Since I glossed over the title screen due to the cold open in the first game, I might as well mention a few things here. Obviously, Data Install is for people playing on an actual PSP. Before Story is a summary (written by Kirino) of the events of the first game, but I don't think we need that.
Casual mode exists and lowers the stats of enemies. It existed in the first game, but there it was basically broken, since your damage got cut too. I will not be playing on it because I'm a SIKK-NASTY GAMER GIRL.
Reading the data from the first game gives us a suite of goodies. Gatou's Bandana, an accessory whose effect is unchanged; a Candy Bar from Aoi, which has now changed into an all-target full-health revival item; a Miracle Aero, Miracle Meds, and Hypno Crystal; and 10 sets of Ingredients. I actually wind up making a lot more use of Ingredients this time around, so I did appreciate that last one.
Anyway, enough from me for now. Take it away, kids.
---------------------------
Part 51: A Small Journey
We all hit the field again for the first time on the same day. It was September 1st, 2021.
It's eight o'clock! No yasumi, nasai! Oh hi! Yo, everybody! This is 91.3, KWST!
Okay, should we get it started right away? No? Yeah, you know it! Toki-dokey! I-suki filling requests, so here comes one! This song's for Res Ward 7! Kitte kudasai, it's "Always By Your Side"!
---------------------------
Since Murakumo was an arm of the government and all, they'd started working out of the Diet Building more directly. Kirino always liked to complain about all the meetings.
Lady MP: I agree! Childhood education is in shambles! Our allocation isn't nearly what it should be.
Young MP: Forget that. What about the power outages? We had a two-day blackout last week. Until that's resolved, I can't vote for this.
Old MP: Wait times at the Clinic are getting longer. Isn't there anything we can do about that?
MP Ariake: Everyone, wait your turn! Please, wait your turn to speak!
Prime Minister Inuzuka: It's embarrassing to watch. Pursuing one priority means ignoring others... you can't simply talk that away. We're trying to stand together in these trials, like we did a year ago, but can you really call this 'unity'?
Prime Minister Inuzuka: This spiel again? Last year, you and yours saved us from the Dragons. Us, Tokyo, the world... Nobody would bat an eye if you assisted with the reconstruction. You don't intend to help with this project?
I—or rather, Murakumo—harbor no such intentions, sir.
Prime Minister Inuzuka: But, nevertheless—
The Dragon threat having dematerialized, Japan's citizens should direct its revival. Going forward, you must take the input of the citizens and the Diet to heart, and...
Sec. Makabe: Prime Minister Inuzuka! I, uh, I need you for a moment!
Prime Minister Inuzuka: Ugh, not again.
Sec. Makabe: The public's getting a first look at our spending. What's your plan for how to manage...
----------------------
"The Diet does not walk, but it dances..." Certainly no Congress of Vienna, though.
Reimi always got along well with kids. She always liked to say it was because she was 'young at heart'. Forever seventeen 'til the day she dies, that's Reimi.
Oh, Reimi. Good morning.
Are you okay? You look awfully worn out. Oh! That reminds me, they just played this super peppy tune on 'Sharon in the Morning'! Wanna hear it? It'll perk you right up!
Er, I'd rather—
Oi, oi, who's that with the itchy trigger finger! You know the rules! No replaying! We take requests to make everyone happy, and that's saikyou, right? So next up, kudasai!
I'm getting an emergency bulletin! The Skytower is crawling with monsters! Yabai, ne? Sounds crazy dangerous! Yank out your earbuds if you're akoso! Getting close to that place is way yokunai!
I'm worried about everyone there...
...Huh?
------------------
Fashionably late as usual.
I was right outside, come on!
We're really making the call, aren't we?
I was sick of waiting. Having a whole year without seeing them all on the field blows!
I was a regular listener of 'Sharon in the Morning', of course. I really only didn't listen to it when she was playing my own songs... whiiiich was like, a lot, but hey, that's still regular! So I'd kind of expected the call—I'd only been actually fighting monsters for a month or so, but I was a member of Unit 13.
...So I'd had a bit of time to rehearse my own lines before walking in the room!
Tremble in fear and adoration, friendly neighborhood support staff of greenheads!
Your ever-reliable lady of the night cometh to rain down unholy judgment upon our enemies.
I had these little mini fog machines inside the hem of my dress, which I liked to use to spruce things up when I needed to make an entrance. I did that.
Rejoice! For Mio Akaneno has deemed you worthy of her presence!
Man, if I had your dedication...
It's never too late to be a bit chuuni, Kirino.
Huh. You think?
Oh, don't encourage him. Next thing you know he'll be running around in a superhero outfit.
That would be pretty cute, honestly.
Well, uh—t-that's beside the point!
Right, right. Lay it on me.
Specifically, at the Skytower. This many at once is no joke, so we've issued a Class B alert.
Many of our engineers are trapped inside, caught unawares while repairing the electrical network.
But we're getting heavy resistance—they can't handle this many.
I'll be placing you in temporary command for this mission, since you're the only one who's been on active duty—link up with the rest on-site as they arrive.
Unit 13 being Unit 13, I'm not really worried, but it's been a year since our battle with Niara—nobody's liable to be in peak condition. Do your best to support them as they get that refresher.
I am unparalleled in the flex role.
And you, well... Just do your best, you know? I know I shouldn't be doubting a girl who can yell into a megaphone and kill five Rabis, but this is the first time you've been on a proper deployment instead of a minor skirmish.
I've got our friendly neighborhood scientist cheering for me! What could go wrong?
Aw, geez.
It'll be my first time supporting you, Mio... Please let me know if there's anything I can do to improve!
With any luck, they'll be too busy chatting to notice if we screw up anyhow.
We obtain control here, and the game informs us 'you should probably make a party of three'. Don't worry, game, I've got you, I'll do you twice that.
Anyhow, hanging around here are some familiar faces from the first game, many for tutorial purposes.
Since Murakumo is now stationed out of the Diet Building, HQ is... llllarger.
Ikki: I have instructions from that Masaki weirdo to give you a course on your classes. If it's class classes you want, I'm your man! I'm probably the world's leading expert on classes, if I do say so myself, heh! A fully nuanced explanation will occupy a good deal of time, I fear... heh heh heh! Well then... want me to teach you about classes?
...Like, as in, what we do in combat...? That kind of class?
Ikki: Yes, yes, obviously! Like your Idol class—
Is a flex support slash magic damage class with evasion-based gameplay and several unique gimmicks. I know. I'm the Idol.
Masaki's right over there, but we aren't about to be stabbed just yet.
Makoto: I've heard about you from Kihada. I'm a rookie, Makoto. It's a dream to get to see the legendary Unit 13 in action!
I aim to please.
Aww, have I been off showboating too much to give you some proper TLC, kids?
Maybe a little...
Well, tell you what. Once I'm back, I'll pat your head and tell you what a good job you did, since you'll have earned it. And I'll give Miroku a big hug and tell him he's a good boy!
You will not! Shut up!
You can't stop me, short stop. I'm significantly stronger than you.
I managed to not actually capture her on camera before I had to actually make characters due to Kirino's bullying, but Sengoku is also present in this room.
Sengoku: You're looking spry, Unit 13. I'm still helping Masaki out... just like before.
...You're, uh...
Yeah, sorry. I don't really remember who you are.
Sengoku: Oh, that's fine. I guess you weren't really there when I told the rest of your unit—well, anyway. Masaki's got a very perverse definition of 'data', you know that? Our collection of biometrics keeps expanding. It's a sexual harassment claim in the making.
Uh-huh.
Sengoku: What I'm saying is, ah... keep this on the hush-hush, because... I mean, no disrespect to...
Oh! Oh you mean like, he also has mine, no, yeah, totally understood.
Besides my ever-growing legion of fans, I couldn't help but worry what would happen if that ever got out to a certain someone.
Anyway, talk to Kirino after making two extra guys and you can go.
The game dispenses with the formalities and skips right to your choice of navigator and entering their name.
I will not be changing tack now. Thank you.
--------------------
So I headed out to the Skytower for my first day as an actual, no-frills whole-hog combat operative. I didn't know it at the time, but... I mentioned it was September 1st, right? Yeah. This one... was gonna be the longest September of our lives.
--------------------
Tokyo Skytower, the game's introductory stage.
Heeeey! Rin, Makita! Reinforcements are on the scene!
Mio! Does this mean—
Back to the daily grind for us. I'm just early as befits a lady. What's the sitch?
Sgt. Makita: Things are real ugly inside. Thankfully we haven't taken any casualties, but that isn't gonna last forever.
But they've been going wild in there for days now, and we can't make a damn dent. Hate to say it, but we just can't do this. Sorry you had to see active combat this quick, Mio.
It's fine! The others should be coming pretty soon here—
HEY YOU GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUYS
Obviously, since Sumie was the fastest she got there first, and she'd taken the liberty of carrying Koron. ...Yeah, no, she can lift Koron. Obviously Sumie isn't that strong compared to like, Youka, but she's pretty tough.
Finally. Do you know how long it's been since I got to stretch my brain out properly?
Glad you made it out of remission.
You're not as glad as I am.
i was kinda enjoying getting to baby you
I'm aware. And I appreciate your contributions to my physical health, but you must understand it's somewhat mortifying having to continue re-learning how to run while you're out leaping across buildings as usual.
Feeling ready to light 'em up, pal?
Oh, yeah. My abilities may be limited to basics at the moment, but basics will be satisfactory for this rabble.
And I brought a knife and two guns!
Really, do you need anything else?
the love and affection of those around me
Sgt. Makita: Man, you guys don't skip a beat.
That's the fun thing about being friends.
It is the ever-present contradiction of the soldier that her work is to remove the need for her work. I understood perfectly well what you meant.
The 'ever-present contra...' What? Hold on, I need to parse that.
Take your time.
You ever notice how like half the conversations we have with Rin on the job, we're telling her something that just totally blindsides her?
Oh! Okay, I got it. Yeah, you got it. Okay. Sorry, it's been a long time since I had to listen to you talk.
...Damn it.
No offense taken, General Dojima, I am quite a particular woman.
Chatting with Makita gets us the Handgun for gun usage.
Okay I'll admit I'm a little nervous.
You're fiiiine!
You'll be just fine, Mio. If you like, we could wait for Richter and Youka so we can stand behind our best slab of beef.
Nah, we should get to work.
I'll be fine! I do my best work under pressure. I—
You don't say? So do we.
Got your guns on?
Saingreed, my Dark Prophet, the time comes now to display my words! Let us sally forth!
2020-2 is pretty much mechanically identical to 1 in a macro sense. You know, aside from that part where Mio is a class that didn't exist in the first game, but ignore that. We won't be finding any radically different mechanics that aren't stapled to a girl who fights with a megaphone.
...Speaking of micro changes, though, in a nice gesture of charity, each character starts with two skills instead of the one they started with in the first game, so Koron has both Flame and Decoy Mirror to start. Satsuki still has the basic skills for both weapon types and Mio... well, we'll get to that.
Slibbity-pow, baby!
Speaking of weird micro changes, every class's Attack has a 1x modifier on your stat, obvi. Except that in 2, Satsuki's Gun normal has been upgraded from two hits of .5x to two hits of .55x, meaning her total is now 1.1x. I don't know why.
Taste my wrath! Unleash Shimmer Spin!
Was that even magic, or did you just club them over the head with Saingreed?
...No, really. She fights with megaphones.
Mio's Idol class is a strange beast statistically. It's reasonably fast and has decent PATK, high MATK (though not as high as Koron,) and fantastic HP and MP, but terrible defense. She's sturdier than her role might imply, and can bonk things pretty well.
By the way, this is a decent time to mention—under the hood, one notable improvement is in how fast 2020-2 runs. There's pretty much no down time between attacks, transitions from battle to field are near-instant, loading times are minimal. It's really notable going from 1 to 2.
Perfect.
Victory achieved!
Why did you use your claws?
And waste my energy on something you'd already clubbed half to death?
Wow, great job, you guys!
Yeah, you can hardly tell you've been in bed for a year.
Can it.
Proceed up the Skytower, keeping an eye out for survivors as you go.
Okay, so it's this way.
Yeah, but in order to use it you have to install the correct CDs.
Pvt. Kawabuta: Which CDs?
SEE DEEZ NUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTS
Save points.
Pvt. Maruyama: Whoa, is that a map? Like, an actual paper map?
I've got some experience. In case all the digital info goes down or gets hacked or something, y'know?
I've got our copies tucked safely away in our lockbox, for the record.
Good, good. You serve me well. Speaking of!
Go, my minions!
Nice done, kiddo!
I'm great at being told what to do!
So, let's talk Rush Groove.
One of Mio's main mechanics is Order Action, a line of skills that command your party to use extra skills. Rush Groove commands your entire front row, Mio included, to immediately make a basic attack. This is all part of Mio's action, so Satsuki and Koron are still getting their regular turns here. As the levels increase, the basic attacks used by Rush Groove get boosted damage, for the record.
How you use Order Action skills and how much you use Order Action skills is going to change depending on your team composition. The mechanic as a whole, however, can greatly increase your turn economy and turn the tide of battle—more actions are more gooder.
The actual mechanical function of Order Action skills is a hell of a thing, but we'll get to that when we do her class overview. For now, Rush Groove is functionally an attack spell that gets stronger based on how bulky your party's physical hits are. Since Koron has the arms of a wet noodle, it's not at peak performance.
Let's see... draw the lines there, keep it straight...
Do you think we'll need a map of the Skytower? It is a building meant for public use.
Okay, so, think about it this way: What if we don't have a map of the Skytower when we need one?
A solid point. Please, continue.
Pvt. Suzuki: When I step out on that glass floor... I'm all, like... Gives ya a little "whoa", am I right?
Man, I feel sad saying this, but we've been in space.
Pvt. Suzuki: Oh, whoa! What's that like?
Lots of warping around. Glowing yellow goop.
After Youka got done with him, at any rate.
Ha! See, I was thinking about the first time, but that also works.
Ren: Here I am, shivering behind a counter. The monsters won't leave us alone. A simple job, they said, just give the engineers some food they said.
Man yeah I feel that
Hey! Look at the ugly bastard over there.
Pvt. Sasuga: These peashooters ain't doing a thing! What're we gonna doooo, Kamachi?!
Evening, mortals! I believe I have a solution to your issue.
Col. Kamachi: Backup! Sorry, but you've gotta take over here.
Alright, girls, ready?
SHUNK
Scorpio is exactly the same, but it got a fancy new animation!
Ow
Try to avoid getting hit in the future.
Total damage: 16 from Mio, 18 from Satsuki, 7 from Koron for a total of 41, managing to outdamage Scorpio. Nice work, Mio.
Alright, now let me crack my knuckles...
Burn! Burn! Burn to cinders!
HehehehehehehehahAAAAAhahahahaaaa!
she's so cute when she's mad with power, mio
I know a distinct but similar feeling!
The second Scorpio lands the Poison.
Wuh-oh! We might wanna clean this up.
don't worry i gotchu
Oh, thanks!
No problem, chief
Tch! Bastard!
Go and get thy vengeance!
Die!
Nice crit, Koron.
Fall before your better, you wretch!
Ahh, I missed this. There's a wonderful catharsis to burning this scum to cinders.
Now, Koron, we're in polite company here. Sasuga and Kamachi are right there.
And?
good point
WOOOO WE RULE
Col. Kamachi: I'd say you haven't missed a beat, but I don't know what to call the... megaphone thing?
Saingreed. His name is Saingreed.
The Dark Prophet Saingreed, to be specific.
Col. Kamachi: ...The megaphone's name?
Yes.
Col. Kamachi: Well he must be a damn good megaphone, then.
Col. Kamachi: Not that again...
You want a candy bar? I've got a few.
Pvt. Sasuga: Aww, sure! I guess fishing for nostalgia does work!
Col. Kamachi: Anyway, you saved us. Thanks.
Please exercise caution as you continue investigating.
Col. Kamachi: You still remember how to handle minor injuries?
What do we look like, kids?
Col. Kamachi: Well I mean, relatively speaking—
Another unchanged system from the first game. Thanks, Kamachi.
Just doing our jobs as always, huh?
It's a team effort.
Even just one level has put us to the point where I can safely auto-battle against Rabis.
And this'll be the way up. Okay!
Wait! Wait, wait!
Man, you kids can run fast.
Mostly me. I'm very fast.
Youka, Richter! Great to see you. Are you two ready to go?
Well, I'm a bit out of shape, but—
You define this as out of shape?
Relatively!
Roughly to a "still probably the strongest person in the world" level as opposed to a "literally killed a god with her bare hands" level, right?
Yeah, you get me!
And I'm also ready to battle.
You will have to forgive me, though. There have been some unfortunately-timed firmware updates that have temporarily rendered a few of my combat functions inoperable.
Saw that big, uh...
I'm gonna defer to you on this one.
It was a wolverine.
Great job, is the point.
Kazuya: Even after the Dragons left last time, small monsters kept breaking out, but we haven't seen things this strong for a while...
So how's this whole megaphone thing work? I know it's some kinda psychic power but... y'know, how does it work?
I am incredibly powerful.
Works for me.
I still haven't managed to entirely determine the mechanism behind her particular psychic abilities. With that said, I recommend punching when she tells you to.
What about when she's not telling me to?
You should also punch then.
Business as usual!
Mio's regular attack here did 22, for a rough comparison to our party's biggest beatstick.
HOLD UP. OKAY.
Does anyone have anything to declare in the next five seconds.
I'm good.
Nothing here.
I'm fine.
Go ahead.
L!!!! O!!!! O!!!! T!!!!
Now it's a real Unit 13 dungeon crawl!
Bluegrass Nymphs function the same as they did in the first game, being able to inflict Paralysis. They are easily the largest threat in the building and it isn't even close.
Alright, let's get to work!
Richter starts with Regenerator in his kit, which is good because the earlygame is the only point in the game where Regenerator is useful here. Due to an unfortunate bug, instead of healing a percentage of HP, Regenerator now heals a flat number, and that flat number is generally not very high. There are still cases for its use in conjunction with a much later skill, but overall it's a lot less useful.
Oh, okay, yeah, punching when she tells me to is a pretty good idea.
So yeah Rush Groove is doing more damage now!
I'd blame Chisa but she's not here. And we've mostly been picking these up off the monsters.
Give those here.
And a party full heal with only a net loss of one!
Pretty sturdy looking guy.
This Dragelope has 229 HP, which is a fair chunk more than they had in the first game. It's a midboss. wcis. (The Wolverine has 292. Expect to see a lot more strange HP numbers in this one.)
We should be alright.
Ah, hold on.
Is it out of your system now?
Blergh.
That barely even hurt. Come on, you can do better than that.
Okay! Okay, I'm up!
And 22 damage to the 'lope.
it's fine, everyone gets paralyzed sooner or later
If I had the muscle memory awakened I would heal you.
C'mon, what's wrong?!
Ah, yup, there's Mama Fudoji.
Ah, yes, there's Youka.
We kept wailing on it for a bit.
Hm. You kids stand back while I try out a new trick?
Of course.
Then she jumped up in the air and punched the ground so hard the monster we were fighting flew backwards onto the ground and broke its back in the fall.
Get the hell outta here!
What did you even just do?
I mean I thought it was pretty clear she punched the ground so hard that guy died.
Youka starts with a new skill, Earth Breaker. It's basically a tool to reset D-Depth—it spends all your stacks for one big hit. It can rack up some pretty big damage, but you need to be careful using it.
Excellent work, everyone!
But I'm still detecting monsters... could you please go a bit higher?
How could I say no?
It is our job, but I'm also happy to oblige the request.
Social Engineer: Wonderful~! I got lost trying to get down alone, but Unit 13 is here! I'm saaaaved~
How did you get lost? It's really not a hard building to navigate.
Social Engineer: Don't be mean to meeeee~
Impressive how far the city has come in just one year, isn't it?
Yeah, but we've got the rest of the world to consider, too.
that's true but have you guys considered
LOOT
life-giving loot. nectar of the gods.
Okay, oughta be one more floor, and—
And this is about where you showed up, right?
—That's right. I'll take it from here, thank you. I was staring out the window, four hundred and forty-five meters up. There was a certain chill running down my back despite the weakness of the prey in the building, but I couldn't quite place it. I'd been left alone with my thoughts for a minute or two until—
Ex-cuse me!
Hm?
Huh? Oh, Mio.
Everyone else is here, too, I see. Have I missed something?
You told me you were on a walk!
I am. Was. I happened to wander into the Skytower. Is there something wrong with—
Are we on duty?
Yeah. It's the biggest monster outbreak in months.
Oh!
Alright, then. I brought a sword. Standard issue for new Murakumo recruits. Taichi didn't need his.
Babe...
What?
You're not embarrassed to have me around or something, are you?
I'm just worried about you. Are you gonna be okay?
I'm fine. It's just a bit of cleanup duty, right? I—
There's a joke on your face.
See it's fine, Mio, she already filled up on the way here
I have been sober for three months!
Pvt. Tsuzuku: Sober of what?
None of your business.
But seriously though. I'm fine.
...If I'm fighting to protect you, it doesn't matter how much I have to fight.
Aww, babe, that's sweet. Just—
I know. I'll try my best.
Yeesh. Now you two are an entirely different brand of sickening.
Oh, like you have any room to talk.
I'm happy you're here, Chisa.
Thank you, Richter.
Chisa is actually the only character from the original five whose stats have been changed—she's gotten a fairly significant buff to her Speed. She's still slower than Satsuki, but the buff is noticeable with how many enemies she can preempt now.
Oof
Hands off!
Along with starting with the first level of Renki First Aid, Diagonal Slash has been upgraded to the Aerial-damage Flying Slash. The numbers are the same, it just has a cooler animation and hits fliers good.
If you want revenge, go and take it!
Yeah, this is working out pretty well!
Ah, good. This'll help.
Hey that reminds me I had to poke fun at you about your hoarding habits.
You will take my hoard of portable first aid from over my cold, dead body, Sumie.
Ooh, nice confidence.
What's mine is mine.
This should be the biggest of what's remaining. Mio, behind me. Youka, let's make this quick.
And, um... welcome back, Chisa.
Thank you.
This is nothing!
Now hit the other one, pleaaase~
You got it!
Man, come on, you're hardly putting up a fight!
AND SHE GOES FOR THE HOOK, IT'S A CLEAN HIT
Under the concentrated assault, it only takes until turn 3 for the Wolverine to go down.
...and turn 4 to close the books.
I'd expected a little more, but I guess that's it.
Jeanne?
Excellent work, everyone! General Dojima and Kirino are waiting for the report.
--------------------------------
Once we were done, everyone else was able to get right to work—evacuating citizens, and beginning their duties again.
Murakumo and SDF alike flowed in to get the operation running smoothly. It was near-instant compared to the way of things during the war.
With those bastards out of the way, we can handle the rest of the monsters. Leave escorting the engineers to us.
As head of the technical department, I'll assign myself to work on the electrical network here.
Sir, you are the president of Murakumo.
Sgt. Makita: Yeah, is that really a good idea?
I'd really rather do something useful than sit around in a bunch of pointless meetings, and my other best candidate has just returned to active field duty.
I'm good with this. If we can repair the electrical network here, we can re-establish public communications through all of Tokyo.
There are communities outside of Tokyo waiting to rebuild, people waiting for our assistance. It's an important job. I think I can trust you guys to keep things running smoothly back at the Diet, right?
Absolutely, sir!
One more thing, though—Are you sure you want to be on active duty with the rest of them, Chisa?
I'd rather not just sit at home while everyone else takes care of business. I'm a member of this unit, too. It's not very fair to keep me on furlough and force everyone else to work.
That's true. Man, a six-strong Unit 13 combat team... It's like something out of a sentai show, right, General?
What?
You know, like... well, I guess Richter and Mio might have to fight over a color...
...What?
We're going to go.
Right! Right, you do that... oh, but is Satsuki more of a green or an orange...
We're going to be simulcasting to the diet to celebrate the restoration of the network! I'll be up on the big TV! Make sure to watch me!
I will, sir.
I will, too!
What?
Kirino's self-esteem is fragile, sweetie. We have to support our boy.
I-I can hear you!
I know.
And thus was Unit 13 back in action. It was a much quieter ending to the mission than my first proper mission, but it was good to appreciate that—if I'd learned anything, it was to try and appreciate peace while it lasted.
...It wouldn't last very long, so all the better to savor it.
