Shin Megami Tensei II

Part 6

Update 5: Training and listening to the NEWS.

First: Back to Okamoto's Gym to see what needs to be done:

Confident, isn't he?

Time to go outside, then, he will still teleport to the Casino if Hawk tries to go inside.
That is not amusing.

Behold: It certainly looks better than SMT1's world map.

Notice the bar in the lower left? That indicates the presence of demons/how likely you re of entering a random battle. If it is green/blue you are safe, if it is orange/yellow/red/whatever, prepare yourself.

A Knocker!

Wikipedia posted:

Knockers, Knackers, Bwca (Welsh), Bucca (Cornish) or Tommyknockers (US) are the Welsh and Cornish equivalent of Irish leprechauns and English and Scottish brownies. About two feet tall and grizzled, but not misshapen, they live beneath the ground. Here they wear tiny versions of standard miner's garb and commit random mischief, such as stealing unattended tools and food.

Their name comes from the knocking on the mine walls that happens just before cave-ins – actually the creaking of earth and timbers before giving way. To some of the miners, the knockers were malevolent spirits and the knocking was the sound of them hammering at walls and supports to cause the cave-in. To others, who saw them as essentially well-meaning practical jokers, the knocking was their way of warning the miners that a life-threatening collapse was imminent.

While some variety of "little people" was common to all Celtic and northern Germanic peoples, the origin of knockers probably comes from early Welsh mythology, in which they may have been the pre-Brythonic inhabitants of the west of Britain. Skilled in the arts of mining and tunnelling, they taught these arts to the Britons. These legends may have influenced Tolkien's concept of the Dwarves, consummate miners and stoneworkers who taught these skills to men.

According to some Cornish folklore however, the Knockers were the helpful spirits of people who had died in previous accidents in the many tin mines in the county, warning the miners of impending danger. To give thanks for the warnings, and to avoid future peril the miners cast the last bite of the pasties into the mines for the Knockers.

Using this to show a bit the new Dialog system, a bit more complex than SMT1's.
Click me! CLICK ME, I COMMAND YOU TO

See the building? That's Haneda's Gym. THe entire building is a gym. Bastard.

He doesn't spend a dime in interior decoration, though, it looks awful and stained with unmentionable fluids.
Or maybe just sweat, but eh, whatever.

Entering a door:

... Creepy.

Now that's more like it.

I knew there had to be some sort of catch! Damn you Haneda, damn you.

want to bet? WANT TO BET?

And it shows. It has more than one room!

That doesn't bode well for Hawk.

More training required then? Hrhar.

Meh.

At last, someone in Haneda's gym that says something positive about Hawk.

Outside again (needed to raise some money, and mag, the prices in Haneda's Gym are higher than in the one next to Okamoto's):

Wikipedia posted:

The Chonchon, (of the language mapudungun and Spanish Chonchón) is a creature (considered a mythical bird) of the Mapuche mythology, and later also present in the Chilean folk myth and in southern Argentina.

The Chonchon is the magic transformation of the powerful kalkus (mapuche sorcerer), that knows the secret of the Kalkus, to become this feared creature.

The kalku or the sorcerer would carry out the transformation in Chonchon being anointed by a magic cream in the throat that makes his head removed from the rest of the body, and his head become this creature.

The Chonchon has the shape of a human head with feathers and talons; its ears, which are extremely large, serve as wings for its flight on moonless nights. Chonchons are supposed to be endowed with all the magic powers of and can only be seen by other kalkus, or for wizards that want this power.

They are known for their cry of "tue tue tue" during their flights. The Chonchon is considered a mythical bird that announces "bad luck", and the form in that the kalkus use to carry out easily their wicked activities.

A High Pixie was also recruited. No screenshots of that, though (messed up, and pressed f2 insead of f1 every time

)

In order, again.

Another creepy demonoid, and keeping with the Greek names motif, named Heracles after the greek god.

Heracles/Hercules. Woo.

And after a little, while, the boss is reached:
THE IRON MAIDEN!

Wikipedia posted:

An iron maiden is an iron cabinet built to torture or kill a person by piercing the body with sharp objects (such as knives, spikes, or nails), while he or she is forced to remain standing. The condemned bleeds profusely and is weakened slowly, eventually dying because of blood loss, or perhaps asphyxiation.

St. Augustine makes an early reference to Carthaginian use of this device in The City of God I.15. The most famous device was the iron maiden of Nuremberg. Historians have ascertained that Johann Philipp Siebenkees created the history of it as a hoax in 1793. According to Siebenkees' colportage, it was first used on August 14, 1515, to execute a coin forger.[citation needed] The Nuremberg iron maiden was actually built in the 19th century as a misinterpretation of a medieval "Schandmantel" ("cloak of shame"), which was made of wood and tin but without spikes.

The iron maiden of Nuremberg was anthropomorphic. It was probably styled after Mary, the mother of Jesus, with a carved likeness of her on the face. The "maiden" was about 7 feet (2.1m) tall and 3 feet (0.9m) wide, had double doors, and was big enough to contain an adult man. Inside the tomb-sized container, the iron maiden was fitted with dozens of sharp spikes.