Part 62: Pork City

Pork City


It's not a very great ability but making the helm a bit better is always worth it.

Wait did Mus Rattus actually help me?


I also pick up a lot of the quest items I haven't yet. This is the only really relevant one.


It is at this point that I start to gather the remaining Black Planets.


Dropped by Taboo Minamimoto, Black Saturn is the only positive psych and the only source of healing among the planets.


Thankfully, this is the last time I'll have to fight the Goth Metal Drake. Not thankfully, there is a Normal run before this one.


His Normal drop is a great pin. It gives 33% more uses, rounding up. That means two uses of Ice Risers or Anguis before running out!


And here is Black Mars. The wiki makes fun of it for its low efficiency. It's fully capable of stunlocking random encounters.


Also the Shark noise pin. I have no idea how to rate Black Hole pins against each other.


If you try to go to Pork City after assembling the Kindred Spirits...


Yellow stops you. Shame, you need the Spirits to go to the Shibuya River.


Have I mentioned today I hate Brasbanfrogs? No? Well too bad, it's half my commentary from here on in!


Here's why I like Splash Core so much. This is an alright pin.

Well, now I have 5 of the 6 planets assembled. The one missing is Black Jupiter. Black Jupiter is the Ultimate drop from Noise #96. The Ultimate Enemy atop Pork City.


Also somehow I get enough 5-yen pins for this.

Secretly, offscreen, I'm grinding Joshua to 100 attack and defense for the bonus boss.


Besides being a rebooting healing pin, it also has a damn lot of Hands.


And eventually I get the rarest drop in the game, the DC resonance pin.


The secret to getting it is not to even try to get to 100% drop, but to get to 12% a shitton of times.


Eh, why not? I've got almost everything else ever. Might as well have a higher drop rate.


Anyway, it's finally time to climb the tower.


...Because something strange is going on.


Mr. Hanekoma is climbing it too.

: Mr. Hanekoma? ... Wonder what he's up to out here. ...







: Did he go upstairs?


To get to the next floor, we have to clear the current one.


And the brand restriction is in place. In fact we're going to go through all 13 brands.


A big reason I got Drake before coming here was that Drake can be used on every floor, being unbranded. Stopper Spark will make the first floor a lot easier too.


You know, if I didn't have Beat's level 2 fusion as a win button available at all times.


After clearing all the regular noise, a Pig shows up.


This would be a regular, everyday Pig encounter except...


These are finally the Pigs that get recorded in the Noise Report.




Also the Reaper on each floor gives food. It starts out awful but they eventually give the top stuff.





: He's kind of a mystery. He's got his incognito life as CAT... Then there's that quirky café. I swear it's closed more than it's open. Actually, wow...




Like W2D7, the second floor is D+B.


Ice Risers gets one last ride, a faithful friend to the end.

I don't think I've emphasized this as much as I should: Ice Risers gets good again at the post-game, when Neku's attack will go from around 60 at most to hovering around 200. Its 100% efficiency means its low base attack isn't as much of an issue anymore now that Neku's attack is in most cases the major contributor to the sum attack. Its easy activation makes it a better puck passer than most pins, and it does knock enemies into the air. Black Uranus has a higher attack and a much faster reboot, but Ice Risers has three icicles compared to Uranus's one.


Of course it doesn't really help against Woollies. Fuck Woollies.


Ahahahahaha this pig dies in seconds.


...Well this is useless.

No really, the Hip Snake floor isn't for a while so this pin is useless for a long time.


Slightly better.




Well, it's not the worst brand.

That's Hip Snake.


Anyway, Yoshimitsu and Kusanagi, other W1 favorites, get another short tenure. Mitama is a great pin if you're good at circles. All Vortex Saber pins are, if you can activate them easily.


For once, Brassbanfrogs aren't so huge of assholes given JotM's physical focus.


Oh come on, the thing that evolves into Yoshimitsu? Really?


Oh, don't think we're done with Carols.


These guys pop up again a few times just to frustrate me.


Is this a step down from the Special Dog? Damn.




Most of NP's pins are sequestered into the two giant Energy Rounds and Force Rounds evolution trees. Since both of these are A-class psychs, it makes picking NP pins kinda hard. What makes it harder is that they all have really terrible efficiency. They can cover the screen in hitboxes like some sort of demented shoot-em-up boss, but given that with 200 attack Innocence Beam, the top Force Rounds pin, deals only 54 damage...


I still cannot believe that I actually got Innocence Beam. Also Sweet Talk Tether is back. Not surprising, really.


Oh come on, NP only HAS negative psychs!


Sweet Talk Tether actually kinda helps with this.


Okay, that's a step up from Donuts.





: Mr. H came up and talked to me... After that, I started going to his café. We'd talk about lots of stuff. Eventually, I found out he was CAT. But...




No fuck you.


I'm using all unbranded pins and also getting Beat's level 3 fusion on the hit that ends the battle, rendering me incapable of actually using it.

Goddammit.


...Is this a joke?






...Did you just give me a mostly-full bottle of pills?!




Oh sweet an actual brand.


Fresh Line is pretty good, and Lazy Bomber is decent. Time Bomb isn't too bad of a psych if you use it first thing. Wild Line is there beause I just like it.


I suppose I should mention that Neku is eating very large amounts of jelly and thus has base HP of, like, 1000-some. At level 1.


Holy shit I have the pin for a Carol!!!


...I think I've encountered those mythical agressive drug dealers.




...Uh


How is this different from normal!?

How RPG discussions define "best" is always so nebulous. Sure, Knights of the Round is the most damaging materia in FF7, but the player's access to it is extremely limited, and it only does raw damage. Compare Enemy Skill, which is available for most of the game and with minimal work can perform numerous functions efficiently, including a few unique ones like simultaneous healing and status recovery. I personally consider availability and utility to be more important than raw numbers.

And this is why I think Lightning Rook is the best pin in the game. It's good against so many enemies and in so many situations in addition to its 55%x4 damage.

Also Enemy Skill is the best Materia, Edgar is the best FF6 character, and Summoner is the strongest FF5 job.


Of course, all the utility in the world doesn't help me when not even psychokinesis is viable. The obstacles in this imaginary dept. store are always too weak to do much.


I have Lightning Rooks and a level 2 fusion. The result is exactly what you expect.


There are a few pins that are completely unique in that they're only dropped by pigs, that don't respawn. Sheep Heavenly is one of them.

Incidentally I think this means I now have every SH pin in the game. No EXP received. Some enemies may not be affected.


Okay now we're getting somewhere.





: even more than usual. Wonder if he's got something else going on on top of his work as CAT. Like... something I could help with...




The pigs' drops are now strategically timed to coincide with the next floor's brand.


Yep, that's all two of Sheep Heavenly's damage pins represented here. And Gimme Dat Elephant because why the hell not?


Given that barriers are positive this is actually not completely horrid.


This pig would be if I had just barriers. I've got Drake and a fusion.


...So why did I do all that work with Doom Metal Drakes?


Food's getting better and better.




Hell yes.


Time to SET EVERYTHING ON FI


fuck you too. At least the motorcycle would be a decent weapon with Local Fire, Distant Sea.

I think Final Pyre, All Expired gets a bad rap for its low efficiency. Sure, it may not have the raw damage numbers that BBBB has, but it's pretty easy with high-end pyrokinesis pins to cover the battlefield in flames. Sometimes its worth it to hit all enemies to make them flinch out of attacks, even if it means that big numbers aren't appearing out of their heads.


Hahahahah-


Wait shit Drake's first isn't it.


It'd be great if I hadn't been using Mako Sinnergy for the last 30 hours.




Oh. This brand.


This is about all I can do given how few attacking pins PR has. Pressure Mine has a huge efficiency of 200% but cannot use the puck. Funny that PR's gimmick is passive pins, but Doomed Defense+ and Doomed Mobility+ are in different brands.


You know it counts down while a fusion is going? I never let it quite finish.


Okay this is good. Really good. A free +3 to drop rate is really really good.





: I just... I'm worried. Worried that if I don't, he'll disappear on me. ......



: ... Thinking back on it now, it was him. He's the reason I met Mr. H. I wouldn't have found the mural in Udagawa if he hadn't told me about it.



: I was fine with that. Just him and me. Man, I miss him... Not that I have a right to...