Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Part #42

Part 42: Mother Maya

So, Grus is... gonna start off with a bunch of paths but one of them leads to a locked door. Welp, that's one written off.

Since this IS a lazy Delphinus recolor, there're conveyor belts here. Lots and lots of conveyer belts. We'll go left here, because sure why not.

Also, SURPRISE! The entirety of the actual exploration part of Grus is one gigantic teleport maze!

And I fucking hate it. It's not that it's difficult per se... though there are A LOT of teleports and keeping track of all of them is misery...

But that it's constantly broken up with conveyer belts that drop you on teleports, conveyer belts that drop you next to teleports...

Thankfully there aren't any teleports onto conveyer belts.

There's also a bunch of hidden doors, just in case it wasn't quite tedious enough. Thankfully none of them are mandatory.

They just let you get to some extra items here and there.

...So, remember how a while ago forums poster Petiso posted his map of Eridanus' teleport "maze"? Y'know, this thing:

Petiso posted:
Good old Eridanus, I made sure to scan this for future reference and still shiver every time I look at it:

Yeah, good times. Grus makes this look tame. So, I'm gonna distract you from how little of that I'm showing because there are like 30 teleport destinations on this floor alone and it's REALLY stupid.

The Fear of God

We used Anzu before, and I think that basically sums him up. Nothing here you can't already see.

Titania meanwhile is fun and wacky. She's weak to Gun but resists Fire, Ice, Elec and Wind. She's 300% weak to Charm, and her physical attack can also do a charm. At a 10% base chance. And Luck is her second best stat. And her Source gives Thunder Reign. And her Magic is a base 47 with a 19% Growth Rate.

Really, the worst thing about Titania here is that it uses her shit Devil Summoner design.

Ammut is a solid, good demon. She's a competent enough Strength demon even though she's as simple as he looks. Her Source gives Tyranny...

And the earliest Victory Cry. As you'd expect, it only affects whoever has it rather than everyone which is a shame but understandable. The next demon with Victory Cry at all is level... 78 and the second source that guarantees it? Level 92.

Ammut punching WAY above her weightclass with this one.

Girimehkala is potentially a dangerous big boy alright. He's, well, he's an SMT Girimehkala. Reflects Phys, doesn't Reflect Gun but Drains it. Those weaknesses ARE all weaknesses, by the by. He DOES in fact take 125% normal damage from Fire/Ice/Elec/Wind.

Persephone and Guedhe are a bit more interesting. Persephone we saw as a random NPC forever ago in Bootes (remember that? Probably not!) but here she turns up with a predilection for casting Binding Cry. She's weak to Elec and immune to Wind, Expel, Curse and Charm.

Guedhe is simultaneously more fun and more annoying and boring. His main stat is Agility (boo), and he has a 10% chance to inflict Sleep with his basic attack. Resistance wise, he's got no weaknesses, resists Expel and nullifies Curse and every ailment. Except Rage but that really doesn't matter at this point.

A Rotten Nation

Okay, but for real let's actually kind of talk about Grus' design here. Eridanus was really honestly kinda clever with that; it had 2 really big sprawling areas that didn't really feel all that large until you actually stepped back and looked at them. They weren't the tightest designed or anything (I could've easily accepted about 75% less pointless Sleep tiles, for example) but they were functional enough.

Grus is a giant goddamn mess. It's considerate enough to give you plenty of terminals for when you inevitably get sick of its drab color scheme, the walls being literally made of garbage and the hellscape of one hundred teleports.

Like, there is one thing both this and Eridanus' teleport maze has in common; the actual chambers were just empty crosses that had a designated landing point or two and anywhere between 1 and 3 teleporters at the other ends.

Somehow, though, Grus manages to just completely mess up something so simple. Like, just think about that for a second. There is basically nothing to making this work. If you're going for a minimalist thing, this should be really simple and effective and easy to achieve.

Thankfully, Grus has a dark secret. These stairs leading down are all you need; stumble across any stairs leading down to B3F and you're done with the entire sector for all intents and purposes.

...Complete aside, but that enemy search right there?

Pale Rider again, obviously. You have a 5% spawn chance. Leave me alone, goddammi--

wait i just unlocked the magic incense without having to grind for it so i wont need to track his arse down later okay we're even

This also totally reminds me, hey Red Rider. You're going to contribute here by having no real weaknesses, being immune to ailments and just Helping in general.

Should definitely get rid of that Void Curse though.

So, anyway, B3F real quick. This is a single giant room. That's it. That's all it is.

There are damage tiles in the bottom left corner just because.

Oh, and you see how those two doors there are one-way doors?

Funny story about that. B3F is a one-way door maze. It also has a couple sections with sleep tiles just because.

I don't even get that one here, since you have to cross it to get to a healing spot anyway.

Notably missing down here is a Terminal, by the way. Odd decision that.

There's 5 staircases down here, and while this one is the most important later, it's not progress.

But it does let you open up a... shortcut...? Kind of? Back there if you need it.

Hey there's another thing Eridanus got right. It was a giant area, that checkpointed you reasonably well. It could get a little ridiculous at times, sure, but at least you always felt like you were making progress and getting somewhere. And during the countless trips back and forth, getting back to where you needed to was always quick and painless.

Grus on the other hand is a giant teleport maze that only lets you doubleback at two points: when you're finished, and when you're finished.

That's not even a coy clever wordtrap or anything. Remember, we get to Maya by going to B3F. Which is a single giant room. Then using the correct staircase to go up. Which is in the center of the giant room.

We get the first shortcut by using exactly one of the wrong staircases back up to B2F. We get the second shortcut by reaching the end of Grus.

This is just a kind of bafflingly terrible decision. As much as I ragged on Fornax for being boring and empty at least it broke up its bad ideas by interspacing them with Jack's Squad fucking things up.

Grus just frontloads its plot then throws you in teleport hell and waits for you to be done.

...Anyway, we finally found the Carina palette swap. That means we get a couple new random demons to talk about. Thank God, because I'm running out of ways to say basically the same thing but pretend like I'm not.

The Fear of God

Gemori here is kind of an unusually bafflingly bad idea. She has Lullaby, but her source doesn't give it. Her source gives Eternal Rest but nothing that can inflict Sleep. She has a special skill when you use her called Laplace Curse. Laplace Curse is a free Debilitate on all enemies you have fully analyzed. This is as useless as it sounds. Like, it's great that you can get Auto-Debilitate for 0MP in a niche situation; it might very well have its uses. Except the things you'd want to Debilitate don't have Analyze gauges in their fights so its a wasted skill.

Enemy Gemori doesn't have it for obvious reasons; instead, she opts to go with Baitsa Dasuto. Almost feels like a stepback after Taotie in a way.

Anyway, she's resistant to Expel and Nullifies Curse, Strain, Charm, Mute and Sleep. No weaknesses in any way.

Erlkonig is a cool demon that is real and my friend and I like him.He is a treeman so he is weak to being burned by Fire. He's also resistant to Expel, Nullifies Curse (...man, even the resistances are laze here) and Reflects Gun. His source gives Drain Elec.

A Rotten Nation

That's it; that's all the interesting stuff in the Carina section. The only thing over there right now is a... teleport back to the start of B1F. Fucking christ.

Anyway, yeah, like I said before, the obviously correct stairs lead to B2F in an Antlia area. That's different. It even has a terminal AND a heal spot so it's clear that it's where we want to be.

...Which is why we're immediately leaving to go anywhere and everywhere else. There's still a lot of Grus to try and find something useful or relevant in.

I'm not quite sure if we're succeeding or not, since even though the changed graphics for the area here SHOULD signify progress they just mean you can get jumped by a man what is a tree and a woman on a camel.

Meanwhile if we really want to make ""progress"" with pretending Grus still matters, there's still about half the teleporting to deal with.

At least they fully expected you to get constantly lost, hence why there are so many terminals in this area. This makes 3 in this part of the sector alone.

It's an odd mercy that I am definitely not complaining about.

Really, the biggest problem with about... 60-70% of this place is that there's minimal incentive to bother. Like, sure, they expect you to get lost a fair bit, but once you get to B3F you know you're almost done anyway so...

It might not even be so bad if it just, I don't know, actually placed the items around the floor reasonably rather than dropping almost all of them in this one spot? Just a thought.

Oh and the Criticker is a really bad Sword. Fixed 2 strikes is nice but it's added effect is Poison. Which is second only to Strain for ailments that are not worth it.

The good news about this, is that the "main" path has now been properly done and dusted. What about this way, then?

It sure has a lot more conveyer belts and a few more teleports for good measure. Nowhere near as many of them, though.

It even has exactly one terminal just to trick you into thinking that it is progress, I guess.

There's three more items down this path and that's all. There are four you can see during the conveyer belt stuff but only 3 can be obtained right now.

Thankfully, the first two that you see are good and an actual non-super-hidden Bead of Life is a nice surprise as well.

The other two are down a different starting point, and the one on the left here (right on the map) we can't get at the moment.

It's still good, but it's not A Bunch of Beads and Also A Bead of Life good.

But that's... finally... just about everything in Grus done and dusted. It's probably a good indicator of how much of Grus as an area just blurs together that I'm still mentally sometimes going "okay but where's the Black Box guy" even though we found that one right at the start of the sector!

I dunno, that's something that is like such a small and simple thing but I just keep forgetting it. Is that just me? That might just be me. For all I know, you don't even care that much about the actual boxes themselves.

...Oh, uh, there's a rare forma somewhere in here apparently. We missed it. Um, where is it... where...

Oh. Right here. By the stairs leading directly to where it becomes mandatory.

HEY SPEAKING OF RARE FORMA!

Notice how Grus never had a single dark room? Now I'm not saying I actually want one or anything, but thus far Visualiser B has been completely useless. A+ idea right there.

Prayer

Sloth is really blatant about being that whole "idle hands are the Devil's tool" thing. Acedia itself is more of an apathy kind of thing than actually just being a lazy piece of shit, though. It's a very thin like separating them, but acedia means "without care." It is also kind of a sluggish mental process that even if you can bring yourself to care about something, still not actually do it necessarily and therefore very similar to tristitia in that regard.

Sloth being a sin is that way is kind of fucked up if you really think about it. It's a thing that is based on considering someone as one of the most evil things they can be based on their physical, mental and emotional state. So, uh, yeah. There's that.

So, new things! Reaper Colt is a pretty damn good weapon, honestly. Garudyne, Agidyne or a straight Gun attack what can instakill a dude. AT Grusite x2, Reaper Fruit x1 (Persephone) and Yoma Mask x3 (Xiuhtecuhtli) needed for this, so it's quite easy to make.

The Cromwell isn't a very good gun, really. It's basic attack is fine and interesting-ish, but its sole skill is Gun Getsu-Ei. Weak. AT Grusite II x1, Reaper Tux x3 (Guedhe) and Haunt Skin x3 (Kudlak) to make this thing so it's worse than the Colt AND harder to make.

Hey, it's a neat piece of armor! The Scanner Vest is on-paper not very great but it's quite handy for Grus. No weakness makes it nice, and it's super easy to get: DF Grusite x2, Vile Goggles x1 (Pachacamac) and Beast Scales x1 (Ammut).

Four incense down, and only Vitality to go. I really don't get the unlock order here. You START by getting access to Strength (and Agility...), which is amazingly useful and handy. Then you get Luck which is the best. Then you get Magic here which is very nice itself. And then you get Vitality. At least it's not pretending Agility is worth a damn, I guess.

...Anyway, we just got Unlock C so before we use it in Grus we'll see what it opens elsewhere.

Like this door in Carina. It's been taunting us for a while, so I'm sure it's going to lead to something useful and worth our ti--

the hell is this shit??

Fuck it, never mind, back to Grus!

A Rotten Nation

Second and last shortcut in Grus is opened now. Yes, really. Can I just copy/paste what I said before about how bad this is?

...What? If Grus gets to be lazy as shit and just reuse things from earlier, why shouldn't I?

Free Dekunda Stones are nice, but uhh... this isn't gonna be helpful for what lies ahead.

Also that Gold forma off to the side that we can see? That's a fixed forma. That is only obtainable in NG+. I don't even know either.

Last regular ol' item we can get in Grus is just a single Amrita Shower. At least we didn't actually NEED Unlock C for this one.

Coulda just walked around to the stairs from the center of Grus. Not really much point to doing so before getting Unlock C though.

Thankfully, it's really obvious what lies beyond this Unlock C even if I hadn't unsubtly mentioned it several times.

It's Maya. Hi, Maya!

Oh and this makes the heal spot and terminal in B2F's center irrelevant. The heal spot was also kind of irrelevant anyway, but the terminal is at least useful for leaving quick with the Remedium.

Silence

...Not gonna lie, I kinda like this background. It's pretty cool.

In The Master's Name

...I also really kinda like Maya's design here. She's pretty neat a gigantic eye-less woman who's also like half-series required Tower or skyscraper or something. I'unno, I think it looks pretty neat.

...Except the hair. I don't like the weird slicked back combed hair that she has. That just looks... so wrong and off.

Have you acquired a taste for matricide and now turn to me?

What a filthy, foolish species yours is...

I, too, once had a dream. A dream where humans had a prosperous future...

This land of illusions is also the birthplace of the future.

But what do the humans show me now...?

Dreams of decay. Rot. Destruction!

Humans have lost the power in their dreams and can no longer build a beautiful future!

...Now come, one without a future.

You will fall and die at the hands of my dreams and illusions!

Night Maya

Vehement Rage

So, Maya! Maya's a... simple and straightforward fight, really.

She's weak to Guns but she isn't (it's base 100%/Neutral damage). This exists just so she can get Co-Op'd. She DOES have an actual weakness though. You'll see...

But first, Maya has a boring gimmick! She "doubles" her Agility, which means she just gets two Sukukajas that... don't count as Sukukajas. So you can't formally dispell them, but you CAN just buff yourself or debuff her two stages to completely negate it. So, technically, yeah this means that Maya might very well be the only fight in which Fog Breath is kind of maybe usef...

No wait, Debilitate does this but better. Never mind!

Ultraviolence is a pretty simple skill, depsite its kind of awesome name. It's just straight forward "hit everyone once for some decent Phys damage" and that's it.

Evil Vortex is a little bit more interesting, at least. It's pretty weak Almighty elemental damage but it has a sneaky added effect: it can Petrify you. It's like a worse Disaster Cycle, while also being a more terrifying Disaster Cycle.

...Fortunately, it's really easy to just never give Maya a chance to use this one. She can only do it at low HP and that's a stage of the fight that is very skippable.

She has all the Dynes. Just their single-target versions though!

She also has these weird spells. Agi/Bufu/Zio/Garu Gate SOUND from their name that they should do something fancy or special, right? Especially when you know the OTHER gimmick in this fight. But nope.

They're just "Dyne but stronger" and that's it. What a goddamn missed opportunity!

So, resistance wise, yeah she's weak-but-neutral to Guns as mentioned above. And that is, in fact, it. Her only other resistances are the usual boss immunities to potent/all ailments and Expel and Curse.

Bu she's Neutral to Fire, Ice, Elec and Wind. This means she takes 200% damage from them. This is half of her other gimmick. She is super weak to elemental damage.

If you use any skill that isn't an ailment, support, healing, Phys or Gun? She auto-counters with an undodgable, unblockable instant kill. This is such an awful idea; I don't even understand the logic here.

Why give her a major real weakness and punish you for using it? Oh, THAT I can answer! Because that weakness applies to the usable version as well. Remember, boss vulnerabilities are almost always a 1:1 with the usable version.

But the actual "oh you did a Spell? Game over" is just such a shockingly awful idea that I don't even understand it.

...I thought for a while this was what the Gate spells was for, by the way. If you matched the one she just used, then she WOULDN'T do this. Or maybe the one that's its weakness or whatever. But nope, that doesn't happen. That'd be kind of clever.

Oh and Maya has 6000HP which is a decent step-up from before. She might take a while if you decide to, I don't know, not buff and use Charged Grand Tacks (for ~1000) or Riot Guns (for ~2500-3000).

End

In The Master's Name

But even I am merely one of that Mother's children...

Mother Mem Aleph will surely...

> The distortion of the landscape stopped.

Like, the cool Dali painting aesthetic was obviously an illusion, fair. But remember how the game explicitly told us that the reused assets WERE the illusion?

Alright, now strap in. The post-sector scene here gets looooong...

Malevolence and Benevolence

With the Exotic Matter we obtained from Maya, we... should... we... shoul.......

What the...? Arthur, what's wrong!? Answer me!

......

Silence

What's going on!? There weren't any signs of a malfunction!

Fear

What's that...? Is someone on the viewscreen?

Look! Something's coming up!

> Three silhouettes are displayed on the viewscreen...

Maya has fallen, and the false visions of this land have been dissolved...

The time to reveal everything to you humans has come.

Behold now the vision of the path that all humans... nay, all life on Earth should take...

> One of the crew interrupted.

Careful, everyone! They're... going t...

> The crewman's voice faded into silence...

The reincarnation of cultures beyond salvation.

There was a time, long ago, when this land was populated with creatures other than humans...

A time when those creatures prospered, their civilization covering the earth.

They, too, were a race who spoiled the earth.

Little realizing that their actions brought about their doom...

They remained set in their ways, transfixed by their civilization.

All of them disappeared into the Schwarzwelt.

We are here to build a just civilization spiritually.

We have no wish to see this cycle of ruin repeated.

Law Theme

...is to bury the evil soul, leaving only the holy spirit...

...and make of this earth a single, unified, holy spirit.

While the fallen humans whose wills are weak shall be eliminated.

With the power of the Scwarzwelt, and the power of that song... the project will reach its goal.

Humanity's charge of uniting all life on earth as one will at last be fulfilled.

If the holy spirits are in harmony with each other, there will be no desire...

And the absence of acrimony or hostility will prevent the Earth from ever again being put at risk.

Humanity's spirit shall sing His praises daily, as they are directed, and shall nourish the Earth.

That is the song under which humanity will become as one.

In doing so, they will exist as a solemn creation for the rest of eternity...

> The Three Wise Men were interrupted by another voice...

Chaos Theme

How can a planet that doesn't even blink be said to have any "life"?

Is this the salvation He has promised you?

I'll tell you what these humans who threaten the life of the Earth need...

A time of death and birth, destruction and creation...

Bring back to the land that spirit of freedom.

Quite unlike humans as they are now... living off the fat of the land, alienated from nature.

I say let the Schwarzwelt loose!

That's the way to regain your freedom, your harmony with the earth...

Your days will be beautiful ones, where you polish your souls in a world led by free gods.

And if a spirit among you in that world becomes depraved, may you bid him adieu.

Right now, you are bent on earning a chance to escape certain death so you might change the future.

But what form should that future take...?

Do not neglect that...

Malevolence and Benevolence

It seems they were trying to tell us something... something about a vision...

A civilization on the brink of destruction... their vision of a new world...

And it's up to us to decide what we should do...?

The ancient days, filled with freedom... She wants us to go back to that?

I could kinda see what she was getting at, but...

What are we here for? To save mankind from the Schwarzwelt! Or have you forgotten!?

......

This crew's being pushed to its absolute limits...

Do we have an update on Arthur yet!? Is he still down!?

He'll need more time, though. Let's tell the others to wait...

One fade to black later...

Law Theme

> It seems she has returned to the Red Sprite...

Just as the Wise Men said...

The question of how we should lead humanity has been put to us.

I am here now to tell you my feelings on the matter.

Not my feelings, precisely... More like my calling.

The time of judgement is near, and I cannot remain idle.

Hitonari... thank you for all that you have done for me.

If He wills it, we will meet again.

I pray that everyone on the Red Sprite awakens to His guidance...

> Zelenin prayed for you and left...

I'll help you! I know you can save me--I know you will!

I understand now what I should do for my sake... for all mankind's!

Teach us how to free ourselves of suffering!

Zelenin... your song... When I heard it, I felt like I was one step closer to Heaven.

It was a nonspecific fancy song, not 14 words of power...

I want to see the highest of highs! The real light of salvation!

Please let me join you!

> A few of the crewmen followed after Zelenin and left the Red Sprite...

Chaos Theme

> It seems he has returned to the Red Sprite...

Gee, I wonder where this is going.

Those ancient assholes and their stuck-up lecturing pissed me off, but I'll tell you what...

What the chick after that said really hit home.

A free life, where if you die it's your own fault... That's not too bad.

So it's time I said adios to the Red Sprite. From now on, I'm a free man.

But hey, don't you worry about me. The Schwarzwelt's probably better for a man in my condition anyway.

I thought I wanted to kill you all for what you did to those demons, but...

I guess I shouldn't expect much more from a bunch of humans. You guys are scarier than demons.

But you're always welcome if you decide to live with the demons.

I'm doing it... You can too.

Later, Tadano. We'll meet again if Fate would have it...

> Jimenez left with a casual wave goodbye...

I know now... humans can't do anything on their own! The world we knew is never coming back!

It's time we turned toward the power of the demons! The gods of old!

I want that freedom we've lost!

I always did envy you, Jimenez...

I wished I could be true to myself like you are.

I can't stand being tied down. It's not like there's any guarantee of salvation!

I'm going with you!

> A few of the crewmen followed after Jimenez and left the Red Sprite...

Silence

I will now assess the situation and devise a course of action.

Malevolence and Benevolence

It didn't take much for them to hack in and shut you down, Arthur.

You don't really stand a chance against them, huh?

Maya's defeat has evidently made it easier for them to act.

The Three Wise Men seem to possess powerful information manipulation abilities.

Maya's disappearance has allowed them to put these powers to full use.

You have seen the effects with my shutdown and the visions you saw.

...Looks like we'll have to sleep with one eye open for a while.

The situation should change once we depart this sector.

Crewman Hitonari, you have yet to turn over the Exotic Matter, correct?

I will take receipt of it now.

We will send this to Engineering and begin preparations to move to the next sector.

Now, as to the treatment of Jimenez and Zelenin.

Both have abandoned the mission and left the Red Sprite.

I was trying to think if there was any way to stop them...

But the way they acted... Never mind them being part of the crew, I'm not sure they're even human.

Well, we're down a lot of crewmen.

Though if we tried to stop them, it probably would've gotten bloody.

I hope there aren't any other crew members on the fence...

Yeah...

However, I will continue to suggest what I consider to be the best course of action.

Hitonari, judging by the report of your encounter with Gore...

Mem Aleph... The core of the Schwarzwelt, right!?

Yes. The next sector may indeed be the core of the Schwarzwelt.

Let us hope it is the final area we must investigate.

We might be able to make it back home if we get the next sector's Exotic Matter, but...

Hitonari, do you think that's all we're meant to do?

That kind of thinking might be a sign you were brainwashed by that vision, y'know?

We've done enough investigation of the Schwarzwelt.

The fate of the Earth is on our shoulders...

It's too big for us...

That concludes the briefing. Begin preparations to plane shift to the next sector.

We will again go by performing a continuous jump through the Vanishing Point at Eridanus.

All hands, to your positions.

Hopefully the last time we get this filler scene...

All hands, prepare to begin field investigations.

Our workload will increase with the AWOL crewmen, huh?

Wonder how many we'll lose here...

That's what Arthur says. I give him a 50-50 chance of being right. I mean, either it is or it isn't.

Roger that.

Patching the camera feed through to the main display.

Fear

This must have been what it was like when the earth was new...

So why are we seeing it here, in this sector?

Speaking as a strike team member, I'm wonder if we'll be able to operate in a place like this.

Arthur, can we really go out there!?

There is nothing intrinsic about this sector that would hinder our operations.

So not everything is as it seems...

Fornax, Grus, now this place... That's how every sector past the Vanshing Point has felt.

Places where you can't tell what's real and what isn't...

Horologium, the grandfather/pendulum clock...

Horologium is a fairly small constellation discovered in the 1700s by... Nicolas Louis de Lacaille. That guy again, yeah. It's located adjacent to Eridanus, once again. It's even part of the same family of constellations as Fornax and... Antlia.

Unlike every other constellation used as a sector, Horologium is seemingly some kind of a go-to for things that aren't the Zodiac? I mean, it gets used in Fairy Tail and that's not exactly a beacon of the most imaginative ideas. still think its pretty great though

Our main objective is to obtain the Exotic Matter we believe to be in this sector.

I am issuing a new official mission, designated "Horologium's Exotic Matter."