Part 49: The World of Law
A Land Bringing About Life
Alright, so this is what our loadout is going to be for Mem Aleph. I normally don't bother with this, but for Mem Aleph it's pretty important to have no weaknesses where possible. Very, very important. You could arguably swap the Fimbul/Dragon Vest for the Faerie Armor because of its Curse immunity but that's too risky.
ABSOLUTELY HAVE THE DRAGON RING. This one is not negotiable at all. yet
Remember this thing? We got it after Delphinus for getting the first four Black Boxes. This is not mandatory for Mem Aleph, it's just a very, very good idea to use this! Mem Aleph is one of like three fights where it is genuinely useful.
So, let's do this.
We must give our all to defeat Mem Aleph, holder of our vast energies. I thank you, Hitonari. I would have been unable to come this far without you. Had you not saved me so long ago, I could not have brought this body's destiny to fruition... ...Beyond victory lies the world of the Lord. Now, let us go.> You passed through the door with Zelenin.
Eternal Throne
Hitonari... As things stand, you cannot see Mem Aleph. But with my hymn...
Law Theme
Eternal Throne
I really don't know how to feel about Mem Aleph's design. It's certainly memorable and all but I dunno. After Maya and Jimenez's third style, she just... is kind of a disappointment I guess?
This power... This is the work of the Three Wise Men!? Those cursed beings! How dare they forget their obligation! Do they think to prevent us demons from reclaiming the Earth at any cost!? Hitonari... You must defeat Mem Aleph! Now is your chance!
And we desire a world shackled by the God of order's hand even less! You would connect the world's spirits to seal away we demons, we gods of old! Human who we once walked with...
You have chosen not the path of revival, but the path of death! But I shall stand against you!
Mother Mem Aleph Take The Shield, Raise The Spear 
Okay so, Mem Aleph? In a rare moment for this game: she's not a complete cakewalk! In fact, if you fight her legit she will probably kick your ass at least once. Probably. There IS some degree of luck to it, but that's because she has so, SO many moves that are straight-up lethal.
She has exactly zero single target skills, so uh that's fun. Things like Ice are, well, exactly what they sound like.
A very, very, VERY powerful multi-target skill that blasts the fuck out of everyone once.
Stronger than the dynes, stronger than Maya's Gates, they Just Hurt. Their attack names are even just the element - she's just using the primordial element itself to attack you. That is kind of terrifying AND kind of awesome!
In a rare moment, Mem Aleph is possibly the only fight where having demons with a healing spell (that is not Salvation) is helpful. Kind of. Hitonari alone CAN deal with it if you have enough Bead Chains.
But it's not just the regular ol' attack elements she has, oh no. She has Expel and Curse as well for good measure.
Except, as you would expect, they're both fucking terrifying on paper. Die For Me!, reminder, has an 80% chance to work at base. Light and Dark are 100%.
So, yeah, leaving that open at all is a TERRIBLE idea! You might be thinking "oh but what about Sacrifices?" They do help, sure, but they only proc if the Dragon Ring's Endure has already been used. You don't want to waste the Dragon Ring on these.
Oh right, but she doesn't just have her own unique skills (of which she has more). She just so happens to also have this from Asura and Asherah real casual like.
Also Disaster Cycle. It might be tempting upon seeing this to ignore the Dragon Ring for the Supple Ring to avoid that random chance of Hitonari getting Petrified but DON'T DO IT. NO. BAD.
Also bad? Buffing and debuffing.
You can kind of maybe get away with it for a little while, but it's really not worth the hassle. With any buffs or debuffs in play at all, she can throw out a Nocturne reference to do a Silent Prayer. And also heal for less than 9% of her max HP.
I don't know why it's 607 but it's always 607 for some bizarre reason. She has 7000HP so I really don't get it.
Great Flood is also a casual reference, albeit this one is Biblical
thetruegentleman posted:
In fairness about the Great Flood attack, it's actually not exclusive to the bible: for China, there's the myth "Great Yu Controls the Waters", India's Manu (who escaped the flood courtesy of Vishnu), Greece's Zeus killing everyone who didn't hide in a chest at some point, and Hawaii has the goddess Pele, which is a strange case of the flood helping to create the Hawaiian islands (by making them habitable) on top of also being an uncontrollable flood.
It's actually a pretty clever choice, assuming the devs knew about any of that.
Oh and it's multi-target Almighty damage with a baked in Sukunda. It could be worse, I suppose.
OH WAIT IT IS.
Mother's Kiss is the most dangerous attack she has by a mile and a half. It's random number of hits that also randomly target. The amount of times it can hit?
3 to 8. Fucking hell.
do you maybe see now why you want the dragon ring? yes its for this
The one small mercy to Mother's Kiss is that it is just good ol' Phys damage and not Almighty for some bizarre reason. I dunno, but at least that means its resistable.
So, yeah, that's Mem Aleph. A fight with actual teeth for once. Odd how she has exactly one skill for every element except Gun, huh... Hmm, I wonder...
Oh, resistances? Uh, she's immune to Gun, Expel, Curse and all ailments. That's it.
End Chaos Theme
I suppose in the end that wasn't TOO bad, really...
No... I... still... Did you defeat her, Hitonari!? Mem Aleph is...> You can hear a voice from somewhere...
> The space around you began to distort!
...Mem Aleph is a Mother Brain foetus? Uhhh...
MY SOLE DESIRE IS TO CRUSH YOUR SPIRITS INTO ATOMS... ...AND DISAPPEAR INTO THE AIR. 
Empty Mem Aleph Take The Shield, Raise The Spear 
Of course she has a second form. At least this IS a separate fight so the Dragon Ring is refreshed if it needs to be. And it's even more important than ever here. MUCH MORE IMPORTANT. Not JUST because she's a lot more happy to use Mother's Kiss without issue or care here.
Empty Mem Aleph has all the exact same moves as Mother Mem Aleph, but that's somewhat expected. She also has 9000 HP and her resistances are a bit different here: she reflects Phys and Gun, is immune to Expel, Curse and all ailments and... is Weak to Fire...? What?
So, this is what Gibo Eyes looks like in combat. It doesn't tell you if something IS a good idea, but it tells you what is nullified, drained or reflected.
Like s-- wait, WHAT?
She's not immune or anything to Wind what's...
Empty Mem Aleph is a barrier change boss. Fuck. She reflects two elements and makes up for it by being weak to a third. And it IS an actual genuine weakness. It's also really obvious what her weakness is from the reflects. If you look at the element order on the bottom screen/status bar/etc, she is always weak to the one to the right of her reflects:
Reflects Elec and Wind = Weak to Phys
Reflects Phys and Wind = Weak to Gun (hello best-case scenario)
Reflects Phys and Gun = Weak to Fire
Reflects Gun and Fire = Weak to Ice
Reflects Fire and Ice = Weak to Elec
Reflects Ice and Elec = Weak to Wind
There are two things floating around about when she changes: every turn and whenever she uses a special skill. These are both wrong. She changes every I think 6 turns (obviously the first turn doesn't count towards this). That's it.
This is the skill that some people claim makes her do a barrier change. You can see for yourself how wrong that is, so I don't know how this became a commonly claimed thing!
Anyway, Mem Aleph is a pain of a skill. It picks one of the three alignments and autoforces all demons of that alighment back into your stock. How very annoying. It's not a big respite despite seeming like it, because this leaves you VERY vulnerable. Very, very vulnerable.
Mainly to this. MA is insanely dangerous and there is shitall you can to prevent it or anything. It's her ONLY single-target skill across both fights. It has no element and does proportional damage. It deals 100% of the target's current HP. It then HEALS Mem Aleph for the exact same amount done. The only real saving grace here is that it CAN miss, at least.
It also happens to be both a thing she can do whenever AND also her counter to using a Mirror. So, uh, don't do that.
And unlike, say, Waking Dream she can target anyone with this. Mother's Kiss is dangerous and can fuck you up but that's survivable. This isn't. If you don't have the Dragon Ring('s Endure left) and this targets Hitonari? You lose, game over, try again.
But that's all she has that's new here. A barrier change gimmick, two new moves and the decency to add a weakness albeit a revolving one. MA adds an implicit timer, even moreso than Disaster Cycle existing does, which is kind of annoying especially since she can just decide that you lose whenever she wants. Beyond that, if you don't get oneshot, you can probably survive. Probably.
Or you can just do what I'm going to do later and NOT give her a fair fight. That also works. You'll see...
End Silence
WITHOUT ME... THE EARTH WILL... HAAAAH... BE STOLEN BY THAT ARROGANT GOD...
Morale
Thank you, Hitonari. Now we can create a beautiful Earth...> Light is shining in from somewhere...
> The light enveloped you...!
You have finally fallen. You have at last atoned for the sins of that body.
Tadano, Zelenin. You have done excellent work in breaking the eternal curse. How beautifully your spirits shine!
The fear of the demons' invasion... The destruction of the foolish humans... It shall all vanish. By law and order shall the spirits play... By law and order shall the spirits play... By law and order shall the spirits play...
Let us go now... to the start of our next journey.
It's really weird how for the back half of the game, even on the Law route no less, Mastema was completely MIA save for that one bit in Grus and the actual ending. What the heck, man?
We now possess all the keys to the new world. The Exotic Matter, the Cosmic Eggs... And you, Zelenin, who knows the Lord's hymn.
The threat of demons shall be no more and humans shall truly be saved, to reach a new zenith... I shall go and inform the Lord of this glorious moment. Farewell... May we meet again in the new world.
We entered the Schwarzwelt as an investigative team, and through the trials we endured... We received the guiance of the Holy Spirit to save mankind.
Now, Hitonari. Unleash the power you hold. The new... eternal earth filled with light shall be wrought. The World of Law 
So, now we use the Vanishing Point for one last time. Hopefully this time it'll actually work properly.
The World of Law
It starts off mostly the same as before save for one minor difference...
Hitonari and Zelenin are stood outside what remains the Red Sprite... and Hitonari has taken his helmet off? Uhh, what?
Man, the Cosmic Eggs are about the size of a Cadbury's Cream Egg at a generous estimate.
I figured they'd be bigger than that considering they're a key to creating an entire world.
But regardless, the four float on over to the Vanishing Point...
And zoom on in.
The weird purpley stuff vanishes and is replaced with this rapdily expanding aura of light.
Silence
It begins to leak out of the Schwarzwelt itself.
...And then the Schwarzwelt begins to rapidly expand?!
Fortunately it's not as bad as it seems as as the Schwarzwelt is then ungulfed by the blue aura which then continues to spread ever onwards.
Before it overtakes the entire world and now the blue marble is a very accurate moniker...
Scepter of Justicerecommend proclick
Cue the credits...? Um, that was rather sudden and out of nowhere, huh.
The credits just go on for a while showing us 1 part of each sector (the Blue Jet for Antlia, Mitra's throne room for Bootes etc.) and then a few shots from the ending we just saw.
More important is that after the credits are done, we get the rest of the ending.
> The sacred power annihilated the invading demons and erased the Schwarzwelt...
> From there, it continued to engulf human civilization.
All has become as our Lord on high wishes it. Humans will no longer fight and snarl at each other...
And my body, reborn like this world... It shall stand in the center of the people and live on eternally in the world of our Lord on high.
Law Theme
> The skyscrapers became altars to commune with God.
> Zelenin stands in the center of these altars...
Silence
And with that, we've finished Strange Journey, hurray! It wasn't really all that strange a journey in the end. One frought with interesting decisions, bad ideas and an attempt to cram in too many themes and just neglect and ignore them beyond the most token of efforts but it was something.
But wait, there's more!
We do have New Game+ to contend with, and it's going to make that as painless as possible at least. Good thing too, because it has some unique content including half of fucking Grus god dammit.
It took a long while to get through the first time, but on a second cycle onwards? Well, with this many unfair advantages (that I shall proceed to ignore for any new content) it goes by much, MUCH quicker.
One ending down, two to go...