SMT: Strange Journey: Law route locked
Well, that was approximately as creepy as I expected.
I think the only reason I'm not as creeped out by Zelenin's return to the ship as I was by Jimenez's is because we've known since Grus what effect angel!Zelenin's song has on humans, whereas demon!Jimenez unleashing the Delphinus parasite - or whatever it was - on the crew was not expected, at least not by me. Still, it is really upsetting to see brainwashed!Irving sliding between his normal speech patterns and the more formal speech pattern everyone under angel!Zelenin's influence uses. Gore's return to the ship and the subsequent battle were, as expected, just as heartbreaking, because the crew is so happy to see him, and he them, and then he denounces the protagonist and attacks. The sight of the dead Arthur on the floor afterwards - he sacrifices his personality core to keep the ship's systems going after the battle with Gore ends with the command room being trashed, as he also does in the chaos path - does not help at all. On the plus side, Maebe and Blair do not show up for the rest of this chapter, although Maebe is still on the ship (Gore addresses her specifically at one point during his speech, which he makes on all three routes). Blair's whereabouts are entirely unknown. Given his feelings about angel!Zelenin (negative) and the concept of brainwashing as a whole (also negative) I'm really hoping he wasn't still on the ship when angel!Zelenin invaded it.
Interestingly, when one of your crewmates turns to you for guidance as angel!Zelenin and her forces attack the ship, she asks why your expression is so "cold." (In the chaos path, another crewmate does the same when demon!Jimenez attacks and then asks "Why are you smiling?")
At present, I'm running around mapping as much as I can; I think all that's left is Horologium, but I'm not entirely sure. The Dantalian in Eridanus who asks you to map out various floors will no doubt tell me, though. I got the Sub App that lets me map dark areas from the Alilat EX mission - which unlocks the Demiurge EX mission - and that makes things much easier. Now all I need is Enemy Search C, and then I can go after Demiurge. Appropriately, I have Demiurge in my party, because I want to see what he says when you beat him on the law route while you happen to have him in the party. I'm hoping to have the law route entirely finished by tomorrow or the next day, after which there will be a palate-cleansing neutral run, and then I should be done with the game entirely. In the meantime, I would like to re-fuse my Riders so I can use them in turn to re-fuse Mother Harlot, preferably with Victory Cry. (She probably doesn't need Jihad, as she already has Babylon Goblet and that has a charm effect, and charm is pretty much broken in this game.) Then I would like to re-fuse Demonee-Ho now that I've got the version that resists gun attacks.
Man. I've logged almost four hundred hours on this game. Which isn't as massive as my Disgaea 2 PS2 save, but still.
I think the only reason I'm not as creeped out by Zelenin's return to the ship as I was by Jimenez's is because we've known since Grus what effect angel!Zelenin's song has on humans, whereas demon!Jimenez unleashing the Delphinus parasite - or whatever it was - on the crew was not expected, at least not by me. Still, it is really upsetting to see brainwashed!Irving sliding between his normal speech patterns and the more formal speech pattern everyone under angel!Zelenin's influence uses. Gore's return to the ship and the subsequent battle were, as expected, just as heartbreaking, because the crew is so happy to see him, and he them, and then he denounces the protagonist and attacks. The sight of the dead Arthur on the floor afterwards - he sacrifices his personality core to keep the ship's systems going after the battle with Gore ends with the command room being trashed, as he also does in the chaos path - does not help at all. On the plus side, Maebe and Blair do not show up for the rest of this chapter, although Maebe is still on the ship (Gore addresses her specifically at one point during his speech, which he makes on all three routes). Blair's whereabouts are entirely unknown. Given his feelings about angel!Zelenin (negative) and the concept of brainwashing as a whole (also negative) I'm really hoping he wasn't still on the ship when angel!Zelenin invaded it.
Interestingly, when one of your crewmates turns to you for guidance as angel!Zelenin and her forces attack the ship, she asks why your expression is so "cold." (In the chaos path, another crewmate does the same when demon!Jimenez attacks and then asks "Why are you smiling?")
At present, I'm running around mapping as much as I can; I think all that's left is Horologium, but I'm not entirely sure. The Dantalian in Eridanus who asks you to map out various floors will no doubt tell me, though. I got the Sub App that lets me map dark areas from the Alilat EX mission - which unlocks the Demiurge EX mission - and that makes things much easier. Now all I need is Enemy Search C, and then I can go after Demiurge. Appropriately, I have Demiurge in my party, because I want to see what he says when you beat him on the law route while you happen to have him in the party. I'm hoping to have the law route entirely finished by tomorrow or the next day, after which there will be a palate-cleansing neutral run, and then I should be done with the game entirely. In the meantime, I would like to re-fuse my Riders so I can use them in turn to re-fuse Mother Harlot, preferably with Victory Cry. (She probably doesn't need Jihad, as she already has Babylon Goblet and that has a charm effect, and charm is pretty much broken in this game.) Then I would like to re-fuse Demonee-Ho now that I've got the version that resists gun attacks.
Man. I've logged almost four hundred hours on this game. Which isn't as massive as my Disgaea 2 PS2 save, but still.