Part 8: Negotiation!

Another emergency sorted. Let's see what happens now.



"It's at times like this when we must keep our cool to make the right decisions and act on them. We must get our men back. "




Tyler: "All indications show that there aren't any demons left inside."
"All right. Maintain the current alert status and keep those men patrolling. Ops, give me a report on the missing crewmen."




Kato: "And Irving was taken from the lab, Sir. A total of four men are no longer on board."




I take it that's bad news.

"This gets worse and worse... Without him, we have no way to restock supplies and munitions! Monitors! Give me feasability on a field excursion. What's the atmosphere like out there?"




Monitor Woman: "As our earlier report mentioned, we should be unaffected so long as we wear our Demonicas."




"Strike team, I have new mission orders for you. Search the area outside the ship and rescue those missing crewmen! For lack of hard data on our surroundings... We'll designate each battlefield we come across as a sector, followed by a codename. "





Note, the names are not exactly arbitrary words. They may look like it, but they are not.
Wikilink



Terry: "Cimmander, we've managed to get the plasma armor online!"



"Strike team, your orders stand: focus on rescuin those missing crewmen!"



Terry: "I know it's a rough situation, but we can't afford to lose you too. Stay focused out there!"



"The fate of the Earth rests with us. We cannot fall here! Draw medical kits at the lab before heading out."

That is a good plan, resources must be acquired before undertaking a rescue mission. We don't want to see York failing and needing to be rescued himself, do we?


Williams: "So... is whoever sent it telling us to communicate with demons...? Is that even possible?"




"Begin the search and secure the crew's safety at once."

And then, let's go to the sickbay.


Zoe: "Now, hold still..."



And that is a free heal.



Excellent. Now, let's visit the Lab.




Chen: "It'd be nice if I could replenish your supplies or strengthen your weapons, but... Oh, hey! I can get you medicine if you need it. Just let me run and fetch some from in back!"




AND there it is, a total of 15 free medicines. That is nice.



Chen: "Well, good luck!"




Considering that a bunch of free medicines were acquired, and nothing can be bought or improved at the moment, and York got a nice fullheal, I guess yes.



Almost immediately after exiting the ship, we get to this dude.




Strike Team B: "Good thing I have my Demonica here to help me get around!"



Strike Team C: "No, it's still inside the Schwarzwelt... And we're... "
Stroke Team A: "Hey, this is no time to panic! Get it together! Let's move double-time and rescue those crewmates!"

You should probably watch this vid, it shows the basic gameplay and such,
Also, music






This is the first sector. Antlia. A sort of frozen wasteland, it seems. The game runs on the same engine that the Etrian Odyssey games do, except that now the map is fully automatic. The gameplay is somewhat similar, but you'll see later on that it is not quite the same. Still, if one likes one of the titles, it is pretty certain that the other ones will also be liked. At least it worked like that for me.



Strike Team: "I'll send the document to your Demonica, just in case you ever want to review it."



And now we get to open our ver first door, isn't it EXCITING!?


And also our very first random encounter! not random




Oh. Another SMT tradition, a pixie as one of the very first encounters. And the first FRIENDLY encounter.






Demon: "Ummm... Hi there, human! I'm pretty interested in you guys. So c'mon, let's play!"







>One funtion of the Demon Summoning Program allows the user to converse with demons. This friendly Pixie will teach you the ins and outs of contacting demons in battle.




Pixie: "Demons are your enemies, but if they're in a good mood, they'll do nice things for you. So, um... what should we do first, huh?"




Let's be polite. We don't know how she might react. Or do we?


Pixie: "Now for the good part... Yep, it's negotiation time! So now you have to tell me what you want. Go on, ask for anything!"




We are missing the most important request. But that'll change in a moment.


Pixie: "Listen to this... You can even ask a demon to join you!"



Why she is asking York for him to ask her to be his. That must be taken advantage of! I mean, yeah, let's do that. Yes.


Pixie: "Now that you've put your cards on the table, the demons get to make their own requests. I'll give you a quick demonstration of what kind of requests you might see from us."








Pixie: "Hmm, what else...? Ohhh, now I remember. You know how you just hit it off with some people and not others, right? Well, it all has to do with your alignment."




>Compatible demons are more likely to be in a good mood or ask for little during negotiations. Incompatible demons are quick to anger and will demand a lot before negotiations are ended.





Well, we don't know ANYTHING about the dude on the right. Not even WHAT it is.



Pixie: "Umm, this is an Unknown. You've seen them before, right? Wellll... When you try to talk to an Unknown, it gets kind of wonky. Watch."




Pixie: "Like that!"




Pixie: "Since you can't understand them, conversations tend to go badly. You sometimes get lucky, though. Great job! We're almost done here!"





Well, yeah, I guess.



And now York has a minion.



Excellent. Traditional first demon, acquired.





Pixie: "Yeah, that's it! I'm going to send it to your Demonica! It's just the basics, but it'll be there for you to look over when you don't understand something! "




And there it is, we see her stats, not all of them, and we can't see what she resists or is weak against. Yet.




And now, by recruiting her, we the analysis becomes more complete. Strong against fire, eh?



And we can see a detailed portrait in the status screen. As well as summoning, returning them to... Wherever they are stored, or deleting them from existence.



So, let's just have her out in case it is needed. Up to three creatures can be summoned at any given time. As seen with the name colors, both York and the Pixie are Neutral.



The Pixie also comes with two spells, Agi and Dia, basic fire and healing spells. The latter ought to be very useful for a while.



Also, this is the compendium. You can summon, register, or CREATE passwords for the demons. Passwords will be explained in the future.



Profile: "and prank-loving. One common prank they pull is to cause humans to travel in circles. However, they also help farmers and are generally considered good faeries."

We can also see the bestiary entry there. I like that.