Megaten and Shugendō: Let's Play Shin Megami Tensei iOS Part 3

Shin Megami Tensei is a series uniquely effective at giving the player time to reflect. Other role-playing games do this, but not nearly as often nor as strongly. The player is lead to the climax of an event, typically involving an alignment choice that she has chosen to support, and the devastation of that one moment is punctuated by a long stretch of white noise gameplay that gives her an opportunity to meditate on why she chose to support that alignment. It's a sublime use of the dungeon crawler genre, turning the long and complex dungeons into a space to think. Moreover, the games follow these meditative moments with critical looks at the alignment options, promoting a better understanding of what the player should do in the future.

This paragraph alone will contain spoilers for Shin Megami Tensei IV and Strange Journey, so highlight at your own discretion: I find the Diamond Realm sequence very much comparable to the first visit to the Yamato Perpetual Reactor and the events with Jack's Squad during the exploration of sector Grus. The climactic events involve the player being hurried into a free-for-all between the respective Law and Chaos forces of each game, culminating in the respective nuclear bombardment of Tokyo, appearance in Blasted Tokyo and the deaths of either Jack's Squad or the demons they experimented on. In IV, the player is intended to believe that their actions (killing Tayama and opening the gate to the Expanse in the Chaos route, or assisting Jonathon to uphold the rule of law against the Black Samurai in the Law route) would create a world not unlike Infernal and Blasted Tokyo. With so few clues provided to them, these routes come to resemble the distant future rather than alternate presents as they are intended, and that inculcates the player with a sense that she would prefer one of the other options. In Strange Journey, the horror at either killing Jack's Squad or murdering the demons with Zelenin's song pushes the player to the option they did not choose, or to look for an alternative solution.

Man: I am En no Ozuno. Now then...it seems two others have also made it here. Two that you know well. Go and find them. I shall explain once you are all gathered. If you need rest, my familiars Zenki and Goki in the next rooms shall see to you.
En no Ozuno is a semi-historical seventh century mystic who founded the Shugendou ("Way of Studious Trial") religion, an esoteric hybrid of Shinto, Buddhism and Taoism that proposes the attainment of enlightenment through unity with the gods of the land (kami.) Whether En no Ozuno genuinely existed or not, the predominant form of Shugendō arose much later. In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the doctrine of "inherent enlightenment" (本覚思想 hongaku shisou lit. "real awakening thought") became popular with the Tendai school of Mahayana Buddhism, and the doctrine then disseminated down from Mt. Hiei to become the foundation for the other religious movements of Kamakura period. (Miyake 12) According to hongaku shisou, all things from the grass to human beings hold the innate qualities of Buddhahood. Eminent Buddhist scholar Miyake Hitoshi came up with the apropos description of inherent enlightenment being "animism in Buddhist garb." The Shinto notion that there are kami in all things, and the Tendai idea of enlightenment in all things have an obvious parallel line of thought. Shugendou adapts both ideas.

The fundamental principle of Shugendou is that all human beings have the same character as the cosmic Buddha Dainichi Nyorai, and his manifestations. Through becoming aware of this and practicing ascetism, humans attain buddhahood. Practitioners may attain supernatural powers, but they are supposed to use these powers positively to cast salvation rites for others. (Miyake 124) The powers granted through practicing within sacred mountains are part of the appeal. You could say that the history of Shugendou is a biography of different mountains.

En no Ozuno was said to have practiced at Mt. Yamato Katsuragi in Nara prefecture, but from the very beginning in the eighth century the different branches of Shugendou ultimately came to settle on other sacred mountains. The common thread between all the branches is Kumano Shugen, the form of Shugendou based out of the three mountains of Kumano. (Miyake 14) The case can be made that irregardless of the size of the different branches, Kumano is ultimately the cradle of Shugendou. The first branch is Hozanha, which is the sect sprung directly from Kumano Shugen. The second major branch is Touzanha, which Miyake identifies with Sanboin temple in Kyoto. Among the many other smaller branches is Kinbusen Shugen Honshuu, based in Yoshino prefecture off of Mt. Kinbu. At Mt. Kinbu, the object of worship was Kongou Zaou-Gongen, who was venerated by Ozuno, and who should be familiar to long-time Megaten fans. The creation deities Izanami and Izanagi were also said to have descended from Mt. Katsuragi according to Shugendou tradition. (Miyake 137)

Today Hozanha is known as Honzan Shugenshuu, and Touzanha is Shingonshuu Daigoha. Sanboin is a subtemple to Daigo-ji, which is currently Shingon Buddhist but pays respects to its Shugendou heritage. The reason for the new names is that in Meiji 1/1868 CE the government officially mandated a Buddhist-Shinto split as part of its reforms, and the worship of any Gongen was prohibited because it expressed the syncretic idea that a Shinto deity was also an incarnation of a bodhisattva. (Miyake 33) Then in Meiji 5/1872 CE Shugendou was formally outlawed, forcing the different branches to adopt either a wholly Shinto or wholly Buddhist face. Honzanha and the Kinbu sect both folded into the Tendai school of Buddhism, while Touzanha joined the Shingon school. Each of the three Gongen shrines, including Kumano Gongen, converted to being Shinto shrines. In the postwar period, the Religious Corporation Ordinance was passed, which allowed the establishment of a religious organization by way of government notification; through this law, the major Shugendou branches resurged under the names Honzan Shugenshuu, Shingonsuu Daigoha and Shingoshuu Daigoha.

(The reason for the Shinto-Buddhist split is not given in Miyake's work, but we can presume that it was part of the Meiji government's greater agenda to cultivate a strong national identity; state Shinto was informally adopted through many different religious reforms that upheld the sanctity of the emperor and encouraged the public to adopt Shinto as a "pure" Japanese religion. I've never seen a history of how well received these reforms with the general public.)

Kumano Nachi Taisha shrine, a Shugendou pilgrimage site. Image credit.

Kumano is identified in the Kojiki as the burial ground for Izanami, and was repeatedly identified as an otherworld by Japanese folk religion. The three chief Shinto shrines in Kumano are each enshrined with each other's kami, which together are the Kumano Sansho Gongen, "three avatars of Kumano." (Miyake 18) What's interesting about these deities is that they are each identified by twelfth-century documentation as foreign deities that flew to Japan from across the sea. This particular myth is unique to Shugendou; Kumano's Shugen practitioners maintained that Ketsumiko no Kami (one of the original three avatars, a tree deity representative of Honguu shrine) was the alien god Jihi Daiken Ou, from the Magadha kingdom in India. (Miyake 36) Kumano Gongen's traditions maintain that Jihi Daiken Ou was the fifth descendant of the father of Buddha as well as descended from Amaterasu Oumikami, and that he became Kumano Gongen in the Kii peninsula and Zaou Gongen in Yamato province after flying to Japan to save the Japanese people. (Miyake 45) Kumano/Zaou Gongen received permission from both Amaterasu at Ise shrine and then-reigning Emperor Jinmu. Jihi Daken Ou's vassal Gaken Chouja had been ordered into training by Jihi Daiken Ou at this time, conducting his studying and training at Mt. Ryouju and Mt. Dantoku. (Miyake 44) Across seven lives and twelve hundred years, Gaken completed his training and attained enlightenment in his seventh existence as En no Ozuno, who would found Shugendou. (Miyake 45) This version of history was popular with shugenja, and contained in at least four related twelfth to fourteenth century works about Kumano Gongen's flight to Japan. It should be noted though that in the oldest versions of the Ketsumiko story, Ketsumiko was an indigenous tree deity, and that the India explanation only arose after Kumano came to be associated with foreign religions. (Miyake 47)

After Kumano became a center of ascetic activity in the eighth century, it attracted a huge number of healers and famous persons that would later be venerated as bodhisattvas. (Miyake 18) In subsequent centuries Kumano was an important pilgrimage site; those familiar with the Tales of the Heike will be surprised to find that retired emperor Go-Shirakawa was an especially devout Shugendou practitioner and made the pilgrimage to Kumano 34 times. (Miyake 19) The three avatars of Kumano were enshrined by his order at the imperial palace sanctuary Hojujiden in 1160 CE, after which the sanctuary was renamed Imakumano (new Kumano.) By the mid twelfth century the three avatars had grown to become the twelve avatars of Kumano, Kumano Juunisho Gongen. The popularity of the religion was such that during the twelfth century, Kumano rivaled Ise shrine in importance. (Miyake 36)

Relevant to our discussion is that one esoteric Buddhist school of thought maintained that Kumano was the taizoukai (womb realm) while Mt. Kinbu was the kongoukai (diamond realm). (Miyake 36) The twelve deities of Kumano were thus the manifestations of taizoukai deities. Others posited the idea that Ise and Kumano actually enshrined the same deities in different forms, and that the two were equatable. But in Shugendou cosmology as a whole, the northern (Yoshino) side of the Oumine mountain range is considered the diamond realm, and the southern (Kumano) side the womb realm. (Miyake 114) If I have my geography right, then Mt. Katsuragi where En no Ozuno was said to reside does fall within this cosmological view of the diamond realm. One mandala from Yoshino province also states that En no Ozuno's guardian deity was Zaou Gongen. Zaou Gongen himself was the characteristic deity for Shugendou. (Miyake 116)

The belief in the spiritual properties of mountains goes back to ancient Japan, where both the mountains and the ocean were viewed as a type of otherworld in which all forms of spirits and gods would dwell. (Miyake 114) Shugendou merely expanded on the idea through the adaptation of Buddhist thinking. En no Ozuno was a magician from the Katsuragi region that lived at the end of the Asuka period (c. 700 CE) who later lived in exile on Izu Island. (Miyake 117) Shugendou did not take on the properties of a religious order until the Kamakura period in the twelfth century, and En no Ozuno was retroactively identified as its founder. Numerous biographies were produced identifying him as an incarnation of Acala, a Myou-ou and primary object of worship in Shugendou. (Note that Acala is a Vajrayana Buddhist deity, but Japan is a Mahayana Buddhist country; Shugendou took the idea of being a "foreign" religion with "alien" deities and ran with it.) En no Ozuno's original Buddhist form was identified as the bodhisattva Hokki, and he was said to be conceived during a dream in which his mother swallowed a vajra. (Miyake does not take note of this, but observe that En no Ozuno was implicitly conceived without sexual intercourse--a virgin birth.) As an adult En no Ozuno then practiced ascetism in the mountains. In his travels he commanded the god Hitokoto-Nushi to build a stone bridge between the Katsuragi and Oumine mountains, but when Hitokoto-Nushi disobeyed his commands and slandered him instead Ozuno bound him by magic. (Miyake 119) After his exile Ozuno was said to have been allowed to return, and later on flew to China with his mother magically contained in a Budhist alms-bowl. His Touzanha counterpart was Shoubou, also called Rigen Daishi, who founded Daigo temple and the Touzan sect with it. The two were not contemporaneous; after Ozuno's time a dragon came to block the Oumine mountains to prevent people from becoming ascetics, and Shoubou destroyed the dragon. Afterwards he received guidance from Ozuno and refounded asceticism at Oumine.

En no Ozuno's middle path between the different religions and emphasis on the testing or trial on the path makes him ideal for a Neutral representative equivalent to Gotou and Thorman, which finally provides the player with a strong guiding force for any third path that they might seek. In Shingon Buddhism the image of the Diamond Realm mandala is meant to be the symbolization of the final realization of the cosmic Buddha, Dainichi Nyorai (Vairocana outside of Japan.) It is within the Diamond Realm that the training ascetic finds their enlightenment, and accordingly the player is meant to come to their own awakening through En no Ozuno's training.

My core source for this chapter is Earhart's edition of Miyake Hitoshi's Shugendō: Essays on the Structure of Japanese Folk Religion. I came across it through my university library's catalog. I had fifteen minutes before my last literature classes of the semester, and tracked Miyake down by the book's call number at the Langsam Library stacks. It was a little too perfect, finding the book like that; no one had touched it since the university first acquired a copy fourteen years ago. Hard cover editions are going for $300 now, and this copy was so thoroughly caked with dust that the title was illegible. You absolutely had to look by call number or not at all.

(Interestingly, in the few weeks I spent with the book I've noticed that its price has fluctuated quite a bit. The out of print market seems quite fickle, but I'm a total outsider to it.)

The Diamond Realm is a time for reflection and meditation, not just for the player morally but also from a gameplay perspective. The moment we're cast into it our demons are all banished from our COMP and have to be either retrieved within the Diamond Realm itself, or be abandoned here. Thus far my fusions have not been very focused and have mostly consisted of making whatever I can from the materials available, going out of my way to research obscure or interesting paths to develop my demons along, but about this time we need to really focus on what party to develop now that we're more familiar with the game. I barely scraped through the Thor fight after all, I had to exhaust Cyak's MP and a serious curveball was thrown at me when it turned out he couldn't be charmed like in the SNES release, which made Rusalka dead weight outside of her healing spells.

The most effective use of demons that we've observed thus far is the use of buff spells, which stack with no upper limit and increase damage exponentially. Charm would be the runner up, but a lot of things can't be charmed in iOS that could be before. Strong physical attacks and the trinity of Wall skills have also been useful. That said, we can currently only have three demons summoned at a time and I see a need for three particular roles; a buff/healing support demon, a physical/Extra Skill demon, and a magical attacker. Normally the magic attack role would be replaced by Nadeshiko and that third demon could be a mixed attacker or another phys demon, but we won't have access to her for a while so the role needs to be filled. Zio-series spells are preferred because most things don't resist paralysis, but Bufu can work as well. Wall skills are best set up on physical attackers so that the buff demons can do their job and the magic attackers can start hitting weaknesses for extra damage right away.

The Diamond Realm's encounter list is pretty diverse, bringing back Brute Azumi from Camp Ichigaya, and introducing Yoma Kimnari, Jirae Tsuchigumi, Yoma Apsaras, Fairy Gandharva, Beast Tan-ki, Beast Nekomata, Wilder Nue and Jirae Bugaboo. The easy access to two Beast and two Yoma demons should also give us easy access to Flaemis and Aeros, but the Yoma race is Law-aligned and impossible for Chaotic summoners to recruit. Having no demons makes certain problems for exploring the Diamond Realm. Most of the enemies here are in the range of level 15~19 and come in large groups with freezing, paralysis and poison effects that can cripple our lone protagonist.

Fortunately, iOS makes the gameplay concession of including a lifesaving auto-quicksave feature, so death often ends in just restarting in the hallway we were in prior to the random encounter wiping the floor with us.

>Allow Rusalka to join you again?
>YES
Rusalka: It's nice working with you again.
Our demons are scattered throughout the Diamond Realm in specific rooms, with up to eight of them appearing in different parts of the map. Initially we're confined to a small 8x8 square on the map with the north and south entrances sealed, where along the outer area bordering the sealed doors the first four of our demons are available.

In here I recover Rusalka, Bugaboo, Ghoul and Cyak. Bugaboo is purely fusion fodder at this point though, because my alignment has swung so hard towards Chaos that I can't summon him. Lawful demons can still be fused and stored in the COMP, but it would take a lot of trips to the church or Neutral Ashram to even out the alignment to summon them.

I've stated that this is a time for meditation, so what are my thoughts? The bombing of Tokyo was not something that could be avoided. Killing Gotou would only open us up to Thor's hammer regardless. Ambassador Thorman never intended to do anything less than let this end in fire, and at this point we don't even know if his solution worked. If we went through all that only to arrive in a Tokyo still filled with demons, then what was the point of sacrificing so many people's lives? Thorman was no greater than the demons that he opposed. On the other hand, Gotou was colluding with the same demons that tried to operate on us and turn us into mindless soldiers. How much of that is the will of his followers versus his own orders? The demons are at the root of the problem--mom would still be alive if not for Gotou seizing control of the demon summoning program--but it's also questionable if the demons can ever be removed or not. We may have entered a new period of coexistence, regardless of whether or not we desire it. If the ICBMs didn't wipe out the demons, nothing will. In that case, while Gotou was the source of the invasion, once they were already here he was also right to try to use the demons in the way that he did. This is a complex situation. The demons (probably) never should have been brought to Earth, but if there's no way to actually get rid of them then asserting human control of the demons is preferable to bowing down to a big one like Thor. Stopping the ICBM strike, if possible, would minimize human casualties. The SDF were doing a very effective job at maintaining the barricades around Tokyo and keeping the demon population under control, and Gotou was evidently able to use the demons for air defense. No matter how one goes about this, I don't see an outcome where Thor can be justified unless his actions genuinely eliminated the demon population. But in that case, Thorman and his angels (yet another group of demons) are still around.

Something to consider: is Thor's Hammer really a commentary on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? The ultimate weapon didn't stop all war. It stopped a war, but immediately gave rise to another--the Cold War, and all its proxy wars within. A Japanese surrender was already being worked on prior to the bombings because of imminent fear that the Soviet Union was about to invade, and the entire battle plan for the empire going into the war was to force the United States to sue for peace in the same way the empire of Japan had forced the Russian empire to sue for peace forty years earlier. The Little Boy and Fat Man were not what ended the Pacific War, just as Thor's Hammer was not what eliminated the demons. The ultimate (as opposed to proximal) cause of the war was the entire practice of colonialism. That certainly hasn't ended. To truly resolve the situation, we have to address the ultimate causes rather than pussyfoot around with whatever's in proximity. Trying to put down one instance of demon summoning won't stop demonic invasions for all of time. To do that, you have to institute a fundamental change that will stop people from summoning demons at all. Preferably that's by eliminating the motive to summon demons, as simply blocking off the Expanse will bait people to find ways around that.

Gentleman: Who's there...!?

Gentleman: What is this place...? I was looking for Nadeshiko and suddenly found myself covered in white light. Then when I came to, here I was. Look, we need to get out of here.
>Gentleman has joined your party!
As En no Ozuno implied, we can seek out Gentleman and Champion to fill out the party slots and act as support to compensate for the lost of our demons. They'll only be sticking around through three fourths of the Diamond Realm, so once we have our bearings and demons back it'll be time to get fusing.

Champion: H-help me...Someone help...Touya!? Is that you? Oh, man...I'm saved.

Champion: Anyway, I stand no chance against the demons alone. I'm coming with you again.
>Champion has joined your party!
My impression at this point is that the player is not supposed to have an alignment consistent with what they chose pre-Thro's hammer, but that their decision and subsequent failure combined with the lack of easy access to good new demons of each alignment is intended to frustrate them into wanting to switch alignments or pursue Neutral. In a grass-is-always-greener effect, each alignment has trouble securing good demons of its own alignment while in the early 20s, compelling the player to look at alternative options.

As the automap isn't really sufficient for conveying the complexity of the Diamond Realm, and Gentleman's Mapper spell isn't with us the whole way though, I went ahead and copied the rooms down on paper as I went to mark the place up. The Diamond Realm has superficial similarities to the actual Kongokai mandala painting, divided into square sections radiating outward from En no Ozuno/Dainichi Nyorai. The portion sectioned off in blue is all we can access initially, sealed at both exits until we bring Gentleman (L) and Champion (C) to En no Ozuno (E) at the center. G and Z are his demons Goki and Zenki, who act as save points and healing points for this dungeon. (The scratched-off pieces are mistakes in me not measuring out the right number of squares.) Lost demons are marked as D1, D2 etc. The purple portion is the last area we'll get access to in the course of this dungeon, while the exit at the far right side of the map is technically accessible before it but is sealed off.

En no Ozuno: This is the Diamond Realm. You know it more commonly as the Expanse. You must know that the world you lived in has been utterly destroyed.
Gentleman: What do you mean!? What has happened on Earth!?
En no Ozuno: Do not worry. Not all humans have perished.
Champion: Then send us back!
En no Ozuno: You will gain nothing by going back. The wasteland may indeed be worse off than the Expanse.
Gentleman: That's all the more reason to return! We must drive out the demons!
En no Ozuno: If you wish to return, might you be willing to do me a favor?
>YES
En no Ozuno: There is a spring deep in the Diamond Realm. You must collect the Soma that flows there. If I miss this chance, the next one will not come for a long, long time...The door to the south is now unlocked. I am counting on you.
In AE's translation the Diamond Realm is compared to the Expanse/Abyss but not stated to be a part of it, and En no Ozuno's description of the destruction has been embellished; AE introduces the idea of "worldwide nuclear holocaust" which doesn't exist in the original script.

The quest for the Soma is a quintessential trial set on the characters to train them and prepare them for the return to their world. Soma is imported from Vedic mythology, it's a divine drink that bestows immortality and strength to the gods.

There are three doors sealed within the Diamond Realm, the southern exit to the initial area, northern exit and the gate to the human world on the far eastern side of the outer area. The Realm is actually very easy to navigate once you figure out how its layout is divided, and its geography operates on regular geometry that becomes easily predictable once you've been down a couple passages.

En no Ozuno: Though you bend demons to your will, the ones you control affect your alignment.
Ozuno's spirit appears in four rooms at the far corners of the map to give advice on devil summoning. His lectures are on how summoning demons affect our alignment, the need for us to make our own decisions about how to reshape the world and how killing demons also affects alignment.

Shinjuku's Gaean and Messian representatives also appear as spirits within the Diamond Realm, but as far as I can tell talking to them repeatedly doesn't actually affect alignment.

More food for thought: is Gotou a parody? I addressed him in the previous chapter as being directly based on the novelist Yukio Mishima, but this portrayal may not be intended to be as respectful as I framed it. After all, Gotou is introduced with a corny and halting speech about creating a utopian world, but it's his doomed utopia that sets in motion all the tragedies of the game. His aspirations are too big for himself, he's an underwhelming boss fight, and if the player sides with him they don't even get a satisfying conclusion to his story arc. The only good way for Gotou to go out is by killing him, and in retrospect no matter what you do he's doomed from the start.

>The Soma is flowing. Draw some?
>YES
>Touya obtained Soma.
If you'll recall, this spring is the same one that Yuriko was bathing in during the opening chapter. We know by now that Yuriko is someone like Ozuno, an individual of the Expanse.

Nadeshiko: Huh? Dream? I didn't have any dreams.
The Diamond Realm is populated entirely with the dead. En no Ozuno himself departed over a thousand years ago.

>Touya handed over the Soma. En no Ozuno drank the Soma.
En no Ozuno: Hmm...I need more. Get me some more...I'm counting on you.
The repetition isn't just baseless fetch-questing. Repetition of a task is a key motif in Buddhist education, like in the repetition of the nenbutsu ("thoughts of Buddha") prayer for Japan's Pure Land Buddhism. The nenbutsu is a practice of repeating the name of the Amitabha Buddha in order to meditate on his nature. It's appropriate for the theme of the Diamond Realm, as it lets the player sit back and reflect on the bombing of Tokyo while they traverse the Realm. A modern game (or really anything post-Shadow of the Colossus) would probably use a scenery-rich area for the same purpose.

I finally fuse Rusalka and the useless Bugaboo into Brute Momunofu, then use Gandharva and Cyak to create a new Rusalka. Momunofu is one of the best physical attackers I currently have access to, and he comes with the trinity of Sukunda, Tarukaja and Tetraja. So, reduce enemy accuracy, raise party attack, and block Energy Drain. (We'll define this in a moment.) Momunofu's gameplan is to pick a buff and then go to town with physical attacks, at least in major boss battles. He's weak to Gun and Electric damage, neither of which are particularly bad weaknesses for this point in the game.

A dark fusion of Ghost Ghoul and Brute Bogle yields Ghost Man-Eater, who's really fun to use. She only has a third of Momunofu's HP but close to the same Vi, so she could easily get two-shotted by most demons, but she comes with Stun Claw, Sexy Dance and Demon's Kiss; respectively they deal damage with paralysis, charm, or an Energy Drain effect. Energy Drain functions in a weird way. On the first use it inflicts paralysis on an opposing demon, and then on the second use it drains their level (and stats with them.) The level drain only works on humanoid demons, but I believe you can bypass the paralysis part of the skill and jump straight to its Energy Drain properties by using Demon's Kiss on an already-paralyzed demon. The catch is that Man-Eater is weak to Fire and Expel, but resists Gun and Nerve skills. So she's pretty fragile on the whole, but has access to multiple status skills and has a functional St stat to back up the paralysis and charm effects. Not really a boss killer, but an interesting tool for trash mobs.

En no Ozuno: Ahh, you've brought me more Soma. Thank you...Good work. I don't need any more Soma now. You can have it. There are two beings which dwell within the Diamond Realm. Each carries a weapon of the finest craftsmanship. Your task is to go and get them. Do you understand?
>YES
NO
En no Ozuno: I have unlocked the door to the north. However, only Touya will go. Gentleman and Champion have another task.
This opens up another section of the Diamond Realm map, in which I'm able to reclaim Nekomata.

Nadeshiko: You have to survive!

I think that the most significant part of these characters' appearances is their relevance to the protagonist. The Diamond Realm is one of the few times that we get characterization of him, indirect though it may be. We know that the Ring of Gaea and Order of Messiah both weigh heavily on his thoughts, but as the player progresses more intimate characters appear. The protagonist's mother is the final spirit he meets while traveling the mandala.

I recruit Beast Tan-ki and Fairy Gandharva, then fuse them into Holy Unicorn. Unicorn is a Strength-oriented demon with Hama and Penpatra for support and a mean Extra skill. He also reflects Expel and nulls Curse, but as Mido observes the Law-aligned demon won't be usable without shifting my alignment. He's really here as an intermediary step in the fusion process.

Holy Unicorn is fused with Night Imp to create Therian Werecat, who has no qualms about fighting alongside a boat of Marxists. Werecat comes with Hapirma (induces the Happy status on all enemies), Tarukaja and the Extra skill Feral Claw, a multitarget physical skill that lets her put that St stat to special use. Her best property is one inherent to the whole Therian race; she resists all attacks and nulls Expel.

>YES

Blue Phantom: Hey...You think the same as me.
The trick to the phantoms is that their colors are the reverse of the alignments they represent. The Blue Phantom is Chaos, the Red Phantom is Law.

>Touya obtained Headsman Axe.
Aeon Genesis translated this as the Guillotine Axe, which was a literal translation from the katakana ギロチンアクス Girochin Akusu. Their version of the Blue Phantom's line is "Let us walk the path of chaos, from which everything is born! Here, take this!"

The Headsman Axe is essentially a weapon for the Chaos Hero alone. Since our alignment matches, we can use it as well, but that really doesn't fit the hero's in-battle role as our resident item chucker.

Red Phantom: Who are you...?

The function of the phantoms is quite interesting. We can get a preview of the future forms of some characters, but only if we are of the same alignment as their respective phantoms. Is this a hint at who our future allies will be? What are the phantoms, precisely? The Diamond Realm thus far has been populated by demons and the ghosts of the past. We can speculate that the phantoms are ghosts of the future, which serve to reinforce the Law-Chaos divide of the previous chapter and prepare the player for future alignment-based confrontations, but there's little in the way of real answers as to their nature. In Japanese the phantoms are called 怪人 kaijin "mysterious persons," but phantom is a perfectly accurate translation. (As an aside, when I was doing translation work for Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth, 怪 was used in the context of a "phantom digital space.") What I think we glean from the Japanese text is that the phantoms are certainly people, but they seem to be gameplay devices that foreshadow later events for the player than they are real characters within the world of Shin Megami Tensei. This is really an issue of personal trial and growth, akin to Luke Skywalker going into the cave of evil.

The Red Phantom has three skills; Zanma, Mazanma and Diarama. So Wind is a priority issue for this fight, as is keeping up with his healing abilities. My strategy for the Red Phantom is to tuck the protagonist in back with Momunofu as a living shield, raise our attack with double Tarukajas from Momunofu and Werecat, and then use gun damage from the protagonist along with Momunofu and Werecat's physicals to mow him down while Rusalka keeps us alive with Media and Diarama. A note on the usage of Werecat, Feral Claw is slightly weaker than her base attack stat and so should only be used on multiple enemies, not against singular parties like this one. The Red Phantom gives ¥1536 and 640 MAG when defeated, as well as the Light Sword. AE specified that this was the "Kodachi of Light;" a kodachi is a type of shorter companion sword that was historically paired with a larger weapon in the same style as the wakizashi and katana. (The original text does call it Hikari no Kodachi.) Just as the Headsman Axe can only be used by someone of the Chaos alignment, the Light Sword can only be used by Law-aligned persons.

En no Ozuno: So, Touya, you have returned.

Champion: Yo. You're late.
En no Ozuno: Very good work. Take this, Touya.
>Touya obtained CRESCENT
En no Ozuno: The time has come to send you back to your world. I have unlocked the door to the east. Go when you are ready.
An important difference in translation. AGTP called the Crescent, Mikazuchi's Tachi--a tachi is a sword design that preceded the katana, pre-sixteenth century. It seems they weren't aware of how to read 三日月 which phonetically is read as mikazuki, and so Aeon's team misread it as mikazuchi and then thought they were dealing with Takemikazuchi. This is completely wrong. Mikazuki is the new moon or crescent moon phase, so rather than the sword of Takemikazuchi, what En no Ozuno handed us is the "Sword of the New/Crescent Moon." (It's also presumably a Japanese straight sword given that it's identified as a tachi.)

With Gentleman and Champion back in their party, I equip them with the Headsman Axe (+40 Attack) and Light Sword (+35 Attack +30 Accuracy.) The protagonist can't use the Crescent (+30 Attack +20 Accuracy hits one to three times), and it's questionable how much good it would do him even if he could. After all, he's really a gun-and-item character that doesn't have much business getting up close.

Goki: But you'll have to get through us first!

The most notable thing that happens to these guys is that somewhere along the line, Gentleman gets punked. This is mostly a consequence of his low HP, as while Gentleman actually has more Vi than Champion, his low St also contributes to having less hit points. Their strategy works like this; Zenki is their side's physical attacker and Goki is their magic support. Zenki has huge St and subpar Ma, but has the second-tier spell Zionga that can induce paralysis. So he can paralyze you with Zionga, then go in with the Extra skill Critical to take advantage of his own 23 St. Meanwhile Goki seals our magic with Makajama, raise Goki's attack with Tarukaja and keeps both their health up with Media.

But they only get two actions per turn, and we get six. Momunofu and Werecat quickly stack Tarukajas that cause Champion (and each other) to hit like a truck, and Gentleman aside there's no way Zenki and Goki are going to take us out while Rusalka is doing Media spam. For beating Zenki and Goki we get ¥3072 and 1280 MAG, as well as the visionary item Goki Claw. Everybody except Gentleman picks up two levels off of this, while he gets five.

En no Ozuno: You are ready. Return to your world...but do not be shocked to see how it has changed.

Touya: +4 Vi
Champion: +3 St
Gentleman: +7 Vi +1 Ma

References

Miyake, Hitoshi. Shugendō: Essays on the Structure of Japanese Folk Religion. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, 2001.

Splatoon Strategy

Having just got done with the first Splatoon Global Testfire, I can say this game is a purchase I'm looking forward to making. The lack of voice chat isn't such a big obstacle in the information age, and moreover it seemed the teams I worked with were able to get along fine without explicitly coordinating their actions. Without further ado:

くコ:彡

The demo made four weapons available. Splattershot, Splattershot Jr., Splat Roller and Splat Charger. Of these, only the Splattershot Jr. and Splat Roller were seeing consistent play. Every team I saw used the Roller, almost every team used the Jr. I tried all four weapons over the course of an hour and I can see why. The Splat Roller has the most immediate benefit and creates a defined role for Inklings; it leads the charge throughout a map, efficiently covering the most area possible with a single weapon thoroughly and without the need to pause to cover walls. In close quarters it's very difficult to splat anybody with, but can be used as an improvised weapon by swinging it, and it's perfect for sneaking up on other Inklings from behind and splatting them while also maximizing coverage of their turf. The Splattershot Jr. was seeing tons of play for two reasons. First, it complements the Splat Roller perfectly by having a long range and wide area of spray, which makes it easy to follow behind your team's Rollers and shoot them from behind to resupply their ink while then switching to providing cover fire when it came to confronting the opposing team. The second reason Juniors were picked is because of their special ability, which creates a bubble shield that provides temporary invincibility. Splatoon caters towards an offensive march, not pulling retreats, and it's very difficult to get away from an enemy that you can't shoot back at. (The first time I saw a shield I could not understand what was going on.) So whichever team gathers territory and puts its shields up first tends to gain a monopoly over the space of a given map, but the Rollers allow you to make a comeback. If you can take out the opposing team's Splattershot Juniors while they're empty after the shields wear off, the Rollers and built-in bombs let you retake the territory quickly in an extended tug-of-war.

Each of the ten teams I played with this evening came to convene around a single strategy; sending their rollers out into the field to cover the key routes towards the opposing camp, and protecting them with a squad of Juniors. Towards the end of the night each team's two Rollers would pick a direction and start rolling, and those of us playing Splattershot Juniors would split up to follow one of the Rollers and provide cover fire. This led to a lot of territory being taken very rapidly, followed by skirmishes between individual pairs of Rollers and Juniors. The existence of the superjump makes staying alive even if your partner gets splatted valuable, at least long enough for them to superjump into your territory using your map icon as a homing beacon; if it's clear that survival is impossible but you can at least make that contribution, then the best move is to try and pull off a double splat in close quarters where you knowingly get yourself splatted but also take them with you while your partner is in mid-superjump. With the opposing Inkling cleared out, that lets your partner retake the territory lost in the skirmish when they land, and you can superjump to their spot and go back to business together.

As for the actual maps, Walleye Warehouse is a nightmare and nobody likes playing on it. Saltspray Rig was much preferred because it provided distance between the different teams and only allowed for select skirmishes. Everybody seemed to be a total mess the moment they had to compete in Walleye, as the only effective survival method is to establish ink paths along the corridors, avoid the open space in the center and come up on people from behind--but the map is so cramped already that trying to be sneaky is next to impossible. Saltspray allowed for much better superjump gameplay by comparison.

I'm completely burned out at this point. The next demo starts in six hours; I'm not sure I'm up for it, I have Vanguard related work to do. I could catch the afternoon demo, if I'm around then. I think the most exciting part of the Testfire was playing with international players. Almost every team I was on had some Japanese players on it as well.