The Let's Play Archive

Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga

by Dragonatrix

Part 26: Internment Facility (Part Two)

Prisoner's Nightmare

So, last time we got thrown in jail. Anyone got RPG Bingo yet?



But seriously, we should really just get out of here.


The Jailer is the real problem, obviously. As long as he's around, there's no way we can release the prisoners. But, we came up wth a plan. Listen...



Cannibalism doesn't appeal to many humans -- apparently not even demonized ones. So, they use this factory to process human carcasses into canned food. Which, of course, the Jailer eats.



Another one of us is finding out what can be done with the food. I'll open the door -- hurry! He should be in one of the cells to the east.



Tell him about the "unbearable solar noise," and he'll let you in. Did you understand all that?
Yes.
I need to hide before someone finds me. Good luck!



Hyeh heh... But that doesn't matter. It's been a long time since I've felt the thrill of the hunt!



Alright, so now we get a kind-of chase thing that's not-very-secretly easy. Kumbhanda very slowly walks around in a rough direction towards where you are but he's not very good at it.



We just have to loop around the western side until we get to the southern-most door on the east wall. It's all very simple.




Unbearable solar noise.





Try not to think about it. ...It's disgusting. Another one of us is looking for ingredients and things... You should go help him out.



He'll ask you what's for dinner. Answer back, "canned surprise." Do you need to hear that again?
No.
It wasn't easy getting the guard's key card... but I did it. You can use it to get downstairs.



It's up to you now. Hurry! Before they see you!



Heh... fast food!

Nothing new here; just run around until we get to the gate at the south.



Very simple and you automatically go down a floor once you unlock the gate too. How convenient.



...But, sadly, Kumbhanda decides to follow us. By merely jumping down from the higher level.


Haha, Run! Run! If I catch you, I'm gonna eat you! Breeha ha ha ha ha ha!



Getting to the next guy is easy enough. It's right next to the entrance, which helps if you make a beeline for it straight away...



I, uh, I kinda forgot that though. This is the closest Kumbhanda came to catching us again since he still moves when in dialogue boxes.




We figured out exactly what we need to feed the Jailer...



Just throw it into the meat processing machine on the first floor. After that, go to the control room and turn on the power... Voila! Canned Surprise a la Lokapala! Do you need me to sum that up again?
No.
Here's a key card, and the label for fifteen-year-olds. You need to put the label on the can. The key card should be able to get you where you need to go.



...It'll be pretty gruesome, but we need to hurry.



Well, this looks a little different.



Time to rope you in!



We'll worry about those purple things when they matter. For now, the only thing to really keep in mind is Kumbhanda camps out at the door to the next floor and doesn't move at all until you get fairly close.

...And forgetting that fact, and spinning the camera round to see him immediately bumrushing you us more than a trifle surprising.



It's still not a big problem, though, since we do need to lure him away anyway and even when running he's not as fast as you'd think.



Third floor adds a couple of extra chainlink fence gates that make navigation kind of a pain. There WAS some on the second floor but they made no difference.




Dammit... I can't go against my orders...



Kumbhanda does go back to normally chasing you around here, but the door we want is very straight forward and easy to get to. It's mostly just a straight line.





Hey, look there... Isn't that another key card? That corpse used to be a soldier... They didn't just use prisoners. Society members who went insane ended up in cells, too. Looks like the Karma Society can't handle people who fully give in to the demon virus. There's no point in sticking around. We need to find the control room.



At least there's a fence right in the way...



No more playing around, chums... You're making me very hungry!



Like before, he just camps out at the stairs leading further down. There's only one route you can take to get down here, and he starts to run once you get past this corner here.



This is definitely the hardest part, since you have to lure him all the way to the norther corner here and make sure that you have a big enough lead that he can't catch you as you actively wait... but not too big otherwise he'll try and cut you off and ruin everything.



This is also the only time those purple circles really matter too. If you touch one, or even get near one, they suck you in and hold you in place for an uncomfortably long time. It's not actually THAT long but when Kumbhanda could be right behind it feels like an eternity.



It's still not too difficult or anything, but if you were to have trouble here that wouldn't be too surprising. The best route to take is a mite stricter than it sounds.



Good news, though, is that once we hit B4 Kumbhanda stops following us. Because, uh... he just does.


Battle for Survival



Even now, we can still run into a random new demon. Cockatrices have gotten a decent amount stronger since working for Harley. Losing that Ice weakness alone increases their survivability. Technically. Still gets onerounded though.

Prisoner's Nightmare



Just to the left of the entrance, we can find a sneakily hidden Amaryllis flower.

The normal box you might've spotted in the corner before? Just contains another Blue Diamond.



As a nice bonus, there's a second large terminal near the Amaryllis. Makes for a good way to make the return trip upstairs and back again, without having to run through the previous 3 floors repeatedly.




This is disgusting... It's in terrible condition. ...Is something there?



This'll let us into the control room. It's time for the Jailer to get what's coming to him.

That he will, but before we leave...



We can pick up another new ring. This one's got a bit of a special twist to what it does;



The stats aren't why we'd care about this one. Getting a free Sukukaja is mostly it; the Tarunda offset matters for people like Serph or Roland. Nowhere near for someone like, say, Argilla. Plus with 4 customise slots you have to try to make this thing less worthwhile.

...For now it sits in our inventory though.



Also when we leave that room, these three guys try to jump us.


After we play with them, why don't we throw 'em in the processing machine? Then we can have our way with them twice!
Oooh, I can't wait to hear that grinding noise again...
Heh... Exactly what I was thinking...

Heroic Battle



....Well then. It's almost cute how they think this can even pretend to be threatening to us. They barely last 25 seconds and don't even get a turn.

Prisoner's Nightmare



All we have to do now is take the terminal back up and unlock that room with all the bars.



It's surprisingly empty compared to what you might expect, though. Those bars were the sole guards of the ON/OFF switch.



There is also a free Revival Gem to the left of the door when you come in, but you actively cannot see it at all when just coming in/going out normally. Makes it easy to miss if you don't think to look everywhere for Free Shit.



And with the machine turned on, we can load up the dead, rotting Blob and turn it into processed food.




Looks like it's on de way to de factory. We'd better go follow it, ja?



So we'll do just that, and along the way we constantly get stopped to watch it slowly move along the conveyer belt.



It just gets spat out, complete with can, at the clean machine we saw before. The one in the room with the 2 Orobas' hiding in a box.

Now that we have this, we run back to the nearest terminal and warp back downstairs.




That's our chance -- when he's vulnerable.



Okay, let's get out of here...





Kumbhanda quite slowly lumbers through this room, now. It really should be faster, but whatever.

Silence



His way out is even slower, but at least this time it makes sense. And, of course, he doesn't quite get all the way...

Epic Battle ~ Prelude





Oh ho! Looks like you should look before you eat, ja?



Your comrades will be eating you soon.

Silly Argilla, no they won't.



We will be, though.


Boss: Yaksa Kumbhanda

Epic Battle



So, Kumbhanda is definitely harder than the previous two bosses.

Setting the bar pretty damn low, I realise.



On the one hand, he has an elec weakness which is super easy to exploit. And the game DID just give us both Cielo and Roland who have Zio right off the bat.



On the other hand, even though he has a meagre 1035HP we can't blitz him the same way we did Hecatoncheires.



If we try, then we'll be on the receiving end of some nasty attacks and spells.



He quite likes to spam Zanma or Mazanma at times. But of course, the biggest threat is...



Black Bind, still. It's nowhere near as threatening as it was before at least.



It's significantly less likely to ever succeed on someone. If it does hit, then they're Bound of course.



And that just makes them skip their turn, be more likely to get criticalled etc.



Basically it functions like Sleep but Almighty elemental and without a nice new bonus that Sleep has.



From about halfway onwards, Kumbhanda adds a new move to his repertoire. He mainly uses it on anyone that's been Bound but can do it on anyone else too.



It hits harder than his regular physical attack and has the added bonus of letting him drain the damage dealt. Like HP Thief but it can crit and it hurts more by default.



Also, he has a lot of dialogue in this fight. Far more than you'd think necessary.



He also has a couple skills he doesn't use too often. Stun Wave is more commonly used than that implies, but it doesn't come up all that often either.



a lot of dialogue



And then there's Power Wave. He really, really
really rarely uses this one. It's by far the hardest hitting thing he can do so it's weird that he almost never does it.



All-in-all, though, he's still not a hard fight in the slightest. It might trip you up for being harder than the previous bosses but, again, that's not saying much.



He doesn't even have much more health than Hecatoncheires. Kinda weird but I'm not complaining at all there.



Gives some damn nice cash though, especially with the Rich Ring.


Silence



With Kumbhanda slain, everyone apparently gets broken out immediately and the Lokapala are quite literally jumping for joy here.



Then we can grab the Cyber-- ...we can save Sera.



Sounds like a plan to me. But first...



Gale's a little more interested in what Fred's doing off to the side.


Inherent Will









Tell him to become a man... of honor...









I gotta grow up! So I can be strong --!



Fred.







Be proud of your feelings, Fred. It's ok to be a kid.





End

So, that's done. We know our next location too, and Gale just straight up lied to a kid.



But apparently Sera did something to the Sun to make it petrify people???

...what no don't be silly random child



Ah well, at least now we have the world map and a bunch of places to explore. We could go back to the Lokapala base or we could do the smarter thing. Run around Karma City for a while and see what they have for us.

Also something about rescuing Sera in the Administrative District, I guess.