Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Part #18

Part 18: Graviton Radio Recovery

We have Unlock B. This opens at least one door in every Sector we've been to.

Let's open them all!

A Scorched Nation

The one in Antlia's pretty memorable, if only because it's been taunting us since our first excursion. It also leads to the only place in Antlia we couldn't get to before now.

The place where it leads is... interesting. This green pillar stands out by already looking different to its surroundings, but it looks different to almost everything we've seen. It seems similar to the Terminal in a way.

It does absolutely nothing right now though! Just remember that it's here. We'll be back to see what it does much, much later.

Behind the pillar there is a door we can't open. Swell.

Also behind the pillar is another door we can't open. This one is white so we need at least two more Unlock upgrades to get the rest of the first floor of Antlia mapped.

And south of the white door is... a hidden door we can't open yet.

Fortunately, there IS something here that gives this purpose beyond being a gigantic cocktease! And, no, it's not the random demons. They're unchanged from the rest of the floor.

Long time no see. Has it been so long you don't recognize me?

After we split, I got stronger and became a High Pixie.

...Evolution isn't in this game. She's just sort-of winkingly referencing Nocturne because there Pixie DOES evolve into High Pixie.

What do you think of this place? Not bad, huh?

I'd like to bring more faeries here and start a village.

Could you help me out by bringing faeries here?

Okay.

Thanks. Most humans can't be trusted, but you can!

I'm counting on you.

This isn't a hard sidequest chain, but it has some really good rewards in it and secretly guards the best one of all. At points here and there, she'll ask for more Fairy race demons until she's asked for one of almost all of them. The ones she doesn't/won't ask for should be pretty obvious, really.

This is just a Goblin so we'll do it now, why not? Just buy one from the Compendium. After this, we'll deal with them whenever's most convenient - most likely between Sectors with other stuff or whenever we get an upgrade that lets us do more back here.

Not bad. You really are different from the other humans.

Take this as thanks.

Thanks to you, I'm one step closer to building a village of faeries.

Naturally if we hadn't handed the High Pixie a Goblin before, this room would be empty.

I like it here. It's comfortable.

I need to decide where my home's gonna be. But before I start digging...

I want to take my time and pick the best spot.

Hmm... just gonna file this away in the back of my head for now.

The village itself seems to have room for 7 Faeries, huh? High Pixie's accounted for that first chamber, and the Goblin's positioned already so that leaves 5 more to go. This won't be so bad at all.

Prayer

Anyway, we got a rare forma out of just giving away a Goblin so let's see what it gets us.

Enemy Lullaby is... kind of nice if you don't want random encounters for whatever reason, actually. You cannot stack Begone and Lullaby, whichever one you put in second auto-removed the first one, and that's fine. Lullaby is just a flat upgrade but also slightly bigger.

Begone barely reduces the encounter rate. Lullaby almost entirely removes it. It's kind of insane, but makes it REALLY useful for Forma farming without having to care about pesky randoms all the time. I wouldn't use it otherwise, mind, but I'm the kind of person who would put on a SubApp that increases the encounter rate and not give a shit.

Anyway, Antlia was a lot of nothing and an easy sidequest. What about Bootes?

A Frivolous Nation

Bootes has a lot of Unlock B doors scattered all over the place. We'll deal with the two outside the Palace first, as is a sensible order to do things. Conveniently enough, one is north of the eastern Terminal and one is south of it.

The northern door is kind of a disappointing wet fart, really.

1 Bead and 1500 Macca? Really? This is what was so valuable it couldn't be gotten immediately?

The southern door is a bit more than that. It leads to another cross-shaped room wherein we find another demon to talk to...

You must have heard my name even in the human world.

Do you know what god I'm of?

I... think you got a couple words backwards there.

Wine.

That's right. You're quite knowledgeable, aren't you?

But enough introductions. Let us move on to the meat of the matter.

I would like to ask a favor of you.

You humans have been lovers of wine for millennia...

Why, then, do you not work for the god of wine's sake?

Okay.

Hohoho... a wise choice. Now, allow me to explain.

Have you heard the tales of the poison wine?

In other words, it's the feather that contains the deadly poison...

And by mixing the feather into wine, it becomes a poisonous wine that can kill a man in one sip.

As the god of wine, I must know how this wine tastes.

I would have you obtain one of this Zhen's feathers.

However... it cannot be plucked from a corpse.

The scuffle would damage and dirty it, affecting the wine's bouquet.

Hm? Why so quiet? You seem baffled.

Do you have any questions?

Are you going to drink it?

Hohoho... A reasonable question. Allow me to answer.

I am a god, you see, and the poison of a Zhen is no poison to me.

Now then... What will this poison wine bring...? Smoothness, savoriness or dryness...?

Hohoho.... I'm eager to find out. I look forward to hearing from you.

Jeez, Dionysus talks a lot. So we have to find a Zhen, talk to it and then come back here. It's just like that one we did for Karasu Tengu but hopefully quicker and easier... except definitely not quicker. We can't even pretend to do this one yet. I mean, I haven't seen a Zhen anywhere so it's mandatory to make this one wait 'til later.

Palace of Pleasure

Inside the palace, we're going to open every door we can. Even the ones to the "cells" we were in before. There's no reason to do this one other than because you can.

......And I guess other than that it's mandatory if you care about getting 100% map completion.

Meanwhile, there's an actual thing that's genuinely new on the opposite side. It's directly north of where we met Bugaboo originally.

It just lets us get a Summon Stone, but that's pretty nice. It's a full revive of a single demon AND immediately summons it into the active party mid-fight all at once. Naturally, these things are pretty darn rare as a result.

But that room was the only thing left on the 4th floor so now we have that completley mapped out as well. Bootes' palace floors seem to all be secretly much smaller than they feel, huh...?

Oh well, 5th floor. There's the one door in the main path section that we glossed over somewhat. South of where we found Persephone and west of the stairs up to the 6th.

Stepping through the door leads to the most devious trap to date! God dammit, why?

The entire room (aside from like 3 squares) is COVERED IN DAMAGE TILES. It's so needlessly rude!

At least we get a second Sacrifice out of it. These things are honestly pretty useful, so I'm not complaining about that.

The last two doors on this floor are the ones we have to go through the 6th to reach. The layout of this place is so needlessly complicated.

Each room has exactly one item in it, and they're both pretty useful.

Well, for a given definition of useful. The Bead Chain is legit, but the Agility Incense could go either way. It sure saves some time later at least.

On the bright side, hey, that's the 5th floor down as well for good measure! (The ES dot is Persephone's location.)

There is a door on the 6th floor, but we can't open this one yet either. This one is also red, so I imagine we'll get through this and at least one in Antlia at the same time.

And finally the doors on the 8th can be opened now too. So we could... take this shortcut(??) that doesn't need to be here and existed only to be an annoying bait and switch during the scene when we first met Mitra.

...Let's just go back to Carina and see if we can find Horkos.

A Squandered Nation

So, we can open the doors down here now. That's nice, but not quite as helpful as it seems.

The fixed forma in this corridor is just 2 DF Carite. There isn't even any other paths in this corridor or anything.

It's just a quick path towards this part of the floor. We did need a path on the bottom after all.

Fixed forma over here is just a bunch of Recovery Core. Not very exciting, no.

Anyway, there's a terminal over here and also a cute li'l piggy to talk to.

Geez. He's clearing shelves left and right. The manufacturing department can't keep up.

'S what you call conspicuous consumption, am I right?

It's a tiny bit more literal than normal, but yeah. It definitely works as an example of that.

This part of the floor is pretty big but we don't need to worry about much of that. We'll take a left here and follow that path around ignoring all branches off of it.

Your world is like this all over, right?

Goodness... I think you humans deserve to have us annihilate you.

But first, I need to put this on the shelf...

It's not just for Katakirauwa, although she helps.

Nah, there's a just a lot of loot over here.

Some Drops aren't quite as good here as they are in other games. Rather than a full heal for one person, it just heals 100HP and 100MP. As a number, not a percentage.

But it's by far the most useful and best item in this batch.

Given my opinion of most items, though, that's not setting a particularly high bar by any means.

Anyway, the other path just loops in on itself and leads to the stairs that take us up.

Once we climb these, we've fully mapped the 1st floor of Carina as well. There's an interesting dot in Mastema's room but that's not actually available yet. We'll get to that very soon, though.

This part of the second floor is a bit small and cramped. It's secrety linear, and has a healing spot in case you needed one I guess.

> You can hear loud noises from the wall next to you...

...And the path leads to a dead-end with nothing in it? Ummm... guess we need to look into that noi--

Oh, found it. That was easy.

In the Master's Name

> But its energy sucking abilities have become very weak...

We found him! Man, he's every bit as fast as he is hungry.

BUONO! BUONO! WHY ARE YOU GETTING IN THE WAY OF MY MEAL!?

WHY DO YOU TRY TO HOG ALL THE FOOD!?

BUOOOOOOOOOONO!

I'LL GOBBLE UP THE FUTURE OF THOSE WHO WANT THE PLANET BACK HOW IT WAS!

I'LL EAT UNTIL I'M FULL! EVEN IF I DISAPPEAR, I WON'T BE GONE FOREVER!

Huh? Sounds like fat boy's gone a little loco...

So whatcha gonna do, Tadano?

BUOOOOOONO! B... B... BUOOOOOOOONO!

> Horkos's bond with the Elve has grown even weaker!

BUONO! BUONO!

> Horkos ran away...

What!? Was that still not enough!?

......!

> There's something on the floor.

Well now, this is something worth keeping a hold of for sure. Bead Chains are very nice indeed. Probably not gonna use it any time soon, mind...

This will gather dust and pretend to matter. Not because it's Vitality but because it's an Incense.

Listen up, guys, this is important.

We've picked up a signal we believe to be the Elve's. It's coming from the center of Carina.

I'll transmit the coordinates to your Demonicas.

Watch yourself, Hitonari. You're right on top of it.

The signal we picked up comes and goes in waves.

We think the Elve might be in very unstable condition.

So... that means Horkos is getting weaker?

It seems our technology combined with the angel's protection is guiding us to victory.

...Perhaps it's time you stopped acting so tough and faced facts, Crewman Jimenez.

......!

Now, Hitonari, go and check those coordinates!

It's right next door, and there's nothing else to do right now so...

BUON... BUON...

MY BODY IS HEAVY... I CAN'T FLY FAR...

AT THIS RATE... THIS NICE BODY WILL ROT...

BUT I'LL EAT... AND EAT... AND GET BETTER...

I WILL NOT... LOSE TO HUMANS...!

...BUONO!

Alright, we got him cornered! Now's your chance, Tadano!

Give this fatso the coup de grace!

BUOOOOOOOOO...! NO... I CAN'T... TAKE IT ANYMORE...!

I MUST... ABANDON THIS BODY...!

I CAN'T BELIEVE IT...! I LOST TO HUMANS IN A FIGHT! I LOST TO HUMANS IN GLUTTONY!

CURSE YOU... CURSE YOU, CURSE YOU, CURSE YOU!

BUOOOOONO!

Woo-ha! We did it!

Serves you right, fatass!

Er... were you able to get the Rosetta from Horkos?

The Elve's outer hull has been damaged. The inside may require inspection.

Proceed to investigate.

Our backup should be on the way. The investigation can wait until they get here...

Man, though... he didn't look like much, but that was one scary pig...

Malevolence and Benevolence

A lot of those guys were taken out and tortured like Zelenin...

The lord of all creation doesn't seem to count for much here.

> You can hear the voices of the crewmen searching the Elve...

We'll have to salvage what we can!

What about that radio thingy we're looking for?

We're ready to carry it out!

Gotcha. Sit tight, I'm headed your way.

...Sucks that we couldn't get the Rosetta from Horkos. We'll have to chase his ass down again.

Right now, we'd better cross our fingers and hope this radio can get us a line back to Earth...

Alright, you ready for some heavy lifting, Tadano?

> You went inside the Elve...

Think this piece of junk'll get us anywhere? It better, man...

Alright, Tadano. You take that...

Wait... Is that...!?

Sorry, Tadano! Hold on a sec!

> Jimenez ran to a corner of the room...

Friggin' A! Hahahaha!

Y'know, Bugaboo! He got sucked in by Horkos!

He... became a rare forma...?

There's nothing left but a Demon Source, but it's definitely him! It's Bugaboo!

That is not a Source, and that is not at all how that works. Did... did you just forget to register him in your Compendium and you're too ashamed to admit it?

Oh, geez... I'm gonna have to teach that dope how to talk again! Hahahaha...!

Alright, Tadano! Let's hurry back... Oh yeah, the radio!

Okay, so strap in. We got a loooong cutscene ahead of us now. And partially behind us. But mostly ahead. Whew boy...

Once the supply crew finishes the Graviton Radio, we will attempt to contact Earth.

Until then, all hands should remain on standby.

We should now be able to contact Earth.

Mission "Graviton Radio Recovery" is confirmed complete.

We'll get about 10 minutes' worth of charge at a time.

We can recharge it once that's up, but it'll take several days worth of time and effort.

Therefore, we must use the device sparingly and keep correspondences brief. Be careful.

......

...

Silence

Are we talking to the investigative team?

This is the Red Sprite, calling Joint Project Headquarters.

We have an estimated 10 minutes to exchange as much information as possible.

You're alive! You survived!

This is the bureau chief of the Joint Project speaking. I can hardly believe this...!

Where are you!? What's going on!? Tell us your situation!

Fear

Of the four ships, we are the only one active on the mission.

That's terrible... it sounds like it's practically a miracle we're corresponding at all.

That would be because it is.

What's going on in there!? Have you had any positive results at all!?

The Schwarzwelt is a discontinuous closed space. We are likely no longer in the world we know.

As regards the conditions of the atmosphere, gravitational pressure, air quality, and so forth...

These values are all in line with those reported by the drones.

From what I'm hearing, it sounds like you're able to proceed...

We have learned some things about the appearance and disposition of the Schwarzwelt.

Though we dismissed the imagery retrieved by the drones as a malfunction...

Everything we have seen so far in the Schwarzwelt is consistent with their transmissions.

We have three space-time sectors thus far...

Ira, luxuria, gula...

Those pictures were real...!?

Even with your report, I have a hard time believing that!

The intelligent life forms theorized before we entered teh Schwarzwelt have been confirmed.

We believe them to be "demons," creatures of folklore and myth.

Well, they themselves admit to being demons and I'd imagine it's the other way around. They've been aroud longer than humanity, and so rather than being based on the stories, the stories are based on them.

Also, this confirms there is an exit. Excellent.

Well not excellent-excellent, but it's good news for our predicament all the same.

We don't know what they're after, but they're definitely here!

So they've actually made it to Earth...!?

There's more, too...

The Schwarzwelt is continuing to expand.

Can you receive pictures? We're transmitting some now.

All Antarctic bases were overrun with demons. After that, they moved north.

The southern regions of Africa, Australia, and South America are under attack.

The Schwarzwelt... Has it grown that much already...?

Ay Dios mio... Even if we make it out in one piece, the Earth is flooded with demons...

Can you put together an escape plan and send in reinforcements!?

......

Unfortunately, neither of those things are possible.

You already have our most advanced technology created on our theories on the Schwarzwelt.

There's nothing we can do for you.

So we get shit-all for help...!?

We'll get nothing from Earth...

But on the other hand...

Yes... there are steps we may be able to take.

If the Red Sprite can catch it, your position in space-time should become clearer.

We haven't abandoned you.

We'll fire the graviton beam now. Put it to good use.

Arthur, you should use the time we have left to transmit your observational data.

Acknowledged. Transmitting data.

Thank you, Arthur.

Best of luck to both of us, eh? This is the Joint Project, signing out...

We work our asses off to get that Graviton Radio, finally get ahold of the folks on Earth...

It does seem to be bad news on top of bad news, doesn't it?

We, uh, but there's a... if demons can get out, so can we!

But it's too soon yet to abandon all hope.

Whatever, sister. I'm a realist, y'know? I play the cards I'm dealt.

You'd rather fill my head with dreams, Miss First Lieutenant?

...You've gotten better at speaking my languge, y'know that?

And apparently worse at speaking mine.

Hell, I don't care if it's you or Zelenin, I just wish someone could pull me outta this funk.

I must explain the importance of the space-time coordinates.

Even if we could increase our movement capabilities, without a proper grasp of our position...

With the graviton beam sent by the Joint Project, we can at last learn our present whereabouts.

Eliminating the uncertain, eh?

So far, we've been having a hard time navigating under a starless sky...

...Tadano, do you understand a word coming out of her mouth?

With the support provided by the outside world, we will be able to determine our position.

Hence, we will not be forced to proceed by being carried further in by the quantum tunnels...

......! You serious!?

At present, we are simply moving from tunnel to tunnel based on data gleaned from ruling demons.

If this works, we should be capable of reaching unknown space-time sectors.

You should perform your duties with more hope now.

Y'know, you may not be the greatest at comforting a guy... But if you say so, my hopes're up!

C'mon, let's find that pig and get the next Rosetta!

It seems there's still danger awaiting us even if we manage to return to Earth...

Eh, they're only demons. We can take 'em!

Even so, better than wandering around here, mm?

Strike team, I suggest you use this time to rest.

Silence

Chaos Theme

My, my... this is a grand ship. Even the ark that withstod the flood couldn't compare.

Hm...? Your name is known to them, Tadano Hitonari.

...Ha. I get it.

But I am only putting into words the destiny you've carried since you were created.

There is no cause for concern.

Yet you are still allowed a bit of power...

Where do you belong? A steadfast soldier of the law, or an agent of chaos?

Hm...? It seems you have guests again.

I had hoped to sit and talk with you longer, but I am left with little choice.

Excuse me, please.

> The girl disappeared...

Abnormal conditions may result. All crewmen, be on alert!

Crisis

I've located the source! 3 o'clock!

Turn on the cameras facing that direction.

Oh, it's Horkos. Convenient!

Also a little touch is that he's not speaking in all-caps any more because he's in his normal demon form, instead of that weird half-Elve hybrid thing.

It's an incredibly strong energy signal! We think it's a demon, but we can't catch it...!