Part 44: Enlightenment

...So, Polsy found this sweet video of that guy from the end of the previous update doing something even cooler:

How To Defeat Satan in TWO Turns

I suddenly feel inadequate and like everything I have done in the past 43 updates was not impressive enough...

Oh well!

Now, where were we?

Nirvana



So we'll go back in time to just after fighting Meganada now. From there, we'll head back into his chamber and take the elevator up. That brings us to... a giant lotus, and I believe I also see a familiar friend.



holy shit

they got schroedingers name right in a dialogue box

...The solar data will simply recycle them endlessly, for all eternity. Does that make you sad, Seraph?
Yes.
There's nothing we can do. They must discover it for themselves.
I... don't know.
All we can do is pray, hoping that one day they will be released from their shackles.



So, we can still turn back and leave kinda. The point of no return here, overall, is more generous than ever being "when you literally start the final boss."



So, we'll just use that lotus to ascend ever higher and do just that.

Meeting God
yeah, so totally should just watch this instead. it's the first half of the update. second half is a different video for length reasons.

Silence









So, you might be wondering just what God looks like here.



Turns out that God is a giant pulsating brain. In space. Sure, why not.





Yeah, uh, I'm not sure the brain-god necessarily understands.

Entreaty









But, they do their best!





Oh, the brain-thing is just a cocoon. Kind of. God is a bit weird, naturally.



And from the centre comes a pseudo-pocket dimension.



It's really more just a giant cloak of solar data, but it warps the space around it.

Silence





And from it, God's true form emerges.



A giant, metallic almost-space-opera-battleship like thing with five faces.



And from each face, a... terminal from Nocturne... is just sitting there. I think I know how Demi-Fiend got here now.





I'll give God one thing about all this. Despite how odd and silly this scene kind of is, at least he cuts straight to the point.



Just waltz up, and he's all "yo, final boss time let's do this."

Divine Entity ~ Brahman
hey this is good and cool and awesome click it you won't regret it

Final Boss: God Brahman



So, hey, our final boss is Brahman. Of course it is. The highest god in all of Hinduism, and he who exists beyond the world as we know it.

Here... he's kind of a colossal chump. Because obviously, right? Pay no attention to that "One" in his name tag. It means nothing (right now).



So, Brahman has a very, very low pool of possible moves he can use. He uses Agidyne and Trisagion in lieu of Maragidyne. Trisagion being the Mega MT Fire spell.



Brahman really doesn't try that hard, so it doesn't hurt much. Also it's Fire elemental and basically all he uses are 2 Fire spells.



So, Fire Drain ad infinitum it is then. He drains Fire and has the usual boss resistances. I think he resists Almighty as well, but it really doesn't matter.



He occasionally casts Hamaon and Xanadu, but the Divine Ring makes that a non-issue if you have it.



After you wipe out all his HP, which takes no time because he has 3500HP, when his turns comes around he switches gears a bit.

Since these phase shifts occur at the start of his turn, if you want to drain his openers you need to cast the drain for the next phase in advance. Since he runs on a strict pattern this is easy to learn and memorise. Disappointing.

Giant, swooping camera pan...



And we get to fight Brahman Two now. As you might have surmised at this point, this is going to be a recurring thing. Brahman Two is the Force equivalent to the first phase. So now he drains Force instead of Fire, mostly uses Force spells etc. so that means we cast Drain Force now instead.

Also Vayaviya is a minor typo. It's supposed to be "Vayavya" (north-west in Sanskrit) in reference to which direction Vayu represents.



He's also the smartest of the first few because he casts Rakunda. I know, I'm shocked too.



Hamaon and Xanadu are dropped here, and replaced by Gate of Hell. And nothing else.



3500HP later, he switches to Brahman Three which is entirely Earth based. Apparently he can cast Mudoon in this form? It doesn't last long enough to get to though.



Since it's relevant now more than ever, in all phases he can use a phys attack called Light. It's not very effective.



It deals, uh, light tier Almighty damage to everyone. He can also cast Megidolaon, so whenever this happens its kind of the middle-ground between a nice breather and minor inconvenience.



Penultimate form is all about the Electric stuff, but it's also when things start to change a bit. This is when he gets semi-serious, kind of, maybe. If you squint.



Now he adds one of his actually important unique skills. Eternal Zero is kind of a super-buff spell, numerically giving him +6 to everything and you -6.



In terms that matter: no matter where your buffs and/or debuffs are this pushes him to maxed and you to crippled.



It's... not really that big of a deal though. Dekaja (Rock) and Dekunda remove it instantly and all. Oddly the Wiki page for Brahman recommends using Dekunda Rocks.

No such item exists.



Also he has some lesser ailment spells. No Vanity this time which is a nice change. So sick of seeing that spell at this point.



And last we have Ice.



This phase has more than 3,500HP (about 6,000 or so) and is the most threatening of the bunch.

Which is saying a lot, I know.



He'll quite happily use Eternal Zero here but this time he capitalises on it!



...By spamming Marevert until it hits someone.



Then he casts Revert until that hits as well.

Then he's out of turns because he didn't think this through very well.



This is also the only time he has his real, big unique move.



And it's a minor typo. Brahmastra is one of the greatest weapons ever created and is so powerful that it can destroy multiple dimensions simultaneously. It's so iconic and awesome that after the detonation of the first nuclear warhead in the Manhattan Project, Dr. Oppenheimer implied that Brahmastra was the first nuke ever. And also quoted the most famous line from the Mahabharata ("If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one. Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.").

Point is Brahmastra is super cool and awesome and should be a game ending event.



So of course it hits for about 150 Almighty damage. Sure it'd hurt if he did it after Eternal Zero, but so would literally everything else.

Hell, Vayavya and Narukami would technically hurt harder since they'd hit a weakness as well.

End

Also, yes, I feel obliged to point out at last that this fight would be harder if you didn't know the element thing and then abuse the shit out of it. It takes no time at all to figure out, though, and he has so little HP that it doesn't make that big of a difference.

Silence

Enlightenment
Seriously just watch this instead. No, do it.



Having been beaten, or shown the power of the human spirit or... something... Brahman just begins to take in a ton of solar data.



A lot of solar data, even. Every single head is sucking some in, and one of them begins to envelop the party...







Everyone was dead already, after all, so they re-enter the cycle of solar data to be born anew another time.



Seraph, however, is left alone once more.



And with it, comes a realisation.

One Word







At the end of a long and arduous journey, Seraph finally achieves true enlightenment.





















Hey, Schroedinger. Somehow, I just knew you'd turn up here.



Now explain yourself, cat. What is your deal? Just what are you, really?

















So, uh, Schroedinger was a Seraph. Presumably one from another time or another world. One who had already achieved enlightment.

that doesn't answer anything now im even more confused!

The Rising Sun





Oh, and Earth's in desperate need of repair. And all out of protagonists to ease it along.



Well, at least Fred survived. That's a definite good thing.

No, really. I like Fred. He's a'ight.





Also the sun is fixed. Somehow. I guess Brahman just realised not to fuck with us, because we'll come and kick his arse if he does it.

Success!



The sun...















Yeah, so, wouldn't you know it. The adult named Fred from the opening and the kid named Fred from the main plot were the same person the entire time!

The biggest revelation of all right there.

Hold on! Jenna, lets go!







Yeah, so, everyone important that we cared about got reincarnated as themself but a kid.



Even Angel got to come back with us! For... some reason!

Om Mani Padme Hm -Staffroll Arrange-



...Roland didn't though. No, really, go back and rewatch the opening. No Kid Roland. The universe really had it out for that guy.



Time Capsule
Not on any OST! It's good. I promise!



So, Digital Devil Saga. A kind of confusing game at first, but the more you think about it, the more sense it begins to make. Mostly.

Also easier than I remembered, but remembering things made it easier.



Mentioned it in the OP, and it's been mentioned in-thread a few times but Yu Godai's writing books about the game called Quantum Devil Saga. She sorta has the right to, since it's her plot and all and she never got to finish the game for health reasons.

They are (slowly) being translated in English. Apparently they are good.



Speaking of books, since it never came up in-game (misremembered this bit I guess):

Real world Serph and Heat have full names that are only mentioned in extra materials. Serph Sheffield is a giant dickhead who no one should like.



Heat's apparently Irish, or of Irish descent, because his full name is Heat O'Brien. He's actually the main character of a prequel book - That's Catch 22 - that takes place when he's a student at Yale (and so good he skipped right to the second year!). It's where he meets Serph and Margot Cuvier. Cuvier is a lecturer at Yale because obviously she is.



It's kind of a murder mystery! It contains a dude called Allen Harvey and he is an FBI investigator. I would hope that's not the real world version of the Harvey we knew (albeit briefly), but...

On the whole it sounds cool, but I haven't read it because it's not been translated. I don't think it has anyway.



There's also an intermediary short story called DOGDAYS set immediately after Harley gets his shit wrecked at the start of DDS1. It focuses on a baby tribe called, uh, the Casuals. It's also not available in English.



Point is, there's a lot of neat sidestuff that you probably didn't even know existed. Mostly because it isn't available in English. There's an entire spin-off game called A's TEST Server.

Yes, a spin-off of a spin-off. And long before Persona did it too. pretty sure that last bible did it first though

It's a Japan only cellphone game from 2006. I think I can safely presume that it is awful, between that and it starting by Serph waking up with plot convenient amnesia.



So, yeah, DDS1+2. Very good games. If you're still reading this, I recommend you play them for yourself. I can promise that even having read this, you will enjoy it.

You might even find it harder than you're expecting!