TheHeroOfLight

After escaping Kokkuri in the forest, he follows us into the school for the final confrontation. Upon exorcising him, the Departed shows a new face, but we do not get the warning that there is still a bad ending that can be achieved here. It seems that despite being devoured, Kokkuri can take a parting shot if you do not put his soul at peace. The good news when everything is said and done is that the Departed has kind of run out of pawns. From here, we will be preparing for our head to head face off.

We get to enter a new area of the school grounds that I can't help but feel is grossly underused. There were no many opportunities for weird/eerie things in the background that only get used maybe twice and sadly, none of the flashlight shenanigans like you see in NG. Otherwise, here we get to see Kokkuri's preferred method of execution and get to see more about the depths of his curse. However, there is still a lot at work in the background, and it is more than can be resolved in the next video's finale.We get to enter a new area of the school grounds that I can't help but feel is grossly underused. There were no many opportunities for weird/eerie things in the background that only get used maybe twice and sadly, none of the flashlight shenanigans like you see in NG. Otherwise, here we get to see Kokkuri's preferred method of execution and get to see more about the depths of his curse. However, there is still a lot at work in the background, and it is more than can be resolved in the next video's finale.

Hiroo pops in to take over for Daimon, meaning we pretty much have a new cast stepping in here. It may be a little fitting as we are dealing with a rifle toting ghost, which is a fairly new concept. Otherwise, we get access to the second floor corridor and the science room on the third floor, meaning we have almost been to every room in the school. I don't know if we will ever get to navigate all of these in a single chapter, but we will not have to wait long to get that answer. Also, I believe there is a soul that I missed in this part and I did not get the chance to come back for it. When I do the total video, I will put it in, which means I will replay this section, but I will not end up recording it.

Due to the brevity of the chapter, there is much less up for grabs here. Sadly, item inflation is taking root in the game (not just real life), so the cost of the mystic objects is rising too. Luckily, we get to carry over the leftover soul into the next chapter, because things do not show any sign of improving.

Here we have what is sort of a micro-chapter and might ultimately be filler/fan-service in the bigger picture of things. Essentially, we get more time with Michiho and Douryou (as the thumb nail reveals...) and a notice arrives for them. We have to go to where everything started in order to rescue them and learn about what could very well be the titular Death Mark for this game...

If you would like to find the souls in chapter 3, this is where you can do so. All of them are available before entering the final act, and the one in the cemetery might be missable. I am not sure if it is still there after Kashima has appeared, so make sure to grab it at the first opportunity. As for uploading, I am setting this one earlier than normal as I hit the 5 video "limit" yesterday, so it is going up with the chapter 4 stuff.

The time has come to close the case. We have the details, we just need to put them together and figure out how to expose something we can work with. Sadly, Daimon is going to reach his limit here, so we need to send him out with a bang.

We need to explore some new areas here in order to find some of the missing pieces allowing us to see the bigger picture. Unfortunately, some people are less cooperative than others, and we even have an entire area that becomes cursed at night. However, with enough tenacity, we are able to get the answers we need and even exorcise one of Kashima's victims that appears to have been lurking for years. Additionally, all of the souls/teeth will be located by now in this video, so in the next one, we will be gearing up for the finale.

I am recording this chapter on a borrowed headset, so the audio is going to differ a bit here compared to the ones before. Otherwise, with Hanako devoured, the Departed must enlist a new spirit to perform the executions, which is where Kashima enters. This is a spirit that appeared five years prior that fell out of favor, so we need to dig deep to find some details. Interestingly enough, the souls appear earlier here, so we are able to snag half of them in this video alone!

In the event you do not bring Hanako to full salvation, the Departed gets upset and decides to take out her frustrations on her perceived rival in love. Some scenes afterward change as well when the characters are talking among themselves, which I show here. There are bound to be some more mentions later, but these are the immediate ones. BTW, enjoy the thumbnail while you can as Youtube may take it down.

I am putting this in both playlists just to serve as an aid to anyone who wants to quickly reference the battle. Most of what I am saying is just to explain what is going on and why. In this video, I perform the exorcism with Daimon, but it is easier with Ai. If you want to see the difference, I use Ai in the playthrough videos. As far as I know, all of these items are required, meaning you cannot lock yourself into a fail condition. You need to toss the uniform you picked up on your way out of the closet, then poke her in the face with the mop, and perform the duet. However, if you want to get the best ending, you will need to take the letter that is dropped at the end of the fight to the far left stall in the girls' bathroom on the 3rd floor. When you hear the bell chime, you're clear. If you want the bad ending, just go to the infirmary when you are done here.

If you want to find the 8 souls in the second chapter, this is where they are. It is possible some can be missed, but if you get the rubber gloves early, you can get the two annoying ones. There is one that is exclusive to Daimon (use him for the early exploration) and one for Ai (use her for the final exploration). With these, you can buy all of Moe's items and have an easier time going forward. Sadly, you do not revisit some of these areas in later chapters, so you need to grab them now.

This video encompasses pretty much everything past the beginning of the Hanako case, which is why it has the duration it does. We locate all of the souls and perform the exorcism correctly, so I will be continuing from this file moving forward. Otherwise, we get the details about what happened between Naomi and Hanako and have to put the pieces together to bring her to rest. Truth be told, now that I know where to find the souls, I can complete this chapter quite a bit more quickly than you see here. I also have to note that the clicking is pretty bad here and I will be using a different headset moving forward. To see what I am referring to, check the failure video where I am using it. It is on loan, so I will be changing over to a new one after the following chapter.

We kick off the second case where we aim to purify the ghost we had a run-in with in the first. Here, we explore the school during the day and meet the players, with some of the returning faces from the first game making appearances. I take the opportunity to explore the school, which does not yield anything, but we need to track down Hanako's band mates and identify who the next victim is...

In the event you do not choose to confront the Departed at the end of the first case, this is what happens. Additionally, I show some alternate text in the infirmary to demonstrate that your options produce the same result.

One of my anticipated games of the year is about to hit, and we waste no time tackling the first case. This is the version that has live commentary in it, and I will upload a silent version later today if you do not want my narration. The MC from the first game returns here to investigate a school being haunted by a spirit known as the Departed. In this first case, we are going to face a spirit known as Hanako who lashes out at people who enter her domain. Luckily, she is fairly easy to appease, so she makes for a decent tutorial even if there is very little room for error. Unlike the previous games, I do not know if there is a way to botch the exorcism that leads to the demise of your partners. I am not sold on Hanako being the first ghost as similar to Taro back in NG, I have a moment where the "scare" backfires horribly and I have to break the video so I can stop laughing. While I understand that Hanako most likely hung herself using a garden hose, it does not make for good horror material. Since we are dealing with a "pianist" victim for the first case, I was wondering if there would be piano wires or something instead. The major changes from this game compared to the others has to do with navigation and the "health" resource that you use to do things. I am still on the fence about how you navigate, but the health can help you know how many turns you have left and may give you some room in the event you want to try something random during the exorcism. Anyway, I am dropping everything to cover this game as I did not realize it came out this early. Better yet, I did get this copy 2 days before street date, so hopefully I can knock out another case to help people decide whether or not they want to pick this game up for themselves. Otherwise, what better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than with a new horror game?

We get some recruits here beyond just Gen, the most important of which being Lute, then Riki. Both of them have their own stories, and whatever we do on them here will transfer over. For that reason, the first part of this playthrough will be the longest as I am learning to play the game and build resources. Once I know and have both gear and skills, I can speed through some of the later stuff. Lute is the most important recruit here as he is usually the easiest character to recruit in the game, meaning anything you gain on him can be shared. This will make other playthroughs easier and will allow me to maximize my benefit from time spent. Riki takes a lot for me to learn as the monster class is fairly weird. We can gain skills upon defeating enemies, and the skills we have determines the form of the monster. The form is what largely determines their stats, so you will want to follow a specific route in order to achieve the strongest forms (which I think I will do in a later playthrough). The brevity of this video is partially due to me learning as we go and that I am making a party of different races. Don't worry, things will continue to get complex when I finally reach the first mystic, but that will be a different video. Otherwise, we complete our business in this area, which is going to lead to more confusion, so something to look forward to in the next video.

We tackle the rest of Crossbell City in this one and we take the closest thing to a side quest there is to offer. Sadly, this side quest does not provide any RP unlike the one at the beginning of the game, but it unlocks a new food item, which can be pretty good for magic users. We will accept it here, but it won't be until the monster busting video that we make the delivery since I didn't know where to find it immediately (spoiler: field training site). Other than that, there are still more familiar faces to find, but the missing ones are confined to the different corners of the region, which is where we will be going next.

It took over 2 hours to talk to everyone inside of the city, not counting grabbing the berries for Oscar, so I had to split it into two parts. In the event you missed any books or recipes, this is your chance to get them (newspapers excepted). For this part, we largely stay in the north and east sides of the city, and in the next one, we will hit the south and west sides. Luckily, unless there is a patrol needed for the post game, we should only need to do this once.

Now that the crime has happened, we need to figure out who was where and what they saw in order to deduce the specifics on what happened. With Aria as the prime suspect, this means she cannot serve as prosecutor, so someone will need to stand in her place. The bigger problem is that no one is willing to stand in as her attorney, and for a case like this, special permission is required to obtain that role, meaning there is one last hoop we must leap through before we can take this to trial.

We've reached the finale here, and just like Tyrfing, there are far more scenes than gameplay here...

We end up cutting things really close here, but we get through the next round of trivia.

All cards hit the table here as we get to the bottom of the case, no matter how many bridges we must burn to get there. We learn how a blind woman like Beatrice can navigate so swiftly, which leads into its own share of problems. We've also seen how crooked Ruby is and the lengths she is willing to go. What we have not seen yet is the source of the Eye of Horus, which seems to have more powers than Tyrion realized. However, he will need some help in getting them to come out...

This is the part where the case goes bananas and sets things up for the grand finale tomorrow. We start things off by talking to our resident archaeologist (or what would you call him exactly?) and learn more about the relics in play. This requires us to locate one of the missing ones, which is very close to the courtroom conveniently. With all of the revelations, the time has come for Beatrice to take the stand in a last ditch attempt to escape culpability.

With all the characters available that I could unlock, I opt to finish the Vantage Masters minigame, which requires you to beat all current opponents before the final boss appears. Said final boss has a severely stacked deck, so you may need a certain good draw for you or bad one for him in order to come out on top. When all is said and done, the achievement pops, but ironically, the mission doesn't have a RP reward attached to it. You get a quartz for doing all of it, but you'll see that I am about to fall very short to the next tier and a little help from anywhere could have pushed us across the finish line.