Shin Megami Tensei IV *SPOILERS ABOUND*

I've watched the second part on You Tube and Mike tags in to save Gabby, so it seems they actually have camaraderie with each other, at least.

And yet it took 1500 years for Gabriel to get her stuff together to save them and even then she wasn't the one doing it but some Samurai.

Useless rat,

Say, anyone notice this? With demon personalities the main ones every demon has are all there, but the voice acting can be different within each personality, giving the demons a bit more diversity in what they're like. For example, some demons with the "Old Woman" personality have a seductive, Hot Mom-type voice (ex. Okiku-mushi) and others have a straight-up "crotchety old bag" voice (ex. Tzitzimitl).

Voice types and personalities don't tie into each other nearly as much, and a handful of demons even have unique clips, mostly bosses.

I remember being disappointed when Minotaur didn't have unique lines.

Alice has some wonderful Laura Bailey clips, though.

"Die, everyone!"

Minotaur does have a unique dialogue box, though, where he talks about his pact with Aquila. I really like his sense of honor, and for that reason I think he'll be one of the main recurring demons in my liveblog, probably as a supplier of Info Dumps.

One thing I've noticed is that more bosses than I imagined use the same voice they have in the story, including Demiurge and Mastema. Though I think this is mostly the english version only as Mastema created via fusion is voiced by Walters VA in the Japanese version, while retaining Doug Erholtz as both a boss and fused demon.

edited 28th Sep '13 6:57:58 PM by OmegaRadiance

Yes! Got Macabre. I always try to get him when I'm in Shinjuku, as he's easily the most annoying enemy and most powerful ally there.

Oh, he does, right. Must have been thinking of someone else. Beelzebub, probably.

I wish Beelzebub had retained his voice actor from Soul Hackers, just for continuity's sake.

One thing I think I might do in my liveblog is have an argument between Lilith and Gabriel once they're both in the party, both because the implication that they're counterparts to one another went surprisingly unexplored in-canon and to potentially give them a few more redeeming qualities than were explicit in the game. I'll try to represent them both equally, and I'd let you guys decide in the comments whose argument was better.

edited 30th Sep '13 6:10:07 PM by HamburgerTime

Gabby will mention after saving the Masked Men in Obelisk Plaza that Yuriko took that form to mock her way of leading.

Except for you know her demon design invoking a Fallen Angel and still having the same voice, and some NPC imply she's always looked that beautiful in human form.

edited 1st Oct '13 1:12:21 AM by OmegaRadiance

Apparently, it's meant to be evocative of how they fulfill essentially the same role to Tokyo('s Ring of Gaea) and Mikado.

I decided to leave a lot of quests to be done once my alignment is locked on Neutral. I like how some of them do have the dialogue change as a result. Tiamat even mentions how Flynn had a hand in destroying the Ashura-kai in the Rx W quest.

Also like how the Director is much friendlier than he is if you do it earlier in the game.

edited 1st Oct '13 8:05:45 AM by OmegaRadiance

Okay, the Black Samurai has been captured for the third time. Oddly, of the fights right before it I find Qing Niugai the hardest, even harder than Xi Wangmu. He has no weaknesses and if he crits you can pretty much just press reset right there. Thankfully his HP's low.

I wish more bosses had more HP on the harder difficulties. That way the battle isn't over when I begin it.

I've seen people keep making SMTIV Neutral route out as complete shit, but so far talking to NP Cs during the tournament has taught me that the Hunters are striving to get stronger in order to match Flynn as he continues to rise up in Rank and gets into the Top 3, unlike before where they were content with things and didn't strive forward due to the Ashura-kai's Order, which left them weaker than if it didn't try to get strong. Even a Ring of Gaea member believes in him. Not to mention Nozomi who respects Flynn is the leader of the Fairies and will no doubt be on mankinds side, along with Amaterasu and the Japanese Gods once she returns to full strength.

Weirdest thing though is that when I went to Ikebukuro there was a sprite of a young boy in red and black, which is weird cause you don't see any sprites like him in any other part of the game.

Also one former Ashura-kai thug even admits that the Ashura-kai has actually been swindling the people the last twenty five years.

edited 2nd Oct '13 5:57:52 AM by OmegaRadiance

I watched clips of the DLC missions to get a handle on the DLC bosses' characters once they join the party in the liveblog. Uriel and Michael are honorable, at least, but Raphael is a complete and utter attack-dog (quite like the Ninja Turtle of the same name). Ancient of Days is pretty much a robot, and Sanat seems kind of cool, in a loony Mad Scientist "I-did-this-just-to-see-what-would-happen" sort of way. In the liveblog he'll probably hang out with Kama and maybe Kartikeya, who, at least in mythology, is sort of his past self.

In IV Kartikeya is six of Parvati's kids she hugged so hard they fused together.

Say, question. In the video I saw for Masakado's Shadow, the player had Dark Energy on Uriel, and used it to create effect to power up Uriel's 15-hit move. Thing is, I looked the skill up on the Wiki and found it to be exclusive to Sanat. How'd Uriel get it there?

edited 3rd Oct '13 8:30:51 PM by HamburgerTime

It can be passed on through fusion, unlike, say, the ___ of God spells or the unique attack skills belonging to Sanat and Ancient of Days.

That battle had some pretty impressive buffing. The player made sure Uriel had Dark Energy and Concentrate and Archangel's Law on him before attacking Masakado.

Also, did that DLC have a dig at the US, or is it just me? I suppose "a certain country" could be China, or some other place that has worse relations with Japan than the US does, but somehow I doubt it.

edited 3rd Oct '13 8:47:56 PM by HamburgerTime

It probably is meant to be America, going with the vague SMTI parallels. Thorman was the American nuke launching ambassador.

If any modern country was going to be taken over by YHVH's forces, it'd be America. Or maybe Italy, but they're too dysfunctional for that to be scary.

China's a good point, though.

edited 4th Oct '13 4:53:11 AM by Pulse

Don't forget that according to the data in the Counter-Demon Force Base Country "A" has the best fighting demon force in the world followed by Japan, and Take-Mikazuchi basically says the enemy during World War II had superior summoners and spirits.

The country was also likely manipulated by the forces of Law considering God's Wrath hit everything including the country that sent the missles. Two NP Cs in Infernal/Blasted Tokyo even bring up China and America are in a similar situation as them.

edited 4th Oct '13 8:30:51 AM by OmegaRadiance