Bat

Background

Bat is the second in command of the Maribel, the third weakest tribe of the Junkyard. He is a subordinate to Jinana and very skilled with throwing knives. After the events at Ground Zero and obtaining his Atma, Bat is assumed to have witnessed the strife amongst his comrades that the Atma brought and was quick to come to the decision that he must devour in order to not be devoured. It is this fundamental decision that drives Bat's character throughout the game.

Events of Digital Devil Saga

Under the Maribel

Bat is first introduced to the player in this capacity. The Embryon, in an attempt to ally themselves with the Maribel against the stronger Solids, have infiltrated Manipura, the Maribel base, in an attempt to prove themselves worthy to Jinana. Upon besting the fortress, Serph, Heat, and Argilla are met by Jinana. Jinana, rather than fight them herself, dispatches Bat. Bat battles them in his demon form, Camazotz, but loses. As he is about to be devoured by Heat, he is spared by Serph and Argilla, who do not wish to see more deaths at the Embryon's hands. Moved by this show of compassion, Jinana agrees to ally her tribe with the Embyron. Bat, however, cannot understand the reluctance of those like Argilla and Jinana to embrace their inner demons and devour their opponents, and as such his emotions are awakened. He feels a great anger at being spared, so much so that he decides to betray the Maribel and join their enemy, the Solids.

Under the Solids

As part of the agreement between the Embryon and Maribel, the two tribes stage a two-pronged assault on the Solid base, Anahata. The Maribel engage the Solids at the front of the base while the Embryon (consisting of Serph, Heat, and Argilla) sneak into the fortress and take out the Solids leader, Mick the Slug. However, through Bat's betrayal, Mick is able to counter the assault and ambushes the Embryon. The group survives, but unfortunately most of the Maribel do not. Mick defeats the Maribel forces and delivers a brutal beating to Jinana. Due to Jinana's refusal to devour others, she begins to lose control of her demon form, forcing a confrontation with the Embryon. The Embryon once again prevail, and, during an emotional scene, Argilla divulges the location of Sera, the dark haired girl it is said shall lead the way to Nirvana. Bat, hanging upside down from the fortress in his Camazotz form, hears it all. Despite Argilla's efforts to preserve the corpse of Jinana, once the Embryon leave, Bat devours her.

Bat alerts Mick of the whereabouts of Sera, and a plan is born. Bat leads an attack on the Maribel base, which is now Embryon territory due to the death of Jinana, while Mick slips into the Embryon's base at Muladhara and steals Sera. The plan works, and the primary force of the Embryon (Serph, Heat, Argilla, and Gale), is lured into Bat's trap. Bat battles the group once again, using new skills, but is once again defeated. As he is about to be devoured, Argilla's anger at his betrayal gives him a split-second window, which he promptly takes to escape in order to menace the Embryon once again.

Through Bat's efforts, Mick is able to kidnap Sera, defeating Cielo along the way. He takes her to Coordinate 136, one of the mysterious ruins lying on the outskirts of the Junkyard. Bat meets Mick there to await the inevitable Embryon assault, where Mick, who, true to his history of defense, hopes to defeat the Embryon once and for all. It is through this showing of perceived cowardice that Bat sees that Mick will never be the one to rule the Junkyard, and decides to betray him to join the Brutes.

Under the Brutes

When the Embryon arrive, Bat stabs Heat, to whom he makes an offer: defeat Serph, and receive Sera. Depending on the player's choice, Heat can actually battle Serph or just mock-battle him; either way, during the battle, Sera leaps off the roof of the ruins. Bat, transforming into Camazotz, manages to grab her. Mick is thrilled, but Bat uses this opportunity to betray Mick and announce his intentions to join the Brutes. Bat begins to fly away with Sera, but Cielo, showing up after escaping confinement in the Embryon base, manages to shoot his wing off. Bat plummets to the ground, dropping Sera, who is caught by Cielo. Bat is forced to walk toward the Brute base at Ajna, while tending his wounds. Meanwhile, Bat's betrayal has left Mick all but defenseless, and, as he tries to slink away, he is caught by the Embryon and killed.

Bat reports to Varin Omega of the Brutes the fact that the Embryon possess Sera. Acting swiftly, Varin appoints Bat leader of the force to retrieve her, and sends Bat to the Abandoned Cruise ship where it is believed she is being held. However, this is just a ploy by Gale to weaken the Brutes, and Bat is fooled by the trap. While Serph, Gale, and Cielo plant explosives throughout the ship, Bat battles Argilla, who was left on deck to impersonate Sera. Bat taunts Argilla's values and beliefs with realities he has experienced and is about to kill her when the rest of the Embryon show up. Bat battles them once more and is once more defeated. Leaving him weakened, the Embryon escape the ship, which explodes. Bat's final sight is that of the great explosion enveloping him.

Events of Digital Devil Saga 2

Bat appears as solar data in Digital Devil Saga 2, still seething with anger at the Embryon. He battles them one last time, this time as an improved Camazotz, but is once again defeated and put to rest.

Character Analysis

Bat is, above all, self-serving. Every action he undertakes, he undertakes for himself and the betterment of his chances to reach Nirvana. It is easy to view Bat as the ultimate antithesis to the Embryon and their values, but this is too simplistic. In the world of the Junkyard, Bat is akin to the young boys in Lord of the Flies who embrace their new found freedom and abandon the laws and orders which had governed them for their whole lives. Bat is the first character in the game to break the laws set down by the Karma Temple by betraying the Maribel. As pointed out by Gale, this should not have been able to occur, and it is the among the first clear signs that things have drastically changed within the Junkyard (the presence of emotion, Sera, and the Embryon-Maribel alliance being earlier signs, but none of which are outright law-breaking). Further law-breaking from basically every major character would follow Bat's example, but it is telling that Bat was the first to break the laws which had been upheld within the Junkyard unquestionably until then.

Bat can be seen as an extension of Heat and the complete antithesis of Argilla. This is evident in the way these characters interact. Heat, for the most part, shares Bat's views with regards to how to handle their newfound powers. He is quick to devour his enemies (interestingly, so is Serph). Not only that, but he even tries to devour Bat several times. This, coupled with Heat's clear love for Sera, is why Heat is susceptible to Bat's suggestion to defeat Serph.

Argilla and Bat are polar opposites. This is why there is so much hatred between the two, both of them having taken their conflict personally. Whereas the other members of the Embryon treat Bat as just another enemy, and even a desirable ally in the case of Gale, Argilla has no forgiveness for Bat after the way he betrayed the Maribel. Bat, for his part, loathes Argilla in the same way he came to loathe Jinana: as a pathetic weakling, without the will or drive to survive in this new world. As such, he believes he is stronger than her and should rightfully be the one to devour her. Argilla's hatred for Bat was taken to an even further extreme when Bat taunts her with the knowledge that Bat had, in fact, eaten Jinana's corpse. Bat, on the other hand, wants confirmation of his value system by one who he views as similar to Jinana. This is why he doesn't immediately devour Argilla once he has her in his grasp, but tries to force her to admit that she is the same as him.

Bat's death, too, merits discussion. As a gamer, it is a very important moment when Bat dies, as up until this point he might as well have been the primary antagonist. His death comes after many a time in which he has escaped. The player is constantly led to believe that Bat will die at various points in the game, and, indeed, even hopes for it due to his unpleasant nature, yet Bat always manages to escape, always leaving with some taunt, which is directed at the protagonists but which might as well have been at the player. His life ends immediately following his attempt to force Argilla into admitting their similarities, and, indeed, there is something to what Bat claims. Another point that must be made is that it is an impersonal death that awaits Bat. His death at the hands of an explosion essentially robs Argilla (to say nothing of the player) of her vengeance for what happened to Jinana. In fact, this is probably the only possible way to die in which he simply does not leave a corpse, no remnant that he even existed. This almost seems an unjust way for Bat to die, as it implied that he devoured countless legions of people throughout the game. In this way, the game developers continue to mock the player with the knowledge that Bat was not really defeated in the traditional Digital Devil Saga manner of cannibalism. He is the only major enemy of the Embryon that is not devoured.

Battle Behavior

Bat as Camazotz is the Embryon's most persistent foe, being fought three times during the course of Digital Devil Saga and making a return in its sequel. In battle, Camazotz makes use of "Rage" techniques, extending the number of turns he can utilize. This allows him to do multiple things in the space of an enemy turn, such as weakening the Embyron's defenses, then blasting them with one of his signature moves such as Spiral Edge. He usually ends a Rage sequence by Guarding, which is essentially him using his wings as a shield against all attacks. The only way to hurt him when he guards is with an earth-element attack, such as Tera. Earth is his weakness, but, being a bat, Camazotz flies, which is an effective shield against such moves. Therefore, earth techniques should only be used against him when he guards.

In later battles, Camazotz makes use of a very powerful combination of moves. First in the combo is Zotzhilla Bane, which turns one of the Embryon into a bat. This has the additional effects of healing Camazotz as well as halving all of the stats for the affected character, as well as giving that character a weakness to force techniques. This is often used in such a short timespan that it is impossible to counter and he usually uses it on all three characters in the battle. What makes this even worse is that, on the next enemy turn, Camazotz uses Wings of Hell, a very powerful force technique that can easily wipe out a bat. Thus, it is important to defend against force techniques.

Finally, Camazotz makes liberal use of generic elemental attacks of all flavors, as well as regular physical attacks.

Miscellaneous Info

Atma Avatar - Camazotz

Atma Mark - Sonic Wave

Mark Locale - Right upper arm

Emotions Awaken - After his defeat at the hands of the Embryon and Jinana allying herself with them

Voice Actor (Japanese) - Ryotaro Okiayu

Voice Actor (English) - (information needed)

Camazotz, Bat's Atma form, is based off of the Mayan god Camazotz. Camazotz was a bat god associated with night, death, and sacrifice. His worship sprang up in a cult among the Zapotec Indians around 100 B.C. and eventually found his way into the pantheon of the Mayan people. Bat's character is clearly based around this depiction.

Quotes

"My name is Bat. Remember it. It will be carved into your corpse."

"Say it, bitch!"

"Admit it. You're the same as me."

"My wings are for more than just flying."

"We eat to survive. It's only natural."

"I'll taste your flesh one day, woman!"