Part 114: Episode CVIII: Mecha Lord

Episode CVIII: Mecha Lord



Azabu Kamiyashiki has now appeared as a location in the Imperial Capital. We have no other business of note we can attend to at the moment. So... who is up for storming a government building and beating the shit out of a right-wing asshole old man with questionable policies? Yuri Hyuga has raised his hand at this query and so the motion is passed.


Music: In Darkness of a Labyrinth ~ Dungeon



Who the hell are you?!
Yo! It's the protagonists.
He's here, right? The mastermind behind all this... Foreign Minister Ishimura!
I've gotta 11 o'clock appointment with my fist and his face. And a noon luncheon with my foot and his ass.

Those appointment are NOT on today's agenda schedule, good sir!

The two soldiers advance forward and point their guns at Yuri.



Do not take a single step further!





Kurando and Joachim ninja down off a rooftop and clobber the two guards. You'd think they would just lead with that play. But then again, that probably was the plan but Yuri hasn't really shied away from an opportunity to shit talk jobbers and we're kind of running out of named ones at this point. So here we are.



<paces back and forth>
So what are you guys ordering for the evening shift snack? I'm thinking tacos.
That doesn't sound bad.
I'll pass. Mexican doesn't agree with my stomach. Plus, my daughter has me on a strict diet. I think I'll just get a big salad.
You're looking good. It's really paying o—



The sound of gunfire a few rooms over downstairs.


Music: Crisis



Oh you didn't hear? He resigned a few days ago.
What?! Nobody told me about that!
Yeah he's gone. I think his girlfriend died.
That sucks. She was hot.
What about those other super cyborgs of his?
I think they quit too. They were pretty loyal guys. It's a shame but it's nice to see solidarity in a team.
So it is JUST us left to defend Minister Ishimura?!
Seems that way.
Yep.
These rebels... these TERRORISTS killed an entire battleship full of our men a month ago! Two of them had swords. The rest were barehanded. They had a wild wolf! We had a full platoon on that ship and twenty units of mechanized support. I barely made it out with my life! And Special Agent Kato decides now is a good time to retire?!
Grief is rough, Lt. Colonel. He's going through a lot.
Yeah, I heard he was planning on destroying the world or something.
What?! Nobody is looking into that?! That seems like a VERY LARGE public security issue!
Beyond my pay grade, sir. I just do what I'm told.

Another soldier storms into the room behind the trio and startles them in the process.



The officer in command said the Minister wouldn't leave...
What?!
His family is leaving through the back.
Why isn't he leaving with them?!
He said he wanted to take a nap first, sir. You know how fussy he gets if he misses his early evening nap.
He does get rather fussy, Lt. Colonel.
Mhm.
God DAMMIT! This country is running on clown shoes!

Another soldier hurriedly rushes into the room.



Ah, Kasama! What's the situation down below?
Sir! Boar Team at the entrance has been completely eliminated! Captain Yamazaki of Stag Team is leading a counter!
Damn them! They won't get through! They won't get to the Minister!
Sir, didn't you say these guys took out an entire platoon and mechanized units? We don't even have mechs stationed here.
...Oh that's where you're wrong, son. We'll show them the glory of the Iron Soldiers!
We're actually Titanium Soldier classification, sir.
No matter! We're all in this fight now! Take positions!
This is not what I signed up for.
I knew I should have just eaten the student loan debt and went to university...



Welcome to the raid on Azabu Kamiyashiki. To call this a dungeon would be a real stretch. This is just a forced battle gauntlet since we're literally just kicking open the front door and beating anyone's ass between us and Yuri's fist connecting with Minister Ishimura's face. We could honestly probably ignore this guy at this point since all of his plans are shot and his supernatural henchmen are either dead or quit to do a solo villainy gig and it's just a shitty old man with a bunch of stormtroopers under his command. But Yuri really needs to vent some aggression for getting robbed of acing Nicolai after all that and these guys pulled the short straw.



Every time we come into the aggro zone of a soldier on the field they will utilize the tried and true to get you immediately killed having more bravado than brains method of rushing in to face the party.




Music: Deep in Coma ~ Battle in Japan



The only common enemy we'll be facing in this area is the final tier reskin of the Japanese special forces Iron Soldiers -- the Titanium Soldiers. These are Fire elemental enemies with 210 HP. Which is JUST enough health to be kind of annoying to deal with. They come in groups of four to six and usually are bunched up in configurations of four clumped together or several rows of two soldiers. Their health is annoying because none of our AOE magic QUITE does over the 200 HP of damage threshold and using an AOE attack has knockback that will scatter them in every direction so we cannot just follow up with a secondary AOE attack.



And they can actually output a decent amount of damage as their only attack is dumping their oversized faux-MP40s into a target three times in a row for 75-100 HP of damage and all members surviving a round will immediately squad up to do a combo. Usually, two soldiers at minimum survive a round so that's one character down in the ballpark of 200 HP every battle. Lucia put in some work healing folks between fights on the sidelines. And their AI seems to just pick one character to hate and everyone will target them in succession regardless of combo building. Their AI particularly seemed to hate Blanca. I had one fight where four guys were still left at the end of a round and they just stacked up to shoot a dog to death firing literally 60 bullets into it until dead. It was like I was watching a mid-season episode of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.


Music: Crisis



That aside, all we need to do is follow this winding series of corridors to the end in order to reach Minister Ishimura. But there are some side rooms.





All of which just lead to ambushes by the Titanium Soldiers and bonus fights. If the mandatory number of fights isn't enough.





There are not even bonus items or anything in most of the rooms. It's just... here's an extra squad of soldiers you can kill! Have fun! Back to the main path...



(Desperate Lieutenant Miyagawa) Engage!



They should not have engaged.





His boldness was his undoing. But this one side room does have a point of interest in an optional conversation. Plus, we may want to come back here later.



Meh.
Ishimura is upstairs... We just can't get to him...
What are we going to do?
We can't retreat now that we've got this far. I wanna see who we're dealing with face to face... As long as he's alive, the war and the lies will never stop.
So what's the plan now? They're out in force.
We... keep beating up guys until we get to him.
I figured as much.
Hey, if it works...



There's nothing to be done here at the moment other than possibly save and use a tent. But let's remember this location exists and return to violently assaulting the Japanese military.





Here lies Stag Team. Cause of Death: Suicide by Yuri Hyuga and friends. At this point, Yuri is on a big fuckin' adventure of kicking a bunch of people's asses #4 and he's only been in two games. The word should have gotten out to not approach Yuri Hyuga and weirdos surrounding him.



Sees Yuri running at him and nopes out down the hall and bursts back into the room Terada is guarding.





What?! Yamazaki's out?!
Did he announce his team's name and tell them they're putting their lives on the line?!
He did, sir. It had no effect! They're all dead!
<looks at the wall for a moment>
<turns to Kasama> Okay, you take back up here!
Sir!
Listen up, everyone! Butterfly Team is all we've got left! It's up to us now! We're not gonna be beaten by these kids! Let's show them what the Titanium Soldiers can do!
Let's do it!



At this point, we're dumped out at a save point and can just lick our wounds and go face Terada and his men at the door ending the hallway. But there are a couple of side rooms to explore first.





Ambush Leader, Captain Kubotani was not particularly well trained at ambushes. It goes poorly.





But we can loot a Locker Key 5 off his corpse. Disappointingly, it only produces another Pure Extract if we backtrack to the locker room. Also, it is of note there are actually random battles against more Titanium Soldier squads if we do decide to backtrack during this sequence. I was actually surprised I hit one on the way back from traveling to the locker room.



There is another side room just before the boss chamber at the end of the hall.





Charging instead of ambushing did not help. Unless his name was Charging and he was a Sergeant and the fact he charged into battle before dying was just happenstance.





His body also has another Locker Key that can be looted. This one has another Mind's Eye if memorizing where the Judgment Ring parts to make the already fairly easy battles go quicker. Not really my thing. Especially playing on an emulator with the slightest hint of input lag iffiness on occasion.



Anyway, going through the door at the end of the hallway leads to the end of this mini-dungeon. The only prep we need is to make sure everyone has some decent magic spells and physical defenses.



You guys aren't so bad...
Solid C- for generic goons.
But if you value your lives, get out of my way! It's only Ishimura I want.



Attaaaack!




Music: Deep in Coma ~ Battle in Japan



The two soldiers in the room manage to split into six and the room balloons to five times its original size. And Terada decides to hang back. Someone needs to coordinate the battle, right?


Music: Result ~ Victory





None of these tactics help them from all getting slaughtered within a minute.


Music: Crisis



Oh? Is someone actually coming to their senses, huh? Yeah, sure. Go. I don't have a beef with you if you're not in my wa—
Just one more thing before I go...
<deep annoyed sigh> Uuuuuugh!!
<points weapon at Yuri> My ultimate weapon! Mecha Lord!




Music: Deep in Coma ~ Battle in Japan



Welp. I guess we're fighting a robot now. It's unclear if this is some superpower armor mecha Terada is in or if he just stuffed a 12-foot tall robot into Ishimura's office awkwardly to unveil it and attack Yuri and the gang. It really doesn't matter, does it? This is a Water elemental enemy with 6380 HP. The only other note is that its Japanese name is Mobile Weapon Platform: Kannazuki -- the traditional Japanese name of the 10th month (October) on the Japanese calendar. I don't know what that has to do with a big clumsy-looking steampunk mecha, but there you go.



Oh and its other noteworthy trait is that it is completely immune to physical damage. It can't take magical elemental, especially Fire-based, attacks for shit but we're not punching and kicking this thing to death anytime soon.



Its most dangerous attack is Power Cannon which is a straight line magical attack (i.e. it can hit grouped up party members) that inflicts a fairly healthy amount of damage in the 200-225 HP range. Despite being a laser cannon this is technically considered to be a physical attack.





Actually, while being immune to physical damage itself, all of Mecha Lord's attacks are physical attacks. So Arc-Shield is a must to have up at all times. The latter two of which are just punching the shit out of a targeted character to the tune of just shy of 200 HP of damage as well. One of his attack strings will Falcon Punch a character across the room and can potentially damage anyone in their path. The machine can also fire an AOE cannon. It hurts for roughly the same amount of damage. But... that's about it.





And beyond that... it's a Shadow Hearts 2 fight. If we do not have to heal, we just Combo the shit out of it, but with magic this time! And boy, does he not like getting the Combo Magic Fire elemental finisher. Pulling that off is over 1500 HP of which 650 is just the finisher of damage for the whole combo.


Music: Result ~ Victory





Yuri, I have good news! With these deaths, I am positive we have wiped out the entire Empire of Japan Military!



And even more importantly we got an accessory with +2 Physical Defense and a 20% increase to the wearer's max HP.



I do not know if we killed Valiant Lieutenant Colonel Terada and just left an orphan in our wake since they explicitly mentioned he was a good dad in both his bios. But Yuri and the gang have defeated the Iron Soldiers faction for good and we never see them or Terada in the main plot ever again. So basically they're all dead as far as the game is concerned! All generic goon squads have been defeated in Shadow Hearts: Covenant. Now to go kick an old man's ass in celebration!






Video: Mecha Lord Boss Battle





Titanium Soldiers Concept Art - "Steve, can you see a goddamn thing in this helmet?" "That's a negative, sir."





Lt. Col. Terada Concept Art - I'm glad he's canonically actually just a dad they stuck in power armor.



Mecha Lord Concept Art - Guy on Left: Wow, cool robot!