Shin Megami Tensei IV *SPOILERS ABOUND*

We never really learn the condition of the world outside Mikado and Tokyo, but I figure it has to exist in some capacity since world peace is mentioned in the Law ending and also that Mikado is considered a holy land, with the phrasing implying that people outside it consider it that way.

Possibly Metaphorically True. If Mikado is the only country, and we never see any others or proof of others, then of course "world peace" would exist.

Also, it's Shene Duque that's considered the Holy Land. No one touches that. Until the jerks arrive to make it their base of operations.

edited 17th Sep '13 1:03:38 PM by OmegaRadiance

No, it sounded to me like the whole of the place was considered that way. Shene Duque isn't mentioned in the ending.

I'd imagine that if much exists of the old world, it's in even worse shape than Tokyo, considering that the Firmament as we know could only have been set up by Masakado.

He said in years to come. That means that kingdoms might appear one day one the people spread out.

But then I don't trust Jonathan's dialogue at the end at all anyways. The angels are robots that need to be programmed by the higher ups to tell the people what is going on and Merkabah dies with Flynn in the Black Hole. So I don't even get how a statue would get put up.

I'm trying to think of demons that would make good Recurring Characters in my coming liveblog. Right now I'm thinking Alice (for how long she's useful), Minotaur (for his role in the Backstory; he could be the Info Dump character this time around, as Thoth was), a number of other bosses, Seraph and Mastema (of course), and maybe Centaur (for being the "starter") might have important roles, but I'm eager for suggestions!

edited 17th Sep '13 1:30:01 PM by HamburgerTime

Napaea might be better as the "Starter" demon, since she's a Fairy, like the usual starter Pixie.

Or just go with Pixie herself.

Have Napaea show up since she's the new demon girl. I like that conversation between her, Pixie, and the one old demon lady I forgot the name of that they had in Ginza about the preferred Heroine type.

edited 17th Sep '13 1:32:34 PM by OmegaRadiance

Power and Momunofu might show up, since they seemed to be kind of a hit last time. My favorite demons to write in Sinclair Drake Vs. though were Mitra/s and Mastema. Mithras is an Elite Mook this time, though, so I'm not sure how big his part will be.

If you do not use Demonee-Hoo, rookie, I will personally hee-hoo down your throat.

I personally found both alignments a lot better represented than in Strange Journey, where Gore was far more likable than either Zelenin or Jimenez, and definitely that game's Mastema. I wish you didn't have to trade Johnathan and Walter out for Merkabah and Lucifer, though.

I disagree. I found in likability Gore > Zelenin = Walter > Jimenez post-Character Development > Jonathan > Jimenez pre-Character Development (ie. the first level and a half or so when he was a fatalistic ass to everyone). It's not that I don't like Jonathan, it's that his optimism gets grating sometimes. And that's not to knock optimists - I'm generally one myself - but Jonathan I think goes past "optimist" and into "guy who sticks his fingers in his ears whenever someone suggests there's anything wrong with the world."

What about Isabeau?

I'll abstain on her as I haven't really gotten her full story yet (and won't until I play Neutral).

I assume you still felt like a monster after meeting her in Camp Ichigaya, though, right?

Indeed. I even chose the option in the dialogue that powered us both up to feel less like scum.

A question since I'm starting for the third time: did anyone else expect Issachar and Hope to have bigger roles their first time playing? Going in I thought Issachar would be a "cheerleader" character (if you've seen Yu Gi Oh, think the role the non-dueling characters play on that show) and Hope would be the Big Good. Instead Issachar bites it and Hope becomes more or less a Living Prop following Naraku.

edited 17th Sep '13 6:13:33 PM by HamburgerTime

Hope, yeah, Issachar... Well, he kinda winds up playing an important role, even if it's a short-lived one.

The really weird one is still Kaga, though.

edited 17th Sep '13 6:14:52 PM by Pulse

Though once I met him I sort of figured Fujiwara was the actual Big Good, if only on Neutral. Stephen, too.

If I recall, isn't it like...Kaga was one of the first non-Samurai characters revealed, has a portrait and backstory and all that stuff...and is actually far more minor a character than characters who don't have all that stuff around them.

I think someone suggested that her primary purpose was to be the Gaian representative in the promotional material to avoid spoiling stuff about the Black Samurai.

I was disappointed at the lack of Navarre.

I thought something was up with her when I red her bio in the manual. She was on the same page as Tayama, as the "faces" of the Ashura-kai and the Gaeans, but while Tayama was described as "The leader of the Ashura-kai," Kaga was merely named "A member of the ring of Gaea." I initially thought that this meant the Gaeans, being Chaos aligned and all, were one of those "leaderless anarchist" sort of outfits, but I think you might just be right.

Her death also has a bigger impact than any of the faceless Gaean mooks as she made a battle against a demon no one, not even Gaeans, believed was beatable. The rest die like flies or have to rely on Walter to save them during the war.

No wonder Lilith ditches them if you do Walters route.

x19 Remember that the country that Japan fought had demons that could beat the National Defense Divinities. Chances are that there's more than one firmament in the world. I really doubt that Tokyo is the only place with a Guardian Deity.

How big is the Firmament, anyway? The castle and its town seem to be about city-sized, and there's many other smaller towns a good ways away from the castle and at least three decent-sized lakes. We never meet anyone who's been to the "end" of it, either.

I was planning on fusing Kohryu so I can get its -dyne spells onto Alice, but then I found out that all of the races of the demons required to fuse Alice will only fuse with elemental-type elements. Fusing two dragon-race demons together will make Sylph, a mythical creature-type element. I tried looking through the fusion trees for any demon that will accept the second type of element, but so far they will only fuse with elementals. Is there any demon that will fuse with a mythical creature-type element but can fuse into an elemental?