The Let's Play Archive

Shin Megami Tensei 1

by Luisfe

Part 62

Up it is, then.

Woo.

Incomplete map of the first floor.

Complete map of the second floor. Time to face the being behind the door.

Behind this door. There is someone. Or something.

Kind of harsh, isn't he?

Yeah, sure, whatever.

It is Uriel!

Wikipedia posted:

Uriel (אוּרִיאֵל "Flame of God", Auriel/Oriel (light of god) Standard Hebrew Uriʾel, Tiberian Hebrew ʾÛrîʾēl) is one of the archangels of post-Exilic Rabbinic tradition, and also of certain Christian traditions. His name may have analogies with Uriah.

In apocryphal, kabbalistic and occult works Uriel has been equated or confused with Nuriel, Uryan, Jeremiel, Vretil, Sariel, Suriel, Puruel, Phanuel, Jehoel, Jacob, Ezrail/Azrael and Israfil/Raphael.

Obviously, there's much more in this angel's entry, but I don't feel like copy-pasting all of it :B

It was a rather easy fight, went down in 10 turns, without causing significant damage (seriously, those Magic Bullets are BROKEN).

Woo, experience.

Not if Stamos can prevent it!

Durr.

Same decoration as the first and second floors. Like the first and second floors, there are no random encounters. And that makes the exploration a bit less lame.

Getting some treasures.

Map before facing the Guardian of this floor.

Durr. Can't be too hard.

Oh no! Sin! And Depravity!

*gasp*

It's Gabriel!

Wikipedia posted:

In Abrahamic religions, Gabriel (גַּבְרִיאֵל, Standard Hebrew Gavriʼel, Latin Gabrielus, Greek Γαβριήλ, Tiberian Hebrew Gaḇrîʼēl, Arabic جبريل Jibrīl or Jibrail, literally "Master, of God", i.e., a Master, who is "of God") is an archangel who is thought to serve as a messenger from God ("angel" literally translates to "messenger" from the Koine Greek; an "arch" angel is a "primary" or "chief" messenger). He first appears in the Book of Daniel in the Hebrew Bible. He was also referred to as the "Left Hand of God".[citation needed] Christians and Muslims believe him to have foretold the births of John the Baptist and Jesus to Zacharias and the Virgin Mary respectively, and Muslims believe he was the medium through which God revealed the Qur'an to Muhammad.

In Biblical tradition, he is sometimes regarded as the angel of death or one of God's messengers. The Talmud described him as the only angel who can speak Syriac and Chaldee. In Islam, Gabriel is one of God's chief messengers but other above-mentioned titles are not given to him (for example the angel of death is Azrael).

In the Catholic Tradition, he is known as one of the archangels. In Islam, he is called the chief of the four favoured angels and the spirit of truth, and in some views Gabriel is the same person as the Holy Spirit. Gabriel also finds mention in the writings of the Bahá'í Faith, most notably in Bahá'u'lláh's metaphysical work The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys.

Now, this was a difficult fight. Gabriel IS immune to melee attacks (swords, demon attacks), and is vulnerable only to two things: Guns and Magic. Unfortunately, magic does damage ranging between 1 hp and 45 hp (when Pascal casts Megido). Fortunately, Cu-Chulainn had Taru-Kaja, and enhanced the gun attacks to acceptable levels. Even then, it was not easy, and took quite a long time to defeat. Gabriel was also somewhat resistant to Marin-Karin, getting enthralled rarely with the Magic Bullets.
All in all, not an easy fight.

Yeah, right, whatever. Die already.

In the next floor, there were some rather annoying damaging tiles, requireing the use of a Core Shield to pass freely.

What could be behind the closed doors?

Oh! It is ANOTHER Archangel!

Isn't it obvious? Stamos, being more than halfway done in the upper side of the Cathedral, had no intention to back off.

Sure. Whatever.

Wikipedia posted:

Raphael (Standard Hebrew רפאל, "God has healed", "God Heals", "God, Please Heal", and many other combinations of the two words, Arabic: Israfil, اسرافيل) is the name of an archangel of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, who performs all manner of healing. The Hebrew word for a doctor of medicine is Rophe connected to the same root word as Raphael.

The angels mentioned in the older books of the Hebrew Bible are without names. Indeed, Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish of Tiberias (230-270 A.D.), asserted that all the specific names for the angels were brought back by the Jews from Babylon, and modern commentators would tend to agree.

Of seven archangels in the angelology of post-Exilic Judaism, only Michael, mentioned as archangel (Daniel 12:1) and Gabriel are mentioned by name in the scriptures that came to be accepted as canonical by all Christians. Raphael is mentioned by name in the Book of Tobit, which is accepted as canonical by Catholics and Orthodox. Four others, however, are named in the 2nd century BC Book of Enoch (chapter xxi): Uriel, Raguel, Sariel, and Jarahmeel.

Raphael was considerably easier than Gabriel, having no resistance to the demonic attacks inflicted by Stamos' minions, and hitting himself hard thanks to the Magic Bullets.

But... Stamos is not allied with any faction!

Map.

Aaah, the outdoors again.

The south building is the only one that has important stuff, the other ones just bring you back to the main building, and one cannot advance from there.

Fenrir!

Wikipedia posted:

In Norse mythology, Fenrir or Fenrisulfr is a wolf, the son of Loki and the giantess Angrboða. Fenrir is bound by the gods, but is ultimately destined to grow too large for his bonds and devour Odin during the course of Ragnarök. At that time he will have grown so large that his upper jaw touches the sky while his lower touches the earth when he gapes. He will be slain by Odin's son, Viðarr, who will either stab him in the heart or rip his jaws asunder according to different accounts.

Well, in this game, he is a rather easy (at this point) enemy that refuses to become a minion.

Would probably make good fusion fodder.

Advancing through the South Building, one reaches this set of stairs, allowing access to the last floors of the Cathedral.

They have a difference with the previous floors: THEY HAVE DEMONS.

Wikipedia posted:

In Roman mythology, Orcus was a god of the underworld, punisher of broken oaths, more equivalent to Pluto than to the Greek Hades, and later identified with Dis Pater. He was portrayed in paintings in Etruscan tombs as a hairy, bearded giant. A temple to Orcus may have existed on the Palatine Hill in Rome.

The origins of Orcus may have lain in Etruscan religion. Orcus was a name used by Roman writers to identify a Gaulish god of the underworld. The so-called "Tomb of the Orcus", an Etruscan site at Tarquinia, is a misnomer, resulting from its first discoverers mistaking as Orcus a hairy, bearded giant that was actually a figure of a Cyclops.

'Orcus', in Roman mythology, was an alternative name for Pluto, Hades, or Dis Pater, god of the land of the dead. The name "Orcus" seems to have been given to his evil and punishing side, as the god who tormented evildoers in the afterlife. Like the name Hades (or the Norse Hel, for that matter), "Orcus" could also mean the land of the dead.

From Orcus' association with death and the underworld, his name came to be used for demons and other underworld monsters, particularly in Italian where orco refers to a kind of monster found in fairy-tales that feeds on human flesh. The French word ogre (appearing first in Charles Perrault's fairy-tales) may have come from variant forms of this word, orgo or ogro; in any case, the French ogre and the Italian orco are exactly the same sort of creature. An early example of an orco appears in Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, as a bestial, blind, tusk-faced monster inspired by the Cyclops of the Odyssey; this orco should not be confused with the orca, a sea-monster also appearing in Ariosto.

One accepted to be Stamos' minion. And shall be used as fusion fodder once this part is over.

Meh.

Map.

Oberon!

Wikipedia posted:

Oberon, also Auberon, King of Shadows and Fairies, is best known as a character in William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream, written in the mid-1590s.

The medieval concept of the character Oberon arose from a multitude of earlier sources.

The name Oberon got its literary start in the first half of the 13th century from the fairy dwarf Oberon that helps the hero in the chanson de geste, titled Les Prouesses et faitz du noble Huon de Bordeaux. When Huon, son of Seguin count of Bordeaux, passed through the forest where he lives, he was warned against Oberon by a hermit, but his courtesy had him answer Oberon's greetings, and so gain his aid in his quest: having killed Charlot, the Emperor's son, in self-defense, Huon must visit the court of the amir of Babylon and perform various feats to win a pardon, and only with Oberon's aid does he succeed.

This elf appears dwarfish in height, though very handsome; he explains that at his christening, an offended fairy cursed him to the height (the first wicked fairy godmother), but relented and as compensation gave him great beauty. As Alberich features as a dwarf in the Nibelungen, the dwarfish height was thus explained. [2]

The real Seguin was Count of Bordeaux under Louis the Pious in 839, and died fighting against the Normans in 845. Charles l'Enfant, a son of Charles the Bald, died in 866 of wounds inflicted by a certain Aubouin in the circumstances of an ambush similar to the Charlot of the story. Thus Oberon appears in a 13th century French courtly fantasy that is based on a shred of 9th century fact. He is given some Celtic trappings, such as a magical cup (similar to the Holy Grail) that is ever-full for the virtuous: "The magic cup supplied their evening meal; for such was its virtue that it afforded not only wine, but more solid fare when desired" according to Thomas Bulfinch. In this story he is said to be the child of Morgan le Fay and Julius Caesar.

A manuscript of the romance in the city of Turin contains a prologue to the story of Huon de Bordeaux in the shape of a separate romance of Auberon, and four sequels, and there are later French versions as well.

Shakespeare saw or heard of the French heroic song, through the ca 1540 translation of John Bourchier, Lord Berners, called Huon of Burdeuxe. In Philip Henslowe's diary there is a note of a performance of a play, Hewen of Burdocize, on December 28, 1593.

One of these was acquired as a minion as well.

Sure, one of these appears when it is no longer needed. Could've helped JudgeDre's undead girlfriend (or I could've bought one at a Mesia Church, I think, but eh, whatever).

More treasure...

That huge open space is very, very annoying. It is full of damaging tiles. And that is bad. Even with a core shield, because then it is ANNOYING.

Wikipedia posted:

The Taotie (Chinese: 饕餮; Pinyin: tāo tiè) is a motif commonly found on ritual bronze vessels from the Shang and Zhou Dynasty in china. The design typically consists of a zoomorphic mask.

In Chinese mythology, one of the Nine Dragon Children (龍生九子) is named Taotie, possibly a derivative of the earlier motif.

According to Lu’s Spring and Autumn Annals: Prophecy, "The taotie on Zhou bronzes has a head but no body. When it eats people, it does not swallow them, but harms them.* It is hard to explain what is implied in this, as so many myths concerning the taotie have been lost, but the indication that it eats people accords fully with its cruel, fearful countenance. To alien clans and tribes, it symbolized fear and force; to its own clan or tribe, it was a symbol of protection. This religious concept, this dual nature, was crystallized in its strange, hideous features. What appears so savage today had a historical, rational quality in its time. It is for precisely this reason that the savage old myths and legends, the tales of barbarism, and the crude, fierce, and terrifying works of art of ancient clans possessed a remarkable aesthetic appeal. As it was with Homer’s epic poems and African masks, so it was with the taotie, in whose hideous features was concentrated a deep-seated historic force. It is because of this irresistible historic force that the mystery and terror of the taotie became the beautiful—the exalted."
footnote by Li Zehou: "Some scholars consider that the meaning of 'taotie is not "eating people" but making a mysterious communication between people and Heaven (gods)."

Oookay... Wikipedia redirected from Totetsu to Taotie, dunno if it is that thing or not. If it is, it is very, very different in SMT3.

Very high HP, and that's a good thing.


Appropriate treasure for the location.

Always appropriate to have more of these.

After a little exploration, one reaches a door. But the door is being blocked by a familiar face...

But... Stamos is the one that controls those demons.

What going to use the ALARM CLOCK?

Bah.

Easier said than done.

And after saying that, he dies.

And after that, the old guy transforms into...

Wait, who is that guy?

Next update: Crossing the door. Fighting MICHAEL.

Also: Four points available, two for Pascal, two for Stamos.