Shin Megami Tensei Series

The Shadow himself is basically a Bragging Rights Reward, too. Not only have you probably already beaten anything you'd need him for, but to get his best skill you have to level him up from 83 to 99... and he doesn't have enough MP to cast it more than once.

Hah.

I don't get the panel where Flynn's staring at a laptop.

I still pick Walters over Jonathans because of the National Defense Divinities.

Jonathan's route is boring.

And it has generic random encounters as bosses.

I guess then that his route reflects his character. At least it fits.

edited 29th Aug '15 8:45:31 PM by kkhohoho

Still doing Law first. Maybe I'll hate him more afterwards, but I'm not turning on old Johnny yet.

Such is a Samurai's duty.

You can go down Walters route and still go Law.

Lilith is a better boss than Yamato Takeru at least, since Yamato only has two press turns and likes to waste one shifting weaknesses with crossdressing. So Johnny's route does have one thing going for it. (though I do like Yamato's fight story wise)

That's what Crossdressing does? I've heard at least three versions.

I was guessing. I don't actually know what it does. Which is why it's such a waste of a turn because it doesn't change how I attack at all.

The other two versions I've heard was that it causes him to switch between a physical and magical attack style, which seems weird to me because every other demon can use both physical moves and magic whenever they want, or that it changes his alignment, in which case the only thing it affects would be the three Alignment-specific Almighty spells which you probably won't have by that point anyway.

I'm conflicted by the fact that Jonathan's route is the only way to get the climatic fight with Lilith but means you're skipping out on four other actual bosses for exactly one.

Lilith herself is stupidly easy anyway. Stun Needles and, if you have it by that point, Myriad Arrows should keep you happy and smirking all fight.

Last page: Given that the ability to shape world doesn't necessarily directy translate to battle prowess and the fact that whole thing is likely mostly due to Kagutsuchi I am not sure I'd give that much weight to that aspect of the Reason characters.

This talk about the choice leading up to the reactor reminded me of something I was thinking about earlier. So when you get through that part of the game you wind up in Blasted Tokyo with Walter and Jonathan. Ordinarily you'd expect them to be the same Walter and Jonathan from your world but this isn't the case. Whichever character you didn't side with says the version of events they remember had you fighting alongside them. This could just be the White fucking with their memories but I'm wondering if it proves the multiverse theory for the alignment endings. Suppose you went Chaos and sided with Walter. Jonathan says you killed Lilith with him which indicates he comes from a world where you followed the Law path.

I always assumed they weren't the same Walter and Jonathan because alternate worlds do exist. You even visit two.

They might have even sent ones that aren't your friends back home as their final spite.

Finally got Hare of Inaba. I was right, there is a trick to getting him. For UMAs and Enigmas, the usual formula is reversed - weaker starting demons equals stronger UMAs or Enigmas. Even if you buy the explanation from the Pet Shop, the game doesn't tell you this part.

edited 30th Aug '15 12:00:27 PM by HamburgerTime

Wow, long dungeon is long. Thankfully I'm three-quarters done.

I finally caved in and bought Devil Survivor 2. It'll take a bit to get here, but hopefully, it'll be worth the wait. I loved the first De Su game, (Overclocked, FYI,) though I never got past a single playthrough, mainly because I just couldn't handle the not!final bosses on the end of Day 6 without hours of tedious grinding, something which I just didn't want to bother with at the time. I also felt that I shouldn't have to play the game more than once just to see important story-bits that, if they're that important, should have been on all routes in the first place rather than only popping up in certain ones. Anyway, I still adored De Su 1, so here's hoping it'll be the same here.

edited 31st Aug '15 8:13:01 PM by kkhohoho

Ah, have fun with that!

As an aside, while it was clear from the context in this case, in the SMT fandom, "DS" is considered short for "Devil Summoner" and the abbreviation "DeSu" is preferred for Devil Survivor, in case you ever head outside of these relatively safe waters.

I'm sure using DS 1 as an abbreviation will be fine, since I've never seen anyone talking about Devil Summoner 1. It's always Soul Hackers, Raidou 2 or Raidou 1 (to say it sucks).

Ooops, I have to apologize Hamburger Time, I meant to explain the UMA thing and completely forgot to.

And kkhohoho, the only De Su routes that matter are Yuzu, Naoya and Amane's in OC. No shame in doing the first and blasting through the other two. You did get Record Breaker, yes?

edited 31st Aug '15 8:18:57 PM by Watashiwa