Part 150: Episode CXLIV: Covenant

Episode CXLIV: Covenant



Well... this featureless stormy realm that looks like where Squall and Seifer fought in the intro to Final Fantasy VIII is tearing itself apart at the seams. The gang should... probably consider departing. Even if the methodology is the vaguest possible thing. Just do an Earthbound, guys!




Music: ICARO Piano Arrangement ~ Main Theme



Well. Guess I'll die.
No, Gepetto. I mean you need to envision somewhere and pray to end up there. In a literal sense! It's magic crap! I didn't suddenly find religion!
The only thing I pray for is the further strengthening of my muscles.
Yeah, sure! Do that! I don't know!



Jumping Jehoshaphat!
Am I being raptured...?



<smiles and nods>
It's been a good run, kid. But I am going to hit the next bar I see and drink until I forget the last year.
That's fair.



<smiles and nods> Hmm!
I could do a flying summersault splash of tremendous strength from this height.





Yeah, I bet you could, buddy...





<waves and chuckles>
I've got nothing good to say. Good-bye!
You never did.



<pants and quietly whimpers>



Blanca, you were always the best boy!
Awroo. (I know.)





Well... I guess this is my life now...
It sure is!

Y-Yeah... Good luck with that, buddy. Take care, rugrat.
Oh, I'll take care of him!
I don't want to hear about this.
So long...





And that's the party swept up into a vague rapturing into the streams of time or... something like that...



Which just leaves Karin and Yuri to get sorted out here at the end of time circa 1915...

Yuri's chest starts glowing.



<gasp>
Looks like time's up. It's the Mistletoe's curse.
Oh god... We never did get around to fixing that... did we?
Nope. It's fine. It happens...



I knew I was living on borrowed time...
The curse waiting until three minutes after we defeated Kato and saved the world is maybe a little too on the nose. But, that's just kind of how these things tend to roll.



Are you scared?
<shakes head> No.
Will... you lose your memories too?
Never.



<walks forward> Yuri...



Don't look at me like that. I'll see you soon.



Please promise me. I... don't want to lose you forever...
<nods and smiles> Yeah.





It's now Karin's time to get raptured to points unknown as this Japanese space-time anomaly runs entirely on dramatically appropriate mechanics.







Karin!
What?



<tears up> Thank you!!



<smiles and nods>







<stares at hand> ......
......
...That was a nice goodbye. I'll keep it to myself it was completely undercut on my end seeing directly up her skirt one last time. Heh. One last ridiculous moment for my dumb life.



I'll see you all again someday.



The adventure is over. I've lost a lot. In the end, was it really worth it? Will the new future be any better? Anyway, my story is over... I can feel it... the Mistletoe is finally stealing away my soul. Even if I can go back to my friends, I won't really be me anymore. But then again, if it means I'll be able to live the rest of my life in peace...



I guess I couldn't ask for any more...





Music: ENDS









Curse Tree Yuri in the graveyard finally wakes up after just creepily being the only landmark in the Fusion upgrade hub area.





And it too, gets raptured. I'm sure that's fine. It'll all be fine. It somehow usually works out Rude Hero punchboy. Except for all the times, it hasn't and he's been having background large degrees of depression over it. But, maybe this time...


NEW Music: Love Moon Flower ~ Ending (You should probably listen to the ending theme.)



A miracle generated from the disappearing gap
Guiding everyone's heart to the place they belong

But all that I can do is to leave quietly
I will be guarding you,
Like the Moon, shining in the dark night.

The deep thoughts about you, the kind of bond that you've wanted
If I can use my hands to create light, I will...

I've been longing to meet you
Just like people love the morning,
When they wake up

Smile for the happiness of being able to live together
If we can feel the same breeze,
I will...

Ah even if I cannot touch your heart
It doesn't matter which kind of love,
Or if I can stay with you

The separated ones go beyond time and space and get together again

Ah because of you, I will keep waiting because of you
This is the thought that fills my heart

Ah when will we be able to live happily
Now I only want to quietly close my eyes

Because we will meet again



Gepetto was found passed out drunk in a public park in a Parisian suburb with a young child and a trunk full of assorted dresses deemed scandalous in nature. He was taken into custody by local authorities soon after. The child has been placed into protective care until her identity can be confirmed. Gepetto is currently awaiting a bail hearing in a jailhouse outside Montmartre.



Princess Anastasia Romanov remained in Japan with her true love Kurando Inugami. This would allow her to avoid the execution the rest of her family would suffer by Bolshevik revolutionaries in the following years.
Kurando and Anastasia's descendant would go on to become a popular VTuber over a century later.



Joachim Valentine went on to become a legendary champion of wrestling circles. He would eventually immigrate to Rio de Janeiro to spread his talents to new audiences. Years after that, he would turn to the United States and establish a modest but popular professional wrestling circuit in New Mexico. But due to lack of business management skill and membership, it would go on to be absorbed by an ambitious evil businessman from North Carolina whose villainy even Joachim could not thwart. Some say Joachim still remains competitive in wrestling circles under a new identity after this disgrace to this day...



Lucia returned to Florence.



Awroo, awroo. Awroo, awroo... (The adventure over, Blanca went to live with the amicable Kawashima family who gave him pets and treats asking for little in return. Blanca enjoyed the rest of his days in this pleasant, mellow life after his travels with the disaster cursed hobo that forced him into dog fights, demonic battles, and dancing...)

So... Karin does get an actual full epilogue and not just an illustration. But, for LP purposes we are going to save that for the second ending. The actual post-credits epilogue of the fate of Yuri is the main determinate factor of the two endings. There is no canon ending this go around since... they didn't make a continuation of Shadow Hearts with Yuri. The third game is its own thing with a new cast and the most tenuous of connections. This is the end of Yuri Hyuga's story. Just as he said. So, you can pick which ending you think he should get. I don't pick this one. This is the objective bad ending and not in the it'd be OK to continue from here sort of way.



Music: ENDS



It was unclear if anyone actually did any time fuckery praying the Takamagahara away. Gepetto seems to be back when his daughter was alive since the Cornelia in his ending illustration doesn't have doll joints. Everyone else just kind of went back home. Karin... we'll get to.



But, Yuri... skipped a few years, here... And ended up one final time in the series back in the most cursed land of all of Shadow Hearts and Koudelka...



Yuri?!
......





I never thought I'd find you in a place like this... I've been looking all over for you.
That's no easy task. They're calling the last few years The Great War. It wasn't great!



Yuri? Who are you?



......





<starts crying>

Roger Bacon runs over, hugs Yuri, and continues to cry.



<sobs>
...... <pushes Roger off him>



You don't even remember your own father? Such a foolish son.
......
...My father?
<nods>

Roger puts his hand on Yuri's back and leads him away.



Well, let's go home now. It's cold out...







Well, World War I ended at least. And so did Yuri Hyuga's character now that he's reset to factory stock Rude Hero Dull Guy. That's not the best conclusion for Yuri Hyuga's story. Maybe we can do better next time as Shadow Hearts 2: Covenant concludes.





There's only one final update left and it would be pretty lame to end it with a Library entry. So we'll do the final bestiary look here before wrapping up the LP.

Monsters:



He could slash things well. Probably. He fought for about six minutes the entire 60-hour game.



Raiden, the very slow and soft-spoken giant guy? That wild spirit?



Actually resurrecting someone is not feasible but Kato managed to actually craft a new soul doing horny magic tinkering? That's kind of impressive.



Kato: I will correct history's course with my own will and strength.
Also Kato: Oh, shit Yuri and his friends are here and I haven't figured out time travel. Please fuse with me, high ranking Japanese deity. He's going to kick my ass!

In all, there a 175 Monster entries in the Library with Susano-O being the last one. There were 53 Character entries and Malkovich was the last one of those. Which is appropriate because it's the easiest to completely miss.


Music: Deep Meditation ~ Title



As a final completionist sake there is a New Game Plus of Shadow Hearts: Covenant. It does not raise the difficulty or anything but a multitude of things will carry over such as:

• All entries in the Library.
  
• All Fusions obtained (but not their levels) for both Kurando and Yuri.
  
• Cornelia's dresses.
  
• Anastasia's Photo Album entries.
  
• Magic Crests obtained.
  
• Stud Cards obtained just in case you want to oogle beefcakes.
  
• Female characters' bonus costumes.
  
• Stats from the Score menu from the previous playthrough to compare and contrast.
  

Levels, items, Cash all get reset to zero. There is exactly one new thing to unlock in New Game Plus. Carrying over from the first Shadow Hearts, if the player gets a complete Library by beginning New Game Plus they can obtain a Black Underpants accessory. Thomas will hand it over at Gerome Valley on the replay. Allegedly. I'm not checking and don't care. You can look up the details yourself. It's the same as the White Underpants but it changes Karin's panties black. Can I just get an accessory that gives Karin pants? I've seen up her skirt unintentionally more times than fucking 2B. 2B!



Additionally, the game unlocks a Theater mode to watch all the major voiced cutscenes. Oh, shit. The game actually had proper chapter breaks and titles. I probably would have used those for the LP had I known that since they... only show up here. Well, for reference sake after hindsight is useless to us, according to the game the proper chapters are:

• Chapter 1 - The Demon of Domremy: The intro up until the beginning of the Ardennes Forest dungeon.
  
• Chapter 2 - The Deep, Dark Forest: Ardennes Forest's events.
  
• Chapter 3 - Is Paris Burning?: All the shit in Paris up until fighting Veronica's first monster of the week before escaping to the World Map.
  
• Chapter 4 - The Bandit of Le Harve: Everything in Le Harve with Joachim and the Wine Cellar up to sailing to the UK.
  
• Chapter 5 - A Reunion: The Port of Southampton up until Wales and learning about Sapientes Gladio from "Thomas."
  
• Chapter 6 - The Rose of Florence: Florence and meeting Lucia up until the Sapientes Gladio Italian Branch HQ and learning the Émigré Document is important again.
  
• Chapter 7 - Magician in an Iron Mask: The Neam Ruins getting the Émigré Document all the way up to rescuing Roger Bacon, learning Rasputin is a fuck and getting on the Bacon Jet to fly to Russia.
  
• Chapter 8 - The Twilight of Russia: Anastasia fucking around town up until she joins the party.
  
• Chapter 9 - The Mad Monk Rasputin: Everything with Rasputin being a dick in the Winter Palace.
  
• Chapter 10 - Following His Footsteps: Gerome Valley and the Mirror Palace up to getting Amon from Albert Simon.
  
• Chapter 11 - I Summon You: All the shit that goes down in Petrograd up to Yuri punching Rasputin so hard it blows up an airship and Rasputin summons Idar Flamme.
  
• Chapter 12 - A Sudden Turn of Events: Idar Flamme up until the end of Disc 1,
  
• Chapter 13 - The Far-eastern Empire: Disc 2's beginning up until the end of Battleship Mikasa and rescuing Yoshiko Kawashima 2.0.
  
• Chapter 14 - The Two Yoshikos: Ouka's intro up until the first fight with Baby Head in the Foreigner's Cemetery pocket dimension.
  
• Chapter 15 - The Birth of Shoki: Shocking Nicolai's balls with science to make a dog turn into a demon and dealing with that demon dog alongside the Mutant Apes.
  
• Chapter 16 - Resurrecting a Demon: Hojo's Lab shit where Astaroth possessed Nicolai up until killing Hojo in that goofy Dr. Robotnik mecha.
  
• Chapter 17 - The Holy Mirror: The trip to Inugami Village up to fighting Giant Lady Saki Inugami.
  
• Chapter 18 - Death to Dreams: Everything that goes down in the Immortal Mountain dungeon ending on Ouka's death and Kato popping Nicolai's head like a grape.
  
• Chapter 19 - A Vessel for Her Soul: The resurrecting Alice Elliot with the Émigré Document bad idea zone.
  
• Chapter 20 - Going Back in Time: Fucked it up resurrecting Alice up until the end of the game.
  
• Chapter 21 - Happiness: The endings.
  
• Chapter 22 - Now and Then: All the optional End Game business like getting Alice's Cross, The Man Festival, Neo Amon, Kurando's 2nd Fusion, and fighting Jinpachiro.
  

On further review... I'm fine with breaking it up by location... That's some nonsense breakpoints that would have a single update and then twenty-five for another breakpoint.



In any event, this is our final Score. As it turns out, it's a 20 rank jump beating the game which makes a lot of the ranks fairly pointless. We end up as the super boss, for lack of a better term, Solomon. For reference, the top rank is Dark Seraphim.



And our final Battle Data rap.



I hit the buttons pretty good considering I was drinking most times I recorded gameplay. Congrats to Rude Hero, Upskirt, Best Boy, Man Festival Champ, and Russian Princess on the top five battle participants. Kurando... I'm disappointed in you...






Video: Shadow Hearts Covenant Ending 1 (It's the ending! Go watch the ending!)

Well, that's a end of Shadow Hearts 2. But don't go anywhere! We could do better here. We could get to the world we desired... There's still one last prayer... One last Shadow Hearts.