Ripuka

Ripuka is a major antagonist in *Death end re;Quest*. She is one of the Ludens, motivated by "murderous intent." Unlike the other Ludens, she displays consistent hostility toward Arata, Shina, and Shina's party.

The "Additional Character: Ripuka" DLC allows players to recruit Ripuka into the party, though she cannot be seen by the other party members.

## History

Ripuka is first encountered in Chapter 4, where she arrives at the Elf Village ahead of Shina's party and slaughters the villager's denizens. She forces Lucil Filarete to watch as she splits Mita in half and, before leaving, informs the party that she has already destroyed the Elf Village's terminal. Lucil pursues Ripuka, and both Lucil and Shina's party attempt to fight her to no avail. Ripuka summons an Entoma Queen and introduces herself as a Luden before leaving.

She is next encountered in Chapter 8, where she again taunts Lucil. This time, Ripuka promises to expose Lucil's true feelings to her friends, and tells everyone that Lucil was actually happy to see the elves who exiled her be slaughtered and actually would have like to have seen more elves killed. Satisfied with the amount of distress that Lucil displays, Ripuka leaves; however, her words resonate with Lucil and eventually causes Lucil to go berserk due to her suppressed joy.

Ripuka is last encountered in Chapter 11, where she stands in the way of getting to Iris. Arata Mizunashi notes that she is different than the other Ludens; Ripuka concurs, stating that she never saw the others as allies and that her urge to kill directly contradicts carrying out Iris' wishes. Despite it being pointed out that this would technically put them on the same side, she battles the party anyway, because there's someone she wants to kill "really badly". After a battle in which the party again fails to damage Ripuka in any meaningful way, Ripuka distorts reality and angrily calls out the God of Death. Glaring into the game's camera, she admonishes the God of Death for standing proud as if they aren't involved - confusing Arata, as he was under the impression that the Ludens were referring to him as the God of Death. With a scream of "TAKE YOUR EYES OFF OF MEEE!", she swings her sword as the camera goes black.

If the conditions to continue with the game have been met, Arata finally puts together the identity of the God of Death and turns to the player of *Death end re;Quest* for help. If the player agrees to help, the party is given a boost in strength, and challenges Ripuka yet again. Ripuka is finally defeated, shouting in desperation that she has to kill in order to exist. She tries a sneak attack on Shina Ninomiya who is teleported out of the way at the last second by Arata, resulting in Ripuka being impaled by her own sword.

### Ripuka DLC

If the Ripuka DLC is purchased, Ripuka will appear as a playable character and has several campfire scenes focused on her. She is aware that she has been summoned to serve as an extra combatant, but the party cannot see or interact with her. She reacts to the various events in the game, seemingly having some but not all of her memories as an antagonist. Once the enemy Ripuka has fallen, the playable Ripuka nearly succumbs to her madness when Alice stops her and informs her that the God of Death eliminated the other Ripuka because they were tired of the bloodlust. Ripuka is pulled aside by the God of Death, who tells her that she will be reborn as a different person. This is enough to convince Ripuka to follow their lead for the remainder of the game.

In her character ending, she becomes a musician at Enigma Games, creating many popular songs for the company.

## Notes

* If the party is wiped out by Ripuka in Chapter 4, the player will receive a Death End that goes into greater detail about the manner in which she kills the party.
* If the God of Death refuses to help Arata, or the conditions have not been fulfilled to be offered the choice, Ripuka eliminates Shina and the rest of the party, forcing Arata to develop the "degrade" code on his own. His version is imperfect, wiping out his memories with the reset of his world, and he learns that this is just another in a failed series of time loops. Seeing these events counts as having cleared *Death end re;Quest*, and thus creates clear data that can be used to start a new game with carried-over stats.

## Gallery

Ripuka slaughters the elves of the Elf VillageRipuka addresses the God of Death