Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context VideoGame / ShinMegamiTenseiI

Go To

1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rsz_smt_i_cover2.png]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:TheHero, his friends and TheLegionsOfHell.]]
3->''199X, Tokyo\
4As the devil known as "desire" grows, anxiety born from uncertainty has brought forth the teachings of "Gaia", which espouses the birth of a new world from the ashes of the old; and the "Messiah", acting on behalf of God.\
5What is it that people seek? To create a millennial kingdom of order ruled over by God as promised by the Messiah? Or the destruction of God's kingdom, and with it, the birth of a world of chaos?\
6\
7...or perhaps...''
8-->-- '''Opening narration from the Sega CD version'''
9
10
11The first game in the ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' JRPG series, and SpiritualSuccessor to ''Megami Tensei''. It was released in Japan in 1992 for the [[Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super Nintendo]] and later released for the [[UsefulNotes/TurboGrafx16 PC Engine Super CD-Rom]] and UsefulNotes/SegaCD. Remakes for the Platform/PlayStation and UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance came out in 2002, which was eventually ported to UsefulNotes/{{iOS|Games}} in 2012[[note]]Though it no longer works with the current operating system, and Atlus has shown no interest in updating it[[/note]]. It later got a direct sequel in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiII''.
12
13It's a fairly average day for you in Tokyo, aside from the [[DreamingOfThingsToCome vaguely prophetic dream]] you had the night before. The dog needs to be walked, your mother wants you to run down to the cafe and pick up some coffee, and you received an email claiming that [[BreadEggsMilkSquick a portal to Hell has been opened and that demons are invading the world]].
14
15Wait, what?
16
17Things quickly go from bad to worse as Tokyo is placed under martial law and you are thrown into jail accused of murder. Your only weapon against the ensuing chaos is a Demon Summoning Program: a mysterious piece of software that allows you to converse with and bind demons to your service. Soon you manage to meet up with the allies you saw in your dream and LaResistance, learning that not only is a Japanese general attempting to use the demons to commit a coup-d'etat, but [[{{Eagleland}} America]] is threatening to "solve" the demon crisis by dropping a dozen nukes on the city. However, all is not as it seems, and soon Tokyo has been destroyed as part of a greater scheme.
18
19This is only the beginning.
20
21The real meat of the game takes place thirty years AfterTheEnd in the ruins of Tokyo. Two factions are trying to create a new world in their image: first, the Messians, whose goal is to establish a Thousand Year Kingdom of God under the (rather unforgiving) guidance of [[CouncilOfAngels the angels]]. Opposing them are the Gaians, who wish to return the world to a primal state of anarchy with the demons. Having been thrown forward in time to escape the destruction of Tokyo, you must now become TheKingmaker and decide just what shape the world shall take.
22
23The first four main characters have [[HelloInsertNameHere no default name]]; however, they were later given a number of "official" names:
24* Hero - The [[HeroicMime silent]] main character. Possesses an innate talent for summoning, which allows him to use the Demon Summoning Program successfully.
25* Heroine - Leader of LaResistance. ActionGirl. Has very strong magical abilities. AfterTheEnd she goes missing, but eventually becomes your main female companion and your only human companion.
26* Law Hero - A young, idealistic man who you meet while he's looking for his missing girlfriend. Possesses a [[{{Determinator}} fierce willpower]]. AfterTheEnd, he gravitates towards the message of peace broadcast by the Messians.
27* Chaos Hero - A young, arrogant punk. When you first meet him, he's getting the crap kicked out him by Ozawa and his gang. Despite his tough talk, he's a wimp on his own. AfterTheEnd, he fuses himself with a demon [[EvilMakeover to gain incredible power]] and dumps you for the Gaians.
28* Stephen - A disabled genius in a wheelchair, and creator of the Demon Summoning Program. Later gives you upgrades that allow you to store and summon more demons. [[{{NoCelebritiesWereHarmed}} Totally not Stephen Hawking]].
29* Yuriko - A beautiful woman who appears in your dreams and pledges to be your "eternal partner". [[StalkerWithACrush Quickly shows her true colors]]. Doesn't mind [[MurderTheHypotenuse disposing of any romantic rivals]].
30* Ozawa - A gang leader who is first shown kicking around Chaos Hero. Later shows himself to have some talent at Demon Summoning and joins up with the Gaians. AfterTheEnd, he's a cranky old man who struck a deal with the demons so he could rule over Shibuya.
31* Pascal, the Hero's dog who fuses himself with a demon to aid the Hero.
32
33''Shin Megami Tensei'' is a first-person dungeon crawler much in the same vein as the [=RPGs=] of its time, such as ''A Bard's Tale'' or ''Wizardry''[[note]]in fact, the early ''Megami Tensei'' games in general seem to take a lot of their design beats from ''Wizardry IV'', what with recruiting monsters, limited numbers of human heroes, and very complex dungeons[[/note]]. It uses a turn-based battle system, though you are given the option to talk to a demon before you battle to see if you can endear yourself to it. By winning the favour of a demon, you can ask it for money, items, healing or to join your party. However, demons do not gain experience points so the only way to strengthen your party is to fuse two or more demons together at the Jakyou Manor, creating vastly more powerful demons that can exceed your own level.
34
35Your CharacterAlignment is a huge focus of the game. Depending on the choices you make, the demons you recruit and the missions you accept, the main character's alignment will change to Law, Balance or Chaos. This mainly affects the ending you receive, but also affects what demons you can recruit (Law demons will refuse to join you if you are Chaotic and vice versa), what items you can equip and what healing stations that you can use (each faction has its own healing station; using an opposing faction's healing station will cost you more). There's no "right" path to follow- in fact, the game strongly encourages the player to find their own philosophy and treats you as the hero no matter what side you follow, if any.
36
37The graphics aren't that great and the game itself is NintendoHard. It also suffers from some baffling design choices, like having to go through three menu screens to access a sorely-needed minimap. But it was a revolutionary game for its time: in an age where seemingly every RPG was [[NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom linear]], had [[ExcusePlot little plot]] and was stuck in the [[MedievalStasis medieval]] [[HighFantasy high fantasy]] genre, ''Shin Megami Tensei'' had a wide, sprawling overworld where you could do what you wanted, delivered a truly outstanding plot for its time and was a radical post-apocalyptic UrbanFantasy.
38
39The game [[NoExportForYou never got a release in the West]], but a group called Aeon Genesis has released a translation patch for the SNES ROM; a second patch by a modder called Orden was released, fixing some of the bugs in the Aeon Genesis patch and making some translation changes to get the script more in line with the official translations. [[AvertedTrope However]], an English version was made available on the iOS app store on March 18, 2014. Although technically, the Japanese version was available worldwide on the iOS app store for a while until it was apparently region locked, [[{{Irony}} with the description reading that the game would never get an English translation]]. Unfortunately, it is no longer compatible with current [=OSes=], with Atlus not appearing interested in updating it. Not to let the work on the official translation go to waste, another modder called Gymzatan ended up back porting the iOS script to the GBA version. Another English translation patch was released for its [=PlayStation=] remake in 2022. On August 11, 2022, the Mega-CD version of the game was announced to be included in the selection of games for the Mega Drive Mini 2 in Japan.
40-----
41!This game contains the following tropes:
42* AdamAndEvePlot:
43** [[spoiler:By the end, there's only a handful of humans and demons left alive in Tokyo, and most of them are in the Cathedral. The Protagonist and the Heroine are thus left with the fate of Earth in their hands.]]
44** Note that [[spoiler: Yuriko/Lillth actually ''believes'' the main character is Adam, suggesting the possibility the Protagonist and the Heroine are the {{Reincarnation}}s of Adam and Eve.]]
45* AfterTheEnd: The second half of the game takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
46* AllThereInTheManual:
47** [[http://dijeh.tumblr.com/post/100462781573/theres-a-really-nice-qa-section-in-a-shin-megami The official fanbook explains questions fans might have had when playing the game]]:
48** The old man found in the prison who can fuse the Angel Ring for you was a former Imperial Japanese soldier who was executed for war crimes but was resurrected by the Cathedral of Shadows, which he is also a member of.
49* AnyoneCanDie: Nobody, from main characters to bit ones, is safe in this game. [[spoiler:Your mother is killed and eaten by a demon. Tokyo is ruined in a nuclear strike from the USA, starting a catastrophic war that leaves the rest of the world in a similar state. You kill lots and lots of demons, and do the same to quite a few humans too. In the Neutral Path, you kill all your friends. You kill their demonic or godly leaders. Then, there's a ''second'' apocalypse where a great tectonic movement causes gargantuan amounts of water to flow into Tokyo, plunging pretty much the entire post-apocalyptic Japan underwater, killing pretty much everyone you haven't yet killed yourself. The only habitable area within the '''entire city''' is a small island holding a large "cathedral" tower where the final confrontations take place. TakeAThirdOption by killing both bosses and there will be only three characters and a handful of nondescript demons and humans left alive ''in all of Japan'' at the end of the game.]]
50* ApatheticCitizens: While the coup forces are a big deal in Tokyo JustBeforeTheEnd, barely anybody mentions how there are demons running around in public malls and on the inhabited city streets.
51* ArbitraryHeadcountLimit: Initially, you are limited to a maximum of three human party members and three demons on the front lines, for a total of six party members. After the Law Hero leaves you for good, you will never have anything other than two humans in your group, so Stephen appears shortly afterwards to upgrade your Demon Summoning Program so you can have four demons at once.
52* BodyHorror: The Chaos hero does this ''to himself'' by pretty much [[LampshadeHanging going right for one of the obvious questions around "demon fusing"]]. Of course, when Pascal tries it, you get the useful Cerberus instead of any horrific creature.
53* {{Brainwashed}}: What happens to anyone who tries to stand up to the older Ozawa. This is done through a reluctant psychic man named the Psycho-diver, who he has imprisoned.
54%% * ButThouMust
55* CaptainErsatz: Commander Gotou was based off of real-life author [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima Yukio Mishima]], who also attempted a coup at Camp Ichigaya.
56* ChurchMilitant: The Messians, AfterTheEnd, are portrayed as extreme [[KnightTemplar Knights Templar]]. They tend to demand you join their church and donate generously or they'll kill you. On the positive side, they're the closest thing to a social services network that exists in what's left of Tokyo, at least for those who believe (or say they do), and in the [[spoiler: Cathedral]] they're the only faction capable of protecting the survivors in their town from demons.
57* ControllableHelplessness: After defeating Thor, [[spoiler:you have 30 seconds to move around before Tokyo is [[NukeEm nuked]]. There isn't anything you can do, other than wait for the on-screen timer to hit zero and have the Heroine teleport you out in time.]]
58* CrapsackWorld: Tokyo JustBeforeTheEnd is already kind of bad, as the city is in a battle between the Americans, Gotou and his demons, and the rebels who want to stop them both. AfterTheEnd, demons are everywhere, the Messians and the Gaians are even more prominent and are now in an all-out war, [[spoiler:and eventually it all gets flooded by God, killing everybody not inside the giant Cathedral at the time.]]
59* CrucifiedHeroShot: Our first glimpse of the Law Hero in the Hero's dream.
60* CrutchCharacter:
61** Cerberus, which you get by fusing ''your family dog'' with a demon. When you first get it will likely dish and take more damage than everything else you have ''COMBINED'', and will ignore the rules that a demon as powerful as it is should be uncontrollable for you at that point. Unfortunately you only get him briefly, and by the time you get him back, he's become average in true CrutchCharacter fashion.
62** The Chaos Hero, after he fuses himself with a demon. But his time with you is even more brief than Cerberus's; once you walk down a hallway and fight a boss, he leaves you.
63* CrystalDragonJesus: The Messians are Judeo-Christians in everything but name. Their members wear white and blue robes, and they also have hooded monks, priests, and bishops.
64* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Plenty of people at the beginning of the game are labelled as crazy or hallucinating when they ramble on about demons appearing in the streets, the government kidnapping and experimenting on people, and the world coming to an end. That doesn't even ''begin'' to cover what happens AfterTheEnd. If you're willing to sift between the {{Cassandra Truth}}s and the people who actually ''are'' crazy, you can learn some important plot points far earlier than you normally do. Some things you can learn early: [[spoiler:Everyone in Roppongi is a zombie, the Basilica is the Millennium Kingdom, and Thorman isn't human]].
65* CuttingOffTheBranches: The canonical ending is [[spoiler: the Neutral path]], which sets up ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiII''.
66* DarkMessiah:
67** The Hero (in every path, including Law). The Chaos Hero isn't, incidentally.
68** YHVH is the biggest example of this.
69* DeathByIrony: [[spoiler:Chaos Hero in the Chaos Path, who spends the entire game greedily searching for ways to increase his own power and is destroyed after being overwhelmed by the raw power of the Devil Ring (which he stole from the Hero)]].
70* DirtyCop: It is learned ''very'' early on that the police have aligned with the Demons, kidnapping innocents so a demon at the town hospital can experiment on them.
71* DiscoDan: There's an undead enemy called a Bodyconian. Their design is a joke based off of a subculture that pretty much died around the mid-80s which were appropriately Disco patrons.
72* DiscOneNuke: When the Heroine joins your party in 199X, she comes equipped with an SMG and Nerve Bullets, the first of which is a gun that hits multiple targets, and the latter being a bullet that causes Sleep 75% of the time when it hits. While the SMG is a fairly expensive weapon you can buy by the time you recruit her, the nerve bullets aren't available for purchase until [[AfterTheEnd 20XX]]. You can equip some other bullets on her and give the Nerve Bullets to the Hero, giving you a much easier time in the rest of 199X and the Diamond Realm. In fact, simply loading all your human characters with Multi-targeting guns and nerve bullets is usually enough to deal with most random encounters until you reach the Tokyo Police Department, which is firmly past the halfway point through the game.
73* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Arioch's stomach mouth and Astaroth riding ass-naked on a snake.
74** Not to mention the [[GagPenis dreaded Mara]].
75** A man in the arcade complains about how the Antique shop owner refuses to sell him 'the good stuff'. [[spoiler: He's talking about guns.]]
76** In the IOS translation, someone in Roppongi talks about the Red Count's 'Precious Pot.' [[spoiler: That's the Glancing Pot, which can seal away Belial.]]
77* DominoRevelation: Once you learn demons are real, then you get angels, and God eventually.
78* DungeonTown: Tokyo as a whole, along with almost every individual district also qualifying. By the end of the game, there's only one safe sector in existence (the Messian fort in the Cathedral).
79* {{Eagleland}}: The American soldiers are much friendlier than Gotou's coup forces, to the point that you never even fight them, and they're all amusing due to their broken, italicized way of speaking, representing their inability to speak Japanese very well. [[spoiler:However, the American Messians turn out to be heartless religious fanatics who are responsible for the destruction of the world and the corruption of the once friendly Messians in Tokyo.]]
80* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt: About not too long after the game begins, [[spoiler:Tokyo is destroyed and you are whisked to a future Tokyo that has undergone a [[ApocalypseHow/{{Class1}} Class 1 Apocalypse]].]]
81* EndOfTheWorldSpecial: ''Of your choice'', no less, establishing a longtime SMT tradition.
82* EveryoneHasStandards:
83** Even after [[spoiler: Tokyo gets nuked and the whole world is overrun with demons]], bartenders will refuse to sell you drinks because you're underage.
84** Both of the {{Final Boss}}es will have something to say about you [[spoiler:killing the respective hero that chooses to side with them]]-- though while Michael ponders what could have driven you to go so far as to [[spoiler:kill your [[WeUsedToBeFriends former friend]]]], Asura simply taunts you about it. If you choose the Lawful/Neutral path, Rie/[[spoiler:Lilith]] will be furious when you [[spoiler:kill the Chaos Hero]].
85* EvilStatesOfAmerica: The [[spoiler:nuclear strike that obliterates Tokyo and turns it into an utter CrapsackWorld]] comes from the United States, [[spoiler:and the one who gleefully breaks this to the heroes is Thorman, the American ambassador who is actually a disguised Thor (although Thor himself is a Norse god, not an American one)]]. The ChurchMilitant Messians are also American.
86* EvilVsEvil: Neither the Law or Chaos sides are very nice. Aside from possibly the Hero, no servant of Chaos can be called good. Their entire philosophy is about winning freedom through power, and they spread death and anarchy wherever they go. Meanwhile, Law ''does'' have heroes and a certain nobility to their cause, and they're the only group even trying to protect those weaker than them, but its most powerful representatives are such zealots that they're responsible for multiple genocides. [[spoiler: The Neutral option isn't much better, as it amounts to murdering everyone on both sides.]]
87* FailureIsTheOnlyOption: [[spoiler:You get to choose to side with Law or Chaos JustBeforeTheEnd. Working with Chaos causes Law to bring the apocalypse in revenge. Working with Law has you preparing the world for the apocalypse they were going to bring anyway. Working with neither makes Law bring the apocalypse anyways. It would be a waste of perfectly good missiles if they weren't used, y'know.]]
88* FanDisservice: The boss of the JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind area. [[spoiler:Spider webs]] shouldn't come out of your ass.
89* FauxFirstPerson3D: The 3D view shows left-right rotations at 45 degrees. These rotations only render for two wall lengths, where a far wall three tiles away will pop-in.
90* FinalBoss: [[spoiler:ArchangelMichael]] for Chaos, [[spoiler:Asura]] for Law. Neutral players fight both, and can choose either order.
91* FishOutOfTemporalWater: The Hero, Law Hero, and Chaos Hero are flung thirty years into the future. The first thing they do is meet a beggar who reveals that their yen from the old world is now completely worthless, and Macca is the new currency.
92* FlyingSeafoodSpecial: Demons such as Forneus.
93* FromBadToWorse: This could probably sum up the game as a whole. You start the game just as demons have been summoned into the world and a coup has forced martial law to be put in effect in Tokyo, eventually climaxing with [[spoiler:the nuking of Tokyo]]. After that chaos you're thrust into an Apocalyptic wasteland that also happens to now be the war ground for the battle between the forces of Law and Chaos. Eventually you have to decide whether to follow one of the armies, or take a Neutral stance and [[spoiler:kill everyone]]. It's a pretty lose-lose situation all throughout.
94* FusionDance: The Cathedral of Shadows, making its first appearance in the "rebooted" Shin series, [[note]]The Minister first appears as the enigmatic bearded old man in blue robes starting in ''VideoGame/MegamiTenseiII''[[/note]] performs these between two or three of your demons. The Chaos Hero and Pascal also do it, with the former becoming a cross between a Samurai and Spider-Man, and the latter becoming Cerberus.
95* GatelessGhetto: At the beginning, the game keeps you fenced in and on the rails through police blockades and a murder investigation. Later, martial law is declared as the demon invasion begins in earnest.
96* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: A few of the bosses, but especially Ladon, as there is no indication of him whatsoever in the plot or even the actual gameplay; he just sort of appears.
97* GlobalCurrency: Before the End, there's yen (because it's Japan). Afterwards, yen becomes useless but Macca, the currency of demonkind, becomes the standard.
98* GodIsEvil: [[spoiler:YHVH is directly responsible for flooding all of Tokyo, which of course, kills off most of the people who didn't die during the nuclear holocaust.]]
99* GoodColorsEvilColors: Chaos characters are decked out in black and red, and Law characters don blue and white. Depending on which one you side with, this trope is either inverted or played straight.
100* TheGreatFlood: [[spoiler: Happens near the end of the game.]]
101* GuideDangIt:
102** You are asked to allocate stats in the PointBuildSystem for every human party member at the very beginning of the game, before you have any idea of these characters' abilities or what the stats do exactly. You can easily gimp your characters by, for instance, putting points into Magic on a character who ''cannot use magic''.
103** This is a prevalent problem for new players that will end in much ceaseless wandering before they find the next locale or individual that they need to find in order to progress. For example, the first big one is finding a logbook to get into the rebel base, which you get by going to a specific bar in the very mall where the base is situated in and giving a bartender specific responses to give you the logbook.
104** So you get rare items from certain locations during certain phases of the moon. Good luck finding out what phase is the right one, by the way.
105* HeavensDevils: [[spoiler: In the Chaos Ending, Lucifer says that he himself is also a part of YHVH.]]
106* HeelRealization: [[spoiler:Neither the Law nor Chaos Hero realize that their ideologies might be flawed until right before [[HeelFaceDoorSlam you kill them]]-- at which point the Law Hero realizes he's simply God's UnwittingPawn instead of TheChosenOne, and the Chaos Hero realizes that his quest for power was mostly pointless since you [[ShootTheShaggyDog overpowered him regardless]]]].
107* HellOnEarth: Tokyo AfterTheEnd. It's barren and decaying at the seems, with survivors mostly being situated underground, and demons roaming freely even in populated areas.
108* ImprobableAge: If you try to buy something for the Heroine in a bar [[spoiler: before she reincarnates]], the bartender will say that she's too young. She's the leader of LaResistance, by the way.
109* InfinityMinusOneSword:
110** The Mitsurugi (Law), the Kurikara (Chaos), and the Masakado sword (Neutral) are Infinity -2 swords. All you need to do to get them is either crack open some chests in the final dungeon (Mutsurugi/Kurikara) or ask Masakado politely for his sword (Masakado), and they hit really hard. Unfortunately, they are all male-exclusive, so the Heroine is SOL.
111** The Kagutsuchi is the true Infinity -1 sword. The process to get it is slightly more involved than the previous weapons (you need to do a chain of sword fusions on the rather unassuming Kusanagi), but it is only surpassed by the near-unobtainable Fiend weapons, can be wielded by both protagonists, is the only ultimate weapon to be usable by any alignment, and gives a nice bonus to all stats.
112* InfinityPlusOneSword:
113** The weapons the Fiends drop. Pale Rider's Angel Trumpet is the absolute strongest weapon for a Law-aligned player, High Priest's Reaper Bell is the strongest for Chaos, and David's Stradivari is the strongest for Neutral. Unfortunately, they only have a 1/256 chance of dropping from foes that appear 1/256 of the time, for a grand total chance of 1/65536. Good luck.
114** On the Demon side of things, Vishnu is generally considered by the community to be the best summonable ally in the game. In the one game in the series where demons only get three skills, all of Vishnu's manage to be top-tier in their utility-- add on to that some amazing stats, and he can sweep all of the endgame bosses. Oh, and players on the Lawful path get to recruit him ''for free''. The Chaos equivalent is Beelzebub, who only requires you to take a detour to Shiroganedai (and acts as a {{Superboss}} on Law and Neutral). While his skills aren't quite as good, he makes up for it by being much more durable.
115* InstrumentOfMurder: Implied. The three strongest 'sword' weapons are a violin (Stradivari), a trumpet (Angel's Trumpet), and [[DeadlyRinger a bell (Reaper's Bell)]].
116* ItsAllUpstairsFromHere: The final dungeon in particular. All the demons live downstairs and all the angels live upstairs, but regardless, if you're following the Chaos or Neutral Path, one of the final bosses will be waiting for you at the very top the the dungeon.
117* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind: You need to do this to save [[spoiler:Heroine]] from Arachne, a demon infesting her mind and devouring it from the inside out.
118* JustBeforeTheEnd: The first half of the game takes place in Tokyo a couple of days before the forces of Law nuke the world into hell.
119* KnightTemplar: The angels of the Messians, and the Messians themselves. Temple Knights are in fact elite Messian soldiers.
120* LightIsNotGood: Sort of. LIGHT is more or less good (in that Light demons are ''usually'' friends of humanity, and do not bother humans), but Law most definitely is not good. [[spoiler:YHVH himself is the major exception to this, being the poster-boy for GodIsEvil.]]
121* LouisCypher:
122** [[TropeNamer The original!]] However, you never see Lucifer's true form in this game [[spoiler: but you get to see his angelic Form in the Chaos ending]].
123** The American ambassador's name is Thorman - and he eventually turns out to have a red beard and a [[NukeEm damn large hammer]].
124* MadScientist: The Police Station is ruled by an insane genius who sends out armies of reprogrammed government war machines to slaughter both demon and human alike. He is in charge of the MechaMooks you fight.
125* MechaMooks: The enemies within the Machine Clan. Oddly enough, the legendary [[BigfootSasquatchAndYeti Bigfoot]] is in the Machine Clan as well, though it doesn't appear to be mechanical.
126* MetalSlime: The three Fiends (David, Pale Rider, and Daisoujou). Each one only has a 1/256 chance of appearing in certain areas and each one drops one of three ultimate weapons for each alignment...with a drop rate of 1/256. Happy hunting!
127* MoneySpider: Justified. Demons are fascinated with human culture and carry around yen coins like trinkets. [[spoiler:AfterTheEnd, all the currency changes to the demon currency Macca anyway, so it still makes sense]].
128* MonstersEverywhere: {{Exaggerated}}. You can be in a bar chatting with people, take a step, and be randomly attacked by a demon. And if you're in an area where you're not vulnerable to something like that, [[NothingIsScarier you're probably in even greater danger]].
129* MultipleEndings: Three, depending on your alignment.
130* MurderousMannequin: Kugutsu (Japanese for "puppet") is a broken mannequin possessed by demons. It is a member of the Machine Race and dwells inside the mall to attack any human that passes by.
131%% * NintendoHard
132* NoCampaignForTheWicked: While protagonist's Law-Chaos alignment can be changed, his virtue is fixed to Light. This does make some sense: Dark demons are portrayed as uncontrollable, as they can never be recruited. And Lawful/Chaotic is not a way of measuring morality; although they are both evil, the Hero is good.
133* NothingIsScarier:
134** In this game, pretty quickly, you fight a lot of demons, everywhere, no exceptions. When for some reason there is an exception, something is going on.
135** Averted by the Messian town in the Cathedral. Despite the Messians generally being dicks towards everyone everywhere else, the town is at peace and even Messian fanatics won't pick on you inside.
136* OmnicidalNeutral: [[spoiler: The Neutral path consists of killing ''both'' the Law and Chaos leaders, including your own friends.]]
137* OneSteveLimit: Averted. Both the heroine and the Law Hero's girlfriend share the same name. [[spoiler: That's what gets the girlfriend kidnapped early on by soldiers looking for the heroine.]]
138* OrderVersusChaos: Law vs Chaos.
139* PhlebotinumBreakdown: Demons need a steady supply of a metal called Magnetite in order to keep a physical body in the human world. Because of this, you lose some Magnetite every time you take a step and have a demon summoned. Once you run out of Magnetite, your demons will start losing health with every step instead.
140* PinataEnemy: Human enemies like Bodyconians and the Messians and Gaeans always drop a lot more cash than demons.
141* PointOfNoReturn:
142** Once you either defeat or side with Thor, [[spoiler:the Americans launch [=ICBMs=] at Tokyo and completely destroy the place, rendering the pre-apocalypse world inaccessible]].
143** Once you enter the Basilica, [[spoiler:YHVH floods Tokyo and renders the post-apocalypse world inaccessible]].
144* PoliceState: Ironically, run by the Chaos faction during the first part of the game after a demon-backed military coup, led by the temporary BigBad Gotou. AfterTheEnd, the Messians are trying to enforce one, but it's essentially ineffective and Tokyo's in complete anarchy.
145* RandomEncounters: ''Almost everywhere''. It doesn't matter if it's the mall, the Tokyo Governmental Palace, another world completely, or a giant cathedral. You're going to get into a whole lot of fights. This can be rather grating in places where shops, save points/teleport points, and temples/inns can be found.
146* RareRandomDrop: Each of the Fiends drops the most powerful alignment weapons in the game: David drops the Neutral weapon Stradivari, Daisoujou drops the Chaos weapon Reaper Bell, and the Pale Rider drops the Law weapon Angel's Trumpet. Each weapon has a 1/256 chance of dropping which, when combined with the fact that each Fiend has a 1/256 chance of showing up in certain areas, makes for quite a frustrating search.
147* RouteBoss:
148** In the Law Route, the FinalBoss is Asura, while in the Chaos Route the FinalBoss is ArchangelMichael. If you're going through the Neutral route, you have to fight ''both'' of them in any order you like. Earlier on, with the same criteria, you either fight the Chaos Hero, the Law Hero, or both.
149** {{Superboss}} Beelzebub cannot be fought in the Chaos route because he joins you.
150* SaintlyChurch: Some of the Messians are actually pretty square guys. In 199X, they're just a hospitaller order that provides healing for your party (the Lawful nutcases being represented by the Americans) and in the Cathedral town, they provide food and safety for anyone who arrives, essentially no-questions-asked. (Outside of this, they tend to be [[{{Jerkass}} jerkasses]], of course.)
151* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler: The first third of the game, set in 199X. Thor has set the plot on rails, and whether you kill him, Gotou or both doesn't matter: Tokyo is destroyed and you're trapped in the Diamond Realm for 30 years.]]
152* SkippableBoss: Most of the alignment bosses can be circumvented without a fight if you are of the same alignment.
153* StupidSacrifice: [[spoiler:The Law Hero]]'s sacrifice. Demons are readily expendable; at best they return to the comp, at worst you would have to spend some money on bribes to recruit a new one, and would have easily held off the enemies he blocks off. On the other hand, it ''was'' God's will...
154* SunkenCity: [[spoiler:God floods all of Tokyo]] during the final stretch of the game.
155* {{Superboss}}: This game has Beelzebub as the ultimate opponent...supposedly. He has far less HP than {{Final Boss}}es Michael and Asura, and while Beelzebub's Level 108, Asura's Level 110 and Michael's Level 116. In addition, if you're Chaos aligned, [[spoiler:instead of fighting him, he joins you]].
156* SuperSoldier: What Orias, posing as the hospital's head surgeon, is trying to create at the beginning of the game by PlayingWithSyringes.
157* SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity: Completely averted. You will almost never find a place to heal for free, and there are no save points before bosses... or ''any indication that a boss in the next room at all.''
158%% * {{Synchronization}}
159* TakeAThirdOption: Law, Chaos, or... [[spoiler:''[[OmnicidalNeutral murder everyone]]''.]]
160* ATasteOfPower: Played with. Early in the game, you can fuse your dog with a demon to create Cerberus, a high-level demon that would, under normal circumstances, be impossible to attain without doing some major level grinding. With this Cerberus, you can easily make it through the following dungeon. It will leave your party before long, though, but it can rejoin you during the game's latter half.
161* ToHellAndBack: The Diamond Realm is where the Heroine teleports you to save you from being killed in the nuclear attack from the USA. It is an ethereal universe where demons roam the plains among the illusions. Once you leave, you access the second part of the game.
162* TookALevelInBadass: Chaos Hero. {{Deconstructed}}; [[spoiler:EvilIsNotAToy, as he found out after spending the entire game fighting to become the strongest of all]].
163* UnintentionallyUnwinnable: Due to the game's failure to "lock" the player into any alignment's endgame at any given point, players may find that they have accidentally "switched" alignments, rendering the game unbeatable. [[http://lparchive.org/Shin-Megami-Tensei-1/Update%2063/ For example!]]
164* UpliftedAnimal: Your pet dog Pascal can be fused with a demon to create a powerful Cerberus who has sentience and is loyal to you.
165* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: The Thousand Year Kingdom.
166* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: [[spoiler:The Cathedral/Basilica, which is divided into a Law and Chaos part.]]
167* WeaksauceWeakness: In a bizarre aversion of ContractualBossImmunity, not only do none of the [[{{Superboss}} Fiends]] have any resistance to Expel, but Daisoujou is ''weak'' to it. It's entirely possible throw out Hama or some Holy Water on the first turn and instantly win.
168* WhamEpisode: [[spoiler:Tokyo getting nuked]] after you meet Thorman [[spoiler:and fight him, if you're not Law-aligned]].
169* WorthlessCurrency: The yen you use in the first half of the game becomes worthless after the end, forcing you to acquire macca as the new currency.
170* WritingAroundTrademarks: There's a late game dungeon called "[[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Tokyo Destinyland]]" where one of the leaders of the Chaos faction makes her base. Also doubles as a MeaningfulName, as it features a minigame that can change your "destiny" (i.e., TheHero's alignment), and numerous traps that have a lower chance of activating if you have a high LuckStat. There are DummiedOut sprites in the Super Famicom version of WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse and WesternAnimation/DonaldDuck [[{{Expy}} Expies]] wielding katanas and a chainsaw (they would eventually be added back into the PC-Engine port, although obviously with different sprites).
171* ZombieApocalypse: Tokyo appears to be undergoing a zombie crisis during Gotou's coup, which worsens throughout the early game. The first zombies you encounter appear to be men in hospital gowns and middle-aged women, but eventually, zombie police and zombie soldiers are encountered as enemies, until finally, the only zombies you see are towering blobs of rotting green corpses.

Top