Let's Sperg Namco x Capcom - Turn-based SRPG autism where Dig Dug is a total badass

[GethN7]

Chapter 30 - Eerie Is A Good Feeling


We start the next stage having to choose some of our characters, so do that. You can pick eight, but you are forced to deploy the following;

Reiji/Xiaomu, Kagekiyo/Tarosuke, Mega/Roll, Masuyo/Hiromi, Alpha/Beta, Gil/Kai, and Taizou Horii.

The last one is really important: DO NOT LET THE DUDE FROM DIG-DUG DIE ON THIS LEVEL OR IT'S GAME OVER.

We then get this sweet title card:

But then we also see this creepy thing:

I think Xiaomu speaks for us all.

Masuyo identifies it as a Blue Worm, a dormant Octy defense system of Baraduke. Every is like 'kill that thing before it moves", but Masuyo says it's still not in a state to do actual damage yet, as it's still immature.

And then everyone notices a massive Deflector:

Masuyo realizes panic is suddenly a good idea, as the energy from the Deflector is feeding the Blue Worm,
and everyone wonders if they can destroy it.

Then Taizou flexes his titanium balls, steps forward, and says this:

Before we go on, if this game did nothing else right, they sure made the guy from Dig-Dug a total badass.

And that's when Dig Dug and Baraduke goons show up on all approaches to the deflector.

Your goal is simple: Keep Taizou alive and move him next the deflector. You lose if he dies.

You should be cautious for two reasons: The enemies are positioned on all approaches and you got a few turns at least before you can get within range. Second, expect enemy reinforcements soon, so watch your back as you approach.

After you kill a few of the goons, spatial distortion is inbound.

And it's Slyphie again, and she got info on the location of the Soul Edge. She at first bullshits and says it's located beyond Pluto, but everyone sees through her lame attempt at a joke, so she cuts the crap and says it's actually located in a world connected to this one.

AKA, where you are headed.

And that's when the Genji arrive to crash the party, and Benkei confirms Slyphie's info.

Kagekiyo immediately realize this is just an attempt by the Genji to buy time while Yoritomo accomplishes his goals at the Tower of Druaga, and then tells Benkei Yoritomo ain't getting the Soul Edge.

Benkei shoots back Kagekiyo is still missing some of the Sacred Treasures he needs, so it's not like Kagekiyo can stop him, and he also shit talks Xiaomu a little over her age, prompting a hilarious hissy fit.

As the battle resumes, Slyphie is available for use, so have her join the fight. Remember to keep the heat off Taizou at all times as well.

The Genji reinforcements aren't too bad. Some Demon Princesses, one Fuujin, one Raijiin, and Benkei himself. But be wary, more enemy reinforcements are inbound.

After killing some more goons, Benkei curses how pathetic his current forces are, and that's when Yoshitsune appears, with some Druaga goons.

And then Gil gets the shock of his life when he realizes one of the Druaga goons used to be a good guy, a dragon named Quox. This confirms two things for Gil: The Genji have entered Druaga's Tower, and have a formal alliance with Druaga.

As the fight resumes, I suggest you just kill everyone on the map as opposed to trying to rush Taizou up to the deflector. You'll have to kill them all anyway, and it's easier to keep him alive this way.

Once you take down Quox, it will withdraw.

Once you defeat Benkei, he will withdraw. As he leaves, he trolls Kagekiyo with information about he's basically screwed out of ever getting one of the two remaining artifacts because one of them is now beneath where they are, where Kagekiyo can't get it.

Once you take down Yoshitsune, he will withdraw.

Once you get Taizou to the deflector, he busts it one shot, and the Blue Worm dies from having it's energy source cut.

Of course, this doesn't mean it's over, as some Bagan (those mouth looking things fought in several stages) crawl out of it's corpse.

The good news is that there is only six of them and they aren't that hard, so just kill them ASAP.

Once you kill all the foes, everyone heads out, save Kagekiyo, who lingers for a moment, and when Tarosuke asks him what's wrong, Kagekiyo speeds over to the Blue Worm's corpse.

And we find out what Benkei meant, as that bigassed monster's body had been hiding the mirror, the second sacred treasure.

We then cut to everyone else later as they prepare to exit Baraduke and enter the Infernal Village, and Slyphie finally decides to join the team permanently as the stage ends.

 

[Jaimas]

Chapter 30 - Eerie Is A Good Feeling


We start the next stage having to choose some of our characters, so do that. You can pick eight, but you are forced to deploy the following;

Reiji/Xiaomu, Kagekiyo/Tarosuke, Mega/Roll, Masuyo/Hiromi, Alpha/Beta, Gil/Kai, and Taizou Horii.

The last one is really important: DO NOT LET THE DUDE FROM DIG-DUG DIE ON THIS LEVEL OR IT'S GAME OVER.

We then get this sweet title card:

View attachment 271285

But then we also see this creepy thing:

View attachment 271289

I think Xiaomu speaks for us all.

Masuyo identifies it as a Blue Worm, a dormant Octy defense system of Baraduke. Every is like 'kill that thing before it moves", but Masuyo says it's still not in a state to do actual damage yet, as it's still immature.

And then everyone notices a massive Deflector:

View attachment 271292

Masuyo realizes panic is suddenly a good idea, as the energy from the Deflector is feeding the Blue Worm,
and everyone wonders if they can destroy it.

Then Taizou flexes his titanium balls, steps forward, and says this:

View attachment 271293

Before we go on, if this game did nothing else right, they sure made the guy from Dig-Dug a total badass.

And that's when Dig Dug and Baraduke goons show up on all approaches to the deflector.

Your goal is simple: Keep Taizou alive and move him next the deflector. You lose if he dies.

You should be cautious for two reasons: The enemies are positioned on all approaches and you got a few turns at least before you can get within range. Second, expect enemy reinforcements soon, so watch your back as you approach.

After you kill a few of the goons, spatial distortion is inbound.

And it's Slyphie again, and she got info on the location of the Soul Edge. She at first bullshits and says it's located beyond Pluto, but everyone sees through her lame attempt at a joke, so she cuts the crap and says it's actually located in a world connected to this one.

AKA, where you are headed.

And that's when the Genji arrive to crash the party, and Benkei confirms Slyphie's info.

Kagekiyo immediately realize this is just an attempt by the Genji to buy time while Yoritomo accomplishes his goals at the Tower of Druaga, and then tells Benkei's Yoritomo ain't getting the Soul Edge.

Benkei shoots back Kagekiyo is still missing some of the Sacred Treasures he needs, so it's not like Kagekiyo can stop him, and he also shit talks Xiaomu a little over her age, prompting a hilarious hissy fit.

As the battle resumes, Slyphie is available for use, so have her join the fight. Remember to keep the heat off Taizou at all times as well.

The Genji reinforcements aren't too bad. Some Demon Princesses, one Fuujin, one Raijiin, and Benjei himself. But be wary, more enemy reinforcements are inbound.

After killing some more goons, Benkei curses how pathetic his current forces are, and that's when Yoshitsune appears, with some Druaga goons.

And then Gil gets the shock of his life when he realizes one of the Druaga goons used to be a good guy, a dragon named Quox. This confirms two things for Gil: The Genji have entered Druaga's Tower, and have a formal alliance with Druaga.

As the fight resumes, I suggest you just kill everyone on the map as opposed to trying to rush Taizou up to the deflector. You'll have to kill them all anyway, and it's easier to keep him alive this way.

Once you take down Quox, it will withdraw.

Once you defeat Benkei, he will withdraw. As he leaves, he trolls Kagekiyo with information about he's basically screwed out of ever getting one of the two remaining artifacts because one of them is now beneath where they are, where Kagekiyo can't get it.

Once you take down Yoshitsune, he will withdraw.

Once you get Taizou to the deflector, he busts it one shot, and the Blue Worm dies from having it's energy source cut.

Of course, this doesn't mean it's over, as some Bagan (those mouth looking things fought in several stages) crawl out of it's corpse.

The good news is that there is only six of them and they aren't that hard, so just kill them ASAP.

Once you kill all the foes, everyone heads out, save Kagekiyo, who lingers for a moment, and when Tarosuke asks him what's wrong, Kagekiyo speeds over to the Blue Worm's corpse.

And we find out what Benkei meant, as that bigassed monster's body had been hiding the mirror, the second sacred treasure.

We then cut to everyone else later as they prepare to exit Baraduke and enter the Infernal Village, and Slyphie finally decides to join the team permanently as the stage ends.

Look at this motherfucker.

He's endeavored on a journey in which his enemies are fucking astral horrors allied with terrifying monsters, and now he's found himself in the closest thing to Hell the group's seen yet. He probably never even imagined he'd end up here, and his team just wound up in this shithole at the worst possible time.

Somehow, he's survived till this long, and he's made his way to the Blue Worm. He's facing a monster beyond fucking imagination, which if fully activated could wreck his shit effortlessly and with no more trouble than blinking its multitude of eyes. He's clad in little more than a utility jacket with armor mostly suited for mining purposes, armed with a big fuck-off gas-powered cannon with a big spike on one end.

His first response: "See that big crystal looking thing? I'm gonna fucking punch it."

 

[GethN7]

Look at this motherfucker.

He's endeavored on a journey in which his enemies are fucking astral horrors allied with terrifying monsters, and now he's found himself in the closest thing to Hell the group's seen yet. He probably never even imagined he'd end up here, and his team just wound up in this shithole at the worst possible time.

Somehow, he's survived till this long, and he's made his way to the Blue Worm. He's facing a monster beyond fucking imagination, which if fully activated could wreck his shit effortlessly and with no more trouble than blinking its multitude of eyes. He's clad in little more than a utility jacket with armor mostly suited for mining purposes, armed with a big fuck-off gas-powered cannon with a big spike on one end.

His first response: "See that big crystal looking thing? I'm gonna fucking punch it."

It's only after I've played this game for awhile a lightbulb went off, and the realization is that they finally explain why Taizou's balloon pump attack is so lethal, and when I figured it out, they took something we all thought was silly looking in the original games and it becomes one of the most awesome ways to kick ass.

Taizou has three different modes for his pile bunker: Balloon Pump, Spike Gun, and Drill Mode.

I noticed that when he'd finish his Balloon mode, the enemy would EXPLODE, with literal explosion effects, and even if it didn't kill them, it would still look like they were standing in the middle of some gas fumes that someone tossed a match into.

And then I realized THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THE BALLOON PUMP DOES. He pumps the enemy full of gas fumes, then switches to a mini-flamejet used to provide more force to the drill cannon (you can see this in action with his Down/Circle attack where he causes multiple gas detonated fire waves to hit foes in quick succession) to literally detonate his enemies like a bomb.

It's only via the benefit of this game we realize that it wasn't just in this game he was a badass, he was one all along and we didn't realize it.

 

[GethN7]

Chapter 31 - This Is The Gigantic Demon Village


It's time we raided the Infernal Village for real.

We get three choices:

1. Act prudently
2. Act flexibly
3. Aim for the devil at the deepest part


I'm going with option three.

We then cut to the gates of the Infernal Village, and right in the middle of the river where the bridge to the gates is, we find the Flutter on it's side.

Roll and Mega are at a loss to explain how the Flutter went from the desert to on it's side in a river in another world, and Alpha points out the Transfer around the pyramid may have responsible.

No enemies seem to be nearby, but the scent of sorcery hangs pretty heavy in the air. It also seems the revolving door magic on the gates is now gone, so we can actually ENTER the Infernal Village proper.

And just as your team decides to breach the gates, Akuma shows up.

He refuses to answer any questions, and instead turns and speed back through the gates after seeing your team.

Ryu immediately gives chase and successfully makes it through (WITHOUT having dimension bending Satsui no Hidou powers at that). About a third of the team gives chase, led by Rose.

The Commando team elects to remain behind to guard your rear flank and work on righting the Flutter, and thus a second third of the team led by Arthur breach the gates.

We then cut back to the team guarding the rear.

Everyone is about to work on digging out the Flutter after they confirm the first two teams made it past the gate, but that's when Joka shows up.

With him are a mix of Phantom Beasts and Zouna demons, and Joka takes the chance to troll Gilgamesh a little about how his friends are currently encountering more of his friend in Druaga's Tower.

King then tells Joka to quit bullshitting and spill his real plans, and when Joka tries to play stupid, King isn't buying it and demands Joka just admit what his real plans are aside from being an ass.

As Joka is suddenly at a loss for words, the Captain lays out they already know Joka is almost certainly looking for the Soul Edge, and since the other teams haven't encountered it (given Joka skipped past them to head to the third team), Joka must be there to see if he can find it at their location.

Joka decides to fess up and admit it, but then takes the chance to troll King by implying Armor King is back to working on the villain team again.

He then switches gears and says he also plans on destroying the Flutter to make sure you don;t screw up Druaga's plans, and everyone prepares to defend the ship as the fight starts.

This fight has two objectives:

1. Kill all enemies.
2. DO NOT let them get on any tile that the Flutter is on.

Number 2 is key, so be aggressive and take down enemies before they get anywhere near the Flutter, you lose is so much as one boards it.

It bears mentioning that the enemy starts a decent distance away from the other side of the bridge, but there are still a few Flutter tiles they can reach from their side of the bridge, so moving a few of your more mobile units like Klonoa and Gantz to cover that route of ingress is a good idea. The good news is that most of the enemy forces will usually try to take the long approach instead, so I recommend putting the bulk of your forces on the bridge as a chokepoint.

After taking down a few foes, some Velociraptors will appear on your side of the bridge, and while Joka honestly claims he has nothing to do with them, an even bigger shock occurs when the Allosaurus that was gunning for Regina in the desert is back.

And the really scary thing is that it's bearing the same wounds it had when you last fought it, and considering those wounds are mortal, there is no way it should still even be alive at this point.

As the fight resumes, you've got to deal with the Velociprators and the Allosaurus as well, and Joka mentions he's expecting reinforcements soon too.

The good news is that Joka is parked on the gate wall for now, and there are only two dinosaurs aiding the Allosaurus, which doesn't have very high HP.

As you kill some more foes, a spatial distortion occurs, and it's Saya and the Ouma, and Saya confirms she was also looking for the Soul Edge, and based on the commentary, it seems Joka has been moonlighting for THREE masters (Astaroth, Druaga, and Saya).

And Saya decides to make your life more miserable by dropping three Charades she picked up along the way on the battlefield to deal with. Joka also finally gets off his ass to join Saya in kicking your ass. Joka and Saya are still the same pains in the ass they always were, but the Charades are slightly less brutal this time round.

After chewing through half of Joka's HP, he'll call his trump card, which is Janga and some of Druaga's best armored knights.

As Gantz asks Janga if he thinks he's hot shit with all the help he's got, Janga reveals he's got his own trump card.

Cue two dragons, Quox and another dragon like him, and Janga hints he's got access to more. Joka then asks Janga what became of their rookie (Armor King), and he shows up as Janga yells for him to appear.

However, he wasn't re-enslaved, he's working for Druaga's goons of his own free will apparently.

And that's when Armor King reveals he was faking it as he tells you guys the Soul Edge is definitely in Druaga's Tower, to the shock of Joka and Janga.

Janga immediately decides to kill Armor King for his treason (while Joka withdraws), and he tells them to bring it. King doesn't want to watch him get killed, and that changes the battle conditions.

Now, you have to keep Armor King alive and safeguard the Flutter.

This sucks because Armor King is right in the middle of a bunch of goons on the far side of the map, but there is a way out if you been saving your spell points: use all your "get a free turn" skills on him so he can break free in time. Good news is that Armor King has his own free turn spell, so use that as soon as he can move to give him two turns of clearance.

Armor King is basically King as a single unit with slightly more power but less combo chaining, more or less, in case you were wondering what he's like as a playable character.

Once you take down the Allosaurus, it will run away in the direction of the Infernal Village, and Bruce wonders if it's been poisoned, or rather....infected.

Once you take down Janga, he will withdraw.

Once you take down Saya, she withdraws, in the Tower of Druaga's direction.

Once you take down Quox, it will flee for the Tower as well.

Once you take down all the enemies, Armor King and King have a reunion, though Armor King warns King he has no idea how long his renevant body will hold on, but as long as it does, he's gonna fight by your side.

Armor King also informs us he heard a red demon when he got the info on the Soul Edge, which refers to Red Arremar, something about being 'in the tower's chests".

The lightbulb clicks on in Gil's brain as he realizes the Soul Edge must be inside one of the treasure chests in Druaga's Tower, and apparently, these chests are designed so you can't get to them unless you trip the magic switch that activates them.

As the stage ends, everyone decides it would be best to get this information to the other teams ASAP.

 

[GethN7]

Chapter 32 - The Logic Of The Prosperous Must Decay


We begin this next level with Ryu in a Fist of The North Star style wasteland demanding Akuma show himself.

Ken, Sakura, Karin, Rose, and Jin show up and tell Ryu it's stupid to go alone and quit focusing on Akuma. Rose even points out since Ryu has already found his true inner badass, all Akuma really wants now is to see if Ryu can make Bison his bitch.

And that's a bunch of Genji clan and Ghosts and Goblins forces show up and surround your team.

Thankfully, Masuyo and a third of your team show up as reinforcements.

As the fight begins, the goal is really simple. Make sure you don't die and that the enemies do.

Not going to recommend any particular strategy since you seen all these goons before, but I will recommend you conserve your strength, the enemy reinforcements will be considerable.

After you kill a few low level goons, Mitsurugi lols at how easy they are, but Ryu is on edge because he knows Akuma is nearby just watching.

And that's when Kiso Yoshinaka and some Genji forces appear. Kagekiyo tells the guy to piss off, but Yoshinaka doesn't appreciate the shit talk, and that's when some Druaga goons appear on the opposite side of the map from his forces.

As the fight resumes, keep in mind your forces starts from the north side of the map, while enemy forces are from the east and west, so I recommend keeping your forces grouped near the center.

After you kill a few more foes, Akuma will show himself and add himself to the fight near the position of the Druaga forces. He also mentions Ryu still needs to do one last thing to prove he's a badass: Take down Bison.

Basically, Rose was right.

As the fight resumes, keep in mind Akuma is lethal as hell. Yoshinaka, not so much.

After killing some more foes, Genocide troops led by Sturm appear from the south. And he's got a surprise:

That's right, courtesy of Doppels, he's got 2 MP models of Mitsurugi, Kagekiyo, and Reiji.

Everyone realizes they are just MP clones, and when Taki muses she'll be fine will killing a Mitsurugi or two, he's actually amused and fires back:

As the fight resumes, the good news is that the Doppel clones aren't really that nasty, they just happen to be meat sponges who hit slightly harder than the other enemies. for the most part.

After killing a MP Mitsurugi, Taki and Wayahime jointly troll the real one about it being more durable than the original, and the real Mitsurugi is not amused.

Once you take down Yoshinaka, he will withdraw.

Once you take down Akuma, he tells Ryu his strength still isn't enough to pound Bison into dust, then leaves.

Once you take down Sturm, he will withdraw.

After that, just kill all remaining enemies.

Once you kill all foes, everyone wonders just what else Akuma is up to and debate whether to head back to check on the rear guard team or go forward, and they elect to go on ahead as the stage ends.

 

[GethN7]

Chapter 33 - Even If Damaged One Million Times, I Won't Lose


This level starts us off with Arthur leading his third of the team deep inside the underworld, and Arthur notices two things: A HUGE bug in the nearby lake (currently just sitting there), but more importantly a HUGE gate, which Arthur knows has an immense amount of power behind it.

Of course, the enemy isn't just going to let you get near it, and that's when the Demon's Blazon forces arrive, led by Red Arremar.

As the fight starts, keep in mind there will be enemy reinforcements, including several boss level foes, so be wary as you engage the Demon's Blazon forces.

It's worth noting this battle starts you off on the high ground and you have to work your way down to plains below, but this isn't easy as all route of ingress are covered by Demon's Blazon troops, and they will close in from all angles.

Since you have no turn limits to worry about, I would play this conservatively for now and let them come to you.

You will find that's a wise call a few turns in, because just as your team gets complacent, Lord Raptor, Black Bravo, Amazona, and some Phobos show up as reinforcements.

If you were smart, you played this defensively, which means Raptor's forces should be on the far side of the map from your team for now, so you can wipe out most of the Demon's Blazon while you wait for them to get near you.

Do want to warn you all, Black Bravo brags he got a lot stronger since you last fought him, he's not kidding, he's now got good HP, Akuma level speed, and his attack power is quite good. Amazona has also gotten a powerup too. Raptor is somewhat stronger, but he's actually slightly weaker than the other two, bizarrely enough. Still nothing to laugh at though.

Oh yeah, keep in mind if you have trouble dealing with them, there an even worse threat coming.

After you take down a few more Demon's Blazon, Red Arremar calls in some Druaga goon backup, but they aren't the real threat I warned about. However, they do bring a new Darkstalker threat to the table as well:

These are Soul Bees, one of which, their current queen (Q-Bee) is a regular character in the main Darkstalkers games). You never encounter her, but you do get to fight MP versions of her kind in this game, which would be accurate for lore reasons relevant to Darkstalkers 3, which this game is set before. It's also worth noting those eyes on her face are actually fake, her real eyes are on top of her head, hence her hunched over posture.

Demitri will be quite concerned about them for reasons Project X Zone would go into in more detail, and I will cover them in a spoiler:

Spoiler

They are servants of Jedah Dohma, who is the main antagonist of Darkstalkers 3. They generally stick to their own lands, but they'll attack anything if they are hungry, and Red Arremar is basically using them as cannon fodder. Jedah himself appears as a foe in Project X Zone, and the mere fact they are roused enough to hunt outside their own corner of Makai means their master who was thought sealed away is going to return soon, a little sequel hook N x C planted in case they did a sequel, which Project X Zone picked up on.

FYI, they can poison your team and have decent HP, so take them down ASAP. Thankfully, there is only three of them.

Once you take down Amazona, she will withdraw.

Once you take down Black Bravo, he will withdraw, butthurt Bravoman can kick his ass.

Once you've whittled down the enemy forces some more, shit starts getting real, as Astaroth, the final boss of the original Ghosts and Goblins, Red Arremar's boss, not to mention one tough, ugly motherfucker, shows up.

Arthur refuses to piss his plate mail though, he kicked Astaroth's ass once, he can do it again.

Cue this title card:

Valkyrie does have a question for him before they kick his ass about his alliance with Druaga, and he clarifies with this:

Short version, neither really give a shit about the other's plans, both think they are using the other, and they've only teamed up because they've got mutual enemies.

We also find out the Genji are working with Druaga only and he's clueless about the Soul Edge. It's this second matter that immediately gets suspicion aroused.

Heihachi writes it off as Astaroth being a big picture guy and leaving the little details to the goons, but Bravoman points out that damned near EVERYONE has been after the Soul Edge at this point, Astaroth's ignorance is downright bizarre, and Heihachi has to admit he's got a point.

Red Arremar immediately offers to assist his boss in kicking your ass, and while Astaroth is all for it, Red Arremar senses something odd about Astaroth too.

As the fight resumes, let me warn you, Astaroth is a FUCKING TANK. No, not exaggerating, he's got mile high HP, can hit like a sack of bricks, and while he's not as fast as Akuma, his attack power is about as lethal. Red Arremar is also pretty tough, so DO NOT let the both of them gang up on someone or they likely gonna die.

In fact, my advice is to let them come to you, then you gang up on them.

After you take down a Q-Bee, Demitri asks Morrigan what her thoughts on their appearance are, and she concurs the fact they left their usual stomping grounds is cause for concern.

After taking down some more, Astaroth compliments Arthur on having gotten stronger since last time, and Demitri points out he's not a big fan of humanity, but he'll happily stand shoulder to shoulder with them to kick Astaroth's ass.

Astaroth is like "O RLY", and that's when B. Valkyrie shows up and offers to help Astaroth out.

Worse, seems like she was working with him this whole time.

And it seems she somehow got Judas/Leon back on her side again.

He explains he's still working with her for his own reasons, even without the choker chain. B. Valkyrie and Astaroth exchange some coded speak for their plans, and Taizou gets annoyed and just wants them to spill their evil plans in the open already.

B. Valkyrie summons some more robotic goons from Tales of Destiny as her own reinforcements, as the fight resumes, Judas insists he's gonna atone for his mistakes and mentions something about how B. Valkyrie still has the Eye of God.

Once you take down Raptor, he will withdraw, mentioning he's got an exciting event he can't miss.

Once you wear down Red Arremar to 25% or less HP, he will withdraw. Arthur accuses him of cowardice, but Arremar refuses to take the bait as he leaves.

It bears mention it will take awhile for B. Valkyrie and Judas to get to your position, and while both are tough, neither is half as bad as Astaroth, and Judas has surprisingly low HP as well.

I do have good news about the bosses, though. All are weak to status down effects, so as soon as they get in range, bukkake them with every status down spell you have then wail the shit out of them.

Save them mostly for Astaroth though.

Once you take down Astaroth, Arthur is about to deliver the coup d' grace, but he withdraws, saying you can't enter the gate without the key.

Once you take down B. Valkyrie, she's all "we'll meet again", then Judas withdraws with her, through the gate.

Once you take down all the enemies, we cut to the gate, and it seems Arthur noticed Red Arremar dropped the key to the gate when he withdrew, so we don't have to worry about trying to bash it down.

However, everyone wonders if it was done on purpose as the stage ends.

 

[Robotron]

I honestly wish Q-Bee was used in more crossovers alongside some of the underused Darkstalker characters.

 

[GethN7]

Chapter 34 - Like A Dream


The next level begins in the throne room of Astaroth himself, and we can pick seven units of our choosing.

Once you're done doing that, everyone wonders where Astaroth is. He's a no show, but you do see some Demon's Blazon forces. It's an oddly weak force though.

As the fight starts, advance slowly and carefully, and DO NOT let Arthur or Stahn and Rutee fall.

After you take down about half of the enemies, Kai remarks on this, and Arthur yells for Astaroth to quit being a pussy and show himself already.

And that's when B. Valkyrie and Judas appear behind you.

She tries to troll everyone with a mocking question of if they already met Astaroth, and is evasive on answering any questions. The team also notes the sorcery in the air is bizarre.

B.Valkyrie then decides she'll have her turn at kicking your ass, and summons some MP Black Kurino and Sabine alongside more ToD2 robotic troops.

Kurino and Sabine reluctantly agreed with Valkyrie they have to save their fellow clansmen by fighting, and Stahn tells everyone he'll deal with Judas. Demitri wonders why Stahn has to be yet another member of the team to act like a retard, but Stahn ignores this, and we get this title card:

The battle conditions change, and despite what Stahn says, DO NOT TAKE DOWN JUDAS OR IT'S GAME OVER.

Also enemy reinforcements will come soon, so just take down as many as you can and keep Arthur, Stahn, and Rutee alive for now.

Once you take down some more foes, Astaroth finally decides to show himself, but he doesn't seem to be the REAL one. Rather, a "shadow" version. Mass Produced Astaroth, if you will.

Demitri decides to get the truth on the table and asks if Astaroth is the real deal. Astaroth lols at the question and summons some Druaga minions alongside soem elite Demon's Blazon forces to engage you in battle with.

B. Valkyrie is all "yep, right on time" when she sees this, and Gil is all 0_0 when he sees a black version of Quox with Astaroth, which can only mean Druaga is back to full strength.

At this point, you have B. Valkyrie on one side of the map, and Astaroth at the other. Both are quite stronger, with Astaroth being slightly stronger than last time, so wait for him to come to you.

There is another reason besides caution for doing this: MORE enemies will arrive soon.

In the meantime, conserve your strength and pick off goons as they come into range from both sides, with your team at the center. The Druaga goons aren't too hard, but they are damage sponges, so keep that in mind.

Once you take down some more goons, both Arthur and Demitri shit talk Astaroth and still call him a pussy, and as he gets pissed at this, the throne room starts to shake, and it seems another being like Astaroth is going to appear, and B. Valkyrie is all like "all according to plan".

And Demitri then goes all "WUT?" when he sees this:

Arthur can't believe what he's seeing, and that's when this asshole appears:

This, for those who don't know your Ghost and Goblins lore, is Nebiros, the man behind the man for Astaroth. Arthur thought he killed Astaroth, and he did, kinda. In reality, Astaroth's soul split in half, and the guy behind him, Nebiros, saved the pieces and used them to maintain control of the Infernal Village.

In essence, Astaroth is merely a puppet of Nebiros, and Nebiros has merely used Astaroth as his front man while watching things from the shadows.

Until now.

Arthur's reaction to seeing this jackass is actually pretty badass as he (very politely), replies with this.

Nebiros applauds Arthur's balls being as solid as his plate mail and confirms Astaroth (both of them) are just his puppets, and when Rutee finds that hard to believe, Kai confirms Quox and the other dragons you've had to fight were created using a similar type of magic, so it's not without precedent.

Red Arremar Joker shows up at this point, concerned about Astaroth, and he's apparently not keen on serving Nebiros, as he swore fealty to Astaroth, and Astaroth alone.

Nebiros tries to tell him he's the new boss, and Arremar tells him Astaroth is his only master, and he curses himself for not realizing Astaroth is not who he once was. He then says he's withdrawing, and despite Nebiros being all "WTF?!", Arremar addresses the Astaroths and says he does have a report there is something floating in the sky far above them called the Daicroft, and both Judas and Sabine are 0_0 at this news.

Kurino then confirms the Daicroft was a floating city (or rather, the core of many of them) used in war between the Heavens and the Earth a thousand years ago, and Valkyrie adds it had the superweapon Belcrant.

Arremar then nopes out of there, and Judas then turn to Black Valkyrie and asks her "wait, that thing can't do shit without the Eye of God, right?"

She then reveals that she passed it off to Zouna awhile back to power the Daicroft back up, and Judas is PISSED. THE. FUCK. OFF.

B. Valkyrie merely LOLs at everyone shock and reminds them sowing destruction and chaos is her thing, and powering up a pants shittingly terrifying superweapon even the lords of Heaven and Hell were both terrified of falling into the wrong hands was the best way to do that.

See this spoiler for a bit more info about what's been going on in the background:

Spoiler

This is where they use most of the relevant bits of Tales of Destiny, as the Daicroft ties into the ToD backstory, and the war between Heaven and Earth comes from that game. Essentially, that Eye of God is the key to reactivating the Daicroft and its superweapon, and B. Valkyrie used Zouna to reactivate it while everyone else was distracted with other stuff. The Daicroft was sealed in the Abyss of Time with the other stuff like the Soul Edge, but since the dimensional walls started going to hell that's no longer the case, and B. Valkyrie used the chaos to her advantage while making sure no one realized her true end game, though Judas had his suspicions and stuck with her even after the choker chain on his soul was removed to confirm it, as even he didn't want the Daicroft falling into the wrong hands.

Judas is ready to gut B. Valkyrie like a fish and she mocks him for being really slow to realize she passed the Eye of God off a LONG time ago. She also confirms that machine enemies she had with her were actually from the Daicroft, so you've been fighting their security force the whole time.

Everyone then convinces Judas to switch teams since they share the same goals, and while Judas acts likes he's hesitant at first, he then charges B. Valkyrie and tries to give her a sword to the face.

She manages to counter the blow just in time, but as she's about to return the favor, Stahn and Rutee join up with Judas (who is now called Leon on the battle screen), and Rutee and Leon shank the shit out of B. Valkyrie while Stahn drop kicks her ass to the floor and buries his blade to the hilt in her gut.

And that's before the whole arena gets set on fire and it blows up in Black Valkyrie smug face.

tl;dr: Her shit gets WRECKED!

She barely manages to get the blade out of her gut and limp away bleeding like a pig, but she says as she flees that at least she dragged him out, indicating Nebiros.

Nebiros doesn't really care, he was just watching the fireworks to pass the time, and Arthur then says it's Nebiros' turn. Judas then formally joins your ranks completely at this point, and then Arthur tells Nebiros to be very afraid of the assbeating he's gonna get.

I love Nebiros' response:

With that, the fight resumes, and you only have to worry about keeping Arthur alive for now.

However, not only do you have all the other enemy goons on the map to worry about, you have TWO
Asataroths to deal with, and Nebiros, who is basically not only slightly stronger than his puppets, he's immune to any status down attacks.

Thankfully, he's on the extreme ass end of the map, so you should be able to prepare for him in the meantime.

Also, Judas is actually a pretty decent fighter with a decent spell pool, so make use of him.

Once you take down an Astaroth, it burns up (how appropriate for a demon).

Once you take down the other Astaroth, Nebiros bitches about how useless they were.

Once you manage to take Nebiros down, he can't believe you kicked his ass, and Arthur decides to make sure he believes it as he delivers the coup d'grace.

Nebiros burns up, still unable to believe his royal asskicking, but before anyone can do any celebrating, the throne room shakes as booming noises are heard, and it seems Nebiros' throne room isn't going to outlive it's owner, and everyone decides to haul ass as shit starts to go nova.

We cut to outside, and it seems shit is going literally to Hell (in more than one way) with Nebiros' fall.

Thankfully, KOS-MOS determines a way out, and everyone hauls ass after her.

We cut to Tower of Druaga, where Druaga is getting the news the Infernal Village fell. He's actually kinda glad, cause he was gonna backstab them anyway, so their fall did him a favor, and now he awaits Gilgamesh.

We cut to base of the Tower of Druaga, where Taizou is celebrating the fact you guys didn't go boom with the Infernal Village. Everyone plans to storm the place, and while Gil and Momo want to cave Druaga's face in, Taki is worried about the Soul Edge, and Kagekiyo wants to make sushi out of Yoritomo.

Reiji then says they need to split into three teams to handle each objective, and as the stage ends, Gilgamesh wants to end Druaga for good this time......

 

[GethN7]

Chapter 35 - The One Haunted By The Devil


We start this level with the rear guard team. Bruce checks to see if the other teams made it inside Druaga's Tower, and once they confirm it, they briefly eye some treasure chest off on a nearby cliff, decide it's not worth wasting time on, and then they all are about to head inside since it seems no enemies have show up yet, though Jin doesn't take kindly to Heihachi's attempts to lighten the mood.

And that's when Druaga's goons show up on either side of your team.

As the fight starts, notice you must keep Jin alive.

I recommend playing it safe as you kill the Drauga goons, as there will be a LOT of enemies coming soon.

After killing some goons, Raptor, Black Bravo, and Amazona appear. Momo and Bravoman tell Raptor his ass is getting kicked, but he's like 'LOL no' and summons some Bakuda Robots, which include two MP Wayahime as well as two JACKs.

And then shit gets worse as Kazuya shows up, and worse, the energy coming off Kazuya at present is weakening Jin's control over his Devil Gene, and it seems Kazuya's split personality has taken control again.

Worse, Jin's usual ability to chain the beast of his Devil Gene has drastically weakened, and Heihachi doesn't look like he wants to help his grandson in that regard (remember, Heihachi is helping you guys for his own reasons).

And unfortunately, that's bad, because Jin is coming dangerously close to becoming Kazuya Mk-II.

Just want to warn you guys this fight went from bearable to a pain in the ass. Jin is basically out of action but still cannot be allowed to die, and you still got Druaga goons as well as Raptor's robots. The MP Wayahime can hit pretty damned hard, Kazuya basically right next to your team, and while the other bosses are on the far side of the map, they can all hit pretty hard themselves.

Worst of all, Kazuya WILL go after Jin, who is essentially defenseless, so keep Jin's HP up at all costs.

If you want to keep Jin alive, wail the shit out of Kazuya ASAP and use Shion and MOMO's Sheep Beam and other attacks to increase Kazuya's faint meter, decrease his power meter and otherwise debilitate him as much as possible, like Ken's Brag spell. Poisoning Kazuya is also a really good idea.

Once you take down about 40% of Kazuya's HP, he'll have another Jekyll and Hyde moment, and just Heihachi is practically masturbating to the thought of seeing a Devil Gene awaken, Jin tells his to fuck the hell off with this:

The Devil Gene takes a hint and realizes the body it's in wants it to piss the fuck off already.

Armor King tells Heihachi he might as well give up on his own plans already, and Heihachi is all "eh, whatever" and acts like a proper grandaddy for once and ask his grandson if he's okay.

Jin snaps back at Heihachi to quit acting like the parental figure he's not and Heihachi is proud, saying if Jin can be that much of a mouthy brat, he MUST be okay.

Heihachi then thinks to himself that at least he learned a little more about the Devil Gene, and for now, that's more than enough.

The musing is then interrupted as MOMO senses incoming enemies.

Specifically, the Gnosis.

Jin's fine now and asks MOMO to Hilbert Effect ASAP, and she happily complies.

As the fight resumes, you don't have to worry about keeping Jin alive anymore. Even better, he just got a free refill of his power bar, so if you want him to open a free can of Super Attack whup-ass, go right ahead.

Thankfully, the Gnosis aren't all that bad and in few number, but don't lower your guard, some more foes are incoming soon.

Once you take down Kazuya (do it with Jin for extra awesome, he will likely need the EXP), Kazuya just can't believe his ass whuppin, and Jin wants to seriously commit patricide at this point:

However, Kazuya (the relatively non-batshit version) tells Jin he also just gained control over his own power as well, and says he's going to postpone their grudge match for now. Jin still wants to beat daddy to death, but Kazuya defuses that by pointing out Heihachi would really like to watch Jin do that.

Heihachi is impressed his son figured him out and just tells Kazuya to come back when he's back at full strength, and Kazuya takes that as his cue to leave.

Read the spoiler for Project X Zone followup information:

Spoiler

Project X Zone 2 would follow up on this plot thread from Namco X Capcom, as Kazuya would use the time after this fight to master control of his Devil Gene powers without letting the demon override his free will, which not only explains his absence after Tekken 3 (which N x C uses as a base) all the way to Tekken 5, and explains why Kazuya would temporarily ally with his grandfather and son in PXZ 2, as he kinda owed them a favor for helping him overcome the shittier aspects of the Devil Gene, and the circumstances of PXZ2 made a temporary alliance a perfectly sensible idea, even though none of them liked it, but they sucked it up and made the best of it while it lasted during PXZ2.

After a couple more goons die, some Velociraptors show up, followed by Regina's old friend:

It's at this point Fong Ling wonders if the Allosaurus is "infected" like Bruce was wondering, but he brushes it off and tries to chalk it up to Regina being popular, but she doesn't find his attempt at comic relief funny.

Bruce then turns serious and admits he too thinks the Allosaurus is infected with the T-Virus (which would explain why it should be dead but is still moving despite taking a shitload of damage, and it likely got it from the T-Virus that was on the Spencer Lane)

As the fight resumes, keep dealing with the enemies at hand but keep your guard up, more foes are inbound soon.

Once you take down Amazona, she retreats to Druaga's Tower.

After a few more goons die, more foes appear.

And it's Strider Hien, Tonpuu, and some MP versions of her.

Hien confirms thanks to the Grand Master they have master the art of doing Dimensional Transfers at will, and that such abilities tie into his plans, and Strider Hiryuu figures out what the Grand Master's end game is.

He wants control over ALL the worlds.

......gotta hand it to the Grand Master, he thinks big.

Tonpuu confirms that after they kill you, they plan to blow Druaga's Tower up from the air, and Hien confirms they brought heavy artillery, the anti-gravity powered battleship Balrog, and with Bison using his Psychodriver powers to augment it, it's now capable of serving as a Dimensional Transfer relay as well.

Basically, not only can it blow shit the fuck up at will, they can shift between dimensions to do so, making it even more dangerous than it already was in in it's own series.

With that, the fight resumes, and you need to kill all the other enemies on the field.

Hien, Tonpuu, and her MP version are all pains in the ass, but thankfully are on the far side of the map, so you have some time before having to deal with them.

Once you take down Raptor, he withdraws to Druaga's Tower.

Once you take down Black Bravo, he withdraws to Druaga's Tower.

Once you take down the Allosaurus, it will withdraw, and Bruce is now utterly convinced that it has the T-Virus.

Once you whittle Hien down to 25% HP, he will withdraw, very butthurt at his ass kicking.

Once you take down Tonpuu, she will withdraw.

Once all foes are defeated, everyone tries to contact the others inside via radio, but MOMO can't get through, she they all decide to head inside and warn everyone if the upcoming aerial bombardment.

As the stage ends, Wonder Momo is all for getting in there ASAP, so she can beat the crap out of Druaga.

 

[GethN7]

Chapter 36 - Braves Of The Demon Palace


We start this level with Reiji and Kagekiyo's team in Druaga's Tower, and I must say, the level designers did a great job of capturing the original game and making a 3D version.

Anyway, we start with Xiaomu bitching about how damn tall the Tower is:

Guy tells her to suck it up, buttercup, and before Xioamu can do some more bitching, Taki's blade Mekkimaru senses the Soul Edge.

Felicia and a few other team members go to investigate some of the treasures chest on the North side of the map. Taizou takes a detachment to the east side.

And before the rest of the team can split up to to check the others, the Genji led by Yoritomo show up, and as his troops surround each part of your team, he tells Kagekiyo he's not getting the sword.

Kagekiyo is a bit tight lipped, not wanting to let on he's still short an artifact to kick Yoritomo's ass with, and Yoritomo is very aware of this. Everyone else doesn't realize this and is all ready to kick his ass, but Kagekiyo is still quietly shitting himself.

With this, the fight starts, and above all, Kagekiyo and Tarosuke can NOT be allowed to die.

I recommend taking out the Biwa Priests ASAP, those bastard can inflict Poison. All the other goons are the standard Genji reinforcements, so no special strategy needed. However, Yoritomo is a serious threat, so take him very seriously.

After you kill a few goons, Kagekiyo is all "fuck it....." and tries to take down Yoritomo with just two of the sacred artifact, and appears to succeed.

Everyone is like 'wow, did Kagekiyo really kick his ass?", and this prompts Yoshitsune, Benkai, and Yoshinaka to show up from the north, break down one of the gates, and are all like "so that's where you all were."

Taki informs them their boss just got his ass beat, but they ignore this and tell Yoritomo the SOul Edge is on this floor.

And that's when Yoritomo reappears in front of Kagekiyo, says his swordsmanship is better, but he still cannot die.

As Yoritomo decides to quit screwing around, Xiaomu realizes what Kagekiyo was hiding, and he admits he's missing the sacred sword, and then Wayahime has the idea "let's use the Soul Edge as a substitute".

A good idea, but Yoritomo isn't gonna let that happens and order his goons to move in for the kill.

As the fight resumes, you main goal is to survive for now, so just keep killing goons. Yoshinaka, Yoshitsune, and Benkei are all nothing to sneer at, so be careful of them while you do this.

However, cheap trick you can use to make your life easier: Rose starts not far from Yoshitsune, who has a mountain of MP. You can use her World spell a few times to recharge other character's turns, then drain his MP to replenish her and keep doing this. A few other enemies are also MP wells you can use for this purpose as well. Kagekiyo, Xiaomu and Morrigan also have this ability they can abuse, so make use of it.

Good news, ignore Yoritomo for now, he just sits on his corner of the map, concentrate on the others.

Once you take down Yoshinaka, he curses his fate to die in a place like this, and finally croaks for real.

Once you take down Yoshitsune, he can't believe he just died like a little bitch instead of on his own terms, and calls out for his brother Yoritomo as he finally dies for real.

NOTE: Historically speaking, he was able to commit seppuku, or ritual suicide, the honorable way for a samurai to die on his own terms instead of allowing the enemy to kill him, and it was Musashibo Benkei who bought him the time he needed to do this, so you just reversed Yoshitsune's historical fate.

After you take down some more of Yoritimo's goons, he commends your bravery, and Tarosuke fires back this really, really gross comeback.

I'm gonna rate Tarosuke "Islamic Content" for that one.

Xiaomu cringes at Tarosuke's one liner, then Reiji asks if at least murdering Yoritomo's goons will cripple Yoritomo, and Kagekiyo says it doesn't matter, he can eventually bring them all back anyway, so scratch that idea.

And that's when the Soul Edge finally appears, but it's got guards, three Charades.

Worse, Saya and her Ouma groupies appear.

She confirms she's here for the sword like you guys and Yoritomo, so it's gonna be a three way race to grab the damned thing.

The battle conditions change:

Like the battle back on the 3rd Moon where OG Solo had to be taken down before the turn limit, it's game over if you don't get to the sword in time, so haul ass.

Yoritomo will finally get off his ass at this point, so don't ignore him. I do recommend have someone with a full yellow bar spam their counter moves next to him so he'll waste turns, it will buy you time.

Once you take down Benkei, he yells at Kagekiyo the battle isn't over yet as he finally dies.

NOTE: Mushashibo Benkei actually died in an even more badass manner historically. As Yoshitsune was in his castle, going through the rite of seppuku, Benkei was guarding the castle entrance, and despite getting clubbed, stabbed, and shot with a shit ton of arrows, he refused to budge. In fact, he apparently died STANDING UP and was pulling off a Weekend at Bernie's style ruse without trying as guys kept trying to shoot his ass with arrows for hours on end until they realized he was finally dead. By that time, Yoshitsune had gotten a chance to die on his own terms as opposed to being killed by his foes.

Once you get an ally next to the sword (Kagekiyo or Reiji will be closest), Kagekiyo tries to grab it, and it starts acting like it's going to do a Transfer again.

Everyone warns Kagekiyo to get away from the Soul Edge, but he shows he's got bigger balls than everyone in the Soul Calibur universe as he grabs the damn thing while it's going off like Chinese fireworks anyway.

But something else happens.

Short version, the Soul Edge told Kagekiyo "I'm not your sword, but you might like this one better".

And it just so happens to be the one Kagekiyo needed to begin with.

Yoritomo shits his lacquered armor in horror over seeing this happen, and the Soul Edge then nopes out of there.

Unfortunately, Saya not only hoped this would happen, she reveals she was waiting for this, since the Soul Edge is finally stable so the next time it shows up, she can pick it up without any worries it will cause a dimensional transfer again.

Saya then leaves on that note, having gotten what she came for after all, so everyone turns their attention Yoritomo, who can now have his undead ass killed.

Yoritomo is not about to just let you kill his ass, so he runs for the extreme north end of the map and summons some Druaga goons to cover him, which means you have to chew through them before you can murder the asshole.

Thankfully, he doesn't have too many and you shouldn't have too many other Genji/Ouma goons to kill, so just surround Yoritomo and kill the bastard once and for all.

Once you take down Yoritomo, he whimpers like a bitch over his defeat, and Kagekiyo cuts the guy's head for the final time.

Everyone's glad at least one of the villain groups has been checked off the list, but Kagekiyo is not as happy as he thought he'd be. He then says as soon as he killed Yoritomo, he expected to return to the grave, but apparently, he's being left alive since he has more to do, which he wasn't expecting.

Everyone tells him not to worry about that, just enjoy life while he has it, and he accepts, realizing just standing there isn't going to answer any questions, and as they proceed to rendezvous with Gil's group, Reiji is still worried about Saya said about the Soul Edge.

 

[GethN7]

Chapter 37 - Destruction Of The Demon Realm


Before I go any further, this hilarious fanart based on this level must be posted:

Anyway, once the cast as shown above finally makes it to the 59th floor of Druaga's Tower, everyone recaps events as were amusingly depicted above.

Kai tries to get everyone to be serious for a moment, but Gil is glad for the banter, makes him feel a lot better since the last time he stormed this place, he was all alone.

Some Druaga goons appear shortly after, and while Masuyo, Hiromi and the remainder of your troops aren't around at present (they went ahead to recon), you'll have to deal with the Druaga troops until then.

Your objective should be straightforward for now: Advance cautiously and keep Gilgamesh and Kai alive.

After a turn or so, Masuyo and the others will appear to the north. Shortly afterwards, Druaga will appear, but is using one of his own troops as a recon puppet while he waits in the shadows for now. Gil explains Druaga's a fan of using other vessels to be annoying before the real deal shows up, so continue to advance slowly and pick off any goons he sends your way for now.

Once you take down Druaga's first avatar (a slightly harder than average Hyper Knight), four wizards will appear, each being a Druaga avatar. He also summons some more goons to help him out, none much tougher than the first wave, so keep everyone from getting too separated and take out the avatars and reinforcements.

FYI, it is INSANELY tempting to run up to Druaga's avatars and his goons and attack them before they make it over to you, but don't. He's just screwing around for now, you'll want to be a full strength when he stops doing so.

Once the second set of avatars die, the third one, in the form of Quox appears. In fact, you have to fight another Quox, as well as one silver and black version. Unlike the first two sets of avatars, he's starting to take the kid gloves off, so show some caution, they can hit hard.

One Quox is the real deal, and thankfully, he's much less punishing than the Druaga avatar version.

Once you take down the real Quox, Gil apologizes as it withdraws.

Once you take down the Quox Druaga avatar, the real one finally shows himself:

And after Druaga is all "Alright Gil, were gonna fight until only one side remains alive for the last time.", Gil finds that more than acceptable as we get this title card:

And since Druaga isn't a dumbass, he summons his best warriors to help out, which is why I said to pace yourself before hand. In fact, if your team is still in pretty good shape by now, this won't be too bad.

However, don't expect this to be easy, On top of having a shitload of goons at his beck and call, Druaga is like a much worse version of Nebiros, and in invulnerable to status down and faint attacks and has Akuma's turn recovery as well as 12,000 HP.

The good news is that only Druaga needs to die. If he does, his troops die with him.

Once you take down Druaga, Gil delivers the coup d'grace with Kai. The goons vanish as Druaga dies, screaming he'll have everlasting hatred for Gil, and just as everyone is like "it's over", that's when the Tower starts to come apart.

And, if you remember what Hien said, the Balrog is assaulting the tower.

Everyone runs to the 60th floor to see what the hell is going on, and they see the Balrog. The other teams make it there around the same time as well, and they all realize they need to board the battleship and interdict it before it demolishes Druaga's Tower and they die with it.

Valkyrie and Kurino have an idea, namely to use the same magic they used to fight Zouna, namely, making a rainbow bridge of light energy to make it to the battleship. It works, and while Alpha and Beta are a bit unsure it's safe to walk on, they cross it with everyone else.

We then cut to inside the Balrog, where Bison has already deployed his forces to take on your team, hoping you'll last until he can deal with you himself......

 

[GethN7]

Taking a brief break from doing more stages to add some more info about the source games N x C mined for content.


Slyphie from Forgotten/Lost Worlds actually makes use of a concept intended for the original game they could never implement properly, namely, she would speak in the shop menu and thank you for making purchases. The lines she uses in N x C are nigh identical to her intended dialogue in the original arcade game.

Her character art when in combat is also heavily based off her original art, so if her oddly wide eyes on her battle sprite seem weird when compared to her normal face graphics in dialogue, now you know why.

Also, Slyphie's borderline creeper behavior was inherited from the fact she could actually sell you her dress as an item in the Japanese Arcade version (presumably leaving her naked by implication, as buying it was accompanied by some very dirty sounding dialogue about how perverse you were). This was obviously cut from the American version, but the files for all this were still left in the American ROM, just papered over with something less perverse you could buy instead.


Captain Commando uses mostly the Japanese names for some of the characters. In fact here are the names of the various characters

Japanese Name - US Name

Captain Commando - Captain Commando
Baby (Head) - Hoover
Sho - Ginzu
Jennety - Mack The Knife

Jennety's American name comes from this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mack_the_Knife

Genocide was renamed, for some reason, to Scumocide in the US version.

The fan translation defaults to the Japanese names most of the time, but while voiceovers by Baby use "Jennety-san" to refer to him, his US name appears in non spoken dialogue. Honestly, of the US names, it was the best one.

Captain Commando is a bit interesting. His moveset is essentially lifted wholesale from Marvel vs. Capcom, especially his super move. He does have a few move unique to N x C, like the rising fist version of the Captain Corridor, which is great for air juggling.

His moves were transliterated rather literally in the fan translation, with his "Captain Corridor" being translated as "Captain Koreda", as that's how the voiceovers sound.

As some added trivia, the Captain influenced a number of Capcom characters. Crimson Viper's moveset is very similar to his, and Chuck Greene can cosplay as him in Dead Rising 3, as can Frank West in DR4.

There was a manga released for the series that explained the Captain's origins. He was a Tony Stark styled superhero, real name Mars Carlisle, and he's the CEO of a company named Star Electronics as a civilian.


Bravoman's civilian identity is heavily based off the founder of Namco, Masaya Nakamura.

Black Bravo is actually, in his civilian form, a salaryman like Nakamura from a rival insurance firm, and his full real name is Myōshima Tajima. In fact, his and Bravoman's rivalry is essentially a parody of the highly competitive nature of the Japanese business world.

His motivations also are slightly different than in canon. Originally, he was secretly trying to test Bravoman in his source canon, but it became a heated rivalry by N x C.

Wayahime is also an interesting character. Her eventual switching sides to join the heroes after her original programming was wiped was original storytelling for N x C, and as Bravoman was created long before the Soul Calibur series, Taki was based off her, which is hilarious, since in N x C she was based off Taki, or at least her style of martial arts.


Sabine from The Legend of Valkyrie is actually the child of Andy, who had been forced to work for Zouna once before Kurino freed him and his people. Valkyrie references this more than once, and if anyone wondered why Sabine would follow Kurino anywhere, well, she kinda owes Kurino a huge debt for kicking the ass of a demonic tyrant and freeing her entire clan and her father, which is where Kurino's "Hero" reputation comes from.


Black Valkyrie as interpreted by N x C is partially original. She was merely an evil twin boss in the PC Engine version of TLOZ, and her character was fleshed out substantially in N x C.


Taizou Horii, according to the latest game in the canon, is 45 years old. As N x C is set after the original Dig Dug but before the Mr. Driller games, that would mean Taizou is in his mid thirties by the time we meet him in N x C.


Gantz from Klonoa is known as Guntz in Japan, but the voiceovers use the US/World translation as does the fan translation. Janga and Joka's relations were a bit reversed in N x C, as the source canon of Klonoa heroes indicated Janga had Joka working for him, while N x C flips this around a little. Janga is also much more of a cold blooded asshole, partially because the game rating could be higher than in Klonoa Heroes, which had to water him down somewhat.

See below for some N x C Janga spoilers.

Spoiler

Janga eventually dies in both games, but he dies Disney style by falling into a pit in Klonoa Heroes. Gantz eventually gets to personally ice the bastard in N x C.

Xenosaga is heavily mined from Episode 1 for N x C. Shion, KOS-MOS, and MOMO all have abilities and their appearance cribbed from that game, though in MOMO's case her transformation in her "Rare Hunter" form was provided by Slyphie, which MOMO used to get the Golden Seed back from (Devil) Kazuya. It appears in a different format in Episode 1.

Shion's psychological issues are somewhat addressed in N x C, particularly the death of her mother and her fear of lightning. In fact, while her character is largely based on her Episode 1 portrayal, she is a lot more mentally healthy by the end of N x C to a degree, having overcome her terror of lightning to save Wayahime's life and essentially got some of her character development from later in the series a bit earlier than in canon.

Since she doesn't appear in either Endless Frontier or in Project X Zone, we only have KOS-MOS and MOMO's accounts of her (since MOMO did appear in Endless Frontier EXCEED) to go by, but they indicate Shion is in a much better emotional place than in canon, and N x C was the jumpoff point for this.

KOS-MOS is also affected to a degree by her crossover appearances. Her recognition of Reiji and Xiaomu in the first Endless Frontier confirms N x C's canon ties to the EF series and the subsequent Project X Zone games.

 

[GethN7]

Chapter 38 - Heroes Never Die


The good guys have managed to make it onto the Balrog as the stage begins. Strider warns the team to not step on the fighter catapults on the deck unless they want to be flung to their doom, and Regina compares it to a bow to explain the concept to the non technically inclined team members.

And that's when enemies show up to give them a welcome party.

The stage conditions indicate Jin Kazama is not allowed to die, and you'll soon see why.

As for the map, it's a large, multi level map, and half the team is on the Balrog's upper deck, while the other half is on the lower deck. You'll have to face enemies on both decks, though Jin starts on the lower deck. The enemies are a mix of Baraduke Gun Octis, Genocide troops, and 3rd Moon MP Solos.

For now, just focus on keeping Jin alive and wiping out the goons nearest each team.

After killing some goons, Hien, Tonpuu, OG Solo, and two Ogre show up.

Hien's a bit surprised Hiryuu didn't just run for the engine room, but Hiryuu, being smart, pointed out he didn't follow the rest of the team (who did go there) because the needed to divide the enemy forces, and he elected to be part of the bait team, partially because he was sure Hien would part of the interception committee.

And matters get worse when Kazuya shows up on the lower deck. Now that's he's finally finished dealing with his Jekyll and Hyde issues, he wants to finally continue their duel. Hien just rolls with this and considers Kazuya reinforcements of a sort.

Have the lower team focus on Kazuya, and the upper team on the 3rd Moon goons.

Once you kill some more goons, Juno and some MML enemies show up on the lower deck. Everyone is like "Joy, now we have to deal with Juno", and Juno explains "actually, thanks to that bridge you made, even more want a piece of you"

Cue some Velociraptors.

And, to Regina's horror.........HE'S BACK!

We then get this nice title card of Regina and Bruce:

With all the new enemies, this battle went from bad to worse. Juno can essentially ignore the height difference and will try to gun for Mega and Roll, but that can work in your favor, as you already have enough goons to fight on the lower deck. Meanwhile Kazuya can hit like a damn truck like always, and all the 3rd Moon bosses are nothing to laugh at. The Allosaurus still has rather low HP, though.

Have Bruce/Regina, Jin, and Heihachi worry about Kazuya. the other lower deck team members should focus on Juno's troops and the dinosaurs, and the upper deck team on the 3rd Moon bosses.

When OG Solo is taken down, he will withdraw.

When Tonpuu is taken down, she will withdraw.

Once you kill even more intruders, an old foe from several stages back reappears:

He's finally recovered from having Evil Ryu Satsui no Hidou his internal organs into pulp, and based on his entrance method, he Dimensional Transferred. Kamuze explain the demon lord Zouna is using the power of the Key of Time to pull that trick off, and since it should have been sealed in the Abyss of Time, that's not good at all, and Judas figures out how:

That bitch Black Valkyrie handed off the Eye of God to Zouna, and it bolstered Zouna's power enough it cracked open the Key of Time's security.

Worse, as Kamuze adds, Zouna can also transfer the Daicroft between dimensions, and considering it's essentially now a multidimensional Death Star, that is pants shittingly BAD, especially since their first target is the Material World, aka, our contemporary reality.

As the fight resumes, keep in mind the ToD2 forces with Kamuze can ignore height like Juno, but they aren't too bad. You'll also have to fight more MP Kurino and Sabine forces, but they aren't different from before.

Once you take down Hien, he tries to run off to blow up the Balrog and withdraws.

Once you take down Juno, he withdraws.

Once you take down the Allosaurus, it looks like it finally died this time.

Once you take down Kamuze, he admits Zouna is going to activate the Daicroft's superweapon, and then withdraws as he says it would be even better if Valkyrie witnessed it firsthand.

Once you take down Kazuya, he surprised that even though he's overcome his demon side, he's still royally owned. Jin decides enough is fucking ENOUGH, and he beats the everloving shit out of demonic dad.

Kazuya runs off before Jin can finish the job, swearing he will one day have his power back and that Jin will follow in his footsteps.

Once all foes are defeated, Gil hopes that's all of the enemies.

But it's not, cause this motherfucker is STILL ALIVE!

Regina is freaking out pretty bad at this point, and at this point, who the hell can blame her? In fact, let's recap:

Several of the most badass martial artists of more than one time and world have beaten the fuck out of this thing several times. All sorts of weapons have stabbed, crushed, shot, and perforated the damn thing with all sorts of holes, it's been hit point blank with several different types of magic, and it's been given wounds that should be fatal more than once, but the fucking thing refuses to STOP.

And here's the real shocker: IT HAS NO LIFE SIGNS!

At this point, Bruce can't deny obvious fact. The only damned way that can be true and the dinosaur is still moving is due to it being infected with the T-Virus from the Spencer Lane, which would go a LONG way towards describing it's RE3 Nemesis level tenacity for not giving up.

Judas figures if they can't kill it themselves since it's now necrotized, they should just throw it off the airship. Bruce is about to protest, but he gets a light bulb moment, then uses his gun to stagger it backwards into one of the deck catapults.

Basically, he figured there was no fucking way that damn thing can get up again after being flung at high speed off a giant airship suspended thousands of feet in the air, not especially after a little thing called gravity would splatter it's corpse into so many pulverized chunks that not even the T-Virus can keep THAT moving.

Hiryuu compliments Bruce's ingenuity, and Sabine is all 0_0. Hiryuu then points out they need to stop the Balrog, and as the stage ends, they proceed to join the others on the lower decks.

 

[GethN7]

Chapter 39 - The Scabbard And The Blade


We start this level with Reiji's team making ingress inside the Balrog, and they are kinda lost. They detect an energy signal, but it's not coming from the engine, according to Baby.

A quick look around reveals a shocking sight.

They are breeding Gnosis, Dig-Dug, and Baraduke goons in this place.

According to Captain Commando, he's seen Genocide tech like this before, essentially Doppel production on a mass scale.

Taizou decides it's high time to destroy shit before they produce more, and that's when the tubes explode and the monsters come out to play.

Taizou gets crawled for this, Xiaomu comments on youthful enthusiasm, and Masuyo snarks he's about 30 (29, to be exact), so he's not that young anymore, and Taizou says he didn't even do anything yet.

NOTE: Masuyo's confirmation of his age would date him way before the Mr. Driller games, so if she's not just spitballing and that's his exact age at the time, this game would be after Dig Dig II but before the Mr. Driller games.

In any case, you need to kill them, and after MOMO tosses out the Hilbert Effect, it's time to kick some ass.

I recommend picking them off as fast as possible, reinforcements will be inbound.

After killing some goons, Sturm, Sturm Jr, and Drak appear. They want to kill you, Demitri is like "Just three more future bloodstains", and they are like "O RLY?"

Cue Reiji clutching his scar, and you know what that means.

However, we get.......this instead at first:

She sounds like a much more innocent Saya, but it's not the real one, and the real one shows up, and she clarifies the white haired, cyber-eyed ripoff of her is called a "Katana", and she thinks Katana is "cute"

Katana really is kinda innocent mentally, cause this is what she says in response:

And then shit gets worse as several Katana show up, and they all tell Lady Saya they are ready to kick your ass.

Cue this title card of Saya.

KOS-MOS confirms they are MP versions of Saya, albeit not as powerful, and Reiji demands to know one thing from Saya.

Saya trolls him by starting to give her measurements (she confirms she has a 36 inch bust), and Reiji insteads wants to know why she isn't after the Soul Edge.

She says she was able to grab it, but it vanished on her, and then Drak asks Saya if she's keeping her word, and thus Saya tells the Katanas to attack you so she can get some data on them.

With that, the fight resumes, and the good news is that the Katanas and Saya and the Strum recolors are all on the far sides of the map, so finish off the other more minor goons while you can to brace yourself for the new goons.

The Katanas are only short range attackers, having Saya's blades but little else, and thankfully do not have most of Saya's advantages. Their HP is also lower, but they are still pretty tough.

Once you take down Sturm Jr, he'll bitch at the Captain about how long it took to set up the cloning facility, and the Captain tells him to blow his sob story out his ass as Sturm Jr withdraws.

Once you take down a Katana, Xiaomu wonders how a clone can be as much like Saya as it is, while Reiji is more wondering WHY they were created.

After taking down a few more goons, more forces are inbound.

And it's Lord Raptor, Black Bravo, Amazona, and some Phobos and MP Q-Bee.

Amazona is still apparently under enemy control, and Wonder Momo and the other MOMO want to know why.

Raptor's response is that he took over the mind control now that Druaga's dead.

As the fight resumes, you now have Raptor's goons on one side, and Genocide/Ouma on the other.

Have half your team finish off as many Genocide goons as they can then back up the other half kicking Raptor and crew's asses.

Once you take down Drak, he curses how they got so far, and then runs off before he can finished off.

Once you take down Raptor, he plans to run like a bitch, especially since he's lost the patronage of Astaroth and Druaga, so he plans to start kissing Zouna's ass and reveals Zouna is in the Material World as he withdraws.

Once you take down Amazona, she withdraws as it's confirms she's still mind controlled.

Once you take down Sturm, he's butthurt he got his ass kicked again, and runs before he can get killed.

Once you make Black Bravo your bitch, he's mega butthurt at his constant losing streak, and runs off to fight another day.

Once you take down Saya, she's at least pleased the Katanas worked out, and Xiaomu demands she spill her full plans. Saya says she wasn't lying about the SOul Edge, but at least her MP cloning project worked out, so it's a short term goal off her list.

With that, she withdraws, admitting she's not sure if she can even bother getting the Soul Edge anymore.

NOTE: This is important to the end game of the plot, so take note of this, I'll quiz you all later.

Tron notes that for clones, they don't look like her, which is true, but I'll give you all a hint, they were clones of Saya's "vessel", not necessarily her appearance, though they do bear some degree of resemblance to the original regardless.

Once all foes are gone, everyone is concerned most of their foes are moving to the Material World to do their thing, but since they still need to screw up the Balrog beyond usefulness, the Captain has Baby set some charges to destroy the cloning facilities, and Tron and the Servbots assist as does Taizou.

As the stage ends, Reiji wonders what the purpose of Katana and the Soul Edge are to the Ouma's end game goals......

 

[GethN7]

Chapter 40 - Dearness, Sadness And Safeness


We've finally reached the core of the Balrog, and Bison is muttering about the Psychodrive being unstable as he stand on the engine core, which is suspended above the room.

He then realizes he's being watched, and yells for the spies to show themselves.

A contingent of your team led by Sakura pops out since they've been noticed. Gantz wishes they had been a bit closer so he could have put a bullet in Bison's skull, which, given the dimensions of the room would have been a long shot according to Klonoa.

Slyphie realizes the orb Bison is standing on is an anti-gravity engine, and she gets hearts in her eyes as she realizes it could sell for a shitload, but Alpha and Beta vote for blowing it the fuck up.

As Bison lols at the very idea, another contingent of your team led by Ryu appears. This pleases Bison and annoys Ken, and Cammy explains that not only does the engine serve as a Psychodrive generator, Bison is likely feeding it juice.

Meaning it would be a BAD idea to take him out at present, since he's keeping the ship going.

Bison again lols at how some of your team don't give a shit and sends out some MP Tonpuu and some Brenda and Carol Genocide troops to slow you down while he works on the Psychodrive stability.

He's not a threat, and you can't get to him at present, but the Genocide troops and MP Tonpuu are a problem, so have you team advance carefully to take them out, but be wary, many more reinforcements are inbound.

Ryu, Ken, Klonoa, and Gantz also cannot be allowed to die.

Once you kill a few goons, Bison is annoyed, and Alpha and Beta tell him to quit being a pussy, and even Ryu joins in.

Bison's response is to say they must win the privilege to fight him, and for his next crowd of goons, he summons MP Juli and Junis to the battlefield.

Ken is getting really annoyed, but Ryu tells him "lol, calm down, Bison just trying to make you mad", and Gantz agrees, saying they just need to kill the reinforcements, then they can nuke the reactor. Bison approves of Gantz's show of bravado, and with that the fight resumes.

The MP versions of the foes you are fighting so far are HP sponges but not overly dangerous, but conserve your strength, you will need it.

After wasting some more of the goons, Alpha says what I was thinking concerning Bison's current goons.

And that's when Bison quits fucking around and brings out MP versions of your own teammates:

At first, a few of your team think it's your own team, but if you look above, you'll notice something's wrong.

*coughChun-licough*

Chun-li realizes there shouldn't be two of her on the field, and Beta makes me LOL really hard with this one:

Beta, .

Armor King also deserves a for this:

Slyphie notes at least it's better than a bunch of fugly, and Alpha concurs, prompting Bison to confirm he's channeling Haken from the infamously cheescake fanservice anime Agent Aika with this reply:

For those who don't get the reference, see this spoiler:

Spoiler

The anime Agent Aika is an anime that if you made a drinking game out of how many times you saw a woman's panties, you'd be dead of liver failure before the opening credits were finished. It's villain was also a perverted villain named Haken whose army was all women and who had a Moonraker style plot to take over the world.

Bison seems to have taken some notes from that guy if you ask me.

Ryu ignores all the fanservice and then cuts to the heart of Bison's bullshit and asks him, again, why he's so intent on avoiding a fight, and Rose hits a bullseye when she realizes what's really going on.

Bison is barely able to keep his own power in check at this point, and he's been dumping his excess Psychodrive power into the Balrog engine, and even that's not helping at this point.

Bison is pissed she's spilling the beans, and then Karin lols at the fact Bison played off being a badass when he's basically afraid his own power is gonna fuck him up any day now. Guy and Sho tells Bison that he's gonna run out of goons sooner or later, then they'll be fucking him up, and Mitsurugi is ready to begin.

As the fight resumes, the good news is that none of the MP clones of your team are all that tough individually, but will be deadly if they can gang up on you.

Once you kill several more goons, Joka and Janga alongside various Phantom Beasts, Tales of Destiny troops and Legend of Valkyrie mooks appear.

Joka is a bit surprised that Druaga and Nebiros both fell, and Guy mentions he was surprised they were no shows at Druaga's Tower, and Joka explains they were busy in the Material World, and the work he was tasked for is already done.

He won't elaborate, and Bison is like 'who the hell are you and how did you get in" to Joka.

Joka explains they were going to fulfill a contract on Valkyrie's life, and since they share enemies, proposes an alliance with Bison for the time being. He honestly couldn't care to bother with them, and Janga is all 'fuck it, I'm killing people here anyway", and Gantz is more than happy for this, because that means Janga will be in range for a bullet.

Bison is getting fed the fuck up and realizes he's not getting anywhere stabilizing the Psychodrive, so he finally gets his ass down from the engine. Bison deflects any speculation his powers are still fucked up, chalks up his coming down as a way to kill some time, then summons the real Juni and Juli to help him out.

Both Juni and Juli report the other intruders kicked the ass of Sturm and Hien, and Bison facepalms at their uselessness. Ryu tells Bison he's out of places to run, and Bison is all "ha no, this just means you can't escape me this time, Ryu", and the rest of his dialouge sounds disturbingly like a pick up line, which Slyphie comments on.

Ryu ignores this and tells Bison "today is the day you will never see the sun again!" as we get this kickass title card:

With this, the final phase of the fight is at hand, and shit just got very dangerous.

Joka and Janga are on one side of the map each, and Bison and his groupies will be on Joka's side. You will still have some MP enemies to fight as well as the reinforcements brought by Bison, Janga, and Joka.

Stay away from Bison as much as possible until you taken out the others, he's retarded strong. Janga and Joka are pretty tough themselves, but you should have each team work on taking them out.

In fact, if you work really fast, you can ice both of those bastards, which I recommend.

Once you take down Janga, he's about to run, but Gantz isn't letting the murderer of his father escape today, and that's when he pumps the bastard full of lead.

Janga can't believe he's gonna die like this, those are his last words in fact before he finally croaks, shocking Joka.

Alpha and Beta compliment Gantz on his aim, but he just says he shot a worm, then smiles, knowing he just laid his father to rest.

Once you take down Joka, he flees, saying he must make the final preparations in the Material World.

Once you take down Juli, she feels her life signs fading, and as she dies, she tells Bison her real name.....Julia Hawke.

Once you take down Bison, he freaks out, and as Ryu is about to kick his ass, it seems Bison's power is trying to control Ryu one last time, and Ken tells Ryu to NOT let that asshole win as they give Bison the mother of all beatdowns, capped off with DOUBLE SHORYUKENS.

Somehow, Bison is still standing after all that, and he tries to summon what power he has left for one last counterattack, his powers fluctuating wildly in the process, and he tells everyone if he goes down, the ship and everyone in it go with him.

Unfortunately, he has teleported just out of range for anyone to stop him, except, for this guy:

And now we know what his end game is too:

And as Bison turns to see who it is, that's when awesome shit happens.

AKUMA UNLEASHES A GIGANTIC CAN OF WHOOPASS POINT BLANK ACROSS BISON'S FACE.

Akuma, .

And as Bison crumples like a used tissue, Akuma has only this to say to the prick:

As Bison croaks, Akuma tells him to enjoy his suffering in Hell, and Rose realizes what Akuma did.

He couldn't defeat Bison on his own with his Satsui no Hidou powers, so waited until Ryu and Ken beat the everloving shit out of Bison and waited for the right chance to punch the fucker in the mouth until he died of it.

He then tells everyone they've got even bigger fish to fry and worlds to save, then nopes out of there.

Once you take down Juni, she dies, still calling Bison's name.

Once you defeat all enemies, everyone happy Shadowloo has been taken care of, and Gantz and Klonoa are happy Janga has paid for his crimes.

And that's when everyone remembers that Bison was powering the ship as the engine starts self destructing.

Everyone hauls ass, and we cut to the Balrog out decks where the whole cast has gathered, now needing an escape plan.

And that's when that little merchant dude Zuhl (remember him, he only sells you stuff every other level) shows up on a no shit DRAGON some ways away from the Balrog.

Unfortunately, he can't get the dragon any closer than some ways away from the Balrog because the damned thing just refuses to go near it, so you need to bridge the gap.

Baby estimate the distance between you guys and safety to be 100 meters, and that's when Hiryuu gets an idea.

And that's when he steps on one of the deck catapults.

Remember what Bruce did to get rid of the Allosaurus? Hiryuu took notes and now adapting that idea to save everyone's ass.

Everyone thinks he's nuts, but Hiryuu actually let's the catapult send his ass flying, and he makes it to the dragon. The ship is still starting to come unglued, so while everyone else considers this plan to be the height insane (and they aren't wrong), survival means they have no choice, so they all gulp down their fears and get on the catapults.

NOTE: This scene would be revisited in Project X Zone, and while the newbies understandably freak out, all the returning veterans are like "Here we go again......."

Everyone, amazingly enough, has made it, and Zuhl reveals where he got the dragon from.

Cue Ishtar showing up.

And she has bad news. The Daicroft has vanished from it's original storage dimension, and it's now in the Material World.

Basically, the equivalent of the Death Star is now hovering over Earth, and Zouna plans to use it to make the Material World his bitch.

They then cut to the Infernal Village entrance to recover the Flutter so they have a decent ship to assault the Daicroft with, and after they all board, Ishtar transports you all to the Material World.

They wind up back in Shibuya, and when they look at the sky, shit has gone VERY wrong.

That's right, the Daicroft is manifesting over the Earth, and considering it's in the hands of a demon that wants to dick over the human race, that's not good at all.

Worse, this means the Eye of God is confirmably powering the damn thing, so they need to stop it NOW before Zouna gets a chance to start firing stupidly powerful superweapons at the planet.

Roll takes the Flutter up so your team can assault the Daicroft, and that's when you get to see the N x C equivalent of the underside of the alien ship from Independence Day.

In truth, what you are looking at the Belcrant, the business end of the mother of all beam cannons.

The only way to make ingress is from the top, so Roll pans the ship further.

Once you get there, Tron freaks out as she see's her own ship lying on the surface of the Daicroft, and everyone realizes they have three objectives:

1. Get Tron's ship back.
2. Capture and/or destroy the Eye of God.
3. Kick Zouna's ass.

The stage ends as Reiji signs off on the team split, and each team prepares to make landfall on the Daicroft for their assault.

 

[GethN7]

Chapter 41 - Braves Of The Crest War


As we begin this level, your forces are already inside the Daicroft, where Kamuze is playing it's bodyguard, and he's pleased to see you showed up.

Your team is trying to stop the superweapon in this level, and that means you need to go through Kamuze and his goons to get to it.

He is disappointed Valkyrie isn't present, but Sabine tells him he's gonna get his ass beat, so he'd better worry more about them.

This is making him mad, and Hideo wisely tells Sabine to lay off, Kamuze is right next to the go button for nuking the world after all.

However, the weapon is still in charging mode, so you got a little time, which means you need to hurry over to Kamuze and punch him to death before it's ready to fire.

As the level starts, keep in mind Arthur cannot be allowed to die.

Use your first turn to get as close to Kamuze as possible. You will likely not be able to kill too many of the Valkyrie goons, but that's fine, they aren't too tough, and the key here is speed. Still, conserve your strength, Kamuze is no joke, and he will get some reinforcements.

After you take down a few goons, Kamuze realizes you guys are fired up, so he calls in some of the Daicroft's security forces to back him up.

They are HP sponges, but not too much of a problem. In fact, fight them off if you can, but mostly keep pushing forward so you are within striking distance of Kamuze.

After killing a few more goons, Kamuze starts getting desperate, and that when we hear the Belcrant is done charging up.

He presses the fire button, but it hasn't fired yet, as it still need time for lasing cavity to discharge the round, which means you have to fuck up Kamuze in 10 turns or less.

Else Earth is doomed.

Unfortunately, seems this guy is going to make your job harder:

His goal is pretty simple: Try to stop you from stopping the Belcrant, mostly because at this point, opposing you is the only thing he's got going for him ever since you took out his boss.

The conditions change to include that if you don;t kill Kamuze in ten turns, you lose, and if you were smart, you should already be within striking distance of the asshole, so drop everything and beat him to death.

The Demon's Blazon forces are strong, but they should be far enough away it will take them awhile to get to you, so just beat the crap out of Kamuze ASAP.

Once you take his ass down, he runs like a bitch before mentioning he's gonna hook up with Zouna, but at least the Belcrant isn't cooking off over Earth.

Kurino and Sabine give chase, meaning they leave the battlefield, and that just means Arthur needs to not die and you need to take out everyone else.

Once you chop off 30% of Red Arremar HP, he's not happy you are kicking his ass so hard and calls in some more Demon's Blazon troops. He also tells Arthur he's not running this time, one of them will die here.

Once you finally take down Red Arremar, he realizes his wounds are fatal and wonders if this is the end.
Aruthur laments they didn't get to settle their score at the Infernal Village, but Red Arremar is glad it wasn't settled there, as he didn't fight "that war" for that result.

Morrigan then clarifies he means the War of the Crest, a war between three demonic clans, which a red demon, led by the Crest, ended.

It's then Red Arremar explains as he dies, he was in your shoes then in the Infernal Realm, where he had to stop those demonic clans from destroying his world, and so the reason for this final battle was to see if those who are now fighting the battle he had to fight could surpass him and save their own worlds from the destruction he saved his own from.

Arthur understands more than anyone else Red Arremar's will, and vows to his dying rival he will take up his sword as their own and save their own worlds from chaos.

With his final breath, he says he will be watching.

And in case anyone still doesn't realize who he really is, I'll spell it out.

He's Firebrand, the hero of the Gargoyle's Quest series, which shares the same universe as Ghost and Goblins and serves as a prequel to Arthur's own adventures. In those games, he really was a hero for his fellow demons, and he saved his own world from destruction, just like you are saving yours now. He soon after pledged his loyalty to Astaroth once the dust settled, and he's been fighting for his own kind and the pledge he made to Astaroth ever since.

Basically, he was never a villain, at least not from his side of things, he was just a hero fighting for his own cause which just happens to have run counter to yours.

Firebrand, .

Once all foes are gone, everyone figures it would be a good idea to trash the controls for the Belcrant, and Jin is especially grateful Heihachi isn't around, as he might want to grab it for himself.

And since it's time to wreck shit, guess who wants to do the honors as the stage ends:

Before I close this out, some notes on Firebrand.

Firebrand was just a rank and file Red Arremar by the time the the first Gargoyle's Quest rolled around, and that's when the arch demons running the place decided to have a pissing contest over who would run all of the Infernal Realm.

Since they really didn't give a shit about collateral damage or whatever members of Firebrand's clan that got caught in the crossfire, he decided to crack his knuckles and put an end to that shit.

And so, during the first two Gargoyle's Quest games and Demon Crest for the SNES, he made the archfiends of the abyss his bitch and told them to quit fucking up his home just because they thought that was the best way to settle their dick measuring contest.

After that was over, though, he didn't want to run Hell, he just wanted his clan to be protected and treated with due respect and for whoever ran the place to just not fuck it up.

So he pledged loyalty to Astaroth, who was more than happy to agree to the deal, made Firebrand his right hand man, and who even allowed Firebrand to make his own special forces unit of Red Arremars, the Demon's Blazon.

Firebrand had no damned clue about Nebiros controlling Astaroth, even Astaroth had no idea he was just a puppet when Arthur kicked his ass the first time. The original Ghosts and Goblins games were implied to have Arthur cross blades with Firebrand, but he didn't know who he was at the time, but Firebrand didn't forget Arthur. Later revisions of the series would retroactively make the fact he and Arthur crossed blades once more obvious.

So by the time N x C rolled around, Astaroth had apparently recovered from Arthur caving his face in, and Firebrand signed back up with his old boss once more out of loyalty. He took the name Red Arremar Joker partially because while he was proud of his old name, he's actually a humble guy and so he didn't want to call too much attention to himself. It's also because, like the Joker card in a card deck, he had the most potential of his entire kind.

 

[GethN7]

Chapter 42 - To The Wasteland Where Neither God Nor Devil Will Descend And Stand


This level starts with the recapture of Tron's ship, and Reiji notes the ground is much like Earth's.

We also find more than just Tron's ship is there, as Slyphie notices her shop is there as well.

However, Kagekiyo is very preoccupied with someone, and when everyone asks what it is, he's on edge because he senses a ton of evil magic.

As the level starts, advance carefully, and keep in mind that Kagekiyo and Tarosuke are not allowed to die.

Also, you will have to break some barriers in your way to advance, so keep that in mind.

Once you kill a few ho-hum Daicroft security, you'll get some enemy reinforcements.

Genji Clan goons.

Since Yoritomo was killed by Kagekiyo, everyone assumes they are leftovers who hooked up with Zouna.

Continue to advance, and since many of these goons have high MP, use guys who have MP draining skills to use these enemies as refilling stations so you can spam spells.

After you kill a few more goons, turns out Kagekiyo was right to be edgy.

Because those Genji fuckers Yoshinaka, Yoshitsune, and Benkei are alive again.

Worse, Saya and the Ouma are around as well, and she explains why the guys you thought dead are back:

If you know your Tales of Destiny lore, you'll figure this out pretty quick, and besides, notice how the enemies you've fought had named like "Revived Corpse", so it wasn't like this wasn't foreshadowed.

Saya then mentions she'd like Kagekiyo's sword, since she just can't get her hands on the Soul Edge anymore, and just to troll, she also mentions wanting Slyphie's store, making the shop owner a little peeved.

And then Yoritomo shows up just to make your life worse, because when it rains, it pours.

We then get this title card of Kagekiyo looking pissed the fuck off as the stage resumes:

Note that enemies will not attack until you break down the wall between you and them, so you can pick and choose your battles.

If you play your cards right, you can take down Yoritomo's lieutenants in a turn or two, and I recommend doing that, as you can also take most of the tougher Ouma goons off the map as well.

Once you take down Benkei, he dies once more.

Once you take down Yoshitsune, he returns to being dead.

Once Yoshinaka is taken out, he croaks again.

Once you take out most of the enemies on the battlefield, Mitsurugi wants Saya and Yoritomo to get down from where they are acting as spectators so he can kick their ass.

But that when this douche reappears:

And while he's mostly here to help make your life suck, we find he actually gave a shit about Janga:

@AngeloTheWizard, despite all I looked up on the Klonoa series, I have to admit this surprised me a little.

Anyway, he also adds that the Key of Time (currently in Zouna's possession) is resonating with the Eye of God at the moment, and since that resonance is further melting the walls between worlds, finishing this fight and taking Zouna down ASAP would be a VERY good idea.

Reiji also realizes that Zouna has been using the Key of Time in sync with the Eye of God to keep reviving all your old headaches (essentially focusing the Daicroft's ability to attract dead souls and focusing it towards discrete targets).

Saya and Yoritomo quit munching popcorn and get down to fight you at this point, especially since they want the power Zouna is currently wielding as well, and Kagekiyo is more than ready to cut them both down before they can get there.

This means Joka, Yoritomo, and Saya will come whichever way is available to your position, so if you played your cards right, you can lead them to a chokepoint of your choice so long as you didn't destroy all the rocks.

Once you take down Yoritomo, he's pissed this is the second time you handed him his ass, but Kagekiyo corrects him and says it's three times (once for in his own series). Yoritomo swears he'll come back to continue the fight, and Kagekiyo tells him he'll just kick his ass again if that happens.

Once you take down Saya, Reiji tells her he realizes the Ouma's goals are almost at hand, and she praises his intuition. She says she'll lay off trying to take Kagekiyo's sword, and Reiji realizes she needs a magic sword of some type for her plans, but she's not able to get the SOul Edge, and Kagekiyo and his friends made clear she ain't getting his.

What she says next is VERY PLOT IMPORTANT, I WILL QUIZ YOU ALL LATER:

If anyone can figure out the exact reasons behind this line, then you will have figured out the biggest plot twist of the game.

Once you take down Joka, he will drop a key hint to the endgame:

With that, he fakes like he's gonna pull a Wayahime and self destruct, but he just vanishes instead.

Note, this is very last time you will see him in the game. He just vanishes from the plot after this, not satisfied with how it turned out.

Once all foes are taken down, everyone sees to the securing of Tron's ship and is worried about the hints Saya and Joka dropped about the endgame as the stage ends.

 

[GethN7]

Chapter 43 - Once Again, The Key Of Time Legend


We've finally reached the core of the Daicroft, and everyone heads over to the apparently deserted control center, which, as Roll notes, looks like a really big deflector.

But before they can really do anything to it, a bright light envelops everyone and teleports them to......a ballroom?

Apparently, a party is going on, and despite the various people from the other teams being present, Rose and Valkyrie immediately realize it's a bullshit illusion.

As Heihachi tells the fakers to drop the act, they do, the room goes dark, and a bunch of Druaga goons and Daicroft security forces show up in place of the faked good guys. Worse, it seems Druaga's still around, but oddly, it's not him specifically. Rather, it's Zouna.

With this the fight starts, and you are being attacked on two sides, focus on whittling down both sides but be careful, you will get reinforcements. Also, keep Valkyrie alive during this entire battle.

After killing a few goons, MOMO will detect....

Well, I'll let Demitri explain:

But that's not all:

Druaga's back, and this time, he's taken the form of his oldest foe to get his revenge.

And it seems the Daicroft's ability to regenerate souls conjured up a new form for Druaga too, based on his regret on being able to kill Gil:

The Daicroft's answer to this was 'Well, how about I put you on equal footing to the guy who killed you, that good enough for a new body?"

And Valkyrie confirms that it wasn't just willpower and the Daicroft that brought him back specifically. The Key of Time also played a hand in his resurrection, specifically, Zouna brought Druaga back as a calculated "screw you".

Hiryuu and Regina just want to cap the bastard and get the Eye of God back, and with that the fight resumes.

The only one you have to kill for the next phase to begin is the Soul of Druaga, so if you want to speed this up, just kill him, the others riding shotgun vanish on his defeat.

However, he's just as strong as the original Druaga, but with higher HP and moves even faster, so he's no cakewalk. It's also worth noting the Soul of Druaga and his buddies will IMMEDIATELY gun for Gil ASAP.

Once you kill a few more goons, a few Black Sandra and MP Sabine will show up along with Black Valkyrie.

And this piece of shit:

Thankfully, Kurino and Sabine arrive from having given chase to Kamuze a level or two ago to join the fight as well.

Kurino confirms the Belcrant is no longer a threat and B. Valkyrie calls Kamuze a loser for fucking that up. He a little annoyed and let's her know (calling her a "foxy lady" in the process, which sends some mixed signals if you ask me) it, but she then shrugs and is like 'lol, well, there's always a Plan B".

On that note, Zouna finally appears:

Before I go on, while Zouna is referred to as male, he has an oddly feminine voice.

And Zouna's goals are pretty straightforward.

Yeah, I know, the cliche meter just broke, it's not just you.

We then get this nice title card of Valkyrie:

Valkyrie is like "in your dreams", and Heihachi sums up what you have to do pretty well:

As the fight resumes, the battle just got nasty. Kamuze and B. Valkyrie are both hard as hell, and Zouna and basically Druaga on crack, so unless you are feeling really crazy, you might want to make you job easier and kill the Soul of Druaga ASAP, just to take some enemies off the table.

Once you take down the Soul of Druaga, he finally dies permanetly, and all Druaga goons are removed from the field, which makes the rest of this fight way less a pain in the ass.

Once Kamuze goes down, he wails about his defeat as he finally dies.

Once you take down Black Valkyrie, she actually accepts death gracefully, figuring that since things have gone so badly to shit all around her despite your best efforts, her role in causing discord is superfluous now, and promises they'll meet again as she finally dies.

Once you take down Zouna, he can't believe his defeat, and he's shocked as all the souls that used to be under his control are slipping away, but defiantly tells Valkyrie he'll be back as long as light and darkness both exist.

He then dies and Valkyrie gets the Key of Time from his corpse.

She then uses the Key of Time so you can escape the fake ball room dimension, but that's when things go wrong:

The Eye of God is gone, and that's when Juno shows up.

He confirms he too was after the Eye of God, and you find out he came from a fortress currently floating above the Earth.

A fortress called Eden, one that makes the Daicroft's Belcrant look like a pop gun in comparison in terms of strength.

The translation Juno uses after to refer to using Eden to destroy all the humans uses "Decoys" instead of the term "Carbons", but either way he's referring to Eden turning Earth into space dust.

And Juno then reveals who is behind it.

The Grand Master.

Essentially, he had been keeping tabs on all the other factions since the 3rd Moon went nova and was planning to gank the Eye of God and use it to power his even more powerful take on the Daicroft.

As Juno leaves, everyone else prepares to give chase in Tron's recently recovered ship as the stage ends.

 

[GethN7]

Chapter 44 - Such A Toy Is Unnecessary To You People


Alright, before I begin this level, for everyone using my LS as a strategy guide, you're on the next to last level of the game, so consider this level preparations for the last level, which means you should, after deploying any forced deployments, sortie everyone you plan to use in the final level, because the tougher they are and higher their levels by then, the better. Also, this is gonna be a LONG, brutal level with a horde of enemies you need to kill and several bosses.


We start this level on the Gesellchaft bridge, and Tron and the ServBots are confirming their ship and the Flutter are good to go.

An hour later, everyone is ready, and we begin the strategy briefing.

The base is a cylindrical space fortress perched above Earth named Eden, and it's four times the size of the 3rd Moon. Also, you Megaman Legends fans should definitely get the same "oh shit" vibes Mega does, because Eden is the same one from his own series, which, had it been used then, would have ended the human race as we know it.

And now it's not only in Juno's hands, but also the hands of the Grand Master and his allies, and they ALL have a reason to screw you over.

Worse, the Daicroft is spreading further and further over the planet, meaning it's ability to revive dead souls is spreading, and even if Eden doesn't blast Earth to dust and the Belcrant still remains offline, all of the planet will be at the Daicroft's mercy as it keeps bringing the dead back to life as it's own warriors, and given how that can be manipulated by anyone with ill intentions, that is NOT good.

Which means not only do you need to stop Eden, you must stop the Eye of God, which is still remotely powering the Daicroft.

As both MML vessels are enroute to Eden, Xiaomu calls Reiji off to tell him something, and it's about Saya, where Xioamu confides she's still not sure what Saya's true goals are, but she's sure it's a repeat of ten years ago. We also learn that Reiji took a hit for his dad then even as a child, but it came to nothing, as his father was dead when he regained consciousness.

Xiaomu explains back then, they stopped the Ouma's poroject before it proceeded too far out of the planning stage, and then she changes gears and says she needs to tell Reiji about his dad's last moments, but he doesn't want to hear it and abruptly leaves, which has Xiaomu a bit upset.

We then cut to Eden, where the good guys have made their ingress, and it's oddly empty. Also, Mega remembers having been inside it before, and while Wayhime mistakes his apprehension for fear, Taki and even Mitsurugi stick up for him and admit they find the high amounts of silence creepy.

Everyone realizes they've got one of two ways to handle things, either suss out the Eye of God or kill the leaders of this whole shindig, and discuss potentially splitting up. Reiji tries to be serious and tells everyone they are coming back alive, but then his brief moment alone with Xioamu gets brought up, and Xiaomu tries to make it sound like they did.......c'mon, I don't need to spell this out, do I?

Reiji facepalms, then after a brief time skip, we cut to the battlefield.

Reiji/Xiaomu, KOS-MOS, Captain Commando, and Strider are all forced deploys in one corner of the stage while Morrigan/Lilith, Alpha/Beta, Stahn/Rutee and Mega/Roll are forced deploys in another corner. This still means you can deploy two teams of four each, so make your choices.

Once this is done, everyone realizes they feel a ton of energy from what appears to be the core of Eden, and KOS-MOS detects a spatial distortion. Rebirds and Gnosis are present, so KOS-MOS deploys a Hilbert Effect to render the latter able to die, and the fight begins.

The enemies are mostly Gnosis with a sprinkling of Rebirds, nothing too major, so take them down as expeditiously as possible, bearing in mind you will soon have a lot more foes inbound.

Once you've taken down about half the first wave, a Transfer occurs.

And it's basically a potpourri of various foes you've fought before, ranging from various enemies from Hell, Bakuda's robot forces, Phantom Beasts, and Genji clan forces.

Oh yeah, @Jaimas, Xiaomu makes another wrestling shoutout:

The strategy for taking down all these pricks hasn't changed, so no need to go into that. Just bear in mind this is the second wave, more are coming.

Sure enough, after laying waste to a fair majority of wave two, another transfer occurs, and THIS makes a comeback:

And that's when this asshole confirms all the various shit from different dimensions has been gathered here on purpose:

The Sturm recolors all want to kick your ass, and Juno admits he doesn't know what the Grand Master's end goals really are with the dimension gathering, so everyone figures they'll find out once he finally appears.

As the fight resumes, shit just got serious. On top of MP clones of over half your team, all three Sturm recolors and Juno are no laughing matter. I recommend continuing to conserve your strength, because you have one last wave after defeating these assholes.

There is a strategy the MP clones do allow to exploit, especially if you have units like Rose or Morrigan next to them. Since they all have High MP, you can use them to spam free turn spells and refill your MP, which will clear the field faster and make this fight somewhat faster.

After killing over half the clone army, the final wave begins. Every Strider boss will show up to join the beatdown, and including, finally, the Grand Master himself:

He goes on to say once he's murdered all life on the planet, he'll fill it with new life, then gets one of the most kickass lines in the game:

For those who don't know their Strider, this guy not only has a bit of a god complex, he's one of those Davros from Doctor Who styled lunatics who actively looks for ways to kick gods or any comparable beings in the balls just so he can laugh over their bodies, and the worst part is that he's got the toys to pull it off now.

Hiryuu thinks he's full of shit, but Hien points out why he can do it. The Eye of God in conjunction with Psychodrive has pretty much supercharged the Eden and also lets the Grand Master pull all sorts of dimension warping bullshit.

In response to this, we get a brief titlecard of Hiryuu saying the name of this stage in response.

The Grand Master doesn't care. In fact, he plans to not only wipe Earth clean and start it over anew, he plans to do the same to every other dimension as well.

Again, gotta hand it to him, he thinks big.

And when it rains it, pours, because guess who showed up after hearing about the Grand Master's multidimensional plans:

Xiaomu assumes this was the final stage of the Ouma's project, and while Saya just giggles in response, Reiji still thinks they are missing a piece of the puzzle.

Saya then offers to help the Grand Master, who, like Bison before him, is all like "what the hell, I don't give a shit".

As the final phase of the battle begins, be warned, on top of all the other bosses you've had to fight, the Grand Master is one of the hardest yet, and I highly recommend taking out his goons before dealing with him, as he is EXTREMELY powerful.

Once you take down Sturm, he's mega butthurt about it, and goes out in blaze of defeat.

Once you take down Hien, he's also butthurt he's been owned, and he finally admits he's fucked as he also goes out in blaze of defeat.

Once you take down Drak, he just has the decency to go out fairly quietly.

Once you take down Sturm Jr, he refuses to believe it as he goes out in a blaze of butthurt.

Once you take down Tonpuu, she bemoans not being able to do the Grand Master's bidding anymore as she goes out in a blaze of regret.

Once you take down Juno, he recalls Megaman's original purpose as he dies and says he suceeded quite well in being that purpose to defeat him.

Once Solo is defeated, he dies rather like a robot.

Once you take down the Grand Master, he's more than a bit stunned at his defeat:

As he dies, he rants about his god complex and Hiryuu laughs in his face.

Then he gets to put the fucker down like a true badass, starting with this:

The Grand Master rants about how every chance at progress requires a sacrifice, and Hiryuu has a retort for that:

And with his blade, Strider Hiryuu ends the life of the one who wanted to end so many more.

Once you take down Saya, she's starting to panic, and Reiji is NOT about to let her escape this time, and his and Xiaomu's "TIME TO FUCK SHIT UP" theme music (Endless Frontier fans will recognize it instantly) play as the two of them beat the everloving shit out of killer of Reiji's dad.

The aftermath isn't pretty for Saya, and even she concedes he kicked ass:

With that, she barely manages to escape, but she's basically about to die of her wounds soon anyway, so they just let her go off to die in peace.

Once all foes are slain, everyone decides to work on shutting down the Eden's ability to do nasty shit and secure the Eye of God as the stage ends.

 

[GethN7]

Chapter 45 - Arisu Of The Street Of Demise (Part 1)


It's time for Part 1 of the final level, and tip for those of you playing along: You can get the most powerful item in the game from Slyphie's shop for 9999 gold a pop now, and if you maxed out your money doing the dice game or just cheated to max money awhile back, you can buy all you need.

Trust me, they will help a LOT.


We resume back inside Eden, where the team checks to make sure everyone is okay, the ships are ready to depart, and KOS-MOS and the Captain explain their plan is to send Eden and everything in it so far into the ass end of space the chances anyone will be able ever use it for ill intent again is basically nil.

This includes all of the Grand Master's tech, Juno's corpse, and the Eye of God.

And as they leave, Mega bids goodbye to Juno, hopefully forever.

We then cut to Tron's ship, which is doing an emergency launch since Eden's changing course like it was set for (and it has no delayed launch trigger).

We then cut to the meeting room an hour later.

However, even though the dimensions are starting to heal up and the villain leaders are off the table now, the team still remarks there are some loose ends they are concerned with, like the Soul Edge still being MIA, Kanda "Wonder" Momo still worried about Amazona, and a few other loose ends.

Thankfully, Kai has some good news. Ishtar informed her that since the Eye of God is now beyond range of Earth, the Daicroft is starting to vanish and return back to its seal, the dimensions are in the process of healing up (now no one is messing with them anymore), and if they need transport back to their own worlds, she's happy to provide.

But just as everyone celebrates, Reiji feels that scar of his ache again, meaning one thing.

Saya is still alive.

However, the pain isn't as intense, meaning she's near death, but since Reiji isn't taking chances, the two of them quietly leave the room to clean up that loose end for good.

We cut to the deck of Tron's ship, high above the Earth, where Saya is waiting, commenting on the view.

She's obviously hurting like hell, barely able to fake being okay, and as Xiaomu tells her that the Ouma's plans are screwed, Saya smugly remarks Xiaomu doesn't know what she's talking about, but admits the Tsukumo Project was their trump card.

She then reminds them about the Tsukumogami, and Reiji reminds her she still hasn't pulled off getting to work, not even ten years ago.

Saya then adds that the Project had been continuing since then, saying it was basically complete except for a few key components, but Reiji's heard enough, and is putting an end to her and the Ouma's plans here and now.

And that's when history repeats, as even Saya comments on:

A moment passes, but Reiji is faster.

One gunshot later, and Saya's corpse flies away, her life at it's end.

Xiaomu is glad Reiji now has Saya behind him, and again tries to spit out what she wanted to say earlier, but he again turns and doesn't want to hear it, leaving Xiaomu to ask his father if she did the right thing back then.

As they get back, MOMO and Wayahime notice Reiji just got back inside and the latter senses gunpowder was recently discharged, but Reiji brushes all this off like nothing serious happened, just needed some fresh air.

Matters turn then to getting back home, and Tron is offering to drop Reiji and Xiaomu off wherever, so, she can send them where they need to. Everyone else discusses their own travel plans, and for those from other worlds, Ishtar will be handling that.

And they kinda need to hurry, because if the dimensional walls close up like before, it will be a pain to get them back where they belong.

With that in mind, Reiji asks Tron to drop him and Xiaomu off in Shibuya, and when she wonders why he wants to go to a place that is deserted, he just finds it appropriate to go back to where it all began to end their adventure.

We then cut to the streets of Shibuya, exactly where the first stage started, and as they realize the sorcery around the area seems to be drying up, they discuss heading back to Shinra HQ and reporting in, wondering how they'll be able to summarize everything.

And that's when all their banter abruptly ceases as someone who shouldn't exist shows up:

Reiji's scar starting flaring up again like it did when Saya was at full strength, and Saya doesn't reply when asked how she's not dead.

And then she says one word, but it's one laden with all sorts of horrifying implications:

Dread fills Reiji and Xiaomu as she continues:

Xiaomu still doesn't get it, so Saya, or who is apparently speaking with her body, continues:

Horror sets in as Reiji finally realizes what that means, and "Saya" confirms his fears:

And now we know what the Katanas were for:

Xiaomu is still trying to figure it out, but Reiji already has, as Saya says victoriously:

It finally dawns on Xiaomu as well as the mother of all spatial distortions occurs, and as everything goes white as they Transfer, it's become obvious to all what has happened.

The Ouma have succeeded at their goals, their Project having achieved it's goals.


The True Merging of the Worlds Has Begun..........



.....and I'm going to wait a bit before doing Part II, cause it's gonna be LONG, but before I get to that, since I know @Jaimas and @AngeloTheWizard have been following this LS since the beginning, would either you two or anyone else like to guess just how the Ouma pulled all this off before I resume?