#that's why they gain powers based on the sephirot and why they have so much knowledge regarding distortions abnormalities

[puniper]

still wondering if this is like a coincidence or intentional again

[project-rebirth]

Prelude: The Face of the Fallen Church: Inquisition_start.

OST

Vatican City.

If one could ever think of a Magic Side equivalent to Academy City, one would think of the Vatican City State as an example of such.

Located within a walled enclave in the city of Rome, Italy, it is the central base of the Roman Catholic Church, the administration of which is also referred to as the Vatican.

And at its centre stood St. Peter's Basilica --- the worlds largest cathedral and the greatest Roman Catholic stronghold.

In mid-october of the previous year, it was utterly left in ruins thanks to a confrontation between one Fiamma of the Right and one of the former popes, Matthai Reese, which resulted in the defensive magical array for the city of the Vatican being severely weakened.

But that all seemed like a distant memory.

Vatican soldiers patrolled the city streets and the Basilica grounds, all of whom were magicians with formidable spells underneath their belts. They gave off an intimidating aura that made those in their presence want to turn away, lest they be threatened by them.

The damage caused by the confrontation last October had all been repaired, and its magical defense systems were up and running, almost as if the destruction had never occured.

It was all thanks to the efforts of the current Pope, Biscas T. Benedict. {1}

After the events with GREMLIN, Biscas had utilized the connections he had with the leader of a certain secret society and had manipulated events to have the second former Pope, Pietro Yogdis assassinated in his sleep. The second Pope's death was a surprise to everyone in Rome and around the world, and for a time, it worsened the divisions that were currently happening in the Church at the time.

However, Biscas had been chosen to become the Pope in the days to follow since there was not enough time for an election, along with the aid of those within the church that were loyal to him. And ever since becoming the Pope, Biscas would dedicate his effors to strengthening the Church, and making it stronger than when it had been in the hands of God's Right Seat.

the Grand Grimoire written by John Dee, the Frozen Sapphire of Arendelle, the Shard of Anubis, all of 30 Tyrian shekels, the Bell of Awakening and so on were among the many spiritual items and magical artifacts used to empower the Roman Catholic Church anew, giving it a new life that it had never been seen up until this point.

But with that new life, came a new darkness, something that was far ore insidious than anyone on the outside could imagine.

And that was that the Christian God had been substituted by an entity far outside of this realm known as The Fallen.

The Fallen was a being known as Gaelion, who was a demonic cosmic force that enslaved worlds with his own power, and influence. It was something that when looked in the lens of Christianity, was truly the embodiment of the Devil himself.

Yet members within the Roman Catholic Church were already worshiping such a being.

When they referred to God, it was this monster that they were referring to, to carry out horrific acts in the name of Gaelion, even though this entity probably would not care, or even know of their actions.

Hence, the church in secret, has been renamed as the Fallen Church of Rome.

The Fallen Church could be considered as a modern day incarnation of the Church from the dark ages as in the few months of their inception, they have committed several atrocities throughout the world. Magic Cabals from religions they deemed heretical were attacked, people deemed as enemies of the church were killed, tortured, or sacrificed in gruesome acts of worship, and the Church in general had been more militant than ever.

This showed in how they refused to acknowledge the Magic Association as a legitimate organization and has ignored them at large.

And it was all thanks to one man, and his connections.

But even so, one group of Magicians he formed a pact with, had also taken on the role of God's Right Seat. It was similar, yet entirely different when looked at closely.  

God's One Throne.

"Ah, I take it you have news for me."

The Pope said as he addressed the one who entered the papal throne room. Such was usually occupied by cardinals and advisers, however it was empty, only containing the Pope himself and the person who entered.

Yodion the Armoured.

A young man with neck length light purple hair, golden eyes, and clean white robes, Yodion the Armoured was a special type of Magician who was a member of God's One Throne.

As previously mentioned, God's One Throne was similar to God's Right Seat in that it was a political organization deeply active within the Roman Church, even run everything within it. They often advise the Pope on matters of the church and is more powerful than the actual clergy in general.

They were comprised of not four magicians, but 10, all of them aligned with angels in accordance with the Sephirot.

And the angel Yodion was aligned with was Chamuel.

"Yes. The assassination attempt on the traitor known as Agnese Sanctis has failed. The forces sent to deal with such has been defeated all by the hands of the God Hunter and..."

Yodion's face seemed to contort slightly in a look of displeasure, as if what he wanted to say truly disgusted him to his core.

"And?"

"...Imagine Breaker. The one known as Kamijou Touma."

Biscas sat in silence for a bit as he mulled over the information. He was familiar with the term Imagine Breaker, the name of its owner too.

This was the same boy that Former Pope Matthai Reese had deemed an enemy of God, and had sent out members of God's Right Seat to deal with him. Needless to say the attempts on the boy's life failed as both Vento of the Front and Aqua of the Rear suffered humiliating defeats at the time.

"I see. According to the information we have on record, Imagine Breaker is a reference point of the world, which means symbolically, it is our greatest obstacle. Perhaps more so than the God Hunter."

Given the plans that the Biscas and God's One Throne was working towards, the Imagine Breaker represented something that was to foil their goals of changing the world. If he so willed it, the owner of Imagine Breaker could undo everything that they would have worked to gain. But there was something else that couldn't be ignored.

And that was the boy himself.

Biscas had read the reports about how Kamijou had gotten involved in many Magic Side incidents, how he opposed the Church in the past and his involvement in the chaos surrounding Othinus. And then there was his reported involvement in the Holy Grail War in the East.

And in all of those incidents he had gathered many people around him, within the Magic Side, as well as the Science Side, although to what extent remained unknown to him. This gathering of forces from both sides proved to be an unstable element that could potentially throw the two sides into chaos, perhaps even more so than the God Hunter by herself.

The Kamijou Faction.

That was the name, given to a group without form consisting of all those who joined that boy and his right hand. Having various elements from his home turf on the science side, the magic side and other influential persons like the Royal Family and the President of the United States, as well as the God Hunter herself, the Kamijou Faction, if it ever took form, would be a formidable force, the likes of which has never been seen.

And that would ultimately bear its fangs toward the Fallen Church.

It seemed Yodion realized the clear threat that Kamijou Touma posed, and seemed more dangerous than Violent Violet, the Precure and other unbalanced elements could ever be on their own.

"I agree wholeheartedly your holiness. All of this time, we have been focusing on pointless things as potential threats when the true danger to our ideal has been in plain sight this entire time."

Yodion remarked, staring back at Pope Biscas with a determined look.

"Your holiness, allow me, Yodion the Armoured to lead an assault on Academy City. I swear to you that I will bring you the head of the beast known as Kamijou Touma. As someone who wants to see this world destroyed... with our utopia to rise from its ashes, I will not accept no for an answer. The holder of Imagine Breaker must be destroyed."

Biscas couldn't help but smile somewhat. In a way, the man reminded him of himself when he was young. Filled with determination and a drive to see the current world destroyed, and in its place a utopia where everyone can truly smile.

Perhaps this is why the relationship between Biscas and the members of God's One Throne were better than what previous Popes had with God's Right Seat. Unlike them, they all shared a singular goal, which is why Biscas had chosen to form a pact with them when they were introduced to him.

A simple traitor was of little concern.

The God Hunter was something to worry about, but not so much as the Kamijou Faction.

Formless or not, it had to be destroyed.

And what better way to destroy an organization, then executing its leader?

And so, the Pope gave his order.

"Very well. I hereby approve of the operation to attack Academy City. You will be leading the special division of the Ministry of Holy Affairs, the AX to engage and execute the one known as Kamijou Touma. Anyone who assists him will be considered part of the Kamijou Faction and an enemy of God as well. They are to be dealt with as you see fit."

"As you wish. I will carry out my orders faithfully and strongly. I shall show him, Academy City, and the Magic Association that they are to fear the blade of the Fallen Church and Yodion the Armoured."

Yodion the Armoured smiled maliciously as he gave a respectful bow before exiting the papal throne room to make the necessary arrangements to undertake such an operation.  

He knew that this move would not only make him a clear enemy of Academy City, but also the Magic Association which was also jointly working with Academy City.

But even so, it was irrelevant. Both of those institutions would be deemed irrelevant in his eyes.

And so, the Pope could only give a twisted smile himself as he sat in the throne room.

"Now then Aleister Crowley, Zelreich Kishur Von Schwarz. How will you react to my challenge? Sooner or later, your ambitions will be utterly crushed as I will lead this world to its salvation."

[jackkel-dragon]

Blue Reflection “Steam” Review

I wrote up a long review for a game I’ve been playing lately, and was going to post it as a Steam review until I noticed that my review went over the character limit. Since I couldn’t find a way to cut it down that I liked, I decided to post the full version of the review here. Behind a read more for length and spoilers. (Spoilers are also behind a warning to make the main review low-spoiler.)

Blue Reflection is a magical girl JRPG, a type of game I've been hoping to see for a while. It plays similarly to a Persona game, where it is split into daily life segments for getting to know the characters and otherworld segments for exploring and fighting.

The story is very character-focused, which works to its favor. Most of the story involves the main character gaining power through empathizing with others, allowing herself and those she meets to grow. This power is used to fight supernatural monsters from outer space and the negative emotions they impose on an otherworld sustained by humanity's collective unconscious. While there is an overarching plot, it doesn't get much play until near the end of the game. More information than that goes into spoiler territory, so that will be addressed later.

The "daily life" gameplay is very similar to the Persona series, albeit simpler and more streamlined. Outside of story chapters, free time can be spent exploring the school, completing side quests, or spending time with friends. There are several interesting things you can find in the school, particularly an odd collectible-like system where finding glowing spots in the school will open up new topics for the main character's IM app. Side quests involve either jumping into the otherworld to fight monsters/collect items, or simply bringing items to the person in question. While simple in design, each side quest has an interesting hook to give context to the mission, and so it's interesting to see what each student has problems with. Spending time with friends works similarly to Social Links/Confidants in the Persona series, where you get special events at certain levels of affection. During some of these events, the player may get a choice on how to respond, which changes the skill the player earns from completing that event. There is also a system where, at the end of each day, the player can decide what to do at night, which can cause certain events to play the next morning (sometimes giving stat boosts). There's no real time limit to free time, so it's possible to complete everything except for alternate scenes in a single playthrough.

The other gameplay for the game takes place in "The Common", an otherworld that is shaped by the collective unconscious. Because of its nature, it is split into certain "zones" such as Joy and Fear. Here the player fights monsters and prepares to fight the "Sephirot", giant monsters from outer space. The basic exploration will be familiar to those who have played the Atelier games, since it involves the same kind of on-screen monster icons and the ability to find items in certain areas. Battles are turn-based, though there are some interesting systems unlocked later in the game that make the wait time between turns an active part of the battle (such as allowing the use of a special meter to heal or accelerate turns). Instead of having XP, the game uses "growth points" to level up, which are gained exclusively from story progress and spending time with friends in daily life. This reduces some of the grind found in other JRPGs. On the other hand, it's easy enough to grind growth points from spending time with friends that combat will be easy for most of the game, even on the hardest difficulty. Each character also learns far more skills than you will ever need to use, and some skills end up being redundant because of this. While there is a system for learning specific skills in the growth point system, whatever combination of level ups you decide on will end up leaving you more than powerful enough to win. This is made even easier since HP/MP is restored after each fight. Battles can still be fun once you've become overpowered, but don't go into the game expecting something as difficult as a Megami Tensei game.

The last major gameplay element involves fighting the giant bosses. These are 2-3 phase fights that involve a single large enemy with multiple parts. You can finish each phase just by killing the main part, but each sub-part you kill will be inactive for a while and cause a debuff to the main body. These fights also allow the non-magical friends of the main character to support the team, usually with small buffs or attacks that increase the special gauge (which allows for certain abilities between turns later in the game, as mentioned earlier). These fights are usually about as easy as the rest of the game, but may take a bit longer due to high HP and the need for the player to heal.

Overall, it's a fun magical girl RPG, though not something for anyone looking for a challenge. This is very much a game focused on the stories of its major characters, with the main story and battles as part of the experience (but not the focus).

A note on the PC port: The game no longer has a game-breaking crash thanks to a patch, but it still is pretty resource-hungry and can crash under certain conditions. If you don't have a pretty recent computer, it may be better to look into the PS4 version.

Now, onto some spoiler talk... If you want to go in blind, the review essentially ends here.

====SPOILERS====

Note: I'm going to assume some basic knowledge of character names and such, in order to avoid making this part of the review longer than it already is.

To start with, I really like the characters and most of the story of the game. That might come into question with my later ramblings if I don't point it out right away. It's mostly how the main plot was handled near the end that gets to me.

With that said, let's start with some good things about the story. I really like most of the characters, and they all have really nice stories when you complete their friendship events. Even some characters that I wouldn't give a chance in real life ended up growing on me. The daily life main plot regarding the school festival was also a really nice way to explain why Hinako was getting so close to her classmates.

Now, something I have a problem with is the Sephirot. Aside from sounding cool, I have a hard time finding out what connections they have to Kabbalah and its philosophy. Aside from surface connections (Yesod, the foundation, being the first one fought; Da'at/Daath, the place where all Sephirot are one, being the last fought), I can't see a whole lot of how these space monsters are connected to Jewish mysticism. Now, the series everyone thinks inspired the game--the Megami Tensei franchise--also makes heavy use of mythology in every game. But those games also show their work in how everything connects to what they are named after. The tarot arcana in the Persona series are always thematically related to the people they are assigned to. The initial and ultimate personae of the leads are connected to the theme of the game. (For example, Orpheus/Thanatos are connected to Death.) Aside from Daath's sudden idea to combine all of humanity into one being, I don't see much connection between Blue Reflection's Sephirot and the real world's idea of Sephirot. Maybe this is a lack of research on my part, but it still bugs me.

The main plot also contradicts itself and becomes a mess near the end. Yuzu and Lime being ghosts is actually foreshadowed fairly early, but then gets swept under the rug until the reveal. More importantly, Daath directly contradicts things that Yuzu, Lime, and Yuri claim, and no one explains why this thing that shows up in the last twenty minutes of the game is suddenly changing all the information we were told. For instance, Yuzu and Lime claim that there are 22 singularities, each with a Reflector. This is further shown in a scene without Hinako that proves they aren't lying to her about this. But then, after they are outed as ghosts, they say there is only one Reflector at a time. Hinako never addresses this, and Daath later points out that only Hinako is a Reflector. There's a lot more I could complain about Daath, really. Yuzu and Lime also recognize it (him?) when he decides to show up in the final scene, yet never thought to mention him to Hinako before he started killing and absorbing people.

Even worse than Daath is the ending. I was mostly okay with it at first, despite not liking how many Japanese stories seem to end with timeloops or resets. (I have to wonder if Puella Magi Madoka Magica inspired Blue Reflection to use this particular trope, despite this game not needing such a plot point.) But the more I think about it, the suckier it is without making some serious assumptions. Basically, Yuzu and Lime return to being dead. Daath is gone, but apparently might come back later (he's not clear on whether he's dying or not). But everything else in the story snaps back to the opening cutscene, aside from Hinako remembering some of what happened. This memory alone seems to warrant a bittersweet, rather than downer, ending. But keep this in mind: this means that all twelve of Hinako's friends and all of the sidequest characters are back to where they were at the start of the game. Rin is back to being indecisive about her crush. Sarasa is back to being bitter and upset that Hinako stopped ballet. Shihori is back to being hated for something she isn't doing. Mao is back to being a loner jerk that keeps others at arms length. All of those problems that Hinako fixed are now undone, and now she doesn't have magic or Yuzu/Lime to help her re-fix everything. You have to assume that Hinako can befriend everyone again and help them in more mundane ways to solve their problems, otherwise the ending is really depressing. Yet Hinako is just happy that she didn't forget about Yuzu and Lime, and we're supposed to be okay with just that. I thought this game was about empathy and friendship overcoming adversity, not how everything one does in life is ultimately pointless.

There are other things that bother me, but those are the more major ones. Accidentally undercutting the premise of the story in the last half hour of the game is not really a good way to leave a lasting impression. I still like the game, but unless a sequel/spinoff fixes some of the issues, I have to mentally rewrite or re-contextualize the ending in order to be okay with it.

At any rate, I still recommend the game. It's a fun game, and the character-focused parts of the story are really good. As a story of how Hinako comes to terms with not being able to dance again thanks to her new friends, it works well. Just try not to take the self-contradicting myth arc too seriously if you don't want to get annoyed.