Part 64: Episode LXIV: Yuri's Awakening

Episode LXIV: Yuri's Awakening


Music: Atmosphere - Blow Up



We've got seven days until Space God moseys his ass here from the M72 Nebula to destroy the world. At least, according to noted bad at time management warlock Albert Simon amid villainous cackling and desperately trying to avoid any further debris beaning him in the head during the float's rising. Naturally, with this limited timeframe the most responsible course of action is a training montage backpacking across Europe and dicking around in past locations we've visited. Side quests beckon, Albert Simon and the end of the world can wait.



Our current ranking has us on par with Amon, which is just stronger than Jack's Mom but weaker than one of those creepy chubby naked angel babies. No relation to the giant cannibal space baby Grotesqueries.



After Final Fantasy X, any JRPG endgame bollocks feels like a cake walk. Shadow Hearts' in particular is mostly fairly straightforward stuff. Well, straightforward if you look up what the hell the game wants out of you. The bulk of it requires bringing specific party members (or in some cases having specific folks NOT in the party at the time) in order to trigger bonus events. For this first session, we're gonna need both Zhuzhen and Alice to be in the active party.



We'll just be working our way backward across Europe doing sidequests we come across as we move along. That seems the most efficient way of handling things. Every location, save Calios Mental Hospital for some reason, has some new content. Today's session will take us back to Nemeton Monastery to mop up any outlying content that can be squeezed out of Wales.


Music: Callback from Jesus



One thing we need to do is to AVOID ever talking to Roger Bacon until we're absolutely ready to advance the plot. Speaking with Roger again won't lock us out of any side quest content but it WILL lock in which ending we receive and I'd prefer to keep that open until the latest time possible. We don't need Roger for anything just yet anyhow. Instead, let's go back to the monastery ruins to the north, where...

Zhuzhen dashes over and starts examining James O' Flaherty's grave.



What's up, Master?
I'm just checking this grave out. It's been bothering me since before.
<squints at grave> What's this written beneath... "He... never... scored"? I wonder what that is all about.
<turns back to Yuri and Alice> Don't worry. I'm not up to any tricks. You guys just go kill some time somewhere.
As usual, your curiosity is way out of control, pops.
Whatcha tryin' to get good measurements for your headstone when you kick the bucket?
Eat me, junior.
Nah. We'll give you a proper burial. Not a fan of munching on dried up jerky.
Hehe. That's awful.
Just get lost for a few minutes. Sheesh.
Well, anyway... c'mon, let's go over there.

Yuri and Alice head into the ruins.


Music: Trip or Treat



We’ve come a long way, huh…
Both literally and figuratively. Glad I never had a place to squat or else the bills would be piling up back home being gone this long...
<turns away> Yuri… do you regret it? I mean, coming this far.
Regret? Haha! What’re you talking about!? No way!
I've got to punch new and exciting things. I can fuse into a buncha freaky junk. I've met a buncha weirdos and I even get along with some of 'em. It's been great.
<walks forward> You know, until I met you, I was living the life of a loser.
I was fighting guys and monsters and junk all the time and I was still Level 1... What was I even doing with my life?

Yuri walks to the edge of the ruins.



I know that I’m needed.
People are like "Oh hey, it's Yuri!" and not "Oh HELL, it's Yuri!" There's a lot less screaming and running when I'm around. I'm kinda OK with that...
My power of fusion, which I thought was so terrible… is what allows me to protect you. Sometimes, I even think such stupid things like, boy, is this happiness? Ha ha ha! I sound stupid!
Yuri…
I don’t know how this battle is going to turn out, but… The day you die, I’ll die too.



<starts pacing> The night of the storm… I was just a kid, and I couldn’t protect my mother from the monsters. But somehow I survived, thanks to my power. Ever since then, I cursed my own existence constantly. I asked myself… why do I have to be all alone? What could I have done differently that night…? Why didn’t I die…
That time?
Yeah. That night was the beginning of everything…
Is it cool if I flashback here? I won't if you don't wanna.
No no... It's fine.
'Kay, cool.


Music: Don't Cry My Vampire



We lived in kinda a crappy cottage. Mom kept talking about maybe getting a bed for us to sleep in sometimes instead of just lying on the floor each night. But it never panned out...

Anne Hyuga looks out the window then turns to Young Yuri.



Spring’ll come soon, then once it warms up dad will come back!!
Yes. Then all three of us can be together again.
<nods> It’s not too long now, mom. Even if you miss him you gotta be strong!
<laughs> Well!
Oh yeah! Know what? There’s something I wanna have!! It’s… a little brother or sister!!
My! Right away?!
Lihua told me! When mommy and daddy are together, they can make babies!
You gotta do something called the "grinding bones" ritual and then boom! Babies! I can go find some bones to help if you want.
That is... that's OK, sweetheart...
They have seven brothers and sisters over there! That’s what I want!!
You better hurry up if you're ever gonna catch up! They're making you look bad!


Anne gets embarrassed and walks away.



Privately. You may have to sleep over with one of your friends one night.
Really? I'm allowed? Awesome!
<turns back toward Yuri>

Anne walks out to the window and looks outside.



Wh... Who’re they?!



This... can't be good...
<looks to the door> I got it!

Yuri runs toward the front door.



Huh?

Music: ENDS



Two men shuffle into the cottage.



What’s going on?! You all look so weird?!
Wow, I never noticed how similar they looked. Mom, are Maki and Lihua related?
Now's not the time, Yuri...

Two more identical men amble into the home. Yuri runs over to his mother.



<Maki's Uncle> Hehehe. Here's some fine food.
<Lihua's Dad> Gah hah hah heh heh... The Earth Sage sent us here to eat the two of you!
<Neighbor Liu> Bwahaha. Yum-yum!
<Kang from Down the Road> Kuhuhu. I like to participate in community gatherings.

The four zombified men surround Anne and Yuri. The two hug each other in fear.



No! Not him!
M-mom! I’m scared! What happened to them?!
Hehhee! This is so fun! But no matter how much I eat, I never get full.
All you can eat buffet... now it's a challenge.
S-stay baaaack!



Young Yuri lunges at one of the possessed cannibal men. It goes about as well as you'd expect...









Turns out Anne Hyuga had a glass jaw and a very fragile neck because that backhand kills her. Unlike Yuri...

Young Yuri immediately pops back up from his slap as soon as his mother goes down.





He does not take it well...


CLICK HERE FOR VIDEO! (This scene gets voice acting. All the playable characters get a narrated voice acted scene for their bonus side quests.)


Music: Someone's Table



My mother gave her life protecting me from the monsters.



But when I looked into her eyes a moment before she died, it awakened in me the blood of my father that had been lying dormant.



A fire ignited within me...



...and my emotions exploded like a hurricane!



I don’t really remember anything after that. The next thing I knew, the room was littered with the torn-up body parts of the monsters that had killed my mother. I was the only one left alive in the house and covered with blood. I clung to my mother’s cold corpse all night long, weeping and begging her to forgive me... For breaking my promise to my father. For failing to protect her.



I could never stand to feel that way again. So the day that I fail to protect you… is the day that I *too* will die!


Music: Trip or Treat



...That's a lot of info to dump on someone out of nowhere...
Hey, I warned you I was gonna flashback!
Yeah... Yeah, I guess you did...
Yuri...
...
I, I love...

Music: ENDS. Zhuzhen runs up to Yuri in the middle of the conversation.



......
!?
<turns around and looks at Alice> Uh… urr… am I interrupting something here…?
No, not at all!
<looks at Yuri> Right!
Nope. We were just about to see an old man die...
<glares at Yuri>
Huh? What?!! So… what is it? What d’you find?
<turns back to Yuri> Oh, right. It’s this! Look!

Zhuzhen hands Yuri something.

What is it?
An ancient book called “Book of Rituals”. I found it in a hidden compartment on that grave.
It's weird they'd use a grave as a hiding place for a cursed book. They must really not have cared much for that guy...
It’s got all kinds of interesting stuff in it about old traditions! According to what it says here…

Yuri starts clenching his fist and getting visibly pissed.



Stupid! We were having a special moment! I’m about to…
What did I do? Are you mad at me?
<swipes> What makes you think I’m mad!
Not one bit mad. I'm just gonna go smash my frikkin' face into a wall for a while to show how not mad I am right now...
Err... you do you, kid...



Yuri is OUT!



Master, I’m going after him!
You just... stay here for a while... For your own good.
You young folks are strange...

Alice runs off after Yuri.



<shakes head> Sheesh! Just when I was going to tell them about this amazing secret…


Music: Callback from Jesus



What Zhuzhen found was a Valuable known as the Book of Rituals. That is CLEARLY not a picture of Mt. Olympus. The Japanese title of this book was Unspeakable Cults which is a reference to Unaussprechlichen Kulten a book from the Cthulhu Mythos that was lost in translation.



So it turns out our old bumbling nemesis from the first half of the game, Dehuai, was actually the one who murdered Yuri's mother and led to his awakening into Harmonixer which ultimately ended up being the sorcerer's end. One more stepping on a rake from beyond the grave from old Dehuai. It's almost impressive. Anyway, before we leave Nemeton Monastery for some time, we need to take one more trek into the basement.


Music: Sanctuary Ruins





It wouldn't be a Shadow Hearts dungeon if there wasn't a bonus item left in the boss room that was only accessible AFTER we beat the boss and were whisked out of the dungeon for plot reasons. The Nemeton Sanctuary Ruins are no different. Albert Simon dropped a little trinket after that whole mess.



It's the book Albert Simon used to look up the address of the space god he summoned. Guess he had no need for it anymore. The Japanese name of this one was R'lyeh Writings, R'lyeh being a sunken city mentioned in a whole mess of HP Lovecraft stories beginning with The Call of Cthulhu. Remember, Albert Simon has been quoting the Necronomicon when casting spells since way back in the Prologue. Dude is a huge Lovecraft fan. Hopefully, not the parts where it's super racist. Or freaked out about penguins...



So what did those two forbidden texts actually do? Absolutely nothing! Yet, at least... Tune in next time as we track down one of their companion pieces. A little thing called the Émigré Document...






Video: Yuri's Flashback (You should watch this.)





Yuri Concept Art - Yuri was never quite sure how belts on his trench coat were supposed to work...