty to choose from.
Just not quite as many as you might think. You can only use data that is marked EXTRA, since that's got a Harihara clear registered in it too. Anything before that is unusable, which is understandable enough.
So, anyway, I go with Slot 1 since it has the most stuff done. Barely. It has one little extra detail over the other post-Demifiend one.
Nothing for this, though. Rare items is just bonuses for beating various dudes. In particular, King Frost, Metatron, Huang Long and, yes, Demi-Fiend.
Bonus stats is based on how much of DDS1's Mantra grid got mastered on a per-character basis. I did consider maxing it out on everyone before deciding that was dumb and didn't.
Game difficulty is obtainable in two ways. Any DDS1 save unlocks it from the word go, but it's also available in New Game+ here.
vAlso it's not really that much harder anyway. It does very mundane things, like reduce the chance of running away (making it almost impossible for all the nothing that matters) and you get hit by criticals more often. And the critical increase is so slight you will not notice it ever.
It also does something dumb in that if ANYONE hits a weakness, it deals double damage instead of an extra 50%. "Hard" mode.
It does, however, have one thing that can only be done on Hard so of course we're doing it.
Introductions and Expositionjust watch this instead if you can its the entire rest of the update
So, we start off with a bunch of kids running through a forest.
A bunch of kids that look awful familiar.
And even have identical names to the Embryon.
Did we get shrunk offscreen or something?
Well, there's still two more people here than there should be if its just the Embryon. Tall guy and the red-haired girl are a mite out of place.
...Oh, he's new. Okay.
Om Mani Padme Hum
Data?
People have always wondered about things...
And it loks an awful lot like Sanskrit!
Where we came from...and where we're going... The Atonement
so who's ready for some relatively light exposition
Science, created by men who acted as gods, assumed our image and betrayed its creators' purpose.
Mankind signed a contract for great power and wealth...
I suupposed it couldnt be helped...
But, the ones picking the tab had quite the price to pay.
Ruins and wasteland stretching as far as the eyes could see.
So, yes, those statues Serph walked past were people. Now they've been petrified. By the sun.
Silence
Find them?
Alpha Team, began a search to the South. You men, follow me.
Roger.
So, for those of you who don't quite remember what happened in DDS1, just didn't pay attention or dove into DDS2 without playing/seeing/whatever DDS1 first, the game does give a recap of the general overview here.
The End of the Junkyard
It even straight up plays clips from DDS1 in it and they did not bother to silence them or anything so you can hear the cutscenes just fine.
They're (slightly) quieter than Fred at least. Still pretty distracting though!
Hideout
Hey, it's that cat. Didn't know that it came with us, but apparently it did. Huh. Also, that's Argilla speaking.
I'm sure Cielo and Heat are okay.
We must locate Sera. This world and the junkyard...
Sera has the answers.
Who are they, anyway? They just attacked without warning.
This line is from a semi-random new kid who we saw in the attract video who's voiced by Arif Kinchen. If that name stands out amongst everyone else in the cast to date as a "I've never heard of this guy" thing, then yeah. He, uh, mostly does/did bit parts in things and random unimportant NPCs. Also he was in Saved by the Bell and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air which is something I guess?
Society?
Don't you know anything? 
They hunt--!?
Savior of all mankind, my butt!
Oh, and Serph's here too. He agrees with the plan, naturally. Still doing that silent protagonist thing, though.
They may have captured our comrades. So we're in the same boat, aren't we? Do you know of a route to the City?
May we meet him? In return, we will helpe you rescue your comrades.
I thought you were fighting against the Society.
Why would a worriror's age be relavant?
Okay, it's a deal then. 
Silence
The kid here sticks his hand out to Serph. That's a new one.
To, uh, to Serph. And, of course, there's just the one choice here.
I'm Argilla. 
End
Whew, that's all finally done and out of the way. We can just dive straight into our journey to this Roland fella...