Part 12: Black Jail

Back to normal, and back to Marie to get a new job.



: I've got a request from the Hirasaki police this time. A certain detective needs your help getting rid of demons who appeared in the station.

You mean that jerk Momochi? I don't know about that...But on the other hand, Marie actually pays me, so why not.

>Will you take the job?
>YES
NO

: I know you guys don't have a great relationship, but just forget about that. Work is work, after all.



Off to the police station! We've been here before, when we were caught after the explosion at Azuma's place. We were stuck in a dingy little cell last time, though.



Looks like we've got free range of the place now.



: Hieeeeee!! Please, just spare my life!! You don't want to eat me, I taste terrible!!



: ...W-Whoa, it's just you, Kyouji...

Here's our first close-up of Isono, Momochi's trusted(?) partner. And speaking of Momochi...

: I'm here because Inspector Momochi was wrongly imprisoned. I wanted to break him out, but there's all these monsters roaming around and I don't even know where the inspector is.
: ...It-It's not like I'm scared of those monsters or anything. I just thought I should call in some kind of specialist, like this "Devil Summoner," to get rid of them. His agent Marie wanted ￥1000000.

Proof that Marie takes half of the fee for herself.

: But I really respect Inspector Momochi, so no price is too high.
: ...My secret savings are all gone now, though...If only I'd won at the races...
: ...S-Say, Kyouji, you aren't the Devil Summoner, are you?

DUNGEON 13 - POLICE STATION
New demons:
Zombie Cop Amazon Porewit

BGM: Otherworld Dungeon 4

The first appearance of this dungeon theme. If you're playing the game without a guide or map then I hope you enjoy this theme, because this dungeon is another mess of warps.



The warps are introduced early: entering the door behind Isono will warp you right back to the front door.



There's nine warps here on the first floor alone. Once you get to the basement floor, you also have to deal with...



Dark zones. Hope you like bumping into walls. The map does have a nice red glass effect, though.

The jail cells are on this floor, so it's no wonder that Isono couldn't find Momochi.



: Who's there?!



: Is that you, Kyouji Kuzunoha? So, you managed to make it here. I've thought that there was something different about you for awhile now.
: ...Still, I never thought I'd be here in one of these shithole cells. I got suspicious seeing report after report about these monsters, so I followed my intuition and it turned out something was up after all. I found that there's somebody pulling the strings behind the scenes. Not just one guy, either, but some big organization. The rest of the details are a secret, of course.
: Just as we were staring our investigation, the Chief came in saying we needed to shut it down. I obviously refused, so now I'm stuck in here. I guess the chief's got some kind of connection with these demons.
: But here I am just talking to you, when I should be getting out of here. No point in staying here with all these demons. If you take the Chief out, maybe the rest will follow.

There's another poor man stuck inside one of the cells.



SUSPECT: What the hell is going on in here? Are the police having some kinda costume party? People looking like demons are roaming around just screaming and squawking. I may be a bad dude, but even I've never seen anything as creepy as the masks on these guys.

If dark zones weren't enough, there's also warps down here. One in particular can be irritating if you don't know what you're doing.



See the green circle below the orange cross? That's a warp drop-off site. You obviously can't get to it because there's a warp and a wall blocking the way. The warp to get to the spot is the orange cross in the middle...but only if you enter it from the south. If you enter it from the east or west then you get warped back to the top left. I imagine there were many, many confused and annoyed people playing this dungeon. The PSP version saw fit to include additional NPCs to give hints about this warp, which is nice.



If you manage to either figure it out or stumble into the solution, you get access to the elevator and the rest of the dungeon. Two unlucky souls are stuck on the second floor.



OFFICER: Hieee - there's demons out there! There were demons, real demons! I-I'm just a police officer! That's right, this isn't my job. I'll just let the SDF take care of them!



POLICEWOMAN: Wh-What's going on? The inspector's locked up, and there's demons roaming the halls! Why? Why is this happening? I've had enough! Someone tell me what to do!

There's only three new demons in here, one of which is the Amazon I fused.



First is Zombie Cop, which would be the lowest and laziest tier if there was actually a costume party at the station. The other new demon is Porewit, a fuzzy fireball who made a comeback in SMTIV.

Heading all the way up to the third floor- wait, the third floor? You're telling me a building this big-



-only has three floors? Or their elevators only go to the third floor? The Hirasaki Police really need to get their act together.



Anyway, going to the third floor nets us some goodies and leads us to the police chief's office.

BGM: Conversation



POLICE CHIEF: And who might you be? It's proper manners to knock before entering the chief's room.



: You must be... that private detective, Kyouji Kuzunoha. I thought Sid Davis had taken care of you after you put your nose where it doesn't belong, but it seems that he failed. Well, it's true that you cannot get rid of every last rat. Our plan is still progressing steadily. Yes, the seals are being destroyed, and when the seals' power is no more...
: No, I suppose there's no reason to tell you what will happen then. After all, these are your last moments.

The chief slowly slides into the ground and out comes his true form - a demon.



KUMBHANDA: You should feel honored to die at the hand of somebody as important to the organization as I.

Boss #15 - Kumbhanda

BGM: Boss Battle

VS Haunt Kumbhanda

Somehow this Kumbhanda prison business seems...familiar. There's nothing in Kumbhanda's mythology to suggest it had anything to do with prisons, jails, or punishment, so perhaps the DDS boss was a reference to this boss?



This boss can be a pain, because his speed is leagues above anything else in the game so far. He can use Makarakarn, which reflects any magical attack back, but he doesn't use it that often. His main attacks are Soul Jack, which can paralyze, and Absolute Zero, which can hit for a pretty nice amount of ice damage.

My Leanan Sidhe is quickly falling behind due to her level, so our buffs this time are Maui's Active Song - raises attack and magic - and Amazon's Die Hard - raises accuracy and defense. Kumbhanda almost got us because I was lazy and didn't heal, but I beat him before that happened.

BGM: After the Battle



KUMBHANDA: ...I guess this ended up as my last moment. But the seals continue to lose power, and soon you will as well...



And I'm kicked out. Where's my praise and glory?



OFFICER: Only authorized personnel are allowed past this point.

How am I not "authorized personnel"? Sure, I'm a notorious trouble-maker and overall suspicious guy, but I did just save you all.

Well, I know one person who will shower me with the praise I deserve.



: Good work out there. But really, I can't believe the chief was actually a demon. Here's the ￥50000 I promised. I'll be calling on you in the future.

Marie, I know you're holding out on me with the work fee. But I'll take it.

Thrill is experimenting in the sewers again, so it's up to us to go take care of him. This time we're heading to Seaside Park, which hasn't been relevant in quite awhile.



The Seaside Park sewers is a basic sewer level: lots of items, twists and turns, no-COMP zone, etc. It does give me the chance to show off something I keep forgetting about : it's entirely possible to travel from sewer to sewer without ever going above ground, with each sewer unlocking passages to others. It's actually needed to travel this way if you want to get to certain areas.



Anyway, it's Thrill Time.



: My last Gargantua mighta met his end, but I ain't gonna lose this time around. I finally created the perfect Gargantua - Gargantua X. It's better than anything I've ever made before. It's the ultimate! Invincible!
: Hm? Who's there? Ah, you got great timing. My Gatgantua X is ready to send you to the afterlife!! This is revenge for what you did to all my Gargantua before! Now then, go ahead!! Gargantua X!!



GARGANTUA X: Got it, Thrill. I'll make sure to kill this guy.

VS Zoma Gargantua X

I sorta accidentally screwed up the recording and only got the audio, but you really aren't missing anything. Thrill went back to his old ways, and Gargantua X is just Gargantua with better stats and moves. He knows mid-level, multi-target attacks for fire, ice, and electric, though he didn't see fit to use them on me and just used his regular attack. He can, however, absorb all of those elements and so you'll want to go full physical for the battle. His speed is also higher than most, but that's not too much of a problem. I'm disappointed in you, Thrill.



: Ah...aaah! Even my Gargantua X was beaten! Now what am I gonna do...

You know, maybe you should get a different hobby. Something other than creating demons in the depths of the sewers. Just something to get you out more.

______________

Next update: We enter maze hell.